Thousands of Israelis rally against Netanyahu

Yahoo – AFP, August 1, 2020

A bandana-clad protester blows a shofar, an ancient musical horn, as he
 walks alongside others during a demonstration against Israel's Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Thousands protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu across Israel on Saturday night, demanding he resign over alleged corruption and a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

The protests took place at scores of intersections and bridges, where people held banners accusing Netanyahu of "failure" and calling for his resignation, as well as outside his private residence in the northern town Caesarea.

The main event took place outside the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem, where organisers said thousands demanded Netanyahu step down.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds protested against rising unemployment and the government's alleged failure to support self-employed people who have lost their livelihoods due to the pandemic, media reports said.

Wearing face masks to forestall coronavirus transmission, protestors carried signs accusing Netanyahu, whose graft trial is ongoing at the Jerusalem district court, of corruption and failing to resolve the coronavirus crisis and the related economic malaise.

Israel won praise for its initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak, but the government has come under criticism amid a resurgence in cases after restrictions were lifted starting in late April. Netanyahu has himself acknowledged that the economy was re-opened too quickly.

The country of some nine million people has so far recorded over 72,000 confirmed cases, including 523 deaths.

The protests have been going on for weeks, with Netanyahu on Saturday night accusing private television channels 12 and 13 of "delivering propaganda for the anarchist Leftwing demonstrations" by providing extensive coverage of the rallies.

"They are desperately trying to brainwash the public, in order to bring down a strong prime minister from the Right," his Likud party wrote in a post re-tweeted by Netanyahu on Twitter.

Netanyahu further accused the media of "ignoring the violent nature of the protests and the calls in them to murder the prime minister and his family".

Ex-SS guard, 93, 'sorry for what he did', German court hears

Yahoo – AFP, Mathieu FOULKES, October 17, 2019

A 93-year-old former SS guard holds his walking stick during his trial at
the regional court in Muenster, Germany (AFP Photo/Guido Kirchner)

Hamburg (AFP) - A former SS guard, 93, said he was sorry for his actions as he went on trial in Germany on Thursday for complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 people at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

In what could be one of the last such cases of surviving Nazi guards, Bruno Dey stands accused of abetting the murder of 5,230 people when he worked at the Stutthof camp near what was then Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland.

While he insisted that he did not join the deadly operation voluntarily, he voiced regret for his actions.

"That's what he said in his interrogation: He felt sorry for what he did," said his lawyer Stefan Waterkamp.

"It was also clear to him that (the inmates) were not in there because they were criminals, but for anti-Semitic, racist and other reasons. He had compassion for them. But he did not see himself in a position to free them."

Seated in a wheelchair, Dey wore a hat and sunglasses and hid his face behind a red folder as he entered the courtroom.

Waterkamp said his client was "ready to respond to all questions", underlining that Dey "did not join the SS voluntarily".

Prosecutors said nevertheless that as an "SS guard at Stutthof concentration camp between August 1944 and April 1945, he is believed to have provided support to the gruesome killing of Jewish prisoners in particular".

Although the trial comes decades on, Ben Cohen, grandchild of a survivor, said "it's a really powerful way to acknowledge that we're not just going to look away and we're not just going to just turn around and say 'this is finished, we do not need to think about it anymore.' These things are as relevant today as they ever were."

Jewish groups underlined the trial's importance in light of contemporary far-right anti-Semitic violence after last week's deadly shooting in the eastern city of Halle that included a synagogue.

"Why are you doing this trial today? Remember what happened in Halle," said Efraim Zuroff of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

The 93-year-old Bruno Dey admitted in court to being an SS guard, but the 

defence underlined that he did not join the SS voluntarily' (AFP Photo/Markus Scholz)

'Cog in the murder machine'

During Dey's time at the camp, the "Final Solution" order to exterminate Jews was issued by the Nazi leadership, leading to the systematic killing of inmates in gas chambers, while others died of starvation or because they were denied medical care, prosecutors said.

Dey is being tried by a juvenile court in Hamburg because he was 17 when he first worked at Stutthof.

