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Julian Assange’s US extradition hearing wraps up in London, decision not expected until at least next month

Julian Assange’s US extradition hearing wraps up in London, decision not expected until at least next month

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s hearing at the British High Court in London for his possible final appeal challenging his extradition to the U.S. concluded on Wednesday. The court is not expected to make a decision on the Australian publisher’s fate until at least next month. The two-day appeal hearing before a panel of two judges wrapped up after U.S. lawyers delivered arguments, as they seek to have Assange, 52, sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges for publishing classified U.S. military documents 14 years ago. Lawyer Clair Dobbin, representing the U.S. government, claimed the case is based on “law, on evidence” and “not political inspiration,” pushing back on accusations that Assange’s prosecution is politically motivated. “Julian is a political prisoner, and he has to be released,” Assange’s wife, Stella, said in a speech outside the court. UK HIGH COURT HEARS ARGUMENTS IN ASSANGE’S US EXTRADITION CASE WITHOUT HIM PRESENT DUE TO HEALTH REASONS The judges overseeing the case, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, said Wednesday they would take time to come to a verdict, and a ruling on Assange’s fate is not expected until March at the earliest. While the hearing could be Assange’s final appeal attempting to block his extradition to the U.S., a full appeal hearing could come in the future if he wins in court this week. If he loses this appeal, Assange’s only remaining option would be at the European Court of Human Rights, but his supporters fear he could be flown to the U.S. before that happens because the British government has already signed an extradition order. Dobbin purported that Assange put innocent lives at risk and went beyond journalism in his efforts to obtain and publish classified U.S. government documents. She claims Assange encouraged and helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published, and that doing so jeopardized lives. But there is no evidence that WikiLeaks put anyone in danger by publishing the documents. It is also a common practice among journalists to ask a source to provide more material. Dobbin claimed that Assange damaged U.S. security and intelligence services and “created a grave and imminent risk” by publishing hundreds of thousands of documents. She said these risks could harm and lead to the arbitrary detention of innocent people, including many who lived in war zones or under repressive regimes. She said Assange encouraging Manning and others to hack into government computers and steal material meant that the WikiLeaks founder was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering information. Assange was “not someone who has just set up an online box to which people can provide classified information,” she said. “The allegations are that he sought to encourage theft and hacking that would benefit WikiLeaks.” Lawyers for Assange argued during day one of the hearing on Tuesday that U.S. authorities are seeking to punish him for WikiLeaks’ “exposure of criminality on the part of the U.S. government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture and killings. If he is extradited to the U.S., lawyer Edward Fitzgerald warned, there is “a real risk he may suffer a flagrant denial of justice.” EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT URGES UK TO RELEASE ASSANGE AS POSSIBLE FINAL APPEAL CHALLENGING US EXTRADITION BEGINS Dobbin said the First Amendment does not grant immunity to journalists who break the law and that media outlets that went through the process of redacting the documents before publishing them are not being prosecuted. Journalists located outside of England and Wales, including from Fox News Digital, were denied access to observe the hearing remotely. Journalists who were permitted access, either remotely or in person, had trouble at times hearing lawyers during Wednesday’s arguments. Should he be extradited to the U.S. after exhausting all his legal appeals, Assange would face trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and could be sentenced to up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison. His supporters have long argued that he would not receive a fair trial if he is extradited. “We’ve essentially heard nothing new from the U.S. government’s legal representation in this hearing,” international nonprofit Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Wednesday. “Rather than addressing the compelling new arguments made by Assange’s defence, they have doubled down on their longstanding claims that Assange’s actions do not qualify as journalistic activity and that he will be given a fair trial in the U.S.” “The facts of the matter remain: the publication by WikiLeaks in 2010 of the leaked classified documents exposed information that was in the public interest and informed journalism around the world,” the statement continued. “The prosecutor and other US officials have stated that as a foreign national, Assange will not be afforded First Amendment protections. Combined with the fact that the Espionage Act has no public interest defence, that means he cannot get a fair trial.” Assange was absent from court on Tuesday and Wednesday because of health issues. His family has raised concerns about his physical and mental health, with Stella Assange telling reporters that her husband’s life is at risk every day he remains in prison and that she believes he will die if he’s extradited to the U.S. Earlier this month, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, called on the U.K. government to halt the possible extradition of Assange over concerns that he would be at risk of treatment amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment. BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION CALLS ON US OFFICIALS TO DROP CHARGES AGAINST ASSANGE Last month, a group of Australian lawmakers wrote a letter to U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly demanding Assange’s U.S. extradition be halted over concerns about his safety and well-being, urging the U.K. government to instead make an independent assessment of Assange’s risk of persecution. Assange is facing 17 charges for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the Espionage Act, and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The charges were brought by the Trump administration’s Justice

Israeli siege turns Gaza’s Nasser Hospital into ‘a place of death’

Israeli siege turns Gaza’s Nasser Hospital into ‘a place of death’

Officials from the United Nations who conducted evacuation missions from Gaza’s Nasser Hospital have described “appalling” conditions at the enclave’s second-largest medical facility, saying an Israeli military operation there has transformed a “place of healing” into a “place of death”. The comments, in videos posted online on Wednesday, came amid growing concern for the dozens of patients and staff who remain trapped inside the hospital amid intensified Israeli bombardment of the area. The hospital, in Gaza’s Khan Younis city, stopped functioning last week after a week-long Israeli siege followed by a raid, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The global health agency, along with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), has so far managed to evacuate some 32 critical patients, including injured children and those with paralysis. Jonathan Whittal, an OCHA official who took part in the evacuation missions on February 18 and 19, said patients at the hospital were in a “desperate situation” and were trapped without food, water and electricity. “The conditions are appalling. There are dead bodies in the corridors,” he said. “This has become a place of death, not a place of healing.” The rescue mission has previously said they had to navigate through pitch-black corridors with flashlights to find patients against a backdrop of gunfire. They had to arrive on foot because a deep, muddy ditch near the hospital has made roads near the site impassable. “You can think about the worst situation ever. You multiply that by 10 and this is the worst situation I have seen in my life,” said Julio Martinez, a WHO staff. “It’s the debris, it’s the light – working in the darkness. Patients everywhere.” According to Palestinian health authorities, at least eight patients have already died at the facility, mostly due to fuel a lack of fuel and oxygen. They say the lives of those remaining were directly threatened and accused Israeli forces of effectively converting the site into “military barracks”. Chris Black, a WHO communications officer, said the entire neighbourhood around the hospital has been “damaged and destroyed”. “The hospital itself has no electricity, has no food, has no water,” he added. The WHO said some 130 severely injured patients and 15 medics remain at the site. Despite the desperate situation, doctors and nurses at the hospital were pleading not for evacuation, but for the functions of the hospital to be restored, according to a former colleague of theirs. “The last week has been miserable. It’s been a nightmare [for workers in the hospital]. The things they’re seeing are traumatising and they’re asking for some sort of help,” said Dr Thaer Ahmad, a United States-based emergency physician who spent several weeks volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in January. “They’re asking, actually, not to be evacuated from the hospital but for the hospital to function. For the lights to be turned back on, for the medicine they need to treat the patients that remain,” he said. “I spoke to one of the last surgeons remaining there, who sent a message to a group of physicians here in the US, and he asked us to advocate for the patients who are there. He told us, ‘I’m staring at patients, and they need my help, they need my care, and there’s nothing that I can do’,” added Ahmad. The WHO said it was continuing efforts to evacuate further patients. The agency, in a statement earlier this week, described the dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Hospital – the latest medical facility to become a theatre of war in the conflict between Israel and Hamas – as a “massive blow” to Gaza’s health system. It said the remaining facilities in the south were “already operating well beyond maximum capacity” and barely able to receive additional patients. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 29,092 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli assaults since October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack inside southern Israel. Some 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel. Adblock test (Why?)

