Survivor Mental Health

Who Cares About The Mental Health Of Victims Of Witch Hunting?

In Jharkhand, there is no accounting of the mental health effects of being marked a ‘witch’
SWATI SHIKHA

Activism
An Activist Against Witch Hunting Shares Her Insights

Lack of access to healthcare is a major factor that leads to the branding of women as ‘witches’
AJITHA SUSAN GEORGE

Witch Killings

A Poet Recounts The Story Of Her Mother Being Branded A ‘Witch’

More than the lack of education and health services, it is the politics of dispossessing a woman that keeps the belief in the ‘witch’ alive
JACINTA KERKETTA

Interview
When A ‘Witch’ Fights Back

In a candid interview with Abhik Bhattacharya and Md. Asghar Khan, Padma Shri awardee Chutni Mahato talks about her travails after she was branded a witch and became a saviour to 140 victims of witch hunting in Jharkhand
ABHIK BHATTACHARYA

The Making Of A Witch

The Cult Of Jai Gurudev Sangh And Invention Of Witches In Jharkhand's Gumla

Recounting the horrors Geeta Devi, an older woman, had to undergo at the hands of fellow villagers, who not only lynched her but also banished her from the village, Jyoti Kumari and Pallavi Pratibha tell us how women could be branded a witch for their facial features
JYOTI KUMARI

Greece Train Crash: Thousands March In Athens As Anger Intensifies Over Deaths

At least 57 people, including several university students, died when a passenger train slammed into a freight carrier just before midnight Tuesday. The government has blamed human error and a railway official faces manslaughter charges.

Thousands gathered to protest against deaths in train crash in Athens. AP

 04 MAR 2023 

Protests have intensified in Greece days after the country's deadliest rail disaster, as thousands of students took to the streets in several cities and some protesters clashed with police in Athens

At least 57 people, including several university students, died when a passenger train slammed into a freight carrier just before midnight Tuesday. The government has blamed human error and a railway official faces manslaughter charges.

Friday night's violence was not extensive and the protests were otherwise peaceful. Clashes also occurred in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki.

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Greece Strike: Artists, Students Stage Protest Against Changes In Qualification System Of Civil Service Jobs


In Athens, riot police outside parliament fired tear gas and flash grenades to disperse a small number of protesters who hurled petrol bombs at them, set fire to garbage bins, and challenged police cordons. No arrests or injuries were reported.

The protests called by left-wing and student groups were fuelled by anger at the perceived lack of safety measures in Greece's rail network. The largest on Friday was in the central Greek city of Larissa, not far from the crash site, where several thousand people marched peacefully. Similar protests were held on Wednesday and Thursday.
First funeral in Northern Greece

The accident at Tempe, 380 kilometres (235 miles) north of Athens, shocked the nation and highlighted safety shortcomings in the small but dated rail network.

As recovery teams spent a third day scouring the wreckage on Friday and families began receiving the remains of their loved ones, the funeral for the first of the victims was held in northern Greece.

Athina Katsara, a 34-year-old mother of an infant boy, was buried in her home town of Katerini. Her injured husband was in hospital and unable to attend.
Harrowing identification process

The force of the head-on collision and resulting fire complicated the task of determining the death toll. Officials worked round the clock to match parts of dismembered and burned bodies with tissue samples to establish the number.

The bodies were returned to families in closed caskets following identification through next-of-kin DNA samples -- a process followed for all the remains.

Relatives of passengers still listed as unaccounted-for waited outside a Larissa hospital for test results. Among them was Mirella Ruci, whose 22-year-old son, Denis, remained missing.

"My son is not on any official list so far and I have no information. I am pleading with anyone who may have seen him, in rail car 5, seat 22, to contact me if they may have seen him," Ruci, who struggled to stop her voice from cracking, told reporters.

Flags at half staff

Flags at the ancient Acropolis, parliament and other public buildings around Greece remained at half-staff on the third day of national mourning. National rail services were halted by a strike for a second day, with more strikes planned over the weekend.

Police early on Friday searched a rail coordination office in Larissa, removing evidence as part of an ongoing investigation. The facility's 59-year-old station manager was arrested and charged with multiple counts of negligent manslaughter.

Stelios Sourlas, a lawyer representing a 23-year-old victim of the collision, said responsibility for the deaths went beyond the station manager.

