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A federal judge has denied the plea deal of Travis and Greg McMichael, two of three men who are being charged with federal hate crimes charges after chasing down and shooting Ahmaud Arbery.
The men have already been found guilty of murder, but the federal government wanted to add a hate crime to the sentencing.
“It is my decision to reject the plea agreement,” U.S. District Judge Lisa Wood said on Monday. “In this case it is appropriate to hear at sentencing from all concerned, including the victim’s family, before deciding on what punishment best promotes all of the factors set forth in our federal sentencing statute.”
READ MORE: Trump ‘doesn’t care anymore’ and is in ‘burn it all down mode’: Maggie Haberman
She went on to explain that she wasn't “comfortable accepting the terms of the plea agreement” after multiple objections from the Arbery family.
The court went into recess so the two men could confer with their lawyer on the next steps.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti this week said that former President Donald Trump is now in an "unusual" and "very dangerous" legal predicament.
Writing on Twitter, Mariotti broke down the significance of Judge Beryl Howell finding evidence that the former president misled his own lawyers about his possession of top-secret government documents stashed at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
What Mariotti found particularly intriguing about the judge's order was what she told Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to turn over to prosecutors.
"She... ordered him to produce handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings," he wrote. "That is really important... Regardless of who he recorded, the Judge found that those recorded conversations constitute evidence of what she called Trump's 'criminal scheme.' That could be extremely powerful and important evidence."
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Mariotti called Judge Howell's ruling "remarkable" and said that it frees up Corcoran, who faces his own potential criminal liability for purportedly writing a statement last year that falsely asserted Trump had already returned all requested documents to the DOJ, to spill the beans about his conversations with Trump.
"In my experience, the crime-fraud exception is often discussed but rarely ever invoked," he writes. "I can't remember an actual invocation of crime-fraud in my roughly 20 years of criminal law practice. This is an unusual situation and a very dangerous one for Trump."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is publicly denouncing Uganda's latest Anti-Homosexuality legislation, which is being called a "Kill the Gays" bill for its capital punishment penalty for "aggravated homosexuality."
The legislation passed in a nearly-unanimous vote and now heads to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's desk.
"The Anti-Homosexuality Act passed by the Ugandan Parliament yesterday would undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We urge the Ugandan Government to strongly reconsider the implementation of this legislation," Secretary Blinken said via Twitter Wednesday morning.
Uganda, a far-right religious country has a long history of targeting and marginalizing its LGBTQ citizens, including passing a modified "Kill the Gays" bill that was signed into law in 2014, only to be overturned in court on a technicality. That law was drafted and promoted with the aid of American far-right evangelicals.
Ugandan lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation that makes being LGBTQ illegal, proscribes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, and decades or life in prison for identifying as LGBTQ. It also requires anyone with knowledge of another person being LGBTQ or engaging in same-sex acts to be reported to the government.
"All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on Tuesday for the hardline anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and 'recruitment, promotion and funding' of same-sex 'activities'," The Guardian reports.
“A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” the bill states.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in a statement warned: "If the bill is signed into law, it will render LGBTIQ+ people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are. It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other."
One of the two Ugandan Members of Parliament who voted against the bill, Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, calls it "ill-conceived," and says parts are "unconstitutional."
He says it "reverses the gains registered in the fight against gender-based violence and criminalises individuals instead of conduct that contravenes all known legal norms.”
President Museveni, who signed into law a modified version of the 2014 "Kill the Gays" bill, will now have to decide if he wants to sign this version as well.
By Isla Binnie
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations opened its first conference on water security in almost half a century on Wednesday, with a plea to governments to better manage one of humanity's shared resources.
A quarter of the world's population relies on unsafe drinking water while half lacks basic sanitation, the U.N. said. Meanwhile, nearly three quarters of recent disasters have been related to water.
"We are draining humanity's lifeblood through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use, and evaporating it through global heating," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Ensuring access to clean drinking water and sanitation is part of the 17-point to-do list the U.N. has set for sustainable development, alongside ending hunger and poverty, achieving gender equality, and taking action on climate change.
While the three-day conference beginning Wednesday in New York isn't intended to produce the kind of binding accord that emerged from meetings on climate in Paris in 2015, or on nature protection in Montreal in 2022, Guterres said it must "result in a bold Water Action Agenda that gives our world's lifeblood the commitment it deserves".
That agenda aims to establish voluntary commitments from countries and sector representatives, and create "political momentum".
"Governments must develop and implement plans that ensure equitable water access for all people while conserving this precious resource," Guterres said.
"I also call on countries to work together across borders to jointly manage water."
Other voices on the issue include scientists, economists and policy experts within the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which has issued recommendations including phasing out some $700 billion in agricultural and water subsidies it says are environmentally damaging.
That group, set up by the government of the Netherlands, a co-host of this week's conference, is also endorsing partnerships between development finance institutions and private investors to improve water systems.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Mark Potter)
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