>bringing back testing
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/world/americas/mexico-extermination-camp.html
‘Extermination Camp’ Found in Mexico
cremation ovens, human remains, piles of shoes and other personal effects at an abandoned ranch outside Guadalajara
A group of volunteers searching for their missing relatives first received a tip last week about a mass grave hidden in western Mexico.
When they arrived at an abandoned ranch outside La Estanzuela, a small rural village outside Guadalajara in Jalisco state, they discovered three underground cremation ovens, burned human remains, hundreds of bone shards and discarded personal items, along with figurines of Santa Muerte — the Holy Death.
The Mexican authorities, who were notified of the grisly discovery, said in several statements that they later found 96 shell casings of various calibers and metal gripping rings at the ranch. By last Friday, the discovery was dominating local newspapers and TV reports, and the search group was referring to the site as an “extermination camp.”
It is unclear how many people died on the site, and none of the remains have been identified. The authorities have yet to say who operated the camp, what crimes were committed there and for how long. But this week, the State Attorney General’s Office took over the investigation at the request of President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Photos taken by the authorities and by the volunteer group, Searching Warriors of Jalisco, at the abandoned ranch showed more than 200 shoes piled together and heaps of other personal items: a blue summer dress, a small pink backpack, notebooks, pieces of underwear. The more than 700 personal items were a chilling hint at the number of people who may have died there.
In a country seemingly inured to episodes of brutal violence from drug cartels, where clandestine graves emerge every month, the images shocked Mexicans and prompted outraged human rights groups to demand that the government put an end to the violence that has ravaged the nation for years.
https://archive.is/0ncJR
Inside a Mexican cartel ‘extermination’ camp: Ovens, shoes and teeth
A civilian search group found a gruesome site near Guadalajara, sparking outrage as authorities had raided the area months earlier but did not uncover the graves.
For months, the tips had been appearing on a Facebook page. There was a mass grave hidden in a rural village outside Guadalajara, in western Mexico, the messages said.
Mexico has grappled for years with a crisis of disappearances, with more than 110,000 people reported missing. Relatives of the disappeared have unearthed hundreds of graves filled with corpses. This seemed like another. But the people who ran the Facebook page — a group in Jalisco state who search for the missing — were puzzled. The grave was said to be in the village of La Estanzuela. But where, exactly?
After getting more anonymous tips, Indira Navarro, head of the group, and dozens of other victims’ relatives arrived on March 5 at an abandoned ranch outside La Estanzuela and started poking around. They dug up three underground ovens. They found hundreds and hundreds of singed bone shards — from skulls, fingers, teeth. It was what Mexicans call an “extermination camp.”
But the image that’s really stunned Mexicans was of the shoes. There were piles of them — well over 200.
“Of course, it immediately evokes the conditions at Auschwitz,” said José Ramón Cossío, the former chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court, in an interview with the radio program Aristegui Noticias.
>We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.
slow heavy metal music starts to play
Canadians have said they want to join the European Union in the wake of Donald Trump's bid to make the country the '51st US state'.
An EU spokesperson said the bloc was flattered by the interest, but pointed out being a European country was a starting point for eligibility.
The idea that Ottawa should throw in its lot with Brussels has been half-seriously floated by some commentators as US President Donald Trump's tariffs and threats push the two sides closer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/us/haiti-hospital-fire-usaid.html
After $30 Million in U.S. Aid, Haiti’s Biggest Hospital Goes Up in Smoke
A fire set by gangs at the country’s largest public hospital underscores long-simmering problems in Haiti, which is heavily dependent on international aid.
Two days before last Christmas, Dr. Pierre S. Prince took an exciting new job as director of Haiti’s largest public hospital, which the United States spent tens of millions of dollars renovating and is so deep in gang territory that it has been closed for a year.
Dr. Prince, a 57-year-old thoracic surgeon, looked forward to returning to the State University Hospital of Haiti, which had been ravaged by the 2010 earthquake that decimated the country’s capital.
He did his residency there and was going to oversee a new wing, a 500-bed facility with nearly $100 million in renovations and a range of services, including operating rooms, orthopedics and a maternity and neonatal unit.
On Christmas Eve, as he headed to work, gangs attacked a news conference scheduled to announce the hospital’s partial reopening, killing a police officer and two reporters, and seriously injuring seven other journalists. The reopening never happened.
The situation worsened last month: Videos that circulated on social media and were verified by The New York Times showed an older building at the general hospital, as it is commonly known, engulfed in flames. Gang members had apparently set it on fire.
“The doctors are scared, and our residents and interns are depressed,” Dr. Prince said. “Some of them have left. The morale is very low.”
