Massachusetts
‘Looksmaxxing’ streamer known as Clavicular pleads not guilty to rape charge
ORLEANS, Mass. (AP) — The “looksmaxxing” livestreamer Braden Peters, better known by his stage name Clavicular, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he raped a 17-year-old girl at his family’s Massachusetts home.
A social media personality known for promoting extreme devotion to male beauty, Peters, 20, is accused of giving the girl alcohol until she was drunk and then sexually assaulting her when she visited him in Chatham, on Cape Cod, in May 2025.
Peters has denied the allegations through his lawyers, saying the sexual encounter was consensual.
Peters arrived at the courthouse in Orleans, Massachusetts, wearing a dark suit, walking a barking dog on a leash. He spoke only to the dog as he entered the courthouse and ignored reporters’ questions. Peters maintained a neutral facial expression during the brief arraignment.
He has agreed to a $10,000 bail, surrendered his passport and will not contact or post about the woman who has accused him of assault.
The case is the latest legal challenge for Peters, who has a million followers on Instagram, and whose hourslong livestreams feature him rating people’s looks and talking about methods of becoming better looking that include surgery and drug use.
Earlier this year, he was charged with misdemeanor battery in Florida after police said he provoked a fight between two women and then posted a video of it online. That charge was later dropped. In a separate Florida case this year, he was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to a charge that he fired a gun in public.
The woman who accused Peters of rape told police he had been paying her to appear in his “looksmaxxing” videos. She said that during her visit to a Peters family home, he gave her two or three shots of vodka, then livestreamed himself kissing her while she was drunk. She told police that when she woke up the next morning, Peters was raping her.
The woman also described the alleged assault in a lawsuit she filed in Florida in April. In that lawsuit, she also accused Peters of injecting her with a fat-dissolving substance during a livestream without her consent.
Peters’ attorneys called the lawsuit a “publicity grab.”
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they consent to being identified publicly.
Idaho
Prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty for a mom charged with murder in twins’ deaths
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a woman charged with murder in the 2025 deaths of her twin toddlers.
Andrea Shaw, 23, has pleaded not guilty and has said the 18-month-old twins became sick and died after receiving flu shots and routine childhood vaccinations. But Payette County Prosecutor Mike Duke wrote in court documents that an autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with smothering and wrote that suffocation “is the only conceivable explanation” for their deaths.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Ryon Sirucek notified the court of his intent to seek the death penalty last week.
In the court document, Sirucek said the state would try to show that four aggravating factors make capital punishment appropriate in the case: That more than one murder was committed at the time; that the killings were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; that the defendant showed “utter disregard” for human life; and that she would likely pose a continuing threat to society.
“That’s outrageous,” said Shaw’s attorney, Joseph Filicetti. “They’re not going to be able to prove the underlying case beyond a reasonable doubt, so there’s not a chance the death penalty is going to come into play.”
Filicetti said the defense team will be filing a motion to dismiss the case. He said the grand jury that indicted Shaw wasn’t told that the county coroner found the cause of death to be undetermined but consistent with hyperthermia, or overheating. The pathologists who examined the twins also said their causes of death were undetermined, Filicetti said.
The prosecutor’s office wrote in court documents that the temperature in the twins’ room would often reach 100 degrees, but that the children had survived high temperatures before and that their time of death didn’t correlate to the peak temperature of the day.
“They don’t have any motive, they don’t have any backstory, they don’t have any confession ... She didn’t do any of that, and they can’t prove she did any of it,” Filicetti said.
The twins were found dead in their shared bed May 1, 2025, according to court records. They had been vaccinated eight days earlier, and the day after their vaccinations Shaw took them to the emergency room, reporting that they were lethargic and felt feverish. The doctor felt the symptoms were a reaction from the vaccinations, and the twins were given Tylenol and a popsicle and sent home, according to the court records.
A few days after the twins’ deaths, Shaw went on an internet show produced by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has not been affiliated with the group since December 2024, when he formally resigned as chairman to join President Donald Trump’s administration.
