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Lions maul worker to death as she went to clean cages at safari park, Crimea officials say
A group of lions mauled a zookeeper to death at one of Europe’s largest big-cat parks on Wednesday after a door inside their enclosure was left unlocked, investigators in Crimea said.
The mauling occurred at the Taigan safari park on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, one of the largest breeding grounds for lions in Europe and home to around 60 of the predators.
“A criminal case has been opened over the death of an employee at the Taigan lion park as a result of a predator attack,” the Moscow-installed Investigative Committee of Crimea and Sevastopol said in a statement.
The employee who had worked at the park for almost 17 years died after she “went to clean a cage with three lions, without shutting the bolt of a door between two rooms of the enclosure,” investigators said.
The park’s owner Oleg Zubkov identified the victim as chief zookeeper Leokadia Perevalova, calling the incident a “tragic” mistake.
“It is unclear how and why this happened, as the animals could not have done such a thing on their own, and apparently there were no people around,” he said in a statement on his blog.
“The employees who discovered the body, unfortunately, could no longer provide any assistance, since she had simply been torn to pieces,” he said.
On his Telegram channel, Zubkov praised Perevalova as a “valuable employee” who was the “soul of our park,” adding that “the human factor of forgetfulness played a role.”
“Unfortunately when I arrived there was nothing I could do to help. (They are) top predators and they do not forgive mistakes, he said.
A criminal case has been opened into the death of a person by workplace negligence, investigators said.
The sprawling 70-acre park was opened to visitors in 2012 on the site of a former military base. According to the park’s website, about 1 kilometer of elevated walkways allow visitors to observe lions roaming freely.
Authorities closed the zoo for a month in December 2019 after they accused Zubkov of giving the animals expired feed, an allegation he denied.
He accused Crimea’s Russian-installed authorities of trying to “bankrupt” his business and of deliberately freezing his projects after they seized power in 2014.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 but is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.
Fatal lion attacks at zoos are extremely rare. In 2018, a lion escaped its enclosure and killed a recent college graduate at a North Carolina conservatory during a routine cleaning. Authorities were told the lion was able to enter the same space as 22-year-old Alex Black because a large ball prevented the lion’s pen from closing.
In 2013, a lion killed a 24-year-old volunteer at a Central California animal park after it escaped from a feeding cage and attacked her while she was cleaning its enclosure area.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A federal grand jury unsealed an indictment against two Sudanese brothers Wednesday, charging them with running “Anonymous Sudan,” one of the most prolific cyberattack-for-hire gangs of all time and allegedly behind tens of thousands of attacks.
Federal prosecutors accused Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, of carrying out 35,000 denial-of-service attacks against hundreds of organizations in just one year, taking down websites and other networks as part of an ideologically motivated extortion scheme affecting thousands of customers.
According to prosecutors, the pair targeted a long list of high-profile victims worldwide and across the U.S., including Microsoft, ChatGPT, PayPal, X, Yahoo, airports, the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, Alabama’s state government, as well as at least one hospital: Cedars-Sinai in the Los Angeles area.
The group held a “Sudanese nationalist ideology,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a press conference on Wednesday, charging customers $600 or less to launch major attacks.
“Anonymous Sudan sought to maximize havoc and destruction against governments and businesses around the world by perpetrating tens of thousands of cyberattacks,” Estrada said. “This group’s attacks were callous and brazen — the defendants went so far as to attack hospitals providing emergency and urgent care to patients,” he added.
The group also targeted governmental and private organizations in the Netherlands, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Chad, Israel and the U.K.
According to federal prosecutors, Ahmed Salah allegedly created the DDoS attack infrastructure of Anonymous Sudan and then posted messages on Telegram taking credit for the attacks. Alaa Salah allegedly provided computer code and programming support.
A grand jury indictment charged the pair with one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers. Ahmed Salah was also charged with three counts of damaging protected computers.
If convicted of all charges, Ahmed Salah faces a maximum sentence of life in prison related to the attack on Cedars-Sinai hospital, which endangered patients’ lives, according to the indictment. Alaa Salah would face a maximum sentence of five years, if convicted.
