We asked a government agency about AI. They sent us 62 blacked out pages.

Alexandria Jacobson, Investigative Reporter
March 27, 2024

Raw Story received 62 blacked out pages in response to a Freedom of Information Act request about artificial intelligence. 

Shutterstock/William Potter

When it comes to understanding artificial intelligence and its role in the government, expect to encounter a black box.

Or two.

Or 62.

That’s exactly how many entirely blacked-out pages Raw Story received in response to a Freedom of Information Act request that asked a federal government agency for records about its use of — and potential threats from — artificial intelligence.

The Export-Import Bank — the federal export credit agency that supports American businesses in exporting their products abroad to compete in foreign markets — responded in a decidedly non-transparent fashion, sending Raw Story a heavily redacted 136-page document earlier this month

An “IT Modernization Strategy” planning document, for example, was blacked out in its entirety.

The few records that included comprehensive information often addressed AI- and computer-related security concerns. The Ex-Im Bank disclosed presentation slides from a routine security awareness training and a warning from the agency’s chief information officer about phishing attacks, which attempt to trick recipients into sharing personal information or downloading malware by posing as legitimate people or organizations via messages.

Howard Spira, the Ex-Im Bank’s CIO and senior vice president, noted on June 8 “an uptick” in phishing emails targeting staff through messages pretending to be from “EXIM Senior Officials.”

ALSO READ: ‘Abuse’: Politicians are fretting about AI stealing their faces and voices

“The rapid release of powerful generative AI tools, e.g., ChatGPT, is also quickly leading to a significant improvement of the quality and believability of phishing attacks,” Spira wrote. “Scammers are using AI to automate various aspects of a phishing attack, making them more effective and targeted.”

Otherwise, any information about how the agency itself is using artificial intelligence — a rapidly evolving technology giving machines the power to simulate human intelligence and problem solving — was withheld by agency officials.

Raw Story filed its FOIA request, which sought agency records from a seven-month period starting in November 2022, on May 25. It took the agency nearly 10 months to respond with its heavily redacted documents.
‘No government-wide guidance’ for AI

The Export-Import Bank’s refusal to release detailed information about its use of and relationship with AI comes as government entities and private business alike grapple with the potential benefits and threats of AI technology.

Congress, for one, has conducted several recent hearings on various aspects of AI.

And AI has become an unchecked force on the campaign trail, too, with many politicians fretting about bad actors using AI to misrepresent them and harm their reputations.


But the government, as a whole, lacks consistency around how it regulates the use of AI.

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why Judge Cannon must step away from Trump trial immediately

“There’s no government-wide guidance on how agencies should acquire and use AI,” said a December report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Without such guidance, agencies can't consistently manage AI. And until all requirements are met, agencies can't effectively address AI risks and benefits.”

President Joe Biden issued an executive order in October announcing a "coordinated, Federal Government-wide approach" to the development and use of AI, which he said "holds extraordinary potential for both promise and peril."

In response to Raw Story’s questions about how the Export-Import Bank uses AI, Lennell Jackson, a FOIA public liaison with the Ex-Im Bank, pointed to an undated webpage that said the agency did not identify any AI use cases — ”specific challenges or opportunities that AI may solve,” according to the Government Accountability Office.

Jackson declined further comment. Any other questions about the Ex-Im Bank’s AI policies and procedures, she said, could only be addressed by Raw Story administratively appealing the agency’s decision to not release unredacted AI-related records. Raw Story is awaiting a response to its appeal.

The Ex-Im Bank’s Office of Communications and External Engagement did not respond to Raw Story's request for comment.
‘They pick and choose’: Obtaining government records

The Freedom of Information Act is a 57-year-old law intended to provide the public with transparency about the federal government through access to previously undisclosed information and documents.

But the government may choose to withhold records by claiming one of nine exemptions

In Raw Story’s case, the Ex-Im Bank withheld records by citing the “deliberative process privilege.” This exemption aims to protect the agency’s decision making processes and its staff’s ability to express “candid opinions” and “free and frank exchange of information,” said a March 15 letter from Lance Matthews, deputy chief FOIA officer at the Ex-Im Bank.

