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House Oversight, Judiciary to hear testimony from another Biden family biz associate amid impeachment inquiry

The House Oversight and Judiciary committees are expected to hear testimony from another Biden family business associate Thursday. Joey Langston is expected to appear before the committees Thursday morning on Capitol Hill for a closed-door, transcribed interview. Langston is said to have hosted fundraisers for Joe Biden and donated thousands to his political campaigns. The House Oversight Committee says Langston pleaded guilty in 2008 to participating in a conspiracy to attempt to influence a judge by providing the judge with “favorable consideration” for a federal judgeship. Langston was sentenced to three years in federal prison and fined $250,000.  ERIC SCHWERIN ‘NOT AWARE’ OF JOE BIDEN ROLE IN HUNTER’S BIZ; EX-ASSOCIATE BLASTS ‘CAREFULLY WORDED’ TESTIMONY The Mississippi state bar then disbarred him from practicing law. And, in 2016, a federal judge denied his requests to have his “conviction for conspiring to bribe a judge thrown out” and to have his “record cleared.”  But the House Oversight Committee says it obtained bank records revealing that after Langston lost his appeal, his company, Langston Law Firm Consulting Inc., began making payments, totaling more than $200,000, to James and Sara Biden directly, and to their entity, Lion Hall Group. The committee says it is “interested in the nature and purpose of these payments, which totaled $187,000 while Joe Biden was serving as vice president.” HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE ROB WALKER SAYS JOE BIDEN WAS ‘NEVER INVOLVED’ IN BUSINESS DEALINGS House Republicans hope the witnesses can provide information on whether, among other things, Joe Biden, as vice president and/or president, “took any official action or effected any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to himself or his family, including whether concerns that Chinese sources may release additional evidence about their business relationships with the Biden family have had any impact on official acts performed by President Biden or U.S. foreign policy; abused his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him; or abused his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him.” DEMOCRATS BLAST IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AFTER GOP WITNESS SAYS HE WAS ‘UNAWARE’ OF JOE BIDEN’S ROLE IN FAMILY BIZ Langston’s testimony comes after Hunter Biden business associates like Eric Schwerin, Rob Walker and Mervyn Yan all appeared for their own transcribed interviews before the committee. Their testimony was sought by House Republicans as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden. So far, Yan, Walker and Schwerin have testified that they were not aware of any involvement President Biden had in his son’s business dealings. Langston’s expected testimony comes ahead of a deposition of President Biden’s brother, James Biden’s, which is scheduled for Feb. 21. The committees subpoenaed Biden last year. Hunter Biden defied his subpoena to appear for a deposition Dec. 13 and was at risk of being held in contempt of Congress. His attorneys and the committees came to an agreement earlier this month that the first son will appear for a closed-door deposition Feb. 28.

Andrew Yang warns US ‘not doing enough’ to prepare for AI’s impact: ‘Dramatic changes’

