Latest News

He was 29, loved photography, skateboarding and sunsets. The funeral of African American Tire Nichols, whose fatal beatings by black police officers shocked the United States, was held Wednesday in the city of Memphis, attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and Reverend Al Sharpton, who called for “more humanity and racial justice.”

“Doesn’t he have the right to safety?” ‘ the Vice President began. “Here is a family who lost their son and brother after an act of violence” committed by “those responsible for their protection,” she pounded.

“You beat a brother to death”

Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist who delivered the eulogy at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, said he was particularly struck by the fact that the five police officers were black themselves.

“In the town where (Martin Luther) King lost his life (…) you beat a brother to death,” he said. “The video speaks for itself. The police did not ask for his driver’s license or registration card. They pulled him out of the car and started hitting him,” the reverend continued, echoing the words of Tire Nichols: “He just wanted to go home.”

“Why couldn’t they (the police) see the humanity of Tyre? asked attorney Ben Crump. “We have to make sure they see us as humane,” he continued, vowing to get Tyre Nichols “fair justice.”

Overdue police reform

Tearfully, RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tire Nichols, called for applause for Congress to pass a police reform bill with the name of George Floyd, which is stuck in the Senate for now. “Because if we don’t do the blood, the next child that dies will have that blood on their hands,” she pleaded.

The tears of a mother, the grief of a mother who has to bury her son who was beaten to death at the age of 29.
“Tyre was a wonderful person. It’s unimaginable that this happened to him” #tyrenicole pic.twitter.com/X8NAjkKLNj

– Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) February 1, 2023

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

Click on ” I SUPPOSE » accept the deposit of cookies by external services and thus gain access to the content of our partners

I SUPPOSE

And to better reward 20 minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for just one day, via our “I accept for today” button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.

“This is just the beginning,” promised Rodney Wells, Tire Nichols’ father-in-law. “We look forward to justice for all families (…), not just for ours.”

Meeting at the White House on Thursday

As a sign of the attention the White House is giving to this affair, President Joe Biden himself spoke to Tire Nichols’ parents last week to pay tribute to “their courage and strength” just hours before the video of his ordeal was released in the hands of the police .

President Biden plans to host members of the caucus Thursday, which brings together African American lawmakers at the White House to “discuss police reform legislation and other shared priorities,” said Olivia Dalton, an executive branch spokeswoman.

“President Biden is determined to do everything in his power (…) to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to expectations of impartial justice (…) and dignity for all,” he said.

More than a century ago, a small fish fossil was found in a coal mine in England that didn’t look like much to the naked eye. Later studies dated it as an extinct fish the size of a bream that lived 319 million years ago at the end of the 20th century Paleozoic. But only now has a research team from the Universities of Birmingham (UK) and Michigan (USA) discovered its true value: Inside is the oldest known example of a vertebrate brain. The results have just been published in the journal Nature.

Most of the fossils recovered so far have been formed from hard body parts such as bones, teeth and shells. This is because soft tissues, such as the brain, usually decay quickly and very rarely fossilize. However, when this fish died, the soft tissues of its brain and cranial nerves were replaced in the process with a dense mineral that preserved its three-dimensional structure, which measures about an inch in detail.

“This unexpected discovery of a three-dimensional vertebrate brain gives us amazing insight into the neural anatomy of ray-finned fish. It shows us a more complicated pattern of brain evolution than is suggested from living species alone, and allows us to better define how and when modern-day bony fish evolved. Sam Gilesfrom the University of Birmingham, and one of the authors of the study.

The fish skull fossil compared to a coin Jeremy Marble, University of Michigan News

In particular, the fossil is from a Coccocephalus wildi, a primitive bream-sized fish that swam in an estuary and probably fed on small crustaceans, aquatic insects, and cephalopods, a group that now includes squid, cuttlefish, and cuttlefish. It had ray fins, a group of fish whose backbone and fins are supported by bony rods called rays. “Comparisons with living fish showed that the brains of Coccocephalus most closely resemble the brains of sturgeon and paddlefish, which are often referred to as ‘primitive’ fish because they differed from all other living ray-finned fish more than a year ago.” than 300 million years.”

The scientists weren’t looking for a brain when they first examined the fossil, but they did discover a definite and unusual object inside the skull. The mysterious object shared several features found in vertebrate brains: it was bilaterally symmetrical, contained cavities resembling ventricles in appearance, and had multiple filaments extending into openings in the braincase resembling ventricles in appearance, Cranial nerves passing through such canals in living species. Significantly, the brain of Coccocephalus folds inward, in contrast to all living ray-finned fish, in which the brain folds outward.

