Two acquitted and mistrial declared for two others in Whitmer kidnap plot trial

Jury in Grand Rapids acquits two of conspiracy to kidnap Michigan governor and unable to agree on verdicts for other two men on trial

Two of four men on trial were acquitted on Friday of conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, in a plot prosecutors said was motivated by fury at the Democrat’s tough Covid-19 restrictions in the early stages of the pandemic.

The verdicts regarding Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were read in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US district judge Robert Jonker presiding.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: children among at least 50 people killed in Kramatorsk train station attack – live

The mayor of Kramatorsk says there were 4,000 people, most of them elderly, women and children, at the station at the time of the attack

The President of the European Commission and EU representative Josep Borrell appear to be on their way to Kyiv this morning.

Ursula von der Leyen shared a photo of herself stepping off a Ukrainian train alongside the caption “looking forward to Kyiv”.

We have significant losses of troops. And it’s a huge tragedy for us.

Continue reading...

‘We have made it’: Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘honored’ to become supreme court’s first Black female justice – live

The White House celebration for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the US supreme court is under way, with vice-president Kamala Harris making the opening remarks.

“Today is indeed a wonderful day as we gather to celebrate the confirmation of the next justice of the United States supreme court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” she said.

Continue reading...

Germany will stop importing Russian gas ‘very soon’, says Olaf Scholz

Chancellor declines to endorse claim by Boris Johnson during London visit that goal will be achieved by mid-2024

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said his country is doing all it can to wean itself off Russian energy, but declined to endorse a claim by Boris Johnson that it would stop importing Russian gas by the middle of 2024.

Scholz said only that the goal would be achieved very soon, and that Germany would stop using Russian coal by the summer and Russian oil by the end of the year.

Continue reading...

Germany’s Watergate: 1950s chancellor used spy agency to infiltrate rival party

Covert flow of information from BND enabled Konrad Adenauer to cement his hold on power, historians reveal

Germany’s first democratically elected chancellor used the country’s foreign intelligence service to systematically spy on his biggest political rivals for almost a decade, a group of independent historians tasked with researching the formerly West German spy agency’s history have discovered.

The covert and illegal flow of information between the offices of Konrad Adenauer and the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) chief, Reinhard Gehlen, enabled the conservative politician to cement his hold on power through accurate insider knowledge on the campaign strategies, parliamentary manoeuvres and internal power struggles of the Social Democratic party (SPD), which led the opposition in the Bundestag at the time.

Continue reading...

Over 300 villagers near Kyiv trapped in basement for weeks, say residents

Survivors in Yahidne recount writing names of the dead on wall during Russian occupation north of Ukrainian capital

Residents of a village north of Kyiv have said that more than 300 people were trapped in a school basement for weeks by Russian occupiers, scrawling the names of the dead on a peeling wall.

Halyna Tolochina, a member of the Yahidne village council, struggled to compose herself as she went through the list, scribbled in black on the plaster either side of a green door, in the gloomy warren where she said she and hundreds of others were confined.

Continue reading...

Third Israeli dies after Palestinian opened fire at Tel Aviv bar

Security forces say 28-year-old Palestinian suspect was killed after being tracked down in Jaffa

A third Israeli has died after an attack by a Palestinian man who opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv, after Israeli security forces said they hunted down and killed the attacker early on Friday.

The shooting on Thursday evening in a downtown area packed with people in bars and restaurants caused scenes of mass panic in the heart of the bustling city. Two people were instantly killed and more than 10 people were wounded.

Continue reading...

France elections: Macron’s lead over Le Pen narrowing as vote nears

Centrist incumbent and far-right rival go into last day of campaigning after a week of sparring in media

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen attacked each other in media interviews and walkabouts as final polls showed the gap between them narrowing on the last day of campaigning before Sunday’s first-round vote.

Macron said Le Pen was “lying” to voters about her “racist” manifesto programme, which includes banning the Muslim headscarf, and accused her of “complacency” in her ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Continue reading...

Ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng found guilty in billion-dollar 1MDB scandal

Ng, 49, found guilty of helping to embezzle money earmarked for development in one of biggest frauds in financial history

The former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng has been found guilty of helping to steal billions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund after a lengthy trial brought by US prosecutors, who described the fraud as one the largest financial scandals in history and who hoped to show that individuals are always at the center of corporate wrongdoing.

A New York jury found Ng, 49, once Goldman’s top investment banker in Malaysia, guilty of helping his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money intended for development to benefit Malaysia’s poor from a fund connected to Malaysia’s then prime minister, Najib Razak, and then to launder the proceeds while bribing officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.

Continue reading...

Tel Aviv shooting prompts fears of wider cycle of violence

Latest in series of attacks by Palestinians heightens sense of reduced personal security in Israel

As Israelis reel from a Palestinian shooting at a Tel Aviv pub that killed three people, the government has threatened to strike back amid concerns of a broader escalation.

Security forces shot dead the lone attacker in the early hours of Friday after a manhunt by army troops, police and intelligence personnel. Residents of the city – Israel’s commercial and entertainment capital – stayed off the streets in the aftermath of the attack, which has heightened a sense of reduced personal security across the country after three other attacks in the last two weeks.

Continue reading...

