Gareth Southgate demands an end to white privilege in football

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Gareth Southgate demands an end to white privilege in football

Gareth Southgate has urged people to speak out against white privilege in football as he described the blocking of pathways for black coaches, managers and executives as the “biggest crime”.

The England manager believes the Football Association is working to make “the boardroom more representative, and that is gender as well as race”. But it is plain that there remains a long way to go and, with the Black Lives Matter movement prominent around the world, he feels it is a “moment for change”.

Southgate opened up as he considered the comments of Raheem Sterling, the Manchester City and England winger, from the beginning of the week. Sterling questioned why Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard had been given high-profile manager jobs after ending their playing careers whereas Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole had not, as he shone a light on the lack of BAME representation in positions of authority in the British game.

Gerrard took over at Rangers after coaching in the Liverpool academy for a little over a year while Lampard, now at Chelsea, got the Derby job a year or so after his retirement. Campbell, who has managed Macclesfield and Southend, has repeatedly spoken out about the prejudices he has encountered in the fight for opportunity at the highest levels. Cole hung up his boots last August and is the Chelsea under-15s coach.

“I think Ashley Cole is developing very well and on a similar route to what Steven did – in that Steven worked in Liverpool’s academy for a couple of years,” Southgate said. “On a broader scale, we lack that representation. The biggest crime for us in any area if we’re adults looking at kids is if they sit and think that a path in life isn’t possible. And is not accessible.

“I heard Jermain Defoe say a few days ago: ‘Is it worth me taking my [coaching] qualifications?’ We have to avoid the feeling that you can’t achieve something because that stops some people going for it. We have to make sure the opportunity is there when people are qualified and capable. And then, of course, they have to grasp that opportunity. If they can do well, they’ll role model what’s possible to the next generation.”

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Southgate namechecked Justin Cochrane, the England under-16s coach, as “somebody who is going to be a top coach”. He said: “We also shouldn’t look just at the ex-players or high-profile players because so many of the top managers haven’t been top, top international players. That route must also be open to black coaches that haven’t played at the highest level. There will be some super bright lads out there who have come through universities – they might go the route that a Graham Potter has taken by going back into university. We’ve got to make sure that all of those pathways are open.”

Southgate admitted that he had become more aware of white privilege as he got older, having not noticed it during his playing days, when being selected or not was “one of the few areas that was a meritocracy”. He got his break in management at Middlesbrough in 2006, shortly after retiring as a player at the club, despite not having his Uefa Pro Licence.

“I know that I got an opportunity at Middlesbrough when I wasn’t qualified,” Southgate said. “That came because I had worked at the club and the owner knew me. But I couldn’t say that opportunity would have been there for somebody else. And I think we are all very conscious of it.

“The power of what is happening at the moment is that people are standing together and these observations, these deeper-seated issues are rightly leading to the broader debate on opportunity, on privilege, and it’s important people speak out. I do feel there is a moment for change but I’m also conscious that we’ve been here before.

“People have spoken brilliantly over the last week – people like Troy Townsend, Chris Grant and David Olusoga. A lot of that will be uncomfortable for white people, in particular, but they are critical voices to be heard.

“It’s also important to hear from white voices because ultimately they are going to be in the positions to open up opportunity. We are the ones who have to be educated.”

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Police hunt jogger who kicked cygnet out of his way in Richmond Park

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Police hunt jogger who kicked cygnet out of his way in Richmond Park

Police are looking for a man who kicked a newborn cygnet out of his way while jogging instead of going around the young swan.

The “desperately poorly” bird is feared to have brain damage and is being cared for at a nearby sanctuary following the incident in London’s Richmond Park.

Met Police officers for the Royal Parks have issued an appeal for witnesses.

They says the suspect is a white male around 60 years old, 5ft 6in, and was wearing black running shorts and a vest at the time.

The incident happened around 5.30pm on Monday at the Pen Ponds area in the middle of the south-west London park.

Police said they had spoken to staff at the Swan Sanctuary, based in Shepperton, Middlesex, who said the cygnet is “still desperately poorly”.

“Unfortunately it’s not looking good for the cygnet,” Royal Parks Police posted on Twitter.

But they added: “Thankfully he is in good hands.”

Any witnesses should call 07920 586546 and quote reference 0705738/20.

