Semua Kabar

A man who is accused of killing a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband, and injuring another state lawmaker and his wife, allegedly attempted to kill two other state lawmakers, Minnesota officials said on Monday.

Vance Luther Boelter, 57, who is charged with fatally shooting Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota Democrat, and her husband, Mark, visited the homes of three other state lawmakers in "truly chilling" attacks, US Attorney Joseph H Thompson said.

Mr Boelter, who police said researched the victims and their families beforehand, allegedly had planned for a larger scale attack, which police thwarted.

He appeared in court on Monday afternoon to face six federal charges, and possibly the death penalty, if he is found guilty.

Mr Boelter was wearing an orange jumpsuit when he arrived in court in St. Paul on Monday afternoon. He said he cannot afford a lawyer and will have a federal defence lawyer.

At the brief hearing, Mr Boelter said he has seven cars, $20,000-30,000 in savings and makes about $540 per week.

At a press conference on Monday officials walked through the early hours of Saturday morning in the suburbs of Minneapolis when the Hortmans were killed, and John Hoffman, a Minnesota state senator, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot multiple times.

They also announced that Mr Boelter faces six federal charges, some of which make him eligible for the death penalty. At the federal level, he faces two counts of stalking, two counts of murder, and two firearms-related charges.

Separately, at the state level Mr Boelter is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder at the state level.

Thompson said that Mr Boelter arrived at the Hoffman home disguised as a police officer in a large black car with emergency lights on the vehicle. Mr Boelter was wearing a "hyper realistic silicon mask" when he rang the doorbell and shouted "this is the police, open the door".

Thompson said authorities have a clear picture of what happened because the Hoffmans have a security camera outside their front door.

When the Hoffmans opened the door, Mr Boelter shined a flashlight at the couple. Mr Boelter told the couple there was a shooting reported in the house and lowered his flashlight, Thompson said. The couple then realized he was not a police officer.

After they attempted to push him out, he allegedly fired at the couple multiple times, Thompson said, then fled the scene andthe couple's daughter Hope called 911.

Yvette Hoffman was shot eight times and John Hoffman was shot nine times. Both remain in hospital, though Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has said they are expected to make a full recovery.

After allegedly shooting the Hoffmans, Mr Boelter drove to another state representative's home and rang the doorbell there, Thompson said.

That state representative was not home, Thompson said, noting that she and her family were on vacation. Authorities did not reveal her name.

He then drove to a third lawmaker's home, allegedly targeting them, Thompson said. Officials did not reveal the name of that state lawmaker, either.

Thompson said an officer pulled up next to Mr Boelter in his vehicle and assumed he was a police officer, dispatched to the scene to perform a wellness check on that lawmaker.

When the officer asked Mr Boelter what he was doing, he simply stared straight ahead, Thompson said, and Mr Boelter went on to the Hortman residence.

He is accused of arriving at the Hortman home, and allegedly shooting and killing Melissa and Mark Hortman. Police said they found him at that residence and engaged fire before Mr Boelter fled.

After he fled, police embarked on a two-day search for Mr Boelter beforefinding him late Sunday nightin a wooded rural area west of Minneapolis, where he surrendered peacefully, eventually crawling towards officers, police said.

Thompson said Mr Boelter had "planned his attack carefully".

"He conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes about the location of their homes," he said of Boelter.

Upon finding his car, officials discovered five more firearms including assault-style rifles, large quantities of ammunition and a list of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal elected officials, including Melissa Hortman.

Mark Bruley, police chief from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, said the officers who arrived at the Hortman home "foiled" a larger plan. They "essentially took (Mr Boelter's) vehicle away from him, which involved all his maps, all his names, all his weaponry", Mr Bruley said.

"I would be very scared what it would look like over the next few hours ahead had we not done that," he said.

"It's a chilling attack on our democracy, on our way of life," Thompson said at the Monday press conference. "It's only the most recent example of violent political extremism in this country, and that's a trend that's been increasing over in recent years, and that's unfortunate.

I hope it is a wake up call to everyone that people can disagree with you without being evil or needing to be killed or hurt."

Mr Boelter is scheduled to return to court for his next hearing 27 June.

A California doctor accused of giving Friends star Matthew Perry access to ketamine in the weeks before the actor's overdose death has agreed to plead guilty, according to federal prosecutors.

Dr Salvador Plasencia will plead guilty to four counts of distributing ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a statement on Monday. The plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and the doctor is expected to make his plea in the coming weeks.

Perry – best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends – was found dead in his hot tub in Los Angeles in October 2023. He was 54 and although he'd been open about struggles with depression and addiction, fans around the world were shocked by his death.

According to text messages shared with prosecutors from Dr Mark Chavez – a doctor who already pleaded guilty in the case – Dr Plasencia called Perry a "moron" and wondered how much he'd be willing to pay for the drugs.

