Hong Kong judge finds five guilty over children's books


Leo Sands - BBC News
Wed, September 7, 2022

A Hong Kong judge has found five speech therapists guilty of publishing seditious children's books.

Their books - about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village - were interpreted by authorities as having an overtly political message.

After a two-month trial a government-picked national security judge said their "seditious intention" was clear.

It comes amid a crackdown on civil liberties since 2020, when China imposed a new national security law.

Beijing has said the law is needed to bring stability to the city, but critics say it is designed to squash dissent.

The law makes it easier to prosecute protesters and reduces the city's overall autonomy, while also increasing Beijing's influence over political and legal decision-making in the city.

The group of five speech therapists, who were founding members of a union, produced cartoon e-books that some interpreted as trying to explain Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement to children.

Hong Kong police display content from one of the children's books at a press conference in July

In one of the three books a village of sheep fight back against a group of wolves who are trying to take over their settlement.

In another one, the enemy attackers are portrayed as dirty and diseased wolves.

"The seditious intention stems not merely from the words, but from the words with the proscribed effects intended to result in the mind of children," wrote Judge Kwok Wai-kin in his judgement, AFP news agency reports.

He said the books' young readers would be led to believe that Chinese authorities were coming to Hong Kong with the "wicked intentions" of ruining the lives of the city's inhabitants.

Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan and Fong Tsz-ho, who have already spent more than a year in jail awaiting the verdict, will be sentenced in the next few days.

The group, who are aged between 25 and 28 and had pleaded not guilty, face up to two years in prison.

"In today's Hong Kong, you can go to jail for publishing children's books with drawings of wolves and sheep. These 'sedition' convictions are an absurd example of the disintegration of human rights in the city," said Gwen Lee from rights group Amnesty International.

The group was charged under a colonial-era sedition law which until recently had been rarely used by prosecutors.

Also on Wednesday, the head of Hong Kong's journalist union was arrested just weeks before he was due to leave the city to take up a fellowship at Oxford University.

Ronson Chan, 41, was taken away by police while reporting on a meeting of public housing owners - his employer Channel C said.

Police confirmed they had arrested an individual after he refused to show his ID and acted "uncooperatively".

Green groups demand loss and damage money ahead of COP27


Wed, September 7, 2022 


Hundreds of environmental groups called Wednesday for the issue of loss and damage finance to be on the formal agenda of the forthcoming COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt.

Developing nations have for years called for funding from rich polluters to help them reduce emissions while growing their economies and adapt to the impacts of global heating.

They argue that historic polluters also have a moral imperative to pay for the loss and damage -- impacts already being felt that countries cannot adapt to, such as Pakistan's devastating floods -- that their emissions are accelerating.

At the last UN climate summit, COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, countries representing six out of every seven people on the planet called for the establishment of a dedicated loss and damage "facility" that at-risk nations could instantly access to help them recover from extreme events.

That was shot down by richer nations, however. A loss and damage "dialogue" was offered as an alternative ahead of COP27, which begins in November in Sharm el-Sheikh.

More than 400 aid agencies and activist groups on Wednesday signed an open letter demanding that loss and damage finance be added to the official negotiating agenda.

They said discussions around money for impacted nations was needed "to ensure a meaningful outcome at COP27 to respond to the intensifying suffering of people facing climate and connected crises".

Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said that the conference's credibility was "hanging by a thread".

"The COP27 conference will be counted as a failure, if developed nations continue to ignore the demand from developing countries to establish a loss and damage finance facility to help people recover from worsening floods, wildfires and rising seas," he said.

pg/klm/jm

Brazil on edge for a bicentennial Bolsonaro has made his own

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

President Jair Bolsonaro calls Brazil’s bicentennial Wednesday a chance to celebrate the nation’s proud history, but critics say he has transformed what should be a day of unity into a campaign event that they fear he will use to undermine next month's election in Latin America's fourth biggest democracy. FRANCE 24's Constance Malleret reports from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

NGO, Indigenous leaders blame Bolsonaro for Amazon skyrocketing deforestation

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

The Brazilian Amazon recorded its worst month of August for forest fires since 2010, with an 18 percent rise from a year ago, according to official data released Thursday. All the worst August figures -- 30,900 fires in 2019, 29,307 in 2020, 28,060 in 2021 and 33,116 in 2022 -- happened during the four-year term of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who will be seeking re-election next month.