“We have applied the ‘foreseeable harm’ standard in reviewing these records and have balanced the harm that disclosure would have to a protected interest against the goal of maximizing discretionary disclosure,” Matthews wrote.


Jamie Wright, a California attorney and political strategist, told Raw Story she has found government agencies to not be forthright and transparent when fulfilling FOIA requests as “they pick and choose when they want to be,” she said.

Oftentimes, lack of disclosure from government agencies relates to “fraud, waste and abuse” or toeing “the ethical line when it comes to a lot of their decision-making processes,” Wright said.

“Whenever you're dealing with a government entity you can expect to get stonewall after stonewall after stonewall, and typically they're not going to be forthright, absent some kind of court order compelling them to,” said Wright, who has won her own legal battles against government agencies using the “deliberative process privilege” exemption.

ALSO READ: TikTok disinformation is no more dangerous than this Fox News disinformation

However, given how new and quickly evolving artificial intelligence is, Wright expects that the Ex-Im Bank is likely protecting itself from “serious legal ramifications” by avoiding premature disclosure of any AI policies, she said.

Over the past year, Raw Story has fought for disclosure of public records from public universities to local governments, revealing previously undisclosed information about taxpayer money usage and public and government concerns about political appearances.

In August, Raw Story filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of the Navy, following the agencies’ refusal to release records related to a former U.S. Marine and avowed neo-Nazi.

BABY CHINA

Vietnam Q1 growth hits five-year high on strong exports

Hanoi (AFP) – Vietnam's economy grew by 5.66 percent on-year in the first quarter, according to official data published Friday, boosted by strong exports.

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

Vietnam is a major global manufacturing hub 

© Tran Thi Minh Ha / AFP

It is the communist country's strongest Q1 growth since 2019, but still well off Standard Chartered Bank's forecast of 6.1 percent.

"The country's socioeconomic situation in the first quarter of 2024 achieved positive result despite many uncertainties in the world economy," the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a statement.

The industrial and construction sector expanded by 6.28 percent, while the service sector grew 6.12 percent compared with the same period in the previous year.

A major global manufacturing hub, Vietnam also earned $93 billion from goods exports in the first quarter, up 17 percent year-on-year. The United States was its largest export market during this period.

Vietnam's trade surplus reached $8.08 billion in Q1, up from $4.93 billion in the same period last year, the GSO said.

Authorities are targeting 6-6.5 percent growth in 2024, up on the 5.05 percent seen last year, while the Asian Development Bank forecast the year-end figure could reach six percent.

© 2024 AFP

World court orders Israel ensure urgent aid for war-ravaged Gaza

ROGUE ZIONIST STATE WILL IGNORE IT

Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The world's top court has ordered Israel to ensure urgent humanitarian assistance reaches people in the Gaza Strip, where fighting continued Friday including around hospitals despite a binding UN ceasefire call.

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

Smoke rises during an Israeli strike in the vicinity of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City 

In its order, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague said: "Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine, but... famine is setting in."

In January the court had ruled that Israel must facilitate "urgently needed" humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory and prevent genocidal acts, but Israel rejected the case, brought by South Africa.

The latest binding ruling from the court, which has little means of enforcement, came as Israel's military said Friday it was continuing operations in Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, for a 12th day.

Throughout the coastal territory, dozens of people were killed overnight, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said early Friday.

Among the dead were 12 people killed in a home in the southern city of Rafah, which has been regularly bombed ahead of a mooted Israeli ground operation against Hamas militants there.

A vendor among the destruction of Gaza City -- the International Court of Justice said 'famine is setting in'

 © - / AFP

In darkness, men worked under the light of mobile phones, digging with their hands to free people trapped under concrete blocks after an air strike, AFPTV images showed.

The ICJ ordered Israel to "take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay" the supply "of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance" such as food, water and medical supplies.
'Immediate ceasefire'

The war began with Hamas's October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 32,623 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Large parts of the territory have been reduced to rubble, and most of Gaza's population are now sheltering at its southern tip, Rafah.

On Monday the United Nations Security Council demanded an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza, the release of hostages held by militants, and "ensuring humanitarian access".

