Anger and fear have greeted the return to power of former US strongman Donald Trump, a corrupt far-white extremist coup plotter who is also a convicted felon and rapist, following this week’s shock presidential election result.

Ethnic tensions have been on the rise with members of the historically oppressed minority Black ethnic group reporting receiving threatening text messages, warning of a return to an era of enslavement.

In a startling editorial, the tension-wracked country’s paper of record, The New York Times, declared that the country had made “a perilous choice” and that its fragile democracy was now on “a precarious course”.

• READ MORE: Kamala Harris’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza ‘betrayal of true feminism’
• ‘All-out catastrophe’: Famine fears as Israeli siege of north Gaza tightens
• Pacific nation leaders look forward to strengthened US relations with Trump
• All in all, Trump’s election is a calamity in he making — Paul Buchanan
• Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

President-elect Trump’s victory marks the second time in eight years the extremist leader, who is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of using campaign funds to pay off a porn star he had cheated on his wife with, has defeated a female opponent from the ruling Democratic Party.

Women continue to struggle to reach the highest office in the deeply conservative nation where their rights are increasingly under attack and child marriage is widespread.

This has prompted traumatised supporters of Vice-President Kamala Harris, who had been handpicked to replace the unpopular, ageing incumbent, Joe Biden, to accuse American voters of racism to sexism.

“It’s misogyny from Hispanic men, it’s misogyny from Black . . . who do not want a woman leading them,” insisted one TV anchor, adding that there “might be race issues with Hispanics that don’t want a Black woman as president of the United States.”

Hateful tribal rhetoric
The hateful tribal rhetoric has also included social media posts calling for any people of mixed race who failed to vote for Harris to be deported and for intensification of the genocide in Gaza due to Arab-American rejection of Harris over her support for the continued provision of weapons to the brutal apartheid state committing it.

America Makes a Perilous Choice https://t.co/sKW5ZZa3Q3

— Xandre Rodríguez (@xandrerodriguez) November 6, 2024

“Victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan,” goes the saying popularised by former US President John F Kennedy, who was shot 61 years ago this month.

The reluctance to attribute the loss to the grave and gratuitous missteps made by the Harris campaign has mystified America-watchers around the world.

As an example, analysts point to her wholesale embrace of the Biden regime’s genocidal policy in the Middle East despite opinion polls showing that it was alienating voters.

Harris and her supporters had tried to counter that by claiming that Trump would also be genocidal and that she would ameliorate the pain of bereaved families in the US by lowering the price of groceries.

However, the election results showed that this was not a message voters appreciated. “Genocide is bad politics,” said one Arab-American activist.

Worried over democracy
As the scale of the extremists’ electoral win becomes increasingly clear, having taken control of not just the presidency but the upper house of Congress as well, many are worried about the prospects for democracy in the US which is still struggling to emerge from Trump’s first term.

Despite conceding defeat, Harris has pledged to continue to “wage this fight” even as pro-democracy protests have broken out in several cities, raising fears of violence and political uncertainty in the gun-strewn country.

This could imperil stability in North America and sub-Scandinavian Europe where a Caucasian Spring democratic revolution has failed to take hold, and a plethora of white-wing authoritarian populists have instead come to power across the region.

However, there is a silver lining. The elections themselves were a massive improvement over the chaotic and shambolic, disputed November 2020 presidential polls which paved the way for a failed putsch two months later.

This time, the voting was largely peaceful and there was relatively little delay in releasing results, a remarkable achievement for the numeracy-challenged nation where conspiracy theorists remain suspicious about the Islamic origins of mathematics, seeing it is as a ploy by the terror group “Al Jibra” to introduce Sharia Law to the US.

In the coming months and years, there will be a need for the international community to stay engaged with the US and assist the country to try and undertake much-needed reforms to its electoral and governance systems, including changes to its constitution.

During the campaigns, Harris loyalists warned that a win by Trump could lead to the complete gutting of its weak democratic systems, an outcome the world must work hard to avoid.

However, figuring out how to support reform in the US and engage with a Trump regime while not being seen to legitimise the election of a man convicted of serious crimes, will be a tricky challenge for the globe’s mature Third-World democracies.

Many may be forced to limit direct contact with him. “Choices have consequences,” as a US diplomat eloquently put it 11 years ago.

Patrick Gathara is a Kenyan journalist, cartoonist, blogger and author. He is also senior editor for inclusive storytelling at The New Humanitarian. This article was first published by Al Jazeera and is republished under Creative Commons.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Anger and fear have greeted the return to power of former US strongman Donald Trump, a corrupt far-white extremist coup plotter who is also a convicted felon and rapist, following this week’s shock presidential election result.

Ethnic tensions have been on the rise with members of the historically oppressed minority Black ethnic group reporting receiving threatening text messages, warning of a return to an era of enslavement.

In a startling editorial, the tension-wracked country’s paper of record, The New York Times, declared that the country had made “a perilous choice” and that its fragile democracy was now on “a precarious course”.

• READ MORE: Kamala Harris’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza ‘betrayal of true feminism’
• ‘All-out catastrophe’: Famine fears as Israeli siege of north Gaza tightens
• Pacific nation leaders look forward to strengthened US relations with Trump
• All in all, Trump’s election is a calamity in he making — Paul Buchanan
• Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

President-elect Trump’s victory marks the second time in eight years the extremist leader, who is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of using campaign funds to pay off a porn star he had cheated on his wife with, has defeated a female opponent from the ruling Democratic Party.

Women continue to struggle to reach the highest office in the deeply conservative nation where their rights are increasingly under attack and child marriage is widespread.

This has prompted traumatised supporters of Vice-President Kamala Harris, who had been handpicked to replace the unpopular, ageing incumbent, Joe Biden, to accuse American voters of racism to sexism.

“It’s misogyny from Hispanic men, it’s misogyny from Black . . . who do not want a woman leading them,” insisted one TV anchor, adding that there “might be race issues with Hispanics that don’t want a Black woman as president of the United States.”

Hateful tribal rhetoric
The hateful tribal rhetoric has also included social media posts calling for any people of mixed race who failed to vote for Harris to be deported and for intensification of the genocide in Gaza due to Arab-American rejection of Harris over her support for the continued provision of weapons to the brutal apartheid state committing it.

America Makes a Perilous Choice https://t.co/sKW5ZZa3Q3

— Xandre Rodríguez (@xandrerodriguez) November 6, 2024

“Victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan,” goes the saying popularised by former US President John F Kennedy, who was shot 61 years ago this month.

The reluctance to attribute the loss to the grave and gratuitous missteps made by the Harris campaign has mystified America-watchers around the world.

As an example, analysts point to her wholesale embrace of the Biden regime’s genocidal policy in the Middle East despite opinion polls showing that it was alienating voters.

Harris and her supporters had tried to counter that by claiming that Trump would also be genocidal and that she would ameliorate the pain of bereaved families in the US by lowering the price of groceries.

However, the election results showed that this was not a message voters appreciated. “Genocide is bad politics,” said one Arab-American activist.

Worried over democracy
As the scale of the extremists’ electoral win becomes increasingly clear, having taken control of not just the presidency but the upper house of Congress as well, many are worried about the prospects for democracy in the US which is still struggling to emerge from Trump’s first term.

Despite conceding defeat, Harris has pledged to continue to “wage this fight” even as pro-democracy protests have broken out in several cities, raising fears of violence and political uncertainty in the gun-strewn country.

This could imperil stability in North America and sub-Scandinavian Europe where a Caucasian Spring democratic revolution has failed to take hold, and a plethora of white-wing authoritarian populists have instead come to power across the region.

However, there is a silver lining. The elections themselves were a massive improvement over the chaotic and shambolic, disputed November 2020 presidential polls which paved the way for a failed putsch two months later.

This time, the voting was largely peaceful and there was relatively little delay in releasing results, a remarkable achievement for the numeracy-challenged nation where conspiracy theorists remain suspicious about the Islamic origins of mathematics, seeing it is as a ploy by the terror group “Al Jibra” to introduce Sharia Law to the US.

In the coming months and years, there will be a need for the international community to stay engaged with the US and assist the country to try and undertake much-needed reforms to its electoral and governance systems, including changes to its constitution.

During the campaigns, Harris loyalists warned that a win by Trump could lead to the complete gutting of its weak democratic systems, an outcome the world must work hard to avoid.

However, figuring out how to support reform in the US and engage with a Trump regime while not being seen to legitimise the election of a man convicted of serious crimes, will be a tricky challenge for the globe’s mature Third-World democracies.

Many may be forced to limit direct contact with him. “Choices have consequences,” as a US diplomat eloquently put it 11 years ago.

Patrick Gathara is a Kenyan journalist, cartoonist, blogger and author. He is also senior editor for inclusive storytelling at The New Humanitarian. This article was first published by Al Jazeera and is republished under Creative Commons.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

This is an excerpt from a distressing livestream by a Bangladeshi Hindu woman who narrates how she was forced to leave the country after her family was attacked because of their religious identity. She mentions that her father’s house is in Mathbaria, located in the Barishal district of Bangladesh, and emphasizes that her family had never encountered any issues with anyone before the attack.

The woman in the above video is certainly not alone. Many Hindu families in Bangladesh had to face similar hate crimes after erstwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who led the country for 15 years, had resigned from her position and left the country on August 5, minutes before protesters stormed her official residence. Following Hasina’s resignation, reports quickly emerged of retaliatory attacks targeting her party, the Awami League, and those perceived as her allies, including the Hindu minority.

Hindus, who make up about 7.96% of the country’s population, were subjected to systematic and continuous attacks. The internet is rife with videos and images of rioters setting fire to Hindu homes and temples. Hashtags like #SaveBangladeshiHindus and #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus quickly began trending on social media platforms. The situation was made worse by the lack of a functioning government and law enforcement.

Sworn in as the head of the interim government in Bangladesh on August 8, one of Mohammad Yunus’ first declarations was to assert the necessity to stop these attacks at the earliest. “Restoring law and order is our first task. We can not proceed without that… You have put your trust in me to lead your country… I have responded to the invitation of the student leaders… My plea to my fellow countrymen.. if you have faith in me, the first step is to ensure that no one is attacked anywhere in the country… Without this, my efforts are futile, and it would be better if I stepped aside,” he said in a video statement on August 9, flanked by student leaders.

On the same day, the Bangladesh Hindu, Buddist and Christian Unity Council, along with the Bangladesh Puja Ujjapon Parishad, released an extensive list of 205 incidents of attacks on Hindus in over 50 districts since the fall of the Hasina government on August 5. The 10-page document details attacks on political leaders, temples, Hindu-owned business establishments and civilians. It also notes that Prodip Kumar Bhowmik from Rayganj sub-district in Sirajganj, Haradhon Roy, an Awami League politician, and two other Hindus from Rangpur City Corporation, as well as Santosh Kumar, a police inspector from Baniachong police station, were killed during the unrest.

Several reports have mentioned a general panic among Hindu citizens in Bangladesh. Hindus, the largest religious minority group in the country, “are shivering,” Kajal Debnath, vice president of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council told the Associated Press on August 13. “They are closing their doors, they are not opening it without confirming who is knocking. Everybody (in the Hindu minority)… from the Dhaka capital to the remote villages are very scared.”

Here are a few incidents of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh that Alt News could verify from local reports and social media evidences. This is in no way an exhaustive list.

Lalmonirhat

Lalmonirhat, a district in north Bangladesh bordering West Bengal, is part of the Rangpur division. According to the 2011 census, approximately 14% of its population is Hindu. Social media users have reported numerous hate crimes against Hindus in the area.

One such incident involved Jeevan Roy, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila Branch. His home was vandalised and looted, with his belongings destroyed. He was allegedly threatened at gunpoint and given three days to leave Bangladesh.

Another victim was Muhin Roy, a Hindu man who owns a computer shop named Design Vision in Lalmonirhat. According to his Facebook testimony, his shop was ransacked on August 5, the day Sheikh Hasina resigned. In a Facebook comment, he expressed his shame and disbelief, stating that he could never have imagined such a fate in Lalmonirhat.

