Rittenhouse shooting victim in court: Thought ‘I was going to die’ – National & International News – MON 8Nov2021

Rittenhouse shooting victim: Thought “I was going to die”. Kidnapped girl rescued after using “domestic violence” hand signal. COP26: Rich countries balk at climate reparations for poor countries.

NATIONAL NEWS

Kyle Rittenhouse shooting victim testifies in court: Thought “I was going to die”

Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, was the only person to survive being shot by militia member Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, WI last year. Two others died.

Testifying at Rittenhouse’s murder trial today, Grosskreutz told the court in that he thought “I was going to die”, when he approached Rittenhouse, who had already fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum. Grosskreutz, who was working as a volunteer medic during the protest, attempted to confront him with his own sidearm to try and stop what he perceived as an “active shooter” situation.

As he approached Rittenhouse, Grosskreutz was live streaming. A portion of the video was played for the court, in which Grosskreutz asks Rittenhouse, “What are you doing? You shot somebody?”. At that point, other protesters attempted to disarm Rittenhouse and he stumbled to the ground. Still on the ground, Rittenhouse re-racked his AR-15, fatally shooting Anthony Huber who had attempted to disarm him. Grosskreutz, who was wearing his medic’s hat, raised his hands, still holding the pistol, and Rittenhouse shot him in the arm. He lost most of his bicep and has been left largely without the use of that arm.

When the prosecutor asked Grosskreutz why he had not shot Rittenhouse first as he lay on the ground, Grosskreutz answered, “That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there. It’s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become”.

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Kidnapped girl rescued after using “domestic violence” hand signal from TikTok

Last week, the parents of a 16-year-old girl in Asheville, NC, reported their daughter missing. The daughter initially willingly got into the car of a 61-year-old male acquaintance. But at some point she realized she had been abducted. The man drove the girl up to visit his relatives in Ohio, but left with her after the relatives realized the girl’s parents had reported her missing.

As they were driving on I-75 in Laurel County, KY, the girl flashed a subtle hand signal to the driver in another car. She raised one hand, showing the driver her palm with her thumb extended. Then she tucked her thumb into her palm and lowered her fingers over it, “trapping” her thumb. The driver of the other car recognized the distress signal as a plea for help from domestic violence. The signal has gone viral on the video-sharing app TikTok.

The alert driver called 911 and followed the kidnapper’s car until deputies caught up with them on the highway. They rescued the girl and arrested the kidnapper, James Herbert Brick of Cherokee, NC. Brick was charged with unlawful imprisonment and possession of material showing a sexual performance by a minor.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

COP26: Wealthy countries push back on paying climate damages to poor countries

After last week’s leader summit, representatives from dozens of countries will spend this week of COP26 horse-trading and hashing out the details and mechanics needed to materialize the promises their leaders made last week. One of the items on the agenda are climate reparations.

Wealthier countries have been producing carbon emissions longer and have benefitted from the most from carbon-heavy industries. But it’s poor and geographically vulnerable countries that are already paying the price. Climate scientists predict rising sea levels, crop failures and increasingly severe climate disasters across the globe in the coming decades. For vulnerable countries, that bleak future is already here. Last week, the leader of Barbados said that two degrees of climate change would be “a death sentence” for her island nation.

Poor countries are asking rich nations for compensation for the damage already caused. The money would go towards necessary climate adaptations to fend off the effects of worsening climate change. Such an agreement was already reached at the 2015 Paris climate talks. But the representatives from poorer nations say the wealthy nations are squabbling about who should pay and how much. Rich nations are refusing to make any commitments as they don’t want to accept liability or open themselves up to lawsuits.

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