Potential employers view job candidates differently if they post online about mental health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

It is increasingly common for people to discuss mental health challenges on social media platforms, but a new study finds these disclosures can affect the way potential employers view job applicants.

“People are often encouraged to discuss their mental health struggles on social media with the goal of reducing the stigma associated with mental health challenges,” says Lori Foster, co-author of a paper on the study and a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University.

“We think reducing stigma around mental health is extremely important, but our study suggests that mental health posts on platforms such as LinkedIn could have unforeseen consequences for people disclosing their mental health challenges.”

“Specifically, we found that these disclosures can influence the way people view us in professional contexts,” says Jenna McChesney, first author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Meredith College who worked on the study while a grad student at NC State. “It’s important for people to take that into consideration when determining whether to share their mental health experiences online.”

For the study, the researchers set out to determine the extent to which posts about mental health on LinkedIn affected perceptions of an individual’s personality and future performance in the workplace.

To address the question, the researchers enlisted 409 professionals with hiring experience to participate in a study. About 25% of the participants were shown the LinkedIn page of a job candidate, with no mention of mental health challenges. Another 25% of the participants were shown the same LinkedIn page, but it included a post mentioning the candidate’s experiences with anxiety and depression. A third quarter of the study participants saw the LinkedIn profile and heard an audio interview with the candidate. And the last 25% of participants saw the LinkedIn profile, including the post about anxiety and depression, and heard the audio interview. All of the study participants were then asked a series of questions about the job candidate’s personality and future performance in the workplace.

“We found that study participants who saw the LinkedIn post about mental health challenges viewed the job candidate as being less emotionally stable and less conscientious,” McChesney says. “Hearing the interview lessened a study participant’s questions about the candidate’s emotional stability, but only slightly. And hearing the interview did not affect the views of participants about the job candidate’s conscientiousness. In other words, the perceptions evaluators had after seeing the LinkedIn profile largely persisted throughout the interview.

“Our findings don’t mean people should refrain from posting about anxiety and depression on LinkedIn,” McChesney says. “However, people who are considering posting about these issues should be aware that doing so could change future employers’ perceptions of them.”

“There is a big push for people to always be their full authentic selves, but there has been little research into any positive or negative consequences associated with that,” Foster says. “This study is a step toward getting a more complete picture, and it highlights just how much additional work is needed.

“There are also implications for employers,” Foster says. “When hiring managers look up candidates on LinkedIn, they risk seeing information that can color their perceptions, even subconsciously. Organizations should implement guidelines for using LinkedIn during the hiring process to encourage equitable comparisons among all candidates, including those who openly discuss mental health challenges.”

The paper, “Is It #okaytosay I Have Anxiety and Depression? Evaluations of Job Applicants Who Disclose Mental Health Problems on LinkedIn,” is published in the Journal of Business and Psychology.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Business and Psychology

DOI

10.1007/s10869-023-09907-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Is It #okaytosay I Have Anxiety and Depression? Evaluations of Job Applicants Who Disclose Mental Health Problems on LinkedIn

 

Saving species from extinction - high-quality kākāpō population sequencing provides breakthrough in understanding key conservation genetics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

 

IMAGE: KĀKĀPŌ IN BURROW view more 

CREDIT: JAKE OSBORNE

 

High-quality sequencing of nearly the entire kākāpō population, funded through a Genomics Aotearoa project, is helping New Zealand to manage the health of this critically endangered species.

Not only is it already making a difference to kākāpō survival, but establishing sequencing methods to work with populations under threat is also likely to be the foundation for the future of endangered wildlife science in New Zealand and the rest of the world.

The state-of-the-art methods developed by Dr. Joseph Guhlin (University of Otago ) and an international team to study kākāpō has revealed important aspects of kākāpō biology. The methods, reusable code, and pipeline is a blueprint and tool for conservation genomics in other species, especially intensively managed species.  This has massive implications.

