Artificial Intelligence can help distort history, spark Holocaust denial, Unesco report warns

'Widespread use of AI for assistance in education, research and writing are increasing the likelihood that unreliable data and artificial intelligence hallucinations could increase public misunderstandings about the Holocaust, even inadvertent ones'

AP Washington Published 18.06.24

A United Nations agency is warning that developments in artificial intelligence could spawn a new surge in Holocaust denial.

A report published on Tuesday by UNESCO concludes that AI could result in false and misleading claims about the Holocaust spreading online, either because of flaws in the programmes or because hate groups and Holocaust deniers will intentionally use AI programmes to generate content that falsely calls into question the murder of Jews and other groups by the Nazis.

One of the biggest concerns is that AI could be used to create so-called deepfakes of the Holocaust — realistic images or videos that could be used to suggest the Holocaust didn't happen or was exaggerated. That could lead to greater antisemitism and a lack of understanding of a key moment in 20th-century history. The report noted that some AI-assisted programmes allow users to interact with simulated historical figures, including prominent Nazis like Adolf Hitler.

“If we allow the horrific facts of the Holocaust to be diluted, distorted or falsified through the irresponsible use of AI, we risk the explosive spread of antisemitism and the gradual diminution of our understanding about the causes and consequences of these atrocities," Audrey Azoulay said in a statement accompanying the report.

Widespread use of AI for assistance in education, research and writing are increasing the likelihood that unreliable data and artificial intelligence “hallucinations” could increase public misunderstandings about the Holocaust, even inadvertent ones. AI programs whose understanding of the world is based on relatively narrow sources can also return incomplete or misleading responses when asked about the Holocaust.

UNESCO's report called on tech companies to establish ethical rules for the development and use of AI, to reduce the chances of unreliable information and to prevent bad actors from harnessing their programs in order to encourage violence and to spread lies about the Holocaust.

The report was published in partnership with the World Jewish Congress.

China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown

Police officers patrol the streets in Kashgar, Xinjiang, where the EU says there is a “very serious” human rights situation. PHOTO: REUTERS

JUN 18, 2024,

BEIJING – China on June 18 dismissed European Union calls for it to stop alleged human rights violations, saying it opposed “double standards” and interference in its internal affairs.

The EU said on June 17 after an EU delegation visited Tibet and met with Chinese officials last week that it was concerned about what it called the “very serious” human rights situation in China, in particular in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.

This included a crackdown on human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists in China.

The EU urged China to investigate any rights violations and expressed concern about cases of unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, the EU said in a statement.

In response, Chinese officials said the EU should “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights issues”.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing that China was willing to cooperate with the EU on the issue on a basis of equality and mutual respect.

“At the same time, China firmly opposes politicising the human rights issue and double standards, and opposes imposing one’s own model on others. We are opposed to… engaging in microphone diplomacy in the multilateral arena,” Mr Lin said.

He said both sides believed the dialogue was “frank and in-depth”, and said China was willing to explore further multilateral human rights cooperation in areas, including rights of women, children and the disabled.

The EU also raised the case of the detained Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, as well as the imprisoned Uighur intellectuals Ilham Tohti, Gulshan Abbas and Rahile Dawut, the EU statement said.

Chinese #MeToo activist and independent journalist Huang Xueqin was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion on June 14, which supporters called arbitrary and politically motivated. 

REUTERS

Public perception in Canada of India has deteriorated in the past year, finds survey

ByAnirudh Bhattacharyya

HINDUSTAN TIMES
Jun 18, 2024 

Public opinion has turned against India in the wake of the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar and allegations of foreign interference

Toronto: Public opinion in Canada has turned more negative towards India over the past year in the wake of the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar and allegations of foreign interference, but the dropping favourability can also be party attributed to growing anti-immigration sentiment in the country.

Sikh protesters stand outside of Surrey Provincial Court, where four suspects arrested by Canadian police for the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, appear, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on May 21. (REUTERS)

A recent survey from the non-profit polling agency Angus Reid Institute (ARI) noted that “positive appraisal of India has declined by 11 points in Canada since March 2023; a minority of one-third (33%) who say they view the country favourably are outnumbered by the majority (54%) who do not”.

The positive rating for India in 2019 was at 56%.

Another country accused of foreign interference also suffers in public perception, with 79% having a negative view of China.

“Though (Canadian Prime Minister) Trudeau says Canada supports a ‘united India’, the presence of Sikh separatists in Canada has been a source of tension between India and Canada. Trudeau’s accusation that the Indian government was involved in the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar only exacerbated the strained relationship. Recent rocky relations between Canada and India also appear to be dragging down Canadian assessments of the world’s most populous country,” ARI stated.

However, bilateral tensions may not be the only contributor to the worsening perception, as rising anti-immigration sentiment has been also projected upon Indians, who are the most visible and form the largest cohort of migrants to Canada. “These aspects, I believe, are playing a much bigger role compared to the political tensions between the two countries,” political commentator Darshan Maharaja said, referring to the problems associated with high levels of immigration.

“While it is tempting to attribute this to the worsened bilateral relations between India and Canada, I think this factor plays a comparatively smaller role. For more than seven or eight months, there has been a lot of reporting on the issues of international students/temporary foreign workers and Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). All these areas have been shown to be rife with corruption and malpractice, such as sham colleges, useless courses that are only meant to serve as a vehicle to get a person into Canada and to enable them to gain Permanent Residency in Canada. In each of these aspects, Indians or Indian-origin Canadians are shown to be playing a major role,” he explained.

This is reflected on social media, where anti-India posts are abound. One person posted, “Since Trudeau invited one million Indian ‘international students’ over, Toronto and Brampton are no longer part of Canada.”

A video of a fight in Mississauga drew the comment, “Another night in Little India.”

Violence linked to Indo-Canadians, even those based in India, has not helped, with increasing levels of drive-by shootings, extortion attempts, car thefts and robberies.

A year after the Titan submersible implosion, investigators still don't have answers

JUNE 18, 2024
By Rachel Treisman

NPR

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District talks to the media on June 22, 2023, at Coast Guard Station Boston.Steven Senne/AP

A year after a deep-sea submersible headed for the Titanic wreckage imploded, sparking a frantic, dayslong search that ended with all five passengers declared dead, authorities still can’t say for sure what exactly went wrong — and need more time to be able to do so.

The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) said Friday that its investigation into the contributing factors “remains active but will take longer than initially projected to complete.”
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NATIONAL
All 5 passengers aboard Titan sub are dead after a 'catastrophic implosion'

Investigators were charged last year with determining not only the cause but also whether any acts of misconduct contributed to it, whether the evidence indicates any criminal acts that may be referred for prosecution and whether there is a need to change laws or regulations to avoid repeats.

“The investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible is a complex and ongoing effort,” MBI Chair Jason Neubauer said in a statement. “We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident.”

OceanGate’s Titan submersible began and, we now know, ended its journey in the North Atlantic on June 18, 2023.

It lost contact with its support ship some 900 miles east of Cape Cod nearly two hours after it began its nearly 2.5-mile descent, spurring a massive search-and-rescue operation involving four countries, fueling round-the-clock media coverage and capturing the world’s attention.

Teams combed a search area that grew to more than twice the size of Connecticut, detecting underwater noises as they raced against the submersible’s purported 96-hour supply of oxygen.

The search ended on June 22, when the Coast Guard announced that a vessel had discovered a debris field “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber” on the seafloor, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic. The U.S. Navy confirmed at that point that its sensors had detected the Titan’s likely implosion hours before the Coast Guard had even declared it missing.
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Officials said all five people on board died: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the vessel; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; British businessman Hamish Harding; and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.


NATIONAL
James Cameron says the Titan passengers probably knew the submersible was in trouble

As the search for the submersible dominated headlines, reports emerged that experts within and beyond OceanGate had raised concerns about the safety of its submersible as far back as 2018, citing a lack of oversight and adherence to industry standards.

The now-shuttered company, which charged Titan passengers $250,000 each, was upfront about the fact that its vessels were not certified by any independent marine agency, and Rush said publicly that he considered regulations to be at odds with innovation.

A number of its previous missions had been scrapped or were otherwise unsuccessful: The submersible reached the depth of the Titanic wreckage on just 13 of its 90 dives since it started in 2021, according to the company’s passenger waiver.

Former passengers and industry experts (as well as social media onlookers) have criticized OceanGate for everything from making the submersible’s hull out of carbon fiber to using a video-game controller to steer it.


NATIONAL
Experts raised safety concerns about OceanGate years before its Titanic sub vanished

But the work of determining the actual cause of the implosion falls primarily to the Coast Guard and, to some extent, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), according to the June 2023 memorandum convening the MBI.

It says the six-person board must complete and submit a report “with the collected evidence, the established facts, and its conclusions and recommendations” to their commandant within 12 months — or provide a written explanation for the delay and the expected completion date.

The MBI statement blamed the delay on several factors, including the “need to contract two salvage missions to secure vital evidence and the extensive forensic testing required.”

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard’s public affairs office told NPR over email that the investigation is currently in its fact-finding phase and does not have a projected completion date. The latter part of that phase will include a public hearing, which requires at least 60 days’ notice.
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The MBI says it intends to hold that session “by the end of the year.”

What else has happened in the past year



In this photo provided by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, U.S. Coast Guard marine safety engineers survey the aft titanium endcap from the Titan submersible, in the North Atlantic Ocean in October 2023.AP/U.S. National Transportation Safety Board

This is the Coast Guard’s first Titan-related public update of 2024, though it has issued a handful of press releases about the investigation since last summer.

It announced on June 28, 2023, that it had received debris and evidence that a Canadian vessel recovered from the seafloor and intended to transport it back to the U.S.

“United States medical professionals will conduct a formal analysis of presumed human remains that have been carefully recovered within the wreckage at the site of the incident,” it said, adding that it would also continue evidence collection and witness interviews.


BUSINESS
OceanGate suspends its commercial and exploration operations after Titan implosion

Several months later, in October, the Coast Guard said that marine safety engineers had recovered the remaining Titan submersible debris — including more presumed human remains — from the seafloor in a “follow-up to initial recovery operations.”

The additional evidence was transferred to the U.S. for cataloging and analysis. The MBI said it was coordinating with the NTSB and other international investigative agencies to schedule a “joint evidence review” of the debris, which would help determine the next steps for forensic testing.

That review took place in Newport, R.I., in early November and involved the U.S. Coast Guard, NTSB, Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the French Marine Casualty Investigation Authority.

Neubauer said at the time that those partnerships enabled a “thorough examination of the international incident, promoting safety and transparency.” Investigators issued no other updates until last week.


BUSINESS
The missing submersible raises troubling questions for the adventure tourism industry

OceanGate for its part, suspended its commercial and exploration in early July 2023. Its website currently displays just one page, with that message.

The submersible implosion raised a multitude of safety concerns about both deep-sea exploration and the troubled adventure tourism industry more broadly.

But despite the unanswered questions, ocean explorers are confident their work will continue. Several told The Associated Press this week the tragedy underscores the importance of following rigorous safety standards — but doesn’t represent the industry’s solid track record or dampen explorers’ desire to keep venturing into the depths.

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More trips to the Titanic site are on the horizon



The OceanGate logo is seen on a vessel stored near its Everett, Washington offices on June 21, 2023.David Ryder/Getty Images

The century-old appeal of the Titanic wreckage site, in particular, continues to endure.

This spring, the U.S.-based company that owns the salvage rights to the shipwreck announced it will undertake a research and imaging expedition — using remotely operated vehicles — in early July.


HISTORY
A remarkable new view of the Titanic shipwreck is here, thanks to deep-sea mappers

RMS Titanic Inc., which has recovered artifacts from the site in seven of its eight expeditions over the years, says the focus of July’s mission is to assess the state of the site and debris field and identify which artifacts are at highest risk of deterioration to recover in future expeditions.

“By utilizing the latest imaging and deep-sea technologies, we will get an accurate assessment of some of the most cherished artifacts, including the Marconi Radio, identify new artifacts, and we hope to shine a light on new discoveries that have never been seen before,” RMST Inc. President Jessica Sanders said.


NATIONAL
Deep sea rescues have a mixed track record. The Pisces III is one that succeeded

And just last month, an Ohio-based real estate mogul announced his plan to venture to the shipwreck site in a new submersible.

The Wall Street Journal reported that shortly after the Titan implosion, billionaire Larry Connor, 74, contacted Patrick Lahey, the co-founder of Triton Submarines, asking him to build a submarine that could reach the Titanic safely and repeatedly.

Connor — a record-holding skydiver who has flown to the International Space Station with SpaceX and made multiple dives to the Mariana Trench (with Lahey, in fact) — told the New York Times that the two aim to conduct scientific research at the site in a two-person submersible to be designed in the summer of 2026.

He said he's concerned that "people associate diving subs ... with danger or tragedy," and that their mission will be twofold.

“The other purpose is to demonstrate to people around the globe that you can build a revolutionary, first-of-its-kind sub and dive it safely and successfully to great depths,” he added.

Trouble beneath the palm trees

Turmoil brews in Lomé. 

Togo’s constitutional reforms ignite chaos — but also the potential for change?

DEMOCRACY AND SOCIETY 18.06.2024 | Zikora Ibeh

picture alliance / Yvan Travert / akg-images | / akg-images

With its palm-lined beaches, modern high-rise buildings and exquisite hotels, the port city of Lomé, Togo’s capital, still retains the dull glow of the country’s reputation as a regional jewel and tourist destination of the 1960s. Yet, here, over the course of March and April, tempers flared and a descent into chaos seemed imminent as incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé introduced constitutional changes designed to alter the country’s system of governance.

The reforms, passed by the country’s parliament early last month, sought to transform Togo’s presidential system into a parliamentary one. As a result, future presidential elections will no longer be by universal suffrage. It also created the post of ‘president of the council of ministers’, a position with wide-ranging powers. But the move has sparked furious accusations from the country’s opposition and civil society claiming that the changes are a manoeuvre by Gnassingbé to maintain his grip on power.

‘The adoption process wasn’t legal or legitimate. The process never took into account the opinion of the people. So, it is a real constitutional coup’, argues Prof Ekoué David Dosseh, spokesperson for the Front Citoyen Togo Debout civil society platform.
Power grab

In response to the unfolding situation, the regime postponed the legislative elections initially scheduled for 20 April. When they were eventually held a few days later, the ruling Union pour la République (UNIR) swept the polls, winning 108 out of 113 seats in the National Assembly. Nevertheless, the opposition and civil society denounced the vote as fraudulent.

Attacks on democratic rights have increased in recent months. Protests have been banned, and an opposition press conference under the banner of ‘Touche pas à ma constitution’ (‘Hands off my constitution’) was broken up by security forces.

The regime also arrested nine members of the opposition coalition, Dynamique Monseigneur Kpodzro (DMK), although they have since been released. This was followed by a crackdown on press freedom in the country. In April, a number of foreign journalists had their accreditation revoked by the country’s media regulator, citing ‘serious shortcomings’ in their coverage of the country. On 14 April, French journalist Thomas Dietrich was arrested and brutally beaten by the police before being expelled from the country. Dietrich, who was on assignment for the privately-owned Afrique XXI was accused of ‘speaking badly about the president’.

‘These reforms, technically, put the clock back to zero’, highlights Alex Vines, Africa director at Chatham House. Normally, Togo would have held a new presidential election next year. It could have been Gnassingbé’s fifth and final term in office, were it not for the newly-passed reforms that have significantly altered the country’s political landscape.

‘By turning the presidency into a figurehead and shifting power to the office of the president of the council of ministers – an office that is not subject to term limits – this move [the reform] will allow Gnassingbé to remain in power as long as his party retains a majority in parliament’, explained Alix Boucher, Assistant Research Fellow at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. For the amended constitution states that it is the president of the majority political party or coalition in the National Assembly who will be appointed president of the Council of Ministers. As things stand today, Gnassingbé, as the head of the majority party in parliament, could ease into the new role — a position he can hold for as long as his control of the parliament remains unbroken.

A family dynasty

A sliver of land on the West African coast, Togo has been ruled by the Gnassingbé family dynasty since 1967. With 60 per cent of Togo’s eight million people below the age of 25, there are only a few Togolese alive who have lived under a president or head of state who wasn’t a Gnassingbé — making it the longest ruling family dynasty in Africa. The current president was less than a year old when his father, General Gnassingbé Eyadema or ‘le patron’ (the boss), seized power in 1967. Upon his death in 2005, after 38 years at the helm, the Togolese army carried out a constitutional coup by installing Faure, triggering deadly protests that were heavily repressed by the army, with over 700 people killed and several others injured.

Since assuming power 19 years ago, Faure Gnassingbé has maintained an uneven political playing field, periodically modifying the constitution to ensure his grip on power. The opposition faces repression, as do civil society and the media. In 2017 and 2018, another cycle of protests broke out, demanding that he step down in accordance with the two-term limit set out in the country’s original 1992 constitution. The presidential term limit had been scrapped by the parliament in 2002. To placate critics, Gnassingbé restored term limits in 2019, but this only served as a pretext to reset the term limit ‘clock’, giving him the possibility to run again in the 2020 and 2025 presidential elections.


Criticism of France’s support for dictatorial regimes in its former colonies is widespread and explains the growth of anti-French sentiment in the Sahel.

Critics have accused former colonial power France of backing Gnassingbé despite his undemocratic actions against the country’s constitution. ‘To last this long in power, you need the support of Western powers. It is no secret that Togo is one of France’s backyards in Africa’, says Abdou Aziz Cissé, advocacy officer and programme manager at the pan-African organisation AfricTivistes.

Criticism of France’s support for dictatorial regimes in its former colonies is widespread and explains the growth of anti-French sentiment in the Sahel. It is also one of the reasons why support for Russia has recently grown within the region, as a number of pro-Moscow military leaders have taken power in Burkina Faso, Mali and more recently in Niger. Nevertheless, many Togolese citizens continue to look to France to condemn what is happening in the country. ‘France has regularly supported the regime in Togo, but we think that the new situation might make it reconsider continuing to support a dictatorship. That is our hope’, says Dosseh. So far, the word from the Élysée Palace has been mum.

Gnassingbé has also benefitted from a fractured and weak opposition. ‘Within the country, civil society is not very well structured. And that’s understandable; when 100 of your compatriots are killed during a post-election crisis, it makes you think twice before engaging in an arm-wrestling match with a regime that hasn’t hesitated to liquidate its opponents since the father’s tenure’, Cissé explains.

In 2018, the opposition boycotted the parliamentary election, a move that turned out in Gnassingbé’s favour as it allowed the ruling UNIR to sweep the polls unchallenged and subsequently dominate the parliament.
Instability

Togo, which shares a border with Burkina Faso, has seen an increase in militant Islamist violence since 2021, with nearly 200 people killed, including around 50 soldiers. This has led to concerns over how the political crisis may impact the security situation within the country.

Unrest in Togo could also have ripple effects on trade across the region. Togo is a maritime trade hub in Africa and a gateway into the landlocked countries to its north. Many goods destined for Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger transit through the port of Lomé. The country has a massive phosphate reserve – globally sought for a wide range of industrial and other uses – while also serving as a transit route for heroin.

Togo also commands significant political clout in the region, including mediating political crises among its neighbours. Until the closure of the UN mission in Mali last year, Togo contributed more than 1 200 troops to UN missions, mostly in Africa. Yet, most have now come home.

ECOWAS has been severely weakened in recent months as some of its member states, now run by military juntas, have withdrawn from it to form a new alliance of Sahel States.

‘The stability of coastal states is important to ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) and international partners’, observes Vines. But as critics claim, ECOWAS has long been reticent to criticise Togo for failing to enforce term limits. Indeed, it failed to do so in 2019 when Gnassingbé forced through another constitutional modification. However, Togo’s latest constitutional changes contradict Article 2 (1), ECOWAS’ Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which stipulates that ‘no substantial modification shall be made to the electoral laws in the last six months before the elections, except with the consent of a majority of political actors.’

That the regional body has failed to call out the violation of its rules is an indication that ‘an erosion of regional principles is underway’, notes Vines. Unfortunately, the body’s muted response ‘may encourage further constitutional sleight of hand as well as extraconstitutional power grabs in the region’, says Boucher, adding that ‘ECOWAS, the African Union and democratic global powers should condemn this change and encourage Gnassingbé to abide by his previous commitment to leave power by 2030.’

ECOWAS has been severely weakened in recent months as some of its member states, now run by military juntas, have withdrawn from it to form a new alliance of Sahel States.

What’s next?

Under the Gnassingbé family’s rule, which has so far lasted a total of 57 years, Togo has suffered from a lack of economic development. Around 50 per cent of its population live below the poverty line of $1.25 a day, while it ranks as one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world and 126th out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

‘Given UNIR’s stranglehold on state institutions, including on the legislature, it’s unlikely that Gnassingbé could be removed from office through democratic elections’, explains Boucher. Nonetheless, the Togolese opposition and civil society are adamant. ‘Togo is not a monarchy, and as citizens, our duty is to fight against any usurpation of the constitution’, says Dosseh.

‘Although the fight will be a long one, the world must know that we will never accept this constitutional coup’, he adds.

Zikora Ibeh

Zikora Ibeh is a researcher, columnist, podcaster and development advocate with a passion for social justice and gender equity. She works to make a difference in society through public policy advocacy, action research and media advocacy.

Did FDA rule change allowing gay, bisexual men to donate blood make a difference? Some early data suggests it did

Nearly 10% of deferred donors returned to American Red Cross Centers to donate.

ByMary Kekatos
June 18, 2024,

4:43



FDA rule change allowing gay, bisexual men to donate blood made a difference, some early data suggests

Last year the FDA approved a new blood donation risk assessment that made donation more inclusive f...Show More

For years, Jose Dominguez, 50, had wanted to donate blood, feeling it was part of his civic duty.

But he was restricted by rules set in place by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that did not allow sexually active gay men from donating.

That finally changed in May 2023, when the FDA dropped all restrictions specific to gay and bisexual men donating blood, moving to a new blood donation risk assessment tool that is the same for every donor regardless of how they identify, which rolled out in August 2023.

MORE: How new FDA rule allowing gay, bisexual men to give blood is making donation more inclusive

In March of this year, Dominguez finally donated blood for the first time, and he did so with his husband, Craig Burdett. For Burdett, 62, it was the first time he had donated blood since 1997, when he began openly identifying as gay.

"I was grinning just from ear to ear, just because of the fact that we were able to do this," Dominguez, who is the head of the American Red Cross Long Island chapter, told ABC News. "I've never done it before, and I was getting to do it with my husband."


Craig Burdett and Jose Dominguez were not allowed to donate blood under the FDA’s previous guidelin...Show more
Courtesy of Craig Burdett and Jose Dominguez

"This is something that we had talked about along during our relationship and anytime somebody said they donated blood, I'm like, 'That is such a privilege. It is such a privilege to be able to do that and one day, we will,'" he continued. "But it was just like, 'Whoa, this is so cool. It's finally happening.'"

So, did the rule change bring in more donors? Blood donation organizations say although it's a bit too soon to tell, early data seems to indicate it did make a difference.
New policy allowing gay and bisexual men to donate

In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, blood donations were not able to screen for HIV, which led to some cases of HIV via transfusion. This led to the FDA instituting a lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men from donating blood as well as women who have sex with men who have sex with men.

In 2015, the blanket ban was repealed, but the FDA placed restrictions on men who have sex with men, saying they could donate if they were abstinent from sex for at least one year. In 2020, this was shortened to a period of 90 days of abstinence.

In 2023, the FDA announced it would no longer be issuing blanket bans due to sexual orientation and instead screen potential donors on their risk of contracting and transmitting HIV, with the policy going into effect in August.

At the time, the federal health agency said it would use "gender-inclusive, individual risk-based questions" without compromising "the safety or availability of the blood supply."

Questionnaires ask all donors about new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months. Those who have had a new sexual partner or multiple partners in the past three months and a history of anal sex during that time period will be deferred. Those taking medications to treat or prevent HIV infection will also be deferred, but LGBTQ+ advocacy groups say the new FDA rules are an important step in the right direction. The new blood donation risk assessment is the same for every donor regardless of how they identify.
'I'm being ostracized'

Burdett, who runs a freelance web design business, grew up with a mother who was a regular blood donor due to a rare blood type, though he can't remember what type exactly. He said she would get calls in the middle of the night to donate and, when she did, she would take him and his younger brother along with her.

MORE: FDA proposes allowing gay and bisexual monogamous men to donate blood

"She taught us that giving blood was an important part of being part of the community," he said. "You give blood because that's an easy way to give back and to support your community. And so, I grew up giving blood every eight to 10 weeks, whenever I remembered that it was time, I gave blood until I came out as a gay man in the mid-90s."

The last time Burdett donated blood was in 1997. At the time, the FDA still had a lifetime ban for blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

Not being able to do so because of sexual orientation made him feel excluded from a community he'd been part of for so many years.

"When I couldn't give blood again, I felt like I was being pushed out the community," Burdett said. "It felt like I lost something."

Dominguez said that growing up, he had many family members in hospitals due to health problems. When he would visit, he would see people donating blood, but he knew he couldn't, and it made him feel "ostracized." Dominguez said he never attempted to donate.

"Of course, there were regulations, FDA regulations that were set in place," he said. "But I remember in college, when I finally was able to do it, and being a gay male, I couldn't because of the restrictions...I'm thinking, 'Oh, my God, I'm being ostracized.'"


Burdett donates blood for the first time since 1997 in Greenwich, Connecticut, March 13, 2024.
Courtesy of Craig Burdett and Jose Dominguez

When the couple first heard during the COVID-19 pandemic that the FDA was considering rolling out a new policy that did away with most deferrals, Dominguez was optimistic, but Burdett was doubtful.

"I raised a skeptical eyebrow, like that's not gonna happen," Burdett said. "They're gonna have some rule like you can't have had sex for six months. ... So when it was that we really [could give] blood, I was really surprised -- surprised and super happy."
People returning after being deferred

Blood donation organizations said early data indicates that the policy has made a difference -- bringing back donors who were previously unable to give blood.

Since the American Red Cross implemented the FDA's individual donor assessment last summer, about 8.5% of more than 2,000 people with the most recent three-month deferral on their donor record returned to donate in the first five months after the policy change, the organization told ABC News.

MORE: How FDA's forthcoming blood donor policy change could help address stigma about gay and bisexual men

Local organizations report similar results. New York Blood Center (NYBC) said between 240 and 250 people deferred under the 90-day policy have since returned to donate blood.

Andrea Cefarelli, senior vice president for NYBC, told ABC News it's been less than a year since the new policy and people are still learning they are now eligible to donate, so that number should increase.

"What we would never know is someone that ... knew from friends or from media coverage that they were not eligible and then comes in and donates. We wouldn't have that figure that [they] sort of self-deferred before," she said. "So, is it making an impact? I'm sure that it is."

OneBlood -- which has service areas in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina -- told ABC News that of 7,092 people who deferred under the previous one-year and three-month deferral periods, 902 returned to donate under the new policy over the last 10 months, equating to 1,334 donations.

While there are people like Dominguez and Burdett who donated blood after becoming eligible under the new donor assessment, they acknowledged some gay and bisexual men may still be angry that they were prevented from donating blood previously, even if they were practicing safe sex at the time.


Dominguez donates blood for the first time ever in Greenwich, Connecticut, March 13, 2024.
Chi Kong Lui/American Red Cross

"There were a lot of hurt feelings in the gay community about when gay men were banned from giving blood," Burdett said. 'There's still a group of gay men about my age who hold a lot of animosity about it."

"I understand the panic in the early 80s…But there are a lot of folks who are not ready to forgive and forget. As we meet them, and talk to them, encourage them to give blood because it's part of being a community and…you're giving to your neighbor," he added.

Burdett and Dominguez say they plan to donate again as soon as possible and want to encourage conversations with other members of the LGBTQ+ community to consider donating if they haven't already.

"I think we're in the perfect month to start this conversation," Burdett said of Pride Month. "There are a lot of Pride parades going on. So, I would encourage anyone who accepts blood to be present and be at those events and to do the education and let people know, pamphlets, flyers, tell them folks that gay men can give blood, and I would suspect that would be helpful."

“United in diversity”

Brussels shuts the door on diversity: a European Parliament without young people and minorities

At the end of the 2019-2024 parliamentary term, the average MEP is a white male aged 54. Only three are under 30.


Álvaro Merino – El Orden Mundial
Published On: June 18th, 2024


©El Orden Mundial

“United in diversity”. The motto of the European Union celebrates the wide variety of cultures, traditions and languages that make up the continent. The way in which the European Parliament represents them, however, is far from reflective of the composition of European society.

The average MEP in the current European Parliament (whose mandate will officially end in July) is a 54-year-old white male, while youth and ethnic minorities are barely present in Brussels, according to an analysis by El Orden Mundial in collaboration with the European Data Journalism Network.

Of the 705 MEPs, only three are under the age of 30 (0.4%) while in the EU as a whole this group accounts for 13% of the population, even if minors are excluded. Ethnic minorities make up just 4% of the chamber, compared to 10% of the European population.

The same goes for people with disabilities, a group often overlooked but comprising more than a quarter of Europeans: only six MEPs, or 0.9%, say they have a disability.

Although women have managed to reach a 40% share over many years of progress, the number of men is still far higher – 425 compared to 280.

These are “alarming” figures, according to Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU law at HEC Paris, who also points out that the transformation of the European Parliament is “a politico-cultural process that depends on the political parties”. However, the growth of the far right, the most male-centric and ageist ideological power in European politics, threatens to further homogenise the European Parliament and close its doors to diversity.

The European elephant’s graveyard

The generation of the crisis, Erasmus and the Euro, generation rent and the Fridays for Future generation, have no voice in Brussels. A quarter of MEPs are over 65, the retirement age set by most member states, while those under 30, the average age at which European women become mothers, are just three. There are twice as many men named Martin as there are under 30s.

For Nikoleta Yordanova, Professor of European Politics at Leiden University in the Netherlands, this imbalance is related to the image of the European Parliament as a “retirement place”. In the mind of a MEP, “if you want to do real politics, you go to the parliament of your country, where you influence national politics. In the European Parliament, you retire”.

Despite this, Yordanova notes that this conception is changing in some countries, such as France, where Brussels is beginning to be seen as “a springboard, a training ground”. The Spanish post-15M left, which came to the political forefront in the 2014 European elections, has recently fished in the European Parliament to elect two ministers: Sira Rego, Minister of Youth, and Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture, both from Sumar.

Beyond specific cases and the debate on whether the lack of real representation corresponds to a democratic malfunction, the absence of junior profiles is fed by low participation of young people in European elections: in 2019, 54% of those over 55 voted, compared to 42% of those under 25, according to a Eurobarometer study. And this is despite the historic mobilisation of young people that year, which increased their participation by 14 percentage points compared to 2014 and caused a green shift in European policies.

“For young people, EU elections are not important not because they lack civic engagement or willingness to change, but because they distrust the system”, says Fabiana Maraffa, EU policy officer at the European Youth Forum. According to her, it is key that young voters see their generation represented in the European Parliament: “It’s easier to believe that people similar to you can be actors of change. If young people get more involved, more people will think about joining and running for elected office”.

To run for European elections, young people must generally be 18, but in as many as nine countries – mostly in Eastern Europe – an average age of 21 is required, in Romania 23, and in Italy and Greece 25. By contrast, although the minimum voting age for EU elections is also generally 18, several countries have already lowered the age limit: in Austria, Malta, Germany and Belgium voters can go to the polls from the age of 16 and in Greece those aged 17 and over can vote.

But the rejuvenation of European politics is incomparable with the commitment to gender equality, a top priority on the European agenda. In fact, the European Parliament boasts that it is “one of the most balanced parliaments in the world”. According to figures from its own communication service, 40% of women MEPs is higher than the EU average of 32% in national parliaments and the global average of 27%. Since in the first parliament of 1979 women held just 16% of seats, the increase has indeed been considerable.

However, 22 of the 27 member states still elect more male MEPs, and all but one of the European parties – The Left – have more men in their ranks. In the right-wing European People’s Party and the far-right ECR and Identity and Democracy, women’s representation amounts to just around a third of MEPs. They are also the oldest groups.

A Eurocentric chamber

The European Parliament building is a place where diversity actually prevails. Parliamentary assistants, canteen staff, cleaners; the workers reflect the variety of European society, with the exception of the MEPs. “There is a class dynamic”, says Tina Magazzini, researcher at the NGO Integrim Lab. “Some black female MEPs reported that at the beginning of their mandate they were often stopped by security forces at the entrance of the Parliament because their appearance did not fit the stereotype of a female MEP”, she says.

Neither the European Parliament nor most member states collect data on the ethnicity of their MEPs, so Integrim Lab and the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) decided to allow self-identification for those politicians “who explicitly identify themselves as non-white and/or those who were born in or have citizenship from countries in the global south”.

They found that, of 873 representatives who have passed through the European Parliament in the parliamentary term that is about to end, only 37 (4.3%) belonged to an ethnic minority. To put this in context, at least 10% of the European population comes from ethnic or racial minorities. “This mismatch makes us question the legitimacy of the policies adopted by the Parliament,” says Nourhene Mahmoudi, ENAR’s Policy and Advocacy Advisor.

By country, the United Kingdom – until its exit from the European Parliament in 2020 – and France have had the most ethnic minority MEPs between 2019 and 2024, with a quarter of their representatives each, while by party, the right is again the least diverse. The Identity and Democracy bench is entirely white and The Left is the only group where the number of ethnic minority MEPs is proportional to their weight in European society as a whole.

In the case of the LGBTQI+ community, data collection is complicated, as it depends on personal positions that are not always public, although Integrim Lab researcher Tina Magazzini points out that in the last legislature there has been “much more openness” compared to the previous mandate. “The discriminatory policies of the Hungarian and Polish governments ended up generating a reaction in this sense,” she explains. In terms of distribution across the Parliament, rainbow members are no longer concentrated in left-wing groups, but there are hardly any openly LGBTQI+ MEPs from Central and Eastern Europe.

Inaccessible seats

27% of Europeans claim to have some kind of disability, yet there are only six disabled members in the European Parliament. For Alejandro Moledo, Deputy Director and Policy Coordinator of the European Disability Forum, the problem is clear: “People with disabilities do not compete on equal terms in the European elections. He points to the lack of funding to overcome obstacles to accessibility, such as hiring sign language interpreters or adapted vehicles.

“If political parties receive public funding, we must guarantee by law that they meet certain minimum standards of accessibility,” said Moledo, who also pointed out that there are still European countries that do not guarantee the right to vote or stand as a candidate to people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities or people under guardianship. Specifically, fifteen countries legally recognise the right to vote for all people with disabilities, without restrictions, but only ten guarantee their right to stand for election.

Thus, the next time an insurmountable lack of interest in European affairs is used to justify a low turnout in an EU election, one might ask whether in its legislative work the European Parliament talks more about the diversity of Europe, rather than representing it.

Original source: https://elordenmundial.com/mapas-y-graficos/bruselas-diversidad-europarlamento-sin-jovenes-ni-minorias/

 

Nigeria: Poor Sanitation, Weak Healthcare Infrastructure Root Causes of Cholera - AMLSN

18 JUNE 2024

Vanguard (Lagos)

By Chioma Obinna

A public health disease expert, Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi, has blamed the root cause of the current cholera outbreak in Nigeria on the lack of proper sanitation and inadequate healthcare infrastructure, saying that, "attributing the outbreak to rainfall is misleading and unscientific".

Ifeanyi who is also an infectious disease expert and the National President, of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), accused the Nigerian government of paying lip service to water and sanitation.

In an interview with Good Health Weekly, Ifeanyi said: "It's misleading to tie the intractable outbreak of cholera in Nigeria to rainfall and rain season. It is also not empirical to do so. We have been shouting at rooftops on how to mitigate intractable disease outbreaks in Nigeria.

"Unfortunately, it has continued to fall on deaf ears. Unfortunately, we have continued to field wrong persons in the front lead health agencies that should put in place infrastructure, equipment, systems, and processes, particularly, disease notification systems that will help us build a robust system capable of mitigating intractable disease outbreaks."

He argued that the current outbreak is just one of the very many intractable disease outbreaks in Nigeria that have become persistent and are about to become endemic.

"Sometime in November, December 2023, we had an intractable cholera disease outbreak in some parts of Cross River State. Was that during the rainy season? So, the argument about it is the rains that is swelling the cholera outbreak is nothing and can be very unscientific.

"Agreed that disease outbreak sometimes is seasonal. I also concede that cholera sometimes may be seasonal, but for it to become seasonal, it has to be that it had become endemic somewhat or had become intractable in the given environment or community or even a region," he stated.

He said the challenge is that the country has continued to pay lip service to water, sanitation and hygiene.

"I challenge you to go and dig it up. Of the 30 states already reported to have the outbreak, how many of them have a public potable water supply in place? I can categorically tell you none. So, we do know that cholera is a disease that thrives where water, sanitation and hygiene are at its low rate," he stated.

He said there was a need for the county to begin to speak to issues about water, sanitation, and hygiene.

He said emphasised the need for improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices including addressing open defecation and ensuring access to clean water which are essential for preventing future outbreaks.

"If you also take a second look or a critical look at the practice of open defecation, it is crescendo in all the states so far. Of course, it is an endemic and is unhealthy. I think Nigeria is among the leading nations across the globe in open defecation. So why wouldn't cholera find its place here? So that's to speak to your very first question that it is not correct scientifically, or empirically to tie the current outbreak to issues about the rainy season. In fact, in most parts of the state affected, particularly northern Nigeria, if you check, this is June running out, and the volume of rainfall has been lowest in the last decade around this time in those states. So, it is not rainfall. It is largely issues deriving from worse challenges we have in Nigeria and challenges about open defecation."

Ifeanyi also stressed the need to strengthened healthcare infrastructure by investing in laboratories at all levels, from primary to tertiary healthcare adding that, "it is crucial for early diagnosis and treatment of cholera and other diseases".

He said there was a need for a robust disease notification system which would be all-encompassing, adding that, timely and accurate data collection is necessary to track outbreaks and take necessary actions."

He frowned that medical laboratories are put at Abeyance when there are conversations about reforming the country's health sector, rejuvenating the health system, and improving health care.

He said the way out of intractable disease outbreaks such as cholera is to develop, expand, and strengthen medical laboratory services up to the primary healthcare point.

"We have to build capacities of laboratories in secondary and tertiary health institutions to be able to diagnose cholera routinely. Once there's an outbreak, that is when the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control will mobilise. That is the only time we think we can call people. Investigation for such patients should include a routine screening. As I speak to you, I doubt if we have any of our tertiary health institutions in Nigeria, that is the teaching hospitals, federal medical centres, specialist hospitals and general hospitals that have in-house capacity for all time to have resources in terms of human capacity, resources for material and infrastructure to diagnose the type of cholera we have now. If we are unable to do all these, then we are just joking. If that remains the condition, I tell you cholera will not go away. We need to do all this for cholera to go away."

Speaking on appropriate first aid for cholera, he said: "You can only make a first aid when you are sure. Countries that are serious have put efforts and resources at developing some kind of what we consider a rapid diagnostic process that will only tell you that this diarrhoea is likely cholera, which we now proceed to what we consider as a triage rapid diagnostic that helps you to separate likely cholera from non-likely cholera. Because if you have watery stooling, if you have enteric fever, you are going to have frequent watery stools or stool with mucus, or with blood stains. So, there is a simple but then very highly equivocal rapid tests that helps as a triage.

"Do we have it, is it commonplace in our primary healthcare? So that when people present there with any form of diarrhoea or dysentery, they do that triage and direct those who require further investigation to a secondary facility or probably a tertiary facility that can isolate, and identify the type of cholera.

"We claim we have a cholera outbreak. With all the ruse and the noise, what is the biotype of the cholera causing this present outbreak? Is there any answer yet? No. A point to the fact that we do not have capacity in terms of resources to do that and until we do that and make our disease notification system a lot more robust and credible, cholera will not go away," he stated.

Read the original article on Vanguard.

Australia's prime minister raises journalist incident with China's Li

Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei attends a signing ceremony by Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 17, 2024. Lukas Coch/Pool via REUTERS

UPDATED
JUN 18, 2024

SYDNEY - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has raised with China's Premier Li Qiang an incident at parliament house where Chinese officials tried to obstruct a journalist previously jailed in Beijing, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday.

Li's visit to Australia from June 15-18 was the first by a Chinese premier in seven years and marks a stabilisation in ties between the U.S. ally and the world's second largest economy.

Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was jailed for three years in Beijing on national security charges until her release in October, was among media covering Li's visit to Canberra on Monday when Chinese officials stood in front of her to prevent her appearing on camera.

Cheng has said it was likely the Chinese officials did not want her to appear on domestic Chinese news coverage. The incident dominated Australian media coverage of Li's Canberra meeting, and became a focus of political debate on Tuesday.

Albanese expressed his concern over the incident directly to Li, Wong said.

"Freedom of the press is very important to Australia. So, the Prime Minister has raised the matter with the Chinese Premier," Wong said in an ABC radio interview.

"The Prime Minister and I understand the importance of standing up for Cheng Lei, that's why we worked for two years to secure her return home," she added.


Earlier, Albanese said in a radio interview that video footage of the incident showed "a pretty clumsy attempt" by the Chinese officials, and noted Australian officials had intervened.

"There should be no impediments to Australian journalists going about their job," he said.

China's embassy did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. REUTERS

‘Inside! Inside!’: Sailors Recount Houthi Attack and U.S. Navy Rescue

The captain of a ship assaulted by the Yemen-based militia last week spoke at a news conference in Manila after the rescue.

Christian Domrique, center, the captain of a ship attacked by Houthi fighters in the Red Sea, on Monday. All surviving crew members were from the Philippines.

Credit...Rolex Dela Pena/EPA, via Shutterstock


By Camille Elemia
reporting from Manila

June 17, 2024

The crew of the Tutor, a Greek-owned bulk carrier sailing across the Red Sea to India, were on the deck on a sunny morning last week when they spotted in the distance what looked like a fishing vessel with two people aboard. The crew members thought it was nothing unusual, but moments later, the ship captain said, they noticed a vessel rushing toward their ship.

The boat appeared to be remote-controlled — the fishermen they thought they had glimpsed were dummies — and crew members shouted, “Inside! Inside!” as they raced for cover, according to a video one of them posted on Facebook. The boat collided with their ship and exploded, shattering glass windows on the bridge of their vessel and submerging the engine room in seawater and oil, the captain said.

“We were all scared,” the captain, Christian Domrique, said on Monday in Manila, where he and the crew members, all of whom are from the Philippines, were brought after the U.S. Navy airlifted them from the stricken vessel. “It was the first time for all of us to experience that.”

It was one of the more dramatic episodes in recent months in the Red Sea, where the Houthi militia in Yemen has stepped up missile and drone attacks against ships in what it says is a campaign to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza.

Twenty-one sailors including the captain were rescued from the Tutor; one crew member, who was in the engine room at the time of the collision, is still missing, according to Mr. Domrique and Philippine government officials.
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Mr. Domrique, who spoke on behalf of the crew members at a news conference arranged by the Philippine government, said that all of them had stayed on the bridge of the ship after the attack while he contacted the shipowner, the Philippine government and the U.S. Navy, which has been patrolling the waters to deter Houthi attacks. He also warned nearby ships to avoid their location.

“Requesting immediate assistance. We were hit by a bomb,” Mr. Domrique says into the radio, according to another video posted on Facebook.

About four hours after the collision, at around 1 p.m., he said their immobile ship was rocked by another explosion — this time, from a Houthi missile.

“We did not know what to do,” Mr. Domrique said. “We were being attacked both by water and air. We just relied on prayers.”

The crew members moved downstairs to a passageway and camped there amid a scattering of water bottles, bags, extension cords and phone chargers. Some sailors slept on stairs.

“We are hiding now in the alleyway in the middle of the ship because we don’t know where the bombs will fall,” John Flores, the ship’s chief engineer, said in a series of text messages to his wife, who later posted them on Facebook.

The crew managed to find oil to power a small generator that provided light, a power supply and internet access. But Mr. Flores began to fear they would be attacked again, texting his wife that their ship had been drifting for 10 hours waiting for rescuers.

“Please remember that I love you and the kids very much,” he wrote. “Always take care there. I miss you all so much.”

Finally, U.S. Navy helicopters arrived and airlifted the crew members from the ship, bringing them to a Navy cruiser, the U.S.S. Philippine Sea. The U.S. service members, including many Filipino Americans, greeted them warmly, Mr. Domrique said, singing karaoke songs and bringing them food. They were taken to Bahrain before they flew to Manila.


Arriving at the airport, the crew members were seen smiling, though none spoke to reporters. After the news conference, Mr. Domrique hugged his wife, the relief apparent on their faces.

“We are all traumatized,” he said at the news conference, fighting back tears.