In the Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat, 12 Hindu houses were reportedly vandalized and torched in Purbo Sardubi village. Visuals of the aftermath show the devastation, including a temple inside one of the houses that was completely burned. Other nearby houses were also reduced to ashes. In the video, the person recording can be heard saying, ‘This is the condition of Bangladesh. Hindu households…’

In the same district, a mob also vandalised the house of Pradip Chandra Roy, the secretary of Lalmonirhat Puja Udjapan Parishad, in Telipara village reports Daily Star. The incident also took place on August 5. 

Bagerhat

In a chilling case of hate crime in the Bagerhat region of Khula division in southwestern Bangladesh, a Hindu schoolteacher named Mrinal Kanti Chatterjee was killed by a mob. 83.25% of Bagerhat’s population consists of Muslims while Hindus constitute 16.38%, according to the 2022 census. 

His son-in-law stated in a video that there had been a land dispute with neighbours who were inclined towards the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. ‘My father-in-law was an innocent man, he was a teacher. He had good relations with everyone. But for the past two years, the other party has been threatening him, saying that they’ll kill him. On the day Hasina resigned, since 4-5 pm, the environment was quite charged. At that time, some people came into the house at around 8 pm and threatened to kill him, saying you won’t be able to escape to India… My father-in-law did not pay much attention. We didn’t know that they would come at 12 am. Some 10-12 people surrounded the house at that time and started breaking the windows. All of them were very young, around 16-17 years of age… My father-in-law has two daughters—one of them is a student in Dhaka. She was also part of the Quota movement. She came back when the university was closed down. On the day of the attack, my sister-in-law, my wife, my six-year-old child, my mother-in-law, and my father-in-law were at home. Around 12 am, they broke down the doors of the house, entered, and hit my father-in-law on the head with a hammer. They kept on hit him… on the back. Two people entered the house, two were guarding the house. There were more people surrounding the house. And around 50-60 people were celebrating on the main road outside. Nobody came to save him. He died on the spot… Then they looted the house, took all our money and gold. They broke everything, even the commode in the toilet. Their aim was to destroy everything in the house so that we would leave the land. My mother-in-law was also injured while trying to save her husband and had to undergo 34 stitches… She’s not supposed to be alive…’

In a statement to Bangladeshi media outlet Independent Television, Chatterjee’s daughter Jhuma Rani recounted the horror. ‘I had my younger son and sister at home. I saved them by hiding them on the floor and under the bed. What is wrong with us? We are not a party. Why did they attack only us? They beat my old father to death with a hammer’, she said. 

Thakurgaon, Panchagarh

In Panchagarh, the northernmost district of Bangladesh in Rangpur division, several Hindu homes were reportedly torched and vandalized after August 5. The population in Panchagarh consists of 16.55% Hindus and 83.09% Muslims.

In a Facebook livestream dated August 11, a huge fire is visible in the foreground, and the person recording can be heard saying that the incident occurred in Baroipur village at the house of a man named Jairam. He also says that no one was hurt in the incident according to information available at the time. 

In another Facebook livestream from Panchagarh, a man is seen being apprehended by a large crowd. The stream was recorded in Lakshmi Para, next to Baroipara, just 40 minutes after the aforementioned livestream. The man was accused of being one of the individuals who set fire to a house in Baroipara. The person conducting the livestream is heard questioning whether this was truly an independent Bangladesh. He also speaks about the targeted attacks on minorities. “দেখুন সংখ্যালঘুদের ওপর কিভাবে হামলা হচ্ছে” (Translation: See how the minorities are being attacked in Bangladesh), the man is heard shouting in the video. 

In the Thakurgaon district, also part of the Rangpur division, Hindu homes were torched and vandalised. Thakurgaon is a district in northwestern Bangladesh and borders India to the west. Muslims make up 76.70% of the population while Hindus are 22.26%, according to the 2011 census. 

In a Facebook livestream, it was mentioned that miscreants had set fire to the temple neighbourhood in Farabari, Thakurgaon. The livestream showed several people attempting to put out the fire.

More recently, a house of a Hindu man named Mohen Chandra was set on fire in the main sub-district of Thakurgaon. During the incident, a young man was apprehended by the locals and handed over to the police. The man, Samiul, aged 20, reportedly hailed from the Darajgaon sub-district.

Jashore

In Manirampur, a Hindu man’s house was attacked and looted, and his son was abducted due to a financial dispute. Manirampur is an Upazila in the Jashore district in Khulna division in southwestern Bangladesh. The district consists of 89.61% Muslims and 10.19% Hindus, according to the 2022 census.

The incident reportedly occurred at Palash Ghosh’s house in Ghoshpara. The attack was led by a Madrasa teacher named Abul Hasan who owed Ghosh 5 lakh Taka. Hasan demanded a ransom of 10 Lakh, looted the house, and took Palash’s son, Piyas Ghosh, as well as a motorcycle. The son was rescued after four hours through the intervention of a local BNP leader. The police were unaware of the incident.

In a video testimony, Palash’s wife can be seen in tears. “They came to our house and looted us. They took our motorcycle, money and even cows. They also abducted my 14-year-old son.” She names Abul Hasan as one f the perpetrators and claims she didn’t know the others. Palash is then heard saying that the mob beat him up and made him sign a blank stamp.

Patuakhali

A Hindu family’s home in Khalishakhali village, the main sub-district of Patuakhali, was attacked and looted on the evening of August 7. Patuakhali is a town and district headquarters of Patuakhali district located on the southern bank of Laukathi River in the division of Barisal in Bangladesh. Patuakhali consists of 86.08% Muslims and 13.82% Hindus.

The incident occurred around 8:30 pm at the residence of Abhilash Talukdar, 36, and his wife Mukta Debnath. The attackers, 10 to 12 people armed with sticks and chapatis, were from the same area and known to the family.

The attack occurred after Abhilash’s father-in-law, Laxman Debnath, a former Union Parishad member, decided to stay with them as he had been feeling unsafe in his own home following political changes in the area. When Mukta opened the door, the group forced their way in, ransacking the house and looting gold jewellery and 30,000 rupees in cash. The attackers demanded more money, and the family paid an additional 50,000 rupees through Abhilash’s relatives to make them leave.

According to Abhilash’s wife’s testimony to ATN News, the mob also asked them to leave the area and not disclose details about the incident to anybody else or they would be killed. They also threatened her with physical violence for raising her voice during the incident. She named one of the accused, Riyaz Molla, in the interview.

In response to this, at a press conference held at the Patuakhali Press Club, district BNP general secretary Snehangshu Sarkar Kutri condemned the attack on the family and demanded strict action for those involved.

Meherpur

Since, August 5, several attacks have been targeted at minorities in Meherpur. Meherpur is the northwestern district of Khulna Division in southwestern Bangladesh. It is bordered by West Bengal to the west, and by the Bangladeshi districts of Kushtia and Chuadanga to the east. Meherpur consists of 97.87% Muslims and 1.20% Hindus according to the 2022 census.

According to a Prothom Alo report, by August 6, nine Hindu homes had been attacked, including one belonging to an Awami League member.

On August 6, Sumohand Mukund Das from ISKCON spoke to Times Now about the vandalism of an ISKCON temple in Meherpur. He revealed that the incident involved not just arson but also bomb detonations by the vandals. Das shared visuals of the temple’s burnt remnants, expressing his fear and helplessness, and highlighted that such incidents are common in Bangladesh, with no justice for the Hindu community. He pleaded for global support, mentioning that there is still no security provided, that he remains in hiding, and cannot go out in public wearing saffron clothing. He also noted that despite repeatedly calling the fire services, no help arrived.

Below are some more visuals after the temple was vandalised. (Pictures from Facebook)

On Tuesday, August 6, it was reportedly discovered that the house of Pallab Bhattacharya, a resident of Hotel Bazar in Meherpur and the district Awami League legal affairs secretary, had been set on fire the previous day. The ground floor of his two-storey house was completely destroyed. At the time of the attack, Bhattacharya was in Japan visiting his daughter and newborn grandson, leaving the house unoccupied. According to witnesses, around 5 pm on August 5, a group of youths attacked Bhattacharya’s house with sticks, rods, and iron pipes. They broke the entrance gate, looted the house, and then set fire to the furniture.

Simultaneously, the attackers targeted another individual named Chitta Saha’s business, looting goods. In another incident, Leena Bhattacharya’s house on Rabindranath Road was also targeted, where four people were beaten up, valuables were stolen, and the house was set on fire. Additionally, six houses in Malopara were vandalized, and family members were beaten up.

Faridpur

A 75-year-old man was brutally beaten up in Naopara village of Bhanga Upazila of Faridpur. Faridpur District is a district in south-central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division. Faridpur consists of 91.49% Muslims and 8.44% Hindus according to the 2022 census.

Amarendra Kumar Ghosh Palan, who was admitted to the Bhanga Upazila Health Complex, stated that he was attacked by six or seven individuals, including his neighbours Babul Miah, Minhaj Miah, and Hasan Miah, due to previous enmity. He sustained injuries to his hands, legs, and other body parts during the assault. The attackers taunted him, questioning whether he could seek police help.

In response to the incident, members of the local minority community have called for immediate punishment for those responsible. Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed strong disapproval and condemnation of the communal violence occurring during the regime change.

“Attacks more Politically Motivated, than Communal”

Speaking to AP, Nahid Islam, one of the student leaders at the forefront of the protests who is now a minister in the interim government, said the violence was more politically motivated than religious.

It is important to note that historically, the Awami League has been seen as pro-Hindu and pro-India.

Alt News also spoke to a Hindu student from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka. He told us that most of the attacks on the Hindus occurred between August 5 and 6. Some of the attacks were due to political reasons, but the others were aimed at civilians — their shops were attacked and houses burnt down. They also looted cattle and goats. In one case, they stole 58 cows. My grandfather had a sweet shop in Pabna, that was also attacked.”

“We got news that there were at least 10 attacks on August 6 itself in the Rangpur division. Even in Panchagarh, many such attacks have taken place. Means of livelihood for many Hindus have been lost. Things have become slightly better of late. But there is still a sense of fear among the Hindus. There were so many attacks in Rangpur that they had to prepare for self-defence. Attackers were caught and handed over to the army. The pressing question on the minds of Hindus now is: How many more nights must we stay awake to protect ourselves?,” he added.

The attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh sparked a flurry of misinformation on the social media space in India. Alt News debunked three videos in which attacks on youth leaders of Awami League in educational institutions were passed off as targeted assault on Hindus. Besides, unrelated and old videos, cases of accidental fire were also peddled as attacks on Hindus.

The post ‘What is our fault?… that we are Hindus?’ Tales of attacks on minorities pour in from Bangladesh appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

The newly elected MP visited Vishalgad on July 16, two days after a rally in favour of an anti-encroachment drive in the Vishalgad Fort area had taken a communal turn and resulted in a riot-like situation. A mob attacked Gajapur, a predominantly Muslim village three kilometres from the Vishalgad fort.

Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree), who has a long history of peddling misinformation and lies on social media, tweeted this picture with the claim mentioned above. “Descendants keep shaming legacies in Maharashtra.” he quipped, referring to the Congress MP. (Archive)

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj descendant Shahu Chhatrapati, Congress MP from Kolhapur holding his ears, seeking an apology from the local minority community for the anti-encroachments drive on historic Vishalghad.

Descendants keep shaming legacies in Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/CeNjJKuLYy

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) July 18, 2024

Right-wing influencer Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_) also posted the viral picture showing Shahu Chhatrapati touching his ears. He captioned it saying that the Congress MP’s act was an ‘insult’ to the legacy of Shivaji Maharaj. At the time of this article being written, the tweet has been deleted. (Archive)

Another X-verified account, with the user name Smita Deshmukh (@smitadeshmukh), shared the viral claim, alleging that the Congress MP had ‘shamed’ Maharashtra as well as the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by resorting to minority appeasement. (Archive)

The descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj have been contesting polls for decades. But here Shahu Chhatrapati, Congress MP from Kolhapur is holding his ears while seeking apology from the local minority community even as the encroachments on historic Vishalghad were brought… pic.twitter.com/yIbXp233R1

— Smita Deshmukh (@smitadeshmukh) July 18, 2024

Several other users on X made the same claim.  

