Why we can’t rely on air conditioning to keep us cool - 360
Niamh Murtagh
Published on March 17, 2023
It’s the first thing to be turned on when the weather warms but air-conditioners are not the only answer to cooling our homes.
In summertime in Chongqing, China, Xi Yu* (35) hates the short walk from his apartment to the subway station on his commute to the university where he works. With temperatures often hitting 38°C in high humidity, even the daily water spraying of main roads by the local municipality does little to help.
Yu is grateful the subway station and trains are air-conditioned but is always relieved to arrive at his office. He likes to keep the air-conditioning at a chilly 19°C, even though his colleagues complain it’s too cold. Leaving the office is usually a shock to the system with the dramatic change in temperature.
Back home, Yu turns on the air conditioning as soon as he gets in, although he knows it will eat up almost half his monthly energy bills. Later, he and his wife will phone the children who are staying with their grandparents in the mountains for the summer, as most other families do. Come Friday, Yu and his wife will make the slow, traffic-congested journey to join them for the weekend.
This scenario could be the future for city dwellers globally as the climate warms. Universal dependence on air-conditioning and temporary or permanent migration away from hotter zones, for those who can afford it.
The most recent physical science report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated extreme heat events over land will become 4 to 9 times more frequent this century, and 1.9°C to 5.1° degrees hotter.
This month’s IPCC synthesis report for policymakers will again emphasise the risks of extreme heat. But air-conditioning is no panacea as recent research on experiences of living with air-conditioning has found. This in-depth, qualitative analysis of coping with heat in Dubai, Chongqing and London showed, alongside the benefits, the social and health challenges of air-conditioned urban lives, as well as ways to reduce dependence on air-conditioning.
In contrast to London, where air-conditioning in homes is rare, air-conditioning is the norm at home, in the office, on public transport and in public buildings in Dubai and Chongqing. Use of air-conditioning in these cities means people perceive themselves as unaffected by the weather and feel that work in offices continues without impact.
But the lifestyles they described told a different story. In both Dubai and Chongqing, life during the summer months is lived indoors. People noted that they take less exercise and miss the feelings of freedom, space and being closer to nature from being outside. While most had a balcony or garden, these are unusable in the hottest months.
Indoors, hard flooring is common in Dubai but so too is floor-to-ceiling glazing and a lack of external shading. In summer, going out is limited to trips to air-conditioned locations, almost all of which are commercial in nature (shopping malls, gyms), with one fascinating exception.
In Chongqing, war-time bunkers have been repurposed and are used as cool social spaces. In both cities, people socialise less in the hot weather. In Dubai, people plan their holidays to travel to relatively cooler countries during the worst of the heat. In the summer months in Chongqing, the retired and the children are sent to the mountains where it is cooler – working parents try to visit on weekends.
Surprisingly, despite their reliance on the technology, many people do not see air-conditioning as either comfortable or healthy. For some, the temperature is too cold in order to accommodate others at work or at home. For others, over-use is intentional.
For example, Fei, a 29-year-old postgraduate student, said: “The hotter it is outside, the lower I will set on the air conditioner. Sometimes I wear a long-sleeved blouse and a pair of trousers, then go to bed with a thick cover.”
Overall, people acclimatise physiologically and behaviourally, not to hot weather, but to a narrow range of relatively cold temperatures created by ubiquitous air-conditioning. Perceptions are common of poor air quality, overly dry air and a lack of fresh air, leading to a range of minor health complaints, such as colds, rhinitis and joint pain. Moving from low indoor temperatures to the heat of outside is particularly unpleasant and seen as a risk to health. While most people interviewed worked indoors, there were some insights into the challenges for outdoor workers including construction workers and delivery drivers, for whom air-conditioning has limited benefits.
The participants’ accounts of living with air-conditioning showed the extent to which air-conditioning is already culturally embedded, to the extent of over-reliance, in some climate zones.
Given the history of commercialisation of air-conditioning as a consumer product, bolstered by extensive marketing over 70 years to emphasise its progressive, modern nature, it’s unsurprising that people see it as essential. While the use of air-conditioning will continue to provide benefits in the rapidly-warming world, complementary approaches are vital to reduce outright dependence and our analysis points to several possibilities.
From a technological and regulatory perspective, minimum set points for air-conditioning units which dynamically increase in line with outside temperatures would end practices of setting temperatures unnecessarily low. This would also help physiological acclimatisation to hotter weather.
Revising building regulations to address local context and predicted weather, using established adaptations such as limiting glazing and requiring exterior shading, will reduce indoor temperatures. So too will householder changes such as hard flooring inside and increasing greenery outside.
Providing civic cool spaces allows equitable access to relief from heat and these can be designed for passive cooling that is, remaining cool through their form and design rather than from electro-mechanical air-conditioning systems. From a social and cultural perspective, repositioning air-conditioning as a form of cooling system rather than as providing ‘thermal comfort’ could challenge its primacy.
Educating people on the benefits and importance of physiological acclimatisation to heat will help to shift behaviour away from air-conditioning dependence. Reminding people of behavioural adaptations, such as keeping in the shade or sucking ice, and changing social routines in the heat, such as shifting working and education patterns away from the hottest hours, are additional ways to reduce air-conditioning use.
Air-conditioning will not solve all the problems of coping with global heating. Changes to technology, building design, regulation, social routines and personal behaviour will help avoid some of the downsides of the chilly, expensive and fragmented lives that Xi Yu and many others already experience.
*Xi Yu is a pseudonym.
Dr Niamh Murtagh is a Principal Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London (UCL). An environmental psychologist, her research investigates experiences and behaviours relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation to the heating climate.


Upcoming: On-the-spot interviews at Aurora Health Care | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Frederick Nelson
March 27, 2018


Kenya: Africa Cup of Nations · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

MentalAcrobatics also comments on the Africa Cup of Nations asking us to place our bets now for the outcome of the World cup to be played in Germany in July….”no one, least of all football pundits and “experts”, know what to expect from the African teams at the World Cup this time round. The four countries making their World Cup debuts Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Angola have everyone shaking their heads”.


Tajikistan: Face-saving sentence for the journalists · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Journalists Muhammad Yusuf Ismailov and Urunboy Usmonov have been found guilty, but with very commuted sentences following the international pressure on the Tajik authorities, neweurasia’s Alpharabius reports.


City Data Shows Employee Absence Increase Near Retirement, Question is Why? – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

April 30, 2017
YouTube Video Link
A staff presentation on employee absences among City of Hamilton employees reveals that as staff approach retirement, they take more sick days. This was especially prevalent among firefighters.
Zachary Nicol, HR Metrics Analyst, Organizational Development, Office of the City Manager, presented the findings to City Councillors during the April 24, 2017 meeting of the Audit, Finance, and Administration Committee.
Nicol told Councillors that HR is looking into the reasons for the trend; stating they have to look more in depth before confirming causes.
Councillors peppered Nicol with questions such as if the trend is correlated to staff taking advantage of sick banks to effectively retire before their scheduled date. Councillor Lloyd Ferguson focused in on fire fighters who’ve banked more than six months of sick days – fire fighters can “cash out” up to six months of banked sick days.
After the meeting, I asked Nicol if fire fighter absences were related to the difficulties of the job and accumulated injuries from decades of working the difficult job. I also asked if the City is using the data to predict which employees are likely to retire in the near future.
To both questions, the answers were this is a new report they are watching. On cause of absences, they are working to determine what are the causes. On predictive use of the data, this is something the City is working on.
In the end, Council went into closed session under the Labour Relations exception to open meetings. In closed session, Council gave staff direction.


The Woman seen in the photo hugging Michelle Obama during a Graduation Ceremony isn’t her daughter - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 19, 2019
An old Facebook post is being shared again with the claim that, during a University’s Graduation Ceremony, US former First Lady Michelle Obama has hugged her daughter who wore a cap that had a quote by Prophet Muhammad printed on it. Let’s try to check the veracity of the claim made in the post.
Michelle Obama’s daughter wore a cap printed with a quote by Prophet Muhammad on it during her Graduation Ceremony.
Fact: The woman hugging Michelle Obama, with a quote by Prophet Muhammad on her graduation cap is from Yemen named Orrubba, who graduated from ‘The City College of New York’ in 2016. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the photo in the post is run through Google Reverse Image Search technique, it was found in the Instagram account of Michelle Obama. It was posted in 2016 and from the description of the photo, it was found to be taken during the Graduation Ceremony of ‘The City College of New York’ in 2016.
Michelle Obama was found to have posted another photo of the woman whom she hugged (the woman holds the same cap and also has the same dark blue hijab over her head) in the Graduation Ceremony. By going through the description of the photo, it was found that she is from Yemen and her name is Orrubba.
Michelle Obama has two daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama. From an article published by the BBC in 2017, it was found that the elder daughter Malia has joined for Graduation course in Harvard University in 2017 and the other daughter, Sasha was still in High School.
To summarize, the woman seen hugging Michelle Obama during a Graduation Ceremony
with a quote by Prophet Muhammad on her graduation cap isn’t her daughter. She is from Yemen named Orrubba.
Did you watch our new Episode of DECODE Lite series.


A network of journalists in northern Nigeria is fostering peace and reconciliation through their work · Global Voices
Peace News

Ibrahima Yakubu, the Team Leader of NPJ, makes a point during a meeting. Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim, used with permission.
This story was written by Mohammed Ibrahim and originally published by Peace News Network. An edited version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people with more than 250  ethnic groups, has consistently made headlines because of various crises. In northern Nigeria,  religious or ethnic conflicts have resulted in the loss of countless lives and property. Some blame the media for fueling societal divisions through biased and sectarian reporting.
In response to this, the Network of Peace Journalists (NPJ), in collaboration with non-governmental organizations including the Interfaith Mediation Center, Mercy Corps, and Kaduna State Peace Commission, have undergone training in peace journalism.They aim to use their training to foster peace and reconciliation rather than hate and division within society.
In an interview with Peace News, Ibrahima Yakubu, the team leader of the NJP in Northern Nigeria, emphasized the impact of peace-building training in mitigating conflicts and combating the spread of “fake news” on social media, while aiming to promote positive narratives. He said, “We have been experiencing conflict reportage that destabilizes communities. It’s time to change the narrative by encouraging journalists to promote peace journalism.”
According to Yakubu, journalists in Nigeria have directly experienced the impact of instability. As such, their role is to ensure that they promote peace through their newspapers, broadcast radio stations, and online news platforms. Yakubu also advocates for journalists to write personal blogs, which he believes can strengthen the push towards assisting every citizen in promoting the ideas of peace journalism.
Andrew Mshelia, a Kaduna-based broadcast journalist and member of NPJ, highlighted the pivotal role of journalists in promoting peace in regions prone to religious and political tensions like Kaduna. “People believe us journalists, and they take our words seriously. It’s not just about holding the government accountable but also holding ourselves accountable,” he explained.
Mshelia highlights the importance of media agenda-setting, in which the media can highlight not just what to think, but also what to think about. He emphasized the need to focus on stories that unite rather than divide, recognizing that peace is essential for societal stability and progress.
Mayen Etim, the group's deputy team leader, echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing that peace is paramount for societal advancement. She stressed the need for journalists to promote peace, as their words can either foster harmony or ignite conflict.
“So for us journalists, it is imperative that we seek peace. If we set any ethnic group against the other and the country is set ablaze, we will be running helter-skelter … we should remember to write to live because if you write and you set the nation ablaze, you will also be affected,” she said.
She added that the local people are tired of hearing bad news in the media, which is why they are working hard to train more journalists to embrace peace journalism, preach peace, speak peace, talk peace, and work for peace.
Samson Auta, a development practitioner and Early Warning Early Response Specialist (EWER) said the media is key to engaging the community and the government on how to address issues that can lead to crisis or conflict in society. The EWER system is a way to identify threats at an early stage in communities and initiate a rapid response to mitigate conflicts.
Auta believes that journalists should be supporters of peace because they are also members of the community, and would themselves benefit from building peace in every community. “We noted that in the past most violence that happened, we discovered that some journalists contributed to it directly or indirectly due to their reportage.” Referring to the activities of the NPJ team, he said,  “We could see their work so far, they have become part of the peace professionals by avoiding headlines that will escalate violence or tensions.”
The group is actively seeking partnerships with organizations, aiming to expand peace journalism training beyond Kaduna to other parts of Nigeria. As journalists, they understand the power of their pens and the responsibility that comes with it. By promoting peace, they aim to not only shape the present but also pave the way for a brighter and more unified future for Nigeria.


Do you condemn? · Global Voices
The Battleground

‘Stop the killing.’ Berlin Mitte, Potsdamer Platz, November 25, 2023. Photo by Matthias Berg on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED).
This article was written by Wieland Hoban, and was originally published in the Battleground on Dec 1, 2023. An edited version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Among the many speech acts reflecting the delegitimization of Palestinian resistance — even in its non-violent forms, such as protest and boycott — is the question, “Do you condemn?”
Time and again, it is directed at Palestinian guests by interviewers as a ritual to be performed before the conversation can proceed, or against supporters of Palestinian rights, as demonstrated recently by the British TV host Piers Morgan in a conversation with Jeremy Corbyn.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Queen Rania of Jordan pointed out the double standard:
Why is it that when people are coming to represent, you know, the Palestinian issue, at the top of an interview, they have to have their humanity cross-examined, they have to present their moral credentials: “Do you condemn?” We don’t see Israeli officials being asked to condemn, and when they are, people are readily accepted by “our right to defend ourselves.” I have never seen a Western official say the sentence: Palestinians have the right to defend themselves.
While the queen was treated a little more gently than most Palestinians and not been confronted directly with this demand, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, was subjected to a particularly undignified interrogation by the presenter Kirsty Wark on the BBC programme Newsnight.
Zomlot had just lost six family members, including two children, in Gaza. This, however, did not prevent Wark from insisting that he — a representative of the PLO — condemn the actions of Hamas. Zomlot showed incredible restraint, maintaining his composure despite his grief.
To anyone familiar with the history of how oppressed peoples — whether those colonised by other states or those treated unjustly by their own — have responded to their oppression, this is only the latest instance of a time-honoured phenomenon.
Because the oppressor is not only politically and physically but also discursively dominant, any refusal to accept their terms is presented as evidence of savagery, reinforcing the idea that the oppression is justified, even necessary.
A potent example from recent history can be found in an interview with the Black civil rights icon Angela Davis from 1972 when she was imprisoned.
Davis expresses bafflement that her questioner should ask her if she approved of violence in the Black struggle when she had grown up in a community that was subject to constant violence by racists.
Again, this is not a blanket justification for whatever is done in the process of resistance, and the attack of October 7 crossed the line drawn by international law. But the use of the term defines the context, not the morality.
When Native Americans were fighting against genocide, they committed massacres against unarmed settler families, but the verdict of history has clearly not been that such acts of brutality invalidated the anti-genocidal struggle itself.
One does not have to go back to 1948 to highlight the constant violence by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere; it is enough to go back 16 years to the decision to place the Gaza Strip under blockade.
This was an act of collective punishment that has been internationally condemned, and its many ramifications constitute a state of violence.
Violence breeds counter-violence, and the armed resistance in Gaza — which includes not only Islamists like Hamas but also the Marxist-Leninist PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) — acts in response to the violence of the occupation.
The word ‘terrorism’ obscures this and delegitimises the resistance not only for specific acts — such as killing civilians — but for resisting at all. And this is precisely what people are being urged to denounce when they are asked, “Do you condemn Hamas?”
One of the more well-known and eloquent leftist politicians in Europe, the Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, added a twist in an interview with his explanation of why he refused to condemn Hamas for the attack.
He located the responsibility for the structural injustice at the root of the violence less with Israel itself than with the West since Western countries had supported Israel’s actions and its system of apartheid for decades.
Varoufakis made the simple point that when members of the Black resistance in South Africa committed acts of violence in their struggle against apartheid, the problem was not their violence; the problem was apartheid.
Nuance can be a scarce commodity in our increasingly polarised public discourse, a discourse dominated by online outrage, and it has perhaps never been scarcer than since October 7.
The activist organisation I belong to, the German-based Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, has certainly not remained aloof. Many of our members are Israelis with family and friends in Israel.
On that day, one member lost a relative whom the IDF shot after being mistaken for a Palestinian militant. Another member lived in Sderot for a few years and was scared to look at the list of fatalities, fearing that he would read familiar names. These are only two examples.
It should come as no surprise that we also experienced a degree of internal friction regarding our response to the events.
While some members found it essential to express empathy, others did not consider it our role as political activists to highlight emotions when a long-term system of structural oppression and violence was the root cause of the violence at a particular moment.
There was anger and reproach; one member even left the group.
The board ultimately published a statement that sought a middle ground between humanity and political analysis. It was clear to us that our enemies and perhaps even some friends would attack it — because we did not condemn it for the reasons I have discussed here.
It was not a choice to side with those who killed innocents on October 7, but rather to state unequivocally that those fatalities resulted from the injustice visited on those who were killed long before and are being killed by the thousands as I write this.
In memory of Khalil Aburaida, killed by Israeli bombs in October 2023, and for his wife Alaa and their four children, whose fate is unknown.


Riau Forest Fire Triggers Worst Indonesia Haze Pollution  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Forest fires in western Indonesia have intensified this month affecting the residents of Riau, West Sumatra and North Sumatra. The forest burning is also blamed for producing a thick haze to descend on neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
A burning forest in Riau, Indonesia. Photo by Virna Puspa Setyorini, Copyright @Demotix (6/20/2013)
Fire hotspots have increased to more than 2,000 early this month. To contain the fire, the government released six tons of salt above Riau to trigger rain in the 13,000 hectares of affected area.
Air pollution has worsened most especially in Riau, regarded as the ‘ground zero’ of the haze disaster. More than 33,300 residents of Riau have already suffered acute respiratory tract infection because of the haze. A bigger number of residents, including children, has been diagnosed with asthma and cough.
The fire is caused by the deliberate burning of forests mainly by corporate agricultural plantations. Big farmers are also accused of causing the ‘perpetual’ burning of forests because of their pollutive tilling methods.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) explained that the forest fire is both a natural and man-made disaster:
Kebakaran ladang & asap ini di samping disebabkan oleh cuaca yg ekstrim, juga karena ada penduduk & perusahaan yg membakar ladang. *SBY*
— S. B. Yudhoyono (@SBYudhoyono) March 13, 2014
The fire and smoke was not only caused by extreme weather, but also by the local people and companies who tried to burn the land. *SBY*
The ongoing fire disaster is also expected to affect Indonesia’s oil supply since Riau accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the national oil production.
Fire density in Riau, Indonesia. Image from World Resources Institute
Twitter hashtags #PrayForRiau, #MelawanAsap, and #RiauHaze are used by Indonesian netizens to monitor the haze and fire situation:
before and afternya riau. #PrayforRiau everyone. Hoping for a heavy rain in Riau. amen. pic.twitter.com/GQgC3a8eci
— Jeanne (@jeanneross) March 15, 2014
How we can survive in this city? Please #PrayForRIAU #MelawanAsap cc: @delpieroale @delpieroINA @juventusfc pic.twitter.com/YoFfZOrAtv
— JuLiana Sitindaon (@Jueluvpidi) March 13, 2014
#MelawanAsap Don't stop now, until those corporations act responsibly. If we stop, next year will be the same. pic.twitter.com/AH0450xAiG
— Jerry (@jerryzhng) March 15, 2014
WE MISSED THIS! THE CLEAN AIR LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS! #PrayForRiau pic.twitter.com/05ApdXeZoJ
— KYUHYUN'S WIFE ε˘`)♥ (@Kyuteukbi) March 13, 2014
i know how hard it is to live in a place with bad situation and you can't go anywhere because you can't see anything outside #PrayForRiau
— Dyah Puspa Arum (@DyahPuspaAruum) March 15, 2014
we deserve to be awarded as the no 1 city with the worst hazardous haze in the world and the president doesnt give a damn. #RiauHaze
— Dedy Ong #RiauHaze (@OngDedy) March 12, 2014
5% oxygen only. What a horrible situation it is #PrayForRiau
— Wijaya.A.Lutfi (@LutfiAfansyah) March 15, 2014
This is not the doom of the Gods. But at the hands of people who are not responsible. #PrayForRiau
— Miftahul Jannah (@miftahulmitaa) March 13, 2014
RT @OngDedy: let's make this an International Issue! we need unite to STOP this. #PrayForRiau … http://t.co/xQbv21JUCq
— satria putra (@satria_pku) March 13, 2014


