By Niara Savage

In a new development in the ongoing investigation of the shooting death of 25-year old Daniel Hambrick, Andrew Delke, the officer who shot Hambrick three times in the back, has been charged with criminal homicide.

These charges represent not only the first time in years that an on-duty Nashville officer has been charged after shooting someone, but also a step towards justice for the Hambrick family.

Daniel Hambrick was the only child of his mother, Vickie Hambrick who is legally blind. According to a cousin of the late Daniel Hambrick, she often depended on her son to help her navigate the world and overcome the unique challenges presented by her disability.

The charges against Delke hinge partly on the fact that the officer, who was supposed to be searching for stolen cars, lost track of a vehicle he had previously been following. After pulling into a parking lot with the vehicle he falsely believed was the one he had pursued earlier, Delke preceded to chase down a fleeing Hambrick, who he believed may have been associated with the misidentified vehicle.

The officer has since been released on 25,000 bond, and has been fully suspended from duty. As Delke awaits an October 30th hearing, and the nation anticipates what rebuke–if any–awaits him, the words of Daniel’s mother hang in the air: “I just want justice for my son. That’s all I’m asking. And for all the black guys and young women, I want justice for them.”

By Susan Scutti
CNN Newsource

Ebola virus disease has sickened 150 people and caused the deaths of at least 69 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeastern region, the nation’s Ministry of Health reported Monday.

Of these 150 cases, 119 have been confirmed and 31 are probable. An additional 31 deaths have occurred among probable and suspected cases, which would bring total Ebola deaths to 100 once confirmed. Forty-one people have recovered, according to the ministry.

“We have passed the sad mark of 100 deaths,” Dr. Peter Salama, WHO deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response, said Tuesday. “The response is facing a series of grave obstacles.”

After weeks of control efforts having made impact, Salama expressed concern the outbreak could now worsen due to attacks in the region, movement of people and distrust in the community.

“We are now extremely concerned that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks to months to create the potential perfect storm,” he said, outlining the harms of “active conflict limiting our ability to access civilians, distrust by a community, already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder, driven by a fear of a terrifying disease but also exploited and manipulated by local politicians prior to an election.”

Parts of the local population are refusing treatment because of distrust and superstitions, he said.

A violent clash in Beni on Sunday, attributed to the Alliance of Democratic Forces, led to the death of at least 21 people, including 17 civilians, according to Salama.

“The response at this stage is at a critical juncture,” he said. “We have seen an increased frequency and increased severity of attacks by armed opposition groups in recent weeks.”

In a tweet, Salama communicated that the Ebola response teams in the city of Beni were on lockdown beginning Sunday.

WHO #Ebola response teams in Beni #DRC are on lockdown today, unable to move because of security concerns following violence by armed rebel groups over the weekend when many civilians were killed.

— Peter Salama (@PeteSalama) September 24, 2018

Those on lockdown include the teams that distribute vaccinations, those who track family, friends, and others who came in contact with those infected, and those who educate the public by working directly with the community.

In its daily report, the Ministry of Health stated that “many residents of the city of Beni took to the streets on Sunday to protest the growing insecurity in the area.”

The Ministry added that field activities will resume “as soon as calm returns to the city.”

This suspension of activity in Beni was addressed by Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, Minister of Health, in a separate statement posted Monday.

“All the pillars of the response remain fully operational,” he wrote. He specified that the Beni Ebola Treatment Center remains open to patients, vaccinations continue and free health care remains available at approved centers, including to victims of violence.

Teams of healthcare personnel in areas outside Beni are continuing to conduct fieldwork, including providing vaccinations, according to WHO.

But “80% of people that are at risk of Ebola, at direct and immediate risk, were unable to be followed up yesterday in Beni,” Salama said Tuesday.

‘Wide geographical spread’

The North Kivu province is the epicenter of the outbreak, though some cases have been reported in neighboring Ituri province as well, according to WHO. Together, the two provinces, which are among the most populated in the nation, border Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

Congo is concurrently experiencing a long-term humanitarian crisis that includes intermittent armed conflict, according to WHO. As a result, other health epidemics, including cholera, measles and polio, as well as human trafficking, are flourishing there.

More than 1 million internally displaced people are in North Kivu and Ituri, according to WHO; the movement of refugees through and out of the provinces is a potential risk factor for the spread of Ebola.

