US designates Russia's Wagner military group an intl 'criminal organization'

 Yahoo - AFP, January 20, 2023 

The United States on Friday designated Russia's Wagner group as a "transnational criminal organization," raising pressure on the private Russian army fighting in Ukraine. 

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Wagner, controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to President Vladimir Putin, has about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 80 percent of them drawn from prisons. 

Kirby showed US intelligence photographs of North Korea supplying arms to Wagner for its Ukraine operations, and said the private army has become a rival to the formal Russian military. 

The photographs, from November 18-19, show Russian rail cars entering North Korea, picking up a load of infantry rockets and missiles, and returning to Russia, he said. 

He said the US Treasury was formally designating Wagner as a transnational criminal organization, putting it in league with Italian mafia groups and Japanese and Russian organized crime. 

The designation will allow the wider application of sanctions on the group’s sprawling global network, which includes mercenary operations as well as businesses in Africa and elsewhere. 

Wagner "is a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses," Kirby said. 

"We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner," he said. 

Kirby also said the United States had presented its intelligence on Wagner's North Korean purchase to the UN Security Council's unit on North Korea sanctions. 

The arms transfers from North Korea are in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, Kirby said. 

Kirby said there is evidence that Prigozhin's confidence in Wagner fighters' relative success in Ukraine has generated tensions in the Kremlin. 

"Wagner is becoming a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries," Kirby said. 

"Prigozhin is trying to advance his own interest in Ukraine and Wagner is making military decisions based largely on what they will generate for Prigozhin, in terms of positive publicity."

Large Wall Street firms fined $1.8 bn in US over lax recordkeeping

Yahoo – AFP, September 27, 2022 

Large Wall Street firms agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines over failures to keep electronic records such as text messages between employees on personal mobile phones, US authorities announced Tuesday. 

Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were among the firms that agreed to fines over "longstanding failures" to maintain and preserve electronic communications that must be available to regulators in the course of oversight, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement. 

The SEC announced a total of $1.1 billion in fines on 16 institutions in all. The 16 firms listed included some companies such as Morgan Stanley with affiliated firms also covered by the agreement. 

In a parallel action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it reached settlements totaling $710 million from the same group of financial institutions over the same offenses. 

"Finance, ultimately, depends on trust. By failing to honor their recordkeeping and books-and-records obligations, the market participants we have charged today have failed to maintain that trust," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. "Since the 1930s, such recordkeeping has been vital to preserve market integrity. 

"As technology changes, it's even more important that registrants appropriately conduct their communications about business matters within only official channels, and they must maintain and preserve those communications." 

An SEC investigation uncovered "pervasive off-channel communications" involving a range of senior and junior investment bankers and traders -- omissions that "likely" deprived it of communications in agency probes, it said. 

Bank of America was fined a total of $225 million under the two settlements. 

Financial giants agreeing to $200 million in settlements were Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS. 

Nomura, Jefferies and  Cantor Fitzgerald will pay respectively $100, $80 and $16 million 

The SEC in December 2021 fined JPMorgan Chase $125 million for the offense, spurring an industry-wide regulatory crackdown on poor recordkeeping, the SEC said.

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once),Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Australian Rules club hit by 'heartbreaking' Indigenous mistreatment claims

Yahoo – AFP, September 21, 2022 

Australian Rules' chief executive said Wednesday it was "hard to find more serious allegations" after a top club was accused of separating Indigenous players from their families and pressuring one couple to have an abortion. 

In the latest racially tinged scandal to hit Australia's most popular spectator sport, Hawthorn Football Club said an internal investigation into how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players were treated had raised "disturbing" historical claims. 

The club did not go into detail, saying the matters were "confidential". 

But public broadcaster ABC reported harrowing accounts of young Indigenous players pressured to end contact with their families and focus on their sporting careers. 

The ABC said in a period about a decade ago, players were relocated away from family and pressed to change their mobile phone numbers. 

One allegation related to a prospective father who told the club he and his partner were expecting a child and was advised to terminate the pregnancy. 

"At face value it's hard to find more serious allegations," Australian Football League (AFL) chief Gillon McLachlan said. 

"There are so many people hurting today and have been hurting for a long time. As a game we will do everything to ensure the hurt you experienced is not a hurt experienced by others." 

McLachlan said an external panel of four independent, appropriately qualified people would conduct a separate investigation for the AFL. 

