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Year: 2023

Nicole Jenes and Rathbone: Social media influencers a new lens on Gaza war

Nicole Jenes and Rathbone: Social media influencers a new lens on Gaza war

Exploring how Instagram and TikTok influencers shape narratives in Israel’s war on Gaza. Social media has revolutionised our understanding and perception of wars and conflicts. Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, with their real-time, unfiltered content, offer a new perspective that’s immediate and often raw. These platforms enable users worldwide to witness conflicts like the war on Gaza as they unfold, offering a variety of viewpoints that traditional media may not cover. This shift has led to a more multifaceted and grassroots-level narrative, one which we will explore as influencers Nicole Jenes and Rathbone talk to Al Jazeera. Adblock test (Why?)

Year of the underdog: How ‘outsiders’ upended Latin America’s elections

Year of the underdog: How ‘outsiders’ upended Latin America’s elections

Buenos Aires, Argentina – Poverty through the roof. Out-of-control inflation. Overwhelming debt. Javier Milei painted the grimmest of pictures when he delivered his inaugural address as president of Argentina earlier this month. “There is no money,” he said in a grave voice. “There is no alternative to tightening our belt. There is no alternative to a shock.” It was not the sort of message you would expect to elicit cheers from a society battered by economic recession. But the roar from the crowd demonstrated the extent to which Milei – a relative newcomer to the world of politics – had succeeded in tapping into voters’ discontent with the status quo. Milei, a 53-year-old libertarian economist known for his shaggy hair and cloned dogs, was part of a wave of political outsiders who surged into leadership positions in Latin America this year. Countries across the region saw dark-horse candidates sweep into the presidency in 2023, delivering a rebuke to the political establishment. In Ecuador, for instance, Daniel Noboa stunned the nation by defeating political veteran Luisa González in an October run-off vote. Like Milei, Noboa, the heir to a banana industry fortune, had only served a single term in public office before his ascent to the presidency. Guatemala, meanwhile, saw progressive congressman Bernardo Arevalo come from behind to win a landslide in his country’s presidential elections, defeating former First Lady Sandra Torres. Arevalo had been seen as a long-shot candidate, polling with less than 3 percent support in the lead-up to the first vote. But he sailed to victory on a wave of popular frustration he characterised as a “democratic spring”. President Daniel Noboa became Ecuador’s youngest-ever elected president when he was sworn in on November 23 [Carlos Noriega/AP] Even in Paraguay, another long-shot, Paraguayo Cubas, made a surprisingly strong showing in the country’s presidential race. Describing himself as an “anti-system” candidate, the far-right leader landed in third place in the final vote. But Pablo Touzon, an Argentinian political scientist, said “anti-system” might not be the right term for this trend of political outsiders. “It’s not that they are anti-system. They are the new system,” he said of the slate of new leaders, who span the political spectrum, from left to right. Touzon traces this crop of political outsiders to a global shift that has been brewing for more than a decade. He explained that the global economic crash of 2008 and the rise of social media empowered new voices to rail against the status quo, rocking political establishments from Europe to North America to the Middle East. This period of upheaval in the early 2000s coincided with a commodities boom in Latin America: The price of raw materials and other exports rose, fuelled by demand from countries like China. That lowered regional inequality slightly, but Touzon warned that Latin America has “yet to find its economic model” – one that will ensure the region’s stability. Instead, economic uncertainty has created the conditions for the current “political rupture”. “The new system might be more unstable, more variable, with a power that is easier to obtain and easier to lose,” Touzon said. President-elect Bernardo Arévalo has faced legal challenges since winning Guatemala’s presidential election with a dark-horse campaign [Moises Castillo/AP] The economy was a leading issue in several of the countries that saw upstart candidates take power. Argentina’s dismal economic outlook dominated its election cycle, with inflation soaring past 160 percent and its currency tanking. More than 40 percent of the population sits below the poverty line. Likewise, Ecuador’s economy has struggled to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts have warned that high youth unemployment could provide “easy recruits” for criminal gangs, another top concern in this year’s election. Corruption was also a mobilising issue. In Ecuador, outgoing President Guillermo Lasso faced impeachment hearings until he dissolved the legislature and called for new elections. In Argentina, meanwhile, the previous administration hit a speed bump when a federal court found then-Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner guilty of corruption last December. And in Guatemala, a litany of government scandals drove voters to back the Movimiento Semilla or Seed Movement, an anticorruption party led by Arevalo. “My candidacy and our party channelled the frustration with an intolerable situation of corruption,” Arevalo said in an interview with the BBC in November. Even so, government prosecutors and rival politicians have mounted repeated efforts to question the legitimacy of Arevalo’s victory, spurring international observers to warn of election interference. Supporters reach out towards Argentina’s newly inaugurated President Javier Milei, bottom right, on December 10 [Natacha Pisarenko/AP] Distrust in government institutions has been a uniting theme throughout the 2023 elections, according to commentators like Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Andrés Oppenheimer. In an appearance on Mexico’s Imagen Radio, Oppenheimer credited the clamour for change to longstanding frustrations. “The wave of outsider presidents that they are electing in Latin America – from Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, all the anti-systemic leaders are appearing ahead in the polls – all of that is part of the same thing,” Oppenheimer said. “There’s a wave of unhappiness in the world.” In some cases, when faced with major obstacles like economic turmoil or corruption, voters turn to politicians they come to view as “messiahs”, said Romina Del Pla, a left-leaning member of Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies. “It’s the expression of the magnitude of the crisis that we have been living through in Argentina for many years,” Del Pla said of her country’s recent election. She added that the thirst for “messiah” figures extends beyond Argentina, pointing to the success of populists like Donald Trump in the United States or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. “We’ve seen that this phenomenon is international in nature, with Trump, with Bolsonaro, with others, that are the people who have managed to channel that huge frustration,” she said. Protesters demonstrate against President Javier Milei’s slate of reforms outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 21 [Rodrigo Abd/AP] Del Pla observed that, during this year’s presidential race, there was

Pakistan poll body rejects ex-PM Imran Khan’s nomination for 2024 elections

Pakistan poll body rejects ex-PM Imran Khan’s nomination for 2024 elections

The jailed leader’s bid to overturn his disqualification in the wake of conviction in a corruption case rejected by election body. Pakistan’s election body has rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s nomination to contest the 2024 parliamentary elections, with Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e Insaf (PTI) party accusing authorities of stopping most of its candidates from participating in the elections due in February. The 71-year-old former cricket star, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for corruption, was barred from politics for five years by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). But he still filed nomination papers on Friday. Election officials disallowed Khan’s candidacy because of his conviction and what they said was his disqualification under the Constitution, according to documents seen by the AP. They also rejected the candidacies of former members of his cabinet. The ECP released a list of rejected nominees from Lahore on Saturday, which also contained Khan’s name. It said the former prime minister could not become a nominee because he is not a registered voter of the constituency and due to him being “convicted by the court of law”. The cricketer-turned-politician’s nomination bid was also rejected in his hometown of Mianwali in Punjab province, according to his media team. Khan has not been seen publicly since his incarceration in August in the corruption case in which he was accused of unlawfully selling state gifts while in office. Last week, the Supreme Court granted him bail in a case alleging he leaked state secrets, but he is continuing to fight a barrage of legal cases that have dogged him since being removed from office last year. Most popular leader Khan, who is widely seen as the country’s most popular leader, has alleged that Pakistan’s powerful military is colluding with traditional parties to destroy his political party and prevent him from running for office again. The military has historically played a major role in the country’s politics and has directly ruled for decades since independence in 1947 from British rule. The 71-year-old leader has also alleged that the Pakistani military and the United States government conspired to topple his administration after he visited Moscow just before Russia invaded Ukraine. Washington and Pakistan’s military have denied the accusations. However, the US-based news site The Intercept published in August what it claims to be the details of a secret diplomatic cable that suggested the US administration wanted to remove Khan from power. The ECP had previously ruled that Khan’s PTI party cannot contest general elections using its cricket bat logo, but the High Court in the northwestern city of Peshawar earlier this week handed his team a legal victory by suspending the order. In addition to the 71-year-old Khan, the election commission has also rejected nomination papers submitted by other senior members of his party, including vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi. The commission, however, has accepted a nomination bid from former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from two constituencies, weeks after a court overturned two corruption convictions. But Sharif, who also has been facing legal challenges for years and returned home in October to end a four-year self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom, still needs to remove a life ban on holding public office, a hearing for which will be held in January. The PTI has accused the Pakistani authorities of rejecting 90 percent of nominations from its party candidates while allowing nomination papers from other parties, including Sharif’s Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)

Deadly snake halts play at Australia tennis tournament

Deadly snake halts play at Australia tennis tournament

Austrian Dominic Thiem’s match suspended for 40 minutes after reptile slithered its way courtside. He won the qualifier. Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem had to face a tough battle during his qualifying tennis match at the Brisbane International – and also one of Australia’s most venomous snakes. Thiem’s match against Australian James McCabe was suspended for 40 minutes on Saturday after a snake slithered courtside. It was spotted by fans near the courtside electrical wires, prompting officials to call in security staff and stop play, as McCabe had just wrapped up the first set 6-2 against the 2020 US Open champion. A professional snake catcher was summoned to snare the 50cm (20-inch) reptile and tease it into a bag. It was identified as an eastern brown snake and one of Australia’s most deadly reptiles. “I really love animals, especially exotic ones,” Thiem said. “But they said it was a really poisonous snake and it was close to the ball kids, so it was a really dangerous situation.” The former world number three told reporters after the match: “It’s something that has never happened to me and is something I’ll definitely never forget.” Thiem, currently ranked no 98 after several years grappling with a wrist injury, was not yet out of danger when play resumed. He had to save three match points before winning the second set tiebreak. The 30-year-old then went on to clinch the deciding set for a 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 win. Thiem reached the final of the Australian Open in 2020 when he pushed the Serbian champion Novak Djokovic to five sets, and won the US Open later that year. The Brisbane International is a tune-up event to the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, which begins on January 14 in Melbourne. Former world number one Rafael Nadal will return to tennis – after almost a year on the sidelines because of a lingering hip injury – in Brisbane on Sunday when he plays a doubles match alongside Marc Lopez, whom he partnered with in 2016 to claim an Olympic gold medal. Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, drew a qualifier in the singles draw as he gears up for the first stop of what could be his farewell tour. The 37-year-old Spaniard, who has won the French Open a record 14 times, had to pull out of that event in May because of his injury. Adblock test (Why?)