Tunisia opposition to boycott polls, slams electoral law written 'by president alone'

NEWS WIRES - 


Tunisia's main opposition alliance said Wednesday its members including the once-powerful Ennahdha party would boycott December polls to replace a parliament dissolved by President Kais Saied.


Tunisia opposition to boycott polls, slams electoral law written 'by president alone'© Fethi Belaid, AFP

The vote is set for nearly a year and a half after Saied suspended the Ennahdha-dominated assembly and sacked the government, later pushing through a constitution enshrining his one-man rule.

"The National Salvation Front has definitively decided to boycott the upcoming elections," said Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the front which is made up of parties and movements opposed to Saied.

He said the move was in response to an electoral law written "by Saied alone", part of a "coup against constitutional legitimacy".

Saied's power grab was welcomed by many Tunisians tired of what they saw as a fractious and corrupt system established after the 2011 revolution.

But opposition forces say his moves, culminating in a new constitution confirmed by a widely boycotted July referendum, amount to a return to autocracy in the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring.

(AFP)

Chelsea's new owners show ruthless streak in sacking Tuchel

Kieran CANNING
Wed, September 7, 2022 


Chelsea are still adjusting to life under their new regime but the ruthless sacking of manager Thomas Tuchel shows the change of ownership has not ushered in an era of patience at Stamford Bridge.

The German was well aware of the fate that befalls managers who stumble from the day he walked into the Premier League club, initially handed a contract for just 18 months despite his pedigree.

"What does it change?" said Tuchel as he was unveiled in January 2021. "If they are not happy with me, they will sack me anyway."

A hire-and-fire culture became the norm during Roman Abramovich's spectacularly successful reign, which ended in May when Todd Boehly's consortium took over.


Tuchel earned himself a two-year contract extension after winning the Champions League in May 2021, a triumph that came just four months after he inherited a squad that was under-performing under Frank Lampard.

But less than 16 months after Chelsea overcame Manchester City in Porto, and after a big-spending transfer window at Stamford Bridge, he finds himself out of a job.

Boehly's group spent a world-record £4.25 billion ($4.9 billion) to buy Chelsea in May after Russian billionaire Abramovich announced he was selling the club shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The following week Abramovich was hit with UK sanctions, with the government describing him as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

The new regime splashed out more than £200 million on a list of high-profile players including Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

And Tuchel appeared to have earned the trust of the new owners.

He pushed for the signing of Aubameyang after their time together at Borussia Dortmund and reportedly cooled Boehly's interest in Cristiano Ronaldo, who wanted to leave Manchester United.
- Erratic -

Yet, just seven games into the new season, the 49-year-old has been cut loose after damaging defeats to Leeds, Southampton and Dinamo Zagreb.

In keeping with his time at Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, results have dipped after a bright start.

Chelsea won the Club World Cup, reached two domestic cup finals and finished in the top four of the Premier League last season despite the difficulties caused by the sanctions imposed on Abramovich, which affected the club's operations.

Yet the expected Premier League title challenge following the club-record £97-million signing of forward Romelu Lukaku never materialised.

Lukaku complained publicly of struggling to fit into Tuchel's preferred system and has been shipped back to Inter Milan on loan at huge cost to the Blues.

Reports in recent weeks suggested other attacking players were unhappy with Tuchel's methods, frustrated that they were not given the freedom to shine.

Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech have all struggled to deliver on big transfer fees, while Timo Werner returned to RB Leipzig last month.

Scoring goals has been a persistent problem and the defensive solidity that was the hallmark of Tuchel's early success at the club has been absent this season.

Tuchel can point to an untimely injury to midfielder N'Golo Kante, a loss of form for goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and the need for time for the club's new signings to bed in.

But his own behaviour had grown more erratic as the pressure increased.

He was sent off for two physical confrontations with Tottenham boss Antonio Conte in a 2-2 draw last month and lambasted his players for a "soft mentality" in losing at Southampton.

A limp 1-0 defeat on Tuesday to a Zagreb side with a strikingly poor Champions League record was the final straw.

"We are clearly not where we need to be and where we can be," said Tuchel after the match.

Boehly has made the bold call that a man who has reached two Champions League finals with two different clubs in the past three seasons was the problem.

