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Tag: opponents

  • Why shouldn’t two opponents kiss each other after a game?

    Why shouldn’t two opponents kiss each other after a game?

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    It is a picture of a kiss – an everyday human interaction between partners after 90 minutes on opposing sides. Posted by Football Is Everywhere along with the caption “Football is Love, everywhere”, the photo of the Swedish top-flight players Anna Tamminen and Rosa Herreros is a perfect example of a sport renowned for its inclusiveness.

    On 15 April, top of the table Hammarby hosted Växjö in the third game of the Swedish domestic top-flight season. It was the first time that Tamminen and Herreros had faced each other on the field, a unique situation for the couple but far from uncommon in the women’s game. The 28-year-old Tamminen started in goal for Hammarby, helping her team to a 6-1 victory, while Herreros was named on the visitors’ bench and did not make an appearance. After the final whistle and the work on the pitch was done, the couple greeted each other with this simple moment of affection caught by a waiting photographer.

    Reaction, overall, has been largely positive reflecting the accepting nature of the game. The series of rainbow emojis and “love is love” replies below the post demonstrate the positive impact visibility can have. However, as is the nature with social media, it has unfortunately also garnered a few negative responses. Questions have been raised about professionalism and whether the pitch is the right place for these interactions, especially with players on opposing sides.

    What these posters fail to understand is the unique position women’s football holds within sport and society as a whole. In stark contrast to their male counterparts, many players feel comfortable and supported enough to be open about their sexuality. Couples are common and well-known across the sport, and while more often than not they play for the same side, they are not restricted by the harmful and antiquated norms held by some fans in the men’s game. In addition, many of these same couples understand the power of their platforms to try to tackle the considerable inequality LGBTQIA+ people still face in speaking openly about their relationships.

    There have been many occasions where photographers have captured such interactions between players. One went viral when the Australia captain, Sam Kerr, and the American Kristie Mewis were pictured in a touching embrace on the pitch at the Tokyo Olympics. The USA had just beaten Kerr’s side in a seven-goal thriller to secure bronze and Mewis was comforting her girlfriend, a private exchange juxtaposed with its public setting.

    Another image that took the internet by storm was the kiss between Pernille Harder and Magdalena Eriksson after Sweden had knocked Canada out of the 2019 World Cup. With Denmark absent from the tournament, Harder attended, wearing a Sweden shirt, to support her long-time partner through her journey to a bronze medal. It has become an iconic moment in the sport and the two Chelsea players now consciously speak up and advocate for equality and their community.

    The Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson kisses her girlfriend, Pernille Harder, after Sweden beat Canada in the 2019 World Cup
    The Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson kisses her girlfriend, Pernille Harder, after Sweden beat Canada in the 2019 World Cup. Photograph: Valéry Hache/AFP/Getty Images

    Most importantly, however, is the fact that none of these should be seen as anything more than the inherently human reactions they are. Across sport, the emotions and interactions of athletes are photographed, in both victory and defeat and regardless of sexuality. Whether it’s the brothers Jason and Travis Kelce embracing after facing off against each other in this year’s Super Bowl, Alex Morgan’s daughter playing on the pitch after an international or Julie Ertz kissing her husband, Zach, pitchside after winning the 2019 World Cup, these are all moments caught on camera that bring the joy of sport to life. A celebration of the athlete and everyone around them that has helped them arrive at that point.

    The photo of Tamminen and Herreros was not on this scale of celebration. In contrast, it was an intrinsically ordinary situation, a couple returning to each other after a day at work. But the power of a photograph is significant, and in bringing it to life, it has perfectly encapsulated a sport that has built its foundations and values on acceptance. A game that has found its own identity and space despite the constant attempts to police it from those on the outside. Comparisons with the men are constant and frustrating, with that side often viewed as the pinnacle of how things should be despite its evident frailties. Women’s football, however, despite being in its relative infancy, has the power to shape a new vision. It is a prism through which you can see a safer, more inclusive sport that can combine competitiveness and professionalism with inclusivity, empathy and a feeling that football really can be a place for all. Where for 90 minutes on the pitch, you are rivals; but once the final whistle goes, love, respect and relationships can exist.

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    Caroline Graham Hansen’s fourth-minute strike against Chelsea was a stand-out from the weekend. The Barcelona player glided across the pitch before unleashing an unstoppable finish past Ann-Katrin Berger. This goal from Wave’s Sofia Jakobsson against Angel City is also worthy of a watch.

