The Houston Astros win their first World Series title by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in the decisive seventh game.Source – bbc.com
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Brett Ratner, the producer of films including "Rush Hour," "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "The Revenant," has been accused by several women of sexual misconduct.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's attorneys prepare for closing arguments
Closing arguments about the punishment of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will come as soon as Thursday as a judge considers his sentence for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in Afghanistan.
The defense rested its sentencing case Wednesday after calling its final witness to discuss Bergdahl's mental health. The prosecution could still call a rebuttal witness, but the judge told both sides to be ready to make their final cases for the appropriate punishment.
Bergdahl could spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to the charges. The military judge also could sentence him to no prison time, given mitigating factors including the five years he endured as an enemy captive. The judge has wide discretion because Bergdahl didn't strike a plea agreement with prosecutors to limit his punishment.
A psychiatrist testified Wednesday that Bergdahl's difficult childhood and his washout from Coast Guard boot camp stoked serious psychiatric disorders that helped spur him to walk off his remote post in Afghanistan in 2009.
Dr. Charles Morgan said the soldier was already suffering from a schizophrenia-like condition and post-traumatic stress disorder when he disappeared in Afghanistan.
The forensic psychiatrist said interviews with family and childhood friends, as well as a lengthy exam with Bergdahl, convinced him the soldier was suffering from schizotypal personality disorder when he disappeared in Afghanistan. He said he concurred with an Army Sanity Board document that previously made the diagnosis public.
On the stand, Morgan went into greater detail than previously disclosed about Bergdahl's mental health. He said Bergdahl has an internal, self-critical commentary that he doesn't recognize as his own thoughts. Bergdahl, he said, engages in fantasy and has thoughts of self-castration to purify himself.
Bergdahl and others with the disorder "have this experience of their own inner life as if it's not them," Morgan said. He said the internal commentary manifests in thoughts such as: "You're never going to be good enough."
However, Morgan said the commentary isn't an auditory hallucination, and Bergdahl isn't psychotic. He said Bergdahl knew right from wrong when he walked off his post.
Still, the disorder makes it difficult for Bergdahl to see the second- and third-order effects of his actions and how they will impact others, Morgan said.
Morgan believes Bergdahl had post-traumatic stress disorder before his 2008 Army enlistment, largely because of growing up with a quick-tempered father. Symptoms of anxiety and tunnel vision, sometimes present when he interacted with his father, occurred the night Bergdahl had a 2006 panic attack that caused his Coast Guard discharge, Morgan said.
Bergdahl's father believed in corporal punishment and punched holes in the walls when he was angry, Morgan said. Growing up, Bergdahl would sometimes hide when he heard his father's truck arriving at their house in Idaho.
Morgan's testimony was part of defense efforts to mitigate potential punishment. Defense attorneys have made clear that Bergdahl is competent to answer the charges. The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, also said Wednesday that evidence shows Bergdahl understood his Army enlistment contract in 2008.
Bergdahl has said he left his Afghanistan post intending to reach a commander at another base and describe what he saw as problems with his unit.
Morgan said the decision was consistent with schizotypal personality disorder.
"I think he believes there are times that, if it's the morally right thing to do, you have to break the rules," he said. "There's not a thinking through of: 'Are there other ways to achieve this goal?'"
The 31-year-old soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was brought home by President Barack Obama in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Obama said at the time the U.S. does not leave its service members on the battlefield. Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Donald Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who deserved serious punishment.
Also Wednesday, the defense called a witness to testify that Bergdahl had helped deliver a colony of two-dozen feral cats to her animal sanctuary. The woman, who was allowed to testify without giving her name, said that Bergdahl had a rapport with even the most skittish cats, and that she would like to hire him when his case ends.
"His personal responsibility for these cats was uncanny. The devotion he had — you don't see it a lot," she said. "He's almost like 'the cat whisperer.'"
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Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/jonldrew
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The Astros defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers on the road in Game 7 to take home the World Series trophy for the first time.
Elections exhaust Kenya, where democracy is challenged
Distraught Kenyan schoolgirls huddled against an alleyway wall, trapped between stone-throwing protesters and police wielding clubs and firing tear gas in an outbreak of violence following Kenya's disputed election that left national divisions more entrenched.
