Under the watchful eyes of the United States Capitol Police, an unusual discovery was made Tuesday, leading to the arrest of a man from California. The officers noticed a striking and archaic device—a guillotine—nestled in the back of a pickup truck, just a short distance from the U.S. Capitol.

The driver, identified as 35-year-old Philan-Tam-Duy Le from Julian, California, had apparently embarked on a cross-country journey before the startling sight caught the attention of Capitol Hill authorities, mere steps away from the Supreme Court premises.

Officials reported that the pickup was improperly parked, while the ominous apparatus stood visibly upright in the vehicle’s bed.

Le now faces charges tied to the possession of a dangerous weapon, reflecting concerns about his unexpected cargo—an old-world tool from a bygone era.

Investigators are now examining what motivated Le to travel from California and what prompted him to bring the massive guillotine with him.

“USCP investigators are going through the suspect’s background to learn more about why he came to Washington, D.C.,” officials said.

READ MORE: Rare American Mink Sighted on Long Island: A 31-Year Conservation Breakthrough

The guillotine discovery is the latest in a series of unusual weapons found in and around the Capitol complex, one of the most heavily secured areas in the country.

More than a week ago, officials found a homemade sword and brass knuckles at a Senate office building, Fox 5 DC reported. The items were reportedly discovered inside a man’s bag during a security screening.

Last year, a man was arrested after a machete and knives were discovered at a screening checkpoint in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), according to USCP. The 44-year-old man was arrested on multiple counts of carrying a dangerous weapon, officials said.

In 2021, a California man was arrested after officers discovered an unmarked truck displaying White supremacist symbols near the Democratic National Committee headquarters after midnight, according to USCP. A bayonet and machete were found inside the vehicle, officials said.

According to wildlife experts, an American mink was recently caught on a trail camera in Suffolk County, and such a sighting is exceptionally unusual.

Peter Janow, a naturalist residing on Long Island, reported capturing what he believes to be an American mink. The footage was taken with a trail camera he set up in Northport, near the North Shore, just after midnight on August 4, as he shared with News 12 Long Island.

The image depicts this charming water weasel seemingly carrying a bird in its mouth.

Janow mentioned that this marks the first instance of an American mink sighting on Long Island in over three decades.

The American mink, a member of the weasel family and a close relative to otters and ferrets, is a small carnivore that dwells both on land and in water. Typically weighing between 1.5 to 3.5 pounds, these creatures prey on fish, frogs, crayfish, and small mammals in regions rich with rivers, lakes, and wetlands, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Janow — a retired Marine Corps pilot and founder of Long Island Nature Corps — has spent about eight years tracking wildlife with trail cameras across the Northport and Greater Huntington area, he told Greater Long Island.

He said his interest in finding the mink started about three winters ago, when he was out searching for river otter tracks after a fresh snowfall and came across prints he believed belonged to a mink.

“I thought it was just a matter of time before I captured a mink on one of my trail cameras,” he told Greater Long Island.

After reviewing a memory card from a trail camera that had not been checked in months, Janow spent two to three hours going through the files individually before making a stunning discovery — two photographs and an approximately 15-second video that appeared to depict a mink.

Janow immediately sent the findings to Seatuck Environmental Association wildlife biologist Mike Bottini for confirmation.

“He came back quickly and said, ‘Hey, yeah, that’s 100 percent an American mink,’” the naturalist recalled.

The animal was last reported on Long Island in 1996, though no photographic evidence exists from that sighting, Bottini told Greater Long Island.

Bottini said colleagues studying river otters elsewhere routinely catch mink on trail cameras at otter latrine sites — but when he ran a yearlong study at 10 such sites on Long Island in 2013, not a single mink showed up.

“The mink situation is a shock,” Bottini told Greater Long Island.

Bottini said much of the mink’s preferred habitat — wetlands and salt marshes — still exists and is protected on Long Island, though the reason for their apparent decline remains unknown.

