'Warn everyone': Spain's gay community acts as monkeypox spreads


Marie GIFFARD
Sat, July 30, 2022 


Whether it's abstinence, avoiding nightclubs, limiting sexual partners or pushing for a swift vaccine rollout, Spain's gay community are on the front line of the monkeypox virus and are taking action.

"With this monkey thing, I prefer to be careful... I don't have sex any more, I don't go to parties any more, and that's until I'm vaccinated and have some immunity," said Antonio, a 35-year-old from Madrid who declined to give his surname.

Antonio, who often went to nightclubs and sometimes to sex parties, decided to act as cases continued to increase.

Spain on Saturday reported its second monkeypox-related death.

Outside of Africa, the only other such death has been in Brazil.

More than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Spain is one of the world's worst-hit countries. The country's health ministry's emergency and alert coordination centre put the number of infected people at 4,298.

As cases increase globally, the WHO has called on the group currently most affected by the virus -- men who have sex with men -- to limit their sexual partners.

Before going on holiday abroad, one holidaymaker said he would avoid "risky situations".

"I didn't go to sex clubs anymore and I didn't have sex either," the 38-year-old explained.
- Lack of vaccines -

"This is not like Covid, the vaccine already exists, there's no need to invent it. If it wasn't a queer disease, we would have acted more -- and faster," said Antonio.

Like other members of the gay community, he believes the authorities have not done enough.

NGOs have denounced a lack of prevention, a shortage of vaccines and stigmatisation linked to the virus.

This is despite the WHO declaring the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.

Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands and a chickenpox-like rash.

The disease usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, sometimes taking a month.

A smallpox vaccine from Danish drug maker Bavarian Nordic, marketed under the name Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in Europe, has been found to protect against monkeypox.

It took Antonio three weeks to get an appointment to be vaccinated, after logging on to the official website every day at midnight.

Appointments "are going as fast as tickets to the next Beyonce concert", another joked referring to the gay icon.

So far, Spain has only received 5,300 doses which arrived in late June.

The Spanish health ministry declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
- 'Anyone can catch it' -

Nahum Cabrera of the FELGTBI+ NGO, an umbrella group of over 50 LGBTQ organisations from all over Spain, insists there is an urgent need to vaccinate those most at risk.

That means not just gay men, but anyone who has "regular sex with multiple partners, as well as those who frequent swingers' clubs, LGTBI saunas etc", he said.

"It risks creating a false sense of security among the general population, and they relax into thinking that they are safe and that it only happens to men who have sex with men," he said.

The target age group for vaccination is those aged between 18 and 46, he added.

Older people are vaccinated against smallpox which was eradicated in Europe in the early 1970s.

"We are facing a health emergency... that affects the LGBTI community, so people think it is insignificant, that it is not serious," said Ivan Zaro, of the Imagina MAS (Imagine More) NGO.

"This is exactly what happened 40 years ago with HIV.

Image director Javier spent three days in hospital in early July after becoming infected.

After three weeks in isolation, a challenge after the pressures of Covid, he told his family and friends.

The 32-year-old, who is in a monogamous relationship, said he still did not know how he had caught it.

"I warn everyone," he said. "It's an infectious disease, anyone can catch it."

mig/chz/pvh/gw/ach

HEALTHY SCEPTICISM
Afghans cast doubt on Kabul killing of Al-Qaeda chief


Issued on: 02/08/2022 

Kabul (AFP) – Many Afghans expressed shock or doubt Tuesday that Al-Qaeda's chief had been killed in Kabul by a US drone strike, saying they couldn't believe Ayman Al-Zawahiri had been hiding in their midst.

"It's just propaganda," Fahim Shah, 66, a resident of the Afghan capital, told AFP.

Late Monday, US President Joe Biden announced Zawahiri's assassination, saying "justice has been delivered" to the Egyptian with a $25 million bounty on his head.

A senior US official said the 71-year-old was on the balcony of a three-storey house in the upmarket Sherpur neighbourhood when targeted with two Hellfire missiles shortly after dawn Sunday.

