Boxer Ngamba wins first medal for Refugee Olympic Team

Paris (AFP) – Cindy Ngamba won the Refugee Olympic Team their first ever medal on Thursday when she clinched a bronze in women's boxing.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 -

Panama's Atheyna Bylon (Blue) reacts after beating Refugee Olympic Team's Cindy Ngamba in the women's 75kg semi-final

 © MOHD RASFAN / AFP


Ngamba, who was born in Cameroon but sought safe haven in Britain aged 11, was beaten by Panama's seventh seed Atheyna Bylon by split decision in the semi-finals of the women's 75kg category.

That denied her a place in Saturday's final but boxing hands out bronze medals for losing semi-finalists.

The Refugee Olympic Team first competed at the Rio 2016 Games and is designed to represent forcibly displaced people worldwide.

There are 37 athletes competing for the team in Paris from more than a dozen countries.

The 25-year-old Ngamba is a lesbian, which is illegal in her native Cameroon.

She qualified for the Olympic competition by right and won two matches in Paris to reach the semi-finals.

Ngamba had trouble dealing with her taller Panamanian opponent but continued to attack throughout the match.

She was behind on points after the first round but came back in the second, leaving it all to fight for in the final round.

Bylon had a point deducted in the third round but the Panamanian still did enough to get the win, much to the displeasure of the crowd at Roland Garros, the home of the French Open tennis tournament.

After moving to Britain as a child, Ngamba had a tough upbringing, bullied at school for her poor English and her weight.

She took up boxing and qualified by right for the Olympic competition.

Britain wanted to select her for the Paris Games and boxing officials appealed unsuccessfully for her to receive a British passport.

© 2024 AFP

Nagasaki mayor defends Israel snub at A-bomb memorial


By AFP
August 8, 2024


Nagasaki City Mayor Shiro Suzuki speaks to the media at City Hall on August 8, 2024 - Copyright JIJI Press/AFP STR

Nagasaki’s mayor said Thursday it was “unfortunate” that US and British ambassadors have refused to attend a ceremony marking the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city because Israel was snubbed.

But he defended the decision not to invite Israel to Friday’s annual event, repeating that it was “not political” but to avoid possible protests related to the Gaza conflict.

“It is unfortunate that they have communicated to us that their ambassadors are not able to attend,” Shiro Suzuki told reporters.

“We made a comprehensive decision not for political reasons. We want to conduct a smooth ceremony in a peaceful and solemn environment.”

On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people including many who survived the explosion but died later from radiation exposure.

This came three days after the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima that killed 140,000 people.

Japan announced its surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945.

The United States, Britain, France, Italy and the European Union — plus reportedly Canada and Australia — are all sending diplomats below ambassador level to the ceremony.

Only the US and British embassies made an explicit link to Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen, although a source told AFP that Italy’s move was also a direct consequence.

The British embassy said leaving out Israel created “an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony”.

A spokesperson for the French embassy called Suzuki’s decision “regrettable and questionable”, while the German mission criticised “placing Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus”.

Cohen, who attended a similar memorial ceremony in Hiroshima on Tuesday, said last week that the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”.

On Thursday Cohen thanked “all the countries that have chosen to stand with Israel and oppose its exclusion from the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony.”

“Thank you for standing with us on the right side of history,” Cohen said on X, formerly Twitter.

Relief after UK streets see respite from far-right riots


By AFP
August 8, 2024


People protest at anti-immigrant violence instigated by the far right

 - Copyright AFP Alberto PIZZOLI
Joe JACKSON

The UK government and police breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after further anticipated far-right riots failed to materialise overnight and thousands of anti-racism protesters massed on the streets instead.

The anti-racism demonstrations on Wednesday evening passed off almost entirely peacefully, after police flooded the streets of numerous English towns and cities and reiterated violence by suspected far-right agitators would not be tolerated.

It follows a week of near nightly riots — during which mosques and migrant-related facilities have been attacked — nationwide and in Northern Ireland.

The violence was fuelled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack on July 29 which killed three children.

London’s Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers onto the streets of the capital on Wednesday, said he was “really pleased” with how events unfolded.

“I think the show of force from the police — and frankly, the show of unity from communities together — defeated the challenges that we’ve seen,” he told UK broadcasters.

Rowley noted there had been a small number of arrests due to “some local criminals” engaging in anti-social behaviour in some locations but that fears of “extreme-right disorder were abated”.

Attention will now turn to the coming weekend and whether there will be a repeat of disorder then.

Some of the worst scenes of violence were recorded last weekend.

Junior interior minister Diana Johnson cautioned that Wednesday’s respite was “just the start”.

“It’s good that we didn’t see the level of disorder and criminality on our streets that we have in previous days,” she told Sky News.

“There is now further intelligence of events during the next few days and we need to see what happens there.”

– ‘Our streets!’ –

Wednesday evening saw anti-racism and anti-fascist counter-protesters mass in considerable numbers, holding rallies in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.

