Epstein helped make contacts between top Russian and Israeli officials to explore a negotiated settlement to replace Assad.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-ehud-barak-putin-israel-russia-syria-war-depose-assad

In the mid 2000s, the 21 First Nations governments party to the Robinson Huron Treaty brought a lawsuit against Canada saying that the terms of that treaty were not being honoured.

The First Nations said the fact that the $4-per-person annuity had not increased since 1874 breached the treaty, because resource extraction projects operating on their land had been generating profits that far exceeded what their members received.

The judge on the trial ruled in favour of the First Nations, which resulted in a $10b CAD settlement.

Five per cent of that sum went to the lawyers from Nahwegahbow Corbiere Genoodmagejig/Barristers & Solicitors who argued the case on behalf of the First Nations.

Per their website, this law firm owned, staffed and operated by Aboriginal people and is located in Anishinabek territory, which is covered by the Robinson Huron treaty.

This equates to about $510m CAD in fees. The legal firm took the case on partial contingency, meaning that they charged reduced rates for some of their staff in exchange for a percentage of any settlement, should the case be successful. Lawyers commonly operate purely/mostly on contingency in personal injury or employment law for example. In this case, the contingency was uncapped, meaning that the firm got 5% of any settlement, not 5% up to some maximum dollar figure. The firm donated half their percentage of the settlement (~$250m CAD) to various Indigenous community projects.

Subsequent to winning this settlement, two of the First Nations part of the original case (Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Garden River First Nation) brought and successfully won a lawsuit over this amount of fees, and the judge ordered the fees reduced to $23m CAD from $510m CAD. The lower fee represents approximately $350/h of legal effort, as the case took ~65,000 hours.

“When we saw the legal fee of half a billion dollars, it just was so astronomical and know that there were 15 to 17 of the nations within the Robinson Huron Treaty territory that would get less than what that firm was getting,” [Chief Karen Bell] said in an interview with CBC.

In his ruling, [Judge] Myers criticized the lawyers for bringing their personal interests and the 21 First Nations’ interests into conflict by charging the high fee, discouraging the First Nations from getting outside legal advice on their fee, and pressuring them to approve it.

[Legal counsel for the law firm] Gover said the ruling “echoes centuries of paternalistic attitudes toward First Nations” and undermines the right of Indigenous leaders to make their own informed decisions. “The chiefs, elders and other trustees involved in this agreement were experienced negotiators who drove a hard bargain and were well aware of what they were doing over the entire course of this litigation,” he said.

I will finish on a koan: If the legal team claiming very high fees for winning an Indigenous rights case is Indigenous, is it still settler logic to have an opinion?

The UN migration agency reports widespread hunger following the paramilitary capture of North Darfur’s capital. On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned of the dire humanitarian situation in the Darfuri town of Tawila, where thousands of people are fleeing after the fall of Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur.

Before the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized Al-Fashir, Tawila was already hosting more than 650,000 internally displaced people across 32 sites—representing 37% of all displaced persons in North Darfur state and 7% of the total in Sudan. “The number of internally displaced persons in Tawila nearly tripled between March and September 2025, rising from 238,084 to 652,079,” the IOM report said, recalling the severe humanitarian crisis in this locality located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Al-Fashir. At least 74% of displaced families in Tawila are staying in camps or informal settlements, 70% required medical attention in the past three months, and half of those were unable to receive treatment. The report also noted that 86% of families “reported a borderline or poor level of food consumption,” while 43% said their shelters were completely destroyed, severely damaged or unsafe.

Demographic data in the report showed that 57% of Tawila’s population—both displaced people and residents—are under 18 years old, and an estimated 25% are children under the age of five.

:Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, had sheltered hundreds of thousands of displaced people and had been under siege by paramilitary forces since May 2024. It was the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the vast western region, which comprises five states.

Since the city’s fall last Sunday, several organizations and local authorities have reported numerous killings of civilians inside the city, as well as attacks on people attempting to flee to safer areas.

Sudan’s civil war has caused tens of thousands of deaths, forced more than 13 million people from their homes and turned the country into the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with half of its population facing severe food insecurity.