TOOK LONG ENOUGH

Japan police chief to resign over shooting death of ex-PM Shinzo Abe

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Police report says Abe's police protection lacking, allowed alleged attacker to shoot him

The Associated Press · Posted: Aug 25, 2022 

People line up to place flowers at a makeshift memorial for former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, near where he was fatally shot, in the western city of Nara, on July 8. (Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images)

Japan's national police chief said Thursday he will resign to take responsibility over shortfalls in security that an investigation by his own agency showed did not adequately safeguard former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe from a fatal shooting at a campaign speech last month.

National Police Agency Chief Itaru Nakamura's announcement came as his agency released a report on how it failed to protect Abe's life on July 8 when he was assassinated in Nara, in western Japan.

The police report found holes in Abe's police protection that allowed the attacker to shoot him from behind.

Nakamura said he took the former prime minister's death seriously and that he submitted his resignation to the National Public Safety Commission earlier Thursday.

• The 2½ seconds of security lapses that sealed Shinzo Abe's fate

"In order to fundamentally re-examine guarding and never to let this happen, we need to have a new system," Nakamura told a news conference as he announced his intention to step down.

A man, who is believed to have shot Abe is tackled by police officers in Nara, western Japan, on July 8. (The Asahi Shimbun/Reuters)

Nakamura did not say when his resignation would be official. Japanese media reported that his resignation is expected to be approved at Friday's cabinet meeting.

The alleged gunman, Tetsuya Yamagami, was arrested at the scene and is currently under mental evaluation until late November. Yamagami told police that he targeted Abe because of the former leader's link to the Unification Church, which he hated.

Abe sent a video message last year to a group affiliated with the church, which experts say may have infuriated the shooting suspect.

Problems with protection plan

In the 54-page investigative report released Thursday, the National Police Agency concluded that the protection plan for Abe neglected potential danger coming from behind him and merely focused on risks during his movement from the site of his speech to his vehicle.

Inadequacies in the command system, communication among several key police officials, as well as their attention in areas behind Abe at the campaign site, led to their lack of focus on the suspect's movement until it was too late.

• Japanese police chief acknowledges 'problems with our security' after Shinzo Abe's assassination

None of the officers assigned to immediate protection of Abe caught the suspect until he was already seven metres behind him where he took out his homemade double-barrel gun, which resembled a camera with a long lens, to blast his first shot that narrowly missed Abe. Up to that moment, none of the officers was aware of the suspect's presence, the report said.

In just over two seconds, the suspect was only 5.3 metres behind Abe to fire the second shot.

The report said the prefectural police's protection plan for Abe lacked a thorough safety evaluation. It called for significant strengthening in both training and staffing of Japan's dignitary protection, as well as revising police protection guidelines for the first time in about 30 years.

The national police called for doubling dignitary protection staff, greater supervisory role for the national police over prefectural staff, and use of digital technology and drones to bolster surveillance from above ground.

Another police chief to resign 

Abe's family paid tribute to him in a private Buddhist ritual Thursday marking the 49th day since his assassination.

In Nara, prefectural police Chief Tomoaki Onizuka also expressed his intention to step down over Abe's assassination.

National Police Agency Chief Itaru Nakamura, pictured on July 12, announced Thursday he will resign to take responsibility over Abe's fatal shooting. (Kyodo News/The Associated Press)

The Unification Church, which was founded in South Korea in 1954 and came to Japan a decade later, has built close ties with a host of conservative lawmakers, many of them members of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, on their shared interests of anti-communism.

Since the 1980s, the church has faced accusations of problematic recruiting and religious sales in Japan, and the governing party's church ties have sent support ratings of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet into a nosedive even after its recent shuffle.

'I cannot accept it': Bali bomb survivors fume after attacker's term cut

Agnes ANYA, Dessy SAGITA
Thu, August 25, 2022 


Almost two decades after the Bali bombings left Thiolina Ferawati Marpaung with permanent eye injuries, news that one of the masterminds could be released early has caused fresh trauma.

Indonesia's latest reduction to Umar Patek's prison sentence -- revealed last week by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and confirmed by AFP -- means the bomber could be released on parole before the island marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks in October.

