By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge dismissed a juror in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday after concluding that his conflicting answers about where he lives might indicate he had an agenda or wanted to stay on the jury for a purpose.

Judge Arun Subramanian made the ruling after rejecting arguments by Combs’ attorneys that it would disrupt the diversity of the jury to replace the Black man with a white juror.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges after his September arrest at a New York hotel. He was denied bail multiple times and has remained incarcerated at a federal lockup in Brooklyn ever since.

Subramanian had first announced late Friday that he was dismissing the juror after questions arose over whether he resided in New York or New Jersey most of the time, but multiple defense lawyers protested and the judge waited until Monday to announce his final decision.

The judge said a review of the juror’s answers to questions about his residency during jury selection, along with his subsequent responses to similar questions in the robing room, revealed “clear inconsistencies.”

“Taking these all together, the record raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury,” he said.

Subramanian said to leave the juror on the panel could threaten the integrity of the judicial process, and he rejected a defense request that he question him further, saying it could lead to “another set of shifting answers. … In other words, there’s nothing that the juror can say at this point that would put the genie back in the bottle and restore his credibility.”

The judge expressed disappointment that the defense asked him again in a weekend letter to consider the racial makeup of the jury in his ruling as it accused prosecutors of misconduct.

“The court should not, indeed cannot, let race factor into the decision of what happens. Here, the answer is clear. Juror No. 6 is excused,” Subramanian said before the jury, minus Juror No. 6, was brought into the courtroom for the resumption of testimony.

Defense lawyers in the letter also accused prosecutors of misconduct in a “coordinated effort to try to destroy one of the most successful Black men in American history.”

“The government’s case is all about his personal life, and what he and his romantic partners have done in the privacy of the bedroom,” the lawyers wrote.

“There has been no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct brought to the court’s attention. Zero,” the judge said, rejecting the defense’s third request for a mistrial.

Prosecutors have said they expect to rest sometime this week. The trial is in its sixth week.

On Monday, prosecutors called what’s known as a summary witness to read aloud numerous text messages that jurors hadn’t previously heard.

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They included exchanges in which the woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” complained to Combs about their “hotel night” and “wild king night” sex marathon lifestyle and to his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, about his threats to release explicit videos of her having sex with other men.

Jane, who dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest last year, excoriated the hip-hop star in a series of text messages after his former longtime girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit against him alleging years of sexual abuse, control and violence.

On Nov. 28, 2023, about two weeks after Combs settled the lawsuit, Jane told him that she felt he exploited her with their “dark and humiliating lifestyle.” She wrote that for the three years they were together, she felt confused by their relationship and that being with Combs had deprived her of work opportunities.

A month later, Jane texted Khorram that Combs “just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has on two phones. He said he would send them to my baby daddy.”

Jane noted that she didn’t typically involve Khorram in such matters, but said she needed help because Combs was having one of his “evil-ass psychotic bipolar” episodes and, along with threatening her, was saying he’d call the police on her.

Jane told Khorram that she was heavily drugged in the tapes.

By JOSH BOAK, ROB GILLIES and JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

KANANASKIS, Alberta (AP) — The Group of Seven summit began in Canada on Monday with world leaders scrambling to contain the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, with U.S. President Donald Trump reiterating his call for the two nations to start negotiating.

“They should talk and they should talk immediately,” he told reporters.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said all G7 leaders agree that they “have to find a way to de-escalate the situation” in the Middle East because the conflict between Israel and Iran risks inflaming the “tinderbox” of Gaza and hurting the global economy.

Starmer said he’d spoken to Trump about the issue, adding that “the risk of the conflict escalating is obvious, I think, and the implications, not just for the region but globally are really immense, so the focus has to be on de-escalation.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters Monday ahead of the summit beginning in the Canadian Rocky Mountains that Germany is planning to draw up a final communique proposal on the Israel-Iran conflict that will stress that “Iran must under no circumstances be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons-capable material.”

President Donald Trump, left, is greeted by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, right, and Dominic LeBlanc, center, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, as he arrives in Calgary, Alberta, Sunday, June 15, 2025, to attend the G7 Leaders meeting taking place in Kananaskis, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

But as Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, he also stressed that it was a mistake to remove Russia from the organization in 2014 and that doing so had destabilized the world. He also suggested it would be a good idea to add China to the G7.

The U.S. president also seemed to put a greater priority on his planned emphasis on addressing his grievances with other nations’ trade policies.

“Our primary focus will be trade,” Trump said of his talks with Carney.

This year’s G7 summit is full of combustible tensions and it’s not clear how the gathered world leaders can work together to resolve them. Trump already has hit several dozen nations with severe tariffs that risk a global economic slowdown. There is little progress on settling the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and now a new and escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.

Add to all of that the problems of climate change, immigration, drug trafficking, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and China’s continued manufacturing superiority and chokehold on key supply chains.

Trump wants to focus on trade, though he may have to balance those issues with the broader need by the G7 countries — which also include France, Italy and Japan — to project a united front to calm down a world increasingly engulfed in chaos.

Asked if he planned to announce any trade agreements at the G7 as he left the White House on Sunday, Trump said: “We have our trade deals. All we have to do is send a letter, ‘This is what you’re going to have to pay.’ But I think we’ll have a few, few new trade deals.”

Also at stake might be the survival of the G7 itself at a time when the Trump administration has sent mixed signals about whether the president will attend the November Group of 20 summit in South Africa.

The German, U.K., Japanese and Italian governments have each signaled a belief that a friendly relationship with Trump this year can help to keep any public drama at a minimum, after the U.S. president in 2018 opposed a joint communique when the G7 summit was last held in Canada.

