Russian attacks close Kyiv Zoo; some animals evacuated to Poland
By Doug Cunningham

March 2 (UPI) -- The main zoo in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has closed due to the invasion by Russian military forces, but zookeepers say they are still taking care of the animals there.

The Kyiv Zoo said on Facebook that it closed last week after Russian troops crossed the borders into Ukraine.

The zoo is one of the largest in the area of the former Soviet Union and is the only large zoo in the Kyiv area. It employs hundreds of workers and cares for thousands of animals.

"The war is causing terrible stress for the animals, so some of them have been moved to indoor enclosures and underground galleries," Kyiv Zoo CEO Kyrylo Trantin said in a Facebook post. "Veterinarians monitor their emotional state and, if necessary, provide a sedative."

"The care of the animals does not stop -- the zoo staff is on places 24 hours a day," the zoo added in an update earlier this week. "Animals are frightened by the loud sounds of explosions, but our veterinarians are constantly monitoring their condition."

Newsweek reported that some animals from a different zoo, the Save Wild animal sanctuary near Kyiv, have been evacuated and are headed for a sanctuary in Poland. The sanctuary, Zoo Poznan, said on its Facebook page that the animals were passing through Ukraine and "crossing roads to pass areas of intensive bombing and firing."

The Kyiv Zoo also noted that two baby goats were born this week during the Russian military attempt to advance on Kyiv.

The zoo posted a video of the newborn goats on its Facebook page and said the animals were born Sunday after a very tense night that included loud explosions until the morning.

"Nature cannot be stopped -- today two little goats were born in Kyiv Zoo," the zoo said in a Facebook post.

Extremists harass minority refugees arriving in Poland from Ukraine, witnesses report

KIARA ALFONSECA and MARCUS MOORE
Wed, March 2, 2022

As Ukrainians flee across Europe amid the onslaught of attacks from Russia in Ukraine, non-white refugees have faced discrimination from extremist groups patrolling the border, reporters and residents in the area told ABC News.

On March 1, dozens of self-identified right-wing nationalists marauded through the city center of Przemysl, Poland, and harassed refugees who looked to be people of color, the witnesses said. Many non-white refugees have arrived in the city while they evacuate Ukraine.

As this humanitarian crisis goes on, many fear extremism will continue to cause trouble for refugees of color trying to escape the war.

PHOTO: Refugees wait at the train station in Przemysl, Poland, March 1, 2022, after fleeing from Ukraine. (Markus Schreiber/AP)

More than 836,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since Russian forces invaded the eastern European country on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

At least 453,000 of those refugees have escaped to Poland as of March 2, UNHCR said.

Near the Przemysl train station on Tuesday, where thousands of refugees are passing through, anyone who looked to be African or Arab were being targeted by the extremists in the attack, witnesses reported.

MORE: How to help Ukraine amid Russian attacks

Julian Würzer, a reporter for the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost who is stationed in Poland, told ABC News that extremists aggressively shouted at refugees to get out of the country and allegedly assaulted them.

Online videos seen by ABC News show police in riot gear diffusing the incident, which Würzer said went on for about 20 minutes before police arrived.

There have been no reports of injuries.

Local authorities did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment on the incidents.

PHOTO: Ukrainian refugees arrive at the train station in Przemysl, Poland, March 2, 2022. (Miguel A. Lopes/EPA via Shutterstock)

These extremists are a minority in the country, however. There has been an overwhelming effort by local citizens to help those fleeing across the Polish-Ukrainian border. ABC News reporters on the ground say that volunteers across the region have been offering to house, feed, and clothe the many refugees.

MORE: Ukrainian refugee crisis rises to nearly 800,000

At the border, witnesses tell ABC News that extremists have reportedly been accepting Ukrainians but vowing to “defend” Poland against an influx of non-Christians. These extremists are believed by some to be backed by Russia.

Poland's government has aligned itself in recent years with right-wing ideals and has been criticized for anti-refugee sentiment. Last year, Poland refused to let thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the country after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko forcibly drove them out of his country.

