Danish PM Mette Frederiksen assaulted by man in Copenhagen square
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Police arrest one man and open investigation into incident in Kultorvet square that left prime minister ‘shocked’.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suffered a light whiplash injury after she was assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen, her office has said.
The 46-year-old was “shocked by the incident” on Friday evening in the capital’s Kultorvet square, the office said in an initial statement. Providing an update on Saturday, the office said Frederiksen had been taken to Rigshospitalet for a medical check-up following the assault.
“The assault caused a minor whiplash injury,” it said, adding that the prime minister was “otherwise safe but shaken” and that her Saturday schedule had been cancelled.
Danish police said on Saturday a 39-year-old man would appear in front of a judge for preliminary questioning in relation to an assault on the prime minister.
Police said the man would be brought before the Copenhagen City Court for questioning at around 1pm (11:00 GMT), but declined to provide more detail.
It was unclear in what context the assault happened, but it came two days before Danes head to the polls to vote in European Union parliamentary elections, which conclude across the bloc on Sunday. Frederiksen has been campaigning with the Social Democrats’ EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose. Media reports said the attack was not linked to a campaign event.
‘Strong push’
Two witnesses, Marie Adrian and Anna Ravn, told newspaper BT that they had seen Frederiksen arrive at the square while they were sitting by a nearby fountain just before 6pm (16:00 GMT).
“A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side,” the newspaper quoted the women as saying.
They added that while it was a “strong push”, Frederiksen did not hit the ground.
According to the witnesses, the prime minister then sat down at a nearby cafe. They described the man as tall and slim, and said he had tried to hurry away but had not gotten far before being grabbed and pushed to the ground by men in suits.
Another witness, Kasper Jorgensen, told newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he had seen the man after he was tackled to the ground, saying that one of what he presumed to be part of the security service had put a knee on the man’s back.
“They had pacified him, and as he lay there, he looked confused and a little dazed,” Jorgensen told the newspaper.
A resident told Reuters news agency Frederiksen was escorted away by security following the assault.
“She seemed a little stressed,” Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the square, said.
‘Despicable act’
News of the assault was received with shock and condemnation by politicians across the political spectrum inside Denmark and abroad.
European Council President Charles Michel said he was “outraged by the assault” while European Parliament President Roberta Metsola urged Frederiksen to “keep strong” while adding in a post on X that “violence has no place in politics”.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also condemned what she called a “despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe”, in a statement to social media.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy”, while French President Emmanuel called it “unacceptable” and wished Frederiksen “a speedy recovery”.
In 2019, Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest prime minister and kept the post after emerging victorious in the 2022 general election.
“I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her,” Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke said on social media. “Something like this must not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country.”
Violence against politicians has become a theme in the run-up to the EU elections. In May, a candidate from Germany’s Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.
In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the country and Europe.
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Waymo’s autonomous vehicle software is under investigation after federal regulators received 22 reports of the robotaxis crashing or potentially violating traffic safety laws by driving in the wrong lane or into construction zones.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) says the probe is intended to evaluate the software and its ability to avoid collisions with stationary objects, and how well it detects and responds to “traffic safety control devices” like cones. The investigation is designated as a “preliminary evaluation,” which the ODI tries to resolve within eight months.
“NHTSA plays a very important role in road safety and we will continue to work with them as part of our mission to become the world’s most trusted driver,” Waymo said in a statement to TechCrunch.
It’s the second investigation into autonomous vehicles that ODI has publicly announced in the last two days. On Monday, ODI opened a probe into Amazon-backed Zoox’s AVs after receiving two reports of the company’s autonomous-equipped Toyota Highlanders being rear-ended by motorcycles after the SUVs unexpectedly triggered the brakes.
The investigation into Waymo’s software also comes just three months after Waymo issued its first-ever recall of its autonomous software, after two of its vehicles crashed into the same towed pickup truck in Phoenix, Arizona.
The company’s robotaxis have had enough trouble with construction sites that videos of these mishaps have regularly gone viral. Some of these are cited in ODI’s report, like when one of Waymo’s robotaxis drove off a paved roadway into a construction zone in Phoenix last October and sustained underbody damage.
There are more typical fender-benders cited, too. In San Francisco, California last year, one of Waymo’s AVs was waiting to merge into traffic when it decided to re-route. As a result, one of its exterior sensors clipped an SUV. In a May incident in San Francisco, a Waymo AV ran into the bumper of a parked car while trying to execute a “pullover maneuver.”
Many of the crashes cited in ODI’s report, though, tend to cite more mundane encounters.
There are multiple examples where Waymo’s robotaxis had trouble navigating automatic gates at parking complexes. At times, Waymo’s AVs crashed into the gates. In a February incident in Arizona, the Waymo AV encountered a closed gate and, when turning to leave the area, backed into parking spikes and popped its tire. In another from November, a Waymo AV crashed into a chain separating part of a parking lot.
