Too much motivation affects our decision-making

A team from the UNIGE, in collaboration with the EPFL, reveals how motivation influences the neural circuits of perception and impacts decision-making

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE

 

IMAGE: THE PROFILE OF THIS MOUND, CLIMBED BY THE MOUSE TO QUENCH ITS THIRST, MIRRORS THE CURVE OF THE YERKES-DODSON LAW, WHICH DESCRIBES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEHAVIOURAL PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION. THE MOUSE PERFORMS THIS TASK WITH THE HELP OF ITS WHISKERS, WHICH ARE ESSENTIAL FOR EXPLORING THE WORLD IN RODENTS. view more 

CREDIT: © GENERATED BY DALL-E

In a good or a bad mood, focused or distracted, in dire or no need: our internal states directly influence our perceptions and decision-making. While the role of motivation on the performance of behavioural tasks has been known for more than a century - thanks to the work of psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dilligham Dodson - its precise effect on the brain remains unclear. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the EPFL, has revealed how motivation alters the neural circuits responsible for sensory perception preceding decision-making in mice. This study reveals why a level of motivation that is too high or too low can affect our perception and therefore our choices. These results, featured in the journal Neuron, open up new perspectives in learning methods. 

Going to work early in the morning, choosing a restaurant at lunchtime: many of our decisions are motivated by needs, such as earning a living or satisfying our hunger. However, decision-making is a complex process, which can also be influenced by external factors, such as the environment or other individuals, and by our internal states, such as our mood, our level of attention or our degree of motivation.

The laboratory of Sami El-Boustani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Basic Neurosciences at the Faculty of Medicine of the UNIGE and recipient of an Eccellenza fellowship (SNSF), is studying the neural circuits involved in decision-making. In recent work, carried out in collaboration with Professor Carl Petersen’s team at EPFL, his lab has studied the role played by a specific internal state - motivation - in perception and decision-making. For more than a century it has been known that a relationship between motivation and performance exists thanks to the work of American psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dilligham Dodson. Too much or too little motivation is detrimental to performance. However, the way in which this impacts our neural circuits remains unclear. ‘‘We wanted to observe how sensory information transmitted by neurons in the cortex is altered by the degree of motivation and to what extent the latter can have an effect on learning and performance in a decision-making task,’’ explains Sami El-Boustani, the lead author of the study.

The research team developed a behavioral paradigm involving mice in a controlled water consumption regime. They first trained these rodents to respond to tactile stimuli via two whiskers (A and B) and to produce an action - licking a spout - only for whisker A in order to obtain a drop of water. Following this training, these mice reacted mainly to the stimulation of whisker A, thus indicating their ability to discriminate between these two sensations. Finally, the researchers conducted these experiments at decreasing levels of thirst in order to vary the motivation of the rodents to participate in the task.

State of hyper-motivation blurs sensory information

In a state of great thirst - therefore of great motivation - rodents performed poorly. They licked the spout indiscriminately, without distinguishing between the whiskers stimulated. In contrast, in a state of moderate thirst, the choice of their action became optimal. They mainly licked the spout when whisker A was stimulated. Finally, when they were not very thirsty, their performance in the task dropped again.

By observing the activity of neuronal populations responsible for perceptual decision-making in these mice, the researchers discovered that neurons in these circuits were flooded with electrical signals when mice were hyper-motivated. Conversely, in a state of low-motivation, the signals were too weak. ‘‘Hyper-motivation leads to strong stimulation of cortical neurons, which causes a loss of precision in the perception of tactile stimuli,’’ says Giulio Matteucci, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Sami El-Boustani’s laboratory and the study’s first author.

In contrast, in the low-motivation state, the accuracy of the sensory information was recovered, but the strength of the signal was too low for it to be transferred correctly. As a result, the perception of the stimuli was also impaired.

