Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
The plot to attack Taylor Swift’s Vienna shows was intended to kill thousands
BERLIN | The suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests, the agency’s deputy director said.
The CIA notified Austrian authorities of the scheme, which allegedly included links to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancellation of three sold-out Eras Tour shows, devastating fans who had traveled across the globe to see Swift in concert.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen addressed the failed plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit, held this week in Maryland.
“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said Wednesday. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”
Austrian officials said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group. He allegedly planned to attack outside the stadium, where upwards of 30,000 fans were expected to gather, with knives or homemade explosives. Another 65,000 fans were likely to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect’s home.
Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, previously said help from other intelligence agencies was needed because Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign services, can’t legally monitor text messages.
The 19-year-old’s lawyer has said the allegations were “overacting at its best,” and contended Austrian authorities were “presenting this exaggeratedly” in order to get new surveillance powers.
Swift broke her silence about the cancellations last week after her London shows had concluded.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
She thanked authorities — “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote — and said she waited to speak until the European leg of her Eras Tour concluded to prioritize safety.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.
Swift’s publicist did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Concert organizer Barracuda Music said it canceled the three-night Vienna run that would have begun Aug. 8 because the arrests made in connection to the conspiracy were too close to showtime.
The main suspect and a 17-year-old were taken into custody on Aug. 6, the day before the cancellations were announced. A third suspect, 18, was arrested Aug. 8. Their names have not been released in line with Austrian privacy rules.
The shows in London, the next stop after Vienna, came on the heels of a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class that left three little girls dead in the U.K. In a statement issued after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “just completely in shock” and “at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.” News outlets reported that Swift met with some of the survivors backstage in London.
The Vienna plot also drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.
Cohen on Wednesday praised the CIA’s work in preventing the planned violence, saying that other counterterrorism “successes” in foiling plots typically go unheralded.
“I can tell you within my agency, and I’m sure in others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley,” he said, referring to the CIA headquarters. “And not just the Swifties in my workforce.”
The record-smashing tour is on hiatus until the fall.
Oasis adds three shows to its 2025 tour as fans clamor for tickets to Gallagher brothers’ reunion
LONDON | Oasis has added three more dates to its reunion tour of Britain and Ireland, citing “unprecedented demand,” as fans of the Britpop behemoths braced for a rush to secure tickets that start at about under $100.
The new shows announced Thursday are at Heaton Park in the band’s home city of Manchester, England on July 16, 2025, at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 30 and at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Aug. 12.
Oasis is now scheduled to play 17 gigs — its first shows for 15 years — in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin starting at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on July 4.
Oasis was one of the dominant British acts of the 1990s, producing hits including “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Its sound was fueled by singalong rock choruses and the combustible chemistry between guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher and his brother Liam, the band’s singer.
Oasis split in 2009, with Noel Gallagher quitting the band after a backstage dustup with his brother at a festival near Paris. Noel told the AP in a 2011 interview that he left after an incident in which younger brother Liam started wielding a guitar “like an axe … and he’s swinging this guitar around and he kind of you know, he took my face off with it, you know?”
While the Gallagher brothers, now aged 57 and 51, haven’t performed together since, both regularly perform Oasis songs at their solo gigs. They’ve also each fired off criticisms of the other in the press.
Announcing the reunion on Tuesday, the band said fans would experience “the spark and intensity” that occurs only when they appear on stage together.
The tour will begin July 4 and 5 at the Principality Stadium. Oasis will also perform in Manchester, on July 11, 12, 16, 19 and 20; in London on July 25, 26 and 30 and Aug. 2 and 3; in Edinburgh on Aug. 8, 9 and 12; and Croke Park in Dublin on Aug. 16 and 17.
The band said there are plans for Oasis to perform in “other continents outside of Europe later next year.” It scotched rumors Oasis would headline next year’s Glastonbury festival, saying no festival dates were planned.
Tickets go on sale Saturday at 8 a.m. (0700GMT, 3 a.m. EDT) in Ireland and an hour later in the U.K. Fans were also able to apply for a presale ballot to be held on Friday. It’s unclear how many tickets will be issued through the ballot.
Prices for the London, Cardiff and Edinburgh concerts range from about 74 pounds ($97) to just over 200 pounds ($260) for seats, and about 150 pounds (about $200) to stand. In Manchester, the cheapest tickets are 148 pounds ($195) to stand, with no seated option.
The costliest option is a 506-pound ($666) package for the London gigs that includes a pre-show party, admission to an Oasis exhibition, souvenirs and a “premium collectible item.”
Irish promoter MCD says tickets for the Dublin shows will start at 86.50 euros ($96) plus booking fee.
A Spanish YouTube chef gets life in prison for murder in Thailand
BANGKOK | A court in Thailand on Thursday found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that involved the victim being dismembered.
The Koh Samui Provincial Court issued an initial sentence of death for Sancho but commuted it to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the trial, said Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, who attended the hearing.
Sancho, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, had been charged with the murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, when both were vacationing on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year.
The island is famous for its monthly “Full Moon” beach parties, attracting travelers from around the world for all-night raves.
The convicted man is the son of Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, a prominent Spanish actor, and Silvia Bronchalo, who has also been in acting. Both parents are 49 years old and attended Thursday’s court session.
