fascism – Page 3 – Desdemona Despair

A water meter stands in dry wetland in Donana natural park, southwest Spain as unprecedented drought hits the nation in 2023. Photo: Bernat Armangue / Africanews / AP Photo

May 27, 2023

“Murderers” and “criminals”: Meteorologists face unprecedented harassment from conspiracy theorists – “It was one of the hardest experiences in social media in my life”

By Laura Paddison 27 May 2023 (CNN) – “Murderers.” “Criminals.” “We are watching you.” These are just a handful of the threats and abuse sent to meteorologists at AEMET, Spain’s national weather agency, in recent months. They come via social media, its website, letters, phone calls – even in the form of graffiti sprayed across […]

State of press freedom worldwide 2013-2023. Changes in 180 countries and territories evaluated by RSF since 2013. In 2023, the situation was “very serious” in 31 countries, “difficult” in 42, “problematic” in 55, and “good” or “satisfactory” in 52 countries. In other words, the environment for journalism was “bad” in seven out of ten countries, and satisfactory in only three out of ten. Graphic: RSF

May 9, 2023

2023 World Press Freedom Index – Journalism threatened by fake content industry – The environment for journalism is “bad” in seven out of ten countries, satisfactory in only three out of ten

3 May 2023 (RSF) – According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index – which evaluates the environment for journalism in 180 countries and territories and is published on World Press Freedom Day (3 May) – the situation is “very serious” in 31 countries, “difficult” in 42, “problematic” in 55, and “good” or “satisfactory” in 52 countries. In […]

Domestic extremist-related killing incidents in the U.S. by decade. The recent surge of extremist-related mass killings is immediately obvious. From the 1970s through the 2000s, extremist mass killing incidents consistently occurred at a relatively low level—from two to seven incidents a decade (although, it should be noted that, because of the difficulty in determining which left-wing extremist bomb attacks in the 1970s and 1980s were intended to cause mass casualties—many were actually aimed at property and warnings were telephoned to targets beforehand—it is possible that the number of such incidents may be undercounted here). Graphic: ADL

February 27, 2023

U.S. mass killings linked to extremism spiked over last decade – “It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings”

By Lindsay Whitehurst 23 February 2023 WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. The report, provided to The Associated Press ahead of […]

EIU Democracy Index 2022, global map by regime type. The average global index score stagnated in 2022. Despite expectations of a rebound after the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions, the score was almost unchanged, at 5.29 (on a 0-10 scale), compared with 5.28 in 2021. The positive effect of the restoration of individual freedoms was cancelled out by negative developments globally. The scores of more than half of the countries measured by the index either stagnated or declined. Western Europe was a positive outlier, being the only region whose score returned to pre-pandemic levels. Graphic: EIU

February 3, 2023

EIU Democracy Index 2022: Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine – “Overall the story is one of stagnation. This is a dismal result given that in 2022 the world started to move on from the pandemic-related suppression of individual liberties that persisted through 2020 and 2021”

1 February 2023 (EIU) – The Democracy Index, which began in 2006, provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide in 165 independent states and two territories. This covers almost the entire population of the world and the vast majority of the world’s states (microstates are excluded). The Democracy Index is based on five […]

Percentage of OECD countries experiencing higher-than-average inflation, 1970-2022. The global inflation shock that began in the United States in 2021 and took hold worldwide in 2022 will have powerful economic and political ripple effects in 2023. It will be the principal driver of global recession, add to financial stress, and stoke social discontent and political instability everywhere. Today’s historically high inflation comes from multiple sources. First was the Covid-19 pandemic, which prompted governments to cushion the fall in incomes with extraordinary fiscal and monetary stimulus at the same time that it disrupted global supply. Then, just as the United States and Europe were coming out of the pandemic thanks to vaccines, China doubled down on its zero-Covid policy, locking down the global economy’s most important manufacturing and shipping hubs. Finally, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the West’s sanctions in response put a strain on the global supply of energy, food, and fertilizer. This unprecedented confluence of overlapping shocks pushed inflation to levels most countries hadn’t seen in nearly 50 years. Graphic: Eurasia Group

