UNITED STATES
Sheriff’s deputy fired
A North Carolina sheriff’s deputy has been fired after he was captured on video putting his knee on a black man’s neck and a state agency is looking into the incident. Washington County Manager Curtis Potter said deputy Aaron Edwards was no longer working for the sheriff’s office as of Tuesday, WITN reported. Potter could not be reached on Friday for additional comment. Sheriff Johnny Barnes said the deputy was fired after an internal investigation and a review of body camera and security footage. The family of the man provided video last week showing him being arrested on a charge of marijuana possession. According to the family, the arrest turned violent when a deputy put a knee on the man’s neck and left him lying at the entrance to the courthouse before he was dragged inside. A woman could be heard on the video screaming: “Oh, my god,” and “Get some help.”
CUBA
TV presenter leaves for US
A popular television presenter has said he left the communist island nation and is heading for the US, issuing a strong rebuke of the government he previously defended. “My journey began like that of thousands of other Cubans who in recent months ... decided to leave to escape from so much rotten shit, from lies and from hopelessness,” Yuninho Rodriguez said in a Facebook message posted on Thursday from Mexico. Rodriguez, a young Afro-Cuban, used the stage name Junior Smith on Cuba’s national news program. He said in his post that he had been a true believer in the system of the Americas’ only one-party communist state, but became disillusioned because of economic hardships and a government crackdown on protesters last summer.
SAUDI ARABIA
Blogger freed after decade
After spending 10 years in prison for “insulting Islam,” blogger and human rights advocate Raif Badawi, who has become a symbol of freedom of expression around the world, was released on Friday. “Raif called me. He is free,” his wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their three children and had been fiercely advocating for his release, told reporters. Badawi’s release was also confirmed by a Saudi Arabian security official, who said on condition of anonymity that “he was released today.” “I jumped when I found out. I couldn’t believe it. I can’t wait to see my dad, I’m so excited,” one of his daughters, Nawja Badawi, 18, told reporters. The winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for press freedom was arrested and detained in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Badawi, now 38, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014.
UNITED STATES
Officer cleared of killing
A Columbus police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant last year has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, Ohio prosecutors announced on Friday. Bryant was killed in April by Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon as she swung a knife at a young woman, just seconds after pushing another woman to the ground. Bryant was shot four times and died from her injuries. Bryant’s killing further heightened tensions in Ohio’s capital city over fatal police shootings of black people, and also cast a light on the state’s foster care system. In announcing the grand jury decision, special prosecutors Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer said: “Under Ohio law the use of deadly force by a police officer is justified when there exists an immediate or imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another.”
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
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