Kremlin Responds to 'Invasion' News: Ukrainians Should Set Alarms & See If Anything Happens

© Sputnik / Alexei Danichev

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Kremlin reacted ironically to the reports of a number of Western media about the Russian "invasion" of Ukraine next morning, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggesting that the Ukrainians should set alarms and see if anything happens.

Earlier this week, UK tabloids announced the time of "Russia's invasion into Ukraine," scheduling it for 3 a.m. Wednesday local time (01:00 GMT). The Mirror wrote about this citing US intelligence sources, who allegedly reported this to the publication's employees in Kiev. The Sun also announced 3 a.m. as the most likely time for the invasion, citing US intelligence.

"It’s better for them to set alarms for this time and see for themselves," Peskov told Sputnik whether the Ukrainians should worry or they could sleep peacefully today.

Washington earlier announced it was relocating some of its diplomatic personnel from the Ukrainian capital to the city of Lviv amid security concerns. According to US State Secretary Antony Blinken, the departure of most of the American staff at the US embassy in Kiev was ordered because the "risk of Russian military action is high enough and the threat is imminent enough that this is the prudent thing to do."

In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of a troop build-up near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for an "invasion." Moscow has denied these accusations, repeatedly stating that it is not threatening anyone and at the same time expressing strong concerns over NATO's military activity near the Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security. Moscow has also said Russia has the right to move troops within its national territory.

Could Moldova's Breakaway Transdniester Play A Role In Russian Attack On Ukraine?

February 15, 2022 
By Tony Wesolowsky

For decades, Russia has had more than 1,000 troops in Transdniester, a breakaway region of Moldova, and Ukrainian officials are wary.

Ukraine is on edge as it faces what analysts call the greatest buildup of military forces in Europe in decades.

Russia has nearly encircled Ukraine, deploying an estimated 130,000 troops and military hardware on three fronts: in Crimea to the south, on the Russian side of the two countries' border, and in Belarus to the north.

Rarely mentioned, however, is the small contingent of Russian troops on Ukraine's southwestern border.

For decades, Russia has had more than 1,000 troops in Transdniester, a breakaway region of Moldova -- one of Europe's oldest so-called frozen conflicts -- and Ukrainian officials are wary. While largely overlooked, some military experts say the region could be a key spot if Russia does opt for a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.



And Washington appears worried as well. On February 14, the State Department issued a statement urging U.S. citizens not to travel to Moldova due to COVID-19 and the "unusual and concerning Russian military activity around Ukraine, and the unresolved conflict between the breakaway region of Transdniester and the central government."

"U.S. citizens in Transdniester should depart immediately via commercial or private means," the statement added.

Russian political leaders deny Western accusations that it is planning to invade Ukraine, but say it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the NATO alliance.

Where And What Is Transdniester?

Home to some 450,000 people, Transdniester is a sliver of land, sandwiched between Ukraine and Moldova proper, with its own currency -- the Transdniestrian ruble -- and much nostalgia for Soviet times, including lots of statues of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin amid dreary communist-era architecture.

Its mainly Russian-speaking populace declared independence in 1990, and two years later fought a five-month war against Moldovan forces. A cease-fire was signed in 1992, but a resolution to the conflict has proved elusive. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) spearheads efforts within a so-called 5+2 format to resolve the issue.

Soldiers from Transdniester take part in an Independence Day celebration in Tiraspol, the capital, on September 2, 2012.

A few rogue republics, including the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have recognized its independence, but not a bona fide state, including Russia.

Despite that, Moscow wields its influence. It provides energy to Transdniester, but sends the bill to Moldova. And like in other breakaway regions, Moscow has handed out Russian passports to the people of Transdniester; apparently some 200,000 since 2002.

How Many Russian Troops?

Shortly after the cease-fire was signed in 1992, Russian troops moved in. They were described as a peacekeeping force. Exactly how many are there now is unclear, but estimates range from some 1,200 to 1,500. Part of their stated mission is guarding what is considered Eastern Europe's largest munitions depot --22,000 tons -- at Cobasna, just 2 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Russia has dragged its feet to either liquidate or remove the munitions, as Moldova and the OSCE have called for.

Moscow recently rejected calls from NATO and the United States to remove its troops from Transdniester -- as well as Crimea, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia -- in exchange for dialogue on arms control. Russia said the troops were needed in Transdniester to protect Russian citizens and as a "safety factor" to ensure no resumption of hostilities.

Separatist Transdniester also has its own armed forces, which number between 4,000 and 7,500. According to a 2017 report, some of them were forced to join the ranks.

SEE ALSO:
'Deserter' Case Throws Spotlight On Torture Allegations In Breakaway Moldovan Region

Transdniester: A Further Threat To Ukraine?

Amid the current tension and fears that Transdniester could be a source of further instability, Ukraine has banned vehicles with Transdniestrian license plates from entering the country. That rule took effect on September 1, 2021.

Tensions ratcheted up further in January, when Ukrainian intelligence accused the Russian special services in Cobasna of planning provocations on Russian armed forces that would be exploited as a pretext to launch an attack on Ukraine.

Just a month later, Ukrainian fears were heightened when Russian troops staged military drills in Transdniester.

SEE ALSO:
Russian Military Forces Near Ukraine's Borders

Amid the current tensions and increased activity in Transdniester, the Moldovan government is concerned. "At the moment, we're not seeing any unusual activity in Transdniester, but we are worried that could change," Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu recently told Foreign Policy. "We are consistently calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldovan territory, and we stand for the fact that it's our sovereign right to make that decision."

According to a U.S. military and intelligence assessment, cited by NBC News on February 10, one of the probable routes into Ukraine in a full-scale Russian invasion could include plans "to create a land bridge to Moldova and control much of the Black Sea coast."

Other analysts have said it's possible Russian forces in the Black Sea would target the Ukrainian city of Odesa, with the possible aim of creating a "link up with Russian forces in Transdniester."

