Society's Child

Alive and well: Yulia Skripal says 'returning to Russia is the long-term goal' in her first interview since attack

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 19:28 UTC

In her first interview since surviving an alleged nerve agent attack, Yulia Skripal said she eventually wants to return to Russia. She has not shed any light on what happened in March in Salisbury.

"I came to the UK on the 3rd of March to visit my father, something I have done regularly in the past. After 20 days in a coma, I woke to the news that we had both been poisoned," Skripal said in a video that was recorded by Reuters. She reiterated her words in a handwritten statement.

She and her father, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double-agent, were found unconscious on a public bench in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. The UK government immediately accused Russia of being behind their poisoning, but it has yet to provide evidence for the claim. Skripal did not comment on who she thought was to blame for her poisoning.

Comment: The Russian Embassy is still requesting direct access to Yulia Skripal as they have legitimate concerns that she is being held against her will or forced to make certain statements:

"We are glad to have seen Yulia Skripal alive and well," the Russian Embassy in the UK said in a statement. "However, the video shown only strengthens our concerns as to the conditions in which she is being held."

While the release of Yulia's interview is most welcome, it "does not discharge the UK authorities from their obligations under Consular Conventions," Russia's Embassy reminded.

"The UK is obliged to give us the opportunity to speak to Yulia directly in order to make sure that she is not held against her own will and is not speaking under pressure. So far, we have every reason to suspect the opposite," the statement reads.

Yulia's speech during the interview and the written statements in Russian and English she signed have raised multiple questions with Russian diplomats.

"Judging by quite a few elements, the text was a translation from English and had been initially written by a native English-speaker," the embassy said. "The handwritten letters signed by Yulia in Russian and English confirm this impression."

UK law enforcement head: Albanian mafia 'fueling surge of violent crime in London'

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 13:30 UTC

Organized crime gangs, like the Albanian mafia, are "fueling the surge in violent crime in London" as a result of importing Class A drugs into Britain, leading to turf wars on the streets, claims a top UK law enforcement official.

John Coles, head of special operations at the National Crime Agency (NCA), charged with targeting high level drug gangs, claims that there is a greater propensity for gangsters to carry guns and knives, adding that social media was helping to drive the rise in London's brutal street crime.

Coles told the Evening Standard: "In my day it was face to face, part of the problem is that these threats are posted on social media and everyone sees it.

"They have no qualms or concerns about shooting someone, they are extremely violent nasty individuals."

US government employee working in China suffers brain injury after experiencing 'abnormal sensations of sound and pressure'

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 16:54 UTC

© Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters
The unnamed employee assigned to Guangzhou, where an American consulate is located, first began experiencing a variety of physical symptoms from late 2017 and reported it in late March, according to the department.

A US government worker has reportedly suffered a mild brain injury after hearing an "abnormal sound" while working in China. The incident has sparked comparisons to last year's alleged 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba.

The US State Department issued a health warning to its citizens based in China outlining the mysterious case. "A US government employee in China recently reported subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure," the statement said, adding that it has informed all official staff based in the country of the case.

In a statement to RT the US State Department said it learned that the employee had symptoms similar to that of a patient with mild traumatic brain injury on May 18.

The unnamed employee assigned to Guangzhou, where an American consulate is located, first began experiencing a variety of physical symptoms from late 2017 and reported it in late March, according to the department.

Comment: Regarding the alleged 'sonic attacks' against American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba, see:

Human rights watchdog says US anti-ISIS ops in Syria, Iraq deadliest since Vietnam

Sputnik
Tue, 22 May 2018 19:46 UTC

The US-led coalition is responsible for at least 9,600 civilian deaths in its campaign against Daesh in Syria and Iraq, representing the highest death toll inflicted by Western military forces since the Vietnam War, a fresh report by London-based NGO Airwars said.

"Since 2014, Airwars estimates that the Coalition is likely responsible for between 6,250 and 9,600 civilian deaths overall in the war against ISIS [Daesh], out of more than 25,000 civilian fatalities alleged locally by Iraqis and Syrians," the report read.

The NGO went on saying that non-combatant casualties from US-led strikes "appear to be at their highest levels since Vietnam," but little has been done to calculate the official death toll from urban fighting.

The watchdog also highlighted that strikes were often planned without thoroughly assessing the potential for casualties. According to Airwars, the coalition failed to properly assess 'unobservable' civilian harm in urban fighting and relied on remote analysis, which did not allow non-combatant damage in residential areas to be realistically estimated. The inability to carry out field analysis and assess how many people may have been hiding near targeted areas was probably the key reason why the coalition undercounted the death toll, Airwars concluded.

Comment: Reported deaths in war historically are a fraction of the actual numbers. So you can take it to the bank that the numbers are much higher than 9,600. See:

America's post-9/11 wars in Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen: How many have been killed?

California man with terminal cancer takes Monsanto to trial for suppressing cancer risk of its products

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 11:41 UTC

© Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Monsanto has been accused of hiding the dangers of its popular Roundup products for decades, a claim the company denies.

A Californian groundskeeper with terminal cancer is set to become the first person to take agrobiotechnology giant Monsanto to trial, claiming that the company has suppressed the cancer risk of its product for decades.

DeWayne Johnson, 46, who has just a few months left to live, will take the stand against Monsanto in San Francisco County Superior Court. The landmark trial is scheduled to begin June 18.

Johnson, a father of three, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 42. He had earlier worked for a school district, "where his responsibilities included direct application of Roundup and RangerPro, another Monsanto glyphosate product, to school properties," the lawsuit claims.

