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'Zero Tolerance': A Worldwide Call to Eliminate the Brutal Practice of FGM

November 22, 2019 | News | No Comments

Zero tolerance.

That’s what the United Nations, health professionals, and those who advocate for women and girls say is necessary to end female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that still plagues millions of women and girls around the world, reflecting deep-rooted inequality between sexes and extreme discrimination against women and children.

“In every country, whether legal or not, medical providers who perform FGM are violating the fundamental rights of girls and women.”
—Joint statement from UNFPA, UNICEF, International Confederation of Midwives, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Friday marks the UN’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, following what the Guardian describes as “12 months of historic change and growing awareness of the practice.”

The focus of this year’s commemoration is on the troubling ‘medicalization’ of FGM, a trend in which healthcare providers engage in the practice, in turn lending their tacit approval. Around one in five girls have been cut by a trained health-care provider, they say, with that number going as high as three in four girls in some countries.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on health workers around the world to eliminate what he called a “deeply harmful” practice, which is concentrated in about 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East. The UN claims FGM is a violation of both children’s and women’s rights to health, security, freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.

“If everyone mobilized—women, men and young people—it is possible, in this generation, to end a practice that currently affects some 130 million girls and women in 29 countries where we have data,” said the Secretary-General. “I call for all people to end FGM and create the future we want where every girl can grow up free of violence and discrimination, with full dignity, human rights and equality.”

According to the UN, the practice has no medical benefits, yet harms girls and women in many ways. It involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of girls’ and women’s bodies.

Immediate complications can include severe pain and bleeding, shock, infection, and injury to nearby genital tissue. Long-term consequences can include recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths, and the need for later surgeries.

“Health workers… have a deep understanding of the harmful consequences of this practice,” read a joint statement from the UN Population Fund, UNICEF, the International Confederation of Midwives, and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, which came together on Friday to issue a call to action for health workers around the world to mobilize against FGM. “And, they also witness the emotional wounds FGM inflicts, trauma which often lasts a lifetime.”

“Female genital mutilation violates the human rights and undermines the health and well-being of some 3 million girls each year,” said the statement. “FGM is illegal in many countries, and medical providers who perform it in these places are breaking the law. But in every country, whether legal or not, medical providers who perform FGM are violating the fundamental rights of girls and women.”

Prevalence in the United States

The Guardian revealed separately on Thursday that 500,000 women in the U.S. are estimated to be at risk of or have been subjected to FGM—three times more than previously thought.

The findings were based on unpublished draft figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seen by the Guardian and supported by new statistics from the non-profit Population Reference Bureau released Friday.

The newspaper reported:

The extent of female genital mutilation in the US has been exposed following pressure from campaigners, including a global campaign against FGM led by Jaha Dukureh, a 25-year-old mother from Atlanta, who was cut as a baby in her home country of Gambia. With the backing of the Guardian, Dukureh launched a petition last May successfully calling for a new prevalence study into FGM and for a working group to be set up.

“This is a huge moment—once we have proper data we can really start taking first steps to end FGM in the US,” said Dukureh. “I haven’t seen the CDC study but these draft figures appear to prove what we already knew: FGM is an American problem; we can’t keep on ignoring it; we can’t afford to leave these girls at risk.”

In 2014, the U.K. hosted the first ‘Girl Summit’ in London to tackle FGM and early forced marriage, while the Obama administration announced it would carry out a study to establish how many women are living with the consequences of FGM and how many girls are at risk in the U.S.

Late last month, a doctor became the first person in Egypt to be convicted of FGM, seven years after the procedure was criminalized in the country where an estimatedThe doctor was convicted of manslaughter in the case of a 13-year-old girl who died after undergoing FGM. The international human rights group Equality Now called the ruling a “monumental victory.”