Now the pressure is on the American to make the right hire to turn his investment into results on the pitch.

kca/jw/dmc

Tuchel fired by Chelsea in ruthless call by US ownership

By STEVE DOUGLAS

today

1 of 5

Chelsea's head coach Thomas Tuchel leaves after the Champions League group E soccer match between Dinamo Zagreb and Chelsea at the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb, Croatia, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. Thomas Tuchel has been fired by Chelsea only one month into the season. The decision by Chelsea’s new ownership comes a day after the team lost to Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 in its first group match in the Champions League. Chelsea has lost two of its first six games in the Premier League. 

(AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Chelsea’s new American owners are proving to be just as ruthless as the man they replaced.

Thomas Tuchel was fired by the Premier League club on Wednesday, only one month into the season and just days after Chelsea’s recently installed ownership — fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly — concluded a Europe-high spending spree of nearly $300 million in the transfer window.

Chelsea was renowned for regularly changing managers in the 19-year tenure of Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who had to sell the London club after being sanctioned by the British government for what it called his enabling of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal and barbaric invasion” of Ukraine.

Boehly was the face of the consortium that bought Chelsea for 2.5 billion pounds ($3.1 billion) in May and, despite having little soccer experience, quickly made himself chairman as well as interim sporting director in charge of transfers.

Not only has he overseen a record splurge on new players, Boehly has now decided Tuchel — the coach who led Chelsea to the Champions League title last year — is no longer the right person to lead the team in the new era.

The decision to fire Tuchel, who was manager for 20 months, came a day after Chelsea surprisingly lost to Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 in its first group match of the Champions League. Chelsea has also lost two of its first six games — to Leeds and Southampton — in an underwhelming start to the Premier League that has seen the team’s new signings fail to gel.

Tuchel has been a frustrated and prickly figure after matches this season. In interviews after the loss to Dinamo, he said “everything is missing” when asked to sum up Chelsea’s performance and complained that his players “lacked hunger.”

In a feisty Premier League game against Tottenham, Tuchel was sent off — along with rival manager Antonio Conte — and later fined after they went head-to-head in a post-match scuffle because Tuchel failed to let go of his grip in the traditional handshake.

“As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the club, and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition,” Chelsea said in a statement, which also said Tuchel “will rightly have a place” in the club’s history.

After all, the 49-year-old German guided Chelsea to the Champions League title less than six months after taking over as manager in January 2021, as the replacement for Frank Lampard. Tuchel only had one full season at the helm and that saw Chelsea eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Champions League — to eventual champion Real Madrid — before finishing third in the Premier League, 19 points behind champion Manchester City.

A big reason why Chelsea faded in the second half of last season was the turbulence caused by the change of ownership and it was a wild offseason at Stamford Bridge, too, with dozens of players — including Cristiano Ronaldo — linked with a move to the London club as Boehly looked to make his presence felt in the transfer market.

Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella came in for big fees, before the final days of the transfer window saw Chelsea spend 75 million pounds ($87 million) on French center back Wesley Fofana and then bring in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona to plug a gap in its striker options.

Aubameyang cited playing under Tuchel before — at Borussia Dortmund — as a benefit of the move and was handed a debut against Dinamo. That proved to be Tuchel’s last game in charge, perhaps leaving Aubameyang’s long-term status uncertain.

That will depend who comes in to replace Tuchel. British media has already linked Graham Potter, currently manager of in-form Premier League club Brighton, and Mauricio Pochettino, with the vacancy.

Potter has no real experience of handling a squad of star players but is highly regarded for his tactical astuteness and entertaining style of play. Pochettino has experience of overseeing a locker room of egos — he was recently coach of a Paris Saint-Germain team containing Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar — and has been out of work since parting ways with the French champions in July.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

___

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

In Latest Reports, UN Watchdog Says Questions Swirl Over Iran's Nuclear Program

September 07, 2022
By RFE/RL

The IAEA says in one report that it's "not in a position to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful."

A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium is nearing the level where further enrichment could be enough for a nuclear bomb and that Tehran has failed to provide credible answers on the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites that the UN's nuclear watchdog has been investigating for years.

An IAEA quarterly report, released on September 7, says Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 percent has grown to 55.6 kilograms, a 12.5-kilogram increase over the past three months. If enriched further, that would be more than enough for a nuclear bomb.

The report says that means that the IAEA is "not in a position to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful."