A new understanding of learning

These results open up new perspectives. They provide a possible neural basis for the Yerkes-Dodson Law. ‘‘They also reveal that the level of motivation does not only impact decision-making but also the perception of sensory information, which leads to the decision’’, explains Carl Petersen, Full Professor at the Brain Mind Institute of EPFL and co-senior author in the study.

This work also suggests that it is necessary to decouple acquisition and expression of new knowledge. ‘‘We observed that mice understood the rule very quickly but could only express this learning much later, depending on an altered perception linked to their level of motivation.’’ This unraveling of the role of motivation in learning opens the way to new adaptive methods that aim to maintain an optimal level of motivation during learning.

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JOURNAL

Neuron

DOI

10.1016/j.neuron.2022.09.032 

ARTICLE TITLE

Cortical sensory processing across motivational states during goal-directed behavior

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Oct-2022

US life expectancy drops as Europe shows signs of recovery post-COVID, study finds

Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY
Mon, October 17, 2022 



In 2020, most countries around the world experienced a shocking decline in life expectancy as COVID-19 wreaked havoc on society. But as some countries show signs of recovery, a new study found the United States continues to see its life expectancy in free-fall.

Researchers looked at data from 29 countries around the world and found seven countries in western Europe saw a significant increase in life expectancy in 2021, according to the study published Monday in Nature Human Behavior. Four of those countries – France, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden – returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, the U.S. reported the third-largest decline in life expectancy, following closely behind Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The study is the latest example of how issues relating to the U.S. health care system, policies and public behavior, which impacted life expectancy before COVID-19, were exacerbated by the pandemic, experts say.

“Most of the developed countries experienced some recovery during 2021 ... whereas the U.S. was among the countries that had the largest decreases in life expectancy that year,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, who is not affiliated with the study.

Study authors said life expectancy in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden returned to pre-pandemic levels by reducing mortality in people 60 and over. They attributed life expectancy declines in other countries to continued mortality in this age group.

But the U.S. was the only country that continued to see life expectancy losses because of increasing mortality in people under 60, explaining for “more than half of the loss in U.S. life expectancy since the start of the pandemic,” study authors said.

The study suggests vaccine uptake may be partly to blame. Researchers analyzed the proportion of the population that was fully vaccinated as of October 2021 and found reduced life expectancy was associated with lower vaccination uptake.

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"Everyone was hit in 2020 ... 2020 was about policy response and 2021 becomes a story of vaccination, and the U.S. was not a success story," said Theresa Andrasfay, postdoctoral scholar at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, who is not affiliated with the study.

Study authors also note the country’s proportion of people with comorbid conditions – which is comparatively larger than European counterparts – may have increased mortality in the working-age population.

The study tracks with previous reporting showing U.S. life expectancy decreased from 78.86 years in 2019 to 76.99 years in 2020, and then to 76.60 years in 2021 – accumulating a net loss of 2.26 years, according to a study authored by Woolf and published in April.

Other research also shows life expectancy losses disproportionately affected Black and Latino Americans. A 2021 study found estimated reductions for these populations are 3 to 4 times that for white people, reversing over 10 years of progress made in closing the life expectancy gap.

Experts say it may take a while for American life expectancy to return to pre-pandemic levels, but even then, the U.S. would still fall behind Europe.

“The U.S. has a series of systemic problems different than what exists in Europe,” Woolf said. “Those systemic problems aren’t going away as quickly as we would like.”

Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As US life expectancy drops, Europe shows signs of recovery post-COVID

Life expectancies diverged in pandemic's second year: study

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2022 
AUTHOR: AFP



There was a dramatic divergence in the average life expectancy of people in different global regions during the second year of the pandemic, a study found Monday, as higher vaccination rates helped some nations recover far more quickly than others.. - 'Protect both old and young' - Countries that had a higher percentage of their population fully vaccinated by October 2021 had a smaller drop in life expectancy, the study found.

There was a dramatic divergence in the average life expectancy of people in different global regions during the second year of the pandemic, a study found Monday, as higher vaccination rates helped some nations recover far more quickly than others.

