It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Luxembourg's hospitality sector is experiencing a staffing crisis, as one pizzeria owner can testify.
"The sector is a catastrophe."
The crisis in the hospitality sector is certainly not new, but the pandemic has exacerbated staffing conditions across the board - even in the Grand Duchy, where salaries tend to skew higher than neighbouring countries.
RTL 5Minutes spoke to a pizza restaurant owner in his forties, who has been based in Luxembourg for seven years. In January, his pizza chef of five years chose to resign, and he has not been able to fill the position in the months that have passed.
"I paid €4,000 net, €3,980 to be exact," he explains. "I had increased it several times but I couldn't go any higher. He preferred to leave. However, he was housed for free, he had internet and when he wanted to eat or have a drink, he only had to visit the pizzeria. But during Covid, he saw that other people were staying at home and receiving unemployment, and that with a few extras, it was enough to live off." These days, people want comfort in the form of working hours, even in our sector. Everyone wants to work eight hours, then go home, all while being paid well. But I can't sell my pizzas for €20 or €25!
Is a good salary no longer enough?
The owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had contacted the National Employment Office, as well as Forem, the Belgian office for employment and professional training. But neither was able to offer any help.
He added that even when he found staff from abroad, the authorities were reluctant to grant work permits on the pretext that there were sufficient jobseekers in Luxembourg already.
In order to adapt, the restaurant has reduced the number of covers per service. "I have to function with the staff available to me, which means halving my terrace and inside area. But the expenses are the same, the goods cost more, electricity and gas have increased. I don't know where to go from here, but winter is going to be difficult."
The pizzeria owner has already had to close another of his restaurants earlier this year, in June, due to a lack of staff. Since then, he has juggled older employees with extra staff and apprentices to keep his other establishment going, with two pizzaïolos from Liège working two to three days a week, while another part-time cook has joined from Bascharage.
"I pay their fuel costs and bonuses. I also have an apprentice coming from Thionville for training this summer. But I expect he will leave after the summer, it's very complicated. For me, it's a loss of time and money...so for now I'm trying to get by with family members," he told RTL 5Minutes. What is the issue? As far as the interviewee was concerned, salary alone is no longer enough to attract quality staff.
"These days, people want comfort in the form of working hours, even in our sector. Everyone wants to work eight hours, then go home, all while being paid well. But I can't sell my pizzas for €20 or €25! At this rate I would have to align myself with Swiss salaries!"
The owner said he resented the unemployment system, which he feels has been poorly organised. "If people manage to collect unemployment benefits while saving on time, commuting costs, insurance and so on...why would they need to work?"
COMMENTS Peterrr (New user) -16.07.2022 07:21 I have been working in the horesca for years, and one thing i can tell you. Even now when they cannot find employees, they wont pay you much more than a minimum salary... people with years of experience in a heavy and unhealthy environment work odd hours, extra hours without a decent salary. I mean a ridiculous minimum salary which is not even enough to get a 30 years mortgage to a 50 sqm ruine in the country. Not to mention that you will work on sundays, holidays, split shifts, probably wont have days off, and you wont have a decent compensation (thanks to the government who lets horesca do what it wants to enslave its employees... I hope who left already wont ever come back to the industry because its inhuman.
With a heatwave building towards a sweltering peak this weekend, Tour de France organisers are ready to pour tens of thousands of litres of cold water onto a route that risks melting at road temperatures of 60 degrees.
Riders suffered in Friday's heat as the peloton gave up its pursuit of an escape group.
The peloton had already been punished by the two days of monster mountain climbs, such as the Alpe D'Huez won by Tom Pidcock.
On Wednesday's dramatic stage to Col du Granon, two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar, known to dislike heat, wilted and lost his lead in temperatures well over 30 degrees.
"It was horrible, a furnace," said French climber Thibaut Pinot.
His compatriot Romain Bardet said the following day had been worse.
"I was trembling and my pulse was racing," he said.
But with sizzling air temperatures of 38-40 degrees forecast over the weekend, as the race moves towards the Pyrenees, the situation will be even worse.
As a result, special measures are being readied.
French departments road safety organiser Andre Bancala told AFP at the foot of the Alps on Friday that record road temperatures of 63 degrees could be beaten.
"During a heatwave, such as the one we are expecting of over 38 degrees, the road temperature gets much higher than that, around 60 degrees," Bancala said.
"The absolute record for heat was in 2010 with a road temperature of 63 degrees when Sylvain Chavanel won in the Jura," he added.
"But this weekend we may even break that, so we are mobilising between us and the fire brigade, to combat that.
"In certain places, the asphalt is going to start melting, not everywhere of course, but it is going to get much softer. So you can imagine how that might end?