Although only its skull was recovered, scientists believe C. wildi would have been between 6 and 8 inches long. Judging by the shape of its jaws and teeth, it was probably a carnivore Rodrigo Figueroa, also from the University of Michigan. When the fish died, it was probably quickly buried in low-oxygen sediment. Such environments can slow down the breakdown of the body’s soft tissues.

“This small and superficially nondescript fossil shows us not only the oldest example of a fossilized vertebrate brain, but also reveals much of what we thought about the evolution of brains from living things,” says Figueroa.

During early talks between US President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on raising the debt limit, there was no agreement. It was a “very good conversation”, McCarthy said after the meeting, although they had different perspectives. They agreed to meet again. McCarthy said he believes he and Biden can eventually reach an agreement.

In the conversation, Biden made it clear that raising the debt limit was neither negotiable nor subject to conditions, the White House said in a statement. The debt limit must be raised if the US government wants to remain solvent.

The previous debt ceiling of around 31.4 trillion US dollars (currently just under 29 trillion euros) was already reached on 19 January. Finance Minister Janet Yellen said in mid-January that the government could remain solvent until early June by reallocating funds.

The House of Representatives, in which McCarthy’s Republicans have held a narrow majority since early January, is expected to approve the increase. In exchange for an increase in the debt limit, Republicans, particularly on the far right, are demanding drastic cuts in government spending. Over the weekend, McCarthy said there would be no defaults.

In the past, Republicans and Democrats have always agreed to raise the limit — though often only after a bitter struggle. A default by the world’s largest economy could have dramatic consequences for the global economy.

Two Ukrainian soldiers told CNN International about the horrors they witnessed in a candlelit bunker southwest of the town of Bakhmut. For several weeks, Andriy and Borisych faced hundreds of fighters from the Wagner Group, a powerful mercenary group deployed in support of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the current stage of the invasion of Ukraine. The militia is also active elsewhere, most notably in Africa and Syria.

Disguised in a ski mask, Andriy told CNN what appeared to be an endless firefight when they were attacked by Wagner Group soldiers. “We fought for about ten hours at a time. They didn’t come in waves, but in a single endless front,” said the Ukrainian soldier. “There were about 20 soldiers on our side. And about 200 on the other side.”

Wagner’s strategy is to send in a first wave of fighters, composed mostly of inexperienced recruits pulled from Russian prisons, in exchange for a possible pardon of their sentences. They know little about military tactics and are poorly equipped. Most just hope that if they survive their sixmonth contract, they can go home instead of going back to a cell.

Only when the first wave is exhausted or reduced does the Wagner group send more experienced fighters, often from the flanks, in an attempt to overrun the Ukrainian positions.

Andriy says that facing the attack was a terrifying and unreal experience. “Our sniper almost went mad shooting at the Russians. And even hit, they didn’t fall. And then after a while, maybe because of the blood loss it just falls off.”

Andriy compares the fight to a scene from a zombie movie. “They climb over the corpses of their comrades, step on them,” says the soldier. “It looks like it’s very, very likely they were on drugs before the attack.”

Andriy’s account of the Wagner group’s tactics matches a Ukrainian intelligence report obtained by CNN. According to this account, if Wagner’s forces manage to position themselves, they can use artillery support to dig trenches and consolidate their conquests. According to Ukrainian wiretapping, there is often a lack of coordination between Wagner and the Russian army.

According to CNN, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, said his militia is an “exemplary military organization that adheres to all the necessary laws and regulations” of modern warfare.

Andriy’s unit says they have captured a Wagner Group fighter whose story is as tragic as his tactics are primitive and brutal. According to a record of the interviewee, the man is an engineer but sold drugs to make some money. He volunteered to join the group, believing it would eliminate his criminal record so his daughter would have less trouble pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer.

Andriy, who hails from the city of Odessa and joined just days after the Russian invasion, says no matter how many more fighters are sent to raid their positions, they will resist. “Most of my boys are volunteers. They had (a) good business, they had (a) good job, they had a good salary, but they came to fight for the country. And that makes a big difference,” he says.

“This is the war for freedom. It’s not even the war between Ukraine and Russia. This is a war between dictatorship and democracy.”

I’m not a close friend of the PM, repeated Mr Barton, who ran McKinsey from 2009 to 2018, while being questioned by members of the House Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. I don’t have his phone number and I’ve never been in a room alone with him.

