Pakistan: Violent protests erupt in Lahore over on-campus 'rape' of college student | Here's what happened

Lahore, Pakistan

Edited By: Riya Teotia

Updated: Oct 18, 2024,



At least 28 students, including girls, were injured in clashes with the police. A statement issued by Rescue 1122 said that clashes erupted between security personnel and students at the Hafeez Centre Punjab College Campus, reported the Dawn newspaper. 

Photograph:

Story highlights

On Monday (Oct 14), several students gathered outside four campuses of the Punjab

 Group of Colleges in Lahore to protest over the alleged rape of a student form Lahore

 Womens College. The news soon spread on social media and protests broke out in four more cities of Punjab Province.


Student protests over the alleged rape of a college student in Pakistan took a violent turn on Thursday (Oct 17), when police fired tear gas and charged at the protestors. The angry demonstrators ransacked a college building Thursday as anger spread over an alleged on-campus rape in Lahore, a city in Punjab province.

Watch | Pakistan: Massive Protests Erupt Over the Alleged On-Campus Rape

Protests turned violent when hundreds of students took to the streets to demonstrate outside a campus in Rawalpindi, Punjab. They burned furniture and blocked a key road, disrupting traffic and then ransacked the building.

In response, police swung batons and fired tear gas to disperse the angry protestors, police official Mohammed Afzal said. Police also arrested 250 people, mostly students, for disrupting the peace.

In Gujrat, also in Punjab province, a security guard died in clashes between student protestors and police on Wednesday (Oct 16). Police arrested one person in connection with the death.

Thursday’s protest took an unexpected turn, prompting the government to shut schools, colleges and universities for two days.

Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan, but protests about the issue have been rare. The Sustainable Social Development Organization said last month that there were 7,010 rape cases reported in Pakistan in 2023, almost 95% of them in Punjab.

How student protests spread from Pakistan’s Lahore to other cities?

On Monday (Oct 14), several students gathered outside four campuses of the Punjab Group of Colleges in Lahore to protest over the alleged rape of a student from Lahore Women's College. The news soon spread on social media and protests broke out in four more cities of Punjab Province.

Mauz Ullah, a student at the college where the woman was allegedly raped, said they were protesting to seek justice for her when police came and started baton-charging students.

At least 28 students, including girls, were injured in clashes with the police. A statement issued by Rescue 1122 said that clashes erupted between security personnel and students at the Hafeez Centre Punjab College Campus, reported the Dawn newspaper.

Authorities, including the province’s chief minister, denied any such assault, as did the woman’s parents. But Punjab police on Thursday urged people to share any information about the alleged rape. Sexual violence cases in Pakistan often go underreported because of the stigma attached to its conservative society.

On Tuesday (Oct 15), the Progressive Students Collective (PSC), an association of different colleges and universities, held an anti-harassment rally to denounce the purported rape. The group demanded an investigation into the alleged rape case, violence against students during Monday’s rally and incidents of harassment at Lahore Women’s College.

Student unions have been banned in Pakistan since 1984.

(With inputs from agencies)

Indonesia’s US$28b prosperity meal plan: Incoming president Prabowo aspires to grow talent and economy by feeding schoolkids


Indonesia’s next president Prabowo Subianto believes the road to prosperity lies in ending poverty and hunger by feeding the country’s tens of millions of schoolchildren who will be its future workforce. — AFP pic

Saturday, 19 Oct 2024

JAKARTA, Oct 19 — Indonesian President Joko Widodo leaves office Sunday with high approval ratings thanks to strong economic growth, but his successor Prabowo Subianto has bigger ambitions, including an eye-catching US$28 billion free meal plan for students.

While the country regularly enjoys about five percent annual expansion, the former general has pledged to capitalise on his predecessor’s policies to reach eight percent by tapping the nation’s huge human resources.

“From prosperity, we can bring justice to all Indonesian people. We must unite to eliminate poverty and eliminate hunger, and eliminate suffering from our people,” Prabowo said in his victory speech in March.

To do that, he is banking on big national projects, the archipelago’s vast natural resources and attempts to lower a poverty rate of more than nine percent.

He has pledged to largely carry on the popular economic programme of Widodo, better known as Jokowi, but he has also signalled a more direct attempt to alleviate poverty in the nation of around 280 million.

His big campaign pledge is a US$28 billion plan to supply tens of millions of schoolchildren and pregnant women nationwide with free meals.

He says the scheme – to be rolled out in January – will halt stunted growth in a country where more than a fifth of children up to five years old are affected and create several million more jobs.

Yet the plan has faced criticism over logistical and cost issues, with some wondering how he can pull off the plan and keep spending within the annual fiscal deficit limit of three percent of GDP, which is mandated by law.

Jokowi focussed on large infrastructure projects including roads, bridges and airports aimed at better connecting the archipelago.

But experts say Prabowo will deviate from that in his bid to realise a campaign promise to turn Indonesia, a G20 member, into an “advanced and developed” economy.

“He won’t be blindly following Jokowi’s footsteps, but he also won’t completely abandon or neglect everything, so he will be somewhat in the middle,” said Yose Rizal Damuri, an economist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“It seems like he has a slightly different approach from Jokowi. The priority is no longer infrastructure development, but more to human capital development.”

His agenda will also focus on agriculture, observers say, with a food estate programme aimed at achieving food self-sufficiency, land clearing for bioethanol projects in the restive eastern region of Papua, and a green fund selling carbon emission credits.

