Latest news with #identifies
The Wire
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Wire
Why Did India Miss the Zohran Mamdani Story?
Omair Ahmad 27 minutes ago Indian lack of interest in a campaign in which an American of Indian origin will possibly govern one of the most important cities in the world is part of the diminishing of Indian vision and influence in South Asia. Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani takes selfies with supporters after speaking at his primary election party, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. Photo: AP/PTI. More to the point, Mamdani ran his campaign with an enormous outreach to South Asians, with ads in Urdu/Hindi using Bollywood themes. And if anybody had forgotten, he is also the son of the famed filmmaker Mira Nair as well as of the respected Ugandan academic of Indian origin Mahmood Mamdani. Whether for serious reasons – a person of Indian origin managing one of the most important financial and creative cities in the world – or for simple entertainment reasons, Mamdani was a story that should have written itself for the Indian media. And yet, go further back than a day or two and all you find is a deathly silence. It is worth asking why. The short, depressing answer is that Mamdani is Muslim – he identifies as a Shia of Twelver belief if anybody is interested, even if it is nobody's business but his. As India has embraced Hindutva over the last dozen years it has celebrated those of Indian origin like Priti Patel or the eminently forgettable and quickly forgotten Rishi Sunak whose connections are more attenuated than those of Mamdani, and who you will struggle to find campaigning in any South Asian idiom whatsoever. For Muslims, Sikhs, and others, the government has little time, either ignoring them or painting them as separatists. Given that the majority of our media feels the necessity to crawl before power, we see the world through an increasingly narrow lens. But there is more to it than just that. If an Akhand Bharat – a larger South Asia where borders do not stand between people – exists, then it exists abroad. As anybody who has lived overseas can tell you, desis find it easy to be desis out of the subcontinent, to meet over food, music, and movies. Divisions still remain, of course, and I confess to being annoyed with some of my Pakistani-American cousins and there was that memorable iftar in upstate New York where I was one of two people who identified as Indian while the rest were very Kashmiri. Language, politics, and food can be barriers as well as meeting grounds, but despite that, South Asians abroad have largely preferred to find grounds to meet and mingle rather than stand apart. A large part of that was the wider experience created by filmmakers and academics like Zohran Mamdani's parents. It has been one of the reasons that he has been so successful at reaching across ethnicities and was able to address, with affection and a sense of ownership, the 'Bangladeshi auntie' who campaigned for him near the end of his victory speech. That capacious sense of self has evaporated over the time that Modi has presided as India's prime minister. He may have invited all South Asian heads of state for his first inauguration, but the goodwill and standing that India had across much of South Asia has gone. In 2014 India was one of the largest donors to Afghanistan's government, today it is sidling up to the Taliban. At that time, India was one of the key partners helping in the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, today it is fencing its borders because of the violence in Manipur and its only interlocutor in Myanmar is the military junta. In 2014, India's position in Bangladesh was as of the pre-eminent foreign supporter even as it engaged with the growing influence of China. Today it is pushing people across the border in violation of any basic rule of law or humanitarian principles. In 2014, Nawaz Sharif fought with the military leadership to attend an Indian prime minister's inauguration. Today, even our airspace is closed to each other. Many of these changes are ones in which India could do little, but not all. Furthermore, as Indian foreign policy has become more transactional, as it has touted its own power as a very large cumulatively (ignoring that at per capita levels, its people are hardly better off, and in some case worse off, than its neighbours') it has looked to the US, Europe, and the world. The cost has been borne by the management of its relations in the neighbourhood. When India passed its powerful Right to Information Act in 2005, countries lined up to learn from our experience. India exported its experience with police reform to other Commonwealth countries. Today, there is hardly any form of legislation in India that inspires South Asia and the world. If anything, we are cited as a caution of what could go wrong. It is incredibly ironic that the political party that bangs on about Akhand Bharat, putting up maps that strain our ties with our neighbours, has presided over the greatest withering of Indian appeal across the subcontinent. This has an impact on the desi diaspora as well. While the India Impact Fund, an organisation promoting the participation of Indian and South Asian Americans in politics backed Zohran Mamdani, a group titled Indian Americans for Cuomo and the American Hindu Coalition attacked him. This seems to be principally because Mamdani has criticised Modi in a similar vein as he has criticised the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mamdani's comprehensive victory, in which South Asians have had a strong contribution, will likely have limited influence from anybody who approves of the current Indian government. As we increasingly find ourselves alone in our own neighbourhood our policies are also isolating us in the South Asia abroad as an increasingly diminished India chooses to march alone. Omair Ahmad is an author. His last novel, Jimmy the Terrorist, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and won the Crossword Award. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
