Iraqi authorities have switched off electronic advertising boards in Baghdad after pornographic footage was broadcast on one of the screens.

A man has now been arrested by the police after the x-rated material was broadcast to passers-by in the capital, local media reported.

The digital advertising boards were switched off on Sunday, according to Shafaq News, which said: “Iraqi security authorities decided to temporarily turn off screens displaying advertisements in public places in the capital, Baghdad, after they were subjected to electronic hacking and immoral clips were displayed in public.”

A statement from the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the adult content was aired on a screen in Uqba bin Nafeh Square, a busy thoroughfare in central Baghdad.

The statement from the ministry’s Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency, posted on Facebook, said: “The Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency, after obtaining judicial approvals and through field work, auditing and monitoring of surveillance cameras, was able to arrest the accused who carried out the hacking.”

The statement went on to add that following “preliminary investigations,” the accused man suggested that “he had committed this immoral act due to financial problems with the owner of the company that owns the display screen.”

Last year, the Iraqi government announced that it planned to block porn sites, though it is not clear how effective that policy has been.

Over the past year, the government has also cracked down on social media influencers.

A platform called “Report” was launched this year to allow citizens to anonymously report “negative” or “immoral” content seen online. The government has nevertheless insisted that freedoms of expression are not at risk and will always be protected.

Earlier this month, Iraq’s official media regulator ordered all media and social media companies operating in the Arab state not to use the term “homosexuality” and instead to say “sexual deviance.”

The Communications and Media Commission (CMC) document said the use of the term “gender” was also banned. It prohibited all phone and internet companies licensed by it from using the terms in any of their mobile applications.

Iraq does not explicitly criminalize gay sex but loosely defined morality clauses in its penal code have been used to target members of the LGBT community.

A decade after hundreds of Egyptians were killed in a single day when security forces dispersed a sit-in protest in Cairo, a new report released by a human rights group to coincide with the anniversary of the massacre has claimed that authorities debated but ultimately rejected potentially less lethal options to break up the demonstration.

Egypt witnessed one of its bloodiest days on August 14, 2013, when security forces used automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers to crush a sit-in demonstration in Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawya Square, where thousands of Egyptians had gathered for weeks to protest the military’s removal of democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsy.

Official accounts put the death toll at around 600 people, including several members of the security forces. Human rights groups believe the true toll was even higher. Protesters accused the state of carrying out a mass slaughter; authorities claimed heavily armed demonstrators had attacked police.

In the wake of the bloodshed, a national committee was established to investigate the protests, including the dispersal of protesters and its deadly outcomes. The panel published a 57-page executive summary of their findings in 2014, of which only seven pages addressed the Rabaa dispersal.

The full report was handed to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former general who ousted Morsy before becoming president himself. Since then, Sisi’s government has not released the file.

In a report published Monday, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a prominent human rights group, said it had obtained the full text of the investigation, which it says runs to more than 700 pages, and released what it said are key details omitted in the summary published nine years ago. EIPR said in its report that it had obtained the text “from a reliable source on condition of anonymity.”

Among the details is that the security forces considered multiple options on how to clear the sit-in, before ultimately opting for the use of deadly force, according to EIPR.

While the 2014 summary included one line saying the government had “alternatives before it,” it did not specify what those alternatives were or elaborate on debate among security forces about what to do.

The significance of the full text of the investigation, said Hossam Bahgat, executive director of EIPR, is that it includes “transcripts of witness testimonies” that show how officials decided to disperse the protest.

EIPR’s report cites testimony it says was given to the investigative committee by Maj. Gen. Medhat Al-Minshawi, who headed the dispersal operation and later became Assistant Minister of Interior for Central Security Forces.

Al-Minshawi told the committee that authorities had discussed less lethal options to clear the sit-in, including cutting off water and electricity and “opening the sewage,” as well as besieging the square to prevent food supplies from reaching protesters, according to the report.

But the authorities decided that these options would have taken longer to end the protests and would have “inconvenienced residents in the area,” Al-Minshawi said, according to the report.

Al-Minshawi told local media in 2020 that the plan had been to peacefully disperse the demonstration until the protesters began attacking security forces, but made no mention of the debate within the security forces about other options that are detailed in the EIPR report.

“The government was torn between dispersing the gathering at any cost in a short period of time, or dispersing it at a lower cost but over a longer period of time,” the investigation report said, according to EIPR.

“The government has opted for the first option, as the leaders in the sit-in had gone beyond that which is fathomable or appropriate,” the report added.

According to EIPR’s report, investigators at the time also said that the “Egyptian administration was also wrong in its policy of dispersing the gathering.”

The details in the EIPR report also contradict the 2014 summary, which said that the sit-in was “not peaceful neither before nor during the dispersal,” even if “it started as such.”

“The larger number of Rabaa victims were innocent civilians who were most likely peaceful demonstrators,” the EIPR report said, quoting the investigation. “Those who took up arms and terrorized the citizens managed to escape from Rabaa Square.”

According to EIPR, the report also says security forces used live ammunition in an “indiscriminate and inappropriate” manner, and that there was “no safe corridor” allowing the exit of those who wished to safely leave the square amid the dispersal.

The executive summary released in 2014 said that when security forces arrived at the square on August 14 at 6 a.m. local time, protesters began firing live ammunition and throwing Molotov cocktails and stones, injuring members of its forces. Police “incrementally used alarms and tear gas, and did not resort to live ammunition until after several of its (security forces) members were killed and injured,” the summary said.

The search for accountability

A decade later, no members of Egypt’s security forces have been tried, even though the summary released in 2014 concluded that responsibility for the deaths fell on both the leaders of the sit-in and security forces. In 2018, however, an Egyptian court handed down 75 death sentences at a mass trial for participation in protests following Morsy’s ouster. In 2021, Egypt’s appeals court upheld a dozen of those sentences.

Amnesty International on Monday described “a decade of shame” in Egypt, saying that “the 10-year anniversary of the Rabaa massacre is a stark reminder of how impunity for the mass killing of over 900 people has enabled an all-out assault on peaceful dissent, an erosion of any fair trial safeguards in the criminal justice system, and unspeakable cruelty in prisons over the past decade.”

“Egyptian authorities have failed for a decade to hold anyone accountable for the largest mass killing in Egypt’s modern history,” Human Rights Watch said in its own statement on Monday calling the dispersal “a likely crime against humanity.”

EIPR’s report notes that among the recommendations given to the presidency was that the file “must be reopened” and that both survivors and official witnesses needed to be summoned for a judicial investigation.

“This wound and all its victims need to be mended,” the EIPR report said, quoting the recommendations.

The file was never revisited. The head of the committee that compiled the findings, Fouad Abdel-Moneim Riad, said in 2019 that the report “was still confidential.” He died in 2020.

Asked about the anniversary of the massacre, a spokesperson for the UN secretary-general said in a Monday news conference that there was nothing to add beyond what was said by the UN at the time, but that “as a matter of rule, there always needs to be accountability.”

“We obviously have no reason to expect the current Egyptian administration to (re)open an investigation, because they haven’t for the last 10 years,” EIPR’s Bahgat said, adding that authorities have “shielded perpetrators” while prosecuting survivors.

The only two realistic options for accountability, Bahgat said, are either a change in political situation or for the case to be taken to an international court.

“These are crimes that are subject to universal jurisdiction in international courts around the world,” he said.

A British nurse has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the hospital where she worked, making her the country’s worst baby serial killer in recent times.

Lucy Letby, 33, harmed babies in her care by injecting air into their blood and stomachs, overfeeding them with milk, physically assaulting them and poisoning them with insulin, Manchester Crown Court in northern England heard.

In one case, Letby murdered a baby boy, identified as Child E, by administering air into his bloodstream, the UK’s PA Media news agency reported. The next day, she attempted to kill his twin brother, Child F, by poisoning him with insulin.

A court order protects the identity of the children involved in the allegations against Letby, including those who died and survived under her care.

Police found a trove of handwritten notes while searching Letby’s house during their investigation, including one that read: “I am evil I did this.”

She secretly attacked 13 babies on the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.

Her intention was to kill the babies while duping her colleagues into believing there was a natural cause of death, prosecutors argued.

Pascale Jones of the CPS called Letby’s actions a “complete betrayal of the trust placed in her.”

“Lucy Letby sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby’s existing vulnerability,” she said.

“In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death.”

Victims’ families said they “may never truly know why this happened.”

“To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through,” a joint statement said.

“But to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable,” the statement added.

Nurse said ‘I killed them’ in handwritten notes

In 2018 and 2019, Letby was arrested twice by police in connection with their investigation, PA said. She was arrested again in November 2020.

Authorities found notes Letby had written during searches of her address.

“I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” she wrote in one memo, adding in another, “I am a horrible evil person” and in capital letters “I am evil I did this.”

The mother of Child E and Child F said she “completely” trusted Letby’s advice, while giving evidence to the court, according to PA Media.

However, she said she “knew there was something wrong” when her baby, Child E, started screaming in the intensive care unit one night.

It emerged that before Letby murdered Child E, he started bleeding when she tried to assault him.

“It was a sound that should not come from a tiny baby,” the mother told the court. “I can’t explain what the sound was. It was horrendous. More of a scream than a cry.”

