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Ted Nugent says Parkland students ‘have no soul,’ calls them ‘mushy-brained children’
The discourse surrounding the students who survived a mass shooting at a Florida high school in February and their activism on gun policy has turned radioactive in recent weeks. On social media, gun-control critics have pilloried student leaders Emma González and David Hogg, posting doctored images of González shredding the Constitution and memes showing Hogg in a Nazi uniform.
The teen-led movement has reignited the nation’s gun debate, drawing stark partisan lines, as well as cries of manipulation from the right, who say Democrats have used the students as both shield and sword to advance tighter restrictions on firearms.
Enter the Motor City Madman, musician Ted Nugent, perhaps the National Rifle Association’s most outspoken board member.
[ NRA host taunts Parkland teens: ‘No one would know your names’ if classmates were still alive ]
In a Friday interview mostly focused on González’s and Hogg’s criticism of the NRA, Nugent and radio host Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo discussed how the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have navigated media appearances and their belief that the teenagers have been manipulated by left-wing ideologues.
“These poor children, I’m afraid to say, but the evidence is irrefutable. They have no soul,” Nugent told Pagliarulo on the radio show on WOAI in San Antonio, which is syndicated nationwide.
On Valentine’s Day, a gunman killed 17 students and educators at the Florida high school in one of the nation’s deadliest school massacres. Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been charged in the shooting.
Nugent and Pagliarulo dissected González’s and Hogg’s interviews with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota five days after the shooting. “If they accept this blood money, they are against the children,” González said, speaking about politicians who accept donations from the NRA. “You’re either funding the killers, or you’re standing with the children.”
Nugent noted that no known NRA members have been involved in mass shootings, and he decried Camerota for not challenging González’s link between mass shootings and the NRA.
[ A fake photo of Emma González went viral on the far right, where Parkland teens are villains ]
“The lies from these poor, mushy-brained children who have been fed lies and parrot lies,” Nugent said. “I really feel sorry for them. It’s not only ignorant, dangerous and stupid — it’s soulless. To attack the good, law-abiding families of America when well-known, predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless.”
Defending the NRA, Nugent noted that the gun-rights group has provided firearms safety training and that it is sustained not by gun manufacturers but by “families, good families” in the organization.
Nugent, like many on the right, has been flustered by recent portrayals of firearms in the media and by the students, and been incensed when the semiautomatic AR-15 — what the NRA has called America’s favorite rifle — is described as a “weapon of war.” Semiautomatic rifles are not carried into combat, Nugent said on the program.
[ Laura Ingraham takes an Easter break amid David Hogg controversy and advertiser revolt ]
AR-15 semiautomatic rifles are the civilian equivalent of the M4 and M16 rifles — select fire weapons (semiautomatic or a three-round burst) that use similar ammunition. Though some M4 models are fully automatic that fire until the standard 30-round magazine is depleted, conventional military marksmanship focuses on controlled fire that discharges one round with each trigger pull. A Marine Corps training manual suggests 12 to 15 rounds a minute as the acceptable rate of fire for M16s and M4s to balance accuracy and ammunition conservation, and the burst option is generally discouraged in many scenarios.
In that way, military rifles commonly used in practice are functionally similar to how mass shooters used AR-15 pattern rifles in killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and the Parkland high school — an acknowledgment that few gun-rights advocates, including Nugent, seem to have made.
Nugent’s spokeswoman and the NRA did not return requests for comment.
Pagliarulo said Nugent’s claims on his program were “verifiably true.” When asked by The Washington Post to clarify what he meant by that, he said in an email exchange: “Ted called them liars. That’s verifiably true. Unless, of course, you believe NRA members are ‘child murderers,’ or you’re either ‘with us or with the killers.’ ”
Pagliarulo referred back to his interview with Nugent for additional clarity, which he published Saturday on Facebook.
About a year ago Nugent called for civility in the pressure cooker of partisan politics and gun violence, following an attack at a congressional baseball practice on a ballfield in Northern Virginia last May that left Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) seriously injured by rifle fire. Nugent vowed to be “more selective with my rants and in my words.”
