Foreign News
Biden pardons thousands of marijuana offenders, gives clemency to 11 people
US President Joe Biden has pardoned thousands of people convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, says the White House.
Friday’s action, Biden’s latest in executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system, broadened the criminal offences covered by the pardon. Biden has also granted clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for non-violent drug offences.
In a statement, he said his actions would help make the “promise of equal justice a reality”. “Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
The categorical pardon built on a similar round issued just before the 2022 midterm elections that pardoned thousands convicted of simple possession on federal lands.
The US has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but a fifth of its prisoners, and a disproportionate number of them are people of colour, a large segment of Biden’s support base.
Biden has been gearing up for an intense year of campaigning in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election as his popularity sags, especially among young people.
Given recent reforms, each would have been eligible for reduced sentences if they were sentenced today. Some of the long sentences reflect longstanding disparities in sentencing for crack-vs-powder cocaine convictions. Legal experts have now said that such punishments do not aid public safety and disproportionately affect Black communities.
Biden’s new marijuana proclamation pardoned people who were “committed or were convicted of the offense of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana,” including for use and possession on certain federal lands.
As of January 2022, no offenders sentenced solely for simple possession of marijuana were in federal prisons, the US Sentencing Commission found this year.
Cissy Houston, renowned gospel singer and the mother of Whitney Houston, died on Monday morning at the age of 91, her family said in a statement.
Houston, a two-time Grammy Award winning singer, died in her New Jersey home while in hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law Pat Houston said.
“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” she said, adding that her mother-in-law was a “strong and towering figure” in the family’s life.
Houston enjoyed a decades-long successful singing career, where she performed alongside superstars like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin.
Born in New Jersey in 1933, Houston was the youngest of eight children. She began singing at a young age after she formed a gospel group with her siblings.
In the 1960s, she formed the R&B group the Sweet Inspirations, which sang backup for big names like Otis Redding, Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick. They also performed on Van Morrison’s hit song Brown Eyed Girl.
After finding success with the Sweet Inspirations, Houston embarked on a solo career, where she sang with artists including Chaka Khan, Jimi Hendrix, Beyonce, Paul Simon, and her late daughter Whitney Houston, who died in 2012 at age 48.
Houston won a Grammy Award for her traditional soul gospel album Face to Face in 1997, and again the following year for her album He Leadeth Me.
She also wrote three books, including one commemorating her daughter, called Remembering Whitney: A Mother’s Story of Life, Loss and The Night The Music Stopped.
At the age of 80, Houston sang once again with Aretha Franklin during her performance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where they performed a cover of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.
Her daughter-in-law, Pat, said that Houston’s “more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts”.
She added that the family is “blessed and grateful that God allowed her to spend so many years with us”.
“May she rest in peace, alongside her daughter, Whitney and granddaughter Bobbi Kristina and other cherished family members.”
[BBC]
Ethiopia’s parliament has approved the appointment of a new president to replace the country’s first female head of state, Sahle-Work Zewde.
Taye Astike Selassie, foreign minister since February, has taken up the largely ceremonial role. In Ethiopia, political power lies with the prime minister – currently Abiy Ahmed.
Sahle-Work had reportedly fallen out with Abiy in recent years.
The prime minister’s backing of her initial appointment in 2018 was hailed as a breakthrough for gender equality in Ethiopian politics.
On Saturday, Sahle-Work posted a brief and somewhat cryptic message on X, implying she was unhappy as a result of staying silent for the past year.
Sources close to the 74-year-old told BBC Amharic she had not been happy for some time and was eagerly awaiting the end of her term, due later this month.
During her presidency, she made several calls for peace across the country, though she was criticised for not talking more about the gender-based violence during the two-year civil war in Tigray. But it is believed she was concerned about the current conflicts in Oromia and Amhara regions.
In Amhara, federal forces have been fighting a local militia, which has led to hundreds of deaths and security forces being accused of committing crimes against humanity.
President Taye, 68, an experienced diplomat having served at the UN and in Egypt, is considered close to Abiy. He was sworn in in front of MPs on Monday.
The replacement of Sahle-Work means that Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan is currently Africa’s only female head of state.
[BBC]
The Royal New Zealand Navy has lost its first ship to the sea since World War Two, after one of its vessels ran aground off the coast of Samoa.
HMNZS Manawanui, a specialist diving and ocean imaging ship, came into trouble about one nautical mile from the island of Upolu on Saturday night local time, while conducting a survey of a reef.
It later caught fire before capsizing.
All 75 people on board were evacuated onto lifeboats and rescued early on Sunday, New Zealand’s Defence Force said in a statement.
Officials said the cause of the grounding was unknown and will be investigated.
The incident occurred during a bout of rough and windy weather.
Military officials said rescuers “battled” currents and winds that pushed life rafts and sea boats towards the reefs, and swells made rescue efforts “challenging”.
Officials said the area had not been surveyed since 1987. The vessel’s crew and passengers – including seven scientists and four foreign military personnel – are being accommodated in Samoa before being flown back to New Zealand.
As of 06:40 local time on Sunday (18:40 BST on Saturday), the ship was seen listing heavily with smoke billowing from it. By 09:00 (21:00 BST on Saturday), it was below the surface.
Defence minister Judith Collins described the incident as “a really sad day for the Navy” during a news conference.
She added: “But everyone came through, and that, I have to say, is down to the professionalism [of the crew], the training and their own courage.”
Dave Poole, who witnessed the ship ablaze, told the Reuters news agency: “As we came into the bay we saw the ship and no smoke. Within 15 minutes fire and smoke were visible. It sank shortly after.”
HMNZS Manawanui is the first of New Zealand’s naval vessels to be unintentionally sunk since the nation participated in naval battles during World War Two.
Several other ships have been intentionally sunk in the intervening period for various reasons, including to serve as a diving wreck or an artificial reef.
Military officials said their efforts are now turning towards attempting to salvage the vessel and minimising the environmental impacts of the sinking.
[BBC]
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