‘Labour in power is still the party of protest – and should uphold protestors’ rights’

Akiko Hart    

5th October, 2024, 

Credit: Loredana Sangiuliano/Shutterstock.com

Both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor used this year’s party conference to quip that theirs is not a party of protest. But with demonstrators being increasingly criminalised for speaking up, and negative narratives of protest becoming more entrenched in the public consciousness, how can Labour reconnect to its history and offer a more compelling and hopeful vision of protest?

Two pieces of legislation, passed under the previous Government, the Policing Act and the Public Order Act, have severely eroded the right to protest. They have imposed restrictions, introduced new offences, increased sentencing thresholds, and criminalised thousands of protestors.

No longer can a protest be too ‘noisy’, or cause ‘more than minor’ disturbance. Protest has always been a qualified right, but the space around it has significantly contracted.

But this legislation did not occur in a vacuum. It occurred within the context of an increasingly negative narrative around protest from those in power. Protesters have been framed as selfish and intent on disrupting everyone’s lives. Protest has been cast as deeply unpopular.

Shifting public views

It has been a very effective sleight of hand. It has turned people’s attention to the tactics used by a very small minority of protestors to justify changing the law on all protests.

It is also, as it turns out, unfounded. A recent report by think-tank Demos revealed that the British public overwhelmingly support the right to protest. Concerns about disruption are real, and strong. However the public’s views shifted once they heard more about the history of protest and protest legislation, and after hearing from people who have taken part in protest more recently.

The supposed unpopularity of protest has been vastly overstated. But it goes without saying that a right does not need to be popular to be upheld in the law. There are important lessons here for the future.

When rights-limiting legislation is justified based on the popularity of said cause, this should be treated with deep scepticism by those who care about democracy and the rule of law.

READ MORE: Sir John Curtice warns Labour victory in 2029 not guaranteed

For those of us who advocate for the right to protest, what are the openings now under Labour?

Labour in power feels the need to be strong on law and order. A full repeal of the Policing Act and the Public Order Act may be a step too far in a first term. But the Prime Minister has been clear about his rejection of populism and knee jerk legislation. There is an opportunity here.

The Prime Minister’s brand is all grown-up politics and probity. Indeed, in the appointment of Lord Hermer KC as Attorney General, one of the few departures from the Shadow Cabinet, there is a deliberate move to emphasise within his Cabinet the rule of law and respect for human rights.

One of the relationships he and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper have been attempting to rebuild is with the police, which was severely tested during Suella Braverman’s tenure as Home Secretary and constitutionally tenuous critiques of how protests should be policed.

A party of protest

There is an opportunity for an independent review of protest legislation and the policing of protest, which centres the voices and experiences of people who have borne the brunt of the expansion of anti-protest laws in recent years.

We are also seeing growing interest in a Northern Ireland style Parades Commission, an independent body which resolves disputes caused by contentious marches.

Promoting mediation and understanding between different stakeholders would be a credible departure from the Conservatives’ playbook on protest, without undermining Labour’s law and order credentials.

READ MORE: ‘Labour needs to listen: how the party can stem the tide of right wing populism’

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister and the Chancellor’s assertions, Labour is the party of protest. It is the party of trade unionism, of Peterloo, of social change. Even a more muted descriptor, progressive, hints at the change project which is at the heart of the party.

There is a serious conversation to be had within Labour as to what place protest can hold within it. How can it mobilise the history of protest, which is intertwined with the great victories of the coalitions which form Labour, to foreground a compelling, unifying and British narrative?

Protest as one of the mechanisms for social change, protest as communities coming together, protest as hope for a better world. These are all visions for the taking.

Akiko Hart is director at Liberty.

UK will not give away more Overseas Territories after Chagos Islands, Labour minister says

James Moules   6th October, 2024

Credit: Joe Kuis/Shutterstock.com

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Labour cabinet minister Peter Kyle has said the British government will not give up any more overseas territories after a deal was announced this week to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

In an appearance on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, the Science Minister was asked if the surrender of any more British territories such as the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar were on the table in the wake of this week’s handover deal.

But Kyle flatly denied there are plans to give up more territories, pointing out that the specific negotiations around the Chagos Islands had been “going on for some time” – including under the previous Conservative administration.

The Chagos Islands – located in the Indian Ocean – have been claimed by Mauritius for many decades since the country’s independence. A military base used by the UK and US on the atoll of Diego Garcia will remain under British and American jurisdiction for at least another 99 years under the deal.

Kyle said: “This is a good deal. The entire text has not been published yet, and I urge people to wait for that text, because the text protects Britain’s right to have a military base there. It has been endorsed by America.”

READ MORE: UK strikes deal to transfer sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

Critics of the handover deal have flagged concerns that the voices of the islands’ residents have not been sufficiently heard in the process – and that the move could lead to China gaining a greater military foothold in the region.

But Kyle pointed to the retention of the UK-US military base as a counter to these concerns, and said: “We are taking care and making sure that those people who have been unfairly treated, who were residents on the island before will have the justice that they deserve and the right to return.”

He added: “This is a win win negotiated by this government. The previous government clearly couldn’t get it across the line in the interests of the country and in the interest of the region.”

Sardinia’s sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms

By AFP
October 7, 2024

Bluetongue can cause nosebleeds, swollen heads, fever and turn an infected animal's tongue blue - Copyright AFP Filippo MONTEFORTE
Ella IDE

The sheep huddle together, bleeding from the nose, aborting lambs or suffocating on saliva as they succumb to bluetongue, a virus sweeping through flocks on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Some 20,000 sheep have died so far this year on the island, which is home to nearly half Italy’s flock and plays an important role in the production of famed Italian cheeses such as Pecorino.

It is another blow for farmers in a region already battered by a drought aggravated by man-made climate change — which experts say is also fuelling the spread of bluetongue and longer outbreaks.

“The virus hit about two and a half months earlier than usual,” 39-year-old farmer Michela Dessi told AFP as she scanned her flock for panting or limping sheep in her fields in Arbus in western Sardinia.

Bluetongue does not present any risks to humans but in animals it causes swollen heads, high fevers, mouth ulcers, difficulty swallowing and breathing, and can turn an infected animal’s tongue blue.

It is transmitted between animals by biting midges.

While cattle, goats and deer can get it too, sheep are the most severely affected, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).

Infected and pregnant ewes abort or their lambs are born deformed, and survivors can lose their wool.

Sunken sides are a sign the ewes are carrying dead foetuses. The sick animals struggle to expel them.



– Virus peaks –



The infection rate this year on Dessi’s farm is about 60 percent, and some 30 percent of her sheep have aborted.

Around 50 of her 650 sheep have died — and in a way she said was “horrible to watch”.

With high fevers, “they refuse food and water and some suffocate or drown in their own saliva”, she said, adding that it is illegal to euthanise them.

Nearly 3,000 outbreaks have been recorded so far this year in Sardinia, compared to 371 last year — and the end is not yet in sight.

Bluetongue used to peak in Sardinia in August but has done so as late as November in recent years, according to the region’s veterinary research institute (IZS).

“Climatic conditions heavily influence midge populations,” the animal health division at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome told AFP.

They affect “their biting behaviour and the speed of development of the virus, with climate change likely driving the virus’s expansion… and contributing to larger outbreaks”.

Cases have been reported this year in other European countries, from neighbouring France to Portugal, Spain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Bluetongue has been present in Sardinia since 2000 but Italy’s farming lobby Coldiretti says authorities are too slow each year to vaccinate the island’s flocks.

The costs of failing to rein it in are high.

A University of Bologna study last year found the 2017 outbreak, which killed 34,500 sheep, cost an estimated 30 million euros ($33 million).

That included damages suffered by farms — deaths, reduced milk yields, infertility, abortions — costs to animal health authorities and subventions paid by the region to affected farms.



– Mass graves –



“The first outbreaks occur in the same at-risk areas each year,” meaning highly targeted measures could theoretically prevent outbreaks, said Stefano Cappai from research institute IZS.

There are three variants on the island this year, two of which can be vaccinated against, with mortality rates twice as high among unvaccinated sheep.

Flocks should be vaccinated in March or April, Cappai said, but vaccines were only issued by the region in mid-June this year.

By that point, the virus had begun to spread unchecked.

Even if the vaccines had been made available earlier, some farmers fear to use them.

Others only vaccinate part of their flock, which means they fail to reach herd immunity, Cappai said.

And some farmers — like Dessi — vaccinated her flock, only for the sheep to catch the variant for which there is no vaccine yet.

Battista Cualbu, head of Coldiretti in Sardinia, who also has an outbreak on his farm, said vaccines are not enough and authorities must disinfect areas and provide midge repellents.

“It would certainly save public money because the region has to pay compensation for dead livestock (and) lost income,” he said, including less milk sold and fewer lambs for the slaughterhouse.

Compensation is set at 150 euros per sheep killed by bluetongue — a figure Coldiretti is battling to increase, although the region has failed to pay up over the past three years, Dessi said.

As temperatures fall, the case numbers are expected to decline but Dessi said the end was weeks away.

