‘Opening horizons’: Why Indonesian star Dian Sastrowardoyo champions women
Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesian actor and filmmaker Dian Sastrowardoyo started her career as a model when she was just a teenager, hoping to save up enough money to study overseas. Her entertainment career took off and Dian never did get that degree from a foreign university. But now, more than 20 years later, dozens of other Indonesian women are furthering their studies, and it is all thanks to Dian. In an interview with Al Jazeera, the 42-year-old said she “needed to pave the way” for women in “rural Indonesia to have access to higher education”, inspired by Raden Adjeng Kartini, Indonesia’s national hero who fought for women’s rights more than a century ago. More than 30 women have been through Dian’s namesake undergraduate scholarships since she began the initiative in 2015. Some have worked as startup managers and paralegals, while others earned their degrees in informatics and veterinary medicine. Dian also collaborates with Markoding, a local nonprofit, to run free coding lessons and programmes for hundreds of Indonesian women. “If you want to invest in education, one of the key areas to invest in is women because mothers are basically the first teachers in a human’s life. If you invest in women, you are also investing in their children and grandchildren,” she said. “We are opening the horizons of these girls, and now many of them have succeeded.” Dian Sastrowardoyo as Dasiyah in Netflix’s Cigarette Girl. The show was in the Top 10 of Netflix’s non-English language content when it was released last November [Courtesy of Netflix Indonesia] Cigarette Girl With more than 9.2 million followers on Instagram, Dian is one of Indonesia’s most celebrated actors. She is also the face of Netflix’s Gadis Kretek (Cigarette Girl), a period drama based on a 2012 novel that is an epic, and tragic, romance set against the backdrop of Indonesia’s clove tobacco industry in the 1960s. Popular in Indonesia, clove cigarettes, known locally as kretek, are made using tobacco, cloves and other ingredients. The National Cancer Institute in the United States has warned kretek “contain nicotine and many cancer-causing chemicals”. Dian plays Dasiyah – the lead character and a woman in an industry dominated by men – experimenting to create the best formulas for the family’s clove cigarettes as she battles a patriarchal society. Feby Indirani, author of 10 fiction and non-fiction books – whose own work is in the process of being adapted by an Indonesian production house – said: “More and more filmmakers and creators are concerned and care about women’s issues and minority groups”, but the challenge was how to best represent and depict such issues. “For me, [Cigarette Girl] is very appealing. And of course, there is a women’s story in it. The irony is that it is a story from the past, but even now, we are still familiar with stories like that,” she told Al Jazeera. “How women find it hard to stand out in industries considered very masculine. In this case, it is the clove cigarette industry, with its discrimination,” she added. “I am quite pleased with the presence of a story like this.” In preparation for the role, Dian stopped playing sports like tennis and did not meet her usual group of friends for some time “just to get into the rhythm of getting into Dasiyah’s world because she’s such a loner”. “She really enjoys being by herself and with all her trinkets and, you know, all these aromas in her laboratory. And, I think, one needs to be able to know how good it feels to be on your own in order to portray that enjoyment,” Dian said. “I am a very social person, and I really needed to alter my personality 180 degrees for this.” On its release last November, Cigarette Girl reached the global Top 10 list for non-English language content, with 1.6 million views in a week. Dian, shown here in the series Ratu Adil, made her acting breakthrough in 2002 [Courtesy of Frontier Pictures] Dian said it was “a very local story” with “a lot of cultural values” given the significance of clove cigarettes within Indonesian society. “There is something very universal here, which is the love story. But it fascinates me so much that something very local becomes something that crosses over,” she said, referring to Soeraja, Dasiyah’s love interest. Cover star to philosophy graduate Dian has been a household name in Indonesia since the late 90s. It was back in 1996 that she won the Indonesian GADIS magazine’s teenage cover girl contest, before making her acting breakthrough in the 2002 hit drama Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? (What’s Up with Love?), among other titles. Even as her acting career took off, Dian found time to earn a degree in philosophy from Universitas Indonesia, as well as a master’s in management. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the beauty industry from a socio-philosophical perspective. “The definition of beauty is always fluid – and it is open to us to define it as well,” Dian said. “So we shall not have only one beauty ideal like being thin, tall, fair-skinned … that’s relative. There cannot be just one definition.” For her, social media has increased the public’s awareness around beauty standards, but has also shaped their perspectives. “There are also many influencers who seem to set the beauty standard too high, so they are very familiar with filters, very familiar with editing,” Dian said. “So their viewers or their audience, who are actually much more diverse, feel like they do not fit into the definition of what is considered good.” However, Dian, who has a young son and daughter, is concerned about the emergence of toxic masculinity and its impact on young people. According to TikTok, some 125 million people in Indonesia were using the app every month as of June last year. The archipelago is one of the world’s biggest markets for TikTok. “It’s like we’re seeing a trend that wants to revert its way of thinking back to degradation.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 889
As the war enters its 889th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Friday, August 2, 2024. Fighting A mother and her daughter were killed by Russian shelling that hit the town of Nikopol in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. Local governor Serhiy Lysak said private houses, a fire station, a college, a school and buses were damaged. Nikopol sits on the right bank of the Dnipro River Two people were injured by debris as Ukraine repelled a Russian drone attack on the region outside Kyiv. One of those hurt was Ilya Ponomaryov, a former Russian lawmaker who has lived in Ukraine for years and is a critic of the Kremlin. He wrote on Facebook that a drone exploded outside his front door, inflicting shrapnel wounds and causing a fire. Politics and diplomacy Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and a number of prominent Russian opposition politicians and activists who were jailed for criticising the war in Ukraine were among 26 people freed in the biggest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Russia got back Vadim Krasikov, a Russian jailed in Germany for the assassination of a former Chechen rebel commander in 2019. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, awarded two Ukrainian athletes – rower Anastasiia Kozhenkova and diver Oleksii Sereda – with the Grand Vermeil Medal, the French capital’s highest distinction, in a show of solidarity. Weapons The Kremlin said that Russian forces would shoot down US-built F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine, and claimed the aircraft would have no significant impact on the course of the war. The first planes arrived in Ukraine this week. Adblock test (Why?)
What is the controversy behind Louisiana’s new surgical castration law?
Baton Rouge, Louisiana – Louisiana has become the first state in the United States to impose surgical castration as a criminal punishment. The new law, which came into effect on Thursday, allows the court to order surgical castration — the removal of a man’s testes or a woman’s ovaries — as punishment for adults convicted of first or second-degree aggravated rape in cases involving child victims under 13. Some states already impose chemical castration, a reversible procedure, as punishment. But only Louisiana mandates surgical castration. The measure comes amidst a spate of “tough-on-crime” legislation passed this year by Louisiana’s conservative supermajority and signed into law by Republican Governor Jeff Landry, who took office in January. Critics, however, warn that such laws are radically punitive and ultimately ineffective in preventing crimes. Among those outspoken against the law is George Annas, the director of Boston University’s Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights. He described the measure as “anti-medicine” and unconstitutional: “It just makes no sense.” Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill in June allowing for surgical castration [File: Michael Johnson/The Advocate/Pool via AP Photo] Legal challenges anticipated Louisiana and several other states, including California and Florida, already have laws that impose chemical castration for certain sex crimes. That procedure usually entails injections of Depo Provera, a birth control medication that temporarily lowers testosterone in both men and women. Even that procedure has its detractors, though. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never approved the drug for the treatment of sex offenders, and critics decry putting physicians in the position of meting out punishments for the criminal justice system. Such laws have already been repealed in Oregon and Georgia and ruled unconstitutional in South Carolina. But unlike chemical castration, surgical castration is permanent. Lawyers like Annas have raised questions about whether surgical castration violates the US Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment”. Annas warns the law is also unconstitutional as it denies the right to reproduce and the right to bodily integrity. Under Louisiana’s new law, an offender can refuse the procedure, but if they do, they would instead receive an additional three- to five-year prison sentence. “If you can get out of jail by volunteering your testicles,” Annas said, “that’s coercive.” He believes the law will not survive the inevitable court challenges from rights groups. “It is blatantly unconstitutional,” said Annas. “There is no way any judge in this country, even in Louisiana, would find this to be a valid punishment.” Giacomo Castrogiovanni, a lawyer who administers the reentry programme at Loyola University’s Law Clinic, described the new law as “very aggressive” and agrees it will face legal challenges. “I expect that is going to be a really strong challenge,” said Castrogiovanni — but he is less certain than Annas that it will be successful in striking down the law. “I really don’t know what’s going to come of that. It’ll be interesting.” Lawmakers in Louisiana voted to approve surgical castration for offenders convicted of aggravated sex crimes against children younger than 13, including rape and molestation [File: Stephen Smith/AP Photo] Questions of efficacy But beyond its legal merits, the surgical castration law has raised scrutiny about its efficacy in combatting sex crimes. Annas argued that the law would simply be ineffective. “It’s very hard to find a physician who thinks this makes any medical sense,” he said. The urge to commit sexual violence, he explained, “is not necessarily related to the amount of testosterone you have”. Dr Katrina Sifferd, a criminal justice researcher and former legal analyst for the National Institute of Justice, likewise expressed scepticism. “Sometimes there are claims that this is going to either rehabilitate, deter or incapacitate,” she said. “And it looks like that isn’t the case.” Sifferd explained that people who commit sex crimes against children do so for many different reasons: “trauma, aggression, a need for love — all sorts of things” that castration wouldn’t address. And castration doesn’t necessarily dampen sexual urges or prevent erections. “There’s no scientific evidence that this is going to ‘work’ to save anybody. And it’s certainly not going to cure the person of being a paedophile,” Annas said. For her part, Sifferd said she understands the reluctance to protect the rights of people who have committed grave crimes against children. But she stressed that corporal — or physical — punishment is not meant to be part of the US criminal legal system. “The criminal justice system has to maintain its moral authority. And every punishment that’s applied has to be justified,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s a real slippery slope in what we allow the state to do.” Advocates have criticised Louisiana for its hard-handed approach to crime and punishment, including through a slate of new laws [File: Judi Bottoni/AP Photo] A punitive approach The new law highlights longstanding concerns about the punitive nature of Louisiana’s criminal justice system. Louisiana has been called the “prison capital of the world”. It has the highest incarceration rate of any state in a country that already tops all other democracies for the proportion of people behind bars. Out of every 100,000 people in Louisiana, approximately 1,067 people are locked up in jails, prisons and detention centres. Louisiana’s surgical castration law comes into effect as part of a spate of legislation that creates even more crimes to prosecute. Among the laws taking effect on Thursday is a measure that makes it a crime to remain within 7.6 metres — or 25 feet — of a police officer after being warned to retreat. Another law will make the possession of unprescribed abortion medication punishable by up to five years behind bars. Another eliminates parole. The experts who spoke with Al Jazeera largely interpreted the new castration law as a Republican effort. Castrogiovanni, the lawyer, described it as “a new implementation of conservative policies”, which tend to reflect more punitive approaches to addressing crime. He pointed out that, until recently, Louisiana had a Democratic governor who could veto some of the
Hundreds protest across Nigeria over soaring cost of living, fuel prices
Demonstrators voice discontent over government reforms they say have triggered high inflation and devalued the currency. Nigerian troops and police have tightened security in Lagos and the capital, Abuja, as nationwide protests over the rising cost of living kicked off and are expected to continue for 10 days. Africa’s most populous country is struggling with soaring inflation and a sharply devalued naira currency after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu introduced reforms a year ago aimed at reviving the economy. Tagged #EndbadGovernanceinNigeria, the protest movement has won support with an online campaign among Nigerians who are battling with food inflation at 40 percent and fuel prices that have tripled since Tinubu introduced his reforms. On Thursday, police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Abuja, the Reuters news agency reported. In the northern city of Kano, protesters tried to light bonfires outside the governor’s office and police responded with tear gas, the AFP news agency said. Security forces blocked roads leading to Abuja’s Eagle Square – one of the planned demonstration sites – while in Lagos, police and soldiers were placed at strategic points, including at the Lekki toll gate, where protests in 2020 against police brutality ended in bloodshed. “Duty is very clear: to ensure that the protest is peaceful, devoid of violence, devoid of the horrific things that happened during the rising in 2020,” Adegoke Fayoade, the state police commissioner in Lagos, told Al Jazeera. To ease the economic pain, the government on Wednesday announced some measures including delivering grain to states across the country and aid to the most needy. But in markets across Nigeria, residents stocked up on food and essentials amid concerns over the likelihood of growing violence during the demonstrations. “The police are brutalising the Nigerian people and people want that to stop,” activist Ismail Olushola Oladare, who participated in the 2020 protests, told Al Jazeera. “Today, this particular protest and bad governance protest is about the standard of living of people,” he said. Protest leaders, a loose coalition of civil society groups, promised to press on with rallies despite what they said were legal challenges trying to limit their rallies to public parks instead of marches. Omolola Pedro, a protest organiser, told Al Jazeera that the idea of the rallies was to let the government know that Nigerians have had enough of the government’s “abuse of human rights, unstable economic situation [resulting from] the policies that they have made”. The organisers have presented a list of 19 demands. At the core of their grievances is the removal of a state subsidy on petroleum products, which they blame for the crisis. The demonstrations come after weeks of unrest and antigovernment protests that turned violent in Kenya, where President William Ruto was forced to repeal planned tax hikes. In Uganda, police detained dozens of people as they took part in banned anticorruption protests organised online by young activists inspired by Kenya’s rallies. “Some groups of people, self-appointed crusaders and influencers, have been strategising and mobilising potential protesters to unleash terror in the land under the guise of replicating the recent Kenya protests,” said Kayode Egbetokun, Nigeria’s inspector general of police. “We will, therefore, not sit back and fold our arms to watch violent activities unleash violence on our peaceful communities or destroy any of our national critical infrastructure and assets again,” Egbetokun said after meeting senior officers in Abuja. Adblock test (Why?)
North Korea’s fleeing defectors
As China cracks down on North Korean defectors, 101 East follows two families’ desperate searches for freedom. China is expelling record numbers of North Korean defectors, instilling fear and desperation in this vulnerable community. In October 2023, 600 North Koreans were forcibly deported in the largest repatriation in years. Human rights groups say the defectors, who North Korea calls “traitors” and “criminals”, have disappeared since their return, and warn they may face imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, and even execution. 101 East has exclusive access inside this secretive world, where defectors share harrowing stories of survival, human trafficking and their fragile dreams of finding a safe haven. Adblock test (Why?)