He also flagged trapping as a possible complicating factor, noting that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation currently permits the trapping of mink, gray fox, striped skunk and long-tailed weasel on Long Island.

The semi-aquatic animal’s appearance came within the same month as the world’s largest manta ray was caught lurking in Long Island waters in another rare appearance.

The majestic manta ray — which inhabits tropical, subtropical and temperate regions — was spotted feeding in the waters of Jones Beach State Park in August.

The magnificent sea creature can live up to 40 years and grow to more than 4,000 pounds, according to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Efforts to rescue missing tourists after catastrophic flooding in Nepal are yielding little hope as rescue teams face extreme challenges in accessing those who might still be alive.

The devastating aftermath saw thousands feared dead as a massive deluge of mud, stones, and icy water mowed through Rasuwa valley, demolishing concrete structures and obliterating entire villages, reminiscent of a blockbuster disaster film.

Haunting scenes have surfaced showing villagers in dire straits, trying to salvage survival necessities from swirling debris and rubble left in the flood’s wake.

Unpublishable graphic footage reveals bodies being recovered along the riverbanks, bearing the brutal force of the water’s destructive power.

According to the US Geological Survey, the deluge resulted from a ‘glacial collapse,’ where a massive 2,000-foot ice chunk detached, leading to ‘catastrophic impacts downstream.’

Rescuers said last night 157 bodies had been pulled from the water and rubble, but the death toll was expected to climb significantly. 

One emergency worker said it would take hours to reach stricken areas because of the 5ft-deep sediment blocking roads.

More than 300 of those missing were tourists, who had been visiting the area for the hiking and religious pilgrimages for which it is famed. 

Families of the 33 Britons, including a schoolgirl – who were in the area but are now uncontactable – have told the Daily Mail of their anguished wait for information. 

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to do ‘everything we can’ to support Britons caught up in the nightmare.

Also among the missing were 133 Indians, 53 Ukrainians, 47 Americans, 34 Australians, 24 Canadians and eight South Koreans.

A 13-year-old British girl and her parents are believed to have been among a tour party of 17 trekkers crossing the Nepal-China border at precisely the moment disaster struck.

One neighbour told the Daily Mail last night: ‘They’re a wonderful family. We’re devastated by this news and are praying that they’ll be OK.’

Britons aged 13 to 65 who were on the nine-day trek to Mount Kailash – a sacred site for Hindus and Buddhists.

Among the missing British nationals are three men aged 65, 64, and 52, and seven women aged 44, 47, 51, 60, 63, 63, and 65. 

Ram Kumar Adhikari, who runs Alpine Eco Trek, which organised the tour, said the group was last heard from at the Gyirong border crossing at 8.40am Nepal time.

Some 15 minutes later, a wave of mud and rubble swept down the valley and engulfed the crossing. 

Mr Adhikari said: ‘We had been receiving regular updates on the group’s progress. The group leader and guide were in constant contact and told us that the team had reached the Chinese immigration office at 7am.

‘Our group leader and guide remained online until 8.40am, so we assumed they had crossed immigration. There is no internet access on the Chinese side, so we had no reason to be immediately concerned.

‘Then we received news of the massive flood. You can see [in the video] people running in the footage, and some of them could be members of our group.

‘I feel so sad. We are just thinking about what to do next. We are in pain at the moment, deep pain.’

Four of his Nepalese tour guides, aged 45, 38, 35 and 29, are among the missing. A rescuer interviewed by China’s state broadcaster said they had been trying to make contact with the Gyirong border crossing but ‘so far there haven’t been any results’.

Mala Patel, 60, and Bipin Patel, 66, from Coventry, were on an organised pilgrimage in the area when the disaster struck.

Their son Anant Patel, 29, told the Daily Mail they were due to cross the border into Tibet to visit Mount Kailash, but have been uncontactable since the flood.

He said: ‘I haven’t been told anything, but I’ve obviously seen what’s happened on the news.

