Sir Mo Farah reveals he was illegally trafficked to the UK as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant

Mo Farah, the most decorated British track athlete in history, was brought to the UK illegally as a child with fake travel documents.

(AFP: Adrian Dennis)

Sir Mohamed Farah — Britain's most successful track athlete — has revealed he was the victim of illegal trafficking when he was a child.

Key points:

Farah was brought to the United Kingdom illegally by a woman he had never met when he was nine years old

The Olympian was forced to do housework and childcare and wasn't allowed to attend school for three years

Since becoming a British citizen, Farah has become the country's most successful male track distance runner

In a documentary titled "The Real Mo Farah" due to air on the BBC this week, Farah said he was flown to the United Kingdom from Djibouti at the age of nine by a woman he had never met, given a new name, and then was forced to look after another family's children.

"The truth is, I'm not who you think I am," he said.

The long-distance runner had previously said he came to the UK from Somalia with his parents as a refugee.

"The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin.

"Despite what I've said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.


"When I was four, my dad was killed in the civil war. As a family, we were torn apart. I was separated from my mother and I was brought into the UK, illegally, under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah."

Farah said he was staying with family in Djibouti when he was introduced to a woman he had never met, who then flew him to the UK under false pretences.

He said she told him he was going to stay with a relative in England before providing him with fake travel documents that showed his photo next to another person's name.

When they arrived, Farah was taken to the woman's house in Hounslow, west London.

"I had all the contact details for my relative and, once we got to her house, the lady took it off me and, right in front of me, ripped them up and put it in the bin.

"At that moment, I knew I was in trouble."

He said he was then forced to do housework and childcare, "if I wanted food in my mouth", and that the woman threatened to never let him see his family again if he spoke out.

Mo Farah (centre) says he's speaking out about his past to raise awareness of the issue of modern-day trafficking and forced labour.(Reuters: Lucy Nicholson)

He was not allowed to attend school for the first few years of his life in England, but eventually enrolled at Feltham Community College when he was 12. It was there that he met Alan Watkinson, a physical education teacher, who fostered his athletic abilities.

Farah eventually confided in Watkinson about his past, with the teacher contacting social services and helping him move to another Somalian foster family.

"I still missed my real family but, from that moment, everything got better," Farah said.

"I felt like a lot of stuff was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like me. That's when Mo came out — the real Mo."

Watkinson also helped Farah apply for British citizenship under his current name, which was granted in July 2000.

Although it was technically obtained under a false name, no action will be taken by the UK Home Office to remove his citizenship as children are not deemed complicit in gaining citizenship by deception according to government guidelines.

Farah has since become the most-decorated athlete in British athletics with 10 global titles, including four Olympic gold medals and six World titles, making him the most successful British male track distance runner in history.

He was awarded a CBE in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for his services to athletics.

He said he wanted to share his story to shine a light on modern-day trafficking and slavery.

"I had no idea there was so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did. It just shows how lucky I was."

US stumbles in monkeypox response

BY JOSEPH CHOI - THE HILL - 07/11/22 7

The U.S. has had a faltering response to the monkeypox outbreak, with confirmed cases jumping to 700 in the two months since outbreaks were first detected and clinics across the country struggling to meet the demand for effective vaccines.

Some public health experts and patients say more needs to be done and warn that mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic are being repeated. 

The monkeypox virus is less infectious than COVID-19 and is so far mostly affecting one community: men who have sex with men. But the U.S. has learned lessons from the coronavirus pandemic that should still help the nation control monkeypox, experts say. 

Leana Wen, a research professor of health policy and management at George Washington University as well as Baltimore’s former health commissioner, told The Hill that she has felt a sense of déjà vu.

“Probably the most significant one to me is the lack of testing. We saw during COVID that every case that was found was like the canary in the coal mine, that they really were just the tip of the iceberg,” Wen said. “And that was because there was such little testing available. Why haven’t we learned our lesson?”

Last week, one of the largest laboratory testing networks in the U.S., Labcorp, announced it would begin testing for monkeypox using tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The company will be able to conduct about 10,000 tests daily.

In its announcement, Labcorp recommended that people contact their health care providers to initiate monkeypox testing and sample collecting, a more cumbersome process compared to COVID-19 tests, especially for people who don’t have a regular health care provider.

Wen said monkeypox testing should not be made into a complex process, noting that performing the test itself is fairly simple: Monkeypox tests involve swabbing the base of the characteristic lesions that form after infection.

More than 760 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the U.S. as of Monday across almost 40 states, which is almost certainly an undercount as many may be unaware that they are infected or have not yet been tested.

