Saudi Crown Prince may join leaders of China and Russia in missing crucial climate summit in Glasgow

THE POPE IS GOING TO MISS IT TOO

Harry Yorke
Sun, October 17, 2021

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pictured earlier this year, may not appear at Cop26

Mohammed bin Salman could join Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in failing to appear at Cop26 next month, in a potential blow to Boris Johnson’s goals for the crucial climate summit.

The Saudi Crown Prince is among several world leaders who are understood not to have confirmed their attendance in Glasgow, despite the Prime Minister calling on the country to put forward “ambitious” targets during a call last week.

It comes just days after it was reported that President Xi of China is not expected to attend the conference and the Queen was overheard expressing her concern that it was unclear as to who would be present.

Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to the UK on Sunday stated that no decision had been taken on whether Mr Putin would attend.

Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin appears as a guest on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday - BBC

Whitehall sources have also acknowledged that there is a significant “question mark” over the Russian president.

It means that the leaders of three of the world’s most influential countries in regards to tackling climate change are still unaccounted for, despite intensive diplomatic efforts by the UK Government to make Cop26 a defining moment on the international stage.

Senior Government sources told The Telegraph they are still hopeful that the crown prince will attend the summit, but insisted that his presence or that of other notable world leaders was not essential to whether it succeeded.

They also pointed out that more than 100 world leaders had confirmed they would attend in-person talks, among them US President Joe Biden and the Australian premier, Scott Morrison.

One added that Saudi Arabia remained “very engaged” on climate talks, while another said that Beijing had committed to sending a high-level delegation and had been clear it wanted Cop26 to be a success.

However, despite all nations being asked to come forward with new targets, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), to cut emissions, China and Saudi Arabia have yet to make new commitments ahead of the summit.

Volunteer Bob Alston models the official uniform that will be worn by around 1,000 volunteers at Cop26 - PA

Both countries, which are among the world’s biggest polluters, declined to submit updated pledges in time for the United Nations’ deadline.

Some in Whitehall now fear that Beijing could delay bringing forward new targets until next year when the next UN climate summit is due to take place in Africa.

While this has been challenged by others in Government, it is thought that China would have more of a geopolitical interest in doing so as it has invested hundreds of billions of pounds in the continent through its Belt and Road Initiative.

It comes after Andrei Kelin, Russia’s top diplomat in Britain, on Sunday confirmed that Mr Putin had not made a final decision on whether to attend.
Russia is taking climate change 'very seriously'

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, he added: "But we will send a large delegation and believe me it will be a delegation that will consist of more than 200 people. The government will be represented at a very high level."

He defended Russia's efforts to decarbonise, saying: "We take the issue very seriously".

"The day before yesterday the president announced that we now have set a goal of reaching hydrocarbon neutrality by 2060.

"We are not very much in a hurry, we do not want to jump. We do not believe that putting artificial goals and not very much calculated goals will help in this situation," Mr Kelin added.

Challenged on 2060 being a later date than other countries are aiming for, he said: "It is not very much later date because the idea is to set up the goal of 2050."

America isn't running out of everything just because of a supply-chain crisis. America is running out of everything because Americans are buying so much stuff.


Emma Cosgrove
Mon, October 18, 2021

Container ships at the congested Port of Los Angeles in September. Mike Blake/Reuters

Disruptions in global supply chains have generated the phrase "everything shortage."

But US imports are at record levels at some ports, and Americans are breaking shopping records, too.

Supply-chain professionals plan to alleviate the backlog container by container.

Americans are buying everything they can get their hands on, and they'd be buying even more if it weren't for those pesky supply-chain snarls, the National Retail Federation said.

"Spending might have been higher if not for shortages of items consumers are eager to purchase," Jack Kleinhenz, the NRF's chief economist, said in a statement issued on Friday.

Those shortages seem so ubiquitous that the term "everything shortage" is now being used liberally to describe consumers' frustration as they try to get goods of all sorts: paper towels, milk, toys, and more.

