Should Women Starve Their Babies for Fear of Public Breastfeeding? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Olivia Kidula explains why breastfeeding in public should not stop:
A friend of mine recently gave birth to her first baby girl and is still getting the hang of motherhood. I began to notice she breastfeeds only when no men (besides her husband or father are around) and when she can “comfortably” hide away in a small space. When I mentioned to her that there should be no shame in feeding and nourishing her child in front of anyone, she responded,
“society would rather she starves than look at my  breasts.”
The more I thought about the implications of her words the more upset I became. Who would want a child to starve? Who would truly want to deny a child nourishment and comfort at the chest of his mother?


Online Platform ‘Ojo al Voto’ Seeks to Lure Young Costa Rican Voters · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“Politics in your language!” Image from the Ojo al voto Facebook page.
The interactive platform Ojo al voto [es] wants to provide young voters with useful and straightforward information about the upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Costa Rica, scheduled for February 2, 2014.
The Hivos Central America website explains:
Ojo al voto is an interactive platform, independent from the mainstream media, that combines detailed information about political parties and the profiles and platforms of presidential and legislative candidates with digital storytelling and data visualizations.
This innovative initiative is especially aimed at young voters between the age of 18 and 37, who represent 48 percent of the electorate according to Costa Rica’s Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE). A poll published by the daily newspaper ‘La Nación’ showed that 5 out of 10 young people claimed to be indifferent to politics. Working in this climate of apathy, Ojo al Voto’s challenge is to bring youth closer to politics.
You can follow Ojo al Voto on Facebook [es] and Twitter [es].


A photoshopped image is being shared as that of the World’s biggest ‘Anaconda’ snake - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 25, 2019
An image is being shared widely on Facebook with the claim ‘World’s biggest snake Anaconda found in Africa’s Amazon river. It has killed 257 humans & 2325 animals. It’s 134 feet long & 2067 Kgs. Africa’s Royal British Commandos took 37 days to get it killed’. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
The post was published on Facebook in July-2015 and it is being shared widely even now. Till date, the post has been shared over 1.4 million times.
Photo of the World’s biggest ‘Anaconda’ snake which is 134 feet long and 2067 Kgs weight.
Fact: As per the Guinness World Records, the longest snake ever in captivity is ‘Medusa’ and it is of length 25 feet 2 inches and weight 158.8 kgs. And, as per the National Geographic Channel, the ‘Green Anaconda’ is the largest snake in the world with length up to 30 feet and weighs up to 250 kgs. Also, the photo in the post is photoshopped. So, the claim is FALSE.
When searched on Google with keywords “World’s biggest snake”, many search results were obtained. An article of ‘The Dailymail’ published on 25 September 2016, quoted that a giant snake measuring 33 feet long and 400 kg weight was discovered on a building site in northern Brazil. But as per the ‘Guinness World Records’, the longest snake ever in captivity is ‘Medusa’ and it is of length 25 feet 2 inches and weight 158.8 kgs.
And as per the National Geographic Channel, the ‘Green Anaconda’ is the largest snake in the world with length up to 30 feet and weigh up to 250 kgs. But the dimensions of the anaconda given in the post are much higher than  any of these figures.
When the photo in the post was cropped and subjected to reverse image search technique, a similar photo of the Anaconda was obtained in the search results. The image of the Anaconda seen in the post is a mirror image of that photo and also the posture and pattern of the Anaconda are similar to it. The ‘Snopes’ article also mentions that the image has been manipulated to seem as if it is that of the world’s biggest Anaconda.
To conclude, a photoshopped image is being shared as that of the World’s biggest snake ‘Anaconda’.
Did you watch our new Episode of the DECODE series?


Bangladesh: Media In Despair · Global Voices
Rezwan

Maskwaith Ahsan at Voice Of Bangladeshi Bloggers discusses about the shutting down of a private TV channel in Bangladesh by the government and issues relating to it.


A video of a Malaysian railway track-laying project is falsely attributed to India. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 31, 2024
A video of a railway track-laying machine laying concrete sleepers is being shared on social media with a claim that the video shows the work being done by the Indian Railways. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: VIsuals of a high-tech track-laying machine of the Indian Railways
Fact: This video shows a track-laying machine of a Chinese company named China Communications Construction Company working on the East Coast Rail Link project in Malaysia. This project began in Malaysia on 11 December 2023. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Firstly, a close inspection of the viral video revealed that the track-laying machine has text in Chinese. Under the Chinese text, one can observe words written in English that read ‘China Communications Construction.’
Next, to find more details about the viral video, we performed a reverse image search on a few keyframes, leading us to a few social media posts (here and here) containing the viral video. One such post on the Chinese video-sharing platform ‘ixigua’ identified the video’s location as a ‘track-laying site of the East-Malaysian Railway…’ in the post’s description, translated from Chinese to English. It also reads, ‘China’s railway standardisation construction! #railway.’
Taking these as hints, we further made a keyword search on the internet to learn more about the track-laying machine in Malaysia, which led us to several news reports (here, here, and here ) on this project from December 2023.
Reportedly, a railway project named East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is being built by the Chinese Communications Construction Company (logo is seen in the viral video) in Malaysia. This project started on 11 December 2023.
A video news report on this project published by AP features the same track-laying machine that is seen in the viral video. The logo of the China Communications Company, which is seen in the viral video, can also be seen on the track-laying machine in this video. This makes it clear that a video related to this project is being falsely shared as track-laying work done by the Indian Railways in India.
To sum up, a video of a Malaysian railway track laying work is falsely being attributed to India.


How to Tag Your Blog and Increase Your Readership · Global Voices
Hash

I see a lot of great blogs from all over the world, many of them highlighted right here on Global Voices.  They are top notch writers and thinkers supplying new insights and fresh thoughts on issues that face us every day.  However, the bloggers don't seem to have as many readers as they could.
I was thinking about that one day and realized that most people don't know how to tag their blog in order for it to be indexed by the top blog search engine: Technorati.  Technorati is a valuable tool that can greatly increase your readership, and if you register and create a profile it will help you build your personal “brand” on the web.
Tag your blog if you want more readers
Technorati reports that there are 75,000 new blogs being created every day, what are you doing to make yours stand out?  What are you doing to make it visible?
One of the easiest tools is to begin tagging your posts with the code necessary for Technorati to index it in the 27.7 million blogs that they track.  All tagging is, is a way to help people find your article in the myriad of others.  If you write a blog post highlighting African technology bloggers, you might tag it “Africa”, “African”, “blog”, “technology”, “tech”, etc…  It's very simple and it makes sense to do over time.
It can sound daunting at first, because now you're dealing with that scary thing called “code.”  But it's really very easy.  Take the below template, which I've tagged for “africa”, and replace the word “africa” with the tag of your choice:
That's how easy it is.  Rinse and repeat with different tags.  If you have 4 tags, it might look like this:
For those who are interested in knowing how I put code onto a blog as an example, you can do that easily using Tamba2's tool.
NOTE: WordPress user's categories are automatically indexed as the tag, but sometimes you still want to use this code to add other tags than are in the categories.
technorati tags begin
technorati tags: technology, technorati, tagging, how to
technorati tags end


China: Exploding Watermelon Is Safe?  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A few months ago, local state media exposed that farmers in China's Jiangsu province were affected by the problem of “exploding watermelons” due to the overuse of chemicals. On 5 July, 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture asserted [zh] that the chemical growth enhancer for watermelon is safe as the toxic residue level is low.
The Ministry also stated that if growth chemicals banned in China, the whole agricultural industry sector would be affected.
Exploding watermelons found in Eastern China
According to Hutong news summary [zh], the watermelons were exploding in the fields like balloons. The growth enhancer involved in the incident is Forchlorfenuron, which is also legal in the United States. As the growth enhancer drains fruit of its flavor, farmers have also been applying chemical sweeteners and dyes to the watermelons.
Don't blame the watermelons, according to the Ministry of Agriculture
Here is Caijing's report summary at Weibo [zh]:
【农业部：西瓜膨大剂毒性残留量低很安全】7月5日，农业部农药检定所相关负责人对我国个别地方出现的“膨大剂西瓜炸裂事件”作出正式回应，称植物生长调节剂的毒性和残留量非常低，只要按照批准使用方法使用，不会出现安全事故。如果不使用植物生长调节剂，农业生产就会出问题。http://t.cn/apCbAA
The public statement made by the Ministry of Agriculture has not restored consumers’ confidence. Instead, netizens are skeptical of the lack of regulation in the application of additives to watermelons.
Plastic watermelon
The latest scandal is the discovery of plastic material inside a watermelon in Jinan city. Below is a television news segment showing what a plastic watermelon looks like:
In addition, netizens have read between the lines of the statement made by the Ministry of Agriculture and are criticizing for being irresponsible. Below is a selected translation of comments from Sina Weibo's news thread [zh]:
焦然blog 你农业部只考虑你的农业生产了，别的不管了？还真是各司其职，希望你说的“安全”食品别都吃到你自己嘴里，最后蹬腿之前，宁可说是憋死的也别说是毒死的~ (7月6日 13:53)
@DQ肥龙 我们的ZF越来越…从字面意思理解，毒性肯定有，只不过是多少的问题；发新闻的目的不是为了处理事件，而是为了稳定生产；农业生产远比食品安全重要，一干人等不得以任何方式任何言论影响农业生产，钦此～～ (7月6日 13:48)
林川-大脚八 我只想知道，我们每天吃的还有哪几种食物没有添加这剂那剂的？西瓜留一点土豆留一点猪肉留一点鱼虾留一点鸡鸭留一点，这些是不是都不会累加？？？(7月6日 12:37)
人民视点 植物生长调节剂不同于动物激素，莫恐慌。但现有管理制度不能保证不滥用，这是个问题。(7月6日 11:28)
苏格拉秀 不用农业生产就会出问题啊？这个比阳光和水还重要吗？农业部去shi吧！！还我们天然绿色的农产品！(7月6日11:20)
gloria98 专家以及相关负责人说的话，现在已经没人相信了……(7月6日 11:03)
小武yeah 转发此微博:现在国人都已炼成金刚不坏之身，吃啥都无所谓啦，领导请放心！(7月6日10:21)