That is a galling prospect for survivors of the attack, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

"It is not that I don't respect other people's rights, but he has hurt the survivors and families with his evil and inhumane acts," Marpaung told AFP by phone from Denpasar, the resort island's biggest city.


The smell of smoke triggers vivid memories of the blasts that sent shards of broken glass tearing into her eyes, Marpaung said.

Patek -- a member of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group who was captured in the same Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed -- should be kept locked up, she said.

"Please let him serve what he deserves as a terror convict, not like a chicken thief whom we can easily forgive," the 47-year-old said.

But Indonesia says Patek is giving up his extremist beliefs after completing a deradicalisation programme.

He was granted a sentence reduction on August 17 because he had served two-thirds of his 20-year prison term and shown progress towards reform, said Teguh Wibowo, spokesperson of the Law and Human Rights Ministry office in East Java.

"He has dutifully undergone a deradicalisation programme and behaves well in the prison," Wibowo said, referring to Indonesia's rehabilitation scheme to make terror convicts abandon extremism and pledge loyalty to the state.

The attacks on a nightclub and bar were the deadliest in Indonesian history and led to a crackdown on extremism in the country, which has the largest Muslim population in the world.

Tied side-by-side to wooden posts on a small prison island, the attackers were executed by firing squad in 2008 after a years-long probe.
- 'Contempt' -

Patek was found to have made the bombs used in the assault on Bali, a Hindu island popular with foreign tourists.

He was captured with a $1 million bounty on his head after nearly a decade on the run.

Prosecutors only sought a life sentence for the 52-year-old on a charge of premeditated murder because he showed remorse during his 2012 trial.

Any release from prison must be approved by Indonesia's Ministry of Justice.

For survivors of the attack the thought of him leaving prison and living a normal life is difficult to bear.

"Deep down in my heart, I cannot accept it but I am trying to," said Chusnul Chotimah, another survivor who suffered severe burns that have left scars across her face and body.

Australia has also been angered by the news of Patek's sentence reduction.

The country lost 88 of its citizens in the attacks, the most of any of the 21 countries whose nationals were killed.

Albanese said he had nothing but "contempt" and disgust for Patek's actions, saying his early release would only renew distress and trauma for the victims' grieving families.

But Chotimah met with Patek's relatives and said she learned they had also suffered from the tragedy he helped to commit.

The 52-year-old is trying to make peace with what happened to her, despite the news of Patek's potential release before the anniversary of the day that changed her life.

"The longer I keep the grudge, the more aching my heart is," she said.

agn-dsa/jfx/mca/axn

ETHIOPIA'S WAR OF AGGRESSION

Fighting erupts in Ethiopia's Tigray region, breaking five-month truce

NEWS WIRES - Thursday

Fighting erupted between government forces and Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday, shattering a five-month truce and dealing a blow to peace efforts.




Reports of fresh offensives were followed by Ethiopia's air force announcing it had downed a plane carrying weapons for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the rebels have accused each other of undermining efforts to peacefully resolve the brutal 21-month war in Africa's second most populous nation, and traded blame over who was responsible for returning to combat.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply shocked" by the renewed fighting and appealed for an "immediate cessation of hostilities and for the resumption of peace talks".

The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called for a "de-escalation" and the resumption of "talks to seek a peaceful solution".

The United States urged both sides "to redouble efforts to advance talks to achieve a durable ceasefire", a US State Department spokesman said.

The TPLF said government forces and their allies had launched a "large scale" offensive towards southern Tigray early Wednesday after a months-long lull in fighting.

But the government accused the TPLF of striking first and violating the ceasefire.

"Ignoring all of the peace alternatives presented by the government, the terrorist group TPLF armed group continued its recent provocations and launched an attack this morning at 5 am (0200 GMT)" around southern Tigray, the Government Communication Service said in a statement.

The rival claims could not be independently verified as access to northern Ethiopia is restricted, but there were reports of fighting around southern Tigray in areas bordering the Amhara and Afar regions.

"They launched the offensive early this morning around 5 am local time. We are defending our positions," TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told AFP.

He said on Twitter that the "large-scale" offensive was launched "against our positions in the southern front" by the Ethiopian army and special forces as well as militias from neighbouring Amhara.
'Violated our airspace'

The air force said Wednesday it had shot down a plane "believed to be a property of historical enemies who want Ethiopia's weakness".

