Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has said the Ukraine conflict has shown what might have happened to his country had it not joined NATO 20 years ago.
“It cannot be ruled out that without NATO membership our independence would now be at risk,” Tsahkna said on Friday on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of joining the transatlantic defence alliance.
“If Estonia had remained in the so-called grey zone, what we are currently seeing in Ukraine could possibly have happened on our territory,” he said.
In addition to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia also joined NATO on March 29, 2004.
“Because we made the necessary decisions back then, we now live in a free and secure Estonia,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in a video message.
Estonia borders Russia to the east and feels the threat of Russian force since the invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, she said.
Estonia now spends more than 3% of its gross domestic product on the military, said Kallas, as she urged NATO allies to spend more money on defence.
Months after access to a popular children’s book about a male penguin couple hatching a chick was restricted at school libraries because of Florida’s “ Don’t Say Gay law,” a central Florida school district says it has reversed that decision.
The School Board of Lake County and Florida education officials last week asked a federal judge to toss out a First Amendment lawsuit brought by students and the authors of “And Tango Makes Three” in June. Their complaint challenged the restrictions and Florida’s new law prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.
The lawsuit is moot since age restrictions on “And Tango Makes Three” have been lifted following a Florida Department of Education memo that said the new law only applied to classroom instruction and not school libraries, according to motions filed Friday by Florida education officials and school board members of the district located outside Orlando.
The “Don’t Say Gay” law has been at the center of a fight between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and has made the culture wars a driving force of his campaign. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers took over control of the district after Disney publicly opposed the law.
“The Court lacks jurisdiction both because this case is moot and because plaintiffs never had standing in the first place,” Florida education officials said in their motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The school board and Florida education officials on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Brian Davis in Ocala, Florida, to postpone any further discovery until he rules on whether to dismiss the case.
Last week, the judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have ruled immediately in favor of the students and authors without the need for a trial, agreeing that the question over getting access to the book was moot since the school board had lifted restrictions.
“And Tango Makes Three” recounts the true story of two male penguins who were devoted to each other at the Central Park Zoo in New York. A zookeeper who saw them building a nest and trying to incubate an egg-shaped rock gave them an egg from a different penguin pair with two eggs after they were having difficulty hatching more than one egg at a time. The chick cared for by the male penguins was named Tango.
The book is listed among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association.
Thousands turned out for a rally in support of the coup on Thursday
As the seven-day ultimatum given by West African leaders for the military in Niger to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum draws to a close, both sides have crucial decisions to make.
Last Sunday evening, the regional bloc Ecowas, headed by President Bola Tinubu of neighbouring Nigeria, said the junta had a week to restore constitutional order or face the possible use of force.
Sanctions on the coup leaders have already been imposed and electricity supplies from Nigeria have been cut, along with borders, meaning goods are no longer arriving and the land-locked country has lost access to ports.
But as the political, diplomatic and military tensions rise, what could happen as the deadline passes?
1) Deadline is extended
One option is for the Ecowas leaders to extend the deadline.
This has the danger of being seen as a climbdown, but the heads of state could save face by saying that diplomatic efforts have made progress and they want to give them more time.
The problem at the moment is that Ecowas mediation efforts have not borne fruit. A delegation sent to Niger on Thursday returned within a few hours with apparently little to show for it.
Meanwhile, the junta stepped up its rhetoric against both the West and Ecowas. It announced that it was cutting diplomatic ties with Nigeria, Togo, the US and France, and said it was cancelling the military agreements with France which allows the former colonial power to base some 1,500 soldiers there.
And President Bazoum, who is being held by the military, used stark language in an article in the Washington Post. He described himself as a “hostage” and called on the US and the entire international community to help restore constitutional order.
2) They agree on a timetable for a transition
To try and cool things down and find middle ground, the junta and Ecowas could agree on a timetable for a return to democratic rule.
This could include the release of President Bazoum, as well as other political detainees, in order to keep talks going and possibly buy more time. This has been a key demand of those who have condemned the coup in Africa and elsewhere.
The West African bloc has already approved democratic transitions in Niger’s neighbours in the Sahel region, Mali and Burkina Faso, which were both taken over by the military in recent years.
But the negotiations were fraught with problems, with deadlines for elections continually pushed back and it is still not guaranteed that the handovers of power will actually happen.
