A citizen journalist imprisoned for ‘provoking trouble’ by reporting on COVID in China is released


A pro-democracy activist holds placards with a picture of Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan outside the Chinese central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong on Dec. 28, 2020. Zhang Zhan was released from prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, according to a video statement she released Tuesday, May 21, 2024, eight days after her sentence ended. 

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

BY HUIZHONG WU
May 22, 2024

BANGKOK (AP) — Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist, was released from prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to a video statement she released Tuesday, eight days after her sentence ended, though there are concerns about how much freedom of movement she has.

Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vaguely defined charge often used in political cases, and served her full term. Yet, on the day of her release, her former lawyers could not reach her or her family. Shanghai police had paid visits to activists and her former lawyers in the days leading up to her release.

In a short video, Zhang said she was taken by police to her brother Zhang Ju’s home on May 13, the day she finished her sentence.

“I want to thank everyone for their help and concern,” she said in a soft voice, standing in what appeared to be a hallway of an apartment building.

The video was posted by Jane Wang, an overseas activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign in the United Kingdom and is in contact with one of Zhang’s former lawyers. However, Wang said in a statement that Zhang still has limited freedom. They became concerned that Zhang would be kept under further control by police even if she was no longer in prison.

The United States Department of State also issued a statement of concern over Zhang’s status in the days after she was due to be released.

Ren Quanniu represented Zhang before being stripped of his license in February 2021. He said he confirmed the video was true by speaking with Zhang’s family.

“She’s not free, she’s relatively free,” he said in a message to the AP. “She’s still under the watch and care of the police.”

During her detention at Shanghai’s Women Prison, Zhang staged a hunger strike and was hospitalized at one point in 2021. Zhang’s family, who could often only speak to her by phone, faced police pressure during her incarceration, and her parents refused to speak to news outlets.

Zhang was among a handful of citizen journalists who traveled to the central Chinese city of Wuhan after the government put it under total lockdown in February 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. She walked around the city to document public life as fears grew about the novel coronavirus.

Others spent time in jail for documenting the early days of the pandemic, including Fang Bin, who published videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the outbreak. Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released in April 2023.

Chen Qiushi, another citizen journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan. Chen resurfaced in September 2021 on a friend’s live video feed on YouTube, saying he had suffered from depression. He did not provide details about his disappearance.

The coronavirus remains a sensitive topic in China. In the first week of May, the Chinese scientist who first published a sequence of the COVID-19 virus protested authorities barring him from his lab, after years of demotions and setbacks.

HUIZHONG WU
China correspondent based in Taiwan

Human rights experts urge FIFA to scrutinize Saudi Arabia before 2034 World Cup vote


 Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, stand for the anthem prior to the match between Russia and Saudi Arabia which opened the 2018 soccer World Cup at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, on June 14, 2018. World soccer body FIFA has deepened its ties to Saudi Arabia by confirming a sponsorship with the Middle East kingdom’s state oil firm Aramco. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

- Mark Pieth, Chairman of FIFA’s Independent Governance Committee, speaks during a press conference at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Nov. 30, 2011. FIFA was urged by international lawyers Wednesday to uphold its own policy and scrutinize Saudi Arabia’s human rights record before picking the kingdom to host the men’s 2034 World Cup. (Walter Bieri/Keystone via AP, File)

FIFA President Gianni Infantino delivers his speech at the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, May 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

BY GRAHAM DUNBAR
 May 22, 2024

DUBLIN (AP) — FIFA was urged by international lawyers Wednesday to uphold its own policy and scrutinize Saudi Arabia’s human rights record before picking the kingdom to host the men’s 2034 World Cup.

A 22-page document was delivered to FIFA headquarters in Zurich on behalf of Mark Pieth and Stefan Wehrenberg of Switzerland and British barrister Rodney Dixon. They offered to work with FIFA on an action plan and monitoring of Saudi Arabia by independent experts.

Their paper calls on FIFA to use its leverage now with Saudi Arabia to comply with international human rights standards that the world soccer body’s own policy since 2017 has required of tournament hosts.

“It is obvious that Saudi Arabia falls very far short of those requirements,” the document states. “Given this, as matters currently stand, FIFA simply cannot properly permit it to host the 2034 World Cup.”

They cite Saudi Arabia’s record on freedom of expression and assembly, treatment of prisoners and migrant workers, and male guardianship laws that limit personal freedoms for women.

