Medics leave Poland-Belarus border without reaching migrants

Doctors Without Borders removed its team on the Belarus-Poland border after Warsaw blocked access to migrants trying to enter the European Union. Camped in harsh conditions, several people have died on the EU's doorstep.


Doctors Without Borders said its team had not been allowed access to people at Poland's frontier with Belarus

Despite knowing people along the Belarus-Poland border were "in desperate need of medical and humanitarian assistance," the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it withdrew its emergency response team from the region.

"Since October, MSF has repeatedly requested access to the restricted area and the border guard posts in Poland, but without success," Frauke Ossig, the charity's emergency coordinator for Poland and Lithuania, said on Thursday.

"We know that there are still people crossing the border and hiding in the forest, in need of support, but while we are committed to assisting people on the move wherever they may be, we have not been able to reach them in Poland," Ossig added.

MSF said it was concerned that restricting access to major aid organizations could result in more deaths and such policies were "another example of the EU deliberately creating unsafe conditions for people to seek asylum at its borders."

While many of the migrants received shelter in a logistics center, a number of people are reported to have died in the freezing, harsh conditions along the border.

Belarus houses many migrants and asylum-seekers trying to reach the EU in a logistics center near Poland

Why can't aid groups reach migrants and asylum-seekers?

On December 1, Poland's Interior Ministry extended a state of emergency that prohibits all non-residents, including journalists and non-governmental aid groups, from the border area.

"People are being attacked and beaten at the hands of border guards, and yet state officials continue to allow the practice of pushing people between borders knowing that such maltreatment continues," MSF said.

With thousands of people on the Belarusian side of the 400-kilometer (250-mile) stretch, Poland built a barbed-wire fence that it intends to replace with a permanent barrier and sent thousands of soldiers to the border, leaving the migrants stuck in camps in no man's land and unable to apply for asylum in the European Union.

Polish border guards accused of illegal 'pushbacks'

Polish border guards have been accused of forcibly pushing migrants and asylum-seekers back into Belarus — a move that breaches international law. At least 21 people have lost their lives in the attempt in 2021, MSF reported.

In December, the Polish civil society group Salam Lab reported that five Syrian and one Palestinian who managed to find their way outside Poland's exclusion zone said they had been pushed back to Belarus several times by Polish authorities.

EU nations Latvia and Lithuania, which also share borders with Belarus, have also reinforced their border security and declared a state of emergency. MSF said it had not received access to migrants at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.

Poland plans to build a permanent barrier to replace barbed-wire along the border to Belarus

The European Union has accused Belarus' authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East to attempt to enter the EU through Belarus.

Belarus denies this and has urged the EU to take in the migrants.

"The current situation is unacceptable and inhumane," Ossig said. "People have the right to seek safety and asylum and should not be illegitimately pushed back to Belarus."

sms/jsi (AFP, Reuters, AP)

Rights group verifies Polish senator was hacked with spyware

By VANESSA GERA

 Polish Senator Krzysztof Brejza in Warsaw, on the night of parliamentary elections, Oct. 13, 2019. Amnesty International said Thursday Jan. 6, 2022, that its has independently confirmed that powerful spyware from the Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group was used to hack Polish senator, Krzysztof Brejza, multiple times in 2019 when he was running the opposition’s election campaign to unseat the right-wing government. The senator, Krzysztof Brejza, and two other government critics, Roman Giertych and Ewa Wrzosek, were hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware. (AP Photo)


WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Amnesty International said Thursday it has independently confirmed that powerful spyware from the Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group was used to hack a Polish senator multiple times in 2019 when he was running the opposition’s parliamentary election campaign.

The Associated Press reported last month that Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group at the University of Toronto, found that the senator, Krzysztof Brejza, and two other Polish government critics were hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware.

Dozens of high-profile cases of Pegasus abuse have been uncovered since 2015, many by a global media consortium last year, with the NSO Group malware employed to eavesdrop on journalists, politicians, diplomats, lawyers and human rights activists from the Middle East to Mexico.

The Polish hacks are considered particularly egregious because they occurred not in a repressive autocracy but a European Union member state.

The revelations have rocked Poland, drawing comparisons to the 1970s Watergate scandal in the United States and eliciting calls for an investigation and accountability. Although neither Citizen Lab nor Amnesty International determined who was behind the hacks, the victims all blame Poland’s right-wing ruling party, Law and Justice.

Law and Justice leaders have denied knowledge of the hacks and at times mocked the reported findings while refusing to open an investigation.

