MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government formally denounced Ecuador’s government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the police raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito on April 5, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena announced.
“We want to test the international justice system,” Barcena said alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, at a daily press conference.
“We are experiencing a moment of extreme weakness in the multilateral world and in international relations. We see violations all over the world that affect not only diplomats, but the civilian population,” she said.
Mexico’s lawsuit aims to hold Ecuador accountable for breaching “the inviolability” of the embassy and calls for suspending the South American country as a member of the United Nations unless it offers a public apology.
According to Barcena, the ICJ could even rule on the matter to expel the country from the United Nations.
Police stormed Mexico’s embassy in Quito on April 5 to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, just hours after Mexico granted him political asylum, prompting Mexico to sever ties with Ecuador.
“What we want is that a despicable event like the one that Mexico suffered, especially its diplomatic representation, is not repeated,” said Obrador.
“That it is not repeated in any country in the world and that international law is guaranteed, that the premises, the embassies of countries in any nation are not violated and that the countries where the embassies are located be committed to protecting the independence and guaranteeing the sovereignty of those spaces. That is what we want,” he said. (Xinhua)…[+]

SOUTH AFRICA – South Africa’s electoral commission said it has appealed to the country’s highest court to rule on whether former President Jacob Zuma can stand as a candidate in general elections in May.
The commission said in a statement yesterday that it had lodged an “urgent and direct” appeal to the Constitutional Court to provide “certainty” on the proper interpretation of the constitutional article relating to candidacies of people who have been convicted.
“Such clarity is important in the present matter because of a live issue but also for future elections,” it said.
The appeal is the latest twist in a legal wrangle over the eligibility of the 81-year-old politician, after an electoral court ruled this week that Zuma could run for office, overturning an earlier decision that had barred him from contesting.
Zuma is hoping to run for president on behalf of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK), which he joined last year after denouncing the governing African National Congress (ANC) party that he once led.
On May 29, South Africans will head to the polls to elect 400 members of the General Assembly. A month later, lawmakers in the new parliament will choose the next president.
Banking on the popularity of Zuma, MK hopes to win enough votes that would ensure them parliament seats, while also cutting into the vote share of the ANC.
The ANC could see its vote share drop below 50 percent for the first time since 1994. Short of a parliamentary majority, it would be forced to seek coalition partners to remain in power, turning Zuma into a possible kingmaker, analysts say.
Some opinion polls suggested MK at above 10 percent nationwide, a share that would make it the third or fourth political force behind the ANC and the liberal Democratic Alliance.
The party is projected to make a particularly strong showing in the battleground region of KwaZulu-Natal – Zuma’s home province.
It largely relies on the considerable political clout still wielded by Zuma, who despite scandals and corruption allegations is popular, particularly among the country’s more than 10 million Zulus.
The electoral commission had disqualified Zuma, saying the constitution bars anyone sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail in June 2021 after refusing to testify to a panel investigating financial corruption and cronyism during his presidency.
His lawyers argued the sentence did not disqualify him as it followed civil rather than criminal proceedings and it had been shortened by a remission.
Zuma was freed on medical parole just two months into his jail term.
The commission stressed that the appeal “is not intended to involve itself in the political field of play” rather to ensure a “free and fair” electoral process. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

US – The United States has restricted travel for its embassy personnel in Israel amid fears of an attack by Iran.
The US embassy said staff had been told not to travel outside the greater Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Beersheba areas “out of an abundance of caution”.
Iran has vowed to retaliate, blaming Israel for a strike on its consulate in Syria 11 days ago, killing 13 people.
Two US officials have told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that an attack could come soon.
One unnamed official said the attack could include more than 100 drones, dozens of cruise missiles and perhaps ballistic missiles as well and will be aimed at military targets in Israel.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the consulate attack on 1 April but is widely considered to have been behind it.
Iran backs Hamas, the armed Palestinian group fighting Israel in Gaza, as well as various proxy groups throughout the region, including some – such as Hezbollah in Lebanon – that frequently carry out strikes against the Israelis.
Those killed in the consulate attack included a senior commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, as well as other military figures.
The attack came at a time of continuing diplomatic efforts to prevent the war in Gaza spreading across the region.
Speaking last Wednesday, US President Joe Biden warned Iran was threatening to launch a “significant attack” and vowed to offer “ironclad” support to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to meet any security challenge, warning that Israel would harm any country that caused it harm.
