Canada’s Billion Dollar P3 Boondoggle

'A nightmare:' UCP government urges Ottawa to halt Wednesday's enactment of gun control bill

UCP AND THE CONS ARE FRONTS FOR THE (TINY) CANADIAN GUN LOBBY  

Ottawa should delay or fully disarm “a long gun registry” set to take effect Wednesday, says the Alberta government. 

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Bill Kaufmann - 
Calgary Herald

© Provided by Calgary HeraldA rack of

And a Calgary gun store owner said he’s been selling far more firearms than than normal this week to customers who want to avoid the stricter rules before they’re reality.

Bill C-71 which includes additional verification for acquisition and possession licenses for non-restricted firearms and additional book keeping for businesses will be ineffective in keeping guns out of criminal hands and doesn’t give those affected by it enough time to prepare, said Alberta Chief Firearms Officer Teri Bryant.

“Despite the federal government claiming Bill C-71 is important to our public safety, distressingly little has been done to prepare individuals, businesses or my staff,” Bryant said in a press release.

“Our office has been inundated with calls since news of the deadline emerged because Alberta firearms owners do not understand the changes and are concerned about the potential for a new backdoor long gun registry.”

Ottawa should either delay implementing the legislation for a year or scrap it altogether, she said.

In a letter to federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, Bryant said there are additional fears that under Bill C-71, firearms described by Ottawa as assault weapons purchased legally prior to to the legislation could be confiscated.

“This concern has been heightened by your government’s plans under the May 2020 order-in-council to use the existing registry of restricted firearms to confiscate the property of owners who acquired firearms in full conformity with the law at the time of acquisition,” Bryant stated.

The bill was passed in June 2019 but Bryant said those licensing provisions were only announced May 11, giving those affected little time to either adopt or understand them.

Canadian gun control groups contend the legislation is needed to enhance public safety by keeping better track of gun licenses and sales and banning what they call “military assault weapons.”

The Coalition for Gun Control argues the federal government isn’t doing enough to clamp down on firearms amid a rise in shootings in recent years and is calling for a national ban on handguns with limited exceptions.

“Canada is one of only a few nations in the world to have moved backwards with gun control reform,” states the group’s website.

“Few Canadians know that the AR-15, a military weapon used in many mass shootings, is sold to civilians in Canada. Many Canadians think handguns are virtually banned — there are now almost 1 million legally-owned handguns in Canada.”

Acccording to RCMP which oversees the verification system, individuals and businesses need to obtain a reference number from the Registrar of Firearms confirming the validity of the buyer’s firearms licence before transferring a non-restricted firearm.

Businesses will also be required to retain sales and inventory records related to non-restricted firearms for a minimum of 20 years.

“This is not the return of the Long Gun Registry. The records created by businesses will be held by businesses — not government — and the police will require judicial authorization to access them,” states the RCMP’s website.

One Calgary gun store owner said the new legislation is burdensome, ineffective and a threat to privacy.

But James Cox said he’s seen a huge bump in sales in the past week as customers try to beat the clock before Bill C-71 takes effect.

“I’m going to send (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau thanks for all the extra business,” said Cox of the Shooting Edge, 510 77 Ave. S.E.

“People want to get the semi-autos before the registry kicks in.”

But Cox said his gratitude towards the Liberal government ends there, adding responsibility for additional verification is being downloaded on businesses.

And he said the demand for more personal information from firearms purchasers will put their privacy at risk, for no good reason.

“It’s just Liberal talking points that it’s going to get weapons off the street, but how is that?” said Cox.

“These guys are out of control … it’s going to be a nightmare.”

A number of Alberta gun shops, he said, are shutting down to better prepare for the legislation’s implementation.

The use of firearms like the AR-15, he said, is already highly-restricted and that particular rifle has never been used in crimes in Canada.   BULLSHIT  

SEE BELOW

“This isn’t the U.S. – the reason we have fewer firearms deaths in Canada is because of (mandatory) training,” said Cox.  GUN CONTROL BY ANY OTHER NAME

In 2020, there were 19,350 gun-related homicides in the U.S. – 70 times the 277 recorded that year in Canada.

The U.S. population is about 10 times larger than Canada’s.

Public Safety Canada didn’t comment on the Alberta government’s request to halt the legislation’s implementation.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn

 

A short history of the AR-15 in Canada

THE CONVERSATION
Published: September 22, 2019

Canada’s governing Liberals have proposed a set of new gun control measures that would ban military-style assault rifles, including the AR-15. They contend these weapons “are specifically designed to inflict mass human casualties and have no place in Canadian society.”

The response from gun groups has been vitriolic. The National Firearms Association, for example, says that the Liberals’ gun proposals are an “attack on the rights, freedoms and property of Canadians.”

The decision to highlight the AR-15 in the proposal is unsurprising. The gun has been controversial since its introduction into the Canadian marketplace.

The AR-15 is the civilian version of the standard military weapon, the Colt M-16, used during much of the Vietnam War by the United States. After Colt’s patent for the AR-15 expired, other gun-makers began selling generic models. Colt recently announced it will stop producing the AR-15 for the civilian market, though other manufacturers will continue to make versions of the weapon available to the general public.

The AR-15 appeared in the Canadian market by the mid to late 1970s. Some Canadians immediately began to express concern about the gun. The Windsor Star, for instance, wrote in 1975 that criminals “might very well show some interest in the high-powered AR-15.”

