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Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/16/trump-aides-told-him-that-using-pence-overturn-election-was-illegal/

Maksym Butkevych made his name in Ukraine as a journalist and human rights activist, campaigning on behalf of refugees and internally displaced people and serving on the board of Ukraine’s chapter of Amnesty International.

At the end of June, he was captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine, and that hard-earned reputation became a potentially dangerous liability.

Russian propaganda began bragging about Mr. Butkevych’s detention almost as soon as he was taken hostage, in an ambush on his platoon during the battle for the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. His family and friends chose initially to stay quiet, hoping silence would hasten the process of bringing him home.

But as pro-Kremlin media outlets have denounced Mr. Butkevych in wild terms — as both a “British spy” (he once worked for the BBC) and a “Ukrainian nationalist,” both “a fascist” and a “radical propagandist” — his colleagues and loved ones have come to fear for his life, and have decided to speak publicly about him to set the record straight.

The man they know, they say, is the opposite of the one portrayed on Russian television.

“He never accepted either the extreme-right views or the extreme left,” said his mother, Yevheniia Butkevych. “He took shape as a person who is absolutely alien to extreme positions, which, as a rule, are aggressive.”

In fact, said Ms. Butkevych, her son was a pacifist who had maintained after Russian proxies invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014 that the best use of his talents was as an activist. But that changed on Feb. 24, when Russian missiles went crashing into his hometown, Kyiv, and cities and towns across the country.

The same day, Mr. Butkevych, 45, reported to a military recruitment center.

“He said, ‘I will leave my human rights work for a while, because now it is necessary, first of all, to protect the country, because everything I have worked on all these years and everything that we all worked for, the rules of our lives and of our society are now under threat,’” said Ms. Butkevych of what her son, her only child, had told her.

He was called up on March 4 and became a platoon commander around Kyiv, before being sent in mid-June to try to reinforce the army as it fought to keep Sievierodonetsk.

On June 24, Ms. Butkevych said, a volunteer called to tell her that there was a video circulating online of her son in captivity. His platoon had lost connection with their commanders. When two men went looking for water, she said, they were captured, and then they lured the rest of the group into a Russian trap.

“There has never been a worse period in my life,” Ms. Butkevych, 70, said.

Her son is one of an estimated 7,200 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the custody of Russia and its proxies in eastern Ukraine. It is a number that dims the prospect of a swift exchange.

“The situation is very complicated, because we have fewer prisoners of war than Russia,” said Tetiana Pechonchyk, a co-founder alongside Mr. Butkevych of the human rights nonprofit organization Zmina. “Russia also captures civilians and holds them as hostages, and we need to exchange those people, too. It’s a direct violation of human rights international law.”

Mr. Butkevych’s public profile may help him stay alive, but it may also make him vulnerable to ill-treatment. In an interview with The New York Times, the prominent Ukrainian medic Yulia Paievska detailed torture and relentless beatings during her three months in Russian custody. She was also dragged in front of television cameras and used as a prop in an attempt to paint Ukrainians as “Nazis,” one of the Kremlin’s justifications for the invasion.

She said that as hard as her treatment was, she feared that male prisoners faced “far worse.”

Mr. Butkevych last spoke with The Times in May, on the day that the Kyiv Opera reopened; he had come from his barracks to attend the first performance.

“It is a kind of promise that we will prevail. Life will go on, not death,” he said. “It is important not to forget that this is what we are fighting for.”

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/24/world/ukraine-russia-war

A federal jury has found former Minneapolis police officers Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng guilty of violating George Floyd’s civil rights during his deadly arrest. All three men now face the possibility of life in prison, but federal sentencing guidelines suggest they may get much less, The Associated Press reports.

Former Minneapolis police officers Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were accused of violating Floyd’s civil rights during his arrest and death by denying him medical care. Kueng and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop fellow officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are seen in arrest photos.

Hampton County Detention Center


Floyd’s legal team, including Ben Crump and co-counsel Antonio Romanucci and Jeff Storms, released a statement shortly after the three men were convicted.

“Today closes another important chapter in our journey for justice for George Floyd and his family,” it said. “Nothing will bring George Floyd back to his loved ones, but with these verdicts, we hope that the ignorance and indifference toward human life shown by these officers will be erased from our nation’s police departments, so no other family has to experience a loss like this.”

Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, and Floyd’s nephew, Brandon Williams, also spoke after the verdict was announced. 

“Today is a good day for us,” said an emotional Philonese. He thanked his attorneys, who he said were like friends. “They did a hell of a job.” 

Brandon Williams said the family is still hurting and he still has a lot of sleepless nights. Both he and his father called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing act.


George Floyd’s family speaks after ex-officers convicted of violating his civil rights

07:42

When the verdicts were read on Thursday, there was just one woman behind the defense table. Lane was the only one to react to the verdict — shaking his head, dropping something on the table and making an audible noise. 

Three of the jurors appeared to wipe away tears during and after the reading.

In closing arguments, the prosecution maintained that all three officers violated Floyd’s rights and their duties by not immediately offering him first aid when he began to struggle to breathe. 

The defense highlighted the officers’ testimonies that they believed Floyd was still breathing, and placed some of the blame on a lack of police training. They cited training and precedent that led the officers to defer to Chauvin, who was their superior. 