“We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively,” he said.
The commander responsible for US operations in the Middle East, Erik Kurilla, has travelled to Israel for talks with officials on security threats.
The Pentagon said the visit had been scheduled previously but had been brought forward “due to recent developments”.
Following a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron urged against further escalation.
Lord Cameron said he had “made clear… that Iran must not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict”.
“I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to the foreign ministers of China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to argue that further escalation is not in anyone’s interest.
Following the call, China urged the US to play “a constructive role” in the Middle East, while also condemning the strike widely believed to have been carried out by Israel on Iran’s consulate building in Damascus. It is not clear what form any reprisal attack would take nor whether it would come directly from Iran or via one of its proxies.
On Sunday an Iranian official warned Israel’s embassies were “no longer safe”, suggesting a consulate building could be a possible target.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has told his US counterpart that “any direct Iranian attack” on Israeli territory would “require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran”.
Asked about the travel restrictions, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he would not disclose the “specific assessments” behind them, but added: “Clearly we are monitoring the threat environment in the Middle East and specifically in Israel.”
The UK Foreign Office has also updated its travel advice for Israel to state that the country’s government has raised the “possibility of an attack on Israeli territory from Iran, and that such an attack could trigger wider escalation”.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October, the Foreign Office has warned against travel to large parts of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
France similarly warned its citizens to “imperatively refrain from travel in the coming days to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories”.
Family members of French diplomats in Iran are being evacuated.
German airline Lufthansa has extended a suspension of flights to the Iranian capital Tehran until Saturday.
The October attack saw gunmen kill 1,200 people and take more than 250 hostage after crossing into Israel from Gaza.
Israel says that of 130 hostages still in Gaza, at least 34 are dead. More than 33,000 Gazans, the majority of them civilians, have been killed during Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says. (BBC)…[+]

NIGER – Russia has delivered military equipment to Niger that will provide the African country with the “latest generation of anti-aircraft defense systems,” Nigerien state broadcaster RTN said.
The equipment arrived in Niamey last Wednesday along with 100 Russian military instructors who will install the system and train Nigerien soldiers to use it, RTN added.
Russian state media RIA Novosti said early yesterday that Russian military instructors arrived in Niger “to train local forces in the fight against terrorism.”
“This means that Russia is returning to Africa,” an RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the scene, adding that NATO troops have also been arriving in Niamey to further catch a transfer flight to Agadez where “right now about 1,100 American soldiers are located.”
The arrival of Russian instructors followed a recent phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Nigerien General Abdourahamane Tiani on March 26 when the two leaders discussed “ensuring security and combating terrorism.”
Since seizing power in a coup last year, Niger’s junta has been strengthening military ties with Russia while turning away from the US and France.
Last month, the junta said it was ending an accord with the US that allowed military personnel and civilian staff from the US Department of Defense to operate in Niger.
France, Niger’s former colonial ruler, withdrew its troops from the African nation at the end of 2023. (CNN)…[+]

SOUTH KOREA – South Korea’s liberal opposition parties scored a landslide victory in a parliamentary election held last Wednesday, dealing a resounding blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol and his conservative party but likely falling just short of a super majority.
The Democratic Party (DP) was projected to take more than 170 of the 300 seats in the new legislature, data by the National Election Commission and network broadcasters showed with more than 99% of the votes counted as of 5:55 a.m. yesterday (5.55 p.m. ET last Wednesday).
A splinter liberal party considered allied with the DP was expected to take at least 10 seats, projections showed.
“When voters chose me, it was your judgment against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and you are giving the Democratic Party the duty to take responsibility for the livelihood of the people and create a better society,” DP leader Lee Jae-myung said.
Lee won a seat in the city of Incheon to the west of the capital, Seoul, against a conservative heavyweight candidate considered a major ally of the president.
The bitterly fought race was seen by some analysts as a referendum on Yoon, whose popularity has suffered amid a cost-of-living crisis and a spate of political scandals.
“Judgment” was the common theme running through comments by opposition victors, many of whom had campaigned heavily focused on what they said was Yoon’s mismanagement of the economy and his refusal to acknowledge his wife acted improperly when she accepted a Dior bag as gift.
First lady Kim Keon Hee has not been seen in public since Dec. 15 and was absent when Yoon voted, reflecting the view by some analysts and opposition party members that she had become a serious political liability for the president and his People Power Party (PPP).
