Drivers in southern California have scrambled to pick up cash after bags of money fell out of an armoured vehicle on a motorway. Several bags broke open, spreading mainly $1 and $20 bills all over the lanes and bringing the motorway to a chaotic halt. Videos posted online showed people laughing and jumping into the air as they held wads of money
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Fox News to interview Kyle Rittenhouse amid protests over not guilty verdict
Sit down with Tucker Carlson, one of Fox’s most extreme hosts, is likely to cement Rittenhouse’s popularity among conservatives
Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted of murdering two men during anti-racism protests, is set to appear next week on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson show amid fears that the not guilty verdict in the Kenosha killings might encourage militia violence.
Rittenhouse’s shooting of three people, including two he killed, during demonstrations in the Wisconsin city split the US. For some it made him a vigilante out to make trouble while for others he was a gun-toting hero defending property from a mob.
Continue reading...Protests erupt across US over Kyle Rittenhouse verdict – video
WARNING: This video contains strong language
Demonstrators take to the streets after a jury cleared Kyle Rittenhouse on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Shouting matches flared on the courthouse steps in the town, and protest marches were held in Portland, Chicago and New York
Continue reading...‘Heal the past’: first Native American confirmed to oversee national parks
The confirmation of Charles F Sams III marks a symbolic moment for many Indigenous communities
Charles “Chuck” F Sams III made history this week in becoming the first-ever Native American confirmed to lead the National Park Service.
Sams, an enrolled tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, received unanimous consent by the US Senate on Thursday after being nominated by Joe Biden in August.
Continue reading...‘The testing ground’: how Republican state parties grow Trumpism 2.0
In Oklahoma, Idaho, Wyoming and California, the next generation of GOP extremists are passing laws, picking their own voters … and preparing for power
The website of the Oklahoma Republican party has a running countdown to the 2024 presidential election measured in “Maga days”, “Maga hours”, “Maga minutes” and “Maga seconds” – Maga being shorthand for Donald Trump’s timeworn slogan, “Make America great again”.
The state party chairman, John Bennett, a veteran of three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has described Islam as a “cancer in our nation that needs to be cut out” and posted a yellow Star of David on Facebook to liken coronavirus vaccine mandates to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany.
Continue reading...As Kyle Rittenhouse walks free, Kenosha is left to pick up the pieces
Reactions to the verdict show a city as divided and beset by inequality as on the night of the killings in August 2020
Kyle Rittenhouse is now a free man after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during anti-racism protests last year, but his trial has left behind a divided America – and done little to ease tensions in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the killings took place.
Rittenhouse, 18, who faced charges of homicide, was acquitted in full on the grounds of self-defence. But the jury’s decision did not calm the people outside the Kenosha county courthouse in the hours after news of the verdict rippled across the city, and the rest of the United States.
Continue reading...Unrest in Portland as Kyle Rittenhouse verdict divides US
Police declare a riot in Oregon’s largest city as observers condemn discrepancy in how law enforcement treats militia supporters and anti-racism protesters
About 200 protesters in Portland, Oregon, broke windows and threw objects at police on Friday night as reaction poured in after a jury cleared Kyle Rittenhouse over the shooting deaths of two people at an anti-racism protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year.
Sheriffs in the city declared a riot downtown after “violent, destructive behavior by a significant part of the crowd”, with reports some talked about burning down the Justice Center.
Continue reading...Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t convicted because, in America, white reasoning rules
When white people find Black protesters scary, and white vigilantes heroic, where does that leave the legal concept of ‘reasonable belief’?
Before sending a Kenosha, Wisconsin, jury to deliberate if Kyle Rittenhouse is a murderer, Judge Bruce Schroeder informed Rittenhouse’s hand-picked jury that his fate rests on the “privilege” of self-defense.
We now know what the jury decided.
Continue reading...Kyle Rittenhouse: Biden accepts verdict as acquittal sparks outrage – live
- President says he ‘stands by what jury has to say’
- Full story: Rittenhouse found not guilty on all counts
- Five key takeaways from the trial
Jerrold Nadler of New York, the Democratic chair of the House judiciary committee, is out with a much stronger statement than President Biden:
“This heartbreaking verdict is a miscarriage of justice and sets a dangerous precedent which justifies federal review by [the Department of Justice].
I stand by what the jury has to say. The jury system works.”
Continue reading...Kyle Rittenhouse verdict declares open hunting season on progressive protesters | Cas Mudde
Demonstrators in the US must fear not only police brutality but also rightwing vigilantes
Kyle Rittenhouse – the armed white teenager whose mother drove him from Illinois to Wisconsin to allegedly “protect” local businesses from anti-racism protesters in Kenosha, whereupon he shot and killed two people and injured another – has been acquitted of all charges. I don’t think anyone who has followed the trial even casually will be surprised by this verdict. After the various antics by the elected judge, which seemed to indicate where his sympathies lay, and the fact that the prosecution asked the jurors to consider charges lesser than murder, the writing was on the wall.
I do not want to discuss the legal particulars of the verdict. It is clear that the prosecution made many mistakes and got little to no leeway from the judge, unlike the defense team. Moreover, we know that “self-defense” – often better known as vigilantism – is legally protected and highly racialized in this country. Think of the acquittal of George Zimmerman of the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2013.
