Should the execution of Fort Hood gunman be livestreamed?

Executions of criminals rarely receive such publicity. But two recent cases have raised new issues over the use of capital punishment in the US justice system. Christa Pike, aged 50, had been on death row for thirty years for killing a 17-year-old girl in 1995 and she should have been executed by lethal injection on September 30 at a prison in the state of Tennessee. However, after two attempts, she was still alive and is now in hospital recovering. Her lawyers are saying that since the state failed to end her life, she should be spared and kept in prison instead of facing yet another attempt at executing her. For those who support capital punishment – I am not one of them – there may well be a case for completing the punishment approved by the courts, trying a different method of execution. No doubt, the family of the girl she murdered would like to see the death penalty efficiently carried out. However, there must also be an argument that says: the state had its chance to carry out the death sentence and failed, and that it would be inhumane to have a third attempt at some time in the future. What if it failed again? It’s an issue that may have to be resolved by the courts. But it should also raise questions in the state of Tennessee and in other states where the death penalty is part of the legal system, about whether capital punishment is a right and proper form of justice in a modern democracy. The other case raises issues of a different kind. Pete Hegseth, the war secretary, has announced that he plans to livestream the execution by firing squad of the former army major, Nidal Hasan ,who was convicted of shooting dead thirteen unarmed soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in 2009. ”People need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said. Hasan is due to face a firing squad on December 3. It would be the first public execution in the US for about a hundred years. The announcement has provoked strong opposition from both Republicans and Democrats. It is easy to see why. The idea of livestreaming an execution so that members of the public can watch a man being shot dead is both gruesome and repulsive. There is enough violence on television without having a state-sponsored video of a death by shooting carried out on behalf of the Department of War (or Defence as it used to be called). The public livestreaming has apparently been supported by the president. But in the seven weeks before the execution is due to take place, one hopes that the decision made by the secretary of war will be overturned. It would be a public spectacle no one in their right mind would want to watch.

The message for Iran after the withdrawal of bombers from RAF Fairford

Whichever way you look at it, the decision by the Pentagon to pull out every B1 bomber from RAF Fairford was extraordinary. It sent a message of panic all the way to Tehran. However good the intelligence was that led to the decision, it smacks of retreat, and Tehran will want to exploit the apparent vulnerability of US aircraft stationed overseas. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that these hugely expensive long-range bombers were just sitting out in the open at Fairford. Why on earth are there not bomb-hardened shelters for every bomber? It's the same for the mighty B-52s and the B-2 stealth bombers when they fly into Fairford. They sit there like come-and-get-me targets. Hardened shelters are very expensive to build, but rather than spend the money to keep them safe, the bombers are flown home to the safety of the United States. Donald Trump has made little of it, saying it was better to be cautious. But to Tehran it will have been seen as a victory. The mighty superpower withdrawing its bombers for fear of an Iranian plot to launch drones at them. Having already suffered billions of dollars of damage at multiple bases in the Middle East as a result of Iranian attacks by ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, the overal picture is not good vis a vis Washington's confrontation with Iran. Ok, the B1 bombers will be in the safety of the US to fight another day but the empty spaces at RAF Fairford are a lasting reminder that Tehran made America look frightened.

Will Trump be impeached if Democrats win the House?

I think it's almost inevitable that if the Democrats win the House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November, Donald Trump will be facing impeachment. There is already a lot of chit-chat about it in Washington. That doesn't mean Trumnp will be ousted because the Senate is likely to remain in Republican majority hands and will overrule all attempts to get rid of the president. We've been here before. But it does mean that the Democrats will give Trump a really hard time, and there will be headlines which even he won't be able to claim are fake news. With impeachment procedures underway, in the event of a Democratic win in November, it will also electrify the atmosphere in Washington. Trump will be under constant media pressure, even more than he is at the moment. On the other hand, if the Democrats go around telling everyone they are going to try and impeach the president if they win the House, then it might just dissuade some doubting voters amongst Republicans to stick with Trump after all. No one really enjoys impeachment proceedings. They disrupt normal life and make the US look bad in the eyes of the rest of the world. It will also make Trump steeming mad and he would try and take revenge somehow on leading Democrats pushing for his downfall. If the Democrats fail to win the House, it might just be because too many of them have been talking too much about impeaching Trump rather than offering new legislation to help people cope with the rising cost of living.

