The Roland-Garros ticketing affair is experiencing a spectacular rebound. On June 14, after three months of analysis, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) decided to dismiss “for lack of infringement” a criminal complaint filed against X by elected officials of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) for suspicion of ” corruption “ and of “embezzlement of public property” in connection with the Parisian Grand Slam ticket office.

Said complaint was filed on March 16 by seven leaders and former executives of the FFT, including Alain Moreau (current president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine league) and Pascal Da Costa (member of the Superior Council of Tennis). The complainants accused the president of the body, Gilles Moretton, elected on February 13, 2021, and two of his relatives, Hughes Cavallin, his former chief of staff, and Jean-Luc Barrière, treasurer general of the FFT, of“having organized the diversion of Roland-Garros tournament tickets to the detriment of the FFT”. And to be exempt from “consequences of their misdeeds” since their accession to the orders of the federation, “by means of new abuses of their functions”.

However, according to our information, the public prosecutor’s office of the Paris Court of Appeal decided, on July 24, after having re-examined the file, to “give instructions to the PNF with a view to opening a preliminary investigation”.

“Mistakes made by the PNF”

This unprecedented decision comes after a request filed with the general prosecutor’s office on June 30 by Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, under article 40-3 of the code of criminal procedure. In his request, Mr.^e Versini-Campinchi contested the classification without follow-up and denounced the “factual and material errors committed by the PNF having led him to an improper analysis of the facts denounced”.

Solicited by The world, the PNF confirms having received these instructions from the public prosecutor’s office. He indicates that he will “carry out a re-examination of the classification decision and additional investigations”. “Depending on this assessment work and any new elements, the PNF will decide whether a preliminary investigation should be opened or not”adds the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Roland-Garros ticket office: the noose is tightening around the French Tennis Federation

The complainants had also noted alleged acts of embezzlement of public property, in 2019, by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes league, chaired from 2018 to 2021 by Mr. Moretton. In question: the sale, within the framework of a partnership, of eighty places to the interim company Adequat, which then had them marketed as “VIP Gold” tickets. Allegations swept away by the entourage of Mr. Moretton.

You have 43.82% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

The house, sheltered behind a low wall, would be discreet if it weren’t for this American flag which flies on top of a mast, proudly planted in front of the entrance. Worcester, on the outskirts of Boston, in the northeast of the United States, is a peaceful city with its single-storey pavilions and its green lawns revived by the showers of this month of June. ” Good morning “, launches the owner, with the “r” which scrapes the palate, in the French way.

Bob Cousy, 94, is a delight for neurologists passionate about the mysteries of memory: arrived in New York “in the stomach” of his Burgundian mother, in 1927, the American spoke, until he was 5 years old, only the language of Maurice Chevalier, before erasing it in favor of English. Nearly a century later, his rare reminiscences of French come out without the slightest accent. “I speak like a Parisian”, have fun, in french, the old man.

Robert Joseph Cousy – his full name – invites you to sit in the office, where the feet of his walker sink into a thick pink carpet. A library full of trophies, medals and old magazine covers sits behind him. The exhibition celebrates his career: that of the first star of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the American basketball league.

He derails in front of the camera

For thirteen years, from 1950 to 1963, “Cooz”, as fans still call him, enchanted the franchise – a term used in the United States to designate a club – the Boston Celtics, winning six NBA championship titles. The press at the time adored this small white man, 1.85 meters thick as a cyclist, ambidextrous and twirling, nicknamed “Houdini” – a reference to the famous magician –, because of his unpredictable style of play. A legend, received at the White House by eight American presidents since Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961). The leader was even entitled, in 1962, to a private audience with Pope John XXIII, at the Vatican.

Forty years later, in 2001, retired Bob Cousy welcomed a team from the sports channel ESPN to his home. The latter is preparing a report devoted to her ex-teammate Bill Russell, who has become “the” unsurpassable legend of the Celtics, eleven league titles – an unmatched record – and five best player in the league. Cousy is used to tirelessly repeating the same anecdotes in front of the media.

But, that day, he derails in front of the camera. Tears well up in his eyes, preventing him from speaking. “What is happening to me? », he wonders. The following days, the question obsessed him, before a word imposed itself to describe his disorder: guilt. At the end of his life, the former sportsman regrets not having reached out, at the time, to this teammate who would have needed it. Bill Russell, who died in 2022, was black.

