Are seed-sowing drones the answer to global deforestation?
Santa Cruz Cabralia, Bahia, Brazil – With a loud whir, the drone takes flight. Minutes later, the humming sound gives way to a distinctive rattling as the machine, hovering about 20 metres above the ground, begins unloading its precious cargo and a cocktail of seeds rains down onto the land below. Given time, these seeds will grow into trees and, eventually, it is hoped, a thriving forest will stand where there was once just sparse vegetation. That is what the startup which operates this drone, a large contraption that looks a bit like a Pokemon ball with antennae, hopes. The 54 hectares (133 acres) here which have been badly degraded by agriculture and cattle farming in the Brazilian state of Bahia are just the start. Franco-Brazilian company Morfo has set itself the target of restoring one million hectares of degraded land in Brazil by 2030, using seed-sowing drones and a rigorously researched preparation and monitoring process. Forest engineer Yan Marron e Mota loads seeds into a drone adapted for sowing [Constance Malleret/Al Jazeera] How big a problem is deforestation? Deforestation is a rapidly growing problem in many countries. In Brazil, for example, deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain between 2000 and 2018, a study by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network (RAISG) showed in 2020. Although preliminary data from the government’s space research institute (INPE) shows Amazon deforestation fell by 50 percent last year, forest loss continues to rise in other biomes, like the Cerrado. In Afghanistan, years of war and fighting have had a devastating effect on forests. Many have been completely destroyed. According to the research group World Rainforests, more than one-third of Afghanistan’s forests were destroyed between 1990 and 2005. By 2013, this had risen to half because of the additional problem of illegal logging. And, in Colombia, internal violence and displacement have pushed armed groups, farmers and cattle farmers into the forests, causing more deforestation. In 2016 alone, after a peace deal was rejected by some armed groups, deforestation rose by 44 percent. President Gustavo Petro has since overseen a decrease in forest loss, by as much as 49 percent in 2023 according to Global Forest Watch, but deforestation has increased in other Amazon countries like Bolivia. Wildfires in many parts of the world, notably Australia, California and around the Mediterranean in recent years, have also contributed to deforestation. Most recently, thousands of people have been evacuated in the past week because of wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. Scientists check on progress one year after seeds have been sown in Bahia. The data collected will be used to design optimum sowing processes and monitoring systems [Pedro Abreu/Morfo/Divulgação] Why is forest restoration important? “Climate change is happening, temperatures are rising, it’s already too late. So we need to be planting [trees] now,” says Adrien Pages, Morfo’s co-founder and CEO. Healthy forests are a critical resource in the fight against climate change; they provide valuable ecosystem services such as carbon storage, temperature regulation, water resources and biodiversity conservation. Nearly one billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Simply conserving those forests which remain is insufficient, so the United Nations has urged countries to meet pledges to restore a combined one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030 to avoid large-scale ecosystem collapse. But that is a daunting task. Brazil, for example, has promised to reforest 12 million hectares by the end of this decade – a target which requires planting an area the size of England, or eight billion trees, according to ((o))eco, the Brazilian environmental journalism platform. Crispim Barbosa de Jesus, 51, a subsistence farmer in southern Bahia, supplements his income with seed collecting for the reforestation project here [Constance Malleret/Al Jazeera] How can drone technology help? Traditional reforestation, where seedlings are grown in a nursery and then planted by hand, is effective, but it is labour intensive and time consuming. Drones can help speed up the process and reach areas which are dangerous or inaccessible to humans. Morfo uses two drones which have been adapted to carry 10kg to 30kg of seeds and can sow up to 50 hectares per day, piloted automatically or manually depending on the terrain. The height at which the drone flies and the density and type of seeds it disperses all depend on a sowing plan, designed following an examination of the land’s environmental conditions. “For us, it’s not about the drone. The most important thing is the preparation and the seeds,” says Pages. With data from drone and satellite imagery as well as information collected by a team on the ground, data scientists use computer vision – a form of artificial intelligence – to develop models that can recognise trees and seed species. These are used to automate the creation of an optimal seeding strategy and to monitor results. “The scalability of the solution is what’s important to us. The starting costs of the project are going to be high, to allow for diagnosis, research, adequate preparation, but