Sam Kerr, one of the world’s top female soccer players, was found not guilty Tuesday of racially aggravated harassment of a police officer.

Kerr, a striker for Australia and for English club Chelsea, accepted she called Police Constable Stephen Lovell “stupid and white” during a heated exchange at a police station after a night out in London in January 2023, but had denied that it amounted to the charge.

The verdict came after more than four hours of deliberations by a 12-person jury and on the seventh day of the trial at Kingston Crown Court in London.

“Following today’s not guilty verdict, I can finally put this challenging period behind me,” Kerr said in a statement posted on Instagram. “While I apologize for expressing myself poorly on what was a traumatic evening, I have always maintained that I did not intend to insult or harm anyone and I am thankful that the jury unanimously agreed.”

It is alleged Kerr and her fiancée, Kristie Mewis, a U.S. soccer player contracted to English team West Ham, had been out drinking when they were driven to the police station by a taxi driver, who complained that they refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick, and that one of them smashed the vehicle’s rear window.

Kerr, who said she feared for her life as she felt “trapped” during the taxi ride, is alleged to have become abusive and insulting toward Lovell at the police station and used expletives while calling him “stupid and white.” During cross-examination in court, Kerr said she regretted the way she expressed herself and denied that calling Lovell “white” was used as an insult.

Kerr, who identifies as a white Anglo-Indian, said: “I believed it was him using his power and privilege over me because he was accusing me of being something I’m not … I was trying to express that due to the power and privilege they (the police) had, they would never have to understand what we had just gone through, and the fear we were having for our lives.”

After the jury reached its verdict, Judge Peter Lodder said of Kerr: “I take the view her own behavior contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation. I don’t go behind the jury’s verdict but that has a significant bearing on the question of costs.”

Kerr’s trial has been headline news in Australia, with each day in court thoroughly dissected by the domestic media.

Debate over the charge has ranged from the validity of the allegation, to Kerr’s conduct while being interviewed by police.

Her position as captain of the Matildas, the much-loved national women’s soccer team, has been called into question by critics. Kerr is the captain and all-time leading scorer for Australia, with 69 goals since her debut in 2009.

Football Australia said it welcomed Kerr’s statement and that it will speak with her about the incident.

“Football Australia invests heavily in building the behavioral standards and expectations of all involved with our game, especially for all our national team players, where leadership comes with added responsibilities on and off the field,” a Football Australia statement said. “(We) will reflect with Sam on learnings from this matter and we will continue to provide appropriate support for her moving forward.”

The statement Wednesday also said that Football Australia “recognize the significant pressures that this matter has brought to Sam, Kristie, her family, and everyone involved, including the impact it’s had on the game.

“Throughout this period, Football Australia has remained committed to supporting Sam and will continue to do so as she focuses on her footballing career, rehabilitation from injury and return to play.”

Kerr joined Chelsea in 2019 and has scored 99 goals in 128 games for the London club, which is the defending English champion and a top contender for the Women’s Champions League title.

She hasn’t played since sustaining an ACL injury during a warm-weather training camp with Chelsea in Morocco in January 2024.

Kerr is expected to return in the coming weeks, in time to play for Australia in a pair of international friendlies against South Korea in April in the lead-up to the 2026 AFC Asian Cup.

South Korean police on Tuesday were questioning an elementary school teacher who allegedly stabbed a first grader to death in the city of Daejeon.

The killing on Monday during after-school care has shocked the nation and prompted the country’s acting president to order school safety standards reviewed.

The female suspect was receiving medical treatment for self-inflicted wounds following the death of the girl in an audio-visual room on the second floor of the school, said Yuk Jong-myeong, chief of Daejeon’s western district police station.

The suspect, reported to be in her 40s, told police that she had recently returned to work after a period of leave for health reasons, Yuk said. She told police she has received treatment for depression since 2018.

After the first-grade student was reported missing at 5:15 p.m. local time Monday, police and family members searched throughout the school and surrounding areas. Her grandmother found her in the audio-visual room around 5:50 p.m. The girl was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Choi Sang-mok, who is the country’s acting leader due to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, called for a thorough investigation into the killing and instructed education authorities to “implement necessary measures to ensure such incidents never happen again.”

