Йдеться про заборону брати участь у відборі співакам, які виступали у Росії чи в окупованому нею Криму
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Month: October 2019
СБУ та РНБО «забули» внести у список санкцій фірму Дерипаски, яка працює в Україні і вивозить сировину в Росію – «Схеми»
У пропозиціях СБУ, на основі яких був сформований санкційний список, не виявилось дочірніх компаній зі складу «Об’єднаної компанії «Русал», яку контролює впливовий російський олігарх Олег Дерипаска і які вільно працюють в Україні і з Україною. Серед них – компанія, яка є власником ТОВ «Глухівський кар’єр кварцитів», що видобуває на Сумщині унікальний високочистий кварцит і вивозить у Росію. Про це йдеться в розслідуванні програми «Схеми: корупція в деталях» (спільний проект Радіо Свобода і телеканалу «UA:Перший») – «Надра на експорт».
У травні 2018 року до українського санкційного списку Рада національної безпеки і оборони за поданням Служби безпеки України внесла самого олігарха Олега Дерипаску і три пов’язані із ним компанії.
Зазначається, що до списку увійшли підприємства, які «протидіють Україні, забезпечують військову складову поставок у Збройні сили Російської Федерації». Зокрема, там зазначені: об’єднана компанія (ОК) «Российский алюминий» («РусАл»), а саме її московський офіс, а також кіпрські компанії олігарха Judson Trading Limited і Velbay Holdings Ltd.
Санкції накладено терміном на три роки. Але «Схеми» встановили, що впливовий російський олігарх і досі володіє в Україні майже десятком інших компаній, які реально працюють, але не потрапили під санкції.
Серед них – кіпрська United Company Rusal Silicon Limited, яка є власником ТОВ «Глухівський кар’єр кварцитів». Там видобувають унікальний кварцит – мінерал, з якого видобувають кремній. Не внесла СБУ до санкційного списку також нідерландську Emergofin B.V. – кінцевого бенефіціара United Company Rusal Silicon Limited.
Водночас Emergofin B.V. – одна із компаній, яка підозрюється Службою безпеки у «фактичному знищенні виробничих потужностей Запорізького алюмінієвого комбінату».
У 2006 році Олег Дерипаска разом з партнерами викупив контрольний пакет акцій Запорізького алюмінієвого комбінату – найбільшого в Україні виробника цього металу і конкурента компанії олігарха «Русал». Але вже через кілька років, за даними СБУ, нові власники поступово довели завод до повного банкрутства. За інформацією правоохоронців, звідти зрештою вивели гроші, вивезли обладнання, а Баницький кар’єр, який був частиною заводу, виділили в окреме підприємство. В 2011-му Україна повернула запорізький завод у державну власність, що спричинило судову тяганину, яка триває і досі.
Водночас саме Emergofin B.V. зараз залучена до судового позову Дерипаски, який виступає проти повернення акцій Запорізького алюмінієвого комбінату державі. Олігарх вирішив, що є постраждалою стороною у процесі повернення заводу Україні, і запросив компенсацію у майже 40 мільйонів доларів. Суди тривають досі.
У відповідь на запит «Схем» щодо причини такого вибіркового підходу до санкцій щодо компаній олігарха у РНБО відповіли, що «пропозиції щодо застосування персональних спеціальних економічних та інших обмежувальних заходів (санкцій) до О. Дерипаски та пов’язаних з ним юридичних осіб були винесені на розгляд РНБО Службою безпеки України».
У свою чергу, в СБУ журналістам так і не надали відповідь по суті, чому до санкційного списку не потрапили кілька дочірніх компаній, які належать російському олігархові. Але натомість там підкреслили, що Запорізький алюмінієвий завод і родовище кварцитів у Баничах – уже у власності держави.
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Вінниця перемогла у міжнародному конкурсі дружніх до дітей міст – ЮНІСЕФ
Вінниця виграла престижну міжнародну премію Child Friendly Cities Inspire Awards серед найбільш дружніх до дітей місті у світі, повідомляє Дитячий фонд ООН ЮНІСЕФ.
Міжнародна премія започаткована ЮНІСЕФ у 2019 році у рамках Всесвітньої ініціативи «Громада, дружня до дітей та молоді». Цією премією ЮНІСЕФ відзначає найбільш креативні, інноваційні й надихаючі рішення міст, спрямовані на покращення життя дітей і молоді.
Вінниця перемогла у номінації «Участь дітей та молоді у житті міста».
«Перемогу Вінниці приніс проєкт шкільного бюджету участі, що став найкращим у світі прикладом залучення дітей до міського врядування. Вінниця провела конкурс дитячих ініціатив на впровадження змін у школах, відібрала 11 найцікавіших ідей і профінансувала їх із міського бюджету на загальну суму 1 мільйон гривень», – повідомляє ЮНІСЕФ.
У фіналі конкурсу Вінниця змагалася з містами-суперниками з В’єтнаму, Німеччини, Хорватії й Угорщини. Перемогу в номінації Вінниця розділила з Хошиміном (В’єтнам).
«Ми в захваті від того, що так багато міст прийняли принципи ініціативи «Громади, дружньої до дітей», щоб змінювати життя дітей», – говорить Лотта Сільвандер, голова офісу ЮНІСЕФ в Україні. – Але просто слухати дітей – недостатньо. Діти мають право брати участь у рішеннях, які на них впливатимуть. Діти просять міста вчитися одне в одного, переймати досвід і вдосконалювати ідеї одне одного. Тож, вручаючи ці нагороди, ми пропонуємо працювати в цьому напрямку, йти вперед глобально».
Премія передбачає нагородження міст у шести номінаціях. Повний перелік переможців:
Недискримінація та рівність: Овейдо (Іспанія)
Участь дітей та молоді у житті міста: Вінниця (Україна), Хошимін (В’єтнам)
Дружні до дітей соціальні послуги: Шарджа (Об’єднані Арабські Емірати)
Безпечне та екологічне довкілля: Міслата (Іспанія)
Дозвілля та родинний відпочинок: Крінс (Швейцарія)
Дружнє до дітей врядування: Коупавогюр (Ісландія)
Претендентів оцінювали за чотирма критеріями: продемонстровані результати, креативність та інновації, можливість і доцільність повторення реалізованого проєкту, відповідність принципам ініціативи «Громада, дружня до дітей та молоді».