Related video: Air Strike in Ethiopia's Tigray region, fight between forces and national government continues
Duration 1:36
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"The airplane which violated our airspace from Sudan... and aimed to supply weapons to the terror group was shot down by our heroic air force," the Ethiopian News Agency quoted armed forces spokesman Major General Tesfaye Ayalew as saying.

The date of the incident, the type of aircraft and how it was downed were not detailed.

The TPLF said it was a "blatant lie".

The March truce had paused fighting in a war that first began in November 2020, allowing a resumption of some international aid to Tigray after a three-month break.

Both sides in recent weeks had evoked possible peace talks.

But they disagree on who should lead negotiations, and the TPLF also insists basic services must be restored to Tigray's six million people before dialogue can begin.

Abiy's government says any talks must be brokered by the African Union's Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, who is leading the international push for peace, but the rebels want outgoing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to mediate.

In a statement dated August 23, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said "two rounds of confidential face-to-face" meetings with top civilian and military officials had taken place, the first acknowledgement by either side of direct talks.

No time or place was given for these talks, which the government has not confirmed.

William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, urged all parties to cease fighting to avert "a return to full-blown war".

"This serious breach of the truce agreed earlier this year demonstrates the need for the two parties to arrange unconditional face-to-face negotiations as soon as these hostilities cease," Davison said in a statement.
'Enough of this war'

"I was shocked when I heard the news this morning. We had hoped they were ready for peace, but now our hope is gone," said Addis Ababa resident Teklehaimanot Mezgebu.

"If they start the war, that will not be good for the people of Ethiopia and Tigray."

The conflict has killed untold numbers, with widespread reports of atrocities including mass killings and sexual violence.

Millions of people need humanitarian assistance in Tigray, the country's northernmost region, as well as Afar and Amhara.

The UN's World Food Programme said last week that nearly half the population in Tigray is suffering from a severe lack of food and rates of malnutrition had "skyrocketed".

Tigray is largely cut off from the rest of Ethiopia, without basic services such as electricity, communications and banking.

Abiy sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF after months of tensions with the party that had dominated Ethiopian politics for three decades.

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner said the move came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.

The TPLF mounted a comeback, recapturing Tigray and expanding into Afar and Amhara, before the war reached a stalemate.

Last Wednesday, an Ethiopian government committee tasked with looking into negotiations called for a formal ceasefire as part of a proposal it planned to submit to the AU.

(AFP)

Former UK Ambassador To Myanmar Detained In Yangon: Source
By AFP News
08/25/22  

 

Former ambassador Bowman's husband Htein Lin, a prominent artist, was also arrested, the diplomatic source said

Myanmar authorities have detained the United Kingdom's former ambassador to the country, a diplomatic source said on Thursday.

Vicky Bowman, who served as envoy from 2002 to 2006 was arrested on Wednesday in the commercial hub Yangon, the source said, requesting anonymity.


Prior to serving as ambassador, Bowman was also the second secretary in the UK's embassy from 1990 to 1993.

"We are concerned by the arrest of a British woman in Myanmar," a UK embassy spokesperson told AFP.

"We are in contact with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance."

Bowman's husband and prominent artist Htein Lin was also arrested, the diplomatic source said. Local media said the pair had been taken to Yangon's Insein prison.

A source with knowledge of the case said the pair had been arrested for allegedly violating immigration laws.

Each charge carries a maximum of five years in prison.

A junta spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Bowman works as director at the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business and is a fluent Burmese speaker.

Htein Lin was arrested in 1998 and imprisoned for allegedly opposing the rule of the then-junta.

After he was freed in 2004, he came to the attention of then-ambassador Bowman for a series of paintings he had made while imprisoned, using smuggled materials.

She persuaded him to let her take the paintings for his own security, and the pair married in 2006.

Ties between the UK and Myanmar have soured since the coup in 2021.

The junta earlier this year criticised Britain's recent downgrading of its mission in the country as "unacceptable".

The UK government has sanctioned several military-linked companies and individuals following the army's power grab last year, which triggered mass uprisings and a bloody crackdown on dissent.

