Michael Kovrig, one of two Canadian men detained in China for more than 1,000 days on alleged spying charges, has described being put in solitary confinement for six months and relentlessly interrogated in what he said was psychological torture.
Dubbed the “Michaels,” Kovrig and fellow Canadian national Michael Spavor were at the heart of a bitter tussle between Beijing and Ottawa that continues to sour diplomatic relations to this day.
“It was psychologically, absolutely, the most grueling, painful thing I’ve ever been through,” Kovrig told CBC News in his first extensive public remarks since being released from Chinese prison three years ago.
Kovrig said he was walking home with his partner, who was six months pregnant at the time, from dinner in Beijing on December 10, 2018 when he was seized by Chinese authorities.
“We came up a spiral staircase right in front of the plaza in front of my apartment building, and boom,” Kovrig recalled. “There’s a dozen men in black with cameras on them surrounding us, shouting in Chinese, ‘That’s him.’”
Kovrig, a former diplomat who was working as a senior advisor for the International Crisis Group think tank, was detained at the same time as Spavor, a Canadian consultant who worked extensively in North Korea, on alleged spying charges.
The pair became embroiled in a three-year diplomatic row that began earlier that month when Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei, in Vancouver on US fraud charges.
Kovrig and Spavor were only freed after US prosecutors dropped the extradition request and agreed to release Meng, nearly two years later.
Beijing consistently denied any connection between the arrests of Meng and the Michaels and said Kovrig and Spavor were released on bail for health reasons.
Chinese officials did not publicly disclose any evidence against Spavor or Kovrig, or detailed information relating to their trials, which were held behind closed doors.
‘Chill down my spine’
After he was detained, Kovrig told CBC News he was handcuffed, blindfolded and thrown into a black SUV, then taken to a padded cell that would be his home for the next six months.
“At that point they said, ‘You are under suspicion of endangering China’s state security. You are going to be interrogated,’” Kovrig said.
“A chill went down my spine.”
Kovrig said he was held in complete isolation in a cell under fluorescent lights for six months, in contravention of UN standards. He said he was interrogated for 6 to 9 hours daily, locked in a chair for hours on end, and at times was forced to survive on three bowls of rice per day.
“They are trying to bully and torment and terrorize and coerce you into accepting their false version of reality,” Kovrig said.
After six months, Kovrig said he was moved to a larger cell with plexiglass windows, which he shared with a dozen cellmates.
“That was kind of like moving from hell to limbo,” Kovrig said.
Kovrig and Spavor were released in September 2021. Kovrig stepped off the plane in Toronto and hugged his separated wife Vina Nadjibulla, who had campaigned tirelessly for his release, in a touching moment that reverberated across the country.
He also met his daughter, who his partner gave birth to while Kovrig was in prison, for the first time. He described the meeting as “the most fantastic, heartwarming feeling you can imagine.”
“I’ll never forget that sense of wonder, of everything being new and wonderful again, of pushing my daughter on a swing and her saying to her mother, ‘Mummy, I’m so happy.’”
Wole Soyinka became the first Black African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, and is now one of the continent’s most revered authors. But two decades earlier, he was sent to prison without trial for speaking out about the civil war in his native Nigeria.
While in solitary confinement he scrawled notes and poems using meat bones, handmade ink and toilet paper. Those ideas became the memoir “The Man Died,” published in 1972, which is now the framework of a movie of the same name that recounts the playwright and novelist’s life at the height of the civil war.
The following interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Larry Madowo: What did it feel like to go to prison just because you were agitating for what you felt was right?
Wole Soyinka: It was a very testing period for me. Twenty-two months in total isolation, denied books, denied paper, my cell constantly searched, nothing at all to sustain my mind.
I think one of the most cunning categories of humanity that I’ve ever encountered is the prisoner. The prisoner has to survive. It’s a survival test, not a question of self-advancement.
And (in solitary confinement) what is the most space-economic enterprise you could undertake? The mental enterprise, calculations, mathematics. I made my own ink with dirt; I made my own pen from the bones in the meat of my food, creating a complete self-sustaining mental micro-world of my own. It was also a dangerous period for the mind.
