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Syria's return to bombing
The first signs from eastern Ghouta are not encouraging. A day after the UN security council finally agreed a ceasefire, it was back to bombing-as-usual for Syria’s regime. It is as though the vote for a truce in the besieged enclave, so long in coming and so contentious, never happened at all.Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, is primarily culpable. He probably no longer cares what the world thinks. He has no reputation to lose. Perhaps he calculates one final push by his ground forces will finish the rebels, before a ceasefire takes hold.But the larger burden of responsibility lies with Russia. It was Vladimir Putin who rescued Assad in 2015 when he was losing the war. Russia’s president has protected his Syrian poodle from war crimes charges and blocked inquiries into his use of banned chemical weapons. Putin has bathed in the kudos of seeming to supplant the US as the Middle East’s big mover and shaker. When Israel and Iran got into a scrap in Syrian airspace recently, it was Putin, not Donald Trump, who phoned Jerusalem and told Benjamin Netanyahu to knock it off.And it was Putin who delayed the UN ceasefire last week, even as Ghouta’s children were dying, watering down its provisions. He ensured, in effect, that anybody Assad deems a “terrorist” is still fair game for his barrel bombers. That is why the fighting continues unchecked. The Syrian conflict began as a popular, internal uprising against a dictator. But since Russia jumped in militarily it has become Putin’s war. It is Moscow’s biggest foreign military adventure since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Remember how that ended. Putin owns the Syria conflict, in the same way Lyndon Johnson owned Vietnam. Russian forces are not committed on the ground to a similar degree. But Russia’s global prestige, geo-strategic interests and political and military credibility are now inextricably linked to Assad. Increasingly that looks like a bad bet that Putin cannot afford to lose.Syria is a shocking, baffling mess. For ordinary Russians, it is a waste of men and money. For a watching world, appalled by scenes of relentless brutality and cruelty in Ghouta, Aleppo, and a thousand other towns and cities, it is Putin’s mess. It’s up to him to fix it. Putin is learning if you want to be a global power again, you have to lead globally. That is why Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macon were on the phone on Sunday, demanding he ensure the ceasefire works. After all the fuss Russia made, the entire UN expects it.Putin faces a presidential election on 18 March. If Russia were a functioning democracy, not a corrupt oligarchy, he could be out on his ear. Topics Syria Bashar al-Assad Vladimir Putin Russia United Nations Middle East and North Africa analysis
2018-02-16 /
Brazil's Vale has over $219 million frozen by state prosecutors as compensation
Israeli military personnel search for victims of a collapsed tailings dam owned by Brazilian mining company Vale SA, in Brumadinho, Brazil January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Washington AlvesRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s Minas Gerais state labor prosecutors’ office said on Thursday it had frozen more than 800 million reais ($219 million) of miner Vale’s (VALE3.SA) funds as compensation for victims of a deadly tailings dam burst. (This version of the story corrects headline and paragraph 1 to show funds frozen by state labor prosecutors, not state labor ministry) Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Christian PlumbOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2018-02-16 /
Trumps Puts North Korea On List Of Countries Identified As State Sponsors Of Terror : NPR
ELISE HU, HOST: President Trump said today he's putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The announcement came during a cabinet meeting.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil.HU: North Korea joins just three other countries on that list - Iran, Sudan and Syria. To talk about what this means, we're joined by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hi, Greg.GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hey, Elise.HU: So why is North Korea being added to the list now?MYRE: Well, big picture is this is part of the whole nuclear feud that's been going on. On the more granular level, Congress passed a sanctions bill 90 days ago and said that - a little over 90 days ago and said the Trump administration had to make a decision, yes or no. Does North Korea go on this list of state sponsors of terrorism? So the Trump administration is giving their decision today.Now, nuclear programs are one thing. Terrorism tends to be something else, and it's not sort of traditional terrorism. The one event that the president mentioned was the killing of Kim Jong Un's half-brother at a Malaysian airport earlier this year. Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, also spoke about it. He called it peaceful pressure. Trump is calling this a maximum-pressure campaign. Tillerson sort of noted this with a smirk, but he said they're on the same page. And to the larger point, let's listen to what he had to say here.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)REX TILLERSON: Again, this just continues to tighten the pressure on the Kim regime all with an intention to have him understand this is only going to get worse until you're ready to come and talk.HU: Greg, what does this designation mean in practical terms?MYRE: Well, it means that their administration is still looking at non-military options. Tillerson was asked very directly, you know, are you running out of diplomatic options? And he said, no, we're making a very strong statement. He acknowledged this may not really ramp up the sanctions, that it does trigger some automatic sanctions and punitive measures. But these are sort of already covered. The Treasury is going to announce some more tomorrow. So it's not really the sanctions. It's more of the symbolism of doing it.HU: President Trump says this, quote, "should have happened years ago." But actually North Korea was on the list years ago. This actually happened in the '80s, and then North Korea came off the list. What happened?MYRE: Right. So in 1987, a South Korean airplane blew up on a flight to Thailand. More than a hundred people were killed. North Korea was blamed. The following year, they were added to the list of state sponsors. They stayed there for 20 years. And then President Bush at the end of his time in office in 2008 took them off because there were some nuclear negotiations going on. They thought South - the North Koreans were going to curb their nuclear program. And with facing a lot of criticism, he went ahead and did this.HU: So how is North Korea likely to respond to this?MYRE: Always unpredictable - we don't know. This has happened during the middle of the night there. Kim Jong Un has been fairly quiet the past couple months or so. But certainly a missile test or a nuclear test could certainly be possible. We'll certainly be keeping an eye on that. And it's certainly a reminder that this is still a front-burner issue. Trump just had his big trip to Asia. This came up again and again. And one final note - in less than three months, the world's athletes will be gathering in South Korea for the Winter Olympics, and they're going to be going into a region that's very, very tense.HU: NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thank you.MYRE: Thank you, Elise.Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
2018-02-16 /
Aadhaar voter ID linking may have left of millions in India
A 2015 project that aimed to “purify” India’s voter base may have stripped millions of names from electoral rolls and collected data from citizens without obtaining informed consent.The National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), which took place over several months in 2015, was the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) attempt to use software based on Aadhaar, the controversial national biometric identity database, to flag duplicate voters’ names for deletion. Several recent reports, including by HuffPost India, The Wire, and Scroll, draw on internal ECI documents to investigate the programme.According to these documents, which Quartz has also accessed, the ECI itself was worried about issues like coercion and wrongful deletion of voter names.The minutes of an ECI meeting about NERPAP from May 2015, a few months after the programme began, record the chief election commissioner underlining that “various representations/complaints have been received in the Commission suspecting that a number of deletions of names of voters from the electoral rolls” because voters did not furnish their Aadhaar.The record also indicates that some election officers were not fully informed of the fact that voters were not required to provide their Aadhaar numbers: “To avoid confusion, more detailed and clear instructions should go to CEOs that furnishing of Aadhaar by an elector is not mandatory but it is optional.”The ECI stopped NERPAP in August 2015 after the supreme court issued an interim order that checked the spread of Aadhaar while the biometric programme’s constitutionality was still being challenged. But the damage may have been significant and lasting.Aadhaar was never even meant to be an identification number only for citizens, but for all Indian residents. “A number for residents is actually converted into a tool for excluding citizens,” R Ramakumar, an economics professor at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences in Mumbai, told Quartz. “So the idea of citizenship itself is under question.”NERPAP’s software worked by comparing state-level Aadhaar databases with electoral rolls to find entries that at least partially matched, Huffpost reported. Once an entry was flagged as a potential duplicate, an election official would reportedly be told to take steps to verify the person’s identity. If the voter could not be reached, the officer would recommend that the name be struck off the rolls.The ECI maintained in an interview to Scroll that Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage was always done with consent. Email queries Quartz sent to both the ECI and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which administers Aadhaar, went unanswered.The poll body seems to be attempting to renew the connection between Aadhaar and voter IDs. Even after the supreme court placed significant checks on the use of Aadhaar in late September, the ECI has supported a petition being heard in the Madras high court, calling for Aadhaar to be linked with voter IDs.“People without Aadhaar will be declared ghosts and their names are deleted without any warning, people who do not (or, cannot) link their Aadhaar numbers will face the same fate,” said economist Reetika Khera who has written extensively about how linking welfare programmes with Aadhaar leads to denial of benefits to the poor.And others yet may be excluded from voting “if they experience any biometric enrolment/authentication issues.”Drawing a parallel between voter ID laws in the US, Khera said attempts to compel Aadhaar linkage with voter IDs would disproportionately affect the oppressed. “Voter ID requirements tend to exclude the most disadvantaged groups,” such as the poor, the elderly and the disabled, she said.For Indians, issues of voter-roll integrity have always been deeply tied to ones of social inclusion. A recent study of voter data in Karnataka found that Muslims were far more likely than average to not be included in the state’s voter rolls.“In principle, there’s nothing wrong with requiring biometric ID for voting,” said Sadanand Dhume, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “But it’s important to ensure that this is used only as a tool for identification, and not as a tool for exclusion of marginalised groups.”Read Quartz’s coverage of the 2019 Indian general election here.
2018-02-16 /
Opinion A Win for L.G.B.T. Rights in India
After a serious setback in 2013, the lawyers who spearheaded the successful legal challenge, Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju, devised a new strategy that focused on the personal cost of constitutionally sanctioned discrimination.They highlighted those who suffered under the law by enlisting as co-petitioners in the suit more than two dozen gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people who risked arrest simply for publicly identifying themselves as L.G.B.T. “This is a plea by 6 to 8 percent of the Indian population to be regarded as full citizens and not unconvicted felons,” Ms. Guruswamy told the court. “This is love that must be constitutionally recognized and not just sexual acts,” she added.Given India’s democratic tradition and importance as a rising regional power, the court’s enlightened decision is already inspiring similar legal challenges in more than a half-dozen countries, including Kenya and Singapore.As often is the case when barriers are broken, there is still much work to do, and one can assume a cultural backlash as gay people in India seek to exercise their newfound freedoms. One troubling sign was the silence of top politicians, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as the Indian news media, including several conservative outlets, lauded the ruling. Mr. Modi’s government has indicated that while it will support the decision, it will oppose a further expansion of gay rights.Good luck with that. Given the court’s sweeping and principled assertion that fundamental rights apply to all Indians, regardless of sexual orientation, activists have made clear their intention to push for the other rights they are denied, including to marry, adopt children, be protected from hate speech and inherit their partner’s wealth.
2018-02-16 /
Nicaragua to join Paris climate accord, leaving US and Syria isolated
Nicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries outside the global pact.Nicaragua has already presented the relevant documents at the United Nations, Murillo, who is also first lady, said on local radio on Monday. “It is the only instrument we have in the world that allows the unity of intentions and efforts to face up to climate change and natural disasters,” Murillo said.Donald Trump said in June he would withdraw the United States from the accord, and Nicaragua’s decision to enter the pact means only two countries will now be outside it – the world’s No 1 economy and war-torn Syria. Nicaragua, which is often threatened by hurricanes, was the only country to reject the agreement in 2015, and has argued for far more drastic action to limit rising temperatures. The Paris accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries two years ago, seeks to limit planetary warming by curbing global emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists believe drive global warming. The administration of the former US president Barack Obama had pledged deep emissions cuts as part of the deal, but his successor, Trump, has said the accord would cost America trillions of dollars, kill jobs, and hinder the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries.The island country of Fiji will preside over the next round of UN climate talks, from 6-17 November in Bonn, Germany, where environment ministers from around the world will work on a set of international guidelines for the Paris accord. The latest round of negotiations take place after a string of powerful hurricanes ravaged Caribbean island nations and caused billions of dollars in damage along the Texas and Florida coastlines. Climate scientists have said warmer air and water resulting from climate change may have contributed to the severity of the storms. The US Environmental Protection Agency has disputed such claims as an attempt to “politicize” natural disasters. Topics Paris climate agreement Nicaragua Climate change Greenhouse gas emissions COP 21: UN climate change conference | Paris Global climate talks Trump administration news
2018-02-16 /
Here’s What Happened on Day 3 of the Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings
Mr. Kavanaugh defended the statement he made in the email, and said “the broader point was simply that it was overstating something about legal scholars.”“I’m always concerned about accuracy, and I thought it was not an accurate description of all legal scholars,” he said, adding later that Roe v. Wade is “an important precedent. It has been reaffirmed many times.” He declined to comment directly on Ms. Feinstein’s questions as to whether it is “correct law.”NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights lobby, jumped on the release immediately: “Brett Kavanaugh’s emails are rock solid evidence that he has been hiding his true beliefs and if he is given a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, he will gut Roe v. Wade, criminalize abortion, and punish women. Everything he said yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about ‘settled law’ was nothing but a show to mislead the Senate.”A tantalizing moment on Wednesday came when Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, asked Judge Kavanaugh whether he had meetings with Manuel Miranda, a former Senate Republican aide who was caught stealing files from the computers of Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, including Mr. Leahy.Judge Kavanaugh denied ever knowingly receiving stolen material when he was a White House aide tasked with getting President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees confirmed.On Thursday, questioning Judge Kavanaugh a second time, Mr. Leahy described and put up on posters several emails about his interactions with Mr. Miranda, indicating that he had received permission from the committee chairman around 3 a.m. to disclose them. They included a March 2003 email from Mr. Miranda to Judge Kavanaugh that included several pages of Democratic talking points, marked “not for distribution,” and another to Judge Kavanaugh from a Republican Senate staff member whose subject line “spying” and which referred to “a mole for us on the left.”
2018-02-16 /
I believe in the UN, but it needs to examine its conscience over Syria
The ongoing tragedy in Syria has weighed particularly heavily on my mind over the past days. Seven years of war. At least half a million dead. More than 5 million refugees. Whichever way you look at it, the war in Syria has gone on for far too long.The alarming events of the past week have reminded us of the severe costs of inaction. Suspicion of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, along with the escalation of fighting on several fronts, needs to be taken seriously. Not only because the international community agrees on the prohibition of chemical weapons, but most of all, because of the extensive suffering the attacks and years of warfare have inflicted on Syrian civilians.At the same time, tough talk and threats coming from Washington and Moscow have raised the spectre of a global confrontation.The present situation is especially alarming because it is avoidable. It is the result of a serious lack of political will among major powers to address a crisis they have played a large role in fuelling. It is high time that the international community owned up to its responsibility to help fix this mess.For better and for worse, the UN reflects the political will of the international community and bears the responsibility to protect peace. In Syria, it has failed in its task.For external powers, Syria is viewed as an arena to push their own interests, adding to the complexity of the conflict. This focus on geopolitical interests sidelines the humanitarian tragedy caused by the war.The five permanent members of the UN security council need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Throughout the war, the security council has failed to act. Veto power has been used in an irresponsible manner to obstruct and obfuscate. Permanent members have focused on scoring political points at home and with their allies, rather than building common ground and demonstrating leadership.In 2015, Russia dramatically stepped up its involvement in Syria to save its ally. Much of the death and destruction in the country is also a direct result of this. Russia cannot escape its responsibility for the doings of the Syrian regime.Even if building workable solutions is difficult, it is no excuse to not try. On Friday night, the US chose a forceful response. With the dust now settling, I cannot help thinking what it intends to do to revive peace talks in Syria. Military action has never produced sustainable peace. Therefore, the US and Russia, along with other external powers involved in the conflict, should engage in serious efforts to reach a common agreement on Syria without further delay. Until they do, Syria remains a reminder of the shameful inaction of the international community in the face of another crisis that could have been prevented.Syria is a tragic mess, and the current crisis reminds us of the critical need for the UN as a forum for dialogue and peace. Accidents do happen, and with stakes as high as they are, the costs can be unimaginable. The US and Russia play an essential role in finding a way out. There is common ground to build on. No one benefits from the prospect of Syria becoming a failed state in the heart of the Middle East.At its core, the war pits Syrians against Syrians over their shared future. No lasting agreement can be reached without involving a wide range of Syrian voices in any political process to determine their shared future. However, external players are so deeply involved in the conflict that an overarching understanding between major powers is required before an intra-Syrian political process can take place and the country can move towards peace and stability. As permanent members of the security council and as allies of the opposing camps, Russia and the US are responsible for leading this process.I firmly believe that all conflicts can be resolved. However, without political will and the maturity to see beyond immediate gains, this cannot happen.It is easy to agree that the use of chemical weapons is abhorrent. This agreement should not override the fact that death, destruction and misery are also delivered through bombings, starvation and sieges. It is civilians who suffer primarily as the war drags on. Ending the worst humanitarian crisis of our time needs to be the first priority for the security council.I am a firm believer in the UN. That is why I know we can do better, for us and for Syria.• Martti Ahtisaari is the former president of Finland, a Nobel peace prize laureate and UN diplomat Topics Syria Opinion Middle East and North Africa United Nations US foreign policy Chemical weapons comment
2018-02-16 /
Museum Fire in Brazil Was ‘Bound to Happen’
As evidence of lax oversight surfaces, so does recrimination between the public institutions responsible for the museum’s administration and maintenance. Accused of poor management, university and museum officials point to their budgets, which have been severely slashed by the federal government in the last four years as Brazil faced a stifling recession.“The government prefers to invest in some things and not others,” said Mr. Kellner, pointing to Rio’s Maracana soccer stadium, which underwent a $540 million renovation before the 2014 World Cup.“You can’t blame one person specifically” for the fire, he said, pointing out that when firefighters responded, they found the fire hydrants in front of the museum dry and had to use water from a nearby lake to fight the flames.But other evidence suggests the neglect was chronic. In the fire’s aftermath, local media outlets scoured their archives, finding reports dating to the 1950s that a tragedy was imminent.The museum is “an easy target for a fire,” said one 1978 headline in the newspaper O Globo. In May 2004, Sérgio Alex Azevedo, then the museum’s director, said the museum didn’t have a fire-suppression system, “just a couple fire extinguishers.”A handout issued by the university’s rector, Roberto Leher, mentioned improvements that were being implemented and stressed the institution’s lack of funding. To him, the main cause of the tragedy was a set of government priorities “that reduces our memory to ashes.”On Monday, as he spoke to the news media, Mr. Kellner acknowledged the importance of accountability. Even as he fended off questions about what was left of the museum’s collection, he asked society to press the authorities — including himself — for answers.“It’s right to ask about what was lost,” he said. “Society has the right to know. Call for it! Demand it from us.”
2018-02-16 /
苹果Apple Store应用更新:为下周发布会预热
视频加载中,请稍候... 自动播放 新浪手机讯 3月23日上午消息,苹果公司用于展示和销售产品的官方应用Apple Store今日更新到了5.0版,包括增加了“课程”标签页,这明显是为下周的教育主题发布做准备 ... 苹果宣称,这次更新为顾客提供了“更个性化和更相关”的店内体验。Apple Store现在可提供产品推荐,同时它也向顾客展示他们喜欢产品的库存情况,或是通过App扫描和购买配件等。Apple Store应用加了个标签 但这次的更新重点并不是购买产品体验优化,而是新增加的“课程”标签
2018-02-16 /
Narendra Modi criticised over Twitter links to abuse of shot journalist
India’s ruling party has defended Narendra Modi’s use of Twitter after a number of users followed by the Indian prime minister appeared to celebrate the fatal shooting of a journalist this week.Leaders from across Indian politics have condemned the murder of Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru on Tuesday, but a number of Modi supporters appeared to attempt to justify the killing.One commented: “You reap what you sow.” Another wrote in Hindi: “A bitch died a dog’s death and all of her litter is crying in the same voice.”Modi, who operates his own Twitter account and follows 1,779 others, has been criticised for continuing to follow accounts that have levelled abuse at Lankesh. He has yet to comment on the killing. The head of his BJP party’s information unit, Amit Malviya, said the prime minister followed “normal people” and described the controversy as “mischievous and contorted”.“PM following someone is not a character certificate of a person and is not in any way a guarantee of how a person would conduct himself,” he said in a statement. “[Modi] follows normal people and frequently interacts with them on various issues. He is a rare leader who truly believes in freedom of speech and has never blocked or unfollowed anyone on Twitter.”Modi is regularly criticised for following users who post offensive content. In July 2015 he invited 150 social media users to his residence for a meet-and-greet, among them Twitter users who had used sexual slurs and levelled other abuse against women.Malviya said Modi was frequently attacked for the actions of his supporters while abuse by backers of opposition political leaders was ignored. “This debate is not only farcical and fake, but also an exhibit of selective right to freedom of expression,” he said.India’s information technology minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, condemned the online abuse of Lankesh, tweeting that he “deplore[d] the messages on social media expressing happiness on the dastardly murder”.Separately, Delhi police have filed a case against a Facebook user who published a “hit list” of journalists, activists and authors including the Man Booker prize-winner Arundhati Roy. Police have sought the IP details of the user, who identified himself as Vikramaditya Rana, after he made a series of posts including one saying Lankesh’s killing “serves her and her kind right for the damages these so-called journos have caused our nation”.Lankesh, whose murder is being examined by a specially appointed investigative team, had previously voiced concern about the “rabid hate” that she was subjected to online.In her speeches and writing, Lankesh, 55, frequently criticised the Hindu nationalist ideology associated with the BJP and worked to rehabilitate guerrillas involved in the country’s five-decade-long Maoist insurgency. Though police have not commented on the motive for her killing, friends, lawyers and colleagues of the journalist as well as some members of the BJP have speculated that it was in retribution for her work. On Thursday the hashtag #BlockNarendraModi was used as part of a campaign to block the leader’s account and highlight the abuse that many prominent Indians, particularly women, say has become endemic online.One prominent journalist, Barkha Dutt, wrote in the Hindustan Times this year that trolling “has become part of my daily life”. “I don’t even notice it any more; that’s how dangerously inured I have become to the gross innuendo and violent and sexually explicit abuse that is heaped on so many women,” she said. Topics Narendra Modi India Twitter South and Central Asia news
2018-02-16 /
El Salvador court frees woman on trial after bearing rapist's baby
A rape victim who was charged with attempted murder in El Salvador after giving birth to her abuser’s baby has been found not guilty and freed from jail.Imelda Cortez, 20, has been in custody since April 2017 after giving birth in a latrine to a baby girl fathered by her abusive stepfather.She was facing 20 years in prison after prosecutors argued that failing to tell anyone about the pregnancy or seek medical attention for the baby amounted to attempted murder.The decision to prosecute Cortez, who suffered years of sexual abuse, had prompted outrage around the world.But on Monday morning, prosecutors reduced the charge from attempted murder to abandonment – and offence which carries a 12-month jail term.Then, in a dramatic turn of events, the court declared Cortez not guilty of any crime, and ruled she was free to go home. Cortez always maintained her innocence, and that she did not know she was pregnant.Cortez walked free on Monday afternoon to elated chants of “sí se pudo” or “yes she could” by 200 or so joyous supporters outside the courtroom.In what’s been hailed a precedent setting ruling, the judge concluded that the court could not expect Imelda to have acted differently given the emotional and psychological damage inflicted by the sexual violence she suffered since childhood.Monday’s verdict was welcomed by campaigners who called for urgent reform to save other women suffering the dire consequences of El Salvador’s total ban on abortion.“We are extremely happy, and thankful for everyone’s support. It took the whole world to make the judges and prosecutors see what we’ve been saying for years: an obstetric emergency is not a crime,” said Paula Avila-Guillen, the director of Latin America Initiatives at the New York-based Women’s Equality Centre and part of Cortez’s legal team.El Salvador is one of four countries where abortion is illegal in all circumstances, even if the woman is raped, her health or life is at risk, or if the foetus is seriously deformed.Abortion was criminalised 21 years ago, after legislators from across the political spectrum voted to strip women of their reproductive rights without any public debate or medical consultation about the consequences.The draconian ban has led to a string of miscarriages of justice in a conservative, machista culture that enables the persecution of women.Most cases involve poor and single women from rural areas who are convicted on tenuous evidence after having a spontaneous obstetric gynaecological complication such as a miscarriage or stillbirth.Cortez was rushed to hospital after complaining of severe pain and bleeding heavily, where the emergency room doctor suspected an abortion and called the police.The police discovered the newborn girl, healthy and breathing, in the outdoor latrine, and took her to hospital where doctors found no evidence of physical harm. It was then that Cortez realized that she’d been pregnant as a result of being raped by her 70-year-old stepfather.After she was charged with attempted murder, her stepfather visited her in hospital, threatening to kill her, her siblings and her mother if she reported the abuse. Another patient overheard and told a nurse, who called the police.At first, prosecutors accused Cortez of inventing the abuse to justify her crime, until a DNA test confirmed the baby’s paternity. Her stepfather was eventually detained, but has not been charged with any crime.During her 17-month pre-trial detention, Cortez was denied access to psychological support and never allowed to hold her baby daughter.Cortez is the sixth wrongly imprisoned woman freed so far this year thanks to dogged campaigns by national and international reproductive rights groups. Another 24 are still serving 15 to 30 years in jail.“We are very happy for Imelda but will not forget the other 24 women still in prison for suffering an obstetric complication. They must be released,” added lawyer Avila-Guillen.Bertha María Deleón, Cortez’s lawyer, told the Guardian: “This ruling opens the door for the other jailed women and gives us hope because it shows that judges are finally daring to make decisions from a gender perspective rather than based on gender stereotypes. This judge shows us that the criminal justice is changing, slowly, but it is changing.” Topics Global development El Salvador Americas Abortion news
2018-02-16 /
U.S. imposes fresh sanctions on Venezuela, Pence calls for more action
WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Monday announced sanctions on three Venezuelans and 20 companies with ties to socialist President Nicolas Maduro for narcotics trafficking, with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence calling for more nations to increase pressure on Caracas. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence addresses the Organization of American States at the OAS headquarters in Washington, U.S. May 7, 2018 REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueThe new sanctions continue a pattern of stepped-up U.S. measures on individuals connected to Maduro, who is blamed by President Donald Trump’s administration for a deep recession and hyperinflation that have caused food shortages in Venezuela and sent a exodus of migrants into neighboring countries. The individuals sanctioned on Monday are fairly low-profile and the move is unlikely to create major economic hardship. Trump has been considering but has so far opted not to impose sanctions on a Venezuelan oil services company and on insurance coverage for tankers carrying Venezuelan oil. Those measures are still under consideration, though, one administration official said on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Pence told the 35-nation Organization of American States - which includes Venezuela as a member - that they needed to take greater steps to isolate Maduro. “We believe it is time to do more, much more,” Pence said in an address to the OAS in Washington. “Every free nation gathered here must take stronger action to stand with the Venezuelan people and stand up to their oppressors.” Pence said the OAS should suspend Venezuela’s membership, and urged other members to cut off the nation’s leaders from financial systems and restrict their travel visas. He also called on Maduro to suspend elections scheduled for May 20, saying he expected voter intimidation and manipulation of data. “There will be no real election in Venezuela on May 20, and the world knows it,” Pence said. The suggestion was immediately rejected by Caracas. “There is zero possibility that elections will be suspended,” said Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemning Pence’s speech. Maduro, himself subject to sanctions last year, regularly laughs off Washington’s disapproval and blames the U.S. “empire” for his country’s economic woes, saying it is trying to undermine his administration. Of the newly sanctioned companies, 16 are based in Venezuela and four in Panama. They are owned or controlled by the three individuals, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. The measures are aimed at having a “chilling effect” on other drug traffickers in Venezuela and are one in a series of many steps, said Carlos Trujillo, U.S. ambassador to the OAS. “I think the (Trump) administration is willing to do anything, whatever it takes, to make sure that Venezuelan people get to enjoy democracy and the liberties that come with it,” Trujillo said in an interview. Trujillo said he thinks Venezuela could leave the OAS by the end of 2018 - something he said was needed for the group to “be taken seriously.” “Venezuela has said in the past that they want to leave, but it seems they don’t find their way to the door,” he said. Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O'BrienOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2018-02-16 /
US air force academy chief delivers stirring speech telling racists to 'get out'
The superintendent of the US air force academy in Colorado Springs addressed a direct message to those who left racist graffiti at the academy’s preparatory school earlier this week.“If you can’t treat someone from another race or a different color skin with dignity and respect then you need to get out,” said Lt Gen Jay Silveria, before encouraging the assembled academy of more than 4,000 cadets and staff to take out their phones and record him saying it again.“You keep these words, and you use them, and you remember them, and you share them, and you talk about them,” Silveria said.He was responding to a report in the Air Force Times that five black cadet candidates at the preparatory academy had had the words “go home nigger” written on the whiteboards outside their dorm rooms.“If you’re outraged by those words then you’re in the right place. That kind of behavior has no place in the United States air force,” Silveria said. “You should be outraged not only as an airman but as a human being.”The preparatory school, which is on the air force academy campus in Colorado Springs, enlists about 240 students – typically in their late teens – each year to train and study to attempt to be accepted as freshman cadets the following year.“These young people are supposed to bond and protect each other and the country. Who would my son have to watch out for? The enemy or the enemy?” questioned one of the cadet candidate’s mothers who posted about the incident on Facebook. That post was later taken down.Silveria said that some of the recent high-profile racist incidents in the US had influenced his decision to speak out.“We would be naive to think that we shouldn’t discuss this topic. We would also be tone deaf not to think about the backdrop of what’s going on in our country. Things like Charlottesville and Ferguson, the protests in the NFL,” he said.Officials said the academy’s security forces were investigating the incident, but that no additional information was released. Topics US military Colorado Race news
2018-02-16 /
A brief history of female rage in art
This article was published in partnership with Artsy, the global platform for discovering and collecting art. The original article can be seenhere. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.In the wake of the Kavanaugh hearings last September, I developed a new self-care routine: I put on a sheet mask, cue up some soothing music, and look at paintings of murderous women. I don't think I'm alone in this; Renaissance and Baroque depictions of Judith beheading Holofernes, Orpheus being ripped apart by Maenads, and Timoclea tossing her rapist down a well have been popping up on my Instagram and Twitter feeds for weeks. They've become memes; recontextualized and captioned, they give voice to women's rage at the injustices of the present.In her book "Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger," Rebecca Traister challenges her readers to Google the name of any powerful woman in politics -- particularly those who challenge white male power and authority -- to find a cache of images of that woman yelling angrily. "The best way to discredit these women, to make them look unattractive, is to capture an image of them screaming," she writes. "The act of a woman opening her mouth with volume and assured force, often in complaint, is coded in our minds as ugly." Dior unites feminism and high fashion It's not surprising that angry women, when they do appear in Western art history, often take the form of goddesses or monsters: harpies and witches, Medusa and the Sphinx.Traister's book argues that female rage has often been the catalyst for political and social change. And yet, we know that when women express their anger, they risk being seen as hysterical, overly emotional, and unserious, even if the reasons for their fury are entirely legitimate. Pakistani designer ignites debate with powerful feminist graphicsWhile I'm not suggesting we throw men down a well, I would argue that when justice seems elusive, images of angry women can be cathartic, even inspiring. What follows are seven works from art history that show the beauty and power of female rage."Timoclea Killing Her Rapist" (1659) by Elisabetta Sirani Credit: Wikimedia CommonsItalian Baroque artist Elisabetta Sirani championed both female painters and female subjects during her short life (she died somewhat mysteriously at 27). She opened a painting school where she trained many women, including her younger sisters, and in her own work, she often chose themes that foreground female fortitude.Escape the corset: How South Koreans are pushing back against beauty standards"Timoclea Killing Her Rapist," depicts a popular tale described in Plutarch's biography of Alexander the Great. During Alexander's invasion of Thebes, a captain in his army rapes the titular Timoclea. Following the assault, the captain asks where her money is hidden. Timoclea leads him to her garden well; as he peers into it, she pushes him in, dropping heavy rocks down the well until he dies.The painting turns the story on its head, inverting the hierarchy quite literally: The rapist is shown upside down and helpless, feet flailing in the air, as she stands resolutely above him. Sirani, like many Baroque painters, had a flair for drama, but it's worth noting that most depictions of this story show the aftermath of the violent event: Timoclea standing before Alexander to accept his judgment, usually flanked by her children. Sirani daringly chose to show Timoclea's justice, rather than Alexander's mercy."Judith Beheading Holofernes" (c. 1620) by Artemisia Gentileschi Credit: The UffiziArtemisia Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofernes offers another dramatic scene of an ordinary woman overpowering a high-ranking man. Gentileschi's painting is muscular: The biblical Judith and her maidservant bear down on their victim, the invading Assyrian general Holofernes, as Judith saws at his neck with a sword. Blood spatters in long, ropy arcs, spraying Judith's chest and neck. 'Sex Work' exhibition of censored feminist art finds home at FriezeHolofernes's tortured expression and copious amounts of blood are also present in Caravaggio's earlier version of this subject (ca. 1599), from which Gentileschi is said to have drawn inspiration. Yet in his rendition, Judith looks rather removed, her face wrinkled in disgust rather than set in determination.It's arguable that Gentileschi's own experiences with sexual violence shaped her approach to depicting this brutal story. At age 18, she was raped by her painting teacher, the artist Agostino Tassi. Unusually for the 17th century, Gentileschi testified in court against her attacker. Tassi was set free following his conviction due to an intercession by the pope, while Gentileschi was made to endure the public shame of the trial -- at which she was forced to testify while being tortured with thumbscrews. Gentileschi's Judith may have been a portrayal of the justice that she herself was denied."Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind" (1896) by Jean-Léon Gérôme Credit: Wikimedia CommonsAcademic French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme's take on the allegorical figure of Truth (specifically, the philosopher Democritus's aphorism: "Of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well") differs from contemporary interpretations in a number of ways. A beautiful nude woman emerges from a well, an open-mouthed shout of anger on her face and a whip in her hand, rather than the usual mirror. Although she is nude (a blunt reference to "the naked truth"), she looks ready to charge straight for the viewer in a full-throated battle cry.Nude art and censorship laid bareApparently, Gérôme intended the piece as a commentary on the positive impact of photography on painting, a fairly limited metaphor. ("It has opened our eyes and forced us to see that which previously we have not seen," he wrote.) Yet today, the painting has become a popular meme, due both to its unusually vivid depiction of female anger and its overall weirdness. Truth's nudity reads here as power and moral purity rather than sexual availability; her fury makes her dangerous.A more explicit re-thinking of the female body as a weapon rather than a sexual object comes in the form of"Action Pants: Genital Panic."In 1968, the self-named Austrian performance artist Valie Export entered an art house cinema in Munich wearing crotchless trousers, her hair teased into a wild mane.By walking through the theater and confronting the audience with her exposed genitals, she sought to challenge viewers to engage with a real woman, rather than look passively at the objectified images of women onscreen.The following year, to commemorate her performance, Export posed for a photograph. She's shown with her knees spread wide and crotch exposed, holding a gun and staring down the camera with the panache of a guerilla fighter. Here, Export draws a clear comparison between a weapon of war and the inescapable fact of female sexuality."Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail" (1973) by Betye Saar Credit: Roberts ProjectsThe cocktail Betye Saar offers in this 1973 work is a homemade incendiary device: a Molotov cocktail made from a wine jug. Its label shows a smiling mammy figure on one side, a black power fist on the other. Saar recasts the mammy figure as an agent of armed resistance against racism, a woman who has liberated herself.Simplifying art for the sake of politicsIn the years following the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Saar began using art to express her outrage at the pervasive discrimination against black communities. In 1972, prompted by an open call for black artists to show their work at Rainbow Sign in Berkeley, California, she exhibited her first Aunt Jemima piece: a mammy figurine holding a grenade in one hand, a gun in the other. "I feel that The Liberation of Aunt Jemima is my iconic art piece. I had no idea she would become so important to so many," Saar explained in an interview with Artsy in 2017. "The reason I created her was to combat bigotry and racism and today she stills serves as my warrior against those ills of our society."A hybrid performance art piece and political protest, "In Mourning and In Rage" was created by Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz-Starus in response to an epidemic of unsolved rapes and murders in Southern California that the police attributed to the Hillside Strangler. Artists, advocates, politicians, and the families of victims all converged on Los Angeles City Hall to perform a ritual of mourning and rage before the press.In a tightly choreographed event that challenged the media's sensationalizing and inadequate approach to reporting these crimes, 10 women dressed as 19th-century mourners, traveling to the steps of City Hall by hearse. Their faces obscured by black veils, each performer stepped forward to describe a form of violence against women, explicitly tying the horrors of the Strangler case to everyday abuse and harassment. From the streets to the runway: How to dress for a revolution "I am here for the 388 women who have been raped in Los Angeles between October 18th and November 29th," one performer announced. "In memory of our sisters, we fight back!" responded the group in unison.With roots in both 1960s political theatrics and 1970s feminist consciousness-raising, the performance is echoed in public protests today. In 2017, activists dressed as characters from "The Handmaid's Tale," assembling in the Texas Capitol Rotunda to protest a bill limiting abortion rights. Their matching red cloaks evoked the dramatic red-and-black costumes of "In Mourning"; their anger was familiar, as well.A woman in shiny red shoes sashays down the street in Pipilotti Rist's "Ever is Over All." She cheerfully smashes the windows of each parked car she passes. Instead of stopping her, a female police officer pauses and salutes the vandal. The Swiss artist's film is a joyful paean to the destruction of authority and liberation from the norms of feminine "good behavior."A more pointed variation on the theme (often compared to Rist's) is the music video for "Hold Up" from Beyoncé's 2016 visual album "Lemonade.""I tried to be soft, prettier," Bey admits at the beginning of the song, before she stops trying to please and starts gleefully smashing parked cars with a baseball bat. The video offers the same exhilaration as Rist's, the notion that anger itself might free us from everything from cheating spouses to systemic racism and sexism. When Beyoncé's bat busts open a fire hydrant, children frolic in its spray, and when she smashes a car's windshield, an explosion erupts, silhouetting her in fire like an avenging angel. But what's most striking is her lack of apology. She grins and grimaces, smashes and struts, as rage becomes her, after all.
2018-02-16 /
With AR Glasses, Apple May Finally Break The Black Mirror’s Spell
Apple helped nail our noses to the black mirror (read: our smartphone screens). There’s no way around it.More than anyone else, the company made smartphone screens fun to look at, and enabled app developers to find a million ways to fix our attention there. And that made Apple the most valuable tech company in the world. Smartphones may have made us more productive, connected, and entertained, but they’ve also left us more distracted and isolated from each other as we spend more time alone with our little metal-and-glass friends.Apple is very aware of this—and, I sense, not very comfortable with it. Its executives have talked a lot in recent years about creating technology that helps relieve us of the fearsome demands of the digital world and lets us stay engaged in real life.Jony Ive said that sort of thinking was a driving principle behind the creation of the Apple Watch. Notifications on our phones would be easily glanceable–and ignorable–on our wrist, Ive and other Apple execs told us. We could just look down, swipe unimportant notifications aside, and continue on doing whatever we were doing. A groovy concept to be sure, and it does work to an extent. But I still spend a lot of time staring at my iPhone.The problem, in a way, is ergonomic. The screens of the phone and the watch are just too far away from our eyes, causing us to have to curve our bodies and our eyes toward their screens–and away from other people and the world around us.Augmented-reality headsets or glasses put digital content very near our eyes. In fact they can overlay content on real-world things we’re looking at, and, perhaps provide information about those things. What good AR content does not do is obscure or distract from objects of interest in the real world. AR glasses, then, could be Apple’s way out of offering us personal devices that distract and isolate us.