Crack addicts dance in side show to Carnival in Brazil


AFP
Sun, 4 February 2024 

Revelers take part in a street carnival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 3, 2024, in a neighborhood nicknamed Cracolandia due to the large number of crack addicts living there (NELSON ALMEIDA)

Emaciated Brazilian crack addicts danced to samba music in a rundown part of Sao Paulo as a very different kind of Carnival parade filled the street.

Brazil's legendary street party, which draws people from around the world and is known for its glittering floats and dance troupes, begins February 9.

But parades in what is called the pre-Carnival period are taking place on weekends, and Claudio Rogerio, a drug user who is missing his two front teeth, toots on a whistle as he leads a drum and tambourine corps marching in one of these early processions.

This one has taken place every year since 2015 in a sad part of Brazil's largest city called Cracolandia -- Crackland -- which is home to many crack addicts who live in the street.

The founder of the parade, a group called Blocolandia, has run the procession every year but it was Rogerio's idea to add crack addict percussionists to the roving musical show.

"We are not just drug addicts. We are intelligent people who like music," Rogerio, wearing a black baseball cap backward, told AFP during the parade Saturday.

Rogerio still uses crack but no longer lives in the street, as he did for years, residing instead in housing paid by a social welfare program.

With the Blocolandia parade he says it is like going back to his childhood in Vila Formosa, a Sao Paulo district known for its samba schools that take part in the much bigger Carnival spectacle.

Nearby in the parade stands a performer who calls herself MC Docinho, who smiles and sings. She recovered from crack addiction but did not want to sever her links with Cracolandia.

"Society thinks these people are dirty, that they are worth nothing. But I -- I am clean today -- I know what they are worth, their stories. And I absolutely want to be present to preserve this connection," said this mother of five.

The neighborhood, often hit by police raids, remains under tight surveillance as police with rifles monitor the parade.

"Carnival is a great time to shatter taboos and show society that there are people who dance samba, who sing, who have talent to create language and who have their own stories," said Laura Shdior, a psychologist who came to the parade.

"They are not the zombies that society thinks they are," she said.

fm-lg/mdl

World Bank's Banga denies IFC cover up of abuse involving Kenya school investment

Mon, 5 February 2024 


By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Ajay Banga on Monday rejected allegations that the bank's International Finance Corp arm sought to cover up reports of sexual abuse at a for-profit school chain in Kenya in which it held a stake from 2013 to 2022.

Banga, asked during a Center for Global Development public event about the IFC's response to an independent investigation into the allegations at Bridge International Academies, said he disagreed with the characterization of a cover-up by the IFC.


Civil society groups have expressed concern that IFC ignored evidence of child sexual abuse at the some of Bridge's Kenya schools until the World Bank's Office of Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) received complaints from parents in 2018 and opened an investigation.

The IFC's Board of Executive Directors this month is expected to formally discuss an action plan following the CAO's findings related to the $13.5 million Bridge equity investment, which was divested in March 2022 as part of a plan to exit for-profit education.

The divestment came nearly a year before Banga was nominated for the World Bank's top job, but he will have to deal with its aftermath as he seeks to improve the lender's operations.

"I think there's a series of things management could have done better. And that's the discussion we're going to have with the board shortly," Banga said in response to an audience question on the matter.

"So I'm not going to pre-empt that. I just disagree that there was a legal effort to cover it up. That, I will not accept as a question," he added.

If a cover-up "is proven to be so, I will take all the action that is necessary, but merely conjecture that is in a public space, I will refuse to sign up. That's who I am, I'm sorry if you don't like it," Banga said.

Banga, a former Mastercard CEO, took office in June with a mandate to shift the World Bank's mission to fight climate change and other global crises. He has pledged to make the World Bank nimbler and more focused on improving lives in the process.

Bridge did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The firm acknowledged some cases of sexual abuse in its Kenyan schools in a study it commissioned by the Tunza Child Safeguarding consultancy, but at rates far less than in Kenyan public schools.

SEEKING TRANSPARENCY

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter last October to take necessary steps to ensure that Kenya abuse allegations were thoroughly investigated.

A Treasury official said the department is "profoundly concerned, alarmed at the prospect that children may have been sexually abused in the context of an IFC project."

Treasury "vehemently condemns" violence against children and other human rights violations, the official said, and it will press for transparency and accountability in the investigation and seek policy changes based on lessons learned.

"Treasury has engaged IFC management and the CAO to understand what may have gone wrong given IFC's robust policies intended to prevent or detect any such harm. We likewise believe any threat to the independence of the CAO – be it in fact or perception – is unacceptable," the official told Reuters in an emailed statement.

'DEEPLY DISTURBED'

IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop wrote in a letter to non-profit group Inclusive Development International in November that IFC was "deeply disturbed" by the reports of child sexual abuse," saying it "does not tolerate any form of abuse in the projects we finance."

Diop said the IFC was reviewing the CAO report into abuse at Bridge and would publish a plan for "remedial actions" when it is approved by the board. He said a confidentiality agreement between the IFC and Bridge - criticized by civil society groups - was designed to allow CAO to complete its investigation after the divestment.

Bridge International Academies operates hundreds of low-cost schools in Africa and South Asia with hundreds of thousands of students.

(Reporting by David Lawder)

Opinion

We’re fast approaching the era of the trillionaire. What can we do to stop it?



Atossa Araxia Abrahamian

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 5 February 2024 

‘The billionaire class skews the balance of power in the marketplace, in politics and in society.’

Illustration: Bill Bragg

To celebrate the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Oxfam releases a study of how much of the world’s wealth the ultra-rich own. This year’s was a doozy. The five richest men in the world were revealed to have doubled their wealth in the years since 2020. Seven of the 10 biggest corporations in the world have a billionaire as their CEO or principal shareholder. Combined, the value of these companies – which include Apple, Microsoft and Saudi Aramco – exceeds the GDP of every single country in Africa and Latin America combined. That’s 87 countries: virtually everything bought, sold, consumed produced and dreamed up by two billion people in a whole year.

The charity also reported that, within a decade, the world will probably see its first trillionaire. A trillion is a number (it’s one followed by 12 zeros) to numb the mind. Even Ronald Reagan – a friend and ally to the ultra-rich if there ever was one – could not wrap his head around it. “A few weeks ago I called such a figure, a trillion dollars, incomprehensible, and I’ve been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is,” he said in 1981 when talking about the US national debt. “And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high.”

But what does it mean for a society to mint its first trillionaire, and how is it different from the wealth of oligarchs in the past?

