CNN sued by former reporter Saima Mohsin for 

unfair dismissal and racial discrimination

ByVrinda Rastogi

Jul 11, 2023 

Saima Mohsin was a CNN reporter when she sustained a life-changing injury 

on an assignment. She is now suing the channel for unfair dismissal and discrimination

Former CNN reporter Saima Mohsin is suing the news channel for unfair dismissal and racial discrimination after sustaining a severe injury while in Isreal for an assignment.

Saima Mohsin(Twitter (@/SaimaMohsin))

Saima Mohsin was reporting from Jerusalem on the Isreal-Palestine conflict when an accident left her disabled. Her cameraman ran over her foot, causing severe tissue damage. She struggled to sit, stand and walk, or return to work full-time.

The incident occurred in 2014. Afterwards, she requested alternative duties and support for rehabilitation but CNN refused. She also requested a transfer to a presenting role which would reduce the amount of time spent traveling. However, her request was dismissed as she was told “you don’t have the look we are looking for”. CNN terminated her contract three years later.

Mohsin’s employment tribunal claim is due to be heard on Monday in London since the network failed to support her after her grievous injury.

“I worked hard to become an international correspondent and loved my job with CNN. I risked my life many times on assignment for CNN believing they would have my back. They did not.”

Furthermore, the foreign correspondent has issued a complaint regarding racial and disability discrimination as well as the gender wage gap at CNN. She also claims that she was denied high-profile on-air opportunities even when she was ready to go live on the ground. Instead, the managers decided to put white American correspondents on air.

“I’m also taking the opportunity to highlight the racism and gender pay gap issues that I experienced. I was repeatedly let down and denied the ability to achieve my potential while I was at CNN. I am bringing my claim to take a stand and call for change to ensure women journalists, and women journalists of colour, are better protected”.

CNN has declined to comment on the allegations and is opposing the claim on territorial grounds. The broadcaster argues that, according to the terms of Mohsin’s contract, she does not have the right to bring a case in London.

The British-Pakistani journalist is now working with Sky News as a freelancer. She has made a program for ITV about the pain of living with invisible disabilities.

Mohsin’s legal representation comprises barristers Paras Gorasia and Jennifer Robinson of Doughty Street Chambers.

“This should cause concern for all foreign correspondents who travel around the world – and take risks to do their journalism in the belief their employer will take care of them,” said Mohsin as her claim has raised important questions about journalist safety and the treatment of women of colour in journalism.

Also Read | CNN anchor Don Lemon says he has been fired from network after 17 years

Meanwhile, CNN is facing a rough patch. The news network has recently made deep job cuts. is dealing with the fallout from a number of scandals, missteps and struggling ratings in its core US market.

Jeff Zucker, who was the president of CNN worldwide for nearly a decade, left last year over a relationship with a colleague. He was replaced by Chris Licht who lasted only a year before being sacked. Additionally, the news channel is in the middle of a corporate restructuring at parent company Warner Bros Discovery.

Also Read | After a brief time, Chris Licht steps down as CNN's CEO

As Global Temperatures Soar, Study Shows Europe's 2022 Summer Heat Killed 61,000+

"In an ideal society, nobody should die because of heat," said the lead author.


Agents of the Brigadas de Refuerzo en Incendios Forestales (BRIF) work to extinguish a fire on July 15, 2022 in Samos, Lugo, Galicia, Spain.
Photo: Carlos Castro/Europa Press via Getty Images

JESSICA CORBETT
Jul 10, 2023

As recent record-breaking temperatures fuel fresh calls for climate action and communities brace for more extreme heat this week, new research revealed Monday that Europe's historically hot summer last year killed tens of thousands of people.

"The summer of 2022 was the hottest season on record in Europe, characterized by an intense series of heatwaves, which led to extremes in terms of temperature, drought, and fire activity," states the study, published in Nature Medicine.

Based on researchers' analysis of the European Statistical Office mortality database—which includes 45,184,044 deaths from 823 regions in 35 countries, with a total population exceeding 543 million people—last year's extreme heat resulted in an estimated 61,672 deaths from late May to early September. Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were hit particularly hard.

Two decades ago, 71,000 excess deaths were recorded in Europe after intense summer heat, resulting in "prevention plans and other adaptation strategies to protect at-risk populations across the continent, that is, older adults with preexisting cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, women, and socially isolated or socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals," the study notes.

The new findings illustrate the potential shortcomings of those strategies amid a worsening climate emergency, the researchers said. Lead author Joan Ballester, an associate research professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), toldThe New York Times that "in an ideal society, nobody should die because of heat."



"The summer of 2003 was an exceptionally rare phenomenon, even when taking into account the anthropogenic warming observed until then," Ballester explained in a statement. "This exceptional nature highlighted the lack of prevention plans and the fragility of health systems to cope with climate-related emergencies, something that was to some extent addressed in subsequent years."