Visitors laid flowers and condolence letters at the gate of the school, which was closed on Tuesday.

Rome (Reuters) — Around 130 people were arrested on Tuesday in a large-scale sting against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, indicating that it has remained a significant criminal force despite setbacks in recent decades.

“Cosa Nostra,” the mafia syndicate based in and around Palermo, terrorized Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, but has since been overtaken as Europe’s most powerful mob by the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta.

The suspects apprehended on Tuesday were charged with various crimes, including drug trafficking, attempted murder, extortion, illegal online gambling and illegal possession of firearms, Carabinieri police said in a statement.

Additional arrest warrants were issued for 33 suspects who were already in prison for other crimes.

Investigations revealed that Palermo’s mafia families coordinate their activities across the city and its province, like they used to in the golden days of Cosa Nostra, especially as regards drug trafficking, police said.

They said inner city families had regained authority compared to the years in which they were dominated by a faction from Corleone – a town outside Palermo that was the birthplace of notorious bosses Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.

Modern-day bosses use modern technology to conduct their business, using encrypted mobile phones that are smuggled into prisons to allow jailed bosses to continue exercising their command, investigators said.

Despite being weakened by law enforcement activities, Cosa Nostra continues to attract young people, the Carabinieri said, noting they documented one instance of a new recruit given “mafia lessons” by an older associate.

The would-be mentor gave the young man “specific instructions, inviting him to take as an example his conduct towards people to be subjected to extortion, and advising him on how to relate with mafia leaders,” the police statement said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, writing on X, hailed Tuesday’s arrests as inflicting “a very hard blow to Cosa Nostra,” and giving a clear signal that “the fight against the mafia has not stopped and will not stop.”

A rampaging rebel group has claimed the capture of another mining town in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a little over a week after it took control of the region’s largest city Goma.

Clashes between the rebel coalition Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) and Congolese forces have left more than 3,000 people dead in less than two weeks, according to DRC’s government.

The AFC, of which the M23 armed group – which claims to defend the interest of minority Rwandophone communities – is a key member, took over resource-rich Nyabibwe last week after Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, fell on January 27.

It comes less than a year after the rebels seized Rubaya, a mining hub also in the country’s east, which harbors one of the world’s largest deposits of coltan, a valuable mineral used in the production of smartphones.

Here’s what you need to know.

Is my phone fueling the conflict?

For decades, DRC, a Central African nation of more than 100 million people, has grappled with bloody militia violence, including ethnic and resource-driven armed rebellion by M23 and dozens of other armed groups.

Roughly the size of Western Europe, the war-riven country is endowed with vast mineral wealth, including the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and coltan – both critical to the production of electronics. Cobalt is used to produce batteries that power cell phones and electric vehicles, while coltan is refined into tantalum, which has a variety of applications in phones and other devices.

However, according to the World Bank “most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth,” and the country ranks among the five poorest nations in the world.

Much of DRC’s mineral wealth is split between its government and armed groups who control swathes of the resource-rich east.

“It’s not a coincidence that the zones occupied by the rebels are mining areas,” Okenda said, adding that global demand for cobalt and coltan has fueled the crisis.

“It takes money to wage war. Access to mining sites finances the war,” he added.

Why do the rebels want the minerals?

But a top United Nations official has an idea.

Bintou Keita, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to the DRC, told the Security Council in a September briefing that coltan trade from Rubaya’s mines is estimated to supply over 15 percent of global tantalum production and generates an estimated $300,000 in revenue a month for M23.

M23 denied these claims, insisting its presence in Rubaya was “solely humanitarian.”

Much of the international community, including the Congolese government, has accused neighboring Rwanda of backing M23 and aiding the plunder of DRC minerals.

UN experts believe that an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are supervising and supporting M23 fighters in eastern DRC, outnumbering the rebel group’s forces in the country. A December report by the UN Group of Experts on the DRC revealed that “at least 150 tons of coltan were fraudulently exported to Rwanda and mixed with Rwandan production.”

Rwanda is one of the world’s top suppliers of coltan and has surpassed DRC’s export of the mineral in recent years.

Where do DRC’s plundered minerals go?

In a public address that drew outrage last year, Kagame admitted that Rwanda was a transit point for minerals smuggled from DRC, but insisted his country was not stealing from its neighbor.

