State can't use medication evidence to counter insanity defense in fatal crash, Georgia court says
Michelle Wierson was driving her Volkswagen Tiguan at high speed through the streets of DeKalb County, in Atlanta's suburbs, when she hit a Toyota Corolla stopped at a traffic light. The impact pushed the car into the intersection where it collided with another car. Miles Jenness, a 5-year-old passenger in the Toyota, suffered a traumatic brain injury and a severed spine and died days later.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ethiopian migrants face kidnappings and death, leaving behind heartbroken families
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — When 19-year-old Nigus Yosef told his parents he was going to leave home in Ethiopia's Tigray region and try to get to Saudi Arabia, they begged him not to go. Two of their children had already made the crossing, via the Gulf of Aden and then war-torn Yemen. Yosef's brother is now in jail in Yemen for entering that country illegally. His sister made it to Saudi Arabia, also illegally, which means it will be difficult for her to leave. On August 3, 2025, Yosef and five friends from his town of Adi Qeyih boarded a boat bound for Yemen. That night, it capsized. Only 56 people of the nearly 200 people on board survived. Yosef was not one of them. 'His parents are in deep shock and grief,' his uncle, Redae Barhe, said in a telephone interview. 'They can't even voice their sorrow.' Nigus Yosef is one of 132 missing from the boat that capsized this month; one of countless people from African countries gone missing on a journey in search of a new life. Journeys fraught with danger The families they leave behind know that there are high odds of misfortune. Boats are often overcrowded, unable to withstand rough seas. Once on dry land, there are other dangers. Migrants are vulnerable, with few resources or protection, making them easy prey for human traffickers and kidnappers. Senait Tadesse says that her 27-year-old daughter made it to Yemen, only to be held captive by kidnappers who communicated with Tadesse through Facebook, demanding a US$ 6,000 ransom to release her only child. Tadesse said in an interview with The Associated Press in the capital, Addis Ababa, that she sold her car and all her jewelry to raise the cash and deposited the money in an Ethiopian bank account. But the kidnappers demanded more. She sold all her belongings; they still wanted more. Not knowing what else to do, she went to the police, armed with the local bank account number that the kidnappers had been using. Meanwhile, she was on Facebook, trying to get news of her daughter. Eventually, a post from a survivor confirmed that Tadesse's daughter had been killed. To date, no arrests have been made. Driven by desperation Although Ethiopia has been relatively stable since the war in the country's Tigray region ended in 2022, youth unemployment is high and there are still pockets of unrest. 'Many young people no longer see a future for themselves within a nation that does not prioritize their needs,' explained Yared Hailemariam, an Ethiopian human rights advocate based in Addis Ababa. 'The cause of this migration is lack of economic opportunities and growing conflicts. Young people are faced with a choice of either taking up arms to fight in endless conflicts, or providing for their families.' The war in Tigray was the reason why Nigus Yosef never finished school. When the conflict started in 2020, he was in 7th Grade, and he dropped out to join the Tigray armed forces. When the ceasefire was signed in 2022, he came back home, but couldn't find a job. After three years, he was desperate. Residents in the region say that traffickers seize on that desperation, and that their networks extend even into remote areas and rural villages. Eden Shumiye was just 13 when she left Adi Qeyih with Yosef and his friends. Her parents say that she was preyed on by people smugglers during the town's public market day, and that they convinced her to leave with the group. Her parents heard nothing from her until one of the other migrants called them when they reached Wuha Limat, near the Ethiopia-Djibouti border. The news left them sick with worry. After the boat capsized, a relative of one of the survivors managed to send a voice message to them from Saudi Arabia via the messaging app Imo, confirming that Eden's dead body had been recovered. Of the six young people who left Adi Qeyih, only two survived. 'Her mother is heartbroken,' Eden's father, Shumiye Hadush, told The Associated Press. 'The pain is truly overwhelming.' Ethiopia issues a warning In response to the recent tragedy, the Ethiopian government issued a statement warning citizens 'not to take the illegal route,' and to 'avoid the services of traffickers at all cost,' while urging people to 'pursue legal avenues for securing opportunities.' But Girmachew Adugna, a migration scholar specializing in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, points out that legal migration channels are slow and time-consuming. 'Passports are hard to obtain due to rising costs,' he says. 'Young people often have little or no access to legal migration pathways, which leads them to migrate through irregular means.' More than 1.1 million Ethiopians were classified as migrants who left their home country and were living abroad in 2024, up from about 200,000 recorded in 2010, according to United Nations figures. In spite of Yemen's civil war, the number of migrants arriving there has tripled from 27,000 in 2021 to 90,000 last year, the U.N. International Organization for Migration, or IOM, said last month. To reach Yemen, migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden. The IOM said at least 1,860 people have died or disappeared along the route, including 480 who drowned. 'Our youth are dying because of this dangerous migration,' says Eden Shumiye's father Hadush. 'They fall victim to the cruelty of traffickers. When will this tragedy come to an end?' ___ Associated Press writer Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report. ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Hijacked satellites and orbiting space weapons: In the 21st century, space is the new battlefield
