14 May 20
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John Gleeson, David O'Neil and Marshall Miller | The Flynn Case Isn't Over Until the Judge Says It's Over
John Gleeson, David O'Neil and Marshall Miller, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "The Justice Department's move to dismiss the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn does not need to be the end of the case - and it shouldn't be."
John Gleeson, one of the co-authors of this piece, is the former prosecutor and federal judge appointed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to apparently take charge of the opposition to the Justice Department’s request to drop charges against General Michael Flynn, former National Security advisor.
Flynn twice pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI in 2017 in connection with the Mueller investigation.
Both the appointment of Gleeson and the request to drop the charges by the Justice Department are seen as highly unusual by legal experts. – MA/RSN
One of the last remaining patients at Javits New York Medical Station, N.Y., is being released and heading home, May 1, 2020. (photo: Pfc. Nathaniel Gayle/Army)
Andrea Mazzarino | Who Is 'Essential' to Our Covid-19 World: A Military Spouse's Perspective on Fighting This Pandemic
Andrea Mazzarino, TomDispatch
Mazzarino writes: "In the past months, daily life for our troops and their families has been transformed in previously almost unimaginable ways."
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People line up while keeping distance in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 8. (photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty)
What Americans Need to Understand About the Swedish Coronavirus Experiment
Matthew Zeitlin, Medium
Zeitlin writes: "Whereas most of the Western world has been in lockdown for weeks, Sweden has opted to forego any sort of shelter-in-place policy in response to the coronavirus and instead allow businesses and parks to stay open and groups of under 50 to gather."
EXCERPT:
Sweden’s approach has been hailed by critics of American and European pandemic policies as a less restrictive — and less economically devastating — alternative to state or national shutdowns, but it’s also been lambasted by others as an unnecessarily risky strategy that has led Sweden to have the highest Covid-19 death toll among the Nordic nations. As more and more areas of the United States reopen, Sweden may not be so much an alternative as a glimpse of the future.
As of Sunday afternoon, the country had 25,921 confirmed cases and 3,220 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. These are much higher figures than those of the country’s neighbors, but lower than those in some other wealthy Western European countries on both an overall and population-adjusted basis. Sweden also has suffered problems familiar to residents of countries that have had more severe outbreaks and stricter policies. Nursing homes have been hard hit, and Tegnell described Sweden’s failure to protect nursing home residents as its greatest shortcoming so far. Immigrant and ethnic minority communities also have suffered, due in part to their larger households. Just over half of all households in Sweden in 2016 consisted of only one person, while immigrants were substantially more likely than native-born residents to live in overcrowded conditions or multigenerational households.
Even with the less aggressive containment measures, the economic effects of the virus have been severe for the country. Sweden’s National Institute for Economic Research projected that gross domestic product would contract by 7% in 2020 and the unemployment rate would rise to just over 10%. The large fall in consumer and business confidence, the institute said in a release, point “to a rapid and severe downturn, not least in large parts of the service sector.”
Sen. Richard Burr. (photo: Mark Wilson/Getty)
Sen. Richard Burr Steps Down as Intelligence Chairman Amid FBI Probe Over Stock Sales
Pete Williams, Phil Helsel and Kasie Hunt, NBC News
Excerpt: "Feinstein also answered questions from the FBI about stock trades that her husband made and she provided documents to the FBI, her spokesman said Thursday."
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People return to their vehicles after gathering to honor the life of Ahmaud Arbery at Sidney Lanier Park on May 9, in Brunswick, Georgia. (photo: Sean Rayford/Getty)
The Georgia Police Department That Led Arbery Shooting Case Has a Troubled Past
Emily Green (Wabe), NPR
Green writes: "Years before a former policeman and his son were arrested for killing Ahmaud Arbery in February in Glynn County, Ga., the county police had a tangled history of corruption and scandals."
The Glynn County Police Department's track record of protecting its own is coming under scrutiny as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation takes over the case of the shooting death of Arbery, the 25-year-old black man whose killing has drawn comparisons to a modern-day lynching.
"There is not just one prior case. There are many prior cases. And each one is a separate Netflix episode," said Page Pate, a criminal defense attorney in Glynn County.
