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ЗСУ відбили 15 атак на Покровському напрямку, найактивніше російські військові діяли поблизу Селидового, йдеться в зведенні
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LOS ANGELES — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, it was announced Wednesday.

After the announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement, “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart.”

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

Attorneys for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of local Catholic priests reached the settlement after months of negotiations with the archdiocese, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The agreement caps a quarter-century of litigation against the most populous archdiocese in the United States.

Attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Committee said in a joint statement, “While there is no amount of money that can replace what was taken from these 1,353 brave individuals who have suffered in silence for decades, there is justice in accountability.”

Under the settlement, the plaintiffs will engage in a process— that will not involve the archdiocese — to allocate the settlement amount among the participants.

The archdiocese has previously paid $740 million to victims in various settlements and had pledged to better protect its church members, so this settlement would put the total payout at more than $1.5 billion, the Times said.

Attorney Morgan Stewart, who led the negotiations, said in a statement that the settlement is the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese.

“These survivors have suffered for decades in the aftermath of the abuse. Dozens of the survivors have died. They are aging, and many of those with knowledge of the abuse within the church are too. It was time to get this resolved,” Stewart told the Times.

The settlement will be funded by archdiocese investments, accumulated reserves, bank financing, and other assets. According to the archdiocese, certain religious orders and others named in the litigation will also cover some of the cost of the settlement, the Times said.
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Ще троє людей поранені на Донеччині, заявив голова області
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На думку аналітиків, наступальна операція РФ у напрямку Покровська, яка посилилася влітку 2024 року, досягне кульмінації в найближчі місяці
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У Середземному морі зараз чотири кораблі РФ, з них три – носії крилатих ракет «Калібр», загальний залп до 16 ракет
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U.S. forces carried out airstrikes Wednesday against Houthi militant weapons storage sites in Yemen, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The strikes, conducted by B-2 bombers, targeted weapons the Houthis have used in a yearlong campaign of attacks against ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that have disrupted major sea shipping routes.

“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said.

The Iran-backed Houthis have said their campaign of using boats, missiles and drones to target vessels is being done in solidarity with the Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.

The United States and Britain have conducted multiple strikes against the Houthis to try to protect the shipping lanes, while commercial companies have rerouted many ships to use the longer and more expensive route of going around the African continent.

“The Houthis’ illegal attacks continue to disrupt the free flow of international commerce, threaten environmental catastrophe, and put innocent civilian lives and U.S. and partner forces’ lives at risk,” Austin said.
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US President Joe Biden heads to Germany on Thursday, a week later than planned and on a compressed timeline after Hurricane Milton grounded him last week. Both he and Germany’s leader have been facing mounting pressure over their support for Ukraine — both having recently announced new security packages. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports.
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washington — U.S. President Joe Biden joined former Democratic presidents and others to honor longtime human rights advocate and storied political family matriarch Ethel Kennedy at a memorial service in Washington on Wednesday after her death last week at age 96.

The widow of Robert F. Kennedy — a former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator, who was assassinated while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 — founded a human rights center to carry on her husband’s work.

She never remarried and went on to raise her 11 children, enduring a host of other family tragedies along the way, including separate plane crashes that killed her parents, brother and nephew, as well as the untimely deaths of several of her children, grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

She and her husband were devastated by the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas in 1963.

Biden, a fellow Irish Catholic who has leaned on his faith amid his own losses, including the death of his son Beau, said the Democratic family matriarch was there for him at his time of tragedy. He said her husband had been one of his heroes.

“Ethel was a hero in her own right,” Biden said in remarks at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, just blocks from the White House.

Former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others, also reflected on her life.

The son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated just two months before Robert Kennedy, noted the two families’ shared journey and understanding of sacrifice amid their work for social justice.

“Faith and history knitted us together. Respect and love has kept us together,” Martin Luther King III told the crowd.

The Kennedys were known for their parties and Wednesday’s service was no different, with scores of relatives filling the pews and high-profile attendees remembering the infectious spirit highlighted by her children and grandchildren.

“She was a spitfire,” Obama said. “As serious as Ethel was about righting wrongs, she never seemed to take herself too seriously.”

Other Democratic attendees included California Governor Gavin Newsom and former top U.S. diplomat and presidential candidate John Kerry. Country star Kenny Chesney sang “You Are My Sunshine” while Sting surprised guests with “Fragile” and Stevie Wonder with “Isn’t She Lovely.”

