Hossein Shanbehzadeh, an Iranian writer and activist, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for tweeting a single dot in response to a tweet by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in May, and for alleged pro-Israel propaganda, according to Iran International and Iranian Shargh News on Saturday.
Shanbehzadeh's reply to the original tweet received more likes than the original post, and he was arrested a few weeks later, according to Iran International.
The literary editor, translator, and activist, who is present on X, formerly Twitter, confirmed in a call to his family that he was arrested in Ardabil in June, IranInternational reported.
At the time of his arrest, Iran's judiciary reported that a "fugitive Mossad agent" had been arrested. IRGC-affiliated semi-official Tasnim News later identified the person as Shanbehzadeh.
Amir Raisian, Shanbehzadeh's lawyer, told "Shargh Network" that according to the court's verdict, Mr Shanbehzadeh was to be sentenced to five years in prison according to Article 8 of the 'Law on Countering the Hostile Actions of the Zionist Regime against Peace and Security,' having been accused of pro-Israel propaganda.
The original tweet (credit: SCREENSHOT/X)
The original tweet (credit: SCREENSHOT/X)
On top of the five-year sentence, the lower court sentenced the activist to four years on charges of "insulting Islamic sanctities," two years for "spreading lies and disturbing public thought," and an additional one for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
Mr. Shanbehzadeh must also pay a fine of 50 million rials, which is around $1200, according to Raisian.
Details of the accusations
According to the lawyer, the defendant plans to issue an objection to the verdict, specifically against the accusation of pro-Israel propaganda, which he says "does not have a specific material basis." Raisian added that this charge was based on the writer's private chats, not public messaging.
His lawyer provided Shargh with some examples of the accusations against Shanbehzadeh for "insulting Islamic sanctities." These include support for political prisoners, supporting the removal of the hijab, tweeting "no to execution," and expressing happiness at the death of President Raisi.
Shanbezadeh has, according to both sources, been highly critical of the state, having written articles about his condemnation of execution as punishment and of finger amputation as punishment at Evin prison. According to sources cited by both Amnesty International and Iran International, a prisoner at Evin prison in Tehran had four fingers amputated by guillotine in June 2022.
Hossein Shanbhzadeh previously worked under a pseudonym and was identified by Iran's security institutions in 2018 before being arrested, according to Iran International. At the time, he spent periods in solitary confinement.
Stephen King gives blunt three-word response after discovering Florida banned 23 of his books in schools - 23 of King’s novels have been banned from schools in the US state thanks to a 2022 legislation signed by Ron DeSantis
Zheng Qinwen completed a 7-6(2) 4-6 6-2 victory over Donna Vekic at 2.15am local time, two minutes later than a clash between female competitors had previously finished at the year’s final grand slam.
And Murray, who concluded his playing career after the Olympics, has urged organisers to “sort it out”.
“The tennis scheduling situation is a total mess,” the Scot said on X, formerly Twitter. “It looks so amateurish having matches going on at 2, 3, 4am. Sort it out.”
Men’s matches, contested over five sets, often extend deep into the night in New York, with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s quarter-final meeting in 2022 concluding not long before 3am.
The round of 16 encounter between Zheng and Vekic was a rematch of the Paris 2024 final, with the Chinese player again coming out on top to keep her hopes of adding a first grand slam title to her Olympic gold alive.
“It’s always nice to play in the night session because I’m used to it,” said Zheng. “It’s the first time I’ve played here in New York at two in the morning. It’s unbelievable. Thanks to the fans that aren’t sleeping tonight, supporting me here.
“She’s really tough to play on hard courts, she put a lot of pressure on me. At Roland Garros I was in control. But today she hit really aggressive. It was tough for me to play against her. It was a really nice victory for me.”
The seventh seed faces Aryna Sabalenka in the last eight.
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Financial stability, crime rates and quality healthcare can all factor into a happy life for Americans.
However, despite its prowess in other areas, the country continues to place poorly in global rankings of overall happiness.
According to the World Happiness Report—a partnership between Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre and the United Nations—the U.S. fell eight spots to number 23 in the global rankings between 2023 and 2024.
This marks the first time in the report's 12-year history that the country has placed outside the top 20.
The global top 10 remains dominated by European states, with Finland at number one, and Israel and Australia also earning top spots.
A recent study from Columbia Business School attempted to measure the macroeconomic toll that unhappiness takes on the U.S., and found that mental illness costs the economy some $282 billion annually.
However, while Americans on the whole appear to be growing unhappier, there is a great deal of variance across the States.
By combining 31 metrics, including working hours, job security, rates of adult depression, World Population Review constructed a weighted overall happiness score for every state in the U.S.
Topping the list was Hawaii, with an overall happiness score of 66.3.
The youngest state in the Union, Hawaii ranked first for emotional and physical wellbeing, and has the highest average life expectancy of 80.7 years.