“A Help For Humanity”Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken numerous times about how excited he is about augmented reality. He’s never said Apple is actually working on augmented-reality glasses or a headset, but a number of reports have said so–the most recent from Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. Here’s Cook talking to analysts after Apple’s most recent quarterly earnings report: “[Augmented reality] amplifies human performance instead of isolating humans. It’s a help for humanity, not an isolation kind of thing for humanity.”Cook would not have said that about an experience where the user is staring into the screen of a phone. Apple has already set the stage for an AR ecosystem by launching the ARKit development platform, which lets developers create AR apps that overlay digital content over the real world as seen through the iPhone’s camera lens. Cook says the App Store now contains more than 1,000 AR apps. As I’ve written before, all of the ARKit apps we’ve seen to date would work far better on AR glasses.But it seems clear that an Apple AR headset or glasses is still at least two years away. The memory and display components needed to create a sleek wearable device with respectable battery life just aren’t available yet.“I can tell you the technology itself doesn’t exist to do that in a quality way,” Cook recently told the Independent. “The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face–there’s huge challenges with that. The field of view, the quality of the display itself, it’s not there yet.”(Source: ComScore)Meanwhile, online data firm ComScore says we’re spending 2 hours and 51 minutes staring at our black mirrors every day, and eMarketer says we spend 4 hours and 5 minutes. The term cell-phone zombie has entered the lexicon. Cities in China and Europe have established “cell-phone lanes” to keep such zombies from walking into other pedestrians.It’s Still A ProblemThe issue of phone abuse doesn’t get the kind of attention it did circa 2011-2013. I had a hard time finding any media coverage of it in 2017, beyond a Telegraph story citing a report from the UK Physiological Society saying that people fear losing their wireless phone almost as much as they fear terror attacks.Part of the reason for that may be that time spent on smartphones has slowed somewhat in the last couple of years. I’d also argue that it’s because we’ve given in to the smartphone.There are lots of reasons for this, but two of the biggest are utility and dopamine.Utility: Smartphones has become the central organizing force in our lives. We use them to do business, run families, communicate, handle money, document the present (with photos), and plan for the future.Dopamine: Smartphones are far more than mere digital organizers. We like those little shots of dopamine they give us, from friends’ text messages to the likes and follows we get on Twitter and Facebook.“If technology is a drug–and it does feel like a drug–then what, precisely, are the side effects? This area—between delight and discomfort—is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set,” Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker told The Guardian in 2012. Brooker explained that the title of the series refers to “the cold, shiny screen” of smartphones and TVs.That dopamine hit (as former Facebook CEO Sean Parker calls it) is great for mobile app makers and the venture capitalists who fund them, but like an abusable drug, it can become a time-wasting, isolating, and ultimately empty experience for the user.Apple sells the most popular smartphones in the world, and long ago established the app as the central paradigm for content consumption and creation on a mobile device. The company profits every time a consumer buys an app in the App Store, or buys something within an app.“Now you couldn’t imagine your life without apps,” Cook told the Independent. “AR is like that. It will be that dramatic.” Apple may think of AR glasses as the next delivery platform for apps. And the apps might adapt to the delivery platform by integrating their content with objects in the real world.AR headsets won’t likely cure all the problems stemming from digital life’s encroachment on real life. Consumers must be thoughtful about defining the best and healthiest mix of digital and analog in daily life, and they must vote with their dollars to communicate those choices to big tech companies. But AR will at least put our heads in a better position–a heads-up position–to use digital content to augment rather than replace reality.
2018-02-16 /
Melbourne CBD terror attack a 'wake
Australian police have declared a terrorist attack in the centre of Melbourne a “reality check” and a “wake-up call”, as the city mourns a popular restaurant owner who was stabbed to death by the Isis-inspired attacker on Friday.Police conducted raids at two homes in the city’s western suburbs on Saturday, the day after Hassan Khalif Shire Ali drove a 4x4 vehicle loaded with gas bottles into the city centre, ignited the vehicle into a ball of flames, and then stabbed three people. Shire Ali was shot by police and later died in hospital.“The event yesterday for us is a reality check, even with the fall of the (Isis) caliphate ... the threat continues to be real,” the acting deputy commissioner for national security, Ian McCartney, said.Shire Ali, 30, who came to Australian from Somalia in the 1990s, had his passport cancelled in 2015, but was not being actively monitored before the attack, police said.They also confirmed that he had been “inspired” by Isis, though it was as yet unclear what role, if any, the terrorist group played in Friday’s attack.“The assessment was made whilst he held radicalised views, he did not pose a threat in relation to the national security environment,” McCartney said.“Obviously the circumstances of how and when he moved from having those radicalised views to carrying out this attack yesterday will be a key focus of the investigation.” The prime minister, Scott Morrison, on Saturday blamed the attack on religious extremism.He said Australia was under threat by a “radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam”.“I am the first to protect religious freedom in this country, but that also means I must be the first to call out religious extremism,” Morrison said.Backing those comments, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said he was confident the police had the powers they needed to keep the city safe.“I want to point out that what we saw yesterday was an act of terror,” said Andrews, who also described the attack as “pure evil”.Melburnians had not been “cowered” and instead gone about their daily lives on Saturday, the premier added, noting there had been a record crowd at the Stakes Day races at Flemington. Police stepped up security at the racecourse, and said they would do the same for an A-League soccer match on Saturday night.Outside Pellegrini’s cafe on Bourke Street, mourners paid tribute to the owner, Sisto Malaspina, 74, who was identified as the man stabbed to death by Shire Ali on Friday night.Patrons left flowers and signed a tribute book left on a bar stool covered in a white table cloth and placed at the doorstep of the popular Italian restaurant. In the window, next to a large photograph of Malaspina, grieving staff left a message describing him as the “best boss”.“He was very warm, welcoming,” said John Richardson, who has been taking his daughters to dinner there on their birthdays each year for nearly two decades. “He was full of life. You walked in and the place was always buzzing.”The Bourke Street cafe opened in the 1950s, and was taken over by Malaspina and his colleague Nino Pangrazio in 1974. About 100 metres from the Victorian parliament, it maintained a loyal following as a place where ordinary Melburnians dined alongside the city’s movers and shakers.“I know we use the word icon perhaps a bit easily or bit casually, but he and Pellegrini’s and the staff and the people who’ve run that place since the mid-70s are part of Melbourne life,” said the opposition leader, Bill Shorten.Andrews described Malaspina as an “outstanding Victorian”.The other two victims, Tasmanian retiree Rod Patterson, 58, and a 24-year-old security guard from Hampton Park, are recovering from surgery in hospital. Topics Melbourne Crime - Australia Bourke Street attack news
2018-02-16 /
Roxane Gay to edit anthology of ‘dispatches from rape culture’
