SPAIN
Drop cases against Catalan separatists if you want our support, Puigdemont says

Story by Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels and Sam Jones in Madrid • The Guardian

The self-exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has called for the dropping of all judicial cases against himself and his fellow separatists as the price for securing his party’s support in forming a new Spanish government in the wake of July’s inconclusive general election.

Puigdemont, who is currently a member of the European parliament, has lived in Brussels for the past six years after fleeing Spain to avoid arrest over his role in the failed unilateral bid for regional independence in October 2017. While he is still sought by Spanish courts, he now also finds himself playing kingmaker as Spain’s acting prime minister, the Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, attempts to garner support for a new coalition government.

The conservative People’s party (PP) won the largest number of seats in the election but Sánchez and his allies are far better placed to form a government – especially if they can win the backing of the seven MPs in Puigdemont’s centre-right Junts party. If neither the left nor the right bloc can put together a government, Spain will hold a repeat election in January.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, the former regional president made clear that his party’s support for a new Sánchez administration would depend on “the complete abandonment of judicial proceedings” he and others face over the parts they played in the push to secede from Spain.

“This is what we want: that the Spanish government creates amnesty legislation,” he said. “This is the responsibility of our incoming government and our prosecutors.”

Related: Vote for Spanish Congress speaker boosts Sánchez’s premiership hopes

It followed a meeting in Brussels on Monday with Spain’s acting deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, on negotiations about a new government. Puigdemont said on Tuesday that no talks would happen until three conditions – including the granting of an amnesty – were met.

“It should come as no surprise that we don’t have the right conditions for negotiations,” he said.

Puigdemont stopped short of calling for a new referendum but said a second condition of entering negotiations would be the recognition of the legitimacy of the 2017 referendum, which was suspended by Spain’s constitutional court and later ruled to have been unconstitutional.

His third demand was that what he called the “persecution” of all Catalans and their culture and language should end.

“We are talking about criminalisation of a culture,” he said, adding that if he were to form a pact with either of the two main parties he would need an official monitor to ensure the agreement was honoured in all aspects.

“Spain today faces a dilemma: call a second election and the risk and fragility is great, or you conclude an agreement with a deal with the party that will see the referendum of 1 October [2017] as legitimate,” he said.

But he added: “We are ready for elections, we are also ready for negotiations that could lead to a historic agreement.”

Puidgement has barely been seen in Brussels since the July election in Spain but used the press conference as a party rally, inviting dozens of members of the Catalan parliament to Belgium for the event.

The party faithful – who took up the front four rows usually allocated to press at such events – greeted him with a standing ovation and with similar applause after he ended his near 30-minute-long statement.

His home region, however, is decidedly split on the independence issue. According to a recent survey from the Catalan government’s Centre for Opinion Studies, 52% of Catalans want to remain part of Spain, while 42% favour independence. At the height of the crisis in October 2017, 48.7% of Catalans supported independence, while 43.6% did not. The stalled independence movement is also deeply divided: almost a year ago, Junts walked out of its regional coalition government with the more moderate Catalan Republican Left party.

Puigdemont’s demands are seen as an opening gambit in negotiations that could take months. His calls met with a measured response from the acting government.

“Our positions are diametrically opposed,” said its spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez. “We have a tool for dealing with this situation, which is dialogue. And we have a framework, which is the constitution. We also have an aim, which is coexistence.”

The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will attempt to win congress’s support to be sworn in as Spain’s next prime minister on 27 September, but the parliamentary arithmetic is firmly against him.

Feijóo – who had sought to portray the PP as a party of the political centre ground before forging several regional and municipal alliances with the far-right Vox party – has attacked Sánchez for his dependence on Catalan pro-independence parties.

The PP leader described Díaz’s negotiations with a fugitive from Spanish justice as an “unprecedented democratic anomaly” and said they were an affront to the authority of the country’s courts and to the quality of its democracy.

“Who’s in charge?” Feijóo asked during an interview on the COPE radio station on Tuesday. “Puigdemont. Who’s going to decide who the next prime minister will be?”

Arab workers at higher risk of injury at Israeli workplaces - Survey

Story by By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH 

A CONSTRUCTION site in Jerusalem this week.©

 (photo credit: CHAIM GOLDBEG/FLASH90)

Arab workers in construction and other occupations are at high risk of being injured at their workplace compared to other sectors and jobs, according to a new survey reported at Tuesday’s Nazareth Conference of the Institute for Safety and Health. The Israel Institute for Safety and Legal Information reports on how people struggle with occupational diseases and maintain occupational health.

A total of 37% of workers in the Arab sector reported a high sense of burnout compared to 19.5% among their Jewish counterparts, and 41.1% of Arab workers complained about lower-back pain that affected their functioning compared to 22.8% of Jewish workers.

Nearly 25% of Arab workers experienced physical stress at work, as opposed to just 8% of Jewish workers, and 17% of Arabs said they felt aggression at least once a week towards their Jewish colleagues.

Some 36.5% of Arab workers reported back-and-neck pain that impaired their functioning, compared to 13.1% among Jewish workers. Various injuries were reported among Arab workers, including 4.1% who experienced poisoning due to chemical exposure, 4.6% who reported fractures occurring in the workplace, 7.9% who said they were injured by foreign objects in their eyes, and 8.3% who had heatstroke or burns.


Arab students seen at the campus of ''Givat Ram'' at Jerusalem's Hebrew University on the first day of the new academic year

(credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

The Arab workforce in Israel

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Labor Ministry, Arab society constitutes 15% of the total employed population in Israel, with approximately 44.7% of women and 76.4% of men in the Arab sector in the labor market.

During the conference, Dr. Sami Saadi presented new findings on the state of occupational morbidity in the Arab sector. These findings are based on a new survey that examined 2,042 workers from all sectors in the country. The survey highlighted the main types of chronic conditions in the workplace: musculoskeletal problems, skin damage, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hearing impairments, injuries caused mainly by violence, work accidents, sleep disorders, and emotional damage caused by stress and burnout.

Injuries are not limited to physical harm but also include mental injuries resulting from burnout and coping with stressors. Almost 20% of workers in the Arab sector considered leaving their jobs at least once a week, while under 10% of Jewish workers did.

Only 5% of Arab employees said they feel they can work independently at their workplace, compared to 21% of Jewish employees. Additionally, 30% of workers in the Arab sector reported an imbalance between their home and work lives, compared to 20% of Jewish workers.

More than 25% of Arab workers reported organizational obstacles, compared to 13% of Jewish employees. As for working conditions, 40% of workers reported working in conditions that were too hot.