The girls scrambled to safety in a scene that captured the anguish of a flawed democracy facing protracted pressures unless Kenya's rival camps can somehow accommodate. The question of how the democratic institutions and relatively open society of this leading East African nation will respond is a bellwether for the continent, where democracy evolves in some places and authoritarianism takes root in others.
"This is not just about Kenya," said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. "It's about the idea of moving toward greater and greater political competition and freedom and against those that say, 'Let's privilege economic development and forget political liberalism for now.'"
Kenya is in a lull after a bruising election cycle in which an Aug. 8 vote was nullified by the Supreme Court because of flaws, and an Oct. 26 repeat vote was boycotted by opposition leader Raila Odinga. President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner both times. While most of the country of 45 million was calm, some areas were hit by ethnic tensions, violent protests, sporadic arson and looting and a government reaction that left dozens of people dead from police bullets.
"We are tired of suffering in Kenya," a woman nicknamed Mama Wetu ("Our Mother" in Swahili) said after the clash Monday that ensnared the schoolgirls in Kawangware, a Nairobi slum of shacks and dirt paths. At one point, protesters positioned themselves behind some of the girls, using them as a shield, witnesses said.
Such a scene gives the impression that Kenya is turning on itself, undermining its status as a regional economic hub, a popular tourist destination and an oasis of stability in the conflict-prone Horn of Africa region. Yet, despite the ethnic allegiances and patronage systems that handcuff Kenyan democracy, the country has avoided a repeat of the ethnic-fueled violence after the 2007 election that killed more than 1,000 people.
That is partly thanks to a 2010 constitution whose human rights provisions are among the most progressive in the world, instilling some faith among Kenyans that institutions could peacefully resolve grievances. The Supreme Court, the constitution's guardian, scrapped the August presidential election after a petition from Odinga, and is likely to again consider complaints about alleged irregularities in last week's election.
Yet the Oct. 24 shooting of the police driver of a Supreme Court judge, and the failure of the court to muster a quorum the next day to consider a petition to postpone the Oct. 26 election, suggest possible efforts to intimidate the judiciary so recently seen as willing to assert its independence from political pressure.
The nullification of Kenya's August vote was the first time a court in Africa had overturned a presidential election. The effects are showing up elsewhere on the continent. On Wednesday, Liberia's Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to preparations for a runoff presidential election next week as it awaits a hearing on alleged voting irregularities.
The possibility that Kenya's Supreme Court could nullify the second presidential election this year and order a third vote threatens a "Kafkaesque situation where we have elections for years and years," said Martin Kimani, a presidential envoy and head of a government task force on counter-terrorism.
"We are testing our institutions" and learning about their strengths and weaknesses, Kimani said.
One commentator wrote in The Standard, a Kenyan newspaper, that the constitution does not "cushion us against the tyranny" of large ethnic groups that form alliances, lord it over smaller groups and share the spoils of power with friends, family and other supporters.
"In Kenya, it is a case of winner-takes-it-all," wrote Mohamed Guleid, a former county deputy governor in the opposition. He said the situation "can neither be resolved by an election nor by the courts, but by leaders who go beyond political affiliations to form an inclusive government."
For now, neither side is reaching out to the other.
The 56-year-old president, who by law cannot run for a third term, has denounced the "politics of darkness" in a slap at Odinga. The 72-year-old opposition leader has promised peaceful protests and wants a new election. Kenyatta, an ethnic Kikuyu, and Odinga, a Luo, also faced off in a disputed 2013 election. Their fathers were political allies and then rivals after Kenya's independence from Britain in 1963.
"There's very little ideological daylight between them," said Mutiga, the International Crisis Group analyst. Once they exit the political scene, he said, Kenya's tensions might "dial down a bit."
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Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachris
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French minister condemns vandalizing of Jewish grave
France's interior minister has condemned the desecration of a prominent Jewish grave plaque near Paris by unknown vandals as "cowardly and odious."
Gerard Collomb said the plaque in homage to Ilan Halimi, a French Jew murdered in 2006, was pulled off, thrown on the ground and covered with anti-Semitic writing.
