JAKARTA: Arriving on a rickety boat in western Indonesia from squalid camps in Bangladesh after weeks at sea late last year, hundreds of Rohingya refugees came to shore only to be turned around and pushed back. On TikTok, dozens of fake UNHCR accounts have flooded Rohingya videos with comments. Ismail Fahmi, analyst for social media monitor Drone Emprit, told AFP the narrative "seems coordinated" but presented as if "it was organic." Locals say social media is making such anti-Rohingya sentiment appear widespread, but that was not reflected across Aceh from day to day. "It seems massive when we observe it on social media," said Aceh fishermen community secretary-general Azwir Nazar, acknowledging that Rohingya defenders online were treated as a "common enemy."

Similarly, both societies were able to shed restrictive social norms — of which body modification is only one example — and make significant progress on gender equality. The discrepancy has sparked debate about which social norms are constraining female labor-force participation and, equally importantly, whether norms are the only limiting factor. The low proportion of women in paid employment in India is a matter of serious concern, and policymakers should focus more on generating demand for female labor, rather than changing social norms. That means working to ensure the regular availability of paid work that women can access and incentivizing employers to hire them. Policymakers must put the horse before the cart: create conditions for female employment before spending immense sums on efforts to engender a new culture of equality.

LUCENA CITY — A 28-year-old Indian national, who was wanted for lascivious conduct, was caught Thursday in Pililla town in Rizal province. In a report, the Rizal police identified the man as “Ajay,” a resident of Tanay town. ADVERTISEMENTThe report said policemen, armed with a warrant, arrested Ajay, who is on the list of wanted criminals in the Calabarzon region, in Barangay Bagumbayan around 8:30 a.m. FEATURED STORIESThe Indian national is facing a case of lascivious conduct (three counts) at the Regional Trial Court Branch 166 in Siniloan, Laguna with no bail recommended. The suspect will be detained at the local police jail.

An analog storyLong before ChatGPT came into the picture, this student could perform and answer a prompt from his professor in analog style. I wonder who did it.”If you read this column with your newspaper, you are analog and might find today’s material timely and relevant. This reminds me of the analog days of the famous “Chain Letters.” Asking them who the writer or creator of this material is an exercise in futility. They could describe us as “exennials:” people born in that world of the fifties, with an analog childhood and digital adulthood. That will be analog.

After months of discussion with US lawmakers and India, the State Department formally informed Congress of the sale that includes 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardians, the most advanced among the Predator drones built by General Atomics. "The proposed sale will improve India's capability to meet current and future threats by enabling unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance patrols in sea lanes of operation," a State Department statement said. Most explosively, the Justice Department alleged that an Indian government official directed the plan remotely. Congress still has 30 days in which it can block the sale, although most observers expect it to go through. The assassination allegations against India continue to cast a shadow over US-India relations," said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center's South Asia Institute.

‘No proper system’ in the Philippines for protection of journalists — UN expertIrene Khan (L), United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, gestures during a press conference in Manila on Feb. 2, 2024. “In the context of protection or prevention of attacks (on journalists), I feel there is no proper system for that,” Khan added. But, the UN expert pointed out, Filipino journalists have become wary of approaching local police for protection. They're afraid of the security system,” Khan said. Nearly a quarter of the incidents documented by NUJP in 2023 were related to the red-tagging of media workers.

In the research, a consortium of scientists and economists found that transforming food systems across the world could prevent 174 million premature deaths, help the world meet its climate goals and provide economic benefits of $5 trillion to $10 trillion. "We have an amazing food system," said Vera Songwe, an economist with the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and part of the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC), which produced the report. Researchers estimated total underappreciated costs from food systems of up to $15 trillion a year. The authors also compared computer modelling of the consequences by 2050 of continuing current trends and of a hypothetical food system transformation. They said that on the current pathway, food systems alone will push global warming above the Paris Deal's more ambitious threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees a greater risk to the global economy if central banks start cutting interest rates too soon than if they move "slightly" too late, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday. Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva. AFP Photo Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva. AFP PhotoThe US Federal Reserve (Fed), the European Central Bank (ECB) and others have held interest rates elevated in recent months in an attempt to bring inflation back down toward target, following a post-pandemic surge in prices. Georgieva told reporters on Thursday that the United States was close to achieving a so-called soft landing, when policymakers bring inflation back to target without triggering a recession.