Церемонія нагородження відбулась 17 жовтня у німецькому Кельні під час Першого глобального саміту міст, дружніх до дітей. Саміт об’єднав понад 550 учасників: мерів, місцевих лідерів, технічних експертів, дітей і молоді з понад 60 країн світу, щоб обговорити інноваційні підходи до реалізації й розширення прав дитини на місцевому рівні.
За даними ЮНІСЕФ, нині майже третина з чотирьох мільярдів людей, які проживають у містах, – це діти. За підрахунками, до 2050 року майже 7 з 10 дітей світу проживатимуть у містах – великих, середніх і малих.
Починаючи з 1996 року, міжнародна ініціатива ЮНІСЕФ «Громада, дружня до дітей і молоді» підтримує міста і громади світу, що сприяє забезпеченню прав дитини на місцевому рівні. Сьогодні ініціатива охоплює приблизно 30 мільйонів дітей у 40 країнах світу. В Україні до ініціативи приєдналося 170 міст і громад.
Saudi Arabia, Palestinians Agree on Joint Business Council
Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians agreed on Thursday to establish a joint economic committee and a business council, as the Palestinian Authority faces a financing gap that could top $1.8 billion.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s PA has been in deep financial crisis since February when Israel froze transfers of VAT and customs duties it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf.
His administration had to impose austerity measures, cutting almost half the salaries of its employees.
Abbas, who arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday, met with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
It added that the leaders reached “an agreement on the establishment of a joint economic committee and on a Saudi-Palestinian business council”.
The report did not elaborate further.
The announcement came days after Saudi Arabia’s football team played Palestine in the occupied West Bank for the first time on Tuesday, with the Saudi side having previously refused to enter the territory as part of its boycott of Israel.
Israel’s cuts have hit hard on the Palestinian territories, already suffering unemployment of around 26 percent in the second quarter of 2019, the World Bank said last month in a report.
Israel collects around $190 million a month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through its ports, and it is supposed to transfer the money to the PA.
In February, Israel decided to deduct around $10 million a month from the revenues — the sum the PA paid inmates in Israeli jails or their families — prompting the Palestinians to refuse to take any funds at all.
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner during a conference in Bahrain dangled the prospect of $50 billion of investment into a stagnant Palestinian economy.
But the plan so far fails to address key issues such as an independent Palestinian state, Israeli occupation and the Palestinians’ right to return to homes from which they fled or were expelled after Israel’s creation in 1948.
Russia Protests after US Diplomats Found Near Restricted Area
Russia’s Foreign Ministry says it will issue a formal note of protest to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow after Russian authorities caught three U.S. diplomats in a restricted area near a secret test site in northern Russia, state-run news agency TASS has reported.
The trio, which included the U.S. military and naval attachés, was removed from a train on October 14 and briefly questioned by Russian authorities in the sensitive Arctic shipyard city of Severodvinsk, near the site of a mysterious explosion in August that killed five nuclear workers.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said the diplomats had been on an official trip and that they had notified Russian authorities in advance of their travel plans. The reason for the diplomats’ travel was not disclosed.
But Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the diplomats had been found in a restricted area more than 40 kilometers from Arkhangelsk, the city they had said they planned to visit.
Interfax said the authorities checked the documents of the three before releasing them.
TASS quoted a source as saying law enforcement authorities suspected the three of breaching rules on foreigners visiting controlled zones.
Interfax quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as confirming that the diplomats gave notice of their travels, although it said it was for a different destination and that they “probably lost their way.”
Severodvinsk is considered to be in a sensitive military region, and foreigners are allowed to visit only under certain conditions — normally with advanced permission from the authorities.
An explosion on August 8 at the Nyonoksa missile-testing site on the coast of the White Sea, about 50 kilometers from Severodvinsk, killed five people working for Russia’s nuclear agency.
A State Department official on October 10 said the United States concluded that the explosion occurred amid an operation to recover a nuclear powered missile that had apparently crashed during a test.
Indonesia Arrests 40 Militant Suspects Ahead of Inauguration
Indonesia’s elite anti-terrorism unit went on a busy 24-hour spree to root out suspected Islamic militants ahead of a presidential inauguration this weekend that will be attended by Asian leaders and Western envoys.
At least 40 suspects have been detained by the counterterrorism squad, known as Densus 88, in eight provinces, including four who were captured on Thursday, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said. The sweep followed a tipoff about possible attacks against police and places of worship in several areas.
Six of the arrested militants, including a woman, were presented in a news conference Thursday in orange detainee shirts and under heavy guard at the police headquarters. They were not identified by police, who also displayed explosive chemicals for bomb-making, knives, jihadi books, airsoft guns and rifles with silencers and sniper scopes they said were seized from the suspects.
Another police spokesman, Muhammad Iqbal, said Wednesday among the arrested suspects were two female police officers who have been radicalized and were willing to be suicide bombers.
The arrests follow an attack last week in which a militant stabbed Indonesia’s top security minister, Wiranto, who is recovering from his wounds. A husband and wife were arrested in that attack. President Joko Widodo, who will take the oath of the office on Sunday at a ceremony in the capital, Jakarta, ordered government forces to hunt down the militant networks responsible for the attack.
Wiranto, a local police chief and a third man were wounded in the broad daylight attack in Banten province last Thursday by suspected militant Syahril Alamsyah and his wife, Fitria Andriana. Both are believed to be members of a local affiliate of the Islamic State group known as the Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, or JAD.
Prasetyo said the arrested husband, known as Abu Rara, would face heavier sanctions for handing a knife to his 15-year-old daughter to help assault the police. The child declined out of fear.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has been battling militants since bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Attacks aimed at foreigners have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces and local “infidels.”
In May last year, two families carried out suicide bombings at churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, killing a dozen people and two young girls whose parents had involved them in one of the attacks. Police said the father of the two girls was the leader of a cell in a larger militant network that claimed allegiance to IS.