The hospital’s fate underscores the increasingly desperate conditions facing Haiti and its international donors as they try to rescue Port-au-Prince from the control of armed gangs, which have targeted foreign-financed health facilities.
Haiti, where the United Nations says about 20 percent of its 10 million people is enduring acute levels of hunger and 1 million have fled their homes because of violence, is particularly dependent on foreign aid and had been receiving up to $400 million a year from the United States alone.
But as Elon Musk takes an ax to American foreign aid around the world, and dismantles the U.S. Agency for International Development, programs like the continued renovation of the general hospital in Port-au-Prince are in the cross hairs.
The hospital’s new wing, which U.S. A.I.D. helped pay for, was already plagued by large cost overruns and a decade of construction delays. Now it is being battered by repeated assaults from criminal groups as Haiti’s capital has become a lawless quagmire despite billions of dollars in international aid.
“The general hospital is sort of like a case study on how it goes wrong,” said Jake Johnston, a researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy and Research who wrote “Aid State,” a blistering account of how billions in international aid failed to bolster Haiti’s public institutions. “And they never finished the work, and the general hospital is closed for all these other reasons.”
Haiti’s general hospital was built next to the presidential palace in downtown Port-au-Prince by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the American occupation of Haiti, from 1915 to 1934.
For years, many patients were gunshot and torture victims. In a country where politicians and wealthy elites travel to the Dominican Republic or Miami for health care, the general hospital served the overwhelmingly poor masses.
“It housed the only dialysis machines in the country,” said David Ellis, an American who runs a medical helicopter service in Port-au-Prince. “It was, when open, the most comprehensive surgical center in the country.”
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
https://twittervideodownloader.com/
>The hospital’s new wing, which USAID helped pay for, was already plagued by large cost overruns and a decade of construction delays. Now it is being battered by repeated assaults from criminal groups as Haiti’s capital has become a lawless quagmire despite billions of dollars in international aid.
steadfast in their opposition of provincial and federal government responses to the COVID-19 public health crisis
Macron said that Europe "does not need the consent" of Russia to send troops to Ukraine.
He said this in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien.
He also said that the Franco-British plan to send a "peacekeeping mission" is already at the final stage of approval.
>Mary Menell Zients
https://forward.com/fast-forward/533686/three-jewish-things-jeffrey-zients-white-house-chief-of-staff/
>Russia Kicks Out Trump Envoy Keith Kellogg From Ukraine Peace Talks
First Lieutenant (Infantry) Joseph Keith Kellogg, United States Army, was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action while serving with the 101st Airborne Division during Operation EAGLE THRUST in the Republic of Vietnam. During an air assault, Lieutenant Kellogg pulled a wounded man from a fire line, then went on to attack an enemy bunker system with a machine gun. Running down the line, he destroyed five enemy bunkers with hand grenades. His gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty, without regard for his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
https://x.com/ThamesVP/status/1900228426188914989
Lydia Mugambe, a UN & Ugandan judge, has today been convicted of bringing a woman into the country illegally & then forcing her to work as a slave. Mugambe tried to evade justice by claiming she had diplomatic immunity, which has now been removed.
Ugandan High Court Judge and a UN Criminal Tribunal Judge convicted of immigration and modern slavery offences
Following an investigation by Thames Valley Police, a Ugandan High Court Judge and a UN Criminal Tribunal Judge has been convicted of immigration and modern slavery offences in Oxfordshire.
Lydia Mugambe, aged 49, of Lyne Road, Kidlington, has today (13/3) been found guilty by a unanimous Oxford Crown Court jury of:
One count of conspiring to do an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non UK national;
One count of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour;
One count of conspiracy to intimidate a witness.
Mugambe was found guilty by a majority verdict of:
One count of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation;
On 10 February 2023, Thames Valley Police received a report that the victim in this case, a woman, was being held as a slave by Mugambe at her then address in Brasenose Drive, Kidlington.
A protracted and complex investigation involving a number of partners then ensued, during which Thames Valley Police established that Mugambe had obtained a visa for the victim to work in the UK.
However, the terms of this visa were that the victim would be paid to work for the then Deputy High Commissioner at the Ugandan Embassy in London, John Mugerwa.
Mugambe paid for the victim’s plane ticket to the UK, picked her up from the airport, and thereafter the victim became Mugambe’s slave, carrying out unpaid work as a domestic maid and nanny.
It was the prosecution’s case that Mugerwa sponsored the victim’s entry into the UK as a domestic worker in his personal household but under the auspices of the Ugandan High Commission, which in his diplomatic role, he was entitled to do, whereas Mugambe could not sponsor a visa as she was a student in UK at that time.