"In contrast," he continued, "the temperatures recorded in the summer of 2022 cannot be considered exceptional, in the sense that they could have been predicted by following the temperature series of previous years, and that they show that warming has accelerated over the last decade."

Co-author Hicham Achebak, a researcher at both ISGlobal and France's Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, said, "The fact that more than 61,600 people in Europe died of heat stress in the summer of 2022, even though, unlike in 2003, many countries already had active prevention plans in place, suggests that the adaptation strategies currently available may still be insufficient."

"The acceleration of warming observed over the last 10 years underlines the urgent need to reassess and substantially strengthen prevention plans, paying particular attention to the differences between European countries and regions, as well as the age and gender gaps, which currently mark the differences in vulnerability to heat," Achebak added.

As the Times reported Monday:

Older people remain highly vulnerable, especially those without access to air conditioning, and so are people who work outdoors. Older women were likely the worst-off group last summer simply because they live longer than men into the ages when people are most frail and likely to die during intense heat, Dr. Ballester said. He said other researchers have studied the reasons for demographic differences in mortality rates: For example, men tend to have worse health outcomes at younger ages, and some outdoor occupations, like construction, are dominated by men.

This paper did not compare deaths among people of different races or ethnicities, but that’s another important factor in vulnerability to heat, said Juan Declet-Barreto, a senior social scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists who studies the health effects of environmental hazards and wasn't involved in this study. While Dr. Declet-Barreto is less familiar with demographics in Europe, he said that in the United States people who work outdoors and are more exposed to heat tend to be immigrants of color.

While data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest the United States sees about 700 heat-related deaths annually—far fewer than Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent—the U.S. agency's figures are based on death certificates identifying heat as the cause of death, according toCNN.

Harvard University historian and physician David S. Jones—who was not involved in the European study—told CNN that the low U.S. statistics relative to Europe could be related to underreporting, differences in air conditioning, or both. For example, nearly 90% of U.S. households have AC, compared with just 5% in France.

"There's also reason to believe that places that are more often exposed to heat, like the American South, are actually less vulnerable to heat than in places like the Northeast U.S. or in Chicago or Europe," Jones noted.

"But it comes back to this question of, well, is Europe just reporting more accurately than the U.S. is?" he added. "There's been people who have been frustrated with the quality of U.S. health data across the board, not just heat, but everything else, for decades."

Record-breaking heat in the summer of 2022 caused more than 61,000 deaths in Europe

Date:

July 10, 2023

Source:

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

Summary:

The summer of 2022 was the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe and was characterised by an intense series of record-breaking heat waves, droughts and forest fires. While Eurostat, the European statistical office, already reported unusually high excess mortality for those dates, until now the fraction of mortality attributable to heat had not been quantified. This is precisely what has been done in a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, in collaboration with the French National Institute of Health (Inserm). The analysis, published in Nature Medicine, estimates 61,672 heat-attributable deaths between 30 May and 4 September 2022.

The research team obtained temperature and mortality data for the period 2015-2022 for 823 regions in 35 European countries, whose total population represents more than 543 million people. These data were used to estimate epidemiological models and predict temperature-attributable mortality for each region and week of the summer period.

The summer of 2022 was a season of unrelenting heat. Records show that temperatures were warmer-than-average during every week of the summer period. The highest temperature anomalies were recorded during the hottest month, from mid-July to mid-August. This coincidence magnified, according to the researchers, heat-related mortality, causing 38,881 deaths between 11 July and 14 August. Within that period of just over a month there was an intense pan-European heatwave between 18 and 24 July, to which a total of 11,637 deaths are attributed.

Most affected countries

In absolute terms, the country with the highest number of heat-attributable deaths over the entire summer of 2022 was Italy, with a total of 18,010 deaths, followed by Spain (11,324) and Germany (8,173).

If the data is ordered by heat-related mortality rate, the top country is Italy, with 295 deaths per million, followed by Greece (280), Spain (237) and Portugal (211). The European average was estimated at 114 deaths per million.

On the other hand, looking only at temperature anomalies, the country with warmest value was France, with +2.43°C above the average values for the period 1991-2020, followed by Switzerland (+2.30°C), Italy (+2.28°C), Hungary (+2.13°C) and Spain (+2.11°C).

63% higher mortality in women

The study included an analysis by age and sex, showing a very marked increase in mortality in the older age groups, and especially in women. Thus, it is estimated that there were 4,822 deaths among those under 65, 9,226 deaths among those between 65 and 79, and 36,848 deaths among those over 79.

