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Peng Shuai: UN calls on China to prove tennis star’s whereabouts

The UN has called on Chinese authorities to give proof of the whereabouts of tennis star Peng Shuai, as the White House said it was “deeply concerned” and the Women’s Tennis Association said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China over the matter.

Peng, a former doubles world No 1, has not been seen in public since she accused the former high-ranking official Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault on 2 November.

“It would be important to have proof of her whereabouts and wellbeing and we would urge that there be an investigation with full transparency into her allegations of sexual assault,” Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, said in Geneva on Friday.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki called for the Chinese government to provide “independent, verifiable proof” of Peng’s whereabouts.

Shortly after the UN call, photos purporting to show the tennis player were released by a Chinese state-affiliated journalist. Shen Shiwei revealed a set of photos, which he said were posted on Peng’s WeChat social media account on Friday. “Her friend shared the three photos and the screenshot of Peng’s WeChat moments,” the journalist wrote on Twitter. But analysts debated the authenticity of the images.

Shen has been employed by China Global Television Network, the same state media network that published the email they claim was sent by Peng to the WTA.

The release of the images follows mounting concern for Peng’s wellbeing. On Friday, the WTA said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China if there was not an adequate response to her sexual assault allegation against the former senior Chinese politician.

Andrea Gaudenzi, the executive chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals, which governs men’s tennis, released a second statement further stressing concern about Peng’s welfare. “Developments in recent days in the case of Peng Shuai are deeply unsettling,” he said. “This issue is bigger than tennis, as shown by the outpouring of concern within and beyond our sport. Her safety is our most immediate concern and clarity is required on the situation. The need for verifiable direct communication with her is vital.”

Other organisations and individuals to express their concern and support for Peng’s wellbeing on Friday included tennis champions Petra Kvitová and Simona Halep, the French Tennis Federation, the Dutch Olympic Committee and Athleten Deutschland, the association of German athletes. Feminist China, a social media account documenting China’s feminist movement, has scheduled a rally for Peng in New York on Sunday.

Meanwhile, since speaking out about Peng on Tuesday, Naomi Osaka’s Weibo profile has been censored, with users unable to leave comments on her most recent post and screenshots of her Twitter post have been removed. Despite the censors, Weibo users have been leaving messages on the pages of Osaka, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and other players, thanking them for speaking out about their colleague.

In a lengthy 2 November post on Weibo, which was deleted half an hour later, Peng alleged that Zhang had forced her into sex after inviting her to his house to play tennis with him and his wife three years ago. She also said she and Zhang had previously had an on-off consensual relationship.

Peng also said in the post that she could provide no evidence to back her allegations, but was determined to speak out.

One of the photos released by a state-affiliated journalist. One of the photos released by the state-affiliated journalist. Photograph: @shen_shiwei, China state-affiliated media Neither Zhang nor the Chinese government have commented on Peng’s allegation and discussion of the topic has been blocked on China’s heavily censored internet.

Peng Shuai Serena Williams joins chorus of concern over whereabouts of Peng Shuai Read more Concern among the global tennis community and beyond has grown over Peng’s safety and whereabouts since her allegation, with the WTA calling for an investigation and the world’s top players tweeting #WhereIsPengShuai.

On Thursday the WTA Tour chairman and CEO, Steve Simon, went further, telling US media the WTA, which has 10 events scheduled in China for 2022 worth tens of millions of dollars, was willing to pull them.

“We are at a crossroads with our relationship with China and operating our business over there,” Simon told CNN in an interview. “We’re definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it because this is certainly, this is bigger than the business.”

Simon said the WTA must demand justice and could not compromise. “Women need to be respected and not censored,” he said.

His comments were welcomed by current and former tennis players, including Billie Jean King.

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Simon has said the WTA had not been able to speak to Peng, and he was very concerned for her. The threat to pull out of China followed the release of what Chinese state media claimed was an email from Peng to Simon saying everything was fine. Simon said the claim – which was accompanied by a screenshot of text – only made him more worried, and he doubted it came from Peng.

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‘I thought I was a goner’: survivors detail harrowing stories of Canada mudslides

Emergency crews in western Canada continued searching on Friday for victims of flash floods and mudslides which tore through the region this week, as survivors described harrowing escapes from the disaster.

A cow is rescued from a flooded barn in Abbotsford, British Columbia, 16 November 2021. Canada floods leave thousands of farm animals dead and more trapped Read more British Columbia declared its third state of emergency in a year on Wednesday after a month’s worth of rain fell in two days, swamping towns and cities, blocking major highways and leaving much of the province under water.

So far, officials have confirmed just one fatality, in a landslide near the village of Pemberton. But gripping testimony from a journalist who survived that incident suggests that figure is likely to rise.

Global BC cameraman Mike Timbrell was traveling along a mountain highway towards Vancouver on Monday as the storm raged.

After picking his way past several smaller landslides he was eventually brought to a halt behind a line of cars. Other travellers had left their vehicles and appeared to be gathered around what appeared to be the aftermath of another rockslide.

As he got back into his vehicle, Timbrell heard a “loud, terrifying roar” as a wall of snow and mud descended on the scene, toppling trees – and engulfing the motorists.

“My truck was moving all over, getting hammered by trees. I thought I was a goner,” he said. Once the slide stopped, Timbrell escaped from his car and began running.

“I turned around and looked at my truck and it was half-buried and all the cars that were on the road and all the people, they were just gone. Gone,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe it, it was almost like – in the blink of an eye – there were roads, there were cars, there was people, and then bang, everything was gone, just gone. Not a sign of a car, not a wheel, just trees and mud. It was all you could see,” he said.