"The station manager may have the principle responsibility ... but the responsibility is also broader: There are the rail operators and public officials whose job it was to ensure that safety measures and procedures were properly in place," Sourlas said.

Rail unions say the network was poorly maintained despite upgrades to provide faster trains in recent years.

Election plans delayed?

Greece's centre-right government had been widely expected on Friday to call national elections for early April, but the announcement and likely date was likely to be delayed.

The passenger train involved in the crash was travelling along Greece's busiest route, from Athens to Thessaloniki. The freight train was heading in the opposite direction, on the same track.

Two of the victims were identified on Friday as Cypriot students Anastasia Adamidou and Kyprianos Papaioannou. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said the state would cover the cost of their repatriation and funerals.

Neighbouring Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that flags on public buildings will be lowered to half-staff on Sunday, as a mark of respect for the victims in Greece.

Strike, Protests In Greece As Anger Grows Over Train Crash

By Karolina Tagaris and Lefteris Papadimas
03/03/23 

Debris is seen on the site of a crash, where two trains collided, near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 3, 2023. REUTERS

Greek railway workers extended their strike to a second day on Friday, and more protest rallies were planned, amid anger over a devastating train crash that killed at least 57, among them many university students.

Carriages were thrown off the tracks, crushed and engulfed in flames when a high-speed passenger train with more than 350 people on board collided head-on with a freight train late on Tuesday.

"The federation has been sounding alarm bells for so many years, but it has never been taken seriously," the main railworkers union said, demanding a meeting with the new transport minister, appointed after the crash with a mandate to ensure such a tragedy can never happen again.

The union said it wanted a clear timetable for the implementation of safety protocols. Questions around the crash - which happened as the two trains were on the same track - involve faulty signalling and maintenance issues.

Work resumed at the crash site, where rescue staff used cranes to lift some of the carriages that were thrown off the tracks - which could be wrapped up on Friday.

"The operation is under way, it was planned to end today, we hope it will end today but there's always the unknown factor," a fire brigade official said.

It was unclear if more were still missing, or how many.

Amid shock and sorrow in a country where three days of national mourning have been declared, families and friends said they wanted answers over how such a crash could have happened.

On Thursday, outside the hospital in Larissa, where many of the victims were brought, a woman called Katerina, whose brother was missing, screamed: "Murderers! Murderers! I will leave tomorrow with a coffin!"

Katerina, whose anger was directed at the government and the rail company, had, like other relatives looking for loved ones, given a DNA sample to try and identify her brother.

A woman whose husband and five-year-old son were on the train told Greek TV: "All those people who are there, they're useless, useless. Some MPs are coming out and offering condolences, so what? Will it bring our children back?"

Asked if she gave DNA for identification, she said, on footage broadcast by Mega TV: "to identify what, ashes?"

After evening protests over the past two days, two more protest rallies are planned in Athens on Friday, around noon and in the evening.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/03/greek-rail-workers-strike-over.html

Japan Unions Ask Average 4.5% Wage Hike, Biggest Since 1990s

By Reuters
March 3, 2023, 

 People wearing protective face masks walk on a pedestrian crossing, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan January 19, 2022. 

REUTERS/Issei KatoREUTERS

By Kantaro Komiya

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's trade unions are demanding the biggest wage hike in more than two decades at their spring pay negotiations, a national labour tally showed on Friday, as the government and central bank urge firms to raise workers' wages to support the economy.

A survey of more than 2,000 unions nationwide showed an average 4.49% raise request for this year, first time above 4% since 1998's 4.36%, according to the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC). This is also the highest since the mid-1990s, a statement by JTUC shows.

Workers in the world's third-largest economy have been emboldened by policymakers' calls for wage hikes to sustain a frail post-pandemic economic recovery threatened by a four-decade-high inflation.

Despite the higher cost burden, major Japanese firms have promised large pay increases to retain skilled workers amid labour crunch. World's largest car maker Toyota last week accepted a union demand for the biggest base salary growth in 20 years, while fashion brand Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing last month announced an up to 40% pay hike.

The JTUC preliminary survey showed the average union demand during this year's annual labour talks, called "shunto" in Japanese, was much larger than 2022's 2.97%.

JTUC, commonly known as "Rengo", is the largest labour organisation in the country representing about seven million workers. Although those working at smaller businesses, on temporary terms or without union membership tend to receive a much smaller, if not flat, pay growth, the result of shunto is seen as a harbinger of the country's wage trends.

