URGENT: Show your support for Lula as Bolsonaro ramps his campaign of hate


TOMORROW 6.30PM: Lula vs Bolsonaro: the election that will define Brazil’s future

With the second round of the Brazilian election taking place on Sunday, we need to show Lula and the millions of Brazilians resisting Bolsonaro that we are with them.

 
A rise in political violence aimed at stopping people voting, serious allegations of vote buying, and continued misinformation from Bolsonaro's campaign. There is a lot we are up against.

 
Tomorrow (Thursday, October 27th) at 6.30PM (GMT+1). You can join the zoom webinar and help us build international solidarity here.

 
WITH:
- Julia Felmanas, Brazilian Workers' Party London (PT Londres), coordinator
- Richard Burgon MP, Brazil Solidarity Initiative chair
- Brian Meir, journalist for teleSUR English
- Elda Cardoso, Frente Preta UK
- Mohammad Suhail, Young Labour International Officer
- PLUS MORE TBA!

Join us on Zoom here
Please also share the event on Facebook, on twitter or through your own networks.

Together, we can show Bolsonaro and the far-right that the world is watching - no more political violence and no more attacks on Brazilian democracy.

We will also be hosting a post-election rally on November 7th, with electoral observers from the second round vote including Jeremy Corbyn. Please see below for more details.




Brazil after the elections - International Solidarity Rally
After the results of the Brazilian election, join us for a rally in support of Lula and the defense of Brazilian democracy.
SAVE THE DATE: Monday, 7th November at 7PM (GMT)

REGISTER YOUR PLACE HERE
One week after the Brazilian elections, we are mobilsing activists to discuss the results and build support for the millions of Brazilian defending democracy and the electoral system.
With solidarity speakers from the UK inlcuding Jeremy Corbyn MP and international guests from Brazil and Latin America to be announced!

Kind regards,
The Brazil Solidarity Initiative Team
www.brazilsolidarity.co.uk f: @BrazilSolidarityInitiative t: @BSI_updates

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has donated to our urgent campaign fundraiser. Without your support we cannot continue our vital campaign work after the election. Please consider donating £20 or whatever you can afford here.


Featured image: The mobilisation that supported Lula's registration as a candidate for the presidential election, held at the Superior Electoral Court, in Brasília (August 15th, 2018). Photo credit: Ricardo Cifuentes under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Image 2: Featured image: Lula and Dilma on September 8th, 2022 photo credit Marcelo Freixo under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Iconic photographer Salgado endorses Lula in Brazil vote


By AFP
PublishedOctober 26, 2022

Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado is known for gripping black and white portraits of natural wonders and human catastrophes - Copyright AFP Asaad NIAZI

Acclaimed photographer Sebastiao Salgado urged his fellow Brazilians Wednesday to vote out far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, excoriating his “suicidal”, “destructive” policies on Covid-19 and the Amazon and backing leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The 78-year-old photojournalist, famed for his gripping black-and-white portraits of natural wonders and human catastrophes, made the appeal in an Instagram video four days before a polarizing runoff election that he called a “dramatic moment for the history of Brazil.”

Bolsonaro’s government, he said, “was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Brazilians, through a suicidal policy (on) Covid-19,” a reference to the more than 680,000 lives lost to the pandemic in Brazil.

It is, he continued, “a government that massively destroyed the Amazon rainforest… that has failed to respect Indigenous communities and minorities. A government that is arming the Brazilian people in a brutal way.”

Salgado’s latest exhibition, “Amazonia,” which has been touring world capitals since last year, is a visual love letter to the world’s biggest rainforest — where fires and deforestation have surged under Bolsonaro.

The photographer went on to praise Lula for his “colossal performance” as president from 2003 to 2010.

“He really transformed Brazil into a developing country, a country that was highly recognized on an international level,” he said.

“Today we are divided, we no longer talk to our (friends), our relatives… We have to vote for the reunification of Brazil and for democracy.”