John Jacob Astor, a German-American businessman, is believed to have been the first American millionaire. He made his fortune in the 18th and 19th centuries by buying and selling stuff: namely fur, New York real estate and opium smuggled into China. Astor predicted trends and took advantage of geopolitics to get rich; he sold lots of things to lots of people; and his wealth generated more wealth. So far, so straightforward.

Then came John D Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire. Rockefeller built and invested in oil refineries just as the world was getting hooked on kerosene and gasoline. He came to preside over a vast monopoly, choking the competition, which made him and his firm, Standard Oil, even richer. What Rockefeller sold to the public was more ephemeral than Astor’s furs and houses – the very nature of energy is that it gets used up. But you could still see, smell and touch it, and you could see when it was gone. For better or worse, Standard Oil’s products existed in the real world. We are all paying the environmental price.

There are about 2,640 Rockefellers in our world today, according to Forbes. They all got their start in their own unique way: founding companies, buying buildings, inheriting assets from family and so on, though young billionaires mostly work in the finance and tech sectors, profiting less directly from material things than knowledge, ideas and gambles. The way that many of these fortunes reached such dizzying proportions is through investments and speculation. The billionaire class doesn’t just work: it puts its money to work, too, and the market rewards it well.

The Bloomberg billionaires index, which ranks the world’s 500 richest people, is updated at the end of each trading day, revealing how dramatically that wealth can rise and fall. On 24 January, Elon Musk, who tops the list, lost $937m, just like that. Life is tough for the men and women at the bottom, too: the Wall Street financier Carl Icahn, No 497, was down $17.9m from a day prior. The aristocrat Hugh Grosvenor, whose fortune is in real estate, lost and gained nothing that day. He ranked No 157.

These fluctuations are instructive: they show us that the budding trillionaire’s lucre looks to be of a more speculative, more abstract, often less liquid nature. The actual sum of money they control isn’t the point – not when it can rise and fall so quickly.

The earnings of the ultra-rich are literally unearned. This isn’t a value judgment: it’s the US tax agency’s term for money made through “investment-type income such as taxable interest, ordinary dividends and capital gain distributions”. While Astor and Rockefeller surely followed the wealth-maximising maxim of buy low, sell high, and put money in trusts, charities and other vehicles to minimise taxation, we’ve seen this logic taken to the next level, without policy changes to correct for it.

Most of us pay tax on our incomes at double-digit rates; if we’re fortunate enough to own assets, we pay tax on the profits when we sell them. Billionaires, on the other hand, “can borrow against their growing investments year after year without owing a dime in taxes, allowing them to pay lower tax rates on their income than ordinary Americans pay on theirs”. That statement doesn’t come from Bernie Sanders, by the way, but from the achingly centrist White House, which in 2022 proposed a 20% minimum tax on households worth more than $100m. It went nowhere, in part because its subjects so strongly opposed it.

The impending arrival of the trillionaire signals another step backwards in the fight for a more balanced economy and healthier democracy. The billionaire class, after all, skews the balance of power in the marketplace, in politics and in society. Its members own newspapers that shape public opinion. They donate to politicians who pass the laws that they want. According to one study, 11% of the world’s billionaires have held or sought political office, with the rate of “billionaire participation” in autocracies hitting an astounding 29%. Another study shows they tend to lean to the right: positions that typically help them keep their own wealth, and that of their peers, intact.

Historically, the most significant reductions in economic inequality have come after wars, plagues and widespread immiseration. We are living through an era marked by all of those things, yet are coming out of it none the wiser: the proof is that we will soon enter the age of the trillionaire. Raising taxes, bolstering democratic institutions and seeking to redistribute resources to those who need them are all excellent initiatives worthy of widespread public support. And they should be envisioned not just nationally, but globally: inequality between countries and peoples matters, too.

But governments shouldn’t rule out more radical measures, such as limitarianism – that is, capping how much wealth a person can legally have. Once you reach a certain number of zeros, those digits on a screen are just that: digits of increasing abstraction. They don’t correspond to security, lifestyle or even pleasure. It’s time to knock a few of them off.

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian’s book The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World will be published later this year

OPINION

Republican congressmen are now talking about throwing migrants from helicopters

A TACTIC CIA & US TROOPS USED IN VIET NAM

Moustafa Bayoumi

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 5 February 2024

Augusto Pinochet in Chile, on 1 May 1987.

Photograph: Eric BRISSAUD/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

Three years ago, the Intercept published an illuminating article about the rise of the “Hoppean snake” among far-right extremists, a meme which the Intercept labelled especially “disturbing for its frightening historical reference”. For the uninitiated, the Hoppean Snake in its various forms usually depicts a serpent wearing the military hat of the American-backed Chilean dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet in the foreground while figures are dropping out of helicopters to their death in the background.

The meme specifically refers to Pinochet’s known strategy of kidnapping, torturing, killing, and – here’s the point – throwing his political opponents out of helicopters and into the ocean to dispose of them. The Intercept noted that many groups and individuals on the far right, such as the “Boogaloo Bois, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, armed Trumpists, and the like wear T-shirts that offer ‘free helicopter rides’.” and when they do so, “they are referencing a program of extermination.”

It’s alarming to see such rhetoric from the far-right fringes; imagine seeing this kind of political violence being advocated by a sitting politician or someone seeking the highest office in the land.

Well, you don’t have to imagine it anymore. Last week, Republican congressman Mike Collins of Georgia did just that. On Twitter/X,, Collins commented on a widely circulated picture of Jhoan Boada, a man who was recently arrested for allegedly assaulting two police officers in New York City outside a migrant shelter.

Boada was one of seven men arrested, and multiple reports refer to him as a “migrant”. After leaving court, Boada was photographed raising his two middle fingers to reporters as he walked away. The picture prompted Republican congressman Anthony D’Esposito of New York to offer the racist riposte: “We feel the same way about you. Holla at the cartels and have them escort you back.”

Collins then joined in. “Or we could buy him a ticket on Pinochet Air for a free helicopter ride back,” he wrote.

As HuffPost’s Christopher Mathias, who covers the far right, put it on X: “So we have a congressman joking or not joking about extrajudicially executing a migrant arrested for a crime (allegedly assaulting a cop) that tons of non-migrant citizens get arrested for too.” Mathias also notes that the “free helicopter ride” meme has been popular with white supremacists and neo-fascists for about the last seven years.

That such rhetoric is dangerous to human life and damaging to our political culture is hardly difficult to fathom. Collins was even briefly suspended from X for violating its rules against violent speech, which considering the bevy of white supremacists and neofascists on that site is quite an accomplishment. (“Never delete. Never surrender,” he posted, after his account was reinstated.) But Collins was hardly the only American political figure recently promoting political assassination.

Lawyers for Donald Trump told a federal appeals court last month that a president would basically be immune from prosecution if the president ordered “Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival”, as a judge asked. Trump’s legal team argued that the president “would have to be impeached and convicted” before any prosecution could proceed. The New York Times called the argument “jaw-dropping”. The New Yorker wrote that we should all be worried, not because of Trump but because of how unsettled the law actually is.

Rightwing disdain for everyone but themselves fuels this authoritarian thinking, and it is readily found in the writing of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, the German American academic to whom the Hoppean snake refers. (When contacted by the Intercept in 2021 about the meme, Hoppe said: “What do I know? There are lots of crazy people out there!”) In his 2001 book Democracy: The God That Failed, the libertarian Hoppe writes that: “there can be no tolerance toward democrats and communists in a libertarian social order. They will have to be physically separated and expelled from society.”

Expulsion is also necessary, Hoppe argues, for “the advocates of alternative, non-family and kin-centered lifestyles such as, for instance, individual hedonism, parasitism, nature-environment worship, homosexuality, or communism”.

Meanwhile, far-right groups assembled this past weekend in a convoy for a “Take Back Our Border” rally in Eagle Pass, Texas. Near this border town is the standoff between Texas governor Greg Abbott and the federal government, after Abbott installed razor wire along the border and denied federal border patrol agents access to the area. Three people, a woman and two children, drowned after the razor wire was installed, and the supreme court ruled recently that the federal government could remove the razor wire. After the ruling was issued, Representative Mike Collins introduced legislation banning the government from removing the wire.

Appearing at the “Take Bake Our Border” rally was rightwing journalist Michael Yon, who offered a tirade about how the US border has become insecure because of the funders of immigration to the United States. Among his targets was HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which he described as “Jewish, right?” He continued: “This is quite interesting because [HIAS] are actually funding the people who are going to come to places like Fort Lauderdale, synagogues, and they’re going to scream ‘Allahu Abkar’ and they’re going to shoot the shit out of them. Right? And they’re coming across the border, and it’s being funded with Jewish money.”

In reality, HIAS’s work aiding immigrant Muslims and Latinos so terrified the white supremacist Robert Bowers that he – not a Muslim yelling Allahu Akbar – subsequently shot and killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the deadliest attack on Jewish people in US history. But why let facts get in the way of a good racist screed?

Jews, Muslims, immigrants – everything is a threat. Violence is the solution. Opponents should be assassinated. Fascists are role models. Welcome to the Republican party in the year 2024.

Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist

Chance for Italy's toxic steelworks to finally go green

Ella IDE
Mon, 5 February 2024 

The steelworks, which date from the 1960s, has been dogged by legal and political battles (Tiziana FABI)

Doctor Maria Grazia Serra's patients have been "breathing, eating and drinking" toxins from Taranto's steelworks for decades, but a dispute over the vast Italian plant could finally see its ecological conversion.

Italy's hard-right government is set to decide this week whether to place the debt-ridden former Ilva plant under state administration, in a bid to secure production and thousands of jobs in a region with crippling unemployment.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni considers the site a strategic asset, but experts, authorities, residents and doctors are urging her to look beyond short-term measures to keep the site afloat.

"If we want to try to relaunch production in compliance with European policies, we have no choice but to shut down the sources of pollution, radically converting the plant's technologies," Taranto mayor Rinaldo Melucci told parliament last week.

The steelworks, which dates from the 1960s and is one of Europe's largest, has been dogged by legal and political battles since 2012 over its killer emissions, with experts linking thousands of deaths to exposure to pollutants.

ArcelorMittal, the world's second-largest steelmaker, took control in 2018, pledging to boost production to eight million tonnes in 2025 while cleaning up the site, which runs along a stretch of the coastal city.

Among other measures, it installed giant coverings over huge stockpiles of iron-ore and coal, designed to prevent red and black toxic dust from blowing towards houses, parks and schools.

- 'Urgent modernisation' -

But relations between ArcelorMittal and Rome soured in 2019 after the then-government removed a pre-existing legal shield granting managers immunity from prosecution over the environmental disaster.

The once bright white coverings are now tinged red with dust, seen as a symbol of ArcelorMittal's failure, Serra said.

She is one of 150 doctors who last month appealed to the government not to waste the opportunity to finally turn the plant around.

"Everyday we are forced to treat an increasing number of ever more serious, ever more disabling illnesses," Serra told AFP.

As well as a rise in birth defects and cancers, a 2021 study found an alarming drop in IQs of children born or living near the plant.

The promised increase in output has not happened either.

Hit by energy price hikes and a weak global market, production fell below three million tonnes in 2023.

The government and ArcelorMittal accuse each other of failing to respect commitments.

Italy is the second-largest steel producer in Europe. Taranto is the last of its sites to produce primary rather than recycled steel, but experts say maintaining its coal blast furnaces is not a viable option.

"The existing 50-year-old facilities in Taranto have reached their natural end of life and need large investments for urgent modernisation," energy consultant Alex Sorokin said.

"Investments in outdated coal-based technology would be an enormous waste of money," he told AFP.

Transitioning from using coal to natural gas and electricity would reduce greenhouse emissions, while also costing less.

The costs associated with renewables within Europe are already lower than those of fossil fuels, according to the European Central Bank.

And dirty energy costs will rise as EU rules oblige steel plants to pay the full cost of carbon dioxide emissions by 2034.

At Taranto, natural gas could later be substituted with clean hydrogen -- technology that is currently very expensive but is already being adopted at some European steel plants.

- 'Political will' -

Chiara Di Mambro, head of decarbonisation policy at Italian climate think tank ECCO, told AFP it would cost an estimated 2.5 billion euros to build the gas and electricity-powered units to produce eight million tonnes of steel in Taranto annually.

The site could be supplied from the grid and could use surplus renewable electricity. It would cost another six billion euros to transition to green hydrogen.

The EU has earmarked nearly 800 million euros for green initiatives in the city of Taranto as part of a green transition fund.

But last year, Rome turned down one billion euros from the separate post-pandemic EU recovery fund for hydrogen conversion at the plant, saying the 2026 deadline was too tight.

Industry association Federacciai has called on the government for subsidies, pointing to Germany and France, where Thyssenkrupp and ArcelorMittal have respectively secured two billion euros and 850 million euros from state coffers to help fund decarbonisation.

Italy's industry minister, Adolfo Urso, has vowed a "dramatic intervention" to make the plant "competitive in green technology", but cash-strapped Italy has yet to show signs it is willing to invest in its conversion.

