AU CONTRAIRE

Soul Suicide in the Ballot Box as Palestinians Are Butchered

by Edward Curtin / October 24th, 2024

It’s been a long time but worth remembering, if you can, that when the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, the whole world watched in horror.  The events of that day were repeated on television over and over and over again, to the point where they became afterimages lodged in people’s minds.

As a result, although the buildings were not brought down by the impact of planes (no plane hit Building 7) but by explosives planted in the buildings (see this and this, among extensive evidence), most people thought otherwise, just as they thought that the subsequent linked anthrax attacks were directed by Osama bin Laden when they were eventually proven to have originated from a U.S. military lab (thus an inside job), and, as a result of a massive Bush administration/corporate media propaganda campaign, most Americans supported the invasion of Afghanistan, the subsequent invasion of Iraq, and decades of endless wars that continue to this day, bringing us to the edge of nuclear war with Iran and Russia.

It is impossible to understand the United States’ full-fledged support today for Israel’s genocide in the Middle East without understanding this history. Israel’s genocide is the United States’ genocide; they cannot be separated.

All these wars involve the machinations of the neo-conservative clique that in 1997 formed the Project for the New American Century that ran George W. Bush’s administration and whose protégées have come to exert great control of the foreign policies of Democratic and Republican administrations since. It is not that they lacked power before this, as a study of American foreign policy as far back as the Lyndon Johnson administration and its non-response to Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty confirms.

Contrary to the widespread claims that Israel runs U.S. Middle East foreign policy, I think it is important to emphasize that the reverse is true.

It is convenient to claim the tail wags the dog, but it is false.

Israel’s war crimes are U.S. war crimes.  If the U.S. wanted to stop Israel’s genocide and expansion of war throughout the region, it could do so immediately, for Israel is totally reliant on U.S. support for its existence – as they like to say, “It’s existential.”

All the news to the contrary is propaganda.  It is a sly game of responsibility ping-pong: shift the blame, keep the audience guessing as they hit their little hollow ball back and forth.

Control of the Middle East’s oil supplies and travel routes has been key to American foreign policy for a very long time.  Such geo-political control is linked to the United States’ endless war on Russia and the control of natural resources throughout the vast region (a look at a map is requisite), stretching from the Middle East to southwest Asia up through the Black and Caspian Seas through Ukraine into Russia.

In both cases, the attacks of September 11, 2001 and Israel’s genocide of Palestinians whose ultimate target is Iran (America’s key enemy in the region as far back as the CIA’s 1953 coup d’état against Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh), savage wars of extermination have been promoted through decades of carefully orchestrated propaganda.  In the former case, through the mainstream corporate media’s magic of repetitive cinematic images, and in the latter, through their absence.  To be shown photos of many thousands of dead and mutilated Palestinian children does not serve the U.S./Zionist’s interests. Propaganda’s methods must be flexible. Show, conceal.

The September 11 attacks and the current genocide, each in its own way, have been justified and paid for with similar but different credit cards without spending limits, the so-called wars on terror waged on the visual credit card of planes hitting buildings preceded and followed by endless pictures of Osama bin Laden, and the genocide of Palestinians on the holocaust credit card minus images of slaughtered Palestinians or any awareness of the terrorist history of the Zionist’s century-long racial nationalist settler movement of “ethnically cleansing” Palestinians from their land.

To know this, one has to read books, but they have been replaced by cell phones, functional illiteracy being the norm, even for college graduates who are treated to four years of wokeness education and anti-intellectualism that reduces their thinking to mush and graduates them with sciolistic minds at best.  I am being kind.

The eradication of historical knowledge and the devaluation of the written word are key to ignorance of both issues.  Digital media and cell phones are the new books, all few hundred words on an issue conveying information that conveys ignorance.  Guy DeBord put it succinctly: “That which the spectacle ceases to speak of for three days no longer exists.”  Amnesia is the norm.

To which I might add: that which the mass media spectacle continues to speak of or show images of for many days exists, even if it doesn’t.  It exists in the minds of virtual people for whom images and headlines create reality.  The electronic media is not only addictive but hypnotically effective, producing cyber people divorced from the material world.  News and information have become a form of terrorism used to implode all mental defenses, similar to the floors at the World Trade Center that went down boom, boom, boom.

The war crimes of US/Israel are readily available for viewing outside the coverage of the corporate mainstream media. Most of the world views them, but these are the unreal people, the ones who don’t count as human beings.  These war crimes are massive, ruthless, and committed proudly and without an ounce of shame.  To face this fact is not acceptable.

Those who pretend ignorance of them are guilty of bad faith.

Those who support either Harris or Trump are guilty of bad faith twice over, acting as if either one does not support genocide or that genocide is a minor matter in the larger scheme of things.

Choosing “the lesser of two evils” is therefore an act of radical evil hiding behind the mask of civic duty.

That it is commonplace only confirms these words from the English playwright Harold Pinter’s extraordinary Nobel Address in 2005:

The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El

Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

Little has changed since 2005, except that these crimes have increased along with the propaganda denying them, together with vastly increased censorship – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Russia via Ukraine, etc. – all targets of U.S. bombs, just like Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, etc.  Now the U.S. has brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and the voting public is all worked up over choosing between candidates supporting genocide and the massively expanded Israel attack on neighboring countries.  It is a frightening spectacle of moral indifference and stupidity as we await the Israel/U.S. bombing of Iran and Iran’s response.

Yet I ask myself and I ask you: Is there a connection between the voting public’s support for these war criminals and attention deficit disorder, amnesia, and dementia?

Or is this embrace of the demonic twins’ – US/Israel – foreign policy a sign of something far worse? A death wish?

Soul death?FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Edward Curtin writes and his work appears widely. He is the author of Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies. Read other articles by Edward, or visit Edward's website.

 

Our Revolutions Are for the Survival and Development of Human Civilisation

by Vijay Prashad / October 24th, 2024

Mereka Yang Terusir Dari Tanahnya (Those Chased Away from Their Land), 1960.
Credit: Amrus Natalsya, a member of the Indonesian revolutionary cultural organisation Lekra.

Next year is the seventieth anniversary of the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955 and attended by heads of government and state from twenty-nine African and Asian countries. Indonesia’s President Sukarno (1901–1970), who had led the freedom movement in Indonesia against Dutch colonialism, opened the conference with a speech entitled ‘Let a New Asia and a New Africa be Born!’, in which he lamented that, while human technical and scientific progress had advanced, the politics of the world remained in a state of disarray. In the seventy years since then (roughly the global average life expectancy), much has been lost and much gained of what was called the Bandung Spirit. Humans have yet to harness the immense power they have in their hands.