His PPP was projected to win just over 100 seats, meaning Yoon would avoid the super-majority of a two-third opposition control that could break presidential vetoes and pass constitutional amendments.
But nearing the end of the first two years of his five-year single term allowed by the constitution, Yoon was likely to slip into a lame duck status, some analysts said.
The National Election Commission (NEC) was expected to announce the official results yesterday. Nearly 29.7 million people, or 67% of eligible voters, cast their ballots, according to the NEC.
It marked the highest ever turnout for a parliamentary election, though the numbers were down from the 2022 presidential vote that narrowly brought Yoon to power.
Yoon, who took office in May 2022, was not up for election this time but his ability to pass legislation is likely to be badly damaged by the poor showing by his PPP.
He has suffered low ratings for months, hamstrung in implementing his pledges to cut taxes, ease business regulations and expand family support in the world’s fastest aging society.
Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said Yoon might focus more on his overseas agenda now, though those plans could also be at risk if the opposition seeks to cut budgets with its majority.
“Given his likely lame duck status, the temptation for Yoon will be to focus on foreign policy where he will still have statutory power,” Richey said. (CNN)…[+]

VATICAN CITY – A representative of Brazil’s Yanomami people said he met Pope Francis to ask him to support Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s efforts to save his indigenous people.
The Yanomami, estimated to number around 28,000, live in Brazil’s largest Indigenous reservation, in the northern states of Roraima and Amazonas. Invasion of their lands by illegal miners has caused malnutrition and deaths.
“I’ve asked the pope to support the Lula administration, because Lula needs friends. He won’t be able to do it alone. There are a lot of people around him, politicians who don’t want him to solve it,” Davi Kopenawa told reporters.
“The pope said he’s going to talk to him.”
Kopenawa, a shaman who co-founded and chairs the Hutukara Yanomami Association, which campaigns for indigenous rights and the preservation of the Amazon rainforest, met Francis at the Vatican.
He mentioned water poisoning from mercury – used by wildcat miners in the hunt for gold – as one of the biggest threats to his community, along with deforestation for cattle ranching and soya farming.
The Yanomami territory, an area about the size of Portugal, has been invaded by gold miners for decades, but the destructive incursions multiplied in recent years when former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro dismantled environmental protections.
Lula, a leftist three-time president who returned to office in 2023, has led a push to evict illegal miners from Yanomami territory. In January, his administration announced 1.2 billion reais ($239.58 million) in aid for the indigenous community.
Francis, who hails from Brazil’s neighbour Argentina, has made defense of the environment one of the cornerstones of his papacy, and has repeatedly condemned the plundering of natural resources in the Amazon and elsewhere. (Reuters)…[+]

VIETNAM – It was the most spectacular trial ever held in Vietnam, befitting one of the greatest bank frauds the world has ever seen.
Behind the stately yellow portico of the colonial-era courthouse in Ho Chi Minh City, a 67-year-old Vietnamese property developer was sentenced to death yesterday for looting one of the country’s largest banks over a period of 11 years.
It’s a rare verdict – she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime.
The decision is a reflection of the dizzying scale of the fraud. Truong My Lan was convicted of taking out $44billion (£35billion) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. The verdict requires her to return $27bn, a sum prosecutors said may never be recovered. Some believe the death penalty is the court’s way of trying to encourage her to return some of the missing billions.
The habitually secretive communist authorities were uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They said 2,700 people were summoned to testify, while 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers were involved.
The evidence was in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five defendants were tried with Truong My Lan, who denied the charges.
“There has never been a show trial like this, I think, in the communist era,” says David Brown, a retired US state department official with long experience in Vietnam. “There has certainly been nothing on this scale.”
The trial was the most dramatic chapter so far in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.
A conservative ideologue steeped in Marxist theory, Nguyen Phu Trong believes that popular anger over untamed corruption poses an existential threat to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. He began the campaign in earnest in 2016 after out-manoeuvring the then pro-business prime minister to retain the top job in the party.
The campaign has seen two presidents and two deputy prime ministers forced to resign, and hundreds of officials disciplined or jailed. Now one of the country’s richest women has joined their ranks.
Truong My Lan comes from a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. It has long been the commercial engine of the Vietnamese economy, dating well back to its days as the anti-communist capital of South Vietnam, with a large, ethnic Chinese community.
