Rowan Bridge
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
So this is 42-year-old Robert Duffy and 32-year-old Jeremy Falkick, who were arrested by Boston police after Boston police detected what they called a device dangerously close to Boston airport. Effectively, they were then arrested on a nearby island. Boston's got a sort of bunch of islands that are just off its coast.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
They were arrested on one of those and police found a drone in a backpack carried by Robert Duffy, one of those two men. They are due to appear in court on charges of trespassing, but police say they might face further charges because flying a drone in restricted airspace is an offence, and clearly that is extremely dangerous.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
If it hits an aircraft, that can cause significant problems, or a helicopter, or equally just causing pilots to have to veer off course, that can cause problems in itself. So their activities, if they were indeed flying a drone near an airport, could be extremely serious. But I think it's unlikely that those are linked to the
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
The broader issue that we're talking about, about drones that have been spotted around the northeast of the United States.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. The FBI set up a tip line because there were so many calls coming into the emergency services about these things. You know, I was reading a briefing that was given by the FBI. They said they'd had 5,000 calls into their tip line, 5,000 leads that they received. Of those, less than 100, they said, have been actionable.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
And someone said, you know, do you think panic has set in here? And the FBI person said, I think there's been a slight overreaction. You know, if you talk to the White House, they say they've no evidence that these drones pose any sort of national security or public safety threat. nor indeed their work of any sort of foreign malicious actor. Having said that, there is clearly something going on.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
Nobody is suggesting that these drones aren't out there, and it's not clear who is behind them and what are they doing. But I think the fact that you've got those visuals also just makes it a compelling visual story, and that means television gets interested in it, and that means it has really risen to the top of the political and media agenda.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
Yeah, I mean, if you go out there onto social media and onto TikTok or Facebook, you will see plenty of people who will be full of conspiracy theories about what's going on here, you know, probably watched too many episodes of The X-Files. Nobody I've seen seriously suggests that these are being run from outer space. But I think, you know, this story has developed a momentum of its own.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
It develops a sort of energy of its own. And so you can sort of see that the authorities are trying to balance here a responsible approach of trying to find out what is behind these things. Two of them have been spotted, confirmed by the Department of Defence, near military installations.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
Having said all of that, the authorities are worried about this thing almost developing a sort of level of panic beyond what it really deserves.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone
And at the one hand, they're trying to balance a genuine and understandable level of concern with a risk that this thing is sort of developing a momentum where people are almost reaching panic levels around it, the sort of frenzy that has developed around the story.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
This all dates back to a phone call that Donald Trump made to Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election. Brad Raffensperger oversaw elections in the state of Georgia. And in that call, Mr. Trump could be heard cajoling and pressurizing Brad Raffensperger to recalculate, as he put it, the vote tally. And he asked him to find more than 11,000 votes.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
And the reason that number was significant was it was the number that were needed to overturn the result. Joe Biden winning the state of Georgia. Now that call was taped and the audio leaked to the media and that ultimately led to the charging of Trump and 18 other people over the call.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
What then happened was that Fanny Willis, the district attorney who was bringing the prosecution, emerged and had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired for the case. And that led to the case being taken to court by some of those charged by Fanny Willis, saying that she should be thrown off the case. And what's happened now is that the Georgia court has ruled that...
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
that romantic relationship created a significant appearance of impropriety and the majority of the court ruled that in order for the confidence of the public to be restored in the proceedings, she had to be disqualified from handling the case. But it was a two-to-one ruling.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
There was a dissenting judge who said that actually you needed an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety rather than just removing to one because of the appearance of it.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
I mean, it's not really clear. I mean, Fannie Willis could appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court. It's possible another prosecutor could take over the case. But if you talk to legal experts, they say any prosecution is unlikely to be brought until after Donald Trump leaves office. And this, interestingly, was the last outstanding sort of criminal case that Donald Trump faced.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
If you remember, he was convicted in New York. of hush money payments. But two other criminal charges that he was facing were stopped by the federal government over a legal precedent that you couldn't prosecute a sitting president. And obviously, Donald Trump takes office January 20th.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
His campaigner issued a statement saying people are calling for the end of what they called the political weaponization of the justice system. Donald Trump's been fairly outspoken about how he feels about the way these prosecutions have been handled.