The prosecution argued that communications between Mugambe and Mugerwa demonstrated that Mugerwa facilitated the victim’s visa in the knowledge she would actually work in servitude for Mugambe, and in return that Mugambe would provide him assistance relation in a separate court case in Uganda.
Thames Valley Police investigated Mugerwa’s involvement in its case, but he had diplomatic immunity, which the Ugandan Government did not waive, meaning he could not be charged with any offences.
Commander for Oxfordshire, Chief Superintendent Ben Clark said: “Lydia Mugambe is an extremely qualified lawyer, a Ugandan High Court Judge and a UN Criminal Tribunal Judge.
“As such, there is no doubt that she knew she was committing offences by bringing the victim to the UK under the pretence that she was going to work for the then Deputy High Commissioner at the Ugandan Embassy in London, thus providing her a legal route of entry, but knowing all along that she intended to make the victim work in servitude.
“Mugambe used her position of power as well as her knowledge of the law to take advantage of the victim, ensuring that she would become her unpaid domestic servant.
“After the offences had been reported to the police, Mugambe tried to evade justice by repeatedly claiming she had diplomatic immunity due to her status as a Ugandan High court Judge and, after her appointment as a United Nations Judge. Any immunity Mugambe may have enjoyed as a UN Judge has been waived by the Office of the United Nations Secretary General.
“I want to commend the victim for her bravery in coming forward to report the offences. I, and the whole investigation team, wish her all the best for her future now she is out of servitude and justice has been served.
“I would also like to thank Justice and Care as well as the National Crime Agency Specialist Witness Team, both of who have provided additional support to the victim throughout this process.
“I want to appeal to anyone who is a victim of modern slavery or suspects that modern slavery is being committed to contact Thames Valley Police. We will listen and we will help you.”
Mugambe will be sentenced at the same court on 2 May.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/united-states-attorney-durham-launches-eastern-district-new-yorks-transnational
United States AttorneyDurhamLaunches the Eastern District of New York’s Transnational Criminal Organizations Strike Force
that's a dude
>Marc Elias just scrubbed his entire X account.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/substantially-groundless-and-vexatious-irate-judge-orders-fani-willis-to-pay-attorneys-fees-for-intentional-violations-of-open-records-laws-in-trump-rico-case/
‘Substantially groundless and vexatious’: Irate judge orders Fani Willis to pay attorneys fees for ‘intentional’ violations of open records laws in Trump RICO case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has lost yet another case and is now being ordered to once again pay attorneys fees for her office’s intentional violations of Peach State open records laws.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the final judgment in the matter ancillary to the district attorney’s failed racketeering (RICO) prosecution of President Donald Trump was a foregone conclusion.
In October 2024, the judge overseeing the matter said Willis would lose and be subject to a monetary penalty. On Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause formalized her ruling.
“The law doesn’t apply to you,” the judge sarcastically said during last year’s final hearing in the case — upbraiding a government lawyer.
In the case, attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents co-defendant Michael Roman in the underlying RICO prosecution, proved the district attorney’s office violated the Georgia Open Records Act by failing to quickly provide documents related to the employment and remuneration of Nathan Wade — the former special assistant district attorney forced to resign from the Trump case due to his onetime romantic relationship with Willis — and other documents related to how Willis’ office spent large sums of public funds.
Instead, the DA’s office delayed those requests for months and said the law did not apply to them — with one particular employee responsible for the stonewalling. Only when litigation was filed, and a subpoena was served, did the DA’s office comply with the law.
True sunshine filtered through the bureaucratic haze when Dexter Bond, the deputy of operations for the DA’s office, admitted under oath that he responded unfavorably to the plaintiffs based on the identity of the attorney filing the requests and concomitant lawsuit.
That behavior clearly irked the judge.
“As noted during the hearing, Defendants — through the Open Records custodian, Dexter Bond — were openly hostile to counsel for Plaintiff, Ms. Merchant, and testified that Ms. Merchant’s requests were handled differently than other requests,” the court order reads.
Krause explains the problem, at length:
In the end, the judge said, Willis and her underlings “acted without substantial justification” under the relevant Georgia law.
“Defendants’ failures were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious,” Krause summed up.
Ultimately, for their perfidy, the DA’s office was ordered to pay Merchant $54,264 in attorneys fees and litigation expenses.
The plaintiffs also received injunctive relief by way of an order directing Willis to finally provide three types of requested documents.
The DA’s office has 30 days to comply with the court’s order to pay or find itself subject to potential additional fees and expenses.
>Spirit Cooking innuendo is unacceptable
the sun is a disaster for me
I can't take the sun