“Joel Le Scouarnec, the former surgeon who has admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, mostly children, between 1989 and 2014 has been sentenced to a maximum term of 20 years in jail. Le Scouarnec was dressed in black as he stood emotionless in court listening to judge Aude Burési deliver the verdict. In March, he admitted sexually abusing all 299 victims. Judge Burési said the court had taken into account the fact that the former surgeon had especially sought out unwell, vulnerable and sedated victims. The sentence has a mandatory minimum term of two-thirds – and because Le Scouarnec has already served seven years, he may be eligible for parole by 2030.” (05/28/25)
“The European Union lifted a wide range of sanctions on Syria on Wednesday, but slapped new ones on people and groups it says participated in attacks on civilians during a wave of violence in the Syrian coastal region in March. The move lifted most sanctions that had been imposed on the country, including on its financial system, while keeping them in place on individuals and organizations in Syria it says violated human rights or for ‘security grounds’, like the extended family of former President Bashar Assad or its chemical weapons program, according to the text of the European Council on the decision. The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had announced plans to lift the sanctions last week.” (05/28/25)
“Christopher Crim’s troubles started when his husband, who has cystic fibrosis and is in end-of-life hospice care, needed a tooth pulled. Crim took him to a dentist near their home in Tennessee, and while he was in the bathroom, the dentist pulled all of his husband’s teeth, not one, and left a bone sticking out of his husband’s gums. The ensuing pain was so severe that his husband couldn’t sleep, even on morphine and oxycodone. So Crim rushed him to a new dentist, who estimated that surgery to fix the problem would cost $6,000. Crim and his husband didn’t have that kind of money.” [editor’s note: I got scammed by this a couple years ago, for dental work – SAT] (05/28/25)
Source: TomDispatch
by William D Hartung & Ashley Gate
“The Trump administration seems intent on undermining America’s ability to make human rights a significant element of its foreign policy. As evidence of that, consider its plan to dramatically reduce policy directives and personnel devoted to those very issues, including the dismantling of the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Rights, and Labor. Even worse, the Trump team has attacked a crucial global institution, the International Criminal Court, and put it under crippling sanctions that have ground its operations to a halt — all for telling the truth about Israel’s illegal and ongoing mass slaughter in Gaza. The Trump administration’s assault on human rights comes against the background of years of policy decisions in Washington that too often cast aside such concerns in favor of supposedly more important ‘strategic’ interests. The very concept of human rights has had a distinctly mixed history in American foreign policy.” (05/27/25)
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the Trump administration announced Tuesday. ‘Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any critical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children’, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video posted online. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary added that ‘there’s no evidence that healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.’ The move comes one week after top health officials signaled that they planned to tighten access to the annual COVID-19 booster shot, which is still recommended for elderly and at-risk populations. Previously, COVID-19 vaccines had been recommended for everyone six months and older.” (05/27/25)
“Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently stoked the racial fires once again. I guess this is the only way he can break news these days, because he doesn’t have significant accomplishments to speak of. This time the mayor was visiting the Apostolic Church of God, located in my South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn, when he said, ‘The reason I hire so many Blacks to run Chicago is because we’re planet Earth’s most generous race.’ This is Black supremacy, plain and simple. Like the racists of America’s past, Mayor Johnson believes in attributing supremacy and inferiority to an individual based on skin color. And he has made no secret of his belief that one’s Black skin makes one superior and one’s White skin makes one inferior.” (05/27/25)
“Scientists have pinpointed the oldest known evidence of humans making tools from whale bone. The bones, fashioned into narrow projectiles for hunting, had been uncovered in excavations dating back over a century in the Bay of Biscay near Spain and France. Scientists figured the tools were quite ancient, but many were small fragments so it was hard to determine their age. Technological advancements in the past decade have now made it possible to date the oldest of the tools to about 20,000 years ago. Scientists found that the bones came from blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales and other species. ‘Humans and whales have clearly been encountering one another for a long time,’ said Vicki Szabo with Western Carolina University, who studies the history of whaling and was not involved with the latest research. Scientists think that ancient humans were crafting whale bone instruments in places including the Arctic and South Pacific.” (05/27/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I am not a politically complicated person. I think genocide is bad. I think peace is good. I don’t think anyone should be struggling to survive in a civilization that is capable of providing for all. I think we should try to preserve the biosphere we all depend on for survival. To me these are just obvious, common sense positions, no more remarkable or profound than believing I should refrain from slamming my nipple in a car door. I do not think these views should put me on the political fringe. I don’t think they should cause me to be seen as some kind of radical. It’s not outlandish that I hold these views, it’s outlandish that everyone else does not. But that’s the kind of society we find ourselves in today..” (05/27/25)
“The Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a Massachusetts student who was banned from school for wearing a shirt criticizing the transgender movement on Tuesday. The student, Liam Morrison, brought the case through his father and stepmother, Christopher and Susan Morrison. The plaintiffs argue Nichols Middle School violated his free speech rights when it banned him from wearing two T-shirts to school with the words ‘There are only two genders’ and ‘There are [censored] genders’ on the front. Liam was sent home both times after he refused to change shirts. The school argued the shirts made his classmates feel unsafe, and a federal court agreed, saying the message was demeaning for transgender students. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito both issued separate dissents, arguing the court should have taken up the case.” (05/27/25)
“On the eve of the 2020 election, FBI agents discussed an active money-laundering case against Hunter Biden just hours after casting doubt on the authenticity of his incriminating laptop during meetings with social media companies, according to newly redacted chat logs obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley. The FBI’s refusal to confirm the laptop’s existence and instead allow a false narrative to take hold that it was Russian disinformation came on the same day that The Post published bombshell emails from the device revealing Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s lucrative influence-peddling schemes when he was vice president. ‘Actually what kind of case is the laptop thing?’ FBI agent Elvis Chan asks FBI analyst Peter Courtney at 5:28 p.m. on Oct. 14, 2020. ‘Corruption? campaign financing?’ Courtney replies: ‘CLOSE HOLD — its a money laundering case on hunter biden.’ ‘oh crap,’ says Chan. ‘ok. it ends here.'” (05/25/25)
