Spain chessboard maker's sales soar 

on 'Queen's Gambit' success

Daniel BOSQUE
Wed, 10 March 2021

1/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
Rechapados Ferrer, a small family-run business, is struggling to keep up with demand since its boards appeared in the hit miniseries "The Queen's Gambit"

2/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
Today, 98 percent of their chessboards are exported, some of which are used in tournaments

3/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
Making chessboards is a slow process -- a worker first selects high-quality wood that is trimmed into long thin sheets of light and dark colours



4/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
The company, which has just 14 employees, was founded in the 1950s to supply veneer -- or slender pieces of wood -- for furniture, but a decade later it also expanded into making chessboards


At David Ferrer's factory, workers are busy cutting, trimming and stitching together fine sheets of wood to make chessboards to meet a surge in orders in the wake of the runaway success of the Netflix series, "The Queen's Gambit".

Rechapados Ferrer, a small family-run business, is struggling to keep up with demand since its boards appeared in the award-winning miniseries about an orphaned chess prodigy.

"We have never experienced such a strong boom in demand for chessboards," says David Ferrer, 30, who runs Rechapados Ferrer in La Garriga, the industrial belt that surrounds Barcelona.

The company usually makes around 20,000 chessboards annually, but has already received orders for more than 40,000 so far this year, thanks both to the Netflix series and renewed interest in board games during lockdown.

"And there are still many months left until the end of the year," he told AFP.

Rechapados Ferrer, which has just 14 employees, was founded in the 1950s to supply veneer -- or slender pieces of wood -- for furniture, but a decade later it also expanded into making chessboards.

"If my parents could only see this," smiles Joan Ferrer, David's father and the son of the firm's founder.

Although retired, he often visits the factory and can still remember how his parents made the first chessboards in "a small room, stitching and trimming the strips of wood".

- 'Demand is crazy' -

They initially only worked with a nearby maker of chess pieces, but eventually expanded to sell their products across Spain and then the world.

Today, 98 percent of their chessboards are exported, some of which are used in tournaments, so they were not surprised when they learned their products had been used in "The Queen's Gambit".

Miquel Berbel, who heads the company's chessboard division, spotted one of their sets in the final episode of the show.

In the nail-biting finale, chess prodigy Beth Harmon goes to Moscow to take on Russian world champion Vasily Borgov in a match played on an elegant black-framed board with a decorative red-and-yellow border.

"There are very particular boards that only we make and that board was 100 percent one of ours," said Berbel.

The board was custom-made for the company's first international customer, a board games distributor in Berlin where the series was partially filmed.

When Ferrer heard about it, he was excited, but it wasn't the first time that their boards had featured in films or TV series.

"I was excited... but I didn't expect this sort of response at all," he said.

"Demand is crazy. We're getting a huge amount of emails and we can't answer them all."

- 'Seek perfection' -

Orders began to increase early last year when the pandemic first hit and the lockdowns began, but they really took off after "The Queen's Gambit" premiered in October 2020, prompting the firm to hire three new workers.

"To meet demand, we ought to be doubling or tripling the workforce. And we don't want to go down that route because we don't know how long it's going to last," says Ferrer.

Making chessboards is a slow process. A worker first selects high-quality wood that is trimmed into long thin sheets of light and dark colours.

With the help of a machine, another craftsman sews the sheets tightly together with a sticky thread, checking constantly to make sure there is not the slightest gap between them.

The board is then varnished before being packaged.

"We check the finishings a lot, we try to seek perfection," says Oscar Martinez, a 40-year-old craftsman.

Even if he wanted to, Ferrer says it would be hard to find more workers to help given the shortage of skilled craftsmen, whose training lasts "four or five years".

"We want to grow naturally. It is very skilled work and everything takes time," he says.

"It's real craftsmanship."

dbh/ds/hmw/spm/oho

Eritrea's murky role in Ethiopia conflict
Issued on: 09/03/2021 - 






Nairobi (AFP)

Eritrea, one of the world's most repressive and secretive states, has played a major role in a military operation that Ethiopia launched last year against the dissident leaders of its northern Tigray region.

Soldiers from Eritrea, which borders Tigray, have been accused by residents and rights groups of massacres in several locations that figure among the worst atrocities recorded in the conflict.

Eritrea is a bitter enemy of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) -- the party which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before falling by the wayside with the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister in 2018.

- Animosity -

However the current leaders of Eritrea and the TPLF were not always foes.

In 1991 they were allies when a coalition of Ethiopian fighters led by the TPLF ousted dictator Mengistu Hailemariam with the key support of separatist rebels from Eritrea -- then still a part of Ethiopia.

Eritrea gained its independence in 1993, rendering Ethiopia landlocked as it lost access to its crucial Red Sea ports.

Relations between the two rapidly deteriorated over territorial and economic disputes.

In May 1998, Asmara and Addis Ababa went to war over the disputed town of Badme, a conflict that would be marked by trench warfare and large-scale pitched battles.

A peace deal signed in December 2000 put an end to the war which left 80,000 dead and instilled deep distrust and enmity between the leaders of the two countries as the issue of Badme remained unresolved.

- Peace -

Abiy's appointment in 2018 led to a spectacular and unexpected about-turn in relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara.

He had risen through the ranks of the EPRDF governing coalition, in place since 1991, to become the first premier from the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos.

His appointment came after Oromos and Amharas, the second largest ethnic group, led several years of anti-government protests over their perceived marginalisation, which pushed former premier Hailemariam Desalegn to resign.

Abiy, who embarked on a series of democratic and economic reforms, announced in June 2018 that he wanted to end the border dispute with Eritrea.

Within weeks he and Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki signed a declaration putting an end to the war.

The rapprochement, which won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, placed the powerful TPLF in a difficult position with their enemy to the north now allied with Addis Ababa, with whom tensions had been brewing.

Abiy had begun to sideline the Tigrayan elites whom he saw as a main obstacle to his reforms, and they retreated to their stronghold in Tigray.

The TPLF refused to join Abiy's new ruling Prosperity Party after he dissolved the EPRDF coalition, and held its own elections in defiance of a national postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

- Eritrea steps into Tigray -

After Abiy launched his military operation to oust the TPLF, widespread reports emerged that Eritrean troops were in the region.

Even the new local authorities appointed by Abiy have admitted they are there and demanded they leave the country.

However Addis Ababa and Asmara continue to deny their presence.

Amnesty International said Eritrean troops had killed hundreds in the town of Axum, while AFP spoke to residents of the village of Dengolat, where the church counted 164 dead.

Roland Marchal, an expert from the Centre for International Research in Paris, said Eritreans were taking advantage by "occupying territory they see as theirs and by forcefully repatriating Eritrean refugees who they have always seen as a potential threat."

Before the conflict, Tigray was home to almost 100,000 Eritrean refugees who had fled the authoritarian country and its system of forced military service.

The Hitsats and Shimelba camps have been reported by the UN and other sources to have been destroyed in the fighting.

Marchal said Eritrea was not just settling scores.

"When you look at what they are doing in Eritrea there is a sense of collective punishment," he said.

"They are busy settling a series of what they see as historic defiances by massacring the civilian population."

© 2021 AFP

ROFLMAO

Russia restricts Twitter for failing to remove banned content
Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Russia's communications regulator warned that if Twitter continued to "ignore the requirements of the law", it would be blocked. 

Olivier Douliery, AFP/Archives

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Russia’s state communications watchdog said on Wednesday it was restricting the use of Twitter by slowing down its speed, accusing the social media platform of repeatedly failing to remove banned content from its site

Roskomnadzor threatened to block the service completely and said there were more than 3,000 posts containing illegal content on it as of Wednesday.

Twitter, like other U.S. social media, is used widely inside Russia by allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny whose jailing last month prompted nationwide protests.

“The slowing down will be applied on a 100% of mobile devices and on 50% of non-mobile devices,” the regulator said in a statement on its website.

“If (Twitter) continues to ignore the requirements of the law, the enforcement measures will be continued in line with the response regulations (all the way to blocking),” it said.

Twitter did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Wednesday’s move comes amid mounting efforts by Moscow to exert greater influence over U.S. social media platforms and frustrations over what authorities say is their failure to follow Russian laws.

Last December, parliament’s lower house backed big new fines on platforms that fail to delete banned content and another bill that would allow them to be restricted if they “discriminate” against Russian media.