Collomb noted that the plaque had previously been vandalized in 2015.
France's leading Jewish group the CRIF said that this latest event highlights the country's persistent anti-Semitism.
Halimi was held and tortured for three weeks before being murdered in a suburb of Paris by a French criminal gang.
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Former employees expose inner workings of Russian troll farm
WATCH Attorneys for Facebook, Google and Twitter take heat on day 2 at Capitol
On the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia, inside an unassuming office building, people who claim to have worked there say Internet trolls are hard at work, exploiting America's deepest divisions.
When ABC News' Dan Harris and his team walked into the building, it was clear they were not welcome as a man walked up to them, yelling in Russian and ushering them out.
Even though the 2016 U.S. election has ended, U.S. lawmakers say, the trolls are still pumping out social-media posts on divisive issues such as the NFL kneeling controversy and the deadly car-ramming in Charlottesville, North Carolina.
An undercover video that former trolls say they shot in 2015 appears to show tight security and rows of trolls, typing away.
Facebook, Twitter, Google testify on Russian election interference
Russian internet trolls sought to co-opt unwitting American activists
Russian internet trolls pushing #TakeAKnee, #BoycottNFL to sow discord in US: Senator
Lyudmila Savchuk, a journalist, told Harris that she'd gone undercover to work in the troll factory for about $700 a month. She said that as part of her job, she'd invent fictional characters and then post under their names with topics carefully selected by her bosses.
"Their favorite topics were guns, immigrants and homosexuality," Savchuk said. "The kind of topics that could invoke blind and negative emotions."
ABC NewsAn independent, liberal Russian TV channel also spoke to a man named Alan Beskaev who said he'd worked in the unit that specifically targeted America.
One minute, he said, "you needed to be a redneck from Kentucky and then later you had to be some kind of white dude from Minnesota. … And then in 15 minutes, you need to be from New York, writing something in black slang."
Beskaev said some of his colleagues even traveled to the U.S. to do research.
Another former troll said in an interview published on Oct. 16 that he worked in a so-called "troll factory" in St. Petersburg for around 18 months until early 2015. He said that during his time there, trolls were instructed to watch the Netflix series "House of Cards" to improve their English and strengthen their knowledge of U.S. politics.
Lawmakers today released several of the thousands of ads they say were bought by Russian trolls. One Tweet from during the election falsely told fans of Hillary Clinton that they could avoid the line and vote from home.
One former troll told an independent, liberal Russian TV channel that the goal was not to promote pro-Russian views but to create turmoil in America. In fact, the former troll said, workers were punished if they mentioned Russian President Vladimir Putin.
ABC News' Patrick Reevell, Jenna Millman and Knez Walker contributed to this story.
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Dustin Hoffman among stars facing new harassment accusations
Two Oscar-winning actors, a Hollywood filmmaker and a senior US news editor are the latest high-profile figures to be accused of sexual harassment.
The actors Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman have been accused of sexual misconduct and have issued apologies.
Meanwhile, six women have accused Brett Ratner, director of the Rush Hour film series and X-Men: The Last Stand, of sexual harassment or misconduct.
Ratner's lawyer "categorically" denied all of the accusations on his behalf.
A representative for Spacey released a short statement to the US media, saying the actor "is taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment. No other information is available at this time".
A growing number of allegations have been made against public figures in recent weeks.
The allegations have been sparked by multiple women speaking out against the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and a subsequent campaign encouraging victims to share their stories of sexual harassment under the #metoo hashtag.
So who has been accused of misconduct?
Kevin Spacey
New allegations have emerged from a number of men accusing Kevin Spacey of sexual misconduct.
US filmmaker Tony Montana claims he was groped by the actor in a Los Angeles bar in 2003. He says he was left with PTSD for six months after Spacey "forcefully" grabbed his crotch.
Mr Montana told Radar Online that he was in his thirties when the incident took place at the Coronet Bar in LA.
It follows an allegation made by Anthony Rapp that the House of Cards actor tried to "seduce" him when he was 14 years old.
Kevin Spacey says he has no recollection of that encounter, and was "beyond horrified".
