Did Jawaharlal Nehru ever say "I am English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu by accident"? - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
5th November 2018 / 11:27 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
A statement which is attributed to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has circulated online for the past few years. According to this quote, Nehru had said, “I am English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu merely by accident”. Among those who claimed that Nehru had said this include BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya who had tweeted this in 2015.
By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and a Hindu only by accident of birth. – #Nehru
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 14, 2015
Recently, in a debate on Republic TV in September 2018, national BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had made the same claim. The video is posted below.
There are several versions of this quote shared on social media, with subtle variations. In an article published in The Indian Express in March 2018 in which he reviewed a book by Shashi Tharoor, Dalit scholar Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd had claimed that Nehru had said these words. The quote has also been referred to by the website www.india.com in an article which showed the ‘grey side of India’s first PM’.
The same has been alleged by a viral poster stamped with ShankhNaad, which has given a reference to this quote- the work of a retired bureaucrat, V Sundaram. Alt News searched and found a blog which contained this write-up titled Cry for a Hindu Nation. Here too, Jawaharlal Nehru has been credited with these words.
Alt News searched for this quote online and came across an article by the fake news website Postcard News, which had used the quote in the title itself. The article was published on February 25, 2018. Apart from Postcard News, Alt News found that a number of blogs too had referred to this quote.
On further probing, we found a reference to this remark in the book The Nehrus: Motilal and Jawaharlal by B R Nanda, who was a writer and the biographer of Mahatma Gandhi, apart from books on both Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru. According to Nanda, it was N B Khare, a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha who had described Nehru as ‘English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu by an accident of birth’.
Nanda has also referred to this quote in another book, Motilal Nehru, in which he attributes this quote to a ‘critic’ who had referred to ‘Motilal’s son’ in these words. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in his book Nehru: The Invention of India alludes to this quotation, once again quoting Hindu Mahasabha leader N B Khare. This is further corroborated by disgraced journalist and former minister M J Akbar who The Quint has quoted as saying, “The president of Hindu Mahasabha in 1950, NB Khare was only repeating an old story when he called Jawaharlal Nehru “English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu by accident”.
Both the sources presented above refer to this quotation as having been made by N B Khare and NOT Jawaharlal Nehru. Khare began his politics with the Congress party and had served as a member of the viceroy’s executive council. Khare was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India which was tasked with framing the Constitution. In 1949, he joined the Hindu Mahasabha and served as its president till 1951.
Alt News decided to dig deeper to find out the source of this misinformation. In the process, we came across Rafiq Zakaria’s A Study of Nehru, published in 1959. The work is a compilation of commentaries on Nehru by numerous eminent political personalities from India and abroad. One of the contributors to this volume is none other than N B Khare.
On page 215 of the volume, Khare’s write-up, titled The Angry Aristocrat is a critique of Jawaharlal Nehru. Here, he has claimed that Nehru in his autobiography had said that he (Nehru) is English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu by an accident of birth.
Alt News searched for this statement in Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography. Interestingly, it is nowhere to be found. Presented below is an excerpt from the autobiography in which Nehru ruminates about ‘Muslim culture’, arguing that the term signifies not a monolithic culture but a syncretic tradition that developed over the course of centuries of cultural exchange.
“But what is this ‘Muslim culture’? Is it a kind of racial memory of the great deeds of the Arabs, Persians, Turks, etc.? Or language? Or art and music? Or customs? I do not re-
member any one referring to present-day Muslim art or Muslim music. The two languages which have influenced Muslim thought in India are Arabic and Persian, and especi- ally the latter. But the influence of Persian has no element of religion about it. The Persian language and many Persian customs and traditions came to India in the course of thousands of years and impressed themselves powerfully all over north India. Persia was the France of the East, sending its language and culture to all its neighbours. That is a common and a precious heritage for all of us in India.”
This leads us to conclude that the first reference to this alleged remark by Jawaharlal Nehru was made in 1959 by none other than N B Khare, who is credited by scholars for having made this remark about Nehru.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the president of the Indian National Congress in 1929, the same year the organisation passed a historic resolution demanding ‘purna swaraj’ or complete independence from British rule. At this session held in Lahore, in his presidential address, Jawaharlal Nehru had spoken about the need for shunning religious dogmatism, and flayed the idea of nationhood based on religion.
Referring to his birth as a Hindu, Nehru had said, “I was born a Hindu but I do not know how far I am justified in calling myself one or in speaking on behalf of Hindus. But birth still counts in this country and by right of birth I venture to submit to the leaders of the Hindus that it should be their privilege to take the lead in generosity. Generosity is not only good morals, but is often good politics and sound expediency. And it is inconceivable to me that in a free India the Hindus can ever be powerless.”
Jawaharlal Nehru has been incessantly vilified on social media, where fake quotes and shared photoshopped images to malign him. Earlier, a ‘letter’ falsely claimed to have been written by Nehru calling Subhas Chandra Bose a “war criminal” was widely shared. In 2017, photograph of Nehru with his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit was posted by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya to insinuate philandering. There are numerous such instances chronicled by Alt News.
Nehru’s political ideology and his legacy is anathema to the right-wing social media network. From rumours over his genealogy to his relationship with Subhas Chandra Bose, his education policy and his equation with the RSS, among other things, India’s first prime minister remains a compelling figure in the annals of politics more than five decades after his death.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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Moscow mayor's office prepared a draft bill on access to the information with no mention of blogs or any kind of social media, gzt.ru reported [RUS]. Gzt.ru suggests the reason of the absence of Web 2.0 is the inability of the city's telecommunications committee to provide an effective information policy.


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Coronavirus: Video of an undertrial in Mumbai falsely viral as Nizamuddin markaz attendee spitting at cop - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
2nd April 2020 / 8:40 pm / Last updated: 8th April 2020
Delhi’s Nizamuddin has emerged as a coronavirus hotbed after numerous people who attended a Tablighi Jamaat meet in mid-March tested positive for the viral infection. Since the news broke out, the issue has been massively communalised on social media and by a number of mainstream media outlets. In the latest attempt, a video of a man inside a police van, spitting on a cop, has been shared by numerous individuals online. Alt News has received fact-check requests for the video on its official mobile application where the claim suggests that the man was an attendee at the meet organised at Nizamuddin Markaz.
The same has also found its way to Facebook where it has been uploaded with the following text in Hindi – “जिनको सबूत चाहिए वो ये देख लों फरिश्तों की करतूतें । शान्ति से थूक का परिचय देते हुए । ये कल भी थूक रहे थे आज भी (Those who wanted proof, here it is. The action of angles. Peacefully spitting. They were spitting yesterday, they are also spitting today.)” Below is a post by Facebook user Meghraj Choudhary. It has garnered over 1 lakh views and 6,500 shares.
जिनको सबूत चाहिए वो ये देख लों 👇
आतंकवादियों की करतूतें
Posted by Meghraj Choudhary on Thursday, 2 April 2020
From a Facebook page ‘Salo Ab tm dost ko SIKHaOge’, the clip has received 450 shares. The clip is also circulating on Twitter. It has received 2,000 retweets from the handle @Being_Ridhima.
जिनको सबूत चाहिए वो ये देख लो 👇 pic.twitter.com/BW07ExjGmf
— Ridhima Pandey (@Being_Ridhima) April 2, 2020
The video is floating in the backdrop of CRPO Northern Railway claiming that people from Tablighi Jamaat were unruly at quarantine centres and spat on medical workers.
The people who attended the congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz were taken to hospitals and quarantine centres in buses. The vehicle in the video looks like a police van. Furthermore, there are no health workers in the van and nobody is wearing protective masks.
A keyword search on YouTube – ‘man spits police van’ – led us to a report by Times of India. According to the report, “An undertrial allegedly attacked and spit on a few members of the Mumbai police escort party on Saturday. Reportedly, he was upset with the policemen for not allowing him to have home-cooked food brought by his family.” An undertrial is a person who awaits trial for a crime.
https://youtu.be/JzBOwwzk2ik
The incident was reported by Mumbai Mirror on February 29, 2020, and the accused was identified as Mohammad Sohal Shaukat Ali. His family members had got him food at the court which the police disallowed him from consuming. In the video, Ali can be seen arguing and abusing the cops of Mumbai’s Thane police.
Therefore, the video is unrelated to Tablighi Jamaat meet and has been shared to falsely portray that the man was an attendee spitting at cops to spread coronavirus infection. Earlier, a video of a Sufi ritual was falsely viral as intentional mass sneezing inside Bagle Wali masjid. We have debunked another video that shows Bohra Muslims practising the custom of licking utensils to not waste leftover food. This too was falsely shared as the Muslim community spreading the disease.
Note: The number of positive cases of the novel coronavirus in India is over 2,300 and close to 70 deaths have so far been reported. The government has imposed a complete restriction on movement apart from essential services to tackle the pandemic. Globally, more than 9.5 lakh confirmed cases and over 48,000 deaths have been reported. There is a sense of panic among citizens, causing them to fall for a variety of online misinformation – misleading images and videos rousing fear or medical misinformation promoting pseudoscience and invalid treatments. While your intentions may be pure, misinformation, spread especially during a pandemic, can take lives. We request our readers to practice caution and not forward unverified messages on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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Australia Waits on Close Count as Election Backfires on ‘Fizza’ Prime Minister · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Malcolm Turnbull visits Indonesia November 2015. Courtesy Flickr user Australian Embassy Jakarta (CC BY 2.0)
Australia and its prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, may have a long wait to learn the result of the federal election held on 2 July 2016. Turnbull replaced the former prime minister, Tony Abbott, in September 2015 in a Liberal Party coup. His popularity at the time should have made him an easy winner at the next election.
However, the counting on Saturday night was inconclusive with neither the government nor the opposition confirmed as winning a majority of seats in the House of Representatives. The election of several minor party candidates and independents means that there may be a hung parliament, with neither side having a majority. Seventy-six of the 150 seats are needed to govern. The prime minister must have the confidence of the House, where governments are formed based on the Westminster system.
It was Turnbull who called early elections, but that decision seems to have backfired. The situation has caused a resurgence in references on social media to Turnbull as being a “fizza” — comparing him to a big red firecracker that only fizzes, failing to live up to its promise.
Considering Turnbull's form last night & during #ausvotes campaign, whoever came up with Fizza was prescient LMAO! pic.twitter.com/FsfarO380C
— Cranky Pants Noely (@YaThinkN) July 2, 2016
The count of votes has been complicated by a number of factors, some unique to Australia. Firstly, a candidate must gain more than 50% to win a House seat. A preferential system of voting is used, with electors required to give each candidate a vote in order of their preference. These are distributed if necessary until one candidate has an absolute majority (50% + 1 vote). Secondly, voting is compulsory. Electors who cannot get to a polling booth on election day may caste a pre-poll vote or a postal ballot.
The government is hoping that postal votes will favor them in the count of close contests. Not everyone is convinced:
Nothing's gone to plan this election still the LNP expects postal votes to continue favouring them #stilldelusional #ausvotes #auswaits
— Jeff Meyers (@rocket_speaks) July 5, 2016
The Liberal-National coalition ‘is a political alliance of centre-right parties’. Its main opponent is the Australian Labor Party, currently lead by Bill Shorten.
In the days before election day, most political commentators and the mainstream media had predicted a clear win for the Liberal-National parties’ coalition. Turnbull had appealed for stability after the UK's Brexit vote to leave the European Union.
The unexpected results have triggered soul-searching within the Liberal Party and possible moves against Turnbull's leadership. Political journalists such as Eliza Borrello are already quoting anonymous sources about instability within the coalition:
I'm still confused by the definition of stability #auswaits https://t.co/J4wbsA5sQJ
— Dave Cooper (@DCoopes) July 5, 2016
BREAKING from a conservative: If @TurnbullMalcolm does a deal selling us out for himself we can change him @1st party room meeting @abc news
— Eliza Borrello (@ElizaBorrello) July 4, 2016
Turnbull had called a double-dissolution, with all senators up for election rather than the normal half-Senate election. His strategy to get rid of minor parties and independents there also backfired. Anthony Cooke could see the funny side:
BREAKING: New Australian senate poses for first photo. #ausvotes #ausvotes2016 #auspol #bunchofclowns #senatecircus pic.twitter.com/6P4mOrettG
— Anthony Cooke (@warmbloodedfish) July 2, 2016
While #auswaits for the final count and results, some are tired of the leaders after an unusually long eight-week campaign:
Both leaders probably don't need to be seen until there is a result. The nation will cope, I suspect.
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) July 5, 2016
It will be days, if not weeks. We'll keep you posted.