(REUTERS)

Myanmar security forces surround striking rail workers opposed to military coup

Issued on: 10/03/2021 

Anti-coup protesters retreat from the frontlines after discharging fire extinguishers towards a line of riot police officers in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 10, 2021. © Stringer, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Myanmar security forces surrounded the staff compound of striking railway workers opposed to the military junta on Wednesday as ousted lawmakers appointed an acting vice president to take over the duties of detained politicians.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on a statement that would have condemned the coup in Myanmar, called for restraint by the military and threatened to consider “further measures.”

Talks on the statement would likely continue, diplomats said, after China, Russia, India and Vietnam all suggested amendments late on Tuesday to a British draft, including removal of the reference to a coup and the threat to consider further action.

The railway staff in Yangon are part of a civil disobedience movement that has crippled government business and included strikes at banks, factories and shops since the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a coup on Feb. 1.

Security forces have cracked down with increasing force on daily, nationwide protests, leaving the Southeast Asian nation in turmoil.

More than 60 protesters have been killed and 1,900 people have been arrested since the coup, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group, has said.

Footage posted on social media showed security forces near the railway staff compound. One person involved in the strike said by telephone they feared an imminent crackdown.

“I think they are going to arrest us. Please help us,” said the person, who asked to be identified only as Ma Su rather than their full name.

In a Facebook live broadcast from the area people chanted:

“Are we staff united? Yes, we are united” and a commentator claimed police were trying to remove barricades and threatening to shoot.

Details could not be independently verified. Police and army officials did not respond to requests for comment.

In Myanmar’s second city, Mandalay, protesters staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday, chanting: “The resolution must prevail”.

On Tuesday, Zaw Myat Linn, an official from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), died in custody after he was arrested, the second party figure to die in detention in two days.

“He’s been participating continuously in the protests,” said Ba Myo Thein, a member of the dissolved upper house of parliament. The cause of death was not clear. In a Facebook live broadcast before he was detained, Zaw Myat Linn urged people to continue fighting the army, “even if it costs our lives”.

Crackdown on media

In a symbolic gesture, an announcement posted on the NLD’s Facebook page on Tuesday said ousted lawmakers had appointed Mahn Win Khaing Than, who was the upper house speaker, as acting vice president to perform the duties of arrested President Win Myint and leader Suu Kyi. Mahn Win Khaing Than’s whereabouts were not known.

Police on Tuesday also cracked down on independent media, raiding the offices of two news outlets and detaining two journalists.

At least 35 journalists have been arrested since the Feb. 1 coup, Myanmar Now reported, of which 19 have been released.

Some police have refused orders to fire on unarmed protesters and have fled to neighbouring India, according to an interview with one officer and classified Indian police documents.

“As the Civil disobedience movement is gaining momentum and protest(s) held by anti-coup protesters at different places we are instructed to shoot at the protesters,” four officers said in a joint statement to police in the Indian city of Mizoram.

“In such a scenario, we don’t have the guts to shoot at our own people who are peaceful demonstrators,” they said.

The United States is “repulsed” by the Myanmar army’s continued use of lethal force against its people and is continuing to urge the military to exercise “maximum restraint,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday.

The army has justified the coup by saying that a November election won by the NLD was marred by fraud - a claim rejected by the electoral commission. It has promised a new election, but has not said when that might be held.

               BOYCOTT DICKENS & MADISON CANADA

The junta has hired an Israeli-Canadian lobbyist for $2 million to “assist in explaining the real situation” of the army’s coup to the United States and other countries, documents filed with the U.S. Justice Department show.

Ari Ben-Menashe and his firm, Dickens & Madson Canada, will represent Myanmar’s military government in Washington, as well as lobby Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Russia, and international bodies like the United Nations, according to a consultancy agreement.

International powers have condemned the takeover, which derailed a slow transition to democracy in a country that has been ruled by the military for long periods since independence from Britain in 1947.

The military has brushed off condemnation of its actions, as it has in past periods of army rule when outbreaks of protest were forcibly repressed.

(REUTERS)

‘Longyi Revolution’: Why Myanmar protesters are using women’s clothes as protection

Protesters in Myanmar have taken to stringing up traditional women's skirts, called longyis, on clothes lines across streets as a way to protect themselves from security forces. According to old Myanmar traditions, walking beneath clothes that cover women’s private parts is considered bad luck.

BYE BYE BOLSONARO

‘Brazil has no government’: Lula tears into Bolsonaro in comeback speech

"Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated," Lula said.