A significant portion of the workers at construction sites are Bedouin. The institute seeks to provide a solution to strengthen and improve equipment and safety culture in construction at designated training sites. Training is conducted in the Arabic language, and through their mobile units. Some 6,008 of these activities, which are part of the instructors’ mobile activities, were carried out at construction sites.

Reports showed that the work manager was missing from hundreds of construction sites, even though their presence is required by law, and 657 sites were not properly fenced as required.

In addition there were more than 430 reports of a lack of protective measures to prevent falls from work surfaces, unsafe access routes, hazardous work surfaces and walkways with a drop exceeding two meters.

Dr. Miki Winkler, the director of the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, responded to the findings: “The data collected on occupational morbidity in Arab society is alarming. We are working tirelessly to promote a culture of safety in all workplaces, provide the necessary tools to protect the health and safety of workers, and address the alarming reality of workplace injuries, fatalities, and long-term illnesses affecting workers in their workplaces. We urge all entrepreneurs and managers to utilize our services to promote a culture of safety. Together, we can succeed in advancing a culture of safety in Israel.”

India's Manipur charges four journalists over report into ethnic violence

A burnt structure is pictured at Torbung village in Churachandpur district© Thomson Reuters

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) -Indian police in Manipur state have filed criminal charges against four journalists, accusing them of misrepresenting facts in a report about the violent clashes between ethnic groups earlier this year.

The four were senior journalists working on a report, which was released this month, for the Editors Guild of India that was seeking to assess how coverage of violence in the state was being conducted.

The report stated that there "are clear indications that the leadership of the state became partisan during the conflict".

Manipur's chief minister N. Biren Singh on Monday accused the journalists of trying to "provoke clashes" with the coverage.

In a statement, the Editors Guild urged the government to drop the cases, saying it was shocked by the chief minister's comments.

Related video: Manipur government files FIR against the Editors Guild of India (India Today NE)   Duration 0:24   View on Watch

The journalists - Seema Mustafa, who is president of the Editors Guild, Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor - could not be immediately reached for comment.

The New Delhi-based Press Club of India also demanded that the charges be withdrawn. "This is a strong arm tactic by the state government which amounts to intimidation of the apex media body of the country," it said.

At least 180 people have been killed in Manipur after deadly ethnic violence broke out in May between members of the majority Meitei ethnic group and minority Kuki community over the sharing of economic benefits and quotas.

An internet shutdown ordered in the state governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contributed to biased reporting by local media aligned with warring ethnic groups, the journalists' report said. Some local media groups have rejected the allegation.

India, which will host the G20 leaders' summit on Sept. 9-10, has slid 11 places to rank 161st in the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by non-profit group Reporters Without Borders. The government says India has a vibrant free press.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights this week raised concern about reports of human rights violations in Manipur.

(Reporting by Blassy Boben and Zarir Hussain; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Mike Harrison)

India, advocate for the global poor, clears slums as G20 draw near

Story by By Rhea Mogul, Vedika Sud and Sania Farooqui, CNN •

The bulldozers and government officials arrived just before dawn, tearing down the row of shanties as its bewildered residents watched inconsolably nearby.

“We were so frightened,” said 56-year-old Jayanti Devi as she attempted to salvage what was left of her belongings in the heart of New Delhi. “They destroyed everything. We have nothing left.”

For the past 30 years her home had stood on a decrepit pavement, next to an open sewage drain, opposite the sprawling Pragati Maidan complex, a prominent convention center in the Indian capital that will this week host leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations.

But the dwelling is not what US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron, or British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will see as they arrive for the pivotal summit.

Devi is among tens of thousands of New Delhi’s most marginalized residents who have been evicted from their homes in the lead up to the G20 meeting, as authorities embark on a mass demolition drive in neighborhoods across the city.



Clothes hanging to dry near demolished houses opposite Pragati Maidan. - Rhea Mogul/CNN© Provided by CNN

The government justified the demolitions by saying the structures are “illegal” and has said it intends to rehome some of the affected communities.

But activists have questioned the timing, claiming instead that the demolitions are part of a “beautification” project – a campaign to rid the city of its beggars and slums – to impress foreign dignitaries.

The image of India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to project at the G20 is one of a modern superpower, a leader of the Global South, and a voice for impoverished nations. But the government has been accused of hiding one of the country’s own most entrenched and enduring problems.

“What strikes me most is that India, the Indian state, is ashamed of ostensible poverty,” said Harsh Mander, a social activist who works with homeless families and street children. “It doesn’t want poverty to be visible to the people who come here.”

In a written response in parliament in July, the Indian government denied any links between the demolitions of homes and the G20 summit.

CNN has reached out to the New Delhi and federal governments but is yet to receive a response.



Jayanti Devi stands amid the rubble of what was her home of 30 years. 

- Rhea Mogul/CNN© Provided by CNN

‘Why now?’

Delhi has long been a city of glaring disparities.

It’s a city where millionaires live in gleaming mansions next to homeless families on footpaths nearby, and where children sell toys to passengers in cars as they stop at traffic lights. It’s a city that attracts tremendous business, yet the demand for jobs grows increasingly acute.

Around 16 million people live in the capital, according to the latest government census from 2011, but only 23.7% of them live in “planned” or “approved” neighborhoods, according to a report by the New Delhi-based think tank, Centre for Policy Research.

The rest live in designated slums, villages, and unauthorized neighborhoods.

In April, Savita and her four daughters watched in despair as government authorities drove into their settlement – an unauthorized neighborhood – next to the 14th century Tughlaqabad Fort, an iconic Delhi monument, breaking down their small home and reducing seven years of memories to rubble.



Hundreds of homes demolished next to New Delhi's Tughlaqabad Fort. - Rhea Mogul/CNN© Provided by CNN

“I can’t explain how distraught everyone was as they bulldozed the homes,” Savita said. “People were screaming, crying, begging them to stop.”

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which carried out the demolitions, claims Savita and her neighbors had encroached on the land and illegally constructed their homes, according to court documents seen by CNN. In a notice to the residents in January, the ASI directed all “encroachers” to remove “illegal constructions at their own cost within a period of 15 days,” court documents show.

The ASI did not respond to requests for comment.

Savita said she knew her family was purchasing land in an unauthorized colony when they built their home in 2016.

“We knew the risk we were taking. But we are poor and it’s all we could afford,” she said. “People have been living here for over 40 years. Why didn’t authorities demolish these homes earlier. Why now?”


Savita looks over what was once her home of seven years. 

- Rhea Mogul/CNN© Provided by CNN

Homeless and hungry

More than 100,000 residents living in the Tughlaqabad area lost their homes in April, according to a Supreme Court petition filed by a lawyer assisting the residents.

With nowhere to go and no money to rent an apartment, many including Savita’s family had no choice but to live under tarpaulin sheets on the rugged land, even as torrential rains and floods battered the city.

In the day time, they begged policemen nearby for some bread to share between the six of them. On one occasion at night, she said, men tried to snatch her neighbor’s daughter, pulling the screaming teen into the dark woods.

“We endured this hardship for six weeks,” Savita said through tears. Forced to study next to mounds of garbage as stray dogs and cows rummaged through decaying food, her daughters struggled with their school work, becoming depressed and withdrawn.


Workers build a wall near Savita's home

. - Rhea Mogul/CNN© Provided by CNN

This isn’t the first time that an Indian government has carried out slum or shanty demolitions ahead of a large-scale international event.

In 2010, when the now opposition Indian National Congress was in power, beggars were forced to move from the streets of New Delhi and slums were destroyed in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games, upending the lives of tens of thousands in the capital.

Mander, the social activist, said it was unfair of the government to target poor families for living on unauthorized land.

“The government does not acknowledge that illegality has been imposed on these poor people,” Mander said. “That’s because this city has been planned in a way where there is no place for them to live legally. The demolitions are being done with extreme cruelty.”



Savita helps her children with homework at a temporary home in Delhi

 - Rhea Mogul/CNN© Provided by CNN

The Delhi government has said it intends to rehabilitate Savita and her family – but she says no help has arrived so far and is fighting her case in court. Her family is now temporarily living with a relative in a two-bedroom apartment in a crowded and narrow shanty settlement.

The stench of cow dung engulfs the gulleys, where thousands of flies swarm outside doors and mangy cats roam the alleyways.

“My children don’t like it here,” Savita said. “They ask me why this is happening to us. What can I tell them?”

Leader of the Global South

Since assuming the presidency of the G20 this year, India, the world’s new most populous nation of 1.4 billion, has positioned itself as a leader of emerging and developing nations – often referred to as the Global South – at a time when consumers are being hammered by soaring food and energy prices as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Modi sees India as a confident and modern superpower, a voice for the voiceless seizing the 21st century. Last month India celebrated successfully conducting a soft moon landing, becoming only the fourth country in the world to achieve such a feat.

Speaking to Congress during a highly publicized trip to the United States in June, Modi said “giving a voice to the Global South is the way forward.”

As war continues to throw the global economy into chaos, India has signaled an intention to raise the many concerns faced by the Global South, including climate challenges and food and energy security.

“The world looks upon the G20 to ease the challenges of growth, development, economic resilience, disaster resilience, financial stability, transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, and food and energy security,” Modi said in February.

However, activists point out the irony in that image, when India’s poorest are struggling at home.

“People are dying on the streets in the cold winter and we are demolishing homes,” Mander said. “There must be a fundamental right to life… to live with dignity.”

‘Poverty makes us powerless’

Standing amid the rubble of her home of seven years, Savita said she had so many dreams for her family.

“I wanted my children to grow up here. I wanted to give them a stable upbringing,” she said.

Now, security guards patrol the Tughlaqabad area as construction workers build a wall to seal the land. “Where were you the day bulldozers took our home?” residents asked the guards angrily. “Why didn’t you come to help us?”

Devi, from the Pragati Maidan area, is now forced to live in a makeshift tent on a nearby sidewalk, with no relief from the blistering summer heat.

She says no one has helped her find alternative shelter.

Selling tea and snacks to make ends meet, surrounded by decaying garbage and an open sewage drain that attracts hundreds of mosquitoes and flies, she feels defeated and alone.

“We’re so angry, but our poverty makes us powerless,” Devi said. “We can’t speak up.”

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/09/new-delhi-got-makeover-for-g20-summit.html

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
California pharmacies are making millions of mistakes. They're fighting to keep that secret

Story by Melody Petersen •

California pharmacies, including those owned by big chains, make an estimated 5 million errors a year — but they're not required to report them to state regulators. ((Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times; photos via Getty Images))© Provided by LA Times

Sharri Shaw walked out of the CVS on Vermont Avenue in South Los Angeles in 2019 believing she had a prescription for the pain reliever acetaminophen.

Instead the bottle held a medicine to treat high blood pressure, a problem she did not have.

Shaw began taking the pills, not learning of the mistake until six days later when a CVS employee arrived at her home, according to a lawsuit she filed last year. The employee told her not to take the tablets, the lawsuit said, before leaving the correct prescription at her door. The mistake, she said, left her in shock.

Shaw's experience is far from an isolated event. California pharmacies make an estimated 5 million errors every year, according to the state’s Board of Pharmacy.

Officials at the regulatory board say they can only estimate the number of errors because pharmacies are not required to report them.

Most of the mistakes that California officials have discovered, according to citations issued by the board and reviewed by The Times, occurred at chain pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens, where a pharmacist may fill hundreds of prescriptions during a shift, while juggling other tasks such as giving vaccinations, calling doctors’ offices to confirm prescriptions and working the drive-through.

Christopher Adkins, a pharmacist who worked at CVS, and then at Vons pharmacies until March, said that management policies at the big chains have resulted in understaffed stores and overworked staff.

“At this point it’s completely unsafe,” he said.

Adkins now works at an independent pharmacy company in Los Angeles. He isn’t the only pharmacist worried that heavy workloads and distractions are leading to errors.

In a survey of California licensed pharmacists in 2021, 91% of those working at chain pharmacies said staffing wasn’t high enough to provide patients adequate care.

While the pharmacy board requires pharmacies to document errors internally, inform patients about mistakes in certain cases and learn how to prevent them from occurring again, only 62% of chain pharmacists said stores were following those rules, according to the survey.

Mistakes with deadly consequences

Medication errors can harm patients, sometimes seriously.

One patient took prednisone, a powerful steroid, for 89 days after a Walgreens pharmacist in Santa Clara confused the drug with Prilosec, the heartburn drug that had actually been prescribed, according to a citation issued in June 2022. Research has shown that Prednisone can decrease bone density within weeks of starting the drug, increasing the risk of fractures.

In Inglewood, a pregnant patient suffered a fall after she was given two drugs prescribed to another customer by a pharmacist at the CVS on Market Street, according to an August 2021 citation.