Pakistan: The civil society movement · Global Voices
Rezwan

Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed at Pak Tea House discusses the scope and limitations of the civil society movement in Pakistan.


Is this Harare clinic paying US$80 for sperm as claimed in viral messages? No, it's a hoax - ZimFact
Ngoni Mhuruyengwe
March 18, 2022
CLAIM: A Harare fertility clinic is offering US$80 for each sperm donation
SOURCE: Social media posts
VERDICT: FALSE. The messages are an internet hoax, according to the clinic
An image that has gone viral online claims that people interested in sperm donation should visit IVF Zimbabwe located in Harare.
This is a hoax.
After members of the public asked ZimFact to check, we reached out to officials at the fertility clinic, which is run by doctors Tinovimba Mhlanga and Sydney Farayi. They dismissed the message as fake and said the clinic has not called for semen donations and neither does it pay for sperm.
Additionally, the address that is included in the post is no longer the address which the clinic operates from. IVF, which offers in vitro fertilisation services, is based in Belvedere, and not on Herbert Chitepo Avenue, as indicated in the viral post, indicating the image is not new.
“This is not the first time that this is being posted. There was once a similar post and it too did not emanate from us,” said a spokesperson for the facility.
CONCLUSION
A message claiming that a Harare fertility clinic is offering US$80 for each donation is a hoax. The clinic tells ZimFact it has not issued a call for semen donors.


Iran: Buying book can become dangerous · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several bloggers published a photo where a woman pushed to the ground by the security forces in a book fair. Gargagarga writes it happens in book fair and everybody is watching. It seems people get used to seeing such scenes.


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Abdoulaye Bah

The ReliefWeb, quoting the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reports that recent floods in West Africa have displaced or made homeless 600 000 persons, destroyed schools, roads, hospitals in Burkina Faso,Senegal, Niger,Guinea, and Ghana. Guinea alone account for 40.000 people in need of help.


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Ndesanjo Macha

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Print Media Advertisement Policy’
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 16, 2016
The government recently released the new ‘Print Media Advertisement Policy’. The policy seeks to bring in more transparency and accountability in the release of government advertisements and introduces a marking system for empanelled publications.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting recently released the new ‘Print Media Advertisement policy’ of the Government of India. While releasing the new policy, the government stated that the policy focuses on streamlining release of Government advertisements and to also promote equity and fairness among various categories of newspapers/periodicals. This assumes significance at a time when close to 1000 crore rupees is being spent every year on government advertisements, as reported by Factly earlier.
New marking system to incentivize newspapers/periodicals
For the first time, the policy introduces a new marking system for newspapers to incentivize those who have better professional standing and get their circulation verified by ABC or RNI. The government believes that this will ensure transparency and accountability in the release of advertisements. The marking system is based on six objective criteria with different marks allotted to each criterion.
These criteria become important because currently, most of the publications empanelled by the DAVP have their circulation audited by a CA and not by ABC or RNI. It is common knowledge that many of them fudge circulation figures to get government advertisements.
The policy also makes it clear that newspapers in the medium category shall get advertisements from DAVP only when they get more than 45 marks in the above marking system.
The policy also includes circulation verification for empanelment of Newspapers/Journals with DAVP. The procedure involves certification by RNI/ABC if circulation exceeds 45,000 copies per publishing day and for circulation of up to 45,000 copies per publishing day, certificate from Cost/Chartered Accountant/ Statutory Auditor Certificate/ ABC is mandated.
As per government data, a total of 8031 publications are empanelled with DAVP as of February, 2015. More than 25% of them are empanelled in Uttar Pradesh (2140) followed by Delhi (1046). More than 100 publications are empanelled in 17 states each. Close to 90% of the empanelled publications are small & medium publications.
Policy talks about incentivizing all categories of Newspapers
The policy has classified Newspaper/Journals into three categories namely Small, Medium and Big.  The policy also specifies that approximately 30% of the advertisements should be in English language, 35% in Hindi and 35% in regional and other languages like Bodo, Dogri, Garhwali, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Urdu and Tribal languages.
Special emphasis for certain categories
The policy mentions relaxation in empanelment procedure to provide special encouragement for Regional language/Dialects small and medium newspapers, mass circulated newspapers (circulation >1 lakh), newspapers in North Eastern states, Jammu & Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The policy emphasizes that DAVP shall make efforts to release more social messages and related advertisements which are not date specific to periodicals. The policy also mentions that efforts will be made to release more advertisements to newspapers with special emphasis on North East, J&K and other remote areas. The policy emphasizes that the budget for all India release of advertisements shall be divided among states based on total circulation of newspapers in each State /Language.
Close to 850 crore rupees spent on all types of advertisements in 2015-16
As per data available with the government, Rs 842.89 crore is spent on various advertisements in 2015-16 (till February 2016). Out of this, 402.8 crore was spent on Print Media, 353.3 on electronic media (including FM, Internet, SMS etc), 66.83 crore on outdoor publicity, 12.13 crore on printed publicity and 7.83 crore on exhibitions.
Featured Image:  Print Ads


Guyana: Plan B for the Cricket World Cup · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“Guyana's secret “Plan B” for the 2007 Cricket World Cup has been leaked!” writes Nicholas Laughlin in a post pointing to a Stabroek News humour piece on the country's continency plans for hosting visitors during next year's cricket tournament. “It includes the creation of special DWZs (Designated War Zones) in Georgetown, a Downtown Chaos Initiative, a major conceptual art project by Christo, and the establishment of an SRC squad.”


Venezuela and China: Strong bond or empty words? · Global Voices
Alessandra Soler

Illustration: Giovana Fleck/Global Voices
For more than 20 years, Venezuela has been China’s closest ally in Latin America. Yet, Venezuela’s stunning economic unraveling, U.S.-imposed sanctions, and a new oil import tax imposed by China have called into question what the future holds for the alliance.
In practice, the partnership consists of dozens of agreements in which Venezuela received cash in exchange for oil shipments. Critics in Venezuela claim this scheme is a debt trap, one that has brought little to no benefit to Venezuelans. However, the Venezuelan and Chinese governments say the partnership is crucial for Venezuela.
China and Venezuela became close allies in the early 2000s when Hugo Chávez rose to power with a strong anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and anti-liberal international order stance. In the rapid rise of China, Chávez saw an opportunity to push forward his ideal of a “multi-polar world.” For its part, China saw in Venezuela a door to Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as a source of much-needed commodities and markets for its products.
The Venezuelan and Chinese governments were also drawn together by their rejection of any sort of “international meddling in domestic affairs” — including criticism of their human rights records. These claimed values are at the core of their political, economic, and financial relations. Unlike other international lenders such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, China offered Venezuela fresh funding without strings attached.
By 2020, Venezuela received $68.7 billion U.S. dollars from China, of which 91 percent were state-to-state loans. This is nearly half of all Chinese loans to Latin America and the Caribbean in the same period. Venezuela committed to repaying China with oil, the amount of which varied depending on its price.
China's cash came along a particular narrative: Chinese funds were part of bilateral cooperation to improve Venezuela's economic and social development, benefit both countries and become a model for South-South relations. In 2014, both countries upgraded to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.“
China and Venezuela officials and their vast network of state-affiliated media have been aligned in portraying China as a critical ally of Venezuela. Yet, none of the agreements are publicly available.
With the little accessible information, Venezuelan experts and independent media conducted thorough analyses of the loans. They have reached a vastly different conclusion.
Some critics consider the loans to be counterproductive, and that Venezuela was led by its own government and by China to a debt trap. “Debt trap” refers to a lending practice in which the debt becomes too heavy of a burden for the borrowing country, which in turn gives China more political and economic leverage. Critics note that the repayment terms are simply too onerous and even contribute to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis by slashing government revenue.
Other international observers assessed that Chinese loans and investments in Venezuela are, in reality, a lose-lose situation. Besides the obvious loss of natural and economic resources, Venezuela’s struggle to repay the debt damages China’s foreign image, including its Belt and Road projects.
With regards to results, Venezuelan critics have also decried that many — if not most — Chinese-funded projects in infrastructure, machinery, and equipment in oil, mining, and energy industries have not been concluded, in spite of millionaire investments; and that China's funding did nothing to improve the living conditions of Venezuelans. In their view, Venezuela is repaying China at the expense of Venezuelans. All the while, the country has not truly reaped any tangible benefit from the funding received.
Between both governments, the initial frenzy has been followed by a more sober period. China has not made any new loans to Venezuela since 2016, right at the onset of the economic and financial crisis that has devastated the South American country. Venezuelan officials tried to obtain fresh funding, to no avail.
In early 2019, the U.S. added sanctions on Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state-owned oil company that provides over 90 percent of export revenue. Until then, refineries in the U.S. had been the top buyers of Venezuela’s heavy crude.
China then became the main destination of Venezuelan oil exports, receiving oil from Venezuela through hidden means. According to Bloomberg, among the mechanisms used by traders are mixing Venezuelan crude with other additives in a practice known as “doping,” ship-to-ship transfers, payments via shell companies, and vessels that silence their satellite signals.
China has not taken any real action to halt the shipments. On the contrary, Chinese officials, including China’s ambassador to Venezuela, Li Baorong, regularly criticize the imposition of sanctions on Venezuela as unjustified and illegal, claiming that they are an affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty.
For its part, the Venezuelan government, eager to showcase its powerful allies, usually promotes its meetings with Chinese officials. In these meetings, they often discuss how to strengthen their relationship and the rejection of sanctions, seen as unjustified meddling in domestic affairs.
Despite the defiant rhetoric and China’s consent of Venezuela’s opaque shipments, sanctions have in fact stood in the way of business as usual. When the U.S. threatened sanctions against foreign energy companies trading or working with PDVSA in August 2019, the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) canceled direct purchases of Venezuelan oil.
More than a year later, Reuters reported that direct shipments had resumed, likely in anticipation of a change of government in the U.S. However, indirect shipments circumventing sanctions have increased, an indication that Chinese official entities may be wary of sanctions against them.
In May 2021, China imposed a new environmental tax on oil imports, which tests once again whether the China-Venezuelan partnership goes beyond shared rhetoric.
The new tax significantly increases the price of the Venezuelan crude in China and makes it less profitable to import, thus discouraging traders from engaging in an already high-risk operation. The Venezuelan government has not commented on the issue, whereas independent experts have warned that the new tax may negatively affect Venezuela’s oil exports.
China and Venezuela claim that their alliance is as important as ever, but the Venezuelan government has not received much support to sustain the oil industry that once was the center of it. Experts at Argus Media, a London-based independent media outlet covering energy and commodities markets, note that China seems more interested in “lending a hand to state-owned refiners than keeping the spigot open for Venezuelan crude,” indicating that priorities in Beijing have changed.
This story is part of a Civic Media Observatory investigation into competing narratives about China’s Belt and Road Initiative and explores how societies and communities hold differing perceptions of potential benefits and harms of Chinese-led development. To learn more about this project and its methods, click here.


Bangladesh: BRAC In Pakistan · Global Voices
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Malik Rashid at BRAC Blog describes how BRAC, the Bangladeshi NGO, is teaching children in the town of Haripur in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan.


Africa: Africa Cookbook Project moving forward · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania, gave birth to Africa Cookbook Project: “At TEDGLOBAL in Arusha, Tanzania in June, 2007, we launched the “Africa Cookbook Project,” whose goal is to archive African culinary writing and make it widely available on the continent and beyond. A database is being developed and copies of hundreds of cookbooks are already being catalogued at BETUMI: The African Culinary Network. Google has offered assistance in eventually digitizing some of the information.”


Hardship: Buhari Vows To Tackle Widespread Hunger Among Citizens - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
August 20, 2021
National Security Adviser to the President Babagana Monguno, said Buhari made the pledge during a crucial security meeting attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Security Chiefs and some cabinet Ministers in Abuja on Thursday. He explained that the President was updated on security developments in various parts of the country since the last meeting of the Security Council was held on June 8.
Monguno announced that the meeting also addressed the recent killing of travellers at Rukuba, near Jos, Plateau state, adding that Buhari also expressed confidence in the efforts of the Governor Simon Lalong. The National Security Adviser while speaking on the reported surrender of Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east noted that the President would soon take a decision on the matter. He also attributed the successes being recorded by the security agencies to the regional cooperation between the various countries and the agencies of those countries involved in tackling the menace of the insurgents


Pakistan: A Military Perspective · Global Voices
Rezwan

CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan interviews an internationally renowned political and strategic analyst Shuja Nawaz on Pakistan’s current counter-terrorism strategy.


Decadal Review: Cyber-Crimes increased 30-fold between 2010 & 2019
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 9, 2021
In this story of the decadal review, we look at cyber-crimes and suicides due to drug abuse, unemployment, bankruptcy. With the proliferation of smartphones & the internet in these 10 years, the number of reported cyber-crimes increased 30-fold.
The year 2020 marked the end of a decade. In this series about tracking various indicators, we looked at the trend in crimes against the vulnerable during the 2010-2019 period. It is observed that the overall rates of crime against women, rapes, and atrocities against SCs have increased.
In this story, we look at the trend in cyber-crimes, suicides due to drug abuse and alcohol addiction, suicides due to unemployment, and that due to bankruptcy/indebtedness. While the Crime in India report published by National Crime Records Bureau records data on cyber-crimes, NCRB’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides India report has data pertaining to suicides.
With rise the use of Smart Phones & Internet, cyber-crimes increased 30-fold
The past decade witnessed a dramatic rise in the use of smartphones & the internet in India. The launch of affordable smartphones, increased social media usage, dependence on online food delivery and cab services, online money transactions, online streaming services have all contributed to the dramatic rise in the use of the internet. This decade (2010-2019) also brought about many changes in people’s lives due to the increased use of technology. Coupled with this, the tariff of mobile data decreased substantially in these ten years as the user base and demand has surged.
As per TRAI data, there were a total of 52.5 crore mobile connections in India by the end of 2009. This increased to 115.2 crores by October 2020, which is more than twice the number in early 2010. The increase in broadband subscribers (those who use the internet with > 512 Kbps download) is more dramatic. From 78.3 lakh such subscribers by the end of 2009, the number increased to 73.5 crores by the end of October 2020, an increase of more than 94 times.
Such proliferation of the internet also meant an increase in cyber fraud. The NCRB started collating data pertaining to cyber-crime only from 2002. The provisions relating to cyber-crimes are in the Information Technology Act of 2000 and also under the Indian Penal Code. For instance, cases of forgery, misappropriation, etc. come under the IPC.
The total number of reported cyber-crime cases crossed 1000 in the year 2010 when 1,322 cases were reported. This number has increased 30-fold to reach 44,546 cases in 2019, in a span of 10 years.
Rate of Cyber-crime is being reported since 2016
The rate of cyber-crime is being reported by the NCRB from 2016 as it was negligible prior to this. In 2016, one person per lakh population has reported a cyber-crime. The crime rate went up to 1.7 in 2017, 2.1 in 2018, and 3.3 in 2019. However, the actual number of cyber-crimes could be much more since many of these crimes do not get reported.
Extortion, fraud, prank, sexual exploitation, revenge, etc. among leading motives of cyber-crimes
Since cyber-crimes is a new head in the NCRB report, there have been multiple changes made to this section in the past few years. The information has been added and deleted over the years under the cause-wise list. Between 2010-2013, the NCRB classified the motive behind the crime in eight categories which increased to 20 in 2014. The latest 2019 report has 18 columns for recording the motive. This makes the analysis of the motive of cyber-crime complicated. It is observed that the cases of fraud have risen significantly. In fact, in 2019, cases of fraud alone constituted more than 60% of the cyber-crimes. Similarly, there has been an increase in crimes for extortion, prank, sexual exploitation, revenge, and cases of disrepute over the years. The increase in reporting of cyber-crimes could also be because of the improved awareness among the general public.
Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra are among the states where the majority of the cases of cyber-crime got reported in these ten years.
More than 13 lakh suicides in these 10 years
A total of nearly 13.4 lakh persons were reported to have died of suicide in the 2010s. The year 2019 recorded the greatest number of suicides in the last decade with more than 1.39 lakh persons giving up their lives for varied reasons. Studies indicate that persons who are into substance use are at a higher risk of suicide.
Suicides due to drug abuse/alcohol addiction constitute nearly 4% of total suicides
The ADSI report combines the suicides due to drug abuse and alcohol addiction under one head. Suicides due to alcohol addiction and drug abuse constituted nearly 3.7% of the total suicides in the last decade. It is seen that the number of suicides reported under this category has more than doubled from 3,343 cases in 2010 to 7,860 cases in 2019. Except for the dip in 2014 and 2015, there has been a gradual increase in the number of suicides in India due to alcohol addiction and drug abuse.
More than 97% of persons who committed suicide due to alcohol addiction/drug usage were men
Furthermore, more than 97% of the total persons who committed suicide due to alcohol and drug abuse were men. Analysis of data from mega-cities also reveals that suicides due to the said causes were more in rural areas than in mega-cities. This is contradictory to the common notion that drug abuse is more in urban areas. However, this could possibly be attributed to alcohol addiction than drug abuse. Around 80% of such suicides were reported outside the 53 mega-cities in the last few years, as highlighted in an earlier story by Factly. Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of suicides due to drug abuse/alcohol addiction in the last decade while Karnataka has witnessed an increase in the last four years.
Suicides due to unemployment and poverty/indebtedness together account for 4.5% of suicides in the decade
Suicides due to unemployment and poverty/indebtedness together accounted for 4.5% of all the suicides between 2010 & 2019. More than 60 thousand persons committed suicide because of these two reasons, according to ADSI.
2019 recorded highest number of suicides due to unemployment in the last 10 years
Suicides due to unemployment was the highest in 2019 in these ten years with majority of the victims in the 18 to 30 years age bracket. As is evident from the graph below, the suicides due to unemployment have been on an increasing trend in the last four years. The least number of such suicides was recorded in 2012 which was the only year when the number of suicides due to unemployment went below 2000 in these 10 years.
About 88% of the victims were men
About 88% of those who died of suicide due to unemployment were men with women constituting the remaining 12%. Studies have highlighted that being unemployed was associated with two to threefold increase in the relative risk of suicide as compared to those employed.
Suicides due to indebtedness has more than doubled
Personal debt and financial distress can result in anxiety and depression which increases the risk of suicide. Suicides due to bankruptcy/indebtedness has more than doubled in the ten years, from 2,709 in 2010 to 5,908 in 2019. The average number of suicides for the said reason was about 2600 in the first half of the decade and above 4800 in the latter half. About 91% of those who committed suicide in the last decade due to indebtedness or bankruptcy were men. Those aged between 30 to 45 years of age constituted more than 40% of the total in 2019.
Featured Image: Cyber-Crimes increase


