6 Step Disinformation Guide: Don’t Get Swept Away by Falsehoods about War in Ukraine

The invasion of Ukraine opened the floodgates to disinformation. Follow our 6 step guide to protect yourself and avoid being swept away by untrustworthy news stories.

by Eleanor Brooks

March 16, 2022


Disinformation is playing an outsized role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and there is mounting evidence that Russians are being deliberately misled by their government and state-controlled media outlets. Russian propaganda is also amplified by state-run media within the Europe Union, for example, in Hungary.

Disinformation poses a major threat to democratic societies in peacetime as well. Conflicting versions of events muddies the water, which makes it difficult for people to know the truth about what is happening. Without an accurate picture, it is harder for citizens to speak out and make their voices heard about issues which matter to them. Disinformation can also distort public debate, threatening free and fair elections.

What is disinformation?

Disinformation is false information that is shared with the intention of misleading people. The sharer of the “news” knows that it is false and intends to deceive their audience. Unlike misinformation (misleading, inaccurate or completely false information that is shared without the person knowing it is incorrect), the sharing of disinformation isn’t done in good faith. Rather, it is a deliberate intention to create division and stir up fear by knowingly spreading content that is incorrect.

6-Step Disinformation Guide

Conspiracy theories have become more sophisticated as of late, so in order to be alert to disinformation it is essential that you adopt a critical mindset to all the online content you consume. Before sharing anything, take a pause and go through this checklist.

1. Know your author

As a first step you should consider, who is the author?

Is the author regarded as credible? Is this person simply stating their opinion or sharing anecdotal evidence? You should be extra cautious about information circulated on social media, messaging apps and messaging boards.

Just because someone has a high follower count or a verified account on social media, it doesn’t necessarily mean their content is trustworthy. You should be particularly wary of accounts that have recently joined the platform.

2. Know your outlet

On which platform or outlet did you find the information? Consider the trustworthiness of the outlet you are using and verify the information against other sources.

If you read something on social media, check to see if the same story is also published by larger, well-established news outlets. If you read a story in a politically extreme outlet, are other news outlets running the same story?

3. Verify the evidence

Is the claim supported by reliable evidence? Look closely at the evidence that is offered – do the details match the current story e.g. location, weather, setting? Watch out for repurposed content from an older news article or an entirely different event.

4. Crosscheck images and videos

If you have a hunch that the evidence provided is dodgy, listen to your instinct. There are plenty of tools and strategies available to verify whether an image or video is legitimate.

·Check to see if an image has been photoshopped: by checking an image's metadata you can see if it has been doctored. Use EXIF tools on your smartphone such as the app ExifWizard

·Reverse image search – take a screenshot and search for the image using Google’s reverse image tool, or other similar tools such as Tineye.com or the Google extensionRevEye

· Use an Amnesty International tool which verifies YouTube videos

5. Check your facts!

If a story seems fishy to you, there are plenty of trustworthy fact-checking websites who debunk conspiracy theories and misinformation.

·Snopes

·FactCheck.org

·Bellingcat  (ANTI RUSSIAN BIAS)

·Google Fact Check Tools: lists recent fact-checks by various online publications

6. Report it!

If you spot a fake story online, report it to the platform and send it to a fact-checking website. If one of your friends posted the story – send them this guide!

Why is it important to combat disinformation?

Equipped with your heavy toolbox, you might be wondering if all this is going a bit overboard. But now more than ever we need to be vigilant, which is why Liberties has been working hard to campaign for EU legislative reform combatting disinformation. The twin crises of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine invasion have been a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and disinformation. As a result, even well-intentioned people have been a source of misinformation by sharing falsehoods and manipulated content.

Disinformation sows seeds of distrust. But it is even more dangerous if people believe it and share it. By resisting and reporting disinformation, you are doing your part to protect democracy. Spot it, and stop it!


Read more articles on this topic:

Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Should Spur EU Leaders to Strengthen Democracy at Home

We Are With Ukraine

#DemandingOnDemocracy, populism

Doesn't Ukrainian President Zelenskyy 'own a suit?' Economist CAPITALI$T asks and gets slammed on Twitter.

Mike Snider, USA TODAY

While watching Volodymyr Zelenskyy's affecting appeal for aid from the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, investment advisor and financial pundit Peter Schiff thought the Ukrainian president could have dressed up a bit more.