In terms of gender analysis, the data show that heat-attributable mortality was 63% higher in women than in men, with a total of 35,406 premature deaths (145 deaths per million), compared to an estimated 21,667 deaths in men (93 deaths per million). This greater vulnerability of women to heat is observed in the population as a whole and, above all, in those over 80 years of age, where the mortality rate is 27% higher than that of men. In contrast, the male mortality rate is 41% higher in those under 65, and 13% higher in those aged 65-79.

Lessons from the 2003 heatwave

To date, the highest summer mortality in Europe was registered in 2003, when over 70,000 excess deaths were recorded.

"The summer of 2003 was an exceptionally rare phenomenon, even when taking into account the anthropogenic warming observed until then. This exceptional nature highlighted the lack of prevention plans and the fragility of health systems to cope with climate-related emergencies, something that was to some extent addressed in subsequent years," explains Joan Ballester Claramunt, first author of the study and researcher at ISGlobal, who holds a grant from the European Research Council.

"In contrast, the temperatures recorded in the summer of 2022 cannot be considered exceptional, in the sense that they could have been predicted by following the temperature series of previous years, and that they show that warming has accelerated over the last decade," adds Ballester.

"The fact that more than 61,600 people in Europe died of heat stress in the summer of 2022, even though, unlike in 2003, many countries already had active prevention plans in place, suggests that the adaptation strategies currently available may still be insufficient," says Hicham Achebak, researcher at Inserm and ISGlobal and last author of the study. "The acceleration of warming observed over the last ten years underlines the urgent need to reassess and substantially strengthen prevention plans, paying particular attention to the differences between European countries and regions, as well as the age and gender gaps, which currently mark the differences in vulnerability to heat," he adds.

Europe is the continent experiencing the greatest warming, up to 1°C more than the global average. Estimates by the research team suggest that, in the absence of an effective adaptive response, the continent will face an average of more than 68,000 premature deaths each summer by 2030 and more than 94,000 by 2040.

How extreme heat takes a toll on the mind and body, according to experts

The Southwestern U.S. is bracing for another week of blistering temperatures

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN 

Associated Press
July 10, 2023

A lady uses an umbrella for shade to combat high temperatures, Monday, July 10, 2023 in Phoenix. National Weather Service says Phoenix has had 10 consecutive days of 110 degrees or above. (AP Photo/Matt York)

The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Southwestern U.S. is bracing for another week of blistering temperatures, with forecasters on Monday extending an excessive heat warning through the weekend for Arizona's most populated area, and alerting residents in parts of Nevada and New Mexico to stay indoors.

The metro Phoenix area is on track to tie or to break a record set in the summer of 1974 for the most consecutive days with the high temperature at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius). Even the morning low temperatures are tying historic records, with the airport logging 91 F (32.8 C) to match the warmest low set in 2020.

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, federal agents reported that extreme temperatures over the weekend contributed to 45 people being rescued and another 10 dying.

With so many consecutive days of excessive heat, forecasters, physicians and local health officials throughout the Southwest are recommending that people limit their outdoor exposure and know the warning signs of heat illness.

___


KNOWING THE SIGNS

From heavy sweating and dizziness to muscle spasms and even vomiting, experts say heat exhaustion and heat stroke are likely to become more common. In coming decades, the U.S. is expected to experience higher temperatures and more intense heat waves.

Heat stroke is the most serious heat-related illness and happens when the body loses its ability to sweat.

The skin gets hot and red, and the pulse quickens as the person's body temperature climbs to 103 F (39 C) or higher. Headaches set in, along with nausea, confusion and even fainting.

Jon Femling, an emergency medicine physician and scientist at the University of New Mexico, said the body tries to compensate by pumping blood to the skin as a way to cool off. And the more a person breathes, the more they lose fluids, becoming increasingly dehydrated.


“So one of the first things that happens is, your muscles start to feel tired as your body starts to shunt away,” he said. “And then you can start to have organ damage where your kidneys don’t work, your spleen, your liver. If things get really bad, then you start to not be perfusing your brain the same way.”

Experts say it's important to recognize the signs of heat stroke in others, as people may not realize the danger they're in because of an altered mental state that may involve confusion.

In the case of heat stroke, experts suggest calling 911 and trying to lower the person's body temperature with cool, wet cloths or a cool bath.

With heat exhaustion, the body can become cold and clammy. Other signs include heavy sweating, nausea, muscle cramps, weakness and dizziness. Experts say the best thing to do is to move to a cool place, loosen clothing and sip some water.

Older people, children and those with health conditions can face greater risks when the temperatures are high.


In general, health officials say staying indoors, seeking air-conditioned buildings and drinking more water than usual can stave off heat-related illnesses. Caffeine and alcohol are no-nos. Eating smaller meals more often throughout the day can help.

___

LEARNING THE LIMITS

Researchers at Arizona State University are trying to better understand the effects of extreme heat on the body and what makes hot weather so deadly.

