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Investigators catch cop driving recklessly months after crashing into an elderly couple

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 30 May 2018 14:55 UTC
police crash
The same police officer who faced no charges after he crashed his patrol car into an elderly couple while driving nearly 30 mph over the speed limit, was hired at a new department and has been caught driving recklessly once again, despite a history of dangerous driving accidents.

Officer Christopher Ferguson was called out publicly after surveillance footage was released from a car crash in which he slammed his police cruiser into another car, sending the elderly couple occupying the vehicle flying out onto the street.

James Cryer, 69, and his wife Rena, 78, miraculously survived the gruesome incident. Yet even though Ferguson was driving at least 26 mph over the legal limit, he faced no charges. An investigation conducted by the Tennessee Highway Patrol placed the blame on both drivers-claiming that while Ferguson was exceeding the speed limit, Cryer also "failed to yield" to oncoming traffic.

Even with an investigator claiming that "If the officer had been driving the posted speed limit...the collision would have been avoided," District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway told WSMV News that he had no regrets about declining to charge the officer.
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Stop

'Not a German or EU colony': EU's budget chief Oettinger slammed for telling Italians how to vote


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 11:50 UTC
EU Budget Commissioner Oettinger
© Francois Lenoir / Reuters
EU Budget Commissioner Oettinger holds a news conference in Brusse
An outraged public has slammed Germany's European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger for telling Italians that 'markets will teach them not to vote for populists'.

"My concerns and expectations are that the coming weeks will show that markets, government bonds and Italy's economy could be so drastically impacted that they would serve as a signal to voters not to vote for populists on the right and left," Oettinger told DW in an exclusive interview.

Although the EU Commissioner was swift to apologize, saying he "did not mean to be disrespectful", his apology did not seem to quell or reassure those fuming on social media.

Thank you for telling Italians the truth about EU system," an Italian man wrote, saying he was grateful to the Commissioner for having honestly unveiled the EU agenda and their plans for Italy. "Some of us took 7 years to enlighten half the minds you and Mattarella enlightened in 5 minutes."

Many on Twitter blasted Oettinger for threatening Italian voters. They claimed they would not allow anyone, whether it's Germany or the EU to dictate who they should or should not vote for.
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Eye 1

British neo-Nazi who planned knife attack on gay pride celebration to face sentencing


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 18:07 UTC
Ethan Stables
© Friends & Supporters of the Furness LGBT Community / Facebook
Ethan Stables
A British homophobic neo-Nazi terrorist is to face sentencing over plans for an attack on a pub's gay pride night. Ethan Stables was caught with a multitude of blades including a machete, which he planned to use in the attack.

Stables, then aged 20, was arrested by armed police as he made what prosecutors described as a final reconnaissance visit last summer to the New Empire pub in his home town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.

Following his arrest on June 23, 2017, police discovered the machete, as well as an axe and knives that he kept at his home. Stables had revealed his intent on social media posts to far-right pages. He said he was "going to war" and wanted to "slaughter every single one of the gay b******s." Officers were tipped off about the impending attack by another member of one of Stable's far-right groups.
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Attention

Tesla car on autopilot crashes into parked police car


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 14:44 UTC
Tesla car crash
© Laguna Beach Police Department / Twitter
A Tesla Model S crashed into a parked police vehicle while reportedly driving on autopilot in Laguna Beach, California, injuring the Tesla driver and badly damaging the cop car.

Laguna Beach Sergeant Jim Cota said on Twitter that the cop car was unmanned at the time of the impact, while the Tesla driver sustained minor injuries. The crash happened soon after 11am Tuesday on Laguna Canyon Road. Cota told the LA Times the "police car is totalled."