"We have experienced such propaganda in the past and there was never anything in it," Shah said.

"In reality, I don't think he was killed here."

The Taliban admitted earlier Tuesday that the US had carried out a drone strike, but gave no details of casualties -- and did not name Zawahiri, who was considered a key plotter of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

On Sunday, the interior ministry had denied reports of a drone strike, but Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday that was because an investigation was underway.

Kabul resident Abdul Kabir said he heard the strike Sunday morning, but still called on the United States to prove who was killed.

"They should show to the people and to the world that 'we had hit this man and here is the evidence'," Kabir said.

"We think they killed somebody else and announced it was the Al-Qaeda chief... there are many other places he could be hiding -- in Pakistan, or even in Iraq."

The strike is sure to further sour already bitter relations between Washington and the Taliban, which pledged to stop Afghanistan from being a sanctuary for militants as part of the agreement that led to the US troop withdrawal last year.

University student Mohammad Bilal was another who thought it unlikely Zawahiri had been living in Kabul.

"This is a terrorist group and I do not think they will send their leader to Afghanistan," Bilal said.

"Leaders of most terrorist groups, including the Taliban, were either living in Pakistan or in the United Arab Emirates when they were in conflict with former Afghan forces," he said.

A straw poll, however, found some believers in the capital.

Kabul housewife Freshta, who asked not to be further identified, said she was shocked to learn of Zawahiri's killing.

"It's so uncomfortable to know that he was living here," she said.

A shopkeeper who also asked not to be named said he too wasn't surprised.

"Any terrorist group can enter our land, use it and get out easily," he told AFP.

"We don't have a good government. We are unable to protect ourselves, our soil and our property."

© 2022 AFP

French bullfight foes eye coup de grace for 'immoral' spectacle

Jostling crowds packed the streets of Bayonne for the bullfighting feria that ended Sunday, a sea of fans clad all in white except for bright red bandanas or sashes 

GAIZKA IROZ AFP

02/08/2022 - 

Paris (AFP) – As thousands of bullfighting aficionados gather across southern France for traditional summer ferias, opponents of the practice are reviving their fight for an outright ban, confident that public opinion is finally on their side.

"I think the majority of French people share the view that bullfights are immoral, a spectacle that no longer has its place in the 21st century," said Aymeric Caron, a popular former TV journalist and animal rights activist who was recently elected to parliament as part of the hard-left France Unbowed party.

For years, critics have sought a final legal blow against what they call a cruel and archaic ritual, but none of the draft bills presented have ever been approved for debate by National Assembly lawmakers.

French courts have also routinely rejected lawsuits lodged by animal rights activists, most recently in July 2021 in Nimes, home to one of France's most famous bullfighting events.

But Caron, based in Paris, told AFP that the time was ripe for a new proposal given growing concerns about animal welfare, with a draft bill to be submitted this week.

"I do indeed hope this bill will be debated in parliament in November... it would be a first," he said.

The prospect seems all the more likely after France Unbowed won dozens of new seats in recent elections, helping to strip President Emmanuel Macron of his centrist majority in parliament.

The goal is to modify an animal welfare law that allows exceptions for bullfights -- as well as cock fighting -- when it can be shown that they are "uninterrupted local traditions."

Such exceptions are granted to cities including Bayonne and the mediaeval jewel of Mont-de-Marsan in southwest France near Spain, where the practice has its origins, and along the Mediterranean coast including Arles, Beziers and Nimes.
'Respecting the animal'

For Caron, "it's not a French tradition, it's a Spanish custom that was imported to France in the 19th century to please the wife of Napoleon III, who was from Andalusia," the countess Eugenie de Montijo.

That argument is unlikely to convince the jostling crowds who packed the streets of Bayonne for the bullfighting feria that ended Sunday, a sea of fans clad all in white except for bright red bandanas or sashes.

"The people who want to ban it don't understand it. Bullfighting is a drama that brings you closer to death... You're afraid, but that's a part of life," said Jean-Luc Ambert, who came with friends from the central Auvergne region.