They're using a special thermal mannequin called ANDI that is outfitted with nearly three dozen different surface areas that are individually controlled with temperature sensors and human-like pores that produce beads of sweat.


“A lot of research that I and my colleagues do is just really focused on understanding how people are responding to higher levels of extreme heat over longer periods of time and then what we can do about it,” said Jenni Vanos, an associated professor at ASU’s School of Sustainability.

There are 10 thermal mannequins in existence, with most used by athletic clothing companies for testing. ASU's manikin is the first that can be used outdoors thanks to a unique, internal cooling channel.

The university also has developed a new “warm room,” or heat chamber where researchers can simulate heat-exposure scenarios from around the globe. Temperatures can reach 140 F (60 C) inside the room — and wind and solar radiation can be controlled for experiments.

Vanos said measuring short- and long-wave radiation in the environment can also tell researchers how much a surface — or a person — in a specific location of a city would heat up.

“And so under these extreme conditions, what’s going to really be able to be modified or changed within the urban environment is shade,” she said. “In a place like Phoenix or really any sunny hot area, shade is a really critical factor to be able to reduce that overall heat load of the human body.”

___

FINDING RELIEF

While air conditioners are cranked up and fans are blowing full blast, residents across the region are anxiously awaiting the start of the monsoon season, hoping it will help to keep the heat at bay.

But so far this year, the summer thunderstorms — which usually bring cloud cover, lightning and downpours to the Southwestern desert — are absent due to the ongoing El Niño weather pattern in the region, National Weather Service meteorologist Sam Meltzer said.

“It looks like things are going to be abnormally dry over the next couple of months,” Meltzer said, noting that storms that might break the heat depend on wind patterns drawing moist air from the Gulf of California into Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

“But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to get thunderstorm activity,” Meltzer said. “It just might be delayed.”

Meltzer worked in Phoenix before transferring last winter to Las Vegas. He noted that while temperatures rose last month in the Phoenix area, June stayed abnormally cool in southern Nevada.

The official daytime temperature at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas remained below 100 F (37.8 C) for a record 294 days before temperatures reached 102 F (38.9 C) on June 30. The previous record of 290 days, from 1964 to 1965, had stood for 58 years.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Walter Berry in Phoenix contributed to this report.

ECOCIDE

Crude oil transfer from a decaying tanker off Yemen to start next week, UN says

Decaying vessel FSO Safer is moored off the coasts of Ras Issa, Yemen, June 12, 2023. (Reuters)

AFP
Published: 11 July ,2023

The transfer of crude oil from a decaying tanker off Yemen will begin early next week, the United Nations said Monday of an operation aimed at preventing a damaging Red Sea spill.

The 47-year-old FSO Safer, long used as a floating storage platform and now abandoned off the Yemeni port of Hodeida, has not been serviced since the Arabian Peninsula country plunged into civil war more than eight years ago.

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A team of experts in May started inspecting conditions aboard the vessel and kickstarted preparations for the operation.

It will see private company SMIT Salvage pump the oil from the Safer to the Nautica, a super-tanker the United Nations purchased for the operation to recover the equivalent of more than one million barrels of oil, then tow away the empty tanker.

“SMIT has certified to UNDP [the United Nations Development Programme] that the oil transfer can proceed, with the level of risk within an acceptable range,” David Gressly, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told a Security Council meeting.

“The Safer is fully stabilized for the ship-to-ship transfer of the oil,” he said, stressing however that the operation “still presents residual risk” and that plans were in place to address potential incidents.

Noting that authorities in Sanaa had just given the green light for the transfer, Gressly said the Nautica was “preparing to sail” from Djibouti.

“It will moor alongside the Safer and should begin taking on the oil by early next week,” he said.

Completion of the transfer should take roughly two weeks, at which point “the whole world can heave a sigh of relief,” he added.

The unprecedented UN operation to transfer oil from the Safer -- which is carrying four times as much oil as that which spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska -- and tow the ship to a scrap yard is budgeted at some $143 million.

In the event of a spill, the UN estimates clean-up costs could top $20 billion, with potentially catastrophic environmental, humanitarian and economic consequences.

NATO Chief: Turkey Agrees to Send Sweden's NATO Accession Protocol to Parliament Swiftly

July 10, 2023 
Associated Press

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, shakes hands with Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, right, as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg looks on prior to a meeting ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10, 2023.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA —

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to send Sweden's accession protocol for joining NATO to the Turkish Parliament "as soon as possible" and to help ensure that the assembly approves it.

Stoltenberg made the announcement after talks with Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on the eve of a NATO summit in Lithuania. Sweden's NATO accession has been held up by objections from Turkey since last year.

"This is an historic day, because we have a clear commitment by Turkey to submit the ratification documents to the Grand National Assembly and to work also with the assembly to ensure ratification," Stoltenberg told reporters.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10, 2023.