    Have a question for our writers – or want to suggest a topic to cover? Get in touch by emailing moving.goalposts@theguardian.com or post BTL.



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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Nicaragua: Ortega crackdown deepens as 94 opponents stripped of citizenship

    Nicaragua: Ortega crackdown deepens as 94 opponents stripped of citizenship

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    Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime has intensified its political crackdown, stripping 94 Nicaraguans of their citizenship, including some of the Central American country’s most celebrated writers and journalists, among them the Guardian contributor Wilfredo Miranda.

    The move was announced by a Nicaraguan judge on Wednesday and sparked renewed condemnation of Ortega’s Sandinista government, which has been waging a dogged offensive against perceived rivals since June 2021.

    Last week 222 political prisoners, including some of Nicaragua’s leading opposition activists, were deported from Nicaragua and flown to the US – a move widely interpreted as a sign of Ortega’s determination to remain in power after 16 years as president.

    Nicaragua’s government called the deportees, who were also stripped of their citizenship, “traitors to the motherland”.

    Those deprived of citizenship on Wednesday included the internationally acclaimed novelist Sergio Ramírez, the poet and writer Gioconda Belli, the investigative journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the auxiliary bishop of Nicaragua’s capital, Managua, Silvio Báez, and Miranda, an award-winning reporter who writes for the Spanish newspaper El País and the Guardian.

    El País’s Americas director, Jan Martínez Ahrens, called the decision an act of “vileness” that exposed Nicaragua’s “totalitarian drift” under Ortega, a 77-year-old former revolutionary icon who helped overthrow the Somoza dictatorship in the 1970s.

    Belli, who lives in exile in Spain, responded to having her citizenship removed by publishing one of her poems on Twitter.

    “And I love you homeland of my dreams and my sorrows and I will secretly take you to wash off your stains, to whisper you hope and promise you cures and charms that will save you,” she wrote.

    y te amo patria de mis sueños y mis penas
    y te llevo conmigo para lavarte las manchas en secreto
    susurrarte esperanzas
    y prometerte curas y encantos que te salven.

    — Gioconda Belli (@GiocondaBelliP) February 16, 2023

    Chamorro, 67, who will give this year’s Reuters Memorial Lecture in Oxford early next month, said Ortega and his vice-president and wife, Rosario Murillo, had shown “enormous political weakness” with their actions. “In Nicaragua, everyone knows the only… traitors are Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. They have demolished democracy,” Chamorro wrote.

    Brian Nichols, the US state department’s assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs, condemned the move, tweeting: “This deplorable act represents a step further away from the democracy the people of Nicaragua deserve.”

    Speaking to the Washington Post last week, Human Rights Watch’s acting deputy director for the Americas offered a bleak prognosis for Nicaragua’s political future under Ortega.

    “The country is on the verge of becoming the western hemisphere’s equivalent of North Korea,” said Juan Pappier.



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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Kejriwal govt set up Feedback Unit to keep an eye on political opponents: Delhi BJP

    Kejriwal govt set up Feedback Unit to keep an eye on political opponents: Delhi BJP

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    New Delhi: The working President of Delhi BJP, Virendra Sachdeva, said on Wednesday that the Arvind Kejriwal government since its inception in 2015 has been hostile towards political opponents whom it wants to suppress.

    Addresssing a press conference here, Sachdeva said that for this purpose, on February 1, 2016, the Kejriwal government had established a Feedback Unit (FBU) to keep an eye on not only political opponents, but Union ministers, MPs, L-G office, media houses, leading businessmen and also on judges.

    Sachdeva claimed that to carry out its anarchic practices, the Kejriwal government set up the FBU without any administrative or financial approval only, but only on the basis of the approval of his own Cabinet. The unit was headed by a retired CISF DIG, he said.

    This FBU was provided with an establishment fund of Rs one crore and it was given the name of ‘Secret Service Fund’ which in itself raises the question as to whom did Kejriwal want to investigate for which a secret fund was created, Sachdeva claimed.

    Funds worth crores of rupees were given from this fund to private investigating agencies, as well as to set up a network of informers, he said.

    From the very beginning, the Vigilance Department had objected to this. In September 2016, when Ashwani Kumar became the Director of Vigilance, he had directly asked FBU for an account of the work done, which it failed to submit, Sachdeva claimed.

    When the Delhi government had sent the FBU file to then Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, the latter had not only rejected it, but also objected to the creation of such a new unit by bypassing the Vigilance Department, Sachdeva said.