I am shocked by what I am reading in the newspapers and by this [Justin Trudeau] must also be quite shocked because it isn’t true, he claimed, referring to the various media outlets labeling him as close to Justin Trudeau.

However, his statement somewhat contradicts the portrait Chrystia Freeland, now Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, painted during a speech in 2019 when Justin Trudeau appointed Mr Barton as Canada’s ambassador to China. She had described a great closeness between the two men.

Mr Barton finally left his post as ambassador in 2021 after leading negotiations for the repatriation of the two Michaels who had been imprisoned in China for almost three years.

Dominic Barton and Justin Trudeau at a reception in 2017

Photo: The Canadian Press/Christopher Katsarov

Beyond the personal relationship that may or may not link Justin Trudeau and Dominic Barton, the latter’s testimony is key, particularly given his role, at the request of former Treasury Secretary Bill Morneau in 2016, as honorary chair of the Economic Growth Advisory Board.

If a minister or prime minister asks you to do something, do it. And it was an honor. I worked hard and it had nothing to do with McKinsey contracts, Mr. Barton reasoned Wednesday.

At the time, this committee recommended that the federal government increase the number of immigrants admitted to Canada annually to 450,000 by 2021, a goal that also aligned with the goals of the advocacy group The Century Initiative, or Initiative of the Century. .established in 2011 by Mr. Barton.

Liberal Immigration Secretary John McCallum described the committee’s proposed target as huge. However, the Trudeau government eventually followed the recommendation – as evidenced by its current immigration target.

In August 2018, just days after Dominic Barton left McKinsey as a director, the consulting firm began its first contract with the Department of Immigration to review many aspects of its management. Contracts of this type have multiplied as a result, according to a Radio-Canada survey.

“Since I moved to Asia in 1996, I have not been involved with the federal government placing paid contracts with McKinsey.”

— A quote from Dominic Barton, former global director of McKinsey

I know it might sound like a good story, but there was no connection between my work [de directeur] and those of McKinsey [avec les clients], added the firm’s former global director. That’s what I’ve been trying to explain since I began my testimony.

Just to put things in perspective, McKinsey is a very large company. The work that is done in Canada is a tiny fraction of what is being done. And it was not my intention to interfere in this work.

McKinsey is a consulting firm based in New York but employs 30,000 consultants worldwide in 130 offices in 65 countries (new window).

Dominic Barton ran consulting firm McKinsey from 2009 to 2018 and then served as Canada’s Ambassador to China from 2019 to 2021.

Photo: The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Growing and disruptive influence

Since Justin Trudeau took office in 2015, Justin Trudeau’s administration has awarded McKinsey more than $116 million in contracts. That’s about 45 times the total value of contracts awarded by Stephen Harper’s previous Conservative government, which was in power for nine years from 2006 to 2015.

Faced with this massive government use of a private consultancy, the Parliamentary Committee on Government Business and Budget Estimates, in which the Liberals are in the minority, decided to launch an inquiry.

Opposition parties are, of course, concerned about the costs generated by these contracts, but also about the lack of transparency, subcontracting that undermines public service expertise, and the influence of a foreign company on government policy.

But NDP MP Gord Johns, who sits on the committee, tabled a motion to expand his mandate to include other consultancies that have won lucrative business from Ottawa, including Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture, KPMG and Ernst & Young. The application will be discussed at the next committee meeting.

Launch of the widget. Skip the widget?

end of the widget. Back to the top of the widget?

On Monday, researcher Amanda Clarke, an associate professor in Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, testified before the committee. In particular, she said that the importance given to McKinsey in this investigation is just a distraction.

In her opinion, consideration should be given to outsourcing more public service work to this type of private consultancy, as suggested by MP Gord Johns.

According to AFP journalists and witnesses, Israel carried out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night, hours after intercepting a rocket fired from that Palestinian territory.

• Also read: Seven dead in an attack on a synagogue in east Jerusalem

• Also read: Israel attacks Gaza after rocket fire

• Also read: Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank

Several new Palestinian rockets were fired after the attacks, and around 3:15 a.m. (0115 GMT) more explosions and aircraft noise could be heard from Gaza City, where a strong wind was blowing.

In a statement issued at 2:41 am (0041 GMT), the Israeli army confirmed that it was “about to attack the Gaza Strip”.

According to local security sources and witnesses, the first attacks (at least seven) hit a training center of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in the al-Maghazi refugee camp (central Gaza Strip). .