The Russian-founded Conflict Intelligence Team, which monitors open-source information to track the movements of the Russian military, has noted a huge buildup of Russian troops and hardware in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, as well as a large naval buildup in the Black Sea, including "11 large landing ships, 6 of which arrived from the Baltic and Northern fleets, as well as other landing craft transferred from the Caspian Flotilla."

Tony Wesolowsky is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL in Prague, covering Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Central Europe, as well as energy issues. His work has also appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists.
WesolowskyA@rferl.org

NARCO-STATE

Guinea-Bissau: Government critics under increasing pressure

After what authorities said was a coup by drug dealers aiming to kill President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, a new spate of violence against critics of the government is compounding the feeling of insecurity in Guinea-Bissau.


Nightly raids by security forces are fuelling insecurity


They came in the night, when Rui Landim was alone at home with his grandchildren: Armed and hooded men in an unmarked car tried to break into his home without success. They fired into the house and threw tear gas through a window, choking a child. They left only when neighbors started gathering in the street.

Political analyst Rui Landim is a well-known critic of Guinea-Bissau's government and its president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo. He has a weekly show on Radio Capital called "Dotting the I's" in which he dissects Embalo's policies. Recently, Landim accused the president of having staged the failed military coup of February 1 himself, as a ploy to secure his power.

Political analyst Landim says he fears for his life

The attack on Landim's house came a day after assailants destroyed the radio station's offices and wounded five employees. Journalist Maimuna Bari was so badly hurt that she had to be flown to Portugal for treatment.

'Democracy under threat'

In view of the recent violence, the Guinean Human Rights Association (LGDH) concluded that democracy today was under the greatest threat ever. That's saying something in a country that has lived through four military coups since gaining independence from Portugal in 1975.

The last successful putsch from the military's point of view took place in the spring of 2012. But it caused Guinea-Bissau endless domestic and international problems. Ever since, those wanting to secure their power have opted for other means.

"A number of people realized that the best way to exert influence is this kind of low-noise, physical pressure on critics," Vincent Foucher, senior consultant at the International Crisis Group, told DW.

"It's always masked attackers. You can always deny it's you. And it still sends a message."

Foucher was surprised that the police openly downplayed the violence against Radio Capital. "You're not supposed to do that. Is this a clue to where this is coming from? Maybe," he said. But it remained speculation, he added.

President Embalo said he was the target of an assassination attempt

Who's behind the attacks?

The government of Guinea-Bissau condemned the recent attacks, promising to investigate. But Rui Landim said his assailants were wearing the uniform of the Rapid Intervention Police Unit, however his claim has not been confirmed.

"These operations are ordered directly by the president," Landim maintained, calling the attackers "death squads."

Analyst Foucher called for caution in apportioning blame in an exceedingly opaque and complicated system.

"The state structures themselves are quite factionalized and sometimes fight one another. There have been several incidents, for instance, in which the judicial police got into trouble with the army or with the National Republican Guard," he said. Anyone can hire young men to physically attack or intimidate opponents, Foucher stressed.

The analyst did not hold out much hope for the results of an official investigation. After all, the world was still waiting for clarification of the assassinations of President Joao Bernardo Vieira and army chief of staff, General Tagme Na Waie, back in March 2009, he pointed out.

The truth about the recent coup attempt will perhaps never be known, feeding rumors and conspiracies that will not contribute to the country's stabilization. Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest nations in the world. According to the UN, two-thirds of its 1.8 million inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day. It has the reputation of being the "narco state" of West Africa.

Nightly raids

The feeling of increased repression in the country is compounded by recent raids of private homes by security forces — allegedly looking for arms. "No one can sleep easy anymore," said Odete Semedo, vice president of the main opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). "They come knocking at midnight to search your house without a warrant," she told DW. There were also reports by human rights organizations of beatings and looting during the raids.

Besides material damage, the attack on an independent radio station left five people wounded

Semedo said political oppression was nothing new under the current president, but had grown in intensity. In the aftermath of the failed coup — which President Embalo now depicts as an attempt against his life for his part in fighting drug dealers — the PAIGC decided to postpone its 10th congress, originally planned for February 17–20.

Fear for one's life

The PAIGC said it would comply with the government's COVID rules, although it deemed them discriminatory. More compliant parties, said Semedo, "have already held their congresses without the use of masks, with crowds running around, not respecting anything and no hindrance at all."

But, a week ago, the police prevented a meeting of the local chapter of the PAIGC from taking place in the capital, Bissau, she pointed out.

The number of verbal threats against party members and their families is also growing, Semedo said. Analyst Rui Landim fears for his life.

"I am a target for assassination and have been for a long time. If anything should happen to me, it will be the responsibility of that self-proclaimed president," he said.

Russian strikes on farms in Syria could be war crimes: report

Rights groups have said the suspected Russian bombing of chicken farms and water stations in Idlib, one of Syria's last rebel-held areas, is meant to push out displaced locals. It may have been a war crime.

Life in Idlib, Syria's last opposition area, is already tough enough


The Syrian Archive, a Berlin-based group that digitally monitors and documents human rights violations in Syria, released a report on Tuesday that indicates the use of new methods targeting anti-government rebels in the country, as well as civilians living under their rule.

The report, obtained exclusively by DW, details the bombing of the Arshani water pumping station in northwestern Syria, near the last enclave of opposition fighters in Idlib. Russian planes are suspected to be behind the strikes. Russia has backed the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad since the conflict started more than a decade ago.

The attack on the water pumping station, which took place on January 2 around midday, was widely reported at the time, but the Syrian Archive has since used open-source verification techniques and almost 100 pieces of visual evidence, including videos and pictures, to come up with a more complete picture of what happened that day.


The damaged water pump in Arshani village supplies about 225,000 people in Idlib. The area is home to around 2.8 million people, around half of whom fled fighting elsewhere but who don't want to live under the Assad regime.

About 1.7 million of them are internally displaced, and many live in tent cities that have sprung up around Idlib. Human Rights Watch has said that three-quarters of the population rely on regular humanitarian assistance because of damaged infrastructure and economic hardship.

