Matteo and Giorgia: Italy's far-right rivals set for power

Matteo Salvini was once the poster boy of Italy's far-right but the popularity of Giorgia Meloni has reduced him to a junior -- and potentially disruptive -- partner in their election coalition.


Matteo Salvini's League party has put anti-immigrant rhetoric at the heart of its campaign for September 25 elections in Italy© Piero CRUCIATTI

Final opinion polls last week put Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy at more than 24 percent ahead of Sunday's election, around twice that of Salvini's anti-immigration League.

Such a result on election day would allow her to claim the post of prime minister and decide the direction of their coalition, which also includes former premier Silvio Berlusconi's more moderate right-wing Forza Italia.

It would be a disappointing turnout for Salvini, who was propelled to power after winning 17 percent of the vote in 2018 general elections, and securing a stunning 34 percent in the vote for the European Parliament the following year.



A right-wing alliance including Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni, alongside former premier Silvio Berlusconi, is tipped for victory© MIGUEL MEDINA

A key question will be whether the League leader can accept this diminished position or make trouble on issues -- notably the Ukraine war -- on which he disagrees with Meloni.

- Arrogance -

From his blunt criticism of the European Union, Muslims and Roma, his overt Catholicism -- brandishing a rosary on the campaign trail -- to his bare-chested partying by the sea, Salvini, 49, has cultivated an image as a man of the people.



Giorgia Meloni, leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, is leading opinion polls ahead of weekend elections© CLAUDIO PERI

He successfully led his once secessionist party -- previously known as the Northern League -- to become a national force, fuelled by anger against Brussels and the tens of thousands of migrants who wash up on Italy's shores each year.

Yet in recent years he has been eclipsed by Meloni, who shares his eurosceptic, "Italians First" platform but -- despite her party's neo-fascist roots -- styles herself as a straight-talking but unthreatening "Christian mother".

"Salvini has made some big mistakes, which tarnished his image," Lorenzo De Sio, professor of political science at Rome's Luiss University, told AFP.

Top of the list was the League leader's "arrogance" in trying to bring down his coalition government in 2019, hoping to force new elections after his big win in European polls, only to find himself in opposition.

A key factor in Meloni's rise was also her decision to stay out of Prime Minister Mario Draghi's grand coalition formed in February 2021 -- the only party not to join, granting her an outsider status that has attracted many disgruntled voters.

"Meloni was free to vote with the government when she wanted, for example on Ukraine, but at the same time attacking the government whenever she wanted to preserve her identity," De Sio said.

Is fascism back in Italy? | Focus on Europe

The "Fratelli d'Italia" political party has neo-fascist roots and its leader, Georgia Meloni, could become the country’s next prime minister.


- Trouble ahead? -

Meloni's party is eurosceptic, although it no longer advocates leaving the EU's single currency, but she has strongly backed the bloc's sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

By contrast Salvini -- a long-time supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- has criticised the sanctions, saying they have hurt Europe more than Russia, not least in sending energy prices soaring.

The League leader has called for more help for households and businesses to mitigate the impact of rising electricity and gas bills, even if it means adding to Italy's already mammoth debt.

Meloni disagrees, and has offered reassurances that she will pursue a responsible fiscal policy.

How they will manage these differences -- along with those they have with Berlusconi, a more pro-European, centrist-rightist force, who is polling at around eight percent -- will likely depend on the final balance of power.

"Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi will be difficult coalition partners, desperate to regain visibility after a (likely) beating down on ballot day by stressing policy differences," predicted Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy.

However, De Sio notes that while Salvini had something to gain by bringing down the government in 2019, this was not the case now.

And he noted that the Italian right has in the past proved itself adept at overcoming differences to stay in power.

"A pragmatic approach prevails, in which everyone prefers to keep their government position, with all the advantages that come with it."

ar/cdw

French football to review players' image rights after Mbappé boycott

NEWS WIRES - 20/09/22


The French Football Federation said it will review its agreement on players' image rights following media reports that striker Kylian Mbappe had refused to take part in sponsor activities.