Yet claims that the country is running short on everything miss a key point. America has, in fact, imported an immense amount of stuff in the past eight months. And that's part of the reason we're in the midst of an epic supply-chain congestion.

We imported more stuff ... then we bought it

To understand the situation, consider the country's inventory to sales ratio. This metric, tracked by the US Census Bureau, compares how much stuff sellers have on hand to how much stuff consumers are buying. The ratio is at a 10-year low, which indicates that we're low on stuff.

But the Port of Los Angeles reported a 30% uptick in incoming cargo in the first nine months of this year. (Important note, most of nonfood goods sold in the US come from abroad.) The Port of Charleston, South Carolina, has been breaking all-time records since March. Prologis, a major industrial real-estate player, is "effectively sold out" of warehouse space.

All of that means that the inventory to sales ratio isn't low because the US is short on stuff. It's low because sales have gone completely nuts.

In the first nine months of 2021, retail sales were up 14.5% over the same period in 2020 - a year in which retail sales jumped 8% over 2019. The NRF expected to end the year with sales up 10.5% to 13.5%. Lots of imports and even more spending have driven the inventory to sales ratio down because businesses imported a lot of stuff, and then Americans bought it.

"Today's retail sales data confirms the power of the consumer to spend, and we expect this to continue," Matthew Shay, NRF's CEO, said in a statement.
What do we do now

This isn't to say true shortages don't exist. The semiconductor supply could lag behind demand for years. Furniture makers are short on foam.

But most products that shoppers want to buy this holiday season don't face a true shortage of one of their fundamental components. They instead have transportation problems somewhere along the long path from Asia to the US.

Warehouses are full, ports are jammed, transportation prices are at record highs. The Biden administration felt compelled to work out extra hours of operation at America's busiest port (which supply-chain experts expected to have limited effect).

There are two solutions here. The first is what supply-chain professionals are doing now: chipping away at the backlog container by container. The other possible fix is mostly mentioned in jest by supply-chain professionals.

If supply chains were a bathtub with a clogged drain, turning off the spigot would help avoid an overflow, right?

If demand for stuff slowed down, or production at the source did, the tub would take hours or days to fill rather than minutes. Supply-chain professionals joke that power cuts to Chinese factories could help the situation because at this point that's the only plausible decrease in the water pressure coming anytime soon. It's in part a jest because that's one of the few things that could realistically, if temporarily, slow down the American consumer at this moment.

Opinion: The U.S. is playing a game of COVID denial and the financial cost to Americans is dangerously high

The pandemic must be paid for — by reduced business earnings, lower household incomes, or both

NAH, JUST TAX THE RICH

MARKETWATCH PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/ISTOCKPHOTO

Last Updated: Oct. 18, 2021 
By Satyajit Das

Investors are convinced that the COVID pandemic is temporary and a return to normality is inevitable. What gets us into trouble, as Mark Twain knew, is “What we know for sure that just ain’t so!”

As is increasingly evident, the costs of COVID and the U.S. response have profound implications for the upbeat outlook supporting elevated financial asset prices.

The pandemic hit a weakened U.S. economy that has never fully recovered from 2008. Only massive government intervention prevented collapse. But government support has increased public debt significantly. This will rise further due to continuing U.S. budget deficits, likely to average 4.2% of GDP through 2031, well above the 50-year average of 3.3%. Federal debt held by the public is projected to climb to 107% of GDP (surpassing its historical high) in 2031.

This debt will have to be paid for either by higher taxes, cuts in spending, Federal Reserve funded government borrowing or a mixture of these, which will affect growth and prices.

The U.S. government response has consequences. Increased housing prices, due to expansionary monetary policies, will flow through into higher rents and inflation. Improved benefits, which is inching towards some form of permanent universal basic income, may alter labor markets.

Cost structures within the U.S. economy have increased. Surviving businesses have crisis liabilities. Deferral of rents and debt payments or assistance structured as new loans have increased indebtedness, which will need to be met. Many firms, especially in the travel industry, granted credits rather than refunding prepayments. When these are utilized, the costs of providing the service will be not be offset by new revenue. Firms will need to recover these pandemic losses.

