General election coverage has been dominated by male voices, according to researchers from Loughborough University.
Academics from the university’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture have conducted news audits for every general election since 1992. They analyse TV coverage from BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky’s evening news bulletins, plus print reporting by the UK’s broadsheet and tabloid newspapers.
Since campaigning began on 30 May, only seven of the top 20 most prominent figures in election coverage have been women. In the past week, that figure fell to six.
www.theguardian.com/…
Algeria
Journalists in Algeria have faced mounting repression since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune came to power four years ago, with possible long jail time on flimsy charges, experts say. Many news outlets have also shuttered due to mounting legal fees.
Sofiane Ghirous and Ferhat Omar of the news website “Algerie Scoop” were detained last week for broadcasting material authorities claimed “constituted incitement and hate speech,” according to a statement from the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees, a local watchdog group, on Saturday.
In the video, women start-up founders accused the government of “humiliating” and treating them with “contempt” at an innovation event organized by the Ministry of Education and Professional Training.
www.registercitizen.com/…
Sierra Leone
Something hopeful.
The president of the small West African country of Sierra Leone signed a law on Tuesday that banned marriage for children age 18 and younger and would impose steep fines on adult spouses. The move was a victory for activists who had long fought to eradicate the widespread practice.
The new legislation goes further than many other similar laws in Africa, experts said, by penalizing people who enable the marriage — like the parents, the officiant and even the wedding guests — in addition to the husband.
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Under the new law, those married as children can seek financial compensation. They also have a path out of their marriages: petitioning for an annulment.
Betty Kabari, a researcher at Human Rights Watch who focuses on women’s rights and sexual health in Africa, praised the approach of penalizing those who abet the marriage, saying, “The strongest aspect, to me, is noting that a child does not get married in isolation.”
www.nytimes.com/…
Other News (US)
Crossing the desert is a dangerous gamble, but often the only option left for asylum seekers after their long and arduous journeys from places like Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti, which are beset by violence, political instability and poverty.
“We know, based on 20-plus years, that the harder you make it, the greater the risks that they will take in the desert, whether it is in Texas or Arizona,” Jones said. “It means that risk-taking exponentially increases the likelihood you will die.”
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In April, No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid organization, issued a report quantifying the changes in who is dying while trying to cross the border. The report examined deaths in the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, which covers southwest Texas and the bootheel of New Mexico. In 2023, the group documented 140 deaths in that area — 31 more than in 2022. Of those, 51 percent were women. It’s the first time that data captured anywhere along the border has indicated a higher number of deaths for women than men.
And across the board, the number of women who die appears to be rising. According to the Humane Borders’ Migrant Death Mapping, a partnership with the medical examiner’s office in Pima County, Arizona, that tracks deaths in the state’s border desert region, 38 women were found dead in 2023 — or 22 percent of all cases. Just the previous year, women made up 15 percent of all deaths. Between 2010 to 2020, they accounted for approximately one in 10 deaths.
thnews.org/…
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When the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed out of the House Armed Services Committee in May, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey was ecstatic. The bipartisan bill had passed almost unanimously, and it included her amendment to allow active-duty service women to receive a year’s supply of contraception.
Then the bill went to the House floor, where hundreds of amendments were introduced and debated. The final bill — which authorized $923.3 billion for the country’s defense — passed 217-199 with several new Republican-backed measures related to limiting abortion access and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Sherrill did not vote for this version of the bill.
thnews.org/…
*****
With the concern about President Biden’s fitness (which, to my mind, exceeds Trump’s any day), there is concern that the White House has not done much to publicize all that Vice President Harris has been doing in her job that makes her fit to be president.
www.theatlantic.com/…
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Simone Biles led in the US Olympic trials for Women’s gymnastics.
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As always, thanks to the WoW crew for inspiration and links, this week especially to mettle fatigue and elenacarlena.