In a tweet posted Monday, Salama stated that a case in Tchioma, an area of Congo that borders Uganda, “raises concern about further spread.”

Case of #Ebola in Tchioma #DRC raises concern about further spread:

1. This is a newly affected area
2. It is in an area which borders Uganda
3. The person actively avoided our teams and refused care

Multidisciplinary team travelled Sunday, arrived today to set up response.

— Peter Salama (@PeteSalama) September 24, 2018

On Tuesday he explained “this case is very close to the Kasen airport on the the riverbanks of lake Albert which has of course direct connectivity across the lake to Uganda. That area is entirely surrounded by a different rebel group…We are dealing now with 3 active armed opposition groups.”

Public health teams are also investigating nine suspected cases not included among the 150, the ministry reported.

“We now have wide geographical spread of Ebola,” said Salama. “Into red zones, into border areas with surrounding countries such as Uganda.”

On average, Ebola kills about half of those infected, but case fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied from 25 percent to 90 percent.

Ebola, which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging, most commonly affects people and nonhuman primates, such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees.

This is a second, separate outbreak that has occurred in Congo so far this year, according to the World Health Organization.

A previous outbreak, which began in May and ended in July, affected a western region of the country where 54 cases of Ebola virus were recorded, including 33 deaths.

Beginning with the 1976 discovery of Ebola in an area that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country has experienced 10 outbreaks, including this year’s outbreaks.

Thousands vaccinated

Since August 8, the Ministry has been inoculating people at high risk of an Ebola infection: primary and secondary contacts of those with confirmed Ebola infections.

More than 11,700 people have now been vaccinated, according to Salama, who described this as “the largest scale we have ever seen of the use of Ebola vaccine in the midst of a response.”

Despite the successful Ebola vaccine campaign, WHO encountered some community resistance in a small village, Ndindi, surrounding the city of Beni. Ndindi has been responsible for a large number of Ebola cases over the last few weeks.

The experimental rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, made by pharmaceutical company Merck, proved highly protective against the deadly virus in a major trial in Guinea, according to WHO.

Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with either bodily fluids or objects contaminated by someone ill with the disease, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In some cases, the virus is spread from contact with someone who has died from the disease. The virus enters the body through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose or mouth. People can get it through sexual contact, as well.

“Beyond the medical response, the only way to end the Ebola Virus Disease epidemic remains the mobilization and commitment of the community alongside the health authorities,” Kalenga said in a statement.

Salama called for a continued response from the International Community to ensure provinces and countries are prepared.

“We call on governments In surrounding countries to accelerate their preparedness, which they have begun, to ensure that if – as is increasingly possible – this outbreak spreads across international borders we are all collectively prepared to top it before it gets out of control,” he said.

CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Meera Senthilingam and Nina Avramova contributed to this report.

Analysis by Nic Robertson
CNN Newsource

US President Donald Trump came late to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning. And within moments, he had the gathered world leaders laughing.

By the time he finished, it was a far more somber mood in the hallowed chamber, in which Trump himself said “so much history has transpired”.

But on this day, he was making a history of his own.

The levity he sparked so soon into his address came, perhaps, because he was doing exactly what his audience had come to expect — plenty of ego; little humility: “I stand before the United Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we’ve made. In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

He boasted that America is stronger and more powerful than ever before: “Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. In other words, the United States is stronger, safer and a richer country than it was when I assumed office … We are standing up for America and for the American people.”

He stated, clearly, his administration’s view of the world: “America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination.

“The longer he spoke, the more portentous it became: “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy. America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism. And we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

And Trump made it clear he is happy to divide the world into nations he sees as his friends and those he sees as undeserving enemies: “We are taking a hard look at US foreign assistance … whether the countries who receive our dollars and protection also have our interests at heart. Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.”

And when he gave a shout out to some of those friends, he gave yet more insight into the sort of nations he considers allies. Many former friends were missing — indeed, erstwhile ally Germany even came in for criticism.

Somewhere near the top of the friends list this year — an astonishing turnaround from being the leader Trump criticized so readily from this very platform last year — was North Korea.

“I traveled to Singapore to meet face-to-face with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined.”

South Korea and Japan both got a shout-out, too. He singled out Saudi Arabia as a key ally, specifically piling praise on its autocratic rulers, King Salman and his son Mohammed Bin Salman. Other autocratic Gulf states got praise, too: “The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen.”