Those rants have been notable. In 2007, Nugent drew criticism when he advised presidential candidate Barack Obama to “suck on my machine gun.” In 2012, at an NRA convention, Nugent said if Obama were reelected as president, “I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”
Read more:
The Fix: Black Parkland students worry: What happens to us when schools are over-policed?
How the Parkland teens became villains on the right-wing Internet
Parkland shooting suspect’s brother sentenced to probation for trespassing at school
Officials: 2 dead in homebuilt plane crash in California
SANTA PAULA, Calif. (AP) – Officials say two people have been killed after a homebuilt airplane crashed into a shed outside the Southern California city of Santa Paula.
Ventura County fire Capt. Stan Ziegler says the two-seat aircraft went down Saturday afternoon. It was a clear and sunny day.
He says the two people were pronounced dead when firefighters got to the scene less than a mile from Santa Paula Airport.
Santa Paula is roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the plane was a homebuilt Vans RV-6A that caught fire after it went down.
Gregor says the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Fact check: Trump administration departs from reality on wall, census, Amazon
President Donald Trump hailed the start of his long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall this past week, proudly tweeting photos of the “WALL!” Actually, no new work got underway. The photos showed the continuation of an old project to replace 2 miles of existing barrier.
And on Saturday, he ripped Amazon with a shaky claim that its contract with the post office is a “scam.”
Trump and his officials departed from reality on a variety of subjects in recent days: the census, Amazon’s practices and the makeup of the Supreme Court among them. Here’s a look at some statements and their veracity:
TRUMP: “Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!” — tweet Wednesday, showing photos of workers building a fence.
TRUMP: “We’re going to be starting work, literally, on Monday, on not only some new wall — not enough, but we’re working that very quickly — but also fixing existing walls and existing acceptable fences.” — Trump, speaking the previous week after signing a bill financing the government.
THE FACTS: Trump’s wrong. No new work began on Monday or any other time this past week. And the photos Trump tweeted were misleading. They showed work that’s been going on for more than a month on a small border wall replacement project in Calexico, California, that has nothing to do with the federal budget he signed into law last week.
The Calexico project that began Feb. 21 to replace a little more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of border wall was financed during the 2017 budget year. A barrier built in the 1990s mainly from recycled metal scraps is being torn down and replaced with bollard-style barriers that are 30 feet (9.1 meters) high.
Ronald D. Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, defended the president’s statements, saying Friday “there’s construction” underway.
U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation and the contract that has the post office deliver some Amazon orders. Federal regulators have found that contract to be profitable for the Postal Service.
People who buy products sold by Amazon pay sales tax in all states that have a sales tax. Not all third-party vendors using Amazon collect it, however.
As for the post office, package delivery has been a bright spot for a service that’s lost money for 11 straight years. The losses are mostly due to pension and health care costs — not the business deal for the Postal Service to deliver packages for Amazon. Boosted by e-commerce, the Postal Service has enjoyed double-digit increases in revenue from delivering packages, but that hasn’t been enough to offset declines in first-class letters and marketing mail, which together make up more than two-thirds of postal revenue.
While the Postal Service’s losses can’t be attributed to its package business, Trump’s claim that it could get more bang for its buck may not be entirely far-fetched. A 2017 analysis by Citigroup concluded that the Postal Service was charging below-market rates as a whole for parcels. The post office does not use taxpayer money for its operations.
Trump is upset about Amazon because its owner, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post, one of the targets of his “fake news” tweets.
TRUMP: “Because of the $700 $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!” — tweets Sunday and Monday.
THE FACTS: Trump is floating the idea of using “M” — the Pentagon’s military budget — to pay for his wall with Mexico. Such a move would almost certainly require approval from Congress and there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about the notion of diverting military money for this purpose.
Only Congress has the power under the Constitution to determine federal appropriations, leaving the Trump administration little authority to shift money without lawmakers’ approval.
Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood referred all questions on the wall to the White House. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to reveal specifics, but said Trump would work with the White House counsel to make sure any action taken was within his executive authority.