Julian Allwood, professor of engineering and the environment at Cambridge University, said it was unlikely Rome would find any private sector company willing to fund the transition alone.

"The steel industry worldwide can't make large capital investments because the margins are so low," he told AFP.

Transformation of the site will happen only if and when Italy has the "political will" to support the costly transformation.

"But as we move to more renewables, that is the only sensible future for steel making".

ide/ar/cw

Iran grants visa to pro-Palestine American porn star


Our Foreign Staff
Mon, 5 February 2024 

Whitney Wright has shared pro-Palestinian information online, including material that supports armed militancy against Israel - X/TWITTER

Iranian women have criticised the Tehran government after it granted a tourist visa to a pro-Palestinian American porn star, despite its brutal hijab crackdown.

Oklahoma-born Whitney Wright shared snippets of her trip to Tehran on social media despite her work in pornography exposing her in theory to criminal charges that carry the death penalty.

Her visit amid the imprisonment of Narges Mohammadi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women’s rights activist, sparked criticism of the country’s attitude towards women.

Whitney Wright, a US porn star, stands outside the entrance to the former US Embassy in Tehran - X/TWITTER

As an American citizen, Ms Wright would need a visa to visit Iran. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to questions about the porn star’s trip.

Nasser Kanaani, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, was asked about Ms Wright during a Monday briefing and said he had no information about her.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, quoted an anonymous official claiming that the government issued Ms Wright a visa while not being “aware about the nature of her immoral job”.

The Iranian actress Setareh Pesiani used Ms Wright’s visit as an opportunity to criticise Iran’s hard-line government for its mandatory headscarf policy, which led to the arrest of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and her death in police custody.

“You punish people of this country in various methods for removal of hijab but you allow a porn actress to come here for tourism!?” Ms Pesiani wrote on Instagram.

Masih Alinejad, a US-based activist who has faced assassination and kidnapping attempts by Iran, also denounced Ms Wright’s visit.

“We the women of Iran want [to] be like Rosa Parks and not Whitney Wright,” Ms Alinejad wrote, referencing the American civil rights icon. “The true warmongers are the agents of the Islamic Republic who will execute you if you be true to yourself.”

An anonymous government official said Tehran was not aware about the nature of Whitney Wright’s “immoral job” - X/TWITTER

The porn star travelled to Iran and visited the former US Embassy in Tehran, which was abandoned after the 1979 hostage crisis.

She described the embassy as a place she “HAD to visit”. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard now runs it as a museum.

Iranian students backing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overran the compound after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

“I’m sharing exhibits from a museum that are never seen,” Ms Wright wrote on Instagram. “It’s not an endorsement of the government.”

Ms Wright has previously shared pro-Palestinian information online, including material supporting armed militancy against Israel.
‘Risk of wrongful detention’

In 2016, a British porn star known as Candy Charms travelled to Iran, prompting criticism. But there has been no media coverage of Ms Wright’s visit inside Iran, which is probably a sign of how tightly controlled journalists are after the 2022 demonstrations.

Asked about Ms Wright’s visit, the US State Department told the Associated Press that it had warned Americans to avoid travel to Iran and “exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detention”.

Americans and those with Western ties can be detained and convicted in secret trials to later be used as bargaining chips by Tehran in negotiations with Washington.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is a primary driver of instability across the Middle East region, and it has been since 1979,” the State Department said.

“If Iran actually cared about peace and stability in the Middle East region, or the welfare of the people there, it would cease its support for terrorist organisations.”

Ms Wright did not respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press.

American porn star Whitney Wright sparks anger after visit to Iran

Sky News
Updated Mon, 5 February 2024 



An American porn star has sparked anger after visiting Iran - despite the risks of being detained and sentenced to the death penalty.

Whitney Wright, 32, filmed herself in Tehran and visited the abandoned US embassy which has been turned into an anti-American museum.

In remarks made on social media, Wright, whose real name is Brittni Rayne Whittington, said she "HAD to visit" the embassy where Iranian students held staff members hostage for 444 days after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.


"I'm sharing exhibits from a museum that are never seen," Wright, from Oklahoma, wrote on Instagram in a since-deleted post. "It's not an endorsement of the government."

She filmed herself throughout the Iranian capital despite her work in pornography putting her at risk in theory to criminal charges that carry the death penalty.

Wright also posted several pictures of her visit, including one that showed her in a headscarf and conservative clothing - required by law in Iran - standing next to a lowered US flag at the former embassy.

Posting on her Instagram story on Monday, the adult actress said she doesn't know "half of what is being said here, but I'm no longer in Iran, but elsewhere".

Her visit comes in the wake of Iran imprisoning Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi, as well as the country's mandatory headscarf law and nationwide protests over the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini two years ago.

Backlash to visit

Masih Alinejad, a US-based activist who faced assassination and kidnapping attempts by Iran, condemned Wright for making the trip and for alleged remarks where the actress said "if you respect the law, you will be safe in Iran".

She wrote on X: "Iranian women don't want to obey a discriminatory law. Rosa Parks stood up against racist laws in America and became a symbol of resistance.

"We the women of Iran want be like Rosa Parks and not Whitney Wright. And by the way, the true warmongers are the agents of the Islamic Republic who will execute you if you be true to yourself."

Iranian actor Setareh Pesiani also said on Instagram: "You punish people of this country in various methods for removal of hijab but you allow a porn actress to come here for tourism!?"

Questions over visa

Under Iranian law, making pornography is illegal and can carry the death penalty.

Iran Human Rights reports that so far in 2024, some 74 people have been executed by the government.

US citizens also require a visa to visit the country, and it is unclear how the actress obtained one.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted an anonymous official who claimed those who issued the visa were not "aware about the nature of her immoral job".

Iran's foreign affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani said during a weekly news conference: "Naturally, US citizens face no impediments in travelling to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iranian citizens are able to travel to the US."

The US State Department, when asked about Wright's trip, said it has warned Americans to avoid travelling to Iran and "exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detention".

Police apologize in Canada hockey gang rape case

AFP
Mon, 5 February 2024 

London Police Service Chief Thai Troung apologized to the victim of an alleged gang rape in 2018 by men who were part of Canada's junior national ice hockey team -- and for how long the investigation took (Peter POWER)

Canadian police confirmed Monday charges against five current and former NHL players over an alleged 2018 gang rape, and apologized for the six years it took to investigate the accusations.

The players, who were part of Canada's junior national ice hockey team at the time, each face one count of sexual assault.

Those charged are Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils; Calgary Flames forward Dillon Dube; Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Carter Hart; and Alex Formenton, formerly of the Ottawa Senators who now plays in Switzerland.