‘I wasn’t concerned about them in any way, but you don’t expect something like a natural disaster to happen.

‘I’ve tried ringing them and sent messages, but I’ve heard nothing back. They are uncontactable so I’m very worried. I’ve logged their details with the Foreign Office and I’m waiting to hear back.’

Mala and Bipin live in the leafy Stivichall area of Coventry. One neighbour, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Mail: ‘They are a lovely couple, I’ve known them for years.

‘Mala and Bipin work in the education and tutoring sector. They have an office in the house which they use daily. They are both Coventry City season ticket holders.

‘It’s a tight-knit community around here and everyone looks out for each other, so we’re all deeply concerned and just hoping for the best.’

Tour company Kailash Journeys confirmed it had not been able to account for seven UK nationals – five women and two men aged between 19 and 55 – travelling with the company. 

The flood was triggered near the border of Tibet, before a 30ft wall of freezing water mixed with rubble stormed down the path of the Trishulu river. Witnesses thought that they were seeing explosions caused by a military invasion.

Experts said the ‘snout’ of an entire glacier in the snow-capped Himalayas appears to have dislodged, sending iceberg-sized chunks cascading down to block the Lhende river, a tributary of the Trishuli.

Daniel Shugar, an earth scientist and professor at the University of Calgary, told the New York Times: ‘The bottom looks like a bomb exploded – it’s just deposits from the broken-up glacier.’

Simon Cook, a glaciologist at the University of Dundee, said: ‘This is a big chunk of ice that is stored at high elevation in the mountain.’

When it broke off, he explained, the force ‘pulverised’ the ice into water, creating a fast-flowing torrent.

Footage from the moment of impact  showed an astonishing level of destruction.

Terrifying CCTV video released by Chinese officials showed people running for their lives and lorries being knocked over and smashed to pieces.

Whole villages were washed away, stunned Nepalese officials said, but the full horror will not be known for days.

Terrified families scrambled up the region’s mountainous terrain to flee the onslaught of mud.

Roads, hydropower stations and bridges were all destroyed. In one harrowing video, filmed on a school bus, children screamed as their driver tried to get them away.

The Nepal army dispatched 14 helicopters and disaster response teams but the waters made it difficult for them to land close to the worst hit areas.

Local Kalpana Malla told the BBC: ‘My family members were swept away by the flood in front of my eyes. My father, my mother my sister and her kids were swept away. There was no chance at all.’

Suman Chalise, a 34-year-old teacher, said: ‘I witnessed the flood sweep away eight or nine trucks, along with houses and people. It was absolutely heart-wrenching. I had not witnessed such devastation before.’

In hard-hit Nuwakot district, upper floors of buildings, slathered in mud, were all that could be seen after the torrent surged by. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and stunned survivors were left caked in mud.

Shreedhar Neupane, a local journalist, said: ‘It was sheer panic. I saw thick, muddy slush flowing in a river where clean water once ran. I saw people swept away. I saw houses collapse and wash away. I saw strong bridges carried off by the water.’

Raju Bhadel, 56, said: ‘I got a call from my brother-in-law. They were crying and said their entire house had been swept away.’

Keshav Prasad Baral, 68, said: ‘My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.’

‘There is devastation everywhere we look,’ said Tula Bahadur in Rasuwa. ‘Settlements next to the river have been completely swept away. Five of my relatives are missing.’

Nepal’s prime minister Balendra Shah vowed ‘all the means and resources’ of the nation would be used to help victims.   

In Tibet, on the Chinese side of the border, military commander Chen Xi said ‘various loaders and excavators are being used to clear a path’ but he warned: ‘The mountain slopes around us could collapse at any time because the road runs along steep cliffs and there may also be a risk of another mudslide.’

The Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said the ‘exceptional speed and magnitude of the flood wave’ meant that in just moments the level of the Trishuli River rose by an incredible 9m (27ft). 

Before-and-after satellite imagery shows lush green mountainsides buried under brown debris and sediment.

