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On shaky grounds: The secret, slipshod evidence the EU uses to sanction Russian oligarchs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

Hastily compiled dossiers leave the bloc vulnerable to legal challenges.By BY LEONIE KIJEWSKIIllustration by Anson Chan for POLITICOBRUSSELSBY LEONIE KIJEWSKIIT WAS AN UNUSUAL APOLOGY: from the office of the president of the European Council to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.In a confidential evidence packet used by the European Union to justify freezing his assets, Viatsheslav Moshe Kantor’s nationality had been listed as “Jewish/Russian.” A 70-year-old billionaire who once headed the Russian fertilizer giant Acron, Kantor stepped down as president of the European Jewish Congress after being sanctioned by the EU and the United Kingdom in April 2022. He holds Russian, U.K. and Israeli citizenship.The designation “Jewish/Russian” could be a mistaken reference to a Soviet-era ethnic classification, but several scholars commissioned by Kantor’s lawyers found it to be an antisemitic description that should not have been included in an official document.“We sincerely regret the error...

In Tunisia, the EU is repeating an old and dangerous mistake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

Eve Geddie is Director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office.As the representatives of so-called “Team Europe” were shaking Tunisian President Kais Saied’s hand this July, hundreds of refugees and migrants were stranded in the country’s desert border areas with Libya, after its security forces rounded them up and abandoned them there without access to food, water or shelter.The European People’s Party President Manfred Weber later referred to these reports — including of multiple deaths near the border — as “some videos from the desert or something.”European leaders were in Tunisia to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aiming to curb migration to Europe. And in exchange they offered Tunisia €105 million for “border management,” and nearly €1 billion in additional loans and financial support amid the country’s unprecedented economic crisis.However, while Tunisia and the European Union are discussing how to implement the deal, its human costs are already apparent. And...

EU’s migration obsession is killing its commitment to human rights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

Claudio Francavilla is a senior EU advocate at Human Rights Watch.Portrayed for years as the only Arab Spring success story, Tunisia today is everything but.Since staging a “constitutional coup” in 2021, President Kais Saied has dissolved the country’s parliament and fired its prime minister, concentrated power in his office, jailed critics and opponents, and crushed democratic aspirations.Then, finding himself unable to address the country’s deep economic crisis, Saied resorted to a textbook populism – attacking scapegoats.For Saied, that means Black African migrants and asylum seekers — also a favorite target for Europe’s far right. Blamed for all the country’s ills, while dehumanized and defamed by hate speech (uttered by Saied himself), Black Africans in Tunisia have been suffering horrendous abuses, including violence, discrimination and collective expulsion on Tunisia’s land borders, leading to dozens of deaths.Looking at the European Union’s countless pledges to promote human...

Orioles waste another Kyle Bradish gem vs. Astros in 2-1 walk-off loss, ending 4-game winning streak

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

Brandon Hyde has shown his sarcastic side this week.The Orioles manager’s bullpen entered Wednesday’s game having covered 14 1/3 innings over the previous three nights. He joked after Monday’s hectic win that his bullpen was in “excellent shape, fresh as all could be.” On Wednesday morning, he once again quipped his taxed bullpen, which needed two innings from starting pitcher Jack Flaherty the night before, was “fresh.”The dire state of the Orioles’ bullpen was never more evident than in the late innings of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Houston Astros. An exhausted relief corps blew a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning and allowed a walk-off single in the ninth to spoil another gem from ace Kyle Bradish.Shintaro Fujinami was erratic in the eighth, walking two batters, and Mike Baumann followed to allow one of Fujinami’s runners to score. With the game tied in the ninth, left-hander Danny Coulombe allowed a leadoff double to Yaine...

