PAKISTAN

HATE CRIME

Three held for killing transgender persons in Mardan

A Correspondent Published October 25, 2024 Updated about 2 hours ago

MARDAN: The police here the other day claimed to have arrested the suspected killers of two transgender persons.

Two transgender persons were stabbed to death on Monday inside their rented residential quarter located near the police lines here.

Speaking to journalists at a press conference, District Police Officer Zahoor Afridi said that they had arrested three suspects in the double murder case.

After the occurrence of the incident, he said he had immediately constituted a team consisting of Superintendent of Police (SP) investigations Nisar Khan, City SP Shafiur Rahman, City Deputy Superintendent of Police Ijaz Khan, and Station House Officer Abdul Salam Khan to trace the perpetrators.

He said the police team used advanced forensic methods and human intelligence to identify and apprehend three suspects.

The accused were identified as Ziauddin, Mohammad Rehman, and Adnan Khan, who had confessed to their crime, he said.

The DPO said investigation was underway to know the motive behind the double murder.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2024

'Fake news' of Pakistan rape ignites real protest movement

Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) – For Pakistani police, reports of a college campus rape that went viral this month are "fake news" fomenting unrest. For protesting students, the social media posts offer a rare public reckoning with sexual assault.

Pakistani students holding placards shout slogans this week at a march protesting the alleged rape of a woman student in Lahore

 © Arif ALI / AFP

But as the clashing accounts have spilled from the internet and onto the streets, both sides agree the case has ignited a tinderbox of legitimate fears.

"Girls who go to campuses definitely feel threatened," 21-year-old Khadija Shabbir told AFP at a Monday protest in eastern Lahore city that was swiftly dismantled by authorities.

Senior officer Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi is charged with probing the case police insist has been conjured from unverifiable online rumours.

But she admits it has struck a real chord on the issue of harassment in Pakistan, a patriarchal country where open discussion of abuse is taboo.


"All of us somewhere have experienced it," she says. "It's an extremely sensitive subject."
'Deep-rooted frustration'
'All of us somewhere have experienced it," Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, a senior Pakistani police officer, said of harassment © Amna YASEEN / AFP

It began earlier this month with a swirl of social media posts alleging a staff member had raped a woman in the basement of a Punjab College campus in Lahore.

When police and local media were unable to trace a victim, the local government and school administration dismissed the claims as a hoax.

But student protests broke out last Monday, escalating into unrest in Lahore and other cities later in the week that led to the arrests of at least 380 people over vandalism and arson.

Educational institutes were shut across Punjab province last Friday -- when protests are generally staged after prayers -- and political gatherings were banned for two days, although officials gave no reason.

As a result, about 26 million children were out of school as well as many more university and college students in the country's most populous province.

But students, banned from officially organising in unions for the past four decades, have continued to come out this week.

"I haven't seen it grow into a movement like this or this sort of anger or reaction from them before," said Fatima Razzaq, a member of the Aurat March women's rights group.

The Punjab government has a women-only police emergency line where they report receiving 1,300 calls daily from women concerned about their safety.

Fatima Razzaq, a member of the Aurat March women's rights group, told AFP she's not previously seen the level of anger generated by the Lahore rape allegation

 © Amna YASEEN / AFP

But with 80 percent of women saying they have been harassed in public places, according to the UN, there is little trust that authorities take the matter seriously.

Razzaq said "a deep-rooted frustration" is surfacing as a result.

While protesters' opinions vary about the veracity of the rape claim that has sparked the movement, many cite their own experience as more pivotal in their decision to turn out.

"A girl I know in my university committed suicide because she was being harassed," student Amna Nazar told AFP.

"My professor keeps asking me out and calling me to his office," said another University of the Punjab student, asking to remain anonymous. "This is something I do not want to do."

On the campus where the crime is alleged to have happened, activists painted the walls with red hand prints and demands of "justice for the rape victim". But it was quickly painted over.

"If we go and complain about an incident, we are told that nothing happened and we should stop talking about it," said one female student at another university.

