EU SOCCER SCANDAL; IN THE WEEDS

Revealed: Uefa safety consultant quit and expressed concerns in February

Steve Frosdick seriously unhappy with department’s direction

Zeljko Pavlica, close friend of Ceferin, took charge last year

Liverpool fans outside the Stade de France before Champions League final against Real Madrid. Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

Exclusive by David Conn

Tue 7 Jun 2022 

Serious concerns were raised about Uefa’s safety and security department earlier this year when an English safety expert with decades of experience quit his role as a consultant for European football’s governing body.

Steve Frosdick, originally a Metropolitan police officer, has dedicated his career to stadium safety in British and European football since the 1990s and has multiple advanced professional qualifications. He resigned from his Uefa consultancy in February, after 11 years in which he was employed to enhance its expertise, incident monitoring, and development and training programmes.

He is said to have become seriously unhappy with the direction of the department which since last year has been headed by Zeljko Pavlica, a close friend of the Uefa president, Aleksandr Ceferin. Frosdick is said to have believed that Uefa’s professionalism, expertise and development were being undermined, and he rejected a proposal to revise his contract, that would have downgraded his role.

Frosdick’s resignation and criticisms came less than four months before serious safety problems beset Uefa’s two end-of-season showpiece events: the Europa League final, where Rangers fans complained there was no water in the heat of Seville, and the horrific chaos suffered by Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters at the Champions League final in Paris.

The revelation of Frosdick’s departure will add to growing concerns about Uefa’s safety operation, and perceived cronyism in the appointment of Pavlica, which Uefa rejects. The Liverpool supporters’ trust Spirit of Shankly, which is representing fans who suffered the excessive delays, police brutality and violent attacks in Paris yet were officially blamed by Uefa for the problems, has renewed its calls for a fully independent inquiry.

The safety and security department has a responsibility for the safe running of Uefa’s matches including finals, and has a leading role in efforts to strengthen good safety practices across European football. Pavlica, a former top-ranking security officer in his native Slovenia, was appointed to head the department last year after the retirement in February 2021 of the previous head of department for four years, Kenny Scott. A 30-year career officer with Strathclyde police up to the rank of chief superintendent, Scott was then head of security at Rangers from 2007 to 2010 and joined Uefa full-time in 2017.

Ceferin, a lawyer in Slovenia, and Pavlica, a former senior security officer for Janez Drnovsek when he was president of Yugoslavia and Slovenia, are said to have been friends for decades. Ceferin was best man at Pavlica’s 2018 wedding to Brigita, a former Olympic athlete representing Slovenia. Shortly after Ceferin won the election to become president of Slovenia’s football association in 2011, Pavlica was given his first job in football, working for the association as a safety and security officer.

Uefa has denied cronyism in his promotion to head its safety and security department, stressing that Pavlica stepped up from Slovenian national football to working for the Europe-wide confederation in 2014. That was an external, part-time role. Two months after Ceferin won the election to become Uefa president in September 2016, Pavlica was promoted to a permanent role at Uefa, as a security adviser.

A Uefa spokesperson said that Pavlica “is a well-respected name in the security business” and in football, and “had an excellent safety and security record with the Slovenian national team and served Uefa very well for more than eight years”. He was considered the “natural successor” to head the department, the spokesperson said, having worked alongside Scott, including on Uefa’s club and national team competitions.

The head of department vacancy was not externally advertised, nor was a benchmarking assessment carried out of Pavlica’s suitability for the very senior European safety role. The spokesperson explained that Uefa can make direct appointments when there is “an obvious solution internally”, that Pavlica’s promotion was part of “succession plans” and external assessments are not mandatory in Uefa regulations.

Steve Frosdick pictured at Celtic in 2015. He acted as a consultant for the club on their installation of rail seating. Photograph: SNS Group Alan Harvey/SNS Group

Frosdick was substantially involved as a consultant in Uefa’s training and development programmes and its incident monitoring system, which sought to learn detailed lessons from matches where safety had been put at risk and improve best practice. He is understood to have been invited to make a farewell presentation in a video meeting to Uefa colleagues on 18 February, and is said to have outlined criticisms, including alleging a decline in professionalism. Frosdick declined to comment.

Uefa argues that its expertise has improved since Pavlica’s appointment, not been undermined, saying it has hired proven safety and security experts, continued with training programmes despite the pandemic, and is working to improve incident monitoring. However the spokesperson confirmed that its stadium and security strategy programme, which ran from 2017, had not yet been renewed since it finished last year. Uefa’s description of the 2017–21 programme, which is still on its website, stated that it “drives Uefa’s efforts to keep ahead of the risks and incidents”.

Asked why the programme was not currently running, the spokesperson said it had been impossible to implement a new strategy because of the pandemic: “The next edition of the programme is currently under development and subject to approval by the Uefa stadia and safety committee at one of their next meetings.”

Joe Blott, the Spirit of Shankly chair, emphasised the demand for a fully independent investigation, amid questions, also asked directly by Liverpool, about the independence of the review Uefa announced two days after the final. Uefa appointed as chair the Portuguese politician Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, who has worked closely with Tiago Craveiro, a former chief executive of the Portuguese Football Federation, who is a senior adviser to Ceferin at Uefa.

“Liverpool supporters suffered horrendous experiences in Paris, and we are outraged that Uefa instantly, falsely put the blame on us,” Blott said. “It is now truly disturbing to learn of questions about cronyism, professionalism and the culture in Uefa’s safety department, and we need a fully independent investigation, including into Uefa itself and its running of matches.”

To questions about the events in Paris, specifically the apparently negative perception of Liverpool supporters as troublemakers in advance of the match, Uefa’s spokesperson said: “Due to the ongoing independent investigation, Uefa will not be commenting or disclosing any details on the matter for the time being.”

EU agrees ‘landmark’ 40% quota for women on corporate boards

Binding targets for boardroom gender equality come 10 years after proposals first made

The EU is also mandating a minimum 33% share of the ‘underrepresented sex’ in all senior corporate roles.

Photograph: John Fedele/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels

Tue 7 Jun 2022 

The EU has agreed that companies will face mandatory quotas to ensure women have at least 40% of seats on corporate boards.

After 10 years of stalemate over the proposals, EU lawmakers hailed a “landmark” deal for gender equality. As well as the legally binding target, companies could also be fined for failing to recruit enough women to their non-executive boards and see board appointments cancelled for non-compliance with the law.

From 30 June 2026 large companies operating in the EU will have to ensure a share of 40% of the “underrepresented sex” – usually women – among non-executive directors. The EU has also set a 33% target for women in all senior roles, including non-executive directors and directors, such as chief executive and chief operating officer.

In 2021 women occupied 30.6% of boardroom positions across the EU, but this varied widely across the 27 member countries. France, which has a 40% women-on-boards quota, was the only EU country to exceed that threshold, with 45.3% of boardroom seats occupied by women, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality.

Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Germany were the next best countries, with between 36% and 38% female participation in the boardroom; while fewer than one in 10 non-executive directors were women in Hungary, Estonia and Cyprus.

“All data show that gender equality at the top of companies is not achieved by sheer luck,” said Lara Wolters, the Dutch socialist MEP, who negotiated the law with EU governments. “We also know that more diversity in boardrooms contributes to better decision-making and results. This quota can be a push in the right direction for more equality and diversity in companies.”

National authorities, who are responsible for enforcing the directive, are empowered to impose fines. National courts can annul boardroom selections if a company breaks the law. The measures will not apply to companies with fewer than 250 employees.

The European Commission made its first proposal for a 40% quota on women on boards in 2012, but the plan was blocked by big member states including Germany and the UK.

In the UK, mandatory quotas were opposed by the then coalition Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, which preferred a voluntary approach led by Lord Mervyn Davies. That helped the UK become one of the best performers in Europe, with 39.1% of women sitting on FTSE100 boards by 2022, putting the UK second only to France in one international survey.

The Commission revived the draft law in 2020, after key countries shifted their position. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said: “After 10 years, since the European Commission proposed this directive, it is high time we break the glass ceiling. There are plenty of women qualified for top jobs: they should be able to get them.”

#MeToo film movement shifts from rhetoric to action


Eric RANDOLPH
Tue, June 7, 2022


As the MeToo movement evolves, the film industry is seeking practical ways to ensure its opposition to harassment and abuse is translated into tangible improvements.

Campaign group Time's Up UK is the latest to offer a concrete initiative, announcing plans for a panel of experts to hear complaints, similar to standards authorities for doctors, teachers and other professionals.

Currently, staff on movie productions often fear "that if they make a complaint against a senior figure, they will be devoured", Dame Heather Rabbatts, chair of Time's Up UK, told AFP.

The proposed three-person panel will include experts in harassment and abuse who can offer "help, mediation and investigation", she said.


The idea cuts both ways in the debate, seeking to counter those who say abuse allegations lead to people being "cancelled" before there has been a proper inquiry.

"We want to avoid trial by media. It doesn't help anybody," said Rabbatts.

"The independent standards body would have the highest levels of confidentiality and mitigate the problem of people being treated as though they are guilty until proven innocent."
- 'Profound distrust' -

The Hollywood Commission, set up in 2017 to tackle abuse in the US industry, is working on a similar panel, as well as an anonymous reporting platform to gather complaints.

France has also introduced practical measures, including insurance that covers the cost of a production being halted while a complaint is investigated.

Previously, "people spoke out but nothing happened because there was too much money involved to stop filming", said Iris Brey, a writer specialising in cinema and gender.

Since last year, the Centre National du Cinema has been running training courses in preventing and detecting sexual harassment -- mandatory for any film accessing France's generous subsidies.

Having more women on sets is also a crucial part of the battle.


Some companies, including Netflix and Amazon, now require productions to have diverse heads of department before a project gets green-lit.

But there is a long way to go.

Riley Keough, who happens to be Elvis Presley's granddaughter, won in the newcomer's Un Certain Regard section at last month's Cannes Film Festival with her first film, "War Pony".

She told reporters that, despite her fame, she and co-director Gina Gammell found it very difficult to raise funding.

"Many first-time male filmmakers are getting a lot more money than first-time female filmmakers," she said.

"There's a profound distrust in women being in positions of leadership. Maybe that isn't conscious but I see it happening."
- 'Unacceptable' -

France's prolific industry has a particularly high proportion of women directors but misogyny is still entrenched, said Reine Prat, who writes about gender and culture.

"An exception is made for culture," she told AFP. "Behaviour is permitted in this sector that is unacceptable elsewhere."


She highlighted Roman Polanski's best picture win at the 2020 Cesar Awards -- France's version of the Oscars.

This was despite fresh rape allegations against him, adding to his long-standing conviction for violently raping a 13-year-old girl, for which he remains a fugitive from US justice.

"We talk about separating the art from the artist but they were clearly paying homage to Mr Polanski himself," said Prat. "It was a green light to anyone who behaves that way."

The incident caused uproar, with French actress Adele Haenel -- herself the victim of abuse by a director when she was 12 -- pointedly walking out of the ceremony and the Cesar board resigning en masse in the aftermath.

Prat argues the rot starts at the top of French society, pointing to the three ministers in President Emmanuel Macron's governments who have been accused of rape.

But to complicate matters France's 50/50 Collective, which campaigns for gender parity in the film business, was recently torn apart after a board member was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at one of its meetings.

Real progress requires more fundamental change, says Brey.

"Nothing will change unless we question why desire is so often linked to domination. Questioning our desires is something men and women both need to do," she said.