Because governments have counted Covid statistics in different ways, researchers have sought to give a clearer picture of the pandemic's true impact by measuring a country's total number of annual deaths from all causes and comparing it to the number from before the pandemic.

Last year, researchers at Oxford University's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science said that in 2020 the pandemic caused the biggest decrease in life expectancy since World War II.

But in 2021, a "sudden divergence appears," said Ridhi Kashyap, a professor of demography at Oxford and co-author of the latest study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

"Some countries start showing signs of a recovery," while others have "worsening, compounding losses," he told AFP.

The researchers analysed mortality data across 29 European countries, the United States and Chile since 2015.

Many countries in Western Europe saw their life expectancy bounce back to near pre-pandemic levels. France, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden even managed to fully return to 2019's number.

However in Eastern Europe, life expectancy dropped to a level not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the study said.

In Bulgaria, life expectancy fell by 25 months in 2021 after dropping 18 months the year before, meaning it plunged more than three and a half years since the start of the pandemic.

Bulgaria has the lowest vaccination rate in the European Union.

- 'Protect both old and young' -

Countries that had a higher percentage of their population fully vaccinated by October 2021 had a smaller drop in life expectancy, the study found.

"This suggests that clearly there is a link," Kashyap said.

The age of people dying from Covid also shifted younger, with the life expectancy of over-80s returning to normal in many places.

This was "partly a sign of vaccines really protecting the old," Kashyap said.

In the US, deaths of people aged over 80 bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, but fatalities soared for the middle-aged and younger, resulting in the country's life expectancy falling by nearly three months.

Jonas Schoeley, a study co-author from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, said countries such as "Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and France, managed a recovery to pre-pandemic levels of life expectancy because they managed to protect both the old and the young."

dl/pvh

© Agence France-Presse

'No conventional studio wanted my film': Oscar-winner Inarritu

Inarritu won Oscars for 'Birdman' and 'The Revenant' but struggled to find backers for his return to Mexico

 ISABEL INFANTES AFP

Issued on: 17/10/2022 -

Paris (AFP) – He was the first director in 60 years to win back-to-back Oscars, but Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu said he still struggled to generate interest in Hollywood for his return to Mexico with new film "Bardo".

"Birdman" and "The Revenant" earned Inarritu an Oscar for best picture and two for best director in 2015 and 2016.

But only Netflix was interested in the follow-up, which means "Bardo" will only get a short theatrical run in some countries next month, before landing on the streaming service in December.

"This film was not wanted by any conventional studio," Inarritu told AFP during a visit to Paris.

"It's a personal film, a film in Spanish, a film that doesn't have big stars, and it's a film that... needed considerable funding.

"Only Netflix dared to let me make this film with absolute freedom and financial support."
'Profoundly Mexican'

The dream-like movie follows a journalist -- a thinly fictionalised version of Inarritu himself -- who returns to Mexico after finding success in the United States.

When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, some critics felt the nearly three-hour film was, in the words of The Guardian, "outrageously narcissistic".

Inarritu did not take kindly to some of the reviews -- particularly the constant comparisons to Italian legend Federico Fellini (whose renowned "8 1/2" similarly focused on himself) -- which he said bordered on "racism".

"(Bardo) is profoundly Mexican," he told AFP. "We have our own, ancestral references, of great richness and of a very particular style.

"Fellini was beautiful and great, but as far as I know, Fellini didn't leave Rome, he was never an immigrant and he had no children. And my film is about fatherhood and immigrants. What does this have to do with '8 1/2'?

"Fuck -- don't we have our own filmmakers and literature? Our own imagination?"

But Inarritu does seem to have agreed with critics who felt the original cut was too long, having now shaved some 20 minutes off the running time.

He insists this was not a response to the reviews, however.

"Many of the visual effects came very late... I finished the film literally two days before I left for Venice, and the first time I saw it with an audience was in Venice with 2,000 people," he said.

"(During the screening) I realised there were opportunities to get to the point a little faster in some scenes."