All businesses face changed operating conditions. Restarting requires spending; for example, airlines face costs of recommissioning airplanes and recertifying furloughed staff. There are costs associated with meeting COVID public health orders, as well as occupational health and safety regulations. These will result in either higher prices or lower earnings.

Demand in some sectors may decline. Travel, especially international, will require pre-flight testing, vaccination certificates, expensive insurance, possible quarantine costs and changing entry and exit restrictions. Lower volumes and occupancy or venue limits will reduce economies of scale, which will pressure prices.

Mobility restrictions, which are likely to remain for some time, will create labor and skill shortages. This will affect wages and also the ability for businesses to operate normally.

Higher shipping costs and delays also may continue. The loss of belly freight capacity due to fewer scheduled passenger flights will only correct slowly. Shipping will continue to be affected by shortages and difficulty in sourcing crews, who are mainly from poor emerging nations with low vaccination rates and affected by mobility restrictions.

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Further, inflexible global supply chains are likely to remain stretched. They are expensive and take time to redesign. The alternative — maintaining larger buffer stocks — is also costly.

Slow rates of vaccination in emerging countries mean that COVID outbreaks, like that in China’s Ningbo port, will quickly paralyze production and flow of goods. This also assumes no major resurgences of COVID or new variants, which could create new interruptions.

Aside from the pandemic, pre-existing conditions continue to affect recovery. The Sino-American economic war, with its trade restrictions and sanctions, is not going away. Climate change and extreme weather are adding to insurance and other costs. Disruption of production and transport links will become more regular. Perhaps 20% or more of global GDP could be lost by 2100 due to climate change, including infrastructure damage, lost property values, lower agricultural and labor productivity, and losses in biodiversity and human health.

Already, resource shortages are accelerating. Water and food shortages manifest in higher prices. Higher energy prices reflect underinvestment and mismanagement of the transition to lower emissions. None of these factors will be corrected soon and will continue to weigh on growth and inflation.

The neglected reality is that the pandemic and other crises must be paid for — by reduced business earnings, lower household incomes, or both. This can be explicit through both higher taxes and austerity. Alternatively, it will be implicit in the form of lower growth and inflation — reducing consumers’ purchasing power.

The current overvaluation of assets assumes confidence in policymakers. But options for dealing with many of these issues are limited. For starters, you can’t print commodities, truck drivers and semiconductors like you can print money. Central bankers’ control looks increasingly fragile. At some point, loss of credibility will be the tipping point.

Economist Rudiger Dornbusch observed: “Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.” Investors’ FOMO — the fear of missing out — might turn into FOGO — the fear of getting out.

Satyajit Das is a former banker. He is the author of “A Banquet of Consequences – Reloaded: How we got into this mess we’re in and why we need to act now.” (Penguin Random House Australia, 2021).

Conflict pollution wrecking Syria coast: report

A satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on August 31, 2021 shows the Baniyas power plant on Syria's Mediterranean coast -

 Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP/File

Issued on: 19/10/2021

Beirut (AFP)

Leaks from moored tankers, underwater pipelines and wastewater systems are turning the Syrian coast into a major environmental hotspot, said a report released on Tuesday.

The study by Dutch peace-building organisation PAX analysed public and commercial satellite imagery to assess the damage caused to the waters off the port of Baniyas.

The report listed "direct attacks on and degradation of energy infrastructure, lack of maintenance, and failing environmental governance" as the main sources of pollution from conflict zones.

Pollution along much of the Mediterranean was already bad but had been made worse off Syria by a decade of conflict.

The leaks and wastewater discharges caused by conflict are damaging the future of a country where the war has already killed half a million people and displaced around half of the population.

"Syria's coastal areas are an important source of livelihoods for fisheries and tourism while also hosting many unique yet fragile marine ecosystems," the report said.