Unlike COVID-19, monkeypox is not a novel virus, it does not spread as easily and is largely transmitted through close, skin-to-skin contact. And although it is currently affecting relatively few people in the U.S., advocates and scientists worry this outbreak may spread out of control.

Jay Varma, an epidemiologist who served as senior health adviser to former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), said in a recent interview that he feared monkeypox could become entrenched in the U.S.

“If we don’t really get ahead of this, then we are going to fall further behind and it will become a permanent part of our disease landscape,” Varma said.

De Blasio himself urged the federal government to ramp up access to monkeypox vaccines on Twitter Monday. 

New York’s gay community has been particularly hard hit by the outbreak. The state Department of Health said in a tweet on Tuesday that 111 people had tested positive in New York City as of last week, up from 55 a week prior.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) made note of the unmet demand for monkeypox vaccines in a letter he sent to President Biden on Monday. Adams asked that the White House consider a different vaccination schedule that allowed for a longer interval period between the two doses of the preferred smallpox vaccine Jynneos so that more people could be immediately immunized.

In an NBC News report published last week, several gay men who tested positive for monkeypox detailed exasperating experiences in communicating with public health officials when attempting to get tested and share their possible close contacts. One man in New York said it took nearly a week before he was able to get tested and possible contacts’ names.

Clinics in major cities like New York and Washington, D.C., have quickly run out of available vaccine doses. 

New York gave no warning before announcing its own vaccine push late last month, running out of doses within hours with no word on when more shots would be available. On Monday, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced that an additional 1,250 doses would be made available.

Health authorities maintain that monkeypox does not pose a threat to the general public, and the mortality rate for the virus is low.

Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that this recent monkeypox outbreak could very well be a sign of an “age of epidemics” that the world is entering.

“As people interact more and more with wild animals — whether it’s in wet markets as food or moving into their habitats because of population growth — we are going to see people get exposed more and more to exotic pathogens,” Toner said.

Overall, Toner said he felt that the response has been adequate considering the limitations, noting the inherent difficulties in measures like contact tracing as well as the swift manner in which the federal government deployed vaccines and placed orders for more.

“I don’t think that they have been slow. I don’t think it’s the case that they haven’t learned lessons from COVID-19,” he said.

Still others say that the response has not been as streamlined as it could be. One senior Biden administration official, speaking anonymously, acknowledged to The New York Times last week that monkeypox testing has not been as fast or convenient as it needs to be. Contributing factors included negotiations with labs, ramping up testing supplies and training personnel, according to the official.

MEET THE NEW BOSS SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Sri Lanka's fallen dynasty is already planning its next comeback

Mr Namal Rajapaksa (third from right) praying along with his father Mahinda Rajapaksa (left) before assuming his duties as Sri Lanka's Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs on Aug 18, 2020. PHOTO: AFP

COLOMBO (BLOOMBERG) - For years, Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa dynasty ruled the island nation with an iron fist, striking fear into political opponents, journalists and other perceived threats to their power. Now protesters are chasing them out of their homes, and out of power.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 73, is set to resign on Wednesday (July 13) after months of street protests over surging prices and shortages of basic goods such as food or petrol.

After spending his time holed up at his official seaside residence, protesters shouting "Gota Go Home" forced him to flee on Saturday while breaching the gates of the compound in dramatic scenes.

The unrest showed the public fury at Rajapaksa, whose three-year administration has left Sri Lanka pleading for cash from the International Monetary Fund and nations like China and India after defaulting on foreign debt for the first time since independence from Britain in 1948.

Bondholders are also furious: One last month named the Rajapaksas in a lawsuit seeking more than US$250 million in unpaid debt - the first of potentially many others.

Yet it wasn't only demonstrators that wanted Rajapaksa out of office: Even other members of his family saw him as a lame-duck leader.

And one in particular, his 36-year-old nephew Namal Rajapaksa, has already been thinking of how the dynasty can restore its reputation over the long term even as the increasingly violent protests had some observers wondering if the whole family would be forced into exile.

In a recent interview at the ruling party's office in Colombo, which was vandalised by a mob during the May 9 violence, Namal said that Gotabaya "should complete his term and then go".

He described the family's current predicament as a "temporary setback", adding that the goal now was "to provide as much stability as we can to address the basic needs of the people, and in the meantime work on long-term strategies".

Namal is the eldest son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, 76, the current president's brother who previously held the top job from 2005 to 2015.