    Sachdeva also said that the people of Delhi demand a reply from the Kejriwal government on the formation of the FBU.

    “We want to ask some questions regarding the establishment of FBU for which Kejriwal government is responsible. In spite of the existence of the ACB and the Vigilance Department, why did the Kejriwal government establish the FBU with a retired official as its head?

    “What was the purpose behind the establishment of FBU, and if the purpose was clear, why didn’t the government announce it at the time of establishment? According to us, the objective was to keep an eye on political opponents as it is clear from the CBI report that 60 per cent of its reports were only on political opponents. The CBI investigation has revealed that FBU submitted about 700 reports to the Kejriwal government,” Sachdeva said.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • In conservative states, abortion opponents push back on Republicans

    In conservative states, abortion opponents push back on Republicans

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    At the same time, these disagreements threaten to further fragment the anti-abortion movement, which was unified for nearly 50 years over the goal of toppling Roe. And they portend further infighting in states where the biggest threat most GOP lawmakers face is a primary from the right.

    “As far as the Republican Party, I don’t think we’ve ever really defined what it means to be pro-life,” said Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who is pushing to clarify the state’s abortion law and is open to adding rape and incest exceptions. “Unfortunately, we have a wide variety of people who say they’re pro-life. Some believe in no abortions at all. Some believe in exceptions. Some believe when you hear a heartbeat. Some believe other things.”

    Similar debates are heating up in states such as Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin, where GOP lawmakers have introduced or may soon introduce bills that revisit who is exempt from their state’s near-total abortion bans — some of which date to the 19th century.

    “When the legislature passes a law, it’s very important that the people who are going to be governed by that law — and possibly criminalized, depending on what they do — understand clearly what the law means,” said Utah Republican Rep. Raymond Ward, whose bill tweaks the state’s medical exception language.

    Sexton, Ward and other GOP lawmakers remain opposed to abortion but say they are responding to physicians who complain the laws are so confusing that they’ve in some cases delayed or denied medical care because of fears of prosecution.

    Some anti-abortion groups, however, view the proposed changes as a betrayal of their cause and are pressing Republicans to hold the line. They fear that lawmakers, motivated by political concerns, will weaken what they view as gold-standard laws — and are instead urging state attorneys general or medical licensing boards to make any clarifications.

    “All of the sky-is-falling misinformation about the laws isn’t actually coming true,” said Stephen Billy, vice president of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “Letting the laws come into effect and continuing to educate on the laws, I think, is the prudent thing to do right now.”

    In several states, nonpartisan medical associations have urged lawmakers to revisit abortion laws. They said the laws have left doctors vulnerable to prosecution and loss of their medical license before they’ve even stood trial under what’s known as an affirmative defense.

    “Any time a physician performs a pregnancy termination for, say, an ectopic pregnancy to save mom’s life, they’re technically committing a felony,” said Yarnell Beatty, senior vice president and general counsel for the Tennessee Medical Association. “The only thing between them and jail is the hope that the affirmative defense will work at trial and the jury will agree with their position and acquit them.”

    While no physician has been criminally charged for providing a medically necessary abortion since the laws in Tennessee and elsewhere have taken effect, some doctors said the laws have changed the way they practice medicine.

    Progressive advocacy groups representing patients and doctors, including the ACLU, said carve-outs to abortion restrictions will not mitigate the harm. If a law is too broad, they argue, doctors won’t know exactly what kind of health care emergencies allow for an abortion. If it’s too specific, doctors could be prevented from using their medical judgment in a life-or-death scenario.

    “Politicians aren’t doctors — they shouldn’t be legislating personal medical situations,” said Jessica Arons, a senior policy counsel for the ACLU. “They can’t anticipate every complication that could arise in a pregnancy.”

    Republican Tennessee Sen. Richard Briggs — who voted for the state’s trigger law in 2019 — said he changed his mind after hearing from physicians who were afraid to perform abortions in cases of ectopic pregnancies, which are nonviable and can be fatal if not terminated.

    He’s one of several Republicans calling for changes to the state’s affirmative defense provision as well as rape and incest exceptions.

    “I don’t like the idea of the legislature trying to practice medicine,” said Briggs, a retired cardiac surgeon.

    But Briggs’ position is earning him enemies among abortion opponents who are resisting changes to the state’s 2019 trigger law banning abortion in nearly all circumstances. The anti-abortion group Tennessee Right to Life revoked Briggs’ endorsement in December because of his comments on the law.