Estrada said that if found guilty, it would mark the first cybercrime conviction tied to physical harm in the U.S.
Anonymous Sudan’s attack on Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in February shuttered emergency services temporarily, causing incoming patients to be redirected to other medical facilities for approximately eight hours.
According to the indictment, Anonymous Sudan operated several Telegram channels, posting “information about their attacks, their DDoS tools and pricing, and their victims,” and boasted as many as 80,000 subscribers at one time. The group’s operations resulted in more than $10 million in damages to victims in the U.S.
Federal prosecutors allege that since early 2023, the brothers have used the group’s Distributed Cloud Attack Tool (DCAT) to conduct devastating and often dayslong DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks — or “distributed denial of service” — barrage websites with traffic, rendering them unusable.
“The FBI’s seizure of this powerful DDoS tool successfully disabled the attack platform that caused widespread damage and disruptions to critical infrastructure and networks around the world,” said Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day of the FBI Anchorage Field Office, in a statement. “With the FBI’s mix of unique authorities, capabilities, and partnerships, there is no limit to our reach when it comes to combating all forms of cybercrime and defending global cybersecurity.”
According to Estrada, both brothers were arrested abroad in March and have been in custody since then, though the U.S. attorney declined to name the country holding them or comment on potential extradition.
Former One Direction singer Liam Payne died Wednesday after falling into the interior patio of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Argentine Director of Emergency Medical Services, Alberto Crescenti, confirmed to CBS News.
He was 31 years old.
Crescenti said an ambulance arrived seven minutes later. He declined to answer questions about the incident, including whether Payne jumped from the balcony or fell by accident, The Associated Press reported.
Payne, who was from the U.K., had attended a show in Argentina of his former bandmate, Niall Horan, according to media reports. Payne posted a series of social media videos showing him headed to Argentina.
Last year, Payne postponed his South American tour — with shows in Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico — after a serious kidney infection. He told fans he was hospitalized with illness in a video explaining his decision.
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal
Payne, who struggled with alcohol, announced in 2023 that he was 100 days sober. During a podcast interview in 2021, he detailed how One Direction members became too famous too fast — and said he often turned to drinking to deal with the mounting pressures of being in the globally famous boy band.
Formed in 2010 during “X Factor’s Boot Camp,” One Direction members Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik went on to sell 70 million records by 2020, according to the BBC.
In 2016, Payne signed a solo deal with Capitol Records’ U.K. division. He had a son in 2017 with former “X Factor” judge Cheryl Cole.
contributed to this report.
For months, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been making promises to the American people about what they’d do to improve the lives of Americans if elected president in the 2024 election. Their promises encompass climate, foreign policy, social issues, health care and, of course, taxes.
Some campaign promises may be fulfilled through the power of the pen with an executive action, while others would require congressional approval.
Here’s what Trump and Harris have been promising Americans during their campaigns.
Trump’s campaign promises:
End the war in Ukraine before Inauguration Day
Trump has more than once promised to end Russia’s war on Ukraine before he’s inaugurated.
“That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president,” Trump said in the September presidential debate against Harris.
He has also said in a May 2023 CNN town hall that he’d end the conflict “in 24 hours.” Trump has repeatedly been asked how he’d do this but has never outlined a plan.
When asked in late September by CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns what an end to the fighting would look like, he responded, “I don’t want to tell you what that looks like.” And in response to a question from reporters about whether Ukraine should cede land to Russia to end the war, Trump did not answer directly. “Let’s get some peace,” he said.
Carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history
Trump frequently vows to carry out the “largest deportation” effort in U.S. history. In September, he said he’d begin by targeting migrants in Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio. A Trump spokesperson told the Associated Press that Trump “would marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers.”
Cut federal funding to schools that teach “critical race theory” and “transgender” matters
Trump says he’d cut federal funding for schools that teach “critical race theory” and “transgender” matters, which he calls “transgender insanity.” He has suggested launching civil rights investigations into schools that support transgender rights. Shortly after becoming president in 2017, Trump withdrew Obama-era protections that permitted transgender students to use public school restrooms according to how they identified.
