News from India

Man who climbed the ramparts of Red fort arrested

New Delhi, Feb 25 ( IANS ):

The Delhi Police have arrested another accused wanted in the Red fort violence on 26 January identified as Jaspreet Singh, a resident of Swaroop Nagar in Delhi. The police said Jaspreet’s name came up during the interrogation of the arrested accused Maninder Singh who was seen brandishing swords at the Red fort. “Jaspreet Singh was also present at the Red Fort and later climbed up on one of the arcades located on the ramparts of the Red Fort. He is the person standing behind accused Maninder Singh and climbed one of the tombs located on both the sides of Rampart, Red Fort,” said Chinmoy Biswal, PRO Delhi police. The accused Jaspreet was arrested on February 20. “He is also seen in offensive gesture holding steel tensile installed at Red Fort,” the officer added. The Delhi Police have arrested 149 people in connection with the Kisan Andolan till now. Punjabiactivist Deep Sidhu, arrested in Haryana on February 9, has been touted by Delhi Police as the ‘main instigator’ of the violence which took place on the Republic Day in which many protesters and policemen were injured. The Delhi Police have also announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of another key accused Lakhbir Singh alias Lakha Sidhana. Meanwhile a Delhi court on Monday sent climate activist Disha Ravi to one-day police custody in connection with the ‘Toolkit’ case, during which she will be confronted with co-accused Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk who appeared before the Cyber Cell of Delhi police to join probe on Monday.

Modi’s vaccine promise to Canada breaks irritants: Indo-Canada Chamber

By Gurmukh Singh

Toronto, Feb 11 (IANS): The IndoCanada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) and many other IndoCanadian organisations have welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis promise to provide Covid-19 vaccine to Canada. Modi made this promise to his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau who called him on Wednesday to discuss various issues, including the pandemic, the economic recovery and climate change. In a tweet, Modi said that he “assured him (Trudeau) that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada”. Trudeau is facing a public backlash because of the lack of the availability of vaccines as both Pfizer and Moderna have either cut or delayed shipments to Canada which has got only 1.1 million doses so far. Indo-Canadian trade bodies welcomed the initiative by Trudeau to call Modi in the wake of the setback to bilateral relations after Trudeau issued a statement in December in support of the farmers’ stir in India. Calling it a big development in bilateral ties, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce President Vijay Thomas said: “India’s promise to deliver Covid vaccine to Canada is welcome news in the wake of some recent headwinds in our relationship. A big barrier has been broken.” Thomas said the phone discussion between the two Prime Minister could be the beginning of a new partnership. “Sometimes politics leads to a better trade relationship, but

Happy that she got bail, says Disha Ravi’s mother

Bengaluru, Feb 25 (IANS):

Expressing happiness over a Delhi court granting bail to her daughter on Tuesday, climate change activist Disha Ravi’s mother expressed her gratitude to all those who had supported her. “I am happy that she got bail. I don’t know how to say thanks to all the people who supported her and came out for her,” Manjula told reporters here. Family friend and lawyer R. Prasanna told IANS that he was very happy that she got bail. Accused by Delhi Police of creating and spreading the “toolkit” linked to the farmers’ protest against the new central agriculture laws, Disha was arrested by police from Bengaluru in February 13 and charged with sedition and conspiracy. She underwent questioning in police custody. Hearing her bail plea on Tuesday, Delhi Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana called the evidence against her “scanty and sketchy”. “Considering ‘scanty and sketchy’ evidence on record, I do not find any palpable reason to breach rule of bail for a 22-year-old girl who has absolutely no criminal antecedents,” the judge said. Disha, who earlier this month told the court she had only edited two lines of the document and not created it, has said she only “wanted to support the farmers” in their campaign to get the controversial laws - which they say endangers their livelihoods - scrapped.

better trade too can lead to a better political relationship. This development will help remove all irritants between our two countries.” Shiv Bhasker, President of the Ottawa-based Overseas Friends of India and Canada (OFIC) said: “This is an excellent development. Any irritants caused by recent Canadian statements about the farmers’ stir in India can now be smoothed out. India is a big market for Canadian goods, agriculture, urea, aerospace parts, water technology, and we should focus on trade rather than issue statements on India’s internal affairs.” Winnipeg businessman Hemant Shah, who has worked for four decades on India-Canada trade, said: “Trudeau has done the right thing by calling Modi. It has taken decades, efforts, and taxpayers’ money to build our bilateral trade relationship with India. We must not harm it with negative statements.”

We are lucky to be in India during pandemic, say expats in Jaipur

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Feb 21 (IANS): This is the story of young expats who left their countries years ago and stayed back in Jaipur, making the Pink City their new home. Happily settled in the capital of the desert state for over a decade now, Marie-Anne Oudejans and Barbara Miolini love India and consider themselves lucky to be in this country at a time when the world has turned upside down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Both of them have not gone back to their families in Europe for over a year due to the Covid induced restrictions, though they are eager to meet them now. “It has been quite a long time,” said Swiss born Barbara. “People in Europe and many other parts of the world have been affected mentally due to the strict restrictions imposed there. However, we are lucky to be here as we are moving ahead with day to day life. We have not been affected mentally as those people have,” she said, adding, “I came here on a sabbatical and had planned to travel six months in India and six months in Africa. I travelled to Gujarat, Varanasi and south India but I really loved Rajasthan. I also stayed in Jaisalmer for some time before I landed in Jaipur 14 years back owing to work reasons. Since then I have stayed here.” “It was not planned at all,” she added with a smile on her face. Shedding light on her background, Barbara said, “I did my hotel management from Switzerland, then had a factory doing production for Armani and other Italian brands. Then I started with a hotel here and now I am working on a new project.” Barbara, who is half Swiss and half Italian, grew up in Switzerland and has been in India for the past 15 years. Presently, she owns one of the city’s finest restaurants, Bar Pallidio, which is a blend of the beauty and history of Asolo, a town in Italy, and merges the grandeur and culture of Jaipur. “I love taking up new things. India is a land with a lot of opportunities. It is a wonderful place if you want to do something. Everything is possible here, but one needs to be patient to make things possible,” she said.

Barbara, meanwhile, is planning to visit her family in Switzerland during Easter. The other expat, Marie-Anne, is an interior designer who came to the Pink City 10 years back. “I came to India to work on a project in Delhi and then decided to come to Jaipur as I had my dog and we felt more comfortable in Jaipur,” she said. “In Jaipur, Barbara asked me to design her bar and after that I have been here for a long time working on a lot of projects. I have floated my own company here, doing some prestigious projects,” she added. Speaking about the lockdown, she said, “Many of our friends in Europe and other parts of the world are blocked, as most places are still under lockdown. While we can go out in Jaipur now, for most of our friends, the situation is still like a nightmare. We used to travel a lot, used to see our families six times a year as they used to fly here frequently; however, now no one is coming here and we cannot go there because we have business visas. We are worried that if we go, we might not come back as things are changing fast. “Also, I have a Dutch passport but have not lived in the Netherlands since the last 17 years. It is a complicated case, so we decided to stay here; now we are waiting for the right time to come when we can go and meet our families, she said. Marie-Anne grew up in France, then went to New York besides staying in Italy and Spain. “India is very much my home. I have made good friends here and have done some incredible work... So this remains my home,” MarieAnne said.