"The cinema industry forms our images of sex and desire. That's why it's so important to have these conversations on film sets."

er/gil

Colombia's Beloved 'Doña Tuta' Is Shot Dead


Jesusita Moreno "Doña Tuta". | Photo: Twitter/ @AntisanaNews


Published 8 June 2022 

"She was the vindication of the rights of Black and Indigenous communities, which live overwhelmed by the armed conflict," the Inter-Church Justice & Peace Commission stated.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jesusita Moreno "Doña Tuta", a popular and beloved Black leader, was shot to death in Cali city.

RELATED:
Colombian NGO: 903 Leaders Killed During Duque Administration

"Doña Tuta was the vindication of the rights of the San Juan's Black and Indigenous communities, which live overwhelmed by the intensity and degradation of the armed conflict," the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (ICHPC) stated.

"She received accusations, threats, and stigmas due to her forceful voice demanding respect for the peoples' lifes and territories. She was herself the voice promoting humanitarian agreements... She was the target of judicial set-ups due to to her community role. She managed to save hundreds of lives."

The attack against the 60-year-old Black leader occurred while she was leaving her son's house in the La Floresta neighborhood. Although Doña Tuta managed to be immediately transferred to a hospital, she lost her life due to the seriousness of her injuries.

After the crime, the National Police captured the alleged gunman, who would have a criminal history related to homicide, robbery, and prison escape.

"One day, the material and intellectual authors of her murder will recognize that she was only a concrete and real manager of peace," the ICHPC said, recalling that Doña tuta evidenced the different forms of the Colombian state's complicity in the structural violence against the poor.

"In her honor we continue to encourage and demand a Global Humanitarian Agreement and the construction of a Global Territorial Peace. Doña Tuta is a sign of the peace that the peoples of the Pacific deserve," it added.

 

‎Shock over murder of social leader Jesusita Moreno Mosquera in Cali‎

   

Jesusita Moreno Mosquera

‎Armed men broke into the house. 

She was a human rights defender in San Juan, in Chocó.‎

CALI

‎June 08, 2022

‎The murder of social leader Jesusita Moreno Mosquera, 60, inside a house in the La Floresta neighborhood‎‎ of ‎‎Cali has ‎‎shocked the community. ‎

‎According to the deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police of Cali, Colonel William Quintero, the case was registered on June 7. ‎

‎In the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace they reported: "His forceful voice for the demand for respect for the life and territory of his communities ‎‎generated accusations, threats and stigmas against him‎‎. She was, in herself, the voice that led to humanitarian agreements to achieve respect for the Military Forces, gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), and the ELN guerrillas."‎
‎ 
‎The human rights defender, according to the Interclesial Commission, would have been a woman warrior for her people. He saved hundreds of community lives because of his community role. ‎

‎They called her 'Doña Tuta' affectionately and she was part of the Noanamá community, in Itsmina, in Chocó. There he promoted different agreements with settlers. ‎
‎How was the crime that leaves a suspect in detention?‎

‎It was 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday, when ‎‎armed men forcibly broke into the house where the renowned social leader and human rights defender was.‎‎ ‎

‎Doña Jesusita had arrived a month earlier from the neighboring department, north of Valle del Cauca, and was staying at a son's house.‎

‎"Although she was transferred to a hospital, she lost her life due to the severity of her injuries," said the deputy commander of the Cali Police. ‎

‎He said that after the shooting,‎‎ the police in this part of the city activated an operation that allowed the capture of a man as an alleged aggressor. ‎

‎According to Colonel Quintero, the detainee has been investigated in the past for alleged crimes of homicide, qualified and aggravated theft, and escape of prisoners. 

‎But he clarified that, according to verifications carried out by the Judicial Police, "Mrs. Jesusita Moreno is not registered in the Integral System of Human Rights (Sideh)." ‎

‎And added: "The police institution has arranged all its intelligence and Judicial Investigation capabilities for the clarification of this unfortunate fact and the capture of those responsible." ‎

‎CALI‎

Jesusita Moreno, Doña Tuta, social leader of the San Juan River in Chocó murdered‎

Redacción Colombia 
© Provided by El Espectador

Jesusita Moreno "Tuta" was a reference in the San Juan del Chocó River. Since the nineties he showed his leadership in the community of Noanamá, Medio San Juan. During the last months he had been in charge of the humanitarian space in that area to protect the inhabitants from the intensification of the war in the region.

Last Tuesday, June 7, the social and Afro-Colombian leader Jesusita "Tuta" Moreno was murdered in a neighborhood of Cali, while celebrating the birthday of a son of hers with members of her family. Sources said the hitman came to the house and shot Moreno in front of his relatives. Moreno had left Chocó three weeks ago to treat a health problem in Cali, where some relatives live.

Since the nineties Jesusita Moreno was a recognized leader of the San Juan River in southern Chocó, where she lived most of her life. Tuta was a municipal registrar in Medio San Juan and also worked with the Regional Corporation of Chocó (CodeChocó), her parents had also exercised leadership in Noanamá, the corregimiento on the banks of the San Juan River where Jesusita was born and lived almost all her life. In recent years he managed a shop he owned near the village jetty.

In an episode of Travesía, the television program with which the journalist Alfredo Molano toured a good part of the most remote corners of the country, Doña Tuta appears still young, with a fresh and imposing smile, talking about the organizational process of her community and the collaboration between indigenous and Afro-Colombians in the struggle to defend their territory.

Read: Doña Tuta's smile: denunciation from the Middle San Juan

In those years the Peasant Association of the San Juan River (Acadesan) was consolidated, an organization that today has become the second largest community council in Chocó and the country. These were the times when black communities fought for the titling of their ancestral territories and the right to self-determination, as Jesusita Moreno told Alfredo Molano: "We are already aware of the problem we have and we all fight, right now we fight for ours: our territory, which is the most important thing for us."