Last night there were fears of a second flood. Alerts were issued in the populous northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which border Nepal.

Here, Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged to do ‘everything we can’ to support British nationals. 

He said: ‘These scenes emerging are devastating. My thoughts are with all those affected, including the families and loved ones of British nationals missing in this tragedy.’

A disturbing incident unfolded in Florida as a driver, trying to evade a traffic stop, collided head-on with a school bus filled with 19 children. The driver then abandoned his vehicle and fled the scene on foot, as reported by authorities.

The chaotic events of the Tuesday morning crash were captured on video, with footage showing the vehicle smashing into the Sumter County school bus. Meanwhile, police body cameras recorded a deputy in hot pursuit of the suspect, leading to his eventual capture.

Fortunately, none of the 19 children on board the bus were harmed, as confirmed by the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

The troubling incident began at approximately 7:20 a.m. when a deputy stationed near The Villages Intermediate Center to enforce school-zone traffic regulations observed Qahiem Williams allegedly speeding at 17 mph over the limit on County Road 466 close to Tatonka Terrace.

According to the sheriff’s office, the deputy made a U-turn and activated his emergency lights to initiate a traffic stop, but Williams allegedly accelerated and sideswiped two vehicles at a traffic light.

Authorities said the collisions damaged the axle of Williams’ vehicle, causing him to collide head-on with a Sumter County school bus on County Road 103.

Video taken from inside the bus shows the collision, with the driver’s side door of Williams’ vehicle appearing to open moments before impact.

Williams then allegedly got out of the vehicle and fled on foot, according to the sheriff’s office.

Body camera video shows a deputy pursuing Williams before apprehending him near a Walmart.

Williams was taken into custody and faces multiple charges, including fleeing or eluding, driving with a suspended license, possession of marijuana, leaving the scene of a crash, resisting an officer, hit-and-run and a moving traffic violation, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office website.

Authorities said Williams also had two outstanding Sumter County warrants for fleeing or eluding and driving with a suspended license.

Sumter County Sheriff Patrick Breeden condemned the alleged actions, saying they put children’s lives in danger.

“I have zero tolerance when it comes to actions that put our children’s lives in danger,” Breeden said in a statement.

“This suspect has a history of this type of behavior and our community is safer with him off our streets,” he added.

Williams was medically cleared before being transported to the Sumter County Detention Center, where authorities said he was being held without bond.

In a long-awaited decision, a military judge has declared that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-admitted planner behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will face trial in June 2028. This ruling was announced on Wednesday, marking nearly a quarter of a century since the tragic events shook the world.

Captured in 2003, Mohammed has been a resident of Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2006. His case, fraught with numerous legal hurdles and delays, now has a definitive date set on the horizon.

Presiding over the case, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama firmly set the trial’s starting point, stating, “Trial on the merits shall begin on Monday, 5 June 2028.” This decision outlines a long path yet to be traveled in this significant case.

While prosecutors aimed for an earlier start date of 2027, the judge determined that timeframe was too ambitious, reflecting the complexity and ramifications surrounding the proceedings.

This trial date follows an extensive legal battleground, including a once-considered plea deal that added further complexity and was ultimately dismissed. The move towards a trial is seen as a vital step in resolving one of the longest-running issues in U.S. military and legal history.

In July 2024, Mohammed and two other 9/11 defendants held at Guantanamo Bay reached a plea agreement with military prosecutors under which they would plead guilty to all charges, including the murder of 2,976 people, in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table.

Under the deal, Mohammed would have served a life sentence at Guantanamo.

The agreement drew criticism from some 9/11 families and just a few days later then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the deal.

“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” Austin wrote.

After attorneys for the defendants objected, the Biden administration later took the matter to federal court in an attempt to continue to block the plea deal.

Last July, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled 2-1 that Austin had acted within his authority to revoke the deal.

The prosecution of Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters detained at Guantanamo has been delayed by more than a decade over concerns about the admissibility of evidence gathered through torture when they were previously detained at the CIA’s “black sites.”