Over the decades, Kennedy took up many causes championed by her late husband, including fighting poverty, working for social justice and protecting the environment. Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She died on October 10 from complications following a stroke, her family said.

Her daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was Maryland’s lieutenant governor, while her son Joseph P. Kennedy II represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her grandson, former U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, serves as special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine advocate and former independent presidential candidate, broke from his family’s long Democratic ties to endorse Donald Trump in November’s election.

Many members of the Kennedy clan have denounced his election politics and backed the Democratic ticket, now led by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden stepped aside in July. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended Wednesday’s service alongside his family but made no remarks.
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washington — Recent arrests in the United States and in Europe have law enforcement and intelligence agencies on alert, bolstering concerns about a reinvigorated Islamic State terror group bent on lashing out against the West.

FBI officials Wednesday confirmed the bureau shared information with French authorities following last week’s arrest of 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on charges connected to a mass shooting plot in the name of the Islamic State group, to coincide with the U.S. election in November.

That information led to the arrest of a 22-year-old Afghan national in the Haute-Garonne region of France, who French officials say is linked to Tawhedi.

That arrest followed the arrests of three other men in the same region, again carried out in coordination with the U.S.

French anti-terrorism prosecutors said Saturday that the suspects, all of whom are said to be followers of the Islamic State, appear to have been involved in a plan to carry out an attack on a football stadium or a shopping center.

“The recent arrests in France and by the FBI’s Oklahoma City field office demonstrate the importance of partnerships to detect and disrupt potential terrorist attacks,” the FBI said in a statement.

“The FBI’s top priority is preventing acts of terrorism, and we are committed to working with our partners both overseas and in the United States to uncover any plots and protect our communities from violence,” it said.

The arrests follow repeated warnings from Western counterterrorism officials that the Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS, has set its sights on launching attacks against the U.S. and Europe. And many have raised specific concerns about the group’s Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K.

IS-Khorasan “does have the intention to carry out external attacks, including external attacks inside the United States,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, speaking during a Washington Post webcast last month.

“We are very concerned about the capacity of ISIS-K to potentially move operatives into the United States,” he added.

Others have warned that IS, and IS-Khorasan, have each sought to expand recruiting efforts around the globe.

Some Western officials and regional observers have told VOA that as far back as 2021, the IS Afghan affiliate was seeking to seed Central Asian states such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with small but highly capable cells and networks that could serve as the basis for future attacks.

Some also have warned that IS-Khorasan has since built on those efforts, increasingly trying to target Afghans and Central Asians living in the West.

“We’ve seen ISIS-K make a concerted effort to recruit from diaspora communities,” said Austin Doctor, the director of counterterrorism research initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, or NCITE, speaking with VOA last week following the Oklahoma City arrest.

“It will be another important factor to watch as more information becomes available.”

Information from Agence France-Presse was used in this article.
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Днями радник керівника Офісу президента Сергій Лещенко заявив, що США тиснуть на українського президента щодо мобілізації чоловіків віком 18-25 років
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With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, border security remains a central issue. Reporting from Arizona, VOA immigration correspondent Aline Barros spoke with the U.S. Border Patrol and a migration expert for two views on what border security means. Video editor: Henry Hernandez
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washington — Fifteen days after turning 100, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter cast his ballot in the U.S. election on Wednesday, fulfilling an earlier declared wish to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris.

The former Democratic leader “voted by mail,” according to the Carter Center, the nonprofit he founded after he left the White House in 1981 to pursue his vision of world diplomacy.

The centenarian — who left office under a cloud of unpopularity, but has seen his star rise ever since — took advantage of early voting in his home state of Georgia, where he is receiving hospice care.

Carter had told his family earlier this year that living long enough to vote for Harris and help defeat her Republican rival, Donald Trump, was more important to him than his centennial, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

He reached both milestones.

More than 420,000 people have cast their ballot since early voting began Tuesday in Georgia, according to Gabriel Sterling, a state election official who posted the figures at midday.

Election Day is November 5.

Carter, a one-term president, has been receiving end-of-life care in his hometown of Plains in Georgia since February last year.