5 Heavily armed suspected poachers arrested in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve - Oxpeckers
Fiona Macleod
30 Sep
5 Heavily armed suspected rhino poachers arrested in Rietvlei Nature Reserve near Pretoria. One of the suspects was out on bail after being charged with rhino poaching earlier this year. The suspects were found in possession of an assortment of hunting rifles, and handguns fitted with silencers


Iran: In Defence of the Bahá’í Minority  · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

The Bahá'í minority in Iran has long been under pressure, and it seems the situation has become worse. Iranian authorities recently accused seven leaders of the Bahá'í  faith of espionage. The Bahá'í themselves say they are being persecuted because of their religion.
A group of academics, writers, artists, journalists and Iranian activists throughout the world last month wrote an open letter to the Bahá'í religious community saying: we are ashamed of a century and a half of oppression!
Persecution of the Baha'is of Iran blog has published the Bahá'í International Community's letter to Iran's chief prosecutor:
“While the harassment and ill-treatment of Baha'is continued uninterrupted during this period, they have been taken to new levels of intensity in recent years as certain elements that have historically been bent on the destruction of the Baha'i community have assumed growing influence in the affairs of the country,” says the Baha'i International Community in the communication.
It notes that it was only in response to that persecution that small ad hoc groups were set up to “tend to the spiritual and social needs” of Iran's 300,000 Baha'is – and that for more than 20 years the government has worked with those structures.”
MidEast Youth introduces us to a timeline that documents violations perpetrated against Bahá'ís in the past 30 years, from executions, to arrests, expulsions and desecration. It's a “reminder of the heavy toll of silence in the face of grave human rights abuses.”
Persecution of Baha'is in Iran on Dipity.
PejvakZedanyan shares the story  [fa] of a talented Bahai Student, Mr. Shayan Moghymi who was banned from university after one year of study just because of his religion.
Another young Bahá'í student who was banned from studying in university shares [fa] his/her feeling about exclusion. The blogger writes:
به راستی این اقدام پایان داستان تحصیل من است ؟ یک جوان ایرانی بهائی بدون امکان ادامه تحصیل مثل هزاران جوان بهائی دیگر ؟ … چون اعتقاد من متفاوت است نمی توانم از حق ادامه تحصیل در کشور خود برخوردار شوم ؟


Mutant Poliovirus: Nigeria Records 395 Cases Of Type 2 - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (A.M)
January 14, 2022
NPHCDA Executive Director, Dr Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this in a
statement saying the outbreak was a result of the immunity gaps in
children.
He attributed this to low routine immunisation coverage and the
suspension of several polio campaigns at the heat of the COVID-19
pandemic.
Dr Faisal, however, stated that the circulating mutant Polio-Virus Type 2
recorded in the 27 states and Abuja was different from the wild
poliovirus, which the World Health Organisation gave its Polio Free
Certification to Nigeria in 2020.
He gave the assurance that the NPHCDA would scale up routine
immunisation, especially in the affected states in order to curb the spread
of the circulating mutant Polio-Virus Type 2.


Two Tragic Cases Throw a Harsh Spotlight on Latin America’s Abortion Laws · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Campaign for mothers-to-be. Image on Flickr by Prefectura de la Provincia del Guayas (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Two cases of rape resulting in pregnancy thousands of miles apart have once again have put a face to a taboo topic in Latin America: abortion.
The first involves a Salvadoran woman who was pardoned after serving seven years of a 30-year sentence for aggravated homicide related to a stillborn birth. The second is a 10-year old girl in Paraguay who is pregnant after she was allegedly raped by her stepfather. Authorities have denied her an abortion.
Latin America has some of the most restrictive regulations on abortion in the world. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Suriname and Chile ban it completely. Guatemala, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay allow it only when the mother's life is threatened. The only countries in the region where women are free to abort are Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico (but only in that nation's capital) and some countries in the Caribbean.
Salvadoran Carmen Guadalupe Vásquez Aldana was 18 years old when she experienced the events that landed her in prison, according to the campaign Las17. She was one of 17 women, known as #Las17, who were imprisoned for aggravated homicide of their newborns. Their defenders argue that the women lost their newborns due to a range complications beyond their control, and that authorities never pursued the truth and instead treated them as guilty from the start:
Había empezado a trabajar como empleada doméstica desde muy corta edad. Cuando ocurrieron los hechos […] trabajaba como empleada con un sueldo de $80 al mes, durmiendo en casa de sus patronos, en un cuarto que ni siquiera tenía luz eléctrica.
Al poco de empezar a trabajar sufrió una violación, producto de la cual quedó embarazada. […] Su vientre no le creció y su misma patrona no se había dado cuenta de que estuviera embarazada.
Tuvo un parto de madrugada en el pequeño cuarto que tenía en la casa donde trabaja. Asustada por que no esperaba ese parto y con miedo a perder el trabajo por ello, no pidió ayuda ni tuvo ninguna atención médica, y según ella manifestó la criatura nació sin vida. Tuvo una fuerte hemorragia y su patrona la encontró sangrando a la mañana siguiente. Guadalupe se levantó y trabajó en las tareas domésticas mientras seguía sangrando. Al mediodía, como no paraba la hemorragia, su patrona la llevo al Hospital de San Bartolo, donde no la atendieron hasta las 8:20 de la noche. El médico manifestó que tenía una fuerte hemorragia y el propio personal sanitario del Hospital la denunció a la policía por aborto y la detuvieron.
She started working as domestic worker at very young age. When the events took place […] she worked as housemaid earning $80 per month, sleeping in her employers’ house, in a bedroom that didn't have electric light.
Just after she started to work there, she was raped, and as result, she became pregnant. […] Her womb hadn't grown and not even her employer noticed she was pregnant.
She went into labor in the early morning in the small room she had in the house she worked at. Frightened as she didn't expect the birth and afraid of losing her job because of it, she didn't ask for any medical attention and, according to her declaration, hers had been a stillbirth. She suffered heavy hemorrhage and her employer found her bleeding the next morning. Guadalupe got up and carried on with household chores while still bleeding. By noon, as the bleeding hadn't stopped, her employer took her to San Bartolo Hospital, where she remained unattended until 8:20 in the evening. The doctor said she had a heavy hemorrhage and the staff of the hospital turned her into the police for abortion and she was detained.
El Salvador's laws regarding abortion weren't always so strict. As NACLA reports:
In El Salvador, a powerful pro-life movement led by the organization Yes to Life began campaigning for the total criminalization of abortion during a planned revision of the penal code in 1994. The right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA) political party allied with the pro-life movement, and in 1997, voted into law a new criminal code. The new code eliminated the previous law’s allowance of abortion in cases of rape or grave fetal deformation, or when it would save the health of the mother.
The changes to the code included declaring that life begins at conception and the state must protect that life.
The story took an unexpected turn on January 12, when the Commission of Justice and Human Rights in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly unanimously ruled to pardon Carmen Guadalupe. Hers is the first pardon granted in the history of El Salvador to a woman accused of abortion and gives hope to 16 other women who are still in prison.
In a press conference she had after being released, she said, “I thank God as finally justice was served, I declare that I am innocent.”
At the time, the news echoed on Twitter:
Congreso de El Salvador aprueba indulto a una de las 17 mujeres presas por abortar http://t.co/wjq7MkPsm8 vía @InfoNodal
— cosimina pellegrino (@cosipellegrino) febrero 25, 2015
El Salvador Congress grants pardon for one of the 17 women imprisoned for abortion.
La liberación de Guadalupe es un paso importante hacia la justicia para muchas mujeres #Las17 http://t.co/TqaHhrpOdP pic.twitter.com/iqiOYETBnB
— Túpuedessalvartuvida (@vida_mujeres) febrero 20, 2015
Guadalupe's release is an important step towards justice for many women.
Photo: “When I was in prison, I met other women like me who were being treated unjustly. I want to send them a message of hope and strength. I want them to know that the world is paying attention to their cases.” -Guadalupe
In Paraguay, a ten-year old girl represents another tragic side of the same drama. The child is five-months pregnant, allegedly raped by her stepfather Gilberto Benítez Zárate, who was finally detained by police after several weeks on the run. He is currently behind bars at the Tacumbú prison in Asuncion.
Authorities have denied the girl an abortion despite her mother's requests, and some medical experts fear that pregnancy at such a young age could endanger her life. The girl's mother –who reportedly raised the alarm last year that the stepfather was abusing her daughter, but police did nothing — was also arrested, accused of obstructing the investigation by giving false information about the stepfather.
As the website ActitudFem reports:
Tiene 10 años, pesa 36 kilogramos, apenas alcanza el 1.40 de estatura y está embarazada luego de que, se presume, su padrastro abusara de ella. Sin embargo, las autoridades paraguayas se niegan rotundamente a que la menor aborte.
El 21 de abril la menor llegó al Hospital Materno Infantil de Trinidad de Asunción acompañada de su mamá. La pequeña se quejaba de un dolor estomacal.
Pero cuando los médicos la revisaron descubrieron que en realidad la pequeña tenía 21 semanas de embarazo.
She is ten years old, weighs 36 kilograms (79 pounds) and she hardly rises up to 1.40 meters (4 feet 7 inches) and she is pregnant after her stepfather allegedly raped her. Paraguayan authorities, however, have rejected outright for the minor to have an abortion.
On April 21, the girl arrived to the Trinity Child's Hospital of Asunción with her mother. The girl was complaining about a stomachache.
But when the doctors evaluated her, they found out the girl was 21-weeks pregnant.
Paraguayan Minister of Health Antonio Barrios has expressed his total disagreement with an abortion. Furthermore, he has criticized the public campaign pressing the country's authorities to authorize the procedure.
Their refusal has sparked heated debate around the world. Amnesty International has called on authorities to allow the girl an abortion :
Amnesty International has issued an Urgent Action and its supporters have been writing letters to the Minister of Public Health and Welfare and the Attorney General calling on them to intervene to protect the girl and guarantee her human rights.
The organization has launched an online petition with the name Niña en peligro (Girl in danger), which currently has more than 5,000 signatures.
On Twitter, some users called on Paraguay's President Horacio Cartes to act while others repeated the news:
Una niña de 10 años violada por su padrastro, embarazada, la obligan a seguir con su embarazo (paraguay) #NinaEnPeligro
— Virginia C.R. (@vircore) Mayo 5, 2015
A ten-year-old girl raped by her stepfather, pregnant, she is forced to continue with her pregnancy (Paraguay). #ChildInDanger
Juan A. Torres, a social worker and healthcare activist in Spain, tweeted Amnesty International's note to his 31,000 followers:
Exige a @Horacio_Cartes que garantice salud a niña de10 años violada y embarazada http://t.co/jojaclpaGG pic.twitter.com/fYfnVpG4P3 — JUAN A. TORRES (@JuanMalaga2011) Mayo 5, 2015
Demand that Horacio Cartes guarantee health to a ten-year old raped and pregnant girl.
According to official figures, two girls between 10 and 14 years old give birth every day in Paraguay, most as a result of sexual abuse from their family environment. The World Health Organization puts the number of abortions carried out each year in Latin America at four million, and the majority of them are performed amid unhealthy conditions, especially in low income areas.


Fact-check: Did Mumbai police pay respects to Hazrat Pir Mahim for the first time under Shiv Sena? - Alt News
Kinjal
15th January 2021 / 12:30 pm / Last updated: 15th May 2021
A video of a group of policemen saluting Hazrat Pir Makhdoom Ali Mahim is circulating on social media with the claim that these are Mumbai cops paying their respects to the Sufi saint for the first time because of the Shiv Sena. From the Facebook account of one Kajal Shingala, the video drew 11,000 views and over 1,200 likes.
मुंबई पोलीस द्वारा पहली बार पीर हजरत मकदूम शाह को सलामी
शिवसेना अब अपने अंतिम पड़ाव पर है…👇🏻
Posted by Kajal Shingala on Friday, 14 May 2021
It has also been shared on Twitter.
मुंबई पोलीस द्वारा पहली बार पीर हजरत मकदूम शाह को सलामी
शिवसेना अब अपने अंतिम पड़ाव पर है…👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/2heimCYHyx
— राजीव कुमार रंजन (@Rajiv1318) May 14, 2021
A Facebook page named Bakauli shared the video the same claim in January this year. (Archive link)
शिवसेना
मुंबई पोलीस द्वारा पहली बार पीर हजरत
मकदूम शाह को सलामी
शिवसेना अब अपने – अंतिम पड़ाव पे ..
Posted by बकलोली on Tuesday, January 12, 2021
‘हिंदू राष्ट्र’ (Hindu Rashtra), another Facebook page, also posted the clip and accompanying claim. (Archive link)
मुंबई पोलीस द्वारा पहली बार पीर हजरत
मकदूम शाह को सलामी
शिवसेना अब अपने अंतिम पड़ाव पे है..🤔🤔
Posted by हिंदू राष्ट्र on Tuesday, January 12, 2021
This video is being shared on Twitter and Facebook with similar assertions. RSS-affiliated Sunaina Hole shared the clip in a tweet, tagging both the Mumbai police and Uddhav Thackeray. It had received more than 20,000 views at the time of writing. (Archive link)
Leaving without comments..@MumbaiPolice under @OfficeofUT Govt 😅
Enjoy the video! pic.twitter.com/whVLtrLFcq
— Sunaina Holey (@SunainaHoley) January 8, 2021
Alt News performed a keyword search and found that the video is genuine. However, this is not the first time that the Mumbai police has paid respects to Hazrat Pir Mahim by offering a sacred sheet at the Mahim Dargah. For the past several years, Mumbai police has been offering sheets on the occasion of Urs (Makhdoom Shah Baba’s death anniversary). Another video of police personnel offering sheets at the Dargah was uploaded in December 2020 on YouTube.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Z716VTP1A]
In fact, we found videos when the event was held in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019 thus the occasion was held during BJP’s rule as well.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT7-ieBn6lU]
On December 14, 2016, Mumbai police also tweeted a few photos of their cops offering a sheet at the Dargah, adding that it was an annual tradition.
We have the honour of offering d 1st ‘Chadar’at Mahim Makdhoom Shah annual Urs- A tradition bng followed since years pic.twitter.com/x2LFnTlOUq
— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) December 14, 2016
ABP Majha reported on December 26, 2020, that for the first time in 120 years, there would be no Urs fair at the Mahim Dargah. The occasion would instead be celebrated with a simple ceremony. It also mentioned that the Mumbai police are the first to offer a shrine at the Dargah. The entire police force participates in this ritual. However, in 2020, only a few policemen carryed out this tradition due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Therefore, a video of the Mumbai police’s yearly tradition of offering a sacred sheet at the Mahim Dargah was given a false political spin on social media. The event wasn’t held for the ‘first time’ during Shiv Sena’s governance but has also been held during BJP’s rule.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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Joey’s Notepad: Toxicity is Driving People Out of Municipal Politics – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

May 2, 2024
Quebec’s politics is honest.
People talk about problems openly and directly, which helps explain why Quebec’s provincial government is trying to address the toxicity directed against municipal politicians. (Whereas in Ontario, we see it and try to forget it is happening)
The Globe and Mail reports: “At least 741 of Quebec’s 8,000 local politicians—almost 10 percent—have quit since 2021. In a fall 2023 survey of Quebec mayors and city councillors conducted by the Union des municipalites du Quebec, 74 percent reported experiencing harassment or intimidation.”
Gatineau’s mayor abruptly resigned in February.
“[France] Bélisle said she has been witness to personal attacks that go beyond normal political criticism, including death threats from members of the public. She said she decided to quit, effective immediately, to preserve her health and her integrity,” The Canadian Press reported.
In early April, three councillors resigned in Sainte-Pétronille. [The council here issued legal notices against local residents; this one is complex]
Carleton University’s journalism program spoke to experts about how toxicity is deterring women from seeking public office.
Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier shared she requires police protection.
The Province of Quebec plans to make threatening politicians a provincial offence, with fines of up to $1500. The new law will also include a fine of up to $500 for disrupting council meetings.
In my experience, threats from various political factions and extremes are becoming more common in municipal politics.
Privately, public figures share with me some of the anonymous threats they receive.
One can sense the tension in public meetings following January’s attack at Edmonton City Hall.
Hamilton City Hall now posts security guards outside the council chamber, with more security measures being considered.
On May 1st, Oakville North-Burlington MP Pam Damoff announced she is not running for re-election in the next federal election, citing toxicity as one of the reasons.
Addendum: Civil liberties groups are concerned about Quebec’s plans to make intimating municipal politicians a provincial offence. They say the legislation is too broad, vague, and prone to abuse, and it will stifle debate.


BJP MP Paresh Rawal tweets previously debunked fake newspaper clipping - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
18th April 2019 / 2:04 pm
BJP MP and actor Paresh Rawal retweeted a purported newspaper clipping (archive) according to which an Indian politician was arrested in Boston airport for possession of drugs. The politician was a son for a former prime minister, claimed the alleged clipping dated ‘September 30, 2001’. At the time of writing this report, Rawal tweet was liked over 3,000 times and retweeted more than 1,300 times.
Well I know and all should know ! https://t.co/Q1intlelge
— Chowkidar Paresh Rawal (@SirPareshRawal) April 18, 2019
The newspaper clipping shared by Rawal is fake and was debunked by Alt News on April 17 when RBI director S Gurumurthy tweeted it. The clipping was created on a website fodey.com that gives one an option to write a story, give it a headline, name the newspaper and change the date.
The video below shows how a newspaper clipping can be generated on the website.
The dissemination of such misinformation, which has been proved false multiple times, is meant to wrongly shape the public opinion. Social media users should remain wary of accounts that frequently share misleading posts. BJP MP Paresh Rawal has been found circulating misinformation numerous times in the past – false statistics to show Modi govt better at combating terror in J&K, photoshopped tweet of Rahul Gandhi on fuel price rise.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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Syria: All Newspaper Headlines Celebrate Assad  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A copy of Syrian newspaper Tishreen with only one topic in all its front page stories – Bashar Al Assad. Picture shared by @anasonine
On Twitter, Syrian blogger Anas shares a picture of the front page of the Arabic language daily Tishreen and says:
@anasonline: This is a copy of Tishreen newspaper dating back to 2000 which my friend found by accident. All the headlines talk about one topic.