Netflix halts House of Cards production
Incidents regarding Spacey are also alleged to have taken place in the UK while the two-time Oscar winner was the artistic director at the Old Vic in London between 2004 and 2015.
Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who acted in several plays at the theatre, claims Spacey "routinely preyed" on young male actors.
One man told the BBC about his experience of being invited to spend the weekend with Spacey in New York when he was a teenager in the 1980s.
Read more about the allegations against Kevin Spacey here.
Brett Ratner
Six women have accused Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner of sexual harassment or misconduct.
The women, including The Newsroom actress Olivia Munn, made the allegations in the Los Angeles Times.
Natasha Henstridge, who appeared in Species and The Whole Ten Yards, claimed she had been forced into a sex act with Ratner as a teenager.
The actress, now 43, was a 19-year-old model at the time she alleges Ratner stopped her from leaving a room at his New York apartment and then made her perform a sex act on him.
"He strong-armed me in a real way," she told the LA Times. "He physically forced himself onto me."
Ratner's lawyer "categorically" denied all of the accusations on his behalf in response to the article.
Separately, Ratner has filed a libel case in Hawaii against a woman who accused him on Facebook of rape more than 10 years ago.
Ratner says he has stepped away from dealings with movie studio Warner Bros since the allegations came to light.
Read more about the allegations against Brett Ratner here.
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman has been accused of sexually harassing an intern on the set of one of his films in 1985.
Anna Graham Hunter, a writer, says that when she was 17, the Oscar-winning actor groped her and made inappropriate comments about sex to her.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: "He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me."
Hoffman apologised, and said he was sorry if he "put her in an uncomfortable situation".
In a statement to the magazine, Hoffman said: "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
The BBC has contacted representatives of Dustin Hoffman for his response to these allegations.
Michael Oreskes
Senior editor Michael Oreskes has resigned following accusations he kissed female colleagues without their consent during business meetings.
The 63-year-old was asked to step down by the National Public Radio (NPR) network in response to the allegations. He has previously worked for the Associated Press and the New York Times.
Two women spoke to the Washington Post on condition of anonymity, and reported stories of abrupt and unexpected kisses during business meetings. They said they were worried about career development if their names were made public.
One of the women said that while she met Mr Oreskes in the hope of getting a job with the New York Times, he suggested that they eat room service lunch in a hotel, before he unexpectedly kissed her and "slipped his tongue into her mouth".
He has not commented publicly on the allegations, and journalists at NPR report that they have tried to contact him for comment, without success.
Read more about the allegations against Michael Oreskes here.
Stranded cargo ship freed from German sandbank after 3 days
A 225-meter (738-foot) cargo ship was towed off a sandbank in the North Sea on Thursday more than three days after it got stranded during a storm, Germany's maritime rescue center said.
The stranding of the Panama-flagged bulk carrier Glory Amsterdam off the island of Langeoog had caused concern because the ship was carrying 1,800 tons of fuel oil and 140 tons of diesel, but authorities said it appeared that no hazardous substances had leaked.
The ship drifted onto the sandbank off the island in high winds on Sunday, with 22 crew members on board. Rescuers pumped 16,000 tons of ballast water out of the vessel and then used two tugboats with 1,500-meter (4,920-foot) tow lines to pull it free early Thursday.
Rescue experts who went aboard found no damage to the ship. The Glory Amsterdam was being towed to the port of Wilhelmshaven.
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New York truck attack suspect charged with terrorism
An Uzbek immigrant has been charged by US prosecutors with causing the deaths of at least eight people in New York by mowing them down in a truck.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, is also accused of providing material support and resources to Islamic State (IS) group.
He was shot and injured by police at the scene of the attack, and received treatment in hospital.
Prosecutors say Mr Saipov spoke freely to them, waiving his right to avoid self-incrimination while in custody.
US President Donald Trump tweeted that he should receive the death penalty. The charges filed against Mr Saipov are federal, which means the government can override New York state's ban on capital punishment.
Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump
NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017
Report
End of Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump
Tuesday afternoon's attack saw a truck driven down a cycle lane in Lower Manhattan, hitting cyclists and pedestrians.