Despite Covid pandemic, Kaziranga attracts 1.11L tourists

By Sujit Chakraborty

Guwahati, Feb 16 (IANS): The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown could not dampen the spirit of 1.11 lakh tourists, including 175 foreigners, from visiting the UNESCO world heritage site Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNP & TR), considered as one of the best conserved wildlife reserves in the country. The authorities of KNP & TR, extending across Assam’s five distrcts -- Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Biswanath and Karbi Anglong -- along the Arunachal Pradesh border, expected 1.25 lakh tourists to visit the park in the current season. KNP & TR Director Karmashree P. Sivakumar said the park and the tiger reserve was closed for three months last year -- March to May -- and then the four-month-long (June to September) annual flood havoc inundating around 95 per cent of the 1,302 sq km KNP & TR areas. “In the current financial year (2020-21) so far, 1.11 lakh tourists, including 175 foreigners, have visited KNP & TR and we have earned revenues worth over Rs 2.06 crore. We expect that over 1.25 lakh tourists would visit the park this fiscal,” Sivakumar told IANS over phone. During 2019-20, 1.74 lakh tourists had visited the KNP & TR and the revenues earned stood at Rs 4.83 crore against 1.76 lakh tourists and revenues of Rs 4.83 crore in the previous year (2018-19). Over 19,040 foreign tourists had visited the park in the two financial years -- 2019-20 and 2018-19. The Indian Forest Service officer said that a French government delegation led by Barbara Pompili, Minister of France for Ecological Transition, had visited Kaziranga last month to take stock of the work being carried out under a forest and biodiversity conservation project funded by the French government.

Govt. approves purchase of Arjun tanks, arms worth Rs 13,700 Cr

New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS): The Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved capital acquisition proposals of various weapons and equipment including 118 Arjun tanks on Tuesday. “Three Acceptance of Necessities (AoNs) for an overall cost of Rs 13,700 crore were accorded,” the Ministry of Defence said. All these Acceptance of Necessities are in the highest priority category of Defence Acquisition -- Buy IndianIDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured). “DAC has approved capital acquisition proposals of various weapons/platforms/ equipment/ systems required by the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force,” the MoD said. The government cleared proposal of 118 Made-in-India Mark 1A Arjun tanks and 820 armoured vehicles. All these acquisition proposals will be indigenously designed, developed and manufactured. These will include inter-alia platforms and systems designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). To meet the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ goals of the government on time-bound defence procurement process and faster decision making and to systematically work towards reducing the time taken for capital acquisition, the DAC also approved that all capital acquisition contracts (delegated and non-delegated) other than design and development cases shall be concluded in two years. The MoD, in consultation with the services and all stakeholders, will come up with a detailed plan of action for achieving the same.

Be goodwill ambassadors of J&K, LG to tourists

Srinagar, Feb 23 (IANS): J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha paid a visit to Dal Lake on Tuesday, where he met several tourists who came from different parts of the country. During his interaction with the tourists, the LG enquired about the experiences of their visit to Jammu and Kashmir. “Be the goodwill ambassadors of Jammu & Kashmir and carry the message to your respective areas that J&K is an ideal and safe tourist destination,” Sinha urged the tourists. While assuring the tourists a safe and pleasant stay in the Union Territory, the LG observed that the tourism department, local community and other stakeholders are collectively providing a tourist-friendly environment to facilitate the visit of the tourists coming to J&K. From eco-tourism to winter sports, from pilgrimage to adventure tourism, J&K offers a host of attractions to tourists to experience the scenic beauty, warm hospitality, rich culture and heritage of J&K and make their visit to the UT a memorable one, Sinha added. He also advised the tourists to also explore the unexplored tourist places in J&K. The tourists, while sharing their experiences, said that they felt very much delighted to visit Kashmir.

