'Cry for change' across Iran as students & strikers challenge the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers

Issued on: 06/12/2022 - 

Video by:Mark OWEN

Iranian shops shut their doors in several cities on Monday, following calls for a three-day nationwide strike from protesters seeking the fall of clerical rulers, while the head of the judiciary blamed what he called "rioters" for threatening shopkeepers. Iran has been rocked by nationwide unrest following the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 in police custody, posing one of the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution. For more on the unprecedented civil uprising, FRANCE 24 is joined by Tara Kangarlou, Author, Award-Winning Journalist and Professor at Georgetown University.

Iranian lawmaker says the government is “paying attention to the people’s demands”

Issued on: 05/12/2022 - 

Video by:Angela DIFFLEY

An Iranian lawmaker says the government is “paying attention to the people’s demands.”. But many remain skeptical in the face of reports that the regime’s so-called morality police has been disbanded. 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody back on September 16th. She was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women and her death sparked a wave of nationwide protests. Listen to the Iran foreign minister followed by the Iranian president speaking over the weekend. FRANCE 24's International Affairs editor Angela Diffley gives us her expertise.

French street artist JR's performance to support women's rights protests in Iran

Issued on: 05/12/2022 - 

Hundreds of people have helped the French street artist JR with a performance to show art is supporting the ongoing women's rights protest movement in Iran. The volunteers standing to represent the hair of 16 year old Nika Shah-karami who went missing and died after attending a protest in Tehran. The artwork part of a series of works by JR and Iranian artist at the For Freedoms art collective on Roosevelt Island. Listen to participant's opinion.

Iranian press sceptical about claim morality police has been abolished
Issued on: 05/12/2022 -

01:55 An Iranian policewoman prepares to patrol the streets of Tehran in this file photo taken in July 2007. © Behrouz Mehri, AFP

Iran's conservative press on Monday ignored reports that the Islamic republic has scrapped its morality police after weeks of protests, a story that ran on the front pages of only four reformist dailies.

Even some of the reformist newspapers raised questions about the news.

Iran has been rocked by more than two months of protests triggered by the death of Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by the Tehran morality police for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code.

In an apparent gesture to the protesters, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said the "morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary and have been abolished by those who created them," in comments carried by the ISNA news agency Sunday.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew Iran's US-backed monarchy, authorities have monitored adherence to the strict dress code for women as well as men.

The morality police – known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or "Guidance Patrol" – were established to "spread the culture of modesty and hijab".

They began patrols in 2006, and their role has always been controversial.

But on Monday only four newspapers, all from the reformist camp, referred to the stated end of the morality police, and some did so with scepticism.

"The end of the morality police," read a headline by the reformist daily Sazandegi. It reported that "after 80 days of protests caused by the morality police, the prosecutor general announces its abolition".

The Sharq newspaper, however, asked on its front page: "Is this the end of the patrols?"

"While the prosecutor general has affirmed that the morality police have been abolished, the police public relations department has refused to confirm this abolition," it reported.

The paper added that the Tehran police head of public relations, Colonel Ali Sabahi, when asked about Montazeri's statement, had replied: "Don't even mention that you called us.

"The moment isn't appropriate for this kind of discussion... and the police will speak about it when it is appropriate," Sabahi reportedly told Sharq.

Another reformist publication, Arman Melli, questioned whether this really was "the end of the morality police?"

A fourth newspaper, Ham Mihan, emphasised: "The judicial authority made a declaration but no other authority has announced the dissolution of the morality police."

(AFP)

Iran activists, US brush off claim morality police abolished
Story by AFP • Yesterday 

Iranian activists and Western nations on Monday dismissed a claim that the protest-hit Islamic republic is disbanding its notorious morality police, insisting there was no change to women's rights.


Iran's attorney general was quoted as saying the special police unit that enforces dress rules in Iran had been closed down

© Behrouz MEHRI

In a surprise move over the weekend, Iran's Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying that the morality police units –- known formally as Gasht-e Ershad ("Guidance Patrol") -- had been closed down.

But campaigners were sceptical about his comments, which appeared to be an impromptu response to a question at a conference rather than a clearly signposted announcement by the interior ministry.

"Unless they remove all legal restrictions on women's dress and the laws controlling citizens' private lives, this is just a PR move," Roya Boroumand, co-founder of the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center rights group, told AFP.



Iran's dress code requires women to cover their heads and to wear long clothes

There were also calls on social media for a three-day strike in Iran, culminating Wednesday on the annual Student Day, nearly three months into a nationwide wave of unrest sparked by the death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.

