Facebook blocks ill man’s plan to show end-of-life broadcasts
LE PECQ, France — Facebook on Saturday blocked live broadcasts from a chronically ill bedridden man who appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron for a medically-assisted death and who wanted to show what he expects will be a painful end to his life after he announced that he was stopping all food and drink.
Prostrate on his bed, Alain Cocq posted video of himself Friday after taking what he said would be his last liquid meal.
“I know the days ahead are going to be very difficult,” he said. “But I have taken my decision and I am serene.”
In a letter last week, which Cocq also posted, Macron said that French law forbade him from granting his request for the “right to leave with dignity,” with a medically-assisted death.
In a handwritten addition at the end, Macron signed off the letter with the words, “With all of my personal support and my profound respect.”
French media have reported that Cocq, a former plumber, suffers from a long-term and incurable degenerative illness. He says that he has lived in great pain for 34 years and that after multiple operations, he prefers to die.
“I am going to stop hydrating myself when I turn off the lights,” he said. “Given my general condition, it's likely to be quick, which is what I hope for, because I'm not a masochist.
He said he would keep taking painkillers.
Cocq, 57, had planned to subsequently broadcast the end of his life that he expects will follow within days of his decision. But a message Saturday on Cocq's account said that Facebook has blocked him from posting videos until Tuesday.
Hero’s escort: Two fire truck ladders stretched a large American flag over a hearse that threaded the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, as it carried the body of a police detective killed in the line of duty to a funeral home.
Other first responders stood at attention Saturday as the procession for Detective James Skernivitz, 53, passed, WKYC-TV reported.
Three people are being questioned after Skernivitz and a man described as a police informant were shot and killed in the officer's unmarked car during a drug operation Thursday night on the city's west side.
Skernivitz had joined a federal anti-violence task force shortly before he and Scott Dingess, 50, were killed, officials said.
Two juveniles and an adult were taken into custody on unrelated arrest warrants, Cleveland Safety Director Karrie Howard told reporters Friday. Their names have not been released.
Strzok memoir: A former senior FBI agent at the center of the investigations into Hillary Clinton's email server and the Trump campaign's ties to Russia defends the handling of the inquiries and declares President Donald Trump a national security threat in a new memoir, while admitting that the bureau made mistakes that upended the 2016 presidential election.
Peter Strzok's new book,
“Compromised,” a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times before its publication Tuesday, provides a detailed account of navigating the two politically toxic investigations and a forceful apologia of the bureau's acts. Strzok also reveals details about the FBI's internal debate over investigating the president himself, writing that the question arose early in the Trump presidency and suggesting that agents were eyeing others around Trump.
In a scathing appraisal, Strzok concludes that Trump is hopelessly corrupt and a national security threat. The investigations that Strzok oversaw showed the president's “willingness to accept political assistance from an opponent like Russia — and, it follows, his willingness to subvert everything America stands for.”
“That's not patriotic,” Strzok writes. “It's the opposite.”
Strzok's insider look
serves as a counter to the efforts by Trump and his allies to discredit the Russia investigation.
Trump boat parade: At least four boats sank Saturday at an event promoted as a Trump Boat Parade on Lake Travis in Texas, authorities said.
No injuries were immediately reported, said Christa Stedman, a spokeswoman for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
Firefighters pulled some people out of the water, said Braden Frame, president of the Lake Travis Fire Fighters Association.
The event, called the Lake Travis Trump Boat Parade, was organized on Facebook.
Afghan talks: Taliban officials say a senior delegation returned Saturday to Qatar, paving the way for the start of peace talks with the Afghan government that are expected to take place in the tiny Gulf state.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
The delayed negotiations are the second, critical part to a peace deal the U.S. signed with the Taliban in February in Doha.
Washington has ramped up pressure on Afghans on both sides of the conflict to open up negotiations over what a post-war Afghanistan might look like, how rights of women and minorities would be protected, and how the tens of thousands of armed Taliban and government-allied militias are disarmed and reintegrated.
Bangladesh blast: An underground gas pipeline near a mosque exploded during evening prayers outside Bangladesh's capital, leaving 16 Muslim worshipers dead and dozens injured with critical burns, officials said Saturday.
The blast occurred Friday night as people were finishing their prayers at Baitus Salat Jame Mosque at Narayanganj, local police
chief Zayedul Alam said.
TV stations reported that because of the impact of the blast, at least six air conditioners also exploded inside the mosque.
Firefighters are investigating the cause of the blast.
Turkey-Greece Turkish President tensions: Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned Greece to enter talks over disputed eastern Mediterranean territorial claims or face the consequences.
“They're either going to understand the language of politics and diplomacy, or in the field with painful experiences,” he said at a hospital's opening ceremony in Istanbul.
Ankara is facing off against Greece and Cyprus over oil and gas exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean. All sides have deployed naval and air forces to assert their competing claims in the region. Meanwhile, Turkish media moved reported toward tanks Greece. were being