Chicago police officer convicted of second-degree murder in 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery for the 2014 killing of African-American teenager Laquan McDonald by a jury on Friday.
wsws.org
Tens of thousands of Scots turn out in capital demanding second independence vote
Edinburgh’s streets turned blue on Saturday as tens of thousands of Scots marched to demand independence. The high attendance is in defiance of London’s insistence that there is no “appetite” for independence in Scotland.
rt.com
==How a homophobic, misogynist, racist ‘thing’ could be Brazil’s next president
Many people in Brazil cannot bring themselves to utter the name of the rightwing extremist expected to win the first round of voting in the country’s presidential election on Sunday. On social networks, the former army officer Jair Bolsonaro is often referred to simply as “the thing”.
theguardian.com
Kremlin suffers defeats in regional elections
Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, suffered a number of defeats in recent regional elections. The electoral upsets come amidst widespread popular opposition to the passage of a bill raising the official retirement age by five years for both men and women.
wsws.org
Pakistan's opposition leader jailed for 10 days ahead of by-elections
Pakistani opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was ordered jailed on Saturday for 10 days after being arrested in a corruption case, his lawyer said, meaning he will not be able to campaign for his party ahead of crucial by-elections next week.
reuters.com
Israel pounds Gaza in ‘retaliation’ as 3 Palestinians killed, 370+ injured in border clashes
At least three people, including a 12-year-old, were killed by Israeli troops as some 20,000 Palestinians rallied at the Gaza border. Amid the clashes, the IAF struck ‘terrorist targets’ in retaliation for border breach attempts.
rt.com
Afghan officials have had enough of Erik Prince
Afghan officials have finally had enough, Reuters reported on Friday, angrily rejecting any possibility that foreign military contractors could be charged with training and advising their embattled country’s security forces.This is essentially bad news for one person: Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater the private military contractor (that has gone by many names) with a record of killing civilians with impunity in Iraq and making Prince a very, very rich man.
thinkprogress.org
Israel's prime minister questioned again in corruption probe
Israeli police questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the 12th time on Friday in connection with a long-running corruption investigation.
reuters.com