Panama: Should the Canal be expanded? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

This weekend Panamanians will decide on the fate of their country's famous canal. As Boz writes, “most elections only directly affect one or two terms of office and can be reversed in future elections. The decision made by Panamanian voters will decide the next century of economics and politics in Panama.”


Jamaica, Cuba, U.S.A.: Independence Day · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A handful of diaspora bloggers acknowledge the United States’ Independence Day, here, here, here and here.


Australian Prime Minister Accused of Political Fear-Mongering After Warning of ‘African Gangs’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Screenshot of the trailer for ‘Constance on the Edge – What does it take to belong’, a documentary about one refugee family from South Sudan as they create a home in Australia. Click the image to watch.
The first week of the new year in Australia has been dominated by the issue of so-called African gangs.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a Sydneysider (as residents of the city of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, are called), kicked off a furore when he accused the government of Victoria state government of not addressing gang violence by African youths in the state's capital, Melbourne.
He was supported by the Immigration and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, from the state of Queensland, who claimed that Melburnians are scared to go to restaurants because of rising street crimes.
Both Turnbull and Dutton are members of the Liberal Party, while the Victoria state government is run by the Labor Party. The statements come ten months before elections in Victoria and at a time of rising nationalism across the country.
Allegations of fear-mongering and racism soon followed their remarks. Others, however, thought the prime minister was simply speaking plainly about an actual problem of crime.
The issue had first arisen in 2016 over the controversial Apex gang, which police declared a “non-entity” by April 2017. Later in the year, a string of recent crimes, from vandalism and assault, jumped into the national spotlight. The incidents were blamed on groups of African youths.
This perceived wave of “gang” violence fits with some people's perceptions:
Unbelievable how many people on here are trying to say that African youth gangs aren't a problem in Melbourne. My mother in law lives in the western suburbs and believe me, they're a huge problem.
— Jon (@Melbourne_Red) January 3, 2018
However, many disputed whether there are gangs as such. Pieces of the Puzzled @chris8875 claims to be from one of the hot spot suburbs:
Tarneit? I live, we live, in Tarneit. African “gangs”? Absolute hokum. Small numbers of bad eggs … Yes, but what group doesn't have that?
— Pieces of the Puzzled (@chris8875) January 3, 2018
The Victoria-based Police Accountability Project was one of those who questioned if a spate of street crime among African young people was truly happening, arguing that “coverage of ethnicity is selective”:
[…] for crimes involving caucasian people, the suspect’s ethnic background is not relevant to mention, but for the same crimes involving people of African background, we hear conjecture and discussion about the backgrounds, culture, community, and the ethnicity of those involved.
It also cited data that challenged the notion of an African youth crime crisis:
[…] Victoria does not have a youth crime wave – ethnic or not. […] Youth crime rates in Victoria have been slowly declining for more than a decade. Crime Statistics Agency research has shown that most youth crimes are by a small proportion of repeat offenders. Despite this, there’s been a jump in aggravated burglaries and some violent crime types that has got everyone’s attention.
[…] Evidence showed that migrant youth and newly arrived migrants are not involved in criminal activity with less than 10 per cent being overseas born offenders. The second-highest country, after Australia, of alleged offenders in Victoria is New Zealand (2.8 per cent of the total offenders), followed by Indian (1.5 per cent), Vietnamese and Sudanese (both 1.4 per cent).
Victorian Crime Statistics Agency clearly show that the vast majority of offenders in Victoria are Australian born and older than 25.
The Victorian government and police appeared to falter in their handling of the issue, at first denying the existence of gangs then explaining how they were dealing with them.
In a press conference, Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton contradicted what his deputy had asserted days earlier and said the “young thugs” in question weren't organised, but are “behaving like street gangs, so let's call them that — that's what they are”:
We have for a significant period of time said that there is an issue with overrepresentation by African youth in serious and violent offending as well as public disorder issues.
Footballer and community activist Nelly Yoa has been very public in arguing that “enough is enough”. In the interview below, he told SkyNews:
There is a gang. We have a problem. Let’s solve it. […] As Melburnians, we are sick and tired of having to live in fear for the last two years.
Nelly came to Australia as a refugee from South Sudan in 2003. Much of the debate has centred on youths of South Sudanese background.
.@NYoa88: We have a gang problem, let's solve it… Melburnians are ‘sick and tired of having to live in fear.’ MORE: https://t.co/vS5BXF0Kwh pic.twitter.com/ZOBTXU82bI
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) January 2, 2018
One South Sudanese community leader, Richard Deng, however, took issue with the “gang” characterization. Speaking with ABC news, he pointed out that the youth in question are Australian of African descent, not African.
He also argued that the “tiny number” involved are not members of a gang, but simply disengaged youth; the solution, he said, is reengaging them with employment and school, not further isolating them by labeling them.
Some commenters have taken the prime minister to task for opportunism, suggesting he is playing partisan politics in a Victorian state election year with his claims of an African gang crisis. The election is due in late November.
Sydney-based writer Osaman Faruqi maintained in an article on local news site Junkee that:
[…] if there’s one thing conservatives love doing in an election year it’s breaking the emergency glass and pushing the giant red button labelled “race”.
[…] The insidious thing about this kind of craven political campaigning is that the details and facts don’t matter. The conservatives think that as soon as the topic shifts to law and order, as opposed to things like health and education policy, they win.
Additionally, Turnbull and the politicians who have supported him have been accused of dog-whistling, with appeals to anti-immigration sentiments and racism. Wikipedia defines dog-whistling as “coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has an additional, different, or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup.”
John Wren presented a list of possibilities on Twitter:
Today @PeterDutton_MP said Melbournians are too scared of African gangs to go to restaurants. Is he;
a) lying;
b) dog-whistling;
c) a racist;
d) projecting his own irrational fears;
e) an idiot;
f) all of the above#auspol
— John Wren (@JohnWren1950) January 3, 2018
Social media has been dominated by humourous responses to perceived “fear-mongering”. Twitter hashtag #MelbourneBitesBack and “Peter Dutton” trended strongly throughout the week, even against the Sydney Ashes cricket test against England.
Activist group GetUp! joined the throng with this suggestion:
Melburnians – if you head out to a restaurant tonight, why not send @PeterDutton_MP a pic of your dinner? Let's show him we're not affected by his brand of fear-mongering.https://t.co/WMkwjAyfgQ
— GetUp! (@GetUp) January 3, 2018
Plenty of Twitter users were on the same track:
Hey @PeterDutton_MP I went out last night in beautiful Melbourne. Here's a quick photo of a packed restaurant. We don't have a gang violence problem & no one is afraid to go out for dinner. Please stop your politicised fearmongering and take your racism elsewhere. #auspol pic.twitter.com/FwWyBUghT7
— rosie scroggie (@rosieanice) January 4, 2018
As someone who eats in restaurants all the time because she can't actually cook, I'm more afraid of running into @PeterDutton_MP at a restaurant and losing all my stomach contents as a result.
— Celeste Liddle (@Utopiana) January 3, 2018
Chris Graham, editor of independent media outlet New Matilda, chipped in with “18 Of The Best Melbourne Eateries Where Gangs Of African Youths Probably Won’t Kill You” with his characteristic sarcasm:
African Youth Crime Gangs are out of control in Melbourne. People are being slaughtered. And then eaten alive, after they’ve been slaughtered. And then re-animated and slaughtered again. It’s that bad.
[…] New Matilda hit Melbourne town to find out the best places to eat where you won’t get stabbed or maimed or killed. Turns out the safest place to eat, amidst the chaos and panic, is at an African restaurant.
But not everyone agreed with this approach:
How pretentious, ignorant and naive of (eastern suburbs?!) #MelbourneBitesBack intelligentsia to flagrantly disregard the experience of ppl in the western suburbs. “Bite back” by helping the ‘African’ community address a real issue affecting them – and others https://t.co/Py6PhUSP6D
— Sally Davis (@DavisConcept) January 6, 2018
Journalist Jonathan Green, who likes to straddle old and new media, was highly critical of some of his colleagues:
The gang story is media and reactive politics at its worst: reducing complex social, economic, identity, justice, inequality and inclusion issues to a cynical play designed purely to provoke fear and political advantage. It’s a grotesque exercise. It betrays all of us.
— Jonathan Green (@GreenJ) January 5, 2018
However, football writer Michael Sapro’s reply confirms that it is an issue that won’t be going away soon.
Hos would you feel if you'd been beaten up and robbed by one of these gangs, only for someone like yourself to lie and pretend it didn't happen? The cops are looking for these thugs. Don't make their job any more difficult.
— Michael Safro (@safrossydney) January 6, 2018
The Victorian opposition has called for a recall of state parliament to debate the street crime issue.


Japan: Economic crisis and demography · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

What if Japan's economic crisis could be explained with a change in the demography of the country? Paul Krygman at Truthout argues [en] that the crisis might be “not so scary after all” and related to the aging of Japan's workforce.


Breast Milk Popular Among China’s Rich · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Since the 2008 milk scandal in which tainted baby formula poisoned hundreds of babies, China's Southern Shenzhen are enjoying a new nourishment: human breast milk. Wet nurses are hired to breast feed some babies and even adults. Offbeat China has more details.


Nepal: Peoplocracy · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

United We Blog! on Peoplocracy in Nepal. “It would not be incorrect to state that we may have taken a step forward, only to return to the crossroad again taking two steps backward. It is even more likely that we would never be able to move away from the crossroad, making it a permanent feature.”


Old images of mazar demolished in UP in 2018 shared as recent - Alt News
Nilofar Absar
18th April 2022 / 4:37 pm
Photos of a Muslim shrine or mazar being demolished with a JCB machine have been shared with the claim that the structure was illegal and it was torn down in Uttar Pradesh’s Govardhan Parikrama Marg. BJYM UP social media head Richa Rajpoot shared the images hailing UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
गोवर्धन परिक्रिमा मार्ग में अवैध रूप से अतिक्रमण कर बनी मजारो पर J C B चला कर साफ किया जा रहा है, यह काम करने की क्षमता केवल योगी बाबा में ही है !! pic.twitter.com/NLO1FmD3lM
— Dr. Richa Rajpoot (@doctorrichabjp) April 4, 2022
It is noteworthy that these images are being shared against the backdrop of Ram Navami violence reported in several states. There were videos of a mazar being demolished in Haryana and state governments in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat razing down houses of people accused of being involved in the violence.
The images were also shared by BJP supporters on Twitter.
गोवर्धन परिक्रिमा मार्ग में अवैध रूप से अतिक्रमण कर बनी मजारो पर बुलडोजर चला कर साफ किया जा रहा है, यह काम करने की क्षमता केवल योगी बाबा में ही है!!#योगी बाबा जिंदाबाद!! 🙏🏾
ये है आपके एक वोट की ताकत 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/SIzOeuasVF
— Eagle Eye (@SortedEagle) April 6, 2022
मथुरा के #गोवर्धन परिक्रिमा मार्ग में अवैध रूप से अतिक्रमण कर बनी मजारो पर J C B चला कर साफ किया जा रहा है, यह काम करने की क्षमता केवल योगी बाबा में ही है💪 pic.twitter.com/1swvG1HrYT
— Sintu Tiwari🇮🇳 💯🚩% FB (@Tiwari_Sintu999) November 16, 2020
They are widespread on Facebook with the identical claim that an illegally constructed mazar was demolished by CM Adityanath in Govardhan Parikrama Marg.
We first performed reverse image searches on Google and Yandex and found tweets dating back to 2020 carrying the same images and claim.
@myogiadityanath @ptshrikant
गोवर्धन परिक्रिमा मार्ग में अवैध रूप से अतिक्रमण कर बनी मजारो पर JCB चला कर साफ किया जा रहा है, यह काम करने की क्षमता केवल योगी बाबा में ही है.
वरना खुद को यदुवंशी @yadavakhilesh ने तो हर जगह मजार ही मजार बना डाली।
🤩🤩 pic.twitter.com/NJpdjO4U3M
— विनीत भारतीय (@Vinit_singhal) November 17, 2020
We then performed a keyword search on Google and found a report by The Times of India dating back to October 2018 reporting on the removal of “encroachments” including temples from Giriraj Parvat and Govardhan Parikrama areas of Mathura district, pursuant to an order by the National Green Tribunal. Interestingly, the TOI article mentions that “the order further stated that no “samadhi” (grave) falling in the existing land is to be removed”.
We also found a video report by Neo News covering the demolition of mazars in Govardhan Parikrama area.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4LPe2sqdb8]
It is pertinent to highlight that the video report states that pursuant to the NGT order, the PWD had also carried out the demolition of around five temples of varying sizes in the same area.
Keeping the time frame of these reports in mind, we performed a keyword search on Twitter using advanced search filters and found tweets with the same viral images dating back to November 2018.
गोवर्धन परिक्रमा मार्ग में बनी सभी मज़ारों को आज ध्वस्त कर दिया है कहीं कोई ढोंग ढकोसला नहीं हुआ !(न कोई पीर निकला कोई न फकीर) pic.twitter.com/9Bpfp4nZfe
— Harshit Tripathi (@Harsh7tripathi) November 16, 2018
Thus, the images are four years old.
Nilofar Absar is a lawyer by training and a storyteller by nature who takes a keen interest in the lives of people belonging to South Asian diasporic communities.
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Turkey: Trici Venola’s Istanbul Drawings · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Trici Venola‘s wonderful Istanbul drawings and reflections – at her Drawing On Istanbul blog: “Plein Air drawing in Turkey: blogging about the site and the process.” More drawings by Trici are here.


Regressive laws start at a nation's borders - 360
Dina Francesca Haynes
Published on August 30, 2023
Border security is used in democracies like the US to silence advocates and threaten democracy.
The US and other democratic nations have weaponised border security to undermine human rights – and ultimately democracy – through the use of regressive laws.
A recent US Supreme Court decision upheld a law that allows the federal government to prosecute people for assisting undocumented immigrants. The decision in United States v Hansen raises concerns among lawyers, advocates and journalists that it could limit free speech and deter human rights advocacy.
The term ‘regressive governance’ describes broad action that suppresses human rights by taking strategic aim at vulnerable groups to undermine the rule of law, thus securing the power of regressive leadership. This can happen not just in fascist and theocratic regimes, but also in supposedly democratic countries, which are supposed to afford protections to free speech and human rights.
They do this by implementing policies designed to have a chilling effect on human rights law and activism. The goal is to eliminate resistance, and thereby entrench regressive law and policy within all systems of power and governance.
Leaders around the world seem to be observing and copying one another in how they pursue their regressive agendas — scaling back rights, ignoring international legal obligations and reversing domestic laws that would protect speech and activism aimed at exposing and countering this trend.
Regressive governments typically focus on migrants, crafting narratives that prey on the fear of newcomers to justify increasing border security. They then move to militarise the interior by expanding the authority of border regimes. They criminalise migrants and their advocates before ultimately undermining the rights of other vulnerable groups.
In Greece, the authorities have repeatedly violated international law by pushing back refugees. Recently they have been accused of causing the deaths of more than 500 migrants crossing the Mediterranean. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, or Frontex, the joint European border monitoring agency, threatened to suspend its activities in Greece after it determined that the Greek government had committed serial violations of fundamental rights of migrants and international protection obligations.
In the US, conservative governors are weaponising the issue of migrants, refusing people entry at the southern border and shipping groups of migrants to states and cities governed by liberal Democrats. Such tactics blatantly challenge the plenary power of the federal government over immigration and risk the lives of human beings for political gain.
The focus on migration allows leaders to exploit the latitude that international and domestic law ostensibly grants leaders within the arenas of sovereign authority, national and border security and foreign affairs. They push narratives suggesting that migrants threaten security and the economy – narratives that have been continually disproved, even by conservative groups.
Within these scenarios, some migrants are admitted, while others are not. The distinction exposes the racial prejudice, nationalism and xenophobia that are inextricably entwined with and benefit regressive governance.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic the US instrumentalised public health laws to expel migrants and asylum seekers – but exempted Ukrainian citizens. In July this year, Tunisia expelled migrants from sub-Saharan African countries, exposing them to deadly heat and dehydration in the desert, days after it had struck a deal with the EU to facilitate the return of migrants to countries of origin.
Human rights advocates and those who share knowledge and information with the public have been increasingly targeted and their work criminalised. In the US, migrant advocates were stopped, held, and threatened at ports of entry and in transit to the US. Regressive actors in the US have threatened immigration lawyers with prosecution for everything from obstruction to human trafficking, and have used Interpol flags and other border security mechanisms to harass and detain them. Cases like Hansen use the rule of law to endorse this type of reprisal.
Hungary has criminalised providing assistance to asylum seekers. Conservative leaders in Italy and Greece have prosecuted immigrant rights advocates – even those following their professional and legal obligations, like ship captains who are required to respond to ships in distress. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders has documented that conservative governments are regularly targeting migrant rights defenders for reprisal.
The US Supreme Court has consistently said that the media in particular should not be concerned about risking prosecution by publishing material critical of the government. This is the legal concept of prior restraint. Legal principles that work to prohibit laws that have the effect of chilling speech are deeply respected in genuine democracies, which understand that democracy depends on an informed and educated public.
The US has long criticised other governments that criminalise or harass media and human rights defenders, calling out these acts as threats to democracy, yet in Hansen the government does the same, with judicial approval.
As the two dissenting justices noted in the case, judiciaries in true democracies strike overbroad laws that have the effect of limiting advocacy, journalism and free speech. A true democracy would require legislators to rewrite the law more narrowly. Instead, this court left the law intact, effectively wagging a finger at the federal government and asking it to promise never to apply the law too broadly.
Criminalising migrant rights speech and advocacy – like criminalising migration and permitting government actors to actively harm migrants – is a signpost of regressive governance and considered out of bounds in democratic nations that respect international law. Wielding the machinery of law to make rights defenders afraid of assisting migrants is the intention. It is designed not just to deter migration, but also to deter challenges to regressive governance more broadly.
The impediments imposed by regressive governments are meant to make advocates for migrants and human rights think twice before using their limited resources to act. They are aimed at keeping advocates from entering into or remaining in the profession, because human rights advocates are most likely to expose and oppose their regressive actions, and migrant rights advocates are often the first to notice regressive governance.
Democracy depends on citizens challenging threats to government encroachment on rights, especially threats coming from ‘inside the house’. Regressive governments threaten democracy from within. Proponents of democracy have a narrow window left to elect representatives who will work to unravel regressive laws and policies and enact laws to protect the groups that have been targeted before regressive governance limits their ability to participate in democratic processes altogether.
Dina Francesca Haynes is a law professor at New England Law, Boston, US, where she teaches and writes about migration, human rights and regressive governance. She has also taught at Georgetown University Law Center and American University’s Washington College of Law, and worked as an international human rights lawyer for the UN and other international organisations. Prof Haynes is also the Founder of refugee projects.org, a non-profit focused on direct legal representation and policy advocacy in refugee and humanitarian law.