“Whose streets? Our streets!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters joined the rally under a heavy police presence.

The government had put 6,000 specialist police on standby to deal with scores of potential flashpoints after far-right social media channels called for protests at an array of sites linked to immigration support services.

On Thursday, London mayor Sadiq Khan thanked “heroic police force working round the clock” and “those who came out peacefully to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia”.

“And to those far-right thugs still intent on sowing hatred and division: you will never be welcome here,” he added on X.

Courts started on Wednesday to order jail terms for offenders tied to the unrest as authorities sought to deter fresh disorder.

The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has seen hundreds arrested and at least 120 charged, and has led several countries to issue travel warnings for the UK.

London police said on Thursday that officers had made 10 further arrests overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.

Rowley, who joined the dawn raids, said those arrested “aren’t protestors, patriots or decent citizens”.

“They’re thugs and criminals,” he noted, adding most had previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences.

The riots broke out after three girls — aged nine, seven and six — were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.

False rumours initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.

The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales.

UK media report that his parents are from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian.

UK riots: How far-right actors capitalized on public anger

Anchal Vohra

08/07/2024

Who is the far right in the United Kingdom, and how did they fan the flames in the recent riots?

Police have clashed with rioters in Rotherham in recent daysImage: Danny Lawson/dpa/picture alliance

Parts of the United Kingdom have been engulfed in rioting since a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the northwestern English town of Southport killed three girls and injured several others.

The suspected perpetrator was later revealed to be Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents. But protests in response to the attack took on quite a different dimension, transforming into an ethnic or sectarian clash.

On one side were far-right supporters and local, predominantly white communities; on the other, immigrant-related targets, particularly in the Muslim community.

Hotels housing asylum-seekers were set on fire, public buildings were damaged and police stations were attacked by throngs of agitators in various parts of the country. Masked, predominantly Asian men were also spotted in social media clips strolling the streets.

Many people asked whether the violence was planned or arose spontaneously and haphazardly. And how did a knife attack at a dance class, carried out by a 17-year-old from Cardiff with Rwandan parents and of nominally Christian belief, turn into riots that targeted predominantly Muslims?

Riot police faced off with protesters after disorder broke out on July 30 in Southport

The UK's protective reporting laws initially barred the police from releasing the name of the knife attack suspect, a minor, which was capitalized on by the far right.

Rosa Freedman, a professor at the University of Reading, told DW that in the absence of the attacker's name, the far right had a chance to blame it on their favorite enemy: Muslim immigrants.

"The far right spread rumors that he was an irregular migrant, that he was a Muslim," she told DW.

She said that while that itself didn't cause the riot, it lit the spark of the fear and hatred "that has been whipped up in the UK by the previous Conservative government, some of the newspapers, as well as far-right groups since before Brexit."

By the time a judge lifted the anonymity of the attacker's name, the UK's new and old far right had gathered enough momentum for their campaign, mostly online.

Hope not Hate, an anti-racism charity, said in a statement that the far right organized a flurry of demonstrations across the country "on a broad anti-migrant, anti-Muslim and anti-multiculturalism agenda." The organization added what unfolded was"the worst wave of far-right violence in the UK post-war."

Far-right riots unsettle UK's Muslim community  02:23

Who are the UK's new far right?

The new far right in the UK is a smorgasbord of smaller groups, often individual actors who are online phenomenons. They have out-sized influence due to their ability to tap into some genuine complaints online, but mostly use social media to provoke bigotry against immigrants and Muslims.

A key player in the UK's far-right ecosystem is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, who has adopted the name Tommy Robinson.

He is a former member of the far-right and fascist British National Party (BNP) and a co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right, anti-immigrant group.

The BNP does not have a single elected representative in the UK, and the EDL has long been deemed defunct. And yet, according to Merseyside police, EDL supporters were prominent in a clash with officers posted outside a mosque in Southport earlier last week. British media reported that the government is pondering whether to proscribe the group as an extremist organization.

The EDL was established in London in 2009, and many of its followers were football fans who believed that Muslims could never be truly English. Football hooliganism has a long association with far-right activity in the UK, though the association has declined since the hooligans' heyday in the 1970s and '80s.

Yaxley-Lennon continues to be an influential figure among EDL supporters and disseminates his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-police message through his 900,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter.

In a post on X on August 2, he seemed to hail the attack on a police station and said, "You should've listened @Keir_Starmer," tagging the British prime minister's account.

Andrew Tate, a British-American social media influencer currently awaiting trial in Romania on rape and trafficking charges, has also accused the police in the UK of siding with immigrants and Muslims. He himself is mixed race and has declared himself to be a Muslim convert. He was among the first to start the rumor that led to the recent violence, suggesting the Southport attacker had "arrived on a boat a month ago."