Chauvin was convicted of murder in state court in April, and pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge in December.  U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson emphasized to jurors in this trial that Chauvin’s convictions should not influence their decision. 

A makeshift memorial for George Floyd in his former neighborhood in Houston on June 10, 2020.

Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty


On May 25, 2020, the four officers responded to a call where 46-year-old Floyd had been accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill. After Floyd was handcuffed, Chauvin pinned him to the ground with his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. 

Surrounding them were bystanders who were captured on video yelling at the officers that Floyd was unable to breathe. 

This trial focused on the actions of Lane, Thao and Kueng. During the fatal stop, Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back while Lane held his legs down. 

All three men testified that they suggested alternative methods to restrain Floyd. Lane, the rookie White officer who first called the ambulance, said a decision was made to not use a hobble device, which allows the person to breathe easier while restrained, because it would require them to call a supervisor after he was detained. 

He also said he suggested they roll Floyd on his side after he stopped resisting, but Chauvin said no. Towards the end of his testimony, Lane agreed the situation “could have been handled differently.”

During his testimony, Thao, who is Hmong American, said he was in charge of crowd control and never checked Floyd’s pulse. He also highlighted the three officers’ lack of experience and rank compared to Chauvin. 


Ex-officers on trial for George Floyd’s death

02:02

When asked why he didn’t tell Chauvin to get off of Floyd’s neck, Thao responded, “I think I would trust a 19-year veteran to figure it out,” CBS Minnesota reported

Kueng, the rookie Black officer who knelt on Floyd’s leg, testified that probationary officers were taught to always defer to a superior to the point of unquestioning obedience. He added that he was concerned about their ability to keep Floyd contained, but followed Chauvin’s lead. 

“He was my senior officer and I trusted his advice,” Kueng said.

Lane, Kueng and Thao will also face a state trial, scheduled for June, on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Kovats thanked the jury on Thursday afternoon. 

Kovats said many police across the country fulfill their duty every day, but the three former officers in this trial failed to do so with Floyd. “All sworn officers have a duty to intervene and provide medical aid to those in their custody,” he said. “It’s good policing. In their custody is in their care.”

FBI special agent in charge Michael Paul called the verdict “very important” for the country, adding that it would likely inform the ongoing debate over law enforcement. 

LeeAnn Bell, the assistant to the U.S. Attorney, thanked the jury and Floyd’s family for their patience and diligence, calling it a long and challenging trial “for many reasons.”

In a statement released from the Department of Justice, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Floyd should still be alive.

“Today’s verdict recognizes that two police officers violated the Constitution by failing to intervene to stop another officer from killing George Floyd, and three officers violated the Constitution by failing to provide aid to Mr. Floyd in time to prevent his death,” he wrote.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-floyd-trial-verdict-reached-federal-civil-rights-trial/

March 4 (Reuters) – The United States and its allies heavily criticized Russia on Friday at the United Nations over its shelling and seizure overnight in Ukraine of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, and some demanded that Moscow not let such an attack happen again.

Many of the Security Council’s 15 envoys expressed “grave concern” and shock, warning against the possibility of a repeat of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster – a nuclear accident in Ukraine when it was part of then Soviet Union considered to be the worst in history.

They said the attack was against international humanitarian law and urged Moscow to refrain from any military operations targeting the nuclear facilities and allow Ukrainian personnel to be allowed onto the plant to carry out their work.

“The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the Security Council, convened following the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine by Russian troops.

“Russia’s attack last night put Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at grave risk. It was incredibly reckless and dangerous. And it threatened the safety of civilians across Russia, Ukraine and Europe,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

As shells hit the area early on Friday, a blaze broke out in a training building – triggering a spasm of alarm around the world before the fire was extinguished and officials said the facility was safe. read more

Ukraine ambassador to the U.N. Sergiy Kyslytsya called for all Russian forces to be withdrawn from the plant and a no-fly zone over the country to protect the civilian population from air attacks.

A general view of the United Nations Security Council meeting after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Officials remained worried about the precarious circumstances, with Ukrainian staff operating under Russian control in battlefield conditions beyond the reach of administrators.

“France strongly condemns this attack on the integrity of a nuclear structure, which we need to guarantee,” Nicolas de Riviere said in his speech. “The results of the aggression of Russia against Ukraine are possibly devastating for human health and the environment,” he added.

United Kingdom ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward said: “It must not happen again. Even in the midst of an illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russia must keep fighting away from and protect the safety and security of nuclear sites.”

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Raphael Grossi described the situation as “normal operations, but in fact there is nothing normal about this.”

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed or wounded and more than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russian began its invasion on Feb. 24. Western nations retaliated with sanctions that have plunged Russia into economic isolation.

Russia’s envoy to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia dismissed Western uproar over the nuclear power plant and called Friday’s Security Council meeting another attempt by Ukrainian authorities to create “artificial hysteria”.

“At present, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and adjacent territory are being guarded by Russian troops,” he said.

Separately, France and Mexico are working on a resolution to the U.N. Security Council next week that will address the humanitarian impact of Russia’s invasion, diplomats said.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/china/un-security-council-hold-emergency-meeting-after-russian-attack-nuclear-plant-2022-03-04/