Статті

This week on Red Carpet, we bring you the story of Kenyan photographer Georgina Goodwin, who specializes in capturing humanitarian and social issues in Africa. For some music from Ghana, we hear from singer Rashid Mugeez from the duo R2Bees. And, how one Los Angeles designer has created vegan sneakers made from recycled materials. These stories on this week’s episode. 
…

European markets picked up where Asia left off Monday, with its benchmark indexes making big gains thanks to  investors’ continued optimism over a post-pandemic recovery.    Britain’s FTSE index is up one percent in midday trading, France’s CAC-40 index is 0.8% higher, and the DAX index in Frankfurt, Germany has gained 0.9%.   Hours earlier, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index closed 2.2% higher.  Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended the day 0.1% higher, while the Shanghai Composite was up 1.7%.   A man wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, July 13, 2020.In Australia, the S&P/ASX index was 0.8% higher.  The KOSPI index in South Korea finished up 1.6%, and Taiwan’s TSEC index rose 1.1%.  Mumbai’s Sensex index is up 0.2% in late afternoon trading.   In oil trading, U.S. crude oil is selling at $39.90 per barrel, down 1.6%, and Brent crude, the international standard, is selling at $42.64 per barrel, down 1.3%.    All three major U.S. indexes are trending upward in futures trading, indicating strong earnings on Wall Street after its opening bell.   
…

Amid concerns expressed by a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators over some of his actions, U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack said in a letter he is committed to fixing management issues in the agency after being tasked with making “bold and meaningful changes.The letter, dated July 8 and obtained by the Associated Press and CNBC, came in response to one he received from a bipartisan group of senators who said Pack acted without consulting or notifying Congress, and that his decision to fire the heads of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund “raise serious questions” about the future of the agency, which also includes Voice of America, under his leadership.“The president, the American people, and the Senate asked me to make bold and meaningful changes,” Pack said.  “Indeed, throughout the confirmation process, and in the weeks since taking the helm, I made clear my commitment to fixing the widely-known management issues that have long beleaguered USAGM and, in turn, its institutions.”“During the confirmation process, I pledged to respect and protect the independence of the USAGM journalists, and I stand by that pledge,” Pack said. “I also wish to reiterate my firm commitment to honoring the VOA Charter and to supporting the missions of the other USAGM networks and our heroic journalists around the world. As an agency, through accurate and reliable reporting, we have to get the truth to those starved for it.”In addition to the concerns of members of the Senate, a group of 11 Democrats in the House of Representatives said in a letter to the heads of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Program that they were “deeply concerned about the firings of qualified leadership” and “reports that USAGM has frozen funds and grants” for programs aimed at evading censorship and providing tools for internet freedom in Hong Kong and elsewhere.Beyond personnel and budgetary matters, the lawmakers expressed concern that the agency’s “truth-based reporting and programming” would be jeopardized if its editorial independence was eroded.
…

The man accused of carrying out the worst mass shooting New Zealand’s history will represent himself at his sentencing hearing next month.Attorneys for Australian Brenton Tarrant said they were dismissed by Tarrant during a hearing Monday at the Christchurch High Court. The judge approved Tarrant’s request after speaking personally to him in a pre-hearing video call, saying he was assured that Tarrant understood his actions.The sentencing hearing, which has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, is scheduled to begin on August 24 and is expected to last more than three days.Tarrant has pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and one charge of terrorism in connection with the March 15, 2019, shootings at two mosques in Christchurch. Hours before carrying out the March 15, 2019, shootings, the now-29-year-old Australian white supremacist published a long manifesto online explaining his reasonings for the attack. He then livestreamed the attack on Facebook, which was viewed by scores of people around the world before it was taken down.Tarrant unexpectedly entered a guilty plea in March during a court hearing via video link from his prison cell in Auckland, as New Zealand began a four-week nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
…