Zelenskyy has gained respect for his social video posts in which he is plain-spoken and plainly dressed. He famously told the U.S. at the outset of Russia's invasion, "I need ammunition, not a ride."

But Zelenskyy's dressed-down approach was inappropriate, said Schiff, who is chief economist and president of investment firm Euro Pacific Capital.

"I understand times are hard, but doesn't the President of the #Ukraine own a suit? I don't have much respect for current members of the U.S. Congress either, but I still wouldn't address them wearing a t-shirt," he tweeted. "I wouldn't want to disrespect the institution or the Unites States."

 

© Provided by USA TODAY Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a virtual address to Congress.

His hot take took a lot of hits on the social network. By the way, that's Schiff's misspelling of "United States" in the tweet.

Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, responded, "Is this a joke? Kyiv is under brutal assault with mass civilians being killed and Zelenskyy should worry about a suit?"

Political analyst Cheri Jacobus tweeted simply: "delete this tweet."

Meanwhile retired U.S. Air Force colonel Moe Davis tweeted: "Seriously! The man’s in the midst of an invasion and someone wants to critique his wardrobe? As for disrespect … it’s “United States.”

As the reactions came in, Schiff, a former GOP Senate candidate in Connecticut in 2010, continued to stand up for his opinion, noting that Zelenskyy could "reach into the same closet he keeps his t-shirts" to get a suit.

The suit wouldn't need to be pressed, he tweeted, and, "if there were not suits available, maybe a long-sleeved shirt with a collar."

Arts and culture writer John Law suggested that Schiff had posted "the dumbest thing I'll see on Twitter all year."

But Schiff countered: "Then you don't spend much time on Twitter."

Several media outlets wrote about the response to Schiff's comments. Among them was The Wrap with its headline: "Financier and Radio Host Peter Schiff Dressed Down for Criticizing Zelenskyy’s Casual Attire."

USA TODAY has reached out to Schiff’s company for comment.

By late afternoon, the conversation continued on Twitter. "You've earned the ratio & neg comments you're getting," tweeted personal finance expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox.




But Schiff suggested since Zelenskyy had time to comb his hair, shave and put on makeup, that the Ukrainian president "could have worn something less informal than a t-shirt. That's all I suggested."

It remains to see who will get the last word about this on Twitter.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doesn't Ukrainian President Zelenskyy 'own a suit?' Economist asks and gets slammed on Twitter.

Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article.

CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
‘People are coming out alive’: Survivors emerge from bombed Mariupol theatre, says local MP

By Latika Bourke
March 17, 2022 — 

Authorities in Mariupol say people are coming out alive after successfully hiding in a bomb shelter at the theatre where hundreds of people, including children, were sheltering, prompting hopes of a miracle in the besieged Ukrainian city.

Sergiy Taruta, the local MP, announced the news on Facebook, which was translated by an official adviser to the Ukrainian government on Telegram.

Photo released by Donetsk Regional Civil-Military Administration Council shows the Mariupol Drama Theatre damaged after shelling.

CREDIT:AP

“After a terrible and scary night of uncertainty on the morning of the 22nd day of the war, finally good news from Mariupol!” Taruta wrote.

“The bomb shelter withstood! The blockages began to be dismantled and people are coming out alive!”

The number of casualties and survivors is still unknown as the amount of rubble and debris created by the attack had made any recovery impossible. A search effort is now under way.



Private satellite firm Maxar released an image showing the word “children” written in Russian outside the theatre which was the target of a Russian attack on Wednesday.

Ukraine has said the bombing of the civilian target is yet another war crime committed by the Russians.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden for the first time said Russia’s Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal.”


The Mariupol Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Monday, with the word “children” painted on the ground at the front and back of the building.

CREDIT:MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AP

In his latest video update, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the death toll was still unknown.

“In Mariupol, besieged Mariupol, Russian aircraft purposefully dropped a huge bomb on the Drama Theatre in the city centre,” he said.

“Hundreds of people were hiding from the shelling there, the building was destroyed.

“Our hearts are broken by what Russia is doing to our people, to our Mariupol, to the Donetsk region,” he said.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that it was a “lie” that Russia had bombed the theatre.

“Russia’s armed forces don’t bomb towns and cities,” she told in a briefing.

Repeated attempts to create humanitarian green corridors to allow citizens to escape have been frustrated by the Russians.

This occurred again this week, according to Zelensky, when citizens trapped in Mariupol were trying to escape but shelled upon by the Russians.