Sudan, which created a mixed civilian-military government in 2019 that was supposed to pave the way to democracy after a coup there, provides another model. But the collapse of that country into a bitter conflict between rival military leaders offers a cautionary tale.
3) Military intervention
The West African leaders did not say that force would definitely be used if President Bazoum was not reinstated but left it open as a possibility.
Nigerian officials have described it as a “last resort”. President Tinubu said there could be a military intervention “to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant”.
Ecowas has used military force to restore constitutional order in the past, for example in The Gambia in 2017 when Yahya Jammeh refused to step down after losing an election.
But the calculation about whether to go ahead this time would be far more difficult.
Firstly, Niger is geographically the largest country in West Africa, while The Gambia is a tiny sliver of land surrounded by Senegal and the Atlantic Ocean, so sending troops in would be a whole different prospect.
Secondly, regional power Nigeria, which is leading the charge to restore President Bazoum, is facing a host of security challenges at home, so sending a significant portion of the army to Niger would be something of a gamble.
Thirdly, both Mali and Burkina Faso have said that military intervention in Niger would be seen as a “declaration of war” and they would go to defend their fellow coup leaders.
So it risks snowballing into a full-scale regional war, especially if the Niger population resists foreign intervention. Although it is impossible to know how they would react.
Nigeria and Niger share many historical and ethnic ties, with people on both sides speaking the same language so this could make some Nigerian troops reluctant to fight if it came to that.
Countries like Algeria, Niger’s neighbour to the north, China and Russia have asked for restraint and the continued use of dialogue to douse tension.
However, after a three-day meeting in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Ecowas defence chiefs say they have drawn up a detailed plan for military intervention for the regional leaders to consider.
Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin have all said they are willing to send troops into Niger if Ecowas decided to do so.
Nigeria alone has about 135,000 active troops, according to the Global Fire Power index, while Niger has about 10,000 but that certainly doesn’t mean an invasion would be easy.
A peaceful solution is no doubt preferable for all sides but Ecowas is keen to show its resolve as it has failed to prevent a spate of coups in the region in the last three years.
The jury deliberating the sentence for the gunman who killed 11 people and injured seven more in a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 has reached a decision, CBS Pittsburgh reports. The jury was weighing either a death sentence or life in prison. The sentence will be announced in court shortly.
The gunman, Robert Bowers, was found guilty in June of all 63 federal charges brought against him in connection with the massacre, including criminal counts for hate crimes resulting in death.
He opened fire inside of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, during Shabbat morning services. Some of the victims were worshippers from two other congregations, Dor Hadash and New Light, which shared space in the building along with Tree of Life, the largest of the three. Armed with an AR-15 rifle and three handguns, police said he shouted “All Jews must die!” during the shooting, which is the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. The gunman was shot multiple times by responding officers and taken into custody.
Mourners visit the memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 31, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after 11 people were killed in a mass shooting on Oct. 27.
Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
Attorneys for the shooter, a truck driver with a documented history of antisemitic and violent extremist views that he posted about online, admitted during the criminal trial that he was responsible for the massacre, but focused on his mental state, raising questions as to whether Bowers was driven by hate or schizophrenia when he carried out the attack.
Prosecutors rejected the defense’s claims related to mental illness, arguing that the gunman methodically planned the shooting before entering the Tree of Life that morning. One federal prosecutor told the jury that the attacker turned a house of worship into a “hunting ground.”
“It doesn’t make you schizophrenic to be happy about what you did. This defendant just happens to be white supremacist like many other white supremacists. They’re also not delusional, they’re just white supremacists,” a lawyer for the prosecution said during closing arguments, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
The jury found Bowers eligible to face the death penalty in July. While the prosecution had pushed during the trial for capital punishment, attorneys for the gunman asked for life in prison without the possibility of parole. Judy Clarke, a defense attorney, recounted in court the shooter’s family history of mental illness and abuse, as well as alleged suicide attempts and hospitalizations that, she said, led him to develop schizophrenia, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
Judge Robert Colville, who presided over the case, denied a motion from the defense for a mistrial prior to the sentencing hearing on Tuesday morning.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Trump allies create legal defense fund ahead of Georgia charging decision – CBS News
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Barricades went up outside the courthouse in Atlanta as the Fulton County district attorney nears a charging decision in the Georgia election investigation. Monday marked the first day of a 3-week window the DA cited for potential charges. CBS News’ Nikole Killion and Major Garrett joined “America Decides” to break down the mounting legal issues facing former President Donald Trump.
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