THE terrorist threat from al-Qaida, the Islamic State group, and their affiliates remains high in conflict zones in Africa and Afghanistan — and threat levels have risen in some regions, including Europe, United Nations experts said in a new report. The panel of experts said in the 23-page account that the relationship between Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and al-Qaida remains close, and unnamed member states said that "the high concentration of terrorist groups" in the country is undermining the security situation in the region. The Islamic State group broke away from al-Qaida over a decade ago and attracted supporters from around the world. They pointed to "a deficit in counterterrorism capabilities," which the Islamic State and al-Qaida-affiliated groups are continuing to exploit. Across Europe, the experts said, "formal terrorist threat levels have risen ... following fatal attacks in late 2023 in France and Belgium, in addition to numerous non-lethal terrorist incidents and arrests in several European countries."

NEW DELHI: India's finance minister unveiled on Thursday a short-term budget to meet government expenditures until national elections are held in May, saying it will boost spending on infrastructure projects, build homes for poor villagers, and cut the fiscal deficit by reducing subsidies. Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to raise skills for young people and boost small and medium enterprises to create jobs. The short-term budget is mostly free of big-spending new programs. Get the latest newsdelivered to your inbox Sign up for The Manila Times newsletters By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyThe short-term budget must be approved by Parliament. The government allocated $145 billion for infrastructure projects in the short-term budget.

NEW DELHI: Bulldozers have knocked down a centuries-old mosque in India's capital during a demolition drive to remove "illegal" structures from a forest reserve, a member of the building's managing committee said on Thursday. It was torn down on Tuesday in a forest of Mehrauli, an affluent neighborhood dotted with centuries-old ruins from settlements predating modern Delhi. "The rubble from the mosque and the graves has been removed and dumped somewhere else." The demolition took place barely a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand new Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya, built on grounds once home to the centuries-old Babri mosque. That mosque was torn down in 1992 in a campaign spearheaded by members of Modi's party, sparking sectarian riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's economy contracted by 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year, reflecting a drop in oil revenue, the government's statistics agency said on Wednesday. Oil firm Saudi Aramco ― of which the government owns 90 percent ― had reported record profits in 2022 following the spike in oil prices spurred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Taking 2023 as a whole, real or price-adjusted GDP was down 0.9 percent compared to 2022, the statistics authority said on Wednesday. The finance ministry had announced in December it was expecting real GDP growth of just 0.03 percent in 2023 and 4.4 percent this year. The ministry also said it was projecting a budget deficit of 2.0 percent of GDP in 2023 and 1.9 percent of GDP this year, reflecting rising spending and lower oil revenue.

Vice President Sara Duterte, in a video message released on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, answers allegations by self-confessed hitman and Davao Death Squad member Arturo Lascanas that she was involved with the DDS during her time as Davao City mayor. She also challenged Lascanas and those behind him to file murder charges against her. Video from OVP Communications

Human rights panels urged to hear out Lascañas testimonies vs DutertesA relative of a victim of an extra-judicial killing attends a memorial mass ahead of All Soul's Day to remember loved ones slain in the government's war on drugs, at the Commission on Human Rights in Manila on October 29, 2021. MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers heading the human rights committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives should investigate the claims by a self-confessed hitman from the so-called “Davao Death Squad” against the Duterte family, a human rights group said on Thursday. Palabay added that with several whistleblowers like Lascañas coming forward with their revelations, the government’s rights commission and the congressional human rights committees should exercise their mandate in “getting to the bottom” of drug-related killings under Rodrigo Duterte’s terms as Davao City mayor until his presidency. The House Committees on Justice and Human Rights in 2023 adopted a resolution urging the Marcos administration to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its drug war probe. The Philippine National Police reported around 6,000 deaths linked to anti-drug operations, but human rights groups argue that the actual number could be as high as 30,000, with several innocent victims.

Cebuana Lhuillier Sports ambassador Francis Casey Alcantara continued his amazing start in 2024 by winning another ITF Challenger doubles title in India last week. This time, the 176th ranked doubles player in the world partnered with Christopher Ruangkat, Indonesia's top tennis player, to claim the win. Francis Casey Alcantara (left) and Unified Tennis Philippines (UTP) president Jean Henri Lhuillier. He is poised to dislodge his fellow Cebuana Lhuillier Sports ambassador Ruben Gonzales as the country's number one doubles player with the rate he is going. I'm just thankful for all my supporters, especially Jean Henri Lhuillier and Cebuana Lhuillier for always being there for me," said Alcantara.