It was the latest celebrity appeal ahead of Sunday’s runoff, which has also drawn endorsements from the likes of legendary singer Caetano Veloso (Lula) and football superstar Neymar (Bolsonaro).

Indigenous Guarani live in deepening poverty in Brazil

Anna PELEGRI
Mon, October 24, 2022


In the middle of a football match on an improvised dirt pitch in southern Brazil, a famished young Indigenous boy abruptly abandons the game, throws a stick into the sky and fells a bird.

Then he runs home to have his family cook it.

Scenes like this leave chief Inacio Martins saddened.

"Hunger's no fun," says the 51-year-old head of the Ava Guarani people in the village of Marangatu, where some 200 Indigenous families live in deep poverty.

Their situation is similar to that of many native communities in Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro -- whose political fate will be decided in a polarizing runoff election Sunday -- came to office four years ago vowing not to allow "one more centimeter" of protected Indigenous reservations.

Forced from their ancestral lands to make way for industrial-scale agriculture, the Ava Guarani have been reduced to living in hunger and hopelessness on a leftover scrap of unwanted territory in the state of Parana.

"We need land to farm. We know how, but the soil here is nothing but rock," says Martins, pointing to the dusty expanse surrounding the community's overcrowded huts.

"Where are we going to go?" he asks. "It used to be we'd run away whenever white people came to take our land. Now there's no land left to run to."

- 'Ashamed' to beg -

Daniela Acosta, 27, is one of the few Ava Guarani with a paying job.

She takes a bus every day at 2:30 am to work in a poultry processing plant 65 kilometers (40 miles) away.

She uses her salary to pay off her student debt from a teacher-training program.


After that, there is little left for food. But she would be "ashamed" to beg in the city, she says.

Indigenous people are not usually "well received" there anyway, says the mother of one, who lives in a tiny home with a small space for her bed and another to cook.

"No one comes here to see how we live. I hope some day we'll manage to have our land declared a reservation, so we can be self-sufficient and not have to depend on others," she says.

Inhabitants of the region's 14 Indigenous villages -- which hope to one day win the right to a reservation -- are chronic victims of discrimination, threats and even hit-and-run highway accidents, according to a 2017 report by a commission backed by Brazilian rights groups and the Norwegian embassy.
- Court battle -

"The problems started when (the Indigenous communities) began demanding their land" in the 2010s, says Marina Oliveira, of the Indigenous Missionary Council, which is helping them.

At that point, she says, the Ava Guarani came to be seen as a threat by local farmers, many of whom inherited their farms from grandparents who received titles from the government to settle the land in the 1940s.

"Landholders look at Indigenous people and think we're going to invade their land," says Martins.

"But we're not dumb enough to do something like that. We just want to protect our rights. This land is ours. We never sold it to the white man."

The government's Indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, has established the borders of a 27,000-hectare (100-square-mile) reservation for the Ava Guarani, based on their documented presence on the land since at least the 16th century.

But a court annulled the process in 2020, after Bolsonaro took office, in what Oliveira calls a "completely abnormal" ruling.

In June, the public prosecutor's office asked FUNAI to appeal.

Critics say the Indigenous affairs agency has been hijacked by hard-line Bolsonaro allies.
- Little hope -

Martins says he has little hope, whether or not Bolsonaro loses Sunday's runoff against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).

He himself is unsure how he will vote, he says, unconvinced electoral politics will make a difference in his people's plight.

"My father-in-law was over 100 years old when he died, and he didn't manage to get our reservation established. I'm approaching 60, and I don't think I'll see it, either," he says.

Of the 725 Indigenous lands identified in Brazil, 237 are still awaiting official recognition as reservations, according to the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA).

app/jhb/mdl

Video games could improve kids’ brains, new study says

Research from the US indicates games may promote activity in the part of the mind that focuses on attention and memory

Results showed gaming might be a better use of screen time than watching videos on YouTube, which had no discernible effects

Agence France-Presse |
Published: 25 Oct, 2022

“But mooooom, I’m improving my brain function!” Photo: Shutterstock

Parents often worry about the harmful impacts of video games on their children, from mental health and social problems to missing out on exercise.