- Dissent and distrust -

Online chat groups created to mobilise protesters have disappeared 

© Arif ALI / AFP

Lahore's High Court has announced a new committee of judges to investigate campus sexual harassment, indicating authorities are conceding the protests have a point.

But the face-off between students and police is taking place amid a broader crackdown on dissent from political and ethnic activists across Pakistan.

Student social media pages and online chat groups created to mobilise protestors have disappeared and officials have pledged that those spreading misinformation will be prosecuted.

Naqvi -- the police officer -- said there was "less tendency of people to believe somebody in uniform" and that the confrontation had spiralled into the "state versus the students".

Meanwhile, the women whose experiences with harassment have placed them at the centre of the movement are finding themselves sidelined as the protests spill into violence often led by men.

As crowds of male students threw rocks at police in the city of Rawalpindi last week, officers returned fire with rubber bullets, and women fearing for their safety cowered away in side-streets.

Nevertheless, 19-year-old female student Inshai said: "We are standing up for our rights".

© 2024 AFP

Digital Pied Pipers of Pakistan

Shaukat Ahmed 

Published October 25, 2024

DAWN


FOR years, Pakistan felt more like a cherished memory of childhood and adolescent travels than a living reality, its struggles and triumphs observed from afar.

Preoccupied with our own lives in distant lands, it’s easy to feel disconnected. Two years ago, guilted by family and friends as well as a yearning to bridge this chasm, I embarked on a journey to reconnect with my ancestral homeland. My first instinct was to turn to mainstream media, expecting it to serve as a window into the nation’s current affairs.

The media landscape I encountered resembled a circus of sensationalism and political pandering, subject to the whim of editorial agendas and the capricious tides of public opinion. A constant diet of political intrigue and impending doom kept viewers glued to their screens, translating into a steady flow of advertising revenue. TV anchors, enamoured of the sound of their own dulcet tones, held court nightly, with an ever-expanding army of self-proclaimed ‘Senior Analysts’.

I wondered how every analyst was a Senior Analyst. Had they sprouted fully formed from the earth, armed with an inflated sense of their own significance, the tireless persistence of a broken record, and an uncanny ability to pander to whichever political deity they had chosen to worship? Their most distinctive trait was a penchant for painting with only two colours: the pitch black of vilification or the blinding white of glorification, depending on the narrative du jour.






Disillusioned but undeterred, I turned to social media, signing up for a new Twitter account to create a digital vantage point for observing Pakistan, promising real-time updates and unfiltered perspectives. I did not have too many followers, nor did I want them. Having always been a social media absentee by choice, valuing privacy over online presence, I preferred to observe rather than participate. But if traditional media was a disappointment, social media was a shock to the system. I found myself in a digital battlefield where fake news, vitriol, and extremism reigned supreme. Any attempt at rational discourse or critique would unleash a horde of digital foot soldiers, their responses devoid of substance but overflowing with obscenities and derogatory slurs.

Coexisting in this ecosystem, I encountered another peculiar breed of online denizens: the devoted followers. Keyboard acolytes, existing in a perpetual state of rapture, showered their chosen leaders with endless praise. Their timelines swarmed with reverential video clips set to emotive musical scores, featuring their idols engaged in such riveting activities as strolling or entering rooms. Perhaps, in Pakistan, the ability to ambulate with gravitas was now considered a qualification for leadership.

Is this the legacy we’re leaving for the country’s largest demographic?

As I delved deeper into this digital realm, a disturbing reality became obvious. The cacophony of voices, whether spewing vitriol or singing praises, seemed orchestrated by unseen hands. In this realm of bytes and pixels, modern-day Pied Pipers had woven a digital spell, leading Pakistan’s youth not to the promise of a brighter future, but down a rabbit hole of toxicity and division.

This tale unfolds to this day not in the quaint streets of Hamelin, but across the vast expanse of Pakistan’s social media platforms and messaging apps. The youth of Pakistan, tech-savvy and eager for change, have become pawns in a grand, cynical power struggle. Conscripted as foot soldiers, they find themselves embroiled in a battle that neither serves nor spares them. Demagogues and zealots, emerging from an old guard that has failed the nation for more than seven decades with their recycled strategies, have repurposed these young minds with sinister brilliance into what they proudly call ‘keyboard warriors’.

