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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Eye 1

Supreme Court backs cop who shot Arizona woman in front yard

US Supreme Court
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
US Supreme Court in Washington, DC
The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an Arizona police officer who shot a woman four times in her driveway while she held a knife. The officer enjoys qualified immunity in the case, the justices said.

Officer Andrew Kisela shot Amy Hughes in 2010. Hughes was in her driveway and was approaching her roommate, Sharon Chadwick, while holding a kitchen knife. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2016 that Hughes could file a civil rights lawsuit seeking $150,000 in damages, but the Supreme Court threw out that case on Monday.

Hughes, who has a history of bipolar disorder, had accused Kisela of using excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and arrests.

The court ruled 7-2 in favor of Kisela, with liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the two dissenting voices. In her dissent, Sotomayor wrote that Kisela's actions were unreasonable and that he should not be shielded from liability.

Comment: See also:


Take 2

Pizzagate, Seth Rich murder and the Clinton Foundation: The pro-Trump internet is ablaze with the Qanon conspiracy theory

qanon
Update, 3/30: Roseanne's tweets have drawn new attention to QAnon! Read more at my updated post here.

Barack Obama will be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay any day now.

MS-13 murdered Seth Rich, probably at the DNC's behest.

Special counsel Robert Mueller isn't investigating the Donald Trump campaign - he's actually investigating the Clintons, and Trump's helping.

And Pizzagate is real, but don't worry - Trump finally has its perpetrators on the run.

Welcome to the exciting alternative universe of "The Storm," an increasingly popular mega-theory on the right that has already absorbed gobs of smaller conspiracy theories. In "The Storm," which also goes by the handle "QAnon," Trump fans can inhabit a world where their wildest Trump hopes can come true.

Bulb

Sweeping new EU privacy law aims to give users greater control over what tech companies do with their data

zuckerberg
© Getty
Facebook and other internet companies are racing to prepare for a sweeping new European Union (EU) privacy law that aims to give consumers greater control over the use of their data.

The law comes at a critical time for the industry, which is already facing tough questions over its data practices.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect across the EU on May 25, will drastically change what internet companies can do with customers' data.

Users will have greater control, including the ability to learn what information companies have on them. The GDPR will also codify what's known as "the right to be forgotten," meaning consumers will be able to order web services to delete their data or stop distributing it to third parties. The rules will also require companies to give users the ability to easily revoke consent for handing over personal information.

Map

Land Day: Why is land so important to Palestinians?

Yasour
© PalestineRemembered.com
The land where the village of Yasour once stood.
It's Land Day in Palestine today (March 30th of every year). At least 12 people have been killed in Gaza amidst the peaceful "The Great March of Return". Although today's event is not expected to take any refugee home by tonight, because it's a symbolic event and nothing more, I think it's a great chance to explain why there's such a thing as Land Day. And why there are millions of people who continue to be called refugees 70 years after their grandparents were forced to leave their home villages in historic Palestine (besides the fact that most of them still live in impoverished refugee camps).


Comment: Exactly: a symbolic event. But in the imaginations of the literal-minded Israeli government, what the Palestinians really wanted to do was "swarm" into Israel, and destroy her precious security in the process. And of course, that justified murdering a dozen or two of them, and crippling or otherwise injuring another thousand or so.


The society of historic Palestine (before 1948) was largely a rural one. People lived and made a living off pieces of lands they inherited through many generations. It is actually hard, if not impossible, for most of us to know who the first great grandfather settling in their village was, or where they originally came from.

Farming the land was everything people knew. How much land a family owned determined their social class, because it meant they could make more money planting more trees. Culture varied by village, traditional songs featured the fruits people grew. Fashion wise, embroidery patterns and colors were inspired by the natural surroundings people were more familiar with, the colors of their fields and crops. People by the coast of the Mediterranean grew citrus, bananas, pomegranates, and melons, in other areas olives were the deal, in addition to almonds, grapes and figs.

Arrow Down

Teacher's adopted child taken away over classroom sex abuse accusations, which were all untrue

Students
© Reuters/ Luke MacGregor
Teachers accused of sex assaults despite no evidence.
A teacher accused of groping female pupils had his newly adopted child taken away, although it later emerged all the claims were untrue.

