The pope asks the Vatican media who reads their news

Pope Francis called on Vatican media officials to justify their work by asking how many people read their news at all. Francis asked this during a visit to the Media and Public Relations Office, which costs the Holy See more than all its embassies around the world. The pope visited the Dicastero per la Comunicazione on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Vatican Radio and the 160th anniversary of the Vatican newspaper L’Oservatore Romano. Faced with a major pension shortfall and a projected Vatican deficit of 50m euros this year, Pope Francis has ordered a three to 10 percent pay cut for senior Vatican officials and suspended two-year seniority bonuses.

The Holy Father has vowed not to fire anyone to make up for the loss of the financial crisis as a result of the pandemic, which affected one of the Vatican’s main sources of income – ticket sales for Vatican museums. But in a sort of warning to Vatican communications staff, he began his unannounced remarks with the question: “There are many reasons for concern about radio, the newspaper, but one thing touches my heart: How many people listen to radio?” How many people read L’Osservatore Romano? ”The pope asks. He said that they work well, their offices are nice and organized, but there is a “danger” that the result of their work will not go where it should. He warned them not to fall victim to “deadly” functionality – when they do everything they need to do, but they really don’t achieve anything.

The question of the relationship between the costs and benefits of the Vatican’s media operations has been raised many times, as the communications service spends more on the Holy See’s annual budget than any other department. According to the latest figures, the Dicastero per la Comunicazione has a budget of € 43 million for 2021, which is about 20 percent of the Vatican’s total budget. The cost of the service is higher than the total cost of ten other Vatican departments. The Vatican has long justified these costs because communication operations are paramount to the Holy See’s core mission: to spread the Catholic faith throughout the world.

The head of this service, Paolo Rufini, said he understood the pope’s words as an invitation to a creative vision for the future, although he acknowledged the harsh media reality today. He recalled that Francis had told officials to “let reality slap them” and that the comment was a kind of call to wake up. Vatican Radio broadcasts 1,000 radio networks around the world in various languages. L’Oservatore Romano says 21,500 readers read it every day through the print and online versions, although that number rises to 40,000 when the different languages ​​distributed by the dioceses are taken into account.

Vatican News, the Holy See’s main Internet portal, has an average of 21 million page views per month, but it’s not clear how many readers it is.

Council of Europe wants to enforce harmful coercive psychiatric treaments – UN experts oppose

Independent UN human rights experts called on Friday for a European body of intergovernmental experts to stop legislation supporting coercive mental health measures.

Five UN experts issued a statement calling upon the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics to withdraw a draft  Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention – a treaty protecting the human rights of people with regard to biology and medicine – that would codify a  mental health policy based on coercion and bring “stigmatization and fear to people with psychosocial disabilities”. “Overwhelming evidence from the European Disability Forum, Mental Health Europe and other organizations and growing consensus within the United Nations including at the World Health Organization (WHO), show that forced admission to medical institutions and coercive treatments in institutions will bring harmful effects such as pain, trauma, humiliation [and] shame”, the experts said. This is incompatible with contemporary human rights principles and standards.

Quell the draft

If adopted during a vote in early June, the draft Additional Protocol would continue to allow all the 47 State parties of the Council of Europe to use coercive measures against people with mental health conditions, including their forcible committment to psychiatric institutions.

The coercive approach to mental health is “doing harm to people with disabilities” and “we should not go backwards to authorize this outdated approach”, the experts said, adding that individutals with psychosocial disabilities “have the right to live in the community and to refuse medical treatment”.

“We call upon all State delegations to object to the draft Additional Protocol in the upcoming meeting and we urge the Council of Europe to end legitimizing forced institutionalization and the use of coercion against persons with disabilities, including older persons with disabilities”, they underscored.

Be part of the future

The controversial draft treaty has also aroused opposition within Europe and from the international community.

Voices within the Council of Europe, such as the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights have all been vocal against the draft Protocol.

“When there are efforts worldwide to reform mental health policy, it comes to our surprise that the Council of Europe, a major regional human rights organization, is planning to adopt a treaty that would be a setback to reverse all positive developments in Europe and spread a chilling effect elsewhere in the world”, the experts said.

They stressed that the Council of Europe now has “a unique opportunity to shift away from old-fashioned coercive approaches” to mental health, towards concrete steps to promote supportive mental health services and realize human rights for all “without discrimination on the grounds of disability”.

“We urge the Council of Europe to be part of the future and not part of the past in mental health”, concluded the experts.

Click here for the names of the experts who endorsed in this statement.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. They are not UN staff nor paid for their work.

Hackers attack 70 times per minute

Hackers attack 70 times per minute: what happens when a computer is left unsecured on the internet

Every device connected to the internet has a unique IP address. Those IP addresses are public, and they allow computers to find and communicate with each other via the Internet Protocol. Normally, we want to allow legitimate parties to connect to our IP addresses, and keep out adversaries by using firewalls, authentication, and access control.

But what if we didn’t take any of those precautions? How long would it take for malicious hackers to find and attack your device? What methods would they use? What do they seek? And where do they come from?

Comparitech researchers sought to find the answers to these questions by setting up honeypots—dummy computers designed to lure in attackers so we can record their every step.

Researchers set up honeypot devices emulating a range of internet-accessible services and supporting a wide range of protocols including RDP, SSH, MySQL, VNC, and more. The honeypots were left unsecured so that no authentication was required to access and attack it. Using this method, Comparitech researchers sought to find out which types of attacks would occur, at what frequency, and where they come from.

In total, our researchers found 101,545 attacks in a 24-hour period, or 70 attacks per minute. To give you some idea of how much attacks have increased, a 2007 University of Maryland study recorded a mere 2,244 attacks per day, a fraction of what we recorded in 2021. Read more on the FULL STUDY– Comparitech Study

About Comparitech: A pro-consumer website providing information, tools, and comparisons to help consumers in the US, UK and further afield to research and compare tech services. Founded in 2015, it is now a remote team of 30 researchers, writers, developers, and editors covering a wide range of online services including VPNs, password managers, ID theft protection, antivirus, internet providers, network monitoring. Each month, over 1 million people visit Comparitech.com and trust them to help them make more savvy decisions. Collectively they have produced over 1,200 reviews and guides. They conduct a battery of tests on all products and services they review, such as the 200+ automated speed tests that they perform daily on a wide range of VPNs.

World Environment Day - what are your plans?

Happy World Environment Day….almost!

Do you have plans around the 5^th of June to recognize this incredibly important day?  How to participate in a celebration or day of action.  I’m sharing those details again along with two specific ways that you and your Cooperation Circle can make a world of difference, locally and/or globally in the weeks around World Environment Day, June 5^th.

This World Environment Day launches a new decade of environmental action at the United Nations: the Decade on Eco-systems Restoration.  Please do learn more about this on the website – there are videos, and images and tool-kits for restoring all sorts of eco-systems (forests, farmlands, cities, wetlands and oceans).  This year, Pakistan is hosting World Environment Day.  Let’s support our United Religions Initiative family there while taking action in the places where we live. Register your World Environment Day action HERE (https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/).

World Environment Day Idea ONE: Go Arctic Free! 

Honoring the arctic eco-system, we know, has become gravely important.  We need to let the ice by ice.  Industry and activity in the arctic threatens the health of our whole planet.  One of URI’s CCs, MAPS, is working to educate humans around the world about the need to protect this eco-system.  Let’s all make sure our countries understand that we want to keep the ice frozen.  Sign the petition and learn more HERE (https://parvati.org/sign-the-petition-arctic-free/).

World Environment Day Idea TWO: Plant trees with RESTOR! 

I’m very excited to share with you a new initiative called Restor.  I believe Restor has great potential to support us in our efforts to restore Earth.  Please check out the links and see what you think, and then, as you wish, please share the information with your CC and greater community so that everyone interested in natural ecosystems can get engaged. Here is a short blurb about the project:

Restor uses science and data to connect people, land and one other to enable global restoration at scale. The Restor platform is easy to use, and evolves as more participants add their local information.  Because of the technology used, Restor creates globally consistent information and ensures that users have autonomy and flexibility in what they share. Restor provides information and tools for all different kinds of practitioners, from individuals planting native species at home, to NGOs restoring forests, to farmers adopting sustainable agriculture practices.

In line with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, Restor is being launched in the first week of June.  If every who cares used Restor when we planted trees, can you imagine what the pictures we will have of our healing planet?  You can sign up HERE (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTkMi37gMIPJYpi6-NOQiUFw-zI8JGROedbFpziYfnyA2ehg/viewform?pli=1).

World Environment Day Idea THREE: Free Choice! 
Focus on restoring eco-systems everywhere! For Earth, Her eco-systems and in celebration of Creation’s incredible diversity, Happy World Environment Day!

The cycle of violence in Gaza will stop if the social and economic problems are resolved

“The man in the shadows” – the Bulgarian in the negotiations for negotiations between Israel and Hamas

The famous Arab hit from the recent past of the Egyptian Amr Diab “Tamaali Maak”, translated as “Always with you”, performed by the famous Israeli actor Tsahi Khalevi. The performance of this song is quite symbolic of the truce reached between Israel and Hamas.

A truce in which there is a Bulgarian trace – the Bulgarian Miroslav Zafirov, who works in the UN Office for the Middle East Peace Process and for years has been the UN liaison with Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, as well as with the Israeli state

I finished history in the Middle East and have been working in the Middle East for many years. Initially as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and for the last seven years as a UN employee, “Zafirov told bTV.

In order to achieve the difficult truce, he said, “the stubbornness of the mediators prevailed.”

We stepped on the unwillingness of both sides to negotiate. The terms and future of this truce are being discussed first and negotiations are under way between the various countries on the ground,” said Zafirov, who said he had spoken to Hamas every day for the past 72 hours with the UN special coordinator for the Middle East.

The purpose of these efforts is to talk to them stubbornly in these critical moments, to argue with them,” Zafirov explained. According to him, this was extremely important” in the last hours of escalation, to make it clear which lines are not must be passed”.

Hamas seemed to reach out and try to exert influence among the population of East Jerusalem and not a small part of the West Bank and a significant part of key points in Israel itself among the Arab population were the “red lines” that Israel strongly disapproved of. wants to negotiate.

Hamas, on the other hand, has made it a condition for Israeli security forces to stop their aggressive behavior toward Palestinians in East Jerusalem. These are the two things the two sides have been staring at and for which they still do not want to negotiate,” Zafirov revealed.

“If this agreement is violated, then we would enter a rather devastating war, which would go beyond what we remember from 2014,” the diplomat said.

This node is not untied. He’s been tied up for many years, and I’m a little afraid he’s getting a little unable to untie himself. And I’m not convinced that it may not happen in the coming months, but sooner or later it will happen again, ” Miroslav predicts.

There is a formula according to which both sides – I’m not talking about Hamas, but about the Palestinian political elite and Israel – are ready to sit at the table and negotiate within parameters that are already known to the mediators. There are some that will be renegotiated. We are constantly thinking about what to do next time and to tell you honestly even countries with much greater mediation skills, I think he was on the verge of saying that he could not cope.

All mediators should be congratulated,” the diplomat commented.

“I can’t say if being a Bulgarian helps me. Rather, it helps that a person is trying to stay normal. Let me tell you – it’s not always very easy. The tension is very high, especially in such moments, because Maybe it’s a lot of speculation, but maybe that’s what unites them – I think the Israelis, the Palestinians and the Bulgarians are extremely stubborn when we want to be stubborn. it helps a lot,” says Miroslav Zafirov.

He says he is not sure he understands the two sides in the conflict, although many people have made careers in recent years, claiming to understand Hamas and Israel.

“What is happening in Israel, in Palestine, in the Hamas organization itself is very difficult (to understand), especially if you are not from this neighborhood,” Miroslav commented.

Until the social and economic problems in Gaza are resolved, the cycle of violence will not stop, the diplomat predicted.

After the long marathon, our diplomat will not rest. He is due to meet with one of the delegations on Monday, followed by a round of ceasefire talks.

New social commitments after the Porto Summit Meeting

As part of the social commitment of the Social Summit in Porto, the partners have brought together around three headline targets for 2030, set out in the Commission’s Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights. The participants in the meeting marked the following goals: At least 78% of people between the ages of 20 and 64 must be employed; At least 60% of all adults should take part in training each year; The number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion should be reduced by at least 15 million people, including at least 5 million children.

The summit marks a key moment for social rights in Europe, as the social partners and civil society call on EU Heads of State and Government to support the action plan and its headline targets, as well as to set ambitious national targets that can adequately contribute to achieving European goals.

The EU Social Summit aims to strengthen the commitment of Member States, the European institutions, the social partners and civil society to the implementation of the Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights.

EC President Ursula von der Leyen has put the European Pillar of Social Rights at the heart of the Commission’s action to ensure a fair and inclusive recovery.