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, marking the start of a series of coordinated attacks that day against the United States by the Afghanistan-based terrorist group al-Qaeda. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day and thousands more were injured.

Following five intense weeks of testimony in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, the judge has granted the jury the option to deliberate on a manslaughter charge as they consider the mother’s future.

At the age of 36, Clancy faces serious accusations of deliberately strangling her three children—Cora, aged five; Dawson, aged three; and eight-month-old Callan—using exercise bands at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.

In a tragic sequence of events, she reportedly attempted suicide afterward by slitting her wrists and neck before leaping from a second-story window, resulting in paralysis from the waist down.

With the presentation of evidence now complete and the final witness dismissed, the judge convened a charging conference on Wednesday to decide which lesser homicide charges the jurors should be allowed to evaluate during their deliberation.

Judge William Sullivan has introduced the possibility of a manslaughter charge to the jury, providing them with a potential lesser conviction in lieu of a murder charge, which carries the severity of a life sentence.

Clancy’s parents walked out of court grinning from ear to ear, appearing visibly relieved after the proceeding. 

Three charges are now on the table: first-degree murder, second-degree murder and manslaughter – though it was not specified which form of manslaughter. Her defense had previously sought an involuntary manslaughter charge.

The charging conference marked a critical moment for Clancy, with her defense arguing that postpartum psychosis and her heavily medicated state should give jurors a path to a lesser conviction than murder. 

Prosecutors, however, argue that she deliberately killed her children as part of a plan that involved sending her husband, Patrick Clancy, out on errands while she strangled the children in the basement before attempting to take her own life. 

The labor and delivery nurse has already admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity. Her goal is to be committed to a state mental health facility rather than sent to prison.

But the one key question still remains: Is she criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children?

‘It’s going to be basically an up or down vote from the jury on whether she had the mental capacity to understand that what she did was wrong and the mental capacity to avoid doing what she knew was wrong,’ David Rossman, director of the Criminal Law Clinical Program at Boston University, told CT Insider.

The stakes are enormous for Clancy, with each of the three charges carrying vastly different consequences. 

First-degree murder  

During opening statements, prosecutors argued that Clancy ‘deliberately and meticulously’ killed her children and ‘acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal.’

Boiling the case down to its most fundamental question, they asked: ‘Did Clancy know what she was doing, and could she control her actions?’

Prosecutors have pushed for jurors to be instructed on first-degree murder, the most serious option before the jury.

If convicted on all three counts, Clancy would face the harshest possible punishment: life behind bars without the possibility of parole. 

In Massachusetts, prosecutors bear the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Clancy was criminally responsible at the time of the killings.

They can argue either that she was not suffering from a mental disease or defect, or that, despite any such condition, she understood her actions and could control her behavior. 

Under state law, first-degree murder requires prosecutors to prove deliberate premeditation, meaning the defendant formed an intent to kill and had time to think about it before carrying out the act. 

A killing can also constitute first-degree murder if it was committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or while the defendant was committing or attempting to commit certain felonies. 

But even if jurors conclude Clancy intentionally killed her children, they must still decide whether severe postpartum mental illness and depression left her not criminally responsible for the killings. 

If jurors reject her defense and find her guilty of first-degree murder, Clancy would automatically face life in prison with no possibility of parole. 

Second-degree murder  

Prosecutors have also pressed for second-degree murder to be put on the table – still a murder conviction, but less severe than first degree. 

That distinction is important: second-degree murder does not necessarily mean a less intentional killing, but rather one that fails to meet the legal requirements for first degree.

If jurors convict Clancy of second-degree murder, she would still face life behind bars, but unlike a first-degree conviction, she could eventually be eligible for parole. 

Another possible, but unlikely, outcome is that jurors could find Clancy not guilty of murder because prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she killed the children.

Still, the defense has never disputed that the children died at Clancy’s hands. 