PHOTO: A temporary camp set up for Ukrainian refugees in Przemysl, Poland, is shown on March 2, 2022. (Lassi Lapintie/Shutterstock)

Commissioner Filippo Grandi of the UNCHR has confirmed that there have been instances of discrimination in the admission of certain refugees from Ukraine. Some third-country nationals have reported being stuck or being rejected from passage in their attempts to flee, he said.

Grandi said that state policies are not causing instances of discrimination, and that "there should be absolutely no discrimination between Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, Europeans and non-Europeans."

"Everybody is fleeing from the same risks," Grandi said at a March 1 press conference. "We will continue to intervene, as we have done several times to try to ensure that everybody is received in the same manner."

ABC News' Tomek Rolski and Christopher Donato contributed to this report.

VIDEO
Extremists harass minority refugees arriving in Poland from Ukraine, witnesses report originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Army of cyber hackers rise up to back Ukraine


Part of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is being waged online 

(AFP/ISSOUF SANOGO)

Wed, March 2, 2022

An army of volunteer hackers is rising up in cyberspace to defend Ukraine, though internet specialists are calling on geeks and other "hacktivists" to stay out of a potentially very dangerous computer war.

According to Livia Tibirna, an analyst at cyber security firm Sekoia, nearly 260,000 people have joined the "IT Army" of volunteer hackers, which was set up at the initiative of Ukraine's digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

The group, which can be accessed via the encrypted messaging service Telegram, has a list of potential targets in Russia, companies and institutions, for the hackers to target.

It's difficult to judge the effect the cyber-army is having.

The actions reported so far seem to be limited to "denial of service" (DOS) attacks, where multiple requests are sent to a website in a coordinated manner to saturate it and bring it down. Defacement actions, in which the targeted site displays a hacked page, have also been briefly observed on Russian sites.

The "cyber-army" could also ask hackers to try to identify vulnerabilities of certain Russian sites, and send that info to more seasoned specialists capable of carrying out more sophisticated intrusive actions, such as data theft or destruction, explains Clement Domingo, co-founder of the "Hackers Without Borders" group.

But he and other specialists consulted by AFP warned the hackers against participating in the activities of the "IT Army", or other cyber mavericks like Anonymous.

- 'Too much risk' -

"I strongly advise against joining these actions," says Damien Bancal, who is well-versed in the opaque world of cybercrime. "There are plenty of other ways to help Ukrainians who are suffering", if only by relaying the testimonies that are flourishing on social networks, he adds.

For SwitHak, a cybersecurity researcher, the maverick hackers are taking "too much risk".

"There are legal risks, for example," he said, Attempting to attack a website or penetrate a server or network is "computer crime".

For Domingo there is also a real risk of "hack back," a destructive counterattack by Russian operatives,

He is particularly appalled to see that a number of candidate hackers have obviously not taken the trouble to create a special Telegram account to participate in the IT Army, at the risk of being identified by the Russian side.

In cyberspace, and in particular on forums and other discussion groups on Telegram or Discord, "you don't know who's who", insists Felix Aime, another researcher at Sekoia.

Inexperienced hackers can find themselves caught up with infiltrators from the opposite camp, and end up working for the very opponent they wanted to fight, he warns.

Between the experienced hackers, who carry out ransomware attacks, the fight is on.

The Conti ransomware group, which declared its support for Russia, saw one of its pro-Ukrainian members publish more than a year's worth of its internal communications in retaliation, offering a treasure trove of information to the world's cyber security researchers, police and spy specialists.

The forums where cybercriminals meet "try to stay away from any debate" on the Russian-Ukrainian war to avoid attracting the attention of state services, says Sekoia analyst Tibirna.

lby/elc/dch/pvh/cdw

Dozens detained at anti-war rallies in Russia

Police officers detain a woman during a protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Saint Petersburg. (Photo: AFP/Olga Maltseva)

03 Mar 2022

MOSCOW: Dozens of anti-war demonstrators were detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Wednesday (Mar 2) after jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on Russians to protest President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Police in Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg violently dispersed protesters and detained around 100 people, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

In Moscow, law enforcement closed off Red Square near the Kremlin and detained at least seven people who gathered while loudspeakers warned people from convening.

The demonstrations Wednesday came hours after Navalny called for daily rallies against the military assault, saying Russia should not be a "nation of frightened cowards" and calling Putin "an insane little tsar".