Local taxes provide the vast majority of funding for school districts, not federal tax dollars. The Department of Education estimates that tax dollars account for about 8% of funding for U.S. public schools.
Roll back Biden’s electric vehicle mandate
Trump often says he’d repeal President Biden’s electric vehicle mandate. Mr. Biden has not issued an EV mandate, though he is urging Americans to adopt EVs and is offering incentives to move the country to the point where 50% of new vehicles sold are zero-emission, a goal he hopes to reach by 2030. Rolling back an EPA rule entails logistical hurdles, but it is something a president can accomplish without Congress.
End taxes on tips
A few months ago, Trump began saying he’d end federal taxes on tips, and soon afterward, Harris followed suit. Doing so would require Congress to pass legislation so that tipped workers would no longer be subject to federal taxes on those tips. Trump has not said how he’d pay for this plan.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated the cost of this promise to be as high as $250 billion.
No taxes on Social Security income
Trump has also pledged to stop taxing Social Security benefits for seniors. About 40% of Social Security recipients pay federal income taxes on those benefits, according to the Social Security Administration. Federal taxes on Social Security income don’t kick in until an individual’s combined income reaches $25,000. An individual filer with a total income between $25,000 and $34,000 may have to pay income tax on up to 50% of those benefits, and above $34,000, up to 85% of Social Security benefits may be taxable, according to the SSA.
This, too, would require legislation. Trump has not said how he’d pay for this plan.
“Replace” Obamacare
In his debate against Harris, Trump pledged to replace the Affordable Care Act, something he was unable to do in the four years he was president. In 2016, he also campaigned in 2016 on repealing the health care law.
“Obamacare was lousy health care,” Trump said during the debate. “Always was. It’s not very good today. And what I said, that if we come up with something, and we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it.”
Pressed during the debate on what his replacement plan would be, Trump replied that he had “concepts of a plan.”
Congress would have to pass a repeal, and Republicans’ best chance to do so failed with the late Sen. John McCain’s thumbs-down vote in 2017. Trump and Republicans tried to dismantle Obamacare through the courts, too, but the Supreme Court rejected the challenge.
Expand the child tax credit
The Trump campaign has proposed expanding the child tax credit to up to $5,000 a year per child. Congress which holds the power of the purse, would have to sign off on this expansion. The CTC is currently $2,000 per child, with only $1,600 of that being refundable. Refundable tax credits can be received as a refund even if the filer owes no tax to the federal government.That means filers who owe the federal government little or nothing in federal income taxes are eligible for a tax credit of $1,600 per child.
Harris’ campaign promises:
Take on pharmaceutical companies
Harris has pledged to continue President Biden’s campaign to take on pharmaceutical companies, particularly by addressing high drug prices. Americans pay more for prescription drugs than do citizens of other countries. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, gave Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prices with drug companies. The Biden administration has lowered the cost of a number of popular prescription drugs covered by Medicare, and Harris has pledged to continue that effort.
Ban price gouging on groceries
It’s not completely clear how Harris would accomplish this, but she’s said she wants to eliminate price gouging on groceries. Grocery prices have jumped 25% since 2020, and the price tag of many individual items has increased much more than 25%. Price gouging is when businesses charge excessively high prices on items that become scarce, such as during a hurricane. But experts have told CBS News there are a number of factors behind the higher prices at the supermarket.
However, economists agree with Harris that adding more competition to the grocery and food industries could help tackle rising food prices by adding to the supply of products on the market. That in turn would give consumers more choice while curtailing companies’ ability to set unreasonably high prices. Economist Mark Zandi suggested the Justice Department should keep a close eye on any proposed mergers or acquisitions of food companies.
Expand the child tax credit
Harris says she’d expand the child tax credit to up to $6,000 for newborn children, $1,000 more than Trump VP candidate Sen. JD Vance proposed, although his expanded tax credit would not be restricted to those with newborn children. Any expansion of the tax credit would require congressional approval. It’s not clear how Harris would pay for the proposal.
Nominate a Republican to her Cabinet
Harris says she’ll appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, which would set her apart from President Biden, who has no Republicans in his Cabinet.
“It would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who is a Republican,” Harris told CNN in August.