Bank of Japan officials have said the outcome of the wage hikes is an important criterion to determine the future course of its ultra-loose monetary policy.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya)

Mexico Can't Match U.S. Incentives for Proposed Tesla Battery Plant, Minister Says

By Reuters
March 3, 2023, 


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico would not be able to match the incentives offered under a U.S. act to tame inflation if Tesla Inc builds a battery plant in the country, Mexico's finance minister said on Friday, days after Tesla announced the construction of a "gigafactory" there.

Tesla has not confirmed whether it will also build a battery plant in Mexico, but local officials say Tesla has visited the central states of Hidalgo, Queretaro and Puebla to scout potential sites.

"We didn't let (Tesla) waste their time thinking that we would be able to match the U.S.' Inflation Reduction Act," Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez told journalists at an event with Citigroup's Mexico unit.

A representative for Tesla in Latin America did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Signed in August, the Inflation Reduction Act offers a $7,500 tax credit to electric-vehicle buyers if the car's battery meets a threshold for sourcing parts from the U.S. or other free trade partners, such as Mexico.

CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that Tesla would build a gigafactory in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, which local officials said could bring investment of up to $10 billion and create 10,000 jobs.

While Mexico welcomed the investment, Tesla said it "did not need any sort of fiscal stimulus" beyond the benefits allowed under Mexico's free trade agreements to build the plant, according to Ramirez.

A decision on a battery plant in Mexico has yet to be announced.

"The battery plant was not in (Tesla's) original plan, it was the Mexican government's suggestion," Ramirez said.

Without legislation, Ramirez said, Mexico would not be able to match U.S. incentives.

(Reporting by Kylie Madry and Noe Torres; Editing by Sarah Morland)

COMRADES DRAG IS REVOLUTIONARY

Chinese men take to modeling lingerie on livestreams after China bans females from doing so

Well played.


Julia Yee |  March 04, 2023, 
 

China's censorship laws often find themselves under blast from more liberal international parties.

This time, rebellion has come from within its ranks instead.

China is home to a booming livestream shopping scene.

Livestreams contribute to around 10% of the financial giant's e-commerce revenue.

It was estimated to be worth over RMB4.9 trillion (S$956 billion) by 2023.

In light of females being banned from wearing underwear in livestreams, however, online lingerie sellers have turned to some creative problem-solving to continue meeting targets.

Ban on femininity

According to Business Insider, live broadcasts featuring female models in lingerie "have had a history of being promptly shut down and banned".

This was the result of a law created to prevent the spread of obscene material online.

Female models weren't the only ones affected by the law, either.

Reuters reported that China's campaign to cleanse their media of entertainers "polluting" the minds of society and cultivate a "patriotic atmosphere" saw idols with "incorrect political positions" and "effeminate" styles being frozen out.

Loophole

Despite the ban against their primary form of marketing, lingerie sellers refused to be disheartened, getting men to fill in instead.

After one account replaced their female model with a guy in December 2022, many were quick to follow suit.

The internet — big surprise — was infinitely amused.

Photo via Weibo 普信小美


"The guy wears it better than the girl," a Douyin user commented on this video.

Photo via Douyin 老婆大人的轻奢闺房

Another viewer remarked: "Boss' aesthetic not bad today."

Photo via Douyin 小心辛

Others were less receptive.

This one user told the male model featured in 老婆大人的轻奢闺房's videos, "Bro don't be like that".

Photo via Douyin 骑驴的猫

Some viewers suggested that mannequins would be a better alternative to accurately showcase female garments.

They objected to the trend, saying it was "depriving women of job opportunities."

Livestream business owner Mr. Xu responded, telling Jiupai News: "Personally, we don't really have a choice. The designs can't be modelled by our female colleagues, so we will use our male colleagues to model it. Many directors of these livestreams are women, are they also stealing men's jobs?"

Not the first

Male models being used to sell women's products isn't a new thing.

A 41-year-old businessman Wu Nan from Sichuan makes roughly US$900,000 (S$1 million) selling high heels that he models himself.

Photo via NextShark and Douyin 穿高跟鞋的吴大叔旗舰店

28-year-old influencer Austin Li Jiaqi, better known as China's "口红一哥" ("lipstick king"), also makes bank modelling lipstick shades and reviewing luxury goods.