He said it was only by a “miracle” that no-one was hurt. He said that 6000 citizens managed to flee including 2000 children.

Guernica (Picasso) - Wikipedia

 

First Thing: Zelenskiy likens Mariupol assault to Leningrad siege

Clea Skopeliti 

THE GUARDIAN

MARCH 17,2022

Good morning.

The Ukrainian president has drawn parallels between Russia’s siege of the southern city of Mariupol and that of Leningrad during the second world war, as Russian forces continued to shell Kyiv.

“Citizens of Russia, how is your blockade of Mariupol different from the blockade of Leningrad during world war two?” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Wednesday, referring to the German blockade of the city now called St Petersburg, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. “We will not forget anyone whose lives were taken by the occupiers.”

Zelenskiy’s remarks came after Joe Biden significantly toughened his rhetoric against Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian president a “war criminal”. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Biden’s comments were “unacceptable and unforgivable”.

How many have been killed in Mariupol? Local officials estimated that more than 2,500 people had been killed but the shelling meant the dead could not be counted. More than 400,000 were either without access to running water, food and medical supplies or struggling with a dwindling amount.

Russia launched an airstrike on a theatre in Mariupol where hundreds of displaced people were believed to have been sheltering. Zelenskiy said it was unclear how many had died or been injured.

What is the US doing? It will send an extra $800m in security assistance to Ukraine, including 800 anti-aircraft systems, 9,000 anti-armour systems, 20m rounds of ammunition and drones.

Mariupol: Russia accused of bombing theatre and swimming pool sheltering civilians

Ukraine authorities say hundreds of people were hiding in theatre and that convoy of cars leaving besieged city was also shelled

00:45Mariupol theatre and swimming pool where civilians sheltered lie in ruins – video

Lorenzo Tondo in Lviv and Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv

Thu 17 Mar 2022 

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of further atrocities in the besieged city of Mariupol, including an airstrike on a theatre where hundreds of displaced people were believed to have been sheltering and a strike on a swimming pool where pregnant women and young children had gathered. Russian forces were also accused of shelling of a convoy of cars of civilians fleeing the city.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Wednesday that the strike on the theatre was deliberate and that the death toll was still unknown, adding: “Our hearts are broken by what Russia is doing to our people”.

He also compared the siege of the city to that of Leningrad in the second world war.

01:18Mariupol attack no different from siege of Leningrad, Zelenskiy says – video

Mariupol has been facing a humanitarian catastrophe for days, and Russia continued to rain down fire on it and other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday, even as the two sides projected optimism over efforts at peace talks to negotiate an end to the fighting.

There was no immediate confirmation of numbers of deaths or injuries in what the Mariupol city council said was a “bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding.” “We don’t know if there are any survivors,” one witness said. “The bomb shelter is also covered with debris … there are both adults and children there.”

BEFORE AND AFTER

About 1,000 civilians were allegedly hiding inside the theatre, which was designated as a shelter for the displaced, including children and elderly people.Before and after the bombing of the Drama Theatre in Mariupol

Later Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional administration, claimed Russians had also targeted the Neptune swimming pool. “Now there are pregnant women and women with children under the rubble there,” he said in a post on Telegram. “It is impossible to establish the number of casualties from these strikes.”

A witness who posted a video of the aftermath of the attack said the pool had been destroyed and efforts were under way to rescue one pregnant woman trapped in the rubble.

As Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”, local authorities in Mariupol posted an image of the city’s theatre showing it had sustained heavy damage in the attack. Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol”, it said. Moscow denies targeting civilians and Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had not struck the building, RIA news agency said.

A satellite photograph from 14 March and released on Wednesday by Maxar Technologies showed the word “children” in large Russian script painted on the ground outside the red-roofed theatre building.

A satellite image shows Mariupol Drama Theatre before the bombing. The word ‘children’ is written in Russian in large white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the building. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters

Ukraine’s ministry of defence has described Mariupol as the worst front of the war. Mass graves have been dug on the outskirts of the city and the bodies of men, women and children have been left on the streets. More than 400,000 of its inhabitants are either without or with dwindling access to running water, food and medical supplies.

Local officials have said more than 2,500 have been killed. But the reality is that, because of the shelling, the dead cannot be counted.

Ukrainian officials also accused Russian forces of shelling a convoy of cars of civilians fleeing the city, wounding at least five people, including a child.