Their calculus is ruthless: the more adverse and chaotic things become for their rivals, the stronger their own grip on power, or the better their chances of riding a wave of discontent back into office. But these digital foot soldiers are no warriors; they are unwitting conduits for deceit, hate, and division.

Watching this digital dystopia unfold, I can’t help but wonder: is this the legacy we’re leaving for Pakistan’s largest demographic? Nurturing a generation stripped of civility, fuelled by anger, and devoid of the critical thinking necessary for true national progress? The tragedy of this digital devolution is magnified when we consider the untapped potential it plunders.

The very devices wielded as weapons of online warfare carry within them the seeds of revolutionary change. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak birthed Apple in a garage with less computing power than most Pakistani youth hold in their hands today. Jeff Bezos began Amazon’s journey selling books from his home and car. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook from a dorm room. Today, the tech giants born from such humble beginnings have a combined market capitalisation larger than the GDP of ‘every’ country in the world except the US and China; a profound reminder of what can be achieved when young minds are channelled towards creation rather than destruction.

Pakistan doesn’t need a miraculous discovery of oil reserves to change its destiny. The true ‘black gold’ of the 21st century isn’t buried in the depths of the earth or hidden beneath vast oceans. Instead, it pulses through circuits and flows in streams of code. This digital oil field, infinitely renewable and boundlessly powerful is the new currency of global power.

Are Pakistan’s youth less talented, creative, or driven than their counterparts who have changed the world? The answer is a resounding no. What they lack is not ability, but direction and purpose. Our youth are as capable of coding the next revolutionary app as they are of crafting viral tweets. They possess the same potential to pioneer groundbreaking startups as they do to lead digital lynch mobs.

Beguiled and marching to the tune of digital Pied Pipers, Pakistan’s youth, wage online wars of attrition, unknowingly holding in their hands the tools that could remake their nation’s future. Instead of crafting the next world-changing tech or pioneering a paradigm shift, the potential for innovation, for driving economic growth and social change, is being squandered away in 280-character bursts of anger, abuse and lies.

The writer is an entrepreneur based in the US and UK.
sar@aya.yale.edu
X: @viewpointsar

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2024

Barclays profits rise on UK, investment banking gains

London (AFP) – British bank Barclays on Thursday said its net profit jumped almost a quarter in the third quarter, helped by improved performance at its core UK and investment divisions alongside cost-cutting.

Barclays in February outlined plans to slash £2 billion in costs over the coming years, having axed 5,000 jobs in 2023 

© Adrian DENNIS / AFP/File

Profit after tax climbed 23 percent to nearly £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) in the three months to the end of September compared with one year earlier, Barclays said in a statement.

"We continue to exercise cost discipline and remain well capitalised," said Barclays chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan.

Barclays in February outlined plans to slash £2 billion in costs over the coming years, having axed 5,000 jobs in 2023.

The bank remains on course to complete next week its takeover of the banking arm of British supermarket giant Tesco.

"The acquisition of Tesco Bank... forms part of our commitment to invest in the UK," Venkatakrishnan added Thursday.

Net profit at Barclays UK jumped 17 percent in the third quarter and by 12 percent at its investment banking division.

Shares in Barclays jumped 3.6 percent at the start of trading following the results update.

"Barclays is a multi-headed beast, and these numbers underline once more the strength of its diversified model," noted Richard Hunter, head of markets at trading group Interactive Investor.

Barclays is the second of Britain's four major banks to report in the current earnings season.

Lloyds Banking Group on Wednesday revealed a drop in net profits as interest rates fall around the world, adding that performance in the first nine months was impacted also by higher costs.

NatWest publishes its latest earnings Friday followed by HSBC on Tuesday.

© 2024 AFP

AI and digitalisation to eliminate 9,000 jobs at Intesa Sanpaolo

Milan (Italy) (AFP) – Italy's leading bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has reached a deal with trade unions for 9,000 voluntary job cuts -- around 10 percent of its workforce -- due to the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation.