Morality police officers had arrested Amini, 22, in Tehran for allegedly flouting Iran's strict dress code demanding women wear modest clothing and the hijab headscarf.

"Nothing we have seen suggests Iran's leadership is improving its treatment of women and girls or ceasing the violence it inflicts on peaceful protesters," the US State Department said.

Germany's foreign ministry said Iranian protesters "want to live freely and in self-determination", and disbanding the morality police, "if it is implemented, won't change that".

Amini's death on September 16 triggered women-led protests that have spiralled into the biggest challenge to the regime since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Hundreds of Iranians, including some members of the security forces, have been killed.



A woman walks past a closed shop along Satarkhan Street in Iran's capital Tehran, after calls on social media for a three-day strike

© ATTA KENARE

- 'Create societal fear' -

Abolishing the force, activists argued, would mark no change to Iran's headscarf policy -- a key ideological pillar for its clerical leadership -- but rather a switch in tactics on enforcing it.


Did Iran actually abolish the Morality Police? Iran's Hijab law under review after massive protests
Duration 11:30
View on Watch

1:46
Iran’s morality police disbanded?


2:22
Iran Hijab Protest: Morality police abolished, big win for protesters


And scrapping the units would be "probably too little too late" for the protesters who now demand outright regime change, Boroumand said.

"Nothing prevents other law enforcement" bodies from policing "the discriminatory laws", she noted.

The morality police have been a familiar sight since 2006 when they were introduced during the presidency of the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But the rules, including the headscarf, had been strictly enforced well before then by the clerical leadership in charge after the fall of the secularist shah in 1979.

It was anger over the obligatory headscarf rule that sparked the first protests following the death of Amini, whose family says died from a blow to her head sustained in custody. The authorities dispute this.

But the protest movement, fed also by years of anger over economic grievances and political repression, is now marked by calls for an end to the Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) told AFP on Monday that at least 504 people had been executed in Iran this year -- far more than in the whole of last year.

Reports from Tehran have suggested the feared morality police vans had already become much less common or even vanished after the protests broke out.

According to witnesses, numerous women in the fashionable north of Tehran as well as in the more modest and traditional south of the city are now going with their heads uncovered in signs of protest.

- 'Civil disobedience' -

"The alleged suspension of Iran's morality police doesn't mean anything," argued Omid Memarian of the group Democracy for the Arab World Now, citing "the massive level of women's civil disobedience".

He described the mandatory headscarf as "one of the pillars of the Islamic republic", and abolishing it "would mean a fundamental change in the Islamic republic's identity and existence".

Montazeri's declaration and the confusion that ensued were seen as a sign of the disquiet within the regime over how to handle the protests, which continue despite a crackdown that the IHR said has left at least 448 people dead.

Universities have been among the protest locations, and ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to visit two campuses in Tehran on Student Day, Wednesday, state news agency IRNA reported.

Conservative newspapers in Iran on Monday ignored the prosecutor general's comment, with only reformist dailies putting the issue on their front page.

"Is this the end of the patrols?" the Sharq newspaper asked, noting the police public relations had not confirmed it.

Memarian said it was an example of "deceptive moves the Islamic republic employs at times of desperation" and warned that "other restrictive policies and measures" may follow.

The hijab is "still compulsory", said Shadi Sadr, co-founder of London based group Justice for Iran. While the protests started over Amini's death, she predicted, "Iranians won't rest until the regime is gone."

Explainer-Why U.S. Airline Pilot Wages Are Outpacing Global Rises

By Jamie Freed
12/04/22 

A traveler passes a Delta Airlines plane in Logan Airport at the start of the long July 4th holiday weekend in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 30, 2022.

Delta Air Lines has offered a 34% cumulative pay increase to its pilots over three years in a new contract, in a deal widely expected to become a benchmark for negotiations at rivals United Airlines and American Airlines.


But the proposed Delta contract is unlikely to set a global precedent of inflation-beating pay rises for pilots, analysts say, because of factors unique to the U.S. market.

FASTER TRAVEL RECOVERY

The U.S. domestic aviation market has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels far more quickly than markets in other parts of the world, according to data from airline industry group IATA.

U.S. domestic demand was only 0.8% below than 2019 levels in October, while globally, domestic travel demand was 22.1% lower. In September, U.S. domestic demand was 0.8% higher than in 2019.

For international travel, North American demand in October was 10% lower than in 2019, compared with a 17.6% decline in Europe and a 56.6% fall in the Asia-Pacific region at a time when China, once the world's biggest outbound travel market, remains effectively closed.

The U.S. rebound is a major turnaround from 2020 when thousands of pilots, including 1,800 at Delta, retired early at the encouragement of airlines after COVID-19 led to a plunge in demand.

