Dutch privacy watchdog warns voters against asking AI how to vote
Body finds that chatbots provide biased advice, including by leading voters to the hard-right Party for Freedom. Published On 21 Oct 202521 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share The Netherlands’s data protection watchdog has cautioned citizens against consulting with artificial intelligence on how to vote, warning that popular chatbots provide a “highly distorted and polarised view” of politics. The Dutch Data Protection Authority said on Tuesday that an increasing number of voters were using AI to help decide who to vote for, despite the models offering “unreliable and clearly biased” advice. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The watchdog issued the warning as it released the results of tests conducted on four popular chatbots – ChatGPT, Gemini, Mistral, and Grok – in the run-up to parliamentary elections on October 29. The research found that the chatbots more often recommended parties on the fringes of the political spectrum when asked to identify the three choices that best matched the policy preferences of 1,500 fictitious voter profiles. In more than half of cases, the AI models identified the hard-right Party for Freedom (PVV) or left-wing Green Left-Labour Party as the top choice, the watchdog said. Parties closer to the political middle ground – such as the right-leaning People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and the centre-left Democrats 66 – were recommended much less often, according to the watchdog. Meanwhile, some groupings, including the conservative Christian Democratic Appeal and left-leaning Denk, were “almost never suggested”. Monique Verdier, deputy chair of the authority, said that voters who turned to AI risked being encouraged to vote for parties that do not align with their preferences. Advertisement “This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections. We therefore urge voters not to use AI chatbots for voting advice because their operation is neither transparent nor verifiable,” Verdier said in a statement. “Additionally, we call on chatbot providers to prevent their systems from being used as voting guides.” The October 29 election comes after the PVV, led by anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders, pulled its support for the government after its coalition partners refused to back a 10-point plan to radically curtail immigration. Wilders’s PPV, which scored one of the biggest upsets in Dutch political history by winning the most seats in the 2023 election, has consistently led opinion polls before next week’s vote. While the PPV is on track to win the most seats for a second straight election, it is all but certain to fall far short of a parliamentary majority. The other major parties in the Netherlands, which has been governed by coalition governments without interruption since the 1940s, have all ruled out supporting the PPV in power. Adblock test (Why?)
LIVE: Arsenal vs Atletico Madrid – UEFA Champions League
blinking-dotLive MatchLive Match, Follow our live build-up, with the latest team news coverage, ahead of our full text commentary stream of the UCL football fixture. Published On 21 Oct 202521 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Charged for saying ‘I love Muhammad’, India’s Muslims decry gov’t crackdown
Lucknow, India – On the evening of September 4, an illuminated signboard lit up a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in Kanpur, an industrial town in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The signboard said: “I love Muhammad” – with a red heart standing in for the word, love. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list It was the first time the mainly working-class residents in Kanpur’s Syed Nagar had put up such a sign as part of the decorations as they joined millions of Muslims around the world to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. The day, marked as Eid Milad-un-Nabi across South Asia, involves the faithful organising religious gatherings, Quran recitations, and sermons about the prophet’s life and teachings. At some places, the celebrations include mass processions, with people carrying posters to express their love and reverence for the prophet. In Syed Nagar, however, as soon as the words glowed, a group of Hindu men swooped in, objecting to the celebration. Police were called in, and following a ruckus that lasted hours, the signboard was removed late that night. Charges related to promoting enmity between different religious groups, as well as deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of another community, were filed against nine Muslim men and 15 unidentified people from Syed Nagar. No arrests have been made so far. Police attacking Muslim demonstrators in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India [Al Jazeera] Mohit Bajpayee, a Syed Nagar resident affiliated with a Hindu group named Sri Ramnavmi Samiti, said he had no objection to the text, ‘I love Muhammad’, but to the placement of the signboard at a place used by them for a Hindu festival. Advertisement “All religions have equal rights under the constitution,” he told Al Jazeera. “But the sign was put up at a location where our Ram Navami decorations are usually displayed. Everyone has a right to follow their religion, but new traditions should not be started in new locations.” But the Muslim residents of Syed Nagar say the signboard was put up at a public place they converged at every year for the prophet’s birth anniversary. “We had official permission for the decorations. Everyone has the right to practise their religion under the constitution,” said a 28-year-old resident who is one of those charged, unwilling to reveal his identity over fears of further action by the government. MA Khan, the lawyer for the accused in Kanpur, told Al Jazeera that the Muslim men were also accused of tearing a banner of the Hindu community during the Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession on September 5. “Many of those named were not even present in the procession,” he said. ‘Disturbing communal harmony’ Uttar Pradesh is home to 38 million Muslims – more than the entire population of Saudi Arabia – comprising nearly 20 percent of India’s most populous state. Since 2017, the politically crucial state has been governed by Yogi Adityanath, a hardline Hindu monk known for his anti-Muslim speech and policies, and a prominent politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Days later, the spark from Kanpur ignited a fire some 270km (168 miles) away, in another Uttar Pradesh town called Bareilly – headquarters of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims, who number between 200 million to 300 million across the world. On September 10, the state police registered a first information report (FIR) against nine Muslims in Bareilly, including a religious scholar, accusing them of “disturbing communal harmony” and starting a “new tradition” that threatened public order. A Muslim woman protesting in Lucknow, India [Naeem Ansari/Al Jazeera] On September 21, Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, chief of a Muslim group called Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) and descendant of Imam Ahmed Raza Khan, the founder of the Barelvi sect, announced a protest over the FIRs filed in Bareilly and Kanpur, and urged his supporters to gather at a ground after Friday prayers on September 26 to denounce the police action. The district administration denied Khan permission for the rally. On September 25, the IMC issued a statement asking people not to gather for the protest. But hours later, Khan’s supporters allegedly circulated a social media message, claiming the IMC statement was fake and aimed at defaming the Muslim body. Advertisement The next day, thousands of Muslims assembled near a famous Muslim shrine in Bareilly after the Friday prayers, holding “I love Muhammad” posters and raising slogans against the police for their action in Kanpur. District authorities alleged that the march was unauthorised and accused some participants of pelting stones at the police and vandalising public property. The police responded with a baton charge, and arrested Khan and dozens of others, as authorities shut down the internet in the town. Police attacking Muslim demonstrators in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India [Al Jazeera] In a video message recorded before his arrest, Khan said the crackdown was a targeted suppression of religious expression. “Attempts to suppress our religious sentiments will backfire,” he warned. A day later, while speaking at an event in the state capital, Lucknow, Chief Minister Adityanath condemned the Bareilly unrest as a “well-orchestrated attempt” to disturb social harmony. “Sometimes, people are not able to shun their bad habits easily. For that, some denting-painting is required … You saw that in Bareilly yesterday. A maulana [Muslim scholar] forgot who is in power,” he said in Hindi, without naming anyone. The “denting-painting” soon followed, as has been the pattern with Adityanath’s crackdown on Muslims accused of disrupting public order. A banquet hall belonging to one of the accused was bulldozed by the authorities in Bareilly. ‘Government wants to instil fear’ Demolition of homes and commercial properties belonging to Muslims accused of a range of crimes has become a common practice in Uttar Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states, despite India’s top court recently banning what it called the “bulldozer justice”. Rights groups say such demolitions are a form of extralegal punishment that bypasses judicial processes and devastates families economically. While the Uttar Pradesh government claimed the demolitions in
What caused Amazon’s AWS outage, and why did so many major apps go offline?
A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday disrupted a large portion of the internet, taking down apps, websites and online tools used by millions of people around the world, before services were eventually restored. From banking apps and airlines to smart home devices and gaming platforms, the hours-long breakdown revealed how much of modern life depends on cloud’s infrastructure. Recommended Stories list of 1 itemend of list Here is what we know: What happened and what caused the AWS outage? At about 07:11 GMT, Amazon’s cloud service experienced a major outage, meaning some of its systems stopped working, which disrupted many popular apps and websites, including banks, gaming platforms and entertainment services. The problem started in one of AWS’s main data centres in Virginia, its oldest and biggest site, after a technical update to the API – a connection between different computer programmes – of DynamoDB, a key cloud database service that stores user information and other important data for many online platforms. The root cause appears to have been an error in the update that affected the Domain Name System (DNS), which helps apps find the correct server addresses. A DNS works like the internet’s phone book, turning website names into the numeric IP addresses that computers use to connect to servers. Because of the DNS issue, apps could not find the IP address for DynamoDB’s API and were unable to connect. As DynamoDB went down, other AWS services also began to fail. In total, 113 services were affected by the outage. By 10:11 GMT, Amazon said that all AWS returned to normal operations, but there was a backlog “of messages that they will finish processing over the next few hours”. Advertisement At the time of publication, Downdetector, a website that tracks internet outages based on user reports, was still showing problems with platforms such as OpenAI, ESPN and Apple Music. Updated look at the total impact of the AWS Outage up to this point!https://t.co/Bgpm1fFGtf pic.twitter.com/TAAxjagNl6 — Downdetector (@downdetector) October 20, 2025 What is a cloud and what exactly is AWS? A cloud is a way of storing and using data or programmes over the internet instead of on your computer or other physical storage devices. When people say something is “in the cloud”, it means the files, apps or systems are running on powerful computers (called servers) in data centres owned by companies like Amazon (AWS), Google or Microsoft, not on your personal device. In this case, AWS allows companies to rent computing power and storage. It supplies the technology that runs websites, apps and many online services behind the scenes. One of AWS’s core services is DynamoDB, a database that stores important information for companies, such as customer records. On Monday, Amazon reported that customers were unable to access their DynamoDB data. AWS is the biggest cloud service provider in the world. Cloud outages are not rare, but they have become more noticeable as more companies rely on these services every day. “The fallout impacted people across a number of different spheres,” Joshua Mahony, the chief market analyst at Scope Markets, told Al Jazeera. [But] of course this kind of comes with the