after that, costs per hectare are relatively low and fall as the area grows,” says Pages. Biodegradable seedpods have been specially developed to sow smaller and more fragile seeds [Pedro Abreu/Morfo/Divulgação] What sorts of seeds are used? “Seed availability is one of the biggest concerns. And the survival rate of seeds is low, so you need to have a lot of seeds,” says Mikey Mohan, the founder of ecoresolve, a US-based ecosystem restoration company. Morfo is working to address this. It has developed a biodegradable seedpod to sow smaller and more fragile seeds which have an 80 percent survival rate in the lab. The project in southern Bahia, a region where the Atlantic Forest began to be cleared for agriculture centuries ago and which is now overrun with monocultures of eucalyptus and sugarcane, is a testing ground for different seeding methods to work out how best to grow native species. It is also researching these species’
Violent protests rage in New Caledonia amid growing civil unrest
Mass protests erupted in New Caledonia this week after France’s parliament voted to allow French residents who have lived in the Pacific Islands territory for 10 years or more to vote in provincial elections. The French government has argued that these reforms uphold democracy in the archipelago. But local people – particularly those from the Indigenous Kanak community, who make up 40 percent of the islands’ population – fear this will undermine their efforts to win independence from France. France deployed troops to New Caledonia’s ports and international airport, banned TikTok as the government imposed a state of emergency on May 16. Anger among the Indigenous Kanak people has been simmering for weeks over plans to amend the French constitution, diluting a 1998 accord that limited voting rights. Hundreds of heavily armed French marines and police on Saturday patrolled the capital, Noumea, where streets were filled with debris following several nights of looting, arson and armed clashes in which six people have died. French officials have accused a pro-independence group known as CCAT of being behind the protests. Ten activists accused of organising the violence have been placed under house arrest, according to authorities. New Caledonia has been French territory since colonisation in the late 1800s. Centuries on, politics remains dominated by debate about whether the islands should be part of France, autonomous or independent – with opinions split roughly along ethnic lines. Adblock test (Why?)
Three Afghans, three Spanish tourists killed in Bamyan shooting
Group of tourists and their companions was fired on while walking through a market in central Afghanistan. Three Afghan nationals and three Spanish tourists were killed in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, the Taliban government has said, as it raised the death toll from the attack in a market. On Saturday, the government said that the bodies of the three Afghans and three Spanish tourists were transported to the capital, Kabul. The group was fired on while walking through a bazaar in the mountainous city of Bamyan, about 180km (110 miles) from Kabul, on Friday. “All dead bodies have been shifted to Kabul and are in the forensic department and the wounded are also in Kabul. Both dead and wounded include women,” Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told the AFP news agency. “Among the eight wounded, of whom four are foreigners, only one elderly foreign woman is not in a very stable situation.” According to hospital sources in Bamyan, the wounded were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain. Qani said that the fatalities included two Afghan civilians and one Taliban member. A Taliban soldier stands guard in front of the ruins of a destroyed 1,500-year-old Buddha statue in Bamyan, Afghanistan [File: Ali Khara/Reuters] “They were roaming in the bazaar when they were attacked,” he added. Seven suspects were in custody and one of them was wounded, according to Qani, who said the investigation was continuing. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Spain’s government on Friday announced that three of the dead were Spanish tourists, adding that at least one other Spanish national was wounded. “Overwhelmed by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X. The bodies would likely be brought back to Spain on Sunday, according to Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, who spoke on Spanish public television TVE. He said one of the wounded had already undergone surgery in Kabul. Afghanistan’s flailing tourism sector has seen the number of foreign tourists up 120 percent year on year in 2023, reaching nearly 5,200, according to official figures. Bamyan is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the remains of two giant Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up during their previous rule of Afghanistan in 2001. Since taking over the country again in 2021 after the withdrawal of United States-led forces, the Taliban have promised to restore security and encourage a small but growing number of tourists. Friday’s attack was the deadliest since the Taliban took over three years ago. The Spanish embassy was evacuated in 2021, along with other Western missions, after the Taliban took back control of Kabul. Adblock test (Why?)