Accounts from survivors have revealed that even successful rescue operations were far more dangerous than the public first realized.

Search and rescue crews in helicopters navigated rain, high winds and thick cloud cover in what was described as one of the largest mass air evacuations in the region’s history. More than 300 people stranded on Highway 7 were rescued in the operation, during which one pilot was forced to land a Cormorant helicopter less than a meter from a broken power line pole.

“It was probably the tightest confined area I ever landed in,” Capt Jonathan Groten told the Globe and Mail.

A vehicle swept off Highway 7 near Hope by a landslide is seen crushed in debris. A vehicle swept off Highway 7 near Hope by a landslide is seen crushed in debris. Photograph: Jesse Winter/Reuters As water levels recede in areas and crews work to clear debris and assess damage to highways, many of the province’s small communities remained cut off from road systems or without power.

On Thursdays, fire chief Jody Woodford of Tulameen, a village of fewer than 300 people, told media the community had been without phone reception for days, and only pockets had power.

“Some people made it out and actually had to swim, abandon their vehicles and swim to dry land and then walk to the fire hall.” she said.

In the province’s lower mainland, as emergency crews work to stave of an impending disaster on the regions’ many farms, the mayor of the city of Abbotsford warned that homes may be destroyed in order to build emergency dikes, after the previous barrier was breached.

“One house is too much. And if it was my house, I’d be concerned, too. But there are not many options here,” he said. Work on the 2.5km dike is set to begin on Friday morning, with the help of dozens of soldiers.

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Much of the area lies on the former site of Sumas Lake, a vast body of water which was drained in the last century. Four pumps currently divert water from the basin at a rate of half a million gallons a minute, but city officials feared earlier this week they could fail, inundating the area with even more water.

Braun said the pump station is still an area of concern, as the waters of the Nooksack River continue to rise as it flows in from the United States and heavy rain is forecast for early next week. “We are not out of this by a long shot,” he said.

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Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty after fatally shooting two in Kenosha unrest

A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after a tumultuous trial that gripped America.

Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with an assault rifle as he roamed the streets of Kenosha with other armed men acting as self-described militia during protests in August 2020, after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back.

The trial was seen as a test case for the US, as it appeared to illustrate contrasting attitudes of law enforcement when confronted with white men or teens who claimed to be acting as vigilante-style informal security personnel, armed with assault rifles, and Black members of the public or those protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

US-POLITICS-POLICE-RACISM-UNREST<br>A protester holds a sign before a march against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 27, 2020 - A strong police presence brought relative calm to the Midwestern US city of Kenosha early on August 27 after three nights of violence over the police shooting of a black man, as NBA stars led the sporting world in a wave of protest against racism. (Photo by Kerem Yucel / AFP) (Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)

A tale of two videos: Jacob Blake, Kyle Rittenhouse and two types of policing

Read more

The jury in Kenosha returned to the courtroom early on Friday afternoon on the fourth day of its deliberations, after indicating that they had reached a unanimous verdict.

The verdicts of not guilty were read for each charge Rittenhouse faced, including for crimes normally classed as murder in most courts but in Wisconsin were charged as intentional homicide, reckless homicide and attempted intentional homicide.

Rittenhouse, now 18, shook slightly as he waited for the verdicts to be read and, after he had been acquitted on all counts, he rushed from the room.

He was 17 when he came to Kenosha from his home in Illinois in August 2020, and began patrolling the streets, staying out after curfew, with the apparent approval of some of the police officers on duty at the time, who handed out water to the groups of armed civilian men milling about.

They claimed to be protecting property and acting as informal medics and unofficial security after some businesses had been destroyed when demonstrations against the police shooting spilled over on the fringes into violence after dark.

A turning point in the trial came when Grosskreutz testified for the prosecution but admitted that he pointed a gun at Rittenhouse before the 17-year-old fired his rifle, hitting him in the arm. Others testified that Rittenhouse was pursued by the men he shot dead and the teenager, who testified in his own defence, told the jury he was in fear of his life when he fired his gun.

Rittenhouse is white, as were the men he shot. But the case focused attention on questions of racial justice, unequal policing, and firearms rights, often sitting at the heart of America’s increasingly bitter partisan divide.

Claiming self-defence, Rittenhouse had pleaded not guilty to the homicide and attempted homicide charges and also to two charges of recklessly endangering safety, for firing his weapon near others. He was also charged with the illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, but the judge dropped that count against him during the trial.

Outside the courthouse on Friday afternoon, supporters of Jacob Blake and Black Lives Matter faced off with supporters of Rittenhouse and angry words were exchanged after the 18-year-old was acquitted.

Justin Blake, Jacob Blake’s uncle, has said the past year has been “a living hell” for his family. His nephew was paralysed from the waist down when a white police officer, Rusten Sheskey, shot him in the back seven times as he attempted to apprehend him next to his car.

Adelana Akindes, a 26-year-old activist who grew up in Kenosha and is suing the city over law enforcement’s treatment of her while she was protesting, has decried “two sets of laws” in America – “one that applies to those who protest police brutality and racism, and another for those who support the police”.

Racial justice advocates had said any verdict will not resolve long-simmering racial tensions in the city that boiled over last August, but that Kenosha needed to find a way forward.

Rittenhouse quickly became a cause celebre for some conservatives, who raised money for his legal fees and sought to portray him as someone who stood up to rioters.

And the judge in the case, Bruce Schroeder, also became a source of controversy with a bombastic style, outrageous comments during the trial and attitudes some observers said betrayed sympathy with the defense.

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Schroeder ruled before the trial that the men Rittenhouse shot could not be called “victims” by prosecutors. Defense attorneys could, however, use such labels as “arsonists” or “looters” if they could justify it.