Saudi Arabia has consistently said it is changing fast as part of the Vision 2030 program to modernize the kingdom’s economy and society driven by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Hosting more sports and entertainment events is key to the program to be less dependent on oil riches.

Saudi Arabia is the only candidate to host the 2034 World Cup in a fast-track process FIFA opened last October in a surprise move.

By brokering a three-continent, six nation co-hosting deal for the 2030 tournament, FIFA effectively cleared a path for Saudi Arabia to get the following edition without a rival bid.

The Saudi bid must be formally submitted by July and is set to be confirmed on Dec. 11 in an online vote by FIFA’s 211 member federations.

The lawyers want FIFA to use the leverage it has now with the bid to comply with the soccer body’s own policy drafted seven years by Harvard University professor John Ruggie. He previously shaped the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights.

“Let’s give FIFA a chance,” Pieth told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “FIFA has written a very impressive document and I would be really happy to see FIFA live up to its standards.”

Pieth previously worked with FIFA between 2011 and 2014 advising on anti-corruption and good governance reforms after a bribery scandal in its presidential election held six months after Russia and Qatar were picked as future World Cup hosts. Key reforms such as term limits for senior officials are now in retreat across soccer and FIFA totally resisted putting independent outsiders on its ruling committee.

After controversy about lack of scrutiny of 2022 World Cup host Qatar — mostly over the treatment of migrant workers needed to build stadiums and infrastructure projects — FIFA acted seven years ago to embed human rights assessments of tournament bidders.

Since 2017, one year after Gianni Infantino was elected FIFA president in fallout from sweeping investigations of corrupt soccer officials, he has built close ties to Saudi Arabia and its crown prince.

Pieth, Wehrenberg and Dixon said their paper to FIFA was written “on behalf of persons who are suffering from serious violations of their basic human rights and freedoms by Saudi Arabia.”

“The authors of this submission are ready to engage constructively with FIFA to ensure that these minimum requirements, at least, are achieved,” they said.

FIFA was contacted for comment.

Bid rules for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups commit FIFA to respecting human rights in “activities in connection with the bidding for and hosting” of tournaments rather than in wider society.

Pieth told The AP any FIFA-backed monitoring group of Saudi Arabia must have “real, credible experts and independence.” The paper to FIFA said it should include “expert members from victims groups, NGOs, UN agencies, international unions and civil society organizations.”

The state-backed Saudi Human Rights Commission — whose leader met Infantino in Jeddah in December during the Club World Cup – was “not an appropriate alternative” to an independent group, the paper said.

Ruggie’s work with FIFA included a human rights advisory board that was closed after delivering a scheduled report early in 2021, removing a forum to oversee Qatar less than two years out from the World Cup.
___

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

GRAHAM DUNBAR
Dunbar is an Associated Press sports news reporter in Geneva, Switzerland. He focuses on the governing bodies, institutions and politics of international sports.

Once a popular pastime in America, cricket is returning for the Twenty20 World Cup



Parmanand Sarju, founder of the Long Island Youth Cricket Academy, instructs players during practice at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, N.Y. on Saturday, May 11, 2024. " A temporary stadium for next month’s T20 Cricket World Cup -- the first major international cricket competition the U.S. is hosting -- is being built atop another ball field in the park where Sarju’s academy began more than a decade ago. (AP Photo/Phil Marcelo)


Work continues on a temporary stadium being constructed for the Cricket World Cup in East Meadow, N.Y., Wednesday, May 8, 2024. As the U.S. prepares to host its first Cricket World Cup across three states next month, a temporary stadium is rising in the NYC suburbs where the English sport has found fertile ground among waves of Caribbean and South Asian immigration. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)


 England celebrate with their trophy after defeating Pakistan in the final of the T20 World Cup cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. The return of fast bowler Jofra Archer has boosted England’s chances of becoming the first team to win consecutive Twenty20 World Cups.(AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)


Pakistan’s former cricketer Shoaib Akhtar poses for photo with the trophy of upcoming International Cricket Council’s T20 cricket World Cup, which display at Gaddafi stadium, in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, April 27, 2024. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

BY STEVE DOUGLAS
May 22, 2024

Say “silly mid-off” or “deep backward square leg” or “a single to long leg” to the average American and it’ll trigger a quizzical look.