Local officials shared photos and videos of the aftermath of the alleged attack. “Heavy artillery of the enemy forces fired on a convoy of civilians moving along the highway towards Zaporizhzhia,” the governor of the region, Oleksandr Starukh, said in an online post.

The Ukrainian military also reported the strike in a separate statement. Work was under way to confirm the number of casualties, it said. Authorities also shared a photo of a child it said had been wounded in the attack.

More than 400 people, whom Ukrainian authorities have compared to hostages, remain trapped in a Mariupol hospital seized by Russian forces.

“It is impossible to get out of the hospital,” one employee said on the Telegram social media platform. “They shoot hard, we sit in the basement. Cars have not been able to drive to the hospital for two days. High-rise buildings are burning around … Russians rushed 400 people from neighbouring houses to our hospital. We can’t leave.”

Russian tanks move down a street on the outskirts of Mariupol. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Officials have told families to leave their dead outside in the streets because holding funerals is too dangerous.

Witnesses tell of a city in chaos, under constant bombardment, which is becoming more and more difficult to escape. Thousands of people are trying to reach the city of Zaporizhzhia, where refugees are taking shelter, but according to the Ukrainian authorities, the Russians are trying to prevent citizens from fleeing.

The regional governor, Alexander Starukh, wrote on Telegram that “Russian rockets have landed in the area of the Zaporozhye-2 railway station”.

The right bank of Mariupol, which is divided by a river, is at the centre of a vicious battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

The left bank is under Russian occupation and almost completely cut off. One of the two bridges from the left bank has been destroyed and those in contact with relatives inside the city say the second bridge is the scene of intense fighting.

A senior Ukrainian official said it was an “open question” whether a “humanitarian corridor” would be opened on Wednesday to evacuate more civilians. So far, about 20,000 people have managed to leave the encircled port city, but only if they have access to cars.

According to one woman whose parents are trapped in the town, 2,000 vehicles left on Tuesday and about 500 on Wednesday. She has not heard from her parents for four days. The Ukrainian authorities have told those with transport to leave Mariupol, but most of the trapped citizens either do not have cars or their cars have been destroyed by the shelling, three people with relatives inside the city told the Guardian.

A number of witnesses trapped in the city say the Russians are bombing radio and telecommunications towers, meaning that contacting people there has become increasingly difficult. Relatives of those living in the city desperately searching every day for news about their loved ones have been unable to find a phone signal.

“From what I’ve heard from people I’ve managed to speak to, they shot at telecommunications masts, and that’s why there has been no signal, not because the electricity was cut off,” said Iryna Bakazheriva, whose family members are stuck on the right bank of Mariupol.

She was contacted by a neighbour who left the basement and climbed to the eighth floor of his building, where a signal was available. “They are waiting for official information about an evacuation, but there is none,” said Bakazheriva.

People queue to receive food in an improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol. 

Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Hundreds of people left homeless have gathered in a large public building and have been crammed for days in the basement. “Some have developed sepsis from shrapnel in the body,” Anastasiya Ponomareva, a 39-year-old teacher who fled the city, at the start of the war, but was still in contact with friends there, told the BBC. “Things are very serious.”

“People who managed to hide in underground shelters basically live there permanently,” she said. “They practically cannot leave at all.”

Maryna Hammershmidt, whose elderly parents, sister, nieces and nephews are on the left bank, said she had heard no news from them for two weeks. On Tuesday, Hammershmidt’s sister put a sim card into an old analogue mobile phone and managed to call her.

Hammershmidt’s sister said she and the rest of her family were living in a bomb shelter with 300 other people on the left bank. They have no access to transport. Her sister said a group had tried to leave, but the car in front of them was hit by a missile, so they returned.



01:25 Children's and maternity hospital hit by Russian bombs, say Ukraine authorities – video

Hammershmidt has written to all the officials she can think of in Poland and Ukraine to increase pressure to evacuate those trapped inside the city. “They’ve abandoned a city of half a million people,” she said. “My mother is 78 and my father is 80, they are sitting in a basement. My sister is with a baby who is just one month old.”

“The left bank is completely cut off, there’s about 80,000 people
living there,” she continued. “It’s a living hell. When are they going to evacuate people?”

In a Telegram chat where about 100,000 citizens of Mariupol are collecting testimonies from relatives and friends in the city, users have reported the “the police academy is completely occupied by the Russians”.

Taking Mariupol, which is 34 miles from Russia’s border, would mark a strategic breakthrough for Vladimir Putin.

The city lies between territory held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014 and from where it has launched its assault on key southern towns in Ukraine.

Elizabeth Warren blames price gouging from companies for rising inflation rates

DESPITE FOX'S OPINION OTHERWISE SHE IS CORRECT

Lindsay Kornick 

FOX NEWS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., avoided blaming any Washington policies for rising inflation rates during an interview on CNBC.

On Wednesday’s "The Exchange," Warren spoke with Power Lunch host Tyler Mathisen on economic issues. One topic Mathisen addressed was inflation concerns from voters which he noted she’s frequently blamed on the "corporate greed" of oil, software, or food-processing companies.

FORMER OBAMA ECONOMIC ADVISER PREDICTS STAGFLATION, ‘MAJOR’ RECESSION IS FED CONTINUES CURRENT POLICIES

© Provided by FOX News WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 28: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations at the Dirksen Senate Office building on Capitol Hill.

She stood by her statement but also placed the blame on the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think the primary cause of this bout of pricing increases starts with COVID. And the fact that we have supply chain kinks and that people rapidly shifted the demand curves so that demand for services went down and demand for goods went up. So those two forced prices up, that’s part one," Warren said.

She went on to explain how certain industries including the meat industry and grocery chains are fixing prices to expand their profits.

"What has also happened is that now that we’re living in America where there’s a lot more concentration in certain industries, look at the oil industry, look at the meat industry, look at groceries generally. What’s happened is that these companies have said ‘you know, we’ll pass along costs, but while we’re at it and everyone’s talking about rising costs let’s just add an extra big dollop of cost increases to expand our profits,’" Warren said.

"Part one, yes, very much the pandemic. Part two, companies that recognize that because they don’t face a lot of competition can goose those prices up," she told Mathisen.

© Provided by FOX News In this April 29, 2020 file photo, a shopper wears a mask as she walks through the meat products at a grocery store in Dallas.

Warren has frequently attacked major industries and corporate greed as the source behind increasing costs and inflation. In November, she called for an investigation into the poultry industry for anti-competitive practices that could explain rising turkey costs. In December, she accused grocery store chains of exploiting the pandemic to raise prices and increase profit.

INDIANA FACTORY LOSES 7% OF WORKFORCE IN TWO WEEKS DUE TO HIGH GAS PRICES: ‘TOO FAR TO DRIVE’

Although various industries have cited supply-chain issues behind the higher costs, President Biden and his administration have since adopted Warren’s messaging and are now blaming oil companies for rising gas prices.

© Provided by FOX News Americans are experiencing the highest gas prices since the 2008 financial crisis, with the national gas price average reaching more than $4 per gallon.

"But, but, but, but it's no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation or American consumers, exploit them. Russia's aggression is costing us all, and it's no time for profiteering or price gouging," Biden said earlier this month.

ALBERTA HAD A REFERENDUM ON THIS

Health experts say making daylight saving time permanent is a terrible idea. Permanent standard time, on the other hand ...

War is raging in Ukraine. The coronavirus looks like it’s making a comeback overseas. Yet the Senate this week gave winter-weary Americans something different to fight about: the prospect of making daylight saving time permanent.

© John Tlumacki/Globe Staff 

Advocates of ending standard time have for years pointed to studies showing adverse health effects from changing the clocks.

Gal Tziperman Lotan

BOSTON GLOBE

The Senate’s unanimous passage of legislation Wednesday to do just that sparked intense reactions, from sun-starved Northeasterners thrilled over a potential reprieve from 4:30 p.m. winter sunsets to exasperated voters wondering why Congress can’t manage to work on more pressing matters.

“It’s about time. No pun intended,” Ari Silverman responded in a survey of Globe readers.

“There is some kind of prejudice against us morning people,” quipped Lillian Reynolds.

“Not really sure why Congress thinks this is important — we have a mess going on in Europe and lots of things to deal with more important,” added Scott Barnett. “But I guess they need Joe Manchin to vote FOR something for a change.”

Senators from both parties celebrated their bipartisan progress, claiming their so-called Sunshine Protection Act would deliver numerous health benefits — along with “more smiles,” according to Massachusetts’ own Senator Edward J. Markey, a longtime champion of the effort.

Health experts, however, are not smiling about the development.