territory with tech companies; the key is they can resolve it quickly, and it doesn’t cost them a lot of money.” He said Amazon would likely weather the storm from the incident. “You’re looking at something that is relatively contained,” he said. “Amazon Web Services has cornered 30 percent of the market alone. Their users are not going to suddenly jump ship. Their businesses are deeply ingrained.” Which services and apps went down? The outage affected dozens of websites, including Snapchat, Pinterest and Apple TV, according to Downdetector. Other communication apps were also affected including: WhatsApp, Signal, Zoom and Slack; gaming services such as Roblox, Fortnite and Xbox; and places like Starbucks. Etsy also experienced issues. In the United States, people were having issues with financial apps too, including Venmo. Some users said their Ring doorbells and Alexa speakers stopped working, while others could not access the Amazon website or download books on their Kindles. The language app Duolingo and creative tool Canva were among those reporting errors on their websites, and several media organisations were hit, including the Associated Press news agency, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Advertisement Banks, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and AI firm Perplexity also reported issues, along with US airlines Delta and United. Why did so many major apps go offline at once? When AWS had its outage, it was not just Amazon’s tools that were affected. Thousands of other companies that use AWS for storage, databases or web hosting were also hit. These companies include many major apps that rely on AWS to run key parts of their systems. “Whenever we see these headlines, the first thought that goes through everybody’s mind, that sends a shiver up the spine, is, ‘Is this one of those cyberattacks? Is this a military or intelligence-led thing that has led to this disruption?’ And in this case, it’s not,” Bryson Bort chief executive of the cybersecurity company Scythe told Al Jazeera. “In fact, most of the time, it isn’t. It’s usually human error.” How did Amazon respond? AWS acknowledged the outage and said engineers were “immediately engaged” to fix the problem. AWS said it worked on “multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery”. It also reported that the main issue had been fully resolved, though some users continued to face minor delays as systems recovered. The company also said it would publish a detailed post-event summary explaining what happened. An aerial view of an Amazon Web Services Data Center, known as US East 1, in Ashburn, Virginia [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv to decline tickets to Europa League match in UK
Tel Aviv football team says it is working to ‘stamp out racism’ among its fan base. Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv has said it will turn down any tickets offered to its fans for a match in the United Kingdom, even if an earlier decision by local officials to bar the team’s followers from attending is reversed. Maccabi Tel Aviv said on Monday that “hard lessons learned” meant it had decided to decline any offer of tickets for the Europa League game against Aston Villa. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “The wellbeing and safety of our fans is paramount,” the team said in a statement posted online. “Our decision should be understood in that context.” The club also said it had been working to “stamp out racism” within the “more extreme elements” of its fan base. “Our first-team squad consists of Muslims, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses the ethnic and religious divide,” it said. The team’s decision came a day after Israeli police cancelled a match between Maccabi and its rival Tel Aviv team Hapoel before kickoff over what they described as “public disorder and violent riots”. The move by Israeli authorities to cancel the game stood in contrast with criticism by British and Israeli leaders of Birmingham City’s decision to ban Maccabi fans from the November 6 match at Villa Park in Birmingham, central England. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the ban by the city’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) “the wrong decision”, while Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar called for the “shameful” and “coward decision” to be reversed. The UK government said on Friday that it was working to override local authorities to allow Israeli fans to be present. But after Israeli police shut down the match between Tel Aviv teams on Sunday, some UK politicians questioned whether the government should intervene in Birmingham. Advertisement “To Keir Starmer and others who tried to make this about religion! Here’s more evidence. Even under the world’s spotlight, these fans chose violence, injuring police officers,” independent MP Ayoub Khan wrote in a post on X. Richard Burgon, a Labour MP, broke with his government, saying the developments vindicated the decision to ban away fans from attending the game. “This news exposes how absurd that campaign has been,” he said on X. “The people of Birmingham have a right to be kept safe.” West Midlands Police said last week that they had classified the match as high risk based on “current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam”. “Based on our professional judgement, we believe this measure will help mitigate risks to public safety,” the police force said. Last year’s clashes in Amsterdam between pro-Palestinian supporters and fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv led to dozens of arrests. The clashes followed incidents of Israeli fans rampaging through the Dutch capital, assaulting residents, destroying symbols of Palestinian solidarity and chanting racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians and Arabs. The clashes also featured reported incidents of anti-Semitism, including a private messaging chat calling for a “Jew hunt”. Legal experts have also voiced concerns about Israeli teams participating in international sporting matches, citing a report by United Nations investigators that affirmed that Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians. Earlier this month, more than 30 legal experts wrote to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, saying that banning Israel from competitions was “imperative”. “UEFA must not be complicit in sports-washing such flagrant breaches of international law, including but not limited to the act of genocide,” the experts wrote. Adblock test (Why?)
