Woman poisoned 1-year-old girl for months to exploit her for online donations: Police
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(LONDON) — A woman has been arrested after allegedly poisoning a 1-year-old girl over two months so she could post videos of the child online in order to solicit donations from the public, police said.
The Queensland Police in Australia said that the Morningside Child Protection and Investigation Unit (CPIU) has charged a woman with torture following “extensive investigations into allegations of an infant being poisoned,” according to a statement released on Thursday.
“It will be alleged between August 6 to October 15, 2024, a 34-year-old Sunshine Coast woman administered several unauthorised prescription and pharmacy medicines to a one-year-old girl, who was known to her, without medical approval,” authorities said. “It will be further alleged the woman, disregarding medical advice, went to lengths to obtain unauthorised medicines, including old medicines for a different person available in their home.”
Further investigations into the case allegedly revealed that the woman “carefully concealed her continued efforts to administer the unauthorised medicines until the matter was detected and reported to police by medical staff from a hospital in Brisbane’s south while the child was admitted.”
When announcing the charges against the unnamed woman, police said that the child was subjected to “immense distress and pain” while the woman filmed and posted videos of the child online.
“It is alleged the content produced exploited the child and was used to entice monetary donations and online followers,” police said.
Medical staff reported harm against the child to detectives on Oct. 15, 2024, which lead to police taking immediate action to protect the child during their investigation.
Testing for unauthorized medicines given to the child returned a positive result on Jan. 7, Australian authorities said.
“Morningside CPIU detectives travelled to an Underwood address to arrest the woman and subsequently charged her with five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, three counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things, and one count each of torture, making child exploitation material and fraud,” police said.
She is expected to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court tomorrow on Friday. Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said offences of this nature are abhorrent and CPIU detectives are committed to protecting children from harm and holding offenders to account.
“Working in CPIU we are too often faced with the worst offences against children,” he said. “We will do everything in our power to remove that child from harm’s way and hold any offender to account. There is no excuse for harming a child, especially not a one-year-old infant who is reliant on others for care and survival.”
(DOHA) — Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement to end over 15 months of fighting — with a brief pause in November 2023 — and release some of the hostages still in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
However, despite an agreement between negotiators on both sides, the deal still needs to go through a four-step ratification process in the Israeli government before it can go into effect.
Step 1
The agreement has to be officially voted on favorably by the security cabinet, then approved by the full cabinet. The vote is expected to be 28-6 in favor of the deal, with some hard-liners holding out.
Once that vote happens, the agreement would be ratified.
Step 2
Once ratified, the names of the 33 Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza are expected to be announced.
Step 3
From the time the cabinet ratifies the agreement, there will be a 48-hour window allowing for appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court against the agreement.
Any appeal is expected to be rejected by the court.
Step 4
Once the 48-hour legal window closes, the implementation of the agreement begins.
The first release of an Israeli hostage can be expected from that time on.
(WASHINGTON) — Following a tense standoff between the nations’ respective presidents, an agreement was reached on Sunday night regarding the return of repatriating citizens to Colombia from the United States.
Conflict ensued earlier in the day after Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked two U.S. military flights carrying undocumented immigrants from entering the country.
In a retaliatory response, U.S. President Donald Trump posted threats against Colombia on his social media platform, alleging that Petro’s decision “has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States.”
Trump said in the post that he ordered his administration to place an emergency 25% tariff on goods coming into the United States from Colombia, and he threatened to raise it in a week to 50%. Additionally, he said that his administration would issue a travel ban and immediately revoke the visas of Colombian government officials — and those of all of the country’s allies and supporters. Trump further threatened to issue visa sanctions on all party members, family members and supporters of the Colombian government. Finally, he said that he would also enhance Customs and Border Protection Inspections of all Colombian nationals and Colombian cargo.
Trump said he would use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to fully impose the aforementioned treasury, banking and financial sanctions.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump said in his post. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!” No evidence has been produced to show that Colombia forced anyone into the U.S.
The Colombia Foreign Ministry confirmed to ABC News that two U.S. military aircraft had been blocked from landing in Colombia on Sunday. It was not immediately clear if all 160 passengers aboard the flights were Colombian citizens.
“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that every human being deserves,” Petro said in a statement posted on X on Sunday. It included a video of Brazilian deportees handcuffed after landing in Brazil.
The Foreign Ministry of Brazil also issued a statement Sunday asking the United States to clarify the “degrading treatment” of the deportees.
Petro had issued an early-morning statement on X saying that he objected to U.S. military repatriation planes landing in Colombia — although, the country would accept civilian planes repatriating citizens, he added.
But a U.S. defense official told ABC News that the two U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft had been granted diplomatic clearances. Then, when the planes were already heading south, Colombia notified the U.S. that they would not be allowed to land, the defense official said.
In a statement posted on X on Sunday afternoon, Petro offered to send his presidential plane to bring deportees to Colombia in a “dignified” manner.
Mexico has also denied U.S. military repatriation flights from landing there, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told ABC News, while explaining that such flights are not being prepared until after all diplomatic clearances have been finalized.