But a large new US study published in JAMA Network Open on Monday indicates there may also be cognitive benefits associated with the popular pastime.

Lead author Bader Chaarani, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont, told Agence France-Presse he was naturally drawn to the topic as a keen gamer himself with expertise in neuroimagery.

Prior research had focused on detrimental effects, linking gaming with depression and increased aggression.

These studies were however limited by their relatively small number of participants, particularly those involving brain imaging, said Charaani.

For the new research, Chaarani and colleagues analysed data from the large and ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

They looked at survey answers, cognitive test results, and brain images from around 2,000 nine- and 10-year-olds, who were separated into two groups: those who never played games, and those who played for three hours or more a day.

Gaming also improves your coin-collecting skills. Maybe. Photo: Shutterstock

This threshold was chosen as it exceeds the American Academy of Paediatrics screen time guidelines of one or two hours of video games for older children.

Each group was assessed in two tasks.

The first involved seeing arrows pointing left or right, with the children asked to press left or right as fast as they could.

They were also told to not press anything if they saw a “stop” signal, to measure how well they could control their impulses.

Help! My parents blame video games for my problems – how do I explain that it actually helps me relax?

In the second task, they were shown people’s faces, and then asked if a subsequent picture shown later on matched or not, in a test of their working memory.

After using statistical methods to control for variables that could skew results, such as parental income, IQ, and mental health symptoms, the team found the video gamers performed consistently better on both tasks.

As they performed the tasks, the children’s brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Video gamers’ brains showed more activity in regions associated with attention and memory.

“The results raise the intriguing possibility that video gaming may provide a cognitive training experience with measurable neurocognitive effects,” the authors concluded in their paper.

Video gamers’ brains showed more activity in regions associated with attention and memory in the new study. Photo: Shutterstock

Right now it’s not possible to know whether better cognitive performance drives more gaming, or is its result, said Chaarani.

The team hope to get a more clear answer as the study continues and they look again at the same children at older ages.

This will also help exclude other potential factors at play such as the children’s home environment, exercise and sleep quality.

Should there be a limit on the time teens spend playing video games?

Future studies could also benefit from knowing what genres of games the children were playing – though at age 10 children tend to favour action games like Fortnite or Assassin’s Creed.

“Of course, excessive use of screen time is bad for overall mental health and physical activity,” said Chaarani.

But he said the results showed video games might be a better use of screen time than watching videos on YouTube, which has no discernible cognitive effects.

Amnesty urges ICC probes of possible Gaza war crimes

Smoke billows from a building struck during an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 7, 2022. (AFP)

AFP
Published: 25 October ,2022: 

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into possible war crimes committed in August by both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants during deadly fighting in Gaza.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Thirty-one civilians were among the 49 Palestinians killed in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip during the three-day conflict, the global rights group said in a new report.


The London-based organization pressed the ICC to “urgently investigate any apparent war crimes committed during the August 2022 Israeli offensive” in the Palestinian enclave.

“Amnesty International has collected and analyzed new evidence of unlawful attacks, including possible war crimes, committed by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups,” it said.

The report detailed a strike that hit the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing seven civilians.

The bombing was “likely to have been caused by a rocket launched by Palestinian armed groups that misfired”, Amnesty said.

Fighting began on August 5 when Israel targeted the Islamic Jihad militant group in what it said were pre-emptive strikes to avert attacks.

The Palestinian organization responded with barrages of rocket fire that did not result in any Israeli casualties.

Amnesty’s research found that an attack in which five children were killed at a cemetery “was likely to have been carried out by an Israeli guided missile fired by a drone.”

A third incident Amnesty said may amount to a war crime was Israeli tank fire on a house in the southern Khan Yunis area, which killed one civilian.

The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, expected to focus in part on possible war crimes committed during the 2014 conflict in Gaza.

The probe is supported by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel is not an ICC member and disputes its jurisdiction.

The violence in August was preceded by four wars between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008.

