SOME Scientists can't find the G-spot either!

SOME  Doctors say there's no evidence the elusive zone actually exists

SOME Doctors say there's no proof of a region that could create powerful orgasms 

TELL THAT TO PORN STAR CYTHEREA 

The erogenous zone was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg

Medics from Istanbul said evidence for its presence was ‘scant, insufficient and weak’ 

WHAT IS SCANT INSUFFICIENT AND WEAK IS THEIR RESEARCH ON ONLY 17 WOMEN 

By STEPHEN ADAMS MEDICAL EDITOR FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 27 June 2020

It has proved frustratingly elusive for more than 70 years, but scientists say they have finally worked out why men can’t find the ‘G-spot’ – it isn’t there.

Doctors say there’s no proof women have a small, super-sensitive region that could create particularly powerful orgasms when aroused.

The erogenous zone was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg, who first suggested the existence of a dense network of nerve endings in the 1950s. But a new study of 17 middle-aged women has found no evidence of such a spot, but ‘a fairly even distribution’ of nerves instead.

SOME Doctors say there’s no proof women have a small, super-sensitive region that could create particularly powerful orgasms when aroused (file photo

Writing in the International Urogynaecology Journal, a team of medics from Istanbul said the ‘anatomical evidence for the presence of the G spot’ was ‘scant, insufficient and weak’.

lthough Dr Gräfenberg – who also invented the IUD coil contraceptive – suggested the existence of the zone, he was too modest to name it after himself.

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The expression was coined by American sexologists in the 1980s and quickly gained popularity – as well as spawning a new way of marketing sex toys and treatments.

Even though it had been discussed for decades, the first evidence for the existence of the G-spot came just eight years ago, following the examination of a single 83-year-old woman. The man who published that discovery subsequently invented a procedure dubbed a ‘G-spotplasty’ intended to increase sexual satisfaction, despite scepticism from some colleagues.

The erogenous zone was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg, who first suggested the existence of a dense network of nerve endings in the 1950s

Although G-spot therapies have become a multi-million dollar business, Devan Stahl, from Michigan State University, has said there is ‘virtually no evidence that these therapies work outside a placebo effect’.

And those who believe the G-spot is a myth say the notion makes women feel needlessly insecure. A survey for Cosmopolitan magazine found half of women feel inadequate or frustrated feeling others can orgasm in a way they can’t.

It also found that 22 per cent of men said finding the woman’s G-spot is the number one goal of sex.

Since the 2012 report, several other studies have failed to produce conclusive evidence a single G-spot exists.

Barry Komisaruk from Rutgers University in New Jersey, who led one study, said: ‘It’s not like pushing an elevator button or a light switch. It’s not a single thing.’

Australia and New Zealand to jointly host Women’s Fifa World Cup 2023
 TPE admin June 26, 2020


Australia and New Zealand will host the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Fifa has announced.

The joint bid got the nod ahead of Colombia, which was the only other rival in the running after Brazil and Japan dropped out of the race earlier in June.

The 2023 version will be the first in the women’s game to feature 32 sides – up from the current 24.

The competition is scheduled to take place from July to August 2023.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino said: “The bidding process was highly competitive. We would like to thank both of the bidders for their remarkable work. It was really, really well prepared.”

The Australia and New Zealand bid received 22 of the 35 votes cast by the Fifa Council members, with Colombia getting 13 votes. Football Association chairman Greg Clarke voted for Colombia as did the other eight Uefa members.

Infantino said he was “surprised” by Uefa members voting for Colombia, despite the lower score in Fifa’s technical evaluation of each bid. Colombia received a score of 2.8 out of 5.0, while Australia and New Zealand was marked 4.1

“These (technical bid) reports have to mean something,” said Infantino.

Uefa said its members voted for Colombia as it “represented a strategic opportunity for the development of women’s football in South America”.


Infantino also suggested the women’s tournament could be staged every two years and is keen for South America and Africa to stage it.

Infantino also announced a funding boost for the sport.

“We have decided to award $1bn (£805m) to the development of women’s football in the coming four years,” he said.

“We experienced last year in France a fantastic Women’s World Cup. It broke all records. It brought women’s football to a truly global stage.”

Joint Bid:

The joint bid from Australia and New Zealand promised “an unprecedented level of investment” in the tournament.

This will be the first World Cup hosted across two of football’s continental confederations (Australia are in the Asia confederation, while New Zealand are part of Oceania).

Chris Nikou, president of Football Federation Australia (FFA) said the forthcoming competition will be “ground-breaking”.

He added: “Not only will it be the first ever co-confederation hosted Fifa World Cup and the first ever Fifa Women’s World Cup in the Asia-Pacific region, but we will unlock the huge potential for growth in women’s football in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The president of New Zealand Football, Johanna Wood, said: “We believe we have been given a treasure, and we will look after that treasure.

“We will work towards putting women’s football even more front and centre on the world stage.”

The countries have proposed to stage matches at up to eight grounds in Australia:

-Stadium Australia, Sydney (the final), capacity: 70,000
-Sydney Football Stadium, capacity: 42,512
-Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, capacity: 30,052
-Brisbane Stadium, capacity: 52,263
-Perth Rectangular Stadium, capacity: 22,225
-Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide, capacity: 18,435
-Newcastle Stadium, capacity: 25,945
-York Park, Launceston, Tasmania, capacity: 22,065

And five stadiums in New Zealand:

-Eden Park, Auckland (opening game), capacity: 48,276
-Wellington Stadium, capacity: 39,000
-Christchurch Stadium, capacity: 22,556
-Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, capacity: 25,111
-Dunedin Stadium, capacity: 28,744

INDIA
Karnataka farmer walks 15km to repay loan amount 

of 4 cents

 TPE admin June 27, 2020


A farmer in the hilly Shimoga district of Karnataka was made to walk 15 kilometres to repay a loan amount due – a mere 3 rupee 46 paise (USD$ 0.046 or 4 cents).

Amade Lakshminarayana, an areca grower from Baruve village in the deep forests of the Western Ghats got a call from the Canara Bank branch at a nearby small town, Nittur, asking him to rush immediately to repay the loan amount.

They gave him no further details.

A panicked Lakshminarayana walked 15 kilometres to reach the bank as there is no bus services due to lockdown.

When he reached the Bank, the officials told him that his due amount was a paltry 3 rupee 46 paise. The shocked farmer immediately paid the amount to clear the loan.

According to him, he had taken Rs 35,000 agriculture loan from the bank. Out of that Rs 32,000 was waived off by the government and he had repaid remaining Rs 3,000 a few months ago.

“When the bank called me to rush urgently. I panicked. There is no bus service due to lockdown. I don’t have any vehicle, not even a bicycle. I reached the bank by foot to clear my outstanding amount of paltry Rs 3 and 46 paisa. The bank’s inhuman act has hurt me”, he said.

Local Canara Bank manager L Pingva said that auditing was underway in the branch and to renew his loan he had to clear the outstanding amount of Rs 3 and 46 paisa. They also needed his signature, he added.

This news has gone viral inviting widespread condemnation by one and all. They feel that there was no need for the bank to force him to walk 15 kilometres whatever may be the reason

Justin Trudeau takes son out for ice cream as Canada eases pandemic restrictions

 TPE admin June 25, 2020


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his son out for ice cream on Wednesday in his first family outing since Canada started easing out of its pandemic lockdown.

It was also Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec province.

Wearing masks, the Canadian leader and his six-year-old son Hadrien were cheered at Chocolats Favoris in Gatineau, Quebec.

According to a pool report, Trudeau said the shop tapped into a federal emergency wage subsidy and business loan in order to weather the pandemic, and “avoid being frozen out of the frozen treat market.”

Hadrien is said to have bounced with excitement, settling on a vanilla cone with a cookie topping while dad bought a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate for himself.

Father and son then headed out to the patio, where they doffed their masks to eat their cones.

Canada’s provinces and territories declared states of emergency mid-March, closing schools and non-essential businesses in response to the pandemic.

New record set for Earth’s longest lightning in both distance and duration

 TPE admin June 26, 2020


A single lightning flash stretched more than 700 kilometres across Brazil last year – equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington DC – has created a new world record for the longest reported distance of lightning, the UN’s weather agency has announced.

A World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) committee of experts said two new world records for the longest reported distance and the longest reported duration for a single lightning flash were set in Brazil and Argentina.

The new records for extreme lightning bursts, or ‘megaflashes’, during 2019, are more than double the size and duration of the previous record flashes.

A lightning flash that developed continuously over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019 lasted a whopping 16.73 seconds.

A second flash stretched more than 700 kilometres (400 miles) across southern Brazil on October 31 last year. This was equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington in the US, or between London and Basel in Switzerland.
The previous megaflash distance record was 321 km (199.5 miles) in June 2007 across the US state of Oklahoma, and the previous continuous duration record was 7.74 seconds, reached in August 2012 in southern France.

The new record-breaking strikes, captured by the American Geophysical Union ahead of International Lightning Safety Day on June 28, were recorded by equipment carried on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, and their orbiting counterparts from Europe and China.

The records were described by Professor Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur of Weather and Climate Extremes for WMO, as “extraordinary.”

“Environmental extremes are living measurements of what nature is capable of, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments,” he said.

“It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves.”

Cerveny said the technology could help scientists better understand the whole science of lightning, and potentially save lives: “This will provide valuable information for establishing limits to the scale of lightning – including megaflashes – for engineering, safety and scientific concerns.”

The WMO reiterated the dangers of lightning, and the many lives it claims every year. Lightning flashes have led to major loss of life.

In 1975, 21 people in Zimbabwe were killed when a single flash hit the hut in which they were sheltering, and 469 people were killed in Dronka, Egypt in 1994, when lightning tragically struck a set of oil tanks, causing burning oil to flood the town.
The official advice from the agency is to follow the 30-30 rule: if the time between flash and thunder is less than 30 seconds, stay inside, and wait 30 minutes after the last observed flash, to resume outdoor activities.

Just yesterday thunderstorms and lightning killed over 110 people in India’s Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Egyptian belly-dancer sentenced to 3 years in jail for spreading indecency on TikTok
TPE admin
June 29, 2020


An Egyptian belly-dancer, Sama el-Masry, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,500) on Saturday for inciting debauchery and immorality as part of a crackdown on social media postings.

El-Masry was arrested in April during an investigation into videos and photos on social media, including the popular video-sharing platform TikTok, that the public prosecution described as sexually suggestive.

The dancer, 42, denied the accusations, saying the content was stolen and shared from her phone without consent.

Cairo’s Misdemeanours Economic Court on Saturday said she had violated family principles and values ​​in Egypt as well as establishing, managing and using sites and accounts on social media with the aim of committing “immorality”.

“There is a huge difference between freedom and debauchery,” said John Talaat, a member of parliament who asked for legal action against el-Masry and other female TikTok participants.

Talaat told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that el-Masry and the other female social media influencers were destroying family values and traditions, activities that were banned by the law and the constitution.

El-Masry said she would appeal.

Several women in Egypt have previously been accused of “inciting debauchery” by challenging the country’s conservative social norms, including actress Rania Youssef after critics took against her choice of dress for the Cairo Film Festival in 2018.

In 2018 Egypt adopted a cyber crime law that grants the government full authority to censor the internet and exercise communication surveillance.

The law carries penalties of imprisonment of 2 years minimum and a fine of up to 300,000 Egyptian pounds.

A group of female TikTok and Instagram influencers and YouTubers have been arrested by the Egyptian authorities in recent months on charges of promoting debauchery and prostitution on social media.

Talaat said those influencers were expected to face the same prison terms as el-Masry as they had committed the same crime.

The Egyptian government was not available for immediate comment.

Entessar el-Saeed, a women rights lawyer and head of the Cairo Center for Development and Law, said women are the only category targeted by the authorities according to this law.