Capital crunch

At the same time, Prabowo is inheriting Jokowi’s legacy project – a US$32 billion move of the capital from traffic-clogged and sinking Jakarta to Nusantara, a planned green city in eastern Borneo where construction is under way.

The city will not be ready until 2045, but its rapid construction is already eating into state coffers.

Prabowo has pledged to continue the project despite speculation he would put it on hold or keep Jakarta as the capital.

He has also supported Jokowi’s resource nationalism, particularly in the nickel sector, where Jakarta has imposed export restrictions in a bid to become a key player in the electric vehicle supply chain.

Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel polluters and Prabowo has backed gradually reducing the country’s reliance on them. But his family retains ties to the coal industry, and processing vast sums of nickel requires coal-fired power plants.

China’s Southeast Asian investments last year were the biggest in Indonesia, and Prabowo met President Xi Jinping in his first foreign meeting after winning the election.

It signalled the importance he has placed on continuing to attract Beijing’s money, which has proven crucial to Indonesia’s economic growth.

On top of his early trips abroad, Prabowo’s cabinet choices and his first budget after inauguration will also give a better indication as to his economic plans.

Current finance minister Sri Mulyani said this week that she had been asked to retain her role in the next government, which experts say is a signal to markets that there will be continuity.

“With Sri Mulyani joining his cabinet, it shows that Prabowo will be very careful in terms of fiscal issues,” said Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, an economist from the Center of Economic and Law Studies.

“That’s why Jokowi’s people are now hired again, it shows that Prabowo will be disciplined.” — AFP

INDIA

Kamala Harris plays the Rahul Gandhi gambit in interview with Fox News, only wildly better

Democratic nominee takes on Brett Baier in countdown to US presidential election like Congress scion faced Arnab Goswami before 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with dramatically different outcome

Our Web Desk Published 19.10.24,

Rahul Gandhi in 2014 (left), Kamala Harris

They both walked into the lion’s lair by choice; she emerged unscathed, he was eaten alive.

Kamala Harris did a Rahul Gandhi this week when she sat down for an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier three weeks before the US presidential election – just as the Congress scion had faced Arnab Goswami, then with Times Now, 10 years ago right before the Lok Sabha polls.


Both Baier’s show now and Arnab’s show then were events by themselves. Both anchors were combative, going for the jugular. Baier is no Tucker Carlson – forget Goswami – but he repeatedly interrupted Harris, often heckling more than seeking answers.


“For a Democratic presidential candidate, appearing on Fox News is about as close as going into the lion’s den as it gets. On Wednesday, the lion was Mr. Baier, who repeatedly interrupted the vice president and tried to talk over her,” The New York Times wrote.


Since then, the liberal US media has been all praise for Harris. Even the conservatives have not found much ammunition against her, evidenced from the muted response in publications like The Wall Street Journal.

Rahul Gandhi’s interview with Arnab Goswami had massacred the Congress leader’s public image.

Kamala Harris. File picture


Baier tried to pin Harris down on right-wing pet peeves – like illegal immigration, her past advocacy of things like allowing taxpayer money to be used for gender-change operations for prisoners, and the mental condition of President Joe Biden.


How did Harris deal with each of these contentious issues?


Baier played a video of the mother of a 12-year-old girl murdered in Texas and asked if Harris wanted to apologise to the families of women killed by illegal immigrants.


Harris did not flinch, did not vacillate; “I will tell you that I am so sorry for her loss. I am so sorry for her loss, sincerely, ” she said.


But she took the attack to Donald Trump: “But let’s talk about what is happening right now with an individual [Trump] who does not want to participate in solutions. Let’s talk about that as well, in all fairness.”


When Baier repeatedly interrupted here, she firmly put him on the mat – almost like a stern schoolteacher dealing with an errant child.


And she flipped the attack on transgender surgeries by saying that she would follow the law, and that the Donald Trump administration had also not changed that policy.

37Donald Trump (left), Kamala Harris. File picture


Harris was candid when asked about America’s immigration mess.


She said, “We’ve had a broken immigration system transcending, by the way, Donald Trump’s administration, even before. Let’s all be honest about that. I have no pride, and saying that this is a perfect immigration system, I’ve been clear, I think we all are, that it needs to be fixed.”


When Baier asked if she thought Trump’s followers were stupid, Harris replied, “I would never say that about the American people.” But she followed it up with: “He [Trump] is unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous, and that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader who spends full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances, and it being about him instead of the American people.”


She repeatedly underlined that she had a plan, a way forward.

47Rahul Gandhi with Arnab Goswami. (Videograb)


And how did Rahul Gandhi handle Arnab Goswami? He was often rambling, deviating and trying to get across what he had prepared. Like a schoolboy trying to retrofit an essay he had prepared into the topic he had been given to write on.


“Gandhi was at turns confident and worryingly vague,” Time magazine wrote, “expressing some broad political goals like empowering women and opening the political system while coming up short on what, exactly, another term for Congress would look like as India gets ready to vote.”


Goswami asked him about his view on Narendra Modi and if he was afraid to lose against Modi. Rahul traipsed off into what kind of a person he was and how his personal history of losing his grandmother and father had shaped him.


Goswami pulled him back to the question, pointing out that Modi had called him a shehzada – a sharp jab at his privilege.

57Rahul Gandhi. (File picture)

When asked about Congress’s strategy to criticise Modi on Gujarat riots, Gandhi spoke of women empowerment, RTI and NREGA.