French football to review players' image rights after Mbappé boycott© Franck Fife, AFP

ESPN reported Mbappe refused to participate in a team photo and sponsor activities scheduled for Tuesday because he does not want to endorse some brands, including fast food chains and betting companies, that are under contract with the national team.

"I have decided to not take part in the photo shoot after the French federation's refusal to change the image rights agreement with the players," Mbappe said in a statement, according to ESPN.

The French federation said on Twitter on Monday that it held discussions with the team's executives, the president, the coach and a marketing manager.

"... The French Football Federation undertakes to review, as soon as possible, the image rights agreement between it and its selected players," the statement added.

"The FFF is looking forward to working on the outlines of a new agreement that will allow it to secure its interests while taking into account the legitimate concerns and convictions unanimously expressed by its players."

France host Austria in the Nations League on Thursday and play at Denmark three days later.

(REUTERS)

Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after man dies of virus

Uganda has confirmed its first death from Ebola virus since 2019, declaring an outbreak in the central Mubende district. The WHO has said six other deaths in the area being investigated.

Ebola is an often deadly viral haemorrhagic fever

Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease, after one person died of the highly contagious virus, the country's health ministry said Tuesday. 

Health authorities reported that a man in the central Mubende district, who died on Monday, had tested positive for the virus.

"The confirmed case is a 24-year-old male [...] who presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed," the health ministry said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, using an abbreviation for the disease.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Africa office said in a statement that the case was of the relatively rare Sudan strain.

"This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain," WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said.

The case was confirmed after six suspicious deaths that have occurred in the district this month were investigated by the National Rapid Response team, the WHO said.

"There are currently eight suspected cases who are receiving care in a health facility," it added.

The global health body said that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their probe and deploying staff to the affected area.

Ebola is easily spread on surfaces — this 2021 image of an outbreak in the 

Ivory Coast shows health workers disinfecting a hospital

What is Ebola?

Ebola is an often deadly viral haemorrhagic fever.  The virus was first identified in Central Africa in 1976.

It spreads by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms of the disease include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

Uganda has witnessed multiple outbreaks of the Ebola virus with the most recent one in 2019 that left at least five people dead.

The country also shares a porous border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which recorded a new Ebola case last month less than six weeks after an epidemic in its northwest was declared over.

dvv/wmr (AFP, AP, Reuters)

DW RECOMMENDS

Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after finding rare Sudan strain

20/09/22

NEWS WIRES - An outbreak of Ebola has been declared in Uganda after health authorities confirmed a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain, the health ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.


Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after finding rare Sudan strain© Isaac Kasamani, AFP

A 24-year-old man in Uganda's central Mubende district showed symptoms and later died.

"We want to inform the country that we have an outbreak of Ebola which we confirmed yesterday," Diana Atwine, the health ministry's permanent secretary, told a news conference.

She said the patient with the confirmed case had high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and was vomiting blood. He had initially been treated for malaria.

There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility, WHO's Africa office said in a statement, adding that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.

"Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. Thanks to its expertise, action has been taken to quickly to detect the virus and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections," Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa's regional director, said.

The WHO said there had been seven previous outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.

It said Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola Zaire strain in 2019.

The WHO said ring vaccination of high-risk people with the Ervebo vaccine had been highly effective in controlling the spread of Ebola in recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere but that this vaccine had only been approved to protect against the Zaire strain.

Another vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson may be effective but has yet to be specifically tested against the Sudan strain, it added.

(REUTERS)

Khmer Rouge war crimes court winds up with survivors still hurting

Suy Se with Lisa Martin in Bangkok
Tue, September 20, 2022 


Cambodia's UN-backed court set up to try Khmer Rouge leaders finishes its work this week, ending a 16-year process that has helped national reconciliation but brought only limited solace to survivors of the genocidal regime.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) will on Thursday give its judgment in the appeal by 91-year-old former head of state Khieu Samphan against his 2018 conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity.

It will be the last verdict given by the tribunal, which has cost more than $330 million and been dogged by complaints about the slowness of its work as well as allegations of interference by Cambodia's ruling party.

