Spanish Soccer Chief Luis Rubiales Charged With Sexual Assault

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at sexual assault charges against suspended Spanish soccer head Luis Rubiales, North Korea’s first tactical nuclear attack submarine, and record-setting rainfall in Hong Kong.

Spanish state prosecutors filed charges against Luis Rubiales, the now-suspended president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, for sexual assault on Friday. Rubiales is accused of kissing forward Jenni Hermoso on the mouth without her consent after Spain beat England in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney on Aug. 20. If convicted, the former soccer chief could face one to four years in prison.

Among the charges, Rubiales has also been accused of coercion for pressuring Hermoso to speak out in his defense when the scandal first erupted. Hermoso has since denounced his behavior, saying she felt like a “victim of an aggression” and was “not respected.” Prosecutors presented their case to Spain’s National Court in Madrid just two days after Hermoso formally accused Rubiales of sexual assault.

Friday’s charges are just the latest action taken against Rubiales. On Aug. 27, FIFA announced Rubiales’s 90-day suspension, one day after the soccer head refused to step down from his post, calling the accusations against him a “witch hunt” by “false feminists.”

Despite Rubiales apologizing for his wording, acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez publicly condemned his behavior. “What we saw was an unacceptable gesture,” Sánchez said, referring to both Rubiales’s nonconsensual kiss as well as a lewd gesture he made following Spain’s victory. “The apologies he has given are not enough. I believe they are not adequate.”

The Spanish government has since also launched an investigation into Rubiales’s potential abuse of power. The 46-year-old has been at the federation’s helm since 2018. If found unfit to hold the body’s presidency, he could be removed from office for up to two years.

The sexual assault charges came the same day that Spain’s women’s soccer league kicked off a strike to secure better wages and working conditions. Among their primary concerns, union members are calling for Spain’s league to increase the minimum salary for women players. Female athletes’ salaries start at roughly $17,000; however, male athletes start at around $192,000. League administrators argue that the federation cannot afford to increase earnings because the women’s league makes only $8.6 million versus the men’s $98.5 million projections.

Negotiations have been ongoing for 11 months, but recent allegations against Rubiales as well as the firing of Jorge Vilda, the women’s national soccer coach, on Tuesday for controlling behavior have pushed Spain’s soccer unions forward in their pursuit of stronger protections. The season was set to start on Friday, but the strike will postpone games scheduled for this weekend as well as next weekend.

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Pyongyang’s Hero submarine. North Korea expanded its maritime capabilities on Wednesday when it launched its first-ever tactical nuclear attack submarine. Named Hero Kim Kun Ok after a North Korean naval officer, the submarine is a modified Soviet-era vessel first acquired by China in the 1970s. It will patrol the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Although able to hold ballistic and cruise missiles, the vessel’s outdated, noisy design will likely not make it a valuable asset in a potential future war.

Despite these drawbacks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un heralded the submarine’s launch as a monumental step forward for Pyongyang’s military prowess. Achieving rapid naval development “is a priority that cannot be delayed” given “the enemies’ recent aggressive moves and military acts,” Kim said in a speech directed at the United States and South Korea. The two powers held joint large-scale military drills last month to counter growing North Korean aggression.

Flooding in Hong Kong. An umbrella won’t be enough to battle the intense rains hitting Hong Kong this week. Friday marked the city’s heaviest rainfall in 140 years of recorded history—hitting almost 8 inches. At least two people have been killed and more than 140 others injured as malls, metro stations, and local neighborhoods have been flooded by the region’s intense typhoon season. Hong Kong’s weather bureau issued a “black” warning on Friday, its highest alert possible.

Hong Kong isn’t the only area fighting rising floodwaters. Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria are all struggling to conduct search and rescue operations as record-setting rainfall causes mudslides and flash floods. At least 15 people have been killed in the region as of Thursday. Scientists warn that excessive rainfall, extreme heat, and wildfires are all more likely to occur as climate change worsens.

Elections amid war. Russian officials held elections in four occupied territories of Ukraine on Friday to choose regional legislatures that will go on to select regional governors. Elections in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia will conclude on Sunday. Kyiv and its Western allies denounced the Kremlin’s efforts to tighten its control on the illegally annexed areas, calling the elections “a flagrant violation of international law.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday his intention to hold presidential elections in the near future. Until now, it was unclear whether Zelensky would hold wartime elections.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit opened meetings on Tuesday in which country?

A. Indonesia
B. India
C. Vietnam
D. Brunei

There’s relaxed—and then there’s too relaxed. On Wednesday, two dog walkers confused a yoga class in Lincolnshire, England, with a “ritual mass murder.” The couple phoned the police, who were able to confirm that everyone lying on the floor was safe. We’ve heard of corpse pose, but that’s taking it a bit too far.

A. Indonesia

Notably absent from the summit was U.S. President Joe Biden, who may have missed a chance to take advantage of growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the region, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Christina Lu report.

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