The Palestinian enclave has been under a crippling Israeli-led blockade since 2007, imposed after Hamas took control of the territory.

Hamas said its militants did not participate in the August conflict.

Partial solar eclipse began in Iceland headed towards India

AFP - Yesterday 

A partial solar eclipse began over Iceland on Tuesday as the rare celestial spectacle started to make its way east across a swathe of the Northern Hemisphere.


Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow down onto our planet© PRAKASH MATHEMA

The partial eclipse began at 0858 GMT and will end off the coast of India at 1302 GMT, crossing parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on its way, according to the IMCCE institute of France's Paris Observatory.


At least 95 percent of the Sun needs to be obscured to get a 'sense of darkness'© Armend NIMANI

Amateur astronomers must not stare directly at the eclipse, which will not darken the sky, and should instead wear protective glasses to avoid eye damage, experts said.



To find out when eclipses can be seen in different countries, Milligan recommended the website timeanddate.com/eclipse© Louisa GOULIAMAKI

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow down onto our planet.

A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon completely blocks the Sun's disk, momentarily plunging a portion of the Earth into complete darkness.

However Tuesday's eclipse is only partial, and the "Moon's shadow will not touch the surface of the Earth at any point," the Paris Observatory said in a statement.

The Moon will cover a maximum of 82 percent of the Sun over Kazakhstan, but it will not be enough darken the daylight, Paris Observatory astronomer Florent Deleflie said.

At least 95 percent of the Sun needs to be obscured to get a "sense of darkness," Deleflie told AFP.

"It won't be spectacular, but it's always an event for amateur astronomers -- and it can make for beautiful photos."

- Chasing eclipses -

Ryan Milligan, an astrophysicist at Northern Ireland's Queen's University Belfast, is a self-described "solar eclipse chaser" who has travelled the world to witness the rare celestial events.

Though Tuesday's eclipse "will be a slight event", Milligan told AFP that as an eclipse chaser, it will be "exciting to get that buzz back again".

But even with "the brightest clear skies, you will be none the wiser of what's going on above your head" unless you have the correct glasses, he added.

It can also be observed by poking a small hole in one piece of paper and letting the sunshine stream through onto another piece.

The holes in kitchen colanders or even Ritz crackers can also be used, Milligan added.

Milligan has travelled to countries including Chile to Turkey to see a total of 10 eclipses.

This week he booked a camper van for a trip to Western Australia in April next year to see a total eclipse that will last 76 seconds.

He is also heading to Mexico in April 2024 for what he calls "the big one" -- a total eclipse that will pass over North America.

Closer to his home in Northern Ireland, a total eclipse will be visible in Spain in 2026.

To find out when eclipses can be seen in different countries, Milligan recommended the website timeanddate.com/eclipse.

Despite Tuesday not being the most exciting event, Milligan urged those interested to plan for the next total eclipse.

"People always talk about the northern lights being on their bucket list," Milligan said. "But a total solar eclipse is the most spectacular sight in nature."

pcl-dl/jmm

CHOLERA

Increasingly tense situation in Haiti, where a new health crisis is added to the political and humanitarian situation
Issued on: 25/10/2022 
 

06:00

HSBC profits slide on bank impairment charges

Mon, October 24, 2022 

Global bank giant HSBC on Tuesday announced tumbling profits for the third quarter on impairment charges linked to a weak economic outlook and its upcoming sale of French retail operations.

The London-headquartered bank's share price was down nearly seven percent in early afternoon deals, making it the biggest faller on the British capital's FTSE 100 index.

HSBC also announced a boardroom shake-up with the appointment of a new chief financial officer, as the Asia-focused lender faces headwinds in China and global recession prospects.

Net profit slumped 46 percent to $1.91 billion in June-September compared with the third quarter last year. Pre-tax profit slumped 40 percent, HSBC added in a statement.

The bank was hit by a $2.4-billion write-off from the planned disposal of its French business next year, offsetting gains made by soaring interest rates.

HSBC has meanwhile set aside provisions totalling $1.1 billion for loans expected to sour.