Israeli operations in the south of the Gaza Strip 

© Laurence SAUBADU, Sylvie HUSSON, Paz PIZARRO / AFP

Member states are obliged to abide by such resolutions, but fighting has continued and the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity on Friday said nothing has changed on the ground.

Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed in since October, when Israel placed Gaza under near-total siege.

Israel has blamed shortages on the Palestinian side, namely a lack of capacity to distribute assistance once it gets in.

Humanitarians say trucking is the most effective way to deliver the aid but, they say, the number of vehicles allowed in is still far from sufficient.

With limited ground access, several nations have begun aid airdrops, and a sea corridor from Cyprus has delivered its first cargo of food.

People rushing for food drowned and were trampled to death when parachuted aid parcels fell into the sea this week, illustrating the dangers and desperation.
Heavy damage

The UN says Gaza's health system is collapsing "due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints".

The Israeli military accuses Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, of hiding inside medical facilities, using patients, staff and displaced people for cover -- charges the militants have denied.

On Friday the army said it was "continuing precise operation activities in Shifa Hospital" where it began a raid early last week.

Palestinians at the European hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, mourn over the body of a child killed in Israeli bombardment 

© SAID KHATIB / AFP

Troops had raided Al-Shifa in November, before Israel in January announced it had "completed the dismantling" of Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza. Palestinian militants and commanders had since returned to Al-Shifa, the army said at the start of its latest operation there.

About 200 militants have been killed during the current operation, the military said.

Near Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, troops carried out "targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure", killing dozens in combat backed by air support, the army said on Thursday.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have massed around another Khan Yunis health facility, the Nasser Hospital, the Gaza health ministry said.

An analysis of satellite images shows heavily damaged areas around the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals.

Deadliest toll

Since the Gaza war began, Israel has increased its strikes in Syria, targeting army positions and Iran-backed forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, an ally of Damascus and Hamas.

A British-based war monitor said Israeli air strikes on Friday in Syria's north killed at least 42 including six from Hezbollah and 36 Syrian soldiers.

And Israel's military said it killed Ali Abdel Hassan Naim, deputy commander of Hezbollah's rocket unit, in an air strike on a car in south Lebanon Friday.

Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have tried to secure a truce in Gaza, but those talks appear deadlocked more than halfway through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Tensions have risen between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Washington, which provides billions of dollars in military aid but has grown increasingly vocal about the war's impact on civilians.

On Thursday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas approved the new government of prime minister Mohammed Mustafa, who said his cabinet will work on "visions to reunify the institutions, including assuming responsibility for Gaza".

Hamas forcibly took over from Abbas's government in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Netanyahu says Israel must have "security responsibility" in Gaza, and has defied Washington by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state.

His ruling coalition, which includes ultra-Orthodox members, is at risk over a defence ministry reform that would see ultra-Orthodox Jews called up for military service.

Netanyahu has asked the Supreme Court for a delay to allow more discussion of the measure.

He is also under domestic pressure over his failure to bring home all of the hostages seized by militants on October 7. Israel says about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead.

burs-it/srm

© 2024 AFP

African Union 'warmly congratulates' Senegal's Faye on presidential election win

The African Union on Friday congratulated anti-establishment opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye on his victory in Senegal's presidential election and hailed the "unanimous acceptance of the results".

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

Senegal's President-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye arrives to meet outgoing President Macky Sall (not pictured) at the presidential palace in Dakar on March 28, 2024. 

© Senegalese Presidency, via Reuters

In a statement, African Union Commission President Moussa Faki Mahamat said he "warmly congratulates" Faye on the official declaration of his first-round win, while wishing him "full success in his weighty and noble charge".

According to provisional results, Faye won the first round of the vote outright with 54.3 percent, far ahead of incumbent Macky Sall's hand-picked candidate, former prime minister Amadou Ba.

Senegal's Constitutional Court could declare Faye the official winner before the weekend, which would make a handover possible before April 2, the official end of Sall's term.

Faye, 44, was only freed from prison 10 days before the election, along with his mentor Ousmane Sonko, who was barred from running following a criminal conviction he says was politically motivated.

(AFP)

DC Comics' Jim Lee: Using AI robs artists of creative joy

Paris (AFP) – A new three-part documentary, "Superpowered", charts the 90-year history of DC Comics, which brought the world "Superman", "Batman", "Wonder Woman" and countless other superheroes.

Issued on: 29/03/2024 

Jim Lee started at Marvel in the 1980s before moving to DC comics and rising to be its president 

© JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Korean-born US comic-book artist Jim Lee has been one of the genre's great stars since his early days at Marvel in the 1980s, working on "X-Men".

When he switched to DC, he helped revive its iconic characters, eventually rising to be president and chief creative officer.

He sat down with AFP to talk about his inspirations, the risk of "superhero fatigue" and why he might have been a sort of "AI engine" in his early days.

Does the simplistic black-and-white morality of superhero stories still have a place in today's world?

The black-and-white division between good and evil was more characteristic of the early decades at DC Comics.

From the 70s and 80s on, the rise of the anti-hero and establishing origin stories for the villains, where maybe they have a valid point of view... that's helped keep the stories interesting... and there's a greater degree of sophistication in the storytelling.

The value of comics... is to remind people that we're all going to go through hardship and trauma, and it's the choices you make that will define your future, as glib as that might sound.

Are you worried about "superhero fatigue" as fans turn away from the deluge of content?

There's always a danger when you have too much content that people don't have enough time to consume what's going on. I definitely feel that way and I'm in the middle of it.

There might be fatigue for stories that don't feel as special and unique... This year will be very interesting given the more divergent takes on superheroes in "Deadpool" and "Joker" (ed: both have sequels coming out).
Lee loves 'sitting down with paper and a pencil', a feeling AI cannot replicate © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

You have to continually revitalise yourself... but as a fan I'd say we've been spoiled for many years in getting not just movies about the most iconic characters, but much deeper in the catalogue... These are things I would have killed for as a kid.

Is AI a threat to the comics industry?

We have to figure out a way to live in a world where it exists, and the source material from which it derives its content is properly credited and compensated.

But even if it were accepted and someone were going to pay me to use an AI engine to create work, I just wouldn't do it.

I don't create art just so I can have something to get paid for.

I love sitting down with a piece of paper and a pencil... I enter this fugue state, hours go by and it feels like 15 minutes, and at the end, I have this incredible sense of satisfaction because I went on this journey and I've created something.

Typing something into a prompt and getting something two minutes later?

I'm robbing myself of the whole point of why I got into this business.

What inspired you in the early years?

Different things from different artists. From Frank Miller ("Batman: The Dark Knight Returns") it was the storytelling and how he composed the panels on the page almost like musical notes... John Byrne ("The Man of Steel") and the way he depicted the human form... Mike Mignola ("Hellboy"), the way he placed shadows...

I was picking different elements from lots of different artists and trying to synthesise it into something I could call my own that didn't feel derivative.

So maybe I was an AI engine back in the day, Lee said laughing. That's an awful thought.

Is there too much violence in comics?

There's some truth to that.

It can be a shortcut to have them physically duke it out to resolve a crisis and I'm not sure that's the proper lesson you want readers to walk away with.

But I think in a lot of stories when it gets to that point, that's the only way to resolve it and perhaps that's a sad reflection on the state of the world today.

Violence has become the 'only way to resolve' a lot of comic stories today, a 'sad reflection of the world', Lee said 

© JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

(But) there has to be deeper emotion and deeper concepts at work and those are the stories that make the most impact and are the bestsellers at the end of the day.

"Superpowered", narrated by actor Rosario Dawson, is released on April 4.

© 2024 AFP

Calls for 'smartphone free' childhood grow in UK

London (AFP) – It is the question many adults dread being asked by their children: when can I have a smartphone? But as fears grow about the impact of the gadgets on young minds, some UK parents are fighting back.


Issued on: 29/03/2024

Children are pressuring their parents to get smartphones at a young age 

© JUNG YEON-JE / AFP

The challenge is being led by mother-of-three Daisy Greenwell after a casual school gate conversation spurred her into action.