Like many other fans, his friend Francoise insisted that bullfighting is an art as much as a sport, where "a man puts his life on the line, while respecting the animal."

"We're not trying to convert anyone -- I just want the people against it to leave us alone," she told AFP.

The guest star of the Bayonne feria, Spanish matador Alejandro Talavante, did indeed find an appreciative audience, with the crowd demanding the award of the bull's ear for his performance.

It's a conflict that echoes the widening rift in France between rural dwellers steeped in deep agriculture traditions, and Parisians and other urban residents accused of trampling on the country's cultural heritage -- often derided as "the Taliban of Paristan."

Widespread support?

Andre Viard, president of the national bullfighting association, shrugged off the threat of a ban.

"This comes up in every parliamentary session," Viard told AFP of Caron's efforts to find allies for the France Unbowed initiative.

"We tell the other parties: Why do you want to be associated with a bill that attacks a cultural freedom protected by the Constitution, and territorial identity?"

The debate echoes similar opposition in other countries with bullfighting histories, including Spain and Portugal as well as Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.

In June, a judge in Mexico City ordered an indefinite suspension of bullfighting in the capital's historic bullring, the largest in the world.

Caron is banking on support from across the political spectrum, including top members of Macron's party such as the head of his parliamentary group Aurore Berge, who was among 36 lawmakers who called for a bullfighting ban last year.

An Ifop poll earlier this year found that 77 percent of respondents approved of a ban, up from 50 percent in 2007.

"More and more people are concerned about animal suffering, including in bullfights," Claire Starozinski of the Anti-Bullfighting Alliance told AFP, adding that many people don't realise that the bulls are actually killed.

"I know there are MPs from other parties who will support me, and have said so," Caron said -- though he admitted that more mainstream lawmakers such as Berge might be reluctant to join his leftish campaign.

"Is she going to remain true to her convictions, or make a political calculation that prevents her from supporting me? That's what will be at stake in the talks over the coming weeks and months."

© 2022 AFP

WAIT, WHAT?

Somalia appoints al Shabaab co-founder as religion minister

Sheikh Muktar Robow Abuu Mansuur, a senior official of the Al-Shabaab group, walks along the frontline, north of Mogadishu

Tue, August 2, 2022 at 6:55 AM·

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Tuesday named a co-founder and spokesman of the Islamist al Shabaab as minister for religious affairs, a move that could either help strengthen the fight against the insurgents or provoke further clan clashes.

Mukhtar Robow had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head after he co-founded al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab and served as the group's spokesman.

Al Shabaab insurgents have killed tens of thousands of people in bombings in their fight to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed central government and implement its interpretation of Islamic law.

Robow split from the group in 2013 and publicly denounced al Shabaab when he came to the government side in 2017.

But the relationship soured after he grew too politically powerful. Somalia's previous government arrested Robow in December 2018 as he campaigned for the regional presidency of southwest state.

Security forces shot dead at least 11 people in the protests that followed, sparking criticism from the United Nations.

Robow's new job sparked a flurry of hashtags on twitter crowing he had made it #FromPrisonertoMinister. He had been held under house arrest until recently.

His appointment could help strengthen government forces in his native Bakool region, where insurgents hold substantial amounts of territory but where Robow also commands support. Or it could fan flames with the region's president, who sees him as a political rival.

"We welcome his appointment. The move will advance reconciliation and will serve as a good example for more high level al-Shabab defections," said political analyst Mohamed Mohamud.

"Al Shabaab members who might be thinking of surrendering ... can dream of serving their country at the highest levels."

New President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected by lawmakers in May, has promised to take the fight to the insurgents after three years in which his predecessor, consumed by political infighting, took little action against al Shabaab.

That allowed the insurgents to build up substantial reserves of cash and carry out attacks over a wide swathe of Somalia. Last week scores of al Shabaab fighters and Ethiopian security forces were killed in clashes along the two nations' shared border.