Ambitious initiative towards a drug-free India

By Rattan Lal Kataria

Every year, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is observed as National Anti-Drug Addiction Day to honour his commitment towards eradicating the menace of drug and substance abuse. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also time and again highlighted the perils of substance abuse and stated that it is a dangerous disease which traps a person into a never-ending vicious cycle. Unfortunately, this menace is on the rise as is evident from the findings of National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use. Even after 73 years of independence, we frequently come across news reports of young college students getting addicted to drugs or police nabbing drug peddlers near schools. It is seen that addiction typically starts with alcohol, moves towards nicotine and ‘ganja’ and then graduates to hard substances like cocaine, MDME etc. The situation is grave and demands immediate attention. I consider myself fortunate for having the opportunity to serve in a cause which is close to my heart. It is in this spirit that a concerted three-pronged attack in the form of Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (NMBA) under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi has been launched on this multi-headed monster of drug abuse. NMBA, which was launched on August 15, 2020, targets 272 districts which have been identified as most vulnerable based on rigorous inputs collected by the government. Considering the heightened adverse impact of drug abuse on youth, the focus of the Abhiyan is more on schools, higher education, institutions and university campuses. Also, youth groups such as NSS, NYKS, NCC have been roped in to reach out to target population. The message of the Prime Minister that ‘Drugs are not cool’ is being effectively delivered through these channels. I feel proud to announce that we have been able to provide community-based services for the identification, treatment and rehabilitation of addicts through voluntary organisations. The government is providing financial assistance to NGOs for running de-addiction centres. A 24x7 National Toll Free Helpline has been instrumental, especially during the lockdown period, in providing help to victims of drug abuse, their families and society at large. Outreach and drop-in centres (ODIC) with provision of counselling, assessment, screening to provide safe and secure drop-in space for drug users are being developed. Apart from these facilities, referral and linkage to rehabilitation and treatment services to work for various dependents will also be offered. Taking cognisance of the fact that addressing the problem of drug abuse requires concerted action at different levels of the government, the ministry has asked the state governments to plan and take specific initiatives, taking into account their local considerations and devise specific and suitable strategies for drug demand reduction in their identified areas. Accordingly, a decentralised monitoring mechanism in the form of district-level committees have been formed to maintain the pace and momentum of NMBA. The commitment of the government towards eradicating this social evil is evident from the increased outlay of Rs 260 crore from a meagre Rs 49 crore in 2017-18. The ministry is implementing a comprehensive National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction for 20182025 to reduce drug abuse through multi-faceted approach of education, de-addiction and rehabilitation. With the programme picking up pace, the mission is gradually turning into a social movement involving youth and society at large. I sincerely believe that with the hard work, commitment and concerted efforts of the government, society and voluntary organisations, we will be able to celebrate ‘International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking’ on approaching June 26 in the right earnest and realise the vision of Mahatma Gandhi of a drug-free society in the coming years.

Extortion to cover up economic mismanagement: Sonia to PM on fuel hike

New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS):

Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to blame previous governments for rising prices but find a “solution” as she termed the fuel price hike a “brazen act of profiteering” and “extortion” to cover up economic mismanagement. “This is nothing short of extortion to cover up economic mismanagement. As the principal party in opposition, I urge upon you to follow ‘Raj Dharma’ and reduce fuel prices by partially rolling back excise duty,” she wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister. “What is equally distressing is that despite being in power for almost seven years now, your government continues to blame previous regimes for its own economic mismanagement. To set the record straight, domestic crude oil production has fallen to an 18-year low in the year 2020. “I hope you will agree that it is time for your Government to focus on solutions instead of looking for excuses. India deserves better,” she said. Stressing that the crude oil price is nearly half of what it was during the UPA government’s tenure, she said: “Therefore, your Government’s act of raising prices (continuously for 12 days till February 20) is little less than a brazen act of profiteering.” Gandhi said that she is writing this letter to convey every citizen’s anguish and deep distress regarding the spiralling fuel and gas prices as India is witnessing systematic erosion of jobs, wages and household income. “The middle class and those at the margins of our society are struggling. These challenges have been compounded by runaway inflation and an unprecedented rise in price of almost all household items and essential commodities,” she said. Gandhi accused the government of choosing to “profiteer off people’s misery and suffering”. “Fuel prices are at an historic and unsustainable high. In fact, petrol has breached the Rs 100/ litre mark in many parts of the country. The surging price of diesel has added to the escalating woes of millions of farmers. What baffles most citizens, is that these prices have been increased despite moderate prices of International crude oil.” The Congress chief said the government has increased excise duty on diesel by 820 per cent and on petrol by 258 per cent and collected upwards of Rs 21 lakh crore in the last six and a half years. “This unaccounted for windfall is yet to be passed to the people for whose benefit it was ostensibly collected,” she noted. “Instead, ironically, your Government has been unreasonably over-zealous in levying excessive excise duty on petrol and diesel, Rs 33 on every litre of petrol and Rs 32 on every litre of diesel, which is higher than the base price of these fuels. “The astronomical rise in domestic non-subsidised LPG Gas cylinder to Rs 769 in Delhi (and over Rs 800 in many states like Uttar Pradesh) is even more cruel and has impacted every household. Can there be any justification for the Government increasing the price of a cylinder by Rs 175 in two and a half months since December 2020?” she asked.