REGIONAL PILOT SHORTAGE

The steep pay rise on offer to Delta pilots follows a series of large increases at U.S. regional airlines that serve as feeders to major carriers.

Uniquely among world markets, the United States requires pilots even at regional airlines to have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flying experience. The rule was put in place after a deadly Colgan Air crash in 2009.

In other parts of the world, major carriers like Lufthansa and easyJet offer training programmes that do not require any prior experience and allow joiners to fly as a co-pilot upon completion.

In the United States, gaining a commercial pilot license can cost more than $70,000, to be followed by the need to build up 1,500 hours working in a relatively low-paid job like being a flight school instructor before joining even a regional airline.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in September denied a request by regional airline Republic Airways to halve the minimum requirement to 750 hours.

Faced with growing shortages of entry-level pilots and rapid attrition of more experienced ones to major airlines, U.S. regional carriers have lifted pay rapidly.

For example, Piedmont Airlines said in June it would nearly double first-year pay to captains and first officers to $146 an hour and $90 an hour respectively.

The increases put pressure on major airlines to ensure their entry-level pay attracts joiners from regional carriers to cover retirements and planned fleet growth.

OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES

North America is the only region that has a pilot shortage at present, equivalent to about 11% of supply, or 8,000 pilots, consulting firm Oliver Wyman said in July.

Europe and Asia have pilot surpluses that are expected to remain until the middle and end of the decade respectively, it said.

The pay rises being achieved by pilots outside the United States reflect the different supply situation and are often in line with the percentage gains on offer to all airline employees as the business recovers from the pandemic and inflation rises.

In Australia, pilots at Qantas Airways' low-cost arm Jetstar last month agreed to a two-year pay freeze followed by 3% annual increases and a one-off bonus of about A$10,000 ($6,843.00), the same offered to other workers.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said it would increase base pay by an average of 3.3% in 2023 and offer bonuses worth the equivalent of one month's salary to Hong Kong-based staff meeting performance targets.

Air France in September raised salaries for all staff by 5% in anticipation of wage talks due next year, and offered a 1,000 euro ($1,057.50) bonus payment to its workforce.

($1 = 1.4613 Australian dollars)

($1 = 0.9456 euros)

Pilots At Rivals Call Delta's Pay Offer A New 

'Benchmark'

By Rajesh Kumar Singh
12/05/22

Delta Airlines passenger jets are pictured outside the newly completed 1.3 million-square foot $4 billion Delta Airlines Terminal C at LaGuardia Airport in the Queens borough of New York City, New York, U.S., June 1, 2022.

Delta Air Lines' offer to give pilots a 34% cumulative pay increase in a new four-year contract has boosted hopes of similar raises at rivals United Airlines, American Airlines.

While Delta's offer still requires the approval of union leaders and then a ratification by its pilots, aviators at United and American told Reuters the Atlanta-based carrier has "raised the bar" with a "very strong" proposal.

"This is going to be the benchmark," an American pilot said.

Delta's offer also includes a lump-sum one-time payment, reduced health insurance premiums, and improvements in holiday pay, vacation, company contributions to 401(k) and work rules.

Its union estimates the proposed deal represents more than $7.2 billion of cumulative value increases over the next four years.

Both American and United have promised an "industry-leading" contract to their pilots. As a result, any proposal seen as inferior to Delta's will likely have no takers.

"United leadership has said that they want to see what the market is," a pilot at the Chicago-based carrier said. "If this contract gets accepted and ratified by the Delta membership, then that'll be the new market."

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, sent a message to its members on Saturday calling Delta's proposed deal "a significant event" and said it would "stimulate other ongoing labor negotiations".

Last month, American pilots rejected a proposed 19% pay hike over two years that would have cost the Texas-based carrier about $2 billion. Similarly, United pilots turned down an offer that included more than 14.5% cumulative wage increases and enhanced overtime and training pay.

COST IMPLICATIONS

Some airline executives are concerned that hefty pay raises for pilots would inflate fixed costs and make it tougher to repair debt-laden balance sheets.

Analysts at Jefferies estimate Delta's offer could hike non-fuel operating costs by 450 basis points in 2023 vis-?-vis 2019.

Strong travel demand has been allowing airlines including Delta to mitigate inflationary pressure with higher fares. But Colin Scarola, an analyst at CFRA, does not think Delta will be able to fully offset wage increases with ticket prices as the industry is "so intensely competitive."

However, a deal with its pilots is expected to do away with any staffing uncertainty, making it easier for Delta to plan its schedules and utilize resources. Analysts say the improved efficiency can ease Delta's cost pressures.