On Thursday, the UK announced new sanctions on companies it said had helped raise funds for the military during its 2017 crackdown on the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.

Scores of foreign nationals have been caught up in the junta's crackdown following its power grab.

Japanese filmmaker Toru Kubota is currently being held in Insein prison, after he was detained last month near an anti-government rally in Yangon.


He is the fifth foreign journalist to be detained in Myanmar, after US citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan -- all of whom were later freed and deported.

British Museum showcases ancient vessels smashed in Beirut blast

Agence France-Presse - Wednesday

LONDON: Eight ancient glass vessels shattered in the 2020 Beirut explosion go on display at the British Museum from Thursday, walking visitors through the painstaking international project to piece them back together.


A photograph taken on August 24, 2022 shows the newly conserved ancient glass vessels damaged during the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and displayed at the British Museum in London, ahead of an exhibition which will walk visitors through the laborious conservation project. AFP PHOTO© Provided by The Manila Times

The vessels, from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, were reconstructed at the world-famous museum's conservation laboratories, and will be shown as part of its "Shattered Glass of Beirut" showcase, before returning to Lebanon later this year.

"(It) tells a story of near destruction and recovery, of resilience and collaboration," said Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum.

The vessels were among 74 contained within a case at the American University in Beirut (AUB).

The case fell over when the shockwave of the port blast, which occurred three kilometers (two miles) away on August 4, 2020, hit the building, smashing the glass objects inside.

A team of experts had the daunting task of sorting every shard of glass, deciding if it was part of an ancient vessel, rather than display case, and which vessel it belonged to, Duygu Camurcuoglu, a senior conservator at the British Museum, told Agence France-Presse.

"It's all pretty much done by hand or by eye — brainwork basically. You have to know certain techniques to be able to carry out this work," she added.

Once the pieces had been sorted, the conservators began the mammoth jigsaw-puzzle exercise of reassembling the vessels.

"It's a case of using an adhesive to reconstruct the vessels," said Camurcuoglu. But they could not just use anything.

"We don't use superglue, we don't use UHU," she joked.


British museum press assistant Stella Scobie examines the newly conserved ancient glass vessels damaged during the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and displayed at the British Museum in London, on August 24, 2022 ahead of an exhibition which will walk visitors through the laborious conservation project. 

AFP PHOTO© Provided by The Manila Times

'Scars'

The most challenging vessels were the "large dish and the Byzantine pitcher," Camurcuoglu recalled.

Eighteen of the vessels have so far been conserved as part of an emergency recovery campaign in Beirut, along with the eight vessels at the British Museum and two that emerged unscathed from the fall.

Experts hope that at least half of the remaining 46 objects in Beirut can be conserved soon too.

The collaborative project between the British Museum and the AUB's Archaeological Museum began in 2021, following an offer of help from the London institution.

Conservators agreed early on to make the vessels structurally sound but leave imperfections caused by the shattering visible, bearing witness to the explosion.

The exhibition will take visitors on the journey undergone by the glass vessels, from the moment of the blast to their display in the famous London museum.

Lighting will be used in the display to illuminate cracks and gaps in the glass.

"We really wanted to highlight the damage these objects went through, so we can all look at the scars, and remember how they were revived together," said Camurcuoglu.

The vessels are considered important in telling the story of the development of revolutionary glass-blowing techniques in Lebanon in the 1st century BC, enabling the mass production of glass objects and making them available for common use.

Their restoration, and the teamwork involved, is a source of pride to the conservators, said Camurcuoglu.

"We all individually felt that, I think, we contributed to something by working on these objects — by sharing this pain, these emotions.

"So it's not only about the conservation... but also the working together and achieving something together," she added.

Thousands throng to Iran museum with Western art masterpieces

Payam DOOST MOHAMADI
Wed, August 24, 2022 


More than 20,000 people have flocked to an Iranian museum showcasing renowned Western artists' works, some for the first time -- part of a treasure trove amassed before the Islamic Revolution.

The museum's collection is reputed to be the greatest line-up of modern masterpieces outside Europe and the United States, and includes multi-million-dollar pieces, much of which has been kept under wraps since the 1979 revolution.

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art "surprises me every time," said visitor Shahin Rajabi, 35. "The current show is no exception."

