Salisbury: Yulia Skripal has left hospital more than five weeks after she and her father, a former Russian spy, were poisoned with a nerve agent in an attack that has sparked one of the biggest crises in the West’s relations with the Kremlin since the Cold War.
Yulia and Sergei Skripal, 66, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service, were found unconscious on a public bench in the English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.
Britain accused Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack and Western governments including the United States expelled over 100 Russian diplomats. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning and retaliated in kind.
The Skripals were in a critical condition for weeks and doctors at one point feared, even if they survived, they might have suffered brain damage. But the Skripals’ health since then has begun to improve rapidly.
Yulia, 33, has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, Christine Blanshard, medical director of the hospital, told reporters on Tuesday and her father could be discharged in due course.
“We have now discharged Yulia,” Blanshard said. “This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone.”
“Her father has also made good progress,” Blanshard said. ” “Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.”
Yulia has been taken to a secure location, the BBC said. The Sunday Times reported that Britain was considering giving the Skripals new identities and a fresh life in the United States to protect them from further attacks.
Russia said it would consider any secret resettlement of the Skripals as an abduction of its citizens.
“The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation,” a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Russia has denied Britain’s charges of involvement in the first known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soil since World War Two and suggested Britain carried out the attack itself to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.
Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents and President Vladimir Putin said it was nonsense to think that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.
Blanshard, a doctor with 25 years experience, said nerve agents work by attaching themselves to particular enzymes in the body that then stop the nerves from functioning. She said this had resulted in sickness and hallucinations.
Giving the first details about the medical treatment of the Skripals, she said doctors had first sought to stabilize them to ensure that they could breathe and that blood could circulate.
“We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients, until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning,” Blanshard said. “We also used specialized decontamination techniques to remove any residual toxins.”
She did not say when Yulia had been discharged.
Both Britain and Russia congratulated Skripal, a Russian citizen, on her recovery.
“We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery,” the Russian embassy in London said, adding that it had not been granted consular access to her.
Sergei Skripal, who was recruited by Britain’s MI6, was arrested for treason in Moscow in 2004. He ended up in Britain after being swapped in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the United States.
Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found poisoned. He has British citizenship.
Yulia Skripal leaves British hospital five weeks after nerve agent attack
Yulia Skripal leaves British hospital five weeks after nerve agent attack
- Salisbury District Hospital: Yulia Skripal has been discharged and her father could be discharged in due course.
- Reports that Britain is considering giving the Skripals new identities and a fresh life in the United States to protect them from further attacks.
Mississippi executes the longest-serving man on the state’s death row for 1976 killing
- Jordan was one of several on the state’s death row who sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol, claiming it is inhumane
PARCHMAN, Mississippi: The longest-serving man on Mississippi’s death row was executed Wednesday, nearly five decades after he kidnapped and killed a bank loan officer’s wife in a violent ransom scheme.
Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, was put to death by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. The time of death was 6:16 p.m.
Jordan was one of several on the state’s death row who sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol, claiming it is inhumane.
The execution was the third in the state in the last 10 years; previously the most recent one was carried out in December 2022.
Jordan’s execution came a day after a man was put to death in Florida, in what is shaping up to be a year with the most executions since 2015.
Jordan, whose final appeals were denied without comment Wednesday afternoon by the US Supreme Court, was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter.
Mississippi Supreme Court records show that in January of that year, Jordan called the Gulf National Bank in Gulfport and asked to speak with a loan officer. After he was told that Charles Marter could speak to him, he hung up. He then looked up the Marters’ home address in a telephone book and kidnapped Edwina Marter.
According to court records, Jordan took her to a forest and fatally shot her before calling her husband, claiming she was safe and demanding $25,000.
Edwina Marter’s husband and two sons had not planned to attend the execution. Eric Marter, who was 11 when his mother was killed, said beforehand that other family members would attend.
“It should have happened a long time ago,” Eric Marter told The Associated Press before the execution. “I’m not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.”
“He needs to be punished,” Marter said.
As of the beginning of the year, Jordan was one of 22 people sentenced in the 1970s who were still on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
His execution ended a decades-long court process that included four trials and numerous appeals. On Monday the Supreme Court rejected a petition that argued he was denied due process rights.
“He was never given what for a long time the law has entitled him to, which is a mental health professional that is independent of the prosecution and can assist his defense,” said lawyer Krissy Nobile, director of Mississippi’s Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, who represented Jordan. “Because of that his jury never got to hear about his Vietnam experiences.”
A recent petition asking Gov. Tate Reeves for clemency echoed Nobile’s claim. It said Jordan suffered severe PTSD after serving three back-to-back tours, which could have been a factor in his crime.
“His war service, his war trauma, was considered not relevant in his murder trial,” said Franklin Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, who wrote the petition on Jordan’s behalf. “We just know so much more than we did 10 years ago, and certainly during Vietnam, about the effect of war trauma on the brain and how that affects ongoing behaviors.”
Marter said he does not buy that argument: “I know what he did. He wanted money, and he couldn’t take her with him. And he — so he did what he did.”