Palestine: Hillary Apology? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian Haitham Sabbah suggests that Hillary Clinton apologises to the UN for the death of a peace-keeper in Lebanon, after approving the sale of cluster bombs to Israel.


Morocco: Hemline Indicator · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Margot the Marrakesh Mystic correlates the rise of hemlines in Morocco to the changes in the economy.


Afghanistan: Prospects for Baluchi Valley · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Peter Marton reviews the current situation and perspectives for further development of the Baluchi Valley of Afghanistan. More presence of the Afghan authorities might secure the area better, but there are indications that this might still be challenged very much by the Taliban, as the area is still a hotbed of insurgent activity.


Latvia: The ‘Umbrella Revolution’ · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Peteris Cedrins of Marginalia has more on Latvia's recent “polite little revolution” – ‘the Umbrella Revolution”: here and here.


LPG Plant: DPR Tasks Operators On Safety Measures - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (F.BA)
January 16, 2020
The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR has called on Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG plant operators to take necessary measures to ensure safety of end-users of cooking gas in Kaduna State.
TheDPR North-West Zonal Operational Controller, Isa Tafida, gave the task at aone-day stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting in Kaduna. He said relevantagencies were taking necessary regulatory measures to ensure only licensedoperators dispensed the commodity to consumers.
Tafidanoted that the recent gas explosion at Sabon-Tasha and the proliferation of LPGplants and retailers across the State informed the need to enlightenstakeholders on the requirements to adopt and adhere strictly to StandardOperating Procedure, SOP, in dispensing gas to consumers.
TheController said sensitising both operators and consumers became necessary toprevent future occurrence.
Itwould be recalled that eight persons lost their lives while four otherssustained various degrees of injury and property worth millions of Nairadestroyed in acetylene gas explosion on January 4 at Sabon-Tasha, Kaduna.


Milwaukee is relaunching an initiative that brings neighbors together to address safety issues. Here’s what you need to know. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Meredith Melland
November 9, 2023
After starting as a pilot program in a few city neighborhoods, the Alert Neighbor Program is being expanded citywide in an effort to give residents the tools to reduce crime in their neighborhoods.
The City of Milwaukee program will provide funding for safety improvements such as surveillance cameras, lighting and signage to organized watch groups that are committed to addressing crime and safety issues.
The city’s Office of Community Wellness and Safety has budgeted $300,000 for the program.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson, 6th District Ald. Milele Coggs, 15th District Ald. Russell Stamper II and other city officials stressed the importance of community collaboration during a news conference on Nov. 2 at Waico Apartments, 1800 N. 12th St.
“No one person and no one entity can do this all by themselves,” Johnson said. “Public safety needs everybody to be in the game.”
The Alert Neighbor Program is a collaboration between the Milwaukee Department of Administration, the Office of Community Wellness and Safety, the Milwaukee Police Department, the Mayor’s Office and neighborhood and block watch groups.
The program was created by Coggs and Stamper as a pilot program in 2021, with 15 groups in the first cohort and 25 groups in 2022, according to Patricia Ruiz-Cantu, community outreach manager for the city’s Department of Administration.
Here are some things you should know about the Alert Neighbor Program.
Applications will open on Friday, Nov. 10 and will be available until Dec. 11.
Neighbors can organize to form a group or existing block watch groups can apply online at milwaukee.gov/anp.
The program requires a minimum of eight households to commit to participating in a neighborhood block watch or task force that works with the Milwaukee Police Department and other partners to addresssafety issues.
If accepted, a block watch group is expected to go on a neighborhood safety walk with city partners before receiving funding and to meet regularly.
A contribution of $20 per resident is required to help fund lighting, cameras and other equipment.
The Alert Neighbor Program will prioritize neighborhoods with high rates of drug-related complaints and crime, active groups and groups that can meet the $20 funding match.
City employees have not specified how many groups they plan to accept in this application cycle.
Ruiz-Cantu said it was difficult to manage 25 groups at once in the last cohort.  “My goal is to get 10 and service them right away and then reopen again,” she said.
The program will be ongoing with other opportunities to apply. Groups can reapply if they are not accepted.
The program’s direct impact on public safety is not easy to assess.
“It’s difficult to measure crimes that did not occur,” Johnson said at the news conference.
Milwaukee’s serious crimes rate decreased by 14% from 2021 to 2022 and is down 23%, year-to-date, from 2021 to 2023, though some specific crimes have increased, according to MPD’s crime map.
Coggs and Stamper both said they have seen positive outcomes from the program in their districts.
“Anecdotally, we hear from residents that are a part of the Alert Neighbor Program all the time about how this has helped bring their neighborhood together and has pushed out some of the bad activity that we’re having,” Coggs said.
To learn more about the program and guidelines, visit the Alert Neighbor Program website, contact<PHONE_NUMBER> or email<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.


Togo: An Open Letter to Denounce Violence Against Journalists · Global Voices
Julie Owono

On January 14, 2013, Maxime Domegni, Secretary General of the National Union of Independent Journalist of Togo (SYNJIT) and Sylvio Combey Combetey, President of the Network of African Journalists on Human Security and Peace (RAJOSEP) published [fr] a press release to denounce violence against journalists in Togo. The release details a skirmish that occurred on January 10, 2013, after a demonstration by the opposition was repressed [fr]:
RAJOSEP and SYNJIT witnessed the assault of several journalists during the repression of the demonstration of the Collective Save the Togo (CST), on Thursday January 10, 2013.


Russia: Andrew Kuchins’ Report · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Eternal Remont writes about Andrew C. Kuchins’ “Alternative Futures for Russia to 2017″ report and the Russian media's reaction to it.


Lingua: The Making of a Global Online Translation Project · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Ever wonder how to get dozens of people to work together over the internet to collaborate on translations to multiple languages? In nearly two years Global Voices’ Lingua translation community has grown to include 15 different languages (7 more up-and-coming!) and over 75 volunteer translators. Honestly, we're astounded by the growth ourselves.
In December 2006, bloggers attending the Global Voices Summit in Delhi decided to create a project that would enable volunteer translators to make selected Global Voices posts available in different languages. In just two years, we now have websites in Bangla, French, Arabic, Albanian, Chinese, and many other languages.
Leonard Chien in Taiwan, is co-manager of Lingua with Portnoy Zheng. He has created an interactive timeline mapping the growth of the project, including the first translation in each language, key partnerships with other organizations, media coverage of the project, and interviews with participants.
Slide the green dot to the right to read entries on the timeline. Click on entries to read more details about each item.
New volunteers have appeared from all corners of the world to help collaborate on this project. An email to Lingua from an interested translator is the simple first step to getting involved. Each language group works autonomously to get translations done, and everyone works together in email groups to decide on the joint direction of the project. Many translators wind up authoring posts on Global Voices and vice versa.
Claire Ulrich, who manages Global Voices in French, created this map of the Lingua translators community.
Please join Lingua if you have the skills and times to make a contribution. Everyone is welcome and the community is full of wonderful people. Email us! (at the bottom of this page)


2023 Elections: ICPC, NOA, Others Strategies To Curb Corruption - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (F.BA)
August 30, 2021
The organizations also called for increased cooperation to eradicate electoral corruption at a community engagement forum with theme, ‘Building Resilience against Electoral Corruption to Promote Good Governance’, organised by ‘Say No Campaign’ in collaboration with MacArthur Foundation.
The agencies pointed out the need for citizens to take it upon themselves with resolve to work with relevant government and non-governmental organizations to fight any form of electoral malpractice and perpetrators.
ICPC Chairman Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN said for elections to be credible and accepted by citizens and the international community, it is the responsibility Nigerians to achieve that and not left for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, alone.
He however, pointed out that the major issues affecting the electoral process include vote selling and buying, ballot box snatching, falsification of election results, and others.


How to bike in Milwaukee | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Wyatt Massey
May 18, 2016
Follow these tips to bike safely in Milwaukee. (Photo by Wyatt Massey)
The warm summer months offer an excellent opportunity to get on a bicycle out and explore the city. Here are answers to some of the most common bike-related questions, provided by the city of Milwaukee.
How do bike lanes work?
Car drivers are not allowed to drive in bicycle lanes, unless they are crossing them to enter a driveway, make a turn or leave a parking space. Some streets feature shared lanes, where drivers and riders travel together. Buffered bike lanes give riders an increased level of safety, as a section of the driving lane is marked off to give bikes more room.
Where can I bike?
Along with bicycling on the roadway, the Oaf Leaf, Hank Aaron, Beerline and KK River trails offer off-street routes for riders. These paths can be used for commuting or riding for pleasure. Learn more about each trail here. Ride On Wisconsin offers a searchable database of trails, bike shops and restaurants based on ZIP code.
How can I register my bike?
Bicycle registration is free in Milwaukee. The process can be completed online and offers registrants a greater likelihood of having their bikes returned if they are stolen.
How do I secure my bike when not riding?
Be sure to lock a bike when unattended to reduce the likelihood of theft. A U-lock is more difficult to break than other locking mechanisms. Locks should secure the bike to a bike rack or corral. The city does not recommend locking your bike to trees, railings, parking meters or lampposts. Click here to see the proper way to lock a bike.
Click here for a list of bicycle shops and services. Riders with concerns or questions should visit this page.


Morocco: War in Shi’a Ideology  · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Moroccan authorities are aggressively fighting Shi'a ideology in Morocco, says A Moroccan About the World Around Him.


Multiple imposter accounts created in farmer leader Rakesh Tikait's name - Alt News
Archit
30th January 2021 / 6:40 pm
Several accounts in the name of Bharat Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait have surfaced on Twitter. Tikait is the son of BKU founder Mahendra Singh Tikait. The 51-year-old is former Delhi police constable and has fought elections in the past on varied party tickets. Tikait claims to have voted for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But has proven to be a strong adversary to the party especially after his emotional video following the administration’s order to vacate protesting sites went viral.
On January 28, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal quote-tweeted a tweet by the handle @rkeshtikait expressing his support towards the farmers. CM Kejriwal quote-tweeted believing that he is responding to Tikait. His tweet gained over 5,000 retweets.
What is Rakesh Tikait’s official account?
Based on the official Facebook page of Tikait, that has close to four lakh followers, his official Twitter account is @RakeshTikaitBKU that has about 75,000 followers, and his official Instagram handle is rakesh.tikait that has approximately 25,000 followers.
On January 29, The Tribune tagged @RakeshTikaitBKU in one of their tweets. Additionally, several other verified accounts have tagged the official account of Tikait.
@RakeshTikaitBKU ‘s tears do the trick, number of protestors expected to increase at #Ghazipurborder https://t.co/lezLCs2cnk @Vibha_Tribune
— The Tribune (@thetribunechd) January 29, 2021
Prominent imposter accounts impersonating Tikait
Several imposter accounts created in the name of BKU leader Rakesh Tikait have gathered a large following on Twitter.
Several tweets by the above-mentioned accounts prove that they cannot be the official handle of Tikait. (1, 2, 3 and 4)
The official Twitter account of Rakesh Tikait is @RakeshTikaitBKU. Since his account is not verified, several people including the Delhi chief minister were led to fall for fake accounts created in Tikait’s name.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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Tinubu Establishes Overseeing Committee, Appoints Ajuri Ngelale As Special Envoy On Climate Action. - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (A.M)
May 21, 2024
The President also appointed his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale as the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action.
The Committee is to be Chaired by the President himself, while the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal will serve as the Vice Chairman.
Ngelale will serve as the Secretary of the Committee while also doubling as the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action.
A statement by the Director, Information & Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen says the Committee will remove the constraints to coordination, foster a whole-of-government approach to climate-action programmes, provide an efficient governance architecture, and ensure that all relevant institutions in the sector are plugged into the President’s vision and are collectively implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda on climate action.
The Statement however says Ngelale will retain his office as spokesman to the President.


Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago: Fire Festival  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Havana Times blogs about Santiago de Cuba's exciting Fire Festival, saying: “This year was the festival’s 31st edition and was dedicated to Trinidad and Tobago.”


Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada: Gold at Chelsea · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Life and Times of Michmac applauds both Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada for winning gold at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London.


Portugal: For a decent health care · Global Voices
Paula Góes

gotaelbr [pt] reports on a trip to a hospital in Vila Real, Portugal, and the tales of neglect that he has come across. “The principle of “whoever wants health care should pay for it” that some favor not only is contrary to what is established in our Constitution but also to the respect that should be given to human beings and all of our mothers, brothers, family, friends!”


Nigeria: First online bookstore · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Timbuktu Chronicles writes about the first online bookstore in Nigeria: “Emmanuel Magani and Debola Omololu are the founders of Debonair Publishing, an online bookstore ,a first for Nigeria.”…A fully integrated online bookstore.”


Presidential Election: Blogs and politics · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

We are 13 days from the presidential election. Every night, on TV, before the news hour, the 4 presidential candidates, belonging to different parties or coalitions, have the legal option to publicize their campaign and proposals for  5 minutes each, in  all the open channels, at the same time.
There are four in competition, Michelle Bachelet, Tomás Hirsch Joaquín Lavín and Sebastián Piñera.
Chile is full of advertising for the potential presidents. All the marketing strategies are exposed, all candidates have their webs, but not all have their own personal blogs.   País Digital, as it was mentioned, is hosting their blogs under Presidential Blog Forum.
Sebastián Piñera, posts about his vision, or to reply to the media on news about himself, or to talk about what he is doing in his campaign. He posted in his blog a question related to the  evaluation of his TV  campaign, most of the people commented that there was not enough time to express concerns in a deeper way.
In Michelle Bachelet´s  blog, the are post of supporting groups  and herself about main political issues.
Supporters of Joaquín Lavín, have created a blog for him not as successful as the ones of Michelle Bachelet or Sebastián Piñera.
For a quick browse on the political environment click here.


Sri Lanka: Shunning Public Transport · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sujeewa de Silva at Random Reflections of a Kind blog discusses about the “terrible state” of the Sri Lankan public transport system and why people shun away from them.


Drug Addiction: NDLEA To Establish 6 Standard Rehab Centres In Nigeria –Marwa - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (F.BA)
October 28, 2021
The Chairman of the NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa said this at the 5 Biennial National Symposium on Drugs and Drug Policy in Nigeria, held in Abuja.
The theme of the symposium organised by the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse CRISA is: “Substance Use, Additive Behaviours and COVID-19.”
Marwa, who was the Guest of Honour at the symposium, said that the decision was part of efforts to treat the high number of persons suffering from drug addiction in the country.
He explained that when established, the centres would complement various efforts by the Federal, State and Local Governments, adding that three of the centres would start next year as already proposed in the 2022 budget.


China is on the precipice of its own major financial crisis · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Last year, 15 unfinished buildings in Kunming city, Yunnan Province were demolished. Screenshot from China Observer’s YouTube Channel.
China’s largest property developer, Evergrande, filed for bankruptcy protection in New York last week on August 18 as it has over USD 300 billion in liabilities while its property business suffered a USD 80 billion loss over the past two years.
Many are worried the collapse of the property giant will trigger a domino effect that extends the crisis from China's property to the finance sector.
Evergrande is the first Chinese developer to face a liquidity crisis. In December 2021, its credit rating was downgraded to “restricted default” after it missed two offshore bond payments in December 2021. After Evergrande, a dozen big property developers, including Sunac China Holding, Shimao Group, R&F Properties, Kaisa Group, Baoneng Group, Country Garden, as well as state-owned Greenland Holdings and Sino-Ocean Group, have faced debt issues.
Since many of these indebted developers raised their funds through wealth management products (WMPs) from investment groups, their liquidity crisis has extended to the finance sector. Zhongrong, a subsidiary of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, one of China’s largest investment trusts, reportedly has had clients miss due payments for at least 22 products.
On Twitter, many described the crisis as China's “Lehman moment” — the high-profile bankruptcy of the US financial firm in 2008 that was the catalyst for the 2008 recession — and several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, have echoed the sentiment. Yet, as pointed out by Zhang Taisu, a professor of Chinese law and politics, the comparison is not fully accurate:
Left unsaid in this doomsaying article is the fact that Chinese bank exposure to real estate has decreased steadily over the past few years (and the fact that the biggest banks, all state owned, simply cannot behave like American banks behaved in 2008). https://t.co/82fgbwTw1c
— Taisu Zhang (@ZhangTaisu) August 18, 2023
Indeed, the current crisis, to a certain extent, is the result of China’s property bubble-deflating policy introduced in 2016, which was implemented after Chinese President Xi Jinping included “housing is for living, not for speculation” in his report in the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress.
Xi’s policy won popular support because home prices were becoming unaffordable as the Chinese property market had evolved into a speculator market after the 2008 financial crisis. The government had been boosting financing for developmental projects in economic growth. Within ten years, from 2008–2018, the volume of residential units in the market had surged, but the percentage of first-time home buyers dropped from 70 percent to 11.5 percent.
In order to restructure the property market, the central government imposed purchase restrictions in first and second-tier cities to prohibit resident households from buying more than two homes and restrict state-owned banks from financing new projects. As a result, developers turned to investment funds and buyers to finance their projects by purchasing future residential units in advance.
However, the three years of pandemic lockdown delayed the projects and increased the cost of construction. A large number of property development projects were unfinished. In 2022, about 3.8 percent of apartments — equivalent to 225 million square meters of housing — remained unfinished, according to one estimate. Evergrande, for example, was responsible for 1,620,000 unfinished residential units before it filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. As for Country Garden, the developer has more than 3,000 property construction projects across the country, and it has already pre-sold over 650,000 apartment units.
‘The turmoil in China’s property sector has left suppliers unpaid & homebuyers, who have often made hefty downpayments, w/t their apartments. Buyers in hundreds of cities have staged mortgage boycotts in protest at unfinished developments’ #ausbiz #China https://t.co/53ybBO6YkN
— Sam (@samstrades) August 19, 2023
After Evergrande’s liquidity issues emerged in 2021, the Chinese government issued a special loan and relaxed the financing of unfinished projects, yet buyers have lost their confidence in the housing market, and developers are short on cash to pay back their debts.
Evergrande’s bankruptcy has set the alarm off not just for the property development sector but also for the country’s USD 2.9 trillion trust industry, which often acts as a shadow bank for financing development projects. If the developers fail to pay their debts, the investment funds cannot cash out on their investments.
China’s economy relies heavily on property development projects, as the sector and related businesses constitute 30 percent of the country’s GDP. In addition, about 30–40 percent of the local government’s revenue is generated from land sales to property developers who obtain their capital from state banks and investment funds and pay their debts by selling apartments for home buyers, as highlighted by Asia Business reporter Rebecca Choong:
Shadow Banking Crisis. Financial giant Zhongzhi suspended payments on nearly all its investment products and plans to restructure its debt. That's shaking faith in trust firms, which lent billions of dollars to cash-strapped developers. 4/10https://t.co/hCLsKZUHir
— Rebecca Choong Wilkins 钟碧琪 (@RChoongWilkins) August 18, 2023
Amid the extensive economic crisis, many from the property and finance sector urged the government to save the property market. For example, Kevin in New York, a finance blogger on Weibo, said:
不管效果如何，房地产还是会想办法救，能拉动经济先不说，普通民众80%的资产都在房子上，房价腰斩就是家庭财富腰斩，影响稳定。
It is necessary to save the property market by all means. Aside from stimulating the economy, for ordinary people, about 80 percent of their assets come from their property; if the price is cut by half, the family wealth will also be down by half. This is bad news for stability.
However the blogger's followers are quite pessimistic about government intervention:
如果什么都能救，就不会有经济危机了，市场的力量是很恐怖了
There won’t be an economic crisis if you can save it. The power of the market is horrific.
政策左右摇摆，经济转型失败，国民信心不足，国内房地产是救不起来了
The policy keeps swinging from left to right, the economic restructuring goal has failed, people have lost their confidence, and there is no way to save the property market.
Some also pointed out that the current liquidity crisis will snowball due to the ongoing trust crisis within the Chinese political-economic system. Ma Taili, an IT blogger, highlighted the trust issue on Weibo:
当爆雷形成常态，信任就会崩塌。
如今当下可是非常严重的信任危机。
前几年成千上万家p2p爆雷，据悉殃及到了3.2亿普通老百姓！直到现在也没处置好。去年河南村镇银行爆雷，还给去要钱的众多储户赋了红码。就是不想还钱！
如今中植系爆雷，收割的不是韭菜而是韭菜花，涉及到15万高净值富人，这是信任上升到危机的程度，不仅影响了富人的理财观，还让众多老百姓的观念也受到巨大冲击。
钱可以没有，但信任一旦崩塌了，一切都晚了。
When corporate liquidation becomes daily news, people will lose their trust. We are in a trust crisis now. A few years back, thousands of P2P lending platforms collapsed, reportedly affecting 320 million people. Even now, their deposits in the platforms have not been returned. Last year, rural banks in Henan went through a debt crisis, and the authorities turned the bank clients’ health codes red to prevent them from getting their money back.
Now that Zhongzhi faces a debt crisis, their clients are no ordinary chives but flowery chives [editor note: chives is a Chinese online meme for the grassroots] — the wealthy ones who can purchase a minimum of RMB 150,000 [about USD 20,646] in investment products. The news will affect the well-off trust in the investment sector, and their trust crisis will have an impact on ordinary people. We can lose money, but not trust.
Indeed, as pointed out by economic analysts, the Country Garden’s debt crisis is caused by the erosion of confidence among the country’s homebuyers:
The Economist: “Country Garden’s issue is not one of over-leverage in the style of Evergrande. Instead, it is a victim of a loss of confidence among regular folk—a sign the government is losing control.”https://t.co/JGgVpG10C9
— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) August 17, 2023


Armenia: Rock ‘n Roll kitchen · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Global Voices Online's Caucasus Editor pays a visit to Armenia's second largest city of Gyumri where he interviews a member of the country's most well-known rock band. The post also includes an alternative video recipe for a little known local dish.


Hamilton City Council Special Meeting for March 8, 2016: 2016 to 2025 Strategic Plan Workshop – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

March 8, 2016
Hamilton City Council holds a special GIC meeting to conduct a workshop on their priorities for the 2016 to 2025 City of Hamilton Strategic Plan.
Full Replay Video


Iraq: Resistance Operations · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi blogger Lady Bird posts a graph which claims to list operations being conducted by Iraqi resistance forces in her country. They are: 1- Defense against attacks; 2- Conducting God’s judgement; 3- Bombardment;
4- Suicidal operations; 5- Assassinations; 6- Car bombs; 7- Sniping; 8- Attacks and 9- Road side bombs.


India: The Supreme Court Upholds Right to Education · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Soumalya Ray at Medica-India explains the recent Supreme Court judgement which upheld the Right to Education and mandated 25% reservation in private as well as government-aided minority schools for children from the weaker sections of society.


Climate change’s dangerous new fires - 360
Jason Sharples
Published on May 22, 2023
Climate change is creating a new kind of dangerous wildfire. It will take all our tools to keep communities safe.
Heatwaves have been going through some extraordinary changes in recent history. Since midway through the 20th century, their intensity, frequency and duration have increased across the globe – and these changes are happening faster and faster. Research indicates that this is simply not possible without human influence on the climate.
A child born today could see an extra 30 to 50 heatwave days every year by the time they are 80, up from roughly 4 to 10 days today. Southern states of Australia, such as Victoria and South Australia, which already experience the country’s hottest heatwaves, could see hot days become hotter by up to 4 degrees Celsius.
Across Europe, heatwaves may become hotter by up to 10 degrees Celsius and some heatwaves will last up to two months by the end of this century. In just the next 20 years, the US will experience three to five more heatwaves every decade compared to the second half of the 20th century.
Heatwaves are closely linked to droughts. Generally, a large amount of energy from the Sun goes into drying out moisture in the landscape. But as the amount of moisture available for evaporation declines during a drought, more energy is available for heating the air and the temperature rises. This can become a vicious cycle of increasing evaporation and desiccation of the land surface.
And of course, during times of heatwaves and droughts, wildfires will ignite more readily, burn more intensely and spread faster.
The link between wildfire and heatwaves has been seen across the world in numerous examples. The Australian 2019-20 fire season, known as the ‘Black Summer’, saw huge areas of the populated eastern seaboard dramatically ablaze. The fact that it coincided with Australia’s hottest and driest year on record was no accident.
Extreme fire weather rolled across the continent on an almost weekly basis. First a heatwave would develop across southeast Australia, with hot and dry air funnelled from the centre of the continent drying out dead litter and branches and even live vegetation. This, combined with strong north-westerly winds forming ahead of a cold front, required just a spark to result in what became known as ‘firestorms’. Then, the cold front would arrive, further escalating fire behaviour and triggering thunderstorms and lightning strikes – many of which would flare into the next round of wildfires.
Deep and extensive drought all but guaranteed the fires found fuel that was fully available to burn.
In lock-step with heatwaves, wildfires are a worsening global problem and extreme wildfires, in particular, are affecting fire-prone regions such as western North America, Eastern Russia, and Mediterranean Europe.
For example, the Russian heatwave in 2010, when 300,000 hectares were destroyed by simultaneous wildfires; the 2016 western Canadian heatwave and the Fort McMurray wildfire; and the more recent 2021 record heatwave in British Columbia where temperature records were smashed by up to 5°C, and which was immediately followed by the destruction of the town of Lytton by wildfire.
With climate change driving more heatwaves, associated weather and climate-related factors will increase the incidence of extreme wildfires.
A Royal Commission initiated after Australia’s Black Summer fire disaster pointed to an urgent need to improve disaster management capabilities in order to respond to more frequent, intense, complex and costly fires under a changing climate.
This can be done in all of three ways: first, limit the vulnerability of communities and ecosystems to fire; second, limit communities and ecosystems exposure to fire; third, limit the fire itself.
For example, improving community information and fire preparedness reduces vulnerability.
Improved development planning, building standards and management of the forest-urban boundary reduces exposure.
Land management that reduces the opportunity for large fires to develop, or firefighting to extinguish fires once they start, reduces the fire itself.
Information about forest dryness is useful for early warning and preparedness for extreme fires. Similarly, mapping climate variability across many years can help predict extreme years. Recommendations of the Royal Commission included improving national systems of collecting and sharing bushfire related information, including information on climate change and fuel loads.
‘Hazard reduction burns’ are a practice that is widely used to reduce forest fire risk in Australia. However, scientific studies have found no clear indication of how much fuel load matters in extreme wildfires. Given that fuel loads are one of the few elements of fire that humans can control, this is concerning, as it suggests hazard reduction burning may be of only limited effectiveness.
Of course, there are limits to how much the risk of wildfires can be mitigated. As climate change moves fire outside of the range of human experience, disaster management will become increasingly challenging and potentially less effective.
While efforts can be made to limit vulnerability, exposure and fire itself, it is clear that the contribution of climate change to fire risk would be lower if greenhouse gas emissions were curtailed. Pursuing ambitious global greenhouse gas mitigation alongside national and local measures to adapt to a climate changed world, is a necessary strategy if we are to limit further increases in fire risk.
Jason Sharples is Professor of Bushfire Science at the University of New South Wales.
Nerilie Abram is a Professor of Climate Science at the Australian National University
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is an ARC Future Fellow at the School of Science, UNSW Canberra.
This article has been republished as part of a package on Record heat. It first appeared on January 20, 2022.
Editors Note: In the story “Record heat” sent at: 22/05/2023 07:00.
This is a corrected repeat.


Mongolia: Government Crisis · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Mongolia's government has been formally dissolved and the protesters have packed it up. Thomas Terry has blog coverage from the ground, and the other posts on his blog are as good a place to visit as any to understand the situation.