In a post on X, he shared an image of a brown man on a rubber dinghy holding a knife in one hand and British pounds in the other. The post said, "Typical man from Cardiff."

Police mistrust sown by far right abets violence and hatred

Sowing mistrust against the police and tarnishing its credibility is another tactic widely being adopted by all hues of far-right actors in the UK. Experts said this turns the people against the law enforcement agencies and encourages them to resort to violence.

Matthew Hankinson, a convicted member of the neo-Nazi group National Action, which was banned by the British government in 2016, attended the Southport riot and reportedly argued in favor of killing corrupt police officers. He accused the police of oppressing people merely protesting the murder of "white children," according to the BBC.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, also seems to have deliberately created doubts about the information shared and questioned the police's sincerity. He said he wondered "whether the truth is being withheld from us."

Paul Golding, co-leader of another far-right fascist political party called Britain First, posted more tweets questioning the fairness of the police. Experts said such accusations against the police are often linked with anti-Muslim content to deliberately drive a false link.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer laid flowers near the site of the Southport attack

Image: James Speakman/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance

Far right is thankful to Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the owner of X, has emerged as the biggest supporter of the UK's far right. Last year, Yaxley-Lennon thanked Musk for reinstating his account on X after he was banned for posting hateful content.

In a controversial move, Musk recently posted that a "Civil war is inevitable" in Britain.

When Starmer took to X to assuage the concerns of the citizens, saying, "We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities," Musk started a war of words by insinuating the prime minister wasn't interested in the safety of all communities.

Golding of Britain First piggy-backed on Musk's questioning of the prime minister and posted that Musk was "exposing Keir Starmer" with a clapping hand emoji.

In a note titled "Violent disorder driven by disinformation and social media rumors,"BJ Harrington, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for public order, said: "Disinformation is a huge driver of this appalling violence, and we know a lot of those attending these so-called protests are doing so in direct response to what they've read online.

"Often, posts are shared and amplified by high-profile accounts. We're working hard to counteract this."

He asked people to "please pay special attention to what you read, share and believe from online sources."

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp

6,000 police deployed as Britain braces for wave of riots targeting immigration lawyers

By Paul Godfrey
Aug. 7, 2024 / 

British authorities were gearing up for as many as 30 riots across the country Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets. File photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- British authorities were gearing up for a wave of riots across England with reports of at least 30 planned for Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets.

A "standing army" of 6,000 police was mobilized after far-right groups circulated a list of 39 immigration lawyers, charities and groups that provide services to migrants and refugees on social media and 500 prison spaces had been freed up as public prosecutors threatened swingeing justice for those participating in or organizing violent disorder.

"All of us are concerned that a list is being circulated online," Communities Minister Jim McMahon told BBC Radio.

"We at this point don't know if those will transpire to be protests in the way that we've seen in other places. Or whether it's a list that's intended just to cause alarm and distress, or even to provoke.

"But to be clear we are absolutely prepared in terms of our policing response, our prosecutor response and also our court response," said McMahon.

The country's top prosecutor said at least one rioter had been charged with terror offenses and warned his office would consider the same where organized groups were planning "really serious disruption to advance an ideology."

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said his officials would deploy every legal means available to put people behind the disorder behind bars and that anti-terrorism laws were being used in one ongoing prosecution.

Police also said they were confident they would be able to maintain control.

The Law Society said it had "serious concerns for the safety and wellbeing" of its members with at least one immigration advice center boarding up its windows and doors in anticipation of trouble.

"A direct assault on our legal profession is a direct assault on our democratic values and we are supporting our members who are being targeted," the society's president, Nick Emmerson, said in a post on X.

He added that he had written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking that the threats against the profession be treated with the "utmost seriousness."

The non-profit advocacy group Hope Not Hate warned the list was an aspirational "hit list" that called for action, "up to and including terrorism" against the targets named at 8 p.m. local time, circulated by an anonymous individual who it said was also involved in instigating anti-Muslim violence in Southport and Liverpool over the past week.

"This actor, who has also called for the assassinations of public figures, must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law," HNH said in a news release.

The group said the purpose of the list was to spread fear and uncertainty as it was impossible to predict whether and where attacks might materialize and therefore "any and all services should be on high alert."

HNH said it was also monitoring a number of other far-right demonstrations planned for the days ahead which it said were emerging "more organically" and so may attract larger numbers of protesters.

The developments came after a night of relative calm with police in Liverpool and Durham tamping down tensions with the use of dispersal orders that give them powers to order people to leave the area.

The coroner was due to open inquests Wednesday morning in the Liverpool suburb of Sefton into the killings of Bebe King, 6, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, in nearby Southport on July 29.

The last of the eight other children and two adults injured in the stabbing spree at a dance studio -- triggering a week of unrest across England and Northern Ireland -- were discharged from hospital.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana,17, of Banks in Lancashire, was charged July 31 with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.

