LONDON – Veteran French tennis player Jeremy Chardy recently announced that he is suspending his season, effective immediately, due to adverse reactions he says he is experiencing after being vaccinated against COVID-19, and notes that he now regrets getting the jab due to how it has impacted his career.
Chardy, who has ranked as high as No. 25 in the world as a professional, had been inoculated against COVID-19 between the Tokyo Olympics and U.S. Open despite vaccination not being required by tennis officials.
However, Chardy, 34, said in a statement released on Tuesday that he is experiencing a “series of problems now because of the vaccine,” and that he is unable to train or play as a result.
“Since I got my vaccine, I have a problem, I have a lot of problems,” he said. “Since I had my vaccine, I have had a problem, I’ve had a series of struggles. Suddenly, I cannot train, I cannot play.”
Chardy said that whenever he makes a physical effort, he is forced to endure violent pains all over his body that did not occur before he received the jab; so far he said that he has seen two doctors and has undergone several tests, but did not reveal the results.
Due to his inability to properly train or play, Chardy made the difficult decision to end his tennis season, with hopes that he will be able to resume competition next year, although he said that he is aware that his advancing age will soon draw his career to a close.
“I prefer to take more time to take care of myself and be sure that in the future I will not have any problem rather than trying to get back on the court as quickly as possible and find myself still having health problems,” he said. “I turn 35 in February so for the moment I’m maybe a little bit negative, but this is the first time the idea that next season might be my last has crossed my mind. I’m thinking about it…it’s difficult because I was enjoying myself and I wanted to play longer.”
Chardy admitted that while he regretted getting the vaccine, he could not have known that “this would happen to him.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Chardy said. “The problem is that we have no hindsight on the vaccine. There are people who had similar [adverse reactions], but the durations [of the problems] were really different”.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – China, accused of successfully playing “hostage politics,” on Friday, released two Canadian citizens from prison roughly an hour after the United States had put an executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies – who had been charged with fraud – on a plane back to her home country, bringing an end to three years of legal and political turmoil.
Huawei’s chief finance officer, Meng Wanzhou, 49, had been arrested in 2018 in Canada at the request of the Trump Administration’s Justice Department for eventual extradition to the U.S. on charges of stealing trade secrets and selling equipment to Iran via a shell company called Skycom – and misleading the HSBC bank about it – which violated sanctions that then-President Trump had imposed upon the Middle Eastern country.
Meng, however, fought the Justice Department’s extradition request, and had remained in Canadian custody as the legal wrangling played out.
Shortly after Meng’s arrest in Canada, China had announced that they had arrested two Canadian citizens in their country – Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor accusing them of espionage, but many found the timing to be potentially much more than a mere coincidence.
After a great deal of heightened tensions and political turmoil between the U.S., Canada, and China, the ordeal finally came to an end Friday when Meng had reached an agreement with feds to have the fraud charges against her dropped in December 2022 – four years after her arrest – as long as she adheres to certain provisions, such as not publicly disagreeing with the Justice Department’s allegations and accepting responsibility for misrepresenting Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.
Upon reaching a deal with U.S. feds, Meng was allowed to immediately get on a plane and return to China. Huawei is the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and second largest manufacturer of smartphones, and the release and impending arrival home of Meng – daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei – was a top story on Chinese internet and television news broadcasts.
Within an hour after Meng had left Canada for China, it was revealed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Kovrig and Spavor had been released by the Chinese government after 1,000 days in captivity and were on their way home as well.
The deal was achieved due to the efforts of U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had wanted to decrease the public tensions that had developed between the two countries on a variety of issues, with Biden saying that he did not want to start “a new Cold War,” and Xi noting that their issues “need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation.”
While the release of Kovrig and Spavor was applauded by Trudeau, China’s actions throughout the four-year incident were harshly criticized by many, with Brahma Chellaney, a New Delhi-based geostrategist and author, accusing China on Twitter of “hostage diplomacy.”
“The US ended the Meng Wanzhou case the way it began it — politically. The real loser is Canada, whose willingness to do US’s bidding proved costly. The case will be remembered for China’s thuggish action in holding two Canadians hostage and eventually compelling the US to yield,” he said. “By letting Ms. Meng return to China, Biden has vindicated China’s holding of two innocent Canadians hostage since 2018. Canada had contended that its judicial system was insulated from any political influence. China’s successful hostage diplomacy is a real shot in the arm for Xi.”