With Gotabaya as his defence minister during that time, Mahinda crushed a three-decade insurgency from Tamil rebels using brutal tactics that prompted widespread concerns about civilian deaths. At the same time, the brothers sought to crush political opposition and racked up billions of dollars worth of debt, mostly to China.

Although the Rajapaksas lost power in a dramatic 2015 election, they came roaring back four years later - with Gotabaya as president and Mahinda as prime minister.

But a series of policy blunders combined with the pandemic soon brought about food and fuel shortages that triggered mass protests, eventually prompting Mahinda to step down as prime minister in May.

That decision drove a wedge between the brothers, according to people familiar with the situation, who said that Mahinda for weeks had resisted Gotabaya's calls that he step aside before relenting.

Of the six Rajapakas in the cabinet at the start of the year, Gotabaya was the last one standing - and he'll soon be gone.

The tensions between the brothers reflects their different leadership styles, according to Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based research group.

"Mahinda is a populist politician who the people still love," Saravanamuttu said. "But Gota is a much more reserved, introverted person, and has no experience in governance."

Whereas public sparring had once been rare for the Rajapaksas, now they are pointing fingers at one another.

In an interview last month at his official residence now occupied by protesters, Gotabaya acknowledged that sweeping tax cuts and a fertiliser ban implemented shortly after he took office didn't work.

But he characterised those misfires as collective ones, and said his push for a bailout last year from the International Monetary Fund but was rebuffed by advisers and relatives until protests got out of hand.

"I didn't get the support or proper implementation from people who were responsible," Gotabaya said, adding that he wouldn't stand again for the presidency after his term expires in 2024.

Namal said his father disagreed over whether to implement sweeping tax cuts and urged Gotabaya not to go ahead with an ill-timed ban on synthetic fertilisers.

"Had my father been the president, he would have never taken that decision," Namal said. Mahinda didn't respond to requests for comment.

No matter who is responsible, the Rajapaksas are facing a record low and are in need of a rebrand.

And Namal is positioning himself as the main person from the next generation to take the mantle.

During the interview, Namal spoke in a measured, calm voice like a seasoned politician. A fan of bodybuilding, the former sports minister wore a short-sleeved shirt that left part of his biceps visible.

Namal made clear that his policies would be more in line with those of his father than his uncle. Sri Lanka's problem, he said, was that it deviated from a plan to turn Sri Lanka into a manufacturing and transshipment hub.

He also saw a need to upgrade airports to attract more tourists and improve agricultural output so the country had ample supplies to feed itself.

He acknowledged his family's history in the halls of power but also said he doesn't believe in "dynastic politics".

"My father started 55 years ago from Hambantota, I started five years ago - it's a long journey in politics," Namal said. "This is a rough patch, so face it and move forward."

In Hambantota district on the southern coastline, the family's base of power for decades, the political fate of the Rajapaksas remains in question. Armed soldiers patrol outside their sprawling ancestral bungalow, which was reduced to burned-out rubble in May.

Locals also destroyed a museum built in the family's honour, vandalised their tombs and toppled a gold-plated statue depicting a family hero. The family's connection to Hambantota stretches back decades.

D.A. Rajapaksa, Mahinda and Gotabaya's father, was a prominent lawmaker.

Relatives have homes scattered across the district. Nuan Sameera, 60, a farmer from the village of Hukura Wallya, recalled fondly how Mahinda used to frequent a nearby temple and mingle with locals.

"They are part of us," Sameera said, even as he criticised the Rajapaksas for the shortage of food and fertilizer.

Rajapaksa critics associate Hambantota with the clan's extravagant spending habits. An international airport built a decade ago in their name is devoid of passenger flights. A sprawling cricket stadium hardly hosts international matches. And cargo ships barely dock at a US$1 billion port constructed with Chinese money.

Even so, Mahinda remains popular in Hambantota, a largely agrarian district set amidst watery rice paddies and coconut trees.

Sunil Rajapaksa, a farmer who isn't related to the family but lives near one of their houses, said he wouldn't be surprised if Namal leads the dynasty into a new era.

"If Bongbong Marcos could come back, why not the Rajapaksas?" he said, referring to the son of a former dictator who just won the presidency in the Philippines. "It's just a matter of time before people realise that the Rajapaksas worked to better the country."

Namal is clear about one thing: He has no plans to flee Sri Lanka, as some rumors suggested at the height of the chaos in May.

"We will never leave the country - it will never happen," he said. "If the people don't want us, they have the ballot - not the bullet."

