LOS ANGELES: A woman allegedly known as the “Ketamine Queen,” who prosecutors say sold “Friends” actor Matthew Perry the drugs that would kill him, didn’t look very regal when she appeared in a Los Angeles court this week.
If they can prove their case against Jasveen Sangha — that she made thousands of dollars from the troubled celebrity, selling him ketamine from her North Hollywood drug emporium — she might never see the outside of prison again.
In the meantime, her court appearance in a green Nirvana sweatshirt and baggy sweatpants was a far cry from the party-filled jet set lifestyle that investigators say she normally leads.
The dual British-American national was one of five people charged in connection with the October 2023 death of the much-loved Perry, who was found unresponsive in the pool of his swanky Los Angeles home.
Others included Perry’s live-in personal assistant, a go-between and two medical doctors who are alleged to have sold $12 vials to the celebrity for as much as $2,000 each, as they exchanged texts wondering “how much this moron will pay.”
But it was the arrest and charging of Sangha that has particularly shone a light on the seedy side of Hollywood glamor.
Court documents allege Sangha, 41, ran a huge drug operation out of her comfortable apartment — dubbed the “Sangha Stash House” — where investigators discovered ketamine, methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription medication like Xanax.
Her source for the ketamine, she told broker Erik Fleming — who is also charged in connection with Perry’s death — was a “master chef” and a “scientist” through whom she boasted she could “fill any order.”
“She only deal[s] with high end and celebs,” Fleming is said to have written to Perry’s personal assistant. “If it were not great stuff she’d lose her business.”
Photos posted on the Internet show Sangha partying with actor Charlie Sheen, a man with well-documented addiction problems.
Her own Instagram account is packed with proof of a glitzy lifestyle that appears to include trips on private jets and plates of caviar in an airport lounge.
Other photos show her sporting a range of designer wear, including jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels, shoes by Louis Vuitton and clothes from Chanel.
But the high-roller lifestyle was apparently funded through a trade in misery, exploiting the desperation of addicts like Perry.
The dozens of doses of ketamine she allegedly sold him came in unmarked glass vials with a cheap blue plastic cap.
Prosecutors say Sangha was a consummate saleswoman, offering a sample for Perry to try before he committed serious money.
“It’s unmarked but it’s amazing,” she allegedly texted the middleman. “He [can] take one and try it and I have more if he likes.”
And the final batch Sangha is alleged to have supplied — the one that resulted in Perry’s death at just 54 — came with a sweetener: ketamine lollipops, prosecutors say.
Hours after news of the actor’s death emerged, Sangha set out to cover her tracks, investigators say, ordering middleman Fleming to “delete all our messages.”
Two weeks later, she jetted off to Tokyo, posting smiling pictures of her posing in a kimono.
The trip was one of around a dozen foreign jaunts she has taken since Perry died, a Los Angeles judge heard on Wednesday, which have also included Antigua and Mexico.
That judge remanded Sangha in custody on Wednesday and ordered her to stand trial in October, after hearing her deny all charges.
If convicted of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and the other charges she faces, Sangha could be jailed for the rest of her life.
Salvador Plasencia, one of the doctors also charged with supplying Perry, also denied the charges he faces.
The other defendants have either pleaded guilty or agreed to do so in relation to their charges. They face between 10 and 25 years in prison.
Ketamine Queen: the alleged dealer charged over Matthew Perry’s death
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Ketamine Queen: the alleged dealer charged over Matthew Perry’s death
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Jon Bon Jovi helps talk woman down from ledge on Nashville bridge
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi and a video production assistant persuaded a woman standing on the ledge of a pedestrian bridge in Nashville to come back over the railing to safety.
Police say the encounter happened Tuesday on the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, which spans the Cumberland River.
The Tennessean reported that Bon Jovi was filming a music video on the bridge, which remained open to the public during the shoot.
Video provided by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and widely shared on social media showed the assistant talking to the woman. The Grammy-winning front man slowly approached, waved to the woman and joined in the conversation.
Eventually the woman turned around to face the two, and they helped her over the railing to safety. Bon Jovi talked to the woman and hugged her.
Representatives for Bon Jovi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Haiti condemns bogus claim about US pet-eating migrants pushed by Trump
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- Donald Trump: ‘In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in — they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there’
- When ABC News debate moderator David Muir debunked the claim to him, Trump insisted that he had seen ‘people on television say their dog was eaten’
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti’s government on Wednesday condemned “discriminatory remarks” made by US presidential candidate Donald Trump and other Republicans, who spouted debunked claims that Haitian migrants were eating pet cats and dogs in the state of Ohio.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that compatriots abroad have fallen victim to disinformation campaigns, been stigmatized and dehumanized to serve electoral political interests,” the government said.
“We firmly reject these remarks, which undermine the dignity of our compatriots and could endanger their lives,” it added.
Several Republican figures this week circulated claims that Haitian migrants were killing and eating the pets of residents in Springfield in Ohio — accusations that the city’s manager said had no basis in fact.
On Tuesday, Trump repeated the bogus claims in his televised presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris, which was watched by tens of millions of people in the United States and around the world.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in — they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” the former US president said.
When ABC News debate moderator David Muir debunked the claim to him, Trump insisted that he had seen “people on television say their dog was eaten.”
The owner of X, Elon Musk, has also used his social network to help circulate the baseless claims, which quickly garnered attention in the United States, where two-thirds of households own pets.
Remains found in car in Illinois river identified as 2 men who vanished in 1976, coroner says
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- Hawley, 72, of Stockton, Illinois, and Owens, 65, of Freeport, Illinois, vanished after leaving a farm auction on Feb. 19, 1976, near the Winnebago-Ogle County line
- More than 100 bones were retrieved from the vehicle and the river at the site about 161 kilometers west of Chicago
ILLINOIS: DNA testing on skeletal remains found in a car pulled from an Illinois river confirmed they are those of two men who vanished in 1976 after leaving a farm auction, authorities said.
Testing performed by the Illinois State Police Division of Forensic Services confirmed they are the remains of Clarence Owens and Everett Hawley, the Winnebago County Coroner’s Office said Tuesday.
Hawley, 72, of Stockton, Illinois, and Owens, 65, of Freeport, Illinois, vanished after leaving a farm auction on Feb. 19, 1976, near the Winnebago-Ogle County line, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office said
Hawley was a real estate broker in Freeport, while Owens was a salesperson in Hawley’s firm.
“This bring us one step closer to providing closure to the families of Clarence Owens and Everett Hawley who have waited many years for answers that have been affected by this tragic case,” Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana said in a statement.
In March, people fishing along the Pecatonica River discovered a submerged vehicle in the river using a sonar fish finder. Recovery crews then used a crane to pull the 1966 Chevrolet Impala sedan from the river in the village of Pecatonica, the Rockford Register Star reported.
The men had left the farm auction in that vehicle, authorities said.
More than 100 bones were retrieved from the vehicle and the river at the site about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of Chicago. DNA extracted from the bones was compared with DNA profiles from the men’s relatives to identify them.
Before the DNA testing, the remains were examined by a forensic anthropologist in St. Louis, Missouri, who found no evidence of trauma.
Winnebago County Coroner Jennifer Muraski told WIFR-TV that how the two men died is still unknown, but no foul play is suspected.
Apple embraces the AI craze with its newly unleashed iPhone 16 lineup
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- Apple’s AI features are designed to turn its often-blundering virtual assistant Siri into a smarter and more versatile sidekick
CUPERTINO, California: Apple on Monday charged into the artificial intelligence craze with a new iPhone lineup that marks the company’s latest attempt to latch onto a technology trend and transform it into a cultural phenomenon.
The four different iPhone 16 models will all come equipped with special chips needed to power a suite if AI tools that Apple hopes will make its marquee product even more indispensable and reverse a recent sales slump.
Apple’s AI features are designed to turn its often-blundering virtual assistant Siri into a smarter and more versatile sidekick, automate a wide range of tedious tasks and pull off other crowd-pleasing tricks such as creating customized emojis within seconds.
After receiving a standing ovation for Monday’s event, Apple CEO Tim Cook promised the AI package will unleash “innovations that will make a true difference in people’s lives.”
But the breakthroughs won’t begin as soon as the new iPhones — ranging in price from $800 to $1,200 — hit the stores on September 20.
Most of Apple’s AI functions will roll out as part of a free software updates to iOS 18, the operating system that will power the iPhone 16 rolling out from October through December. US English will be the featured language at launch but an update enabling other languages will come out next year, according to Apple.
It’s all part of a new approach that Apple previewed at a developers conference three months ago to create more anticipation for a next generation of iPhones amid a rare sales slump for the well-known devices.
Since Apple’s June conference, competitors such as Samsung and Google have made greater strides in AI – a technology widely expected to trigger the most dramatic changes in computing since the first iPhone came out 17 years ago.
Just as Apple elevated fledgling smartphones it into a must-have technology in 21st-century society, the Cupertino, California, company is betting it can do something similar with its tardy arrival to artificial intelligence.
In an attempt to set itself apart from the early leaders in AI, the technology being baked into the iPhone 16 is being promoted as “Apple Intelligence.” Despite the unique branding, Apple’s new approach mimics many of the features already available in the Samsung Galaxy S24 released in January and the Google Pixel 9 that came out last month.
“Apple could have waited another year for further development, but initial take up of AI- powered devices from the likes of Samsung has been encouraging, and Apple is keen to capitalize on this market,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.
As it treads into new territory, Apple is trying to preserve its long-time commitment to privacy by tailoring its AI so that most of its technological tricks can processed on the device itself instead of relying on giant banks of computers located in remote data centers. When a task needs to connect to a data center, Apple promises it will be done in a tightly-controlled way that ensures that no personal data is stored remotely.
While corralling the personal information shared through Apple’s AI tools inherently reduces the chances that the data will be exploited or misused against a user’s wishes, it doesn’t guarantee iron-clad security. A device could still be stolen, for instance, or hacked through digital chicanery.