Ending the back-and-forth time switch between standard and daylight saving time would put an end to adverse health effects that come from the change, but doctors and sleep experts said Congress is going in the wrong direction. The better choice, many said, would be to make standard time — the zone we inhabit from November to March — the one true time.

“In their zeal to prevent the annual switch, the Senate has unfortunately chosen the wrong time to stabilize onto,” said Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “What the Senate passed yesterday would require all Americans to start their work and school an hour earlier than they usually do, and that’s particularly difficult to do in the winter, when the sun is rising later.”

Abandoning standard time is about more than enduring groggy, dark winter mornings. Shifting the day forward an hour for good would disrupt humans’ natural circadian rhythms, and that’s not good for us, experts say.

“Our internal clock is not connected to the clock on the wall. It’s connected to the sun clock, because that’s how it’s been for millennia,” said Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, a pulmonology, sleep medicine, and critical care specialist in Indianapolis and vice chair of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Public Safety Committee. “Regardless of what happens on the clock on the wall, it does not change the relationship between our internal clocks and the sun clock.”
AdChoices

Researchers have identified the ill effects a possible move to permanent daylight saving time could bring by looking at the western edges of time zones, where the sun rises and sets later compared with the eastern edges.

A 2017 paper found that people who live on western edges of time zones had increased risk of a long list of cancers, including stomach, liver, prostate, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma for men. In women, researchers found higher rates of cancers of the esophagus, colorectal, lung, breast, and corpus uteri. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia was more common across the board.

There are also associated increases in conditions like diabetes, sleep disorders, and mental health conditions, said Czeisler, though New England is far enough east to not feel those effects as severely as other parts of the country.

Think back to the darkest day of 2021, the winter solstice on Dec. 21: The sun rose at 7:08 a.m. and set at 4:16 p.m. Boston got 9 hours and 8 precious minutes of sunlight, which, for many people, fell during work or school hours.

A permanent switch to daylight saving time would mean that next winter solstice, the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8 a.m.; sunset would arrive at about 5:15 p.m. In places like Indiana, at the far western edge of Eastern time, the sun wouldn’t rise until after 9 a.m. in the winter.Tell us: What do you think about making Daylight Saving Time permanent year round?

Congress, of course, can’t extend the amount of sunlight on a dark winter day. It can only play around with the clock, shifting the hours in which people are awake, going to work or school, running errands.

And lawmakers have switched to permanent daylight savings before — three times, during both world wars and during the energy crisis of the 1970s. During the world wars, it was hailed as an effort to keep wartime manufacturing running later into the evening, said David Prerau, who wrote a book on the topic.

Other countries have tried permanent daylight saving as well. The efforts usually end up being unpopular and getting reversed.

The ’70s effort, a purported way to cut costs in response to the energy crisis, was supposed to be for two years, but was so unpopular that Congress voted to end it a year early, Prerau said.A brief history of daylight saving time

Current federal law allows states to opt out of observing daylight saving time and remain on standard time year-round. Nonetheless, 48 states engage in the biannual clock-switching exercise; only Hawaii, most of Arizona, and most other US territories do not.

Indiana joined the daylight saving crew in 2006; prior to that much of the state ignored the practice. Researchers found that the 2006 change led to an increase in residential energy usage that cost the state’s households an estimated $9 million per year more in electricity bills because people were more often awake when it was dark and cold out, and increased pollution.

Many experts agree with the Senate that shifting the clock twice a year can cause adverse health effects, most from loss of sleep. Over the years, some researchers have shown the switch from summer to winter time is linked with disturbed sleep, more heart attacks, and a slight rise in fatal car crashes.Daylight Saving Time may become permanent. The reactions online are mixed.

But that doesn’t mean the move to permanent daylight time is the right one, Rishi said. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has advocated for a permanent switch to standard time, or the winter clock.

“I think it’s a good idea to get rid of the switch, absolutely,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to do the back and forth.” But the right place to end up is permanent standard time, he said.

Outside of the groggy first days after we lose or gain an hour, studying the long-term health effects of shifting the clocks is difficult because there are so many other factors involved.

A 2017 study from Denmark, for instance, found an 11 percent increase in depressive episodes after the clocks shifted to winter time, which took about 10 weeks to dissipate.

But shifting the clocks didn’t necessarily cause those depressive episodes, the study’s authors wrote.