In Moscow, one woman in a red coat shouted "No war!" before being hauled off by police to a van, according to an AFP journalist.

"It pains me to see what is happening and to do nothing," a man in his fifties told AFP, before being arrested with his son, 17.

"I couldn't stay at home. This war has to be stopped," student Anton Kislov, 21, told AFP in Saint Petersburg.

Independent monitoring group OVD-Info said that more than 7,000 people in total in Russia had been detained at demonstrations over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine that began last Thursday.

Navalny, 45, led the biggest protests in Russia against Putin in recent years and was targeted in a poisoning attack he blames on the Kremlin in 2020.

He is now serving a prison sentence on old fraud charges outside Moscow.
Source: AFP/ec

Magritte Sets Record With $79.7 Million Sale at Sotheby’s

“L’empire des lumières” (1961), one of a series by the Surrealist, was auctioned during a bustling London art week.

Workers holding René Magritte’s “L’empire des lumières” outside the London location of Sotheby’s, whose building was decorated to resemble the painting.

Credit...C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Tristan Fewings/Getty Images


By Scott Reyburn
March 2, 2022


One of René Magritte’s famed “Empire of Light” canvases sold Wednesday for 59.4 million pounds with fees, or about $79.7 million, almost three times the auction high price at auction for a work by the Belgian Surrealist artist. Certain to raise at least $60 million, courtesy of a guaranteed minimum price financed by Sotheby’s, the 1961 painting was sought by three bidders, all represented by Sotheby’s specialists on telephones in London.

The painting, “L’empire des lumières,” which juxtaposes a nocturnal lamplit street with a serene daylit sky, is one of the most celebrated and enigmatic images in 20th-century art. Magritte painted no fewer than 17 canvases of the day-and-night subject starting in 1948.

Sotheby’s variant, one of the latest and largest, had been made for Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, the daughter of Magritte’s friend, patron and chess opponent Pierre Crowet. It had remained in the same family collection ever since.

“Over the years, there have been numerous versions that have been sold, and they have performed extremely well,” said Melanie Clore, a co-founder of the London-based art adviser company Clore Wyndham.

She said that in terms of composition, scale and condition, this 1961 work was “one of the most desirable Magritte paintings to come to auction.”

In 2011, when Clore was working as a specialist in Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s, her department auctioned a 1953 version for $3.8 million, although at the time that was not among the highest prices achieved for the artist.

“L’empire des lumieres” (1961) by René Magritte.Credit...C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Sotheby's

The Magritte was the obvious standout lot of London’s marquee spring series of auctions this week that were devoted to big-ticket Impressionist, modern and contemporary art. But top-end sales like these at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips’s European headquarters aren’t what they once were.

With Britain’s economy diminished by Brexit and China a more powerful force in the global art market, London was the third-biggest-selling auction center in 2021, behind New York and Hong Kong, according to Pi-eX, a London-based company that analyzes international auction sales.

The hybrid live-online “evening” sales in London are now held in the afternoon, to straddle the world’s time zones, and Impressionist and contemporary artworks are no longer auctioned on separate days. Bonnard is jumbled together with Basquiat and Banksy.

“It’s a new world,” said the Paris-based dealer Christian Ogier, who regularly attends these London auctions. “Mixing the modern and the contemporary is understandable. Why not? I don’t stop at any category.”

But London, with its huge concentrations of international wealth, including Russian oligarchs with links to the Kremlin (which the British government is now trying to restrict and regulate), continues to be a magnet for buyers and sellers of big-name art trophies.

In addition to the Magritte, Sotheby’s sale also included a Monet “Nymphéas,” or waterlily canvas, painted in 1914-17, that hadn’t been seen at auction since 1978. Entered from a Japanese collection, this made $31.2 million, again bought by a telephone bidder.


“Nymphéas” (1914-17) by Claude Monet.

Credit...Sotheby's

“The Foxes” (1913) by Franz Marc.

Credit...Christie's

On Tuesday evening, Christie’s offered “The Foxes,” a market-fresh masterwork by the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc, as the headline lot of its spring London sales.

