A judge adds 11 years to the sentence for a man in a Chicago bomb plot

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A judge adds 11 years to the sentence for a man in a Chicago bomb plot

2024-07-20 07:33 Last Updated At：07:40

CHICAGO (AP) — A man convicted of plotting to blow up a Chicago bar will have to spend another 11 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly resentenced Adel Daoud to 27 years in prison on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman originally sentenced Daoud to 16 years in prison in 2019 but a federal appellate court threw that sentence out in 2020, saying the punishment wasn’t tough enough, and ordered him resentenced.

Daoud, of suburban Hilldale, was arrested in an FBI sting in September 2012 after pushing a button on a remote he believed would set off a car bomb outside the Cactus Bar & Grill.

Daoud said he wanted to kill at least 100 people, according to government court filings. He was 18 years old at the time.

Daoud entered an Alford plea, a legal maneuver in which a defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him if he were to go to trial. He also entered Alford pleas to charges that he solicited the killing of an FBI agent who participated in the sting and that he attacked a person with whom he was incarcerated with a shank fashioned from a toothbrush after the person drew a picture of the prophet Muhammad.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Daoud represented himself at the resentencing on Friday but online court records indicate attorney Quinn Michaelis is representing him. Michaelis didn't immediately respond to an email early Friday evening from The Associated Press seeking comment on the resentencing.

The AP called Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center, where the Chicago Tribune reported Daoud is being held, in an attempt to reach him and offer him an opportunity to comment, but the phone there rang unanswered.

Venice Film Festival wrap-up: Awards, buzz and Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’

2024-09-07 23:04 Last Updated At：23:10

VENICE, Italy (AP) — The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival is coming to close Saturday, with the world premiere of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2” and the awards ceremony.

With no real consensus pick going into the evening, eyes are focused on what the Isabelle Huppert-led jury will bestow prizes upon this year. Many of the 21 titles playing in competition have been divisive, with passionate supporters and detractors.

Among the highest profile of the films up for the top prize include: Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the not-a-musical-musical with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga ; Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas film “Maria,” starring Angela Jolie as the famed soprano; the erotic thriller “Babygirl” in which Nicole Kidman gets entangled in a complicated affair with an intern, played by Harris Dickinson; Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burroughs adaptation “Queer,” with Daniel Craig as a junkie expat obsessed with a young student; Brady Corbet’s 215-minute post-war epic about an architect and a Holocaust survivor rebuilding a life in America, “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody; and Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language mediation on death and friendship, “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Five years ago, the Venice jury surprised the film world by giving the Golden Lion to “Joker,” which went on to win a best actor Oscar for Phoenix. Last year the top award went to “Poor Things” and the year before, the documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”

Though always a player in the international festival scene, Venice has cemented its reputation as a major launching pad for awards campaigns over the past 12 years. Since 2014, they’ve hosted four best picture winners (“Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland”) and 19 nominees. And buzz is already swirling about possible best actress nominations for Kidman and Jolie, actor for Craig and supporting actress for Gaga, as the fall film season kicks into full gear.

The festival this year marked a return to form with true A-listers back on the Lido to celebrate films both in and out of competition after last year’s strike addled outing. In addition to the names above, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Sigourney Weaver were all lending their star power to the event.

And many rose to the occasion with their fashion. Gaga’s Christian Dior gown paired with a vintage lace Philip Treacy headpiece made for a major red-carpet moment. As was Kidman’s body hugging Schiaparelli, Blanchett’s Armani Privé with strands of pearls cascading down her back, and Jolie with her fur stole. Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig also played the power couple, with her in a glittery blue Versace gown and him in a cream Loewe suit. The “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” cast did also did a spin on the movie’s aesthetic with their wares.

The last major film premiering, out of competition, is the second part of Kevin Costner’s self-financed passion project. The first installment had a glitzy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, but after that fizzled at the box office earlier this summer, the August release of “Chapter Two” was delayed. Instead, it would go the festival route as well.

For more coverage of the 2024 Venice Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival.