China bans 'custody and education' punishment for sex workers

Yahoo – AFP, 28 December 2019

China's 'custody and detention' system for sex workers will cease from December 29

Chinese lawmakers Saturday voted to abolish the "custody and education" punishment system, which allowed police to hold sex workers and their clients without charge for up to two years, state media reported.

Critics say the nearly three-decade-old system has little to do with education.

"Sex workers are subjected to police violence... forced labour, compulsory testing for sexually transmitted disease... humiliation and physical violence at these centres," said Shen Tingting, director of advocacy and policy at Asia Catalyst, an NGO working with marginalised groups in the region.

Abolishing this system is a "significant positive step," she said.

The arbitrary detention system will cease from December 29, and those held at "education centers" should be released immediately, state news agency Xinhua reported.

There has been a public push to close the centres ever since China's top legislative committee abolished its system of "re-education through labour camps" in 2013.

Shutting the labour camps -- introduced as a speedy way to handle petty offenders -- ended a practice long criticised by human rights groups.

Yet authorities retained the right to detain sex workers and their clients, and in 2014 police announced that popular actor Huang Haibo would be held for six months for having solicited a prostitute.

That prompted a rare instance of dissent from state media, which questioned the system.

Although illegal, prostitution remains widespread in China, with an estimated several million sex workers.

Under current laws prostitutes and their clients can be fined up to 5,000 yuan ($714) and face up to 15 days of administrative detention.

"Sex workers' issues seldom sits on the agenda of the government," said Shen, adding that abolishing detention centers is only a small step towards safeguarding the rights of prostitutes.

"Chinese law and policies focus on prohibition and cracking down on sex work rather than providing a framework to ensure the health and safety of sex work as a profession."

Thousands in Brussels protest violence against women

Yahoo – AFP, 24 November 2019

Protesters placed red shoes on the ground as a symbol of the victims of
violence against women

Around 10,000 people took part in a protest march in Brussels on Sunday calling for an end to violence against women, police said, a day after similar demonstrations in France and Italy.

The protesters in the Belgian capital paid homage to women killed by partners or ex-partners, then marched to the Palace of Justice where they placed pairs of red shoes as a symbol of femicide victims.

"Belgium is a very complex country with many levels of power; federal, regional and communal and all these levels of powers do little things to tackle violence against women. But the main thing we are demanding is a national plan," said Celine Caudron, one of the organisers of the protest.

"It is important to punish the perpetrators but what we want most is that the violence doesn't happen in the first place."

The marchers held up placards bearing messages such as "That's enough" and "Not one more life".

Also prominent were the names of the 22 women killed by men in Belgium this year.

Outside the law courts building the demonstrators set off alarms and made noise as a "protest against the silence" which surrounds the deaths of battered women.

According to Mirabal, a Belgium umbrella group of organisation opposing violence against women, there have been 98 femicides in the country since 2017, a figure "which, in proportion to the population, is well above the average for European nations".

Tens of thousands marched in France and Italy on Saturday calling for an end to violence against women.

The marches came ahead of the UN-recognised International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Monday.

Weinstein trial delayed as 'Sopranos' actress allowed to testify

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine TRIOMPHE, August 26, 2019

Harvey Weinstein exits court after an arraignment over a new indictment for
sexual assault in New York -- his trial has been delayed until January 2020 (AFP
Photo/SPENCER PLATT)

New York (AFP) - A US judge on Monday postponed Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial until next year, after New York prosecutors filed a new indictment that will allow an actress to testify against the fallen movie mogul.

Weinstein, 67, pleaded not guilty to charges of predatory sexual assault relating to two women in a fresh indictment amended so that the actress, another of Weinstein's accusers, can give evidence as a corroborating witness.

The indictment is effectively the same as an earlier indictment and the two are likely to be merged eventually.

One of the women alleges Weinstein raped her in 2013, while the other claims he forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006.

Documents released after the 15-minute hearing in a New York state court showed that a third women alleges she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein over the winter of 1993-94 in Manhattan.

The woman's name is redacted, but lawyer Gloria Allred said it was her client Annabella Sciorra, known for her Emmy-nominated work on the hit television series "The Sopranos."

"I commend Annabella for her willingness to take the stand and answer questions under oath," Allred, who also represents one of the two alleged victims in the charge sheet, said in a statement.

Actor Annabella Sciorra's lawyer, Gloria Allred, speaks to the media following 

the arraignment for Harvey Weinstein (AFP Photo/SPENCER PLATT)

Sciorra, 59, helped trigger the #MeToo movement in October 2017 when she told The New Yorker magazine that Weinstein raped her at her home in Manhattan in 1993.

Weinstein cannot be charged with raping Sciorra because the statute of limitations has expired.

The judge denied a prosecution request that Sciorra be allowed to give evidence at Weinstein's trial because she had not testified before a grand jury as required under US law.

The new indictment will allow her to testify, which could strengthen the prosecution's case.

Judge James Burke postponed the start of the trial to January 6, 2020 to give Weinstein's defense time to prepare. It had been scheduled to start on September 9.

Trial to be moved?

Weinstein, wearing a dark suit, laughed and said "not really" when he was asked by the judge whether he wanted to go to trial.

He faces life in prison if convicted.

US actress Annabella Sciorra -- seen here in June 2018 in New York -- 

has accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault in 1993, but he 

cannot be charged in connection with those allegations because 

the 25-year statue of limitations has expired (AFP Photo/

ANGELA WEISS)

Once one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, Weinstein has been accused of harassment and assault by more than 80 women, including stars such as Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd.

The original accusations against him were a catalyst for America's #MeToo movement.

Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and producer of "Pulp Fiction," has always insisted his sexual relationships were consensual.

The number of accusers appearing in court can influence the verdict, as seen in the 2018 conviction of Bill Cosby.

Allred said Sciorra -- who starred in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" (1991) -- was willing to testify despite anticipating a "vigorous cross examination by the defense, which no doubt would not be pleasant for any witness to endure."

Weinstein's lawyers denounced the new indictment as a "desperate" last-minute move and want it dismissed. They have 45 days to register motions against it.

"The case itself is weak and they feel they need this portion to help," Weinstein's lawyer Donna Rotunno told reporters outside court.

Allred told reporters that it was up to the jury to decide whether it was strong or weak.

Weinstein's attorneys have also asked for the trial to be moved, arguing that intense coverage in New York's tabloids has meant he won't get a fair trial.

An appellate court will likely make a decision later on Monday, but the request is expected to be rejected.

Shrugging off Trump, FBI tackles right-wing extremists

Yahoo – AFP, Paul HANDLEY, August 25, 2019

Guns, ammunition and tactical gear seized by police near Los Angeles after
arresting a man who threatened a mass shooting (AFP Photo/Handout)

Guns, ammunition and tactical gear seized by police near Los Angeles after arresting a man who threatened a mass shooting (AFP Photo/Handout)

Washington (AFP) - One man had three assault rifles, extra-large magazines and a gas mask. Another had over 18 weapons, including sawed-off shotguns, AR-15s, and a grenade launcher.

Earlier this year, the two might not have drawn the attention of US law enforcement.

But ever since a young racist slaughtered 22 at a Texas Walmart, and another man murdered 10 in Ohio three weekends ago, the FBI has arrested at least seven right-wing extremists in what appears to be a more earnest effort to target white nationalist threats in the United States.

Vaults of guns, crates of ammunition

These are some examples of the deeply disturbing cases.

On August 8, a 23-year-old Las Vegas security guard who communicated with neo-Nazis was arrested with bomb-making materials and indications he might target a synagogue or gay nightclub.

A week later, a Connecticut man, 22, was detained after suggesting online that he would carry out a mass shooting. At his home, investigators found multiple hand and long guns, camouflage outfits, titanium body armor and a combat helmet.

On August 12, an 18-year-old who voiced support for mass shootings was indicted for threatening to kill law enforcement officers. At his home, he had a vault full of weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

Four days after that, Florida police arrested a 25-year-old man who texted his girlfriend that he was planning a mass shooting and envisioned "100 good kills."

Members and supporters of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest 

neo-Nazi groups in the US, hold a rally on April 21, 2018 in Newnan, Georgia

(AFP Photo/SPENCER PLATT)

On August 17, a 20-year-old white nationalist was arrested in Ohio for threatening a Jewish community center. At his home, he had amassed multiple semi-automatic assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and a gas mask.

And this week, police in Long Beach, California, arrested a man for making a mass shooting threat, and found at his home several illegal assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and high-capacity magazines.

FBI waking up

The arrests brought to light the extent of the threat of extremist ideology on the right, and its ability to motivate uniformly young, white men into acting on their hate.

They also, analysts said, mark a change after US justice authorities have been accused for years of doing little about domestic terrorism, which has now killed more Americans since 2002 than Islamist extremism.

"I think that federal law enforcement understand that this is at the highest level of concern," said Brian Levin, head of the Study for Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

"They are certainly devoting a decent amount of investigative resources."

President Donald Trump has been criticized for not roundly condemning white nationalists and neo-Nazis in the wake of several shootings and violent incidents, in particular after a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

Analysts say that reticence left the FBI not fully invested in confronting the threat.

Mass shootings like the one at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas have forced US law 

enforcement to reckon with a broad threat from white nationalist extremists

(AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

A NBC-Wall Street Journal poll conducted earlier this month and released Sunday showed that 56 percent of those surveyed believe that race relations in the US have gotten worse since Trump's election.

The FBI feels held back from opening investigations by Trump's refusal to criticize people he considers part of his loyal voter base, former FBI terrorism supervisor Dave Gomez told The Washington Post.

"It's a no-win situation for the FBI agent and his supervisor."

850 domestic terror probes

But the agency has now clearly recognized the priority.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in July that they have 850 open "domestic terror" investigations and have made 100 arrests so far. The majority of those cases, he said, are "what you might call white supremacist violence."

But Wray also stressed that they were targeting crimes rather than an ideology -- a sharply different approach than that for Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda sympathizers, who can be arrested for expressing support for outlawed jihadists.

Wray's predecessor Andrew McCabe said Friday that the agency is overcoming that wariness, even if it could mean encroachments on civil liberties.

"I think the FBI appears to be refocusing, and augmenting their efforts on the domestic terrorist threat," McCabe told CNN.

Now there is "a much higher degree of sensitivity... to the statements which are now seen as predictors of potentially mass shootings," he said.

Levin said the arrests also show that, after the shock of recent mass shootings, the US public is more attuned to the ideological threat and ready to report any hints by perpetrators of their radical ideologies.

"I think that has created a familiarity among the public with what certain warning signs are," he said.

Police detain hundreds at Moscow opposition protest

Yahoo  - AFP, Maria Antonova and Theo Merz, August 3, 2019

Hundreds of protesters were detained (AFP Photo/Alexander NEMENOV)

Moscow (AFP) - Police detained over 800 people at an opposition gathering in Moscow on Saturday, as authorities upped the pressure on top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny by launching a criminal probe into his anti-graft group.

Crowds walked along the capital's central boulevards in a protest "stroll" over the refusal by officials to let opposition candidates run in September polls for city parliament seats -- a local issue that has turned into a political crisis.

Most of those candidates and opposition leaders, including Navalny, are being held by police following a protest rally last weekend, in which 1,400 demonstrators were detained -- one of the biggest crackdowns in years.

On Saturday, riot police were deployed in large numbers in central Moscow, some shops and cafes were shut, metal barriers were erected, mobile internet was down for many hours, and a metro station was temporarily closed.

Some 828 people were detained during the rally, independent protest monitor OVD-Info said.

Police said only 1,500 people took part in the gathering.

AFP correspondents said the turnout was likely in the thousands but a precise estimate was difficult as the protest was spread over several neighbourhoods.

Riot police appeared to outnumber small groups of protesters who were
walking along stretches of the leafy Boulevard Ring (AFP Photo/Vasily MAXIMOV )

Police actions questioned

AFP observed dozens of arrests along the route of the protest, as police formed human chains and grabbed people indiscriminately.

"They came and took seven people right in front of me," said 50-year-old Olga Yakovleva sitting on a bench on a square along the protest route. "I lost the power of speech... it was just people sitting and talking."

Lyubov Sobol, an ally of key opposition leader Navalny and currently three weeks into a hunger strike after being barred from taking part in the election, was dragged from a taxi and detained as she set off for the rally.

Hours later she was taken to court where she was fined 300,000 rubles ($4,600) for a gathering on July 15, and held for further questioning over the protest last weekend, her team said.

Opposition candidates who attempted to run in the polls next month argue that the authorities have arbitrarily declared signatures they gathered to qualify invalid.

Mini-profiles of main opposition leaders in Russia. (AFP Photo/Robin BJALON)

People in the crowd on Saturday said they just wanted the opposition to have a chance to compete.

"I believe everyone should have a right to take part" in the polls, 39-year-old Robert told AFP.

Footage surfaced of officers in riot gear beating people prostrated on the pavement with batons, and many officers began to wear masks to prevent activists from identifying them on photos and videos.

Amnesty International condemned the "unnecessary and excessive use of force" and "unfounded" attempts to paint Moscow protest actions as a violent uprising.

Authorities have launched investigations into last weekend's "mass riots" and "violence against police", echoing similar probes into protests against President Vladimir Putin in 2012 which saw several people jailed.

Protestors insist their actions are strictly peaceful, and there have been no reports of damaged property.

Police were deployed in large numbers in central Moscow (AFP Photo/Alexander
NEMENOV)

New 'laundering' probe

The opposition had hoped the September polls would bring an end to the monopoly of Kremlin loyalists in Moscow's parliament.

The body decides the city's multi-billion-dollar budget but lacks political independence from mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of Putin.

Sobyanin has warned the opposition against "new provocations".

Navalny and other protest leaders say corruption is rife in the capital. His anti-corruption foundation FBK this week published a new investigation into Sobyanin's deputy, accusing her of selling prime Moscow property to family members at rock-bottom prices.

On Saturday, FBK, which previously made other high-profile investigations into the questionable wealth of top officials, itself became a target of a new probe into "laundering" a billion rubles ($15.3 million).

The popular FBK collects money through donations. Navalny's ally Leonid Volkov dismissed the allegations as an attempt to stamp out Navalny's national network of volunteers.

Servicemen of the Russian National Guard detained people at the unsanctioned r
ally urging fair elections in downtown Moscow (AFP Photo/Vasily MAXIMOV )

Navalny, currently in jail, was rushed from his cell to hospital last weekend in an incident his personal doctor said could be poisoning with an unknown chemical substance.

A state toxicology lab said no traces were found.

President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the situation in Moscow.

#UPDATE The German government says a Moscow police crackdown on peaceful protests "violates" Russia's international obligations and undermines the right to fair elections in the country, a day after hundreds were detained at an opposition rally. https://t.co/3gqhdClBgU pic.twitter.com/aXLx3Kyfvl

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 4 augustus 2019

Pope Francis issues sweeping sex abuse legislation

DW, 29 March 2019

At the Vatican, Pope Francis has issued wide-ranging new sex abuse legislation that covers all Vatican personnel as well as those who work for the Vatican diplomatic corps. It aims to be a model for the church globally.

   

Pope Francis issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation on Friday for Vatican personnel and diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors.

For the first time, the law provides an explicit Vatican definition for "vulnerable people," who are entitled to the same protections as minors under church law.

The Vatican amended its canon law covering sex abuse to include "vulnerable adults" in 2010, but never defined it.

It is a policy shift aimed at being a model for the Catholic Church around the world.

While limited in scope, the mandatory reporting provision marks the first time the Vatican has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.

Vatican City State

Francis also issued child protection guidelines for Vatican City State and its youth seminary. The move comes after the global sex abuse scandal exploded anew last year, and The Associated Press reported that the headquarters of the Catholic Church had no policy to protect children from predator priests.

While the new legislation only covers Vatican City State, affiliated institutions and the diplomatic corps, they were still symbolically significant and were welcomed by a former seminarian whose case helped spark the reform.

"I see this as something positive," Kamil Jarzembowski told the AP.

Vatican's new definition

According to the new definition from the Vatican, a vulnerable person is anyone who is sick or suffering from a physical or psychiatric deficiency, who isn't able to exercise personal freedom even on occasion and has a limited capacity to understand or resist the crime.

The new legislation applies to all who work in the Vatican

The new law covers all personnel who live and work in the Vatican as well as the Holy See's vast diplomatic corps.

The issue of whether adult seminarians, religious sisters or other adults who are emotionally or financially dependent on clergy can be considered "vulnerable people" has come to the fore in the wake of the scandal over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a once high-ranking American cleric accused of molesting seminarians, and revelations of priests and bishops sexually preying on nuns.

Vatican ambassadors have figured in some of the most scandalous cases of sex abuse in recent years, with papal representatives accused of groping, distributing child pornography and sexually abusing minors in their far-flung posts.

Current law

The law currently requires any Vatican public official who learns of an allegation of abuse to report it to Vatican prosecutors "without delay." Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to 5,000 euros ($5,615) or, in the case of a Vatican gendarme, up to six months of prison.

The mandatory reporting provision, however, is significant, since the Holy See for decades has justified not having a binding reporting policy for the universal church by arguing that accused clergy could be unfairly persecuted in places where Catholics are a threatened minority. Since that is not a risk in the Vatican, it is now law.

"With this document the Vatican wants to send a message that it takes these crimes seriously, wants to prosecute them, to avoid cover up, and also to create an atmosphere that prevents these crimes from happening in the first place," said Ulrich Rhode, a canon law professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

The legislation requires that victims be welcomed, listened to and provided with medical, psychological and legal assistance, and sets the statute of limitations at 20 years past the victim's 18th birthday.

In a statement accompanying the new law, the Vatican's editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, said while very few children actually live in the Vatican City State, Francis decided to make the legislation and accompanying guidelines a model.

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)

US House unanimously demands Mueller report be made public

Yahoo – AFP, March 14, 2019

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is believed close to wrapping up his investigation
of whether Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Washington (AFP) - The US House of Representatives voted unanimously Thursday to demand that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report on his Russian election meddling investigation be made public.

The House voted 420-0 on the non-binding resolution, signaling strong opposition to any move that President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Bill Barr might make to restrict access by Congress or the public to Mueller's findings.

While Republicans condemned the resolution as a political move, ultimately 190 voted in favor.

The vote came as expectations rise that Mueller is near to bringing to a close a nearly two-year-old investigation that has focused on whether Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with the Russians.

Democrats speculate that the report might have enough evidence to support an impeachment effort against the president.

Mueller has indicted over three dozen people and companies, including six former close aides or associates of Trump.

Five have pleaded or been found guilty, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was sentence to prison for seven and a half years in two cases, the second of which concluded on Wednesday.

The sixth, political consultant Roger Stone, was appearing in court Thursday.

Mueller is believed to still be building possible cases against Trump associates, potentially targeting Trump himself and members of his family.

Court filings indicate he has at least one grand jury operating in secret.

The vote came after Barr refused in his confirmation hearings in February to commit to releasing Mueller's eventual report in full.

"I am deeply concerned that Attorney General Barr may attempt to withhold Mueller's full report from the public and the underlying evidence from Congress," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff ahead of the vote.

"Congress will not accept any attempt by Mr Barr or the president to bury the report and the findings of the special counsel."

"Transparency is fundamental to the special counsel's process, especially when dealing with matters of national security involving the president," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, whose committee will oversee any impeachment motion.