BERLIN: The German Animal Welfare Association said Friday it has filed a complaint of cruelty to animals against a German modern pentathlete and a coach, who was thrown out of the Tokyo Olympics for striking a horse during the women’s event.
Annika Schleu and German coach Kim Raisner are accused of “cruelty to animals” and “aiding and abetting cruelty to animals,” said the association in a statement.
The incident happened as Schleu was leading last Friday’s competition in Tokyo but could not bring her horse Saint Boy under control.
The mount refused to jump the fences in the showjumping segment.
A frustrated and tearful Schleu repeatedly used her whip on the horse with Raisner overheard encouraging her to “hit it” during live coverage.
The International Modern Pentathlon Union said footage then showed Raisner “appearing to strike the horse ... with her fist,” which resulted in the coach being thrown out of the Olympics.
Schleu eventually finished well outside the medals in 31st place with Britain’s Kate French winning the gold.
Competitors in the modern pentathlon draw their horses at random.
The German Animal Welfare Association criticized Schleu for having “roughly beaten the frightened and overtaxed the horse several times.”
Raisner is accused of urging the athlete “to commit this act of cruelty to animals.”
“Of course, an athlete fixated on Olympic gold is under enormous stress at that moment, but that is no excuse for cruelty to animals,” said Thomas Schroeder, President of the association.
In a later interview with AFP subsidiary SID, Raisner admitted “I said ‘hit it’. But she (Schleu) didn’t torture the horse, not in any way.”
Schleu insisted to German daily newspaper Die Zeit that she had not treated the horse “extremely harshly.”
However, she admitted she could have reacted “a bit calmer and more level-headed.”
German coach who struck horse at Olympics accused of cruelty to animals
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German coach who struck horse at Olympics accused of cruelty to animals
- Annika Schleu and German coach Kim Raisner are accused of "cruelty to animals" and "aiding and abetting cruelty to animals"
- A frustrated and tearful Schleu repeatedly used her whip on the horse with Raisner overheard encouraging her to "hit it"
Oracle says data center outage causing issues faced by US TikTok users
WASHINGTON: Oracle on Tuesday said issues faced by US users of social media app TikTok are the result of a temporary weather-related power outage at an Oracle data center, after California Governor Gavin Newsom linked the issues to what he called the suppression of content critical of President Donald Trump.
“Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok,” Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said in an email.
A powerful winter storm struck much of the US over the weekend.
“The challenges US TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve,” Egbert said.
On Monday, Newsom said his office was launching a review to determine if TikTok’s content moderation practices violated state law.
“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” Newsom’s office had said.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, last week finalized a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC that will secure US data, to avert a ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans. The deal was praised by Trump.
The joint venture has denied censorship, saying “it would be inaccurate to report that this is anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed.”
Each of the joint venture’s three managing investors — cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX — will hold a stake of 15 percent. The deal provides for American and global investors to hold 80.1 percent of the venture while ByteDance will own 19.9 percent.
The joint venture said on Tuesday it “made significant progress in recovering our US infrastructure with our US data center partner” but noted that US users may still face some technical issues, including when posting new content.
With more than 16 million followers on his personal TikTok account, Trump credited the app with helping him win the 2024 election.
Last week’s deal was a milestone for TikTok after years of battles with the US government over Washington’s concerns about risks to national security and privacy under Trump and former President Joe Biden.