On Wednesday, the first rioters were also sent to prison with a judge at Liverpool Crown Court sentencing one man to three years for taking part in violent disorder in Southport last week when a mob hijacked a vigil for the slain girls, injuring dozens of police and attacking police vehicles and a mosque.

The man received a concurrent two-month sentence for assaulting a police officer.

Another man was sentenced to 28 months in prison for violent disorder and torching a police vehicle in Liverpool plus two months for perpetrating "malicious communication."

A third man was sent to prison for 18 months plus two months for a "racially aggravated element" of the offense.

The first significant prison sentences follow the jailing of an 18-year-old man sent to prison Tuesday for two months after pleading guilty to criminal damage charges following a riot near Manchester on Sunday.

About 100 among the more than 400 people arrested across the country since rioting erupted a day after the July 29 killings in Southport pleaded not guilty to various charges but, unusually, were refused bail pending trial.

Juveniles, however, continue to be bailed in line with standard policy.

Musk, UK govt spar over far-right riots


By AFP
August 6, 2024


The fatal stabbings in Southport have sparked huge protests, exacerbated by disinformation on social media - Copyright AFP JAAFAR ASHTIYEH
Akshata KAPOOR

As far-right riots grip England, provocative tech billionaire Elon Musk is posting sympathy for the anti-immigration demonstrators, angering the UK government, which blames social media companies for fuelling the unrest.

The week-long disturbances that have spread to numerous cities are linked to misinformation online that the suspect behind a mass stabbing that killed three girls was a Muslim asylum seeker.

A war of words between X owner Musk and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recently elected Labour administration began on Sunday when Musk tweeted that a British “civil war is inevitable”.

Starmer’s spokesperson said Monday there was “no justification” for the comment, only for Musk to respond with a stream of posts Tuesday questioning the British leader’s response to the riots.

Musk also referenced a dubious claim about policing that has been widely denied by lawmakers from across the political spectrum and police chiefs.

“Use of language such as a ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable,” justice minister Heidi Alexander said on Tuesday, branding Musk’s comments “deeply irresponsible”.

“We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly,” she told Times Radio.

The riots follow the murder on Monday last week of three girls aged between six and nine at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, northwest England.

The suspect is 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Britain, reportedly to immigrants from Rwanda.

He did not come to the UK on an illegal small boat crossing as false rumours on social media have suggested.

Far-right protesters — sometimes masked and brandishing British flags — have clashed with police, torched cars, and attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, leading the government to provide emergency security to Islamic centres.

In a post on X on Monday, Starmer vowed to apply “criminal law online as well as offline”, adding that “we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities”.

Musk replied: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”

His original “civil war” post came in reply to another X user blaming the riots on “the effects of mass migration and open borders”.

The comment was “not surprising for Elon Musk, who’s been also feeding some of the conspiracy myths and some of the hateful rhetoric” surrounding the riots, said Julia Ebner, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who specialises in far-right extremism.

In a post on Tuesday, Musk retweeted a video claiming to show Muslims attacking a pub, repeating “why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?” and tagging Starmer.

He also added a hashtag “TwoTierKeir”, referring to allegations by those on the right of “two-tier policing” in which far-right agitators are punished more harshly.

Hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said on Monday that “since the soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread”.

The BLM protests were largely peaceful, but pockets of disorder were heavily cracked down on by police. So were previous riots largely involving minority ethnic groups in 2011 when Starmer himself was chief state prosecutor.

– ‘Nowhere to hide’ –

In Musk’s latest series of posts, he claimed the UK was censoring online content, saying “is this Britain or the Soviet Union?”

Influencer Andrew Tate and far-right, anti-Islam figurehead Tommy Robinson are among people who promoted false claims about Rudakubana on X.

EuropeInvasion, an anti-immigrant X account with hundreds of thousands of followers, still has a post up falsely claiming that the attacker was “confirmed to be Muslim”.

One man charged with intending to stir up racial hatred related to alleged posts on Facebook in connection to the riots was due to appear in a court on Tuesday.

“Online comments can have a huge influence on offline behaviour,” Ebner said.

Technology minister Peter Kyle met representatives from TikTok, Meta, Google, and X on Monday and warned that social media users spreading misinformation will have “nowhere to hide”.

Musk –- who has reduced content moderation on Twitter since taking over in 2022 –- regularly voices support for right-wing causes and politicians like ex-US president Donald Trump and Argentina President Javier Milei.

He has reinstated several far-right accounts, including that of former English Defence League leader Robinson who had been banned since 2018.

WOMAN LIFE FREEDOM

Fears for women’s rights as Iraqi bill resurfaces


By AFP
August 8, 2024

Activists in Baghdad's Tahrir Square demonstrate against female child marriage on July 28, 2024

- Copyright AFP/File AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

Rights advocates are alarmed by a bill introduced to Iraq’s parliament that, they fear, would roll back women’s rights and increase underage marriage in the deeply patriarchal society.