Greenwell, who had been privately mulling the issue with a close friend for some time, was told by another mother that her own 11-year-old son already had a smartphone, as did a third of the boy's class.

"This conversation has filled me with terror. I don't want to give my child something that I know will damage her mental health and make her addicted," she wrote on Instagram.

"But I also know that the pressure to do so, if the rest of her class have one, will be massive," added the journalist from Woodbridge, eastern England.

The post in February triggered a tidal wave of reaction from parents similarly gripped by anxiety about providing their children with a device they fear will open them up to predators, online bullying, social pressure and harmful content.

Greenwell and her friend Clare Reynolds have now launched the Parents United for a Smartphone Free Childhood campaign.

Academic research combined with parents' own experiences have created a sense of dread about a child's request for a phone.

At the same time parents say they feel powerless to refuse, with phones for school-age children "normalised", supposedly on safety grounds.
'Snowballed'

UK schools minister Damian Hinds told a parliamentary committee recently almost all pupils now got a mobile phone around the age of 11 or 12.

"There seems to be something of a rite of passage about that," he told MPs, adding that some children got one "quite a lot earlier".

After Greenwell finally broached the subject on Instagram, a WhatsApp group she set up to discuss the issue with Reynolds quickly filled with like-minded parents relieved that others felt the same way.

Then the reaction just "snowballed", she added.

WhatsApp support groups for pressured parents have popped up across the country

 © Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

Greenwell said there is now a group in every area of the country as well as a few working groups for people with professional expertise on the issue.

"We've got an education one which has got lots of headteachers from across the country," she added.

"They are talking about how we can roll this out, how we can help parents and schools to collaborate and stop people from getting a smartphone at such a young age."

Other working groups are full of people who "are really knowledgeable and experienced in their fields", including an advocacy group to talk about policy change.

Those signed up include a tech company policy director and a staffer at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's 10 Downing Street office.

"They're people who really, really know the lie of the land," she said.
Childhood rewired

Many of the parents' concerns are echoed in US social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's just-published book "The Anxious Generation".

In it, Haidt argues that the "complete transformation of childhood that took place between 2010 and 2015" as smartphones really took off has led to a "great rewiring of childhood".

American CONSERVATIVE social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that children under 14 should not have smartphones 

© Roy Rochlin / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

He links the rise of the "phone-based childhood", continual supervision by adults and the loss of "free play" to spikes in mental illness in young people.

"Things were getting better and better in mental health and then everything goes haywire in 2013.... we have to basically rip the smartphone out of the lives of kids," he said.

According to American College Health Association figures highlighted by Haidt, since 2010 the percentage of US undergraduates diagnosed with anxiety has soared by 134 percent while the number being diagnosed with depression has also spiked, by 104 percent.

A similar picture has also emerged, Haidt says, in all major English-speaking countries and many other European countries as well.

He advocates no smartphones before the age of 14 or social media before 16.

Crucially, he says, parents must act together to prevent them caving in when a child "breaks our heart" by telling us they are excluded from their peer group by being the only one without a phone.

"These things are hard to do as one parent. But if we all do it together -- if even half of us do it together -- then it becomes much easier for our kids," he said.

© 2024 AFP

German collector turns back time as clocks go forward

Munich (Germany) (AFP) – Some 366 clocks cover the walls in the living room of 76-year-old Werner Stechbarth's apartment in Munich, the haul from a life spent criss-crossing the globe.


Issued on: 29/03/2024 -

Some 366 clocks cover the walls in the living room of 76-year-old Werner Stechbarth's apartment in Munich 

© Michaela STACHE / AFP

The yearly move to daylight saving time is a busy period for the pensioner, who has to manually adjust every one of his timepieces.

Work started well ahead of the beginning of European summer time early Sunday morning, when the continent's clocks will skip forward an hour.

"I start one or two weeks before and I continue after the clocks change, stress free," Stechbarth told AFP, sitting in his lounge.

His collection includes not just classic mechanical clocks but a few digital models with LED displays.

Each timepiece is set to a slightly different time to avoid them striking in unison at the top of every hour.

All the same, the room is filled with the sound of ticking and the intermittent whistle of a cuckoo.