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Magnussen ‘has nothing to lose’ heading to Abu Dhabi

November 22, 2019 | News | No Comments

Kevin Magnussen has promised to go all-out for a big result in the final Grand Prix of the year next weekend at Abu Dhabi.

“We have nothing to lose going into Abu Dhabi,” said the Haas driver. “We just have to go for it. It’s going to be exciting.

“It’s been a really good season,” he continued. “I’ve had the most fun racing that perhaps I’ve ever had!

“I think we could’ve had a little more to show with a bit more luck, but it’s been a really enjoyable season.

“In terms of results, we could’ve gotten more out of it,” he admitted. “I would’ve liked to have had a few more good results. I think they were definitely in the cards, but just didn’t happen for different reasons.

“Performance has been there to score big points on a few occasions, but we’ve missed out due to bad luck or reliability issues.”

Magnussen has finished in the points on five occasions this year. His best result was seventh place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“It’s hard for people to see what progress is being made from the outside,” he said. “A lot of the stuff doesn’t pay off straight away.

“A lot of the stuff you improve and develop. It’s about the little steps, and when you do a thousand of them, you make progress and the benefits become visible.

Steiner: Haas’ 2017 points don’t show the whole picture

“Each time you make a step, it’s not always visible. I can certainly see from the inside how we’re building up and improving. There’s still a long way to go and I’m happy I’m a part of it.”

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Magnussen has already been confirmed with a race seat at Haas for 2018. It’s the first time in his Formula 1 career that he’s had that sort of continuity and security.

“It’s a good feeling going into the season with the team and an idea of a car that I know from a season already. I’m very much looking forward to that,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting.

“We’ve designed a strong car. The baseline of our car is very competitive. We just need to try and improve our understanding of the car and our operation of the car.

“[The aim is to] extract the performance out of it in every condition, every temperature and every track.”

He’s certainly aware that there will be little time fir him to put his feet up over the winter off-season.

“It’s the time of year where you actually work the hardest, at least in terms of your training,” he said. “You don’t have any races to prepare for, so you can push yourself a bit more and really build up your fitness over the winter.

“Obviously, it’s nice to get a break from all the travelling, but it doesn’t take long before you start missing racing again.”

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Liberty must be bold and restore fast, scary F1 – Brundle

November 22, 2019 | News | No Comments

Martin Brundle wants a tough, no-compromise approach from Liberty Media on Formula 1’s future regulations, for the purpose of making Grand Prix racing great again.

Formula 1’s new owners are wrapping up their first year at the helm of the sport, and while F1 has only seen minor changes to date, Liberty is hard at work defining the future beyond 2021, when the current regulation agreements expire.

Sky F1’s popular pundit, whose opinion is often valued, believes the only path to success for the pinnacle of motorpsort is a regulation platform which prioritizes ‘fast and scary’ cars raced by the greatest drivers in the world.

“They have got to be bold,” Brundle said of Liberty Media, speaking to Sky F1.

“They have got to say ‘this is the future of Formula 1, this is the direction we’re going in, join up or depart’. And they’ve got to be really clear on that.”

Brown: ‘We need to be less critical of Liberty’

A veteran of 158 Grand Prix starts, the former F1 driver says Liberty needs to pull out all the stops, but admits the sport’s owners are walking on a risky political tightrope.

“We have to be the fastest, the scariest, the best racing cars with the finest drivers wheel to wheel,” adds Brundle.

“The objective is very easy, and I actually think getting there is relatively easy, but there’s just an awful lot of politics and self-interest in the way. So I don’t know where it is going to end up.”

Case in point: Ferrari’s toughened stance on the future as expressed in no uncertain terms by chairman Sergio Marchionne, who simply threatened to quit F1 if it at some point it no longer caters to the Scuderia’s best interests.

Brundle however is willing to call Marchionne’s bluff.

“I think they’re bluffing,” he said.

“For example, where would Ferrari go? Go and get their backsides handed to them on a plate by Mahindra in Formula E?

“They are already in Le Mans, they won the GT world championship – nobody knows about that.

“They do no advertising around the world, not a penny, because Formula 1 does it for them. So I believe Liberty have to be super tough.”

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McLaren to reveal spectacular ‘nose job’ in Barcelona

November 22, 2019 | News | No Comments

McLaren’s significant upgrade package to its MCL33, set to be introduced in Spain, will center around the car’s all new front wing and nose.

While the Woking-based outfit has enjoyed a step-up in performance this season, mainly thanks to its Renault-powered engine, the team is still racing at a considerable distance from F1’s trio of front-runners.

McLaren fielded an interim car in the first four races of the year, with a more refined and evolved version of the MCL33 set to be unveiled this weekend, and one which will hopefully prove considerably faster in a straight line, McLaren’s weak point so far in 2018.

“There were two working groups over the winter,” said a McLaren source.

“One was tasked with a basic test car for the Renault engine, while the other worked on the actual aerodynamic concept. That had to be held off until the new nose was ready.”

McLaren wrong to make ‘we have the best car’ claims – Button

Indeed, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, the most striking feature of the updated car will be its radical front end.

“The most striking detail will be the new nose,” said well-informed correspondent Michael Schmidt.

“The crash test was passed on April 11. Rumour has it that the design is pretty spectacular.

“It’s quite possible that McLaren says goodbye to the stub nose, perhaps doing something similar to Force India and Mercedes.”

Both Fernando Alonso and McLaren racing director Eric Boullier have played down expectations however, as the majority of the field will be introducing updates at the Circuit de Catalunya this week.

“Barcelona is an opportunity to try some new things, see where we are and the direction we will take for the rest of the season,” said Alonso.

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In the Prison of Our Days: Two Opposing Visions of a Climate Changed Future

November 21, 2019 | News | No Comments

“The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” – J.G. Ballard

The climate crisis often presents us with postcards from our possible futures. In a brilliant investigation last October for BuzzFeed, Amanda Chicago Lewis told the story of prisoners in California who are being used to combat the out-of-control wildfires that have gripped the state over the course of the last year, and paid a fraction of the minimum wage. Lewis tells the story of Demetrius Barr, a nonviolent drug offender who expresses complex emotions about his circumstances. On the one hand, he describes the firefighting work as a chance to escape the dehumanizing confinement and restricted motion of an indoor prison. On the other hand, he was earning less than $2.00 a day and compared the exploitative economics of his situation to slavery (a comparison, Lewis notes, that is common among prisoners working in the California brush).

Reading this account, I was uncomfortably reminded of my visit to Louisiana in the summer of 2010, when I was preparing an article on the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion. Near the shore, the humid southern air was completely saturated with the smell of oil. Rows of sweaty, unsmiling workers in identical uniforms—who were nearly all Black, as far as I could see—were laying down barriers along the shoreline, resembling the barracks of an ecological trench war. They were sub-sub-subcontractors who had been hired to clean up the spill, recruited from parish prisons and for-profit incarceration centers across the state.

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In 2010, we witnessed prison labor being used to mitigate the inevitable disasters that accompany the energy industry’s mad rush to exploit the most extreme resources; now, in California, we are witnessing prison labor being advanced as a solution to the climate chaos that fossil fuels inevitably produce.

What vision of the future does the American prison system represent? Most fundamentally, it is one based on the systemic oppression of people of color. In her groundbreaking book The New Jim Crow, law professor Michelle Alexander explains how the war on drugs—which supplies the prison system with half of its prisoners—grew out of a racist strategy to secure working-class white votes. Alexander points out that Reagan’s war on drugs actually preceded the outbreak of crack cocaine, and represented the apotheosis of a Republican effort to paint Black people as criminal “others”: “The war on drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward Blacks and Black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism.”