The bill would allow citizens to choose either religious authorities or the civil judiciary to decide on family affairs. Critics fear this will lead to a slashing of rights in matters of inheritance, divorce and child custody.

In particular, they are worried it would effectively scrap the minimum age for Muslim girls to marry, which is set in the 1959 Personal Status Law at 18 — charges lawmakers supporting the changes have denied.

According to the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, 28 percent of girls in Iraq are already married before the age of 18.

“Passing this law would show a country moving backwards, not forwards,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher Sarah Sanbar said.

Amal Kabashi, from the Iraq Women’s Network advocacy group, said the amendment “provides huge leeway for male dominance over family issues” in an already conservative society.

Activists have demonstrated against the proposed changes and were planning to protest again later Thursday in Baghdad.

The 1959 legislation passed shortly after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy and transferred the right to decide on family affairs from religious authorities to the state and its judiciary.

This looks set to be weakened under the amendment, backed by conservative Shiite Muslim deputies, that would allow the enforcement of religious rules, particularly Shiite and Sunni Muslim.

There is no mention of other religions or sects which belong to Iraq’s diverse population.

In late July, parliament withdrew the proposed changes when many lawmakers objected to them. They resurfaced in an August 4 session after receiving the support of powerful Shiite blocs which dominate the chamber.



– ‘Option to shop’ –



It is still unclear if this bid to change the law will succeed where several earlier attempts have failed.

“We have fought them before and we will continue to do so,” Kabashi said.

Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher Razaw Salihy said the proposed changes should be “stopped in their tracks”.

“No matter how it is dressed up, in passing these amendments, Iraq would be closing a ring of fire around women and children,” she said.

According to the proposed changes, “Muslims of age” who want to marry must choose whether the 1959 Personal Status Law or Sharia Islamic rules apply to them on family matters.

They also allow already-married couples to convert from the civil law to religious regulations.

Constitutional expert Zaid al-Ali said the 1959 law “borrowed the most progressive rules of each different sect, causing a huge source of irritation for Islamic authorities”.

Several attempts to abrogate the law and revert to traditional Islamic rules have been made since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

This time, lawmakers are maintaining the 1959 law by giving people a chance to choose it over religious authorities.

“They are giving men the option to shop in their own favour,” Ali said. The bill would hand them “more power over women and more opportunities to maintain wealth, control over children, and so on.”

By giving people a choice, “I think basically they’re trying to increase the chances of the law being adopted,” Ali said.

– ‘Malicious agenda’ –

The new bill gives Shiite and Sunni institutions six months to present to parliament for approval a set of rules based on each sect.

By giving power over marriage to religious authorities, the amendment would “undermine the principle of equality under Iraqi law,” Sanbar of HRW said.

It also “could legalise the marriage of girls as young as nine years old, stealing the futures and well-being of countless girls.”

“Girls belong on the playground and in school, not in a wedding dress,” she said.

HRW warned earlier this year that religious leaders in Iraq conduct thousands of unregistered marriages each year, including child marriages, in violation of the current law.

Many argue that historically Islam has allowed the marriage of pubescent girls from the age of nine, as the Prophet Mohammed is said to have married one of his wives Aisha at that age.

But rights group say child marriages violate human rights, deprive girls of education and employment, and exposes them to violence.

Lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who brought the amendment forward and earlier this year successfully backed an anti-LGBTQ bill in parliament, denied that the new revisions allow the marriage of minors.

“Objections to the law come from a malicious agenda that seeks to deny a significant portion of the Iraqi population” the right to have “their personal status determined by their beliefs,” he said in a television interview.

But Amnesty’s Salihy said that enshrining religious freedom in law with “vague and undefined language” could “strip women and girls of rights and safety.”

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Dog meat ban goes into effect in South Korea

A law banning dog meat took effect in South Korea on Wednesday, starting a countdown for businesses to exit the industry by February 2027. Numerous farms and restaurants have closed down in recent years as the practice has fallen deeply out of favor in the country.

 File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo


SEOUL, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A landmark law banning the dog meat industry in South Korea took effect Wednesday, starting the final countdown for an age-old practice that has fallen deeply out of favor in the country.

The law, passed at the beginning of the year, allows for a two-and-a-half-year grace period as dog farmers and restaurant owners transition to new businesses before a final deadline of February 2027.

At that point, penalties for violating the law will include up to three years in prison and fines of up to roughly $23,000 for those who butcher dogs. Those who breed and sell dogs for meat will face up to two years in prison and fines of $15,000.

The government will offer compensation packages to dog farmers, butchers and restaurants who submitted a plan to close or transition their businesses, South Korea's Agriculture Ministry said in a press release.

"We will actively support the necessary measures so that all industries that are subject to the closure can be carried out stably and reliably, and the complete end of dog meat consumption can be achieved by February 2027," Park Jung-hoon, an animal welfare and environmental policy officer at the ministry, said.