In 2018, Glynn County Police Lt. Robert Sasser killed his estranged wife and her friend, before taking his own life. The wife's family is now suing the police department because they say authorities failed to intervene before the murders.
Sasser had a well-documented history of problematic behavior. In 2010, he and another officer were involved in a brutal police shooting when they opened fire on a woman who had led the officers on a low-speed police chase. Sasser avoided punishment and remained on the force.
In 2018, the police department also lost its certification with the state because it did not meet basic policing standards. A report by the International Association of Police Chiefs noted that only 12% of the police force was African American, even though African Americans make up 26% of the county's population.
In 2019, the county's drug task force was disbanded. A state-led investigation found extensive misconduct by Glynn County police officers, including one officer who had sex with a confidential informant.
It got worse yet. Glynn County Police Chief John Powell was indicted for perjury and witness tampering four days after the Arbery shooting. The police chief remains on administrative leave.
"We have a history of protecting our own within the legal system. That applies across the board to Glynn County law enforcement. With covering up misdeeds or looking the other way," said Newell Hamilton, Jr., a criminal defense attorney in Glynn County.
There's no dispute that a former Glynn police officer and his son were involved in Arbery's death. Gregory McMichael worked as an officer in the 1980s and an investigator in the district attorney's office until 2019, when he retired.
In a statement to police, Gregory McMichael said he and his son, Travis McMichael, saw Arbery — whom they suspected of break-ins — "hauling a**" down the street and that they began chasing after him. He claims they were acting in self-defense, when Arbery began to violently attack Travis.
A video of the Feb. 23 altercation shows Arbery running when he's intercepted by the father and son. The father is standing on the bed of the truck with a gun. Arbery tries to run around the truck and is intercepted by the son. There is shouting, shots are fired and Arbery crumples to the ground.
County commissioners are defending the police department. They blame the local district attorney's office for the decision not to arrest the father and son.
"I don't see how they expect the police to go cuff these men up when they have been told directly on Sunday and on Monday by the district attorneys' offices not to arrest anybody," Commissioner Peter Murphy told WJXT, a Jacksonville, Fla., TV channel.
But District Attorney Jackie Johnson said neither she nor her office advised the police on whether or not to make an arrest.
"That's so far from the truth. It's just a straight-up lie," she told radio station WIFO on Monday. She said the police and the county commission want to smear her, and that's why they are blaming her for lack of an arrest.
"I think it's retaliation for me being the whistleblower on their police department multiple times over the last year."
But Arbery's family, the NAACP and others are demanding Johnson's resignation. They say Johnson's decision to recuse herself from the case before an arrest was a cop-out.
According to the Georgia attorney general's office, Johnson consulted with George Barnhill — the district attorney from one county over — shortly after Arbery's death.
One day after the shooting, Barnhill wrote a letter to the Glynn County Police Department saying he didn't see grounds to arrest the McMichaels. He also suggested Arbery was to blame for his own death, writing that his "aggressive nature" explained his "possible thought pattern to attack an armed man."
The Glynn County Police Department declined to answer questions for this story, forwarding questions to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, which declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing.
Arbery's mom, Wanda Cooper Jones, said the police intentionally tried to cover up how her son was killed. She said that the day of Arbery's death, an officer told her that he had been involved in a burglary and the homeowner confronted him.
"I didn't question that at that time because the way that I lived is if authority came and told you anything, you didn't question that because that was authority. And they were put in place to be trusted," she said.
But there is no evidence to suggest Arbery robbed anyone. Minutes before Arbery was shot, a man called the police to report that a black man had entered a house under construction, according to The New York Times.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has suggested there was widespread misconduct in all aspects of handling the case, and has asked federal officials to investigate.
Crowds of supporters of the ruling party gather for the start of the election campaign, in Bugendana, Gitega province, Burundi. (photo: Berthier Mugiraneza/AP)
Burundi Kicks Out Top WHO Official in Country Ahead of Vote
Ignatius Ssuuna, Associated Press
Ssuuna writes: "Burundi is kicking out the World Health Organization's top official in the country just days before the presidential election and after the WHO raised concerns about crowded political rallies."
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African wildlife. (photo: Discovery Channel)
How Big a Threat Does Coronavirus Pose to Wildlife in Africa?