Ukraine, European rights body sign accord for tribunal on Russian aggression
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset signed the accord in the French city of Strasbourg at the Council’s headquarters
Ukraine and the Council of Europe human rights body signed an agreement on Wednesday forming the basis for a special tribunal intended to bring to justice senior Russian officials for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset signed the accord in the French city of Strasbourg at the Council’s headquarters.
“This is truly a very important step. Every war criminal must know there will be justice and that includes Russia. We are now boosting the legal work in a serious way,” Zelensky told the ceremony.
“There is still a long road ahead. Today’s agreement is just the beginning. We must take real steps to make it work. It will take strong political and legal cooperation to make sure every Russian war criminal faces justice, including (President Vladimir) Putin.”
Ukraine has demanded the creation of such a body since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, accusing Russian troops of committing thousands of war crimes. It is also intent on prosecuting Russians for orchestrating the invasion.
The 46-member Council of Europe, set up after World War Two to uphold human rights and the rule of law, approved the tribunal in May, saying it was intended to be complementary to the International Criminal Court and fill legal gaps in prosecutions.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
US military to create two new border zones, officials say
- A new “National Defense Area” will be created covering about 250 miles (402 km) of the Rio Grande river in Texas
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon will create two new military zones along the border with Mexico, US officials said on Wednesday, a move that allows troops to temporarily detain migrants or trespassers. President Donald Trump’s administration has hailed its actions along the border, including the deployment of active duty troops, as the reason for a sharp decline in crossings by undocumented migrants. Trump made voters’ concerns about immigration a cornerstone of his 2024 re-election bid.
The Pentagon has already created two military zones, but only four people have been temporarily detained on them, a US official said.
A new “National Defense Area” will be created covering about 250 miles (402 km) of the Rio Grande river in Texas and administered as a part of Joint Base San Antonio, according to the Air Force.
The US officials said the other military zone would be administered as a part of Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona.
The zones are intended to allow the Trump administration to use troops to detain migrants without invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act that empowers a president to deploy the US military to suppress events such as civil disorder.
As legal deterrents to border crossers, the zones have had mixed results. Federal magistrate judges in New Mexico and Texas dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of migrants caught in the areas on grounds they did not know they were in a restricted military zone.
However, some 120 migrants pleaded guilty to trespassing in the first Texas zone in May and federal prosecutors obtained their first two trespassing convictions for the New Mexico zone on June 18, according to US Attorneys’ Offices in the two states.
Around 11,900 troops are currently on the border.
Illegal border crossings fell to a record low in March after the Biden administration shut down asylum claims in 2024 and Mexico tightened immigration controls.
Palestinian student sues Michigan school over teacher’s reaction to her refusal to stand for Pledge
- Danielle “suffered extensive emotional and social injuries,” including nightmares, stress and strained friendships, the lawsuit says
DETROIT: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of a 14-year-old student who said a teacher humiliated her for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in protest of US support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Danielle Khalaf’s teacher told her, “Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don’t like it, you should go back to your country,” according to the lawsuit.
Danielle, whose family is of Palestinian descent, declined to recite the Pledge over three days in January.
“We can only marvel at the conviction and incredible courage it took for her to follow her conscience and her heart,” ACLU attorney Mark Fancher said.
The lawsuit says her teacher admonished her and told her she was being disrespectful.
As a result, Danielle “suffered extensive emotional and social injuries,” including nightmares, stress and strained friendships, the lawsuit says.
The ACLU and the Arab American Civil Rights League said Danielle’s First Amendment rights were violated, and the lawsuit seeks a financial award.
“It was traumatizing, it hurt and I know she could do that to other people,” Danielle said at a news conference in February, referring to the teacher’s treatment.
At that time, the school district said it had taken “appropriate action,” though it didn’t elaborate.
“Discrimination in any form is not tolerated by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools and is taken very seriously,” the district said.
The school district declined Wednesday to comment further, citing the litigation.
Michigan has more than 300,000 residents of Middle Eastern or North African descent, second in the US behind California, according to the Census Bureau.
Suspect in US fire attack on Jewish protest faces new hate crime charges
- Alongside the newly announced federal charges, Soliman faces 28 attempted murder charges
LOS ANGELES, United States: The suspect in a Molotov cocktail attack on a march by Jewish protesters in Colorado will face an additional 12 charges for carrying out a hate crime, the US Justice Department said Wednesday.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, already faces over 100 criminal counts for allegedly throwing firebombs and spraying burning gasoline at a group of people who gathered on June 1 in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
President Donald Trump cited the attack, which injured 15 people, to justify his decision to ban travel from 12 countries to the United States to “protect” the nation from “foreign terrorists.”
Authorities have said Soliman, 45, was in the United States illegally at the time of the incident as he had overstayed his tourist visa.
Alongside the newly announced federal charges, Soliman faces 28 attempted murder charges as well as a bevvy of other counts relating to his alleged use of violence.
He also faces a count of animal cruelty for a dog that was hurt.
Police who rushed to the scene of the attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say Soliman had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.
In bystander videos, the attacker can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “Killers!“
It came less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.