The Promethean fire wielded against the people of Africa and Asia in their anti-colonial struggles and against the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had created fear. ‘The life of man’, Sukarno said, ‘is corroded and made bitter by fear. Fear of the future, fear of the hydrogen bomb, fear of ideologies’. This fear, Sukarno warned, is more dangerous than weaponry because it drives humans ‘to act foolishly, to act thoughtlessly, to act dangerously’. Yet, he continued, ‘we must not be guided by these fears, because fear is an acid which etches man’s actions into curious patterns. Be guided by hopes and determination, be guided by ideals, and yes, be guided by dreams!’.

I Made Djirna (Indonesia), Totem Totem, 2021.

The agenda that emerged from the Bandung Conference was clear:

1. To end colonialism and to democratise the international political system, including the United Nations.
2. To dismantle the neocolonial economic structure, which promoted the dependency of the formerly colonised world.
3. To overhaul the social and cultural systems that promoted wretched hierarchies – especially racism – and to build a world society of mutual understanding and international solidarity.

From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, the Bandung Spirit defined the struggles of the Third World Project and made great gains, such as delegitimising colonialism and racism as well as attempting to build the New International Economic Order. But in the vortex of the debt crisis of the 1980s and with the eventual collapse of the USSR, that project died. This collapse can be dated to the International Meeting on Cooperation and Development, which was held in Cancún, Mexico, in October 1981 to discuss the Brandt Report. The meeting failed to produce any substantial commitments and was followed, in August 1982, by Mexico’s default on its external debts.

In 2005, fifty years after the Bandung Conference, representatives of eighty-nine countries gathered in Indonesia for the Asian-African Summit of 2005, where they drafted the Declaration of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership, but the meeting did not gain much visibility, nor was it taken seriously by the ‘international community’. Indonesia had recently emerged out of a ghastly coup regime that ran the country from 1965 to 1998, and then from 1998 it floundered on the rocks of neoliberal policies, including a deepened relationship with the United States. The Indonesian government that hosted the 2005 conference included the forces that had participated in the bloody coup of 1965 against Sukarno. It was not a propitious way to commemorate the original conference, nor to imagine a new agenda for the Global South. Two years prior, the United States had entered a major, illegal war against Iraq, having already invaded Afghanistan, and it appeared at that time that US unipolarity would remain unchallenged indefinitely. Indonesia and the other powers of the Global South were not prepared to challenge the United States. That is why the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership announced at the 2005 summit was merely a hollow echo of the principles of the original Bandung Project, without much emendation, and therefore without any enthusiasm.

Much has changed since both 1955 and 2005. In order to understand the character of these changes, we turn to one of China’s most important left intellectuals, Wang Hui, who is himself a product of the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and the Bandung Spirit. In our latest dossier, , Wang Hui reflects on the importance of reading the history of China and the Global South from their own dynamics, and not in relation to the West as the default point of reference. One hundred and seven years after the October Revolution in the Tsarist empire, seventy-five years after the Chinese Revolution, and nearly seventy years after Bandung, as China and other large states of the Global South position themselves as major powers in the world, Wang Hui’s analysis helps us dive beneath the surface level of events and produce an in-depth theoretical explanation for the rise of China and the Global South.

Three points from Wang Hui’s theoretically rich text are of particular interest to this discussion of a world that seeks a new Bandung:

1. Revolutions in the periphery. Wang Hui writes that the modern world emerged from two different class-oriented cycles of revolutions. The first, the bourgeois liberal revolutionary cycle, began in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789, and the second, the proletarian, anti-colonial, socialist revolutionary cycle, was sparked by the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The second cycle, which drew inspiration more from the In these ‘realms of hunger’, the revolutions formed part of a long process of defeating feudal inheritances, building productive forces, and trying as rapidly as possible to birth a socialist society. Meanwhile, no revolutions took place in the realms of full bellies.
2. New concepts for the periphery. Wang Hui looks carefully at the way words are used to describe the Chinese revolutionary process and finds that some that are ‘borrowed’ from the experiences of other countries (Europe’s political history, Marxism, the October Revolution, etc.) are nevertheless developed based on the historical unfolding of China’s own revolution. This is exactly what occurred in other revolutionary experiences, whether in Cuba or in Vietnam. Even those concepts that were borrowed, he points out, are not transplanted without being transformed; they go through, as Wang Hui notes, an act of ‘political displacement’. The Chinese revolutionary process borrowed terms such as ‘people’s war’ and ‘Soviet’, but the actual history of the Chinese people’s war and of the Jiangxi Soviet (1931–1934) is no mirror image of the events which those terms originally described. It is in these experiences, rooted in a different cultural world and sometimes in a different time, that the concepts can be enriched and metamorphosed.
3. The post-metropolitan era. Wang Hui argues that we are not merely in a post-colonial period, but a post-metropolitan era. This post-metropolitan condition refers to the fact that the former ‘peasant nations’ are now slowly becoming the focal point of world development, growth, and culture. It is China and the Global South, Wang Hui notes, that are ‘the epochal forces that propelled’ this transition. Yet, the transition is incomplete. The West’s control over finance, resources, science, and technology has weakened, but its control over information and military power has not. That military force, a ghostly presence, threatens the world with great destruction to maintain the influence and power of the metropolitan or core countries.

Dia al-Azzawi (Iraq), Sabra and Shatila Massacre, 1982–83.

The journey to a new Bandung has already begun, but it will take time to germinate. Eventually, when we have properly understood the post-metropolitan world, we will be able to develop a new development theory and a new approach to international relations. The gun will not be the first instrument picked up to settle disputes.

In 2016, Hawa Gamodi, a Libyan poet and editor of a children’s magazine, wrote about what poetry can do in the place of carnage:

The world has become a graveyard
But the sun rises
The breeze caresses a girl’s cheek
The sea does not forsake its blue
The swallows tell me of my childhood
Hidden beneath their wings
And somewhere a boy foretastes a kiss from his lover’s lips

These are beautiful images of the other side of devastation, pictures painted in words by a poet who has seen the bombs fall and guns fire at ghosts but kill children. ‘I am writing you’, she continues, ‘my resistance to the ruin / I paint a glorious world / Illuminated by a poem / That they await’.

In some ways, that is the best way to describe these newsletters (of which we have published 348 since 1 March 2018): resistance to the ruin.FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. Prashad is the author of twenty-five books, including The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, andThe Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad. Read other articles by Vijay, or visit Vijay's website.

Caught in the web: Surveillance, data protection and AI in Pakistan

Despite repeated promises and drafts, Pakistan’s inability to pass a comprehensive data protection law has left citizens vulnerable to scams, data breaches, and unchecked surveillance.

Sindhu Abbasi

Published October 22, 2024
DAWN

Some weeks ago, a LinkedIn user shared a video about a man in Lahore whose CNIC had been used to post bail for different people in separate cases. The man told a Vlogger that he had gone to a xerox shop to get his CNIC photocopied. Sometime later, he discovered that his ID was being used by various persons. “I have been tracing where my ID has been used for a year, and moved court too,” he said.

Cases like these are not uncommon in Pakistan. Some days, you receive marketing messages from businesses you have never shopped from; other times, you get calls from criminals pretending to be bank employees, trying to scam you by threatening you with your bank details, which they somehow have access to.

There is an entire website that allows users to enter a phone number and reveal someone’s CNIC details. The website, after reportedly being brought to the attention of Dr Umar Saif — then caretaker minister for Information Technology and Telecom — it was blocked in Pakistan, but it can still be accessed using a VPN. Such is the response of a country whose IT Minister constantly justifies regressive legislation and policies with arguments about “cyber-attacks” and internet safety, while billions are spent on internet monitoring and blocking mechanisms.
Where’s the law?

At times, even the most harmless tweet you post will be reported by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and you’ll receive a notification from X. However, the authorities appear to neither have the time nor interest in approaching Facebook or tracking down criminals who openly sell Pakistan’s Nadra and SIM data in public groups and pages, many using their real profiles.

What’s even more troubling is that despite widespread data theft and blackmail due to data misuse or alteration, Pakistan does not have a data protection law. Farhatullah Babar, a former PPP senator, told this author in 2019 that when Peca was being passed, they had asked the PML-N to legislate a law on data protection concurrently. “How can a cybercrime law be passed without a data protection bill?” he had said. “The PML-N promised us they would pass the bill soon after Peca.”

The party never did. A data protection bill is crucial, not just for legal framework but for safeguarding an individual’s data. It demands law enforcement to take responsibility, ensuring our private information is never tampered with or leaked.

More than three drafts of the data protection bill have been prepared over the years. Back in 2016, the draft on the IT ministry’s website included private companies but left out government departments. Fast forward to 2022, under the PTI government, the cabinet approved another draft — still excluding government agencies and had vague definitions regarding data holders, processors, and their responsibilities, experts noted.

The lack of concrete progress on the data protection bill — an essential cornerstone of cyber legislation — has raised many eyebrows, especially given a barrage of other overreaching cyber laws. Many have questioned why these drafts repeatedly exclude government entities, even though departments like Nadra hold massive troves of citizen data, which have already been leaked online multiple times.

Their doubts were confirmed when the 2023 draft, during the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, covered this gap but cleverly included data localisation clauses. The reason for the constant delays by Pakistan, it turns out, was that the state seeks unfettered access to the data of everyone living in Pakistan, as well as Pakistanis abroad. The social media rules, established in 2020, also called for data localisation. The focus appeared to be more on gaining access to data than on ensuring its protection.

Rights activists have repeatedly raised alarm over the murkiness in these drafts and rules, mirroring the ambiguity found in other cyber legislation. They offer little detail on how implementation will take place. Notably, the last two drafts include clauses requiring data holders and processors to hand over information to the government upon request — without outlining any formal process, such as a warrant or court order.

“Telecom companies operating in Pakistan are running a mass surveillance system which “enables interception of data and records of telecom customers” without any regulatory mechanism or legal procedures, on the orders of the PTA, a July 2 Dawn report stated.

The details came to the fore following a petition on surveillance of citizens, after several audio clips and private conversations of political figures were shared on X. “According to the judgement, authored by Justice Babar Sattar, the court was told that telecom companies had been asked to “finance, import, and install” the Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS) at a designated place (referred to as ‘surveillance centre’) for the use of designated agencies. The identity of these agencies, however, was not revealed to the court.

It is not just politicians that our state listens to through digital means. The first real debate over privacy and data protection sparked in 2012 when the PTA ordered telecom companies to end late-night call packages and reportedly used transcripts of a private phone conversation between two people as the justification for its decision in court.

The PTA faced severe backlash as experts questioned its authority to intercept private phone calls between ordinary citizens, let alone use them as evidence in court.

Although no political party has introduced legislation that is in line with international best practices, the PML-N increasingly uses arguments co-opted by rights groups and experts. Recent laws, particularly since Peca, have prioritised surveillance over the fundamental digital rights and safety of Pakistani citizens.

While ordinary people around the world are more likely to encounter scams and phishing attempts than sophisticated hacking, these issues can be effectively addressed through legislative, policing, and judicial reforms. But because Pakistan wants unfettered access to surveil its residents, it won’t even pass a bill that ensures protection against scams and crimes.

Even on a purely technical level, the surveillance policies and technologies in place defy basic internet security rules and best practices. The notion that surveillance can operate as it did in the analog era of the ‘90s — where tapping a phone was straightforward — is dangerously outdated. For in the modern internet infrastructure, anything digital is connected to the wider network, and if you poke holes in a department’s network security, you are opening the door for attacks from other hackers for everyone.
AI use by Punjab, Sindh governments

This year, the Sindh government said it would start using AI technology on toll plazas that will capture and verify number plates and faces in real-time. “Officials have said that the system would enable effective monitoring of entry and exit points and ensure security through the integration of advanced technologies such as facial and number plate recognition at 40 toll plazas, including 18 in Karachi. They said that the project also aimed at enhancing security responses and seamlessly integrating with the existing command and control centre at the Central Police Office (CPO),” a report in Dawn from June stated.

In a press release issued in February, the Punjab government also announced that it was using an “Artificial Intelligence based Facial Recognition System [that] automatically captures pictures and compares them with the data compiled including 16 million records and pictures from the driving licences branch, 1.8 million records from the Crime Record Branch, 1.3 million from the Punjab Khidmat Marakaz, and 300,000 records of accused individuals and criminals from Punjab prisons”. Various recent press releases by the Punjab police show they continue to use this technology.

