Pakistan’s trans people struggle to get safe surgery
In Pakistan, where gender affirmation surgery was recently legalised, Bunty is one of the few trans women who could afford to get it done safely.Despite winning the right to medically transition in 2018, many transgender people in the Muslim-majority nation still turn to unqualified surgeons because of a lack of trained doctors, high costs and cultural taboos.Bunty, who no longer uses her family name since her transition, said she went to the only doctor in the northeastern city of Lahore who performs breast augmentation surgery for trans women — a qualified, experienced professional.While the procedure was successful, she said it took place in an “underground” manner and cost twice the normal rate for a cisgender woman.”I was kept at the hospital for only two hours and then I was forced to leave so that no one would find out,” she told AFP.”I was in extreme pain.”It was the latest ignominy for Bunty, who said she was shunned by her family over her gender identity, then sacked from the job that funded her hospital bills, pushing her into sex work.She said the hospital did not want news of her procedure to spread among doctors and patients who might disapprove.”Gender transitioning is still controversial. Doctors fear they will be judged,” said Mudassir Mahboob, a doctor who carries out legal gender-affirmation surgeries.Mahboob said he chose to work in the capital, Islamabad, to avoid causing controversy in his deeply conservative home province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.He has operated on patients who have asked him to repair damage done to them by unscrupulous backstreet “doctors”.One of them, “who got castrated by a so-called practitioner, came to me and asked me to fix what went wrong”, he said.- ‘Have fear of God’ -Reem Sharif, a member of a communal household known as a “dera” for trans people, said there were only two doctors in Pakistan openly offering legal, safe gender affirmation procedures.Public hospitals often turn away those who enquire about such services, citing religion, Sharif said.”They would say: ‘Have fear of God, how can you try to do this?'” she told AFP, surrounded by other trans women putting on make-up and fixing their hair. “Gender transition is legal according to the law, but practically it is not, and (it) is not accepted in society.”No reliable data exists on the number of transgender people in Pakistan.The country has long recognised a third sex, known as “khawaja sira”, who for centuries have played a spiritual role in society, offering blessings at weddings and births.The 2018 law aimed to strengthen political and social rights for transgender people, whose wider integration was being met with increasing violence.Despite being lauded around the world, the law drew domestic backlash from right-wing religious groups, which spread disinformation that it would lead to same-sex marriage in a country where homosexuality is illegal.The law remains in force but is subject to court challenges, including a review of whether it complies with Islamic law, which coexists with Pakistan’s secular legal code.Psychiatrist Sana Yasir said “the most visits and follow-ups I have had” came in the three years since those challenges began, as transgender clients grappled with the potential repercussions of any legal change.Rights groups say trans people who are helped to transition report better quality of life, while those not given support are more likely to report mental health issues, including suicidal ideation.According to Pakistan’s religious and cultural norms, having surgery to change gender characteristics is “a sin”, even if it aligns one’s body and gender identity, said Mehleb Sheikh, an independent trans rights researcher and activist.Gender affirmation surgery is available in some other Muslim countries, such as Egypt, where the procedure is legal but only with approval from doctors and religious officials. In practice, access remains extremely limited.In Iran, gender affirmation care is legal and even subsidised by the government, but according to activists, transgender people face discrimination on a daily basis. – Threats, violence, and pride -Activists say Pakistan is seeing a rise in violence against trans people, although exact figures are not available due to severe underreporting.The Gender Interactive Alliance in Pakistan says 56 people have been killed since 2022.They include three trans women whose bullet-ridden bodies were found on a roadside in the megacity of Karachi last month.”My brother threatened to kill me and demanded that either I be thrown out of the house, or he would hurt me, blaming me for ruining their honour and their reputation,” said Zarun Ishaque, a 29-year-old transgender man in Islamabad.Despite the hardship, he told AFP that “this happiness after my transition is the dearest (thing)”.”My inner self has come out, and I am very happy with my life like this.”Haroon — a pseudonym to protect his identity — said his transformation had allowed him to finally feel “very comfortable with myself”.He has managed to have breast removal and bottom surgery despite being shunned by family and some doctors.”If you have the capability, if you’ve taken this step and made the decision, then you don’t step back,” he told AFP.
