Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista has responded to the results of a vote of no confidence against him.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Mesa Fraternal Order of Police said of the 564 police department employees who responded to the vote, 95% of them said they had no confidence in Chief Batista, with only 23 employees saying they had confidence in the chief.

"He is no longer welcome in the Mesa Police Department. He is no longer welcome in our home and we'd like him to leave," said Nate Gafvert, President with the Mesa Police Association.

"Morale has never been worse at the Mesa Police Department," said Will Biascoechea, President of Mesa Fraternal Order of Police, in the statement. "Through his ineffective leadership and intimidation of police officers, Chief Batista has created a toxic environment that puts both police officers and citizens in danger."

Potential serial killer has Detroit clearing vacant homes

Detroit Police have arrested the person of interest identified in the case of a potential serial killer and rapist who may be singling out sex workers on the city's east side.

Three victims, all believed to be sex workers, have been found dead at vacant east side homes in recent months, said Detroit Police Chief James Craig.

Police arrested DeAngelo Kenneth Martin, 34, who is known to be homeless at a bus stop in that part of town around 7:30 p.m. Friday, officials said in a press release.

"The world should know that what they're doing out here is crazy," said a man who refused to share his passcode with police.

William Montanez is used to getting stopped by the police in Tampa, Florida, for small-time traffic and marijuana violations; it's happened more than a dozen times. When they pulled him over last June, he didn't try to hide his pot, telling officers, "Yeah, I smoke it, there's a joint in the center console, you gonna arrest me for that?"

They did arrest him, not only for the marijuana but also for two small bottles they believed contained THC oil - a felony - and for having a firearm while committing that felony (they found a handgun in the glove box).

Then things got testy.

As they confiscated his two iPhones, a text message popped up on the locked screen of one of them: "OMG, did they find it?"

The officers demanded his passcodes, warning him they'd get warrants to search the cellphones. Montanez suspected that police were trying to fish for evidence of illegal activity. He also didn't want them seeing more personal things, including intimate pictures of his girlfriend.

So he refused, and was locked up on the drug and firearms charges.

A "feminist" protester who screamed "Nazi scum" in the face of an elderly Donald Trump supporter being pelted with a milkshake in London has left her job at the NHS, after hundreds signed a petition to have her sacked.

In video footage shot in London on Tuesday, Siobhan Prigent screams "Nazi scum!" into the face of an elderly Trump supporter, before the man is hit with a milkshake by another protester and almost set upon by the crowd.

Prigent, blond and clad in a t-shirt reading "F*ck Off Trump," also includes the eloquent variation "Naaaaazi" in her tirade.

A lawyer for the pro-Yellow Vest priest, filmed singing anti-Macron songs following mass, has told RT he will petition the Pope if French prosecutors bring charges against the cleric for insulting the office of the president.

Father Michel, a popular priest in the department of Eure in Normandy was filmed leading dozens of Yellow Vest supporters in a post-service chorus of "Macorn, moron" and "we're coming to get you." Shared thousands of times, the clip prompted angry local officials to lodge a complaint against the priest. If charges are filed, he could face legal action for talking politics in a place of worship and for failing to acknowledge the most sacred of French ideals - the separation of church and state.

However, Father Michel's lawyer, Philippe de Veulle, said that the investigation amounted to an "abuse of power" by the state and that his client did nothing wrong. De Veulle maintained that worshipers had broken into song because of the priest's support for the Yellow Vest movement and that priests were "free to sing" in the church after the ceremony had ended.

No, this is not at all an endorsement of the apocalyptic scenarios of AOC or that famous young Swedish climate expert, Greta. It is, however, a look at unusual weather disasters in several key growing regions from the USA to Australia, the Philippines and beyond that could dramatically affect food availability and prices in the coming year. That in turn could have major political implications depending on how the rest of the growing season develops.

USA Midwest Waterlogged

According to the latest May 20 report of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the US Department of Agriculture, corn and soybean crops are well behind the planting growth levels normal this time of the planting season. They report that only 49% of all planned corn acreage in the US has been planted compared with 78% at this time a year ago. Of that only 19% has yet emerged from the ground compared to 47% in May 2018. In terms of soybeans, barely 19% of crops have yet been planted compared with 53% a year before. Rice acreage planted is down to 73% compared to 92% a year ago in the six US rice-growing states. Of course, should weather dramatically improve the final harvest numbers could improve. It is simply too early to predict.


The USA is by a wide margin the world largest soybean producer with 34 percent of the world's soybean production and 42% of world exports prior to the China trade battles. The US is also the world largest corn or maize producer, almost double China, the number two. A serious harvest failure in these two crops could significantly affect world food prices, leaving aside the unfortunate fact that almost all US soybeans and corn are GMO crops. They are mainly used in animal feed.

A major factor in the disruption of the US Midwest growing season is the fact that the past 12 months have seen the greatest precipitation levels since the US Government began keeping statistics in 1895, according to the US NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Record snowfall followed by abnormally heavy rains are the reason.

RT's video agency Ruptly has obtained footage showing WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange inside Belmarsh maximum security prison.

The footage shows Assange, who has visibly lost weight, conversing with what could be his fellow inmates.

The camera then shows a small shabby cell, with books and papers strewn around the floor. While RT can't independently verify if it was Assange's own cell, the journalist and publisher is seen walking in the room at the beginning of the video.

A second former GOP state senator was found dead from a gunshot within a span of two days.

Former Oklahoma state Sen. Jonathan Nichols, 53, was found dead inside his home in Norman on Wednesday night from an apparent gunshot wound, police said. Cops are working with the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office to determine the exact cause and manner of death.

His death comes just one day after former Arkansas state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, 56, was found fatally shot outside her home in Pocahontas on Tuesday. Police are investigating her death as a homicide.

Former Arkansas Sen. Linda Collins-Smith was found dead in her home Tuesday from an apparent gunshot wound

A 22-year-old call center agent from the Philippines, J.R.,* tells me that he takes whitening capsules and uses a soap and facial cream that both claim to have whitening effects. Being lighter, he says, will make him more "noticeable," boosting his chances for promotion or better employment. When I point out that the US$1 a day he spends on the whitening products makes up a large chunk of the US$12 he earns daily, he replies: "It's an investment."

J.R. is part of the growing market for skin whitening products around the world. Shopping malls, cosmetics shops, and online retailers sell a vast number of different soaps, lotions, creams, and more, catering to women and men. Some of them target particular body parts: the face, the hands, the underarm, or even the vagina. From Manila to Mumbai and Jakarta to Johannesburg, celebrities endorse skin lightening or bleaching products in larger-than-life billboards, promising "whiter skin from within" or offering to make users "fair and handsome." In the Philippines, where I live and work as a medical anthropologist, even the national basketball league has an official skin whitening product.

This trend isn't harmless. People who are already socially or financially marginalized may end up spending significant amounts of money on products they can ill afford. The whole notion of desiring paler skin relies upon and emphasizes toxic ideas of white superiority. And many skin whiteners are associated with proven skin damage or other health risks. Inorganic mercury, for example, described by the World Health Organization as a "common ingredient found in skin lightening soaps and creams" often used in Africa and Asia, can cause kidney damage. Hydroquinone, found in skin exfoliants, including J.R.'s facial lotion, has been flagged by regulatory agencies around the world due to safety concerns.

Some countries, such as Ghana and Rwanda, have banned skin whitening products altogether. Yet whitening remains popular-and is big business. According to industry estimates, the global skin whitening industry is expected to reach US$31.2 billion by 2024.

As both a physician and a medical anthropologist, I recently dove into this issue as part of the Chemical Youth Project: a multi-country study that looks at the roles of chemicals (from energy drinks to perfumes and vitamins) in the everyday lives of young people seeking to "boost pleasure, moods, sexual performance, appearance, and health." From 2012 to 2015, our team, led by medical anthropologist Anita Hardon of the University of Amsterdam, interviewed over 400 young men and women in different parts of the Philippines-including students, young professionals, tour guides, pedicab drivers, and construction workers. Whitening products were very popular among our informants, with more than half reporting that they had used them at least once in their life. I decided to explore the topic more, carrying out 10 focus group discussions specifically about whitening. Where does the desire to whiten skin come from, I wanted to know, and is it changing?

For years, disabled veterans were mistakenly charged fees when taking out home loans and the federal government now owes millions of dollars in refunds, a watchdog report revealed this week.

The Department of Veterans Affairs issued more than $280 million in excessive fess between 2012 and 2017, and took no action despite knowing that veterans were owed refunds, the VA Inspector General report found.

In many cases, third-party lenders rely on the VA to certify that a veteran is exempt from certain fees when applying for a home loan. But its exemption certificates were "outdated, incorrect, or missing exemption status resulting in veterans being incorrectly charged a funding fee," according to the report.

The Under Secretary for Benefits responded to the report by saying the problem would be corrected by the end of July.