Fact Check 

We ran a reverse image search on the picture which went viral. This led us to a tweet by verified user @Anand_Dasa88, who said that the women seen in the video were complaining to the Congress MP that someone had stolen their earrings, following which Shahu Chhatrapati reacted by touching his own ears.

काँग्रेस खासदार छत्रपती शाहू महाराज आणि सतेज पाटील यांनी विशालगड ला जाऊन समाजकंटकांचा डाव उधळून लावला म्हणून छत्रपतींची या ना त्या कारणाने बदनामी करने चालू आहे.

छत्रपतींनी कान पकडून माफी मागितली असं भाजप IT सेल वाले पसरवत आहेत. पण ती महिला तिच्या कानातले दागिने कोणीतरी ओढून नेले… pic.twitter.com/hjZPTNtMDW

— Adv Anand Dasa (@Anand_Dasa88) July 18, 2024

To confirm this, we ran a relevant keyword search on YouTube and came across this video, uploaded by India Today group’s Marathi news channel, Mumbai Tak. The viral segment, showing Shahu Chhatrapati reacting to the woman’s complaint by touching his ears, can be viewed around the 1:38-minute mark.

Upon listening closely, Alt News ascertained that the woman was narrating to the Congress MP how those who came in the rally had entered another woman’s house and snatched her earrings from her ears. She says “Iske ghar me ghus kar iske kaan me se iska nikal liye…”. (“They entered her house, and then snatched away (her earrings) from her ears.) After this, Shahu Chhatrapati can be seen touching his own ears and communicating it to someone next to him.

The description of the video says it was shot in the Gajapur village. This is the place where locals had been attacked by a mob leading to arson and stone-pelting on July 14, as mentioned earlier.

To conclude, a false claim is being circulated on social media alleging that the Congress MP from Kolhapur, Shahu Chhatrapati, apologized to the minorities in Vishalgad area by touching his ears for an anti-encroachment drive. The whole apology story is a figment of imagination. The MP touched his ears when a woman complained to him how during the violence two days earlier, some people snatched the earrings worn by a woman.

Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.

The post Cong MP Shahu Chhatrapati did not apologize to minorities at Vishalgad; video falsely shared by RW handles appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

In the clip, Rahul Gandhi is purportedly heard saying, “Desh ke X-Ray kar denge, doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega. Minorities ko pata lag jayega ki desh mein unki bhaagidari kitni hai. Iske baad hum financial aur institutional survey karenge, yeh pata lagayenge ki kiske haaton mein hai, kaunse varg ke haat mein hai. Aur is aitihasik kadam ke baad hum krantikaari kaam shuru karenge..(Translation: We will X-ray the country, everything will be crystal clear. Minorities will know their true representation in the country. After this, we will conduct financial and institutional surveys to determine who holds what, and which class has control. After this historic step, we will start transformative work…)

BJP MP Giriraj Singh tweeted the video and remarked that Rahul Gandhi was openly talking about ‘snatching away’ the rights and property of the Hindus.

ये सज्जन खुलेआम हिंदुओं के अधिकार और संपत्ति छीनने की बात कर रहे हैं।
यह बहुत डरावनी मानसिकता है। pic.twitter.com/Ds1mQQzUdc

— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (मोदी का परिवार) (@girirajsinghbjp) April 23, 2024

Right Wing troll Ajeet Bharti also made a similar claim while tweeting the 42-second video and sarcastically asked, “How can someone be so stupid?”

इसे नरेन्द्र मोदी का वीडियो नहीं मिला क्या? कोई इतना मूर्ख कैसे हो सकता है? pic.twitter.com/F8JCEHROvk

— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) April 23, 2024

Verified user Arun Pudur  also tweeted the viral clip with the same claim that Rahul Gandhi had promised favours to minorities, insinuating Muslims.

Don’t Miss This Bone Chilling Video

We will do a nationwide”X-Ray”, we will then know how much is owed to ‘Minorities’.

Then we will do ‘Survey’ of Individuals Financials and Institutions.

We will find who has the ‘Wealth’ and to which Caste they belong.

After all this… pic.twitter.com/wUr1FDjk7k

— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) April 23, 2024

The same video was amplified by Right Wing influencer Rishi Bagree as well.

Step 1 – Do a nationwide”X-Ray”
Step 2- Analyse how much is owed to ‘Minorities’
Step 3 – Do ‘Survey’ of Individuals
Step 4 – Find who has the ‘Wealth’
Step 5 – Analyse their caste
Step 6 – Do Re-distribution of wealth

Every Vote to Congress is signing your own death warrant pic.twitter.com/aOitCpa5MY

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) April 23, 2024

‘Journalist’ Abhijit Majumder shared the clip and remarked that Gandhi wasn’t ‘hiding his Hinduphobia and Marxist-Islamist ideas anymore’ and further claimed that he delivered and openly communal speech.

“Desh ka X-Ray kar dengey. Minorities ko pata chal jayega unki bhagidari kitni hai.”
~ Rahul Gandhi is not hiding his Hinduphobia and Marxist-Islamist ideas anymore.
Just listen to this openly communal speech.#WealthRedistributionPlan pic.twitter.com/FGsLY8yXZN

— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) April 23, 2024

Fact Check

Upon a reverse image search on a key frame from the viral video, we found that the viral clip had been taken from the event of the Congress Manifesto launch in Hyderabad. We located the viral bit at the 31:54 minute mark and found that the video had been edited. Rahul Gandhi had actually spoken about the representation of Dalits, Tribals, OBCs, and poor people while also mentioning minority communities. Only the part where he mentions ‘minorities’ has been kept in the viral clip. Below is a translation of what Gandhi said:

“We will X-ray the country, everything will be crystal clear. The Backward Classes, Dalits, tribals, poor general caste people and minorities will know how much their share in this country is. After this, we will conduct a financial and institutional survey to determine who holds what, and which class has control. After this historic step, we will start transformative work, we will work to give you what is your right.”

The words in bold in the above statement have been edited out in the viral video.

Thus, it is clear that Rahul Gandhi didn’t exclusively mention the minority community when he discussed conducting surveys and ensuring rights. His remarks encompassed backward classes, Dalits, tribals, economically disadvantaged general caste individuals, as well as minorities. However, the video of his statement was edited and manipulated, removing references to other classes and leaving only the mention of minorities.

The post Rahul Gandhi did not talk about rights of minorities exclusively; video of his speech shared by Right Wing is edited appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Knowing that they would accuse him of illegally farming on protected land and possibly arrest him, Sok ran away, but the rangers burned all his sacks of rice and his family lost half their annual supply as a result. They had been farming on that land since the 1990s.

"I'm still scared. And I did not go to the farm again,” Sok told RFA. “I have only that place to farm but after what had happened that day, I do not dare to do it.”

 An ethnic minority Chong farmer whose name has been changed for security reasons, Sok is one of hundreds of indigenous people living in eleven communities near or inside the Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project, run jointly by Cambodia’s Environment Ministry and New York-based nonprofit conservation organization Wildlife Alliance.

The project has protected nearly half a million hectares of forest across southwestern Cambodia, generating at least $18 million in carbon credits purchased by major companies looking to offset their emissions such as Delta Airlines, German pharmaceutical giant Bayer and consulting firm McKinsey.

Some Chong leaders say, however, that the flagship conservation project has prevented them from accessing their traditional lands and harmed their livelihoods, and that they have lacked autonomy and input on how the resources are used.

Tasked with protecting the area from deforestation for the sake of selling carbon credits, Wildlife Alliance rangers carry out patrols to go after poachers and loggers.

But the heavy-handed tactics have impacted ordinary villagers as well, resulting in forced evictions, arbitrary arrests and crop and property destruction, according to a newly released report from New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In all, some eight Chong villages comprising hundreds of residents were unknowingly incorporated into a national park — drastically reducing their ability to survive off of their indigenous lands. After launching nine years ago without their prior consent, the conservation project still lacks a benefit sharing agreement to outline how revenue generated from these communities’ forests is distributed.

In a public letter shared in January, Wildlife Alliance founder and CEO Suwanna Gauntlett said her NGO had “nothing to hide” and that HRW had not taken a “comprehensive view of the project’s full impacts.”

“HRW presents a fundamentally misleading and distorted picture of the project,” Gauntlett told RFA in an emailed statement.

Cambodia’s Environment Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Residents maintain they have been restricted from engaging in their traditional farming practices and limited in their ability to harvest resin, farm rice and cut trees for everyday use such as building fences or homes.

“It scares us, we want to farm, we want to plant, we want to grow crops for the family's livelihood, but we cannot do it,” a Chong community representative told RFA. “We’re stuck living in fear.”

Lack of prior consent

Living amid the foothills of the Cardamom mountains, the Chong are one of an estimated 24 ethnic minority indigenous groups, many with their own languages, representing less than 3% of Cambodia’s population.

Like other Cambodian indigenous communities, Chong culture is intertwined with the surrounding natural environment. These communities rely on shifting cultivation by rotating their farmlands and letting some plots grow fallow for several years at a time, allowing the soil to recover but also leaving their traditional lands more vulnerable to land-grabbing, including from the Cambodian government.

The Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project launched in 2015, but it was not until August 2017 that consultations with the 11 Chong communities living inside or near the project began. Eight of the communities were folded into the Southern Cardamom National Park before their customary lands had even been officially mapped, though the project acknowledged in documents that the Chong “have lived in the area for centuries.” Farming is prohibited inside national parks without government approval.

The Human Rights Watch report alleges that the REDD+ project violated indigenous Chong peoples’ rights, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent, under international standards and Cambodian laws as well as the policies set by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Verra, which is responsible for certifying more than three-quarters of all carbon credits.

When an auditor pointed out Chong communities had not provided prior consent as required for Verra certification, Wildlife Alliance and Ministry of Environment representatives responded that “we assume that as the communities [in the Project Zone] have no land rights to or within the Project Area, their participation in the REDD+ Project is entirely voluntary.”

Even though formal consultations with Chong communities began 31 months after the project’s start date on Jan. 1, 2015, Verra still found the project in compliance with its Voluntary Carbon and Climate, Community & Biodiversity standards, bolstering the value of the project’s carbon credits by certifying them as supporting indigenous peoples’ rights.

“This is a clear failure of oversight systems, because ultimately, it is Verra who makes the decision about whether to grant accreditation to the project and whether to maintain the project's accreditation,” said Luciana Téllez Chávez, a senior environment researcher at HRW who spent two years investigating the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project.

After receiving HRW’s preliminary findings last year, Verra suspended the project in June from issuing further carbon credits and opened its own review. In a statement to RFA, a Verra spokesperson said their investigation was ongoing and its scope had been extended this month.

No contracts, few benefits

While the project has generated more than $18 million, residents in Chumnoab village say the most visible benefit is the drinking well along the red dirt road passing through the center of the community. (Wildlife Alliance said it installed a total of 22 wells and 74 toilets across 29 villages in the project, as well as roads and one school and health center.)

As of late 2021, $6 million had been spent on the project following earnings of more than $18 million from carbon credit sales, project documents reviewed by HRW show. There is no legal contract with Chong communities to determine how revenue will be shared and used, HRW reported.

Wildlife Alliance said in its January statement that its Southern Cardamom community development and livelihood programs received more than $2 million from carbon credit revenues last year, supporting 419 permanent jobs and 5,000 jobs indirectly.

This part of the Southern Cardamoms, which is also known as the Areng Valley, remains a popular eco-tourism spot, and some Chong community members have been able to develop homestays to host paying visitors. Buddhist monks and environmental activists wrap saffron cloth around trees on the dirt paths leading into the forest as a symbol of protection. In her email to RFA, Wildlife Alliance founder Gauntlett said indigenous residents of the area had earned more than $1 million from ecotourism.

