Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ says he’s ‘a little nervous’ as sex trafficking trial gets underway

Sean 'Diddy' Combs, right, turns around and looks at the audience during jury selection at Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 5, 2025, in New York. (AP)
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Updated 06 May 2025
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ says he’s ‘a little nervous’ as sex trafficking trial gets underway

NEW YORK: The federal sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose wildly successful career has been dotted by allegations of violence, began on Monday in New York City with jury selection that was briefly paused when the hip-hop entrepreneur said he was “a little nervous” and needed a bathroom break.
Three dozen potential jurors were questioned by Judge Arun Subramanian about their answers on a questionnaire meant to help determine if they could be fair and impartial at a trial that will feature violent and sexually explicit videos. Opening statements and the start of testimony are scheduled for next week.
The judge gave the would-be jurors a brief description of the sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges against Combs, telling them he’d pleaded not guilty and was presumed innocent.
By the end of the day, the jury pool was half its size as some were excluded for personal reasons such as inability to endure a trial projected to last two months or because their opinions or past experiences would make it difficult for them to remain objective.
A similar number of jurors was expected to be questioned on Tuesday. A jury was not expected to be chosen before Wednesday.
Throughout Monday, Combs, 55, sat with his lawyers in a sweater over a white collared shirt and gray slacks, which the judge had allowed rather than jail clothing. He’s been held in a grim federal lockup in Brooklyn since his arrest last September. His hair and goatee were almost fully gray because dye isn’t allowed in jail.
Unlike other recent high-profile celebrity trials, Combs’ court case won’t be broadcast live because federal courtrooms don’t allow electronic recordings inside — meaning courtroom sketch artists serve as the public’s eyes in the courtroom.
If convicted of all charges, he could face up to life in prison.
Several prospective jurors indicated they’d seen news reports featuring a key piece of evidence in the case: a video of the hip-hop mogul hitting and kicking one of his accusers in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016. One prospective juror described a still image she saw from the video as “damning evidence.” That woman was rejected from consideration.
After another juror was dismissed, Combs asked for a bathroom break, telling the judge, “I’m sorry your honor I’m a little nervous today.”
One prospective juror said she had posted a “like” to a video put on social media by a comedian who included references to large amounts of baby oil found by law enforcement in one of Combs’ homes. She was not dismissed.
The 17-page indictment against Combs — which reads like a charging document filed against a Mafia leader or the head of a drug gang — alleges that Combs engaged in a two-decade racketeering pattern of abusive behavior against women and others, with the help of people in his entourage and employees from his network of businesses.
Combs and his lawyers say he’s innocent and any group sex was consensual. They say there was no effort to coerce people into things they didn’t want to do, and nothing that happened amounted to a criminal racket.
Prosecutors say women were manipulated into drug-fueled sexual performances with male sex workers that Combs called “Freak Offs.” To keep women in line, prosecutors say Combs used a mix of influence and violence: He offered to boost their entertainment careers if they did what he asked — or cut them off if they didn’t.
And when he wasn’t getting what he wanted, the indictment says Combs and his associates resorted to violent acts including beatings, kidnapping and arson. Once, the indictment alleges, he even dangled someone from a balcony.
Combs has acknowledged one episode of violence that is considered a key piece of the prosecution’s case. In 2016, a security camera recorded him beating up his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel. Cassie filed a lawsuit in late 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, did.
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has said Combs was “not a perfect person” and that there had been drug use and toxic relationships, but said all sexual activity between Combs, Cassie and other people was consensual.
The trial is the most serious in a long string of legal problems for Combs.


Small Brazilian coffee producers fear for the future after Trump’s 50 percent tariff

Updated 24 July 2025
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Small Brazilian coffee producers fear for the future after Trump’s 50 percent tariff

  • Experts warn the tariff will hit small producers hardest, as they lack resources to adapt quickly or find new markets for their crops