The inauguration of Widodo, who won a second term with 55.5% of the vote in the April 17 election, will be attended by Southeast Asian leaders and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Several envoys, including China’s Vice President Wang Qishan and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao, are also scheduled to attend.
Prasetyo said 31,000 security personnel were being deployed to secure the capital during the inauguration, though there has been no warning of a possible attack.
“The arrested suspects planned to attack police and worship places instead,” Prasetyo said.
He said police were hunting down other suspected militants, mostly participants in a social media chat group who are believed to be linked to JAD.
Police have seized 10 homemade pipe bombs believed to be intended for suicide attacks, chemicals for use in explosives, airsoft guns, knives, documents on planned attacks, jihadi books, laptops and cellphones in separate raids.
In West Java’s Cirebon district, investigators found that three of the suspects had been working on a chemical bomb containing methanol, urea fertilizer and rosary pea seeds, which are the main ingredient of abrin, an extremely toxic poison, Prasetyo said.
On Eve of Brexit Summit, Northern Ireland Rejects Johnson’s Plan
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his 27 counterparts from across the European Union are converging on Brussels Thursday for a summit they hope will finally lay to rest the acrimony and frustration of a three-year divorce fight.
Yet even before dawn, Johnson had a serious setback when his Northern Irish government allies said they would not back his compromise proposals. The prime minister needs all the support he can get to push any deal past a deeply divided parliament.
It only added to the high anxiety that reigned Thursday morning, with the last outstanding issues of the divorce papers still unclear.
Technical negotiators again went into the night Wednesday to fine tune customs and sales tax regulations that will have to regulate trade in goods between the Northern Ireland and Ireland, where the U.K. and the EU share their only land border.
And they were set to continue right up to the summit’s midafternoon opening. If a deal is agreed on during the two-day summit, Johnson hopes to present it to Britain’s Parliament at a special sitting Saturday.
After months of gloom over the stalled Brexit process, European leaders have sounded upbeat this week. French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that “I want to believe that a deal is being finalized,” while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said negotiations were “in the final stretch.”
Johnson, who took office in July vowing Britain would finally leave the EU on Oct. 31, come what may, was slightly more cautious. He likened Brexit to climbing Mount Everest, saying the summit was in sight, though still shrouded in cloud.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party added to those clouds early Thursday. DUP leader Arlen Foster and the party’s parliamentary chief Nigel Dodds said they “could not support what is being suggested on customs and consent issues,” referring to a say the Northern Irish authorities might have in future developments.
Both the customs and consent arrangements are key to guaranteeing an open border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland — the main obstacle to a Brexit deal.
Foster and Dodds said they would continue to work with the U.K. government to get a “sensible” deal. The problem is that the closer Johnson aligns himself with the DUP, the further he removes himself from the EU, leaving him walking a political tightrope.
Brexit negotiations have been here before, seemingly closing in on a deal that is dashed at the last moment. But hopes have risen that this time may be different. Though with Britain’s Oct. 31 departure date looming and just hours to go before the EU summit, focus was on getting a broad political commitment, with the full legal details to be hammered out later. That could mean another EU summit on Brexit before the end of the month.
So far, all plans to keep an open and near-invisible border between the two have hit a brick wall of opposition from the DUP.
Art Exhibit Highlights Impact of Climate Change
A warming planet is triggering extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels, and loss of wildlife habitats. An American art exhibit is delving into the effects of climate change, which include melting glaciers and the destruction of coral reefs. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the University of Rhode Island to see how art is used to fight climate change.
Smart Tech for the City of 2030
The future was here at a recent marquee tech show in Japan. The Consumer Exhibition of Advanced Technology, or CEATEC, showcased technologies that may simplify our lives … or rapidly bring them to an end. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us back to the future!
New York Governor Signs Law Aimed at Foiling Trump Pardons
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a law clearing away legal hurdles that could have prevented state prosecutions of people pardoned by President Donald Trump for federal crimes.
The law signed Wednesday by the Democrat revises exceptions to the state’s double jeopardy law.
New York Democrats say it will ensure that the state’s ongoing investigations into associates of the Republican president can’t be derailed by a White House pardon.
Republicans have decried the law as a partisan attack.
The law was passed this year amid speculation that Trump might pardon his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort or former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Both have been convicted of federal crimes.
Manafort is also awaiting trial on a New York state mortgage fraud charge that closely mirrors part of his federal case.
Democrats Protest $200M in Additional Border Wall Transfers
President Donald Trump has quietly transferred more than $200 million from Pentagon counterdrug efforts toward building his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, drawing protests from Democrats who say he is again abusing his powers.
The move would shift $129 million to wall construction from anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan — the source of perhaps 90 percent of the world’s heroin — along with $90 million freed up by passage of a stopgap funding bill, top Democrats said in a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
The Defense Department “was faced with a simple choice: either additional funds be used for their intended purpose, to accelerate our military’s efforts to combat heroin production in Afghanistan; or divert these funds to pay for cost increases of a border wall project that does not have the support of the American people,” the Democrats wrote.
Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Patrick Leahy of Vermont took the lead, noting that the heroin trade is a major funding source for the Taliban and urging the Pentagon to “redouble its efforts to starve the Taliban of a vital funding source and reduce the scourge of heroin abuse in this country and abroad.”
Trump has shifted more than $6 billion from Pentagon accounts to pay for border fence construction, considerably more than lawmakers have provided through annual appropriations bills.
Wall funding has been a major source of conflict between Capitol Hill Democrats and Trump as they negotiate agency funding bills each year. For instance, Trump was forced to settle for just $1.4 billion in wall funding in talks this winter. He issued a controversial declaration of a national emergency shortly afterward that allowed him to shift almost three times as much money from military construction accounts to wall building.
A fight over the wall issue is tying up efforts to begin serious negotiations on wrapping up $1.4 trillion worth of agency appropriations by Thanksgiving.
Separately, the Senate is expected to vote Thursday to sustain Trump’s veto Tuesday of legislation to reject his emergency declaration.
