#LIVINGWAGE  #FIGHTFOR25
Geneva residents vote to institute $25 per hour minimum wage


Geneva's new minimum wage will take effect Nov. 1. Photo by Stéphane Pecorini via Wikimedia Commons

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Residents of Geneva, Switzerland, voted this week to introduce a minimum wage that is believed to be the highest in the world.

More than half -- 58% -- of voters in the canton, or state, of Geneva, voted to set the minimum wage 23 francs an hour, the equivalent of $25 an hour.
The initiative was backed by a coalition of labor unions, and is expected to affect about 6% of Geneva's workers when it takes effect Nov. 1.
Switzerland has no national minimum wage law, but Geneva is the fourth of the country's 26 cantons to vote on a minimum wage in recent years.

Geneva voters had previously rejected initiatives to introduce a minimum wage -- twice.

The unions that backed the initiative argued that it was impossible to live in dignity in Geneva making less than $25 per hour, or $4,437.51 per month for a full-time, 41-hour work week.

Rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Geneva costs at least $3,258 francs, and long lines of people waiting for handouts of food and other necessities have been common as the coronavirus pandemic has progressed.

Trio of scientists win Nobel Prize in Physics for black hole research


Roger Penrose (L), Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez were awarded the prize on Tuesday. Illustration by Niklas Elmehed/Nobel Media


Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A trio of scientists from the United States, Britain and Germany jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries about black holes, the Norwegian Nobel Institute announced.

British mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose won half of the prize and the other half was shared by German astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel and American astronomer Andrea Ghez.

The prize was announced during a ceremony at the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, which awards the honor each year.

Penrose was recognized for his work at Birkbeck College in London during the 1960s, during which he used revolutionary mathematical equations to prove the existence of black holes and to determine they were a direct consequence of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity

Black holes, he showed, are super-heavy masses capturing everything that enters them, even light, hiding singularities in which all the known laws of nature cease. His 1965 paper, "Gravitational collapse and space-time singularities," not only explained black holes but also set the stage for discoveries about the cosmological "Big Bang."

Genzel and Ghez have each focused their work on a region at the center of the Milky Way galaxy called Sagittarius A, where an extremely heavy, invisible object is thought to be pulling million of stars together into a small area at extremely high speeds.

Genzel, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Ghez, who teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles, each were honored for developing new techniques in which powerful telescopes can be used to observe Sagittarius A and uncover new information about a powerful black hole at the center of the galaxy.

"The discoveries of this year's Laureates have broken new ground in the study of compact and supermassive objects," said David Haviland, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

"But these exotic objects still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate future research. Not only questions about their inner structure, but also questions about how to test our theory of gravity under the extreme conditions in the immediate vicinity of a black hole."

The Nobel Institute's prize for medicine was awarded Monday to Americans Harvey J. Alter, Charles M. Rice and Briton Michael Houghton for their work on curing Hepatitis C.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced Wednesday, to be followed by the literature prize on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday and the prize for economic sciences on Oct. 12.


U.S., British hepatitis C researchers win Nobel Prize in Medicine

Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice and Briton Michael Houghton were honored Monday for their work with hepatitis C. Image by Niklas Elmehed/Nobel Foundation

Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Three scientists who each played a role in finding a cure for hepatitis C have won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Foundation announced Monday.

Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice and Briton Michael Houghton won the 2020 prize for their separate work in battling hepatitis C, a blood-borne disease that causes cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.

The disease is associated with significant morbidity and mortality and causes more than 1 million deaths per year worldwide, making it a global health threat on a scale comparable to HIV infection and tuberculosis.

The prize was announced during a ceremony at the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, which awards the honor each year.

Two other types of hepatitis -- A and B -- had been identified earlier, but a still-unknown form had continued to affect blood transfusion patients.

In the 1970s, Alter, working at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, first showed that the condition was caused by a previously unknown, distinct virus, later named the hepatitis C virus.

Identifying the virus, however, eluded researchers for more than a decade. Houghton, then working for the Chiron Corp. in California, was able to isolate the genetic sequence of the virus in 1989, providing a key breakthrough.

With the virus identified, researchers still needed to prove that it alone was capable of causing hepatitis. Rice, a scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, provided the link in 2005 after eight years of research.

The scientists' contributions have "essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health," the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine said.

"Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at hepatitis C," it added. "For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population."

The Nobel Institute's two other scientific prizes -- for physics and chemistry -- will be announced Tuesday and Wednesday. They will be followed by the literature prize on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday and economic sciences on Oct. 12.

Court rules Venezuela can claim $1.8B in gold stored in Britain


The Venezuelan government has been keeping about $1.8 billion worth of gold in the Bank of England in London, Britain. File Photo by Andy Rain/EPA-EFE

Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A British appeals court in London overturned a lower ruling Monday to clear the way for the Venezuelan government to receive a stash of gold worth nearly $2 billion it had stored in the Bank of England.

A lower court ruled this summer that President Nicolas Maduro's government could not lay claim to the gold because the British government had recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the "constitutional interim" president of Venezuela.

The appeals court, in setting aside the earlier decision, ruled that the British Home Office needed to clarify its position and noted that London still maintains full diplomatic relations with Maduro's government.

The Venezuelan government had said it needs the gold for humanitarian purposes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maduro remains in control of the Venezuelan government and its military.

The Banco Central de Venezuela sued the Bank of England in May to control its gold. Maduro initially asked the bank to remove the gold in 2018, which was then worth about $550 million. The stash now is estimated to be worth $1.8 billion.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Antivirus software magnate John McAfee indicted for tax evasion


U.S. software entrepreneur John McAfee has been arrested in Spain and faces tax evasion charges in the United States. File Photo by Saul Martinez/EPA

Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment on Monday charging antivirus software creator John McAfee with tax evasion and willful failure to file tax returns.

The Justice Department said in a statement that McAfee failed to file tax returns from 2014 to 2018 despite earning millions from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary.

The 10-count Indictment accuses McAfee of failing to pay taxes by having his earnings deposited into bank and cryptocurrency exchange accounts under the names of others while attempting to evade the Internal Revenue Service by concealing property, vehicles and a yacht in the same manner.

The amount the antivirus software magnate owes was not disclosed, but if convicted he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count of evasion and one year for each count of willful failure to file a tax return.

Prosecutors said the June 15 indictment was unsealed following McAfee's arrest in Spain, where he is pending extradition.

The unsealing of the indictment came after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that it had filed civil charges against McAfee for accepting more than $23.2 million in exchange for promoting seven cryptocurrency investments to his 1 million Twitter followers without disclosing he was paid to do so.

The SEC said McAfee made "false and misleading statements" to investors, such as claiming he had personally invested in initial coin offerings he was advertising.

"McAfee falsely claimed to be an investor and/or a technical advisor when he recommended several ICOs, creating the impression that he had vetted these companies, that they were benefiting from his technical expertise and that he was willing to invest his own money in the ventures," the SEC complaint said. "In reality, McAfee's tweets were paid promotions disguised as impartial investment advice."

Jimmy Watson, Jr., McAfee's bodyguard, was also charged by the SEC for negotiating the promotion deals with the initial coin offerings, aiding McAfee to cash out the digital payments received for the promotions and for having his spouse tweet interest in one of the cryptocurrencies.

"McAfee, assisted by Watson, allegedly leveraged his fame to deceptively tout numerous digital asset securities to his followers without informing investors of his role as a paid promoter," said Kristina Littman, cyber unit chief at the SEC.

The pair face charges of violating anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities law while McAfee has been individually charged with violating anti-touting provisions and Watson has been charged with aiding and abetting McAfee's violations.

"The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, conduct-based injunctions, return of allegedly ill-gotten gains and civil penalties," the SEC said, adding that it also asks for McAfee to be barred from serving as a public company officer or director.

Groundwater depletion means 'peak grain' has come, gone for some High Plains states

Grain production in Texas and Kansas is expected to decline in the decades ahead as a result of groundwater depletion. Photo by Mark Meyers/Flickr

Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Peak grain has already passed for several High Plains states, according to a new survey of groundwater depletion across the region.

To more accurately predict future grain yields, researchers looked at the relationship between levels of water extraction from the Ogallala aquifer and the amounts of grain harvested in each state over the last 50 years.

Researchers adapted analysis techniques previously used to study the relationship between peak oil production and peak grain production. The research team detailed the results of their analysis in a new paper, published Tuesday in the journal PNAS.