‘Extremely unlikely’ Covid-19 escaped from Wuhan lab: WHO mission member

Sydney, Feb 23 (IANS): It is “extremely unlikely” that SARSCoV-2, which causes Covid-19, escaped from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a member of a World Health Organization (WHO) expert team sent to China on a Covid-19 origin-tracing mission said. “The most politically sensitive option we looked at was the virus escaping from a laboratory,” said Professor Dominic Dwyer from University of Sydney in an article on The Conversation, a publisher of research-based news and analysis. “We concluded this was extremely unlikely”, he said, Xinhua news agency reported. The Wuhan Institute of Virology “is an impressive research facility, and looks to be run well, with due regard to staff health,” said Dwyer. The professor said he has learned that blood samples of the scientists are routinely taken and stored, and “no evidence of antibodies to the coronavirus was found”. A clinical epidemiology group inside the team, according to Dwyer, looked at a large number of relative data and information, and “found no clear evidence of substantial circulation of Covid-19 in Wuhan during the latter part of

FB, Google, Microsoft adopt Australian misinformation code

2019 before the first case”. “We talked to our Chinese counterparts -- scientists, epidemiologists, doctors -- over the four weeks the WHO mission was in China. We were in meetings with them for up to 15 hours a day, so we became colleagues, even friends,” Dwyer said. “This allowed us to build respect and trust in a way you couldn’t necessarily do via Zoom or email,” he noted. The Australian expert said the virus was most likely of animal origin but not necessarily at a wet market in Wuhan. “It probably crossed over to humans from bats, via an as-yet-unknown intermediary animal at an unknown location,” he said, adding that the experts “are still working to confirm the exact chain of events that led to the current pandemic.” Dwyer said the WHO mission was only phase one of the investigation. “Investigators will also look further afield for data, to investigate evidence the virus was circulating in Europe, for instance, earlier in 2019,” he noted. “Investigators will continue to test wildlife and other animals in the region for signs of the virus,” he said. “And we’ll continue to learn from our experiences to improve how we investigate the next pandemic.”

Australia expresses concern over attack-class submarine programme

Canberra, Feb 24 (IANS):

Australia’s Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has expressed her “frustration” with the French company chosen to build the nation’s new fleet of submarines. Naval Group, then known as DCNS, was in 2016 awarded a contract to build a fleet of 12 new attack-class submarines at a cost of about 50 billion Australian dollars ($39.5 billion), which has since blown out to about 90 billion Australian dollars ($70.4 billion), Xinhua reported. Naval Group promised that 60 per cent of the contract value would be spent on Australian suppliers. However, the company has not yet committed to that figure in a formal deal with the government, prompting concerns, according to The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s report on Wednesday. Reynolds was set to meet with the global chief executive of Naval Group, Pierre Eric Pommellet, on Wednesday after he completed two weeks of quarantine but on Wednesday morning announced she was taking medical leave on the advice of her cardiologist. Prior to taking leave she told Parliament that she was frustrated with the slow progress of negotiations with the French company. “I am frustrated and I’m very disappointed that Naval Group have not yet been able to finalize this contract with Defence, but it will not be done at the expense of Australian jobs, and Australian industry,” Reynolds said on Tuesday. Despite tense talks, both the Department of Defence and Naval Group have insisted that the project remains on track. Sydney, Feb 22 (IANS): Top tech giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, TikTok and Twitter have agreed on adopting the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation that aims to address the spread of fake news and disinformation on online platforms. The code, prepared by the Digital Industry Group Inc (DiGi), a nonprofit industry association, will be reviewed in 12 months, reports ZDNet. The code will apply to certain products and services that are delivered to end users in Australia, such as user-generated sponsored and shared content. Private messaging services, email services, and enterprise services are excluded from the code. The code was developed in response to government policy where it asked the major digital platforms to develop a voluntary code of conduct outlining what the platforms will do to address concerns regarding disinformation and credibility signalling for news content. The code provides seven guiding principles, with the first aimed at protecting freedom of expression. “Signatories should not be compelled by governments or other parties to remove content solely on the basis of its alleged falsity if the content would not otherwise be unlawful,” according to the code. The digital platforms who have signed this code recognise their role as important actors within the Australian information ecosystem and have already implemented a range of measures to tackle the propagation of disinformation and misinformation amongst users of their services and products. “Any actions taken by digital platforms to address the propagation of Disinformation and Misinformation should not contravene commitments they have made to respect the privacy of Australian users, including in terms and conditions, published policies and voluntary codes of conduct as well as by applicable laws,” the code read. This includes respect for users’ expectations of privacy when using digital platforms and in private digital communications. Additionally, any access to data for research purposes must protect user privacy. Meanwhile, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ABC News app shot to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in Australia over the course of the last few days, just after Facebook banned Australian news sources on its platform. ABC capitalised on Facebook’s news ban with an ad sending users to its app. Facebook’s ban was in response to an Australian regulatory measure that will force tech platforms to pay Australian media companies for the content users share (and that platforms earn ad revenue from).

