Foreign News
Rudy Giuliani must pay more than $148m over false election claims
Rudy Giuliani, a longtime associate of former President Donald Trump, has been ordered to pay more than $148m (£116m) to two women over false claims they tampered with votes in 2020.
A judge had already found Mr Giuliani liable of making defamatory claims about Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
Ms Moss said after the verdict that the past few years had been “devastating”. The verdict came after a four-day trial to determine the penalty.
On Friday, the eight-person jury ordered $20m payments for defamation to be made to each victim. They were also each awarded over $16m for emotional distress, the jury ruled. Another payment of $75m in punitive damages was ordered to be split between them.
They had originally sought between $15m and $43m in damages from Mr Giuliani, Mr Trump’s former personal lawyer.
Addressing reporters outside the court, Mr Giuliani said: “I don’t regret a damn thing.”
Michael Gottlieb, the lawyer for Ms Freeman and Ms Moss, said during closing arguments on Thursday that Mr Giuliani was “patient zero” of the misinformation.
He said that, during three days of evidence and testimony, the jury had “experienced a sliver of the unspeakable horror that Ms Freeman and Ms Moss suffered”. He said a stiff financial penalty was necessary to “send a message” to Mr Giuliani and to “any other powerful figure with a platform”.
Mr Giuliani had been expected to testify in his own defence on Thursday, but those plans were abruptly cancelled. “Honestly, I didn’t believe it would do any good,” Mr Giuliani said after the verdict on Friday, adding that he planned to appeal the “absurd” penalty.
Mr Giuliani is worth about $50m, according to an estimate by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
His lawyers earlier urged the jury to be measured as they considered the penalty. They said that, although the former mayor of New York did spread lies after the 2020 presidential election, he was not as responsible – or as malicious – as lawyers for the two women argued.
In courtroom testimony in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ms Freeman recounted having to flee her home after a group of Trump supporters gathered outside and the FBI told her she was in danger.
The incident happened after Mr Giuliani shared a video of them, which he falsely said showed evidence of ballot tampering.
“I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street,” Ms Freeman said. “I was scared. I didn’t know if they were coming to kill me.”
Ms Freeman said that she was left isolated by Mr Giuliani’s actions. Friends and acquaintances grew afraid to be linked to her, she said, and she has felt forced to live a life of seclusion because of lingering fears she will be recognised publicly.
Addressing reporters on Friday, the women said that more lawsuits may be forthcoming for other public figures that had spread lies about them. “They must be held accountable too,” said Ms Freeman. “Money will not solve all of my problems,” she continued. “I can’t move home, I will always have to be careful. I miss my home, I miss my neighbours and I miss my name.”
The trial in Washington DC was just one of the legal cases Mr Giuliani is facing.
In Georgia, Mr Giuliani faces criminal charges, including making false statements, in an election-subversion case against Mr Trump. Mr Giuliani has pleaded not guilty.
A former business associate is also suing him for $10m over sexual harassment claims.
And according to recent court filings from the Internal Revenue Service, Mr Giuliani owes more than half a million dollars in federal taxes.
In September, Mr Trump reportedly hosted a $100,000-a-plate dinner at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to raise money for a legal defence fund for Mr Giuliani.
Back in 2018, Mr Giuliani’s divorce case heard claims of his lavish spending. His ex-wife, Judith Giuliani, said that in a five-month period he spent nearly a million dollars.
This was said to include $12,012 on cigars, $7,131 on fountain pens, $286,000 on an alleged mistress, $447,938 “for his own enjoyment” and $165,000 on travel.
(BBC)
A long lost painting by Rembrandt has been rediscovered and authenticated by experts, after its whereabouts were unknown for decades.
Rembrandt’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, from 1633, was excluded from a list of the Dutch master’s works in 1960, and disappeared after being sold to a private collector the following year.
But it resurfaced when its owners presented it for tests at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which undertook a two-year examination.
“When I saw it in our studio when it was restored, I was immediately struck by the incredible power it has,” Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said.
The Rijksmuseum receives many emails from people asking for information about paintings they have inherited or bought, Dibbits said. In this case, they knew it could be something special.
“It came to us via email and one of our curators thought, this is really an interesting image, we’ve known about the painting for over 100 years but we’ve never seen it.”
The museum confirmed the authenticity after studying the paints, which fit with those used by Rembrandt during that period, and the painting technique and build-up of layers, which are also comparable with his other early works.
The signature is original and the wooden panel dates from the correct period, the researchers said.
“Materials analysis, stylistic and thematic similarities, alterations made by Rembrandt, and the overall quality of the painting all support the conclusion that this painting is a genuine work,” the gallery said.
The painting has all the hallmarks of Rembrandt at the “peak” of the early part of his career, Dibbits said.
“It’s very high quality. Sometimes with Rembrandt’s portraits you feel that he’s producing in quantity, but with this painting you really feel that he dedicated his soul to it.”
The museum will put the painting on public view from Wednesday.
Its value is not known, but the world record auction price for a Rembrandt painting is £20m, set in 2009.
