25/07/2025

FRIDAY | JULY 25, 2025

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Idaho killer sentenced to life without parole

Columbia to pay US$200m fine to US govt NEW YORK: Columbia University said on Wednesday it would pay a US$200 million (RM843 million) fine to the US government after President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funding over what he said was its unwillingness to protect Jewish students. In a sweeping deal that would restore the New York institution’s federal monies, Columbia has pledged to obey rules that bar it from taking race into consideration in admissions or hiring. “Columbia University has reached an agreement with the US government to resolve multiple federal agency investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws,“ a statement said, adding that the US$200 million would be paid over three years. The university will also pay US$21 million to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it said. “A majority of the federal grants that were terminated or paused in March will be reinstated and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored.“ The promise of the federal funding spigot reopening offers relief to the university, which was under growing financial pressure, despite an endowment that offered some cushion. The centuries-old Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts is also in a fight with the administration over Trump’s threats to rip away federal funding, and Wednesday’s carefully worded agreement, in which Columbia admitted no wrongdoing, could offer a framework for future deals. “This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,“ said Columbia’s acting president Claire Shipman. “The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track. “It safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest.” The New York Post reported that, under the settlement, Columbia would maintain a security force to prevent demonstrations in academic spaces, such as those that rocked the campus last year when pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with law enforcement, occupying university buildings. – AFP

BOISE: A former criminal-justice doctoral student convicted in the 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday but declined to give a statement in court that might have shed light on a motive for the killings. Bryan Kohberger, 30, received four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole or appeal under a deal with prosecutors sparing him the death penalty in return for pleading guilty earlier this month to four counts of first-degree murder. Judge Steven Hippler gave Kohberger an opportunity to address the court before the sentence was pronounced. “I respectfully decline,“ the defendant said. He sat expressionless beside his lawyers as relatives and friends of the victims, namely Ethan Chapin, 20, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, 20, and her roommates Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, took turns venting their anger and anguish directly at him through the presentation of victim impact statements. “I never imagined having to speak to someone so devoid of humanity,” said Kristi Goncalves, mother of Kaylee Goncalves. o Deal spares man from death penalty in return for pleading guilty to murder of four students

Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, speaking at the sentencing hearing of Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho. – REUTERSPIC

understand the why. But by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Kohberger relevance. We give him agency,” said Hippler. In the plea hearing earlier this month, Latah County prosecuting attorney Bill Thompson sought to rule out one possible avenue of speculation, declaring that there was no evidence of sexual assault among the victims or a “sexual component” to the killings. At the time of the murders, Kohberger was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from the University of Idaho campus in the neighboring northwestern Idaho town of Moscow. – Reuters

The victim’s older sister Alivea addressed Kohberger and said: “I will call you what you are, sociopath, psychopath, murderer.” In pleading guilty on July 2, Kohberger admitted to the underlying allegations that he had crept into an off-campus house on Nov 13, 2022 and stabbed the four students to death with a hunting knife, then slipped away. Two other women living at the house survived unharmed. But Kohberger made no mention of motive. Authorities likewise have yet to offer an explanation for what might have driven Kohberger’s actions, and how or why he singled out his victims. “I share the desire expressed by others to

Wrong remains sent to families of Air India crash victims LONDON: Relatives of a British victim killed in last month’s Air India crash received a casket that contained mixed remains, a lawyer representing several families and UK media said on Wednesday. A total of 241 people on board the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner died when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India on June 12. Some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in terms of the number of British fatalities. Healy-Pratt told news agency Press The family of a separate victim received the remains of another person, according to James Healy-Pratt, who is representing 20 British families.

Association that the return of victims’ remains had been marred by serious errors, which were identified following a probe by a British coroner. “In the first two caskets that were repatriated, in one of the caskets, there was co-mingling of DNA that did not relate to the deceased in that casket or the casket that accompanied it.“ – AFP