Chicago Cubs’ Cody Bellinger has a limited pregame BP routine, which has set him up for success

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

Cody Bellinger’s favorite time to hit happens long before the ballpark opens to fans.He finds solace during the 45-minute early batting practice sessions where “there’s no camera, no anybody and it’s not as controlled of an environment,” Bellinger explained to the Tribune.“If I’m going to hit on the field, I prefer the early hitting slot because it’s peaceful — it’s just you on a baseball field and it’s super, super enjoyable.”Outside of his early on-field work, Bellinger typically does not take on-field BP with his teammates at home or on the road. Bellinger instead prefers to go through his own routine using the indoor cage.It’s a practice that has become more common in the majors, among them most notably is Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani, who’s been known for how rarely he hits on the field pregame. Early in the season Bellinger would take BP with his teammates because he felt like he had to in a ...

Orioles single-game postseason tickets go on sale Thursday morning: Here’s how to buy them

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

The general public will be able to purchase single-game tickets for Orioles postseason games starting 10 a.m. Thursday, though it’s not yet clear when the team will play at Camden Yards during the playoffs, or who it will be playing.The single-game tickets going up Thursday are for each of 10 possible home games through the American League Championship Series, and are limited to six tickets per buyer. When the Orioles play and who they will face in the playoffs depends on how the next few weeks shake out. The cost of tickets for games that aren’t played will be automatically refunded within two to three weeks of the end of the postseason, according to the Orioles’ website, which says those interested in attending postseason games are “encouraged to sign up for the Orioles Insider Newsletter to access the sale.”Earlier this month, you either had to be a season ticket holder or to have committed to becoming oneto get tickets to the playoffs.Those with 202...

Oscar Pistorius is eligible for parole after serving half of his murder sentence, new documents say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius was eligible for parole in March under South African law and the double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic runner may have been wrongly denied early release from prison because of a miscalculation over when he began serving his sentence for murder, court documents show.Justice and correctional services authorities submitted the documents to the country’s apex Constitutional Court on Tuesday and said they won’t oppose the appeal from Pistorius arguing he has served the prescribed amount of time in prison and should immediately be declared eligible for parole.Offenders sentenced to more than two years in prison in South Africa must serve half their sentence to be eligible for parole.Pistorius’ appeal says he was eligible when he attended a parole hearing on March 31, when a parole board denied his early release and ruled he was not eligible until August next year.The new papers submitted to the Constitutional Court indicate ...

Google sued for negligence after man drove off collapsed bridge while following map

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence, claiming it had been informed of the collapse but failed to update its navigation system.Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighbourhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years prior and was never repaired.“Our girls ask how and why their daddy died, and I’m at a loss for words they can understand because, as an adult, I still can’t understand how those responsible for the GPS directions and the bridge could have acted with so little regard for human life,” his wife, Alicia P...

Seattle officer should be put on leave for callous remarks about woman’s death, watchdog group says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle’s Community Police Commission on Wednesday recommended that the city’s police chief suspend without pay an officer under investigation for making callous remarks about the death of a woman from India who was struck by a police SUV in a crosswalk.The 21-member commission and its three appointed co-chairs also requested that Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz “immediately engage in a workgroup” with the commission, the Office of Police Accountability and the Office of Inspector General to “address repeated concerns with the culture of policing and police practices” in his department, The Seattle Times reported.The letter calls on Diaz to suspend Officer Daniel Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. Auderer has been under investigation since earlier this month when police officials listened to audio from Auderer’s body camera during an investigation into the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student who was struck and kill...

World War I remembrance sites in Belgium and France have been added to UNESCO’s heritage registry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:30 GMT

PARIS (AP) — UNESCO added World War I funerary and memorial locations across the Western Front to its prestigious World Heritage registry, expanding its list of landmarks of monumental importance. The World Heritage Committee announced the decision Wednesday during its ongoing meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.The list includes sites the panel has deemed “of outstanding value to humanity,” according to the agency, and deserving of ”special protection” — including funding and international protection in times of war under the Geneva Convention.The newly added sites stretch from Belgium’s north to eastern France, battle zones where the Allied forces clashed with the German army from 1914 to 1918. The array of sanctuaries ranges from expansive necropolises bearing multitudes of soldiers from different nationalities to humbler graveyards and individual monuments.The list previously included 1,157 sites notable for their extraordinary natural wonders or distinctive human contribution...