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Erik Menendez was denied parole Thursday more than three decades after he and his brother Lyle slaughtered their parents in the family’s luxury Beverly Hills home.A California panel ordered the 54-year-old to stay in prison, defying a lengthy campaign waged by family, friends and celebrities like Kim Kardashian.”Erik Menendez was denied parole for three years at his initial suitability hearing today,” said a brief statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).The result will be a huge blow to a movement that has swelled in recent years, nourished by documentaries and TV dramas, including the smash Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”The show and other productions have fixated on the grisly details of the 1989 shotgun murders and the televised jury trial that captivated audiences with accounts of their abusive upbringings and posh lifestyles.Thursday’s hearing came 36 years and a day after his family learned of his parents’ deaths, Erik Menendez told the parole board.”Today is the day all my victims learned my parents were dead,” he said during the 10-hour hearing. “So today is the anniversary of their trauma journey.”The parole denial comes the day before Lyle Menendez, 57, will appear before a panel to ask them to release him from prison.”This is a tragic case,” parole commissioner Robert Barton said after the decision was issued. “I agree that not only two, but four people, were lost in this family.”More than a dozen relatives testified to say they’ve forgiven the Menendez brothers, as they came to be known, and to call for their release.”Two things can be true,” Barton said. “They can love and forgive you and you can still be found unsuitable for parole.”- ‘Mafia hit’ -The men are among America’s most celebrated prisoners, and the stars of one of the first-ever televised murder trials.Jurors in the 1990s were told how the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez in what prosecutors said was a cynical attempt to get their hands on a large family fortune.After setting up alibis and trying to cover their tracks, Erik and Lyle shot Jose Menendez five times with shotguns, including in the kneecaps.Kitty Menendez died from a shotgun blast as she tried desperately to crawl away from her killers.The brothers initially blamed the deaths on a mafia hit, but changed their story several times in the ensuing months.Erik, then 18, confessed to the murders in a session with his therapist.The pair ultimately claimed they had acted in self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of a tyrannical father.During their decades in prison, changing social mores and greater awareness of sexual abuse helped elevate the men to something approaching cultural icons.- ‘Horrific’ -Thursday’s hearing, which was closed to the public, was expected to last just two to three hours.Instead, it went on all day.Erik Menendez appeared by video link from the San Diego prison where he and his brother are being held.Two or three panel members, whose identity was not released by CDCR, quizzed him on his behavior and attitude towards the murders.The parole hearing became possible when a judge earlier this year resentenced the men, reducing their original full-life tariff to one of 50 years with the possibility of release.Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who opposed the resentencing, applauded Thursday’s decision.”Importantly, the (parole) Board did not bow to public spectacle or pressure, a restraint that upholds the dignity and integrity of the justice system.”Lyle’s hearing on Friday is independent of his brother’s.

US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell is expected to walk a fine line while delivering a closely watched speech at a central banking conference on Friday, as he faces down attacks from President Donald Trump alongside mixed economic data.The US central bank chair may have used his keynote speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium last year to indicate the time had come for interest rate cuts — but analysts warn there is a murkier picture this time around.”The Fed is in a tough position as inflation remains above target and downside risks to the labor market are intensifying,” said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.Powell is due to deliver his final Jackson Hole speech as Fed chair at 10:00 am Eastern Time (1400 GMT) on Friday. His term at the helm ends in May 2026.”Whether they cut or not in September will likely hinge on data that Powell won’t have in hand” at the symposium, Sweet told AFP.Yet, the independent Fed has come under intensifying pressure from the Trump administration this year to lower rates.- ‘No intention of being bullied’ -Trump has made no secret of his disdain for Powell, repeatedly saying that the Fed chair has been “too late” in lowering interest rates while calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”The president has also taken aim at Powell over the Fed’s headquarters renovation in Washington, suggesting that cost overruns could be cause for ousting the central banker.Trump eventually backed off the idea but this week separately called for the resignation of a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, over claims of mortgage fraud. Cook pushed back, saying in a statement that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down” while adding that she would take questions about her financial history seriously.