Baniyas is home to Syria's Company for Oil Transport, which operates a large fleet of oil storage tankers. Its refinery is connected to underwater oil pipelines linked to visiting oil tankers.

It is also home to a large thermal power plant which generates electricity using heavy fuel oil and is located on the shore.

The remote sensing carried out by PAX picked up an increase in spills between 2019 and 2021, culminating with a large spill in August this year that reached waters off Cyprus and Turkey.

The beaches, barrier reefs and dunes of Latakia, further north on the Syrian coast, were significantly affected as a result of the spillage that emanated from a thermal plant storage tanker.

Wim Zwijnenburg, co-author of the report, warned the risk of a repeat scenario, or worse, was high.

"These concerns remain after the August 23 oil spill, as no resources are allocated to repair and restore outdated and crumbling energy and water infrastructure," he told AFP.

"The Syrian regime refrains from enforcing environmental regulations, while threats from sabotage against Iranian oil tankers delivering oil remain," Zwijnenburg added.

© 2021 AFP

A New York power plant that mines bitcoin faces big test in governor's office

Isabelle Lee
Mon, October 18, 2021,

Cryptocurrency mining machines. FEDERICO PARRA / Getty Images


Greenidge Generation has drawn the ire of several environmental organizations for its massive energy consumption.


The groups called on NY Gov. Kathy Hochul to block its permit to operate.


The signatories highlighted how this will jeopardize the state's progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.


Greenidge Generation's power plant in New York that's mining bitcoin has drawn the ire of several environmental businesses and organizations, all of whom recently urged Governor Kathy Hochul to block its permit to operate.

"New York must halt this move to turn old fossil-fuel-powered plants into crypto mining centers until a full environmental assessment is conducted on the impact that these operations will have on greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the state's air and water quality," according to a letter dated October 13 addressed to the governor with more than a hundred signatories.

The letter cited how a crypto mining expansion in the state could "drastically undermine New York's climate goals established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act." The Associated Press was first to report.


New York State Commissioner Basil Seggos also took to Twitter to call out Greenidge saying it "not shown compliance with New York's climate law."

Bitcoin mining - the process whereby computers solve complex puzzles to verify transactions and are rewarded with new coins - has long been criticized for its intensive energy consumption.

The signatories raised issues with resurrecting defunct fossil fuel power plants, highlighting how this will jeopardize the state's progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As such, they are demanding the governor deny the renewal of the plant's air quality permit. Included in the letter is also a request to deny the permit of the Fortistar North Tonawanda Facility, a natural gas-burning power plant.

Greenidge maintained it is compliant with all laws. New York has yet to make a determination on its permits.
How Greenidge started bitcoin mining

Greenidge Generation began in 1937 as a coal-fired power plant, according to its website. A corporation purchased the plant in 1999 and continued to operate it until 2011.

Then in 2014, a group of private investment funds acquired Greenidge and converted it to cleaner-burning natural gas, allowing it to provide electricity to power up to 20,000 homes and businesses in 2020 alone, the website added.

In 2020, it started commercially mining bitcoin. Today, the company claims to be the "first and only carbon neutral, vertically integrated power generator and bitcoin miner of scale" in the US.

Greenidge in the third quarter of 2020 said in a statement it mined 729 bitcoins and had approximately 15,300 miners in operation.

While there are many opponents of the facility, it does have some advocates. This includes Chairman of the Yates County Legislature Douglas Paddock who, in a public hearing testimony last week, said the plant has brought 45 high-paying jobs to the area and has made a "significant contribution" through tax payments and capital investments, the AP reported.

Around the US, crypto mining plants have and will continue to rise, especially following China's wide-ranging digital asset ban. The US, in fact, has already unseated the Asian nation as the world's biggest bitcoin miner, according to data from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance as miners migrate out of China.

