WAR IS RAPE

Sudanese paramilitaries accused of widespread sexual violence

sudanese paramilitaries accused of widespread sexual violence

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias, at war with the army, of committing widespread sexual violence against women in southern Sudan.

It is the latest such report by international monitors alleging sexual violence during Sudan’s 20-month war which has led to what the United States called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Conquering the clouds on a journey to Ta Xua with the team - Road Trip Vietnam Team - Nếm TV

In its new report, HRW said it had documented dozens of cases since September 2023 involving women and girls aged between seven and 50 who were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, in South Kordofan state.


The latest details follow a separate report last week from the New York-based watchdog which more broadly accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out numerous abuses, mainly against ethnic Nuba civilians, in South Kordofan state from December 2023 to March 2024.

These attacks, it said, “had not been widely reported” and constituted “war crimes”.

In October, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said both sides have committed abuses including torture and sexual violence.

But it accused the paramilitaries, in particular, of “sexual violence on a large scale”, including “gang rapes and abducting and detaining victims in conditions that amount to sexual slavery”.

“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission.

The RSF dismissed the UN findings as “social media propaganda”.

Speaking to reporters in Nairobi last month, RSF member Mohamad Mokhtar said the paramilitaries documented only one rape in areas under their control, adding that they had carried out “medical checks” on women to verify rape allegations.

The conflict, which erupted in mid-April 2023, has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, internally displaced more than eight million, according to the UN, and forced more than three million others to seek safety in neighbouring countries.

Human Rights Watch accuses Sudan’s RSF of rape, sexual slavery

December 16, 2024 
By Mohammed Yusuf
VOA

 Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, secure the area in the East Nile province, Sudan

Nairobi, Kenya —

Human Rights Watch has accused Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militias of rape and other acts of sexual violence against women and girls in South Kordofan state. The rights group says the sexual violence constitutes war crimes, and that it underscores the urgent need for international action to protect Sudanese civilians and deliver justice to the victims.

Human Rights Watch says representatives met with raped or sexually abused women in Sudan’s South Kordofan state during their visit this past October.

The women, from the Nuba minority ethnic group, said they were violated and exploited by members of Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militias.

The RSF was not available to respond to the allegations against its fighters.

Belkis Wille is an associate director in the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch.

"In this new report of Human Rights Watch, we have included details that we gathered into the cases of 79 women and girls who were raped by the RSF, including girls as young as seven years old. And indeed we also documented the case of a group of 51 women and girls who were taken by the RSF and held on a military base and used as sex slaves for months," she said.

The survivors and witnesses told investigators that they had been gang-raped since December 2023, and some of the victims were still missing.

Sudan's RSF, allies sexually abused victims from 8-75 years, UN mission says

Local and international rights groups have documented many alleged human rights violations by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces since the sides went to war in April 2023, battling for power and control of the country.

Hala al-Karib is the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa. She said RSF is known to use sexual violence against communities to drive them out of their homes.

"Most of the communities and families who are forced to leave their homes in Sudan, in Khartoum, in Al Gezira and other territories under the control of the RSF. People left because of sexual violence, so it’s used as a land grabbing tool, it’s used to break communities’ capacity to resist and its used also to control communities and to spread fear," she said.

Hanan Idriss, a 22-year-old mother of two, speaks in the border town of Adre, Chad, Nov. 14, 2023. Idriss said RSF and Arab militiamen attacked her house in Ardamata, West Darfur, and tried to sexually assault her and her sister.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant in 2009 against former President Omar al-Bashir and some commanders of militia groups on allegations of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.

Experts say the failure to hand over Bashir, who was ousted in 2019 and is now being held at a military hospital on the outskirts of Khartoum, is one factor that is fueling the conflict in Sudan.

Al-Karib said despite victims of past abuses not receiving justice, people will refuse to accept any solution that does not address the abuse and violations against them.

"Demands for justice should never be silenced. This time, it should be an integral part of any political process because the grievances and the pain communities are having is way too much, and I don't think they are going to accept a political process that will conclude without justice arrangements," she said.

Wille of HRW said survivors and victims of sexual violence need justice and protection.

"It's really important, first and foremost, for the RSF to take action against these abuses. That means investigating their own forces for carrying out incidents of rape. It means immediately releasing any women and girls who are still being held and ensuring that this kind of act doesn't continue. But we do need to see leadership from other actors as well. The U.N. Security Council and the African Union could do far more, for example, creating this mission with a mandate to protect civilians that could be sent into Sudan," she said.

