Charges against a California couple accused of sexually assaulting “hundreds” of women will be dropped due to lack of evidence, officials said. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer accused his predecessor of mishandling the case and using it to aid his re-election bid.

In 2018, prosecutors said they found proof that Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley drugged and raped victims. Mr Spitzer said the case was “manufactured”.

He accused his predecessor of misleading the public, as a review of the case found “not a single video or photograph” depicting assault, as Tony Rackauckas, the former district attorney, had claimed.  The couple had denied the charges against them. Mr Rackauckas, alleged the couple “used their good looks and charm” to lure and drug victims. He brought charges on behalf of seven unnamed women who said they were assaulted by Dr Robicheaux, 39, and Ms Riley, 32.

He said investigators had found “thousands” of videos and images on their mobile phones that showed vulnerable women “barely responsive to the defendants’ sexual advances”, and stated that hundreds more women could have been assaulted.

However, Mr Rackauckas admitted in a deposition last summer that he used the case to garner media attention and help his re-election effort, according to the statement from the district attorney’s office. He lost his re-election bid in November 2018.(BBC)…[+]

The world’s biggest iceberg is about enter open ocean.  A68, a colossus that broke free from the Antarctic in 2017, has pushed so far north it is now at the limit of the continent’s perennial sea-ice.

When it calved, the berg had an area close to 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq mi) and has lost very little of its bulk over the past two and a half years. But scientists say A68 will struggle to maintain its integrity when it reaches the Southern Ocean’s rougher waters. “With a thickness to length ratio akin to five sheets of A4, I am astonished that the ocean waves haven’t already made ice cubes out of A68,” said Prof Adrian Luckman from Swansea University, UK. “If it survives for long as one piece when it moves beyond the edge of the sea-ice, I will be very surprised,” he told BBC News.(BBC)…[+]

A Labour MP who faced criticism on social media for her off-the-shoulder dress said people needed to “listen to what we say not what we wear”. Tracy Brabin, the shadow culture secretary, said she had been “startled by the vitriolic nature” of some comments.

She told BBC Breakfast it was her responsibility to “call it out”. “Women around the world… are being demeaned everyday because of what they wear,” she said.

The Batley and Spen MP had been raising a point of order in the House of Commons on Monday about journalists being asked to leave a Downing Street press briefing on the next stage of Brexit talks, when her shoulder appeared. She said her slightly off-the-shoulder dress had slipped a little as she leant forward to speak.

Ms Brabin said she had been to a music event earlier in the day and was not expecting to be called to the dispatch box. “But, the context of this is frankly pretty absurd,” she said.(bbc)…[+]