At the same time, the bank plans to hire by mid-2028 some 3,500 young new employees to work in wealth management, it said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The plan "aims at enabling generational change at no social cost" and the "further strengthening of future sustainability of the Group's results... with a resilient business model in the digitalisation and artificial intelligence scenario", Intesa Sanpaolo said.

The changes should lead to 500 million euros ($540 million) of savings annually on staff costs from 2028.

Some 7,000 of the job cuts are to fall in Italy and the rest in international units.


The bank said it would take a 350-million-euro charge against fourth quarter earnings to finance the departures but that the provisions would not affect its guidance for a net profit above 8.5 billion euros in 2024.

Intesa Sanpaolo shares were flat in midday trading in Milan.

© 2024 AFP

Ireland fines LinkedIn 310 mn euros over EU data breach

Dublin (AFP) – An Irish regulator helping to police European Union data privacy said Thursday it had fined professional networking platform LinkedIn 310 million euros ($335 million) over breaching users’ personal data for targeted advertising.

LinkedIn was ordered to bring its processing into compliance with the EU’s strict General Data Protection Regulation, launched in 2018 to protect European consumers from personal data breaches © Martin BUREAU / AFP/File

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) issued the Microsoft-owned website its first EU fine saying "the consent obtained by LinkedIn was not given freely".

Targeted advertising provides tailored ads to users based on their personal information.

Regulators around the world, especially the EU, have been trying for years to regulate tech giants when it comes to data protection and other matters, notably unfair competition.

The DPC told AFP it has given LinkedIn three months to bring its processing into compliance with the EU's strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), launched in 2018 to protect European consumers from personal data breaches.


"The processing of personal data without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious violation of a data subjects’ fundamental right to data protection," said Graham Doyle, DPC head of communications.

LinkedIn said in a statement Thursday that while it believed it has "been in compliance with" GDPR, the group is "working to ensure" its practices meet the decision.
Tech fines

Ireland is home to the European headquarters of several tech giants including Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook-parent Meta.

In 2018, a French association which defends internet users against digital surveillance by tech giants or states -- "La Quadrature du Net" -- filed five collective complaints against LinkedIn but also Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, accusing them of illegally exploiting the personal data of their users without their consent.

The complaints, which at the time included the names of nearly 12,000 people, were initially filed to CNIL, the French data protection agency, before being transferred to the Irish regulator.

In a statement Thursday, La Quadrature du Net welcomed the decision but said the amount of time the regulator took to issue the fine was a "sign of failures in the European system".

The Irish regulator has imposed a number of big fines against tech companies as the EU seeks to rein in big tech firms over privacy, competition, disinformation and taxation.

In September, it fined Meta 91 million euros for failing to put in place appropriate security measures to protect users’ password data and for taking too long to alert the regulator of the issue.

It came after the European Commission scored two major legal victories in separate cases that left Apple and Google owing billions of euros.

At the same time, an EU court scrapped a 1.49-billion euro fine imposed by Brussels against Google over abuse of dominance in online advertising.

In the United States, the US Consumer Protection Agency last year ordered Microsoft to pay $20 million to settle lawsuits for collecting personal data from minors registered on the Xbox console's online gaming platform, without informing their parents.

© 2024 AFP

Google urged to step up efforts to demonetize climate falsehoods

Washington (AFP) – Civil society groups implored Google on Thursday to rigorously enforce its policy to demonetize environmental disinformation, saying ads placed alongside climate denial content persistently popped up despite the tech titan's pledge to crack down.

Environmentalists are urging Google to crackdown on climate denialism.

 © JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP


The open letter, addressed to Google chief Sundar Pichai and endorsed by thousands of signatories, comes in the wake of major hurricanes in the United States sparking an avalanche of disinformation and just weeks before the UN COP29 climate summit.

In 2021, Google announced a policy prohibiting ads alongside content that denied the existence and causes of climate change, seeking to ensure disinformation peddlers cannot monetize its influential platforms, including YouTube.

But the letter from a dozen groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and tech watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate, said the ads have not stopped.

"We are urging Google to enforce the policy thoroughly and immediately to ensure it is credible, as we see climate change adversely affecting communities right now," the letter said.