Dr. Karin Johnson, medical director of Baystate Health’s Regional Sleep Program in Springfield, Mass., said there’s likely a simpler reason: Days are shorter in the winter.

When she sees patients with seasonal affective disorder or other mood problems related to winter, Johnson recommends bright light as treatment.

“But we specifically recommend bright light in the morning, because we know that more light exposure in the evening makes you stay up later and be more sleep deprived,” she said.

Johnson is a board member of Save Standard Time, a nonprofit that has long advocated for a switch to permanent standard time, and is now lobbying Congress to try to stop the Sunshine Protection Act from becoming law.

“We’re very disappointed, especially how quickly it was passed through the Senate without any discussion at all,” she said.

Johnson said the change would disproportionately affect teenagers, who naturally have a delayed internal schedule, and essential workers, who are often minorities and people of lower socioeconomic status and have early work start times.

The tradeoff just isn’t worth it for a small sliver of light after 5 p.m. in winter, she said.

“The days are just so short, you actually aren’t getting any meaningful light at the end of the day, and you’re losing so much meaningful light that’s even more important at the beginning of the day,” Johnson said.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME WON OVERWHELMINGLY

 HINDUTVA TRUIMPH OF THE WILL 

Kashmir Files, hailed by Modi, triggers anti-Muslim hate speech

Bollywood film on exodus of Kashmiri Hindus that won accolades from Indian PM is accused of fanning anti-Muslim sentiment.

A man walks past a poster of Bollywood movie The Kashmir Files outside a cinema in Mumbai

 [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters]

Published On 17 Mar 202217 Mar 2022

An Indian film focusing on the exodus of thousands of Hindus from Indian-administered Kashmir that won accolades from Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fanning anti-Muslim sentiments in the country.

The Kashmir Files, a 170-minute Hindi-language movie released last week, tells the fictional story of a student who discovers his Kashmiri Hindu parents were killed by rebels – and not in an accident as his grandfather told him.

KEEP READING

list of 4 items

list 1 of 4

Killings trigger fear, memory of dark past among Kashmiri Hindus

list 2 of 4

Kashmiri Pandits must reimagine the idea of return to Kashmir

list 3 of 4

Bringing the Israeli model to Kashmir

list 4 of 4

India’s BJP to revive Hindu settlement plan in Kashmir: Report

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Hundreds of thousands were forced out of Kashmir, losing homes and many lives, when a revolt erupted against Indian rule in 1989. Many were Hindus, known as “Kashmiri Pandits”, and later ended up living in camps across northern India.

A small number of the community, however, continues to live in the Muslim-majority valley.

Supporters of the movie, set during both the violent upheaval of 1989-90 and the present day, say it shines light on an often overlooked chapter of Indian-administered Kashmir’s history.

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has given support to displaced Hindus who want to eventually return to Indian-administered Kashmir.

Since the removal of the disputed region’s special status in 2019, Modi’s government has taken a series of steps that local Muslims fear are aimed at changing the demography of the region and robbing them of their land and livelihoods.

Modi on Tuesday praised the movie, saying it showed the truth and that vested interests were running a campaign to discredit it.

“They are shocked, that the truth that was hidden for so many years is out and is backed by facts,” Modi said, without clarifying to whom he was referring to.

A state leader from the BJP gave government employees a half-day off to see the movie, while supporters of Modi and the BJP endorsed the movie on social media.

However, critics say it is loose with the facts and targets Indian Muslims even outside Indian-administered Kashmir. Many see the film as evidence of the growing religious polarisation Modi’s critics say he has fostered since coming to power in 2014.

Protests over Indian court’s verdict on Hijab ban

Multiple videos were published online showing people in theatres cheering, shouting hate slogans, and calling for violence against Muslims.

Al Jazeera could not verify the authenticity of the videos now viral on Indian social media.

“The state machinery propping up the film and the reaction to it is disappointing,” said Hussain Haidry, a screenwriter who works in Bollywood.

“As a Muslim, you feel a sense of despair that movies like The Kashmir Files are encouraging and adding to Muslim-hate in the population.”

Many critics decried the virulent hate speeches against Muslims in theatres and asked why the government was not acting against the perpetrators.

“Calls for genocide of Muslims in theatres following the screening of #KashmirFiles. Will the film’s makers, actors, admirers including the PM appeal against such calls? You know the answer,” tweeted politician and feminist Kavita Krishnan.

Columnist Asim Ali was also critical of the film in a piece on news website Newslaundry.