There was no post-mortem examination following Child E’s death. The mother said she thought he had passed away from natural causes.

Her twin son, Child F, later survived an attempt by Letby to kill him by insulin poisoning.

Consultants told to apologize for raising concerns

Doctors at the hospital began to notice a steep rise in the number of babies who were dying or unexpectedly collapsing, the court heard.

But concerns raised by consultants over the increased mortality rate of patients under Letby’s care were initially dismissed by the hospital’s management, PA Media said.

In September 2016, Letby filed a grievance against her employers after she was relocated from the hospital’s neonatal ward. She was put back on clerical duties after two male triplets died and a baby boy collapsed on three days in a row in June 2016.

Later that year, she was notified of the allegations against her by the Royal College of Nursing union, but the complaint was later resolved in her favor. Doctors were asked to formally apologize to Letby in writing.

She was scheduled to return to the neonatal department in March 2017, but her return did not take place. The hospital trust contacted the police, who opened an investigation.

‘Heartbroken, devastated, angry’

The UK government has ordered an independent inquiry into the murders, including “how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with.”

The inquiry will probe into the “circumstances surrounding the deaths and incidents,” the government said in a statement on Friday.

It will also evaluate what actions were taken by regulators and Britain’s National Health Service in response to concerns regarding Letby.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay pledged the voices of parents of the victims “are heard” throughout the inquiry, acknowledging there are many questions to be answered.

“Justice has been served and the nurse who should have been caring for our babies has been found guilty of harming them,” the victims’ families said in a joint statement on Friday.

“But this justice will not take away from the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience,” the statement added.

“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb.”

Letby will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on August 21.

Russia has barred 54 more British citizens from entering the country, in response to the UK’s sanctions against its citizens and enterprises, according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Russia accused the individuals and entities of involvement in “propaganda support of the activities of the [Ukrainian] Zelensky regime” and of being “Russophobic,” in its latest update to its sanctions policy on Friday.

The sanctions list includes several government ministers as well as journalists from public broadcaster the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“We would like to emphasize again that any efforts by London to further spin the anti-Russian sanctions flywheel will inevitably receive a decisive response from our side,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.

“Work on expanding the Russian ‘stop list’ in response to the actions of the British authorities will continue.”

The entry ban includes British prosecutor Karim Khan, who is an elected official on the International Criminal Court, due to his involvement “in issuing a warrant for the arrest of the Russian leadership,” according to the Russian foreign ministry statement.

In February, Khan submitted applications to the ICC for warrants of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.

British cabinet minister Lucy Frazer, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was also included in the updated list, with Russian authorities claiming she is “actively lobbying for the international sports isolation of Russia.”

Earlier this year, Frazer said in a social media post that she asked sponsors of the Olympic Games “to join 35 like-minded nations and press the IOC for a continued ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in international sporting competitions,” adding that “we must continue to ensure that Russia and Belarus cannot use sport for their propaganda purposes.”

The new sanctions also include a Minister of State at the British Ministry of Defence, Baroness Goldie DL, who Russia has accused of being “responsible for the supply of weapons to Ukraine, including depleted uranium shells.”

The New York Yankees lost their ninth consecutive game Tuesday night, falling to 60-65 on the season in a 2-1 loss against the Washington Nationals at Yankee Stadium.

The nine-game losing streak puts the team in their deepest slump in over four decades. The Yankees last won a game on August 11 against the Miami Marlins.

No player on the Yankees’ active roster was alive when the team last lost nine games in a row from September 13 to 21, 1982.

A sputtering offense was once again at fault Tuesday, as the Yankees’ batters mustered only two hits in the game, both coming from Ben Rortvedt, including a solo home run. The Bronx Bombers have mustered up six hits or fewer six times during their skid.

Home runs from Washington’s Carter Kieboom and CJ Abrams were enough to claim victory for the Nats.

The losing streak has seen the 27-time World Series champions slide to the bottom of the American League East standings and 10 games off the final wild card spot.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone admitted after the game that morale on the team is low.

“You work hard to put yourself in a position to shake hands at the end of the day, and when you get beat over and over again and you’re in the middle of a tough season, it makes it hard,” Boone told the media.

“But you gotta fight that feeling and get your ass back here tomorrow ready to compete. But it’s no fun walking in that locker room getting beat every night.”

With their sub-.500 mark, the Yankees haven’t had a losing record this many games into a season since 1992.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, New York’s last 10-game losing streak was May 21 to June 6, 1913, when the team was in the first year of being known as the Yankees and shared the Polo Grounds with the then New York Giants.

Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, who allowed just one run over six innings pitched Tuesday, addressed the losing streak after the game.

“It’s definitely unsettling, it’s not where we want to be,” Rodón – who had returned to the starting line-up on Tuesday following a 15-day absence – said to reporters.