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Prominent Uyghur Journalist Confirmed Detained After Nearly Three Years

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Prominent Uyghur Journalist Confirmed Detained After Nearly Three Years

A prominent Uyghur journalist has been confirmed detained in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) after disappearing nearly three years ago, according to an official in the regional capital Urumqi.

Qurban Mamut, the former editor-in-chief of the official Xinjiang Cultural Journal, went missing around November 2017, several months after he and his wife visited their son Bahram Qurban at his home in the U.S. state of Virginia—the first time the three had seen each other in more than nine years.

Qurban told RFA’s Uyghur Service in October 2018 that he had learned his father was taken to one of a network of internment camps in the XUAR, where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas have since April 2017 been detained without legal process.

He said that while his father was guilty of no crime, he was likely detained because “authorities regularly arrest people who have relatives living abroad [to gain leverage over them].”

Qurban’s information was corroborated by one of his father’s neighbors—a Uyghur student who was studying abroad at the time—who said he had learned of the arrest in April 2018 from other residents of the area and that authorities had made “threats” against other family members.

Mamut, of Kuchar (in Chinese, Kuche) county in the XUAR’s Aksu (Akesu) prefecture, earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from Xinjiang University in 1976 and worked as a journalist and editor for the official Xinjiang People’s Radio Station until 1984.

He worked for the Xinjiang Cultural Journal from 1985 until he retired as editor-in-chief in 2011, and was known for selecting works by the region’s most influential writers on Uyghur culture, history, politics, and social development for publication.

Scant information

Since his disappearance, Qurban’s family members in the XUAR have told him not to ask about his father’s case, suggesting that other relatives could be at risk over his inquiries. Regardless, he has continued to seek information about Mamut’s wellbeing through social media campaigns used by Uyghurs in exile to demand proof-of-life videos of their disappeared loved ones from Chinese authorities.

“Ultimately, I haven’t had a single opportunity to obtain any information about my father [other than that he was interned]—I’ve called so many different places and I’ve used every means I can think of to make calls, to get in touch,” Qurban recently told RFA.

“If only I could have spoken with someone, Uyghur or Han [Chinese], I would have been able to get something out of them. But I couldn’t. I was never able to successfully get in touch with anyone.”

RFA recently spoke with a Han Chinese employee of the Urumqi City Cultural Office who suggested calling the local branch office of the central government’s Bureau of Culture, but a Han staffer who answered the phone there said she had no knowledge of Qurban Mamut.

Another Han employee at the Bureau of Culture told RFA to speak with the Xinjiang Cultural Journal but was unable to provide a contact number.

However, a Han Chinese staffer at the Xinjiang Hall of Public Culture said she knew of Mamut and confirmed that he had been detained.

“He’s not currently here … he’s been retired for a long time,” she said.

“And then his situation later, perhaps you know, he’s currently classified as a ‘detained person.’”

When asked whether Mamut had been sentenced to prison or sent to an internment camp, the staffer said she did not know.

“I don’t know anything else about his situation,” she said. “If you want to know more, you should probably call our boss’s number.”

Targeting cultural identity

News of Mamut’s arrest comes amid reports of several Uyghur writers and intellectuals being taken into custody by authorities in the XUAR and either jailed or sent to internment camps as part of what Uyghurs in exile say is a calculated campaign to destroy the cultural identity of their ethnic group.

While Beijing initially denied the existence of the camps, China last year changed tack and began describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization, and help protect the country from terrorism.

But reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media outlets indicate that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often-overcrowded facilities.

Among those who have called for Beijing to shut down its camp system and end other rights violations in the region are U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, and several high-ranking lawmakers.

Last month, the U.S. Congress passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, a bill that would sanction Chinese government officials—including regional Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo—responsible for arbitrary incarceration, forced labor and other abuses in the XUAR.

The bill has been sent to the desk of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to sign it into law in coming days.

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Elise Anderson. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.



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One America News, the Network That Spreads Conspiracies to the West Wing

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One America News, the Network That Spreads Conspiracies to the West Wing

The conservative cable network One America News has a minuscule audience, attracts few readers on the web and has struggled to break into the television mainstream.

But thanks to one powerful viewer in the White House, the network’s influence — and its conspiracy theories — are echoing in the highest reaches of American politics.

President Trump, responding to a One America News segment, floated a baseless theory on Tuesday that a 75-year-old man in Buffalo who was knocked to the ground by the police — and hospitalized after bleeding from his head — was “an ANTIFA provocateur” who had tried to interfere with law enforcement.

