Jurors In Daniel Penny Trial Say They Can't Reach Unanimous Verdict On Manslaughter Charge

 by Michael Washburn via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A judge on Dec. 6 directed the jury in the Daniel Penny trial to continue deliberating after jurors said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the top charge of manslaughter.

Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Jan. 17, 2024. Frank Franklin II/AP Photo

Penny was charged with manslaughter in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide in last year’s subway choking death of Jordan Neely.

“At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on Count One, manslaughter in the second degree,” the jurors said in a note to the judge. The jurors had been deliberating since Tuesday.

In response, Judge Maxwell Wiley directed the jurors to keep deliberating in an attempt to reach a unanimous decision in what is known as an Allen charge.

The defense had objected to the issuing of an Allen charge and asked the judge to order a mistrial, saying, “We are concerned that the giving of an Allen charge under these circumstances would be coercive.”

The judge said that after further deliberation, the jury still might not arrive at a unanimous verdict, in which case there will be another trial with a different jury.

The courtroom at 100 Centre Street in lower Manhattan has been alternately crowded and near-deserted in these final days of the trial, as the jury has briefly returned to review evidence again and the judge has held brief conversations, some of them contentious, with the lawyers.

Penny’s trial on that charge and the second count has been going on since the first week of November. The jury finally began its deliberations on Tuesday afternoon, following summations from the defense and prosecution at the start of the week.

Since beginning its deliberations, the jury has made a number of requests, including for the replay of footage from the scene of the May 1, 2023, incident in which Jordan Neely died, for a chance to review portions of the trial transcript, and for clarification of the judge’s instructions regarding self-defense and the use of deadly force.

One of the requests, for a readback of part of the cross-examination of medical examiner Dr. Cynthia Harris, prompted the judge on Dec. 5 to seat the jury and have two people read from the transcript aloud in the courtroom. The cross-examination addressed the medical and factual basis on which Harris made her determination that Neely died an asphyxial death, and whether she had given due consideration to other possible factors.

While anticipation of a verdict in the controversial case has run high, Neely’s father has retained legal counsel to pursue civil action against Penny. On Thursday, the father’s lawyer filed a lawsuit against Penny before the Supreme Court of New York.

The complaint in that lawsuit states that the plaintiff is pursuing action through the highest court in the state because lower courts would not be able to grant the full damages that the lawsuit seeks.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jurors-daniel-penny-trial-say-they-cant-reach-unanimous-verdict-manslaughter-charge

The Naughty List: Former Obama Aides & Liberal Influencers Sell Antifa Line Of Holiday Gifts

 by Jonathan Turley,

It appears no liberal Christmas is complete without the ultimate stocking stuffer: an actual stocking to wear over your face while rioting. While not yet selling face coverings for anonymous violence, Crooked Media, co-founded by former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, is selling a line of Antifa items for liberals wanting to make a statement against any “Peace on Earth.” (As of this posting, Antifa items were still being sold on the “Crooked Store” site). You can now proudly wear your “Antifa Dad” hat to signal your support for political violence and deplatforming. It is the ultimate naughty gift list for putting the slay back into your Sleigh Bells.

These liberal hosts and their “POD SAVE AMERICA” show have been featured on various shows and courted by figures like Hillary Clinton.

There is no apparent backlash for their support of one of the most violent groups in the world, which routinely attacks journalists and anyone who holds opposing views. Imagine the media response if a conservative site started selling “Proud Boy” items.

Yet, Crooked Media is now offering liberals the chance to buy “ANTIFA” onesies for babies, a T-shirt for toddlers reading  “ANTIFA” and other items.

Just to make sure that everyone understands the support for the violent group, a spokesperson for Crooked Media told Fox News Digital that the clothes it has listed on its website “are not a joke.” The spokesman added that “all toddlers are antifa until their souls are broken by capitalism.”

As discussed in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I explore the history of Antifa as a movement that began in Germany:

“Antifa originated with European anarchist and Marxist groups from the 1920s, particularly Antifaschistische Aktion, a Communist group from the Weimar Republic before World War II. Its name resulted from the shortening of the German word antifaschistisch. In the United States, the modern movement emerged through the Anti- Racist Action (ARA) groups, which were dominated by anarchists and Marxists. It has an association with the anarchist organization Love and Rage, which was founded by former Trotsky and Marxist followers as well as offshoots like Mexico’s Amor Y Rabia. The oldest U.S. group is likely the Rose City Antifa (RCA) in Portland, Oregon, which would become the center of violent riots during the Trump years. The anarchist roots of the group give it the same organizational profile as such groups in the early twentieth century with uncertain leadership and undefined structures.”

Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the anti-free speech movement nationally.

As I have previously written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association.  Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. In one hearing, Wray stated, “And we have quite a number” — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”

We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country, including attacks on journalists.

Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence, and its website was banned in Germany.

Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”

It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.

Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”

Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists…  From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”

Now, liberal families can bring a small part of that political violence into their homes for the holiday to pledge that there will be no peace or silent nights so long as opposing views are heard. Antifa has gone retail, and there is no better way to celebrate political violence and rage than your Antifa onesie.

With tensions rising after the election, the embrace of organizations like Antifa will only fuel calls for violent action. Liberal figures like ex-Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz have even conveyed support for the assassination of  UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.

It is not the time to go full naughty list to celebrate a group that regularly beats reporters and others with opposing viewpoints. While this may appeal to your own special smash-mouth Santa, tis the season for political violence.

