WASHINGTON: A former Kentucky police officer was convicted in federal court Friday of a civil rights abuse in the killing of Breonna Taylor, whose death sparked police reform and racial justice protests across the United States in 2020.
Brett Hankison was convicted on one count of civil rights abuse, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Though Hankinson’s shots did not hit Taylor, a Black woman who died during a police raid on her home, he fired blindly through a bedroom window that had a curtain and blinds drawn.
Hankison is the first officer to be convicted of the four police federally charged over Taylor’s 2020 death. Two other officers remain charged with falsifying a search warrant affidavit and another pleaded guilty to charges around the search warrant.
However no one was ever charged for killing Taylor.
The deaths of Taylor, 26, and George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, became the focus of a wave of mass protests in the United States and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality.
“The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the civil rights of every person in this country to be free from unlawful police violence,” assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke said in the Justice Department statement.
Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020 when they heard a noise at the door.
Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding one police officer.
Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor.
Hankison argued he fired his gun to protect his fellow officers.
It was the second time Hankison appeared in federal court: his first trial ended in a mistrial.
Also on Friday, the jury found Hankison not guilty of violating Taylor’s neighbors’ rights, for firing through a sliding glass door, also with its blinds and curtain drawn.
Hankison will be sentenced in March next year, the Justice Department said.
Former US cop convicted of civil rights abuse in Breonna Taylor case
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Former US cop convicted of civil rights abuse in Breonna Taylor case
- Brett Hankison is the first officer to be convicted of the four police federally charged over Breonna Taylor’s 2020 death
- It was the second time Hankison appeared in federal court: his first trial ended in a mistrial
Trump declines to rule out 2025 US recession
- Recessions are generally defined as two consecutive quarters of weak or negative GDP growth
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump declined Sunday to rule out the possibility that the United States might enter a recession this year.
“I hate to predict things like that,” he told a Fox News interviewer when asked directly about a possible recession in 2025.
“There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big — we’re bringing wealth back to America,” he said, adding, “It takes a little time.”
Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was more definitive when asked Sunday about the possibility of a recession.
“Absolutely not,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked whether Americans should brace for a downturn.
Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats against Canada, Mexico, China and others have left the US financial markets in turmoil and consumers unsure what the year might bring.
Stock markets just ended their worst week since the November election.
Measures of consumer confidence are down, as shoppers — already battered by years of inflation — brace for the higher prices that tariffs can bring.
And widespread government layoffs being engineered by Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk add further concern.
When asked later Sunday to clarify his remarks on whether there could be a recession, Trump told reports on Air Force One “Who knows?“
Overall, the signs are mixed.
A widely watched Atlanta Federal Reserve index now predicts a 2.4 percent contraction of real GDP growth in the year’s first quarter, which would be the worst result since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Much of the uncertainty stems from Trump’s shifting tariff policy — effective dates have changed, as have the sectors being targeted — as businesses and investors try to puzzle out what will come next.
Kevin Hassett, Trump’s chief economic adviser, was asked on ABC whether tariffs were primarily temporary or might become permanent.
Hassett said that depended on the behavior of the countries targeted. If they failed to respond positively, he said, the result could be a “new equilibrium” of continuing tariffs.
The administration has insisted that while the economy will pass through a possibly bumpy “transition,” things are headed in a positive direction.
In his State of the Union message on Tuesday, Trump told Americans to expect “a little disturbance” as tariffs take hold, while adding: “We’re okay with that. It won’t be much.”
And his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned of a “detox period” as the economy cuts government spending.
Given the uncertainties, economists have been wary of making firm predictions.
Economists at Goldman Sachs, citing Trump’s policies, have raised their odds of a recession over the next 12 months from 15 percent to 20 percent.
And Morgan Stanley predicted “softer growth this year” than earlier expected.
Recessions are generally defined as two consecutive quarters of weak or negative GDP growth.
The US was briefly in recession in early 2020 as the Covid pandemic spread. Millions of people lost jobs.
Mark Carney wins vote to replace Trudeau as Canada PM
- The former banker soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau’s former deputy PM Chrystia Freeland
- Carney calls for unity, warning that the US under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada
OTTAWA : Canada’s Liberal Party overwhelmingly elected Mark Carney as the country’s next prime minister Sunday, as the former central banker warned of “dark days” brought on by the United States under President Donald Trump.
Carney lost no time taking a defiant stance against a US president he accused of “attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses.”
“We cannot let him succeed,” added the 59-year-old, who will take over from outgoing Liberal leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the coming days.
Carney may not have the job for long.
Canada must hold elections by October but could well see a snap poll within weeks. Current polls put the opposition Conservatives as slight favorites.
In his victory speech to a boisterous crowd of party supporters in Ottawa, Carney warned the United States under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada.
“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country,” he said.
“These are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.”
Carney, who previously led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who held several senior cabinet positions in the Liberal government that was first elected in 2015.
Carney won 85.9 percent of the nearly 152,000 votes cast. Freeland took just eight percent of the vote.
Carney campaigned on a promise to stand up to Trump.
The US president has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with dizzying tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office.