Feminist commentator and writer Roxane Gay is editing a new anthology of essays about sexual assault and harassment, which will include contributions from the actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union.Entitled Not That Bad, Gay’s “dispatches from rape culture” will be a collection of first-person essays covering topics from the rape of refugees displaced by global crises to first-person accounts of child molestation, said publisher HarperCollins, which will release the book in May 2018. With an introduction from the bestselling Gay, who details her own gang-rape at the age of 12 in her recent memoir Hunger, it will address how women are “routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronised, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied” for speaking out about sexual abuse.The collection’s announcement follows weeks of women and men coming forward with stories of sexual abuse after the New York Times reported a series of allegations against the film producer Harvey Weinstein. As incidents of harassment and abuse were shared on social media with the hashtag #metoo, Westminster has also found itself under scrutiny, with defence secretary Michael Fallon forced to quit last week after a number of allegations were made against him.Not That Bad includes essays from actors Sheedy and Union, the latter of whom was critical of the response from some Hollywood figures to the Weinstein revelations, particularly fashion designer Donna Karan, who said women must consider if their clothes suggest they are “asking for it”.“I got raped at work at a Payless shoe store,” Union wrote on Twitter. “I had on a long tunic & leggings so miss me w/ ‘dress modestly’ shit.”The collection will also include contributions from the writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, Claire Schwartz and Bob Shacochis. It will, said HarperCollins, address “what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face”, and will be “unflinchingly honest”.The publisher compared the anthology to Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, the feminist collection that inspired the term “mansplaining”, and said that it would say “something in totality that we cannot say alone”. Topics Roxane Gay Publishing Feminism Women Rape and sexual assault
2018-02-16 /
'A feeble no may mean yes': Indian court overturns rape conviction
Indian guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh sentenced to 20 years for rape"It is not unknown that during sexual acts, one of the partners may be a little less willing or, it can be said unwilling but where there is an assumed consent, it matters not if one of the partners to the act is a bit hesitant," Kumar observed in his ruling. "Such feeble hesitation can never be understood as a positive negation of any advances by the other partner."Elsewhere in his ruling, Kumar ruled that "instances of woman behavior are not unknown (sic) that a feeble 'no' may mean a 'yes'," particularly in cases where the parties involved "are known to each other, are persons of letters and are intellectually/academically proficient, and if, in the past, there have been physical contacts."The ruling has revived a debate in India over the meaning of consent in rape cases. "In this judgment, the court has unfortunately elided over the legal definition of consent that, that many of us worked to bring into law in 2013," said Karuna Nundy, a Supreme Court lawyer who played a role in reforming India's sexual assault laws in the wake of thebrutal gang rape of a physiotherapy studenton a moving bus in Delhi in 2012.Jyoti Singh Pandey later died, and anger about her case led to nationwide protests and triggered reforms to India's sexual assault and harassment laws.Indian Supreme Court upholds death sentences in Delhi gang rape Indian law stipulates that consent must be "unequivocal," or in other words, absolutely clear.In the case involving Farooqui, the victim's lawyer maintains that she did not give consent."She protested, she pushed him off, he was trying to take off her undergarments, she kept yanking them back up, but he was stronger than her, he pinned her down. Under those circumstances, it is therefore startling to hear this series of events recorded as a 'feeble no,'" Nundy told CNN.The ruling was met with frustration in legal circles. "(It) completely erodes the definition of consent," said Jhuma Sen, a professor at Jindal Global Law School. "The court seems to be creating this additional defense that the accused must have been made aware (by the victim)."According to court documents, the woman had met Farooqui in 2014, after she arrived in India to research her PhD. She alleged that the assault at the center of the case occurred during a visit to Farooqui's home in March 2015. The researcher's lawyers now plan to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court."The high court acquittal order is wrong on facts and in law," said Vrinda Grover, the lawyer appearing for the victim told CNN.
2018-02-16 /
Nandan Nilekani's clean chit to Sikka's Infosys leaves Narayana Murthy disappointed
Even after the unceremonious exit of the “outsider” CEO, an overhaul of the management, and with his blue-eyed boy back at the helm of India’s second-largest IT company, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy remains dissatisfied.“I stand by every question on poor governance raised in my speech to Infosys investors dated Aug. 29, 2017. The fact remains that none of these questions have been answered by the Infosys board with the transparency it deserves,” 71-year-old Murthy said in a statement late yesterday (Oct. 24) evening. “I am disappointed.”He was reacting to an Infosys press release (pdf) issued earlier in the day, in which co-founder and current chairman (non-executive) Nandan Nilekani essentially debunked the claims that Murthy has been making since early this year. For months, Infosys’s founding team, led by Murthy, had raised serious concerns over corporate governance at Infosys under former CEO Vishal Sikka, who was the company’s first non-founding head.In an interview in February, Murthy said Infosys’s then board was acting in a way that hinted at attempts to “hide something.” Among other things, he questioned the Rs17.4 crore severance payout to former CFO Rajiv Bansal and Sikka’s high salary. Murthy, who along with his family is among the company’s largest individual shareholders, had sought a complete overhaul of its board. Murthy had raised these issues repeatedly during various media interactions.In August, Sikka abruptly quit, citing “the constant drumbeat of the same issues over and over again, while ignoring and undermining the good work that has been done.” This was followed by chairman R Seshasayee and independent directors Jeffrey Lehman and John Etchemendy exiting the firm.On Aug. 24, Infosys appointed Nilekani (pdf) as its non-executive chairman with immediate effect. An elated Murthy declared he was “confident Nandan (Nilekani) will determine whether the members of the current board who were involved in the events alleged by the whistleblower exercised their proper and expected role in governance; and that he will take appropriate corrective actions. These actions will bring back the rigor of governance standards at Infosys.”Two months on, Nilekani has mostly repeated what Sikka and Seshasayee had said when they were in charge.In February, an anonymous whistleblower wrote to India’s market regulator, SEBI, claiming financial irregularities in Infosys’s $200 million acquisition of Israeli software firm Panaya, the first purchase under Sikka. To look into the matter, the company’s board, led by Seshasayee, held an independent probe but found no wrongdoing. Despite clarifications, Murthy demanded that its findings be made public.While the company, under Nilekani, was widely expected to meet Murthy’s demand, it only reiterated what was said earlier: that there was nothing amiss in the transaction. In fact, it added that making the investigation report public would set a bad precedent.“After careful reconsideration, the company has concluded that publishing additional details of the investigation would inhibit the company’s ability to conduct effective investigations into any matter in the future,” a company statement said. “Confidentiality is critical to ensuring the candor and cooperation of whistleblowers and other participants in any investigative process. The precedent of releasing the full investigation reports could impair the cooperation of participants should the need for an investigation arise in the future.”A major point of contention between the previous Infosys leadership and Murthy was the massive severance package of former CFO Rajiv Bansal, who quit in October 2015. In his February interview, Murthy even asked if the payout was “hush money.”After looking into the matter over the last two months, Nilekani said that none of these claims were true. “I believe that all stakeholders acted out of a strong passion for Infosys, wanting what they believed to be the best for the company and to see it succeed,” Nilekani said. “In light of my review of these matters, I am fully persuaded, as is the entire board, that the conclusions of the independent investigations are correct.”The only matter that left Nilekani dissatisfied was in the way the issue was handled. The company has now “identified opportunities for improvements in processes and practices, which have been implemented.” Infosys has also globally benchmarked its severance payout and revised its senior management’s employment contracts accordingly.Murthy, though, appears far from placated. “The core question still is how and why the Infosys board approved an unusual and unprecedented severance payment agreement of 1,000% (of the standard Infosys employment contracts) to the former CFO, and why the board did not disclose this information proactively and much earlier,” he said in the latest statement.“Sadly, it appears we will no longer know the truth.”
2018-02-16 /
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