While these aren’t life-and-death scenarios, they help illustrate the hard — and hard-to-predict — corner cases that stand in the way of truly autonomous vehicles.
A video showing music legend Sean “Diddy” Combs violently attacking his then-girlfriend in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 has put the embattled star in heightened peril as he faces a federal sex-trafficking investigation.
The video shows Combs chasing, kicking, dragging and hurling a glass vase at Cassie, a singer whose real name is Casandra Ventura. It corroborates parts of a civil lawsuit Ventura filed against Combs last year, which was settled a day after it was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Allegations against Combs have piled up in recent years and he has steadfastly denied wrongdoing, including when Ventura filed her suit. But after facing intense backlash, Combs on Sunday posted a video on Instagram in which he apologized for his behavior in the video.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” he said. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable.”
Combs said he entered “therapy and rehab” after the incident. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” he said.
The video is not related to the federal probe, but it has drawn more attention to the ongoing investigation.
Law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak publicly told The Times that Combs is the subject of a sweeping inquiry into sex-trafficking allegations that resulted in a federal raid in March at his estates in Los Angeles and Miami. Combs has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing. The probe was launched after three women accused him of rape, assault and other abuses dating back three decades. One of the allegations involved a minor. It’s unclear whether those accusations, which Combs denies, are connected to the investigation.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office called the video “extremely disturbing and difficult to watch” but said there is no current investigation into it.
“If the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted,” the statement said. “As of today, law enforcement has not presented a case related to the attack depicted in the video against Mr. Combs.”
But legal experts said the video, first obtained by CNN, is a major blow to Combs’ denials that he mistreated women and is likely to shift public opinion about the star.
“This video paints him in an awful light. If the people were giving him the benefit of doubt, that is over,” said Los Angeles defense attorney Lou Shapiro. Combs’ apology “was the only play, especially since the statute of limitations has already passed,” he said.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, agreed.
“There is no legal or moral justification for what Diddy did. He violently attacked a defenseless woman,” Rahmani said, adding that the “video doesn’t lie.”
When Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs’ attorney said the claim was “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a payday.”
The video, both Shapiro and Rahmani said, presents major credibility challenges. “The problem here is he denied hitting [Ventura] and then in this video he is even kicking her when she is down,” Shapiro said.
“Diddy’s sharp denials early on are going to hurt him as the investigation progresses,” added Meghan Blanco, an Orange County defense attorney who has experience with federal sex-offense cases.
“Any apology needed to be detailed enough for the public to gain some insight into why he behaved so violently in the first place, and why, after attending counseling and engaging in years of self-reflection, he continued to deny assaulting Cassie,” she said. “This fell far short of that.”
The video could require Combs’ legal team to argue his treatment of Ventura was an isolated event and not a pattern of behavior toward women, Blanco added.
The recording, dated March 5, 2016, shows Ventura in a hoodie and carrying a duffel bag, walking in a hotel hallway toward an elevator. Combs can be seen running down the same hallway, shirtless and holding a towel around his waist.
The lawsuit said it occurred at the InterContinental hotel in Century City. After Combs fell asleep, Ventura attempted to leave the room, the lawsuit said, but he awoke and “began screaming” at her. “He followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her,” the complaint said. “He grabbed at her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape.”
Security footage captured from another angle shows him grabbing Ventura’s head and throwing her on the ground, where he kicks her multiple times. He can also be seen picking up her bags and trying to drag her back to the first hallway.
The footage also shows Ventura using a hotel phone by the elevators, as well as Combs going back to his hotel room and then separately seemingly shoving Ventura into a corner. He is also seen throwing a vase in her direction.
Ventura also accused Combs in her lawsuit of raping her, forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers and introducing her to “a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse” that required her “to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions.”
Little is known about the federal probe, including the identities of any alleged victims. People with knowledge of the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly said federal investigators are seeking telecommunications and flight records related to Combs. Back in March, investigators searching Combs’ Holmby Hills home emptied safes, dismantled electronics and left papers strewn in some rooms, sources told The Times.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigates most sex-trafficking operations for the federal government. Legal experts say one reason the agency could be involved in this case is because the women involved in the allegations against Combs might be from other countries.
Combs’ lawyers have strongly criticized the federal probe, calling the searches of his homes “militarized” and a “witch hunt.”
“This unprecedented ambush — paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence — leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits,” attorney Aaron Dyer said in March.
In addition to the federal investigation, Combs faces the civil lawsuits from the three women. He has denied wrongdoing.
The lawsuits were filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a law that went into effect in November 2022 in New York that allows individuals who believe they were sexually assaulted a one-year window during which they can sue their abusers, even if the statute of limitations for prosecuting the underlying alleged crimes had expired.