According to German media, Dey, who now lives in Hamburg, became a baker after the war.

Married with two daughters, he supplemented his income by working as a truck driver, before later taking on a job in building maintenance.

The law finally caught up with him as a result of the legal precedent set when former guard John Demjanjuk was convicted in 2011 on the basis that he served as part of the Nazi killing machine at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland.

Since then, Germany has been racing to put on trial surviving SS personnel on those grounds rather than for murders or atrocities directly linked to the individual accused.

In the same vein, Dey is "accused of having contributed as a cog in the murder machine, in full knowledge of the circumstances, so that the order to kill could be carried out," prosecutors said.

'Speak up'

During pre-trial questioning, Dey said he ended up in the SS-Totenkopfsturmbahn (Death's Head Battalion) that ran the camp only because of a heart condition that prevented him from being sent to the front, according to Tagesspiegel daily.

Dey also reportedly confirmed he knew of the camp's gas chambers and admitted seeing "emaciated figures, people who had suffered", but insisted he was not guilty, according to the daily Die Welt.

The Nazis set up the Stutthof camp in 1939, initially using it to detain Polish political prisoners.

But it ended up holding 110,000 detainees, including many Jews. Some 65,000 people perished in the camp.

Since the landmark Demjanjuk ruling, German courts have convicted Oskar Groening, an accountant at Auschwitz, and Reinhold Hanning, a former SS guard at the same camp, for complicity in mass murder.

Both men were found guilty at the age of 94 but died before they could be imprisoned.

Outcry as Jeffrey Epstein found dead in jail, FBI investigates

Yahoo – AFP, Peter HUTCHISON, August 10, 2019

In this undated handout photo obtained July 11, 2019 courtesy
of the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey
Epstein (AFP Photo/HO)

New York (AFP) - US financier Jeffrey Epstein, awaiting trial on charges he trafficked underage girls for sex, was found dead in his prison cell Saturday from an apparent suicide, officials said.

Political leaders and law enforcement officials quickly expressed shock that a high-profile detainee who had already apparently tried to end his life in late July and would presumably be under close watch could manage to commit suicide. The Justice Department and the FBI launched investigations of the jet-set hedge fund manager's death.

Epstein, a convicted pedophile who befriended numerous politicians and celebrities over the years, was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Correctional Center from "an apparent suicide", the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

The disgraced financier was discovered around 6:30 am (1030 GMT) and rushed to hospital in New York where he was pronounced dead, it added in a statement.

Attorney General Bill Barr said he was "appalled" to learn of Epstein's death and had instructed the justice department's inspector general to probe how he could have died while in federal custody.

"Mr Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered," Barr said in a statement.

The FBI is also investigating the incident, said the DoJ.

The New York Times and other media quoted officials as saying Epstein hanged himself.

The city medical examiner's office confirmed Epstein's death but not what caused it.

It came a day after a tranche of sealed legal documents were released for the first time providing new details about what prosecutors allege was Epstein's sex-trafficking operation.

The death also comes just over two weeks after the 66-year-old was found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck after an apparent suicide attempt.

Epstein did not appear to be showing any visible signs of injuries when he appeared in court on July 31 following that incident, to be told that his trial wouldn't begin before June of next year.

'We need answers'

The wealthy hedge fund manager had been charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

He was denied bail last month in a New York court because he was deemed a flight risk.

Epstein denied the charges and had faced up to 45 years in prison -- effectively the rest of his life -- if convicted.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal facility in Manhattan that is often used to house suspects awaiting or during trial, is considered one of the most secure penal establishments in the US.

The infamous Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman spent more than two years there before being convicted and transferred to a federal prison in Colorado.

Epstein's death quickly raised questions about whether Epstein was in fact on suicide watch.

"We need answers. Lots of them," tweeted New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the Justice Department, said an investigation must "determine who is responsible."

Republican Senator Ben Sasse, who heads the Senate's judiciary oversight committee, said the government had failed Epstein's alleged victims "yet again."

"These victims deserved to face their serial abuser in court," he said.

On Friday, two thousand pages of documents focusing on testimony by a victim who claimed she was a "sex slave" of Epstein were released by a New York court.

In them, Virginia Giuffre, now an adult, claims that she was forced to have sex with well-known American political and business personalities. They have all denied the allegations.

Sexual massages

Prosecutors said Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage teenagers, some as young as 14, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.

They claim that Epstein was "well aware that many of the victims were minors."

The girls were paid hundreds of dollars in cash to massage him, perform sexual acts and to recruit other girls, prosecutors allege.

They say Epstein had an army of recruiters, often not much older than their targets, who would approach vulnerable teens.

Epstein is also accused of paying off possible co-conspirators to "influence" them, US media have reported.

Epstein, whose friends have included President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew, was convicted previously of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.

They have all denied knowing anything about his alleged crimes.

Epstein avoided federal prosecution under a plea deal that required him to admit to a single Florida state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor and register as a sex offender.

He served 13 months in a county jail before being released in 2009.

Last month, Alex Acosta resigned as US labor secretary amid a backlash over the deal that he negotiated with Epstein in that case while he was a federal prosecutor in Florida.

Related Articles:

US hedge fund billionaire charged with sex trafficking minors


“The Battle (in the old energy) is Over”, Laguna Hills, California, US(4), July 13–14, 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

“McCloud-3 Linear Reflections Part 1”, McCloud, California, US(5), June 28 – July 1, 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

US financier Epstein found injured in cell after possible suicide attempt: media

France24 – AFP, 25 July 2019

Jeffrey Epstein, in this undated handout from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's
Department, has been accused of sexually assaulting minors Palm Beach County
Sheriff's Department/AFP/File

New York (AFP) - Disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of trafficking underage girls for sex, was found unconscious in his New York jail cell after a possible suicide attempt, US media reported Thursday.

Epstein -- a convicted pedophile -- was discovered on Tuesday at a federal jail with marks on his neck, anonymous law enforcement sources told multiple media outlets including The New York Times.

The 66-year-old, who has befriended countless celebrities and politicians over the years, was taken from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to hospital and the injuries are not believed to be serious, media reports said.

Guards are also investigating whether Epstein was the victim of a possible assault -- or if he injured himself in a bid to be transferred out of the jail -- as they piece together what happened.

Prison officials, lawyers for Epstein, and prosecutors were not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP.

The wealthy hedge fund manager was denied bail last week after appearing at a New York court charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

He denies the charges and faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

In the ruling, Judge Richard Berman cited Epstein's ownership of a private jet, along with a fake Austrian passport and $70,000 in cash found in his house, as evidence that the financier could skip bail.

Epstein's lawyers had argued that he should be allowed to remain at his home, fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet and with his building under police video surveillance.

Prosecutors say Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage teenagers, some as young as 14 years old, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.

They claim that Epstein was "well aware that many of the victims were minors."

The girls were paid hundreds of dollars in cash to massage him, perform sexual acts and to recruit other girls, prosecutors allege.

They say that Epstein had an army of recruiters often not much older than their targets who would approach vulnerable teens.

Trump, Clinton and British prince

Once recruited, the girls' names were entered into a "little black book."

Alleged victim Jennifer Araoz, 32, told NBC News that she was recruited by a woman outside her New York high school in 2001 to meet Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse. She said that in the fall of 2002, Epstein raped her.

Epstein is also accused of paying off possible co-conspirators to "influence" them, US media have reported.

New York prosecutors said they had obtained financial records showing Epstein wired $350,000, just days after reports broke of a secret plea deal he negotiated a decade ago, news reports said.

Epstein, whose friends have included President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew, was convicted previously of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.

But he avoided federal prosecution under the plea deal that required Epstein to admit to a single state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor and register as a sex offender.

He served just 13 months in a county jail before being released in 2009.

Earlier this month, Alex Acosta resigned as US labor secretary amid a backlash over the deal that he negotiated with Epstein while he was a federal prosecutor in Florida.

Epstein is next due to appear in court on July 31.