The announcement came months after the Punjab IT Board, along with the police IT wing, said it had created an “AI-powered ’Face Trace System … to track criminals”. “The system is aimed at enhancing accountability, reliability, and efficiency in tracing and apprehending suspects and wanted criminals,” it added

But AI companies using facial recognition, and predictive policing algorithms have been under increasing criticism in the West. From algorithms locking out captains working for an international ride-hailing company in India because the facial recognition was trained on primarily white faces and features, to an algorithm declaring an old man dead, the use of AI technologies, particularly for facial recognition and biometrics, have come under severe criticism. Ample research shows the facial recognition simply does not work properly on black, brown, or non-white faces.

In Western countries, this has resulted in the targeting of oppressed communities, as predictive algorithms used for criminal arrests are often trained on biased historical data — such as anti-black bias within the US policing system. This has led to targeting of black people in the US and UK. In Buenos Aires, clerical errors led to wrongful identification and arrests by facial recognition software; a stark reminder that even the most sophisticated technology is just one human mistake away from ruining someone’s life.

“Human rights experts are increasingly questioning whether some of these technologies, notably live facial recognition in public spaces, can ever be deployed in ways that do not violate the right to privacy and other human rights, such as freedom of peaceful assembly,” a Privacy International report stated.

Deploying facial recognition technologies on such a large scale without a comprehensive data protection law — one that clearly defines how this data is captured, verified, and used in policing and judicial processes — poses a grave threat to fundamental human rights. Government departments in Pakistan routinely face cyber attacks and hacking, despite the PTA’s claims of increased cybersecurity. In May earlier this year, the Islamabad Safe City Authority’s online system was knocked down by hacker(s) leading to a shutdown. Such data, if accessed by international hackers, can and has been used for stealing financial information and robbing people of their money.

There have also been reports of intimate images of individuals in their cars being leaked, allegedly from the Safe City project. Others have received traffic challans based on faulty data from CCTV and similar technologies installed at traffic checkpoints.

A week ago, an AI regulation bill was introduced in the Senate, but like other cyber laws, it seems more focused on controlling the public use of AI tools, rather than addressing how the state itself employs this technology. According to an analysis of the bill by the Digital Rights Foundation, it fails to distinguish between user-centric AI models, such as ChatGPT, and large-scale systems used by governments in Punjab and Sindh.
Going back to basics

Technology and social media have empowered individuals to earn a living and champion free speech. However, they have simultaneously amplified hate speech, revenge porn, and disinformation. While the spotlight often falls on the more visible consequences — like AI chatbots mimicking human speech or manipulated videos and audio — the deeper issue lies in the structural and political challenges that underpin human rights violations in the digital realm. These systemic problems are often overlooked in favour of sensationalised, surface-level concerns.

Laws targeting the “output” of technology or social media may be within reach for Western democracies, which already have functioning accountability systems. However, countries like Pakistan must address the underlying, on-the-ground issues that enable cybercrime in the first place.

Before introducing any new legislation, Pakistan must first enact a data protection law that aligns with international standards, striking a balance between an individual’s right over their data and the ease of doing business. According to various privacy-related advocacy groups around the world, the root of most cyber crimes, threats, and blackmail ultimately traces back to the exploitation of personal data. There can be no advocacy against surveillance in the digital age without advocating for a data protection law. But not the kind proposed by the PML-N government, which focuses on forcing organisations to store Pakistanis’ data locally.

“Government hacking can be far more privacy intrusive than any other surveillance technique, permitting to remotely and secretly access personal devices and the data stored on them as well as to conduct novel forms of real-time surveillance, for example, by turning on microphones, cameras, or GPS-based locator technology. Hacking also allows governments to manipulate data on devices, including corrupting, planting or deleting data, or recovering data that has been deleted, all while erasing any trace of the intrusion,” states the 2022 Privacy International’s response to a UN High Commissioner report on human rights.

Pakistan needs a law that first defines personal data in line with international best practices such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Such a bill should guarantee individuals the right to their own data and transparency over how private companies, marketing agencies, and government departments use it. It must also protect users from the unauthorised sale of metadata and sensitive digital details, such as IP addresses, phone numbers, and banking information, without explicit consent.

One of the most critical rights is the right to be forgotten. Under the GDPR, individuals can request their data be deleted by data holders, like telecom companies, after discontinuing services or under specific conditions. This isn’t just a matter of user privacy — it helps companies manage storage capacities and prevents the exploitation of personal information. Without such protections, businesses could profit from selling user data to third parties at steep prices. Indeed, there have been reports of dozens of lists of phone numbers and data of subscribers allegedly leaked by employees of telcos in Pakistan.

Like free speech, data privacy also has limitations. The state might want to use this data for nabbing criminals and other security-related reasons. However, any country with a functioning democracy cannot allow its state or law enforcement unfettered access without a bill that ensures a person’s basic human rights. Passing cybercrime and social media legislation without a data protection law is similar to passing policing bills without giving a person the right to a just trial.

The 2023 draft largely addressed these concerns, but then included clauses allowing the state to demand data from any private organisation without a warrant or court order, and asking international and local companies to store all data that deals with Pakistanis within the country, defeating the entire purpose and concept of data privacy andsecurity.

Across the globe, the concept of “techno-solutionism” is facing growing scrutiny. This ideology proposes technology as a quick fix for complex governance challenges, only to introduce further complications when these tech solutions backfire — often due to their failure to scale effectively. For Pakistan, it is time to go back to the basics: focus on democracy, accountability, and fundamental rights of its citizens, then craft regulations that prioritise individual privacy, not mass surveillance of the populace.

Header Image: This is an AI image generated via Shutterstock

The writer is a freelance journalist and researcher, leveraging her background as a computer engineer to report on cybercrime, disinformation, and human

COP29

From conflict to cooperation

Aisha Khan 

Published October 23, 2024 

DAWN

AS we approach the 29th Conference of Parties to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the most important discussions will pivot around enhancing the Nationally Determined Contributions and the New Collective Quantified Goal. Both will require high-level political commitment with adequate financial cash flows and investments in policy and action to keep the people and planet safe. COP29, labelled as the COP of action and ambition, will be judged by how it uses the COP presidency to align enhanced NDCs with the vison of the Global Stocktake (GST) at COP28. The business-as-usual approach is not likely to achieve desired outcomes. The GST on energy at COP28 made clear the need for transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy requiring member states to:

• transition away from fossil fuel in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, in keeping with the science, and with developed countries taking the lead;

• increase global energy capacity threefold by 2030 and enhance the worldwide annual average rate of energy efficiency improvements twofold;

• eliminate inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that fail to tackle energy poverty or facilitate equitable transitions as swiftly as possible.