The driver told police the car was operating on autopilot at the time of the crash. Tesla's autopilot system uses sensors, cameras, and radar to study the vehicle's surroundings and carry out automatic functions which include emergency braking. The company describes it as being a "driver assistance system."
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Eye 1

Another Russian journalist has been murdered in Ukraine


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 12:37 UTC
Russian journalist Arkadiy Babchenko
© Wikipedia
Arkadiy Babchenko in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia.
Arkadiy Babchenko, a Russian citizen and journalist living in Ukraine, has been killed in the Ukrainian capital.

The man, who sustained a gunshot wound, was found in his own apartment by his wife, who called the emergency services, the police said.

The police believe his journalistic activities are the main motive behind the killing, but will investigate other versions as well, Kiev police chief Andrey Krischenko told Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Comment: Also see: Kiev bans Russian media, jails RIA Novosti journalist for 'high treason'

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Syringe

UN urges legalization in Latin America to reduce cost of prohibition


teleSUR
Tue, 29 May 2018 11:45 UTC
marijuana protestor
© Reuters
A protester shows a fake marijuana leaf during a march for the legalization of marijuana in Mexico City.
Peru, Colombia and Bolivia are the top producers of coca leaves used to make cocaine, much of which is smuggled through Mexico to reach the United States.

A U.N. agency on Monday called for legalizing drugs in Latin America to reduce the human cost of prohibition.

Alicia Barcena, a Mexican who heads the Santiago-based Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations' regional arm, told a Latin America forum in Paris the time had come to explore a new strategy.

"I'm going to be very provocative. Who would drug legalization be good for? Latin America and the Caribbean, for God's sake. Because the illegality is what's killing people," she said, according to Reuters. "It's time to seriously consider legalizing drugs."

Comment: However, legalization in Latin America won't do much to stem the violence, since it will still be illegal in the countries the cartels export to. And it will be business as usual.

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Black Cat

Say what?! Louis Farrakhan issues call for an 'end to white men for not being in harmony with God'

Virginia Kruta
The Daily Caller
Sun, 27 May 2018 13:56 UTC
Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, called for an end to white men on Sunday morning, saying that their "nature is not in harmony with the nature of God."
Farrakhan went on to claim that white men had squandered the time God gave them to rule, alleging that they had chosen not to rule with righteousness, truth, justice, or fairness.

Comment: So "end" white men (or their "rule" presumably) but keep Trump because he's working towards this goal? It would be nice if Farrakhan could be a little more specific and a little less bombastic lest he sound like a SJW. But remove the controversial bombast and what's left of the fiery Farrakhan?

See: 'Mr. Trump is destroying every enemy that was an enemy of our rise' - Louis Farrakhan

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Bug

UK media scaremongers on Russian cities prior to FIFA World Cup


Sputnik
Mon, 28 May 2018 14:55 UTC
world cup russia
© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich
It seems like British mainstream media cannot make it through a single day without scary stories about Russia: first it was the Skripal case, now it's the forthcoming World Cup.

Last week, The Guardian published a huge piece on the 2018 World Cup host nation, "revealing" the "darkest sides" of Russia - from nationalist football hooligans and poorly designed stadiums to nostalgic feelings for the good old Soviet times.

The Times' Moscow correspondent Tom Parfitt, in turn, wrote a piece on how the "Russians hide 'ugly' villages" for the World Cup, citing the case of the Glebovsky village near Moscow. He noted that the government had constructed a fence in front of broken-backed buildings near the French team's training base in order to divert attention from poverty.

Parfitt even used the expression "Potemkin village," alluding to an 18th-century nobleman, Grigory Potemkin, who is believed to have set up fake portable villages to impress Catherine the Great and conceal embarrassing sights and abject poverty in the country from visitors.