As the violence and suffering of Sudanese civilians continued, in September, Sudan's military-led government rejected a U.N. plan to deploy a mission to protect civilians.

'Gisele Pelicot has put the spotlight on what rape victims go through in a trial'

Issued on: 16/12/2024 - 
Video by: Jean-Emile Jammine

The French man who has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily-sedated wife asked forgiveness from his family on Monday and hailed the courage of his now ex-spouse during his trial. FRANCE 24's Jean-Emile Jammine speaks to Sarah McGrath, CEO of Women for Women France. She says that Gisele Pelicot is the 'perfect victim, with the perfect evidence'; despite that, defense lawyers tried to chip away at her credibility 'going almost as far as accusing her of lying'.

12:34

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Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape - Frauenkultur

... Against. Our Will. Men, Women and Rape. SUSAN BROWNMILLER. Fawcett Columbine • New York. Page 5. Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If ...

PATRIARCHY IS ABUSE

Two by Twos: Inside the secretive Christian sect at the centre of a global sex abuse scandal

The sect, also known as ‘The Way’ or ‘The Truth,’ was founded in Ireland by William Irvine who railed against churches

Rebecca Boone
Monday 16 December 2024 
Independent Premium

open image in galleryPhotographs from annual ‘Two by Twos’ sect conventions sit on a table at a library (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Nearly every detail about the religious group Lisa Webb’s family belonged to was hidden from the outside world. Its followers met in homes rather than churches. Its leadership structure was hard to discern, its finances opaque. It didn’t even have an official name.

But for decades, no secret was as closely guarded as the identities of the sexual predators inside the group known as the “Two by Twos.”

Now a growing number of public allegations from around the world have prompted a broad investigation by the FBI and placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the long-quiet Christian sect. Survivors say the group's leaders protected child-abusing ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, ignoring legal reporting requirements and by transferring abusers to new locations to live with unsuspecting families.

Ministry leaders have publicly condemned the abuse but several declined to answer questions from The Associated Press.

For Webb, who was sexually abused by one of the group's ministers as a child, the attention has brought an unexpected sense of “strength in numbers.”


open image in galleryPam Walton flips through an album containing photographs of ‘Two by Twos’ members and ministers (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“There are so many who are frustrated and disheartened," said Webb. "But there's also camaraderie in that, and support.”

A website, a hotline and social media pages established by victims have documented allegations against more than 900 abusers, with survivors in more than 30 countries and cases continuing to emerge. In the past year, news stories and a Hulu documentary have focused on the sect’s predator preachers and the leaders who enabled them.

While perpetrators have been sentenced to prison in isolated cases, the sect has largely avoided legal repercussions, protected by its decentralized structure, hidden finances and state laws that limit the timeline for criminal charges.


open image in galleryLisa Webb poses for a photo, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Woodstock (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The sect, also known to its members as “The Way” or “The Truth,” was founded in Ireland in 1897 by William Irvine, who railed against the existence of churches. The only way to spread Christianity, he argued, was to do as Jesus instructed in the Book of Matthew: to send apostles out to live among those they sought to convert.


The sect grew as volunteer preachers — known as workers — went “two by two” to live in the family homes of followers for days or weeks at a time. Sect historians say there were up to a few million members just a few decades ago, but current estimates put the figure at 75,000 to 85,000 worldwide.


open image in galleryPam Walton, a former ‘Two by Twos’ sect member who helps track movements of allegedly predatory members through photographs and documents, holds a photograph of a deceased spiritual leader of the sect at a library Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Wailea, Hawaii (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Unlike the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, which have paid out billions to sex abuse victims, the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without apparent assets that might be used to pay settlements, legal experts say.

Workers are supposed to shun worldly possessions, relying on followers for food, shelter and transportation. But that also ensures abusive workers have access to potential victims.

Webb was abused by a preacher who stayed with her family in Michigan when she was 11. The man, Peter Mousseau, was convicted much later — after he expressed an interest in visiting her in 2008 and she decided to pursue charges. A regional overseer to whom she previously reported the abuse was later convicted for failing to report abuse allegations against another local worker.