For Chum Mey, one of only a handful of survivors of the notorious S-21 torture prison, nothing will erase the trauma of the Khmer Rouge butchering his wife and four children.

"Only when I die, then I can forget everything," Chum Mey told AFP inside S-21, once a school and now a museum chronicling the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

Under leader Pol Pot, two million Cambodians died from starvation, torture, forced labour and mass execution -- nearly a quarter of the kingdom's population wiped out by the ultra-communist regime as it sought to create an agrarian utopia.

Khieu Samphan is one of only three top leaders convicted by the special court, along with "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea -- considered the regime's chief ideologue -- and S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

Two previous appeals have been unsuccessful -- in fact, the court increased Duch's sentence on appeal.
- Difficult start -


The court had a difficult birth. In 1997 the Cambodian government asked for UN help in judging Khmer Rouge leaders.

But it rejected the idea of another International Criminal Tribunal along the lines of those created for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, insisting on a sovereign court run by Cambodian and international judges.

Eventually an agreement was reached in 2003, but the first hearing -- in the case against Duch -- was not held until 2009.

In total, five senior Khmer Rouge cadres, all elderly, faced trial at the court, but two died during proceedings and two others -- Duch and Nuon Chea -- died after conviction.

Regime leader Pol Pot died in 1998 before the court was established, while three other figures charged with genocide and crimes against humanity will not face trial due to disagreements between Cambodian and international judges.

S-21 survivor Chum Mey, who gave evidence in 2009, said the court had given only "about 70 percent of justice" but its work was still valuable.

"The most important point is that the court prosecuting the Khmer Rouge leaders makes people know nationwide... about the killings by Pol Pot, so they won’t let this happen again," the 91-year-old said.


Another source of controversy was the court's limited remit, which allowed it to prosecute only senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy says this decision effectively shielded Prime Minister Hun Sen -- a former Khmer Rouge commander who has ruled the country since 1985.

The strongman premier has repeatedly warned against broadening the scope of the trials, saying it could threaten national stability.
- 'Mixed legacy' -

"The court has a decidedly mixed legacy, a mix of solid accomplishments and disappointing failures," said Craig Etcheson, author of several books on Cambodia including one on the special court.

However, the tribunal helped "super-charge the process of national reconciliation," Etcheson said.

"Parents feel more free to talk to their children about what happened to them... schools have incorporated new materials about the Pol Pot time into their curricula, neighbours began to talk to neighbours about their experiences," he said.

Nearly a quarter of a million people attended the hearings, which took evidence from more than 300 witnesses, civil parties and experts.

Etcheson argues the court was "a relative bargain" compared with other international tribunals, and donors were "far too stingy", causing delays in the proceedings.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which conducts research on the Khmer Rouge regime, believes it is a mistake to focus on the court's financial issues.

"It confirms that we can live after genocide -- that we can move on, that we can rebuild, we can put back what has been lost," he said.

Back at S-21, the sombre black-and-white photos of over 18,000 murdered detainees are displayed in the exhibition halls.

Survivor Bou Meng, 85, still bearing the physical and mental scars from his time here, calls for handcuffs and chains to encircle the graves of dead Khmer Rouge leaders.

"I will remember everything for my whole life," he said. "They beat me up, they tortured me, I can never forget these things, it's still fresh and vivid."

ss-lpm/pdw/dhc

QUISLINGS & COMPRADORS

Palestinian Authority arrest raid sparks West Bank clashes


AFP , Tuesday 20 Sep 2022

A rare operation by the Palestinian Authority security forces to arrest a Hamas member sparked clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, multiple sources said.


Palestinian protesters clash with Palestinian security forces in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 20, 2022, following the arrest of two members of the Islamist group Hamas. AFP


There were reports that a bystander, 53-year-old Firas Yaish, was killed in the crossfire but the Palestinian health ministry had not yet confirmed the death. A tweet, purportedly from Yaish's cousin Kawther, said it was "mourning" Firas's death.

Unrest persisted through the morning, with hundreds of youths hurling rocks at PA armoured vehicles and the sound of gunfire ringing out across the city centre, AFP correspondents reported.