- Jobs, inflation risks -“We expect Powell to comment on both the latest jobs data and the latest inflation data before putting into context an assessment of appropriate monetary policy,” HSBC US economist Ryan Wang said in a note.The Fed, which holds its next policy meeting in mid-September, has kept interest rates steady at a range of between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since its last reduction in December.In keeping rates unchanged, policymakers cited resilience in the labor market as they monitored the effects of Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on the world’s biggest economy.Higher tariffs on imports risk fueling price hikes, according to analysts. The Fed typically keeps interest rates at a higher level to sustainably rein in inflation.The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose 2.6 percent in June from a year ago, and a measure stripping out the volatile food and energy segments was higher at 2.8 percent. Both figures are above the Fed’s longer-term target of two percent.But cracks have meanwhile emerged in the jobs market, which could call for lower rates to boost the economy.Official employment data released this month showed that hiring in May and June was much weaker than originally estimated.Hours after the data was released, Trump ordered the firing of the commissioner of labor statistics, eventually picking an economist from a right-wing think tank as her replacement.Softening employment has raised concern among officials, with Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman voting against the overall decision in July to hold rates steady for a fifth straight meeting.Both had preferred to lower interest rates by 25 basis points. It was the first time since 1993 that two Fed governors dissented.According to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday, Bowman argued that gradually reducing rates would help hedge against further cooling in the economy and the risk of damage to the labor market.Fed officials remain divided on whether Trump’s tariffs would have a one-off effect on inflation or cause more persistent effects.For now, CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows the market sees a 73.5-percent chance that the Fed will lower rates in September. “With more employment data to come, we don’t think Powell can firmly guide toward easing at the next meeting,” JPMorgan analysts said in a recent note.

Shipping Nvidia’s H20 chips to China was “great” for Beijing and Washington and not a security threat, the tech giant’s chief said Friday.  The California-based company produces some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors but cannot ship its most cutting-edge chips to China due to concerns from Washington that Beijing could use them to enhance military capabilities.Nvidia developed the H20 — a less powerful version of its AI processing units — specifically for export to China. That plan stalled when the Trump administration tightened export licensing requirements in April.The H20 was “not a national security concern”, Jensen Huang told reporters in Taipei, describing the chip as “great for America” and “great for the Chinese market”.Huang insisted there were “no security backdoors” in the H20 chip allowing remote access, after China summoned company representatives to discuss security issues. “We have made very clear and put to rest that H20 has no security backdoors, there are no such things, there never has, and so hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” Huang said.He sidestepped a question about reports that Nvidia would pay the United States 15 percent of its revenues from the sale of H20 chips to China, which US President Donald Trump confirmed last week.Instead, Huang expressed gratitude to the Trump administration for allowing the chips to be shipped to the Chinese market. “The demand I believe is quite great and so the ability to ship products to, H20s to China, is very much appreciated,” the CEO said.Huang also said Nvidia is in talks with the US government about a new chip for China.”Offering a new product to China for the data center, AI data centers, the follow on to H20, that’s not our decision to make. It’s up to of course the United States government, and we’re in dialogue with them but it’s too soon to know,” he said.Huang met with Trump at the White House this month and agreed to give the federal government the cut from its revenues, a highly unusual arrangement in the international tech trade, according to reports in the Financial Times, Bloomberg and The New York Times.Investors are betting that AI will transform the global economy, and last month Nvidia — the world’s most valuable company and a leading designer of high-end AI chips — became the first company ever to hit $4 trillion in market value.The firm has, however, become entangled in trade tensions between China and the United States, which are waging a heated battle for dominance to produce the chips that power AI.It comes as the Trump administration has been imposing stiff tariffs, with goals varying from addressing US trade imbalances, wanting to reshore manufacturing and pressuring foreign governments to change policies.A 100 percent tariff on many semiconductor imports came into effect this month, with exceptions for tech companies that announce major investments in the United States.