'It's more than an attack'

Idlib is now mostly controlled by Islamist militia groups opposed to the Assad government. But in its report, the Syrian Archive showed that the water pumping station was far from any sites that could possibly be considered military targets.

"It's really in the middle of nowhere," said Hamoud, the Syrian Archive's primary researcher on the report. He preferred not to give his full name for security reasons.

In January, news agency Reuters and other media reported that eye witnesses said Russian warplanes had bombed the water station. The Syrian Archive cross-checked those reports with flight tracking data from various sources, all of which showed that a Russian plane, most likely a Russian Air Force Su-34, was in the area at the time of the attack.

Russia's Defense Ministry and the Russian Embassy in Syria did not respond to DW's request for a statement on the incident.

Two bombs were dropped, and one worker at the station was injured. According to DW's sources on the ground, the station has since been repaired and is working again.

It is likely that attacking infrastructure, like this water pump, is a tactic to pressure or force civilians to leave the area, Haneen, the Syrian Archive's project manager responsible for the report, told DW. She also did not give her full name for security reasons.

"It's more than an attack," Haneen said. "It has a significant negative impact on the possibility of life in such an area."

AID IN NORTHWEST SYRIA REMAINS VITAL

The need is great

View of one of the refugee camps in Idlib province in northwest Syria, run by the Turkish Red Crescent. The region, which is not far from the Turkish border, is still controlled by the Syrian opposition. This is probably the reason why many displaced people from the conflict — already into its tenth year — have fled to this area.

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Haneen explained that such strikes worsen the already difficult humanitarian plight of Idlib's displaced people.

Targeting chickens

January's bombing is not an isolated incident, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) recently confirmed.

"At the start of 2022, there has been an increase in airstrikes on infrastructure, including farms and water pumping stations," UNOCHA noted in one of its most recent situation reports.

In particular, poultry farms had been targeted by Russian warplanes, the Syrian Civil Defense group — more commonly known as the White Helmets — said in a January 5 field report.

From November 11 through January 4, there were aerial attacks on seven farms around Idlib, the organization wrote. Most were poultry farms, but one also had cows. As a result, eight civilians were killed and 11 others wounded. Tens of thousands of chickens also died.

An attack on January 3 killed an estimated 14,000 chickens, sources said

Bombing these farms "poses a threat to the incomes of hundreds of families," the Syrian Civil Defense said in its report. Destroying agricultural facilities also leads to a general rise in prices for basic goods, the organization noted, something that the millions of displaced Syrians in the area, many of whom do not have jobs, can hardly afford.

War crimes?

This is not the first time warplanes have targeted civilian infrastructure during the Syrian civil war. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, recorded dozens of attacks on civilian infrastructure during a Syrian-Russian military campaign to retake opposition-held areas around Idlib beginning in April 2019.

That included attacks on schools, hospitals and even popular markets. In July 2019, a handful of attacks on water pumping stations and water tanks were also recorded.

An estimated 1,600 civilians were killed during the campaign, which only ended in March 2020, when Russia and Turkey, which supports opposition forces in the area, brokered a cease-fire for Idlib.


Two-thirds of Idlib's residents are displaced; many live in the about 1,500 tented camps

Attacks on civilian infrastructure appear to have increased again at the beginning of this year.

The bombing of the water station, and even the chicken farms, could potentially be prosecuted as war crimes in the future. International humanitarian law rules out deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure in armed conflict zones — that includes water pumping stations.

Tracking human rights violations

The same principle about not attacking civilian infrastructure could ostensibly apply to the farms in Idlib, said Anne Schroeter, a legal researcher and project coordinator at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, or ECCHR, based in Berlin.

"[Those attacks] could constitute war crimes if the farms can be seen as civilian objects or infrastructure, and they were not used for military purposes," said Schroeter, adding that recent Saudi airstrikes on farms, factories and warehouses in Yemen have also been described as possible war crimes.

Researchers from the Syrian Archive also took their own pictures of the damaged water pumping station

Although Tuesday's report by the Syrian Archive would be helpful in encouraging prosecuting authorities to take a closer look at a war crime, it's not enough to base a whole case on, said Schroeter.

"These kinds of reports are helpful, but they need to be accompanied with additional material, which in turn will depend on the framework the specific investigation takes place in," she added.

The investigators at the Syrian Archive will now add their latest report to a database they are compiling, which already includes about 3.5 million videos.

"If this information can be used to prevent targeting like this in the future, it will be amazing," said project manager Haneen.


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HRW: Syria and Russia targeted civilian infrastructure

Human Rights Watch has declared Syrian and Russian strikes against Idlib to be war crimes. The report blasts the strategic attacks on civilian targets as a "callous disregard" for life.

Damascus, Moscow accused of 'war crimes' in northwestern Syria

Schools and clinics in northwestern Syria were targeted in 18 attacks between April last year and February, according to Amnesty International. The rights group accuses Syria's regime and Russian forces of "war crimes."

Relative calm in Syria's Idlib as ceasefire takes hold

A ceasefire in northern Syria agreed between Russia and Turkey has come into force in a move to halt intense fighting in Idlib. A recent increase in violence has sparked a humanitarian disaster.

Lingering colonial legacies: The study of skin is too white

The historical lack of racial representation in dermatology textbooks isn't just a problem in countries with majority white populations, but across the globe.


Just 3% of working dermatologists in the US are people of color, studies show

When Seye Abimbola was training to become a doctor in Nigeria in the early 2000s, all the images in his textbooks featured white skin.

Most of his textbooks came from the US or the UK, where Caucasian medical illustrations are the norm.

When it came to dermatology, Abimbola couldn't translate what he saw on the page to his reality. Nearly the entire population of Nigeria is Black, he and his classmates were Black, and his teachers were Black.

"I went and bought an Indian textbook, because I just couldn't transfer in my head what a lesion looked like in white skin [to] what it looked like in black skin…there was just no reference point," Abimbola told DW.

"But it was easier with the Indian textbook. I didn't think much of it at the time," he added.

Dermatologists in South Africa and Uganda reported similar experiences during their studies.