At a Rite Aid in Bakersfield, a pharmacist typed the wrong instructions on a prescription for anastrozole, a hormonal treatment for breast cancer. The pharmacist told the patient to take half a tablet twice a day rather than twice a week as the doctor had prescribed. The patient took the drug according to the incorrect instructions for several days, according to a January 2023 citation, suffering “adverse effects.”

Some patients have continued to take and refill the prescriptions without knowing they received the wrong drug. A pharmacist in Adelanto at the CVS on Palmdale Road incorrectly gave a patient another customer’s prescription for 50-milligram tablets of Zoloft, the antidepressant, according to a February citation. The person took the wrong drug for at least seven months, refilling the prescription three times.

The state's pharmacy board says it investigates any report of an error that it receives from consumers or others. If the investigation finds that regulations were violated, the board can issue citations and fines and possibly take away the pharmacist's or pharmacy's state license.

CVS and Walgreens declined to make executives available for interviews but sent written statements saying that the errors were rare. Rite Aid did not respond to messages.

“Patient safety is our highest priority,” CVS said in its statement. “When we learn of a prescription error, the first priority of our pharmacy teams is caring for the patient, taking steps to correct the error, working with the patient and the prescriber.”

CVS said it does not comment on litigation.

Walgreens said it has “a multi-step prescription filling process with numerous safety checks to minimize the chance of human error."

“When errors do occur, we also have a robust mandatory reporting system in place that allows us to quickly identify root causes and to implement process improvements to prevent future errors,” Walgreens said.

Vons said in a statement that the company makes sure pharmacies are appropriately staffed. "We also regularly review the workflow in our pharmacies to identify ways to streamline and automate non-patient facing tasks so that our pharmacy teams can dedicate more time to serving our customers," the company said.

Related video: Valley seniors hope negotiating prescription drug prices will help save money (ABC15 Phoenix, AZ)   Duration 2:12   View on Watch

Some errors have been deadly. More than 10% of malpractice claims against pharmacists were for injuries that resulted in death, according to a 2019 report by two insurance providers.

The leading cause of death was from overdoses, in which patients were given dosage strengths that were too high or incorrect instructions that multiplied the amount of medicine the patient received.

As many as 9,000 Americans die each year from prescription errors, according to one study.

'Virtual verification'

The chain pharmacies told The Times they are using technology to give pharmacists more time to keep patients safe.

Walgreens said, for example, it uses “micro-fulfillment” — in which prescriptions are filled by robots at regional centers.

One method of automation used by CVS is mentioned in at least seven citations by the California pharmacy board since July 2022. The technique, called “virtual verification,” allows a pharmacist to sign off on a prescription without actually seeing what pills are put in the bottle.

Instead a lower-paid technician, hired to help the pharmacist, finds the drug to fill the prescription, counts the pills and then snaps a photo just before putting the tablets in the bottle and stapling the bag shut. The pharmacist approves the prescription based on the photo rather than actually observing the pills.

According to a June 2022 citation, one patient received a bottle of Valtrex, which treats viral infections, rather than the prescribed Keflex, which treats bacterial illnesses, from the CVS on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood.

“Pharmacist verification based on the photograph … obstructs the pharmacist’s ability to verify the prescription,” the regulators wrote on the citation, which imposed a $5,000 fine.

Since those citations were issued for errors, the board agreed to withdraw the part of its findings related to virtual verification at five pharmacies after meeting with CVS executives, according to a letter the board sent to the company. The executives told board officials that they had improved the process, including by making it easier for pharmacists to see the pills in the photographs. The board said it "remains concerned" that relying on photos could increase errors, the letter said. CVS told the board it has not seen an increase.

The fight for more accountability

Rarely does the public learn of the mistakes. Not only does the state not require the reporting of errors, but the big pharmacy companies often ask consumers to sign agreements demanding that they take any dispute not to court but to private arbitration panels.

Patients typically agree to arbitration when they are asked to click a box to accept the company’s terms and conditions when they pick up a prescription.

“You agree that CVS and you each waive the right to trial by a jury,” states the CVS agreement.

To begin understanding the frequency of the mistakes, the pharmacy board sponsored a bill that would require pharmacies to report every error — not publicly but to a third party outside the government. The bill would also give the pharmacist responsible for the store the ability to increase staffing if they believe the workload has become too heavy to keep patients safe.

The legislation is opposed by the California Community Pharmacy Coalition, a lobbying group representing retail pharmacies, including the big chains. The coalition has told legislators that the pharmacy staffing requirements are too rigid and that it does not want the pharmacy board to have access to the error reports, among other objections with the bill. The coalition did not respond to a request for comment.

Language in the current bill being debated in Sacramento states that the board would not get access to the reports — and neither would the public. Instead the reports would be kept confidential. The third-party group receiving the error reports would periodically provide information to the state pharmacy board, including how many mistakes have been reported.

The pharmacy board said it hopes to use the information to learn more about what is causing the errors and what can be done to reduce them. The bill would allow the board to publish de-identified information compiled from the data in the reports.

The bill, AB 1286, authored by Assemblymember Matt Haney, a San Francisco Democrat, has passed the Assembly and is now before the state Senate.

"Shockingly, there's no centralized reporting mechanism for medication errors," Haney said in an interview. "There should be transparency and the Board of Pharmacy should have the authority to respond to protect patients. That's not happening right now."

Two years ago, the state Legislature passed a bill that banned chain pharmacies from setting quotas for pharmacists on the numbers of prescriptions filled, vaccines given or other activities during a shift. The law’s goal was to make the chain pharmacies safer by freeing pharmacists from the corporate quota requirements.

In the 2021 survey, taken before that bill passed, 73% of chain pharmacists said their employer monitored the number of prescriptions filled and 62% said the company monitored the average time it took them to fill a prescription.

Despite the new law, some chain pharmacies have continued to require pharmacists to meet quotas, according to citations issued by the board. Since January 2022, at least five California pharmacies have been cited for asking pharmacists to meet quotas.

CVS set quotas and measured pharmacists on the number of vaccinations they gave each week, according to a March citation issued to the company's pharmacy in Ripon, a town in the Central Valley. The citation included a $10,000 fine.

CVS declined to answer questions about the citation. It said it did not set quotas for pharmacists or pharmacy technicians.

A pharmacy board inspection at a Walgreens in Citrus Heights in August of last year found that the store had set quotas for pharmacists on the number of COVID-19 tests dispensed and vaccinations given.

The quota was “expressly encouraged by Walgreens corporate ownership,” the citation said. The pharmacy was fined $50,000, and an additional $5,000 for the inspectors’ finding that a pharmacist had dispensed a prescription of atenolol, a blood pressure medicine, without consulting with the customer about how to safely take it. That consultation is required by state law if the drug hasn’t been given to the patient previously.

