Protester’s climb shuts down Statue of Liberty on July 4

A woman protesting the separation of immigrant families illegally crossing the U.S. border was arrested after climbing the Statue of Liberty on July 4, forcing visitors to leave Liberty Island hours before its normal closing time. The woman, named Therese Okoumou, had a four-hour stand off with the police before coming down. At least half a dozen others stood at the pedestal of the statue holding banners to protest against the U.S. immigration policy, all of whom were also arrested.

Claude Lanzmann, director of ‘Shoah,’ dies at age 92

Claude Lanzmann, French director of the 9 1/2 hour masterpiece “Shoah,” passed away Thursday morning in Paris. Lanzmann’s “Shoah” was the film that definedhim as a filmmaker. It bore unflinching witness to the Holocaust through the testimonies of Jewish victims, German executioners and Polish bystanders. “Shoah” was filmed in the 1970s and contained no archival footage or musical score, just the landscape, trains and recounted memories of Poland. Lanzmann is survived by his third wife, Dominique, and his daughter Angelique.

California boy, 10, allegedly abused for days before death

Southern California parents of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos starved and tortured him days before his death, sometimes forcing his younger siblings to participate in beating him and prohibiting him from sitting. The boy was brought into a hospital a day before his death, where his mother claimed the boy had fallen down the stairs. Heather Maxine Barron, 28, and her boyfriend, Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 32, have been charged with torture and murder. Authorities have removed their eight other children from ages 11 months to 12 years old from the home.