An Arizona teenager has been charged with assault following an incident in which he and two friends allegedly targeted his ex-girlfriend “relentlessly” during a gym class. The attack, involving dodgeballs, reportedly left the girl with bruises.

Abel Schipper, the accused, insisted that he did not intend to harm his classmate when he, along with his pals, launched dodgeballs at her during warm-ups at Mayer High School, located about an hour from Phoenix, back in December 2025.

“I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt. And these are small ones too. So you can squeeze them and like they compress and stuff,” Schipper explained to AZ Family on Wednesday.

A social worker involved in the case contacted the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office soon after the alleged incident, claiming the boys had “relentlessly assaulted her with dodgeballs when she came out of the bathroom.”

According to a police report acquired by the outlet, the girl was reportedly hospitalized with significant bruising on her upper right rib cage and lower right abdomen as a result of the incident.

Schipper and the other boys told police that the dodgeball warm-up was already underway when they targeted the girl and were adamant it wasn’t malicious.

Schipper admitted to the outlet that he threw a dodgeball at his ex-girlfriend and “hit her,” while another boy missed and a third “also hit” her.

“Obviously I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball. It’s dodgeball,” the 13-year-old said. “You have to choose somebody, throw the ball, then try to get them out.”

The teen’s mother, Cecily Schipper, told AZ Family she had no idea police had interviewed her son at school over the incident — only finding out months later when a letter from the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center arrived informing her that Abel had been charged with misdemeanor assault.

“It is absolutely ridiculous. This is a game that every kid in the nation plays at some point in their life,” the mother told the outlet.

“They’re considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE.”

Cecily Schipper said she would understand her son would deserve “punishment” if the situation was “boys will be boys,” but thinks things have gone too far.

She then claimed that her son’s ex-girlfriend allegedly texted her “for rides home after this incident happened in December.”

“It’s just strange. And I was friends with her mom as well,” she said.

The case goes before a judge on Aug. 17.

In 2019, a 10-year-old Michigan boy faced charges of assault when he was accused of throwing a dodgeball at a student’s head, which injured the peer, during a schoolyard game.

The boy’s mother, Cameishi Triplett Lindley, said at the time that the ball thrown by her son resulted in a student suffering a concussion, according to a Facebook fundraiser at the time.

Her son was suspended from school and charged with assault, which were dropped after the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office reviewed the case, according to CBS.

The convicted killer of Cash App founder Bob Lee intends to argue that racial prejudice influenced the outcome of his trial as he prepares an appeal.

Nima Momeni is scheduled to return to a San Francisco courtroom on Friday for an evidentiary hearing. This session is a crucial step in his effort to overturn the murder conviction of Lee.

Momeni, aged 42, was found guilty of stabbing 43-year-old Lee to death in April 2023 and now faces a potential sentence ranging from 16 years to life imprisonment.

His legal team is preparing to argue that the prosecution breached the guidelines of California’s Racial Justice Act during the trial.

According to Courthouse News, the upcoming hearing aims to address remarks made during the trial that referred to Momeni, who is Iranian-born, as an ‘animal’ and included other dehumanizing characterizations that questioned his mental stability.

Momeni’s defense team are also set to submit evidence that the prosecution emphasized the keffiyeh, a traditional Middle Eastern headscarf, and other ethnically rooted tactics in the prosecution’s strategy, the outlet reported. 

Daniel Shriro, Momeni’s attorney, told Courthouse News in a statement that he was looking forward to the hearing. 

The law passed in 2020 prohibits ‘biased based on race, ethnicity, or national origin in charges, convictions and sentences.’ 

‘The prosecution made an argument, “this is the type of person to do this,”‘ Shriro said on Tuesday, the outlet reported. 

‘It’s bad because it’s character evidence; it’s worse because the traits are linked to the defendant’s ethnicity and racial group.’ 

Assistant District Attorney Natalie Fuchs said that she believed the racial bias evidence presented ‘lacked specificity where particular issues occurred.’

She added that descriptors such as ‘animal’ and ‘psycho’ were taken from text messages or testimony from Momeni’s sister. 

‘The evidence, if you can even call that evidence, does not rise to that threshold,’ Fuchs added.

Momeni stabbed Lee three times in April 2023 after hearing that his drug-dealing friend allegedly plied his younger sister, Khazar Momeni, with GHB and other drugs and sexually assaulted her.

In lengthy testimony, she accused the alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Boivin, of giving her the ‘date rape’ drug GHB, pulling her pants down and sexually assaulting her while she remained unconscious. 

Khazar stated that Lee brought Boivin to her home on the morning of April 3, 2023, the day before the fatal stabbing.

‘I did not know he’s a drug dealer, as we don’t get close to our drug dealers or invite them upstairs even. He was introduced to me as a friend,’ she said. ‘[H]e brought me a big tank of nitrous and he had a big bottle of a liter of GHB.’ 

Khazar later went to Boivin’s home, where Lee and another friend also stopped by. After Lee and his friend left, she claimed she passed out after consuming drugs.

She told the court that she had consumed three shots of a drink mixed with GHB before ‘passing out.’

‘He asked me about GHB and gave me, like, this sweet little drink, a little shot. And I drank it. I thought I could trust him,’ Khazar said.

‘I remember waking up twice: One time he (Boivin) pulled down my pants and slapped my ass. And another time he grabbed my ass, but I couldn’t move or do anything.’

At a party, on the night of the murder, Momeni confronted Lee about his sister, asking if she was doing drugs or ‘anything inappropriate.’ According to a witness, Lee told Momeni that nothing inappropriate had happened.

Momeni and Lee met up again later that night at Khazar’s luxury apartment in Millennium Tower.

Surveillance footage showed the two getting into Momeni’s white BMW at around 2am on April 4 and leave the scene.

He drove Lee to a secluded area several streets over, where he stabbed the Cash App founder multiple times with a kitchen knife and left him to bleed out. 

The tech mogul was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. Lee later died in hospital. 

‘One person called 911 pleading for help, saying somebody stabbed me,’ said Dane Reinstedt, assistant district attorney, adding that the other person never called police or told anyone what happened that night until the trial.

But defense attorneys said Lee had been on a multi-day drug bender of cocaine and ketamine that made him agitated and violent, and that he attacked the defendant with a knife. 

They said Momeni was forced to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, after ‘making a ‘bad joke’ that upset Lee – and did not realize he had stabbed him.

Lee’s ex-wife, Krista Lee, said her former spouse could have given anyone the ‘shirt off his back.’ 

‘Had Bob been approached by someone that was trying to mug him, he would’ve given him, them, the shirt off his back, his wallet, his keys, his clothes. He would’ve said: “Hey, man, let me buy you a meal. Please don’t hurt me,”‘ she told Dateline. 

Momeni is yet to be sentenced and remains in a San Francisco County Jail. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Assistant DA Fuchs and Momeni’s lawyer Daniel Shiro. 

The United States has long cautioned about Hamas misusing civilian and humanitarian aid to bolster its terrorist infrastructure. Such actions spark ongoing concerns about the ability to prevent funds entering Gaza from ending up in the hands of the terror group, especially as a new U.S.-supported governing body readies to assume control.

Repeated investigations by the Treasury Department have unveiled extensive Hamas financial networks. These include clandestine investment portfolios and bogus charities that solicit donations under the guise of humanitarian work while, in reality, channeling support to Hamas’ military operations.

These issues resurfaced recently when Israel’s Kan News reported a clause in the Board of Peace’s Gaza plan. This provision could potentially direct up to $400 million to address arrears accumulated under Hamas’ governance, targeting debts owed to public-sector employees, suppliers, and contractors.