Some 5,600 businesses, including 1,500 farms and 2,200 restaurants and shops, were identified during a mandatory reporting period and will be eligible for support, the ministry said in May.

Dog breeding farms will receive compensation for residual value as well as closure and demolition costs. If the farms switch to other industries, the government will provide loans and funding for new facilities, specialized education, training and consultation. Restaurant owners will receive small business support packages for acquiring new supplies and altering their menus.

The law's implementation comes during the hottest period of summer in South Korea, known as Bok Nal, when dog meat is most commonly eaten in a stew called bosintang.

However, local media reports indicate that dog meat restaurants have seen a significant decline in business this year, while traditional alternatives such as black goat and eel have been booming.

"This was the first Bok Nal since the dog meat ban was passed, and already we have seen reports of reduced consumer interest in dog meat," Sangkyung Lee, Humane Society International/Korea's dog meat campaign manager, said in an emailed statement to UPI.

"The message is clear for those relative few who still eat dog meat, that the end of South Korea's dog meat era is in sight," he said.

Dog meat has been falling out of favor at a blistering pace over the past several years as pet ownership has skyrocketed.

A survey released in December by Seoul-based animal rights group Aware found that some 82% of respondents supported a ban and more than 93% said they had no intention of eating dog meat in the future.

Efforts to shut down the dog meat industry picked up momentum last year as both major political parties introduced bills and high-profile political figures including first lady Kim Keon Hee spoke out in favor of a ban.

Dog meat farmers continue to protest the new law, however, with a trade group filing a petition against the ban with the Constitutional Court in March.

Next month, the Agriculture Ministry is slated to release a plan with details on how the dog meat industry will be dismantled before the February 2027 deadline, including specific compensation packages for businesses.

Not to be sniffed at: Dolce & Gabbana launches €99 dog perfume

By AFP
August 8, 2024


Dogs have an excellent sense of smell and perfumes can distress them. - Copyright AFP Alberto PIZZOLI

No need to wrestle your dog into the bath anymore. Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has launched a new perfume for canine companions.

The “alcohol-free scented mist for dogs” is on sale for 99 euros and comes with a free collar — but also a warning from animal rights activists, who say it could cause pets distress.

“I am delicate, authentic, charismatic, sensitive,” the video advertising the scent begins as it shows sleek and soft Bichon Frises, Dachshunds and Chihuahuas posing on a stool.

“Cause I’m not just a dog, I’m Fefe,” it ends.

The perfume is named after the dog of the brand’s co-founder Domenico Dolce and blends “fresh and delicate notes” of ylang ylang, musk, and sandalwood.

“It’s a tender and embracing fragrance crafted for a playful beauty routine,” the company said.

But international animal rights charity PETA said “squirting (dogs) with a fragrance designed to please humans, as this is, can upset them greatly.”

Dogs “have hundreds of millions more receptors in their nostrils and can smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than humans,” PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to AFP.

Perfumes sprayed on their fur “can cause them irritation and distress and interfere with their ability to detect other smells in their environment and communicate with other animals they encounter,” she said.

Harvest starts very early in Sicily’s drought-hit vineyards


ByAFP
August 8, 2024

At Contessa Entellina, the company's main estate in the province of Agrigento, there has been almost no rain since May. - Copyright AFP MARCO BERTORELLO

Gaël BRANCHEREAU

On the hills of the Contessa Entellina vineyard in western Sicily, the harvest is already well underway, the grapes ripening earlier than usual because of drought and high temperatures.

The prestigious Donnafugata vineyards, which span the Italian island from the slopes of Marsala to the mantle of Mount Etna, began their harvest on July 22, an unprecedented two weeks early.

At Contessa Entellina, the company’s main estate in the province of Agrigento, there has been almost no rain since May.

“Between October and the end of July, there has been 35 percent less rain,” said Antonino Santoro, the estate’s technical director and oenologist.

In 2022, the harvest had already begun on July 29.

The Sicily of myth is a fertile orchard blessed with rivers of pure water, but the modern day Mediterranean island suffers more and more from global warming.

Since the end of spring, water has stopped flowing, the soil and the springs parched.

Farmers here are used to the naturally arid territory, but they are being tested.

Even citrus fruits and olive trees are suffering from the drought and scorching temperatures which in 2021 set the European record of 48.8 degrees Centigrade (119.8 Fahrenheit).

– Drop by drop –

With 460 hectares of vines and 3.6 million bottles per year across all its territories, the Donnafugata company has the financial resources to adapt.

“Before, irrigation was useful, today it is essential,” Santoro said.

Around Contessa Entellina the estate has installed several retention basins which meet around 75 percent of its irrigation needs, the rest covered by public reserves.

During June and July, it irrigates the vines using a micro-sprinkler system, which provides water at a rate of four litres per hour per vine.

“The aim is to optimise water use,” said Giuseppe Milano, the estate’s head of cultivation.