You have 85.15% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

Certain signs do not deceive: the DailyMirror, a popular British tabloid, has published a 48-page special featuring the Women’s World Cup, which kicked off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand. Already in May, no less than 77,000 spectators were present at Wembley Stadium in London for the final of the Women’s FA Cup. Another notable indication: during the 2022-2023 season, 15.3 million Britons watched at least three minutes live from the women’s championship… Still denigrated in the early 2010s, women’s football has now seriously taken off in England when the national team enters the World Cup against Haiti on Saturday July 22 at 11:30 a.m. (Paris time).

In 2018, the twelve teams of the Women’s Super League (WSL, the English first division), officially turned professional. Some competition is emerging in the broadcasting of matches, with Sky taking over the rights from BT Sport in 2021. In 2022, the England team – nicknamed the ‘Lionesses’ – won the Euros on their soil. In a country that considers itself the inventor of football, but whose men’s national team hasn’t won anything since the 1966 World Cup, this victory was the subject of massive media treatment, even if popular enthusiasm remained far from the quadrennial drama played during the Men’s World Cup.

“But, if we scratch below the surface”corrects ex-player Karen Carney, the reality of women’s football is less glorious: as “Instagram versus reality”. The image is beautiful, but the daily life of clubs and players is much less glamorous. This former football star (144 caps for the national team between 2005 and 2019), now a television commentator, has just submitted to the British government a report both full of hope and very harsh on the current state of his discipline. “Despite recent optimism and success, women’s football remains in a financially very vulnerable start-up phase”she wrote.

No coherent economic model yet

M^me Carney begins by recalling the daily reality of female players. In WSL, their average salary is around 25,000 pounds (about 29,000 euros) per year, according to the FinancialTimes, against… three million for men. In the second division, the teams remain semi-professional, with some footballers earning less than 5,000 pounds a year, continuing to juggle several jobs at the same time.

You have 54.17% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

For months, the United Kingdom has been affected by strikes in the sectors of health, transport, education, post… This Thursday, July 20, the country is facing new strikes, affecting both hospitals, where thousands of medical specialists stop working for the first time in ten years, and stations, where train drivers are on strike again. Employees are asking for increases, in the face of inflation which is falling but remains the highest of the G7 countries, at 7.9% in June.

After the nurses, paramedics, “junior doctors” which are the equivalent of the interns, it is the turn of the “advisers”, the most experienced doctors, to cease work in British hospitals. They began a 48-hour strike at 7 a.m. (8 a.m. in Paris) on Thursday. Hospital dentists have joined the movement.

The public health service (NHS) is stretched thin. After years of austerity treatment and the Covid-19 pandemic, access to care is increasingly complicated. Children have to wait up to 18 months for dental treatment requiring anesthesia, including tooth extractions, according to a BBC survey published on Wednesday. The five-day strike, until Tuesday July 18, of “junior doctors” resulted in the postponement of more than 100,000 appointments. That of specialists could cause even more disruption, the NHS has warned.

Read also: In England, doctors begin a new strike of unprecedented duration

“People need to have decent wages”

In eight months of strikes, more than 600,000 medical appointments have been affected in total, according to NHS Chief Medical Officer Stephen Powis. “It becomes more and more difficult to get services back on track after each strike”, he lamented. The government has proposed a 6% increase for this year for medical specialists. But according to the British Medical Association (BMA) union, this proposal corresponds to a reduction in wages in real terms.

“My door is always open to discuss non-pay issues, but this proposal is final and I therefore call on the BMA to end its strikes immediately”said Health Minister Steve Barclay in a statement. On July 13, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged public service unions to end the strikes and accept the government’s ultimate pay raise offer of 5% to 7% depending on the sector. The teachers have thus announced the suspension of their movement following an offer of 6.5%.

Train drivers from the RMT union, who have stepped up strikes over the past year, are also on strike as the school holidays begin. Rail services warned that on Thursday, then July 22 and July 29 there would be “little or no service across a large part of the network”. The Aslef union began a strike on July 17, which should end on Saturday.