When South African dermatologist Ncoza Dlova was completing her training, nearly all the images in her textbooks featured white skin, she said. Dlova finished her training in the late 1990s, shortly after apartheid ended in South Africa, becoming one of the country's first black dermatologists.

"That was difficult for us to comprehend because… most of our patients are Black," she said.

"Someone with psoriasis would be described as having a salmon-colored skin patch, and we would wonder: 'How does that look?' As it did not fit what we were seeing in our Black patients," said Dlova.

Conditions that were very common in Black skin, like keloid scars and albinism, were not given enough attention, she said, and when they were featured in coursebooks, the content was brief and inadequate for diagnosis.

South African dermatologist Cebi Sibisi's university experience was similar. Around 95% of the images she encountered in her courses featured white skin, she said.

"Skin of color suffers a lot from hyperpigmentation issues — facial lichen planopilaris, dark inner thighs, dark elbows — which are day-to-day issues that we see in our clinics and don't know how to deal with because these were never dealt with [at university]," Sibisi told DW.

 

Underrepresented — and exploited

A German study published in late September 2021 evaluated over 5,300 images from 17 dermatology textbooks recently published by German doctors using the Fitzpatrick framework, which classifies skin color. They discovered that 91% of the images featured white skin, around 6% featured medium/olive-colored skin and less than 3% featured brown skin. The darkest shade, Type 6, was only featured in one image.

A US textbook analysis published in 2021 had similar findings: Just 14% of the images featured dark skin.

While Dlova rarely saw images of Black skin in her textbooks, she said it wasn't uncommon to come across them when studying sexually transmitted diseases, which often manifest first in the skin.

Black people were exploited in early US research on syphilis, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. In the 1930s, doctors from the US government's Public Health Service enrolled hundreds of Black men in the now-infamous Tuskegee Study to track the progression of the disease. When the experiment started, it had no known treatment.

Over the next 15 years, medical researchers discovered penicillin could be used as a treatment for syphilis but did not offer it to the men — the doctors wanted to watch the disease follow its course until the end of their lives.

By the time a reporter made the experiment public in the early 1970s, more than two dozen men had died preventable deaths from syphilis, and many others had passed it on to their children and families.

The impact of knowledge systems

While the Tuskegee Study was being facilitated in the US in the late 1940s, the first medical school was founded in Nigeria by the British, said Abimbola, a health systems researcher and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health in Australia.

"It was during colonial rule. The founders were very explicit about what the curriculum was meant to be like. And what they wanted were doctors who could practice in the UK," Abimbola told DW.

This meant that doctors were trained to treat diseases and ailments specific to the UK, rather than Nigeria.

"If you can imagine Nigeria in 1948 and England in 1948…you have to make a choice [about] what you're training doctors for," says Abimbola, "because if you're training them to practice in the UK, then you're almost saying that you are training them to not practice in Nigeria."

This logic played a key role in how Nigerian medical school programs were run, even after the country gained independence in 1960, Abimbola said.
Local experts needed

Abimbola is the appointed editor-in-chief of BMJ Global Health, which is part of the British Medical Journal. It aims to cover global health issues that often go unacknowledged in journals that focus on one region.

"The job of a local journal is to service local people. So some of the problem arises when we expect, for some reason, the British Medical Journal to serve the needs of people in Lagos, or Accra," Abimbola said.

While visiting a European dermatologist, Dlova saw first hand the lack of experience with skin conditions common in Africa.

The dermatologist had a patient from Congo, and the staff wanted to do a biopsy to determine a diagnosis.

Dlova recognized it immediately — sarcoidosis, a serious disease that can cause a rash with red or purple bumps, skin lesions, discoloration, and growths under the skin.

"I just said to them, this is sarcoidosis. You don't have to do a biopsy."

Medical journals need to invite experts from Africa to write about these skin conditions, said Dlova.

"[They should] not get someone who's not familiar with the conditions — let's say an American or European dermatologist — they must get Africans who know these conditions, who have studied them," she said.

Things have slowly started changing since Dlova, Abimbola and Sibisi were in medical school.

Dlova published the book Dermatology: A Comprehensive Handbook for Africa in 2017, and she was part of an international team that in 2019 discovered a gene that helps explain why many Black women experience hair loss.

In December 2021, Nigerian medical student Chidiebere Ibe's drawing of a Black baby in a mother's womb went viral. People from across the world responded to the image saying it was they'd seen their skin color represented in a medical illustration.

Last month, Ibe announced plans to illustrate a new online dermatology textbook Mind the Gap, which launched in the UK in 2020.

It's one of the first online resources dedicated solely to depicting how skin conditions present in Black skin.

Edited by: Louisa Wright


VITAMIN C: GOOD FOR THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AND FOR FIGHTING INFECTIONS
Eat me!
Most mammals can synthesize vitamin C i.e., produce it themselves. But humans can't; we must ingest this water-soluble micronutrient with our food. Vitamin C can be found in kiwis, oranges and grapefruits, but also in vegetables such as brussels sprouts, broccoli and peppers. Unfortunately, it is somewhat heat-sensitive — so be careful when cooking!
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After blow of Beijing, Olympians ask: What about Africa?
By JOHN LEICESTER

Shannon Abeda, of Eritrea passes a gate during the first run of the men's giant slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. 

(AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

BEIJING (AP) — Victory, of sorts, for Eritrea’s sole Winter Olympian — one of just six athletes competing for African countries at the Games in China — was achieved even before his feat of surviving two runs in blizzard conditions down a hazardous course aptly named The Ice River.

Before flying to China for his Olympic ski race in the mountains northwest of Beijing, Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda learned of a cross-country skier living in Germany who has been so inspired by Abeda’s trailblazing that he’s aiming to qualify for their East African nation at the next Winter Games in 2026.

“It was because of all the interviews that I did and, you know, me coming and doing this again,” Abeda, who also raced at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, said after his 39th-place finish in the giant slalom that only 46 of 87 starters completed in Sunday’s snowstorm.