“You have this mindset that they are angels in your home. They can do no wrong, so you don’t have any kind of wall up,” she said. “It was just the perfect storm created, the perfect recipe for this kind of behavior.”


open image in gallerySheri Autrey poses for a photo at her home in Cumby, Texa (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Sheri Autrey had just turned 14 when a 28-year-old worker moved into her family's home in Visalia, California, for two months.

He began abusing her immediately, sneaking to her room at night and taking her for daytime drives. He turned up the radio whenever the Hall & Oates song “Maneater” came on, singing: “Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.”

When Autrey revealed the abuse to her mother a few years later, her mom reported it to the sect's regional overseer, who was in charge of all the workers in the area.

The overseer refused to warn other families. Instead, he sent the worker back to Autrey’s home to apologize.

Autrey, raised to be meek, erupted. Her family took her to the district attorney’s office but declined to put her through a prosecution.

“I would have to explain, explicitly, what happened,” Autrey said. "And I was in no way prepared for that.”

Decades later, Autrey was at a baseball game when “Maneater” came on. She had to walk around the stadium to calm herself down, and she resolved to send a letter about the abuse to hundreds of sect members.

“I wanted anyone else who was a victim to know she is not the only one,” Autrey said. “She needs to know there is help.”


open image in galleryPam Walton holds a photograph of ‘Two by Twos’ ministers, also referred to as ‘workers’ (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

One worker from Peru, Americo Quispe, was sent to Garland, Texas, in the early 2000s after facing allegations of inappropriate behavior in his home country. He soon found new victims, some of whose families went to police. He returned to Peru before he could be arrested.

Quispe was later convicted of molestation in Peru and sentenced to 30 years. He has never faced the charges in Texas.

Another worker, Ruben Mata, abused dozens of boys, among them 10-year-old Douglas Patterson, who was lured away from his family during a sect convention in the early 1990s. Patterson said he kept quiet about it because he feared his family would leave the sect — and thus be barred from eternal salvation — if he told.

Mata was eventually convicted in 2006 in a separate sex abuse case. He died in a California prison.


yPam Walton, a former ‘Two by Twos’ sect member who helps track movements of allegedly predatory spiritual leaders (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A few months before Mata’s trial, the Saskatchewan, Canada, overseer, Dale Shultz, sent two letters to colleagues.

One was to be shown to any concerned members. It acknowledged Mata was a pedophile and that workers had been alerted to his abuse at least three times. The sect only notified authorities after Mata resigned, according to the letter.

The second was for staff. It said no copies should be made of the first letter.

“The purpose of the letter is to help those who have concerns, not to advertise a kingdom problem to those who either do not know about it or are not having a problem with it,” Shultz wrote.

In another case, a regional overseer for Arizona, Ed Alexander, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder in 2005 observing that “we love our people very much and don’t want to report their misdeeds.”

The letter suggested the sect could fulfill its mandatory abuse-reporting obligations by recommending offenders get professional counseling, because then the counselors — rather than sect leaders — would be obligated to make the reports to police.

“They believe that child sexual assault is just a sin. Like, you’re a sinner, they are a sinner, it’s all just sin,” said Eileen Dickey, one of the man's victims. She reported the abuse to sect leaders because she was worried other children would be targeted.

“I was told never to talk about it," she said.

Alexander would not speak with The Associated Press: “Unfortunately, the media coverage has been so negative and one-sided that I am going to have to decline an interview,” he texted.


open image in galleryPam Walton leaves a library with her container (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Jared Snyder spent more than two decades as an itinerant minister before becoming disillusioned and quitting. No one told him directly about abuse, Snyder said, but he occasionally heard rumors.

The sect's culture — which makes gossip taboo and places tremendous pressure on members to be merciful — meant that misdeeds big or small were downplayed, he said.

“One overseer just explicitly told me, ‘The less you know, the better off you are,’” he said.

As a worker, Snyder received no paychecks, retirement benefits or health insurance benefits, and he was discouraged from using banks. But he was never without spending money: Followers regularly offer cash to the workers, and Snyder said he frequently had thousands of dollars in his pockets.

Most of that money would get spent on building materials, food or other supplies at regional conventions, Snyder said.

In June 2022, a regional overseer named Dean Bruer died in an Oregon motel room. Bruer, 67, had served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries since 1976, according to a timeline compiled by Pam Walton, a former member who has used historical records and photographs to track the movements of predatory preachers.

Nine months after Bruer died, Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, wrote a letter to members. Evidence left on Bruer’s phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused multiple underage victims, Smith wrote.