“Our conservative society is struggling with technological changes which have created a completely different environment and mindsets,” she said.

Kylie Jenner and Cardi B come under fire for failing to pay Bangladesh workers amid coronavirus pandemic

THE ONLY REASON THESE TWO WOULD BE HERE
TPE admin dateJune 27, 2020


US reality TV star Kylie Jenner and Rapper Cardi B have faced huge criticisms on social media for reportedly refusing to pay workers in Bangladesh.

The Global Brand Group, responsible for their clothing line even cancelled its ongoing orders and cut workers in both Los Angeles and Bangladesh, reports Showbiz Cheatsheet.

The decision has affected as many as 50,000 workers, most of whom are women and are ineligible to receive government assistance, the report added.

Kylie’s fans commented on her instagram posts demanding that she pay the factory workers from her own pocket, if necessary.

Even though the 22-year old was recently stripped of her billionaire title, she is still worth a staggering $900 million and can more than afford to pay workers for the work that they have completed, the report further mentioned.

The reality TV star has 182.3 million followers on Instagram.

One fan on instagram wrote: “How about not exploiting foreign workers and honouring your contracts during a GLOBAL EPIDEMIC?!”

“Rather than launching and showcasing ur products pls #payup Bangladesh for the garments product. You guys are showcasing the world ur luxury but cheap. You are not even paying the workers’ wages, sick,” another fan wrote.

The situation became worse when Kylie started deleting her Instagram comments which mentioned to pay the dues of the workers.

Following the deletion of posts, fans took to her sister American model Kendall Jenner’s Instagram page to vent their anger.

A petition “#PayUp” campaign has been created by fans of Cardi B and Kylie exposing multi-million dollar brands, with over 78,000 signatories demanding a fair pay for the workers.

Petitioners also demanded that the workers be hired back on contracts which would prevent them from being exploited, reports The Express Tribune.

The Global Brand Group has been quick to jump to its defence, according to Popbuzz.

The brand’s CEO Rick Darling said: “Given the unpredictability of the situation, our retail partners have cancelled orders, and existing inventory and product in production may have no sell-through.”

He made the comment after it was discovered that workers were not being paid for garments that had already been made in February and March.

“Consequently, we have no choice but to make the difficult decision to cancel all S/S 2020 orders from all suppliers (without liability),” he added.

But both Cardi B, who is worth $24 million, and Kylie who is worth $900 million, are yet to comment on the matter, the report concluded.

HEY HEY USA
'No excuse' for countries that fail in contact tracing, WHO's Tedros says
Stephanie Nebehay


GENEVA (Reuters) - Tracing contacts of people with coronavirus infections is the most important step in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and countries that are failing to do so have no excuse, the World Health Organization chief said on Monday.

“Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing.

“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over,” he said. “Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move.”

Countries such as South Korea had managed to contain the disease by tracking down the contacts of those carrying infection, Tedros said. This was possible even under extreme conditions, as the WHO itself had shown by halting an outbreak of Ebola in eastern Congo, tracing 25,000 contacts a day in a remote area where some 20 armed groups were fighting, he added.

“No excuse for contact tracing. If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse.”

TEAM TO INVESTIGATE ORIGINS IN CHINA

In a move sought by the WHO’s biggest critic, the United States, Tedros announced that a team would be sent to China next week to investigate the origins of the outbreak.

“We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started,” Tedros said. “We will be sending a team next week to China to prepare for that.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both said the disease could have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, although they have presented no evidence of this, and China denies it. Scientists say the virus emerged in nature.

Trump has announced plans to quit the WHO, which he says is too close to China. He has repeatedly emphasised the Chinese origins of the virus, calling it “Kung Flu” at two rallies this month, a term the White House had previously described as unacceptable and which Asian-American groups say is racist.



FILE PHOTO - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, June 25, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse


Asked about Trump’s use of the term, the director of the WHO’s emergencies program, Mike Ryan, called for an “international discourse that is based on mutual respect”.

“Many people around the world have used unfortunate language in this response,” he said.

Ryan said there had been tremendous progress towards finding a vaccine, but there was no guarantee of success. In the meantime countries must use the strategies available, such as social distancing and contact tracing.

“Many, many countries through applying a comprehensive strategy have reached a very low level of virus transmission in their countries but always have to remain vigilant in case there are clusters or small outbreaks.”

Reporting by Michael Shields, Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood

BOOHOOBROTEDROS

THE RUSTIC LIFE
Locals cheer as monkey hanged from tree

Post authorBy TPE admin
Post dateJune 29, 2020


In a shocking case of human brutality, a monkey was hanged to death from a tree in Khammam district of Telangana. The police have held three in connection with the case.

The incident, which happened in Ammapalem village of Khammam district, came to light after a video of it went viral on social media, creating uproar over the brutality against an animal.

The video showed the monkey struggling while the animal was hanged from a tree. Locals who gathered and witnessed the incident can be heard cheering. Some dogs are seen trying to intervene.

The incident took plant in Ammapalem village under Vemsoor block of Khammam district when a troop of monkeys entered the area.

Irritated with their presence in the area, one of the accused caught one of the monkeys after fell in a water tubewell.

One of the accused then decided to hang a monkey as a “lesson” for the other monkeys that had entered the area.

The forest officials have picked-up three villagers for their involvement in the case. An investigation has been initiated.

Link to the disturbing video here.

Iran issues warrant for Trump over killing of top general


(Reuters) - Iran has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday, according to the Fars news agency.


The United States and Interpol both dismissed the idea of acting on such a warrant.

RELATED COVERAGE
U.S. official: Iran's arrest warrant for President Trump is 'propaganda stunt'

The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, with a drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3. Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.

Alqasimehr said the warrants had been issued on charges of murder and terrorist action. He said Iran had asked Interpol to issue a “red notice” seeking the arrest of Trump and the other individuals the Islamic Republic accuses of taking part in the killing of Soleimani.

Alqasimehr said the group included other U.S. military and civilian officials but did not provide further details.

U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook said the warrant was a “propaganda stunt” at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.