“I’ve dug three mass graves already and I fear the worst is still to come”, she said.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/business/sardinias-sheep-farmers-battle-bluetongue-as-climate-warms/article#ixzz8nxE5g1dh

Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office

By AFP
October 7, 2024

Investigators work at the site where the remains of Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos was found in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero - Copyright AFP Jesus GUERRERO
Daniel Rook

The mayor of a city in southern Mexico has been murdered less than a week after taking office, authorities said Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks on politicians in the violence-plagued Latin American country.

The killing of Chilpancingo mayor Alejandro Arcos “fills us with indignation,” Guerrero state governor Evelyn Salgado wrote on social media, without providing further details of the circumstances.

Local media reported that Arcos was decapitated, but there has been no official confirmation.

Arcos was elected in June representing an opposition coalition that included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which denounced his killing as a “cowardly crime” and called for justice.

“Enough of violence and impunity! The people of Guerrero do not deserve to live in fear,” it said on X.

His murder came days after the killing of another city official, Francisco Tapia, according to PRI president Alejandro Moreno.

“They had been in office for less than a week. Young and honest officials who sought progress for their community,” Moreno said on X.

Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest states, has endured years of violence linked to turf wars between cartels fighting for control of drug production and trafficking.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in the state, which is home to the beachside resort city of Acapulco, a former playground of the rich and famous now blighted by crime.

Across Mexico, more than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands have gone missing in a spiral of violence since the government deployed the army to combat drug trafficking in 2006.

Politicians, particularly at the local level, frequently fall victim to bloodshed connected to corruption and the multibillion-dollar drugs trade.

Tackling the cartel violence that makes murder and kidnapping a daily occurrence in Mexico is among the major challenges facing Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first woman president.

Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City who was sworn in on October 1, has pledged to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots.

She is due to unveil her security plan on Tuesday.

At least 24 politicians were murdered during a particularly violent electoral process leading up to the June election that the key ruling party figure won by a landslide, according to official figures.

Survivors grapple with aid cuts and the Taliban a year after massive Afghan earthquake

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A general view of damaged houses in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 destroyed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

BY RIAZAT BUTT AND OMID HAQJOO
 October 5, 2024

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — People had just seconds to flee their homes when the terrifying sound of earth cracking open reverberated across western Afghanistan’s Herat province.

Nobody knows for sure how many people died in a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023, or in the strong aftershocks that followed. The Taliban government estimated that at least 4,000 perished. The U.N. gave a far lower figure of about 1,500. Survivors stopped counting, exhausted after digging through dirt to save their loved ones or bury them.

It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.

It was also another major challenge for the Taliban since they seized power in 2021, a test of their readiness to lead a country beset by economic hardship, isolation, devastation from decades of war, and vulnerability to shocks like earthquakes and climate change.

“At that time, the government really cooperated in transporting patients and the dead,” said Ismatullah Rahmani, from the quake’s epicenter in Zinda Jan district, where every home, usually built of mud and timber, was levelled. His brother and nephew were killed, and he spent hours trying to free his wife from under 1 1/2-meter (60 inches) of soil. She survived.


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“They opened hospitals and provided water and food to people for free,” he told The Associated Press from his new home in Zinda Jan. He said the Taliban went to camps and helped survivors over several months, a blessing ahead of the harsh Herat winter

“After that, our aid stopped,” said Rahmani.
Quake survivors rely on charities

Charities had stepped in to build housing for survivors. But the accommodation they built lacks walls so there is no privacy, while the poor design leaves them vulnerable to storms or heavy rainfall. Houses either have no bathrooms or the bathrooms don’t have a roof.

Rahmani’s village, Naib Rafi, still doesn’t have a health clinic or a school. Instead, children are learning in tents.

The government didn’t provide financial assistance, he said. Senior officials and Islamic scholars visited communities a few times, listened to people’s problems and left.

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, spokesman and member of the Herat Earthquake Commission, said authorities worked with charities and nongovernmental groups to provide shelter and medical assistance.

“People’s problems haven’t been solved, of course, but the first necessity is building houses until they stand on their own feet. They have been given food and hospitals are still working,” he told AP. He said they were still working to rebuild mosques, schools, madrassas and parks.

He did not answer questions about authorities’ preparedness for future disasters.
Foreign aid money is drying up

Afghans were already struggling with displacement, food insecurity and poverty before the quake struck, and the tragedy put further pressure on public services. Aid agencies, which have been propping up Afghan health care and education for the past three years under the Taliban, became even more thinly stretched.

The International Rescue Committee set up feeding corners after the earthquake so mothers could safely breastfeed children and get nutrition counselling. The relief agency said it also fixed water systems, provided emergency cash, hygiene kits, medical and mental health support to tens of thousands of people.

But, with other global crises raging, such support is finite.

International funding for Afghanistan has received less than a third of its target. Changing political priorities, economic troubles and wars are hitting donors’ pockets, especially those in the West.

Widespread opposition to the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women and girls is also having an effect.

“There is donor fatigue, for sure, but perhaps the bigger problem is a nervousness from many donors about supporting anything but the most urgent life-saving aid,” said Mark Calder from World Vision International.

The U.N. says international recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan is nearly impossible while restrictions remain on female education and employment.

The Taliban reject this position, demanding Afghanistan’s seat at the U.N. and saying that sanctions and the country’s continued isolation are hurting people.

Investment in quality development assistance would benefit Afghan women and girls disproportionately and it’s sometimes in their name that a reduction in aid to Afghanistan is promoted, said Calder.

“It’s difficult to imagine that Afghan communities are much better prepared for natural disasters than they were a year ago,” he added.
Fears of another disaster

Herat authorities have been unable to fully meet humanitarian needs, while damaged infrastructure has hampered recovery efforts. A near-total reliance on aid organisations for basics like health care and shelter has left people exposed.

Four of Gul Ahmad Osmani’s children died in the disaster. He heard boys screaming under the soil in his village. It was impossible to pull them out, he said.

He and his surviving family members spent the winter in a tent. “The government took care of us, keeping my wife and children in a camp, but we didn’t see anything from the government that was specifically from them, like flour, cooking oil or rice,” Osmani said. “Our own people, the people of Afghanistan, brought food for several days.”

The helping hands came from other cities, districts and provinces to clear away rubble, bury the dead, and distribute everyday items like clothing.


But it’s been almost six months since NGOs or well-wishers came to help the residents of Zinda Jan. A kind doctor from northern Baghlan province donated money recently.

“There are still earthquakes and these new houses are heavy,” said Osmani. “Children are afraid. The help for the earthquake did not help us.”

—-

Haqjoo reported from Zinda Jan, Afghanistan.

New houses are seen is seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Survivors are stand in front of their new house is seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Survivors, makes a mud home is seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Survivor, makes a mud home in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Survivors gather around a water tanker to get potable in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Survivors gather around a water tanker to get potable waterin Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Afghan workers work to rebuild a house in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Afghan workers work to rebuild the house for survivors in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 after it was destroyed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

New buildings of a school are seen is seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 destroyed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

New houses are seen is seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

Damaged classroom is seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 destroyed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

New houses are seen in Zinda Jan district, of Herat province, in western Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

US court to review civil rights lawsuit alleging environmental racism in a Louisiana parish


From left, Myrtle Felton, Sharon Lavigne, Gail LeBoeuf and Rita Cooper, members of RISE St. James, conduct a live stream video on property owned by Formosa in St. James Parish, La., Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

 (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

BY JACK BROOK
October 6, 2024

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appellate court is set to hear oral arguments Monday in a civil rights lawsuit alleging a south Louisiana parish engaged in racist land-use policies to place polluting industries in majority-Black communities.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is reviewing a lawsuit filed by community groups claiming St. James Parish “intentionally discriminated against Black residents” by encouraging industrial facilities to be built in areas with predominantly Black populations “while explicitly sparing White residents from the risk of environmental harm.”

The groups, Inclusive Louisiana, Rise St. James and Mt. Triumph Baptist Church, seek a halt to future industrial development in the parish.

The plaintiffs note that 20 of the 24 industrial facilities were in two sections of the parish with majority-Black populations when they filed the complaint in March 2023.

The parish is located along a heavily industrialized stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, known as the Chemical Corridor, often referred to by environmental groups as “Cancer Alley” because of the high levels of suspected cancer-causing pollution emitted there.


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The lawsuit comes as the federal government has taken steps during the Biden administration to address the legacy of environmental racism. Federal officials have written stricter environmental protections and committed tens of billions of dollars in funding.

In the Louisiana case, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana in November 2023 dismissed the lawsuit largely on procedural grounds, ruling the plaintiffs had filed their complaint too late. But he added, “this Court cannot say that their claims lack a basis in fact or rely on a meritless legal theory.”

Barbier said the lawsuit hinged primarily on the parish’s 2014 land-use plan, which generally shielded white neighborhoods from industrial development and left majority-Black neighborhoods, schools and churches without the same protections. The plan also described largely Black sections of the parish as “future industrial” sites. The plaintiffs missed the legal window to sue the parish, the judge ruled.

Yet the parish’s land-use plan is just one piece of evidence among many revealing ongoing discrimination against Black residents in the parish, said Pamela Spees, a lawyer for the Center of Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs. They are challenging Barbier’s ruling under the “continuing violations” doctrine on the grounds that discriminatory parish governance persists, allowing for industrial expansion in primarily Black areas.

The lawsuit highlights the parish’s decision in August 2022 to impose a moratorium on large solar complexes after a proposed 3,900-acre (1,580-hectare) solar project upset residents of the mostly white neighborhood of Vacherie, who expressed concerns about lowering property values and debris from storms. The parish did not take up a request for a moratorium on heavy industrial expansion raised by the plaintiffs, the lawsuit states.

These community members “have tried at every turn to simply have their humanity and dignity be seen and acknowledged,” Spees said. “That’s just been completely disregarded by the local government and has been for generations.”

Another part of the complaint argues the parish failed to identify and protect the likely hundreds of burial sites of enslaved people by allowing industrial facilities to build on and limit access to the areas, preventing the descendants of slaves from memorializing the sites. The federal judge tossed out that part of the lawsuit, noting the sites were on private property not owned by the parish.

At its core, the complaint alleges civil rights violations under the 13th and 14th amendments, stating the land-use system in the parish allowing for industrial buildout primarily in majority-Black communities remains shaped by the history of slavery, white supremacy and Jim Crow laws and governance.

Lawyers for St. James Parish said the lawsuit employed overreaching claims and “inflammatory rhetoric.” St. James Parish did not respond to a request for comment.

“The Civil War ain’t never been over,” said lifelong St. James Parish resident Gail LeBoeuf, 72, a plaintiff in the case who co-founded the local environmental justice organization Inclusive Louisiana. “They’re trying to destroy the Black people in this country in any way they can.”

LeBoeuf, who lives 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from an alumina plant, was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and blames her illness on the high levels of industrial pollution she has been exposed to for decades. She acknowledges the link cannot be proven but counters there is no way to prove industrial pollution was not the reason.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in a 2003 report that St. James Parish ranked higher than the national average for certain cancer deaths. In August, a federal judge barred the EPA from using the Civil Rights Act to fight industrial pollution alleged to have disproportionately affected minority communities in Louisiana.

Besides a moratorium on industrial expansion in the parish, LeBoeuf’s organization calls for real-time air monitoring of pollution and buffer zones around residential areas.

Community groups have battled for years against plans by Taiwanese company Formosa to build a $9.4 billion plastics plant near a predominantly Black town in the parish.

LeBoeuf and other prominent, local environmental activists met with White House officials in September to discuss the Biden administration’s progress in responding to concerns raised by United Nations human rights experts over industrial expansion in the Chemical Corridor.

LeBoeuf said she had rescheduled a doctor’s appointment to meet with White House officials. She believes her advocacy for environmental justice is just as important a cure for her community as her ongoing chemotherapy treatment is for her body.

“Both are medicine,” LeBoeuf said. “Fighting is medicine.”
___


Jack Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.

Op-Ed: Scared of facts? Insanity vs reality 8 years later


By Paul Wallis
October 7, 2024

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are caught in one of the tightest US elections in memory - Copyright AFP/File KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI, Rebecca NOBLE

The last 8 useless monotonous years of utter drivel have made the world a very much uglier place.

Fact checking has now become a virtual industry. The demand simply didn’t exist previously. Whether or not it’s effective is another ballgame. Many would say it isn’t, but at least it exists. The idea is supposedly to hold people to a given standard of accuracy and accountability.

It also ironically shows how much the power of media has declined that facts are now considered intrusive. The information sector has appropriately made itself redundant in the process. Media no longer scares politicians or anyone else much. It’s anyone’s guess how these guys take themselves seriously.

The news used to be able to enforce standards of conduct on the political and corporate sectors. Bad publicity was fatal. Now, it’s just grandstanding to an audience.

Why bother with real news or any other kind of information if you can just make it up like a good little sycophantic PR slag? This unmitigated slop then becomes the basis of political “debate”. AI could produce vast amounts of similar trashy coverage and probably do it better.

Every noun is a war zone. Even the super-soft so-called progressive media have accepted the word “left” as anyone or anything that isn’t right-wing. Terminology is now dictated by pre-loaded interpretations. This has allowed bias to dictate. Hasn’t that been fun?

In chickens, it’s called imprinting. The first thing you see must be your mother. Try finding any news on any side that doesn’t follow this script to some extent.

Any number of babbling nonentities have had their 3 seconds of fame and been rightly forgotten while wasting that much of everyone’s time on non-existent crud. It’s like a sewer that just won’t shut up.

All of which mysteriously raises the subject of fact-checking itself. There’s evidently not a lot of soul-searching going on here. Introspection isn’t a thing because there’s not much to see.

Those news outlets who’ve had the genitalia to stand up for facts are still trying. Those who’ve made a living out of opposing facts are still doing quite well in well-paid pseudo-news roles, thanks for asking.

Nice and stagnant, would you say? Obsessively stale? Well, yes.

Check out for example this New York Times fact-checking article on Trump and Harris. I consider the Times to have been disgracefully soft on this issue and slack at best in its critiques of egregious conduct. That’s laziness, not news.

Anyway, that’s what proper analysis is supposed to look like, I was quite surprised to see it because it’s been so long since anyone hit back at the garbage. if you’ve never seen it before. This article does what all news media should have been doing for 8 years – Rebuttals point by point, line by line. “these unemployable jerks are lying to you” is the real message.

Not one of these festering gems of fossilized dung should ever have gone unchallenged for a second, let alone nearly a decade. Making heroes out of lunatics and their babble hasn’t exactly helped make the world a better place, has it?

Nice of the Times to finally condescend to do its job, and to be fair, not many are doing that. The usual fodder for politics is an equivocal sports commentary rather than any sort of deep incision into the inherent failure of politics to achieve anything at all about serious issues for all these years. Accept social dysfunction, and you’re accepting the disasters. If you want your country to collapse, that’s how you do it.

They should be scared to death of facts. Lies should have consequences. When?

_____________________________________________________

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/op-ed-scared-of-facts-insanity-vs-reality-8-years-later/article#ixzz8nx7Gy7As

In South Korea, deepfake porn wrecks women’s lives and deepens gender conflict


Citizens stage a rally against deepfake sex crime in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Citizens stage a rally against deepfake sex crime in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. The banners read “You can’t insult us.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

The National Assembly passes bills toughening the punishment for deepfake sex crimes in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)


BY HYUNG-JIN KIM
 October 3, 2024


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Three years after the 30-year-old South Korean woman received a barrage of online fake images that depicted her nude, she is still being treated for trauma. She struggles to talk with men. Using a mobile phone brings back the nightmare.

“It completely trampled me, even though it wasn’t a direct physical attack on my body,” she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. She didn’t want her name revealed because of privacy concerns.

Many other South Korean women recently have come forward to share similar stories as South Korea grapples with a deluge of non-consensual, explicit deepfake videos and images that have become much more accessible and easier to create.

It was not until last week that parliament revised a law to make watching or possessing deepfake porn content illegal.

The National Assembly passes bills toughening the punishment for deepfake sex crimes in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Most suspected perpetrators in South Korea are teenage boys. Observers say the boys target female friends, relatives and acquaintances — also mostly minors — as a prank, out of curiosity or misogyny. The attacks raise serious questions about school programs but also threaten to worsen an already troubled divide between men and women.

Deepfake porn in South Korea gained attention after unconfirmed lists of schools that had victims spread online in August. Many girls and women have hastily removed photos and videos from their Instagram, Facebook and other social media accounts. Thousands of young women have staged protests demanding stronger steps against deepfake porn. Politicians, academics and activists have held forums.

“Teenage (girls) must be feeling uneasy about whether their male classmates are okay. Their mutual trust has been completely shattered,” said Shin Kyung-ah, a sociology professor at South Korea’s Hallym University.

The school lists have not been formally verified, but officials including President Yoon Suk Yeol have confirmed a surge of explicit deepfake content on social media. Police have launched a seven-month crackdown.

Recent attention to the problem has coincided with France’s arrest in August of Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, over allegations that his platform was used for illicit activities including the distribution of child sexual abuse. South Korea’s telecommunications and broadcast watchdog said Monday that Telegram has pledged to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on illegal deepfake content.

Police say they’ve detained 387 people over alleged deepfake crimes this year, more than 80% of them teenagers. Separately, the Education Ministry says about 800 students have informed authorities about intimate deepfake content involving them this year.

Experts say the true scale of deepfake porn in the country is far bigger.

The U.S. cybersecurity firm Security Hero called South Korea “the country most targeted by deepfake pornography” last year. In a report, it said South Korean singers and actresses constitute more than half of the people featured in deepfake pornography worldwide.

The prevalence of deepfake porn in South Korea reflects various factors including heavy use of smart phones; an absence of comprehensive sex and human rights education in schools and inadequate social media regulations for minors as well as a “misogynic culture” and social norms that “sexually objectify women,” according to Hong Nam-hee, a research professor at the Institute for Urban Humanities at the University of Seoul.

Victims speak of intense suffering.

In parliament, lawmaker Kim Nam Hee read a letter by an unidentified victim who she said tried to kill herself because she didn’t want to suffer any longer from the explicit deepfake videos someone had made of her. Addressing a forum, former opposition party leader Park Ji-hyun read a letter from another victim who said she fainted and was taken to an emergency room after receiving sexually abusive deepfake images and being told by her perpetrators that they were stalking her.

The 30-year-old woman interviewed by The AP said that her doctoral studies in the United States were disrupted for a year. She is receiving treatment after being diagnosed with panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder in 2022.

Police said they’ve detained five men for allegedly producing and spreading fake explicit contents of about 20 women, including her. The victims are all graduates from Seoul National University, the country’s top school. Two of the men, including one who allegedly sent her fake nude images in 2021, attended the same university, but she said has no meaningful memory of them.

The woman said the images she received on Telegram used photos she had posted on the local messaging app Kakao Talk, combined with nude photos of strangers. There were also videos showing men masturbating and messages describing her as a promiscuous woman or prostitute. One photo shows a screen shot of a Telegram chatroom with 42 people where her fake images were posted.

The fake images were very crudely made but the woman felt deeply humiliated and shocked because dozens of people — some of whom she likely knows — were sexually harassing her with those photos.

Building trust with men is stressful, she said, because she worries that “normal-looking people could do such things behind my back.”

Using a smart phone sometimes revives memories of the fake images.

“These days, people spend more time on their mobile phones than talking face to face with others. So we can’t really easily escape the traumatic experience of digital crimes if those happen on our phones,” she said. “I was very sociable and really liked to meet new people, but my personality has totally changed since that incident. That made my life really difficult and I’m sad.”

Critics say authorities haven’t done enough to counter deepfake porn despite an epidemic of online sex crimes in recent years, such as spy cam videos of women in public toilets and other places. In 2020, members of a criminal ring were arrested and convicted of blackmailing dozens of women into filming sexually explicit videos for them to sell.

“The number of male juveniles consuming deepfake porn for fun has increased because authorities have overlooked the voices of women” demanding stronger punishment for digital sex crimes, the monitoring group ReSET said in comments sent to AP.

South Korea has no official records on the extent of deepfake online porn. But ReSET said a recent random search of an online chatroom found more than 4,000 sexually exploitive images, videos and other items.

Reviews of district court rulings showed less than a third of the 87 people indicted by prosecutors for deepfake crimes since 2021 were sent to prison. Nearly 60% avoided jail by receiving suspended terms, fines or not-guilty verdicts, according to lawmaker Kim’s office. Judges tended to lighten sentences when those convicted repented for their crimes or were first time offenders.

The deepfake problem has gained urgency given South Korea’s serious rifts over gender roles, workplace discrimination facing women, mandatory military service for men and social burdens on men and women.

Kim Chae-won, a 25-year-old office worker, said some of her male friends shunned her after she asked them what they thought about digital sex violence targeting women.


“I feel scared of living as a woman in South Korea,” said Kim Haeun, a 17-year-old high school student who recently removed all her photos on Instagram. She said she feels awkward when talking with male friends and tries to distance herself from boys she doesn’t know well.

“Most sex crimes target women. And when they happen, I think we are often helpless,” she said.

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli crowds rally across the world on the eve of Oct. 7 anniversary

Some wore keffiyeh scarfs, waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags and held a large cardboard image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with red paint symbolizing blood across his face. 

People march on the street as Pro-Palestinian supporters rally in Sydney, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People attend a demonstration in support of Israel to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Two young women write on a giant flag as pro-Palestinian supporters rally in Sydney, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)


BY SYLVIE CORBET AND GIADA ZAMPANO
 October 6, 2024

PARIS (AP) — Crowds were participating in pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests and memorial events across Europe, North Africa and Asia on Sunday on the eve of the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.

Sunday’s events followed massive rallies that took place Saturday in several European cities, including London, Berlin, Paris and Rome. Other events are scheduled through the week, with an expected peak on Monday, the date of the anniversary.

At a march in Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate, hundreds of pro-Israeli demonstrators set off up the famed Unter den Linden behind a banner that read “Against all antisemitism,” accompanied by a police escort.

With many Israeli flags waving over head, some Jewish leaders led a song about “shalom” — peace — while marchers chanted “Free Gaza from Hamas!” and “Bring them home,” referring to hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands gathered in Paris for a Jewish memorial event featuring speakers and artists paying tribute to those killed in the Oct. 7 attack and stand with those still in captivity.

Ayelet Samerano, mother of Jonathan Samerano, who died after he was shot and kidnapped on Oct. 7 at the Supernova festival, said “we are a united people. Together we are strong ... no enemy will bring us down. With this unity and strength, we will bring our loved ones home.”


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In London, thousands gathered in Hyde Park in a similar memorial event. The crowds chanted “Bring them home” and waved Israeli flags and placards with the faces of hostages still held by Hamas.

Around a thousand people gathered in Brazil’s capital Brasilia for a pro-Israel demonstration, responding to a joint call from Israeli ambassador Daniel Zohar Zonshine and the Council of Evangelical Pastors in Brazil’s Federal District.

Demonstrators in cars and motorbikes gathered at Television Tower in central Brasilia and then headed to the Ministries Esplanade, where they prayed for the victims of Oct. 7.

Massive protests

Meanwhile, people took to the streets from Pakistan to Morocco in massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

In Morocco’s capital, Rabat, thousands marched by the parliament and called on the government to revoke its 2020 agreement formalizing the country’s ties with Israel.

Abdelilah Miftah, from Casablanca, said Palestinians and Lebanese were now facing “Israeli arrogance.”

“Israel is not respecting any laws and is waging an aggressive war against them,” Miftah said.

The protest in Rabat was among the largest in months. Morocco’s government has spoken out against the war in Gaza but retained its ties with Israel.

In the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, a massive pro-Palestinian rally was organized by the country’s largest religious political party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Its chief, Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman, said the protest “is to wake up the world. ... This protest is to tell the U.S. that it is supporting terrorists.”

Earlier on Sunday in Australia, thousands of people rallied in support of Palestinians and Lebanon. A pro-Israeli rally also took place in Melbourne.

Samantha Gazal said she came to the rally in Sydney “because I can’t believe our government is giving impunity to a violent extremist nation and has done nothing. ... We’re watching the violence play out on livestream, and they’re doing nothing.”

In Melbourne, supporters of Israel held up posters showing Israeli hostages who are still missing.

“We feel like we didn’t do anything to deserve this,” said Jeremy Wenstein, one of the participants. “We’re just supporting our brothers and sisters who are fighting a war that they didn’t invite.”
Heightened security alerts

Security forces in several countries warned of heightened levels of alert in major cities, amid concerns that the escalating conflict in the Middle East could inspire new terror attacks in Europe or that some of the protests could turn violent.

France’s interior minister was to hold a special security meeting on Sunday evening to assess the “terror threat,” his office said.

On Sunday, Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her “full solidarity” with police, the day after after security forces used tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent demonstrators in Rome.

Meloni firmly condemned clashes between a few pro-Palestinian demonstrators and law enforcement officers, saying it was “intolerable that dozens of officers are injured during a demonstration.”

Thirty police officers and four protesters were hurt in clashes at the pro-Palestinian march in Rome Saturday, local media said. In Rome’s central Piazzale Ostiense, hooded protesters threw stones, bottles and even a street sign at the police, who responded using water cannons and tear gas.

Pope Francis, celebrating his Sunday Angelus prayer from the Vatican, issued a new appeal for peace “on every front.” Francis also urged his audience not to forget the many hostages still held in Gaza, asking for “their immediate liberation.”

The pope called for a day of prayer and fasting on Monday, the first anniversary of the attack.
Risk of a regional escalation

On Oct. 7 last year, Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 people hostage and setting off a war with Israel that has shattered much of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since then in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians. It says more than half were women and children.

Nearly 100 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, with fewer than 70 believed to be alive. Israelis have experienced attacks — missiles from Iran and Hezbollah, explosive drones from Yemen, fatal shootings and stabbings — as the region braces for further escalation.


In late September, Israel shifted some of its focus to Hezbollah, which holds much of the power in parts of southern Lebanon and some other areas of the country, attacking the militants with exploding pagers, airstrikes and, eventually, incursions into Lebanon.
___

Zampano reported from Rome. Associated Press writers Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

SYLVIE CORBET
Corbet is an Associated Press reporter based in Paris. She covers French politics, diplomacy and defense as well as gender issues and breaking news.
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Oct 5, 2024 #israelhamaswar #GlobalNewsPro-Israeli and Pro-Palestinian protesters faced off in London Saturday as people across the globe took to the streets ahead of the one-year anniversary of the conflict in Gaza. At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run health authority. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza was prompted by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which was the deadliest in Israel’s history. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage in that attack. There is little hope for an end to the conflict as Israel continues its military actions, including a new ground offensive into Lebanon against Hezbollah.

 

 

Several arrested at pro-Palestine protest in London

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Police arrested more than a dozen protesters at a pro-Palestinian march in London.

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian activists staged a demonstration through the capital to Whitehall, ahead of the first anniversary of the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.

In the crowd were several marchers who held placards and banners expressing their support for Hezbollah, the terror group that has controlled swathes of Beirut and southern Lebanon and launched repeated attacks on Israel in recent weeks.