Beirut port explosion probe: Lebanese PM facing 'Shakespearean dilemma'


Issued on: 19/10/2021 - 


A Shiite rally against port blast judge Tarek Bitar escalated into deadly clashes, turning parts of Beirut into a war zone and sparking memories of the 1975-1990 civil war. And so now the Lebanese people will have to choose, explains Joseph Bahout, IFI Director and Professor at American University of Beirut (AUB), 'between stability, peace, etc. which is something dear and valuable, and truth on the harbor explosion that have left, in fact, the city completely destroyed and people's minds completely destroyed.' Offering historical perspective, Professor Bahout adds, 'If you think of it historically and retrospectively, this is a choice that Lebanon is always confronting.' Both during the civil war, and following the assassination of Rafic Hariri, Lebanon 'had to confront this choice between truth and reconciliation, on the one hand, and stability on the other.' Despite assurances of Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the page will be turned, Professor Bahout warns that the prime minister is facing a 'Shakespearean dilemma.' And so, he fears that the government of Lebanon will ultimately follow the model of authoritarian regimes in the region by making 'the choice of preserving civil peace and squandering, and maybe dropping, the case of Judge Bitar and the entire inquiry on the port explosion.'

Two dead, 450 arrested in Chile 

DUE TO POLICE CREATED protest violence

Protesters demanded universal healthcare, free and improved schooling and higher pensions.

Issued on: 19/10/2021

A protester in Santiago brandishes a Mapuche flag during demonstrations to mark the second anniversary of Chile's October 2019 social uprising against inequality

 Martin BERNETTI AFP

Santiago (AFP)

Two people died, 56 were injured and 450 arrested as clashes broke out in Chile during mass street protests to mark the second anniversary of a social uprising, police said on Tuesday.

Monday's demonstrations throughout the country were to mark the October 2019 protests that sparked political change in the country and led to the start of a process to re-write the Pinochet dictatorship-era constitution.

A man was killed by gunfire during an attempted robbery of a shop in Santiago on Monday while a woman died after falling from a motorcycle, also in the capital.


Most disturbances on Monday took place in Santiago where vandals set up street barricades, attacked a police station, and looted shops and public buildings, a police report said.

Authorities detained 450 people throughout the country, 279 of those in Santiago, while 11 civilians and 45 police officers were injured.

"The numbers are very high," said Marcelo Araya, director of order and security at Chile's Carabineros national police force.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in 50 locations around the country to mark the anniversary of the street protests led by students and sparked by a hike in metro fares.

The unrest that followed left 34 dead and 460 people with eye injuries, including some that lost their sight, from pellets and tear gas fired by police.

Billionaire right-wing President Sebastian Pinera's government came under fire over the at times brutal response from security forces that included some rights violations.

The protests continued for four months up to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Juan Francisco Galli, the interior undersecretary, blamed Monday's violence on opposition candidates for next month's presidential election, leftist Gabriel Boric and centrist Yasna Provoste, for proposing and supporting pardons for detainees that "looted, destroyed everything and threw Molotov cocktails" during the 2019 protests.

"The people responsible for the violence are those that established in our country a sense of impunity, that there are no consequences for violence," said Galli.

The violence contrasted with the peaceful protest by 10,000 people on Plaza Italia, the central square in Santiago that was the hub of the 2019 movement, whose behavior was "largely positive," according to Araya.

That protest lasted around four hours with minimal police presence, although authorities had earlier removed traffic lights and rubbish bins to prevent vandals from damaging them.

Some 5,000 police officers were deployed throughout the country to keep order, according to local press.

Protesters demanded universal healthcare, free and improved schooling and higher pensions.

The demonstration coincided with the constituent assembly elected to re-write the constitution beginning its work following a period of 100 days in which it set out its internal rules.

The current constitution was implemented during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-90) and was one of the main targets of the 2019 protests.

© 2021 AFP

NGOs decry 'incalculable harm' from Poland abortion ban

Issued on: 19/10/202

Demonstrators carrying signs with a red lightning bolt, the symbol of the Polish women's strike movement, take part in a protest against Poland's near-total ban on abortion in Warsaw, on March 8, 2021 

Wojtek Radwanski AFP/File

Brussels (AFP)

A coalition of 14 rights groups on Tuesday denounced "extreme barriers" to legal abortions in Poland a year after a ruling for a near-total ban, and said that women's rights activists faced growing dangers.

