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A US prisoner on death row and a Catalan jazz star who formed an unusual musical collaboration have released a second album together that rallies against capital punishment. Catalan musician Albert Marques and Keith LaMar, who performs over the phone from a maximum security prison in Ohio, debuted their new work “Live from Death Row” at a gathering in New York last Friday.On death row since 1995 after he was convicted of a crime he insists he did not commit, LaMar’s execution is scheduled for January 13, 2027.The album, which coincides with LaMar’s 56th birthday, chronicles the civil rights struggle of Black people like himself.It features compositions by Marques with lyrics by LaMar, alongside classics such as Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and “Alabama” by John Coltrane.LaMar said that music “saved his life” during solitary confinement, particularly jazz tracks like those on Coltrane’s 1964 album “A Love Supreme.””Music is the vehicle through which I’ve been able to resurrect my bid for freedom,” he told AFP.”I love it when a plan comes together, when the stars align to bring to fruition a dream that didn’t seem possible. That’s what this live album is — an impossible dream.”It follows 2022’s “Freedom First,” which turned into a clarion call for a fair retrial that could ultimately lead to LaMar’s release.”This music is about trust and faith (and) about stepping out even when you can’t see the stairs and believing that your foot will find something solid to stand on,” LaMar told AFP by email.- ‘This crazy thing’ -Marques, who is convinced of LaMar’s innocence, said “we have done this crazy thing at the highest possible level.”After staging concerts worldwide in recent years and “showcasing that we have done everything we could, we need help” to take the fight “to another level,” said Marques, a Brooklyn high school music teacher.”We may be tired, exhausted, but we cannot throw in the towel.”In 1995, an all-white jury found LaMar guilty of the deaths of five out of nine inmates and one guard killed during one of the worst prison riots in US history.During the incident, which happened in 1993, LaMar was already serving a sentence for the murder of a former friend during a drug dispute in his native Cleveland.LaMar, as well as recent journalistic investigations, claimed that exculpatory evidence was hidden at trial and destroyed, and other prisoners were rewarded with sentence reductions for implicating him.Ohio’s governor had postponed LaMar’s execution, originally scheduled for November 2023, due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to supply the components needed for lethal injection.However, the situation could change following President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order directing the US attorney general to ensure states can access the necessary ingredients.Nineteen inmates have been executed so far this year, compared to 25 in all of 2024.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of a US Navy ship named after a gay icon, the assassinated former San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, a military affairs website reported Tuesday.Military.com said it had reviewed a memo from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy that said the move was in line with Hegseth’s purported goal of “reestablishing a warrior culture” in the US armed forces.Military.com quoted an unidentified defense official as saying that Navy Secretary John Phelan had been ordered by Hegseth to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, and the timing of the upcoming announcement — during LGBTQ WorldPride month — was intentional.CBS News said the navy is considering re-titling several other ships including two named after former US Supreme Court justices — Thurgood Marshall, the first Black member of the top court, and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Responding to the reports, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said “any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete.””Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all (Department of Defense) installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos,” Parnell said in a statement.Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, condemned the reported move to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, calling it “a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.””Harvey Milk proudly served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy and was a formidable force for change -– not just in California, but in our Country,” the California congresswoman said in a statement.”This spiteful move… is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”Milk served as a US Navy diver at a time when there was a ban on homosexuality in the military.One of the first openly gay politicians in America, Milk was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, where he was instrumental in passing laws banning discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.Months later, in 1978, Milk was shot dead along with mayor George Moscone, by a disgruntled former city supervisor.Milk’s murder helped cement his reputation as a civil rights icon, and he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.The USNS Harvey Milk, a 227-metre (744-foot) refueling vessel, was christened at a ceremony in 2021 attended by then-secretary of the navy Carlos Del Toro.Since taking office, President Donald Trump has moved to ban transgender troops from the military and to dismantle diversity programs, claiming they “undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness.”