Nepal: New Media Gufa – A New Experiment · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blogdai reports:
Dharma Adhikari's Media Foundation held a “New Media Gufa”  or “cave” where 5 of Nepal's top tech-savvy journalists chained themselves to their computers for three days in a heroic attempt to determine the extent of internet penetration in Nepal and to see if Nepali stories could be accurately told and sourced through the conveniences and limitations of the internet alone.


Martinique: Babe in Total Control of Herself · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Blog de [Moi] writes (Fr): “If being a witch is being a woman who is able to say ‘no’ but also to say ‘yes’ sometimes … than yes I am a witch. And I spend my life running into nothing but witches because  this definition perfectly fits the majority of my girlfriends. And I encourage all women to become witches too. Because what I call witch is a woman in total control of herself.”


Both these images show cleaning by Indian Railways under the current NDA government - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 11, 2023
A collage of images is being shared on social media claiming it to be pictures comparing the technological advancements in the Indian Railways before and after the BJP government in the country. The first photo shows railway staff cleaning a platform manually using mops, whereas, the second picture shows the staff using machinery for sweeping the platform. Comparing the pictures, this post claims it as the testimony of ‘Ache Din’ in the country. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Images showing the technological upgrades in the Indian Railways before and after the BJP government in the country.
Fact: Both the pictures shared in the post were taken in 2020 during the BJP government in the country. The first picture shows railway staff cleaning a platform at the Howrah Junction railway station after the nearly seven-week lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020. The other photo shows the staff cleaning a platform of Asansol railway station, as part of the ‘Swachhta Saptah’ in August 2020. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Picture 1:
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found published on the ‘Alamy’ website in 2020. The description of the photo states, “Workers clean a platform at the Howrah Junction railway station after India announced a limited re-opening of its giant rail network beginning on Tuesday, after a nearly seven-week lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Kolkata India, May 11, 2020.” The photo was originally published by ‘Reuters’ on 11 May 2020.
Picture 2:
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found tweeted by the ‘Eastern Railway’ on 13 August 2020. Eastern Railway tweeted the photo with a description, “Intensive cleaning of station platform, station adjacent area and track at Asansol on 13.8.2020 on the occasion of observance of ‘Swachhta Saptah’ from 10 to 16 August, 2020.”
Intensive cleaning of station platform, station adjacent area and track at Asansol on 13.8.2020 on the occasion of observance of ‘Swachhta Saptah’ from 10 to 16 August, 2020. pic.twitter.com/eBm7Gwv1Nu
To sum it up, these photos do not show the state of Indian Railways before and after the BJP government in the country.


Jamaica: Renaming · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Geoffrey Philp calls the Rastafarian practise of renaming “a bold creative act and a model for freedom”.


Venezuela: Outsider Presidential Candidates · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boli-Nica gives historical and geo-political context to the outsider presidential campaign of Benjamin Rausseo, wondering aloud if the Venezuelan comedian might actually have a chance against Chavez in this December's elections.


Jigawa fixes date to reopen schools | EduCeleb
6th August 2020
Jigawa State Ministry of Education has fixed Monday, 10th August as resumption date for students in senior and junior secondary three, primary and Nomadic six in both public and private schools.
The commissioner of the ministry Dr Lawan Yunusa Danzomo announced this at a meeting with Directors and heads of agencies of the ministry in Dutse on Thursday.
He said the resumption of the final year students would prepare them for their respective exit year examinations.
Dr Danzomo said the state government had provided all the necessary protective materials against COVID-19 and other diseases in the re-opened schools.
The commissioner stated that the ministry has set up a monitoring committee to visit the re-opened schools to ensure full compliance of COVID-19 protocols.
He said students of exchange programme are also to report to their schools on the same day, adding that the exchange students were to report to government unity commercial secondary school Takur Dutse for transportation to their respective institutions.
In another development, Dr Danzomo has handed over the ten buses repaired by the ministry to the principals and school directors of boarding secondary schools with a call on them to make good use of the buses.


Jamaica: Rock the Calabash · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Calabash 2010 rocked, it really did”: Annie Paul thinks that “this literary festival provides a neat model for similar ventures that could showcase the best that Jamaica has to offer.”


Latvia: Protest Rallies · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

All About Latvia writes about the rallies taking place in Riga and about the imminent end of the current government: “Foreigners here observed that to make Latvians come out in such large numbers, you have to really piss them off. And people are pissed.”


Ukraine: Campaign Ads; “Final Rallies” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana takes readers on a video tour “through inter-election Kyiv” – and to the “final rallies” of the two presidential candidates, which took place on Feb. 5 “just a block away from each other.”


Afghanistan: Four die in suicide blast · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Afghan Warrior reports on the deaths of four people in a suicide attack the southern province of Helmand. A government spokesman said Taliban insurgents had intended it to blow up U.S. troops.


Egypt: Philip Rizk ‘Kidnapped · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Egypt, blogger Sarah Carr narrates the events of the To Gaza campaign march and the events leading to the disappearance of journalist/masters student/filmmaker/blogger Philip Rizk, who was grabbed by State Security and taken to an undisclosed location.


Human Trafficking: I-G Restates Commitment To Support Fight Against Menace - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Editor 4
March 25, 2019
Theacting Inspector-General of Police,Mohammed Adamu, has restated the commitmentof the Nigeria Police Force to support the fight against  human trafficking in the country.
Adamumade the pledge at the opening of a five-day Interpol Workshop on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings and MigrantSmuggling in Nigeria on Monday in Abuja.
Theinspector general of police added that activities of human trafficking andmigrants smuggling networks have evolved to become a major internal securitychallenge in the country.
Hesaid that human trafficking and migrants smuggling have critical national securityand development implications which required sustained intervention.
Thepolice boss said that the force, working in collaboration with NAPTIP and NIShave been at the forefront in the fight against the menace.
Hesaid that the force recently raised the bar by upgrading its Anti-HumanTrafficking section with the appointment of a Commissioner of police to headthe section.


Ukraine: Technology for Transparent Elections · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

On October 28, Ukrainians will elect their parliament. With the current president‘s main political opponent in jail, the upcoming elections come under increasing attention from the international community.
Amidst mounting allegations of the ruling party’s use of administrative resource during election campaign, the current Ukrainian government has pledged to keep the elections free and fair and accommodated over 3,700 international observers.
Ukraine’s Ministry of the Interior has decided to utilize crowdmapping and set up an Ushahidi-based map of registered violations [uk]. According to the officials, the aim of their initiative is to “help society form an objective opinion about the course of the 2012 election-related events” [uk].
To ensure electoral transparency and to check the government's pledges for themselves, local election monitoring groups, too, have been using new technology.
OPORA
Civic network OPORA [en] has utilized an interactive map [en, uk] that contains full information about all the 225 electoral districts and 33,000 polling stations, including contacts of the local commissions overseeing the vote. The monitoring is conducted by 3,800 professional observers, and when violations are recorded, they place their findings on the map, along with the available photo and video evidence. The group also uses crowdsourcing – anyone may submit information about violations via a hotline or through an online form [uk, en]. After verification, these messages are also published on the map. On the Election Day, OPORA plans to conduct a statistics-based quick count of the votes utilizing SMS and GSM technology, in order to verify the election results.
Maidan.org.ua
Online citizen activism hub Maidan.org.ua [uk] has launched a project called “Maidan-monitoring” [en], which utilizes crowdmapping and visualizes the findings on an Ushahidi-based map of violations [en, uk]. The main difference of Maidan’s project from the classic crowdsourcing initiatives is that it makes an effort to verify every piece of information it receives before publishing it online. An additional project of Maidan.org.ua – the “People’s CEC [Central Election Commission]” [uk] – calls on election commission members and ordinary voters to submit electronic photographs of the final voting protocols that are later posted online in order to prevent any manipulations with the election results.
ElectUa.org
Another non-partisan crowdsourcing election-monitoring project, ElectUa [uk, en; GV roundup] by Internews-Ukraine, also uses a map to visualize reported violations, and utilizes “smart crowdsourcing,” verifying every report before publishing it online. The project has grown from the previously successful Twitter-broadcasts of the 2009 and 2010 elections that contributed significantly to the promotion of crowdsourcing technology and Twitter in Ukraine [en]. Messages for ElectUA 2012 can be submitted via e-mail, SMS, phone, as well as the project's website, Facebook or Twitter.


