内容摘要：Commonly used projections shrink the size of Africa, but experts have long debated whether creating a precise map is possible.

Commonly used projections shrink the size of Africa, but experts have long debated whether creating a precise map is possible.

Which brings us to the latest case, that of Larry Hoover, the notorious founder of the Chicago Gangster Disciples, convicted of ordering the murder of a rival, along with a laundry list of other offences. Prosecutors did not even bother to bring many cases to trial. Indeed, at a hearing last year, a judge asked one of Hoover’s lawyers: “How many other murders is he responsible for?”Trump commuted his federal sentence, which is unlikely to achieve much more than to transfer him to the less pleasant Illinois prison, where he must serve 200 years on a state murder conviction. What does this achieve, and what was the president’s motive for doing it?

One particularly odd element of these pardons is that CBS News reports that many of the beneficiaries had not even made a formal application. Trump just reached out and acted on his own. In some instances, he seems to have been relying on what he saw on television. He has said he is considering clemency for those convicted in the 2020 conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government. “I did watch the trial,” he said. “It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job…”Even if it is currently sometimes corrupt, or simply arbitrary, I would not abolish the president’s prerogative of mercy. I am in favour of considering second chances in all cases, for as a society we are much too punitive. But if citizens are to maintain any sense of respect for the judicial system, there should be a degree of consistency.Indeed, due process means that there is a process, and it should be followed. I filed a compelling 76,000 word clemency petition in the case of

before Christmas, which Biden dismissed on January 20 without addressing any of the grounds – her innocence, the CIA’s abduction of his children, the fact that she had been tortured in US custody, and the sexual abuse she faces in prison today.Then, this week, my octogenarian former death row client, Clarence Smith, passed away in federal prison. He had been denied compassionate release even though he was terminally ill, was again patently innocent and had proved himself to be a model prisoner: He had, in his forty-one years in the penitentiary, only been given one disciplinary punishment, for the heinous offence of making his prison bed before being told to do so.

Let us therefore keep an eye on how the president’s immense power is used (or abused), and perhaps consider imposing some rules of transparency upon him.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.According to United Nations

, a global database of official international trade statistics, in 2024, the UK ranked as Israel’s 11th largest import partner, with imports totalling some $1.96bn. The main products imported from the UK included machinery such as jet engines, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals and vehicles.Conversely, the UK was Israel’s eighth largest export destination, receiving Israeli exports valued at about $1.57bn, primarily of diamonds, chemical products, machinery and electronics.

What are Israel’s biggest imports and exports?Israel’s global trade in 2024 consisted of $91.5bn in imports and $61.7bn in exports.