As a chef for the German national carrier Lufthansa, Stechbarth had access to cheap airline tickets, which he used to travel the globe collecting clocks.

"The first is from Mexico, I brought it back in 1975. It was my mother's idea," he said, picking out a Coca-Cola branded piece in pride of place by the window.
For every clock, a story

Every clock comes with its own story. Stechbarth recalled how he forgot to take the batteries out of a souvenir he was bringing back from Tunisia.

Each timepiece is set to a slightly different time to avoid them striking in unison at the top of every hour 

© Michaela STACHE / AFP

"I will let you guess what the people at airport security thought when they heard the ticking in my suitcase," he said with a laugh.

Stechbarth missed his flight but was eventually allowed to return to Munich with his timepiece in tow.

The retiree travels less now but still shops for clocks online or in the local antiques shops.

His initial goal to have a clock for every day of the year -- a target of 366 for leap years like 2024 -- was reached long ago.

Excess items in his collection are kept in the basement.

The collector himself carries a watch on each wrist and another round his neck, but still manages to be late.

"I used to be punctual when I was working. Now if it is six or seven o'clock -- it's all the same to me," he said.

As the day fades, "I sit in my armchair, turn off the television and listen to the ticking of the clocks."

After an evening's entertainment, Stechbarth usually retreats to his bedroom, which he has furnished modestly with two pieces from his collection.

© 2024 AFP

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for TIME 

Disinformation targeting Brigitte Macron spreads beyond France

Paris (AFP) – Years after false posts began circulating on social media purporting Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman, the French first lady remains the target of fake claims with the transphobic disinformation spreading to the United States.

THE TRANSGENDER SLANDER BY RIGHT WING INCELS BEGAN WITH MICHELLE OBAMA, THEN HILLARY IN 2016, BEFORE THE CURRENT RIGHT WING GOP ATTACK ON TRANSGENDER PEOPLE AND THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE U$

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

The French president's wife Brigitte Macron is taking legal action over the claims

 © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

President Emmanuel Macron, 46, has in recent weeks lashed out at the false information spread about his wife, 70, who is taking legal action against those behind the allegations.

Prominent US conservative commentator Candace Owens vehemently attacked the first lady in a now-deleted YouTube video posted on March 11, propagating a false claim that first exploded in France just weeks before the 2022 presidential election.

Brigitte Macron is falsely accused of being born as a man called Jean-Michel Trogneux, her maiden surname, with that name going viral as a hashtag.

Macron is among a group of influential women -- including former US first lady Michelle Obama and New Zealand ex-premier Jacinda Ardern -- who have fallen victim to a growing trend: disinformation about their gender or sexuality to mock or humiliate them.

While this gendered disinformation is particularly visible in repeated attacks on prominent figures, it also affects women in general and sexual or gender minorities with differing levels of responsibility in public life.

According to the US-based observer group, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the goal is to drive women "off the platforms and out of public life", which has serious consequences for democracy.

- 'Across the Atlantic' -

Originally shared in the United States on sites like notorious disinformation hub 4chan, the claim snowballed when figures "with very large audiences gave it visibility", doctoral researcher Sophie Chauvet, specialising in audience metrics, told AFP.

In her video, conservative commentator Owens cites a "thorough investigation" by so-called independent journalist Natacha Rey, published in the French newsletter Faits et Documents in 2021.

Founded in 1996 by far-right French figure Emmanuel Ratier and now headed by Xavier Poussard, Faits et Documents regularly promotes stories targeting the first lady, a journalist at the French weekly L'Obs, Emmanuelle Anizon, told AFP.

"But what is new is that Xavier Poussard started translating his articles at the end of 2023," Anizon said, adding that he claims to have sent an English version to those close to former US president Donald Trump.

Anizon, who spoke to Poussard and his associate Aurelien Poirson who advised on the translation, explained that it was no accident that the US far right had taken up the false claim ahead of the November US elections.

"It was their dream to export this rumour across the Atlantic," she said.

And it worked, spreading like wildfire after Owens posted her video with two associated hashtags shared tens of thousands of times on X, according to social network analysis tool Visibrain.