A plague on all these dangerous virus laboratories

How unsurprising that now it's Russia which has let loose a potentially mass-killing virus to alarm the world yet again. First, it was a lab in Wuhan in China which appears to have released, in error, the Covid-19 virus in 2019 which spread around the world, killing millions of people, ruining countless lives and giving millions of others life-changing illnesses. China has always denied it was the Wuhan laboratory which leaked Covid but everyone else believes otherwise. Now Russia is trying to deny any problem after a woman died after inhaling pneumonic plague which poured out of a glass test tube she dropped on a laboratory floor in Siberia. Are we about to face another pandemic with everyone wearing masks? It's deja vue all over again! The US which has offered to help Russia, is trying to calm things by saying there is no evidence yet pf mass spreading of the virus, and as Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said, there are very few flights between Russia and the US or to Europe for that matter. But here's a thing. The worst scenario would be if the plague virus spreads in Russia, Russian troops serving in Ukraine get it and spread it, and then Europeans and Americans who constantly go in and out of Ukraine helping the Kyiv government, get infected and when they return home they apread it, and so on. This is alarmist. But this is what happened with Covid, when tens of thousands of Chinese, including from Wuhan, visited friends and relations in Europe to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and Covid-19 took hold everywhere. With the Covid pandemic in mind, let us hope the Russian authorities are sufficiently astute to clamp everything down and stop the plague from spreading anywhere. The omens are not good.

Mystery deepens as Trump orders all bombers home from UK base

The sudden departure of all 12 of the US Air Force's B1-B bombers based at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire is the latest development in one of the most bizarre mysteries of recent times. While the police are still investigating six men, one Iranian-born, allegedly connected to a bomb plot against RAF Fairford, the US has taken fright and ordered every bomber to fly home. Can there really be intelligence that Iran was planning to hit the base and destroy the bombers? What with? Drones? It all seems far-fetched but there has to be something the spooks have uncovered to make the US act in such an extraordinary way. RAF Fairford is already heavily guarded and protected. It's a pretty humiliating admission if the US military and British police cannot keep this base safe from terrorists. No one is telling us what this is about, so it has given rise to mass speculation. The arrested "plotters" were all bailed. So were they just doing a dry run? The exit of the 12 bombers, all of which had previously been used to launch strikes on targets in Iran - so much cheaper and quicker than having to fly all the way from bases in the US - suggests that a real terrorist attack was imminent. I can understand the US wanting to make sure none of the B1s are damaged in any way but flying them all off back to America seems extreme to say the least. It doesn't say much for America's confidence in the British authorities to keep these vital warmaking assets safe.

How can the Iranian economy survive?

Even the top security official in Iran has now admitted that times are tough. The continuing US naval blockade which stops all oil exports, and the heavy sanctions are taking their toll on the Iranian economy. Life for the Iranian people is really bad. The New York Times reports that many people in important jobs like nursing and teaching are giving up because they earn so little or are not paid at all. I assume they mean they are taking more menial jobs which pay netter. But how long can Iran carry on without imploding? This is what Donald Trump is counting on. He wants Iran to die economically, so he can then dictate the terms of surrender.So far, the regime in Tehran has hung on, hoping that the midterm elections in the US will be so bad for Trump and the Republican party that it will give Iran leverage to dictate their own terms for a settlement. The reality is that the "war" - for xhe moment without actual bombing - will just grind on with neither side winning or losing. But if the economy in Iran is really that bad, then there may come a time when the whole population cries out and street protests return. Would the regime dare to kill the protesters again like they did before the US launched its war? I fear for the poor Iranian people.

Sacked Royal Navy chief loses his knighthood. Oh come on!

I can't write Admiral Sir Ben Key anymore because the former head of the Royal Navy who was sacked last year for having an affair with a subordinate, has had his knighthood removed. Plus his CBE and all his medals. Are we really in the 21st century? By all accounts the former admiral served as the First Sea Lord with distinction, vision and commitment. He was also liked and was fair. But he had an affair with a woman of lesser rank - well, obviously every woman in the Royal Navy is of lesser rank because he was the top admiral - and he gets punished not once but three times. Loss of job, loss of medals and honours, loss of knighthood. This seems to me to be cruel and way over the top, especially when you see other public figures who have not served the nation with distinction retaining their knighthoods. I will name no names. Of course, the armed services have rigid conduct standards, and this is right and proper, but not only have the powers-that-be kicked Mr Key out of the Navy, they have then kicked him again and again, removing all the honours and medals which for very good reasons were awarded to reflect his achievements in the service of his country. Had he shoplifted or robbed a bank, the removal of his knighthood would be seen as fully justified. In his case, he made a personal mistake. The treatment he has received has been brutal, although a little mercy was shown because he has been allowed to keep his pension.