This strategy worked to devastating effect—today, an African-American man is six times more likely to be incarcerated than a white man despite using and selling drugs at roughly equal rates. This has led many thinkers like Alexander, along with activist groups like Critical Resistance, to emphasize that the American prison system functions primarily as a tool of racial and economic control. Indeed, it both requires and reinforces American racism—by profiting from the notion that black and brown bodies inherently deserve incarceration (manifested in draconian detention and sentencing practices by police and judges, which The New Jim Crow documents at length), and by ripping apart the economic and social fabric of Black communities and thereby creating the conditions of “danger” and “lawlessness” that so terrify white Americans in the first place.

The prison industrial complex thereby helps to prop up the ideology that allows us to accept the slow-moving, global disaster of climate change—a disaster that will most drastically impact the poor and communities of color around the world. Simply put, working for real and viable climate solutions means addressing structural racism and exploitation. Alicia Garza, cofounder of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, explains this principle elegantly: “When black people get free, everybody gets free.” The climate movement, therefore, has an obligation to directly challenge the vision of the future represented by the prison system, both as an insidious instrument of the racism and exploitation that threatens all of us and as a mammoth humanitarian disaster in its own right.

This is the time to do so. The prison industrial complex depends on a perpetual stream of black and brown prisoners, which in turn depends on racist, militarized, and unaccountable policing; the machinery of this system has been increasingly exposed as the authorities fail again and again to indict police murderers of people of color. In New York City, where I live, climate activists from a range of organizations and ideologies are taking to the streets alongside hundreds of thousands of others who are outraged over the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Nizah Morris and far too many others. Over the last few months we have been lucky to have many voices explaining WHY climate activists must stand in solidarity with those protesting police murders. HOW is a question with many answers, but one that many are already addressing, and that will continue to be tackled in a variety of ways as these protests continue (recognizing the historically white composition of the mainstream environmental movement as a whole, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Bay Area Solidarity Action Team’s protocols for white supporters as an important part of exploring these answers).

As with the struggle against climate change, fighting the prison industrial complex involves taking on powerful economic interests. The Corrections Corporation and the GEO Group, the two largest private prison companies in the US, made 3.3 billion dollars in revenue in 2012 alone—and a range of other actors profit from cheap prison labor, which represents an attractive resource for those looking to avoid pesky things like unions and minimum wage requirements and is increasingly the solution of choice for American companies such as Walmart. Rather than create jobs for poor communities, which might hinder the accumulation of capital or shift power to the working class, these interests are pursuing a vision of society that would see disadvantaged individuals cycled through prisons, their labor severed from any economic or political costs.

There is an alternative vision of our future behind the climate fight, and it is wholly incompatible with the prison industrial complex. As Stanford’s Mark Jacobson has outlined, we could power the world on 100% renewable energy within a few decades, but to do so would essentially require a global public works program unprecedented in human history. In other words, it would entail putting huge numbers of people to work, and rejecting the doctrine of futility that characterizes our current approach to both the climate crisis and unemployment. Such a “Marshall Plan for the Earth” would build not only the labor power but also the political power of the poor and communities of color—the very constituents currently being oppressed by the prison system, and on whose disenfranchisement its continued expansion depends. Both justice and survival demand that we make this vision a reality.

Patrick Robbins is a writer, researcher and activist based in Brooklyn. He is currently working with Sane Energy Project toward the goal of an entirely renewable New York, and was an active member of Occupy The Pipeline from 2012 to 2014. Follow him on Twitter: @patrickopticon

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Williams stars hail Sir Frank’s achievements

November 21, 2019 | News | No Comments

A new video from Mobil 1 The Grid sees some big names from the 40-year history of Williams F1 paying homage to the team’s iconic founder, Sir Frank Williams.

“I think Frank is a big racer,” said current driver Felipe Massa. “The only thing that he thinks is about racing, about just being the best. He’s really a nice character as well.

“It is a team that’s really a joy to work for,” He added. “It is a very family thing. I’m really proud to be part of his team, but also part of his history!”

Massa joined the team for the 2014 season. He retired at the end of last year only to be recalled when Valtteri Bottas headed to Mercedes over the winter.

Dickie Stanford’s association with Williams goes back much further. He joined Williams as Nigel Mansell’s race mechanic in 1985. He rose to the position of chief mechanic in 1990 and then became team manager in 1995.

“We call him Mr Motor Racing,” said Stanford, who stayed in the post for ten years. he remains a long-time friend and colleague of Sir Frank’s to this day.

“He is living, breathing motor racing,” Standford said. “Whatever happened yesterday, forget that – it doesn’t matter. It’s tomorrow. What are we thinking about tomorrow. And that’s been driven through the whole team by Frank.

“He is the leader of the team, pushing the team forward for what’s new tomorrow.”

Wehrlein ‘absolutely in contention’ at Williams – Lowe

“What a character he is,” added former chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who left the team at the end of last year. He had joined in 2013, having previously worked for Benetton, Renault and Virgin. He’s now a technical expert for Sky Sports F1.

“This independent team has been going for so long, operating at the front line,” Symonds said. “Frank’s held it together, and really a figurehead for the whole of the team. And the whole of the company.”

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'We Deserve Better': Lackluster UN Declaration on Women's Rights Draws Ire

November 21, 2019 | News | No Comments

A political declaration from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, aimed at achieving global gender equality by 2030, “lacks ambition,” according to nearly 1,000 women’s rights and feminist organizations from around the world.

In the document, which was formally adopted on Monday, world governments pledge to: bolster implementation of laws related to gender equality; bolster institutions vital to women’s empowerment; transform discriminatory norms and stereotypes; close resource gaps; boost accountability; and enhance capacities and data to track progress.

“The overwhelming lack of political commitment and financial resources, plain old sexism and misogyny, along with increasing religious fundamentalisms have affected the quality of the agreements produced by governments within the UN and at other levels.”
—Lydia Alpízar, Association for Women’s Rights in Development

But a coalition of groups working to advance the human rights of women and girls say the declaration is milquetoast and must be strengthened.

“The text of the political declaration is weak and does not go far enough towards the transformative change that is needed for gender equality,” said Lydia Alpízar, executive director of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, in a speech Monday. “We, women of the world in all our diversity, deserve much better than this. We deserve that you put aside your ideological, political and religious differences and fully recognize and affirm the human rights of women and girls and gender justice. Nothing less.”

A joint statement issued by 974 groups blasts the UN declaration as “a bland reaffirmation of existing commitments” that “threatens a major step backward” in the realm of women’s rights. The organizations also decry the lack of transparency around the crafting of the declaration, which they claim is the result of “several months of closed-door negotiations” from which women’s groups were largely excluded.

“[M]any of the gains that women and girls have made are under threat and women and girls worldwide face extraordinary and unprecedented challenges, including economic inequality, climate change and ocean acidification, and rising, violent fundamentalisms,” reads the statement. “At a time when urgent action is needed to fully realize gender equality, the human rights and empowerment of women and girls, we need renewed commitment, a heightened level of ambition, real resources, and accountability.”

Specifically, the groups are calling for stronger language that:

Recognizes the critical and unequivocal role women’s organizations, feminist organizations and women human rights defenders have played in pushing for gender equality, the human rights and empowerment of women and girls. The attempt of governments to marginalize the role of these groups is an affront to women, everywhere.
Ensures real accountability for governments including detailed measures to reform and strengthen public institutions to address the structural causes of gender inequality; ensuring an enabling economic environment for women’s rights and gender equality beyond sector-specific financing and gender-responsive budgeting; and more.
Recognizes the links between the human rights of women and girls and development. The Political Declaration must reaffirm the links between the human rights of women and girls and development, particularly as women and girls disproportionately are affected by the consequences of under-development.