A second IAEA report issued the same day raises further concerns by noting that Iran has yet to provide credible answers on the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites.

"The director-general is increasingly concerned that Iran has not engaged with the agency on the outstanding safeguards issues during this reporting period and, therefore, that there has been no progress towards resolving them," the second report notes.

Iran has been increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium since the United States unilaterally pulled out of a 2015 accord between Tehran and global powers to keep Iran's nuclear program in check in exchange for relief from sanctions.

The two sides have held 16 months of indirect talks that led to the European Union making a proposal last month to restore the deal, along with the lifting of U.S. sanctions.

But in its response, Iran demanded the IAEA halt the investigation into the probe.

Skateboarding group brings together young girls in Ethiopia

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

01:43

Ethiopian Girl Skaters is a female-only skateboarding group that brings together young girls from different backgrounds, building a community that challenges the stereotype that girls shouldn't be involved in extreme sports like skateboarding. The project, founded by female skater, Sosina Challa, invites many young girls to spend their leisure time learning a new sport that helps them with their physical and mental health.

School trains new generation in Mexican cowboy traditions


AFP
Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

Victor Teran, 17, practices with a lasso at a "charreria" school in Mexico

 ULISES RUIZ AFP

Tlajomulco de Zúñiga (Mexico) (AFP) – Wearing a wide-brimmed hat, silver-buttoned shirt and embroidered tie, teenager Victor Teran skillfully twirls a lasso at a Mexican school training younger generations in traditional cowboy skills.

Three years ago Teran's father gave him the choice of learning soccer or "charreria" -- cattle-ranching techniques that are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

"I told him, 'let's go and do charreria right now!'" the 17-year-old said.

With the help of teachers at the school in Tlajomulco de Zuniga in the western state of Jalisco, Teran learned to ride a horse and to spin and throw a lasso so that it loops around the front legs of a horse.

The school, which opened in 2016, the same year that the tradition was inscribed by UNESCO, offers free classes to budding young "charros."

Novices and foreigners are welcome.

"Charreria has grown a lot at the national level," said school founder Victor Hugo de la Torre, who has 24 years as an instructor under his cowboy belt.

"Most of the students at the school don't come from a charro family, but they like it and join in," he added.

Today there are 100 regular students, of both sexes.

Beginner, intermediate and advanced groups of up to 15 students take part in three hours of training twice a week to hone their skills.

The first challenge is to learn to twirl a lasso and throw it around the neck of a docile bull.

When they have mastered that they progress to mounting a horse unaided using stirrups.

Then comes learning to ride the horse and eventually to lasso moving animals.

The girls also learn "escaramuzas" -- Spanish for "skirmishes" -- which involve performing tricky formations on galloping horses while riding sidesaddle.

"I started when I was four years old when my parents got me riding," said Alma de la Torre, 20, wearing traditional dress inspired by the garments of women who fought in the Mexican revolution.

Becoming a charro requires "a lot of dedication," but the financial rewards can be worth it, said school founder De la Torre.

Average salaries range from $1,500-4,000 a month, while those at the very top can take home around $7,500, he said -- a wage beyond the dreams of most Mexicans.

While the ideal age to start learning is six years old, many students begin as teenagers, said school head Rocio Rodriguez.

"Anyone can learn, of any nationality, so long as they want to," she said.

© 2022 AFP

Mexico’s cowboys struggle to maintain traditional …

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The History of the Vaquero - American Cowboy

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French Court Upholds Assad Uncle's Conviction Over Ill-gotten Assets

By Anne LEC'HVIEN
09/07/22 

Rifaat al-Assad (L) fled Syria after a failed coup against 

his older brother Hafez, the president

France's top administrative court on Wednesday confirmed the conviction of Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in an "ill-gotten gains" case over wealth estimated at 90 million euros ($89 million).

Rifaat al-Assad, 85, is the younger brother of Bashar's father and former Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad, and himself held the office of vice president but fled the country in 1984 after a failed coup.

He had made a final appeal to France's Court of Cassation after a lower court last year confirmed his four-year jail sentence for conspiracy to launder Syrian public funds between 1996 and 2016.

In the same judgement, he was convicted of concealing serious tax fraud and employing servants off the books, with authorities confiscating a slew of his properties.