"The solution will be to pour water on it," he says explaining the Tour has a permanent truck for such demands.
The fire brigade will also be on hand to help execute the manoeuvres.
"We will have vehicles with 10,000 litres of water taken along the way, the regional departments are going to help us to cool the roads."
But the logistical nightmare doesn't end there.
"You have to do it at just the right moment, if you do it too early it just heats up again.
"If you do it too late the peloton rides onto wet surfaces. It has to be around 15 minutes before they get there," he says.
"Think about it. If the road surface is 55 or 60 degrees, and the pedal is ony 20cm above that, then the rider is subject to exposure to extreme temperatures."
Much has been made of how Jumbo team riders, including Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard, have been wearing cooling jackets ahead of the stages as the heatwave builds up.
They are the only team using such jackets for none time-trials.
After Friday's stage Vingegaard said the heat hadn't been a problem for him personally.
"Regular cold drinks and ice packs on the back as often as you can during the race to keep the body temperature down, that's what you do," said Vingegaard.
Red-state Donald Trump voters are now more likely to say they’d be personally “better off” (33%) than “worse off” (29%) if their state seceded from the U.S. and “became an independent country,” according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
It’s a striking rejection of national unity that dramatizes the growing culture war between Democratic- and Republican-controlled states on core issues such as guns, abortion and democracy itself. And an even larger share of red-state Trump voters say their state as a whole would be better off (35%) rather than worse off (30%) if it left the U.S.
Former President Donald Trump at a "Save America" rally in support of Republican candidates on July 9 in Anchorage, Alaska. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
The survey of 1,672 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 8 to 11, comes as a series of hard-line conservative decisions by the Supreme Court — coupled with continued gridlock on Capitol Hill — have shifted America’s center of political gravity back to the states, where the parties in power are increasingly filling the federal void with far-reaching reforms of their own.
The further apart they push their states — on voting rights, on misinformation, on post-Roe regulations, on gun-safety measures — the more the country morphs into what one political analyst has described as “a federated republic of two nations: Blue Nation and Red Nation.”
“[This] is a defining characteristic of 21st-century America,” the Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein recently argued. “The result through the 2020s could be a dramatic erosion of common national rights and a widening gulf — a ‘great divergence’ — between the liberties of Americans in blue states and those in red states.”
Regardless of where they live, most Americans are hardly ready to dissolve the union (even though, in a previous Yahoo News/YouGov poll, a majority of Republicans [52%] did predict that “there will be a civil war in the United States in [their] lifetime”).
Overall, just 17% of Americans actually want their state to “leave the U.S. and become an independent country,” a number that is remarkably consistent across party lines. Only slightly more (19%) favor the U.S. eventually becoming “two countries — one consisting of ‘blue states’ run by Democrats and one consisting of ‘red states’ run by Republicans.”
But dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that this level of consensus is, in part, an illusion.
For the purposes of the survey, Yahoo News defined red states as those with consistent Republican control on the state level in recent years, and blue states as those with consistent Democratic control. Divided states were excluded.
Yet despite obvious and expected differences in party composition, neither red nor blue states consist of anywhere near monolithically Republican or Democratic populations. In fact, across all Yahoo News/YouGov polls conducted so far this year, more than a third of red-state respondents (34%) identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents; likewise, more than a quarter of blue-state respondents (26%) identify as Republicans or Republican leaners.
In other words, there are a lot of blue-state and red-state residents who have more in common with their political brethren elsewhere than with their governors or state legislatures.
To truly gauge the gap between red states and blue states, then, it helps to set aside these mostly powerless political minorities and focus instead on the dominant voters who are actually steering state leaders to the left or the right.
Among red-state Trump voters, 92% trust their state government more than the federal government to do “what’s best.” Almost as many (86%) say the federal government is “not working well”; a full two-thirds (67%) insist it’s not working well “at all.”
In contrast, nearly 8 in 10 red-state Trump voters (79%) say their state government is working well, with huge majorities approving of how state leaders are handling guns (78%), democracy (73%), COVID-19 (71%), race (69%), the economy (68%), crime (65%) and abortion (63%).
Trump supporters at a rally in Commerce, Ga., on March 26. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
As a result, red-state Trump voters are alone in saying that it’s more important for “individual states to make their own laws with minimal interference from the federal government” (56%) than it is for “the federal government to protect people’s constitutional rights when violated by state laws” (33%).
And red-state Trump voters divide roughly down the middle on the question of whether things would be better (37%) or worse (40%) if the country as a whole actually split into a Blue Nation and a Red Nation. No other cohort views disunion so favorably.
Blue-state Joe Biden voters, for instance, are only slightly more inclined (27%) than Americans as a whole (21%) to say things would be better if America broke in two. Just 14% want their own state to secede, versus 29% of red-state Trump voters. And only slightly more blue-state Biden voters (21%) think they themselves would be better off in such a scenario; a full 47% say they’d be worse off.
Given that Democrats generally trust Washington, D.C., more than Republicans do — and currently control it — this may not come as a surprise. But much like red-state Trump voters, blue-state Biden voters also prefer their state government to the federal government by sizable margins.
In fact, blue-state Biden voters (75%) are actually more likely than red-state Trump voters (65%) to say America as a whole would be better off if it “did things more like [their] state.” They’re also more likely to say their state government is working well (84%) — and nearly as likely to say they trust their state government (80%) over the federal government (20%) to do “what’s best.”
Frustrated by the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster, most Biden voters everywhere (53%) say the U.S. Senate has “too much power”; more than three-quarters (76%) say the same of the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Nearly half of Biden voters (48%) say they’ve “considered moving to a different country because of politics.” And nearly 6 in 10 blue-state Trump voters say they’ve considered moving to another state for the same reason.
In short, America’s “great divergence” isn’t a one-sided phenomenon. It’s happening in both red America and blue America.
Why? The new Yahoo News/YouGov poll hints at two reasons. The first is pervasive — and not particularly partisan — disillusionment with America as a whole.
Exactly two years ago, a clear plurality of Americans (46%) told Yahoo News and YouGov that the nation’s “best days are still to come”; at the time, just 25% believed the United States’ best days were “behind us.”
Now those numbers are reversed, with 37% saying our best days are behind us and just 31% saying they’re still to come. Similarly, just 19% of Americans predicted two years ago that “their children” would be worse off than they are; today, a full 46% believe the “next generation” will be worse off than their own. That’s a stunning change.
Overall, two-thirds of Americans (65%) say the federal government is not working well. Just 23% say the opposite.
Abortion rights activists march to the White House on July 9 to denounce the Supreme Court decision to end federal abortion rights protections. (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
It’s no wonder, then, that blue- and red-state residents who agree with the party in power there are retreating into their respective geographic corners. It’s no wonder, either, that they increasingly see each other as cautionary tales — the second factor that seems to be supercharging the “great divergence.”
When asked to compare red states with blue states on a host of issues, red-state Trump voters say by wide margins that blue states have more gun deaths (68%) and discrimination (56%) while red states have more economic growth (75%) and education (55%).
Blue-state Biden voters, in contrast, say it is red states that suffer more gun deaths (62%) and discrimination (75%) — and blue states that enjoy more economic growth (65%) and education (77%).
Obviously, both sides can’t be right. (According to Brownstein, blue-state Biden voters are closer to the mark; other analystsmight disagree.) But that isn’t stopping either side from thinking the worst of the other.
_____________
The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,672 U.S. adults interviewed online from July 8 to 11, 2022. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2020 presidential vote (or nonvote) and voter registration status. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.6%.
Texans reach settlement with 30 Deshaun Watson accusers
CHRIS CWIK
July 15, 2022,
ENABLED WATSON'S BEHAVIOR BY PROVIDING A NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENT
The Houston Texans have reached settlements with 30 women who accused former Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of various levels of sexual misconduct, according to attorney Tony Buzbee.
The Texans were sued in June for allegedly providing suites for Watson to meet with massage therapists and providing Watson with a non-disclosure agreement to be used in those sessions. Watson's accusers argued that the Texans enabled Watson's alleged misconduct.
Though one woman filed the lawsuit against the Texans, the team settled with 30 women. In a statement Friday, Buzbee said all 30 women either made claims against the Texans or "intended" to make claims against the Texans.
The woman who filed the lawsuit against the Texans will have her case dismissed with prejudice once the settlement is completed. A case that gets dismissed with prejudice cannot be filed again in the same court.
A total of 24 women have filed civil lawsuits against Watson, who settled 20 of those cases in June. The Texans settled with 30 women. Information about the additional six women in the Texans' settlement is not known. The terms of the Texans' settlement is confidential and will not be revealed, per Buzbee.
The Texans traded Deshaun Watson to the Browns in March.
(Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Buzbee said there was a difference in the way the Texans handled the allegations compared to Watson's legal team.
"I will have no further comment on the allegations or the Texans' alleged role, other than to say that there is a marked contrast in the way in which the Texans addressed these allegations, and the way in which Watson's team has done so," he said.
The Texans issued a statement Friday saying they were unaware of the allegations against Watson when they first emerged. The team said the settlements were "not an admission of any wrongdoing, but instead a clear stand against any form of sexual assault and misconduct."
