Benjamin Netanyahu Takes the Stand in Delayed Corruption Trial
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to a courtroom in Jerusalem today to face multiple charges of corruption, fraud, breach of the public trust and bribery. All three trials have been postponed on multiple occasions, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic and later as Netanyahu led Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza. In one case, Netanyahu is accused of enacting regulatory decisions worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of an online news site in exchange for a promise to drop negative stories about Netanyahu. In another case, Netanyahu is accused of accepting champagne, cigars and other gifts from two wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favors.
New York Jury Acquits Daniel Penny, Who Killed Distressed Street Performer Jordan Neely
A New York jury on Monday acquitted subway vigilante Daniel Penny in the chokehold death of street performer Jordan Neely on a Manhattan subway train last May, finding Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Thirty-year-old Neely, a beloved Michael Jackson impersonator, was unhoused and hungry, and crying out for help when Penny, a white former U.S. marine, attacked him and pinned him down on a subway train by the neck for six minutes. Neely’s family has separately filed a civil lawsuit against Penny. Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, was removed from the New York courtroom yesterday after protesting the not-guilty verdict, along with others. Zachery spoke from outside the courthouse.
Andre Zachery: “I miss my son. My son didn’t have to go through this. I didn’t have to go through this, either. It hurts, really, really hurts. What are we going to do, people? What’s going to happen to us now? I had enough of this. System is rigged. Come on, people. Let’s do something about this.”
Nikki Giovanni, Acclaimed Poet, Educator and Activist, Dies at 81
Nikki Giovanni, one of the most celebrated poets in the United States, has died of cancer at the age of 81. Giovanni was dubbed the “Princess of Black Poetry” after she published her first collection of poems, “Black Feeling, Black Talk,” in 1968. She went on to publish more than 30 books, including a memoir that was a finalist for the National Book Award and a children’s picture book titled “Rosa,” about the civil rights legend Rosa Parks. Giovanni was a distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech University, where in the fall of 2005 she removed a student from her introductory creative writing course and reported his disturbing behavior to her department head. That student went on to kill 32 people and wound 17 others in a campus shooting at Virginia Tech, after which Giovanni became a fierce advocate for gun control. In 2013, Nikki Giovanni joined us in our Democracy Now! studio, where she shared some of her poems.
Nikki Giovanni: “Poetry is as necessary
To life
As salt is to stew
As garlic is to pasta
As perfume is to summer nights
As shaving lotion is to mornings
As your smile is to
My happiness
“Poetry is as significant
To life
As yeast is to bread
As butter is to toast
As grapes are to wine
As sugar is to lemons
How else will we get
Lemonade
“Poetry is to me
Your voice
Your touch
Your laughter
That feeling at the end of the day
That I am
Not alone”
Nikki Giovanni has died at the age of 81 of cancer. Click here to see our interviews with her.
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