Ukraine: Dirty Campaign Tricks · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Oleksandr of Messages From Canada writes about the futility of certain election campaign tricks: “I think they all forget that Orange Revolution in 2004 proved again and again the fact that Ukrainian people are way more sophisticated and more self-conscious in their choice for the future. The only problem is that choice is always quite limited. But that's what we, Ukrainians, have to develop, and the sooner, the better…”


Netizen Report: Threats on Civil Society Reach New Heights in Macedonia, Egypt · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Demonstrators in Skopje, Macedonia, December 2014. Photo by Akademik.mk, used with permission.
Black lists, veiled death threats and public condemnation are just some of the tactics that Macedonia’s ruling political party has deployed against local NGOs since the country’s contested elections on December 11.
Macedonia has been in mired in political crisis since revelations of widespread illegal wiretapping by the ruling government surfaced in 2015 and brought to light numerous incidents of corruption within the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party.
Shortly before the elections, flyers listing the names of dozens civil sector activists were distributed in the mailboxes and under windshield wipers of citizens of Skopje, the nation's capital. They included allegations about “mercenary” money that civil society advocates allegedly had received, along with other spurious claims. The flyers were signed by GDOM (Gragjansko dviženje za odbrana na Makedonija – Citizen Movement for Defense of Macedonia), an entity that acts as a proxy for the more radical positions advocated by VMRO-DPMNE.
Individual activists have been targeted with specific threats, in everything from public speeches, to party media, to Twitter. Alongside threats on social media, VMRO supporters have been circulating a photograph of a handwritten list with activists’ names and addresses. The Public Revenue Service also appears to be targeting select NGOs for inspections.
Global Voices’ contacts in the country fear that these tactics could amount to incitement for VMRO supporters, who might decide to perpetrate “patriotic” attacks on their own, without direct orders from party leaders. Several such attacks on journalists from blacklisted media by random party supporters have already taken place this year.
Non-government organizations in Egypt are also facing new levels of pressure. Egypt’s parliament passed an unprecedented law that strictly limits the freedoms of organizations to do research, engage in advocacy, and accept financial support. Those found in violation of the law can suffer criminal penalties, including multi-year prison sentences, for things like conducting opinion polls without the approval of relevant state authorities. A joint statement condemning the law, signed by over 20 civil society organizations and five political parties, asserts that it “effectively eradicates civil society and defers administration of it to the government and security apparatus.”
Alongside legislative changes, an ongoing campaign to limit the freedoms of NGO workers has continued apace. The executive directors of more than a dozen independent human rights and feminist groups in the country have been banned from traveling — six human rights defenders were stopped at the airport last week alone. Some have been called in for questioning or interrogation. Some have had their financial assets frozen. And a massive vilification campaign in the mainstream media has become the new norm.
Advocates believe that the onslaught has had technical ramifications. Several have told Global Voices that they are seeing indications of new, increasingly precise digital surveillance techniques targeting NGO workers. And on December 17, the secure messaging app Signal became inoperable on all major ISPs in the country. Run by the non-profit software group Open Whisper Systems, the Signal messaging app has been promoted to and adopted among many activists and NGO workers throughout the world seeking to increase the security of their communications.
Telecommunications engineer Zak Muriuki was sent to Ethiopia to install a VSAT satellite Internet connection system. Along with another Kenyan worker from the same sector, Zak was arrested and later charged with “telecommunications fraud.” Zak had been working for a private client, whose offices were raided by Ethiopian police when he was there setting up the satellite connection. Although multiple trial dates were scheduled, Zak never formally appeared in court.  Zak, the father of two young girls, died in prison in early December, after suffering from meningitis. His family members believe the disease, and a lack of proper treatment, was his cause of death.
Residents of at least four Kazakh cities reported not being able to access social media websites including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google on the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union. Twitter and Vkontakte, however, were accessible throughout the day. According to the Ministry of Information, the sites were down “for technical reasons”, but netizens pointed to the livestream of an interview with opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov as a possible motivation for the block. There is also a history of protest accompanying independence day — in 2011, a confrontation with police resulted in the deaths of a dozen people.
Facebook suspended the accounts of several Indian users who had used the platform to express criticism of India’s ruling party. Rajiv Tyagi, an ex-government employee who regularly posts critical views about the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was locked out of his account for a month by Facebook after sharing a satirical post (written by someone else) about Hindu-Muslim hatred. Tyagi received a notification explaining that he had violated Facebook’s Community Standards.
Though the community standards purport to allow “humor, satire, or social commentary” related to hate speech, the company does not allow users to appeal automatic bans. Tyagi’s account was reinstated by Facebook after a campaign by his friends appealing to the Silicon Valley company, raising questions regarding how the company handles pressure both from users and from other actors, among them governments. This comes after a wave of takedowns of content supporting Kashmiri independence during the summer months of 2016.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, journalism student Bassel al-Amin is being investigated for “insulting the state” in a Facebook post in which he wrote that the state and the Cedar, a national symbol, were not worth a Syrian’s shoes. Al-Amin wrote this in response to a program on OTV, a publicly traded television network, that he felt was degrading to Syrian refugees. After six days in detention, he was released on bail.
Thailand’s legislative assembly voted to approve new amendments to the country’s Computer Crime Act (CCA) that could have significant consequences for free expression online. The CCA will now criminalize the sending of “false computer data” or Internet content that damages “the maintenance of national security.” The law also empowers a committee appointed by the government to monitor and even order the removal of dangerous Internet content.
In sum, these and other provisions have left many citizens concerned that the law as a whole will lead to increased censorship and control of online information without meaningful oversight. An online petition against the legislation led by the Thai Netizen Network has gathered over 370,000 signatures.
Germany may consider new laws that would force social media companies to take down hate speech in the new year, according to a report by the Guardian. Up for consideration are measures that would require companies to set up channels to register complaints, publish how many complaints they receive and hire ombudsmen to carry out deletions. Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to 500,000 euros for failure to remove posts in breach of German hate speech law within 24 hours. A hate speech taskforce was set up by Justice Minister Heiko Maas in 2015 to attempt to achieve this goal, but appears to have made little progress thus far.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Inji Pennu and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.


Bolivia: The “Gasolizano”: Government Increases Taxes on Fuel · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Greg Weeks from Two Weeks Notice writes: “The Bolivian government drastically increased taxes on fuel, by over 70%.  It did so for rational capitalist reasons, namely that higher prices in neighboring countries had fostered a thriving black market.  However, the official reasoning leaves something to be desired”


Hamilton Committee of Adjustment for November 17, 2016 – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

November 8, 2016
Hamilton’s Committee of Adjustment will consider 23 applications during their November 17, 2016 hearings. Here are some of the applications that drew the attention of The Public Record’s Joey Coleman.
(Note: Variance applications are often vague and without a full history of a project, it is easy for an observer to miss a file of note that is well known to neighbours of the project)
The full Committee Adjustment agenda is available on the City website here.
Affordable housing provider Indwell’s latest project is converting the well-known George and Mary’s Tavern building at Parkdale and Melvin in East Hamilton to affordable housing.
Indwell is asking the Committee of Adjustment to grant permission for 60 apartments of 24 square metres each, whereas Hamilton’s zoning bylaws only allow for 10 apartments on the site, and requires each apartment be a minimum of 65 square metres.
What does 24 square metres look like? Here’s a YouTube video:
Disclosure: I may be requested to represent the Beasley Neighbourhood Association in this hearing.
Core Urban’s much anticipated redevelopment of three buildings across from Jackson Square on James Street North needs a series of variances due to the higher than allowed quality of the older buildings existing features – the ceilings are too tall, and there are too many windows. [More: Variances Required for 10-14 James Street North Highlight Absurdity of Hamilton’s Downtown Zoning Bylaw]
The developer is proposing to add two stories as part of the retrofit of the building for commercial use.
Expect this to gain the approval of the committee.
The developer of an in-fill mixed residential and commercial project on King Street East ,just east of Tisdale directly beside The Rebel’s Rock bar, is ready to build. having received variance approvals in 2011, and City incentive financing in 2014.
As the development is within the LRT corridor, it is subject to an Interim Control By-law and requires an exception from the Committee of Adjustment to allow the issuance of a building permit.
Taco Bell wants to relocate their Upper James location to the Wal-Mart plaza at Upper James and Fennell.
The owner of the plaza, Calloway REIT, wants exceptions from the requirements of its original approvals for the site from almost a decade ago to allow the restaurant to be closer to the Upper James street than permitted originally. They are asking for a setback of 2.3 metres instead of the 5.0 meters originally agreed to when Mountain Plaza Mall was demolished for the new box store development.
The variance is required to fit the Taco Bell between the Wal-Mart and Upper James.
There are three separate properties asking for variances to allow for conversion to duplexes of single family homes in the Ainslie Wood neighbourhood.
Former Alderman Mary Kiss represents the Ainslie Wood Community Association at Committee of Adjustment and generally the AWCA opposes any expansion to existing homes or conversions to duplexes. They hope to see students living in purpose built housing rather than converted single family homes.
One block west of McMaster University, the owner of this home is asking to build an addition which will serve as a second dwelling on the existing single family dwelling site.
The variances are required primarily for parking on site, as the building will have 15 habitable rooms and this requires six parking spots under the zoning bylaw.
A few blocks south of McMaster University, the owner of this home is asking to convert the existing single family home into a duplex. The conversion requires parking variances and is being measured by dwelling unit – not habitable rooms – requiring two parking spots.
One block west of McMaster University, the owner of this home is asking to build an addition which will serve as a second dwelling on the existing single family dwelling site.
The variance is required to allow for the home to be larger than allowed in the zoning area, and that the external appearance of the dwelling will be altered by the addition – the change of appearance is normally not allowed in duplex conversions under section 19 of the Planning Act.


Mexico: Official Blog of Google México · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Arcos links to (ES) the newly created official blog of Google México (ES).