"We were inspired by insightful analyses of U.S. crude oil production," lead study author Assaad Mrad, doctoral candidate at Duke University, said in a news release. "They predicted a peak in crude oil production a decade in advance."

RELATED Internationally traded crops are shrinking globe's underground aquifers

The new analysis showed Texas and Kansas reached peak grain in 2016. Grain yields in the two High Plains states have been declining over the last four years. Without new yield-boosting technologies, grain production in Texas could decline as much as 40 percent by 2050.

Water demand has outstripped supply in recent years, researchers said, as a result of excessive aquifer extraction and delays in irrigation regulations designed to sustainably manage water usage.

"This shows quite clearly that the aquifers are not being used in a sustainable way and it's essential to find new technologies that can irrigate crops in a sustainable way," said study co-author David Hannah, professor at the University of Birmingham.

RELATED We're not running out of water -- a better way to measure scarcity

Unlike Texas and Kansas, Nebraska enjoys a wetter climate. Rainfall in Nebraska has allowed farmers to expand grain production without increasing groundwater pumping.

Overall, the latest findings suggest depleted groundwater levels will continue to pose a serious threat to grain production across the High Plains. Many farmers in the region rely on the Ogallala aquifer to supply as much as 90 percent of their irrigation.

"Overall, the picture we see emerging from these calculations is bleak," Hannah said. "The ultimate consequence of the aquifers continuing to be overused will be the decline and collapse of grain production. We have already seen this happen in Texas, where over the course of fifty years, peak water use has twice led to peak grain production followed by production crashes."

Donald Trump’s narcissism betrays a fragile ego lashing out in rage

The popular notion that narcissists are endowed with an extraordinary reservoir of confidence, self-importance and unconditional self-regard is mistaken

Narcissists like Trump try to mask their shortcomings and constantly attack others to protect their own fragile egos from being exposed and collapsing

Bertie Wai Published: 3 Oct, 2020

Illustration: Craig Stephens

The fiery US presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden set the internet ablaze with criticism. The debate was described as chaotic, messy and a national embarrassment. CNN’s Jake Tapper summed up the debate in a colourful analogy: “That was a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.”

Negative reviews rained on Trump’s self-congratulating parade, criticising him as a bully for bulldozing Biden and steamrollering Chris Wallace, the moderator of the debate. The 90-plus-minute barrage of personal attacks, insults, interruptions and incoherence was often credited to Trump’s lack of integrity, intelligence and decorum.
Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and Donald Trump’s niece, wrote the book
Too Much and Never Enough which gave an insider’s view of how family influences helped shape Donald Trump. She said her uncle’s “debate performance was a grotesque combination of lies, racism, breathtaking callousness, and threats against our democracy”.

One of the labels mental health professionals often ascribe to Donald Trump is narcissism. In fact, the extensive broadcast of Trump’s ruthless thoughts and reckless behaviour has raised such alarm that many psychiatrists and mental health professionals in the United States are warning about the dangers of Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

This is exceptional because it flies in the face of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA)
Goldwater Rule, which prohibits psychiatrists from diagnosing or commenting on the mental health of public figures without examination and consent.

There is an ongoing debate in the psychiatric community whether the Goldwater Rule should still be observed at an unusual time like this, when the unprecedented hazards that a commander-in-chief’s detrimental mental health condition can pose to national welfare and public safety are no longer contained within a reality TV show.

What is a narcissist? A common understanding is someone who is grandiose, entitled and lacks empathy. These descriptions fit what we often see on TV, where Trump never gets tired of reiterating he is the best, greatest and most presidential-est and is often portrayed as caring for no one but himself. Trump’s own sister Maryanne Trump Barry is known to have said, “Donald‘s out for Donald. Period.”

One might see a narcissist as someone who is endowed with an
extraordinary reservoir of confidence, self-importance and unconditional self-regard.

One could imagine a narcissist as basking in the blessed haven of an inflated ego under the eternal sunshine of gratifying thoughts about one’s greatness. Snow White’s evil queen comes to mind: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, of course I am the prettiest of all!”

Those who work with NPD in a clinical setting are familiar with a psychological reality that is in stark contrast to the common myth. The psychological structure responsible for NPD is actually a very fragile ego. Because it is too painful to get in touch with such fragility, the narcissist goes to extreme lengths to banish any inkling of their own imperfections.
Mary Trump had this to say about her uncle: “Donald’s ego has been and is a fragile and inadequate barrier between him and the real world, which, thanks to his father’s money and power, he never had to negotiate by himself.