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang spoke to Fox News Digital about the dangers of artificial intelligence, known as AI, and said the government is not doing nearly enough to prepare for the potentially harmful effects. “AI is a very, very powerful technology and set of tools and there’s nothing intrinsically positive or negative about tools, but there is something positive and negative about how tools can be used,” Yang told Fox News Digital this week. “And you can very clearly see deepfake videos already being employed for political purposes. Fake pictures of terrorist attacks being used to manipulate the stock market. A robocall in President Biden’s voice trying to discourage turnout and we’re just at the beginning of this.” “Pretty soon,” Yang said. “We’re not going to be able to tell up from down and left from right and if people show you a video of me doing something heinous, I’ll just shrug and be like, didn’t happen and that could be the best defense before too long.” Yang went on to say that there are “going to be dramatic changes that accompany AI” and “our institutions just aren’t in the least prepared for it.” WHITE HOUSE: DEVELOPERS OF ‘POWERFUL AI SYSTEMS’ NOW HAVE TO REPORT SAFETY TEST RESULTS TO GOVERNMENT Experts have long warned that AI will result in significant job losses in the United States and FOX Business reported last year that 27% of jobs are at high risk of automation as a result of the AI boom. The proliferation of artificial intelligence platforms such as Chat GPT will likely mean 40% of the global workforce will need to re-skill over the next three years as companies integrate the technology, a recent study found.  “When I was running for president in 2020, I was talking about the job loss, which I’m still very, very concerned about,” Yang said. “The IMF said that about 40% of global jobs could be affected. That’s hundreds of millions of workers around the world but you can see the effect right now in our politics and it’s just beginning.” HOUSE LAWMAKERS TO SHINE LIGHT ON HOW AI CAN MAKE CONGRESS ‘MORE EFFICIENT’ “We are categorically not doing enough to prepare for AI and its impact in the labor market,” Yang told Fox News Digital. Yang was in South Carolina this week campaigning for Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, who is running against President Biden in the presidential primary and has also spoken about AI as recently as this month. “AI, my friends, we don’t have 100 years,” Phillips told a crowd in New Hampshire. “We have months, if not just a couple of years at the most. I anticipated and am prepared for it, and I will be our first AI president.” Phillips has pledged to put together an AI “task force” to study its applications and outcomes. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Emma Colton contributed to this report

New York Republican calls on Hochul, Adams to denounce Biden’s border policy amid migrant crisis in Big Apple

FIRST ON FOX: Amid the migrant crisis in the Big Apple, one New York House Republican is calling for state and local leaders in the Empire State to strongly denounce the Biden administration’s immigration policies as conditions at the southern border continue to deteriorate. New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, whose district has been forced to deal with the massive influx of migrants in New York City, told Fox News Digital that now is the time for New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to speak out against President Biden’s blatant disregard for stronger border security measures. Lawler, who represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, said the ongoing situation in New York City is a result of policies offered or supported by both Adams and Hochul. “Both of them need to be voicing support for the fact that we need to enforce our laws,” he said. “We need to secure our border. We need to stop this massive influx of illegal immigration. They are bearing the consequences of their policy decisions, but also that of President Biden and his administration’s failure to enforce the law.” TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT CLAIMS BIDEN IS IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW AS BORDER SURGE CONTINUES “It’s costing the state and the city billions of dollars every year to deal with this migrant crisis,” he added. “So, it’s illogical not to demand action at the root cause of it, which is our porous southern border.