NightOwl

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A spokesperson for Palestine Action said the manifestations of independence were contradicted within the same sentences in which they were made.

"What's going on behind closed doors demonstrates clear evidence of collusion between government, a foreign private arms manufacturer, the CPS, the Attorney General's Office and the police," they said. "This clear abuse of power shows how the state is prioritising the interests of Elbit Systems over the rights and freedoms of its own citizens."

Documents previously revealed through FoI requests suggested Israeli embassy officials in London attempted to get the Attorney General's Office to intervene in UK court cases relating to the prosecution of protesters.

Between 1996 and 2005, the FBI continued to receive reports of sexual abuse, trafficking and human rights violations, yet failed to act, the women say. In 2002, Epstein was given secret service clearance for travel to Africa, where he travelled with former President Bill Clinton — according to testimony by former Epstein pilot Larry Visoski — and several “very young women.”

During that time, Epstein repeatedly initiated passports and visas for his victims for such international travel but skirted the required background checks, a red flag the FBI failed to investigate, the women said.

Earlier this month, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled in a class-action lawsuit that racial profiling is a systemic problem in the Montreal police force, and that the city is responsible for profiling committed by its police officers. Justice Dominique Poulin ordered the City of Montreal to pay $5,000 to people arrested without justification and racially profiled.

The force has also released two reports since 2019 showing that racialized people are disproportionately targeted by police during random street checks.

Indeed, American and Japanese alliance minders have been here before. In 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan interrupted the long reign of the conservative LDP and installed a center-left prime minister. Yukio Hatoyama had campaigned on a platform that alarmed security officials and analysts in both Washington and Tokyo. For example, he called for "fraternal" cooperation with Japan's Asian neighbors, including China, and pledged to reduce the U.S. military footprint in Okinawa, home to more than 30 American bases. After less than nine months in office, Hatoyama was forced to step down.

But Shigeru Ishiba is no Yukio Hatoyama. Although he wants to rebalance U.S.-Japan ties, and also favors greater engagement with Beijing, he is actually quite conservative and hawkish, even on China. He is a member of Nippon Kaigi, the ultra-nationalist group that believes Japan was not a villain in World War II; he favors greater defense spending; and he openly backs Taiwan. Ishiba riled Beijing in August by leading a group of lawmakers to Taipei, where he drew parallels between Russia's invasion of Ukraine and security threats in the Taiwan Straits. He hinted that Japan should help deter any Chinese invasion.

Today, the Russian government has neither the intention nor the capability to launch the sort of premeditated conventional attack on NATO that the new missiles are supposed to counter. Russian nuclear "saber-rattling" is intended to deter NATO from intervening directly in Ukraine, and thereby starting a NATO-Russia war. There remains however an acute risk that an unplanned mutual escalation could lead to war. In this case, U.S. missiles firing into Russia from Germany could easily be the tripwire for nuclear catastrophe.