the times | Saturday June 11 2022 2GM 41Fighting in ice hockey is a tradition as
old as the sport itself and a highlight of
the game for many fans. In the US and
Canada, where fighting is accepted and
governed by a system of unwritten
rules, known as “the code”, some fans
attend games primarily to see favourite
players throwing punches on the ice.
Those fans will be delighted by the
arrival of Ice Wars International, an
organised hockey fighting league that
was launched two weeks ago. Combin-
ing mixed martial arts with the fine
tradition of ice hockey fighting, the
league held its first tournament in the
Canadian city of Edmonton before a
packed crowd and featured the fighters
Bone Saw, Buckethead and The Lion.
The sport is as basic as it sounds.
Eight fighters wearing full hockey geartransmitted disease that often has little
or no physical symptoms. The woman
claimed that he knew of his HPV diag-
nosis but did not tell her.
She wrote to Geico in February last
year demanding $1 million in damages
for “negligence and negligent infliction
of emotional distress”. Geico denied her
claim. In May that year the case was
sent to arbitration, where MO won and
was awarded $5.2 million in damages, to
be paid by the insurer. Geico appealed
against the judgment but a court ruled
that it lacked sufficient grounds.
The case will now go to a federal
court, where Geico is contesting that
the claim is covered by its policy. The
case could provide a precedent for what
insurers will be liable for in future.Woman wins $5m claim
after sex in partner’s car
Poppy KoronkaHockey brawling turns professional
slug it out until one man is left standing
victorious. No head-butting, kicking,
biting, hair-pulling, kneeing or tripping
is allowed. Helmets and gloves must
stay on. Ice Wars International says
that the “most extreme combat
sport ever invented” con-
sists of “professional and
semi-professional fighters
at the top of their game”.
The winner of the inaugu-
ral tournament, Daniel
“Diamond Hands”
Amesbury, knocked
out his own brother
on his way to the
title.
The new sport isthe brainchild of AJ Galante, best
known for being appointed as general
manager of the Danbury Trashers, a
short-lived professional hockey team
owned by his mobster father, in the
mid-2000s when he was 17.
During the first of the Trashers’ two
seasons several mass brawls on the
ice led to many of their players being
suspended. In the second one
Galante Sr was arrested on
72 criminal charges in-
cluding fraud and rack-
eteering, amid allega-
tions that the team
was being used as a
front for money laun-
dering. He was sen-
tenced to seven
years in jail and
the Trashers fold-
ed in 2006.Hugh Tomlinson WashingtonNot long after visiting her doctor for a
routine check-up, a Missouri woman
realised that she had been injured in a
car that had never crashed. What
caused her ailment, she told a court,
was having unprotected sex with her
partner inside.
Since finding that she had human
papillomavirus (HPV) in 2018 the
woman, identified as “MO” in court
papers, has fought for compensation,
arguing that because she was in a
Hyundai Genesis at the time, the car’s
insurers, Geico, should pay up.
The man, identified as “MD”, had
previously suffered from throat cancer
caused by HPV, a common sexuallyHelmets and gloves
must stay on in the
new Ice Wars leagueNursery children sing
in praise of ‘Uncle Vlad’
Page 45Relaxed rules on cannabis
‘are psychosis time bomb’
Page 43T
he opening of the January
6 committee show was
unprecedented in its slick
staging and the allegation
that a former president
who may run again plotted a coup
(David Charter writes).
Preserving the format of a House
of Representatives panel sitting in a
committee room with clerks and
witnesses, it also deployed sharply
edited videos of footage showing the
invasion of the Capitol.
The final clip showed rioters
beating officers with hockey sticks
while Donald Trump’s voice from a
Fox News interview wafted over the
violent scenes: “These were peaceful
people. They were great people... ”
Caroline Edwards, the Capitol
police officer who suffered a brain
injury when she was knocked out as
the mob pushed by, said the sight of
colleagues bleeding, fighting rioters
and throwing up was carnage.
The committee arrived at this
moment after Republicans in the
Senate blocked legislation a year
ago to set up a commission of
inquiry, like the 9/11 body. Mitch
McConnell, the Senate Republican
leader, dismissed that proposal as a
“purely political exercise”.
This led the House to propose a
bipartisan committee but when
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, rejected
two of the five members put up by
Republicans for being too close to
Trump, the party ended co-
operation. Two of its members, Liz
Cheney and Adam Kinzinger,
volunteered to join Democrats on
the committee and were ostracised
from their party. Trump is urging
voters in Wyoming to oust Cheney
by backing a primary challenger,
Harriet Hageman. Kinzinger is not
running for re-election.
Against this polarised backdrop,after a damning report on riots
Slick TV drama aims
to be Watergate sequel
Analysis with Trump denigrating the inquiry,
the committee decided to play him
on his own turf: primetime TV.
Bennie Thompson, the committee
chairman, told CNN there would be
evidence that Trump’s associates
communicated with agitators such
as the Proud Boys. This will get to
the heart of it. Was January 6 just a
conflagration of chaotic events that
got out of hand or a Watergate-style
plot that went all the way up to the
Oval Office?
The committee cannot prosecute
anyone — the process in Congress
was exhausted when Trump was
found not guilty of “incitement of
insurrection” in his impeachment
trial in the Senate in February last
year.
However, it can refer to the
Department of Justice and has
discussed charges of obstructing a
congressional proceeding and
conspiring to defraud the American
people. Any decision on whether to
prosecute Trump lies with Merrick
Garland, the attorney-general.
Cheney dropped a big clue to the
committee’s intentions in the
opening session. She said it would
expose “plots to commit seditious
conspiracy”.
Five members of the Proud Boys
were charged with sedition on
Monday, which requires prosecutors
to show that at least two people
agreed to use force to overthrow
government authority. The
maximum sentence is 20 years.
On Thursday night no one
mentioned the word “collusion”,
which has been tainted by the
Mueller investigation that stopped
short of finding collusion with
Russia by the Trump campaign.
However, Trump will really be in
legal jeopardy if the January 6
committee can show collusion —
beyond provocative tweets — with
6 committee. Caroline Edwards, who suffered a brain injury after being knocked out, described the scenes as carnage those who attacked the Capitol.