Starmer meets police as far-right violence spikes after Southport stabbing
PM to offer ‘full backing’ to police chiefs as far-right activists attempt to stoke anger against Muslims and immigrants. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has convened police leaders for an emergency meeting following a second night of violent far-right protests after a stabbing spree in the town of Southport earlier in the week. Starmer called the meeting at Downing Street on Thursday to demonstrate the government’s “full backing” for police amid “multiple high-profile incidents of extreme violence and public disorder on our streets”, said an official statement. The Prime Minister’s Office said Starmer would tell police leaders that “while the right to peaceful protest must be protected at all costs”, he would make it clear that criminals exploiting that right to “sow hatred” and carry out violent acts would “face the full force of the law”. The country is reeling since the stabbing on Monday at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the English seaside town of Southport, which killed three girls – Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine. Eight other children and two adults were also wounded. The 17-year-old suspect, named as Axel Rudakubana, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, facing three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder following the killings. Prior to his court appearance, the suspect’s identity had been withheld owing to his age, but Liverpool judge Andrew Menary allowed the details to be released, justifying the decision on grounds of him turning 18 next week. Even though little was previously known about the suspect other than that he was born in Britain, the stabbing had been used by far-right activists spreading misinformation online to stoke anger at immigrants and Muslims. Protests led by the far-right on Wednesday night took place in three cities – London, Hartlepool and Manchester. In London, crowds massed outside Starmer’s 10 Downing Street official residence in London, throwing beer cans and bottles and chanting “Shame on you”, launching flares at a nearby statue of wartime leader and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. More than 100 people were arrested. In Hartlepool, demonstrators set police cars on fire and threw bottles and eggs at the officers, with police saying eight arrests were made. A smaller disturbance was reported in Manchester. The previous night, more than 50 police officers were injured in violent clashes in Southport, in which bricks were thrown at a mosque and rubbish bins and vehicles were set on fire, hours after a peaceful vigil for the stabbing victims. Fifty-three police officers were injured. Police have blamed members of the far-right English Defence League grouping, an Islamophobic organisation founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism. Adblock test (Why?)
In India’s Assam, ‘hopes dashed’ for high returns on oil palm production
Jorhat, India: Priya Ram Duwarah has planted 60 oil palm seedlings in his half-hectare (1.2 acres) of agricultural land at Mohara village in Jorhat district in the northeast Indian state of Assam. The 65-year-old farmer, who typically grows paddy and seasonal vegetables, stepped into oil palm planting last September after being assured of high returns by the officials of the state agriculture department. While it takes the plants four years to bear fruits, he says that the wait is worth the time. Reason: the promise of higher returns. Duwarah told Al Jazeera that cultivating paddy earns him approximately 40,000 rupees ($478) a year, a sum that is “too paltry” in the wake of the rising inflation. “The government officials assured me of doubling my income,” since the region has climatic conditions favourable to oil palm and Duwarah decided to venture into the business, he told Al Jazeera, sounding enthusiastic about his new crop. He is one of about 1,200 farmers in Assam who have taken up oil palm farming with the dream of enhancing their income. Huge demand for edible oils In 2014, the newly elected Narendra Modi government set up the National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP) with the goal of making India self-reliant in edible oils. In 2021, its name was changed to National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm and the government announced an investment of 110.4 billion rupees ($1.32bn). India is the largest importer of edible oils in the world. In the twelve months from November 2022 to October 2023, it imported 16.47 million tonnes of edible oil, including 10 million tonnes of oil palm. That was up from the previous year’s imports of 14.19 million tonnes and 8 million tonnes, respectively. Palm oil is used in a range of packaged foods, as well as soaps, cosmetics, ice cream, and other products. It takes four years for oil palm trees to bear fruits, pictured, and farmers are trying to undertake inter-cropping in the interim to have any produce to sell in the interim [Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera] While oil palm cultivation was already going on in some southern Indian states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Karnataka, the Modi government decided to expand production to the country’s northeastern region including Assam. Assam had initially allocated about 1,000 hectares (2,741 acres) of agricultural land for oil palm cultivation. But with its immense potential, the Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research in 2014 identified a total area of 375,428 hectares (927,703 acres) fit for farming. However, despite the obvious demand for palm oil and a decade of efforts, things have not gone as planned in Assam. One of the main problems is that there are still no processing facilities in place in the state and the fruit is processed in the nearby states of Mizoram and Andhra Pradesh. The delays in that process and the resultant losses have turned off farmers who were the early adopters of the practice. ‘Hopes dashed’ Josmi Rabha, 54, a farmer in Dariduri village in Goalpara district is one of them. She planted 65 oil palm seedlings over about one hectare (2.5 acres) of her farm in 2016 with the promise of high returns. “I spent around [100,000 rupees] ($1,200) to set up a fence to keep animals out and also installed a pump for groundwater irrigation,” even as that ran up her water bill, Josmi told Al Jazeera. “The plants started to bear fruits in 2021. We were expecting high returns. But all our hopes were dashed after we didn’t find any market to sell them as nobody came to buy from us,” Josmi said. The fruit begins to rot if not processed within three days and middlemen aware of that dilemma offered them low rates, she recalled. “The absence of an oil processing plant in Assam has virtually killed our business,” she said, adding that now she is having problems arranging funds to remove the plants from her land. Josmi Rabha says the lack of processing facilities in Assam has killed her business [Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera] Rabha’s son Debajyoti Rabha, 34, a teacher in a local school, also got into the business to supplement his family’s income, but the result has devastated him. “Oil palm is a water-guzzling crop and has killed all other crops,” which he had intercropped with the oil palm based on the suggestion of government officials, Debyajyoti said. “We are planning to clear the palm oil crop from our fields, but the branches and stems are sturdy and we will have to hire extra manpower to do that. This has been a loss-making affair for us,” he added. While once 70 farmers in the village had signed up to the idea of cultivating oil palm, now only 10 remain as everyone else has given up on it, he said. Pratul Chandra Rabha, 40, another farmer in the same village also blamed the poor prices they were offered for the farmers losing interest in cultivating it. There is no minimum support price (MSP) from the government and middlemen have offered them six rupees ($0.072) per kg for fruit, much lower than the asking price of 15-16 rupees ($0.19) per kg. “Each tree bears 15-20kg [33-35 pounds] of fruit in a gap of 20 days, but where are the buyers? I am not serious about palm cultivation any more and have almost left it,” Rabha told Al Jazeera. Dipak Kumar Pathak, the assistant director of the agriculture department in Goalpara conceded the decline in farmer participation and the plantation area which had halved to 700 – 800 hectares (1,730 – 1977 acres) from 1,511 hectares (3,734 acres) in 2014. “The lack of proper transportation of crops to the processing units and involvement of middlemen seems to be the biggest reason behind the set-back”, Pathak said. New players Last August Assam Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma announced that the state government, in partnership with Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Foods Limited (PFL), had initiated a large-scale
Paris Olympics 2024: Homeboy Marchand, legendary Ledecky bag swimming gold
Katie Ledecky blitzed the field to retain her 1,500 metres freestyle title at the Paris Olympics, the American iron woman securing a record-equalling eighth gold medal in the sport. World record holder Ledecky blew away the field in the gruelling, 30-lap race at La Defense Arena, touching the wall in an Olympic record 15.30.02, more than 10 seconds ahead of France’s silver medallist Anastasiia Kirpichnikova. Germany’s Isabel Gose took bronze. Ledecky went out hard and was a body length clear after 100m with her lead growing to five seconds at the halfway mark. She never relented, her advantage continuing to build as she reinforced her reputation as the greatest distance swimmer the sport has seen. The result was never in doubt with the 27-year-old setting the last six world records and now holding the fastest 20 times ever swum. Ledecky now shares the record for most Olympic gold medals in women’s swimming with American Jenny Thompson, who won eight relay titles over three Olympics