Australians are worried about the impact of content that is digitally altered to fuel online misinformation, fearing it will have an impact on upcoming elections, according to a new consumer survey. The concerns come as the head of the electoral commission warned the integrity of upcoming elections is under threat from artificial intelligence generated deepfakes,…
A newspaper clipping from Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar has been doing the rounds online in which an infographic claims that according to a survey jointly conducted by Dainik Bhaskar and Nielsen, the INDIA alliance was leading in 10 states of the country and could cross the 200-mark in these states alone. There is also a related report on the page.
Telangana Congress spokesperson Asma and many Congress supporters such as the Spirit of Congress account and Priyamwada, shared this, claiming that Modi’s image was not enough to secure votes in the Hindi belt states and added that the NDA was scared of losing the polls in Bihar, Bengal, and Maharashtra.
Alt News observed that there were differences in the fonts in the different stories on the page. A reverse image search on Google led us to a tweet which contained an image of the entire page. A close look at the image makes it clear that the page has been tampered with. Signs of editing are visible in the image, and as a result of these edits, some of the text has been concealed.
We noticed that the viral newspaper clipping is the Bhopal edition dated April 13, 2024. Upon checking the Bhopal edition of Dainik Bhaskar on April 13 on their website, we found that there was no such content on any page. This newspaper clipping has been doctored. The survey and the related story have been inserted replacing the lead story of the page which was about rainfall in Bhopal and a BJP banner ad.
Dainik Bhaskar national editor L P Pant issued a statement on X (Twitter) declaring this newspaper clipping as fake and stating that Dainik Bhaskar had not conducted any such survey.
महोदय,
दैनिक भास्कर ने ऐसा कोई सर्वे नहीं करवाया है। भास्कर मास्टहेड का इस्तेमाल कर फर्जी सर्वे चलाया गया है। आपको भी शेयर करने से पहले इसकी प्रामाणिकता जांच लेनी चाहिए। दैनिक भास्कर आपकी इस पोस्ट पर कानूनी कार्रवाई करेगा। https://t.co/0zWOm7uK8w
To sum it up, a number of Congress supporter handles and other users shared a fake clip of a newspaper claiming that according to a Dainik Bhaskar-Nielsen survey, the INDIA alliance was leading in 10 states of the country.
For the first time in five years, Southeast Asian grouping ASEAN, collectively, is tilting more towards China than the United States, a new survey by a Singapore think tank has found.
The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute has been compiling the annual survey report ‘State of Southeast Asia’ since 2020 and every year before, the U.S. was the bloc’s preferred world power.
This year, however, when asked if being forced to align with one of the strategic rivals, which should they choose, 50.5% respondents chose China while 49.5% picked the U.S.
The preferences last year were 38.9% for China and 61.1% for the U.S.
ASEAN consists of ten countries. Seven of them – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand – polled in favor of China with a higher rate than last year. Malaysia and Laos saw the biggest changes – 20.3% and 29.5%, respectively.
The U.S., however, remains the superpower of choice for Singapore (61.5%), Vietnam (79%) and the Philippines (83.3%).
The latter two, especially Manila, have seen Beijing’s increased aggression in the South China Sea, where there are conflicting claims by different countries but China’s claim is by far the most expansive.
Hanoi has just upgraded its relationship with Washington to the highest level of comprehensive strategic partnership, reflecting a new mutual trust and cooperation.
Decreased U.S. engagement
The survey said the U.S. maintains its status as the region’s advocate for maintaining a rules-based order and upholding international law.
However, when asked about the U.S.’s policy towards Southeast Asia, 38.2% said that the level of U.S. engagement with Southeast Asia has decreased under the administration of President Joe Biden, with 25.2% saying it has increased.
Only 34.9% of regional respondents say the U.S. is a reliable security partner, a big drop from 47.2% last year.
Meanwhile, the majority of regional respondents “still maintain a sense of unease and worry” about China’s economic and political and strategic influence, according to Sharon Seah, the lead author of the survey.
“Perceptions of China as the most influential economic power in Southeast Asia remain high with 59.5% of regional respondents sharing this view,” the survey found.
China, thanks to its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, has increased economic and political engagement in Southeast Asian countries.
That led to a majority of respondents worried about China’s growing regional economic influence in the region (67.4%). Only 32.6% said they welcomed China’s strengthened foothold in their economies.
ASEAN leaders hold hands for a family photo before the start of the ASEAN-China Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 6, 2023. (Reuters)
“Perhaps the tide of sentiment has shifted toward China as the more consequential relationship for the region,” Seah wrote in the Yusof Ishak Institute’s site Fulcrum.
“But it remains to be seen whether the recent trend of diminishing regard for the U.S.’s strategic partnership will mark a sea change in regional geopolitics.”