Even Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who heads UN Women—the standing body that oversees the Commission on the Status of Women—acknowledged portions of the critique even as she championed the goals of the declaration.

“Yes, much has been done, and much of it worthwhile. However, what we chose to prioritize and act on has not led to irreversible and deep-rooted change,” she said in her opening speech to the Commission.

Her remarks echo the findings of a UN Women report (pdf), also issued Monday, which declares that 20 years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—which stated that “women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace”—progress has been spotty to say the least.

“Twenty years on, it is a hard truth that many of the same barriers and constraints that were recognized by the Beijing signatories are still in force globally,” Mlambo-Ngcuka wrote in the report’s introduction. “Change has not been deep enough, nor comprehensive, and it is not irreversible.”

Alpízar, of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, was more scathing in her assessment:

“[T]oday we must acknowledge that progress achieved has been very limited,” she said before the Commission. “The overwhelming lack of political commitment and financial resources, plain old sexism and misogyny, along with increasing religious fundamentalisms have affected the quality of the agreements produced by governments within the UN and at other levels.”

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She concluded: “This is the moment; there are important opportunities before us. This is the moment when we must have all resources needed—the political commitment and the action—to achieve real transformations.”

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Brawn looking at track layouts in search for better racing

November 21, 2019 | News | No Comments

As part of his quest to improve racing in the future, Ross Brawn is looking at track layouts to determine if changes which could impact the competition are necessary.

Formula 1’s Sporting boss says that all tracks aren’t created equal when it comes to encouraging wheel to wheel racing, and a thorough analysis of what makes a great venue is underway.

“The aerodynamic programme is now starting to pick up pace, and the work on circuit development is happening,” said Brawn, referring to recent work on aerodynamics which would allow for cars to follow each other more closely.

“We have already got engaged with some circuits about possible modifications to improve racing.”

Brawn aiming to recruit three new carmakers into F1

Brawn says he and his team are looking to the sport’s past for answers about the future.

“We have started looking in our archives,” he said.

“Were there periods of racing where there was more overtaking? Are there tracks where there is more overtaking? So you can do a statistical analysis.

“The thing you have to be careful of is that overtaking isn’t good racing. You have got to start to think about what is good racing – and it is two cars fighting each other.

“It may mean the guy in front stays in front but you can have some great racing going on. It is a little bit more complex than the number of overtakes, counting the number of overtakes.

“What we are seeing so far is the ability to take different lines through corners is quite important to help racing.

“So if you have got a hairpin and it is a narrow track, it is not that great. If you have a hairpin and it is a wide track, where there can be some different lines going into it, then you can get something happening.

“Austin, I think, would fall into the category of where there is a complex of corners.

“So, you take a line on one corner going in, and then you start to force the defending car to start taking different lines. And then eventually you come out in the right place.

“That is what we are looking at.”

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Brawn also underlined the important role played by a track’s surface in promoting close racing, with low degradation asphalt often a negative factor.

“The surface is quite important to the racing because the type of surface can create degradation and a reasonable degree of tyre degradation is helpful to racing because you start to get performance differentials,” he said.

“It doesn’t want to be the band aid to fix it. But if you look at circuits with very low degradation, like Sochi, the racing there is challenging and it is one stop.

“The tyres don’t go off, so away you go. There are no performance differentials created.

“If you look at some of the great races we have had this year, there have often been tyres involved in terms of degradation levels, so the guy defending – like [Kimi] Raikkonen, defending on tyres that were not as good as the tyres Max [Verstappen] had attacking him.

“The surface is quite a factor in terms of the racing you get.”

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Women March for Peace, Reconciliation in Historic Korean Border Crossing

November 21, 2019 | News | No Comments

An international group of women activists, including Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Peace laureates, on Sunday crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea in a call for global peace and reconciliation.

“We are walking for a peaceful world, we are walking for a peaceful world,” the activists sang as they crossed one section of the heavily fortified two-mile-wide zone.