Irrigation is not cheap, costing between 4,000 and 6,000 euros per hectare per year. The average size of an Italian vineyard is 11 hectares.

At the end of July, the Italian government recognised Sicily was facing “force majeure conditions and exceptional circumstances” due to the drought, according to Sicilian authorities.

This eases some EU rules on agriculture and allows farmers to defer payments and charges, the region said, in response to a year-long drought it said was “one of the most serious in the last 50 years”.

– Quantity and quality –

Donnafugata takes its name from the fictional town in “The Leopard”, the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa set in the area during the unification of Italy in the late 19th century.

Back then, the grape harvest did not begin before September.

As well as irrigation, Contessa Entellina adapts by growing its vines taller, up to 1.5 metres, so the upper foliage serves as a canopy to screen the grapes from the sun.

There is no such shade for the grape pickers, who use pruning shears to harvest the grapes under a blazing sun.

They started at dawn, and by 10:00am it is already 29 degrees Celsius.

For the first time, regional authorities have banned working in the fields during the hottest hours of the day, between 12:30 pm. and 4:00 pm.

They are now picking the Merlot grapes for red wine. The white Chardonnay ones were picked in July.

Depending on the varieties and the terroir, the grape harvest in Sicily this year will be spread out over three or four months — “a unique situation in Europe”, according to national agricultural association Coldiretti.

Contessa Entellina’s harvest will be smaller than last year, with smaller grapes.

But Milano insisted that what it lacks in quantity is made up in quality.

Today, Donnafugata is involved in research projects to help prepare the vines for the evolving conditions.

“I am optimistic,” said Santoro. “The vine adapts better than other crops.”

It is not just heat that is affecting the harvest.

Last year, a combination of frost and floods in the north and mildew in the south cost the Italian wine industry a quarter of its production — allowing France to take the title of the world’s leading wine producer.

Iran says Israel seeks to ‘expand war’ amid de-escalation push


By AFP
August 8, 2024

The site of an Israeli strike on south Lebanon 

- Copyright AFP/File CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA

Rania Sanjar

Iran accused Israel on Thursday of wanting to spread war in the Middle East, as diplomatic efforts sought a regional de-escalation following the killings of Tehran-allied militant leaders.

Ali Bagheri, Iran’s acting foreign minister, told AFP that Israel had committed “a strategic mistake” by killing Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week — hours after the assassination in Beirut of Hezbollah’s military chief.

Although Israel has not admitted to killing Haniyeh, Iran and its allies have vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge as the Gaza war raged on into its 11th month.

Israel seeks “to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries”, but has neither “the capacity nor the strength” to fight Iran, Bagheri said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a military base on Wednesday, said Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself.

Haniyeh’s group named a successor on Wednesday — Yahya Sinwar, who Israel says had a key role in planning Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war.

Analysts believe Sinwar — Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip since 2017 — has been both more reluctant to agree to a ceasefire and closer to Tehran than Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar.

On the ground in Gaza, fighting continued on Thursday with the Israeli military issuing its latest evacuation order and rescuers and medics reporting at least 13 killed in strikes.

– ‘Cycle of reprisals’ –

The front pages of some of Israel’s leading newspapers on Thursday cited “assessments” that Iran may be rethinking its course of action, reportedly in part due to US pressure.

Officials and leaders in the Middle East and beyond have called for calm, with Britain’s minister for international development, Anneliese Dodds, telling AFP on a visit to Jordan: “We must see a de-escalation”.

The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron spoke Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and later with Israel’s Netanyahu, telling both to “avoid a cycle of reprisals”, according to the French presidency.

Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi told troops “we are not stopping” targeting the leaders of “our most dangerous enemies”, vowing to “find” and “attack” Sinwar too, according to an army statement.

Also on Wednesday, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah, declared that Israel was “fully responsible” for Haniyeh’s “heinous” killing.

Bagheri said OIC members voiced support for Iranian retaliation.

“Western countries, who claim they have asked Iran to restrict its response… are not in the position to advise the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

– ‘Inevitable’ –

The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has already drawn in Tehran-aligned militants in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war, has vowed retaliation for military chief Fuad Shukr’s killing.

Israel said the Beirut strike that killed him was in response to deadly rocket fire from Lebanon last month on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

And in Yemen, the Iran-backed Huthis said Thursday their retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike last month on the Red Sea port of Hodeida was “inevitable and will come”.

The Huthis, who have carried out maritime attacks since November in a campaign they say is in solidarity with Gaza, claimed a drone attack on Tel Aviv a day before the Hodeida strike.

A Lebanese government official told AFP on Thursday that “there are efforts to calm the situation” across the region including with a continued push to secure a Gaza truce after months of stalled negotiations.

“But we must stay alert, even if tensions have relatively subsided over the past two days,” said the source, requesting anonymity.

Numerous airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon to security fears.