I remember when I used to hallucinate, so I would leap up and try and destroy those kinds of hallucinatory images that came out. But eventually, I mastered all that period, and after that, I began recollecting those formulae in geometry and trigonometry which I had hated, and I began pulling them back, making calculations on the ground.
Believe it or not, I rediscovered the theory of permutations and combinations. Those things I had hated in school became my sustenance.
LM: You wrote about those prison years in a memoir which has now been turned into a movie, “The Man Died.” Have you seen it yet?
WS: No. Let me put it this way, turning anything in my life into something other people can watch, pains me. I assisted them in trying to locate a house in which I hid and operated during the civil war. They were looking for something close to one we were using during that period.
But it’s not just about me alone, it’s also about a particular period. I might watch it eventually, but not immediately. Even this very interview we’re doing, I won’t watch. It always takes a while to bring myself to watch me.
Nigerian playwright, novelist and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Wole Soyinka poses for a portrait in Johannesburg on April 4, 2024.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
LM: You don’t make a big fuss about your birthday, but you just turned 90, which is a big deal.
WS: Well, the annoying thing is that I don’t feel 90. But I will confess that I do share some kind of ritualistic aspect of the birthday. So it’s not a question of dislike, it’s just that I like to have it on my own. Usually what I do on my birthday is disappear into the forest. That’s my normal way of spending birthdays.
LM: Do you remember when you became politically active?
WS: I was a great eavesdropper on my parents’ conversation, especially around my father’s (a school principal and priest in the Anglican church) colleagues. I remember sitting behind an armchair listening.
My mother would arrive and report what had gone on. My father’s whole circle was also involved that way, so I would say that this was the beginning of my political involvement.
When the women rioted in this very town where we are now, Abeokuta, my mother was involved as a lieutenant of (women’s rights activist) Mrs. Ransome Kuti, (famed Afrobeat musician) Fela Kútì’s mother. So as a child, when all the rioting was taking place, I became a courier between the various women’s camps passing messages.
LM: Seeing your mother involved in this political activism appeared to have planted the seed for your life’s work.
WS: That’s correct. Being actually within the environment, that struggle of militancy against an unacceptable situation that these women were facing, how their goods were being seized by police in the marketplaces, if they didn’t pay taxes, some of them beaten up, roughed up, and so on.
Being part and parcel of this and seeing them set upon on their way to go and pass more oppressive legislation, I took the side of the women most naturally (and) that reflected in my writing. No question at all.
LM: There’s a legend about you sneaking into a radio station and swapping out a political speech for something more critical, what’s the truth?
WS: Well, the first thing I have to remind you is that I was tried and acquitted. Yes, it’s true, there’s no point in denying it any longer that I felt compelled to stop the further broadcast of false results.
I witnessed firsthand the destruction of polling booths, even the tearing up of results. I was already heavily politicized at that time, but when I saw this oppressive regime about to reinstall itself, and people have to remember, it was the most cynical regime, which went so far as to declare on radio to say, “we don’t give a damn if you vote for us,” it just triggered my already highly honed militant sense. So it was part of an ongoing struggle on so many levels. Yeah, guilty, but there was no alternative at that time.
LM: After receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, it took a long time for another (Black) African toreceive that honor. What did that feel like at the time?
WS: Isolated. I was most relieved when the next African came because so much was demanded of you. It was like overnight your constituency expanded simply because you come from the African continent. On the one hand, of course, a sense of recognition, which is very good. Opening certain doors, but then there were not many doors which I was looking to enter anyway, I just enjoyed my profession, full stop.
But at the same time, especially in societies like ours, it exposed you a lot more. I always remind people that one of the most brutal dictators we had here, Sani Abacha, would’ve gone to his grave a happy man if he hanged a Nobel Laureate, if he may be able to put that on his CV. As it is, he had to be content with hanging an activist, a writer, and his eight companions. I’m referring to Ken Saro-Wiwa.
So it exposed me to very great dangers because I refuse to back down on my beliefs, on my activities simply because I’ve become a Nobel laureate. Why should I stop things which preoccupied me before the Nobel?
But it was grand when one after the other (African Nobel winners) began to come in. Now, I’ve been able to enjoy for some time now being a Nobelist rather being feeling sometimes like a showpiece.
LM: You told some students of an exchange program named after you that you still hope to go to space. What’s your fascination with space?
WS: It began as a child, and I was just fascinated by the stars and constellations. I wrote in one of my essays that I used to close my eyes and imagine a state of total nothingness, and from that, the notion of actually going to space. I recollect when Armstrong stepped on the moon, I was in prison at the time, so that childhood exercise also served me in good stead. My prison bars dissolved overnight just imagining them on the moon. Then space exploration began.
One day, by mail, one of the associations of human development that I belong to had some free tickets for a zero-gravity flight simulator; by then I was 70 years old. I went to San Jose (California) and had my space experience and that is one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.
LM: Richard Branson is taking people to space these days.
WS: If Branson came now and said, I’ve found space for you, I would terminate this interview right now. I’m still in reasonably good shape and I think I can take the gravity stress; I’m convinced I can. I’m willing to do anything. Shoot me into space, I don’t even mind if something happens over there, that’s okay. Then I’ve experienced that childhood obsession.
Prop Trading Firms: Opportunities, Risks, and How to Navigate the Challenges
Prop Firms have become very popular recently. You only have to monitor social networks to see the enthusiasm of individual traders for these new offers whose promise is to become a professional trader.
If the promises of Prop Firms seem attractive, we will discover everything you need to know about Prop Firms in this article, including the risks and pitfalls to avoid.
We will explore why this type of offer might interest a trader and how to get involved in it in 2024. In conclusion, we will compare a real trading account and subscribing to a Prop Firm to see whether or not it may be interesting to go through a prop firm to become an independent trader.
What Is A Proprietary Trading Firm?
A Prop Firm, or “proprietary firm”, is an investment company that manages only its own capital. One or more experienced traders, typically with several years in banking or hedge funds, traditionally found Prop Firms to establish their own accounts.
For several years, some Prop Firms looking for talented traders have offered independent traders the allocation of capital under management and a sharing of the gains from performance.
Generally, the allocation of funds follows a test or evaluation period during which the Prop Firm will measure the skills of the candidate traders.
Some Prop Firms charge entry fees to participate in the evaluation period, and you will understand in the rest of this article that this is generally where things go wrong and where we find ourselves at the limit of legality.
What is A Prop Firm in Trading?
Prop trading or proprietary trading represents trading various financial instruments with a firm’s own capital. Prop traders can trade stocks, Forex, or crypto on many trading platforms.
Forex and Crypto prop trading firms enable traders to open trading accounts under their terms and conditions including profit target and loss limit. During the trading day, traders implement various prop trading strategies to meet their profit targets.
In the case of successful trading, the firm offers a profit share through a profit split arrangement. We closely monitor the trading period and activity, enforcing any trading restrictions.
Moreover, the evaluation process is essential in determining if traders meet the firm’s criteria. Traders at the prop trading desk must understand and follow guidelines to succeed in proprietary trading.
What are the Different Types of Proprietary Firms?
The business model of the Prop Firm is to collect as many subscription or registration fees as possible, then, as we saw a few years ago with binary options, to bet on the fact that most participants will lose.
We have identified three types of business models with Prop Firms. We will decipher them below.
The Prop Firm in Virtual Trading Only
There is a type of Prop Firm with which all transactions only take place in a virtual trading environment (demo) without you knowing it. In this case, all losers’ registration fees pay the winning traders’ winnings.
This is very similar to how binary options work, whose objective is to work on the losses of individual traders, which were widely popular before the ban by the AMF due to the dishonest aspect of the offer.
According to a study by SMB Training, the rate of traders failing at the evaluation period stage is around 95%, which is no coincidence.
Also, the conditions required to pass the evaluation period are close to impossible, with double-digit monthly gain targets and a very tight drawdown.
Other studies even announce that only 0.28% of registrants manage to get capital allocation and profits.
In this case, it is important to understand that the $100, $150, $200, or even $400 registration fees that thousands of participants have paid will finance the capital allocation of the few lucky traders.
