Prosecutor: Proud Boys viewed themselves as ‘Trump’s army’
WASHINGTON — Ready for “all-out war,” leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Donald Trump as the former president clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Monday at the close of a historic trial over the U.S. Capitol insurrection.
After more than three months of testimony, jurors began hearing attorneys’ closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy case accusing Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants of plotting to forcibly stop the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden.
The Proud Boys were “lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe told jurors. “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.”
The prosecution’s words underscore how the Justice Department has worked throughout the trial to link the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to the rhetoric and actions of the former president. Prosecutors have repeatedly shown jurors a video clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first presidential debate with Joe Biden.
Tarrio is one of the top targets of the Justice Department’s investigation of the riot that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tarrio wasn’t in Washington, D.C., that day but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar.
CARROLLTON, Ky. — A former Louisville police
officer who fired the fatal shot that killed Breonna Taylor has a new job in law enforcement — a controversial hiring that drew protesters to a rural Kentucky county northeast of the city.
The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday confirmed the employment of Myles Cosgrove, who was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in January 2021 for violating use-of-force procedures and failing to use a body camera during the raid on Taylor’s apartment, according to media reports.
About a dozen people showed up in downtown Carrolton Monday morning to object to his hiring, holding signs and chanting “Cosgrove has got to go.”
“I think he should be in jail,” said Haley Wilson, a 24-year-old resident of the small Kentucky town near the Ohio River. She said it is “absolutely ridiculous” that Cosgrove is now policing her town.
NEW DELHI — India will be the world’s most populous
country by the end of this month, eclipsing an aging China, the United Nations said Monday. The milestone raises questions about whether India can repeat the economic success that has made China central to the world’s economy and a leading global power.
The news comes at a moment when India is promoting itself as a rising international player as the host of this year’s G20 Summit. It’s also becoming a more attractive destination for multinational companies seeking to reduce their reliance on China.
By the end of April, India’s population is expected to reach 1.425 billion, which means it will match and then surpass mainland China’s, the U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a news release. The forecast is based on their latest estimates of global population.
It’s not clear exactly when India’s population will pass China’s. It may have already have done so. Demographers say the limits of population data make it impossible to calculate a date.
HAVANA — Cuba’s fuel shortages have increased
dramatically with authorities suspending activities, including a concert by the country’s national symphony, as well as rationing gasoline sales and moving some universities’ classes online.
Cubans have experienced shortages of all kinds of goods amid the recent economic crisis but the cancellation of activities because of fuel shortages had not been reported previously. The cancellations come following days of long lines to get gasoline at filling stations.
Experts say the lack of gasoline and diesel is not due to a lack of crude oil — Cuba produces about half of what it needs and buys the rest from other countries — but to the difficulties refining it.
“There is no lack of crude oil in Cuba,” said Jorge Piñón, senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.
MIDWEST CITY, Okla. — A man shot and killed another
man Monday at Rose State College in Oklahoma, according to police, who reported no other injuries after the campus was briefly put on lockdown.
Midwest City Police Chief Sid Porter said the men were “acquainted through a domestic situation,” but did not elaborate on exactly what their relationship was or what led to the shooting. He also did not say if either man was a student or staff member at the school.
The two-year college has about 13,000 students and is just outside Oklahoma City. After the shooting, crime scene tape surrounded the humanities building in the center of campus and officers from multiple law enforcement agencies were on the scene.
Porter said the victim was shot one time and that the suspect was confronted by officers who work on campus.