He praised Poland, whose right-wing President Andzrej Duda met with Trump a few days ago, offering to help build a new US military base that he would call “Fort Trump.”

The Polish leader, who faces possible sanctions from EU leaders for firing judges as part of sweeping political meddling in the country’s judiciary, got a double helping of praise.

Trump explained that Poland found favor with him for the way in which it is standing up to Russia: “We congratulate the European states such as Poland for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia … Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.”

There was a ringing endorsement of India’s tough leader, Narendra Modi. Trump highlighted Modi’s efforts on poverty, rather than his record of failing to curb sectarianism in India.

He also praised Israel: “There is Israel, proudly celebrating its 70th anniversary as a democracy in the Holy Land.”

This, of course, was Trump talking up his reasons for announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year, while making no mention of his cuts to UN budgets supporting Palestinians.

The obvious implication: If the Palestinians are losing funding, they are not friends who respect the US. As his speech drew to its close, Trump drew his thoughts together.

Just in case we missed it, he made clear once more his belief that though we might all share this planet, we live on it separately: “The whole world is richer, humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique. And each shining brightly in its part of the world.”

An hour or so before, the same audience listened to another worldview from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

He seemed to foreshadow Trump’s darker leaning with a lesson from history:”Today, with shifts in the balance of power, the risk of confrontation may increase… In assessing the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece, Thucydides said, and I quote, ‘It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable’.”

Trump offers a different worldview, one that keeps nations apart. In his words, “We must defend the foundations that make it all possible. Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived.”

There will be some who listened to Trump today and heard echoes of the 1930s.

Ironic, as the UN came into existence to overcome the global horrors from that dark moment in history.

By the time he finished, it was a far more somber mood in the hallowed chamber, in which Trump himself said “so much history has transpired.”

But on this day, he was making a history of his own.

The levity he sparked so soon into his address came, perhaps, because he was doing exactly what his audience had come to expect — plenty of ego; little humility: “I stand before the United Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we’ve made. In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

He boasted that America is stronger and more powerful than ever before: “Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. In other words, the United States is stronger, safer and a richer country than it was when I assumed office … We are standing up for America and for the American people.”

He stated, clearly, his administration’s view of the world: “America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control, and domination.”

The longer he spoke, the more portentous it became: “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy. America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism. And we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

And Trump made it clear he is happy to divide the world into nations he sees as his friends and those he sees as undeserving enemies: “We are taking a hard look at US foreign assistance … whether the countries who receive our dollars and protection also have our interests at heart. Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.”

And when he gave a shout out to some of those friends, he gave yet more insight into the sort of nations he considers allies. Many former friends were missing — indeed, erstwhile ally Germany even came in for criticism.

Somewhere near the top of the friends list this year — an astonishing turnaround from being the leader Trump criticized so readily from this very platform last year — was North Korea.

“I traveled to Singapore to meet face-to-face with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined.”

South Korea and Japan both got a worldview, too. He singled out Saudi Arabia as a key ally, specifically piling praise on its autocratic rulers, King Salman and his son Mohammed Bin Salman.

Other autocratic Gulf states got praise, too: “The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen.”

He praised Poland, whose right-wing President Andzrej Duda met with Trump a few days ago, offering to help build a new US military base that he would call “Fort Trump.”

The Polish leader, who faces possible sanctions from EU leaders for firing judges as part of sweeping political meddling in the country’s judiciary, got a double helping of praise.

Trump explained that Poland found favor with him for the way in which it is standing up to Russia: “We congratulate the European states such as Poland for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia … Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.”

There was a ringing endorsement of India’s tough leader, Narendra Modi. Trump highlighted Modi’s efforts on poverty, rather than his record of failing to curb sectarianism in India.

He also praised Israel: “There is Israel, proudly celebrating its 70th anniversary as a democracy in the Holy Land.”

This, of course, was Trump talking up his reasons for announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year, while making no mention of his cuts to UN budgets supporting Palestinians.

The obvious implication: If the Palestinians are losing funding, they are not friends who respect the US.

As his speech drew to its close, Trump drew his thoughts together.

Just in case we missed it, he made clear once more his belief that though we might all share this planet, we live on it separately: “The whole world is richer, humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique. And each shining brightly in its part of the world.”An hour or so before, the same audience listened to another worldview from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

He seemed to foreshadow Trump’s darker leaning with a lesson from history: “Today, with shifts in the balance of power, the risk of confrontation may increase… In assessing the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece, Thucydides said, and I quote, ‘It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable’.”