‘Since she’s conceded that she in fact committed the crime, in terms of the physical act that caused the death of the children, I don’t think the judge is going to instruct them on the basic not guilty verdict,’ Rossman said, according to CT Insider.

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A conviction for either first- or second-degree murder would send Clancy to prison, though she would likely still have access to psychiatric and medical treatment behind bars. 

Involuntary manslaughter 

Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington opened the trial with a starkly different question: ‘The issue for consideration is what was going on in that woman’s mind?’

He sought to put involuntary manslaughter on the table for jurors, arguing Clancy was suffering from a ‘toxic soup’ of over-prescribed medications. 

Under Massachusetts’ 2026 model jury instructions, a lesser offense can be put before jurors when the evidence gives them a rational basis to reject the greater charge but still convict on the lesser one. 

As part of the proposed jury instructions, Reddington argued that Clancy’s heavily medicated state amounted to involuntary intoxication, severely impairing her ability to control her behavior or act with deliberate clarity.

The charge is substantially less serious than first-degree murder, but prosecutors have pushed back, arguing there is insufficient evidence to warrant giving jurors the option. 

Involuntary manslaughter applies when someone causes another person’s death without intending to kill them, but does so through sufficiently reckless or unlawful conduct.

Prosecutors generally must prove that reckless conduct by the defendant caused the death – a dramatically different standard from first-degree murder.

The distinction is crucial: first-degree murder requires proof of deliberate intent to kill, while involuntary manslaughter involves an unintended death caused by criminally reckless conduct.

If the judge puts the charge before the jury and Clancy is convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison. 

Voluntary manslaughter  

While it is unclear whether Reddington also sought voluntary manslaughter, it too is a lesser charge – though vastly different from involuntary manslaughter.

Voluntary manslaughter is an intentional killing, but one committed under circumstances that make the defendant less culpable than a murderer. 

A classic example is a killing in the heat of passion after a triggering act causes a sudden loss of self-control, though Massachusetts law sets its own specific requirements. 

It appears Reddington specifically sought an involuntary manslaughter instruction, tying the lesser charge to his argument that Clancy was severely intoxicated and over-medicated when her children died. 

Even so, a conviction could still land her in state prison for up to 20 years under Massachusetts law. 

Not criminally responsible  

Jurors could also find Clancy not criminally responsible, or ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ – the outcome her defense has spent the past several weeks fighting for. 

In Massachusetts, a person is not criminally responsible if a ‘mental disease or defect’ left them unable to understand that their actions were wrong or unable to follow the law. 

But a finding of not criminally responsible would not mean Clancy simply walks free and returns to life as usual.

Under state law, Clancy could be hospitalized for up to 40 days for ‘observation and examination,’ with prosecutors or hospital officials then able to seek her involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility. 

A judge could order Clancy confined to a psychiatric facility if she is found to be mentally ill and her release would ‘create a likelihood of serious harm,’ under state law. 

A psychiatric commitment typically begins with six months and can be renewed in one-year increments. 

That means Clancy could potentially spend the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital unless a judge determines she is no longer a danger to herself or others. 

Since the killings, she has been confined within the clinical corridors of Tewksbury State Hospital, behind the doors of the pre-Civil War psychiatric facility. 

There, confined to a wheelchair, she receives round-the-clock care for her physical and mental health.

Hung jury

Clancy’s panel includes 12 women and six men, but only 12 will ultimately decide her fate, with the remaining six serving as alternates and dismissed before deliberations begin. 

In Massachusetts, a jury verdict must be unanimous. 

Should jurors fail to reach a unanimous verdict, Clancy could face a hung jury, leaving them deadlocked over whether she is guilty.

If jurors become stuck, the judge can order them to continue deliberating and give additional instructions encouraging them to reconsider their positions and work toward a unanimous verdict. 

‘But if in the end they can’t, then it’s a mistrial and the prosecution would be free again to try with a different jury,’ Rossman told CT Insider. 

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.