Walgreens said it disagreed with the citation and was challenging it. “Walgreens does not utilize quotas for pharmacists or pharmacy technicians,” the company said, “and was in compliance with the new law before it went into effect.”

In a nationwide move last fall, Walgreens announced that it would no longer evaluate its pharmacy staff on any task-based metrics.

Adkins, the former chain pharmacist, said when he began working at CVS pharmacies in the Bay Area in 2020 he accidentally gave a customer another patient’s prescription.

He said he was the only person in the pharmacy at the time.

“I was having to go back and forth between the register and filling prescriptions and answering the phones and one patient came in to pick up a medication, which wasn't ready because I was behind,” Adkins said. “So I had to go get it ready really quickly.”

He gave the customer her prescription, and realized after she left that he had made a mistake.

Adkins said he quickly called the customer, finding she was still in the parking lot. Although the patient ultimately received the correct prescription, he said, she was angry at the dangerous mistake.

“It was my fault,” Adkins said. He said he believes it would not have happened if he'd had staff to help him.

“The public does not realize what’s going on behind the counter,” he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

CANADA
Industry's shift to EV's is a key issue for bargaining auto workers

Story by The Canadian Press •

Unifor autoworkers at Stellantis, General Motors and Ford are poised to strike over wages, pensions and support for the transition to electric vehicle manufacturing jobs, if necessary.

It’s a moment where workers’ concerns about the future of their jobs have translated to a push for strong investments and national strategies to create secure, well-paying and climate-aligned manufacturing jobs — despite unions historically being defensive of existing jobs and wary of transition, according to one expert.

By 2035, automakers will be legally required to sell only zero-emission vehicles in Canada. Automakers have an opportunity to ride the wave of global EV adoption, and Unifor is determined to ensure its members benefit and aren’t left behind in the transition.

These historic negotiations between autoworkers and the Big Three manufacturers come after a summer of Canadian workers across many sectors exhibited a renewed sense of confidence and flexed their collective power to secure contracts that would have seemed out of reach a few short years ago, said Stephanie Ross, associate professor at McMaster University’s School of Labour Studies.

“They've been willing to take strike votes, go right down to the wire up to strike deadline, and many have been willing to go on strike, even reject tentative agreements that maybe even five years ago would have been considered really excellent but aren't good enough now, and stay on strike in order to improve those agreements,” said Ross. “It's something that we haven't really seen for a long time.”

For example, striking Unifor Metro workers in the Greater Toronto Area rejected their employer’s first tentative agreement. The grocery store workers held out for a better deal and voted to ratify an improved tentative agreement on Aug. 31, ending their month-long strike.

Similarly, B.C. dock workers with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union of Canada (ILWU) rejected a mediated deal on July 28. A few days later, members voted for a tentative agreement, bringing the 13-day strike to an end.

Depending on how negotiations go, Unifor autoworkers could be the next group to hit the picket lines when their contracts expire on Sept. 18.

For Unifor, the switch to EV manufacturing represents both opportunity and risk for its members: Unifor wants investments and commitments from employers to protect jobs through the EV transition. The union says there is an opportunity to create even more good jobs by developing a domestic strategy to produce all the components needed to manufacture EVs.

“Every sector's relationship to the carbon economy is different,” said Ross, noting for some sectors, like oil and gas, for example, it “will be much more difficult for them to align their members’ interests in job security and the sustainability of their jobs with our broader climate goals to reduce our carbon emissions.”

But now, the turn to EVs means Unifor and the U.S.-based United Auto Workers union can fight for jobs that are more consistent with an economic future that is one piece of addressing climate change, said Ross.

“Those unions are not having to choose between jobs and the environment in a way that they have had to historically,” said Ross, pointing out that investments in North American production also reduce the threat of jobs being moved overseas and allow unions to be “a little more forceful in their negotiations.”

Related video: EV Product Margin Will Be Slightly Better Than ICE Vehicles: Endurance Technologies | CNBC TV18 (CNBCTV18)  Duration 11:05   View on Watch

Ross added previous collective agreements in the auto sector have involved compromises — some might say concessions — on the part of the union in order to preserve jobs.

Another big factor is that for the first time in more than 20 years, the two unions are negotiating collective agreements with the Big Three automakers at the same time — Unifor’s contracts expire on Sept. 18 and UAW’s on Sept. 14.

This provides a “moment for co-ordinated pressure on those employers that we haven't seen in quite a long time,” with both those unions signalling they are willing to strike in the sector in order to get historic deals, she said. Unifor members at Stellantis, Ford and General Motors all delivered strong strike mandates ranging from 98 to 99 per cent, and UAW members also put up numbers in the high 90s.

Last fall, 55,000 Ontario education workers went on strike, and Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government attempted to legislate them back to work. In April, Canada’s largest federal public service union hit the picket lines over issues including wage increases, overtime and remote work.

“There's something going on,” said Ross, pointing to actions by smaller groups of workers “who don’t really have a history of militancy or being very assertive in their bargaining” like the Brock University Faculty Association or TVO journalists and educators, who are currently striking for the first time.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, unions were on their back foot, but now there’s a window of opportunity for workers and unions, said Ross.

“Inflation has really skyrocketed to levels that we haven't seen since the early 1980s,” and unemployment is quite low compared to the last three or four decades, both of which create the conditions for a surge in labour activity, said Ross.

A Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives analysis published in January examined who is profiting from inflation and found high prices alone sent $72 billion more to the corporate sector in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the third quarter of 2020. At the same time, only $656 million went towards increased compensation for workers, the report found.

As corporations continue to rake in “eye-popping” profits, “workers are finally recognizing that they can stand up and demand more, and they’re getting more,” said Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, in an interview with Canada’s National Observer ahead of Labour Day.

With more than 50 affiliate unions and three million members, the Canadian Labour Congress is Canada’s largest labour organization. At its tri-annual convention in May, a majority of delegates voted — with some dissent — to adopt a climate plan focused on delivering an equitable energy transition.

“I can tell you that workers are very worried about the future of their jobs, they're very worried about the future of their communities,” said Bruske, pointing to the wildfires devastating B.C.’s Interior and the Northwest Territories.

“We've had floods, we've had fires … and when those events happen, people leave behind literally everything, including their jobs, including their ability to actually earn a living,” said Bruske.

This reality, she says, is “really focusing workers' attention to climate change” as something that's tangible that we need to deal with now. But at the same time, particularly in smaller resource-based communities, workers are worried they will be left behind, Bruske added.