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Russia held its Victory Day parade this year, hackers backing the Kremlin hijacked an orbiting satellite that provides television service to Ukraine. Instead of normal programing, Ukrainian viewers saw parade footage beamed in from Moscow: waves of tanks, soldiers and weaponry. The message was meant to intimidate, and it was also an illustration that 21st century war is waged not just on land, sea and air but also in cyberspace and the reaches of outer space. Disabling a satellite could deal a devastating blow without a single bullet, and it can be done by targeting the satellite's security software or disrupting its ability to send or receive signals from Earth. 'If you can impede a satellite's ability to communicate, you can cause a significant disruption,' said Tom Pace, CEO of NetRise, a cybersecurity firm focused on protecting supply chains. He served in the Marines before working on cyber issues at the Department of Energy. 'Think about GPS,' he said. 'Imagine if a population lost that, and the confusion it would cause.' Satellites are the short-term challenge More than 12,000 operating satellites now orbit the planet, playing a critical role not just in broadcast communications but also in military operations, navigation systems like GPS, intelligence gathering and economic supply chains. They are also key to early launch-detection efforts, which can warn of approaching missiles. That makes them a significant national security vulnerability, and a prime target for anyone looking to undermine an adversary's economy or military readiness — or to deliver a psychological blow like the hackers supporting Russia did when they hijacked television signals to Ukraine. Hackers typically look for the weakest link in the software or hardware that supports a satellite or controls its communications with Earth. The actual orbiting device may be secure, but if it's running on outdated software, it can be easily exploited. As Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, someone targeted Viasat, the U.S.-based satellite company used by Ukraine's government and military. The hack, which Kyiv blamed on Moscow, used malware to infect tens of thousands of modems, creating an outage affecting wide swaths of Europe. National security officials say Russia is developing a nuclear, space-based weapon designed to take out virtually every satellite in low-Earth orbit at once. The weapon would combine a physical attack that would ripple outward, destroying more satellites, while the nuclear component is used to fry their electronics. U.S. officials declassified information about the weapon after Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, issued a public warning about the technology. Turner has pushed for the Department of Defense to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers on the weapon, which, if deployed, would violate an international treaty prohibiting weapons of mass destruction in space. Turner said such a weapon could render low-Earth orbit unusable for satellites for as long as a year. If it were used, the effects would be devastating: potentially leaving the U.S. and its allies vulnerable to economic upheaval and even a nuclear attack. Russia and China also would lose satellites, though they are believed to be less reliant on the same kinds of satellites as the U.S. Turner compared the weapon, which is not yet ready for deployment, to Sputnik, the Russian satellite that launched the space age in 1957. 'If this anti-satellite nuclear weapon would be put in space, it would be the end of the space age,' Turner said. 'It should never be permitted to go into outer space. This is the Cuban Missile Crisis in space.' Mining the moon and beyond Valuable minerals and other materials found on the moon and in asteroids could lead to future conflicts as nations look to exploit new technologies and energy sources. Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy announced plans this month to send a small nuclear reactor to the moon, saying it's important that the U.S. do so before China or Russia. 'We're in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon,' Duffy said. 'To have a base on the moon, we need energy and some of the key locations on the moon. … We want to get there first and claim that for America.' The moon is rich in a material known as helium 3, which scientists believe could be used in nuclear fusion to generate huge amounts of energy. While that technology is still decades away, control over the moon in the intervening years could determine which countries emerge as superpowers, according to Joseph Rooke, a London-based cybersecurity expert who has worked in the U.K. defense industry and is now director of risk insights at the firm Recorded Future. The end of the Cold War temporarily halted a lot of investments in space, but competition is likely to increase as the promise of mining the moon becomes a reality. 'This isn't sci-fi. It's quickly becoming a reality,' Rooke said. 'If you dominate Earth's energy needs, that's game over.' China and Russia have announced plans for their own nuclear plants on the moon in the coming years, while the U.S. is planning missions to the moon and Mars. Artificial intelligence is likely to speed up the competition, as is the demand for the energy that AI requires. Messages left with Russia's Embassy in Washington were not returned. Despite its steps into outer space, China opposes any extraterrestrial arms race, according to Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China's Embassy in Washington. He said it is the U.S. that is threatening to militarize the final frontier. 'It has kept expanding military strength in space, created space military alliances, and attempted to turn space into a war zone,' Liu said. 