Just when the black communities began to receive their first collective titles, it was when the invasion of the armed groups into their territories began, first the paramilitary takeover by the Atrato River and the confrontation between the FARC and the self-defense groups in the San Juan River. Now, the dispute over drug trafficking routes and large mining resources, in which criminal groups, rearmed paramilitaries and the last ELN strongholds that still today are present in Chocó intervene.

See also: In Unión Chocó only the dogs remained

Jesusita Moreno worked as an intermediary with the armed groups that occupied the area after 2000 after the arrival of the FARC and paramilitaries in her region, where the ELN had maintained a sporadic presence since the eighties. The leader always acted in defense of the communities and demanding respect for life, that she did until three weeks ago, when she left the San Juan River, where she was leading a humanitarian initiative.

Her work of intermediation was key for the release of former congressman Odin Sanchez, kidnapped by the ELN, as she told journalists of this newspaper in October 2021, when Colombia+20 toured the San Juan River documenting the humanitarian crisis that plagues the region. Tuta also made efforts to reach out for a possible release of Tulio Mosquera, the mayor of Alto Baudó kidnapped by the ELN, efforts that never materialized. Mosquera died in the hands of that guerrilla last year in circumstances that have not yet been clarified.

In recent months, Jesusita Moreno was at the head of the Humanitarian Space in her town of Noanamá, where more than three hundred inhabitants arrived displaced from several hamlets of the river due to the fighting between the Agc and the ELN on February 22, in the midst of an overflowing humanitarian crisis that still continues in southern Chocó.

Colombia+20 covered these events and spoke with Tuta in the last week of February, who assured that the situation was critical and the only hope of the communities was that the bishops of Chocó would hold a frustrated meeting with President Iván Duque. "God willing that there is a solution out there and we can have peace of mind," the leader had told this newspaper.

The fighting between the AGC and the ELN persists in the San Juan River, with a serious toll on Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities. In the last week of May, it emerged that an ELN attack had left a dozen AGC fighters dead in the vicinity of Negria. No institution was present to carry out the lifting of the bodies, which had to be buried several days later by the same inhabitants in a common grave. It was around the same time that Tuta Moreno left the San Juan River for Cali.

The authorities have not yet commented on the motives for his murder. "Very serious, the situation is very hard," said another Chocó leader who prefers to keep her name in reserve, who added: "nobody knows anything." In 2019, Tuta Moreno had denounced threats and fabrications against her for her work of humanitarian intermediation.

These denunciations were published by this newspaper in a profile written by the reporter and photographer Ramón Campos Iriarte, who made one of the last photographs of her, where she is already tanned over the years but with the same joy and powerful laughter with which she received Alfredo Molano on his journey along the San Juan River.

THE RULING CLASS FEAR

Millionaire presidential candidate wary of class war in Colombia
AFP - Yesterday 
© Raul ARBOLEDA

Rodolfo Hernandez, a millionaire businessman and ex-mayor under investigation for corruption, has made poverty and government graft the focus of his campaign for the Colombian presidency.

Hernandez, 77, finished in a surprise second place in a first election round on May 29 and will face leftist former Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro in a runoff on June 19.

At a meeting last week with fellow businessmen in the northeastern city of Bucaramanga, his political stronghold, Hernandez warned that growing inequality could lead to a class war in Colombia.

"If these guys (the poor) one day decide to come for us, there won't be enough trees to hang us from," he told industrial-scale palm growers.

"We need to live as brothers. I am not saying equals, because that we will never be, it is impossible. But yes, we must improve the lot of the poor," he said.

Poverty affects nearly 40 percent of Colombia's 50 million people, who largely blame corruption and nepotism for their plight.

In an interview after the meeting, Hernandez told AFP how he sees the problem and what he intends to do about it with his small Anti-Corruption League party holding only two seats on Colombia's near 300-member Congress.

Q: Is there a class struggle in Colombia?

A: "There is no class struggle, but there could be one.

"In a country where 22 million of our 50 million people live in conditions of poverty and extreme misery, it would not be strange for any given political activist to foment a revolt rather than think about how to bring those 22 million into the economic fold. "

Q: How can it be avoided?

A: "By getting politicians to stop stealing. While people pay taxes (politicians) are increasing the country's debt, doing tax reforms and not solving the problems.

"It means these political administrators must be expelled and imports must be reduced in favor of (domestic) job creation...

"Everything is about (global) competitiveness and that is what we have to do. We have the water, we have the people, we have everything, but these politicians don't give them the chance."

Q: Your rival has also proposed limiting imports. What makes you the man to do it?

A: "The others (politicians) have not worked. When have you ever seen a politician working, producing? The politician is fixated on the payroll, applying a form of bureaucracy called nepotism. That is what has destroyed us. I want to make one proviso: Not all politicians are bad, but almost all."

Q: In your opinion, what caused last year's anti-government protests?

A: "This is not a class struggle but about politicians ignoring the demands of the people. What did the people in Cali ask for? Free, high-quality education and jobs. The government did not listen and was pushed until it all exploded and 100 people died.

"In the end, the president agreed to everything they had asked for, but too late. Why did we not act beforehand? It's like in football: anticipation. The government has to anticipate problems, not wait for them to hatch, because then it hits out, and people die."

(Note: According to the UN, 46 people died during the protests, 28 at the hands of the security forces.)

Q: What will you do if you cannot pass laws through Congress?

A: "That is not important as long as we have public opinion... A democratic debate, that is what we need. No violence, only reason and the law. Politicians who feel watched by citizens will approve everything, they are cowards."

Hernandez: Colombia's Anti-graft Candidate With A Checkered Past

By AFP News
06/08/22

In October 2015, volunteers flooded an impoverished neighborhood of Bucaramanga in northeast Colombia with thousands of pamphlets promising free houses if Rodolfo Hernandez, a millionnaire engineer, were elected mayor.