Medical experts point out that the childhood vaccines at issue — hepatitis A, influenza and DTaP — are safe and effective for kids and recommended by various medical groups.
Shaw is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by Children’s Health Defense and others against the American Academy of Pediatrics, accusing the organization of racketeering and lying about the safety of vaccinations. The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it the “latest missive in a campaign targeting” the academy and its “use of science-backed evidence in vaccine policy.”
A grand jury indicted Shaw on the murder charges in July, and she is being held without bond. A trial has been set for January.
Washington
Democrats sue to block Trump administration from usurping states’ authority to administer elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks from the midterm elections, Democratic Party leaders are suing in federal court to block President Donald Trump’s administration from usurping states’ authority to administer elections or trying to intimidate state and local election officials into complying with illegal demands.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Washington, seeks a court order barring the administration from purging legally registered voters from statewide voter registration lists or denying ballots to legally registered voters.
The plaintiffs, including Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, also ask for a ruling that the administration has illegally threatened state election officials with prosecution before the Nov. 3 election.
The lawsuit cites the Justice Department’s recent actions in California, where it sued to block state election officials from counting mail-in ballots cast by people whom the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.
“For over a decade now, President Donald J. Trump has bombarded the American people with lies and misinformation about American elections and voter fraud,” the suit says. “While these lies have been debunked at every turn, that has never deterred the President from employing them as a pretext to seize control over elections, even as courts overwhelmingly reject that effort.”
The Justice Department said in a statement that election integrity is a top priority for the administration and the department’s actions on that front are grounded in law and under court litigation.
The Democratic leaders’ lawsuit was assigned to Chief Judge James Boasberg, who has been vilified by the White House for rulings against the Trump administration since the start of the Republican president’s second term.
The suit’s other plaintiffs are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association. Its named defendants are Trump, the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Washington
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to lift halt on border wall
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let it resume building a border wall project through the Big Bend region of Texas.
The government filed an emergency appeal asking the justices to lift a lower court decision halting construction. That ruling marked a setback to one of President Donald Trump’s signature projects.
The administration has been racing forward with construction on a border wall and other infrastructure from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
But in the Big Bend region, the administration has run into opposition from ranchers, residents, business owners and environmentalists who argue the projects are a waste of money in an area of historically low illegal immigration and that construction could harm the region’s scenic landscapes.
Opponents have filed numerous lawsuits seeking to stop the project, which in the Big Bend consists of a mixture of walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology.
Ruling in one of those cases, Judge Kathleen Cardone on Oct. 2 ordered the government to stop construction across the roughly 500-mile project area while the case plays out in the courts. It was a major victory for the bipartisan opposition.
The case hinges on sweeping waivers signed by the secretary of Homeland Security that allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to bypass environmental and other regulations that would otherwise slow down construction of such a major project.
The government argued that the Big Bend sector is an area of high illegal entry, and said legislation dating back to 1996 explicitly gives the secretary these far-reaching powers as necessary to build physical barriers or roads near the border to stop people from crossing illegally.
Opponents disagreed, arguing that Congress gave that power to waive regulations specifically in areas of “high illegal entry.” They said Big Bend, a remote and rugged region, doesn’t fit that description.
Cardone sided with the opponents.
“The Court finds that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their major questions doctrine claim that the Big Bend Waivers were issued in excess of the Secretary’s authority,” she wrote.
Trump has long vowed to build a border wall along the roughly 2,000-mile length of the southwest border. Last summer, Republicans in Congress allocated Homeland Security $46 billion to finish the project, which will be a mixture of 30-foot-tall steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology.
The opposition in Texas’s Big Bend region had been brewing for months, but it escalated in August when bulldozers were spotted clearing land in Big Bend National Park.
The preliminary injunction filed by Cardone stops construction there as well as land up and downriver from the park that is owned by private landowners or the state.
The government has argued that if this region is one of the only areas left without a wall or other border infrastructure, illegal immigration could end up funneling to the Big Bend. But opponents have argued that other forms of infrastructure such as drones or surveillance towers are just as effective and a lot less expensive than the wall plans.