The rumour "was available as and when required", said Sebastian Dieguez, an expert in conspiracy theories at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

The "secretly trans" narrative is a long-standing feature of online, sexist violence, according to a 2021 Wilson Center report.

The bottom line, according to the NDI, is that silencing women has "serious consequences for human rights, diversity in public debates and the media, and ultimately, democracy."

'Grotesque' rumours

The impact is also personal for those targeted and their families.

Emmanuel Macron addressed the rumours on International Women's Day, saying, "the worst thing is false information".

"People eventually believe them and disturb you, even in your private life," he said.

The president's relationship with his wife 24 years his senior, whom he met while she was a teacher and he was still a teenager, is periodically a source of media attention in France and abroad.

There has long been curiosity about the private life of the Macrons 

© JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

On March 22, a 51-year-old man was arrested in southwestern France for allegedly writing "Brigitte Macron, transsexual" on his garage, according to the French daily Le Figaro.

The first lady and her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux have taken legal action against two women who posted a Youtube video in December 2021 alleging she had once been a man named "Jean-Michel".

A Paris criminal court is to try them on charges of defamation in March next year, a source close to the case has said.

The first lady's daughter from her first marriage, Tiphaine Auziere, on Tuesday said she hoped the trial could quash the "grotesque" rumours.

"Whether it's my mother or anyone else in society, it can do a lot of harm," Auziere told the BFMTV broadcaster.

"The justice system... can put an end to this misinformation and severely condemn the perpetrators because it's a form of harassment like any other."

© 2024 AFP

UK same-sex couples celebrate a decade of legal marriage

London (AFP) – When same-sex marriages became legal in England and Wales 10 years ago on Friday, Britons Neil Allard and Andrew Wale could not have tied the knot any quicker.

Issued on: 29/03/2024 

Neil Allard (R) and Andrew Wale (L) became one of the first same-sex couples to marry in Britain 

© LEON NEAL / AFP

The couple, now in their 50s, got hitched at midnight on March 29, 2014, the very moment the historic Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 came into force.

"It was fantastic," Wale recalled of their nuptials and the landmark moment in gay rights that paved the way for tens of thousands of similar unions.

"For most of our lives, I don't think we even dreamt that we would be able to be married," he told AFP in an interview.

Allard, 58, and Wale, 59, became one of the first same-sex couples to marry in Britain thanks to the local authority in Brighton on the English south coast.

They won a competition posted by the council on Facebook to get married in a ceremony in the music room of the city's grand 19th-century Indo-Gothic pavilion.

"They were very eager to be the first because there were three couples getting married (elsewhere) at midnight on that day," remembered Wale, who works part-time in theatre.

"I have no idea whether we were actually the first," but someone present had their "finger on the computer buttons ready to hit (and) register the marriage".

Allard remembered that there was lots of noise outside. The couple were slightly nervous as they weren't sure if it was supporters or people opposed to same-sex unions.

"We didn't know what was happening but because it had been streamed live on the TV there was a crowd of people outside the pavilion ready to cheer us," said Allard.

Wale recalled seeing hundreds and hundreds of "really excited" young people who clapped and cheered.

'Legally safe'

"Some of them were thanking us for getting married and stuff which felt so bizarre, but at the same time, really, really wonderful. It really felt important."

The pair had met in 2007 and Wale remembers that saying "I do" to each other felt like "a practical thing almost".

"It was so that we were secure... legally safe, so that we could be each other's next of kin and all those important things that people need to be in place," he said.

The milestone legislation was championed by then-Conservative prime minister David Cameron who has said the act was one of the proudest moments of his premiership.

The first gay marriages in Scotland took place a few months later in December 2014.

Approximately 167,000 people in England and Wales are likely to be in same-sex marriages currently, according to the latest available figures.

On their 10th anniversary, Allard and Wale, who now live in Spain with their two dogs, said it was "nice" to learn to call each other "husband".

"It's tricky, it's hard for somebody of our age," said Wale, admitting the couple still fear homophobic abuse.

They credit the legislation of same-sex marriage for making British society more tolerant.

"There are a lot more gay couples in the media and just around in general life being visible.

