Judge denies Sean 'Diddy' Combs' request to delay May 5 trial

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Judge denies Sean 'Diddy' Combs' request to delay May 5 trial

2025-04-19 01:49 Last Updated At：01:51

NEW YORK (AP) — The sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will proceed as scheduled in early May despite his lawyer’s claims that they need an extra two months to prepare, a judge said Friday.

Judge Arun Subramanian said at a Manhattan federal court hearing that the hip-hop mogul’s trial, projected to last from eight to 10 weeks, will start May 5.

Lawyers for the entertainer had requested a two-month delay, citing a need for more time to gather information about trial witnesses and to cope with late additions to the indictment against their client.

But the judge, noting that Combs has at least four attorneys, said the defense has sufficient time to be ready for trial next month. He said he would not grant a delay and allow a “fishing expedition” to seek more evidence.

Combs, 55, who has been held without bail since his September arrest, turned toward the courtroom's spectators after the hearing so he could face his mother. He gave a thumbs-up toward her and two other supporters, including a man who wore a “Free Puff” sweatshirt. He has pleaded not guilty.

During Friday's hearing, Subramanian made rulings about evidence and how the trial will proceed.

Among his rulings, he said accusers who are called as witnesses by the government can testify under pseudonyms to protect their identities.

He also refused a defense request to toss out several charges in the indictment returned against Combs.

Prosecutors say Combs coerced and abused women for two decades, using his “power and prestige” as a music star to silence victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.

They say the Bad Boy Records founder induced female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs.”

Defense lawyers have said the government is mischaracterizing the relationship Combs had with former long-term girlfriends to criminalize consensual sexual conduct.

An elaborate centuries-old royal ritual in Thailand's capital predicts a good year for farmers

2025-05-09 16:55 Last Updated At：17:00

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn presided Friday over an elaborate annual ceremony that marks the start of the rice-planting season and honors the nation's farmers.

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony is held to read auguries that predict the farming conditions for the year ahead. As is usually the case, good times were predicted, even though Thailand's economy is sluggish.

The King and Queen Suthida were sheltered from the bright sun by ornate umbrellas at the ceremony’s traditional venue, Sanam Luang, or “Royal Ground,” a large field near the Grand Palace in the capital Bangkok.

According to Thai historians, the ritual goes back some 700 years. Then, as now, the cultivation of rice was central to the country’s culture and economy, and the ceremony is meant to give encouragement to farmers as the new planting season begins.

The ceremony was led by the highest-ranking civil servant in the Agriculture Ministry, serving as the Lord of the Ploughing Ceremony. In a colorful traditional costume, he chose from a selection of cloths, and the one he picked was interpreted to signify satisfactory rainfall and an abundant harvest.

In the ceremony’s second stage, he anointed the heads of two “sacred” oxen, who then pulled a plough around a section of the field several times, as he scattered seeds at the front of a small procession with more traditionally garbed participants.

The two oxen, called “Por” and “Piang” — which together mean “sufficiency” — then chose from a selection of food offered by Brahmin priests. The foods chosen were water, grass and liquor, which symbolize adequate water supplies, abundance of food supplies and what was interpreted as good international trade, respectively.

After the departure of the king and queen, onlookers sprinted onto the field to collect the scattered seeds as souvenirs or to add to their own rice stores at home for a meritorious mix.