from 1992-2000. Her collection of Olympic medals now equals the all-time record of 12 in women’s swimming shared by Thompson, Americans Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin, and Australian Emma McKeon. Ledecky will also swim the 800m in Paris, with Australian Ariarne Titmus standing in her way of winning a fourth straight title. Katie Ledecky of the United States celebrates after winning the 1500m freestyle gold medal [Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters] Magical Marchand achieves unprecedented Olympic feat In the final race of day five of the games, home hero Leon Marchand took his third gold medal of the Paris Olympics and an unprecedented second on the same day in the men’s 200-metre butterfly and breaststroke double. The Paris 2024 poster boy took the 200 butterfly title in Olympic record time and, roared on by his fans, beat Hungary’s world record holder and reigning champion Kristof Milak into second place. Canada’s Ilya Kharun took the bronze in a race led by Milak until the final length when he was reeled in by his 22-year-old opponent in a thrilling duel to the wall in a deafening atmosphere with the crowd reaching a crescendo. Marchand’s time of one minute 51.21 seconds was the third-fastest ever in the discipline. The Frenchman, who had the arena rocking when he won the 400 Individual Medley on Sunday bagged his third title later in the 200 breaststroke final in a jaw-dropping attempt. No Olympic swimmer – not even US great Michael Phelps who had the same coach as the Frenchman – has ever won the two events, but Marchand will start the breaststroke from lane four after qualifying with the fastest time. He made history as no swimmer has won medals in butterfly and breaststroke at the same Olympics. Leon Marchand was backed by a raucous French crowd at the La Defense Arena [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] Sarah Sjostrom defies age for 100m gold Earlier in the day, Evergreen Swede Sarah Sjostrom proved the adage that form is temporary and class is permanent as she upset a top-quality field to claim the women’s 100-metre freestyle gold. Sjostrom only committed to racing the 100m weeks before the games but showed she still has what it takes as she swept to her second gold medal at the age of 30, eight years after winning the 100m butterfly at the Rio Olympics. Sjostrom had plenty of ground to make up at the turn but put in a sizzling final 50 metres, sweeping down lane seven to touch the wall in 52.16 seconds at La Defense Arena, 0.13 seconds ahead of American silver medallist Torri Huske. Siobhan Haughey took bronze for Hong Kong. Though regarded as one of the greatest swimmers of the modern era, her one Olympic gold prior to Paris seemed a disappointing return for a swimmer of her standing. Now the Swede has the 100m gold to match her world record and more success may follow in the 50m freestyle. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden reacts after winning the race [Reuters] Pan bags China’s first pool gold In the last swimming finals of the night, China’s Pan Zhanle smashed the world record as he stormed to victory in the men’s 100m freestyle. Pan powered to the finish in 46.40 seconds, beating the world record time of 46.80 he had set in February in Doha. Australia’s Kyle Chalmers, gold medal winner at the 2016 Rio Games, finished 1.08 seconds behind to take silver with Romania’s David Popovici claiming bronze. China’s Pan Zhanle celebrates after winning the men’s 100-metre freestyle final [Petr David Josek/AP Photo] Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli air strike kills Al Jazeera correspondent, cameraman
NewsFeed An Israeli air strike killed Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi while they were reporting from northern Gaza. Al Jazeera Media Network has called their killings a “cold-blooded assassination.” Published On 31 Jul 202431 Jul 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Republican PAC WinRed misleads US consumers into recurring donations
James Frank Clark is a lifelong Republican who lives in Texas. He spends his time between his home in a suburb northwest of Houston and a small town called Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio. He lives in fairly conservative areas so it’s no surprise that his candidates of choice are Republicans. That’s why he signed up to donate to GOP candidates through WinRed — an overarching political action committee (PAC) that donates to Republican candidates across the United States. As far as he knew, he made a handful of small donations here and there. But that’s not what ended up happening. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show Clark made thousands of donations including as recently as in June 2024. According to his grandson Colin, who shared the data with Al Jazeera, these were made without his grandfather’s knowledge. “They [WinRed] would come in and take $20 here and there but then they would run that transaction somewhere between 50 and 200 times,” Clark told Al Jazeera. WinRed is allegedly overcharging and prompting recurring donations from donors like Clark without their knowledge, a problem that overwhelmingly impacts elderly voters like him. This is an old problem with WinRed, one of the largest Republican PACs in the US. Set up in 2019, it has been under the lens of attorneys general across four US states since 2021 for overcharging consumers and deceiving them into donating more than they thought by using deceptive marketing practices. According to records obtained by Al Jazeera, the deceptive practices have continued in the lead-up to the US presidential elections in November. Endorsed by the Republican National Committee, WinRed has become the most prominent tool for Republican Party fundraising efforts. It is one of two major PACs – ActBlue being the other one, for the Democratic Party – raising money for ballot races for their respective political sides. Both bombard donors with over-the-top emails and text messages from candidates and their surrogates. Both WinRed and ActBlue raise money for their respective parties, which they then distribute to various candidates. In Clark’s case, WinRed put his donations towards committees ranging from those supporting Ted Cruz for the US Senate and Donald Trump for president. Clark was charged almost $90,000 across six different credit cards – three of which had charges well over $20,000 as recently as the end of June, as per Clark’s credit card statements, communications with WinRed, and FEC records obtained by Al Jazeera. Clark showed Al Jazeera he had not logged into a WinRed account since 2022, which Al Jazeera has independently verified. Even though Clark alleges that misleading texts over the years led to this, WinRed refunded donations only from the last 60 days, which came out to a little more than $59,000, leaving Clark drained and furious. “I don’t have the energy to go through whatever I have to go through to get it [a full refund] done. If it’s anywhere close to having to deal with more of this bureaucracy, I’ll just tell them to kiss my ass,” he said. Clark is far from alone. There are communities online that outline comparable situations including on platforms like Trustpilot and Pissed Consumer. There are also Reddit threads dedicated to this problem. Al Jazeera reached out to dozens of impacted consumers. While there was hesitation amongst many Republicans to speak to representatives of what they described as the “liberal media”, this reporter managed to confirm the validity of some claims by cross-verifying them with FEC filings. In one case in Arizona, an elderly man was charged upwards of $700 a week for at least a year – and it wasn’t until his wife took over his finances that she discovered the incessant charges. There was a similar situation in Indiana of a retiree living on a fixed income. Out of respect for their privacy, Al Jazeera has opted not to disclose their identities. Dark patterns Other sources Al Jazeera spoke to have struggled to even opt out of texts, including Kurren Kidd, a potential donor living in Bonita, California. “Every single text link goes to WinRed, has the option to ‘repeat your donation’ automatically selected, and uses shady tactics and lies to trick you into clicking on the link. Let’s just say I’m very upset with WinRed. In my view, they are deceitful money-grabbing liars,” Kidd told Al Jazeera. Kidd added that he gets texts from different phone numbers every day from WinRed and has been unable to opt out. This practice is known as dark patterns — meaning deceptive language that can make it challenging to understand what a person might be signing up for — within a given website. “Often [dark patterns] are used to get people to tie them into subscriptions that they didn’t intend to sign up for, but these donations operate in the same way,” Harry Brignull, founder of the Deceptive Patterns Initiative, a programme that raises awareness about deceptive design tactics online, told Al Jazeera. Brignull also alleged that the hoops WinRed put in place so cancellations cannot be done over the phone — like not being able to call a customer service line, as Clark showed in emails shared with Al Jazeera — are a way to trap consumers. “It’s like in nature how there are different kinds of predatory plants to tempt insects in and then keep trapping them basically. Those are carnivorous plants. That same phenomenon is used in business, too,” added Brignull, who also coined the term “dark patterns”. Al Jazeera reached out to the attorney general (AG) offices in the four states investigating WinRed’s deceptive practices. Connecticut’s AG office declined to comment. Minnesota’s office, while they declined to comment on specifics, confirmed to Al Jazeera that the office is still actively investigating WinRed. The other two offices — New York and Maryland — did not respond. Even prior to the 2020 presidential election, the PAC faced a class-action lawsuit for deceptive practices. The suit alleged that the PAC sent automated text messages without