Why many Pakistanis are indifferent to upcoming polls

Shamil Shams in Karachi
DW

December 26, 2023

Could the ongoing economic crisis and general distrust and dissatisfaction with the country's politics be to blame?

Pakistan's inflation rose to a record 31.4% in September, and many people are struggling to make ends meet

 Rafat Saeed/DW


There is hardly any pre-election hustle-bustle in Karachi, Pakistan's financial hub, although it is now almost certain that polls scheduled for February 8 won't be delayed.

There are multiple reasons behind a lack of interest in the upcoming general elections among the public; the foremost being an ongoing crackdown on ex-PM Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Khan and many of his aides are behind bars in several cases, and it is unlikely that they will be released before the elections. These measures have made the upcoming vote quite controversial.

Also, Pakistan has been in a state of economic turmoil for almost two years. The skyrocketing inflation has rendered the masses incapable of buying even basic food items and paying electricity bills, among other problems. As most citizens struggle to make ends meet, they are less bothered about who will form the next government.

Can Pakistan's ex-PM Nawaz Sharif make a political comeback?  02:36

Security concerns

The country's security issues remain a big concern for its military leadership, with a spike in the number of militant attacks in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces bordering Afghanistan.

Additionally, the generals are still reeling from the May 9 protests by Imran Khan's supporters that saw some rioters attacking military installations and residential areas.

The mistrust between state institutions is so high that the upcoming polls are no longer about which party wins most seats in the next parliament; they are about Pakistan's survival as a modern state, many people say.
Khan, the disruptor

The imminent elections are all about one man: the former cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan. He is currently incarcerated over charges related to corruption and leaking state secrets.

After he was removed from power last year in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, Khan accused the US and some military generals of orchestrating his ouster. The former premier, who according to many polls remains the most popular politician in the country, raised the stakes so high that at one point earlier this year, state institutions came into clash with each other, and some sections of the masses in direct confrontation with the military — something the country had never witnessed in the past.

Imran Khan's jail sentence: What are Pakistanis saying?   03:04

For some, Khan's disruptive politics is necessary to weaken the generals' grip on power; for others, it is a dangerous scenario for a country that has an economy on the verge of collapse and is facing many geopolitical challenges.

"Politics of polarization by any popular leader is harmful in any country as it detracts from attending to key reforms and development," Adnan Rehmat, an Islamabad-based journalist and analyst, told DW. "Sadly, Imran Khan excels at politics of hate and incendiary rhetoric. In a politically and socially plural country such as Pakistan, political polarization stifles engagement and collaboration needed for solving lingering problems."

Rehmat is of the view that Khan has become a victim of "his own politics of hate," and now nobody wants to defend his rights.

Economic quagmire

Pakistan's economy is possibly the biggest casualty of the protracted political instability. Even though the economic indicators weren't very positive during Khan's tenure (2018-2022), they nosedived since Khan's removal from power.

"Those on low incomes have been hit the hardest by economic difficulties, with many experiencing job losses and reduced earnings. As a result, they have had to cut back on the amount and quality of food they can afford, seek out less expensive transportation options, and work multiple jobs to make ends meet," The Lancet journal underlined in September, adding that "financial mismanagement and political instability, stemming from military interventions, have further worsened the economic crisis."

DW has seen long queues outside bread shops and supermarkets, and scores of homeless people sleeping along roadsides in Karachi.

Pakistan's inflation rose to a record 31.4% in September, with particularly high energy prices.

Some people here are of the view that only an elected government with a popular mandate can remedy these economic woes, but Akhter Mohammadi, a tea seller in Karachi's Tariq Road area, says the country needs to be put on the right track first.

"I will definitely vote (in upcoming elections). I will vote for Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman (an Islamic cleric) because the economy can only be fixed if Pakistan is politically stable," Mohammadi told DW.

Climate change: Floods fuel growing hunger in Pakistan   03:09

A comeback for Khan?

"There is little doubt that the PTI will win big if the elections were held in a fair manner. This is why the powers-that-be are denying it a level playing field. However, ultimately, it is not votes won but seats secured in the legislature that determine who will come to power. In this sense, the deck is stacked against the PTI," analyst Rehmat underlined.

Experts believe the voter turnout would be low — possibly the lowest in Pakistan's election history.

"The critical factor for the turnout will be whether Khan's supporters come out to vote on election day or not," Rehmat said.

Right now, that looks very unlikely.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

African nations forge new paths in global diplomacy

Martina Schwikowski
DW

African countries are assuming an increasingly individualistic approach to foreign policy that are sometimes at odds with those of international powers.