“Our assessment is that Interpol does not intervene and issue red notices ... (of) a political nature,” he said.

“This is a political nature. This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability ... It is a propaganda stunt that no-one takes seriously.”

Interpol said in a statement that its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.

“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat,” it added, “... Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”


Alqasimehr said Iran would continue to pursue the matter after Trump left office.

The killing of Soleimani brought the United States and Iran to the brink of armed conflict after Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American targets in Iraq several days later.


Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Dubai and Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Kevin Liffey


Iran issues arrest warrant against Donald Trump for killing top general Qassem Soleimani

Post authorBy TPE admin
Post dateJune 29, 2020

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday.

The United States and Interpol both dismissed the idea of acting on such a warrant.

The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, with a drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3. Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.

Alqasimehr said the warrants had been issued on charges of murder and terrorist action. He said Iran had asked Interpol to issue a “red notice” seeking the arrest of Trump and the other individuals the Islamic Republic accuses of taking part in the killing of Soleimani.

Alqasimehr said the group included other U.S. military and civilian officials but did not provide further details.





U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook said the warrant was a “propaganda stunt” at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.

“Our assessment is that Interpol does not intervene and issue red notices … (of) a political nature,” he said.

“This is a political nature. This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability … It is a propaganda stunt that no-one takes seriously.”

Interpol said in a statement that its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.

“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat,” it added, “… Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”

Alqasimehr said Iran would continue to pursue the matter after Trump left office.

The killing of Soleimani brought the United States and Iran to the brink of armed conflict after Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American targets in Iraq several days later.

 

UPDATED
Trump received Presidential Daily Briefing on Russian bounty plot: report

Published on June 29, 2020 By Matthew Chapman

On Monday, CNN reported that President Donald Trump received a presidential daily briefing in the spring including the intelligence assessment that Russia was putting bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“That assessment, the source said, was backed up by ‘several pieces of information’ that supported the view that there was an effort by the Russian intelligence unit — the GRU — to pay bounties to kill US soldiers, including interrogation of Taliban detainees and electronic eavesdropping,” reported Barbara Starr. “The source said there was some other information that did not corroborate this view but said, nonetheless, ‘This was a big deal. When it’s about US troops you go after it 100%, with everything you got.'”

This report contradicts the claim by the White House that the president was not made aware of this intelligence — a claim that even Republicans have demanded clarification on.

Pentagon officials were ‘pounding on the door’ to get Trump to do something about Russia’s assassination bounty: WaPo’s Ignatius

Published June 29, 2020 By Tom Boggioni

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” longtime political columnist David Ignatius said that his own follow-up on the New York Times’ explosive report that Donald Trump’s administration was well aware that the Russians were offering a bounty for the death of U.S. military members revealed that Pentagon officials have been “pounding on the door” and trying to get Donald Trump to do something about it.

Speaking with host Joe Scarborough, Ignatius said he was stunned by the report from the Times and started looking into the details himself for confirmation.

“Based on my reporting trying to confirm the New York Times’ excellent story it’s clear in late March you had senior U.S commanders, senior civilian intelligence officials, in effect pounding on the door of the White House saying we need to do something about this, we need to come to a conclusion about what damage the Russian program is doing, we need to reassess our programs in Afghanistan and they couldn’t get an answer,” he reported. “To this day there’s not an answer, there’s not a real response. Was this because the president was briefed and did nothing or because he wasn’t briefed because people were afraid to give him bad news and kept it to themselves? I don’t know.”

“But it almost doesn’t matter in terms of the breakdown in terms of the way the government is supposed to work,” he continued. “In some ways, it’s almost worse the department didn’t tell him, ‘Mr. President while you’re encouraging Russia to rejoin the G8, we should mention Russia is putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers.’ If they didn’t tell him that, it’s a stunner.”

“I think people are steamed up about it, there’s nothing that would make American commanders angrier other than the idea that their soldiers had targets on their back because of the actions of somebody that the president was still speaking of as a prospective ally,” he added.

Watch below:


Appearing on MSNBC on Monday morning, former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele claimed he had no doubt that Donald Trump was aware that Russia was paying out bounties for the killings of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Speaking with “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the former RNC head was asked if Donald Trump thinks Americans are “stupid” for telling them he was out of the loop on the intelligence reports.

“I will take up that challenge and say they did brief him,” Steele replied. “I do not believe that something as important and severe as this was left untold to the president of the United States.”

“What I think is disturbing is his reaction to it once he was told — the fact that there has been nothing done,” he continued. “There has been no rebuke officially from the United States and the fact that the White House, even over the course of the president’s tweets still has not denied the underlying intelligence that this is, in fact, what happened and this is, in fact, what we do know and the reality is.”

“This is a bounty placed on the heads of American soldiers, you are the commander in chief, alright?” he continued. “So this isn’t about politics. This is about what you do as a leader of men and women in uniform who now find out that you are okay with a bounty on their head by your — by our adversary. So this is what he’s going to have to account for — he can’t spin this out. There may be some Republicans who will run to his defense, that will be curious to watch.”

‘Abdicating its moral responsibility,’ US Supreme Court paves way for resumption in federal executions

SO MUCH FOR BEING PRO-LIFE
June 29, 2020 By Common Dreams


“The death penalty has no place in a just society,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for federal executions to resume following a 17-year pause. It denied to hear a challenge from death row prisoners over the Trump administration’s lethal injection protocol.

“At a moment when people around the country are demanding justice, equality, and accountability, clearing the way for federal executions is a mistake,” tweeted the ACLU.

The order (pdf) from the high court indicates that liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have heard the challenge.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr last year directed the Bureau of Prisons to resume capital punishment, with pentobarbital as the sole drug for the lethal injections.

The death penalty has no place in a just society.
Congress must act now and pass my bill to outlaw its use at the federal level and require re-sentencing of those currently on death row. https://t.co/Q5hODJUcWE
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) June 29, 2020

Author and anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean said court’s decision “means that the federal government will likely execute four people using an untested lethal injection protocol during a global pandemic without any real oversight from the Supreme Court. All of this is against the wishes of at least one victim’s family.”