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began bussing migrants to New York City and other sanctuary jurisdictions last year. Abbott’s office has said it has sent around 27,000 migrants to New York City and has done so to relieve pressure on besieged border communities. A handful of migrants expressed to one local outlet this month that they are aggravated with their taxpayer-funded living arrangements in the Big Apple, insisting that their living situation at the time differed immensely from that which they were allegedly promised. “They told me that we would have a decent place to live. They told me I’d have support finding work. They told me I’d have support with my children. Those were lies,” Yenifer Vargas, the mother of three, told ABC 7. While it is unclear who allegedly promised support for Vargas, the mother of three said the shelter she and her family had been living in — the so-called “tent city” at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field — was not a “decent place” for her children. Like Vargas, Ayimar Araque told the outlet she also has struggled to apply for work authorization and complete certain casework because she cannot reach anyone by phone. “I’m given a phone number that I’m supposed to call, but I get an answering machine,” she said at the time. Asked about those comments, Lawler said he believes the “crisis of their own making” has been “handled horribly by the state and the city.” MAYORKAS LASHES OUT AT ‘BASELESS’ GOP ALLEGATIONS AHEAD OF KEY IMPEACHMENT VOTE Pointing to the city’s decision to move migrants from that shelter to a nearby high school and force the students there into remote learning, as well as the costs of health care, food and education, Lawler said the city has “mismanaged” the crisis. “It stems from their failed policies. Change your policies. Stop this sanctuary city nonsense. Start cooperating with ICE. Stop this interpretation of the right to shelter to mean that illegal immigrants are entitled to housing at taxpayer expense,” said Lawler, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “They need to stand up to the president and not demand more money, not demand work authorizations,” he added. “They need to demand the president secure the border.” Echoing the sentiments shared by Lawler, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who represents New York’s 21st Congressional District, told Fox News Digital Hochul and other Democrats in the state have seemingly welcomed the migrants to the state through their support for certain policies. “Kathy Hochul and radical New York Democrats have incentivized the raging illegal and border crisis plaguing New York,” she said. “Illegal immigrants continue to arrive in New York state in record numbers, attracted by far left Albany Democrats’ failed open border and sanctuary state policies, overwhelming resources and costing New York taxpayers an additional $2.4 billion in 2025. “Enough is enough,” she added. Abbott claimed Monday that President Biden is in violation of federal law because he refuses to enforce immigration statutes already on the books, adding that Biden is giving “mass parole” to foreign nationals who illegally enter the United States. Abbott told “Hannity” Monday evening both members of the Border Patrol and the Border Patrol Council, its union apparatus, have told Texas officials they side with them when it comes to the controversy over the construction of razor wire at a state-owned park along the border at Eagle Pass. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “They want to have nothing to do with regard to tearing down that razor wire or tearing down the barriers that Texas has erected for one simple reason. And that’s because they are working,” Abbott said. “Border patrol says that what Texas has done to secure the border actually makes their job even easier. The only resistance we’re facing is coming from Joe Biden.” Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