'Fractured identity'

"Bardo" is Mexico's official entry for the Oscars, hoping for more of the country's huge success in the 2010s.

Alfonso Cuaron also won two directing Oscars (for "Gravity" and "Roma"), while Guillermo Del Toro won best picture and best director for "The Shape of Water".

But there is still a long way to go in redressing the imbalance of cultural knowledge between the two countries, Inarritu said.

"I have a total knowledge of American literature, history and music. But the vast majority (of Americans) don't know our culture, our history. They don't even know about the (US) invasion of Mexico" in 1846, he said.

"Bardo" is an attempt to discuss the strange relationship between the two nations -- "there are no countries more different than the United States and Mexico," he said -- as well as the Spanish heritage of California with its millions of Hispanic immigrants.

"At my age (59), it was a need to try to put these contradictory things in order... to be able to learn from them," Inarritu said.

"It was brewing for a long time and it was only now that I had the courage and ability and freedom to talk about them the way I did."

© 2022 AF

Blackmail not uncommon in football, says Pogba's agent

AFP -Rome — Professional footballers are frequent targets for blackmailers, says Paul Pogba's agent with the France star embroiled in an alleged extortion plot.

In August Paul’s elder brother Mathias published a bizarre video online promising "great revelations" about the Juventus midfielder, who according to sources is being targeted by a criminal gang.


And Rafaela Pimenta, the heir to deceased superagent Mino Raiola's empire, told Italian daily Tuttosport that players are often targeted by people hoping to extort money from very rich sportspeople.

"Being extorted or living under threat is not an uncommon problem with footballers. They're threatened because they are very exposed," Pimenta said in an interview published on Monday.

"I've seen it all, especially blackmail. The players are scared to flag these things up because they're worried about their image or they're ashamed. They keep quiet and live under incredible stress."

Sources close to the Pogba family have told AFP that money is being demanded from Paul if he wants to avoid the dissemination of allegedly compromising videos.

Mathias, 32, was charged last month along with four other people, all close to the World Cup winner who filed a complaint with Turin prosecutors in July which said he was being blackmailed for €13million.

Paul told investigators that his blackmailers wanted to discredit him by claiming he asked a marabout (holy man) to cast a spell on Paris Saint-Germain and France star Kylian Mbappe, which Paul denies.

"When Paul finally asked for help, his situation improved and he realised that there is a solution," added Pimenta.

"Everything is in the hands of the lawyers. Paul has done everything he could do."

On the field, Paul’s hopes of playing for France at the World Cup in Qatar next month hang in the balance after a knee injury. He had surgery that was described as "successful" earlier this month.

AFP

IMPERIALIST WAR MONGER

Ethiopia vows to seize airports in Tigray despite peace pledge

AFP - TODDAY

Ethiopia's government on Monday vowed to seize control of airports and other sites in Tigray, while at the same time reiterating a commitment to peace talks, as international alarm mounted over fighting in the war-torn region.


Map of Ethiopia locating Tigray region© Aude GENET

The African Union on Sunday called for an immediate and unconditional truce as combat intensified in northern Ethiopia, where pro-government forces and rebels from the Tigray region have been at war for nearly two years.

AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also urged the rivals to "recommit to dialogue" after both sides accepted an invitation to peace talks that failed to materialise as violence spiralled.

The authorities in Tigray said Sunday they were "ready to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities" and called on the international community to press the government to come to the table.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government said in a statement Monday it was "committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict through the AU-led peace talks," without addressing the ceasefire call.

But it said it would also pursue "defensive measures" to protect Ethiopia's sovereignty and territorial integrity from internal and external threats.

"These measures are necessitated not only by the repeated attacks of the TPLF (Tigray People's Liberation Front) but also by its active collusion with these hostile foreign powers," it said, without identifying them.

"It is thus imperative that the Government of Ethiopia assumes immediate control of all airports, other federal facilities, and installations in the region," the statement from the Government Communication Service (GCS) said.