BARGAINING POWER

The deal showcases the bargaining power pilots are enjoying as carriers staff up to meet booming travel demand.

American, for example, has hired 2,000 pilots this year and intends to hire another 2,000 next year. Similarly, Southwest Airlines is aiming to hire 1,200 pilots this year and 2,100 next year.

Analysts at Jefferies estimate the United States is short of 10,000 pilots. This supply-demand gap is projected to last until 2027.

Casey Murray, a pilot and the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said Delta's proposed deal will help it in the competition for a shrinking pool of pilots.

"It's a pilot market today," Murray said. "Pilots can decide and choose where they want to go."

ISRAEL WAR CRIME

Al Jazeera takes the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh to the ICC

Network says evidence it presented overturns claims by Israeli authorities that the Palestinian journalist was killed in a crossfire.

Al Jazeera Media Network calls the killing a 'blatant murder' and a 'heinous crime' [Al Jazeera]

By Annette Ekin
Published On 6 Dec 2022

The Hague, the Netherlands – Al Jazeera Media Network has submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Abu Akleh, a television correspondent with Al Jazeera for 25 years, was killed by Israeli forces on May 11 as she was covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

The 51-year-old Jerusalem native and US citizen was a household name and a widely respected journalist who gave a voice to Palestinians through her coverage of the Israeli occupation.
‘A wider pattern’

The request includes a dossier on a comprehensive six-month investigation by Al Jazeera that gathers all available eyewitness evidence and video footage, as well as new material on the killing of Abu Akleh.

The request submitted to the ICC is presented “in the context of a wider attack on Al Jazeera, and journalists in Palestine”, said Rodney Dixon KC, a lawyer for Al Jazeera, referring to incidents such as the bombing of the network’s Gaza office on May 15, 2021.

“It’s not a single incident, it’s a killing that is part of a wider pattern that the prosecution should be investigating to identify those who are responsible for the killing, and to bring charges against them,” he said.


“The focus is on Shireen, and this particular killing, this outrageous killing. But the evidence we submit looks at all of the acts against Al Jazeera because it has been targeted as an international media organisation.

“And the evidence shows that what the [Israeli] authorities are trying to do is to shut it up,” Dixon said

.

Rodney Dixon, envelope in hand, and Lina Abu Akleh, niece of fatally shot Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, walk into the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday [Peter Dejong/AP]

Al Jazeera hopes the ICC prosecutor “does actually start the investigation of this case” after the network’s request, Dixon said. The request complements the complaint submitted to the ICC by Abu Akleh’s family in September, supported by the Palestinian Press Syndicate and the International Federation of Journalists.

A new documentary by Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines shows how Abu Akleh and other journalists, wearing protective helmets and bulletproof vests clearly marked with the word “PRESS”, were walking down a road in view of Israeli forces when they came under fire.

Abu Akleh was shot in the head as she tried to shield herself by a carob tree. Al Jazeera producer Ali al-Samoudi was also shot in the shoulder.

The new evidence submitted by Al Jazeera shows “Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)”, Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement added the evidence overturns claims by Israeli authorities that Shireen was killed in crossfire and it “confirms, without any doubt, that there was no firing in the area where Shireen was, other than the IOF shooting directly at her”.


“The evidence shows that this deliberate killing was part of a wider campaign to target and silence Al Jazeera,” the statement said.

Troops from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will never be questioned, said Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday.

“No one will interrogate IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals of combat, certainly not the Al Jazeera Network,” Lapid said.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz expressed condolences to the Abu Akleh family and said Israel’s military operates at “the highest standards”.

Next steps

Speaking outside the entrance of the ICC on the cloudy, brisk morning after Al Jazeera submitted its request, Lina Abu Akleh, who wore a badge with her aunt’s face, said the family was hopeful they would see “positive results soon”.

“We expect that the prosecutor will seek truth and justice and we expect that the court will deliver in holding institutions and individuals responsible of this crime accountable for killing my aunt,” she said.


Abu Akleh’s older brother, Anton, said the network’s submission was significant for the family.

“This is very important to us not only for Shireen – nothing can bring Shireen back – but this will ensure that such crimes are stopped and hopefully the ICC will be able to take immediate action to put an end to this impunity.”

Walid al-Omari, the Al Jazeera bureau chief in Jerusalem and a friend and colleague of Abu Akleh, said it is critical to keep the case alive in public opinion. “We don’t think Israel should escape from accountability.”

Once the ICC has reviewed the evidence it will decide whether it will probe Abu Akleh’s killing as part of ongoing investigations.

