It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, November 13, 2021
Rising star Erin Jackson becomes 1st Black American woman to win speedskating World Cup
In 2018, she became the first Black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic long-track speedskating team after being on the ice for only four months.
Erin Jackson started off as an inline speedskater and made the switch to ice in 2018, the same year she made the U.S. Olympic team for the first time.Tom Pennington / Getty Images for Team USA
On Friday, Nov. 12, the 29-year-old athlete competed in the women’s 500-meter event at the Arena Lodowa in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland, and finished with a time of 37.613 seconds to clinch her first World Cup gold medal.
Jackson competing in the 500-meter Women Division A during day 2 of the ISU World Cup at Arena Lodowa in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland.Dean Mouhtaropoulos / International Skating Union via
Jackson beat out Japan’s defending 2018 Olympic champion Nao Kodaira by 0.13 second. The competing field also included all three of the medalists who competed at the world championships in February 2021, an event Jackson didn't compete in.
The Associated Press reported that prior to her win on Friday, Jackson's previous best World Cup finish was in ninth place.
The Florida native told Dutch broadcaster NOS that her win was a “big surprise,” adding, “I was hoping to be in podium position.”
Jackson is hoping to bring the momentum from her first World Cup win to the Beijing Winter Olympics next year.Boris Streubel / Getty Images
Jackson said that much like her fellow athletes, she's "dreaming of Olympic gold."
“It’s still really early, so it’s anyone’s game, but I’m definitely feeling more confidence now,” she said.
Bonnie Blair was the last woman from the United States to win an Olympic medal in the 500-meter final, winning the last of three consecutive Olympic titles back in 1994. Shani Davis, the most successful Black male speed skater in history, has won four Olympic medals, two of which are golds.
Jackson poses with her gold medal after the victory ceremony at the ISU World Cup on Nov. 12.Dean Mouhtaropoulos / International Skating Union via
Jackson is one to watch for the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022. She is the first Black woman to not only compete on the national long-track speedskating team but also qualify in 2018 for the U.S. Olympic long-track speedskating team. At the time, she had only spent four months on the ice after switching over from inline skating and roller derby. She is a member of U.S. national team for all three sports, according to her website.
At the end of October, Jackson shared a celebratory post on Instagram after winning first place in the 500-meter qualifiers and topping her personal record with a time of 37.08 seconds. She shared two photos of herself in action, followed by a video clip of her competing in the race.
“Last weekend at the Fall World Cup Qualifier I ended up with 1st place in the 500m (new personal best time) and 3rd place in the 1000m,” she wrote in the caption. “With those results I will be competing in the upcoming World Cup circuit in both distances. This is my first time qualifying for a spot in the 1000m and I'm pretty excited about it!”
US hid an airstrike that killed 70 women, children in Syria in 2019: Report
Heavy smoke rises above the village of Baghouz, in the countryside of the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor on March 18, 2019.
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English Published: 13 November ,2021:
The US military hid an airstrike in which it bombed a large crowd of women and children in Syria’s Baghuz town, killing dozens, during the last days of the battle against ISIS in 2019, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
On March 18, 2019, an American F-15E attack jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on the crowd huddled against a river bank, killing dozens. As survivors tried to scramble away, the jet dropped a 2,000 pound bomb, then another killing most of them.
An analyst at the US military’s Combined Air Operations Center at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar typed on a secure chat system: “We jet dropped on 50 women and children.”
An initial assessment of the strike revealed that the death toll amount to 70.
The New York Times reported that “the Baghuz strike was one of the largest civilian casualty incidents of the war against ISIS, but it has never been publicly acknowledged by the US military”.
“A legal officer flagged the strike as a possible war crime that required an investigation. But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike. The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. US-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified,” NYT said.
“Leadership just seemed so set on burying this. No one wanted anything to do with it,” said Gene Tate, an evaluator who worked on the case for the inspector general’s office.
The NYT investigation found that bombing had been called in by a classified American special operations unit, Task Force 9, which was in charge of ground operations in Syria.
“The task force operated in such secrecy that at times it did not inform even its own military partners of its actions,” NYT reported.
This week, the US Central Command acknowledged that the strike killed 80 people, but said it was “justified”. It said “the bombs killed 16 fighters and four civilians. As for the other 60 people killed, it was not clear that they were civilians, in part because women and children in ISIS sometimes took up arms.”
The NYT said its investigation of the Baghuz strike showed that the special operations task force skirted rules meant to protect civilians and the troops rarely faced repercussions when they caused civilian deaths.
CIA officers working in Syria alleged that in about 10 incidents, the task force hit targets knowing civilians would be killed, and raised concerns with the Department of Defense inspector general.
The inspector general investigated and determined that all the strikes were legal.
Staff in the operations center in Qatar also became concerned with task force strikes and Air Force lawyers starting tracking the self-defense justifications the task force used to call the strikes then comparing them with drone footage.
They found that “the task force was adding details that would legally justify a strike, such as seeing a man with a gun, even when those details were not visible in the footage”.
Glasgow Climate Pact Has Loopholes So Big an Oil Tanker Could Get Through Them
The outcome raises the question about these talks and the state of the planet in 2021: What, exactly, constitutes progress and success?
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND — The curtain came down on United Nations climate talks a day later than expected. It’s a strange feeling as representatives from countries around the world said they were willing to accept an agreement that they all said sucks.
Lichtenstein’s negotiator? “A bitter pill.” The Marshall Islands’? “Profound disappointment.” Antigua and Barbuda’s? “We are disappointed.” Yet in the end, all nations signed off on the so-called Glasgow Climate Pact. The source of so much frustration was the continual weakening of language around fossil fuels. The outcome raises the question about these talks and the state of the planet in 2021: What, exactly, constitutes progress and success?