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India-Australia partnership to play important role in post-Covid world: Modi

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that a strong IndiaAustralia partnership will play an important role in shaping the post-Covid world. The statement came a day after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed to move ahead with his government’s proposed laws that will ensure the US media tech giants like Facebook pay for publishing news media content. Incidentally, the Modi government is also pushing back against the misuse of the US social media platforms for mobilising violence over domestic reforms in India. On Thursday, Modi had spoken to Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the phone. Both the leaders, while reiterating their commitment to consolidate their comprehensive strategic partnership, discussed regional issues of common interest. The two looked forward to working together for peace, prosperity and security in the Indo-Pacific. In a virtual address on Friday at the award ceremony of the India Australia Circular Economy Hackathon, Prime Minister Modi said that Indian and Australian youth, innovators and entrepreneurs will be at the forefront of strengthening partnership over the circular economy. In June last year, Prime Minister Modi and Morrison had discussed the possibility of organising a hackathon on circular economy. Modi said he was glad the idea was realised so soon. Circular Economy, he said, can be a key step in solving many of the challenges. “Recycling and reusing things, eliminating waste, and improving resource efficiency must become part of our lifestyles,” he stressed. The hackathon has seen innovative solutions from Indian and Australian students, startups and entrepreneurs. “I have no doubt that your innovations will inspire our two countries to take the lead in circular economy solutions. And, for that, we must now also explore ways to scale-up and incubate these ideas,” he said.

Not to be intimidated by facebook after news ban: Australian PM

Canberra, Feb 19 (IANS):

Australian-Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for curbing Facebook’s influence, after the technology giant banned Australians from accessing some news content on the social media platform in response to the government’s proposed media bargaining code. The pages of health departments, governments, fire services and the Bureau of Meteorology were also wiped, the Xinhua news agency reported. In a post on Facebook on Thursday, Morrison vowed that his government would not be “intimidated” by the move. “Facebook’s actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing,” he said. “These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of Big-Tech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them,” added Morrison. “We will not be intimidated by Big-Tech seeking to pressure our Parliament as it votes on our important News Media Bargaining Code.” Under the media bargaining code, technology giants including Facebook and Google would be forced to pay Australian news outlets for their content. The lower house of the Australian parliament, the House of Representatives, passed the legislation on Wednesday night, paving the way for the Senate to pass it into law. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Friday morning that he had spoken to Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, about the news ban for the second time in two days. Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday slammed the decision by Facebook. Greg Hunt, minister for health, said that he was concerned that it could lead to the spread of irresponsible misinformation as Australia prepares to begin administering Covid-19 vaccines next week. His concerns were echoed by Omar Khorshid, President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), who said in a statement that Facebook was “putting the health of Australians at risk.” William Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement on Thursday that the law proposed in Australia “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content.” According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Simon Milner, Facebook’s head of public policy for the Asia-Pacific, said the blocking of access to nonnews pages reflected what they argued was a broad definition of “news” as defined in the law.