According to the most recent countrywide study by the Centers for Disease Control, Hawaii also possesses the lowest rate of adult depression, with 12.7 percent of its residents reporting a diagnosis compared to the 19.9 percent national median.
Hawaii sits well ahead of the rest of America, with Maryland coming in at second with a score of 62.6.
Maryland boasts the highest median income in the U.S. at $94,991, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than $20,000 dollars ahead of the national average.
Rounding out the rest of the top ten are Minnesota (62.43), Utah (62.41), New Jersey (61.7), Idaho (61.6), California (59.97), Illinois (58.59), Nebraska (58.19), and Connecticut (58.15).
At the other end of the spectrum sits West Virginia, with a total happiness score of 33.83.
Despite being known for natural beauty and rich Appalachian culture, the Mountain State is far from "almost heaven" according to the data.
West Virginia ranks last in overall emotional and physical wellbeing, 32 in "community & environment," and 48 in "work environment."
According to the CDC, the state suffers from the highest prevalence of adult depression, with more than a quarter (27.5%) of West Virginians having received a diagnosis of the disorder.
The bottom 10 also features Louisiana (34.81), Arkansas (38.23), Kentucky (38.36), Alabama (39.32), Mississippi (39.58), Oklahoma (40.69), Tennessee (43.35), New Mexico (43.64) and Missouri (45.38).
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Hotel workers start strikes at top chains: Here’s why
Story by The Associated Press
• 9/1/2024, 3:02:22 PM21h • 6 min read
Hotel workers start strikes at top chains: Here’s why
(AP) — With up to 17 rooms to clean each shift, Fatima Amahmoud’s job at the Moxy hotel in downtown Boston sometimes feels impossible.
There was the time she found three days worth of blond dog fur clinging to the curtains, the bedspread and the carpet. She knew she wouldn’t finish in the 30 minutes she is supposed to spend on each room. The dog owner had declined daily room cleaning, an option that many hotels have encouraged as environmentally friendly but is a way for them to cut labor costs and cope with worker shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unionized housekeepers, however, have waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily room cleaning at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.
The dispute has become emblematic of the frustration over working conditions among hotel workers, who were put out of their jobs for months during pandemic shutdowns and returned to an industry grappling with chronic staffing shortages and evolving travel trends.
More than 40,000 workers, represented by the UNITE HERE union, have been locked in difficult contract negotiations with major hotel chains that include Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Omni. They are seeking higher wages and a reversal of service and staffing cuts.
At least 15,000 workers have voted to authorize strikes if no agreements are reached after contracts expire at hotels in 12 cities, from Honolulu to Boston.
The first of the strikes began Sunday, when more than 4,000 workers walked off the job at hotels in Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Greenwich, Connecticut, UNITE HERE said.
“We said many times to the manager that it is too much for us,” said Amahmoud, whose hotel was among those where workers have authorized a strike but have not yet walked out.
Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt’s head of labor relations for the Americas, said the company’s hotels have contingency plans to minimize the impact of the strikes.“We are disappointed that UNITE HERE has chosen to strike while Hyatt remains willing to negotiate,” he said.
In a statement before the strikes began, Hilton said it was “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.” Marriott and Omni did not return requests for comments.
The labor unrest serves as a reminder of the pandemic’s lingering toll on low-wage women, especially Black and Hispanic women who are overrepresented in front-facing service jobs. Although women have largely returned to the workforce since bearing the brunt of pandemic-era furloughs — or dropping out to take on caregiving responsibilities — that recovery has masked a gap in employment rates between women with college degrees and those without.
The U.S. hotel industry employs about 1.9 million people, some 196,000 fewer workers than in February 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 90% of building housekeepers are women, according to federal statistics.
It’s a workforce that relies overwhelmingly on women of color, many of them immigrants, and which skews older, according to UNITE HERE.
Union President Gwen Mills characterizes the contract negotiations as part of long-standing battle to secure family-sustaining compensation for service workers on par with more traditionally male-dominated industries.
“Hospitality work overall is undervalued, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s disproportionately women and people of color doing the work,” Mills said.
The union hopes to build on its recent success in southern California, where after repeated strikes it won significant wage hikes, increased employer contributions to pensions, and fair workload guarantees in a new contract with 34 hotels. Under the contract, housekeepers at most hotels will earn $35 an hour by July 2027.
The American Hotel And Lodging Association says 80% of its member hotels report staffing shortages, and 50% cite housekeeping as their most critical hiring need.
Kevin Carey, the association’s interim president and CEO, says hotels are doing all they can to attract workers. According to the association’s surveys, 86% of hoteliers have increased wages over the past six months, and many have offered more flexibility with hours or expanded benefits. The association says wages for hotel workers have risen 26% since the pandemic.