Ohio Senate candidate says GOP impeaching ‘traitor’ Mayorkas a ‘no brainer’: ‘Grotesquely unqualified’

Ohio Republican Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno told Fox News Digital this week that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should “absolutely” be impeached as House Republicans continue to move toward a floor vote on that very issue. “Absolutely, the reality is he should have never been appointed. He is grotesquely unqualified for the job and the reality is he’s been a traitor,” Moreno told Fox News Digital as Republicans were marking up articles of impeachment against Mayorkas who they say has “repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security.” “He’s not followed the laws of the land,” Moreno continued. “He’s allowed people to come in here, he’s put this country in jeopardy. We have no idea how many, hardened criminals and terrorists have come into our country. We have a number of what they’ve identified as being on a terror watch list, but as you know, there’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions who have been classified as ‘gotaways,’ people who we have no idea who they are.” “So absolutely, Mayorkas should be impeached. I called for that over a year ago. It’s a no brainer. This guy’s grotesquely unqualified for his job.” TRUMP ALLY MORENO PICKS UP NOEM ENDORSEMENT, RISES TO TOP OHIO REPUBLICAN VYING TO BOOT DEMOCRAT SHERROD BROWN The push to impeach Mayorkas for his role in failing to stem the flow of record illegal immigration into the United States during Biden’s tenure is expected to come to a full House vote in a matter of days. If the vote goes through, the case will head to the Senate for a trial. Mayorkas has strongly denied the legitimacy of an impeachment effort calling it “baseless” and “false.” TRUMP CALLS ON ‘ENTIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO UNITE’ AROUND BERNIE MORENO IN RACE FOR SEN. SHERROD BROWN’S SEAT “I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” Mayorkas said in a lengthy letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green. Moreno, who is running in the GOP primary to compete with Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November, also told Fox News Digital that he does not support the framework of the current immigration bill being talked about in the Senate as a compromise between Republicans and Democrats and that no deal is “absolutely” better than a bad deal. “5000 people a day is over 1 million illegals, 8500, which is what they’re saying what it would take to cut it off, is almost 3 million illegals a year,” Moreno explained.  “That’s an insane amount of people that are crossing into our country illegally, if they all wore the same shirt, we’d call that what it is, which is an invasion. We have to have it crystal clear to the rest of the world, there’s one way to come to America, the legal way, and we have to have a zero-tolerance policy for any illegal immigration and we actually have to reform our asylum laws to make certain that you can only cross into this country legally and if you cross illegally through a non designated port of entry, then you’re immediately returned and you forfeit your right for asylum.” Moreno added, “I think one of the important elements that’s not been shared with the American public is Joe Biden has the ability to secure the border today with existing laws. Certainly, we have to reform asylum the way I just laid out but he has the ability to put an end to this illegal invasion of our country. He’s choosing not to do so, and Republicans should not be giving him the air cover during a presidential election year in which he can pretend that he’s actually doing something about a problem that he’s actually caused.” Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report

