Christian leaders rally around embattled Herschel Walker
ATLANTA — With a scrum of TV cameras and reporters waiting outside the doors, First Baptist Atlanta’s senior pastor, Anthony George, led a group of evangelical Christians in prayer for embattled GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker Tuesday.
In video of the closed-door event reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, George called the GOP Senate nominee, “Our fellow conqueror, our brother, our friend.” George prayed as about 75 “prayer warriors for Herschel” circled Walker with their hands outstretched.
“Lord, we know this is a battle he’s facing. It’s more vicious than any sports field he’s ever played on. This is the fight of his life, holy God,” George said. “We ask you to rebuke the devil … Satan will not get the victory. We know, whatever the results of this election, Herschel wins.”
Walker was at the church for a “Herschel Walker Prayer Luncheon,” on the day after a bombshell Daily Beast story accusing the former football star of paying for a former girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. That’s in stark contrast to his current position that all abortions should be illegal.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kevin Spacey headed to trial on NYC sexual assault allegations
NEW YORK — Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey goes on trial Thursday in Manhattan to defend himself against the first in a string of sexual assault allegations he faces worldwide.
Spacey, 63, is accused of forcing himself on a teenage boy almost half his age in the late 1980s. Actor Anthony Rapp claims he was 14 when Spacey allegedly thrust himself on top of him inside a bedroom at Spacey’s tony Upper West Side apartment.
Rapp, who filed a Manhattan Federal Court civil lawsuit, is demanding $40 million in damages. He claims the abuse happened at a party Spacey hosted in 1986, where Rapp was the youngest guest. His September 2020 lawsuit details how an intoxicated Spacey, then 26, groped his buttocks, lifted him onto a bed, and got on top of him.
Rapp “was forced to extricate himself,” ran to the bathroom, and left, according to the suit. Spacey, whose real last name is Fowler, denies any wrongdoing.
—New York Daily News
Blazing into history: Brightline to test at 110 mph as likely Florida’s fastest train ever
ORLANDO, Fla. — Brightline’s unfolding expansion from Miami to Orlando will enter a testing phase this month with the state's inter-city trains expected to reach speeds likely never seen in Florida.
Test runs will occur along newly refurbished track in Martin and St. Lucie counties, with Brightline’s California-made train sets scheduled to hit 110 mph, which is to be the operational speed when service begins next year.
When asked if that speed will be the fastest ever by a train in Florida — or whether Henry Flagler’s locomotives or Amtrak’s passenger service or any other train was ever speedier — Brightline would not address whether it is about to make history.
It’s unlikely the company hasn’t thought about the record books, having invested $5 billion to link Miami and Orlando with service faster than driving and less odious than flying. The Miami-based, privately owned railroad went silent on speed records and pivoted to safety messaging.
—Orlando Sentinel
North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile toward waters off its east coast
North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward waters off its east coast Thursday, adding to one of its biggest barrage of tests under leader Kim Jong Un that included its first launch of a rocket over Japan in five years.
The missile appears to have fallen into the sea, Japan’s Coast Guard said. The unspecified ballistic missile was fired in a direction to waters off the east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Further details were not immediately available.
The launch came shortly after North Korea condemned the Biden administration for redeploying the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group to waters east of the peninsula, saying the move escalated tensions.
“The DPRK is watching the U.S. posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity by redeploying the carrier task force in the waters off the Korean Peninsula,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on state media, referring to the country’s formal name.
—Bloomberg News