PORCIUNCULA: Brazilian José Natal da Silva often tends to his modest coffee plantation in the interior of Rio de Janeiro state in the middle of the night, sacrificing sleep to fend off pests that could inflict harm on his precious crops.
But anxiety has troubled his shut-eye even more in recent weeks, following President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this month of a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imported goods, which experts expect to drive down the price of coffee in Brazil.
Da Silva sighed as he recounted his fears, sitting on the dry earth surrounded by his glossy green arabica coffee shrubs, in the small municipality of Porciuncula.
“We’re sad because we struggle so much. We spend years battling to get somewhere. And suddenly, everything starts falling apart, and we’re going to lose everything,” da Silva said. “How are we going to survive?”
Tariff linked to Bolsonaro trial
Trump’s tariff on Brazil is overtly political. In his public letter detailing the reasons for the hike, the US president called the trial of his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, a ” witch hunt.” Bolsonaro is accused of masterminding a coup to overturn his 2022 election loss to left-leaning President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The tariff has sparked ripples of fear in Brazil, particularly among sectors with deep ties to the American market such as beef, orange juice — and coffee. Minor coffee producers say the import tax will hit their margins and adds to the uncertainty already generated by an increasingly dry and unpredictable climate.
Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, exports around 85 percent of its production. The United States is the country’s top coffee buyer and represents around 16 percent of exports, according to Brazil’s coffee exporters council Cecafe.
The president of Cecafe’s deliberative council, Márcio Ferreira, told journalists last week that he thinks the US will continue to import Brazilian coffee, even with the hefty tariff. “It’s obvious that neither the United States nor any other source can give up on Brazil, even if it’s tariffed,” he said.
Tariff could hurt competitiveness of Brazilian coffee in US
But the tariff will likely decrease Brazilian coffee’s competitiveness in the US and naturally reduce demand, said Leandro Gilio, a professor of global agribusiness at Insper business school in Sao Paulo.
“There’s no way we can quickly redirect our coffee production to other markets,” Gilio said. “This principally affects small producers, who have less financial power to make investments or support themselves in a period like this.”
Family farmers produce more than two-thirds of Brazilian coffee. They are a majority in Rio state’s northwestern region, where most of the state’s coffee production lies.
Coffee farming is the primary economic activity in these municipalities. In Porciuncula, which neighbors Brazil’s largest coffee-producing state Minas Gerais, gentle mountains are layered with symmetrical lines of coffee shrubs.
Da Silva, who wore a straw hat for protection from the sun and a crucifix around his neck, owns around 40,000 coffee trees. He started working in the fields when he was 12.
Besides coffee, he grows cassava, squash, bananas, oranges and lemons and has a few chickens that provide fresh eggs. “We have them because of the fear of not being able to eat. We wouldn’t manage if everything were bought, because the profit is very low,” he said.
Last year, drought — made more likely by human-caused climate change — devastated large swathes of da Silva’s production. The reduction in supply pushed coffee prices up, but only after many small-scale farmers had already sold all their crops.
Since peaking in February, prices of arabica have fallen, dropping 33 percent by July, according to the University of Sao Paulo’s Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics, which provides renowned commodity price reports.
“When you make an investment, counting on a certain price for coffee, and then when you go to sell it the price is 20-30 percent less than you calculated, it breaks the producers,” said Paulo Vitor Menezes Freitas, 31, who also owns a modest plantation of around 35,000 coffee trees in the nearby municipality of Varre-Sai.
The demands of coffee farming
Life out in the fields is tough, according to Menezes Freitas.
During harvest season, he sometimes gets up at 3 a.m. to turn on a coffee drier, going to bed as late as midnight. The rest of the year is less intense, but still, there are few to no breaks because there’s always work to do, he said.
Menezes Freitas, who is expecting his first child in October, said the tariff’s announcement increased his fears for the future.
“It’s scary. It feels like you’re on shaky ground. If things get worse, what will we do? People will start pulling out their coffee and finding other ways to survive because they won’t have the means to continue,” he said.
In addition to slashing the value of his coffee beans, Menezes Freitas said the tariff will impact machinery and aluminum — goods that producers like him use every day.
“We hope this calms down. Hopefully, they’ll come to their senses and remove that tariff. I think it would be better for both the United States and Brazil,” he said.


Bermuda shorts, beachwear and a local ban divide Algerian town

Updated 23 July 2025
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Bermuda shorts, beachwear and a local ban divide Algerian town

  • A dispute over men’s swimwear is dividing an Algerian beach town. Earlier this month, the mayor of Chetaïbi banned Bermuda shorts, calling them indecent