"We need to run a proper investigation to get to the bottom of it and this is important out of respect for those making the allegations and out of respect for those being accused," he said. 

Hawthorn, the 13-time premiership-winning side -- with the Latin motto translated as "let us be judged by our acts" -- are based in Melbourne. 

Allegations of separating Indigenous players from their families and forced estrangement are particularly sensitive in Australia. 

Until the 1970s, white-dominated Australian governments forcibly removed Aboriginal children from their parents in an attempt to eradicate Indigenous cultures. 

Indigenous AFL legend and former "Australian of the Year" Adam Goodes retired in 2015 after being subjected to months of racially motivated booing by spectators. 

In 2021, the president of top Australian Rules side Collingwood resigned after evidence of systemic racism at the club.

 Hawthorn chief Justin Reeve backed the AFL's independent investigation, calling the findings of their internal review "heartbreaking". 

Asked whether Hawthorn had a culture problem, Reeve replied: "I think Australia has a culture problem, historically, and I think like all of us, we focus on every day being better and building a great environment for our club. 

"I feel confident from the report as well that currently our players feel culturally safe," he added. 

"But like so many institutions, I think we have to face our history and our past and we have to act responsibly and we have to cooperate and move forward from that."

Trump lunged at Secret Service driver to try to join Capitol riot: Aide

Yahoo – AFP, 29 Jun 2022

Former US President Donald Trump instructed the crowd to march
on the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

WASHINGTON: Former US president Donald Trump angrily lunged at his Secret Service driver and grabbed at the steering wheel of his limousine in a bid to join the crowd as it marched on the Capitol on the day of the deadly insurrection, an aide testified on Tuesday (Jun 28). 

In some of the most explosive testimony so far to the House committee probing the violence, Cassidy Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, said the president had demanded to march with the mob. 

Under the impression that he would be taken to join the crowd at the Capitol following his rally speech, he became irate when he was told it was impossible for security reasons, and he tried to wrestle the Secret Service for control of his official car, Hutchinson testified. 

"I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now," Trump said, according to Hutchinson, who testified that the story was relayed to her by another administration official. 

Trump, apparently watching the televised hearing, attempted to discredit Hutchinson in real time in a multiple-post rant on his social media network, dismissing the episode as a "fake story" and calling the hearing a "kangaroo court." 

The congressional panel has spent a year investigating the Jan 6, 2021 riot that temporarily halted the certifying by Congress of the presidential election result. 

It has now held six public hearings to outline its initial finding - that Trump led a criminal conspiracy to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden that led to the violence. 

Hutchinson was a central figure in the administration and able to offer the committee its first blow-by-blow account of activity inside the White House. 

She testified that Trump and some of his top lieutenants were aware of the possibility of violence - contradicting claims that the assault was spontaneous and had nothing to do with the administration. 

"THINGS MIGHT GET REAL"

Hutchinson said she recalled Meadows saying four days before the insurrection: "Things might get real, real bad on Jan 6."

Hutchinson had sought out her boss, she said, after a White House meeting involving Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As they were leaving, Giuliani asked her if she was "excited" for Jan 6.

Credit Suisse fined over drugs gang money laundering

Yahoo = AFP, June 27, 2022 

Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, which has been rocked by a series of scandals, was slapped with a $2-million-fine Monday in a money laundering case linked to a Bulgarian cocaine network. 

Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court found that the bank failed to take steps to prevent money laundering by the criminal organisation, deeming it guilty of breaching its corporate responsibility. 

Credit Suisse was fined two million Swiss francs ($2.1 million). The Zurich-based bank intends to appeal. 

It was faulted for the failure up through its hierarchy and by its legal and compliance departments to monitor "banking relations" linked to the criminal gang, and to ensure their "compliance with anti-money laundering rules". 

A former employee was found guilty of aggravated money laundering over a number of transactions she had conducted or ordered to be conducted between July 2007 and December 2008, despite firm indications that the funds had criminal origins. 

Her actions allowed the criminal gang to stash more than 19 million Swiss francs out of reach of the authorities. 

She was given a 20-month prison sentence and a fine, both of which were suspended. 

In a brief statement, Credit Suisse said it noted the court's decision and that it intended to appeal. 

Two Bulgarians were also found guilty of participating in a criminal organisation and aggravated money laundering. 

