Cincunri Sakia

Kamis, 18 November 2021

Peng Shuai: Doubts over 'everything is fine' email from 'missing' Chinese tennis player who made sex assault claims - Sky News

The head of women's tennis has said an email released by Chinese state media purporting to be from Peng Shuai "only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts".

The 35-year-old player - a former Wimbledon doubles champion - wrote a social media post this month accusing a former top government official of forcing her to have sex after playing tennis at his home.

Stars such as Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic are among many increasingly concerned over her whereabouts and her original Weibo post has been taken down.

An email said to be from Peng was released on Wednesday by CGTN, the international arm of government-controlled state broadcaster CCTV, but many have raised doubts over its authenticity.

It says the sexual assault claim "is not true" and adds: "I'm not missing, nor am I unsafe. I've just been resting at home and everything is fine".

Steve Simon, the head of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) said it "only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts".

"I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her," he said in a statement.

"Peng Shuai displayed incredible courage in describing an allegation of sexual assault against a former top official in the Chinese government.

"The WTA and the rest of the world need independent and verifiable proof that she is safe. I have repeatedly tried to reach her via numerous forms of communication, to no avail."

Mr Simon said Peng's sexual assault claim must be investigated with "full transparency" and she should be allowed to speak "without coercion or intimidation".

Speaking to NBC News, he also raised the prospect of rethinking WTA events in China if things aren't resolved satisfactorily.

"We have the fortitude to potentially move on with other options for us outside China, as this is simply about what is right and wrong," said Mr Simon.

He added: "We make too many decisions today in this world - especially when it comes to social issues - that get compromised due to financial, business, political issues and that can't be tolerated."

Social media users have also expressed doubts over the email and pointed out a cursor can be seen in the text, suggesting it's a screenshot.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International said Chinese authorities must prove Peng is safe and fully investigate the sexual assault allegations.

The country has a "track record of forcing statements out of individuals under duress, or else simply fabricating them", said its China researcher Doriane Lau.

Peng is a former number one ranked women's doubles player who won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2013, the French Open doubles title in 2014, and was a singles semi-finalist at the US Open in 2014.

Her post claimed Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, had forced her to have sex despite repeated refusals following a round of tennis three years ago.

She said Zhang's wife guarded the door during the incident.

Zhang Gaoli has not responded to her claims.

China's entirely state-controlled media has suppressed all reporting on the case in the country.

When asked during a daily briefing earlier this week about Peng's allegation, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said: "I have not heard of the matter, and it is not a diplomatic question."

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2021-11-18 14:43:05Z
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German parties quarrel over coronavirus rules as cases surge - POLITICO.eu

BERLIN — Germany's political parties on Thursday kept splitting hairs over new coronavirus rules while intensive care units across the country continue to fill up.

"We have never been as concerned as we are now," Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's public health body, said on Wednesday in his most insistent speech on the pandemic yet.

"There is an emergency in our country," Wieler said, warning that with infection numbers higher than ever before, Germany will soon be in for hundreds of daily casualties and "a dire Christmas" unless immediate action is taken.

The RKI earlier reported more than 60,000 new infections in a single day for the first time since the pandemic started, while another 264 patients died from COVID-19 — bringing Germany's total death toll close to 100,000.

Meanwhile, in parliament, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) — which are close to forming Germany's next government — managed to pass amendments to the law on infectious diseases that would restore greater parliamentary control over measures to manage the pandemic.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and its Bavarian sister party CSU opposed the changes, arguing that allowing the federal government's emergency powers to lapse on November 25 — as the incoming government plans — would be reckless amid the deteriorating situation in German hospitals.

"One thing really annoys me: Those who equate the current emergency situation with that legal construct [of emergency powers] fail to grasp the situation," said the Greens' Katrin Göring-Eckardt, repeating her argument that the availability of vaccines had made a new legal framework necessary. "We're no longer in year zero of the pandemic," she said.