Deshaun Watson still faces lawsuits from four women
Watson, who was traded to the Cleveland Browns in March, still faces civil lawsuits from four women who alleged Watson engaged in sexual misconduct during massage sessions. Those four civil suits will proceed. Buzbee anticipates they will go to trial next spring. The NFL has yet to announce a suspension for Watson. The league held a three-day hearing in late June, though it concluded without a decision on a possible punishment for Watson.
Two Texas grand juries declined to indict Watson on criminal charges. Watson was traded to the Browns after the first grand jury declined to indict him. The Browns then signed Watson to a contract that will pay him the most guaranteed money in NFL history.
RETURN FROM EXILE
MLS Atlanta president Eales to become Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales, president of MLS side Atlanta United, has been hired
as the new chief executive officer of Newcastle United
(Photo: GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File/Paras Griffin)
16 Jul 2022
NEW YORK: Darren Eales, president of Major League Soccer's Atlanta United and a former executive director at Tottenham Hotspur, will become the new chief executive officer at Newcastle United, clubs announced Friday.
Eales, a 49-year-old Englishman, was hired by the US side in 2014. He will remain with Atlanta through August 8 and return to the English Premier League on August 22.
Newcastle went 13-15 with 10 drawn last season to finish 11th in the Premier League.
"Newcastle United is both a giant of a club, and the heartbeat of its community," Eales said in a statement. "Every time I have visited St. James' Park, I've been overwhelmed by the passion of the fans.
"This is a club with an amazingly rich heritage, and I am delighted to be joining for this new chapter in its long history.
"I am grateful for the opportunity, and look forward to working with the rest of the team to help this storied club fulfil its potential."
Eales, who also worked in the front office for West Bromwich Albion alongside Magpies' sporting director Dan Ashworth from 2006-2010, oversaw formation of Atlanta since its 2017 debut as an MLS expansion side.
"It has been the adventure and honor of a lifetime to help build Atlanta United," Eales said in a statement.
"I've been privileged to work with an amazing team of people who rolled up their sleeves and made a vision into reality."
Eales, who also worked in the front office for West Bromwich Albion alongside Magpies' sporting director Dan Ashworth from 2006-2010, oversaw formation of Atlanta since its 2017 debut as an MLS expansion side.
The club won the 2018 MLS Cup and the 2019 US Open Cup and ranks among the attendance leaders in the North American league.
"Darren Eales is one of the best hires I've made in my career and the strength and success of Atlanta United to date is a credit to him not only as a leader, but as a passionate footballer," Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank said in a statement.
"I'm thrilled for Darren to have this new opportunity to lead Newcastle and I see it as a very positive reflection of Atlanta United and what our club has achieved in such a short time.
"Darren is more than ready to lead Newcastle and I know he'll be an outstanding leader of that club."
Atlanta signed MLS's three most expensive incoming players in Argentine midfielders Thiago Almada, Ezequiel Barco and Pity Martinez, whose transfer fees reportedly were a combined $46.5 million.
A statement from the club's investment group -- PIF, PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media -- praised Eales, calling him an exceptional leader in a statement.
"He has a deep understanding of the football industry and what it takes to achieve growth and success," the statement said. "And he will be a key member of the club's leadership team as we look to deliver on the club's potential on and off the pitch."
Newcastle confirm Eales as chief executive officer after agreeing Atlanta deal
Fri, 15 July 2022
Darren Eales has switched Atlanta United for Newcastle United to join as chief executive officer as the Magpies continue to assemble their boardroom staff.
Newcastle managed to convince Dan Ashworth to leave Brighton and Hove Albion to become their sporting director in May, seven months after their controversial Saudi-backed takeover.
Ashworth will now be joined by Eales, who he worked alongside at West Brom between 2006 and 2010, with the 49-year-old leaving MLS side Atlanta, where he was president and chief executive officer (CEO).
Eales heads to Tyneside with sizeable boardroom experience, having been named the MLS Executive of the Year on two occasions and the World Football Summit Executive of the Year in 2019.
"Newcastle United is both a giant of a club, and the heartbeat of its community," said Eales, who also has administrative experience with Tottenham.
"Every time I have visited St. James' Park, I've been overwhelmed by the passion of the fans.
"This is a club with an amazingly rich heritage, and I am delighted to be joining for this new chapter in its long history.
"I am grateful for the opportunity, and look forward to working with the rest of the team to help this storied club fulfil its potential."
Eales also has previous history with Newcastle, having sold Miguel Almiron to the Premier League side after the forward helped Atlanta become MLS Cup winners in 2018.
"We are delighted to announce Darren Eales as the club's new CEO," Newcastle's investment group added. "He is an exceptional leader and is a great fit for Newcastle United.