But many Chong community members remained uncertain about what exactly the REDD+ project has done besides engage in strict patrols and were unclear how it benefited them, HRW reported.

In one commune in 2018, fewer than 10% of residents expressed approval for the project and auditors reported villagers “walked out to show disapproval for the project.”

Last year, Wildlife Alliance held a series of meetings with all eleven Chong communities and reported that 98% of participants wanted the project to continue. However, less than one-fifth of the villages’ population participated in these meetings, the HRW report found.

One Chong leader confirmed there is no legal benefit-sharing agreement with the communities and said the villages wanted greater input into how the REDD+ funds were used, including to support community-led patrolling efforts.

“We want a budget to support welfare, such as for protecting the forest and supporting pregnant women,” he said in late February. “We are not against REDD+, but they must agree with our conditions and include and inform us in the decision-making process.”

The project also may have vastly over-calculated its carbon emission reductions, selling more than twice as many carbon credits as it should have between 2015 and 2021, analysis from carbon credit research firm Renoster found.

Gauntlett, Wildlife Alliance’s founder, told RFA that Renoster’s findings are “flawed” because the firm’s analysis relied on what she described as a faulty data set from Global Forest Watch and narrow methodology. She said in an emailed statement that the REDD+ project is “at higher risk than it appears” given the government’s history of awarding economic land concessions for industrial agriculture inside protected forests – justifying the amount of carbon credits her project issued.

Cambodia has lost more than a quarter of its forest cover since 2000. Wildlife Alliance said that its patrolling has kept the Cardamom forests “effectively defended against constant threats,” noting ranger patrols had seized “over 9,000 illegal chainsaws and 864 guns.” 

Wildlife Alliance advisers lead patrol teams that include Environment Ministry rangers and military police and are tasked with carrying out arrests or destroying crops and burning structures – including residential homes – when they are found in what the organization considers to be conservation zones.

But the HRW report and villager testimony reveal an organization making little effort to distinguish between communities’ livelihoods and genuine threats to the forest.

One Chong commune counselor in the Areng Valley said they supported the aims of the REDD+ project to protect the forest and provide benefits but believed ranger patrols had treated the communities harshly.

“Sometimes, what they do is beyond the law,” the official said. “When they enter people’s homes or destroy the charcoal kiln or take away the equipment or property of the owner, that is a problem. I know they intend to protect [the forest], but they need to know the limits of protection.”

Cambodian authorities have pledged to crack down on charcoal burning in recent years and in 2021 Wildlife Alliance posted a video on Facebook of its rangers smashing charcoal kilns in the Cardamom mountains.

“Charcoal production drives deforestation: kilns are fed with wood to make charcoal,” Wildlife Alliance wrote in an accompanying post.

A Chong villager in Areng Valley told RFA that in 2022 rangers demolished a small charcoal kiln that sat next to her family’s house. The kiln was no offshoot of an industrial-scale logging operation, but a small business that allowed the village to prepare firewood for the long rainy months. After seeing smoke, Wildlife Alliance rangers arrived without warning to destroy the kiln, the villager said.

“Now when it rains, it is wet and the wood is wet, it is difficult for us to get firewood for cooking food,” she said.

Wildlife Alliance carried out its own surveys of Chong villages in Chumnoab and Pralay communes, classifying more than 1,000 hectares as “abandoned” fields and excluding them from being considered as community land. Chong leaders told HRW they had never been consulted on decisions to classify swaths of farmland as “abandoned.”

"When making the map, they did not think about the people's farmland… [as a result] when the map was made it overlaps our farmland, so we keep raising this issue,” said Sok, the Chumnoab villager whose rice harvest was destroyed by rangers.

Once the land was classified as abandoned, Wildlife Alliance could legally justify going after Chong practicing traditional shifting cultivation, as they did with Sok.

Wildlife Alliance says it installed around 1,200 demarcation posts between 2015 and 2021 to distinguish boundaries. A map is posted at Chumnoab village but community members maintain it offers little clarity.

Chumnoab villagers say they go to farm in groups now, because they never know when ranger patrols will try to arrest them, claiming that they are trespassing on protected areas.

“People still do rotational farming but there are still problems, so sometimes they have to do it secretly,” the commune counselor told RFA. “If Wildlife Alliance catches them they will get removed and threatened by them. Sometimes we hear the sound of gunfire, but they do not shoot people, just shoot [in the air]. And there are confrontations, people are arrested."

Fears over unclear zoning

Almost a decade after launch, the project still has not completed mapping of community lands or issued land titles granting ownership to communities’ farmlands and sacred sites, while the government has yet to even recognize some of the Chong communities as legally indigenous, HRW found.

When Chong communities pushed for land ownership, Wildlife Alliance undermined these efforts or else failed to acknowledge long standing customary land tenure claims, HRW’s report found.

In Thmor Donpove commune, comprising two Chong villages, Wildlife Alliance tried to block 1,851 hectares from being titled for villagers, claiming the land was forest land. A government investigation into the NGO’s complaint found more than one-third of this land was farmland – yet most of these plots ultimately remained classified as protected area, according to HRW’s report.

In March 2021, Cambodian authorities engaged in another land titling effort around Koh Kong province known as Sub-decree 30, which removed much of Areng Valley from protected area status and granted legal recognition of Chong communities’ land use.

While this should have meant Wildlife Alliance and the Environment Ministry ranger teams no longer had jurisdiction, HRW found rangers still operated as if they were patrolling a protected area. Chong villagers were forced off their farmland, which the government had legally recognized as community land. Wildlife Alliance told HRW that it had reached an agreement with provincial authorities to continue patrolling these areas.

In June 2023, Wildlife Alliance shared a map with HRW for Chumnoab and two other communes in the Areng Valley that criminalized farming on more than 4,300 hectares previously designated as community land by Sub-decree 30, according to another contradictory map for the same area Wildlife Alliance had recently provided HRW.

Chong community members had repeatedly raised to auditors working on behalf of Verra the problems caused by these unclear boundaries, but HRW noted that Wildlife Alliance and the Environment Ministry responded by claiming these complaints came from people engaging in illegal activities, leading the auditors to resolve the concern.

HRW’s Téllez Chávez said the auditors’ willingness to accept the project implementers’ claims appeared to not take into consideration the Chong communities’ lack of land rights.

“If you [the auditor] just take this answer for granted, then you failed at your duty to actually try to establish the facts of the situation,” she said.

Calls for remediation

Chong community representatives said that since the HRW investigation became public last year things have been less tense but communities are “still afraid.”

As of January, authorities are now measuring the land for individual land titling but this is still not including all the community land, the Chong community leader said.

Authorities have continued suppressing Chong communities’ efforts to secure communal land titles, which would better protect shifting cultivation rights and sacred cultural sites, said one Chong leader. Top level national government officials told Chong community leaders last year to resolve the issues with local authorities, who have since refused to meet with them.

Wildlife Alliance recently agreed to provide technical and financial support for indigenous communal land titling, and to support an indigenous community patrol team. The NGO has also committed to developing a human rights policy and providing human rights training to its staff and government rangers, in response to HRW’s recommendations.

“While the commitments that Wildlife Alliance made are positive, they fall short of recognizing that any human rights violations took place and that people who were harmed are entitled to comprehensive remediation,” Téllez Chávez said. “And that's very important to ensure that these things don't happen again.”

Edited by Abby Seiff and Jim Snyder.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Charles Kern for RFA Investigative.

Boat People SOS (BPSOS) is a U.S.-based organization focusing mainly on human rights issues faced by ethnic minorities in Vietnam.

Vietnam joined the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1982. The U.N. holds periodic reviews to assess the performance of signatory nations.

Vietnam has joined seven out of nine U.N. human rights conventions.

This month, Vietnam and other member countries will have to tell the U.N. what steps they have taken to eliminate ethnic discrimination. The U.N. will also allow civil society organizations to present their own testimony. 

“The reason why BPSOS participates in United Nations reviews is to create an environment and forum for the people in the country to make the state accountable,” the group’s executive director Nguyen Dinh Thang told Radio Free Asia.

“In Vietnam today, the state has not fulfilled their responsibility because they look down on the people,

“When people know how to make reports, they can approach the United Nations directly or through intermediaries.

“They can raise issues with the Vietnamese state and the state must answer to the people through specialized committees on human rights.”

Nguyen Dinh Thang said his organization plans to denounce the Vietnamese government for implementing religious, economic, and cultural repression policies targeting ethnic groups and minorities such as the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, the H’mong in the north, and the Khmer Krom in the south of Vietnam.

“We have had many reports on human rights violations in general, and in fact, the indigenous ethnic groups are the most severely affected, including the Montagnards, the H’mong, and the Khmer Krom,” he said.

“The Vietnamese side never reports these things, but the United Nations has received hundreds of reports of violations, coming directly from people, most of whom come from the indigenous communities I just mentioned.”

Vietnamese state media regularly write about the alleged “illegal religious activities” of ethnic minorities. Minority groups have accused the police of targeting and repressing them.

Undocumented, ignored

Vang Seo Gia is a H’mong man who was born in northern Vietnam. When he was eight, his family had to flee to the Central Highlands due to religious persecution and eventually sought asylum in Thailand.

“We have a list of about five thousand to seven thousand H'mong people living in the Central Highlands,” he told RFA Vietnamese. 

“They do not have any identification documents.

“Everyone knows the consequences of living for more than twenty years, nearly two generations, without papers … They do not have any civil rights. 

“Without identification documents, you cannot access education [or] find a job in urban areas, because if you do not have documents, no one will know who you are or dare to accept you.

“They live as forest people in such areas. Then they give birth to children who cannot go to school and do not enjoy any social benefits.”

Vng Seo Gia chose to take a Vietnamese name and avoid using his real H'mong name, to avoid being recognized and discriminated against because of his ethnic origin. 

Loss of language is also an issue of concern for ethnic minorities according to Y Quynh Bdăp, an Ede person from Dak Lak province, currently a refugee in Thailand.

“We Montagnards have our own language and in the Central Highlands, the Ede language has been used since the French period … but currently there are no schools for the Montagnards. As a result, many Montagnards now cannot speak Ede,” he said.

Montagnards in the Central Highlands have also lost land to urban and farm projects causing conflict between the state and indigenous communities.

In June this year, nine people were killed in an attack on two commune committee headquarters in Dak Lak province. The government has prosecuted 92 people for allegedly being involved in the incident, all of whom are members of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The post Who Will Protect France’s Ethnic Minorities From the Police? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Philippe Marliere.

The impending arrival of Kelly-Jean Keen-Minshull — aka Posie Parker — has put the spotlight on the tension between free speech and protecting vulnerable communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

In particular, it raises questions about Immigration New Zealand’s role in limiting who can visit and speak in the country.

Keen-Minshull is an anti-transgender rights activist and founder of a group called Standing for Women. On the back of a controversial Australian tour, she is planning to speak at a series of events across Aotearoa at the end of March.

• READ MORE: Being transgender is not a mental illness, and the WHO should acknowledge this
• Polarising, sensational media coverage of transgender athletes should end — our research shows a way forward
• Trans rights and political backlash: five key moments in history

But Immigration New Zealand is now reviewing her status after about 30 members of the far-right Nationalist Socialist Movement supported her rally in Melbourne, clashing with LGBTQI supporters.

The Melbourne police were also criticised by legal observers, accused of protecting and supporting the neo-Nazis while focusing “excessive violence” on the LGBTQI supporters.

Meanwhile, National Party leader Chris Luxon has said Keen-Minshull should be allowed into New Zealand on the grounds of free speech. He argued there should be a “high bar” to stop someone entering the country because of what they say.

At the same time, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has said he condemned people who used their right to free speech in a way that deliberately sought to create division. Therein lies the core of the debate.

Members of a neo-Nazi group made Nazi salutes on Saturday on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia, during a protest against transgender rights. Political leaders said they would move to ban Nazi salutes in the state of Victoria.https://t.co/0CHFICjr93

— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 20, 2023

Threat to public order
Keen-Minshull has allegedly had ties to white supremacist organisations, featuring in videos with Jean-François Gariépy, a prominent far-right YouTuber, and posting a selfie with Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen, a Norwegian neo-Nazi known for Holocaust denial.

