The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), an organisation led by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, and Centre for the Enforcement of Human Rights International (CEHRI), a non-profit organisation that advocates for liability for international crimes, filed a case in Austria calling for investigations into sexual violence and murder in Ukraine by Russian soldiers on Monday.

The organisations are representing two women who were raped by Russian soldiers at the beginning of the Russo-Ukraine War in 2022 and have put forward evidence against the two soldiers and seven other men who are commanders. According to the organisations, one of the women’s husbands had been shot and killed when he tried to intervene. The CFJ said, “The crimes were committed as part of widespread and systematic pattern of human rights violations against the civilian population on the territories occupied by Russian forces, extensively documented by the UN bodies and other organizations”.

The evidence consists of investigations within Ukraine, such as visiting the villages where the crimes occurred, interviewing witnesses and Ukrainian law enforcement, and observing evidence left behind by the soldiers when the Kyiv region was liberated, which allowed the identification of the Russian soldiers. The organisations’ investigation was aided by open-source intelligence that analysed Russian military communication networks and their movement into Ukraine, satellite imagery and reported incidences of human rights violations to establish patterns of abuse.

The case has been shared with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General. The case has been filed in Austria under universal jurisdiction, allowing states to prosecute serious international crimes regardless of where the crime was committed or the nationality of those involved.

In a video (21 sec), Russian state propagandist Sergei Mardan explains that the main purpose of war is looting of enemy's territories so that "we live better than them".

Then he adds "I think this is the goal of the war as laid by Putin". Note the word "war" is beeped out because in Russian political correctness code it should be called "special military operation".

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The Russia’s State Social University (RSSU) has launched a “social rating” platform that claims to build a person’s “social portrait” with possible applications in future government policies.

Named “We,” the platform promises to determine a user’s comparative “social status” based on a survey that includes questions about income, family status, benefits, creditworthiness, criminal record, lifestyle and state awards, among others.

“The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way,” RSSU said on the platform’s website. “But who knows what these figures will mean for you in the future?”

Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin. [The novel "We" describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It inspired British author George Orwell to write his own novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four", which was published in 1949.]

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China’s economy has repeatedly disappointed expectations since the end of the Covid pandemic. Consumption is sluggish, the property crisis is a burden and attempts to achieve growth through exports are being met with punitive tariffs from the rest of the world.

Few Western observers know the world’s second-largest economy better than Joerg Wuttke. In an in-depth conversation with The Market NZZ, the long-serving former President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing talks about China's growth prospects, the problem of overcapacity in the country and explains who calls the shots when it comes to economic policy.--

Joerg Wuttke:

"The property crisis continues to be the biggest drag [for the Chinese economy]. It had been looming for a long time because it was obvious that property prices were significantly inflated."

[...]

"There is also a special feature of China: everything the government announces with big plans ends up creating overcapacity at some point. The best current example is the automotive sector, where around 140 suppliers are fighting each other. This is eroding the profitability of companies and people are struggling to survive."

[...]

"People [who consider buying property] have become cautious. For years, they thought they could buy a flat and sell it later at a higher price. And now they are suddenly realising that they have lost 30%. The government should do more to counter this, it is not doing a good enough job [...] There is no point in the government lowering mortgage rates if I don’t know whether the apartment I have bought will ever be completed or if I have to assume that prices will continue to fall. There are 90 million empty housing units in the country, which is a huge oversupply.

[...]

"Consumption is also restrained when people see that their own family members are losing their jobs. There are many unemployed people in rural areas who have returned to their villages from the big construction sites. Pessimism, which has never really been an issue in the last thirty years, has spread in the last twelve months."

[...]

"Nobody knows for sure [how high the unemployment is]. It is a question of definition, because in the official statistics you are apparently not considered unemployed if you work even one hour a week. Youth unemployment climbed to almost 30%, but then the government changed the statistics. However, you can see a clear trend if you look at the purchasing managers’ indices [...] Companies are holding back on hiring, especially in the private sector.

[...]

"This is the first Third Plenum [which takes off on July 15] that has not triggered any great expectations. Which probably means that markets will hardly be disappointed if not much comes out of the session. We will certainly hear warm words, especially addressed towards foreign companies [...] they are likely to announce plans to reduce protectionism between [Chinese] provinces and open up the domestic market. A market struggling with overcapacity leads to provinces closing themselves off from each other."

[...]

