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Philando Castile's family awarded $3mn in out-of-court settlement


RT
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Valerie Castile
© Eric Miller/ReutersValerie Castile, the mother of Philando Castile
The family of Philando Castile, the school cafeteria worker fatally shot by Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez, has reached a $3 million settlement with the city of St. Anthony.

Castile was shot and killed during a traffic stop last July while his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter were in the car.

Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter and intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety earlier in June.

The family's legal team announced plans to file a civil lawsuit against the city last week, but a settlement has now been reached.
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Water

SDF separatists' water blockade deprives 1 million people of fresh water in Aleppo

Agencies - by Samer Hussein
Fort Russ News
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 21:55 UTC
FSA and YPG forces
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), notorious for their military wing YPG that is said to be involved in ethnic cleansing, are now blackmailing the authorities in Syria by blocking the water to more than 1 million residents of Aleppo, Syrian government sources confirmed.

The water blockade occurred on Monday after SDF halted the flow of water, that originates from the Euphrates Dam before being further delivered into Khafsa Pumps.

As a result, more than 1 million people in Aleppo city alone currently have no access to water.
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Network

How the internet turned me into a 'Russia apologist'

Margaret Janssen
Russia Insider
Sun, 25 Jun 2017 18:25 UTC
Lavrov and Putin
I realized the United States hates Russia because Russia refuses to be a client state.

It started in 2008. Before that I did not pay attention to what was happening in Russia. I saw a few headlines: Chechnya, default, wheat shipments in aid. They were the sort of thing you see on the crawl at the bottom of the screen on CNN. That was enough; I had other things to worry about.

But then my cousin said, check out this picture of a meeting between Putin and Bush in Beijing. They were in the bleachers talking about something bad - Putin looked fierce and Bush looked flummoxed. Whoa, there was a war starting? What war? Where?
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Sheriff

A practical solution: Cops only respond to 9-1-1 calls or serve warrants

Tom Mullen
Huffington Post
Tue, 26 Jul 2016 18:30 UTC
police brutality protest
© Reuters
Do you lie awake at night in constant fear a fire will break out and nothing will be done to put it out?

For the 99% of the population not suffering from pyrophobia or a similar neurosis, the answer to that question is "no," even though firefighters aren't patrolling the streets in their big red trucks. They still manage to arrive at the scene of a fire within minutes of an emergency call.

Why can't police departments be run the same way?

If they were, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland would be alive today. All three encountered police doing what would be considered outlandish for any other institution charged with public safety: roaming the streets, looking for trouble.

No one had called 911 asking for protection from Scott, Gray or Bland. No judges had issued warrants for their arrests. All three were, at least at the time of their arrests, just walking or driving down the street, minding their own business. They were detained in what are generally considered "routine" but are in reality wholly unnecessary encounters with police.

There has been a lot of digital ink and warm air expended on whether these victims of tragedy were treated differently because of their race. There are compelling arguments on both sides of that question, but no practical solutions offered by anyone. At the end of these discussions there is invariably some vague reference to "more training" or bland platitudes. Everyone knows nothing will change.

I'm going to suggest a solution that will sound radical, even in a country that styles itself "the land of free." Let's get cops off the streets, unless responding to a 911 call or serving a warrant issued by a judge. Everyone would be freer and safer, including the police officers themselves.
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Rose

SOTT Focus: Sott.net Interview with Father Daniel in Syria: "There Never Was a Popular Uprising in Syria"

Bahar Azizi & Fr. Daniel Maes
Sott.net
Sat, 24 Jun 2017 22:57 UTC
Father Daniel
© Father Daniel MaesFather Daniel: "This is a very recent picture with Fadia (4.5 years old) who was born when her mother was in danger and when we were heavily attacked by terrorists. We took her mother in safety when she was pregnant. Fadia is, I think, normal and lively, but she hasn't spoken yet. She survived the shootings and bombardments in the basement together with us. Meanwhile, the family is reunited and has a home in Qara, but the mother and Fadia still visit us now and then to say hi."
Since 2010, Father Daniel Maes (78), from the monastery of Postel in Belgium, has been a resident of Syria's sixth-century Mar Yakub monastery in the city of Qara, 90 kilometers north of the capital Damascus. He has returned to his home country several times in the intervening years to give seminars, but remains living in Syria.

I interviewed Father Daniel recently. The following is his story. He told me why he went to Syria in 2010, and how he experienced a culture shock when he first arrived there. He also explained that there never was a civil uprising in Syria, touched on the propaganda surrounding chemical attacks, relayed heartbreaking stories from Syrians themselves and praised the great support they receive from Hezbollah, the Syrian Army, and Russia.
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Arrow Up

Los Angeles: Number of homeless veterans continues to grow


Daily Mail
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 16:38 UTC
homeless in LA
© AFPHomeless veteran Kendrick Bailey steps out of his tent on a streetcorner near Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.
Kendrick Bailey is standing outside the tent he has pitched on a filthy sidewalk in downtown Los Angeles and points to the American flag he served proudly during the Vietnam War.

"I didn't have education back then," says Bailey, recalling his time in combat. "So most of us shot guns. Sometimes you could see people get shot by guns. It was horrible."

Bailey, who is in his sixties, is among an ever-growing population of veterans in Los Angeles who face challenges readjusting to civilian life and eventually become homeless.

"I never had a job," he says, standing in the searing California sun on a recent day and struggling to explain his predicament.

Though friends initially would offer their couch, he said he quickly overstayed his welcome and got sucked into the same vicious circle facing many veterans who struggle with PTSD, unemployment, alcoholism, family issues, and end up on the street.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

'Suspected': Israeli settlers destroy 45 olive trees, act of revenge against Palestinians


RT
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 23:18 UTC
Olive trees
© Rabbis for Human Rights / FacebookKilling spree.
Palestinians from the West Bank village of Burin discovered 45 olive trees destroyed and graffiti reading "revenge," in what appears to be a deliberate attack by extreme Israeli settlers. Israeli NGO, Rabbis for Human Rights shared images of the aftermath of the incident on Sunday, including one showing an Israeli Civil Administration soldier surveying the damage. The Hebrew word for "revenge" was spray-painted on a stone.

A spokesperson for the police said they were looking into the case. Maan News reports the incident is the latest in a spate of attacks on Palestinians and their property near the Israeli Yitzhar settlement. In May, a tractor was set on fire in Burin, with the word "revenge" spray painted on a wall, the Times of Israel reports.

The largely Orthodox Jewish community of Yitzhar has a reputation for being extreme, and were called "radical" by the New York Times. The settlement has a number of outposts, which are unauthorized and illegal even under Israeli law. Meanwhile, under international law, all settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are considered illegal.

Members of the Yitzhar settlement have been caught actively taking part in the "price tag policy," which calls for attacks on Palestinians in retaliation for Palestinian attacks and for Israeli government actions taken against West Bank settlers.

Haaretz reported Sunday that even though nine attacks by settlers have been caught on camera over the last two months, the culprits are escaping with no charges. Israeli security chiefs have called on far-right rabbis to restrain members of the extreme "hilltop youth" following a series of hate crimes, the Times of Israel reports.

Comment: For more despicable incidents of the radical Yitzhar community, see also:

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Boat

Colombia: Crowded tourist boat sinks, 9 dead, 28 missing


RT
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 21:11 UTC
Colombia
© Blu Radio Colombia / YouTubeTourist boat sinks in Penoi reservoir.
A tourist boat carrying around 170 people has sunk in the Penol reservoir in northwest Colombia, the country's air force confirmed, saying that a search and rescue operation is under way. So far nine people have been confirmed dead and 28 remain missing, the director of the Administrative Department of Disaster Prevention (DAPARD), Margarita Moncada, told local media.
Moncada added that 99 people were rescued "immediately" after the boat began to sink. Then the rescuers managed to pull another 40 people out of the water, El Tiempo reports. The Unified Command Post (PMU) confirmed that 24 people were taken to the hospital, where 13 of them remain under observation.
The majority of passengers were swiftly aided by numerous smaller leisure boats in the area, according to a video of the incident that emerged online. According to preliminary information, the four-decked vessel was at maximum capacity at the time of the incident.


The sinking occurred at around 2:00pm local time, close to the embankment of the Peñol-Guatapé reservoir, Victoria Eugenia Ramírez, Antioquia's government secretary, told the Colombian daily El País. The incident took place at the El Peñol de Guatapé dam, a popular tourist site, El Universo reported the Colombian Air Force as saying.

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Fire

$1bn worth of seized narcotics spectacularly burnt by Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia


RT
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 16:10 UTC
Seized drugs are burnt by Myanmar police during a ceremony on the outskirts of Yangon
© Sai Aung Main / AFP Seized drugs are burnt by Myanmar police during a ceremony on the outskirts of Yangon on June 26, 2017.
Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia have burned nearly $1 billion worth of seized narcotics in a joint campaign marking the UN day against drug abuse and trafficking. Meanwhile, authorities in those countries are struggling to curb a flood of illicit drugs.

In Thailand, a total of 17 tons of drugs with a street value of $559 million was torched on Monday in three provinces. The grand anti-drug display saw 7.8 tons of methamphetamine pills, known as 'yaba', five tons of dried marijuana, and nearly 1.2 tons of crystal amphetamine going up in flames, according to the Bangkok Post.

"Currently, we are able to take down a lot of networks, including... transnational networks bringing drugs into Thailand... to be shipped to Malaysia and other countries," said the secretary-general of Thailand's anti-drug agency, Sirinya Sitthichai, as quoted by Reuters.
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House

Tory government says it's providing luxury Kensington flats for the survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster. Really?

Ben Chu
The Independent
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 15:49 UTC
Kensington row grenfell
© Dominic Lipinski/Press AssociationThe flats in the Kensington Row development, in Kensington, west London, where some residents affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster are to be re-housed.
The Government announced yesterday that it will provide 68 permanent new homes to house those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.

They will be part of the Kensington Row development - described as a "£2bn luxury complex in the heart of Kensington". The site is being developed by St Edward, a joint venture between the housebuilder Berkeley Group and the financial services firm Prudential.

The Communities department said the flats will be purchased and managed by the City of London Corporation - the ancient and wealthy municipal institution that runs the City of London.

A property source was quoted in the Evening Standard as describing the provision of the flats as a "huge gesture" by St Edward because the flats were being sold to the CLC "at cost", meaning the developer made no profit on them.

But is this deal everything that it is being presented as? Is it really as generous as it seems?
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