Gunmen kill four, including three Spanish tourists, in central Afghanistan
No group claims responsibility for attack in Bamyan, which official says also injures seven people. Gunmen have killed an Afghan citizen and three foreign tourists in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, the Ministry of Interior Affairs says. Four foreign nationals and three Afghans were also injured in the attack on Friday when gunmen opened fire, ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said. Four people have been arrested, he said. The Taliban government “strongly condemns this crime, expresses its deep feelings to the families of the victims and assures that all the criminals will be found and punished”, Qani said in a statement. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the late evening attack. Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs later confirmed that the three individuals killed on Friday were Spanish citizens. At least one Spanish national was also among those injured. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a post on social media that he was “overwhelmed by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan”, offering his condolences to the families and friends of the victims. Sanchez also said he was following the situation closely and pledged consular support. The mountainous region of Bamyan is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the remains of two giant Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up during their previous rule of Afghanistan in 2001. Since taking over the country again in 2021 after the withdrawal of United States-led forces, the Taliban have promised to restore security and encourage a small but growing number of tourists trickling into the country. Friday’s attack was the deadliest since the Taliban took over three years ago. ISIL (ISIS) claimed an attack that injured Chinese citizens at a hotel popular with Chinese businessmen in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 2022. The European Union condemned the attack in Bamyan in a brief statement on Friday. “Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims who lost their lives and those injured in the attack,” it said. Adblock test (Why?)
Is Putin’s visit to China a defining step toward shaping a new world order?
Western powers are concerned by the growing economic and strategic alliance between Russia and China. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have met more than 40 times in the last 10 years – signs of what the two leaders call a “no limits” partnership. Putin’s latest visit comes as Russia’s dependence on China has increased in the face of crippling Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. Beijing’s support has boosted the Russian economy. And although it’s not directly supplied Moscow with weapons, the flow of Chinese technology and goods have helped its war effort. Western powers are increasingly troubled by this deepening friendship between Russia and China. Will this collaboration extend beyond their borders? And could it lead to a shift in alliances and the global balance of power? Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam Guests: Andy Mok, Senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization Chris Weafer, Chief executive officer at Macro-Advisory, a global risk consultancy Theresa Fallon, Director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies Adblock test (Why?)
International students risk immigration status to engage in Gaza protests
New York, New York – Israel’s war in Gaza is personal for Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil. A 29-year-old Palestinian refugee raised in Syria, Khalil wanted to get involved in the on-campus activism against the war, but he was nervous. Khalil faced a dilemma common to international students: He was in the United States on a F-1 student visa. His ability to stay in the country hinged on his continued enrollment as a full-time student. But participating in a protest — including the encampment that cropped up on Columbia’s lawn last month — meant risking suspension and other punishments that could endanger his enrollment status. “Since the beginning, I decided to stay out of the public eye and away from media attention or high-risk activities,” Khalil said. “I considered the encampment to be ‘high risk’.” He instead opted to be a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student group pushing school administrators to sever ties with Israel and groups engaged in abuses against Palestinians. “I’m one of the lucky ones who are able to advocate for the rights of Palestinians, the folks who are getting killed back in Palestine,” Khalil said, calling his advocacy work “literally the bare minimum I could do”. Khalil explained he worked closely with the university to make sure that his activities would not get him in trouble. Based on his conversations with school leaders, he felt it was unlikely that he would face punishment. Still, on April 30, Khalil received an email from Columbia administrators saying he had been suspended, citing his alleged participation in the encampment. “I was shocked,” Khalil said. “It was ridiculous that they would suspend the negotiator.” Columbia University student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil says he chose his role in the protests to avoid punishments that would endanger his immigration status [Ted Shaffrey/AP Photo] Legal jeopardy However, a day later — before Khalil could even appeal the decision — the university sent him an email saying his suspension was dropped. “After reviewing our records and reviewing evidence with Columbia University Public Safety, it has been determined to rescind your interim suspension,” the short, three-sentence email said. Khalil said he even received a call from the Columbia University president’s office, apologising for the mistake. But legal experts and civil rights advocates warn that even temporary suspensions could have severe consequences for students who depend on educational visas to stay in the country. Naz Ahmad, co-founder of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility project at CUNY School of Law, told Al Jazeera that when a student-visa holder is no longer enrolled full time, the university is obliged to report the student to the Department of Homeland Security within 21 days. That department oversees immigration services for the US government. Students must then make plans to leave — or risk eventual deportation proceedings. “If they don’t leave right away, they would begin to accrue unlawful presence,” Ahmad said. “And that can affect their ability to apply again in the future for other benefits.” Students watch as police enter the Columbia University encampment in April [Isa Farfan/Al Jazeera] Ann Block, a senior staff lawyer at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told Al Jazeera that most schools have a designated official to monitor the status of international students. “They generally are international student advisers, and they’re the ones that help people get into the school, get their visas to come to the school from abroad initially and normally help advise them,” Block explained. Even outside of an academic context, non-citizens face the possibility of heightened consequences should they choose to protest. While non-citizens enjoy many of the same civil rights as US citizens — including the right to free speech — experts said that laws like the Patriot Act may limit how those protections apply. Passed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the Patriot Act includes broad language that could be used to interpret protests as “terrorist” activity, according to civil rights lawyer and New York University professor Elizabeth OuYang. And the law empowers the government to restrict immigration to anyone engaged in such activity, she added. “Section 411 of the Patriot Act bars entry to non-citizens who have used their ‘position of prominence with any within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity’,” OuYang said. “And what constitutes terrorist activity? And that’s where the secretary of state of the United States has broad discretion to interpret that.” Students at Columbia University were threatened with suspension for their participation in a campus encampment, designed to show solidarity with the people of Gaza [Isa Farfan/Al Jazeera] Avoiding the front lines The high level of scrutiny towards the campus protests has amplified fears that such consequences could be invoked. Criticism of Israel, after all, is a sensitive subject in the US, the country’s longtime ally. While a study released in May indicated that 97 percent of US campus protests were peaceful, politicians on both sides of the aisle have continued to raise fears of violence and anti-Semitic hate. Just last week, Republican Representative Andy Ogles introduced a bill called the Study Abroad Act that would take away student visas “for rioting or unlawful protests, and for other purposes”. He cited the recent wave of university protests as a motivation for sponsoring the legislation and compared the demonstrators to terrorists. “Many elite American universities have damaged their hard-earned reputations by opening their doors to impressionable terrorist sympathisers,” Ogles told The Daily Caller, a right-wing site. Some international students who spoke to Al Jazeera said the charged political atmosphere has forced them to avoid the protests altogether. The student encampment at Columbia University in April inspired similar protests on campuses across the world [Isa Farfan/Al Jazeera] “We cannot take the risk as international students to even be caught at the scene at all,” said one student journalist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who requested anonymity in order to speak freely. Another student added that he does not even feel comfortable reporting
Preview: Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk – heavyweight boxing fight
Who: Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk When: Saturday, May 18, 2024 – main event at about 1pm local time (22:00 GMT) Where: Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Professional records (W-L-D): Fury (34-0-1), Usyk (21-0-0) Wins by knockout: Fury (24), Usyk (14) Height: Fury – 206cm (6ft 9in), Usyk – 190cm (6ft 3in) Reach: Fury – 216cm (85in) Usyk – 197cm (78in) Follow the fight LIVE: Al Jazeera will run a live page for the build-up and text commentary of the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk fight from 18:00 GMT on Saturday, May 18. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – In the days leading up to their undisputed heavyweight title fight, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk seemed relaxed and eager to soak up the occasion, even as their camps taunted each other and clashed. The biggest drama came early in the week, when Fury’s father, John, headbutted a member of Usyk’s entourage. But both the fighters had stayed light-hearted throughout the build-up – good-naturedly teasing each other, and grinning and showboating in their open workouts. But on a baking hot Thursday evening in Riyadh, as the unbeaten fighters came together at the final news conference before the bout on Saturday, both grew terse and tight-lipped as the weight of the occasion seemed to press in. Sitting opposite them, in the front row of a crowd of sweating journalists, entourages and VIP guests, was a grey-bearded Lennox Lewis, 58, and Evander Holyfield, 61. Lewis beat Holyfield in 1999 to become boxing’s last undisputed heavyweight champion. On stage, Usyk, 37, was wearing a black and white traditional Ukrainian sash. “Let’s make history. Enough. Thanks very much,” he said. Oleksandr Usyk speaking during the media conference at Boulevard City, Riyadh on May 16 [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters] Fury, who sported a flame-coloured suit and a black trilby hat, is normally a garrulous and flamboyant figure renowned for his trash talk. But the 35-year-old British boxer also had little to say on Thursday. “I’m ready. I’ve got nothing else to say apart from I’m ready for a good fight,” he said. “God bless him,” he added when asked if he had a message for Usyk. “I’ll say a prayer for him before the fight for us both to get out of the ring safely.” Boxing has long frustrated fans with various belts and sanctioning bodies creating multiple champions at the same weights, and frequent disputes over money and clashing egos often prevent the best fighters from facing each other in their prime. Although Fury vs Usyk has taken some taken to materialise and was postponed from its original date in February after Fury suffered a cut in training, the fact that a bout of this magnitude is finally happening – partly a result of growing Saudi influence in the sport – means many are billing it as the fight of this century, with the winner stepping into the ranks of the all-time greats. On Thursday, chants by rival fans quickly petered out into the sweltering night as locals looked on quietly. Drones fizzed overhead as spotlights illuminated swirling dust, and gusts of wind buffeted the microphones on stage. The host of the news conference tried and failed to draw more words from the fighters. When they stood for the traditional face-off, Fury refused to even look at his rival, flexing his biceps and gazing into the crowd, while Usyk stared at Fury intently, a smile playing on his lips. Tyson Fury refuses to look at Oleksandr Usyk during the media conference at Boulevard City, Riyadh on May 16 [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters] “[This fight is] of monumental importance for the history of the heavyweight division, for boxing’s value,” combat sports analyst Luke Thomas told Al Jazeera a few days ahead of the fight. “People always complain people don’t know who the champions are. Well, now they’re going to know. And they’re going to know in the most storied division in boxing.” How they match up Fury, who generally fights out of the orthodox stance, is a giant of a man who first became a heavyweight champion by beating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. The “Gypsy King” subsequently battled severe mental health issues and ballooning weight, but came back from years in the wilderness to dethrone knockout artist Deontay Wilder – beating him twice (one fight ended in a draw) in a thrilling trilogy to win and retain the WBC belt. Fury survived a scare in his last fight against mixed martial arts (MMA) star – and novice professional boxer – Francis Ngannou, as the Gypsy King got up from being floored on his way to a split-decision win. Usyk – a master technician and an Olympic gold medallist who usually fights southpaw – moved up to heavyweight after dominating the cruiserweight division as a unified champion. He made his heavyweight debut in 2019 and won the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight belts in 2021 – outclassing the much bigger Anthony Joshua, whom Usyk has now beaten twice. In his last fight, Usyk stopped Daniel Dubois in the ninth round, but it was not a totally comfortable fight for the Ukrainian, who was hurt on a couple of occasions. In this combination of pictures, Britain’s Tyson Fury (L) and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk train in Riyadh on May 15, before their undisputed heavyweight world boxing championship fight on May 18 [Fayez Nureldine/AFP] Size vs speed Combat sports commentator Sean Wheelock cautioned against taking too much from their last fights. “For me, this is an extremely even fight between two incredibly talented heavyweights,” Wheelock told Al Jazeera. “I think that Fury definitely relies on power punches more, he’s got incredible power when he has his timing. Usyk obviously also has power, and I think Usyk often showcases that he can be a bit more of a technical and slicker, boxer.” Fury will surely look to make the most of his considerable size advantage. He could try to maintain and control distance with his reach, and he could try to smother, rough up, lean on and drain
