World

The United States on Tuesday added Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Macau to a human trafficking blacklist that already counts Malaysia, alleging weak efforts to stop forced sex work or assist migrant laborers.

In an annual report, the United States also added authoritarian-ruled Belarus to the blacklist and, in a rare criticism of a Western ally, put Bulgaria on a watchlist over concerns it is not taking trafficking seriously.

“If you look at the report, you’re going to see a mixed picture of progress,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he presented it.

Blinken said that corruption was a “top tool” of traffickers who count on a blind eye from governments.

“As we tackle issues like climate and corruption throughout our diplomacy, we also have to address how they intersect with trafficking in persons,” he said.

The State Department’s annual trafficking report has historically not spared close allies, often causing friction, although US officials say the unflattering headlines have led governments to act. 

Nations that are put on the blacklist — “Tier 3” — are subject to US sanctions, although the administration routinely waives punishment for friendly nations that promise improvements. 

Vietnam, which has a warming relationship with Washington due to shared concerns over a rising China, was downgraded to Tier 3 with the State Department saying that the Hanoi government decreased prosecutions in 2021. 

The report especially found fault with Hanoi taking no action against a Vietnamese diplomat and embassy staff member posted in Saudi Arabia who were accused of complicity in trafficking several of their citizens. 

In Cambodia, the State Department said that “endemic corruption” has impeded efforts to help thousands including children trafficked to entertainment establishments, brick kilns and online scam operations.

“Authorities often overlooked, denied or downplayed labor abuses — including forced child labor — in factories and at brick kilns and colluded with brick manufacturers to arrest, jail and return indentured laborers who had attempted to escape,” the report said.

In the semi-autonomous Chinese city of Macau, a former Portuguese territory known for its bustling casinos and sex industry, the report said that authorities did not provide services to a single trafficking victim for a third consecutive year. 

On Bulgaria, which along with Serbia was threatened with a downgrade to the blacklist without improvements, the State Department said that authorities investigated “significantly fewer” traffickers and at times punished victims for the crimes against them. 

Also newly added to the Tier 3 blacklist was the tiny Dutch Caribbean territory of Sint Maarten.

Along with Malaysia, nations that remained on the list from the previous year were Afghanistan, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Nicaragua, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Algeria and the Indian Ocean archipelago the Comoros both were upgraded off the blacklist this year following improvements.

Runways melted, people struggled to sleep and the queen’s guard used desk fans as they sweltered in heavy ceremonial uniforms as Britain hit record temperatures on Tuesday.

Normally chilly and often rainy in the summer, Britain this week baked under a fierce heatwave, triggering an unprecedented extreme heat alert and leaving Britons desperate to cool off.

In some parts of England, the mercury climbed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since records began.

“Everything seems to come to a grinding halt,” said retiree Bob Heathcote, 71, in the town of Worksop in central England.

Normally, he was involved in church activities, but now, he said: “People don’t feel comfortable coming out.”

Congestion was down in several cities as motorists heeded warnings to stay off the roads.

In eastern England, a section of a dual carriageway buckled, police said, leaving it looking like the humps of a skatepark.

Emergency repairs were carried out, mirroring those on runways at Luton airport north of London and the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton.

“Defects” — widely reported as “melted” parts of the surface — forced the cancellation of flights and others to be re-rerouted on Monday.

“Infrastructure, much of it built in Victorian times, just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature,” admitted Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

– ‘Worse than at home’ –

Network Rail, which is responsible for Britain’s rail infrastructure, said one stretch of track had reached a staggering 62C in eastern England.

“Rail temperature can be about 20C higher than air temperature, causing it to expand, bend and break,” it tweeted.

Passengers were told to travel only if absolutely necessary on Monday and Tuesday, with delays, cancellations and changes to services.

Trains were running at reduced speed, including on London’s underground Tube system.

The East Coast Main Line was shut completely as a precaution between London King’s Cross and York and Leeds in northern England on Tuesday.

Outside King’s Cross, US tourist Deborah Byrne was reassessing how to get to Edinburgh after being forced to stay in London for another night.

“This is our weather, with humidity, back home,” she told AFP. “So we were actually looking forward to the cool weather,” she said. “Not worse than at home — because you have no AC.”

Plenty of people were perplexed.

“I don’t know what to do,” said Jayanth Bharadwaj, a doctoral student based in Germany, who was trying to get to Cambridge. “I have to figure something out before I run out of my energy.”

Photographer Ashley Meerloo, trying to get to St Albans north of London, was also put out.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “They’ve got trains in Australia. They work. What’s the problem here?”

– ‘Just too much’ –

Health workers, too, bore the brunt across the country.

“We are seeing hospitals having to scale back the number of planned surgeries as operating theatres are too hot,” said Miriam Deakin from NHS Providers, which represents hospitals in England.

“Trusts are having to install industrial cooling units, mounting fans, and trying to cool down IT server rooms.”

Many braving the sunshine outside tried to cool off as best they could, after the hottest night on record disturbed sleep.

In central London, some dipped their feet in the fountains of Trafalgar Square or took a dip in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. 

Red-faced troops, standing guard in heavy ceremonial uniforms and helmets outside Horse Guards Parade, were seen using desk fans.

Water was brought for their horses.

In parliament, the strict dress code was even relaxed, with male MPs allowed to take off their jackets.

Elsewhere, people flocked to outdoor swimming pools or to coastal resorts, as some schools closed in an early start to the summer break.

“I’ve not sleep most of the night,” complained Paul Fairweather in Worksop.

“There doesn’t seem to be any reprieve at all. It wasn’t so bad yesterday in the shade places, but today it’s just too much.”

Turkey’s top court on Tuesday ruled that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had the right to pull his country out of a European convention against gender-based violence.

Rights groups and Western governments voiced shock and outrage when Erdogan cancelled Turkey’s membership of the Istanbul Convention in an overnight decree last year.

Erdogan’s political opponents argued the president did not have the power to unilaterally annul membership of an international agreement.

Turkey became the first country to sign the convention in 2011 and ratified it by vote in parliament the following year.

But the top administrative court on Tuesday rejected a request to overturn Erdogan’s decision in a case involving testimony from leading women’s rights groups and legal scholars.

The court’s five judges ruled in a 3-2 vote that a president’s decision could not be subject to a legal review.

The two dissenting judges said in a separate opinion that Erdogan’s actions overstepped his legal bounds.

A lawyer representing the We Will Stop Femicide Platform rights organisation said the ruling was “tantamount to rejecting the constitution”.

“It is terrifying from a legal perspective,” lawyer Ipek Bozkurt told AFP. “This erroneous decision should have been stopped by the court.”

The treaty — now enacted by dozens of European countries — requires member states to adopt domestic legislation that strictly punishes domestic abuse and gender-based violence.

But Erdogan’s Islamic conservative supporters argued that its language harmed traditional family values and promoted LGBTQ rights.

Erdogan’s main opponents in next year’s general election immediately rose to the treaty’s defence.

Main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu vowed to sign Turkey back up to the convention should he become president in the July 2023 vote.

“I can make a promise to the nation,” the CHP party leader said.

“When we come to power — and we will, with God’s permission and the nation’s approval — in the first week, even in the first 24 hours, we will implement the Istanbul Convention,” Kilicdaroglu told reporters.

Nationalist Iyi (Good) Party leader Meral Aksener accused the court of issuing “a political decision (aimed) at pleasing a dirty mind”.

Britain’s former finance minister Rishi Sunak again topped the latest vote by Conservative MPs to choose a new prime minister, as another candidate was eliminated to leave three contenders in the race.

Sunak garnered 118 votes, followed by former defence minister Penny Mordaunt on 92 and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on 86, with longshot candidate Kemi Badenoch trailing on 59 and therefore eliminated from the contest.

The vote means that Britain will get either its first British Asian prime minister or the third female leader in the country’s history.

Sunak, whose resignation helped to topple outgoing leader Boris Johnson, fell two votes short of the number needed to guarantee a place among the final two, who will battle it out over the summer months before party members choose the winner.

He is all but guaranteed to make the final cut in Wednesday’s last round of voting by MPs.

But the race to join him further tightened, with Truss making up five votes on Mordaunt — the one-time bookmaker’s favourite.

Truss is now only six behind, and will hope that the right wing of the party swings behind her following the departure of Badenoch, a favourite of the grassroots members.

