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French Senator Charged with Drugging Fellow Lawmaker to Commit Rape
November 18, 2023
Joël Guerriau, a 66-year-old French senator and member of the center-right Horizons party, faces preliminary charges of drugging a female lawmaker with ecstasy to commit rape, as stated by the public prosecutor’s office on Friday.
Arrested on Thursday, Guerriau’s charges stem from an incident involving fellow lawmaker Sandrine Josso, 48. Josso reported feeling unwell after consuming a glass of champagne at Guerriau’s Paris home two days prior to his arrest.
Josso recounted observing Guerriau retrieve “a small plastic bag containing something white, in a drawer in his kitchen,” as her lawyer Julia Minkowski conveyed to AFP. “She had to deploy monumental physical and intellectual forces to overcome her terror and extricate herself at the last minute from this ambush,” Minkowski said. She further noted that her client was “in a state of shock.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that Guerriau was preliminarily charged with the intent to carry out a rape or sexual assault. Under French law, preliminary charges suggest strong suspicion of wrongdoing and allow further investigation before deciding on a trial. Ecstasy was found in Josso’s system, leading her to file a criminal complaint. Subsequent police searches of Guerriau’s office and home uncovered ecstasy, as reported by the broadcasting station RMC.
Guerriau, now suspended from the Horizons party, was also indicted for possessing drugs and placed under judicial supervision. His lawyer, Remi-Pierre Drai, emphasized that “we are miles away from the obscene interpretation that one might infer from reading initial reports in the press.”
Drai defended Guerriau, describing him as “an honest man, respected and respectable, who will restore his and his family’s honor.” He added that Guerriau did not intend to drug Josso for abuse and has apologized, attributing the incident to “a handling error,” without elaborating further.
Josso, a member of the National Assembly since 2017, and Guerriau, a senator since 2011 and deputy head of the foreign and military affairs committee, reportedly had a decade-long friendship without romantic involvement. Guerriau’s career began in banking before his political tenure.
https://resistthemainstream.com/senator-charged-with-drugging-fellow-lawmaker-to-commit-rape/
Italy becomes the first country in the world to ban lab-grown meat
Nov. 18, 2023, 2:48 p.m. ET
Italy just became the first country in the world to ban lab-grown meat.
The Italian government voted in support of a law banning the production, sale or import of cultivated meat or animal feed, according to the BBC.
The right-wing government there took the action on Thursday in an effort to protect its farmers and culture.
“In defense of health, of the Italian production system, of thousands of jobs, of our culture and tradition, with the law approved today, Italy is the first nation in the world to be safe from the social and economic risks of synthetic food,” Francesco Lollobrigida, Italian minister of agriculture, said in a Facebook post on Nov. 16.
The bill passed in the Italian senate with 159 votes in favor and 53 opposed.
Supporters of the ban include Italian agricultural groups, who want to protect the country’s $10.1 billion meat-processing industry.
Leaders in parliament were divided over the issue, and at one point, a fight broke out between farmers and some masters of public service.
One of the heads of a farmers’ organization confronted two MPs from a party in opposition of the ban, calling them “criminals.”
As of now, the only two countries where cultivated meat — a market which is estimated to reach $1.99 billion by 2035 — has been approved for consumption are the United States and Singapore.
The European Union has not allowed lab-grown meat to be eaten so far, but if it does, Italy’s law could be challenged by the European Commission.
Coldiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers association, cited that the spread of lab-cultured meat would benefit multinational companies at the expense of local producers, and bring health risks.
“We are proud to be the first country that, despite being in favor of research, prevents, as a precautionary measure, the sale of laboratory-produced food whose effects it could have on the health of citizens consumers are currently unknown,” said the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, in a Facebook post.
If Italian factories are found producing synthetic meat, they can face over $160,000 fines, according to Forbes.
https://nypost.com/2023/11/18/news/italy-becomes-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-ban-lab-grown-meat/
Death Toll Rises To At Least 130 In Kenya, Somalia And Ethiopia Floods
12:43 PM – Saturday, November 18, 2023
The death toll continues to rise from flooding in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
At least 130 people have died in the three African countries as a result of heavy rains that aid officials described as occurring only once every 100 years.
The National Disaster Management Agency stated that at least 51 people have been killed across Somalia alone and a half-million displaced since the rains started in October.
They also reported that emergency responders are concerned that the death toll will grow in Somalia because many individuals are still missing as after highways and bridges were washed away, parts of the country remained blocked off and unreachable, stranding thousands of citizens.
“The national army has sent rescue boats and emergency helicopters to help the people trapped by floods. We are appealing for international help” the National Disaster Management Agency said.
According to the humanitarian organization Save the Children, the town of Beledweyne in central Somalia was totally drowned after the Shabelle River burst its banks, displacing an estimated 250,000 people, or 90% of the population.
Last month, the Somali federal government declared a state of emergency after severe weather, exacerbated by the natural weather phenomenon El Nino, devastated homes, roads, and bridges.
In neighboring Kenya, the Kenya Red Cross Society claimed that hundreds of houses were carried away along the coast and in northern Kenya, killing more than 50 people and displacing at least 30,000 people.
Tana River County Commissioner Mohammed Noor spoke to reporters stating that the situation also was desperate in his region, where the floods have displaced about 7,000 households.
According to Ethiopian authorities, the death toll from the floods has risen to 30 in their country as a result of “unrelenting rainfall in the Gambella, Afar, and Somali regions.”
https://www.oann.com/newsroom/death-toll-rises-to-at-least-130-in-kenya-somalia-and-ethiopia-floods/
Arizona Church leader shot in the head while sidewalk preaching
November 18, 2023 2:59pm
A Christian leader in Arizona is currently in critical condition after being shot in the head earlier this week as he was preaching from the Bible while using a megaphone on a Glendale street corner.
Hans Schmidt, 26, has been seen street preaching multiple times, according to Fox 11. According to an eyewitness, a car passed Schmidt and the people inside the car cursed at him.
Schmidt was later shot in the head, but right now it isn't clear if it came from someone in the car or someone else on the street, according to AZ Family.
Schmidt is the outreach director at Victory Chapel First Phoenix, which released a statement regarding the incident.
“Hans was taken to the ER where they discovered he had been shot after conducting a CT scan,” the church wrote. “He began seizing and was intubated. There has been some movement; however, physicians are uncertain how much is voluntary and began draining fluid from his brain. He remains in critical condition, please continue praying.”
Glendale police held a press conference on Friday and asked the public for help in figuring out what happened and possibly identifying the individual who shot Schmidt.
As of now, he is still in critical condition.
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/arizona-church-leader-shot-head-while-sidewalk-preaching