AFP

A man convicted of murder was put to death in the midwestern US state of Missouri on Tuesday in an execution that his 19-year-old daughter was barred from witnessing.

Kevin Johnson, a 37-year-old African American man, was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of a white policeman in a suburb of St Louis.

Johnson was executed by lethal injection in a prison in the town of Bonne Terre, the Missouri Department of Corrections said. It said he was pronounced dead at 7:40 pm local time (0040 GMT).

Johnson was the 17th inmate put to death in the United States this year.

Johnson’s daughter, Corionsa “Khorry” Ramey, sued to be allowed to witness her father’s execution but a federal court turned down her request because she is below the minimum state age of 21.

“I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to be with my dad in his last moments,” Ramey said in a statement following the court decision.

“My dad is the most important person in my life,” she said. “He has been there for me my whole life, even though he’s been incarcerated.”

Johnson was convicted of shooting and killing a white police sergeant on July 5, 2005, two hours after the death of Johnson’s 12-year-old brother from a seizure.

Police officers were at the family home at the time to serve an arrest warrant for Johnson and he blamed the police for his brother’s death.

Johnson’s lawyers filed last-minute appeals in a bid to save his life, arguing that his 2007 conviction was tainted by racial discrimination.

A special prosecutor appointed to look into the case asked for a stay of execution, citing evidence of racial discrimination on the part of the state prosecutor.

But the Missouri Supreme Court rejected the request late Monday.

Two leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were found guilty of sedition on Tuesday in the most high-profile case yet stemming from the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of then-president Donald Trump.

A federal jury convicted Rhodes, 57, and Kelly Meggs, 53, leader of the militia’s Florida chapter, of the rarely pursued charge of seditious conspiracy, which carries up to 20 years in prison.

The 12-person jury acquitted three other members of the Oath Keepers — Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell — who faced the sedition charge, but it convicted them of lesser offenses such as obstructing an official proceeding.

Rhodes, an eyepatch-wearing former soldier and Yale law school graduate, and the four other group members were accused of plotting to keep Trump in power and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

During the nearly two-week trial in Washington, prosecutors said the Oath Keepers “concocted a plan for an armed rebellion… plotting to oppose by force the government of the United States.”

Hundreds of Trump supporters have been arrested for their roles in the assault on Congress but they have faced less serious charges than those lodged against Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers.

The jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict in the case, which the defendants characterized as a political trial carried out by the Biden administration against supporters of Trump, who has announced plans to run for the White House again in 2024.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel this month to oversee the investigation into Trump’s own efforts to overturn the election result and the attack on Congress by his supporters.

The special counsel will also take over the Justice Department’s probe into a cache of classified government documents seized in an FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida in August.

– ‘Off-mission’ –

A not-guilty verdict on the sedition counts for all five defendants would have been a setback for the Department of Justice, which plans to try members of the Proud Boys, another right-wing extremist group, on the same charges.

The verdict was hailed by the congressional committee investigating the Capitol assault.

“Today’s convictions are a victory for the rule of law and reinforce the fact that the violence of January 6th included a deliberate attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and block the transfer of presidential power,” a statement from the committee’s chairs, Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, said.

Edward Tarpley, an attorney for Rhodes, said he was “disappointed.”

“There was no evidence introduced indicating that there was a plan to attack the Capitol,” Tarpley told reporters.

During the trial, prosecutors accused the Oath Keepers of stocking weapons at a hotel near Washington and joining the crowd that stormed the Capitol in a bid to block the certification by Congress of Biden’s election victory.

Prosecutors showed videos of the attack by dozens of group members dressed in military-style combat gear.

Prosecutors also showed the jury text messages between Rhodes and his followers that called for action if Trump himself failed to act to prevent certification of Biden as the next president.

Rhodes did not personally enter the Capitol but directed his followers like a battlefield general, prosecutors said.

Rhodes took the witness stand during the trial and denied his group planned to assault the congressional complex, saying they were in Washington only to provide security at rallies.