The current "Minimalism and Conceptual Art" exhibition features 132 works by 34 world-famous contemporary artists, museum director Ebadreza Eslami said, including Marcel Duchamp, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd and the duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

"The reception has been marvellous," Eslami said, particularly after long closures in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said one of the main factors for the footfall of this exhibit was that "38 masterpieces" were being displayed "for the first time".

AFP saw visitors at the museum this week, some stopping to study details while others were busy taking photos as they made their way intently through the museum.

"I loved the last room of the exhibit in particular, where the artist had worked with the fluorescent light," said visitor Rajabi, referring to American artist Dan Flavin's "Untitled" work.
- 'Very valuable' -


The museum was inaugurated in 1977 during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed by Islamic revolutionaries two years later.

Its design was inspired by Iran's desert wind towers -- an architectural element used to catch and circulate cool air in hot environments.

Most of the collection was built up by the shah's wife, former queen Farah Pahlavi, who deployed a team of experts to tour Western auctions and snap up prestigious paintings and sculptures to boost the country's cultural profile.

The museum also holds an important collection of Iranian modern and contemporary art.

But the international works went underground after the Islamic republic's founder Ruhollah Khomeini railed against "Westoxification", deploring Western moral and sexual depravity which he said had infected the Islamic world.


The themes of many of the Western works have been considered too risque to be publicly shown, and have spent much of the past decades languishing in storage.

The museum counts some 3,500 works, hundreds of which are "very valuable", head of public relations Hassan Noferesti said.

They include masterpieces by Western artists from Paul Gauguin to Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Alberto Giacometti, according to Iran's culture ministry.

- Visitors double -

The current show, which runs until mid-September, includes a collage by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto titled "Green Curtains", and an untitled work made from hemp by Canadian-American sculptor Jacqueline Winsor.

Curator Behrang Samadzadegan said "some 20,000 people" have visited since the show opened in late June -- about twice the normal turnout.

Describing the theme of the show, he added "when we are talking about minimalism, we are primarily talking about the environment not the work".

Standing in front of the "Rock Salt & Mirror" by American artist Robert Smithson, 28-year-old painter Solmaz Daneshvar said she "greatly enjoyed" the display.

The exhibition, however, was at the centre of controversy this month when an amateur video surfaced showing two silverfish insects underneath the frame of a rare image by the late German photographic duo of Bernd and Hilla Becher.

The video, whose authenticity could not be independently verified by AFP, went viral.

The museum later made a formal apology, assuring concerned art lovers that the work by the Bechers, who are known for their photos of industrial structures, was not damaged.

It also closed its doors for two days for fumigation.

In 2015, the museum held an exhibition of 42 works by Western artists including Pollock's masterpiece "Mural on Indian Red Ground", valued by Christie's auction house experts in 2010 at $250 million.

pdm/lg/dwo

African nations call out climate injustice ahead of COP27

Mon, August 29, 2022


African countries on Monday called for an end to a "climate injustice" saying the continent causes less than four percent of global CO2 emissions but pays one of the highest prices for global warming.

Government officials, international organisations, NGOs and the private sector from more than 60 African nations attended Monday's opening of Africa Climate Week in Gabon's capital to prepare for the COP27 UN climate conference in Egypt in November.

Host President Ali Bongo Ondimba told the gathering the continent has to speak with one voice and offer "concrete" proposals for COP27.

"The time has come for Africans to take our destiny into our own hands," he said, deploring the global failure to meet climate targets.


"Our continent is blessed with all the necessary assets for sustainable prosperity, abundant natural resources... and the world's youngest and largest working population," he said.

"But Africa and the rest of the world must address climate change," when the UN's intergovernmental climate panel IPCC "describes Africa as the most vulnerable continent.

"Droughts are causing extreme famines and displacing millions of people across the continent," Bongo said.

"Today, 22 millions of people in the Horn of Africa face starvation because of the drought and famine, countries in the south of the continent are regularly hit by cyclones, rising sea levels threaten cities such as Dakar, Lagos, Capetown and Libreville."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, head of COP27, which will be held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, said: "Despite contributing less than four percent of global emissions", Africa was "one of the most devastated by the impacts of climate change.