Comment: In other words, go ahead, go to Russia but be afraid... very afraid. They are all out to get you and you'd be better off staying at home. We all know how dangerous those Ruskies are with their ugly cities! See also:

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Star of David

Gaza boat carrying wounded Palestinians trying to break the blockade intercepted by IDF navy

Meron Rapoport, Mohammed Zaanoun, and +972 Magazine Staff
+972 Magazine
Tue, 29 May 2018 16:03 UTC
march of return flotilla blockade gaza

The Gaza "Freedom Boat" in port in Gaza, before attempting to break Israel's naval blockade. May 29, 2018.
Carrying 17 people, including university students, cancer patients, and protesters wounded by Israeli forces during the Great Return March, the Gaza boat was headed towards Cyprus before IDF gunboats intercepted it.

Israeli gunships intercepted a Palestinian boat attempting to break Israel's naval siege of the Gaza Strip Tuesday afternoon. The attempt to break the blockade comes two weeks after Israeli soldiers killed at least 60 Palestinian protesters and wounded thousands of others at the Gaza-Israel separation barrier on Gaza's eastern boundary.

The boat was headed to Limassol, Cyprus, and was part of a small flotilla comprised of three boats in total. The two other boats turned back and did not breach the naval blockade line enforced by the IDF. The IDF does not allow Palestinians to venture more than nine miles off the coast of the Gaza Strip.


Comment: Still in doubt about whether Gaza is the largest open air prison on the planet?

RT adds:
[...]


The action was probably more symbolic than practical in nature, aimed at showcasing the effect that the Israeli blockade has on the life in Gaza Strip 11 years after being imposed. Three other events under the same name, which involved ships trying to reach the Palestinian territories despite the blockade, were thwarted in the past by the IDF.

The first case in 2010 ended in a controversial raid by Israeli commandos on six ships, in which 10 activists were killed. The Tuesday attempt was far less dramatic. The IDF intercepted the two passenger boats some six to seven nautical miles off the coast and seized the larger of them, arresting 12 people on board, journalist Hind Khoudary reported from the scene. The captain of the second boat was ordered to return and complied.

The IDF said they would tow the boat to a military port in the city of Ashdod to process the detained people. The Israelis said people requiring medical assistance among the passengers would receive it. Organizers say the blockade-breaking attempt was part of the ongoing Great March of Return campaign that began at the end of March and became a major controversy due to the scale of violence it is associated with.

IDF soldiers killed dozens of people protesting near the border fence and injured over a thousand, saying their use of lethal force was justified by the threat posed by the protesters. The Palestinians were burning tires, sending incendiary kites over the fence and throwing rocks at the Israeli troops.

A second attempt to break through the Gaza naval blockade is expected later this year. Another Freedom Flotilla set sail from Copenhagen last week.
Correction: The IDF didn't kill dozens and injured over a thousand. Fom a previous RT report,
As of May 21, a total of 112 people have been killed, including 13 children and two journalists, and more than 13,000 people have been injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
And now this:

Here comes hell again: Israel launches air strikes on Gaza after "barrage of mortar shells" fired at Israel; Netanyahu says retaliation imminent

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Alarm Clock

US forces Cypriot banks to crack down on Russian accounts


RT
Tue, 29 May 2018 14:48 UTC
cyprus
© FELLOW / Global Look Press
Russians keeping their cash in Cypriot banks have been caught up in a massive audit of accounts by lenders and watchdogs in the island state. The step was reportedly triggered by pressure from Washington.

Banks in Cyprus now require Russian customers to confirm earnings and tax payments, to produce bank statements for the past year, as well as estate documents, title deeds of business ownership, and a detailed description of their enterprise, according to financial writer Elena Tofanyuk, as quoted by Russian daily Business FM. Previously, Russian clientele were required to produce only a passport and utility bills.

Cypriot banks offer their Russian customers a choice: either to close their accounts or to transfer their funds to Russian Commercial Bank, a subsidiary of Russian state-run lender VTB, the reporter said, citing interviewees who have bank accounts in the country.

Comment: As with other anti-Russia sanctions, this will ultimately hurt the aggressor country as the customers have little choice but to instead hold the cash in Russian banks, it also makes Cyprus look like a risky place to invest in:

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