Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages for saying that the 2012 Sandy Hook primary school shooting was a hoax. Reuters
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages for saying that the 2012 Sandy Hook primary school shooting was a hoax. Reuters
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages for saying that the 2012 Sandy Hook primary school shooting was a hoax. Reuters
Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay nearly $1 billion in damages to the families of those killed or those affected by the 2012 Sandy Hook primary school shooting after he falsely claimed the massacre had been faked.
Wednesday's decision from a Connecticut jury is vindication for the families who for a decade have received death threats from Jones's followers.
In total, Jones must pay $965 million to eight Sandy Hook families and one FBI agent represented in the case. Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed in the shooting, was awarded $120m.
"What we were able to accomplish is just to simply tell the truth," Mr Parker said outside the courthouse after the verdict was reached.
"It shouldn’t be this hard and it shouldn’t be this scary."
A lawyer representing eight Sandy Hook families said that Jones profited off the lies he told about the mass shooting for years.
The verdict came after three weeks of testimony inside the courthouse in the town of Waterbury, about 20 kilometres from Newtown, the site of the school where 20 children and six teachers were killed.
Jones was not in the courtroom when the verdict was delivered. He was instead voicing his frustration on his programme.
The judge overseeing the case must next consider punitive damages that Jones would have to pay on top of Wednesday's compensatory damages.
This is the second defamation trial that Jones has faced since the 2012 shooting.
In August, Jones and his company were ordered to pay $49.3m to another pair of Sandy Hook parents in Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based.
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