About 60 U.S. universities on Sunday filed a brief supporting a lawsuit by two others, seeking to block a Trump administration rule barring foreign students from remaining in the country if educational institutions don’t hold in-person classes this fall.The lawsuit was filed by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Wednesday in a federal court in Boston.The so-called amicus brief — a supporting document submitted by interested parties — was filed by 59 U.S. universities on Sunday, including seven other Ivy League schools.The universities said they relied on federal guidance, which was to remain “in effect for the duration of the emergency,” allowing international students to attend all-online courses during the pandemic, according to the amicus brief.”The emergency persists, yet the government’s policy has suddenly and drastically changed, throwing amici’s preparations into disarray and causing significant harm and turmoil,” they added.About 1.1 million foreign students attended U.S. higher education institutions in the 2018-19 school year, according to a report by the State Department and the Institute of International Education (IIE), and they made up 5.5 percent of the entire U.S. higher education enrollment.The Trump administration announcement blindsided academic institutions grappling with the challenges of safely resuming classes as the coronavirus pandemic continues unabated around the world and surges in the United States.The U.S government has been trying to get schools and universities to reopen by autumn. Harvard has already announced it would hold all classes online that term. 
…

Thousands of Bulgarians gathered for a fourth day on Sunday in Sofia and other cities to protest against corruption and demand the resignation of the conservative government.Over 3,000 protesters shouted “Mafia!” and “Resign!” outside the government headquarters in Sofia and marched to parliament.The protests in the capital were sparked by an unprecedented raid by heavily armed police and prosecutors on the presidential headquarters on Thursday.President Rumen Radev’s legal affairs and anti-corruption secretary and his security and defense adviser were detained for questioning and their offices searched as part of two separate probes into influence-peddling and disclosure of state secrets.Protesters also gathered in at least 10 other towns on Sunday.The searches on Thursday sparked public anger and brought thousands of demonstrators onto the streets of Sofia to condemn the raids as an attack by the government and the chief prosecutor against the Socialists-backed Radev.The president is an outspoken critic of the cabinet of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, accusing it of “links with oligarchs.”Borisov on Saturday refused to resign but opponents launched an online petition aiming to gather as many as 1 million signatures to demand his ouster.The Socialist opposition in parliament also said Sunday that they would table a no confidence motion against the cabinet for “corruption” next Wednesday, appealing to protesters to back them.Friday’s rallies turned violent with 18 protesters arrested, including two men who were hospitalized after being beaten, prompting an even bigger turnout on Saturday when Radev joined protesters in their demand for the resignation of the cabinet and the chief prosecutor.Police had appealed for restraint ahead of Sunday’s demonstration and the interior ministry announced late Sunday that the rally had ended without incident.Thirteen years after joining the EU as its poorest country, Bulgaria has also remained the bloc’s most graft-prone member state, according to Transparency International’s corruption perception index.A new rally is scheduled for Monday afternoon and another nationwide protest for Thursday. 
…