    “We feel very strongly that it needs to stay as it was drafted,” said Will Brewer, legal counsel and lobbyist for Tennessee Right to Life, which led the charge on the trigger law. “[It’s] sad to say, in a GOP supermajority legislature, that we have to play defense on this.”

    In Utah, Ward said his bill would clarify language that is confusing to doctors, including “irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” and “mentally vegetative state.”

    In Wisconsin, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is speaking with his caucus about tweaking the state’s 1849 abortion ban, which allows for “therapeutic” abortions that are “necessary … to save the life of the mother.” He proposed adding clear life and health exceptions in the pre-Roe law and allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest — though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is challenging the 1849 law in court, has vowed to veto any bill that keeps the pre-Roe law in place.

    Republican North Dakota Sen. Janne Myrdal is pushing a bill that would change the state’s affirmative defense provision for doctors to an exception explicitly allowing abortions in cases of medical emergency, in addition to other changes she says would clean up the state’s abortion law. The legislation is supported by doctors, hospitals and in-state anti-abortion groups.

    “We don’t want any ambiguity in the law whatsoever, and it’s time that we have that conversation face-to-face instead of fear mongering like the abortion industry has been doing up here with, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re going to arrest women that do IVF or take birth control or go to Moorhead, Minnesota, they’re going to arrest them when they come back.’ All of that is just complete bull. It’s not true,” Myrdal said.

    And in Missouri, lawmakers are having conversations about whether to clarify the definition of abortion or add rape and incest exceptions, said Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri.

    GOP lawmakers pushing for changes to their state abortion laws are pitching them as both good policy and broadly supported by the public, pointing to polls that show their near-total abortion bans are wildly unpopular. A November poll from Vanderbilt University, for instance, found that 75 percent of people think abortion should be legal in Tennessee if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

    “I don’t think it’s a knee-jerk reaction,” Sexton, the Tennessee House speaker, said. “I just think it’s members talking to people in their district and having an understanding of the people they represent, where they’re at.”

    Some state-level anti-abortion groups, however, have signaled a willingness to work with their state’s GOP lawmakers to clarify existing exceptions.

    Gracie Skogman, legislative and PAC director for Wisconsin Right to Life, said that while anti-abortion advocates on the ground don’t see pursuing rape and incest exceptions as a “worthwhile task” — forcing GOP lawmakers to take a difficult vote ahead of an essentially guaranteed veto — they are encouraging lawmakers to clarify the medical exceptions.

    Abortion rights advocates, meanwhile, are dismissing the debate about whether to clarify or add new exceptions to abortion laws as an attempt by Republicans to save face while having little to no impact on people’s ability to access abortion.

    “Exemptions don’t reopen clinics. Even where they go back and add broader exemptions to state law, that won’t be enough for clinics that shut down to reopen and provide services,” Arons said.

    Abortion providers in states with new bans said the rules for Medicaid funding for abortion — which have operated for decades with the same rape, incest and health exceptions now under discussion — illustrate the gap between what’s allowed in theory and what works in practice.

    Some state laws, for instance, require people to file a police report to qualify for a rape or incest exemption — a deterrent to marginalized groups that fear contact with law enforcement or those who don’t know how to navigate the legal system.

    Ashley Coffield, the CEO of Tennessee’s Planned Parenthood Affiliate, said that in the 10 years she’s worked there, they never had a case of rape or incest qualify for Medicaid coverage. Planned Parenthood’s Missouri affiliate pointed to a similar record when asked why they oppose the push to add exceptions, saying that in the 18 months before Roe was overturned, only two of their patients qualified under the rape and incest exemptions for Medicaid coverage.

    “They don’t actually protect patients in reality, and neither do medical emergency exemptions,” said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, the spokesperson for the network’s St. Louis region clinics. “As the provider, we know that folks very rarely qualify.”

    Doctors acknowledge the changes won’t restore people’s ability to access abortion care. But they said the tweaks could save a patient’s life and keep them out of jail.

    “This is about taking care of patients. It’s about getting the government out of my exam room and letting me do what I do well, which is to practice medicine and save people’s lives,” said Nicole Schlechter, an OB/GYN in Nashville.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • With Roe gone, abortion opponents at March for Life take aim at next targets

    With Roe gone, abortion opponents at March for Life take aim at next targets

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    While the National Park Service declined to estimate the crowd size, and March for Life organizers did not respond to questions about attendance, there was a palpable sense of relief among anti-abortion leaders as they looked out at a sea of faces packed onto the National Mall.