He won the election, but the free houses never came. Now, Hernandez is running for his country's top job.

"Rodolfo came here with pure lies. And now he wants to be president?" said Paulina Figueroa, a housewife in the targeted neighborhood, El Pablon, shaking her head.

She still holds on to Hernandez's pamphlet, but told AFP that instead of getting a house, she had to take out a loan, which she pays off with half her meager monthly income, to build herself a shack of wood and zinc.

"Just another unfulfilled promise by a cheap politician," added 57-year-old community leader Jaime Nunez, who received the same flyer and voted for Hernandez but continues to pay rent for squalid, crowded lodgings.

Despite failing to deliver on his ambitious promise, Hernandez remains popular among many in Bucaramanga, admired for his brashness and for building sports stadiums in poor areas during his 2016-2019 term.

Rodolfo Hernandez is a millionnaire engineer and former mayor 

Photo: AFP / Raul ARBOLEDA

He donated his mayoral salary to social causes and lived from his self-stated fortune of $100 million.

Hernandez was suspended as mayor for intervening in local elections, and resigned shortly before the end of his term.

In the rest of the country, he is known for another act as mayor: slapping an opposition councilman during a disagreement on camera.

Photos of a smiling Hernandez adorn many walls, cars and even restaurants in Bucaramanga.

Paulina Figueroa said she was promised a free house, but had to take out a loan to build one instead

 Photo: AFP / Raul ARBOLEDA

"Rodolfo faced a corrupt political class that had practically enslaved the city, and defeated it. That's why people love him," said Felix Jaimes, a fellow engineer who was Hernandez's mayoral adviser.

When Hernandez won the mayorship, he unseated a political class that had governed for decades with his anti-elite stance and promises of social upliftment.

He now aims to do the same with the Colombian presidency.

Hernandez, who goes by the moniker "The Engineer," made a surprise second-place finish in a first round of voting on May 29.

He will face leftist Gustavo Petro in a runoff on June 19.

Opinion polls show a tie between the two men, despite Petro having been by far the favorite ahead of the first round and Hernandez a distant third.

Rodolfo Hernandez, 77, has 600,000 followers on TikTok

 Photo: AFP / Juan BARRETO

Jaimes claimed the Bucaramanga city council, where Hernandez had no political majority, blocked his plan to deliver 20,000 free homes.

But not everyone is convinced about The Engineer's good intentions.

In a folder, retired army sergeant Saul Ortiz carries evidence of what he calls a "scam" against hundreds of military families who bought into a housing construction project run by a Hernandez company, before he was mayor.

Ortiz told AFP that in 1995, he began to pay off a house in Bucaramanga, but claimed that over time, the company charged him about 30 percent more than the initial price.

"The majority of homeowners lost their homes as they were unable to pay this overcharge," he said.

Ortiz said he was one of a few to obtain relief from the courts and get the excess payments back. He showed AFP documents backing his claims.

But his house flooded in 2005, the project having been constructed too close to the riverbed, he said -- another allegation for which he holds documented proof.

"The neighborhood was completely flooded, there was tons of mud, cars were damaged; people lost everything... they did not compensate us," he said.

Containment walls are now being constructed at the state's expense.

Hernandez "is not who he claims to be... he is just another corrupt politician, one of those who have Colombia mired in poverty," said Ortiz

Hernandez has focused his campaign largely on combating poverty, which affects some 39 percent of Colombia's 50 million people.

He has vowed not to raise taxes, to cut VAT from 19 to 10 percent and to boost social spending by shrinking bureaucracy.

Hernandez blames government corruption for much of Colombia's deep-seated economic inequality, but is himself under investigation for "undue benefits" given to third parties when he was mayor.

Despite his checkered past, Hernandez appears to have a real shot at the presidency, with traditional parties throwing their weight behind him to defeat Petro in a country deeply suspicious of the political left.

Unlike Petro, Hernandez has made no campaign tours and gives no public speeches.

Instead, the self-proclaimed "King of TikTok" speaks directly to his electorate via the social media platform -- where he has almost 600,000 followers -- and Facebook broadcasts.

Hi-tech herd: Spain school turns out 21st-century shepherds


Diego URDANETA
Tue, June 7, 2022,


Gripping a sheep firmly between her legs, Vanesa Castillo holds its head with one hand while she tries to shear off its thick fleece with electric clippers.

"It's scary!" said Castillo, 37, slightly unnerved by her first attempt at sheep shearing at a school for shepherds in western Spain.

"You have to pull the animal's skin taut, really slowly, so you don't cut it," explained Jose Rivero, the professional sheep shearer giving the course.

Sheep shearing is just one of the classes offered at the school in Casar de Caceres in rural Extremadura to counter the flight from the land that has left large swathes of inland Spain thinly populated.
- ADVERTISEMENT -


Set up in 2015, the idea was "to bring in people who love the countryside", said Enrique "Quique" Izquierdo, who runs the school.


It aims to provide all the training and resources needed to create "a shepherd for the 21st century... with the most up-to-date methods in a sector where the traditional and the cutting-edge merge."

Much of Spain's sheep and goat farming is concentrated in rugged Extremadura. The school at Casar de Caceres is one of several across the country, the first set up in the northern Basque Country in 1997.
- Tech and tradition -

"The traditional image of a shepherd wandering through the fields all day" doesn't exist any more, said Jurgen Robledo, a vet who said the students are taught how to use many hi-tech tools including milk control programmes.


This year, 10 students are taking the five-month course which also includes hands-on experience of working with animals.

Thibault Gohier, 26, is learning how to milk goats and to identify whether any of them are sick, which could affect the quality of their milk.

"You need to use your fingertips as if they were your eyes," said Felipe Escobero, who heads the farm where the school is based, as they feel a black goat's mammary lymph nodes at the top of the udder.