China and Taiwan: Cement Board Partition · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

In the Sichuan earthquake, many new school buildings had fallen apart. Thousands of school kids lost their lives. Hsueh, a taiwanese blogger, explained in details, the danger of cement board partition in modern construction [zh].


El Salvador: Top Ten Religion Stories in 2007 · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Carlos X. Colorado provides a guest article on Tim's El Salvador Blog and lists the top 10 religion stories in El Salvador for 2007.


College Possible fought hunger to give back this Make a Difference Day | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
College Possible
October 25, 2015
(Photo courtesy of College Possible)
On Saturday, October 24, College Possible Milwaukee participated in Make a Difference Day, the nation’s largest day of service, by trick-or-treating for non-perishable food items to fight hunger in Milwaukee in collaboration with Hunger Task Force.
Nearly 250 College Possible Milwaukee students, staff and AmeriCorps members traveled door-to-door in Milwaukee neighborhoods to collect a resulting 302 bags of non-perishable food items for Milwaukee’s Hunger Task Force.
Students from College Possible Milwaukee’s 14 partner high schools teamed up to gather food donations from households throughout Milwaukee to benefit families in need. College Possible makes community service a key component for the low-income students it serves.
Launched in 2008, College Possible Milwaukee is a nonprofit organization serving low-income students in colleges and universities across the nation in addition to its 14 high school student cohorts to significantly increase their chances of earning a college degree. AmeriCorps members guide College Possible students through an intensive curriculum of coaching and support to significantly increase their chances of becoming accepted to and succeeding in college.
While their low-income peers face an 11% six-year college graduation rate, College Possible students are connected with the necessary resources and supportive relationships to experience a 55% likelihood of graduating from college within six years. On average, College Possible students’ ACT scores increase by 20%, and 98% are accepted to college.
College Possible services are no-cost to students or schools, but in return they are expected to participate in at least two community service projects a year.  Additionally, College Possible’s emphasis on service aligns with the Milwaukee Public School District’s graduation requirement of twenty hours of community service or a service learning class.


Match Fixing: NFF To Help Siasia Clear His Name - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Editor 4
August 21, 2019
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF said on Mondaythat they were “shocked” by a life ban on former national coach Samson Siasiaby FIFA for bribery, vowing to overturn it.
On Friday, the governing body of world footballbanned Siasia, 52, from football, following a long-running investigation intoconvicted match-fixer, Wilson Raj Perumal.
After his arrest, Perumal collaborated withinvestigators.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee found Siasia guilty ofhaving accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation ofmatches in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
Siasia, a striker, played 51 times for Nigeria andhad two short spells as national coach.
Acting NFF president Seyi Akinwunmi said in astatement that the FIFA report had been given to the body’s lawyers to studyand provide legal advice to the federation,” he said, adding that Siasia “gavehis all for Nigeria.


Advocates call for more resources for victims of sexual assault in the workplace | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Elizabeth Baker
April 9, 2018
Workplace sexual assault victims say that discussing the issue with others who have endured a similar experience can help with the recovery process (Photo by Adam Carr)
The #MeToo movement has fostered strong support for women who speak out about their experiences of workplace sexual assault and has emboldened some companies to rethink their harassment policies. As victims attempt to recover both personally and professionally, however, guidance and support are hard to come by.
Psychologists have found that victims often suffer stress, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of sexual assault or harassment. These incidents – particularly when they occur early in an individual’s career — can cause long-term depressive symptoms.
“We try to compartmentalize things into different boxes in our minds, but that’s not how our bodies work,” explained Simmone Stovall, a healing counselor with Aurora Healing and Advocacy Services. “Our neurobiology says the things that affect me at home, I do carry with me to my work,” and vice versa.
She said she has noticed recently that women who have experienced sexual harassment seem more interested in participating in support groups or talking about it with other women. They want to connect with others who are suffering without having to go through a formal legal, human resources or psychotherapy system. There is healing power when women start to talk and realize that what happened to them has happened to others, too, Stovall said. It helps them overcome anxiety, stress or depression that occurred as a result of the incident.
Carmen Pitre, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sojourner Family Peace Center. (Photo by Elizabeth Baker)
Aurora Healing and Advocacy Services serves anyone recovering from an experience of sexual harassment or assault, offering individual counseling and support groups at its Healing Center in Walker’s Point. Stovall, who practices at the Sojourner Family Peace Center, said she tries to help victims understand how the shame, guilt and trauma may be affecting them. She helps patients address the question, “How I can go back into the world and make a slightly more positive outcome for myself by learning more about what happened in my past?”
Sojourner deals with all forms of sexual harassment or assault, said Carmen Pitre, CEO and executive director. The staff offers psychological and legal support, and talks to people about how to ensure they feel safe going forward
“Anyone who has been hurt can come to us to not be alone and to be helped,” Pitre said.  An incident of workplace harassment or assault can affect other parts of that person’s life in a complex way, she explained. “It is part of multiple incidents that can happen in a person’s life. They will often have trouble at home, in their past and at work when they’ve been hurt by someone.”
“I think the value of the Me Too movement, like all movements, is that it gives people permission to come forward, and I hope that that continues to happen,” added Pitre.
One Milwaukee woman who shared her experience of sexual harassment and assault while working as a caregiver at a small group home several years ago said it would be beneficial to create specific counseling or therapy for people recovering from workplace harassment or assault.
“A support group, or something like that, would be a very valuable service to women or persons going through these situations who are afraid to talk to their loved ones or don’t have anyone around to confide in,” said Ashley (not her real name).
Local advocates say that since the #MeToo movement, women who have experienced sexual harassment seem more interested in participating in support groups or talking about it with other women. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Ashley said she knows there are services available to help people through these situations, but she thinks they need to advertise their resources better.
“They don’t do a good enough job of letting people know what they can do to help,” Ashley said.
Hearing stories from other women at an event hosted by 9to5 Wisconsin a few months ago inspired her to talk about her experience for the first time. She said sharing her story empowered her to acknowledge how the experience affected her, both personally and professionally.
“You leave it buried for so long that you don’t know how much it still affects you and still hurts,” she said.
The stigma surrounding workplace harassment and assault hinders the process of recovery, said Jen Dirks, president and CEO of TEMPO Milwaukee. An organization of local women in CEO, executive and leadership positions, TEMPO conducted a survey of its members last December and found that 68 percent of respondents had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Nearly one-third stated they would not report or were unsure if they would report blatant sexual harassment if it happened tomorrow, fearing repercussions, career damage, not being believed or embarrassment.
The survey sparked conversation about workplace harassment among members, Dirks said. “Even at our holiday party, right after the survey was issued, several women came up and started talking about it, saying, ‘The same thing happened to me,’ or, ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you,’ or ‘Did you report it?’ It becomes this community of reporting out what has happened to them.”
TEMPO has continued the conversation with a few community panel discussions. Members also have the opportunity to be part of “mentor circles,” small group meetings where they can talk about issues they face in a safe, honest and confidential setting.
Dirks said the anxiety women often feel about talking about their assault “makes it harder to find kindred souls.”
For Ashley, finally talking about what happened to her was a breakthrough. “It’s interesting what can happen to you when you’re surrounded by people who have experienced the same thing,” she said. “It helps you own it, claim it and start your recovery.”