A mural depicts slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank [Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]

‘Hold killers accountable’

In 2021, the ICC decided it has jurisdiction over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. Al Jazeera’s submission requests the killing of Abu Akleh become part of this wider investigation.

“We’re making a request for an investigation that leads to charges being brought and those responsible being prosecuted,” said Dixon.


Investigations carried out by the United Nations, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations, and international news outlets concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier.

The Abu Akleh family has called for a “thorough, transparent investigation” by the US FBI and Department of State to reveal the chain of command that led to the death of a US citizen.

“In short, we would like [US President Joe] Biden to do in Shireen’s case what his and previous US administrations have failed to do when other American citizens were killed by Israel: Hold the killers accountable,” Lina Abu Akleh wrote in Al Jazeera in July.

In November the US announced an FBI probe into the killing of Abu Akleh, news welcomed by her family.

But, Dixon cautioned, this probe should not be a reason for the ICC not to act.


“They can they can work together with … the FBI, so that this case doesn’t fall between the cracks, and that those responsible are identified and put on trial.”
Debunking shifting narratives

The Fault Lines documentary also looks closely at Israel’s shifting narratives.

Israel initially falsely blamed armed Palestinians for Abu Akleh’s death, but in September said there was a “high probability” an Israeli soldier “accidentally hit” the journalist but that it would not launch a criminal investigation.

Hagai El-Ad, director of Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, which swiftly debunked the false claim by Israel that a Palestinian gunman was responsible for Abu Akleh’s death, told Fault Lines: “They’re also very used to getting away with lying about killings of Palestinians both in the public arena and in the legal arena.”

“The reason why Al Jazeera made this request is because the Israeli authorities have done nothing to investigate the case. In fact, they’ve said that they will not investigate, that there’s no suspicion of a crime,” said Dixon.

Al Jazeera Media Network calls the killing a “blatant murder” and a “heinous crime”.

“Al Jazeera reiterates its commitment to achieving justice for Shireen and to exploring all avenues to ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable.

For Shireen Abu Akleh, a university project became personal

Shireen Abu Akleh’s family welcome news of US investigation

The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh

Joint investigation finds Abu Akleh’s killing ‘deliberate’

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Ex-Wirecard CEO Goes On Trial Over 'Unparalleled' Fraud

By Michelle FITZPATRICK
12/05/22 

Markus Braun, who claims he's innocent, faces several years in prison if found guilty

Ex-Wirecard CEO Markus Braun goes on trial in Munich this week for his role in the collapse of the once celebrated payments firm, brought down by the biggest accounting fraud scandal in German corporate history.


Austrian-born Braun and two other former Wirecard executives will appear in the dock from Thursday on charges of commercial gang fraud, breach of trust, market manipulation and accounting manipulation.

The Munich district court has scheduled 100 court dates for the mammoth trial.

Wirecard, once hailed as a standard-bearer for the German tech industry, imploded spectacularly in 2020 after admitting that 1.9 billon euros ($2 billion) missing from its accounts probably didn't exist.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was finance minister at the time, described the scandal as "unparalleled" in post-war Germany.

Braun, who has been in custody for over two years, denies any wrongdoing.

The 53-year-old has pointed the finger at Wirecard's fugitive former chief operating officer, Jan Marsalek, a shadowy figure with alleged ties to foreign intelligence agencies.

Marsalek was reported earlier this year to be hiding out in Russia.

A senior Wirecard employee, however, told a German parliamentary inquiry last year that nothing happened at Wirecard without Braun's knowledge.

"The group was shaped by Markus Braun, and so was the corporate culture. He decided everything, he dictated everything," Rainer Wexeler told lawmakers.

On trial alongside Braun are Oliver Bellenhaus, the former head of Wirecard's Dubai subsidiary, and ex-accounting boss Stephan von Erffa.

They face several years in prison if convicted.

Bellenhaus has admitted wrongdoing and will serve as a key witness for the prosecution.

It took German investigators more than 20 months to unravel the complex web of fraudulent transactions implicating Wirecard subsidiaries and third-party companies across the globe.

Prosecutors say the accused presented "incorrect" financial results from 2015 to 2018, by including fabricated revenues and profits from partner companies in Dubai, the Philippines and Singapore, and using forged documents to make Wirecard appear more successful than it was.

Among the victims of the fraud were banks that had provided credit of 1.7 billion euros to Wirecard. Bonds worth 1.4 billion euros were also issued and are unlikely to be repaid.

Founded in 1999, the Bavarian start-up Wirecard started out processing payments for porn and gambling sites and grew into a respectable electronic payments provider that edged traditional lender Commerzbank out of the blue-chip DAX index.