Read more: Calls for stronger handgun laws in Canada have deep roots

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police also raised concerns about such firearms, and in 1977 the federal government declared the AR-15 a restricted weapon, meaning that a potential purchaser had to pass a higher threshold to acquire the gun.

This move angered some gun groups, who charged that the classification decision was based on the gun’s appearance rather than its capability. An advocate for firearm owners, Michael Martinoff, responded by declaring before a parliamentary committee that he would refuse to register his AR-15.

The complaints of the gun community led the government of former prime minister Joe Clark to reclassify the AR-15 as a non-restricted firearm. The Liberals under Jean Chrétien again made the AR-15 a restricted weapon.
Favourite weapon of mass shooters

In the United States, the AR-15 has been employed by shooters in some of the country’s most infamous mass murders.

Some gun advocates claim the gun has never been used in Canadian criminal activity. That’s inaccurate.

In 1982, Saskatoon police shot 18-year-old hostage-taker Richard Landrie after a lengthy standoff. Landrie was dressed in battle fatigues and armed with an AR-15. He fired 50 rounds during the standoff, shooting off one of his hostage’s fingers.

Media reports also indicate that AR-15s have been seized in several drug raids, taken from alleged bank robbers in British Columbia, involved in a 2009 murder and employed in the 2004 drive-by shooting of Louise Russo in suburban Toronto as she waited in line to buy a sandwich for her daughter.

Other shooters have used similar semi-automatic guns to kill multiple victims.

Most notoriously, the Montreal massacre shooter used a semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14 when he murdered 14 women in 1989.

Jean-Francois Larivee, husband of Maryse Laganière, who was shot and killed by Marc Lépine in the Montreal massacre in 1989, attends a news conference in Montreal in 2011 to push for gun control. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

That heinous crime led to calls to ban military-style semi-automatic rifles. A student-led petition garnered more than 500,000 signatures demanding the ban.

Demanded action

Many newspapers and MPs also demanded action. Jean-Pierre Blackburn, a Progressive Conservative Québec MP, asked:

“Why are weapons of this kind allowed in Canada? Why do we let people own such dangerous and destructive weapons? That doesn’t make sense. Protecting the public and public safety should be our prime concern.”

The federal government eventually moved a number of semi-automatic firearms to the lists of restricted and prohibited weapons, but many other such guns remain in the non-restricted category.

Manufacturers and retailers have aggressively marketed these “black guns” or “modern sporting rifles” in Canada and the United States. The popularity of such weapons has contributed to a substantial increase in the number of restricted firearms owned by Canadians in recent years.

Semi-automatic military-style rifles have become an important symbol for critics of the Canadian gun control regime.

The National Firearms Association has employed an image consisting of a silhouetted maple leaf incorporating such a gun. A rival group, the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, has used a similar logo.

Conservatives friendly to gun groups

The Conservative Party of Canada has been especially cozy with gun groups in recent years and opposes the proposal to ban assault-style firearms, including the AR-15. In fact, Conservative MP Bob Zimmer tabled a petition in 2016 calling for the AR-15 to be reclassified as a non-restricted firearm.

The future availability of the AR-15 and similar guns in Canada therefore appears to rest on the results of the upcoming federal election.

Canadians must decide if such guns should remain on the market or whether Canada will take a course similar to the United Kingdom, Australia and, most recently, New Zealand, and limit the availability of such firearms.

Author

R. Blake Brown
Professor, Saint Mary’s University
Disclosure statement
R. Blake Brown receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

SEE 

Canada’s Billion Dollar P3 Boondoggle

What the Liberals and Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know

The real story behind the cost overruns at the Canadian Firearms Centre

"Just read your piece on the firearms P3 – quite a revelation. I am amazed we have never heard this before – congratulations for bringing it to light." Murray Dobbin, author of Paul Martin Canada's CEO

ABOLISH THE MONARCHY!

Indigenous Canadians make a painful plea on eve of British royal visit

IF THE POPE CAN APOLOGIZE SO CAN QEII


Mon, May 16, 2022

(Reuters) - As Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla prepare to visit Canada this week, some members of the indigenous community are calling on the British royal family to formally acknowledge the harm colonization did to First Nations people.

The royal couple will arrive in St. Johns, Newfoundland on Tuesday on a three-day trip that will include stops in Ottawa and the Northwest Territories and focus on the issues of reconciliation with indigenous peoples and climate change.

The impact of colonization, the residential school system and the loss of lands is what the crown represents, Mary Teegee, the executive director of child and family services at Carrier Sekani Family Services in the province of British Columbia, told Reuters.

"They also have to understand that they are not the leaders in our nation," Teegee said, adding that recognition of the harms of colonization are needed rather than just a "trite" apology.

Although Canada ceased being a colony of Britain in 1867, it remained a member of the British Empire, with a British-appointed governor-general acting on behalf of the monarch.

And it was under the guise of the crown and Canada's federal government that some 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and enrolled in a Christian-run network of residential schools between 1831 and 1996.

That policy, described by some as a form of cultural genocide, and survivors' accounts of harsh, paramilitary-like conditions have been under the microscope since the discovery in 2021 of the remains of more than 200 children buried in unmarked areas on the grounds of one such school in B.C.