CHETAIBI: A scenic beach town on Algeria’s Mediterranean coastline has become the center of a clash over men’s bathing suits, pitting religious and conservative values against tourist habits.
Chetaïbi, a town of 8,000 known for its turquoise waters, rocky coves, and forested hills, draws thousands of Algerian beachgoers each summer. Seasonal tourism is a cornerstone of the local economy.
“The mood is warm, welcoming, colorful, bustling — no hostility toward bathers, not in words, not in looks. People here have a tradition of hospitality,” said Salah Edine Bey, a longtime resident.
In his view, there was little sign of controversy, until there was.
Earlier this month, some vacationers and business owners were caught off guard when the town’s mayor issued a decree banning beachgoers from walking around in Bermuda shorts, calling the attire indecent in contrast to the longer, looser shorts preferred by conservative male beachgoers.
“These summer outfits disturb the population, they go against our society’s moral values and sense of decency,” Mayor Layachi Allaoua wrote.
“The population can no longer tolerate seeing foreigners wandering the streets in indecent clothing,” he added, referencing visitors from elsewhere in Algeria.
The order sparked immediate backlash from officials, including in the regional capital Annaba, who called on the mayor to revoke it.
The mayor reversed the decree within two days. On Facebook, he insisted his order wasn’t driven by Islamist pressure, but by a desire to preserve “peace and tranquility” for both residents and guests.
Still, the episode tapped into deeper tensions over religion, identity, and public space in a country that remains haunted by a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people throughout the 1990s. The conflict began in 1991, when the army canceled elections that an Islamist party was set to win.
The so-called “black decade” ended long ago. But it left unresolved some underlying friction between political Islam and Algeria’s military-backed secular state.
“Even though Islamists lost the war in the 1990s, they never gave up on their invasive and intrusive ideological project, which has gained ground in society,” said sociologist Redouane Boudjemaâ.
For some, the beach debate echoed that earlier era, when Islamist-run municipalities tried to reshape public life in line with religious doctrine. For many Algerians, particularly in underserved regions, political Islam remains popular not out of extremism, but as a reaction to corruption, inequality, and distrust in state institutions. While Islamist parties have mostly fared poorly at the ballot box, they play a large role in daily life, filling social and moral voids.
In neighboring Jijel, residents have roped off parts of the beach for mass prayers, with videos of the scenes circulating online and dividing opinion.
For Halim Kabir, it’s a stark reminder of the past. In the 1990s, Islamists who won local elections in Jijel imposed stricter rules on public behavior. Today, cars parked near the beach have been vandalized with warnings telling beachgoers to “go sin elsewhere.”
“It’s provocation,” Kabir said. “An attempt to drive away visitors from other regions.”
Said Boukhlifa, a former senior official at the Ministry of Tourism, warned that conservative groups are exploiting Algeria’s economic troubles, as falling gas revenues strain the state, to expand their influence. That, he said, could undermine the country’s ambitions to grow its tourism sector.


Photos show a Filipino couple walking down a flooded aisle on their wedding day

Updated 22 July 2025
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Photos show a Filipino couple walking down a flooded aisle on their wedding day

  • The couple anticipated the risk of flooding, but instead of letting the weather dampen the mood, they decided to push through
  • “We just mustered enough courage,” said Verdillo

MALOLOS, Philippines: Jade Rick Verdillo and Jamaica Aguilar were determined to walk down the aisle on their wedding day. Even if it meant walking down a flooded one.

On Tuesday, the Barasoain church in Malolos, Bulacan province, Philippines flooded due to heavy rain. Typhoon Whipa had intensified seasonal monsoon rains in the Philippines, bringing widespread flooding.

The couple anticipated the risk of flooding, but instead of letting the weather dampen the mood, they decided to push through, as all marriages have their challenges.

“We just mustered enough courage,” said Verdillo. “We decided today because it is a sacrifice in itself. But there will more sacrifices if we don’t push through today.”

Aguilar waded down the aisle with her white dress and wedding train floating behind her through waters almost up to her knees. At the altar, Verdillo was waiting to receive her while wearing an embroidered shirt called a Barong Tagalog, worn during special occasions.

The newlyweds have been together for 10 years. The groom said, “I feel that challenges won’t be over. It’s just a test. This is just one of the struggles that we’ve overcome.”

Despite the turbulent weather, some family and friends made it to the wedding.

“You will see love prevailed because even against weather, storm, rains, floods, the wedding continued,” said Jiggo Santos, a wedding guest. “It’s an extraordinary wedding.”


Humans beat AI gold-level score at top maths contest

Updated 22 July 2025
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Humans beat AI gold-level score at top maths contest

  • Humans beat generative AI models made by Google and OpenAI at a top international mathematics competition, despite the programs reaching gold-level scores for the first time

SYDNEY: Humans beat generative AI models made by Google and OpenAI at a top international mathematics competition, despite the programs reaching gold-level scores for the first time.
Neither model scored full marks — unlike five young people at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), a prestigious annual competition where participants must be under 20 years old.
Google said Monday that an advanced version of its Gemini chatbot had solved five out of the six maths problems set at the IMO, held in Australia’s Queensland this month.
“We can confirm that Google DeepMind has reached the much-desired milestone, earning 35 out of a possible 42 points — a gold medal score,” the US tech giant cited IMO president Gregor Dolinar as saying.
“Their solutions were astonishing in many respects. IMO graders found them to be clear, precise and most of them easy to follow.”
Around 10 percent of human contestants won gold-level medals, and five received perfect scores of 42 points.
US ChatGPT maker OpenAI said that its experimental reasoning model had scored a gold-level 35 points on the test.
The result “achieved a longstanding grand challenge in AI” at “the world’s most prestigious math competition,” OpenAI researcher Alexander Wei wrote on social media.
“We evaluated our models on the 2025 IMO problems under the same rules as human contestants,” he said.
“For each problem, three former IMO medalists independently graded the model’s submitted proof.”
Google achieved a silver-medal score at last year’s IMO in the British city of Bath, solving four of the six problems.
That took two to three days of computation — far longer than this year, when its Gemini model solved the problems within the 4.5-hour time limit, it said.
The IMO said tech companies had “privately tested closed-source AI models on this year’s problems,” the same ones faced by 641 competing students from 112 countries.
“It is very exciting to see progress in the mathematical capabilities of AI models,” said IMO president Dolinar.
Contest organizers could not verify how much computing power had been used by the AI models or whether there had been human involvement, he cautioned.


Malcolm-Jamal Warner, ‘Cosby Show’ actor, dies at 54 in Costa Rica drowning

Updated 22 July 2025
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Malcolm-Jamal Warner, ‘Cosby Show’ actor, dies at 54 in Costa Rica drowning

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who as teenage son Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” was central to a cultural phenomenon that helped define the 1980s, died at age 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, authorities there said Monday.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department said Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
“He was rescued by people on the beach,” the department’s initial report said, but first responders from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner created many TV moments etched in the memories of Generation X children and their parents, including a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable about money, and another episode where Theo tries to hide his ear piercing from his dad. His Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad’s Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of American teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in America for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.
He played the role for eight seasons, appearing in each of the show’s 197 episodes and earning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986. For many the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet. The “Gordon Gartrell” shirt later became a memeable image: Anthony Mackie wore one on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon and the profile picture on Warner’s Instagram shows a toddler sporting one.
NBA hall-of-famer Magic Johnson was among those giving tribute Monday. Johnson said on X that he and his wife are sad to hear of the death of their friend.
“We were both super fans of the hit ‘Cosby Show’ and continued to follow his career on shows like ‘Malcolm and Eddie’ and ‘The Resident,’” Johnson said. “Every time I ran into Malcolm, we would have deep and fun conversations about basketball, life, and business. He will truly be missed.”
Like the rest of the “Cosby Show” cast, Warner had to contend with the sexual assault allegations against its titular star, whose conviction in a Pennsylvania court was later overturned.
Warner told The Associated Press in 2015 that the show’s legacy was “tarnished.”
“My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film,” Warner said. “We’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”
Representatives for Cosby declined immediate comment.
Warner worked steadily as an actor for more than 40 years. His first major post-“Cosby” role came on the sitcom “Malcolm & Eddie,” co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the popular series on the defunct UPN network from 1996 to 2000.
“My heart is heavy right now,” Griffin said on Instagram Monday. “Rest easy my brother for you have Won in life and now you have won forever eternal bliss..”
In the 2010s, he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom “Read Between The Lines.” He also had a role as O.J. Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings on “American Crime Story” and was a series regular on Fox’s “The Resident.”
“First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband,” Ross said on Instagram. “My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant.”
Warner’s film roles included the 2008 rom-com “Fool’s Gold” with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. A poet and a musician, Warner was a Grammy winner, for best traditional R&B performance, and was nominated for best spoken word poetry album for “Hiding in Plain View.”
Warner also worked as a director, helming episodes of “Malcolm & Eddie,” “Read Between the Lines,” “Kenan & Kel,” and “All That.”
Warner was born in 1970 in Jersey City, New Jersey. His mother, Pamela Warner, reportedly named him after Malcolm X and jazz pianist Jamal. She served as his manager when he began pursuing acting at age 9.
In the early 1980s, he made guest appearances on the TV shows “Matt Houston” — his first credit — and “Fame.”
Warner was 13 when he landed the role of Theo in an audition after a broad search for the right child actor.
Cosby was a major star at the time, and the show was certain to be widely seen, but few could’ve predicted the huge, yearslong phenomenon it would become.
He had been married for about 10 years with a daughter about 5 years old, but chose to not publicly disclose their names. Warner’s representatives declined immediate comment on his death.
His final credits came in TV guest roles, including appearances on “The Wonder Years,” “Grown-ish,” and “9-1-1,” where he had a four-episode arc last year.
“I grew up with a maniacal obsession with not wanting to be one of those ‘where are they now kids,’” Warner told the AP in 2015. “I feel very blessed to be able to have all of these avenues of expression ... to be where I am now and finally at a place where I can let go of that worry about having a life after ‘Cosby.’”