Recently returned to the heirs of the Berlin collectors Kurt and Else Grawi, “The Foxes” (1913) was one of Marc’s most powerful Cubist-influenced studies of animals. (The artist admired them more than humans.)

Guaranteed to sell for at least $47 million, it was pushed by three telephone bidders to $57.2 million, the top price of the Christie’s sale and a record for the artist at auction.

Francis Bacon’s seemingly impressive “Triptych 1986-7” was similarly estimated and guaranteed. But Bacon’s later paintings are much less sought-after than his earlier works, and the work fell to a single bid of $51.6 million, the ninth-highest auction price for the important artist.

About 90 percent of the lots at Christie’s found buyers, but Banksy’s “Happy Choppers,” a tongue-in-cheek stencil painting of helicopter gunships wearing Minnie Mouse bows, failed to sell against a low estimate of $4 million.

The Tuesday evening sales at Christie’s raised $298 million; the Wednesday evening auction of modern and contemporary works at Sotheby’s, preceded by “The Now,” took in $297.2 million. That combined total of $595 million was 39 percent down from the $971 million achieved at the equivalent London sales in February 2014, when art sales were at a high, according to Pi-eX.

Paintings by younger market favorites drew the most intense competition. After a lethargic 90-minute sale of 20 contemporary works livestreamed from Shanghai to inaugurate the company’s new offices and galleries in mainland China, Christie’s kick-started its main “20/21” sale with works by Jade Fadojutimi, Shara Hughes, Amoako Boafo and Flora Yukhnovich. “You’re going to make me blush,” a painting by Yukhnovich from 2017 inspired by Fragonard’s “The Swing,” took in $2.6 million against a low estimate of $340,000.

“Tu vas me faire rougir (You’re going to make me blush)” 

(2017) by Flora Yukhnovich.Credit...Christie's

The same names shone at Sotheby’s 21-lot “The Now” sale of works by on-trend contemporary artists. Shara Hughes’s psychedelic 2019 flower painting “The Naked Lady” sold for a record $2.7 million, and a 2020 work by Yukhnovich, “Warm, Wet N’ Wild,” soared to $3.6 million, setting an auction high for the much-sought-after British artist. It had been estimated that it would sell for $200,000.

Last year, works by artists under 40 raised a record $450 million at auction. This represented a 275 percent increase from 2020, with 8,952 works in the category offered, also a record, according to Artprice, a France-based company that tracks international salesroom results.

“It’s dangerous,” said Samuel Selby, 21, a London-based collector of contemporary pieces. “I’m worried about how the auction houses are taking works by young artists and selling them for ridiculous prices.”

“It’s going to be difficult to maintain in the long-run,” Selby added.

Ford unveils new structure as it speeds electric car push


Ford announced the creation of separate businesses for the electric autos and internal combustion engine operations

 (AFP/JUSTIN SULLIVAN) 

John BIERS
Wed, March 2, 2022,

Ford announced Wednesday it is creating separate businesses for its conventional and electric-auto operations, as it accelerates its build-out of emission-free vehicles.

Under the plan, which sent Ford shares sharply higher, the conventional internal combustion operations will be known as "Ford Blue," while the electric vehicle (EV) products will be run through "Ford Model e."

The reorganization, while significant, keeps both operations under the same corporate roof and avoids a potential spin-off that had generated speculation on Wall Street.

"Our legacy organization has been holding us back," said Chief Executive Jim Farley. "We had to change."

Ford said the intention is to give the EV venture "the focus and speed of a start-up," while the conventional business will try to excel at the challenges of a mature business, "relentlessly attacking costs, simplifying operations and improving quality."

The two ventures will each have distinct executive leadership and report their own financial results. Both companies will continue to be headquartered in the midwestern state of Michigan.

The move is the latest announcement by a conventional automaker as the industry pivots hard to pursue EVs following the success of Elon Musk's Tesla.

- No IPO -

Farley, in remarks last month, had described operating the EV and internal combustion units as "fundamentally different" in terms of supply chain, product development, even business "rhythm."

Those comments generated speculation of a possible spin-off. But Ford opted against an initial public offering in part because the company already has enough access to capital and did not need extra funds from an IPO, Farley said.