‘Looksmaxxing’ streamer known as Clavicular pleads not guilty to rape charge
ORLEANS, Mass. (AP) — The “looksmaxxing” livestreamer Braden Peters, better known by his stage name Clavicular, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he raped a 17-year-old girl at his family’s Massachusetts home.
A social media personality known for promoting extreme devotion to male beauty, Peters, 20, is accused of giving the girl alcohol until she was drunk and then sexually assaulting her when she visited him in Chatham, on Cape Cod, in May 2025.
Peters has denied the allegations through his lawyers, saying the sexual encounter was consensual.
Peters arrived at the courthouse in Orleans, Massachusetts, wearing a dark suit, walking a barking dog on a leash. He spoke only to the dog as he entered the courthouse and ignored reporters’ questions. Peters maintained a neutral facial expression during the brief arraignment.
He has agreed to a $10,000 bail, surrendered his passport and will not contact or post about the woman who has accused him of assault.
The case is the latest legal challenge for Peters, who has a million followers on Instagram, and whose hourslong livestreams feature him rating people’s looks and talking about methods of becoming better looking that include surgery and drug use.
Earlier this year, he was charged with misdemeanor battery in Florida after police said he provoked a fight between two women and then posted a video of it online. That charge was later dropped. In a separate Florida case this year, he was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to a charge that he fired a gun in public.
The woman who accused Peters of rape told police he had been paying her to appear in his “looksmaxxing” videos. She said that during her visit to a Peters family home, he gave her two or three shots of vodka, then livestreamed himself kissing her while she was drunk. She told police that when she woke up the next morning, Peters was raping her.
The woman also described the alleged assault in a lawsuit she filed in Florida in April. In that lawsuit, she also accused Peters of injecting her with a fat-dissolving substance during a livestream without her consent.
Peters’ attorneys called the lawsuit a “publicity grab.”
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they consent to being identified publicly.
Idaho
Prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty for a mom charged with murder in twins’ deaths
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a woman charged with murder in the 2025 deaths of her twin toddlers.
Andrea Shaw, 23, has pleaded not guilty and has said the 18-month-old twins became sick and died after receiving flu shots and routine childhood vaccinations. But Payette County Prosecutor Mike Duke wrote in court documents that an autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with smothering and wrote that suffocation “is the only conceivable explanation” for their deaths.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Ryon Sirucek notified the court of his intent to seek the death penalty last week.
In the court document, Sirucek said the state would try to show that four aggravating factors make capital punishment appropriate in the case: That more than one murder was committed at the time; that the killings were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; that the defendant showed “utter disregard” for human life; and that she would likely pose a continuing threat to society.
“That’s outrageous,” said Shaw’s attorney, Joseph Filicetti. “They’re not going to be able to prove the underlying case beyond a reasonable doubt, so there’s not a chance the death penalty is going to come into play.”
Filicetti said the defense team will be filing a motion to dismiss the case. He said the grand jury that indicted Shaw wasn’t told that the county coroner found the cause of death to be undetermined but consistent with hyperthermia, or overheating. The pathologists who examined the twins also said their causes of death were undetermined, Filicetti said.
The prosecutor’s office wrote in court documents that the temperature in the twins’ room would often reach 100 degrees, but that the children had survived high temperatures before and that their time of death didn’t correlate to the peak temperature of the day.
“They don’t have any motive, they don’t have any backstory, they don’t have any confession ... She didn’t do any of that, and they can’t prove she did any of it,” Filicetti said.
The twins were found dead in their shared bed May 1, 2025, according to court records. They had been vaccinated eight days earlier, and the day after their vaccinations Shaw took them to the emergency room, reporting that they were lethargic and felt feverish. The doctor felt the symptoms were a reaction from the vaccinations, and the twins were given Tylenol and a popsicle and sent home, according to the court records.
A few days after the twins’ deaths, Shaw went on an internet show produced by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has not been affiliated with the group since December 2024, when he formally resigned as chairman to join President Donald Trump’s administration.
Medical experts point out that the childhood vaccines at issue — hepatitis A, influenza and DTaP — are safe and effective for kids and recommended by various medical groups.
Shaw is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by Children’s Health Defense and others against the American Academy of Pediatrics, accusing the organization of racketeering and lying about the safety of vaccinations. The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it the “latest missive in a campaign targeting” the academy and its “use of science-backed evidence in vaccine policy.”
A grand jury indicted Shaw on the murder charges in July, and she is being held without bond. A trial has been set for January.
Washington
Democrats sue to block Trump administration from usurping states’ authority to administer elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks from the midterm elections, Democratic Party leaders are suing in federal court to block President Donald Trump’s administration from usurping states’ authority to administer elections or trying to intimidate state and local election officials into complying with illegal demands.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Washington, seeks a court order barring the administration from purging legally registered voters from statewide voter registration lists or denying ballots to legally registered voters.
The plaintiffs, including Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, also ask for a ruling that the administration has illegally threatened state election officials with prosecution before the Nov. 3 election.
The lawsuit cites the Justice Department’s recent actions in California, where it sued to block state election officials from counting mail-in ballots cast by people whom the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.
“For over a decade now, President Donald J. Trump has bombarded the American people with lies and misinformation about American elections and voter fraud,” the suit says. “While these lies have been debunked at every turn, that has never deterred the President from employing them as a pretext to seize control over elections, even as courts overwhelmingly reject that effort.”
The Justice Department said in a statement that election integrity is a top priority for the administration and the department’s actions on that front are grounded in law and under court litigation.
The Democratic leaders’ lawsuit was assigned to Chief Judge James Boasberg, who has been vilified by the White House for rulings against the Trump administration since the start of the Republican president’s second term.
The suit’s other plaintiffs are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association. Its named defendants are Trump, the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Washington
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to lift halt on border wall
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let it resume building a border wall project through the Big Bend region of Texas.
The government filed an emergency appeal asking the justices to lift a lower court decision halting construction. That ruling marked a setback to one of President Donald Trump’s signature projects.
The administration has been racing forward with construction on a border wall and other infrastructure from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
But in the Big Bend region, the administration has run into opposition from ranchers, residents, business owners and environmentalists who argue the projects are a waste of money in an area of historically low illegal immigration and that construction could harm the region’s scenic landscapes.
Opponents have filed numerous lawsuits seeking to stop the project, which in the Big Bend consists of a mixture of walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology.
Ruling in one of those cases, Judge Kathleen Cardone on Oct. 2 ordered the government to stop construction across the roughly 500-mile project area while the case plays out in the courts. It was a major victory for the bipartisan opposition.
The case hinges on sweeping waivers signed by the secretary of Homeland Security that allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to bypass environmental and other regulations that would otherwise slow down construction of such a major project.
The government argued that the Big Bend sector is an area of high illegal entry, and said legislation dating back to 1996 explicitly gives the secretary these far-reaching powers as necessary to build physical barriers or roads near the border to stop people from crossing illegally.
Opponents disagreed, arguing that Congress gave that power to waive regulations specifically in areas of “high illegal entry.” They said Big Bend, a remote and rugged region, doesn’t fit that description.
Cardone sided with the opponents.
“The Court finds that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their major questions doctrine claim that the Big Bend Waivers were issued in excess of the Secretary’s authority,” she wrote.
Trump has long vowed to build a border wall along the roughly 2,000-mile length of the southwest border. Last summer, Republicans in Congress allocated Homeland Security $46 billion to finish the project, which will be a mixture of 30-foot-tall steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology.
The opposition in Texas’s Big Bend region had been brewing for months, but it escalated in August when bulldozers were spotted clearing land in Big Bend National Park.
The preliminary injunction filed by Cardone stops construction there as well as land up and downriver from the park that is owned by private landowners or the state.
The government has argued that if this region is one of the only areas left without a wall or other border infrastructure, illegal immigration could end up funneling to the Big Bend. But opponents have argued that other forms of infrastructure such as drones or surveillance towers are just as effective and a lot less expensive than the wall plans.
