Australian rugby staring into abyss as coronavirus shutdown takes toll

SYDNEY - More than 100 staff cleared their desks at Rugby Australia's shiny offices near Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday and Wednesday in a troubling portent of an uncertain future for the game in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown.

Already cash-strapped after five years of only modest success on the field and ructions off it, the suspension of all professional sport to help contain the pandemic has come as a perfect storm for rugby union's governing body in Australia.

While other unions around the world have been forced to cut costs, and USA Rugby are making the tactical move of filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy, few face a future as bleak.

Twice world champions and World Cup finalists as recently as 2015, the Wallabies are undoubtedly one of the powers of the international game.

In response to the crisis, Rugby Australia Chief Executive Raelene Castle agreed to a 50% pay cut before announcing on Tuesday that 75% of RA staff would be laid off for three months with those remaining working shorter hours on reduced wages.

RA's 2019 accounts have yet to be signed off because of the uncertainty but Castle said in announcing the layoffs that they faced a "worst case scenario" of A$120 million ($73.54 million)losses in revenue, a devastating amount for a body of its size.

Former Wallaby Rod Kafer, now a television pundit, said on Wednesday the roots of the crisis predated the coronavirus pandemic and called for wholesale changes at the top.

"This concept for the rugby community that 'everything's okay, just trust us' when the CEO says we're staring down a A$120 million hole? How did the board allow the game to get into that position?" he told Fox Sports TV.

"We know rugby was sick a long time before the coronavirus came along. Rugby's been sick for years, people have been calling for change and it hasn't occurred. And yet, the same people who've taken us off the cliff are still in charge."

LEGAL BATTLE

This year was already going to be tough financially for RA due to the usual reductions of revenue following a World Cup year being compounded by the financial fallout from the lengthy battle over Israel Folau's sacking last May.

The decision to spurn the offer of an extended broadcast deal from long-term partners Fox Sports and take the rights to market has also left them potentially exposed when the current four-year, $285 million contract expires at the end of 2020.

Castle and her team have started negotiations over what are now inevitable player salary cuts with the Rugby Union Player's Association (RUPA) and their chief executive, Justin Harrison. "Yesterday, we commenced formal discussions with RUPA with a genuine desire to find a fair and reasonable solution on a short term pay deal with the players for the three-month period from now until June 30," Castle said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We believe the information we have shared, including information on future cash projections, provides the players with enough information to develop a position."

Former Wallabies lock Harrison earlier said Rugby Australia were being nowhere near as transparent as they should be about the extent of the crisis facing the game.

"Australia's professional rugby union players are still waiting on detailed financial information from Rugby Australia after talks in Sydney today, still not provided after three weeks of requests," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Although RA provided no assurances, RUPA looks forward to the opportunity to assess that information in the near future."

Kafer said he thought that even after halving her A$800,000 salary, Castle would still be earning more than 95% of players.

"Taking the game to the point of insolvency is what this management team and board have done," he added.

"It is time for drastic change, the rugby community ... has watched this train smash over the last few years and has called for change. Now's the time to demand it."

($1 = 1.6319 Australian dollars) (Additional reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Pritha Sarkar)

Reuters

Thailand to close malls as coronavirus cases jump to 422

BANGKOK - Thailand announced it will close malls in the capital Bangkok as the country reported its largest daily increase in coronavirus infections on Saturday.

Malls, except for supermarkets, will be closed for 22 days beginning March 22 to April 12 in a bid to curb the outbreak of the coronavirus, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang said in a statement.

"For malls, only the areas that sell food and goods that are used in daily life, will be open,” Aswin said in a Facebook live broadcast.

Long queues and crowds of shoppers were seen at a grocery store in downtown Bangkok with their carts full of dried goods, food and medicine.

The governor asked the public not to panic and hoard goods.

“Please don’t be alarmed, I guarantee that you will be able to buy food and goods sufficiently,” he said.

Restaurants will be open for takeout orders and pharmacies will also remain open.

The measures come as Thailand reported 89 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing its tally to 411, with the majority of cases in Bangkok.

The new cases were linked to earlier infections from a boxing match, an entertainment complex and a religious gathering in neighboring Malaysia, Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a Public Health Ministry spokesman, said.

Boxing stadiums, beauty salons and arcades were also included in the closure announcement.

Those found violating the order face up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 100,000 baht.