POLITE PROTESTERS

Fleeing Rajapaksa’s cash handed to Sri Lankan police

Gotabaya Rajapaksa(centre) escaped through a back door under escort from naval personnel and was taken away by boat, heading to the northeast of the island, official sources told AFP. — Reuters pic

Monday, 11 Jul 2022 3:48 PM MYT

COLOMBO, July 11 — Millions of rupees in cash left behind by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa when he fled his official residence in the capital will be handed over to court on Monday, police said.

Protesters discovered 17.85 million rupees ($292,204.50 Canadian Dollar) in crisp new banknotes but turned it over to police following Saturday’s storming of the Presidential palace.

“The cash was taken over by the police and will be produced in court today,” a police spokesman said.

Official sources said a suitcase full of documents had also been left behind at the stately mansion.

Rajapaksa took up residence at the two-century-old building after he was driven out of his private home on March 31 when protesters tried to storm it.

The 73-year-old leader escaped through a back door under escort from naval personnel and was taken away by boat, heading to the northeast of the island, official sources told AFP.

His exact whereabouts were not known Monday morning, but Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Rajapaksa had officially informed him of his intention to resign.

The 73-year-old Wickremesinghe will automatically become acting president in the event of Rajapaksa’s resignation, but has himself announced his willingness to step down if consensus is reached on forming a unity government.

Rajapaksa had already told parliamentary Speaker Mahinda Abeywardana that he will quit on Wednesday to allow a “peaceful transition”, hours after he was forced out of his official residence.

Tens of thousands of protesters captured Rajapaksa’s sea-front office shortly after overrunning the palace on Saturday.

Protesters had been camping outside the Presidential Secretariat for over three months demanding his resignation over the country’s unprecedented economic crisis.

Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy to a point where the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports leading to severe hardships for the 22 million population.

Thousands of men and women on Monday continued to occupy the state buildings they had taken over at the weekend, vowing to remain until Rajapaksa steps down.

The roads leading to the palace were choked with tens of thousands of people on Sunday visiting the mansion that had previously been the country’s most tightly-guarded building.

An effigy of Rajapaksa was hung on a clock tower near the palace.

The protesters are also demanding the resignation of Wickremesinghe, an opposition legislator who was made premier in May to try and lead the country out of its economic crisis.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its US$51 billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.

Sri Lanka has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol. The government has ordered the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce commuting and save fuel. — AFP

Sri Lanka: 'Far from certain Rajapaksa's resignation will be enough to quell protesters' anger'

• FRANCE 24 English

Sri Lanka: Gotabaya Rajapaksa agrees to quit after palace stormed

President plans to step down on July 13, says Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena

Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

File picture

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Reuters, NYTNS, PTI   |   Colombo   |   Published 10.07.22, 03:11 AM

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Thousands of protesters stormed the Sri Lankan President’s official residence and set the Prime Minister’s private home on fire in Colombo on Saturday as anger intensified over the country’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to step down from the presidency on July 13, the Speaker of the country’s parliament said on Saturday, just hours after protesters stormed into the presidential house.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in a video statement, said Rajapaksa had informed him that he would step down from his post on Wednesday.

“The decision to step down on 13 July was taken to ensure a peaceful handover of power,” Abeywardena said. “I therefore request the public to respect the law and maintain peace.” 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is willing to resign to make way for an all-party government, his office said in a statement on Saturday evening, although it was not immediately clear if this or measures proposed by the parliamentary Speaker would resolve the crisis.

The country’s political leaders, including Rajapaksa’s own lawmakers, too, have asked him to resign, two lawmakers confirmed.

Two defence ministry sources said Rajapaksa had been moved out of his official residence on Friday for his safety ahead of the planned weekend rally.

His whereabouts could not be ascertained but a video circulating on social media suggested a VIP motorcade had arrived at Colombo airport where a SriLanka Airlines aircraft was parked.

Protesters holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets broke into Rajapaksa’s residence, some of them scaling the boundary walls, video footage from local NewsFirst TV channel showed.

Protesters also broke into Wickremesinghe’s private residence and set it on fire, the Prime Minister’s office said. The Prime Minister had been moved to a secure location, a government source told Reuters.

At least 39 people, including two police officers, were injured and hospitalised during the protests, hospital sources told Reuters.

Thousands also broke open the gates of the sea-front presidential secretariat and finance ministry, which has been the site of a sit-in protest for months, and entered the premises, TV footage showed.

Military personnel and police at both locations were unable to hold back the sloganeering crowd.

A Facebook live-stream from inside the President’s house showed hundreds of protesters, some draped in flags, packing into rooms and corridors, shouting slogans against Rajapaksa.