“These strikes are part of a campaign that began more than a year ago”, underlined Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, on Sky News. They disrupt the trains “from the South West of England to Scotland”he said. “We are really in trouble. People need to have decent wages”he added.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In the United Kingdom, a year of strikes by teachers, railway workers or doctors and still no way out of the crisis in sight

The World with AFP

The British Conservatives kept the seat of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday, July 21, but largely lost another in difficult and potentially ominous by-elections before the legislative elections in 2024 while a last chair is still in play.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Boris Johnson’s lies finally exposed in official report

The polling stations closed at 10 p.m. (11 p.m. in France) and the results are revealed on Friday morning. They will set the tone for the election year ahead, with the majority at its lowest in the polls after 13 years in power, and for Labour, well placed to enter Downing Street in 2024.

Of the three seats of MPs renewed in Conservative strongholds, the latter kept that of ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the constituencies of Uxbridge and South Ruislip (west of London). According to the surprising result, Steve Tuckwell narrowly won against Labor by 13,965 votes against 13,470. Labor was however well placed despite the unpopular forthcoming extension of the tax on polluting vehicles, decided by the town hall of his camp.

Boris Johnson had resigned from Parliament with a bang due to the aftermath of “Partygate”, the holiday scandal in Downing Street during the pandemic.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Boris Johnson resigns from British Parliament and evokes “a witch hunt”

By contrast, the Tories largely lost the seat of Somerton and Frome in south-west England. The incumbent, David Warburton, who was accused of using cocaine, was replaced by the Liberal Democrat Sarah Dyke, in favor of 21,187 votes against 10,179, while the Tories had a majority of 19,000 votes before the election.

“Hard Battle”

Labor also won in Selby and Ainsty, Yorkshire (north England), where Tory MP Nigel Adams slammed the door in the wake of Boris Johnson, of whom he is an ally.

Speaking to Tory MPs on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged that the 2024 legislative elections were going to be a “tough battle” and he called his troops to unity, reported one of the elected officials present at the meeting, Jonathan Gullis.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak under pressure from right-wing Conservatives

The 43-year-old prime minister, who entered Downing Street in October 2022 after the forced departures of Boris Johnson, swept away by scandals, and Liz Truss, dislodged in less than two months, however avoided a scathing zero out of three.

However, even if the former investment banker seemed to bring a semblance of stability and professionalism to his arrival, his confidence rating fell this week to an all-time low, with 65% of Britons having an unfavorable opinion of him, according to the YouGov institute.

The World App

The Morning of the World

Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed

Download the app

The high inflation observed for a year, despite a slowdown to 7.9% in June, has weighed on purchasing power, and Thursday’s elections coincided with strikes by railway workers and doctors in hospitals.

Redesign in sight

At the same time, Rishi Sunak praised his government’s action, congratulating himself that four laws “major” received royal assent on Thursday, in particular the controversial texts on illegal immigration and the introduction of minimum service in the event of a strike. “When it comes to improving people’s lives, I’m focused on action, not words”he said in a statement.

Reinforcing the idea of ​​an announced defeat in the legislative elections next year, the popular defense minister, Ben Wallace, announced last week that he would not stand again, like around fifty other deputies.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers UK: Serious Setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Tories in Local Elections

He will also leave the government at the next reshuffle, expected in September. Unless Rishi Sunak renews his team this week to regain the initiative.

Opposite, Labour, well ahead in the polls, is preparing for power, under the leadership of Keir Starmer, who has refocused his training after the period of the very left Jeremy Corbyn.

Having become a cantor of budgetary responsibility, he however drew the wrath of some of his troops this week by opposing better social assistance for large families. Perceived as not very charismatic, he is judged unfavorably by the majority of the British.

The World with AFP

This is the largest cetacean shipwreck recorded by Scotland since 2011: fifty-five pilot whales were stranded in the north of the country, on the coast of the Isle of Lewis, on Sunday July 16. Fifteen of them were still alive when help arrived, but only one could be saved and refloated. The others were almost all euthanized, with rescuers only releasing animals healthy enough to survive, in order to limit their suffering. A pilot whale died naturally after being refloated.

The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Program (Smass) is currently conducting post-mortem examinations on the cohort, which should identify the causes of this massive stranding in the coming weeks. “This is going to take monumental work. Unfortunately, there are more animals awaiting autopsy at this time than in all the strandings of the past decade combined”Smass director Andrew Brownlow told the BBC.