LEE COUNTY, FL – Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers is hoping that an increased reward and a new billboard will bring renewed focus to the murder of a young mother which remains unsolved nearly three and a half years later. According to authorities, Destiney Bocanegra was gunned down in front of a home in Bonita Springs, near Matheson Avenue and Goodwin Street, in April 2018. When gunfire rang out, the 25 year old mother stood in front of her four year old son to protect him. Sadly, Destiney lost her life in the process. She was also pregnant with her second child at the time of the murder.
Over the last three years tips have come in on Destiney’s case, however Crime Stoppers is hoping that additional reward money will be the key to someone coming forward. The reward in Destiney’s case has now been increased to $20,000 – with $3,000 coming from Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers, $6,500 from the Florida Association of Crime Stoppers, and $10,500 coming from Destiney’s family.
Late last week, a billboard was also posted in the area of US 41 and Old 41 in Bonita, asking for tips to help solve this case. Anyone with information on the murder of Destiney Bocanegra is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477). All callers will remain anonymous and will be eligible for a cash reward of up to $20,000. Tips may also be made online at www.southwestfloridacrimestoppers.com or on the P3Tips mobile app.
‘This month, the mayor announced he will be reopening one of the closed jails on Rikers to accommodate the rising jail population driven by unchecked fear mongering from his police commissioner. This is the wrong move, especially under the horrific conditions in which people are currently being held.’
If you haven’t noticed, the climate has been changing around the world. And not for the better. Just last month, flash floods like we’d never seen before stunned our city and cost some of our neighbors their lives. So, in the fight to at least minimize the lethal effects of climate change, we should be changing our policies and practices now. New York City has an opportunity to do just that while also addressing another primary social justice issue in our city—the continued human rights catastrophe that is Rikers Island.
In 2019, after years of organizing by survivors of Rikers and our allies, New York City voted to close ‘Torture Island,’ aka Rikers. In February 2021, we took the next step forward by passing the Renewable Rikers Act—a set of three bills that create a pathway to transition Rikers from its shameful history of incarceration and brutality to hub for green infrastructure.
A key part of the plan is Local Law 16, which requires that every six months, starting July 1, 2021, the city must assess what areas of Rikers Island are not in active use for services to incarcerated people, and transfer them out of the control of the Department of Correction to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. In fact, the transfer of ownership began this July with the James A. Taylor Center, and will continue until August 2027, when DOC must hand over the island entirely.
I spent 14 months on that decrepit island—an island that was physically expanded to four times its original size by dumping the city’s garbage on it and creating a landfill. It’s an Island that also illegally held free Black men sent there by corrupt judge Richard Riker, who kidnapped them to sell into slavery down South where unfortunately the practice was still legal.
Renewable Rikers will take the soon-to-be-empty land on Rikers Island and transition it to green uses like solar panels and battery storage, composting facilities, and state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facilities. This would help New York City generate our own renewable energy, reduce our carbon footprint, and keep our waterways cleaner, while closing down aging, highly polluting infrastructure like peaker plants that are burdening communities.
I experienced not only the ugliness and torture that was created on this land, but also a feeling that legally and morally, Rikers does not belong to the DOC or the city—it belongs to its original inhabitants, the Lenape. When the Dutch and English Settlers arrived in America they began a slow process of raping the land and nature that indigenous people believed and still believe is a part of them, that they are one with. With the greening of this land, and our city, through Renewable Rikers, we can right some of those atrocities the early settlers committed as well as the more recent ones committed by individuals such as Mr. Riker and by our brutal criminal punishment system. Some of the native animals may also return—like some pals for the fat groundhog I used to see next to the Rosie M Singer Center.
But right now, this vision and all its powerful benefits are in danger. This month, the mayor announced he will be reopening one of the closed jails on Rikers to accommodate the rising jail population driven by unchecked fear mongering from his police commissioner. This is the wrong move, especially under the horrific conditions in which people are currently being held. New Yorkers have already decided—we are ending mass incarceration, closing the Rikers Island jails and moving on to a better future. The mayor should close and transfer at least three more jails on Rikers Island before his term ends: GMDC, which is already closed, along with EMTC and OBCC, which were slated to be closed months ago.
Millions of people have been detained at Rikers over the past hundred plus years, tortured and humiliated without provocation, illegally and unconstitutionally held—desecrating the land believed to be sacred by its original inhabitants. Continuing to implement the Renewable Rikers Plan will allow people and the land to heal and flourish.
Eileen M. Maher is a member of VOCAL-NY and the #Justice4Women Task Force.
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Las familias con niños pasan ahora casi 18 meses en promedio en los albergues del Departamento de Servicios para Desamparados (DHS por sus siglas en inglés), dos meses y medio más que el año fiscal anterior, según el informe anual de gestión del alcalde Bill de Blasio.
Este artículo apareció originalmente en inglés. Translated by Daniel Parra. Read the English version here.
Las familias sin hogar permanecen ahora más tiempo en los refugios de la ciudad de Nueva York, incluso cuando la población general de los refugios disminuye, según muestran los datos de la ciudad.
Las familias con niños pasan casi 18 meses en promedio en los refugios del Departamento de Servicios para Desamparados (DHS por sus siglas en inglés), dos meses y medio más que el año fiscal anterior, según el informe anual de gestión del alcalde Bill de Blasio. La estancia promedio de las familias con niños en los refugios del DHS alcanzó los 520 días en el año fiscal 2021. Eso es más que 443 días en el año fiscal 2020 y 414 días en el año fiscal 2017.
Las estancias más largas se producen incluso cuando el número de familias que entran en los refugios del DHS se redujo en aproximadamente un 40 por ciento el año fiscal pasado, con las protecciones estatales contra el desalojo que impiden que muchas familias se quedaran sin hogar, muestra el informe. Poco más de 6.100 familias entraron en el sistema de refugios el pasado año fiscal (que comenzó el 1 de julio de 2020 y terminó el 30 de junio de este año) en comparación con 10.087 en el año fiscal 2020 y un asombroso 12.595 en el año fiscal 2017.
En el año fiscal de 2021 hubo 9.823 familias con niños en los refugios en un día promedio, en comparación con 11.719 en el año fiscal de 2020 y 12.415 en el año fiscal de 2019.
La oficina del alcalde culpó a la pandemia por las estancias más largas en los refugios, que según el informe complicó las visitas a los apartamentos. “Los esfuerzos para frenar la propagación del COVID-19, que alentó a los neoyorquinos, incluidos los propietarios y los corredores, a permanecer en el interior tanto como sea posible, dio lugar a una fuerte disminución de las exhibiciones de apartamentos antes de que el DHS cambiara a las exhibiciones virtuales”, dice el informe.
Sin embargo, la analista política principal de la Coalition for the Homeless (Coalición de Familias sin Hogar), Jacquelyn Simone, cuestionó esa justificación. Para cuando el año fiscal 2021 comenzó en julio de 2020, el DHS había comenzado a establecer exposiciones virtuales y a ajustarse a los desafíos de una pandemia que se había instalado tres meses antes, dijo.
“Sí que les llevó a las agencias de la ciudad algún tiempo llegar a un escenario seguro comparable para que la gente pueda estar viendo esos apartamentos, pero este informe es de julio de 2020 al 30 de junio de 2021”, dijo Simone. “Así que el argumento de que estaban en modo de crisis debido a la pandemia y no sabían cómo hacer que la gente viera un apartamento de forma segura era más convincente en el informe [del año fiscal 2020]”.
“Esperemos que el hecho de verlo con tanta crudeza en el informe del alcalde sea una llamada de atención para que las agencias de la ciudad trasladen a la gente con más urgencia”, añadió.
El DHS y la oficina del Alcalde no respondieron a las solicitudes de comentarios adicionales para esta historia, pero en el pasado han promovido la disminución de la tasa de familias sin hogar antes de la pandemia, atribuyendo la disminución a las protecciones más fuertes de los inquilinos y el trabajo del personal de la agencia y los proveedores sin fines de lucro.
Un número significativamente menor de familias con niños, así como de adultos solteros sin hogar —una población que ha aumentado durante la pandemia— se trasladó de los refugios a una vivienda permanente. Unas 7.186 familias con niños salieron de los refugios hacia una vivienda permanente el año pasado, en comparación con 7.992 en el año fiscal 2020 y 9.137 en el año fiscal 2009. Esa disminución se debió en gran parte a la disminución del número total de familias en el refugio, dijo la ciudad.