Keen-Minshull has also tweeted racist diatribes against Muslims.

The key question is whether the threat of unrest seen at Keen-Minshull’s events poses sufficient risk to public order to justify revoking her visa. It turns out there is a precedent for blocking entry to controversial figures.

In 2014, hip hop collective Odd Future was prevented from entering New Zealand on the grounds they and their audience had been implicated in violence against police and directing harassment towards opponents.

In one instance, members of Odd Future reportedly urged fans to attack police, leaving one officer hospitalised.

Odd Future member Tyler the Creator also unleashed a tirade against an activist who tried to have his Australian concert cancelled. Both instances were offered as reasons to prevent the collective from entering New Zealand.

Character judgements
The Immigration Act stipulates that individuals who are likely to be “a threat or risk” to security, public order or the public interest should not be eligible for a visa or entry permission.

In the past, good character requirements outlined by the act, including criminal background or deportation from other countries, have been used as a reason to block controversial speakers from entering New Zealand.

For example, Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church was denied entry to New Zealand after being deported from other countries.

Anderson has been known to promote Holocaust denial and has confirmed he believes in “hating homosexuals”.

On the flip side, alt-right speakers Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern were granted entry visas in 2018 after meeting character requirements, despite calls for the pair to be banned from entering New Zealand.

Potential harm
Arguably, Keen-Minshull should not be granted entry under the banner of free speech. Rallies like those recently held in Australia do appear to cause concrete harm.

Research after the Christchurch Call, a political summit initiated by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern in 2019 after the Christchurch massacre, found expanding extremist communities increased the risk of physical attacks in the future.

According to the 2018 Counting Ourselves survey, some 71 percent of trans people reported experiencing high or very high rates of mental distress, and 44 percent experienced harassment during the 2018 survey period.

Research shows that trans people experience “minority stress” — high levels of chronic stress faced by socially marginalised groups, caused by poor social support, low socioeconomic status and prejudice.

A key part of “minority stress” is linked to anticipating and attempting to avoid discrimination.

Being consistent
Beyond the question of free speech, Immigration New Zealand needs to be consistent in its application of the law. In the case of Odd Future, an Immigration official admitted it was unusual to ban musical acts:

Generally it’s aimed at organisations like white supremacists and neo-Nazis, people who have come in here to be public speakers, holocaust deniers – those kinds of people.

However, Immigration stood by its decision based on the lead singer’s incitement of violence against police and harassment of an activist. Considering the ruling on Odd Future as a risk to public order, it would surely be inconsistent to allow Keen-Minshull entry.

In 2018, she was spoken to by UK police for making videos criticising the chief executive of transgender charity Mermaids. And, in 2019, Keen-Minshull recorded herself in Washington DC confronting trans advocate Sarah McBride after breaking into a private meeting.

Encouraging the far-right?
In the post-covid era, New Zealand has already seen a more visible far-right anti-LGBTQI movement. There has been a rise in harassment and attacks against LGBTQI communities across the country, including the arson of the Tauranga Rainbow Youth and Gender Dynamix building.

We need to listen to those targeted by hate groups — it is their safety that is at risk from speakers who deny their existence and humanity.

The line between free speech and causing harm is complicated to draw. But this case seems clear cut. Whether you agree or disagree with the 2014 decision to bar Odd Future entry to New Zealand, the precedent has been set for visitors who pose a threat to public order.

Kevin Veale, Lecturer in Media Studies, part of the Digital Cultures Laboratory in the School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication, Massey University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Jantar Mantar, the venue of the twin events, is situated on Parliament Street at the heart of the national capital and is a stone’s throw from the Supreme Court and the Central Secretariat.

Hate speech at ‘Sanatan Dharma Sansad’

According to reports, a large number of religious leaders, sadhus, and members of Hindutva organizations demanded Z+ security for Dhirendra Shastri. The also demanded that the Ramcharitmanas be declared the national book and the cow be declared the national animal of the ‘Hindu nation’, India. Mahamandaleshwar Hari Singh, who spoke in support of Dhirendra Shastri, boasted that at 83 years of age, he had already killed 80 people. He also said that he would die only after killing 100 people. Singh brazenly urged the crowd to kill Muslims and Christians and keep weapons in their homes.

“मैं 83 साल का हूं, 80 लोगों को मार चुका हूं। शतक करके मरूंगा।”
ईसाइयों को कब मारोगे,मुसलमानों को कब मारोगे पूछने के बाद इन ‘संत’ ने अपनी अचीवमेंट भी बताई।
धर्म संसद की आड़ में आपराधिक चरित्र वालों का नर्तन हुआ।
Report By – @neeraj_jhaa#HateSpeech (https://t.co/qL9GJjdfCe) pic.twitter.com/3IpOfieBJ5

— Molitics (@moliticsindia) February 6, 2023

“Christians said divide and rule, Muslims said slay and rule…When will you (Hindus) slay and kill? After all of you die? When will you kill them? When will you kill Muslims and Christians? What will you kill them with? Those small knives used to cut vegetables? They are no good. You must keep weapons!”

Replying to journalist Neeraj Jha in the same video, Singh states, “We speak of love. For us, the whole world is one.” Jha responds, “But you are talking about shooting?” Then, the ‘sage’ says, “Absolutely, they should be shot. Anyone who insults our religion, daughters-in-law, daughters, cow and scriptures, or destroys our temples must be killed. They should not be spared.”

In another clip, Singh says, “Any Hindu unwilling to protect our Hindu culture cannot be called a Hindu. Anyone who damages or harms our culture – including our temples, daughters-in-law, daughters, horses, saints, Vedas, scriptures, or Puranas – should be hanged. Hanging (through legal process) will take time, they should instead be hanged in public and shot at.” This comes as the crowd can be heard chanting ‘Jai Sri Ram’.

“Be it Swami Prasad Maurya, Bihar’s education minister, or Akhilesh, expel all these anti-nationals from the nation and shoot them at the border.”

He added, “Those who cut a cow and eat it will do the same to you. 36 crore gods reside in the cow and before sunrise 1.5 lakh cows are slaughtered by these unrighteous Christians and Muslims. They eat the cow, which we consider sacred, in which all our deities reside. It is the backbone of the economy.”

BJP Haryana’s chief media coordinator and Karni Sena president Surajpal Amu addressed the Dharma Sansad. He said, “India was, is and will remain a Hindu rashtra (nation). Those who do not believe so should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh.”

Responding to Amu’s claim that India always being a Hindu rashtra, journalist Neeraj Jha states that the constitution does not say India is a Hindu rashtra. He then remarks, “Understand what the constitution says. According to me it was a Hindu rashtra, and it is a Hindu nation. If the Mughals and British left, that makes this a Hindu nation only.”

Hate speech at the Hindu Aakrosh Rally

On February 5, Sudarshan News aired a two-hour broadcast covering the rally held in support of its editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke. During this, BJP leader Surajpal Amu asked the crowd, “If someone lays a hand on Suresh Chavhanke, will you spare them? If someone teases Suresh Chavhanke, will you spare them? If someone prevents us from creating a Hindu nation, will you let them? Will you support him or not? Suresh Chavhanke is not alone. 125 crore Hindus from all of India are standing with him. He is not a carrot or radish which can be easily uprooted and consumed. If someone tries to stop Suresh Chavhanke, we will continue to support him… I’m requesting you all. We are not asking for anything. We are simply demanding that the traitors who benefit from India yet sing praises of Pakistan be thrown out of the country.”

This portion of the speech can be heard from the 25-minute mark onward in the video below.

At the 40-minute mark, Karan Ji Maharaj can be heard saying to Gauraksh Beej, “We will rip out the hand of anyone who tries to lay a hand on Chavhanke ji. There is no need to be afraid of those who are Muslims. Let me tell you the meaning of ‘Musalman’, the one who will learn (man) only after being beaten by a flail (musal). A jihadi does ‘love jihad’ with our sister and daughter. And that society remains silent, saying that they sacrificed their daughter. What did you sacrifice? Just go to that Jihadi’s house and finish off his family. Others would think twice before doing this in the future. Let’s go to their house and show them the consequences for misleading a Hindu’s daughter in this way. We will have to decide what happens. Going to the courts will not yield anything. We need to come forward and decide the course of action.”

Devasena national president Brijbhushan Saini remarked, “The time has come to make India a Hindu nation again. In 1947, this country was partitioned on the basis of religion. The Muslims got Pakistan and Bangladesh, but the Hindus got a secular nation. The politicians of that time betrayed us, the Hindus. India should have been declared a Hindu nation at that time only, but this did not happen. Therefore, it is now our duty to work together and do our part to make India a Hindu nation.”

It is worth noting that a hate speech case against Suresh Chavhanke has been going on since 2021. This speech was delivered in a program organized by the Hindu Yuva Vahini under the leadership of Suresh Chavhanke in December 2021. Recently, a division bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha asked the investigating officers to submit a progress report on the matter within two weeks. Following this, Chavhanke sought the support of members of Hindu outfits. On February 5, hate speech was once again rampant among the crowd gathered at Jantar Mantar.

How did crowds gather at Jantar Mantar?

On February 4, the Bageshwar Dham Twitter handle shared a poster which read, “Reach Jantar Mantar in support of Bageshwar Dham Maharaj.” This event was named the ‘Sanatan Dharma Sansad’. It was to be held on Sunday, February 5 at 10 AM. 

सनातन के समर्थन में… pic.twitter.com/wZXHRttZsJ

— Bageshwar Dham Sarkar (Official) (@bageshwardham) February 4, 2023

The program was organized by Pradeep Khatkar from the Balaji Dham Shishya Mandal, Delhi. We tried to contact him on the number given on the poster, but did not receive any response. 

Chavhanke also shared a poster on February 3, calling for his followers to gather in maximum numbers at Jantar Mantar on February 5 at 11 am.

In other words, the crowd present at the events were invited by Dhirendra Shastri and Suresh Chavhanke.

Ironically, Delhi Police did not take any action against those who delivered inflammatory speeches, but issued a notice to the channel ‘Molitics’ which reported on it. 

Replying to a tweet by Molitics, the cops posted the image of the notice, which reads, “It has been observed that you are using social media to post objectionable, malicious and inflammatory posts. This notice has been issued by the Cyber Police Station, Delhi Police under Section 149 for posting offensive, malicious and promotional messages disturbing law and order. You are hereby directed to refrain from doing so, failing which you will be liable for strict penal action under the relevant provisions of law.”

दिल्ली जंतर मंतर पर मुसलमान और ईसाइयों को गोली मारने का एलान क्यों ?@neeraj_jhaa के साथ देखिए क्या देश में अब संविधान का कोई अर्थ नहीं : https://t.co/S3E6dJQVu2
( पूरा वीडियो जरूर देखें )

स्पेस लिंक : https://t.co/eflOg6l0YK pic.twitter.com/DhwZUc6BH8

— Molitics (@moliticsindia) February 5, 2023

Molitics also replied to the notice issued by Delhi Police. The outlet wrote, “It is good to know that Delhi Police is also against hate speech. But it is sad that instead of taking action against those delivering the hate speech, the Delhi Police is sending notices to our organization.”

दिल्ली पुलिस द्वारा हमें भेजे गए नोटिस पर हमारा आधिकारिक बयान#MoliticsReports : pic.twitter.com/SP9xnfnkO8

— Molitics (@moliticsindia) February 6, 2023

We tried to reach out to the Delhi Police on this matter, but to no avail. However, inspector Vijay Pal Singh who issued the notice, told Newslaundry, “Yes, I issued the notice but I cannot reveal anything about it. I am not allowed to speak on this matter.”

This is not the first time dharm sansads have been used to promote violence against minorities. In 2021, at an event in Jantar Mantar organized by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, open calls were made for genocide against Muslims. In December 2021, in a ‘Dharma Sansad’ organized by Yeti Narasimhanand Saraswati in Uttarakhand contained discussions of killing Muslims. Recently, Alt News published a report covering how T Raja and other BJP leaders also called for violence against Muslims during a demonstration titled the ‘Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morcha’.