While Google has demonetized some content by the Heartland Institute, a conservative US think tank, watchdogs have continued to find ads alongside its misleading climate messaging on YouTube, the letter said.

It urged Google to "immediately and permanently demonetize Heartland Institute" as well as other outlets that spread climate disinformation.

Nonprofit watchdog Check My Ads, which also signed the letter, said in a report last month that ad exchanges helped three conservative websites, including The Epoch Times, to profit from climate denialism.

Last month, another investigation by the campaign group Global Witness estimated that The Epoch Times generated around $1.5 million in combined revenue for Google and the website owners over the past year.

YouTube has also allowed the monetization of climate denial content peddled by influencers on the payroll of a Russian influence campaign, the environmental group Friends of the Earth said in a report last month.

"Google ads are directly contributing to the spread of outright lies about our planet's changing climate –- with dire impacts," the letter said.

Google did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

The groups behind the letter said they have requested a meeting with Google's trust and safety team to discuss the violations of its demonetization policy and were waiting to hear back.

The letter follows destructive hurricanes that slammed the United States in recent weeks, triggering a torrent of misinformation that officials said hampered relief efforts.

The COP29 summit is set to start November 11 in oil-and-gas-rich Azerbaijan, where nearly 200 nations will gather in the hope of reaching a deal to boost financial assistance to help developing countries adapt to global warming.

© 2024 AFP

American Airlines reports loss on costs from new labor contract

BULLSHIT

New York (AFP) – American Airlines reported a loss Thursday on costs connected to a new labor contract, but described travel demand as solid as it lifted its full-year earnings forecast.

American Airlines reported a third-quarter loss, but said efforts to restore bookings programs with travel agencies are on track 

© JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

The big US carrier reported a third-quarter loss of $149 million. Revenues edged up one percent to $13.7 billion.

The results were dragged lower by one-time costs of more than $500 million due to the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement with flight attendants.

American Airlines executives said the company was benefitting from an improving pricing environment for carriers after airlines trimmed US plane capacity to address a glut of seats earlier in the year.

A large amount of unsold seats is a boon for consumers who can purchase lower fares but represents a problem for airlines seeking to maximize profits.

"Demand for American's product remains strong," said American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom on a conference call with analysts.

Isom said the company has also made progress in restoring programs with travel managers and corporate programs after suffering lost revenue from a failed attempt at direct bookings.

In May, American ousted an executive responsible for the revamp and said it would pivot back to its traditional system.

In a press release, Isom said the company had taken "aggressive action" to right the booking operation.

"We have heard great feedback from travel agencies and corporate customers as we work to rebuild the foundation of our commercial strategy and make it easy for customers to do business with American," Isom said.

American lifted its full-year profit forecast to between $1.35 and $1.60 per share, compared with the earlier range of 70 cents to $1.30 per share.

Shares rose 4.4 percent in early trading.

© 2024 AFP

Mangrove-planting project to hold flooding at bay in Sierra Leone

Issued on: 24/10/2024

Video by: Caitlin KELLY

Over the past few decades in Sierra Leone, thousands of acres of mangroves have been destroyed by erosion, construction and other man made threats. The forests are critical defences against flooding and their disappearance has left coastal communities struggling to maintain their ways of life. However, a new push is planting hope in the heart of millions. Caitlin Kelly, our correspondent in the region, has more.

Peru bus drivers strike over violent attacks and extorsion

Issued on: 24/10/2024

Video by: Matthew-Mary Caruchet

In Peru, widespread racketeering has become the main source of income for criminal gangs. Fed up with the violence, residents have taken to the streets, demanding that the government get it under control. A story by Matthew-Mary Caruchet.

'Our pride': Lone child brings hope to Japan's puppet village

Ichinono (Japan) (AFP) – Riding his tricycle with cheerful abandon, Kuranosuke Kato is the only child in his tiny, depopulated Japanese village overrun by life-sized puppets.

The puppets in the village of Ichinono were created to ease the loneliness of residents caused by depopulation 

© Philip FONG / AFP

Revitalising rural areas is one of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's key campaign pledges as he fights to retain a majority in a general election on Sunday.