For users seeking to access even more AI tools than being offered by the iPhone, Apple is teaming up with OpenAI to give users the option of farming out more complicated tasks to the popular ChatGPT chatbot.
Although Apple is releasing a free version of its operating system to propel its on-device AI features, the chip needed to run the technology is only available on the iPhone 16 lineup and the high-end iPhone 15 models that came out a year ago.
That means most consumers who are interested in taking advantage of Apple’s approach to AI will have to buy one of the iPhone 16 models – a twist that investors are counting on will fuel a surge in demand heading into the holiday season.
The anticipated sales boom is the main reason Apple’s stock price has climbed by more than 10 percent, including a slight uptick Monday after the shares initially slipped following the showcase for the latest iPhones.
Besides its latest iPhones, Apple also introduced a new version of its smartwatch that will include a feature to help detect sleep apnea as well the next generation of its wireless headphones, the AirPods Pro, that will be able to function as a hearing aid with an upcoming software update.
James Earl Jones, acclaimed actor and voice of Darth Vader, dies at 93
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NEW YORK: James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, “The Lion King” and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York’s Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who in 1965 became one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama (“As the World Turns”) and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was also given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of “The Gin Game” having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
“The need to storytell has always been with us,” he told The Associated Press then. “I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn’t get him.”
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in “Field of Dreams,” the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit “The Great White Hope,” the writer Alex Haley in “Roots: The Next Generation” and a South African minister in “Cry, the Beloved Country.”
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader (“No, I am your father,” commonly misremembered as “Luke, I am your father”), as well as the benign dignity of King Mufasa in both the 1994 and 2019 versions of Disney’s “The Lion King” and announcing “This is CNN” during station breaks. He won a 1977 Grammy for his performance on the “Great American Documents” audiobook.
“If you were an actor or aspired to be an actor, if you pounded the payment in these streets looks for jobs, one of the standards we always had was to be a James Earl Jones,” Samuel L. Jackson once said.
Some of his other films include “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Greatest” (with Muhammad Ali), “Conan the Barbarian,” “Three Fugitives” and playing an admiral in three blockbuster Tom Clancy adaptations — “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger.” In a rare romantic comedy, “Claudine,” Jones had an onscreen love affair with Diahann Carroll.
Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958’s “Sunrise At Campobello” and would win his two Tony Awards for “The Great White Hope” (1969) and “Fences” (1987). He also was nominated for “On Golden Pond” (2005) and “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” (2012). He was celebrated for his command of Shakespeare and Athol Fugard alike. More recent Broadway appearances include “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Iceman Cometh,” and “You Can’t Take It With You.”
As a rising stage and television actor, he performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival Theater in “Othello,” “Macbeth” and “King Lear” and in off-Broadway plays.
Jones was born by the light of an oil lamp in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on Jan. 17, 1931. His father, Robert Earl Jones, had deserted his wife before the baby’s arrival to pursue life as a boxer and, later, an actor.
When Jones was 6, his mother took him to her parents’ farm near Manistee, Michigan. His grandparents adopted the boy and raised him.
“A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” Jones wrote in his autobiography, “Voices and Silences.” “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me it was a heartbreak, and not long after, I began to stutter.”
Too embarrassed to speak, he remained virtually mute for years, communicating with teachers and fellow students with handwritten notes. A sympathetic high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that the boy wrote poetry, and demanded that Jones read one of his poems aloud in class. He did so faultlessly.
Teacher and student worked together to restore the boy’s normal speech. “I could not get enough of speaking, debating, orating — acting,” he recalled in his book.
At the University of Michigan, he failed a pre-med exam and switched to drama, also playing four seasons of basketball. He served in the Army from 1953 to 1955.
In New York, he moved in with his father and enrolled with the American Theater Wing program for young actors. Father and son waxed floors to support themselves while looking for acting jobs.
True stardom came suddenly in 1970 with “The Great White Hope.” Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play depicted the struggles of Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, amid the racism of early 20th-century America. In 1972, Jones repeated his role in the movie version and was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor.
Jones’ two wives were also actors. He married Julienne Marie Hendricks in 1967. After their divorce, he married Cecilia Hart, best known for her role as Stacey Erickson in the CBS police drama “Paris,” in 1982. (She died in 2016.) They had a son, Flynn Earl, born in 1983.
In 2022, the Cort Theatre on Broadway was renamed after Jones, with a ceremony that included Norm Lewis singing “Go the Distance,” Brian Stokes Mitchell singing “Make Them Hear You” and words from Mayor Eric Adams, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson.
“You can’t think of an artist that has served America more,” director Kenny Leon told the AP. “It’s like it seems like a small act, but it’s a huge action. It’s something we can look up and see that’s tangible.”
Citing his stutter as one of the reasons he wasn’t a political activist, Jones nonetheless hoped his art could change minds.
“I realized early on, from people like Athol Fugard, that you cannot change anybody’s mind, no matter what you do,” he told the AP. “As a preacher, as a scholar, you cannot change their mind. But you can change the way they feel.”