Republican-controlled Texas and Democrat-run California forged ahead Thursday with creating new congressional maps, in a cutthroat struggle to tilt the outcome of next year’s US midterm elections.The battle between the country’s two largest states was set off by President Donald Trump’s drive to protect the thin Republican majority in the US House of Representatives and avoid becoming mired in Democratic Party investigations from 2027.Under pressure from Trump, Texas fired the starting gun in a tussle that pro-democracy activists warn could spread nationwide. Its state house on Wednesday approved new congressional boundaries that would likely eke out five extra Republican districts.The state senate is expected to green-light the bill on Friday morning and send it to Governor Greg Abbott for a signature.California Governor Gavin Newsom — an early frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination — struck back with a plan for a new map that would likely cancel out Texas by adding five Democratic seats.The state’s legislature on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the plan, with thumping majorities in the house and the senate, both of which are Democrat controlled.”We will not let our political system be hijacked by authoritarianism,” Speaker Robert Rivas said, shortly before the vote.”Today, we give every Californian the power to say no… to Donald Trump’s power grab and yes to our people, to our state and to our democracy.”Voters will now be asked if they want to temporarily redraw constituency boundaries for elections, up to and including 2030.The Texas House approved its new district boundaries after a two-week drama sparked by Democrats fleeing the state in an effort to block the vote and draw nationwide attention to the issue of partisan redistricting, known as “gerrymandering.”The Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting passed the new map in a 5-3 vote Thursday lunchtime, teeing up a Friday vote of the full chamber.Redistricting usually occurs once every decade, taking into account population changes registered in the latest census.- ‘Clinging to power’ -The unusual mid-decade effort in Texas is expected to spark a tit-for-tat battle, potentially dragging in liberal-leaning Illinois and New York, and conservative Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. “The Great State of Missouri is now IN,” Trump announced Thursday on social media, in a post understood to be referring to redistricting.”I’m not surprised. It is a great State with fabulous people. I won it, all 3 times, in a landslide. We’re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!”But New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul called the push the “last gasp of a desperate party clinging to power,” warning Trump that she would “meet him on the same field and beat him at his own game.” Former president Barack Obama endorsed California’s retaliation as a “smart and measured” response to anti-democratic moves by Trump.”(Since) Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and maintain the House despite their unpopular policies, I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this,” he said.Newsom has a tougher task than Abbott in pushing through the redistricting plans, as California voters must first agree in a referendum in November to bypass the independent commission that normally controls the process. Californians have traditionally been wary of partisan redistricting, and while Democrats have called for independent commissions nationwide, a new Politico-UC Berkeley Citrin Center poll shows they would make an exception for the pushback against Texas.Republicans are suing Democrats, alleging that November’s vote would be unlawful, although the California Supreme Court rejected an initial challenge late Wednesday.”Yes, we’ll fight fire with fire. Yes, we will push back. It’s not about whether we play hardball anymore — it’s about how we play hardball,” Newsom said in a call with reporters. 

A curious bear on the hunt for something sweet found itself behind the counter of a California ice cream shop over the weekend.The big animal appeared to be making itself right at home when sheriff’s deputies turned up to investigate in the resort city of South Lake Tahoe early Sunday.Officers shooed the ursine server out of the shop, but not before snapping a few pictures of their encounter.”With some encouragement, the bear ultimately left, but only after showing interest in the strawberry ice cream,” said a post on the Facebook page of El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.”Thankfully, Fuzzy the bear caused barely any property damage and there was barely any cleanup.”Bears are common in California and frequently go looking for food in human settlements, including entering homes or vehicles.Attacks on people are rare, but the animals can sometimes cause damage, especially when they cannot find a way out.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday abruptly stopped issuing US visas for truck drivers after a fatal crash drew national attention, its latest sweeping step against foreign visitors.”Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X.”The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” he wrote.Rubio’s action came after a truck driver was charged with killing three people on a highway in Florida while making an illegal U-turn.Harjinder Singh, who is from India, allegedly entered the United States illegally from Mexico and failed an English examination after the crash, according to federal officials.The case has gathered wide media attention and has been highlighted by officials in Florida, controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, with the lieutenant governor flying to California to extradite Singh personally alongside immigration agents on Thursday.The crash has taken on a political dimension in part as Singh received his commercial license in California and also lived in the West Coast state, which is run by the rival Democratic Party and opposes Trump’s crackdown on immigration.”This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office responded that the federal government under Trump had issued a work permit to Singh, who sought asylum, and that California had cooperated in extraditing him.Even before the crash, Republican lawmakers have been taking aim at foreign truckers, pointing to a rising number of accidents without providing evidence of a direct link to immigrants.In June, Duffy issued a directive that truck drivers must speak English.Truck drivers have long been required to pass tests that include basic English proficiency but in 2016 under former president Barack Obama, authorities were told not to take truckers off the road solely on account of language deficiencies.- Changing face of truckers -The number of foreign-born truck drivers in the United States more than doubled between 2000 and 2021 to 720,000, according to federal statistics.Foreign-born drivers now make up 18 percent of the industry — in line with the US labor market as a whole, but a departure for a profession long identified with white, working-class men.More than half of the foreign-born drivers come from Latin America with sizable numbers in recent years from India and Eastern European nations, especially Ukraine, according to industry groups.The influx of foreign drivers has come in response to demand. A study earlier this year by the financial company altLine said the United States faced a shortage of 24,000 truck drivers, costing the freight industry $95.5 million per week as goods go undelivered.- Widening visa curbs -Trump has long made opposition to immigration a signature issue, rising to political prominence in 2016 with vows to build a wall on the Mexican border. Rubio has taken a starring role in Trump’s efforts by cracking down on visas. The State Department said this week that it has rescinded more than 6,000 student visas since Trump took office — four times more than during the same period last year — and an official said all 55 million foreigners with US visas are liable to “continuous vetting.”Rubio has ordered scrutiny of applicants’ social media accounts and proudly removed students who campaigned against Israel’s offensive in Gaza, using a law that allows him to rescind visas for people deemed to counter US foreign policy interests. The State Department over the weekend also paused visitor visas meant for severely wounded children from Gaza to receive treatment.The decision came after Laura Loomer — a far-right activist close to Trump who has described the September 11, 2001 terror attack as an inside job — said she spoke to Rubio and warned of “Islamic invaders” from Gaza.

President Donald Trump visited police and troops Thursday that he has deployed in the US capital in what he calls a crackdown on crime, saying they were going to “stay here for a while.”Trump ordered hundreds of members of the Guard, a reserve force, to deploy in Washington last week vowing to “take our capital back,” despite protests by some residents and statistics showing violent offenses falling.”We’re going to make it safe, and we’re going to then go on to other places, but we’re going to stay here for a while. We want to make this absolutely perfect,” the Republican said outside a US Park Police facility in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington.He was surrounded by law enforcement from various local and federal agencies as well as National Guard troops.Earlier Thursday the 79-year-old had suggested he would go on patrol with police and the military, but instead he made a short speech and gave out pizzas and hamburgers. “Everybody feels safe,” he said, adding that he plans to get the capital “fixed up physically.” “One of the things we’re going to be redoing is your parks. I’m very good at grass, because I have a lot of golf courses all over the place. I know more about grass than any human being,” the billionaire added.He spoke one day after his vice president, JD Vance, was greeted by boos and shouts of “Free DC” — referring to Washington’s formal name, the District of Columbia — on his own meet-and-greet with troops. Vance dismissed the hecklers as “a bunch of crazy protesters.”The DC National Guard has mobilized 800 troops, while Republican states Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia are sending a total of around 1,200.They have been spotted in tourist areas such as the National Mall and its monuments, the Nationals Park baseball stadium and others.The overwhelmingly Democratic US capital faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.But data from Washington police showed significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, though that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.Some residents have welcomed the crackdown, pointing to crime in their areas — but others have complained the show of force is unnecessary, or has not been seen in parts of Washington where violence is concentrated.- Sandwich guy -Several incidents involving the surge of law enforcement have gone viral as residents voice their discontent, including the arrest of one man who was caught on camera throwing a sandwich at an agent.Banksy-style posters honoring the so-called “sandwich guy” have popped up around the city. The National Guard troops have provided “critical support such as crowd management, presence patrols and perimeter control in support of law enforcement,” according to statements on their official X account.In addition to sending troops into the streets, Trump has also sought to take full control of the Washington police department, attempting at one point to sideline its leadership.The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was sparked by immigration enforcement raids.