Video footage of protesters standing — and some bathing in the swimming pool inside the President’s home — was widely circulated on social media. The protesters were occupying the premises in the evening without violence or vandalism, reports said.

Hundreds also milled about on the grounds outside the colonial-era, white-washed building. No security officials were visible.

Wickremesinghe held talks with several political party leaders to decide what steps to take following the unrest.

“Wickremesinghe has told the party leaders that he is willing to resign as Prime Minister and make way for an all-party government to take over,” his office said in a statement.

Speaker Abeywardena said in a letter to Rajapaksa that several decisions had been made at the meeting of leaders from parties — including the President and the Prime Minister resigning as soon as possible and parliament being called within seven days to select an acting president.

“Under the acting President the present parliament can appoint a new Prime Minister and an interim government,” said the letter released by the Speaker’s office.

“Afterwards under a set time an election can be held for the people to elect a new parliament,” the letter  added.

Leaders of several Opposition parties have also called for Rajapaksa to resign.

“The President and the Prime Minister must resign immediately. If that does not happen political instability will worsen,” said Sri Lanka Freedom Party leader and former President Maithripala Sirisena, speaking before Wickremesinghe had offered his resignation.

Economic collapse

The island of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

Soaring inflation, at a record 54.6 per cent in June and expected to hit 70 per cent in the coming months, has heaped hardship on the population.

Political instability could undermine Sri Lanka’s talks with the International Monetary Fund seeking a $3-billion bailout, a restructuring of some foreign debt, and fund-raising from multilateral and bilateral sources to ease the dollar drought.

The crisis comes after Covid-19 hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers. The problem has been compounded by the build-up of huge government debt, rising oil prices and a ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last year that devastated agriculture. The fertiliser ban was reversed in November last year.

Local media has reported the deaths of at least 15 people in fuel queues, from heatstroke and other causes, since the beginning of the crisis.

Many blame the country’s decline on economic mismanagement by Rajapaksa. Largely peaceful protests since March have demanded his resignation.

In May, the President’s brother and then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced out of office, but only after a large group of his supporters marched out of his residence and attacked the camps of peaceful protesters.

The clashes unleashed a wave of violence and vandalism, raising fears that Sri Lanka could break into outright anarchy. Mahinda fled to a military base in the middle of the night.

Curfew lifted

The police had earlier lifted the curfew imposed in seven divisions in the country’s Western Province, including Colombo, ahead of the planned anti-government protests, after facing sustained pressure from top lawyers’ associations, human rights groups and political parties.

On Saturday, the police used tear gas and water cannons and fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the angry crowd from surrounding the presidential residence, an eyewitness said.

The protesters also clashed with railway authorities in the provincial towns of Galle, Kandy and Matara, forcing authorities to operate trains to Colombo.

Despite a severe shortage of fuel that has stalled transport services, demonstrators packed into buses, trains and trucks from several parts of the country to reach Colombo.

Sampath Perera, a 37-year-old fisherman, took an overcrowded bus from the seaside town of Negombo, 45km north of Colombo, to join the protest.

“We have told Gota over and over again to go home but he is still clinging onto power. We will not stop until he listens to us,” Perera said.

The organisers of the movement, “Whole country to Colombo”, said many people were walking from the suburbs to join the protesters at Colombo Fort.

“I came here today to send the President home,” said Wasantha Kiruwaththuduwa, 50, who had walked 16km to join the protest.

The US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, had on Friday urged the country’s military and police to allow peaceful protests.

“Violence is not an answer.… Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now,” she had tweeted.

On Friday, the United Nations too had urged the “Sri Lankan authorities to show restraint in the policing of assemblies and ensure every necessary effort to prevent violence”.

Without fuel, the Sri Lankan economy is grinding to a halt.

Sri Lanka’s government has asked Russia for help to import fuel into the country.

Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

By Karan Deep Singh

July 9, 2022

One of the biggest reasons Sri Lankan residents took to the streets on Saturday is the country’s desperate need for fuel and other energy supplies. The South Asian nation has run out of foreign currency to pay for fuel, bringing its economy grinding to a halt.

The acute fuel shortages have meant that food and medicines can’t be transported. Fresh produce from farms can’t make it to cities. People can’t travel in cars, buses or trains. The government has even asked airlines to make sure they’re carrying enough fuel for their return flights because it can no longer provide jet fuel.

“People are very angry because once fuel is not available, they can’t do anything,” said W. A. Wijewardena, an economist and a former deputy governor for Sri Lanka’s central bank.