The CLC’s climate plan doesn’t force its affiliates to take action; that’s up to individual unions. It does, however, set the organization’s direction for the next three years and includes high-level actions the CLC will take. Shaping the federal government’s sustainable jobs legislation is central to the CLC’s plan. The long-awaited legislation was tabled in June but still has to make its way through the House of Commons and the Senate.

“It's going to be incredibly important to us to make sure that we have at least a third of the seats on the sustainable jobs partnership council,” said Bruske. Once the legislation receives royal assent, this permanent advisory body Bruske referenced will be created to provide input on an ongoing basis.

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Billionaire fracking brothers spend millions to promote right-wing propaganda: report

Story by Sky Palma • RAW STORY

(AFP)© provided by RawStory

Texas fracking billionaires Farris and Dan Wilks have donated millions of dollars to conservative operations that are skeptical about climate change and promote anti-LGBTQ ideology, The Guardian reported.

Among the right-wing organizations receiving funds from the brothers are the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.

"Farris Wilks and his wife control the Thirteen Foundation, while Dan Wilks and his wife lead the Heavenly Fathers Foundation, both of which have been funded with proceeds from the 2011 sale of their majority stake in Frac Tech Services for $3.2bn," The Guardian's report stated.

"Since they created their foundations, six- and seven-figure checks from the Wilks brothers have bolstered numerous pro-fossil fuel and evangelical projects."

Conservative media outlets Daily Wire and Prager U, which have promoted climate change skepticism, have also received funds, with at least $8 million going to Daily Wire and over $4 million going to Prager U. GOP politicians such as Sen. Ted Cruz and Ken Paxton, who is facing impeachment, have also benefited from the brothers' donations.

Read the full report over at The Guardian.

Famed hacker and Twitter whistleblower Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko is joining the Biden administration

Story by Tim Starks, David DiMolfetta •

Welcome to The Cybersecurity 202! What were you all up to over our break? I made it back to Indiana for a lovely wedding between two dear friends.

Below: House GOP members sound off on a new cyber disclosure rule, and a U.S. official told China she did not appreciate being hacked. First:

First in The Cybersecurity 202: CISA snags ‘Mudge’ for ‘secure by design’ role


Famed hacker and Twitter whistleblower Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko is joining the Biden administration© Matt McClain/The Washington Post

Famed hacker and Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko is joining the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with an emphasis on helping its campaign to push software manufacturers to bake security into their products while they’re being developed, The Cybersecurity 202 is first reporting.

Zatko begins in a part-time role this week as a “senior technical advisor.” It’s a high-profile hire for the Biden administration’s focus on products that are “secure by design,” a key component of this year’s National Cybersecurity Strategy as well as CISA’s strategic plan.

“Mudge joins us in a part-time capacity to help us collaboratively shape a culture of security by design that is foundational to every security team, every C-suite, and every board room in the country,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a written statement. “The National Cybersecurity Strategy and CISA’s Strategic Plan call for a fundamental cultural shift in which cybersecurity accountability is principally borne by technology vendors rather than customers and by business leaders rather than security professionals.”
“To enable this shift, we need team members with extraordinary expertise to help us identify the right levers and lead the hard conversations,” Easterly continued. “That’s why we’re so excited to welcome Mudge to the CISA team — a legendary security researcher, CISO, and visionary.”

On Mudge

Zatko was a prominent member of the groundbreaking L0pht hacking collective. In 1998, seven of its members testified before a Senate committee in one of the first-ever congressional cybersecurity hearings, where they delivered urgent — and prophetic — warnings about security vulnerabilities.

It’s his second go-round in the federal government, following a stint at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from 2010 to 2013.

“I am honored to formally return to public service and work with CISA on the critical cybersecurity issues we face, including enabling secure-by-design principles to be accessible, measurable, and adopted by government and industry alike,” Zatko said in a written statement.
“Cybersecurity has been the mechanism through which I have had impact,” he said. “Through this I have devoted my life to moving the field forward by way of transparency, education, and innovation. I have endeavored to do this irrespective of being in the public sector, private sector, nonprofit, through technical contributions, or in executive and leadership positions. I look forward to continuing my mission to serve everyone the best I can.”

His wide-ranging career recently took another turn when, a little more than a year ago, he filed a whistleblower complaint against Twitter with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. He alleged that executives at Twitter — where he had served as security chief for less than two years — deceived federal regulators about “extreme, egregious deficiencies” at the social media platform and violated the terms of a security agreement with the FTC, as my colleagues Joseph Menn, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Cat Zakrzewski reported.

The allegations saw him return to testify before the Senate.

“It doesn’t matter who has keys if you don’t have any locks on the doors,” he told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee last September. “It’s not far-fetched to say an employee inside the company could take over the accounts of all the senators in this room.”

Most recently, he has been serving as “executive in residence” with the cybersecurity company Rapid7.

On secure by design

Zatko’s experience dovetails with the Biden administration’s crusade (with CISA playing a key role) for manufacturers to develop products that are secure by design and secure by default — the latter meaning that they are secure “out of the box” and requiring no additional cost.

“Too many vendors ignore best practices for secure development, ship products with insecure default configurations or known vulnerabilities, and integrate third-party software of unvetted or unknown provenance,” the National Cybersecurity Strategy reads.

CISA’s strategic plan, meanwhile, says, “We recognize that technology products must be designed and developed in a manner that prioritizes security, ensures strong controls by default, and reduces the prevalence of exploitable vulnerabilities.”

Since the administration released its overall strategy, CISA and two other federal agencies joined forces with several allied foreign governments to release a voluntary “principles and approaches” document on how to implement secure by default and secure by design.

CISA recently teamed up with Microsoft to announce that the tech giant would expand free logging services following a hacking campaign that breached the company’s cloud-based email system to claim victims at the State and Commerce departments, among others.

Easterly said earlier this year that Congress should pass legislation to hold software manufacturers legally liable for the insecurity of their products. It’s an issue lawmakers have barely scratched the surface on, despite security professionals making decades of calls to act. It might take another year or more for legislation to even emerge, according to Biden administration officials.

The keys

House GOP members sound off on new SEC cyber disclosure rule


Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler testifies before the Senate Banking Committee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)© Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A trio of House Republicans alleges that a recently approved cyber incident disclosure rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission is duplicative and confusing and compromises the confidentiality of firms’ cybersecurity programs. The lawmakers are urging the agency to delay the rule, which is set to take effect this week, according to a letter sent Friday.