COP29 will mark the beginning of this journey spread over the next nine to 12 months when countries will be asked to submit enhanced NDCs aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius, including actionable energy transition targets and strategies, underpinned by robust implementation and investment frameworks.

Taking into account that 90 per cent of global emissions are derived from fossil fuels, the task will not be easy. It will be necessary to pair renewable and efficiency scale-up with fossil fuel phase-out, as despite an exponential rise in renewable energy, the use of fossil fuel has still not declined to safe levels. According to the Production Gap Report 2023, governments are planning on producing around 110pc more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 2ºC.


The Global Stocktake on energy at COP28 made clear the need for transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

The magnitude of the production gap is also projected to grow over time: by 2050 planned fossil fuel production will be 350pc and 150pc above the levels consistent with limiting warming to 1.5ºC to 2ºC respectively.

This places a big responsibility on the COP Troika to lead by example on transparency, high integrity, credibility and a robust monitoring mechanism for achieving net zero by 2040 for developed countries and by 2050 for developing countries. The COP Troika can restore hope and re-establish trust in the multilateral system by presenting the third cycle of NDCs (NDCs 3.0) that is fully aligned with all aspects of the GST decision at COP28, including mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.

It will be equally important to disclose how voluntary pledges (Global Methane, Forest Declaration) and alignment with the SDGs and the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goals are integrated into NDC and tracked for implementation. The comprehensiveness, accuracy, consistency and comparability in completing the checklist while avoiding double counting as per Article 4.13 of the Paris Agreement will be the benchmark for evaluating the real success of COP29. The best way to demonstrate integrity for the COP Troika countries would be to show how national planning, governance and regulations are being developed to implement their NDCs.

As we continue to break guardrails accelerating our clash with nature, the political paradox at play is becoming both dangerous and worrisome. High level of hunger is predicted to continue for another 136 years in many developing countries. In Pakistan, food insecurity is projected to rise from 40pc to 60pc by 2050 with a 40pc stunting and 17.7pc rate of wasting.

Across the world, the demand for water is exceeding availability. Global water demand is projected to increase by 20-25pc by 2050 while the number of watersheds with predictable water supply will decrease by 19pc. Pakistan’s per capita water availability has gone down from 5000m3 to 906m3 with groundwater reserves near depletion.

The rapid decline in mass balance of cryosphere will accelerate sea level rise, jeopardising the lives and livelihoods of millions. As part of the Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindukush mountain range, Pakistan relies heavily on snow and glacial melt with a 1,050-kilometre long coastal belt exposing the country to both hydrometeorological disasters and acute water scarcity.

Gender disparity at the global level continues to deprive women of equal opportunity and access to resources. This year, Pakistan ranked 145 out of 146 countries in the Gender Parity Index, making the human capital disparity disturbingly stark.

The uptick in conflicts and disruption in supply chains leading to high inflation and mounting geopolitical tensions are adding to the brewing crisis, with no respite in sight.

In the backdrop of all the cataclysmic indicators, climate took a back seat at UN General Assembly this year to the deteriorating geopolitical context. The Pact for the Future at the Summit of the Future outlined 56 actions to turbocharge the SDGs and speed up progress on peace, security, global governance, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations.

The landmark declaration set out a promise for a revitalised world order but failed to state how it plans to translate lofty statements into realistic achievements.

The real test of intent behind diplomatically crafted language at multilateral and bilateral forums aspiring for peace and prosperity will require moving away from conflict to cooperation (C2C), recognising the need for working with each other for peaceful coexistence, investing in stabilising the climate and building a future on the principles of equity and justice.

The writer is chief executive of the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change.
aisha@csccc.org.pk

Published in Dawn, October 23th, 2024

PAKISTAN



Circular debt — the hidden force behind rising electricity costs

The power sector’s real crisis isn’t energy, it’s debt, and until we untangle this financial knot, affordable electricity and sustainable growth will remain out of reach.

Ammar H Khan 

Published October 19, 2024
DAWN

The real crisis in the power sector is not about power generation; rather about debt. Surplus power generation capacity isn’t a bad thing — it’s an opportunity to drive industrial growth and stimulate demand. However, the inability to capitalise on this is largely due to a debt overhang, stemming from a combination of project debt, working capital debt, and circular debt.

The circular debt in the power sector is largely a function of inefficiency, and incessant subsidies, eventually resulting in the same ballooning to more than Rs2.26 trillion. The impact of such a debt has a direct impact on electricity bills, with roughly Rs3.23 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) being attributed to just mark-up payments, or the financing costs of such debt. Adjusting for taxes, the same increases to Rs3.81 per kWh, for most non-protected consumers. The numbers may vary for different slabs, but the impact on electricity bills remains significant.

The financing cost of circular debt is embedded in the electricity bills as a PHL Charge, which overall inflates electricity bills. Consumers must pay for this cost, solely due to the inefficiency, and bad financial management at a macro level. Bloating the electricity tariff with such extraneous costs has resulted in a scenario where demand for electricity continues to drop, restricting industrial and economic growth in the process.

The demand for electricity is price sensitive — it is estimated that a 1 per cent drop in electricity prices leads a to a 0.3pc growth in electricity consumption. Similarly, growth in electricity consumption has a direct, and strong correlation with economic growth. In a nutshell, it is not possible to generate sustainable economic growth, without access to affordable electricity and it is not possible to make electricity affordable, without solving the debt problem. In effect, the bloated nature of debt acts as a drag to broader economic growth.

Framing it right

Framing the problem is the first step in solving a problem. The power problem needs to be partially framed as a debt problem first. Within the circular debt of Rs2.26 trillion, roughly Rs683 billion can be attributed to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Power Holding Limited (PHL). Another Rs1.060 trillion can be attributed to the amount that is payable by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) to various power producers. Finally, an amount of Rs520 billion is non-interest bearing. Effectively, an amount of Rs1.74 trillion attracts a financing cost, or mark-up, which is paid by electricity consumers across the board through their monthly electricity bills.

It is estimated that the cost of financing for PHL is in the range of three-month Kibor (Karachi Inter Bank Offered Rate) plus 0.45pc. Similarly, the amount that is payable by CPPA to power producers is around 3m Kibor plus 2pc for the first 60 days, followed by the same increasing to 3m Kibor plus 4.5pc for any amount that is overdue by more than 60 days. It is estimated that roughly half of the payables of CPPA are overdue 60 days, resulting in an average financing cost of 3m Kibor plus 3.5pc.