So just imagine: How many other enthused young wannabes could emerge from the African continent of 1.3 billion people, and from the African diaspora spread around the world, if they only had more than a handful of Olympic pioneers leading the way, showing that barriers of racial prejudice, inequality and geography are surmountable?

That question is more pertinent than ever at the Beijing Games, because African representation has shrivelled since a record eight African nations, fielding twice as many athletes as in Beijing, competed in 2018. Eritrea, Ghana, Morocco, Madagascar and Nigeria are back; Kenya, South Africa and Togo are not.

Skiing — Alpine and cross-country — was the only sport Africans qualified for. There was just one African woman: Mialitiana Clerc, born in Madagascar and adopted by a French couple as a baby, is now a two-time Olympian. Having broken through in Pyeongchang, she raced in Beijing to 41st place, out of 80 starters, in giant slalom and 43rd, out of 88, in slalom.


Mialitiana Clerc, of Madagascar passes a gate during the second run of the women's slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing.

 (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Elsewhere, at the skating rinks, snow parks and sliding track, there was no African representation at all. African sliders were thwarted by less inclusive qualifying rules, despite making history in Pyeongchang. There, Nigeria fielded Africa’s first-ever bobsled team; Simidele Adeagbo, also Nigerian, became the first African and Black woman in skeleton; and Ghana’s Akwasi Frimpong blazed trails on the men’s side.

Adeagbo, frustrated to have been left on the sidelines for Beijing, says the plunge in African representation requires an Olympic response. The movement’s five rings are meant to symbolize the five inhabited continents. But in Beijing, Africa’s presence feels barely bigger than a dot. Adeagbo notes that the Summer Olympics “see a rainbow of nations represented” and wonders why that’s less the case in winter, given that “sport is supposed to be democratic for all.”

“Is this the European Olympics or is this an Olympics that reflects the world?” she asked in a video interview with The Associated Press. “So hopefully this will be a catalyzing moment to help everybody kind of regroup and think about a different way forward.”

“We’re talking about the Olympics; we shouldn’t have complete exclusion,” Adeagbo said. “Given the resources and support, Africans are just as capable.”

Looking ahead to 2026, the International Olympic Committee says it will reexamine qualification rules and quotas, which African Olympians want used to carve more space for them. But there’s no sign of IOC dismay about Africa’s retreat in Beijing.

“There are five continents represented here,” said James Macleod, head of an IOC sponsorship program that helped fund athletes on their Beijing journeys.

The IOC gave individual scholarships to 429 athletes. Europe, with 295 beneficiaries, got the lion’s share. Africa, with 16, got the least. Five African recipients qualified for Beijing. The Americas (50), Asia (47), and Oceania (21) got the remainder. The IOC says its aim is Winter Games that are more competitive, rather than “artificially” more universal.

African recipients say the funding was vital for them. They argue that increased financing for African winter athletes would see more qualify. Abeda — born in Canada, where his parents resettled in the 1990s, fleeing war in Eritrea — said US$1,500 per month in IOC funding helped cover his living, training, coaching and equipment costs. He wants private businesses “to step up,” too.

“At Pyeongchang, it was really great to see more Africans,” he said. “At these Games, there’s very little. So I am disappointed.”

Adeagbo said her bobsled alone, cost $40,000.

 Simidele Adeagbo of Nigeria reacts in the finish area after the final run of the women's skeleton competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. In 2018, Nigeria fielded Africa's first-ever bobsled team; Adeagbo became the first African and Black woman to compete in skeleton. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

“I don’t think any sport should be just for the privileged and these are the things that we need to have real conversations about,” she said. “Sport is not meant to be just for one group.”

The IOC says COVID-19 disruptions that played havoc with athlete preparations could partially explain Africa’s slump. Frimpong’s hopes of qualifying again for Ghana in skeleton were dashed by coronavirus positives that forced him out of races ahead of Beijing. South Africa also likely would have sent athletes had it not been for the pandemic, says Cobus Rademeyer, head of social sciences at South Africa’s Sol Plaatje University, who has written on Africa’s history at the Winter Games.

“The pandemic has definitely broken the momentum,” Rademeyer said by email to The AP. He expects Africa to bounce back for 2026, writing: “Although some people see the participation of African athletes at the Winter Olympics as ‘glory-hunters,’ it has been an inspiration for many others.”

Skier Carlos Maeder, born in Ghana and adopted by Swiss parents, says he’s been amazed by a flood of messages from supportive Ghanaians. Also an IOC scholarship recipient, he raced in the snow-hit giant slalom but skied out in the first run.

At 43, he’d like to find other Ghanaians to follow in his footsteps and “will ski as long as it’s necessary to find some.”

“I hope that these games will be a door opener,” he said. “It’s not just about the African continent: We are spread around the world. So that makes it important that our continent is represented.”

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Follow Paris-based AP journalist John Leicester on Twitter at https://twitter.com/johnleicester. More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-games

A stunning fall for ex-Honduran president wanted in US

By MARLON GONZÁLEZ and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez answers questions from the Associated Press, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, as he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in Washington. The U.S. government is formally requesting on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, the arrest and extradition of ex-president Hernandez. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin,File)

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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, center in chains, is shown to the press at the Police Headquarters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Police arrested Hernandez at his home, following a request by the United States government for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons charges. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez)


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The arrest of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and the images that followed — a leader shackled and paraded before the cameras like a common criminal — were a stunning reversal for a man who for years seemed impervious to growing allegations of corruption.

While president from 2014 until last month, he had the support of U.S. officials waging the war on drugs and some diplomats who did not see a better option. But less than three weeks out of office, his utility exhausted, the U.S. government moved for his extradition and the chance to make him an example in a region wracked by corruption.

Hernández was scheduled to make his initial court appearance in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday. He was arrested Tuesday at the request of the U.S. government on charges of drug trafficking, using weapons for drug trafficking and conspiracy to use weapons in drug trafficking.

U.S. prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have accused Hernández in recent years of funding his political rise with profits from drug traffickers in exchange for protecting their shipments.

For years, images were Hernández’s crutch. Accusations of ties to drug traffickers would stream from a New York City courtroom and Hernández would soon pop up in the United States or at an event with U.S. Embassy officials in Honduras, reinforcing the idea that he had U.S. government support and it was just bitter drug traffickers telling stories to seek revenge for his efforts against them.

All the while, popular discontent with his government grew in Honduras. There weren’t enough jobs, street gangs controlled entire towns and neighborhoods, drought and hurricanes hit swaths of the country in a devastating one-two punch and Hernández began to symbolize all their troubles.

Hondurans fled by the thousands, literally walking out of the country with nothing but a change of clothes in their knapsacks. Migrant caravans drew international attention and never lacked groups of young migrants shouting “Get out JOH!” using his initials.

“How great that they arrested him, he was very corrupt,” said Ilchis Álvarez, a Honduran migrant in southern Mexico.

“He was in the government for 12 years, caused a lot of people to migrate, there was a lot of corruption, there was a lot of unemployment,” said Álvarez, who was protesting Tuesday in Tapachula for Mexican authorities to give legal passage for migrants like himself to the U.S. border.

Álvarez said he lost his job in a wire factory during Hernández’s presidency because the president raised taxes. He spent two years looking for another job before becoming a cab driver, but still couldn’t support his two kids so a month ago he set out hoping to reach the United States.
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Another migrant, Zayda Vayadares, hadn’t even heard of Hernández’s arrest, but expressed joy. She was traveling with her 6-year-old autistic son. She said she never received help from the government.

“The country was bad economically (under Hernández), you could never find a job,” said Vayadares, who camped with other migrants in downtown Tapachula. “The gangs were always extorting and killing people.”

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, who had pushed for sanctions against Hernández, said in a statement, “It was completely unacceptable that the U.S. government was supporting former President Hernández despite his extensive ties to narco-trafficking, including an alleged pattern of using campaign funds and taxpayer resources to protect and facilitate drug shipments to the United States.”

When Xiomara Castro’s third run for president gained traction with the help of timely alliances, Hondurans’ dissatisfaction coalesced around her candidacy. They swept her into office in last November’s elections intent on punishing Hernández and his National Party.

A catchy song played on a loop at Castro campaign events predicted that Hernández was headed for trial in New York.

On Tuesday, Castro’s Vice President Salvador Nasralla shared video of Hernández being led away from his home in shackles, writing: “This is what awaits the accomplices of Juan Orlando Hernández who produced so much pain, emigration and death for the Honduran people.”

José Heriberto Godoy, a 34-year-old Tegucigalpa businessman, said Hernández’s arrest was bound to happen. “It’s really what we expected.”

Still, the images of the handcuffed former president were hard to watch. “I really felt sorry for him because we are human and we have a heart,” he said.

Herson Vásquez said he thought of Hernández’s mother, wife and children, but also how corrupt his arrest made Honduras look to the rest of the world.

“If he’s guilty of all the crimes that they accuse him of he has to pay,” the 43-year-old music teacher said.

___

Associated Press writer Marlon González reported this story in Tegucigalpa and AP writer Christopher Sherman reported from Mexico City. AP writer Edgar H. Clemente in Tapachula, Mexico contributed to this story.

Report: Conspiracy theorists fuel bump in extremist killings
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

A person carries a sign supporting QAnon during a protest rally in Olympia, Wash., on May 14, 2020. The QAnon conspiracy theory has been linked to acts of real-world violence, including last year's riot at the U.S. Capitol. In June 2021, a federal intelligence report warned that QAnon adherents could target Democrats and other political opponents for more violence. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Newer strains of far-right movements fueled by conspiracy theories, misogyny and anti-vaccine proponents contributed to a modest rise in killings by domestic extremists in the United States last year, according to a report released Tuesday by a Jewish civil rights group.

Killings by domestic extremists increased from 23 in 2020 to at least 29 last year, with right-wing extremists killing 26 of those people in 2021, the Anti-Defamation League said in a report first provided to The Associated Press.

The ADL’s report says white supremacists, antigovernment sovereign citizens and other adherents of long-standing movements were responsible for most of the 19 deadly attacks it counted in 2021. The New York City-based organization’s list also included killings linked to newer right-wing movements that spread online during the coronavirus pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s presidency.

The ADL concluded that roughly half of the 2021 killings didn’t have a clear ideological motive, fitting a pattern that stretches back at least a decade.

The group’s tally included a shooting rampage in Denver by Lyndon James McLeod, who killed five people in December before a police officer fatally shot him. McLeod was involved in the “manosphere,” a toxic masculinity subculture, and harbored revenge fantasies against most of his victims, the ADL report notes.

Right-wing conspiracy theorists killed five people last year in two incidents, both involving “troubled perpetrators,” the ADL report says.

In August, California surfing school owner Matthew Taylor Coleman was charged with killing his two young children with a spear gun in Mexico. Coleman told an FBI agent that he was “enlightened” by conspiracy theories, including QAnon, and believed his wife had passed “serpent DNA” on to his children, according to a court affidavit.

A Maryland man, Jeffrey Allen Burnham, was charged with killing his brother, his sister-in-law and a family friend in September. Charging documents said Burnham confronted his brother, a pharmacist, because he believed he was poisoning people with COVID-19 vaccines.

“Prior to the coronavirus, the anti-vaccine movement in the United States did not have a particular ideological leaning and contained both left-leaning and right-leaning activists,” the ADL report says. “However, the politicization of the coronavirus and other factors have created many new anti-vaccine conspiracy adherents and given the anti-vaccine movement a distinctly right-wing tone it did not previously have.”

The QAnon conspiracy theory has been linked to other acts of real-world violence, including last year’s riot at the U.S. Capitol. In June, a federal intelligence report warned that QAnon adherents could target Democrats and other political opponents for more violence.

A core idea QAnon promotes is that Trump was secretly fighting a Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cabal of “deep state” enemies, prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites. QAnon hasn’t faded away with Trump leaving office.

Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the ADL’s Center on Extremism and author of Tuesday’s report, said the QAnon movement is still evolving and increasingly overlapping with other extremist movements, including vaccine opponents.

