Cambodia’s female tuk-tuk drivers fight prejudice on road to equality
Every day Roeung Sorphy deftly weaves through the streets of Siem Reap, zigzagging past cars, motorbikes and the occasional stray dog as she shepherds tourists to Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex. But on the road to joining the small number of women tuk-tuk drivers in the country, the 37-year-old has to dodge not only other road users but also a barrage of taunts, misogyny and prejudice. Cambodia has taken legal and practical steps towards gender equality, but it remains a conservative, patriarchal society. Women are expected to run the home and family rather than seek paid work. It was tough when Roeung Sorphy, who goes by the nickname Sopy, first took to the streets. “At first, they [male drivers] looked down on me … They said we women should stay at home and clean dishes,” she said, describing how she was verbally harassed and assaulted when competing for fares. “But we keep persevering,” she said after she finished cleaning her tuk-tuk, lovingly decorating it with blooming white lotuses. Sopy got her start after borrowing $3,000 to buy her tuk-tuk, and has now been driving through the shaded roads of Angkor Park for more than three years. “We cannot just rely on husbands,” she said, urging more women to join the profession. “We will be strong like men,” said Sopy, whose husband is also a tuk-tuk driver. She charges about $15 per passenger for a tour around Angkor, a sprawling UNESCO World Heritage site. After years, her male colleagues have finally accepted her. “We have won their hearts, they’ve stopped discriminating against us. They think we are the same.” “I love the job. I think all women can do it.” Adblock test (Why?)
Nagaland sees women legislators in 2023 for first time as NDPP-BJP alliance returns to power
All the political parties in the state, including seven NCP legislators and four Independent MLAs, extended unconditional support to the NDPP-BJP dispensation, making it an all-party government for the third time in the state.
‘I have never…’: TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee says this on video of him imitating Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar also expressed his pain over suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee apparently mimicking him during a protest in Parliament premises and said it is “unacceptable” and “the institution of Chairman has been ravaged”.
Trump’s Republican White House rivals rally around the former president in ballot battle
Trump’s competitors for the GOP nomination rallied around the former president on Tuesday evening after the Colorado Supreme Court removed him from the state’s 2024 ballot. Though they want to defeat Trump at the ballot box, the former president’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination don’t want him to be knocked off the ballot. The divided court ruled that Trump is ineligible to run for the presidency under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause, arguing that his actions fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by right-wing protesters aiming to disrupt congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory. TRUMP CAMPAIGN BLASTS COLORADO SUPREME COURT RULING KNOCKING HIM OFF THAT STATE’S BALLOT The ruling came as Trump and three of his rivals – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur and first-time candidate Vivek Ramaswamy – campaigned in Iowa with just under four weeks to go until the state’s caucuses lead off the GOP presidential nominating calendar. “The Left invokes ‘democracy’ to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse,” DeSantis wrote in a social media posting as he attacked what he viewed as judicial overreach. WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE COLORADO HIGH COURT’S RULING Haley told reporters that “we don’t need to have judges making these decisions. We need voters to make these decisions. So I want to see this in the hands of the voters. We’re going to win this the right way.” Ramaswamy, who is Trump’s biggest defender in the winnowed down field of remaining rivals for the nomination, vowed to withdraw his name from the Colorado primary ballot and encouraged his opponents to do the same. “This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado,” he charged. “Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in this election, the bipartisan Establishment is now deploying a new tactic to bar him from ever holding office again.” Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s most vocal opponent in the GOP presidential nomination field, was campaigning in New Hampshire on Tuesday. The Granite State holds the first primary and second overall contest after Iowa in the Republican calendar. Christie termed the Colorado ruling as “probably premature” because the former president has yet to be tried for inciting the attack on the Capitol. “I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being President of the United States by any court. I think he should be prevented from being President of the United States by the voters of this country,” Christie emphasized. Trump is the commanding front-runner for the Republican nomination as he runs for the presidency a third straight time. Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss — have only fueled his support among Republican voters. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Colorado’s top court finds Donald Trump ineligible for US presidency
Colorado’s Supreme Court has ruled former United States President Donald Trump is ineligible to run for the White House because of his role in the 2021 assault on the Capitol by his supporters and should be removed from the state’s primary ballot. While the ruling only applies to Colorado, it marks the first time in US history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who “engaged in insurrection”, has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate and comes as courts in other states consider similar legal actions. “A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the Colorado high court wrote in its four-three majority decision. “Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot. “We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” they added. The decision – which Trump’s campaign said it would appeal – drew immediate condemnation from Republicans. The one-time property tycoon and reality TV star faces a raft of court cases, from criminal charges over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, to mishandling classified documents, hush money payments in the 2016 election and fraud in his business practices. Trump has claimed he is the victim of political persecution. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the Colorado justices said. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.” A lower court earlier found that while Trump incited an insurrection, for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the 14th Amendment was intended to cover the presidency. Noah Bookbinder of the campaign group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which brought the original case along with a group of Colorado voters, welcomed Tuesday’s higher court ruling. The court’s decision is “not only historic and justified, but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country”, he said in a statement. “Our Constitution clearly states that those who violate their oath by attacking our democracy are barred from serving in government.” Swift appeal expected The Colorado court placed its ruling on hold until January 4 or until the US Supreme Court rules on the case. State officials say the issue must be settled by January 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots. The Republican primary is due to take place in March. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they would “swiftly file an appeal” to the Supreme Court, which has the final say on constitutional matters. Cheung claimed Colorado’s “all-Democrat appointed” panel was doing the bidding of a “[George] Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked [President] Joe Biden”. The Supreme Court at the federal level has a six-three conservative majority and includes three judges Trump appointed when he was president. Trump, who is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, faces dozens of lawsuits under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War. “I think it may embolden other state courts or secretaries to act now that the bandage has been ripped off,” Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who has closely followed the cases, told the Associated Press news agency after Tuesday’s ruling. “This is a major threat to Trump’s candidacy.” The Colorado court decision brought swift rebukes from senior Republicans, including Trump’s one-time rival for the 2016 nomination, Senator Marco Rubio. “The US has put sanctions on other countries for doing exactly what the Colorado Supreme Court has done today,” he wrote on social media. The Colorado ruling stands in contrast with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which last month decided that the state party can put anyone it wants on its primary ballot. It dismissed a Section 3 lawsuit but said the plaintiffs could try again during the general election. In another 14th Amendment case, a Michigan judge ruled that Congress, not the judiciary, should decide whether Trump can stay on the ballot in a ruling that is being appealed. (Al Jazeera) The liberal group behind those cases, Free Speech For People, has also filed a lawsuit in Oregon seeking to remove Trump from the ballot there. Both groups are financed by liberal donors who also support President Biden, who is set to run for a second term in office. Trump has blamed the president for the lawsuits against him. Biden has no role in them. Three Colorado Supreme Court justices dissented in Tuesday’s ruling. One of the dissenting justices, Carlos Samour, said in a lengthy opinion that a lawsuit was not a fair mechanism for determining Trump’s eligibility for the ballot because it deprived him of his right to due process, noting that a jury had not convicted him of insurrection. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past – dare I say, engaged in insurrection – there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office,” Samour said. Adblock test (Why?)
‘No safe place’: Jenin’s Freedom Theatre raided, daubed with Star of David
The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a popular symbol of peace and hope in the occupied West Bank, has been raided, vandalised and painted with Israeli religious and political symbols. In a film screening room inside the theatre, the Star of David has been daubed on the wall with spray paint while graffiti also depicting the Star of David and a menorah (a Hanukkah candle holder) has been scrawled on the outside wall. The Israeli military raid on the theatre took place on the night of December 12 and the early hours of December 13. Its two directors were arrested that night and the next morning. One of them, Ahmed Tobasi, was released after 14 hours, but the other, Mostafa Sheta, remains in detention. He is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo military prison in northern Israel, Tobasi said. Inside the cinema screening room at the Freedom Theatre, a Star of David has been spray-painted onto the screen and wall [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] This is not the first time the community landmark has come under attack. The theatre has stood as a symbol of hope for residents of Jenin ever since it was first founded as the Stone Theatre in 1987 after the first Intifada by Arna Mer-Khamis, an Israeli peace activist who died in 1995. Mer-Khamis was a lifelong supporter of the rights of Palestinians, especially children. With her theatre, she hoped to offer children a space for healing and to empower women through the theatre and arts. The first building housing the theatre was destroyed in 2002 by Israeli forces during the second Intifada. In 2006, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Arna’s son by her Palestinian Christian husband, Saliba Khamis, reopened the theatre on a new site in Jenin, and it doubled as a community centre. Not everyone was a fan, however. In 2009, an unidentified person threw two Molotov cocktails at the theatre while it was empty. Juliano was shot dead by a masked attacker in Jenin in 2011 at the age of 52. His killing was never solved. One of the ransacked offices of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, tensions have mounted in the West Bank with regular and often brutal raids carried out by Israeli forces and strict curfews placed on Palestinian residents. Armed settlers and soldiers have blocked roads with trenches and frequently fired shots at anyone stepping outside their homes. About 58 Palestinians, including children, have been killed during 15 military incursions on the camp and the city. ‘No questions – they just took me’ During all this, the Freedom Theatre kept going – until Tuesday night last week. It particularly offered a space for children to heal from trauma through activities led by the theatre’s workers. The theatre raid was part of a military operation in Jenin by Israeli forces that began on December 12 and lasted for three days. During that time, 500 Palestinians were arrested and 100 continue to be detained, said Tobasi, who himself was held in poor conditions. Furniture in offices at the Freedom Theatre was overturned during the raid [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] “How can we continue existing this way?” Tobasi, 39, asked. It was not the first time he had been detained. He spent four years in Israeli prisons after he was captured during a 2002 siege of Jenin. Born and raised in the Jenin refugee camp, Tobasi has been coming to the theatre since he was a child. He was part of the first group of children who participated in the Stone Theatre’s activities. Last Wednesday about 11am, however, Israeli forces broke down the front door of his home in Jenin and arrested him along with his brother. He told Al Jazeera how he was handcuffed and blindfolded before soldiers kicked him in the head and stomach. He was then taken to the Al-Jalama checkpoint, north of Jenin, where he was held in the cold, rain and mud for about 14 hours before being released. Mostafa Sheta, 43, one of the directors of the Freedom Theatre, was arrested after the raid on the theatre. He is still missing and is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo military prison in northern Israel [Mauricio Morales/Al Jazeera] “They did not tell me why they were there,” he said. “They did not tell me if I was wanted for any crime. No questions asked. They just took me.” Tobasi had recently returned to the occupied West Bank from France, where he was on tour with a theatre company. His family sent him photos and videos of the continuous raids that began after the start of the war on Gaza on October 7 and, he said, he felt the urge to come back to his people and his theatre. Since he was released, he had had no news about Sheta, 43, until he spoke to another friend from the theatre, Ismael Hussam Ibrahim, who was arrested on December 12 and released on December 13. Ibrahim said Israeli soldiers forced their way into his home, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and seized his laptop. One of the soldiers asked him about the whereabouts of Tobasi, but he said nothing. Ibrahim, 25, said he was taken to another location where he was able to raise his blindfold, and he saw Sheta, also blindfolded and handcuffed, sitting in the cold and mud close to him. “They took pictures with me. I felt humiliated,” he told Al Jazeera. Another of the ransacked rooms inside the Freedom Theatre [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] No safe space The raid and ransacking of the Jenin Theatre have come as a huge blow to the community and the people who work there who viewed it as a safe place. One of them is Ranin Odeh, 32, the child and youth programme coordinator, who leads activities for traumatised children at the theatre “I’m not well,” she told Al Jazeera. “The occupying army stormed the
France passes tough immigration bill amid Macron party rebellion
The new legislation includes amendments on residency and citizenship that won the approval of the far right. The French parliament has passed by a wide margin an immigration bill backed by President Emmanuel Macron after a rebellion within his party over the toughened-up legislation that had secured the endorsement of the far right. The bill had been significantly toughened since it was first introduced, with some on the left of Macron’s ruling Renaissance party accusing his government of caving in to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) in an attempt to secure support. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, an ambitious 41-year-old who has spearheaded the legislation, expressed relief that the votes of his coalition and conservatives were enough to get the bill through parliament. Some 349 members voted in favour with 186 against. The upper house had passed the legislation already. “Today, strict measures are necessary,” Darmanin said afterwards. “It’s not by holding your nose in central Paris that you can fix the problems of the French in the rest of the country.” An earlier version of the bill was voted down without even being debated in the National Assembly, in a major blow to Macron. Pressure from the right saw the government agree to water down regulations on residency permits while delaying migrants’ access to welfare benefits – including for children and housing – by several years. The amendments also introduce migration quotas, make it harder for migrants’ children to become French, and say that dual nationals sentenced for serious crimes against the police could be stripped of their French nationality. Le Pen had said the RN would endorse the amended legislation – prompting embarrassment among more left-wing members of Macron’s party who find it unpalatable to vote in unison with the far right. In the end, 20 members of Renaissance voted against the bill, 17 abstained and 131 voted in favour. After the vote, Le Pen claimed an “ideological victory”. The French have long prided themselves on having one of the most generous welfare systems in the world, granting payments even to foreign residents, helping them pay rent or care for their children with means-tested monthly contributions of up to a few hundred euros. The far right and, more recently, conservatives, have argued these should be reserved for French people only. Macron had made the migration bill a key plank of his second mandate and might have had to shelve it without the compromise. Dozens of NGOs condemned the legislation ahead of the vote. It is “the most regressive bill of the past 40 years for the rights and living conditions of foreigners, including those who have long been in France”, about 50 groups, including the French Human Rights League, said in a joint statement. “With this text directly inspired by RN pamphlets against immigration, we are facing a shift in the history of the republic and its fundamental values,” said French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel. Adblock test (Why?)
Democracy strangulated by govt: Sonia Gandhi on suspension of MPs
Congress MPs held a protest against the suspension of opposition members outside Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Parliament complex.
Critics slam Colorado Supreme Court for removing Trump from state’s 2024 ballot: ‘A mockery’
Republicans and other allies of former President Donald Trump are slamming the Colorado Supreme Court for removing him from the state’s 2024 ballot. The divided court declared that Trump was ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election, called the ruling “garbage,” and predicted it would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said the United States had effectively relinquished its role of promoting democracy abroad. Trump’s youngest son, Eric Trump, said the Court’s decision would add five percentage points to his father’s “already runaway polls.” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina likewise predicted the ruling would only make Trump stronger in the polls. Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the Court’s decision amounted to “election interference.” “This irresponsible ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and our legal team looks forward to helping fight for a victory,” McDaniel tweeted. “The Republican nominee will be decided by Republican voters, not a partisan state court.” ‘BIDENOMICS’ MESSAGING LEAVES MAJOR DEMOCRATIC DONOR CONFUSED: ‘WHAT THE F—’ DOES THAT MEAN?’ GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas called on the U.S. Supreme Court to “set this right,” saying that only “American citizens have the right to vote for whoever they want. That’s democracy.” Actor James Woods argued that Trump has yet to be found guilty of any crime, much less “convicted of insurrection.” GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said the Court’s decision had made “a mockery of our political system.” He vowed to introduce a bill that would “stop this nonsense and ensure any constitutional challenges go to the sole place they belong: the U.S. Supreme Court.” Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican contender in the 2024 presidential election, called the decision “un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented.” After the decision, he vowed to withdraw his name from the Colorado primary ballot unless Trump was reinstated. The Colorado Republican Party said that wouldn’t be necessary because “we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.” Fellow GOP contender in the 2024 race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, called out the Left for invoking Democracy “to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse.” Former Democratic Congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard said that Democratic leaders “have completely lost faith in democracy.” Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich likened removing a top political rival from the ballot to “third world, country ending stuff.” Journalist Matt Taibbi called the court’s ruling a “major escalation of the lawfare phenomenon that’s zoomed from simmer to boil in the seven short years since Trump was first elected in 2016.” CONSERVATIVES LASH OUT AT TRUMP AFTER HE ATTACKS CHIP ROY, CALLS FOR HIM TO FACE PRIMARY CHALLENGE: ‘IDIOTIC’ The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate. “A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision. Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency. The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case. Colorado officials said the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots. “We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” wrote the court’s majority. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Women and children among dead in Israeli attacks in south Gaza
NewsFeed Dozens of people including women, children and a journalist have been reported killed in Israeli attacks on residential homes in Rafah in south Gaza, where Israel told people to flee to in recent weeks. Published On 20 Dec 202320 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)