Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate potential collusion between President Trump and Russia during the 2016 elections, indicted Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort on twelve charges Monday. Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager from June to August in 2016, before being replaced by Kellyanne Conway.
The most serious charges against Manafort includes conspiracy against the United States and money laundering. Manafort has been ordered to home confinement after pleading guilty to the twelve charges. Manafort is alleged to have laundered more than $75 million through “foreign companies and bank accounts.”
Trump tweeted Monday that Manafort’s actions took place before becoming part of his campaign team. Trump suggested that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats should also be investigated for connections to Russia. This follows reports that the DNC provided funding for the dossier on Russian interference, as well as criticism by John Kelly about the Obama administration’s controversial uranium sale to Russia. There currently remains no physical evidence that Trump colluded with Russia during the election. Mueller’s investigation is ongoing.
Local News:
A powerful storm brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Northeast Sunday night. In both Rhode Island and New England as a whole, residents woke up to no power, downed trees and school cancellations Monday morning.
The storm brought winds that were comparable to the winds of Tropical Storm Irene, Superstorm Sandy and the damaging microburst in 2015. Neighborhoods in Warwick experienced the strongest wind gusts in the state, which exceeded 80 miles per hour. The University of Rhode Island received the most reported rain in the state, with 2.97 inches.
National News:
Eight people were killed and more than a dozen were injured late Tuesday afternoon in New York City, when 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov plowed a truck into a crowded street. Saipov drove a pickup truck onto a bike path, crashed into a bus and exited the vehicle with firearms. A New York City police officer said Saipov “jumped out of the truck with a pellet gun, yelled Allahu Akbar and the First Precinct lit him up.” Saipov, who is from Uzbekistan, came here legally in 2010 but was later self radicalized. It is believed that he was inspired by ISIS. This incident follows numerous attacks that have been carried out with vehicles across the world, as terrorists continue to adapt to security measures and look for new ways to conduct such acts.
Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from the devastation Hurricane Maria caused a month ago, cancelled a controversial contract with a small Montana power company that was awarded millions to restore the country’s electrical grid. This comes after the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, requested that the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority cancel the contract.
The company, Whitefish Energy, is only two years old and only had two full time employees prior to being given the contract. Controversy arose when they were given a $300 million contract to restore power to Puerto Rico. Rather than “activating mutual aid agencies” from other areas, Puerto Rico instead hired a company that would charge the bankrupt island to restore electricity. This resulted in bipartisan concern from Congress, as well as Puerto Rican politicians, about the spending practices of the money-strapped U.S. territory.
International News:
A 19-year-old Syrian man has been arrested in Germany after attempting to orchestrate a “powerful explosives attack,” that would “kill and wound as many people as possible.” The man, who has only been identified as Yamen A., is said to have “researched bomb making techniques online,” and had already purchased some of the chemicals needed to make the bomb. Authorities believe that he planned on activating the bomb remotely due to phones and batteries found in his house.
A Japanese television station has claimed that close to 200 have been killed in North Korea after a nuclear test site had underground tunnels collapse. The station is reporting that 100 people were originally killed by the cave-in, and 100 rescuers were killed when more tunnels collapsed.
The collapse is alleged to have occurred on Oct. 10, yet no official word has been released by the North Korean government. However, experts believe that the test site was on the verge of collapse, which means these reports could very well be true. The land surrounding the test site is said to be very unstable, with “significant cracking” and “irreversible strain,” which could make a collapse likely.