"We have conducted an exhaustive recruitment process to ensure we identified and secured the right individual for the CEO position, and we are confident we have found that person in Darren.
"He has a deep understanding of the football industry and what it takes to achieve growth and success, and he will be a key member of the club's leadership team as we look to deliver on the club's potential on and off the pitch."
Colombian forces kill FARC dissident leader Fri, July 15, 2022
Colombian forces have killed FARC dissident leader Nestor Vera and nine other rebels in a raid in the country's southwest, the defense minister said on Friday.
The operation "allowed us to neutralize nine individuals on the FARC dissident frontline as well as... Ivan Mordisco," minister Diego Molano told reporters, using Vera's nom de guerre.
"The last major leader of the FARC has fallen," Molano added, and described this as the "final blow" to the renegade movement.
Hundreds of dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have continued fighting after their comrades lay down arms under a 2016 peace accord that ended more than half a century of armed conflict.
Vera, one of Colombia's most wanted men, recently took command of a group of some 2,000 dissidents, the so-called Armando Rios front, after the presumed death of leader "Gentil Duarte" in fighting with a drug gang in neighboring Venezuela in May, according to Colombian intelligence.
A reward of $700,000 had been on offer for information on Vera's whereabouts.
Some 500 soldiers were deployed in the Colombian jungle several weeks ago on a mission to find Vera, according to General Luis Fernando Navarro.
Vera and his comrades were ultimately killed in an air force-led operation on July 8.
- 'Fundamental blow' -
Just months before the 2016 agreement was signed, Vera became the first FARC leader to renounce the peace process with several of his subordinates.
Despite the agreement, Colombia has seen a flare-up of violence due to fighting over territory and resources among the dissidents, the hold-out ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.
The government says Vera and his men were engaged in a fierce dispute over drug trafficking routes with another dissident faction called Segunda Marquetalia, led by former FARC chief Ivan Marquez.
Marquez had signed the 2016 peace pact only to take up arms again, in 2019.
Bogota says Marquez was injured in a recent attack in Venezuela, and is hospitalized there, though Caracas said this was mere speculation.
"Today in Colombia there are none of the leaders, the big capos of the former FARC... it is a fundamental blow to the plans they had for regeneration," said the defense minister, Molano.
With no unified command, FARC dissident fighters are thought to number some 5,200 scattered around the country, according to the Indepaz monitoring group.
They are financed mainly by drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The majority are new recruits who were never FARC members, according to Indepaz.
jss/gm/mlr/dw
Dissident FARC leader killed in military raid in Colombia, defence ministry says
Nestor Gregorio Vera, who commanded a group of former Colombian rebels who rejected a peace deal and was best known by his alias Ivan Mordisco, died in an armed forces bombing this week, Defense Minister Diego Molano said on Friday.
Mordisco was killed along with nine other fighters last weekend in a jungle area of southwestern Caqueta province, Molano told journalists.
Mordisco's death is the latest in a series of killings of ex-FARC leaders who rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government and instead formed two dissident factions which officials say are involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
"The operation had as an objective the neutralization of one of the top commanders of the FARC dissidents who never entered the Havana (peace) accord and whose criminal trajectory of more than 30 years in the south of the country was a scourge of that region," Molano said.
Mordisco was the last great FARC leader, Molano said, and his death is a final stab at the dissidents. Molano said Mordisco had been planning to expand his faction.
According to security sources, Mordisco replaced Gentil Duarte as the leader of their so-called FARC-EP dissident faction after the latter was killed at the end of May in Venezuela, the site of all other recent deaths of dissident commanders.
The FARC-EP faction and its rival the Segunda Marquetalia compete against each other and other armed groups for control of criminal activities in Colombia and Venezuela.
Segunda Marquetalia commander Ivan Marquez, who was a negotiator at peace talks before rejecting the accord, survived a recent attack in Venezuela, according to Colombia's armed forces.
Dissident leaders Jesus Santrich, Romana and El Paisa have also been killed recently in Venezuela.
The Colombian government accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of sheltering Colombian armed groups, which Maduro has vehemently denied.
Extremely rare 'dinosaur' bird brought to UK to save species | SWNS
An extremely rare 'dinosaur' bird - the only one of its kind in the UK - is patiently waiting for a lifelong mate to help save her entire species.
Abou the female shoebill that has recently arrived at Exmoor Zoo as part of an international breeding programme to save her species.
The unique looking bird is just one of eleven shoebills in the world currently in captivity - and now the only one in the UK.
They are monogamous and normally only rear one youngster, so combined with threats arising from climate change, they are a species "massively under threat".
Abou, who is 14-years-old was born and bred inside Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium.
The lovesick bird has been greeting her keepers with displays of bowing and spreading her wings - a common courtship ritual.
