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Naomi Campbell, banned from running charity, calls probe “flawed”
Former supermodel Naomi Campbell hit back at a United Kingdom watchdog after it banned her from running a charity for five years.
The Charity Commission identified “multiple instances of misconduct” in the running of Fashion for Relief, including the use of charity funds to pay for her stay in a five-star hotel in the south of France, including spa treatments and room service.
But Campbell, 54, called the body’s findings “deeply flawed” and said she had instructed new advisers to investigate what happened at the charity.
“First of all, I recognise that, as the face of Fashion for Relief, I am ultimately responsible for its conduct,” Campbell, 54, said in a statement released late Friday to the PA news agency.
“Unfortunately, I was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the organisation, and I entrusted the legal and operational management to others,” she said.
The watchdog probe published on Thursday found that between April 2016 and July 2022, only 8.5% of Fashion for Relief’s overall expenditure went on grants to charities.
Campbell has now been disqualified from running a charity for five years. Two other trustees also received bans.
Campbell, who in 1987 became the first Black model in 20 years to feature on the cover of UK Vogue, achieved worldwide fame in the 1990s and remains a highly influential figure in the industry.
She insisted she had “never been paid a fee for my participation in Fashion for Relief nor billed any personal expenses to the organization.”
Campbell’s charity, which she set up in 2005, held a string of glitzy, star-studded events to raise funds for causes in London and Cannes.
These were said to include projects ranging from supporting child refugees, to helping victims of the Ebola crisis and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
She said she is considering all options including requesting an appeal.
CBS News
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Biden says Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s killing a “measure of justice” for his many victims
Washington, D.C., – President Biden said on Saturday the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the overall leader of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, in a Friday airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon was a “measure of justice,” for his many victims.
In a statement released by the White House, Mr. Biden said “Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror,” including thousands of Israelis and Lebanese civilians. Nasrallah’s killing, which the statement said took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, happened after the Hezbollah leader “made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.”
Hezbollah has been firing rockets and drones across Lebanon’s southern border into Israel for almost a year amid the country’s war with Hamas.
Nasrallah was killed in a series of massive explosions targeting leaders of the militant group, which started with numerous pagers exploding across Lebanon on Sept. 18 killing at least 12 people — including members of the militant group Hezbollah and two children — and wounding several thousand, according to Lebanon’s public health minister.
Strikes escalated in recent days, with one senior U.S. administration official calling the situation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon “delicate and dangerous.” More than 500 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as missiles slammed into residential buildings. Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah weapons hidden in the building.
Tensions in the Middle East have engulfed Mr. Biden’s last – and his final – year of presidency. His administration has said the U.S. “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups,” and he has directed the Secretary of Defense “to further enhance” the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East.
Mr. Biden said in the statement ultimately his administration aims to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts through diplomatic means.
During his final speech to the United Nations General Assembly as president on Thursday Mr. Biden said, “full scale war is not in anyone’s interest.”
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