“But by the time the interview reached the halfway stage, two things were clear – Rahul was unprepared on his biggest night out, and Goswami was directing the interview towards his predefined destination: Rahul’s annihilation,” Sanjay Jha, a former national spokesperson of the Congress, wrote about the interview in his book, The Great Unravelling: India After 2014.

“A well-meaning, sincere Rahul got ridiculed for sounding repetitive and appearing dodgy… Overnight, Modi had leapt a thousand miles closer to 7, Race Course Road.”

67Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad in 2022. (PTI)


So what went wrong for Rahul and how did Kamala safeguard herself?


For that, be kind and rewind to early 2014. The Congress-led UPA II government was reeling with taints of alleged scams – 2G, Commonwealth, Aircel-Maxis… The party stood discredited because of these allegations and the flab accumulated from a decade in the seat of power.


Narendra Modi, whose image had taken a hit post the 2002 Gujarat riots, was looming large as the challenger who had been turned into a development icon – critics point to a certain lobbyist firm – and was armed with strategist Prashant Kishor and ad names like Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi spinning out promo merch.


Along with slogans like “Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar (this time, Modi government), the narrative of Pappu (fool) and shehzada for Rahul Gandhi was transmitted ad nauseam.

77Rahul Gandhi in Haryana on October 1, 2024. (PTI)


But Gandhi, then 43, and a novice in politics – a year before his interview with Goswami, he tore his government’s ordnance and called it “complete nonsense” sitting right beside the prime minister – had no counter campaign against Arnab – or Modi.


His backroom boys, comprising people who, according to many critical reports were, ““only being good with computers,” couldn’t handle the narrative war.


The sheer length of the interview granted to Goswami was also foolhardy – nearly one-and-half hours.


Kamala Harris gave Fox News 26 minutes.


She was prepared for the attacks. When Baier tried to focus on illegal immigrants and crime, Harris repeatedly pointed out her past as a tough attorney general of a border state (California).


Rahul Gandhi also should have seen the attacks coming. But PM Modi and Arnab Goswami, who never forget to talk about a “Congress ecosystem”, could overpower Rahul Gandhi with their right-wing media ecosystem.


And, of course, Rahul Gandhi was no Kamala Harris in 2014.


That was 10 years ago, though. Has Rahul Gandhi changed? Maybe the best attestation came from Smriti Irani earlier this year when she said that the Congress leader’s politics has grown learning from his mistakes.

TAXONOMY

Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and demographics in the US presidential elections

In the US presidential election in November, roughly 244 million people are eligible to vote. What demographic groups make up the country's voting population? And how have they voted in the past?

Deutsche Welle 

Published 19.10.24


Kamala Harris (left), Donald Trump (right)File picture



In 2024, election day in the United States falls on November 5 — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Roughly 244 million US citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to cast their votes, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, though some states strip that right from people who have been convicted of felonies.



Will a majority of Black women vote for Kamala Harris in the upcoming US election? (Deutsche Welle)

The US has seen an increase in voter participation in recent years. In 2016, only about 59% of eligible voters cast ballots in the presidential election. In 2020, that number stood at 66% — the highest rate for any national election since 1900, according to the Pew Research Center.

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Democrats or Republicans? On November 5, millions of US voters have a choice to make. (Deutsche Welle)

Race in the US election


Race is a key factor in US electoral politics. And there are large disparities between different races when it comes to how many people show up to vote: In the 2020 election, almost 71% of white voters cast ballots compared to only 58.4% of non-white voters, according to the Brennan Center for Justice law and policy institute. That election saw 62.6% of Black American voters, 53.7% of Latino American voters, and 59.7% of Asian American voters cast ballots.

Over the years, the Brennan Center reports, several states have made registering to vote harder ― specifically, states that were governed by Republicans and that had seen an increase in non-white voter turnout in the years prior.


Traditionally, Black US-Americans are more likely to vote Democrat, and 2020 was no exception: In all, 87% of Black voters cast their ballot for the Democratic Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. The majority of white voters in the 2020 election, 58%, cast their ballot for Republican Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence, while 65% of Latino voters and 61% of Asian American voters cast their ballot for Biden, according to exit polls.


While it's unclear whether these groups will vote for the same party again in this presidential election, we do know that there will be more eligible Black voters in 2024 than there were in 2020. According to the Pew Research Center, their number will stand at an estimated 34.4 million, which is a 7% increase compared to 2020. This also means that a larger part of the US electorate is Black. In 2000, 12.1% of all eligible US voters were Black. In the 2024 election, the Pew Research Center projects that 14% of eligible voters will be Black.


Whether this will be an advantage for Kamala Harris, who was voted the Democratic candidate for president after Biden dropped out of the race, remains to be seen. As mentioned above, turnout among Black voters is lower than among white voters. And the percentage of Black voters casting their ballot for the Democratic candidate has been decreasing slightly since 2012, when Barack Obama last ran. The fact that Harris, who is Black and South Asian-American (her father is Jamaican American, her mother was Indian American; both came to the US as young adults) was on the ticket in 2020 could not reverse that trend. It's unclear as of yet whether it will make a difference this time around, when she is the candidate for president, not just vice president.


Age of US voters


From 2016 to 2020, there was a significant increase in voter turnout among young voters, those aged 18 to 29. In 2016, an estimated 39% of them voted, while in 2020, that number went up to 50%, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University in Massachusetts.