She's been move to the UK to wait while the breeding programme produces a male bird, so the pair can be matched and produce much-needed offspring.
Derek Gibson, curator at Exmoor Zoo, says the team are "delighted" to welcome their newest member of the family.
How authoritarian regimes hunt their opponents abroad
Selim SAHEB ETTABA Fri, July 15, 2022
The world's authoritarian regimes are persecuting their opponents living abroad more vigorously than ever before and some get away with murder, literally.
A blatant example of the impunity some governments enjoy is Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country US President Joe Biden labelled a "pariah" over the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Yet in June, Saudi made up with Turkey -- where the murder happened -- and Biden decided to include the kingdom on a tour of the Middle East.
Experts say transnational repression of opposition figures is nothing new, but since digital technologies have allowed dissidents to needle authoritarian regimes from across borders more easily, they have stoked the wrath of strongmen like rarely before.
"The threat perception of dictators or these repressive regimes has increased," said Marcus Michaelson, a researcher on authoritarianism at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels.
According to US watchdog Freedom House, there were at least 735 direct, physical incidents of transnational repression between 2014 and 2021, carried out by 36 governments, notably those of China, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Rwanda.
Four regimes joined the list in 2021, including Belarus, which diverted an aircraft to arrest an opposition figure.
- 'Harassment to murder' -
Spectacular acts like the poisoning of former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018, or the killing in 2019 in Berlin of Georgian Chechen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili -- attributed to Russia -- get the world's attention, but much of the repression happens under the radar.
"The range of tactics goes from harassment to murder," said Katia Roux at Amnesty International France.
Turkish journalist Can Dundar, who runs a website and a radio station aimed at Turkey and the Turkish diaspora from exile in Germany, has become a target for the secret apparatus of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"In the first year we found a Turkish camera crew (...) recording our office and giving all the details of our office, including our address and our daily work schedule, at what time we are there, at what time we are getting out etc, and showing it as the 'headquarters of the traitors' making plans against Turkey," he told AFP.
Turkish intelligence "is very active, especially in Germany and France," he said, recalling the attack by three men on a Turkish journalist in Berlin in July 2021 who warned him to stop writing about certain topics.
Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, who fled to France after a kidnapping attempt he blamed on his home country's security services, said he still didn't actually feel safe in exile, only "safer".
In 2020 a Pakistani intelligence officer told Siddiqui's parents that "if Taha thinks he's safe in Paris, he is mistaken. We can reach anyone anywhere".
The threat came the same year as the suspicious deaths of a Pakistani journalist in Sweden, and of a Pakistani human rights activist in Canada, and a year before a British court convicted a man for the contract killing of a Pakistani blogger in Dutch exile.
"They have made me paranoid, suspicious, scared, even in exile," said Siddiqui, who has opened "The Dissident Club" in Paris, a bar dedicated to discussion, exhibitions and screenings.
Digital technologies give repressive regimes a whole new toolkit to sidestep the political cost or diplomatic risk that can come with physical action against dissidents, with "almost no consequences", said Michaelson.
They have a "commercial market for surveillance technologies" at their disposal, such as the Israeli-made spy software Pegasus, which are cost-effective, he said.
"So they don't need to invest a lot of manpower or send agents to spy on dissidents abroad," he said.
A telling example is Egyptian opposition figure Ayman Nour, a friend of Khashoggi, and exiled in Turkey.
Citizen Lab, a body for research into technology, human rights and security, said it found two sets of spyware on Nour's mobile phone -- Pegasus and Predator -- operated by two different governments.
- 'You have to stop' -
Calling spying "a form or organised crime", Nour said he always thought of his phone as "a radio that anybody can listen to".
Amnesty International has identified 11 government clients for Pegasus which allows "the surveillance of anybody in a completely invisible and untraceable way", said Roux.
Activists in China defending the rights of the Uyghur minority, against which western countries say China is committing "genocide", often find that digital threats precede physical violence, said Michaelson.
Meiirbek Sailanbek, a member of China's Kazakh community, said he uninstalled all Chinese apps from his phone when he moved to neighbouring Kazakhstan, and deleted the numbers of his brother and sister who still live in Xinjiang, the Uyghur autonomous region in northwest China.
When the Kazakhstan authorities arrested the head of the Atajurt NGO -- which Sailanbek had joined writing social posts under a pseudonym -- he fled the country, settling in Paris.
But Kazakhstan's authorities identified him, and since then the Chinese government is threatening his brother and sister with prison if he continues his activism.
"Meiirbek, your sister and brother are in danger, you have to stop," said a message forwarded to him by his mother.
Sailanbek faces arrest if he returns to China or Kazakhstan, but he considers Turkey, Pakistan, Arab nations and Russia to be off-limits too because he believes they would give in to Chinese pressure to hand him over.
sst/jh/cdw
Villages battle wildfires in Portugal; Europe swelters
This photo provided Thursday July 14, 2022 by the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS33) shows a wildfire near Landiras, southwestern France, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. A spate of wildfires is scorching parts of Europe, with firefighters battling blazes in Portugal, Spain and southern France. In France, two fires raged out of control in the region around Bordeaux in southwest France for a third consecutive day, despite efforts of 1,000 firefighters and water-dumping planes to contain them.
(SDIS 33 via AP)
BEMPOSTA, Portugal (AP) — More than 3,000 firefighters battled Thursday alongside ordinary Portuguese citizens desperate to save their homes from several wildfires that raged across the European country, fanned by extreme temperatures and drought conditions linked to climate change.
Central Portugal has been particularly hard hit by a spate of blazes this week. In the village of Bemposta, residents used garden hoses to spray their lawns and roofs in hopes they could save them from the raging wall of red flames that approached through the wooden hills late Wednesday.
“It began spreading towards that way, the wind was blowing that way towards the mountain,” said 88-year-old Antonio Carmo Pereira, while pointing to the flames on the outskirts of his village. “In a few minutes I couldn’t see anything, just smoke.”
“(It’s) dangerous, yes. It’s surrounding all the houses,” he said. “I am afraid, but where can I go? Jump into a water tank? Let me stay here and look.” ADVERTISEMENT
More than 800 firefighters were still fighting blazes in the Leiria district, where Bemposta is located, on Thursday.
Temperatures in the interior of the Atlantic country were forecast to hit 44 C (111 F) as hot, dry air blown in from Africa lingers over the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula. In June, 96% of Portugal was classified as being in either in “extreme” or “severe” drought.
The hot air and parched ground, combined with strong winds, has created the perfect cocktail for severe wildfires.
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa’s government on Thursday extended a state of alert for wildfires until Sunday due to high temperatures. The week-long alert was originally to run until Friday. The Portuguese government has temporarily barred public access to forests deemed to be at special risk, banned the use of farm machinery and outlawed fireworks.
Costa said firefighters had to respond to 200 different blazes Wednesday and pleaded for his fellow citizens to take extra care when in the countryside.
“More than ever, we are the ones who must be extremely careful,” Costa said. “From a small act of carelessness a great tragedy can be born.”
About 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) have been scorched this week in Portugal, according to the Civil Protection Agency. About 865 people had to evacuate their homes over the past week, although many had returned by Thursday. More than 30 homes and other buildings have been damaged.
Civil Protection commander André Fernandes said 160 people, including at least 70 firefighters, have been injured so far, but there are no confirmed fatalities from the fires in Portugal. Four people, including two firefighters, were seriously injured. Portugal has improved its fire safety since wildfires killed more than 100 people in 2017.
In central Hungary, firefighters discovered a body Thursday where a small forest fire had burned overnight. It was found buried under the collapsed roof of a burned farmhouse near the village of Soltszentimre.
Spain was still combating a fire started by a lightning strike on Monday in the west-central Las Hurdes area that has consumed about 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres). Temperatures in many parts of Spain have been topping the 40 C (104 F) mark for several days and are expected to stay high until next week.
In France, two fires raged out of control in the region around Bordeaux in southwest France for a third consecutive day, despite the efforts of 1,000 firefighters and water-dumping planes to contain them.
The fires have destroyed more than 3,850 hectares (9,500 acres) of forest and grassland, the regional emergency said. It said firefighters struggled to contain the fire because of high winds and the difficulty of accessing the heart of the fires. More than 6,000 people have been evacuated from French campgrounds and villages in recent days.
___
Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Angela Charlton in Paris, Ciarán Giles in Madrid, and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
Fire crews prepare to defend a home as a wildfire advances Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, in Bonsall, Calif. Environmental groups have been arguing in California courts that developers are not fully considering the risks of wildfire and choked evacuation routes when they plan housing developments near fire-prone areas.
\(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Preston Brown knows the risk of wildfire that comes with living in the rural, chaparral-lined hills of San Diego County. He’s lived there for 21 years and evacuated twice.
That’s why he fiercely opposed a plan to build more than 1,100 homes in a fire-prone area he said would be difficult to evacuate safely. Brown sits on the local planning commission, and he said the additional people would clog the road out.
“It’s a very rough area,” Brown said. “We have fires all the time now.”
Opponents like Brown, a member of the Sierra Club and California Native Plant Society, scored a win last year. A California court sided with a coalition of environmental groups and blocked a developer’s plan called Otay Village 14 that included single-family homes and commercial space. The groups argued the county didn’t adequately consider fire escape routes, and the judge agreed.