Budget 2024: What is a vote on account? Know how is it different from Interim Budget

When the national elections happen, the government does not present a full budget. Instead, it presents an interim budget. Additionally, the government requests a vote on account.

Budget 2024: Port connectivity, tourism infra projects to be initiated on Lakshadweep, other islands, says FM

“To address the emerging fervour for domestic tourism, projects for port connectivity, tourism infrastructure and amenities will be taken up on our islands, including Lakshadweep. This will help in generating employment also,” the Union minister said.

Media meltdown: Why journalism is battered and bleeding

Let’s start with the good news. With a flick of a finger, more information is instantaneously available than at any time in human history. Stories, columns, opinions, video, photos, music, movies, texts, social media, streaming, podcasts. There are more ways to consume–desktop, phone, tablet, smartwatch–and infinitely more ways to voice your views. Okay, enough of that. The news business is in a tailspin. Firings and layoffs and buyouts are decimating its ranks. Publications and websites are folding. Revenue is plunging. Credibility is at an all-time low. And AI is starting to gobble up jobs. BIDEN’S LEAKED CAMPAIGN PLAN: TARGET TRUMP (OF COURSE) AND WORK SOCIAL MEDIA Worst of all, after the pandemic, scandals and impeachments, economic anxiety and political gridlock, interest in news is declining. In L.A. they’re always worried about the Big One. For media people it feels like the earthquake has already struck. The billionaire owner of the once-mighty Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, has fired the editor and more than 20 percent of its staff, devastating the Washington bureau and several key units. The billionaire owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, has given buyouts to 240 staffers, decimating the metro staff and losing many of the paper’s biggest names. If newspapers aren’t owned by these wealthy moguls, they’re increasingly controlled by hedge funds whose strip-mining tactics have reduced them to a skeleton of their former selves. From Vice to Vox, from Time (15 percent laid off) to Business Insider (8 percent), from Sports Illustrated (blown up) to BuzzFeed News (shuttered), the carnage is everywhere. And just yesterday, the Messenger, a news and aggregation site launched by Jimmy Finkelstein, former owner of the Hill, shut down after less than a year, having lost $38 million and some staffers lured from top publications. CNN just had a major round of layoffs. Cable news audiences are aging, and cord-cutting is growing in popularity.  It’s not just that the voracious Internet broke the business model; that happened a quarter-century ago. It’s that there seems to be no end in sight.  “Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once,” writes Jack Shafer in Politico. The impact is greatest on local reporting, with far fewer folks to check up on their city halls and statehouses, especially in smaller markets. THE MENTAL FITNESS MANIA: MEDIA NOW CHALLENGE BIDEN, TRUMP “No matter how many heroic nonprofit newsrooms like the Baltimore Banner and Daily Memphian take root, no matter how many Substack-like newsletters blossom or creators emerge to drop their videos on YouTube, you can’t deny the journalism business’ decline,” Shafer writes. What’s remarkable to me is how many of these pieces, and there have been many, overlook the importance of political bias. Republicans have been complaining about a liberal tilt since I began to read newspapers. Now, in the Trump era, half the country believes the media have become the opposition party, determined to block their man from returning to the White House. But during the Biden presidency, a growing percentage of those on the left have lost trust in the business as well. You have Red and Blue America, each filled with anger, each side viewing the other as evil and dangerous, with the press having forfeited its standing as a neutral arbiter of facts.  “What makes this so unnerving,” says the Atlantic, “is the fact that the meltdown has come amid—and in seeming defiance of—a generally booming economy. The ranks of professional journalists keep declining even as overall unemployment stays low, incomes rise, and the stock market reaches new heights.”  The author, Paul Farhi, a longtime media reporter for the Washington Post, just took the paper’s buyout. “What’s more, a presidential-election cycle tends to produce a surge of readers, viewers, and advertisers as people pay closer attention to the news. Not this time, at least so far.” Beyond news fatigue, Farhi notes, “Facebook has steadily reduced the amount of news that users see in their feed, wiping out a major source of traffic.” I’d add that Google has gobbled some of that revenue as well. HOW NIKKI HALEY BURNED BRIDGES IN SOUTH CAROLINA–AND STILL PULLS PUNCHES AGAINST TRUMP There are obviously exceptions. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe are strong franchises. Fox News exceeds the prime-time ratings of CNN and MSNBC combined. But even television networks feel compelled to pour money into online shows and pay sites. “Will journalism become a hobby like scrapbooking or street busking, done on the cheap or for donations, but one without much of a career path?” Politico asks. I’m more pessimistic than I’ve ever been, and there’s no easy solution. Some say government subsidies are needed, but that raises serious conflict questions. And if zillionaires can’t revive newspapers and magazines, what hope is there for ordinary companies and local owners? I do think that just as television didn’t wipe out radio, journalism will have to morph into new and more compelling forms to survive. Who would have thought even three years ago that everyone and their brother-in-law would have a podcast? But people are willing to pay monthly fees for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and the like, though they are going through a belt-tightening wave as well, with Spotify having just axed 17 percent of its staff.  If news outlets can’t convince most of the public that their product is worth buying, they bear the ultimate blame.

Pakistan’s Imran Khan is in political ruin. He’s partly to blame

Pakistan’s fractured politics is in overdrive as the country heads into general elections next week after nearly two years of tumult and strife. At stake is not just who forms the next government but what shape of democratic governance emerges in the weeks and months ahead. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, hailed as one of the most popular politicians in the country, has already been knocked out of the contest. This week a local court handed down two jail sentences that also mean that he is barred from holding any public office for a decade. He can still appeal to the higher courts but as far as the February 8 elections are concerned, his name is already off the ballot. There are, however, bigger issues at play in Pakistani politics today than the holding of an election. In fact, this electoral outcome may not fully reflect the multiple fault lines that have developed within the political and social fabric of the country. These fault lines had started to emerge almost a decade ago when Khan and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (Justice Party) had found traction among the voters and formed a government in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2013. After years of twists and turns in which Khan first found favour with the military establishment and then fell afoul of it, the real rupture happened on May 9, 2023. The events that transpired on this date – hundreds of Khan’s followers attacking, torching and ransacking military buildings across the country – have reshaped the politics of Pakistan. The tremors are reverberating to this day. Since then, Khan and his supporters have faced the brunt of the law as well as a volley of desertions. The empire has struck back hard. The political colossus that was once the PTI today lies in shambles. Its supporters are crying foul and bemoaning the lack of the proverbial level playing field. Few are however willing to admit that the blunders their leadership committed before and after the May 9 events have contributed in large part to their political ruination. Their black-and-white narrative of victimhood conveniently glosses over the varied shades of grey that paved the road to the party’s political Waterloo. At the heart of Khan’s political misjudgements lay a misreading of the military establishment and its foundational role within the state. Civil-military relations in Pakistan may be a worn-out subject for public discussions and published dissertations but its practical manifestations, in many ways, continue to define how power is shared and exercised in the country. Khan leveraged the power of the establishment to ride into power. He then used the same power to browbeat his opponents in a futile attempt to cripple their politics. But instead of further cementing this relationship, Khan committed the mistake of turning on his benefactor. The first schism opened over the key appointment of the head of the country’s premier intelligence agency. It never got repaired. In fact, it widened after Khan was ousted from government in a vote of no-confidence and decided to take on the military publicly. It was, as it turns out, an ill-advised move that betrayed a shallow understanding of the established power dynamics. In other words, Khan dangerously overestimated his power as a popular leader and attempted to convert this popularity into a quasi-rebellion against the established state structure. The initial response of his support base to his harangue against military officials was rapturous. In every speech in front of adoring crowds, he would cross a red line and name generals as being responsible for the so-called conspiracy against him. Emboldened by a lack of pushback by the military, he kept upping the ante. His advisors egged him on by arguing he was the only politician with enough public heft to take on the military and win. But at some point, during the course of this dangerous brinkmanship, Khan lost his political moorings. There is a thin line between attacking the military leadership and the institution itself. There is an even thinner line between drumming up a conspiracy theory about the US government plotting with the military to overthrow him and accusing the military of actual treason. Not only were Khan’s accusations inflammatory — they were also, as it turned out later, not backed by any evidence. The May 9, 2023 events were therefore waiting to happen. When his followers attacked military headquarters in Rawalpindi and set aflame a three-star general’s home in Lahore, they were acting upon what was deemed by the party leadership as a final push to topple the military high command and decisively convert the country’s power matrix in Khan’s favour. For all practical purposes, it was a coup attempt. Parallels drawn with Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol building in Washington, DC are not far-fetched. The law took its course – often erring on the side of harshness – and Khan’s hubris brought his entire edifice down. For now. In consequence, has democratic space shrunk in Pakistan? In many ways, yes. Has the establishment’s footprint enlarged? Yes, it has. Have Khan’s political rivals, whom he refused to acknowledge as legitimate stakeholders, taken advantage of his downfall despite the shrinkage of political space? Certainly so. But is Khan really the victim his supporters are painting him as? Not really. Have he and his supporters acknowledged the grave blunder they committed on May 9? No, they have not. Have they acknowledged their misjudgements and missteps? They certainly have not. Pakistan may not be enjoying its ideal democratic moment, but if the elections can herald a new chapter, howsoever short-lived, that moves politics beyond the hate-filled, us-against-them, vitriolic brand epitomised by Imran Khan, we may find the breather that we so desperately need to start a process of national healing. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)