An AFP reporter saw two new rockets launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip after the attacks, and witnesses spoke of several more rockets being fired from various locations in the 2.3 million-mile micro-territory that has been inhabited since the Israelis took power Hamas is under Israeli blockade in 2007.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular Palestinian armed group, claimed to have “carried out rocket fire […] in response to Zionist aggression in the Gaza Strip” among others.

On the Israeli side, according to the army, the warning sirens sounded in Sderot, a city in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip.

According to local security sources, the second round of Israeli airstrikes targeted an al-Qassa Brigades training center southwest of Gaza City.

A television news anchor said he was fired from his morning anchor job in Arizona last month after publishing a story about the late Lisa Marie Presley’s relationship with the Church of Scientology.

Dodge Landesma, 32, told the New York Post that after two months at his new job at KYMA in Yuma, Arizona, everything was going well.

“Everything went smoothly,” he said.

Until Landesman wrote the screenplay for a 1 minute and 45 second video about Lisa Marie’s involvement in Danny Masterson’s rape trial after her death last month.

The article prompted an almost immediate call from Scientology’s longtime spokeswoman, Karin Pouw, asking him to delete the story.

Aspiring news anchor Dodge Landesman, 32, said things were going well at his new job in Yuma, Arizona, until he published an article about the late Lisa Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley died last month at the age of 54, having been a Scientologist until about a decade ago when she decided to leave the religion

Masterson, a lifelong Scientologist, has stood and will stand trial again on three counts of rape involving allegations by multiple prosecutors about incidents between 2001 and 2003. His Los Angeles trial ended with a hung jury late last year, and two days before Presley’s death, an LA judge announced that a retrial was being pursued.

In Landesman’s article entitled “Lisa Marie Presley Planned to Dismantle Scientology Before She Died,” Elvis’ late daughter claimed that she was being pressured by a member of the church to testify for the prosecution in the original Masterson rape case been set to persuade the prosecutor not to report him to the police.

The play claimed that she was never called before the jury.

Landesmon wrote in the article, which has not been reviewed by KYMA bosses, “It’s important to dig a little deeper into the death of Lisa Marie Presley.”

He wrote that Presley and Masterson were once good friends until she left the church around 2014.

Presley, he claimed, would “show up and testify in support of her friend, who was one of Masterson’s alleged victims.”

“She was preparing to explain that her friend had told her she had been raped that night,” Landesman wrote.

The Church of Scientology of Los Angeles building on Sunset Boulevard. Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw reportedly called Landesman to ask him to delete the story

Masterson, a longtime Scientologist, is currently facing a retrial on multiple counts of rape. His previous trial ended in a hung jury late last year

Landesman said his network bosses told him his article was “sloppy” and that they feared a lawsuit from the Church of Scientology

The aspiring TV presenter, who attended journalism school and worked in several small outlets across the country, said longtime Scientology spokesperson Karin Pouw called him after his article was published and asked him to delete it.

He says he told her he would look at it, but he didn’t take the piece off.

Two hours later, then again the next day, she called and asked him again to delete the piece.

At the time, Landesman was called to a meeting with his bosses, the news director and the station’s general manager.

Landesman told the Post they asked his sources and told them his article was “sloppy.”

“I told them I got the information from Variety and other reliable sources. They said they would fight to keep my job with the company and I thanked them.’

A few days later, however, Landesman says he was told by his superiors that he had been too reckless and they fired him.

“They also said that the company was afraid of a lawsuit,” he said. “It was because they became afraid of Scientology. They decided to hide from a billion dollar paper tiger.”

Actor Danny Masterson (L) stands with his attorney Thomas Mesereau as he is charged with three counts of rape in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003 in Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Last month, a judge said the court would open a retrial

Scientology’s global headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, called the Flag Building

The Post reported that the station’s news director, Ernesto Romero, would not comment on personnel matters and that the editor’s note, which replaced Landesman’s story online, speaks for itself.

The note reads, “Using editorial discretion, NPG of Yuma-El Centro Broadcasting, LLC has decided to unpublish this feature. After careful review and in light of information that came to light after the article was published, Yuma-El Centro Broadcasting, LLC’s NPG has determined that it can no longer stand behind the article because, among other things, it contains aspects of the opinion of the author.’

Veteran Scientology journalist Tony Ortega told the Post that while Landesman’s article got some details wrong, the gist of it was “essentially correct.”

“You see, Landesman’s play wasn’t great. It didn’t really get the details of Presley’s involvement in the Masterson affair right.

“But essentially it was true that she did plan to expose Scientology’s wrongdoing at some point after being involved for many years,” he said.