The situation is so bad that Sri Lanka’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has sought the help of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. On Wednesday, Mr. Rajapaksa said on Twitter that he had spoken to Mr. Putin by phone to ask him for “credit support” to import fuel in the country.

Mr. Rajapaksa’s decision to request help from Russia shows Sri Lanka’s limited options at a time when oil and gas prices have skyrocketed because of the war in Ukraine, experts say. Even the country’s closest ally, India, has refused to provide more fuel supplies unless Sri Lanka pays for it in advance. Since January, India has provided about $3.5 billion in food, fuel and medicines to the country.

Mr. Wijewardena said that in the days to come, Sri Lankans would have to sacrifice modern comforts. “We will have to walk because we cannot use our cars anymore,” he said.

“The liquid has overtaken the entirety of our modern economy.”

Karan Deep Singh is a reporter and visual journalist based in New Delhi, India. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal, where he was part of a team that was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting and nominated for a national Emmy Award. @Karan_Singhs

GOP TRANSPARENCY

Arizona to ban people filming 

police officers within 8 feet

Fri, July 8, 2022 

A cell phone films a police officer

A law in the US state of Arizona will ban people from filming police officers at short distances, with possible fines or jail for those who don't comply.

Critics call the law a threat to free speech and the right to a free press.

Police are often filmed by bystanders and footage has occasionally resulted in officer misconduct being exposed.

The law comes into effect on 24 September and will make it illegal to film police officers in the state within a distance of 8 feet (2.4m).

People who ignore a verbal warning and continue filming risk a misdemeanour charge and up to 30 days in jail.

The law, however, makes exceptions for people interacting with police, or in enclosed area on private property.

State representative John Kavanagh - who sponsored the bill - has argued it is necessary because "groups hostile to the police" sometimes "get dangerously close to potentially violent encounters".

• Do crime apps and viral videos stop bystanders helping?

• They filmed police brutality - then faced a backlash

"Getting very close to police officers in tense situations is a dangerous practice that can end in tragedy," he wrote in USA Today in March. "Police officers have no way of knowing whether the person approaching is an innocent bystander or an accomplice of the person they're arresting who might assault them."

Opponents of the law, however, say it attempts to discourage people from exercising their rights to film on public property, violating their constitutionally-protected First Amendment rights to free speech.

Additionally, the National Press Photographers Association - an industry group that includes still and TV news photographers - filed an objection to the law in February, arguing that it "runs counter to the clearly established right to photograph and record police officers performing their official duties in a public place.".

Bystander footage of police encounters with the public has played a prominent role in the debate over police misconduct and brutality, particularly against African Americans.

Video of George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin - which was taken by a 17-year-old bystander - later proved to be a key part in the case against the officer.

This week, Chauvin was sentenced to 20 years in prison for violating Mr Floyd's civil rights. He is already serving a 22-year-state sentence for murder.

Another US appeals court upholds right to record police

BY COLLEEN SLEVIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS - 07/11/22

DENVER (AP) — People have a right protected by the First Amendment to film police while they work, a Western U.S. appeals court ruled Monday in a decision that concurs with decisions made by six of the nation’s other 12 appeals court.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruling came in the case of a YouTube journalist and blogger who claimed that a suburban Denver officer blocked him from recording a 2019 traffic stop. Citing decisions from the other courts over about two decades as well as First Amendment principles, the 10th Circuit said the right to record police was clearly established at the time and reinstated the lawsuit of the blogger, Abade Irizarry.

A three-judge panel from the court said that “Mr. Irizarry’s right to film the police falls squarely within the First Amendment’s core purposes to protect free and robust discussion of public affairs, hold government officials accountable, and check abuse of power.”

While bystander video has played a vital role in uncovering examples of police misconduct in recent years, including in the killing of George Floyd, whether or not it is a right is still being determined in courts and debated by lawmakers.

The nation’s five other appeals courts have not ruled yet on the right to record police and the U.S. Supreme Court would likely not get involved in the issue unless appeals courts were on opposite sides of the issue, said Alan Chen, a University of Denver law professor and one of the First Amendment experts also urged the appeals court to rule in favor of the right of people to record police.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s Republican governor last week signed a law that makes it illegal to knowingly video record police officers 8 feet (2.5 meters) or closer without an officer’s permission.

In the Colorado case, a lower court had said there was a right to record police but did not think it was clearly established in 2019 so it blocked the officer from being sued because of the controversial legal doctrine called “qualified immunity.” It shields police officers from misconduct lawsuits unless lawyers can show that the officers were on notice that their actions violated the law at the time.