.@TheJusticeDept says that it is pursuing justice for victims’ families by pushing to execute Danny Lee. That could not be further from the truth. The victims’ family is begging the government to NOT execute Danny Lee. The DOJ’s statements are not truthful. pic.twitter.com/se6SH8ZZl5

— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) June 29, 2020

Three federal executions are currently scheduled for July and one for August. All the state-sanctioned killings are scheduled to take place at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The high court’s decision doesn’t mark the end of the road for the inmates’ legal challenges, as they’re “separately asking a federal judge in Washington to impose a new delay on their executions over other legal issues that have yet to be resolved,” as the Associated Press reported.

The last federal execution took place in 2003. And, according to California Innocence Project director Justin Brooks, it should be the last.

“The Supreme Court must eventually rise above the fear driven politics in the USA and bring us in line with the rest of the civilized world when it comes to the #DeathPenalty,” Brooks tweeted. “It is a human rights violation.”

South Pole warming three times faster than rest of Earth: study

HEAT DEATH AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

Published on June 29, 2020 By Agence France-Presse

The South Pole has warmed three times faster than the rest of the planet in the last 30 years due to warmer tropical ocean temperatures, new research showed Monday.

Antarctica’s temperature varies widely according to season and region, and for years it had been thought that the South Pole had stayed cool even as the continent heated up.

Researchers in New Zealand, Britain and the United States analyzed 60 years of weather station data and used computer modeling to show what was causing the accelerated warming.

They found that warmer ocean temperatures in the western Pacific had over the decades lowered atmospheric pressure over the Weddell Sea in the southern Atlanti

This in turn had increased the flow of warm air directly over the South Pole — warming it by more than 1.83C (about 3.3F) since 1989.

Authors of the research said the natural warming trend was likely boosted by manmade greenhouse gas emissions and could be masking the heating effect of carbon pollution over the South Pole.

“While temperatures were known to be warming across West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula during the 20th century, the South Pole was cooling,” said Kyle Clem, a researcher at Victoria University of Wellington, and lead study author.

“It was suspected that this part of Antarctica… might be immune to/isolated from warming. We found this is not the case any more,” he told AFP.

The data showed that the South Pole — the most remote spot on Earth — was now warming at a rate of around 0.6C (1.1F) a decade, compared with around 0.2C (1.4F) for the rest of the planet.

The authors of the study, published in the Nature Climate Change journal, attributed the change to a phenomenon known as the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO).

The IPO cycle lasts roughly 15-30 years, and alternates between a “positive” state — in which the tropical Pacific is hotter and the northern Pacific is colder than average — and a “negative” state where the temperature anomaly is reversed.

The IPO flipped to a negative cycle at the start of the century, driving greater convection and more pressure extremes at high latitudes, leading to a strong flow of warmer air right over the South Pole.

Clem said that the 1.83C (3.3F) level of warming exceeded 99.99 percent of all modeled 30-year warming trends.

“While the warming was just within the natural variability of climate models, it was highly likely human activity had contributed,” he said.

© 2020 AFP

Trump’s new USAID appointee outed for rants about the US as a ‘homo-empire’ and claim ‘women shouldn’t be in office’

Published on June 29, 2020 By Sarah K. Burris



CNN.com’s KFILE has outed Merritt Corrigan, President Donald Trump’s new nominee for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for racist, sexist and homophobic statements in the past.

The aim of the USAID is supposed to be an independent agency from the federal government, but it trains U.S. foreign service workers who run assistance programs dealing with global poverty, disaster relief, and other socioeconomic relief issues in the developing world. It’s for that reason that appointing someone known for racism, sexism and homophobia probably isn’t a good look for the Trump White House.

The 2019 and 2020 tweets from at least 400 previously unreported Tweets in Corrigan’s feed have been deleted, but not before the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine could capture them

“Mass deportations when?,” Corrigan tweeted in October 2019, with a 2010 article quoting German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying German multiculturalism failed.

“Our homo-empire couldn’t tolerate even one commercial enterprise not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda,” Corrigan also wrote on Twitter before she was hired by the Hungarian embassy in Washington.

Things got worse when she started talking about women.

“This sick statement by [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren, which glibly mocks a real crisis happening in our society, is exactly why women shouldn’t be in office. They will always advocate for themselves at the expense of men, and revel in it,” Corrigan also tweeted in October 2019.

Corrigan went on to lash out at conservative radio host Michael Knowles when he shared a photo of himself with a drag queen.

“Right wing gatekeepers have made it abundantly clear that their allegiance is to Satan and those who carry out his agenda of appalling sexual perversion over those who question the liberal status quo,” she tweeted.

“Western women are slowly waking up to the lies of feminism and the organized effort to push us toward an empty life of isolation and childlessness,” she also tweeted that month.

She even went so far as to argue that it was cruel and wrong to “empower” girls and tell them that they are “equal” to men, in November 2019 tweets.

First daughter Ivanka Trump has worked to foster women entrepreneurs around the world with a program she calls We-Fi, short for the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. Corrigan seems to personally oppose such a program.

Ivanka has also appeared at an international conference focusing in Berlin on building leadership among women and girls. She got a warm reception until she tried to claim her father cared about the success of women.

After 2019 reports that conditions have improved in Somalia’s humanitarian crisis, Corrigan went off on immigrants, “Great, can we send the 70,000+ Somalis in Minnesota back then?”

She then said, “Immigration is the hostile governing elite’s preferred agent of chaos,” later that same month.

USAID’s mission statement says that all LGBTQ people have a right “to live with dignity, free from discrimination, persecution, and violence.” USAID’s commitment to women and girls seems to also fly in the face of Corrigan’s tweets.

“Investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment can unlock human potential on a transformational scale,” USAID says. “For societies to thrive, women and girls, men and boys must have equal access to education, healthcare, and technology. They must have equal control of resources, lands, and markets. And they must have equal rights and opportunities as peace-builders and leaders.”