The unnamed man was suspended for almost a year and his child was taken away. He was also banned from being alone with his teenage son.

Police and social workers investigated stories he had indecently touched children, although the accusation was made when he was on adoption leave. He and his wife had adopted a baby, which was taken away after the claims were made. The baby will never be returned to them.

Neil Butler, honorary treasurer of the NASUWT, told the teaching union's annual conference that such incidents take place, despite claims by the government that they are extremely rare. Figures revealed there are a worrying number of false accusations of wrongdoing by teachers.

Megaphone

Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, and others join calls demanding Ecuador stop 'gagging' Assange

Julian Assange
© Neil Hall / Reuters
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange
Human rights activists including Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Pamela Anderson have published an open letter demanding that the Ecuadorian government restore Julian Assange's freedom of speech.

The WikiLeaks editor is living in virtual isolation within London's Ecuadorian embassy after authorities at the State Office scrambled his internet connection. The decision was taken due to Assange's critical remarks on social media regarding Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont's arrest.

Snakes in Suits

Russia can replace all their expelled diplomats, says US official

Russian embassy
© AFP Photo/JIM WATSON
The US says that Moscow can apply to replace personnel at the Russian Embassy in Washington -- shown here -- who have been expelled from the country
Russia is free to apply to accredit more diplomats to replace the alleged spies that have been expelled from the United States, a State Department official said Friday.

This week, in response to an apparent attempt to assassinate a Russian double agent in Britain with a nerve agent, Washington joined a score of Western allies in expelling more than 150 suspected intelligence officers attached to Russian missions.

In all, 48 alleged Russian operatives working under diplomatic cover for its US mission were on the list -- along with 12 attached to the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York.

Russia's consulate in Seattle will also be closed, but the total size of its diplomatic footprint in the United States might not shrink for long, because the expelled staff could be replaced.

Attention

ISIS suggests it's planning terror attacks at World Cup in Russia

ISIS
© Reuters
ISIS terrorists are preparing for attacks at the World Cup in Russia using drones, it has been claimed.

Sick propaganda has been shared a number of times implying the terror group will target the tournament due to take place in June.

Now chilling images have been shared on the messaging app Telegram which reportedly show preparations for attacks.

They show drones being armed with grenades, missiles and mortars that can be dropped on targets.

Weaponised drones are already being used by ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq.

They are the cheap kind normally used by filmmakers and hobbyists, but with deadly bombs attached.

No Entry

136 undocumented immigrants attempting to cross border discovered in trailer by Mexican police

Mexican police  immigrants
© EFE
Police discovered 136 undocumented Central American immigrants, including 49 minors, crammed inside the vehicle.
Nearly 140 undocumented immigrants have been apprehended by police in Veracruz while attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexican border, the National Institute of Migration (INM) said Friday.

When officers pulled a large trailer over to the side of the Coatzacoalcos-Acayucan highway, they discovered 136 Central Americans, including 49 minors, from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua crammed inside the vehicle.

According to officers, the sound of voices and crying spurred an investigation of the truck. Inside, they found the stowaways packed tightly in the vehicle, with many displaying symptoms of suffocation due to poor ventilation.

Light Saber

A night with Putin's angels

Putin's Angels
We stared up at the enormous steel gates as our Uber headed back into the chilly Moscow night. I'd never seen anything like it. A huge metal eagle with the head of a wolf hung from the arch, wings outstretched, talons grasping for prey. An entire MiG fighter jet was welded to the compound wall, and a Red Army tank perched atop it. An artillery gun sat nearby, and on an enormous stone near the road was an ornate Russian Orthodox cross with a snarling wolf crouched in front of it, with strategically-placed lights making it appear almost alive. A large unsmiling fellow stood at the gate dressed entirely in black, a bullet-proof vest making him appear even bulkier than he was. He took our bags from us and rummaged carefully through each pocket. After checking them thoroughly, he looked up sharply. "Guns?" We shook our heads, but he checked the bags again anyway. He handed them back, grunted, and jerked his head towards the courtyard and the compound within. Welcome to the lair of the Night Wolves.