When they're healthy, "they should feel like an almond", Escobero added.

The course also covers financial matters and how to fill out certificates attesting to animal welfare or pesticide use.

Completely free, it is funded by the Cooprado livestock farmers' cooperative.

Vet Robledo said modern hi-tech tools mean shepherds can now "measure the individual (milk) production of each animal.

"Such data can let a farmer see if production has dropped due to a subclinical mastitis infection by detecting a drop in production in a certain number of animals."


Unlike normal mastitis, such infections don’t cause any visible changes to the milk or udder appearance, making them difficult to detect, although they do affect the farmer's bottom line by reducing milk production and quality.
- Different backgrounds -

Some students already work in farming and want to specialise, while others are completely new to the field, such as Vanesa Castillo, who is taking the course with her 17-year-old daughter Arancha Morales.

Originally employed at an old people's home until it shut down two years ago, leaving her scrambling for work, her dream now is to have a sheep farm.

"We're looking for a way to bring home some money," said her daughter, whose father can't work after having an accident.

Both women know they face an uphill battle, above all to find an affordable piece of land for their flock, a common problem across Extremadura.

Thibault Gohier comes from a very different background.


A young Frenchman who loves animals and the countryside, his dream is to have "a bed and breakfast with a small farm attached with about 30 animals" in a mountainous area of France.

As the other students are learning to shear, El Ouardani El Boutaybi is feeding dozens of restless goats who are scampering around a pen.

"I did the shepherds' school and all the practical courses in June 2020... and then they took me on to work with them," said the 20-year-old, who comes from the coastal town of Nador in northeastern Morocco.


He got to Spain in 2017 after crossing the fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa, where he spent time in a centre for unaccompanied minors before being transferred to the peninsula.

"I've got a future working in the countryside," he said proudly.

du/hmw/mg/kjm/fg

China's drone carrier hints at 'swarm' ambitions for Pacific

This handout photo provided by Yuman Gao and Rui Jin on May 4, 2022 shows a new flight path planning system enables drone swarms to fly through crowded forests without collisions. 

(Photo: Yuman Gao and Rui Jin/AFP/Handout)

08 Jun 2022 

PARIS: Officially it is just a research vessel, but China's newly unveiled drone carrier is a clear sign Beijing is rushing to deploy an autonomous swarm of unmanned devices in its push for military supremacy in the Pacific Ocean.

State media last month showed the launching of the Zhu Hai Yun - "Zhu Hai Cloud" - capable of transporting an unspecified number of flying drones as well as surface and submarine craft, and operating autonomously thanks to artificial intelligence.T

The 89m ship would be operational by year-end with a top speed of 18 knots, vastly increasing China's surveillance potential of the vast Pacific area it considers its zone of influence.

"The vessel is not only an unprecedented precision tool at the frontier of marine science, but also a platform for marine disaster prevention and mitigation, seabed precision mapping, marine environment monitoring, and maritime search and rescue," Chen Dake, lab director at the firm that built the carrier, told China Daily.

Armies worldwide see drone squadrons as key players in combat, able to overwhelm defence systems by sheer numbers and without putting soldiers' lives at risk, such as with more expensive jets or tanks.

"It's probably a first-of-its-kind development but other navies across the world, including the US Navy, are experimenting with remote warfare capabilities in the maritime domain," said US Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Lushenko, who is also an international relations specialist at Cornell University in New York.

Even if the vessel's actual capabilities remain to be seen, Beijing is broadcasting its intent to cement territorial claims in the region, as seen with the security partnership agreed last month with the Solomon Islands northeast of Australia.

"It's definitely imposing, provocative, escalatory and aggressive," Lushenko told AFP.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Building fleets of autonomous and relatively inexpensive drones would greatly augment China's ability to enforce so-called anti-access and area denial (A2-AD) in the Pacific, with the aim of weakening decades of US influence.

Unlike traditional aircraft carriers or destroyers carrying hundreds of troops, the drone carrier could itself navigate for longer periods while sending out devices that create a surveillance "net," potentially able to fire missiles as well.

The Zhu Hai Yun could also improve China's mapping of the seafloor, providing a covert advantage for its submarines.

"These are capabilities that are likely to be critical in any future conflicts that China wages, including over the island of Taiwan," strategists Joseph Trevithick and Oliver Parken wrote on the influential War Zone site.

Beijing has made no secret of its desire to wrest control of Taiwan, and military experts say it is closely watching the West's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine to gauge how and when it might make its move.

And last month, Chinese researchers published a drone swarm experiment allegedly showing 10 devices autonomously navigating a dense patch of bamboo forest, without crashing into the trees or each other.

"The ultimate goal is something that has a collective intelligence," said Jean-Marc Rickli, head of risks at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

"The analogy is a bit like a school of fish. They create forms in the water that are not the decision of any single fish, but the result of their collective intelligence," he told AFP.

GAME-CHANGER

It would be a big technological advance from current weapons, which can be programmed and semi-autonomous but must have human operators to react to unexpected challenges.

A fleet of self-navigating drones could in theory incapacitate defence systems or advancing forces by sheer numbers, saturating combat zones on land or at sea until an opponent's arsenal is depleted.

"A conventional attack becomes impossible when you're facing dozens, hundreds or thousands of devices that are much cheaper to develop and operate than heavy conventional weapons," Rickli said.

Noting this profound shift in modern warfare, a RAND Corporation study from 2020 found that while unmanned vehicles need significant improvements in onboard processing, "the overall computing capability required will be modest by modern standards - certainly less than that of a contemporary smartphone."

"A squadron of approximately 900 personnel, properly equipped and trained, could launch and recover 300 L-CAATs every six hours, for a total of 1,200 sorties per day," it said, referring to low-cost attributable aircraft technology - meaning devices so cheap an army can afford to lose them.