"China accounts for 30% of total global production, but it only accounts for 14% of global consumption. That is a huge imbalance. President Xi Jinping has focussed on the manufacturing sector because he hopes it will also boost innovation. But launching big plans in China always leads to everyone aiming for the goal, everyone seeing a lot of money, and then everyone doing the same thing in 31 provinces and regions. The country has more than 150,000 state-owned enterprises. They all remain on the market, even though many of them are losing money. [...] This [Chinese] economy has a gigantic skew. There needs to be consolidation, and that would require political courage."

[...]

"Probably about ten [among the 140 actors in the automotive sector are profitable]. The top dog is BYD, Tesla is also doing very well, they both have capacity utilisation rates of almost 100%. However, a third of the suppliers have a capacity utilisation of less than 20%. These companies are making huge losses, but they are being concealed and absorbed by local governments."

[...]

"This consolidation [consolidation of the Chinese economy] will be much more painful. It won’t be easy in a country that doesn’t have a well-developed social safety net."

[...]

"Xi [who doesn’t have much sympathy for social security and doesn’t want a welfare state] once told the Danish prime minister that he could not understand these lazy Europeans. In China, people have to work hard. He seems like someone from another time. He tells unemployed young people that they should just go to the countryside and help the farmers. There's a huge generation gap in the country."

[...]

"I think the tariffs [imposed by the EU on Chinese electric Vehicles] are rather low. BYD’s share price rose by 9% when they were announced. That really says it all. The tariffs are not designed in such a way that the Chinese can no longer sell cars in Europe. But this will be an issue worldwide: the US is imposing 100% import duties on EVs, Turkey has added 40%, Brazil is imposing tariffs in the steel sector. There will be more to come. We have to be prepared for the fact that this flood of exports from China will also trigger counter-pressure in the so-called Global South. The playing field for China is getting narrower and narrower.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the most Russia-friendly of all EU leaders, met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine. The trip, which comes just a few days after Budapest took over the rotating EU presidency, has been slammed by the rest of the 27-nation bloc, who say it could undermine the EU’s stance on the more than two-year-long conflict.

I can't help but wonder if those who voted brexit to cut migration are happy with the result.

• The order came from the Elysée Palace but had to remain secret so as not to offend Beijing. The head of the Paris office of the Ministry of State Security (MSE, or Guoanbu), the Chinese intelligence agency, and his deputy were asked to leave France.

• Paris had accused them of orchestrating an attempt to forcibly repatriate a political dissident in March. Chinese officials said it was a misunderstanding and worked hard to demonstrate their good faith. To no avail.

• On March 22, an unusual scene drew the attention of France's border police, the DNPAF, at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport. As the police looked on, a man was being restrained by a group of seven individuals who were leading him toward the boarding gates despite his resistance. The intervention of the border police put an end to a plan to forcibly repatriate back to China 26-year-old Chinese dissident Ling Huazhan, described by France DGSI domestic intelligence agency as "a psychologically fragile person."

• After an investigation, it emerged that the leader of the kidnapping group was none other than the head of the MSE post in France. Like all foreign liaison officers, he was registered as such with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and holds an official passport which guarantees him diplomatic immunity. His deputy enjoys similar protection.

• Ling lived a solitary and precarious existence near the Saint Lazare train station, having fled to Europe as a refugee. He'd been targeted by China for "actions offensive to the Chinese president," for anti-Xi Jinping graffiti and for defacing posters bearing Xi's likeness. He also shared articles critical of the Chinese regime on social media. His passport was withheld as a means of pressure to get him to the airport.

DW Video.

In case of paywall

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/18581354

Privacy measures apparently helping criminals evade capture

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17651030

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Original WSJ article is gated

Italian prosecutors investigate luxury brands Dior, Armani for "Made In Italy" products actually made by subcontractors within the European country exploiting low-cost Chinese labor

https://in.mashable.com/culture/78452/investigation-reveals-diors-2800-bags-cost-mere-57-to-make-netizens-say-bro-sabyasachi-ko-bhi-bata-d

• Italian prosecutors investigated the local supply chains of two major Italian fashion houses. Their investigation found that some designer handbags are manufactured by exploited foreign labor.

• Investigators interviewed workers from one of Armani's subsidiaries, GA Operations, which hired a number of Chinese-owned subcontractors across Italy. These subcontractors paid migrant workers a few euros per hour.

