Sudan women's activist Amira Osman wins human rights prize



Amira Osman Hamed speaking with an AFP journalist during an interview in Khartoum. File / AFPSudanese women's activist Amira Osman Hamed has won a Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, the organisation announced on Friday.

The activist and engineer, now in her forties, has been advocating for Sudanese women for two decades, and was detained this year in a crackdown following the country's latest coup.

She was among defenders from Afghanistan, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Mexico who also received the 2022 award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.

Amira Osman "never deterred from her mission," Dublin-based Front Line Defenders said in its awards announcement, "consistently (advocating) for democracy, human rights, and women's rights."

After first being charged for wearing trousers in 2002, she drew international support in 2013 when she was detained and threatened with flogging for refusing to wear a headscarf.
 

Amira Osman Hamed during the interview in Khartoum. File / AFP

Both charges fell under morality laws during the rule of longtime autocrat Omar Al Bashir who took power in an Islamist-backed coup. Osman told AFP at the time that the morality laws had "changed Sudanese women from victims to criminals" and targeted "the dignity of Sudanese people."

In 2009 she established "No to Women Oppression," an initiative to advocate against the much-derided Public Order Law. It was finally repealed in 2019 after Bashir's ouster following a mass uprising.

Women were at the forefront of protests that toppled Bashir, and hopes were high for a more liberal Sudan as restrictions were removed that had stifled their actions and public lives.

In late January 2022, Osman's team told AFP that "30 masked armed men" had stormed into her house in Khartoum in the middle of the night, "taking her to an unknown location."

The United Nations mission to Sudan called for her release, tweeting that "Amira's arrest and pattern of violence against women's rights activists severely risks reducing their political participation in Sudan."

She was freed in early February and an AFP correspondent saw her participating in a demonstration, kneeling on crutches due to a prior back injury.

The award has honoured human rights defenders annually since 2005.

Agence France-Presse

Louvre ex-director charged in art trafficking case

Murielle KASPRZAK and Joseph SCHMID
Thu, 26 May 2022, 


The Louvre is the world's most visited museum with around 10 million visitors a year before the Covid-19 pandemic

Jean-Luc Martinez, Director of Musée du Louvre, a museum in Paris, France

 (AFP/-)


A former director of the Louvre Museum in Paris has been charged with conspiring to hide the origin of archaeological treasures that investigators suspect were smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos of the Arab Spring, a French judicial source said Thursday.

Jean-Luc Martinez was charged Wednesday after being taken in for questioning along with two French specialists in Egyptian art, who were not charged, another source close to the inquiry told AFP.

The Louvre, which is owned by the French state, is the world's most visited museum with around 10 million visitors a year before the Covid-19 pandemic and is home to some of Western civilization's most celebrated cultural heritage.

The museum declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

French investigators opened the case in July 2018, two years after the Louvre's branch in Abu Dhabi bought a rare pink granite stele depicting the pharaoh Tutankhamun and four other historic works for eight million euros ($8.5 million).

Martinez, who ran the Paris Louvre from 2013 to 2021, is accused of turning a blind eye to fake certificates of origin for the pieces, a fraud thought to involve several other art experts, according to French investigative weekly Canard Enchaine.

He has been charged with complicity in fraud and "concealing the origin of criminally obtained works by false endorsement," according to the judicial source.

Martinez is currently the French foreign ministry's ambassador in charge of international cooperation on cultural heritage, which focuses in particular on fighting art trafficking.

"Jean-Luc Martinez contests in the strongest way his indictment in this case," his lawyers told AFP in a statement.

- Arab Spring looting -

"For now, he will reserve his declarations for the judiciary, and has no doubt that his good faith will be established," they said.

French investigators suspect that hundreds of artefacts were pillaged from Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries during protests in the early 2010s that became known as the Arab Spring.

They suspect the artefacts were then sold to galleries and museums that did not ask too many questions about previous ownership.

Martinez's indictment comes after the German-Lebanese gallery owner who brokered the sale, Robin Dib, was arrested in Hamburg in March and extradited to Paris for questioning.

Marc Gabolde, a French Egyptologist, was quoted by Canard Enchaine as saying that he informed Louvre officials about suspicions related to the Tutankhamun stele but received no response.

