Survivors cheer life sentence of shooter who killed 51 in NZ
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The white supremacist who slaughtered 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the first time the maximum available sentence has been imposed in the country.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 29, of Australia, pleaded guilty in March to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism, reversing his earlier not guilty pleas.
Judge Cameron Mander said the crimes committed by Tarrant were so wicked that a lifetime in jail could not begin to atone for them. He said they had caused enormous loss and hurt and stemmed from a warped and malignant ideology.
“Your actions were inhuman,” Mander said.
After the sentence was announced, survivors of the shootings raised hands and fists in celebration and greeted supporters outside the court building.
The March 2019 attacks targeting people praying at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch shocked New Zealand and prompted new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. They also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook.
During the four-day sentencing hearing, 90 survivors and family members recounted the horror of that day.
One of those who spoke was Temel Atacocugu, who survived being shot nine times at the Al Noor mosque.
Atacocugu said he felt relieved at the sentence.
“Finally we can breathe freely, and we feel secure, and my kids feel secure,” Atacocugu said. “The justice system has locked up this ideology forever.”
Virus aid package: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows resumed talks Thursday over a stalled COVID-19 aid package, but the outlook for any swift resolution appeared bleak as President Donald Trump’s team and congressional Democrats have been unable to agree on a compromise.
Pelosi said she told Meadows the Democrats would be willing to meet halfway — at $2.2 trillion — a slight reduction from her last proposal before talks collapsed earlier this month. The White House, which has stuck with its initial $1 trillion offer, had no immediate response.
Their 25-minute call was the first attempt to kickstart negotiations since talks fell apart. The stalemate comes as jobless claims hit 1 million Thursday and households are struggling, with the mounting virus toll now above 180,000 deaths, higher than any other country.
House Democrats’ opening bid was the $3 trillionplus Heroes Act, a sweeping aid package approved in May. It proposed money for cash-strapped states, housing and jobless assistance, to help schools reopen and to conduct more widespread virus testing.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who hit “pause” on that package of new spending, eventually came up
with a $1 trillion counteroffer a few weeks ago.
Congress is on until September.
recess
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that he stands ready to send police to Belarus if protests there turn violent but sees no such need yet, while Belarusian police dispersed a protest in the capital with renewed vigor Thursday, detaining about 180 people and raising pressure on the opposition.
Belarus’ authoritarian president of 26 years, Alexander Lukashenko, has been facing weeks of protests against his reelection to a sixth term in the Aug. 9 vote, which the opposition says was rigged.
Putin told Russia’s state television Thursday that Lukashenko has asked him to prepare a Russian law enforcement contingent to deploy to Belarus if necessary. Putin said he and Lukashenko have agreed that “there is no such need
Russia on Belarus:
now, and I hope there won’t be.”
Portland protests: Protesters and U.S. agents assigned to protect federal property in Portland clashed late Wednesday outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Building in another night of violence for Oregon’s largest city.
Some people in a crowd of about 200 disabled or vandalized building security cameras, shined laser lights at the agents and threw rocks and bottles at them, Portland police said in a statement issued Wednesday.
During the clashes, agents shot non-lethal munitions at the crowd and set off stun grenades and irritants that released green and white plumes into the air, The Oregonian/Oregonian Live reported.
One apparently injured protester was carried away by fellow demonstrators, the newspaper reported. A federal agent was injured
after being hit in the leg by a rock, and police made 11 arrests, the Portland police statement said.
Portland has been gripped by nightly protests for nearly three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Migrants off Italy: A German-flagged charity boat says it has been waiting for several days for port permission so it can disembark 201 migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean.
The charity Sea-Watch said Thursday that the migrants were rescued earlier in the week by the ship Sea-Watch 4, and that Malta rejected its port request. The Italian coast guard Wednesday evacuated another migrant who had been aboard Sea-Watch 4, a teenager who had severe fuel burns.
Disembarking rescued migrants in Italy has become particularly politically sensitive during the pandemic.
Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita returned home Thursday after being detained for 10 days by the ruling military junta that staged a coup last week, a family member said.
The move came the same day that the junta made public a decree of its National Committee for the Salvation of the People that seems to overrule Mali’s constitution.
Keita was detained Aug. 18 when a group of military officers arrested him and took him to Kati, near the capital, Bamako. Later that night he resigned as president.
West African leaders from the 15-nation bloc knowns as ECOWAS have decried the overthrow of an elected leader and placed sanctions on Mali, shutting borders, halting financial flows and threatening further sanctions. His release comes as ECOWAS leaders are meeting Friday in a virtual summit to discuss the Mali crisis.
Back in Mali capital: