Chauvin pleads guilty to violating George Floyd’s rights
Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge that he used his position as a Minneapolis police officer to violate George Floyd’s constitutional rights, a move expected to extend Chauvin’s time in prison by about 2 1/2 years. Under the proposed sentence and rules about credit for good behavior, the earliest Chauvin would be released from prison would likely be around 2042, when he would be in his mid-60s. The sentence will ultimately be up to a judge at a later hearing. The plea agreement would also prohibit Chauvin from working as a police officer again.
A refugee crisis runs into a housing crisis
After escaping Afghanistan and living for three months on a New Jersey military base, Mohammad bin Rahimi and his family felt fortunate that they would have a new home, in Owensboro, Kentucky. But they didn’t expect to find themselves in a cramped, 1850s-era log cabin. As Afghan refugees start rebuilding their lives in the United States, they are bumping up against an unexpected obstacle: the housing crisis. Resettlement agencies have scrambled to find rentals in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and St. Louis as well as in towns like Owensboro and Reno, Nevada, where lease properties are in short supply, expensive or both.
Chicago woman who was handcuffed naked receives $2.9M settlement
Chicago’s City Council approved a $2.9 million settlement Wednesday for a woman who was forced to stand naked in front of a dozen police officers who, in February 2019, burst into her apartment to execute a search warrant. The officers, most of whom are white, handcuffed the woman, Anjanette Young, who is Black, after they used a battering ram to enter her home. Police, who had been searching for a man with a gun, later learned that the person they were looking for had not lived in the apartment for at least four years. The report drew national attention and shocked city officials.
Omicron could be dominant in Europe by mid-January
Omicron could be the dominant coronavirus variant in Europe by mid-January, causing a surge in cases and likely increasing the number of hospitalizations and deaths, European Union officials said Wednesday. “We are facing another Christmas in pandemic mode,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, told lawmakers in the European Parliament, noting that reports of new cases in the bloc were doubling every 2-3 days. Her speech and an assessment by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control painted a grim picture of the pandemic on the continent, where many countries have recently reintroduced restrictions and scrambled to speed up vaccination campaigns.
Putin and Xi show united front amid rising tensions with US
President Joe Biden may have his alliance of democracies, but as a video summit Wednesday underscored, Russia and China still have each other. President Xi Jinping of China, facing a diplomatic boycott of this winter’s Beijing Olympics from Biden and others, secured a public pledge from Russia President Vladimir Putin that he would attend. Putin, facing threats of crushing Western sanctions if Russian forces attack Ukraine, heard Xi propose that Russian and China cooperate to “more effectively safeguard the security interests of both parties.” The videoconference was both a show of solidarity between autocrats a display of the kind of mutually beneficial, increasingly tight partnership their two countries are building.
Iran agrees to replace cameras at nuclear site but blocks images
Faced with a potential vote of censure by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iran agreed Wednesday to replace surveillance cameras at a key site that manufactures centrifuges. But Iran continues to block U.N. inspectors from viewing the video those cameras produce and from replacing the full memory cards in cameras at other sites. Iran’s refusal to grant inspectors full access has complicated talks in Vienna aimed at trying to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, leaving the negotiators without a complete assessment of Iran’s nuclear program. European negotiators said this week that the talks were stalled and that time was running out.