Israel tells UN court it has right to press on with assault in Gaza’s Rafah
Israel’s lawyers have told the United Nations top court that the country has the right to move ahead with a full-scale offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza to defend itself against Palestinian group Hamas after South Africa filed an urgent request to order a ceasefire as part of a wider case accusing Israel of genocide. “The fact remains that the city of Rafah also serves as a military stronghold for Hamas, which continues to pose a significant threat to the state of Israel and its citizens,” Gilad Noam, Israel’s deputy attorney general for international law, told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Friday. Noam accused South Africa of making “a mockery of the heinous charge of genocide”, accusing the country of “adopting a strategy of dragging Israel to court endlessly” and having an “ulterior motive” for urging an Israeli withdrawal from Rafah to obtain “a military advantage for its ally Hamas, which it does not want to see defeated”. Reporting from The Hague, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said the hearing had been “unusual”, with a German judge asking Israel to submit a written response to a request for information on humanitarian conditions in its declared “evacuation zones” in Gaza by the following day. Adding to the “high emotions” at the hearing, a woman had shouted “Liars, liars!” at the Israeli legal representative from the public gallery, said Vaessen. “South Africa says this is now the last chance for the court to save the people in Gaza and save the people in Rafah,” she said. South Africa asked the ICJ on Thursday to order Israel to stop its offensive on Rafah, from where the UN says at least 630,000 displaced civilians have been forced to flee after seeking refuge from bombardment across the besieged enclave. Lawyers requested the ICJ issue three emergency orders, or “provisional measures”, while it rules on the wider accusation that Israel is breaking the 1948 Genocide Convention. Tamar Kaplan Tourgeman, principal deputy legal adviser of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Israel was making “remarkable efforts” to improve aid delivery, denying that it had shut down southern Gaza’s two main crossings – the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which it seized on May 7 as it launched an assault on the town, and the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing with Israel. “This is blatantly untrue,” she said at Friday’s hearing. “The truth is that Israel allows and facilitates the provision of more and more humanitarian aid through a number of crossings on a daily basis.” Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said UN officials confirmed no aid has been coming in through either of the crossings. Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East studies and digital humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, said he believed South Africa’s case was strong enough for the court to issue additional provisional measures in Gaza, given that humanitarian conditions had only worsened after the court’s earlier orders for Israel to allow aid to flow. “It’s months later and the aid situation is desperate,” he told Al Jazeera. While a decision on the emergency measures is expected next week, it will likely take years before the court can rule on the underlying genocide charge. ‘Genocidal’ consequences On Thursday, ICJ judges heard multiple accusations against Israel from lawyers representing South Africa, regarding mass graves, torture and the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid. South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told the court that Israel was pressing on with its attacks in Rafah despite “explicit warnings” that they could carry “genocidal” consequences. South Africa asked the court to order Israel to “immediately” cease all military operations in Gaza, including in Rafah, and to withdraw from the territory. It also wants Israel to enable humanitarian access, allow unimpeded access for UN officials, aid groups, journalists and investigators, and report on its progress in achieving these orders. It is the third time that the ICJ has held hearings on the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza since South Africa filed genocide proceedings in December. In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, and to enable humanitarian aid to the enclave. But it stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive. ICJ judges have broad powers to order a ceasefire and other measures, though the court does not have its own enforcement apparatus. A 2022 order by the court demanding that Russia halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has so far gone unheeded. Adblock test (Why?)