“Si bien hubo menos ingresantes al refugio en comparación con el período anterior, esto llevó a menos familias e individuos con estancias a corto plazo y resultó en una mayor proporción de la población con estancias a largo plazo en el refugio”, dice el informe.
6.535 adultos solteros pasaron de los refugios a la vivienda permanente el año fiscal pasado, en comparación con 7.890 en el año fiscal 2020 y 8.912 en 2019, muestra el informe. El descenso se produjo incluso cuando el número de adultos solteros en refugios aumentó a 18.012 el pasado año fiscal, frente a los 16.866 del año fiscal 20 y los 16.094 del año fiscal 19. En el año fiscal 17 hubo 13.626 adultos solteros en los refugios por día.
La duración media de la estancia de los adultos solteros y las familias adultas también se disparó el año pasado. Los adultos solteros pasaron en promedio 476 días en los refugios, en comparación con 431 días en 2020 y 383 días durante 2017. Las familias adultas pasaron una media de 773 días en los refugios —el equivalente a dos años y dos meses—, frente a los 630 en el 2020 y los 550 días en 2017.
Áine Duggan, presidenta y consejera delegada de la organización Partnership for the Homeless, dijo que los datos ponen de manifiesto la importancia de las protecciones contra el desalojo y la ayuda de emergencia para el alquiler para mantener a las personas en sus hogares y evitar un aumento de nuevas admisiones en los albergues.
“El número total está bajando, pero está bajando debido a la moratoria”, dijo Duggan. “Los desalojos son uno de los principales alimentadores del sistema de refugios, pero las reubicaciones son lentas y las estancias en los refugios son más largas. Lo que nos dice es que si la moratoria termina, la población de los refugios se disparará en la parte delantera del sistema y se disparará en los próximos años porque se tarda más en sacar a la gente”.
A finales del último año fiscal, la ciudad y una red de proveedores sin ánimo de lucro adquirieron 14 edificios utilizados durante mucho tiempo como albergues para personas sin hogar y comenzaron a convertirlos en viviendas permanentes para cientos de familias, aunque los problemas persisten en cada uno de ellos.
Se redujo por quinto año fiscal consecutivo el número de familias y personas que volvieron a los refugios menos de un año después de conseguir una vivienda permanente, algo que la ciudad considera un “indicador crítico” del éxito de las intervenciones.
En septiembre, la Administración de Derechos Humanos de la ciudad de Nueva York aumentó el valor de los vales de vivienda CityFHEPS —subvenciones que cubren un año de alquiler para familias y personas que han experimentado la falta de hogar. Tras años de defensa por parte de los neoyorquinos sin hogar y sus aliados, el Concejo aprobó en junio el aumento del valor del subsidio de la ciudad para igualar los niveles de la Sección 8 federal, desbloqueando potencialmente decenas de miles de apartamentos anteriormente inasequibles en los cinco condados.
Raysa Rodríguez, directora ejecutiva asociada del Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, dijo que los datos del Alcalde refuerzan la necesidad de esos subsidios más fuertes para el alquiler.
“Creo que la conclusión es que el informe no hace más que confirmar lo que estamos escuchando de la gente acerca de la dificultad de utilizar los subsidios que no se establecieron en el valor correcto”, dijo Rodríguez. “El aumento de la duración de la estancia habla realmente de las dificultades que experimentan las familias cuando buscan una vivienda asequible permanente, incluso cuando tienen ‘Cartas de compra’ y cumplen los requisitos para recibir los subsidios de vivienda de la ciudad”.
Rodríguez, miembro de la Coalición de Familias sin Hogar de la ciudad de Nueva York (un financiador de City Limits), también advirtió que los datos pueden enmascarar una crisis pendiente que, por ahora, está frenada por las protecciones estatales contra los desahucios.
“Yo advertiría que no hay que establecer conexiones amplias entre el descenso del número de familias que entran en los refugios y un descenso de las necesidades”, dijo.
La serie de City Limits sobre las familias sin hogar en la ciudad de Nueva York cuenta con el apoyo del Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York y la Coalición de Familias sin Hogar. City Limits es el único responsable del contenido y la dirección editorial.
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