CBC News on Monday quoted Cassidy Caron, the president of the Métis National Council, an indigenous group, as saying Queen Elizabeth should apologize to the residential school survivors.

Caron said she plans to deliver that message when she meets Charles, the heir to the British throne, and Camilla during their visit, which is part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations marking the queen's seven decades on the throne.

'DISTANT ALIEN THING'

Jess Housty, a community organizer for the Heiltsuk Nation in B.C., said that while she doesn't care about the visit, it's hard to ignore the colonial past and the "bad relations that have happened for centuries."

The monarchy is "this distant alien thing that feels really irrelevant in my life and work," Housty said.

An opinion poll https://angusreid.org/canada-constitutional-monarchy-queen-elizabeth released by the Angus Reid research group in April shows support among Canadians to abolish the country's constitutional monarchy rising, with about 51% saying it should disappear in coming generations, up from 45% in January 2020.

While acknowledging there were a lot of people in her community who didn't actively support the monarchy, Housty conceded that many had been excited when Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate visited her area in 2016.

That excitement is on display once again this week, said St. John's Mayor Danny Breen, who told Reuters that the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is looking forward to the arrival of Charles and Camilla.

"People have respect for the queen and have respect for the family," Breen said.

(Reporting by Jenna Zucker; Editing by Denny Thomas and Paul Simao)

Most automakers fall short on climate goals: report

Globally, more than half of all new vehicles coming off of production lines in 2029 would need to be electric for the sector to be compliant with the goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels 

(AFP/SONNY TUMBELAKA)


Marlowe HOOD
Wed, May 18, 2022,

Only two of the world's 12 top automakers plan to make enough electric vehicles by 2030 to stay in step with Paris Agreement climate goals, experts said Wednesday.

Globally, more than half of all new vehicles coming off of production lines in 2029 would need to be electric for the sector to be compliant with the goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, according to Influence Map, a research NGO that evaluates corporate climate goals and policies.

At the same time, 11 of the 12 carmakers -- while publicly supporting the Paris Agreement -- have actively opposed government policies to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, especially the phase-out internal combustion engines, Influence Map said.

Japanese auto giants Toyota, Honda and Nissan are especially far off the mark, with non-polluting cars accounting for only 14, 18 and 22 percent, respectively, of their planned production in 2029, the report said.

South Korea's Hyundai, US manufacturer Ford and France's Renault -- with 27, 28 and 31 percent of their global fleets projected to be electric in seven years -- were only marginally more on track.

The standout exception is US-based Tesla, a "pure player" manufacturer that has only ever made electric cars and trucks.

- Lagging behind -

"Almost all automakers are failing to keep pace with the transition to zero emissions," said Influence Map program Manager Ben Youriev.

"Those lagging the furthest behind are also the most negative when it comes to climate policy advocacy."

Ford, Stellantis, Volkswagen and BMW come closer to the 52 percent threshold for compatibility with Paris temperature target, with 36 to 46 percent of their fleets planned to be electric in 2029.

Besides Tesla, only Mercedes-Benz -- at 56 percent -- is projecting a transition in keeping with that target.

To evaluate automaker trajectories, Influence Map cross-references different datasets.

Researchers used the International Energy Agency's (IEA) scenario for decarbonising the transport sector rapidly enough to not jeopardise the 1.5C goal, which would need 57.5 percent of all cars produced in 2030 to be electric.

The IEA's Net Zero by 2050 report also assumes the share of renewables in global electricity generation would be about 60 percent in 2030.

The Influence Map report then compared this goal with IHS Markit production forecasts to 2029, corresponding to a 52 percent share of electric vehicles in the IEA schema.

Collectively, the combined global production of battery electric vehicles by all automakers is forecast to only reach 32 percent by 2029.

That means the auto industry would need to boost production of zero-emission cars by 80 percent in order to hit the IEA 2030 production target.

- Impact of government policy -

The report findings reveal the critical impact of government policy on the pace of the transition away from internal combustion engines, which account for around 16 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In the European Union, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 55 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, Toyota's produced fleet is projected to be 50 percent electric by 2029.

But in the United States, where fuel emissions standards are less stringent, that figure is only four percent.

Similarly, Ford's EU-based production is forecast to be 65 percent electric by 2029 -- nearly double it's global average.

One pension fund with shares in Toyota and Volkswagen expressed concern about the Influence of the Map findings.

"As investors, we are concerned with the picture painted which confirms that some companies in the auto industry are placing themselves on the wrong side of history when actively opposing much needed climate change-related rules and regulations," Anders Schelde, CIO of Denmark's AkademikerPension, with $20 billion of assets under management, told AFP.

"We are also worried about Toyota scoring worst among peers on climate lobbying as the company is jeopardizing its valuable brand."

mh/pvh

Automakers lobbying toward climate catastrophe, production goals won’t meet <1.5C target


Jameson Dow 
Electrek
- May. 17th 2022 



Major automakers are currently on track to fail to meet necessary climate goals to keep the world under 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, according to a new report by InfluenceMap.

The report showed that while companies are largely making climate-forward public statements, these statements do not match up with their actions in terms of future production plans or their lobbying efforts.

The report compared production forecasts to the International Energy Agency’s 2050 road map, which detailed that 57.5% of light-duty vehicle sales must be zero-emission by 2030. The report focused on 2029 model year vehicles, as that is the last year before the 2030 timeline.