OpenAI unveils search browser in challenge to Google
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI on Tuesday announced an “Atlas” search browser, leveraging its artificial intelligence prowess in a direct challenge to Google Chrome.”This is an AI-powered web browser built around ChatGPT,” OpenAI chief Sam Altman said in a streamed presentation.OpenAI has ramped up its challenge to Google, which has responded by rapidly building more AI capabilities into search and across its platform.Altman and a team of executives demonstrated an “agent” mode that has a chatbot conduct searches on a user’s behalf.Altman said that in agent mode, ChatGPT uses the web browser independently, returning with what it finds.”It’s got all your stuff and is clicking around,” Altman said.”You can watch it or not, you don’t have to, but it’s using the internet for you.”Atlas will go live Tuesday on computers powered by Apple’s operating system free of charge, but agent mode will only be available to users of paid Plus or Pro versions of ChatGPT, according to Altman.”We want to bring this to Windows and to mobile devices as quickly as we can,” Altman said, without providing a timeline.”This is still early days for this project.”Some Atlas offerings demonstrated in the stream seemed similar to features already incorporated into Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge internet search browsers.- Pressure on Google -Tech industry rivals Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s xAI have been pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence since the blockbuster launch of the first version of ChatGPT in late 2022.”OpenAI’s browser puts pressure on Google,” Emarketer technology analyst Jacob Bourne told AFP.”This is another step in the AI race as tech companies try to make their AI interfaces the first point of contact for internet users.”OpenAI has an opportunity to ride the popularity of ChatGPT to win people over to its browser, according to the analyst.However, Bourne noted that Google has a significant infrastructure advantage in terms of providing browser capabilities to billions of users.A big question is how well Atlas will perform when under pressure from the kinds of user volume handled by Google, he added.The debut of Atlas comes on the heels of Google escaping a breakup of its Chrome browser in a major US competition case, but with the judge imposing remedies whose impact remains uncertain just as AI starts to compete with search engines.Judge Amit Mehta, who found a year ago that Google illegally maintained monopolies in online search, did not order the company to sell off its widely-used Chrome browser.Instead, he ordered remedies including requirements to share data with other firms so they could develop their own search products, and barring exclusive deals to make Google the only search engine on a device or service.Mehta himself noted that the landscape has changed since the US Justice Department and 11 states launched their antitrust case against Google in 2020.- Challenges -OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft have been ramping up challenges to Google, which dominates the online search market where it earns most of its revenue through targeted advertising.OpenAI recently unveiled a new feature for ChatGPT, the leading generative AI model with 800 million weekly users, enabling it to interact with everyday apps like Spotify and Booking.com.The new functionality enables ChatGPT to interact with various apps to select music, search for real estate or explore hotel and flight booking sites.Meanwhile, Perplexity AI in August announced a new model for sharing search revenue with publishers.The company’s media partners will get paid when their work is used by Perplexity’s Comet browser or AI assistant to satisfy queries or requests, according to the San Francisco-based startup.Perplexity is one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups, whose AI-powered search engine is often mentioned as a potential disruptor to Google.Google shares were down slightly more than one percent in trading that followed OpenAI announcing Atlas.
‘Music to my ears’: Trump brushes off White House demolition critics
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday brushed off criticism over the demolition of part of the White House to build a new ballroom, saying the sound of the construction work was “music to my ears.”Democrats including former first lady Hillary Clinton accused the Republican of failing to respect the presidential mansion after excavators tore off the facade of the building’s East Wing.”We’re building a world-class ballroom,” Trump told a lunch for Republican senators at the White House as the grinding and beeping of machinery could be heard in the background.”You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that’s music to my ears. I love that sound.”The 79-year-old property mogul also said taxpayers would not pay for any of the $250-million plan. “When I hear that sound it reminds me of money. In this case it reminds of lack of money because I’m paying for it,” he said of the demolition noise.Trump has said that he is partly funding work on the giant ballroom while private and corporate donors will cover the rest. Last week, Trump hosted a glitzy dinner for donors with guests including several top US tech firms, but the White House has not released a list yet or given any figures.AFP journalists saw demolition work under way for a second day on the East Wing, which is where the offices of US first ladies are located.- ‘Pearl-clutching’ -One former occupant of the East Wing led criticism of Trump’s project.”It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” said former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, whose husband Bill Clinton was president from 1993 to 2001, and who lost to Trump in the 2016 election.Other Democrats compared it to Trump’s own radical efforts to reshape the federal government and target his political opponents.”The demolition of the East Wing feels very symbolic of what Trump is doing to our democracy,” Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono said on X. “He’ll lie about protecting it, then destroy it right in front of your face.”Senior Senator Elizabeth Warren said that while Americans faced a “skyrocketing” cost of living, “Donald Trump can’t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom.”The White House rejected what it called “pearl-clutching” from critics.”In the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House,” it said in a statement.It called the ballroom a “a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations” by presidents. The White House also pointed out a series of works done by previous presidents — including what it said was President Barack Obama upgrading the tennis court into a full basketball court.Trump has launched a major makeover of the White House in his second term — including paving over the grass of the Rose Garden, where he hosted the Republican senators.