Racist Political System Thwarts Candidacy of Mayan Woman in Guatemala

By Edgardo AyalaReprint |


Thelma Cabrera and Jordán Rodas launch their candidacy for the presidency and vice presidency of Guatemala in December 2022, which has been vetoed by the courts, in a maneuver that has drawn criticism from human rights groups at home and abroad. CREDIT: Twitter

SANTA CATARINA PALOPÓ, Guatemala, Mar 4 2023 (IPS) - Centuries of racism and exclusion suffered by indigenous peoples in Guatemala continue to weigh heavily, as demonstrated by the denial of the registration of a political party that is promoting the presidential candidacy of indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera in the upcoming general elections.

On Mar. 2, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court ruled against Cabrera’s party, the leftist Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), which had appealed a Feb. 15 Supreme Court resolution that left them out of the Jun. 25 elections.

“There is a racist system and structure, and we indigenous people have barely managed to start climbing the steps, but with great difficulty and zero opportunities.” -- Silvia Menchú

Cabrera’s candidacy and that of her vice-presidential running-mate Jordán Rodas are now hanging by a thread, with their hopes depending on a few last resort legal challenges.

The deadline for the registration of candidates is Mar. 25.

A centuries-old racist system

Guatemala’s political and economic elites “are looking for ways to keep her (Cabrera) from registering; everyone has the right to participate, but they are blocking her,” Sonia Nimacachi, 31, a native of Santa Catarina Palopó, told IPS. The municipality, which has a Cachiquel Mayan indigenous majority, is in the southwestern Guatemalan department of Sololá.

“We would like a person with our roots and culture to become president, I think it would help our people,” added Nimacachi, standing by her street stall in the center of town.

Nimacachi, a Cachiquel Mayan woman, sells “granizadas” or snow cones: crushed ice sweetened with syrup of various flavors, perfect for hot days.

“There is a racist system and structure, and we indigenous people have barely managed to start climbing the steps, but with great difficulty and zero opportunities,” Silvia Menchú, director of the K’ak’a Na’oj (New Knowledge, in Cachiquel) Association for the Development of Women, told IPS.

The organization, based in Santa Catarina Palopó, carries out human rights programs focused on indigenous women.

Santa Catarina Palopó, a picturesque Cachiquel Mayan town located on the shore of Lake Atitlán in the southwestern Guatemalan department of Sololá, is preparing for the upcoming general elections, where voters will choose a new president, vice president, 160 members of Congress, 20 members of the Central American Parliament, as well as 340 mayors. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

“Racism has prevailed, we are mistreated everywhere by the government and the authorities, we are seen as people with little capacity,” said Menchú, of the Maya Quiché ethnic group.

An alleged illegality attributed to Rodas, the vice-presidential candidate, was the cause for denying the MLP the right to register for the elections.

Analysts and social organizations perceive obscure maneuvering on the part of the powers-that-be, who cannot accept the idea that an indigenous woman is trying to break through the barriers of the country’s rigid, racist political system.

Cabrera is a 51-year-old Mayan Mam woman who is trying for a second time to run in the unequal fight for the presidency of this Central American country of 14.9 million inhabitants.

Of the total population, 43.7 percent identify as indigenous Mayan, Xinca, Garífuna and Afro-descendant peoples, according to the 2018 census.

In the 2019 elections Cabrera came in fourth place, winning 10 percent of the total votes cast.

In the Jun. 25 general elections voters will choose a new president for the period 2024-2028, as well as 160 members of Congress and 20 members of the Central American Parliament, and 340 mayors.

In Guatemala, the ancient Mayan culture was flourishing when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century.

The descendants of that pre-Hispanic civilization still speak 24 different autochthonous languages, most of which are Mayan.

Years of exclusion and neglect of indigenous rural populations led Guatemala to a civil war that lasted 36 years (1960-1996) and left some 250,000 dead or disappeared.

The presidential candidacy of Thelma Cabrera, of the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), must be allowed by the Guatemalan authorities, so that the indigenous population is represented in the Jun. 25 elections, says Silvia Menchú, director of the K’ak’a Na’oj (New Knowledge, in Cachiquel) Association for the Development of Women. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

A blatant maneuver

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s (TSE) rejection of the MLP arose from a complaint against Rodas, who served between 2017 and 2022 as head of the Office for the Defense of Human Rights.

In that office, Rodas strongly questioned alleged acts of corruption by the current government of Alejandro Giammattei, who took office in January 2020.

The criminal complaint against the vice-presidential candidate was filed on Jan. 6 by the current head of the Office for the Defense of Human Rights, Alejandro Córdoba.