“Donald has always needed to perpetuate the fiction my grandfather started that he is strong, smart and otherwise extraordinary, because facing the truth – that he is none of those things – is too terrifying for him to contemplate.”

If it is too terrifying to contemplate one’s lack’s of extraordinary qualities, why can’t one just decide to not face it? Problem solved, right? Not so fast. Our psychology operates on different levels.

Even though we might be somewhat successful at times at shutting out an
inconvenient aspect of reality, we are still aware of it on a deeper level. This is one of the reasons material we don’t want to deal with in waking life shows up in our dreams in disguised forms.

The mirror that reveals Snow White as the prettiest of all is mirroring back a view the evil queen is too terrified to contemplate: she is not, in fact, the prettiest of all. Mary Trump had something similar to say of Donald Trump, who “began to believe his own hype, even as he paradoxically suspected on a very deep level that nobody else did”.



This is the plague of narcissism. Narcissists are persecuted by a fragile, impoverished ego; the only recourse to avoid the painful realisation of their fragility is to continuously inflate the ego as a countermeasure to keep their fragile ego from collapsing.

When the mirror on the wall sends back a view that challenges the evil queen’s inflated sense of her prettiness, she responds with a murderous rage. This is not an uncommon response from a narcissist – any threat to their sense of superiority will be
met with rage.

Mary Trump observed that, “Donald met any challenges to his sense of superiority with anger, his fear and vulnerabilities so effectively buried that he didn’t even have to acknowledge they existed.”

Trump wants no rule changes after chaotic debate, declares himself winner
2 Oct 2020


It sounds like a tragedy that, “there would be no love for Donald at all, just his agonising thirsting for it. The rage, left to grow, would come to overshadow everything else”.

Donald Trump’s rage whenever challenged is as predictable as 1+1=2. The president said so himself on Twitter: “When someone attacks me, I always attack back...except 100x more. This has nothing to do with a tirade but rather, a way of life!”

The psychological reality a narcissist has to contend with is very far from a blessed haven of warm and fuzzy feelings for oneself. It is a psychological warfare that has no place for peace because one has to keep up the attacks on others to protect one’s fragile ego from being exposed and collapsing.



Dr Bertie Wai is a bilingual clinical psychologist at Beautiful Mind Therapy and Family Services in Central. She provides therapy to children, teens, adults and couples, as well as parenting consultation.

Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis sparks worries in Asia – and the headline ‘Life’s a bleach’

Asian governments are worried about a possible leadership vacuum in the White House if the US President falls seriously ill or there is a delay in the election

Newspapers across the region splashed Trump’s diagnosis across their front pages with one West Australian tabloid using the headline ‘Life’s a bleach’


Kok Xinghui and Dewey Sim in Singapore
Published: 3 Oct, 2020


US President Donald Trump disembarks from the Marine One helicopter as he arrives at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday following his diagnosis with coronavirus. Photo: EPA

US President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis on Friday has sparked concern across Asia about the possibility of the US election in November being delayed and a leadership vacuum in the White House if he falls seriously ill.

The US has never delayed an election before and the decision lies with Congress, but analysts say given the partisan divide, it seems unlikely that Republicans and Democrats would be able to come to an agreement on postponing the election date.

In South Korea, the administration of President Moon Jae-in, is probably preparing a Plan B for Seoul-Washington relations in case Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wins the upcoming election, said Choi Kang, vice-president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

Trump’s illness would affect the presidential election and this would might influence the US approach to North Korea, said Choi.


“For the Moon administration, the Trump administration may look better when it comes to dealing with the North,” Choi said. Moon has been pushing for greater inter-Korean engagement but has faced political fallout at home after a recent incident where troops from the North found an unarmed man from the South floating in their waters and killed him.

Joseph Liow, an international affairs analyst and dean of the Nanyang Technological University’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Science in Singapore, said Trump’s illness “makes an already uncertain future even more uncertain”.

Governments have consulted constitutional experts to ask what would happen to the election if Trump cannot recover in time, or if his condition worsens.

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump test positive for Covid-19

Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at management consultancy firm Solaris Strategies Singapore, said a delay in the November 3 poll was something Asian governments would frown upon, and that leaders in the region would want to know if the elections would go on smoothly.