The pact includes the first-ever language around phasing down of coal and fossil fuel subsidies, the first time in 26 meetings about climate change that countries have agreed the world should stop burning the fossil fuels that are frying it. When you’re zoomed in on UN talks, that shift is downright profound given that each country gets a vote on the agreement. That the entire world agreed to carry out “escalating efforts to phase down unabated coal power and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” in the language of the final agreement is a revelation.
“Compared to just a few years ago, the progress and momentum made in the last two weeks towards phasing out fossil fuels is striking,” Elizabeth Bast, Oil Change International’s executive director, said in a statement.
But zoom out and the talks are like watching a turtle cross a lawn. From that vantage point, what was a big step from up close looks much less revolutionary. More worryingly, it’s clear the turtle has moved very little from its starting point when it began its march at 1992 talks in Ri
The language around fossil fuels, which was introduced by the coal-dependent countries of India and China at the last minute, is both new and maddeningly riddled with loopholes for polluters. “Phase-down” of coal is open-ended and “efforts” provides no certainty on actions. Calling subsidies “inefficient” also leaves the door open to interpretation and could allow countries to keep digging up reserves while banking on unproven carbon capture technology under the banner of efficiency.
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry invoked the well-trod line in a speech to the group of assembled negotiators and said it couldn’t “let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” That’s a fair tactic when you’re looking to compromise. But physics doesn’t do compromises.
In the atmosphere, success is simply this: Humans need to create a credible, actionable plan to reduce carbon emissions at the speed necessary to avoid catastrophic levels of planetary overheating. That speed, the United Nations has said, is roughly 8% per year this decade if the world is to warm no more than the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), a target agreed to at talks six years ago. Coal use must decline 78% this decade to align with that target. Other reports have shown that new fossil fuel exploration needs to stop next year for success to be realized.
There are other signs of progress at the talks around fossil fuels. A group of countries agreed to stop funding fossil fuel projects abroad, while another group agreed to reduce oil and gas methane emissions 30% by 2030. But outside a small group of countries planning to take that step, the world collectively—including the biggest fossil fuel producers—failed to step up to that challenge. In the real world, carbon emissions continue to increase and new fossil fuel lease sales are just around the corner.
“For the first time, we have a COP decision calling for efforts towards the phase out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies,” Mohamed Adow, the head of Power Shift Africa, said. “The narrowing of the language to just cover ‘unabated’ coal power and ‘inefficient’ subsidies leaves room for untested technologies such as CCS which only the rich world has access to. We need a global phase out that is fast, fair, and final for all fossil fuels.”
The fact that each country gets a vote means that talks inevitably result in some degree of disappointment. Still, it is a testament to small island states, civil society, and others who have been fighting for years to include fossil fuels in any international agreement. But outside the negotiation halls, the climate is heating up and the clock is ticking. The world is on track to warm 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 degrees Celsius) even if all the commitments made by world leaders are met. (A big if.)
“Please do us the courtesy to acknowledge that it does not bring hope to our hearts but serves as yet another conversation where we put our homes on the line, while those who have other options decide how quickly they want to act to save those who don’t,” said Aminath Shauna, environment minister of the Maldives. “We have 98 months to half global emissions. The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees is a death sentence for us.”
Beneath the Rittenhouse trial: Grim truths about the state of America
The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who brought an illegally obtained AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to a chaotic street protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and shot three people, killing two of them, has the country riveted this week. The judge and the prosecutor have been at each other's throats, the top prosecution witnesses turned out to be more helpful for the defense, and defense attorneys unexpectedly put the baby-faced Rittenhouse on the stand, where he breathlessly sobbed like a toddler. Meanwhile, the judge got a phone call as he sat at the bench, revealing his ring tone to be Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," an unofficial Republican theme song. So the trial has been both dramatic and bizarre in equal measure.
The case is important for many reasons having to do with policing, guns, politics and the growing acceptance of right-wing vigilantism in America. Rittenhouse has somehow become a symbol of all those issues, with the country split down the middle on whether he should be condemned for carrying an illegally obtained assault weapon across state lines (he lived a few miles away, in Illinois) and killing people or should be viewed as a hero for standing up to the left-wing mob and defending himself when challenged. His childlike demeanor confuses the issue even more. How could such an innocent-looking boy have done either of those things?
The facts of the case are well known, so I won't go into it in detail. Suffice it to say that Rittenhouse fashioned himself as a "medic" (a role for which he was entirely untrained) as well as a sort of adjunct militia member, protecting private property and supporting the police when he drove into Kenosha that night and ostentatiously patrolled the streets with his long gun. He was confronted by Joseph Rosenbaum, an ex-convict with a history of mental illness who threw a bag of toiletries at him. Rittenhouse fired his gun, mortally wounding Rosenbaum. He called a friend and said, "I just killed somebody," as he jogged away from the scene.
Rittenhouse was chased by several people, including one man who tried to hit him with a high kick. Rittenhouse fired at that person but missed. Another protester, Anthony Huber, attempted to bring him down with a skateboard and Rittenhouse shot and killed him too. Gaige Grosskreutz, an armed protester and trained paramedic who also chased Rittenhouse, testified that the two men aimed their guns at each other and Rittenhouse shot him as well, wounding him in the arm. Then Rittenhouse simply walked away from this bloody scene, walking right past police lines, and went home. He turned himself in the next morning. At no point did the self-styled medic try to help any of the people he shot.