“Observation of the stranded pilot whales leads us to believe that one of the females endured a difficult calving, and may have drifted, weakened, along the coast.comments Dan Jarvis, coordinator in charge of species protection at British Divers Marine Life Rescue, the NGO mobilized as part of this operation. As the pilot whales function in groups, it is quite possible that the others followed it, and thus found themselves on the shore, whereas this species cannot survive out of water. »

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Dolphin protection: the public rapporteur at the Council of State proposes fishing closure periods

When beached, pilot whales, or pilot whales, which can be up to seven meters long and weigh up to three tonnes, struggle to support their weight, usually in the water. “Their organs are crushed under the weight of their own body”says David Lusseau, professor of marine sustainability at the Technical University of Denmark and member of the Cetacean Specialist Group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Consequence: their blood circulation is reduced, to such an extent that toxins accumulate in their organism and poison them.

The possibility of a man-made incident

The last mass stranding of pilot whales in Scotland dates back to 2011, when 77 animals were shipwrecked – 20 were then rescued.

“In 2011, the stranding took place in the mainland of Scotland and not on an island, which allowed help to arrive more quickly and more animals to be releasedexplains David Lusseau. Pilot whale strandings are quite rare in the region, but the very strong social bonds of these animals mean that they are overrepresented among mass strandings, because if one of them has a problem, the rest of the group follows it”analyzes Peter Evans, director of the British foundation Sea Watch, which conducts research on marine conservation.

You have 45.23% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

A barge intended to receive asylum seekers docked in Portland on Tuesday July 18. Bibby Stockholm is a boat over 93 meters with 222 cabins on three levels, according to the presentation of its operator Bibby Marine, which the British authorities intend to accommodate some five hundred single adult men.

The project has been strongly criticized by NGOs, who call the barge a “prison boat”. This houseboat is part of a larger arsenal aimed at combating illegal immigration. During the night of Monday to Tuesday, the British Parliament adopted a controversial law, prohibiting migrants who arrived illegally in the United Kingdom from seeking asylum there. The government also wants migrants, after being detained, to be quickly deported to their country of origin or to a third country such as Rwanda, wherever they come from.

Add to your selections Add to your selections

The world

The contribution area is reserved for subscribers.

Subscribe to access this discussion space and contribute to the discussion.

Subscribe

Contribute

A barge intended to receive asylum seekers docked in Portland on Tuesday July 18, on a Dorset peninsula in the south of the United Kingdom, sparking criticism from residents and outraged human rights defenders. Bibby Stockholm is a boat over 93 meters with 222 cabins on three levels, according to the presentation of its operator Bibby Marine, which the British authorities intend to accommodate some 500 single adult men.

The ship is expected to remain in port for at least eighteen months according to the British Home Office, which specified in a statement of April 5, that the barge would provide accommodation “basic and functional” including care and catering offers. He assured that this initiative “will serve to reduce the unsustainable pressure on the UK asylum system and to reduce the cost to the taxpayer of the significant increase in Channel crossings”, specifying that the accommodation of asylum seekers in hotels today costs 6 million pounds per day (6.9 million euros) to public finances.

“The Home Secretary and I have been clear that the use of expensive hotels to house those undertaking unnecessary and dangerous journeys must end”according to Robert Jenrick, the Minister of Immigration, quoted in this press release, adding: “We are not going to prioritize the interests of illegal migrants over [ceux du] British people. » The Ministry of the Interior specifies that it is in talks with other ports so that they can accommodate barges of the same type.

“We don’t know anything about their profiles”

On the spot, the opposition to Bibby Stockholm appears divided between advocates for the rights of asylum seekers and those primarily concerned about public tranquility, according to a local media account Dorset Echo. On Tuesday, the Stand Up to Racism in Dorset and No to the Barge collectives were harshly insulted in Portland before a police intervention lowered the tension. ” They [Stand Up to Racism] think we’re racist but that’s not the point”a member of No to the Barge testified to the Dorset Echo. “It’s about having 500 men on such a small island when we don’t know their profiles and we don’t have enough doctors and nurses. »

The barge is criticized as the British Parliament adopted, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, a controversial law on immigration, prohibiting migrants who arrived illegally in the United Kingdom from seeking asylum there. The government also wants migrants, after being detained, to be quickly deported to their country of origin or to a third country such as Rwanda, wherever they come from.