Rotting bodies, some of them up to 15 years old, were found behind a fake door at a US funeral home run by a county coroner, official documents said.Inspectors who arrived at the Davis Mortuary in Colorado for a regular annual inspection on Wednesday noticed “a strong odor of decomposition,” said documents published by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.Officials also noticed a door at the premises in Pueblo, near Colorado Springs, that was hidden by a cardboard display.The funeral home’s operator, Brian Cotter — who also serves as Pueblo County coroner — asked the inspectors not to go into the room.When they did, they found “several bodies in various states of decomposition,” documents said.”Mr Cotter stated that the bodies were awaiting cremation and admitted that some bodies had been in the room for approximately 15 years. “Mr Cotter admitted to inspectors that he may have issued next-of-kin fake cremains.”Inspectors ordered the mortuary to stop doing business at once.According to the Pueblo County website, Cotter has served as the county’s coroner since 2014.The site said he has “over 25 years of death care experience as a local mortician, a state death investigator, and a diplomat for the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators.”Cotter did not immediately respond to messages from AFP.Colorado is no stranger to rogue funeral directors.Last year the cremated remains of dozens of people were found in a house as it was being cleaned following the eviction of its former occupant, a one-time funeral director.A hearse discovered on the premises contained the body of a woman who had died 18 months earlier.In 2023, nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found in a decrepit funeral home after neighbors complained of a foul smell at the property near Colorado Springs.And in 2018 the FBI found that directors of one establishment were selling body parts around the world, and giving grieving families cement mix instead of cremains.The Denver Post has reported that Colorado is the only state in the US in which funeral home directors do not need a license, and homes themselves are only lightly regulated.

A divided US Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light on Thursday to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants linked to diversity initiatives.A federal judge in Massachusetts had blocked the planned cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants in June, saying they amounted to racial discrimination and LGBTQ prejudice.The Trump administration has targeted nearly $800 million in NIH research funding for elimination as part of its campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies.In a 5-4 vote, the conservative-majority Supreme Court allowed the cuts to go ahead while legal challenges continue in lower courts.Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, sided with the three liberal justices on the top court in the minority.The targeted diversity grants represent only a fraction of the more than $10 billion in NIH research and contracts that have been put on the chopping block since President Donald Trump took office in January.Other affected projects include studies on the health effects of global warming, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.Trump has launched a sweeping overhaul of the US scientific establishment in his second term — slashing funding, attacking universities, and overseeing mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies.

A nearly naked Lil Nas X was picked up by police Thursday after being found wandering through Los Angeles in just his underwear and a pair of white cowboy boots.Video posted on TMZ appeared to show the “Old Town Road” artist almost in the buff as he strutted down the major thoroughfare in the city.The rapper repeatedly addressed the passerby taking the video, urging them: “Don’t be late to the party tonight.”It was not clear which party he was referring to or where he was headed, as he walked along the center median of the near-empty street.At one point he asked the person filming — who was apparently sitting in a car — to hand over the phone so he can throw it away.”I wanna throw it far away so you never see it again. I don’t like phones.””Didn’t I tell you to put the phone down? Uh-oh, somebody’s gonna have to pay for that,” he said as he theatrically wagged his finger.A spokesman for Los Angeles Police Department told AFP that officers had been called to the Studio City area just before dawn.”There was a nude man walking in the street,” the spokesman said.”Upon arrival the suspect charged at officers. He was taken into custody and taken to a local hospital for a possible overdose and placed under arrest for battery on a police officer.”The spokesman said he was unable to provide the identity of the man.Photos published by TMZ appear to show the flamboyant star putting a traffic cone on his head.There was no immediate comment from Lil Nas X or his representatives.