Earlier Monday, with NATO hoping to put on a public display of unity in its support for Ukraine more than 500 days into the war, Erdogan said he would block Sweden's path unless European members of the military organization "pave the way" for Turkey to join the world's biggest trading bloc.

His surprise announcement added new uncertainty to Sweden's bid to become the alliance's 32nd member. Turkey was already blocking its entry because Erdogan believes that Sweden has been too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that he considers to be security threats.

On arriving in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, where U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will hold two days of talks starting on Tuesday, Erdogan first met with Kristersson before breaking off for a separate meeting with European Council President Charles Michel.

Michel tweeted that he and Erdogan had "explored opportunities ahead to bring cooperation back to the forefront and re-energize our relations." Michel said he has tasked the European Commission to draw up a "report with a view to proceed in strategic and forward-looking manner."

Turkey is a candidate to join the EU, but its membership talks have been at a standstill since 2018 due to democratic backsliding during Erdogan's presidency, concerns about the rule of law and rights abuses, as well as disputes with EU-member Cyprus.

Erdogan's new demand was the first time that he had linked his country's ambition to join the EU with Sweden's efforts to become a NATO member.

"Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul before flying to Vilnius. "I am making this call to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years."

"Come and open the way for Turkey's membership in the European Union. When you pave the way for Turkey, we'll pave the way for Sweden as we did for Finland," he added.

Earlier, Erdogan's office said he told Biden during a telephone call Sunday that Turkey wanted a "clear and strong" message of support for Turkey's EU ambitions from the NATO leaders. The White House readout of the Biden-Erdogan call did not mention the issue of Turkish EU membership.

President Joe Biden waves as he walks down the steps of Air Force One at Vilnius International Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10, 2023.

"I am making this call to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years," he said. "Come and open the way for Turkey's membership in the European Union. When you pave the way for Turkey, we'll pave the way for Sweden, as we did for Finland."

Erdogan's government has postponed ratifying Sweden's accession, saying the administration in Stockholm needs to do more to crack down on Kurdish militants and other groups. A series of anti-Turkey and anti-Islam protests in Sweden's capital raised doubts that an agreement to satisfy Turkey's demands could be reached before the NATO summit.

Turkey's delaying tactics have irritated other NATO allies including the United States. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed Sunday that Biden and Erdogan had spoken about Sweden's NATO membership among other issues and had agreed to meet in Vilnius for further talks.

Sullivan said the White House is confident Sweden will join the alliance.

"We don't regard this as something that is fundamentally in doubt. This is a matter of timing. The sooner the better," he said.

Previously nonaligned Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Finland joined in April following Turkish ratification.

Another key issue in Vilnius will be how to bring Ukraine closer to NATO without actually joining, and security guarantees Kyiv might need to ensure that Russia doesn't invade again after the war ends. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join the summit in person on Wednesday.

Stoltenberg said the most important thing was to continue to support Ukraine's efforts to resist the Russian invasion.

"Unless Ukraine prevails, there is no membership issue to discuss at all," he said.


Brussels must ‘clear way’ for Turkey’s EU membership in exchange for approval of Swedish NATO bid


NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg seemed to warm to the proposal, but not all EU leaders agree

July 10, 2023
editor: REMIX NEWS
author: THOMAS BROOKE

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, shakes hands with Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, right, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg looks on prior to a meeting ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, July 10, 2023. 

(Yves Herman, Pool Photo via AP)

Ankara will ratify Sweden’s application to join NATO, but only if the European Union commences membership talks for Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Monday.

The Turkish president offered the remarks at Istanbul airport on Monday before departing for the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on July 11-12.

“First, let’s clear Turkey’s way in the European Union, then let’s clear the way for Sweden, just as we paved the way for Finland,” Erdoğan told press.

He emphasized that “Turkey has been waiting at the gate of the European Union for over 50 years now,” and “almost all NATO member countries are European member countries.”

Ankara has been hesitant in ratifying Sweden’s bid to join the defense alliance which has now been pending since March last year. Ongoing disputes between the countries with particular regard to the Swedish government’s allowance of anti-Islam protests and anti-Erdoğan demonstrations in Stockholm, some of which have involved the burning of the Islamic holy book, the Quran.

Turkey also believes that Sweden has been harboring individuals deemed to be terrorists by the Erdoğan administration and has lobbied for reforms to Sweden’s anti-terror laws.

As well as Turkey, Hungary has also so far not ratified Sweden’s NATO application.

Following Erdoğan’s remarks, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg appeared to be willing to accommodate Ankara’s request.

“I support Turkey’s ambition to join the EU,” he told a press conference in Vilnius, adding that there could still be a breakthrough on Sweden’s membership bid at this week’s NATO summit despite Turkish and Hungarian reticence.