U.S. government lawyers intervened in Irizarry’s appeal to support the public’s right to record police in the 10th Circuit, which oversees four western and two midwestern states — Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah — as well as parts of Yellowstone National Park that lie in Idaho and Montana.


Irizarry’s lawyer, Andrew Tutt, said the ruling will protect the right of every citizen under the court’s jurisdiction to record police carrying out their duties.

“Today’s decision also adds to the consensus of authority on this important issue, bringing us a step closer to the day when this right is recognized and protected everywhere in the United States,” he said.

In his lawsuit, Irizarry said he was filming a police traffic stop in the city of Lakewood when he claimed Officer Ahmed Yehia stood in front of the camera to block Irizarry from recording. The officer shined a flashlight into Irizarry’s camera and the camera of another blogger. Then Yehia left the two, got into his cruiser and sped the cruiser toward the two bloggers, the lawsuit said. The cruiser swerved before reaching the bloggers and they were not hit, according to the lawsuit.

A telephone message left in the Lakewood city attorney’s office, which represented Yehia, was not returned.

Even though the court said the right to record police existed in 2019, the ruling will mostly have an impact going forward since lawsuits for police misconduct must be brought within two or three years in most states, Chen said.

 NASA Releases Webb Space Telescope’s First Image

 

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris receive a briefing from NASA officials and preview the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Biden unveils Webb space telescope’s first full-colour image of distant galaxies

The first full-color image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a revolutionary apparatus designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the universe, shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, in a composite made from images at different wavelengths taken with a Near-Infrared Camera and released July 11, 2022. — Picture courtesy of Nasa, ESA, CSA, STScl, Webb Ero Production team via Reuters

Tuesday, 12 Jul 2022 

WASHINGTON, July 12 — US President Joe Biden, pausing from political pressures to bask in the glow of the cosmos, yesterday released the debut photo from Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope — an image of a galaxy cluster revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe ever seen.

The White House sneak peek of Webb’s first high-resolution, full-colour image came on the eve of a larger unveiling of photos and spectrographic data that Nasa plans to showcase today at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in suburban Maryland.

The US$9 billion Webb observatory, the largest and most powerful space science telescope ever launched, was designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the known universe, ushering in a revolutionary era of astronomical discovery.

The image showcased by Biden and Nasa chief Bill Nelson showed the 4.6 billion-year-old galaxy cluster named SMACS 0723, whose combined mass acts as a “gravitational lens,” distorting space to greatly magnify the light coming from more distant galaxies behind it.

At least one of the faint, older specs of light appearing in the “background” of the photo — a composite of images of different wavelengths of light — dates back more than 13 billion years, Nelson said. That makes it just 800 million years younger than the Big Bang, the theoretical flashpoint that set the expansion of the known universe in motion some 13.8 billion years ago.

“It’s a new window into the history of our universe,” Biden said before the picture was unveiled. “And today we’re going to get a glimpse of the first light to shine through that window: light from other worlds, orbiting stars far beyond our own. It’s astounding to me.” He was joined at the Old Executive Office Building of the White House complex by Vice President Kamala Harris, who chairs the US National Space Council.

From grain of sand in the sky

On Friday, the space agency posted a list of five celestial subjects chosen for its showcase debut of Webb. These include SMACS 0723, a bejeweled-like sliver of the distant cosmos that according to Nasa offers “the most detailed view of the early universe to date.” It also constitutes the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant cosmos ever taken.

The thousands of galaxies were captured in a tiny patch of the sky roughly the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone standing on Earth, Nelson said.

Webb was constructed under contract by aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp. It was launched to space for Nasa and its European and Canadian counterparts on Christmas Day 2021 from French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America.

The highly anticipated release of its first imagery follows six months of remotely unfurling Webb’s various components, aligning its mirrors and calibrating instruments.

With Webb now finely tuned and fully focused, scientists will embark on a competitively selected list of missions exploring the evolution of galaxies, the life cycles of stars, the atmospheres of distant exoplanets and the moons of our outer solar system.

Built to view its subjects chiefly in the infrared spectrum, Webb is about 100 times more sensitive than its 30-year-old predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, which operates mainly at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.

The much larger light-collecting surface of Webb’s primary mirror — an array of 18 hexagonal segments of gold-coated beryllium metal — enables it to observe objects at greater distances, thus further back in time, than Hubble or any other telescope.

All five of Webb’s introductory targets were previously known to scientists. Among them are two enormous clouds of gas and dust blasted into space by stellar explosions to form incubators for new stars — the Carina Nebula and the Southern Ring Nebula, each thousands of light years away from Earth.