Read more shocking tweets at CNN.com from Merritt Corrigan.

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS‘Absolute robbery’: Gilead announces $3,120 Price Tag for COVID-19 drug developed with $70 million in taxpayer support

June 29, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams


“Taxpayers provided funding for the development of this drug. Now Gilead is price-gouging off it during a pandemic. Beyond disgusting,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Consumer advocates reacted with disgust Monday to an announcement by Gilead Sciences that it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, a drug which has proven modestly effective at speeding Covid-19 recovery times.

“Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration.”
—Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen

Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program, called Gilead’s pricing—which works out to around $520 per dose for non-government buyers like hospitals—”an offensive display of hubris and disregard for the public” and slammed the Trump administration for failing to ensure that the price of a drug developed with substantial taxpayer support is affordable for all.

Maybarduk pointed to Institute for Clinical and Economic Review research showing Gilead could still make a profit by pricing remdesivir at $310 per course.

“Gilead has priced at several thousand dollars a drug that should be in the public domain. For $1 per day, remdesivir can be manufactured at scale with a reasonable profit,” Maybarduk said in a statement. “Gilead did not make remdesivir alone. Public funding was indispensable at each stage, and government scientists led the early drug discovery team. Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration.”

Public Citizen estimated in a May report that U.S. taxpayers contributed at least $70.5 million to the development of remdesivir.

US taxpayers spent $70,000,000 developing this drug. This is an absolute robbery. https://t.co/6qSMOlmqWF
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) June 29, 2020

Shortly after Gilead’s announcement, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said it reached an agreement with the pharmaceutical giant to purchase more than 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir for American hospitals.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States is “the only developed country where Gilead will charge two prices”—one for government buyers ($390 per dose) and one for non-government buyers like hospitals ($520 per dose). The typical remdesivir treatment course consists of around six doses.

“Trump’s refusal to stop pandemic profiteering with a stroke of a pen is a green light to other manufacturers to exploit this tragedy.”
—Rep. Lloyd Doggett

Unlike the U.S., the Journal notes, the governments of other advanced nations “negotiate drug prices directly with drugmakers.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said in a statement that “Trump’s refusal to stop pandemic profiteering with a stroke of a pen is a green light to other manufacturers to exploit this tragedy.”

Doggett said he is pressuring the Trump administration and Gilead to disclose the details of their agreement, including the sum the government paid for the 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir.

On Twitter, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) condemned Gilead’s price-tag as “beyond disgusting.”

“Taxpayers provided funding for the development of this drug. Now Gilead is price-gouging off it during a pandemic,” said Sanders. “Coronavirus treatment must be free to all.”

Gilead’s $2,340 price for coronavirus drug draws criticism

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

FILE - This is an April 30, 2020, file photo showing Gilead Sciences headquarters in Foster City, Calif. The maker of a drug shown to shorten recovery time for severely ill COVID-19 patients says it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries. Gilead Sciences announced the price Monday, June 29 for remdesivir, and said the price would be $3,120 for patients with private insurance. It will sell for far less in poorer countries where generic drugmakers are being allowed to make it. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
The maker of a drug shown to shorten recovery time for severely ill COVID-19 patients says it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries.

Gilead Sciences announced the price Monday for remdesivir, and said the price would be $3,120 for patients with private insurance. The amount that patients pay out of pocket depends on insurance, income and other factors.

“We’re in uncharted territory with pricing a new medicine, a novel medicine, in a pandemic,” Gilead’s chief executive, Dan O’Day, told The Associated Press.

“We believe that we had to really deviate from the normal circumstances” and price the drug to ensure wide access rather than based solely on value to patients, he said.

However, the price was swiftly criticized; a consumer group called it “an outrage” because of the amount taxpayers invested toward the drug’s development.

The treatment courses that the company has donated to the U.S. and other countries will run out in about a week, and the prices will apply to the drug after that, O’Day said.

In the U.S., federal health officials have allocated the limited supply to states, but that agreement with Gilead will end after September. They said Monday that the government has secured more than 500,000 additional courses that Gilead will produce starting in July to supply to hospitals through September, and stressed that that does not mean the government actually was acquiring that much, just ensuring the availability.

“We should have sufficient supply ... but we have to make sure it’s in the right place at the right time,” O’Day said

In 127 poor or middle-income countries, Gilead is allowing generic makers to supply the drug; two countries are doing that for around $600 per treatment course.

Remdesivir’s price has been highly anticipated since it became the first medicine to show benefit in the pandemic, which has killed more than half a million people globally in six months.

The drug, given through an IV, interferes with the coronavirus’s ability to copy its genetic material. In a U.S. government-led study, remdesivir shortened recovery time by 31% — 11 days on average versus 15 days for those given just usual care. It had not improved survival according to preliminary results after two weeks of followup; results after four weeks are expected soon.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit group that analyzes drug prices, said remdesivir would be cost-effective in a range of $4,580 to $5,080 if it saved lives. But recent news that a cheap steroid called dexamethasone improves survival means remdesivir should be priced between $2,520 and $2,800, the group said.

“This is a high price for a drug that has not been shown to reduce mortality,” Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic said in an email. “Given the serious nature of the pandemic, I would prefer that the government take over production and distribute the drug for free. It was developed using significant taxpayer funding.”

Peter Maybarduk, a lawyer at the consumer group Public Citizen, called the price “an outrage.”

“Remdesivir should be in the public domain” because the drug received at least $70 million in public funding toward its development, he said.

“The price puts to rest any notion that drug companies will ‘do the right thing’ because it is a pandemic,” Dr. Peter Bach, a health policy expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York said in an email. “The price might have been fine if the company had demonstrated that the treatment saved lives. It didn’t.”

While it may be a sticker shock for many, “from the health system perspective, if remdesivir can shorten duration of hospitalization by four days, then the medicine provides a reasonable value,” Dr. David Boulware, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota, said in an email.