Canada’s wildfires, which have already forced evacuations of more than 26,000 people, continued their stubborn spread Tuesday, with heavy smoke choking millions of Canadians and Americans and reaching as far away as Europe.Alerts were issued for parts of Canada and the neighboring United States warning of hazardous air quality.A water tanker air base was consumed by flames in Saskatchewan province, oil production has been disrupted in Alberta, and officials warned of worse to come with more communities threatened each day.”We have some challenging days ahead of us,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told a news conference, adding that the number of evacuees could rise quickly.Every summer, Canada grapples with forest fires, but an early start to the wildfire season this year and the scale of the blazes — over two million hectares (494,000 acres) burned — is worrying.The provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been hardest hit. Both declared wildfire emergencies in recent days.”This has been a very difficult time for many Canadians,” federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski told reporters in Ottawa.”This wildfire season has started off more quickly, and it’s stronger, more intense,” she said, adding that the Canadian military has deployed aircraft to evacuate remote towns in Manitoba and was ready to also assist Saskatchewan and Alberta with firefighting.Climate change has increased the impact of extreme weather events in Canada, which is still recovering from the apocalyptic summer of 2023 when 15 million hectares of forests were scorched.As of Tuesday, there were 208 active fires across Canada. Half of them were listed as out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.Many of the affected populations are Indigenous, and some small communities have burned to the ground.- ‘Very intense few weeks’ -Heavy smoke from the fires, meanwhile, has engulfed part of the continent, forcing residents of four Canadian provinces and the US states of Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin to limit outdoor activities.”Smoke is causing very poor air quality and reduced visibility,” Environment Canada said in a statement.Wildfire smoke is comprised of gaseous pollutants such as carbon monoxide, along with water vapor and particle pollution, which can be particularly hazardous to health.Some of the worst smoke was in Alberta where three major oil sands producers — Canadian Natural Resources, MEG Energy Corp, and Cenovus Energy — this week evacuated workers and temporarily shut down hundreds of thousands of barrels of production per day.Huge plumes of smoke even reached Europe, the European Union’s climate monitoring service said Tuesday.Due to their very high altitude, they do not pose an immediate health risk, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), but are likely to result in hazy skies and reddish-orange sunsets.Additional plumes are expected to shade both continents in the coming days.”Central regions of Canada have experienced a very intense few weeks in terms of wildfire emissions,” noted Mark Parrington, scientific director at CAMS.Canadian authorities have forecast a more intense fire season than usual in central and western Canada, due in particular to severe or extreme drought.”The significant reduction in snowpack in the spring led to early exposure of soil and vegetation, accelerating surface drying,” explained University of Ottawa professor Hossein Bonakdari.”This early exposure acted as a silent amplifier, subtly setting the stage for extreme fires long before the first flame ignited,” he said.Elsewhere, extensive forest fires have been raging in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District since early April, particularly east of Lake Baikal, generating carbon emissions of around 35 million tons, Copernicus reported.

Tensions between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted Tuesday as the world’s richest man derided the president’s key piece of economic legislation in a startling rupture just days after exiting a controversial job in the White House.Musk was lauded by the Republican leader as he left his advisory role atop Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” last week, despite criticism over his failure to deliver on promises of radical spending cuts.”This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted on X as he followed its progress from the sidelines, in by far his most caustic remarks on Trump’s agenda.”Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”It was not Musk’s first comments on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” which is set to add $3 trillion to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programs.But Musk’s previous criticism was more restrained, with the Tesla and SpaceX magnate offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts.On Tuesday he said the bill — being considered by Congress — would burden “citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”His post laid bare an increasingly tense relationship between the White House and Musk, who donated almost $300 million to Trump’s 2024 election campaign.Musk has become disillusioned, US media reported, as his goals for White House action that would benefit him personally have gone unrealized.The bill he was criticizing cuts the electric vehicle tax credit — bad news for Tesla — while Axios reported that Musk was rebuffed in his efforts to extend his role beyond the statutory 130-day limit. He also failed to have his Starlink satellite system used for air traffic control, according to Axios, and was angered by Trump withdrawing the nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman to be NASA chief.The normally pugilistic Trump has pulled his punches, aware of his biggest backer’s enormous influence over young, tech-savvy and historically apathetic voters — a key Trump constituency in 2024.”The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn’t change his opinion,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a rapid response to Musk’s tweet.The spat came with House Republicans set to pass legislation sent from the White House to enshrine into law $9.4 billion of DOGE’s cuts, mostly money destined for public broadcasting and foreign aid.House Speaker Mike Johnson called Musk’s comments “disappointing,” adding that he had walked the entrepreneur through the bill on Monday, and that he “seemed to understand.”- Burgeoning debt -As the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire’s “incredible service.”Trump even insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which the South African born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.DOGE led an ideologically driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.But its achievements fell far short of Musk’s original boast that he could save $2 trillion — more than the government’s entire discretionary spending budget for 2024.The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers less than a tenth of that total — just $180 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting.Senate Democrats released a report Tuesday itemizing 130 examples of “unethical or potentially corrupt” administration actions they say have helped Musk dodge regulation and add $100 billion to his wealth.The report came as senators began what is expected to be a fraught month of negotiations on Trump’s mammoth policy package, expected to add between $2.5 trillion and $3.1 trillion to deficits over a decade.Trump said on Monday it was “the single biggest Spending Cut in History,” although he added: “The only ‘cutting’ we will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.”

