US and Russia hold ‘substantive’ arms talks amid tensions
WASHINGTON — Senior diplomats from the United States and Russia held what the State Department described as “substantive and professional” talks on arms control and other strategic issues Wednesday despite myriad other differences that have sent relations into a tailspin.
The State Department said the discussions in Geneva produced no breakthroughs but said they did yield the minimum for a positive result of such negotiations: an agreement to meet again in the context of talks endorsed by Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
“We remain committed, even in times of tension, to ensuring predictability and reducing the risk of armed conflict and threat of nuclear war,” the department said in a statement. The two presidents had agreed to resume strategic talks when they met in Geneva last month.
Moving ahead on this front, despite their deep differences on other issues, reflects the high priority that Putin and Biden place on avoiding a new nuclear arms race. In a brief statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday’s talks yielded a “comprehensive discussion of the sides’ approaches to maintaining strategic stability, the prospects for arms control and measures to reduce risks.”
The State Department called it the beginning of a dialogue.
“The U.S. delegation discussed U.S. policy priorities and the current security environment, national perceptions of threats to strategic stability, prospects for new nuclear arms control, and the format for future Strategic Stability Dialogue sessions,” it said.
The two sides were represented by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. State Department spokesman Ned Price said they had agreed to hold another high-level round of talks in late September. The U.S. team will travel to Brussels on Thursday to brief NATO allies on the talks, he said.
Wisconsin police shooting:
A Wisconsin judge Wednesday found probable cause to charge a police officer in the 2016 slaying of a Black man who was sitting in a parked car, taking the rare step of overruling prosecutors years after they declined to charge the officer.
Milwaukee County Judge Glenn Yamahiro said probable cause existed to charge Joseph Mensah with homicide by negligent use of a weapon in Jay Anderson Jr.’s death. He will appoint a special prosecutor in 60 days, who will then determine whether to file charges.
Yamahiro’s decision marks a victory for Anderson’s family, who took advantage of a little-used provision in state law to ask the judge for a second look at the case.
Mensah, who is also Black, discovered the 25-year-old Anderson sleeping in his car at 3 a.m. in a park in Wauwatosa, a Milwaukee suburb. Mensah said he shot Anderson after Anderson reached for a gun, but Anderson’s family disputes that and the judge Wednesday said the evidence did not back up Mensah’s version of events.
‘Making a Murderer’ case:
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Wednesday unanimously rejected a request by “Making a Murderer” subject Steven Avery to hold a hearing on new evidence that he wanted to present for a new trial.
Avery is serving a life sentence for the 2005 killing of photographer Teresa Halbach, a case that became the focus of a Netflix series whose creators raised questions about the convictions of Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.
Avery and Dassey maintain their innocence. The case gained national attention in 2015 after Netflix aired “Making a Murderer,” a documentary examining Halbach’s death. The series spawned conjecture about the pair’s innocence, but those who worked on the cases accused the filmmakers of presenting a biased view of what happened.
Dassey was 16 when he confessed to detectives he helped his uncle rape and kill Halbach at the Avery family’s salvage yard. A judge threw out the confession in 2016, ruling it was coerced by investigators using deceptive tactics. That ruling was later overturned by a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
Avery has been fighting unsuccessfully for years to have his conviction overturned and to be granted a new trial.
Sex cult: A former member of NXIVM leader Keith Raniere’s inner circle who was charged in his sex trafficking enterprise avoided prison at sentencing Wednesday after prosecutors cited her extraordinary cooperation.
Lauren Salzman was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to five years probation for her role in the scandal-ridden, cultlike secret society of brainwashed women, who included millionaires and actors. He also ordered her to perform 300 hours of community service.
Last October, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison for turning some adherents into sex slaves
branded with his initials and sexually abusing a 15-yearold.
At sentencing, she apologized to NXIVM’S victims.
Last month, “Smallville” actor Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in NXIVM. Prosecutors said she cooperated with the prosecution after pleading guilty in the case.
Crimes against humanity:
A Syrian doctor has been charged in Germany with crimes against humanity for allegedly torturing people in military hospitals in his homeland and killing one of them, German federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe said in a statement that Alla Mousa, who came to Germany in 2015 and practiced medicine before he was arrested last year, is accused of 18 counts of torturing people in military hospitals in the Syrian cities of Homs and Damascus. The allegations include charges that Mousa tried to make people infertile.
A federal indictment charged him with murder, severe bodily harm, attempted bodily harm and dangerous bodily harm, the statement said.
Texas race: The widow of a Texas congressman who died early this year of COVID-19 lost to a freshman state representative Tuesday in a special runoff election between Republicans seeking to fill the vacant House seat.
State Rep. Jake Ellzey, who narrowly missed capturing the Republican nomination for the seat in 2018, defeated Susan Wright, whose husband, Ron Wright, died in February about two weeks after testing positive for the coronavirus. Ellzey obtained 53.3% of the vote and will join the second-largest congressional delegation — 23 Republicans and 13 Democrats — in the U.S. House behind California.