The post ‘When will you kill Muslims & Christians?’: At Jantar Mantar, Hindutva leaders call for massacre of minorities appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Priyanka Jha.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Delphin Rukumbuzi Ntanyoma, Thomas Shacklock.

The rate of women who die while giving birth and newborns is pervasive among ethnic citizens who live in rural areas where medical care is scarce, especially in Sekong, Borikhamxay and Luang Prabang provinces, they said. 

The country had an infant mortality rate of 35 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020, a decline from 52 deaths per 1,000 live births reported a decade earlier, according to data from The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF.

The country’s maternal mortality ratio — the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births — stood at 185 as of 2017, the latest year for which data is available from UNICEF. This figure has also seen a steady drop from 360 deaths per 100,000 live births a decade ago, and 544 in 2000.

Poverty is widespread in Laos, and is especially severe for children from the dozens of ethnic minority groups who live in rural areas, where most families depend on agriculture to make a living and lack access to basic services, including health care, sanitation and food, according to Save The Children. 

As a result, Laos has one of the highest child mortality rates in Southeast Asia, with one child in 22 dying before their fifth birthday — seven times the child mortality rate in the United States, the NGO says.

In the last nine months, five pregnant women died while giving birth, and there were nine infant deaths per 1,000 births, mostly ethnic minority children, in Lanam district, Sekong Province, said a health official there who declined to be identified so as to speak freely.

Pregnant women in the district continue to work long hours in the fields, making them prone to death when it comes time to give birth, she said. Some of the deaths occurred when the women gave birth alone in their huts next to the family rice fields. Others occurred because the women were malnourished.

“Pregnant women work harder than men every day in the fields without rest, and some work requires carrying heavy loads,” the health official said. “Health care workers advise them not to do it, but they still do. [Yet], we try to ask the families not to let pregnant women work in the fields.”

The infant deaths were due to birth defects, from babies not fully developing in their mothers’ wombs and from premature births, sometimes at seven months into the pregnancy, she said. 

“Some were not strong enough when they were born, and they couldn’t drink milk when their mothers breastfed them,” she said.

The high mortality rates for pregnant women and infants mean that Sekong province will not achieve the government’s target of reducing the death rates to zero, said the health official. 

In Borikhamxay district of Borikhamxay province, there were about three infant deaths per 1,000 newborns and one death of a pregnant woman while giving birth in the past nine months, said a health official from the district. 

“The infant deaths were due to premature births, and the woman died after giving birth at a hospital because she worked too hard in the fields while pregnant,” the official said.

In Phonthong district of Luang Prabang province, one ethnic Hmong woman died while giving birth and two infants passed away since the beginning of the year until October, said a district health official. 

“This is the first case that a pregnant woman has died while giving birth, and it is very sad that she arrived at the hospital too late,” the official said. “We used to advise them [pregnant women] to come early, but they didn’t do it because they live in remote areas.”

The provincial Health Department’s target is to get the death rate down to zero, but “we are short of the target,” said the official.

About 70 percent of the population in Luang Prabang province comes from ethnic minority groups, many of whom live in remote mountainous areas without access to local health services or trained midwives, according to Save The Children. 

Families in these communities are less aware of what pregnant women, newborns and young children need to stay healthy and grow well, says the NGO, which equips remote health centers with essential medical equipment and supports mobile health clinics so they can reach isolated communities.

Save the Children also raises awareness about how pregnant mothers and babies can stay healthy through nutrition, better sanitation and regular health checks.  

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

As protests in Iran drag on into their fourth week over the violent death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, there are two central questions.

The first is whether these protests involving women and girls across Iran are different from upheavals in the past, or will simply end the same way with the regime stifling a popular uprising.

The second question is what can, and should, the outside world do about extraordinarily brave demonstrations against an ageing and ruthless regime that has shown itself to be unwilling, and possibly unable, to allow greater freedoms?

• READ MORE: The Iran nuclear talks are resuming, but is there any trust left to strike a deal?
• 3 ways these latest Iran demonstrations are different to past protests

The symbolic issue for Iran’s protest movement is a requirement, imposed by morality police, that women and girls wear the hijab, or headscarf. In reality, these protests are the result of a much wider revolt against discrimination and prejudice.

Put simply, women are fed up with a regime that has sought to impose rigid rules on what is, and is not, permissible for women in a theocratic society whose guidelines are little changed since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979.

Women are serving multi-year jail sentences for simply refusing to wear the hijab.

Two other issues are also at play. One is the economic deprivation suffered by Iranians under the weight of persistent sanctions, rampant inflation and the continuing catastrophic decline in the value of the Iranian riyal.

The other issue is the fact Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose death sparked the protests, was a Kurd.

The Kurds, who constitute about 10 percent of Iran’s 84 million population, feel themselves to be a persecuted minority. Tensions between the central government in Tehran and Kurds in their homeland on the boundaries of Iraq, Syria and Turkey are endemic.

A BBC report  on the Mahsa Amini protests.

Another important question is where all this leaves negotiations on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA had been aimed at freezing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

Former President Donald Trump recklessly abandoned the 2015 agreement in 2018.

The Biden administration, along with its United Nations Security Council partners plus Germany, had been making progress in those negotiations, but those efforts are now stalled, if not frozen.

The spectacle of Iranian security forces violently putting down demonstrations in cities, towns and villages across Iran will make it virtually impossible in the short term for the US and its negotiating partners to negotiate a revised JCPOA with Tehran.

Russia’s use of Iranian-supplied “kamikaze” drones against Ukrainian targets will have further soured the atmosphere.

How will the US and its allies respond?
So will the US and its allies continue to tighten Iranian sanctions? And to what extent will the West seek to encourage and support protesters on the ground in Iran?

One initiative that is already underway is helping the protest movement to circumvent regime attempts to shut down electronic communications.

Elon Musk has announced he is activating his Starlink satellites to provide a vehicle for social media communications in Iran. Musk did the same thing in Ukraine to get around Russian attempts to shut down Ukrainian communications by taking out a European satellite system.

However, amid the spectacle of women and girls being shot and tear-gassed on Iranian streets, the moral dilemma for the outside world is this: how far the West is prepared to go in its backing for the protesters.

It is one thing to express sympathy; it is another to take concrete steps to support the widespread agitation. This was also the conundrum during the Arab Spring of 2010 that brought down regimes in US-friendly countries like Egypt and Tunisia.

It should not be forgotten, in light of contemporary events, that Iran and Russia propped up Syria’s Assad regime during the Arab Spring, saving it from a near certain end.

In this latest period, the Middle East may not be on fire, as it was a decade or so ago, but it remains highly unstable. Iran’s neighbour, Iraq, is effectively without a government after months of violent agitation.

The war in Yemen is threatening to spark up again, adding to uncertainties in the Gulf.

In a geopolitical sense, Washington has to reckon with inroads Moscow has been making in relations with Gulf States, including, notably Saudi Arabia.

The recent OPEC Plus decision to limit oil production constituted a slap to the US ahead of the mid-term elections in which fuel prices will be a potent issue.

In other words, Washington’s ability to influence events in the Middle East is eroding, partly as a consequence of a disastrous attempt to remake the region by going to war in Iraq in 2003.

A volatile region
Among the consequences of that misjudgement is the empowerment of Iran in conjunction with a Shia majority in Iraq. This should have been foreseen.

So quite apart from the waves of protest in Iran, the region is a tinderbox with multiple unresolved conflicts.

In Afghanistan, on the fringes of the Middle East, women protesters have taken the lead in recent days from their Iranian sisters and have been protesting against conservative dress codes and limitations on access to education under the Taliban.

This returns us to the moral issue of the extent to which the outside world should support the protests. In this, the experience of the “green” rebellion of 2009 on Iran’s streets is relevant.

Then, the Obama administration, after initially giving encouragement to the demonstrations, pulled back on the grounds it did not wish to jeopardise negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran or undermine the protests by attaching US support.

Officials involved in the administration, who are now back in the Biden White House, believe that approach was a mistake. However, that begs the question as to what practically the US and its allies can do to stop Iran’s assault on its own women and girls.

What if, as a consequence of Western encouragement to the demonstrators, many hundreds more die or are incarcerated?

What is the end result, beyond indulging in the usual rhetorical exercises such as expressing “concern” and threatening to ramp up sanctions that hurt individual Iranians more than the regime itself?

The bottom line is that irrespective of what might be the desired outcome, Iran’s regime is unlikely to crumble.

It might be shaken, it might entertain concerns that its own revolution that replaced the Shah is in danger of being replicated, but it would be naïve to believe that a rotting 43-year-old edifice would be anything but utterly ruthless in putting an end to the demonstrations.

This includes unrest in the oil industry, in which workers are expressing solidarity with the demonstrators. The oil worker protest will be concerning the regime, given the centrality of oil production to Iran’s economy.

However, a powerful women’s movement has been unleashed in Iran. Over time, this movement may well force a theocratic regime to loosen restrictions on women and their participation in the political life of the country. That is the hope, but as history has shown, a ruthless regime will stop at little to re-assert its control.

Dr Tony Walker is a vice-chancellor’s fellow, La Trobe University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

President Xi Jinping is on the verge of securing an unprecedented third term as the leader of the world’s most populous country, the People's Republic of China. On October 16th, the Communist Party congress will declare Jinping as China's ruler for an additional five years. Such congresses typically bring in a new batch of rulers but Xi, who is also head of state and leader of the military, amended the party constitution in 2018 to remove all term limits on the presidency, effectively making him China's self-appointed forever-leader.

Under Xi's leadership of China since 2013, there have been a host of human rights violations that will only likely worsen in the next half decade unless confronted by human rights activists globally. Professor Darren Byler of Simon Fraser University said, "Over the course of his term in power, Xi Jinping has radically expanded the power of the state to prevent political, religious and ethnic minorities from demanding their constitutionally protected civil liberties. This means that labour rights organizing has been sharply curtailed, feminist leaders have been detained, and the practice of so-called 'foreign' religions such as Islam and Christianity have been tightly restricted. At the same time, ethno-nationalism shaped by the nationwide, obligatory study of 'Xi Jinping Thought' has risen to the fore."

While the Chinese state tries to discredit any criticism of its human rights record, brave Chinese citizens continue to speak out against the increasingly authoritarian Chinese surveillance state at great risk to themselves.

Last month, the United Nations released a 45-page long-delayed report accusing China of serious human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities that may amount to crimes against humanity. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said its investigation found credible evidence of torture; forced medical treatment; violations of reproductive rights; poor prison conditions; and individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence against Uyghurs held in Chinese mass detention camps.

The U.N. released the report after months of unexplained delays and only moments before Michelle Bachelet ended her four-year term as U.N. human rights commissioner. Since then, Bachelet acknowledged she came under “tremendous pressure to publish or not publish” the report. A Chinese Foreign Ministry official condemned the U.N. report, writing in a statement, “It is completely a politicized document that disregards facts, and reveals explicitly the attempt of some Western countries and anti-China forces to use human rights as a political tool.”

While the Chinese state tries to discredit any criticism of its human rights record, brave Chinese citizens continue to speak out against the increasingly authoritarian Chinese surveillance state at great risk to themselves. Zhang, who only wants to be identified by her last name out of safety concerns, is a 25-year-old political asylum seeker from Xinjiang who now lives in New York City as an Au Pair. She is a mixture of Han and Uyghur ethnicities, but her national identity card states "Han," the dominant group. Thus, she could have enjoyed all the privileges of majority rule but refused to be silent in the face of injustice when her Uyghur friend, Bahati Guli, inexplicably disappeared in October 2017. At the time, Zhang was studying in college in Guangdong. "I tried to contact my childhood friend many times on WeChat and call her but I got no response, so I was very worried." When Zhang came back to her hometown for Chinese New Year in 2018, she tried again to find her childhood friend but to no avail. Zhang said, "After inquiring around, I found out that the whole family of Bahati Guli was taken away by the police. She was detained and her father and mother were also detained, but in different places. I know their family are honest and responsible people, I really don't understand why their family was arrested by the police. I tried to visit her at the camp, but some plainclothes policemen were at the gate. They wouldn't let me in at all, yelled at me and forced me away, and threatened me that if I came here again, I would be arrested and imprisoned for several years".