African countries are divided over their stance on the Israel-Gaza war

Image: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

The war in Gaza is dividing African countries far more than their differences over Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.

"Contrary to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, we saw an effort from the African leadership to respond as a bloc," Fredson Guilengue, a Johannesburg-based analyst with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is affiliated with Germany's socialist Left party, told DW.

Support by African countries for the UN General Assembly's March 2 resolution demanding Russia's withdrawal from Ukraine was relatively weak. Just 28 of Africa's 54 member states voted in favor, while 17 abstained and eight didn't vote. Eritrea, a dictatorship, voted against the resolution.

Yet many African countries have emphatically and consistently called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, said Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at the Chatham House policy institute in London. "There have been very few countries in the African continent that have taken a pro Israeli stance," he said.

The African Union was quick to side with the Palestinians, with AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat appealing to both sides to cease hostilities. "The Chairperson wishes to recall that denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, particularly that of an independent and sovereign State, is the main cause of the permanent Israeli-Palestinian tension," he said in a statement on October 7, the same day that Hamas, which is classified as a terror group by the US, EU and other governments, attacked communities within Israel. Later it became clear that Hamas had killed nearly 1,200 people and taken about 240 hostages.

Support for Israel

Some African countries have expressed support for Israel, Guilengue said. Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have shown solidarity with Israel and explicitly condemned Hamas. In Kenya, for example, President William Ruto spoke out strongly against terrorism and attacks on innocent civilians, despite criticism from opposition politicians, who called for relations with Israel to be severed.

South Africa's parliament voted to close the Israeli embassy in South Africa

Image: Nardus Engelbrecht/AP/picture alliance

Other countries, South Africa in particular, have taken a pro-Palestinian position, Guilengue said. The country did not openly condemn Hamas and blames Israel for the escalation of the conflict. In November, South African parliamentarians voted to break off diplomatic relations, though the decision is not binding for the government, which itself has called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate whether Israel had committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip, repeatedly comparing the country's military response to the Hamas attacks to genocide.

Guilengue said these reactions had to do with South Africa's history of apartheid, which many there compare to conditions and events in Gaza. Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has repeatedly stated that South Africa will not be drawn into taking sides, but has criticized the West for selectively condemning Russia while ignoring other acts of aggression such as the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Protecting Africa's interests

People across Africa have long shown solidarity with Palestinians, said Gilles Yabi, the head of Wathi, a think tank in Senegal that is focused on West Africa. A sense of a shared history of colonialism plays a major role in that stance. Many governments across Africa support establishing a Palestinian state that could exist alongside Israel, Yabi said recently in his podcast for the International Crisis Group.

The countries that have allied themselves with Israel are motivated by other factors, such as military and economic support from the country and its allies, Guilengue said.

"They actually don't want to show a position that will go against the interest of Israel," he said, "because it might also mean going against the interest of the United States and the West."

Though Russia does not have a presence in Africa on par with that of the most powerful European countries and the United States, it is still valued as a partner by many countries.

Germany is keen to foster ties with Africa

Markus Schreiber/Pool AP/dpa/picture alliance

Stance on Ukraine

Some African governments consider Russia's war against Ukraine to be a matter of European security interests. Over the course of 2023, African countries have increasingly decided that they don't want to be pigeonholed in their response to global crises: "They don't want to be pro-Western, pro-Chinese or pro-Russian," Chatham House expert Vines said.

As such, the number of votes for Russia in the UN General Assembly has fallen significantly. "Many African countries are increasingly voting a la carte on these issues," Vines said.

African countries have stood strong against diplomatic pressure over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Guilengue said. Despite visits by high-ranking representatives of Russia and Western nations, governments across Africa have insisted on a largely impartial position, relying on peace mediators. The AU, including South Africa, sent delegations to Russia and Ukraine after the outbreak of the war to propose ways to settle the conflict.

This is in keeping with African governments' attempting to take a more active role in global diplomacy, while at the same time consolidating the economic importance of players such as China, which offer alternatives for aid and investment.

This article was originally written in German.

Germany: 2023 set to be warmest year on record

This year is expected to be the warmest on record in Germany, with an annual temperature of 10.6 degrees forecast by the German Meteorological Office. The announcement follows weeks of flooding across the country.

Six German states have battled rising water levels over the Christmas period

.Image: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

According to the German Meteorological Office (DWD), 2023 is on course to be the warmest year since records began in 1881.

The figure eclipses 2022's annual temperature of 10.5 degrees, which was the previous warmest year and on par with 2018, making the past two years the two warmest on record.

While releasing the average annual temperature five days before the end of the year, the DWD will publish its official figures on December 29, including further details such as exact rainfall and sunshine levels.