The opening of the inquiry in 2018 roiled the Paris art market, a major hub for antiquities from Middle Eastern civilisations.

In June 2020, prominent Paris archaeology expert Christophe Kunicki and dealer Richard Semper were charged with fraud for false certification of looted works from several countries during the Arab Spring.

They also had a role in certifying another prized Egyptian work, the gilded sarcophagus of the priest Nedjemankh that was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2017.

Gabolde said an Egyptian art dealer, Habib Tawadros, was also involved in both suspect deals.

After New York prosecutors determined that the sarcophagus had been stolen during the revolts against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the Met said it had been a victim of false statements and fake documentation, and returned the coffin to Egypt.

cal-sm-mk/js/jm

Higher cost of US cancer care doesn't improve survival rates: study


An investigator at the National Cancer Institute in immunotherapy for HPV+ cancers, shows patient Fred Janick, a survivor of metastatic cancer, the difference between his CT scan showing cancerous tumors (R) and a clean scan after treatment (L) (AFP/SAUL LOEB) (SAUL LOEB)


Fri, May 27, 2022, 

The United States spends twice as much on cancer care as the average high-income country, but gets only middle-of-the-table survival results, a study said Friday.

The results were published in the Journal of the American Health Association (JAMA) Health Forum.

"There is a common perception that the US offers the most advanced cancer care in the world," said lead author Ryan Chow, who is pursuing a medical degree and PhD at Yale University, in a statement.

America is touted for developing advanced new treatments and approving them faster than other countries, and the team were curious about whether this translated into better outcomes.

Out of 22 high-income countries, the United States was found to have by far the highest spending rate: it spends $200 billion per year on cancer care, or roughly $600 per capita, compared to the average of $300 per capita in high-income countries.

But the researchers found this additional spending did not translate into better population-level cancer mortality rates.

"In other words, countries that spend more on cancer care do not necessarily have better cancer outcomes," said Chow.

The US was only slightly better than average, while six countries -- Australia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland -- had both better outcomes and lower spending.

Of the countries examined, South Korea and Japan had the lowest cancer mortality rates, while Denmark had the highest, followed by France.

Smoking is the biggest driver of cancer deaths, a factor expected to make cancer outcomes appear more favorable in countries with traditionally low smoking rates such as the US.

After controlling for smoking rates, they found the US was exactly in the middle. Nine countries -- Australia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland — had lower smoking-adjusted cancer mortality.

There are a constellation of factors behind surging costs in the US, the team wrote.

Cancer drug expenditures account for 37 percent of privately insured US cancer expenditure, and these drugs cost far more in the US than other countries.

Unlike countries with public health systems, US state-run insurance called Medicaid cannot negotiate drug prices.

Additionally, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider pricing when evaluating drug approvals, unlike other countries such as Britain where cost-effectiveness must be factored.

Much of the growth in drug spending has been attributed to newer types of drugs such as monoclonal antibodies, kinase inhibitors, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, even though the evidence in their favor is often marginal.

Finally, medical care is also more aggressive in the US: "Within the last six months of life, US patients with cancer are admitted to the intensive care unit at twice the rate of other countries and are more likely to receive chemotherapy," the team wrote.

Specialty societies advocate for more screening than guidelines suggest, further increasing costs, and low-risk tumors, such as early-stage prostate cancers, are more often subject to intervention despite evidence they would unlikely cause harm if untreated.

"Other countries and systems have much to teach the US if we could be open to change," said co-author Elizabeth Bradley, president of Vassar College.

ia/st

Palm Dog celebrates Ukraine landmine-sniffer at Cannes

AFP - 2h ago
© Natalie HANDEL

It's the only award that mutt-ers in Cannes, and in a year when war was a constant backdrop to the festival, even the canine-loving Palm Dog award paid tribute to Ukrainians.

The Palm Dog, which rewards the best pooch performances at the Cannes Film Festival, celebrated its 21st year on Friday in typically dog-eared style.

"This is the foremost and paw-most celebration of dogs on the big screen," said presenter Toby Rose, who helped found the award back in 2001.

The top award -- which comes in the form of a red leather collar -- went to Brit, a fluffy silver poodle who starred as Beast in "War Pony", the directorial debut of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell.