Like Colombia, Mexico does not have a problem with contracted civilian aircraft carrying out the flights, the official said, and those are what the Department of Homeland Security typically uses.
Discussions are ongoing, the official added.
In an interview on Sunday with Martha Raddatz — ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent and a co-anchor of “This Week” — Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, discussed what would happen to countries that won’t take the undocumented immigrants back.
“Oh, they’ll take them back,” Homan said. “We got President Trump coming to power. President Trump puts America first. Mexico didn’t want the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program under the first administration. They did it. They didn’t want to put military on the southern border. They did it.”
But if countries didn’t comply, “then we’ll place them in a third safe country,” he added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a statement on X on Sunday afternoon, saying, “President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of.”
“It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner,” Rubio wrote. “Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air. As demonstrated by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security.”
Later in the evening, the U.S. Department of State added a post saying that Rubio “immediately ordered a suspension of visa issuance at the U.S. Embassy Bogota consular section” and is now “authorizing travel sanctions on individuals and their families, who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations.”
Tariffs are a tax on imports that U.S. companies pay to import their goods, and the higher costs are largely passed on to consumers.
Trump leveraging a tariff of 25% to 50% could have a serious impact on Colombia’s economy because the U.S. is Colombia’s largest trading partner. According to the U.S. State Department, the United States accounts for 34% of Colombia’s total trade.
But that could also hurt American consumers: The U.S. imported $17.5 billion dollars’ worth of goods from Colombia in 2024, according to Moody’s Analytics.
Notably, Colombia is a top supplier of crude oil to the U.S.
Petro responded to Trump’s threatened sanctions late Sunday, saying in a post on X that Colombia will impose reciprocal 50% tariffs on U.S. goods.
“I’m told that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same,” Petro said in the impassioned post.
Later that evening, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson threatened in a post on X that Congress is “fully prepared” to pass sanctions and “other measures” against Colombia.
The White House issued a statement shortly after 10 p.m. on Sunday saying that Colombia had agreed to all of Trump’s terms, “including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
The statement also said that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that Trump had drafted would not go into effect unless Colombia failed to honor the agreement with the U.S.
“The visa sanctions issued by the State Department and enhanced inspections from Customs and Border Protection will remain in effect until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned,” it said.
Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia acknowledged the statement shortly afterward in a video posted to X, stating that Colombia would accept repatriates who are transported back with dignity. He also confirmed that Petro would be sending his presidential plane to retrieve those citizens who had been on the rebuffed military planes, but didn’t specify when that would occur.
The foreign affairs minister said that a high-level diplomatic meeting between the U.S. and Colombia would take place in a matter of days.
“Colombia ratifies that it will maintain diplomatic channels of dialogue to guarantee the rights, national interest and dignity of our citizens,” he said in the video.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Selina Wang, Hannah Demissie and Nate Luna contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — The leader of South Korea’s ruling conservative People Power Party said he is now in favor of impeaching President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived declaration of martial law, telling reporters “there is no other way,” during a briefing Thursday.
One week ago, ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon suggested similar action against the president, stating that “prompt suspension of his duties is necessary.”
But those intentions were, in part, waylaid by a motion of impeachment that had already been initiated by the opposition party.
When that motion moved through South Korea’s National Assembly, lawmakers in the People Power Party declined to join in the vote.
That left Yoon in power — and the ruling party back where it started.
“Since it has been confirmed that President Yoon Suk Yeol has no intention of resigning early, an immediate suspension from office is necessary,” Han said Thursday morning in Seoul. The sentiments echoed those he shared the previous week, and again carefully avoided using the word “impeachment.”
However, this time, Han was slightly more specific about the intentions behind his words, stating, “Our party members should attend the National Assembly and vote according to their consciences at the next vote.”
In a late-night speech last week, Yoon declared martial law in the country. The move, which touched off a wave of protests, included banning political activities and called for a stop to the “dissemination of fake news” and the manipulation of public opinion.
Within hours, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order — which he soon did.
“From the time martial law was declared until now, we have consistently taken a firm stance that those involved in martial law, including the president, should be severely punished, and we will continue to do so,” said Han. “The president should be immediately suspended from state affairs, including the right to command the military. We must prevent any further confusion, and now there is only one effective way to do so.”
South Korean police then raided the president’s office on Wednesday as a part of the ongoing investigation into the martial law declaration.
Embattled president says he will ‘not avoid’ responsibility for martial law crisis
In a defiant speech on Thursday, local time, Yoon said he will defend himself if his critics try to impeach or investigate him.
“Whether they try to impeach me or investigate me, I will speak for myself. I will not avoid legal and political responsibility regarding the declaration of martial law,” Yoon said.
Yoon explained why he believed he needed to invoke martial law, saying he felt the “majority opposition party continued to abuse its constitutional authority and repeat unconstitutional measures,” causing him to “exercise the president’s authority within the framework of the Constitution.”
“I intended to prevent the collapse of the liberal democratic constitutional order and normalize the function of the state,” Yoon said.
Yoon’s statement came just hours before the opposition party was expected to submit a new impeachment motion against Yoon, which could come up for a vote on Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