“Some people come from Congo; whether they smuggle or go through the right channels, they bring minerals. Most of it goes through here (Rwanda) but does not stay here. It goes to Dubai, Brussels, Tel Aviv, (and) Russia. It goes everywhere,” Kagame said, without providing evidence or specifying what minerals were being smuggled.

In 2022, the United States Treasury Department said that over 90% of DRC’s gold was being “smuggled to regional states, including Uganda and Rwanda” where they are “refined and exported to international markets, particularly the UAE,” and sanctioned a Belgian businessman for facilitating the trade.

For DRC’s other valuable minerals including coltan and cobalt, the scale of the plunder remains unclear.

In December, DRC sued subsidiaries of Apple in Belgium and France, accusing the company of sourcing conflict minerals. Apple denied the accusation.

Every year, tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft publish reports saying that they demand responsible sourcing of minerals from their suppliers.

In an earlier filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, Apple said that while it continued to source 3TG (tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold) and other minerals such as cobalt and lithium from DRC and other countries, it was “committed to meeting and exceeding internationally accepted due diligence standards for primary minerals and recycled materials in our supply chain.” It added that its due diligence efforts had “found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of the smelters or refiners of 3TG determined to be in our supply chain as of December 31, 2023 directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country.”

Is there a solution to the conflict?

DRC’s mineral wealth has presented itself as a “curse,” according to analyst Okenda, who explained:

Last week, a humanitarian ceasefire announced by M23 fell apart almost immediately after it was declared, as the rebels swiftly advanced into Nyabibwe.

While regional and global leaders ponder solutions to ending the crisis, Okenda believes that DRC’s government needs to reinvent itself if it hopes for lasting peace.

DRC “has a governance model that if it does not change, the Congolese population will gain absolutely nothing, whether there is war or not,” he said.

“If the Kinshasa government improves its governance, invests in the army, ensures a fair sharing of resources between citizens in the country, and conducts elections that are of better quality, I still think that peace can return (to DRC),” he said.

As the war in Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year, US President Donald Trump has made clear which world leader he thinks can help America end the conflict: Vladimir Putin’s ally Xi Jinping.

“Hopefully, China can help us stop the war with, in particular, Russia-Ukraine … they have a great deal of power over that situation, and we’ll work with them,” Trump told political and business elites gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month.

Trump expressed that hope, he has repeatedly said, in a call with the Chinese leader days before being sworn in last month – and it’s a subject that could be raised in the coming days as officials from around the world gather in Munich for an annual security conference.

While Trump may have complicated his plan to orchestrate peace alongside Xi by imposing a blanket 10% tariff on Chinese imports into the United States earlier this month, the war in Ukraine could be a rare issue of collaboration – especially as Beijing looks to avert deepening trade frictions.

“Given the stakes on US-China relations, if Trump prices China’s cooperation as the one critical issue that could improve US-China relations, I think China will be very tempted … (and could) play a helpful role,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington. At the same time, she added, Beijing will be wary of undermining its alignment with Russia.

China has long sought to position itself as a potential peace broker in the conflict –promoting its own vaguely-worded proposal to settle the war. But in the West, its bid has so far been overshadowed by another reality: Beijing’s abiding support for Putin’s Russia.

The stakes would be high for Xi to risk damaging that partnership, which the Chinese leader has built up as a critical part of his broader goals to counter pressure from the West and reshape a world order in China’s favor.

And a negotiating table where Xi has a prominent seat is also one where Putin, not Trump, has a staunch partner – a reality that Washington would have to navigate carefully if it doesn’t want to risk isolating European allies or reach a solution that’s unacceptable to Ukraine, analysts say.

“The real outcome that Beijing would like to avoid is a very much weakened Russia,” said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore. “Because then … (Beijing) would be lacking one major partner.”

An end in sight?

The future of the conflict is expected to feature heavily on the agenda of the upcoming Munich Security Conference beginning Friday in Germany, where US Vice President JD Vance is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also lead a delegation from Beijing.

Looming over the gathering is a dramatic tone shift in Washington’s approach to the war. Trump has questioned American aid to the embattled country, which his predecessor Joe Biden and US NATO allies have seen as critical to defending not just Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but the rules-based world order.