Brazil: Wikinews Interview of the Month · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Brazilian political blogger, Ricardo Serran Lobo will be the featured guest tomorrow for Wikinews’ interview of the month.


This AAP poster is an edited one. The original poster reads – ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom) - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 21, 2022
A photo of the Aam Aadmi Party election poster is being shared on social media. The poster reads – “भाजपा को हराना चाहते हैं? तो, झांटु को ही वोट दें” (which can be roughly translated as – “Want to make BJP lose? then vote only for jhantu”). Jhantu/Jhatu is a derogatory word. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: AAP poster asking people to vote only for ‘Jhantu/Jhatu’
Fact: The poster in viral post is an edited one. The original poster reads – “झाड़ू को ही वोट दें” (Vote only for Jhadu). ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom – AAP symbol) word has been edited to make it ‘झांटु’. The same edited photo is viral since 2019 and has been debunked by multiple news agencies in the past. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On observing the word – ‘झांटु’ closely (by increasing the brightness of the photo), one can see the shade difference between ‘टु’ and other letters.
When the photo was run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same photo was found to be shared by multiple people since March 2019. However, one can find the AAP posters from January 2019 with the slogan – “भाजपा को हराना चाहते हैं? तो, झाड़ू को ही वोट दें।“ (Want to make BJP lose? then vote only for jhadu). ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom – AAP symbol) word has been edited to make it ‘झांटु’ in the posted photo. Some of the tweets made by AAP party members in January 2019 can be seen here, here, here, and here.
The meaning behind the posters as explained by one of the AAP party members can be seen in the Aaj Tak video. When the edited photo went viral in March 2019, NDTV also held a discussion on it, which can be seen here. Also, the original photo can be seen in the Aaj Tak fact-check article published in 2019.
To sum it up, the posted photo is an edited one. The original poster reads – ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom).


India: July Blogger Meets · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The dates, times, and locations of the upcoming Bombay bloggers meet of July 2005 and the Chennai bloggers meet have been announced and posted. Via Desipundit.


Earthquake Hits Awaji Island in Japan · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Uploaded by Twitter User 島人JUN @baseball_re
A strong earthquake hit Awaji island  of Japan on Saturday morning April 13, 2013. Twitter user JUN took this photo [ja] of the devastation. Seven people were severely injured, according to a report [ja].


Under-17 World Cup: Former International Amuneke Wants Clinical Eaglets For Knockout Stages - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (F.BA)
November 4, 2019
Former International and Coach,Emmanuel Amuneke has applauded the Golden Eaglets at the on-going FIFA Under-17World Cup in Brazil and charged the team to be clinical in front of the goal asthe competition enters the decisive knockout stages.
He Explained that the Eaglets aftersecuring a heart thumping 4-2 and 3-2 wins against Hungary and Ecuador tosecure their place in the Round of 16, their inability  in front of thegoal cost them dear in their 2-1 loss to Australia.
Amuneke warned the Eaglets to be waryof stiffer challenges starting from tomorrow’s second round match at EstádioOlímpico Goiania against any other team. He added that team must put behindthem their performances in the preliminary round and gird their loinshenceforth since mit’s winner-take-all from the Round of 16.
As Group-B leaders, the Golden Eagletsare to face the best third-placed team from Groups A, C or D but there islikelihood that there opponent would be determined by drawing of lot at theconclusion of all the group matches.


When is a drought declared
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 28, 2016
Various parts of the country are reeling under a severe drought. But how is drought measured and when is it declared? What are the different ministries involved in drought relief?
Various parts of the country are reeling under a severe drought. Various ministries of the Government of India have initiated relief measures in drought prone areas. But when is a drought declared in any part of the country? What are the different parameters that are taken into account?
What is Drought?
There is no universally accepted standard definition of drought because of its varying characteristics and impacts across different regions. According to the ‘Drought Management Manual’ released by the Ministry of Agriculture, drought is a recurrent feature of climate and occurs in all climatic regimes. Conditions of drought appear when the rainfall is deficient in comparison to the statistical multi-year average for a region, over an extended period of a season or year, or even more.
Unlike other natural disasters, drought is different in the sense that
Impacts of Drought
There are many adverse direct and indirect impacts of drought. The impacts could be broadly categorized into Economic, Environmental & Social.
Economic: Economic impacts of drought include production losses in agriculture and other related sectors. It causes loss of income resulting in reduction of purchasing power especially among those dependent on agriculture and living in the rural areas. It also has a multiplier effect on other sectors dependent on agriculture for raw material.
Environmental: Decreased water levels in reservoirs, canals, ponds are the primary environmental impacts. This will lead to decreased availability of drinking water and water for other needs. It will also cause loss of forest cover etc.
Social: Migration of population is the top most social impact resulting out of lack of income. Decrease of income also leads to people withdrawing children from schools, postponement of marriages, sale of assets etc. It will also lead to inadequate food leading to malnutrition and other health hazards.
When is a drought declared?
The four indicators viz., rainfall deficiency, the extent of area sown, normalized difference vegetation index and moisture adequacy index are usually applied in combination for drought declaration. The information on these indicators  is available at the level of Taluka / Tehsil / Block. Drought may be declared by the State Government at these levels.
Rainfall Deficiency: Rainfall is the most important indicator of drought. A departure in rainfall from its long-term averages is taken as the basis for drought declaration. The departure could be either measured for specific months or an entire season. Rainfall data are easily available and simple to apply. The rainfall data can be applied in two ways
Area under Sowing: Sowing is another important indicator of the spread and severity of drought. Drought conditions could be said to exist if along with the other indicators, the total area sown by the end of July/August is less than 50% of the total cultivable area. In case of Rabi crops, the declaration of drought could be linked to the area of sowing being less than 50% of the total cultivable area by the end of November/December along with the other indicators.
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): The National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS), instituted by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), issues a bi-weekly drought bulletin and monthly reports on detailed crop and seasonal condition during the kharif season. These present the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Wetness Index (NDWI). These reports provide quantitative information on sowings, surface water spread and District / Tehsil / Taluk /Block level crop condition assessment along with spatial variation in terms of maps. At present, 12 agriculturally important and drought-vulnerable States of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh are covered through these reports.
Moisture Adequacy Index (MAI): Moisture Adequacy Index (MAI) is based on a calculation of weekly water balance, is equal to the ratio (expressed as a percentage) of Actual Evapo Transpiration (AET) to the Potential Evapo Transpiration (PET) following a soil–water balancing approach during a cropping season.
Certain other factors are also taken into consideration before declaration of drought.
15 drought years in India since Independence
Since independence, there have been 15 drought years, from 1951 to 2002, in 1951, 1952, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 2002. The frequency of droughts has varied with 2 drought years in the 1950s and four in the 1960s. The 1970s and 1980s also had four drought years each. The 1990s did not see a single drought year. The next drought again was in 2002.
The 1987 drought was the worst drought after independence affecting 59–60% of the crop area and a population of 285 million. In 2002 too, over 300 million people spread over 18 States were affected by drought in varying degrees. Around 150 million cattle were affected due to lack of fodder and water. Food grains production registered the steepest fall of 29 million tonnes. No other drought in the past had caused reduction in food grain production to this extent.
What are the Relief Measures taken?
Various ministries of the Government of India viz., Agriculture, Rural Development, Drinking Water, Animal Husbandry, Food & Public Distribution, Water Resources, Home Affairs, Finance and Railways are involved in planning and implementing the relief measures.The state governments submit reports on drought condition with all the relevant information and the government of India extends support based on these reports. The various relief measures include financial assistance to states, contingency crop planning, relief employment, food security and initiatives to mitigate the impacts.
Featured image: By Pushkarv [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons


French Politicians Say the Darndest Things About Colonialism · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Dorcas Dienda and François Fillon, collage from wikipedia pages (CC BY 2.0)
You'll find little in common between François Fillon, the former French prime minister, and Dorcas Dienda, a current contestant in the “Miss DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo]” beauty pageant and a likely candidate in France's presidential election next year. Both individuals, however, were recently forced to step back from social media, following remarks about French colonialism that offended social media users in Africa.
On August 30, Fillon said of colonialism in Africa that France should not “be blamed just for wanting to share and spread its culture to the people of Africa“. The former prime minister made the statement while unveiling his new plan to review and redesign school programs in France, which he believed should emphasize greater national pride.
Fillon's remarks didn't go unnoticed in Africa, where Internet users started spreading the hashtag #PartageDeCultureInFrench (“sharing culture in French”). Africans responded to Fillon on Facebook and Twitter, trying to remind him what France's time as a colonizer meant for them:
Essai nucléaire à Reggane : 150 prisonniers algériens utilisés comme cobayes humains https://t.co/A1RyI3KkBi #PartageDeCultureInFrench
— Moa دسته گل (@_bouquetfleurs) August 31, 2016
Nuclear tests in Reggane: 150 Algerian prisoners used as human guinea pigs
Ca c'est du partage, une petite excursion entre amis #PartageDeCultureInFrench pic.twitter.com/i6n8rEpOJM
— Ezékiel Strong (@Mielocrockant) September 1, 2016
That's “sharing”—a little excursion with friends
#PartageDeCultureInFrench “mission civilisatrice”1911 noté le sein couvert afin de ne pas choquer les non-civilisés pic.twitter.com/9FPdwkpvgW
— Shah Jamsheed (@YungJamsheed) August 31, 2016
La mission civilatrice—the “civilising mission”—1911. See how her chest is covered so as to not shock the uncivilised natives
Vous connaissez rien à la culture bande de sauvages. Bon on va quand même garder vos oeuvres pour nos musées. #partagedecultureinfrench
— Maggie (@gotttheblues) August 31, 2016
You bunch of savages know nothing about culture. Well in any case we're still going to keep your works of art in our museums.
Fillion's comments recall France's 2005 law requiring high school faculty to teach the “positive role and values” of colonialism. Martinican historian Gilbert Pago explains how the French elite can also easily cover up an entire part of history:
Nous sommes dans un moment pénible des montées des chauvinismes nationalistes, des poussées populistes du rejet de l’autre, des affirmations de sectarisme racialiste, des replis identitaires ; tout ceci accompagnant la crise mondiale. Mais nous devons nous interroger sur l’esprit de fermeture de dirigeants politiques qui voudraient électoralement surfer sur ce qui est une régression du vivre ensemble. Pour que la France avance, pour que l’Europe aille de l’avant, pour que l’humanité entière se propulse et pour que nous Antillais nous progressions, il faut refuser le « négationnisme » de l’histoire du monde, c’est à dire de notre histoire à toutes et à tous.
We are in a difficult period with the rise of nationalist ideologies and populist, radical sectarianism, which rejects those different from us and boasts inward narrow approaches towards identity. All of this has attached itself to the global crisis. However, we must ourselves question current right-wing, inward looking politicians who politically, want to exploit and cling on to what is a regression towards living together peacefully. In order for France to move forward, in order for Europe to move forward, in order for the whole of humanity to march ahead and in order for us West Indians to continue to make progress, we must reject “historical revisionism”—the denial of world history and what essentially constitutes the denial of our history or any nation's history by any other nation.
In 2007, Alain Manbackou considered France's low reserves of “moral high ground” on the matter:
Après un demi-siècle de décolonisation formelle, les jeunes générations ont appris que de la France, tout comme des autres puissances mondiales, il ne faut pas attendre grand-chose. Les Africains se sauveront eux-mêmes ou ils périront. Pour l’heure, et s’agissant de l’Afrique, il manque tout simplement à la France le crédit moral qui lui permettrait de parler avec certitude et autorité.
After half a century of formal decolonisation, young generations have learnt that, as with all the other global powers, they shouldn't expect much from France. The people of Africa will save themselves or they'll perish. For the time being, when it comes to Africa, France quite simply lacks the moral credit required to talk with certainty and authority.
For Dorcas Dienda, the issue of the colonial period came about quite differently. During the Miss DRC broadcast on August 30, the TV presenter asked her about the issue of “made in the Congo” versus Western branding. Dienda then explained that: “Whites are more intelligent than Blacks“. Here's a clip from the show:
Dienda's comment led to a public outcry on the Congolese Web, and she was soon compelled to explain herself in hastily filmed YouTube clip.
For many, however, Dienda's attempt to clarify her remarks was too little and too late.
#DorcasDiendaOut #ToutSaufMissRaciste #JeSuisNoirEtTresIntelligent !!!
— #AfricanRevolution (@AleshDrc) September 1, 2016
#DorcasDiendaOut #AllExceptMissRacist #IAmBlackAndVeryIntelligent !!!
Juste scandaleux de tenir ces propos : « l’homme blanc est plus intelligent, que l’homme noir » #DorcasDiendaOut
pic.twitter.com/ncNkpoHgED
— AGBOKANZO K. Selom (@Selom_Agbokanzo) September 6, 2016
“Whites are more intelligent than Blacks”—what a completely scandelous suggestion. #DorcasDiendaOut
Complexe d'infériorité quand tu nous tient #DorcasDiendaOut
— Ruben ! (@ruben40555252) September 6, 2016
Inferiority complex, why won't you let go of us ! #DorcasDiendaOut
Incidentally, this is not the first time Africans have faced neglect and disrespect from French public figures. In 2007, for instance, newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy famously said, “Africans have yet to enter modern history“, leading to a similar backlash.


Nigeria: Murder of a high chief in Enugu · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Icheoku writes about last Monday's murder of Igwe Uche Nwachime, a high chief of the Enugu state in Nigeria, after being abducted.


Rwanda: On the road in Rwanda · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

On the road in Rwanda: “Prompted by Texas in Africa, here is Christopher’s journey through Rwanda and beyond listed in order of 25 clickable installments”


No, Sushma Swaraj hasn’t been appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 11, 2019
Many Facebook posts with claims that BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has been appointed as the new Governor to the state of Andhra Pradesh are going viral across social media.  Let’s try to check the authenticity of the claim made in the post.
Sushma Swaraj is appointed as the new Governor to the state of Andhra Pradesh
Fact:  Sushma Swaraj herself has stated that the news of her appointment as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh isn’t true. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
This news has started spreading after Union Minister Harsh Vardhan has tweeted congratulating Sushma Swaraj on being appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. But the tweet was soon deleted. Sushma Swaraj through her twitter account has clarified that the news of her appointment as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh state wasn’t true. She said that her meeting with the Vice President of India on demitting the office as Minister of External Affairs was enough for people on Twitter to appoint her as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
The news about my appointment as Governor of Andhra Pradesh is not true.
Hence, the news about Sushma Swaraj’s appointment as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh state is fake.
Did you watch our Facebook live on Fake News (Misinformation)


Syria: Call to Release Jailed Relatives in Saudi Arabia  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Or Does it Explode reports on a protest in Damascus, Syria, calling for the release of their relatives, who are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. According to the blog, Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death at least 28 Syrians for drug possession and jailed hundreds more.