After Cabrera and Rodas attempted to register as candidates, Córdoba said he had “doubts” about some payments allegedly received by his predecessor in the Office for the Defense of Human Rights.

His “doubts” apparently had to do with some alleged illegality on the part of Rodas, but since Córdoba has not described it in detail, his statements have been nothing but a weak half-hearted accusation.

However, that was enough for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to reject the MLP on Feb. 2, which triggered protests by rural and indigenous people, who blocked roads in at least 12 parts of the country.

According to Guatemalan law, all candidates for popularly elected positions must have a document that attests that they have no pending legal issues.

But analysts have pointed out that this document should only take into account actual legal rulings handed down by courts, and not “doubts” vaguely expressed by some government official.

By vetoing Rodas, the TSE automatically bars his presidential runningmate Cabrera, who may actually be the ultimate target of the maneuver, since she is the one who is trying, once again, to win the votes of the indigenous population.

On Feb. 15, the MLP runningmates filed a provisional injunction with the Supreme Court, so that it would take effect immediately and overrule the TSE’s decision, while the Supreme Court studied and resolved the matter in depth.

But the injunction was rejected, so the MLP appealed the next day to the Constitutional Court, asking it to review the case and order the Supreme Court to admit the provisional injunction, to allow the fight for the registration of Cabrera and Rodas to continue forward.

But the appeal was denied Thursday Mar. 2 by the Constitutional Court.

However, the Supreme Court has not yet issued a final ruling on the injunction, but only a provisional stance. This means that when it is finally issued, if it goes against the MLP, Cabrera and Rodas could once again turn to the Constitutional Court, in a last-ditch effort.

But it seems as if the die is already cast.

In a tweet on Thursday Mar. 2, Rodas wrote: “The constitutional justice system has denied my constitutional right to be elected and denies the population the right to choose freely. We await the Supreme Court ruling on the injunction and the position of the @IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights). Our fight continues.”

Guatemala’s political and economic elites are determined to block the candidacy of indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera, says Sonia Nimacachi, a Cachiquel Mayan woman selling snowcones in Santa Catarina Palopó, in the country’s southwest. She would vote for Cabrera again, if her candidacy is finally allowed. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Cabrera’s second attempt

This is Cabrera’s second attempt to run for the presidency. Her first was in the 2019 elections, when she failed to fully capture the indigenous vote.

“I would dare to think that the majority of the indigenous population did not vote for her because of those instilled prejudices: that she is a woman and also indigenous, not a professional, are issues that have nothing to do with the dignity and the quality of a person,” argued Silvia Menchú.

She added that the right-wing parties have been allies of the country’s evangelical churches, through which they keep in submission segments of the indigenous population that end up supporting conservative parties, rather than a candidate who comes from their Mayan culture.

To illustrate, she said that in Santa Catarina Palopó, a town of 6,000 people, there is only one school to cover primary and middle-school education, “but there are about 15 evangelical churches.”

The TSE’s veto of the registration of Cabrera and Rodas puts the credibility of the elections at risk, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) warned on Feb. 27.

In a joint statement, the two organizations said the electoral authority’s rejection of aspiring candidates “is based on dubious grounds, puts political rights at risk, and undermines the credibility of the electoral process.”

Related IPS ArticlesStruggle in Guatemala Offers Hope for Latin America’s Indigenous People

“The electoral process is taking place in the context of a decline in the rule of law, in which the institutions responsible for overseeing the elections have little independence or credibility,” they stated.

In addition to Cabrera and Rodas, the TSE also rejected the registration of right-wing candidate Roberto Arzú, because he allegedly began campaigning too early.

HRW and Wola added that “efforts to exclude or prosecute opposition candidates create unequal conditions that could prevent free and fair elections from taking place.”

Meanwhile, the TSE did endorse, on Feb. 4, the presidential candidacy of Zury Ríos, daughter of General Efraín Ríos Montt, who governed de facto between 1982 and 1983.

In 2013 the general was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity for the massacre of more than 1,400 indigenous Ixil people in the north of the country.

He was sentenced to 80 years in prison, but the Constitutional Court later revoked the ruling. Ríos Montt died in April 2018.

Article 186 of the Guatemalan constitution prohibits people involved in coups d’état, or their relatives, for running for president.

