French prosecutors open probe on skate coach accused of raping teenage trainee

Issued on: 05/02/2020 

SPORTS ARE NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN TOO MANY PREDATOR COACHES

Sarah Abitbol, a 10-time French figure skating champion, has accused her former coach of raping her when she was aged 15 to 17. © Jacques Demarthon, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES|
Video by:Fraser JACKSON

French prosecutors opened an investigation into claims of rape and sexual abuse of minors in figure skating on Tuesday as details emerged of allegations made 20 years ago against the coach at the heart of the case.

The probe, hailed as a "strong signal" by French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu and in which "the words of the victims must be heard", will focus on claims made by former world championship bronze medallist Sarah Abitbol.

In her autobiography published last week, Abitbol accused coach Gilles Beyer of raping her several times from 1990 to 1992 when she was between the ages of 15 and 17.

"He (Beyer) started to do horrible things leading to sexual abuse and I was raped at 15," said Abitbol, now 44, in a video interview with L'Obs.

The investigation will also "attempt to identify all the other victims who suffered... offences of the same nature", Paris-based prosecutor Remy Heitz said.

Abitbol's claims coincided with sports daily L'Equipe publishing an investigation in which three other skaters accused Beyer and two other coaches, Jean-Roland Racle and Michel Lotz, of abuse and rape when they were minors.

Further allegations of underage sexual abuse emerged from former swimmers and tennis players.

On Friday, 62-year-old Beyer admitted to having had "intimate" and "inappropriate" relations with Abitbol, telling AFP he was "sincerely sorry".

"I acknowledge having had intimate relationships with her," Beyer said in a statement.

"If my memories of the exact circumstances differ from hers, I am aware that, given my duties and her age at the time, these relationships were inappropriate."

Racle has denied the accusations while Lotz has not commented.

Sports Minister Maracineanu has called for the president of France's ice skating federation, Didier Gailhaguet, to resign, saying he "cannot absolve himself of his moral and personal responsibility".

But after a meeting at the federation's Paris headquarters on Tuesday, Gailhaguet said he would not make a decision on whether to step down until the investigation had concluded.

"I, as federation president, will await the result of this investigation before making any decision on the resignation the sports minister asked for," the 66-year-old said.

Powerful figure

Maracineanu, a former swimming world champion, does not have the power to sack Gailhaguet but has intimated that the federation would face state sanctions if he remains.

Gailhaguet, who is due to hold a press conference on Wednesday, has been the most influential man in French ice skating since he first became president in 1998, some years after the alleged offences.

He has headed the federation ever since apart from a three-year hiatus between 2004 and 2007 which followed a judging scandal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

He was suspended by the International Skating Union for three years from 2002 and duly gave up, temporarily, the presidency of the French federation.

Gailhaguet's accession to the presidency opened the door for Beyer to take charge of the French national team.

Two years later, another skater made a complaint against Beyer which was followed up at ministry level but not acted on by prosecutors.

The report of that investigation, which has been seen by AFP, shows that Gailhaguet was aware of the nature of the allegations against Beyer.

In a letter addressed to him and dated February 8, 2000, the parents of a young skater outline Beyer's inappropriate behaviour towards their daughter, who was 17, during a training camp.

According to the letter which relates to an incident in July 1999, Beyer was "under the effects of alcohol" when he sat on the girl's bed. After talking he said he would leave but asked if he could kiss her. She declined.

"It would be desirable, not to say essential ... that this gentleman never again gets close to adolescent skaters who are minors," the parents said in the letter.

Beyer did not comment on those claims when contacted by AFP.

The 2000 inquiry led the sports ministry to remove him from his technical role at the federation, but he remained a coach at club level and held an executive position at the federation until 2018.

On Tuesday, former Olympic champion Gwendal Peizerat, who won the 2002 ice dance gold with Marina Anissina, said the revelations were "the tip of the iceberg".

"We're talking about rape, harassment ... Didier Gailhaguet is not the moral example we should be showing our children," said Peizerat, who unsuccessfully challenged Gailhaguet as skating chief in a 2014 election.