- 'Catastrophic conflict' -

The conflict has killed an unknown number of civilians and unleashed a massive humanitarian crisis in Tigray and other parts of northern Ethiopia, with at least two million people driven from their homes and millions more in need of aid.

Tigray and its six million people are largely cut off from the outside world, facing dire shortages of fuel, food and medicines and lacking basic services such as communications, electricity and and banking.

Related video: Tigray accuses Eritrea of using its entire army & reservists

Duration 2:04 View on Watch

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda reacted to the GCS statement, telling AFP in a message: "It's a clear indication that the government and its ally will do everything to carry through their genocidal intent against the people of Tigray."

UN chief Antonio Guterres has joined the United States and other Western powers in voicing concern over the worsening violence in Tigray and called for a peaceful settlement to "this catastrophic conflict."

Abiy's government and the Tigrayan authorities were to attend AU-led negotiations in South Africa earlier this month but they did not go ahead, with logistical problems cited as one obstacle.

- 'Deep regret' -

Ethiopian forces along with troops from neighbouring Eritrea have meanwhile stepped up an offensive near Shire, a city of 100,000 people in northwestern Tigray, where civilian casualties have been reported in heavy shelling.

It is not possible to verify battlefield claims as access to northern Ethiopia is restricted for journalists.

US aid chief Samantha Power on Sunday warned "the risk of additional atrocities and loss of life is intensifying" around Shire, and accused Ethiopian and Eritrean forces of indiscriminate attacks.

On Friday, an aid worker from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) was among three civilians killed in an attack in Shire that also injured others.

The IRC staffer was distributing food to vulnerable civilians including women and children, said the World Food Programme (WFP).

Britain's minister for Africa, Gillian Keegan, said she was "appalled" by the attack.

"This is the 24th aid worker killed in Tigray since the start of the conflict. Civilians and aid workers must be protected and #NotATarget," Keegan wrote on Twitter.

Addis Ababa said its army strove to "avoid combat operations within urban areas to prevent civilian casualties" but urged aid workers to "distance themselves from TPLF military assets".

"The Government of Ethiopia deeply regrets any harm that might have been inflicted on civilians, including humanitarian personnel," the GCS said, adding it would investigate such incidents.

Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his rapprochement with Eritrea, sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 after accusing the TPLF of attacking federal army camps.

The TPLF had dominated Ethiopia's ruling political alliance for decades before Abiy took power in 2018 and sidelined the party.

ayv/txw/ri

Nigeria: Worst floods in a decade see 1.3 million forced from homes

More than 600 people have died and more than 1.3 million forced from their homes in the worst floods to hit Nigeria in a decade, according to the latest government figures. The country has been inundated by heavy rains since August and there are also fears the impact on the country’s farmers could leave millions facing hunger.

Daft Punk join TikTok

TikTok users will be able to use Daft Punk tunes and a filter that gives them a personalised robot helmet 

Issued on: 17/10/2022 -

Paris (AFP) – Dance legends Daft Punk may have hung up their robotic helmets last year, but they are hoping to build a new generation of fans with their own TikTok channel launching on Monday.

The deal with TikTok means that users will have access to the French duo's back catalogue of music for the first time to use in their own videos.

From the start of their career in the 1990s, Daft Punk -- aka Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo -- held on to the rights to all their music.

That means they were not covered by the deals that TikTok made with record companies in recent years to license music for the platform, requiring a direct deal with the band.

From Tuesday, fans will also be able to use two new filters for their videos, giving them a customisable robot helmet or the iconic Charlie the dog, who first appeared in the 1997 video for "Da Funk" by director Spike Jonze.

The duo will also be posting content on the channel, including elements from their 1993 to 2011 career.

BTS to fulfil military service obligations, agency says

Members of the K-pop supergroup BTS will undergo their mandatory military service, their agency says 

Issued on: 17/10/2022 

Seoul (AFP) – The members of the K-pop supergroup BTS will enlist in the military, their agency said Monday, putting an end to a years-long debate on whether the stars deserved exemptions from mandatory service.

All able-bodied South Korean men under the age of 30 must perform about two years of military service, mainly because the country remains technically at war with nuclear-armed North Korea.

BTS are credited with generating billions for the South Korean economy, and their label enjoyed a surge in profits despite holding fewer concerts during the coronavirus pandemic.

But the prospect of South Korea's mandatory military service continued to hover over BTS, with its stars ranging in age from 25-year-old Jungkook to 29-year-old Jin, who must sign up by December or risk jail time.

Bighit Music, part of BTS's agency Hybe, said on Monday that "the members of BTS are currently moving forward with plans to fulfil their military service".

It noted in a statement that "as each individual embarks on solo endeavours, it's the perfect time and the members of BTS are honoured to serve".

"Group member Jin will initiate the process as soon as his schedule for his solo release is concluded at the end of October," it added. "Other members of the group plan to carry out their military service based on their own individual plans."

Jin had announced the release of his solo album during a concert in Busan on Saturday.

"I was able to collaborate with someone I really adore," he told fans, without explaining further.

Refusing to complete one's mandatory service is a crime in South Korea, and can lead to imprisonment and social stigma.

Exemptions from military service are granted to some elite athletes, such as Olympic medallists, and to classical musicians -- but pop stars do not qualify.

BTS had already benefited from a 2020 revision to the conscription law that moved the age limit for some entertainers to sign up from 28 to 30 years old.

Seoul's defence minister had said in August that BTS might be allowed to continue performing and preparing for international concerts even while undertaking military duties.

In June, the septet dropped the bombshell announcement that they were taking a break as a group to pursue solo projects.

© 2022 AFP

BP to buy US renewable gas firm for $4.1 bn

Author: AFP|Update: 17.10.2022

BP has benefitted from surging oil prices after economies reopened post-Covid and since the Russian invasion of Ukraine / © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

BP has agreed to buy US renewable gas producer Archaea for $4.1 billion to help the British oil giant reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the pair said Monday.

The London-listed energy major is flush with cash after recent surges in oil prices that have triggered calls for the cash-strapped UK government to massively enlarge a windfall tax on British energy giants.

Chief executive Bernard Looney said in a statement Monday that the acquisition of Archaea would create "a real leader in the biogas sector, and support our net zero ambition".

Houston-based Archaea produces renewable natural gas equivalent in amount to about 6,000 barrels of oil per day.

BP will pay $3.3 billion in cash plus around $800 million in debt, while the purchase remains subject to regulatory and Archaea shareholder approvals.

The UK energy titan is attempting to pivot towards cleaner fuels to help tackle climate change.

In June, BP said it was taking a 40.5 percent stake in an Australian energy project being billed as one of the world's largest renewable power stations.

But energy majors are often faced with charges of corporate greenwashing, especially by environmentalists.

Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr said Monday that with Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt U-turning on tax cuts to limit state debt, "why not consider a full and proper windfall tax on oil and gas?".

He added: "This government has already made more U-turns than a battalion on parade -- one more won't hurt and it's the right one."

The government of previous UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a windfall tax on the profits of British energy companies earlier this year but that was deemed as far too small.

Even the outgoing head of BP's rival Shell recently indicated that governments should "probably" tax energy firms more to help protect the poorest from rocketing energy bills.

"One way or another, there needs to be government intervention... that somehow results in protecting the poorest," Ben van Beurden told an energy conference earlier this month.

"And that probably means governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it -- I think we just have to accept as a societal reality."

So far, Prime Minister Liz Truss -- a former Shell employee -- has refused to extend the windfall tax.

Oil, gas and electricity prices have all surged this year after major economies reopened from pandemic lockdowns -- and following the invasion of Ukraine from major energy producer Russia.

Court challenge to Uganda's 'draconian' internet law

Grace Matsiko
Mon, October 17, 2022 


Ugandan media groups and rights activists on Monday filed a court challenge to a controversial new internet law that they protest is aimed at curtailing free speech and quashing dissent.