DAVID SHULKIN, citing reasons Trump fired him as Veterans Affairs secretary: “I have been falsely accused of things by people who wanted me out of the way. But despite these politically based attacks on me and my family’s character, I am proud of my record and know that I acted with the utmost integrity.” — op-ed Thursday in The New York Times.
THE FACTS: His statement that he and his family were subjected to politically based attacks is disingenuous, though politics contributed to his dismissal.
White House support for Shulkin eroded after a blistering report in February by VA’s internal watchdog, a non-partisan office. The inspector general’s office concluded that he had violated ethics rules by accepting free Wimbledon tennis tickets. The inspector general also said Shulkin’s chief of staff had doctored emails to justify bringing the secretary’s wife to Europe with him at taxpayer expense.
Palestinians Seek Protection as Israel Blasts `Terror’ March
Israeli and Palestinian leaders blamed each other for the deaths of at least 16 Palestinians who were part of a mass protest along the Gaza border, with each side lobbing threats of escalating the violence.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was “fully responsible” for killing his countrymen on Friday, and a video appearing to show an unarmed teenager being gunned down by Israeli sniper fire circulated on Palestinian media.
The Israeli army argued that Gazan militants were using civilian protesters as cover as they fired at soldiers and tried to lay explosives near the border fence. The protest, which peaked at 30,000 participants on Friday and will run for the next six weeks, is “an organized terrorist operation,” the Israeli army said in a tweet on Saturday.
“What we saw yesterday were attempts to launch rockets, attempts to carry out live attacks, Molotov cocktails, attempts to set fire to the security fence, and a lot of terrorist activity,” the Israel Defense Force said in separate tweets. “Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed. We are only interested in terrorists who are trying to disrupt Israeli life; we only act against them.”
The army said at least 10 of the dead were known militants, giving their names, organizations and positions. Hamas said five of them were members of its military wing. The army warned it would increase its response if the violence continues.
Increased Force
Abbas said Palestinians needed international protection from Israel, and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent inquiry into Friday’s deaths. Overnight Saturday, the U.S. blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution blasting the Israeli response in Gaza and calling for an investigation.
The protests come amid growing tensions over President Donald Trump’s December recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as well as a yet-to-be-released U.S. peace plan that Abbas has already pledged to reject. Abbas severed all official Palestinian contact with the White House in December after Trump announced plans to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
Hamas planned the protests against the Palestinian displacement resulting from Israel’s founding in 1948 to culminate with the date of U.S. embassy move. The demonstrations began Friday with tent camps set up a half-mile from Gaza’s 25-mile (40-kilometer) frontier with Israel. The climax is to come in mid-May with a mass march to the border, which Israel fears will become an attempt to breach its territory.
Protest Escalates
Hamas leaders presented the initiative as a peaceful effort, though they conceded that it could get out of hand. The army said riots broke out at five locations along the border. Palestinian eyewitnesses said that in one spot, about 90 people cut through the security fence and confronted soldiers, with many being shot in the legs. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said 16 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,400 injured Friday, while another three Palestinians were hurt in continued skirmishes Saturday.
Violence against Israel has surged in recent weeks. Palestinians, who want the eastern part of Jerusalem as their own capital, have been storming the Gaza fence and planting bombs targeting Israeli soldiers, drawing retaliatory fire and air strikes. At least five Israelis have been killed in stabbing and car-ramming attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent weeks.
‘Hostile March’
Jason Greenblatt, who is helping spearhead the U.S. peace effort, accused Hamas of instigating a “hostile march” to spark a confrontation.
“Hamas should focus instead on desperately needed improvements to the lives of Palestinians in Gaza instead of inciting violence against Israel that only increases hardship and undermines chances for peace,” Greenblatt tweeted.
Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, appearing at the tent camps Friday, presented the march as a rebuke to the U.S. peace effort and said it marks the beginning of the Palestinian return to all of what is now Israel.
“The Great March of Return is a message to Trump that his deal and all those who support it, that there is no concession on Jerusalem, no alternative to Palestine, and no solution but to return,” Haniyeh said. The Palestinians “will not agree to keep the ‘Right of Return’ only as a slogan.”