Abortion has become a political battleground in Poland where in October 2020 its highest court sided with the Catholic country's right-wing government to rule that terminations due to foetal defects were unconstitutional, tightening already heavy restrictions.

The group of NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, said that as a result "women, girls, and all pregnant people have faced extreme barriers to accessing legal abortions".

The rights groups also warned that "since the ruling, women human rights defenders have also faced an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment" in Poland.

They cited the case of a leading activist, Marta Lampert, who faced "escalating death threats" after leading demonstrations calling for legal abortions and women's rights.

"The Constitutional Tribunal ruling is causing incalculable harm to women and girls -– especially those who are poor, live in rural areas, or are marginalised," Urszula Grycuk, international advocacy coordinator at the Federation for Women and Family Planning in Poland, said in a joint statement.

"The dignity, freedom and health of pregnant people are compromised because their own government is denying them access to essential reproductive health care."

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, which the EU says has been had its independence stripped away, is currently at the centre of a separate row with Brussels after a controversial ruling against the supremacy of the bloc's laws.

The rights groups said that Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has "targeted women's rights organisations" in the wake of the abortion ruling.

"Activists said that government rhetoric and media campaigns smearing them and their work foster misinformation and hate that can put their safety at risk," the joint statement said.

The NGOs called on the European Commission to immediately implement a mechanism that could see Poland denied funds from Brussels for not respecting "EU values".

© 2021 AFP

Court rules Colombia responsible for journalist's rape and torture

Jineth Bedoya was kidnapped, tortured and raped by paramilitaries 21 years ago. After fighting for years, she has now finally found justice in the form of an international verdict.

    

Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya said the court verdict was a victory

 over sexual violence against women

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has ruled that Colombia is responsible for the kidnapping, rape and torture of a female journalist by paramilitaries in 2000.

Jineth Bedoya, who worked for the South American country's El Espectador newspaper at the time of the ordeal, tweeted it was a "historic" decision for all women who suffer sexual violence.

What did judges say?

The court said Monday the crimes "could not have been carried out without the consent and collaboration of the [Colombian] State, or at least with its tolerance."

The court, which meets in Costa Rican capital, San Jose, said "the State was internationally responsible for the violation of the rights to judicial guarantees and protection, and equality before the law."

It added that Colombia was guilty of "failing to investigate the threats that had been received," by both Bedoya and her mother.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is located in San Jose, Costa Rica

To make up for its complicity, the four judges ordered Colombia to "punish those remaining responsible for the acts of violence."

In the long run, it asked Colombia to train public officials and security officials on the subject of violence against women, establish a center to commemorate victims and compensate Bedoya for the crimes against her.

What happened to Bedoya?

Bedoya, now 47, was a young journalist when far-right militia kidnapped her at Colombia's notorious La Modelo prison as she was about to interview paramilitaries about a weapons smuggling ring.

The militia brutally raped and tortured her for 16 hours before leaving her naked by a roadside.

Since then, Bedoya, now a reporter for the newspaper El Tiempo, and her mother had suffered "persecution, intimidation and constant threats."

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights referred the case to the independent court of the Organization of American States in 2019. Its decisions are definitive and have no right of appeal.

The IACHR began examining the case in March, when the Colombian state first apologized to her for its role in the crime.

What has been the reaction so far?

Bedoya tweeted that the ruling went far beyond her own particular case.

"October 18, 2021 goes down in history as the day when a struggle that began with an individual crime has led to the vindication of the rights of thousands of women who have been victims of sexual violence and of women journalists who leave a part of their lives in their work," she said.

Portraits of women killed in Colombia testifty to the constant violence against women

Bedoya received the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize in 2020.