*  *  *

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/naughty-list-former-obama-aides-liberal-influencers-sell-antifa-line-holiday-gifts

Novartis Fabhalta® improved paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria in Phase 3

 Novartis today announced positive topline results from APPULSE-PNH, a Phase IIIB study evaluating the efficacy and safety of twice-daily oral monotherapy Fabhalta® (iptacopan) in adult patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) who were switched from anti-C5 therapies (Hb ≥10g/dL following treatment with eculizumab or ravulizumab)1. After 24 weeks of treatment with Fabhalta, the average Hb level improved versus baseline

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/phase-iiib-data-shows-novartis-061500669.html

IMFINZI® (durvalumab) granted Priority Review in the US ​for muscle-invasive bladder cancer

 Decision based on NIAGARA Phase III trial results which demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful event-free and overall survival benefit

If approved, this will be the first and only perioperative immunotherapy regimen in this curative-intent setting

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241206025636/en/

Mereo started at Buy by Jefferies

 Target $7

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=MREO&p=d

Iran, Hezbollah aim to bolster Assad as rebels bear down on Homs

Iran will send missiles, drones and more advisers to Syria, a senior Iranian official said on Friday, as rebel forces pushed their lightning offensive south towards the city of Homs in the biggest challenge for years to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Seizing Homs would cut off Syria's capital Damascus from the coast, a longtime redoubt of Assad's minority Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.

After years locked behind frozen front lines, the insurgents have burst out of their northwestern Idlib bastion to achieve the swiftest battlefield advance by either side since a street uprising against Assad mushroomed into civil war 13 years ago.

Assad regained control of most of Syria after his key allies - Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group - came to his support. But all have recently been weakened and diverted by other crises, giving Syrian Sunni Muslim militants a window to fight back.

The head of the Syrian faction leading the sweeping assault told CNN that his group - a former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - aimed to "build Syria" and bring Syrian refugees back home from Lebanon and Europe.

It was Abu Mohammed Al-Golani's first interview since his group began seizing territory from Assad's forces on Nov. 27. Rebels have captured two major cities so far and are now thrusting toward the key crossroads city of Homs.

HTS broke from Al-Qaeda in 2016, says it poses no threat to the West and has spent years trying to moderate its image, presenting itself as a viable alternative to Assad.

SURPRISE OFFENSIVE

The rebels' sweep has taken the region by surprise.

Iran has been focused on tensions with its arch-enemy Israel since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.

"It is likely that Tehran will need to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria... Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase the number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces," the official said, on condition of anonymity.

"Now, Tehran is providing intelligence and satellite support to Syria."

The Israeli military said it was reinforcing aerial and ground forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria and was prepared for all scenarios.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, meanwhile, sent a small number of "supervising forces" from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

HTS rebels said they had taken over the towns of Talbisa and Rastan, bringing them within miles (km) of Homs.

The Syrian military said there was no truth to reports it had withdrawn from Homs, saying in a statement it was deployed along "steady and solid defence lines" in Homs.

A resident of Homs earlier said the offices of Syria's main security branches there had emptied, with members leaving the city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said thousands of people had begun fleeing from Homs on Thursday night towards the Mediterranean coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the government.

A coastal resident said thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs, fearing the rebels' rapid advance.

Wasim Marouh, a Homs resident who decided not to leave, said most of its main commercial streets were empty while pro-government militia groups patrolled the area.

Up to 1.5 million people could be forced to flee any upsurge in fighting in Syria, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The violence has already displaced 280,000 people since it erupted in late November, the World Food Programme's Samer AbdelJaber told reporters in Geneva.

ISLAMIC STATE

In another alarming development for Assad, the head of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish force said the radical Islamic State group, which ran a reign of terror in swathes of Iraq and Syria till its defeat by a U.S.-led coalition in 2017, had now taken control of some areas in eastern Syria.

"Due to the recent developments, there is increased movement by Islamic State mercenaries in the Syrian desert, in the south and west of Deir Al-Zor and the countryside of al-Raqqa," Mazloum Abdi told a press conference, referring to areas in eastern Syria.

Rebels led by HTS have sought to capitalise on their swift takeover of Aleppo in the north and Hama in west-central Syria by pressing onwards to Homs, another 40 km (24 miles) south.

A rebel operations room urged Homs residents in an online post to rise up, saying: "Your time has come."

Russian bombing overnight destroyed the Rastan bridge along the M5 highway, the main route to Homs, to prevent rebels using it to advance, a Syrian army officer told Reuters.

Government forces were bringing reinforcements to positions around Homs, he added.

Assad relied heavily on Russian and Iranian military backing during the most intense years of the civil war, helping him to claw back most territory and Syria's largest cities before front lines hardened in 2020.

But Russia has been focused on its invasion of Ukraine since 2022, while many in Hezbollah's top leadership were killed by Israel over the past two months.

Russia's embassy in Damascus has urged its nationals to leave Syria on commercial flights, the TASS state news agency reported on Friday.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/thousands-flee-syrian-rebels-push-070946250.html

Romanian Top Court Orders Rerun of Presidential Election

 

Romania’s Constitutional Court unexpectedly ordered the country to rerun the first round of the presidential race and canceled the second round runoff set for this Sunday.

The court asked the government to start from scratch with a new vote after accusations of meddling in the voting that already took place last month, according to an e-mailed statement on Friday.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-06/romanian-top-court-orders-rerun-of-presidential-election