 

Dr. Guhlin’s work over the last year have two very significant outcomes:

• an in-depth understanding of kākāpō biology that simply would not be possible without genomics
• high-quality code and reusable pipeline – allowing other researchers to rapidly integrate these methods into their own work – which has significantly advanced New Zealand’s genomic capability.

 

This has given researchers the tools needed to identify specific genetic characteristics that are crucial to survival.

“Using technology created by Google, we have achieved what is likely the highest quality variant dataset for any endangered species in the world. This dataset is made available, through DOC and Ngai Tahu, for future researchers working with Kākāpō,” Dr Guhlin said.

Department of Conservation’s Science Advisor for Kākāpō Recovery, Dr. Andrew Digby, believes the genetic tools this study provides will make an immense difference to kākāpō conservation.

 

“Kākāpō suffer from disease and low reproductive output, so by understanding the genetic reasons for these problems, we can now help mitigate them. It gives us the ability to predict things like kākāpō chick growth and susceptibility to disease, which changes our on-the-ground management practices and will help improve survival rates.”

 

While the study marks the beginning of a new era of kākāpō conservation genetics, Dr Digby acknowledges what it means for the future of all threatened species.

 

“The Kakapo125+ project is a great example of how genetic data can assist population growth. The novel genetic and machine learning tools developed can be applied to improve the productivity and survival of other taonga under conservation management.”

 

The research results have been published in the prestigious international journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

 

For more information, please contact Dr. Joseph Guhlin,  Phone 027-867-2100, joseph.guhlin@otago.ac.nz and joseph.guhlin@gmail.com

 

 

About Genomics Aotearoa

Genomics Aotearoa is a collaborative platform of 10 research institutes and universities, established to ensure that New Zealand is internationally participating and leading in the rapidly developing fields of genomics (the study of the genome, the complete set of genetic material present in a cell or organism) and bioinformatics (the development of methods and software tools for understanding the biological data derived from genomics).

An important aspect of Genomics Aotearoa’s research approach is that developing and fine-tuning genomic processes in one species will potentially produce valuable roadmaps for analysing genetic diversity in others across humans, environment, and primary production. This is already starting to happen.

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JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-023-02165-y 

ARTICLE TITLE

Species-wide genomics of kākāpō provides tools to accelerate recovery

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Aug-2023

Air pollution and its threat to health are unequally spread throughout the world, and so are the opportunities to combat it

Particulate air pollution remains the world’s greatest external risk to human health, but most of its impact on global life expectancy is concentrated in just six countries

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

As global pollution edged upward in 2021, so did its burden on human health, according to new data from the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI). If the world were to permanently reduce fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline, the average person would add 2.3 years onto their life expectancy—or a combined 17.8 billion life-years saved worldwide.

This data makes clear that particulate pollution remains the world’s greatest external risk to human health, with the impact on life expectancy comparable to that of smoking, more than 3 times that of alcohol use and unsafe water, and more than 5 times that of transport injuries like car crashes. Yet, the pollution challenge worldwide is vastly unequal.

“Three-quarters of air pollution’s impact on global life expectancy occurs in just six countries, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Nigeria and Indonesia, where people lose one to more than six years off their lives because of the air they breathe,” says Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and creator of the AQLI along with colleagues at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). “For the last five years, the AQLI’s local information on air quality and its health consequences has generated substantial media and political coverage, but there is an opportunity to complement this annual information with more frequent—for example, daily—and locally generated data.”

Indeed, many polluted countries lack basic air pollution infrastructure. Asia and Africa are the two most poignant examples. They contribute 92.7 percent of life years lost due to pollution. Yet, just 6.8 and 3.7 percent of governments in Asia and Africa, respectively, provide their citizens with fully open air quality data. Further, just 35.6 and 4.9 percent of countries in Asia and Africa, respectively, have air quality standards—the most basic building block for policies.