She started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother, but began buying land and property after the Communist Party ushered in a period of economic reform, known as Doi Moi, in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.
Although Vietnam is best known outside the country for its fast-growing manufacturing sector, as an alternative supply chain to China, most wealthy Vietnamese made their money developing and speculating in property.
All land is officially state-owned. Getting access to it often relies on personal relationships with state officials. Corruption escalated as the economy grew, and became endemic.
By 2011, Truong My Lan was a well-known business figure in Ho Chi Minh City, and she was allowed to arrange the merger of three smaller, cash-strapped banks into a larger entity: Saigon Commercial Bank.
Vietnamese law prohibits any individual from holding more than 5% of the shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, Truong My Lan actually owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial.
They accused her of using that power to appoint her own people as managers, and then ordering them to approve hundreds of loans to the network of shell companies she controlled.
The amounts taken out are staggering. Her loans made up 93% of all the bank’s lending. (BBC)…[+]

UKRAINE – Ukraine needs military aid and air defense systems in the face of Russia’s intensifying attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as he criticised his country’s allies for engaging in “lengthy discussions” and “turning a blind eye”.
The Russian military launched attacks on five regions across Ukraine, killing at least seven people and damaging infrastructure including substations and power generation facilities, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.
Zelenskyy said Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 attack drones overnight, many targeting energy infrastructure. The attacks show how “critical” air defence has become for Ukraine, he posted on X, adding that the Russian missiles and Iranian-designed one-way drones must not be allowed to hit Ukraine.
In southern Odesa, Governor Oleh Kiper said on his Telegram channel last Wednesday night that Russian missile strikes killed four people, including a 10-year-old girl, and left several others in critical condition.
The region’s air defences shot down seven Iranian-designed attack drones of the Russian military near energy infrastructure, which was not damaged, Kiper said yesterday morning.
In northeastern Kharkiv, two women and a 14-year-old girl were killed after a missile strike last Wednesday afternoon, Governor Oleg Sinegubov said on Telegram, also posting photos of rescuers clearing up rubble.
He reported multiple other attacks across Kharkiv through yesterday morning, including a drone attack that injured one person, and a missile fired from a Russian S-300 system that targeted “energy infrastructure”.
Kharkiv was targeted with more than 10 missiles, leaving more than 200,000 subscribers without power.
Kharkiv, the capital of the region of the same name, lies just 30km (19 miles) from the border with Russia and has come under frequent bombardment since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
Attacks in the capital Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv also targeted infrastructure, but left no casualties, according to local authorities.
Zelenskyy said that “if Russian missiles and ‘Shahed’ drones continue to strike not only Ukraine but also the resolve of our allies, this will amount to a global license for terror”.
The president travelled to Lithuania to participate in a regional security summit yesterday, saying that “Russian evil is a threat not only to Ukraine, but to every nation bordering Russia and to everyone who values international law”.
Ukraine signed a 10-year bilateral security deal with Latvia at the meeting. “It envisages Latvia’s annual military support for Ukraine at 0.25% of GDP,” Zelenskyy posted on X.
On Wednesday, United States President Joe Biden urged the US House of Representatives to vote immediately on a $60billion Ukraine aid bill, which has been stuck in the House after clearing the Senate.
“There’s overwhelming support for Ukraine among the majority of Democrats and Republicans. There should be a vote now,” Biden told reporters.
Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill yesterday to overhaul its army mobilisation rules as it tries to generate fresh manpower to rotate its troops.
The measure, which must be signed by Zelenskyy before it becomes law, would oblige men between 18 and 60 years to update their personal data with the military authorities, allowing draft offices to see more easily who can be called up in any region.
The bill also does not set any time limit for wartime military service, meaning that soldiers who have been fighting since the beginning of the invasion will have no dembilisation date and a chance to return home. The final, amended text of the contentious measures was still to be published on the parliament’s website.
Ukraine’s General Yuriy Sodol told parliament that Russian forces outnumber Ukrainian troops seven to 10 times in eastern regions.
“We lack manpower,” said Sodol, who is commanding soldiers in the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
The top general for US forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, told Congress last Wednesday that Ukraine will be outgunned 10 to one by Russia within a matter of weeks if Washington does not send more ammunition and weapons soon. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

IRELAND – Simon Harris has become the youngest-ever prime minister of Ireland, officially taking office in Dublin after Leo Varadkar suddenly stepped down last month.
