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Rio Tinto lifts lid on culture of sexual harassment & racism
About half of the mining giant’s employees who responded to an external review
say they have been bullied
Anglo-Australian mining multinational Rio Tinto released a shocking report on Tuesday, revealing that racism, sexism, harassment and sexual assault are rife among its global workforce of 47,500.
The report came as a result of an external review that the mining giant commissioned in 2021 after a string of complaints and scandals, including the blowing-up of an ancient Aboriginal site in Western Australia to expand an iron ore mine.
According to the report, nearly half of the company’s employees said they had been bullied, while racism was found to be common across a number of areas. The survey also revealed that “people working in a country different to their birth experienced high rates of racism, and that 39.8% of men and 31.8% of women who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia experienced racism.”
The results were “disturbing,” according to Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm, who said the company would implement all 26 recommendations from the report that was overseen by Australia’s former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.
“The eye-opener for me was twofold,” Stausholm said, as quoted by Reuters. “I hadn’t realised how much bullying exists in the company and secondly that it’s quite systemic – the three issues of bullying, sexual harassment and racism… that’s extremely disturbing.”
Headquartered in London, Rio Tinto employs people in 35 countries. Its workplace review reportedly involved more than 10,000 respondents to an online survey, interactive group and individual sessions, and a call for written entries.
The findings are the latest blow to the corporation that has been trying to repair its image after it demolished a 46,000-year-old sacred Indigenous site in Australia to expand an iron ore mine. In 2020, the backlash over the destruction forced out former CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques.
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UK kids sexually exploited in ‘degrading & destructive ways’ – report
An inquiry has found children in England and Wales are being sexually exploited amid “extensive failures” by local authorities
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) warned on Tuesday that “extensive failures” from local authorities and police forces have resulted in them being unable to keep up with the changing ways children are sexually exploited in parts of the UK.
Examining six local authorities across England and Wales, the report outlined how children are being groomed in “new ways” via social media and dating apps, as well as criminals live-streaming abuse of kids and babies for money.
The inquiry looked at the situation in Bristol, Durham, St Helens, Swansea, Tower Hamlets and Warwickshire, hearing evidence from more than 30 children and young people who had suffered abuse between 2003 and 2011.
One victim, who stated that she had been abused at 12, was placed into care but then later returned to “a pattern of repeated self-harm.”
The report raised concerns about the “flawed assumption” that child sexual exploitation was on the decline, claiming that it was, in fact, more of a “hidden problem” that often goes underreported.
Even when clear evidence exists that harm has occurred, the report outlined how children were often still only being classed as “at risk,” with too many survivors seen as offenders, rather than victims.
The inquiry’s findings, the 18th report into child sex abuse, made a series of recommendations to address the situation, including strengthening the criminal justice system and updating government guidance. The report also called for police forces and local authorities to improve their data collection.
The IICSA’s inquiry into child sexual abuse was launched by then-Home Secretary Theresa May to explore how councils, schools, religions groups and other organizations handled abuse claims when they were reported.
I'm inclined to believe that they are just scratching the surface. Interviewing survivors from more than 10 years ago gives no insight into the latest trends. Every new social media platform that is invented is mastered by paedophiles long before any other demographic. They are there waiting for our children. The law has to get serious about internet use and abuse.
Presidential candidate’s adviser accused of raping male teen intern
Events director of France’s Eric Zemmour has called allegations
a 'slanderous denunciation'
A senior adviser to the French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has been accused of raping a teenage male intern. He vehemently denies the allegation.
According to France Info, referring to a source close to the case, a complaint against Olivier Ubéda was filed by an 18-year-old man on December 9. The Paris prosecutor’s office launched an investigation the next day and since then several witness hearings have already taken place.
BFMTV’s sources have indicated that an alleged forced sexual relationship began in spring 2021 and continued until autumn. According to their information, the teen accused Ubéda, in particular, of forcing him to perform oral sex.
Ubéda, who is Zemmour’s events director and previously worked for the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, has called the allegations “slanderous denunciation.”
“I will only react when I know what and who we are talking about,” he said on Twitter, adding that he is meeting an investigating officer on Tuesday.
“Sometimes #MeToo is just a mytho,” he noted, referring to a popular movement against sexual abuse.
In a separate post, he claimed that rape allegations have become the latest in a series of issues he faced since he started working for Zemmour. His wife Anne Gaudin-Ubéda was dismissed from her position as the cabinet director of the Creuse Department Council’s president, and he accused the tax authorities of becoming “overzealous.”
“You are accused of rape… just that. The scenario is well written. It’s not based on anything real. The media love it. Aiming to break what works. To bedraggle not to let go. To vomit. Who is fooled? Who’s next?” he wrote.
The scandal comes soon after Ubéda’s boss Zemmour, known for his nationalist and far-right views, was fined €10,000 for his remarks on unaccompanied migrant minors, whom he described as “thieves,” “murderers” and “rapists.”
Pedophile internet ban proposed in Russia
The Russian MP mooted the measure following a law change allowing for
life imprisonment of repeat offenders
By Layla Guest
With Russian lawmakers backing stringent new measures designed to protect minors from recidivist sexual abusers, the vice speaker of the country’s State Duma has proposed a total internet blackout for pedophiles aimed at stopping predators in their tracks.
Speaking to RT’s YouTube channel on Monday, Anna Kuznetsova floated the idea, arguing that the web “is also a potential tool for committing crime.”
“Therefore, we need to limit and completely ban their access to the internet,” she suggested, noting that there has been a 6% increase in the number of repeat offenders in the country. “Behind each percentage point is a child’s ruined life,” she said.
Way more than just one!
According to the politician, who previously served as the Children’s Rights Commissioner, a whole set of measures should be imposed on pedophiles, including lifetime administrative supervision.
“It is unacceptable that one can get away with a fine for crimes of this nature,” Kuznetsova stressed.
Her remarks follow shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that could see repeat pedophiles locked up without the prospect of release for the rest of their lives. Under the new legislation, jail sentences will be handed down to recidivist pedophiles who abuse minors, cases where two or more children under the age of 18 were abused, or situations where the act involved committing another serious or particularly grave crime.
The law was adopted in its first reading in December, with Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin commenting on social media that “a life sentence is a just measure to isolate the degenerates. They cannot be called humans, although they are in human form.”
The bill on life imprisonment for those previously convicted of raping minors was submitted to the State Duma in September last year, following a spate of high-profile crimes across the country. That month, in the Kemerovo Region, a previously convicted pedophile, Viktor Pesternikov, raped and killed two 10-year-old school girls.
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