The social summit and the informal meeting of EU leaders in Porto are taking place on two consecutive days. The Social Summit will take place today, focusing on the best way to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa addressed the CoR’s plenary session last week, stressing the role of cities and regions as key partners in the success of Europe‘s fair, green and digital recovery.

EU leaders met in Porto on May 8th to agree on specific quantitative targets and deadlines for implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights, which was announced in 2017 in Gothenburg.

As stated in the Plan presented by the European Commission in March, the new headline targets assume that by 2030 at least 78% of people between the ages of 20 and 64 must be employed, at least 60% each year. of all adults should participate in training, and the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion should be reduced by at least 15 million.

The European Social Fund + will be one of the main instruments for the socio-economic recovery of the European Union from the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund’s budget for the next programming period 2021-2027 will amount to 99.26 billion euros. The European Fund for the Most Deprived will be integrated into the ESF +. It will provide food and basic material assistance to the most vulnerable groups in society.

In their Strategic Agenda 2019-2024, EU leaders have underlined that the Pillar needs to be implemented, turning its principles into action at Union and Member State level with due regard for the respective competences. In its resolutions on a Strong Social Europe for Just Transitions and on the Child Guarantee, the European Parliament also strongly emphasised the need for a strong shared commitment to the materialisation of the Pillar rights and principles. In the debates developed by the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions the relevance of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan was stressed.

ESF + funds will support social innovation, the labor market and the most vulnerable in society. Support will be given to people who have lost their jobs or are counting on reduced incomes. The 2021-2027 Human Resources Development Program will receive nearly BGN 4 billion from the total ESF + budget. Special emphasis will be placed on measures aimed at young people who want to improve their skills or improve their education in order to find a better job.

The projects will stimulate lifelong learning, equal opportunities on the labor market and improve labor mobility. Over the next seven years, training will be provided to develop the skills needed for digital and green transitions.

UK police arrest eight for racist abuse targeted at Premier League football player

Eight men have been arrested and four others interviewed under caution as part of an investigation into racist abuse targeted at a Premier League football player, British Police announced on Friday.

The investigation was launched after the April 11 Premier League clash between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur during which one of the players from the London side was targeted with “a series of highly offensive and racist remarks on Twitter,” the Metropolitan police said in a statement.

“Through painstaking police work, the anonymous social media users were identified and tracked down,” it added.

The arrests and interviews were conducted throughout the UK with four men from Wales, two from Dorset, and others from Nottinghamshire, Greater Manchester, Lincolnshire, Cheshire and Bristol.

Eleven of the twelve men are aged below 32. The remaining one is 63.

“With a busy summer of football approaching we are committed to driving out this type of racist behaviour — it has no place in football,” Detective Sergeant Matt Simpson for the Met’s public order crime team, said.

“This action makes it abundantly clear that police will not stand for racist thuggery, even if it is committed online. The posts, all of which were on Twitter, were vulgar and were utterly unacceptable. There is no safe haven for this type of abusive behaviour,” he added.

Police did not name the player in the statement, but after the match Tottenham Hotspur condemned the “abhorrent abuse” directed at its South Korean forward Son Heung-min.

“We shall now undertake a full review alongside the Premier League to determine the most effective action moving forward,” it also said.

Later in the month, British football players led a weekend-long social media boycott to protest racist abuse on the platforms.

Kick It Out, the anti-racism charity which spearheaded the last month’s social media blackout, said on Friday that police’s announcement of arrests “sends a powerful message that online abuse is unacceptable and those found guilty will face real-life consequences.”

“It’s also important that we remain focused on the welfare of those who play, watch and work in football, and receive abuse, and we will continue to offer our support to those who need it,” CEO Tony Burnett added.

WCC calls for end to violence affecting places of worship in Holy Land

After Patriarchs and Heads of Jerusalem Churches express concern for Al-Aqsa Mosque worshippers and Sheikh Jarrah families in a 9 May statement over the recent violence in East Jerusalem, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca in a 12 May Statement on Israel and Palestine expressed mounting concern and profound grief at the rising toll of people killed and injured in the escalating violence in Israel and Palestine.

“We appeal urgently to all parties to step back from the brink of even more deadly and destructive conflict,” Sauca said. “We lament every one of the precious lives already lost, Palestinians and Israelis, in Gaza, in Ashkelon, near Lod, and elsewhere.”

During the demonstrations, tens of thousands of Muslims made their way to Ramadan prayers and activities at the al-Aqsa complex. Israeli police, saying Palestinians were throwing stones, stormed the building and courtyard on Monday with stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets. Over 200 Palestinians and several officers were injured. Today, armed police clashed again with Muslim visitors.

Sauca urged people to put down their arms, and work to address the injustices and mutual antagonisms that sustain the recurrent cycles of violence. The proper response, instead of violence, should be compassion and justice for the Palestinian people affected by this unfair and unjust situation.

The Israeli army and Palestinian radicals in the Gaza Strip have been exchanging missile strikes since May 10, following the outbreak of violence near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since the escalation of conflict with Israel, while about 5,600 people have been injured, the Wafa News Agency stated on Sunday citing the Health Ministry of the coastal enclave. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, announced a new wave of massive rocket bombardments of Israeli cities and army bases in response to Israel’s strikes, the Gaza radicals said in a statement broadcast by the Sawt Al-Aqsa radio station on Monday.

The statement is in concert with the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), based on an appeal from local church leaders to create an international presence in the country, accompanies the local people and communities, offering protective presence and witnessing their daily struggles and hopes. EAPPI provides a continuous presence of 25-30 Ecumenical Accompaniers, who serve in the field for three months, accompanying local people and communities, offering a protective presence, and witnessing their daily struggles and hopes. EAPPI is guided by “principled impartiality”: it takes no side in the conflict nor discriminates against anyone, but it is not neutral in terms of human rights and respect for international humanitarian law. Almost 1800 hundred Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) have served through the programme, and many of them have stayed involved and interested in working toward a just peace in Palestine and Israel.

A Christian delegation visited the Sheikh Jarrah community on 14 May, standing in solidarity with 28 families who not only face the threat of eviction but are living their day-to-day lives under worsening oppression. Their community has become one with streets full of stones, cars with broken windows, and the smell of “skunk water” used by the police.

We can only solve it through religious peace.

A prominent Israeli orthodox rabbi Michael Melchior has charged that the deadly violence sweeping Israel and Gaza will not be resolved by military might: “We can only solve it through religious peace.” 

Sheikh Imad Falogi, a former Hamas official in Gaza and close colleague of Melchior, says Muslims have no problem with people of the Jewish religion but feel disrespected by Israeli police and throngs of ultranationalist Israelis who visit al-Aqsa and are seen not as engaging in holy activities but as trying to take over “and create problems with Muslims.” When there are political problems, Falolgi adds, “the politicians should come to the rabbis and imams.”

Other Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza have also been calling for nonviolence and mutual respect.

SPIEGEL involved Merkel and Borissov in a scheme to supply low-quality masks from Bulgaria

The German army has ordered protective clothing from Bulgaria for hundreds of thousands of euros, which is of poor quality, but about which Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to have personally spoken to then-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

This is what SPIEGEL magazine says in an investigation indicating how the company Venera Style from Haskovo received an offer for such products, although until then it only made clothing. At the beginning of the pandemic, however, Venus offered to deliver two-layer masks – 85% cotton, 15% elastane – to Germany in the spring of 2020.

The publication comes months after the start of a massive scandal over the supply of substandard masks, which accused Merkel’s allies of corruption and put her party – the Christian Democrats – at a disadvantage on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

This is presented as remarkable at a time when Bulgaria needs them as much as Germany and has even imposed an export ban.

“Then why is Bulgaria sending masks to Germany?” The publication asks. And second, this business enjoys the highest level of support, such as that of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karenbauer and others, such as the chair of the Armed Forces Procurement Service. Kramp-Karenbauer is even preparing his personal assistant to board a plane to take samples from Sofia.

The Bundeswehr makes quick purchases, although the goods are questionable, as is their quality. “Letters received from SPIEGEL mention political reasons several times.” Protective suits are also sent to the Bundeswehr’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons protection department.

“Commands from above”

Here SPIEGEL draws attention to the direction of commands “from above” – ​​”not Bulgarian suppliers send their goods to Germany to be inspected, and the personal assistant of the Minister must take samples along with a team ready to fly to Bulgaria.

The next day. “The office and the ministry did not even comment on how much the flight cost or why the issue was so” politically important “- people familiar with the case say such a thing has never happened before.

It turns out that at a time when the Ministry of Health is flooded with proposals for masks and in violation of the procedure under which the Bundeswehr usually places orders. In addition, the production from Bulgaria does not have any identification marks or quality certificates.