Rifaat, who has not attended hearings due to ill health, insists his property empire stretching across Spain, France and Britain stems from gifts from Saudi crown prince and later king Abdullah, who died in 2015.

The case is the second in France under a law passed last year targeting fortunes fraudulently amassed by foreign leaders.

Teodorin Obiang, the eldest son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, last year had his conviction to a three-year suspended sentence and 30 million euros in fines confirmed at appeal.

In Syria, Rifaat al-Assad was the head of the elite Defence Brigades, internal security forces that violently quashed a 1982 Islamist uprising in the city of Hama.

Having stayed away for three decades following his failed attempt to seize power, pro-government media reported that he returned to Syria last autumn.

In 1984, he fled first to Switzerland then France, where he received the Legion of Honour -- the country's top award -- in 1986 for "services rendered".

French investigators opened a probe into his property holdings in 2014 after complaints from watchdogs Transparency International and Sherpa.

They seized two Paris townhouses, dozens of apartments in chic neighbourhoods of the French capital and office spaces.

Since then, around 80 of his former employees living at an estate outside Paris have been mostly without water and electricity as no one was paying the bills.

While Rifaat's age and poor health mean he is unlikely ever to serve jail time in France, Wednesday's ruling confirms the confiscation of the properties for good.

That could set up Syria as one of the first countries to potentially benefit from a scheme to return funds recovered under the ill-gotten gains law.

"The confiscation... is the first necessary condition to be able to plan for restitution of the ill-gotten gains," Transparency International France chief Patrick Lefas said in a statement welcoming the court ruling.

But he added that it would be vital to get the resources to ordinary Syrians rather than simply returning them to the Assad regime -- which Transparency says could be achieved using another French law passed last year.

"Restoring ill-gotten gains requires guarantees, without which it would be naive to hope to give them back to the populations of their countries of origin," Lefas said.

Rifaat al-Assad also faces a court case in Spain over far larger suspicions of ill-gotten gains covering 500 properties, as well as a prosecution in Switzerland for war crimes dating back to the 1980s.

SEXIST, CHAUVINIST MASCULINITY

‘I figured it was about time somebody told her no’: Woman says manager bragged about denying her a raise because she’s ‘one of those girls that never gets told no’

Cecilia Lenzen - Yesterday -  The Daily Dot.

Asking your boss for a raise can be hard, especially when they tell you "no" and then brag about telling you no in a work meeting. One TikToker says this is exactly what happened to her.


woman eating in kitchen© Provided by Daily Dot

The TikToker, Malorie Harris (@malorieharris), shared a video explaining what happened about three years ago in her corporate job. As of Tuesday, the video went semi-viral with about 30,000 views on TikTok.

In the video, Harris says her coworkers at the time who had been at the company about as long as her were starting to get raises. So one of her managers told her she needed to ask the company's regional manager for a raise, assuring her the request would be approved. Harris says she took the regional manager out for lunch, which was common at the company, and she asked for the raise.

"He said no right to my face," Harris says in the video. "He said 'what makes you think you deserve that?'"

Being rejected to her face wasn't the worst part of the experience, the TikToker says. When the two returned to the office after lunch, Harris explains they went to an all-staff company meeting. During the meeting, the regional manager announced that Harris had asked him for a raise and that he told her no, Harris says.

"Another manager out loud said 'why?' and [the regional manager] said, 'because she's one of those girls that never gets told no, so I figured it was about time somebody told her no,'" Harris says, recounting the meeting. "Corporate America is still broken."

Multiple viewers commented on the TikTok, saying Harris' manager acted illegally.

"That’s quite a few witnesses to some likely illegal behavior," one viewer commented.

"Babe that’s illegal," a second viewer commented.

Others commented, asking whether Harris found a new job after the incident.

"Please tell me you found a different job soon after that," one user said.

Another user wrote, "So tell me you found a new job with out telling me you got a new job."

"Hope u Quit or got him fired," another user commented.

Harris clarified in an update video that before she could decide what to do about the situation, the company laid off all the employees shortly after amidst the first wave of COVID-19.

Some users had ideas for why Harris' manager felt the need to shut a woman down.

"I have a feeling he's one of those guys that always gets told no!" one viewer wrote.

"Oh that man has major issues!" a second viewer wrote.

Another viewer commented, "he has probably been rejected by beautiful popular women all his life and this was his opportunity for revenge."

The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.