Brookhaven, MS: Black FedEx driver shot at by two white men loses job days after mistrial – National & International News – WED 23Aug2023

.Brookhaven, MS: Black FedEx driver shot at by two white men loses job after mistrial.

Biden launches new income-driven repayment program for student borrowers.

Russia: Wagner mercenary chief Prigozhin in fatal plane crash, supposedly.

NATIONAL NEWS

Brookhaven, MS: Black FedEx driver shot at by two white men loses job after mistrial

Last week, a judge in Brookhaven, MS, declared a mistrial in the attempted murder trial against Gregory and Brandon Case, a white father and son accused of shooting at Black FedEx driver D’Monterrio Gibson, now 25, as he was working his rural route. The shooting took place in January of 2022. Gibson was not hurt but several of the bullets impacted his delivery van and damaged packages within.

The judge in the case said he had “no choice” but to declare a mistrial after one of the Brookhaven PD detectives on the case inexplicably withheld a key piece of evidence from both the defense and the prosecution.

This egregious breach of professionalism is apparently not unusual for the Brookhaven Police Department. Last month, a Lincoln County grand jury reviewing over 60 cases found that the Brookhaven PD is “complacent,” “does not complete investigations in a timely manner,” shows a “lack of professionalism” and “has a habit of witness blaming”. 

Gibson endures threats, job loss

Just days after the mistrial, Gibson learned that he no longer had a job at FedEx. The company apparently fired Gibson when he turned down a part-time non-courier position with the company in mid-July. Gibson said he turned down the job because he still suffers from anxiety, depression, insomnia, and random panic attacks. He says he requested a work-from-home position and was told there were none.

The day after the shooting in 2022, Gibson’s FedEx superiors put him back on the very same route, causing Gibson immense anxiety. This prompted an outcry, after which FedEx issued an apology. Since then, Gibson has been on workers comp at one-third salary. The company also voluntarily paid for the first eight sessions of Gibson’s therapy, but since then Gibson says he’s been paying out of his own pocket. Gibson’s attorney Carlos Moore says he looks forward “to holding FedEx accountable in a court of law for intentional infliction of emotional distress”.

These were not the only stressful events for Gibson last year. In August of 2022, the FBI investigated a death threat against Gibson from a white supremacist in Louisiana.

Biden launches new income-driven repayment program for student borrowers

President Biden and the Education Department are continuing to explore ways to offer some relief for student debt. After being paused since 2020, student loan repayments are set to resume in October. Already, analysts are predicting a record wave of defaults and delinquencies. The White House’s new plan, dubbed “SAVE”, aims to help middle- and low-income borrowers avoid costly defaults while giving them some hope they might one day be free of their debt burdens.

The plan has several planks:

• Starting in 2024, repayment amounts will be tied to as little as 5% of a individual borrower’s disposable income (the money left over after necessities like rent and groceries). This applies to principle amounts from undergraduate educations. The percentage for borrowers with post-graduate debt will can be as high as 10%, depending on their income and initial loan amounts.
• Starting this year, individuals earning less than $32,805/year (or families of four bringing in less than $67,500/year) will be eligible for $0 payments until their income rises. These $0 payments will still count towards forgiveness when the required years of payment elapse.
• Borrowers who took on less than $12000 in debt for undergraduate education will also be eligible for forgiveness after 10 years of payments rather than the current 20 years.

The administration is urging borrowers to apply for SAVE as soon as possible so they can start benefitting from the plan as soon as repayments resume. You can apply at https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Wagner mercenary chief Prigozhin in fatal plane crash, supposedly

The final curtain may, or may not, have fallen at last for Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Russian state media reports that Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a small plane that went down in Russia’s Tver region, about 100 miles northwest of Moscow. 

On June 23 this year (exactly two months ago, interestingly), Prigozhin led a short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin on Russian soil. The revolt came to an end when Belarussian President and Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal that would allow Prigozhin to go into exile in Belarus. In exchange, Prigozhin would face no treason charges, and his mercenary troops in Ukraine would be allowed to either go to Belarus or join Russian army units.

Confusingly, days after the revolt, Russian state media reported that Prigozhin attended a meeting at the Kremlin with Putin and high-ranking generals. At the time, some commentators speculated that this meeting never actually happened and that Prigozhin was already either dead or in prison. 

Dead men telling tales

As if to silence any speculation about Prigozhin’s status, Wagner’s semi-official Telegram channel subsequently shared still photos purporting to show Prigozhin meeting with an African diplomat during a high-profile summit in St. Petersburg. Also, a grainy video (which never showed “Prigozhin’s” face) emerged showing Prigozhin greeting his troops in Belarus and telling them to prepare to deploy to Africa.

Also in that video was Dimitri Utkin, Wagner’s field commander, who had never before been filmed speaking with Wagner troops. Utkin was also reportedly on the plane that went down in Tver today.

Following the recently military coup in Niger, the same Telegram channel shared an audio clip in which “Prigozhin’s” voice can be heard congratulating the coup leaders. He proclaimed the overthrow of President Mohammed Barzoum to be a victory over European colonialism in Africa.

Then just a couple of days ago, the Telegram account shared a video, this time clearly showing “Prigozhin’s” face. Prigozhin, speaking directly into the camera, makes a recruiting pitch. He calls for Wagner troops to come fight in Africa, to help make the continent “even more free”. The post indicates the video was from somewhere in Africa, possibly Mali.

Prigozhin isn’t the only high-profile Russian whose status is in doubt following the revolt. Yesterday, Putin “fired” Sergei Surovikin, a high-ranking general with ties to Prigozhin. There are have been no reliable reports about Surovikin’s whereabouts since at least July. One blogger with ties to the Russian military reported in July that Surovikin “had not been home” since the revolt.

What does it all mean?

Kremlin-watchers were perplexed at Putin’s apparent leniency towards Prigozhin and others that took part in the rebellion. Letting Prigozhin off the hook not only made Putin look weak, it was unquestionably out-of-step with his well-earned reputation for ruthlessness. Most analysts, including CIA head William Burns, opined that Prigozhin’s days were likely numbered, if he wasn’t dead already.

At least one Wagner-linked account has claimed that the plane, which was apparently carrying Wagner’s entire leadership team, was brought down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.

But if the speculation is true and all the audio, video and photos of Prigozhin released in the last two months were deepfakes, it begs some questions. Perhaps Prigozhin’s reputation as a beloved, bombastic figurehead for his Wagner troops was too valuable to snuff out all at once. It seems no accident that all of Prigozhin’s “appearances” in the last few months were calculated to shift Wagner’s momentum towards Africa.

Now that Prigozhin has met his untimely and unverifiable demise in the Russian hinterland, does this mean that Putin has met his objectives (whatever they were) and that Prigozhin’s figurehead status has reached the end of its usefulness? It’s possible we’ll never know, and equally possible the answer will become excruciatingly obvious in the very near future. 

None of this may prove to be very important, but it is at least an interesting puzzle akin to the fate of Schrödinger’s cat.