Bashka Chocolatier: “We breathe life into every gram of chocolate” | Balkan Diskurs
Mirnes Bakija
October 25th, 2021
Merjem Hamzić is a young entrepreneur who decided to give up her job in the banking sector for one in a chocolate workshop. She and her husband founded “Bashka chocolate,” their own homemade brand. She says that the idea for the shop sprang from a combination of her husband’s love of chocolate and her creativity and imagination.
Everything they do, they do with love. Every chocolate they make, every ribbon they tie, and every message they write is done with love and care and comes from their desire to build a unique brand. Merjem says that women who start a business must believe in themselves and know what they want clearly. There is no room for fear of failure.
This young entrepreneur explains that she has always wanted to start her own business. She and her husband decided to embark on the journey of creating this business without too much pressure or strict timelines.
“Our idea was to create a brand of handmade chocolates that can compete with world-famous brands. We wanted to offer chocolates with the highest quality ingredients available in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to the quality of the chocolate, it was important for us to have a beautiful and sophisticated product design,” explains Merjem.
Merjem says that it is extremely important that get customers to come back again and again. Positive feedback motivates them to continue in this line of work. They are especially pleased when people choose to support local Bosnian brands. They currently produce four types of chocolate: dark, white, milk, and Ruby. Bashka is one of the first companies in BiH to make Ruby chocolate, which is known for its characteristic natural pink color and sweet-and-sour taste.
“We add various flavor enhancers to our chocolates, like nuts, fruits, and coffee. We even use Bosnian ground coffee, which gives the chocolate a distinct aroma. All of our recipes are original, and they are usually guided by our personal tastes,” says the young entrepreneur with a smile.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Bashka faced a standstill in its chocolate production due to supply chain disruptions. However, Merjem says they also saw the crisis as an opportunity for progress. They dedicated more time to researching chocolate and improved their marketing capabilities to introduce people to the Bashka brand. She believes that larger companies experienced a more serious crisis, while small businesses were given the opportunity to show what they offer.
“During that time, we had help from organizations both foreign and domestic organizations that support women’s entrepreneurship. I was actually surprised at the amount of support we received. In this line of work, it is important not only to be a constant in your community but also to stay flexible and make dynamic moves to learn about different incentives and programs that are available for you. We made good use of the time at the beginning of the pandemic to introduce our brand to chocolate lovers. We started using social networks, like Instagram and Facebook, which we didn’t have time for before,” explains the entrepreneur.
Merjem says that she was also involved in a program to help women entrepreneurs organized by the 787 Foundation in cooperation with UN Women, the British Embassy, and the Swedish Embassy. The program included educational programming, such as the basics of marketing, photography, and other important areas for running a business.
Merjem is glad that people’s interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina for local products is slowly growing. She is proud to say that she has always bought domestic products, even before starting her brand.
“We believe in homemade products, and we want to help any domestic brands grow,” says Merjem.
Bashka chocolates can be ordered via their social networks, but they also plan to open a workshop dedicated to chocolate production soon.
“The workshop will be intended for chocolate production and selling our delicatessens. We want to present our product in the right way with partners who share our vision and love for handmade chocolate,” explains the entrepreneur.
When starting a small business, there is no clear system or obvious set of steps to start. Merjem says that when you go to government institutions to ask just one question about starting a new business, countless new questions inevitably pop up that are difficult to answer. She says while some steps are clear, they are often not easily found in one place.
“In government agencies for registering small businesses, the staff usually consists of people who have never personally started a business, and they are therefore not clear about the obstacles you may encounter. However, starting your own business here is not all that difficult and or time-consuming. Depending on how up-to-date you are, it is possible to collect all the documentation you need to start the business in ten days,” explains Merjem.
She believes that young people are generally hardworking, and they benefit from many new skills that previous generations did not have. However, many young women, and men, are afraid to start their own businesses.
“We are generally a society that does not like to take many risks. I believe that we are also very quick to judge others, and we are prone to negativity. We were fortunate to have great support from our community from the very beginning,” says Merjem.
Merjem also wants to create a community of chocolate lovers who know how to enjoy this special treat. She enthusiastically explained to us how to properly eat chocolate: first, break off a cube of chocolate, chocolate cube, then inhale its aroma, and finally place it on your tongue to allow the chocolate to melt on its own. She also aims to educate people about what real quality chocolate is. Every day she tries to learn something new to improve the quality of her brand. Merjem says that in this business, it is extremely important that making chocolate does not become a routine.
“This process is complicated, even when you do it every day because it requires that you heat and cool the chocolate to specific temperatures. Every degree of difference can affect the quality, which is reflected in the chocolate’s appearance through dullness or stains,” explains Merjem.
Merjem and her husband have big plans for the future, but they want to take things slow to maintain the quality of their product. They also want to be socially responsible and keep their environmentally friendly packaging, even as they grow.
To all women who plan to start their own business, Merjem says: “They should be free to start their own small business. If they believe in themselves and to give their whole hearts to what they do, then their success is inevitable,” she says.


Lao folktales · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Nye Noona recommends a website and a book which both offer a good collection of Lao folktales.


Armenia: Turning Point? · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

American-Armenian Raffi N at Life in Armenia says that the local broadcast media is not informing the public well on today's riots in Yerevan, but welcomes events if only because the blogger believes that it marks a turning point for civil society in Armenia.


Libya: Lessons of a Dying Cat  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Libya, From the Rock mourns the death of her cat in this post.


Kyrgyzstan: Not Free Religion  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Elena reviews some statements of the new law about religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan.


Kenya: Petitioning Nairobi City Council · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Initiative to stop Mombasa Road Accident in Kenya: “Kindly sign up and tweet on the petition Construct 5 pedestrian footbridges on Mombasa Road.”


More than 50% of the Convicts in Prisons by the end of 2017 were serving Life Imprisonment
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 29, 2019
By
the end of 2017, there were a total of 1.39 lakh convicts serving their
sentence in Indian prisons. More than 95% of these convicts were male and more
than 70% are those who were either illiterate or only studied up to Class X.
Data also shows that more than 50% of the convicts were serving life
imprisonment.
The age andeducation levels of under-trials as per the data in the Prison Statistics ofIndia for 2017 were discussed in an earlier
story by Factly. This story aims to lookat the social aspects of the convicts, their age, education, type of offenceand punishment.
Convicts, unlikeunder-trials, are those who have been found guilty of having committed a crime. Prison
Statistics of India for 2017 was released by the NCRB recently. As on 31 December 2017, there were a total of 4.5 lakh inmates acrossvarious jails in India. Convicts comprised of 31% of the inmates. Of the 1.39 lakhconvicts, 1.33 lakh (95.6%) were male and 6,051 (4.3%) were female convicts.
One-fifth of the total convicts were reported in Uttar
Pradesh
Uttar Pradeshaccounted for the largest
number of convicts in jails. Almostone-fifth the total convicts in Indian jails were in the jails of UttarPradesh. 20% of the male convicts and 17% of the female convicts in the countrywere reported in Uttar Pradesh. Also, 29% of the prison inmates in UttarPradesh are convicts compared to the national average of 31%.
Even if the numberof convicts in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand,Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam along with those from UTs of Andamanand Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Delhi, Daman and Diu and Pondicherry arecombined (23,239), which is convicts in 16 States & 5 UTs, the number isstill 15.4% less than the number of convicts in Uttar Pradesh (27,501).
Following UttarPradesh is Madhya Pradesh with 17,273 convicts or 12.4% of the all the convictsin India.  Maharashtra and Punjab havereported more than 9000 convicts each. It is also observed that the convicts inUttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab alone constitute 46% ofthe total convicts in the country.
Half of the convicts were those aged between 30 to 50
years
The age
group data of the convicts reveals that 50%of the convicts belonged to the age group of 30 to 50 years. Another 31%belonged to the age group of 18 to 30 years. Those who were 50 years of age andabove made up the remaining 19%.
While 51% of thefemale convicts were of the age group between 30 to 50 years of age, thosefemale convicts above 50 years of age accounted for 25% of the total femaleconvicts. The only male convict below 18 years of age was incarcerated in WestBengal.
92% of the convicts were imprisoned in their state of
domicile
92% of theconvicts belonged
to the state in which they werereported to have been imprisoned. Another 7% are those convicts who did notbelong to the state in which they were held captive while the rest belonged toanother country.
Bangladeshis comprised 63% of the foreign convicts in Indian
jails
Around 2,227convicts were those belonging to different
countries. 62% of the foreign convicts werereported in the prisons of West Bengal. Bangladeshis alone made up 63% of theforeign convicts. 283 people belonging to Nepal and 125 belonging to Myanmarwere also convicted.
More than 70% of the convicts were illiterate or
educated up to class X
Just like in thecase of under-trials, a large chunk (71%) of the convicts in prison wascomprised of those who were either illiterate
or were educated up to class X. Out ofthese, 42% of the convicts were educated below class X and the remaining 29%were illiterate.
Those who hadeducation equivalent to graduation, diploma and above accounted for 9%. Theremaining 20% comprised of those who had a qualification above class X butbelow graduation.
88% of the convicts were convicted for IPC crimes
Crimes committedby the convicts are broadly categorised as those committed under Indian
Penal Code (IPC) and those under Special
and Local Laws(SLL).  88% of the convicts committedcrimes under the IPC and the remaining under SLL.
Of those whocommitted crimes under IPC, 84% were convicted of offences affecting the humanbody like rape, murder, dowry death, kidnap and assault. More than 70,000convicts who were behind the bars were those involved in murder and a further 10,890were convicted for rape.
Uttar Pradesh accounted for largest number of convicts
for offences against women and SC/ST
Uttar Pradesh accountedfor 45% of the convicts in the country for dowry deaths. 22.6% of convicts formurder and 42% of those arrested for offences against SC/ST were also reportedin Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra accounted for almost 11% of those convicted foroffences against property such as arson, burglary and theft.
The number of convictsheld for crimes against women was the highest in Uttar Pradesh. 26% (4847) ofthose convicted for crimes against women were in Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh,which reported the second highest number of convicts under the same headaccounted for 12.5% (less than half of Uttar Pradesh) of the total across thecountry.
Punjab had the largest number of convicts under liquor
and narcotics related acts
Under Special andLocal Laws, 9,637 convicts were imprisoned for liquor and narcotics under theProhibition Act, Excise Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic SubstancesAct. They made up for 7% of the total convicts and 57% of those convicted underSLL.
Punjab accountedfor the maximum number of convicts held for liquor and narcotics relatedoffences i.e. 3,993 out of the total 9,637 which is 41% of the total. In fact,those convicted under these acts made up for 41% of the total convicts inPunjab.
347 convicts in jail are those who have been sentenced
to capital punishment
Capital punishmentrefers to the most severe form of punishment in the country for the mostheinous and gruesome offences. In India, according to the Code
of Criminal Procedure, capital punishment isthe death sentence.
In 2017 alone, 121convicts were sentenced to capital punishment.A total of 347 convicts in the prisons by the end of 2017 were those sentencedto death. 19% of them were reported in Maharashtra followed by Uttar Pradesh(14%) and West Bengal (11%).
Almost 53% of theconvicts in the jails were those who were serving life imprisonment. Thoseundergoing sentence of 10 to 13 years accounted for 15% of the total convictsin jails.
Even after thecompletion of their sentence, a total of 1658 convicts were still detained inprisons for not paying the penalty imposed upon them. Around 1.18 lakh convictswere released in 2017 after their conviction period. Around 53,133 convictswere released on bail. About 3,372 convicts were reported to be suffering frommental illnesses in 2017.