A total of 13 petitioners, including an online TV station, lodged the complaint with the Constitutional Court over the legislation, which was signed into law by veteran President Yoweri Museveni last week.

The Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act "threatens freedom of expression and targets those with divergent views", one of the petitioners, Norman Tumuhimbise, told AFP.

Tumuhimbise works for Digital TV, which in March this year was raided by security agents. Nine of its staff including Tumuhimbise were arrested and charged with computer misuse and spreading false information.

According to the petition, the government has been given seven days to file a defence but it is not known when any hearings in the case would begin.

Amnesty International has called for the "draconian" law to be scrapped, warning that it was designed to "deliberately target critics of government and it will be used to silence dissent and prevent people from speaking out".

"This piece of legislation threatens the right to freedom of expression online, including the right to receive and impart information, on the pretext of outlawing unsolicited, false, malicious, hateful, and unwarranted information," said Amnesty's director for East and Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda.

Uganda has seen a series of crackdowns on those opposed to Museveni's rule, particularly around the 2021 election, with journalists attacked, lawyers jailed, vote monitors prosecuted and opposition leaders violently muzzled.
- 'Rise up and defend rights' -

Opposition leader Bobi Wine, who unsuccessfully challenged the president in 2021 and has often been targeted by security forces, said the adoption of the law was not surprising.

"Museveni is aware he is unpopular and he is putting such laws to muzzle the population," he told AFP.

"This time people should rise up and defend their rights because the civil space is being restricted time and again."

Amnesty noted that the new legislation contained some useful provisions such as right to privacy and responsible coverage of children but "it introduces punitive penalties for anyone accused of so-called hate speech".

People convicted under the law are barred from holding public office for 10 years, which Amnesty warned was a way of reinforcing state control over online freedom of expression, including by political opposition groups.

Offenders also face fines of up to 15 million Ugandan shillings (about $3,900) and prison terms of up to seven years.

"Ugandans must be able to exercise their right to freedom of expression without fear of being targeted by the criminal justice system," Mwananyanda said in the Amnesty statement issued on Friday.

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Women hit the political glass ceiling at China’s Communist Party Congress

Only about eight percent of the top positions in the Chinese Communist Party are held by women. 

© France Médias Monde graphic studio

Text by :Sébastian SEIBT

Issued on: 17/10/2022 -

Sun Chunlan, China’s “Iron Lady” and the only woman in the ruling party’s Politburo, is due to step down from her post at the 20th Communist Party Congress this week. There’s no guarantee that another woman will succeed her, providing yet another example of the systemic under-representation of Chinese women in leadership positions, which can have very real consequences for the world’s most populous nation.

Sun Chunlan is a special case in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) galaxy: She is the only woman in the Politburo, the Beijing regime’s powerful executive body. But it’s not for long. Sun is expected to step down from her post during the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, the weeklong, twice-a-decade meeting, which began on Sunday, October 16. At 72, China’s “Iron Lady” is past the usual retirement age of 68.

The nerve center of Chinese power could therefore be composed solely of men, aggravating a chronic problem of gender underrepresentation in the nation’s halls of power.

Since 2017, Sun has embodied the CCP’s image of a party unafraid to promote women to top positions. She holds the prestigious title of vice premier, one of only four in the 25-member Politburo.
‘Women hold up half the sky’, but men rule

Sun’s “Iron Lady” moniker has been reinforced over the past two years, since President Xi Jinping appointed her as the country’s top official overseeing China’s Covid-19 pandemic response.

She has been the enforcer of Xi’s "zero-Covid" policy – proof, if proof were needed, that the country’s only female vice premier enjoys the president’s complete confidence to manage one of the most serious health crises confronting the Chinese leader since he came to power in 2012.

But managing the controversial public health policy is not exactly a political gift. Some China experts believe Xi found in Sun an easy “zero-Covid” scapegoat to be sacrificed if his management of the pandemic becomes too contentious. The health dossier has also traditionally been entrusted to women in Communist China; one of Sun’s Politburo predecessors was Wu Yi, who had to deal with the 2003 SARS epidemic.