Assassination attempt opens Slovakia’s wounds, some linked to PM Fico
As Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico fought for his life in a serious condition on Thursday, a political battle broke out over what had motivated a 71-year-old former security guard to shoot him. Tomas Taraba, Fico’s deputy and Slovakia’s environment minister, initially accused the centre-left political opposition, saying it had “blood on its hands”. Meanwhile, parliamentarians from Fico’s right-wing coalition held a news conference. “They were saying, ‘Now we’re going to go after the media, and we are going to pass legislation. We will not be shy about this,” one person with knowledge of the event told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity. “It sounded quite threatening.” The assassination attempt has highlighted deep divisions in Slovak society, and Fico has played his part in bringing them about. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is transferred at the FD Roosevelt University Hospital after he was wounded in a shooting incident in Handlova, in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, May 15, 2024 [Reuters] “He [Fico] is constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be said aloud,” said Michal Hvorecky, a journalist with the independent Dennik-N newspaper. “Last week he called the whole cultural scene, which is very critical – independent culture and national broadcasting – he called us spiritually homeless people … and even harsher [terms], calling journalists prostitutes,” Hvorecky told Al Jazeera. “And I found myself asking, ‘How far can he go with this radicalisation?’ Because this can turn back on you.” Fico was shot in Horlivka, a small mining town in central Slovakia, among the miners and farmers from whom he draws much of his support. The suspect is reportedly an elderly amateur poet and government critic. He fired five shots at close range, hitting the premier in the arm and stomach. As Fico’s condition remained critical, Interior Minister Matus Estok said Slovakia was “on the edge of a civil war” because of heightened political rhetoric on social media. Initial investigations show a “clear political motivation” behind the shooting, according to Estok. Meanwhile, Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova said in a statement: “Hateful rhetoric, which we see in society, leads to hateful actions. Please stop it.” “His security people underestimated the situation, because he is not only popular. He is the second most unpopular politician as well,” said Hvorecky. “His voters love him, they trust him … but the other half really hates him.” Fico’s politics Fico, who is expected to survive, dominates Slovak politics. He has been prime minister for 10 of the past 24 years. But in 2018, he was forced to resign in disgrace after the assassination of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova led to countrywide protests against his governing Smer party and its perceived ties to corrupt oligarchs. But Timothy Less, who runs the Cambridge University Centre for Geopolitics risk analysis study group, believes Slovakia is no more divided between liberal globalists and nationalist conservatives than any other member of the European Union. “The one important difference in Slovakia is that, with Mr Fico’s return to power last October and the presidential election last month which his ally Peter Pellegrini won, nationalists are governing and liberals have been relegated to the opposition, in contrast to most of Western Europe where liberal governments hang on and conservatives are in opposition,” he told Al Jazeera. Elections in 2020 brought a weak centre-left coalition to power, which did not serve a full term. Last autumn, Fico returned to power with what some Slovaks termed a “coalition of revenge”. He dismantled the special corruption court set up to try about a thousand high-level corruption cases after 2018, and fired the judges who presided on it. Then, he took aim at the media which are critical of him. Fico threatened to cut state advertising to independent television networks and threatened their parent companies with ineligibility for state contracts – tactics that have gutted independent media in neighbouring Hungary. He also boycotted critical media, forbidding coalition members from going to their talk shows and banning their journalists from government buildings. ‘EU-sceptic parties are generally big and powerful’ On the day he was shot, parliament was scheduled to vote on a law restructuring state broadcaster RTS to give the government more direct control over it. Fico’c comeback came as no surprise to Katalin Miklossy, University of Helsinki lecturer in Eastern European studies. “The problem in Slovakia, like other Eastern European countries, is the EU-sceptic parties are generally big and powerful, and around them are small left-wing and liberal parties,” Miklossy told Al Jazeera. “In Slovakia the [left] coalition was weak … And the conservative party got even bigger and came back with stronger positions.” Fico shares a worldview with Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Poland’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and eurosceptic nationalists lurking in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and elsewhere in the former Warsaw Pact countries. Slovakia’s power to disrupt the EU was limited, Dimitar Bechev, lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA) and senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, a think tank, told Al Jazeera. “Slovakia is much smaller than Poland and even Hungary, and is part of the Eurozone – hence, much more tightly integrated into the EU core, [with] less room for manoeuvre in other words.” But within Slovakia, Fico had found pathways to power. “Fico has a constituency which keeps supporting him… populists on the left and the right have found common ground with the ultra-right SNS – against migration and the EU, scepticism on Ukraine etc That is key to Fico’s success,” Bechev said. Haughty Brussels One reason for this euroscepticism was that the region’s integration into the EU after 2004 has not gone smoothly, Miklossy said. “If you look at all these countries that turned against the EU and started to advocate nationalism – it all happened during EU membership,” she said. “Something went wrong within the EU, because they started to detach themselves from the values and what they called the bullying of the community, because they were looked down on and not trusted.” Even
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?)