“We are working hard to make Sweden a member as soon as possible,” Stoltenberg said.

Some EU leaders, however, were less convinced, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who told journalists on Monday that the issues of Turkey’s EU membership and Sweden’s NATO bid should not be linked.

“It is an issue that is not related to the other, so I don’t think they should be mixed up,” he told press in Berlin.

Erdoğan is expected to meet with both Stoltenerg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson later on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s summit to discuss the ongoing situation.

“We will have a three-man discussion and then we will simply take it from there. It will be an important and first good conversation, I think,” Kristersson told the Expressen newspaper.

UN debates deep sea mining as countries and companies now allowed to seek provisional licenses

A U.N. agency tasked with regulating the deep sea is debating whether to open the Earth’s watery depths to countries and companies that are now allowed to start applying for provisional mining licenses

ByDÁNICA COTO Associated Press
July 10, 2023

Coral on Moore Reef is visible in Gunggandji Sea Country off coast of Queensland in eastern Australia on Nov. 13, 2022. The United Nations body that regulates the world’s ocean floor is preparing to resume negotiations in July 2023
The Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A U.N. agency tasked with regulating the deep sea is debating whether to open the Earth’s watery depths to countries and companies that as of Monday were allowed to start applying for provisional mining licenses.

The International Seabed Authority, based in Jamaica, launched a two-week conference on the issue Monday, a day after it missed a deadline to approve a set of rules and regulations to govern deep sea mining in international waters.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” said Juan José González, the authority’s council president.

The authority has issued more than 30 exploration licenses but no provisional licenses — so far.

The debate on whether to allow companies to extract precious metals from the deep sea that are used in electric car batteries and other green technology comes as more than a dozen countries call for a ban or moratorium given environmental concerns.

Scientists have said that minerals in the deep sea take millions of years to form, and that mining could unleash noise, light and suffocating dust storms. However, companies have argued that deep sea mining is cheaper and has less of an impact than land mining.

Most of the current exploration is focused in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico. It is occurring at depths ranging from 13,000 to 19,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters).

On Monday, Canada announced that it supported a moratorium because there is no regulatory framework in place nor a deep understanding of the environmental impacts of deep sea mining.

“It is critical that the international community recognize its collective responsibility to safeguard the health and integrity of our shared global ocean for future generations,” the government said in a statement.

The 36-member council of the International Seabed Authority is expected to debate the issue on Friday. But it’s unclear when or if it would actually vote on whether to allow mining in deep international waters given sharp divisions over the issue.

“There’s really no appetite to vote,” said Duncan Currie, an international and environmental lawyer and legal adviser to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a Netherlands-based alliance of environmental groups.

Currie, who was at the conference, said in a phone interview that he envisioned three scenarios: the authority agrees on a legal and technical framework by the end of the year; the issue goes to Germany’s International Tribunal for Law of the Sea if there's no consensus; or, a metals company submits a work plan to one of the authority’s commissions, which would then have to submit it to the council for a vote.

González, the president of the council, urged members to “stay open and attempt to reach consensus” as he began the conference.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to reach a decision at the end of the two weeks,” he said.

UK government must not aid US in Assange extradition efforts

The National Union of Journalists is alarmed to learn that UK police officers have approached British-based journalists, apparently seeking evidence intended to aid the prosecution of Julian Assange.

10 Jul 2023

The union is concerned by reports of “voluntary interview” approaches to reporters and urges the UK government not to allow Assange’s extradition to the US, or assist with information gathering.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said:

“British police should not be deployed to undertake another country’s dirty work, particularly when it involves pressuring journalists to assist with a case that has such potential to damage free expression and investigative reporting. We have long called for the charges for which Assange's extradition is sought to be dropped, and have highlighted the danger caused by the US government’s relentless pursuit of this case.

“The UK must play no part in supporting Assange’s extradition and journalists should not have to fear being contacted to aid a case that poses considerable threat to media freedom and to journalists worldwide. Nor should they have to worry about potential consequences of refusing to take part in such interviews, in relation to future travel or work in the US.”

Assange faces 175 years in prison if convicted by United States courts of charges faced, including several from the Espionage Act. The NUJ has opposed efforts to extradite him, joining the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in condemning the chilling effect this will have on journalists worldwide who fear their reporting may see them imprisoned.

NUJ members have joined protests demonstrating against his extradition and have supported the Free Assange Now! campaign. The union continues to raise awareness about Assange’s case, and opposes his persecution.

Edward Snowden Calls Out Biden Administration's 'Historic Scandal'

BY KATHERINE FUNG 

ON 7/6/23 

Edward Snowden responded to a new report about the Biden administration's attempt to build a case against another high-profile whistleblower, calling it a "historic scandal."

