The U.S. says a Russian fighter jet fired flares and struck another American drone over Syrian airspace on Wednesday, continuing a string of harassing maneuvers that have ratcheted up tensions between the global powers

In response to her recent split with Sam Asghari, Britney Spears reportedly hired two new staff for her Los Angeles residence

A jury has ruled that Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers will face the death penalty. Bowers, whose defense hoped to avoid a death penalty, learned of his fate around noon on Wednesday when jurors read their decision. The mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on 27 October, 2018, left 11 people dead and became the most deadly antisemitic attack in US history. The jurors spent two days deliberating before reaching their conclusions. All 12 jurors had to agree in order to impose a death penalty. Bowers' legal team initially offered a plea deal to the prosecution, promising a guilty plea from the mass shooter if they agreed not to seek the death penalty. The prosecution refused the deal. Defense attorney Judy Clarke offered a plea to the jury to spare Bowers’ life. “We can’t rewind the clock and make it such that this senseless crime never happened,” she argued. “All we can really do is make the right decision going forward. And we are asking you to make the right decision, and that is life.” She asked the jurors to consider the traumas of Bowers’ childhood and his mental illness when issuing their sentence, noting that “he succumbed to his mental illness, to his delusional beliefs, and brought us where we are today.” Forensic psychiatrist Dr Park Dietz — who testified as an expert witness for the prosecution in the trials of John Hinkley Jr, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Regan, and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer — also testified for the prosecution regarding Bowers. He said Bowers suffered no delusions that would have called into question his intent to kil the worshippers at the synagogue. Intent is one of three critera that must be met before a jury can pass down a death sentence. A defendant must also be over the age of 18 and have at least one aggravating factor — in Bowers’ case hate crimes — to qualify for a death sentence. A jury found him guilty of all 63 charges against him during a trial in June.

Premier League youth footballer-turned-porn star Oliver Spedding has died at the age of 34. The tragedy comes just weeks after Spedding, better known on social media as Damian Oliver, hit headlines for falsely claiming that his wife, adult star Sophie Anderson, was dead. Whilst the circumstances surrounding Spedding’s death have not yet been confirmed, it is largely accepted that, this time, the news is true. On Saturday, Spedding’s former club Croydon FC released a statement, describing him as a “much-loved individual who always gave his utmost effort for the team.” "Oliver will be hugely missed by everyone at the club and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time,” they added. The club also held a minute’s silence ahead of their match against Meridian VP. Friends and ex-colleagues have paid tributes to the former sportsman, while fans have shared their shock at the terrible real-life plot twist. Back in September, Spedding announced that Anderson, 35, had “died unfortunately,” and even provided details of her funeral. In one X/Twitter reply, he insisted that he “hadn’t lied” about the “bad news”, adding that people could pay their respects at a crematorium in Bromley, southeast London, on 12 September. However, the day after the cremation that never was, the former footballer tweeted a lengthy statement, revealing that he had “20 hours in a cell because of the stupid hoax”. He continued: “I cannot say anything more as part of my bail conditions but it was just a silly drunken joke.” He then dropped two bombshells, writing that he and Anderson were having a baby and that they had just got married. “We are unbreakable,” he added. The message was swiftly followed up by a photo showing him standing beside Anderson, apparently during their wedding, which he said took place at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. Anderson who, while all of this was playing out, had been silent on social media, later supported Spedding’s claims by sharing the same wedding photo to her Twitter/X account. Over the subsequent weeks, the two of them posted explicit content of each other – both separately and together – including an X-rated spoof of the film Scream for Halloween. The last time Spedding posted to social media was around 12 November, with Anderson last writing on Twitter/X last week. Her post was about their marriage, which she said she’d “never forget”. Whilst the porn icon has yet to address the “love of her life’s” passing, tributes have been pouring in from admirers. Croydon FC manager Liam Giles shared his devastation at the “heartbreaking news", writing on X/Twitter: "Ollie was a warrior on the pitch and gave 100 per cent every time he represented Croydon FC. "We spoke a couple of weeks ago about him getting back into football. "I hope you find your peace, mate - sleep tight." His apparent desire to return to sport is perhaps unsurprising, given admissions he’s made about his career change in the past. Spedding said he never would have envisaged a career in the adult industry as a kid hanging out in south-east London gangs, but fell into it after escaping an abusive relationship. Speaking on the ‘Anything Goes with James English' podcast last year, the one-time athlete, who played for Crystal Palace academy in his youth, lamented how he “let himself down” at the age of 17 by “going off the rails” He admitted that he ended up in prison after his grandmother died, and could have made more of his other talents, instead of chasing a name for himself in porn. “When I was at Crystal Palace, if I’d have stayed with them, then I could have been earning a lot more playing football. I used to fight as well, maybe that could have gone somewhere,” he said. “I was good at both [of those] things, but being a porn star, I thought that would be just as good. But it’s not as good as people think.” Still, it wasn’t all bad. Spedding met Anderson through the industry, and they set up their own blue movie production company. Acknowledging that he could never have dreamed that “one of the biggest porn stars in the country” would be his “soulmate”, he said Anderson was “the first person that I feel like I've ever had the ultimate connection with – she is like my twin”. “We're so compatible,” he added in his ‘Anything Goes’ interview. anders“I've never had anyone that connects on so many different levels like that.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

BOGOTA, Colombia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 19, 2023--

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