Trump offers a different worldview, one that keeps nations apart. In his words, “We must defend the foundations that make it all possible. Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived.”

There will be some who listened to Trump today and heard echoes of the 1930s. Ironic, as the UN came into existence to overcome the global horrors from that dark moment in history.

By Eric Levenson and Aaron Cooper
CNN Newsource

Bill Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” was sentenced Tuesday to three to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago.

Cosby’s bail was revoked and he was escorted from the courthouse in handcuffs.

“This was a serious crime,” Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Judge Steven O’Neill said. “Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The day has come, the time has come.”

Cosby, convicted in April of aggravated indecent assault, declined to speak to the court prior to the sentence. His attorneys have filed an appeal.

He also was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000 plus the costs of prosecution as part of the sentence. In addition, O’Neill ruled that Cosby will be classified as a “sexually violent predator,” a determination that requires lifetime registration, lifetime mandatory sex offender counseling with a treatment provider and notification to the community that a “sexually violent predator” lives in the area.

Cosby was booked into Montgomery County Correctional Facility and will be transferred to SCI Phoenix, a state prison in Collegeville, according to Corrie Emerson, public affairs manager for Montgomery County.

The lengthy path to this moment began in 2004 when Cosby, the groundbreaking actor, gave Constand pills to incapacitate her and then sexually assaulted her. 

She told police in 2005 about the incident but prosecutors declined to press charges, and they settled the case in civil court a year later.

A decade later, dozens of women came forward to say Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them over his decades as a powerful media figure. Constand’s was the only one of those cases that occurred within the statute of limitations.

A new team of prosecutors took up the case and, relying on Constand’s and Cosby’s statements in a civil deposition, arrested him in December 2015.

A first criminal trial against Cosby ended in a hung jury. But in April, Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and assaulting Constand in the first high-profile celebrity criminal trial of the #MeToo era.

“No one is above the law, and no one should be treated differently or disproportionally,” O’Neill said.

Cosby’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt unleashed on the media, judge and prosecutors after the sentence, calling the prosecution “the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.”

He also said Cosby was doing well because “he knows that these are lies” and even compared it to the sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“They persecuted Jesus and look what happened. (I’m) not saying Mr. Cosby’s Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries,” Wyatt said.

Gloria Allred, the victims’ rights attorney who represents several women who say they were assaulted by Cosby, praised the sentence as a long journey to justice.

“We’re glad that judgment day has finally come for Mr. Cosby,” she said. “Mr. Cosby has shown no remorse and there has been no justice for many of the accusers who were barred from a court by the arbitrary time limits imposed by the statute of limitations.”

Ahead of the sentencing, Constand wrote a five-page letter to the court explaining how Cosby’s assault — and the ensuing legal battle — had changed her life.

As a Temple University employee, she looked up to Cosby, a Temple trustee, as a mentor and friend. He used that position of power and trust, as well as his public persona as Dr. Huxtable, to take advantage of her, she testified at trial.

“Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it. He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature and my trust in myself and others,” she wrote in the impact statement.

O’Neill cited Constand’s statement in deciding on the sentence.

“I have given great weight to the victim impact testimony in this case, and it was powerful,” he said.

Kathy McKee, a former actress who has accused Cosby of raping her, told CNN that listening to the news about Cosby’s sentencing stirs up some “very difficult and deep emotions.”

“I’m happy that the judge sentenced Bill Cosby accordingly and I’m grateful to Andrea for standing strong,” she said.
Chelan Lasha, another of Cosby’s alleged victims, also praised the sentence.

“I am very happy to know that Mr. Cosby will do time in prison. That he is touchable, like he touched us unwillingly,” she said.

The prison sentence drew praise from victims and advocacy groups like the nonprofit Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, known as RAINN.

“We are grateful that the court understood the seriousness of Cosby’s crime and sentenced him to prison,” said Jodi Omear, vice president of communications at RAINN. “Let’s hope that the legacy of this case is that victims feel empowered to come forward, knowing that it can truly make a difference in bringing perpetrators to justice.”

Prosecutors had asked the judge on Monday to sentence Cosby to five to 10 years in state prison for the assault, saying he had shown “no remorse” for his actions. However, Cosby’s defense attorney, Joseph P. Green, asked for a sentence of house arrest, citing Cosby’s advanced age and blindness.