"Macroeconomic headwinds, including higher inflation and a weaker outlook, continue to weigh on the global economy," it said.

The bank specifically cited global uncertainty sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the fall of the British pound and China's troubled real estate sector.

Stripping out the one-off hits, adjusted pre-tax profit jumped 18 percent to $6.5 billion, beating analyst expectations.

The bank's net interest income, measuring what it makes from lending minus interest paid on deposits, came in at $8.6 billion -- its best third quarter in more than eight years.

- China strains -

"We retained a tight grip on costs, despite inflationary pressures, and remain on track to achieve our cost targets for 2022 and 2023," said chief executive Noel Quinn.

In a call with media, he welcomed stability returning to UK markets as former finance chief Rishi Sunak replaced Liz Truss as prime minister.

"It's been a challenging few weeks. I am glad to see the market has stabilised."

The bank announced its own shake-up, with HSBC senior executive Georges Elhedery next year stepping up as chief financial officer, replacing Ewen Stevenson who departs the group.

Senior HSBC executives are next week expected in Hong Kong for a bank summit after the city recently lifted mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals.

It comes after Chinese leader Xi Jinping tightened his grip on power by securing a third five-year term in office, handing top jobs to a number of loyalists who back his strict zero-Covid strategy.

The policy of lockdowns and other strict measures have been a major cause of the country's economic woes and the prospect of more upheaval has sent chills through trading floors.

HSBC has vowed to accelerate a multi-year pivot to Asia and the Middle East, with ambitions to lead Asia's wealth management market.

But the lender is under pressure from Chinese financial giant and major shareholder Ping An to spin off its Asian operations to unlock shareholder value amid tensions between China and Western powers.

HSBC, which has rejected the calls, added Tuesday that it was "exploring the potential sale" of its Canadian division.

In midday deals, HSBC shares were down almost 7.0 percent at 442.45 pence.

"Rising interest rates may be good news for banks but it's all the other stuff which is causing them headaches right now," noted AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.

"Concern about the impact of a slowing economy on bad debts and growth in the loan book is being exacerbated at HSBC by the departure of well-respected finance director Ewen Stevenson and the deteriorating situation in China."

She added that "Stevenson's departure may also make HSBC more vulnerable to pressure from its largest shareholder Ping An to break up the bank."

 

MINING IS UNSUSTAINABLE

Greening global economy brings dependence on critical minerals

Isabel MALSANG
Mon, October 24, 2022 


After nearly a century of geopolitical tension over access to oil, experts worry that the global transition to clean energy is creating new dependencies on the critical minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries.

Control over most of these essential elements is concentrated in a handful of countries, none more than China, they note.

- Which metals are key for the energy transition? -

Cobalt, nickel, manganese and lithium are critical to making electric vehicle batteries. Rare earths such as neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium are used in computer memory and magnets in wind turbines.

Copper and aluminium are used in electricity networks, and platinum is a catalyst for hydrogen.

These materials "will be at the centre of decarbonisation efforts and electrification of the economy, as we move from fossil fuels to wind and solar power generation, battery- and fuel-cell-based electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen production", consulting firm McKinsey reported earlier this year.

- How much demand is there? -

Global demand for these critical metals may quadruple by 2040 if the world is to meet its pledges under the Paris climate pact, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

French researcher Olivier Vidal has calculated that more of the metals will need to be manufactured by 2050 than humanity has produced throughout history.

While many predict shortages, some believe technology improvements and recycling will keep up with increased production needs.

But some regions are more vulnerable than others.

According to a study by Belgium's Louvain university, Europe faces critical shortages of metals for the next 15 years, particularly lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earths.

The European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) says Europe will only be able to cover between five and 55 percent of its key metals needs by 2030.

While Europe does have untapped resources of cobalt, gallium, germanium and lithium, it will need to issue mining permits to get to them, noted senior ERMA official Bernd Schaefer.

On Monday, industrial minerals manufacturer Imerys announced plans for a major lithium mine in central France.