“@OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Could be a setup?”

There is no evidence to support the claims about the man, Martin Gugino, a longtime peace activist who has been affiliated with human-rights groups and the Catholic Worker movement.

But One America News aired a segment that presented the false theory as reported news, as opposed to a baseless conspiracy. The segment would probably have faded into obscurity had Mr. Trump not chosen to amplify it to his nearly 82 million Twitter followers.

The One America News correspondent who narrated the segment, Kristian Rouz, is a Russian native who has also worked for Sputnik, a Kremlin-controlled news outlet, which was first reported by The Daily Beast. Sputnik has been accused by intelligence services of contributing to Russia’s efforts to interfere in American elections.

Later on Tuesday, One America News aired a follow-up segment that portrayed Mr. Gugino as a liberal extremist, “far from the kindly old man that many in the media are describing,” in the words of a correspondent, Pearson Sharp.

One America News, based in San Diego, was founded in 2013 by Robert Herring, a California businessman who made a fortune in the technology industry. The network rallied behind Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election, and its coverage increasingly shifted to cheerleading on behalf of the president and his administration.

Mr. Trump, a keen tracker of his media coverage, took notice. On Twitter and sometimes at public events, he often promotes One America News as a preferable alternative to Fox News, another network known for conservative opinion whose coverage occasionally rankles Mr. Trump.

Inside the West Wing, One America News often airs on television screens alongside mainstream cable news networks.

The Herring family, in turn, has positioned One America News as a destination for pro-Trump viewers who feel alienated from more mainstream conservative outlets. Its White House correspondent, Chanel Rion, is now a staple of nationally televised news briefings, often called on by Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.

Ms. Rion’s questions tend to be soft ones, and she has parroted some administration talking points. She was also rebuked by her fellow White House correspondents after she attended briefings in violation of social distancing guidelines intended to protect journalists from the coronavirus.

Ms. Rion’s website describes her “as a fierce foe of anything Clinton, of everything Obama, and as a total and unrelenting enemy of academic left-liberalism and political correctness anywhere.”

In the segment about Mr. Gugino, the One America News reporter, Mr. Rouz, claims that “newly released video appeared to show Gugino using a police tracker on his phone trying to scan police communications during the protest.” The footage, as seen in the segment, offers no obvious evidence to back up that assertion.

The allegation of a link between Mr. Gugino and a far-left antifascist group referred to as “antifa” appears to have originated on Conservative Treehouse, a fringe right-wing website that has spread baseless conspiracy theories. The site bills itself as a “Rag Tag Bunch of Conservative Misfits.”

The unsubstantiated theory that antifa activists were responsible for riots and looting at the protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died last month after being pinned to the ground by a white police officer, was the biggest piece of protest misinformation tracked by Zignal Labs, a research firm that follows the spread of falsehoods in the media.

In response to an inquiry, a spokeswoman for One America News, Krista McClelland, wrote in an email on Tuesday: “From numerous sources, O.A.N.’s investigative team is aware of Mr. Gugino’s anti-police sentiment and statements.”

Robert Herring, the network’s chief executive, claimed in a Twitter post that his network would present “follow-up reporting” to back up its claims about Mr. Gugino. The follow-up segment on Tuesday afternoon asserted that Mr. Gugino “had ties to antifa, the violent terrorist group.”

“Mr. President, you haven’t let us down on doing what you say and we won’t let you down as your source for credible news!” Mr. Herring wrote.



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Sanctions on Syrian government also threaten Washington’s Kurdish allies

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Sanctions on Syrian government also threaten Washington’s Kurdish allies

Jun 9, 2020

Officials from northeast Syria’s Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration say their region is entering an economic crisis as US and international sanctions on Syria’s central government in Damascus have helped send the country’s currency into free fall.

The Syrian pound sunk below 3,000-to-one US dollar over the weekend, with a new round of US sanctions under Congress’ Caesar Act expected to kick in next week.

The sanctions do not directly target the Autonomous Administration, which is tied to a Kurdish-led alliance of militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF took control of northeast Syria, with a population of some 4 million, with the support of the US-led international military coalition during the war against the Islamic State. But the US has not supported the Autonomous Administration, which has more than 100,000 employees, so a significant part of its revenue comes from selling oil and grain to the Assad regime.

The Autonomous Administration has formed an economic crisis body to help brace for the impending effect of new sanctions. On Saturday, the administration announced it will purchase wheat from local farmers at a rate based on the dollar, eschewing the unstable Syrian pound. The price has been set at $0.17 per kilogram.

“It’s better than the rate [offered by] the Syrian regime,” said Fahad Fatah, who owns a wheat field near Qamishli. “The situation in general here is a catastrophe.”

The administration forbade the selling of wheat outside of areas if its control last week, snubbing the Syrian central government in Damascus, which has vowed to recapture the autonomous northeast rather than tolerate future autonomy. Many outdoor markets were closed this week in a number of cities from Manbij to Qamishli as traders sought to wait out the Syrian pound’s rapid plunge.

“What we are seeing in northeast Syria is, I would say, disastrous,” said Mohammed, who works on stabilization projects funded by USAID for Syria’s northeast. Mohammed spoke on the condition that only his first name would be used.

Senior Autonomous Administration officials Badran Jiakurd and Ilham Ahmed have said that Ambassador William Roebuck, a senior member of the US State Department’s Syria team, assured during a recent visit that their administration would be exempt from the upcoming sanctions — but what that means, they say, is not clear.

A senior northeast Syrian official told Al-Monitor that as of Monday, US officials have offered little explanation as to what sort of trade will still be feasible once the Caesar Act goes into effect.

Complicating the picture, the State Department has declined to confirm Roebuck’s alleged assurances. “We do not comment on the substance of private, diplomatic conversations or preview potential sanctions designations,” a State Department spokesperson contacted via email told Al-Monitor.

Though American diplomats have signaled lenience to northeast Syrian officials in applying the restrictions, many businessmen who facilitate trade between the Autonomous Administration and the regime will be sanctioned, according to Dareen Khalifa, senior Syria analyst at International Crisis Group.

“What the Autonomous Administration is not going to be spared of is the rapid depreciation of the Syrian lira,” Khalifa told Al-Monitor by phone.

Another concern is the discretionary application of Caesar sanctions, and whether Washington officials in the future will apply them consistently, Khalifa said.

“Of course the sanctions are not targeting the northeast. They’re targeting the Syrian economy and the northeast is part of that,” said Ahed al-Hendi, a Syria analyst based in Washington.

“Trade is nearly stopped. Markets are not functioning. Nobody is selling or buying anything,” Mohammed told Al-Monitor

Renewed protests broke out in Deir ez-Zor and Shadadi this month, with people demanding better living conditions.

“We don’t see any moves of the Americans trying to help,” Mohammed said. “Only the average Syrians will be impacted [by the sanctions].”

The only open border crossing connecting northeast Syria to foreign trade lies at Semalka, which leads to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. State Department efforts to convince Russia to open a new border crossing between Iraq and northeast Syria have so far made little headway, and the only airport in the autonomous region is controlled by the Syrian regime.

Nonetheless, the economic situation in the northeast remains better than under government controlled areas. The autonomous administration pays its employees significantly more than the Syrian government pays its own employees in the northeast, and the administration is currently considering doubling salaries to keep up with inflation. 

Despite the rapidly rising prices, many daily commodities are still more affordable in the northeast than in regime-controlled areas. A cylinder of cooking gas in cities of Syria’s regime-controlled west coast sometimes can cost as much as 30,000 pounds, whereas in the northeast, one can cost about 3,000 pounds, Mohammed said.

Still, the economies are deeply intertwined, and most market commodities sold in the northeast come from government-controlled areas.

There is no sign that Washington intends toto change course on its Syria policy any time soon, as State Department officials say they have interpreted the Assad regime’s moves to isolate tycoon Rami Makhlouf with cautioned optimism that the sanctions may be working.

“My recipe is more of the same,” said James Jeffrey, the State Department’s top official on Syria policy, last month.

The United States has rallied its allies around the world not to provide reconstruction aid to areas under Assad regime control in a bid to force the regime to adopt significant political reforms after nine years of brutal civil war.



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Tropical Storm Cristobal captured in astronaut, satellite imagery

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Tropical Storm Cristobal captured in astronaut, satellite imagery

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy caught this photo of Tropical Storm Cristobal from the International Space Station on June 8, 2020 as the storm battered the U.S. Gulf Coast. (Image credit: NASA/Chris Cassidy via Twitter)

Photos of now-Tropical Depression Cristobal taken by a NASA astronaut and a satellite show the powerful storm tearing through the Gulf Coast region and making its way north across the United States.

Astronaut Chris Cassidy on the International Space Station captured four views of Cristobal, then still a tropical storm, on Monday (June 8) as it appeared from 260 miles (420 kilometers) above Earth. 



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Rapper Wretch 32 shares video of his father being Tasered

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Rapper Wretch 32 shares video of his father being Tasered

Rapper Wretch 32 has shared a video of his 62-year-old father being Tasered by police at his home in north London.

he footage shows Millard Scott tumbling downstairs after an officer is heard to warn: “Police officer with a Taser. Stay where you are.”

As officers ask if he is OK and tell him to keep still, a distressed woman can be heard saying: “They’ve Tasered him.”

It seems at this moment in time we are being singled out and targetedMillard Scott

Speaking to ITV News, Mr Scott said he believed he would not have been Tasered if he were white.

“I’m lucky to be alive,” he said.

“The only people who have invaded our space are the Metropolitan Police. The only people who seem to ignore the guidelines put out there are the Metropolitan Police.

“It seems at this moment in time we are being singled out and targeted.”

His 35-year-old son, rapper Wretch 32, whose real name is Jermaine Scott, told the broadcaster there has been “no progression” since he grew up watching his father and uncle “fight against police brutality”.

He shared the 36-second clip on his Twitter account, where it has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

He wrote: “This is how the police think they can treat a 62 year old black man in Tottenham but this 1 happens to be my dad.”

At the start of the clip officers can be seen entering the front door of the house as a woman tells them: “I’m not resisting, don’t touch me, social distancing, please don’t touch me.”

The Met said officers went to the property as part of “a long-running operation to tackle drugs supply linked to serious violence”.

A statement said: “As officers entered the premises, a man came downstairs and started moving towards an officer suddenly.

“He was ordered to remain where he was but continued towards officers who, after several warnings, deployed a Taser.

The incident, including body worn footage, has been reviewed by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards and no indication of misconduct has been identifiedMetropolitan Police

“The man was not arrested, but was assessed by the London Ambulance Service at the scene. He did not require further medical treatment.

“Officers from the North Area Command Unit have liaised with the family to discuss any concerns they have about the incident.

“The incident, including body worn footage, has been reviewed by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards and no indication of misconduct has been identified.”

Police said a 22-year-old man found in the house was arrested and charged with encouraging another to commit an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007, while a 52-year-old woman was charged with obstructing police after being interviewed under caution at a later date.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called for an investigation by the police watchdog.

“I have asked the Metropolitan Police for an urgent explanation of this distressing incident which is understandably causing considerable concern,” he said.

“It is imperative that the incident is properly investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

“It is absolutely vital that our police service retains the trust of the communities it serves.”

PA

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Stoke boss Michael O’Neill tests positive for coronavirus; Man Utd friendly cancelled

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Stoke boss Michael O’Neill tests positive for coronavirus; Man Utd friendly cancelled

Stoke boss O’Neill tests positive for COVID-19 with match at Carrington cancelled immediately

Last Updated: 09/06/20 10:44pm


Stoke manager Michael O’Neill has tested positive for coronavirus

Manchester United were forced to cancel their friendly with Stoke at the last minute after the Championship side’s manager Michael O’Neill tested positive for coronavirus.

The sides were due to meet at United’s Carrington training centre but the match was immediately abandoned without kicking a ball when the Northern Irishman tested positive, with United insisting none of their squad came into contact with him.

United had been stepping up their preparations for the return of the Premier League on June 17, with their first match back against Tottenham next Friday, and it appears the squad still trained after Stoke left Carrington.

O’Neill was showing no symptoms of the virus when he got news of his positive test.

“Stoke City can confirm that manager Michael O’Neill has tested positive for the Covid-19 virus following the latest round of testing on Monday (June 8),” the Potters said in a statement.

“O’Neill had tested negative in the previous five rounds of testing. He will now follow the relevant guidance and undergo a period of isolation, whilst continuing to be in regular virtual contact with his coaching staff and players.

“Assistant manager Billy McKinlay will take charge of training as the Potters prepare for their game against Reading on June 20. The club will be making no further comment on this matter.”

Man United insist none of their squad came into contact with the infected Stoke boss

Man United insist none of their squad came into contact with the infected Stoke boss

In the latest round of Premier League coronavirus testing, there were no new positive cases confirmed.

The Premier League say they tested 1,195 players and club staff for COVID-19 on Thursday June 4 and Friday June 5.

This was the sixth round of testing and the second time there have been zero positives, with just one positive in total in the last three rounds.

Since the programme began, the Premier League has now carried out 6,274 tests for COVID-19, with 13 positives and 6,261 negatives.

There were six positives from three clubs in the first round of testing, followed by two positives from two clubs, four positives from three clubs, zero positives, one positive – and now a second all-clear.

Project Restart rules require a player who returns a positive test to remain away from group activities for 14 days (subject to the return of a negative test after seven days, should the player be asymptomatic).

Testing will continue on a twice-weekly basis.

Watch the Premier League live on Sky Sports

1:33
West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady has revealed some of the details behind the Premier League’s Project Restart, including a traffic-light system at matches

West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady has revealed some of the details behind the Premier League’s Project Restart, including a traffic-light system at matches

  • 64 live games on Sky Sports from provisional restart date of June 17
  • 25 games to be made freely available
  • New Sky Sports digital innovations also planned to enhance fan experience

The Premier League 2019/20 season will provisionally restart on Wednesday, June 17 and Sky, the UK’s leading football broadcaster, will make 25 games available ‘free to air’ – including Everton vs Liverpool on the first full weekend back – for everyone in the UK to enjoy.

Sky Sports will show 64 live Premier League games when the season resumes. In addition to the 39 matches already scheduled to be broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports before the coronavirus interruption, 25 more matches will be available on both Sky Sports Premier League and Sky’s free-to-air Pick channel, allowing the whole nation to be part of the return of live sport.

To celebrate the return of the Premier League, Sky Sports will also launch a host of innovative new features and updates to give fans an even more immersive experience and share the moments live with family and friends on virtual platforms.

Hugely encouraging results not just as an individual set of data as not one player or member of staff at a club has tested positive for Covid-19, but collectively the data from the testing now is showing a trend that the medical protocols that are in place at every Premier League are robust.

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Chesapeake Energy, a Fracking Pioneer, Is Reeling

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Chesapeake Energy, a Fracking Pioneer, Is Reeling

HOUSTON — Shares of Chesapeake Energy, a pioneer in extracting natural gas from shale rock that came to be known for an illegal scheme to suppress the price of oil and gas leases, went on a wild ride on Tuesday amid reports that it was preparing a bankruptcy filing.

Trading was halted for more than three hours in the morning. After buying and selling resumed, the trading was quickly interrupted again by circuit breakers. The company’s shares closed just below $24 for a loss of about 66 percent for the day.

Chesapeake’s successes at using hydraulic fracturing to produce gas helped convert the United States from a natural gas importer into a major global exporter. But the company overextended itself by amassing a large debt and has been struggling to survive over the last decade. It is the latest of more than a dozen heavily indebted oil and gas businesses to seek bankruptcy protection since the coronavirus pandemic took hold and Saudi Arabia and Russia flooded the global market with oil this spring.

The company hired advisers to explore bankruptcy in recent months after reporting a loss of $8.3 billion in the first quarter, and said it had just $82 million in cash at the end of March. Chesapeake was forced to write down the value of oil and gas assets by roughly $8.5 billion this year. With $9.5 billion in debts at the end of last year, it has bond payments of $192 millions that are due in August.

Under its swashbuckling former chief executive Aubrey McClendon, the company drilled across Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Wyoming and Louisiana, borrowing billions of dollars along the way. Mr. McClendon was audacious as he aggressively outbid competitors on land leases and explored widely in the early 2000s, although he also drilled many wells that disappointed investors. By 2011, he and others who followed in his footsteps produced a glut of natural gas that sent Chesapeake and other companies to the brink of collapse.

To find a use for all that natural gas, Mr. McClendon went on a campaign to promote compressed natural gas vehicles, but the effort went nowhere.

Before his ouster in 2013, Mr. McClendon built a luxurious campus for the company in Oklahoma City, and acquired trophy assets like the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team, interests in a French winery and a $12 million antique map collection. The basketball team still plays in Chesapeake Energy Arena, which was a symbol of Oklahoma City’s arrival as a gas hub.

But Mr. McClendon was also known to cut corners, which got him and his company in trouble. He was charged in 2016 with conspiring to suppress prices for oil and natural gas leases. The indictment said he had orchestrated a conspiracy in which two oil and gas companies colluded not to bid against each other for several leases in northwestern Oklahoma from late 2007 to early 2012.

A day after he was indicted, Mr. McClendon, 56, died in a crash in Oklahoma City after his car hit a bridge at high speed.

The company’s current chief executive, Robert D. Lawler, tried to revive Chesapeake by producing more oil and selling gas assets. But the boom in shale drilling in recent years also produced a glut in crude oil, sending prices lower. The economic slowdown after the spread of the coronavirus was the latest blow.

Mr. Lawler has said Chesapeake, which employs 1,900 people, intended to continue operating the business if it filed for bankruptcy.

“Chesapeake was a real icon of what the oil business can do,” said Darlene S. Wallace, president of Columbus Oil, an Oklahoma company. “It’s sad that it has come to this, but it is also a big reminder that no one is too big to fail.”

There have been rumors of a bankruptcy for months, but over the last few days, trading in the company’s stock has been tumultuous. On Monday, Chesapeake shares nearly tripled in value on heavy volume amid 22 trading halts before Bloomberg News reported that the company was planning to seek bankruptcy protection. Shares of the company had climbed roughly 300 percent since a 1-for-200 reverse stock split in mid-April until Tuesday’s sharp decline.

But the company’s bonds have been trading below 10 percent of their face value, suggesting that debt investors had little confidence in Chesapeake’s ability to repay the money it owes.

Nineteen American oil and gas producers have already filed for bankruptcy this year, including Ultra Petroleum and Whiting Petroleum. That compares with 42 for all of North America in 2019, according to the Haynes and Boone Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor. A total of 227 companies have filed for bankruptcy in the five years that ended May 31, involving more than $134 billion in aggregate debt.

“It is reasonable to expect that a substantial number of producers will continue to seek protection from creditors in bankruptcy even if oil prices recover over the next few months,” Haynes and Boone said in a report published this month.

Peter Eavis contributed reporting from New York.

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Babylon Health admits to GP app data breach

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Babylon Health admits to GP app data breach

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Babylon Health

Babylon Health has acknowledged that its GP video appointment app has suffered a data breach.

The firm was alerted to the problem after one of its users discovered he had been given access to dozens of video recordings of other patients’ consultations.

A follow-up check by Babylon revealed a small number of further UK users could also see others’ sessions.

The firm said it had since fixed the issue and notified regulators.

Babylon allows its members to speak to a doctor, therapist or other health specialist via a smartphone video call and, when appropriate, sends an electronic prescription to a nearby pharmacy. It has more than 2.3 million registered users in the UK.

Leeds-based Rory Glover had access to the service via his membership of a private health insurance plan with Bupa, one of Babylon’s partners.

On Tuesday morning, when he went to check a prescription, he noticed he had about 50 videos in the Consultation Replays section of the app that did not belong to him.

Clicking on one revealed that the file contained footage of another person’s appointment.

“I was shocked,” he told the BBC.

“You don’t expect to see anything like that when you’re using a trusted app. It’s shocking to see such a monumental error has been made.”

Mr Glover said he alerted a work colleague to the fact, who used to work for Babylon. He in turn flagged the issue to the company’s compliance department.

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Rory Glover

Image caption

Mr Glover discovered dozens of replay videos in his app that he should not have had access to

Shortly afterwards, Mr Glover’s access to the clips was rescinded.

Babylon, which has its headquarters in London, has since confirmed the breach.

“On the afternoon of Tuesday 9 June we identified and resolved an issue within two hours whereby one patient accessed the introduction of another patient’s consultation recording,” it said in statement.

“Our investigation showed that three patients, who had booked and had appointments today, were incorrectly presented with, but did not view, recordings of other patients’ consultations through a subsection of the user’s profile within the Babylon app.

“This was the result of a software error rather than a malicious attack. The problem was identified and resolved quickly.

“Of course we take any security issue, however small, very seriously and have contacted the patients affected to update, apologise to and support where required.”

A spokesman said that Babylon’s engineering team was already aware of the issue before it was contacted by Mr Glover’s workmate.

He said the problem had been accidentally introduced via a new feature that lets users switch from audio to video-based consultations part way through a call.

And he said that Babylon had informed the Information Commissioner’s Office of the matter.

“Affected users were in the UK only and this did not impact our international operations,” he added.

However, Mr Glover said he still had concerns and did not intend to use the service again.

“It’s an issue of doctor-patient confidentiality,” he said.

“You expect anything you say to be private, not for it to be shared with a stranger.”

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