"No we are not spinning off Model e," Farley said. "That's because the structures we set up actually make it stronger than a spin-off."

Executives said the EV company would benefit from access to industrial know-how, while the conventional business would prosper from newer technologies.

A third division, Ford Pro, will serve commercial customers.

Amid the shift to EVs, Mercedes has divested its truck division, while Volkswagen announced plans to list its Porsche business on stock markets to finance its electrification strategy.

Renault has said it will present in the fall a new structure, with its EV division in France, apart from its division overseeing internal combustion, which will be located in another country.

Ford's big US rival, General Motors, has also announced massive new investments in EV models, but has so far not unveiled a similar revamp of its corporate structure.

"This move represents the dual nature of every traditional automaker as they transition from internal combustion drivetrains to electric vehicles," said Karl Brauer, analyst at iSeeCars.com.

The company's vision is to garner the benefits of both units, but "knowing when to combine these divisions and when to keep them separate will be key," Brauer said. "And with separate profit and loss statements, we'll all be watching."

- Spending more -

Executives signaled more aggressive spending on EVs, projecting spending $50 billion between 2022 and 2026, compared with a prior plan to invest $30 billion between 2021 and 2025.

Ford also raised some of its operating and financial targets. The company now expects to produce two million EVs by 2026, about one third of global volumes, rising to half by 2030.

In February, Ford said EVs would account for at least 40 percent of its product mix by 2030.

Shares of Ford jumped 8.3 percent to $18.09 in afternoon trading.

jmb-jum/sw

Amid Russia-Ukraine war, Georgia to ‘immediately’ submit EU bid

Georgia’s ruling party has announced plans to “immediately” submit an application to join the European Union, after the bloc’s parliament backed Ukraine’s bid for membership amid Russia’s invasion.

Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream, told reporters on Wednesday that his party’s decision was “based on the overall political context and the new reality”.

“We call on the EU bodies to make an emergency assessment of our application and grant Georgia the status of an EU candidate country,” he said.

The application will be handed over on Thursday, he said.

Georgia’s EU integration would put the country “on a path which will lead our country to a qualitative increase in our population’s wellbeing, security, and to de-occupation”, he added.

The decision marks a U-turn by Kobachidze. On Tuesday, he had insisted that Georgia would not submit such an application until 2024 because “a hasty initiative could be counterproductive.”

But the ruling party came under strong pressure from opposition parties after a similar move by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who won overwhelming backing from European legislators in a non-binding resolution recommending the bloc’s bodies grant Ukraine the status of candidate country.

The MEP’s vote on Ukraine was largely seen in Georgia as a window of opportunity to advance its own EU aspirations – a goal enshrined in the country’s constitution.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has strengthened the West’s focus on Georgia and Moldova, another former Soviet republic seeking EU membership.

Some observers view these countries as possible targets for the Kremlin after Ukraine.

Last week, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili was in Paris and Brussels to argue for Europe’s commitments to Ukraine being extended to Georgia.

However, even if granted candidate status, Georgia and Ukraine will face a protracted and complex accession process. They would have to implement sweeping reforms to comply with the 27-nation bloc’s political and economic standards.

Georgia’s and Ukraine’s efforts to have closer ties with the West have long angered Russia.

Tensions with Moscow culminated in Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008.

Both Georgia and Ukraine have signed association agreements with the EU designed to bring them closer together economically and politically.

The agreements also include free trade deals between the countries and the EU as well as visa-free travel for its nationals for a short stay in the Schengen area.

But they give no guarantee of eventual membership.

 

Collective of US states investigate TikTok's impact on children

US states probe TikTok impact on children.

A consortium of US states announced on Wednesday an investigation into TikTok's possible harms to young users of the platform, which has boomed in popularity especially among children.

Officials across the United States have launched their own probes and lawsuits against Big Tech giants as the national government has failed to pass new regulations due in part to partisan gridlock.

The consortium of eight states will look into the harms TikTok can cause to its young users and what TikTok knew about those possible harms, said a statement from California attorney general Rob Bonta.

The investigation focuses, among other things, on TikTok's techniques to boost young user engagement, including efforts to increase the frequency and duration of children's use.