The survey was conducted by the institute’s ASEAN Studies Centre between January and February this year, with 1,994 people taking part.
Singapore has the highest number of respondents (273 or 13.7%), followed by Indonesia (265 or 13.3%) and Malaysia (225 or 11.3%).
A 10% weighting average was applied to each country’s responses to calculate the average figures for ASEAN as a whole.
The largest affiliation group of respondents is from the private sector (33.7%), followed by government (24.5%), and academia, think-tanks or research institutions (23.6%).
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.:
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
An exhaustive, 10-year survey of 6,351 North Korean escapees about their former lives in the isolated country paints a bleak picture: Food and energy are both scarcer, and government surveillance and crackdowns are stricter.
Women now play a more elevated role in families and society – though not because of a heightened sense of equality, but rather out of economic necessity, those interviewed said. They have become the main breadwinners, setting up stalls in makeshift markets that now are the main source of food and other basics for daily life.
The results of the report, compiled between 2013 and 2022 by the South’s Unification Ministry and released Tuesday, opens a window into the lives of ordinary North Koreans, and clearly indicates that the quality of life has worsened since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 after the death of his father.
Han Songmi, who was 19 when she escaped in 2011, is one of more than 30,000 people who have fled the North over the years. Now living in South Korea, she imagines what her friends and peers are experiencing, since she has virtually no way of communicating with them.
“They are probably in their late 20s now, and they are probably living with more anger than they did back then,” said Han, who was not interviewed for the survey.
When she lived in North Korea, Han said she and her friends were aware that the government controlled every aspect of their lives, but they were not allowed to discuss such things freely.
A North Korean woman plays accordion to entertain others while they plant rice in a field on the outskirts of Pyongyang, May 13, 2014. (David Guttenfelder/AP)
“The authorities were cracking down on kids for their clothing and hairstyles,” she told RFA Korean. “The kids would be saying ‘We can’t do this’ among ourselves, but we couldn’t say that in front of adults. Adults would always say, ‘Be careful, your parents can get arrested because of you.’”
Authorities also restricted the kinds of clothes people could wear.
“We had to wear a black skirt and a white top, but I witnessed some in Pyongyang being cracked down on for wearing South Korean-style jeans or wearing earrings,” she said.
Economic shocks
The survey results show economic conditions in North Korea have worsened, and that women have become main providers for their families.
Until the 1990s, people could rely on the government to provide their food under a rationing program, but this changed dramatically when the Soviet Union collapsed and aid from Moscow dried up.
The centrally planned economy could not cope with the sudden shock, resulting in a famine between 1994 and 1998 that killed more than 2 million by some estimates in what has become known as the “Arduous March” – a defining period in the country’s history.
The rationing system became no longer viable. The Ministry of Unification’s report showed that among respondents who fled North Korea between 2016 and 2020 more than 72% of those interviewed said they had never received food rations.
The system changed somewhat to allow people to access a rationing system at their government-assigned jobs. People could expect to be paid a salary that they could then use to buy food at discounted prices.
‘Barking dogs’
But in reality, state-assigned jobs became less and less a means of support.
Among those who fled before 2000, 33.5% said they had received neither food rations nor wages at their official workplace. For those who fled between 2016-2020, some 50.3% said the same.
With government jobs – mostly held by men – paying almost nothing, housewives have had to make money to survive, and have started running tiny businesses in markets, buying and selling things such as vegetables and packaged foods and various products smuggled in from China.
Since Kim Jong Un began his rule, 70.5% of the respondents said they have had to rely on these local markets for survival, the survey showed.
The salaries paid to men, meanwhile, have become so miniscule that the men are unable to provide for their families, so men are increasingly referred to by slang terms like “barking dogs” or “daytime lamps,” suggesting they are insignificant and generally useless.
“Usually, most women made a living by selling things in the market,” said Han. “Although their husbands worked at a company, the company did not provide rations or pay much. I think women’s voices gradually grew louder from that generation onwards because women had to feed their families.”
Corruption
Since North Korea’s economic collapse, corruption has become more of a problem, the survey showed.
While the ordinary people operate side-businesses to make ends meet, those in power use their status or position for economic gain, by collecting a percentage of these side-business’ profits, or by extracting bribes.
Of the survey respondents who escaped since Kim Jong Un came to power, 41.4% said they had been robbed of more than 30% of their monthly income, and among those who escaped between 2016 to 2020, 54.4% said they had paid bribes.
“As the authorities’ crackdowns intensify, residents have no choice but to pay bribes as part of whatever they are doing to make a living,” said Lee Hyun-Seung, who escaped from North Korea in 2014 and settled in the United States. She was not one of those interviewed in the survey.
“Because we do not have economic freedom, those who engage in economic activities cannot receive legal protection,” she said. “That’s why we pay bribes and receive protection or avoid punishment from people in power.”