China sets goal to become a “modern socialist power”
[unable to retrieve full-text content] So, the next two five-year plans are very, very important to see China’s achievement of global competitiveness.”
South Korea police seek warrants for 58 repatriated scam centre suspects
The South Korean nationals were returned from Cambodia after being held for alleged links to “pig butchering” scams. Published On 20 Oct 202520 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share South Korean police are seeking to arrest dozens of suspects who have been deported from Cambodia over alleged links to so-called “pig butchering” scams. Seoul’s National Police Agency said on Monday it was seeking warrants for 58 of the 64 South Korean nationals who were repatriated from Cambodia over the weekend, after being held there over their suspected links to the scams. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list One of the repatriated individuals has already been arrested, while five others have been released, officials said. The repatriations, which saw the returned South Korean nationals escorted off their flight in handcuffs, have come amid a push by Seoul to tackle the issue of its nationals becoming involved in the scams. The South Korean government believes about 1,000 of its citizens are working in Cambodian scam centres, where workers are often lured through fake job offers, before being trafficked into work defrauding victims online. ‘Pig butchering’ The trafficked workers are held against their will at the compounds and forced to carry out online fraud against victims around the world, luring their targets into fake romantic relationships online, before persuading them to invest large sums into fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms. The practice is known as “pig butchering” – a euphemism for fattening up a victim before they are slaughtered. Park Sung-joo, head of South Korea’s National Office of Investigation, told reporters last week that the repatriated group had been linked to crimes including voice phishing, romance scams and other fraud schemes. Advertisement National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac previously said the detained individuals included both “voluntary and involuntary participants” in the scams. Public outcry South Korea sent a delegation to Cambodia last week, headed by the deputy foreign minister and including police as well as intelligence agents, to discuss the scam centre issue, which it says has resulted in the kidnapping of dozens of South Koreans. The push follows public outcry over the killing of a South Korean college student in Cambodia, who was found dead in a pick-up truck in August after having allegedly been kidnapped and tortured by a scam centre crime ring. Seoul also announced a ban on travel to parts of Cambodia last week, amid concerns over its citizens being kidnapped and forced into working for the scam centres. The measures come amid recent moves by other governments to crack down on the scam centres, which have ballooned into a multibillion-dollar illicit industry since the COVID-19 pandemic, when the global shutdown saw many Chinese-owned casinos and hotels in the country pivot to illicit operations. Last week, the United States and United Kingdom announced sweeping sanctions against a Cambodia-based multinational crime network, identified as the Prince Group, for running a chain of “scam centres” across the region. US Attorney General Pam Bondi called the move “one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud”. On Friday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that police in Tokyo had arrested three people for their involvement in Cambodia-based scams. Adblock test (Why?)