WomenCrossDMZ hit a brief roadblock when the activists were denied an attempt to walk across the final stretch, but they were able to make the crossing by bus.

“Not only have we received the blessing for our historic crossing, we’ve gotten both Korean governments to communicate. That is a success,” one of the Nobel Peace laureates, Leymah Gbowee, who was recognized in 2011 for her role in Liberian peace movement, told CBS News.

The event was formed to “call for an end to the Korean War and for a new beginning for a reunified Korea,” the organizers state on their website. They continue:

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of Korea’s division into two separate states by Cold War powers, which precipitated the 1950-53 Korean War. After nearly 4 million people were killed, mostly Korean civilians, fighting was halted when North Korea, China, and the United States representing the UN Command signed a ceasefire agreement. They promised within three months to sign a peace treaty; over 60 years later, we’re still waiting.

Sunday’s event also includes forums in Pyongyang and Seoul for Korean women to share their experiences of being split apart from their families and for the activists to discuss mobilizing women for an end to the conflict.

Some South Korean protesters were critical of the march, saying the activists did not do enough to point out human rights abuses carried out by the North Korean government, but WomenCrossDMZ said the action had a different focus.

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“This is about human relationships, this is about us seeing our common humanity in each other,” Mairead Maguire, who received the Nobel in 1976 for her work in ending the conflict in Northern Ireland, said at a press conference on the southern side of the inter-Korean border.

“We are trying to make person-by-person connections so that there is understanding and accuracy,” Steinem said at the press conference. “We feel very celebratory and positive that we have created a voyage across the DMZ in peace and reconciliation that was said to be impossible.”

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Lowe explains why Massa decided to bow out

November 21, 2019 | News | No Comments

Williams’ chief technical officer Paddy Lowe has been talking about why Felipe Massa decided to retire at the end of 2017.

Massa originally left the sport at the end of last season. He was recalled by the team after Valtteri Bottas departed over the winter to join Mercedes.

He went on to enjoy a good season. The 36-year-old finished level on points with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg – but only three ahead of his own rookie team mate Lance Stroll. Even so, he had appeared keen to stay with at Grove in 2018.

With Sergey Sirotkin, Robert Kubica, Pascal Wehrlein, Daniil Kvyat and Paul di Resta all rumoured to be in the running to take over the seat next year, Massa sought some sort of definite decision from the team. Unfortunately, they weren’t in a position to give him the assurance he needed.

“The selection of the drivers is a very complicated process,” Lowe explained. “There are lots of different factors we’re taking into account.

“With the timing of it all, Felipe needed a decision before Brazil,” he told Motorsport.com. “We weren’t able to.

“He was still in the running and was a strong candidate,” Lowe added. “But we weren’t able to make that commitment at that point.

“So we agreed that he would drop out of considerations and retire from the team.”

Massa handed new post-F1 role with FIA

Lowe has been one of Massa’s most enthusiastic supporters this year, calling him “solid and dependable”, adding that Massa had been “a tremendous support to Lance.”

He insisted that the Brazilian had played a crucial role in the team’s development in 2017.

“He was a great reference for [the performance of the FW40],” Lowe pointed out. “You always need a good reference somewhere in the garage.

“Felipe has provided that reference at every race actually, and that’s been really valuable.

“There haven’t been days where he’s been lost,” he added. “[He’s always] been able to give a reference for Lance, and I think that’s also quite remarkable.”

Massa announced his decision to retire for good from Grand Prix racing at the start of November. He enjoyed an emotional last home race in Brazil, and a successful sign-off in the season finale at Abu Dhabi.

He plans to continue racing in stock car and karting events closer to home. He’s also just been appointed the new head of the FIA’s CIK/International Karting Commission.

Williams has postponed its decision over who will take over from Massa until January. It’s believed that Sirotkin is all-but assured of taking the role.

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Prevalence in the United States