McLeod has also been charged with being a party to the offense -- in other words, aiding or encouraging others to commit a crime.

"I want to extend on behalf of the London Police Service my sincerest apology to the victim (and) to her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point," Thai Truong, the police chief of London, Ontario, told a news conference.

"As a police officer working in this space for many years, I can tell you that this is a difficult, difficult situation for all victims and survivors of sexual violence," he said.

The five players are accused of sexually assaulting a young woman at a London, Ontario hotel after a Hockey Canada gala in June 2018.

The police investigation was closed without charges in 2019 but a second look at the case -- following a Hockey Canada scandal and public uproar -- uncovered additional evidence and more witnesses that led to the charges, according to lead investigator Katherine Dann.

All five suspects surrendered to police last week and have been released pending the trial, she said.

Earlier Monday, lawyers for players made a first court appearance via video link and were told to expect a substantial amount of evidence to be disclosed over the coming weeks.

None of the players were present for the hearing. Their lawyers have said the players denied any wrongdoing and would fight the accusations.

A next court hearing was scheduled for April 30.

In May 2022, Hockey Canada was rocked by press revelations accusing it of trying to cover up the gang rape allegations made by the young woman in 2018.

The federation quietly paid the woman several million dollars from a secret fund -- one that was supported in part by fees paid by young Canadian hockey players.

The backlash was swift, leading to a flight of sponsors and a 10-month suspension of federal funding for the federation, as well as the ouster of Hockey Canada chief executive Scott Smith.

amc/bfm

Canadian police apologize to woman for taking 6 years to bring charges in sexual assault investigation involving hockey stars

Paula Newton, Lindsay Isaac and Jason Hanna, CNN
Mon, 5 February 2024 



New information uncovered during a reopened investigation led to sexual assault charges being brought last week against five professional hockey players, four of whom are playing in the NHL, Canadian police said Monday, six years after the offense was allegedly committed.

The case against the players, who were members of the Canada world junior hockey team at the time of the alleged incident, was closed in early 2019 and reopened in July 2022 after an outcry from the Canadian public.

The charges relate to an unnamed woman’s accusation that multiple members of Canada’s world junior hockey team sexually assaulted her in London, Ontario, in 2018. The five men facing charges were members of that team.


The players, New Jersey Devils center Mike McLeod; Devils defenseman Cal Foote; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart; Calgary Flames center Dillon Dube; and former Ottawa Senator forward Alex Formenton are each charged with one count of sexual assault, according to an official police charge sheet released by Hockey Canada.

McLeod is charged with an additional count of sexual assault for “being a party to the offence,” which relates to “aiding the behaviour of someone else,” Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann said during a news conference in London on Monday. The players have all been released with undertakings, which are used when police feel confident the conditions placed on the accused will sufficiently protect the safety of the victim and witnesses, according to Dann.

London Police Chief Thai Truong apologized to the victim for the length of time it has taken to file charges. “I want to extend on behalf of the London Police Service to the victim and her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point,” he told reporters.

Earlier Monday, lawyers for the accused appeared in a London court for the first time via video link for a procedural hearing. None of the players were seen on video, according to CNN news partner CTV News, and no pleas were entered, though they are all expected to plead not guilty.

In previous statements by their lawyers, the players have all denied any wrongdoing and said they plan to defend their innocence in court.

CTV News reported the prosecution presented its case and said a “significant” amount of “disclosure,” which refers to forms of evidence, would be sent to defense attorneys in the coming days. The next court date is set for April 30, CTV reported.

The current NHL players have been told to surrender to authorities, London police have said.
How the case came to light

The case garnered widespread attention in May 2022 when Canadian broadcaster TSN reported the woman had settled a lawsuit she’d filed against Hockey Canada – the nation’s governing body for the sport – and members of the junior team over the assault allegations.

A cascade of developments followed, including parliamentary hearings in June 2022 over Hockey Canada’s handling of the case and announcements in July 2022 that London police and Hockey Canada would reopen their investigations.

Formenton, who was playing professionally in Switzerland, “will vigorously defend his innocence and asks that people not rush to judgment without hearing all of the evidence,” his attorneys Daniel Brown and Lindsay Board said in a statement. Formenton, who played for the Senators in 2017, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from Swiss hockey club Ambri-Piotta.

McLeod “denies any criminal wrongdoing,” his attorneys David Humphrey and Seth Weinstein said in a statement. “He will be pleading not guilty and will vigorously defend the case.”

Foote “is innocent of the charge and will defend himself against this allegation to clear his name,” his attorney said. “What is most critical at this time is the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial that everyone in Canada is entitled to.”

Hart “is innocent and will provide a full response to this false allegation in the proper forum, a court of law,” his attorneys Riaz Sayani and Megan Savard said in a joint release.

Dube “will plead not guilty and maintains his innocence,” and “will defend the allegations in court,” his attorneys Louis P. Strezos and Kaleigh Davidson said in a statement.

The Flames are “aware of the charge of sexual assault that has been laid against Dillon Dube,” the club said. “We take this matter very seriously. Because the matter is now pending legal proceedings, we will have no further comment at this time.”

The Flames had said January 21 that Dube was “granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team while he attends to his mental health.” Last week, the club said it had “no knowledge of pending charges at the time Dillon’s request for a leave of absence was granted.”

The Devils, for whom McLeod and Foote play, are “aware of the reports” and have “been told to refer all inquiries regarding this to the league,” the team told CNN.

The NHL declined to comment last week when reached by CNN. CNN also has sought comment from the woman’s lawyer and Hockey Canada.
Hockey Canada apologized for its handing of the case

A month after the TSN report, the Canadian government announced in June 2022 that it was freezing federal, public funding for Hockey Canada until the organization had submitted the complete results of its original, two-year investigation and plans for implementing change within Hockey Canada.

During parliamentary hearings in June 2022, executives for Hockey Canada disclosed that it was notified of the incident the day after it was alleged to have taken place in 2018.

“We immediately initiated a process to investigate, beginning by contacting police.
We commissioned an independent investigation and appointed an independent adjudication panel of judges to review the findings of that investigation,” testified Tom Renney, Hockey Canada’s former CEO.

Renney confirmed during the hearings that Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit that the woman filed in April 2022, but he did not reveal the settlement amount.

In July 2022, Hockey Canada published a letter apologizing for it said was inadequate action regarding the assault allegations, and said it was reopening an internal investigation. Three months later, the organization announced its CEO and board of directors were being replaced.

CNN’s David Close contributed to this report.