"We do have indications that China is making rapid capabilities development," Lushenko said of Beijing's new drone carrier.

"What we lack is empirical data to suggest that China's one-party state can actually employ the ship in an integrated fashion in conflict."

Source: AFP

FSU professor answers questions about the sea for World Oceans Day

Bill Wellock
Wed, June 8, 2022

Families and friends gather at St. George Island beach as many enjoy their spring break vacations Thursday, March 25, 2021. DURING COVID OUTBREAK

The United Nations marks June 8 as World Oceans Day, an opportunity to celebrate the ocean and how it supports life on Earth.

As director of Florida State University’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), Eric Chassignet leads investigations into the physical processes that govern the ocean and its interactions with the atmosphere. He spoke about his research and questions scientists are trying to answer about the ocean.

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Eric Chassignet is director of Florida State University’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies.

Q: What are some of the factors that make the ocean so important?

A. The ocean covers about 70% of the Earth and plays a major role in transporting heat from the equator to the poles. Ninety-seven percent of the water on Earth is in the ocean, and most of the rain on Earth comes from evaporation over the ocean. The ocean can also store about 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere, helping control temperatures.

But that may be changing. Since 1870, oceans have absorbed most of the carbon dioxide produced from burning oil and gas. However, research shows that the ocean’s ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide might be declining, therefore leading to an increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and an amplification of the Earth’s greenhouse effect.

Of course, there are other reasons why the ocean is important. It is a vast and diverse ecosystem and a major source of food. For many, the ocean is also a source of livelihood and a place for recreation and relaxation.

Q. Tell me about your research.

A. My main research interest is on the role of the ocean in climate variability using computer models and observations. I am especially interested in the dynamics behind ocean currents and ocean eddies and their impact on the world ocean circulation.

Ocean models are complex computer programs that simulate the physical state and dynamic properties of oceans. At COAPS, we use global and regional models to study processes such as the ocean’s response to a hurricane or to improve both short- and long-term ocean forecasts. Just as meteorologists make weather forecasts, we do the same thing for the ocean.

While changes in currents do not affect the public as much as changes in the weather, it does matter. If you’re a fisherman, for example, you would like to know where there is a change in sea surface temperature, which identifies the edge of a current where fish congregate.

The Navy needs to know the temperature distribution at depths for operating their submarines. An in-depth knowledge of ocean currents saves fuel when routing cargo ships. And most importantly, ocean predictions are essential in determining where oil may go in case of a major spill such as the one that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Q. How has research changed during your career?

A. The biggest aspect is in computing. The computing power of a smartphone is as much as a supercomputer of the 1980s. What we can do now with supercomputers is just amazing. Technology, and the type of modeling we can do, has changed so much in the past 40 years. Now we integrate global computer models at extremely high resolution, as small as 1 kilometer.

Q. What are the big unanswered questions in ocean-atmospheric forecasting?

A. Our biggest challenge is understanding the interaction between the ocean and the other Earth system components (atmosphere, the frozen parts of the ocean and land). We are reaching a point in the technology where one can perform Earth system predictions, not just weather or ocean current predictions alone.

For example, how does the melting Arctic ice cover modify the ocean’s properties? How does the atmosphere respond to changes in the ocean? What is the importance of the ocean in our changing climate?

Plastic Symptoms Co-Founders Heather Bolint and Bryan Galvin stand atop the steps of the Florida Historic Capitol after two hours of unloading nearly 3,000 pounds of garbage the pair collected from the ocean along Florida's coastline onto the steps. They brought the load to the Capitol Monday, July 29, 2019, to bring awareness to the harms of single-use plastics.

Q. What's something that would surprise people to learn about the ocean?

A. The amount of mismanaged plastic waste in the ocean. And where it ends up.

We know that 80% of litter in the ocean comes from land sources, and plastics are the most abundant type of litter. At COAPS, we developed a global marine litter model to show where litter in the ocean comes from and where it goes. In this model, you can see the trajectories of litter as it is moved around by the ocean currents.

For example, some of the plastic debris that originates from the east coast of the United States travels across the Atlantic Ocean to Western Europe. It might surprise people to know that a piece of trash dumped off the west coast of the United States can travel all the way across the Pacific and Indian oceans and end up washing ashore on the east coast of Africa.

It shows just how interconnected we all are, and that is all through the ocean.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU professor talks climate, predictions, plastics on World Oceans Day

WORLD OCEANS DAY

The Mediterranean is the world's most overfished sea and in Italy,

 illegal fishing has became a big problem. FRANCE 24's Natalia Mendoza reports.

Singapore warily monitors rising sea levels as world marks Oceans Day

On World Oceans Day 2022, climate experts and activists aim to inform the public on the impact of human activity on the seas. It's a familiar topic in Singapore, where rising sea levels pose an existential threat to the city-state of 6 million inhabitants.

Dr Jędrzej Majewski, a research fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, plunges a scale into the water to measure the current sea level.

The water level right now is not alarming, but that, Majewski warns, could change. "Under the high emission target, we may reach 90 centimeters something and there is some very low probability that because we don't understand the Antarctic ice sheets, there may be advances that make it rise to actually roughly 1.7 meters... it's the size of me," said Majewski with a wry smile.

The smile though hides a very real fear for the future of this wealthy island nation. One of the richest countries in the world, Singapore is also one of the most endangered.

Click on the video player to view the full report

WORLD OCEANS DAY
Oceans of opportunity: How seaweed can helpfight climate change

Cyrielle CABOT AFP

It’s a nutritional food source, an alternative to plastic, has medicinal properties and can help limit global warming: Marine algae might just be the next weapon in the fight against climate change.

  

© Loïc Venance, AFP

This article was originally published on February 8, 2022, during the One Ocean Summit in the northern French town of Brest. FRANCE 24 is republishing it on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, on the occasion of World Oceans Day.