Israel views the demand for a mass return of Palestinians as a bid to eradicate Israel as a Jewish state.
The Gaza protests correspond with red-letter dates on the Palestinian calendar. Friday was “Land Day,” marking the 1976 killing of six Arab citizens by Israeli security forces during demonstrations against land expropriations. It’s also the beginning of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.
The main march to the fence on May 15 will commemorate the Palestinian “Nakba,” or the catastrophe of their displacement at Israel’s founding. It takes place a day after the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem is slated to open, on the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence. Ramadan, the Muslim holy fasting month that often sees a surge in Palestinian attacks, also begins May 15.
— With assistance by Yaacov Benmeleh
Loyola-Chicago’s improbable ride ends in heartbreak at the Final Four
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — When the magic ended Saturday for Loyola-Chicago, the young men who had been draped in glory throughout the most unforgettable month of their lives retreated to the locker room to collect themselves. Senior Ben Richardson — red-eyed and sniffling — leaned on head coach Porter Moser, who put his hand on Richardson’s shoulder.
At the moment, it was all too soon. Too soon to ponder how a Michigan team the Ramblers led by double-digits early in the second half managed to mount a furious rally to seal a 69-57 win. Too soon to consider what’s next for this collection of underdogs. Too soon to look back and remember how this wonderful journey unfolded.
This bunch could feel only destiny’s punch in its gut, a first for the Ramblers in a fortuitous postseason.
On Saturday against the Wolverines, the Ramblers were headed for late drama after seizing a double-digit lead. It seemed as though the modest Jesuit school in Chicago, cheered on by a famous, 98-year-old nun named Sister Jean was headed for another “Is this really happening?” victory.
It felt like another scene in Loyola-Chicago’s Disney movie, but Michigan had no concern for cute storylines. The Wolverines launched a remarkable run and sent the Ramblers back to the Windy City.
“The ball wasn’t really bouncing our way,” said Townes.
In the locker room after the game, the Ramblers’ heads were heavy, bent down and angling toward the floor. They spoke of missed shots and blown opportunities. Townes focused on the cramps he endured in the second half and wondered if he’d consumed enough liquids before the loss. Donte Ingram, solemn and fatigued, stood alone on a wall outside the locker room, waiting for the shuttle to carry him to the postgame interview room.
Moser shook hands with a few folks in the Alamodome corridor and shook his head as he walked. As a school official pushed her wheelchair past reporters, Sister Jean said nothing.
“I didn’t really notice a turn,” Dinardi said. “It never really sank in that we were going to lose this game until there were 30 seconds left.”
The Ramblers needed help. They struggled to reflect on the significance of their achievement in the minutes after the loss to Michigan, so they had to be reminded of their path.
A decade ago, Illinois State fired Moser. He bounced back after a stint at Saint Louis under Rick Majerus. In 2011, Loyola-Chicago, a school seeking its first winning season in five years, hired him. The team he assembled had no promises. No big-time scholarships. Moser had no five-stars in his locker room. Mostly no-stars.
So how’d the Ramblers get to the Final Four? A better question might be how they even got to the NCAA tournament?
In December, they lost to Milwaukee by double digits. Losses to Missouri State, Indiana State and Bradley would follow. They’re ranked 229th in average height on KenPom.com. They were the only team in San Antonio without a player listed in ESPN’s 2018 mock draft.
To get here, Loyola-Chicago beat a Miami squad with a potential lottery pick (Lonnie Walker IV). It beat the SEC champion (Tennessee). It beat one of the hottest offenses in America (Nevada). It beat the Kansas State squad that eliminated Kentucky. The Ramblers had Michigan, winner of 13 in a row entering Saturday’s game, on the ropes and desperate in the second half of a national semifinal matchup.
As reporters asked Ramblers players about the meaning of the moment, their tears dried up. They began to speak of the future and history, which will always highlight their success in the 2017-18 season.