The missive addressed to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, from House Homeland Security Committee members Andrew R. Garbarino (N.Y.) and Mark Green (Tenn.), as well as Rep. Zachary Nunn (Iowa), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, argues that the rule goes against efforts to standardize cyber incident disclosure reporting for critical infrastructure entities.
The SEC in July voted to approve a rule that would require publicly traded companies to report major cyber incidents within four days once it is determined that the hack is significant enough to affect investors’ decisions.
The triad argues that the disclosures “are in direct conflict” with provisions in the 2022 Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act, which requires the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to craft rules requiring entities to report certain cyber incidents within 72 hours from the time the entity believes the hack occurred.

“It is unfathomable that the SEC is moving forward with its public disclosure requirements, which will only increase cybersecurity risk, without a congressional mandate and in direct contradiction to public law that is intended to secure the homeland,” the letter says.

Related video: What to know about hackers taking over LinkedIn accounts (WNCN Raleigh) Duration 2:00 View on Watch

While Republicans and some industry representatives argue the rule means requiring disclosure of too much highly sensitive information (a thematic concern among opponents of Biden-era cyber regulations), supporters view the measure as a way for investors to gain more transparency into firms’ cybersecurity practices and incentivize organizations to protect themselves further while alerting others of potential large-scale cyberthreats.

The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Raimondo complained to Chinese officials about being hacked


Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo talks to U.S. Ambassador to China Nick Burns, left, as they head to a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Aug. 29. (Andy Wong/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)© Andy Wong/AFP/Getty Images

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, on a trip to China this past week, complained to officials in Beijing about a recent hack that breached her Microsoft email account, Politico’s Katherine Long reports.

“They did hack me, which was unappreciated, to say the least. I brought it up, clearly. Put it right on the table,” she told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She “did not pull any punches” on other national security concerns, she added.
She said that hacking her account “erodes trust” between China and the United States. The hack also compromised the accounts of U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink.
The hack came at a crucial moment in U.S.-China relations, as Raimondo and other Cabinet members make trips to Beijing in an attempt to stabilize trade, business and security relations with the nation.
In a related development, China’s Huawei announced the rollout of a new smartphone that was timed to Raimondo’s visit. The move has signaled to some that U.S. restrictions that aim to stifle Beijing’s access to AI chips and other cutting-edge hardware are being circumvented.

China-linked hackers since May have leveraged a digital key and a now-resolved code flaw to break into the emails of U.S. government agencies and other clients. The incident has put Microsoft in hot water and has led some officials and policymakers to question whether the United States is over-reliant on the tech giant’s services.

Northern Ireland police chief resigns following major data incident


Northern Ireland’s police chief, Simon Byrne, resigned after weeks of political pressure following a major incident in which the personal data of all of its officers was accidentally released. (Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images)© Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Northern Ireland’s police chief, Simon Byrne, resigned after weeks of pressure following an incident in which the personal data of all of the police force’s officers was accidentally released, Olivia Fletcher reports for Bloomberg News.

Fletcher writes: “Byrne stepped down after an emergency meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board on Monday, having previously refused to do so in the face of a no-confidence motion submitted by the Democratic Unionist Party following the mistaken release of officers’ personal information.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland was responding to a Freedom of Information request last month when a staffer gave the surnames, initials, ranks or grade, and work locations of all 10,000 of its police officers and civilian employees. The data was publicly available for several hours, and PSNI officials urged anyone with the information to delete it immediately.
Since the incident, the PSNI has been aggressively searching for those who have held onto the leaked data. One man was arrested and charged last month with two terrorism offenses connected to possessing documents from the breach.
Byrne confirmed that dissidents have access to the information, and he said he fears it will be used to intimidate and target police, Sky News reported at the time. Sectarian violence in the region decreased heavily following a 1998 treaty, though dissident groups still target police officers.

Government scan

‘Excited and terrified’: On a high-stakes trip to China, Gina Raimondo confronts a complex future (The Information)

Securing the ballot

Why Trump’s vow to appeal his D.C. trial date probably won’t work (Devlin Barrett)

Industry report

Staying on alert for after-hours cyberattacks (Axios)

Why is .US being used to phish so many of us? (Krebs on Security)

National security watch

Why the West is concerned about the UN cybercrime treaty (Semafor)

Global cyberspace

Hackers push anti-Iranian government messages to millions via breached app (CyberScoop)

Saudi dissident’s brother is sentenced to death in social media case (New York Times)

Meta identifies Iran and Turkey's network of ‘adversarial threat’ (Jerusalem Post)

Huawei teardown shows chip breakthrough in blow to US sanctions (Bloomberg News)

Musk’s new Twitter policies helped spread Russian propaganda, E.U. says (Joseph Menn)

Britain sets priorities for November global AI safety summit (Reuters)

Cyber insecurity

Maker of ‘smart’ chastity cage left users’ emails, passwords, and locations exposed (TechCrunch)

Freecycle confirms massive data breach impacting 7 million users (Bleeping Computer)

Encryption wars

Barracuda patch bypassed by novel malware from China-linked threat group (Cybersecurity Dive)

Privacy patch

The endless battle to banish the world’s most notorious stalker website (Nitasha Tiku)

X, formerly known as Twitter, may collect your biometric data and job history (CNN)

Daybook
Jen Easterly, Anne Neuberger, Kemba Walden and other U.S. cyber officials speak at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in D.C. throughout this week.
DHS Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis Kenneth Wainstein speaks with the Atlantic Council tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
The Institute of World Politics convenes a cyber intelligence seminar tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Secure log off

Polish official harshly criticizes film that explores migration crisis at Poland-Belarus border


 Polish director Agnieszka Holland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A leading member of Poland’s conservative government has sharply criticized a film that explores the humanitarian disaster affecting migrants along the Poland-Belarus border which premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival.

“Green Border,” by Polish director Agnieszka Holland, puts a spotlight on the refugee crisis that emerged two years ago at Belarus' borders with the European Union nations of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The film is in competition at the festival.

Poland’s hard-right justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, slammed the film, comparing it to Nazi propaganda.

“In the Third Reich, the Germans produced propaganda films showing Poles as bandits and murderers. Today they have Agnieszka Holland for that,” Ziobro wrote Monday on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter.

According to the film festival’s description, the feature film dramatizes the tragedy that has played out in this “green border” of swamps and forests in a story showing the intertwining lives of a Polish activist, a young Polish border guard and a Syrian family.

Holland directed the 1990 Holocaust film “Europa, Europa.” She has been a critic of the hard-line treatment of refugees and migrants by governments in Poland and elsewhere in Europe, a viewpoint reflected in the film.

At a news conference in Venice, she described the large-scale migration to Europe by people escaping conflict and poverty as an existential crisis for the continent, saying that the issue will exacerbate in the future due to climate change. Holland said that Europeans would have to decide whether to face the challenge humanely or not, appearing pessimistic.

She said the lessons learned from the Holocaust "somehow evaporated and we have to deal today with the future which can be, I'm afraid, similar to the experience of the past,” she said.

In 2021, the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, eased access to flights and visas for migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Belarus, facilitating their way to the border. Belarusian guards in some cases used force to push them across the border to EU countries.

Poland accused Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, of seeking to sow discord in the region. In many cases, Polish border guards pushed the migrants back to Belarus and refused to allow them to apply for asylum. In the summer of 2021, migrants became stranded in the no-man's land between Poland and Belarus where they were denied humanitarian and medical help.

Activists have reported the deaths of dozens in the border zone.

“I understood that a training camp of cruelty was being established on the border. In my opinion, it was a purely political decision,” Holland said in a recent interview with Polish Newsweek in which she accuses populist politicians in Poland and elsewhere of seeking to win political points with what she described as a short-sighted and inhumane approach to migration.

Holland has been among prominent public figures in Poland who have condemned Polish authorities for their treatment of the migrants. The critics argue that even though Belarus was guilty of using the migrants as pawns in a cynical geopolitical game, a democracy and EU member like Poland should have treated them in line with international law by allowing them to apply for asylum.

Polish authorities have accused its critics and the Polish activists who mobilized to help the migrants of harming Poland's interests.

The film is being released in Poland on Sept. 22.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

HINDUTVA; BJP HINDU NATIONALISM
India's government replaces 'India' with ancient name 'Bharat' in dinner invitation to G20 guests



India's government replaces 'India' with ancient name 'Bharat' in dinner invitation to G20 guests© Provided by The Canadian Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has replaced the name India with a Sanskrit word in dinner invitations sent to guests attending this week's Group of 20 summit, in a move that reflects his Hindu nationalist party’s efforts to eliminate what it sees as colonial-era names.

Indian President Droupadi Murmu is referred to as “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India” in the invitation sent to G20 attendees. The nation of more than 1.4 billion people is officially known by two names, India and Bharat, but the former is most commonly used, both domestically and internationally.

Bharat is an ancient Sanskrit word which many historians believe dates back to early Hindu texts. The word also means India in Hindi.

The change in nomenclature is backed by officials of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. They argue that the name India was introduced by British colonials and is a “symbol of slavery.” The British ruled India for about 200 years until the country gained independence in 1947.

“Another blow to slavery mentality,” the top elected official of Uttarakhand state, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Dhami, who is a leader of Modi's governing party, shared the dinner invitation sent to G20 guests in his post.

Modi’s party has long tried to erase names related to India’s Mughal and colonial past.

Related video: “Whole world knows us with name ‘India’, why change now?” WB CM asks Centre (ANI Video)  Duration 1:14   View on Watch

India Toda yBharat is not a new name, it is there in the Constitution: S Gurumurthy

15:33

ANI VideoMy country’s name is Bharat and will remain so: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

1:34

ANI Video“PM’s hatred increased towards name INDIA…”: AR Chowdhury on ‘India vs Bharat’ controversy

2:34

In 2015, New Delhi’s famous Aurangzeb Road, named after a Mughal king, was changed to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road after protests from Modi’s party leaders. Last year, the government also renamed a colonial-era avenue in the heart of New Delhi that is used for ceremonial military parades.

Modi’s government says the name changes are an effort to reclaim India’s Hindu past.

India’s opposition parties, however, criticized the move.

“While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat,” which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India,” which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries,” opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor said on X.

Tharoor said Indians should “continue to use both words rather than relinquish our claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognized around the world.”

Disputes over “India” versus “Bharat” have gained ground since opposition parties in July announced a new alliance — called INDIA — to unseat Modi and defeat his party ahead of national elections in 2024. The acronym stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.

Since then, some officials in Modi’s party have demanded that the country be called Bharat instead of India.

Sheikh Saaliq, The Associated Press

India astir over rumoured plans to change country's name

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 05 2023

Devotees play drums during a procession to carry a tall idol of the Hindu deity Ganesha, in Mumbai, India on September 3, 2023. 

PHOTO | PUNIT PARANJPE | 


By AFP

India was buzzing with speculation Tuesday over rumoured plans to scrap official usage of the country's English name, after a state-issued invite sent to world leaders referred to it as "Bharat".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has worked to remove lingering symbols of British rule from India's urban landscape, political institutions and history books, but its next move could be the biggest such action yet.

Modi himself typically refers to India as "Bharat", a word dating back to ancient Hindu scriptures written in Sanskrit, and one of two official names for the country under its constitution.

Members of his Hindu-nationalist ruling party have previously campaigned against using the country's better-known moniker, India, which has its roots in Western antiquity and was imposed during the British conquest.

This weekend India hosts the G20 summit of world leaders, capped with a state dinner that invitation cards said would be hosted by the "President of Bharat".


The government has called a special session of parliament for later in the month while remaining tight-lipped about its legislative agenda.

But broadcaster News18 said unnamed government sources had told it that BJP lawmakers would put forward a special resolution to give precedence to the name "Bharat".

Rumours of the plan were enough to spark a mix of opposition lawmakers and enthusiastic support from other quarters.

"I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with 'India'," Shashi Tharoor of the opposition Congress party said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"We should continue to use both words rather than relinquish our claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognised around the world."

Former Test cricketer Virender Sehwag said he welcomed the prospect of a name change and urged India's cricket board to begin using "Bharat" on team uniforms.

"India is a name given by the British (and) it has been long overdue to get our original name 'Bharat' back," he wrote.

For decades, Indian governments of various stripes have sought to excise traces of the British colonial era by renaming roads and even entire cities.

The process has intensified under the government led by Modi, who has in public speeches stressed the need for India to abandon traces of a "colonial mindset".

His administration renovated the capital New Delhi's parliamentary precinct, originally designed by the British, to replace colonial-era structures.

Last month, it outlined plans for a sweeping overhaul of India's pre-independence criminal code to remove references to the British monarchy and what Home Minister Amit Shah described as "other signs of our slavery".

Modi's government has also removed Islamic place names imposed during the Mughal empire that preceded British rule, a move critics say is emblematic of a desire to assert the supremacy of India's majority Hindu religion.