And where do young voters stand on the political spectrum? Exit polls after the 2020 election showed that 60% of all young voters cast their ballot for Biden, and only 36% for Trump. The majority of voters aged 30 to 44 also cast their ballot for Biden, though their majority was a slimmer one at 52%. Trump won the majority of voters (62%) aged 65 and over.


In 2023, 66% of registered US voters aged 18 to 24 said they were Democrat or Democrat-leaning, as did 64% of voters aged 25 to 29. Among voters in their 30s, the majority is slimmer: In all, 55% associated themselves with the Democrats, while 42% said they were Republican or Republican-leaning. Republicans have the largest majority with voters over the age of 80: Fifty-eight percent of them associated themselves with the Republicans and only 39% with the Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center.



Will young Americans be as enthusiastically involved with the 2024 election as these young voters were in the 2018 midterms? (Deutsche Welle)

Female Biden and Trump voters


Since 1980, women have consistently turned out to vote at higher rates than men in presidential elections. In 2020, 68.4% of women who were eligible to vote did so, compared to 65% of men, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University in New Jersey.


CAWP also states that "in every presidential election since 1996, a majority of women have preferred the Democratic candidate."


There are, however, differences when it comes to white women and those of other ethnicities. Since the 2000 election, the majority of white women has voted for the Republican candidate in US presidential elections, whereas a large majority of Black, Latina and Asian women has been voting for the Democratic candidate for the entire time this information has been collected.


In the 2020 election, 57% of women as a whole voted for Biden and 42% for Trump (53% of men voted for Trump and 45% of men for Biden.) Among white women, only 44% voted for Biden in 2020 and 55% for Trump, according to CAWP. The picture is starkly different for Black women. Ninety percent of them voted for Biden in 2020 and only 9% for Trump.


In a poll published in June 2024 researchers for US health charity KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that among female voters, more Biden supporters seemed to be turning away from their candidate than among Trump supporters.


Of women who voted for Biden in 2020, 83% said they'd do the same again in the upcoming election. Seven percent said they'd vote for Trump this time around and 10% said they'd vote for someone else or not at all.



Trump has passionate supporters, many of them women. (Deutsche Welle)

Of women who voted for Trump on the other hand, 92% said they'd vote for him again in the 2024 election, and none said they'd vote for Biden instead. Seven percent said they'd vote for someone else or not at all.


But Biden is, of course, not on the ballot anymore. Whether Harris can win back the female voters whose support Biden lost is one of the big questions that will be answered once November 5 rolls around.

Venture capital is going to war over the election. Here's the data to prove it.

Rob Price and Melia Russell Oct 19, 2024

  

Charles Eshelman/Getty, Taylor Hill/Getty, Stefanie Keenan/Getty, Invision/Getty, Tyler Le/BI

VCs are lobbing cash at the presidential election and key congressional races, FEC data shows.
While most VCs favored Democrats, a16z's crypto giving dwarfed all other donations.
The top individual donor was Greylock partner Reid Hoffman, who pledged support for Kamala Harris.

America is bitterly divided over politics, and the tech industry — once portrayed as a liberal bastion — is no different. Among the sector's investor class, these disputes typically play out behind closed doors, with checkbooks rather than angry social media posts.

This election cycle, investors at the top venture capital firms have plowed tens of millions of dollars into the election, both backing their favored political candidates and just cannily promoting commercial interests.

Business Insider trawled political donation data released by the Federal Elections Commission to see how employees at VC firms have donated by candidates and political entities as the hotly contested race enters its final phase.

The data is limited, focusing only on a subjective grouping of 10 high-profile firms, and cutting off at varying points over the summer. More recent FEC donor data will be released in the days and weeks ahead of the November 5 general election, often the most turbulent time in any cycle.
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The sheer volume of donations captured in the FEC filings underscores the significance of the tech constituency in the political arena, how the Silicon Valley elite has embraced politics of late, and just how flooded by money modern American politics has become.

The big spenders


For venture capitalists, talking politics can invite scrutiny — or worse, turn off founders seeking funds for what might be the next big thing. It's part of the reason why many firms won't take positions on political issues or push a candidate on their employees.

While that hasn't stopped individual investors from voting with their dollars, many VC firms are quick to point out that donations do not represent the organization's political stance.

Except when they do.

Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, is the sole firm in our dataset to make political contributions directly. In this election cycle, it contributed $47 million to groups working to elect blockchain-friendly candidates, including Fairshake, a titanic crypto-industry backed super PAC. The firm is all-in on crypto, investing in Solana and Yuga Labs, and launched a $4.5 billion investment fund focused on this area in 2022.

While the names of the firm's founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, also appear on filings for donations to these groups, a16z says on its website that these contributions come from the firm, not the founders personally. Though the distinction a16z draws between itself and its founders might be slightly artificial, given Andreessen and Horowitz created, own, and named the firm after themselves.



Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million to a pro-Donald Trump super PAC

For all the brouhaha about Andreessen and Horowitz putting millions of dollars behind Trump's latest bid for the White House and Horowitz hedging his bets with a planned donation to Harris, the data shows the two are a rare breed among venture investors: relatively bipartisan donors.

Horowitz sent roughly 59% of his personal political contributions to Republicans and a little under 40% to Democrats, while Andreessen more strongly favored Republicans this election cycle, with 64% of his donations.
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In the time period covered by the data, a16z even eclipsed Greylock, where outgoing partner and Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman has personally pumped nearly $30 million in recorded donations into the presidential election and key congressional races.