Business Wire
24-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
AVOXI Embeds AI into Cloud Voice Platform for Advanced Capabilities
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AVOXI, a global leader in cloud voice software for contact centers, today announced new capabilities in the AVOXI Cloud Voice Platform that reflect growing customer adoption of AI-powered voice features. As companies become more sophisticated in how they manage and orchestrate global voice infrastructure, AVOXI is expanding its platform with intelligent tools that improve call performance, automate issue detection, and enhance outbound engagement. 'AVOXI is embedding AI directly into the voice layer to deliver smarter call experiences and more reliable worldwide performance,' said Barbara Dondiego, CEO of AVOXI." 'AVOXI is embedding AI directly into the voice layer to deliver smarter call experiences and more reliable worldwide performance,' said Barbara Dondiego, CEO of AVOXI. 'These enhanced capabilities demonstrate how our customers are evolving to leverage advanced voice features to efficiently scale and better serve customers.' NEW: AVOXI's Proactive Service Uses AI to Monitor Call Quality, Maximize Number Uptime AVOXI's new Proactive Service leverages AI to detect and diagnose phone number issues in real time, before they impact customer service and sales operations. This capability automatically monitors voice performance at the number level, identifies potential disruptions, and creates support cases without requiring manual oversight or IT team intervention. A finalist for 'Best of Show' at Enterprise Connect, Proactive Service is in pilot with more than a dozen large organizations. During the pilot, which spans more than 100 countries and actively monitors over 7,500 business critical phone numbers and more than one million calls per month, AVOXI Proactive Service has detected and initiated resolution of 97% of service cases, most often before its customers were even aware of any issues. NEW: Intelligent Caller ID Increases Answer Rates, Simplifies Global Outbound Voice AVOXI's new Intelligent Caller ID feature uses AI to automatically determine the best outbound number to display based on the call recipient's location, regardless of where the call originates. This not only improves answer rates with familiar, localized numbers, but also eliminates the manual effort, and potential for human error, often required to manage caller ID settings across regions or platforms. With centralized configuration through the AVOXI platform, Intelligent Caller ID streamlines workflows for global contact centers, increases agent efficiency, and ensures enterprises reach more customers faster. NEW: AVOXI Digest Sets the Standard for Voice Performance Visibility and Awareness AVOXI Digest is a dynamically customizable report that gives enterprises a full view of global voice operations, offering high-level summaries, granular activity insights, and trend analysis across regions and numbers. Delivered weekly, it allows teams to more easily monitor quality, understand usage patterns, and make smarter decisions about voice infrastructure and routing strategy. SIP Refer and Advanced Messaging Streamline Call Flow Across Platforms As enterprises consolidate voice infrastructure and seek to stream calls to multiple platforms, AVOXI's SIP Refer and Advanced SIP Messaging provide intelligent call routing that reduces cost and complexity, while improving performance. These capabilities enable dynamic call transfers between systems, allowing contact centers to move calls off high-cost platforms like CCaaS, route customers to third-party providers, or shift between agents with full context. By minimizing the number of platforms in the call path, AVOXI helps global organizations lower per-call costs, improve call quality, and embed services like AI apps and fraud detection directly into the call path. The result is a more efficient, secure, and scalable voice orchestration model, tailored to ensure contact centers deliver desired customer experiences. Proactive Service, Intelligent Caller ID, AVOXI Digest and SIP Refer are available via AVOXI Premium Cloud Service and / or Premium AI Cloud Service. Premium and Premium AI Cloud Service serve as advanced market solutions for enterprises that need to deploy and manage voice at global scale. Cloud Service package details can be found on AVOXI's pricing page. Visit to learn more. About AVOXI AVOXI delivers a new generation of international cloud voice solutions to companies with global reach for their contact centers and other mission-critical enterprise communications. AVOXI's software-led approach provides clients with automation, visibility and intelligence, to deliver unmatched global service and virtual numbers, enabling AVOXI's 5,000+ clients to more effectively use voice to serve customers across geographic markets. Visit for more information.