Per the report, 11 of 12 automakers (excluding Tesla) fall short in terms of future production plans or lobbying efforts. VW was found to have acceptable lobbying efforts but deficient global production plans, while Mercedes’ production plans are good enough but policy advocacy lags behind even US automakers. Current industry production forecasts may even put the world on track to exceed 2 degrees Celsius of warming if more isn’t done to bring them in line with necessary climate goals.

Unsurprisingly, Japanese automakers lag behind the rest, occupying the bottom 3 positions on the table. Nissan is slightly better than Honda and Toyota in this respect but still lags behind all non-Japanese automakers. However, the report, which used data ending March 2022, did not account for Honda’s April announcement of increased EV investment, which could improve its position.

The report noted that most companies tend to embrace and advocate for better climate policy in direct proportion to their future EV production goals, but that a few companies are outliers to this trend. BMW, Stellantis, and Mercedes have all set relatively high targets (but not high enough, except Mercedes) for future production, but their engagement with lobbying efforts has largely been against climate action.

While US automakers are currently doing better in policy advocacy than most others (in a break from the past), US policy is nowhere near what’s required to meet climate targets. As a result, automakers who sell in the US have significantly lower sales targets in the US than elsewhere. For example, Toyota plans 49% BEVs in the EU by 2029, but only 3% in the US. US EV production percentage is projected to be lower than Chinese and EU EV production in 2029.

Automotive industry lobbying groups are further pushing against climate action, and the companies examined (except Tesla) all belong to and actively engage with at least one lobbying group that is actively fighting against regulations on polluting vehicles (represented by each company’s “relationship score”).

Even Tesla had a little room for improvement, earning a “B” for their lobbying efforts. This was largely down to their relative lack of “engagement intensity” on policy issues – while the company does generally lobby in the right direction, there are other companies that lobby significantly harder and more effectively than Tesla does. Regardless, Tesla still stood out from the pack as far and above the best example of an automaker covered by the report (their CEO – who supports climate-harming increases in oil drilling – notwithstanding).

The situation is even worse outside of the major markets of the EU, China, and the US, where automakers have single-digit-percentage EV plans and expect to offload their polluting gas vehicles onto the populations that are generally the most negatively affected by global pollution.

SUV production was found to be a major threat across the industry to decarbonization. Production forecasts show that SUVs will rise from 39% to 47% of light-duty vehicles with all automakers planning to increase SUV production, increasing emissions from light-duty vehicles and eating away at some of the improvements from gradual electrification of the vehicle fleet. SUVs have been the second largest cause of emissions increases globally over the last decade.

Automotive industry lobbying has improved in the last two years that InfluenceMap has looked into this, with most of the industry now earning better scores than they did in 2020. Volkswagen (or should I say Voltswagen?) has shown the most improvement, raising their score from a D- to a C, while Ford and GM have improved significantly as well. This shows that the industry can respond and still improve, but it remains to be seen if that improvement will happen fast enough. Regardless, industry lobbying activities still represent a major blockage to addressing climate change through policy.

Electrek’s Take

These climate goals are necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including the possibility of positive feedback loops that will only make it harder to bring warming under control. The necessity of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius is not some political opinion but a result of the projections of thousands of scientists showing that we are at a breakpoint where we can still avoid the worst and costliest effects of climate change.

And there is no way that we can negotiate or lobby our way out of this. In this negotiation, our adversary is physics, and physics does not care about how many dealers you have to wrangle, how many engineers you have to retrain, how many battery recycling plants you need to construct, or any of the other traditional excuses the auto industry has made for their complacency. It only cares that you need to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, and it’s not going to budge or compromise, no matter how hard you lobby it or how difficult you say compliance would be.

We must keep warming underneath these target temperatures. We caused it, we are the only ones who can stop it, so we must get to work.

Simply put, automakers and governments (and consumer demand, see SUVs) must do better than what current production plans and policy indicate, lobbying against progress needs to end, and the industry must take action – today. We have to do more. End of discussion.

'Nakba recognition' resolution submitted by Rashida Tlaib, 'squad'


© (photo credit: ERIN SCOTT/REUTERS)

A resolution proposing to officially commemorate the “Nakba” in the United States was submitted on Tuesday to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan, 13th District).

“Today, I introduced a resolution recognizing the Nakba (catastrophe), where 400 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, [and] over 700,000 Palestinians [were] uprooted from their homes and made refugees,” Tlaib wrote on Twitter.

She thanked the co-sponsors of the resolution, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Cori Bush, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Rep. Betty McCollum and Rep. Marie Newman. Along with Tlaib, the first four co-sponsors are members of what is known as “The Squad” – six relatively young Democratic US House representatives. The sixth Squad member, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, was not a co-signer.

The Nakba resolution

The bill calls to establish an official means for the US to recognize and remember the Nakba – the establishment of the State of Israel and the exodus of Palestinian refugees caused by the 1948 War of Independence when the nascent state was attacked by several of its Arab neighbors.

The “Nakba resolution” proposes that the US government cease to engage in denial of the Nakba and encourage education and public awareness of it.

“The Nakba is well-documented and continues to play out today,” tweeted Tlaib. “We must acknowledge that the humanity of Palestinians is being denied when folks refuse to acknowledge the war crimes and human rights violations in apartheid Israel.”

Further policy would see the US continue support for Palestinian refugees through UNRWA, and “support the implementation of Palestinian refugees’ rights as enshrined in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UNGA 194 [...] says that Palestinian war refugees should be permitted to return to their homes or be compensated for damages.”

“We cannot understand the current conflict without acknowledging the tragedy of the Nakba,” wrote Newman. “I’m proud to stand with Palestinians in IL-03 and everywhere as we call for your history to be recognized and respected.”

Historical narrative

The resolution describes the historical narrative beginning with the forced partition plan of the Mandate, which was supposed to protect the rights of the minorities. It says that when Israel had declared independence, hundreds of Palestinians were already expelled or fled due to attacks by Zionist militias.

The document asserts that a total of 750,000 refugees were created by the end of the war, and that Israel had conquered an additional “23 percent of Palestine beyond those areas allocated to the Jewish state under the partition plan.” The proposal also states that refugee status is conferred to the descendants of those disenfranchised by the war.

Nakba Day is commemorated every year on May 15.

French court upholds Syria 'complicity in crimes against humanity' charge against Lafarge

A French appeals court has confirmed that the cement giant Lafarge must face charges of complicity in crimes against humanity over alleged payoffs to the Islamic State group and other jihadist groups during the Syrian civil war. 

02:51

© Franck Fife, AFP

Issued on: 18/05/2022 
Video by:FRANCE 24Follow

I HAVE A LAFARGE PLANT ABOUT SIX BLOCKS FROM WHERE I LIVE 

Senegal probing feared homophobic attack by mob

Wed, 18 May 2022

Senegal has been gripped by the row over by Idrissa Gana Gueye's alleged refusal to don a rainbow shirt in France's Ligue 1 matches last Saturday

 (AFP/Pascal GUYOT) (Pascal GUYOT)

Senegalese police said Wednesday they were probing a possible anti-gay attack by a mob, an incident coinciding with a storm over a football star's apparent refusal to join a campaign against homophobia in Europe.

Videos began circulating Tuesday evening showing a crowd in the centre of the capital Dakar beating a man and hurling homophobic insults at him.

Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has increased on social media in Senegal since Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) footballer and Senegalese international Idrissa Gana Gueye's alleged refusal to wear a rainbow jersey during a match in France on Saturday.

Despite facing criticism in France, Gueye has received a flood of support in Senegal, including the backing of President Macky Sall.

In several videos posted to YouTube and TikTok, an angry mob of several dozen people can be seen in broad daylight surrounding a barefoot young man wearing only boxer shorts.

They are seen holding him firmly by the wrists and slapping his back and head as blood trickles down his neck and chest.

A member of the crowd is heard shouting in Wolof: "Homosexuality will not be accepted in Senegal," while another calls the man a "dirty homosexual" and says, "let us kill him before the police arrive."

Another person is heard shouting: "He does not deserve to live."

In one clip, a crowd uttering homophobic slurs gathers in front of a police station in the HLM neighbourhood in the centre of Dakar.

A police officer on Wednesday told AFP journalists that the young man had been brought there the day before. No information was given on his condition.

A witness to the incident told AFP that he believed the young man was a foreigner and "around 100" people had hauled him to the police station.

He "was bleeding from injuries to the head and feet," the witness said.

An online investigation shows that the videos, viewed several thousand times, are recent, although the time and date are unclear. AFP has not been able to establish their source.

A police official, also speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the case, confirmed on Wednesday that an investigation was underway.

In many parts of Africa, same-sex relations are taboo or even criminalised.

In Senegal, where 95 percent of the population is Muslim, so-called "unnatural acts" with a person of the same sex are punishable by law with one to five years in prison.

Members of the LGBTQ community say attacks and homophobic incidents have increased in recent years, with a number of people fleeing the country.

lp-bur/lal/emd/prc/ri

PSG's Gueye asked to explain absence after homophobia accusations


AFP - 

Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye has been ordered by the French football federation's ethics board to answer accusations he missed a game to avoid wearing a rainbow jersey in support of the LGBTQI+ movement.

The Senegal international was absent for Saturday's 4-0 win over Montpellier in Ligue 1 for "personal reasons" rather than injury, according to coach Mauricio Pochettino.

Gueye must "issue a public apology" or say the rumours he refused to take part in French football's fight against homophobia are "unfounded", according to a letter seen Wednesday by AFP addressed to the player.

He also missed a match last year on a day dedicated to raising awareness against discrimination.

"This absence (against Montpellier)... is very widely interpreted as a refusal to participate," wrote the FFF's ethics board.

"One of two things, either the hypotheses are unfounded and we invite you to immediately express yourself in order to silence these rumours," the letter continued.

"Or the rumours are true. In this case we ask you to be aware of the impact of your actions and the very serious error committed."

"In refusing to take part in this collective initiative you are validating discriminatory behaviour... and not only against the LGBTQI+ community," it added.

Gueye on Tuesday received the support of Senegal's President Macky Sall.

"I support Idrissa Gana Gueye. His religious beliefs must be respected," he wrote on Twitter.

eba/ng/hpa/mw/pi

Proud of his bravery’: Josh Cavallo reacts to Jake Daniels coming out as gay

Australian footballer’s coming out inspired Blackpool player

Cavallo says it is a ‘wonderful feeling’ that his story helped

Melbourne City fans show support for Adelaide United’s Josh Cavallo at the teams’ meeting in February.

 Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images


Mike Hytne
THE GUARDIAN

Tue 17 May 2022 0


Jake Daniels, the UK’s first male professional footballer to come out as gay since 1990, has been lauded for his bravery by Josh Cavallo, the Australian player whose own coming out provided inspiration for the Blackpool forward.

Daniels’s announcement on Monday that “the time is right to be myself, be free and be confident” in his identity prompted widespread support from across the football world, just like Cavallo’s decision to come out last year.

Thanks for your leadership, Jake Daniels: a gay man and professional footballer

Daniels, 17, said he had been inspired by the Adelaide United player, who made global headlines in October when he became the only openly gay man playing top-flight professional football anywhere in the world.

At the time, Cavallo said he suspected there were other players “living in silence”, but until Daniels’s landmark revelation, no other gay men had felt comfortable enough to go public with their sexuality.

Cavallo, whose team meet Melbourne City this week in a two-leg A-League Men semi-final, said on Tuesday he was proud to have been able to help provide Daniels with the confidence to make the public revelation.

“As myself and Adelaide United prepare for the A-League semi-final, I want to stop and take a moment to acknowledge Jake’s announcement and say how very proud I am for his bravery,” Cavallo said. “It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that my story has helped guide Jake to be his true self.

“It’s touching to see the millions of people that my story has impacted and inspired around the world, and to see it help evolve the world game at all levels, is fantastic. This world and the game of football has a place for everyone. Love will always win.”

Gerard Piqué, Raphaël Varane and Marcus Rashford congratulated Cavallo last year, and there was no shortage of big names lining up to praise Daniels on Monday; Harry Kane, David de Gea, Gary Lineker and Rio Ferdinand were among those to offer support to the promising striker.

But football’s apparent inability to keep pace with wider societal advances on inclusivity was put into sharp relief for Cavallo in January, when he was targeted by homophobic abuse from the crowd during an A-League Men game at Melbourne Victory.

There have been only a handful of openly gay male players, and none besides Daniels and Cavallo have come out while actively playing top-flight football. Thomas Hitzlsperger of Germany is arguably the most high profile, although, like the American former Leeds player Robbie Rogers, he waited until after retirement to reveal his sexuality publicly.

In 2019, the former Newcastle Jets player Andy Brennan became Australia’s first professional male footballer to come out while still playing.

'Historic' equal pay deal for US men's and women's football teams


The US men's and women's national soccer teams will receive equal pay under a "historic" agreement announced by the US Soccer Federation on Wednesday, following years of pressure from female players

.

© Tiziana Fabi, AFP

The move makes the federation the first in the world to equalize World Cup prize money awarded to its men's and women's teams.

"This is a truly historic moment. These agreements have changed the game forever here in the United States and have the potential to change the game around the world," said US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone.

The terms of Wednesday's landmark agreement include "identical compensation for all competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, and the introduction of the same commercial revenue sharing mechanism for both teams," USSF said.

The deal stipulates that players from both teams "pool and share" the otherwise unequal prize money paid by FIFA for participation in their respective World Cups.

For non-World Cup tournaments, players from "both teams will earn an equal amount of the total prize money paid when both teams participate in the same competition."

In February, the US national women's team won a $24 million payout and a promise of equal pay in a najor settlement with US Soccer, that was contingent on the new collective bargaining agreement.

The question of World Cup prize money had formed a prominent part of the lawsuit, which was filed in 2019 and accused the federation of "stubbornly refusing" to pay its men and women's players equally.

"The accomplishments in this CBA (collective bargaining agreement) are a testament to the incredible efforts of WNT players on and off the field," said US women's captain Becky Sauerbrunn, who is also her team's players association president.

She added that she hoped the agreement "will similarly serve as the foundation for continued growth of women's soccer both in the United States and abroad."

'Achieved it'

The agreement, which runs through 2028, also aims to improve "player health and safety, data privacy and the need to balance responsibilities to both club and country," USSF said.

Women's star Megan Rapinoe, who has forged a reputation as an unflinching advocate for social justice causes including equal pay and conditions for her and team-mates, said in February that the settlement marked a moment in which "US Soccer changed for the better."

Center-back Walker Zimmerman, a member of the men's team players association, welcomed Wednesday's deal saying that "we hope this will awaken others to the need for this type of change."

"They said equal pay for men and women was not possible, but that did not stop us and we went ahead and achieved it," he added.

The United States women have won four Women's World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals. They are chasing an unprecedented third consecutive Women's World Cup crown after hoisting trophies in 2015 at Canada and 2019 in France. They last won Olympic gold in London in 2012.

(AFP)

Soccer: U.S. women, men to pool World Cup money, get equal pay


The U.S. Women's National Team and U.S. Men's National Team will receive identical compensation for all competitions as part of new collective bargaining agreements with the U.S. Soccer Federation. File Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo


May 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. men's and women's national teams will receive equal pay and prize money as part of a new collective bargaining agreement, the United States Soccer Federation announced Wednesday.

"This is a truly historic moment," federation President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a news release. "These agreements have changed the game forever here in the United States and have the potential to change the game around the world.


"U.S. Soccer and the USWNT and USMNT players have reset their relationship with these new agreements and are leading us forward to an incredibly exciting new phase of mutual growth and collaboration as we continue our mission to become the pre-eminent sport in the United States."

