Mr. Tyrrell put it pretty well in yesterday’s American Spectator column, titled “The Long Goodbye. Donald”: “One of the most admirable virtues in politics is loyalty.” We know President Trump did not explicitly call for violence in the Capitol. But it is impossible not to read his statements while ignoring the contexts of months of rhetoric about the election being stolen. Even if the several thousand stop-the-steal demonstrators on Wednesday were, as they typically are, orderly, it was knowable, and the president should have known, that such crowds can attract rowdies who may slip out of control. Even these were in fact less dangerous than portrayed by those who exploited the appalling events. Jason Whitlock and several writers at The American Spectator and elsewhere noted as much. Whitlock noted in the Blaze, “If not for police shooting and killing an unarmed, female 14-year Air Force veteran, the protest staged by Trump supporters would have more in common with a 1950s fraternity panty raid than political riot.” This and the other fatalities never should have been allowed to happen. It never should have been even indirectly encouraged, which is what the president did, despite his after-the-fact protestations. Mr. Tyrrell is right
MOSCOW (AFP) - A Russian military court on Thursday (Jan 21) sentenced a young recruit to over 24 years in prison for shooting dead eight servicemen, in a trial that spotlighted hazing in the army. Ramil Shamsutdinov pleaded guilty last year to carrying out the fatal gun attack in 2019 but complained of bullying in the army and a harassment culture he described as "hell". The court in the Siberian city of Chita ruled Thursday that Shamsutdinov should serve his sentence of 24 years and six months in a "high security penal colony". A jury in December last year found the soldier guilty but concluded that he deserved leniency, while prosecutors demanded that he spend 25 years behind bars. The Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, had earlier concluded that Shamsutdinov was of sound mind and health and understood the gravity of his actions. In an open letter written after his arrest in 2019, Shamsutdinov said that "he had no other choice" and asked for forgiveness from the family and friends of his victims. "I didn't expect that I would end up in such a hell. There was nowhere to run or to complain," he wrote in
TEHRAN: Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday hailed the White House departure of "tyrant" Donald Trump, saying that "the ball is in America's court" to return to a landmark nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Tehran.Trump is due to leave office later in the day making way for President-elect Joe Biden, whose team has signalled a willingness to return to dialogue with Tehran.A "tyrant's era came to an end and today is the final day of his ominous reign," Rouhani said in televised remarks to his cabinet.He labelled Trump "someone for whom all of his four years bore no fruit other than injustice and corruption and causing problems for his own people and the world".During his presidency, Trump led a campaign of "maximum pressure" against Iran, pulling Washington out of a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran in 2018 and reimposing punishing sanctions.The sanctions targeted Iran's vital oil sales and international banking ties, plunging its economy into a deep recession.The nuclear deal, agreed between major powers and Iran in 2015 when Biden was vice president under Barack Obama, imposed clear limits on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions.Since 2019, Tehran has suspended its compliance with most of
