Vula Vai CovId Update Charpara Afghan on the run after Taliban executed boyfriend Pabna Brothers Brent and Clyde Hanson shared a home in Milbank, South Dakota. Brent lived in the basement area while his older brother lived upstairs with wife Jessica and their three-year-old son.
The brothers had joint ownership of the two-storey property but while they were all part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses community and active churchgoers, it was not a harmonious household.
Sierra Leone's first professional women's football league launched on Saturday with a match in the northern city of Makeni, kicking off a six-month season in which 12 clubs from across the country will compete.
"We are so proud to make this history as the first ever national women's premier league," Asmaa James, chairperson of the Sierra Leone Women's Premier League Board, told AFP.
The Mena Queens of Makeni battled the Kahunla Queens from Kenema during the opening match on Saturday with Sierra Leone's first lady, Fatima Bio, in attendance at the crowded Wusum Sports Stadium in Makeni.
"This is the first time women are participating in our local Premier League, it's an honour that our best footballers are from Bombali District", Sierra Leone president Julius Maada Bio said on Saturday during the kick-off.
"Football is about peace and cohesion. We want to see beautiful football, all the teams are winners."
The 12 privately-owned clubs will compete for a cash prize and trophy in April, James said.
She said women's football has long been neglected in the West African nation of about eight million people, adding that it was now time for women to showcase their potential.
"We have engaged the girls and their parents and also the team managers and other football stakeholders to allow the girls to play football," she said.
Supporters hope the league will boost the success of the national women's team, which failed to qualify for the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
But they face several key challenges, including inadequate venues.
The national 45,000-seater stadium in Freetown, opened in the 1980s, is currently being renovated with support from the Chinese government.
Then there are the logistical hurdles of criss-crossing the country -- where only about 10 percent of the road network is paved, according to the African Development Bank -- for matches.
In a meeting with the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) and the Women's Premier League Board Wednesday, president Bio said his government takes women's empowerment very seriously and would work to elevate women's football in the country to international standards.
SLFA President Thomas Daddy Brima said the new league would boost employment.
The league will help shine a light on the women's game both locally and internationally, and will put Sierra Leone on the map in the sport, Brima added.
Key challenges to gender equality and women's empowerment in Sierra Leone include a lack of economic independence, "high illiteracy and entrenched customs and traditions" and an "absence of progressive laws that protect and promote participation for women", according to a September report by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Clyde, 59, and Jessica, 29, were quiet and modest. They’d met through a matchmaking service and, despite their age gap, were happily building a family. Clyde worked for a retail outlet while Jessica was a devoted mum and was pregnant with their second child.
The couple showed kindness to their neighbours, as their religion encouraged, but in July 2021, Jessica called the police and said her brother-in-law Hanson, 57, had pushed and hit her during an argument.
She was four months pregnant and, at the time, was being treated for some mental health struggles at a local facility.
Before going away for her treatment, Jessica had asked Hanson to look after her dog. When she returned, after less than two weeks, her pet was gone.
Voters in British Columbia ushered in a wave of political change throughout the province in municipal elections Saturday that saw new mayors elected in Vancouver and Surrey and other major communities.
Vancouver businessman Ken Sim defeated Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, posting an overwhelming victory after losing the mayor’s race to Stewart in 2018 by less than 1,000 votes.
“This is not the result we wanted,” said Stewart, a former federal New Democrat MP. “But we have to respect it.”
The fate of necessary health care for transgender teenagers in Arkansas is being decided in a court case starting next week.
On Monday, District Court judge James Moody in the Eastern District of Arkansas will begin hearing arguments for the case Brandt et. al. v. Rutledge. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with four families with transgender teenagers and two doctors, after Arkansas passed HB 1570.
HB 1570 was the first law passed in the country that would ban doctors from prescribing treatment for the purposes of gender transition for minors. This means a whole suite of holistic gender-affirming care would be illegal for children currently receiving it.
These Trans Teens and Parents Will Fight Arkansas in Court
The law upended families across the state, and lawyers quickly secured an injunction stopping it from going into effect before next week’s trial.
“If the law was struck down? We would celebrate in the streets,” Brandi Evans, the mother of a transgender teenager, told The Daily Beast. “I mean, we’re always on kind of high alert to what could happen [otherwise].”
Evans’ son Andrew is currently 17, meaning if he were to suddenly lose access to all his care, the family has begun to make plans to prepare for the next year of his ongoing medical transition before he is legally allowed to make medical decisions on his own.
For families in Arkansas, the passage of HB 1570 has galvanized a small, tight-knit community pushing families to fight for each other in an effort to keep their kid’s medical care from getting shut down.
This meant added responsibilities such as advocating for themselves, showing up at the state Capitol and making themselves visible, because you never know who is watching.
Danielle May and her family’s life was “blown up our world in the best way possible” when her son Phoenix came out as transgender in 2021. Had an injunction not been granted that year stopping the implementation of HB 1570, Phoenix would not have had access to gender affirming care.
Contrary to many narratives around gender affirming care, he did not start Hormone Replacement Therapy right away. In fact, Phoenix’s first healthcare provider was targeted by lawsuits forcing the family to relocate to another clinic in order to continue his medical transition.
Now, May told The Daily Beast that “I’m getting to see my child move through the world with confidence and peace and joy,” alongside his brothers and supportive family. She says that without this affirming environment and care she would have been deeply scared for Phoenix’s mental state and his risk for self-harm.
Studies have shown that transgender adolescence who have access to gender affirming care reduce suicidality and improved mental health outcomes.
Evidence like these studies and other experts on pediatric endocrinology were not able to sway legislators during the 2021 legislative session in Arkansas when HB 1570 was debated. The state’s governor at one point even vetoed the bill after it passed, before it was overridden by the legislature.
Recently, Arkansas’ Attorney General Leslie Rutledge—who will be defending HB 1570 in District Court—was interviewed by John Stewart about the law, and justified the law under the guise of allowing “those young people, who are facing gender confusion and dysphoria allow them to become adults and to make that decision” even if such practices were opposed by major medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics.
Rutledge could not name the expert testimony that was used in support of the bill, telling Stewart to refer to the briefs filed in the upcoming court case. She also spelled out some false claims about transgender youth to justify the bill.
“We have 98 percent of young people who had gender dysphoria,” said Rutledge. “That they are able to move past that and once they had the help that they need, no longer suffer from gender dysphoria.”
These claims, along with recent harmful threats to gender affirming care providers are part of a broader reactionary backlash to transgender rights, which this case hopes to provide legal precedent to halt said Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice, ACLU, said in a conference call before the case goes to trial.
“Ultimately, it will be this trial in Arkansas beginning on Monday that will be the first to fully hear the evidence on the merits, challenging these types of restrictions that unfortunately, we've seen over and over again across the country,” Strangio said. “We look forward to being able to advocate in court for our clients and for all transgender Arkansans who deserve the right to receive the care that they need, just like everyone else in Arkansas.”
He said the past four years, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid overdose crisis and housing issues were difficult for Vancouver, but “I do think we got the city through pretty hard times.”
In Surrey, Mayor Doug McCallum was defeated by challenger Brenda Locke, a member of Surrey council and a former B.C. Liberal member of the legislature.
Locke’s victory speech included a pledge to keep the RCMP in Surrey despite McCallum’s initiative to replace the Mounties with a civic police force.
“We need to keep the Surrey RCMP right here in Surrey,” she said.
The municipal elections also saw major shifts across B.C., with new mayors elected in Kelowna, Kamloops, Penticton and Victoria.
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Voters casting ballots Saturday in Vancouver said housing was the top campaign issue, with public safety and support for vulnerable people also on their minds.
Across B.C. voters said they wanted to see politicians tackle the big issues confronting almost every community.
“I think that definitely housing is a priority for everyone in Vancouver,” said artist Taz Soleil. “For me, housing, especially for marginalized people, is a priority.”
Soleil said she backed candidates who promised more housing options and supports for low income people.
Margaret Haugen, who accompanied a friend to vote at downtown Vancouver’s Roundhouse Community Center, said affordable housing was the issue she was most concerned about this election.
“The Downtown Eastside has just gotten progressively worse,” said Haugen, adding too many people there are living on the streets.
From Vancouver and Surrey to the smaller Interior communities of Princeton and Clearwater, campaigns focused on issues that typically fall beyond the municipal realm, such as affordable housing, health care, violent crime and mental health and addiction.
Stewart promised to triple Vancouver’s housing goal over the next decade to 220,000 homes, while Sim pledged to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses.
Stewart and Sim were among 15 mayoral candidates in Vancouver.
Vancouver released data showing increased numbers of advance voters this year compared to 2018.
In the 2022 election 65,026 people voted in advance polls in Vancouver, up from 48,986 in 2018.
The advance polling results were different in Victoria, the city said in a statement.
In 2022 4,613 people voted in advance polls in Victoria, slightly less than the 4,791 people who cast advance ballots in 2018.
In Clearwater, incumbent Mayor Merlin Blackwell said health care was the top issue in his North Thompson community, where the local hospital’s emergency department experiences regular closures.
He said small-town issues of dog parks and potholes were on the back burner in this campaign with residents wanting local government to improve health care and fight crime.
McCallum faced consecutive challenges, first at the ballot box against seven other candidates, then in court on Oct. 31 as he faces trial on a charge of public mischief.