Isaac Mao’s take on the China protests · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Isaac Mao believes theres  not more to the anti-Japan protests than just government manipulation:
Just in these two days, China gov tighten the control of internet to prevent from any callings on new protest. Yesterday, the spokesman of Minisry of Public Security warned that any online organizing or gossip on gathering are illegal. The official voices in these two days are mainly one point: all the people should keep stable as the first priority thing. It means that gov is worrying about the protest could evolve into anti-gov movement.
That's the myth in today's China. Gov wants to use civilian's protest to presssure on JP gov. They will also control the information to expose those only supportive to their policy and censor other opinions. Definitely, all the official media has been tamed to one tune already. They are trying a lot to do the same thing in cyberspace even with many so shortsight tricks. Anyway, it's obvious a mission impossible today, there rasied more reactions already in blogosphere(BBSs are totally controlled in these days), can be summaried into four types:
1. We common people can do nothing now, but only rely on gov
2. The gov is usefulless in solving the problem, they will eventually comprise and sacrifice people's benefit to keep their regime
3. The gov can do only limited things to reach real mutual understanding, the gap between people in the two countried will widen unavoidably
4. We won't trust the gov anymore, not just for this issue, many issues in this country are connected


Malawi: Pornography Scandal · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Stories on Malawi reports that last week a renowned banker and the wife of a prominent lawyer were arrested for acting in pornographic materials, which were widely exchanged via e-mail causing a social scandal.


Bangladesh: The Constitution · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Salam Dhaka on the tense political situation in Bangladesh and a brief look at the constitution. ” Yesterday, out of sheer frustration, I read our constitution. I stopped half-way because of all the contradictions there were in it and its confusing demands. You can tell politicians manipulated it with bad intentions. “


Andean Nations: Andean conference · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz is keeping his eyes out for English-language coverage of the Community of Andean Nations summit in Lima. So far, it seems to be scant.


Facebook to include Holocaust denial in its definition of banned hate speech · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

The infamous cynical phrase “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free” in German) at the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland, now part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Photo by Meta.mk/Bojan Blazhevski, used with permission.
This story was originally published by Meta.mk. An edited version is republished here via a content-sharing agreement between Global Voices and Metamorphosis Foundation.
Facebook is changing its rules to include Holocaust denial in its definition of hate speech, after facing criticism for not doing enough to tackle this form of disinformation.
Monika Bickert, VP of Content Policy published a blog post on October 12 announcing that the most powerful social media platform on the planet is updating its hate speech policy “to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”
Facebook based this decision on the increased levels of online attacks against many groups worldwide by individuals and organizations promoting bigotries and racism. They have already “banned over 250 white supremacist organizations” and have taken down 22.5 million pieces of hate speech from their platform in the second quarter of this year.
Bickert also noted that Facebook took into account recent survey by the NGO Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) which showed that young people in the USA have extremely low knowledge about the history related to the Holocaust, and that they hold numerous factually inaccurate positions that have been promoted by Neo-Nazi propaganda over the years.
Considering Holocaust education is key to preventing various forms of racism, including antisemitism, Bickert announced that the ban will be complemented with efforts to enable Facebook users to access verified information by providing them links to credible historical sources outside of Facebook within the search results.
In September, Meta.mk reported that human rights defenders had demanded that Facebook starts treating Holocaust denial as hate speech within its content moderation policies. For instance, in July 2020, the Claims Conference started an online campaign that featured short video clips by Holocaust survivors, who addressed messages to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg explaining why it’s important to make this change to the platform's rules.
#Day75 of #NoDenyingIt &
Mark Zuckerberg has not met w/survivors
& let them explain why #Facebook MUST remove#Holocaust denial
We know, his time is tight…
However, Holocaust survivors’ time is also dear
Plz watch & share this compilation of survivor messages to Mark Zuckerberg pic.twitter.com/WplTr5mVp2
— Claims Conference (@ClaimsCon) October 11, 2020
Holocaust denial is criminal offence in numerous countries around the world, including Germany, France and Russia. Laws of many other countries, like the Criminal Code of North Macedonia, consider the use of information systems for public negation, minimization, approval or justification of all forms of genocide and war crimes a felony.
The European Union has also enacted anti-hate speech policies and regulations, which include cooperation with international social media platforms.
However, Facebook’s domicile jurisdiction of the USA does not have federal laws prohibiting hate speech.
In 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckenberg attempted to clarify that even though his personal opinion is that Holocaust denial is abhorrent, at the time he didn’t consider that the company should enact new rules to ban all its forms because in many such cases it’s “hard to impugn intent and to understand the intent.”
Two years later, he explained the change of his position through an October 12 Facebook post:
I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust. My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech. Drawing the right lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech isn’t straightforward, but with the current state of the world, I believe this is the right balance.
In July 2020, the Anti Defamation League (ADL), a prominent international Jewish organization from New York, started a #StopHateForProfit supported by over 1,200 businesses and nonprofits calling for boycott of advertising on Facebook. The campaign goal was to pressure Facebook to tackle groups and forums which get away with publishing enormous quantities of contents that deny the Holocaust, and posts promoting bigotry, racism and disinformation.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued a statement saying that his organization is “relieved that Facebook has finally taken the step that we have been asking them to take for nearly a decade: to call Holocaust denial and distortion what it is – “hate speech” – and in doing so, to remove it from their platform. The Holocaust, the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews and several million others during World War II, is one of history’s most painstakingly examined and well-documented genocides.”
According to Greenblatt, Facebook now needs to show how they fulfil these pledges, including by publishing regular monitoring reports on the concrete measures taken.
While we are relieved to learn this news, we also would note that platform decisions of this nature are only as good as the companies’ enforcement. Facebook now needs to reassure the global community that it is taking meaningful and comprehensive steps to ensure that Holocaust deniers are no longer able to take advantage of Facebook’s various platforms to spread antisemitism and hate. We hope that Facebook will follow up with regular progress reports documenting the steps they are taking to ensure that Holocaust denial and distortion permanently is expunged from their platform.
World Jewish Congress, international organization that represents Jewish communities and organizations in 100 countries around the world, and local civil society organisations like the Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria (“Shalom”) also expressed support for the change of Facebook's policies related to Holocaust denial and distortion.
Facebook’s move met the approval of academic institutions that work to preserve memories of the mass murder from the past in order to prevent genocides in the future. The Illinois Holocaust Museum posted a statement on Twitter:
Illinois Holocaust Museum celebrates Facebook's decision to remove all Holocaust denial from its platform. As we continue to educate on this important history & advocate for a world without antisemitism, this is an important step. @ClaimsCon @YahooNews https://t.co/n8yrS5caLS
— Illinois Holocaust Museum (@ihmec) October 12, 2020


How the hot chilli pepper ‘Akabare’ came to tickle the taste-buds of Nepali noodle lovers · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Akabare chilli being sold at a stall in a local market in Nepal's Makwanpur District. Photo by Sanjib Chaudhary. Used with permission.
Nepal’s indigenous round-shaped hot chilli pepper, locally known as ‘Akabare’, has taken the Nepali noodle industry by storm and is now forging ahead to international markets.
Also called ‘Dalle khursani’ (dalle meaning short and round-shaped in Nepali) owing to its round shape and native to eastern Nepal’s Ilam District, Akabare is famous for its distinctive hotness with a bit of sweetness, not to mention its unique aroma.
Akabare is particularly grown in the hilly districts of Nepal, from east to west. However, the ones that are grown in Ilam, Panchthar, Terhathum and Taplejung districts of Eastern Nepal are considered to be native.
Twitter user@ 0xdipjyoti claims:
Oh I'm huge chilli lover! U should try this baby it's called Akabare or Dalle chilli from Nepal its scotch bonnet family but this has beautiful aroma n super hot! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/WmUl8kq7PB
— Dipjyoti.eth / imUrBoss.eth (@0xdipjyoti) January 11, 2022
Akabare paste and pickle have been a favourite among Nepalis for a long time, but recently the famous chilli pepper has got a new suitor – the noodle makers. They started adding chilli to their products with the aim of getting a pie of the hot and spicy Korean ramen noodles’ market share. Within a short span of time, they have been able to create a niche of their own – capturing a big chunk of the market segment in hot and spicy ramen noodles.
The trend started with a Nepal-based company focusing on noodles and snacks that added the native Akabare chilli and Timmur or rattan pepper (Zanthoxylum armatum) to its noodles.
“We wanted to replace the imported hot and spicy Korean noodles with our own domestic brand,” said Samir Shah, a seasoned noodle expert with more than two decades of noodles manufacturing experience and General Manager of Asian Thai Foods Private Limited, talking with Global Voices over the phone. “Instead of artificial hotness, we went for natural Akabare chillies known for their hotness and health benefits. After surveys, research and development, we came up with a completely Nepali flavoured noodle by adding ingredients like timmur, hing (Asafoetida), lapsi (hog plums native to Nepal), and white sesame seeds among others.”
Nice to see Nepali noodles using local ingredients (Akabare, Timmur, Hing etc.) in their seasonings. Cheaper alternative to Korean noodles…. pic.twitter.com/SQm4lYrRKy
— ~ ᤔᤢᤁᤢᤔ:मुकुम ~ (@mukum3) August 21, 2019
The company exports Akabare noodles to countries like Australia, USA, UK, Japan, Malaysia, India, Bhutan, Hong Kong among others. In addition, the demand from Middle East countries is growing, according to Shah.
The success of the Akabare-flavoured noodles inspired other companies to launch their own brands of hot and spicy noodles: Current, Jackpot, Hot Pot, Pyro, Preeti, Gazzabko are some of the brands doing rounds in the Nepali market.
Twitter user @gezgintrk shared the annual consumption of noodles per capita by countries and Nepal is at the 2nd position.
Oddles of Noodles #Noodles #SouthKorea #Nepal #Indonesia #Japan #China pic.twitter.com/EIUkMu9wLU
— Engin Dikmen (@gezgintrk) September 11, 2020
With the growing demand, production and consumption of hot and spicy noodles, the cultivation of Akabare chilli has also increased in Nepal.
Shah claims that his company alone consumes 10 tonnes of Akabare chilli in a year, sourced from eastern districts, namely Bhojpur, Ilam, Sankhuwasabha, Taplejung and Terhathum.
Likewise, Yashoda Foods Private Limited, another Nepali company that produces its Current brand of hot and spicy noodles, claims to use around 400 kilos of Akabare chilli per day. It sources the chillies from western hilly districts Palpa, Gulmi and Arghakhanchi together with imports from Syangja, Bhojpur, Ilam, Makwanpur and Kavre districts.
With the rising demand of Akabare chilli, farmers have expanded its cultivation throughout the country. Janak Acharya, a teacher and farmer from Palpa District in Western Nepal, in an interview with online portal Setopati said that he earned four million Nepali Rupees (USD 30,274) in the year 2021 alone by selling the chillies.
This video from Our Nepal on YouTube shows how Akabare is grown in Nepal:
As reported by online portal Clickmandu, many farmers groups have been cultivating Akabare chillies in coordination with cooperatives, targeting to sell their produce to the noodle companies. The commercial cultivation of chillies, in turn, has also created local employment.
However, with so many brands competing with each other for a pie of the market share, the question is whether the trend of using Akabare chilli will continue or start to slump after some time. But the craze for hot and spicy noodles is here to stay, as every day, four million packets of instant noodles are consumed in Nepal which is nearly 3,000 packets per minute, according to food writer Tom Heaton.