Investors at Founders Fund, which has backed SpaceX and Palantir, are nearly 100% Republican in donations, though the bulk of contributions came from Keith Rabois, who left the firm in January to rejoin Khosla Ventures. Employees of venerable firm Kleiner Perkins are the opposite, giving almost entirely to Democratic causes, as is the case for Y Combinator, the colossal startup accelerator.

Like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital is largely bipartisan. Unlike a16z, its biggest donors are largely split on party lines. Michael Moritz, who left the firm midway through last year and continues to serve as an advisor to Sequoia Heritage, its wealth management group, gives to Democrats, while Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire donates to Republicans.
Number-crunching

When a candidate's campaign or other political entity receives political donations, they must report it either quarterly or monthly to the FEC, along with information about the donors, including the donor's employer. The federal agency processes these filings, before releasing them in a searchable format on its website.
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The data analyzed for this story cuts off on August 31 for entities that report donations on a monthly basis (including presidential campaigns, national party committees, and some PACs), while the cut-off for entities that report quarterly (including Congressional committees and some PACs) is June 30. (The filing deadline for Q3 data for quarterly filing entities was October 15, but this data isn't yet readily available in full online.)

Business Insider selected 10 venture capital firms to focus on, taking into account fund size and cultural and industry significance. The list encompasses employees ranging from general partners and firm founders to marketers and executive assistants.

The findings should not be interpreted as an exhaustive accounting of all venture capital investors' donations to date, but as a comparative analysis of how some of the industry's most significant players have approached political giving over the summer as the election heated up.

Business Insider divided the recipients into three categories: Democrat-aligned, Republican-aligned, and unaffiliated — a grouping that includes both bipartisan groups like Fairshake and independents like West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, as well as organizations like The Lincoln Project, run by self-described Republicans but in practice supporting Democratic causes.
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Hoffman vs. Horowitz

Hoffman, the top individual donor, has developed a reputation as tech's Democratic Party standard-bearer. In this election cycle, records show his efforts include $2 million to help fund an unusual write-in effort for President Joe Biden in New Hampshire, and millions to joint fundraising committees for Harris after Biden dropped out. Hoffman also gave $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Nikki Haley, the last major candidate to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination.

Most donors more closely resemble Hoffman than Horowitz: clearly partisan, with an overwhelming majority of their donations going to support one party.

Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures is another of the biggest donors on the Democratic side of the aisle, with more than $3 million in recorded donations during the time period to recipients including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Harris' presidential campaign. Khosla's giving puts him just above John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins and architect of cleantech investing, though he hasn't managed funds for the firm in a decade.

Sequoia Capital's Doug Leone is one of VC's most prolific GOP-aligned political donors, giving his almost $3.8 million to the National Republican Committee and other causes.


The vehicle of choice for many of these donations is via super PACs, a controversial political fundraising tool that can raise unlimited funds — bypassing FEC limits on donations to candidates and other committees — but cannot directly coordinate with candidates. Asides from Fairshake, some of the biggest super PACs out there favored by VC investors include Future Forward PAC, a tech billionaire-linked Democrat-supporting group, and America PAC, a right-wing entity founded by Elon Musk.

Investors also gave to several joint fundraising committees, which take money for multiple candidates or organizations. They, too, became favored over the years because a joint fundraising committee allows candidates to rake in cash while sharing the costs of fundraising — think website hosting fees, high-end hotels, and catering for splashy Hamptons fundraisers. The most well-loved committees in our dataset were the Harris Victory Fund and Harris Action Fund, the joint fundraising efforts between the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and state Democratic committees.

Reached for comment by Business Insider, none of the named investment firms agreed to make employees available for interviews about their political giving. Perhaps, from the donors' perspectives, they don't need to: They're already putting their money where their mouth is.

Some NC nursing homes still without water, 3 weeks after Hurricane Helene

"We’ve been unable to shower or wash hands,” one resident said.

By Dr. Sejal Parekh
October 19, 2024

North Carolina nursing homes working to recover after Hurricane Helene

More than three weeks ago, Hurricane Helene knocked out the power and running water at James Greene's nursing home in Asheville, North Carolina.

Today, Greene, 84, and his fellow residents at Brooks-Howell Home still do not have regular access to safe, running water for their daily activities.

"For two weeks we've been unable to shower or wash hands," Greene wrote in a letter to family and friends, which was shared with ABC News. "Maintaining hygiene with hand sanitizers is a constant must."

"Another example is having to pour a bucket of water into the tank of the toilet in order to flush. And keep in mind that our residents are old and not used to such physical activity," wrote Greene.


A tree fell through a resident’s cottage at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, N.C. durin..

Libby Bush/Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community

Greene's nursing home is not the only one in North Carolina affected by the ongoing water crisis in Asheville. While bottled water is adequate for cooking and drinking, the lack of municipal running water places severe restrictions on activities like handwashing, showering and laundry.


In nursing homes particularly, infections can travel quickly, making access to clean running water an even more urgent necessity.

MORE: A public health emergency was declared in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Here's what that means

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), floodwater from hurricanes can contaminate local water sources with "germs, dangerous chemicals, human and livestock waste" and other contaminants that can cause disease.

On Oct. 16, the City of Asheville Water Resource Department issued a Boil Water Notice for all water customers that is still in effect, meaning "there is contamination due to impacts from Hurricane Helene including the potential for untreated water in the distribution system," according to the notice.


