Domestic terrorism prosecution will test the government’s ability to root out extremism
Few people took the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions that swept the world in the spring of 2020 harder than far-right extremist Adam Fox. Fox and three fellow militia members are on trial at the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Michigan in connection with what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The trial, which opened with jury selection Tuesday and is expected to take up to six weeks, is an important and unusual domestic terrorism prosecution that will test the government’s ability to root out violent right-wing extremism on American soil, particularly in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year.
California’s ambitious high-speed rail at a crossroads
Fourteen years after voters approved a nearly $10 billion bond to start building a rail system that would whisk riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco at speeds of more than 200 mph, many California residents have long since lost track of what is being built where, and when or if it will ever be completed. But if, as President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address, the nation is now entering an “infrastructure decade,” there is no more dramatic testing ground — or more cautionary spectacle — than California’s high-speed rail plan.
Obama says he has the coronavirus
Former President Barack Obama said Sunday that he tested positive for the coronavirus and has a scratchy throat but is otherwise fine. In a post on Twitter, Obama said former first lady Michelle Obama tested negative, and both were glad they were vaccinated and boosted. Barack Obama isn’t the first president, former or current, to get the coronavirus. President Donald Trump tested positive in October 2020, in the waning weeks of his presidency. Then-first lady Melania Trump was also sick. Trump played down the seriousness of the virus for months before he was hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19. He recovered before the election.
Rampaging camel kills 2 men at a Tennessee farm
Two men were killed by a camel that had gotten loose at a farm in Tennessee on Thursday, authorities said. The camel charged at sheriff’s deputies as they tried to help the men it had just attacked at Shirley Farms in Obion, Tennessee, the Obion County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. It was unclear what set off the camel’s rampage. The men were identified as Bobby Matheny, 42, of Ridgely, Tennessee, and Tommy Gunn, 67, of Obion, the sheriff’s office said. As the deputies tried to move one of the men, the camel charged at them, the statement said. The animal had already “attacked” a sheriff’s office vehicle.
Saudi Arabia puts 81 to death, despite promises to curb executions
Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it had put 81 people to death in what was the kingdom’s largest mass execution in years, despite recent promises to curb its use of the death penalty. In a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Ministry of Interior said the people had been executed for “multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers dead.” It did not say how they had been executed. Rights groups condemned the executions, saying they flew in the face of claims by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that the country was overhauling its justice system and limiting its use of the death penalty.
Russia asked China for military, economic aid for Ukraine war, US officials say
Russia asked China to give it military equipment and support for the war in Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin began a full-scale invasion last month, according to U.S. officials. Russia has also asked China for additional economic assistance, to help counteract the battering its economy has taken from broad sanctions imposed by the United States and European and Asian nations, according to an official. U.S. officials, determined to keep secret their means of collecting the intelligence on Russia’s requests, declined to describe further the kind of military weapons or aid that Moscow is seeking. The officials also declined to discuss any reaction by China to the requests.
Brent Renaud, an American journalist, killed in Ukraine
Brent Renaud, an award-winning American filmmaker and journalist, was killed in Ukraine on Sunday while reporting in a suburb of the capital, Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. Renaud, 50, had worked for a number of American news and media organizations in the past, including HBO, NBC and The New York Times. Ukrainian authorities said he was killed in Irpin, but the details of his death were not immediately clear. Ukrainian officials said another journalist was wounded as well. At the time of his death, Renaud was on assignment for Time Studios working on a “project focused on the global refugee crisis,” according to a statement from Time executives.
With cases rising in Hong Kong, 300,000 people are isolating at home, officials say
As many as 300,000 Hong Kong residents are isolating at home, the city’s leader said Sunday, as officials scrambled to build mass quarantine centers and treatment facilities to house patients with even the mildest COVID-19 symptoms. Until recently, Hong Kong routinely sent the close contacts of confirmed COVID cases to government-run quarantine camps. But as the delta and omicron variants spread widely, and as hospitals strained to accommodate nearly 700,000 reported cases this year in a city of 7.4 million, the government was forced to adjust its strict policies. Last week, Hong Kong averaged 24,242 new cases per day and more than 270 deaths daily.
By wire sources
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