Ishiba has called Japan's low birth rate a "quiet emergency", one that is starkly evident in places like Ichinono, a bucolic hamlet home to fewer than 60 people.

"If the village is left as it is now, the only thing that awaits us is extinction," said 74-year-old Ichiro Sawayama, head of its governing body.

Rie Kato playing with her son Kuranosuke Kato in their house in the village of Ichinono, in the city of Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture © Philip FONG / AFP

Many developed nations are facing the same demographic timebomb, but Japan, which allows relatively low levels of immigration, already has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco.


Silence pervades the air in Ichinono, where residents have handcrafted stuffed mannequins to create a semblance of a bustling society.

Some puppets ride swings while others push a cart of firewood, smiling eerily at visitors.

"We're probably outnumbered by puppets," Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told AFP.

Rice harvesting and sake brewing used to keep Ichinono afloat. Most families in the village used to have children, Yamazaki recalled.

Silence pervades the air in Ichinono, where residents have handcrafted stuffed mannequins to create a semblance of a bustling society © Philip FONG / AFP

But "we were afraid they would become unmarriageable if they remained stuck in a remote place like this", so they were encouraged to attend city colleges.

"Out they went, and they never came back, getting jobs elsewhere. We're now paying the price," she said.
Pastoral living

One family in Ichinono is a bit different: 33-year-old Rie Kato and 31-year-old Toshiki Kato moved from big city Osaka to Ichinono in 2021, then they had Kuranosuke.

The couple decided to ditch urban life for the countryside as the pandemic allowed for more flexible working.

Rie Kato and Toshiki Kato with their son Kuranosuke Kato cooking dinner in their house in the village of Ichinono, in the city of Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture © Philip FONG / AFP

As the youngest resident by far, their son is adored by the other villagers, who bring him home-cooked meals and collectively look after him.

The toddler is "our pride", village head Sawayama beams, while widow Yamazaki says he is "practically my great-grandchild -- such a sweet thing".

The Katos say it is a good thing that he is growing up with the community of Ichinono instead of the anonymity of an Osaka apartment.

"Just by being born here, our son benefits from the love, support and hope of so many people -- even though he has achieved absolutely nothing in life yet," laughed his father Toshiki.

Many developed nations are facing a demographic timebomb, but Japan, which allows relatively low levels of immigration, already has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco © Philip FONG / AFP

His mother Rie said neighbours in the tight-knit village sometimes ask her a favour or invite her to play the croquet-like sport gateball. The family also helps harvest edamame beans with their neighbours.

"I feel like my self-worth, as an individual, is recognised here," she said. "I'm sure that's how Kuranosuke will feel about himself growing up."
'Recreate' Japan?

But Ichinono's insularity can be a turn-off for outsiders.

Outdated rules still exist on paper requiring aspiring newcomers to be vouched for by at least three long-term residents, and proffer sacks of rice or cash.

Those edicts -- meant to "keep the village cohesive" -- are no longer applied to avoid scaring people away, Sawayama said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called Japan's low birth rate a "quiet emergency", one that is starkly evident in places like Ichinono, a bucolic hamlet home to fewer than 60 people © Philip FONG / AFP

While rural decline is a global phenomenon, Japan's topography may worsen the problem, said Taro Taguchi, a community development professor at Tokushima University.

"Probably nowhere do people live on hillsides as much as in Japan," due to a large population and the scarcity of flat farmland, he told AFP.

But the "higher risk of natural disasters and greater proximity to vermin" on mountains make them less attractive when people can choose where they live.

Prime Minister Ishiba has vowed to "recreate Japan" with policies including doubling subsidies for struggling regions.

A puppet stands outside a village home in Ichinono © Philip FONG / AFP

But Taguchi cautioned that similar subsidies were often approved by the central government in the past to fund "flashy" revitalisation projects like fancy cafes.

"These initiatives did little to support locals' livelihoods," he said.

"My humble hope is to help add some new value to these homes, and keep Ichinono's death at bay even just a year longer," he said.

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© 2024 AFP