Cricket — the so-called “gentlemen’s game” with complex rules, funnily worded fielding positions and matches that go on for five days — is hardly high up in the national consciousness of the United States, adding to the fascination of the Twenty20 World Cup the country is co-hosting with the Caribbean next month.

Yet it wasn’t always this way.

In the mid-19th century, cricket was regarded as something of a popular pastime in the United States.

Brought over by immigrants, it flourished in New York and Philadelphia in particular. Indeed, the first ever international cricket match — between the United States and Canada — was played in the Big Apple in 1844, and touring teams from England crossed the Atlantic to play.

By the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, baseball had become the dominant bat-and-ball game in the States and cricket was tailing off, becoming instead a sport that took a deeper hold in British colonies in Asia and the Caribbean.

“Baseball — at that time called ‘the lightning sport,’ though it became, for many, too stodgy and slow — could be played in two to three hours, which suited the hasty American temperament,” John Thorn, the official historian for Major League Baseball, told The Associated Press. “Cricket continued as the preferred sport of gentleman, but baseball became the democratic ideal.”


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That cricket is making a comeback, of sorts, in the U.S. through its shortest format — in T20 — maybe makes sense.

Major League Cricket, a T20 competition, started up last year and now there’s a World Cup being staged as the International Cricket Council seeks to expand to a new market where, according to the sport’s global governing body, there are already 30 million cricket fans. It’s in the U.S. where cricket is making its return to the Olympic program for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

“The commitment to grow cricket in the U.S. is real,” said Los Angeles organizing committee sports director Niccolo Campriani.

That could easily have been said 200 years ago, or maybe more.

According to USA Cricket, the first hard evidence of cricket being played in the U.S. came as early as 1709 when William Byrd, the owner of Westover Plantation in Virginia, wrote in his diary: “I rose about 6 o’clock and Colonel Ludwell, Nat Harrison, Mr. Edwards and myself played at cricket, and I won a bit.”

It is also noted by the governing body that Benjamin Franklin brought cricket’s official rule book — the 1744 Laws — back from England in 1754 and that there’s anecdotal evidence George Washington’s troops played what they called “wicket” in 1778, more than a decade before he became the first U.S. president.

Though anti-English sentiment hardened after the American Revolution in the late 18th century, cricket was still played in 22 states by up to a thousand clubs by the mid-1800s. A drop-off came during and after the Civil War, by which time baseball — a sport played in England earlier than in America, as documented by author David Block — took hold.

According to Thorn, there are “myriad assertions ... but no hard evidence” that baseball descended from cricket or even rounders, another bat-and-ball game.

“The theory of lineal descent of games is a mistaken idea, in my view: rather than an evolutionary tree, the story more resembles a bramble bush,” he told the AP.

There is, however, undoubted crossover between baseball and cricket, not least in the language used in the two sports, such as “pinch-hitter” or “innings.”

Thorn said baseball has tended to follow trends established in cricket, citing overarm throwing, the imparting of spin on the ball and the potential future use of Hawkeye technology, which cricket has deployed since 2001.

On the other hand, cricket’s move five-day tests to shorter, limited-overs formats, such as Twenty20 and the Hundred in England, has seen it become a sport where sluggers can thrive in an all-out-attack environment.

The “home run” in baseball is akin to the “six” in cricket as batters attempt to smash the ball over the boundary rope and into the crowd.

Spectators at Nassau County in New York, Grand Prairie outside Dallas and Broward County in Florida are likely to appreciate those shots more than any other in the coming weeks.
___

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

Biden administration canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers


Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 30, 2024. The Biden administration is cancelling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers through a combination of existing programs. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

BY COLLIN BINKLEY
May 22, 2024Share


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers through a combination of existing programs.

The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs.

“From day one of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican-elected officials try to stop us.”

The latest relief will go to borrowers in three categories who hit certain milestones that make them eligible for cancellation. It will go to 54,000 borrowers who are enrolled in Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan, along with 39,000 enrolled in earlier income-driven plans, and about 67,000 who are eligible through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.



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Biden’s new payment plan, known as the SAVE Plan, offers a faster path to forgiveness than earlier versions. More people are now becoming eligible for loan cancellation as they hit 10 years of payments, a new finish line that’s a decade sooner than what borrowers faced in the past.