Woman who drew up Schindler’s lists during Holocaust dies at 107

Mimi Reinhardt was in charge of compiling names of Jews to work in German industrialist’s factory

The woman who drew up lists of people for the German industrialist Oskar Schindler that helped save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust has died aged 107.

Mimi Reinhardt, who was employed as Schindler’s secretary, was in charge of drawing up the lists of Jewish workers from the ghetto of the Polish city of Kraków who were recruited to work at his factory, saving them from deportation to Nazi death camps.

Continue reading...

Suspect in shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog walker mistakenly released from jail

James Jackson, 19, one of the three suspects accused in connection with shooting of Ryan Fischer, who was walking artist’s bulldogs

The 19-year-old man arrested over the shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog-walker last year was released from jail in California earlier this week – by mistake, the authorities have said.

James Jackson, 19, Jaylin White, 19, and Lafayette Whaley, 27, were charged after the incident last February, accused of attempted murder, second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the shooting of Ryan Fischer, who was walking the music artist’s French bulldogs.

Continue reading...

‘Fake’ US federal agent claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, prosecutors say

Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, accused of posing as homeland security officials and cultivating Secret Service access

One of two American men arrested in Washington for posing as US federal security officials and cultivating access to the Secret Service, which protects Joe Biden, claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, a federal prosecutor told a judge.

Justice department assistant attorney Joshua Rothstein asked a judge not to release Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, the men arrested on Wednesday for posing as Department of Homeland Security investigators.

Continue reading...

Canada bans foreign homebuyers for two years in effort to cool market

Government under pressure after prices climbed by more than 20% last year, while rental rates have also been rising

Justin Trudeau’s government has announced it will ban foreign investors from buying homes in Canada for two years, in a bid to cool off a hot housing market.

The finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, took a number of measures to tamp down speculation and demand amid record home prices in announcing the federal budget for the year.

Continue reading...

MEPs voice fury as Greek judges again postpone refugees’ smuggling appeal

Second adjournment prolongs agony of Afghans Amir Zahiri and Akif Rasuli, serving 50-year sentences for piloting a migrant boat

MEPs appalled by “shocking” legal proceedings against two Afghans convicted of people smuggling in Greece have vowed to raise the issue with the European parliament.

Lawmakers who had flown into Lesbos for a scheduled appeals court hearing of the asylum seekers on Thursday – the second in three weeks – were outraged when judges again adjourned the case, prolonging the agony of the refugees, who are currently serving 50-year prison terms.

Continue reading...

Stay or go? Mexicans vote on Amlo’s performance in historic recall election

Despite Covid deaths and enduring drug violence, voters look poised to keep president in office in referendum he supports

Maria de Lourdes loves her leader and is desperate for him to stay.

“He’s the best president we’ve had in 70 years,” the retiree enthused this week as she prepared to bombard her phone contacts with calls urging them to back him on Sunday, when Mexico goes to the polls.

Continue reading...

Syria’s $1.5bn seizure of protesters’ property ‘akin to scare tactic’

Human rights group accuses Assad regime of profiting from detainees forced to sign away their rights, some while blindfolded

More than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) worth of personal property including cars, olive groves, shops, houses, electronics and jewellery has been seized by the Syrian government from citizens accused of joining anti-government protests, according to a rights group.

The Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) estimates that almost 40% of those detained after the Syrian uprising of 2011 were subject to property seizures.

It alleges the Syrian regime has attempted to circumvent international sanctions through this revenue, while ensuring that former detainees in exile have nothing to return to as the country struggles to rebuild.

“The regime did this, they took everything so that we don’t go back,” said Hassan Al Haj, remembering his family’s land in a village near Aleppo. “We used to have lands with olive and pistachio trees. I’d built a house there but never moved in. The government seized it before I was able to.”

Continue reading...

DHL cargo plane splits in two after crash landing at Costa Rica airport

Mechanical failure prompted pilot to request emergency landing shortly after plane took off from Juan Santamaria airport

A Boeing 757-200 cargo aircraft operated by DHL has made a dramatic emergency landing at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria international airport, skidded off the runway and broke in two, losing its tail.

DHL, part of Deutsche Post AG, said the crew was unharmed and that one member was undergoing a medical review as a precaution.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: Kremlin admits ‘significant’ troop losses; Russia suspended from UN human rights council – live

Ninety-three countries vote to suspend Russia amid ‘grave concern’ about abuses; Kremlin spokesman says number of Russian soldiers lost is a ‘tragedy’

Russia is focusing on an impending offensive operation in eastern Ukraine with the aim to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s ministry of defence has said, corroborating western intelligence report.

Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces said some withdrawn Russian units are now located in “tent camps” in a number of regions bordering Ukraine.

Continue reading...

US arrests Japanese yakuza leader over alleged missiles-for-heroin plot

Takeshi Ebisawa accused of planning to purchase surface-to-air missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar and distribute drugs in US

US authorities have arrested a leader of a Japanese crime syndicate on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and purchase weapons including US-made surface-to-air missiles.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Takeshi Ebisawa, who they described as a leader in a network of Japanese crime families known as yakuza, and a co-conspirator agreed to buy the missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar during conversations with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Continue reading...