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Text by: FRANCE 24

Brazil's former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came out swinging against President Jair Bolsonaro's "imbecile" handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday as he made his return to the political stage, two days after a judge reinstated his right to run for office.

Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, has emerged as a leading contender to face the far-right incumbent next year after a Supreme Court justice annulled his convictions on Monday and reinstated his political rights.

In his first comments since the ruling, Lula, 75, gave a scathing take-down of Bolsonaro's management of the economy and signature policies.

He was especially biting on Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 266,000 people in Brazil – the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States.

"This country has no government," Lula told a news conference. "This country doesn’t take care of the economy, of job creation, wages, health care, the environment, education, young people."

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the new coronavirus, flouted expert advice on containing it and fuelled vaccine scepticism.

"Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated," Lula said.

The former president "managed to sound both serene and angry, both radical and conciliatory," said FRANCE 24's correspondent Tim Vickery. "This is an experienced politician showing that he is still at the top of his game."

Lula, a former metal worker and union leader, led Brazil through an economic boom and is remembered for social programmes that helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty.

Recent opinion polls suggest he is the best-placed politician to unseat Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections.

>> Lula's return opens door to Bolsonaro showdown in polarised Brazil

But he remains a highly controversial figure after being sentenced to a total of 26 years in jail on corruption charges stemming from a sweeping investigation into a scheme in which top politicians and business executives systematically siphoned billions of dollars from state oil company Petrobras.

He spent more than 18 months in prison, before being released in 2019 pending appeal.

Campaign launch in all but name

Lula called himself the victim of "the biggest judicial lie in 500 years," repeating his claim that the graft charges against him were fabricated to sideline him from the 2018 presidential race, paving the way for Bolsonaro's victory.

He said he planned to "fight tirelessly" for Brazil and that he wanted to resume touring the country once he is vaccinated against Covid-19 next week.

But he declined to say whether he would run in the elections, saying, "My head doesn't have time to think about a 2022 candidacy now."

Still, "his speech was a campaign launch" in all but name, according to political analyst Creomar da Souza, of the consulting firm Dharma.

"He presented his project for the country, which involves a lot of references to his legacy as president," da Souza told AFP.

Lula is still seen as a hero on the left, which argues he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Supporters point to the fact that the lead judge in the anti-corruption probe that ensnared him, Sergio Moro, went on to accept the post of justice minister under Bolsonaro, and that hacked phone messages suggest Moro conspired with prosecutors to ensure Lula was sidelined.

Lula still faces a series of corruption and influence-peddling charges, including the ones he was jailed for, which will now be transferred to a federal court in Brasilia.

But it may already be too late for other courts to rule him out of the 2022 race, said FRANCE 24's Vickery: "In order for him to lose his political rights again he would have to be convicted and then lose again on appeal, and there may not be time for that to happen before the next presidential campaign in October of next year."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

US Congress passes $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in key win for Biden

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 20:16

Text by :FRANCE 24

The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in US history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first major legislative victory in office.

Approval in the Democratic-controlled chamber came without any Republican support after weeks of partisan debate and wrangling in Congress.

The measure provides $400 billion for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit and increased funding for vaccine distribution.

Hailing its passage, Biden said the stimulus bill would give American workers a "fighting chance".

"This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance," Biden said in a statement.

The US president plans to sign the bill on Friday, the White House said.

Democrats have described the legislation as a critical response to a pandemic that has killed more than 528,000 people and thrown millions out of work.

"This is a historic day. It is the beginning of the end of the great Covid depression," Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky said.

Republicans said the measure was too costly and was packed with wasteful progressive priorities. They said the worst phase of the largest public health crisis in a century has largely passed and the economy is headed toward a rebound.

"It's the wrong plan at the wrong time for so many wrong reasons," Republican Representative Jason Smith said.

Democrats were eager to get the final bill to Biden's desk for his signature before current federal unemployment benefits expire on March 14.

The House, which passed an earlier version of the legislation, needed to meet again to approve changes made in the Senate over the weekend.

"There's been a lot of talk about this package being too large and too expensive, but if there was ever a time to go big, this should be it," said Democratic Representative Richard Neal.

The House rejected an effort by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to delay proceedings by asking for an adjournment – something she has attempted four times since taking office in January.

The House voted 235-149 to plough ahead, with 40 Republicans joining Democrats in rejecting Greene's effort.