He is the first former U.S. president to reach the century mark, another extraordinary milestone for the one-time peanut farmer who worked his way to the White House.
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«Російська Федерація продовжує провадити в окупованому 2014 року Криму щодо кримських татар політику геноциду»
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«Будь-які прояви виправдовування російської агресії для колективу «Укренерго» є неприйнятними», заявили в компанії
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Since the U.S. Supreme Court sent the issue of abortion back to the states in 2022, Democrats have mobilized to protect abortion rights while Republicans have worked to restrict the procedure on religious and moral grounds. The issue is motivating voters to go to the polls this election year. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Nevada. Videographer: Mary Cieslak
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The U.S. agency charged with protecting the life of the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials wants state and local law enforcement to do more to stop potential threats from escalating into violence.

And it is trying to show police agencies across the country exactly how to do it.

The U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) on Wednesday issued a new guide, encouraging law enforcement agencies to create specific units to address threatening behavior in cases where there are significant concerns, even though no laws have been broken.

The guide specifically calls for police agencies to set up what NTAC calls behavioral threat assessment units that can assess potential dangers and then provide resources to make sure individuals get help before they resort to violence.

“What our research has continuously found is that in many cases of mass violence or other forms of targeted violence, the attacker’s behavior was witnessed by community bystanders, some of whom sought to report their concerns to public safety officials,” said Lina Alathari, NTAC director, briefing reporters ahead of the guide’s release.

“Unfortunately, many communities lack the structured systems to receive, evaluate and respond to these reports in a way that would reduce the likelihood of a violent or tragic outcome,” she said.

NTAC’s plea for law enforcement agencies to find ways to be more proactive is not new.

A January 2023 report that analyzed 173 mass attacks carried out over a five-year period urged communities to make it easier for witnesses to report concerns and allow for earlier intervention from crisis counselors and social services.

But the latest guidance comes as national security officials are bracing for potential violence.

The Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 annual threat assessment, issued last month, warned, “The terrorism threat environment in the United States over the next year will remain high.

“The threat will continue to be characterized primarily by lone offenders or small cells motivated to violence by a combination of racial, religious, gender, or anti-government grievances; conspiracy theories; and personalized factors,” it added.

The Secret Service has itself responded to two unrelated attempts to assassinate former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, coming under criticism for its failure to prevent one of the would-be assassins from firing eight shots and injuring Trump before he was stopped. 

Investigators in that case have said the now dead 20-year-old gunman had spent months researching assassinations and saw the former president as a “target of opportunity.” 

The new guide, issued Wednesday, aims to show police agencies how to spot warning signs more quickly and find ways to intervene.

“We have seen historically that law enforcement in the United States may at times feel limited in what they can do when responding to reports of threats or other concerning behavior, particularly when that behavior does not involve criminal activity,” said NTAC Assistant Chief Steven Driscoll.

“This publication represents the most comprehensive guidance ever produced on how to adapt and operationalize the Secret Services Behavioral Threat Assessment model for use by state and local law enforcement agencies,” he said.

Some state law enforcement agencies have already adopted the Secret Service model.

North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation set up a behavioral analysis threat assessment unit following a 2018 shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida.

The unit works with other state agencies and the state’s university system to prevent potential attacks.

The state of Hawaii has likewise created a team to intervene in cases of potential violence. And there is a similar program in Washington, the U.S. capital.

“Behavioral threat assessment methodology has been proven effective in safeguarding community time and again,” Driscoll said. “Prevention happens successfully every day, and thankfully, these are stories that we never hear about, when everybody goes home safely.”

As an example, Driscoll pointed to a 2021 NTAC study that looked at 67 incidents in which attacks on schools were averted due to students and community members reporting warning signs so authorities could intervene before anyone got hurt.

Despite such successes, NTAC said it does not have any data on how many communities have behavioral threat assessment units. And officials worry that too many state and local law enforcement agencies lack access to programs that allow them to step in when a threat has been identified but no law has been broken.

Some federal funding, though, is available.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it has awarded almost $90 million through its Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program since 2020.

And NTAC’s Alathari said the specialized units can be effective, even when people and resources are scarce.

“Behavioral assessment units are able to vary in size,” she said in response to a question from VOA. “An agency with limited resources to establish this kind of unit could begin with just a single designated violence prevention officer who maintains the responsibility of gathering information, information to manage situations that might revolve around potential violence.”
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