(Additional by Abdi Sheikh and Daud Yusuf in Nairobi, Kenya; Writing by Katharine Houreld and George Obulutsa; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)

Natural disaster losses hit $72 bn in first half 2022: Swiss Re

Nathalie OLOF-ORS
Tue, August 2, 2022 


Total economic losses caused by natural disasters hit an estimated $72 billion in the first half of 2022, fuelled by storms and floods, Swiss reinsurance giant Swiss Re estimated Tuesday.

Though the figure is lower than the $91 billion estimate for the first six months of 2021, it is close to the 10-year average of $74 billion, and the weight is shifting towards weather-induced catastrophes.

"The effects of climate change are evident in increasingly extreme weather events, such as the unprecedented floods in Australia and South Africa," said Martin Bertogg, Swiss Re's head of catastrophe perils.

The Zurich-based group, which acts as an insurer for insurers, said the losses were also propelled by winter storms in Europe as well as heavy thunderstorms on the continent and in the United States.

So-called secondary natural disasters like floods and storms -- as opposed to major disasters such as earthquakes -- are happening more frequently, the reinsurer said.

"This confirms the trend we have observed over the last five years: that secondary perils are driving insured losses in every corner of the world," Bertogg said.

"Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, these perils are ubiquitous and exacerbated by rapid urbanisation in particularly vulnerable areas," he said.

"Given the scale of the devastation across the globe, secondary perils require the same disciplined risk assessment as primary perils such as hurricanes."

Swiss Re said floods in India, China and Bangladesh confirm the growing loss potential from flooding in urban areas.

Man-made catastrophes such as industrial accidents added on a further $3 billion of economic losses to the $72 billion from natural disasters, taking the total to $75 billion -- which is down on the $95 billion total for the first half of 2021.
- Insured losses at $38 bn -

Total insured losses stood at $38 billion: $3 billion worth of man-made disasters and $35 billion worth of natural catastrophes -- up 22 percent on the 10-year average, said the Swiss reinsurer, warning of the effects of climate change.

February's storms in Europe cost insurers $3.5 billion, according to Swiss Re estimates.

Australia's floods in February and March set a new record for insured flood losses in the country at so far close to $3.5 billion -- one of the costliest natural catastrophes ever in the country.

Severe weather and hailstorms in France in the first six months of the year have so far caused an estimated four billion euros ($4.1 billion) of insured market losses.

The Swiss group also mentioned the summer heatwaves in Europe, which resulted in fires and drought-related damage, without providing estimates at this stage.

A warming climate is likely to exacerbate droughts and thereby the likelihood of wildfires, causing greater damage where urban sprawl grows into the countryside, Swiss Re said.

"Climate change is one of the biggest risks our society and the global economy is facing," said the group's chief economist Jerome Jean Haegeli.

"With 75 percent of all natural catastrophes still uninsured, we see large protection gaps globally exacerbated by today's cost-of-living crisis."

noo/rjm/lth

Alberta UCP government's anti-racism action plan met with criticism, questions

Some advocates and the Opposition NDP say the Alberta government’s anti-racism action plan avoids taking important action.


Labour and Immigration Minister Kaycee Madu.

Released on July 18, the Alberta government’s 20-page anti-racism action plan, presented as a “living document” that will change based on feedback, outlines three years’ worth of initiatives, including some the government has already done or begun to work on.

Irfan Chaudhry, director of MacEwan University’s office of human rights, diversity and equity, said in an interview with Postmedia Wednesday the plan offers some constructive initiatives, but he doesn’t have much hope in it achieving its goals.

“I think it’s really weak,” he said.

The action plan comes more than a year-and-a-half after the Alberta Anti-Racism Advisory Council, whose membership has since shifted, submitted a report to the government in January 2021. The public report with 48 recommendations was released last June, after the government had already announced action, including creating a hate crime liaison, a Hate Crimes Coordination Unit and the rollout of a grant program for religious and ethnic organizations to boost security against potential hate crimes .