Bangkok will also extend the closure of schools and bars for another 22 days.

Budget airlines also began suspending service.

Thai AirAsia is temporarily suspending its international flights from March 22 to April 25.

Thai Lion Air on Friday said it would suspend international and domestic flights from March 25 to April 30.

Of the patients infected, 366 are currently being treated, while 44 have recovered.

Thailand has reported one death in the outbreak.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UK Supreme Court rules PM Johnson acted unlawfully by suspending parliament

LONDON - The United Kingdom's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully when he advised Queen Elizabeth to suspend parliament just weeks before Brexit and that therefore the legislature had not been prorogued.

"The decision to advise her Majesty to prorogue parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification," Supreme Court President Brenda Hale said.

The ruling was a unanimous decision by the court's 11 presiding judges.

"Parliament has not been prorogued. This is the unanimous judgment of all 11 justices," Hale said. "It is for parliament, and in particular the speaker and the lords speaker, to decide what to do next."

Parliament was suspended, or prorogued in the British jargon, from Sept. 10 to Oct. 14. The prorogation was approved by Queen Elizabeth, Britain's politically neutral head of state, acting on the advice of the prime minister as she is required to do under the country's complex, uncodified constitution. 

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Facebook suspends 'tens of thousands' of apps in privacy review

SAN FRANCISCO, United States—Facebook said Friday it suspended "tens of thousands" of apps on its platform as a result of a privacy practices review launched following a scandal involving Cambridge Analytica.

The review started in 2018 after revelations that the political consultancy hijacked personal data on millions of Facebook users, and it included attorneys, external investigators, data scientists, engineers, policy specialists and others, according to a Facebook statement.

The suspensions are "not necessarily an indication that these apps were posing a threat to people," said vice president of partnerships Ime Archibong, adding that some developers "did not respond to our request for information."

Archibong said the investigation "has addressed millions of apps. Of those, tens of thousands have been suspended for a variety of reasons while we continue to investigate."

The suspected apps were associated with about 400 developers, and many of the software programs were still in testing phases, according to Facebook.

The huge social network became the subject of intense scrutiny after acknowledging in 2018 that Cambridge Analytica misappropriated personal data on tens of millions of Facebook users as part of its work for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Subsequently, Facebook said it would review all apps on the platform to determine how they used data and if they respect its privacy rules.

"In a few cases, we have banned apps completely," Archibong said.

Bans can be caused by violations including inappropriately sharing data obtained from Facebook or making data publicly available without protecting people's identities, according to the social network.

APP CRACKDOWN

"One app banned was called myPersonality, which shared information with researchers and companies with only limited protections in place, and then refused our request to participate in an audit," Archibong said.

A year ago, Facebook said it had banned some 400 apps including one called myPersonality, which according to Archibong "shared information with researchers and companies with only limited protections in place," and refused to accept an audit.

Facebook said a recent agreement on privacy with the US Federal Trade Commission, which included a record $5 billion fine, calls for additional oversight on app developers.

It "requires developers to annually certify compliance with our policies," Archibong said. "Any developer that doesn't go along with these requirements will be held accountable."

Facebook earlier this year filed a lawsuit against South Korean data analytics firm Rankwave in California to make sure it isn't breaking the leading social network's rules.

REVAMPING CONTROLS

Along with slapping Facebook with a record fine for data protection violations, the settlement in July called for Facebook to create a privacy committee within its board of directors to be appointed by an independent nominating committee.

This would end "unfettered control" of decisions on privacy by Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the FTC statement said. 

Facebook also will be required to conduct privacy reviews of every new or modified product, service or practice before it is implemented, including for its WhatsApp and Instagram services.

"We have a responsibility to protect people's privacy," Zuckerberg said at the time.

"We're going to set a completely new standard for our industry."

As the news was announced by Facebook, Zuckerberg was in Washington meeting with policymakers on questions about privacy and antitrust issues, and held talks at the White House with President Donald Trump.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

NFL: Elliott suspension back on after injunction denied

NEW YORK - The off-on saga of Ezekiel Elliott's six-game suspension took another twist on Thursday after a New York appeals court denied the Dallas Cowboys running back's latest request for an injunction.

The ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals means Elliott will begin serving his suspension this weekend, ruling him out of Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons.