The cancellation is moving forward even as Biden’s SAVE Plan faces legal challenges from Republican-led states. A group of 11 states led by Kansas sued to block the plan in March, followed by seven more led by Missouri in April. In two federal lawsuits, the states say Biden needed to go through Congress for his overhaul of federal repayment plans.

A separate action by the Biden administration aimed to correct previous mistakes that delayed cancellation for some borrowers enrolled in other repayment plans and through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which forgives loans for people who make 10 years of payments while working in public service jobs.

The Biden administration has been announcing new batches of forgiveness each month as more people qualify under those three categories.

According to the Education Department, 1 in 10 federal student loan borrowers has now been approved for some form of loan relief.

“One out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers approved for debt relief means one out of every 10 borrowers now has financial breathing room and a burden lifted,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

The Biden administration has continued canceling loans through existing avenues while it also pushes for a new, one-time cancellation that would provide relief to more than 30 million borrowers in five categories.

Biden’s new plan aims to help borrowers with large sums of unpaid interest, those with older loans, those who attended low-value college programs, and those who face other hardships preventing them from repaying student loans. It would also cancel loans for people who are eligible through other programs but haven’t applied.

The proposal is going through a lengthy rulemaking process, but the administration said it will accelerate certain provisions, with plans to start waiving unpaid interest for millions of borrowers starting this fall.

Conservative opponents have threatened to challenge that plan too, calling it an unfair bonus for wealthy college graduates at the expense of taxpayers who didn’t attend college or already repaid their loans.

The Supreme Court rejected Biden’s earlier attempt at one-time cancellation, saying it overstepped the president’s authority. The new plan is being made with a different legal justification.
___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Russia says Islamic State behind deadly Moscow concert hall attack

Russia on Friday said for the first time that the Islamic State group coordinated the March concert hall assault in Moscow, the country's deadliest terror attack in two decades.


Issued on: 24/05/2024

Police cars are parked outside of the Crocus City Hall in Moscow's northern suburb of Krasnogorsk on March 29, 2024, a week after a deadly attack by gunmen on the Moscow concert hall killed at least 143 people and wounded dozens more.

 © Natalia Kolesnikova, AFP

IS has claimed responsibility on multiple occasions for the March 22 attack which killed over 140 people, but Moscow has repeatedly tried to link Ukraine and the West to the attack.

FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency that "preparations, the financing, the attack and the retreat of the terrorists were coordinated via the internet by members of Khorasan Province (IS-K)," an IS branch active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bortnikov did not discard the Ukrainian angle in his statements on Friday, saying that "upon completing the attack, the terrorists received clear instructions to move toward the Ukrainian border, where from the other side a 'window' had been prepared for them".

"The investigation continues, but it can already be said with certainty that Ukrainian military intelligence is directly implicated in the attack", he said.

Ukraine has repeatedly denied involvement.

Worst terrorist attack in Russia since 2004

Gunmen in camouflage stormed the Crocus City Hall venue on the outskirts of Moscow before setting the building on fire.

More than a dozen suspects have been arrested including the four assailants, who are all from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan, an impoverished former Soviet republic on Afghanistan's northern border.

The United States has said it had publicly and privately warned Russia in early March that extremists were planning an attack on a concert hall in Moscow.

Unnamed US intelligence officials told American media outlets after the massacre that they had told Moscow it was the Crocus City Hall specifically that IS was planning to attack.

Russia dismissed those warnings. Just three days before the attack, President Vladimir Putin accused Washington of "blackmail" and trying to "intimidate" Russians.

(AFP)

RIP

Japanese dog of 'Doge' meme fame dies

Tokyo (AFP) – The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the $23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by Elon Musk died on Friday, her owner said.


Issued on: 24/05/2024 -

Japanese shiba inu Kabosu became the star of the 'Doge' meme that inspired Dogecoin © Philip FONG / AFP

"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, thanking the fans of her shiba inu called Kabosu -- the face of the "Doge" meme.

"I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner," Sato wrote.

As a rescue dog, Kabosu's real birthday was unknown but Sato estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a shiba inu, with her birthday celebrated in November.

In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would otherwise have been put down, Sato took a picture of her pet crossing her paws on the sofa.

She posted that image -- with the fluffy shiba inu giving the camera a beguiling look -- on her blog, from where it spread to online forum Reddit and became a meme that bounced from college bedrooms to office e-mail chains.

The memes typically used goofy broken English to reveal the inner thoughts of Kabosu and other shiba inu "doge" -- pronounced like pizza "dough" but with a "j" at the end.

As a rescue dog, Kabosu's real birthday was unknown, but Sato estimated her age at 18 

© Philip FONG / AFP

The picture also later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for $4 million and inspired Dogecoin, which was started as a joke by two software engineers and is now the eighth-most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of $23 billion.

- 'Unbelievable' events -

Dogecoin has been backed by hip-hop star Snoop Dogg, "Shark Tank" entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.

But its most keen supporter is probably the billionaire Musk, who jokes about the currency on X -- sending its value soaring -- and hails it as "the people's crypto".

The famous picture of Kabosu later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for $4 million © Philip FONG / AFP

Dogecoin has also inspired a plethora of other cheap and highly volatile "memecoins", including spin-off Shiba Inu and others based on dogs, cats or Donald Trump.

Kabosu fell ill with leukaemia and liver disease in late 2022, and Sato said in a recent interview with AFP in her home of Sakura, east of Tokyo, that the "invisible power" of prayers from fans worldwide helped her pull through.

The 62-year-old Sato said she had become so used to "unbelievable" events that, when Tesla boss Musk changed the icon for Twitter, now X, to Kabosu's face last year, she "wasn't even that surprised".

"In the last few years I've been able to connect the online version of Kabosu, all these unexpected things seen from a distance, with our real lives," she told AFP.

A $100,000 statue of Kabosu and her sofa crowdfunded by Own The Doge, a crypto organisation dedicated to the meme, was unveiled in a park in Sakura in November last year.

Last year a $100,000 statue of Kabosu and her sofa was unveiled in a park in Sakura © Philip FONG / AFP

Sato and Own The Doge have also donated large sums to international charities, including more than $1 million to Save the Children. The NGO says it is "the single largest crypto contribution" it has ever received.

"The Doge is the most popular dog of the modern era," said Tridog, a pseudonymous member of Own The Doge, describing Kabosu as "the Mona Lisa of the internet".

© 2024 AFP

Colorado State University's stinky corpse flower preparing to bloom


Colorado State University is preparing for the first blooming of its corpse flower, a plant famous for its rotting flesh odor. 

Photo courtesy of Colorado State University

May 21 (UPI) -- Colorado State University is inviting members of the public to come experience a uniquely smelly spectacle: the first blooming of its corpse flower.

The university said Plant Growth Facilities Manager Tammy Brenner brought the pungent plant, named Cosmo, to the school in 2016, and after seven years of careful rearing in the College of Agricultural Sciences' Conservatory, Cosmo is preparing to bloom for the first time.

"Cosmo came out of dormancy around three weeks ago, and we didn't expect anything exciting," Brenner said in a news release. "But then two weeks ago, it started looking a little bit more full, a little bit more plump. It started growing and shooting out stalks, and we realized something really big was about to happen."

Amorphophallus titanum are commonly known as "corpse flowers" due to the unique rotting smell they emit during blooming.

The flower is expected to begin its bloom on Saturday, but Brenner cautioned that the exact date won't be known until the bloom begins. The bloom is only expected to last for 2-3 days, and Cosmo won't bloom again for another 3-5 years.

"This is a rare occasion and a big deal because it will be the first bloom for the corpse flower here at CSU," Brenner said.




The Conservancy will be open to the public for corpse flower viewings -- and smellings -- from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day of the bloom.

Norway struggles to keep ultra-rich tempted by exile

Oslo (AFP) – You can check out -- but you still have to pay! Norway is looking for ways to hang onto its ultra-rich who are increasingly moving abroad to escape one of the rare European countries to impose a wealth tax.

Issued on: 24/05/2024 -

Former Olympic champion Bjorn Daehlie is one of many Norwegians who have left their country to avoid paying a wealth tax 

© BORIS HORVAT / AFP

Industrialist Kjell Inge Rokke, former cross-country ski legend Bjorn Daehlie, and the father of football star Erling Haaland are among the dozens of super-wealthy who have packed up and left in recent years.

The reason? The centre-left government in power since 2021 has hiked the wealth tax from 0.85 percent to one percent -- and to 1.1 percent for the very wealthiest -- and raised the dividend tax.

Norway, Spain and Switzerland are the only European countries that have a tax on net wealth. In Norway it also applies to unrealised capital gains (gains not yet realised through the sale of shares, for example).