It is important to note here that power producers cover for these receivables through borrowing commercially on their balance sheets. The average cost of borrowing for any power plant remains less than the average financing cost that the consumer is paying through the electricity bills. Effectively, it is more financially feasible for the power producer to delay realisation of receivables (after adjusting for energy payments), as the same starts attracting a financial cost of 3m Kibor plus 4.5pc. This is a distortionary practice, and needs to end through a better price discovery mechanism.
Rationalising the costs

All of this debt, and payables are effectively backed by the sovereign, either through a sovereign guarantee, or other contractual arrangements. Despite the same, the financing cost remains much higher than the financing cost of the sovereign, which remains lower than 3m Kibor. In the current context, when interest rates are on a declining trend, certain sovereign-backed entities, such as Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), or Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco), have been able to borrow at significantly lower interest rates than even 3m Kibor. Due to the financing cost being passed on to the consumer in the case of electricity, little or no effort is made to actually rationalise the cost, and improve household economics for the electricity consumer in the process.

Similar to the structure of Treasury Single Account (TSA) espoused by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), wherein all government funds are deposited in a single account — debt should also be treated in the same manner. It makes little sense for the sovereign, or sovereign-guaranteed entities to be borrowing at wildly different rates from the market, due to the absence of a price discovery mechanism. Such a structure increases electricity prices for the consumer, constraining their ability to increase consumption of electricity, while restricting growth in the process.

The IMF, in its latest Country Report for Pakistan, has explicitly noted that PHL debt needs to be converted into cheaper public debt. This is not just economically feasible, but also beneficial for the consumer. A plan needs to be in place to benefit from declining interest rates, and swap out circular debt with much cheaper public debt — thereby saving significant financial costs in the process.

Moving to Islamic banking

There has been a surplus of liquidity with Islamic Banks in the country, with the sovereign being able to raise debt through an Islamic structure at a lower cost than conventional debt.

There is a possibility to swap out, or convert, PHL debt of PKR with longer term Islamic instruments, with a maturity of 5 years, or 10 years. As interest rates continue to decline, it is possible to borrow at much lower interest rates than existing 3m KIBOR, resulting in a net benefit for the consumer.

Moreover, as the debt moves out from PHL to cheaper sovereign debt, there is a net gain for all stakeholders. The PHL charges that are paid by consumers reduce, while mark-up paid by all entities also reduce. This results in a net benefit to the system at large.

Similarly, the payables of Rs1.060 trillion by CPPA also need to be swapped out by sovereign debt. The same can be done in a staggered manner. The more expensive payables that are overdue and being charged at a mark-up of 3m KIBOR plus 4.5pc can be swapped out first, to significantly reduce mark-up expense on the same. The government can effectively issue long-term bonds, whether conventional or Islamic, depending on the appetite of participants, and swap out the same with receivables of power producers.

Effectively, the power producers get a long-term sovereign bond in lieu of their receivables — which they can trade in the open market, and either convert into cash, or just accrue income on the same till its maturity.

This opens up liquidity for power producers, who can then use the cash to repurpose themselves for a competitive market regime, or just pay dividends to shareholders. The same instruments can be priced through a competitive auction via the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) thereby resulting in more efficient, and competitive pricing, as the PSX is able to attract a wider range of investors potentially resulting in better price discovery, and lower costs.

Improving the risk profile

It is important to consider here that the receivables of power producers are already being financed by banks — settling the same in lieu of sovereign debt improves risk profile for all stakeholders. The banks get access to a tradable sovereign instrument, reducing their exposure to the power sector, while also opening up an appetite for more financing in the area to enhance energy security, or efficiency. There is even an option to provide tax incentives on such instruments, subject to the net cost to the government being able to compensate for any forgone tax revenue.

Through such a maneuver, the risk profile improves for all stakeholders, while the financing cost also reduces. As the circular debt is swapped out, it becomes public debt, while electricity consumers see a straight reduction of Rs3.81 per kWh in their electricity prices. It is estimated that through the swapping manoeuvre alone, it is possible to save Rs90 billion in financing costs annually, just through contraction of lending spread, and utilisation of better terms available with the sovereign. This results in a consumer surplus, while the only ones losing are shareholders of financial institutions, who were benefiting from a distorted pricing regime for similar levels of risk.

It is possible to reduce electricity bills by Rs3.81 per kWh, which in addition to other reform measures can stimulate necessary growth in consumption, thereby catalysing industrial expansion. A move towards public debt actually stimulates growth in this context, while generating a consumer surplus at the same time. The primary gain that is being extracted here is an efficiency gain — by eliminating the distortion that exists at which the sovereign borrows directly, or indirectly through different entities.

Structural reforms require time, but efficiency gains can be achieved by minimising distortions. The power sector remains a basket case of a dysfunctional cost-plus pricing regime that has overloaded the consumer with excess costs. Streamlining the same remains critical in making the power sector more competitive, thereby boosting economic growth in the process.

We need to solve the debt problem grounded in principles rather than loading on costs onto the consumer, and deluding oneself into expecting an efficient outcome from the same.

Header image: This is an AI image generated via Shutterstock.

The author is an assistant professor of practice at the School of Business Studies, IBA, Karachi. He has previously worked at several financial institutions in Pakistan, both in commercial banking and capital markets.

PAKISTAN AIR POLLUTION

Yearly trouble

DAWN
Editorial

Published October 25, 2024 

IT is that time of year again. Cities in Pakistan, in particular Lahore, are once more suffocating under the blanket of heavy smog, making it painfully evident that we must move past reactive measures and temporary fixes.

With Lahore hitting an Air Quality Index of 394 — nearly four times above healthy levels — and again being ranked the world’s most polluted city, air pollution in Pakistan has become a public health crisis begging urgent intervention. Similar conditions prevail across the border in India, where the onset of winter traps pollutants in the air, pushing Delhi into the ‘very poor’ AQI category. The sources of this persistent problem are well-documented: vehicular emissions, industrial pollutants, and most critically, the widespread burning of crop residue.

Both India and Pakistan have struggled to address the latter, despite the well-established link between stubble burning and deteriorating air quality. In both countries, farmers continue this practice due to expediency and the lack of viable alternatives for clearing fields. Recent reports indicate that farmers in both Haryana, India, and Punjab, Pakistan, are being arrested and fined for burning crop stubble, yet these punitive measures barely scratch the surface of a much larger problem.