"And I think that equal marriage adds to that. The weight of that eventually makes an impact," said Wale.

© 2024 AFP

ANIMISTIC SHAMANISM

Philippines observes Good Friday with crucifixions and whippings

San Fernando (Philippines) (AFP) – Catholic zealots in the Philippines re-enacting the last moments of Jesus Christ were nailed to wooden crosses while others whipped themselves bloody in extreme displays of religious devotion on Good Friday.

SELF FLAGELLATION IS NOT UNLIKE SOME 

SHIA RITUALS

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

Hundreds gathered in villages around San Fernando city, north of Manila, to watch men punish themselves in a bid to atone for their sins or seek miracles from God 

© JAM STA ROSA / AFP

While most Filipinos went to church or spent the holiday with family, thousands gathered in villages around San Fernando city, north of Manila, to watch men punish themselves in a bid to atone for their sins or seek miracles from God.

Dozens of bare-chested flagellants wearing black shrouds and crowns made of vines walked barefoot through dusty, narrow streets, rhythmically flogging their backs with strips of bamboo tied to ropes, their blood soaking the top of their trousers and spattering onlookers.

Some lay face down on the ground to be whipped and beaten by others, razor blades sometimes used to draw blood.

"This is for my son, an epileptic," said Joel Yutoc, who has his 13-year-old son's name tattooed across his chest.

Yutoc, 31, said his son had not had seizures in the eight years since he began taking part in the Good Friday floggings.

The whippings are the opening act of street plays performed by devout residents.

In San Juan village, a short, wiry man with wild, white hair playing the role of Jesus Christ and two others were dragged by neighbours dressed as Roman centurions to a raised mound where wooden crosses lay on the ground.

Wilfredo Salvador takes part in the re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday in San Fernando on March 29, 2024 

© JAM STA ROSA / AFP

As spectators filmed on their mobile phones, three-inch nails were driven into the men's palms and the crosses were hoisted upright.

Several minutes later the crosses were lowered to the ground and the nails pulled out.

"I will keep doing this while I'm alive, for as long as my body is able to do it. That is my vow," said retired fisherman Wilfredo Salvador, 67, who began playing the role of Jesus Christ in the mock crucifixions 16 years ago following a mental breakdown.

"This is nothing. Sometimes it heals after a day and I am able to wash dishes and bathe," Salvador said of his wounds.

San Juan homemaker Marilyn Lovite, 41, said she watches the gruesome re-enactment every year to "learn about the suffering of Christ".

"If you were to merely read it in the Bible you would not really understand. In action it is clearer for us to see how he suffered for us," the mother-of-four said.

- 'My body feels sore' -

Ten people were nailed or strung up on crosses at three crucifixion sites, San Fernando city councillor Reginaldo David told reporters.

At the biggest event, veteran performer Ruben Enaje, 63, had his hands and feet nailed to a cross for the 35th time in his role as Jesus Christ.

People watch the re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday in San Fernando, north of the Philippine capital Manila 

© JAM STA ROSA / AFP

Enaje remained nailed up for more than 10 minutes as storm clouds gathered overhead. It began to rain as he was carried on a stretcher to a medical tent where his wounds were bandaged.

"I feel no pain in my hands but my body as a whole feels sore," Enaje said.

"The Passion Play was longer this year because we lengthened the script. Maybe that was why my body feels sore."

Enaje said this year might be his last appearance as Jesus.

"I can't say if I will still be able to do it again next year because my body feels like it is about to give in," he said.

- 'It's for my mother' -

The extreme acts are frowned upon by the Catholic Church in the Philippines and health experts.

The Philippine health department urged the public this week to "avoid acts or rites that lead to physical wounds and injuries".

"We join the pastoral guidance of our faith leaders, guiding all towards religious practices that are safe and healthy," it said in a statement.

But for devotees like 23-year-old Ian Bautista, who has been taking part in the floggings since he was 15 and is one of four flagellants in his family, the suffering was for a good cause.

"It's for my mother," Bautista said, explaining that she had surgery for an ovarian cyst on Monday and that he believed taking part would help her recovery.

"It's painful but I will do this until my body gives up."

© 2024 AFP