Delivering a farewell address before the results were announced, Trudeau said “Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge.”
‘Seasoned economic crisis manager’
Celebrating the outcome in Ottawa, party loyalist Cory Stevenson said “the Liberal party has the wind in its sails.”
“We chose the person who could best face off against (Tory leader) Pierre Poilievre in the next election and deal with Donald Trump,” he told AFP.
Carney has argued that his experience makes him the ideal counter to the US president, portraying himself as a seasoned economic crisis manager who led the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit vote.
Data released from the Angus Reid polling firm on Wednesday shows Canadians see Carney as the favorite choice to face off against Trump, potentially offering the Liberals a boost over the opposition Conservatives.
Forty-three percent of respondents said they trusted Carney the most to deal with Trump, with 34 percent backing Poilievre.
Before Trudeau announced his plans to resign in January, the Liberals were headed for an electoral wipeout, but the leadership change and Trump’s influence have dramatically tightened the race.
“I think we were written off about four months ago, and now we’re right back where we should be,” former MP Frank Baylis, who also ran for the leadership, told AFP in Ottawa.
Carney made a fortune as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before entering the Canadian civil service.
Since leaving the Bank of England in 2020, he has served as a United Nations envoy working to get the private sector to invest in climate-friendly technology and has held private sector roles.
He has never served in parliament nor held an elected public office.
Analysts say his untested campaign skills could prove a liability against a Conservative Party already running attack ads accusing Carney of shifting positions and misrepresenting his experience.
“It is absolutely a risk. He is unproven in the crucible of an election,” said Cameron Anderson, a political scientist at Ontario’s Western University.
He said Carney’s victory speech, and its tough anti-Trump rhetoric, “is what Canadians want to hear from their leaders.”
“The average Canadian in the country is viewing these things in an existential way,” Anderson said.
Migrant rescue NGO saves 25 people off Libyan coast
- Since the beginning of 2025, 247 people have disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
MARSEILLE: French migrant rescue group SOS Mediterranee brought 25 people stranded off the Libyan coast aboard its Ocean Viking vessel on Sunday, the NGO said.
Those rescued, including three women and seven minors, are “currently being cared for by the Red Cross and SOS Mediterranee teams” aboard the Ocean Viking, the Marseille-based group said in a statement.
Five of the minors are unaccompanied while two of the children are aged under four, the statement added.
The boat in distress was spotted thanks to an alert issued by Alarm Phone, a number used by migrants who run into trouble while attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing in hope of a better life in Europe.
Since the beginning of 2025, 247 people have disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
That toll follows the 2,360 people who died across the whole of 2024. The vast majority of the victims died in the central Mediterranean, one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.
UK seeks to scale back reviews that delay new housing projects
- Planning delays are widely blamed by housebuilders and government for the inability of new construction to keep up with population growth
LONDON: Britain set out plans late on Sunday to scale back lengthy public reviews that can delay housing developments, as part of its goal to get 1.5 million homes built in the next five years.
The housing ministry said it would hold a consultation over reducing the number of public agencies and civic groups whose views must be sought over new housing, including groups which represent sporting organizations, theaters and historic gardens.
Planning delays are widely blamed by housebuilders and government for the inability of new construction to keep up with population growth and for contributing to broader economic weakness.
In 2023, 193,000 homes were built across the United Kingdom and the construction industry has not exceeded the 300,000-a-year pace needed to meet the new government’s target since 1977.
“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said.
Further legislation on planning reforms is due later in the week.
Britain’s housing and local government ministry, which Rayner heads, said more than 25 agencies now had a legal right to be consulted on housing developments, some of which often objected by default or insisted on expensive modifications.
The ministry cited the example of how the conversion of an office block into 140 apartments was delayed after a sports body judged insufficient expert advice had been sought over whether a 3-meter-high (10 ft) fence was enough to protect residents from cricket balls struck from an adjacent sports ground.
Around 100 such disputes a year had to be resolved by ministers, the government said.
Under the new proposals, local planning authorities would also be instructed to narrow the basis on which other bodies could object and stick more closely to standard rules and deadlines.
Japan’s worst wildfire in 50 years brought under control
- The fire engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — around half the size of Manhattan — making it Japan’s largest in more than 50 years
TOKYO: Japan’s worst wildfire in more than half a century, which killed at least one person, has been brought under control, the mayor of the northern city of Ofunato said on Sunday.
The fire had raged in the mountains around the rural region since February 26, killing at least one person, damaging at least 210 buildings and forcing more than 4,200 residents to flee their homes, local officials said.
“Following an aerial survey, we assessed that the fire no longer posed the risk of further spread. I declare that the fire is now under control,” Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told a news conference.
The fire engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — around half the size of Manhattan — making it Japan’s largest in more than 50 years.
It surpassed the 2,700 hectares burnt by a 1975 fire on Hokkaido island.
Wet weather that began on Wednesday following a record dry period helped firefighting efforts.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inch) of rainfall in February, breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and far below the average of 41 millimeters.
The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since a peak in the 1970s.
Wildfires in Japan tend to occur between February and May, when the air dries out and winds pick up. There have been around 1,300 a year in recent years.