• Prosecutors allege that some of the luxury handbags made by the fashion houses' suppliers with the "Made in Italy" stamp are actually made in sweatshops within the European country, employing low-cost Chinese labor. They say many of the sweatshops fall extremely short of legal workshop codes.

• The Dior probe revealed that its four small suppliers employed 32 staff who worked around Milan. Two of the staff were immigrants who entered Italy illegally. Seven staff worked without proper documentation. The report stated that the staff worked “in health and hygiene conditions that are below the minimum required ethical approach.”

• Meanwhile, data mapping of the facilities’ electricity consumption revealed unbridled day and night production cycles, even during the holidays. Additionally, investigators found safety devices were removed from machinery to get faster operations.

• While Dior itself is not under criminal investigation, the contractors are under the radar. The Armani investigation also revealed similar violations.

[...] For most of human history, height remained relatively stable. Until 1800, the average height in Europe hovered between 165 cm and 170 cm, but over the past 200 years something remarkable has happened: heights, globally but particularly in Europe, have increased dramatically. Many European countries saw increases in average heights of over 15 cm, and this has been especially evident in the Netherlands – the average Dutch man has grown from 166 cm in 1810 to 184 cm today, an increase of 18 cm in just two centuries. Dutch men are currently the tallest in the world.

[...] Recent research shows that long-lasting or recurring illnesses were associated with shorter adult heights in the Netherlands in the 19th century, while shorter, one-off periods of illness may have actually been helpful for growth. This is likely because less severe illnesses boosted immunity against future infections.

The deaths of parents, particularly of mothers, have also been shown to result in shorter heights. For very young children, this would have been because they depend on their mothers for nutrition, but it was also true for older children, indicating the profound stress of losing a primary caregiver.

Curiously, although losing a mother was linked to shorter children’s heights – in the Netherlands and elsewhere – losing a father was not, potentially due to the gendered nature of parental care in this period.

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“[Russian] information operations are underway […] to gradually demoralise the public debate so that Russian narratives can be disseminated. These are part of an information war to stop the flow of material aid to a struggling Ukraine,” warned the Czech National Centre for Combating Organised Crime (NCOZ) in a report.

“The Kremlin’s efforts to diminish public trust in institutions and the state is not new, but the increase in the intensity of influence operations is a threat,” the Czech Strategic Communications Coordinator Otakar Foltýn said in reaction to the NCOZ report.

• According to the NCOZ, Russian activities are aimed at influencing the population of Western European countries while increasing the threat of sabotage against critical and transport infrastructure, with local residents and criminal networks are becoming more involved in various activities.

• These include gathering information, identifying targets, putting pressure on specific individuals, such as those from the exiled diaspora, and even direct attacks on infrastructure and public places.

• “This issue has been persistent for several years, with Russian and Chinese influence attempting to infiltrate Czech society,” Jurečka said. “We must cultivate a society that can critically think, resist disinformation, and not succumb to fear,” Jurečka added.

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The French organizers of the Festival Off Avignon, one of the biggest performing arts festivals in the world, said that they received protests and threats from China after selecting Taiwan as its guest of honour country for this year's event.

According to Harold David and Laurent Domingos, co-presidents of the Avignon Festival & Compagnies (AF&C), China's embassy in Paris threatened to withdraw from the event if Taiwan was not dropped as its guest of honour country (‘pays invité d'honneur’).

• Domingos said that they had anticipated such a reaction. “We are not stupid, we understand geopolitics,” he said, adding that they have to bear the responsibility for their choice. While the festival’s board has not made a final decision, David and Domingos said they believed the event, which began on Wednesday, should maintain its independence, autonomy, variety and freedom, and keep Taiwan as the guest of honor.

• Domingos said that the festival is also planning events for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and the People’s Republic of China. The two developments do not conflict with each other, he said.

• Taiwan first participated in the Festival Off Avignon 17 years ago, and the country’s selection as a guest of honor was a tribute to its past contributions to the event, David said. The traits Taiwan shares with the festival include diversity, openness to the world, creativity and freedom of speech, he added.

• Domingos also lauded the creativity that Taiwan has brought to the festival, which runs until July 21. “Taiwan identifies itself with its culture. It is not recognized by the United Nations and many countries as a ‘country,’ so it defines itself with its cultural identity,” he said, adding that the festival itself was a field to exhibit cultural identity.

She lost to Labour.