“Dean was a sexual predator,” Smith wrote. “We never respect or defend such totally inappropriate behavior among us. There is a very united consensus among us that the only thing to do is to be transparent with all of you for obvious reasons, though this is very difficult.”

That transparency did not extend to dealings with local police. It was only after Autrey, another abuse survivor, and private investigator Cynthia Liles — all former sect members — pressured Smith that he turned Bruer’s laptop over to detectives, Autrey told the AP.

By then, the computer had been tampered with, according to records from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon. The web browser search history was cleared. Bruer’s Apple ID had been changed and files transferred out of his DropBox account. Bruer’s phone was never provided to police, and the “Find My iPhone” feature had been disabled.

“What web browsing history was present on the laptop that someone didn’t want anyone else knowing about?” Detective Jeffrey Burlew wrote in a police report. Unable to find any evidence of a crime within its jurisdiction, the office closed the investigation.

Smith did not respond to phone messages from the AP.


open image in galleryPam Walton shows lists of the ‘Two by Twos’ workers who attended some of the sect’s annual meetings from 1992 to 2003 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Though Autrey and others had long sought reforms in the sect, Bruer's death proved to be a catalyst. Autrey, Liles and another survivor launched a hotline, website and Facebook pages for survivors.

In February, the FBI's field office in Omaha, Nebraska, announced an investigation.

The outcry prompted some sect leaders to condemn the abuse and to ask consultants for advice on how to better protect members. But at least some regional overseers have ultimately declined to adopt recommended child abuse prevention policies — saying the only true code of conduct is the New Testament.

And some leaders still warn members against criticizing the sect.

At an August convention in Duncan, British Columbia, a worker helping to lead the event did not mention the abuse scandal directly but told members to lay aside “evil speakings.”

“It’s more easy to be critical than to be correct,” preached Robert Doecke, a worker from Australia. “If you feed on problems, it will only make more problems. But if you focus on the Lord, it will lead to solutions."

Indiana set to execute first inmate in 15 years - a man who killed his brother who wanted him out of his home

Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on Indiana’s death row since 1999

Andrea Cavallier
Monday 16 December 2024 
Independent


Joseph Corcoran is pictured in 1999 just after being sentenced to death in the slayings of four people in July 1997. Now, at age 49, he’ll be Indiana’s first execution in 15 years (AP)

For the first time in 15 years, Indiana will execute a death row inmate – a man who was convicted a quarter-century ago of killing his brother and three other men.

Joseph Corcoran, now 49, has been on Indiana’s death row since 1999 and is set to be executed before sunrise Wednesday, December 18, at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

If the execution goes ahead as planned, it’ll be the state’s first since 2009. In that time, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison.


On July 26, 1997, Corcoran shot and killed his 30-year-old brother, James Corcoran, and three other men: Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Robert Scott Turner, 32.

Corcoran, who was 22 years old at the time of the killings, allegedly woke up and heard the men talking about him, so in the heat of the moment, he grabbed his rifle and shot all four of them.

He was reportedly under stress because his sister was set to marry Turner, which would lead to him having to move out of the house, according to court records.


open image in galleryThis undated photo provided by the Indiana Department of Corrections, shows Joseph Corcoran, who is scheduled to be executed before sunrise on December 18, 2024 (Indiana Department of Corrections via AP)

While Corcoran was serving time for the murders, he also reportedly bragged about killing his parents in 1992. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.


Attorneys for Corcoran, who exhausted his federal appeals in 2016, asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but were denied. He then wrote an affidavit to the justices: “I am guilty of the crime I was convicted of, and accept the findings of all the appellate courts.”

Last week, his attorneys filed a petition in the US District Court of Northern Indiana asking the court to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness.

They argued he has “severe and long standing paranoid schizophrenia” and his condition “manifests as auditory hallucinations and delusions that prison guards are torturing him with an ultrasound machine.”

“Indeed, he has volunteered to be executed, and is eager to be executed, because he believes his execution will give him relief from the perceived pain his delusions and hallucinations inflict upon him,” according to the filing.

But on Friday, the federal district court declined to intervene, prompting defense attorneys to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

The only people allowed to be present at the execution are the prison warden, those selected to assist in the execution, the prison physician, one additional physician, the condemned person’s spiritual adviser and the prison chaplain, according to Indiana code.

News media will not be allowed as Indiana is one of only two states, along with Wyoming, that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Corcoran’s sister, Kelly Ernst, told the Associated Press that she is against the death penalty and that her brother’s execution won’t solve or change anything.

Ernst, who lost a brother and her fiancé in the killings, declined to say whether she believes Corcoran killed their parents. She has only recently been back in touch with Corcoran, but said she believes it’s “fairly obvious” he has a serious mental illness. She does not plan to attend his execution.

“I kind of just feel that there’s no such thing as closure,” Ernst added. She does not plan to attend his execution. “I just don’t know what else to say. I haven’t slept in weeks.”

Trump is threatening the press. We should take him seriously — and literally.

Peter Kafka, Chief Correspondent covering media and technology

Dec 16, 2024,
BUSINESS INSIDER

 

Donald Trump has always threatened the press. Those threats seem to have more weight now. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Donald Trump said he's planning on suing a newspaper over an election poll he didn't like.

It's in keeping with a flurry of recent threats — and suits — Trump has filed against the media.

That can create a landscape where publishers will have to be extra careful about what they say.

A pretty good journalism rule of thumb: Someone threatening to sue someone isn't news.


Literally anyone can say they're going to sue someone, for any reason. But many people who say they're going to sue someone don't follow through. So, the argument goes, you should wait until they actually file a suit, for real, to report on it.

Then there's Donald Trump. He also threatens to sue people — and the press specifically — all the time. But sometimes, he goes ahead with the threat. He's also going to be the most powerful person in the world, again, starting next month.

So. When Trump announces that he's going to sue journalists and news organizations — like he did Monday, when he suggested he would sue pollster Ann Selzer, or The Des Moines Register, or both, for publishing a poll that showed him losing Iowa in the 2024 election — should we take him seriously?



I think so.

That's in part because Trump, who has a long career of threatening media organizations, seems to be ramping up his legal energy. Over the weekend, he extracted a $15 million settlement from ABC News over a George Stephanopoulos interview from March that Trump said was defamatory. He's also filed a suit against CBS over the way its "60 Minutes" program handled an interview with Kamala Harris, claiming the network is guilty of election interference.

Plenty of legal experts think Trump has no chance of defeating CBS in court — "The First Amendment was drafted to protect the press from just such litigation," attorney Floyd Abrams told CNN this fall. But that same cohort didn't think much of Trump's chances against ABC.

Just as important: The threats Trump is making— along with those made by others in his circle, like Kash Patel, Trump's nominee to run the FBI, who has promised to "come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections" — seem to be a strategy.

As The New York Times's David Enrich notes, those suits and threatened suits seem like the "latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage."

It's true that the First Amendment makes it hard to win suits against journalists, and everyone else in the United States, over what they say or write. Even more so when the person filing the suit is a public figure. And Donald Trump may be the most public figure there is.

But fighting lawsuits — even those without much chance of winning — can be very costly. (For its part, The Des Moines Register's parent company has said a lawsuit would be without merit.) And while it's possible for publishers who win suits Trump files against them to charge him for their legal fees — like The New York Times successfully did this year — you still have to have the money, and willpower, for the fight.

Perhaps just as important: It's one thing to fight Donald Trump in court when he's a private citizen. It's quite another when he's the president of the United States and can make life difficult for you or your company regardless of what happens in the courtroom.

All of which is something you now have to think about if you're in the business of journalism. Not just when Trump, or someone in his circle, complains about your reporting — but before you publish or air it. That seems to be what Trump would like.

So yeah. That's a story.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

UnitedHealth Group agrees to $69 million settlement over low-performing retirement plan options

a judge in Minneapolis ruled earlier this year that a jury could conclude, based on evidence discovered during the case, that the company had been caught with its “hand in the cookie jar.”

Christopher Snowbeck, Star TribuneThe Minneapolis Star Tribune

UnitedHealth Group agreed to pay $69 million to settle a class action lawsuit from an employee who alleged the health care giant offered its employees lower-performing 401(k) options than it could have, costing workers hundreds of millions in lost investment profits.

The litigation alleged interference by the company’s CFO to retain certain Wells Fargo funds within the 401(k) plan because the bank was a large customer for UnitedHealth Group, including for coverage sold by its large UnitedHealthcare health insurance business.

News of the settlement between UnitedHealth and the plaintiffs came after a judge in Minneapolis ruled earlier this year that a jury could conclude, based on evidence discovered during the case, that the company had been caught with its “hand in the cookie jar.”