Owners of companies are among those hit hardest, often drawing a modest salary even though their company has a high value.

"If your salary is one million and you have to pay three million in (wealth) tax, it's clear that it's untenable," said Tord Ueland Kolstad, a real estate magnate who "grudgingly" moved to Lucerne, Switzerland in 2022.

"The system is designed so that it confiscates more than what you can produce," he said.

To pay a wealth tax which can exceed their yearly income, entrepreneurs often need to take out dividends, hampering their company's capacity to invest.

And those dividends are also subject to a tax rate of 37.84 percent.

Mmany of Norway's richest people, including businessman Kjell Inge Rokke, left, have quit Norway to avoid a wealth tax

 © JENS BUETTNER / POOL/AFP

"So basically you have two options: either leave Norway, or sell your company," said Kolstad.

Between 2021 and 2023, more than 100 of Norway's wealthiest people went into exile, with the large majority relocating to Switzerland.

Others transferred their wealth to heirs already residing abroad, as Norway does not have inheritance tax.

Labour Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has criticised the mini-exodus, stressing that taxes are what pay for Norway's generous welfare system.

"When you've made your wealth in Norway, put your kids in school, benefitted from the health care system, driven on the roads and reaped the rewards of its research, it's a breach of the social contract," he said in a speech in parliament.

The government is now working to tighten the country's "exit tax".

People who move abroad would have 12 years to pay the exit tax -- also 37.84 percent of gains made in Norway from shares and other sources over many years -- that has until now been easy to circumvent or defer.

"The aim is that gains made in Norway be taxed in Norway," explained Erlend Grimstad, a state secretary in the finance ministry.

"Our nurses and teachers have to hand over a large share of their earnings to society in the form of taxes," he said.

"If they see that the most well-off can simply avoid contributing their share by leaving the country, that undermines the legitimacy of the tax system."
'Don't come to Norway'

That does little to quell the anger of the ultra-rich.

Christer Dalsboe, who started his own company, made buzz on social media recently singing a little ditty discouraging other entrepreneurs from starting businesses in the country.

"Don't come to Norway, We will tax you till you're poor. And when you have nothing left, We will tax you a little more," he sang, sitting at a piano.

The liberal think tank Civita said the government's plans to tighten the "exit tax" were in reality aimed at setting up roadblocks for millionaires and billionaires.

"Instead of attacking the reasons that push them into exile, meaning easing the tax burden on Norwegian shareholders, they seem to prefer to set up regulatory obstacles," said Civita economist Mathilde Fasting.

In Lucerne, Tord Ueland Kolstad said he can receive "several calls a week" from other Norwegians considering moving to Switzerland.

"The flow has not stopped. Maybe it is just beginning."

© 2024 AFP

DOJ sues two anti-abortion organizations, seven members over FACE Act violations


Federal prosecutors on Monday filed a lawsuit against two anti-abortion groups and seven of their members for violating the FACE Act. 

File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

May 21 (UPI) -- The Justice Department is suing two Christian anti-abortion organizations and seven of its members on allegations of blocking access to two northeast Ohio reproductive health clinics in June 2021.

Citizens for a Pro Life Society and Red Rose Rescue are accused of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and federal prosecutors are seeking compensatory damages, monetary penalties and injunctive relief

"Obstructing people from accessing reproductive healthcare and physically obstructing providers from offering it are unlawful," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement Monday.

Federal prosecutors said the defendants prevented two Ohio reproductive healthcare facilities from providing their patients with reproductive healthcare services because of the defendants.

The two-count complaint filed Monday in the Northern District of Ohio accuses the defendants of planning and participating in two coordinated Red Rose Rescue events targeting Ohio reproductive healthcare facilities -- one on June 4, 2021, and the other the next day.

Federal prosecutors said the June 4 incident targeted the Northeast Ohio Women's Center in Cuyahoga Falls.

The document states defendants Laura Gies and Clara McDonald gained access to the facility's waiting room via a back door at about 11:26 a.m. and lied that they were seeking reproductive healthcare.

Minuets later, defendants Christopher Moscinski and Audrey Whipple entered the facility's front entrance and the four of them began handing out roses to patients in the waiting room whom they instructed to not have abortions, the document states.

When the defendants refused to leave, staff escorted the patients into a secured area of the facility, prosecutors said, adding that McDonald then "forcefully grabbed a patient's body and told her not to go through with the abortion."

The defendants continued to refuse to leave even after Cuyahoga Falls police arrived on the scene, with Gies proclaiming to the staff that "your paychecks are from blood money of the children you're ripping to sheds," according to federal prosecutors.

"Please stop killing babies," Gies said, the complaint states. "Please stop dismembering children!"

Outside the facility was defendant Monica Miller, who said in an interview posted to Facebook that their tactic was to "stall as long as possible," as in her experience no abortions are performed as long as they remain on the premises.

They were arrested and physically removed from the facility by police at about noon, the complaint states, adding that Gies, McDonald, Moscinski and Whipple were convicted of trespassing on the premises in August of 2021.

On June 5, 2021, Miller, Lauren Handy and Jay Smith are accused of entering the Planned Parenthood facility and forcing its closure for the day.

According to the document, Handy and Miller entered the facility's private fenced-in parking lot shortly before 9 a.m. and approached patients waiting in their cars, then followed some as they exited their vehicles, trying to force roses and anti-abortion brochures into their hands.

At around the same time, Smith entered the facility's full waiting room and handed out brochures to the patients, the complaint said.

"When a patient asked Smith to leave the facility, Smith used physical force against the patient by pushing him with his shoulder," the complaint said.

According to federal prosecutors, staff was able to move patients to a secured area of the facility and get Smith to exit into the parking lot.

When police arrived, Smith allegedly told officers that he entered the facility "because they're killing babies in there."

After the officers instructed the defendants to leave, Handy knelt in front of the facility's door while Miller approached patients in their cars. Miller then used her body to prevent a patient from exiting their vehicle, and Handy "sprawled her body out on the ground in front of BHSC's entrance and refused to move."

Then an unnamed RRR member in a mask entered the parking lot, followed by a second unnamed RRR member.

A supervisor then asked the facility's management to close the facility for the day as there was only three officers on duty, including two who had arrested Handy and Miller and were transporting them to jail.

The closure affected 24 patients, nine who had scheduled surgeries and 15 with consultation appointments, the document said.

According to court records, several of the defendants have been arrested before for violating the FACE Act, including Handy, who was sentenced May 14 to 57 months in prison and three years' supervised release for being involved in a blockade of a Washington, D.C., reproductive healthcare clinic.

"Individuals have the right to access facilities in Ohio to make decisions about their own bodies, health and futures, in consultation with health care providers, free from force, threats of force, intimidation or physical obstruction," U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio said.

"We encourage anyone with information about potential FACE Act violations to contact our office."

SPAGYRIC HERBALISM

Study: Matcha may inhibit bacteria that causes gum disease

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News


Lab experiments show that matcha can inhibit the growth of Porphyromonas gingivalis, one of the main bacterial culprits behind gum disease. 

Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News


Matcha green tea has the potential to keep gum disease at bay, a new study finds.

Lab experiments show that matcha can inhibit the growth of Porphyromonas gingivalis, one of the main bacterial culprits behind gum disease.

Among a small group of 45 people with gum disease, those who used matcha mouthwash wound up with significantly lower levels of P. gingivalis, results show.

"Matcha may have clinical applicability for prevention and treatment of periodontitis [gum disease]," researchers from the Nihon University School of Dentistry at Matsudo in Japan noted in their paper published May 21 in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

Matcha is a highly concentrated and vibrantly green tea that is also available in a powdered form. It's used in traditional tea ceremonies, and for flavoring in beverages and sweets, researchers said.

The green tea plant has long been studied for its potential to fight bacteria, fungi and viruses, researchers noted.

To test matcha's potential, researchers applied a matcha solution to 16 mouth bacteria species in the lab, including three strains of P. gingivalis.

Within two hours, nearly all the P. gingivalis cells had been killed by the matcha extract, and after four hours all the cells were dead, researchers found.

Researchers then proceeded to a small human trial, randomly assigning patients with gum disease into one of three groups.

One group received matcha mouthwash, another barley tea mouthwash, and a third a mouthwash containing an anti-inflammatory chemical. Patients were instructed to rinse twice daily with the mouthwash they were provided.

The group using matcha mouthwash had a significant reduction in levels of gum disease-causing bacteria, based on saliva tests. The other two groups did not see the same results.

Gum disease can lead to people losing teeth, and it has also been associated with diabetes, preterm birth, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, researchers noted.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on the health benefits of matcha.

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