Mongolia’s president vetoes effort to unseat PM
President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh claims parliament’s vote to oust the PM is invalid because of ‘procedural flaws’. Published On 20 Oct 202520 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Mongolia’s president has vetoed a parliamentary resolution to dismiss the country’s prime minister, deepening a political crisis in the resource-rich state. President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh issued the veto on Monday, three days after parliament voted to oust Prime Minister Gombojav Zandanshatar, who had drawn anger for changing the country’s mineral policy. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Khurelsukh’s office said parliament’s attempt to remove Zandanshatar, a fellow member of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), was invalid because it did not have a quorum when it began the session. “These procedural flaws constitute a breach of the Constitution and compromise the principle of the rule of law,” said the president in a statement cited by the state Montsame news agency. Mongolia’s constitutional court has scheduled a meeting to discuss the president’s veto. The contention over Zandanshatar’s fate is part of a deeper feud within the MPP. In September, Zandanshatar lost a party leadership election to his chief rival, parliamentary speaker Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve, who himself resigned last week amid corruption allegations. The crisis follows a wave of popular unrest in Mongolia, which though rich in natural resources, has been bogged down by perceived corruption and a weak economy. Such tumult forced out Zandanshatar’s predecessor, Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, in June after he lost a no-confidence vote in Mongolia’s parliament. Zandanshatar, for his part, had faced criticism from lawmakers, including from his own party, over an overhaul to minerals policy that would make exporters pay royalties based on domestic stock prices, rather than international benchmarks used since 2021, which critics warned could hurt the national budget. Advertisement He also drew fire for appointing a justice minister without notifying parliament, which MPs said was unlawful. The Mongolian president returned to Ulaanbaatar last Thursday after a state visit to India, where officials reached agreements in areas including oil and gas. Adblock test (Why?)
Live: Israel kills 97 Palestinians in Gaza since start of ceasefire
blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, Gaza Government Media Office says Israel has breached the truce agreement 80 times, including 21 violations on Sunday. Published On 19 Oct 202519 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Bolivia elects centre-right Rodrigo Paz as president
Paz, the son of a former president, promises ‘capitalism for all’ as election ends 20 years of socialist government. Bolivians have elected Rodrigo Paz of the centre-right Christian Democratic Party (PDC) as their new president, ending almost 20 years of governance by the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party. With 97 percent of ballots counted, Paz had won 54.5 percent of the vote in Sunday’s run-off race, well ahead of right-wing former interim President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, with 45.4 percent of the vote, according to the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Paz, 58, followed his father, former left-wing President Jaime Zamora, into politics. After studying economics in the United States, Paz returned home to Bolivia, where he went on to become a city councillor and mayor of the southern city of Tarija, before becoming a senator for the region in 2020. He has pledged a “capitalism for all” approach, promising tax cuts, tariff reductions, and the decentralisation of the national government. After the results were announced, Paz’s vice-presidential running mate, Edmand Lara, made a call for “unity and reconciliation”. “We must ensure the supply of diesel and gasoline. People are suffering. We need to stabilise the prices of the basic food basket, and we must put an end to corruption,” Lara said. Sunday’s run-off came after the incumbent MAS party suffered a major defeat in August’s preliminary election, after former left-wing President Evo Morales was barred from running and outgoing President Luis Arce, who had fallen out with Morales, opted out of the race. Courts had ruled against Morales’s candidacy over term limits and technicalities related to party affiliation. Advertisement The division within their left-wing coalition, along with the country’s deep economic crisis, meant few expected MAS to return to power. Outside of the National Congress, the new president will still face stiff opposition from Morales, who remains popular, especially among Indigenous Bolivians. Supporters of Rodrigo Paz celebrate after learning the results of the run-off presidential election in La Paz, on Sunday [Martin Bernetti/AFP] On Sunday, Morales told reporters that the two candidates each represented only “a handful of people in Bolivia”. “They do not represent the popular movement, much less the Indigenous movement,” he said. Arce is due to leave office on November 8 after serving a single presidential term that began in 2020. Bolivia’s constitution allows for two terms, but he did not seek re-election. Economic woes The Andean country has been struggling through an economic crisis, including annual inflation of almost 25 percent and critical shortages of US dollars and fuel. Bolivians took to the streets to protest high prices and hours-long waits for fuel, bread and other basics in the lead-up to the August 17 general election. Bolivia had enjoyed more than a decade of strong growth and Indigenous upliftment under Morales, who nationalised the gas sector and ploughed the proceeds into social programmes that halved extreme poverty during his stint in power between 2006 and 2019. But after Morales, who was outspoken on environmental issues and climate change, chose not to expand the country’s gas sector, energy revenues fell from a peak of $6.1bn in 2013 to $1.6bn in 2024, seeing the government run out of foreign exchange needed to import fuel, wheat and other foodstuffs. Meanwhile, Paz has been unclear about whether he plans to continue a fuel subsidy that has cost the government billions of dollars, at times saying he will restrict it to “vulnerable sectors” of the population. Adblock test (Why?)