"We don't know what social media companies knew about these harms and when," Bonta said in a statement.

"Our nationwide investigation will allow us to get much-needed answers and determine if TikTok is violating the law in promoting its platform to young Californians," he added.

Ireland investigates TikTok over child, China data concerns

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© 2022 AFP

Who killed Pasolini? Italy still questions century after birth


Italy marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pier Paolo Pasolini this month while a retrospective of his estimated two dozen movies is planned in Los Angeles (AFP/Tiziana FABI)

Gaël BRANCHEREAU
Wed, March 2, 2022, 

Provocative Italian filmmaker and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini had no shortage of enemies, but half a century after his brutal murder on a beach, his death remains a mystery.

Italy marks the 100th anniversary on March 5 of the birth of one of its leading left-wing intellectuals, while a retrospective of his estimated two dozen movies is planned in Los Angeles.

But the most crucial questions that have gripped Italy since his mangled body was found on a beach of Ostia outside Rome on November 2, 1975 -- who ordered his killing and why -- remain unanswered.

Pasolini was only 53 when he died, beaten with fists and sticks, then run over by an Alfa Romeo GT, either his own or someone else's.

A 17-year-old male prostitute, Giuseppe "Pino" Pelosi, was stopped while running away from the filmmaker's car and admitted killing him, saying Pasolini tried to rape him.

Pelosi was jailed for nearly 10 years, but in 2005 he recanted on his confession, instead blaming three unnamed men with Sicilian accents.

The investigation was reopened in 2010, based on DNA found on Pasolini's clothes, but only one sample could be identified -- Pelosi's.

In the years since Pasolini died, theories have swirled about why the artist was killed, ranging from blackmail to a hit by the far-right or mafia.

Pasolini lived his life unafraid of controversy as he took aim at bourgeois values, Catholic censorship and the threat of neo-fascism, while exposing the hardships of life through an often unbearably grim lens.

He was "an uncomfortable person for those in power", his childhood friend, Silvio Parello, told AFP at his Rome workshop that has become a shrine to the filmmaker.

- Right to scandalise -

Through his essays, poems, plays and films, Pasolini highlighted the downsides of Italy's post-war "economic miracle", which brought modernity but also shanty towns and growing regional inequality.

"All his life he sought out an archaic, pre-industrial, pre-globalised peasant world, which he saw as innocent," another friend, Italian writer Dacia Maraini, told AFP.

Pasolini was already known in Italy for his poetry when he began in film. His last movie, "Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom", was released after his death.

The films range from gritty realism to loose adaptations full of symbolism -- "Salo" was based on the work by the Marquis de Sade -- while his novels reveal a fascination with small-time hooligans from the Rome suburbs.

"To scandalise is a right. To be scandalised is a pleasure," he said in his last television interview, in Paris, on October 31, 1975.

But not everybody appreciated what he was trying to do.

Shortly before his death, the filmmaker received threats over "Salo", a critique of Fascist Italy that caused outrage because of its graphic depiction of violence and sexual abuse.

Some believe Pasolini's murder was linked to his investigations into the suspicious death of Enrico Mattei, the boss of energy giant Eni, in a 1962 plane crash likely caused by a bomb.

- Political crime -

For criminologist Simona Zecchi, author of two books on Pasolini, the writer was killed for his journalism at a time when Italy was in the throes of violence between far-left and far-right groups, known as the "Years of Lead".

In 1974, Pasolini -- who was close to Italy's Communist party -- published an inflammatory article about the December 1969 Piazza Fontana attack in Milan, which left 17 people dead and more than 80 injured.

It was first blamed on anarchists, then members of a neo-fascist group. Pasolini claimed he knew who was responsible, but said he had no proof. No one was ever convicted.

There is also speculation blackmail played a role in his death, as weeks before, reels of "Salo" had been stolen in Rome. But investigators later ruled out the theory.

Zecchi believes there was never any will to find out what really happened.

"Italy has a problem with the truth, because this truth has often passed through the dark side of our institutions," she said.

Pasolini's French biographer, Rene de Ceccatty, said solving the murder is complicated by the "several layers" of individual actors likely involved.