Donald Trump defended Rittenhouse's actions at the time, saying that Rittenhouse was "trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like. I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed." The Trump administration distributed talking points urging officials to say to characterize Rittenhouse as "taking his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners."
As for the MAGA crowd, the Washington Post's Paul Waldman observed that Rittenhouse has been extolled as a hero from the very beginning, with Trump supporters raising most of the $2 million for his bail with online appeals:
On Fox News and other conservative media, one personality after another rushed to his defense.... Rittenhouse "should walk away a free and rich man after suing for malicious prosecution. That would be true justice in this case," said Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire. "Kyle Rittenhouse went to Kenosha to clean up the filth left by the rioting Biden voters," said Tucker Carlson .... So try to imagine what will happen if Rittenhouse is acquitted. Trump will issue a statement somehow taking credit for it. Fox News will fly Rittenhouse to New York for triumphant interviews. Social media will erupt with joy, as millions of conservatives cry "Suck it, libs!" He'll appear on T-shirts and bumper stickers; maybe he'll speak at the next Conservative Political Action Conference. And don't be surprised if Trumpist candidates start seeking Rittenhouse's endorsement and asking him to appear on the campaign trail with them.
The trial isn't even over yet and that's already happening. Here is Rittenhouse's mother on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Thursday night:
This could be the beginning of a very successful career for young Rittenhouse. He's already shown that he has an instinct for it. After his arraignment and not-guilty plea he was seen numerous times wearing a "Free as Fuck" T-shirt in public, accompanied by his mother and greeted with cheers from his MAGAworld fans.
This sort of vigilantism is routinely celebrated on the right these days. From the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida to the trial of Ahmaud Arbery's killers now unfolding in Georgia, they have lined up in support for citizens who take the law into their own hands — as long as the targets are left-wing protesters and Black people. They aren't so keen when the shoe is on the other foot.
You may recall another very similar case in Portland, Oregon, last year when Michael Reinoehl, an armed antifa supporter, got into a beef with Aaron Danielson, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer. In this case, the leftist shot and killed the MAGA supporter and Trump, according to his own account of events on Fox News, personally ordered U.S. marshals to hunt Reinoehl down: Now we sent in the U.S. marshals for the killer, the man that killed the young man in the street. Two and a half days went by, and I put out, "When are you going to go get him?" And the U.S. marshals went in to get him, and
According to this rundown of the events by the New York Times, it's clear that Reinoehl was unarmed at the time of his death and that marshals opened fire without warning as he walked to his car. It was an extrajudicial execution, apparently ordered by the president of the United States
It may be that Kyle Rittenhouse will be seen in the eyes of the law to have fired in self-defense. After all, he's being tried for murder, not for being a reckless fool who should never have carried a firearm anywhere near the melee that night. Many of the TV lawyers analyzing the case believe the prosecution has not made the case for a homicide conviction. If that's the way things play out, that won't be the fault of the lawyers, the judge or the jury. It will be the direct result of laws that allow teenage boys to wander the streets with loaded assault weapons slung over their shoulders, as if that were perfectly reasonable in a civilized society.
Vigilantism, extrajudicial killings by federal authorities, violent insurrections, threats and harassment of public officials, and rejection of election results and the democratic process are all hallmarks of authoritarian movements. Coddling the gun fetishists and allowing right-wing extremism to fester over many years has brought us to the point when we must ask ourselves if we're no longer a country where politics is war by other means — it's just plain old war.
Rittenhouse legal expert: I've never seen a judge act like this in a criminal trial.
Ron Filipkowski
In the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial, Judge Bruce Schroeder began the day on Thursday asking everyone in the courtroom, including the jury, if they had served in the military. As it turned out, the only military veteran in the courtroom who spoke up was the defense expert on use-of-force, John Black. Schroeder then motioned to the jury, and said that he thinks that everyone should give a “round of applause to the people who have served,” while gesturing back over toward Black.
I have been a criminal law attorney for 27 years. I was both a federal and state prosecutor, and defense attorney. In all my years of practice, I have never seen a trial judge during a trial put the jury in a position where they would have to applaud a defense witness right before they are about to take the stand and testify.
A judge in any criminal jury trial should never put members of the jury in a position where they are asked to applaud for a witness about to testify for something that they have done in the past. I am a Marine Corps veteran. I certainly appreciate it when people thank me for my service. But trial judges must do everything possible to avoid any appearance that they favor or agree with one side or another in a trial. A judge must also not express a favorable personal opinion about a witness – even to laud them for military service.
The parties to a trial and the public must feel confident that the process was fair and unbiased. These unusual incidents have created the impression in the minds of many that the judge in this case is biased, and that is unfortunate.
Kyle Rittenhouse and his attorney Corey Chirafisi in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 11, 2021.
In a trial as high profile as Rittenhouse, it is crucial for everyone to have confidence that due process was fairly applied. Whatever the verdict, many people have already concluded that it wasn’t.
Ron Filipkowski is a former prosecutor and Marine and current criminal defense lawyer.
GOP Candidates Are Wielding Kyle Rittenhouse Trial In Culture War Liz Skalka Thu, November 11, 2021
A jury hasn’t ruled yet in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen facing homicide charges for shooting three men during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin — but Republicans and their allies are already wielding the issue in their broader culture war ahead of the midterm elections.
“I think that it’s not a trial, it’s child abuse masquerading as justice in this country,” said J.D. Vance, the author and venture capitalist running for Senate in Ohio, said on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program Wednesday. “This entire trial — this entire farce — is an indictment on every institution in our society.”