According to documents filed for the plea agreement, Dr Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine at his home and in the parking lot of the Long Beach Aquarium. Dr Plasencia taught Perry's assistant – who is also a defendant – how to administer the drug and would sell extra vials for them to keep at home, according to the plea deal.

The doctor is one of five people charged with what prosecutors allege was an underground network of dealers and medical professionals who supplied Perry with ketamine. The actor was taking legal, prescribed amounts of the drug to treat his depression, but wanted more than what was prescribed.

In total, the plea agreement says, between 30 September 2023, and 12 October 2023, Dr Plasencia sold twenty 5ml (100mg/ml) vials of ketamine, less than a full package of ketamine lozenges, and syringes to Perry and his assistant.

Dr Plasencia's lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.

Centrifuges at Iran's underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were likely to have been "severely damaged if not destroyed altogether" following Israeli strikes on Friday, the head of the global nuclear watchdog has told the BBC.

Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency said this was a result of power cuts caused by the attack, in which an above-ground plant was "completely destroyed".

The damage was likely caused despite the underground hall housing the centrifuges – machines that enrich uranium – not being directly hit, he added.

He said four buildings were also damaged at the Isfahan nuclear site but no damage was visible at the underground Fordo enrichment plant.

Israel said it attacked the sites and killed nine Iranian nuclear scientists to stop Tehran developing nuclear weapons.

It alleged that Iran had in recent months "taken steps to weaponise" its stockpile of enriched uranium, which can be used to make fuel for power plants but also nuclear bombs.

On Sunday, Iran reiterated that its nuclear programme was peaceful and urged IAEA's 35-nation board to strongly condemn the Israeli strikes.

On Monday morning, Grossi told the IAEA's board of governors that his agency had been monitoring the situation in Iran very carefully, ascertaining the status of the country's nuclear facilities and assessing radiation levels through communication with local authorities.

He said Friday's attack on Natanz destroyed the above-ground part of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), where cascades of centrifuges were producing uranium enriched up to 60% purity – close to the 90% required for weapons-grade uranium.

"There has been no indication of a physical attack on the underground cascade hall containing part of the PFEP and the main Fuel Enrichment Plant. However, the loss of power to the cascade hall may have damaged the centrifuges there," Grossi told the board.

Later, Grossi told the BBC: "Our assessment is that with this sudden loss of external power, in great probability the centrifuges have been severely damaged if not destroyed altogether."

"There was almost total damage to electrical installations."

Centrifuges are fragile, finely balanced machines which spin uranium hexafluoride gas at extremely high speeds using rotors.

A small problem – such as a power cut – can send a centrifuge spinning out of control, with parts smashing into each other and damaging a whole cascade.

Grossi also said there was radiological and chemical contamination at the site, but that the level of radioactivity outside had remained unchanged and at normal levels.

The Israeli military has said that the underground centrifuge hall was also damaged as part of the attack on Natanz, but it provided no evidence.

Grossi said four buildings were destroyed in a separate attack on Friday on the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre – the central chemical laboratory, a uranium conversion plant, the Tehran reactor fuel manufacturing plant, and a facility to convert uranium hexafluoride to uranium metal, which was under construction.

As at Natanz, off-site radiation levels remain unchanged, he added.

The Israeli military said that the Isfahan strike "dismantled a facility for producing metallic uranium, infrastructure for reconverting enriched uranium, laboratories, and additional infrastructure".

Grossi told the BBC there was In Isfahan you have underground spaces as well, which do not seem to have been affected."

At the Fordo plant, Grossi said there was "very limited if any damage registered [there]".

On Saturday, Iran's semi-official Isna news agency quoted spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) as saying there was "limited damage to some areas at the Fordo enrichment site" following an Israeli attack.

However, the Israeli military has not confirmed carrying out any strikes there.

Grossi said no damage had been seen at Fordo, or at the Khondab heavy water reactor, which is under construction.

He urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint, warning that military escalation threatened lives and increased the chance of a radiological release with serious consequences for people and the environment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told foreign diplomats in Tehran on Saturday that Israel's attacks on his country's nuclear facilities were a "blatant violation of international law", and that he hoped the IAEA's board would issue a strong condemnation.

He also said that Iran's missile strikes on Israel since Friday were a "response to aggression".

The Israeli military's spokesperson, Brig Gen Effie Defrin said on Monday that its large-scale air campaign would "continue to act in pursuit of the operation's objective, to neutralize the existential threat from Iran, from its nuclear project to the regime's missile array".

Iran's health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 220 people since Friday. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed by Iranian missiles, according to Israeli authorities.

Last Thursday, the IAEA's board formallydeclared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligationsfor the first time in 20 years. A resolution said Iran's "many failures" to provide the agency with full answers about its undeclared nuclear material and nuclear activities constituted non-compliance.

Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran was not permitted to enrich uranium above 3.67% purity – the level required for fuel for commercial nuclear power plants – and was not allowed to carry out any enrichment at Fordo for 15 years.

However, US President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement during his first term in 2018, saying it did too little to stop a pathway to a bomb, and reinstated US sanctions.

Iran retaliated by increasingly breaching the restrictions – particularly those relating to enrichment. It resumed enrichment at Fordo in 2021 and has amassed enough 60%-enriched uranium to potentially make nine nuclear bombs, according to the IAEA.

Long queues at petrol stations and bakeries. Long lines of cars trying to escape the capital. And long, frightening nights.

Residents of Tehran – still shocked by Israel's sudden attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday morning – speak of fear and confusion, a feeling of helplessness and conflicting emotions.

"We haven't slept for nights," a 21-year-old music student told me over an encrypted social media app.

"Everyone is leaving but I'm not. My dad says it's more honourable to die in your own house than to run away."

'Donya' – she doesn't want to reveal her real name – is one of many Iranians now caught in a war between a regime she loathes and Israel, whose destructive power in Gaza she has witnessed on screen from afar.

"I really don't want my beautiful Tehran to turn into Gaza," she said.

As for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call on Iranians to rise up against their clerical leadership, she has a firm response.

"We don't want Israel to save us. No foreign country ever cared for Iran," she said. "We also don't want the Islamic Republic."

Another woman said that at first she had felt a "strange excitement" to see Israel kill Iranian military officials so powerful that she thought they would live for ever.

"Suddenly that image of power was shattered," she told BBC Persian.

"But from the second day, when I heard that regular people – people I didn't know, people like me – had also been killed, I started to feel sorrow, fear and sadness."

And she said her sadness turned to anger when she heard that the South Pars gas field had been hit, fearing that Israel was trying to turn Iran "into ruins".

For the first time in her life, she said, she has started to prepare for the idea of dying.

More than 220 people – many of them women and children – have been killed since Friday, according to the Iranian authorities.

Israeli authorities say Iranian missiles have killed at least 24 people in Israel over the same period.

Unlike in Israel, there are no warnings of imminent attacks in Iran, and no shelters to run to.

Missiles fall from the sky but a campaign of car bombs in Tehran – as reported by both Israeli and Iranian media – has sewn further panic and confusion.

Even some supporters of the regime are reported to be upset that its much-vaunted defences have been so thoroughly exposed.

And, among many Iranians, distrust in the authorities runs deep.

Donya used to defy the regime and its strict dress code by going out with her hair uncovered.

Now, with her university exams postponed until next week, she's staying at home.

"I get so terrified at night," she said. "I take some pills to help me relax and try to sleep."

The Iranian government has suggested that people shelter in mosques and metro stations.

But that is hard, when the explosions seem to come out of nowhere.

"Tehran is a big city and yet every neighbourhood has been somehow affected by the damage," another young woman told BBC Persian.

"For now, all we do is check the news every hour and call the friends and relatives whose neighbourhood has been hit to make sure they are still alive."

She and her family have now left their home to stay in an area where there are no known government buildings.

But you never know, in a country like Iran, who may be living next to you.

The Israeli assault has divided Iranians, she said, with some celebrating the regime's losses, while others are angry at those cheering Israel on.

Many Iranians keep changing their minds about what they think. Divisions are bitter, even among some families.

"The situation feels like the first hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg," the woman said.

"Some people were trying to escape, some were saying it wasn't a big deal, and others kept dancing."

She has always protested against Iran's clerical rulers, she told the BBC, but sees what Netanyahu is doing to her country as "inexcusable".

"Everyone's life, whether they supported the attacks or not, has been changed forever.

"Most Iranians, even those who oppose the government, have now realised that freedom and human rights don't come from Israeli bombs falling on cities where defenceless civilians live."

She added: "Most of us are scared and worried about what's coming next. We've packed bags with first aid supplies, food, and water, just in case things get worse."

Israel says the Iranian armed forces have deliberately placed their command centres and weapons inside civilian buildings and areas.

Members of Iran's large diaspora are also worried.

"It's hard to convey what it's like to be an Iranian right now," says Dorreh Khatibi-Hill, a Leeds-based women's rights activist and researcher who is in touch with family, friends and other anti-regime activists.

"You're happy that members of the regime – who have been torturing and murdering people – are being taken out.

"But we know that civilians are dying. This is a devastating humanitarian disaster."

And Iranians are not being given accurate information on what is happening, she says.

"The main person in Iran – the supreme leader – is still alive while Iranians are fleeing for their lives," she adds.

"No one wants Iran to turn into another Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. None of us wants this war. We don't want the regime either."