MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis City Council has agreed to pay a $150,000 settlement to an eyewitness who tried to intervene to prevent George Floyd’s murder and who says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.

Donald Williams, a mixed martial arts fighter who testified against former Officer Derek Chauvin in his 2021 murder trial, sued the city last spring, alleging he was assaulted by police while trying to prevent Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020.

The council unanimously approved the settlement without discussion Thursday, the Star Tribune reported.

The lawsuit alleged that Chauvin looked directly at Williams, grabbed a canister of chemical spray and began shaking it toward him and other bystanders expressing concern for Floyd’s welfare. In video played at Chauvin’s trial, Williams can be heard urging Chauvin to get off Floyd and denouncing the officer as a “bum.” Former Officer Tou Thao stepped toward Williams and placed a hand on his chest, the lawsuit said.

Williams told the jury in Chauvin’s trial that the officer executed what MMA fighters call a “blood choke” on Floyd, restricting his circulation.

As a result of the officers’ actions, Williams alleged in his lawsuit, he feared for his safety and endured pain, suffering, humiliation, embarrassment and medical expenses.

Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, kneeled on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes outside a convenience store where Floyd had tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death touched off protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.

Chauvin was convicted of state murder charges in Floyd’s death and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years. He also pleaded guilty to a separate federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Thao and two other former officers involved are serving shorter sentences.

The disgraced former Paralympian track star Oscar Pistorius was spotted for the first time in eight years following his release from prison for the murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius, now 37, served nine years of a 13-year prison sentence for fatally shooting Steenkamp, 29, on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

During his trial, he maintained that he thought Steenkamp was a burglar when he opened fire through a closed bathroom door in the middle of the night. 

Prosecutors argued that he knew she was the one on the other side of the door because they had just had an argument, and he watched her run in and slam the door. 

OLYMPIC ‘BLADE RUNNER’ OSCAR PISTORIUS WHO SHOT GIRLFRIEND STRUGGLES TO FIND JOB AFTER PRISON TIME: REPORT

In images first captured by South African news site Netwerk24, the former track star is seen grinning from ear to ear, yet looking like a shadow of his old self, now fully gray and noticeably thinner than his previous weight gain in prison. 

Since his release back in January, Pistorius has been hidden away at his uncle’s Pretoria mansion. Sources told the Mirror that he had reportedly been regularly working out since his release and has been following a strict alcohol-free diet. 

He has also been allowed out on parole until 2029. However, he must follow a strict set of rules including random check-ins from his parole officer, and he is prohibited from using social media or having any contact with the Steenkamp family, the New York Post reported. 

According to the Mirror, Pistorius must also undergo a course of “anger management” to help him cope with his raging temper which prosecutors believe led him to kill Reeva.

OLYMPIC RUNNER OSCAR PISTORIUS RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER SERVING 9 YEARS FOR MURDER OF GIRLFRIEND

Oscar Pistorius has been pictured for the first time since he was freed from jail after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in images first captured by South African news site Netwerk24. (Deaan Vivier/Netwerk24/Gallo Images)

One of Steenkamp’s friends told the Mirror that she is very bothered by the recent photos.

“It is very disturbing to see Pistorius smiling like he doesn’t have a care in the world. If I could, I would wipe that smile off his face. I don’t know how he sleeps at night for what he did,” the friend, who wished to stay anonymous, told the Mirror. 

The New York Post also previously reported that when he was first released from prison, he was struggling to find work.

“He’s too toxic to work with now,” a member of South Africa’s Paralympic Committee told the New York Post, after Pistorius allegedly reached out trying to find employment there. “There’s nothing for him here.”

Before he was a killer, Pistorius was a Paralympic track star who earned the name “Blade Runner” due to the prosthetic legs he ran on in races with able-bodied men. He made history when he competed in the 2012 London Olympics.

He was born without fibula bones in either leg and had amputations below both knees before his first birthday. 

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.

Responsible policymakers are informed by evidence, especially in times of uncertainty. To navigate complex trade-offs, deal with unpredictability, and balance the interests of the present, the near- and the far-future, evidence-based strategic foresight is a powerful compass to guide decisions. 