Bottled water arrives at Ascent’s nursing homes.
Kimberly Smith/Ascent Healthcare Management

The elderly are particularly at risk of infection due to many factors, including reduced immunity, existing chronic illness, and exposure to pathogens in hospitals and nursing homes.

Kimberly Smith is the vice president of operations for Ascent Healthcare Management, a company that runs six retirement facilities in Western North Carolina. As of Oct. 18, three of the company's Asheville locations still do not have running water, Smith told ABC News.



MORE: Video 92 unaccounted for in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene



Even after running water returns, Smith said that she anticipates her facilities will be under the Boil Water Notice for quite some time.

Libby Bush, president and CEO of Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community, located in Asheville, said her facility is also currently under the Boil Water Notice.

"It has been challenging to keep up with the current and most accurate information," she told ABC News.


James Greene, resident at Brooks-Howell Home, visited a Red Cross/FEMA disaster assistance center in Ash...Show more
James Greene

Greene said he and other nursing home residents are deeply appreciative of the nursing home staff and government assistance in the wake of Hurricane Helene. While he now understands the scale of Helene's destruction, Greene said in his letter that his initial days during and immediately after the storm were spent in seclusion, with the initial lack of internet, landline, and cell phone service contributing to "an utter sense of isolation."

"The fact that no [one] called in, or could call out, made it worse," he told ABC News.

Smith added that many nursing home residents suffered "an emotional toll" because they weren't able to get in touch with their families.

Phone and internet services have been largely restored, Smith and Bush separately told ABC News.

Smith is also grateful for the shower trailers, portable toilets, hand washing stations and extra generators provided by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the state's Office of Emergency Medical Services, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

They brought "a lot of things that we tried to get on our own and couldn't," Smith said. "All the regulatory people have kind of come together to help the nursing homes."


Shower trailers and portable toilets were provided to Ascent’s nursing homes by the North Carolina Depart...Show more
Kimberly Smith/Ascent Healthcare Management


MORE: Amid ongoing Helene recovery, early voting begins in North Carolina


Still, there's a long road to recovery ahead for senior care facilities in Asheville.

Greene visited a Red Cross/FEMA disaster assistance center in Asheville and was impressed by the resources provided.

"It distresses me and others to see the negative reporting on FEMA and the Red Cross," he said.

"The senior citizens here, many of them retired deaconesses and missionaries, dealt well with the hardship conditions," Greene added of his fellow nursing home residents. "No doubt we are a bit traumatized, but God was good to us."

Sejal Parekh, M.D. is a board-certified practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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Japan’s ruling party HQ attacked with firebombs and car targets PM’s residence

A vehicle against a barricade near the prime minister’s office in Tokyo (Kyodo News/AP)

Sat, 19 Oct, 2024 - 10:13

Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press

A man has thrown several firebombs into the headquarters of Japan’s ruling party in Tokyo, then crashed his car into the fencing of the prime minister’s residence, police said.

There were no reports of injuries.

The man, identified by police as Atsunobu Usuda, 49, was arrested on the spot on charges of obstructing the performance of official duties, although additional charges can be added later.

There were no reports of injuries in the incident (Kyodo News/AP)

Although the motive for the attack was not immediately clear, reports said social media posts believed to be Usuda’s showed him complaining about the amount of money required to run for office under Japanese law, implying he had political ambitions.

The reports also quoted unidentified sources as saying Usuda had taken part in protests against nuclear plants.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has become increasingly unpopular with the public due to a ballooning financial scandal involving dubious funding and suspected tax evasion.

The party declined to comment on Saturday’s attack, referring all queries to the police.

Voting for the lower house of Parliament is set for October 27. Some politicians lost the official backing of the ruling party but are running as independents.

The party recently chose a new leader, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, hoping to present a new image, but polls show its popularity plummeting, although it is unclear whether it will lose its majority in the lower house in the election because of a splintered opposition.

The ruling party is referring all queries about the incident to the police (Kyodo News/AP)

Some candidates have been heckled, which is relatively rare in Japanese culture.

The Liberal Democrats have ruled Japan almost continuously over recent decades. They are credited with leading the country as it became an economic powerhouse after the devastation of the Second World War.

Then-prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in 2022 while making a speech for a ruling party candidate during a parliamentary election.

China's consulate in Myanmar hit with explosives

A Myanmar official in Mandalay has also confirmed there had been an incident at the Chinese consulate in the Mandalay City office compound.


China's consulate in Myanmar attacked by explosives. / AP archive

China's consulate in Myanmar's Mandalay City was attacked with an explosive device, local media has said, adding that no deaths or injuries were reported.

The blast occurred at the consulate office in central Mandalay, south of the sprawling Royal Palace, around 1230 GMT Friday, local media said.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to Myanmar's junta, but it also maintains ties with ethnic groups fighting the military in Myanmar's northern Shan state, according to analysts.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military deposed the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in 2021.

A Myanmar official in Mandalay confirmed to AFP there had been "an incident at the Chinese consulate office compound in Mandalay late evening yesterday".

"There was no one injured," the official said, without specifying the nature of the incident.

The Irrawaddy outlet reported a grenade had been thrown at the compound, which is usually guarded by members of Myanmar's security forces.

The Voice of Myanmar reported the consulate had been hit by an unidentified "explosion" without giving details.

China's embassy in Yangon did not respond to AFP's queries, and a junta spokesman was unreachable for comment.