Germany data mirrors global temperature rise

According to the EU climate change service Copernicus, 2023 was also globally the hottest year since records began.

According to Copernicus, global average temperatures were 1.46 degrees above the pre-industrial reference period from 1850 to 1900.

So far, 2023 has been 0.13 degrees warmer than the first 11 months of 2016, the previous record year.

To keep global warming below 1.5 degrees in the long term, as agreed in Paris in 2015, emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases must be reduced by 43% by 2030.

Germany hit by major floods

The new data comes as much of Germany remains underwater following weeks of downpours and persistent wet weather.

The DWD had issued flood warnings for six states in Germany ahead of the Christmas holidays, with parts of Lower Saxony in the northwest, Bavaria in the south, and Hesse, North-Rhine Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in the west most affected.

The final days of the year are set to remain largely dry, the DWD said.

Germany also experienced major flooding in June, with Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate the worst-affected states.

In 2021, 184 people died in Germany's worst floods in decades, with the majority of the deaths in Rhineland-Palatinate.

This report was written in part with material from the German Press Agency (DPA).

Japan allows world's biggest nuclear plant to restart

The safety ban on TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has been lifted, allowing it to become operational once again. However, the facility still needs permission from local government bodies.

Operations had been suspended since 2012

Kohei Choji/The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP Images/picture alliance

Japan's nuclear regulator announced Wednesday that it has lifted its safety ban on Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the largest in the world in terms of capacity.

TEPCO has been looking to restart the plant due to high operating costs. It must now seek permission from local bodies in the Niigata prefecture, Kashiwazaki city, and Kariwa village.

Why was the ban imposed?

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has a capacity of 8,212 megawatts (MW) and was TEPCO's only operable atomic power station. It has been offline since 2012, after the Fukushima disaster in March 2011 led to the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan.

The Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) said TEPCO's preparedness had improved and decided to lift the de facto ban. The body has carried out more than 4,000 hours of inspection of its facilities.

Previously in 2021, the NRA had barred the plant from operating due to safety breaches and insufficient antiterrorism measures. This included a failure to protect nuclear materials and an incident that involved an unauthorized staff member accessing sensitive areas of the plant.

It had then issued an order that prevented TEPCO from transporting new uranium fuel to the plant or loading fuel rods into its reactors.

"The government will seek the understanding and cooperation of Niigata prefecture and local communities, emphasizing 'safety-first'," Yoshimasa Hayashi, the government's top spokesperson, said.

After the decision, TEPCO said it would continue to work towards gaining the trust of the local community and society at large. On Tuesday, a Tokyo court ruled that TEPCO, the only operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, had to pay damages to dozens of evacuees.

Japan has been trying to reactivate all domestic nuclear power plants that comply with the safety network, to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels which need to be imported. But in some cases, there is opposition from locals or other regulatory bodies.

Japan: Anti-nuclear protesters invest in renewables

 CHINA HISTORY

A Chinese Christmas Message: It’s Not Santa Bringing Peace, but the People’s Liberation Army 

On social media, Chinese official channels are not celebrating a Merry Christmas but instead focus on a Military Christmas.

 December 26, 2023

By Manya Koetse

 It is not Santa bringing you peace and joy, it is the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

 Chinese state media and other influential social media accounts have been pushing an alternative Christmas narrative this year, which makes it very clear that this ‘Merry Christmas’ is brought by China’s military forces, not by a Western legendary figure. 

On December 24, Party newspaper People’s Daily published a video on Weibo featuring various young PLA soldiers, writing: “Thank you for your hard work! Thanks to their protection, we have a peaceful Christmas Eve. They come from all over the country, steadfastly guarding the front lines day and night. “With our youth, we defend our prosperous China!” Thank you, and salute!” People’s Daily post on Weibo, December 24 2023. 

The main argument that is propagated, is that this time in China should not be about Christmas and Santa Claus, but about remembering the end of the Korean War and paying tribute to China’s soldiers.

 This narrative is not just promoted on social media by Chinese official media channels, it is also propagated in various other ways. One Weibo user shared a photo of a mall in Binzhou where big banners were hanging reminding people of the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War: “December 24 is not about Christmas Eve, but about the victory at Chosin Reservoir.” 

Mall banners reminding Chinese that December 24 is about commemorating the end of the Second Phase Offensive (photo taken at 滨州吾悦广场/posted by 武汉潘唯杰). 

Another blogger posted a video showing LED signs on taxis, allegedly in the Hinggan League in Inner Mongolia, with the words: “December 24 is NOT Christmas Eve, it is the military victory of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir” (“12.24不是平安夜，是长津湖战役胜利日”). 