– Israel PM ‘sorry’ –

The Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Netanyahu, who has resisted making an apology for security failures over Israel’s worst-ever attack, said in an interview published Thursday that he was “sorry, deeply, that something like this happened”.

“You always look back and you say, ‘Could we have done things that would have prevented it?'” Netanyahu told Time magazine.

The Israeli military meanwhile issued a new evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city, telling Palestinians to flee places from where “rockets are launched” at Israel.

The civil defence agency said an Israeli strike targeting a Khan Yunis house killed at least five people.

In the territory’s north, AFP journalists reported air strikes and constant shelling overnight in Gaza City, where medics said eight people were killed in two separate incidents.

On the diplomatic front, an Israeli decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Norway’s envoys to the Palestinian Authority over “anti-Israel behaviour” drew anger from Oslo.

“Today’s decision will have consequences for our relationship with the Netanyahu government,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

burs-ami/dr

Iran says Hamas leader’s killing a costly ‘strategic mistake’ by Israel

ByAFP
August 8, 2024


A woman walks past a picture of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran - Copyright AFP CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA

Israel committed a costly “strategic mistake” with its killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, Iran’s acting foreign minister told AFP in an interview on Thursday.

“The act that the Zionists carried out in Tehran was a strategic mistake because it will cost them gravely,” Ali Bagheri said one day after attending an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.

Although Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death, Iran has vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge.

Bagheri accused Israel of wanting “to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries,” while asserting it was not in a position to fight Iran.

“The Zionists are in no position to start a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.

“They neither have the capacity nor the strength.”

The meeting on Wednesday of foreign ministers from the 57-member OIC produced a declaration holding Israel “fully responsible” for the “heinous” killing of Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar and was a major player in talks to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also pledged to retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing and that of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.

Who is Hamas' new leader Yahya Sinwar?

Ines Eisele

DW

AUGUST 8, 2024

The new leader of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is seen as being more radical than his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh. What is known about the top Gaza official?

Around a week ago, the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran. Now the radical Islamic Palestinian group — classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the European Union, the US and other countries — has appointed 61-year-old Yahya Sinwar as his successor.

The current whereabouts of Yahya Sinwar, seen here in Gaza City in April 2023, are unknown

Image: Yousef Masoud/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press/alliance

Who is Yahya Sinwar?

Sinwar has been Hamas' Gaza leader since 2017. His whereabouts in the territory are currently unknown, though it is assumed that he is hiding in Hamas tunnels under the coastal area. On Tuesday, Hamas declared Sinwar will head the organization's political bureau. His predecessor, Haniyeh, was based in the Qatari capital, Doha, and was considered Hamas' chief diplomat.

Sinwar is considered to be the mastermind behind Hamas' brutal attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed in the country's south, with over 250 people taken back to Gaza as hostages. In response, Israel took massive military action against targets in Gaza. According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, more than 39,650 people have been killed so far, a figure that cannot be independently verified.

Sinwar's role in the terrorist attack made him one of the organization's most wanted leaders. He is very popular among the Palestinians and is seen as the "spearhead of armed resistance" against Israel, said Israeli security expert Kobi Michael from the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Sinwar has not appeared in public since October 7.

Who is Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar?  02:28

'Butcher of Khan Younis'

Sinwar was born in 1962 in southern Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp. His family comes from the area around the coastal town of Ashkelon, which is now part of Israeli territory.

When Hamas was formed during the first Palestinian uprising, the intifada, at the end of the 1980s in the fight against Israeli occupation, Sinwar contributed to setting up Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades. In the early years of Hamas' existence, he was responsible for the fight against individuals within the organization's own ranks suspected of collaborating with Israel. Sinwar was so brutal that he became known as the "Butcher of Khan Younis."

He was later handed four life sentences for killing two Israeli soldiers. Sinwar spent a total of 23 years in Israeli prison, during which he is said to have learned Hebrew. He was released in 2011 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a prisoner exchange.

ICC prosecutor requests warrants for Israeli, Hamas leaders  02:24

What can we expect from Sinwar as Hamas leader?

It's known that Sinwar wants to achieve a unified Palestinian leadership across all Palestinian territories, including the occupied West Bank, which is governed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, which rivals Hamas.

Sinwar is the main decision-maker when it comes to exchanging hostages and reaching a cease-fire with Israel. Yet he could be more opposed to a cease-fire agreement in Gaza than his predecessor Haniyeh, experts believe.

Security expert Michael said Hamas' announcement to put Sinwar in charge sent a "strong message" to Israel that Hamas is "continuing on its path of resistance."

The appointment of Sinwar, who is considered more extreme than his predecessor Haniyeh, can be interpreted as a demonstration of power, said Michael. On the other hand, Sinwar's rise to power could also offer new opportunities, he added.

"Sinwar cannot lead Hamas from the Gaza tunnel where he is hiding. As a political leader, he must operate from outside Gaza. And he can't get out without a hostage agreement or a cease-fire in place."

This article was originally written in German.