Broadcast Industry: Stations Get Feb 17 Deadline To Renew Licences - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (F.BA)
December 24, 2021
Consequently, the regulator gave the erring outfits up till February 17, 2022 to pay up or have their licences withdrawn and reallocated to prospective licensees. It also advised the new players to pay their fees to avoid penalties.
Also, the commission said it is in the process to establish an Institute for Broadcast Policy and Regulation for training of broadcasters with a view to institutionalising professionalism in the industry.
NBC’s Director-General, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, stated this while addressing reporters yesterday in Abuja, adding that the NBC had initially planned to publish names of the indebted broadcast stations but later backpedalled after the intervention of the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria, BON.
It, nevertheless, warned that the February 17 remains sacrosanct.


Last Call: Crime, licensing issues contribute to decline of South Side taverns | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
December 12, 2017
Cathy West, owner of Cat-Daddy’s, Too, will close her tavern on Dec. 15. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series on the changing tavern culture on Milwaukee’s South Side. Read the first part here.
Cathy West, owner of Cat-Daddy’s, Too, 2691 S. 7th St., said she always tried to run her tavern the right way. When trouble occurred, such as when a woman was beaten unconscious outside the bar and the time when a DJ she hired became belligerent, she showed police the video footage of both incidents.
Those calls to police, she said, in addition to calls from neighbors about noise and other minor issues, resulted in warnings from the Common Council’s Licenses Committee in 2014 and 2015, but never led to a fine or suspension of her license, which must be renewed annually.
On Dec. 16, 2016, the first day her renewed license went into effect, a blizzard moved into the city, recalled West, and only a few patrons braved the snow to visit the bar, located in a white building on the corner of West Cleveland Avenue, a street where numerous taverns have closed in recent years.
An argument over billiards broke the peace, spilling outside where a bullet would end the life of 29-year-old Andrico M. Slaughter. West knew the incident was the last nail in her coffin.
“I knew my license would never get renewed again,” she said. It was enough to push West, who was already contemplating a move up north, to give up on the tavern business she’s been involved in since the 1980s. This is the last week the bar will be open.
“Even if I wanted to stay open I knew I had no option to,” said West, whose tavern is located in Ald. Tony Zielinski’s district.
Her assessment was correct, said Zielinski, who represents sections of the 53215 ZIP code and Bay View.
“But for that bar being there would that person have been shot?” asked Zielinski, describing the standard he uses to determine whether or not to renew a license for a bar such as Cat- Daddy’s, Too. “If you have had a history of problems I will shut you down,” he said,
David Torres, owner of The Tool Box, 1500 W. Scott, reopened his bar in August after a year-and-a-half suspension of its tavern license. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
West and other taverns owners, including David Torres and his wife Debra, owners of The Toolbox, say tavern owners are unfairly punished for police contacts, even though in many instances they’re trying to keep patrons safe by calling police. The Toolbox, 1500 W. Scott, was shut down in January 2016,  after the city’s licenses committee denied the request to renew the bar’s license after several incidents — including a murder — that involved police. In that incident, a patron who got into a fight outside the bar attempted to run over two men outside of The Toolbox. One of them opened fire, striking Gabriel Velasquez, who drove off before crashing and dying on Cesar E. Chavez Drive.
During a licensing hearing, Torres testified that he was unsure how the altercation began. He also stated that he and his wife had done a lot to mitigate noise and clean up outside the tavern. He added that he didn’t believe the bar negatively affected Notre Dame School, located directly across from the bar. Several representatives of the school, including the president, principal and the mother of a student, testified that they were concerned about the safety of students and parents and recommended that the license not be renewed.
At the hearing, Ald. Jose Perez recommended that The Toolbox’s tavern license not be renewed, stating that he considered the business a nuisance. Perez’s disdain towards corner bars is no secret. The problem with neighborhood bars, he said, is that they don’t serve the same purpose anymore and that bad things happen there.
“Some of these taverns want to be clubs and they don’t have capacity and they want to make so much more [money] out of the pub, DJs and live bands. They were not built for those purposes,” Perez said.
The Toolbox was one of 17 taverns in the 53204 and neighboring 53215 ZIP codes to have its license revoked or not renewed by the city licenses committee from 2012 to October 2017, comprising 57 percent of the 30 bars closed by the committee during that time period. A separate Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service analysis of city tavern license data found that 40 percent of the taverns in the two ZIP codes closed for any reason during that time period.
A total of 89 tavern licenses citywide were suspended (for periods of 10 to 90 days), not renewed, or revoked by the licenses committee from 2012 to October 2017, with 39 percent (35) involving taverns in the 53204 or 53215 ZIP codes. The 53204 ZIP code, in Perez’s district, has the most taverns with licenses that have been temporarily suspended (some multiple times), and the most that lost licenses. It also has the most taverns in Milwaukee.
According to the City Clerk’s License Division, grounds for suspension, nonrenewal or revocation of a tavern license include police charges relating to the operation of the tavern, sale of alcohol to minors or intoxicated persons and allowing conduct that negatively affects the surrounding neighborhood.
Zielinski, who recently announced his candidacy for the 2020  mayoral race, has pushed for the closing of several bars in the 53215 ZIP code, where 40 of 85 taverns have closed since 2012. Among them are two strip clubs that were located on South 13th Street, near West Cleveland Avenue.
Ald. Tony Zielinski, who represents Bay View and part of the 53215 ZIP code, requires that new bar owners in his district invest in improvements or sell food and alcohol. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Increased crime on the South Side and specifically at taverns has contributed to the abundance of tavern closures in those neighborhoods. Other reasons are the decline of neighborhood tavern culture, retirement or death of tavern owners  and deindustrialization, which has resulted in fewer customers, according to historians, tavern owners and others.
Zielinski is reluctant to allow individuals to open new bars or take over closing bars in his district unless they meet his standards.  He demands that new lessees or bar owners upgrade the tavern and/or sell food, which also requires a restaurant license, he said. Tavern owners are already required to maintain a manager’s license. Existing bars that have had no problems do not need to meet those requirements to renew their licenses annually, added Zielinski.
“Unless you’re bringing food to the table or making a significant investment in improvements, forget about it. I don’t want too many bars concentrated in one neighborhood because it brings problems,” Zielinski said.
His demands have drawn the ire of Hank Ostricki, who owns the building that houses Cat- Daddy’s and leases the bar to West. Ostricki said he has a new owner lined up to run the bar once Cat-Daddy’s closes, but that Zielinski has stonewalled the process by denying the owner a hearing with the licenses committee.
“He told me it was never going to be a bar again. He called it a nuisance,” said Ostricki, who said the alderman hung up on him and won’t return his calls. Zielinski denied the accusation.
“Everyone that wants to apply for a license gets an opportunity to make their case before the licenses committee. Mr. Ostricki’s comments are not accurate,” wrote Zielinski in an email to NNS.
Other incidents have occurred since the murder outside of Cat-Daddy’s, according to a Milwaukee Police Department report  provided to NNS by the License Division. In January, police were dispatched to a fight on the corner outside of Cat-Daddy’s but did not observe anything when they arrived. In March, patrons who had been kicked out of the bar drove by and fired two shots, according to the report. Police said bartenders at Cat-Daddy’s were cooperative on both occasions. The most serious incident occurred in May when officers responding to a report that the bar was open after hours arrived to find several people there at 6:26 a.m, including a felon hiding in the bathroom and a gun in the garbage can.
Those incidents, which are examples of what Zielinski described as serious issues at the bar, nevertheless, can’t stop someone from applying for a tavern license, he said.
Ostricki disputes that claim. “How can it be a fair hearing when he (Zielinski) already told me he won’t give the new bar a license?” Ostricki said.
The building has been a bar since 1971 when Ostricki opened the Hanky Panky tavern there before purchasing the building three years later. He said converting it into apartments, one of the few options he has for the building, would be too costly so he’ll end up with a vacant building. He criticized Zielinski for treating the 53215 ZIP code as if it were the more trendy and upwardly mobile Bay View.
“How can you expect me to pour a million dollars into a $20 neighborhood?” Ostricki asked.
During an interview in September, Zielinski said he holds potential tavern owners in Bay View to the same standards as he does those in 53215.
“I want the neighborhood to have nice places for people to eat and drink and not just dive bars,” he added.
One example he cited of an upgraded tavern is the second location of Cafe Corazon, 2394 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., which opened in 2016 in the renovated space that for decades had been the location of Johnny Club Carnival. Former Club Carnival owner, Juan “Johnny” Sendejo Sr., sold the bar in 2015 and died in February. Cafe Corazon’s owner, George Mireles, spent $500,000 in repairs on the building, according to Zielinski.
“Now we have this beautiful space. It’s very difficult to open up just a plain bar in my neighborhood,” he added.
Tavern licenses, which cost $610 and expire one year from the date of issuance, must be approved by the licenses committee during a public hearing in which residents can testify. Perez, who represents the 53204 ZIP code as well as some sections of 53215, said although he doesn’t have a set of demands, he encourages all potential bar owners to reach out to residents personally or by writing a letter detailing hours of operation, security measures and how they plan to prevent problems that may have occurred at the location previously.
He also recommends that those who’d like to take over an existing bar obtain a manager’s license and complete the city’s PIVOT Program, a two-hour workshop that helps business owners understand licensing issues, best practices and how to keep licenses current and in good standing, among other items.
The Toolbox is one of the rare taverns that lost its license but reopened after a year and a half. Torres said he worked closely with Perez and spoke to any neighbor he could —including representatives of the Notre Dame School who helped shut down the bar — about the changes he planned to make.
“I told them I wouldn’t be open during school hours, that I would close early and that I would be here at the bar almost all of the time rather than relying on managers to run the place,” Torres said.
It was enough to convince the Board of Zoning Appeals to grant The Toolbox another shot, which was a relief for Torres, who said it’s one of the few corner bars left in the neighborhood.
As for West, she’s preparing to leave a business and a lifestyle that she and generations of Milwaukeeans grew up with, but is fading away.
“The people changed, the rules to run a bar changed. They used to be fun, the place where you went after work and met all your friends and neighbors. I’m sad about closing,” West said. “I thought about unringing the bell and fighting it but I knew I had no chance.”