In a Fox News interview earlier this week, the notoriously transactional Trump instead suggested that the US should be getting access to Ukraine’s rich natural resources in exchange for military assistance. He also suggested that Ukraine “may be Russian someday,” and said his administration has made “tremendous progress” in laying the groundwork for potential peace talks with Russia and Ukraine, without providing details.

Zelensky has said he is willing to negotiate with Putin – but only if the US and Europe continue to support Ukraine and “provide security guarantees,” while Russia in recent days reiterated that it would only accept a peace that saw Ukraine give up ambitions to join NATO and cede regions annexed by Russia.

But while Trump is pushing for a swift end to the war, his administration has yet to lay out specifics on what kind of peace terms they are hoping to see agreed upon.

How much Trump would look to work alongside Xi – and whether the Chinese leader is amenable – may also depend to an extent on those parameters, observers say. Western leaders in the past have tried, without success, to persuade Xi to push Putin toward a peace in line with the one advocated for by Zelensky and Ukraine.

Even as China has claimed neutrality in the conflict and called for peace, it’s emerged as a key diplomatic and economic lifeline for Russia throughout the war, including by sending it dual-use goods NATO leaders have said are feeding Russia’s defense sector and enabling its military. Beijing defends its trade as part of normal relations with Russia.

It’s likely that in Trump’s eyes, all that gives Xi leverage over Putin. But close observers of China’s foreign policy say it’s not so straightforward.

“Can China threaten to cut off the supply (of essential goods to Russia)? It can’t, because China cannot afford a completely failed Russia,” said Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor focusing on Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong. He pointed to Beijing’s calculus that its relations with the US and Europe have already soured to such an extent that they have no choice but to continue to back their only powerful diplomatic ally.

Xi and Putin memorably declared their “no limits” partnership weeks before Russian tanks rolled over Ukraine’s sovereign borders – a pledge made based on their shared opposition to NATO and a view that the US-led West is declining while they are on the rise.

Xi also sees Putin as a potential source of economic and diplomatic support if Beijing were ever to invade Taiwan, some observers say. Xi’s ambition to take control of the self-ruling democracy may be another key reason why he would be wary of any move that could harm that relationship.

The Chinese leader may also be enjoying the war’s role as a distraction for the US away from a focus on Asia and Taiwan – something the Trump’s cohort, including Vice President Vance, have pointed out.

As a US senator, Vance last year argued that the US supplying Ukraine with air defense systems could hurt its ability to aid Taiwan’s defense if China were to attack the island that it claims as its own.

Xi as peacemaker?

Working with Trump to pressure Putin to a negotiating table – whatever the terms of a deal – would also mark a stark shift in Beijing’s approach to the conflict so far.

Xi and his officials have used the war as a platform to promote a vision for a China-led world, one where the American alliance system has been dismantled or weakened.

“China focuses on building a coalition of non-Western nations, including influential developing countries like Brazil, to leverage the Ukraine conflict toward reshaping global security architecture and advancing an alternative vision of world order,” said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the US.

Beijing will have little incentive to engage in substantial cooperation with Washington for now, said Zhao, noting that its officials would, however, wait and see what benefits could be gained from any potential, broader deal-making with Trump.

That said, the current American president – a NATO critic, who has repeatedly voiced personal admiration for Putin and Xi – may be a more appealing negotiating partner for both strongmen.

Trump before taking office called for an “immediate ceasefire and negotiations” – a position that jives with Beijing’s stated stance on the war that has been criticized by the West as helpful to Russia. He’s also in recent weeks echoed Moscow and Beijing’s talking points, sympathizing with the Kremlin’s view that Ukraine should not be part of NATO and that the war continued because America “started pouring equipment” into Ukraine.

US lawmakers and some members of Trump’s administration remain tough on both countries. But Trump’s stance raises the question of whether there is a deal that Beijing, Moscow and Washington could orchestrate that would please all three – and what that could mean for Ukraine and the future of the conflict.

“You can see how each could take something from (certain peace deals) – Putin can save face, Xi and Trump can claim to be peacemakers,” said Robert Ward, director of geo-economics and strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Britain.

But there’s a risk in any agreement where Russia is left in possession of the parts of Ukraine it’s now occupying that this becomes “a conflict that isn’t at an end, it’s just a lull,” he said.