Package popular with voters

Although many Republicans supported coronavirus relief under former president Donald Trump's administration, no Republican lawmaker voted for the bill in the House or Senate, although polls have shown it is popular with voters, even Republicans.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll, conducted March 8-9, 70 percent of Americans support the plan, including a majority of Democrats and Republicans. Among Republicans, five out of 10 say they support the plan, while nine out of 10 Democrats supported it.

The legislation could have high stakes for both parties. If it succeeds in giving the economy a major boost, it also could improve Democrats' political fortunes as they attempt to hold onto their slim majorities in Congress going into the 2022 mid-term elections.

Democrats hold a narrow 221-211 majority in the House and, without Republican support, could afford to lose the votes of only a few of their members. Some Democratic lawmakers in the House had criticised the changes in the bill made by the Senate.

The Senate had removed a $15 per hour federal minimum wage increase by 2025; tightened the eligibility for $1,400 direct payments, capping them at those earning below $80,000, cut the unemployment insurance payment to $300 per week from the House's $400, and targeted some of the state and local government aid to smaller communities.

The massive spending push is seen as a major driver, coupled with a quickening pace of Covid-19 inoculations and a slowing infection rate, in a rapidly brightening outlook for the nation's economy.

Private- and public-sector economists have been marking up their growth estimates, with Morgan Stanley this week pegging 2021 economic output growth at 8.1 percent. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday predicted US growth would top 6 percent this year, up from an estimate of around 3 percent just three months ago.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Honduran president denies drug trafficking accusations

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez during an interview with AFP in January, 2021 Orlando SIERRA AFP/Fil






Tegucigalpa (AFP)

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Wednesday denied allegations made by a US prosecutor that he helped smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States.

New York prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said in federal court on Tuesday that Hernandez was paid a $25,000 bribe by Geovanny Fuentes, who is on trial.

"How can anyone believe false testimonies that I was dealing with drug traffickers," Hernandez wrote on Twitter, reiterating his accusation that his accusers are using a "magic key" to try not to die in a foreign jail.

Gutwillig claimed that accountant Jose Sanchez was present at meetings in 2013 and 2014 where Honduran Fuentes paid the money to Hernandez.

Sanchez was due to tell the New York jury about "the shock, the fear he felt when he saw the defendant sitting with the president," said Gutwillig.

The witness worked at a rice-growing company through which Fuentes laundered money, the prosecutor alleged.

Sanchez will testify that Hernandez told Fuentes "they'd transport so much cocaine into the US they'd shove the drugs up the noses of the gringos," said Gutwillig.

Hernandez, a lawyer who came to power in January 2014 and is in his second term, has styled himself as a champion in the fight against drugs.

US prosecutors consider him a co-conspirator alongside Fuentes but have not charged him.

The president's brother, Tony Hernandez, was convicted of large-scale drug trafficking at a New York trial in 2019.

The sentencing in that case has been delayed several times and is now scheduled for March 23. The brother could be sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors say he was the middle man between accused trafficker Fuentes and the president.

President Hernandez was linked to drug trafficking at his brother's trial by Leonel Rivera, the leader of a Honduran drug trafficking gang called "Los Cachiros."

"The false testimonies of drug traffickers are obvious lies. The drug traffickers gave their 'sworn statement' that for $25,000 the drug traffickers bought total impunity," wrote Hernandez.

"But 10 days before my election (in 2013) Los Cachiros decided to abandon their billion dollar empire to negotiate their surrender to the US."

In the trial of Tony Hernandez, Rivera said the president received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers to protect the cocaine shipments to the United States.

"How can anyone believe false statements that I dealt with drug traffickers when it's a proven fact that Los Cachiros tried to make a deal with the US," said the president.

Mexican lawmakers to vote on legalizing marijuana



Issued on: 10/03/2021 -

A man smokes a joint in Mexico City, where lawmakers are preparing to vote on the legalization of recreational marijuana use Pedro PARDO AFP

Mexico City (AFP)

Mexican lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on whether to legalize recreational marijuana use -- a move that could transform the land of the drug cartels into a huge regulated market.

The sweeping reform is partly aimed at curbing drug-related violence that claims thousands of lives each year in the Latin American nation.