The lawyer defending fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein from rape and sexual assault charges called those testifying against his client “women with broken dreams” as he made his final pitch to jurors. A New York state appeals court had thrown out Weinstein’s 2020 convictions after irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at his original trial, forcing two victims of his alleged abuse to testify a second time.”If there is a doubt about their case, you gotta throw it out. These are the people they want you to believe, they’re all women with broken dreams,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the women who testified against Weinstein at this trial.Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg fired back saying that “we are here because (Weinstein) raped three people — that’s why we are here.”  Her closing argument will continue Wednesday.Judge Curtis Farber will then give instructions to the jury, who will deliberate on a verdictWeinstein, the producer of box-office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.The cinema magnate, whose downfall in 2017 sparked the global #MeToo movement, has been on trial again since April 15 in a scruffy Manhattan courtroom.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.Two of the accusers in this case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial.Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted at a new trial in New York.His 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann, and his 23-year prison term, were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals.The tribunal ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.- ‘He didn’t listen’ -Some 20 years after the earliest incidents were alleged to have taken place, Aidala sought to cast doubt on the credibility of the accusers. He said it was not a question of whether his client engaged in sexual relations with the three women, but if those encounters were consensual. He described the encounters as “transactional” and “casting couch” scenarios involving young women who used their beauty and charm to make an older man open doors for them. Prosecutor Blumberg countered that “this is not a transaction, it was never about fooling around, it was about rape.”But Aidala insisted Weinstein was the one who was used, countering prosecutors who portrayed Weinstein as an all-powerful Hollywood figure.Aidala loudly reeled off metaphors to explain his version of events, seeking to win over the jury with jokes. He mimicked the victims to highlight inconsistencies, likening one of them to a child caught in a lie. The veteran defense attorney stressed that victims continued to associate with Weinstein after the alleged assaults, something they did not dispute, explaining that they feared jeopardizing their careers. Blumberg said “they knew it was necessary to stay on his side. They feared his retaliation, they buried (their) trauma as if nothing had happened.”During the trial, the three victims testified that their sexual encounters with Weinstein were not consensual.The retrial also heard new evidence from Kaja Sokola, a Polish former model who testified that Weinstein first sexually assaulted her when she was a minor at age 16.She said one occasion Weinstein pushed her onto a bed and forced her to have sex.”I told him to stop,” she said, “but he didn’t listen.”Weinstein has appeared daily in a wheelchair, physically subdued, but laughing and joking with his legal team.This time, hearings have received less media attention, taking place in the shadow of the highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, on trial blocks away at federal court on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The family of a man suspected of attacking a Jewish protest march with Molotov cocktails in the US state of Colorado was being held by immigration officials Tuesday, the government said.Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, said the wife and children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman had been detained.”We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” she said.Criminal investigations are typically carried out by the FBI and local law enforcement, not by the Department of Homeland Security.Soliman’s immigration status has been at the center of President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to the attack in the city of Boulder on Sunday, in which 12 people were injured.Officials were quick to say he was in the United States “illegally” having overstayed a tourist visa.But they also acknowledged he had applied for asylum and had been granted a work permit.Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said his department would clamp down on “terrorists” in the United States temporarily.”All terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” he wrote on social media.The White House took to social media on Tuesday, appearing to taunt the family.”Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids,” the official account posted on X.”Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.” Soliman is expected to appear in court in Colorado on Thursday. He is expected to formally face federal hate crime charges, as well as state charges of attempted murder.He is suspected of throwing flammable liquid at a group of older people marching to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attacks.Investigators said he had with him an improvised flamethrower made from a backpack weed sprayer filled with gasoline.In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.

Elon Musk on Tuesday hammered US President Donald Trump’s proposed spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” as tensions between the pair burst into the open following the tech billionaire’s White House exit.Musk left his role as an official government employee last week, lauded by Trump for spearheading a federal spending cuts program, but disagreements between the duo have been building.”This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted on X, in by far his most caustic remarks on Trump’s spending plans.”Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”It was not Musk’s first comments on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” which is set to add $3 million to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programs.But Musk’s previous criticism was restrained, with the ex-head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts.On Tuesday he said that the bill — being considered by Congress — would burden “citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”The escalation in rhetoric indicated bitter hostilities between the White House and Musk, who donated almost $300 million to Trump’s election campaign but has recently voiced frustrations.”The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn’t change his opinion,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a rapid response to Musk’s tweet.”This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”As the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire’s “incredible service.”- Once inseparable -Trump even insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which the South African born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.Musk was once almost inseparable from Trump, glued to his side on Air Force One, Marine One, in the White House and at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.The right-wing magnate’s DOGE led an ideologically-driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.But DOGE’s achievements fell far short of Musk’s original goal of saving $2 trillion dollars.The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers about eight percent of the $2 trillion figure so far — $175 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous serious inaccuracies in its accounting.But the non-governmental “Musk Watch DOGE Tracker” puts the verifiable figure at $16 billion — less than one percent of the goal.Tesla shareholders called for Musk to return to work as sales slumped and protests targeted the electric vehicle maker, while SpaceX had a series of fiery rocket failures.

