France adopts consent-based rape law in the wake of landmark Gisèle Pelicot case

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By SYLVIE CORBET

PARIS (AP) — France’s Senate gave its final approval on Wednesday to a bill defining rape and other sexual assault as any non-consensual sexual act, a move that comes after the landmark drugging and rape trial that shook France and turned Gisèle Pelicot into a global icon.

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Senators voted 327-0 in favor of the bill, with 15 abstentions.

The bill was presented in January following the conviction of 51 men for the rape and abuse of Gisèle Pelicot in a case which spurred a national reckoning over rape culture in France.

Marie-Charlotte Garin and Véronique Riotton, lawmakers for the Greens and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, respectively, who championed the bill, wrote: “It’s time to take action and take a new step forward in the fight against sexual violence.”

The bill states that “any non-consensual sexual act constitutes sexual assault.”

Consent is defined as “freely given, informed, specific, prior and revocable” and assessed “in the light of the circumstances.” The text says it “cannot be inferred solely from the silence or the lack of reaction of the victim.”

The bill also specifies that there is no consent if the sexual act is committed with “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”

Last week, it was widely approved by lawmakers from almost all ranks at the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament. The far right voted against it.

The Senate’s approval is the last step before the bill becomes law via official publication.

France rejoins many other European nations that have similar consent-based laws on rape, including neighboring Germany, Belgium and Spain.

Until now, rape under French law was defined as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” France has taken other steps in recent years to toughen punishment for sexual misconduct, including setting 15 as the age of consent.

Gisele Pelicot followed by her son Florian Pelicot leave the courtroom during the appeals trial in the case of a man challenging his conviction, less than a year after the landmark verdict in a drugging and rape trial that shook France Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025 in Nimes, southern France. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

In December, Pelicot’s ex-husband and 50 other men were convicted of sexually assaulting her between 2011 and 2020 while she was under chemical submission.

Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while sentences for other defendants ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment. An appeals court handed a stiffer 10-year sentence earlier this month to the only man who challenged his conviction.

The harrowing and unprecedented trial exposed how pornography, chatrooms and men’s disdain for, or hazy understanding of, consent is fueling rape culture.

Gisèle Pelicot has since become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence.

Microsoft Azure service hit with outage

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Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft says users of its Azure cloud portal may be not be able to access Office 365, Minecraft or other services due to issues with its global content delivery network services.

The tech company posted a note to its Azure status page that its teams are currently investigating issues related to its Azure Front Door service and acting to mitigate access problems.

Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company acknowledged the issues on its Azure status page and its social media accounts.

Because so many sites and services use Microsoft’s cloud service, an like this one can have widespread results.

On Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, users reported issues with Office 365, Minecraft, X-Box Live, Copilot and many other services.

Microsoft’s Azure troubles came just hours before the company was set to release its quarterly earnings report, and just over a week after a massive outage of Amazon’s cloud computing service took down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms. Amazon is the dominant provider of cloud computing services but Microsoft ranks second, ahead of Google, in most markets.

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Democrats needed a new approach on a key House committee. Then came the uproar over Jeffrey Epstein

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By MATT BROWN

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he was elected the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee in June, Rep. Robert Garcia at once gained a powerful perch and a pressing problem.

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Colleagues elected Garcia with a mandate to hold President Donald Trump’s administration to account. He’d pitched himself as an energetic personality who cared about good governance and accountability. But with Democrats locked out of power, he had few tools available to carry out his mission besides strongly worded letters to federal agencies and speeches during committee hearings.

Then came a renewed burst of public attention to the case of Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s vow to release documents related to the late sex trafficker. As Republicans faced mounting public pressure from conservative activists and voters after Trump backtracked on that promise, Garcia saw an opening.

“If he can betray the American public about this, he can betray and lie to the public about anything,” Garcia said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It all goes together. The Epstein files case shines a light on how Donald Trump is only out for himself.”

How Democrats staged an ambush on Epstein issue

Garcia in July coordinated Oversight Democrats to force a surprise vote on subpoenaing the Justice Department for documents related to Epstein — and it worked. Republicans narrowly backed the subpoenas at a subcommittee hearing. Democrats similarly pushed Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., in August to subpoena the executors of the Epstein estate for documents.

Tranches of Epstein documents began arriving in September. Garcia dismissed the more than 33,000 documents from the Justice Department as inadequate, mostly public information that lacked a “client list” of Epstein’s purported associates.

The Epstein estate, meanwhile, provided a book of messages compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. That book contained a poem and alleged signature from Trump with a sexually suggestive drawing. Democrats immediately published the page online and pointed to it as reason to investigate Trump’s involvement in Epstein’s activities. The estate has shared more information since, including Epstein’s flight logs, personal schedules and financial ledgers.

The burst of attention gave Democrats, still grappling with their party’s failure in last year’s election and divided on a path forward, a jolt of energy and potential blueprint for navigating Trump’s second term.

“I think you’re going to see us take that kind of aggressive approach in the work that we have ahead,” Garcia said.

Commanding the spotlight

The Oversight Committee, led by Comer, is one of the most powerful in Congress, with broad leeway to investigate nearly anything. Lawmakers have long used the panel’s clout to command attention and investigate scandals inside and outside the government.

Garcia has sought to use his position as the committee’s ranking Democrat to weave his party’s disparate stances on Trump, affordability, corruption and democracy into a single message. Oversight Democrats have also sought information on the treatment of U.S. citizens by the Department of Homeland Security, gifts and payments to administration officials and the administration’s response to natural disasters.