The court also ordered the confiscation of a sum equivalent to more than 12 million francs concerning funds deposited with Credit Suisse by the criminal organisation. 

Furthermore the bank will have to compensate the more than 19 million francs in assets belonging to the criminal organisation, "which could not be confiscated due to the bank's internal failures", the court statement said.

Report into abuse in British gymnastics is 'too little, too late'

MSN – AFP, 17 June 2022

An independent report revealed 'systemic' abuse within British gymnastics.
© EMMANUEL DUNAND

Recommendations made in a damning report into a toxic culture within British gymnastics are "too little, too late to change a culture of mistreatment", according to a campaign group representing athletes. 

The independent Whyte Review, commissioned in 2020 after a host of complaints from high-profile British gymnasts and published on Thursday, revealed "systemic" abuse in the sport. 

Safeguarding failures from junior to elite level were catalogued by lawyer Anne Whyte from more than 400 submissions, over half of which reported some form of emotional abuse, with nine percent involving sexual abuse. 

"I have concluded that gymnasts' well-being and welfare has not been at the centre of (governing body British Gymnastics') culture for much of the period of the review," she wrote. 

Despite a "genuine apology" from the new British Gymnastics chief executive Sarah Powell, those affected cast doubts on the ability of the organisation to implement change and said the review did not go far enough. 

Gymnasts for Change, which represents many of the athletes who have made allegations against British Gymnastics, said while it welcomed the review, "ultimately, the recommendations fall far short of what is needed". 

It added: "This is too little, too late to change a culture of mistreatment. Every day without holistic and wholesale change another gymnast is put at risk and these recommendations fall far short of the change needed." 

Whyte revealed horrific personal testimonies, including over-stretching to the extent a gymnast feared their legs would "snap", food and drink deprivation that led to eating disorders, and emotional abuse including ridiculing gymnasts who cried or needed to go to the lavatory. 

Whyte accused Powell's predecessor Jane Allen, who retired in December 2020, of a "lack of leadership" and presiding over an "organisational failure... to appreciate the central importance of athlete welfare", and said both British Gymnastics and UK Sport focused on medal success rather than athlete welfare. 

She called on the governing body to ensure its complaints system was "fit for purpose" and urged it to appoint both board members with specific expertise in safeguarding and a director of education with overall responsibility for the education of coaches and welfare officers. 

Powell said British Gymnastics accepted all the recommendations in the report and "will not shy away" from taking the steps required to restore confidence in the governing body and the sport as a whole. 

'Culture of fear' 

Four-time Olympic medallist Louis Smith said the governing body should be under no illusions that it had plenty of work ahead before it could rid itself of its association with a "culture of fear". 

Smith tweeted: "If you're wondering if the culture of fear is gone in British gymnastics, then take a look to see how many active competing GB gymnasts publicly support the Whyte review. 

"British gymnastics need to remember they don't own anyone and having an opinion isn't an attack!!" 

Earlier this month, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and other star US gymnasts filed a $1 billion claim against the FBI for alleged mishandling of the investigation into sexual abuse by predatory former team doctor Larry Nassar. 

Nassar, 58, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting athletes while working as a sports medicine doctor at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. 

In May, a group of gymnasts filed a claim against Gymnastics Canada and the federation's provincial counterparts for having tolerated a climate of abuse and mistreatment for decades.

Four Moroccan women accuse French tycoon of sexual harassment

Yahoo – AFP, June 17, 2022 

Four women have pressed charges in Morocco against French insurance tycoon Jacques Bouthier, currently under arrest in Paris on charges of raping a minor, a rights group said Friday. 

Bouthier is accused of various acts of "people trafficking, sexual harassment and verbal and moral violence," between 2018 and this year, said Karima Salama, a lawyer from the Moroccan Association for the Rights of Victims (AMDV). 

"An enquiry has been opened and we have faith in the justice system," she said at a press conference in the northern port city of Tangiers, where the four alleged victims, aged from 26 to 28, had been employed by Bouthier's firm. 

Bouthier, 75 and one of France's richest men, is ex-CEO of insurance group Assu2000, later renamed Vilavi. 

Three of his Moroccan alleged victims told journalists on Friday about their experiences, using sanitary masks and dark glasses to hide their identities. 

"He asked to sleep with me and when I said no, he asked me to introduce him to a sister, a female cousin or a friend, saying he would give me a nice present in exchange," one said. 

The women said they had been sacked after refusing to "give in to harassment and blackmail" over their employment by Bouthier and other French and Moroccan executives. 

The women said they had faced repeated sexual harassment and intimidation as well as threats to their jobs, in a city where many struggle to find work. 

One said he had presented them to men working at the firm, telling them: 'If you bring in contracts, there will be beautiful Moroccan girls'. 

"Jacques Bouthier... believes that with his financial power he can get away with anything, in complete impunity," said AMDV chief Aicha Guellaa. 

Bouthier, was indicted on May 21 and arrested by Paris prosecutors after a preliminary investigation into accusations of people trafficking and rape of a minor. 

He is also being prosecuted for conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping in an organised gang and possession of child pornography.

UK banks no longer 'too big to fail': BoE

rfi –AFP, 10 June 2022 

Following the financial global crisis more than a decade ago, the UK taxpayer
pumped £137 billion ($171 billion) into the country's banks Tolga Akmen AFP/File

London (AFP) – Britain's biggest banks are no longer "too big to fail" in any future financial shocks, with shareholders rather than taxpayers ready to bear the cost, the Bank of England said Friday. 

Following a major review of eight lenders -- including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest -- the BoE concluded "that if a major UK bank failed today it could do so safely: remaining open and continuing to provide vital banking services to the economy. 

"Shareholders and investors, not taxpayers, will be first in line to bear the costs, overcoming the 'too big to fail' problem," the central bank added. 

Following the financial global crisis more than a decade ago, the UK taxpayer pumped £137 billion ($171 billion) into the country's banks, while also being able to benefit from significant BoE support. 

The government also took control of Royal Bank of Scotland -- rebranded as NatWest ahead of its recent return to the private sector. 

Despite the bailouts, "the disruption to the financial system contributed to the UK and global recession that followed. We cannot forget these lessons", the BoE added Friday. 

The central bank was publishing its first assessment of the eight major UK banks' preparations for resolution under the Resolvability Assessment Framework. 

RAF "is a core part of the UK's response to the global financial crisis, and demonstrates how the UK has overcome the problem of 'too big to fail'", said Dave Ramsden, deputy governor for markets and banking at the BoE. 

"The UK authorities have developed a resolution regime that successfully reduces risks to depositors and the financial system and better protects the UK's public funds." 

The other four banks assessed were Nationwide, Santander UK, Standard Chartered and Virgin Money UK.

Mexican mega-church leader sentenced for child sex abuse

Rfi.fr – AFP, 9 June 2022 

Naason Joaquin Garcia , head of the La Luz Del Mundo church which claims five
million followers worldwide, was accused of coercing underage girls into performing
sexual acts by telling them that going against his wishes would be acting against
God Al Seib POOL/AFP/File

Los Angeles (AFP) – The leader of a Mexican mega-church who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three young girls was sentenced in Los Angeles on Wednesday to nearly 17 years in prison. 

But the ruling, following a plea deal Naason Joaquin Garcia struck with prosecutors last week, was met with anger by victims, who at an emotional hearing called for their abuser to face trial and the maximum possible sentence. 

One victim in court Wednesday condemned officials for "negotiating with this rapist" while another said in a statement read to the court that the justice system "failed us." 

Garcia, head of the La Luz Del Mundo church which claims five million followers worldwide, coerced underage girls into performing sexual acts by telling them that going against his wishes would be acting against God, prosecutors said. 

He was arrested at a Los Angeles airport in June 2019. An initial human trafficking and child rape case was thrown out on a technicality, and charges were re-filed. 

Last Friday, on the eve of his trial, the 53-year-old -- who claims to be the last apostle of Jesus, and had initially denied all wrongdoing -- pleaded guilty to felony crimes of sexual assault of three minors. 

These included forcible oral copulation and a lewd act upon a 15-year-old, but not counts of rape, extortion and child pornography. 

California attorney general Rob Bonta hailed the sentence as a "critical step forward for justice." 

"While it will never undo the harm and trauma he caused as the leader of La Luz del Mundo, this sentence makes it crystal clear that abusers -- no matter who they are -- will be held accountable," he said Wednesday. 

Still, Garcia's church continued to back its leader, issuing a statement Wednesday to "publicly express our support for the Apostle of Jesus Christ" and praising his "integrity, his conduct and his work." 

The Spanish-language statement said evidence against Garcia had been fabricated and that the leader had no choice but to strike a deal as he would not have received a "fair and just" trial. 

In court, one victim who said Garcia had stolen both her virginity and her faith begged the judge to "make sure that this man is put away for life." 

"How is this justice?" she asked.

NRA: The powerful US gun rights lobby

Yahoo – AFP, Joshua MELVIN, May 27, 2022

People look at semi-automatic guns at the Kalashnikov booth at the NRA's
annual convention in Houston (AFP/STRINGER) (STRINGER)

The National Rifle Association is the central and fiercest promoter of gun rights in America, and is again holding its annual convention days after a mass school shooting. 

Just like the NRA's meeting after the 1999 Columbine attack, which defined an era of gun massacres in America's schools, the gathering opening Friday in Houston follows the killing of 19 children and two teachers in a Texas classroom. 

The NRA has been weakened by scandal and turmoil, but remains the main force dedicated to advocating for the owners of the tens of millions of weapons that are readily obtainable across the country. 

Here are some key points about the organization: 

Potent political force 

The 150-year-old NRA concentrated its focus on battling gun restrictions in the late 1970s and has become one of the most powerful lobbying groups in US history. 

Its past influence on lawmakers has been far-reaching. 

From 2000 to 2012, the NRA and its allies in the firearms industry combined to pour $80 million into US House of Representatives, Senate and presidential races, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. 

In the 2016 presidential election, the NRA spent about $20 million for ads attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton and another $10 million for ads supporting Republican Donald Trump. 

Since the 1990s, the NRA has been able to deliver a powerful punch against local and national politicians it views as a threat to gun rights, contributing to the defeat of numerous centrist candidates. 

Many guns, many deaths 

The NRA has been a key proponent for an industry that has produced more than 139 million guns for the commercial market over the two decades from 2000, including 11.3 million in 2020 alone, according to government data. 

At the same time, America annually records a toll of tens of thousands of gun deaths, with US authorities saying killings underwent an "historic" increase in 2020. 

The US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent over 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides, up 1.5 percent. 

The post-Columbine era 

In the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado, two students killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher, and signaled a new era of classroom killings in America. 

The NRA's annual conference was scheduled to open less than two weeks later in Denver, a short drive from Littleton, prompting state and local politicians to criticize the planned meeting. 

In the end, the NRA went ahead with a scaled-down gathering but voiced a defiant tone defending gun rights. 

"Over the next two decades, this unapologetic message would come to define the NRA's tone in the wake of mass shootings at American schools," US broadcaster NPR wrote, after publishing recordings it said captured the group's debate over the response to Columbine. 

A troubled NRA 

The state of New York sued the group and its leader Wayne LaPierre in 2020 for financial fraud and misconduct, aiming to dissolve the powerful lobby. 

Top NRA officials were accused of using dues and donations of members for years as a "personal piggy bank," spending tens of millions of dollars on themselves and their cronies in violation of laws governing non-profit organizations. 

The group called it a baseless political attack, and in March a New York judge ruled that alleged self-dealing by the group's leader, if proven, would not warrant such a strong penalty as the disbanding of the association. 

New York's lawsuit seeking to boot LaPierre from his post will, however, be allowed to proceed. 

Group in decline? 

NRA claims more than five million members, but there are signs that figure is on the wane, including a 2021 legal deposition from LaPierre in which he said numbers were "under 4.9 million." 

US network CBS reported NRA's revenue declined 23 percent from roughly $367 million in 2016 to $282 million in 2020, the most recent year for which its tax filings are available. 

It added that contributions and grants from members and corporations also have slipped 15 percent during that time. 

Yet after an 18-year-old man opened fire this week at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the group spoke up as the voice explaining why yet another mass shooting had happened. 

"We recognize this was the act of a lone, deranged criminal," their statement said. "As we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events... and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure."

Canada gymnasts break silence on abuses and sport's 'toxic culture'

France24 – AFP, 

Amelia Cline performs on the balance beam at a national competition in Winnipeg,
Canada, in 2002 Handout Amelia Cline/AFP

Montreal (AFP) – They excelled in the athletic spotlight, but their feats on the beam and bars masked a darker reality: Canadian gymnasts are taking legal action to denounce a "toxic" culture of physical, sexual and psychological abuse by the sport's top brass. 