One social media video showed a teacher at a middle school in Chongqing also emphasizing to her students that “it’s not Father Christmas who brings us a happy and peaceful life, but our young soldiers!” In the context of the Korean War (1950-1953), December 24 marks the conclusion of the Second Phase Offensive (1950), which was launched by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army against the United Nations Command forces–primarily U.S. and South Korean troops. The Chinese divisions’ surprise attack countered the ‘Home-by-Christmas’ campaign. This name stemmed from the UN forces’ belief that they would soon prevail, end the conflict, and be home well in time to celebrate Christmas. Instead, they were forced into retreat and the Chinese reclaimed most of North Korea by December 24, 1950. 

The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, also known as the the Battle at Lake Changjin, is part of this history. The battle began on November 27 of 1950, five months after the start of the Korean War. 

The 2021 movie Changjin Lake (长津湖/The Battle at Lake Changjin) provides a Chinese perspective on the lead-up and unfolding of this massive ground attack of the Chinese 9th Army Group, in which thousands of soldiers died. Especially in recent years and in light of the launch of the blockbuster movie, there is an increased focus on the Chinese attack at Chosin as a glorious victory and strategic success for turning around the war situation in Korea and defending its own borders, underscoring the military strength of the People’s Republic of China as a new force to be reckoned with (read more here). 

This Chinese Christmas narrative of honoring the PLA coincides with a series of popular social media posts from bloggers facing criticism for celebrating Christmas in China. One of them is Liu Xiaoguang (刘晓光 @_恶魔奶爸_, 1.7 million followers), who wrote on December 25: “Some people are criticizing me for celebrating Christmas Eve, because, by celebrating a foreign festival, I would be unpatriotic and forgetful of our martyrs. What can I say, in our family Christmas must be a big deal, even if I don’t come home it must be celebrated, because my mom is a Christian, and she’s very devout (..) So you see, on one hand I should promote traditional Chinese virtues, and show filial piety, on the other hand I should be patriotic and not celebrate foreign festivals.” 

Meanwhile, other popular bloggers stress the importance of remembering China’s military heroes during this time. Influential media blogger Zhang Xiaolei (@晓磊) posted: “It’s not Santa Claus who gives you peace, it’s the Chinese soldiers! #ChristmasEve” (“给你平安的不是圣诞老人，而是中国军人！🙏#平安夜#”). With his post, he added various pictures showing Chinese soldiers frozen in the snow as also depicted in the Battle at Lake Changjin movie. 

Throughout the years, Christmas has become more popular in China, but as a predominantly atheist country with a small proportion of Christians, the festival is more about the commercial side of the holiday season including shopping and promotions, decorations, entertainment, etc. Nevertheless, Christmas in China is generally perceived as “a foreign” or “Western” festival, and there have been consistent concerns that the festivities associated with Christmas clash with traditional Chinese culture. In the past, these concerns have led to actual bans on Christmas celebrations. For instance, in 2017, officials in Hengyang were instructed not to partake in Christmas festivities and several universities throughout China have previously cautioned students against engaging in Christmas-related activities. 

Chinese political and social commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) also weighed in on the issue. In his December 24 social media column, the former Global Times editor-in-chief wrote that there is no problem with Christmas Eve and the Second Phase Offensive victory day both receiving attention on the same day. Even if the younger generations in China view Christmas more as a commercial event rather than a religious one, it’s understandable for businesses to capitalize on this period for additional revenue. He wrote: “In this era of globalization, holiday cultures inevitably influence each other. The Chinese government does not actively promote the rise of “Western holidays” for its own reasons, but they also have no intention to “suppress foreign holidays.” Some Chinese celebrate “Western holidays” and it is their right to do, they should not face criticism for it.” Although many Chinese netizens post different viewpoints on this year’s Christmas debate, there are some who just don’t understand what all the fuss is about. “December 24 can be both Christmas Eve, and it can be Victory Day. It’s not like we need to pick one over the other. We are free to choose whatever.” 

Copyright (C)  Manya Koetse

This is original content by What's on Weibo that requires investment. You are free to link to this article, but please identify this website or author when you base content on this source or quote from it. Support us by becoming a subscriber. Do not reproduce our content without permission. https://www.whatsonweibo.com.

Hubble telescope spies mysterious shadows on Saturn’s rings

By Jackie Wattles, CNN
Tue December 26, 2023

A photo of Saturn taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble's ultra-sharp vision revealed a phenomenon called ring spokes.

NASA/ESA/STScI/Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC)

CNN —

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a newly revealed image of the mysterious, ghostly shadows on Saturn’s rings — the latest sighting of the so-called “spokes” that continue to baffle scientists.