The lawyer defending fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein from rape and sexual assault charges called on jurors to give him the benefit of the doubt Tuesday before prosecutors make their closing argument at his retrial.A New York state appeals court had thrown out his 2020 convictions after irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at his original trial, forcing two victims of his alleged abuse to testify a second time.”If there is a doubt about their case, you gotta throw it out. These are the people they want you to believe, they’re all women with broken dreams,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the women who testified against Weinstein at this trial.Prosecutors will make their case to the jury later Tuesday.Weinstein, the producer of box-office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.Two of the accusers in the case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial.Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted at a new trial in New York.His 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.The retrial also heard new evidence from Kaja Sokola, a Polish former model who testified that the disgraced movie mogul sexually assaulted her when she was a minor at age 16.

Russia on Tuesday said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks, a day after Moscow rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul.The sides agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their roadmaps to peace, or so-called “memorandums”, at the discussions, which lasted under two hours.More than three years into Russia’s offensive — which has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine — the two sides appear as irreconcilable as ever.”The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.”It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs,” he added.Moscow demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed as a precondition to pausing its offensive, according to the document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media.Kyiv had pressed for a full and unconditional ceasefire. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks.Peskov also dismissed the idea of a summit between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the United States.”In the near future, it is unlikely,” Peskov told reporters when asked about the chances of the leaders meeting, adding that such a summit could only happen after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reach an “agreement”.The White House had said on Monday US President Donald Trump was “open” to the idea, which is also backed by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.- Targeting civilians -Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of “deliberately” targeting civilians in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Russian border, that killed three people.Russian troops have accelerated their advance, seeking to establish what Putin called a “buffer zone” inside Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.Zelensky posted a video from the emergency services showing destroyed cars and the body of one victim lying on the road.The attack “says everything one needs to know about Russia’s so-called ‘desire’ to end this war”, he added, calling for “decisive actions” from the United States and Europe to push Russia into a ceasefire.”Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defence,” he said.Three people were also killed in a rocket attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region.Moscow’s army said it had captured the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region, located around five kilometres from the Russian border.Zelensky said last week that Russia was amassing some 50,000 soldiers for an offensive on the region.Meanwhile Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed it had hit a pillar of the Crimean bridge, linking the annexed peninsula to Russia, with an underwater explosive device.The extent of the damage was unclear and cars were on Tuesday using the bridge following a temporary closure after the attack.A delegation of top Ukrainian officials also landed in Washington for talks with US officials on defence and economic issues, including the possibility of new sanctions, Zelensky’s office said.Trump, who said he could end the conflict swiftly when he returned to the White House in January, has repeatedly expressed anger at both Putin and Zelensky as the fighting drags through its fourth year with no end in sight.But he has held off from imposing new economic penalties on Moscow.

US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will likely hold a long-awaited call later this week, the White House said Monday, as trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies ratchet back up.Trump reignited strains with China last week when he accused the world’s second-biggest economy of violating a deal that had led both countries to temporarily reduce huge tit-for-tat tariffs.”The two leaders will likely talk this week,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing when asked whether Trump and Xi would speak.Asked about the statement on Tuesday, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said Beijing had “no information to provide.”Trump and Xi have yet to have any confirmed contact more than five months since the Republican returned to power, despite frequent claims by the US president that a call is imminent. Trump even said in a Time Magazine interview in April that Xi had called him — but Beijing insisted that there had been no call recently.The US leader introduced in April sweeping worldwide tariffs that targeted China most heavily of all, accusing other countries of “ripping off” the United States and running trade imbalances.Beijing and Washington last month agreed to slash staggeringly high tariffs on each other for 90 days after talks between top officials in Geneva.But Trump and other top Washington officials last week accused China of violating the deal, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying Beijing was “slow-rolling” the agreement in comments to Fox News Sunday.Beijing rejected those “bogus” US claims on Monday, and accused Washington of introducing “a number of discriminatory restrictive measures.” Trump has separately ramped up tensions with other trade partners, including the European Union, by vowing to double global tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 percent from Wednesday.