Going into the summit, there was no plan for a joint statement this year, a sign that the Trump administration sees no need to build a shared consensus with fellow democracies if it views such a statement as contrary to its goals of new tariffs, more fossil fuel production and a Europe that is less dependent on the U.S. military.

“The Trump administration almost certainly believes that no deal is better than a bad deal,” said Caitlin Welsh, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank who was part of Trump’s team for the G7 in Trump’s first term.

The White House has stayed decidedly mum about its goals for the G7, which originated as a 1973 finance ministers’ meeting to address the oil crisis and steadily evolved into a yearly summit that is meant to foster personal relationships among world leaders and address global problems.

The G7 briefly expanded to the G8 with Russia as a member, only for Russia to be expelled in 2014 after annexing Crimea and taking a foothold in Ukraine that preceded its aggressive 2022 invasion of that nation.

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Trump will have a series of bilateral meetings during the summit with other world leaders while in Canada. Beyond Carney, he is also expected to have bilateral meetings or pull aside conversations with Starmer, Merz, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The U.S. president has imposed 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos, all of which have disproportionately hit Japan. Trump is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period set by him would expire.

The United Kingdom reached a trade framework with the U.S. that included quotas to protect against some tariffs, but the 10% baseline would remain as the Trump administration is banking on tariff revenues to help cover the cost of its income tax cuts.

Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, through some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.

Merz said of trade talks that “there will be no solution at this summit, but we could perhaps come closer to a solution in small steps.”

The Trump administration has insisted that its broad tariffs will produce trade agreements that box out China, though it’s unclear how antagonizing trade partners would make them want to strengthen their reliance on the U.S. Carney, the Canadian leader, has been outspoken in saying his country can no longer look to the U.S. as an enduring friend.

That might leave Trump with the awkward task of wanting to keep his tariffs in place while also trying to convince other countries that they’re better off siding with the U.S. than China.

“Trump will try to coordinate the group against China’s economic coercion,” Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council, wrote in an analysis. “But the rest of the leaders may turn back to Trump and say that this kind of coordination, which is at the heart of why the G7 works, would be easier if he weren’t imposing tariffs on his allies.”

Boak reported from Calgary, Alberta. Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

By JESSE BEDAYN

A man who was believed to be part of a peacekeeping team for the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City shot at a person who was brandishing a rifle at demonstrators, striking both the rifleman and a bystander who later died at the hospital, authorities said Sunday.

Police took the alleged rifleman, Arturo Gamboa, 24, into custody Saturday evening on a murder charge, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said at a Sunday news conference. The bystander was Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, a fashion designer from Samoa.

Detectives don’t yet know why Gamboa pulled out a rifle or ran from the peacekeepers, but they accused him of creating the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo’s death. The Associated Press did not immediately find an attorney listed for Gamboa or contact information for his family in public records.

Redd said the man believed to be part of the peacekeeping team, dressed in a neon green vest, fired three shots from a handgun at Gamboa, inflicting a relatively minor injury but fatally shooting Ah Loo. Redd did not share the man’s name.

Volunteer peacekeeping teams are common for protests, said Sarah Parker, a national coordinator for 50501 Movement, which was a partner in the “No Kings” protest. But the organizers ask attendees, including the peacekeepers, not to bring weapons, she said. Still, Parker said they stopped what could’ve been a larger mass casualty event.

“Our safety team did as best as they could in a situation that is extremely sad and extremely scary,” said Parker.

Ah Loo, known as Afa, was a husband and father to two children and a fashion designer who leaned into his Samoan heritage, according to a GoFundMe page organized to support his family. Ah Loo founded Creative Pacific, an event celebrating the diversity of the Pacific Islands, with workshops, artists and a fashion runway. He was on Season 17 of the fashion design reality TV show “Project Runway.”

The gunshots sent hundreds of protesters running, some hiding behind barriers and fleeing into parking garages and nearby businesses, police said in a statement. “That’s a gun. Come on, come on, get out,” someone can be heard saying in a video posted to social media that appears to show the events.

“No Kings” protests swept across the country on Saturday, and organizers said millions rallied against what they described as President Donald Trump’s authoritarian tendencies.

Confrontations were largely isolated. In Riverside, California, authorities said a driver of an SUV struck a woman who was participating in a demonstration and sped away. The woman had “significant injuries” but was stable, police said, adding that they were still searching for the driver.

Outside the Arizona statehouse, a social media video showed protesters Saturday jeering at and then skirmishing with a masked man, who eventually pulled out a handgun, causing the crowd to scatter. Another video showed Arizona Department of Public Safety officers taking the man into custody.

The shooter and another person in a neon vest allegedly saw Gamboa separate from the crowd of marchers in downtown Salt Lake City, move behind a wall and withdraw a rifle around 8 p.m., Redd said.

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When the two men in vests confronted Gamboa with their handguns drawn, witnesses said Gamboa raised his rifle into a firing position and ran toward the crowd, said Redd.

That’s when one of the men dressed in the vests shot three rounds, hitting Gamboa and Ah Loo, said Redd. Gamboa, who police said didn’t have a criminal history, was wounded and treated before being booked into jail.

Redd said that the peacekeepers’ actions are also part of the investigation.

Police said they recovered an AR-15 style rifle, a gas mask and a backpack at the scene.

The man suspected in the political assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman is due to appear in federal court Monday afternoon, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced they’ll seek first-degree murder charges against him.

Jail booking photo of Vance Luther Boelter. (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Vance L. Boelter, who was captured Sunday night after a two-day manhunt, is charged in Hennepin County District court with murder in the shootings of Hortman and her husband at their Brooklyn Park home and attempted murder in the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in their Champlin home.

Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office are expected to make statements later Monday morning about federal charges against Boelter.

This is developing story and will be updated.

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