It should also be noted that the Prop Firm does not finance the entire allocated capital, but only the maximum drawdown imposed.
The Unregulated Broker Disguised as a Prop Firm
There are also Prop Firms that are, in fact, disguised as unregulated stockbrokers who pass all transactions on the OTC as a CFD broker.
In this case, the security deposit for margin trading is disguised as a registration fee. This is then a way to pass off an unlicensed brokerage offer as a management offer and to offer leverage greater than the maximum authorised by law.
The trader pays their loss in advance with the registration fees, and they have the right to trade on an artificially inflated capital with leverage. Sometimes, there is not even an evaluation period with this type of offer, or evaluations that are quick (2 or 3 days) and easy.
Access to video training sometimes justifies the amount significantly higher than with other Prop Firms. Note also that some trading training offers integrate a concept close to the Prop Firm after agreeing with a stockbroker. The amount you will have paid will correspond to your losses paid in advance (for example, 90% of the amount) and to the training (for example, 10%).
The Prop Firm Partner of a Futures Broker
This is the type of Proprietary Firm that is probably the most interesting. You have to make sure that the Prop Firm works with a seriously regulated stockbroker and actually places its clients’ orders on futures contracts (which is not always the case, so be careful!).
The advantage of this type of Prop Firm is that we completely eliminate price manipulation and cheating on the part of the Prop Firm since we intervene directly in regulated and centralised markets.
List of Prop Trading Firms
Here is a list of the most popular prop trading firms for your reference:
Audacity Capital
Crypto Fund Trader
Earn2Trade
FTMO
FundedNext
Goat Funded Trader
Instant Funding
Lark Funding
My Funded FX
Nordic Funder
The Trading Pit
Trading Conditions
All of these firms have their specific terms and conditions, which come down to the following:
A maximum loss limit (6 to 8% drawdown);
A daily loss limit (3 to 5% drawdown);
A profit target (10 to 15%);
A minimum number of days of activity (30 days);
An imposed leverage (max 20:1).
Traders who complete the evaluation period, also called “Challenge”, then receive a capital allocation for a period that is sometimes limited (usually 30 or 90 days). If the duration is limited, you must repeat the evaluation period at the end of the trading period and pay the registration fees again.
In some Prop Firms, they refund the registration fees for the evaluation period if you successfully pass all the tests.
The same restrictive conditions as during the evaluation apply throughout the capital allocation period. Thus, if you exceed the maximum loss level, the capital entrusted to you is withdrawn.
What Are the Risks and Pitfalls to Avoid with Proprietary Firms?
The main risk with Prop Firms is spending large sums of money spread over several months to try to succeed in the evaluation challenge.
We have received testimonials from individual traders who have spent up to 6,000 euros in a few months, accumulating attempts with registration fees ranging from 100 to 300 euros. In this case, it is much better to open a classic trading account and deposit 6,000 euros; we will talk about this in the last part of this article.
The trap most often lies in the conditions imposed by the Prop Firm: some evaluations are simply impossible to pass or statistically almost impossible.
Among the criteria that rig the result in favour of a Proprietary Firm, the drawdowns accumulate over time.
For example, if you suffered a 2% drawdown the day before yesterday and 3% today… the system counts you as a total drawdown of 5%, and you lose your capital allocation, or you are eliminated from the evaluation period.
Everything is, therefore, played out in the conditions in terms of performance objective and drawdown. Do not be blinded by the large amounts promised to you in management.
The post What Are Prop Firms, And How Does Prop Trading Work? appeared first on FinanceBrokerage.
Bitcoin is increasingly stable above support at $62500
Last week’s high price of Bitcoin was formed on Friday at the $64120 level
Bitcoin chart analysis
Last week’s high price of Bitcoin was formed on Friday at the $64120 level. Later during the weekend, the price moved in a sideways consolidation in the $62500-$63500 range with the support of the EMA 50 moving average. Monday brought us new bullish price impulses and a jump to the $647,730 level to a new September high. After forming a new high, Bitcoin retreated below $64000, and this morning, we saw new price support at the $62750 level.