Lead plaintiff Kim Snyder filed the case more than three and a half years from ago. Class certification was granted by the judge, and Snyder’s attorneys say the class could include more than 300,000 people.

“Over the course of three and a half years of litigation, plaintiff Kim Snyder ... bore the particular burden of being the only class representative in the action,” Charles Field, an attorney with Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Ms. Snyder’s commitment to this case was the means of obtaining an outstanding outcome for the plan and the class.”

Snyder was not available for comment.

UnitedHealth Group said in a statement that the company’s 401(k) plan fiduciaries have always acted in the best interest of those using the plan to save for retirement.

“We strongly deny any allegations to the contrary,” UnitedHealth Group said. “If approved by the court, this settlement will enable all parties to put this matter behind them and move forward.”

In March, Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota denied most of UnitedHealth Group’s motion for summary judgment in the case, which named the company, chief financial officer John Rex and former CEO David Wichmann as defendants.

“Because a reasonable trier of fact could easily find that plaintiff Kim Snyder caught defendant UnitedHealth Group, Inc., with its hand in the cookie jar, the court will substantially deny United’s motion for summary judgment,” Tunheim wrote in his decision, which set the stage for a court trial.

Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bank in 2021 sold its asset management business, which ran the retirement funds at issue in the case.

The settlement remains subject to review and approval by Tunheim. A hearing date for court approval has not yet been set.

“Plaintiff seeks preliminary approval of a proposed settlement that provides substantial relief to a class of over 300,000 current and former participants in the UnitedHealth Group 401(k) Savings Plan,” attorneys for Snyder wrote in a memo filed with the court Friday.

UnitedHealth Group’s 401(k) included more than 200,000 current and former employees, according to court documents, with about $15 billion under management.

In 2010, the company added the Wells Fargo target fund suite as an option in the employee retirement savings plan. These funds, which are popular with investors, are tailored for different groups based on retirement date; they rebalance assets over time to focus less on growth as investors near retirement age.

Snyder sued in 2021. Her complaint alleged the Wells Fargo funds were retained as the default option for investors, despite their poor performance, in part because UnitedHealth wanted to protect its business relationship with the big bank.

In his March ruling, Tunheim highlighted evidence showing Chief Financial Officer John Rex requested the production of “balance of trade” ledgers to show UnitedHealth Group’s business with Wells Fargo versus alternate investment firms that could be selected.

On one side of the ledger, the judge wrote, UnitedHealth generated between $50 million and $60 million in revenue over four years as health insurance provider for Wells Fargo. On the other side, Wells provided substantial banking services to UnitedHealth, which was the bank’s “largest client and lifeline” in the market for target-date funds, the judge wrote.

Among other things, these comparisons showed that UnitedHealth’s most profitable relationship was with Wells Fargo.

The judge also cited a January 2018 email from a Wells Fargo employee stating Rex complained about UnitedHealth losing its bid to keep a health insurance contract with the bank. According to this email, Rex told the bank employee that he had “stepped in front of a freight train” the previous summer to preserve the investment business for Wells Fargo.

“Rex’s request for balance of trade ledgers and his statement to Wells Fargo about jumping in front of a freight train, to name two instances, show the injection of business interests into the plan selection process,” Tunheim wrote. The judge noted a debate between the parties about whether the email statement was hearsay, and therefore not admissible, but wrote: “The loyalty issue is not a particularly close call, and the court would deny summary judgment even absent the email.”

UnitedHealth Group argued the Wells Fargo funds outperformed peers when accounting for an investment approach that traded lower risks for lower rewards. Plaintiffs countered other funds would have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in additional investment profits — and that UnitedHealth short-circuited an internal effort to change vendors.

In October 2014, an outside consultant recommended UnitedHealth evaluate other options and an internal investment committee two years later considered proposals from six candidates and ranked Wells Fargo at the bottom. Yet UnitedHealth ultimately decided in June 2017 to retain the Wells Fargo funds.

The company defended the decision by noting a leadership change in the bank’s asset management business plus its strong position for negotiating a lower price from Wells Fargo. Plaintiffs said a prudent fiduciary would have moved much faster to make a change; they also highlighted how Rex was appointed to the investment committee evaluating options.