British Couple Balks at White House Meeting with Diplomat’s Wife Involved in Their Son’s Fatal Crash
A British couple whose son was killed in a traffic accident involving a U.S. diplomat’s wife has balked at President Donald Trump’s surprise effort to have them meet with the woman at the White House, saying they would only talk with her if she returns to Britain to face charges.
Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn met with Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, seeking to have diplomatic immunity waived for the envoy’s wife, Anne Sacoolas, so she could stand trial in Britain for driving on the wrong side of a British road and colliding head-on with a motorcycle driven by their son, 19-year-old Harry Dunn.
Sacoolas has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing. She was interviewed by police about the Aug. 27 accident and stayed three weeks in Britain, but then returned to the United States. The U.S. refused to waive diplomatic immunity in the case, which often shields envoys and their families from facing criminal charges while serving in foreign lands.
The couple said Wednesday that while Trump was sympathetic about the death of their son, they were taken aback when he told them that Sacoolas was in the building, and pressed them to meet with her in front of photographers.
Charles told CBS News on Wednesday, “He was willing to listen, didn’t interrupt me at all.”
She said that emotionally, it would not have been good for her, her husband or Sacoolas to meet on such short notice without therapists or mediators present.
“None of us know how we’re going to react, to have that put on us,” she said. “She needs to come back and face the justice system.”
The couple’s spokesman, Radd Seiger, described the White House meeting as little more than a bad attempt at a photo opportunity.
“It struck us that this meeting was hastily arranged by nincompoops on the run,” Seiger said.
Trump on Wednesday described the meeting as “really beautiful in a certain way.”
“It was very sad, to be honest. They lost their son. I believe it was going down the wrong way because it happens in Europe. You go to Europe and the roads are opposite. It is very tough if you are from the United States,” Trump said.
Charles said that at the end of the meeting, “I asked him again, ‘If it was your 19-year-old son, or your son, no matter what age, you would be doing the same as me.’ And he was holding my hand at the time and he said, ‘Yes, I would,’ and he said, ‘Maybe we’ll try and push this from a different angle.'”
Видання The Washington Рost вирішило писати назву української столиці як Kyiv
Раніше про зміни в написанні назви української столиці повідомило агентство Associated Press
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Курдська діаспора пікетувала посольство США в Києві (фото)
Біля посольства США в Києві представники курдської діаспори 16 жовтня влаштували пікет. Як передає кореспондент Радіо Свобода, понад пів сотні людей з плакатами і курдськими прапорами прийшли до будівлі американського дипломатичного представництва, щоб висловити протест проти військової операції Туреччини в Сирії.
Учасники акції виступили з жорсткою критикою президента Туреччини Реджепа Таїпа Ердогана, називаючи його «терористом» та «убивцею». Учасники акції закликали США зупинити турецький наступ у Сирії. Під час акції мітингувальники розірвали декілька портретів Ердогана.
Із посольства до мітингувальників ніхто не вийшов. Під будівлею дипломатичної установи чергували правоохоронці, зокрема, представники Нацгвардії і поліція діалогу.
Акція пройшла мирно, повідомлень про правопорушення немає.
Офіційний Вашингтон виступає категорично проти операції Туреччини у Сирії, спрямованої, зокрема, проти курдських бійців. Раніше сьогодні стало відомо, що делегація США на чолі із віцепрезидент США Майком Пенсом вирушила до Туреччини, щоб домовитися про припинення атак проти курдів, які боролися разом із США проти угруповання «Ісламська держава» у Сирії.
Президент Туреччини Реджеп Таїп Ердоган заявив, що не відмовиться від своїх планів у Сирії, попри санкції, заборони на постачання зброї його країні з боку Заходу і попередження з Москви.
Турецькі війська продовжують наступ на позиції сирійських курдів. Кінцева мета військової операції Анкари – створення на півночі Сирії (поряд з турецьким кордоном) «зони безпеки» для розселення там у перспективі 2 мільйонів сирійських біженців та убезпечення від «загроз» з боку курдських бійців, яких Анкара вважає терористами.
Курди – найбільший народ світу, який не має власної держави.
Поліція встановила особу підозрюваного до нападу на неповнолітнього під час ХарківПрайду
Поліція Харкова повідомила про підозру чоловіку, якого вважають причетним до побиття неповнолітнього хлопця у саду імені Шевченка післяХарківПрайду 15 вересня.
«Зловмисником виявився 20-річний студент одного з харківських вишів. Підозру йому вручили працівники Шевченківського відділу поліції… За даним фактом відомості про подію були внесені до Єдиного реєстру досудових розслідувань за ч. 2 ст. 296 (хуліганство) Кримінального кодексу України», – йдеться в повідомленні.
За даними правоохоронців, слідчі дії у справі тривають.
15 вересня близько двох тисяч ЛГБТ-активістів пройшли маршем у Харкові. Після закінчення прайду в парку Шевченка зібралася група невідомих, щоб атакували учасників маршу. В результаті серед потерпілих опинився неповнолітній юнак. Згодом хлопець написав заяву у поліцію. Відповідальність за інцидент жодна з організацій на себе не взяла.
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Chinese Snooping Tech Spreads to Nations Vulnerable to Abuse
When hundreds of video cameras with the power to identify and track individuals started appearing in the streets of Belgrade, some protesters began having second thoughts about joining anti-government demonstrations in the Serbian capital.
Local authorities assert the system, created by Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, helps reduce crime. Critics contend it erodes personal freedoms and exposes citizens to snooping by the Chinese government.
The cameras, equipped with facial recognition technology, are being rolled out across cities around the world, particularly in poorer countries with weak track records on human rights where Beijing has increased its influence through big business deals. With the United States claiming that Chinese state can get backdoor access to Huawei data, the rollout is raising concerns about the privacy of millions of people.
Iran Detained 2nd French Researcher, Colleagues Say
The Iranian government has been holding a second French researcher in custody for the past four months, according to his colleagues.
Roland Marchal, a sub-Saharan Africa specialist at Paris university Sciences Po, was arrested in June when he traveled to Iran to visit his partner, Fariba Adelkhah, according to Sciences Po professor Richard Banegas.