The northern West Bank has suffered near daily violence in recent months.

On the other side, Israel has conducted dozens of night-time raids in the area, particularly in Jenin, pursuing wanted individuals.

Dozens of Palestinians, including fighters, have been killed in the raids that began after a series of deadly attacks against Israeli targets in March.

Israel has put mounting pressure on the PA to crack down on alleged militants in the West Bank, threatening to intervene where the PA does not maintain order.

Furious Texas Sheriff Announces Criminal Investigation Into Martha’s Vineyard Migrant Flights

Matt Young
Mon, September 19, 2022 

Facebook

Authorities have confirmed they are opening a criminal investigation into the individuals who “lured” approximately 50 migrants from the migrant resource center in San Antonio to be flown to Martha’s Vineyard at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar confirmed the investigation during a press conference Monday “to clear the air for everyone,” alleging that 48 migrants were “lured under false pretenses” to stay at a hotel for a couple of days, shuttled to a plane, flown to Florida, and eventually transported to Martha’s Vineyard, where they had been promised work and solutions to other problems.

A number of migrants have claimed to have been approached and paid $200 cash by a mysterious woman called “Perla” to recruit people to board a plane to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. By Friday the migrants were being transported from the island’s lone shelter to temporary housing at Joint Base Cape Cod in Buzzards Bay—off Martha’s Vineyard entirely.

Salazar did not mention any specific suspects but said he had “the names of some suspects involved who we believe are persons of interest at this point.” He said he won’t part with the names but that “everybody on this call knows who those names are already.”

DeSantis claimed responsibility for the two flights that ferried the migrants to the upscale Massachusetts island as part of what the Republican governor’s office called part of efforts to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”

Salazar, who is a Democrat, said he felt bothered by the news and is working with nongovernmental organizations, media, and advocacy groups to help the migrants with representation.

He said he has spoken to one attorney who is representing a number of migrants as part of the investigation to discover if this was “a strictly predatory measure,” noting somebody “hunted them down, preyed upon them... for the sake of political theater. I believe people need to be held accountable for it.”

“What infuriates me the most about this case is that here we have 48 people who are already on hard times, they are here legally in our country at this point, they have every right to be where they are, and I believe they were preyed upon,” Salazar said, alleging the migrants were “exploited and hoodwinked” for nothing more than “political posturing.”

Salazar said he was unable to definitely provide a statute or criminal activity that was broken “but what I can tell you what was done to these folks is wrong.” He said he wanted to find out “sooner rather than later” what charges, if any, will apply and to whom.

He labeled the allegations he has heard as “absolutely distasteful, disgusting, and an abuse of human rights.” He said he was enraged by the news and said he believed criminal activity was “involved,” though had not yet spoken with any migrants yet.

Salazar said there may be parallel laws broken on the federal side and welcomed the White House to “give me a call.”

2 years after fatal shooting, family questions whether a Black man can stand his ground

Family says fatal shooting case shows ‘stand your ground’ defense doesn’t work for Black men

Marquise Francis
·National Reporter & Producer
Mon, September 19, 2022 

William “Marc” Wilson was recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a shooting that he says was in self-defense against a racist attack on a Georgia highway, and his family and lawyers say the case reveals a racial double standard for “stand your ground” laws.

“If you put me in Marc’s shoes, there’s no way that I would've been prosecuted,” Wilson’s cousin, Chance Pridgen, who is white, told Yahoo News. “Odds are I would've been given a medal — probably gotten a parade in my name. It’s unreal how he was treated just because he’s a little bit more tan than I am.”

Wilson, a biracial Black man, 21 years old at the time of the shooting on June 14, 2020, fired his legal handgun at a pickup truck of white teens who he says were yelling racial slurs at him and trying to run him and his white girlfriend off the road near Statesboro, Ga. One of those bullets struck and killed 17-year-old Haley Hutcheson, who was in the back seat of the truck.