Göring-Eckardt highlighted some of the draft law's proposed measures to underline how seriously they are taking the situation, among them stricter rules for the use of public transport. Still, with the emergency powers about to end, strict lockdowns including school closures would no longer be possible — a prospect particularly welcomed by the FDP, who have long been among the loudest critics of the measures.

Exploiting the virus?

The chaos is partly also a symptom of the inconvenient timely coincidence between the latest coronavirus wave and Germany's government transition.

"In terms of substance, the two proposals are very similar, and the points of difference between them do not, in my view, justify all the fuss that is being made," said Frank Brettschneider, professor for political science at the University of Hohenheim. "Instead, one thought behind this situation seems to be that it gives parties an opportunity to distinguish themselves from one another," he said.

Consequently, the future opposition remained adamant on Thursday, going so far as to threaten to block the changes to the law on infectious diseases on Friday in the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house representing the 16 state governments, eight of which are led by the CDU or the CSU.

However, such a move would cause further delay at a time when the pandemic is spiraling out of control, putting pressure on conservative premiers to yield.

"There is a desire among the population for measures to be taken now, and what they get instead is a spectacle in which parties argue about the place where the measures should be formulated," said Brettschneider.

Merkel weighed in on Wednesday, demanding more decisive action to combat the virus. "The fourth wave is hitting our country with full force," she said, adding that a meeting between herself and the 16 state premiers scheduled for Thursday afternoon had been "overdue" for some time.

"This is a big shambles," said Brettschneider, arguing that keeping the "parallel world" of such meetings while the legislative process is also underway would likely confuse the German public and make it harder to tell who's calling the shots.

Merkel's likely successor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday it was vital for more people to get vaccinated. "That's the best protection against infection and we are seeing right now in the intensive care units just how important it is that citizens protect themselves," he added.

As elsewhere, skyrocketing infection rates and overwhelmed hospitals have been likelier occurrences in Germany's least vaccinated areas, with the state of Saxony topping the list and premier Michael Kretschmer on Thursday even preparing citizens for a regional lockdown — without school closures — lasting until December 15.

"This coalition is now ready to organize a hard and concise circuit breaker," Kretschmer said.

Time will tell if others have to follow suit.

This article is part of POLITICO’s premium policy service: Pro Health Care. From drug pricing, EMA, vaccines, pharma and more, our specialized journalists keep you on top of the topics driving the health care policy agenda. Email [email protected] for a complimentary trial.

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2021-11-18 13:45:03Z
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Belarus: More than 400 Iraqi migrants board deportation flight as border tensions rise - Sky News

More than 400 migrants, who have camped for weeks at Belarus' borders with the EU, have boarded a deportation flight bound for Iraq.

Some 430 people, mostly Iraqi Kurds, were booked onto a flight due to leave this afternoon from Minsk airport, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.

They were due to board the flight at 1.45pm, bound for Erbil in Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdistan region, and then on to Baghdad, the ministry added.

Iraqis, especially Kurds, make up a significant number of the estimated 4,000 migrants trapped at the Belarus border trying to cross into Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

Buses and planes are also being organised to relocate some of men, women and children camping there after two weeks of rising tensions.

The EU has accused Belarus of encouraging migrants towards its borders in retaliation for sanctions over a crackdown on protests last year against President Alexander Lukashenko's contested re-election.

Mr Lukashenko said Belarus was trying to persuade migrants to go home but that none of them wanted to return.

Many migrants say they have been prevented from returning through Belarus.

Poland's Border Guard tweeted on Thursday that there had been 501 attempts to cross the border on Wednesday, with one group consisting of about 500 people - an increase from previous days.

Poland's Defence Ministry said that one of the attempts - by a group of about 100 people - was inspired by Belarusian forces.

At least eight people have died at the border in recent months, including a 19-year-old Syrian man who drowned in a river trying to cross to the EU.

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2021-11-18 12:13:18Z
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Doubts over email allegedly from missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-11-18 10:30:06Z
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