The collection also includes a galaxy clusters known as Stephan’s Quintet, which was first discovered in 1877 and encompasses several galaxies described by Nasa as “locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.” Nasa will also present Webb’s first spectrographic analysis of an exoplanet — one roughly half the mass of Jupiter that lies more than 1,100 light years away — revealing the molecular signatures of filtered light passing through its atmosphere. — Reuters

China bank protesters win promise of repayments

Henan officials say funds frozen at rural banks will be paid back in batches

Demonstrators hold up signs during a protest over the freezing of deposits by some rural-based banks, outside a People's Bank of China building in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, on July 10. © Reuters
July 12, 2022 08:42 JST


BEIJING (Reuters) -- Authorities in China's Henan province said on Monday they will start paying back first on behalf of several rural banks funds of some clients that had been frozen, in a bid to ease anxiety among depositors that led to rare protests over the weekend.

Payments will be made in batches, with the first due on July 15, the local banking and insurance regulator and financial regulatory bureau of Henan province said in a joint statement.

On Sunday, about 1,000 people gathered outside the provincial branch of the Chinese central bank in Henan's capital of Zhengzhou to demand action.

In April, a number of banks in Henan froze deposits raised from ordinary Chinese people, with Chinese media reporting that the frozen deposits could be worth up to $1.5 billion. An investigation for possible fraud is underway.

Police say they have arrested some suspects and frozen funds in connection with the disappearance of the deposits, according to an official notice posted late on Sunday.

Henan police said the suspects were able to effectively control a number of the province's banks via a group company, according to the notice posted on an official WeChat account.

The criminal cohort used third-party financial product platforms and a firm they set up themselves to gather deposits and sell other financial products. They then made fictitious loans as a way to illegally transfer the funds, the notice said.

Payments will be made to some customers of Yuzhou Xinminsheng Rural Bank, Shangcai Huimin County Bank, Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank and Kaifeng New Oriental Rural Bank starting on July 15 on behalf of the lenders, the Henan financial authorities said in their statement.

China detains alleged bank fraud ‘gang’ after rare mass protests

Demonstrators hold banners during a protest over the freezing of deposits by rural-based banks, outside a People's Bank of China building in Zhengzhou, Henan province July 10, 2022. — Reuters pic

Monday, 11 Jul 2022 2:22 PM MYT

BEIJING, July 11 — Members of a “criminal gang” accused of taking control of local banks have been arrested in central China after rare protests over alleged financial corruption sparked violent clashes between customers and authorities.

Hit hard by the country’s economic slowdown, four banks in Henan province have since mid-April frozen all cash withdrawals, leaving thousands of small savers without funds and sparking sporadic demonstrations.

In one of the largest such rallies yet, hundreds gathered Sunday outside a branch of the People’s Bank of China in Henan’s capital Zhengzhou demanding their money, according to multiple witnesses who declined to be named.

Protesters held banners accusing local officials and police of corruption, calling on the central government to “give severe punishment to Henan”, video footage verified by AFP showed.

Local authorities did not immediately comment on the protests, but police in nearby Xuchang city said late Sunday that they had arrested members of an alleged “criminal gang” for their suspected involvement in a scheme to gain control of local banks.

The gang made illegal transfers through fictitious loans and used their shareholdings — as well as “manipulation of executives” — to effectively take over several local banks starting in 2011, police said.

The province’s banking and insurance regulator also said late Sunday that it was “accelerating” plans to tackle the local financial crisis and “protect the legal rights and interests of the broader public.” Footage of Sunday’s rally showed the protestors throwing objects, while one participant told AFP on Sunday that demonstrators were hit and injured by unidentified men.

Another video verified by AFP showed a crying woman complaining about her lost money being forced onto a bus by police.

Another man with a swollen eye said he had been beaten by “gangsters” and dragged onto the bus by police.

Some demonstrators accused officials of colluding with local banks to suppress rallies, and provincial authorities were suspected last month of abusing the country’s mandatory health code to effectively bar protestors from public spaces.

Demonstrations are relatively rare in tightly controlled China, where authorities enforce social stability at all cost and where opposition is swiftly repressed.

But desperate citizens have occasionally succeeded in organising mass gatherings, usually when their targets are local governments or individual corporations rather than the Communist Party itself.

The demonstrators in Henan largely drew sympathy on Chinese social media on Monday, with many on the Weibo platform pointing the finger at local officials.

“Why are you treating ordinary people like this?” one Weibo user asked in a post on Monday.

“Please strictly investigate the Henan government.” — AFP