Delhi Police to scrutinise CCTV footage at Kejriwal’s House to investigate Maliwal’s assault complaint
The police will check the time at which Maliwal reached the Chief Minister’s House on May 13 and will also be recording the statements of everyone they met at the gate of the CM House.
Severe storms kill at least 4 in Houston, cause widespread power outages
More than 870,000 customers were without electricity in and around Harris County, according to poweroutage.us.
AOC, ‘baby girl’ Marjorie Taylor Greene trade barbs in fiery Garland hearing: ‘Are your feelings hurt?’
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene had a heated exchange Thursday evening during what was supposed to be a contempt hearing for Attorney General Merrick Garland. The House Oversight Committee had originally been convened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena to hand over an audio recording of President Biden’s interview with a special counsel. The hearing quickly spiraled out of control, with lawmakers bickering with one another. Less than an hour after the hearing was underway, Greene took shots at her Democratic colleague, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas. “Do you know what we’re here for?” Crockett asked Greene, who shot back: “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.” MENENDEZ CO-DEFENDANTS REVEAL STRATEGY TO BEAT THE RAP IN HIGH-STAKES CORRUPTIONAL TRIAL House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer pleaded for order amid audible groans in the chamber. Ocasio-Cortez weighed in saying: “I do have a point of order, and I would like to move to take down Ms. Green’s words. That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person… move her words down.” “Are your feelings hurt?” Greene asked. “Oh girl, baby girl!” Ocasio-Cortez shot back. “Don’t even play!” Ocasio-Cortez pushed to have Greene’s words “taken down,” which is a procedure to give a speaker the chance to withdraw their words or amend them if they are deemed out of order. Comer suspended the hearing while lawmakers weighed striking Greene’s words. Ocasio-Cortez could be heard during discussion: “No way is that being allowed” and “not today.” “We’re not going to do a smarmy apology. She has to actually apologize. And that needs to be up to Ms. Crockett as well,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It needs to be sincere.” Greene later agreed to strike her words but refused to apologize and insulted Ocasio-Cortez’s intelligence, prompting the Democratic Congresswoman to move to strike those words as well. Later, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who pushed for the court clerk to report the words, asked Greene again if she would apologize, to which she responded: “You will never get an apology out of me.” Crockett later reacted to the brouhaha on X. “So MTG wanted to talk about my appearance in COMMITTEE?!” Crockett wrote on X. “This is what happens when mentally deficient people who can’t read and follow rules or just don’t give a damn… somehow end up in CONGRESS!” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Missourians head to Washington to call for a House vote on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expires this summer. The initial bill passed the Senate earlier this year but has yet to be considered in the House. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has been pushing to expand and extend the initiative and has tried to add it as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bill. “If we’re not going to get amendment votes, I’m not going to help them speed this along,” Hawley told reporters about the FAA legislation. The bill is just one effort that residents in Missouri say, would help those sickened from toxic sites in the region. “There’s no windfall for anybody,” Former Missouri Resident Kim Visintine said. “This is not, ‘we’re just giving money to these citizens, and they’re going to have all this random money to spend.’ A lot of these medical bills… it’s a drop in the bucket.” AMERICANS EXPOSED TO NUCLEAR RADIATION BY GOVERNMENT WOULD BE COMPENSATED UNDER APPROVED SENATE BILL Visintine grew up near Coldwater Creek in North County St. Louis. The area is part of a superfund site where toxic waste has been found, years after the city’s nuclear program ended. Visintine says she frequently visited the creek as a child and now believes the toxins are to blame for illnesses in the region. Those sickened include someone very close to her. “We were told that he was one in one million. That children just don’t get this cancer,” Visintine said. Her son, Zach, had his first neurosurgery within a week. He started chemo soon after. Visintine and her husband consulted specialists in an effort to cure the rare cancer. “Even with me having full coverage of insurance and my husband having full coverage, our out-of-pocket costs for out of network and specialists after a year of treatment was $100,000,” Visintine said. Zach lost his battle with cancer in 2006. As his parents began to process the loss, they also began to ask why this may have happened. LAWMAKERS PUSH TO RENEW, EXPAND RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT “It wasn’t until years later, with social media, that I reconnected with a lot of grade school friends and friends that I grew up with in the neighborhood,” Visintine said. She started the group Coldwater Creek Just the Facts Please and began mapping reports of illnesses in the region. “All these illnesses are around the creek. And this is our common denominator, common link,” Visintine said. Visintine and others she met through social media, have fought for government or legal compensation over the years. But efforts for government or legal compensation have faced hurdles and limitations. “Even if we get all this compensation, we will never qualify. Because I was exposed, hence his disease. By the time he was born, I was living out of the zip code that’s affected,” Visintine said. Representative Cori Bush, D-Mo., said people from all over the country could be impacted. MORE PEOPLE EXPOSED TO MANHATTAN PROJECT CHEMICALS DESERVE COMPENSATION, ADVOCATES SAY “There are RECA claimants in all 50 states,” Bush said. “We are talking about legislation that impacts every single member of congress’ constituents.” The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act lists zip codes where payments would be allotted for those suffering from illnesses. However, Visintine and other advocates say, the impact of the bill would extend further than just individual assistance. “If it gives somebody a chance to just breathe and pay their bills, great. I think that’s wonderful. But beyond the restitution, if we are part of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, that opens us up to community grants and funding for the whole area,” Visintine explained. “The grants and funding will allow for screening clinics, medical screening clinics. And it will allow community organizations to apply for federal grants for education.” Members of Congress from impacted communities say the legislation has bipartisan support. “When you have Cori Bush and Josh Hawley on the same side, fighting for the same thing for our Missourians, you need to listen,” Bush said. Hawley said President Joe Biden plans to sign the bill if it reaches his desk. OFFICIALS KNEW MANHATTAN PROJECT CHEMICALS DISPOSED IMPROPERLY AT MISSOURI SITES, DOCUMENTS REVEAL “All eyes are on the House now. The ball is in their court. I have spoken to Speaker Johnson about this. I’ve talked to anybody and everybody who will listen and some who won’t listen, and told him that the time is of the essence,” Hawley said. Dawn Chapman, who lives near a toxic landfill in St. Louis, was Hawley’s guest for this year’s State of the Union address. She has called for compensation over the years through her group, Just Moms STL. “We’re pushing with everything we have. Because the truth is, it’s too late for us. It’s too late for me. It’s too late for my kids,” Chapman said. During her time in Washington, she met with other lawmakers in an effort to gain support for the legislation. “We’ve been able to see what’s happened in other communities, so we know what we can ask for,” Chapman said. Members from communities linked to radiation exposure were in Washington Thursday, to call on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to hold a vote on the legislation. Johnson’s office tells Fox News, the legislation would cost approximately $60 billion and expands on a program that should be winding down. “The Speaker understands and appreciates Senator Hawley’s position and is working closely with interested members and stakeholders to chart a path forward for the House,” A Johnson spokesperson said. Chapman and Just Moms STL Co-founder Karen Nickel met with members of Speaker Johnson’s staff on Thursday. Nickel said after an hour and a half meeting, staffers were unaware of the scope of communities impacted by radiation linked to nuclear waste. “While we feel like we’ve educated so many people, there are still so many people that just don’t understand,” Nickel said. Hawley said the money should not be an issue. “This is an instance where the government is the one who has
Mumbai Police issues traffic advisory ahead of PM Modi’s ‘Jahir Sabha’ at Shivaji Park, check routes
The event is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and other dignitaries.