Colombian President Ivan Duque tweeted that his country "fully accepts the decision," adding, "I will always condemn any violent act against women and journalists."

The Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP) said Monday's "dignified" decision was a victory for a woman who "has tirelessly sought justice for more than 20 years."

It was echoed by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which called it "a historic acknowledgment of the deadly dangers that Colombia's female journalists face."

The ruling comes as Colombia tries to deal with a troubled past where thousands were killed and abused during a long and bloody war between the state and paramilitaries.

jc/rt (AFP, dpa)

After #MeToo, now #DoublePeine: French women accuse police of downplaying rape


Issued on: 19/10/2021 -

The #MeToo movement in France was accompanied by the hashtag #BalanceTonPorc. In 2021, the hashtag #DoublePeine emerged to denounce the inaction or dismissiveness of police in response to women reporting gender-based violence. © FRANCE 24

Four years after the #MeToo movement, French victims of gender-based violence are still struggling to obtain justice, with the police accused of failing to take their complaints seriously.

In past weeks, France has been gripped by a wave of new stories of sexual assault and harassment. Complaints this time are focussing on the way police treat women who come forward to report cases of assault or abuse.

The outpouring was triggered by an Instagram post by feminist Anna Toumazoff relating women's experiences when reporting attacks at the main police station in the southern city of Montpellier.

Toumazoff described victims being stigmatised, humiliated and made to feel guilty by the police, two years after the government launched a major drive to train officers on handling cases of gender-based violence.

"In France, police ask rape victims if they had an orgasm," Toumazoff tweeted, referring to the case of a 19-year-old woman who reported a rape in early September.

Toumazoff claimed rape victims were told that a person who has been drinking had "automatically consented" to sex and that they "should not destroy lives" by bringing charges against their attackers.

Montpellier police in dock

The allegations led thousands of abuse victims across France to share stories of dismissive or contemptuous treatment by police, using the hashtag "DoublePeine" (victimised twice).

The state's representative in the Herault region where Montpellier is located threatened Toumazoff with a lawsuit for slander.

But the government of Emmanuel Macron, who has made tackling violence against women a key theme of his presidency, lent a more sympathetic ear.

Last week, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reported that around 90,000 police officers had received training over the past two years in handling abuse cases with empathy and sensitivity.

But he admitted that there was "certainly" room for improvement and promised an investigation into the Montpellier complaints.

Echoes of #MeToo

There have been several French offshoots of the global #MeToo movement smashing taboos around sexual harassment and assault.

In 2017, the #BalanceTonPorc (Expose Your Pig) hashtag was used by thousands of women to post stories of abuse.

Three years later, a scandal involving a prominent intellectual accused of sexually abusing his teenage stepson triggered thousands of people to share harrowing accounts of abuse within families, using the #Metooinceste slogan.

The reckoning with abuse has extended to cinema, politics and elite colleges in a country where seduction was traditionally viewed as an integral part of French culture and women who complained about harassment were often dismissed as puritanical.

'Not a child molester'

On the doublepeine.fr website, hundreds of women describe their struggle to have their cases taken seriously by police.

One said she was date raped and then told by police that she should drop the complaint because her attacker had "suffered enough" by being called in for questioning.

Another woman claimed that police brushed off her repeated complaints of domestic violence on the basis that her husband was "not a child molester".

Faced with such attitudes, several women said they withdrew their complaints.

Bringing in lawyers

Fabienne Boulard, a senior police officer who trains fellow officers on how to handle domestic violence cases, admitted to AFP that the police's response was "still not the best".

Officers still needed help navigating complex issues like the psychological violence that often accompanies domestic abuse cases, she said.

Darmanin has proposed sending officers to meet victims at a safe place to register their complaint instead of making them come to the police station.

But the #NousToutes (All of Us) feminist group said the problem was not where, but how police interacted with victims.

A group of around 100 lawyers has lobbied the government to allow rape victims to bring a lawyer when filing complaints, with gender equality minister Elisabeth Moreno saying she is "favourable" to the idea.

(AFP)