“Could it sort of dissipate into those or could it find some sort of new focus or new life? Or could it just hang around if Donald Trump is elected again in 2024 and take a new form then?” Pitcavage said during an interview. “It’s difficult to predict the future of those movements, so it’s difficult to predict whether they will continue to have this sort of similar effect on people.”

A dearth of mass killings in 2021 meant that last year’s tally was far lower than the totals in any year between 2015 and 2019, when killings by domestic extremists ranged from 45 to 78.

In other respects, the ADL data for 2021 mirrors long-term trends.

Right-wing extremists have killed at least 333 people in the U.S. over the past decade, accounting for three-quarters of all extremist-related killings, the report says.

The ADL distinguishes between killings that it considers to be driven by ideology and those that it found to be non-ideological or lacking a clear motive. Its report says the numbers for each category have been close to even over the past 10 years. The ADL concluded that 14 of the 29 extremist killings in 2021 were apparently motivated at least in part by ideology.

The ADL attributed 13 killings last year to white supremacists, three to anti-government extremists, two to Black nationalists and one to an Islamist extremist.

The group didn’t count the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as an extremist killing. Sicknick collapsed and died hours after he was attacked by rioters who stormed the Capitol and interfered with Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. In April, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office ruled that Sicknick suffered a stroke and died from natural causes.

“Although it is clear that the Capitol attack could have contributed to, or even precipitated, the strokes that felled Sicknick, it cannot be definitely proven that he was murdered by a Capitol stormer,” the ADL report says.

Consumers 

PROLETARIAT left in the dark as corporate net-zero plans fail to add up

by Laurie Goering | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 7 February 2022

Scrutiny of carbon cutting pledges needs improvement, researchers say, with clearer labelling of "green" products to help buyers make genuinely climate-smart choices

• Net-zero climate plans from top firms lack credible detail

• Analysis finds 40% emissions cuts likely rather than 100%

• Greater scrutiny needed of product "carbon neutral" claims

LONDON, Feb 7 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Many top corporations with ambitious "net-zero" emissions pledges to tackle climate change lack a clear plan to achieve them, and are misleading consumers about how "carbon neutral" their products and services are, researchers warned on Monday.

Taken together, net-zero pledges by 25 top global companies - from Amazon to Google - add up to at best an average 40% reduction in emissions, they said in a report scrutinising firms responsible for 5% of the emissions driving global warming.

Read more: IN FOCUS - Achieving net-zero emissions

Only Maersk, a Denmark-based global shipping firm, was found to have a pledge of "reasonable integrity", while companies from Nestle to Unilever were found to have "very low integrity" plans, according to the NewClimate Institute report.

Unilever officials said they would use the analysis to "evolve their approach" to cutting emissions, while Nestle said the report "lacks understanding of our approach and contains significant inaccuracies".

Altogether, pledges by 21 of the 25 businesses examined were found to have "low" or "very low" evidence they could be met, researchers for the climate policy group said.

The weak showing by businesses that often cite global climate leadership suggests far greater scrutiny of all green claims is needed, as well as a much clearer labelling system to help buyers make real climate-smart choices, researchers said.

The big firms "are role models for tens of thousands of businesses who have similar ambitions", Thomas Day, a NewClimate Institute policy analyst, said at the online launch of the inaugural Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor.

If their pledges are "full of ambiguity and loopholes", as the report found, the chances of achieving global goals to curb climate change are limited, he and others said.

"Companies should be held responsible to the highest standards for what net zero means," he said.

He urged them to make realistic plans to cut emissions from their operations, products and supply chains by 90-95%, rather than relying heavily on carbon offsets.

PLEDGES GALORE

Commitments to achieve "net zero" emissions or "carbon neutrality" - made by nations, states, cities and more than 680 companies - have surged over the last few years and now cover 88% of global emissions, according to Net Zero Tracker.

As public concern about climate change rises, many companies are under "enormous and growing" pressure to show they are curbing emissions and acting on climate threats, said Day, one of the report's authors.

But whether those voluntary pledges are backed up with detailed and credible plans has had little scrutiny so far, analysts say.

The new report is an early attempt to fill that gap, with researchers admitting corporate data on emissions reductions is extremely challenging to collect and compare.

They also found that among firms pledging net-zero emissions - by eliminating them or "offsetting" them through projects such as planting carbon-absorbing trees elsewhere - the means of achieving the aim vary widely.

Some companies, such as Maersk, intend to cut nearly all emissions from their operations, products and supply chains, with offsets used only to mop up what is left.

That is in line with recommendations from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), a body that provides guidance on establishing net-zero plans in line with climate science.

But other companies hope to meet their goals mainly by buying offsets, many of them "nature-based", researchers found.

That is a problem both because the supply of good-quality, verified offsets is limited and because carbon stored in forests could be released if they are burned in worsening fires or otherwise damaged, researchers said.

And if only a small share of emissions can be offset through nature investments, "it should not be the case that the wealthiest and most powerful companies claim that potential" when they could afford other options, said Silke Mooldijk, a NewClimate Institute policy analyst.

Other problems highlighted in the report include selecting a year with unusually high emissions as the level from which to measure future cuts, as well as including in that baseline emissions outside a firm's normal operations.

Many companies were also unclear about whether their goals cover emissions from their products and supply chains as well as their operations, or if and how they have signed deals to procure renewable energy for their operations, Mooldijk said.

In general, the net-zero pledges "cannot be taken at face value", she said.

"Some (of the firms) are taking climate leadership but they struggle to differentiate themselves from those who are greenwashing," she added.

Of the companies cited as having low-integrity net-zero plans, many said they welcomed scrutiny and were working hard to cut emissions even as their businesses grow.

They also said their plans were works in progress, with some already having won external approval, including under SBTI.

Many said they had engaged with the NewClimate Institute to clarify their efforts and, in some cases, update them.

But food and beverage giant Nestle said the new analysis contained "inaccuracies", while consumer goods firm Unilever said it had "different perspectives on some elements".