Nevertheless, Sun’s departure will leave a void in the party’s upper echelons. There are other female candidates for the coveted Politburo post, including Shen Yiqin, the only woman to serve as party general secretary of an entire province, Guizhou, in southern China. Shen also hails from the Bai ethnic minority, “which – cynically speaking – means she simultaneously checks the woman box and the ethnic minority box”, noted the China Project website.

But "nothing obliges the CCP to replace Sun Chunlan with another woman", explained Valarie Tan from the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics). The likely absence of women in the next Politburo, to be unveiled during the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, would not be surprising since Sun's position represents the exception to the rule.

In theory, Communist China claims to be one of the most egalitarian regimes in the world. Schoolchildren across the country are familiar with founding father Mao Zedong’s famous "women hold up half the sky" quote reinforcing constitutional equal rights. "From the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the CCP has placed equality between women and men as one of the characteristics that distinguish the Communist state from the 'old China'," explained Cheng Li, from the Washington-based Brookings Institution, in a report on female representation in Chinese politics.
A very patriarchal party

But the reality is quite different for a country with around 703 million women, constituting 48.7 percent of the total population.

Since 1949, there have been only six women in the CCP Politburo. Three of them were the wives of the founders of Communist China. Among the more than 300 members of the Central Committee – who elect Politburo members and endorse their decisions – there are barely 30 women. In short, only "eight percent of the party's leadership positions have been given to women", noted Tan.

The Politburo – of which Sun is a member – in turn selects the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. The current Standing Committee has seven members, none of them women.

This underrepresentation is not due to a lack of Chinese women choosing political careers. Between January 2020 and June 2021, for instance, nearly half of new party members were women.

The 20th Congress could have been the occasion to spearhead the fight against the political glass ceiling since the meeting provides an occasion for a major renewal of the party’s upper echelons. But the chances of significant change in female representation are slim.

For starters, the reasons for male domination in top political positions have not been questioned. The party's executive positions are often reserved for “leaders who had held managerial roles at state-owned enterprises, ministries and regional governments, positions for which women were often bypassed”, noted Minglu Chen, from the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, in the South China Morning Post.

Secondly, promotion within the CCP is “entirely based on factional ties rather than individual merits”, Bo Zhiyue, an expert in Chinese elite politics based in New Zealand, told the South China Morning Post. “This has created a very helpless situation because it’s a selection, not an election,” he added.

To rise to the top of the political ladder, aspirants need the right support, and women often have less direct access to those few party figures who can promote their protégés.

Xi is also no champion of women in politics. He embodies "the CCP's very patriarchal approach to society", argues Tan. The end of the one-child policy in 2021 was an opportunity for the Chinese president to insist on the importance of "traditional family values". He has even initiated a campaign to exalt "the unique physical and mental traits [of women] for giving birth and caring for newborns". In other words, the Chinese leader would rather see women at home than in the office.

A demographic crisis, but women don't have a say

This lack of women in leadership has important economic and social consequences, noted Tan. "One of the root causes of the current demographic crisis in China is the underrepresentation of women in important positions," she explained. "The problems of almost half the population are not, or barely, represented in the CCP."

And so, the incentive to have children is essentially "money distributed to families, without taking into account the deeper reasons why Chinese women do not want to have more children", explained Tan.

Chinese authorities are also not severe enough when it comes to tackling domestic abuse and violence against women in general, noted Tan. The impunity that some powerful men involved in sexual assault scandals seem to enjoy – such as former vice premier Zhang Gaoli, who is accused of rape by tennis player Peng Shuai – reinforces a “climate that does not make women want to have children", said Tan.

Communist party honchos who have been setting priorities in recent years to encourage people to have more children "could have benefitted from conversations with women on the Standing Committee", noted the China Project, referring to the tiny group of Politburo Standing Committee members selected by the 25-member Politburo. “Too bad there weren’t any.”

This article is a translation from the original in French.

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