“The message an ordinary Hindu is expected to take from the movie (as attested by many viral videos coming out of theatres) is another kind of ‘never again’ – never again to trust the Muslim, the secularist or the leftist,” he wrote.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Impacts of Ukraine conflict on food security already being felt in the Near East North Africa region and will quickly spread, warns IFAD

17 March 2022

© WFP

Rome, 17 March 2022 – As the war continues to rage in Ukraine, impacts of rising food prices and shortages of staple crops are already being felt in the Near East and North Africa region and spreading to the world’s most vulnerable countries, including in the Horn of Africa, with poorest people at greatest risk, warned the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today. This comes amidst mounting concerns by the international community that the ongoing conflict will escalate global hunger and poverty.

A quarter of global wheat exports come from Russia and Ukraine. Forty percent of wheat and corn from Ukraine go to the Middle East and Africa, which are already grappling with hunger issues, and where further food shortages or price increases risk pushing millions more people into poverty. Russia is also the world’s largest fertilizer producer. Even before the conflict, spikes in fertilizer prices last year contributed to a rise in food prices by about 30 percent. IFAD’s analysis looks at the impact that the war will have on already poor small-scale producers and rural communities.

“I am deeply concerned that the violent conflict in Ukraine, already a catastrophe for those directly involved, will also be a tragedy for the world’s poorest people living in rural areas who cannot absorb the price hikes of staple foods and farming inputs that will result from disruptions to global trade,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “We are already seeing price hikes and this could cause an escalation of hunger and poverty with dire implications for global stability.”

IFAD’s analysis shows that price increases in staple foods, fuel and fertilizer and other ripple effects of the conflict are having a dire impact on the poorest rural communities. For example:
In Somalia, where an estimated 3.8 million people are already severely food insecure, the costs of electricity and transportation have spiked due to fuel price increases. This has a disproportionate impact on poor small-scale farmers and pastoralists who, in the face of erratic rainfall and an ongoing drought, rely on irrigation-fed agriculture powered by small diesel engines for their survival.
In Egypt, prices of wheat and sunflower oil have escalated due to Egypt’s reliance on Russia and Ukraine for 85 percent of its wheat supply and 73 percent of its sunflower oil.
In Lebanon, 22 percent of families are food insecure and food shortages or further price hikes will exacerbate an already desperate situation. The country imports up to 80 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, but can only store about one month’s worth of the crop at a time due to the blast in Beirut’s port in 2020 that destroyed the country’s major grain silos.
Central Asian countries that rely on remittances sent home by migrant workers in Russia have been hit hard by the devaluation of the Russian ruble. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, remittances make up more than 31 percent of the GDP, the majority of which comes from Russia. Remittances are crucial for migrants’ families in rural areas to access food, education and other necessities.

IFAD’s experts stress that small-scale producers are already reeling from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, droughts, cyclones and other natural disasters. Their incomes are expected to be affected by the rising cost of inputs, reduced food supplies and disrupted markets. This is also likely to have devastating and long-term impacts on their nutrition and food security.

IFAD is working closely with governments, rural communities and other partners and exploring ways to step up global support to the regions most affected, including building on its Facility for Refugees, Migrants, Forced Displacement and Rural Stability (FARMS), which supports agricultural livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities. It is also intensifying its work to reduce post-harvest losses, improve storage and strengthen local and regional food markets.

“IFAD is committed to increasing the resilience of the world’s poorest rural people who are critical for producing a third of the world’s food. We must do all we can to ensure they have the resources to keep producing food and be protected from additional shocks,” said Houngbo. “In the short-term, however, it will be difficult to mitigate the global impacts of this crisis. I join the UN Secretary-General’s call to end the conflict now and restore peace. It is the only solution to avert global catastrophe.”

IFAD’s experience during previous food crises shows that interventions such as stabilising local market systems, cash transfers, strengthening remittances, setting up savings and loans groups, training and subsidies for agricultural enterprises, and value chain investments (including infrastructure, support for microfinance institutions, aggregation services that link farmers to markets) are effective in building resilience and reducing the impact of shocks. IFAD will draw on this experience and its unique expertise as an International Financial Institution and UN rural development agency to guide its response to the current crisis.

Press release No.: IFAD/11/2022

IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided US$23.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached an estimated 518 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub.

A wide range of photographs of IFAD’s work in rural communities are available for download from its Image Bank.