Meanwhile, snowcone vendor Sonia Nimacachi said in the central square of Santa Catarina Palopó that she still held out hope that Cabrera would be able to register as a candidate.

“If they let her participate, I would vote for her again,” she said, while serving a customer.

Hundreds of fearful sub-Saharan migrants flee Tunisia


By AFP
Published March 3, 2023

Fearful Ivorians camp outside their country's embassy in Tunis desperate to be repatriated following a wave of attacks targeting sub-Saharan migrants in the North African country - Copyright AFP/File 

FETHI BELAID
Françoise Kadri

Around 300 nationals of Ivory Coast and Mali were to be flown home from Tunisia on Saturday, fearful of a wave of violence against sub-Saharan migrants since President Kais Saied delivered a controversial tirade against them last month.

In his February 21 speech, Saied ordered officials to take “urgent measures” to tackle irregular migration, claiming without evidence that “a criminal plot” was underway “to change Tunisia’s demographic makeup”.

Saied charged that migrants were behind most crime in the North African country, fueling a spate of sackings, evictions and physical attacks against the community.

The African Union expressed “deep shock and concern at the form and substance” of Saied’s remarks, while governments in sub-Saharan Africa scrambled to organise the repatriation of hundreds of fearful nationals who flocked to their embassies for help.

A first group of 50 Guineans were flown home on Wednesday, while Mali and Ivory Coast are to repatriate 300 of their citizens on special flights on Saturday.

“Air Cote d’Ivoire has a flight scheduled for 0700 (0600 GMT) on Saturday morning that will carry 145 passengers,” Ivorian ambassador Ibrahim Sy Savane said.

In total, 1,100 Ivorians have applied to be repatriated from Tunisia, he added.

According to official figures, there are around 21,000 undocumented sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia, a country of about 12 million inhabitants.

The Ivorian community numbers around 7,000 people.

Mali has also chartered a plane to repatriate around 150 people.

Junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita has given “very firm instructions” to assist nationals who are in distress, a Malian diplomat in Tunis told AFP.

Guineans among the first group to be repatriated on Wednesday said they had been subjected to manhunts in Tunisia.

Ibrahima Barry, 26, spoke of a “wave of hatred without reason”.

“In Tunisia, if I tell you that they are savages, it is not too strong a word,” he told AFP.

Many of the sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia lost their jobs and homes overnight.

Dozens were arrested after identity checks, and some are still being detained.

– ‘Mob justice’ –

Since Saied gave his speech, rights groups have reported a spike in vigilante violence including stabbings of sub-Saharan Africans.

Jean Bedel Gnabli, deputy head of an association for sub-Saharan migrants, said the whole community was living in fear.

“They feel like they’ve been handed over to mob justice.”

Migrants whose countries have embassies in Tunisia rushed to them seeking assistance.

The embassies of Ivory Coast and Mali provided emergency accommodation this week for dozens of their citizens who had been evicted from their homes, including young children.

Those with no diplomatic representation in Tunisia set up makeshift camps outside the Tunis offices of the International Organization for Migration.

Among those heading home are dozens of fee-paying or scholarship students who were enrolled in Tunisian universities and in the country legally.

AESAT, an association that supports them, sent out a message this week urging them “not to go out, even to go to class, until authorities ensure we are properly protected from these attacks”. The warning has been extended until Monday.

AESAT reported last month that four Ivorian students had been assaulted when they left their dorms, while a student from Gabon was attacked in her home.

Many students from sub-Saharan Africa have already flown home at their own expense, a student representative said.

Hundreds of Bangladeshi youngsters march to end fossil financing

Global North fossil financers cause of climate crisis, neocolonial exploitation, wars, human rights violations, say protesters

SM Najmus Sakib |04.03.2023

Credit: https://twitter.com/seectoglobal

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Hundreds of Bangladeshi youngsters demanded an end to global fossil financing on Friday and an increase in contributions to renewable energy.

Demonstrators protested in the nation’s capital of Dhaka and other cities under the Fridays for Future global theme to show solidarity with Global Climate Strike -- a school student-run movement founded by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg held annually for the last five years on March 3.

Youngsters from 30 Bangladeshi youth organizations attended the demonstrations.

They said fossil financers from the Global North are the cause of the climate crisis, neocolonial exploitation, wars and human rights violations.

Activist Mahabul Alam Tamim, founder of environmental rights group SEECTO Bangladesh in eastern Comilla, joined the protest in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka.