Potentially facing life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges, Rittenhouse has been championed by the right after he fatally shot two men and wounded another during a protest that erupted in response to a white Kenosha officer shooting and leaving a Black man, Jacob Blake, paralyzed from the waist down. The trial has fiercely divided the nation over whether Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, was acting as a hero or a vigilante.
Rittenhouse’s trial has become symbolic of the nation’s political polarization over police brutality, racism and gun rights — issues that are nearly certain to factor into the upcoming election cycle
. Kyle Rittenhouse breaks down on the stand as he testifies during his murder trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Nov. 10. (Photo: Mark Hertzberg/Associated Press)
Republicans seeking office in 2022 have attacked the prosecution in the case and continue to slam President Joe Biden for appearing to label Rittenhouse — who traveled across state lines to Kenosha with an AR-style rifle and a medical kit — a “white supremacist” in a tweet shortly after the killings.
After the presidential debate in September 2020, Biden shared a video targeting former President Donald Trump for refusing to disavow white supremacy that featured Rittenhouse and others.
Rittenhouse has argued that he was acting in self-defense and traveled to Kenosha as a private citizen to quell violence and looting.
“It’s an indictment of our disgusting president, who called him a white supremacist, even though he shot other white people. It’s an indictment of our media, which slandered and bullied a 17-year-old boy. I haven’t seen anything that disgusts me with the leaders of this country like this ridiculous farce of a trial,” Vance, who has framed his candidacy around cultural issues, said on Fox.
On Thursday, Vance’s GOP primary opponent, Josh Mandel, tweeted “Kyle Rittenhouse is the victim” in response to basketball star LeBron James, who questioned whether Rittenhouse’s tears on the stand were genuine.
Eric Greitens, the former Missouri governor running for an open Senate seat in that state, retweeted former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik — a fixture on right-wing cable who received a presidential pardon from Trump — who called the trial an “abuse of power by a politically motivated prosecutor.”
Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman who ran in the 2020 Democratic primary for president, also offered her take. Gabbard, who was reportedly vetted for a role in the Trump administration, is seen as sympathetic to the right and as harboring ambitions for higher office.
“The prosecutor in this Rittenhouse trial obviously didn’t do his due diligence before making the decision to prosecute,” Gabbard said in a viral video. “This tragedy never would have happened if the government had simply carried out its responsibilities to protect the safety, lives and property of innocent people.”
Republican Glenn Youngkin’s win this month in the Virginia governor’s race demonstrated the potency of cultural issues for the GOP, which successfully tapped into anger over parental control in schools, particularly with COVID-19 mandates and the bogeyman of “critical race theory” in schools.
Underpinning the Rittenhouse trial, which continues this week, are tensions over last year’s protests against police brutality toward Black Americans and the role police forces should play in society.
Democrats, for their part, weren’t silent on Rittenhouse, either.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York tweeted on Wednesday: “Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key.”
Kyle Rittenhouse and defense attorney Mark Richards stand as Judge Bruce Schroeder makes a personal call during Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Mark Hertzberg /Pool Photo via AP)
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The jurors who will decide Kyle Rittenhouse’s fate will be allowed to consider lesser charges if they opt to acquit him on some of the original counts prosecutors brought, the judge said Friday during a contentious hearing in which both sides could claim partial victory.
Rittenhouse, of nearby Antioch, Illinois, testified that he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot two protesters and wounded a third during an August 2020 night of unrest in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on Monday after closing arguments in a case that has left Americans divided over whether Rittenhouse was a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante who brought a gun to a protest to provoke a response.
With a verdict near, Gov. Tony Evers said Friday that 500 National Guard members would be prepared for duty in Kenosha if local law enforcement requested them.
Wisconsin law allows the prosecution and defense to ask that jurors be told they can consider lesser charges as part of the instructions they receive before deliberating. Defense lawyers can object to lesser charges, and in some cases Friday, they did. For those that they didn’t object to, Judge Bruce Schroeder asked Rittenhouse to confirm that he agreed with his attorneys’ decision.
Schroeder told Rittenhouse that by including the lesser charges, “you’re raising the risk of conviction, although you’re avoiding the possibility that the jury will end up compromising on the more serious crime. And you’re also decreasing the risk that you’ll end up with a second trial because the jury is unable to agree.”
Rittenhouse said he understood.
Schroeder said he would issue his final rulings Saturday, but he made some findings from the bench and indicated how he might rule on others. For counts where jurors will be allowed to consider lesser charges, they will be instructed to only consider them if they first acquit Rittenhouse of the more serious original corresponding charge.
Friday’s arguments over jury instructions were contentious at times, with attorneys rehashing debates they had earlier in the case. At one point, as prosecutors were seeking to add an instruction that would allow the jurors to consider whether Rittenhouse was provoked, the two sides debated about what a particular photo showed. Schroeder lost his temper, snapping: “You’re asking me to give an instruction. I want to see the best picture!”
Schroeder ultimately said he would allow the provocation instruction, which would ask the jury to consider whether Rittenhouse provoked Rosenbaum into attacking him. If the jury finds he did, that would negate self-defense.
Rittenhouse, now 18, faces one count of first-degree reckless homicide in the killing of Rosenbaum, who was the first person he shot after Rosenbaum chased him in a used car lot. Prosecutors sought to add a second-degree reckless homicide charge, but the defense objected. Schroeder said he was unlikely to allow the lesser charge because he thought a guilty verdict on the lesser charge would be overturned on appeal.
Rittenhouse also faces two charges of first-degree reckless endangerment: one for firing at an unknown man who tried to kick him in the face and another because a reporter was in the line of fire when Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum.