“It was not part of our mission for that day to enter the Capitol for any reason,” Rhodes said.

Speaking in military jargon, he admitted that a number of Oath Keepers went “off-mission” and entered the building. 

He said Meggs, the Florida chapter head, was “an idiot” for taking his people inside.

“I think it was stupid to go into the Capitol. It opened the door for the political persecution of us. And that’s where we are,” Rhodes told the court.

Donald Trump must testify in April as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who says he raped her in the 1990s, a court said Tuesday.

The former US president, 76, faces twin allegations of rape and defamation in a case dating back to 2019 and brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll, who is now 78.

Both sides presented depositions in October before Judge Lewis Kaplan and on Tuesday he signed an order setting April 10 as the start of the defamation trial, as sought by Carroll. 

Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, sued then-president Trump for defamation in a New York civil court in 2019.

In an excerpt of her book published by New York Magazine that year, Carroll said she was raped by Trump in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York in the mid-1990s.

Trump denied the accusation, saying Carroll was “not my type” and that she was “totally lying.” Carroll sued him over that latter remark. 

Trump has said he never met Carroll and his lawyers have argued that Trump had immunity since he was president in 2019. 

At the time Carroll could not seek to have Trump charged with rape because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired.

But a new law has since taken effect in New York that protects victims of sexual assault decades after attacks may have occurred. It gives sexual assault victims in New York state a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers even when the abuse occurred long ago.

So lawyers for Carroll filed an upgraded civil suit last Thursday that accuses Trump of battery, “when he forcibly raped and groped” her, and for defamation in a post on his Truth Social platform last month where he denied the alleged rape. 

This suit seeks a civil trial in 2023 and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for psychological harm, pain and suffering, loss of dignity and damage to her reputation.

The introduction to the new lawsuit states: “Roughly 27 years ago, playful banter at the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in New York City took a dark turn when Defendant Donald J. Trump seized Plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, forced her up against a dressing room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her.”

The trial now scheduled for April concerns only the defamation allegation.

In her new complaint, Carroll reiterated that she remained silent for more than 20 years out of fear of reprisals but changed her mind after the #MeToo movement beginning in 2017 against violence toward women.

Trump’s lawyer in the case, Alina Habba, said last Thursday that she respects and admires those who come forward under the new New York state law. 

But “this case is unfortunately an abuse of the purpose of this Act which creates a terrible precedent running the risk of delegitimizing credibility of actual victims,” Habba said.

In his October 12 posting on his Truth Social account, Trump said Carroll “completely made up a story that I met her at the doors” of Bergdorf Goodman. “It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me.”

Prince William and his wife Kate head to the United States this week for their first visit in eight years, and the popular couple’s inaugural trip as prince and princess of Wales.

The three-day visit to the northeastern city of Boston culminates on Friday evening with a star-studded ceremony for William’s Earthshot Prize initiative to tackle climate change.

The awards ceremony — described by royal insiders as William’s “Superbowl moment” — is now in its second year, and rewards five innovators with £1 million each ($1.2 million).

A host of stars are expected at Boston’s MGM Music Hall, including singers Billie Eilish and Annie Lennox, sisters Chloe x Halle, and actor Rami Malek.

As last year, the British naturalist and television presenter David Attenborough will contribute, alongside the actress Cate Blanchett, who is on the judging panel.

The trip is the most high-profile since 40-year-old William became heir to the throne in September, when his father succeeded queen Elizabeth II to become King Charles III.

The new monarch soon made his eldest son prince of Wales — the traditional title of heirs apparent dating back to the 13th century.

The last princess of Wales was William’s mother, Diana.

In Boston, the couple will meet the city’s mayor, Michelle Wu, and tour the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum with the former president’s daughter, Caroline.

Caroline Kennedy is currently Washington’s top envoy to Australia.

Other engagements include discussions with local officials about rising sea levels in the city on the North Atlantic coast.