Some recommendations of the council, however, including to mandate the collection of race-based data across government departments and police services, appear to have been either rejected, or relegated to another day.

Over the next three years, the latest plan commits to developing data standards, and commissioning an expert report to guide the potential collection and use of race-based data.

“There’s likely zero to no commitment from this government to any collection of race-based data … to me that just sounds like kicking the can down the road,” said Chaudhry.

In April, a UCP-led committee rejected a bill from NDP MLA David Shepherd that would have required the collection of race-based data by government.

Roy Dallmann, press secretary to Labour and Immigration Minister Kaycee Madu, said the government wants to get the collection of race-based data right, citing the historic misuse of such information.

Alberta NDP multiculturalism critic Jasvir Deol said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed” the government sat on the recommendations of the council for a year and a half, and then failed to deliver a comprehensive action plan, including avoiding committing to data collection.

“The UCP has not carefully or mindfully consulted with community members on the actions that would improve the lives of racialized Albertans,” said Deol.

The plan promises to tackle public education and cultural awareness, enable skills training for racialized and Indigenous peoples, create new grant and recognition programs for racialized and newcomer Albertans, and help remove barriers to cultural organizations applying for grants.

Bukola Salami, an associate professor in the faculty of nursing at the University of Alberta whose research focuses on health and immigration policies, said in an interview with Postmedia there are good elements, including promised grant funding.

“It’s basic, it’s general, but at least it’s better than nothing,” she said, adding there is much to still be addressed in terms of accountability measures, including protection from backlash for those reporting injustices.

“The question is will it push the needle? Will it make any much difference, without having an accountability piece?” she said.

Chaudhry said helping cultural organizations apply for grants is a critical step that can help address systemic bias. However, he said he finds it disingenuous for the government to commit to new grants, since in 2019 the UCP removed the Human Rights and Multiculturalism Grants program.

“I have a hard time buying what’s being sold on this one, because there has been a patterned, sustained removal of a commitment to anti-racism from this specific government,” he said.

While the plan promises to act to ensure “inclusion and diversity training” for law enforcement officers, it does not make clear whether that training might be mandatory, and for whom.

The government said it’s currently reviewing the Police Act to modernize policing, including officer training requirements, but it referred specific questions about recruiting and in-service training to police services.

Chaudhry said a focus on further discussion with community groups can put off taking action.

“I don’t think communities want more talking or discussion, I think they’ve already ‘been there, done that,’ so to speak, and that’s where I think a lot of this is going to fall flat.”

While the government’s release noted that the actions “build on” the work of the council, Postmedia did not receive a response to an email to the current advisory council asking for comment on how the action plan relates to its work.

Madu said in the news release announcing the plan that his government has shown a proven track record in dealing with racism, discrimination and systemic racism, but there is more to be done.

“This action plan serves as a road map for our province to confront and take steps to eliminate racism to ensure Alberta is a free, fair and prosperous place for everyone,” Madu said.

Heather Campbell, a former co-chair of the advisory council, said in a Twitter thread shortly after the plan’s release that it’s “terrible and offensive.”

“There is so much ugly ‘collect information’ and ‘do nothing with the information’ in the document,” she wrote.

Dallmann said that kind of reaction to the first such anti-racism plan from any Alberta government is “unfortunate” because it downplays the importance of steps being undertaken.

“Given that this plan is rooted in the recommendations from the former (council) chair, we’re surprised she doesn’t recognize that this is a huge step forward to set Alberta up for increasingly successful diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts in the future,” Dallmann said.

Lisa Johnson - 
lijohnson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/reportrix

Controversy, but louder: Stenson’s LIV Golf title takes backseat in Trumpland

Bryan Armen Graham at Trump National Golf Club - THE GUARDIAN

It didn’t take long for Henrik Stenson’s decision to join the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series to pay off handsomely.

Less than a fortnight after the even-keeled Swede was stripped of Europe’s Ryder Cup captaincy with immediate effect for defecting to the controversial Saudi-backed breakaway circuit on a reported $50m signing fee, Stenson carded a final-round 69 on Sunday afternoon to win LIV Golf’s third event by two shots over Dustin Johnson and Matthew Wolff at Trump National Golf Club in the leafy New Jersey township of Bedminster 45 miles west of New York City.