‘Dining table amputation’: How an Israeli bomb took Ahed Bseiso’s leg

Ahed Bseiso was disoriented, shocked, and numb to the immense pain that would soon take over after she was wounded by Israeli shelling on her family home in northern Gaza. “All I could see was white fog … For a second, I thought I was dead,” Ahed told Al Jazeera, reliving the events of December 19. That day, following her routine since October 7, when Israel launched its most brutal assault on Gaza to date, the 17-year-old university student and her older sister Mona climbed to the sixth floor of their building at 10:30am. They went up there to call their father, who lives overseas. They tried to talk to him daily to tell him they were still alive amid a siege, intense bombardment, and a severe lack of essential supplies. Repeated telecommunication blackouts and jamming in Gaza mean many have to climb onto a roof to catch a signal, find signal boosters, or use eSIM cards connected to any regional telecom carrier. Ahed said she noticed an unusually large Israeli tank outside the building, but she did not give it much thought as their home had been encircled by army vehicles after a truce between Israel and Hamas came to an end in November. Ahed wants to live a ‘normal life’ and hopes to be evacuated from Gaza for treatment [Courtesy of Ahed Bseiso] She sat down and got ready to dial her father’s number. ‘I managed to say “I’m alive”‘ “I crossed my legs and all of a sudden, I was upside down,” she said. Ahed had lost a limb – almost her entire right calf – and was bleeding profusely. Her shock was so severe that she was silent, and so was her sister – she later realised “Mona was afraid to call out for me in case I didn’t respond”. “Eventually, as I gathered what had just happened, I managed to say: ‘I’m alive’.” Ahed’s male cousins rushed to carry her downstairs. She remembers looking down and shouting, asking her cousins if her leg was still there because she could not see it. “All my cousin did was cover my eyes,” she recalled. The only place they could set Ahed down was on the dining table, where her mother had been kneading bread dough earlier, a common sight in Gaza homes as Israel’s complete siege made food and basic commodities scarce. Someone ran to get her uncle, Hani, an orthopedist and the only doctor among the 30 relatives staying in the family’s building. Hani had sent his wife and four children out of the enclave at the beginning of the offensive, while he stayed. [embedded content] And so, he found himself looking down at his niece’s severed leg and knowing he had to save her, without medical supplies, anaesthesia, or even clean gauze. In Gaza today, medics have to carry out procedures with nothing, not even pain control, as a result of the severe shortages imposed by the siege. Hani needed to act on a difficult, yet obvious choice: amputate what was left of the lower leg and quickly stitch up the artery so his niece would not bleed to death. “I had nothing. I remembered my briefcase was in my room, so I asked my nephews to grab it … There was nothing in there except for some unsterilised gauze,” Hani said. ‘I stayed so Ahed can live’ Hani did not know how he would clean the wound or control the bleeding, a seemingly impossible task without sutures. All the while, Gaza’s largest medical facility, al-Shifa Hospital, was “five minutes away by car” but was both unreachable and out of service due to the fighting, Hani said. Hani Bseiso is an orthopaedic doctor who used to work at al-Shifa Hospital [Courtesy of Hani Bseiso] Like most hospitals across the enclave, al-Shifa had been attacked and raided in November, forcing thousands of wounded and displaced Palestinians there to flee and putting the hospital out of service. Hani looked around the room desperately, seeking anything to make the dreadful process a bit more manageable. At the kitchen sink, he saw a sponge and container filled with dish soap. “I started to clean the wound but felt Ahed’s eyes piercing me. She begged me not to cut the rest of her leg off,” Hani said. His heart was breaking and tears poured down his face, knowing what he had to do while Ahed was fully conscious. “I wondered what person could bear the pain of an amputation without anaesthesia,” Hani said. And so he operated on his niece with a kitchen knife and used a needle and thread from a sewing kit to stitch together the largest artery. When asked how she was able to bear the pain, Ahed said a strange feeling of calm took over. “I was just reciting verses from the holy Quran the entire time,” she said. To redress her wounds, the family had to wash the gauze in hot water and lay it out to dry so her uncle could put it back on her leg. In Gaza, a generation of child amputees is emerging as the vicious Israeli assault continues [Arafat Barbakh/Reuters] Knowing Ahed was prone to infection, Hani said he took “every antibiotic pill and painkiller in the house,” and rationed it out to her, mostly on an empty stomach because there was no food. It wasn’t until five days later that Hani was able to move her to a medical facility – one day after Israeli tanks withdrew from the area. There, Ahed underwent several surgeries, including one to mend her broken left leg. But it is still not enough, Hani said. “She needs so much more … cosmetic repair surgery for her amputated leg, an artificial limb,” Hani said. “I could have left with my wife and kids, but God made me stay. I stayed so Ahed can live.” Ahed is one of a generation of young amputees emerging from the enclave as a result of relentless Israeli