Keough, who happens to be Elvis Presley's granddaughter, accepted the award via video link-up and said she was "honoured", describing Brit as "just a legend".

The Guardian's chief film critic Peter Bradshaw, another co-founder of the four-legged tradition, said it was "incredible" that the award show had turned 21.

"It's grown from a chihuahua to a Rhodesian Ridgeback," he told the crowd.

"I look out at a sea of professional journalists all wondering: what is this strange Anglo-Saxon piece of whimsy?" Bradshaw added.

"Is it serious? Is it silly? The answer is I don't know. My bewilderment has only deepened over the years."

- 'Defenders of Ukraine' -

This year saw a special Dog-manitarian Award handed out to Patron, the Jack Russell that has helped sniff out landmines in Ukraine.

Patron has already been honoured for its work by President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Palm Dog organisers said they wanted to add their support to the cause.

A member of the Ukraine delegation to Cannes, which has been very active at the festival this year, accepted the collar on Patron's behalf.

"Patron could not be here because his work is very needed back home," she said. "But this is dedicated to all defenders of Ukraine and defenders of a peaceful world."

The Palm Dog has been something of a highlight at the festival over the years.

Quentin Tarantino proudly showed up to receive the red collar on behalf of Brandy after "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" premiered at Cannes in 2019.

Tilda Swinton picked up the top prize last year for her real-life dogs in "The Souvenir" and managed to contact them via WhatsApp during the ceremony.

er/dlc/cdw

At the limit? Norway's bid for sustainable Arctic tourism

Issued on: 27/05/2022 - 

02:30A Hurtigruten hybrid tourism boat navigates next to an ice sheet off Norway's Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. © AFP

Video by: Sam BALL

It is home to polar bears, pristine glaciers and majestic mountains. But Norway's Arctic archipelago of Svalbard is facing a conundrum: How to welcome masses of tourists without destroying this fragile environment. Although authorities and tour operators have taken steps to limit tourism's impact, significant challenges remain, not least the vast carbon footprint of air travel to the remote region.

Killer whale that swam up France's River Seine in 'life-threatening condition'

Issued on: 27/05/2022 - 


01:18  The orca that began swimming up France's River Seine earlier this month is now in critical condition, May 26, 2022. © Pascal Rossignol, Reuters

Text by: NEWS WIRES

A killer whale - orca - that strayed from the ocean and began swimming up the River Seine in France earlier this month is now at risk of dying, a researcher monitoring the mammal told local media.

"It is in a life-threatening condition ... its state of health is very poor," Gerard Mauger, vice-president of Cotentin Cetacean Study Group (GECC), was quoted as saying on France 3 television's website.

The whale is unable to find enough food in the river and the fresh water is increasingly damaging its health. "It is really complicated to find solutions to try to make it go back to the salt water", Mauger said, adding that helping the animal risked stressing it.

The 4-metre (13-foot) orca, identified as a male, was first spotted at the mouth of the Seine on May 16 between the port of Le Havre and the town of Honfleur in Normandy, before it travelled dozens of kilometres upstream to reach west of the city of Rouen.

Local state authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Muriel Arnal, president of French animal rights organisation One Voice, told Reuters there was an urgent need to rescue the whale.

She also noted that male killer whales are "mummy's boys", generally sticking to their mothers their entire lives. "We have to be fast," Arnal said, suggesting that using nets to guide the orca would be less stressful than placing it on a barge.

(REUTERS)

Russian attacks 'deliberately target' Ukrainian fields, farms and food storage

By:Pariesa Young
Issued on: 27/05/2022 - ]

Known as the "breadbasket of Europe", Ukraine depends greatly on its agricultural production and exports. But "deliberate" Russian attacks on dairy farms, silos and farming facilities are serving to further curtail the country's ability to feed its people and advance its economy.

Ukraine's agricultural sector has already been severely impacted by the Russian offensive. Farmers are more likely to be on the frontlines than out in the fields, farmland has been hit by shelling, and Russian blockades have kept grain exports from leaving ports.

But in addition to these indirect consequences, Ukraine's agricultural capacities have also been the target of directed attacks by the Russian army.
'There's nothing that's been left untouched from this war'

Caitlin Welsh, a food security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, spoke to the FRANCE 24 Observers team.