The move follows years of legal battles between the federation and more than two dozen members of the women's national team. U.S. Soccer is the first federation to equalize FIFA World Cup prize money.

RELATED U.S. Soccer, members of women's team settle equal pay lawsuit for $24 million

"The accomplishments in this CBA are a testament to the incredible efforts of WNT players on and off the field," women's team defender and players union President Becky Sauerbrunn said.

"The gains we have been able to achieve are both because of the strong foundation laid by the generations of women's team players that came before the current team and through our union's recent collaboration with our counterparts at the USNSTPA and leadership at U.S. Soccer."

The men's and women's respective labor deals each run through 2028. They include identical economic compensation for roster appearances and performances in all competitions, based on the outcome of the match and rank of opponent.

For the World Cup, the parties agreed to pool and share a portion of prize money paid for the teams' participation in the 2022 men's competitions and the 2023 women's competitions.

Players on those rosters will be paid an equal percentage of the collective prize money, which is provided globally by FIFA in uneven sums. The men's and women's teams will do that same thing for the 2026 Men's World Cup and 2027 Women's World Cup.

The federation also agreed to provide equal quality of venues and field playing surfaces and "comparable budgets" for hotel accommodations for matches and camps for both teams. The teams also will be provided with an equal number of chartered flights during national team camps for travel to competitions.

The decision to provide equal pay comes three months after women's team players settled their gender discrimination lawsuit against the federation.

As part of that settlement, the federation agreed to pay $22 million to the 28 women's players who filed the suit and $2 million to create a fund for women's and girl's soccer programs.

Women's players asked for $67 million in their 2019 lawsuit, which reached class-action status. Judge R. Gary Klausner issued a partial summary judgment, which dismissed most of the players' claims, in May 2020 at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Pasadena.

"We hope that this agreement and its historic achievements in not only providing for equal pay, but also in improving the training and playing environment for national team players will similarly serve as the foundation for continued growth of women's soccer both in the United States and abroad," Sauerbrunn said.

The U.S. men's team will face Morocco in a friendly on June 1 at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati. The men's team will start group play at the 2022 World Cup at 2 p.m. EST Nov. 21 at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar. The Men's World Cup final will be Dec. 18 at Lusail Stadium in Doha.

The women's team will face Colombia in a friendly at 7:30 p.m. EDT June 25 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo.

The US Women's National Team's historic equal pay deal is already inspiring other countries' soccer stars to 'fight for' fair wages


Spain's Irene Paredes (left) shakes hands with USWNT star Megan Rapinoe

 ahead of their 2019 World Cup match.

Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Meredith Cash
Wed, May 18, 2022, 


The USWNT agreed to a historic deal that secures a pay structure that is identical to what applies to the men's team.


The agreement with US Soccer equalizes World Cup prize money between the men's and women's teams.


The deal is already inspiring female players from other countries to fight for fair wages of their own.

After years of fighting its own federation for fair wages, the US Women's National Soccer Team has finally secured equal pay.

US Soccer announced Wednesday that its men's and women's national teams had agreed to identical Collective Bargaining Agreements, that equalized pay and resources afforded to the men's and women's squads. Perhaps most notably, the deal evenly splits World Cup prize money between the two national teams.

US Women's National Team players celebrate their 2019 World Cup victory.

AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

No other country's soccer federation has ever taken the revolutionary step to pool FIFA prize money, which is significantly higher on the men's side.

"I think this is going to have international ramifications in sport in general," US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone told TODAY. "And hopefully into the business world as well."

In fact, it already has.

Moments after news of the agreement became public, FC Barcelona superstar and Spain women's national team captain Irene Paredes told Insider that the USWNT's successful fight for equal pay inspires her, and likely other women's players across the globe, to "fight for" fair wages and resources of their own.

Paredes battles USWNT star forward Alex Morgan for the ball.

Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports

"Now there's a reason and someone who is doing it, so we have to fight for that," Paredes said. "I think that for playing with your national team, you can't make a difference between a man and a woman. Of course there are a lot of things of filling the stadium or not, or selling T-shirts or not, but because of the fact of wearing the same T-shirt, it should be the same."

"I just say congrats," she added. "And I hope that the rest of the national teams can reach that."

The heart of soccer's pay disparity issues lies with FIFA, which offers a considerably larger prize pool for the men's World Cup than for the women's. At this year's men's World Cup in Qatar, the 32 teams vying for soccer's most prestigious trophy will also compete for a share of the $400 million pot, according to The Guardian.

In the women's tournament, which will take place in Australia and New Zealand the following year, the same number of teams will compete for $60 million total.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino

.REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

In 2016, FIFA President Gianni Infantino told Sports Illustrated that the stature of "women's football in the US is not yet comparable to what women's football should be around the world." He says that the vast divide justifies the disparity between the men's and women's World Cup prize pools.

"So what our task must be is to develop women's football, to invest much more," Infantino added. "Of course the adjustment of the prize money goes with that as well."

But Walker Zimmerman, a defender for the USMNT and a member of the players' association leadership group, challenged the notion that "equal pay for men and women was not possible."

USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman.

AP Photo/Julio Cortez

"That did not stop us, and we went ahead and achieved it," he added via US Soccer's announcement. "We hope this will awaken others to the need for this type of change, and will inspire FIFA and others around the world to move in the same direction."

Goddesses and witches star in British Museum show


Wed, May 18, 2022,

Alluring, warrior-like or nurturing, goddesses and other female spiritual beings from around the world are the focus of a new exhibition at the British Museum.

Entitled "Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic", it includes ancient sculptures of Roman goddesses Venus and Minerva and Egypt's lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, as well as modern images of deities worshipped today.

The exhibition is the "first with a cross-cultural approach to this extraordinary, absolutely fundamental subject", the London museum's director Hartwig Fischer told reporters.

Specially for the show, the museum commissioned a brightly painted icon of the Hindu warrior goddess Kali wearing a garland of severed heads, from Kolkata-based artist Kaushik Ghosh.


The exhibition, which runs until September 25, also features commentary from high-profile figures including the feminist writer Bonnie Greer and classicist Mary Beard.

"We're not trying to tell people what they should think or how they should feel about this," curator Belinda Crerar told AFP, saying she wanted the exhibition to start a conversation.

One section on "compassionate" figures such as the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, notes that reverence for such female divinities "in many societies has not translated into a higher status for women themselves".

"This is the big question" raised by the exhibition, Crerar said.

"It's not straightforward and there is no singular answer to it."

"I believe there is a link between spiritual ideas relating to femininity and masculinity and how... women and men are viewed, but it is culturally specific."

For a section called "Magic and Malice" about witches and demons, the museum consulted a collective of practising British witches called Children of Artemis.

"What we felt was really important to do in this section was to actually work with a group of men and women today who identify as witch or modern pagan or who practise Wicca," said project curator Lucy Dahlsen.

"Those relationships have been really important, to ensure we are looking at a living tradition in an appropriate way."



Some reactions came as a surprise.

She pointed to a Pre-Raphaelite-style painting by John William Waterhouse of Greek goddess Circe casting a spell while wearing a see-through gown over her naked body.

Many see this painting as "epitomising the male gaze and an image of a sorceress depicted as a kind of femme fatale," Dahlsen said.

But one British witch, Laura Daligan, commented that the picture was not far off.

Witches "don't always practise with clothes on – it is kind of realistic in a way," she said in a comment posted online by the museum.

The show includes a book entitled 'The Witches' Sabbath' from 1510 by the German Renaissance artist Hans Balding Grien 

What is monkeypox and should UK residents be worried?

With seven cases identified in Britain, experts are looking for the source of the infections and how it is being spread

Dr Susan Hopkins says UKHSA is ‘rapidly investigating the source … because the evidence suggests there may be transmission in the community’. 

Photograph: Hannah McKay/AFP/Getty Images


Nicola Davis 

Science correspondent
THE GUARDIAN

Tue 17 May 2022 

With the number of cases of monkeypox in the UK rising to seven, what is the situation and is it cause for concern?

What is monkeypox?

Monkeypox is a viral infection typically found in central and western Africa. A handful of cases have previously been diagnosed in the UK, with the first recorded in 2018 in an individual thought to have contracted the virus in Nigeria.

There are two forms of monkeypox, a milder west African strain and a more severe central African, or Congo strain. It is thought the recently diagnosed individuals have the west African strain.
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According to the UK Health Security Agency, early symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and chills, as well as other features such as exhaustion.

“A rash can develop, often beginning on the face, then spreading to other parts of the body, including the genitals,” the UKHSA says. “The rash changes and goes through different stages, and can look like chickenpox or syphilis, before finally forming a scab, which later falls off.”

Most patients recover from monkeypox in a few weeks.

How is it spread?

Monkeypox does not spread easily between humans, and requires close contact. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is thought that human-to-human transmission primarily occurs through large respiratory droplets.

“Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required,” the CDC says. “Other human-to-human methods of transmission include direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, and indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated clothing or linens.”

How many new cases are there in the UK?

The first recent case in the UK was reported on 7 May, with the patient having recently travelled to Nigeria. A week later a further two patients were reported to be receiving treatment for monkeypox in London. They lived in the same household and their infections are thought to be unconnected to the previous case.

On Monday another four cases of monkeypox were reported, three in London and one in the north-east of England. These four cases do not appear to be linked to any of the previous ones, and all those involved are thought to have been infected in London. All four of these cases are in men who self-identify as gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it was now coordinating with UK and other European health officials.

Does this mean monkeypox is sexually transmitted?

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, says the latest cases may be the first time transmission of monkeypox though sexual contact has been documented, but this has not been confirmed, and in any case it is probably close contact that matters.

“There is no evidence that it is a sexually transmitted virus, such as HIV,” Head says. “It’s more that here the close contact during sexual or intimate activity, including prolonged skin-to-skin contact, may be the key factor during transmission.”

The UKHSA is advising gay and bisexual men, as well as other communities of men who have sex with men, to look out for unusual rashes or lesions on any part of their body, in particular their genitalia. “Anyone with concerns that they could be infected with monkeypox is advised to make contact with clinics ahead of their visit,” the UKHSA says.

How concerned should we be?

At present, the answer seems to be not very. Experts have suggested it is unlikely there will be a large outbreak, although it is important contacts of those infected are identified.

Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at UKHSA, calls the situation “rare and unusual” but adds: “UKHSA is rapidly investigating the source of these infections because the evidence suggests that there may be transmission of the monkeypox virus in the community, spread by close contact.”

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY ANTI VAX POSTER 1953