"Also, Africa is obliged, with limited financial means and scant levels of support, to spend about two to three per cent of its GDP per annum to adapt to these impacts," Shoukry said, calling it a "climate injustice".

Denouncing the failure of developed countries to deliver on their climate commitments, he warned: "There is no extra time, no plan B and there should also be no backsliding or backtracking on commitments and pledges."

gir/lad/bp/jj

US regulators sue firm selling sensitive location data

Mon, August 29, 2022


US regulators on Monday filed a lawsuit to stop data broker Kochava from selling smartphone location information that could help trace visits to "sensitive locations" like reproductive health clinics.

The action by the Federal Trade Commission comes as privacy rights advocates fear that massive troves of information collected from people's smartphone or internet use could serve to track down women seeking abortion care.

Geolocation data purchased by Idaho-based Kochava comes from hundreds of millions of mobile devices, and could be used to trace people's movements to or from health clinics, places of worship, drug-addiction centers, or domestic violence shelters, the FTC said in a press release.


"Where consumers seek out health care, receive counseling, or celebrate their faith is private information that shouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder," Samuel Levine, head of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection said in a press release.

The FTC lawsuit argues that Kochava is making it possible to identify people based on their health care decisions or religion, then exposing them to "threats of stigma, stalking, discrimination, job loss and even physical violence."

The FTC is asking a federal court in Idaho to order Kochava to stop selling sensitive geolocation data and to delete whatever data of that kind it has collected.

Kochava did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kochava buys location information gathered from mobile devices, then packages it in ways that can identify specific devices and show precisely where they were at given times, according to the FTC.

"For example, the location of a mobile device at night is likely the user's home address and could be combined with property records to uncover their identity," the FTC said.

People are typically unaware that their location data is being bought and sold by Kochava, according to the suit.

Privacy advocates have called on internet firms to stop collecting data on users that could be demanded by prosecutors or others out to prosecute women for reproductive health care decisions.

The lawsuit comes just months after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed women's right an abortion.

gc/jh/md

SOCCER

A family feud, blackmail and a witch doctor -- what is the Paul Pogba affair?

A police investigation has been opened after claims by French football star Paul Pogba that he is the victim of a multi-million euro blackmail plot that includes his brother Mathias.


Paul Pogba 

© Rui Vieira, AP

AFP looks into an affair involving a family conflict and a witch doctor, and which comes less than three months before the Juventus star is expected to help France defend their World Cup crown.

 
Who is Mathias Pogba?

Mathias, 32, is the elder brother of Paul (29) and the twin brother of Florentin. All three are professional footballers. Mathias, who was born in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, has had a journeyman career which has taken him to Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia. Much of his career has been spent in the United Kingdom, including spells at Wrexham, Crewe Alexandra and Partick Thistle. Last year he played 12 matches for Belfort in the French fourth tier. Mathias Pogba has also appeared on television in France as a pundit.

Until recently, the Pogba brothers appeared close-knit. Mathias, Florentin and their mother, Yeo Moriba, have regularly been seen attending France matches in which Paul has played. Paul Pogba is also one of the main donors to 48 H POUR, a charity established by Mathias to help provide drinking water and education for children in Guinea.

What has Mathias Pogba said?

On Saturday, Mathias Pogba published a video on Instagram in which he promised "great revelations" about Paul and the Juventus player's agent, Rafaela Pimenta. In the video, Mathias Pogba says the "whole world, as well as my brother's fans, and even more so the French team and Juventus, my brother's team-mates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things".

"All this is likely to be explosive," he concluded without adding any substance to his "revelations".

How has Paul Pogba responded?A statement released on Sunday, and signed by Paul Pogba's lawyers, his mother Yeo Moriba and agent Pimenta, said that the videos published on Saturday night "are unfortunately no surprise".

"They are in addition to threats and extortion attempts by an organised gang against Paul Pogba," read the statement. They added that "competent bodies in Italy and France were informed a month ago".

France Info radio reported that Paul Pogba told investigators he had been threatened by "childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles". They are demanding 13 million euros ($13m) from him for "services provided", he said, adding that one person close to him had withdrawn 200,000 euros using his credit card.

How far along is the investigation?