Vula Vai CovId Update Charpara Afghan on the run after Taliban executed boyfriend Pabna
Hanson said he’d taken it to a farm because he didn’t want to look after it – but he wouldn’t say where. A row ensued and, according to Jessica, Hanson turned violent, repeatedly hitting her over the head and threatening to throw her out of the house.
Jessica admitted to officers that it was out of character for Hanson to be violent, but she went on to say she was fearful for her safety and worried about how he was going to react once he discovered she’d reported him
Of course, Hanson did find out she had gone to the police when he was charged with assault. The incident would undoubtedly have caused further friction in the home.
By December, Jessica was nine months pregnant and ready to give birth to a little girl they’d already named Annika. Would the new arrival heal the household?
On 15 December, Hanson was due to meet Milbank Police Chief Boyd VanVooren. The chief had arranged it the night before, via
social media, saying he wanted to “exchange a Christmas card from a church”.
Hanson arrived at the station at around 9.10am to make the festive gesture. During the visit, the chief, who knew about the outstanding assault charges, asked Hanson whether there were any further issues at the house with Clyde and Jessica.
President Xi Jinping on Sunday kicked-off the 20th congress of China's ruling Communist Party with warnings that he may use force to retake Taiwan as he slammed foreign interference in its reunification efforts.
The comments came at the start of a week-long event where Xi is widely expected to win a third leadership term and cement his place as the country's most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.
The gathering of roughly 2,300 delegates from around the country began in the vast Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square amid tight security and under blue skies after several smoggy days in the Chinese capital.
Xi began a speech that touted the party's safeguarding of national security, maintaining social stability, protecting people's lives and taking control of the situation in Hong Kong, which was rocked by anti-government protests in 2019.
On Taiwan, Xi said, 'We have resolutely waged a major struggle against separatism and interference, demonstrating our strong determination and ability to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity and oppose Taiwan independence.'
The gathered delegates responded with loud applause as their president emphasized that China will 'never commit to abandoning the use of force' in its unification with Taiwan, which he called inevitable.
Xi added that China will accelerate the building of a world-class military and strengthen its ability to build a strategic deterrent capability.
He replied, “They no longer live here.”
Within minutes, at 9.45am, the chief overheard a call to the station requesting a welfare check at the Hansons’ home. A food delivery worker had reported going to the residence and seeing what he feared was blood on the door.
Milbank Police Chief Boyd VanVooren, who was told the chilling confession (
YOUTUBE)
Officers were dispatched and the chief asked Hanson where his brother had moved to. His reply was shocking.
“I snapped,” Hanson said, before making a motion with his thumb across his neck, in a slashing gesture. “I killed them on Sunday.”
It was a startling confession. Surely the family troubles hadn’t escalated to murder? Did Hanson really have it in him to kill his brother and his heavily pregnant sister-in-law? He was taken into custody as officers went to the house.
When they arrived at around 10.05am, they found Jessica’s body under a blue tarpaulin in an area of the house that was yet to be
made habitable. She had lacerations to her body that were consistent with a machete assault. Her unborn baby had also died
as a result of the attack.
Ahmadi desperately tried to call him back, but Sabouri’s mobile had been switched off.
‘The Taliban sent me a video of his death,’ Ahmadi says of the four-second clip seen by seen by Metro.co.uk, adding: ‘Telling me that you will become Hamed.’
‘His memory will never be forgotten,’ Ahmadi says.
Sabouri, from Kabul, was a regular star-gazer. He hoped to be a doctor one day, loved romance novels and listened to Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber.
Gay man ‘gang raped by six men with a machine gun’ in prison by Taliban
A single year of Taliban rule has turned Ahmadi’s life upside down.
‘Before the Taliban came, my life was great, I was free,’ Ahmadi says. ‘I was not insulted anywhere, I had a love life everywhere. I had sex with boys.
‘Now I live like a prisoner. I am insulted and tortured everywhere.’
‘My elder brother was a [Afghan Uniform Police] officer, he was shot in front of my eyes by Taliban terrorists,’ he adds.
Within days of the Taliban seizing power, Ahmadi was jailed for being gay. He escaped only after bribing a guard before changing his name altogether.
But the Taliban continue to hunt him down.
He has been sent several threatening letters from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the state’s religious morality police.
One letter seen by Metro.co.uk says ‘residents’ have complained about Ahmadi being a ‘supporter of homosexuals’ who carries out ‘indecent acts’.
Ministry officials called on him to be arrested ‘as soon as possible’.
‘In order to prevent moral corruption in society, there should be legal punishment,’ the letter concludes.
‘Life is very difficult for me, I am under serious threats, and I can’t go anywhere because of fear the Taliban are looking for me,’ Ahmadi says.
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