Zhang was so disturbed by losing her friend she wrote about her on Chinese social media, Weibo, and was immediately blocked from the platform. Within two days, the Director of Academic Affairs at the university where Zhang was studying warned her not to stir up trouble or she could be expelled. Zhang agreed not to post on Weibo again until she finished her studies. Then, in 2020 COVID-19 broke out and cities across China went into strict lockdown. Zhang created a new Weibo account to criticize what she saw as her government's oppressive response to the pandemic. On March 10th, 2021, Zhang posted an article titled "Today's Xinjiang is China's Tomorrow."  The article talked about her experience growing up in Xinjiang under heavy surveillance and the arbitrary arrests of people like her childhood friend. The article was quickly blocked.  When speaking about it now, Zhang says she wrote the article out of concern that "the Xinjiang government collects personal identity and biometric information on the grounds of security, and there are checkpoints everywhere. The article also mentioned what happened to my friend Bahati Gull. I was hoping someone can provide more information about her, and at the same time call on the government not to arbitrarily arrest and detain people, whether they are Han Chinese or other minorities, and call for the establishment of a society ruled by law."

Within an hour, Zhang's Weibo account disappeared. That evening half a dozen police officers stormed her house. Zhang described what happened next:

One policeman pressed my head against the wall violently and forcefully, and handcuffed my hands behind my back. They ripped through my house without showing any documents.  My phone and computer were also confiscated. They asked me to point out where I put my ID card, and then took my ID card and verified my identity with me, took me into a police car, and sent me to Fuyong Police Station.  During this period, I tried to ask what happened, and the police yelled at me fiercely, telling me that I could only answer their questions, and can’t ask them any questions. After arriving at the Fuyong police station, they put me in the detention room by myself. I said, 'Why are you imprisoning me?' They ignored me and left. I stayed in the detention room for a long time, and I was frightened and scared. After a few hours, I was taken to an interrogation room by two policemen, who bound me in a specially designed interrogation chair. They asked me why I was writing this article on the Internet, and whether anyone behind it was directing me to write it in such a way as to endanger social stability. They also said that this is not the first time for me, the Internet is not a place outside the law, and any illegal comments made online will be known to the public security organs. I replied that what I wrote was factual, nothing false, and that I did not break the law. Maybe it was my toughness that angered them. A policeman walked up to me and slapped me vigorously several times, and I was slapped with a buzzing of ears and nosebleeds.  Another policeman started asking those questions repeatedly, and I kept my mouth shut. Seeing that I was still stubborn and uncooperative, they took me back to the detention room and threw me a pen and a piece of paper, yelled at me to write down the answers to the questions he had just asked me on paper, and to write down the confessions and repentances, and to promise not to do the same thing next time. He also said that when I wrote it, then he would let me go. Because they didn't give me food, they didn't let me sleep or go to the toilet, I was in a daze and didn’t know how long it took. I felt like I was about to collapse. I was crazy and wanted to hit the wall heavily. My body couldn’t support it anymore, so I wrote the so-called 'Confession.'  When the police saw that I had finished writing, they gave me a cold box of lunch and a bottle of mineral water. They didn't release me immediately, they also asked me to recite the confession I wrote and some laws and regulations. In this way, I was locked in the detention room for a period of time, during which time I could only get very little food. I only found out that I was locked up for 5 days after I was released. At the moment of release, I only had one strong thought, that is, to leave this country as soon as possible no matter what.

Zhang said she misses her friend and knows of so many others who have disappeared without reason. She added, "I was born and raised in Xinjiang, and I have lived in a place like a cage since I was a child: there are security checkpoints everywhere, and when I walk on the street, I will be stopped and questioned by the armed police or the police at any time. And they searched our bodies and checked the contents of our phones. If we don't cooperate, we will be arrested immediately.  Even when searching and interrogating us, the armed police or the police still observed our expressions while searching and interrogating. If they think our expressions show nervousness or dissatisfaction, we will also be directly arrested."

After arriving in the United States in the summer of 2022, Zhang got a U.S. phone and posted an article on Weibo criticizing the Chinese state from a new number. Chinese police showed up at her parents home at Xingjing and threatened her parents, saying her mother would lose her teaching pension. "My parents are very upset at me for putting our family at risk, but I cannot be silent." Hang's story is not an anomaly. Uighurs living in the US and Europe have told Deutsche Welle that Chinese authorities are going after family members still living in China to suppress activism by the Uighur community living abroad. And The Diplomat reports, "Mirroring the patterns of its repression at home, the CCP targets individual dissidents, their family members, and entire ethnic, religious, or social groups. Those at risk include former student activists from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, Falun Gong practitioners, human rights activists, journalists, former state employees, and others who criticize the regime."

Progressives in the United States should remember always to align their voices with the oppressed people of China... not its oppressive leaders.

President Xi Jinping wants to be China's leader for life, which could be a death knell for China's ethnic minorities and civil rights activists. Professor Darren Byler of Simon Fraser University said, "Throughout Xi's tenure China has expanded infrastructure and settlement of the Han majority group into the frontiers of the nation. These settlers were induced to move largely by for-profit corporations in search of natural resources, property and cheap workers. Ethnic minorities, particularly those who might be better understood as the peoples indigenous to China's frontiers—such as Tibetans, Mongols, Uyghurs and Kazakhs have faced an onslaught of human rights violations as a result of this internal colonization. Despite living in constitutionally protected 'Autonomous Regions'—something similar to the reservation system for Indigenous Americans—these peoples have seen their institutions—the schools, mosques, temples, banks, and courts—captured by the settler authorities. This means that today millions of ethnic minorities are going through a process of settler colonization that is unprecedented in Chinese history. This is particularly the case for the Uyghur people who have been subjected to mass internment, widespread family separation, forced labour, and residential schools."

The Free Tibet Campaign once mobilized thousands of activists around the world. Today, little of traditional Tibet is left with China having annexed the territory in its homogenizing efforts. Professor Darren Byler of Simon Fraser University said, "There are many parallels between Tibetans and Uyghurs. Both are relatively large groups of 4.5 million and 11 million respectively. They speak their own languages as their native tongue, have their own faith practices, can often not pass as Han due to their racialized difference, and live in their own ancestral lands. These factors mean that it is difficult for these groups to be forcibly assimilated, and as a result both are viewed as threats to the sovereignty of the ethno-nationalist Chinese state.  To counteract this perceived threat, both are subjected to forced removal from their lands, residential school systems and police controls. The Uyghurs are perceived as an even greater threat due to a Chinese uptake of the U.S. led Global War on Terror. Since 9/11 Uyghurs have come to be viewed as Islamic radicals motivated by what Chinese state media refer to as an 'ideology of hate.' Normative Islamic practice such as mosque attendance or fasting during Ramadan is now perceived as a sign of terrorist tendencies. Islamophobia generated by the West has given the Chinese state and public a framework and justification to dehumanize an entire group of people. Tibetans on the other hand are often perceived as "backward" or "primitive" but less of a violent threat in need of mass incarceration."

As Xi is set to secure his third term, the human rights community must continue to press him to respect the rights of all Chinese residents. The question of human rights in China has surprisingly become contentious among the American Left, with some fearing that to criticize the Chinese state is effectively to support American global hegemony.  Concerns about a new "cold war" between the United States and China have made the question feel yet more urgent.  However, progressives in the United States should remember always to align their voices with the oppressed people of China, like 25-year-old Zhang, not its oppressive leaders. We must show solidarity to people all over the world opposing state violence and always uplift the voices of people opposing oppressive and brutal regimes.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Deena Guzder.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Ruby Lott-Lavigna.

Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

The Republican Party, through Donald Trump and their primary system, has repeatedly fanned fears among white Americans of crime coming from urban gangs of minority ethnic youths and drug cartels run by South Americans. They describe the steady increase of immigrants as an uncontrolled illegal invasion that only a wall can stop.

Democrats since WWII moved toward accepting a more ethnically diverse democratic society. And while they often fall short in pursuing one, they have rhetorically embraced a multicultural society. As a result, regardless of who controls Congress or the presidency in the next two elections, immigration and birth rates over the past half-century will soon result in an America with a population of less than half from European descendants.

The clash of these two views is at the heart of the debate between the Democrat and Republican parties. Candidate Donald Trump’s message was and still is wanting to Make America Great Again. It looks back to when European ethnic groups were shaping America’s future.

ats, is focused on an all-inclusive future. They saw ethnic minority groups as citizens who should have the same opportunities as most Americans to achieve social, political, and economic power.

There is a visual and real stark difference between President Trump’s appointments to his White House Cabinet and the courts to Biden’s appointments. Trump was overwhelmingly staffed with whites, while Biden made minority appoints to these positions more than ever before, except for former President Barak Obama.

Democrats are heading into troubled waters

It is largely acknowledged, although not certain, that the House will flip over to Republican control. Control of the Senate is also likely to change. With inflation at a historic high, shooting over 9 percent at the end of June, the party controlling Congress will be blamed. Polls have repeatedly shown inflation to be the number one concern among likely voters. The last time inflation was a major campaign issue was in President Jimmy Carter’s reelection in 1980. Ronald Reagan won every state but one.

Aside from runaway inflation, a historical trend would slim the Democrat’s chances of maintaining control of Congress this November. The number of voters going to the polls in midterm elections drops from the previous presidential election, regardless of what party controls the presidency. To counter that drift, each party works to have fewer supporters sitting out the election than the other party.

Republicans have been playing the long game by strategically targeting state legislature races. As a result, they now control both state legislative chambers in 30 states, while Democrats control both in 18 states. Consequently, Republicans have passed more gerrymandering measures than the Democrats.

While gerrymandering will not impact the statewide votes for Senators, suppression measures can. To reduce the Democratic vote, Republicans have zeroed in on issues like eliminating or restricting the number of voting boxes and voting stations that urban voters use more than rural voters.

Both gerrymandering and voter suppression measures passed by white-dominated legislatures are designed to beat down voter turnout from Democrats’ most reliable voting base, urban-based ethnic minorities. The Brennan Center found ample evid­ence that the sorts of barri­ers being intro­duced this year by Republicans  dispro­por­tion­ately reduce turnout for voters of color.

Nevertheless, Democrats have also had a measurable loss of support from this constituency. In the last three presidential elections, Hispanic voters went from 70 percent to 61 percent and Black voters dropped from 97 percent to 90 percent. Asian support has consistently remained slightly above 50 percent.

A combination of more restricted access to voting and lower motivation may account for voter turnout from minority ethnic groups being less than that from white voters. For example, in 2020, the turnout of white voters ranged from 8 percent higher than Black voters to 17 percent higher than that of Hispanic voters.

Nevertheless, organized efforts to get out the vote among key supporters is how any political party wins elections. It just becomes more challenging with laws that make voting a chore that competes with working hours or transportation limitations of lower-income voters. In addition, a disproportionate number of them are ethnic minorities.

Ethnic minorities in three key swing states could keep a Democratic Senate

Republicans are focusing their organizing and money on defeating the Democrat incumbent senators in Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia.

Arizona incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly is a former astronaut and has just served two years in the Senate. He defeated incumbent Sen. Martha McSally (R) in a special election after the Republican Governor appointed her to a vacant seat. McSally was a white, retired Air Force colonel. The Republican Senate candidate has yet to be chosen for November, but all Republican contenders are white, very conservative males. The three top support banning abortions and deny that Trump lost his election.

Donald Trump won Arizona in 2016 with a 3.6 percent margin; Biden skimmed by to win the 2020 race by 0.3 percent, while Kelly’s margin was 2.4 percent that same year. So, Kelly would seem to have a good shot at being reelected.