Six people died at the scene and two more in hospital. Twelve people were injured, nine of whom remain in hospital.
Federal court papers allege:
- Mr Saipov said the attack was planned two months ago
- He said he had intentionally chosen Halloween so that the streets would be crowded
- He wanted to display IS flags on the truck, but decided not to draw attention to himself
- Authorities recovered 90 graphic and violent IS propaganda videos from his phones
- He said he was inspired by them – in particular, one in which IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi asks what Muslims are doing to avenge deaths in Iraq
Earlier, New York Police's Deputy Commissioner John Miller told reporters: "He appears to have followed almost exactly to a 'T' the instructions that Isis has put out in its social media channels before, with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack."
- What we know and don't know
- Read more on the suspect
- Why Uzbek migrants are radicalised
A second Uzbek man wanted for questioning in connection with the attacks has been found, investigators say.
The FBI had requested information on Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, 32.
"We are no longer looking for the person the information went out about," William Sweeney, assistant director of the FBI's New York field office, told reporters.
"We have found him and I'll leave it at that."
Who is the suspect?
Sayfullo Saipov had reportedly lived in Tampa, Florida, before moving to Paterson, New Jersey.
He arrived in America from Uzbekistan in 2010 and is a legal resident of the country. Uber confirmed he had been working as a driver for them.
CBS News quotes an intelligence source as saying he was known to US authorities after his name was associated with the subjects of FBI counter-terrorism investigations in 2015.
The source says he had some contact with individuals who were considered radicalised extremists, at least one of whom was Uzbek. It is unclear whether those being investigated were in the US or overseas.
It is not known if Mr Saipov, who was not the main focus of the investigation, was interviewed at that time by the FBI.
Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told President Trump his country was ready to "use all forces and resources" to help investigate the attack.
What has been the reaction?
New York has increased the police presence at key transport hubs, and there will be additional uniformed and plain-clothes police on duty at Sunday's New York Marathon.
Media playback is unsupported on your devicePresident Trump said he was taking steps to end the diversity lottery programme – the immigration system under which the suspect entered the country.
He also attacked the US justice system, and said he would consider sending the suspect to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
- Trump backs Guantanamo for NY suspect
- What is the diversity green card lottery?
- How did Trump do in his terror response?
"We also have to come up with punishment that's far quicker and far greater than the punishment these animals are getting right now," he said.
The administration says it has not ruled out adding Uzbekistan to a list of countries in the president's proposed travel ban.
The mayor of New York City and the governor of New York state have both praised the resilience of New Yorkers – and urged people not to "politicise" a tragedy that took eight lives.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said: "He is a depraved coward, is what he is, and he was associated with Isis, and he was radicalised domestically."
Mr Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio also suggested New York's strict gun control laws had ensured that high-powered weapons could not get into the hands of terrorists.
How did the attack unfold?
The attacker rented the truck from a New Jersey branch of retailer Home Depot on Tuesday afternoon before driving to New York City and entering the bike lane, police said.
Video cameras show the van driving at very high speed, appearing to target bike riders and pedestrians.
After the van collided with a school bus, its driver emerged and brandished what appeared to be two weapons.
Mr Saipov was shot and wounded at the scene by police officer Ryan Nash, 28, one of three NYPD officers who were nearby and attended the scene after being alerted by witnesses.
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceKnives, a paint gun and a pellet gun were recovered from the scene.
It was the deadliest terror attack in the city since 11 September, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people died at the hands of al-Qaeda attackers who flew hijacked aircraft into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Who were the victims?
The deaths of five Argentines were confirmed by the country's foreign ministry. They were part of a group of nine friends in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation from a polytechnic college in the central city of Rosario, Argentine media said.
Rosario has declared three days of mourning.
One of the men who died, steel firm owner Ariel Erlij, helped pay for the friends' trip, La Nación newspaper reported (in Spanish).
The men – all aged 48 or 49 – were named as Hernán Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferrucci.
Belgian officials said Anne-Laure Decadt, a 31-year-old from Staden in Flanders, was also killed. Three Belgians were wounded.
Two other victims, both Americans, have not yet been named.
- Read more on the victims
