“The mother of a 16-year-old who was shot by SWAT police during a no-knock, predawn raid in Alabama, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the police officers involved and the city of Mobile, alleging the teenager was ‘killed in cold blood.’ Randall Adjessom, 16, was sleeping in his childhood home when SWAT police used a battering ram to break down his front door … The warrant was executed as part of an investigation into Adjessom’s older brother for suspected marijuana possession and distribution, according to the complaint. The 16-year-old was not a suspect; his older brother was not there and didn’t live at the home. … Adjessom came out of his bedroom with a gun that he pointed at the officers, but then subsequently retreated with his hands up once he realized he was confronting law enforcement, the complaint said citing sealed body-camera footage. An unnamed officer shot Adjessom four times within 11 seconds of entering his home.” (12/23/24)
“A judge who agreed to dismiss election-interference charges against Donald Trump is allowing a convicted Jan. 6 rioter to skirt his bail restrictions and go to DC for the president-elect’s inauguration. DC federal Judge Tanya Chutkan on Thursday approved Eric Peterson’s request to travel to the country’s Capitol again to be on hand for inauguration day Jan. 20 — despite the fact that Peterson pleaded guilty last month to joining hoards of insurgents who broke inside the Capitol building Jan. 6, 2021, court records show. … Peterson’s lawyer, Michael Bullotta, last week asked Chutkan to allow his client to attend the festivities, noting Peterson wasn’t accused of any violence or vandalism during his eight minutes in the Capitol. The lawyer claimed his client wasn’t aware that others were carrying out assaults and property damage at the time.” (12/23/24)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Karthik Sankaran
“For about a decade, American trade policy has been buffeted by competing impulses on how it should engage economically with the world. The controversy is over whether the U.S. should expand trade with all countries; use it as a tool that buttresses alliances and deters or coerces adversaries; or just step back from trade and aim for self-sufficiency. The debate goes back at least to Hillary Clinton’s 2015 decision to abandon the Trans Pacific Partnership, an agreement she had championed as Secretary of State. It is also a debate in which the divisions do not map cleanly along party lines, making predictions about policy under the new administration difficult. But it might help to identify the different factions and their interests in order to make sense of trade-related headlines rolling off the wires, like the below examples.” (12/23/24)
“Greenland’s elected leader said the gigantic Arctic island is not for sale after Donald Trump once again raised the issue of ‘ownership and control’ of the vast territory that has been part of Denmark for more than 600 years. ‘Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,’ Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, said in a written comment. The US president-elect on Sunday announced that he had picked Ken Howery, a former envoy to Sweden, as his ambassador to Copenhagen, and commented on the status of Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark. ‘For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.” (12/23/24)
“Mauritius’s deputy prime minister has hinted that negotiations with the UK over the future of the Chagos Islands are being held up over the amount of money involved. Under the terms of the original agreement, which was announced in October, the UK would relinquish sovereignty to Mauritius over the archipelago but maintain a 99-year lease for Diego Garcia, home to a major UK-US military airbase. As part of the deal, the UK said it would provide a package of financial support to Mauritius, including annual payments and infrastructure investment, but neither side has said how much is involved. However a new government in Mauritius, elected since the agreement was first made, has said it wants to see some changes. The proposed deal has also attracted criticism in the UK, with the opposition Conservative party calling it a ‘monumental failure of statecraft.'” (12/23/24)
“Oren Cass, the head economist of Compass, had a column in the New York Times today touting Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs. The gist of the piece is that ‘free trade’ has not worked out as economists’ textbooks promised and we should look to take a different path. As someone who was very critical of the major trade deals of the last three decades, I would say that they did work out very much as the economists’ textbooks promised. But they were also not ‘free trade’ and imposing high tariffs will not help us going forward.” (12/23/24)
“A retired police officer in the nation’s capital was convicted Monday of lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson convicted former Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond of obstructing justice and making false statements after a trial without a jury. Sentencing was scheduled for April 3 after Lamond’s conviction on all four counts. Lamond was charged with leaking information to then-Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was under investigation in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner.” (12/23/24)
“President-elect Donald Trump has vowed he will deport millions of undocumented immigrants and their family members who are U.S. citizens. It may be a great soundbite. But this action is not only an injustice; it’s bound to devastate our economy. Our economy’s problems will not go away by blaming immigrants or by claiming that by deporting them, the nation will be great again.” (12/23/24)