Police apologize to woman at center of 2018 sexual assault case that has rocked Canadian hockey

JOHN WAWROW and STEPHEN WHYNO
Mon, Feb 5, 2024,

LONDON, Ontario (AP) — The police chief of London, Ontario, issued a public apology on Monday to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by five hockey players on Canada's 2018 world junior team — including four now currently in the NHL — for the length of time it took to complete an investigation of a case that has rocked the sport for years.

It will, however, take much longer for Chief Thai Truong to provide any specifics as to why it took nearly six years for charges to be filed, and what led to the initial investigation to be closed in 2019 before being reopened in 2022.

“I want to extend on behalf of the London Police service my sincerest apology to the victim, to her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point,” Truong said at a news conference with dozens of reporters on hand.

“This should not take this long. It shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive to the outcome of today,” he added. “But I can assure you, I am confident, confident that this will not happen again.”

As for what caused the delay and how it reflects on his department, Truong repeatedly said he was unable to get into the details because they have the potential of compromising prosecution of the case; that could include having those involved in the initial and second investigation being called as witnesses.

The 45-minute news conference marked the first time police in Ontario’s fifth-largest city, about halfway between Toronto and Detroit, have commented on the case since filing charges against the players accused of assaulting the woman in a downtown hotel room.

The players charged with one count each of sexual assault are Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames and former NHL player Alex Formenton. McLeod also faces a charge of “being a party to the offense,” which police said was for aiding someone else in committing the offense.

Attorneys for all five players have said their clients are not guilty and will defend themselves against the allegations. The players — who are all on leave from their teams — surrendered to London police over the past week and were released on unspecified conditions.

During a brief video hearing Monday with only attorneys present, prosecutors obtained an order protecting the identity of the woman, which is standard in sexual assault cases, as well as that of two witnesses. Prosecutor Heather Donkers also said defense attorneys would receive “substantial” evidence in the next few days. The next hearing was scheduled for April 30.

Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann of the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section said the reopened investigation found reasonable and probable grounds to bring the charges, which could bring jail time if there are convictions.

Dann oversaw the investigation once it was reopened under now-retired police chief Steve Williams, and was not part of the initial investigation. She said some of the evidence uncovered "was not available when the investigation concluded in 2019.”

Like Truong, Dann was unable to answer many specifics, including whether others might be charged. T here were 22 players on the 2018 team

The case has shadowed Canadian hockey for years.

A woman sued Hockey Canada in 2022, alleging she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room by eight members of the gold medal-winning world junior team after a fundraising gala in London in June 2018. Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit, and then an investigation revealed the organization had two secret slush funds to pay out settlements on claims of sexual assault and abuse.

London police dropped their investigation in 2019 but began an internal investigation in July 2022. Around the same time, the NHL launched its own investigation, though the results of that likely will not be released until the legal case is resolved.

“At this stage, the most responsible and prudent thing for us to do is await the conclusion of the judicial proceedings, at which point we will respond as appropriate at the time,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday at All-Star Weekend in Toronto. Players on leave will continue to be paid through the rest of the season, though their respective clubs will get salary cap relief for them.

Bettman said the league found out about the allegations on May 26, 2022. He said the NHL interviewed every player from that team, adding the woman involved declined to take part in the investigation.

Hockey Canada said it has cooperated fully with London Police throughout its investigation.

“Hockey Canada recognizes that in the past we have been too slow to act and that in order to deliver the meaningful change that Canadians expect of us, we must work diligently and urgently to ensure that we are putting in place the necessary measures to regain their trust, and provide all participants with a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment on and off the ice,” said Katherine Henderson, who was named Hockey Canada president and CEO in July.

___

Whyno reported from Ashburn, Virginia. The Canadian Press contributed.

___

AP hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/hockey

London, Ontario, Police Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann, of the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section, speaks during a news conference in London, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. The police chief of London, Ontario, issued a public apology on Monday to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by five hockey players on Canada's 2018 world junior team— four of them currently in the NHL — for the length of time it took his department to complete its investigation of a case that has rocked the sport for years. 

(Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press via AP)

London, Ontario, Police Chief Thai Truong attends a news conference in London, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. The police chief issued a public apology on Monday to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by five hockey players on Canada's 2018 world junior team— four of them currently in the NHL — for the length of time it took his department to complete its investigation of a case that has rocked the sport for years.

 (Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press via AP)

 Philadelphia Flyers' goaltender Carter Hart in action during an NHL hockey game against the Colorado Avalanche, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia. 

(AP Photo/Derik Hamilton, File)

 New Jersey Devils' Michael McLeod watches during a break in an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, in Philadelphia. McLeod has been charged in connection with an investigation into an alleged sexual assault by several members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team, his lawyers said Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

 Calgary Flames center Dillon Dube (29) skates against the Detroit Red Wings in the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, in Detroit. Michael McLeod of the NHL's New Jersey Devils and Dube of the Flames have been charged in connection with an investigation into an alleged sexual assault by several members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team. Lawyers for each player say they will plead not guilty in London, Ontario. 

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

 Ottawa Senators' Alex Formenton skates during an NHL hockey game, Friday, April 29, 2022, in Philadelphia. Five players from Canada's 2018 world junior team have taken a leave of absence from their respective clubs in recent days amid a report that five members of that team have been asked to surrender to police to face sexual assault charges. 

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

 New Jersey Devils defenseman Cal Foote (52) during warm up before an NHL hockey game, against the Buffalo Sabres Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Newark, N.J. Five players from Canada's 2018 world junior team have taken a leave of absence from their respective clubs in recent days amid a report that five members of that team have been asked to surrender to police to face sexual assault charges. Five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior team — Hart, McLeod, Dube, Formenton, Hart and Cal Foote of the Devils — have taken leaves from their current clubs.

(AP Photo/Noah K. Murray, File)


World Junior Assault Explainer Hockey
A giant jersey with a Hockey Canada logo is displayed at the CIS All-Stars exhibition hockey game in Calgary, Alberta, on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Hockey is bracing for the next development in a scandal that has rocked the sport and led to multiple investigations into the actions of several prominent NHL players who were on Canada's gold-medal winning 2018 world junior team. Police in London, Ontario, scheduled a news conference for Feb. 5, 2024, to provide details about its sexual assault investigation involving members of Canada's world junior team. 

(Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

- A Hockey Canada logo is displayed on a door at the organization's head office in Calgary, Alberta, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. Hockey is bracing for the next development in a scandal that has rocked the sport and led to multiple investigations into the actions of several prominent NHL players who were on Canada's gold-medal winning 2018 world junior team. Police in London, Ontario, scheduled a news conference for Feb. 5, 2024, to provide details about its sexual assault investigation involving members of Canada's world junior team. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

The Canadian team poses for a photo after winning the gold medal with a 3-1 win over Sweden during the third period the title game of the IIHF world junior hockey championships, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018, in Buffalo, N.Y. Five players from Canada's 2018 world junior team have taken a leave of absence from their respective clubs in recent days amid a report that five members of that team have been asked to surrender to police to face sexual assault charges. New Jersey’s Michael McLeod and Cal Foote, Philadelphia’s Carter Hart, Calgary’s Dillon Dube and former NHL player Alex Formenton have all been granted indefinite leave, with the absences announced this week

. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP, File)


Media gather in front of the courthouse in London, Ontario on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. The sexual assault case against five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team will return to court at the end of April.

 (Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press via AP)

GRAMMY'S
The end of the old boys club? How women took over pop music

James Hall
Mon, 5 February 2024 

66th Grammy Awards: Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus of boygenius, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers of boygenius - John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Women dominated this year’s Grammy Awards like never before with Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish taking home the evening’s three major awards. Female singer-songwriter SZA took home three statuettes, while Atlanta-born Victoria Monét was named the best new artist. As if this wasn’t enough, Sunday night’s most memorable performances at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena came courtesy of Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell.

Awards ceremonies have felt like an old boys club – and this has persisted until recently. Note the 2018 Grammys when only one woman, Alessia Cara, received a main award, which inspired the hashtag #GrammysSoMale. A study that same year found that over the previous five years, a whopping 90.7 per cent of Grammy Award nominees were men. Barring a few outliers over its 66-year history – Carole King’s haul of four Grammys in 1972 for Tapestry, Madonna’s three Grammys in 1999 for Ray of Light, Amy Winehouse’s five in 2007 for Back to Black, Beyoncé’s record 32 awards (although she notoriously lost on Best Album to Beck in 2015) – the ceremony has tended to rain concentrated volumes of its mini gramophones on blokes.

U2’s 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Santana’s 1999 LP Supernatural both won nine awards apiece. Michael Jackson’s Thriller scooped eight. Female winners seemed a novelty. “That’s just the way it is when you’re a woman in a man’s world,” sang eight-time Grammy winner Tina Turner back in 1978. But, at last, no longer.


The astonishing thing about this year’s awards was the breadth and depth of female nominees. Seven of the eight nominees for the flagship Album of the Year category were female (it was won by Swift’s Midnights album). This is quite a feat when you consider that on 11 occasions since the Grammys were launched 65 years ago, no women were even nominated for the top award (most recently in 2013). There has been a complete inversion. In this year’s nominee lists for the three big categories – for Record, Song and Album of the Year, yes they really are separate things – the Louisiana multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste was the only man to appear.

The situation reflects a seismic change in the music industry. Over the decades there have always been breakout female superstars: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt in the country and bluegrass arena, Aretha Franklin and King in the Seventies and Madonna and Whitney Houston in the Eighties, for example. For much of the time, successful women artists were forced to be puppets, performing songs written by men and slickly packaged by male execs. Artists such as Mitchell, and Kate Bush here in the UK, were pioneers who for many years felt like the only women completely in control of their music.

Now, finally, women are dominating music comprehensively. Analysis of US and UK industry data going back decades shows that this change has been gradual, steady and irrefutable. A head of steam has now transmogrified into a new epoch. We are firmly in the era of female-dominated music.

The statistics are stark whichever way you look at them. Taking the Grammys as a starting point, the Album of the Year award was only won by female artists five times in the 30-year period following the ceremony’s launch in 1959 (this includes Fleetwood Mac’s 1978 victory for Rumours and John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s win for Double Fantasy in 1982).

Billie Eilish poses with the Best Song of the Year award and the Best Song Written for Visual Media award - REUTERS/David Swanson

However, since the start of the 1990s it has been won by female artists 17 times with a ski jump-shaped uptick in recent years. Many would argue that the figure of 17 should be even higher because as rapper Jay-Z pointedly remarked at Sunday’s awards, his wife Beyoncé has, despite her success, never won the Album of the Year award. And neither, astonishingly, has Madonna.

Away from the Grammys, overall album sales figures from the US tell a similar story. Since Billboard started tracking annual album sales figures in 1956, the best-selling album every single year (barring film and musical soundtracks) was by a male singer or group until 1986 when Whitney Houston’s debut album broke the male grip. Since then, however, female artists have been behind the US’s best-selling album 18 occasions, with – again – a huge weighting towards recent years. Indeed, women would have had the best-selling album in the US every calendar year for the last decade were it not for soundtrack to The Greatest Showman being the top seller in 2018.


It’s the same pattern in the UK. The UK album charts started in 1956, when the biggest selling album of the year was the soundtrack to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Between 1956 and 2000, the year’s biggest selling albums were by female artists on just 10 occasions (this includes bands with female members or fronted by females: Blondie, The Corrs, ABBA and The Carpenters).

But since 2000, female artists have had the year’s best-selling LPs 11 times. On four occasions it was one woman: Adele. And consider this. In the decade between 2010 and 2020, the UK had more than twice as many number one albums by female artists than it did in the 1990s, and that figure was almost double the number in the Eighties.

Beyond the fact that women are putting out thrilling and adventurous music, what is behind the new epoch? It could be that the music pendulum has swung away from ‘groups’ and ‘rock’ (largely – and I am grossly simplifying things here – a male domain) towards solo pop stars (a more female domain). Received wisdom says that groups are dead. But the facts don’t really bear this theory out.

Miley Cyrus performs on stage during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards

 - VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Plenty of bands have released fantastic albums in the last year. Besides, at this year’s Grammys, rock band Paramore became the first female-fronted group to win the award for Best Rock Album. In the UK, the big critical successes in terms of bands are the female outfits Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party. So much for an all-male cabal.

Some of the change is undoubtedly to do with a shift in sentiment. After the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, the music industry had has a long hard look at itself. It has been fearfully male dominated for decades – it still is at the top of the chain – and “representation” has become a watchword. The days of male privilege are over. Witness the backlash last year when Harry Styles said that “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” when he picked up his Album of the Year award. “What?” people asked. “It doesn’t happen to… white men?” It was a rare slip – whether real or perceived – from the usually sure-footed Styles.

There have also been changes in how the Grammys are voted for. The organisation removed gendered categories back in 2012, putting men and women on an equal footing. And organisers are increasing the number of female voters. Around 11,000 music professionals vote for the Grammy winners, and a few years ago the organising Recording Academy pledged to add 2,500 female voting members to its number by 2025. It is well on the way to doing this. Women now make up 30 per cent of total voters, while people of colour comprise 38 per cent. Men still dominate but the balance is shifting.

