maandag 26 januari 2026

Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony

Pair testify that Pretti did not hold weapon and was trying to help woman federal agents had shoved to the ground

Two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.

A still image of Alex Pretti recording video on his phone as he was shoved back by a federal agent minutes before being shot and killed.

Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.

One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.

The names of both witnesses were redacted in the publicly available filings.

In her testimony, the woman who filmed the shooting from just behind Pretti wearing a pink coat identified herself as “a children’s entertainer who specializes in face painting”. She testified that she came to the scene on her way to work because “I’ve been involved in observing in my community, because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors”.

She described the harrowing scene of Pretti being tackled by federal officers after coming to the aid of another observer the agents had shoved to the ground. One federal agent then sprayed a chemical agent in the faces of Pretti and the woman he had tried to help.

The woman testified that she saw no sign of Pretti holding a gun at any point.

She said: “The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them – he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times … I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him …”

She continued: “I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.

“I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me, and I don’t feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don’t know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they’re not telling the truth about what happened.”

The second witness, a 29-year-old physician, said in their testimony that they saw the shooting from their apartment window near the scene. Before the shooting, the witness said, they could see Pretti yelling at agents, but “did not see him attack the agents or brandish a weapon of any kind”.

After the shooting, when the physician attempted to render medical aid, they were initially prevented from doing so. “At first the ICE agents wouldn’t let me through,” they said. “But none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, and I could tell that the victim was in critical condition. I insisted that the ICE agents let me assess him.”

When the physician finally convinced the agents to let them through, they said they were confused as to why the victim was on his side, but instead of checking his pulse or performing CPR the officers “appeared to be counting his bullet wounds”.

The victim had “at least three bullet wounds in his back”, the doctor said, in addition to one on his upper left chest and another possible gunshot wound in his neck.

“I checked for a pulse, but I did not feel one,” the doctor said.

The witness testimony, combined with video evidence reviewed by the Guardian, directly contradicts claims by senior Trump administration officials, including the president, the homeland security secretary and Greg Bovino, a border patrol commander, who called Pretti a “gunman” who approached federal officers “brandishing” a gun and threatened to “massacre” them.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/24/alex-pretti-killing-witness-testimony

zaterdag 24 januari 2026

Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn

Biodiversity

Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn

Ecosystem destruction will increase food shortages, disorder and mass migration, with effects already being felt

The global attack on nature is threatening the UK’s national security, government intelligence chiefs have warned, as the increasingly likely collapse of vitally important natural systems would bring mass migration, food shortages and price rises, and global disorder.

Food supplies are particularly at risk since “without significant increases” the UK would be unable to compete with other nations for scarce resources, a report to ministers says.

Some vital ecosystems could face collapse within five years, threatening the UK’s national security and prosperity, according to the 14-page report.

Many of the impacts are already being felt in the form of crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks. These will intensify, resulting in “geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict, migration and increased inter-state competition for resources”.

The hard-hitting report, which originally would have been published last autumn but for an intervention by Downing Street, is attributed only to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but the Guardian understands that the joint intelligence committee, which oversees spy agencies MI5 and MI6, was responsible.

National security experts have stepped up their warnings that the climate crisis will bring existential dangers for which we are still unprepared. Tuesday’s report focuses on an even less considered threat, that of the collapse of biological systems, such as rainforests turning to savannah-like conditions under the impact of deforestation, climate breakdown and other stresses.

Lt Gen Richard Nugee, a former senior military commander, said: “This assessment, a welcome and important acknowledgment of the very critical nature of the diversity of threats facing the UK, treats ecosystem collapse with the seriousness it deserves, as a threat to our national security. When risks are systemic, unavoidable and already unfolding, there is a duty to build national resilience and preparedness, which depend on understanding and honesty.”

The report is unusual in applying military intelligence techniques to examine the biodiversity crisis unfolding across the world. “Critical ecosystems that support major food production areas and impact global climate, water and weather cycles are the most important for UK national security,” the report says.

“Severe degradation or collapse of these would highly likely result in water insecurity, severely reduced crop yields, a global reduction in arable land, fisheries collapse, changes to global weather patterns, release of trapped carbon exacerbating climate change, novel zoonotic disease and loss of pharmaceutical resources.”

The authors identify key hotspots that are under increasing threat as “particularly significant” for the UK, including the Amazon and Congo rainforests, boreal forests, the Himalayas and south-east Asia’s coral reefs and mangroves.

Some of these, including coral reefs and boreal forests, are likely to start to collapse from 2030, while the others could take up to 2050, the report found. Some scientists have warned that the Amazon is already showing signs of shifting faster than expected.

Ruth Chambers, a senior fellow at Green Alliance, a thinktank that pressed the government to release the report, said: “This should be essential reading for government. It should focus minds on meeting targets to reverse the decline of UK nature, where progress is lagging in most areas. But it should also make us think again about backing away from international efforts to preserve biodiversity, like our failure to contribute to a fund for the world’s rainforests at the last global climate summit.”

Ministers are debating how much the UK should spend assisting poor countries to cope with the climate crisis and stem the decline of nature, when the current pledge of £11.6bn to be spent from 2021 to 2026 runs out. Insiders have suggested to the Guardian that the amount is likely to be cut substantially and that the ringfencing of some spending for nature projects could end.

Zac Goldsmith, who was a climate and nature minister under Boris Johnson, warned against such moves. “The assessment shows that we cannot expect to be able to destroy key ecosystems like the great forest basins, peatlands, mangroves or coral reefs without serious implications for our safety and prosperity. But that is what we are doing,” he said. “The government has shifted its priority away from nature towards a very narrow focus on carbon and we must hope this report forces a reversal.”

The report also says the UK must focus on its own food systems, which are highly reliant on imports, because without strong action “it is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security if ecosystem collapse drives geopolitical competition for food”.

David Exwood, a deputy president of the National Farmers’ Union, said the government must provide financial support to help farmers invest in environmental improvements and food production. “With an increasingly volatile geopolitical and climactic situation, we cannot rely on imports to sustain us. Investing in our national food security has to be a priority, and that starts with investing in the land,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Nature underpins our security, prosperity, and resilience and understanding the threats we face from biodiversity loss is crucial to meeting them head on. The findings of this report will inform the action we take to prepare for the future.”

https://archive.vn/UR728#selection-1273.0-1507.322

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My comments :

A bit late for the UK, to step in on this issue (of life or death), because the CIA did warn for the very same dangers at least a decade ago and has continued to do so, till this very day - among other publications, the CIA does mention these warnings in every yearbook about worldwide hazardous facts and their consequences for humanity since.

Just as the UK government however, the present USA top-executives are not only stepping up the pollution-levels, (in stead of lessening), but are also beheading the agencies, that are collecting data, in order to determine the seriousness of the pollution levels.

In Holland - once renowned for its progressive, responsibel and enlightening policies - one can observe the very same tactics and tendencies, only being wrapped up in a more sophisticated way : the one-dimensionally pro-industries parties (traditionally located on the right and ultra-right parts of the political spectrum) just do refuse to equipe the environmental agencies with adequate means, to maintain the (structurally inadequate laws in the first place) rules and regulations and thus prevent them from having the polluters changing their behaviour and saving the citizens from serious (in the end even fatal) health-hazards.