Nick Clark, Al Jazeera
Clark writes: "In the verdant rolling Chyulu Hills of Kenya, there has been a remarkable story of wildlife success. In 2003, the local lion population had almost been wiped out. Now they number 200 or more. But there are dangers approaching."
From reduced funding to criminal syndicates, the threat to some iconic species could be unprecedented.
A few years ago, we filmed with the chief architect of this lion renaissance, ardent conservationist Richard Bonham. He flew us over the iconic African landscape in his old Cessna, its flying shadow spooking herds of zebra and wildebeest. The great bulk of Mount Kilimanjaro looming in the distance.
"When I first got here, there were lions everywhere," he said at the time, gesturing across the landscape below. "But the Masai were killing them as they always had done, spearing them in retribution when they attacked their livestock. And then they started to poison them. They would kill a whole pride at a time."
Local numbers reduced to the point of near annihilation. Recognising the catastrophe that was about to happen, Richard helped set up a scheme which began to compensate herders for cattle lost to predators.
"The aim was to get the Masai who own this land, to use wildlife as their prime source of income. When that happened, they began securing their habitat, looking after their animals as they would their own cattle."
The scheme worked its magic, and the lion population has rebounded with dramatic effect. But now, another threat looms, not just to the lion prides but to all wildlife, and to communities throughout the country and the continent.
Lodges closed
In Kenya, coronavirus has yet to take hold, but its economic effects are already rampant, especially in the area of conservation.
"Since mid-March, all tourist lodges in and outside the parks have been closed," Richard told me this week. "From our perspective, the big hit here is a total loss of conservation and park entrance fees. These fees are essential to help pay for wildlife management and anti-poaching strategies."
Richard said he did not think people will be travelling to places like Kenya until mid-2021 at the earliest, which means more than a year with no tourism revenue and the associated unemployment that went with that.
"This is a long time for wildlife areas to survive," he said. "Infrastructure will deteriorate, and so will wildlife itself if investment is not made to combat poaching and habitat destruction."
Poaching on the increase
Kaddu Sebunya of the African Wildlife Foundation tells me that the loss of tourism revenue means jobs are being lost on a big scale. That means people are getting desperate, and poaching for game meat is increasing.
"People reliant on tourism have lost income in a very short space of time and need to find ways to feed their families," Kaddu explained.
"Many are rangers, guides and experts who know wildlife and where it is. The temptation to poach will be extreme, and that includes endangered species."
Illegal wildlife trade
Another likely side effect will be an increase in the illegal wildlife trade due to reduced human eyes on poachers funded by criminal syndicates.
"The poachers are bound to get emboldened - it's already happening in Botswana," Kaddu Sebunya said. "We're hearing about increases of rhino poaching and more clashes between poachers and security officers, which have resulted in deaths."
Fund communities
The bottom line is that rural communities urgently need funds to shield them from hunger and livelihood losses.
And that, says Richard Bonham, means international help, which is also needed to keep wildlife security programmes afloat.
"For us in the Chuyulu Hills, if we can't keep funding going, the remarkable success we've had of getting lion numbers up from pretty much zero to 200 and more, will be simply and tragically reversed."
Scale that up across a continent, and across myriad species from elephant to rhino, and you get the grim picture of what is at stake.
Your environment round-up
1. From the archives: Watch our film from 2011 on the return of the lions to Chuylu Hills.
2. Going hungry: Before the current crisis, an estimated 820 million people went to bed hungry each night. Now, an additional 265 million people face the threat of starvation by the end of 2020 due to drought and the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. So how do we avert a humanitarian crisis?
3. Turn off the taps: Radical drops in emissions due to COVID-19 will "not be enough to slow the rise in global temperatures", according to the UK Met Office. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reckons greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will fall by 8 percent in 2020, but climate scientist Richard Betts says it is not enough. "An analogy is filling a bath from a tap - it's like we are turning down the tap, but because we are not turning off the tap completely, the water level is still rising".
4. Plastic waste on Antarctic shores: Scientists have now found plastic waste in all the world's oceans, including the Southern Ocean that washes around Antarctica.
5. Bio-luminescent waves dazzle surfers in California: After weeks of stunning surfers and residents of the US state of California, the especially vibrant bioluminescent ocean light show is now starting to die out.
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