Used well, Europe’s advanced foresight tools can give it a long-term competitive edge.

That’s why it’s so alarming that EU heads of state and government appear to be ready to ignore the wealth of evidence at their disposal, if the leaked priority-setting document for the next five years of the EU institutions – the Strategic Agenda – does not change.

The provisional priorities, which have been drafted through a series of consultations with European leaders led by European Council President Charles Michel, are not coherent with the EU’s own foresight intelligence. 

The most glaring discrepancy is the absence of sustainability. Shifting towards sustainability has been a consistent pillar of future-focused policymaking recommendations, but this does not appear in the draft priorities for 2024-2029.

One leap forward, two steps back?

The evidence at leaders’ disposal has been meticulously assembled. Over the last five years the EU has taken leaps forward in “future thinking” and equipped itself with a vast quantity of information and insights about the possible “futures” we face, summarised in the annual Strategic Foresight reports. Strategic foresight is a serious discipline; a systemic way to help prepare for future shocks and opportunities.

In 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen created, for the first time, a position dedicated to the task of embedding strategic foresight in the heart of EU policymaking. Executive Vice-President and European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has been the face of foresight since then. 

Under his tenure the capacity to deliver future intelligence has been strengthened in the Commission’s in-house science unit, the Joint Research Centre, and in the central Secretariat General which reports directly to von der Leyen. 

In parallel, an internal network of foresight practitioners has been built-up, and a group of Ministers for the Future from the national level has been convened.

All this has fed into robust annual reports which provide a body of evidence on the threats and trends Europe needs to prepare for and identify “key action areas” to inform the European Commission’s work and the direction of the bloc.

Resilience, sustainability and wellbeing have been constant themes over recent years. As have security and defence, democracy and the rule of law.

But whilst the latter group are well catered for in the new Strategic Agenda, environment and climate considerations and sustainable wellbeing are practically non-existent.

EU leaders ignoring the evidence

Looking at the leaked draft of EU leaders’ top priorities side-by-side with the most recent strategic foresight report, it appears that the insights which the European Commission has invested the last five years in building up are being ignored.

Last year’s foresight communication was titled “Sustainability and people’s wellbeing at the heart of Europe’s Open Strategic Autonomy”. 

The 21-page document names “sustainable” or “sustainability” no fewer than 80 times. Of its 10 priority areas for action, six are actions about delivering a sustainable transition – through a net-zero economy, shifts in production and consumption, financial flows, public budgets, indicators, and by making sure all Europeans can contribute to the transition.

The draft five-year agenda relegates resilience, a goal for which the current Commission mobilised €648 billion, to one narrow reference in relation to resource-use. Climate is mentioned only two times – once in connection to innovation, and once in the bullet point: “Prepare for the new realities stemming from climate change”. 

Neither decarbonisation nor net-zero were worthy of mention by heads of state, despite the binding goal of a net-zero Europe by 2050.

In other words, key priorities from the EU’s official unit for future-preparedness are largely missing from guidance issued by EU heads of state.

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And whilst the leaked Strategic Agenda overlooks key aspects of the EU’s own research and evidence, neither is it informed by public opinion.

Recent EU Barometer polls tell us 85% of EU citizens think climate action leads to greater wellbeing and more jobs, 78% think climate action will help the economy, and 83% agree that the EU should invest massively in renewable energies. (The EU Barometers are another rich source of evidence – this one focused on public attitudes and citizens’ support for policies – which EU leaders appear to be opting to disregard.)

We need a foresight-based strategy for Europe

Aligning the EU priorities 2024-2029 with foresight and public opinion is crucial, and still possible. The key areas of action flowing from the foresight reports can complete the draft Strategic Agenda with missing elements, primarily sustainability.

Uncertainty and “polycrisis” call for more use of foresight methods, not less, for example via a “chief foresighter” at EU level to embed the practice across policy areas and institutions. 

Being guided by the wealth of evidence available is the best way for the EU to set an agenda for a secure, prosperous, sustainable future.

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Elizabeth Dirth is Managing Director at the ZOE Institute for Future-fit Economies, and Jonas Gissel Mikkelsen is Director and Futurist at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

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