Schroeder said he was inclined to allow a lesser charge of second-degree reckless endangerment when it comes to endangering the reporter, but he might not. He said he would not allow the lesser charge in the case of the unidentified man who tried to kick Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse also faces one count of first-degree intentional homicide in Huber’s death. That’s the most serious charge against him and carries a mandatory life sentence. Huber swung his skateboard at Rittenhouse shortly after Rittenhouse killed Rosenbaum.
The defense did not object to adding lesser counts of second-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide as it relates to Huber. It did object to adding a charge of second-degree reckless homicide. Schroeder said he “embraced” that argument.
Rittenhouse also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide for shooting and wounding Grosskreutz in the arm. Grosskreutz, who had a gun in his hand, confronted Rittenhouse right after Rittenhouse shot Huber.
Prosecutors asked to add second-degree attempted intentional homicide, first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree reckless endangerment options. Rittenhouse attorney Corey Chirafisi didn’t object to the second-degree attempted homicide count, but he objected to adding the reckless endangerment counts, saying he doesn’t believe someone can “attempt to be reckless.”
Schroeder said he would mull it over but was inclined to agree with prosecutors.
Rittenhouse is also charged with possessing a dangerous weapon while under the age of 18. It was not clear Friday what Schroeder intended to tell jurors on that charge.
Legal observers said both sides got some wins during the hearing. Julius Kim, a Milwaukee criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said no matter how confident Rittenhouse may be of his defense, accepting the lesser charge on the most serious count minimizes the risk of him being convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
“I think that they recognize it could be a good thing for Mr. Rittenhouse to allow the jury to potentially convict him of a lesser offense if they convict him of anything,” Kim said, adding that the lack of a defense objection on that count could signal that they might not be confident in an acquittal.
Still, the fact that prosecutors are seeking a lesser offense is a “tacit acknowledgement” that they aren’t confident the jury will convict Rittenhouse on the original charges.
“I think they are trying to salvage something at his point in time,” Kim said.
Michael O’Hear, a criminal law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, agreed, saying lesser included charges are usually sought by the defense.
“Normally the prosecutor would not request a lesser included instruction if the prosecution had a very high degree of confidence in the likelihood of conviction of the greater offense,” O’Hear said, noting that adding it “practically invites the jury to compromise on the lesser offense.”
Testimony in the case ended Thursday after nearly two weeks. The most riveting moment in the trial came when Rittenhouse told the jury that he was defending himself from attack when he used his rifle to shoot the three men.
Closing arguments will be Monday, after which names will be drawn to decide which 12 jurors will deliberate and which will be dismissed as alternates. Eighteen people have been hearing the case. The panel appears to be overwhelmingly white, like Rittenhouse and those he shot.
The protests were set off by the wounding of Blake by a white police officer. Rittenhouse went to the protest with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.
The case has stirred fierce debate over vigilantism, self-defense, the Second Amendment right to bear arms and the unrest that erupted throughout the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other police violence against Black people.
___
Bauer reported from Madison and Forliti reported from Minneapolis.
As the battle between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and rebels from the Tigray region continues, tensions are growing between Washington and its Ethiopian former ally. The Biden administration is now considering imposing sanctions against Addis Ababa, once considered a strategic and trustworthy partner in an unstable East Africa.
The situation in Ethiopia continues to deteriorate amid ongoing fighting between pro-government forces and Tigrayan rebels. As Tigrayan forces gained the upper hand in recent weeks and are now closing in on the capital, the federal government has launched a campaign against any international organisations still active in the country, including the United Nations, accusing them of collaborating with the enemy. The government ordered the expulsion of seven UN agency officials accused of "interference" on September 30.
The UN announced on Wednesday that 72 of its World Food Programme (WFP) drivers were being held in a northern town on the only road leading into Tigray, which is facing a severe threat of famine. The day before (November 9), at least 16 Ethiopian UN employees were arrested in the capital Addis Ababa.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government has intensified its crackdown as the United States, which remained neutral, has been leading diplomatic efforts for several months to put an end to the civil conflict.
But now Washington is considering levying fresh sanctions on Addis Ababa in the coming days or weeks, according to a senior State Department official. "We can use them quite quickly," the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We'll see in the coming days how things unfold."
Ethiopia considers any such measures as a betrayal by one of its closest allies.
Washington shifted from words to action on Friday by imposing sanctions on the Eritrean military and other Eritrea-based individuals and entities for their roles in the neighbouring northern Ethiopia conflict.
"Eritrean forces have operated throughout Ethiopia during the conflict and have been responsible for massacres, looting and sexual assaults," a Treasury Department statement said.
Both Asmara and Addis Ababa have denounced the move. "The real target for sanctions and further tougher actions by the US government and the greater international community should be directed towards the TPLF," Ethiopia's foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to the Tigray People's Liberation Front rebel group. 'Reassessing relations’
Early this month US President Joe Biden announced Ethiopia’s exclusion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as of January 1, 2022. The measure was unveiled two weeks after Biden signed an executive order paving the way for sanctions, including the seizure of assets and suspending the financial transactions of parties involved in the conflict.
"We are not imposing sanctions at this time on elements aligned with the government of Ethiopia and TPLF,” the main rebel movement, “to allow time and space to see if these talks can make progress," US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Friday. He warned that the United States would not hesitate to target both cites with future measures if diplomacy fails.
For Biden, the situation in northern Ethiopia “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”, he wrote in an executive order on September 17.
Bilateral tensions have been rising since May, when Washington introduced visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials accused of having "taken no meaningful steps to end hostilities". The Ethiopian government issued a warning at the time, saying it would "be forced to reassess its relations with the United States, which might have implications beyond our bilateral relationship".