“The Nationals are still a good baseball club, but we didn’t get the job done. It’s been nine in a row like you said. I think it’s one of those things where we have to look ahead to tomorrow, we’ve got another game.”

The Yankees will play the Nationals two more times at home on Wednesday and Thursday before traveling to Florida to begin a weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Hawaii-born Laulauga Tausaga-Collins took gold in the women’s discus at the 2023 World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday.

American Tausaga-Collins won the competition with a huge throw of 69.49 meters, beating her previous personal best by nearly four meters and winning the United States’ first ever world championship gold in women’s discus.

“I can’t tell you what it means right now because I still can’t believe it,” Tausaga-Collins told USA Network. “I have all the feels and no words. It’s amazing!”

Following her impressive win, Tausaga-Collins took to social media to thank fans for their support, reposting messages of congratulations and adoration to her Instagram Stories.

Fellow American Valarie Allman won the silver medal with a fourth round 69.23m throw and China’s Feng Bin claimed the bronze.

Allman looked to be on track to take the title, with an opening throw of 68.57m, and 69.23m three throws later.

The 25-year-old Tausaga-Collins had a first round foul and then threw a disappointing 52.28m in round two.

But she pulled it back with throws of 65.56m, 68.36m and then that staggering 69.49m effort.

“I wanted to be the champion tonight, it is not a secret,” Allman said, per Reuters.

“I have been training very hard, putting everything in for the victory. It’s tough when you are in a good form and you cannot reach the gold medal.

“But I feel so proud of being on the podium and a one-two for USA is also so special, to stand together with Laulauga,” she said.

Faith Kipyegon bags record golds

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon was in imperious form, securing her third 1,500m world championship gold to become the first woman to acheive that feat.

Leading the pack from the start of the race, the two-time Olympic champion finished comfortably in first place in a time 3:54.87.

Kipyegon smashed the women’s mile world record by almost five seconds at the Monaco Diamond League in June, completing the race in 4:07.64 to beat the previous record of 4:12.33 set by Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan in 2019.

The 29-year-old Kipyegon also broke the 1,500m world record at the Florence Diamond League on June 2 and set a new 5,000m landmark of 14:05.20 in Paris a week later.

The decorated Kenyan also won Olympic gold in 2016 and 2022, along with her world championship gold medal success in 2017 and 2022.

“This is a great season for me: breaking world records and becoming a world champion here, defending my title,” said Kipyegon. “I told myself, ‘You are the strongest, just keep going.’

“Today, I was chasing this title and I was chasing history,” she added. “My plan was to get to the front and to go faster because I know these races can be up and down. I just got myself in front after 300m and nobody came.”

Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji came in second at 3:55.69, while Hassan took third with 3:56.00.

The president of the Spanish government’s High Council of Sport (CSD) says he will take action against Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales if the soccer body fails to do do so.

On Tuesday, RFEF called an extraordinary general assembly – set for Friday – to deal with the fallout of Rubiales giving Spain star Jennifer Hermoso an unwanted kiss on the lips during the medal presentation ceremony after Spain’s Women’s World Cup final win over England.

Speaking to the “El Larguero” program on Spanish outlet Cadena SER later on Tuesday, CSD president Victor Francos said the council is willing to get involved after receiving three formal complaints about Rubiales’ actions.

“We have been very clear with RFEF on the need to open the procedures established by the Sports Law,” Francos said. “We could not pass by not opening those internal disciplinary proceedings.

“From there, we are going to wait for the case to be resolved urgently, which is very limited with two people involved and there is not much to investigate.”

The CSD is an autonomous decision-making body of the Spanish government’s Ministry of Culture and Sport and has the potential power to demand the removal of Rubiales, but do so the body needs to follow a series of required steps, including having an external complaint filed against him and the case having to be heard in front of a tribunal.

Miguel Ángel Galán, president of the National Training Center of Football Managers, has already presented a complaint about the unwanted kiss to both the CSD and the RFEF Ethics and Integrity Committee, which have been received and accepted.

In a statement announcing the extraordinary general assembly, RFEF said it has opened “the internal Federation processes in relation to integrity.”

Rising criticism

Francos’ comments come amid increasing pressure on Rubiales.

On Tuesday, a day after Rubiales apologized and admitted he “made a mistake” kissing Hermoso, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Rubiales’ apology was “not enough.”

“It is true that there has been some behavior, in this case of Mr. Rubiales, which shows that in our country there is still a long way to go in terms of equality and respect and in this equalization of rights between women and men,” Sánchez said.

“The apologies made by Mr. Rubiales are not enough. I even think that they are not appropriate and that, therefore, Mr. Rubiales needs to continue to take steps to clarify what we all saw.”

Politicians across the political spectrum in Spain also echoed the PM’s criticism.

“We maintain our asking of the resignation of the gentleman who belittled and assaulted a woman. His excuses serve absolutely nothing,” Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s acting second deputy prime minister and leader of the Sumar party, said in a press conference.

Cuca Gamarra, parliamentary spokesperson and secretary general of the Partido Popular, also said: “All institutional leaders should have exemplary behavior and that exemplary nature should be respect towards women and what we saw in that final in this sense was shameful. Only shame comes to my mind, at a minimum.”

In an interview with Spanish newspaper ABC on Tuesday, Spain center-back Irene Paredes said that the unwanted kiss was “an unfortunate gesture,” but that she and the team hoped that it wouldn’t “tarnish everything” the squad achieved at the Women’s World Cup.

Gambling in the crowds on the PGA Tour? You bet there is, according to Jon Rahm.

An incident involving Max Homa at the BMW Championship on Saturday has sparked a conversation around spectators making wagers within earshot of the golfers they’re staking on.

Homa was on the backswing of a short putt on the 17th hole of his third round at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois when he said a fan – whose friend had allegedly bet him $3 that Homa would make the shot – shouted at him to “pull it.”

The American holed the effort but, having already been irked by the same fan yelling at playing partner Chris Kirk for narrowly missing his putt, Homa was fed up. As he and caddie Joe Greiner left the green, they both shouted at the fan – Homa calling him a “clown” with “maybe another word,” and Greiner something “a lot meaner.”

“[He] was probably drunk, I hope for his case, or else he’s just the biggest loser there is,” Homa told reporters Saturday.

“I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is the one thing I’m worried about … Fans are so great about being quiet when we play, I think they are awesome. When anybody ever talks, it’s so unintentional. They don’t know we’re hitting.

“It just sucks when it’s incredibly intentional, and his friend specifically said it was for $3 – not that the money matters, but that’s a frustrating number,” added Homa, who finished the tournament tied-fifth, six shots behind the victorious Viktor Hovland.

‘It’s very, very present’

While the story was news to Rahm, who finished tied-31st, the nature of the incident was not.

Speaking ahead of this week’s season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, the Spaniard insisted fans can be heard gambling by players during “every single round.”

“That happens way more often than you guys may hear. I mean, it’s very, very present,” Rahm told reporters Tuesday.

“In golf, spectators are very close, and even if they’re not directly talking to you, they’re close enough to where if they say to their buddy, ‘I bet you 10 bucks he’s going to miss it,’ you hear it.

So it happens more often than you think. But not only that, on the tee and down the fairway. Luckily, golf fans are pretty good for the most part and you’re hearing the positive – ‘I got 20 bucks [because] you make birdie here, things like that.’

“It’s not caught on TV maybe, but it’s something that happens.”

Asked whether the PGA Tour needed to actively address the issue, Rahm was unsure. Given their proximity, it is “very easy” for fans to affect golfers, the world No. 3 said, but pondered how practical it would be for organizers to enforce any measures to stop crowds getting “out of hand.”

“I think they could look into it, but at the same time, it would be extremely difficult for the Tour to somehow control the 50,000 people scattered around the golf course,” Rahm said.

“So it’s a complicated subject. You don’t want it to get out of control, but you also want the fans to have the experience they want to have.”

‘Every fan can have a front row seat’

PGA Tour President Tyler Dennis said Tuesday that fan conduct was taken “with the utmost seriousness,” confirming that the spectators involved with Homa and Kirk at the BMW Championship were immediately ejected.

“What is most special in golf is that every fan can have a front row seat. It’s unique among sports,” Dennis told reporters at East Lake.

“The environment we put out at a PGA Tour event, we believe, is best in class, so you balance that with the fun. And that’s long been an issue out here, really, since the beginning of the PGA Tour.

“We have a robust and comprehensive fan code of conduct, we have an extensive security apparatus and plan each week, and we feel really confident about all the aspects of that. We spend a good deal of time monitoring it each and every day and we take it very seriously.”

Dennis was joined at the press conference by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who added that Saturday’s incident was “unfortunate,” but ultimately, uncommon.

“Our fans have great appreciation for the integrity of the competition – they’re respectful of our players,” Monahan said.

“We have seen that continue to be the case and expect that to continue to be the case. We have tremendous fans that have tremendous respect for what these players need to do in order to provide and present the tremendous performances they do.”

In the early 1990s, on his first day of work at a fine-dining restaurant, rookie chef Simon Rogan was led out of the kitchen’s back door. Waiting for him in the alley were a box of oyster shells and a piece of sandpaper.

Once that painful first task was complete, the then twenty-something British chef was quickly given another chore – squeeze the juice out of an entire box of lemons.

“My hands were throbbing and burning with the lemon juice and all the cuts. It took about three weeks for them to get back to normal,” Rogan says, squinting his eyes as he recalls the pain.

“Thinking about it now, I’m sure it was an initiation to the kitchen that said: ‘This is as good as it gets. You’ve got to earn your stripes. It’s gonna be hard. We’re gonna push you.’”

The young chef was undeterred by the brutality, as it was just an ordinary part of what he calls the “dog-eat-dog” kitchen world in those days. Though uncomfortable, Rogan’s experiences echo the many negative portrayals of kitchens that have appeared in recent food-focused movies and TV series.

From shows like comedy-drama “The Bear,” which just entered its second season, to popular 2022 horror comedy film “The Menu,” these fictitious tales depict anxiety-inducing kitchens led by tyrannical chefs ruling over weary staff. Yelling, chaos, manipulation and food-hurling are the norm.

Meanwhile, reality TV shows glorifying intense and even toxic kitchen culture, such as “Hell’s Kitchen,” have been captivating audiences for years.

As the saying goes, where there’s smoke there’s usually fire. Away from the cameras, it seems these dramatized portrayals aren’t off the mark. In recent years, the industry has faced a tsunami of exposés highlighting alleged abuses and tales of exploitation in kitchens around the world.

Among the more shocking of the accusations, in 2020 New York City’s Spotted Pig was hit with a series of sexual harassment claims.

Earlier this year, dozens spoke out about being allegedly harassed and abused by Barbara Lynch, the famed chef behind high-profile Boston restaurants Menton and No. 9 Park, with some claiming they were threatened with knives and groped. Lynch has denied the accusations.

Restaurants in Copenhagen have also come under fire following a 2022 exposé by the Financial Times that called out gruesome tales that allegedly happened in the city’s kitchens. One employee recalled being accidentally burnt by hot coffee and claimed they weren’t allowed to go to the hospital for treatment during their shift.

Earlier this year, one the best restaurants in the world, Copenhagen’s Noma announced it was closing, owner René Redzepi claiming his business was unsustainable “financially and emotionally.” The Financial Times report from June 2022 said the restaurant had only just started paying interns after claims it was making them work over 70 hours per week unpaid. A spokesman for Noma told the paper that complaints against the restaurant mischaracterized its intern program.

Even without the scandals, the long hours that come with working in a restaurant are grueling. Just last week, celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr. announced that he will be closing his two-Michelin-starred London restaurant Le Gavroche next January to “make time for a better work/life balance.”

But amid many declarations of the death of fine dining, Rogan feels optimistic about the future of the industry and says positive changes are happening.

Why now is the best time to become a chef

“A lot has changed. I think those days (of accepting these behaviors as the norm) are gone, and rightfully so,” he says.

“There has never been a better time to join the industry. The pay is good, and the conditions are so much better. The movies and dramas are entertaining, but they aren’t a true picture of what’s going on in the industry these days.”

Today, four decades since he began his career as a chef, Rogan has become one of the most influential and decorated chefs in the world.

He is chef-owner of nine restaurants – and still counting – around the world, including the three-Michelin-star L’Enclume in Cartmel, England, and the one-Michelin-starred Roganic Hong Kong.

Rogan admits evolution is a process and he wasn’t always his best self in the kitchen.

“I was a bit of a hot head,” he recalls.

“I sold everything – my home, my sofa, my stereo, my cat – to open L’Enclume. When you do that, you want nothing but the best to get to where you want to be. How you worked in the past for your bosses also rubs off on you. There were days I treated people not quite how I should have, not aggressively or violently, but just intensely. Maybe not talking to people right sometimes, or not wishing people good morning.”

As the pressures of the business took a toll, he began losing people.

“Your standards depend on these people. You’re as good as the team behind you. Then when you lose these people, this got you to do things differently,” says Rogan.

In his case, change was a necessity; he needed to stop losing people and build consistency in his kitchens.

In the years that followed, building a healthy restaurant group became part of Rogan’s philosophy.

Among his methods to boost morale was to offer staff a shorter work week.

His UK establishments are among the few fine-dining restaurants in the world that embrace a three-and-a-half day work week. His Hong Kong restaurant might just be the only high-end venue in the city to offer a four-day work week.

“You’re grumpy because you’ve worked seven days and you don’t have any sleep,” says Rogan.

“The hours per day are still long. But instead of working 70 to 80 hours per week, it’s about 48-52 hours per week. A commis chef (novice chef) in our rural location makes about £30,000 [per annum] ($38,155),” says Rogan.