Alaska lawmakers end their session with late bills passing on energy, education
Alaska lawmakers ended their four-month session early Thursday with a flurry of last-minute bills addressing priority issues such as energy and correspondence school programs that are a focus of ongoing litigation. Bickering over the budget was muted compared with prior years, and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and legislative leaders claimed successes in a session that was not without drama, marked by twofailed attempts to override Dunleavy vetoes of additional public school funding. ALASKA LAWMAKERS FAIL TO OVERRIDE OF GOV. DUNLEAVY’S VETO OF EDUCATION PACKAGE EDUCATION Education was billed as a top priority, and lawmakers in the bipartisan-led Senate and Republican-led House overwhelmingly passed a compromise package that included a permanent $175 million increase in aid to districts through a school funding formula. But Dunleavy, who had sought charter school provisions and a three-year teacher bonus experiment that divided lawmakers, vetoed the measure. A veto override attempt failed, along with efforts in the House to cobble together another package. Ultimately, lawmakers settled for pieces including a one-time, $175 million boost to the foundation formula in the budget and additional funding intended to help K-3 students with reading. Last year, Dunleavy vetoed half of a one-time, $175 million boost to schools but has signaled willingness to support the increase in the just-passed budget. Sen. Löki Tobin, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said work remained to address issues facing public schools, which “are still going to be struggling” because the funding approved is inadequate. School officials and education advocates had pushed for a roughly $360 million permanent increase in funding. Tom Klaameyer, president of NEA-Alaska, a teachers’ union, said the Legislature’s failure to reinstate a pension offering for public employees also was disheartening. A pension bill narrowly passed the Senate but stalled in the House. Senate leaders said work would continue around retirement issues. Late in session, lawmakers pivoted to correspondence schools, which allow for students to be homeschooled under the authority of school districts. That focus came after a judge found that laws around correspondence school allotments “were drafted with the express purpose of allowing purchases of private educational services with the public correspondence student allotments.” Under the state constitution, public funds cannot be paid “for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.” Lawmakers passed a bill with provisions aimed at providing stability for correspondence students while the litigation plays out. “The idea was to be able to give some peace and calm to the people out there, the 22,000 students, who weren’t sure what was going to happen,” House Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Republican, told reporters early Thursday. UNDERGROUND CARBON STORAGE The second of two bills proposed by Dunleavy as a way to capitalize on interest by companies with carbon emission reduction goals passed, allowing the state to establish a system and protocols for underground storage of carbon dioxide, with an eye toward using pore space in aging gas or oil fields, such as Cook Inlet or on the North Slope. Lawmakers last year passed Dunleavy’s bill allowing the state to set up carbon sequestration projects or to lease state lands to a third party wanting to develop a carbon project. Draft regulations for the offsets program were released in March. Dunleavy previously pitched the bills as a novel means for Alaska to generate perhaps billions of dollars in new revenue while still embracing fossil fuel production and other resource extraction, such as timber harvests and coal production. But the revenue impact of the proposals remains speculative. To pay for government, the state relies heavily on oil revenue and earnings from its nest-egg, an oil-wealth fund that has grown through investments. Lawmakers have been reluctant to raise taxes on industries, like oil, and Alaska, with about 737,000 residents, has no statewide sales or personal income taxes. Rebecca Noblin is the policy justice director with the group Native Movement. In written testimony this month on the underground carbon storage bill, she said the measure “would allow oil and gas companies and coal plants to inject carbon from their operations back into the ground” and will “increase pollution, cost the state money and distract from real solutions to climate change.” ENERGY The carbon bill, HB50, also included a provision supporters said could encourage more gas production in Cook Inlet. So-called reserve-based lending would allow for the issuance of loans made against and secured by an oil and gas field, proven reserves or other assets of the borrower. Under the bill, loans could be made by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state corporation, for projects it deems necessary to bolster production. Residents in Alaska’s most populous region rely on gas from the aging Cook Inlet basin. But gas availability has become a concern and was a focal point this session. In February, Luke Saugier, senior vice president for Hilcorp Alaska, told lawmakers that while the company is “not pulling back” on investments in Cook Inlet and is committed to developing its leases, gas under its lease holdings can’t meet all the region’s gas demand. He said other sources of energy are needed. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, said the lending provision could unlock gas fields and end up being “one of the most important things that we have done this year.” Dunleavy’s office also applauded passage of a separate measure that it says would streamline tax and tariff policies “to make new and existing electrical generation projects more affordable.” “That in turn incentivizes independent power producers to move forward on renewable power projects like solar and wind farms along the Railbelt,” his office said in a statement. DIVIDEND The size of the annual dividend paid to residents has often been one of the major points of contention, contributing to drawn-out or special sessions. But there was little pushback this year, with lawmakers agreeing to a dividend of roughly $1,360 and an energy relief payment of $295. Legislative leaders pointed to better communication and a balancing of priorities, including what Republican Rep. DeLena
Virginia Gov Glenn Youngkin calls out Biden for refusal of VSU presidential debate: ‘Huge snub’
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin called out President Biden for refusing to participate in a debate originally scheduled by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) for Oct. 1 at Virginia State University (VSU), which would have been the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to host a presidential debate. “The Biden campaign is refusing to participate in a historic general election presidential debate at [VSU], a great university and HBCU,” the Republican governor wrote in a post on X. “Joe Biden is turning his back on students, Virginians and the nation because he can’t defend his failing policies. Huge snub to VSU and the citizens of the Commonwealth.” Youngkin’s comments come a day after Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed to two debates — one on June 27 hosted by CNN, and a second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC. The debates came to fruition after Trump gave Biden an open invitation to debate anytime, anywhere, and Biden stepped up to the challenge, telling Trump to “make my day,” in a heavily edited video on social media. HERE ARE ALL THE RESTRICTIONS BIDEN’S TEAM DEMANDED IN THEIR TRUMP DEBATE But alongside Biden’s announcement to take part in the debates came a letter from his campaign to the CPD, which revealed a few critical limits that Biden’s team was placing on any debate between him and Trump. The list included restrictions like not having an audience, and conducting the debate in a TV studio with just the candidates and the moderator. The proposal was initially outlined by the Biden-Harris campaign in a letter to the CPD on Wednesday morning. It abandoned the decades-old tradition of three fall meetings organized by the commission. Afterward, Trump told Fox News Digital that he’d accept the timeline proposed by the incumbent Democrat. TRUMP URGES BIDEN TO FOLLOW THROUGH WITH DEBATE PROMISE: ‘I’M READY TO GO ANYWHERE’ Trump told Fox News Digital on Wednesday, “it is time for a debate to take place — even if it has to be held through the offices of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which are totally controlled by Democrats and who, as people remember, got caught cheating with me with debate sound levels.” In November, the CPD set the sites and dates for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate during the 2024 general election. The presidential debates were to take place Sept. 16 at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia; and Oct. 9 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The vice presidential debate was set for Sept. 25 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. BIDEN GIVES 3-WORD RESPONSE WHEN ASKED WHEN HE’LL DEBATE TRUMP After learning the presidential debates would not take place at VSU, but instead at CNN and ABC, VSU released a statement. “Virginia State University is disappointed to hear media reports suggesting that the U.S. Presidential candidates may not participate in the scheduled October 1, 2024, debate at VSU,” the statement read. “A presidential debate at VSU is a huge win, not only for our students and campus community but for the greater community in general. As the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) ever selected to host a general election U.S. Presidential debate, VSU recognizes the event’s significance and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the democratic process. “We will continue to work closely with the Commission on Presidential Debates and other stakeholders as we assess this situation,” the school added. The Biden and Trump campaigns did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Brooke Singman and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Pro-Israel billionaires urged New York crackdown on Gaza protests: Report