“Consideration of United’s relationship with Wells did not end with Rex,” Tunheim wrote in March. “Rather, the committee received word that United executives, including its president David Wichmann, needed to be preemptively informed which companies would be selected as finalists. A committee member later warned of escalation to executives, including Wichmann, if Wells was not selected.”

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

WORKERS CAPITAL

Beijing Pivots Towards Private Pensions

China expanded its two-year-old private pension project this week in an attempt to reduce financial strain on the current state pension system from the rapidly aging population.

A group of elderly pensioners outside on a bench. AFP
Blog Post by Carl Minzner

December 16, 2024 

As China’s rapidly aging population creates increasing financial strains on state pension systems, Beijing is pushing Chinese citizens to plan for their own retirements.

On December 15, Chinese authorities launched a national expansion of their two-year old pilot private pension pilot project. According to the state circular issued jointly by tax, finance, and human resource bureaus, citizens participating in either of the two primary state retirement systems are authorized to open private pension accounts. Existing tax incentives under the 2022 pilot project, authorizing citizens to take pre-tax deductions of 12,000 RMB (US 1,670), are to be applied nationwide in order to encourage citizens to save for their own retirements. Local authorities are encouraged to add additional financial products – particularly government bonds – to the range of investments that citizens can hold in their private pension accounts.

This move reflects an effort by Beijing to build out private pensions in the face of the increasing financial stresses that China’s rapidly aging society is placing on the public pension system. Over the past decade, Chinese authorities and scholars have regularly warned that existing retirement ages for public pensions - 50 (for blue-collar women), 55 (for white-collar women), and 60 (for men) were unsustainable given 21st century demographic realities (with lifespans approach 80 years old). In September, Chinese authorities announced that as of 2025 those ages will begin to steadily rise over the next 15 years - to 55, 58, and 63 - respectively.

It is unclear how effective China’s experiment with private pensions will be. As the scholar Mark Frazier has noted, China’s ongoing experiments with pension reform reflect a neoliberal authoritarian social policy that involves outsourcing state pension promises – first (in the early 2000s) from state-owned firms to local governments, and now (in the 2020s) from state authorities to the market (and individuals themselves). But Chinese citizens have been reluctant to embrace private pension accounts. As of summer 2024, while 60 million citizens had opened such accounts under the pilot project, only a fifth had actually made contributions.

Sudan conflict ups pressure on South Sudan to aid amputees, others with disabilities

December 16, 2024 
By Sheila Ponnie

VOA

A patient enters the men's dormitory of the Physical Rehabilitation Reference Centre in Juba, South Sudan

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN —

South Sudan is grappling with an influx of people living with disabilities as victims of ongoing conflicts in neighboring countries, such as Sudan, come in search of devices like artificial limbs. This surge puts immense pressure on South Sudan, a nation with just three specialized orthopedic centers.

At 9 years old, Ladu Jackson had to learn to walk with elbow crutches after a road accident forced doctors to amputate his left leg.

The incident initially turned Jackson’s life upside down, leaving him unable to engage in his favorite childhood activity, football.

Today, Jackson, now 23 years old, is one of South Sudan’s most recognizable amputee footballers, using the crutches to move while he kicks the ball with his remaining leg.

“In 2021, I started learning how to play football with one limb,” he said. ‘I didn’t know there was something called amputee football. I was just thinking, ‘I wish my leg was not amputated’ because I loved playing football so much.”

Jackson received support at the Physical Rehabilitation Reference Centre in Juba, established in 2009, two years before the country gained independence.

The center, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is not only helping South Sudanese like Jackson but also aiding refugees fleeing civil war in Sudan.

A worker prepares a prosthesis inside the manufacturing workshop of the Physical Rehabilitation Reference Centre in Juba, South Sudan

“Of course, there are already clients with these conditions, but their numbers keep getting bigger because of conflicts and more road accidents,” said Uwar Bosco, head of the Juba-based prosthetic and orthotic center.

One such client is Adam Ahamed Mohamed, a refugee from Sudan who received his first prosthetic leg at the center. He fled to South Sudan after his entire family was displaced from their home in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Mohamed said he was shot in both legs. One leg was amputated at the Juba Teaching and Referral Hospital before he was taken to the Rehabilitation Reference Center, where he got a prosthetic leg.

The growing influx of refugees has placed immense strain on South Sudan’s fragile health care system, still recovering from its own civil war.

James Ochan, a disability inclusion adviser, said the center is coping with a rising tide of patients.

