Malawi Wire

A jury in Wisconsin Wednesday convicted a man of deliberately driving his sport utility vehicle through a Christmas parade in a Milwaukee suburb, killing six people and injuring more than 60 last November.

The Waukesha County jury found 40-year-old Darrell Brooks — who defended himself — guilty on six counts of intentional homicide, each of which carries a mandatory life sentence, as well as more than 60 other charges.

The conviction marks the end of nearly-year-long legal process that saw Brooks change his plea from not guilty by reason of insanity, dismiss his court-appointed legal team days before the trial began, and receive several rebukes from Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow for failing to follow court rules.

Brooks was arrested November 21, 2021, after he drove his Ford Escape through the Waukesha Christmas parade. Video from the scene shows the vehicle striking a marching band and other participants from behind, without slowing down. During the trial, prosecutors say he reached speeds up to 48 kilometers per hour.

Victims of the incident ranged in age from eight to 81. More than 60 people were injured, including at least 18 children.

Prosecutors say Brooks was fleeing the scene of a domestic incident involving his ex-girlfriend when he drove through the parade. They also say he had just been released on bail following a domestic abuse charge two days before the incident.

Waukesha, a community of 70,000 people outside Milwaukee in southeastern Wisconsin, was deeply scarred by the incident. The Milwaukee Journal newspaper reports a group of people gathered outside the courtroom wearing shirts bearing the phrase “Waukesha Strong” as the verdict was read.

Source: Voice of America

Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to legalize cannabis, potentially making it one of the first countries in Europe to make marijuana legal.

Presenting his plans to the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said the proposal aims to achieve “the most liberal cannabis liberalization in Europe, and, on the other hand … the most tightly regulated market.”

Germany’s federal Cabinet reportedly approved the plan, kicking off a lengthy process to legalize growth, cultivation and distribution of the plant.

German laws must comply with European legislation, and under the proposal, the government would regulate cannabis production, sale, and distribution as part of a controlled, legalized market, said Lauterbach, describing the reform as a possible “model” for other European countries.

Although many European countries have decriminalized small amounts of cannabis for recreational purposes, only one, Malta, has fully legalized it.

The proposed plan would also legalize the acquisition and possession of 20 to 30 grams of cannabis for personal consumption, cultivation of up to two or three plants per person, and sales through specialized stores. Use of cannabis would remain prohibited for anyone under 18.

According to the plan, the government would also introduce a special consumption tax and develop education and abuse prevention programs, while ongoing investigations and criminal proceedings connected to cannabis would be terminated.

Legalizing cannabis would push out Germany’s cannabis black market and could increase annual tax revenues, create 27,000 new jobs, and generate cost savings of about $4.7 billion, according to a report by Reuters.

Wednesday’s announcement was met with mixed reactions throughout the country. A national pharmacists association warned of potential health risks of legalizing cannabis, while some regional officials expressed concerns that Germany would become a drug-tourism destination, similar to the Netherlands, where some coffee shops are allowed to sell cannabis under strict conditions.

According to The Guardian, Germany’s health minister said the Dutch system “combined two disadvantages: liberal use but not a controlled market. What we have learned from the Dutch experience is that we don’t want to do it that way. We want to control the entire market.”

Source: Voice of America

After two years of low influenza case numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns of a possibly harsh flu season.

“The United States has experienced relatively little influenza activity since 2020, thanks, in part, to community mitigation measures used to control the spread of COVID-19, making the country ripe for a severe influenza season,” the CDC told VOA in an email.

According to the CDC, the flu is already spreading in parts of the South, with relatively high activity levels in Georgia and Texas, compared to the same period last year.

Although the influenza season in the U.S. is just beginning, “based on what we have seen in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, flu has the potential to hit us hard this year,” Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said earlier this month.

Researchers often look to the Southern Hemisphere because its flu season hits first, usually from May to October, to foreshadow what will happen in the north, where flu season usually starts in October, peaks in December and can last through May.

Australia’s flu season hit that country two months earlier than usual and caused one of its worst seasons in recent years, with cases peaking about three times higher than average, according to the Australian government’s Department of Health and Aged Care. During Australia’s 2022 flu season, of the 225,332 laboratory-confirmed cases, there have been 308 influenza-associated deaths, the agency reported. In comparison, in 2020, of the 21,266 laboratory-confirmed cases, there were 37 influenza-associated deaths.

The flu hit younger people especially hard in Australia. Although COVID-19 has been relatively mild for younger people, experts caution that children may be at especially high risk this year. That’s because many children have not been exposed to the flu due to COVID-19 safety precautions, including the use of masks, remote learning and social distancing taken in recent years, leaving them without natural immunity.

Influenza A, which causes more serious illness than other strains of the virus, is more prevalent this year, according to CDC data. It also spreads about two to three times more rapidly than Influenza B, a less common type of influenza.

Although influenza symptoms are similar to those of a common flu, they are typically more intense and begin more abruptly. The symptoms include common cold symptoms, such as a cough or runny nose, but also range to symptoms such as a fever or body aches. Some people also experience vomiting or diarrhea, although this is more common in children than adults.

The CDC urges that Americans ages 6 months and older get a flu shot by the end of October. Experts say it’s the best way to be protected from the ailment.

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen some worrisome drops in flu vaccination coverage, especially in some groups of people who are at the highest risk of developing serious flu illness,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a news conference earlier this month.

Health officials fear fewer people will be vaccinated because of the anti-vaccine sentiment that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases found that fewer Americans said they will get the flu shot compared to years before.

The CDC told VOA News in an email that to help avoid the flu, “people should continue to practice the everyday preventive actions that we saw work so well during the pandemic like social distancing, frequent handwashing, staying home when you are sick, and covering coughs and sneezes.”

“With a potentially challenging flu season ahead, I urge everyone to protect themselves and their families from flu and its potentially serious complications,” Walensky said.

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with Alphabet Inc’s Google resolving a dispute with the search engine giant over the loss of data responsive to a 2016 search warrant.

The government said it was a “first-of-its-kind resolution” that would result in Google reforming “its legal process compliance program to ensure timely and complete responses to legal process such as subpoenas and search warrants.”

“The department is committed to ensuring that electronic communications providers comply with court orders to protect and facilitate criminal investigations,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

The settlement demonstrated the department’s “resolve in ensuring that technology companies, such as Google, provide prompt and complete responses to legal process to ensure public safety and bring offenders to justice,” he added.

Google said it had a “long track record of protecting our users” privacy, including pushing back against overbroad government demands for user data, and this agreement in no way changes our ability or our commitment to continue doing so.”

The company told a U.S. court it had spent more than $90 million “on additional resources, systems, and staffing to implement legal process compliance program improvements.”

The Justice Department said an independent compliance professional will be hired to serve as an outside third party related to Google’s compliance upgrades.

In 2016, the United States obtained a search warrant in California for data held at Google related to the investigation of the criminal cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, the department said.

Later the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled search warrants issued under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) did not cover data stored outside of the United States.

In 2018, Congress clarified the SCA did cover U.S. providers that chose to store data overseas, but the government said that “in the intervening time, data responsive to the warrant was lost,” the Justice Department said.

Google will assemble reports and updates regarding the compliance program that will go to the government, the Google Compliance Steering Committee and Alphabet board committees.

Source: Voice of America