Power shortages
Ordinary people also have less access to electricity, the survey showed, since the cash-strapped government prioritizes industry over the good of the people.
Prior to 2000, most residents got an average of 5 hours and 42 minutes of electricity per day in their homes. Since Kim Jong Un came to power, they’re getting about 90 minutes less, an average of 4 hours 18 minutes, the survey found.
“I can’t imagine how the situation can be worse now than when I escaped,” Kim Sookyoung, who escaped North Korea in 1998 and settled in the United States, told RFA.
“When I lived in North Korea, the day electricity came on was like a holiday,” said Kim, who was not among those interviewed by the Unification Ministry. “When the electricity came on, all the residents in my apartment building shouted with joy. The light itself was just a joy.”
She said there were some days when the electricity did not come on at all. So people would charge batteries so they would have light during those days.
“The first thing I did when the electricity came on was to charge the battery,” she said.
Heating the home in the dead of winter has also become more of a challenge. In years past, people could rely on electricity or gas for heat, but these days it’s all about firewood.
More than 69% of the respondents to the survey said they purchased firewood to heat their homes because it was more reliable.
Leadership
The survey asked several questions about the country’s leadership by members of the so-called Paektu bloodline, made up of national founder Kim Il Sung and his descendants, which include his son and successor Kim Jong Il and his grandson, the current leader Kim Jong Un.
Pedestrians walk beneath portraits of Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, at Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang, North Korea, Aug. 11, 2017. (AP Photo)
The report said that 743 of the respondents were asked whether they supported the continuation of the Paektu bloodline leadership system prior to their escape from North Korea. Of those, 44.4% said they were against dynastic rule, while 37.8% said they supported it.
Support for the regime has waned over the years. Among the respondents who escaped from North Korea before 2011, only 29.9% said they had had negative feelings about the regime, whereas 52.6% of those who escaped after 2012 felt the same way.
Among those escaped between 2016 to 2020, this figure climbs to 56.3%.
During a press briefing on Jan. 29, Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam said that it is not easy to confirm concrete signs of North Korean residents’ dissatisfaction with the regime they live under.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jamin Anderson and Lee Jeong Eun for RFA Korean.
A national survey of Australia’s startup ecosystem found GreenTech to be the fastest growing industry for startups followed by advanced manufacturing, according to Startup Muster which returns after a five-year hiatus. The survey, led by the University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) inaugural director of entrepreneurship Murray Hurps, received 1,106 responses across 283 data points. The…
By Berliner Zeitung. Translation by Raymond R. Watson, M.A.
According to a study people, particularly young people, are in favor of a basic income. Even those who are very concerned about the climate and the environment are more likely to be in favor of a UBI.
The majority of Germany’s population is in favor of an unconditional basic income. This was the result of two surveys conducted in the summer of 2022 conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin, Germany. The results of the surveys showed that 53 percent of respondents were in favor of this particular social model, while 36 percent were against it.
Researchers from DIW and the University of Konstanz located in Baden-Württemberg, Germany also found that people with low incomes experiencing personal, financial challenges support introducing an unconditional basic income. A basic income of €1200 per month (US$1290) received the most support.
Study: Whoever considers climate protection important is also in favor of a UBI
The study found that to finance a basic income most respondents support an increase in income and wealth taxes. One of the authors from the DIW study, Juergen Schupp said:
“Politically, the idea of an unconditional basic income is highly controversial, but for years has been immensely popular among the German population.”
He argues that UBI be taken into account in future debates on reforms to the German social systems.
The impactful study analyzed whether people are in favor or not of a basic income in connection with social and demographic characteristics such as age, household income or life satisfaction. A total of 2,000 eligible voters were interviewed.
Younger people, people with low income or low life satisfaction in particular are thus in favor of a basic income. Respondents greatly concerned about climate and the environment also would have favored a basic income.
In recent years the issue has already been seriously debated politically in Berlin – but poignantly unsuccessful. A referendum held in the German capital in the fall of 2022 called “Expedition Grundeinkommen” (Expedition Basic Income) failed to meet the legally defined target for signatures. Thus, the corresponding initiative could not take place.
For the first time since 2018 Australia’s digital competitiveness ranking has improved, rising six places to 14th, although this remains below the country’s fifth place peak in 2015. The 2022 edition of the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking includes 63 countries and was released by the Committee for Economic Development Australia (CEDA) on Wednesday morning….
The Western Australian government will announce $37 million in funding for mineral exploration and AgTech as part of the state budget next Thursday. The state government will commmit $12 million over four years to a WA-Array seismic survey which will search for minerals deeper than most existing mineral deposits. A grid of 165 seismometers in…
While the questions can be, and were, framed to elicit specific responses, the survey results are interesting in so far as they provide a snap shot of opinion on some important (and some less so) topics. For social change activists it’s food for thought.
