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NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione spoke out in court Friday against the prospect of back-to-back trials over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, telling a judge: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

Mangione, 27, made the remarks as court officers escorted him out of the courtroom after a judge scheduled his state murder trial to begin June 8, three months before jury selection in his federal case.

Judge Gregory Carro, matter-of-fact in his decision after a lengthy discussion with prosecutors and defense lawyers at the bench, said the state trial could be delayed until Sept 8 if an appeal delays the federal trial.

Mangione’s lawyers objected to the June trial date, telling Carro that at that time, they’ll be consumed with preparing for the federal trial, which involves allegations that Mangione stalked Thompson before killing him.

“Mr. Mangione is being put in an untenable situation,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said. “This is a tug-of-war between two different prosecution offices.”

“The defense will not be ready on June 8,” she added.

Can confirm.

So that means you'll pass stress reducing measures like reducing working hours, right?

Snip:

A 2005 IRS filings for one of Epstein’s charitable foundations, C.O.U.Q., show a $25,000 donation to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF).

The US-based charity raises funds in coordination with Israel’s military establishment to support Israeli soldiers and related military infrastructure.

In 2008, as Epstein was facing charges of sex trafficking minors, he traveled to Israel, taking a tour of military bases with the FIDF chairman, businessman Benny Shabtai.

The same IRS records also document a $15,000 donation to the JNF, which works to acquire Palestinian land for illegal settlements in occupied Palestine.

Snip:

Yemenis have staged a million-strong march in the capital Sana’a to reiterate their support for Palestinians and the axis of resistance.

The demonstrators reiterated their solidarity with Palestinians who are subjected to Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Amid ongoing crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces in violation of the US-backed ceasefire agreement, protesters chanted, “With Gaza, our initial stance, it will not change or waver,” “O Gaza, we stand by our principles, eager to strike the enemies.”

They also expressed their solidarity with Iran and Lebanon against the American and Israeli tyranny and arrogance.

Canada’s government is working to land a Chinese-Canadian auto plant that will export electric vehicles globally, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said.

She said Canadian auto parts firms such as Magna International Inc., Linamar Corp. and Martinrea International Inc. already have operations in China, and could participate in a joint-venture assembly plant in Canada.

Violent oppression of the Albertan minority has been detected, and we must quickly liberate them from the SeeSeePee controlled government in Ottawa.

The jellyfish, whose Latin name is Mnemiopsis leidyi, is known for its transient anus, an opening that appears only during defecation.

How can we make this political?

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/25724

Just over a week after the families of two Trinidadian men sued the Trump administration over the boat bombings that killed their relatives, the US Department of Defense killed two more people in the eastern Pacific Ocean, bringing the total death toll to at least 128 in the White House's operation that it claims is targeting drug traffickers.

The US Southern Command said in a social media post that at the direction of Cmdr. Gen. Francis L. Donovan, "Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by designated terrorist organizations."

As with the other dozens of strikes the Pentagon has carried out in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea since September, Southern Command did not provide evidence for its claim that "narco-terrorists" were killed in the attack or that the vessel was traveling "along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations."

The White House has persistently claimed that the boat strikes are aimed at stopping drug cartels based in Venezuela from sending drugs to the US, but international and domestic intelligence agencies have not identified Venezuela as a major player in the trafficking of illicit substances—particularly not of fentanyl, the leading cause of overdoses in the US.

President Donald Trump has claimed the US is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have unsuccessfully sought to pass war powers resolutions to stop the administration from attacking vessels and targets in Venezuela.

Dozens of strikes preceded the Trump administration's invasion of Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, whom the White House has accused of being directly involved with drug trafficking. Since attacking Venezuela, though, administration officials have all but admitted their goal in the South American country is to take control of its oil supply.

The killings of nearly 130 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have been denounced as extrajudicial "murders" by numerous legal experts, and a top military lawyer at the Pentagon warned officials in August, weeks before the operations began, that carrying out the strikes could expose military top brass as well as rank-and-file service members to legal liability.

In the case of at least one bombing in September, the official who oversaw the strike told Congress that the boat was found to have been headed to Suriname, not the United States. One vessel had turned back toward Venezuela, away from the US, when it was struck.

The strike on Thursday was announced soon after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that "some top cartel drug-traffickers... have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” Hegseth did not provide evidence for the claim.

Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America emphasized on Thursday that after killing more than 127 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the administration has nothing to show for the operation but "a collection of gruesome videos" of the bombings.

"The amount of cocaine found at the US land border keeps increasing," he said, citing Customs and Border Protection statistics.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/25705

The terror attack was described as the 'deadliest in over a decade'

At least 31 people were killed and 169 others injured on 6 February when a suicide bomber struck a Shia mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad during Friday prayers, Pakistani officials said, in one of the capital’s deadliest attacks in over a decade.

The blast happened in the Khadija al-Kubra Imambargah mosque in the outskirts of Islamabad, with police saying the attacker had been stopped at the mosque gate before opening fire and setting off explosives among worshipers, according to officials cited by Reuters.

Footage and images from the site showed bodies and debris scattered across the mosque’s carpeted prayer hall, with the wounded lying in the compound gardens, as bystanders called for help and rushed victims to hospitals.

Islamabad deputy commissioner Irfan Memon said the death toll stood at 31, adding that 169 injured people had been brought in for treatment, some in critical condition.

No group claimed responsibility yet; however, conflict monitor ACLED said the attack “bears the hallmarks of the Islamic State,” while officials noted that Shia communities, a minority in Pakistan, have repeatedly been targeted in sectarian violence by extremist groups, including the Islamic State and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

From thecradle.co via This RSS Feed.

Something something Ezra Klein.

https://archive.ph/80cZ4