WikiLeaks founder Assange to stay in prison as bail denied
LONDON — A British judge on Wednesday denied bail to WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, ordering him to remain ina high- security prison while U. K. courts decide whether he will be sent to the United States to face espionage charges.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange must remain in prison while the courts consider an appeal by U.S. authorities against her decision not to extradite him.
The judge said Assange “has an incentive to abscond” and there is a good chance he would fail to return to court if freed.
On Monday, Bara i tser rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.
She denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49- year- old Australian was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.
Wednesday’s bail ruling means Assange must remain in London’s high- security Belmarsh Prison, where he has been held since he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier.
Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, said the decision was “a huge disappointment.” WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said “it is inhumane. It is illogical.”
Several dozen Assange supporters gathered outside London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, shouting “Free Assange.”
Police said seven people were arrested for breaching coronavirus lockdown rules.
Lawyers f or the U. S. government have appealed the decision not to extradite Assange, and the case will be heard by Britain’s High Court at an unspecified date.
Sudan- US pact: Sudan on Wednesday said it had signed an agreement with the United States that paves the way for the cashstrapped African nation to normalize relations with Israel and clear some of its massive debt to the World Bank.
Justice Minister Nasrede en Abdul bari signed the deal with visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to the prime minister’s office.
“This is a very, very significant agreement. ... It would have a tremendous impact on the people of Israel and the people of Sudan as they continue to work together on cultural and economic opportunities and trade,” Mnuchin said in comments carried on the state- run SUNA news agency.
Abdulbari said Sudan welcomed“the rapprochement that took place between Israel and the countries in the region, as well as the beginning of diplomatic relations, which we will work, form our side in the near future, to strengthen and expand them in the interest of Sudan and in the interest of other countries in the region.”
Hong Kong crackdown:
Police arrested 53 former Hong Kong lawmakers and democracy proponents Wednesday for allegedly violating the new national security law by participating in unofficial election primaries for the territory’s legislature last year.
The mass arrests were the largest move against Hong Kong ’s democracy movement since the law
was imposed by Beijing last June to quell dissent in the semi- autonomous territory.
“The operation today targets the active elements who are suspected to be involved in the crime of overthrowing, or interfering ( in) ... the Hong Kong government’s legal execution of duties,” Hong Kong’s security minister, John Lee, said at a news conference.
He said those arrested were suspected of trying to paralyze the government by attempting to gain a majority in the legislature to create a situation in which the chief executive had to resign and the government would stop functioning.
Border deaths hit high: A project that maps the bodies of border- crossers recovered from Arizona’s inhospitable deserts, valleys and mountains said it documented 227 deaths in 2020, the highest in a decade after the hottest, driest summer in state history.
The previous annual high mapped by the Pima County medical examiner’s office in Tucson and the nonprofit Humane Borders was 224 migrant deaths in 2010.
Enforcement efforts in California and Texas over t he years have pushed migrants into dangerous terrain in Arizona without easy access to food and water.
Humanitarian groups like No More Deaths leave water jugs and other provisions in remote parts of southern Arizona in hopes of saving lives in a region where nearly 3,400 migrant deaths have been documented since 2004.
Despite the increase in deaths, U.S. Border Patrol apprehension figures suggest that the number of migrants crossing the U.S .- Mexico border illegally in Arizona has actually fallen by almost 50% over 10 years.
Britain outbreak: U. K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged that his government would use “every available second” to shield the elderly and the vulnerable from the virus rampaging across Britain as he told Parliament on Wednesday why the country needed to return to a COVID- 19 lockdown.
Lawmakers were recalled from their Christmas recess to discuss the measures, which came into force at midnight. Despite some grumbling, they voted 524- 16 to approve England’s third national lockdown because there is a wide consensus on the need for tougher restrictions to control soaring new infections.
“When the Office for National Statistics reports that more than 2% of the population is now infected, and when the number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40% higher than the first peak in April, it is inescapable that the facts are changing, and we must change our response,” Johnson said.
He said “we will use
every available second of the lockdown to place this invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable” until vaccination provides a “means of escape” from lockdown.
Kim admits policy failures:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un admitted that his economic development plans have failed as he opened the nation’s first full ruling party congress in five years, state media reported Wednesday.
In an opening speech at the congress that began Tuesday, Kim said that the developmental goals set at a 2016 congress “were not met in almost all areas to a great extent,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“We should further promote and expand the successes and victories that we’ve achieved through our painstaking efforts but prevent us from having the painful lessons again,” he was quoted as saying.