Elliott has been embroiled in a legal saga with the NFL after being issued a six-game suspension following a 13-month investigation into a domestic violence allegation in 2016.

Although Elliott faced no criminal charges from the case, the NFL probe found him to have been in breach of the league's personal conduct policy.

Elliott has bitterly contested the ban and had until Thursday successfully fought to delay the activation of the suspension, playing in all eight of the Cowboys' regular season games in 2017.

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NFL: Former Giants player Brown banned six more games

NEW YORK - The National Football League slapped American Josh Brown with an additional six-game suspension for violating the personal conduct policy due to domestic violence accusations, the US media reported on Friday.

The former New York Giant kicker served a one-game suspension at the start of the 2016 season after domestic violence allegations were made by his ex-wife.

"We reopened the investigation based on new info," the NFL said in a text to American sports broadcaster ESPN.


"Concluded there was a violation of our personal conduct policy and imposed six-game suspension, which he accepted without appeal."

The new ban is mostly a procedural move since the 38-year-old Brown hasn't kicked in the NFL since the Giants cut him loose in October.

Brown is expected to begin serving the six-game suspension immediately even though he remains unsigned.

Brown was placed on the exempt list in October when the NFL decided to launch a further investigation into his May 2015 arrest for alleged domestic violence. The Giants cut Brown four days after he was put on the exempt list

Brown was never charged by police.

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LTFRB suspends Uber operations for one month

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on Monday suspended the accreditation and operations of Uber System Inc. (Uber) for one month.

In its advisory, the LTFRB said the board meted out the penalty of one-month suspension "on the accreditation of Uber System, Inc. (Uber) and was ordered to cease and desist its operations of their online booking application during the period of suspension."

LTFRB also recommended that Uber extend financial assistance to affected peer-operators during the one-month suspension "as an expression of good faith", noting that the operators "would not have suffered the current predicament were it not for the predatory actions of respondent user."

The suspension takes effect immediately.

Copies of the suspension were furnished to enforcers of the LTFRB, Land Transportation Office, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group.

In a statement, Uber Philippines said they have received the order and is currently studying it.

"Uber received an order around 6pm tonight (August 14) to completely stop operations. We are studying the order at the moment. We will update our riders and drivers as soon as we can," the company said.

Uber and rival Grab are in dispute with the LTFRB over the scope of regulation on ride-sharing services, sparking separate investigations by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The LTFRB earlier fined Uber and Grab P5 million each, accusing the companies of operating some 50,000 vehicles without proper permits.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

WADA suspends Mexico laboratory for non-compliance

Mexico's anti-doping laboratory has had its accreditation suspended for up to six months for failing to comply with international standards, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said in a statement on Thursday.

The suspension of the Laboratorio Nacional de Prevencion y Control del Dopaje comes just 10 days after WADA announced the laboratory in Qatar, host country of the 2022 soccer World Cup, had been suspended for four months.

The suspension, which took effect on Nov. 23, prohibits the Mexico lab from carrying out any anti-doping activities, including all analyses of urine and blood samples.

The laboratory may apply for reinstatement prior to the expiry of the six-month suspension period.

During the ban, samples must be sent to another WADA-accredited laboratory, "ensuring that athletes can have full confidence in continued high quality sample analysis and the wider anti-doping system."

WADA is responsible for accrediting and re-accrediting anti-doping laboratories according to criteria set by the International Standard for Laboratories (ISL).

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Toby Davis)

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Turkey suspends more than 12,000 police officers in coup probe

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish authorities suspended more than 12,000 police officers over alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of masterminding the July failed coup, the police headquarters said on Tuesday.

Of the 12,801 suspended from duty as part of the investigation into the coup attempt, 2,523 were police chiefs, the police authorities said in a statement. In total, Turkey has around 270,000 police officers.

They were suspended over suspected links to the Gulen movement which Turkey blames for the attempted putsch which tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, strongly denies Ankara's accusations.

Tens of thousands of people in the judiciary, civil service, military and education sector have been suspended while 32,000 suspects have been placed under arrest on charges of links to to the movement.

The government's crackdown has alarmed Turkey's Western allies who have warned Ankara that it must act within the rule of law.

Turkey on Monday extended the state of emergency introduced after the failed putsch for another 90 days starting on October 19. Erdogan previously suggested that it might be necessary for the state of emergency to be kept for at least 12 months.

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