"Transparency and integrity in corporate climate commitments are of the utmost importance to Unilever," it added.

Tech company Google said it was "proud of the progress we're making", including boosting the number of carbon-free hours of operations in its data centres.

E-commerce and tech firm Amazon similarly said it was "on a path to powering our operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of our original target of 2030".

CONSUMER CHOICE

Gilles Dufrasne, a policy officer with non-profit group Carbon Market Watch, which made recommendations based on the analysis, said such scrutiny of corporate pledges was crucial to help consumers worried about climate change make good choices.

His father and 92-year-old grandmother had recently pointed out "carbon neutral" stickers on bananas they bought and asked him what those meant, he said.

"For neither of them could I really answer the question," he admitted. "The reality of what we're observing is we have way too many unsubstantiated green claims."

He called for broad terms like "net zero" and "carbon neutral" to be banned in advertising in favour of a more finely calibrated green ratings system for products, to help consumers make informed decisions and pressure firms to meet climate goals.

For now, people who want to buy green "cannot do that if they don't have the right information", he added.

Related stories:

EXPLAINER: What is net-zero and why does it matter?

More net than zero: Do carbon-cutting promises add up?

Scarce carbon storage threatens net-zero push as emissions keep rising

(Reporting by Laurie Goering @lauriegoering; editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)((laurie.goering@thomsonreuters.com))

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Pandemic propels workers closer to four-day week
by Sonia Elks | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 9 February 2022 15:33 GMT

Workers are putting in longer hours than ever. Could a four-day week allow them to reclaim their time?


LONDON, Feb 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British photographer Paul David Smith had long toyed with the idea of switching all his staff to a four-day week, but it was the flexibility and reliability they showed in the pandemic that gave him the confidence to take the plunge.

Almost a year later and his trust has been rewarded.

He says staff at his eponymous studio have kept on top of the workload despite their reduced hours.

And they are far happier, too.

Smith is part of a revolution underway in the world of work - staff do shorter hours for the same pay - which has been gathering pace as economies look to bounce back from COVID-19.

From Iceland to Australia, governments and business are testing shorter work weeks, be it in fashion or fast food.

With dozens of companies set to take part in Britain's biggest ever trial of a four-day week, joining similar pilots in five other countries, Smith is at the vanguard of a movement that some believe could reshape workplace norms.

"The big game-changer has obviously been the pandemic," said Joe O'Connor of 4 Day Week Global, the New Zealand-based organisation co-running the British trial.

"Companies have not been able to monitor presenteeism in the way they previously did," he said. "As a result, that's opened the door to consider something like the four-day working week."

ALL CHANGE

The pandemic forced mass change in office culture, as lockdowns that closed schools and offices resulted in a sudden shift to remote working and flexible hours as many people struggled to balance jobs with care responsibilities.

Many firms now offer increased flexibility in response to demand from workers, as the "great resignation" and tightening labour markets in countries such as the United States and Britain fuel competition for new staff.

Spain has offered its financial backing to a four-day week trial, Japan has urged companies to let staff drop a day, and New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern is also a keen supporter.

Dozens of firms are already on board. Spanish fashion house Desigual switched to a four-day week last year, and consumer giant Unilever is trialling the shorter week across New Zealand.

O'Connor said there was huge British interest in the six-month trial, co-organised by think-tank Autonomy and researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College and Oxford University.

The organisation is also running three other mass pilots in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

"Everyone's super excited - including myself," said Nathan Hanslip, chief executive of Yo Telecom, among those planning to take part when the British trial begins in June.

The extra day off will give workers extra "wellness, happiness and more family time", he added.

REMOTE CHALLENGES

The big question for employers - can workers sustain the same level of work but do it in fewer hours?

Early signs are largely positive, with research by Autonomy think-tank on two large-scale trials of shorter work weeks in Iceland finding that productivity did not dip in most workplaces and worker wellbeing "dramatically" improved.

Encouraging large-scale switches to shorter hours can also benefit entire economies and help reduce unemployment, said Arthur Donner, a Toronto-based economic consultant who produced a 1994 report to the Canadian government on working hours.

"It's a form of work sharing," he said, spreading the total workload between a larger pool of people.

But even as the pandemic built the case for flexible working and shorter hours, numerous reports have found that home workers put in longer hours as their habits changed.

Just take the ubiquity of online meetings in the pandemic.

"Discussions that were quick emails or a call have now turned into zoom routine meetings for 30 minutes to an hour," said Jalie Cohen of the HR services firm, The Adecco Group.

"We are working longer hours. But the outcomes and the productivity should be the focus."

Almost six in 10 workers said they could do their job in fewer than 40 hours a week, found surveys of some 15,000 people in 25 countries by The Adecco Group last year, even as the proportion working overtime rose by 14% in a year.

However, others wonder whether the shift to remote working, an increase in freelancing, and a digital 'always on' mentality, have all made the prospect of shorter hours even more remote.

"Think of all these people who are working from home now. How are you going to measure their working hours?" said Donner.

"When you answer an email at midnight from your boss, is that work? Of course it's work."





'NEW STANDARD'

Research from employers suggests many see the need to embrace greater flexibility but are cautious on major shifts.

It is "getting harder to align" the priorities of employers and employees over work/life balance expectations, said Scott Gutz, chief executive of global recruitment firm Monster.

Which might mean many firms may be too cautious to act.

In Britain, a January poll by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found more than half of managers said their workplaces were considering or would consider a four-day week - but 73% thought it would not happen in the end.

Many managers still "believe it's too big a change for business leaders to make", said CMI chief executive Ann Francke - though she added the same might once have been said of remote and hybrid working.

"The five-day working week model isn't set in stone - once some firms start to adopt it, there is every chance it could snowball to be more mainstream," she said.

O'Connor at 4 Day Week Global agreed, saying he previously expected it would take 10 years to make the shorter week a "new standard" in workplaces - now he thinks it could be five.

"In a lot of sectors, this is going to go from being the ambition to being the norm very, very rapidly," he said.


(Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)