A YouGov poll published before the vote showed that Badenoch would beat the remaining candidates with the all-important members, and that Sunak would lose to them by wide margins.

Mordaunt had headed the same poll previously.

She now trails Truss after a damaging few days in which her former boss, one-time UK Brexit pointman David Frost, slammed her work ethic and questions were raised over her stance on trans rights.

– Race gets personal –

In a statement after Tuesday’s vote, Mordaunt said: “We are so nearly across the finish line. I am raring to go and excited to put my case to members across the country and win.”

The BBC announced on Tuesday that it will host a live televised debate with the final two candidates on Monday, with all remaining candidates agreeing to take part if they get through.

Sky News on Monday scrapped a planned debate between the remaining contenders after Sunak and Truss pulled out.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on July 7 he was quitting as Conservative leader after a government rebellion in protest at his scandal-hit administration.

His government having survived a confidence vote on Monday, Johnson is now almost certain to stay on as prime minister until his successor is announced on September 5.

Under Britain’s parliamentary system, the leader of the biggest party is prime minister and can be changed mid-term without having to call a general election.

Johnson chaired his last Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning and is due to face his last weekly question and answer session with MPs in parliament on Wednesday.

In the two previous televised debates — on Channel 4 Friday and the ITV network Sunday — the contenders clashed notably on whether to cut taxes to help ease a soaring cost of living crisis.

But Sunday’s clash turned more acrimonious — and personal — with candidates encouraged to directly criticise one another and their proposals.

Sunak called out Truss for voting against Brexit, her previous membership of the Liberal Democrats, and her position on tax.

In turn, Truss questioned Sunak’s stewardship of the economy.

Badenoch attacked Mordaunt for her stance on transgender rights — a rallying call in the “culture wars” exercising the Tory right.

The high stakes court battle between Elon Musk and Twitter kicked off on Tuesday, as the social media firm tries to force the entrepreneur to honor their $44 billion buyout deal.

The first hearing was centering on Twitter’s push to set a trial date for as early as September in a case focused on Musk’s move to walk away on allegations the platform misled him about its tally of fake accounts.

Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of the platform that Musk has said should allow any legal speech, an absolutist position that has sparked fears the network could be used to incite violence.

The hearing is being held in the eastern state of Delaware.

“Questions have been raised about Twitter’s future, and they don’t want this to drag on for very long,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor. 

Musk’s legal team has filed papers arguing that date is far too soon for such a complex matter, and instead proposed mid-February.

Twitter lawyers noted the deal is supposed to close toward the end of October, just six months after Musk launched an unsolicited bid that the company’s board first resisted but then supported.

The world’s richest person has backed away from the deal in recent months as tech stocks have tumbled, and Twitter’s value has fallen well below the $54.20 per share he offered.

– Musk willingness to fight –

Rather than Silicon Valley, where Twitter is based, the company has lodged its lawsuit against Musk in Delaware.

The firm is incorporated in the tiny state like scores of other companies, and the case will happen in the Delaware Chancery Court that has deep experience in business disputes.

“The Chancery Court, which handles most of these matters, is very expert in corporate law, and more particularly, mergers and acquisitions. So this is the place to go,” Tobias added.

Kathaleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the case, comes with a no-nonsense reputation.

She also reportedly has the distinction of previously ordering a reluctant buyer into completing a corporate merger.

A forced closing of the Twitter deal is a scenario that some analysts consider possible.

“(Wall) Street and legal experts across the board view Twitter as having a ‘strong iron fist upper hand,’ heading into the Delaware court battle after months of this fiasco and nightmare,” analyst Dan Ives wrote last week.

He also noted that less likely options include Musk paying a $1 billion breakup fee and being able to walk away, or winning outright on his fake-account argument.

After pausing the deal in May, Musk’s lawyers announced in July he was “terminating” the agreement because of skepticism over Twitter’s false or spam accounts tally and allegations the firm was not forthcoming with details.

Tuesday’s hearing will be just the first step in what could be a lengthy legal fight that could end in a trial, but also a settlement.

“Musk has shown his willingness to take things all the way to the end in Delaware court,” said Adam Badawi, a University of California at Berkeley law professor.

“I think settling is not necessarily his instinct.”