James Biden ‘contradicted’ himself during testimony on brother’s involvement in family business: GOP lawmakers

James Biden ‘contradicted’ himself during testimony on brother’s involvement in family business: GOP lawmakers

GOP lawmakers on Wednesday accused James Biden of contradicting himself during testimony about his brother’s supposed business dealings with the family.  The president’s brother initially said he was not part of a deal with his nephew Hunter Biden and business associates Rob Walker, Tony Bobulinski, and James Gilliar, according to a source familiar with the interview.  But when presented with an agreement with his signature on it, Biden changed his story, saying he did not recall signing the agreement, the source said.  Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., speaking to reporters after the interview said it was “interesting” and that Biden had “contradicted himself.”  That conclusion was shared by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who told reporters: “Let me say this. So there are a lot of things that Mr. Biden is saying that are directly contradicted by documents.”  The lawmakers’ comments come after James Biden’s voluntary private interview on Capitol Hill as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into his brother, President Joe Biden.  JAMES BIDEN ARRIVES ON CAPITAL HILL TO TESTIFY IN BROTHER’S IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY BEHIND CLOSED DOORS “I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures. Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities,” the president’s younger brother said. “None.” The interview with both Republican and Democratic staff as well as lawmakers lasted more than eight hours. During several breaks, Republicans came out and told reporters, without citing details, that James Biden’s responses contradicted his opening statement and that he had made efforts to avoid directly answering investigators’ questions. The interview with James Biden was the latest in a series that GOP lawmakers have conducted recently as they seek to rebuild momentum for an impeachment process surrounding the Biden family’s overseas finances that has stalled in recent months. Wednesday’s testimony comes after a central claim of the GOP investigation was undermined by federal prosecutors, who last week indicted an FBI informant who claimed there was a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company. But Republicans argue that the informant was just one part of their broader investigation and say they intend to push ahead. “It doesn’t change the fundamental facts,” Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said. The impeachment inquiry, which began in September under the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, has included the recent depositions of several former Biden family associates. 

At least 23 dead after open-pit gold mine collapses in Venezuela

At least 23 dead after open-pit gold mine collapses in Venezuela

Rescuers retrieve 23 bodies after a wall of earth collapses upon workers at an illegally operated mine in Bolivar state. At least 23 people have died in central Venezuela after a wall of earth collapsed at an illegally operated gold mine while dozens of people were at work. Yorgi Arciniega, a local official, told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that about 23 bodies had been recovered from the open-pit mine known as Bulla Loca in the jungles of the state of Bolivar. The accident happened on Tuesday. Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Carlos Perez Ampueda published a video of the incident on X, and referred to “a massive” toll, though he provided no numbers. The video showed a wall of earth slowly collapsing upon people at work in the shallow waters of an open-pit mine. Some managed to flee while others were engulfed. Some 200 people were thought to have been working in the mine, which is a seven-hour boat ride from the nearest town, La Paragua, according to officials. #21Feb | Cumpliendo instrucciones del Vicepdte. Sectorial AJ. @ceballosichaso1 y en coordinación con el Gob. del Edo. Bolívar Ángel Marcano, funcionarios del SNGR junto a Organismos de Seguridad ciudadana y efectivos de la ZODI Bolívar, realizan Operaciones de Salvamento… pic.twitter.com/6FWE5SiE22 — cperezampueda (@cperezampueda) February 21, 2024 Edgar Colina Reyes, the Bolivar state’s secretary of citizen security, said the injured were being transported to a hospital in the regional capital Ciudad Bolivar, four hours from La Paragua, which lies 750 kilometres (460 miles) southeast of the capital Caracas. In La Paragua, desolate relatives waited on the shores for news of the miners. “My brother, my brother, my brother,” cried one as he saw a body being taken off a boat. “We ask that they support us with helicopters to remove the injured,” a woman waiting for news on her brother-in-law – a father of three – told AFP. Reyes said the military, firefighters and other organisations were “moving to the area by air” to evaluate the situation. Rescue teams were also being flown in from Caracas to aid in the search, he said. The Bolivar region is rich in gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, quartz and coltan. Aside from state mines, there is also a booming industry of illegal extraction. “This was bound to happen,” resident Robinson Basanta told AFP of the unsafe working conditions of the miners, most of whom live in extreme poverty. “This mine has yielded a lot of gold … People go there out of necessity, to make ends meet,” he said. In December last year, at least 12 people were killed when a mine in the Indigenous community of Ikabaru, in the same region, collapsed. Adblock test (Why?)