Comment: Chinks are appearing in Monsanto's wall of invincibility - and not a moment too soon:

US Embassy in Israel demands apology for Israeli third temple photo stunt

Sputnik
Tue, 22 May 2018 23:37 UTC

The US Embassy in Israel has demanded an apology from Israel's Achiya organization for taking advantage of US envoy David Friedman by presenting him a photo of Jerusalem with Third Temple photoshopped on the Temple Mount.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was photographed Tuesday being presented with a wide-format picture of Jerusalem during his visit to the Israeli city of Bnei Brak. The picture, however, had been modified: the al-Haram ash-Sharif compound, which today includes two of Islam's holiest mosques, including Jerusalem's trademark Dome of the Rock, has been replaced with a temple of an entirely different design.

Comment: Somebody came up with this crass idea. Somebody reviewed and approved it knowing exactly the effects it would have. Apparently murdering men, women and children isn't enough.

North Carolina father crashes into restaurant on purpose killing daughter; injuring other family

Jon Silman
Oxygen
Tue, 22 May 2018 08:56 UTC

A North Carolina man drove into a restaurant on purpose over the weekend, killing two family members, police say.

Roger Self sat his family down for a Sunday afternoon meal at a restaurant in Bessemer City and then went outside. He got in his jeep, police say, and rammed it right into the restaurant, killing his daughter and daughter-in-law, and injuring other family members in the chaos, according to The Gaston Gazette.

Self, a prominent 62-year-old businessman, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Sunday in the deaths of his daughter, Katelyn Self, a deputy in the Gaston County Sheriff's Office, and his daughter-in-law Amanda Self, a nurse.

Brand new 'Italy First' coalition wants to deport 500,000 migrants

Abdelhamid Kaddour
Voice of Europe
Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00 UTC

On the 18th of May, the Five Star-Movement and the League struck a deal to form a populist government. One of their government's pledges is to deport half-a-million migrants.

A few days before the deal, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos stated that he wished Italy would "not change its migratory policy".

The government deal not only changes the migratory policy of Italy, it revolutionises it. The programme calls for the deportation of the 500,000 migrants present in Italy.

"Today, there are around 500,000 illegal migrants in Italy (...) expulsion orders are not enough: those who don't have the right to stay must return to their home countries", the document said.

Italy, being the first port of call due to its close proximity to North Africa, is inundated with refugees, who don't integrate well with Italians, to put it mildly.

In fact, one of the reasons of the League's success in the latest election was the horrific murder of Pamela Mastropietro, a teenage Italian girl, who was chopped up and put in two suitcases by a Nigerian asylum seeker, just few days before the election.

Comment: See also:

What is known about the Manchester bomber a year after the attack that took 22 lives?

Sputnik
Wed, 23 May 2018 14:49 UTC

Tuesday, May 22, marks the first anniversary of the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. But Greater Manchester Police's investigation into bomber Salman Abedi's network seems to have run into the sand in Libya.

In November an inquest into Salman Abedi's death was put on ice because Greater Manchester Police said they were hopeful of getting his brother Hashem extradited from Libya to face charges in the UK.

If extradited Hashem Abedi, 20, would be charged with 22 murders, attempted murder of the survivors and conspiracy to cause an explosion.

Salman was 22 when he walked into the foyer of the Manchester Arena moments after a concert by the US singer Ariana Grande had finished.

Comment: Additional reading:

$65,000 has been stolen from every single American over the past 17 years

Terrence Leveck
The Duran
Tue, 22 May 2018 15:00 UTC

Here are key excerpts from the most concise, accurate, and clearest, news-reports about something that almost all U.S. news-media have been completely hiding (issuing no reports about, though the theft indisputably happened and grows each year) - a theft of $65,000 from each American.

Consequently, this composite news-report (which is herewith being submitted to all U.S. news-media) will likewise probably be hidden by them. But, the few news-media that have already reported on this very important matter are linked-to here, and deserve great praise for having done so, because the vast majority still haven't yet reported on this important matter, at all.

On September 10, 2001, then Secretary of the Department of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that for the 1999 DOD budget, "According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." The War On Waste [was the CBS News report about this, dated 10 September 2001]. The following day the US sustained the terrorist attacks that forever changed our world, and this startling revelation was largely forgotten, until recently.

Great interview with Professor Petrovsky, a very brave soul ! He is clear and concise from a Vaccine researcher /producer point of view and calls...

Gator

There's no mileage in anything the Smith's have to say, their well versed in interfering with things. So we can all sleep safely in our bed...

Winternights3

Seriously, lets break down these words, and I am fully equipped for this task that I give to myself NOW. gives OSHA the authority to act quickly...

Buffalo_Ken

Forensic pathologists performed a postmortem and concluded that the man had probably died mid-flight Let me see ... he walked onto the plane,...

HashAttack2

This ain't no fucking real emergency. It is an effing emergency in the mind of a few....who thought they were gonna put the rest of us into...

Buffalo_Ken

Society's Child

Alive and well: Yulia Skripal says 'returning to Russia is the long-term goal' in her first interview since attack

UK law enforcement head: Albanian mafia 'fueling surge of violent crime in London'

US government employee working in China suffers brain injury after experiencing 'abnormal sensations of sound and pressure'

Human rights watchdog says US anti-ISIS ops in Syria, Iraq deadliest since Vietnam

California man with terminal cancer takes Monsanto to trial for suppressing cancer risk of its products

US Embassy in Israel demands apology for Israeli third temple photo stunt

North Carolina father crashes into restaurant on purpose killing daughter; injuring other family

Brand new 'Italy First' coalition wants to deport 500,000 migrants

What is known about the Manchester bomber a year after the attack that took 22 lives?

$65,000 has been stolen from every single American over the past 17 years

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