The step would make Mexico, home to 126 million people, one of just a few countries, including Uruguay and Canada, to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

"In theory, it will create the largest legal market in the world due to Mexico's production capacity," said Lisa Sanchez, director of Mexico United Against Crime, a non-governmental organization.

In Mexico, "marijuana grows in natural conditions without the energy investments that are made in Canada, for example," she said.

The lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, began debating the bill Wednesday ahead of a planned vote, following its approval by the Senate in November.

It could still be sent back to the Senate for a new vote following changes by the lower house.

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and conservative National Action Party (PAN) vowed to vote against the bill.

But it is expected to be approved because President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Morena party dominates both chambers.

- 'Achieving peace' -

"The law would contribute to achieving peace," Morena lawmaker Ruben Cayetano said.

PRI legislator Mariana Rodriguez, however, voiced concern that legalization would increase "the rate of consumption and addiction."

A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2015 opened the door to the recreational use of marijuana in Mexico.

But it is still illegal to carry more than five grams (0.18 ounces), which would increase to 28 grams under the proposed law.

Up to eight plants would be allowed to be grown at home for personal consumption.

Pro-legalization activist Genlizzie Garibay said that although Mexico is "entering the discussion late," the law is "a step forward" for society, producers and consumers.

But she described it as an "elitist law... written from fear, stigma and positions of power."

Activists are concerned that cannabis would remain on the list of prohibited substances under the health law, and would not be decriminalized for possession of more than 28 grams.

- Fines and arrests -

"The production and sale will be legal, but possession will still be subject to the threat of police action, fines and possible arrests," said Sanchez.

"It does not solve one of the main problems in Mexico: the misuse of security and justice resources," she added.

The reform may also end up preventing farmers from marginalized and poor areas from entering the legal business, activists say.

They warn that labeling, production and seed requirements are standard for established companies, but not for traditional producers.

Legalization also risks a backlash from drug cartels who control the lucrative illegal trade.

In 2020, Mexican authorities seized 244 tons of marijuana.

Lopez Obrador sees the legalization of some drugs as a way to improve security in a country plagued by drug-related violence.

More than 300,000 people have been murdered since the government deployed the army to fight the cartels in 2006.

© 2021 AFP

Saudi court upholds prison sentence for women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul

Issued on: 11/03/2021 -

Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul is seen on her way to court in the Saudi capital Riyadh on March 2, 2021. 'Today was the first day Loujain appeared in court without being handcuffed or blindfolded,' her family said in a statement © Fayez Nureldine, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

A Saudi court on Tuesday upheld the original sentence of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who had championed women’s right to drive and for an end to Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system

Hathloul was sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison under broad cybercrime and counterterrorism laws after a lengthy trial that drew widespread international condemnation, but she was released last month having served half of her custodial sentence.

Walking to the courthouse on Wednesday morning before the appeals hearing, Hathloul, 31, told reporters she hoped Riyadh’s Special Criminal Court would amend her sentence – her first public comments since her 2018 arrest. The court, however, ruled that it would stand.

Hathloul was detained in May 2018 and sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison on charges that United Nations rights experts called spurious.

The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence, most of which had already been served. Hathloul, whose release is conditional, remains under a five-year travel ban

Hathloul rose to prominence in 2013 when she began publicly campaigning for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy.

Saudi law had previously banned women from driving but it was changed in June 2018, allowing them to do so.

She was arrested for the first time in 2014 while attempting to drive across the border from the United Arab Emirates – where she had a valid driver’s licence – to Saudi Arabia.

She spent 73 days in a women’s detention facility, an experience she later said helped shape her campaigning against the conservative kingdom’s male guardianship system.

In recent years, the kingdom has chipped away at the heavily criticised guardianship system, which assigned each woman a male relative – a father, brother, husband or son – whose approval is needed for various big decisions throughout a woman’s life.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which has taken a tough stance over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, has urged Riyadh to release political prisoners including women’s rights activists.

Washington said earlier this month it was encouraged to see some activists – including Hathloul – had been released. But it urged Saudi Arabia to lift travel bans, commute sentences, and resolve cases including those of the women’s rights activists.

Saudi authorities released two activists with U.S. citizenship on bail in February pending trials on terrorism-related charges.

In January, a Saudi appeals court nearly halved a six-year prison sentence for a U.S.-Saudi physician and suspended the rest, meaning he did not have to return to jail.

(REUTERS)