Other Rembrandt paintings to be sold in recent years include one for £8.6m in 2019, a self-portrait for £12.6m in 2020, and another once-lost Rembrandt work for £11m in 2023.
In 2015, a Rembrandt painting was given a price tag of £35m by the UK government after being sold privately.
Last month, a drawing of a lion by the artist sold for $18m (£13m).
[BBC]
Rembrandt was 27 when he created the painting, which depicts the Biblical scene when priest Zacharias is told by the Archangel Gabriel that despite their age, he and his wife will have a son, John the Baptist.
The museum said Rembrandt had given the Biblical story an innovative twist. Instead of depicting the Archangel Gabriel visibly, he only suggested his presence. In doing so, he departed from established visual traditions and introduced a new way of representing this subject.
Rembrandt deliberately chose the decisive moment, just before Gabriel reveals his true identity.
It is one of the few history paintings Rembrandt created during this period. At the time, he was primarily producing portraits, which were highly lucrative.
[BBC]
Tributes have been paid to the war photographer Paul Conroy who has died at the age of 61.
He covered conflicts around the world and was wounded in the Syrian army’s bombardment of Homs, which killed his Sunday Times colleague Marie Colvin in 2012.
Their fateful assignment was depicted in the 2018 movie A Private War, with the actor Jamie Dornan playing Conroy.
The Liverpool-born photographer died from a heart attack on Saturday in Devon, where he had lived, his brother Alan told the BBC.
“He did all his life what he wanted to do to make a difference – he found great pleasure in exposing wrongs,” Alan added.
BBC newsreader Clive Myrie posted that he was “utterly devastated” by the news, describing Conroy as “a wonderful photojournalist and a wonderful human being”.
“I counted him as a friend and a decent, principled and kind man. My brutha you will be sorely missed. RIP”
Lindsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4, added: “All of us who knew and loved him are devastated.”
Conroy also spent seven years with the Royal Artillery as a soldier before becoming a professional photographer and was a trustee of the Frontline Club for media professionals, diplomats and aid workers.
Its founder Vaughan Smith, who was also in the Army, said: “He was one of the characters – those people who stand out because everybody adores them and they make you feel better.”
The 2018 documentary Under the Wire was made about Conroy’s escape from the 2012 bombardment of a makeshift media centre in Homs, where his colleagues Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed.
Referring to the Syrians who were killed in the area, he said: “These beautiful people who were being slaughtered, I wanted to tell their story.”
He only realised how badly injured he was when he returned to the UK.
“Obviously I knew I had a huge hole in the back of my leg,” he said.
“But in London I found out I also had a great big piece of shrapnel wedged under my kidneys. I had 23 operations on my leg and others on my abdomen and back. I was in hospital for five months.”
Conroy worked in Libya and Ukraine and had recently returned from an assignment in Cuba.
He also took photos for the British singer Joss Stone and wrote music with her.
She said she was “so grateful to have known him and honoured to call him my friend”.
“I wouldn’t be the person I am today without Paul. Paul Conroy was a legend. A wonderful person through and through. Always standing up for what was right. Always there for those in need.”
He leaves behind a wife, three sons and grandchildren.
[BBC]
Iran has begun 40 days of mourning after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in ongoing attacks by the United States and Israel, according to Iranian state media.
Top security officials were also killed in Saturday’s strikes, along with Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The killings mark one of the most significant blows to Iran’s leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the killing as “a great crime”, according to a statement from his office. He also declared seven days of public holidays in addition to the 40-day mourning period.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said people were pouring into the streets of the capital following the news of Khamenei’s killing.
“There will be expected ceremonies,” he said, noting they would likely take place amid continuing bombardment across the country.
Protests denouncing Khamenei’s killing were also reported elsewhere, including Shiraz, Yasuj and Lorestan.
Footage aired by Iranian state media showed supporters mourning at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, with several people seen crying and collapsing in grief.
The killing also led to protests in neighbouring Iraq, which declared three days of public mourning. In Baghdad, protesters confronted security forces in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and foreign embassies.
Videos verified by Al Jazeera showed demonstrators waving flags and shouting slogans, with witnesses saying some were attempting to mobilise towards the US Embassy. Footage also showed protesters blocking vehicles at a roundabout near one of the entrances to the area.
There was also a protest in the Pakistani city of Karachi, where footage, verified by Al Jazeera, showed people setting fire to and smashing the windows of the US consulate.
However, there have also been reports of celebrations in Iran, with the Reuters news agency quoting witnesses as saying some people had taken to the streets in Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj and the central city of Isfahan.
Meanwhile, the official IRNA news agency reported that a three-person council, consisting of the country’s president, the chief of the judiciary, and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council, will temporarily assume all leadership duties in the country. The body will temporarily oversee the country until a new supreme leader is elected.
Khamenei assumed leadership of Iran in 1989 following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led the Islamic revolution a decade earlier.
While Khomeini was regarded as the ideological force behind the revolution that ended the Pahlavi monarchy, Khamenei went on to shape Iran’s military and paramilitary apparatus, strengthening both its domestic control and its regional influence.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pledged revenge and said it had launched strikes on 27 bases hosting US troops in the region, as well as Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv.
[Aljazeera]
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