Wilson, left, and Haley Hutcheson. (Bulloch County Sheriff's Office via AP, Facebook)

After an emotional seven-day trial late last month in Bulloch County Superior Court, a jury found Wilson guilty of felony-level involuntary manslaughter. Wilson was acquitted on the other charges, including felony murder, which carried with it a potential life prison sentence. He is set to be sentenced Tuesday.

“We believe that this verdict is a verdict that speaks the truth,” Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Daphne Totten said outside the court after the Aug. 31 ruling. “We ask juries every day to return verdicts that speak the truth, and the truth in this case is that what Marc Wilson did that night on the bypass was a crime.”

Prosecutors argued that Wilson did not need to fire his weapon, while the defense contends that he exercised legal self-defense under the state’s “stand your ground” law.

A number of states, including Georgia, have implemented the controversial laws loosening the restrictions on using deadly force when threatened, stating there is no duty to retreat first.

The case against Wilson was closely watched by legal experts and civil rights advocates who have long criticized the use of “stand your ground” laws as racist. Perhaps the most high-profile case was the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen. George Zimmerman, who killed Martin, successfully argued that the use of force was justified under Florida’s self-defense laws.

Wilson, right, with his parents. (Photo courtesy of the Wilson family)

Studies have found a significant racial disparity in whether homicides are deemed justified based on the race of the shooter and the person shot. A 2020 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said​​ "white-on-black homicides have justifiable findings 33 percentage points more often than black-on-white homicides,” with “stand your ground” laws exacerbating that disparity.

“This case, among so many others, highlights the urgency in why Georgia must address the racial disparity in Stand Your Ground claims,” James Woodall, a public policy associate with the Southern Center for Human Rights, said in a statement to Yahoo News. “It is troubling that people continue to have to defend themselves against violent behavior, only to be further criminalized by an unjust legal system.”

Wilson’s lead attorney was even blunter. Francys Johnson, a former president of the Georgia NAACP, said his legal team was tasked to stop a “legal lynching" in the case.

“Today this jury spoke as the voice of this community and said that Marc Wilson is no murderer,” Johnson said following the verdict. “They’ve always known that, and now this jury has spoken.”

Under Georgia law, manslaughter can be a felony or a misdemeanor depending on the circumstance. Wilson’s felony conviction carries a penalty of one to 10 years in prison, but Johnson says the judge chose not to instruct the jury on the misdemeanor option.

“If that option had been included as we asked and insisted, this jury would have found Marc guilty of the misdemeanor version of manslaughter and Marc would be coming home,” Johnson told reporters outside the courthouse, according to 11Alive, a local NBC affiliate.

Wilson says he fired in self-defense after Hutcheson's friends yelled racial slurs from a pickup truck and tried to run his car off the road. (Bulloch County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Neither Johnson nor the Ogeechee District Attorney’s Office responded to requests for comment from Yahoo News.

CJ Jenkins, an organizer and JustGeorgia coalition member who has been working as a liaison between the Statesboro community and Wilson’s legal team, says the facts of the case were on the defendant’s side.

“[The teens] admitted to hiding evidence. They admitted to being intoxicated,” Jenkins told Yahoo News. “Whether it’s the DA sharing information with the judge or recalling the judge ... it’s been an uphill battle.”

In February, a senior judge ordered Ogeechee Circuit Superior Court Judge Michael Muldrew, who was originally presiding over the case, to recuse himself from the trial for “disparate handling” of the case. The defense claimed Muldrew met with two of the prosecuting attorneys in private to review emails Wilson sent to his family.

The conflicting stories of the teens who were in the truck the night of the incident have also come into question. The teens claim they never yelled racial slurs that night, but admit that they had been drinking while driving around. At least one of the teens, 18-year-old Luke Harry Conley, was later charged with misdemeanor obstruction of justice for withholding information.

The 2020 shooting occurred just weeks after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a former Minneapolis police officer. Wilson told detectives that he had been nervous about the confrontation and felt he had no other choice but to stand his ground when he shot at the truck.

“Me and my girlfriend were very scared that night,” Wilson told an officer after the shooting. “A truck full of — all I saw were white males — white males driving their car at me and are flipping me off and yelling racial slurs.”

Wilson, right, with members of his family. (Photo courtesy of the Wilson family)

Wilson’s girlfriend Emma Rigdon, who was with him the night of the shooting, had previously been barred from speaking publicly under a gag order. She told Yahoo News that she was deeply frustrated with how the trial played out.

“My words have been twisted,” she said. “I’ve had to defend myself on the witness stand because I’ve gotten treated like a monster.”

“I didn't realize how bad our justice system is. I didn't realize,” she added, fighting back tears. “And when it affected somebody you love — I feel like I’ve gone through everything he’s gone through for the last two and half years.”

The family, in the few interactions they’ve had, said they see a change in Wilson.

“I've seen him change from a little playful boy to a maturing young man,” SaJuana Williams, Wilson’s aunt, told Yahoo News. “He’s coming into his faith walk because we truly believe that this whole ordeal is a lot bigger than our family. It’s a lot bigger than what the eye can see and even imagine.”

Rigdon says she’s ready to continue standing by Wilson after Tuesday’s sentencing.

“I do believe we've gone through this for a reason and I will continue to stand by Marc,” Rigdon said. “No matter how much people try to keep me quiet, I will still be right there supporting, and I will always support. And I will always stand by him forever.”

_____

Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images, Rhona Wise/AFP via Getty Images

Spain's domestic staff fight to end discrimination

Valentin BONTEMPS

Tue, September 20, 2022

For years, Aracely Sanchez went to work without counting her hours, always fearful she could lose her job from one day to the next.

"They would always ask me to do more and more and more, as if I were a machine," she told AFP of her employers at a house in Madrid.

Within a collective of domestic workers, this 39-year-old Mexican has been trying to assert her basic rights to have time off every week, to be paid for working overtime and to have unemployment cover.

But given the precarious nature of this type of work in Spain, it is a challenge.

"There are employers who are very humane and who respect us, but there are many who try to take advantage of the situation," she explained.

"They say: if the job doesn't suit you, there are plenty more where you came from."

According to the Workers Commission union (CCOO), nearly 600,000 women serve as domestic staff in Spain where taking them on for housework, cooking or childcare is widespread.

Of that number, nearly 200,000 are undeclared, working in the black economy without an employment contract.

"Many of them come from Latin America and they don't have papers and find themselves in a very vulnerable situation," said Mari Cruz Vicente, the CCOO's head of activism and employment.

- 'Exposing violations' -

Following a ruling by the EU's Court of Justice (CJEU) and pressure from the unions, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez adopted a reform this month aiming at ending the "discrimination" suffered by these workers.

Under the changes, dubbed by the government as "settling a historic debt", domestic workers are now entitled to claim unemployment benefits and cannot be dismissed without justification.

They will also be covered by healthcare "protection" and be able to access training to improve their "professional opportunities" and job conditions.

"This is a very important step forward," said Vicente, while stressing the need to step up efforts to register those who are working without a contract and don't benefit from the reform.

"This reform was very necessary," said Constanza Cisneros of the Jeanneth Beltran observatory which specialises in domestic workers' rights.

"Spain was very behind. Every day we have people coming to us whose rights have been violated. We have to end such practices now," she said.

"Such situations have to be exposed."

-'Not seen as people' -

Mexican home help Sanchez has often experienced such abuses in more than two decades of employment.

In 2001, she arrived in Madrid to take up full-time employment caring for an elderly person for 350 euros a month.

She then spent the next 15 years working in short-term jobs, almost always without a contract, despite the fact she had a valid residency permit.

"When I said I wanted a contract, they never called me back. They didn't want to pay contributions," she said, describing her work as "undervalued" with domestic staff seen as "labourers" and not "as people".

Amalia Caballero, a domestic worker from Ecuador, has had a very similar experience.

"We often finish very late, or they change our hours at the last minute assuming we'll just fall in line. But we also have a life that we need to sort out," said Caballero, 60.

She also talks about the "humiliations" often endured by those who live with their employers.

"One time, one of my bosses asked me why I showered every day. It was clear he thought (the hot water) was costing him too much money," she told AFP.

But will such attitudes change with the reform?

"There's still a long way to go," she sighed, saying many domestic staff "have completed their studies" back home and even hold a degree.

"People need to recognise that," she said.

Cisneros agreed.

"Our work needs to command greater respect, not least because it's so necessary. Without staff to pick up the children, run the household and look after elderly people, what would families do?"

vab/hmw/mg/jmm

COPS GET AWAY WITH MURDER
French court convicts policemen over 2015 death of Black man

A lawyer for the family of Amadou Koume says the ruling was satisfying but the sentence was ‘relatively lenient’.

Public anger swelled over racial discrimination following the death of George Floyd after being murdered by police in the United States 

[File: Jonathan Drake/Reuters]

Published On 20 Sep 2022

A French court on Tuesday found three police officers guilty of manslaughter over the death of a Black man in Paris in 2015.

Each was sentenced to a 15-month suspended jail term, a judge said.

Amadou Koume died after he was pinned to the ground by officers in a bar, put in a chokehold and subsequently left on his front, his hands cuffed behind his back, for more than six minutes.

Koume, whose name has become a protest slogan against police violence in some communities, died as the result of slow “mechanical asphyxia” according to a medical expert, the court heard during the trial.

“To hear the word ‘guilty’ is satisfying, but the sentence is relatively lenient,” Eddy Arneton, a lawyer for the Koume family, told reporters after the verdict.

The prosecutor had sought a one-year suspended sentence, deeming that necessary and proportionate force had been used to immobilise Koume but that the officers were negligent in leaving him on his front.

Following Koume’s death, 24-year-old Black Frenchman Adama Traore died in the custody of French police in a Paris suburb, in July 2016.

Traore was apprehended by three gendarmes following a dispute over an identity check. He reportedly lost consciousness in their vehicle and died at a nearby police station.

News of Traore’s death caused anger and despair in the suburbs.

Days of protests followed and some members of the local community clashed with police, setting cars and buildings alight.

Rights groups say accusations of brutal, racist treatment of residents of often immigrant backgrounds by French police remain largely unaddressed, in particular in deprived city suburbs.

In 2020, public anger swelled over racial discrimination following the death of George Floyd in the United States at the hands of police. Caught on video, Floyd’s death sparked worldwide protests by hundreds of thousands of people that rocked politics in the US and beyond.

The French government at the time promised “zero tolerance” for racism within law enforcement agencies.

Police unions responded by accusing the government of scapegoating it for deep-rooted divisions in French society.

Facebook parent Meta in EU setback against German rules

• AFP
•  September 20, 2022

Meta was banned by German authorities from collecting user data 

and linking the information to the person’s Facebook account for advertising purposes

Berlin – Facebook’s parent company Meta on Tuesday suffered a setback in its challenge against German antitrust rules as a top adviser to the EU Court of Justice backed the regulator.

Meta’s challenge came after it was banned by the German authority from collecting data from its various services including Instagram and WhatsApp, and linking the information to the Facebook account of the user for advertising purposes.

The German Federal Competition Authority had prohibited Meta from the data processing practice after finding that it constituted an abuse of the company’s dominant position on the social network market. 

Facebook had challenged the German decision at a court in Duesseldorf, which had sent the case on to the European court.

On Tuesday, the EU court’s advocate general said that while the antitrust authority does not have the jurisdiction to rule on an infringement of data protection rules, compliance with such rules could be taken as an “important indicator” in ascertaining if an entity has breached competition rules.

The court adviser also noted that a ban on processing sensitive personal data, such as an individual’s ethnic origin, health or sexual orientation, could apply in this case.

In order for an exemption to the prohibition concerning such data to apply, the user “must be fully aware that, by an explicit act, he is making personal data public”.

The advocate general added that the “conduct consisting in visiting websites and apps, entering data into those websites and apps and clicking on buttons integrated into them cannot, in principle, be regarded in the same way as conduct that manifestly makes public the user’s sensitive personal data”.

The advocate general’s opinion is non-binding but it often indicates which way the court will rule.