Opening arguments will begin in Chicago on Wednesday in the first civil trial against US aviation giant Boeing over the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX aircraft, which killed 157 people, after a full day of jury selection.  Five women and three men will serve on the jury in the proceedings, which got underway Monday at a federal court. The jury will rule on the suits filed by family members of 155 victims between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims.On four prior occasions, attorneys reached last-minute settlements that averted a trial, and an out-of-court settlement remains possible even during the trial. Each side will have 90 minutes on Wednesday to present its case. Judge Jorge Alonso, who is overseeing all civil claims tied to the accident, allowed lawyers on Tuesday to participate in the process, Robert Clifford, lead counsel for one of the plaintiffs, told AFP. “I think his goal was to get as unbiased a jury as he could obtain,” he said. “Even if he asked a lot more questions than maybe would be normal… it wouldn’t have surprised me that a case as complex as this could easily have taken two days to select a jury.”- ‘Battle lines are drawn’ -Lawyers for Boeing and the families of victims of the fatal crash were originally expecting to give opening statements on Tuesday, but those were pushed to the next day because it took six hours to finish jury selection.As many as 50 potential jurors packed the courtroom on the 19th floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Tuesday, while the public filled the pews on the other side.With the jury selected, it is less likely that the two parties will settle the case, Clifford said, adding that the plaintiffs have not talked with the defendants about settling.”The battle lines are drawn and there’s no active negotiations going on,” the lawyer said.The eight-person jury that was picked will be hearing the case concerning the March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines flight that went down six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all on board.The two principal plaintiffs in the trial are the families of Shikha Garg of New Delhi and Mercy Ndivo of Kenya.Garg had been a consultant for the United Nations Development Program who had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environment Assembly.She had gotten married three months earlier and had planned to travel with her husband, who canceled his flight at the last minute because of a professional meeting. Garg had attended the landmark 2015 UN climate talks in Paris.Ndivo and her husband, who also died in the crash, were parents of a girl who is now almost eight years old. She was returning from London, having attended a graduation ceremony after earning a Masters in Accountancy.Boeing has said it is “deeply sorry” for the Ethiopian Airlines crash and for a separate MAX crash on Lion Air that killed 189 people on a domestic flight in Indonesia in 2018.The American manufacturer has also stressed its commitment to settling cases when possible.The firm has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS… contributed to these events,” a Boeing lawyer said last October.The MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) flight stabilizing software was implicated in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.Boeing also faced dozens of complaints from Lion Air family victims. Just one case remains open.

First pressuring South Africa, and now threatening Nigeria, President Donald Trump is letting US domestic politics steer his policy on Africa — boding ill for foreign governments hit with his fury.Trump last week said he would put Nigeria on a blacklist on religious freedom over treatment of Christians — a long-running demand of evangelicals who are one of his most loyal bases — but took a stunning turn by also threatening military action against Africa’s most populous nation.Trump’s sudden intervention comes despite otherwise showing limited interest in sub-Saharan Africa, which in his first term he was the first president in recent times not to visit.Trump has highlighted US diplomacy in securing a fragile peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but largely in the context of boasting that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize and of the United States securing mineral wealth.Nigeria has witnessed years of deadly clashes between mostly Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herders.The violence centers on clashes over dwindling resources, although on the surface it falls along ethnic and religious lines.”It is incredibly irresponsible of President Trump to threaten military action,” said Representatives Gregory Meeks and Sara Jacobs, the top Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and its Africa subcommittee respectively.”Providing security support is one thing; threatening military intervention to ‘defend Christians’ is a reckless response to distorted facts which risks embroiling the United States in another war,” they said in a joint statement.Republicans who champion the evangelical movement applauded Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” on religious freedom, which can carry sanctions, although they steered clear of cheering on military intervention.The blacklisting is a “critical step in holding accountable and changing the behavior of Nigerian officials who have facilitated and created an environment conducive to the outrages in Nigeria,” Senator Ted Cruz said.- Evangelical narrative as ‘Gospel’ -Pauline Bax, an Africa expert at the International Crisis Group, which supports conflict resolution, said that pressure groups had been key in channeling information on Africa to the Trump administration, which has sidelined traditional diplomats.”In the US, there’s a surge of what you could call Christian nationalism, partly fueled by the Trump administration. So I think conflict in Africa risks being sometimes framed in that light,” she said.Cameron Hunter, a former Africa director on the National Security Council, said that Trump’s base has invested in the narrative of Christians as persecuted, both at home and abroad.”They’re applying a kind of parochial worldview to, in this case, Nigeria. But it could be Iraq tomorrow, or the Philippines, or any other country. It just so happens that they spun the wheel and it landed on Nigeria,” he said.”The problem is that this presidency isn’t questioning the analysis of the Christian Right. They’re literally taking their assessment of this conflict for Gospel.”Following South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu requested a meeting with Trump to clear the air.The White House visit went disastrously for Ramaphosa, who was played footage by Trump who alleged a “genocide” against the white minority by the post-apartheid government, a narrative promoted online by white nationalists.Hudson said meeting Trump would be the “absolute wrong move” for Tinubu, seeing that the US leader has shown he is not willing to accept explanations from others.Instead, Hudson said Nigeria could leverage Trump’s anger by asking for more security assistance to help fight Boko Haram militants.The United States is inching toward sending attack helicopters approved for Nigeria in 2022. The Trump administration in August approved another $346 million arms sale to Nigeria.Nigeria has “a very real interest in combating Boko Haram and extremist threats in the country,” Hudson said.”If the Nigerians were smart, they would look for ways to use these threats and turn them into a cooperative arrangement that actually helps them.”

At least three people died and 11 more were injured after a UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday from Louisville International Airport in Kentucky, exploding into flames as it crashed into businesses adjacent to the airport, sending a massive plume of black smoke over the area. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 departing for Hawaii crashed at around 5:15 p.m. local time (2215 GMT). Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told a press briefing that he expected the number of dead and injured was going to rise, with the current toll including only those on the ground that were currently accounted for.UPS said in a statement that three crew members were on board the aircraft, adding that “we have not confirmed any injuries/casualties.”Beshear said the status of the three crew members was unknown and said that he was “very concerned” for them.The cause of the crash was under investigation by the FAA and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Video shared by local broadcaster WLKY appears to show the aircraft’s left engine on fire as it tried to lift off.Louisville serves as the main US air hub for UPS, according to a company fact sheet. The package delivery giant travels to more than 200 countries via nearly 2,000 flights per day, with a fleet of 516 aircraft. UPS owns 294 of those planes and hires the rest through short-term leases or charters. Aerial footage of the crash site showed a long trail of debris as firefighters blasted water on the flames, with smoke billowing from the disaster area.Governor Beshear said the aircraft hit a petroleum recycling facility “pretty directly.”- Government shutdown -The crash comes amid one of the longest government shutdowns in US history, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warning of “mass chaos” earlier Tuesday due to a lack of air traffic control staff. “You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” Duffy told reporters.In a statement on X, Duffy called footage of the crash “heartbreaking,” adding: “Please join me in prayer for the Louisville community and flight crew impacted by this horrific crash.”In January, an American Eagle airliner hit a military Black Hawk outside Washington’s Ronald Reagan airport, killing 67 people.That crash, which ended the United States’ 16-year streak of no fatal commercial air crashes, has added to concerns about the US air traffic control system, which some regard as an understaffed operation beset by problems with old equipment.