From that level, a bullish consolidation and growth to the $63500 level were initiated. In this zone, we are testing the weekly open price, and we need a move above to the positive side. If we succeed in this, we return above the $64000 level and increase the momentum to continue on the bullish side. Potential higher targets are the $64500 and $65000 levels.
A stable bullish trend keeps us on the positive side this week as well
The Bitcoin price’s inability to move above the weekly open price will strengthen the bearish momentum. We will see the initiation of a bearish consolidation and a test of the previous low of $62750. New price pressure in that zone could cause a break below and a drop to a new weekly low. Potential lower targets are the $62500 and $62000 levels. The price expects possible support in the EMA 200 moving average in the $62000 zone.
Recent data reveals a surprising trend in the Bitcoin mining sector: Chinese miners still control the lion’s share of the global hash rate of the BTC network despite the country banning the practice in 2021. According to blockchain data from CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, Chinese mining pools currently control at least 55% of the global Bitcoin mining network.
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Ethereum, after a month, again above the $2700 level
Over the weekend, the price of Ethereum climbed above the $2600 level
Ethereum chart analysis
Over the weekend, the price of Ethereum climbed above the $2600 level. On Monday, we saw new momentum and growth to a new high at the $2703 level. A slight loss of momentum in that zone led to a pullback and support at $2610. There, we met the EMA 50 moving average, which was good support for us and prevented us from continuing on the bearish side.
After that, Ethereum started a new bullish consolidation and is now at the $2660 level. A return above the daily open price to the positive side will ease the way for us to continue on the bullish side. We expect the price to start a further recovery and retest yesterday’s high. Potential higher targets are the $2720 and $2740 levels.
New price support this morning at the $2610 level keeps us on the bullish side
For a bearish option, we need a negative consolidation, a drop in Ethereum price below $2600, and below the EMA 50 moving average. Such a picture would show that the bearish pressure is strengthening and that we could see down to the weekly open price and the $2580 level. The inability of the price to hold there will only increase the pressure on the price to continue on the bearish side. After that, we will see the formation of a new weekly low, thereby confirming the bearish option’s dominance. Potential lower targets are $2540 and $2520 levels.
U.S. spot ETFs for Ethereum posted net outflows of $79.21 million on Monday, marking their largest daily capital outflow since July 29. Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) saw $80.55 million leave the fund on Monday, its largest capital outflow since July 31, according to data from Sosovalue.
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Dogecoin and Shiba Inu: September Targets & Prices
On Sunday, the Dogecoin price rose to 0.11049, a new weekly high
The Shiba Inu price rose to 0.00001508 on Sunday, setting a new September high
Dogecoin chart analysis
On Sunday, the Dogecoin price rose to 0.11049, a new weekly high. Soon after, the price began a pullback down to 0.10500 and the EMA 200 moving average. We got that new support, from which started the bullish consolidation on Monday to the 0.10900 level. After that, Dogecoin took a step to new support at 0.10600 and formed a new bottom there.
On Tuesday, we see the initiation of bullish consolidation and a return to the weekly high at 0.10900. We have support from the EMA 50 moving average and hope for further growth to the bullish side. Potential higher targets are 0.11000 and 0.11100 levels. For a bearish option, we need a negative consolidation of Dogecoin down to the weekly open price. This is where we would test this week’s support zone. A break below adds bearish momentum to continue the pullback. Potential lower targets are 0.10500 and 0.10400 levels.
Shiba Inu chart analysis
The Shiba Inu price rose to 0.00001508 on Sunday, setting a new September high. After that, there was a stop at that level, and a pullback was initiated to the 0.00001420 support level. On Monday, the price recovered again, this time to the 0.00001485 level. We could not continue further, and the Shiba Inu returned to support at the 0.00001430 level.
The support zone looks stable, and the price is moving with a new bullish consolidation to the 0.00001470 level. With the support of the EMA 50 moving average, we expect to continue further recovery. Potential higher targets are the 0.00001500 and 0.00001520 levels. For a bearish option, we need a negative consolidation and a return to this week’s support zone. This time, we expect a break below and the formation of a new weekly low. Potential lower targets are the 0.00001420 and 0.00001400 levels.
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