“I continue to think this is the most corrupt administration in American history, and we have a huge responsibility to investigate that corruption and to also try to make government work better for working people,” Garcia said.

Garcia has also been a critic of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to delay the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva, a Democratic congresswoman-elect from Arizona. Johnson says Grijalva can’t be sworn in until the government shutdown ends and legislative work resumes in the House. But Garcia and other Democrats say Johnson’s real aim is to delay a vote on legislation that would broaden the subpoena for the Epstein files.

As Democrats revamp their media strategy, Garcia has encouraged Oversight Democrats to engage in new digital media to boost the party’s message. He’s also been meeting with government reform groups to craft legislation around transparency that they hope to put in front of voters next year.

“I think on oversight we have a responsibility to gather the information and then to put it out to the court of public opinion, especially in front of Trump’s voters,” he said.

A fraught relationship with the Republican majority

Oversight hearings have devolved into shouting matches repeatedly during this Congress, reflecting the near-total breakdown of bipartisan relations on the committee.

Comer, the Republican chair, said it was “appalling” for Democrats to release the Birthday Book sketch and accused them of engaging in “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information” to imply without evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s actions.

Comer has largely directed the Republican majority to investigate issues that dovetail with the Trump administration’s priorities, like the state of crime in cities and states across the country, former President Joe Biden’s age and alleged misconduct by nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Rather than respond to those investigation, Garcia has opted to focus on the Trump family and Democrats’ priorities.

“If we’re going to actually save this democracy and restore the American public’s trust and move forward post-Trump’s presidency, we have to take on the current grift that this man is doing on the country,” Garcia said.

After Democrats made another attempt at a surprise committee vote — this time to subpoena the head of the Federal Communications Commission for comments about the suspension of late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel — Comer and Garcia brokered a bipartisan invitation for FCC Chair Brendan Carr to testify on a range of issues.

But Comer, a close Trump ally, also called Garcia “a real big drama queen,” after which Garcia accused him of being homophobic.

Garcia says his identity as a gay immigrant and naturalized citizen has influenced his leadership style and outlook on the country, especially as the Trump administration pursues its hardline immigration agenda.

“I always say that immigrants who are naturalized are some of the most patriotic people we have in this country, because we all have to fight for those rights that many folks are born with,” said Garcia, who became a U.S. citizen in his late 20s. “It built a drive to try and make this country better and that drives me in my oversight work.”

Months after a man was killed at a ‘No Kings’ march, no one has been charged. His wife wants answers

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By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The widow of a beloved Utah fashion designer who was fatally shot during a June “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City demanded Wednesday that someone be held accountable for her husband’s death after more than four months without any charges filed in the case.

Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, known as Afa, died June 15 when a man who was part of a volunteer peacekeeping team for the protest fired three rounds at a man who allegedly brandished a rifle at demonstrators. One round injured the rifleman, who did not fire any shots, and another struck Ah Loo, a protester who later died at the hospital.

The sign Ah Loo was holding that day read, “The world is watching,” said his wife, Laura Ah Loo.

“Afa always stood for those who needed justice the most,” Laura Ah Loo said during a Wednesday press conference. “And now I stand for him, on his behalf, for his sake and for all of us. The world is watching.”

Officers arrested but never charged Arturo Gamboa, the man with the rifle, saying at the time that he created the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo’s death.

Police have not charged or publicly identified the safety volunteer who shot at Gamboa and fatally struck Ah Loo. But authorities have said they’re investigating whether that man was justified in firing his handgun.

Salt Lake City’s participation this month in another round of “No Kings” demonstrations — a nationwide mobilization against what participants see as a shift into authoritarianism under President Donald Trump — brought renewed attention to the open-ended case.

Thousands rallied outside the Utah State Capitol on Oct. 18 to share messages of hope and healing, and demand justice for Ah Loo and his family.

Attorneys for Laura Ah Loo said they will pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the unidentified volunteer in coming weeks. They also said charges should be filed against the volunteer and called for more transparency from authorities.

“This is not a whodunit,” said Richard Lambert, a lawyer for Ah Loo’s wife. “We know who did it. We know who fired the fatal shot that took Afa’s life.”

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said on Wednesday that he sympathizes with the Ah Loo family’s loss and suggested criminal charges are still possible. His office met with the family early in the process and explained that the investigation would take time, Gill said.

“We are carefully working through a complex and nuanced legal analysis,” Gill said. “We expect to reach a decision soon.”

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But legal experts say criminal charges are unlikely.

Utah gun laws expert and personal injury attorney Mitch Vilos has been following the case and does not expect criminal charges against either the safety volunteer or Gamboa.

The right to self defense and the right to carry a firearm are both strong in Utah, Vilos said, and prosecutors would face a high bar in trying to prove criminal charges against either man.

“It’s like friendly fire. It can happen,” he said. “It happens with the military, it happens with police.”

Prosecutors in a criminal case must convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that a crime occurred. But the bar in a civil lawsuit would be much lower, Vilos added, requiring simply a preponderance of evidence that a defendant was in the wrong or acted negligently.

Gamboa did not fire his rifle. It is unclear what he intended to do with it.

A lawyer for Gamboa has said he was attending the rally as a supporter and was lawfully in possession of the unloaded weapon. Gamboa was walking with it pointed at the ground before he was shot in the back by the volunteer, lawyer Greg Skordas said.

Brown reported from Denver.