Rumours about possible cheating at Wirecard surfaced now and again over the years, including from shortsellers doing research on companies they suspected might be overvalued.

But Wirecard's problems began in earnest with a series of Financial Times articles in 2019 alleging irregularities in its Asian division, based on revelations from former employees and leaked documents.

The company was initially able to fend off the claims, with the FT's journalists themselves coming under investigation from German regulators.

But the scam finally unravelled in June 2020 when long-time auditor EY said it had discovered a 1.9-billion-euro hole in Wirecard's accounts.

The sum, which made up a quarter of the balance sheet, was meant to be sitting in trustee accounts at two Filippino banks.

But the Philippines' central bank has said the cash never entered its monetary system and both Asian banks, BDO and BPI, denied having a relationship with Wirecard.

Wirecard filed for insolvency soon after, becoming the first DAX company to fail.

Wirecard's dramatic downfall sent shockwaves through Germany and prompted an overhaul of the country's finance watchdog Bafin, heavily criticised for ignoring early warning signs about Wirecard.

The fallout also embarrassed Germany's political establishment, with former chancellor Angela Merkel coming under fire for promoting Wirecard during a 2019 trip to China -- when journalists were already raising doubts about the company.

In a grilling last year by lawmakers, Merkel said there was "no reason at that time" to believe there were "serious irregularities at Wirecard".

The mammoth trial in Munich is expected to run into 2024

Instead of looking into the FT's Wirecard revelations, Germany's regulator filed a complaint against the journalists



© Copyright AFP 2022. All rights reserved.

Climate change supercharges threat from forest-eating bug

Trees scarred by the spruce bark beetle in Kampu, Finland.

Deep in the Finnish woods, the moss and blueberry shrubs hide a deadly threat to the boreal forests that are as important to the planet as the Amazon rainforest

With chunks of their bark peeling off and needles falling from dying branches, more and more trees are being killed by the spruce bark beetle, which is venturing further and further north with climate change.

The tiny brown insects attack the Picea abies, one of Finland's most common tree species, and can cause massive damage to forests.

Burrowing through the bark to lay their eggs, the beetles eat their way around the spruce and kill it by stopping water and nutrients reaching the higher branches.

"The species has caused huge damage across Central and Eastern Europe, especially since 2018," Markus Melin, a scientist at the Natural Resources Institute Finland, told AFP.

With climate change, the risk of the beetle spreading is a "lot higher now", Melin added.

"We have to accept it and adapt to it. Things are changing fast up here."

Forests in Finnish Lapland are being more and more hit by beetle infestations.

While the threat is greatest in southern Finland, the sweltering summer of 2021 saw bark beetle damage "unusually high up north" in the Kainuu region of northern Finland.

'Nasty loop'

"It is well known that the spruce bark beetle is one of the species that benefit most from global warming," Melin said.

The beetles kill the trees by cutting nutrients to the higher branches.

The beetles thrive on weakened trees. Hot summers mean there are more water-starved spruce, while warm winters mean there is no frozen ground to brace the trees against storms.

Warm weather also speeds up the life cycle of the beetles, meaning they can reproduce faster.

"Extreme warm summers benefit the bark beetle directly. They have less mortality, reproduction is faster," Melin said.

One stand of healthy trees is all that is left in one stretch of forest near Kumpu, Finland.

While the beetles normally go for weak trees, once their numbers reach a tipping point they can start attacking healthy ones.

"It becomes a nasty loop," Melin said.

If foresters do not react in time by removing weakened spruce, "suddenly there are so many beetles that they can attack healthy trees" further speeding the "cycle of destruction", Melin said.

© 2022 AFP

Tree species diversity is no protection against bark beetle infestation

 

EU agrees to ban imports of products that drive deforestation

Issued on: 06/12/2022 - 

Greenpeace activists stage a protest against deforestation outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 13, 2022. © Jean-Francois Badias, AP

The European Union reached an agreement Tuesday to ban the import of products including coffee, cocoa and soy in cases where they are deemed to contribute to deforestation. FRANCE 24's correspondent in Brussels Dave Keating tells us more. 

The Southern Hemisphere is stormier than the north. Now, scientists think they know why

A new study led by a University of Chicago climate scientist has revealed new theories about the relationship between storms and hemispheres.

Story by Eleanor Noyce • Yesterday 

For centuries, sailors have understood that the Southern hemisphere has threatened the most severe storms but with little to no scientific explanation behind it. Now, we have fresh confirmation that the Southern hemisphere is 24% stormier than the Northern.