(AFP)

Violent clashes have broken out on the streets of Baghdad between supporters of the powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr and the wider anti-government protest movement following last week’s appointment of Iraqi prime minister delegate Mohammed Allawi.

After months of anti-government demonstrations in Iraq, protesters were united in their calls for change. But a split has now appeared between the powerful cleric Moqtada al Sadr, who supports the new prime minister, and the wider protest movement that opposes him.

Hundreds of demonstrators have been evicted from a towering Turkish restaurant, a symbol of the Baghdad protests, by al Sadr’s men.

"This place was taken by infiltrators and saboteurs who encouraged violence, and that’s why the revolution was being diverted," said Abu Ahmed, a member of Sadr's militia, Saraya al Salam.

The protesters deny this and accuse the Sadrists of crushing the movement to bolster the new prime minister.

The return of Sadr’s armed and violent men, recognisable by their blue caps, was seen by protesters as yet another betrayal.

Few were willing to talk out of fear of reprisals.

“They’re using sticks, they’re using knives, they don’t let us speak freely,” said Ghassan Saber, a protester, who spoke to FRANCE 24 away from the Sadrists’ watchful eyes.

Rival protesters clash in Iraq as unrest continues
Issued on: 04/02/2020

Anti-government protesters in Iraq treating wounded colleagues,

 February 4 2020. © FRANCE 24 - screengrab
Text by:FRANCE 24Follow

Anti-government demonstrators faced off against followers of influential cleric Moqtada Sadr across Iraq on Tuesday, a day after one demonstrator was killed in a clash between the two sides.

The split has been caused over the nomination of Mohammad Allawi as Iraq’s new prime minister.

Tensions have been high in protest squares in recent days between youths furious at Allawi’s nomination and Sadrists.

On Monday, a demonstrator was stabbed to death and three others wounded after Sadr supporters, known as 'blue hats'; attacked an anti-regime rally, medics and security sources said.

Allawi, 65, was nominated on February 1 after two months of political stalemate over who would replace ex-premier Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned in December.

Allawi has vowed to ensure justice for protest-related violence.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Iraq since anti-government protests started last October and NGOs have reported kidnappings of political activists.

Watch this special FRANCE 24 report by Ibrahim Saleh and Carys Garland.

ADDICTION
Alcohol-related hospital admissions rise 60% over decade, NHS figures show

Campaigners call on government to increase taxes on booze and provide more support to harmful drinkers


Nearly half of those admitted were aged between 55 and 74 and just under two thirds were male ( Dominic Lipinski/PA )

The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions has risen by 60 per cent in the last decade, figures show.

At least 1.3 million people were admitted to hospital with a primary or secondary diagnosis linked to alcohol in 2018, according to a report from NHS Digital.

The figure represents 7.4 per cent of all hospital admissions across the country.

In 2018/19, there were 1,261,960 alcohol-related admissions, an 8 per cent rise over the previous year (1,171,250) and a 60 per cent increase on 2008/09 (784,650).

Campaigners called on the government to increase taxes on alcohol and provide more support for harmful drinkers.

Nearly half of those admitted (47 per cent) were aged between 55 and 74 and just under two thirds of all those admitted were male.

Some 5,698 people died due to drink in 2018, 2 per cent lower than 2017 but a 7 per cent rise on 2008.

Mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol led to admissions, while alcohol also influenced admissions for cancer, unintentional injuries and heart disease.

Laura Bunt, acting chief executive of the charity Addaction, said: “In 2018 the UK government announced it would be creating a new, stand-alone alcohol strategy.


“But this January, the promise was quietly rolled back. These statistics show that a new approach is needed.”

She added: ”We’ve learnt from our services that as people age, big life events such as divorce, bereavement, financial issues or even retirement can leave people feeling isolated and unable to cope.


“What’s more, harmful alcohol use among older adults is often a hidden problem, with many drinking at home alone instead of out and socialising.”

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Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: “The government needs to wake up to the fact that the harmful use of alcohol is killing people across the country right now.

“Far too many people are dying much too young as a direct result of unhealthy levels of alcohol consumption in England.

“The chancellor needs to increase alcohol duty by 2 per cent above inflation in the next Budget.

“In addition, England needs minimum unit pricing, following the lead of Scotland and Wales, and cuts in support for harmful drinkers need to be reversed.”

An NHS spokesman said: “Tackling preventable illness is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan, which is why alcohol care teams will be rolled out in hospitals with the highest number of alcohol-related admissions and will support patients and their families who have issues with alcohol misuse.”

Additional reporting by Press Association

STELLA MCCARTNEY AND AUTHOR JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER LAUNCH SUSTAINABLE COLLECTION TO HIGHLIGHT CLIMATE CRISIS

Pieces made using fabrics such as organic cotton and regenerated cashmere

Sarah Young @sarah_j_young

Stella McCartney has launched a sustainable capsule collection in collaboration with bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer.

The collection, titled We are the Weather, is inspired by Foer’s book of the same name which recommends eating less meat and aiming to eat no animal products before dinner, as a way to save the planet.

Upon reading a draft copy of the title, McCartney, a lifelong vegetarian who has put environmentalism and animal rights at the centre of her brand for decades, felt inspired to bring Foer’s words to life through the medium of fashion.

In a bid to personify the novel’s spirit of positive change, McCartney launched a capsule of pieces adorned with statements from the book, such as knitwear and accessories featuring the slogan “we are entirely free to live differently”.

Elsewhere, handwritten messages from Foer radiate from graphic sun illustrations, while ribbons embroidered with messages are draped over sharp Savile Row tailoring and regenerated cashmere sweaters come printed with the ”SOS” motif previously seen at McCartney’s autumn/winter 2019 collection.

Stella McCartney launches sustainable capsule: We are the Weather
Show all 6




In keeping with the capsule’s environmentalist spirit, all of the pieces are made using sustainable fabrics such as organic cotton and linen, and regenerated cashmere which comes from textile waste created during the production process.

On Instagram, the luxury fashion brand marked the release with an accompanying photo series showcasing the collection. However, this was a photo shoot with a difference.
Pieces in the collection feature statements from Foer's book "We are the Weather" (Stella McCartney)

Shot by documentary photographer Lee Whittaker and stylist Lee Trigg, the clothes were modelled by residents of an island off the coast of Canada, where people live “off the grid”.

“Shot by @Lee__Whittaker and styled by @ltrigg on a Canadian island where the inhabitants live totally off the grid and believe in a low-impact life, this collection drives the point of sustainability and celebrates everything we stand for,” the brand wrote.

Speaking to Another magazine, Whittaker described the island as “essentially a forest, with wild goats roaming free, surrounded by water”, adding that the tight-knit group of residents sought “something outside of ‘normal life’” by living self-sufficiently, using solar energy and growing their own food.


Few designers in the fashion industry as dedicated to sustainability as McCartney.

Over the years, the brand has championed the use of innovative materials such as “fur-free-fur”, vegetarian leather and viscose fibres sourced in a way that helps to protect ancient forests.

The capsule was made using sustainable fabrics such as regenerated cashmere (Stella McCartney)

The label also recently introduced a garment labelling system called Clevercare to its ranges, which helps remind customers to consider the environment when washing and caring for their clothes.

Iowa voter asks to change vote after learning Pete Buttigieg is gay


“Are you kidding? Then I don’t want anybody like that in the White House", the voter says

Graig Graziosi

A video of an Iowa caucus voter asking to change her vote after finding out Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has surfaced following the confusing and frustrating Monday night electoral event.

Tuesday afternoon, Laura Hubka, the Howard County Democratic Party Chairwoman, shared the video on Twitter, calling the caucus captain Nikki Heever who responds to the woman a “wonderful example of Cresco [Iowa].”

In the video, the voter shows shock when she learns that Mr Buttigieg is a gay man with a husband and then asks if she can take her vote back.

“Are you kidding? Then I don’t want anybody like that in the White House. So can I have my card back?” the woman asked.

Ms Heever doesn’t immediately refund the woman’s vote and instead attempts to convince her that Mr Buttigieg’s sexual orientation shouldn’t invalidate his viability as a candidate.

“The whole point of it though, he’s a human being, right, just like you and me. It shouldn’t really matter,” Ms Heever replied.
“Well he better read the Bible,” the voter said.

Ms Heever goes on to explain that Mr Buttigieg is also a Christian and continued to try to convince the voter that she should support him.

“I would like you to just dig deep inside and think, should it matter if it’s a woman or if it’s a man or if they’re heterosexual or homosexual, if you believe in what they say? That’s my question to you.”

The voter wasn’t moved.

“It all just went right down the toilet, is where it went,” she said.

As the exchange continues, Ms Heever says that she’ll get clarification on the rules for rescinding a vote, but tries one last argument, appealing to her own Christian faith to try to convince the voter.

Unfortunately for Ms Heever, the woman shrugs the argument off, instead suggesting that Ms Heever’s acceptance of Mr Buttigieg means she must not believe in what the Bible says. The voter asks why Mr Buttigieg’s sexual orientation wasn’t more widely known, which Ms Heever correctly points out is “common knowledge.”

The events leading up to the confrontation and the events immediately after – including whether or not the woman’s vote was refunded – are still unclear.

The video is holding Democrats over as they wait for the results of Monday night’s caucus. Issues with a third-party voting app were cited by state party officials as the primary factor holding up the official results.

Mr Buttigieg came under some fire Tuesday after choosing to give a speech that seemed to declare his victory in Iowa despite there being no announcement by the state party of a winner. “#MayorCheat” and “#PetetheCheat” were trending on Twitter, along with rat emojis.

In an interview with MSNBC today, Mr Buttigieg walked back the soaring language from his speech on Tuesday, instead referring to the caucus as a “clear victory for this campaign” rather than an overall victory.

The Iowa Democratic Party said it should have the results available by late Tuesday afternoon.

A doorbell camera has captured footage of a meteor exploding in the sky above Derbyshire.

Derby resident Gary Rogers received a text alert from his security camera after it detected suspicious movement outside his home on Monday night.

When he checked the footage, Mr Rogers was stunned to see the extraordinary celestial phenomenon lighting up the night sky.

Experts believe the clip, captured at 11.30pm on Monday, shows a bolide (an extremely bright meteor) crashing towards Earth and disintegrating in the atmosphere.

Mr Rogers said: “'I thought it was a firework at first, but I listened to the sound and you couldn’t hear any noise.

“I thought it could have been a plane crashing but the footage clearly shows a large ball of fire. It was amazing to see.

“I’ve seen shooting stars before but never a meteor. I thought it’s definitely not a firework, it was too bright for that. The whole horizon was lit up and there was no sound.

“I saw the trail first then it exploded into the sky. I knew then it was a meteor.

“It was really nice to see. I was expecting it to be a fox or hedgehog like usual.

“My friends have been saying it’s like something out of ‘War of the Worlds’.”

Rob Dawes, chairman of Sherwood Observatory in Derbyshire, said: “Mr Rogers was very lucky to get such a nice bright one.

“But you'd be surprised how many of these do come into the atmosphere at any time of year.“

Wild seal filmed ‘clapping’ underwater for first time

'I’ve heard the distinctive shotgun-like ‘Crack!’ many times over the years... but filming the seals in action has eluded me for 17 years,' says researcher
Kate Ng 1 day ago

Researchers have captured video footage of a wild grey seal “clapping” and producing a “gunshot-like sound” underwater for the first time.

The video was part of an international study led by Monash University in Australia, and was published in the journal Marine Mammal Science on Sunday.

Clapping is believed to be used by male grey seals as a show of strength to warn competitors to stay away and attract potential mates.

The sound created by the clap is described as a “loud high-frequency noise” that cuts through any background noise in order to send a “clear signal” to nearby seals.

It was previously thought to be a vocal sound, but the new footage captured by Dr Ben Burville around Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, clearly shows a male grey seal clapping its flippers to produce it.

Mr Burville, a researcher at Newcastle University, said: “I was diving off the Farne Islands when I first saw a large male clap underwater. The effect of the clap was instant and the rival males rapidly dispersed.

“The clap was incredibly loud and at first I found it hard to believe what I had seen. How could a seal make such a loud clap underwater with no air to compress between its flippers?

“I’ve heard the distinctive shotgun-like ‘Crack!’ many times over the years and I felt sure this clapping behaviour was the source, but filming the seals in action has eluded me for 17 years.

“Then one day I had heard a couple of slaps in the distance, I just hit the record button and eureka! I got it!,” he added.

Lead author Dr David Hocking of Monash University said: “The discovery of ‘clapping seals’ might not seem that surprising, after all, they’re famous for clapping in zoos and aquaria.

“But where zoo animals are often trained to clap for our entertainment – these grey seals are doing it in the wild of their own accord.

“Clapping appears to be an important social behaviour for grey seals, so anything that disturbed it could impact breeding success and survival for this species.”He added that noise pollution created by humans has been known to “interfere” with other forms of communications between marine mammals, including whale song.

“But if we do not know a behaviour exists, we cannot easily act to protect it,” he said.

---30---

IOWA CAUCUS: FORMER HILLARY CLINTON STAFF REVEALED TO BE BEHIND ‘SHADOW’ APP THAT CAUSED CHAOS

A similar app will be used in Nevada caucuses
Nevada ditches plans to use app blamed for Iowa caucus chaos


Andrew Griffin @_andrew_griffin Tuesday 4 February 2020

The team behind the disastrous app used in the Iowa election app has been revealed.

The app, created by a startup named Shadow, was supposed to be used to co-ordinate information from the caucuses and allow organisers to send results back to the party. But it crashed repeatedly through the night, and has led to a failure to declare any kind of result.

The party said the problems had been caused by a “coding issue in the reporting system” that has since been fixed but meant it was still unable to declare any results.

Now focus has turned onto the company behind the app, Shadow, and the confusion surrounding how it managed to be created and used in one of the most important parts of the lead-up to the presidential election later this year.

Shadow’s website describes the team behind the app as “campaign and technology veterans who have built and implemented technology at Hillary for America, Obama for America, Google, Kiva, Apple, the AFL-CIO, and the DNC”.

Explaining the name of the company, it claims to be a “building a long-term, side-by-side “Shadow” of tech infrastructure to the Democratic Party and the progressive community at large”.

The history of Shadow is unclear and somewhat obscure.

Watch more
What is the ‘Shadow’ app causing chaos at Iowa caucus?

A since-deleted post on the website of nonprofit Acronym, apparently written by CEO Gerard Niemira, announced “the launch of Shadow, a new technology company that will exist under the ACRONYM umbrella and build accessible technological infrastructure and tools to enable campaigns to better harness, integrate and manage data across the platforms and technologies they all use”.

But in a statement last night, as the chaos in Iowa continued, Acronym distanced itself from the app. A spokesperson said it had “not provided any technology” for the causes, and suggested that Acronym was only an “investor”.

Shadow appears to have begun life as an app called GroundGame, and then Groundbase, which was first founded in 2017. It appears to have been re-branded in the intervening period, before being launched under its current name in 2017.

Niemira said in the same post that he had created the app with “a few of my colleagues from the Hillary for America campaign where we built tools for [the campaign’s] field team”. Many of the people involved in the creation of what is now called Shadow worked on the Clinton campaign, as well as at technology firms, according to LinkedIn profiles.

The app will also be used in the Nevada caucus, due to happen on 22 February. The local Democratic parties in each state paid $60,000 to Shadow for their services, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures.

A new app has helped cause chaos in the first chance voters had to determine who could be the next president of the US.

The app was intended to help gather information from across Iowa on who the roughly 1,700 caucus sites had chosen to be their presidential nominee.

But it has ended up contributing to chaos that means that there is no clarity over who won the contest, hours after it has finished.

At the time of publication, officials were still scrambling to find and verify the results. And they were scrambling, too, to explain how one of the most closely-watched moments in the lead-up to the election could have gone so dramatically wrong.

What was the app supposed to do?

The plan was that caucus organisers would be able to use the app to send in their results, allowing the state party to easily collate them from those submissions. It is the first time that such a system has been used in the Iowa caucus.

The decision to use the app came together at the last minute, according to the New York Times, which reported that the Iowa Democrats had been preparing to use a different system that would involve people calling in their results over the phone. That plan was pulled with just two weeks to go, the paper reported.

What is so wrong with the app?

Very quickly, users started reporting glitches and errors, and organisers were able to input the information as intended. Many complained that they were being shown error messages and that the app would not load properly, forcing them to call in rather than use the app as planned.

The Iowa caucus fiasco is a metaphor for the state of US democracy

Jonathan Green, who chaired a precinct in Lone Tree, said that when he tried to put the results into the reporting app, he kept getting a confusing error message: “Unknown protocol. The address specifies a protocol (e.g., “wxyz:??”.) the browser does not recognise, so the browser cannot properly connect to the site.”


The backup plan of having people call in their results also ran into trouble because the phones they had been asked to use in case of problems were not being answered, according to Des Moines County Democratic Chair Tom Courtney.

Issues were further exacerbated by the fact that the app was only made available at a later stage, in an attempt to stop outside interference. That meant it had not been fully tested, and that organisers had little experience of it before the caucuses.

Officials have stressed that the delays and problems are not the result of a hack or intrusion, and that the results will remain safe despite the problems.

“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” the party said in a statement. “This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
Who made the app?

The creation of the app still remains mired in some mystery: very little is known about the process of its creation, or where it came from. Though it is reported to have been made by a company called “Shadow”, the exact details of that startup are still unclear.

In fact, many of the organisations – such as nonprofit Acronym, which was reported to be an investor – have actually distanced themselves from the creation of the app in the wake of the mess.

What happens now?

All of the information is also kept in paper backups, and officials can now scour through those to find less high-tech but more reliable results for who has won. Local Democratic officials have claimed that means that the result will still arrive as normal, and will be reliable when it does, with the problems only meaning that they will take longer to actually report.

But the fallout could have broader implications beyond Iowa – into the rest of the primaries and caucuses, and even into further elections. As well as further scrutiny of the app, it could lead to yet more questions about why Iowa gets to be the first state in the country to declare, and whether that privilege should go to somewhere else in the wake of such high-profile mistakes.

Additional reporting by agencies

UK
This journalist-banning government tried to defend the indefensible – and failed miserably

Poor Chloe Smith was sent to claim the mass journalist walkout from Downing Street had all been ‘standard practice’. It was nothing of the sort Tom Peck Political Sketch Writer @tompeck Tuesday 4 February 2020It was, in the end, an MP called Chloe Smith who was sent to the despatch box of the House of Commons to account for the government’s behaviour on Monday afternoon, when journalists arrived at No 10 to find themselves being sorted on to separate sides of a large rug, and told which would be allowed into a special briefing and which would not, before they all walked out in protest.

You almost have to feel sorry for her. Not for the first time in her life, one suspects, a lot of names will have to have been crossed off the list before they got to her.

It should really have been Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary. But she’s not allowed in the Commons, because she stood down as an MP at the last election, having refused to serve in the government in which she now serves.

And she also would have been far too busy on Tuesday, getting ready to give a speech on Wednesday on “the future of broadcasting”, which is expected to pave the way for smashing up the BBC, because it dared to do its job and criticise the government she refused to serve in.

READ ON

Team Trump photo has internet baffled over why Ben Carson doesn’t have a seat

Twitter users are quick to point out that the only African American in the photo is squatting awkwardly in the aisle of the plane