January 22, 2023

Eurasia Group’s Top Risks for 2023 – “The risks this year are the most dangerous we’ve encountered in the 25 years since we started Eurasia Group”

By Ian Bremmer and Cliff Kupchan 3 January 2023 (Eurasia Group) – Russia has no way to win in Ukraine. The European Union is stronger than ever. NATO rediscovered its reason for being. The G7 is strengthening. Renewables are becoming dirt cheap. American hard power remains unrivaled. Midterms in the United States were decidedly normal […]

Map showing nations where journalists were killed or imprisoned during 2022. The IFJ released the latest figures ahead of International Human Rights Day, recording 67 killings of journalists and media staff in the line of duty in 2022 compared to 47 last year - a reversal of the decline recorded in recent years. Graphic: IFJ

December 20, 2022

67 journalists killed so far in 2022 – “The surge in the killings of journalists and other media workers is a grave cause of concern and yet another wake up call for governments across the globe to take action in the defence of journalism, one of the key pillars of democracy”

9 December 2022 (IFJ) – The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today renewed its call on the international community for concrete action to protect the safety and freedoms of journalists as it recorded a spike in the numbers of journalists killed or imprisoned during 2022. The vote on the IFJ Convention on the Safety and […]

Police monitor a protest opposing COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, in Montreal, on Wednesday, 7 December 2022. Photo: Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press

December 10, 2022

Monbiot: The US is a rogue state leading the world toward ecological collapse – “It’s a cliff edge”

By George Monbiot 9 December 2022 (The Guardian) – There are two extraordinary facts about the convention on biological diversity, whose members are meeting in Montreal now to discuss the global ecological crisis. The first is that, of the world’s 198 states, 196 are party to it. The second is the identity of those that aren’t. Take a […]

Abortion laws by U.S. state in 2022 after the after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health U.S. Supreme Court decision. Graphic: Center for Reproductive Rights

November 20, 2022

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina: Data on a post-Dobbs world – “In just four short months post-Dobbs, thousands of women’s lives were impacted”

By Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD 7 November 2022 (Your Local Epidemiologist) – Last week, five new studies provided a first look into Dobbs v. Jackson’s impact on access to abortion care. This was largely thanks to JAMA Network that published a special issue on this topic. This is the story that data is telling. Shift in location of abortions Just […]

Mexican journalists gather around pictures of murdered colleagues as they protest the recent killings of photojournalist Margarito Martinez and journalist Lourdes Maldonado, in Veracruz, Mexico, on 25 January 2022. Photo: Yahir Ceballos / Reuters

November 13, 2022

CPJ’s Global Impunity Index 2022: Vast majority of journalists’ killers go free – Of the 263 journalists murdered in the last decade, 78 percent were assassinated with complete impunity

By Jennifer Dunham1 November 2022 (CPJ) – The vast majority of killers of journalists continue to get away with murder, according to CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index. In nearly 80% of the 263 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work globally over the past decade, the perpetrators have faced no punishment. Somalia remains […]

Smoke rises from a forest fire in the Transamazonica highway region, in the municipality of Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, 17 September 2022. Despite the smoke clogging the air of entire Amazon cities, state elections have largely ignored environmental issues. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is seeking a second four-year term against leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who ruled Brazil between 2003 and 2010. Photo: Edmar Barros / AP Photo

October 24, 2022

Worst Brazil forest fires in a decade, yet election silence – “Your administration is the one that has set biomes, forests, and my Pantanal wetlands on fire. Your administration favored miners and loggers and protected them. You, in this regard, were the worst president in Brazil’s history.”

By Fabiano Maisonnave 1 October 2022 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – September has come and gone, marking another painful milestone for the world’s largest rainforest. It’s the worst month for fire in the Amazon in over a decade. Satellite sensors detected over 42,000 fires in 30 days according to Brazil’s national space institute. It is […]