They will also meet charities working with disadvantaged young people and a laboratory specialising in green technologies.

Kate, who has three children aged four to nine with William and has an interest in early years education, will visit Harvard University’s Child Development Centre.

– No Harry or Meghan –

No meeting has been announced between Prince William and his estranged younger brother Harry, 38, who lives in California with his wife Meghan, 41, and their two young children.

The two couples have been at loggerheads particularly since Harry and Meghan — also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — sensationally quit the royal family in 2020.

Relations soured further after they gave a television interview to Oprah Winfrey last year and accused the royal family of racism, prompting a public denial from William.

The death of William and Harry’s grandmother failed to bring about any visible meaningful reconciliation.

The two couples made a frosty joint appearance at Windsor Castle to view floral tributes and both attended the queen’s state funeral.

Unusually though for William and Kate, who are used to their public appearances dominating headlines in the UK, they may have to deal with playing second fiddle to Harry and Meghan in the United States.

The Sussexes are more popular in the United States and on December 6 are due to receive a major humanitarian award from the Robert Kennedy foundation in New York.

Comparisons between the two couples will inevitably fuel interest in the royal soap opera even before the expected release next month of a documentary about Harry and Meghan on Netflix.

The royal family is also bracing for the release of Harry’s memoirs “Spare” on January 10 in which he promises to lift the lid on his life in Britain’s most famous institution.

William and Kate’s US visit will be seen as a more conventional approach to royal outreach.

Among the 15 Earthshot finalists are a Kenyan initiative for a cleaner-burning stove and a Dutch invention to stop maritime plastic pollution.

A pair of French and Spanish entrepreneurs is also in the running with their biodegradable seaweed packaging.

The couple made their first official visit to the United States in 2011, when they met Hollywood A-listers in California.

In 2014, they visited New York and Washington, in a trip that included a reception at the White House with the then-president Barack Obama and his deputy, Joe Biden.

Twitter said it has stopped enforcing a policy intended to prevent the spread of Covid misinformation, as new owner Elon Musk — who has clashed previously with US officials over pandemic safety rules — continues to remake its content moderation policies.

The move comes after the mercurial billionaire reinstated a slew of accounts on the social media network that had previously been banned for violating its content rules, such as that of former president Donald Trump. 

“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 misleading information policy,” read a message posted at a Twitter transparency web page.

During the pandemic, Twitter took to labeling misleading tweets about Covid and booting users who persisted in spreading such misinformation.

Banned content included statements intended to influence people to violate health authority guidelines, along with bogus cures or denial of scientific facts, according to a Twitter blog.

As of September of this year, Twitter had suspended 11,230 accounts under the policy, the blog stated.

Musk, who also runs Tesla, clashed with officials in 2020 over pandemic safety orders which temporarily shut down the electric car giant’s plant in California, calling shelter in place orders “fascist” and “an outrage” that infringed on personal freedom.

Under Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” Twitter has begun reinstating roughly 62,000 accounts in what is being referred to internally as “the Big Bang,” according to Platformer news blog.

Since taking over the platform last month, Musk has cut around half of Twitter’s workforce, including many employees tasked with fighting disinformation, while an unknown number of others have voluntarily quit.

Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter who left after Musk took over, said during an interview Tuesday at a Knight Foundation conference that he was not certain how many employees were left at the company to moderate content.

“I couldn’t tell you, because our corporate directory had been turned off since the acquisition and it was nearly impossible to actually know conclusively who was still left at Twitter,” Roth said when asked by interviewer Kara Swisher.

“It was that chaotic.”

Musk believes that all content permitted by law should be allowed on Twitter, and on Monday described his actions as a “revolution against online censorship in America.”

Though Musk says Twitter is seeing record high engagement with him at the helm, his approach has startled the company’s major moneymaker — advertisers.

In recent weeks, half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have announced they are suspending or have otherwise “seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter,” an analysis conducted by nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters found.