Month: August 2020

Egyptian opposition leaders have called for a boycott of the country’s elections after all real candidates trying to stand against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi were arrested, prosecuted or intimidated out of the race. 

In a joint statement, a coalition of opposition figures said that Egyptians should stay away from the polls in protest because the government had prevented “any fair competition in the upcoming elections”.

“We call on our great people to boycott these elections entirely, and to not recognise anything that results from it,” the statement said. 

Mr Sisi, a former general who took first came to power in a 2013 coup, has clamped down on dissent in Egypt and looks certain to be re-elected. Several would-be opposition candidates have been arrested or frightened from the race in the last few weeks. 

But Mr Sisi and his allies are also worried about a low turnout in the March elections and fear that a widespread boycott could lead to embarrassingly few votes being cast. 

Mohammed Anwar Sadat, a former MP and nephew of the assassinated president Anwar Sadat, went further by calling for opposition groups to mount a peaceful protest march on the presidential palace. 

“Sadat clarified that Egyptian politics has become void of all meaning and context. He added that the time for appeals and statements issued behind closed doors is over,” his office said in a statement. 

A march would be a high-risk strategy as opposition protests are essentially banned in Egypt and the security forces would likely crack down heavily on any unsanctioned demonstration. 

Mr Sadat, a liberal but also a member of Egypt’s political establishment, had planned to run against Mr Sisi but backed out of the race out of fear that his campaign staff and volunteers would be arrested if he tried to run.

In an interview with The Telegraph last week, he warned that Mr Sisi would likely use his second term to change the constitution and allow himself to stay in power indefinitely. 

“What is happening is something we have never seen before in Egypt, even under Nasser, Sadat or even Mubarak, or even the Muslim Brotherhood. They are making sure that they control everything,” he said. 

“There is no political life any more. It’s all dead. No one can dare to compete or even to speak out or challenge anything. It’s not allowed.”

With all opposition candidates pushed out of the race, Mr Sisi’s allies have gone through a series of hasty manoeuvres to try to make sure that there is at least one other name on the ballot and that the president has at least a token opponent. 

The Wafd, a small party allied with Mr Sisi, made moves to put up a candidate last week even though it had already officially endorsed the president. 

They backed down after infighting within the party and widespread public mockery on social media by Egyptians who saw the move as a nakedly transparent attempt to spare Mr Sisi’s embarrassment. 

Now another small party has been apparently cast in the role of token opposition. 

Moussa Mustafa Moussa, head of the Sisi-allied al-Ghad party, formally filed his candidacy on Monday, just minutes before the deadline.  

Mr Moussa had already endorsed Mr Sisi and at the time of his announcement his Facebook page still had a picture expressing his support for the president. Last year, he formed a campaign called "Supporters of President el-Sisi’s nomination for a second term".

هتبقى منافسة شديدة pic.twitter.com/nPZ7Tfoj5b

— hossam bahgat (@hossambahgat) January 28, 2018

He also previously said he hoped that Mr Sisi’s share of the vote exceeds "80 or 90 per cent so he can achieve what he has started".

“There will be stiff competition,” joked one Twitter user. 

The opposition statement slammed the government’s search for an token opponent, saying it was looking for “a candidate to play the role of the ‘extra’ in a process that is insulting to the deeply-rooted values of the Egyptian republic”.

Sami Anan, a former general, had planned to run against Mr Sisi but was arrested at gunpoint on Tuesday by the Egyptian security services. 

His vice-presidential candidate, Hisham Genena, was attacked and badly injured on a Cairo street on Saturday. 

His supporters accused the government of being behind the ambush. The ministry of interior said it was the result of a traffic dispute. 

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Paris is to host its first "anti-sizeism" day, including an extra-large fashion show, as part of a week against all forms of discrimination.

Friday’s event at the city hall dedicated to the fight against "grossophobia" (fatphobia) comes after a woman hit headlines with her book on being fat in France, recounting how she lost her job and ended up homeless over discrimination. She currently lives in a youth hostel.

Paris town hall defines "grossophobia" as "a specific form of rejection, disdain, hostility and discrimination targeting overweight people".

It can come in "many forms," it said, from insults from strangers or the victim’s entourage to discrimination from institutions, and can lead to guilt and self-hatred.

Organisers say the event’s aim is to place the French capital at the forefront in the fight against discrimination.

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"We have not found any public action in France on this issue. The fight against ‘grossophobia’ is conspicuously absent from the fight against discrimination," Helene Bidard, head of gender equality and discrimination at Paris town hall, told Buzzfeed. 

Activists, bloggers, academics, health practitioners, education professionals, fashion and garment industry representatives will take part in two panel discussions.

Participants will include French writer Gabrielle Deydier, author of book You’re Not Born Fat, which sparked national debate on the issue this autumn in a country where women are reputedly obsessed with staying slim at all costs.

Ms Deydier, 38, who weighs 150kg, or 23.5 stone, says that being fat in France is considered to be a grotesque self-inflicted disability. Her book recounts her mistreatment by doctors, employers and strangers, one who even ordered her to "cover up" on a beach during a shoot. 

She said she had lost a job because a colleague objected to her obesity, and was told that it was “well-known” that fatter people had lower IQs.

Other participants include American "body positive" blogger Jes Beker who has also written two books, Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls and Landwhale, as well as sociologists and medical professionals.

"What a magnificent thing to have happen in France and I’m so honored to be asked to be a part of it," she wrote on her blog.

The event will end in a "militant fashion show" using "non-professional models" wearing "large-sized" designer clothes. 

The aim is to promote body diversity and to "question norms linked to ‘beautiful’ or ‘acceptable’ bodies" in French society, said the town hall.

A recent survey suggested that an overweight Frenchwoman is eight times less likely to be employed than one seen as respecting weight norms.

Despite its reputation of being a nation of svelte people, an extensive study published last year found that half of the French are overweight, with around 16 per cent of men and women obese.

The Pentagon ran a secretive five-year program to investigate UFO sightings, spending $22 million before it was shut down due to cost, it has been revealed.

For the first time, the Department of Defense has acknowledged the existence of the mysterious Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program run from an office in a quiet corner of its sprawling headquarters.

There, between 2007 and 2012, a team of researchers working with experts in Nevada probed reports of alien life form and strange sightings over the US skies – a real life versions of the hit TV show The X Files.

The enterprise was the passion project of Harry Reid, the retired Senate Majority leader.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” Mr. Reid said in an interview with the New York Times who first reported the story. “I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”

However, although some of the unit’s work remains classified, it is not thought any convincing evidence of extraterristrials was discovered.

“If anyone says they have the answers now, they’re fooling themselves, Mr Reid said We do not know.” But, he added: “we have to start someplace.”

Documents show how the unit, working with a Las Vegas aerospace company run by Mr Reid’s long time friend Robert Bigelow, investigated sightings of aircraft moving at high speeds with no signs of propulsion or that hovered mysteriously.

Officials with the program also studied videos of encounters between unknown objects and American military aircraft  including one released in August of a white oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, chased by two US Navy fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego in 2004.

Yet in 2012, the program was seemingly wound up to the frustration of many.

Thomas Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman said:“It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding, and it was in the best interest of the DoD (Department of Defence) to make a change.”

Some say the shadowy work continues despite the funding being cut off.

Fornmer  military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, who led the unit, claims he continued his research and continued to work from his office in teh Pentagon until October when he resigned in protest at what he descirbed as excessive secrecy and internal opposition.

In his resignation letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, he reportedly wrote: “Why aren’t we spending more time and effort on this issue?”

U.F.O.s have been repeatedly investigated over the decades in the United States, including by the American military. In 1947, the Air Force began a series of studies that investigated more than 12,000 claimed U.F.O. sightings before it was officially ended in 1969. 

The project, which included a study code-named Project Blue Book, started in 1952, concluded that most sightings involved stars, clouds, conventional aircraft or spy planes, although 701 remained unexplained.

Robert C. Seamans Jr., the secretary of the Air Force at the time, said in a memorandum announcing the end of Project Blue Book that it “no longer can be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.”

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France has deployed drones, helicopters, boat patrols equipped with night vision googles and Republican Guards on horseback to foil oyster rustlers who swiped tonnes of the prized shellfish ahead of New Year’s Eve.

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Oysters are a festive delicacy in France and the Christmas-New Year holidays account for half of farmers’ annual business.

The French usually eat them raw with lemon juice or shallot-infused vinegar, washed down with a glass of white wine.

But two mystery oyster "plagues" that wiped out up to 90 per cent of the salty seafood in 2008 and 2011 have left prices high and numbers scarce, which has led to a worrying rise in thefts in some areas.

The first robbery struck early, in October,…

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Racing Point’s Lance Stroll topped Friday’s second practice session for the British Grand Prix, the Canadian edging Red Bull’s Alex Albon by a short 0.090s margin.

However, the British-Thai racer blotted his copy when he suffered a 20G high-speed crash at Stowe that damaged his car but from his fortunately escaped unscathed.

Mercedes Valtteri Bottas was third as the German outfit continued to diligently fine-tune its W11 Black Arrow. The Finn preceded among the top five Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and teammate Lewis Hamilton.

2020 British Grand Prix Free Practice 2 – Results

The Ferrari garage was buzzing with activity during Friday’s lunch break as Sebastian Vettel’s crew tended to the intercooler issue that sidelined the German in FP1.

But the four-time world champion’s SF1000 was ready for action when the session was a go.

While the weather remained blistering hot in FP2, forecasts for the weekend are calling for much cooler temperatures, something that could render the information collected on tyre performance on Friday relatively obsolete.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to put a time on the board, but it was quickly beaten as traffic swelled on the track.

A effort from Verstappen on the medium tyre popped the Red Bull charger back to the top of the time sheet, but the Dutchman was overhauled in short order by Bottas and Albon.

Meanwhile, footage of Hamilton showed the Briton struggling to balance his W11 on Pirelli’s hard tyres, although the championship was still the fastest driver on the while-walled rubber.

In the red camp, Vettel head back to the pits after reporting over the radio that something was loose inside his cockpit.

Nico Hulkenberg continued to shed the rust, the German inching closer to the times of team mate Lance Stroll. But once the Canadian switched to a set of soft tyres for a qualifying simulation, he duly went fastest with a 1m27.274s.

A flyer by Verstappen, also on the soft rubber, was promptly destroyed by Haas’ Romain Grosjean who was cruising on the racing line. The Dutchman led the Frenchman know about his feelings by flipping a few birds to the Frenchman.

Shortly after, Alex Albon raised tensions further in the Red Bull camp when he lost control at Stowe and hit the barrier backwards, inflicting significant damage to the RB16 but fortunately not to himself.

The British-Thai racer appears to continue to struggle to come to grips with the backend of his car but also with the fact that he’s continually being outpaced by his teammate.

As a reminder, Albon has a new race engineer from this weekend, the experienced Simon Rennie who was designated to precisely help the 24-year-old improve.

The incident brought out the red flag and a short interruption that allowed everyone to regroup before heading into the final 30 minutes of running.

Vettel resumed his running after a pedal change, the Ferrari driver playing catch-up with only a half a dozen laps under his belt.

Long runs became the norm in the final 15 minutes, so there was no overhauling Stroll’s best, the Racing Point charger concluding FP2 ahead of Albon, Bottas, Leclerc and Hamilton.

McLaren Carlos Sainz enjoyed a solid day, clocking in P6, just ahead of Hulkenberg, while Gasly, Ricciardo and Raikkonen closed out the top ten.

Lando Norris’ in P11 was almost half a second down on Sainz, so more progress is required from the young Brit.

Williams Nicholas Latifi made up the rear after spinning in the closing minute of the session, a mistake among many that occurred in a session during which the hot condition pushed drivers and their car to their limits.

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