Alleged military secret leaker Jack Teixeira ordered detained ahead of trial
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Air National Guard serviceman charged with leaking highly sensitive military secrets to an online forum dedicated largely to the gaming community has been ordered detained ahead of trial.
Jack Teixeira, 21, of North Dighton, was charged by criminal complaint April 14 with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material.
He finally appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy in federal court in Worcester on Friday for the detention hearing that had been rescheduled many times.
“I am going to grant the government’s request for detention,” Hennessy said before explaining his reasoning.
“I understand it smacks of a spy novel,” Hennessy said, “But I believe the government has the better argument here.”
Attorneys for each side issued competing memos to Hennessy on Wednesday arguing why Teixeira should be either detained or released ahead of his future trial.
Defense attorneys Brendan Kelley and Allen Franco, both of the Federal Public Defender Office in Boston, released an exhibit attached to their latest memo that includes eight other Espionage Act cases in which judges either approved release of the defendants or prosecutors did not seek detention.
They also said that Teixeira had been unfairly compared to Edward Snowden — the National Security Agency contractor who in 2013 leaked information pertaining to the agency’s PRISM operation of warrantless information gathering on U.S. citizens.
Conversely, federal prosecutors say that the information they have gathered on Teixeira and his alleged leak operation has only strengthened and show signs he could be a major national security threat if released ahead of trial.
—Boston Herald
Photo agency rejects Prince Harry and Meghan's 'royal prerogative' demand for photos
The photo agency accused of tailing Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, during what the couple called a "near catastrophic" car chase in New York has rejected the royals' requests for copies of their photos.
Freelance photographers working for the agency Backgrid USA Inc. had followed Harry and Meghan's security escort on Tuesday by car and bike, snapping photos and recording video as the royals left an awards ceremony by taxi.
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex claimed the photographers' alleged pursuit had resulted in multiple near-collisions involving other vehicles, pedestrians and two New York Police Department officers, as well as multiple traffic violations, such as driving on the sidewalk, running red lights and reversing down a one-way street.
Backgrid had dismissed those claims and defended its photographers. The freelancers said they felt "the couple was not in immediate danger at any point."
The photo agency said that legal representatives for the Sussexes on Thursday had sent a letter demanding copies of the photos and video taken on Tuesday, according to BBC News.
"We hereby demand that Backgrid immediately provide us with copies of all photos, videos, and/or films taken last night by the freelance photographers after the couple left their event and over the next several hours," the letter read.
In its snarky rejection of the request, Backgrid had evoked the American Revolutionary War.
"In America, as I'm sure you know, property belongs to the owner of it: Third parties cannot just demand it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can do," the agency wrote, according to BBC News.
A spokesperson for the Sussexes and Backgrid did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the L.A. Times.
—Los Angeles Times
‘Never did I imagine that I would have to ration chemotherapy’
Nationwide shortages of two dozen chemotherapy drugs are leading to rationing and delays in treatment for cancer patients, local and national authorities say.
“The most critical drugs that are being used to cure cancer, potentially, are just in short supply,” said Dr. Rupesh Parikh, an oncologist at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada.
There are shortages of 23 chemotherapy drugs used to treat a wide range of cancers, according to data from the University of Utah Drug Information Service. Most of these are inexpensive generic drugs used for decades that serve as “the backbone of so many chemotherapy regimens,” said associate chief pharmacy officer Erin Fox, whose team at the university tracks drug shortages.
The shortage in chemotherapy drugs is the worst it has been since 2011, she said. Overall drug shortages are the worst since 2014 for reasons that include curtailment of manufacturing and increased demand.
Parikh said the chemotherapy drug shortage, which has ramped up over the past 12 months, is now at critical mass.
“Never in my entire life did I imagine that I would have to ration chemotherapy to some of my patients, and that’s what’s happening,” he said. “It’s sometimes causing delay of care. Sometimes you have to ration these medicines to patients who need it most, which in America is unheard of.”
Some of these drugs don’t have substitutes and when they do, the substitutes may also be in short supply, he said.
Certain drugs, such as ADHD medications and a diabetes drug used for weight loss, are in shortage because of heightened demand for them. But with the generic cancer drugs, a key factor behind their scarcity is the thin profit margin for making them, authorities say.
“The biggest challenge here is profitability,” according to Christina Madison, an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Roseman University of Health Sciences.
—Las Vegas Review-Journal
Arab League nations welcome back longtime pariah Syria at annual summit
BEIRUT — In March 2013, with almost 100,000 dead in the then two-year Syrian revolution against President Bashar Assad, a Muslim cleric who headed the Syrian opposition was welcomed to take the country's seat at the annual summit of Arab leaders.
"History will bear witness to who stood with the Syrian people in their ordeal, and who failed them," said then-Qatari Prince Hamad bin Thani in his speech introducing Ahmad Moaz Khatib to the delegates.
On Friday, 13 years after his government's Arab League membership was suspended, Assad returned to the Arab Summit on Friday, the strongest signal yet of his diplomatic rehabilitation within the Arab fold.
"We are pleased today with the presence of his excellency President Bashar Assad in this summit and the ratification of the Arab League's decision to restart participation of Syrian government delegations in Arab League meetings," said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in his speech opening the summit in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah.
"We hope that will contribute in supporting the stability in Syria and returning things to normal and restarting its natural role in the Arab world which will bring good to its people and support all of our aspirations to a better future for our region."
The moment, in which a grim-faced Assad looked on, seemed a significant turnaround for a leader who spent more than a decade in political isolation, shunned by most Arab states — and many other governments around the world — for his scorched-earth campaign to quell the 2011 protests against his rule.
—Los Angeles Times
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