Related Articles:

US hedge fund billionaire charged with sex trafficking minors

“The Battle (in the old energy) is Over”, Laguna Hills, California, US(4), July 13–14, 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

Louvre museum removes Sackler name amid opioid controversy

Yahoo – AFP, July 17, 2019

Paris's iconic Louvre is believed to be the first museum in the world to remove
the Sackler name over the opioid crisis (AFP Photo/Ludovic MARIN)

Paris (AFP) - The Louvre museum in Paris has removed the name of the Sackler family from one of its wings, amid a controversy that has seen the billionaire donors accused of pushing a highly-addictive opioid blamed for tens of thousands of deaths.

An AFP reporter on Wednesday saw that masking tape had been put in place to hide the Sackler name on plaques in the rooms of what had been the Sackler Wing of Oriental Antiquities, which houses artefacts from the ancient Near East.

A museum spokesperson could not say when the tape had been put in place. The wing had been given the name due to a $3.6 million donation made by the Sackler family in 1996.

Louvre president Jean-Luc Martinez said on RTL television on Tuesday that the rooms no longer carried the name as such a tribute lasted a maximum of 20 years after the donation.

This would mean that the Sackler wing should not have been named after the family for several years. But the Louvre spokesperson declined to comment when asked why the name had not been removed three years ago.

American group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), backed by American photographer Nancy Goldin, a former opioid addict, had urged the museum to rename the Sackler Wing.

The Louvre was the latest in a string of museums to face criticism over links to the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma, whose painkiller OxyContin is now subject to more than 1,000 lawsuits over its role in the US opioid crisis.

In recent months, galleries including New York's Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum, and London's Tate and National Portrait Gallery, said they would stop accepting donations from the family.

But the Louvre is believed to be the first to actually remove the name, a move welcomed by a PAIN spokesperson while noting that the museum appeared unwilling to publicise it.

In 2017, 47,000 people died in the United States as a result of overdosing on opioids including prescription drugs, heroin and fentanyl, the Centers for Disease Control says.

There are hundreds of lawsuits in various US states against both Purdue and its owner the Sackler family, who are accused of pushing for the prescription of OxyContin despite knowing how addictive it is.

But worries about the medication are not confined to the US.

Last month, around 100 French doctors warned about the risk of a health crisis claiming there were "12 million people in France taking opioids" who had not been told about the potential for addiction and risk of overdose.

Photographer Nan Goldin leads a protest out of the Guggenheim Museum in

Manhattan, New York, against its funding by the Sackler family, the owners of

Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue. Photograph: Yana Paskova/The Guardian

Related Article:

Massive lawsuit says Sackler family broke laws to profit from opioids

Canadian province sues opioid makers, distributors

Oxycodone overdoses in the Netherlands soar as prescriptions rise

Painkiller overdose deaths up 5x among US women

Dutch Seroxat teen users to sue drug maker for side effects

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Text version “Predictions”)

".... Let me tell you what else is in the field. Two things: These are going to be things that exist now in the field and they are upcoming potentials. The reason I give you these potentials is so if they happen, just like the handshake, you might believe a little more in this process.

There will come a time when Big Pharma will fall over because of a growing higher consciousness of the public. [Applause in the audience] There is a consciousness growing here that begins to have a new respect for each other, so that abuse of women will no longer be tolerated. Things that never happened before will begin happening, like bishops and cardinals resigning. [All 34 bishops in the Catholic Church resigned May 2018 after the new wild card pope called them on their reaction to child abuse for years by their colleagues.] All the things my partner brought today [in the seminar] are actually happening now. Why should some of these drug companies fail? Because there will be a strong reaction from your general public when they realize there are companies that have policies that would keep a Human sick or let him die for money. [Applause in the audience] It would be unconscionable, and the potential grows stronger daily that it's going to happen. The trigger? It's coming. When it does, that industry will be in trouble. Not all pharma is this way, dear ones - understand this - but the ones who are will fall. ..."