Tiffany Shaw, climate scientist at the University of Chicago, has coined the world’s first tangible explanation. The study cites ocean circulation and the large mountain ranges in the Northern hemisphere as the dominant factors, further finding that this asymmetry has increased since the dawn of the satellite era in the 1980s.

The findings concluded that this increase was consistent with climate change forecasts developed by physics-based models.

“You can’t put the Earth in a jar”, Shaw told EurekaAlert.org. “So instead we use climate models built on the laws of physics and run experiments to test hypotheses.”

Testing topography – or the forms and features of land surfaces – the study found that large mountain ranges interrupt airflow, thereby reducing storms. The Northern hemisphere has a higher quantity of these mountain ranges, so when Shaw’s study flattened all the world’s mountains roughly half the difference in storminess between the two hemispheres disappeared.

Ocean circulation was also tested. Varying processes between the two hemispheres create an energy imbalance, so water sinks in the Arctic, moving along the bottom of the ocean and eventually rising – carrying energy with it – in Antarctica. The second part of the experiment removed this so-called conveyer belt system, eliminating the remaining half of the difference in storminess in the process.

Notably, the study concluded that the storminess asymmetry has increased since the 1980s, with the Southern hemisphere becoming increasingly stormier. By contrast, there’s been little to no change in the Northern hemisphere.

So, why did it take so long to answer this question? Weather and climate physics are relatively young fields of study, as scientists only began to investigate this question mark after World War II. With these concrete answers, climate scientists will now be empowered to make vital predictions as climate change accelerates.

“By laying this foundation of understanding, we increase confidence in climate change projections and thereby help society better prepare for the impacts of climate change”, Shaw explained to EurekaAlert.org. “The stakes are high and it’s important to get the right answer for the right reason.”

New eruption of Stromboli volcano raises alert level in Italy

Italy's Civil Protection Department has raised the alert level on Monday because of a new eruption of the Strómboli volcano, which is located on the island of the same name in the south of the country.


Archive - Archive image of the Strómboli volcano. - Europa Press/Contacto/Meridioness/Ropi© Provided by News 360

The alert level, which is now orange, allows experts to monitor the situation around the volcano more closely, while authorities have urged the local population to follow relevant safety instructions, according to a brief statement from Civil Protection.

On Sunday, Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology recorded an earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale south of the volcano, in the Mediterranean Sea. The earthquake would have triggered a new volcanic activity in the area, where the active volcano is located.

The Department of Civil Protection has also warned that this has caused a small tsunami with waves 1.5 meters high, so that the warning alarms have sounded on the island. Mount Stromboli is about 920 meters high and often erupts.

6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia’s Java and Bali islands


An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 on the open Richter scale has shaken the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali on Tuesday, with no reports of casualties or material damage for the moment.


Earthquake of magnitude 6.2 in Indonesia - USGS© Provided by News 360

The Indonesian National Meteorological, Geophysical and Climatological Agency (BMKG) has detailed through its website that the epicenter of the earthquake was located south of the island of Java and added that the hypocenter was located at a depth of ten kilometers.

Related video: Volcano erupts on Java island, Indonesia raises alert to highest level | Semeru volcano | DNA India
Duration 1:39
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Indonesia volcano erupts, evacuations underway






Indonesia Hit by Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake

The earthquake was followed by several aftershocks, including several of magnitude greater than 4 on the open Richter scale, according to the agency. Authorities have not activated a tsunami warning at this time.

In November, more than 300 people were killed by an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the open Richter scale, with its epicenter ten kilometers south of Cianjur. The earthquake shook the capital, Jakarta, without causing casualties in the city.

Indonesia's Mt. Semeru unleashes lava river in new eruption

Yesterday 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s highest volcano on its most densely populated island released searing gas clouds and rivers of lava Sunday in its latest eruption.

Monsoon rains eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) Mount Semeru, causing the eruption, according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari.

Several villages were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported. Several hundred residents, their faces smeared with volcanic dust and rain, fled to temporary shelters or left for other safe areas.

Thick columns of ash were blasted more than 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) into the sky while searing gas and lava flowed down Semeru’s slopes toward a nearby river.

Increased activities of the volcano on Sunday afternoon prompted authorities to widen the danger zone to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the crater, said Hendra Gunawan, who heads the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.

He said scientists raised the volcano's alert level to the highest and people were advised to keep off the southeastern sector along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.

Semeru’s last major eruption was in December last year, when it blew up with fury that left 51 people dead in villages that were buried in layers of mud. Several hundred others suffered serious burns and the eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone.

Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the past 200 years. Still, as is the case with many of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its fertile slopes.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

The Associated Press

Eruption of Indonesia's tallest volcano prompts evacuations for thousands

Yesterday 

Several villages surrounding Mount Semeru, Indonesia's tallest volcano, have been blanketed in ash and soot following its latest eruption.

Evacuations were announced Sunday as the 12,060-foot volcano, located in East Java in Indonesia, about 300 miles southeast of the capital Jakarta, began to spew lava and ash into the densely populated island on Sunday just before 3 a.m. local time, according to local authorities.MORE: Yellowstone supervolcano has a lot more magma than previously thought: Scientists

Thick ash was blasted more than 4,000 feet into the air while lava flowed down the slopes toward the Besuk Kobokan river, about 8 miles from the crater, the country's National Disaster Management Agency announced.


People are seen as Mount Semeru continues to spew volcanic ash after its eruption, Dec. 5, 2022, in Lumajang Regency, Indonesia.

© Suryanto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

At one point, the volcanic activity level had been raised to Level 4, the highest status, according to Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.MORE: Lava oozing out of Mauna Loa inching closer to main highway on Hawaii's Big Island

While monsoon rains eventually eroded and collapsed the lava dome on top of Mount Semeru, nearby villages were advised to stay more than 3 miles away from the crater's mouth and prompted evacuations for thousands of people, officials said.



Smoke rises from Mount Semeru, Dec. 5, 2022, in Lumajang Regency, Indonesia.

© JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP via Getty Images

Hundreds of people were moved to temporary shelters or evacuated the area, The Associated Press reported, citing the disaster management agency in Lumajang in the East Java province.

Prior to Sunday, Mount Semeru erupted from Nov. 23 to Nov. 29, with daily explosions at the summit that sent ash plumes nearly 3,000 feet into the sky, according to the Global Volcanism Program at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History.

MORE: A recent history of volcanic eruptions and their impact, as Mauna Loa erupts

The last major eruption occurred in December 2021, which killed 51 people in nearby villages, according to the AP. More than 10,000 villagers were evacuated, and hundreds of people were severely burned by the hot ash and lava expelled from the volcano.



People stand before Mount Semeru following a volcanic eruption at Kajar Kuning village, Dec. 5, 2022, in Lumajang Regency, Indonesia.

There are 129 active volcanoes within the Indonesian archipelago, and tens of thousands of people continue to live downslope from the summits.

Indonesia sits along the "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific, a series of fault lines prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

FOTOS  JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP via Getty Images

AFP

Volcano erupts on Java island, Indonesia raises alert to highest level | Semeru volcano | DNA India | Watch (msn.com)

More people flee after eruption of Indonesia's Mount Semeru

Mount Semeru spews smoke and ash in Lumajang, Indonesia, on Monday.

Rescuers evacuated more people Monday from nearby villages after the eruption of Indonesia's Mount Semeru, with officials warning of danger from cooling lava despite less activity from the volcano

More than 2,400 villagers have now fled their homes and taken shelter in 11 evacuation centers after the highest mountain on the country's main island of Java erupted early morning Sunday.

"The military, police, local disaster and village officials keep evacuating people in Curah Kobokan where the hot ash cloud and cold lava might travel," Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, told local television.

"So far the total number of evacuees is 2,489."

Officials have announced a state of emergency for the next two weeks and authorities have been distributing free masks to protect against ash in the air while setting up public kitchens for evacuees.

On Monday morning, dozens of evacuees in Lumajang district where Semeru is located ventured back to their ash-covered homes to retrieve important belongings, before returning to shelters, according to an AFP journalist.

Some shepherded livestock while others carried appliances such as TVs and refrigerators as the volcano spewed ash in the background.

Damaged houses inundated with mud in the village of Kajar Kuning following the eruption of Mount Semeru.

Muhari said visual observation of Semeru on Monday morning indicated less intense volcanic activity but he warned of potential danger from lava flows that had cooled after heavy rain.

"What we worry about is economic activities such as sand mining. We want to make sure the route where the hot ash cloud and the cold lava might travel is completely free of activity," he said.

The government's alert status indicating danger from the volcano was raised to its highest level Sunday. It had previously been at its second-highest level since a major eruption last December.

Last year's eruption killed 51 people and damaged more than 5,000 homes while forcing nearly 10,000 people to seek refuge.

Kajar Kuning village in Lumajang has been covered in a mix of ash and mud.

Many of the victims from that disaster were sand miners working high on the slopes of the volcano.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where the meeting of continental plates causes substantial volcanic and seismic activity. The Southeast Asian archipelago nation has nearly 130 active volcanoes.

© 2022 AFP

Indonesia villagers race to escape eruption as sky turns black