That’s not the only time California’s escalating cycle of fire has been used as a basis to refuse development.
Environmental groups are seeing increased success in California courts arguing that wildfire risk wasn’t fully considered in proposals to build homes in fire-prone areas that sit at the edge of forests and brush, called the wildland-urban interface. Experts say such litigation could become more common.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has backed a handful of the lawsuits, putting developers on notice.
“You can’t keep doing things the way we’ve been doing when the world is changing around us,” Bonta said in an interview, adding that he supports more housing. His office has, for example, questioned the increased fire risk of a 16,000-acre (6,475-hectare) project that includes a luxury resort and 385 residential lots in Lake County, roughly 130 miles (209 kilometers) north of San Francisco in an area that has already seen significant fire.
Bonta said his office is working on a policy that will help developers and local officials avoid future opposition from his office. It will provide guidance on evacuation routes, planning for population growth and minimizing fire risk, he said.
Developers say they already consider wildfire risks in their plans, comply with strict fire codes and adhere to state environmental policies, all while trying to ease another one of the state’s most pressing problems: the need for more housing.
Builders also say communities sometimes unfairly wield wildfire risk as a tool to stop development. The AG’s office has weighed in on this side, too. Last year, the city of Encinitas denied permits to an apartment complex citing the possibility of choked outgoing traffic if there were a fire.
Encinitas — a city with a median home price of $1.67 million — was thwarting the state’s affordable housing goals, Bonta’s office wrote. Months later, the commission approved the developer’s plan with some changes.
FIRE AND LAWSUITS
California is withering under a megadrought that is increasing the risk of fire, with 12 of the 20 largest wildfires in its history taking place in the past five years. UC Berkeley researchers estimate 1.4 million homes in California are located in high or very high-risk areas. Activists say the public is increasingly aware of fires.
The result is more lawsuits.
Opponents of the developments are employing the often-hated California Environmental Quality Act against local governments in these lawsuits. That law ensures there’s enough information about projects like Otay Village 14 for officials to make informed decisions and address problems. In 2018, the state strengthened requirements for disclosing wildfire risk, leaving developers more vulnerable to this kind of litigation.
Peter Broderick, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said environmental groups are challenging “the worst of the worst,” large projects in undeveloped, high fire-prone areas that cater to wealthy buyers.
“We’re talking about sprawl,” Broderick said.
Pro-housing advocates have said the state’s policies encourage sprawl.
MAJOR HOUSING NEED
But by fighting big developments, environmental groups are holding up thousands of homes, said Mark Dillon, an attorney who represented the Otay Village 14 builders. New developments take fire risk seriously, employing techniques for fire-resistance and complying with building codes, he said. Otay Village 14 would build its own fire station.
California shouldn’t just focus on building in city centers, Dillon countered.
“We shouldn’t be outlawing the single family home,” he said.
Jennifer Hernandez heads the West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group at Holland & Knight LLP. She said developers are adjusting to changes in the environmental review law but that the attorney general’s office should issue a public policy.
“The ad hoc nature of unexpected interventions by the AG’s office does a policy disservice to California housing needs,” she said.
Hernandez represents an industry group that sued Calabasas, an affluent community of over 20,000 northwest of Los Angeles, arguing that it improperly cited wildfire risk to deny a 180-unit development.
“It’s on the main street of an existing community,” she said. “And why is this a problem?”
Calabasas City Manager Kindon Meik said the project would violate open space rules and was in a high-risk area that had recently burned, adding the city has plans to meet its new housing needs.
California’s housing shortage has made homes unaffordable for many moderate and low-income residents. Researchers, housing policy experts, and others say development at the edge of the forest has been driven in part by these punishing home costs in cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and their suburbs.
In recent years, the state passed measures aimed at ensuring cities build enough new homes, but a recent statewide housing plan said 2.5 million new homes are still needed over the next eight years.
Greg Pierce, a professor of urban environmental policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said there’s very little land left in California that is undeveloped, cheap and at low risk of fire.
Meanwhile, activists have more projects in their crosshairs.
NeySa Ely of Escondido has a list of items like medicine and dog supplies to grab the next time she has to flee a fire. She had to evacuate in 2003 and 2007. The first time, she remembers driving away and seeing flames in the rearview mirror.
“At that point, I just started sobbing,” Ely said.
Her house survived that blaze, but the memory stuck. So when she heard about plans for Harvest Hills, a roughly 550-home development proposed about a mile from her house, she worked to block it, concerned that more residents and buildings in the area would clog the roads out and increase the chance of fire.
The project hasn’t been approved yet, but if it is, Ely said, “I think it will be heavily litigated.”
___
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment
