TikTok was aware of risks kids and teens face on its platform, legal document alleges



 The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

BY HALELUYA HADERO
 October 11, 2024

TikTok was aware that its design features are detrimental to its young users and that publicly touted tools aimed at limiting kids’ time on the site were largely ineffective, according to internal documents and communications exposed in lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky.

The details are among redacted portions of Kentucky’s lawsuit that contains the internal communications and documents unearthed during a more than two year investigation into the company by various states across the country.

Kentucky’s lawsuit was filed this week, alongside separate complaints brought forth by attorneys general in a dozen states as well as the District of Columbia. TikTok is also facing another lawsuit from the Department of Justice and is itself suing the Justice Department over a federal law that could ban it in the U.S. by mid-January.

The redacted information — which was inadvertently revealed by Kentucky’s attorney general’s office and first reported by Kentucky Public Radio — touches on a range of topics, most importantly the extent to which TikTok knew how much time young users were spending on the platform and how sincere it was when rolling out tools aimed at curbing excessive use.

Beyond TikTok use among minors, the complaint alleges the short-form video sharing app has prioritized “beautiful people” on its platform and has noted internally that some of the content-moderation metrics it has publicized are “largely misleading.”

The unredacted complaint, which was seen by The Associated Press, was sealed by a Kentucky state judge on Wednesday after state officials filed an emergency motion to seal it.

When reached for comment, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said: “It is highly irresponsible of the Associated Press to publish information that is under a court seal. Unfortunately, this complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.”

“We have robust safeguards, which include proactively removing suspected underage users, and we have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16,” Haurek said in a prepared statement. “We stand by these efforts.”
TikTok use among young users

The complaint alleges that TikTok has quantified how long it takes for young users to get hooked on the platform, and shared the findings internally in presentations aimed at increasing user-retention rates. The “habit moment,” as TikTok calls it, occurs when users have watched 260 videos or more during the first week of having a TikTok account. This can happen in under 35 minutes since some TikTok videos run as short as 8 seconds, the complaint says.

Kentucky’s lawsuit also cites a spring 2020 presentation from TikTok that concluded that the platform had already “hit a ceiling” among young users. At that point, the company’s estimates showed at least 95% of smartphone users under 17 used TikTok at least monthly, the complaint notes.

TikTok tracks metrics for young users, including how long young users spend watching videos and how many of them use the platform every day. The company uses the information it gleans from these reviews to feed its algorithm, which tailors content to people’s interests, and drives user engagement, the complaint says.

TikTok does its own internal studies to find out how the platform is impacting users. The lawsuit cites one group within the company, called “TikTank,” which noted in an internal report that compulsive usage was “rampant” on the platform. It also quotes an unnamed executive who said kids watch TikTok because the algorithm is “really good.”

“But I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities. And when I say other opportunities, I literally mean sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and looking at somebody in the eyes,” the unnamed executive said, according to the complaint.

Time management tools

TikTok has a 60-minute daily screen time limit for minors, a feature it rolled out in March 2023 with the stated aim of helping teens manage their time on the platform. But Kentucky’s complaint argues that the time limit — which users can easily bypass or disable — was intended more as a public relations tool than anything else.

The lawsuit says TikTok measured the success of the time limit feature not by whether it reduced the time teens spent on the platform, but by three other metrics — the first of which was “improving public trust in the TikTok platform via media coverage.”

Reducing screen time among teens was not included as a success metric, the lawsuit said. In fact, it alleged the company had planned to “revisit the design” of the feature if the time-limit feature had caused teens to reduce their TikTok usage by more than 10%.

TikTok ran an experiment and found the time-limit prompts shaved off just a minute and a half from the average time teens spent on the app — from 108.5 to 107 minutes per day, according to the complaint. But despite the lack of movement, TikTok did not try to make the feature more effective, Kentucky officials say. They allege the ineffectiveness of the feature was, in many ways, by design.

The complaint says a TikTok executive named Zhu Wenjia gave approval to the feature only if its impact on TikTok’s “core metrics” were minimal.

TikTok — including its CEO Shou Chew — have talked about the app’s various time management tools, including videos TikTok sends users to encourage them to get off the platform. But a TikTok executive said in an internal meeting those videos are “useful” talking points, but are “not altogether effective.”
TikTok has ‘prioritized beautiful people’ on its platform

In a section that details the negative impacts TikTok’s facial filters can have on users, Kentucky alleges that TikTok’s algorithm has “prioritized beautiful people” despite knowing internally that content on the platform could “perpetuate a narrow beauty norm.”

The complaint alleges TikTok changed its algorithm after an internal report noted the app was showing a high “volume of ... not attractive subjects” in the app’s main “For You” feed.

“By changing the TikTok algorithm to show fewer ‘not attractive subjects’ in the For You feed, Defendants took active steps to promote a narrow beauty norm even though it could negatively impact their young users,” the complaint says.
TikTok’s ‘leakage’ rates

The lawsuit also takes aim at TikTok’s content-moderation practices.

It cites internal communication where the company notes its moderation metrics are “largely misleading” because “we are good at moderating the content we capture, but these metrics do not account for the content that we miss.”

The complaint notes that TikTok knows it has — but does not disclose — significant “leakage” rates, or content that violates the site’s community guidelines but is not removed or moderated. Other social media companies also face similar issues on their platforms.

For TikTok, the complaint notes the “leakage” rates include roughly 36% of content that normalizes pedophilia and 50% of content that glorifies minor sexual assault.


The lawsuit also accuses the company of misleading the public about its moderation and allowing some popular creators who were deemed to be “high value” to post content that violates the site’s guidelines.

HALELUYA HADERO
Haleluya covers Amazon, retail and technology.

Iceland's PM dissolves coalition government, calls for November snap elections

Oct. 14, 2024 / UPI


Iceland's Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson speaks to members of the news media as he arrives at the NATO Summit at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2024. On Sunday, he announced the dissolution of his coalition government and called for parliamentary elections to be held at the end of next month. 

File Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE


Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of Iceland has dissolved the country's coalition government and has proposed for snap parliamentary elections to be held next month.

Benediktsson announced the dissolution of the three-party coalition government in a press briefing Sunday. He said that on Monday he would propose to the president for Parliament to be dissolved, with elections to be held at the end of November.

He said in a statement that he was proud of the work and achievements of his government but believes he was "failing myself, party members and the entire nation if I pretended I could continue to lead the government when we cannot reach agreements on the issues that matter most to the people."

"I see no other option but to leave the next steps in the hands of the voters, where the Independence Party will advocate for the policies that have brought the greatest success to Icelandic society over the years," he added.

Iceland has been run by a coalition government of the Independence Party, Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement since parliamentary elections of 2017. It survived the most recent parliamentary elections on Sept. 25, 2021.

Benediktsson, Iceland's former minister of foreign affairs, took office as the Scandinavian country's prime minister on April 9, after Katrin Jakobsdottir of the Left-Green Movement stepped down.

The announcement comes amid growing discord among the factions of the coalition government, which Benediktsson says represents roadblocks to effective governance.

Svandis Svavarsdottir, chair of the Left-Greens Movement, said the announcement surprised her, as it came a day after the government chairs met to discuss options for combating inflation.

"Nothing pointed to this news at yesterday's meeting. But this means that the election campaign has begun," she said in a statement.

"The endurance of the government under the leadership of the Independence Party is exhausted but we, in the Left-Green Movement, are ready, full of enthusiasm, fighting spirit and joy. We look forward to the election campaign, meeting our grassroots and voters. And we're excited!"

Columbus who? How Latin America is decolonizing the calendar

By Elena Jackson Albarrán, 

Miami University

Oct. 14, 2024 

THE CONVERSATION

Calendars can signal a nation's "official" values and how countries wrestle with these holidays' meanings. Photo by Pixabay/Pexels

This is the season of patriotism in Latin America as many countries commemorate their independence from colonial powers. From July to September, public plazas in countries from Mexico to Honduras and Chile fill with crowds dressed and painted in national colors, parades feature participants costumed as independence heroes, fireworks fill the skies, and schoolchildren reenact historical battles.

Beneath these nationalist displays ripples an uneasy tide: the colonial legacies that still tie the Americas to their Iberian conquerors. And as the calendar turns to October, another holiday highlights similar tensions -- Columbus Day.

Since 1937, the United States has observed the holiday on the second Monday of the month, commemorating the explorer's 1492 arrival in the New World. It remains a federal holiday, even as many states and cities rename it "Indigenous Peoples Day," rejecting Christopher Columbus as a symbol of imperialism.

Most Latin Americans, meanwhile, know Oct. 12 as "Día de la Raza," or Day of the Race, which also celebrates Columbus' arrival in the New World and the tide of Iberian conquistadors that followed. But commemorating the event is all the more charged in these countries, home to the Spanish Empire's most lucrative territorial assets and sweeping spiritual conquests. Days before taking office in September, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated her predecessor's demand that the king of Spain apologize for the genocide and exploitation of the conquest 500 years ago.

As a historian of Latin America, I've paid attention to the ways calendars signal a nation's "official" values and how countries wrestle with these holidays' meanings.

Día de la Raza

The first encounter between Aztec emperor Montezuma and conquistador Hernando Cortés took place on Nov. 8, 1519 -- the latter backed by an entourage of 300 Spaniards, thousands of Indigenous allies and slaves, and hundreds of Africans, free or otherwise.

This moment of contact began Mexico's 500-year transformation into a "mestizo" nation: a hybrid identity with largely European and Indigenous roots. During the colonial period, racial differences were codified into law, and those with "pure" Spanish bloodlines enjoyed legal privileges over the racially mixed categories that fell below them. The 19th century ushered in independence from Spain and liberal ideas that promoted racial equality -- in principle -- but in reality, European influence prevailed.

It was Spain that first proposed the Día de la Raza, held on Oct. 12, 1892, to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas -- implying a celebration of Spain's contributions to the mestizo racial mixture.

The celebration was part of a bid to fortify nationalism in Spain, as the waning colonial power continued its retreat from the hemisphere it controlled for the better part of four centuries. Spain also hoped to export the invented holiday to the Americas, strengthening trans-Atlantic cultural affinities tested by the United States' growing sway. Across the Americas, Día de la Raza came to be synonymous with celebrating European influence.

In Mexico, the 1892 commemoration empowered members of the political elite who promoted European investments and culture as the model for modernizing the country. They used the occasion to extol the civilizing influence of the "madre patria," or motherland, justifying the conquest and colonialism as a period of benevolent rule.

Mestizo nationalism

Only a few years later, however, the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War swept the last vestiges of Spanish empire from the hemisphere. Spain's exit made way for dual -- and dueling -- phenomena: rising patriotic spirit in Latin American countries, even amid increasing economic pressure and cultural influence from the United States.

The 1910 Mexican Revolution ignited mestizo nationalism, which soon extended to other countries. In 1930s Nicaragua, Augusto Sandino started a revolution to oust the occupying U.S. Marines while calling for the unification of the "Indo-Hispanic Race." Meanwhile, Peruvian intellectual José Mariátegui envisioned a modern nation built upon the ideals of a collective, reciprocal society, modeled by the Incan ayllu system. And in Mexico, beauty pageants celebrating native features gained popularity among the social classes accustomed to perusing department stores for Parisian imports.

Yet a tendency to emphasize Spanish cultural ancestry rather than Indigenous ones persisted. In the late 1930s, for example, October issues of Mexican children's magazine Palomilla celebrated Columbus' arrival as a heroic entry that provided the region with a common language and religion.

Pan American Day

Meanwhile, the United States viewed Pan-Hispanic sentiments as a threat: Spanish economic goals, cloaked in racial and cultural solidarity.

To help shore up hemispheric allegiances, Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed a new holiday on April 14, 1930: Pan American Day, or Día de las Américas. The holiday sought to offset the narratives of both Columbus Day and Día de la Raza and marked the U.S. administration's Good Neighbor Policy pivot toward Latin America -- a softer form of imperialism that promoted solidarity and brotherhood, at least on the surface.

The Pan American Union, an inter-American organization headquartered in Washington, saw the new date as an opportunity to forge common traditions across the hemisphere. It vigorously promoted Pan American Day celebrations, primarily among schoolchildren, exhorting teachers to implement games, puzzles, pageants and songs created in Pan American Union offices.

The holiday met enthusiastic reception in the United States. Midwesterners donned sombreros for parades, and Spanish language clubs in California hosted pageants celebrating the flags of American nations.

But Latin American commemoration was tepid at best. The Organization of American States, the successor to the Pan American Union, still recognizes Pan American Day. However, it never gained traction in Latin America and faded in the United States during World War II.

Recent shift

Latin America's ambivalence toward holidays to commemorate the colonizers has taken a turn since 1992. The 500-year anniversary of Columbus' arrival corresponded with yet another form of colonialism, in many Latin Americans' eyes, as a new wave of multinational corporations colluded with heads of state to tap the continent's oil, lithium, water and avocados.

Activists used the commemoration to call attention to lingering economic, social, racial and cultural inequities. In particular, the anniversary inspired Indigenous rights movements -- some of which commemorated an "anti-quincentenary" to celebrate "500 years of resistance."

The Día de la Raza has since been renamed to reflect anti-colonial sentiments, similar to Columbus Day in the United States. Ecuador calls Oct. 12 the Day of Interculturalism and Ethnic Identity; Argentina celebrates it as Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity; Nicaragua now refers to it as the Day of Indigenous, Black and Popular Resistance; in Colombia it is the Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity; and the Dominican Republic celebrates it as Intercultural Day.

In some places, renaming the holiday has drawn attention to Indigenous rights and culture. Bolivians, for example, draped a statue of a European monarch in a traditional "aguayo" garment, transforming her into an Indigenous woman. However, critics suggest that removing the holiday's reference to the colonizers erases an important reminder of the conquest and its painful legacy.

As in the United States, monuments to colonizers are coming down -- including the monument to Columbus that occupied a conspicuous spot on La Reforma, one of Mexico City's most-traversed thoroughfares.

In its place is a new installation: a purple silhouette of a girl with her fist raised, in honor of Latin America's women activists. She heralds a new era of statues lining La Reforma, and heroes for the future -- not mired in the colonial legacies of the past.


Elena Jackson Albarrán is an associate professor of history and global and intercultural studies at Miami University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Kamala Harris' campaign releases agenda to support Black men

WHO COLLECT BITCOIN

Oct. 14, 2024 / 


Vice President Kamala Harris departs during an address on gun violence in the White House on September 26. She released a plan to address issues concerning Black men on Monday.

 Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo


Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign on Monday announced an agenda focused on Black men, including plans to help entrepreneurs, educators, and digital currency owners, and address health conditions.

Campaign co-chair, former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, said, according to The Hill, the agenda would give Black men "the tools to thrive, to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth."

One part of Harris's plan would give 1 million forgivable loans up to $20,000 to those who have been traditionally blocked from starting a business.

Another part of the plan would create a National Equity Initiative to address diseases that disproportionately affect Black men such as sickle cell disease, diabetes, mental health issues and prostate cancer.

"There needs to be a reprioritizing of speaking to both Black men and Black women in America when it comes to a lot of challenges that they face," Quentin Fulks, the Harris campaign's principal deputy campaign manager, told Politico.

Fulks said the campaign is also trying to address a lack on interest and investment in attracting Black men by Democrats for years.

Longtime pollster Cornell Belcher said the Harris campaign should be more concerned about getting Black men out to the polls rather than if they are attracted to Trump.

"I'm not worried about the 14% of Black men who may vote for Donald Trump. That's fool's gold," Belcher said.

"That's missing the forest for the trees. I'm more concerned if African American turnout in Milwaukee, which it has been, runs 10 or more points behind that of white voters. That's how she loses this race."

Nearly 90, but opera legend Kabaivanska is still calling tune

Sofia (Bulgaria) (AFP) – Raina Kabaivanska was one of the greatest sopranos of her generation -- arguably the greatest Tosca after Maria Callas. And even at 89, the Bulgarian singer is still a force in opera.

Issued on: 14/10/2024 - 

Opera legend Raina Kabaivanska teaches a young singer at her masterclass in Sofia 

© Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP

She may have given her last stage performance a decade ago, but her influence continues through the young stars she mentors through her annual masterclass in Sofia.

"When my career ended, I had this inner necessity to continue to be in the music," Kabaivanska -- who turns 90 in December -- told AFP.

"My life is music. Music gives you energy and inspiration and, above all, forms you as a person."

As her students took turns rehearsing their arias for this year's final gala concert in Sofia, Kabaivanska lip synched and gestured along in the shadows of the darkened hall.

Then suddenly, she left her seat, her arms delicately dancing to guide the singer through the most difficult parts.

"I am very old and absolutely I don't hide this. But this gives me great power to work with the young," Kabaivanska laughed.

"I have this ambition -- to set them on the right path."

Pavarotti duos

Kabaivanska famously sang at the funeral of her friend the singer Luciano Pavarotti in 2007

 © POOL / AFP

Born in 1934 in the Black Sea city of Burgas, Kabaivanska learned piano as a child. Then a teacher at her high school in Sofia noticed her voice and included her in the choir.

She made her debut at the Sofia Opera in 1957 and two years later moved to Italy, where she performed at Milan's famous La Scala opera house, quickly making a name for herself.

She went on to bedazzle audiences around the world making roles such as Tosca and Madame Butterfly her own and sharing the stage with Spain's Placido Domingo and Italy's Luciano Pavarotti, a close friend and collaborator.

His family asked her to open the great tenor's funeral mass in 2007 in Modena, with Kabaivanska giving a particularly moving rendition of Verdi's "Ave Maria".

Strikingly beautiful, Kabaivanska was also a talented actor.

George Tekev was spellbound when as a nine-year-old he watched her play Queen Elisabeth in Verdi's "Don Carlos" half a century ago.

Twenty-five years later the academic invited her to give a masterclass at the New Bulgarian University (NBU).

"First and foremost, she is very inspiring, and she is a heavyweight. Maintaining such high standards requires a lot of effort," said the NBU's executive director of their long collaboration.

'Born to sing'

'I had this inner need to continue in music': Bulgarian opera legend Raina Kabaivanska, who will soon turn 90 

© Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP

More than 200 students from all over the world have passed through the masterclasses Kabaivanska has taught every autumn since 2001 in Sofia.

Nearly half have continued to study with her at different schools in Italy with scholarships from a fund bearing her name.

Among those that have passed through "Kabaivanska school" are sopranos Maria Agresta from Italy, South Korean Vittoria Yeo and Ukrainian Sofia Soloviy, Italian tenor Andrea Care and South Korean baritone Simon Lim.

This year more than 90 singers turned up at the auditions for just 14 places.

"What is required is talent. Talent says it all," said Kabaivanska.

"Talent is not just natural abilities but also a capability to see the world in a different way. You are simply born to sing."

Even for the most talented, it is not easy to make a living "because art no longer holds the importance with the public that it had years ago," she said.

For student Baia Saganelidze, a 30-year-old mezzo-soprano from Georgia, the opera star "is teaching us everything -- how to sing, how to live, how to bring a certain role to the public."

"We always think about characters, the composer, every detail is discussed with her," Saganelidze told AFP.

Another student, Romanian bass Andrei Miclea, 25, said it was a "great honour" to be in the class.

"We learn from the maestra but we also learn from each other. We have a saying in this job -- 'You have to steal from everybody.'"

© 2024 AFP

Raina Kabaivanska Gorgeously sings Verdi's Greatest Soprano Aria

    

Spectacular Raina Kabaivanska delivers Fausta's final Aria (Donizettian Masterpiece) and Cabaletta

 

Raina Kabaivanska - Live in Concert  

LUGANO 1987

THE ULTIMATE NIMBY

'Not viable': Barcelona turns against surging tourism

Barcelona (AFP) – Tourists are flocking to Barcelona in ever increasing numbers, fueling anger among locals who complain that mass tourism is driving up housing prices and overwhelming public spaces in Spain's second city.


Issued on: 14/10/2024 -

Visitors jam Antoni Gaudi's architectural masterpeice Park Guell, one of Barcelona's most visited sites © Josep LAGO / AFP

Known for its Belle Epoque architecture, museums and beaches, Barcelona receives an average of 170,000 visitors per day according to municipal figures, and tourism accounts for roughly 13.5 percent of the city's gross domestic product.

At the same time, tourism is now the third most worrying problem for Barcelona's 1.6 million residents according to a municipal survey, mirroring a trend seen in other tourism hotspots across Europe.

"There is an excessive economic dependence on the tourist sector," said Daniel Pardo of the Assembly of Neighbourhoods, adding he was disappointed that after the pandemic there has been an "aggressive" rebound in tourism in the city of around 1.6 million residents.

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Barcelona on Sunday to protest against the city's tourism-centric economic model, as well as the America's Cup sailing competition it is hosting this year.

Graffiti reading "Tourist go home" in English has appeared in multiple spots across the city and in July some participants at a protest against overtourism sprayed people they identified as tourists with water pistols.

Politicians and business leaders condemned the action but Pardo downplayed it, calling it "anecdotal".

"Violence is being expelled from your neighbourhood, extreme labour exploitation, that even if you can stay in your neighbourhood you see how your environment is gradually disappearing," he added.
'Uncontrolled tourism'

Tourists crowd the surroundings of Casa Batllo building in Barcelona, where there is a backlash from local residents against overtourism 

© Josep LAGO / AFP

Tenants of a building near Barcelona's main train station are locked in a legal battle with the owner of property who wants to convert its 120 flats into short-term holiday rentals.

More than 30 flats have already been converted, in what critics say is an example of how mass tourism contributes to a housing shortage and changes the nature of residential neighbourhoods.

"We have had cases of tourists throwing up on neighbours from one balcony to another. Noise problem because they hold parties, the smell of marijuana," said Pamela Battigambe, a longtime resident of the building.

She fears she will be forced to leave Barcelona where rents have jumped 68 percent over the last decade.

"We are not against tourism per se. We are against this form of uncontrolled tourism," Battigambe said.

Barcelona's Socialist mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced in June that the city will scrap the licences of the roughly 10,000 flats currently approved as short-term rentals by the end of 2028 in a bid to rein in soaring housing costs.

Barcelona city hall is considering reducing the number of cruise ships that can dock at its port, pictured here, to address concerns from locals over high numbers of tourist arrivals 

© Josep LAGO / AFP

Barcelona's tourist flats association Apartur has called this a "disguised expropriation" and said it will seek one billion euros in compensation if the measure goes ahead.

Barcelona deputy mayor Jordi Valls said the city is exploring other measures to better manage the tourism sector, such as reducing the number of cruise ships that can stop at the port, and is "trying to grow and develop other activities" to diversify the economy.
Traditional shops vanish

But with city hall also backing a planned expansion of Barcelona's airport, critics charge the measures are not enough.

"We are not tackling ‘overtourism’ from the point of view of degrowth or stopping tourism, but rather we are trying to disperse it over time and territory," said University of Barcelona geography professor Anna Torres Delgado.

"We should start planning tourism development strategies not only by looking at economic indicators, but also at social and environmental ones."

The surge in tourism in Barcelona comes as Spain -- the world's most visited country after France -- is on track this year to smash last year's record for international tourist arrivals of 85.1 million.

Near Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia basilica, Jordi Gimeno's haberdashery is one of the few traditional shops left in the neighbourhood.

"There are businesses that tourism is not interested in," he added.

Standing in front of the basilica, Dutch tourist Jolijn said "in Amsterdam we have the same problem".

"People live their lives differently now than before when there was not so much tourism," she said.

© 2024 AFP

Nepali teenager hailed as hero after climbing world's 8,000m peaks

"We are not just guides. We are trailblazers."

Kathmandu (AFP) – Cheering crowds hailed an 18-year-old Nepali mountaineer as a hero as he returned home Monday after breaking the record for the youngest person to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks.

Issued on: 14/10/2024 - 

Nepal mountaineer Nima Rinji Sherpa waves upon his arrival in Kathmandu after breaking the record for the youngest person to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks 

© Prakash MATHEMA / AFP


Nima Rinji Sherpa reached the summit of Tibet's 8,027-metre-high (26,335 feet) Shisha Pangma on October 9, completing his mission to stand on the world's highest peaks.

On Monday, he returned from China to Nepal's capital Kathmandu, where scores waited to see him.

"I am feeling very happy," he told AFP, draped in traditional Buddhist scarves and garlands of marigold flowers, as he emerged to loud cheers at the airport.

"Thank you so much everyone", he said to his supporters, beaming a wide grin.

Sherpa hugged his family while others rushed to offer him scarves and flowers. He later waved to the crowd out of a car sunroof, while proudly holding the national flag.

Nepal's climbing community also welcomed several others who returned after completing the summit of 14 peaks.

Nepali mountaineer Nima Rinji Sherpa was greeted by his family; summiting all 14 "eight-thousanders" is considered the peak of mountaineering aspirations 

© Prakash MATHEMA / AFP

Summiting all 14 "eight-thousanders" is considered the peak of mountaineering aspirations, with all the peaks located in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, straddling Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet and India.

Climbers cross "death zones" where there is not enough oxygen in the air to sustain human life for long periods.

Italian climber Reinhold Messner first completed the feat in 1986, and only around 50 others have successfully followed in his footsteps.

Many elite climbers have died in the pursuit.
'Trailblazers'

All of the mountains are in the Himalayas and neighbouring Karakoram range, which spans Nepal, China, India and Pakistan.

Nima Rinji Sherpa broke the record for the youngest person to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks 

© - / 14 Peaks Expedition/AFP

In the last few years, mountaineers are expected to reach the "true summit" of every mountain, which many climbers of the previous generation had missed.

Sherpa is no stranger to the mountains, hailing from a family of record-holding climbers, who also now run Nepal's largest mountaineering expedition company.

Raised in bustling Kathmandu, Sherpa initially preferred to play football or shoot videos.

But two years ago, he put his camera down to pursue mountaineering.

Sherpa, who already holds multiple records from his ascents of dozens of peaks, started high-altitude climbing at the age of 16, by climbing Mount Manaslu in August 2022.

Nepali climbers -- usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest -- are considered the backbone of the climbing industry in the Himalayas.

They carry the majority of equipment and food, fixing ropes and repairing ladders.

Long in the shadows as supporters of foreign climbers, they are slowly being recognised in their own right.

The world's tallest peaks © John SAEKI / AFP

"I want to show the younger generation of Sherpas that they can rise above the stereotype of being only support climbers and embrace their potential as top-tier athletes, adventurers, and creators," he said in a statement soon after his final summit.

"We are not just guides. We are trailblazers."

In recent years, climbers like Sherpa have set record after record, and are hopeful their feats will inspire the next generation of Nepali mountaineers.

The record was previously held by another Nepali climber, Mingma Gyabu 'David' Sherpa. He achieved it in 2019, at the age of 30.

© 2024 AFP

India's capital bans fireworks to curb air pollution

New Delhi (AFP) – India's capital New Delhi ordered Monday a "complete ban" on fireworks in a bid to curb air pollution in a city where levels are regularly ranked among the worst in the world.


Issued on: 14/10/2024 - 
I

ndian workers prepare fireworks ready for the Hindu festival of Diwali on November 1 -- but the capital New Delhi has ordered a complete ban to try to curb air pollution 

© R. Satish BABU / AFP

The ban is the toughest in a string of restrictions on the hugely popular firecrackers -- rules that have been widely flouted.

"There will be a complete ban on the manufacturing, storage, selling... and bursting of all kinds of firecrackers," the Delhi Pollution Control Committee said in a statement.

The order was made in view of the "public interest to curb high air pollution", it said.

It comes two weeks before Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights on November 1, where many see fireworks as integral to celebrations.

The spectacular and colourful festival symbolises the victory of light over darkness, a celebration of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.

Previous restrictions in the megapolis of roughly 30 million people were routinely ignored.

Police are often reluctant to act against violators, given the strong religious sentiments attached to the crackers by Hindu devotees.

New Delhi is blanketed in acrid smog every autumn, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring regions, but the surge in fireworks around Diwali compounds the problem.

Levels of fine particulate matter -- cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- often hit more than 30 times the World Health Organization's danger limits in the city.

A Lancet report in 2020 said almost 17,500 people died in Delhi in 2019 because of air pollution.

In the past, fireworks were smuggled in across state boundaries or were available under the counter.

Residents then launched the noisy explosives in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning to avoid trouble.

But this year, Delhi's city authorities urged state police to enforce the ban, asking them to submit "daily action taken reports".

The ban runs until the end of 2024.

© 2024 AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

French far-right’s Le Pen faces questioning in Paris court in fake EU jobs trial

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is set to be questioned by judges at a Paris court Monday as she and her National Rally party stand trial over the suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds. Le Pen has denied the charges.


Issued on: 14/10/2024 - 

In this file photo, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen (C) leaves a courtroom with lawyer Alexandre Varaut (L) at a Paris court house amid a trial over suspected embezzlement of European public funds on September 30, 2024. 

© Alain Jocard, AFP

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, charged with embezzling European Parliament funds, will be questioned at her trial for the first time on Monday in a case that could thwart her presidential ambitions.

Le Pen and two dozen other National Rally (RN) party chiefs are accused of creating fake jobs to embezzle European Parliament money.

Possible sanctions include jail as well as a decade-long ban from public office, which could wreck Le Pen's hopes of succeeding President Emmanuel Macron in a 2027 election.

Le Pen has addressed the trial since it opened on September 30, but so far has not been subjected to direct questioning.

Read moreWhat does the EU embezzlement trial mean for Le Pen and the French far right?

Le Pen, 56, has denied the charges, saying she had "not broken any rules" and that she was "very calm".

Last week, she accused the court's presiding judge, Benedicte de Perthuis, of employing a "tone of partiality".

Three-time presidential candidate Le Pen at the start of the trial told the Paris criminal court: "I will answer all the questions that the court wants to ask me."

The RN this year achieved record scores in European elections, performed strongly in France's legislative vote and could decide the fate of Prime Minister Michel Barnier's new minority government.

In the dock are the RN party, nine former MEPs including Le Pen and party vice-president Louis Aliot, spokesman Julien Odoul -- one of nine former parliamentary assistants -- and four RN staff.

The alleged fake jobs system, which was first flagged in 2015, covers parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016.

Prosecutors say the assistants worked exclusively for the party outside parliament.

10:24

Many were unable to describe their day-to-day work, and some never met their supposed MEP boss or set foot in the parliament building.

A bodyguard, a secretary, Le Pen's chief of staff and a graphic designer were all allegedly hired under false pretences.

Misuse of public funds can be punished with a million-euro ($1.1 million) fine, a 10-year jail term and a 10-year ban from public office.

"The main risk for the president of the RN group in the French National Assembly is not financial, but political," said French daily Le Monde last month.

If convicted, Le Pen would be able to lodge an appeal, which could delay the final verdict until after the 2027 election, thus allowing her to stand.

European Parliament authorities said the legislature had lost three million euros ($3.4 million) through the jobs scheme.

The RN has paid back one million euros, which it insists is not an admission of guilt.

Prosecutors have said that Le Pen and her father, former party leader Jean-Marie, both signed off on a "centralised system" that picked up pace in 2014.

Now 96, Le Pen senior is among those charged but has been deemed not fit to stand trial.

(AFP)

Back in the news

Afghanistan is creeping back into America’s line of sight.

ANOTHER WAR THEY LOST IGNOBLY


Huma Yusuf 

Published October 14, 2024

DAWN

T

“YOU can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Those famous lyrics are going to haunt American officials after next month’s US presidential elections as Washington again considers its Afghanistan problem. How it will broach this problem is unsurprisingly of interest to Pakistan’s establishment. But rather than endure a case of déjà vu, could our leaders pitch a new approach?

Just under 24 million Afghans require humanitarian assistance, 48 per cent of them live below the poverty line, and Afghan women’s rights are so decimated that women are now prohibited from even speaking in public. Over the past three years, these factors have not been sufficient to draw global attention to Afghanistan. The world remains focused on the conflict in the Middle East, Russia’s posturing, and US-China rivalry.

And yet, Afghanistan is creeping back into America’s line of sight, and the recent arrest of an Afghan national in Oklahoma for allegedly planning Election Day attacks in the name of IS will put the issue into centre focus. The man was apprehended while trying to stockpile weapons after trawling through online IS propaganda. His detention is a reminder that the US is not secure against terrorism while militant safe havens persist.

Even earlier, Afghanistan was back in US headlines, because it has become a useful punching bag in the context of domestic politics. America’s chaotic departure from Afghanistan — based on a deal with the Afghan Taliban brokered by the Trump administration, followed by an exit plan executed by the Biden administration — has featured repeatedly on the campaign trail, with Republicans and Democrats blaming each other for all that went wrong.

The Republican Party timed its publication last month of a report that sharply criticises the Biden administration for failing to plan for the return to power of the Taliban, and taking steps to safely evacuate Americans and their Afghan allies beforehand. It aims to defend the Republicans’ record following last year’s After Action Review, an internal US government probe into both sides’ failings during the withdrawal, particularly the failure to anticipate and plan for worst-case scenarios. Having stirred the Afghan pot to win domestic political points, the next US government will have to contend with what it has brewed.

Reprioritisation of Afghanistan will also be driven by the fact that Russia is seeking to emerge as a regional leader on the topic. The Moscow Format meeting involving regional governments earlier this month focused on Afghanistan, and stressed how regional security hinges on the Taliban’s ability to clamp down on militant groups operating from its soil. This is not a conversation Washington can easily ignore.

In this context, Pakistan is preparing for a throwback to the days when Washington worried about global terrorism threats emanating from Afghanistan, and sought to tackle them by scattering counterterrorism funding in Islamabad’s direction. Increased CT cooperation was the focus of bilateral meetings between the US and Pakistan in May, and the government’s decision to ‘reinvigorate’ its national CT strategy in June appeared strategically timed.

No doubt, Pakistan faces a grave and material security threat from groups such as the TTP that carry out cross-border attacks from Afghanistan. The rapid rise in militant attacks is alarming: August’s death toll of 254 people killed in militant attacks — the highest over the past six years — was an unambiguous warning sign. Pakistan should absolutely do whatever it takes to eliminate this security threat, including cooperating with regional governm­ents similarly af­­fected, as well as global players with their own vested interests such as the US.

But what the state should not do is cynically use CT considerations as a blunt instrument against public dissent. Nor should it assume that rekindled US interest in regional security offers it carte blanche to clamp down in the name of national security. The PTM ban on tenuous security grounds, the conflation of Pakhtun identity with terrorism and anti-state positioning, the focus on Afghan flags at the PTM jirga — these are missteps that distract from the real threat and damage state credibility.

Perhaps this time around the government can take advantage of the presence of a large, local constituency that is opposed to extremist violence, and instead, privileges peaceful protest, rule of law and democratic rights. Throughout our erstwhile ‘war on terror’ we sought effective CT narratives. These now exist in the form of grassroots movements across the country. A changing geopolitical context should not embolden their suppression — it should empower them as strong alternatives to future cycles of violence.

The writer is a political and integrity risk analyst.
X: @humayusuf

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024

Afghan Taliban vow to implement media ban on images of living things

Kabul (AFP) – Afghanistan's Taliban morality ministry pledged Monday to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced.


Issued on: 14/10/2024 

A sign of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is seen at an entrance gate of a government building in Kabul © Hoshang Hashimi / AFP


It comes after the Taliban government recently announced legislation formalising their strict interpretations of Islamic law that have been imposed since they swept to power in 2021.

"The law applies to all Afghanistan... and it will be implemented gradually," the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV) Saiful Islam Khyber told AFP, adding that officials would work to persuade people that images of living things are against Islamic law.

"Coercion has no place in the implementation of the law," he said.

"It's only advice, and convincing people these things are really contrary to sharia (law) and must be avoided."

The new law detailed several rules for news media, including banning the publication of images of all living things and ordering outlets not to mock or humiliate Islam, or contradict Islamic law.

Aspects of the new law have not yet been strictly enforced, including advise to the general public not to take or look at images of living things on phones and other devices.

Taliban officials continue to regularly post photos of people on social media and Afghan journalists have told AFP they received assurances from authorities after the law was announced that they would be able to continue their work.

The information ministry did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

"Until now, regarding the articles of the law related to media, there are ongoing efforts in many provinces to implement it but that has not started in all provinces," Khyber said.

He added "work has started" in the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and the neighbouring Helmand province, as well as northern Takhar.

Before the recent law was announced, Taliban officials in Kandahar were banned from taking photos and videos of living things but the rule did not include news media.

"Now it applies to everyone," Khyber said.

Journalists summoned

In central Ghazni province on Sunday, PVPV officials summoned local journalists and told them the morality police would start gradually implementing the law.

They advised visual journalists to take photos from further away and film fewer events "to get in the habit", a journalist who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal told AFP.

Reporters in Maidan Wardak province were also told the rules would be implemented gradually in a similar meeting.

Television and pictures of living things were banned across the country under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been broadly imposed since their return to power.

Since 2021, however, officials have sporadically forced business owners to follow some censorship rules, such as crossing out the faces of men and women on adverts, covering the heads of shop mannequins with plastic bags, and blurring the eyes of fish pictured on restaurant menus.

Images of living things, including a fish at a restaurant in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, are often censored in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover 

© Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

When the Taliban authorities seized control of the country after a two-decade-long insurgency against foreign-backed governments, Afghanistan had 8,400 media employees.

Only 5,100 remain in the profession, according to media industry sources.

This figure includes 560 women, who have borne the brunt of restrictions the United Nations have called "gender apartheid", including being ordered to wear masks on television.

In Helmand, women's voices have been banned from television and radio.

Afghanistan has slipped from 122nd place to 178th out of 180 countries in a press freedom ranking compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

© 2024 AFP