They were praised by Chance the Rapper. Drake apologized for not being able to attend Saturday’s game. They met Russell Westbrook. They were on national television multiple times. They stayed in five-star hotels and couldn’t walk the streets without autograph requests.
They might never be able to navigate the Loyola-Chicago campus again without causing chaos.
“It was the best time of my life,” Custer said, “so I’m sad it has to be over.”
Yes, the loss hurt. But the Ramblers left the Alamodome as heroes.
“This season right here will be remembered forever,” Townes said.
And the agony of the loss, the emotion they couldn’t shake after the game, will soon fade and give the Ramblers a clear view of everything they accomplished, every unbelievable chapter of the most magical ride of the 2017-18 season.
“In a couple of weeks, a couple months,” freshman Cameron Krutwig said, “the memories are certainly going to outweigh the pain of this.”
Malala returns to home town in Pakistan for first time since shooting
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has returned to her hometown in Pakistan for the first time since she was shot there by Taliban militants, security officials say.
Ms Yousafzai, 20, was shot in the head by a gunman for campaigning for female education in 2012.
Her family’s home region of Swat was once a militant stronghold, and she was attacked on a school bus there at 15.
It had been unclear if she would visit the area because of security concerns.
On Thursday, it was announced that Ms Yousafzai had returned from the UK to Pakistan for the first time since she was attacked.
Ms Yousafzai delivered an emotional speech at the prime minister’s office in Islamabad:
“Always it has been my dream that I should go to Pakistan and there, in peace and without any fear, I can move on streets, I can meet people, I can talk to people.
“And I think that it’s my old home again… so it is actually happening, and I am grateful to all of you.”
Her trip to Pakistan is expected to last four days. Officials from her Malala Fund group are travelling with her, local media report.
Why was she attacked?
At the age of 11, Ms Yousafzai began writing an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about her life under Taliban rule. A documentary film was made about her in 2009.
- Profile: Malala Yousafzai
- The girl who was shot for going to school
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She soon became a vocal advocate of female education amid militant suppression in Pakistan, and was deliberately attacked on a school bus in October 2012 by Islamist militants. Malala’s story brought international attention.
The Pakistani Taliban said at the time that they had shot her because she was “pro-West” and “promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas”.
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University Hospitals Birmingham
After initial surgery in Pakistan for her injuries in 2012, she was transferred to the UK for her recovery
The teenager sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack, and had to have part of her skull removed to relieve swelling on her brain.
After receiving emergency treatment at a military hospital in Pakistan, she was transported to the UK for further treatment and to recover in Birmingham, where her family continue to live.
What has she done since?
Since her recovery, Ms Yousafzai has continued to speak up for children’s education and rights around the world.
She set up the Malala Fund with her father Ziauddin, with the goal of “working for a world where every girl can learn and lead without fear”.
End of Twitter post by @Malala
In 2014 she became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi were jointly awarded it for their efforts for children’s rights.
She has continued campaigning while pursuing her studies, and is now reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.
Trump Advisers Urge Tougher Russia Policy After Expulsions
“I don’t remember such bad shape of our relations,” Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to Washington, told NBC’s “Today” show. “There is a great mistrust between the United States and Russia.”
Since his arrival last year in Washington, Mr. Antonov said he had invited American officials to his residence only to be repeatedly rebuffed. “If they are scared, I said, ‘Come on, we can meet in a restaurant and to discuss all outstanding issues,’” he said. “It was four or five months ago. And I got answer: silent.”
American officials said a shift in the administration’s approach has been building for weeks. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, whose last official day on the job is Saturday, had come to the conclusion before Mr. Trump fired him this month that a year of attempting to cooperate had not yielded much success, according to people familiar with his thinking. As a result, they said, Mr. Tillerson had begun mapping out a tougher policy toward Russia and found agreement in the White House.
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The administration began taking a more robust approach, publicly blaming Russia for a devastating attack on computers in Ukraine and elsewhere, accusing Moscow of trying to break into the United States’ power grid and imposing sanctions in retaliation for Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election in the United States.
Mr. Tillerson’s feelings were hardened further by a conversation with Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary who described to him the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter living in Britain. Even in the hours before his dismissal by Mr. Trump, Mr. Tillerson spoke out in stronger terms than the president in condemning the poisoning.
While Mr. Tillerson is on the way out, his designated successor, Mike Pompeo, and the incoming national security adviser, John R. Bolton, are both considered even more hawkish on Russia.
At the same time, some officials at the Pentagon have expressed caution about the escalating conflict with Russia, citing consequences in Syria, where the United States and Russia have both conducted military operations.
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The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officers and closed the Russian Consulate in Seattle this week as part of a wider international retaliation for the poisoning of Mr. Skripal. Russia responded Thursday by ordering out 60 Americans and closing the consulate in St. Petersburg. The scope of Russia’s retaliation grew clearer on Friday as the Kremlin summoned 23 ambassadors from other countries to evict some of their diplomats.
But Mr. Trump has remained publicly silent amid the dramatic rounds of diplomatic retaliation, leaving it to others to condemn Moscow. Frustrated by the investigation of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into whether his campaign cooperated with Russia in 2016, a scenario he dismissed as a “hoax,” Mr. Trump recently called Mr. Putin to congratulate him on his victory in a re-election widely dismissed as a sham.
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Mr. Trump made no mention of the poisoning of Mr. Skripal during the call but instead suggested that he wanted to schedule a summit meeting with the Russian president.
Both countries still have ambassadors in place, so high-level contact on potentially calamitous matters should continue, as it did at the height of the Cuban missile crisis. But the wheels of basic diplomacy, involving visas, consular services, cultural events and simply talking to people, are grinding ever more slowly and, in some cases, coming to a halt.
“The parties lose some of their eyes and ears, so the quality of the reporting goes down,” said Charles A. Kupchan, who was the Europe director of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. “It’s not just intelligence but day-to-day political and economic reporting: What’s the buzz in the street, what do interlocutors say? And consular services do get hit.”
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The expulsions left many diplomats wondering how the American Embassy in Moscow could operate. Much of the burden will fall on the ambassador, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who took over an embassy already struggling to function after an order by the Kremlin last summer that it dispense with 755 employees in response to sweeping American sanctions for Russia’s election meddling.
“The embassy is struggling to do basic operations. This latest round will hurt,” said Michael A. McFaul, who served as ambassador in Moscow from 2012 to 2014. “Morale, of course, is also very low.”
Even before this week’s expulsions, the wait in Moscow to obtain a visitor’s visa to the United States was among the longest in the world. It now takes 250 days just to get an appointment with the visa section, compared with four in Beijing and 31 in New Delhi.
An American spokesman told Russian news media this week that the embassy had been placed under “significant constraints” by the Foreign Ministry and “could not accommodate all their many requests at all times, particularly for large groups.”
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Simon Schuchat, a former diplomat at the embassy in the Moscow, recalled how haphazard and unnerving it was when Russia began the process of ousting alleged spies during a round of expulsions in 2001. Inevitably, Moscow ordered out diplomats unconnected to espionage.
“They tended to go for people with better language skills,” Mr. Schuchat said, adding that they “missed many spies and included many non-spies.”
This time around, intelligence officers working under “official cover” as diplomats were especially targeted, but some American officials played down the impact, saying the United States still came out ahead in the expulsions.
“That’s to our benefit,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said at a seminar on Thursday in Austin, Tex. “There are a lot more Russians in America than Americans in Russia in the intelligence agencies.”
On Friday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused the agencies overseen by Mr. Coats of exploiting the situation by approaching Russian diplomats leaving the United States to offer “assistance” in exchange for “entering into covert relations” on behalf of the American government.
“The ploy is not working,” the ministry said in a statement, “but their behavior is cynical and distasteful, as if Washington has stepped completely beyond the bounds of common decency.”
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1 officer fired, 1 suspended in death of Alton Sterling as police release new videos
Lake, who did not fire his gun but helped wrestle Sterling to the ground, was suspended for three days. Lake’s attorney, Kyle Kershaw, said his client wants to return to his patrol job in Baton Rouge after his brief suspension.