New York City law to let non-citizen’s vote ruled unconstitutional in appellate court

New York City law to let non-citizen’s vote ruled unconstitutional in appellate court

A New York state appeals court has denied an attempt by New York City leaders to implement a law that would let non-citizens vote in local elections. In a 3-1 ruling issued Wednesday by the Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department, the body said the law violated the New York Constitution and Municipal Home Rule Law. It “must be declared null and void,” the court said in a 43-page ruling. The law was passed in December 2021 by the City Council and created a class of “municipal voters,” comprising non-citizens who reside in the city for at least 30 days before an election and register or pre-register to vote. Municipal voters would be granted the right to participate in elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president and council member. WISCONSIN’S GOP-LED LEGISLATURE MAKES SECOND ATTEMPT TO DRAW MAPS BEFORE SUPREME COURT DOES The law faced legal challenges almost immediately.  It would have applied to some 800,000 new eligible voters in a city of 8.5 million. However, the appellate court said that the clause in the state constitution that says “every citizen shall be entitled to vote…” applies exclusively to U.S. citizens. “As there is no reference to non-citizens, and thus, an irrefutable inference applies that non-citizens were intended to be excluded from those individuals entitled to vote in elections,” the court said.  New York Mayor Eric Adams enacted the law upon taking office in January 2022. It was ruled illegal several months later. The mayor defended the law and appealed a lower ruling against it.   Fox News Digital has reached out to Adams’ office and it was not clear if he would appeal Wednesday’s ruling. REPUBLICAN PARTY INFIGHTING ESCALATES IN OHIO AS MARCH PRIMARY NEARS Many Democrats championed the law, saying it would make the city’s politics more inclusive, while Republicans contended it could lead to voter fraud and that Democrats were only looking to pad their numbers.  “Great news! We won in the appellate court and @NYCMayor’s attempt to implement the law to register non-citizens to vote in #NYC elections has been struck down,” U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-New York, posted on X. “This is a big victory in preserving both the integrity of our elections & the voice of American citizens! Malliotakis, who represents New York’s borough of Staten Island, was one of several plaintiffs to sue over the law, along with Borough President Vito Fossella. “Fortunately, common sense prevails in New York, thanks to the decision reached by the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department. The New York State Constitution is clear in that only citizens can vote in our local elections. It is simply irresponsible and nonsensical to extend this right to non-citizens. We are pleased that the Appellate court shared this understanding. This is a win for New York citizens and upholds the integrity of our elections,” Fossella said. The New York Immigration Coalition said it was disappointed in the ruling.  “For generations, New York City’s culture and economy have benefited from the immigrants who have come here to work, raise their families, uplift their communities and pay taxes in New York,” NYIC Executive Director Murad Awawdeh said in a statement. “While we are still reviewing the decision and its impact on immigrant New Yorkers, the lawsuit remains another shameful attempt by xenophobic Republicans who would disenfranchise residents rather than promote a more inclusive and participatory democracy. Immigrant New Yorkers deserve a say in how their local government functions and spends their tax money, and we remain committed to ensuring the expansion of voting rights.” The ruling comes as New York City is grappling with a surge in migrants that has resulted in an uptick in crime and anger from residents. In December, Adams warned that the city was at its “breaking point” as city resources and shelter services had become strained.