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Russian court says American man jailed for hooliganism after drunkenly breaking into children’s library
Moscow — A Moscow court said Tuesday that it had sentenced a U.S. citizen to 10 days in detention for petty hooliganism after he stumbled drunkenly into a children’s library and passed out. News of the American’s detention came just hours after Russian and U.S. authorities said a U.S. soldier was being held in custody in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on suspicion of theft in a separate case.
Russia’s REN TV said the man detained in Moscow had climbed through the window of a children’s library in the Russian capital and fallen asleep while drunk. Video aired by the network showed a person, partially clothed, laying in what appeared to be a courtyard of the building.
It said the man had been staying with friends in Moscow on a tourist visa and ended up at the library after being out with friends at a bar.
In a statement posted on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app, the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow said the man, identified as Nikum William Russell, was sentenced to 10 days under “administrative arrest” on a charge of petty hooliganism after he “drank alcoholic beverages, then was found in the courtyard, naked, expressing clear disrespect for society, citizens and public order.”
There was no immediate confirmation of the arrest from U.S. authorities.
U.S. soldier arrested, accused of theft
News of the American’s detention came just hours after Russian and U.S. authorities said a U.S. soldier was being held in custody in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on suspicion of theft. The U.S. Army said the soldier, identified by a court in Vladivostok and by U.S. officials to CBS News as Gordon Black, was being detained on criminal charges.
The U.S. Army sergeant, who was stationed in South Korea, was accused of stealing from a woman, two Pentagon officials told CBS News on Monday, confirming information provided by Russian authorities.
Black had been in the process of changing duty stations from Korea to Fort Cavazos (Ft. Hood) in the U.S., and he was not in Russia on official travel for the military, the U.S. officials told CBS News.
The soldier’s mother, Melody Jones, said he was in Russia visiting his girlfriend.
“Please do not torture him [or] hurt him,” she said when asked about her message to the Russians.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday that the U.S. was “aware of this case and other matters related to Russia,” but said he couldn’t “say much about it right now.” NBC News first reported that a soldier had been detained in Russia over the weekend.
Vladivostok city police said they had arrested a 34-year-old foreigner and opened a criminal case over theft causing significant harm to the victim, punishable by up to five years in prison. The suspect is being held in a pre-trial detention center in the city, the police said.
The force said the man had begun a relationship with a Russian woman while she was working in South Korea. They kept in touch online and he came to visit her on April 10. The couple had a “conflict” and the man left, according to the police.
Afterward, the woman found money was missing and called police, who tracked down the man in a hotel as he was preparing to fly out to the U.S., the police said. Russian newspaper Izvestia reported earlier, citing a source, that the man had stolen 200,000 rubles ($2,200) and beaten the woman up.
Russia denies any link to “politics or espionage”
A Russian foreign ministry representative in Vladivostok told TASS state news agency that the case was not linked to politics.
“This case is not related to politics or espionage. As far as we understand this is a purely domestic crime. Therefore the foreign ministry branch in Vladivostok is not following the U.S. citizen’s fate closely.”
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, representing Texas, said in a statement posted on X that he was “deeply concerned by reports that a US Army officer has been detained in Russia”.
“Putin has a long history of holding American citizens hostage,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding: “A warning to all Americans — as the State Department has said, it is not safe to travel to Russia.”
Russian authorities have arrested several U.S. citizens in recent years. Critics accuse Moscow of using the detainees as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the U.S.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 on spying charges that the U.S. government and his family insist are a baseless pretext to keep him incarcerated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was jailed in March 2023 on espionage charges, which the U.S., his family and employer all insist are baseless. He is awaiting trial.
The State Department said in December that Russia rejected a “significant” proposal for both men’s release.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