NSO Group does not identify its customers but says it only sells Pegasus to governments to fight terrorism and other serious crimes. The spyware allows its operators to vacuum up everything from instant messages and contacts to photos and to turn microphones and cameras into real-time spy tools.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called the Citizen Lab-AP findings “fake news” and suggested a foreign intelligence service could have done the spying -- an idea dismissed by critics who say no other government would have any interest in the three Polish targets.

John-Scott Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, said that “if (Polish government leaders) really believe this could be the action of a foreign service, it would be the height of irresponsibility not to investigate.”

The senator’s mobile phone was hacked with Pegasus 33 times in 2019, mostly while Brejza ran the opposition’s campaign to unseat the Law and Justice-led government, Citizen Lab determined last month.

Text messages stolen from Brejza’s phone were doctored and aired by state-controlled TV as part of a smear campaign in the heat of the race, which the populist ruling party went on to narrowly win. Brejza has compared the actions to the tactics used in Russia against Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Donncha O’ Cearbhaill, an expert with Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said he confirmed Citizen Lab’s finding after receiving raw backups of Brejza’s phone from the Canadian researchers. Amnesty uses independently developed tools and methods for its forensic analysis.

Brejza told the AP he thinks the real victims of the hacking are Polish voters who were “deceived” by Law and Justice and “deprived of the right to fair elections.”

The other two Polish targets confirmed by Citizen Lab were Roman Giertych, a lawyer who represents opposition politicians in a number of politically sensitive cases, and Ewa Wrzosek, an independent-minded prosecutor.

Wrzosek formally asked the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw last month to investigate the hacking of her phone. The office refused, justifying its decision by saying that Wrzosek refused to hand over her phone.

She said she did not relinquish the phone because she doesn’t trust the prosecutor’s office and wanted to participate in the evaluation of the device. “This is my right according to the law,” Wrzosek told the AP.

In November, Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist reported that the country’s Defense Ministry had significantly cut the list of countries to which Israeli-produced spyware could be exported. The newspaper did not say that Poland was one of the nations removed from the list, but it was not among the approved countries noted in the report.

Hungary, another European Union member where NSO Group’s Pegasus is confirmed to have been used against non-criminals, also was not on the shortened list.

The Israeli Defense Ministry has said called the Calcalist report inaccurate, without elaborating.

____

Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this report.

ZIONISTS SUPPORT FASCISM

Polish leader admits country bought powerful Israeli spyware

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's most powerful politician has acknowledged that the country bought advanced spyware from the Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group, but denied that it was being used to target his political opponents.

FILE - Ewa Wrzosek, a Polish prosecutor, stands outside her office holding her phone, in Warsaw, Poland, Dec. 16, 2021. Amnesty International said Thursday Jan. 6, 2022, that its has independently confirmed that powerful spyware from the Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group was used to hack Polish senator, Krzysztof Brejza, multiple times in 2019 when he was running the opposition’s election campaign to unseat the right-wing government. The senator, Krzysztof Brejza, and two other government critics, Roman Giertych and Ewa Wrzosek, were hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s ruling conservative party, Law and Justice, said in an interview that the software, Pegasus, is now being used by secret services in many countries to combat crime and corruption. He noted that Pegasus represents a technological advancement over earlier monitoring systems, which did not allow the services to monitor encrypted messages.

“It would be bad if the Polish services did not have this type of tool,” Kaczynski said in an interview to be published in the Monday edition of the weekly “Sieci," excerpts of which were published Friday by the wPolityce.pl news portal.

The interview follows exclusive reports by The Associated Press that Citizen Lab, a cyber watchdog group at the University of Toronto, found that three Polish government critics were hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware.

On Thursday, Amnesty International independently verified the finding by Citizen Lab that Sen. Krzysztof Brejza had been hacked multiple times in 2019 when he was running the opposition’s parliamentary election campaign. Text messages stolen from Brejza’s phone were doctored and aired by state-controlled TV as part of a smear campaign in the heat of the race, which the populist ruling party went on to narrowly win.

Brejza now maintains that the election was not fair since the ruling party would have had access to his campaign's tactical thinking and plans.

The revelations have rocked Poland, drawing comparisons to the 1970s Watergate scandal in the United States and eliciting calls for an investigative commission in parliament.

Kaczynski said he sees no reason to set up such a commission, and he denied that the surveillance played any role in the outcome of the 2019 elections.