A retired Iranian British engineer detained in Iran since 2017 on spying charges that he denies has decided to speak up for the first time about alleged human rights abuses at the Tehran jail where he is imprisoned.Anoosheh Ashoori is the latest of several individuals whose detentions in Iran under harsh conditions have pushed them into becoming human rights advocates from their prison cells.Iran-born Ashoori was arrested in Tehran in August 2017 while visiting his mother. He traveled from London, where he, his wife, son and daughter have lived for decades. Iranian authorities later convicted him of spying for Israel and sentenced him to 10 years in the capital’s Evin prison.The family of the 66-year-old dual national has rejected the spying charge as bogus. It also has urged the British government, which has diplomatic relations with Iran, to do more to secure Ashoori’s release. The British foreign office has issued statements urging Iran to reunite him with his family.’Victims of tyranny’In a July 3 statement read by Ashoori during a phone call from prison with his wife, Sherry, who recorded it on an iPad and sent it exclusively to VOA Persian, Ashoori said he is willing to cooperate with human rights organizations to raise awareness about what he called “victims of tyranny” at Evin.“These victims are too scared to talk, as they fear that they or their loved ones will be harmed by the ruthless elements of the Islamic regime,” he said, referring to Iran’s rulers.Anoosheh Ashoori (L) is seen with his wife Sherry Izadi in a photo posted on her Twitter account (@IzadiSherry)Ashoori has made a series of audio statements in recent months via a prison-monitored telephone with the help of his wife, who has recorded and made them public at his request. A weeklong audio diary shared with Emirati newspaper The National in April detailed what he described as a chaotic response by Evin authorities to the threat of coronavirus contagion in the prison.In a June 10 recording shared with AFP, Ashoori appealed to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to get him and other British nationals out of Evin, where he said the threat of the coronavirus was “as strong as ever.”Britain has said it is aware of about a dozen incidents of its citizens being arrested in Iran since 2015 and has warned that British-Iranian dual nationals face a “high risk” of arbitrary detention. Rights activists have accused Tehran of detaining Iranians with dual Western nationalities that it does not recognize in order to use them as bargaining chips for concessions from Western powers.Suicide attempts, shock treatmentsAshoori’s July 3 statement went further than his previous recordings by detailing the kinds of rights abuses that he said he has seen and heard about at Evin. He said those abuses include two cases of prisoners being killed during harsh interrogations, one case of a prisoner dying of medical problems induced by poor prison conditions, and a dozen cases of prisoners being taken to mental hospitals for unknown injections and electric shock treatments.Ashoori also said he had learned of six prisoners attempting suicide and two others who succeeded in killing themselves. He did not name any of the prisoners whose cases he cited.Raha Bahreini, a London-based Iran researcher for rights group Amnesty International, told VOA Persian that there have been several suspicious deaths of detainees in Iran since 2017. She said there are signs that the deaths resulted from torture by Iranian authorities, but Iran’s refusal to allow independent investigations and autopsies have made it impossible to determine the causes of those deaths.Bahreini said one such case involved Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian Canadian environmentalist who Iran said committed suicide at Evin in February 2018, two weeks after his arrest for alleged espionage. Iranian authorities refused to allow an independent investigation of his death, leading his family to reject suicide as the cause.Bahreini said Amnesty has not compiled a report on actual suicides and suicide attempts at Evin. But she cited the case of Iranian alternative medicine practitioner Mohammad Ali Taheri, who was released from detention in April 2019 after serving a term of more than seven years in several prisons including Evin for his peaceful activities.“He was held in solitary confinement for more than six years, and during that period he attempted suicide multiple times,” Bahreini said.Lengthy list of illnessesIn his July 3 statement, Ashoori recited a long list of illnesses that he said his fellow inmates had suffered because of poor living conditions at Evin: brain stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, paralysis of the esophagus, trembling hands, early whitening and loss of hair, joint problems, loss of teeth, prostate complications and cancer, gallbladder and liver problems, ophthalmic problems, skin fungus, and mental problems including depression and anxiety.“That is completely consistent with information that Amnesty has gathered over the years about prisoners who develop medical problems because of inhumane conditions they are held in,” Bahreini said.Ashoori also called for human rights observers and independent medical teams to be allowed to inspect conditions at Evin and interview victims of the alleged abuses that he described.“I think it is a very brave act that he is engaging in,” Bahreini said. “It shows the pain and sense of injustice of prisoners who have been jailed for politically motivated reasons is so enormous, that over time, it leads them to engage in human rights activism, even from inside prison.”In one example of a prisoner who went through a similar evolution, Bahreini highlighted Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi, who has been detained since 2013 when authorities arrested him for allegedly posting Facebook comments deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad.“Over the years, as Arabi has faced multiple abuses in prison, he has turned into a full-blown activist who stands up for other prisoners of conscience and who issues statements about them from inside prison,” Bahreini said.Ashoori’s call for independent inspections of Evin prison also drew praise from Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. He told VOA Persian that organizations such as his have issued similar calls for years, but Iran has either refused to respond or denied those requests.U.N. Special Rapporteurs on human rights last visited some Iranian prisons in the late 1980s to early 1990s, Amiry-Moghaddam said.“Iranian authorities didn’t like the reports of those U.N. experts and didn’t let them in again,” he said. “However, if international pressure is strong enough, Iranian authorities can be forced to accept prison inspections. I hope Ashoori’s words will contribute to this.”This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Ramin Haghjoo contributed.  
 
…