'China urges the U.S. to stop spreading irresponsible rhetoric, stop expanding military build-up in space, and make due contribution to upholding the lasting peace and security in space.' What the US is doing about security in space Nations are scrambling to create their own rocket and space programs to exploit commercial prospects and ensure they aren't dependent on foreign satellites. It's an expensive and difficult proposition, as demonstrated last week when the first Australian-made rocket crashed after 14 seconds of flight. The U.S. Space Force was created in 2019 to protect American interests in space and to defend U.S. satellites from attacks from adversaries. The space service is far smaller than the more well-established services like the Army, Navy or Air Force, but it's growing, and the White House is expected to announce a location for its headquarters soon. Colorado and Alabama are both candidates. The U.S. military operates an unmanned space shuttle used to conduct classified military missions and research. The craft, known as the X-37B, recently returned to Earth after more than a year in orbit. The Space Force called access to space a vital national security interest. 'Space is a warfighting domain, and it is the Space Force's job to contest and control its environment to achieve national security objectives,' it said in the statement. American dominance in space has been largely unquestioned for decades following the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. But the new threats and competition posed by Russia and China show the need for an aggressive response, U.S. officials say. The hope, Turner said, is that the U.S. can take steps to ensure Russia and China can't get the upper hand, and the frightening potential of space weapons is not realized. 'You have to pay attention to these things so they don't happen,' Turner said.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Qantas fined $59M for illegal pandemic layoffs
MELBOURNE (AP) — A judge on Monday fined Qantas Airways 90 million Australian dollars ($59 million) for illegally firing more than 1,800 ground staff at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The penalty is in addition to the AU$120 million ($78 million) in compensation that Australia's biggest airline had already agreed to pay its former employees. Australian Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said the outsourcing of 1,820 baggage handler and cleaner jobs at Australian airports in late 2020 was the 'largest and most significant contravention' of relevant Australian labor laws in their 120-year history. Qantas agreed in December last year to pay AU$120 million ($78 million) in compensation to former staff after seven High Court judges unanimously rejected the Sydney-based airline's appeal against the judgment that outsourcing their jobs was illegal. The Transport Workers Union, which took the airline to court, had argued the airline should receive the largest fine available — AU$121,212,000 ($78,969,735). Lee ruled that the minimum fine to create a deterrence should be AU$90 million ($59 million), noting that Qantas executives had expected to save AU$125 million ($81 million) a year through outsourcing the jobs. Lee questioned the sincerity of Qantas's apology for its illegal conduct, noting that the airline later unsuccessfully argued that it owed no compensation to its former staff. 'If any further evidence was needed of the unrelenting and aggressive litigation strategy adopted in this case by Qantas, it is provided by this effort directed to denying any compensation whatsoever to those in respect of whom Qantas was publicly professing regret for their misfortune,' Lee said. 'I do think that the people in charge of Qantas now have some genuine regret, but this more likely reflects the damage that this case has done to the company rather than remorse for the damage done to the affected workers,' Lee added. Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson, who was the airline's chief financial officer during the layoffs, said in a statement after Monday's decision: 'We sincerely apologize to each and every one of the 1,820 ground handling employees and to their families who suffered as a result.' 'The decision to outsource five years ago, particularly during such an uncertain time, caused genuine hardship for many of our former team and their families,' she said. 'Over the past 18 months we've worked hard to change the way we operate as part of our efforts to rebuild trust with our people and our customers. This remains our highest priority as we work to earn back the trust we lost,' she added. Lee ruled that AU$50 million ($33 million) of the fine go to the union, because no Australian government agency had shown interest in investigating or prosecuting Qantas. 'But for the union … , Qantas' contravening conduct would never have been exposed and it would never have been held to account for its unlawful conduct,' Lee said. 'Hence the union has brought to the attention of the court a substantial and significant transgression of a public obligation by a powerful and substantial employer,' Lee added. A hearing will be held at a later date to decide where the remaining AU$40 million ($26 million) of the fine will go. Michael Kaine, national secretary of the union that represents 60,000 members, said he felt vindicated by Monday's ruling, which ends a five-year legal battle that Qantas had been widely expected to win. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'It is a significant — the most significant — industrial outcome in Australia's history and it sends a really clear message to Qantas and to every employer in Australia: Treat your work force illegally and you will be held accountable,' Kaine told reporters. 'Against all the odds, we took on a behemoth that had shown itself to be ruthless and we won,' Kaine added. Qantas has admitted illegally dealing with passengers as well as employees in its responses to pandemic economic challenges. Last year, Qantas agreed to pay AU$120 million ($78 million) in compensation and a fine for selling tickets on thousands of cancelled flights. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a consumer watchdog, sued the airline in the Federal Court alleging that Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights from May 2021 through to July 2022 that had already been canceled.
