Author: Roland Rice

Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers, all of whom are white, have pleaded guilty to state charges for torturing two Black men in a racist assault in the United States. All six had also recently admitted their guilt in a connected federal civil rights case. They appeared in a Rankin County courtroom in Brandon, Mississippi, on Monday. The men include five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies — Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke — and a former police officer from the city of Richland, Joshua Hartfield. Some of them nicknamed themselves the “Good Squad”. In their crimes, federal…

The feel-good story behind the 2009 blockbuster film The Blind Side was all a lie, retired NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher has alleged in a lawsuit filed in Shelby County, Tennessee. Oher, now 37, was the subject of the movie, about a well-to-do white family that adopted a Black teenager and gave him the stable home he craved. The lawsuit filed on Monday said he never was legally adopted by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, and, in fact, was tricked into agreeing to making them his conservators. As a result, he said, the Tuohys made business deals that put money…

Former United States President Donald Trump has been indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in the state of Georgia, which current President Joe Biden won. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation into the case shortly after the release of a recording on January 2, 2021, of Trump and Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump suggests Raffensperger should “find 11,780 votes” so he cold overtake Biden and win the state. The indictment delivered on Monday by Willis’s office states, “Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused…

An Oklahoma judge has thrown out a lawsuit seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, dashing an effort to obtain some measure of legal justice by survivors of the deadly racist rampage. Judge Caroline Wall dismissed with prejudice Friday the lawsuit trying to force the city and others to make recompense for the destruction of the once-thriving Black district known as Greenwood. The order comes in a case by three survivors of the attack, who are all now over 100 years old and sued in 2020 with the hope of seeing what their attorney called “justice in their lifetime.”…

The war in the Ukraine created two main opposing camps of countries. An Alliance of Democracies on one side and a Group of Authoritarian. The escalation of geopolitical tensions linked to the Ukrainian crisis has highlighted two main opposing camps of countries — an Alliance of Democracies on one side and a Group of Authoritarian Regimes on the other. A number of countries have resisted choosing sides, however, as they strive to balance their national interests with international developments while simultaneously advocating the need to maintain peaceful diplomacy and global connections. While the number of these so-called “in-between” countries abound…

A devastating eight-alarm fire has destroyed a massive church in southern New Jersey, despite the efforts of more than 150 firefighters who tried to extinguish the flames overnight. The blaze broke out on Monday evening at the Fountain of Life Center in Florence Township, which drew a response from at least 100 emergency teams from five counties, CBS Philadelphia reported. The fire eventually caused the roof of the church to collapse entirely while threatening a nearby K-12 school on Monday night. Firefighters had successfully controlled the blaze by Tuesday morning, although what remained of the church building continued to smolder as crews…

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, told Sky News that the hardest fighting was yet to come and said the next few months would be crucial in deciding the course of the war, Report informs. He urged western allies to send more weapons, including Royal Air Force Typhoon jets from the UK and fighter aircraft from other partners. “Russia is preparing for maximum escalation,” Mr Danilov said in an interview on Tuesday at his headquarters in the capital Kyiv. “It is gathering everything possible, doing drills and training.” He did not rule out the…

The West sees Moldova as the ‘next Ukraine’, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, told Russia 24 TV. “The West disrespects the neutrality of developing countries and almost daily pressures those who do not join the sanctions against Russia,” Lavrov said. The minister stressed that the thesis about Russia’s refusal to negotiate on Ukraine is false, and Russia will continue to deny it.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is heading to the US on Sunday to meet President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as the three nations unveil the next phase of the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, a security partnership meant to counter China. The decision on how to move ahead will be announced Monday when the three leaders meet in San Diego. The plan will take years to produce its first vessel, probably necessitating stopgap measures, according to people familiar with the discussions. The US may base nuclear submarines in Australia or sell the country Virginia-class submarines in the interim. Australia’s…

U.S. President Joe Biden will meet leaders of Australia and Britain in San Diego on Monday to announce a way forward for Australia to receive nuclear-powered submarines in Canberra’s biggest-ever defense project. The three countries announced the so-called AUKUS plan in 2021 as part of efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region. However, questions remain over strict U.S. curbs on the extensive technology sharing needed for the project and about the length of time it will take to deliver the submarines. Australia is expected to buy up to five U.S. Virginia class nuclear-poweredsubmarines in the 2030s as part of the landmark agreement to be revealed in…