The collective current investments in global air quality infrastructure also do not match where air pollution is having its greatest toll on human life. While there is a large global fund for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis that annually disburses 4 billion USD toward the issues, there is no equivalent set of coordinated resources for air pollution. In fact, the entire continent of Africa receives under 300,000 USD in philanthropic funds toward air pollution (i.e. the current average price of a single-family home in the United States). Just 1.4 million USD goes to Asia, outside of China and India. Europe, the United States, and Canada, meanwhile, receive 34 million USD, according to the Clean Air Fund.

“Timely, reliable, open air quality data in particular can be the backbone of civil society and government clean air efforts—providing the information that people and governments lack and that allows for more informed policy decisions,” says Christa Hasenkopf, the director of AQLI and air quality programs at EPIC. “Fortunately, we see an immense opportunity to play a role in reversing this by better targeting—and increasing—our funding dollars to collaboratively build the infrastructure that is missing today.”

Read the Full Report

 

Wildfire, soil emissions increasing air pollution in remote forests

Satellite data shows disparate nitrogen dioxide trends across California

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

IMAGE: FIRE BURNS AS PART OF CALIFORNIA'S AUGUST COMPLEX FIRE IN 2020. view more 

CREDIT: MIKE MCMILLAN, USDA PACIFIC SOUTHWEST FOREST SERVICE

Satellite data from across California’s landscapes reveal an increase in nitrogen dioxide levels in remote forest areas, and wildfire and soil emissions are likely the reasons why, according to a paper from University of California, Davis, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Nitrogen dioxide is short-lived in the atmosphere but plays a central role in the formation of the pollutants ozone and particulate matter, which can lead to respiratory issues and asthma in humans, as well as harm plants and crop yields.

The researchers looked at summertime surface and satellite concentrations of nitrogen dioxide between 2009 and 2020 and found that levels decreased by 2-4.5% per year in urban areas across California, while rural concentrations remained relatively constant and remote forests experienced an increase of roughly 4.2% per year.

“Forested areas show a steady, rapid rate of increase in summer,” said bio-micrometeorologist Ian Faloona, who is senior author on the paper and a professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. “The trend is alarming.”

To do the research, scientists examined surface nitrogen dioxide levels collected by the state and NASA’s Aura satellite. They sorted areas of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere by surface temperature and soil moisture levels. A California database of fire incidents was also consulted to help place lands into one of five categories: urban, forests, croplands, scrublands and barren (little vegetation).

New sources to consider

Controls on internal combustion engines and other fossil fuel emitters have reduced levels of nitrogen dioxide in urban areas, where most air pollution monitors are placed. Continuous satellite data helped fill in the picture in less monitored regions and found that effect is not mirrored in rural areas and remote forests. There, wildfires and emissions from soils, particularly agricultural soils with fertilizer use, correlate to an increase of nitrogen dioxide levels, Faloona said.

The findings could help inform future policy decisions as regulators seek additional decreases of the pollutant. As current emission management actions continue to reduce fossil fuel emissions, regulators will need to address other sources that have historically been overshadowed by traditional internal combustion sources.

Those will play an increasingly important role in future air quality policy. “Soils, and wildfires in particular, are really going to become steerers of the ship of our air pollution,” Faloona said. “We have to put a lot of effort into curtailing the effects of wildfires and understanding better our emissions from agricultural soils.”

Additional research needed

Areas of high fertilizer use can be a source of nitrogen dioxide emissions because microbes compete with crops for nitrogen, generating gaseous nitrogen compounds. But additional research will be necessary to further clarify the exact role wildfire and soil may play in the increase of ambient nitrogen dioxide.

“Our results point to opportunities for different sets of policies and technologies to assist in reducing nitrogen dioxide concentrations in rural and economically disadvantaged areas of California, but will require a concerted effort to better understand the exact environmental dependence of soil and wildfire emissions,” the authors wrote.