“Now is a fantastic time to be a hotel employee,” Carey said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.
Hotel workers say the reality on the ground is more complicated.
Maria Mata, 61, a housekeeper at the W Hotel in San Francisco, said she earns $2,190 every two weeks if she gets to work full time. But some weeks, she only gets called in one or two days, causing her to max out her credit card to pay for food and other expenses for her household, which includes her granddaughter and elderly mother.
“It’s hard to look for a new job at my age. I just have to keep the faith that we will work this out,” Mata said.
Guests at the Hilton Hawaiian Village often tell Nely Reinante they don’t need their rooms cleaned because they don’t want her to work too hard. She said she seizes every opportunity to explain that refusing her services creates more work for housekeepers.
Since the pandemic, UNITE HERE has won back automatic daily room cleans at some hotels in Honolulu and other cities, either through contract negotiations, grievance filings or local government ordinances.
But the issue is back on the table at many hotels where contracts are expiring. Mills said UNITE HERE is striving for language to make it difficult for hotels to quietly encourage guests to opt out of daily housekeeping.
The U.S. hotel industry has rebounded from the pandemic despite average occupancy rates that remain shy of 2019 levels, largely due to higher room rates and record guest spending per room. Average revenue per available room, a key metric, is expected to reach a record high of $101.84 in 2024, according the hotel association.
David Sherwyn, the director of the Cornell University Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor & Employment Relations, said UNITE HERE is a strong union but faces a tough fight over daily room cleaning because hotels consider reducing services part of a long-term budget and staffing strategy.
“The hotels are saying the guests don’t want it, I can’t find the people and it’s a huge expense,” Sherwyn said. “That’s the battle.”
Workers bristle at what they see as moves to squeeze more out of them as they cope with erratic schedules and low pay. While unionized housekeepers tend to make higher wages, pay varies widely between cities.
Chandra Anderson, 53, makes $16.20 an hour as a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, where workers have not yet voted to strike. She is hoping for a contract that will raise her hourly pay to $20 but says the company came back with a counteroffer that “felt like a slap in the face.”
Anderson, who has been her household’s sole breadwinner since her husband went on dialysis, said they had to move to a smaller house a year ago in part because she wasn’t able to get enough hours at her job. Things have improved since the hotel reinstated daily room cleaning earlier this year, but she still struggles to afford basics like groceries.
Tracy Lingo, president of UNITE HERE Local 7, said the Baltimore members are seeking pensions for the first time but the biggest priority is bringing hourly wages closer to those in other cities.
“That’s how far behind we are,” Lingo said.
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A man found frozen in a Pennsylvania cave in 1977 has finally been identified, closing the book on a nearly 50-year-long mystery.
The Berks County Coroner’s Office identified the remains of the missing man as Nicholas Paul Grubb, 27, from Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.
Surprisingly, advanced technology played no role in identifying the “Pinnacle Man,” a moniker inspired by the peak in the Appalachian Mountains near where Grubb was found.
Instead, Berks County Coroner John Fielding told reporters at a Tuesday news conference that a Pennsylvania State Police detective discovered the missing link to the cold case the old-fashioned way, by digging through files.
Hikers find ‘Pinnacle Man’
On January 16, 1977, hikers found a man’s frozen body in a cave just below the Pinnacle, in Albany Township, the Berks County Coroner said at the news conference.
During the autopsy he was unable to be identified based on his appearance, clothing or belongings, according to George Holmes, chief deputy coroner of Berks County. The cause of death, according to Holmes, was determined to be a drug-induced overdose. There were no signs of trauma to Grubb’s body suggesting foul play, the coroner’s office said.
Dental records and fingerprints were collected from the man’s body during his autopsy, according to Holmes, who added that the fingerprints were misplaced.
A break in the case
More than 42 years passed before authorities revisited the cold case, according to CNN affiliate WFMZ, which reported Grubb’s body was exhumed in 2019 after dental records linked him to two missing person cases in Florida and Illinois.
Berks County forensic experts performed an exam in 2019, and DNA samples were taken to update his record in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs. But they did not match the two missing person cases, the coroner’s office said.
Fast-forward to early August, when there was a major break in the cold case. Ian Keck of the Pennsylvania State Police found the lost fingerprint card from Grubb’s 1977 autopsy.
Keck submitted the fingerprint card to NamUs on August 12, according to Holmes, and within an hour an FBI fingerprint expert matched the Pinnacle Man’s fingerprints to Grubb’s.
One of Grubb’s family members was notified by the Berks County Coroner’s Office, who confirmed Grubb’s identity. The family member asked the office to place his remains in the family plot.
“This identification brings a long awaited resolution to his family, who have been notified and expressed their deep appreciation for the collective efforts that made it possible. It is moments like these that remind us of the importance of our work to provide answers, to bring closure and to give the unidentified a name and a story,” Fielding said.
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