Sri Lanka: Status Symbol · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Your degree of access to an air conditioned environment indicates how close (or far away) you are to the vast underclass of permanent poverty,” comments Cerno on third world’s biggest status symbol -Air Conditioning.


This video shows a Church renovated into a temple in the USA, not Europe - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 11, 2023
A video (here and here) of a cross on a Church’s steeple getting replaced by a Hindu religious symbol is being shared on social media, claiming that this video shows the visuals of a church in Europe getting renovated into a temple. In this video, one can see devotees worshipping inside this temple, offering prayers to the deity. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Visuals show a European church transformed into a Hindu temple.
Fact: Although this video shows a Church renovated into a temple, this had not happened in Europe. The visuals show the Paranitya Narasimha Ashram and temple in West Elmira, New York. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A keyword search on the internet led us to a news report  that revealed that the church/temple that is seen in the viral video is located in a town called Elmira in New York.
Reportedly, this is the largest temple of (Paranitya) Narasimha in America. An organisation named Bhakti Marga (here) has purchased a closed catholic church in Elmira and renovated it into an ashram and temple.
The inauguration of this temple was held from 31 August 2023 to 3 September 2023 (here, here, and here), and the viral video shows the highlights of this event, which was posted on Instagram by Bhakti Marga.
A post shared by Paramahamsa Vishwananda (@paramahamsa_vishwananda)
To sum up, the viral post misquotes this video as visuals from Europe while it shows the inauguration of Lord Narasimha temple (converted from a church) in America.


Sri Lanka: Why Norway? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Why exactly is Norway involved in the conflict resolution process in Sri Lanka? Komiyage Loke with conspiracy theories, oil and other factors that move the planet.


Brunei: Top six blogs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

After more than six months of public nominations and votes, the top six blogs of Brunei are finally known.


Turkish lawmakers ratify new disinformation bill · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Image by Gilles Lambert. Free to use under Unsplash License.
Turkish lawmakers approved a bill on October 13 purportedly meant to combat fake news and disinformation, but local civil society organizations describe the bill as an underhanded censorship or disinformation bill which will be used to squash dissent and criticism. Critics of the bill say the 40-article legislation passed by Turkey's parliament is a threat to freedom of speech and could have disastrous consequences ahead of Turkey's 2023 election.
There are a number of concerning new restrictions in the bill — mandatory content removal, violations of user privacy, further platform regulation measures, and more — though one of the most worrying articles is Article 29, according to which “anyone publicly distributing false information on Turkey’s domestic and external security, public order and welfare could face between one and three years in jail for instigating concern, fear and panic in society, faces imprisonment from one and up to three years.” The new restrictions went into effect on October 18.
In response to the bill, an international coalition of 22 press freedom organizations said the bill, “with its vaguely-formulated definition of disinformation and ‘intent’, overseen by Turkey’s highly politicized judiciary, will put millions of internet users at risk of criminal sanction and could lead to blanket censorship and self-censorship in the run up to the 2023 elections.” Turkey is scheduled to hold a general election in June 2023.
The bill also comes on the heels of a recent revelation about the government's Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (the Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK) collecting private user data in a massive breach of user privacy since 2021. One MP, Onursal Adiguzel, from the opposition Republican People (CH) party, described the findings as “the biggest tapping scandal in the history of the Republic.”
The bill was proposed by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and its ally, the Nationalist Movement (MH) Party members, and has been in the works since last year. The two parties claim the bill is similar to existing legislation in Europe, such as the German NetzDG, but critics disagree. It has been criticized for its opaque legal definitions, and for weaponizing unclear terms such as disinformation, fake news, baseless information, distorted disinformation, security, public order, and public peace.
In an interview with The Guardian, Emre Kizilkaya, head of the International Press Institute's Turkey branch, said the bill “criminalizes what the authorities call disinformation without defining what that actually means. A judge will decide how to define disinformation and intent, which really gives arbitrary powers to the government to criticize journalism.”
The fierce opposition to the bill was also voiced by opposition political party members. Ahead of the bill's adoption, one member of the parliament, Burak Erbay, smashed his phone with a hammer during his speech at the parliament. “Break your phones like this, you will not need to use it,” Erbay said ahead of the vote.
On October 14, another lawmaker said Turks may be heading into polls come election month without Twitter, Facebook, or WhatsApp. “This censorship law allows the state to shut down Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp,” said MP Garo Paylan referring to the bill authorizing prosecutors and the BTK to shut down platforms if they do not comply with government requests to provide data on users.
The new social media censorship law adopted by the Turkish parliament marks the launch -by president Erdogan- of Turkey's next election season. The 2023 polls will be Turkey's most unfair vote since the country's first free and fair elections in 1950
— Soner Cagaptay (@SonerCagaptay) October 14, 2022
Paylan called on the Constitutional Court to reverse the bill. “Yesterday the parliament adopted the disinformation bill. I am ashamed of this as a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly […] The parliament could not stop the bill, but the Constitutional Court can. If there are still judges at the Constitutional Court, they must stop this bill that is clearly against the Constitution,” said Paylan.
On October 18, the main opposition People's Republic (CH) Party officially requested the Constitutional Court overturn the bill, specifically Article 29.
The bill does not only concern journalists. Its vague definitions may also hold users accountable for any post they share. “Any social media platform user will be held liable within the premises of this law for any post/tweet/share,” explained Emre Ilkan Saklica, the head of editorial at the fact-checking platform Teyit.org in an interview with DW Turkish. Scientists and independent economists may also face consequences over their projections and analysis.
On October 19, over 200 renowned Turkish writers issued a statement condemning the new bill, writing that it “will plunge the country into a deep darkness.”
And there are more restrictions, such as removing hashtags according to article 34 of the newly adopted bill if they are found to violate the law. This article comes atop of already existing legal punishments for various offenses. According to Article 299 of the Penal Code, any person who insults the president can face up to four years behind bars. So far, students, artists, journalists, lawyers, and average citizens, have been prosecuted or faced trial. Meanwhile, Articles 36 and 37 require communication apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and Skype to appoint local representatives. The new law also obligates these platforms to provide personal user data upon government requests.
The control over social media platforms “represent a draconian new chapter ahead of elections in 2023,” said Sarah Clarke, Head of Europe and Central Asia at Article 19 in a joint statement with Human Rights Watch. According to Yaman Akdeniz, Law Professor and founder of the Freedom of Expression Association, “social media threatens the government's control of media in general” given they serve as the only remaining avenues for people to access information and express themselves.
Ahead of the 2015 elections in Turkey, the state intensified the crackdown on media by resorting to “information campaigns and physical intimidation.” A violent mob organized by the AKP parliamentary deputy and leader of the AKP Youth, Abdurrahim Boynukalın, attacked the headquarters of Hurriyet Daily News, a left-leaning newsroom. Boynukalın was not punished at the time, and seven years later, he successfully secured a court order issued by a criminal judgeship of peace to block access to any news items about his involvement in the attack, on the grounds that it violated his personal rights. Following the court order, more than 100 news items that mentioned his name were blocked online.
These recent measures are just the tip of the iceberg. In August, the Directorate of Communication established a “Center for Combating Disinformation.” Similar to the vague terminology referred to in the October 13 bill, there was little transparency around the center's purpose and procedures. In a statement issued by the International Press Institute at the time, the international organization expressed concern and questioned the center's mandate as a government body to “combat ‘disinformation.'” The statement read:
The establishment of the centre should be seen in the context of the government’s recent attempts to control the information environment as the country heads towards the next elections.
That context includes the newly adopted disinformation bill, amendments to the Press Code of Ethics introduced by the Press Advertising Agency (BİK) in July 2022, a social media bill, and other online restrictions. So far, the center has published two weekly bulletins that list news items the center describes as fake news of the week. In the second bulletin, the center referred to the devastating coal mine blast at a state-run facility that killed 41 workers. It claimed that news reports of the blast holding the state institutions for failing to implement better safety measures were fake and that the state has taken measures to prevent such incidents.
On October 18, after filing a motion with the Constitutional Court to overrule the new bill's Article 29, deputy chair of the opposition CHP Engin Altay called the new law a “Stalin law,” saying that the new bill allows the state, “to present their own lies as truth.”
The parallels between Stalin and the new bill are not surprising. After all, it was Stalin himself who coined the term “Dezinformatsiya” [disinformation], elevating it “to its own government agency, aggressively spreading lies against political opponents and misleading citizens with bogus propaganda on a mass scale.” Fast forward to present-day Turkey, and the unfolding events attest to what Stalin and others did decades ago, but this time on an unprecedented scale.