Trump says own Justice Department likely owes him damages
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday the Department of Justice likely owed him damages, after a report that he was seeking millions of dollars in compensation for past investigations. The New York Times reported that lawyers for the Republican were demanding around $230 million in compensation for federal probes into him before he was elected president for a second time.”That decision would have to go across my desk. And it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the report.”But I was damaged very greatly.” Trump added of the Department of Justice that “they probably owe me a lot of money — if I get money from our country, I will do something nice with it like to give it to charity or give it to the White House.”Trump has launched a series of legal cases against media firms and other organizations he accuses of bias against him, in some cases winning huge sums.He said it “could be” the case that his legal team had filed a compensation claim, but said that “I don’t know what the numbers are, I don’t even talk to them about it.” A spokesman for Trump’s legal team did not directly confirm the New York Times story but told AFP that the president “continues to fight back against all Democrat-led witch hunts.” These included the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia, the spokesman said.But a situation in which a US president seeks compensation from the very government he heads has “no parallel in American history,” the New York Times said, adding that it also threw up major ethical conflicts. One of Trump’s former lawyers, Todd Blanche, is now the deputy US attorney general at the Department of Justice.It declined to comment on the status of the claims but rejected suggestions that top officials would be conflicted.”In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials,” department spokesman Chad Gilmartin said in a statement to AFP. Trump faced a series of federal investigations after his first presidency into the alleged mishandling of classified material and attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that Biden won.They were abandoned when Trump was reelected last year.Trump has also been convicted of 34 felonies related to hush money payments to a porn star in a case in New York State.
Wife of Colombian killed in US strike says life taken unjustly
Alejandro Carranza’s loved ones say he left home on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to fish in open waters. Days later, he was dead — one of 32 alleged drug traffickers killed in US military strikes. From Santa Marta, northern Colombia, Carranza’s family is questioning White House claims that he was carrying narcotics aboard a small vessel targeted last month.For his wife Katerine Hernandez, the 40-year-old was “a good man” devoted to fishing.”Why did they just take his life like that?” she asked during an interview Monday with AFP. She denied he had any link to drug trafficking.”The fishermen have the right to live. Why didn’t they just detain them?”Since the United States began bombing boats in the Caribbean in September, critics have accused Donald Trump’s administration of carrying out extrajudicial executions.The White House and Pentagon have produced little evidence to back up their claims that those targeted were involved in trafficking.Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, a critic of the US military presence in the Caribbean, has also claimed Carranza was innocent.Petro said his crew suffered a mechanical failure at sea.”The Colombian boat was adrift with a distress signal, its engine raised,” Petro wrote Saturday on X. “He had no ties to drug trafficking. His daily activity was fishing.”However Colombian media have reported that Carranza had a criminal record for stealing weapons in collusion with gangs.Prosecutors contacted by AFP refused to confirm or deny the reports.The US government has released statements and images purporting to show strikes on at least seven boats allegedly carrying drugs, leaving 32 dead.AFP has not been able to independently verify this toll. – He stopped calling -Before his last trip, Carranza told his father he was heading to a spot “with good fish.” Days passed without contact, until the family learned of the bombing on television.”The days went by and he didn’t call,” Hernandez said.The deadly strikes have sparked a diplomatic row between the United States and Colombia, historically close partners.Petro condemned the attack as a violation of Colombian sovereignty and labeled it an “assassination,” while Trump has lashed out his counterpart, calling him an “illegal drug dealer” and vowing to to halt all US economic aid to the country.Friends interviewed by AFP also insisted Carranza was a fisherman.”He went offshore to catch sierra, tuna, and snapper, which are found far out at this time of year,” said Cesar Henriquez, who has known him since childhood.”He always came back to Santa Marta, secured his boat, and went home. I never knew him to do anything bad,” Henriquez told AFP.A Colombian and an Ecuadoran are the only survivors so far of US attacks in the Caribbean.The Colombian, repatriated in serious condition, will face trial as a “criminal” accused of drug trafficking, according to the government.The Ecuadoran was released after authorities said he had no pending charges.
Trump reportedly seeks damages from own Justice Department
US President Donald Trump addressed reports Tuesday that he was seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from his own Justice Department, saying it would be “awfully strange” to effectively pay himself.The New York Times reported that lawyers for Trump were demanding around $230 million in compensation for federal investigations into him before he was elected president for a second time.”They probably owe me a lot of money — if I get money from our country, I will do something nice with it like to give it to charity or give it to the White House,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.”That decision would have to go across my desk. And it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself…. But I was damaged very greatly.”He later said that he did “not know the numbers.” Trump has launched a series of legal cases against media firms and other organizations he accuses of bias against him, in some cases winning huge sums.But a situation in which a US president seeks compensation from the very government he heads has “no parallel in American history,” the Times said, adding that it also threw up major ethical conflicts. One of Trump’s former lawyers, Todd Blanche, is now the deputy US attorney general at the Justice Department.A spokesman for Trump’s legal team did not directly confirm the New York Times story but told AFP that the president “continues to fight back against all Democrat-led witch hunts.” These included the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia, and the “weaponization” of the US justice system by then-president Joe Biden, the spokesman said.Trump faced a series of federal investigations after his first presidency into the alleged mishandling of classified material and attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that Biden won.They were abandoned when Trump was reelected last year.Trump has also been convicted of 34 felonies related to hush money payments to a porn star in a case in New York State.