WhatsApp leaks reveal group of business leaders discussed ways to pressure officials to clear pro-Palestine protesters. A handful of powerful businessmen pushed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University, donating to the politician and offering to pay for private investigators to help break up the demonstrations, the Washington Post has reported, based on leaked WhatsApp conversations. The story, published on Thursday, says that several billionaires seeking to influence public perception of Israel’s war in Gaza discussed means of pushing the mayor and the university’s president to end the protests, which were eventually cleared last month amid criticism of the police’s heavy-handed response. “One member of the WhatsApp chat group told The Post he donated $2,100, the maximum legal limit, to Adams that month,” the story reads. “Some members also offered to pay for private investigators to assist New York police in handling the protests, the chat log shows — an offer a member of the group reported in the chat that Adams accepted.” The story states that city authorities denied that private investigators were used to help manage the protests. The report comes as universities across the country continue to employ force against pro-Palestine activism, raising concerns over the repression of political expression. A number of universities have successfully negotiated with student encampments, which have called for divestment from companies involved in Israel’s war in Gaza and boycotts of Israeli institutions. The WhatsApp chat cited by the Washington Post included prominent businessmen such as former CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Joshua Kushner, brother of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser on Middle East issues, Jared Kushner. Other leaders, such as snack company founder Daniel Lubetzky, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik and real estate investor Joseph Sitt also said that they held a video meeting with Mayor Adams on April 26. Sending in the police has done little to dampen the spirits of pro-Palestine protesters, and in some cases, has led to heightened support from faculty and fellow students. While supporters of the crackdowns say they are necessary to ensure the safety of Jewish students, some of whom say they have felt discomforted by anti-Israel rhetoric at the protests, pro-Palestine students – many of them Jewish – have faced the brunt of the violence at protests across the country, with few expressions of concern from authorities. Earlier this week, a union representing about 48,000 graduate student workers in California, authorised a strike over the treatment of student protesters at universities such as the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where a pro-Israel mob attacked a pro-Palestine encampment with metal pipes and mace while police stood by. Several pro-Palestine activists were hospitalised. The following day, police moved in to clear the pro-Palestine encampment. Adblock test (Why?)
Algerian man missing for 26 years found captive in neighbour’s cellar
Police say that man who first went missing in 1998 was held by a 61-year-old neighbour just a few minutes from his home. An Algerian man who went missing in 1998 during the country’s civil war has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar 26 years later, according to authorities. The country’s Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday that the man, identified alternatively as Omar bin Omran or Omar B, disappeared when he was 19 years old and was long ago assumed to have been kidnapped or killed. But he was found alive earlier this week at the age of 45, after being held captive by a neighbour in a sheepfold hidden by haystacks just 200 metres from his old home in Djelfa, part of northern Algeria. The ministry said that an investigation into the “heinous” crime was ongoing and that the victim is receiving medical and psychological care. Police detained the alleged captor, a 61-year-old doorman, after he attempted to flee. The kidnapping was discovered after the suspect’s brother posted revealing information on social media, amid an alleged inheritance dispute between the siblings. “On 12 May at 8pm local time, [they] found victim Omar bin Omran, aged 45, in the cellar of his neighbour, BA, aged 61,” a court official said. The victim’s mother died in 2013, when the family still believed he was likely dead. Media outlets in Algeria reported that bin Omran told his rescuers he could sometimes see his family from afar, but that he felt incapable of calling out because of a “spell” his captor cast upon him. Bin Omran’s discovery on Sunday solves a mystery that had lingered in his community since Algeria’s bloody civil war. Relatives of war victims are still seeking justice for their missing and dead loved ones. About 200,000 people were killed in the 1990s during the war, which pitted the government against Islamist fighters. That period is sometimes referred to as Algeria’s “Black Decade”. As many as 20,000 people were believed to have been kidnapped over the course of the war, which ended in 2002. According to SOS Disparus, an Algerian association for those forcibly disappeared during the war, about 8,000 Algerians disappeared between 1992 and 1998 alone. Adblock test (Why?)