Iranian authorities disclosed in July that they had arrested Adelkhah, a prominent anthropologist who holds dual French-Iranian nationality, on charges that have not been made public.
There was no immediate acknowledgement of Marchal’s arrest in Iranian state media.
It’s unclear exactly what charges Marchal faces, but Banegas told The Associated Press that he and his colleagues consider him “an academic prisoner.”
The French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Warren And Sanders Stockpile Millions More Than 2020 Rivals
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren don’t just lead the Democratic presidential primary in fundraising. They’ve stockpiled millions more than their rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden, who burned through money at a fast clip over the past three months while posting an anemic fundraising haul.
Sanders held $33.7 million cash on hand on his third-quarter fundraising report. Warren had $25.7 million during the same period, while South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg came next $23.3 million.
Biden, meanwhile, held just $8.9 million, a small fraction of what his leading rivals have at their disposal.
With the first votes of the Democratic contest just months away, the candidates are entering a critical and expensive period where having an ample supply of cash can make or break a campaign. Biden’s total raises questions about his durability as a front-runner.
“Can he do better at fundraising? Absolutely. And I think he will,” said Biden donor and fundraiser Steve Westly.
While many contenders in the crowded field will be triaging resources and making difficult spending decisions in the coming months, the advantage enjoyed by the Vermont and Massachusetts senators means they will have the luxury of spending when and where they want. That will allow them to buy large amounts of advertising, respond to attacks and boost their ground games in early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
“If you are sitting at fourth, fifth or even seventh place and you don’t have the money to have a real paid media campaign, the future for you is probably pretty bleak. You will get drowned out by the rest of the noise,” said Grant Woodard, a Des Moines attorney who is a veteran of John Kerry’s and Hillary Clinton’s Iowa campaigns. “It’s still a fluid race. But to be competitive in this thing you are going to have to be on TV, digital and you are going to have to be on direct mail. The fundamentals still matter.”
Biden has built a formidable campaign, but it’s come at a cost. The $17.6 million he spent over the past three months was more than the $15.7 million he took in, according to his fundraising figures that were submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday’s reporting deadline.
Despite his lackluster totals, he still remains a favored candidate in recent public opinion polls, along with Warren. And in recent weeks, both Biden and his wife, Jill, have kept up a busier fundraising schedule.
“People focused on the minutia and the details,” said Westly, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. “The reality is this is quickly boiling down to a two-person race _ and that’s between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.”
Still, Biden is not alone in the sprawling field.
California Sen. Kamala Harris had $10.5 million cash on hand but deferred paying consultants including her pollster nearly $1 million, records show. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker held $4.2 million, disclosures show.
And the situation was far more dismal for others. Former Obama housing secretary Julian Castro had just $672,000 cash on hand, while Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan had even less, $158,000, records show.
The advantage Warren and Sanders have was evident in the way they have been able to spend.
Sanders’ $21.5 million in spending between July and the end of September topped the list. It enabled him to spend $3.8 million on advertising and online fundraising, drop nearly $1 million on campaign merchandise and pay his staff a combined $5.6 million, records show.
Warren’s $18.6 million in spending during that period allowed her to fund a sprawling staff operation that includes well over 500 people on the payroll, in addition to financing a more than $3.2 million digital operation, records show.
Buttigieg, too, has hired roughly 100 staffers in Iowa, where his campaign is betting on a strong performance.
But just because they have a massive cash advantage doesn’t mean the other candidates are doomed. Even though time is running out, candidates could still see their financial picture improve, particularly if they have a viral online moment to boost their online fundraising.
“The question is: Do you have enough money to run a strong campaign? North of $5 million and you have the ability to get through the fourth quarter,” said Democratic donor and Wall Street financier Robert Wolf, who was an economic adviser to Barack Obama.
Democratic Candidates Voice Staunch Support for Trump’s Impeachment
Twelve U.S. Democratic presidential candidates squared off in a spirited debate Tuesday night, all looking to confront President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, even as their Democratic congressional cohorts have accused Trump of political wrongdoing and opened an impeachment inquiry against him.
The dozen challengers all support the four-week-old impeachment probe, although Trump’s removal through impeachment remains unlikely. The candidates, however, wasted no time before telling a national television audience why Trump should be impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to face trial in the Republican-majority Senate.
In his opening statement, former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Trump’s top challengers, declared, “This president is the most corrupt … in all our history,” an assessment echoed across the debate stage.
‘No one is above the law’
Another leading candidate, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, said, “Sometimes there are issues that are bigger than politics. Donald Trump broke the law. No one is above the law. Impeachment must go forward.”
Tuesday’s debate was the fourth in a string of almost monthly get-togethers for the Democratic challengers seeking to win the party’s nomination to face Trump. But with the 12 candidates lined up on a stage at Otterbein University in the Midwestern state of Ohio, it was the largest such gathering and came as new drama has engulfed the U.S. political world about a year before voters head to the polls in the national balloting.
House Democrats opened the quick-moving impeachment probe after a whistleblower in the U.S. intelligence community raised questions about whether Trump had put his own political survival ahead of U.S. national security concerns when he asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for “a favor” in a late July call. Trump called for Kyiv to open an investigation into the role played by Biden in helping oust a Ukrainian prosecutor when he was former President Barack Obama’s second in command, and also to probe the lucrative service of Biden’s son Hunter on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Both Bidens have denied wrongdoing, although the younger Biden, 49, told ABC News this week that he exercised “poor judgment” in serving on the Burisma company board because it had become a political liability for his father.
The elder Biden said he had never discussed with Hunter Biden his decision to join the Ukrainian company’s board, which he left earlier this year. Hunter Biden now has pledged not to work for any foreign company if his father is elected president.
Trump’s criticism
Trump has repeatedly described his call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” said he has done nothing wrong and assailed the impeachment probe as another attempt to overturn his 2016 election victory.
The elder Biden, at 76 on his third run for the U.S. presidency, is the nominal leader in national surveys of Democratic voters of their choice as the party’s standard bearer to face Trump, 73, and he often defeats Trump in hypothetical polling matchups. So does Warren, a former Harvard law professor, who has edged close to Biden or sometimes even surpassed him in national polls of Democrats as their favorite presidential candidate.