“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” said Stenson, who brought home $4m for beating the field and an additional $375,000 for his team’s second-place finish, eye-watering sums that helped compensate for the withering criticism he’s endured since reneging on a March pledge upon accepting the captain’s post to fully support the DP Tour.

“I think there might have been a little bit of extra motivation in there this week,” he added. “When we as players have that, I think we can bring out the good stuff. I guess that’s been a bit of a theme over the course of my career, I think, when I really want something I manage to dig a little bit deeper, and a lot of times we manage to make it happen.”

On the surface it hit all the notes of a feel-good narrative: a hard-won return to the winner’s circle for a 46-year-old ranked 173rd in the world who hasn’t been there often since his record-breaking triumph at the 2016 Open. But as Stenson accepted the trophy alongside Donald Trump during a pyrotechnic-peppered ceremony that was curiously omitted from the official broadcast, while Donald Trump Jr declared it “the greatest F/U in the history of Golf”, a gnawing sense of tedium prevailed that not even the post-game Chainsmokers concert near the 10th hole could dispel.

The opprobrium that has come to define the upstart circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund was only magnified at the Bedminster golf club owned by a former US president whose role in fueling the US Capitol riot remains under investigation by a House select committee. Controversy, but louder.

Trump sucked up the spotlight throughout the proceedings, consistently drawing the biggest crowds of the weekend as he watched the competition from a custom-built terrace along the 16th tee with a rotating cast of VIPs that on Sunday included Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson and far-right firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson and former US president Donald Trump watch Sunday’s final round. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

The 54-hole, no-cut competition – absent of meaningful stakes with no meaningful history or world ranking points on the line – felt more like a soft launch for Trump’s 2024 presidential run than an authentic sporting experience. Never more than during Sunday’s final round as spontaneous chants of “Four more years!” and “Let’s go Brandon!” – a coded vulgarity among Trump supporters – resounded across the Old Course.

The renegade circuit has enticed some of the sport’s biggest names with exorbitant $25m purses and nine-figure signing-on fees. It has also drawn fierce backlash from critics who accuse the Saudi government of using sports to launder the kingdom’s dismal human rights record, alleged ties to the September 11 attacks, severe repression of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and the 2018 murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But it doesn’t take a certified public accountant to understand why LIV Golf – despite the sparse crowds at Bedminster and its modest streaming audience in absence of a TV deal – has continued to poach one household name after another from golf’s established tours. Consider Johnson, two-time major champion who reportedly joined on a $150m signing fee, who has earned more than $5.2m in prize money in three LIV events so far. The splashy purses don’t stop at the top of the leaderboard, either. Australia’s Jediah Morgan, who finished 14-over-par for the weekend, a gaping 25 shots adrift of Stenson and in dead last, brought home $120,000 for his trouble. Nice work if you can get it.

LIV Golf is here to stay, it seems. Next stop: the Oaks course at the International outside Boston in September. But the strange scenes of Bedminster have only driven home just how far it has to go in order to win over its skeptics and bridge the divide of golf’s mounting civil war.

Tiger Woods rejected LIV Golf offer in ‘neighbourhood’ of $800 million, confirms Greg Norman

Jack Rathborn
Tue, August 2, 2022 

Tiger Woods gestures to the crowd on the Old Course at St Andrews (AP)

Tiger Woods rejected LIV Golf’s approach when offered in the “neighbourhood” of $700 million to $800 million, Greg Norman has confirmed.

Norman, speaking on Tucker Carlson Tonight, revealed the talks begun before he was named CEO and commissioner of the rebel tour.

Woods has emerged as the sport’s most outspoken supporter of the PGA Tour during the civil war that has emerged this year with LIV Golf, siding with the R&A at The Open in St Andrews for not inviting Norman, a two-time Open champion, to the 150th celebration.