O’Day said that shortening hospitalization saves about $12,000 per patient. Gilead says it will have spent $1 billion on developing and making the drug by the end of this year. Gilead shares rose 64 cents to $75.22 in late-morning trading.

The drug has emergency use authorization in the U.S. and Gilead has applied for full approval.

Jefferies pharmaceuticals analyst Michael Yee wrote to investors that Gilead’s price was a bit above what stock brokers were expecting. He said that at that price, analysts expect Gilead to make $525 million on remdesivir sales this year and $2.1 billion next year.

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter: @MMarchioneAP

___

AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

‘Jackal’: Crowd heckles Italy’s far-right leader Matteo Salvini

Published on June 29, 2020 By Agence France-Presse

An angry crowd greeted Italy’s far-right leader Matteo Salvini during a visit to a town in the Naples region Monday, with some heckling and pelting him with eggs and water.

The confrontation took place when Salvini visited a neighborhood of Mondragone, the scene of tensions last week between some residents and foreign workers, some of whom have been infected by the coronavirus.

When Salvini arrived an hour later than scheduled there was a hostile crowd waiting for him, many of them shouting insults.

Salvini, wearing a face mask in the colors of the Italian flag, quickly lowered it to begin his speech, but could scarcely be heard over the heckling.

“Salvini is worse than the Covid,” some shouted, with others calling him a “jackal” or a “clown” and telling him to leave.

Salvini, as he tried to continue his speech from behind a police line, was forced to dodge eggs and water thrown from the crowd.

In brief comments to television crews at the scene, he denounced what he said were agitators who had come in from outside,

“We have to guarantee the rights of Italians, and expel foreigners without papers,” he told AFPTV.

“We need to invest more in the Naples region, in resources and in the forces of order,” he added.

He left the scene after half an hour, but promised to return at a later date.

Last Friday, riot police had to be sent to the town to restore order.

Around 700 foreign workers, most of them Bulgarian farm laborers, are squatting a group of five buildings there.

They have been under lockdown for a week after 43 people among them tested positive for the coronavirus, while medical staff carry out tests throughout the neighborhood.

But last Thursday, several dozen people broke the quarantine to stage a protest march in the town, leading to scuffles with local people who threw stones at them.

Television footage also showed several vehicles belonging to Bulgarians damaged, their windscreens smashed and the Bulgarian registered plates taken as trophies.

With the collapse of that administration last year and the coronavirus crisis this year his profile — and his standing in the opinion polls — has fallen.

© 2020 AFP

Big tobacco, big oil and Buffett join Fed's portfolio
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve bought $428 million in bonds of individual companies through mid-June, making investments in household names like Walmart and AT&T as well as in major oil firms, tobacco giant Philip Morris International Inc, and a utility subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company.

The transactions disclosed Sunday are the first individual company bond purchases made by the Fed under new programs set up to nurse the economy through the coronavirus pandemic. The Fed also added $5.3 billion in 16 corporate bond exchange traded funds, including a newly added sixth high yield fund.

The initial round of purchases included some 86 issuers, about half of them contractually settled as of June 18 and some still underway, all bought on the secondary market.

That is a small slice of the more than 790 issuers whose bonds the Fed has said in a separate release were eligible for purchase.

But it was still a first foray into corporate bond purchases that spread broadly across the economy, touching firms like Gilead Sciences that are involved in developing treatments for the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus, as well as major automakers. That included Ford Motor Co., whose credit was downgraded to junk status after the Fed announced its intent to buy corporate debt.

Both the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have programs to buy individual corporate bonds, but the Fed only added that to its arsenal in light of the Depression level risks posed by the pandemic. The aim is to ensure companies can continue to finance themselves, and not be forced out of business due to problems raising cash during a pandemic. The program is backed by investment capital from the U.S. Treasury to absorb any losses should corporations default.

The largest purchases were of bonds issued by AT&T and the United Health Group, with the Fed buying around $16.4 million of bonds from each.

Issuers in the energy industry accounted for about 8.45% of the bonds purchased, about a percentage point less than their representation in a broad market index that the Fed says its purchases are intended to track over time.


The Fed’s bond purchases and other emergency programs will be scrutinized by lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing before the House Financial Services committee with Fed chair Jerome Powell. Questions may focus on the individual bonds purchased, but also on the fact that support for the bond markets used by major firms is now up and running and getting billions of Fed support, while the Fed’s Main Street Lending Program for smaller companies has yet to make a loan.

The central bank’s programs overall have so far seen modest use. The central bank’s overall balance sheet has declined for the past two weeks, falling to $7.08 trillion more recently as foreign governments made less use of Fed dollar swap lines

Couple draw guns at crowd heading to St. Louis mayor’s home

Armed homeowners standing in front their house along Portland Place confront protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's house Sunday, June 28, 2020, in the Central West End of St. Louis. The protesters called for Krewson's resignation for releasing the names and addresses of residents who suggested defunding the police department. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A white couple who stood outside their St. Louis mansion and pointed guns at protesters who were marching toward the mayor’s home to demand her resignation support the Black Lives Matter movement and don’t want to become heroes to those who oppose the cause, their attorney said Monday.

Video posted online showed Mark McCloskey, 63, and his 61-year-old wife, Patricia, standing outside their Renaissance palazzo-style home Sunday night in the city’s well-to-do Central West End neighborhood. He could be heard yelling while holding a long-barreled gun. His wife stood next to him with a handgun.

Mark McCloskey told KMOV-TV that he and wife, who are personal injury lawyers, were facing an “angry mob” on their private street and feared for their lives Sunday night.

No charges were brought against McCloskeys. Police said they were still investigating but labeled it a case of trespassing and assault by intimidation against the couple by protesters in the racially diverse crowd.

However, Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner issued a statement later Monday characterizing what happened differently and saying her office was working with police to investigate the confrontation.

“I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault,” she said. “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.”

Their attorney, Albert Watkins, told The Associated Press on Monday that the couple are long-time civil rights advocates and support the message of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said they grabbed their guns when two or three protesters — who were white — violently threatened the couple and their property and that of their neighbors.

“The most important thing for them is that their images (holding the guns) don’t become the basis for a rallying cry for people who oppose the Black Lives Matter message,” Watkins said. “They want to make it really clear that they believe the Black Lives Matter message is important.”

The marchers were angry at Mayor Lyda Krewson for reading aloud the names and addresses of several residents who wrote letters calling for defunding the police department. The group of at least 500 people chanted, “Resign, Lyda! Take the cops with you!” news outlets reported

Police said the couple had heard a loud commotion in the street and saw a large group of people break an iron gate marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs. The video showed the protesters walking through the gate and it was unclear when it was damaged.

The McCloskeys’ home, which was featured in the local St. Louis Magazine after undergoing a renovation, was appraised at $1.15 million.

President Donald Trump retweeted an ABC News account of the confrontation without comment.

Krewson has faced demands for her resignation since a Facebook Live briefing on Friday in which the white mayor read the names of those who wrote letters about wanting to defund the police force. The video was removed and Krewson apologized the same day, saying she didn’t intend to cause distress.

The Rev. Darryl Gray, an organizer with ExpectUs, who used a megaphone to urge protesters to keep moving after the couple brandished firearms, blamed Krewson, saying she “threw gasoline on an already burning fire” by releasing people’s home addresses.

“In this climate of hatred and this climate of fear and the concern activists have for safety, we didn’t feel that this was the most prudent thing to do in this particular time,” Gray said. “It is a sign that she just does not know or does not care.”


The names and letters are considered public records, but Krewson’s actions caused a heavy backlash.

“As a leader, you don’t do stuff like that. ... It’s only right that we visit her at her home,” said state Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, a St. Louis Democrat, speaking into a megaphone at the march.

Protesters nationwide have been pushing to “ defund the police ” over the death of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of law enforcement. Floyd, who was handcuffed, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.

Krewson, a longtime alderwoman, was elected St. Louis’ first female mayor in 2017 by pledging to work to reduce crime and improve poor neighborhoods. She and her two young children were in the car in front of their home in 1995 when her husband, Jeff, was slain during a carjacking attempt.

Homicides have spiked in recent years in St. Louis, which annually ranks among the most violent cities in the nation.
Full Coverage: Racial injustice

French ex-prime minister Fillon, wife found guilty of fraud

ANOTHER CROOKED LAWN ORDER CONSERVATIVE, 

SAY IT AIN'T SO

SYLVIE CORBET and NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY

France's former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, right, and his wife Penelope wear protective masks as they arrive at Paris courthouse, in Paris, Monday, June 29, 2020. A Paris court is set to render or postpone a verdict in the fraud trial of former Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

LOOK NO HANDCUFFS NO PERP WALK
PARIS (AP) — Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon was found guilty Monday in a fraud case of having used public funds to pay his wife and children more than 1 million euros ($1.13 million) since 1998 for work they never performed.

The couple’s lawyers immediately appealed Monday’s verdict from the Paris court.

Fillon, 66, was sentenced to five years in prison, three of which were suspended, and a 375,000-euro (more than $423,000) fine. He is also banned from seeking elected office for 10 years. He remains free pending appeal.

His 64-year-old wife, Penelope Fillon, was found guilty as an accomplice. She was given a three-year suspended sentence and fined the same amount.

In addition, the couple was requested to reimburse the National Assembly more than 1 million euros that correspond to the salaries and payroll charges that were paid. The penalty is suspended pending appeal.

The scandal broke in the French media just three months before the country’s 2017 presidential election, as Fillon was the front-runner in the race. It cost him his reputation. Fillon sank to third place in the election, which was won by Emmanuel Macron.

The Paris court considered that Fillon “elaborated and established an organization enabling to misappropriate money for his personal use.”

In a statement, the court said that “nothing concrete has been proven in court regarding the work of Madam Fillon.”

“She did not have any professional activity alongside her husband,” the court added. “Nothing justifies the paid salaries.”

Fillon and his wife have denied any wrongdoing.

Fillon’s lawyer Antonin Levy told reporters “there will be a new trial ... We will be able to get a full and serene debate that will finally allow justice to be made.”

Penelope Fillon’s role alongside her husband drew all the attention during the February-March trial, which focused on determining whether her activities were in the traditional role of an elected official’s partner — or involved actual paid work.

Prosecutors denounced “fraudulent, systematic practices.”

Fillon was accused of misuse of public funds, receiving money from the misuse of public funds and the misappropriation of company assets. His wife was charged mostly as an accomplice.

During the trial, Penelope Fillon explained how she decided to support her husband’s career when he was first elected as a French lawmaker in 1981 in the small town of Sable-sur-Sarthe, in rural western France.

Over the years, she was offered different types of contracts as a parliamentary assistant, depending on her husband’s political career.
Full Coverage: France

She described her work as mostly doing reports about local issues, opening the mail, meeting with residents and helping to prepare speeches for local events. She said working that way allowed her to have a flexible schedule and raise their five children in the Fillons’ countryside manor.

Prosecutors pointed at the lack of actual evidence of her work, including the absence of declarations for any paid vacations or maternity leave, as her wages reached up to nine times France’s minimum salary.

Francois Fillon insisted his wife’s job was real and said that, according to the separation of powers, the justice system can’t interfere with how a lawmaker organizes work at his office.

A former lawmaker, Marc Joulaud, also went on trial in the case for misuse of public funds after he allegedly gave Penelope Fillon a fake job as an aide from 2002 to 2007, while her husband was minister. He was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year suspended prison sentence.

In addition, charges also cover a contract that allowed Penelope Fillon to earn 135,000 euros in 2012-2013 as a consultant for a literary magazine owned by a friend of her husband — also an alleged fake job. The magazine owner, Marc de Lacharriere, already pleaded guilty and was given a suspended eight-month prison sentence and fined 375,000 euros in 2018.

Fillon, once the youngest lawmaker at the National Assembly at the age of 27, served as prime minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. He was also a minister under two previous presidents, Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.

He left French politics in 2017 and now works for an asset management company.