VIDEO 03:0 Caitlin Welsh of the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained how Russia has been targeting Ukraine's agricultural sector in direct attacks. © Observers

What we're seeing are direct targets on Ukraine's means of agricultural productivity, in all aspects – from fields where we see Russia having planted landmines, to dairy sheds, where they are attacking sheds and killing cattle, to silos where grain is stored, to railroads, where grains are transported from farms to markets, all aspects. There's nothing that's been left untouched from this war.

A video posted on Telegram on May 2 shows a rocket strike on a grain facility near Synelnykove in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine. Farm equipment such as tractors is visible near the explosion site.

The security camera footage shown above captured the moment that a rocket struck a grain elevator near Synelnykove in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine.

US officials have reported documenting at least six grain storage facilities like this one damaged by Russian attacks as of late March.

Welsh explained that attacks like this one reveal Russia's motives.
Agricultural producers would bring their products to be stored here, and then trucks would come to gather this product for export. And this is an instance where we saw complete destruction of some aspects of this warehouse facility. There are homes around this warehouse facility that were left virtually untouched, which indicates to us that Russia is directly targeting these places and making a deliberate attack to curtail Ukraine's agriculture sector.

Other reports indicate that Russian troops have been stealing grain and farming equipment and shipping it to Russian territories.

International officials worry that these attacks may have significant impacts on food security, both in Ukraine and around the world.

ALL WHITE MEN

US Southern Baptist church group releases list of alleged sex abusers


By AFP
Published May 27, 2022

In 2019, two Texas newspapers published a bombshell investigation revealing sexual predators in the SBC - Copyright AFP Loren Elliott

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the United States’ largest Protestant denomination, published a 205-page list on Thursday of ministers and other church workers who have been accused of sexual abuse.

The public release of the list comes days after an independent investigation said the church had for years suppressed reports of sexual abuse against priests and church staff.

“This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention,” the SBC said in a statement on its website.

Investigative firm Guidepost’s probe, published Sunday, found that for nearly two decades, survivors and advocates who sounded the alarm over sexual misconduct faced “resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility” from members of the church’s executive committee.

On Thursday, the SBC said that it hoped “that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us.”

The newly released list contains hundreds of entries — some of them partially or fully redacted — detailing allegations, convictions and some cases that were not reported to the police.

Some of the allegations in the list relate to the sexual abuse of children as young as five years old.

In 2019, a bombshell investigation by two Texas newspapers revealed hundreds of predators and more than 700 victims of sexual abuse within the SBC since 1998.

The SBC has thousands of churches and 15 million members, mostly in the southern United States.

Hundreds protest in Iran as death toll from building collapse rises

‘Death to incompetent officials,’ demonstrators in Abadan chant after at least 24 killed in collapse of apartment tower that is being built

By AFP

Today, 

Iranians gather at the site of a 10-story building that collapsed

 in the southwestern city of Abadan on May 24, 2022. (Tasnim News/AFP)

TEHRAN, Iran — Hundreds of people took to the streets in southwestern Iran demanding justice after an apartment collapse killed 24 people, news outlets in the Islamic Republic said on Friday.

A large section of the 10-story Metropol building that was under construction in the city of Abadan, in Khuzestan province, crumbled on Monday, causing one of Iran’s deadliest such disasters in years.

Images published by Fars news agency showed hundreds of residents marching along Abadan’s streets on Thursday night, mourning those who lost their lives by banging on traditional drums and hitting cymbals.

Some shouted “Death to incompetent officials” and hailed the “Martyrs of Metropol,” Fars said.

People also took to the streets of Khorramshahr city, in the same province, expressing their sympathy with the families of those who died and calling for “a decisive and serious” trial of those responsible, it added.

Similar protests were held on Wednesday night in Abadan, state TV had reported.

More than four days after the apartment tower’s collapse, rescue teams were still recovering bodies from under slabs of cement.

A video posted on Tasnim news agency’s website on Friday showed rescuers carrying a gurney with a body wrapped in a black bag.

Abadan governor Ehsan Abbaspour, cited by ISNA news agency, said the number of people killed in the disaster stood at 24, up from 19 previously.

Officials said 37 people were also injured, although most have since been discharged from hospital.

It remains unknown how many people may still be trapped under the rubble.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called for perpetrators to be prosecuted and punished, in a statement posted on his official website on Thursday.

The provincial judiciary said at least 10 people were arrested following the incident, including the mayor and two former mayors, accused of being “responsible” for the collapse, the Judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.

An investigation has been opened into the cause of the disaster in Abadan, a city of 230,000 people, 660 kilometers (410 miles) southwest of Tehran.

Iranians gather at the site where a ten-story building collapsed in the southwestern city of Abadan on May 23, 2022. (Tasnim News/AFP)

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber visited Abadan on Friday to “investigate the dimensions of the building collapse incident,” according to ISNA.

In a previous major disaster in Iran, 22 people, including 16 firefighters, died in a blaze that engulfed the capital’s 15-story Plasco shopping center in January 2017.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Google Faces Second UK Probe Over Ad Practices
Tom Jowitt, 

May 27, 2022,


UK’s competition watchdog launches second investigation of Google’s ad tech practices, and whether it may have favoured its own services

Google has said it will co-operate with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after it confirmed a second investigation of the tech giant.

On Thursday the CMA announced an investigation into Google’s advertising technology intermediation, also known as the ‘ad tech stack’, which is a complex set of services which facilitate the sale of online advertising space between sellers (publishers, content providers etc) and buyers (advertisers).

This is now the second CMA investigation Google is facing over its advertising practices. In March the CMA (as well as the European Commission) both opened formal antitrust investigations into Google and Meta (aka Facebook).



Advertising practices

That investigation is looking into the so called ‘Jedi Blue’ agreement between the two tech giants in 2018, and whether that agreement for online display advertising services may have breached competition rules.

Now this week the CMA has begun a second investigation solely on Google’s advertising practices.

The UK competition regulator pointed out that UK advertisers spent around £1.8 billion on online advertising in 2019, and that millions of people in the UK use websites that rely on advertising revenue to offer free content.

Google has strong positions at various levels of the ad tech stack, charging fees to both publishers and advertisers, said the CMA.

Therefore the CMA said it is examining 3 key parts of this chain, in each of which Google owns the largest service provider:

Demand-side platforms (DSPs) allow advertisers and media agencies to buy publishers’ advertising inventory (i.e. the space they have for advertising) from many sources.
Ad exchanges provide the technology to automate the sale of publishers’ inventory.

 They allow real-time auctions by connecting to multiple DSPs, collecting bids from them.

Publisher ad servers manage the publisher’s inventory and decide which ad to show, based on the bids received from different exchanges and/or direct deals between publishers and advertisers.

The CMA said it is assessing whether Google’s practices in these parts of the ad tech stack may distort competition. These include whether Google limited the interoperability of its ad exchange with third-party publisher ad servers and/or contractually tied these services together, making it more difficult for rival ad servers to compete.

In addition, the CMA is also concerned that Google may have used its publisher ad server and its DSPs to illegally favour its own ad exchange services, while taking steps to exclude the services offered by rivals.

Ensuring free content

“We’re worried that Google may be using its position in ad tech to favour its own services to the detriment of its rivals, of its customers and ultimately of consumers,” noted Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s chief executive.

Dr Andrea Coscelli, CMA chief executive.

“This would be bad for the millions of people who enjoy access to a wealth of free information online every day,” said Coscelli. “Weakening competition in this area could reduce the ad revenues of publishers, who may be forced to compromise the quality of their content to cut costs or put their content behind paywalls.”

“It may also be raising costs for advertisers which are passed on through higher prices for advertised goods and services,” said Coscelli. “It’s vital that we continue to scrutinise the behaviour of the tech firms which loom large over our lives and ensure the best outcomes for people and businesses throughout the UK.”

A Google spokesperson told Reuters the company would continue to work with the CMA to answer its questions and share the details on how the company’s systems work.

Busy watchdog

It is a busy time for the CMA as it is also investigating Apple’s App Store, Meta’s purchase of Giphy, and Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems.

On top this, the CMA is also investigating Google and Meta’s ‘Jedi Blue’ agreement.

And the CMA is also monitoring compliance with commitments Google made in relation to its Privacy Sandbox proposals to remove third-party cookies and other functionality from Google’s Chrome browser.