FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform. Bankman-Fried entered the plea Tuesday in his first appearance before a judge who set a tentative trial date of Oct. 2. He is accused of defrauding investors by illegally diverting massive sums of customer money from FTX to make lavish real estate purchases, donate money to politicians and make risky trades at Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm. Bankman-Fried was released from custody with electronic monitoring two weeks ago to await trial at his parents’ house in Palo Alto, California.

Idaho slayings suspect agrees to extradition to face charges

A criminology graduate student accused of the November slayings of four University of Idaho students agreed Tuesday to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week, to face charges in Idaho. Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University — a short drive from the murder scene in the neighboring state — will be transported to Idaho within 10 days. Wearing a red jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him, Kohberger showed little emotion during Tuesday’s brief hearing in a Pennsylvania courtroom in which he acknowledged facing four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge. He waived his right to fight extradition. His attorney says Kohberger is eager to be exonerated and should be presumed innocent.

California police more likely to stop, search Black teens

California law enforcement searched teenagers whom officers perceived to be Black youths between 15 and 17 years old at nearly six times the rate of teens believed to be white during vehicle and pedestrian stops in 2021. That’s according to an annual report released Tuesday by California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board. The report gathered data on vehicle and pedestrian stops by officers from 58 law enforcement agencies in 2021. The data includes what officers perceived to be the race, ethnicity, gender and disability status of people they stop so that the state can better identify and analyze bias in policing.

‘Romeo & Juliet’ stars sue over 1968 film’s teen nude scene

The stars of the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet” have sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million over a nude scene shot when they were teens. Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting filed the suit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging sexual abuse and fraud. The suit says director Franco Zeffirelli initially told the actors, who were 15 and 16 at the time, that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the film’s bedroom scene. But the suit says the director demanded they shoot the scene nude on the day of filming. An email seeking comment from representatives of Paramount was not immediately returned.

Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dead at 90

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA’s Apollo program, has died. He was 90. NASA confirmed Cunningham’s death. A family spokesman says he “from complications of a fall.” Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later. Cunningham, then a civilian, crewed the mission, which launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, on Oct. 11 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda.

Abortion pills can now be offered at retail pharmacies, FDA says

Retail pharmacies, from corner drugstores to chains such as CVS and Walgreens, will be allowed to offer abortion pills in the United States under a regulatory change made Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The action could significantly expand access to abortion through medication. Until now, mifepristone — the first pill used in the two-drug medication abortion regimen — could be dispensed only by a few mail-order pharmacies or by specially certified doctors or clinics. Under the new rules, patients will need a prescription from certified health care providers, but any pharmacy that agrees to accept those prescriptions and abide by certain other criteria can dispense the pills.

China denounces COVID testing rules imposed on its travelers

The Chinese government on Tuesday denounced COVID-19 testing requirements imposed by other countries on travelers arriving from China as unscientific or “excessive,” and threatened to take countermeasures. As China prepares to open its borders this week, allowing its citizens to travel abroad for the first time since the pandemic began, some countries have moved to restrict travelers arriving from the country. “We firmly oppose the practice of manipulating COVID prevention and control measures to achieve political goals, and will take corresponding measures in accordance with the principle of reciprocity according to different situations,” said Mao Ning, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

By wire sources