Continue reading...US wildfires have killed nearly 20% of world’s giant sequoias in two years
Blazes in western US have hit thousands of Earth’s largest trees, once considered almost fire-proof
Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, adding to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said on Friday.
Fires in Sequoia national park and the surrounding national forest that also bears the trees’ name tore through more than a third of groves in California and torched an estimated 2,261 to 3,637 sequoias. Fires in the same area last year killed an unprecedented 7,500 to 10,400 of the 75,000 trees.
Continue reading...‘I’m not surprised’: mixed reactions outside courthouse after Kyle Rittenhouse verdict – video
A jury acquitted teenager Kyle Rittenhouse on Friday of murder after the fatal shooting of two men in a trial that highlighted divisions over gun rights and stirred fierce debate about the boundaries of self-defence in the United States. Amid a heavy law enforcement presence, several dozen protesters lined the steps outside the courthouse after the verdict was read, some carrying placards in support of Rittenhouse and others expressing disappointment
- Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty after fatally shooting two in Kenosha unrest
- Kyle Rittenhouse: Biden accepts verdict as acquittal sparks outrage – live
Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty after fatally shooting two in Kenosha unrest
Rittenhouse killed two people and injured a third at protests last year after a white officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back
A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after a tumultuous trial that gripped America.
Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with an assault rifle as he roamed the streets of Kenosha with other armed men acting as a self-described militia during protests in August 2020, after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back.
Continue reading...Kenosha shooting: jury finds Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty – video
A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after a tumultuous trial that gripped the US
Work on ‘Chinese military base’ in UAE abandoned after US intervenes – report
Satellite images reportedly detected construction of secret facility at Khalifa port amid growing US-China rivalry
US intelligence agencies found evidence this year of construction work on what they believed was a secret Chinese military facility in the United Arab Emirates, which was stopped after Washington’s intervention, according to a report on Friday.
The Wall Street Journal reported that satellite imagery of the port of Khalifa had revealed suspicious construction work inside a container terminal built and operated by a Chinese shipping corporation, Cosco.
Continue reading...House Democrats pass Biden’s expansive Build Back Better policy plan
Bill now goes back to the Senate, where it faces total opposition from Republicans and an uphill battle against centrist Democrats
Joe Biden has hailed the US House of Representatives for passing a $1.75tn social and climate spending bill, a central pillar of his agenda that must now go before the Senate.
The Democratic majority in the House approved the Build Back Better Act on Friday despite fierce opposition from Republicans.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris takes on presidential role – briefly – as Biden has colonoscopy
The vice-president became the first woman to wield the powers of the US presidency, during Biden’s routine medical procedure
Kamala Harris on Friday morning became the first woman to wield presidential power in the US – temporarily, when Joe Biden had a colonoscopy under anesthetic.
In a statement, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said: “This morning, the president will travel to Walter Reed Medical Center for a routine physical. While he is there, the president will undergo a routine colonoscopy.
Continue reading...As millions face famine #CongoIsStarving is calling on Joe Biden to help | Vava Tampa
Only a UN tribunal, sponsored by the US president, can end the culture of impunity fuelling violence and poverty in the DRC
The numbers are difficult to absorb. According to a new IPC report, a record 27 million Congolese – roughly a quarter of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s) population – are facing hunger, with 860,000 children under five acutely malnourished. The DRC is home to more starving people than any other country in the world. This could have been prevented.
Without faith that their own president Félix Tshisekedi will act, people are turning to the US president, hoping that lobbying using the hashtag #CongoIsStarving on Twitter will urge Joe Biden to back the creation of an international criminal tribunal for the DRC to end the impunity fuelling violence and famine risk. Shockingly, it could be that simple to bring an end to this suffering; we are asking for solidarity, not charity, to save lives and end this nightmarish crisis.
Continue reading...First known Covid case was Wuhan market vendor, says scientist
Claim will reignite debate about origins of pandemic, a continuing source of tension between US and China
The first known Covid-19 case was a vendor at the live-animal market in Wuhan, according to a scientist who has scrutinised public accounts of the earliest cases in China.
The chronology is at odds with a timeline laid out in an influential World Health Organization (WHO) report, which suggested an accountant with no apparent link to the Hunan market was the first known case.
Continue reading...‘It’s like a cemetery’: the trend turning San Francisco’s colorful houses ‘gentrification gray’
More and more, the pastels and gold-leaf embellishments have given way to the contemporary, but unimaginative, tungsten hue
Richard Segovia’s house is as loud as the Latin rock music he teaches children to play in his basement studio. With colors ranging from jungle green and royal blue at the pavement to a red and yellow sunburst at the ridge, the otherwise modest Spanish-style home is essentially one enormous mural, a crowded portrait of long-gone musicians, Segovia’s family members, social activists, various psychedelia, and the odd jungle animal.
Segovia has lived in San Francisco’s Mission district since 1963, and he sees himself as a custodian of the neighborhood’s culture, specifically as the birthplace of Latin rock. (Carlos Santana, a family friend, grew up nearby.) But increasingly the 68-year old “Mayor of the Mission” finds himself face to face with a stark representation of all the color that has been bled out of the city over successive waves of tech-fueled gentrification.
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