Taiwan grapples with divisive history as new president prepares for power
Taipei, Taiwan – Even as Taiwan prepares for the inauguration of its eighth president next week, it continues to struggle over the legacy of the island’s first president, Chiang Kai-shek. To some, Chiang was the “generalissimo” who liberated the Taiwanese from the Japanese colonisers. To many others, he was the oppressor-in-chief who declared martial law and ushered in the period of White Terror that would last until 1992. For decades, these duelling narratives have divided Taiwan’s society and a recent push for transitional justice only seems to have deepened the fault lines. Now, the division is raising concern about whether it might affect Taiwan’s ability to mount a unified defence against China, which has become increasingly assertive in its claim over the self-ruled island. “There is a concern when push comes to shove if the civilians work well with the military to defend Taiwan,” said historian Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang of the University of Missouri in the United States. On February 28, 1947, Chiang’s newly-arrived Kuomintang (KMT) troops suppressed an uprising by Taiwan natives, killing as many as 28,000 people in what became known as the February 28 Incident. In the four-decade-long martial law era that followed, thousands more perished. This traumatic history met its official reckoning in 2018, when the Taiwan government set up its Transitional Justice Commission modelled after truth and reconciliation initiatives in Africa, Latin America and North America to redress historical human rights abuses and other atrocities. People attend the commemoration of the February 28 Incident in Taipei [Violet Law/Al Jazeera] When the commission concluded in May 2022, however, advocates and observers said they had seen little truth and hardly any reconciliation. Almost from the first days of the commission, the meting-out of transitional justice became politicised across the blue-versus-green demarcation that has long defined Taiwan’s sociopolitical landscape, with blue representing KMT supporters and green the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). A recently published anthology entitled Ethics of Historical Memory: From Transitional Justice to Overcoming the Past explains how the way Taiwanese remember the past shapes how they think about transitional justice. And as that recollection is determined by which camp they support, each champions their own version of Taiwan’s history. “That’s why transitional justice seems so stagnant now,” explained Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu, research professor at the legal research institute Academia Sinica who contributed to and edited the book. “Whatever truth it uncovers would be mired in the blue-green narrative.” A non-partisan view, Hsu said, is to credit the DPP with codifying transitional justice and Lee Teng-hui, the first democratically elected KMT president, with breaking the taboo on broaching the February 28 Incident. The past shaping the future In February, Betty Wei attended the commemoration for the February 28 incident for the first time and listened intently to the oral history collected from the survivors. Wei, 30, said she wanted to learn more about what happened because her secondary school textbook had brushed over what many consider a watershed event in a few cryptic lines, and many of her contemporaries showed little interest. “In recent years the voices pushing for transitional justice have grown muted,” Wei told Al Jazeera. “A lot of people in my generation think the scores are for previous generations to settle.” The Transitional Justice Committee recommended the relocation of Chiang Kai-shek statues from public areas, but many remain [File: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA] In Taiwan, the past is never past, and rather it is fodder for new fights. As the DPP gears up for an unprecedented third consecutive term, the unfinished business of removing the island’s remaining statues of Chiang has resurfaced as the latest front in what Yang, the historian, described to Al Jazeera as “this memory war”. More than half of the initial 1,500 monuments have been taken down over the past two years, with the remaining statues mostly on military installations. Yang argues that is because the top brass rose through the ranks under martial law and many still regard Chiang as their leader, warts and all. For them, toppling the statues would be an attack on their history. The statues embody “the historical legacy the military wants to keep alive,” Yang said. “That’s a source of tension between the military and the DPP government.” On the eve of William Lai Ching-te taking his oath as the island’s next president, Taiwanese will for the first time mark the “White Terror Memorial Day” on May 19, the day when martial law was declared in 1949. While it is clear Taiwanese have promised to never forget, whom and how to forgive has become far murkier. As the former chairman of the Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation, the first NGO advocating for the cause, Cheng-Yi Huang lauded the government’s move to take over the KMT’s private archives in recent years but lamented there had been too little truth-seeking so far. For example, under the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act, Huang said many have chosen to stay silent about their complicity because only victims get compensation. However, Taiwan’s tumultuous history means the line between victim and victimiser is rarely clear-cut. Chiang Kai-shek (centre) in 1955. Known as ‘Generalissimo’, he led a brutal military dictatorship that only ended in 1992 [Fred Waters/AP Photo] By digging into military archives, Yang has shed light on how Chinese were kidnapped and pressed into service by the KMT in the last years of the Chinese Civil War. Those who tried to flee were tortured and even murdered. And the native Taiwanese who rose up to resist KMT’s suppression were persecuted as communists. “Under martial law, the military was seen as an arm of the dictatorship, but they were also victims of the dictator’s regime,” Yang told Al Jazeera. “The transitional justice movement has missed the opportunity to reconcile Taiwanese society with the military.” To Hsu, Beijing’s belligerence demands Taiwanese of all stripes find a common cause. “As we’re facing the threat from the Chinese Communist Party, it’s imperative that we unite in forging a collective future,”