“There is nothing here, no fact, except the hysteria of the opposition. There is no Pegasus case, no surveillance,” Kaczynski said. “No Pegasus, no services, no secretly obtained information played any role in the 2019 election campaign. They lost because they lost. They shouldn’t look for such excuses today.”

The other two Polish targets confirmed by Citizen Lab were Roman Giertych, a lawyer who represents opposition politicians in a number of politically sensitive cases, and Ewa Wrzosek, an independent-minded prosecutor.

Kaczynski's allies had previously denied that Poland purchased and used Pegasus.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the Citizen Lab-AP findings “fake news” and suggested a foreign intelligence service could have done the spying — an idea dismissed by critics who said no other government would have any interest in the three Polish targets.

Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz in late December said “the Pegasus system is not in the possession of the Polish services. It is not used to track or surveil anyone in our country."

Media reports say Poland purchased Pegasus in 2017, using money from the so-called Justice Fund, which is meant to help the victims of crimes and rehabilitate criminals. According to investigations by the TVN broadcaster and Gazeta Wyborcza daily, it is used by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, a special service created to combat corruption in public life that is under the political control of the ruling party.

“The public money was spent on an important public purpose, related to the fight against crime and the protection of citizens,” Kaczynski said.

Dozens of high-profile cases of Pegasus abuse have been uncovered since 2015, many by a global media consortium last year, with the NSO Group malware employed to eavesdrop on journalists, politicians, diplomats, lawyers and human rights activists from the Middle East to Mexico.

The Polish hacks are considered particularly egregious because they occurred not in a repressive autocracy but in a European Union member state.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

Fact check: How do I spot fake social media accounts, bots and trolls?

If you are unsure whether or not to trust a Facebook or Twitter message, study its source. The following indicators can help you assess if you are dealing with a fake account, bot or troll.

    

Fake accounts, bots and trolls can have damaging impact on public discourse

In 2014, The Washington Post ran a story titled "Irony alert: First tweet from Putin account congratulated Obama?" Four years later, Business Insider published a piece about Russian President Putin following only 19 people on Twitter, one of whom has been dead for five years. It turns out that both media outlets were duped by a fake, English-language Twitter account impersonating Russian President Vladimir Putin. They were not the only respected media organizations to make this mistake.

Set up in November 2012, the fake account had amassed almost a million followers by November 2018, when it was finally suspended by Twitter for impersonating the Russian leader. Confusingly, Putin's official, verified English-language Twitter feed has a similar number of followers.

The now defunct imposter account mainly retweeted official Kremlin statements, instead of misinformation. This allowed it to go undetected for so long.

Fake accounts of this kind are increasingly used as tools of information warfare. Fortunately, by now most major social media platforms are aware of this threat.

It was easy to fall for the fake Putin account (pictured left) — luckily, the official one bears a blue verification badge

The precise number of fake Twitter accounts is unknown. According to one Twitter staffer, however, each week the platform challenges between 8,5 and 10 million bots, with two-thirds of malicious accounts automatically removed. Facebook estimates that 5% of its worldwide monthly users are fakes. The social network deleted some 1.7 billion fraudulent accounts in the second quarter of 2021 alone. 

What constitutes a fake account?

According to Facebook, each day the platform blocks millions of attempts to set up fake accounts. Facebook says such accounts are "created with malicious intent to violate our policies."

Twitter, meanwhile, reserves the right to permanently suspend accounts for impersonating individuals, brands or organizations in a misleading or deceptive manner. Accounts that happen to have a similar username or profile picture to others are not, meanwhile, in automatic violation of this policy.

How can I spot a fake account?

Genuine Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts operated by companies and persons of public interest usually bear a blue verification symbol. You will see this symbol on the profile pages of politicians and celebrities.

It helps you tell apart, for example, the official profile pages of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla boss Elon Musk from fraudulent ones that may not be readily apparent as fake.

Recently, however, Twitter admitted mistakenly verifying numerous inauthentic accounts.

When accounts lack a verification badge, pay attention to:

• Account names and profile URLs

Often, fraudsters will retroactively change their Twitter or Facebook usernames after registering on the platform. In this case, the original Twitter account name — preceded by the @ symbol — will provide a clue that something could be wrong. Likewise, a divergent Facebook URL should make you suspicious.

Take, for instance, this Facebook account supposedly owned by Elon Musk (see screenshot below). Registered to the misspelled username "Muskk" and "facebook.com/elonreeve.musk.338," it is highly unlikely that this is Elon Musk's actual Facebook page. Beyond that, organizations and persons of public interest will usually link to their real social media accounts.