The median average salary in the United Kingdom was £33,000 in 2022. And the average salary for chefs that year was £23,784.

“We decided to close all the restaurants in Cartmel over two days – Sunday and Monday. So the staff can fraternize together. They enjoy each other’s company,” says Rogan.

Together with another 1.5 days to rest during the regular work week, the staff is fully refreshed when they are in the restaurants, he says.

Rogan says he also tries to cultivate a desirable working atmosphere.

For instance, when there is a big harvest on his farm, which sits next to three of his Cartmel restaurants, he throws a big barbecue party for all the staff – from accounting to housekeeping – where they all enjoy some time together.

“We’ll get a bouncy castle, some of those big inflatables. We do fun things together,” says Rogan, painting a picture of camaraderie that is a far cry from his early experiences.

As a result, Rogan says retention rates have increased which, in turn, has helped lower training costs while keeping the quality of the food and service in his restaurants consistent.

L’Enclume received its first Michelin star in 2005, its second star in 2013 and a third star in 2022.

This year, the group welcomes the first batch of graduates from its newly founded culinary school – the Academy by Simon Rogan. All 12 graduates, including one former employee who worked as a dishwasher, decided to stay on to work for Rogan after an 18-month paid stint.

Instead of worrying about staff shortages, Rogan pours his energy into opening new projects for his growing team.

“I want to make the best of myself and to try to come out on the other side because my generation of chefs finally get a position where we can make a difference,” he says.

“We are the ones that have decided that things need to change because we want people to come into the industry. No one’s going to come to the industry with such [a notorious] reputation.”

Other restaurants that have made efforts to reduce work hours and offer more benefits to staff are also seeing the dividends.

Dig, an American chain restaurant that sells casual healthy food in the US, offers its employees the option of working a four-day shift while maintaining the same number of hours since 2022. Most of the employees said in a survey that they preferred the new arrangement.

Meanwhile, Tenya, a Japanese restaurant chain in Singapore, announced that a four-day work week and pay raises have helped them fill positions faster than when they were offering a five-day work week.

‘Don’t confuse toxicity and passion’

Making drastic changes isn’t easy in the cutthroat restaurant world.

In 2010, Caleb Ng and his brother Joshua Ng opened the first Twins Kitchen in Hong Kong. The duo now runs eight coffee shops and restaurants in Hong Kong and Shanghai – two of the cities where rents and labor costs are notoriously high – and a ninth restaurant is now in the works in Shanghai.

Most of their restaurants offer a five-day work week and a 10-hour work shift, as opposed to the six-day work week followed by many of the region’s eateries.

“Having a shorter work week has been a great help for our staff to enjoy life outside of work,” says Caleb Ng.

“We were all quite young when we started but now many of us have families. Of course, four days would be great but it isn’t financially feasible for us right now.”

That said, Ng agrees that change is imminently needed on the whole.

“After the pandemic, our identities are no longer only centered around our works – we want more time for families and for lives outside of our job,” he says. “Unfortunately, our line of work is one of the few jobs where people can’t work from home. So if you don’t offer more benefits and higher salaries, no one would want to join.”

Ng equates it to a game of balance. He says sustainability goes three ways – for the employees, the customers and the investors.

“We (had to) find places where rents are more reasonable so we could afford to pay our employees better, offer meals at an affordable price tag for our customers and have enough profits for the businesses,” he says.

“If you don’t yield profits at all, it discourages people who want to open better restaurants. Then it’ll become unsustainable for the food and beverage industry in general.”

As for the way restaurant kitchens are depicted in pop culture, Ng feels the shows and movies do get some things right.

“Dramas have exaggerated and romanticized our industry but running a restaurant really does feel like ‘The Bear’ some days – it’s chaotic, energetic and everything is under a very tight timeline. It’s about many trivial things but it’s an industry all about the humans,” he says.

However, Ng feels building more humane working conditions doesn’t mean the drive to succeed needs to die.

“You still need to be a kind of freak with lots of obsession to be in this industry,” he says. “So in that way, those movies and dramas are accurate. It’s like playing a team sport. You need so much training and preparation ahead of the game, a lot of team spirit and you need to be present at all times during the games.”

What has changed is the tendency to mistake toxicity for passion.

“The culture has changed,” he says. “PR and social media play a big part in modern restaurant life and that has helped encourage a better culture from top management. It encourages the owners to hire the right people and say no to toxic people.”

Rogan thinks the choice is obvious – restaurants simply must evolve if they want to succeed.

“Your staff are the future, they are your consistency, they are your accolade, they are the people that are going to take your business further,” he says.

“So when you get these people, you don’t want to lose them. You want to keep them fresh, motivated and determined. You’re a dinosaur if you can’t see that.”

Hydra is at first glance no different from its neighbors. Like other islands in the Aegean Sea, it has white-washed streets, fragrant jasmine-filled air and breathtaking vistas of the shimmering blue waters around it.

What sets Hydra apart is its favored mode of transportation. Locals have resisted the clamor of honking horns, instead embracing the rhythmic sound of horse hooves.

Here, cars are not just absent; they’re intentionally kept away. A ban on motorized vehicles (except fire and refuse trucks and ambulances) is enshrined in local legislation.

The Greek island’s population of about 2,500 locals get around using mules, donkeys and small horses.

Stepping off the ferry and onto Hydra Port, the heart of the island, visitors are met by small horses gracefully weaving their way through the cobblestone streets and giving them a taste of the island’s unhurried pace.

As you wander through Hydra’s quaint pathways, it’s common to witness locals going about their daily business, accompanied by their four-legged companions.

From Kaminia, a tranquil village on the southern coastline adorned with traditional stone houses, to Mandraki on the island’s western shores, renowned for its pristine waters and laid-back aura, the island is intertwined with their presence.

“Hydra is an island that really takes you back in time,” says Harriet Jarman, owner of horse trekking company, Harriet’s Hydra Horses.

“All the transportation on this island is done by horses or mules. Because there are no cars, everyone’s lives are a little bit calmer.”

No cars? No problem

Jarman’s connection with Hydra began 24 years ago when her mother brought her to the island on vacation, leading to a life-changing decision to make Hydra their permanent home.

It was a decade later, during Greece’s economic crisis, when Jarman faced pressure to sell her cherished horse, Chloe.

Determined to keep her beloved companion, she decided to establish her horse trekking business, a venture that not only supported Chloe but also allowed her to share her love for the island’s landscapes.

“I got fed up with everyone telling me to sell her (Chloe) because it’s expensive to keep a horse,” she recalls. “I thought, okay, I’m going to show people the reasons why I want to stay on the island myself.”

The company now has a team of 12 horses, with guided tours across the island’s trails led by experienced equestrians.

These journeys take in Hydra’s many quaint monasteries and picturesque beaches. Riders can even take a refreshing swim alongside the horses.

A heritage carved in hoofprints

The decision to embrace traditional horse-drawn transportation, known as “cáiques,” pays homage to the island’s rich heritage and commitment to sustainable living.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Hydra flourished as a bustling maritime hub. But as the 20th century arrived, bringing motorized transport to the rest of Greece, the island’s narrow and steep streets, coupled with rocky terrain, made cars impractical to get around in.

And so residents clung to equine transportation, which could traverse the rugged landscape more efficiently.

Over time, this reliance on hooves became ingrained in Hydra’s culture and way of life.

Donkeys and mules became an integral part of the island’s identity and were used to transport goods, building materials and even people around the island – a tradition that persists to this day.

“Everyone around here lives off their backs,” Jarman says. “They are our cars and hands, carrying everything from building materials and furniture to luggage and shopping.”

An artistic paradise

The absence of cars has contributed to the island’s undeniable tranquility, drawing in creatives from all over, including renowned Italian actress Sofia Loren, who fell in love with Hydra while filming “Boy on a Dolphin” in 1957.

“Hyrda offers wonderful colors, beautiful light and a unique atmosphere that has inspired many people,” says jewelry designer and Hydra native, Elena Votsi.

Known for her work that blends traditional craftsmanship with modern aesthetics, Votsi draws inspiration from her Greek heritage as well as nature and geometry.

Although born in Athens, Votsi says she spent summers and holidays on Hydra, visiting her father. She says the absence of cars makes it a magical place to work and has inspired her designs since the beginning of her career.

“The sun, rocks and patterns of the waves inspired me. The island’s natural beauty and uniqueness have had a significant influence on my creative process,” Votsi said.

In 2003, she was invited to partake in a competition to redesign the Summer Olympic Games medal for the International Olympic Committee.

Upon receiving the invitation to compete, Votsi headed to her home in Hydra. The island, with its ineffable charm, played muse, instigating a creative journey that would lead to Votsi winning the contest and adding her name in the records of the world’s most celebrated sporting events .

Many famous artists have visited or lived on Hydra. The island’s magnetic charm has drawn painters Brice Marden, Alexis Veroucas, Panagiotis Tetsis, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas and John Craxton, as well as author Henry Miller to its shores, each finding inspiration amid its tranquil landscapes.

Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen discovered Hydra in the 1960s and made it his home for several years. His time on Hydra is immortalized in his song “Bird on the Wire,” which he partially wrote while living there.

“Hydra is a paradise. It’s a magical place to work and a blessing that I can come here as an artist, as so many others have done before me and will continue to do,” Votsi said.