“Asia prefers to know who’s in the White House so they can deal with the person accordingly,” he said.

Besides this, Trump’s diagnosis had no “drastic impact on Asia”, he added.

“Trump has been quite eccentric. So, in a very crude sense, I don’t think Asia would be bothered by what happens to him.”

Hikmahanto Juwana, an international relations professor at the University of Indonesia, said the US president’s ailment was likely to have less of a direct impact on Southeast Asian countries but could be a cause for concern in Singapore, which as a “close ally” of Washington, “needed to have certainty” about the US leadership.

‘We feel sorry for decent Americans’: election debate bewilders Asian viewers
1 Oct 2020


Hoo Chiew Ping, international and strategic relations expert from the National University of Malaysia said while people were still trying to understand the implications of the news, the most immediate questions had to do with governance in the US and the election.

These included whether Trump could still make decisions and run the country, or whether he would blame China even more, or if Vice-President Mike Pence would end up being the Republican candidate if Trump was not able to run.

“If he recovers well (which is most likely the case), would this mean the rhetoric that he’ll launch is likely to sway in his favour, or the reverse could happen?” he asked.

“There’s so much polarising sentiments being expressed online that they cloud our judgment about the likelihood of this outcome. There’s only so much we can tell by observing from afar.”

The West Australian’s cover featured a photograph of Trump along with the headline ‘Life’s a bleach’. Photo: Handout

Mustafa, the analyst based in Singapore, said Asian governments seemed eager to have Biden, the former vice-president during the Obama administration, in the White House, as Trump “has not really been keen on Asia”.

Analysts had earlier cast doubt on Trump’s commitment to the region and his absence last November from the East Asia Summit – a key regional forum attended by the 10
Asean countries and the bloc’s eight key trading partners – had been criticised.

Dylan Loh, assistant professor of public policy and global affairs at Nanyang Technological University, felt that the “best outcome” would be for Trump to make a speedy recovery.

“I think of greater concern would be the uncertainty that may arise if a leadership vacuum appears but that is of course premature given that Trump has stressed repeatedly that it is business as usual with him in charge,” he said.

The front page of The Japan Times. Photo: Handout

While Asian governments can only wait and see what happens, ordinary citizens have been searching for more details on the fallout of Trump’s illness, especially with more White House aides, members of the press pool and senators who attended an event last week, where Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court testing positive.

According to Google Trends, searches for “Trump” peaked across the region on Friday, from Japan to Thailand and Vietnam to Malaysia, soon after the president announced that he and first lady Melania were down with the coronavirus. Hashtags including #TrumpHasCovid dominated Twitter.

The stunning news was also splashed on the front pages of Asian newspapers on Saturday morning.

The Straits Times reported that Trump’s illness has thrown the presidential polls into disarray. Photo: Handout

Singapore’s The Straits Times wrote that the news had thrown the looming US presidential elections “into disarray”, while Indonesia’s The Jakarta Post and The Japan Times carried sober headlines on Trump’s infection.

Taiwan’s edition of tabloid Apple Daily splashed a picture of Trump across the front page, saying the news had shocked the world.

In Australia, the Perth-based tabloid The West Australian’s cover featured a photograph of Trump along with the headline “Life’s a bleach”, with sub-headings pointing out that Trump had tested positive for the virus that he “repeatedly played down” and it was only five months ago that he had “suggested ingesting bleach as a miracle coronavirus cure”.

Additional reporting by John Power and Tashny Sukumaran


Kok Xinghui is a journalist based in Singapore, covering breaking news, politics, economy and health and social issues in the city state for the SCMP. She previously worked for The Straits Times and Today.

Dewey Sim is a reporter for the Asia Desk, covering Singapore politics, economy, diplomacy as well as Sino-Singapore ties. Dewey graduated from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. He began contributing to the Post in 2019, before joining the staff in August, 2019.

Trump ‘brought Covid-19 upon himself’, Japan business lobby chief says

Hiroaki Nakanishi said the US president did not take enough precautionary steps against the coronavirus

Trump has been treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since Friday


Kyodo Published: 5 Oct, 2020

Supporters of Donald Trump rally outside Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, where the US president is being treated for Covid-19. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump, in hospital for treatment of Covid-19, did not take enough precautionary steps against the coronavirus and brought it upon himself, the head of Japan’s biggest business lobby Keidanren said on Monday.

“I believe he must have been careless. In a sense, he had it coming,” Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, said during an online press conference, noting that Trump was not seen wearing a face mask when attending large gatherings.
Last week, 

Trump and first lady Melania tested positive for the virus.

Trump, 74, has been treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since Friday with only a month to go until the US presidential election in early November.

Before he contracted the virus that has claimed the lives of over 1 million people globally, he repeatedly played down its risks and ditched wearing face masks. In the US alone, over 200,000 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

With the spread of coronavirus infections yet to be contained, “We will have to live with the novel coronavirus for a while,” Nakanishi said online from the hospital where he has been receiving treatment for lymphoma.

Engagement with the Vatican must not be squandered by Beijing

Rapprochement with the Holy See will prove that the communist central government can be a trustworthy partner with major religious authorities around the world


SCMP Editorial Published: 4 Oct, 2020


Pope Francis celebrates Mass in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Francis, in Assisi, Italy on Saturday. Photo: Vatican Media via AP

Beijing and the Vatican are ready to renew a deal on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China. Extending the same terms as the agreement they reached two years ago, both sides are wise to reach out to each other at a time of international turmoil and uncertainty.

Pope Francis’ rapprochement will help improve the position and status of all Catholics in China. Beijing, meanwhile, has much to gain with a friendly state with such spiritual authority. The Holy See has shown courage in resisting unprecedented pressure from Washington and was right to have refused a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of the US election.

America’s top diplomat, who is the most senior Washington official to be so openly hostile to China, has tried to convince the Vatican to scrap the deal and instead to attack the country on human rights and treatment of ethnic minorities. It is unheard of for a top US official – or any senior Western official – to be so open in pressuring the pope, and is another sign of Pompeo’s diplomatic overreach.

Given the Vatican’s commitment in the past two years, Beijing must realise by now that Francis is someone they can do business with and trust. There has been justifiable criticism that the Chinese side has been slow in implementing the full terms of the deal, the details of which have never been published.

The Vatican's Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday. Photo: Vatican Media via AFP

Open engagement with this most sensible and courageous of popes is an opportunity that Beijing must not squander. At a time when Beijing is fighting on so many international fronts, rapprochement with the Holy See will not only be a big score but also prove that the communist central government can be a trustworthy partner with major religious authorities around the world. It will also vindicate the pope’s wise commitment to China.

Critics of the Chinese-Vatican deal almost always overlook that fact that Francis is continuing a long-standing policy that predates his office.

The Vatican has long had similar agreements with the governments of Laos and Vietnam to agree on mutually acceptable bishops for selection. It is simply not the case that Beijing is demanding an exception when other governments comply with the Vatican’s choices.

Pompeo gets Italian promise on 5G security but fails on Vatican-China deal
2 Oct 2020


The Second Vatican Council marks a pivotal reform period in the 1960s. A key document is Christus Dominus, which is the Council’s Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops. For the first time, it requests “the civil authorities … voluntarily to renounce the above-mentioned rights and privileges [that is, the selection of bishops] which they presently enjoy by reason of a treaty or custom.”

Not all governments have volunteered. Hence with countries such as Laos, Vietnam and China, the Vatican must pursue and sustain diplomatic engagement, to guarantee the welfare and rights of the faithful in those countries.




SCMP Editorial
Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.

Hong Kong madam raked in HK$31.5 million profit during nine-year run operating prostitution ring out of Mid-Levels flat with help of domestic workers

But Heidi Wong’s two helpers earned just HK$1,000 a month for their part in the scheme, which used fake images to lure customers

Undercover police busted the ring after arranging a series of liaisons in 2018; sexual services were typically offered starting at HK$6,000

Jasmine Siu Published:  5 Oct, 2020

The District Court on Monday heard that Heidi Wong’s sex syndicate pulled in more than HK$30 million during it’s nine-year run. Photo: Nora Tam

A Hong Kong housewife and her domestic helpers operated a sex syndicate for nine years out of a Mid-Levels residence, raking in profits of up to HK$31.5 million (US$4.1 million), the District Court heard on Monday.

Heidi Wong Pui-ting, 68, admitted to enlisting the help of Filipino domestic workers Jo-an Evera Palpal-Latoc, 42, and Jeanette Villaflores Gallego, 47, to operate the syndicate, which saw her pimp women for sex through six websites that advertised using fake images.

The operation came to light in 2018 after four undercover police officers posed as customers and made multiple calls to the mobile phone numbers listed on the sites between April 16 and May 15 of that year, prosecutors said.

Heidi Wong’s flat in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels neighbourhood was secretly running a prostitution business worth millions for nearly a decade. Photo: Google

The officers were then connected to Palpal-Latoc or Gallego, who sent them pictures of women from whom they could choose, offering sexual services at negotiable prices based on a standard rate of HK$6,000 when paid in cash, or HK$7,080 via credit card. The difference was attributed to credit card company charges, which, in fact, added just 3 per cent to each transaction.

Prosecutor Andrew Raffell said the officers then selected partners and checked into different hotels, where the sex workers would then visit and offer their services.

Payment was made directly to the women, with Wong pocketing half the fee and offering a small percentage – about HK$1,000 – to each of her two helpers every month.

Three of the sex workers, two Russian passport holders and a Venezuelan, were arrested during the final operation on May 15 for breaching their conditions of stay.

Sex syndicate smuggled women from mainland China, used Hong Kong hotels as base: police
22 Aug 2020


On that same day, police raided Wong’s flat, located at Tavistock II, Tregunter Path, and arrested her along with the two domestic workers.

Officers also seized 17 ledgers along with various documents, phones, computers, credit card imprinters and blank invoices.

Ten of the ledgers, which recorded the dates of encounters, names of sex workers deployed, hotels and clients, and credit card details, showed net profits of up to HK$31.5 million. The remaining ledgers had fewer entries and registered HK$5.6 million in income.

Investigations showed one of the websites was registered in Hong Kong by Firstmount Investments, a local company with Wong and her number listed as contacts, and her residence as the billing address.

Five mobile phone numbers shown on the website were also registered by Firstmount, with all of their incoming calls automatically forwarded to three landline numbers registered by another local company, Vardenvale, at the same address.

Coronavirus: ‘I don’t want to infect my children,’ says Hong Kong sex worker
18 Apr 2020


Three bank accounts were used to handle the proceeds, which involved thousands of transactions, adding up to more than HK$48 million, which in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, represented proceeds of crime.

Case officers believed some 20 to 30 prostitutes were engaged each year, but the total number remained unclear, as the ledgers were believed to be incomplete and some workers were identified by multiple names.

Under caution, Palpal-Latoc told police she began answering calls, recording details of the transactions and arranging for the women to meet the clients, upon Wong’s instructions, a month after she started working as her domestic helper in April 2009.

Gallego was jailed for 10 months last October after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to live on the earnings of prostitution of others, an offence punishable by 10 years in prison.

On Monday, Wong and Palpal-Latoc pleaded guilty to the same charge, and each admitted to three counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, punishable by a term of 14 years.

Both women had no prior convictions.

Hong Kong sex gang used fake prostitutes to blackmail victims
17 Jul 2020


In mitigation, defence lawyer Charlotte Draycott SC revealed that Wong was once an escort herself, providing sexual services until her age made it difficult for her to continue, at which point she turned to helping friends find clients before starting this operation.

Draycott also claimed Wong, who insisted she was actually in her early 70s, contrary to police records, had not dealt with the business for “many years” because of her mental health, as she was struggling with depression and the onset of dementia.

The counsel argued that this was “a crime with no victim” as Wong had conducted “an honest and decent business” in plain sight, without devising any sophisticated scheme to hide the money, and engaged consulting adults, while pocketing HK$2.5 million a year.

“At no stage has she ever forced anyone to do anything,” Draycott said.

But counsel Mohammed Shah, for Palpal-Latoc, argued that the domestic worker, whose monthly salary was just HK$4,310, was a victim, as she had been told prostitution was legal and it would be alright for her to earn money on the side.

“[Wong] was the mastermind and the boss,” Shah said. “There was a gross breach of trust by [Wong] towards [Palpal-Latoc] by inviting, coaching, and getting [her] involved in the operation.”

District judge Amanda Woodcock will sentence both women on October 12.

Until then, Wong was remanded in custody, while bail was extended for Palpal-Latoc, who had already been remanded for eight months.


This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Housewife and two helpers ran sex ring, court told


Jasmine Siu is a reporter who covers Hong Kong courts and legal affairs at the Post.