"From the moment you accept it was a political crime, it's not surprising that there is so much fog around it."

gab-kv-ar/ams/bp

Turkey inflation woes pit tenants against landlords



Disputes between homeowners and tenants have risen sharply in Turkey after annual inflation reached nearly 50 percent in January 

(AFP/Amir MAKAR)


Remi BANET
Wed, March 2, 2022

Kicked out in the middle of a harsh Turkish winter, 30-year-old Erdem Yilmaz calculated that he spent two and a half months' salary to urgently relocate to a new home in Istanbul.

The father of a two-year-old is not the only Turk in this situation after last year's currency crisis.

Disputes between homeowners and tenants have risen sharply in recent months in Turkey after annual inflation reached nearly 50 percent in January, the highest since April 2002 and may well reach a new peak on Thursday when new monthly data will be published.


In the same period, rents have exploded by 85 percent in Istanbul and by 69 percent at the national level, according to analysis by Bahcesehir University.

But salaries have not risen at the same pace, with most increasing by between 30 and 50 percent on average in January.

"We shouldn't have had to leave," lamented Yilmaz, who works as a receptionist, upset at his former landlord who claimed he wanted the property back for his son.

"He harassed us. My family had no peace," he added.

Yilmaz is even angrier because he said the landlord's son did not move into the apartment.

"I saw an advert (for the flat) on the internet a week after we left," he said, showing a photo of the advert.

The rent is now 2,600 Turkish liras ($190, about 170 euros), compared with the 1,100 liras ($80) paid by Yilmaz.

- Rising legal disputes -

To add insult to injury, Yilmaz's new home will cost him 2,000 liras ($146), half of his salary, and is located in "a remote corner, in an old building that is hard to heat and without a lift," he said.

Yilmaz's dispute has not hit the courts but legal cases between tenants and property owners are now the biggest single issue processed by Turkish courts.

They represent 20 percent of cases, compared to 10 percent a year ago, according to financial daily Dunya.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's unorthodox policies, as well as the weakening lira are contributing to inflation.

Central banks normally raise rates to tame inflation but Erdogan vehemently opposes high interest rates, claiming they are the "mother and father of all evil" and cause high inflation.

The Turkish lira lost 44 percent of its value against the dollar last year.

AFP spoke to 12 tenants who described being forced to leave their apartments in the same way as Yilmaz, or who have suffered rent increases of over 100 percent, five times higher than the legal limit in Turkey.

Turkish law stipulates that, under a tenant's contract renewed in February, a landlord cannot increase the monthly rent above 22.6 percent, a figure calculated using base inflation.

The law also restricts evictions, but tenants said they gave in to pushy or threatening landlords.

In January, an Istanbul man in his 90s was filmed by a neighbour using an axe to break down his tenants' door after they refused to pay their rent, which suddenly rose from 1,200 to 4,000 liras.

"The rise in rents is pushing property owners to seek the recovery of their homes to put them back on the market" at distinctly higher prices, according to lawyer Hanife Emine Kara, a specialist in real-estate law who has seen the number of cases rise.

- 'Illegal and opportunistic' -

Property owners pushing for three-figure rent increases argue that official inflation data does not reflect the reality, a claim supported by some independent Turkish economists who say inflation reached over 110 percent in January.

"We live in a period in which owning a home or renting cheap accommodation is a luxury," said Mehmet Bulent Deniz, head of the Turkish Consumers Union Federation.

However, some landlords try to find a balance.

"We have agreed to 35-percent increases. There needs to be a happy medium," said Hakan Yildiz, who owns three properties in Istanbul.

Some tenants, such as Emrullah Comran, refuse to accept, on a matter of principle.

In January, Comran's landlord wanted to increase his rent by 58 percent.

"I'm in a good financial situation, I could have paid but I refused because they did this in an illegal and opportunistic manner," said the 30-year-old, who runs a small metalworking business in Antalya, southern Turkey.

"We have 12 employees and we gave them a pay rise of 45 percent on average this year. But no one has received a 58-percent raise. Nobody," he insisted.

In response to his landlord, Comran sent his rent by wire transfer with an increase he set himself.

"The official rate is 22.6 percent, so I went a little above that, to 23 percent," he said.

"I have not heard back from them yet."

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