Having tolerated the harm for decades, victims around the world have come forward in the wake of a US gymnastics scandal that broke in 2015 before spreading abroad, including to Britain where athletes launched a similar legal action last year. 

As a child gymnast in Vancouver, Amelia Cline dreamed of Olympic glory. In her teens, the elite athlete devoted thirty hours a week to training. 

"Unfortunately the early years of my gymnastics days, as positive as they were, they've been somewhat wiped out by those last three years that were so brutal," the former gymnast, now 32, told AFP. 

She and other athletes on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Gymnastics Canada and several provincial federations for tolerating a climate of abuse and mistreatment for decades. 

"The lawsuit is essentially designed to hopefully hold these institutions accountable for systemic psychological, emotional, physical and sexual violence," she said. 

At the end of March, a group of more than 70 present and former gymnasts published an open letter to Sports Canada denouncing a "toxic culture and abusive practices that persist within Canadian gymnastics." 

The number of signatories has since grown to more than 400, with the group calling for an independent investigation to shed light on the sport's problems. 

The "general public really doesn't understand the magnitude of the abuses that are occurring at the gyms," said Kim Shore, a former gymnast and spokeswoman for Gymnast For Change Canada, who says her daughter has also suffered mistreatment in the sport. 

Micheline Calmy-Rey, president of the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation created in 2019 in response to the scandal said "it seems logical to us that an independent investigation be conducted." 

Gymnastics Canada has not yet responded to a request for comment about the lawsuit by AFP. 

'Grilled about my weight'

In a blog post, Cline says that at 14, she weighed 85 pounds (38.5 kg) and was "grilled about my weight on a weekly basis." 

Photo courtesy of Amelia Cline shows her performing a 2002-2003 balance beam move
during training in Coquitlam, Canada Handout Amelia Cline/AFP

Some 20 years after giving up gymnastics, she says she still suffers from the "long-term effects" of mistreatment that left her with chronic pain and made it hard for her to maintain healthy eating habits. 

Like many of her peers, she laments a "culture of fear and silence" in gymnastics clubs across the country. "You don't question what (the coaches) are doing. They're the experts, and they're the ones who are going to take you to the Olympics," she explained. 

"I was always afraid of my coaches," another gymnast told AFP on condition of anonymity. "I loved gymnastics. I loved travelling. I loved being with the other girls, but I was so afraid of them." 

She described a powerful loneliness felt by child gymnasts, whose parents were often banned from practices. Very young athletes were even told never to speak about their training. 

"Many times the kids are told what happens in the gym stays in the gym," recalled Shore. 

She says gymnastics has been corrupted by a "culture of control and dominance" over athletes. 

"The provincial bodies are made up of individuals who are conflicted," she said, explaining that "in some provinces, the chair of the board is also the head coach of a gymnastics club." 

Now that a claim has been filed and the problems have been exposed, Cline and her lawyers believe that the number of plaintiffs will increase "significantly." 

Cline just wishes her nightmare will never be experienced by other young gymnasts. 

"There's really no other mechanism within Canada to actually hold institutions like this accountable except through the legal system," she said.

Second survey highlights downturn in support for the Dutch king

DutchNews, April 27, 2022 

Photo: Robin Utrecht 

RVD A second survey has highlighted the downturn in support for king Willem-Alexander and the criticism of the way he acted during the coronavirus crisis. 

Last week, a poll involving 26,000 people for television show EenVandaag showed just 54% have faith in the monarch and now an Ipsos survey for news channel NOS paints a similar picture. 

Just 47% of those in the NOS survey have confidence in the way the king does his job and only similar percentage think he performed well during the past two years. Before coronavirus hit, 75% thought the king was performing well. 

The two years of coronavirus have been particularly damning for the royals, following a string of blunders over holidays, and culminating in a small party for oldest daughter Amalia when she turned 18 during the lockdown at the end of last year. 

The Ipsos survey gave the king a personal score of 6.7 out of 10, which is well down on the 7.7 he scored in 2020. Queen Máxima’s score of 7.6 is virtually unchanged on 2021 but down on her 2020 rating of 8. Seven in 10 of survey respondents said they thought she was doing a good job. 

Despite the criticism, 58% still support the monarchy as an institution, roughly in line with the EenVandaag figure.