In Pakistan, efforts to mitigate smog have intensified, with the government issuing new school timings and banning fireworks to reduce pollutants. India has similarly implemented emergency actions such as water sprinkling on roads and increasing public transport. However, these are akin to putting band-aids on gaping wounds. The long-term strategies needed to combat this environmental crisis remain elusive.

The core issue lies in the inadequacy of agricultural policies that leave farmers with little choice but to resort to environmentally harmful practices. While Pakistan has introduced ‘Anti-Smog Squads’ to monitor and educate farmers about the dangers of stubble burning, these initiatives are only beginning to take root and are not yet widespread. In India, attempts to promote alternatives, such as subsidising machinery for residue management, have faced significant barriers, including high costs and inadequate outreach.






What is missing from both countries’ approaches is a strategy that not only penalises harmful practices but also provides long-term solutions. While climate diplomacy between India and Pakistan has been proposed, real collaboration on this issue remains sparse. Both nations could benefit from joint initiatives focused on sharing technological advancements, including affordable super-seeders, and coordinating to monitor and control air quality.

Moreover, there is a need to realise that smog is not caused by agriculture alone. Both must invest in renewable energy and modernise industrial processes. Encouraging the use of electric vehicles and enhancing public transport systems are also essential steps that both countries must accelerate. Without a paradigm shift in how air pollution is addressed both Pakistan and India will continue to choke every winter.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2024

Daniel Chapo of Frelimo wins Mozambique election

Election officials in Mozambique have announced ruling left-wing party Frelimo's Daniel Chapo as the winner of the presidential election. Government opponents say the vote was tainted with electoral fraud.

Chapo could be Mozambique's first president born after independence from Portugal

Image: Mozambique Liberation Front/AFP

The Mozambican National Electoral Commission (CNE) on Thursday announced Daniel Chapo, of the ruling left-wing Frelimo party, as the winner of the country's presidential election.

Polls had been widely expected to return power to Frelimo, with the opposition alleging voter manipulation and electoral fraud .

How the votes broke down

Chapo took 70.67% of the vote compared to 20.32% for his main opponent, independent candidate Venancio Mondlane. Opposition party Renamo's candidate Ossufo Momade came third with 5.81% of the total votes.


The 47-year-old Chapo would become Mozambique's first president born after independence from Portugal.

Mondlane, backed by the opposition Podemos party, has already claimed he won the vote.

The October 9 elections in the impoverished country were also for parliament and provincial governors.

Frelimo has held power in Mozambique since independence from Portugal in 1975.

The Mozambique capital, Maputo, was deserted ahead of the announcement of the results.

The EU's observer mission reported this week that some of its election observers had been prevented from monitoring counting in certain areas. It also said there was an "unjustified alteration" of results at some polling stations.

Opposition parties have alleged vote fraud since the day of the election.

Frelimo has often been accused of election rigging and has consistently denied this. Incumbent President Filipe Nyusi of Frelimo is stepping down having served the maximum two possible terms.

rc/lo (AFP, Reuters)

Haiti: Gangs attack UN helicopter as violence surges

ASYMMETRICAL WAR AGAINST IMPERIALISM

Haiti has been wracked by unrest since 2021. But a wave of gang violence in recent weeks, including an incident where a UN helicopter was shot at, has raised concerns about the situation in the country.

UN security teams have been sent to Haiti to deal with the growing power of violent armed gangs

 Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo/picture alliance

Armed gangs in Haiti opened fire and hit a UN helicopter on Thursday, forcing it to land in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The Associated Press and other US media outlets said the helicopter carrying three crew members and 15 passengers landed safely in the capital.

UN helicopters are key for delivering food and other aid to millions of Haitians in communities cut off from roads and places ruled by armed gangs.

There was no official confirmation about the attack that targeted the helicopter, which belonged to the UN's World Food Program.

The swell of violence has sparked concerns that armed gangs are trying to exert their influence even more.
What is the situation in Haiti?

Haiti has been wracked by armed gangs since the death of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Much of Port-au-Prince and its suburbs have since come under the control of various armed groups that have banded together under a common alliance called Viv Ansanm.

Earlier in the month, armed gangs opened fire in a town some 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of the capital, setting dozens of houses on fire.

At least 70 people were killed, including three children.

How the West messed with Haiti  14:44

In the last week alone, more than 10,000 people were internally displaced, according to the UN migration agency.

The agency had said at the start of September that more than 700,000 people were internally displaced across the Caribbean nation, nearly double the figure six months earlier.

What is the international community doing to help?

Haiti's current government has little power and relies on a UN-backed multinational security mission to combat gangs.

The security support mission has some 400 police officers on the ground. Their task is to assist the Haitian national police force.

Kenyan police patrol gang-ridden Haiti capital  08:00

The force is expected to grow to 2,500. Kenya said earlier in the week during a UN Security Council briefing that it was going to strengthen the security mission by another 600 officers by mid-November.

However, the gangs are extremely well armed, largely because of gun trafficking from the US, a point that US lawmakers raised in a letter to the Biden administration.

rm/zc (Reuters, AP, AFP)

MOLEGHAF: Armed Attacks in Port-au-Prince

by Black Alliance for Peace / October 23rd, 2024

On October 20th, 2024, the National Movement for Liberty and Equality of Haitians for Fraternity (Mouvement National pour la Liberté et L’égalité des Haïtiens pour la Fraternité, MOLEGHAF), a member organization of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), issued a statement on the increasing violence perpetrated by the paramilitary group “Viv Ansanm” (or “Live Together”) in Solino, Fò Nasyonal, Nazon, Kriswa and other nearby popular neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.

MOLEGHAF asserts that this escalation in paramilitary violence is rooted in the neocolonial Haitian state’s collaboration with the United States and other colonial powers, all working to maintain their criminal political agenda and keep Haiti under occupation:

“The sellout Haitian bourgeoisie, at the service of U.S. imperialism, controls our country. This is Full Spectrum Dominance. The ruling class seeks to break the back of all forms of Haitian resistance. By burning our neighborhoods down, they exterminate our very ability to resist. While the United Nations is allegedly sanctioning and embargoing weapons and bullets, the murderous group “LIVE TOGETHER” magically has access to hundreds of thousands of U.S. weapons.”

MOLEGHAF stresses that “US and Western imperialism” have targeted their neighborhoods since “at least our national uprising in 2021.” The attacks on their communities continue “even though hundreds of Kenyan troops now occupy us”. As the Haitian elite uses paramilitaries to crush popular Haitian resistance, MOLEGHAF describes the deteriorating situation:

“None of us are free to leave our homes. We don’t know which way to go. The bloodthirsty death squads kill the poor and unfortunate inside their shacks. They burn through homes and memories. We, the population of Solino, have resisted this barbarism for 1 year and 7 months. Stand with us, We need help! The neocolonial Haitian state lays the basis of these massacres. We cannot continue in this situation. Solidarity is our only hope.”

The Black Alliance for Peace calls on the masses, especially those within the heart of the empire, to stand in solidarity with MOLEGHAF. We reiterate that if there is no peace, justice, and popular sovereignty for the Haitian masses, there can be no Zone of Peace in the Americas. We support MOLEGHAF’s efforts to provide the correct, radical analysis of its current predicament: that the ruling classes in Haiti, under the supervision of Western imperialists, “are seeking to break the back of the popular social movements.” We say NO to US-sponsored violence and repression in Haiti and YES to self-determination and freedom!!

Until the last rock is thrown
Until the last poem is written
Until the last voudou is sung
MOLEGHAF will resist alongside the heroic Haitian people!FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical black movement. Read other articles by Black Alliance for Peace, or visit Black Alliance for Peace's website.

Fast-food chains nix onions over McDonald's E. coli outbreak

Several popular fast-food restaurants in the US have taken fresh onions off their menus after an E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald's left one person dead and dozens more sick.

McDonald's has halted serving the Quarter Pounder hamburgers linked to the outbreak

Fast-food chains in the United States pulled fresh onions from some menus on Thursday after the vegetable was linked as the likely source of a deadly E. coli outbreak at McDonald's restaurants.

Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King were among those that took onions off the menus in some of their restaurants.

"As we continue to monitor the recently reported E. coli outbreak, and out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively removed fresh onions from select Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants," parent company Yum Brands said in a statement.

McDonald's rival Burger King also said it had removed onions from nearly 5% of its locations.

Diner files lawsuit against McDonald's

McDonald's halted serving Quarter Pounder hamburgers — one of the chain's most popular items — in a fifth of its restaurants after one person died and at least 49 fell ill across 10 states.

One man in Colorado has filed a lawsuit against McDondald's after he ate a Quarter Pounder and tested positive for E. coli days later.

The lawsuit accuses McDonald's of having been negligent in its handling and care of the food, and seeks $50,000 (€46,000) in damages.

On Thursday, McDonald's said that a California-based company was the supplier of the sliced onions that have been withdrawn.

There was no immediate response from the produce company.

Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, said that some 5% of its restaurants used onions distributed by the same company. The onions have since been withdrawn.

However, a spokesperson said the chain had not been contacted yet from health authorities, or reported any illnesses.

dvv/zc (AP, Reuters)

Abortion film shows impact of Texas ban ahead of US election

Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – A harrowing new documentary about three Texas women who suffered unspeakable tragedy after they were refused abortions hits theaters Friday, as the battle over reproductive rights looms large ahead of the US election.

Jennifer Lawrence produced the harrowing documentary about three Texas women who suffered unspeakable tragedy after they were refused abortions © Michael Tran / AFP

"Zurawski v. Texas" follows Amanda Zurawski, Samantha Casiano and Austin Dennard through hospitals, courtrooms and funerals, in the months after the US Supreme Court -- filled with judges appointed by Donald Trump -- ended federal protections for abortion access.

All three women learned early that their pregnancies were not viable because of severe and uncurable medical problems, but were turned away by doctors who were too afraid to intervene due to the state's highly punitive new laws.

Zurawski went into septic shock after her cervix dilated at just 18 weeks. She spent days fighting for her life in intensive care; damage to her uterus means she is unlikely to be able to get pregnant again.

Casiano was forced to bring her pregnancy to term, despite learning about her fetus's fatal condition at 20 weeks. She watched her newborn daughter gasp for breath for four hours before she died.




Dennard, herself an obstetrician-gynecologist, had to travel to another state for her own abortion, when she learned that the fetus she was carrying was missing parts of its brain and skull, and could not survive.

The women agreed to let cameras follow them as they mounted legal challenges. The film is produced by Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

"Watching what was happening in Texas was devastating," the film's co-director Abbie Perrault told AFP.

"We were just so incredibly moved that through all of the pain that they were experiencing, they were willing to put their faces and names out in public, and really stand up and try to make a change in Texas."
Abortion on the ballot

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris will visit Houston for a rally on Friday, where she is expected to slam Texas's ultra-strict abortion laws.

The visit to a state her party cannot win just 11 days before the election underlines the national significance of reproductive rights in the race for the White House.

Democrats are keen to highlight Republican-sponsored laws banning abortions as soon as a heartbeat is detected, like in Texas, that they believe are deeply unpopular nationwide, and have especially shocked many women.

Zurawski's case has become particularly well-known. She was the named plaintiff of a high-profile class-action suit against Texas, and her plight was name-checked during last month's vice presidential debate.

"If you don't know an Amanda... you soon will," Harris's running mate Tim Walz said, warning of the spread of abortion bans if the Republicans prevail.

Among the documentary's most startling scenes are court hearings in which the women are relentlessly badgered by off-screen state attorneys, even as they sob through recounting their traumas.

In one scene, Casiano has to pause her testimony to be physically sick at the witness stand.

In another, the film shows the body of the daughter who lived for just four dreadful hours.

Casiano "felt very strongly that people needed to see her daughter's face, and understand that her daughter is a real person that suffered under these laws," said Perrault.
'Eerie'

Along with the three women, "Zurawski v Texas" focuses on Molly Duane, a dogged attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who took up their cases.

But their legal progress has been limited. Any victories have been swiftly reversed by the Texas Supreme Court.

State attorneys pin blame on hospitals, asking why plaintiffs did not simply sue their doctors.

But while Texas does technically have limited medical exemptions for abortions, Duane argues that these are so unclear that doctors are justifiably too terrified to operate.

The Texas Medical Board, when asked to clarify the exemptions, denies responsibility, or maintains an "eerie" silence, Duane says in the film.

Perrault and co-director Maisie Crow hope the film can help Americans "to understand more deeply what the laws that are in place are doing" before they cast their votes.

"People wanted to act like these women's stories weren't happening," she said.

"It's maybe convenient to believe they weren't."

© 2024 AFP