Paris prosecutors confirmed to AFP that an investigation was opened on August 3 into allegations of extortion and attempted extortion by an organised gang. According to France Info reports confirmed to AFP by a source with knowledge of the case, Paul Pogba told investigators that he had been threatened by "childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles" who blamed him for not having helped them financially.

Paul Pogba also told investigators that he had been threatened on several occasions in Manchester, during his time playing for Manchester United, and in Turin, where he currently plays for Juventus. He said he recognised his brother Mathias from among the suspects.

What does Kylian Mbappe have to do with this?

The Paris Saint-Germain striker, and France teammate of Paul Pogba, appears reluctantly in the affair. Paul Pogba told investigators that his blackmailers wanted to discredit him by claiming he asked a witch doctor to cast a spell on Mbappe, which Pogba denies.

In a series of tweets published on Sunday, Mathias Pogba appeals directly to Mbappe, saying: "Kylian, do you understand now? I have nothing against you, what I am saying is for your good, everything is true and known, the witch doctor is known! Sorry for this brother, a so-called Muslim up to his neck in witchcraft."

How could this affect the France team?

The revelation of the affair is badly-timed for the French national team, coming less than three months before they defend their World Cup crown in Qatar. Paul Pogba is currently sidelined with a knee injury and faces a battle to be fully fit, but he remains a key player in the France team, for whom he has won 91 caps and was influential in the run to glory at the 2018 World Cup.

Like the 2016 blackmail affair involving Karim Benzema, Mathieu Valbuena and a sextape, there is a danger that this affair could negatively impact morale within the squad. It could also impact Paul Pogba's relationship with Mbappe. Speaking to RMC Sport, French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet said he hoped the affair "does not call into question" Pogba's place in the team. "At this stage these are just rumours," he added.

(AFP)

VICTIM OF COLONIALISM

Last member of Brazilian Indigenous community found dead

The last of his people, a Brazilian Indigenous man known only as “the man of the hole”, has been found dead, decades after the rest of his uncontacted tribe were killed off by ranchers and illegal miners, officials said.


The man, whose name was never known, had lived in isolation for 26 years after other members of his tribe were killed by illegal loggers and miners in Tanaru territory, Brazil [File: National Indian Foundation via AFP]© Provided by Al Jazeera

The man — whose real name was never known to the outside world — was found in a hammock in a hut in the Tanaru Indigenous territory in Rondonia state on the border with Bolivia on August 23, Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) said in a statement. He had been living in complete isolation for 26 years.

Since losing everyone he knew, the man had refused all contact with the outside world and supported himself by hunting and raising crops. His nickname derived from his habit of digging deep holes inside the huts he built, possibly to trap animals but also to hide inside.

He lived in an Indigenous territory surrounded by vast cattle ranches and under constant threat from illegal miners and loggers in one of the most dangerous parts of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, according to Survival International.

Authorities in Brazil did not comment on the cause of the man’s death, nor his age, but said “there were no signs of violence or struggle”.

They also found no evidence of the presence of anyone else in his home or around it.

“Everything indicates that the death was from natural causes,” said FUNAI, a government agency under the justice ministry that handles Indigenous affairs.

Local media reported that the man’s body had been covered in macaw feathers, prompting one expert to speculate that he had known he was about to die.

The man was believed to have been alone since the remaining members of his small tribe were killed in the mid-1990s by illegal loggers and miners seeking to exploit the tribal area.

Rights groups said that the majority of the tribe had been killed in the 1970s when ranchers moved into the area, cutting down the forest and attacking the inhabitants.

“With his death, the genocide of this Indigenous people is complete,” said Fiona Watson, Survival International’s director of investigation, who visited the Tanaru territory in 2004.

“It really was genocide: the deliberate elimination of an entire people by ranchers hungry for land and wealth,” she added.

According to the most recent government data, there are some 800,000 Indigenous people belonging to more than 300 distinct groups living in Brazil, a country of 212 million.

More than half live in the Amazon, and many of those are under threat from the illegal exploitation of natural resources that they rely on for their survival.

According to FUNAI, there are 114 records of isolated Indigenous groups in Brazil, although that number varies.

Under Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, Amazon deforestation reached a record level in the first half of 2022.

The president, who is trailing in the polls ahead of this year’s elections, has encouraged mining and farming activity in protected areas, sparking anger among environmentalists.