Snowden's remarks come a day after Rolling Stone reported that President Joe Biden's Justice Department has been pressuring multiple British journalists to cooperate with prosecutors in its efforts to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to the U.S.

Assange is being held in London's Belmarsh prison on charges related to his involvement with Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who gave Assange classified national defense documents concerning conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

"It is a historic scandal that Biden continues to pursue Assange for what are now plainly political reasons, and that major newspapers ignore it," Snowden tweeted on Thursday. "The FBI is now pressuring journalists into [testifying] against Wikileaks to prop up its flimsy case."

Snowden himself has spent the last decade exiled from the U.S. A former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), he became well known in 2013 after he leaked highly classified information from the agency and was charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property. He now lives in Russia, where he was granted permanent residency by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, refuses to leave an entrance outside the Department of Justice before being arrested Thursday in Washington, D.C. Cohen was arrested after protesting the department's efforts to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to the U.S.

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY

In the Rolling Stone report, journalist James Ball accused the Biden administration of "using vague threats and pressure tactics" to persuade British reporters into helping the U.S. strengthen its case against Assange.

"I know because I am one of the British journalists being pressured to cooperate in the case against him, as someone who used to (briefly) work and live with him, and who went on to blow the whistle on WikiLeaks' own ethical lapses," Ball wrote.

Ball described being asked by U.S. and U.K. authorities to act as a "voluntary witness" concerning a story he wrote about Assange's relationship with Putin ally Israel Shamir, noting that without his testimony, the "U.S. government cannot make much use of what I revealed in the article in a court of law."

Ball said that while he was "more than willing" to write about his relationship with Assange in the media, "I do not believe it should be used to help a vindictive prosecution of Assange."

Because the WikiLeaks documents were published in conjunction with five American newspapers, including The New York Times, the Justice Department, under the Obama administration, ultimately decided it could not prosecute Assange without threatening the First Amendment protections granted to those papers.

"If President Biden wants his Department of Justice to reverse the decision of the Obama DOJ on prosecuting Assange for his 2010 actions, he should at least explain it, and say why it is worth the silencing effect it is having on mainstream journalism," Ball wrote.

He continued, "As it stands, Biden's DOJ is threatening the U.S. media's First Amendment rights, even as it claims to be standing up to a Supreme Court that is threatening many other rights. The hypocrisy should not stand."

READ MORE

Edward Snowden reacts to Trump's classified documents indictment
Julian Assange's latest court loss is headache for Biden
Julian Assange's biggest fight in prison? It's not against extradition

Amnesty International used Monday, which was Assange's 52nd birthday, to renew calls for the Australian government to ask that the U.S. drop all charges against the Australian whistleblower and its extradition efforts.

"This will be his 13th birthday without his freedom and away from his loved ones, and it must be his last," Amnesty International said in a blog post. "Julian Assange's family confirm that his deteriorating health, his incarceration in Belmarsh prison and the continuing threat of prosecution by the United States government is causing him profound harm."

The post went on: "Julian Assange used his platform to expose war crimes that would have otherwise remained concealed. Prosecuting him will have a significant 'chilling effect' on media freedom and will risk exposing him to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Australian government must do everything in its power to have the US drop the charges against him and to ensure his release."

Reflecting on his own decisions, Snowden told The Guardian last month that he had "no regrets" about leaking information about the NSA's scale of surveillance.

"Technology has grown to be enormously influential," he said. "If we think about what we saw in 2013 and the capabilities of governments today, 2013 seems like child's play."

The Biden DOJ Is Pressuring Journalists In Its Case Against Julian Assange – Rolling Stone

COMMENTARY

Biden’s DOJ Is Pressuring Journalists to Help Build Its Case Against Assange

The prosecution of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is already a threat to a free media — the justice department's campaign to get me and other journalists to testify only makes matters worse

JULY 5, 2023

The Biden DOJ charging WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act could have a chilling effect. DANIEL LEAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

DOJ pressuring journalists to aid its prosecution against Julian Assange: report

The DOJ and the FBI are using 'vague threats and pressure tactics' in their attempts to receive journalists' help in building their case against Assange

By Landon Mion | Fox News
JULIAN ASSANGE
Published July 8, 2023 

Julian Assange: Martyr or criminal? Brother, father discuss his role in leaking classified documents

Fox Nation host Piers Morgan talks to Julian Assange's brother and father about this role in leaking classified military documents.

The U.S. Justice Department is pressuring some British journalists to cooperate with the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified U.S. military documents leaked to him by a whistleblower.

The DOJ and the FBI are using "vague threats and pressure tactics" in their efforts to receive journalists' help in building their case against Assange, according to Rolling Stones' James Ball, who said he is among the journalists being pressured to cooperate. Ball is sought by the DOJ as someone who had briefly worked and lived with Assange, and was a whistleblower revealing what he described as "WikiLeaks' own ethical lapses."

The first attempt at receiving Ball's cooperation in Assange's prosecution came through London’s Metropolitan Police in December 2021, he wrote. He remained silent at the time, on the advice of counsel, but has since learned that more journalists have had police show up at their doorsteps in the last month. Former Guardian investigations editor David Leigh, transparency campaigner Heather Brooke and writer Andrew O’Hagan have all been approached by police.


Assange is facing an uphill legal battle over his potential extradition from London, where he has been held at the high-security Belmarsh Prison, to the U.S. over Wikileaks' 2010 publication of top secret cables detailing war crimes committed by the U.S. government in the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan. The materials, which were leaked to him by then-U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, expose instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition. Wikileaks also published a video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.

SUPPORTERS OF JULIAN ASSANGE RALLY AT JUSTICE DEPT. ON 4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF DETAINMENT

The U.S. Justice Department is pressuring some British journalists to cooperate with the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified U.S. military documents. (AP)

The Australian journalist would face 17 charges for receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the espionage act and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if he is extradited to the U.S., and could be sentenced to as many as 175 years in an American maximum security prison. Manning was convicted by the Obama administration's DOJ in 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses over the Cablegate leak.

Assange has been held at Belmarsh Prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy four years ago for breaching jail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not promise him protection from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.

Ball was first contacted about helping in the Assange case by a Metropolitan Police officer on the special investigations team, who had called him on a blocked number Ball failed to answer. He then received a "deliberately innocuous" email from the police.

"James, I would like to meet with you to ask if you would be willing to participate in a voluntary witness interview," the officer wrote. "You are not under investigation for anything. It is a delicate matter that I am only able to discuss with you face to face."

A lawyer spoke to police on Ball's behalf and learned that U.S. and U.K. authorities were asking him to testify about a story he wrote on Assange's relationship with Israel Shamir, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ball wrote, adding that, without his testimony, the "U.S. government cannot make much use of what I revealed in the article in a court of law."

Ball said he was "more than willing" to write about his relationship with Assange in the media, but he does not believe "it should be used to help a vindictive prosecution of Assange."

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB URGES FELLOW HOUSE MEMBERS TO DEMAND DOJ DROP CHARGES AGAINST JULIAN ASSANGE

The DOJ and the FBI are reportedly using "vague threats and pressure tactics" in their efforts to receive journalists' help in building their case against Assange.

(Fox News Digital/Landon Mion)

An officer told Ball's lawyer that U.S. intelligence agencies claimed to have discovered that "'James Ball' doesn't exist," which Ball said was a false accusation as the name is his actual birth name that has never changed. After seeking further legal advice, Ball was told by multiple attorneys not to travel to the U.S. or speak out publicly over concerns about potential prosecution for his refusal to cooperate.

"That uneasy truce has come to an end," Ball wrote. "As a journalist, I need to be able to travel to the U.S. to work, and I am doing so this week. Also, other journalists are now being contacted in relation to the case. Both together make continued silence impossible."

Ball said the two years he avoided traveling to the U.S. on legal advice has "stifled stories I would otherwise have written for U.S. outlets. I had a real and credible fear of prosecution."

Last year, the editors and publishers of U.S. and European news outlets that worked with Assange on the publication of excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the Cablegate leak — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País — wrote an open letter calling for the U.S. to end its prosecution of Assange.

The Obama administration elected against indicting Assange after Wikileaks published the cables in 2010 because it would have had to give the same treatment to journalists from other major news outlets that worked with Assange on the documents. But former President Trump's DOJ later moved to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.

"If President Biden wants his Department of Justice to reverse the decision of the Obama DOJ on prosecuting Assange for his 2010 actions, he should at least explain it, and say why it is worth the silencing effect it is having on mainstream journalism," Ball wrote.

Assange would face 17 charges for receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the espionage act and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if he is extradited to the U.S. (Getty Images)

"As it stands, Biden's DOJ is threatening the U.S. media's First Amendment rights, even as it claims to be standing up to a Supreme Court that is threatening many other rights. The hypocrisy should not stand," he continued.

Assange's case has received the attention of some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., leading a letter to the DOJ demanding the charges against him be dropped. Lawmakers in Australia and other countries have also pushed the U.S. to end its prosecution of Assange. Pope Francis recently met with Assange's wife, Stella, who said the Pope expressed support for her family's situation and concern about Assange's suffering.

The Trump administration CIA reportedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of sensitive agency hacking tools known as "Vault 7," which the agency said represented "the largest data loss in CIA history," according to a 2021 Yahoo report. The agency had discussions "at the highest levels" of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London. Acting on orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, the agency had also drawn up kill "sketches" and "options."

The CIA had advanced plans to kidnap and rendition Assange and had made a political decision to charge him, according to the report