Harris, 37, ran unopposed to replace Varadkar as leader of the ruling Fine Gael party, and the final formalities of his rise to power were completed in the Dáil, Ireland’s parliament.
He has held a number of government positions since being earmarked as a rising political star in his late 20s, most recently serving as the minister for higher education and science.
But Harris faces a daunting political challenge in the coming months; a general election in Ireland must be held by late March 2025, and Fine Gael is trailing in opinion polls to the Irish republican group Sinn Fein, which was once the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Varadkar led a charge to liberalize some of Ireland’s socially conservative laws, most notably easing the country’s strict anti-abortion mandates.
But his government faced backlash over Ireland’s housing crisis and soaring immigration numbers.
In his first speech after being elected, Harris condemned Israel for its conduct in Gaza, vowing “not to be silent” on the war in remarks that immediately make him one of the West’s most forceful critics of Israel.
“In Gaza, we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe. And we are seeing innocent children, women, and men being starved and slaughtered,” Harris told lawmakers in the Irish parliament. “We have not been silent on the unforgivable terrorist actions of Hamas on October the seventh. Nor can we be silent on the disproportionate reaction of the Israeli government.”
Harris has been quick to praise his predecessor during his coronation as Fine Gael’s new leader, but his path to the top of Irish politics is unlike many of those who came before him.
The son of a taxi driver, born in eastern Ireland, Harris studied journalism and French at a Dublin university but dropped out to instead focus on politics. It was his brother’s diagnosis with autism, and his subsequent struggle to access special needs services, that propelled a teenage Harris’s political ambitions.
“I saw the stress and strain my parents went through, and called a public meeting in my hometown,” he told Irish magazine Hot Press in 2022. “I ended up finding myself politicised at a young age.”
He was a councillor, and then a member of the Dail, in just a few years. And Harris’s youth has been a feature of his political identity throughout his career. Anti-abortion campaigners held up banners reading “I fancy Simon Harris” in 2018. He famously told committee members to “chillax” six years earlier. “Didn’t realise chillax was such a big deal … was just fed up!” he wrote on Twitter amid the ensuing media fascination.
And in recent months, Harris has embraced the social media app TikTok, picking up nearly 100,000 followers. Irish Times Political Correspondent Jennifer Bray told CNN that strategy could become more prominent as an election approaches, with the bloc hoping he could “appeal to an increasingly distant electorate: younger voters.”
Harris was catapulted into the prominent role of health minister in 2016, a steep rise that cemented his position as one of Fine Gael’s new guard. He was seen as a potential leadership candidate as early as the following year, when premier Enda Kenny stepped down from his role, but the then-30-year-old ruled himself out, insisting he didn’t yet have the experience.
As health minister, Harris was prominent when Ireland voted to legalize abortion. He hailed the move as “a vote to end lonely journeys, end the stigma and support women’s choices in our own country.” He also fronted Ireland’s initial response to the pandemic, before being moved to a new brief in mid-2020 — a fortuitous shift that spared the popular politician the complexities of dealing with Ireland’s emergence from the Covid crisis.
But his time in the department was not without controversy. In 2018 a scandal erupted after the Irish health service was found to have provided incorrect smear tests for cervical cancer to more than 200 women. Harris later acknowledged that he personally had made mistakes in the handling of the scandal, saying there was no part of the episode “where there are not lessons to be learned and no-one escapes responsibility.”
Harris remained as minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science until his elevation to party leader, which capped a speedy ascent through Ireland’s political hierarchy.
“I know, in many ways, my career has been a bit odd,” he told Hot Press in 2022. “Life came at me a lot faster than I expected it to.” (CNN)…[+]

US – The parents of a Michigan teenager who shot dead four students have each been sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
A seven-year sentence was recommended, but prosecutors asked for more.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, the first parents of a US school shooter to be convicted, appeared together for the first time in months at last Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.
Both expressed regret about their son’s attack, as their lawyers pushed to minimise their prison sentence.
In a landmark case, jurors in separate trials found each parent of shooter Ethan Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year.
Judge Cheryl Matthews said that the expanded sentence of 10 to 15 years was “to act as a deterrent” and reflected the parents’ failure to stop the attack.
“They [parents] are not expected to be psychic. But these convictions are not about poor parenting. They concern acts that could have halted a runaway train,” she told the court.
“Opportunity knocked over and over again, louder and louder, and it was ignored.”
The Crumbleys are eligible for parole after they serve 10 years in prison, but they cannot be held for more than 15 years if parole is denied.
Prosecutors had alleged that the pair had dismissed clear signs that their son’s mental health had deteriorated, and noted that the parents had bought Ethan Crumbley the gun he used in the 2021 attack.
Their son was 15 when he killed four students with a semi-automatic handgun at Oxford High School. Seven others were wounded in the shooting.
He is now serving life in prison without parole.
Last Tuesday, parents of the dead students, who were all under the age of 17, delivered emotionally charged victim impact statements in court.
Nicole Beausoleil, mother of 17-year-old victim Madisyn Baldwin, addressed Ethan Crumbley’s parents directly.
“When you were purchasing a gun for your son and leaving it unlocked, I was helping her finish her college essay,” a teary-eyed Ms Beausoleil said.
“You decided parenting wasn’t a priority,” she added. “And because of that I’ve lost my daughter.”
Jill Soave – the mother of another 17-year-old victim, Justin Shilling – was the second parent to speak. She noted that her “horror and trauma is hard to put into words”.
But she looked directly at James and Jennifer Crumbley as she slammed the parents for their “failure to act” and stop a “completely preventable” tragedy.
“If only they had done something, anything, to shift the course of events,” she said.
In a separate trial for each parent, prosecutors accused the Crumbleys of ignoring warning signs about their son’s growing mental health crisis. They accused them of being negligent by buying him a gun and not storing it properly.
Prosecutor’s sentencing recommendations were based on four separate counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each of the four students that were killed.
During last Tuesday’s sentencing, the prosecution said James Crumbley showed a “total lack of remorse” after they read from a profanity-laden transcript of a call he made from jail. They alleged that James Crumbley had made death threats against the lead prosecutor in the case during the call.
James Crumbley’s lawyers disagreed, and said that their client only “vented” and used language that was “angry” and “not respectful”.
The shooter’s father emphasised his regret in a statement before the hearing and told the court later that he wished he had acted differently.
“I cannot express how much I wish that I had known what was going on with him or what was going to happen, because I absolutely would have done a lot of things differently.”
Jennifer Crumbley also shared her own regret to the families affected.
“I stand today not to ask for your forgiveness, as I know it may be beyond reach, but to express my sincerest apologies for the pain that has been caused,” she said in court
James Crumbley’s lawyer, Mariell Lehman, said that there was no evidence that Ethan Crumbley’s father was aware of his son’s plans.
Defence attorneys also argued that there was no legal precedent for this case, and it was inappropriate to hold the parents responsible for each person that their son killed.
Prosecutors disagreed, as did the judge.
On the day of the shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, the Crumbleys cut short a school meeting about a disturbing drawing their son had made, instead opting to go to work and not take him home.
School staff later sent him back to class without checking his backpack, which contained the gun his parents had purchased.
An independent investigation published last year alleged multiple failures from the school system, including the decision to allow Ethan to return to class.
In response, the school district has pledged to review and improve its practices and policies.(BBC)…[+]

HAITI – Political forces in Haiti have agreed on the formation of a 22-month Presidential Transitional Council to lead the violence-torn country to fresh democratic, credible, and participatory elections through which to restore normalcy, it was reported in Port-au-Prince.
“The political agreement expresses a shared vision of the transition built by the sectors and represents a responsible commitment to the Haitian people,” read the communiqué.
The transitional body will have three priorities: “Security, constitutional and institutional reforms, and elections.” The roadmap agreed upon will be implemented by the Presidential Council in collaboration with the next consensus government to restore stability, peace, unity, and progress.
The document also sets out the guidelines for the political governance of the transition, along with its mission, vision, and the responsibilities of its institutional structures.
This transition is based on values and principles such as inclusion, citizen participation, integrity, peace, respect, and protection of national sovereignty, the document stressed.
The agreement will be signed by the parties involved and then officially transmitted to the Government through the Caribbean Community (Caricom). The regional organization acted as a mediator in the dialogue process.
None of the council members will be able to run in those elections. The new authorities will replace Ariel Henry, the questioned Haitian prime minister, who announced his resignation on March 11.
The situation has worsened since late February when outlaw gangs attacked police stations, prisons, government headquarters, and the main airport. (Merco Press)…[+]