The UN denounced this law on Tuesday in a press release. The new legislation “significantly erodes the legal framework that has protected so many people, putting refugees at grave risk in violation of international law”said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, while Volker Turk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the British government “to renew its commitment to human rights by repealing this law”.

The world

On the night of July 5 to 6, Tom Hayes had a nightmare, in which he was sent back to prison. After spending five and a half years behind bars in the United Kingdom, two and a half years after his release, the former trader, who claims his innocence, remains deeply traumatized. But the next day, he learned the news he had been waiting for so long: his trial will be reopened and will be held before the British Court of Appeal, probably in early 2024.

Also read the portrait: “Rain Man”, the trader at the heart of the Libor scandal

While the Briton had come to the end of all legal remedies, the British commission for the review of criminal trials (Criminal Cases Review Commission, CCRC) ruled in his favor. A rare decision, which can only be taken if new evidence or new elements can modify the initial judgment.

Helen Pitcher, President of the CCRC, believes that the “good legal approach” may not have been taken in the first trial, and she promises to “move heaven and earth in [la] fight against possible miscarriages of justice”.

Judicial error… The word is out. Piercing blue eyes, contained emotion, but on edge, Mr. Hayes, sentenced at first instance in 2015 to fourteen years in prison (reduced to eleven years on appeal) – more than some murderers – has been fighting to clear his name since his initial arrest in December 2012. “We were sentenced for something that was simply not illegal”, he insists today. He speaks in the plural because he is the figurehead of a group of nine traders – including himself – sentenced to a total of forty-nine years and seven months in prison, all of whom hope to have their convictions overturned in the wake of Mr. Hayes.

Obscure interest rates

In the years following the 2008 financial crisis, these highly paid former bankers, including two Frenchmen, made perfect culprits. They found themselves at the center of what was presented by regulators and financial prosecutors in several countries as a huge scandal. According to the prosecution, they had manipulated obscure interest rates, called “Libor” and “Euribor”, which serve as benchmarks for hundreds of billions of euros in financial products.

Eight of them actually served time in prison, and the last one became a fugitive, a refugee in France. But today, the prosecution case is falling apart. “Tom [Hayes] and other traders served as scapegoats, accuses, on the BBC, the British Conservative MP David Davis. At the time, there was a kind of witch hunt: everyone was very angry with the bankers, for good reasons (…), people wanted punishment: I fear that the British courts gave in to this pressure. »

You have 72.95% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

The new British immigration law, which plans to prevent migrants who have arrived illegally from seeking asylum in the country, is contrary to international law, denounced the UN on Tuesday (July 18th). The law, passed by the British Parliament overnight from Monday to Tuesday, “is in contradiction” with the UK’s obligations under international human rights and refugee law, the heads of the UN agencies responsible for these matters, Volker Türk and Filippo Grandi, said in a statement.

This text, which is crucial for the conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who has made it a priority to fight against illegal immigration, must still be validated by King Charles III. According to Messrs. Türk and Grandi, the law will have “profound consequences for people in need of international protection”they note in particular that the law “creates very broad new powers of detention, with limited judicial review”.

The UN fears that thousands of people could remain in the UK indefinitely in precarious legal situations. “For decades, the UK has provided refuge to those in need, in line with its international obligations”but the new legislation “significantly erodes the legal framework that has protected so many people, putting refugees at grave risk in violation of international law”underlines Mr. Grandi.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In Morocco, the impossible mourning of relatives of the disappeared from El Attaouia

“worrisome precedent”

“In addition to raising very serious legal concerns from an international perspective, this bill sets a disturbing precedent”criticizes, for his part, Mr. Türk, who fears that “other countries, including Europe” tempted to follow this model. He calls on the British government “to renew its commitment to human rights by repealing this law and ensuring that the rights of all migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are respected, protected and fulfilled, without discrimination”.

This law, which has drawn widespread criticism in the United Kingdom and from international organizations, prevents migrants who have arrived illegally on British territory from seeking asylum in the country. The government also wants migrants, after being detained, to be quickly deported, either to their country of origin or to a third country, such as Rwanda, wherever they come from.

London made a deal last year with Rwanda to send illegal migrants there, but no deportations have yet taken place. A first flight scheduled for June 2022 had been canceled after a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In the United Kingdom, the Court of Appeal rules illegal the sending of asylum seekers to Rwanda

The World with AFP