Stephon Clark Was Shot 8 Times Primarily in His Back, Family-Ordered Autopsy Finds
The Sacramento police on Friday said they had not viewed the autopsy and declined to comment, saying it was “inappropriate” because the investigation was continuing. “We acknowledge the importance of this case to all in our community,” the police said in a statement.
Protesters in California’s capital have taken to the streets nearly every day since Mr. Clark was killed on March 18, demanding that the city’s leadership fire the two officers involved.
Mr. Clark’s family have accused the police department of trying to cover up misconduct by its officers and decided to conduct its own autopsy.
Video showed officers shouting at Mr. Clark minutes after the shooting stopped. “We need to know if you’re O.K.,” an officer yelled about three minutes after the gunfire ended. “We need to get you medics but we can’t go over to get you help unless we know you don’t have a weapon.”
Dr. Omalu said the autopsy suggested that Mr. Clark lived for three to 10 minutes after the shooting, adding to questions about the amount of time it took to get him treatment. Medical assistance did not arrive until about six minutes after the shooting.
Dr. Omalu said that he could not determine if Mr. Clark would have survived if he had received medical attention more quickly, but “every minute you wait decreases probability of survival.”
In its initial account, the Police Department said Mr. Clark had “advanced toward the officers” while holding what they believed to be a firearm. In body camera footage provided by the police, it is not clear which direction Mr. Clark is facing, and the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said the independent autopsy contradicted the assertion by the police that he was a threat.
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Mr. Crump said the results proved that Mr. Clark could not have been moving toward the officers in a threatening fashion when they opened fire.
“These findings from the independent autopsy contradict the police narrative that we’ve been told,” he said. “This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances.”
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Outside experts who have examined the case say it will be difficult to determine whether the officers could be held criminally accountable. The Supreme Court has sided with the police in fatal shootings if it is shown that officers reasonably believe their lives were in danger.
Justin Nix, who teaches policing at the University of Nebraska Omaha, said, “Any police shooting on camera is going to look bad. But when the guy is on his stomach and they continue to shoot, a lot of people are going to be bothered by it.”
Mr. Nix agreed the autopsy undercut the police’s version of events, but said: “He’s facing slightly in their direction. And it is possible they felt he was still reaching for what they thought was a gun.”
David A. Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who studies police accountability, said the officers were at a disadvantage because they were relying on information about the suspect from a police helicopter circling overhead.
Once they confront the suspect however, the officers order Mr. Clark to “show” his hands, rather than raise his hands, which Mr. Clark may have been doing when he was shot, Mr. Harris said.
But he said that if the officers perceived that Mr. Clark was armed and moving toward them, they are trained to shoot. “It is not clear they could have done anything differently,” he said.
The shots to Mr. Clark’s back were “not enough by itself to seal a negative judgment,” he said. In part because, “the victim’s body may have turned after the shooting began, and it is still unclear whether they could see that he had turned.”
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The Sacramento police chief, Daniel Hahn, requested assistance from the California Department of Justice earlier this week, headed by Attorney General Xavier Becerra, to join the department’s investigation as an independent party. Mr. Hahn said he hoped that step would reassure residents that the investigation would be impartial.
The episode began when two officers were dispatched to the Meadowview neighborhood in South Sacramento to investigate a report that someone was breaking car windows. A county sheriff’s department helicopter joined the search and hovered above, at one point telling officers that a suspect had picked up a crowbar.
The officers eventually spotted Mr. Clark, who appears to have run from them into his grandmother’s backyard. In body camera video, an officer is heard shouting the word “gun” repeatedly and opening fire almost immediately. No weapon was found on Mr. Clark’s body; the only object found was his cellphone.
After other officers arrived, the two officers involved in the shooting muted the audio on their body cameras as they discussed what had happened, which has also drawn criticism.
Mr. Clark’s funeral was on Thursday, attended by hundreds of mourners, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and other leaders from the Blacks Lives Matter movement. Mr. Clark’s brother, Stevante, pleaded with supporters not to forget his brother. Protests over the shooting, which have spread nationwide, are planned to continue on Saturday.
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