Irish Post
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
‘It's what I grew up with': Ed Sheeran confirms he ‘identifies culturally' as Irish
GLOBAL popstar Ed Sheeran has confirmed he 'identifies culturally' as Irish. The 34-year-old singer, who has produced countless hits in a career which has now stretched over more than a decade, was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire but raised in Suffolk. His father's family hails from Belfast in Northern Ireland and his mother's side are all from Co. Wexford in the south. Ed Sheeran has revealed he identifies culturally as Irish This week, in a podcast interview with Louis Theroux, Sheeran confirmed that despite being born in England, he identifies as Irish. 'I class my culture as Irish. That that's what I grew up with,' he told The Louis Theroux Podcast. 'You know, my mom's family is very, very small, it's her and her parents,' he explained. 'And my dad's family is, he's got seven brothers and sisters, which is massive. 'So, we'd spend all of our holidays in Ireland.' The singer references his Irish roots in his hit Galway Girl, which was released on St Patrick's Day in 2017, and Nancy Mulligan – a song about his Irish grandmother in Co. Wexford, which was released that same year. He is also patron of the London Irish Centre (LIC), in Camden, where his long-term friend Gary Dunne, who taught him how to use a loop pedal in his music, was formerly Arts Director. Sheeran was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 2022 for his contribution to the city and his work with LIC. Sheeran performs at the London Irish Centre in Camden, of which he became a patron in 2018 During his chat with Theroux, the star further confirmed that much of his musical inspiration comes from his roots in the Emerald Isle. 'My first musical experiences were in Ireland' he said. 'I grew up with trad music in the house. 'So, I do like, I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain. 'I don't overthink it,' he adds, 'but I do feel like my culture is something that I'm really proud of and grew up with and want to express. 'And I feel like just because I was born in Britain doesn't necessarily mean that I have to just be British. 'There's loads of people that I know that are half this or a quarter that.' Maeve Heath, Ed Sheeran, former Lord Mayor of the City of London, Vincent Keaveny and Gary Dunne receive the Freedom of the City of London (Pic: William Walsh) Sheeran went on to to confirm that he is 'protective' of the Irish culture, 'in some respects' but 'I also see the flaws of it'. He added that 'when England are playing, I support England' acknowledging that 'yeah, there's a lot' to manage as a person who identifies as being Irish while living in Britain. 'But I think that's allowed,' he added. 'I don't think there's any rules to it. 'It should be how you feel and how you were raised and what you are leaning into it.' When asked by Theroux 'Do you get a lot of love in Ireland?' Sheeran said: 'Yeah. I'd say it's basically my second home musically. 'I'd say Ireland is the place that I am most successful musically," he added. See More: Ed Sheeran, Irish, Louis Theroux
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Anti-Hunters Will Attempt to Sabotage Florida's Bear Hunt With This Dirty Tactic
As Florida moves forward with plans to reinstate a regulated black bear hunt for the first time since 2015, opponents of the hunt from around the world are mobilizing an unconventional tactic — applying for the lottery hunt en masse. If these anti-hunters draw a tag, they'll hold onto it, effectively preventing a legal, well-intended bear hunter from drawing. Their goal is to flood the lottery and, theoretically, reduce the number of bears harvested. 'Never in my life did I think I'd be a hunter,' Chuck O'Neal, president of Speak Up Wekiva, a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the Wekiva River and its watershed, told Naples Daily News. 'Now that we have a constitutional right to hunt, I might as well take advantage of that.' O'Neal was sarcastically referring to Amendment 2, Florida's new constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to hunt and fish for anyone with a proper license. Passed in 2024 with more than 67 percent support from the Florida electorate, the amendment protects individual participation in hunting and fishing. Also, it identifies these activities as the 'preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife.' O'Neal and other opponents of the bear hunt argue that Amendment 2 makes it possible for them to purchase a license and apply for one of the black bear permits, which are likely to be allocated this year. 'We'll put in a few times or a few hundred times. It's an equal opportunity to enter this. I must admit, I'm not a good marksman. I may kill a bear with kindness,' O'Neal said. However, the specific language of the amendment could complicate the protest effort. It may not be illegal to purchase a tag and stay home, but the coordinated effort to obstruct legal hunting access seems to run afoul of the spirit of Amendment 2, which was intended to guarantee Floridians the right to hunt, not just to purchase a license. If anti-hunters snatch up a large quantity of the state's available bear permits, it would rob others of their constitutionally protected right. It also strips the state of the management tool that the amendment prioritizes. It's unclear how FWC would prevent anti-hunters from applying or if there would be any punishment for drawing with the intention of limiting hunting opportunity for others. Adding to the complexity of the issue is Florida's application process. The state requires individuals to complete a hunter safety course before purchasing a license. If non-hunters apply for the black bear lottery without completing the required course, they won't be able to buy a permit, even if they are drawn in the lottery. This could limit the protest's potential impact (unless, of course, those applicants are willing to complete hunter education). Read Next: Florida Just Approved a Black Bear Season. Connecticut Could Be Next The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission maintains the hunt is necessary to manage the state's growing black bear population and to mitigate rising human-bear conflicts, including a recent fatal attack on an 88-year-old man in Collier County. The FWC voted 4-1 to give preliminary approval for the hunt on May 15. A final vote on the proposed hunt, which would allot 187 black bear tags, is scheduled for August. The FWC was not immediately available for comment on whether the state has a plan to address protester-driven lottery entries.
Scoop
05-06-2025
- Health
- Scoop
New Report Highlights Food Safety System At Work
A report by New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) identifies the recall of imported sesame seeds with the potential to cause Salmonella poisoning as last year's biggest food safety event. The Consumer-level food recalls annual report for 2024, published today, says Salmonella was detected during routine testing by a New Zealand business importing the seeds. 'Thanks to the swift action of the team at NZFS, risk to the public was minimised. It was complex and meticulous work, involving testing and tracing potentially affected sesame seeds through the domestic market,' says NZFS deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle. 'As a result of these efforts potentially affected product was identified and removed from shelves. In total there were 15 related recalls where the seeds were used, including as ingredients in other products. Most importantly there were no confirmed reports of related illness. "Recalls are an important part of our work to protect consumers. New Zealand's food safety system has a strong track record of keeping people safe and – given the volumes of food being produced, manufactured and imported – incidences of related illness remain rare. "However, there are occasions when food safety issues occur, and that's when we work quickly with food businesses to recall the affected product, removing it from the food supply chain and promoting public awareness. 'Good regulations also play a key role. The rules for imported sesame seeds have recently been strengthened. They now receive more scrutiny at the border to help minimise the risk of Salmonella contamination.' The 2024 report shows New Zealand Food Safety supported food businesses to conduct 88 consumer-level food recalls. "It's important to note that the number of recalls is not an accurate indicator of the level of risk to consumers. Numbers are dependent on many factors, including regulatory changes, business and public awareness of food-related problems, and reporting of those problems," says Mr Arbuckle. Of the 88 recalls, 56 were initiated for domestically produced foods and 32 were for imported foods. Allergens in food were the leading cause for recalls in 2024, accounting for 46 percent of all recalls. "Food recalls are a sign that our food safety system is working to protect consumers," says Mr Arbuckle. "You can help keep yourself and your family safe by subscribing to our recall alerts from the New Zealand Food Safety food recall page: 'With World Food Safety Day coming up on Saturday [7 June] it's a good time to make sure you've got the latest information to help keep you and yours safe."