However, he will have to maintain or expand the 2020 voter turnout, which was very high. Hispanic voters provided the largest minority voters at 18 percent of the electorate. However, according to Pew research, the turnout still has room to grow since the percentage of the eligible share of Hispanic voters in Arizona is 24 percent.

At least maintaining, if not expanding, the Hispanic and other minority ethnic vote is critical in securing Kelly’s Senate seat. His campaign must work outside the Democratic Party to mobilize voters. Kelly would benefit from the work of community organizations Living United for Change in Arizona, LUCHA, and the MiAZ coalition, which are aiming to mobilize one million voters of color and young voters.  The campaign organizer for LUCHA says they have registered more than half a million people to vote this year alone, knocking on 1.5 million doors across Arizona.

Although Arizona’s total Black and Asian populations are much smaller, consisting of 5 percent and 4 percent, they too are being organized. Collectively community-based organizations, including Our Voice, Our Vote Arizona, and Progress Arizona, say that 60 percent of Arizona’s Black registered voters cast ballots in 2020. They also have room to expand voter participation in 2022. And future expansion will happen since the current minority population in Arizona is 47 percent, with a more significant percentage of ineligible young voters than the white population.

Nevada Incumbent Democrat Sen. Cortez Masto is challenged by Trump-endorsed former state Attorney General Republican Adam Laxalt. He caught Trump’s attention by leading legal challenges to overturn the presidential election results. Laxalt has been endorsed by two prominent anti-abortion groups Nevada Right to Life and National Right to Life.

Although Nevada voted for the Democratic Presidential candidate in the last two elections, they were by slim margins. Joe Biden won the state by just over 2 percent, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016. Consequently, Trump and the Republican Party are aiming at Masto as beatable.

Like other November Democratic candidates, Masto is burdened by President Biden’s low approval ratings dragging down her vote. His disapproval rating was 52 percent in Nevada at the beginning of the year. So, Masto is avoiding a debate about Biden and focusing on state issues she has supported, like delivering Justice Department grants to local police departments and promoting funding to combat wildfires and drought in the infrastructure law. While those issues cut across all ethnic groups, minority groups will play a significant role in getting her reelected.

About a third of Nevada’s total population consists of minority ethnic groups, with Hispanics being about twice the combined size of Black and Asian populations. At 20 percent, Nevada has the second highest percentage of eligible Hispanic voters of any state. And it’s expected to increase by 5.8 percent in 2022 compared to the most recent 2018 midterm election, which saw a record national turnout of Hispanic voters. About 36 percent of this expanded total of eligible Hispanic voters are expected to turn out in 2022. This level of participation would provide nearly 17 percent of the state’s total vote, just a point behind the Hispanic slice of voters in Arizona’s 2020 election.

Like Arizona, Nevada Democrats can benefit from working with broad-based community organizations to educate voters on the issues and encourage them to vote. The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) is a significant one, with a membership of nearly 30 organizations! Two of its main issues are Civic Engagement and Economic Justice, which will be largely shaped by the Senate next year.

Georgia’s first Black Senator, Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, is being challenged by Trump-endorsed former football star Republican Herschel Walker.  Attracting female voters may be difficult for Walker. Women have accused Walker of violent behavior, and he told reporters at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, “There’s no exception in my mind” for banning abortion. However, he did not mention making exceptions for rape, incest, or saving the mother’s life.

Georgia swing voters in the latest Axios Engagious/Schlesinger focus groups strongly support abortion rights. However, before the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe they said that issue alone probably would not decide who they support in November’s midterm elections.

Unlike Arizona and Nevada, Hispanics make up only 6% of residents in Georgia, while Black residents are at 33%. Luckily for the Democrats, of all ethnic groups, Black voters in Georgia had the most significant increase in registration from 2016 to 2020. This trend is in line with national numbers, which show the growth of eligible Black voters moving to 12.5% of the US electorate, up from 11.5% in 2000.

This growth appears to be coming from younger, more educated voters, particularly noticeable in Georgia and Arizona.  On the downside, Black voters’ perception of Biden being sympathetic to their concerns has slipped from 74 percent in 2020 to 66 percent in 2022. And this disappointment has been measured to be highest among the youngest voters.

More so than any other ethnic group, including whites, Blacks see religion and morality as vital civic virtues.  Most black Democrats (57%) say churches and religious organizations do more good than harm. And the majority also believe that morality is linked to a belief in God. Democrats must consider that belief when addressing the issue of abortion. Saving a mother’s life or considering a pregnancy due to incest and rape are all conditions that appeal to the morality of terminating a pregnancy.

Georgia has a robust organization to help overcome the state legislature’s newest voter suppression bill SB 202, which, among other things, criminalizes Georgians who give a drink of water to their neighbors while waiting in line to vote, attacks absentee voting, and allows the state to take over county elections. To counter it, the Fair Fight Action community-based political organization, led by Democrat Stacey Abrams, is in the field encouraging voter participation in elections and educating voters about elections and their voting rights.

Democrats Can Keep Control of the Senate if they do two things 

Democrats have the votes to retain their most vulnerable Senators in November’s elections. And, data from Catalist makes it clear where they can get them. First, they must continue to retain white college-educated voters. Over the last three presidential elections, Democrats’ support among white college-educated voters increased by 16 margin points.

Second, they must halt the decline in support from nonwhite working-class voters, which decreased by 19 margin points over this same period. A recent Times/Siena poll shows Democrats holding a 20-point advantage over Republicans among white college-educated voters — but are statistically tied among Hispanics going into this November’s midterm elections.

The big picture of saving our Democracy, as epitomized by Congress’s Committee on January Six hearings, is resonating with college-educated voters. Meanwhile, working-class nonwhites are more concerned about their public safety and finances. Democrats have thankfully stepped away from the “defund police” mentality and have moved toward emphasizing more police accountability, which can provide safer and more respectful police conduct in black neighborhoods.

Banning abortion is a passionate national issue and denying access to any abortions is widely opposed. But abortion has not registered as the top issue for the Black and Hispanic communities, even though studies show that banning abortions has a significant financial burden on minority families. Accordingly, Democrats must also frame abortion as an economic issue to attract voters beyond those concerned with abrogating a constitutional right.

There is a path forward for the Democrats to retain control of the Senate and perhaps even the House. But it is a narrow one that requires discipline in messaging understandable and believable solutions and not relying on slogans.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Nick Licata.

The billionaire and former New York mayor made the comments at a 2015 appearance at the Aspen Institute, as part of an overall defense of his support for the controversial “stop and frisk” policing tactic that has been found to disproportionately affect minorities.

Bloomberg launched his Democratic presidential bid late last year with an apology for his support for the policy. On Tuesday, after the comments resurfaced, he reiterated his apology and said his 2015 remarks “do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity.”

But the audio of his Aspen speech highlights his embrace of the policy just a few years ago, and suggests he was aware of the disproportionate impact of stop-and-frisk on minorities. Bloomberg says that “95 percent” of murders and murder victims are young male minorities and that “you can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops.” To combat crime, he says, “put a lot of cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods.”

In the audio, he acknowledges focusing police forces in minority neighborhoods means minorities are disproportionately arrested for marijuana possession, but dismisses that as a necessary consequence of the crime in those neighborhoods. And to “get the guns out of the kids hands,” Bloomberg says, police must “throw ‘em against the wall and frisk ’em.”

“And they say, ‘oh, I don’t want that, I don’t wanna get caught.’ So they don’t bring the gun,” he says.

According to a report in the Aspen Times that year, Bloomberg blocked the release of video of the Aspen Institute appearance, but the Aspen Times reporter uploaded what appears to be the full audio online, and it drew renewed attention Monday after podcaster Benjamin Dixon circulated it on twitter.

In his Tuesday statement, Bloomberg notes that he “inherited the practice of stop and frisk” from the previous administration, and noted that by the time he left office he significantly reduced its use. He said, “I should have done it faster and sooner.”

But stop and frisk expanded dramatically on Bloomberg’s watch, reaching a peak in 2011 when over 685,000 people were stopped, according to ACLU data. While its use declined significantly after that, Bloomberg stood by the program even in the face of widespread criticism and legal challenges.

The former New York mayor has distanced himself from the policy since launching his presidential campaign as part of a broader strategy aimed at appealing to minority voters, which are a key voting bloc for Democrats. He’s also acknowledged his own white privilege and released policies focused on issues central to some African American communities, like black homeownership and maternal mortality rates.

Joe Biden has long held an overwhelming advantage with African Americans, pointing to their support as his firewall that would provide him with a much-needed primary win in South Carolina at the end of the month. But Biden lost in Iowa and trails in New Hampshire and as his candidacy has become imperiled, recent polling suggests he has lost some African American support.

None of his Democratic rivals has yet to truly capitalize, though both Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders have made some inroads. Both have received a number of prominent African American endorsements and have been holding campaign events specifically aimed at the black community.

On Tuesday Bloomberg faced sharp criticism from opponents. Businessman Tom Steyer called the comments “extremely disturbing” and said that Bloomberg needs to provide an explanation to those who were affected by stop and frisk.

“Mike Bloomberg’s remarks in the video are extremely disturbing. The racist stereotypes he uses have no place today, and anyone running for the presidential nomination should disavow them,” Steyer added.

Symone Sanders, a top adviser to Biden’s campaign, called the comments “sad and despicable,” and said he “will have to answer for these comments.” President Donald Trump, who himself has supported stop-and-frisk policies, sent out a tweet with a clip of the audio declaring “Bloomberg’s a racist.”

Trump later deleted the tweet but his campaign seized upon its argument.

“These are clearly racist comments and are unacceptable. It also shows that his apology for ‘stop and frisk’ was fake and was only designed to win him votes,” said Trump campaign communications director, Tim Murtagh. “In a Democrat primary, this kind of talk is poison. Now everyone can see what a fraud Mike Bloomberg is.”

But Trump himself has long defended the tactic.

In an October 2018 speech to the International Association of Police Chiefs, Trump touted its use in New York under former mayor Rudy Giuliani, now his personal attorney, and urged Chicago to adopt it.

And in 2013, he defended both the tactic and Bloomberg’s police commissioner, tweeting “Stop and frisk works. Instead of criticizing @NY_POLICE Chief Ray Kelly, New Yorkers should be thanking him for keeping NY safe.”

Bloomberg focused the bulk of his statement about the audio on Trump, arguing the president’s attack “reflects his fear over the growing strength of my campaign.”

“Make no mistake Mr. President: I am not afraid of you and I will not let you bully me or anyone else in America,” Bloomberg said.

And indeed, the attacks on Bloomberg follow two tracks for the Trump campaign: they reveal a growing concern about the billionaire’s candidacy and an unlikely push to attract black voters.

The president and his campaign team have been warily watching Bloomberg’s spending spree since the former mayor’s late entry into the presidential race.

Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, had previously told staffers he would not worry about Bloomberg until he cracked double digits, which the former mayor has now exceeded in some recent national polls. Parscale told aides recently that the campaign would soon be doing more Bloomberg-centric polling, according to a campaign aide not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

But Trump himself has been fixated on the Democratic race even amid his impeachment trial.

Ignoring counsel from some aides, including senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to ignore Bloomberg and thus avoid elevating him in a Democratic field that remains unsettled, Trump has delivered frequent broadsides against the far-richer billionaire.

Annoyed by Bloomberg’s wealth, favorable press and easy entree into the upper realm of New York’s elite that long ago rejected him, Trump has repeatedly attacked the former mayor, including recent digs about his height and golf game.

The Trump campaign also believes that uncertainty in the Democratic field could lead to a chance to chip away at the other party’s advantage with black voters.

The campaign has made its own pitch, touting economic growth for minorities since 2016 and highlighting the president’s advocacy for criminal justice reform, including in a highly watched Super Bowl ad. Though Trump polls unfavorably with African Americans, the push has two goals: to win over more black voters and to discourage African Americans from turning out for Democrats on Election Day by convincing them there is little difference between the two parties’ agendas.

Black voters turned out overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016 but at a lesser rate than for Barack Obama, contributing to Trump’s slim margin of victory in several battleground states.

——————

Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed reporting from Manchester, N.H.