From February 9 to 11, the French town of Brest hosted the One Ocean Summit, the first international summit dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans. Scientists, activists, business leaders and heads of state met in the Breton town to discuss how to protect marine ecosystems and promote sustainability.

Philippe Potin, a marine biologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and Vincent Doumeizel, a senior advisor and food expert for the United Nations Global Compact, spoke to FRANCE 24 about what’s at stake at the summit.

There’s one point on which they are unanimous. “We have to invest in marine algae!” they say.

“Often, when we talk about algae, it conjures up this negative image of piles of green or brown slime washed up on beaches in Brittany or the Caribbean. It’s a real shame,” says Potin. “When seaweed ends up on beaches, it’s because it’s been dragged up from the seabed by pollution or industrial activity. It’s not the problem, it’s a consequence.”

"The reality is that these plants play a vital role for our planet,” Potin continues. Seaweed is to marine environments what forests are to the land. “They’re also the lungs of the planet. Thanks to their photosynthesizing, they absorb CO2 and emit oxygen,” he explains. “Alone, they are responsible for half of all of Earth’s renewal of oxygen. They are hugely helpful for the climate.”

"They are also indispensable to ocean life because they help to create habitats for thousands of different types of fish and shellfish. There’s then a knock-on effect, because it’s in part thanks to algae that we have such a variety of fishing stock on the coasts.”

In total, some 10,000 species of algae visible to the naked eye grow across the planet – from sea lettuce in Brittany to Tasmanian kelp and wakame in Japan.
‘The world’s most under-used resource’

On top of the role seaweed plays for the climate and biodiversity, it can also be useful across a number of other sectors, like food, industry and even medicine.

“It’s one of the world’s most under-used resources,” says Doumeizel. “Our planet is made up of 70 percent water and yet the seas and oceans only account for three percent of our food supply. It’s absurd.”

He goes on, “We know that one of the biggest challenges we face this century is that we have reached our limit on land in terms of the food industry. We’re running out of land and intensive agriculture is particularly damaging for the planet … It’s clearly time to think of new ways of doing things.”

So could seaweed be the magic answer to these problems? It’s already a daily foodstuff in Asia and is recommended by dieticians, who say it’s packed full of fibre, protein and vitamins and is low in fat. According to a study carried out by Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, devoting just two percent of the world’s oceans to farming algae could produce enough protein to fulfil the needs of everyone on the planet.

It’s not just humans who stand to benefit. “We can also use it to feed animals, particularly cattle. It would help to improve their immune system,” says Doumeizel. In the agricultural sector, a number of French villages – mostly in Brittany – already use seaweed as fertiliser.

Seaweed is already starting to leave its mark in the medical sector, predominantly in antifungal creams or anti-inflammatory products. Fucales, a type of brown algae, are known for being able to ease heartburn. Recently, researchers registered a patent for a cream and a gel to treat acne made from a type of microalgae.

In the industrial sector, Europe already counts several companies using seaweed to manufacture biodegradable packaging as an alternative to plastic. "Other companies are planning on using it to make clothing. In the Netherlands, a start-up is even looking into producing sanitary products made from seaweed,” says Doumeizel.

One place where it’s actually hard to use algae is in the energy sector. Potin tells FRANCE 24, “For a while we thought about using seaweed to make a biofuel, but the sheer quantity needed to do it is just too much.”

 
Rest of the world trailing behind Asia

"In reality, none of this is anything new. Algae has been consumed for hundreds of years. Prehistoric people ate it, as well as indigenous people all over the world,” explains Doumeizel. “The practice simply disappeared almost everywhere during the Roman and Greek period, apart from in Asia.”

Nowadays, Asia is a pioneer in algaculture – the farming of algae – and is responsible for 99 percent of global production. In 2015, China was the world’s leading producer, with 13 million tonnes collected, followed by Indonesia with 9 million tonnes.

In Europe, France and Norway are the biggest producers in a sector that’s still in its infancy. According to a report by the European Commission on the ‘Blue Economy’, only 32 percent of algae in Europe comes from algae farms. The remaining 68 percent comes from wild farming, or harvesting the plants directly from their natural environment. “We’re still at the hunter-gatherer stage!” says Doumeizel wryly.

The global market is rapidly growing, however. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, production tripled between 2000 and 2018. The report notes that algae accounts for the fastest-growing food sector in the world.

 
Finding a balance between farming and sustainability

Potin and Doumeizel are calling to accelerate research in algaculture. “Beyond its economic potential, it’s even more important because lots of alga species are disappearing, due to ocean heating and climate change,” explains Potin, drawing on the example of a forest of seaweed off the coast of California that has declined by 80 percent in the last few years. “Developing algaculture would allow us to restore ecosystems.”

“But of course, this has to be done carefully and with a lot of thought,” he adds. “We mustn’t damage our oceans even further by doing anything we can to grow algae.” In Asia, algaculture has already come up against limitations. Just as with intensive agriculture, algaculture is often blamed for taking up too much space. The use of fertiliser for accelerating production is also very common. “And often it’s monocultures that are grown, which effectively wipe out other species,” Potin notes with regret.

There’s an added challenge for algae farming in Europe. “Amongst the thousands of species of algae that exist, we are only able to farm about 10, and mostly Asian species. We have to do more research on European species. We want to avoid importing exotic algae that could disrupt ecosystems here,” emphasises Potin.

Potin and Doumeizel are part of the team behind the Safe Seaweed Coalition, a new organisation managed by the United Nations, the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Its aim is to bring together businesses, scientists and farmers to set up international legislation for the seaweed industry.

At the One Ocean Summit, Doumeizel will be pushing algae’s many virtues in talks with Barbara Pompili, France’s minister of ecological transition. “France has huge potential. Brittany has a seaweed zone that’s unique in the world,” he says. “The government has to take advantage of it.”

This story is a translation of the original in French.