The United States is opening its first cobalt mine in decades, in Idaho.

Automakers such as Tesla have announced their intention to enter directly into the capital of mining firms.

- Which countries produce these metals? -

Cobalt mining is dominated by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for 70 percent of the world total. But in terms of processing, China is the leader, at 50 percent.

South Africa accounts for 37 percent of global manganese output.

China and Guinea account for more than half of the global production of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium.

Argentina, Australia and Chile are major lithium producers, while Bolivia has considerable untapped resources.

- What are the geopolitical risks? -

"The oil and gas triangle -- Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States -- has governed the world for 40 years," said Philippe Varin, who has led French steel and car firms and recently wrote a report on the supply of raw materials to French companies.

He said that is now "little by little transforming into a bipolarisation of the world between the United States and China, the major users of metals in the energy transition".

Varin said Chinese companies had taken control of 40 percent of the value chain for the metals needed for battery production.

Emmanuel Hache, a forecaster at the French Institute of Petroleum, said that raw materials "could be the cause of a confrontation between China and the United States in the years to come".

"Behind all conflicts you find raw materials as a top cause," said CyclOpe, an annual French publication on raw materials, making a link between the military coup in Guinea in 2021 and bauxite.

im-rmb/rl/imm/mh/gil

France to develop major lithium mine as Europe moves to electric vehicles
Issued on: 25/10/2022
 

01:02

Industrial metals firm Imerys plans to open one of Europe's largest lithium mines near a town in central France by 2027 to help support the continent's move towards electric vehicles, which use the metal in their batteries. Locals have welcomed the job opportunities the mine should create, but some have also raised concerns about its environmental impact.

Russia Rejects US Basketballer's Appeal Of 'Traumatic' Sentence

10/25/22

Jailed US basketball player Brittney Griner is seen on a screen via a video link during a court hearing near Moscow on October 25, 2022 

AFP / Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV


ARussian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from US basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison term on drug charges, dismissing her plea for the "traumatic" sentence to be reduced.

The court in Krasnogorsk near Moscow ruled to leave Griner's August verdict "without change" in the case that came amid fierce tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden's administration dismissed the ruling as "another sham judicial proceeding" that will keep Griner "wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances" and vowed to continue pressing for her release.

"The President has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home," US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Griner, a star in the Women's National Basketball Association in the US, had pleaded by video link from her detention centre just outside the Russian capital for the sentence to be cut.

"I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very, very stressful and very traumatic," Griner said.

The 32-year-old was handed nine years in prison in August for possessing vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil, after she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February.

Speaking slowly so her words could be translated into Russian, Griner asked the court for leniency given that the amount of cannabis found was "barely over the significant amount".

"I don't understand the first court's decision to give one year less than the max when I've been here almost eight months and people with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given," she said.

"So I just beg that the court... reassess my sentence."

Griner's lawyers said they were disappointed by Tuesday's decision as it goes against standard legal practice.

"Other defendants in similar criminal cases receive punishment in the form of a suspended sentence or a jail term not exceeding six years," Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement.

"Thus, Brittney Griner remains one of the most severely punished defendants in Russia."

The lawyers said Griner is doing fine physically and that she spoke to her family last week on her birthday, but Tuesday's decision was hard for Griner to take.

"She had some hopes and these hopes vanished today," Blagovolina told reports outside the court house.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the ruling "was not unexpected and Brittney Griner remains wrongly detained."

"It is time to bring this case to an end and bring BG home."

Griner's lawyers hope to speak to her later this week about whether she wants to continue appealing the verdict in higher courts.

When she was arrested, the two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women's NBA champion had been in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team, during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury Women's National Basketball Association side.

She pleaded guilty to the charges, but said she did not intend to break the law or use the banned substance in Russia.

Griner had testified that she had permission from a US doctor to use medicinal cannabis to relieve pain from her many injuries, and had never failed a drug test.

The use of medical marijuana is not allowed in Russia.

In August, Moscow said it was ready to discuss a prisoner swap for Griner, but there has been no apparent progress.