In addition, samples show that the products are of poor quality; the conclusion is even that the user of the masks is not protected. It is the same with suits that can only be washed at a temperature of 30 to 40 degrees, which is not enough to eliminate viruses, and therefore can only be used once. However, the procurement service was activated and the process was declared “highly political”. A request is made to conclude the largest possible contract with Bulgarian companies to meet the needs of the army.

This includes orders small for Germany but serious for the clothing company Venus, covered by three contracts for six days: 200,000 masks for 246,000 euros. Another 11,000 protective suits are ordered from other manufacturers, despite obvious doubts about the quality.

Subsequent delivery of samples of suits and visors in April is also of poor quality, without certificates; a license is issued for limited use, the visors – for single use.

“But why are Bulgarian contracts so important in Berlin? The office is silent; talks with international partners are confidential,” SPIEGEL wrote. The magazine asked if the federal government should not have at least checked which companies were involved, especially if they were from a country that is the latest in the EU in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

Borissov and the companies in the scheme deny any allegations. In the Bundeswehr, however, protective suits are practically in stock, as are visors – some of these goods are not applicable for medical purposes, others may even be dangerous to consumers.

EU boost for culture | News | European Parliament

, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20210512STO04005/

Chinese persecutors of Falun Gong get sanctions by the U.S.

Falun Dafa reports that “U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has announced sanctions against a Chinese official who perpetrated human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province in China.“

“Today I am announcing the designation of Yu Hui… for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs,” said Secretary Blinken at a press briefing.

Yu and his immediate family are therefor now banned from traveling to the United States.

Mr. Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson stated that they “applaud the US Government and “Secretary Blinken” for issuing these sanctions on this official who “drove tremendous human suffering in Chengu against people who practice or support Falun Gong,”.

“This will surely send a potent message across China that the world is watching and there will be real-world consequences for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners,” Zhang added. “As the news spreads among the CCP’s security apparatus, it will very likely make some think twice about perpetrating further abuses.”

The sanctions were announced as the State Department transmitted its 2020 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom to the U.S. Congress. The report cites illegal arrests, detention, and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

Last year, the U.S. Government sanctioned Huang Yuanxiong, chief of China’s Xiamen Public Security Bureau Wucun police station in Fujian Province for his involvement in gross human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners.

Yu’s Chengdu City: A Hotbed of Suppression

Chengdu is known as having been particularly harsh in recent years in its crackdown against Falun Gong believers in the city.

Among those victimized in Chengdu during Yu’s tenure as a key official was Ms. Liu Guiying an engineer who was detained for over 20 months without trial and then sentenced illegally in 2018 to three years in prison for practicing Falun Gong and filing a complaint over previous torture and abuse. She subsequently suffered deliberate malnourishment and torture at Chengdu’s Women’s Prison.

Yu’s name was included in a database of 9,000 6-10 officials submitted by Falun Gong human rights workers to the State Department earlier this year.

Former Official of “China’s Gestapo”

Yu is the former director of the CCP’s notorious 6-10 office. Referred to by rights activists as the CCP’s “Gestapo for Falun Gong,” the 6-10 office was an extralegal police task force responsible for carrying out the mission of eliminating Falun Gong.

Established by former CCP leader Jiang Zemin and announced in a speech to elite cadres a month before the campaign against Falun Gong was announced in 1999, the organization has long existed outside China’s legal framework. Jiang granted it wide-ranging powers to use “every means necessary” to wipe out Falun Gong.

In his book A China More Just, human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng describes being shocked by the extent of the 6-10’s operations. “The immoral act that has shaken my soul most is the 6-10 Office and policeman’s regular practice of assaulting women’s genitals,” Gao wrote after his 2005 investigation. “Of those persecuted, almost every woman’s genitals and breasts and every man’s private parts have been sexually assaulted in a most vulgar fashion.”

In addition to torture and sexual abuse, 6-10 Office agents also administratively sentence  Falun Gong practitioners to labor camps and abducted adherents straight from their homes to brainwashing classes. As noted in a 2011 article on the 6-10 Office in the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief, “transformation” and coercive thought reform are a central aspect of the agency’s activities.

In addition to direct involvement in rights abuses, the 6-10 Office has possessed significant power to force the hands of other Party and government bodies.

“The 6-10 office is just like Hitler’s Gestapo,” says Guo Guoting, a Chinese human rights lawyer in exile. “They are powerful and they got enough financial support from the government so… they secretly control all the Falun Gong practitioners in their local areas.”