Ukraine: HIV/AIDS · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Greetings From Kyiv reports: “Current statistics are that 1 in 70 Ukrainians are HIV positive and that this rate which is the highest in Europe is going to climb.”


Old photos of trash at Glastonbury Festival shared to target Greta Thunberg - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
29th June 2022 / 5:10 pm
Amidst the celebration of the Glastonbury Festival, a five-day performing arts festival held annually in Somerset, England, a set of photos of the festival’s grounds littered with garbage has been shared online. It is being claimed that this was the scene after a ‘performance’ by environmentalist Greta Thunberg.
Twitter user @Navrang shared these photos with the caption, “Scene around #Pyramid stage in #Glastonbury after the ‘performance’ of great environmentalist Greta Thunberg!”.
Various users have shared these photos with similar captions. All of these tweets attempt to portray Thunberg as a hypocrite.
Scene around Pyramid stage in Glastonbury after the ‘performance’ of #GretaThunberg
Environmentalist ?? pic.twitter.com/AQ7AX5IBiA
— Kangana Ranaut (@TeamKangana2) June 28, 2022
Scene around #Pyramid stage in #Glastonbury after the ‘performance’ of great environmentalist Greta Thunberg! pic.twitter.com/NB0mQRn3ev
— Jai Sri Ram 🇮🇳 🌍🏅🏆🥏 (@JaiShriRam10008) June 28, 2022
Amish Devgan, the managing editor of News18 Hindi, also quote tweeted one of the viral tweets saying, “You are environmentalist Really [sic].”
You are environmentalist Really 🤔@GretaThunberg https://t.co/cZfl6JfXdF
— Amish Devgan (@AMISHDEVGAN) June 28, 2022
We started with verifying whether Greta Thunberg had actually attended the 2022 edition of the Glastonbury Festival. A quick scroll through Thunberg’s Twitter profile informs that she did.
”We are approaching the precipice and I would strongly suggest that all of those who have not yet been greenwashed out of our senses to stand our ground. Do you not let them drag us another inch closer to the edge. Right now is where we stand our ground.”
Thank you Glastonbury! pic.twitter.com/1AN44Ff8hG
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) June 25, 2022
Comparing the viral photo of Thunberg on stage with the one tweeted by her on Twitter, we can easily verify that this image is indeed from 2022. This can also be confirmed through news reports published on June 26, the same day as Thunberg’s tweet.
Photo 1
The photo of a man in camouflage attire walking through a pile of trash near the Pyramid Stage is from 2011. We performed a Google reverse image search and came across a blog by photographer Ben Birchall of Press Association. In his blog, Ben has documented the 2011 Glastonbury Festival. The photo is available in this blog.
When we opened this image in a new tab, the URL also helped us confirm that the photo was uploaded on the WordPress blog in 2011.
Photo 2
The photo of where we have a direct look at the stage, with trash scattered all around, is from 2015. We yet again performed a Google reverse image search and came across a news report by Daily Mail published in 2015. In the bottom-left corner of the photo, we can see that the image has been credited to David Hedges of SWNS.
Photo 3
The photo of the abandoned chairs with trash surrounding them is most likely from 2017. Using Google reverse image search, we came across a blog called Expert Skip Hire, where a blog post titled ‘Cleaning up the waste at Glastonbury‘ carries the same image. The blog was published in 2017.
While it is not credited to a photographer, it is still safe to conclude the image is not from 2022 as the image can be found on multiple blogs prior to 2022.
The official Twitter handle of Glastonbury Festival also tweeted a photo of a clean field on June 27 – thanking those who helped clean up the trash post-festival.
Huge thanks to everyone who’s been making such an effort to pack everything away and leave no trace. pic.twitter.com/cLBSOY5Bad
— Glastonbury Live (@GlastoLive) June 27, 2022
To conclude, old photos of the Glastonbury Festival were shared by multiple users on social media to target Greta Thunberg.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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North Side residents can get free pet care services through the Pets for Life program | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Chesnie Wardell
September 19, 2023
It starts with a knock on a door, and then the question: “Can we help you with your pets?”
The Wisconsin Humane Society’s Pets for Life program exists to spread support and kindness among families with pets in underserved communities.
Ever since the program launched in 2012 with its door-to-door outreach, the nonprofit organization has provided 10,000 residents with free pet care services in Amani, Franklin Heights, Midtown, Metcalfe Park, Harambee and other North Side neighborhoods.
“What we found is that access to animal care resources is lacking in our underserved neighborhoods,” said Jill Kline, vice president of culture and community impact at the Wisconsin Humane Society.
These lack of resources often include veterinary clinics, which create obstacles because of finances, location and other challenges.
The program’s outreach workers spend four hours Tuesdays through Saturdays on door-to-door visits to see if families need their cats and dogs spayed, neutered, transported, microchipped or vaccinated.
Kline said about 1,000 spay and neuter surgeries are conducted annually, with 70% of clients needing  transportation to get their animals to the agency’s spay and neuter clinic in West Allis.
Veterinarians from the University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine Program also come out twice a month to assist the Pets for Life program during home visits by addressing potential medical conditions of the pet.
Jada Garfoot, the society’s outreach program manager, said her organization seeks to serve residents.
“The main way we track our impact is to be present in the community,” Garfoot said.
Initially, residents lacked trust because many didn’t have a relationship with the Humane Society or any other pet-related organizations, Kline said.
Among the program’s loyal clients is Lavonne Lee, who lives near the Columbia Playfield.
Lee recalls one neighbor feeling embarrassed about her dog having matted hair, but she was relieved after Pets for Life team members came to groom the dog for free.
“They have no judgment and whatever services your pet needs, they are happy to help,” Lee said.
Lee has been using the program since it first launched.
The first pet the program helped her with was her 17-year-old cat, Mitch. Though Mitch has died, Lee still uses services for Bentley and Bella, her English Mastiffs.
Without the program, “I wouldn’t be anywhere and my pets would be kind of neglected,” Lee said.
If you need pet services, call<PHONE_NUMBER>. There will be a conversation on your pet’s needs and minor paperwork that will require a signature.
The program primarily serves residents in the 53206 and 53205 ZIP codes, including the Amani, Franklin Heights, Midtown, Metcalfe Park, Harambee, Walnut Hill, Midtown and Halyard Park neighborhoods.
Here’s information about the program and how to apply and donate.


Ecuador: The Price of Corrpution · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

According to a report from Transparency International, Ecuadorians spend 533 million dollars in bribing public officials. La Voz de Guamote [es] says that this especially affects the poor.


No, Nepal has not banned all private Indian TV channels except DD News - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 27, 2023
A message is doing rounds on social media, which claims that Nepal has banned all private Television channels of India, except DD News. Let’s verify the truthfulness of this claim through this article.
Claim: Nepal bans all Indian TV channels except DD News.
Fact: Cable operators in Nepal banned Indian private TV News channels in 2020 for broadcasting content detrimental to their country’s interests. But the ban was lifted after a short period. As claimed in the viral message, the Nepal government has recently not banned the Indian TV channels except DD News. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we performed a keyword search on the internet. This search led us to multiple news reports (here, here, and here) on Nepal cable operators’ decision to ban Private Indian news Channels. But these were from 2020; there are no recent news reports about Nepal banning Indian TV channels.
Reportedly, in July 2020, the cable TV operators in Nepal suspended the transmission of Indian private TV news channels, claiming that they were broadcasting content that was hurting the sentiments of Nepal.
“Nepal’s cable and satellite television providers have stopped airing Indian news channels, with one operator saying on Friday that the move was in response to public complaints against “objectionable” content broadcast about Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli” Al Jazeera reported. Later, it was reported that the Television operators in Nepal came under severe public pressure to lift the ban (here and here), which they eventually did (partially).
To sum up, the Government of Nepal has not banned all private Indian TV channels except DD News.


Archetypes of Iranian Internet Use · Global Voices
Farid

The Iran Media Program at the Annenberg School for Communication, present a new study: “Fights, Adapts, Accepts: Archetypes of Iranian Internet Use” by Arash Abadpour and Collin Anderson.