The debate focuses on whether a new administration can honor these debts from Hamas’ near two-decade rule without inadvertently aiding the terrorist group. Critics express fear that such actions could relieve financial burdens tied to Hamas or lead to resources being skimmed off by the group while it still maintains influence locally. However, Board officials maintain that the initiative aims to empower a successor government to sustain vital services and strengthen ties with legitimate workers and vendors. Each financial claim would undergo rigorous vetting to ensure no funds aid Hamas in any manner.

Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, sharply rejected the characterization that the provision amounted to a financial agreement with Hamas.

“The claims that there is a financial agreement between the Board of Peace and Hamas are false,” Mladenov wrote in Hebrew on X Wednesday, adding that no such proposal had been “discussed, negotiated, or considered.” He said the Board’s objective remained the complete disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of civilian governance backed by an international security presence.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told News Media that he remained alarmed by the provision.

“I’m deeply concerned about these reports. Terrorists use money as fungible and they build credibility by having international donors finance their debts, which is why Congress long ago banned money from going to Palestinian governments in the West Bank,” Cruz said.

“We also know that international donors paid for Hamas to build terrorist infrastructure across the Gaza Strip in the first place, and shouldn’t be trusted to direct reimbursement money,” Cruz continued. “Hamas should be utterly eradicated before new resources flow into Gaza.”

A senior Board of Peace official, speaking to News Media on background Thursday, pushed back on the premise that the roadmap commits $400 million to paying Hamas’ debts.

“There’s really just a commitment to analyze when we get the data. There’s no commitment to fund anything. We don’t have an obligation to even do $400 million,” the official said.

The official described the provision as a three-year review process, capped at $400 million, under which the successor Gaza administration could determine whether particular unpaid obligations need to be resolved in order to maintain essential services and relationships with legitimate suppliers.

“This notion that there’s a $400 million payoff vehicle, Hamas kind of has a commitment for it — none of that is true,” the official said. “If anybody’s gonna start running with a narrative that a $400 million committed tab is beginning now … that would just be incorrect reporting. That’s not the deal.”

“No one’s picking up a tab right now,” the official added, saying any review would take place only after the new Gaza administration gains access to financial records allowing it to determine who the creditors are, what services they provided and whether those relationships are needed going forward.

“Even the first dollar of the $400 million, we’re going to evaluate that first dollar,” the official said. “It’s not going to be a blank check handed to Hamas. It’s going to be evaluated, rigorously analyzed.”

The official compared the process to a corporate restructuring, arguing that while Hamas is being permanently removed from government, the successor administration cannot necessarily walk away from every legitimate obligation accumulated during the previous government’s rule.

He offered the example of a European pharmaceutical company that supplied medicine to Gaza hospitals but was never paid. If the new administration needs that company to continue supplying medicine, he said, resolving some of its unpaid invoices could be necessary to maintain the relationship.

“The theme here, really, is continuity of services,” the official said.

Disarmament could precede payments area by area

The official did not say that Hamas would have to be fully disarmed across the entire Gaza Strip before the first claim could potentially be paid.

“The reality is that this is going to be community by community,” the official said, explaining that the successor administration is expected to move into individual areas as Hamas disarms there.

Asked whether Hamas would have to be completely removed from Gaza before the new administration could resolve an outstanding liability — for example, involving a hospital in Rafah — the official said a payment could occur even if Hamas had not yet been fully removed elsewhere in the Strip.

“The idea is that where those decisions are made, Hamas is not gonna be there,” he said.

When News Media asked specifically whether it was accurate to say money would not be transferred into areas where Hamas remained in control, the official said: “It’s accurate to say.”

The official acknowledged that more complicated cases could arise if the same supplier operates in both Hamas-free and Hamas-controlled portions of Gaza. Officials might then have to determine whether to reimburse only the portion associated with the area controlled by the successor government or negotiate some other arrangement necessary to maintain the service.

Board pushes back on fungibility concern

Cruz’s central criticism is that money is fungible: if international donors satisfy obligations accumulated under Hamas rule, resources that might otherwise have been needed to cover those liabilities could theoretically be used elsewhere.

The Board official rejected that argument, saying Hamas is insolvent and was never going to pay many of the outstanding creditors in the first place.

“It’s not as though we’re alleviating them from their budget that they actually were going actually go pay that $100, and now they get to save it,” the official said.

“They were never paying for it in the first place,” he continued. “We’re making a decision separate and apart from Hamas, whether this fits into our budget and our relationships.”

The official described Hamas as “dead insolvent right now” and “financially, completely, completely in shambles.”

News Media also pressed the official on a separate concern: even if money is never transferred directly to Hamas, could the group extract taxes, payments or other benefits from suppliers or employees receiving funds while it remains armed elsewhere?

“If there’s a risk that some of the money is going to still end up in the hands of Hamas, then we’re going to shut it down,” the official said.

He said officials would examine each recipient, the services provided and where the money ultimately would go.

“If Hamas is not fully disarmed … can it end up in their hands? If the answer to that question is yes, then they’re not going to get money,” he said. “That is crystal clear.”

The official also disclosed that the Board intends to try to recover assets it believes Hamas stole and use those assets, where possible, to satisfy legitimate obligations.

“We are going to make a real effort to go and try to recover those assets and use some of those assets, where we have found theft … to satisfy some of these obligations,” he said.

If recovered assets are insufficient, the official said outside funding would come from countries in the region rather than Washington.

“This is coming from regional partners. This is not coming from the United States,” he said.

In a startling turn of events, a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) suggests that a bird strike might have compromised a Ryanair cabin window, nearly resulting in a passenger being pulled out of the aircraft.

According to the findings, the incident occurred aboard Malta Air Flight 1879, operating a Boeing 737-8AS. The aircraft was ascending beyond 16,000 feet on July 10, having just departed Greece en route to Germany when a fan blade in the right engine broke, as reported by the NTSB.

The dislodged blade inflicted significant damage, shattering a cabin window and leading to a sudden drop in cabin pressure, which added more gravity to the mid-air incident.

In their detailed investigation, officials discovered bird remains, including feathers, scattered within the compromised engine. Noteworthy is the prior history of the aircraft, with its right engine enduring four suspected bird strikes in the year leading up to this event.

While examining the fractured fan blade, investigators observed signs of severe fatigue, noting organic residue transferred onto adjacent blades, raising concerns about the engine’s durability and exposure to bird strikes.

The NTSB, alongside international safety authorities, is continuing its probe to determine whether the bird strike was the sole cause of the catastrophic engine failure.

The report pointed out that the airplane’s engine covers hadn’t been updated with stronger safety bolts required by recent Federal Aviation Administration rules — though the airline wasn’t breaking any laws, as they still have until July 2028 to implement those safety mandates. 

Meanwhile, Ljubisa Karović was shockingly almost vacuumed out of the airplane midair through the blown-out window at his seat, 11F.

Fellow passengers heroically held on to Karović, 61, and prevented him from being sucked out of the aircraft.

A Serbian national and entrepreneur, Karović told The Guardian that since his incredible near-death experience, it’s the moments before the “chaos, the catastrophe” that keep him awake at night. 

“The explosion is what I remember,” he said. “It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep.

“They tell me I fainted twice and again inside the plane and that my face was briefly swollen and deformed because of the pressure, the rush of air.”

Although the father-of-two suffered serious burns and bruises on his right arm — which span from his armpit to chest — he considers himself lucky to be alive.

“I don’t remember much and my head and neck still hurt,” he told the outlet, “but I am still alive.”

“I am lucky.”

An American missionary and pilot, who was abducted in Niger last autumn, has reportedly been freed and is now making his way back to the United States.

Kevin Rideout, a 50-year-old aviator affiliated with an evangelical organization, was captured on October 21 by three unknown assailants just outside his residence in Niamey, the nation’s capital. Startlingly close to the presidential palace, this incident was first reported by Christianity Today. 

Eyewitnesses reported that the armed abductors headed toward the Tillaberi region, an area notorious for militant activity linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda.

The incident prompted the U.S. Embassy in Niamey to issue an urgent security alert the next day, cautioning American citizens about an escalated risk of kidnappings in the area.

A State Department representative informed CBS News, “We are witnessing coordinated efforts across the government aimed at ensuring the safe return of this U.S. citizen.”

Rideout’s release has since become a priority for the Trump White House and the military’s Africa Command, who were successfully able to bring him back into American custody on Thursday, two officials familiar with the matter told The New York Times.

Details about how exactly Rideout was released remain unclear. It is also unclear which terrorist or criminal group held the missionary at the end of his captivity, as he may have recently been moved, according to one official.

But he appeared to be in good health based on proof-of-life images that were provided to American officials over the past 48 hours, one of the officials said.

Rideout had been working in Niger as a Christian missionary for 19 years. 

He also worked as a pilot for Serving in Mission, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based organization that bills itself as a ‘global mission family serving in 70 countries’ with a focus on outreach to communities with few Christians.

Experts have suggested he was likely taken by the Islamic State Sahel Province or criminal groups connected to the terrorist organization.

In recent years, the group and its rivals have grown in strength in parts of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso due to a security vacuum caused by junta leaders kicking out Western military assistance and closing the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali in 2023. 

That same year, Niger’s general Abdourahamane Tiani ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in a military coup. Tiani then vowed to restore security and ordered foreign troops, including the US military, to vacate the landlocked country.

In the aftermath, the military government started to view foreign missionaries as spies and barred them from entering villages and remote areas, Olu Sunday, president and CEO of Royal Missionary Outreach International in Nigeria and Niger said.

Moussa Djibo, a Nigerian missionary with Calvary Ministries in Niamey, also noted that in the mission school he attended, teachers told students that dying in the mission field was a very real probability. 

Rideout’s abduction also came as thousands of Christians and Muslims were killed in land disputes, sectarian violence and terrorism, which Christian activists and Republican lawmakers have viewed as persecution of Christians.

Analysts, however, say there is no clear evidence to suggest that Christians are attacked more frequently than any other religious groups in the country.

Officials in neighboring Nigeria have since allowed US forces to fly surveillance missions from its bases, in part to locate Rideout, as American soldiers helped the country with training and surveillance in its fight against jihadists. 

In March, the State Department’s top Africa official, Nick Checker, also made a series of trips to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in an effort to share intelligence and get American troops in the air searching for Rideout, according to the Africa Report.

The Trump administration even reportedly lifted sanctions on three Malian officials linked to Russian security forces in April in an effort to rekindle information sharing with the Alliance of Sahel States.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment. 

Tens of thousands of individuals and businesses in northwest Indiana remain grappling with power outages due to severe storms that struck earlier this week.

The ongoing electricity issues are hindering recovery efforts as the community works tirelessly to rebuild and recover.

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In the wake of the storms, over 260,000 NIPSCO customers were left in the dark by Thursday morning, marking it as the most significant power outage event the utility has ever faced, with initial outages affecting upwards of 301,000 customers.

NIPSCO projects that power will be restored to 90% of impacted homes and businesses by Tuesday, August 19, with a full restoration expected by Friday, August 21.

Adding to the tumultuous weather story, the National Weather Service confirmed that at least six tornadoes swept through the Chicago area on Tuesday, including two that touched down in parts of northwest Indiana.

The National Weather Service said an EF2 tornado traveled from Monee to Crete and another EF1 traveled from Orland Park to Flossmoor on Tuesday. A third tornado was confirmed in Will County around Mokena, the NWS said. The damage is consistent with an EF1 tornado. Two of the tornadoes traveled into Indiana. The National Weather Service on Wednesday also confirmed an EF0 tornado in the Oswego area. And an EF1 tornado was confirmed in Wilmington. On Thursday, a sixth tornado, an EF1, was confirmed in the Homewood area.

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