“So far, the data we’ve registered this year — from January to October — is 2,549,” he said. “We’ve not yet recorded the data for November.”

Ochan attributes the increase to neighboring Sudan's civil war, which has intensified over the past year.

“This year, we’ve seen a lot of influx from the crisis in Sudan. We have a team doing response at all the entry points from Sudan to South Sudan,” he said.

South Sudan ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Feb. 21, 2023. The convention ensures equal rights for individuals with disabilities and supports societal reintegration for people like Jackson and Mohamed.

Ochan said that beyond providing prosthetics, the center helps individuals rebuild their lives and reintegrate into society.

“After rehabilitation and fitting with devices, they need to go back home or into society to start anew. After such incidents, some may feel they’re no longer part of society,” he said.

The center also promotes sports and economic activities for persons living with disabilities, helping them regain a sense of normalcy.

“We are supporting sporting activities like wheelchair basketball and amputee football,” Ochan said. “This is fully supported by the ICRC. We also have microeconomic initiatives to help persons with disabilities start businesses and become productive citizens.”

South Sudan is in the process of enacting a disability act, which Ochan believes will further cement the rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities.

Sources: Junta representatives, leaders of rebel group in talks in China

Negotiations between the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the military began on Sunday in Kunming.

By RFA Burmese

2024.12.16

Myanmar’s junta chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, left, and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army leader Peng Daxun, right. (AP Photo/The KoKang)

Representatives of the military junta and leaders of an insurgent army have been holding talks in China’s Yunnan province as Beijing leans on both sides to find a resolution to Myanmar’s civil war, sources close to the junta and the ethnic armed group told Radio Free Asia.

The negotiations in Kunming began Sunday, according to the sources who requested anonymity for security reasons. Neither the junta nor the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, have made any statements on the talks.

Lieutenant Gen. Ko Ko Oo represented the junta, along with a brigadier general and office staff, a junta source told RFA.

The talks come more than a month after junta leader Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Kunming to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a regional summit. The Nov. 6 trip marked the junta chief’s first trip to China since Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat.

In August, the MNDAA captured Lashio, northern Shan state’s biggest city and the location of the junta’s northeast military command. Since then, Beijing has pressured the rebel army to withdraw from the city, an important commercial gateway near the Chinese border.

Over the last year, the MNDAA has also seized control of more than a half dozen towns in the area that serve as significant border trading hubs.

In October, the group’s leader, Peng Daxun, traveled to Yunnan for medical treatment and to meet with Deng Xijun, China’s special envoy for Asian Affairs.

Sources close to the MNDAA told RFA last month that he was prevented from returning to Myanmar after the meeting as a way of pressuring the group to withdraw its troops from Lashio.

A source close to the junta regime told RFA that Peng was being held at a hotel in Yunnan that’s owned by his father. China’s foreign ministry denied that he was under house arrest.

The MNDAA, which has been fighting for autonomy since before the 2021 coup, declared a cease fire on Dec. 3 and announced that it would send a high-level delegation for talks with the junta. Peng’s status or location wasn’t mentioned in the announcement.

Aim to reopen trade crossings

Discussions will likely focus on continuing the ceasefire and the reopening of border trade gates, political analyst Phoe Wa said.

“Pressure for either side to withdraw from their territories will not be accepted,” he said. “Instead, both sides are likely to reinforce their commitments to their current stronghold positions. The minimum possible agreement could involve easing the trade ban.”

The junta could request the release of soldiers captured by the MNDAA during the fight for Lashio, a former military officer and political analyst told RFA.

“The rebels have detained a significant number of junta troops, which poses a heavy burden for them,” the analyst said. “Given their limited territory and budget, providing adequate food for the prisoners of war is challenging.”

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Political analyst Than Soe Naing said the junta may also ask that it be allowed to dispatch troops in towns along the Muse-Mandalay trade route, as well as in Kunlong, a border town seized by the MNDAA in November 2023.

“I believe the junta will aim to maintain control in these areas,” he told RFA. “If they can secure Kunlong, they would likely consider that sufficient. They may propose a joint administration with the local population to solidify their rule.”

RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun and a spokesperson for the MNDAA for comment but didn’t receive a response.

RFA also didn’t immediately receive a reply to an emailed request for comment sent to the Chinese embassy in Myanmar on Monday.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

How Myanmar’s junta is suppressing data about a hunger crisis

 | REUTERS