Although the Biden administration wants to increase the pressure on Ethiopian leaders, it took seven months to put in place these first concrete measures.
"The United States has an interest in maintaining good relations with Ethiopia. They benefit from a trusted and key regional partner in an area dominated by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, of which Washington is suspicious," said Gérard Prunier, a historian specialising in the Horn of Africa.
Washington has long considered Ethiopia an important ally in the international fight against terrorism, particularly because of its proximity to Somalia, where al Qaeda-linked Islamist group Al Shabaab is based. Addis Ababa has also actively participated in UN missions by providing large contingents of troops. The US, on the other hand, is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the country, with an estimated $1 billion a year donated through UN agencies. A Western disappointment
The international community was slow to react to the Tigray conflict in part because of its faith in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won a Nobel Prize for his role in ending the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea. After becoming the leader of a country in the grip of a political crisis and plagued by ethnic conflicts in April 2018, the new prime minister implemented reforms to bring Ethiopia closer to its neighbour and regional rival Eritrea, ending a bitter war that killed tens of thousands of people. The war officially lasted until a July 2018 peace deal.
The peace agreement earned Ahmed the Nobel Prize in October 2019.
"The United States hailed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's arrival in power. It is true that the evolution of the situation puts them at odds, and not only with Washington. Many people believed in him," Prunier said of Ahmed.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe
"No one could have imagined that this political newcomer, who promised openness and modernity, would suddenly launch a war to assimilate Tigray (which was officially a semi-autonomous region) that is totally incompatible with the reality of Ethiopian diversity." Partnership ‘not sustainable’
As Ethiopia marked the first anniversary of the conflict in Tigray in early November, US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, special envoy for the Horn of Africa, published a lengthy piece on the Department of State website saying that "the United States and others cannot continue 'business as usual' relations with the Government of Ethiopia".
"The extraordinary partnership we have enjoyed is not sustainable while the military conflict continues to expand," he wrote, condemning the recurrent blockage of humanitarian aid to famine-threatened Tigray and expressing indignation at the expulsion of the "key UN officials". Feltman vigorously denounced the move, noting that there were "more UN humanitarian staff expelled in a single day by the Ethiopian government than Bashar al-Assad’s regime has expelled in 10 years of war in Syria".
"The US has been very patient. That being said, its expectations over Ethiopia are modest, because it is far from being a priority for them in the same way that China or Iran are," Prunier said. "But [the United States] no longer has any confidence in Abiy Ahmed, and hope to find a functional ally at least. By imposing sanctions against the government, at a time when it seems to be losing the battle, they are planning for the aftermath," he observed.
Extinction Rebellion holds COP26 ‘funeral ceremony’ at Necropolis
The demonstration, which took place on Saturday, was meant to symbolise the failure of the COP process.
By Rachel Guy
Extinction Rebellion activists have held a protest in the form of a “funeral ceremony” at Glasgow’s Necropolis as COP26 negotiations spilled over into another day.
The demonstration, which kicked off on Saturday, was meant to symbolise the failure of the COP process.
Starting from Glasgow Cathedral, the protesters led a procession dressed in black shrouds across Church Lane Bridge. The performers lay down next to rows of individual headstones.
Activists walked between the headstones and performed grief poses.
STV News The protesters led a procession through the grounds.
The performance happened as negotiators continued to hammer out a deal at the COP26 talks.
Karen, an XR member from the Isle of Barra, said, “We are here grieving for a planet that has been sacrificed by the failure and stupidity of COP26.
“The bare minimum needed from COP26 were commitments to leaving oil in the ground and an immediate halt to fossil fuel funding. Anything less than that is idiocy.
“As intelligent life on this planet we are already extinct. We know exactly what we need to do and we’re not doing it.”
Cathy Allen, from XR Oxford, said: “At just over one degree of warming many communities are already being displaced by floods, drought and loss of land.
“To continue deliberately heating up the planet for pointless profit will soon displace hundreds of millions.
“This is no accident – it is a heinous and barbarous crime against humanity.
“We are especially in mourning for the global south and those on the frontline communities who will suffer the most but have done the least to cause this crisis.
“COP26 has failed them.
“It has failed all of us.”
The protest follows a day of action in Glasgow that saw a topless activist arrested for protesting at JP Morgan, a group spray-painting “Blood Money” on Barclays bank, two activists pouring red paint and fake blood over themselves at the entrance to the COP26 Blue Zone, and an activist arrested for attempting to “jump the fence” and enter the Blue Zone compound.
COP26: Extinction Rebellion to hold funeral ceremony at the Glasgow Necropolis 'to symbolise the failure' of the climate change summit.
The environmental activist group will lead a procession in the Glasgow Necropolis and conduct a ‘funeral’ for COP26, as a means of criticising the failure
The procession will begin today at 11am from Glasgow Cathedral. Extinction Rebellion’s iconic ‘Red Rebels’ will lead a march of protesters, who will be dressed in black shrouds, across Church Lane Bridge, which is often referred to as “the Bridge of Sighs”.
Members of Extinction Rebellion will then perform amongst the headstones of the Necropolis. The ‘Blue Rebels’, a Scottish group similar to the ‘Red Rebels’, will escort a performer playing “COP26”, who will lie down to alongside the headstones, while a piper plays laments.
Extinction Rebellion have described COP26 as “yet another mark of failure”
Karen, an Extinction Rebellion member from the Isle of Barra, said: “We are here grieving for a planet that has been sacrificed by the failure and stupidity of COP26. The bare minimum needed from COP26 were commitments to leaving oil in the ground and an immediate halt to fossil fuel funding. Anything less than that is idiocy. As intelligent life on this planet we are already extinct. We know exactly what we need to do and we’re not doing it.”
Cathy Allen from Extinction Rebellion Oxford said: “At just over 1 degree of warming many communities are already being displaced by floods, drought and loss of land. To continue deliberately heating up the planet for pointless profit will soon displace hundreds of millions. This is no accident – it is a heinous and barbarous crime against humanity. We are especially in mourning for the Global South and those on the frontline communities who will suffer the most but have done the least to cause this crisis. COP26 has failed them. It has failed all of us.”
This follows a day of action in Glasgow that saw a topless activist arrested for protesting at JP Morgan, a group spray-painting “Blood Money” on Barclays bank, two activists pouring red paint and fake blood over themselves at the entrance to the COP26 Blue Zone, and an activist arrested for attempting to “jump the fence” and enter the Blue Zone compound.
COP26: Climate activists hold 'ceremony of grief' in Glasgow By Ava WhyteReporter [Photographs by Peter Summers/Getty Images].
CLIMATE activists staged a 'funeral ceremony' in Glasgow today as COP26 crunch talks continue.
The 'ceremony of grief', organised by Extinction Rebellion (XR), took place to symbolise the "failure of the COP process".
The event began this morning at 11am after XR's 'Red Rebels' led a procession from Glasgow Cathedral across Church Lane Bridge to the Glasgow Necropolis.
Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images].
Activists can be seen dressed in black shrouds representing each COP meeting held since the first in 1995.
[Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images].
Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images
Performers lay down next to a row of individual "headstones" as the 'Red Rebels' walked between them performing "grief poses".
[Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images].
The 'Blue Rebels', a Scottish group similar to the 'Red Rebels', then escorted "COP26" who lay down to complete the pattern.
[Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images].
Karen, an XR member from the Isle of Barra, said: "We are here grieving for a planet that has been sacrificed by the failure and stupidity of COP26.
"The bare minimum needed from COP26 were commitments to leaving oil in the ground and an immediate halt to fossil fuel funding.
"Anything less than that is idiocy. As intelligent life on this planet we are already extinct. We know exactly what we need to do and we’re not doing it."
[Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images].
It comes as negotiations at COP26 went into overtime after talks were due to wrap up at 6pm on Friday.
Today's stocktaking plenary (meeting of the parties) has been delayed until 2.30pm to allow negotiators who are still having discussions to resolve issues time to do so.
COP26 President Alok Sharma said he intends to close the UN climate talks "this afternoon".
He said: "At the end of the day, what has been put forward is a balanced package.
"Everyone has had a chance to have their say, and I hope that colleagues will appreciate that what is on the table here, whilst not every aspect of it will be welcomed by everyone, collectively this is a package that really moves things forward for everyone."
India forced to take emergency measures as polluted capital gasps for air
Schools closed, government employees to work from home, more steps planned if crisis worsens, says New Delhi chief minister
Ahmad Adil |13.11.2021
NEW DELHI – Schools in New Delhi will be closed all through next week, government employees will work from home, construction activities will grind to a halt – not because of a COVID-19 surge, but the severe air pollution crisis that has crippled life in India’s sprawling capital.
Authorities announced the measures on Saturday after India’s Supreme Court asked the government to take immediate action to rein in soaring pollution that has left New Delhi and its citizens gasping for clean air.
Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of New Delhi, admitted that the city is facing an “emergency-like situation” with toxic air quality and dangerous smog conditions.
“Schools will remain shut for a week and revert to online classes … (and) construction activities have been banned from Nov. 14 to Nov. 17. Government offices will also have employees working from home for a week,” he told reporters, adding that private offices will also be pushed to keep workers at home.
He said a proposal with more possible measures will be submitted to the Supreme Court, which had suggested a two-day lockdown in the capital.
“Our only aim at the moment is to deal with the emergency-like situation that has emerged due to an increase in air pollution … We are not imposing a lockdown right now ... (but) we will put a proposal before the court with steps that can be taken if the situation worsens,” Kejriwal said.
Air pollution has become a persistent problem in New Delhi over recent years and the city is often ranked as the most polluted capital in the world.
A study in 2019 indicated that India’s deadly air quality contributed to over 1.2 million deaths in the country.
The issue is particularly aggravated in the winter season from November to January, when farmers in nearby areas burn crop stubble and add to the emissions of coal-fired plants and industrial units around the city.
“The conditions took a turn for the worse from Nov. 4, and what we are seeing now is one of the longest spells of air pollution,” Gufran Beig, project director of India’s state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), told Anadolu Agency.
“Today, the contribution of stubble burning is 31%. The remaining is from local sources such as transport and industries,” he said, adding that air quality is expected to slightly improve from severe to very poor on Sunday or Monday.
Air pollution is not the only challenge in India’s capital, as seen earlier this week when a stretch of the Yamuna river that runs through New Delhi was covered with toxic white foam caused by pollutants dumped by industries set up around the city.
EXPLAINER: Why quitting coal is so hard
Smoke rises from a coal-powered steel plant at Hehal village near Ranchi, in eastern state of Jharkhand, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. No country will see energy needs grow faster in coming decades than India, and even under the most optimistic projections part of that demand will have to be met with dirty coal power - a key source of heat-trapping carbon emissions. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) | Photo: AP
By KARL RITTER Updated: November 13, 2021
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - In the run-up to the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, host Britain announced one of its goals of the conference was to consign coal to history.
That has turned out to be easier said that done. Even saying it - in writing - has turned out to be quite a challenge.
Government negotiators in Glasgow have been writing and rewriting a paragraph that spells out that the world needs to phase out coal, along with fossil fuel subsidies, but doesn't set an end date.
Here's a look at the role coal plays in climate change and the energy system, and why it's been so hard to move away from:
WHY THE FOCUS ON COAL?
Of the three fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas - coal is the biggest climate villain. It's responsible for about 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions. It's also a fuel that is relatively easy to replace: Renewable alternatives to coal-fired power have been available for decades. The burning of coal also has other environmental impacts, including air pollution contributing to smog, acid rain and respiratory illnesses. WHO IS BURNING THE MOST COAL?
China, the world's most populous country and a manufacturing giant, is by far the world's biggest coal consumer, followed by India and the United States. In 2019 China produced 4,876 TWh of electricity from coal, almost as much as the rest of the world combined, according to the International Energy Agency. But adjusted for population size the situation is different: Australia has the highest per capita coal emissions among the Group of 20 biggest economies, followed by South Korea, South Africa, the United States and China, according to an analysis by Ember, a climate and energy think tank. WHY ARE COUNTRIES STILL BURNING COAL?
The short answer is coal is cheap and plentiful. But even as renewables become more competitive on price, coal isn't that easy to get rid of. Electricity needs are soaring as the world's population and prosperity increase, and renewables simply aren't enough to satisfy that growth in demand. The IEA projects that India will need to add a power system the size of the European Union's to meet expected growth in electricity demand in the next 20 years. Coal's role in the power sector has remained relatively stable in the past five decades. IEA statistics show that in 1973 coal's share of global electricity generation was 38%; in 2019 it was 37%.
WHAT IS NEXT FOR COAL?
Coal's future looks bleak in the long term regardless of what language governments agree on in Glasgow. It's not just driven by climate concerns: In the U.S., natural gas has been replacing coal for years for economic reasons, though coal has rebounded this year due to a surge in natural gas prices. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, many countries have set net zero emissions targets, which often require phaseouts of unabated coal, meaning coal-fired plants that aren't fitted with expensive technology that captures emissions. Austria, Belgium and Sweden have already closed their last coal plants. Britain plans to end coal power by 2024. Announcements made in the run-up to and during the Glasgow conference mean some 370 more coal plants around the world were given a close-by date, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The U.S. has not made such a pledge yet.
Documents expose 'staggering pattern of political interference' in Trump's Covid response
Documents released Friday reveal how in early 2020 the Trump administration downplayed the deadly danger posed by the nascent Covid-19 pandemic, silencing and sidelining top health officials who tried to warn the public and destroying evidence of political interference while issuing rosy declarations that the outbreak was "totally under control" and would soon be over.
"The Trump administration's use of the pandemic to advance political
goals manifested itself most acutely in its efforts to manipulate and undermine CDC's scientific work."
The emails and transcripts—released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis—show that as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) became aware that the highly infectious virus that causes Covid-19 was spreading rapidly, agency officials requested to hold briefings about mask guidance and other issues. Their requests were denied.
Top Trump officials also moved to block the CDC from publishing information about the pandemic and tried to alter the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWRs) to reflect former President Donald Trump's unrealistically optimistic Covid-19 messaging—which infamously included such claims in January and February 2020 as "we have it totally under control," that the outbreak is "going to have a very good ending," and that infections would "be down close to zero" with days.
As of Friday, there have been more than 760,000 U.S. deaths from Covid-19, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, making it the deadliest pandemic in the nation's history.
The emails and transcripts detail how in the early days of 2020 Trump and his allies in the White House blocked media briefings and interviews with CDC officials, attempted to alter public safety guidance normally cleared by the agency, and instructed agency officials to destroy evidence that might be construed as political interference.
The documents further underscore how Trump appointees tried to undermine the work of scientists and career staff at the CDC to control the administration's messaging on the spread of the virus and the dangers of transmission and infection.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who chairs the coronavirus subcommittee, said in a statement that "the Trump administration's use of the pandemic to advance political goals manifested itself most acutely in its efforts to manipulate and undermine CDC's scientific work," adding that the investigation "has uncovered a staggering pattern of political interference."
Peter Suwondo, a former CDC global health adviser, said the new revelations are "more evidence of how health leaders at the CDC were silenced and overruled in the early days of the pandemic."
"Top elected officials preferred to keep Americans in the dark and set policy based on political considerations, not science," he added.
In addition to interfering with the work of CDC officials, the documents show that Dr. Scott Atlas, Trump's special adviser, weakened Covid-19 testing while pushing a dubious herd immunity strategy. They also reveal Trump's anger at Dr. Nancy Messonnier—then director of the agency's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases—after she gave a February 25, 2020 press conference to warn about the outbreak's severity.
"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore," Messonnier said of the rapidly spreading pandemic, "but rather more a question of exactly when."
When asked about a CNN report that CDC officials felt "muzzled" by the administration's actions, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the agency's former principal deputy director, said, "That is the feeling that we had, many of us."
Friday's revelations follow reporting Thursday that ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl's new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, contains details about how the former president's reelection team ordered a stop to Covid-19 testing during a June 2020 outbreak in which infected campaign staffers and Secret Service agents spread the virus before, during, and after a rally in a Tulsa, Oklahoma arena.
Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who spoke at the Tulsa event, died of Covid-19 about a month later.
"We killed Herman Cain," a senior Trump campaign official told ABC News reporter Will Steakin, according to the new book.
Jackson is hoping to bring the momentum from her first World Cup win to the Beijing Winter Olympics next year.Boris Streubel / Getty Images
People gather behind a placard showing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at a rally organized by local authorities to show support for the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and against what they call Western interference in internal affairs, at Meskel square in downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. © AP