Biden and Warren, 70, were at center stage Tuesday, alongside Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist who currently stands as the third choice among Democrats. Sanders, 78, recently suffered a heart attack, raising questions about his health as the oldest of the presidential contenders.
The nine other candidates on the debate stage faced a daunting challenge: how best to distinguish themselves from the front-runners and gain new traction in national polls and surveys of voters in states where Democrats are holding party nominating contests starting in February.
All nine currently are polling in the single digits, compared with Biden and Warren in the upper 20% range, with Sanders about 15%.
Next debate
The national Democratic Party has set standards even higher for those who want a place on the stage for the next debate on November 20. The candidates must have bigger polling numbers — at least 3% support in four national polls or 5% support in polls of people in states that are early on the voting calendar — and more financial support, from at least 165,000 individual donors.
The nine other challengers Tuesday night were California Senator Kamala Harris, who has slipped in the polls in recent months and has refocused her efforts in going after Trump; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; New Jersey Senator Cory Booker; Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar; former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro; former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas; tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang; U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii; and Tom Steyer, a wealthy environmental activist who launched national television ads calling for Trump’s impeachment long before Washington political figures undertook the current inquiry.
Actor Huffman Starts Serving Prison Time in College Scam
“Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman — aka prisoner No. 77806-112 — reported Tuesday to a federal prison in California to serve a two-week sentence in a college admissions scandal that ensnared dozens of wealthy mothers and fathers trying to get their children into elite schools.
Huffman’s husband, actor William H. Macy, dropped her off at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, a low-security prison for women in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to TASC Group, which represents Huffman.
The prison has been described by media as “Club Fed,” making its way onto a Forbes list in 2009 of America’s 10 Cushiest Prisons.
Like all inmates, Huffman would be issued a prison uniform and underwear and referred to by her number once inside the prison, where she will share a room and open toilet with three other inmates, according to a TASC Group publicist who declined to be named in accordance with company policy.
Huffman, 56, “is prepared to serve the term of imprisonment Judge [Indira] Talwani ordered as one part of the punishment she imposed for Ms. Huffman’s actions,” the TASC Group said in a statement that provided no further details.
Officials at the prison did not immediately return two phone calls seeking comment.
The federal judge in Boston sentenced Huffman last month to 14 days in prison, a $30,000 fine, 250 hours of community service and a year’s probation after she pleaded guilty of fraud and conspiracy for paying an admissions consultant $15,000 to have a proctor correct her daughter’s SAT answers.
Huffman tearfully apologized at her sentencing, saying, “I was frightened. I was stupid and I was so wrong.”
Huffman was the first parent sentenced in the scandal that exposed the lengths some parents will go to to get their children into elite schools and reinforced suspicions that the college admissions process is slanted toward the rich.
The judge noted that Huffman took steps “to get one more advantage” for her daughter in a system “already so distorted by money and privilege.”
The facility where Huffman will serve her time has housed well-known inmates in the past, including “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss.
Huffman will likely be assigned work duty, and prisoners at the Dublin institution are subjected to five bed counts a day. They have access to a gym, a library and a TV room, the TASC spokesman said.
He said Huffman intends to read, walk in the courtyard and exercise as much as she can.
Huffman was one of 51 people charged in the scandal. She paid $15,000 to boost her older daughter’s SAT scores with the help of William “Rick” Singer, an admissions consultant at the center of the scheme. Singer, who has pleaded guilty, was accused of bribing a test proctor to correct the teenager’s answers.
The amount Huffman paid is relatively low compared with other alleged bribes in the scheme. Some parents were accused of paying up to $500,000.
The scandal was the biggest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Prosecutors said parents schemed to manipulate test scores and bribed coaches to get their children into schools by having them labeled as recruited athletes for sports they didn’t play.
Health Crisis Looms as Aid Organizations Pull Out of Syria
Eight-year-old Sara hardly speaks anymore. She spends most of her time watching cartoons on a mobile phone in a rugged pink cover.
One of her legs is severed above the knee, the other is broken.
On Thursday, about 15 minutes after her family decided to flee the area, a bomb fell about 8 meters from Sara and her three siblings.
Doctors say hospitals in northeastern Syria are already working beyond their capacity, as aid organizations evacuate their foreign staff. As Turkey continues to fight for a strip of land along its southern border, doctors say this war is turning into an unmitigated health disaster.
“Any further crisis will destroy us,” said Dr. Furat Maqdesi Elias, who heads the Al Salam Hospital in Qamishli, a city on the Syrian border with Turkey. “What do NGOs and the U.N. give us? They give us zero.”
Many Syrians here blame the United States for abandoning this region, after supporting Kurdish-led fighters against Islamic State militants for years. Turkey has long maintained it would create a buffer zone between it and the once-U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces vigorously if it had to. It began assaults on the Kurdish region nearly a week ago.
Turkey blames the PKK, a Kurdish militant group it equates with the SDF, which has been attacking Turkey for decades, leading to thousands of deaths.
Sara’s mother, Nariman, blames herself.
“It’s my fault,” she said. “We should have evacuated when things started happening.”
‘Humanitarian situation spirals’
Sara doesn’t yet know that her 13-year-old brother Mohammad died in the bombing. Nariman whispers his name, and then hushes her daughter as she whimpers.
A door closes, and Sara starts.
“See what happened to her?” Nariman asked. “When she hears a door close, she thinks it’s a bomb.”
Nariman and her husband, Youssef, and their other two children are now staying with friends while Sara is in the hospital. The house is still standing, she said, but they are too afraid to go home.
They are among approximately 200,000 people who have been displaced since this war began less than a week ago. Roughly 70,000 are children, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund.
Families are not the only ones fleeing in northeastern Syria. On Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders announced it would be pulling its foreign staff out of the region and stopping most of its activities. The organization said the decision comes “as the humanitarian situation spirals further out of control, and needs are likely to increase.”
The International Rescue Committee also suspended health services on Tuesday after one of its facilities was hit by what IRC officials think was an airstrike, and two of the organization’s ambulances were damaged.