The composite photo, released Thursday by NASA, was taken by Hubble on October 22 as Saturn was about 850 million miles (1.37 billion kilometers) away, according to the space agency. The space observatory has been orbiting Earth just a few hundred miles above the surface for more than three decades.

Astronomers have long known about the perplexing spokes on Saturn’s rings, which look like apparitions skating along the rings and can be spotted in various locations depending on where the planet is in its orbital cycle.

Life may have everything it needs to exist on Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Over time, observations have revealed that the number and appearance of the spokes can vary depending on Saturn’s seasonal cycle. Similar to Earth, the planet has an axis with a tilt that causes seasonal changes, though each season on Saturn lasts about seven years, according to NASA.

Hubble is set to observe the unexplained phenomenon at peak activity as researchers aim to unravel its secrets.

“We are heading towards Saturn equinox, when we’d expect maximum spoke activity, with higher frequency and darker spokes appearing over the next few years,” said Amy Simon, the lead scientist of Hubble’s Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy, or OPAL, program, in a statement. Simon is based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Saturn’s autumnal equinox is expected to occur on May 6, 2025.

Spying Saturn’s spokes

The NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft captured the first evidence of the spokes in the 1980s. And the Cassini mission, a dedicated Saturn probe, made observations of the spoke phenomenon during its seasonal peak in the late 2000s.

More recent observations from Hubble occurred earlier this year as part of a renewed push to identify what causes the spokes’ appearance.

The spokes may appear small in images, but they can actually be larger than Earth in width and diameter, according to NASA.

Scientists will continue studying Saturn’s mysterious spokes through the 2025 equinox in an attempt to finally unlock an explanation for the apparitions.



“The suspected culprit for the spokes is the planet’s variable magnetic field,” NASA said in a February news release. “Planetary magnetic fields interact with the solar wind, creating an electrically charged environment.

“On Earth, when those charged particles hit the atmosphere this is visible in the northern hemisphere as the aurora borealis, or northern lights.”

Essentially, astronomers suspect that tiny particles can become charged by this activity, causing them to briefly rise higher than surrounding material and create an apparent bulge.

Researchers hope that Hubble data will prove or disprove the theory once and for all, building on observations collected by Voyager 2 and the Cassini mission.

Video caption: Seven Hubble Space Telescope images, each taken about four minutes apart, were stitched together to show “spoke” features rotating around Saturn.

Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ comes at pivotal time for Black LGBTQ community

BY CHEYANNE M. DANIELS - 12/27/23 

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

When Leslie Hall first listened to Beyoncé’s Renaissance album, he knew it was something to behold. 

“With this particular album … she gave a love letter to a community that has really made the music and culture industry possible,” said Hall, director of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities program at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

With a world tour that grossed $579 million — becoming the highest-grossing tour by a female artist — and a documentary that earned $21 million its first weekend in theaters, advocates say Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” creations have highlighted Black power and Black queerness at a time when Black history and LGBTQ+ rights are under attack. 

Hall admits he is not one to usually enjoy whole albums, but he found himself listening to Renaissance without skipping any tracks. 

“I didn’t feel like I had to put on different hats — the Black hat or the gay hat,” Hall said. “I felt I could be my whole self throughout the entire album.”

The album features voices from iconic members of the LGBTQ+ and house music communities, including samples from Lidell Townsell & M.T.F, Honey Dijon and Ts Madison. 

During the Renaissance World Tour, Black and LGBTQ+ dancers graced the stage. Fans screamed themselves hoarse as dancers like Honey Balenciaga and Amari Marshall vogued and twerked across the stage.

The inspiration behind “Renaissance” comes from the superstar’s late Uncle Johnny, a gay man who died of AIDS when Beyoncé was a teenager. 

“Uncle Johnny had a lot of different layers of marginalization on him and to now be able to go from really not being able to say gay and living your truth to being able to go to a concert in a state where you could lose your job for being gay shows the beauty and the promise of America,” Hall said. “I’m not really trying to be all ‘American Dream’ about it, but it does show that, like, America is an imperfect project and it shows that over time, we do evolve and get better.”

In one of her songs, “Heated,” Beyoncé proudly declares that Uncle Johnny made her dress. Fans catch a glimpse of that dress in “Renaissance: A film by Beyoncé,” released on Dec. 1, which is World AIDS day. 

It was a powerful moment, said David Johns, director of the National Black Justice Association (NBJC), as it highlighted just how many have been able to thrive because of the encouragement of Black LGBTQ+ people around them.

“Most of us Black folks know an Uncle Johnny or Aunt Justine,” Johns told The Hill. “Many of us have been loved on by Black trans-, queer and gender-expansive folks and I think those of us who are lucky enough to have been able to do so in public not only find ways to acknowledge the references that we got from them and how they showed up for us, but also find ways to give them their flowers.” 

The album not only pays homage to the man who introduced Beyoncé to house music — a genre created by gay Black men in the clubs of Chicago — but makes clear that Beyoncé stands with the LGBTQ community, added Hall.

In one song, the Grammy award-winning artist fully spells out the colors of the Progress Pride flag: black, green, pink, blue, purple, blue, white, brown and yellow.

During the World Tour, which was three times in three different cities by this reporter, the flag is portrayed across a screen as attendees file in. 

“The way that she allowed us to feel safe and loved, in spite of all of the political attacks that we are experiencing, is noteworthy,” Johns said.

Those political attacks include banning books that delve into race and LGBTQ+ topics; attempts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to ban an Advanced Placement African American studies program from running in public schools; and the more than 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have been introduced in state legislatures this year.

Hall and his team at HRC are pushing back against these laws through Beyoncé’s artistry. The HBCU Program recently created “Renaissance: A Queer Syllabus.” 

The syllabus takes each song from the album and pairs it with resources to explain topics like the Harlem Renaissance, intersectionality and social justice. The syllabus also features authors like bell hooks and Audrey Lord. 

“If a faculty member or a teacher wanted to … talk about LGBTQ inclusion, particularly in an environment where folks are banning your lesson plans and books, this is how you could take music and still be able to get certain lessons across without jeopardizing these draconian, unethical, immoral laws that are in place in some of these states,” said Hall. “We just really wanted to want Beyoncé’s work, but more importantly we want it to advance LGBTQ inclusion, queer identities, and empowerment and resilience.”

Still, there was a time when some fans urged Beyoncé to cancel her shows in states that were passing such legislation.

The New York Times projected the “Renaissance” tour generated nearly $4.5 billion in revenue for the U.S. economy. 

“There’s not a state that you can travel to where a version of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ hasn’t either been introduced or codified,” Johns said. “I understand where it comes from, but if the ask or expectation is to only go to friendly or affirming — especially queer — spaces, they really don’t exist. There are very few spaces where we can actually go and assume safety. I think that that’s true for all of us who are Black or who have skin that’s been kissed by the sun. It’s doubly true for those of us who have intersectional identities. And for that reason, I think we have a birthright to take up space and experience joy as often as possible.”

But Johns added that the “Renaissance” movement has also highlighted the power behind Black women in particular. 

“We see the results of the labor of Black people in this moment, and Black women in all arenas,” Johns said. “Beyonce, [Supreme Court] Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Michelle Obama – we see what happens when Black women show up and take up space. If we were freed up from having to deal with the bulls–t we could do that much more.”

THE NEW CANCEL CULTURE

Activist Shaun King says Meta banned him from Instagram because of his pro-Palestinian stance

Without citing specifics, the tech giant said it disabled the account for "multiple instances of praise for designated entities in violation of our policies."

Shaun King had a following of more than 5 million users before his Instagram account was removed on Christmas Eve.

Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images for Universal file
HEY INSTAGRAM; JESUS WAS PALESTINIAN 

GET THE IRONY

Dec. 26, 2023
By Angela Yang

Meta has banned social justice activist Shaun King from Instagram, and he claims his account was disabled because he posted support for Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.

King, known for his social media advocacy on movements such as Black Lives Matter, had a following of more than 5 million users before his account on the Meta-owned platform was removed on Christmas Eve.

“The account was disabled due to multiple instances of praise for designated entities in violation of our policies,” a Meta spokesperson wrote in an email.

The spokesperson did not specify King’s violations, although Meta has come under scrutiny since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel for its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, which states that its platforms do not permit “praise, substantive support and representation of various dangerous organizations and individuals.”

A Human Rights Watch report this month urged Meta to overhaul this policy, pointing to a series of “flaws” in its enforcement. The organization analyzed patterns of “heightened censorship” around content supporting Palestinians, citing user reports of Meta removing their posts or restricting their access to certain Instagram and Facebook features.

On Monday, King posted a video and statement on his Facebook page claiming the platform banned him for “fighting for Palestine” online.

“I am told by my sources inside of Meta that they are tracking my IP address and will delete anything I say anywhere I say it,” King wrote on Facebook, which is also owned by Meta.

He added that he plans to take every measure available to get himself back on Instagram.

“I formally appealed the night of the suspension, but have also now retained attorneys to proceed with the Civil Rights Division of the legal team at Meta,” King wrote in an email to NBC News Tuesday.

In his Facebook statement, he wrote that he is “safe” and that he had hoped his Instagram platform would serve as a cover for Palestinians who “cannot afford to lose their accounts” by documenting their plight within Gaza and the West Bank.

“I refuse to betray my values and principles by staying silent about this genocide and the war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank,” he wrote. “You can NEVER mince words about genocide. You can never mince words about war crimes. ⁣You MUST speak truth to power every way you know how.”

He said he feared Meta would further retaliate against Palestinians.

Many on Facebook commented their support under his post. But others online were more critical, and even some pro-Palestinian activists celebrated his account's removal.

King has been a controversial figure online, having faced repeated accusations of failing to deliver money he raised to the intended recipients. He has also faced allegations of lying about his biracial background, accusations he denied in a 2015 essay.

Some on X resurfaced the hashtag #BlockShaunKing, which first trended on the platform more than two years ago after Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, and Lisa Simpson, mother of Richard Risher, called him out for “monopolizing and capitalizing [on]” the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I support Palestine. I do not support Shaun King,” one X user posted to more than 4,000 likes. The user added in a reply: “I understand the role he has played in showcasing information coming from Palestine, but I do not believe his intentions were pure, and I do believe intentions matter with regards to doing this kind of work.”

Another user wrote on X: “The best Christmas gift I could imagine is Shaun King getting deleted from the internet. He is not the hill anyone should die on. Follow actual Palestinians. Follow actual Black people. Let’s not take known grifters into the new year, thanks!”

Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.

POSTMODERN WAR COMMUNISM

Ghost Ships at reawakened North Korea port put Ukraine in peril

Jon Herskovitz - Bloomberg News (TNS)

A dormant North Korean port near the border with Russia has sprung back to life, fueling what experts say is a burgeoning trade in arms destined for the frontlines in Ukraine that is simultaneously bolstering the anemic economy managed by Kim Jong Un.


Satellite imagery of the Najin port taken from October to December shows a steady stream of ships at the facility, hundreds of shipping containers being loaded and unloaded, and rail cars ready to transport goods.

The activity appears to have picked up since early October, when the U.S. accused North Korea of sending munitions to Russia. The White House provided imagery it said showed weapons later being delivered thousands of miles away to a depot in the Russian town of Tikhoretsk for use in Ukraine.

The flow of munitions that the U.S. and South Korea say have included hundreds of thousands of artillery shells could grow far greater in importance as divisions in the U.S. Congress and European Union over military aid threaten Kyiv’s ability to repel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

“Pyongyang’s decision to deliver munitions at scale once again underscores the grave threat that North Korea poses to international security, this time feeding a conflagration on European soil that has already cost the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and consumed tens of billions of dollars in Western military support,” according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, a U.K. security think tank.

Pyongyang, which has been banned from arms sales for about 15 years, has repeatedly rejected accusations it is supplying Russia.

Analysis of the satellite data suggests otherwise. In a recent example, an image from Dec. 9 seems to show the Russian container ship Angara, sanctioned by the U.S., in Najin’s port unloading cargo while containers from North Korea await loading at an adjacent pier.

“Satellite imagery shows that round trips of cargo vessels between Najin, North Korea, and Dunay, Russia, have continued unabatedly despite additional U.S. sanctions and widespread reporting on this activity in the past few months,” said Jaewoo Shin, an analyst at the Open Nuclear Network in Vienna.

Shin said that while the nature of the cargo can’t be confirmed with available imagery, the number of round trips and transferred containers suggest a significant and ongoing exchange, possibly including weapons and other military supplies.

As the North Korea-Russia trade picks up, the flow of U.S. military aid to Kyiv has been increasingly under threat, with the Pentagon saying it will run out of money to replace weapons sent to Ukraine by Dec. 30 unless Congress approves additional funding. That’s unlikely now, with most lawmakers out of Washington for the year-end holidays.

With an effective stalemate on the battlefield, the Kremlin is increasingly confident Russia can consolidate its control over occupied regions of eastern and southern Ukraine and wait for international support for Ukraine to erode. Putin said this month that “there’ll be peace when we achieve our goals.”

For many U.S. partners, the flagging support for Ukraine is tied in part to a much-vaunted counteroffensive during the spring and summer that failed to deliver on the high expectations of allies.

While satellite imagery shows steady activity at Najin, the vessels docking there appear to have turned off international maritime transponders that give their location, effectively turning them into ghost ships as they make the relatively short trip between Najin and Dunay — also written as Dunai — about 110 miles away. The Central Intelligence Agency identified the port as a Soviet submarine base during the Cold War, according to a document obtained by RUSI, the U.K. think tank.

RUSI’s October report analyzed dozens of high-resolution images that it concluded showed a few cargo vessels repeatedly making the trip between Najin and Dunay, likely packed with North Korean arms that are then sent across Russia.

That trade appears to have continued in the time since the report was published, according to Joseph Byrne, a research fellow at RUSI and co-author of the report.

“There has been a continuation of deliveries by these vessels,” he said, adding there is “a continuation of the unloading of boxes loaded in Russia and delivered to North Korea and then the loading of containers that have seemingly comes down from rail cars from other places in North Korea to apparently be shipped back to Russian military facilities.”

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in November there had been about 10 shipments of weapons from North Korea to Russia since August, likely encompassing more than 1 million rounds of artillery. North Korea holds some of the world’s largest stores of munitions, much of it interoperable with weapons Russia has on the front lines.

“About six weeks later, I’ve seen no signs of the transfer rate slowing down — so for all we know that’s another half million shells,” said weapons expert Joost Oliemans, who co-authored the book The Armed Forces of North Korea.

Oliemans said he’s identified four types of munitions that have been a part of recent deliveries: 120 millimeter mortars, 122mm and 152 mm artillery shells and 122 mm rockets based on an analysis of what is making its way to the front lines.

“The situation on the battlefield is impacted” by those deliveries, he said. “Rather than seeing a notable change in tactics or swaths of land suddenly changing hands, it will allow Russia to keep up much higher pressure for longer on Ukrainian forces.”

An extra one million shells means about 2,700 rounds more per day Russia could fire at Ukraine, which is already having trouble procuring artillery and may face more difficulty if aid from the U.S. isn’t secured.

“How much exactly North Korea will be able to deliver is anyone’s guess,” Oliemans said, adding that deliveries will likely slow down once inventories become depleted, with North Korea’s manufacturing capabilities insufficient to keep up with the pace of demand.

Russia’s importance to North Korea had waned after the end of the Cold War, with China becoming Pyongyang’s biggest benefactor. Trade between Russia and North Korea slowed to a trickle when Kim shut the borders at the start of the pandemic.

But as COVID protections eased, and international sanctions hung over Moscow and Pyongyang, the two rekindled ties, finding they each had something the other wanted and could trade without real repercussions from the outside world.

The assistance Kim receives from Russia is easing the pressure of years of sanctions over his increasing nuclear arsenal and potentially making the already-tense situation on the Korean Peninsula worse.

“With both Kim and Putin recognizing the utility and benefits of partnership, cooperation is likely to continue between North Korea and Russia into next year,” said Soo Kim, a former Korea analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, who now works at U.S.-based management consulting firm LMI.

“The give-and-take between the two countries is unlikely to be stopped so long as the international consequences — sanctions, reputational shaming — remain symbolic and largely insufficient to deter bad behavior,” she said.

(With assistance from Kevin Varley.)

©2023 Bloomberg L.P. 

Ghost Ships at Reawakened North Korea Port Put Ukraine in Peril

Nothing Personal

Dec 26, 2023

A dormant North Korean port near the border with Russia has sprung back to life, fueling what experts say is a burgeoning trade in arms destined for the frontlines in Ukraine that is simultaneously bolstering the anemic economy managed by Kim Jong Un.

U$A

Patient infections and falls, spiked in hospitals owned by private equity: study

BY TARA SUTER - 12/26/23 

(File: Getty)

Patient falls and infections spiked at hospitals that were taken over by private equity firms according to a new study.

The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of American Medicine, used data from 100 percent Medicare Part A claims and found that three years after hospitals experienced private equity acquisition, there was a 25.4 percent rise in “hospital-acquired conditions, which was driven by falls and central line–associated bloodstream infections.”

“Medicare beneficiaries at private equity hospitals were modestly younger, less likely to have dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, and transferred more to other acute care hospitals relative to control, likely reflecting a lower-risk population of admitted beneficiaries,” the study read.

“This potentially explained a small relative reduction for in-hospital mortality that dissipated by 30 days after hospital discharge.”

Two weeks ago, the Lower Costs, More Transparency Leadership Act passed the House after facing previous opposition in September from Democrats like Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) due to it not having any provisions regarding private equity ownership of health facilities.

The bill also has an aim of banning spread pricing from pharmacy benefit managers, alongside adding site-neutral payment reforms to Medicare.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) described the legislation as “is a victory for everyone who has ever struggled to navigate and understand the cost of a health care procedure or a prescription drug at the pharmacy counter.”

“These measures will empower consumers and employers with data on the prices hospitals charge and the rates insurers pay so that they can compare prices and save money,” Pallone added.