The court also ordered Sancho to pay more than 4.2 million baht ($125,000) in compensation to the victim’s family. Lawyers representing the family at the trial had asked for 30 million baht ($882,000), Spain’s EFE news agency reported.
EFE also quoted Sancho’s father Rodolfo telling media after the verdict that he intended “to always keep fighting, to keep fighting.”
At his trial on the island of Samui, Daniel Sancho had claimed he got into a fight with Arrieta for allegedly trying to sexually assault him. He said that Arrieta fell as they scuffled and hit his head on a bathtub, losing consciousness and then dying.
He had pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder.
Sancho acknowledged dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea. For the charge of concealing or damaging a body, he received a four-month prison sentence, reduced to two months for acknowledging the act, said Paisan.
He had also pleaded not guilty to the charge of destroying another person’s documents — the victim’s passport — for which he received a two-year prison term.
The elements of the case — violent death on a holiday island, the celebrity connections and the lurid details — attracted huge coverage in Spanish media. HBO produced a Spanish-language documentary on the events.
The case came to light when trash collectors found what the Bangkok Post newspaper described as a sawed-off pelvis and intestines weighing about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in a fertilizer sack at a garbage dump.
Shortly after that, Sancho reported to police that Arrieta was missing, and police then gathered evidence linking the two men that led them to detain and interrogate him.
Police established a narrative, claiming to the press that Sancho had confessed to the murder and saying he had planned it because Arrieta threatened to disgrace him and his family by revealing their alleged sexual relationship.
Sancho, through his father and his lawyers, said that was a distorted version of what he told police, and denied having a sexual relationship with Arrieta.
Police obtained surveillance video showing Sancho allegedly purchasing a knife, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning solutions at a convenience store before Arrieta’s death, which prosecutors claimed bolstered the charge of premeditated murder.
In his closing statement earlier in his trial, Sancho told the court he regretted his actions, the Spanish newspaper El País reported.
“I am sorry that a life has been lost and that parents have lost a son,” Sancho said. “I am sorry that his family was not able to bury him properly. I’m sorry for what I did after the death.”
Under certain conditions, Sancho can apply to be repatriated to serve the remainder of his prison term back home after several years of incarceration in Thailand, according to a treaty between Thailand and Spain.
The handful of Spanish nationals in Thai prisons includes another man convicted of premeditated murder and dismembering his victim.
Artur Segarra Princep was convicted of the 2016 killing of fellow Spaniard David Bernat. Police suspected that Segarra robbed the victim, whom he was said to have known. The body was kept in a freezer in Segarra’s Bangkok apartment until parts were tossed into Thailand’s Chao Phraya River.
His 2017 death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2020 by Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Ludacris’ gulp of untreated Alaska glacier melt was
totally fine
ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Rapper-turned-actor Chris “Ludacris” Bridges sparked concern from some social media followers when he knelt on an Alaska glacier, dipped an empty water bottle into a blue, pristine pool of water and drank it.
Video of Ludacris tasting the glacial water and proclaiming, “Oh my God!” got millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Some viewers expressed concern that he was endangering his life by drinking the untreated water, warning it might be contaminated with the parasite giardia.
But an expert on glaciers from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks said the online brouhaha “was ludicrous.”
“He’s totally fine,” glaciologist Martin Truffer said Wednesday.
“It’s sort of understandable that somebody would be concerned about just drinking untreated water, but if you drink water from a melt stream on a glacier, that’s about the cleanest water you’ll ever get.”
Ludacris donned ice cleats to knock off a bucket list item and walk Knik Glacier, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Anchorage, while he was in the nation’s largest state to perform Friday at the Alaska State Fair. He was clearly pleased by the taste of the glacial water.
“I’m a water snob,” he said in a later video before a concert Tuesday in Minneapolis. “It was the best tasting water I’ve ever had in my life.”
Symptoms of giardiasis, the illness caused by giardia, include diarrhea, stomach cramps and dehydration. It can spread from one person to another or through contaminated water, food, surfaces or objects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests people avoid swallowing water while swimming and boiling or filtering water from lakes, springs or rivers before drinking it to prevent getting sick.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation does not recommend drinking untreated surface water, spokesperson Kelly Rawalt said in an email. It also has produced a flyer with safe drinking practices for outdoor enthusiasts, including adding chlorine or iodine to quart-size water containers and letting them sit an hour before drinking.
Truffer, who acknowledged he knew of Ludacris only because his neighbor in Fairbanks named his cat after the rapper, said it’s not always safe to drink water from a stream in the wild. But he said the water Ludacris drank hadn’t had any exposure to biological activity.
“There’s just really no concern on these glacial streams about safety,” he said.
“I’ve done this many, many times myself without ever having any issue,” he said.
Alaska is home to about 100,000 glaciers, with the icy masses covering about 28,800 square miles (74,590 square kilometers) — or 3% of the state. According to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, that’s 128 times the area covered by glaciers in the other 49 states.
For some visitors to Alaska, seeing a glacier is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But climate change is taking its toll, and the melting of Juneau’s icefield is accelerating, according to a study that came out last month. The snow-covered area is now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s.
—From AP reports
