U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon targeted by Israeli forces. “The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Saturday that one of its patrols was hit by Israeli gunfire in the vicinity of Aytaroun of southern Lebanon, although there were no casualties. UNIFIL condemned the attack on its peacekeepers, calling it ‘deeply troubling’. ‘We strongly remind the parties of their obligations to protect peacekeepers and avoid putting the men and women who are working to restore stability at risk,’ it said in a statement.” https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unifil-says-israeli-gunfire-hit-one-its-patrols-southern-lebanon-2023-11-25/
25% of Americans still in debt from last year’s holiday spending. “For some shoppers, the upcoming holiday season may lead to piling on more debt. About 25% of Americans are still paying off holiday debt from 2022, according to WalletHub’s November holiday shopping survey. But those already carrying a balance could find themselves sinking further into the red if they don’t get a handle on their credit card debt. ….As of November, the average credit card interest rate has risen from around 16% to nearly 21% since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2020 in an effort to combat inflation, according to Bankrate. A higher interest rate means it [will] take longer and be more expensive to pay down your credit card debt.” https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/23/wallethub-25percent-of-americans-still-have-holiday-debt-from-last-year.html
Crash survivor repeatedly tasered after traffic accident sues Florida deputies. “Police bodycam footage obtained by Daily Mail shows the 19-year-old passenger [Jordan Rivero] sobbing uncontrollably near the wrecked pick-up truck as he sits down on the orders of Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies. Disoriented and not under suspicion of any crime, he stumbles upright complaining he can’t breathe through his broken nose. But then deputies haul him down before another tussle in which he’s told ‘get on the f***ing ground’ – at which point deputy Dyllon Hansen fires his taser at the teenager’s stomach. ….[Rivero] lets out a piercing scream as he clutches his chest. His head smashes on the hard surface, rebounds and smacks down again as his body thrashes from the voltage. Officer Hansen’s bodycam footage shows the teenager continuing to be stunned with successive bursts of electricity as he howls in agony. ….Rivero was stretchered into an ambulance where he suffered a grand mal seizure, according to court documents in the case he has just brought against Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Rick Ramsay and three deputies including Hansen. ‘He had brain swelling and he suffered a traumatic brain injury,’ his attorney Dena Foman told [the Daily Mail]…. ‘He flatlined right after they got him in the ambulance at the scene.’ Rivero, now 20, was rushed to the Mariners Hospital in Tavernier. ‘But he needed an emergency tracheotomy as he got there and they had to slice his throat open in the parking lot,’ added the attorney. ‘He had to be resuscitated two or three times and he ended up in a coma. He is very lucky to be alive.’ Staff at the Mariners deemed Rivero’s injuries too severe for treatment there and he was airlifted to Kendall Hospital near Miami where he was put on a mechanical ventilator. ….Foman disputes a sheriff’s office report that Rivero punched O’Keefe before being tased, by saying: ‘On the bodycam footage there is nothing there’.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12763501/Bodycam-footage-Florida-cops-tase-teen-Jordan-Rivero-car-crash.html
Judge dismisses assault charge against former Virginia Beach police officer caught on video repeatedly punching mental patient in the head. “One patient… a ‘known spitter’ is understood have approached [Officer Jemarr] Mosley and another officer before spitting at them. Mosley – who testified that he was once an amateur boxer in Philadelphia – threw a hard right cross punch at the man. ….’He ain’t really hit me in my face, but the fact that he spit, I reacted on that. I punched him in the face with my right hand, dropped his ass. Then I continued to hit him down. I don’t know how many hits I threw on him. That’s his blood on the ground.’ ….Despite video evidence of the aggressive outbreak and a confession from Mosley himself – [Judge James Lewis] dropped charges against him.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12790237/former-Virginia-cop-boxer-punches-mental-patient.html
Official of Ukraine’s ruling party admits there was a tentative March 2022 peace deal with Russia. “David Arakhamia, a high-ranking member of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People political party, said that Kyiv could have ended the war with Russia after a month if it agreed not to join NATO. The official said that Moscow was not concerned about other issues, such as ‘denazification’, but only wanted Kyiv to agree to neutrality. In an interview with TV channel 1+1, a Ukrainian network, Arakhamia confirmed previous reporting that Moscow and Kyiv had nearly agreed to end the war in March 2022. Still, Ukraine’s Western backers pushed it to try to win the war against Russia. ‘They really hoped almost to the last moment that they would force us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality,’ Arakhamia said. ‘It was the most important thing for them. They were prepared to end the war if we agreed to – as Finland once did – neutrality, and committed that we would not join NATO.'” https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/25/ukrainian-official-confirms-russia-was-ready-to-end-war-in-march-2022-if-kyiv-agreed-to-neutrality/
Progressive News Service 