“Many hospitals have had to close, and those that remain open are overwhelmed with casualties,” said Misty Buswell, Middle East policy director at the International Rescue Committee, in a statement Tuesday. “We expect to see an increase in deaths from what are usually preventable diseases because of this, as there simply are not enough facilities to support those who have been displaced.”
Chaos continues
Before the crisis began, Sara was at the top of her class in school, her mother said, and liked to play soccer.
“Now, she doesn’t talk to us,” Nariman said, stroking Sara’s hair.
Other children in Qamishli are mostly inside as she speaks, and soldiers pace the sidewalks. Some businesses are open, but the usually noisy city is mostly quiet.
Reports of chaos in other cities litter the internet, with videos of Russian soldiers playing with electronic barriers, abandoned as the U.S. pulled out. Other videos show heavy fighting at the border between Syria and Turkey.
Hundreds of military deaths have been reported in the past six days, and at least 42 civilians have been killed and 123 wounded, according to the International Rescue Committee.
Soldiers say one key city has changed hands several times, with the SDF occasionally wresting it back from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, formerly known as the FSA, a rebel group.
Some roads have been taken by the group, and families from the region are unable to get to each other, as the alternate route is a well-known haven for Islamic State sleeper cells.
“This area used to be a safe place,” Youssef said. “Everyone lived together from all over Syria. Then one day everything changed.”
US Pushing for Cease-fire After Turkey’s Push Into N. Syria
The United States says diplomatic efforts are on “high gear” to press for a cease-fire after Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, as Washington tries to get the situation under control, according to a senior State Department official.
“Goal number one is to carry out diplomacy to try to find a cease fire. Get the situation under control. It’s very, very confusing. It’s dangerous for our troops. It’s placing the fight against ISIS at risk. It’s placing at risk the safe imprisonment of almost 10,000 detainees,” the official said, using an acronym for the Islamic State terror group.
The official noted that there has not been “any major successful breakout so far of detainees,” referring to imprisoned IS fighters and their families. Syrian Kurdish officials have said hundreds of suspected IS prisoners have escaped.
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced sanctions against Turkish officials over the military operation and he plans to send a delegation led by Vice President Mike Pence to Ankara for talks to resolve the situation.
“I can just tell you that it’s (Pence’s trip) going to be launched very quickly,” the State Department official told reporters Tuesday. “And again our first goal is to basically have a heart to heart talk with the Turks.”
President Trump has faced harsh criticism in the week since the White House announced Turkey was going forward with its long-held plans to try to carve out a buffer zone along its border with Syria free from the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters it accuses of being terrorists linked to separatist Kurds in Turkey. The U.S. military has long said its Kurdish allies have been instrumental in the fight against IS, and the elimination of IS’s caliphate.
“We’re very concerned about their [Turkey’s] actions and the threat that they presented to peace, security, stability, and territorial integrity of Syria, of our overall political plans, and the risk of humanitarian disaster, and human rights violations, some of which we’ve seen not by Turkish troops, but by what we call the TSO-Turkish supported Syrian opposition elements, armed opposition elements, who are responsible for those horrible pictures you saw,” the U.S. official said Tuesday.
Turkey’s incursion pushed the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces to reach an agreement with the Syrian government that has brought Syrian troops back into the northeastern part of the country for the first time in years, including on Monday reaching the town of Manbij.
A U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday American troops left the town of Manbij as part of their withdrawal from the area.
Trump spoke Monday with both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and General Mazloum Kobani, the head of the mostly Kurdish SDF that the United States has relied on to battle Islamic State militants in Syria.
In addition to the call to halt the military operation, the United States raised steel tariffs and halted negotiations on a $100-billion trade deal with Turkey.
U.S. Democrats and Republicans have faulted the Trump administration for what is unfolding, saying the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the area cleared the way for the U.S. ally SDF to be put in danger as well as the potential for Islamic State militants under SDF detention to break free and stage a resurgence.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Trump’s “erratic decision-making is threatening lives, risking regional security and undermining America’s credibility in the world.”
She said both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate will proceed this week with “action to oppose this irresponsible decision.”
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that while Turkey does have legitimate security concerns linked to the Syrian conflict, the operation against the U.S.-backed Kurds jeopardizes the progress won against IS.
“Abandoning this fight now and withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria would re-create the very conditions that we have worked hard to destroy and invite the resurgence of ISIS,” McConnell said. “And such a withdrawal would also create a broader power vacuum in Syria that will be exploited by Iran and Russia, a catastrophic outcome for the United States’ strategic interests.”
A senior administration official rejected criticisms against Trump in the call with reporters Monday, saying only Erdogan’s actions are to blame.
The official said Turkish President Erdogan “took a very, very rash, ill-calculated action that has had what, for him, were unintended consequences.”
Earlier Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Erdogan “bears full responsibility” for what happens.
He called the Turkish offensive “unnecessary and impulsive,” and said it has undermined what he called the successful multinational mission to defeat Islamic State in Syria.
Esper said he plans to go to Brussels next week to press other NATO allies to apply sanctions on Turkey.
Nike Ching contributed to this report.
Dutch Police Investigate Family Living in Isolation on Farm
Dutch authorities were Tuesday trying to piece together the story of a family found living isolated from the outside world in the rural east of the Netherlands.
Mayor Roger de Groot said that the six-member family is believed to have lived for nine years on a farm in Ruinerwold, 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Amsterdam.
Drone images of the farm showed a cluster of buildings with a large vegetable garden on one side. The small property appeared to be ringed by a fence and largely obscured by trees.
Dutch media reported that the family was made up of five adult siblings and their father.
De Groot told reporters the siblings were aged from 18-25. He said their mother is believed to have died “a number of years ago.”
Local police said in a tweet that officers visited the farm after being alerted by somebody “concerned about the living conditions” of its residents.
Police said they arrested a 58-year-old man who rented the property, but it wasn’t immediately clear why or what his relationship was to the family. Police said he wasn’t the father.
Police investigating the farm found “a number of improvised rooms where a family lived a withdrawn life,” De Groot said in a statement.
Local bar owner Chris Westerbeek told broadcaster RTV Drenthe that he called police after a man “with a confused look in his eyes,” with unkempt hair, a long beard and old clothes walked in to his bar and ordered five beers for himself.
“He said where he came from, that he’d run away and that he needed help urgently,” Westerbeek said.
De Groot said the police investigation is looking into “all possible scenarios,” but didn’t elaborate.
He said the family was now “in a safe place receiving appropriate care and attention.”
ООН проголосила Міжнародний день загального доступу до інформації
На засіданні Генеральної Асамблеї ООН 15 жовтня схвалили резолюцію, яка проголошує Міжнародний день загального доступу до інформації. Його відзначатимуть щороку 28 вересня.
Ініціаторами проголошення цього дня виступила Україна і ще п’ять країн: Аргентина, Канада, Коста-Ріка, Ліберія, Сьєрра-Леоне, повідомляє агентство «Укрінформ».
ООН закликає відзначати Міжнародний день загального доступу до інформації не тільки держави-члени, але й міжнародні організації, неурядові установи та громадянське суспільство.
У резолюції наголошується, що право кожного на пошук, отримання та поширення інформації гарантується статтею 19-ю Загальної декларації прав людини.
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Dye Artisans Keep Ancestors’ Traditions Alive
Dodging waves at low tide, a barefooted, shirtless Mixtec man is carefully walking along the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. He navigates his way through the gray rocks on a quest to catch a particular kind of snail, Purpura pansa. When he catches one, he presses just the right part of the snail’s foot to encourage it to secrete a neurotoxin directly onto a skein of cotton yarn. The milky liquid stains the yarn in a greenish color. As it oxidizes, the color turns blue and finally becomes a brilliant reddish-purple hue.
Extracting colors from snails is an ancient dyeing method that the Mixtec people have been practicing for around 1,500 years. Like their ancestors, Mixtec dyers do not hurt the snails. They carefully return them to their habitat. They give them time to recover and recharge. They also stay away from the snails during the mating season.
This group of Mixtec dyers is among more than two dozen artisans whom author Keith Recker profiled in his book, True Colors — World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigments.
Recker is interested in natural dyes because he finds them fascinating.
“There is usually more than one thing happening in the union between the natural coloring substance and fiber,” he says. “I think the eye is much more entertained by this complexity than it is by chemical simplicity where you only have one weave length, one vibe coming to your eye from the fiber.”
To explore traditional techniques and personal approaches to natural dyeing, Recker embarked on a journey and met with artisans from all over the world, from West Africa to Bangladesh to China to Northern California to Mexico to Uzbekistan.
“Before 1856, when the first synthetic dye was invented in England by a chemist who made a beautiful purple color out of tar, all colors were natural. They were made in some vividly amazing ways,” Recker notes. “Dyes were mostly extracted from plants, but in some cases from animals.”
Most of these artisans not only keep their ancestors’ handmade natural dyeing techniques alive, they pass them to younger generations as they train other artisans in their communities.
Colorful journey
Artisans come from different artistic and cultural backgrounds, however, their work is similar in many ways.
Audrey Louise Reynolds, for instance, is an artisan living in Upstate New York. She extracts beautiful colors from turmeric, while Rupa Trivedi in Mumbai, India, creates a range of colors from marigold, hibiscus and rose flowers and coconut husks. With much trial and error and online research, the self-taught artist understood the principles of natural dyes and started her business 15 years ago.
Maria Elena Pompo, who moved from Venezuela to the United States and from engineering to fashion design, also developed her natural dyeing technique through experimentation.
“She colors her clothing with recycled avocado pits,” Recker says. “She goes around Brooklyn, collecting avocado pits from Mexican restaurants and uses them in a very precise way to create a whole range of blushes and yellowy apricots and pink browns. It is very low impact because they’re things that would otherwise go to trash.”
Red is one of basic colors artisans use in dyeing fabrics, but they extract it from different resources.
In southwestern Mexico, the Gutierrez Contreras family members who are weaving textiles using old Zapotec traditions are famous for working with cochineal.
“Cochineal is a red color that comes from dried beetles,” Recker explains. “That sounds terrible, but the body of these dried beetles is made of carminic acid, which is still the safest red colorant we’ve known of.”
Carpetmakers Fatillo Kendjeav and his family, in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, extract a variety of red shades from madder roots. They use other natural ingredients to deepen the authenticity of their carpets, such as walnut hulls to create deep browns, and pomegranate skins to create a beautiful bronze green. They also use onion skins, apple, grape and mulberry leaves to create different shades of yellow.
Recker notes that these artisans tend to use such natural plants not only as colorants, but also as food and medicine.
True color advocates
As many people have become more conscious about natural foods and healthy eating habits, some see wearing naturally dyed fabrics as another step toward a healthier lifestyle. These dyeing techniques also have a lower impact on the environment as they encourage recycling and reusing practices, says Recker.
“If you learn how to use natural ingredients available around you, you can easily refresh an old, tired T-shirt, or a scarf, or a sheet and give it a new life instead of throwing them away,” adds the author.
Even if he does not inspire readers to do it themselves, Recker hopes raising awareness about natural colors will press the fashion industry worldwide to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Волейбол: «Хімік» пробивається у наступний етап Ліги чемпіонів
Жіночий волейбольний клуб «Хімік» (Южне, Одеської області) вдома виграв матч-відповідь другого кваліфікаційного раунду Ліги чемпіонів. Чемпіонки України виявилися сильнішими за «Младость» з Хорватії. Домашня зустріч завершилась з рахунком 3:0 (25:23, 25:23, 25:21) на користь «синьо-жовтих»
Перший матч проти хорваток «Хімік» програв на виїзді. Тож путівку до наступного раунду розіграли у «золотому сеті», де українки не залишили шансів суперницям – 15:8.
У третьому раунді кваліфікації Ліги чемпіонів «Хімік» зіграє проти команди «Оломоуц» з Чехії. Перша зустріч для українок відбудеться на виїзді 22 жовтня, а матч-відповідь зіграють через тиждень після цього.