But the dominance of women is mainly down to hard work and high quality of the output of the artists themselves. Who else but Taylor Swift could be halfway through a mammoth world tour having broken ticket sale and cinema box office records, and coolly announce from the Grammys stage that she’s releasing yet another new album in a matter of weeks? You could almost hear jaws drop throughout the arena. I can’t lip read, but I’d love to know what Ed Sheeran was saying when the camera honed in on him.

Emma Hayes: 'Money is not my motivator' - Former Chelsea boss has eye on glory as US women's head coach

Sky News
Updated Mon, 5 February 2024 

Emma Hayes  English football manager

She's the standard-bearer for English coaching - the most successful manager in WSL history - and soon to take the biggest women's football job in the world.

But sometimes it takes a family chat for Emma Hayes to be reminded of all she achieved at Chelsea that has earned her a shot at World Cup glory with the United States.

"My mum said it to me the other day, 'You don't realise what you've done'," Hayes recalled in an interview with Sky News.

"And I said, 'Why would I? I have not worked a day in my life. I do something I love'."

Her Chelsea team have reciprocated the affection and attention to detail from the sharpest of managerial minds.

Six Women's Super League titles have been won since landing at Chelsea in 2012, alongside five FA Cups and two League Cups.

No wonder the US came calling when needing a coach to lead them into this summer's Paris Olympics and 2027 Women's World Cup which could be hosted by the Americans.

Leading the record four-times Women's World Cup winners will elevate Hayes' profile.

And the 47-year-old has the character and charisma to charm the US far beyond football.

"I've had a really amazing career and...I come from a household where you had to work hard and nothing was a given," Hayes said.

"So for me to be even in a position to lead a team to an Olympic medal is just what dreams are made of. And I intend to make the most of it."

'Money no motivator'

The US role is one that achieves a rarity in football - pay parity with the men's team counterpart.

It means Hayes could be the highest paid women's coach in the world by earning more than £1m a year.

She said: "I get to go to an Olympics. I get to go to a World Cup. There is no cash machine in heaven. Money is not my motivator.

"However, I felt valued, and that was important. But for me, the memories will be the things I cherish the most. And hopefully some more medals."

There is a bigger mission too - paving the way for future generations of coaches.

It is why she is speaking to Sky News at a McDonald's Fun Football project alongside anti-discrimination group Kick It Out - a mission to encourage coaching and playing careers and a more diverse talent pool.

The fear is people are being priced out of football - seeing the sport as becoming too middle class.

"There's no denying that, which is why here we can't scoff at the idea of half a million kids being able to access weeks and weeks of free football and coaching," she said.

"And most importantly, given the opportunity to bring people together with different backgrounds."

'Focus on youth'

And, in this election year, what would Hayes do if she was in Downing Street?

"I've always valued looking after young people," she said.

"I would make sure that there is certainly more support for young people up until the age of 18, so that we can develop people into the best adults they possibly can, and to give them the most amount of opportunity. I would absolutely focus on youth.

"One of the things I've always wanted to champion is equal access. I want girls and women to be provided with the same opportunities.

"So we talk about having more youth workers or youth clubs. Also I want to get more access for girls in PE in schools. It's still below that for boys and something that absolutely should be challenged."

Hearing Hayes talk shows she is thinking of a legacy far beyond the silverware collected in an illustrious career that, at Chelsea, is just missing a Champions League title that could still come this season.

"The joy is in the service of giving to something, not in the rewards of those things," she said.

"Not medals, not achievements. And I'm just grateful I've been given the opportunity

Mary Earps: Misogyny against women footballers like Joey Barton’s ‘a reflection of society’


Tom Morgan
Mon, 5 February 2024 


Mary Earps is on the cover of the next issue of Women's Health - Women's Health UK/Mark Cant

England goalkeeper Mary Earps believes attention-seeking criticism of women’s football such as that from Joey Barton reflects sexist views shared by “people across the country”.

Rallying behind Emma Hayes’ claim that the sport is “routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny”, Earps said the “biggest disappointment” is society-wide prejudice.

Hayes had indirectly addressed comments made by those such as ex-footballer Barton, who said women “should not be talking with any kind of authority” about men’s football.

But in a new interview, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner says further sexist reaction to the outgoing Chelsea manager’s comments effectively proved her point.

“Sport is a vehicle for change, but it’s also a representation of society,” Earps says in the March issue of Women’s Health UK. “The [sexist] comments on that [video of Emma, speaking at a press conference] are really telling. This isn’t just what one person thinks, this is what people across the country think – probably in the world. And that’s the biggest disappointment to me.”

Earps said that it can be “hard to give a calm response” when asked about misogyny in football, but added she is unsure an “aggressive response actually helps our cause”.

“That’s the irony of the whole situation,” she said. “And I think anyone who’s a woman knows that; it’s not just football. I don’t think there are many women in the world that will have not experienced sexism and misogyny of some kind.”

Mary Earps was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year after helping England reach the Women's World Cup final - Women's Health UK/Mark Cant

In an apparent attempt to drive up interest in his new media platforms, out of work manager Barton has repeatedly attacked football coverage by women’s pundits and presenters in recent weeks.

Hayes and Earps have not named the former Manchester City and QPR player directly, but Hayes said in January: “I don’t expect any individual personality to understand their privilege. Nonetheless you only have to see scores of women across the internet or in the business - whether that’s coaches, presenters, players - we’re routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny, bullying and behaviour that has been pretty normal for a large part of the football public.”

Earps, who also landed the Fifa Best women’s goalkeeper of the year also addressed her long-standing disappointment with Nike for failing to sell replicas of her goalkeeper jersey during last year’s World Cup in Australia.

“It was sad on a personal note that my friends and family couldn’t buy my shirt, but it wasn’t about me,” she said. “It was more about, I felt, the message being sent to young kids especially, but [also] to a whole demographic of people who have a huge passion and interest in goalkeeping. I felt like they were being shunned.”

She said she “one million per cent” had doubts about whether she should speak out against Nike.” I really like to lead by example and be really focused on football,” she added.” Unfortunately, when it comes to this sort of stuff, sadly that isn’t always enough…If I hadn’t performed well at the World Cup [the narrative would have] been like, ‘Yeah, no wonder no one likes the goalkeeper,’ [and] ‘just focus on your job’.”

In October, Nike finally relented to pressure and released a replica for the high street. “Ultimately, the end goal was to get the shirts on sale, and I feel we’ve achieved that,” Earps said.

‌Read the full Mary Earps interview in the March issue of Women’s Health UK, also available as a digital edition