In this case, a simple typo can give everything away

If you want to verify the authenticity of an account registered to a person who is not in the public eye, use search engines to check whether said person is present on other social networks using the same name. Check if the profile pictures used are similar. Also check if profile biographies, contact and location details match up. And examine whether the accounts share similar content. If you can detect a large degree of overlap, then you are most likely dealing with a genuine account by a real person. It is very unlikely, after all, that fake accounts with identically named profiles and near-identical content are operated on different social networks.

Do bear in mind that these are clues, rather than solid evidence, for gauging whether or not an account is authentic.

• Profile pictures

You can also study profile pictures for hints (to learn more about spotting manipulated images, see the explainer in this series), provided one is available. Use the reverse picture search method (a service offered by Google, Bing and Yandex) to find out whether the picture used in the profile depicts someone else than claimed, or if the image has surfaced elsewhere online. Low-resolution pictures can be a red flag as well: it is very unlikely persons of public interest will use grainy pictures for their official social media profiles.

• Followers, friends, subscribers

Is it likely Germany's former Chancellor Angela Merkel has fewer than 4,000 Twitter followers? And how plausible is for the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, to have a mere 52 friends on Facebook? Neither account seems particularly authentic.

But fakes are not always so easy to spot — recall the fake Elon Musk account with over 60,000 followers mentioned above.

To check whether this could be a real account, load up Musk's verified Twitter account, and compare it to the Facebook account in question. While Musk has over 61 million followers on Twitter, the dubious Facebook account has a mere 60,000 — so something must be fishy. You should always be suspicious whenever you spot a conspicuously large discrepancy regarding a person's followers, friends or subscribers across different social media platforms.Followerwonk is a helpful tool for analyzing follower figures on different networks.

Another way to assess the authenticity of an account supposedly run by a famous person is to check if verified accounts interact with it. Do teammates from the same sports club, for example, comment on photos shared by dubious account? Or do fellow, verified accounts repost content shared by the account in question?

• Content and online behavior

Pay attention to when a social media profile was created. If it was set up and has been active for years, it could well be real. Still, this is no surefire way to gauge authenticity. The fake Putin account discussed above, after all, was active for six long years. 

Also study the kind of content posted by an account. Does it match the person, or does it seem out of character? If someone constantly changes his or her location, this should raise eyebrows — unless the individual works as a travel blogger, war correspondent or in a similar capacity.

Be wary of people sharing content they seem to have little or no connection to. A German student posting images purporting to show an Afghan war zone? A Russian pensioner sharing photos from what she claims are Parisian anti-vaccination protests? Neither case seems particularly plausible. Both could well be fake accounts, or at least be sharing unverified misinformation.

Suspicious behaviour like this is typical of bots, too.

What are bots?

Bots, short for robots, tirelessly comment on Facebook posts, share content, or artificially stoke online debate on marginal or otherwise overlooked topics. Their behavior, as the name suggested, resembles that of automated robots.

It is essential, however, to differentiate between good and bad bots. Good bots may automatically share news, or weather forecasts, as well as earthquake alerts or satellite images on social media.

Bad bots, in contrast, are designed to imitate genuine human activity to advance a certain agenda. Depending on the algorithm, such computer programs may compose and publish social media posts or comments, follow others, or even send out friendship requests.

Bad bots can distort reality by amplifying certain political opinions on social media platforms, and drawing artificial attention to certain issues by repeatedly sharing falsehoods or disinformation and undermining constructive online debate.

Recently, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University analyzed over 200 million Tweets sent out in 2020 discussing coronavirus or COVID-19. They came to a worrying conclusion: 82% of the top 50 influential retweeters were bots; likewise 62% of the top 1,000 retweeters.

How can I spot bots?

Bots, like fake social media accounts, can be detected if you pay attention to:

• Account names

Usernames consisting of jumbled combinations of letters and words could indicate you are dealing with a bot.

• Profile pictures

Does the account lack a profile picture? Does it show someone, but in very poor quality? If so, be wary.

• Profile bio/account details

Sparse profile information, a recent registration date and a dubious location that does not seem to match the person in question should get your alarm bells ringing.

• Online behavior that seems out of character for a human

Have you observed a single social media account simultaneously publishing identical content cross different platforms, or underneath several different posts? Does the account post countless crude replies in a very short time, or constantly retweet content? If the answer is yes, you are most likely dealing with a bot.

Bots are also known to typically follow a large number of other accounts, while having few to no followers of their own. To check follower numbers, consider using tools like Followerwonk or Botometer.

What are trolls?

Trolls are real human beings who exhibit destructive and hyperactive online behavior, much like bots. They are often paid to harass certain public figures or media organizations. Facebook describes such targeted action as "coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government actor." Such campaigns can even be waged by so-called troll factories (to learn more about trolls and their role as agents of state propaganda, see the next article in this series).

One of the most prominent examples of a troll factory is the Internet Research Agency, in St. Petersburg, Russia. EUvsDisinfo, a project by the European External Action Service to counter disinformation, found that the agency had disseminated falsehoods and pro-Kremlin messages in multiple languages during various European and US election campaigns, and in the lead up to several referenda.

The agency gained global notoriety when US intelligence services published a report in January 2017 analyzing how it had worked to manipulate US public opinion ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. Since then, Facebook has been busily deleting accounts affiliated with the agency.

Troll factories and so-called troll armies are also said to operate out of India, China, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Indeed, in 2020, the The Washington Post revealed that teenage supporters of former US President Donald Trump were paid to spread disinformation on social media.

How do I spot trolls?

Troll accounts are harder to detect than downright fake accounts, as they are usually controlled by real human beings. Spotting troll accounts becomes even more challenging when they have been set up and maintained over years as part of wider troll networks. You cannot, therefore, easily identify them by their dubious profile names, recent registration dates or suspicious follower numbers. Even so, be sure to check for such potential clues.  

In addition, closely study the content shared by the account in question. Does it contain links to websites known for publishing disinformation? (For more on detecting disinformation, see the first article in this series.) Pay attention to whether the user also publishes personal posts alongside sharing other content. If an account only reposts third-party content, this could indicate you are dealing with a troll. Be especially suspicious if this shared content contains disinformation.

Check to see if you have a common friend on a given social network. Then reach out to this person and inquire about the suspicious account.

Pay attention also to how much time a potential troll spends on social media. Does the person devote hours to commenting on certain online discussions? Does the individual post the exact same message underneath different social media posts, or publish and share content in rapid succession? These could be clues indicating you are dealing with a person whose Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube activity is a job, rather than a hobby.

One of the biggest telltale signs of troll activity is when the person in question fails to contribute anything constructive to an online debate. If the person focuses solely on manipulating others and evoking negative emotions, cease any further discussion and flag the account to the platform for verification.

More on how to spot misinformation:

• How do I spot fake news?
• How do I spot manipulated images?

This article was originally written in German.

Commission nominates first woman to Pakistan's Supreme Court

Jan. 6 (UPI) -- A Pakistani judicial commission on Thursday approved the nomination of Ayesha Malik to become the first woman to sit on the country's Supreme Court.

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan previously held a meeting in September to consider the nomination. It was unable to come to a consensus about whether to elevate Judge Ayesha Malik, who currently sits on Lahore's High Court.

The commission voted 5-4 in favor of her this time, Dawn News reported.

Aliya Hamza Malik, a member of Parliament, called the vote "historic."

"It is a defining moment for women's empowerment in the country."

Meanwhile, members of the Pakistan Bar Council and other bar associations threatened to boycott court proceedings in the country if the JCP didn't postpone Thursday's meeting to consider the nomination.

Ayesha Malik's nomination must now be considered by a parliamentary committee, which is expected to confirm her for a 10-year appointment to the high court, The New York Times reported.

Iraqi Women Boxers Aim Sucker Punch At Gender Taboos


By Qassem Al-Kaabi and Ali Allaq in Amara
01/05/22

Iraqi boxer Bushra al-Hajjar jumps into the ring, gloves raised to eye level, and strikes out at her sparring partner.

Her bigger struggle, though, is to deliver a blow against social taboos.

In Iraq's Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, the sight of a women's boxing hall is unusual but, like others here, the 35-year-old boxing instructor is fighting deeply-ingrained taboos.

"At home, I have a full training room, with mats and a punching bag," said the mother of two, who also practises karate.

Bushra al-Hajjar, a 35-year-old Iraqi boxing instructor, is pictured during a training session in Najaf Photo: AFP / Qassem al-KAABI

Hajjar won gold in the 70 kilogram-class at a boxing tournament in the capital Baghdad in December.

"My family and friends are very supportive, they're very happy with the level I've reached," she said, a blue headscarf pulled tightly over her hair.

Twice a week, she trains at a private university in Najaf, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, where she also teaches sports.

In overwhelmingly conservative Iraq, and particularly in Najaf, Hajjar acknowledges her adventure has raised eyebrows.

Bushra al-Hajjar trains in Najaf; more than 100 women boxers competed in a December tournament 

Photo: AFP / Qassem al-KAABI

"We've come across many difficulties," she said. "We're a conservative society that has difficulty accepting these kinds of things."

She recalls the protests when training facilities first opened for women, but said "today, there are many halls".

Young boxer Hajer Ghazi poses with a medal; she is part of a movement of women and girls taking up a range of sports, also including kickboxing

 Photo: AFP / Asaad NIAZI

Boxing student Ola Mustafa, 16, taking a break from her punching bag, said: "We live in a macho society that opposes success for women."

However, she said she has the support not only of her trainer but also of her parents and brother, signalling that social change is afoot.

"People are gradually beginning to accept it," she said. "If more girls try it out, society will automatically come to accept it."

Iraqi boxing federation president Ali Taklif acknowledges that Iraqi women engaging in the sport is a "recent phenomenon", but says it is gaining ground.

Young boxer Hajer Ghazi prepares for an international boxing competition in the city of Amarah; in the past, Iraq had a proud tradition of women competing in regional sporting tournaments 

Photo: AFP / Asaad NIAZI

"There is a lot of demand from females wanting to join," he said, adding that Iraq now has some 20 women's boxing clubs.

More than 100 women boxers have competed in a December tournament, in all categories, he added.

But "like other sports (in Iraq), the discipline suffers from a lack of infrastructure, training facilities and equipment".

In the past, Iraq had a proud tradition of women in sports, especially in the 1970s and 1980s.

Whether in basketball, volleyball or cycling, women's teams regularly took part in regional tournaments.

But sanctions, decades of conflict and a hardening of conservative social values brought this era to a close, with only the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq largely spared.

There has been a timid reversal in recent years, with women taking up a range of sports, also including kickboxing.

For Hajer Ghazi, who at age 13 won a silver medal in December, boxing runs in the family.

Her father, a veteran professional boxer, encouraged his children to follow in his footsteps.

Both her sisters and older brother Ali are also boxers.

"Our father supports us more than the state does," said Ali in their hometown of Amara in southwestern Iraq.

The father, Hassanein Ghazi, a 55-year-old truck driver who won several medals in his heyday, insists: "Women have the right to play sports, it's only normal."

He recognises certain "sensitivities" remain, linked to traditional tribal values.

As an example, he pointed out that "when their coach wants them to run, he takes them to the outskirts of town", away from too many onlookers.

Leonardo DiCaprio Gets New Tree Species Named After Him by London Scientists

DiCaprio is having an influential month in the science world and on Netflix, thanks to record-breaker "Don't Look Up."

By Zack Sharf
Jan 6, 2022 2:52pm PT

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP


Leonardo DiCaprio is one of Hollywood’s most outspoken environmentalists, and those efforts have now paid off in the form of a recently-discovered tree species being named after him.

According to USA Today, Scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, London honored DiCaprio this week by giving the Leo tree in Africa’s Cameroon forest the official name of “Uvariopsis dicaprio.” The BBC reports the Leo tree is “critically endangered.” The plant species is “a small tropical evergreen trees” that is a member of the ylang ylang family.

Dr. Martin Cheek of Kew told the BBC that scientists named the tree after the Oscar-winning actor because “we think he was crucial in helping to stop the logging of the Ebo Forest.” DiCaprio has used his social media platforms to advocate against opening up the Ebo Forest for logging. Per USA Today, the Leo tree is “the first plant new to science to be officially named by Kew scientists in 2022.”

The official naming of DiCaprio’s tree comes at a time when the actor is taking his environmentalist efforts to the mainstream with the release of the Netflix’s hit comedy “Don’t Look Up.” DiCaprio has said that he had been looking for years to make a movie with an environmentalist bent, but it wasn’t until Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” script that the actor found the perfect vehicle. The movie is a wake up call to viewers about the climate crisis, a cause close to DiCaprio’s heart.

“Years ago, scientists predicted the damaging effects of climate change that we’re now experiencing. We must listen to scientists and take the necessary steps to mitigate the crisis,” DiCaprio posted on Twitter earlier this week in reaction to the buzz around “Don’t Look Up,” which is on its way to becoming the most viewed Netflix original movie of all time.

In its first two days on Netflix, “Don’t Look Up” recorded 111,030,000 hours viewed. The movie then recorded 152,290,000 hours streamed between December 27 and January 2, making it the most-watched Netflix original in a single week. Read more about “Don’t Look Up’s” record-breaking Netflix run here.

War of words breaks out after UK statue acquittal


War of words breaks out after UK statue acquittalThe four protesters were cleared of criminal damage after the statue was pulled down in Bristol in June 2020

 (AFP/Geoff Caddick)

Jitendra JOSHI
Thu, January 6, 2022

Britain should resist efforts to "bowdlerise" its colonial past, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday after four protesters were cleared of criminal damage for pulling down a statue of a notorious slave trader.

Johnson declined to comment on the specifics of Wednesday's jury verdict, following the 2020 attack on the statue of Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest in the western city of Bristol.

"But what I would say is that my feeling is that we have a complex historical legacy all around us, and it reflects our history in all its diversity, for good or ill," he told reporters.

"What you can't do is go around seeking retrospectively to change our history or to bowdlerise it or edit it in retrospect.

"It's like some person trying to edit their Wikipedia entry -– it's wrong."

The four defendants admitted to taking part in the protest that saw the slave trader's statue thrown into Bristol harbour at the height of anti-racism protests in June 2020.

But the jury agreed with their argument that Colston's blood-stained legacy was integral to deciding the case, and that immortalising him in public had itself amounted to a hate crime.

The 17th-century trader was involved in the enslavement and transportation of more than 80,000 Africans, including almost 10,000 children, the trial heard.

Around 19,000 of the slaves died on ships bound for the Americas and the Caribbean.

Calls for a reassessment of Britain's colonial legacy have seen other sites associated with Colston renamed in Bristol, and a national debate about how to deal with other historical figures.

But the impetus to remove some monuments and re-evaluate Britain's imperial past has sparked a backlash, particularly after a statue of war-time prime minister Winston Churchill was targeted by vandals.

- 'Mass murderer' -

Johnson's former justice secretary Robert Buckland said the Bristol verdict was perverse.

"I don't think we want to see our crown courts becoming political playgrounds," he told BBC radio.

"They're not places for politics, they're places for the law to be applied and for the evidence to be assessed."

But legal experts noted that the verdict did not set any precedent for other courts, as it was reached by an individual jury.

One of the four acquitted, Rhian Graham, told ITV: "I completely understand people's concerns and I really don't think this is a green light for everyone to just start pulling down statues.

"This moment is about this statue in this city in this time. I will leave the fate of monuments in other cities to the citizens of those cities," she said.

The government is meanwhile pushing through legislation to toughen up penalties for vandalism of historical sites, drawing criticism that it is waging a divisive "culture war" against so-called woke activism.

Prominent historian David Olusoga, who testified in the quartet's defence, welcomed the verdict.

"That statue standing there for 125 years was validating the career of a mass murderer," he told ITV.

"And to people whose ancestors were enslaved by Colston and men like him, it is offensive, and you can talk to thousands of people in Bristol who found it offensive."

jit/phz/bp

France fines Google and Facebook €210m over user tracking

Data privacy watchdog says websites make it difficult for users to refuse cookies

Facebook was fined €60m and Google a record €150m for making it difficult for users to refuse cookies.

 Photograph: Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images

Dan Milmo and agency
Thu 6 Jan 2022 

France’s data privacy watchdog has fined Google and Facebook a combined €210m (£176m) for hampering users’ ability to stop the companies tracking their online activity.

The Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) said on Thursday it had fined Google a record €150m for making it difficult for internet users to refuse cookies – small text files that build up a profile of a person’s web activity for commercial purposes. It fined Facebook €60m for the same reason.




Russia fines Google £73m over failure to delete ‘illegal’ content

Internet users’ prior consent for the use of cookies is a key pillar of the EU’s data privacy regulation, and a top priority for the CNIL.
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“When you accept cookies, it’s done in just one click,” said Karin Kiefer, CNIL’s head of data protection and sanctions. “Rejecting cookies should be as easy as accepting them.”

The watchdog said the facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com websites did not allow the easy refusal of cookies. Citing the example of Facebook, it said: “Several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, as opposed to a single one to accept them.”

It said the companies had three months to comply with its orders, including making it easier for French users to decline cookies, or face extra penalty payments of €100,000 for every day of delay.

A Google spokesperson said: “People trust us to respect their right to privacy and keep them safe. We understand our responsibility to protect that trust and are committing to further changes and active work with the CNIL in light of this decision.”

A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, said: “​​We are reviewing the authority’s decision and remain committed to working with relevant authorities. Our cookie consent controls provide people with greater control over their data, including a new settings menu on Facebook and Instagram where people can revisit and manage their decisions at any time, and we continue to develop and improve these controls.”

In 2020, the CNIL strengthened consent rights over ad trackers, saying websites operating in France should keep a register of internet users’ refusal to accept cookies for at least six months.

It also said internet users should be able to easily reconsider any initial agreement concerning cookies via a weblink or an icon that should be visible on all pages of a website.

Most countries may see annual heat extremes every second year: study

AFP
Jan 6, 2022

Almost every country on Earth could experience extremely hot years every other year by 2030, according to new research. 

Photo: Shutterstock, Su Prasert

Almost every country on Earth could experience extremely hot years every other year by 2030, according to new research Thursday highlighting the outsized contribution of emissions from the world’s major polluters.

The modelling study combined data on historical emissions and pledges made before the COP26 climate summit for cuts from the top five emitters — China, the US, the European Union, India and Russia — to make regional warming predictions by 2030.

The researchers found that 92 percent of 165 countries studied are expected to experience extremely hot annual temperatures, defined as a once-in-one-hundred-year hot year in the pre-industrial era, every two years.

Alexander Nauels of Climate Analytics, who co-authored the study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, said that in itself was “very striking”.

“It just really shows the urgency and how we’re heading into a world that is just so much hotter for everybody,” he told AFP.

To look at the scale of the contribution from the world’s five biggest emitters to this prediction, the authors looked at what the picture would be without their emissions since 1991, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) first warned governments of human-made climate change.

They found that the proportion of countries affected by extreme hot years would shrink to around 46 percent.

Lead author Lea Beusch, of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich university, said the study found “a clear imprint” of the actions of top emitters on the regional scale.

“This is I think very important, because we usually talk about these abstract quantities of emissions, or global temperatures, which we know about, but we can’t really feel,” she said.

“Whereas regional climate change is much closer to what we’re going to experience — we’re going to experience this warming in our country and this increasing frequency of extremely hot years.”

The researchers found the biggest impact in terms of the frequency of extremely hot years in tropical Africa.

“Because this is a region that traditionally has quite low year-to-year temperature variability, even the moderate mean warming it is set to experience, compared to other regions, really puts it out of its known climate envelope,” she said.

But she added that the greatest overall temperature increases are in northern high latitude areas, which are warming at a faster rate than the tropics.

The authors stressed that the prediction for the frequency of extreme years could be changed if countries significantly step up efforts to cut pollution.

Current plans would see emissions increase 13.7 percent by 2030, according to the United Nations climate change body UNFCCC, when they must fall by roughly half to keep the Paris Agreement warming limit of 1.5C within reach.

 

Philippines: Child marriage ban takes effect

Prison terms of up to 12 years for marrying or cohabiting with anyone under 18

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Published:  January 06, 2022 14:14AFP

Photo for illustrative purpose.Image Credit: Picryl

Manila: Child marriage became illegal in the Philippines on Thursday as a law banning the practice took effect in a country where one in six girls enters wedlock before the age of 18.

The impoverished Southeast Asian country has the 12th highest number of child marriages in the world, according to Britain-based rights group Plan International, with long-held cultural practices and gender inequalities hindering change.

But the new law, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte and released to the public on Thursday, lays out prison terms of up to 12 years for marrying or cohabiting with anyone under 18.

People arranging or solemnising underage unions also face the same penalty.

“The state... views child marriage as a practice constituting child abuse because it debases, degrades, and demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of children,” the law states.

The government says the law is consistent with international conventions on the rights of women and children.

However, some portions of the legislation have been suspended for one year to allow for a transition period for Muslims and indigenous communities in which child marriage is relatively common.

A report last year by the United Nations Children’s Fund said more than half a billion girls and women worldwide were married in childhood, with the highest rates found in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

But recent data indicates the practice is generally in decline on average across the globe.'

End Child Marriage and Sex Abuse in the United States ...

https://childusa.org/child-marriage

2021-09-08 · Child marriage remains legal in 46 states. More than half of the states permit child marriage with either parental or judicial consent. Other states have religious or pregnancy exceptions, permitting the practice to continue. Only four states–Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota— have banned child marriage outright.

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