In Pakistan’s elections, the Lord of the Rings is showing his wrath

First, the fundamentals: In Pakistan, the election cycle is not the only process to be watched when determining the future political direction of the country; the cycle of the appointments of, and extensions granted to, the army chief is of equal and sometimes greater importance. That is because Pakistan’s chequered political history is the tale of a push and pull between civilian politicians and the military establishment; ground is gained and ceded and relations span the spectrum of cooperation, co-optation and confrontation – sometimes within the same tenure – and all depending on who is the current face of the civilian regime and who is heading the establishment. Nothing is a monolith, after all. But inevitably, a falling-out does tend to take place and that is because, in Pakistan, much as in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, there is only one Lord of the Rings, and he does not like to share power. His influence may ebb at times, and he may even go into hibernation for years, but eventually, the true lord always returns. To shift fictional universes for a moment, one could say that the empire always strikes back, and usually with a vengeance. Right now, that vengeance is on full, naked, display with just about every trick in the book, traditional and brand-new, being used to decimate the former governing party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It is not quite the death of a thousand cuts – more like a dozen or so – and it is designed to whittle the party down to nothing before the elections. This week, former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to 10 years and 14 years in jail in two consecutive cases and has been barred from holding public office for a decade. Many legal experts have called the proceedings hasty and in violation of due process, while also pointing out that the sentences are draconian and disproportionate. However, the very questionable conduct of these cases also allows for the convictions and sentences to be struck down during the appeal process, leaving the door open for a “redeemed” and “acceptable” Khan to rejoin the political fray once it becomes convenient for the state to allow this. Whether he will play ball at any time in the future is an open question, but we have seen this particular drama unfold a few times before, with today’s villains becoming tomorrow’s heroes; the script tends to remain the same even if the actors change. Many other PTI leaders have also been imprisoned along with a host of party workers, most of whom were arrested in the aftermath of the events of May 9, 2023, when military installations were attacked during protests against the army that turned violent. The PTI claims it was a false flag event while the establishment — as the military in Pakistan is euphemistically known — and its allies insist it was an attempt to cause a mutiny in the ranks of the military. The truth, as usual, likely lies somewhere in the middle. In any case, PTI leaders and workers are facing several cases at a time, with acquittal in one leading to detention or imprisonment in another; it is a virtual revolving door of justice, as it were, designed to break the will and prevent said leaders from campaigning and mobilising their voters. Those who bend the knee are forgiven after confessional news conferences or clearly staged interviews and are then usually inducted into other parties or bow out of politics entirely. It is near impossible for the PTI to mobilise in large numbers, staging the kind of rallies and corner meetings that are a feature of any election. Moreover, PTI flags, posters and banners are largely missing from the streets of Pakistan, and credible reports indicate that this is at least in part because printers have been instructed not to cater to such orders. With Khan unable to conduct his signature daily speeches, one important link to the voters is cut off, and the very display of his image on television is also banned. But the PTI adapted by doing what they do best: leveraging social media and technology, a game in which they are light years ahead of the opposition. In this case, from notes provided by Khan himself, they created an artificial intelligence-generated voice to address a virtual rally, a first not only in Pakistan but perhaps anywhere in the world. Then begins the digital cat-and-mouse game, with Pakistan’s internet experiencing a mysterious slowdown just about every time the PTI decides to hold an online rally. The authorities explain this away as a “technical” fault due to an unexplained “upgradation” of software, but if you believe that you may as well believe that there is a terribly persistent shark loose somewhere in the Arabian Sea which, due to a personal grudge against the PTI, decides to chew the undersea internet cable right before any such rally. Yet, the real arterial wound to the PTI was the controversial decision to take away the party’s election symbol: the cricket bat. This works on many levels. PTI candidates will now have to contest as independents, which means that the party will not be able to avail the 70 National Assembly seats reserved for women and minorities that are proportionally distributed among all parties that manage to get more than 5 percent of the vote. Then there is the confusion: PTI nominees are contesting the elections with a host of symbols and if even 10 percent of PTI voters are uncertain who their actual candidate is, well then, that is another cut right there. To counter this, the PTI launched an app in which one can enter the constituency name and find out who the party is fielding, and to counter a possible chewing on the internet cable by the aforementioned shark, an offline version was also created, along with a website. But to counter that countermove, a fake website was created with almost the same name as the actual website but