January 2018 – Bridge Agents

How women are building feminist human security in the Americas

January 31, 2018 Bridge Agents

Americas (OpenDemocracy) – Across the region, women are forging alternative paths to real peace and security, rejecting militarisation and violence. They do this at great personal risk. Latin American countries have the highest rates of femicide in the world and are considered the most dangerous places for women outside of war zones. Many places in this region are effectively war zones – they just don’t fit the model of conventional warfare. Too many women face constant threats of violence from drug cartels, government forces, paramilitaries, gangs, husbands and partners. Women organisers from across…

As the threat of “fake news” to democracy grows, public trust in the media wavers

January 31, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Sunlight) – On January 23rd, 2017, the Washington Post hosted an event at its headquarters in D.C. that explored three key questions: “What makes people trust some news sources and see others as fake?” “The debate about regulating online digital and social media platforms.” “Can the concept of a neutral press survive in an era of hyper-partisanship?” In answering these questions, many of the panelists did what journalists do best; they reported the facts: partisanship, low media literacy, the growth of social media, and the President of the United States…

In 2018, the State of the Union is mobile and monetized

January 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Sunlight) – For the first time in history, the names of campaign donors will be shown over the livestream of a President of the United States as he delivers the State of the Union to Congress. In an unexpected twist, instead of a watchdog highlighting corporate money or media organization overlaying campaign finance data on a livestream when a specific policy proposal or success is named, the campaign of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be showing a list of donors. This past year, the future…

DACA isn’t just about social justice – legalizing Dreamers makes economic sense too

January 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

United States (Conversation) – Earlier this month, hopes were high that a bipartisan deal could be reached to resolve the fate of the “Dreamers,” the millions of undocumented youth who were brought to the U.S. as children. Those hopes all but vanished on Jan. 11 as President Donald Trump aligned himself with hard-line anti-immigration advocates within the GOP and struck down bipartisan attempts to reach a resolution. Now that optimism is re-emerging once more after Republican Senate leadership agreed, in exchange for ending the shutdown, to hold a vote on…

Judge: Kushner Company Must Reveal Identities of Real Estate Partners

January 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

Maryland (ProPublica) – A federal judge in Maryland ruled Friday that Jared Kushner’s family real estate company could not keep secret the identities of its partners in Baltimore-area apartment complexes that are the subject of a class-action lawsuit by tenants. The class-action lawsuit was filed in September, following a May article co-published by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine that described how Kushner Companies have used highly aggressive tactics in pursuing payments from tenants and former tenants of 15 large apartment complexes it owns and manages in the Baltimore area. The lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore…

The First Mobile Phone Network for Indigenous Communities in Mexico Is Under Threat

January 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

(GV) – Indigenous Community Telecommunications, the first and only association of community and indigenous service provider that facilitates affordable mobile phone and internet services to rural areas of Mexico, might be forced to stop operating after the national telecommunications regulator demanded the network pay one million pesos (more than 50,000 US dollars) for the radio frequencies it uses. In July 2016, as Global Voices previously reported, Mexico’s Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) granted the first license to operate a telecommunications network for indigenous community use to the non-profit organization Indigenous Community…

Patriarchal culture + male biology = deadly mix for violence against women

January 29, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Conversation) – Sexual assaults on university campuses and executive offices may sound less commonplace than the stories we sometimes read about. The idea that rape and assault can happen in executive offices and on university campuses — in secure and guarded environments — can be hard to comprehend for some people. We tend to see a “sick mind” behind the assaults. Yet sexual assaults in power-structured, hierarchical work environments and in executive offices are suspected to be common. And for every sexual assault being reported in a corporate office, there…

A Portentous Assassination Rocks the Balkans

January 29, 2018 Bridge Agents

(SCF) – Serbian community leader in the NATO-occupied Kosovo, Oliver Ivanović, was gunned down, mafia-style, in front of his party offices in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica on January 16. As the old Romans used to say, de mortuis nihil nisi bene, of the dead nothing but the good. Mr. Ivanović did nothing that anyone is aware of to merit such a ghastly fate. But it would also be a mistake to regard him as the Gandhi or Mandela of Kosovo’s Serbs. He was a career politician, with everything that encompasses,…

Alarming Number of LGBTQ Minors Will Undergo Conversion Therapy in States Without Legal Protections

January 27, 2018 Bridge Agents

United States (HRC) – Earlier this week, the Williams Institute released an alarming report on the number of LGBTQ teens who will be subjected to conversion therapy. So-called “conversion therapy,” sometimes referred to as “sexual orientation change efforts” or “reparative therapy,” is a range of practices that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices are based on the false premise that being LGBTQ is a mental illness that needs to be cured. The Williams Institute report found that approximately 20,000 LGBTQ minors will be subjected to conversion therapy by…

Clinton Refused To Fire Accused Sexual Harasser Advising 2008 Campaign

January 27, 2018 Bridge Agents

United States (Sputnik) – Despite repeatedly telling the public about her strong advocacy for women’s rights and empowerment, Hillary Clinton elected to retain an adviser on her 2008 presidential campaign run who allegedly sexually harassed a woman under him on several occasions, according to a new report. What’s more, the soon-to-be secretary of state refused to heed the counsel of her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, to fire the accused harasser, the New York Times reported Friday. Instead, Clinton ordered the adviser, Burns Strider, to attend counseling and withheld his salary for several weeks. The account…