Yurun Wang in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, who is now at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and former UC Davis professor Benjamin Houlton, who is at Cornell University, contributed to the research.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded the research.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/acec5f 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Satellite NO2 trends reveal pervasive impacts of wildfire and soil emissions across California landscapes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Aug-2023

 

How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts

Findings may help consumer groups and government agencies craft educational messaging around the health and environmental impacts of beef consumption.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TULANE UNIVERSITY

A new study has found that 12% of Americans are responsible for eating half of all beef consumed on a given day, a finding that may help consumer groups and government agencies craft educational messaging around the negative health and environmental impacts of beef consumption.

Those 12% – most likely to be men or people between the ages of 50 and 65 – eat what researchers called a disproportionate amount of beef on a given day, a distinction based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which suggest 4 ounces per day of meat, poultry, and eggs combined for those consuming 2200 calories per day. 

The study, published in the journal Nutrients, analyzed data from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which tracked the meals of more than 10,000 adults over a 24-hour period. The global food system emits 17 billion tons of greenhouse gases a year, equivalent to a third of all planet-warming gases produced by human activity. The beef industry contributes heavily to that, producing 8-10 times more emissions than chicken, and over 50 times more than beans. 

“We focused on beef because of its impact on the environment, and because it’s high in saturated fat, which is not good for your health,” said the study’s corresponding and senior author Diego Rose, professor and nutrition program director at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Rose said the study's purpose was to assist in targeting educational programs or awareness campaigns to those eating disproportionate amounts of beef. Honing messaging around the environmental impact of beef production is crucial at a time when climate change awareness is higher than ever. 

Rose said he and fellow researchers were “surprised” that a small percentage of people are responsible for such an outsized consumption of beef, but it’s yet to be determined if the findings are encouraging for sustainability advocates. 

“On one hand, if it’s only 12% accounting for half the beef consumption, you could make some big gains if you get those 12% on board,” Rose said. “On the other hand, those 12% may be most resistant to change.” 

The study also found that those who were not disproportionate beef consumers were more likely to have looked up USDA’s MyPlate food guidance system. 

"This might indicate that exposure to dietary guidelines can be an effective tool in changing eating behaviors, but it could also be true that those who were aware of healthy or sustainable eating practices were also more likely to be aware of dietary guideline tools,” said Amelia Willits-Smith, lead author on the paper and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Of the beef consumed on a given day, almost a third came from cuts of beef such as steak or brisket. But six of the top 10 sources were mixed dishes such as burgers, burritos, tacos, meatloaf or spaghetti with meat sauce. Some of these foods may offer an easy opportunity for disproportionate beef eaters to alter their dietary habits. 

“If you’re getting a burrito, you could just as easily ask for chicken instead of beef,” Willits-Smith said.

Those below the age of 29 and above the age of 66 were least likely to eat large amounts of beef. Rose said this indicated that the younger generation might be more interested in mitigating the effects of climate change. 

“There's hope in the younger generation, because it's their planet they're going to inherit,” Rose said. “I’ve seen in my classes that they’re interested in diet, how it impacts the environment, and what can they do about it.”

In addition to Rose and Willits-Smith, the study's authors include Tulane clinical assistant professor Dr. Keelia O’Malley and Tulane Masters of Public Health graduate Harmonii Odinga.

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JOURNAL

Nutrients

DOI

10.3390/nu15170000 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Demographic and Socioeconomic Correlates of Disproportionate Beef Consumption among US Adults in an Age of Global Warming

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Aug-2023

COI STATEMENT

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Hurricane Franklin cranks past Bermuda as a Category 2 storm

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The outer bands of Hurricane Franklin lashed Bermuda on Wednesday as the Category 2 storm charged past the island located in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Franklin had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (168 kph) and was located some 145 miles (235 kilometers) north-northwest of Bermuda late Wednesday afternoon. It was moving northeast at 13 mph (20 kph) and was expected to keep spinning through open waters.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Bermuda, with forecasters warning of life-threatening surf and rip currents for the island and the U.S. East Coast. Several flights to Bermuda were cancelled on Wednesday.

Officials in Bermuda warned that Hurricane Idalia, which was crossing Florida on Wednesday, was forecast to possibly hit the island early next week as a tropical storm.

Hurricane Franklin hitting U.S. east coast with life-threatening surf, rip currents

By UPI Staff

Hurricane Franklin remained a powerful Category 3 storm as it moved toward Bermuda early Wednesday. Photo courtesy of NOAA

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Hurricane Franklin is expected hit Bermuda with tropical storm conditions Wednesday morning, according to forecasters who said the storm has already begun to generate life-threatening surf and rip currents along the east coast of the United States.

In its 5 a.m. AST Wednesday update, the National Hurricane Center said the first major hurricane of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season had weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 110 mph, and was located about 205 miles west-northwest of Bermuda.

Franklin was moving northeast at 13 mph.

A tropical storm warning, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected, was in effect for Bermuda.

"Franklin is moving toward the northeast near 13 mph, and this motion is expected to continue today," the forecasters said. "On the forecast track, the center of Franklin is expected to pass to the northwest of Bermuda later today."

As Franklin was heading toward Bermuda on Wednesday, Hurricane Idalia was aiming for Florida where it is forecast to hit Wednesday as a major hurricane.

Sex, lies and social media: Women face tough fight in African politics

Nairobi (AFP) – Soon after Judy Kengo was sworn into office last year, the Kenyan legislator faced her first public test when a doctored photo of a lookalike kissing another woman surfaced online.

Issued on: 30/08/2023 -

There is growing evidence of women across Africa facing online disinformation campaigns aimed at forcing them out of politics, experts say

 © SEYLLOU / AFP

The aim of the misleading photo, she says, was to force her to quit her position in the county assembly of Kwale, a staunchly conservative region along Kenya's southern coast.

"You see, here is your leader. What kind of role model is she to our girls?" Kengo, 35, remembers one online user saying after the image began making the rounds.

Kengo's case is far from isolated. There is growing evidence of women across Africa facing online disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting their ambitions and forcing them out of politics, experts say.

Women in public positions need a "thick skin" to withstand the pressures of online attacks, says Kengo, who refused to be cowed and has since hired bloggers to respond to social media smear campaigns

"Politics has always been a male-dominated field and for you to penetrate, you have to be very aggressive," she told AFP.

But it is a difficult balancing act.

"When you are aggressive in the way you are addressing the issues, people will say you are too much or are a loudmouth. This is not the same for our male counterparts."
'Crude sexualised attacks'

The attacks, which tend to escalate during election season, are strategically orchestrated to silence women, says Kristina Wilfore, co-founder of global non-profit #ShePersisted, which fights gender disinformation and online abuse.

"The sexualised attacks are very crude, and they are definitely meant to undermine the idea that women are qualified," Wilfore told AFP.

Kenyan MP Millie Odhiambo said that many women fear entering public political spaces because of disinformation smear campaigns 

© Tony KARUMBA / AFP

A study conducted in collaboration with #ShePersisted during Kenya's 2022 national elections found that social media platforms enabled "hateful rhetoric towards women to flourish", according to Wilfore.

Even when false information has been fact-checked and corrected, "it still leaves the sentiment that women do not belong in certain public spaces", she added.

The impact is not lost on women lawmakers in Kenya.

"A lot of women fear getting into public spaces, especially public political spaces because of the issues surrounding that space," opposition MP Millie Odhiambo told AFP.

Kenya has continually failed to meet parliamentary quotas that require at least a third of all seats in the national assembly to be filled by women.

Across the continent, women occupy only 24 percent of some 12,100 parliamentary positions, according to a 2021 study by the pan-African project Women in Political Participation.

'Degrade women'

During Rwanda's 2017 election campaign, alleged nude photos of businesswoman and government critic Diane Rwigara surfaced online days after she announced her candidacy for president.

The only female challenger to Rwanda's iron-fisted leader Paul Kagame later told CNN the images had been photoshopped to destroy her electoral chances.

During Rwanda's 2017 election campaign, alleged nude photos of Diane Rwigara surfaced online days after she announced her candidacy 

© Cyril NDEGEYA / AFP/File

She was eventually blocked from running on the grounds that she allegedly forged supporters' signatures for her application. But a court acquitted her in 2018, calling the charges "baseless".

In April this year, former Kenyan senator Millicent Omanga faced calls to resign from her post as a junior minister after footage of a purported sex tape surfaced on social media.

An AFP investigation found that at least one of the clips featured an amateur porn actor.

But many online users believed it was Omanga, who has never commented publicly on the video and did not respond to calls from AFP.

Kenyan political analyst Nerima Wako-Ojiwa said the incident was part of a vicious trend which aims to "degrade women".

"They avoid (political leadership) completely, or they avoid having a digital footprint or engaging online," she told AFP.
Risks of AI

Experts fear new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) could make the situation worse.

Some 96 percent of deepfake videos online involve non-consensual pornography, and most of them depict women, according to a 2019 study by Dutch AI company Sensity.

The same year, DeepNude, an application that virtually undresses women, was shut down following an uproar over its potential abuse. But similar tools continued to be accessible via encrypted messaging.

As AI technology develops at a rapid pace, experts say social media companies must do more to create a safe digital environment.

The situation is particularly grim in Africa, where platforms take advantage of weak laws and poor enforcement, said Leah Kimathi, founder of the Kenyan non-profit Council for Responsible Social Media.

"Platforms have the primary responsibility to ensure that the online spaces are not used by nefarious characters to perpetuate harm," Kimathi said.

"Their business models through the algorithms amplify the online disinformation, making it go viral in the service of profit," she told AFP.

"They also grossly under-invest in platform security and safety in Africa compared to the rest of the world."

© 2023 AFP
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Iran steps up crackdown ahead of Amini anniversary: activists

Paris (AFP) – Iran is ratcheting up a crackdown ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, arresting prominent personalities, campaigners and relatives of those killed by security forces in protests last year, activists say.


Issued on: 30/08/2023 

The death Mahsa Amini sparked protests in and outside of Iran 

© Yasin AKGUL / AFP
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The death in custody on September 16, 2022 of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rules for women, sparked months of protests that included calls for an end to Iran's Islamic system.

The protests have now largely subsided, despite some sporadic outbursts, after a crackdown which saw thousands detained, according to the UN, and hundreds shot dead by security forces, according to activists.

But campaigners outside Iran say the authorities are acutely aware of the risk that the anniversary could spark more protests and say security forces have stepped up repression to prevent a repeat of the events of last autumn.

Those arrested this month have included the prominent singer Mehdi Yarrahi after he released a song urging women to remove their headscarves in defiance of the law.

Eleven women's rights activists were detained in Gilan province, one of the flashpoint areas for protests last year, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has said families of those killed in the crackdown on the movement have been subjected to "arbitrary arrest and detention" in a bid to enforce "silence and impunity" over the fate of their loved ones.

"These arrests are a blatant attempt by Iranian authorities to instil fear within the population ahead of the upcoming anniversary (and) to deter more protests," Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New-York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), told AFP.

'Knows no bounds'

In a report, Amnesty said families of victims killed in the crackdown across the country have been subjected to abusive interrogations, arbitrary arrest and detention and or unjust prosecution and sentencing in recent months.

"The cruelty of the Iranian authorities knows no bounds," said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, accusing the Iranian authorities of a "sinister attempt to cover up their crimes".

In a new example, security forces on Sunday arrested three close family members, including the mother, of Hananeh Kia, a woman in her early 20s shot dead by security forces in September 2022 during the initial phase of the protests, HRANA and the Hengaw rights group said.
Protesters chanted slogans against supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei © - / KHAMENEI.IR/AFP

The CHRI said in just eight days this month, 21 family members of victims were either summoned to court or detained in Iran.

Roya Boroumand, executive director of the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, said "victims' family members have been targeted pretty systematically".

"They have been arrested, summoned repeatedly and interrogated, or their houses are raided," she said, adding pressure was being put on them not to post anything on social media, gather for commemorations or speak out.

The protests broke taboos that have prevailed in the Islamic republic since the fall of the shah in 1979, with women taking off their headscarves and slogans chanted against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in street protests.

Amnesty has in a separate report said Iran has renewed its crackdown against unveiled women, with stepped-up patrols backed by surveillance cameras that can even identify women inside their cars. Images shared on social media indicate some women are however continuing to show defiance.
'Killing machine'

Meanwhile, Norway-based Iran Human Rights says 486 people have been executed in Iran this year, with the use of capital punishment aimed at "creating fear in society and to prevent more protests".

While seven men have been executed in cases related to the protests, causing an international outcry, most of those hanged are convicted on drug and murder charges and are "low-cost victims of the Islamic republic's killing machine", it added.

According to the CHRI, Mashallah Karami, the father of executed protester Mohammad Mehdi Karami, who was hanged in January, was detained by security agents in Tehran on August 22.

There have also been reports of arrests in the Kurdish-populated area of western Iran from where Amini originated and which were the scene of the earliest protests.

There has been concern about the rising number of executions in Iran

 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Kurdish-focused Hengaw, based outside Iran, said Saro Mostajer -- the brother of one of its board members, Jila Mostajer -- had been arrested in Amini's hometown of Saqez and taken to an unknown location.

Boroumand said the "coordinated" repression "aims at preventing the dissemination of news, videos and images of victims, commemorations, and other gatherings and avoid a renewed public mobilisation inside and outside Iran".

Ghaemi warned the "silence of the international community" in the face of the crackdown risked giving a "green light to the state security apparatus to continue muzzling civil society."

© 2023 AFP

Global Fund secures deal to slash HIV treatment price

Geneva (AFP) – The Global Fund announced Wednesday a deal with generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to significantly slash the price of a cutting-edge HIV drug, in a move it said would save lives.


Issued on: 30/08/2023 

The WHO has recommended TLD as the preferred first-line HIV treatment for adults and adolescents as it rapidly suppresses the virus that causes AIDS 

© DIPTENDU DUTTA / AFP/File

The Global Fund, a partnership set up in 2002 to battle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, said the agreement would make it possible to provide the advanced pill known as TLD for under $45 per person per year.

"This improved pricing -– a 25-percent reduction -– will allow governments in resource-limited settings to expand access to critical HIV services," it said in a statement.

The three-in-one pill bands together the drugs tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, lamivudine and dolutegravir.

The World Health Organization has recommended it as the preferred first-line HIV treatment for adults and adolescents, since it rapidly suppresses the virus that causes AIDS, has fewer side effects and is easy to take, the statement pointed out.

"The countries most affected by HIV face enormous fiscal constraints, and there are still millions of people who are HIV-positive who don't have access to quality treatment," Global Fund chief Peter Sands said in the statement.

"Reduced pricing for TLD means governments and other implementers of Global Fund grants can expand treatment programmes and invest more in prevention, saving more lives and reducing new infections."

Wednesday's announcement comes after the Global Fund, along with UNAIDS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners in 2017 secured licensing agreements ensuring that TLD could be made available in low- and middle-income countries for up to $75 per person per year -- at the time an unprecedented pricing level.

Thanks to that deal, around 19 million more people living with HIV in resource-constrained settings are today receiving TLD, according to the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

© 2023 AFP

Tunisia migrant crisis: 'Nowhere to live, nothing to eat'


Issued on: 30/08/2023 - 

01:46

Nearly two months after mobs and authorities violently attacked black migrants in Tunisia, the country’s migration crisis continues, with new arrivals coming across overland borders including those fleeing conflict in Sudan. Many find themselves living in the streets often left to fend for themselves. France 24’s Lilia Blaise and Hamdi Tlili went to meet some of them in the southern Tunisian city of Zarzis.