Yemen: Rocket Hit Saudi · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Sabbah wonders what's behind the lack of info behind the rocket that was fired at Saudi Arabia from Yemen?


China: What The Olympics Are Really About · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Talk to Catch Up Lady blogger for a vivid sense of not just the mood in and around the Olympics, but with her photos and video taken at the Water Cube before and during the heat yesterday in which Michael Phelps‘ won his sixth gold medal, the sounds and sights inside a key venue as well.


Bahamas: Time to Take Action Against Crime  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As a missing child is found dead, Weblog Bahamas says: “I would call on Prime Minister Ingraham to not wait until next Monday to make a statement to the nation on crime. The time to act is now… and we must act swiftly and prudently.”


Brazil: Romário, football star and blogger · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“Couch career? Don't count on me, I would rather career as a blogger”, said Brazilian football player Romário. Cocada Boa [pt] announces that he has just launched his blog and speculates on the 10 reasons for the star to start to have done so.


Review: The 2024 Lok Sabha Elections are Estimated to Involve 12 million Personnel and 3400 Companies of CAPF - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 13, 2024
The Indian elections is the biggest democratic exercise globally with its scale and complexity. Millions of officials are deputed to undertake specific roles involving various activities of the election. From polling officials to security forces to counting personnel, these individuals comprise the machinery that ensures the smooth execution of elections. Data indicates that the number of resources involved in the conduct of elections has grown significantly over the years.
The Indian elections are the biggest democratic exercise globally with its scale and complexity. Managing elections in a country as vast and diverse as ours, and with over 960 million eligible voters spread across complex geographical regions, is a monumental task. Every phase of the electoral process presents its own set of challenges, from compiling electoral rolls to navigating the complex web of administrative structures, the scale and complexity are immense.
Yet, the successful conduct and the integrity of elections rely heavily on the actions of three key stakeholders: an impartial electoral administration, political parties and candidates, and the voters themselves. The previous editions in the series of stories on Indian elections, [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], focussed on key characteristics regarding political parties, and their contestants.
Now, further expanding the scope of the analysis and adding on to the latest editions on the administrative aspect of the conduct of elections, [6] and [7], we look at the machinery behind the impartial and safe conduct of elections.
Understanding the risks in Electoral Management
Being such an immense exercise, every aspect of the electoral process is mired with risks that could hamper the integrity of the election. Electoral risk management involves understanding the potential risks that could undermine the conduct, integrity, security, or credibility of an election and taking steps to address them.
Millions of officials are deputed to undertake specific roles involving various activities of the election. From polling officials to security forces to counting personnel, these individuals comprise the machinery that ensures the smooth execution of elections. Among them, security forces are crucial as they minimize the influence of coercive tactics and financial resources, creating a level playing field for both voters and political parties.
Force deployment as a tool to mitigate risks of coercion/fear.
A good law and order situation is a prerequisite for free, fair, and peaceful elections. Force deployment has been developed as a significant component in election administration, as seen by the strategic deployment of different available forces, notably the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). Our explainer on how the security forces are deployed can be read here, along with the manual on force deployment.
The responsibility of the security forces spans from pre-poll preparations to safeguarding the voting process and continues until the declaration of results. This is unlike the deployment of other polling officials who assume duties for a smaller duration.
Human Resource requirement has grown in subsequent elections.
The growth in the number of eligible & registered voters in subsequent elections can have significant implications for election management. The number of electors in the 2014 General Elections was 834 million, which then rose to 912 million in the 2019 General Election. During the 2024 General Elections, this number is estimated to be approximately 969 million. This translated into a rise in the additional resources for the conduct of elections. The number of polling stations rose from 9.2 lakh to 10.3 lakh between 2014 and 2019 and is pegged to be at 10.48 lakhs in the 2024 elections.
Accordingly, the resource requirement in terms of the personnel required to conduct the elections grew from 10 million in 2014 to a projected 12 million in 2024.
Significant growth in the CAPF deployment, 2024 election sees 3400 companies deployed.
The Election Commission of India relies on a substantial number of polling officials and armed forces to facilitate smooth, peaceful, and unbiased elections. In terms of security provisions, the Election Commission usually engages the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). However, since the demand for CAPF often exceeds the available supply, additional police forces like State Armed Police, Home Guards, and District Police are frequently deployed to supplement security measures.
Analysis of data pertaining to CAPF deployment during general elections indicates a notable rise in their utilization over the years. In 2009, 850 companies of CAPF personnel were deployed, a figure which rose to 1349 in 2014 and further to 3126 in 2019. Projections suggest that in the ongoing 2024 elections, approximately 3400 companies of CAPF personnel are expected to be deployed across the seven phases of elections.
Need to streamline information dissemination on security forces deployment.
In addition to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), additional police forces from state agencies are often enlisted for the conduct of elections. The logistical challenge of moving troops, particularly during elections held across multiple phases, significantly impacts government expenditures. This logistical complexity, alongside concerns for national security are prime motivators in the demand for simultaneous elections.
However, there is a lack of consistent and transparent dissemination of data regarding security force deployments. While it’s understandable that the confidentiality of force deployment is crucial during elections, it’s imperative to make this data available in a standardized format post-election.
Currently, publications by the Election Commission of India present data in an unstructured and inconsistent manner, making it challenging to analyse the increasing need for security force deployment. It’s essential for the ECI to publish data on the state-wise and force-type-wise strength of forces deployed during General Elections, as well as elections to various state assemblies and councils, in order to enhance transparency and facilitate informed analysis. Since these details would be made available in the reports published much later after the conduct of elections, the safety & security concerns would also be taken care of.


Russia: South Ossetia – Holding Back the War Mongers? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Osteuropablog [German] discusses an interview with Aleksandr Dugin, leader of the Russian Eurasianist movement, in which he calls for war against Georgia over South Ossetia. Wu Wei elaborates on the escalating conflict, asking “Who is picking the fights?”


Palestine in Pictures · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Marcy Newman was in Palestine and here are her photographs from the trip.


Morphed pictures shared as the visuals of Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag after Afghanistan defeated Pakistan in CWC 2023 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 1, 2023
A photo is being shared on social media claiming that the picture shows Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag after Afghanistan defeated Pakistan during the ICC World Cup 2023. Many social media users have been posting videos on YouTube sharing different pictures of Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag and claiming that the pictures were taken after the Pakistan vs. Afghanistan match on 23 October 2023. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Pictures of Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag after Afghanistan defeated Pakistan during the ICC World Cup 2023.
Fact: These images of Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag in the cricket stadium are morphed. Rashid Khan did not wave the Indian flag after Afghanistan defeated Pakistan during the ICC World Cup 2023. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Image 1:
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found published on the ‘ESPN Cricinfo’ website, with the description, “Afghanistan’s win over Pakistan has Rashid Khan ecstatic. Pakistan vs Afghanistan, Men’s World Cup 2023, Chennai. October 23, 2023.”
In the original photo, Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan was not seen holding the Indian national flag.  The comparison of the original and the edited image shared in the post can be seen below.
Image 2:
A YouTube user shared a video saying that Rashid Khan had made a heart-winning gesture with the Indian flag after Afghanistan defeated Pakistan during the ICC World Cup 2023. The screengrab of the viral video shows Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag with both hands while thanking the audience on the ground. On reverse image search, we could not find credible sources of the image. When we searched for further details, we found similar visuals in Pakistan vs Afghanistan full-match replay video published on Disney Hotstar. The original visuals show Rashid Khan waving two hands to the audience. The original visuals do not show Rashid Khan waving the Indian flag.
Earlier, when similar false claims were made on social media that Ratan Tata had announced a reward of Rs. 10 crores to Rashid Khan for waving the Indian flag, Factly published a fact-check article debunking that claim.
To sum it up, morphed pictures are shared alleging that Rashid Khan had waved the Indian flag after Afghanistan’s victory against Pakistan during the ICC World Cup 2023.