“Western countries tend to highlight small contributions of most vulnerable countries like Bangladesh as to how these nations contribute to global warming but in reality, they are seen unaware of their major contribution to climate change and finance to fossil fuel,” he told Anadolu as he criticized the role of global leaders.

He demanded a gradual switch to renewable energy and increase research and study to explore ways to meet Bangladesh’s goal of being a clean energy-dependent country.

Participants criticized developed countries and institutions for continuously making false promises to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change. Developed countries must adhere to the Paris climate agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius, they said, and multinational corporations must take initiatives to reduce carbon emissions without investing in the fossil fuel businesses.

Climate activists criticized those involved in Bangladesh's ongoing power crisis, citing the harmful and price-unsustainable fossil fuel LNG imports.

The chairman of the environmental science department at Stamford University in Bangladesh, Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, also participated.

He told Anadolu that clean or renewable energy hardly contributes 1% to the national demand for power.

“We demand a clean-energy-dependent country but our national plans are not saying so. The government targets to produce 75,000MW electricity by 2041 where it plans to produce less than 30,000 in renewable energy -- which is a contradiction,” he said.

Bangladesh is affected by climate change and is not bound to reduce carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement. It is the seventh-most climate change-vulnerable country, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2021.

Taiwan's Foxconn seeks chip, EV cooperation with India

The logo of Foxconn is seen outside the company's building in Taipei, Taiwan, Nov. 10, 2022. 

TAIPEI, March 4 (Reuters) - Major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) said on Saturday it was seeking cooperation in India in new areas like chips and electric vehicles (EVs) after a visit to the country by its chairman, Liu Young-way.

Apple has been shifting production away from China after the country's strict COVID-19 restrictions disrupted the manufacturing of new-model iPhones and other devices, and amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.

In January, India's trade minister said Apple, which began iPhone assembly in the country in 2017 through Wistron Corp (3231.TW) and later Foxconn, wants India to account for up to 25% of its production from about 5% to 7% currently.

Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, said Liu had visited India from Feb. 27 to Saturday.

"My trip this week supported Foxconn's efforts to deepen partnerships, meet old friends and make new ones, and seek cooperation in new areas such as semiconductor development and electric vehicles," Liu said in a statement.

Foxconn has ambitious plans to make EVs, and is also looking to make chips.

"On the basis to share, collaborate and thrive together, Foxconn will continue to communicate with local governments to seek the most beneficial development opportunities for the company and all stakeholders," Liu added.

He did not mention any new concrete investment plans in the country, and Foxconn has not announced any since his trip.

Apple's iPhones will soon be assembled at another site in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, and 300 acres (120 hectares) have been aside to set up a factory, the state government said on Friday.

Currently, iPhones are assembled in India by at least three of Apple's global suppliers - Foxconn and Pegatron (4938.TW) in Tamil Nadu, and Wistron in Karnataka.

Scientist Who Helped Create Russia's COVID Vax Found Strangled to Death

By Michael Katz    |   Friday, 03 March 2023

A man on a team of 18 scientists who helped create Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was reportedly found strangled to death with a belt in his northwest Moscow apartment on Thursday.

Andrey Botikov, 48, was a senior researcher at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.

According to the Regnum News Agency in Russia, the suspect is a 29-year-old man identified as Alexei Z., who admitted to law enforcement that he earns extra money by performing sex services. The Daily Mail reported, citing Russian media, the suspect had spent 10 years in prison on charges of providing sex services.

The Russian state-run TASS news agency said the suspect's full name is Alexey Vladimirovich Zmanovsk and that he pleaded guilty Friday at Moscow's Khoroshevo District Court to killing Botikov. TASS reported Zmanovsk was ordered detained until May 2 pending trial and that he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Regnum reported, citing a law enforcement source, investigators determined the pair were arguing at Botikov's apartment, but for what reason is unknown.

"According to preliminary data, the man grabbed the neck of the virologist and began to squeeze his throat with a belt; when the scientist stopped showing signs of life, the suspect let him go," the law enforcement source said, according to Regnum.

Russia became the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine when it gave the OK to the Sputnik V in August 2020. A late-stage study of 20,000 participants published in the journal Lancet in February 2021 said Sputnik V was safe and about 91% effective against infection and highly effective at preventing people from becoming severely ill with COVID-19.

The shot had been given the green light in more than 70 countries, including Mexico and Argentina, but not in the U.S.