    “I’ve got to tell you, I was a little nervous. I was concerned that people wouldn’t continue the fight,” former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a staunch abortion opponent, told POLITICO. “But based on this reaction, it looks like the grassroots has not moved on.”

    Abortion opponents are counting on that energy to compel state and federal lawmakers to pass laws further restricting abortion. Since Roe fell, abortion access has been virtually eliminated in a quarter of the country, and several speakers told the enthusiastic crowd on the National Mall on Friday that those bans are just the beginning.

    Overturning Roe “was only the first phase of this battle,” House Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the highest-ranking elected official to speak at the March, said to cheers. “Now the next phase begins.”

    Scalise was one of the few prominent Republicans to attend. While the March in previous years featured appearances by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and many other conservative officials hoping to prove their anti-abortion bona fides, none of the Republicans who have signaled an interest in running for president in 2024 appeared on stage on Friday. Neither did the top Republicans in the House or Senate — Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell — or any Republican governor.

    Anti-abortion leaders waved away questions about the lack of participation from the top ranks of the GOP, arguing that the march is “issue-central” and “not a political event,” and pointing to Congress being out of session that day and members being back in their home districts.

    While cognizant that federal restrictions on the procedure won’t become law with Democrats in charge of the Senate and White House, conservative activists plan to push the new GOP House majority to take more votes on anti-abortion bills. And to illustrate that new focus, the route of Friday’s March shifted for the first time to pass by the Capitol as well as the Supreme Court.

    “One, two, three, four, Roe v. Wade is out the door,” chanted a gaggle of teens wearing matching knit beanies as the March wound its way down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the House and Senate. “Five, six, seven, eight, now it’s time to legislate.”

    But while Republicans in the House took multiple anti-abortion votes as some of their first actions in the majority this month, they were on a non-binding resolution condemning violence against anti-abortion organizations and a bill reaffirming the rights of infants born after attempted abortions. Leadership has not scheduled votes on the more controversial measures groups are demanding, such as a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks, which Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) proposed last year. And some House Republicans have spoken out against their leaders’ decision to tackle the issue at all, pointing to the 2022 midterm results as a sign voters will continue to punish the party if they pursue more restrictions.

    Anti-abortion leaders at the March said their coming efforts will focus largely on states. Groups like Susan B. Anthony are hiring more staff to lobby state legislatures, fueled by what they say has been a spike in donations, and are particularly targeting Florida, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Virginia. They’re also planning more state-level demonstrations to pressure lawmakers, doubling the number of marches held outside D.C. from five last year to 10 in 2023.

    “What an exciting time for us all to be rallying together right now,” Louisiana Attorney General Lynn Fitch told POLITICO after she addressed the crowd. “But now we have to think next steps.”

    Fitch said that, along with other Republican attorneys general, she’s petitioning the FDA to reimpose restrictions the agency recently lifted on abortion pills, which have allowed them to be mailed to patients or picked up at pharmacies. She is also joining with others in the anti-abortion movement to push for policies like affordable child care and reforms to the adoption and foster care system — supports they feel are necessary to meet the needs of the many people that will be unable to access an abortion in the coming years.

    But while anti-abortion leaders say they feel wind at their backs as state legislatures reconvene this month and debate a swath of new restrictions on the procedure, many challenges lie ahead at both the state and federal level.

    Lawmakers in several liberal states have introduced bills that would shield patients traveling for the procedure and the doctors who treat them from prosecution. And several more states are preparing to put constitutional amendments that protect abortion rights before voters following victories in six states last year — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont.

    “I think those ballot initiatives were a wake-up call that 50 years of work can be wiped out in a second unless you’re ready to go with a real battle plan,” Dannenfelser said in an interview, adding that her organization and others have to “up our funding game” after getting massively outspent by abortion-rights supporters in those state contests in 2022.

    Anti-abortion groups are also working to shape the 2024 election, and have already begun meeting with prospective presidential candidates to press them to endorse and run on national abortion restrictions. But they’ve recently feuded with the only officially declared GOP candidate who leads in polls: former President Trump.

    Earlier in January, Trump blamed anti-abortion groups for the midterms results in a social media post, specifically hitting them for opposing exemptions for cases of rape and incest and alleging that after winning the Supreme Court decision against Roe they “just plain disappeared, not to be seen again” and didn’t work hard enough to get voters to the polls in November.

    Anti-abortion leaders called the accusation “way out of line” and “nonsense” and said Trump “needs to be corrected.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )