Why did one policeman ruin George Floyd’s life 16 years before his death, why the food delivery man decided to put the fast food lover on the right path and how they solve the problem of food queues in Turkmenistan. The most curious events of the outgoing week are in the Izvestia compilation.
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Expulsion of Robinson
Back in 1989, an Italian Mauro Morandi sailed on his catamaran on the sea, hoping to reach one of the Pacific islands, but due to the breakdown of a floating craft, his journey ended off the coast of the small Italian island of Budellilocated between Sardinia and French Corsica.
There, Mauro learned that the guardian of the deserted island, known for its pink sand, was about to retire, and decided to take his place and stay on Budelli forever. For the past 32 years, now 81-year-old Morandi has lived on the island in splendid isolation – with the exception of rare summer days, in which individual tourists came to short ecotours.
Budelli Island, famous for its pink sand
Photo: Global Look Press / Frank Schneider
Such a quiet, calm life was to the Italian’s liking, he even said that he would like to die on Budelli. But this week the Italian announced that he was leaving the paradise island. The management of the National Park of the La Maddalena Archipelago, which includes Budelli, announced plans to rebuild his home, asking Mauro to leave the protected area.…
Mauro had been receiving exit orders for many years in a row, but in recent years he had challenged them. And many Italians fought for their national Robinson and his right to remain the guardian of the island – in 2018, when they tried to evict the hermit for the penultimate time, 20 thousand people gathered a petition in support of him. But this time the man gave up, which caused genuine regret among many of his fans.
He is not guilty
About a year ago, the once obscure repeat offender with multiple convictions, George Floyd, turned out to be a national hero of the United States, becoming a world celebrity. However, as you know, posthumously.
This year A police officer who strangled Floyd in detention for trying to pay with a counterfeit bill in Minneapolis was convicted of murder and is expected to be sentenced to 40 years in prison. It would seem that justice has triumphed. But, as it turned out this week, not until the end…
Supporters of George Floyd during a protest in Minnesota, 2020
Photo: Getty Images / Stephen Maturen
26 April the state defense attorney’s office in Houston filed a posthumous plea to acquit Floyd of drug possession in 2004, for which he served 10 months in prison… 16 years before his death, Floyd was arrested for possession of 0.03 grams of cocaine worth $ 10. The arrest was made on the basis of the testimony of just one policeman, who claimed that Floyd tried to sell him drugs when the policeman was in plain clothes. The catch is that this cop is someone Gerald Goynes is now himself accused of facilitating drug trafficking in Houston and even murder…
According to Floyd’s defenders, then the deceased fell victim to police brutality and was forced to admit his guilt in the pre-trial order for a crime that he most likely did not commit. “If Floyd were to stand trial, he would face punishment that would stigmatize him as a repeat offender and could face a prison sentence of at least 25 years,” the 250-page document says.
Fifth column of McDonald’s
The other day, a young American woman named Susie ordered food from a fast food chain to her home. McDonald’s. The courier who delivered the order acted in an original way – he attached an advertisement for a dietetics center to the package and signed by hand “If you want to lose weight, ask me how”… The girl immediately told about this story on her TikTok page, and the video instantly went viral.
@soozieque
Thanks … I guess #doordash #mcdonalds #Destinationdepop #ZitHappens #wtf #fyp
♬ Levitating – Dua Lipa
Most of the commentators considered the courier’s trick offensive, some even suggested that Susie sue him. However, the girl herself reacted to the incident with humor – probably not least due to the fact that, judging by her photo on TikTok, she is not overweight…
By the way, rare lucky ones manage to even lose weight from eating McDonald’s food. In March, the media went around the story of a girl from Texas who lost 39 kg, she said, thanks to the consumption of the products of this fast food chain. Having reached a weight of 111 kg, the girl simply decided to replace constant snacks with chips and burgers for daily dinners at McDonald’s, consisting of 10 chicken nuggets and Diet Coke. And it worked – thanks in large part to the calorie information on the food packages, which allowed the fast food fan to be more careful about her intake of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and not to overeat.
Not our way
In recent years, signs have begun to appear in many Russian grocery stores suggesting contacting the hotline if there are more than three to five people in the checkout line. Not for the sake of a complaint, but rather for the purpose of calling additional cashiers.
Turkmenistan decided to fight queues more radically – they were simply banned… Due to the economic crisis and poverty, many Turkmen have been unable to buy food from markets and private outlets, which has increased the pressure on state-owned shops, which sell food at lower subsidized prices.
Vice Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov
Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Astafiev
In the middle of April The queues for such shops in Ashgabat were noticed by the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who, by a happy coincidence, is the son of the President of Turkmenistan. And, considering that the crowd of people in the queues “spoils the image” of his father, he forbade the population to gather in front of shops in the capital… From now on, you can come to a state store in Ashgabat only after preliminary registration and at a strictly appointed time after the seller’s call.
In other cities of the country, such as Turkmenabat, queues were not completely banned, but they were limited to four people, threatening with arrest for violating social distance and depriving everyone of the right to subsidized food, which, by the way, is not enough for everyone.
A victim of the Chinese bureaucracy
“No document – no person”, – argued the hero of Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” Koroviev. The expression has become not only winged, but also often confirming its innocence in life. Even outside of Russia.
In 2004, a Chinese woman named Wang married and followed her husband from Sichuan to Guangdong. As a respectable citizen, she soon applied for the re-registration of the hukou. – a registration document, which gives the right to free education, health care and property ownership in the city of residence. But ten years later, the woman divorced and returned to her native Sichuan – Since then, she has traveled abroad several times, applied for loans, bought an apartment and a car.
Hukou, registration document in China
Photo: REUTERS
But last year, during door-to-door pandemic inspections, it turned out that back in 2005, her hukou was “canceled due to death.”… It was difficult for her to prove that she was actually the most alive of all the living, but still managed – it took a lot of money and nerves, as well as a certificate from the place of birth and a certificate of the place of last registration. But a full-fledged hukou has not yet been issued to her. And the main snag is that without him, now 39-year-old Wang, who has been planning a new wedding since last winter, cannot get married. – the registry office demands the original document, refusing to sign it with the fiancé on a certificate showing that the authorities themselves canceled the hukou by mistake.