And Norman has now opened up on talks to land golf’s biggest name, previously labelling the offer as “mind-blowingly enormous; we’re talking about high nine digits.”

“That number was out there before I became CEO. So that number has been out there, yes,” Norman said in the Fox News interview at Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey, during the third LIV Golf Invitational.

“And, look, Tiger is a needle-mover and of course you have to look at the best of the best,” Norman said. “So they had originally approached Tiger before I became CEO. So, yes, that number was somewhere in that neighborhood.”

LIV Golf has shaken up golf with enormous offers to some of the best players in the world, with Phil Mickelson reportedly receiving a $200 million signing bonus and Dustin Johnson taking $150 million.

But any hopes of landing Woods appear gone, with the 46-year-old criticising Norman last month.

“The R&A obviously have their opinions and their rulings and their decision,” Woods said. “Greg has done some things that I don’t think is in the best interest of our game, and we’re coming back to probably the most historic and traditional place in our sport. I believe it’s the right thing.

“I disagree with it. I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position.”

Norman further criticised the PGA Tour in the interview, adding: “It’s a monopoly.

“They just want to shut us down whatever way they can, so they’ll use whatever leverage point they can to shut us down, and they’re not. They’re not going to shut us down because the product speaks for itself.

“[Corporate sponsors dropping players who have defected to LIV Golf] blows my mind. Sponsors, by the way, who spend billions of dollars in Saudi Arabia. The PGA Tour has about 27 sponsors, I think, who do 40-plus billion dollars’ worth of business on an annual basis in Saudi Arabia.

“Why doesn’t the PGA Tour call the CEO of those organizations [and say], ‘I’m sorry we can’t do business with you because you’re doing business with Saudi Arabia.’ Why are they picking on the professional golfers?”

UK
Nearly 700 migrants cross Channel in single day in record high for 2022

Flora Thompson and Ian Jones, PA
Tue, August 2, 2022

Almost 700 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK in a single day, a record for the year so far.

Some 696 made the journey in 14 boats on Monday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

This is the highest number on a single day so far this year, and only the second time in 2022 the daily figure has topped 600.

The previous highest number was 651 recorded on April 13.

The latest crossings saw large groups of people, including young children, brought ashore in Ramsgate before leaving the Kent port on double-decker buses.

The data suggests there was an average of around 50 on each boat that day.

More than 17,000 people have arrived in the UK after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats such as dinghies so far in 2022, according to Government figures.

(PA Graphics)

Some 3,683 migrants made the crossing on 90 boats in July, the highest monthly total this year, PA news agency analysis of the figures shows.

Journeys took place on 20 out of 31 days.

It is more than three months since Home Secretary Priti Patel unveiled plans to send migrants to Rwanda to try to deter people from crossings the Channel.

Since then 11,827 have arrived in the UK after making the journey.

On April 14 Ms Patel signed what she described as a “world-first” agreement with Rwanda under which the east African nation will receive migrants deemed by the UK to have arrived “illegally” and are therefore inadmissible under new immigration rules.

But the first deportation flight, due to take off on June 14, was grounded amid legal challenges.

Several asylum seekers, the Public and Commercial Services union and charities Care4Calais, Detention Action and Asylum Aid are challenging the legality of the Home Office policy, with the next court hearings due in September and October.

Charity Freedom from Torture claimed the figures showed the Rwanda deal had “clearly failed to deter people from seeking safety on our shores” and called on the Government to “stop peddling fantasies” and instead establish safe and legal asylum routes that are “so obviously needed”.

#FREEBG

US basketball star Griner 'hoping' to go home: lawyer
Author: AFP|Update: 02.08.2022 15:10

Griner was placed in a defendants' cage for the court hearing in Khimki, 

outside Moscow / © POOL/AFP

US basketball star Brittney Griner is "hoping" to return home from Russia where she is standing trial on drug smuggling charges, her lawyer said Tuesday, amid talk of a prisoner exchange with Washington.

Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women's NBA champion who had played in Russia, was detained in February, just days before Moscow launched its military intervention in Ukraine.

The 31-year-old athlete was charged with drug smuggling for possessing vape cartridges with cannabis oil and is on trial in the town of Khimki just outside Moscow.

Griner appeared in court Tuesday wearing a khaki T-shirt, looking down as she walked in and was placed in a defendants' cage, an AFP journalist reported.

She remained solemn as two narcotics experts gave testimony during the hearing.

"Of course, she heard the news so she is hoping that sometime she could be coming home, and we hope so too," one of Griner's lawyers, Maria Blagovolina, told reporters in English.

Griner has pleaded guilty and without a prisoner swap faces up to ten years in a Russian prison / © AFP

Blagovolina said Griner's legal team was "not involved in any of the negotiations" on a possible prisoner swap.

She added, however, that Griner would be eligible for an exchange after the verdict that "will be very soon".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday held his first talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.

Blinken said he "pressed the Kremlin" to accept a proposal from Washington for the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, a US citizen jailed in Russia on espionage charges.

Griner was detained when she came to Russia to play club basketball with UMMC Ekaterinburg during the US off-season -- a common path for American stars seeking additional income.

At a previous hearing, Griner said she did not intend to break the law or use the banned substance in Russia.

Griner has pleaded guilty and faces up to ten years in prison.

The next hearing will take place on Thursday.

Scientists call for more research into 'climate endgame 

2 Aug 2022 

Extreme events such as forest fires are made more likely by drought induced by climate change. 

The world must prepare for a "climate endgame" to better understand and plan for the potentially catastrophic impacts of global heating that governments have yet to consider, scientists warned Tuesday.

Climate models that can predict the extent of global warming depending on greenhouse gas emissions are increasingly sophisticated and provide policymakers with an accurate trajectory of global temperature rises.

What is less well explored is the cascading impact of certain events, such as crop failures and infrastructure loss due to extreme weather events, which are made likelier to occur with every degree of warming.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) outlined what is currently known about "catastrophic outcomes" and found gaping knowledge gaps.

Writing in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, they proposed an international research agenda to help governments plan for "bad-to-worst cases".

These included four main areas of concern -- what the authors termed the "four horseman" of climate change: famine and malnutrition, extreme weather, conflict, and vector-borne diseases.

"Irreversible and potentially catastrophic risks caused by human induced climate change must be factored into our planning and actions," said Johan Rockstrom, PIK director and a study co-author.

He said that the more research is done on Earth's climate tipping points -- such as the irreversible melting of the ice caps or the Amazon rainforest turning from a carbon sink to source -- showed the ever-greater need to factor in high-risk scenarios into climate modelling.

"Key is to do the math of disaster, in order to avoid it," he said.

The authors pointed out that successive UN climate science reports have mainly focused on the predicted effects of 1.5C-2C of warming and largely discounted the possibility of more excessive temperature rises.

Government plans put Earth on course to rise as much as 2.7C this century, a far cry from the 1.5-C cap envisaged in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The study suggested that a scientific disposition to "err on the side of least drama" led to a lack of focus on potential impacts at 3C of warming or higher.

"This caution is understandable, yet it is mismatched to the risks and potential damages posed by climate change," it said.

In addition, risk assessments for so-called low-likelihood, high-impact events are notoriously difficult to accommodate in long-term climate modelling.

The researchers calculated areas of extreme heat -- with an annual average temperature of over 29C -- could cover two billion people by 2070.

They warned that temperatures posed a major risk of multiple "breadbasket failures" due to drought such as that gripping western Europe and heatwave such as the one that hit India's wheat harvest in March/April.

The team called for a special UN science report focusing on "catastrophic climate change scenarios" similar to its 2018 report on 1.5C of warming.

"We have to get serious about understanding the profound risks that come with moving our planet into unknown territory," said Joeri Rogelj, director of research at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute, who was not involved in the study.

"Researching these extreme cases means that we'll be able to better prepare, including by being more serious about reducing emissions now."

(AFP)