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Dallas Texas, Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

US hedge fund billionaire charged with sex trafficking minors

Yahoo – AFP, July 8, 2019

Members of a protest group called "Hot Mess" hold up signs of Jeffrey Epstein as the
hedge fund billionaire appears in court to face sex trafficking charges (AFP Photo/
STEPHANIE KEITH)

New York (AFP) - Jeffrey Epstein, a hedge fund billionaire with ties to top politicians and celebrities, was charged on Monday with sexually exploiting dozens of young girls.

Epstein, 66, was arrested at an airport in New Jersey on Saturday after returning to the United States from Paris on a private jet.

In an indictment unsealed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, he was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

"(Epstein) sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations," the indictment said.

Some of the victims were as young as 14.

Epstein, a well-connected financier whose friends have included President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, was convicted previously of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.

But Epstein avoided federal prosecution in those cases with a 2007 plea deal negotiated by his lawyers with Alexander Acosta, now the labor secretary in the Trump administration.

Under the secret deal, he pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor and served 13 months in a county jail.

Acosta, who was the top federal prosecutor in Miami at the time, has been the target of a campaign demanding his resignation over the relatively light sentence handed down to the billionaire financier.

Related Article:

“The Battle (in the old energy) is Over”, Laguna Hills, California, US(4), July 13–14, 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

‘Death to gays’ preacher Steven Anderson banned from Netherlands

DutchNews, May 1, 2019

Steven Anderson preaching at his church. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Homophobic preacher Steven Anderson will not be allowed to enter the Netherlands as part of a speaking tour later this month. 

Gay rights campaign organisation COC, MPs from across the spectrum and Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, all urged the government to block Steven Anderson after he announced his plan to speak in the capital on May 23. 

Junior justice minister Mark Harbers said on Wednesday that measures would be taken to stop Anderson at the border, though he did not specify what these were. 

Anderson has been banned from other countries, including the UK, South Africa and Botswana, for saying that gay people should be put to death. In 2016 he called the death of 50 people in an attack on a gay bar in Orlando ‘good news’ because ‘there’s fifty less pedophiles in this world’. 

The Israeli information centre CIDI also supported the ban because Anderson has disputed whether the Holocaust happened. 

Harbers said there was no place in ‘a democratic state such as ours’ for discrimination, incitement to hatred or intolerance or violence towards another group.

Massive lawsuit says Sackler family broke laws to profit from opioids

The Guardian, Joanna Walters in New York, Fri 22 Mar 2019

Group of more than 500 cities, counties and tribes accuses family of helping to create ‘worst drug crisis’ in US history

Photographer Nan Goldin leads a protest out of the Guggenheim Museum in
Manhattan, New York, against its funding by the Sackler family, the owners of
Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue. Photograph: Yana Paskova/The Guardian

A group made up of more than 500 cities, counties and Native American tribes across the United States has filed a massive lawsuit accusing members of the Sacklerfamily, who own the maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, of helping to create “the worst drug crisis in American history”.

The lawsuit represents communities in 26 states and eight tribes and accuses Sackler family members of knowingly breaking laws in order to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars, while hundreds of thousands of Americans died.

“Eight people in a single family made the choices that caused much of the opioid epidemic,” the lawsuit, filed earlier this week in federal court in the southern district of New York, states.

The same eight members of the family had recently been added to a small number of lawsuits that are underway against a string of opioid-makers, including the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company the Sacklers wholly own, Purdue Pharma, but they have not been sued as individuals on anything like this scale before.

“This nation is facing an unprecedented opioid addiction epidemic that was initiated and perpetuated by the Sackler defendants for their own financial gain, to the detriment of each of the plaintiffs and their residents. The ‘Sackler defendants’ include Richard Sackler, Beverly Sackler, David Sackler, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, Jonathan Sackler, Kathe Sackler, Mortimer DA Sackler, and Theresa Sackler,” this week’s lawsuit states.

The eight are the most high-profile members of a family which has long been known for prolific philanthropy to famous arts and education institutions, including the Metropolitan and Guggenheim museums in New York, which have faced fierce recent protests against the taking of Sackler money. Other institutions include Columbia, Yale, MIT, Tufts and other US universities, and, in the UK, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Serpentine Gallery, Glasgow University and other recipients.

Earlier this week Britain’s National Portrait Gallery decided not to take up the offer of a £1m Sackler family grant and, in the US, Columbia University and the University of Washington, which have both received Sackler donations in the past, have announced they are not now accepting gifts from the family.

Court documents accuse the eight family members of purposely playing down the dangers of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, which is more potent than heroin or morphine. They are accused of deceiving doctors and patients and directing sales and marketing techniques that drove huge over-prescribing and ever stronger doses for many patients who should never have been prescribed the pills in the first place.

“The defendants’ actions caused and continue to cause the public health epidemic…caused deaths, serious injuries, and a severe disruption to public peace, order and safety, it is ongoing and it is producing permanent and long-lasting damage,” the court documents allege.

Many of the allegations have already been made public in a lawsuit naming the same eight family members in Massachusetts, and are contained in court documents in the multi-district litigation taking place in a federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, which has been brought against Purdue and other companies, though no members of the Sackler family individually, by more than 1,200 cities and counties.

The family and Purdue deny wrongdoing.

“This complaint is part of a continuing effort by contingency-fee counsel to single out Purdue, blame it for the entire opioid crisis in the United States, and try the case in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system,’’ Robert Josephson, a Purdue spokesman, said in an emailed statement to the Bloomberg news agency.

“These baseless allegations place blame where it does not belong for a complex public health crisis, and we deny them,’’ the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler families said in a statement. They also noted OxyContin sales “represented a tiny portion of the opioid market”.

The lawsuit filed in New York on 18 March is extraordinary because it focuses almost entirely on the individual Sacklers.

Richard and Jonathan Sackler are sons of the late Raymond Sackler, one of the founding brothers of Purdue. Beverly is Raymond’s widow and David his grandson.

Ilene, Kathe and Mortimer David Alfons are children of the late Mortimer Sackler, another of the founding brothers of Purdue, and Theresa is his widow.

The only other defendants named in the lawsuit are the family trust connected to Raymond Sackler’s branch of the family and Rhodes Pharmaceuticals, a company owned by the Sacklers that produces generic opioid painkillers.

Other cases focus mostly on Purdue and other well known pharmaceutical giants involved in opioid production, such as Johnson & Johnson and Allergan.

The lawsuit in the southern district of New York has been brought by city and county authorities across America, including, for example, 42 counties and cities in Alabama, 31 counties in California, 21 cities and counties in Florida, 28 counties in Illinois, 51 cities and counties in Kentucky, more than 100 towns and cities in Massachusetts and dozens of cities and counties in other states including Wisconsin, Virginia, Utah, Tennessee, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Indiana and Michigan.

Among the eight Native American tribes suing the Sacklers are parts of the Cherokee, the Chippewa and the Sioux, the Oneida Nation and the Blackfeet.

Drug overdoses now kill more than 72,000 people in the US a year, according to government figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 49,000 of those are caused by opioids.

Purdue’s business has attracted a wave of lawsuits alleging deception about the safety of OxyContin, which the company had admitted misbranding in a 2007 criminal case.

Purdue has not ruled out filing for bankruptcy, which would cause a hiatus in the civil cases brought against it, but also indicates it could be short of the kind of funds that would be needed for a massive settlement or a fine at trial in the cases against it, to compensate communities for the cost of the crisis.

But a victory in the latest lawsuit against the Sacklers would give the plaintiffs access to the Sacklers’ personal fortune.

Related Articles:

Canadian province sues opioid makers, distributors

Oxycodone overdoses in the Netherlands soar as prescriptions rise

Painkiller overdose deaths up 5x among US women

Dutch Seroxat teen users to sue drug maker for side effects

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Text version “Predictions”)

".... Let me tell you what else is in the field. Two things: These are going to be things that exist now in the field and they are upcoming potentials. The reason I give you these potentials is so if they happen, just like the handshake, you might believe a little more in this process.

There will come a time when Big Pharma will fall over because of a growing higher consciousness of the public. [Applause in the audience] There is a consciousness growing here that begins to have a new respect for each other, so that abuse of women will no longer be tolerated. Things that never happened before will begin happening, like bishops and cardinals resigning. [All 34 bishops in the Catholic Church resigned May 2018 after the new wild card pope called them on their reaction to child abuse for years by their colleagues.] All the things my partner brought today [in the seminar] are actually happening now. Why should some of these drug companies fail? Because there will be a strong reaction from your general public when they realize there are companies that have policies that would keep a Human sick or let him die for money. [Applause in the audience] It would be unconscionable, and the potential grows stronger daily that it's going to happen. The trigger? It's coming. When it does, that industry will be in trouble. Not all pharma is this way, dear ones - understand this - but the ones who are will fall. ..."

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Dallas Texas, Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

Ex-lawyer blames Trump 'dirty deeds' as sentenced to three years

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine TRIOMPHE, December 12, 2018

US President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen arrives for
sentencing (AFP Photo/COREY SIPKIN)

New York (AFP) - US President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen delivered a blistering attack on his ex-boss as he was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for multiple crimes including making hush payments to silence two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

"I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds," Cohen said as he pleaded for leniency before US District Judge William H. Pauley III in a packed Manhattan courtroom.

An emotional Cohen, Trump's longtime "fixer," told the court he was taking responsibility for his personal crimes and "those implicating the President of the United States of America."

Cohen's lawyers had argued for no jail time after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion, providing false statements to a bank, illegal campaign contributions and making false statements to Congress.

But Judge Pauley said Cohen -- as a lawyer -- "should have known better" and sentenced him to three years in federal prison, ordering him to surrender to custody by March 6.

"Each of these crimes standing alone warrant considerable punishment," Pauley said, adding that Cohen was "motivated by personal greed and ambition."

"A significant term of imprisonment is fully justified in this highly publicized case to send a message," the judge said.

The charges were brought by federal prosecutors in New York and by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether any members of Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow.

Before Pauley passed sentence the 52-year-old Cohen addressed the court, saying it was his devotion to Trump that caused him to choose "a path of darkness over light."

"Today is the day that I am getting my freedom back," he said.

"I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen I deeply admired," Cohen said.

"I now realize there was little to admire," he said.

US President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen arrives for 

sentencing (AFP Photo/COREY SIPKIN)

'Dirty deeds'

Cohen referred to a recent tweet from Trump calling him "weak," saying his only weakness was "blind loyalty" to his former boss.

"Time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass," he said.

Among the charges against Cohen was making hush money payments to silence two women threatening to go public during the election campaign with claims they had affairs with Trump.

Cohen told prosecutors the payments totaling $280,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal were made "in coordination with and at the direction" of Trump -- referred to by prosecutors as "Individual-1."

Both women have claimed to have had sexual encounters with Trump before he was the Republican candidate for president and prosecutors have characterized the payments as illegal campaign contributions intended to influence the election.

"Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the election," prosecutors said.

Trump this week sought to minimize the importance of the payments saying they were a "simple private transaction" and were "wrongly" being called campaign contributions.

"Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced," Trump tweeted. "WITCH HUNT!"

There was no immediate reaction from Trump to Cohen's sentencing.

Lied to Congress

While federal prosecutors said Cohen's cooperation was limited and selective, the special counsel's office said Cohen had "gone to significant lengths" to assist their investigation.

Last month, Cohen acknowledged that he had lied to Congress about his contacts with Russia during the election campaign about building a Trump Tower in Moscow and the extent of Trump's own involvement in the negotiations.

Cohen, wearing a dark suit with a light blue tie, arrived for the sentencing with his wife, son and daughter, who was walking with a crutch. Other family members were also in the audience including his 83-year-old wheelchair-bound father.

For 12 years, Cohen was vice president of The Trump Organization, the umbrella company for Trump's real estate businesses, and one of the principal confidants of the New York billionaire.

Investigators raided Cohen's offices and New York home in April, seizing stacks of documents and electronic devices.