World cholera vaccine stockpile empty: WHO

In September, 47,234 new cholera cases were reported from 14 countries

Published: October 19, 2024 

Cholera can kill within hours when not treated, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration, and antibiotics for more severe cases.Image Credit: AFP


Geneva: There are no more oral cholera vaccines left in the global stockpile, the World Health Organization said Friday, with the shortage jeopardising work to stop the disease's spread.


Global vaccine production is operating at full capacity, but demand is outpacing supply, the UN health agency said in its monthly situation report.



"As of October 14, the global stockpile of oral cholera vaccine is depleted, with no remaining doses available," the WHO said.


"Although more doses are expected in the coming weeks, this shortage poses significant challenges to outbreak response efforts and hampers efforts to control the spread of the disease."


The WHO said that between September 1 and October 14, the International Coordinating Group on vaccine provision received requests for oral cholera vaccines from Bangladesh, Sudan, Niger, Ethiopia and Myanmar.



The requests amounted to a total of 8.4 million doses, but due to limited availability, only 7.6 million doses could be shipped.

Deaths spiking


The WHO said there had been 439,724 cholera cases and 3,432 deaths reported this year up to September 29.


"Although the number of cases in 2024 is 16 percent lower than last year, the 126 percent spike in deaths is deeply concerning," it said.



The WHO said the mortality increase might be partially down to where the outbreaks are located.


Those include conflict-affected areas where healthcare access has been severely compromised and areas hit by flooding.


Since last month's report, new cholera outbreaks have been reported in Niger (705 cases and 17 deaths) and Thailand (five cases with no deaths), pushing the total number of affected countries in 2024 to 30, said the WHO.



In September, 47,234 new cholera cases were reported from 14 countries.


And this month, a cholera case was detected in conflict-hit Lebanon, where the WHO warned the risk of it spreading was "very high" due to the deteriorating sanitation conditions for the large numbers of displaced people.


Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae, often from faeces.



It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps.


Cholera can kill within hours when not treated, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration, and antibiotics for more severe cases.


In April, the Gavi vaccine alliance and the UN children's agency UNICEF said South Korean firm EuBiologics was currently the only oral cholera vaccine supplier to the global stockpile, although other manufacturers were expected to have products available in the coming years.

Four-day work week pilot convinces most German firms in trial

More than 7 million people in Germany are expected to leave the labor force by 2035

Published: October 19, 2024 

Bloomberg

Some 73% of the 45 companies that participated in the six-month experiment will either fully implement the model or extend the trialImage Credit: Shutterstock

A pilot project of the four-day work week in Germany found that almost three quarters of participants aren't returning to a five-day standard.


Some 73% of the 45 companies that participated in the six-month experiment will either fully implement the model or extend the trial, according to a report released Friday. Two large firms dropped out early due to "economic difficulties or lack of internal support."


Like other Western economies, Germany is facing a demographic challenge. More than 7 million people are expected to leave the labor force by 2035, as birthrates and immigration fall well short of what's needed to replace the aging population.


The results from the study in Europe's largest economy back up previous pilot projects in the UK, Portugal and South Africa. Staff in Germany reported significant improvements in mental and physical health, while employers saw positive effects in recruitment and retention rates. Financial performance metrics, such as revenue and profit, remained overall stable while work hours dropped, pointing to some productivity gains.

The top reasons for organizations to participate were to improve employer appeal, employee health and productivity growth.

Ivory Coast dissolves powerful student unions after deaths and a police raid

This photo  shows the outside of the University Hospital in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. -
Copyright © africanewsSevi Herve Gbekide/AP

By Rédaction Africanews and AP 

Ivory Coast's government has announced a ban on all student unions following the deaths of two students and the arrest of 17 suspects in a confrontation between police and a student association with connections to some of the most powerful people in the country.

The ban on Thursday (Oct. 17) came after a government raid on student housing controlled by a student union, known by its French acronym FESCI, that the government says was connected to the deaths.

The National Security Council said that officers discovered large caches of weapons as well as several “illegal businesses” within the student housing complex on the main campus of the University of Abidjan.

The arrests targeted FESCI's leadership, including the general secretary, Sié Kambou, who was arrested in connection with the killings, according to a filing by chief prosecutor Koné Oumar.

“No crime can be committed in the FESCI environment without the named Sié Kambou being informed of it,” the court filing said.

In a statement on Friday (Oct. 18), FESCI called the decision “a flagrant violation of the right to association, assembly and peaceful demonstration conferred by the Constitution” and denied any involvement in the deaths.

The ban was the culmination of a government response to the death last month of FESCI member Agui Deagoué. According to the statement from the public prosecutor's office, Deagoué was Kambou's main rival within the union and was kidnapped off the street on his way to a meeting with him.

FESCI was created in 1990 as a student association, but the group soon found itself at odds with then President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who had its leaders arrested for what he deemed illegal meetings and demonstrations.

After Houphouët-Boigny's rival, Laurent Gbagbo, came to power in 2000, FESCI enjoyed a privileged status, and authorities looked the other way as members attacked opposition supporters on and off campus.

In 2011, Gbagbo lost a presidential election, but refused to concede defeat, triggering an outbreak of violence in which FESCI and its former leaders allegedly attacked the outgoing government's opponents.

Former famous FESCI leaders include Charles Blé Goudé and Guillaume Soro.

Charles Blé Goudé, faced trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, but was acquitted in 2019.

Soro, a former president of National Assembly and fighter during the 2010's war.

“FESCI was an avant-garde association serving students and pupils in Cote d’Ivoire," Julien-Geoffroy Kouao, an Abidjan-based political scientist, told The Associated Press, using the French name for the country. “Unfortunately, today it has deviated to become an association whose instruments of action are violence.”

FESCI took control of much of the student housing across the country from the mid-2010s, and according to students, has been charging exorbitantly high rates for rooms that were often crowded or poorly maintained.

But the union, whose 100,000 members make up a third of the Ivory Coast's student body, has been defended by some. FESCI as an organization shouldn't be blamed for the actions of some of its members, Désiré N’Guessan Kouamé, a local politician, told the AP.

“Today, some people call it a criminal (organization). Fine, but we must recognize that in any organization or society, there are black sheep," Kouamé said.

Following the decision by the National Security Council, government workers began to demolish the group's headquarters, but given FESCI's role in administering student housing, some students expressed doubt it would be enough to force the organization to close or even to dent its power significantly.

First migrants sent to Albania for processing are returned to Italy

An Italian navy ship has taken back to Italy the first 12 migrants from newly opened asylum processing centers in Albania following a court decision in Rome

ByVLASOV SULAJ Associated Press and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press
October 19, 2024


SHENGJIN, Albania -- An Italian navy ship on Saturday took back to Italy the first 12 migrants from newly opened asylum processing centers in Albania following a court decision in Rome.

The court ruling on Friday represents an early stumbling block to a five-year deal between Italy and Albania for Tirana to host 3,000 migrants per month picked up by the Italian coast guard. They will be vetted for possible asylum in Italy or to be sent back to their countries.

Italian Premier Minister Giorgia Meloni has hailed it as a new “model” to handle illegal migration.

The court in Rome rejected the detention of 12 of the migrants, arguing they cannot be sent back to their countries or origin -- Bangladesh and Egypt -- because the court did not deem them to be safe enough.

The Italian navy ship took the 12 from the port of Shengjin, 66 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital Tirana. After arriving there this week, the four other migrants had already been rejected by center staff, two as vulnerable after undergoing health checks and two for being minors.

Each migrant’s detention must be reviewed by special migration courts in Italy under Italian law.

Meloni slammed the judges following the ruling, and said that deeming countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt unsafe means that virtually all migrants would be barred from the Albania program, making it unworkable. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the government would appeal the ruling.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Lebanon, Meloni said she would convene a Cabinet meeting Monday to discuss the issue.

“We’ll meet to approve some norms that will allow us to overcome this obstacle,” Meloni said. “I believe it’s up to the government and not magistrates to establish which countries can be considered safe.”

Although Bangladesh and Egypt are not at war or facing any large refugee crises, the Rome judges said their decision was based on recent international rulings that consider discrimination or persecution in even a part of a country as grounds for such a determination.


Italy has agreed to welcome those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.

The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-EU member country has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are experiencing a high level of migrant arrivals.

The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” in tackling the issue of migration into the European Union.

Human rights organizations considered it as setting a dangerous precedent.

___

Semini reported from Tirana. Follow him at https://x.com/lsemini

___

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Meloni's discontent with court's ruling on migrant outsourcing

The first batch of immigrants sent to Albania to undergo accelerated border procedures under the Italy-Albania deal on Wednesday, Oct, 16, 2024. -

Copyright © africanewscleared
By Dominic Wabwireh
with AP Last updated: 

Migration agreement between Libya and Italy

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized judges on Friday for ruling against the right-wing government’s initiative to hold 12 migrants at newly established centres in Albania.

This marks a significant obstacle in the administration’s strategy to transfer some of its migrant processing to the Balkan nation.

During a visit to Lebanon, Meloni told reporters that labelling countries like Bangladesh and Egypt as unsafe would effectively exclude nearly all migrants from the Albania program, rendering it impractical.

Meloni argued, ''It's challenging to address the needs of this nation when there is opposition from certain institutions that are supposed to assist in solving its issues. I believe the ruling by the judges in Rome is biased. This is evident as some judges had already criticized the agreement with Albania before even considering the details. It's also noteworthy that this decision was announced yesterday by some members of the Democratic Party."

The ruling marks an initial obstacle in the agreement between Italy and Albania that Meloni's administration has praised as a new "model" for addressing illegal migration.

"The concern extends beyond Albania. The judges essentially indicate that there are no safe countries. Therefore, I declare that the issue is not specific to Albania. The real problem is that repatriation is no longer feasible. The challenge lies in the inability to send people away. Additionally, it is impossible to implement any policies that effectively secure your borders, so I hope they can provide solutions," Meloni concluded.

The interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, announced that the government plans to challenge the ruling, and she indicated that a Cabinet meeting would be held on Monday to address the matter.

16 migrants, 10 from Bangladesh and 6 from Egypt, were moved to Albania by an Italian navy ship on Wednesday, following government directives.

This transfer was part of the accelerated border procedures outlined in the Italy-Albania agreement. However, they are now required to be sent back to Italy.

Italy will spend 670 million euros ($730 million) over the next five years on the centres.

These facilities are managed by Italy and fall under its jurisdiction, with Albanian guards providing external security.

Italy has committed to accepting migrants who receive asylum, while those whose applications are denied will be deported directly from Albania.

This contentious deal to house asylum-seekers in a non-EU country has been praised by several nations facing high migrant influxes, similar to Italy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has supported the agreement, calling it an example of innovative thinking in addressing migration challenges within the European Union.