US elections are six months away. How does the race stand and what’s next?
A crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protests, Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial, and political bickering over foreign aid and immigration have dominated headlines in the United States in recent weeks. The issues have shone a spotlight on deep divisions in the country as it moves closer to what is expected to be a heated battle for the White House between incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Trump. But for most people across the US, the presidential election on November 5 — exactly six months from Sunday — is not yet on their radars. “In the United States, most people still have not tuned in. Despite you, I and the political class, the vast majority of Americans are not paying attention to the election,” said Erik Nisbet, a professor of policy analysis and communications at Northwestern University. “People don’t tune in until September,” he told Al Jazeera. “At this point though, it’s important to get your narratives out. It’s important to get your base solidified and mobilised.” Perceptions of an ‘Election 2.0’ Most polls show a tight race between Biden and Trump as the election nears, with experts saying the contest will likely come down to how the candidates fare in critical swing states like Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. But there is also widespread frustration that the choice this election cycle is the same as in 2020, when Biden defeated Trump to win the White House. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that nearly half of all registered voters said they would replace both Biden and Trump on the ballot if they could. About two-thirds of respondents said they had little to no confidence that Biden is physically fit enough to be president, the poll said, while a similar number said they did not believe Trump would act ethically in office. “It is Election 2.0,” said Jan Leighley, a political science professor at American University in Washington, DC. “I think that creates a disincentive for voting, which again comes back on the campaigns to convince people that, even though it’s the same choice, there’s still a reason to vote.” Youth vote For the Biden camp, the message so far has been that a vote for the Democratic incumbent is a vote for democratic ideals. “Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot,” Biden said in January. But that message is failing to resonate among key segments of the Democratic base who are angered by the Biden administration’s unequivocal support for Israel amid its war in Gaza. The recent wave of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses has highlighted a generational divide over the US’s relationship with Israel, and that, in turn, could pose a serious problem for Biden as he seeks the youth vote in November. In 2020, Biden won about 60 percent support among voters aged 18 to 29. But a recent CNN poll showed Biden trailing Trump — 51 percent to 40 percent — among voters under age 35, and experts say a lack of enthusiasm among young voters could spell trouble. “We know how college students are feeling,” said Hasan Pyarali, the Muslim Caucus chairperson for College Democrats of America, the university arm of the Democratic Party. “And I can tell you for sure that there are too many who would stay home” on November 5 if Biden does not change his Middle East policy, Pyarali added. “I doubt that people would switch over to Trump, but they would certainly not vote.” According to Nisbet at Northwestern University, Biden’s campaign needs to focus in the coming months on “getting the Democratic house in order” before it tries to appeal to the relatively small number of undecided voters in the country. Any protests at the Democratic National Convention, for example, could hurt him. Democrats will gather in Chicago in August to formally confirm Biden as their 2024 nominee. “The Democratic Party, or at least the Biden campaign, does not want any dissension within the [party] because it’s a bad visual,” said Nisbet. Trump’s legal woes Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Trump’s campaign has unfolded against unprecedented legal turmoil. The former president faces four separate criminal cases, including an ongoing trial in New York over allegations he falsified business records related to a hush-money payment made to an adult film star. While the indictments have done little so far to dent Trump’s support among Republican voters, some polling suggests that a chunk of the US electorate would not vote for him if he were convicted in any of the cases. Trump is expected to be confirmed as the Republican Party’s 2024 nominee at the party’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July. “The conventions go on over the summer, but there’s usually not a whole lot of activity campaign-wise,” said Leighley at American University. But this year might be different, given Trump’s court hearings and the pressure on Biden over the Gaza war. “Those could be unusual bumps, if you will, that provide campaigns opportunities to do more in terms of ads,” she said. Key issues Both Leighley and Nisbet said the US economy is always an important election issue, and it will continue to be a focus over the next few months of campaigning. Despite positive economic indicators, many Americans believe they are worse off now than when Trump was in the White House, recent polls have suggested. “There is a big gap where people, for whatever reason — it could be because of the economics, it could be a bias of memory — they look more favourably at Trump’s then-presidency than Biden’s current one overall,” said Nisbet. He added that the economy is hurting Biden among Latino and Black voters, as well as young people, all of whom are key segments of the Democratic base. “Trump will want to talk about how bad the economy is,” said Nisbet, while Biden’s team instead will “try to change the conversation” and pivot to other issues. That includes access to abortion. Biden has made defending access to reproductive healthcare
‘No to the Russian law!’ Georgia protesters demand a ‘European future’
Tbilisi, Georgia – Crowds of protesters have been braving tear gas and water canons after more than two weeks of protest against the Georgian government’s draft law targeting civil society. The new law would require non-profit entities (NGOs and media outlets) receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “organisations pursuing the interest of a foreign influence”, with tough penalties for noncompliance of up to $9,000. Mass demonstrations last year forced the government to withdraw a similar bill. This second attempt has given renewed energy to thousands of young people, from school pupils to university students, swelling a tide of discontent. They believe their government has fallen under the influence of the Kremlin and is sabotaging their dreams of being part of Europe. Each night, the rallies have begun with the Georgian national anthem, as well as the EU’s, Ode to Joy. “This is where I live, where my son will live – I don’t want Georgia in the enemy’s hands. I want it free for everyone,” fumes 25-year-old Giga. “No to the Russian law!” says Nutsa, 17. She’s holding up a placard which reads: “Northern neighbour, we don’t have anything in common with you”. That northern neighbour is Russia, where Vladimir Putin’s 2012 law on foreign agents has eliminated dissent. In 2022, he expanded it to require anyone receiving support from outside Russia to register and declare themselves as foreign agents. But the Georgian government has insisted its own law is similar to legislation in Western countries. The EU disagrees that the law resembles Western transparency regulations, such as EU and French planned directives and the US’s Foreign Agents Registration Act. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, warned on May 1 that Georgia was “at a crossroads”. Washington is alarmed. It has provided almost six billion dollars in aid to Georgia since the 1990s. US Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan said in a statement on May 2 that the US government had invited Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, to high-level talks “with the most senior leaders”. According to Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs later that day, that invitation was declined. Instead, Kobakhidze accused the US of supporting “revolutionary attempts” by non-governmental organisations working in the country, such as EU-funded organisations Transparency International Georgia and ISFED, which often call attention to government corruption and abuses of power. The government may fear that these organisations could influence the outcome of a general election in October in which the governing Georgian Dream (GD) party hopes to secure a majority. Kornely Kakachia, director of the Georgian Institute of Politics, said he believes the government’s rhetoric reflects the opinion of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the governing party. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he adds, has changed Ivanishvili’s calculus. “Ivanishvili and GD leaders believe that Russia is winning in Ukraine and he just thinks [of] how to be friendly with [Russia], to find his place in this geopolitical new order,” says Kakachia. In tandem with its foreign funding law, GD has promised to curb LGBT rights and has passed amendments to the tax code that will make it easier to bank money from overseas in Georgia. “That’s an attempt to try to lure Putin and the Kremlin basically to give them a new model of Georgia, which will be a kind of offshore zone for Russian oligarchs,” says Kakachia. Protesters who oppose a new ‘foreign influence’ law clash with police in Tbilisi, Georgia [Stephan Goss/Al Jazeera] Hired thugs and ‘Robocops’ The nightly protests over the past two weeks have seen some of the largest turnouts in the 11 years of GD’s government. On Thursday, protesters blocked a key intersection known as Heroes Square. But a group of unknown men in civilian clothing appeared and began to beat people. Known as Titushky, hired thugs were deployed by the Ukrainian security services during Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests in 2013 and 2014 in which people called for closer relations with the EU and protested against corruption. Professor Ghia Nodia of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development said the moment feels similar to Ukrainian President Yanukovych’s decision a decade ago to use violence to put down protests. “The feeling is that this time, Ivanishvili went too far and people have to fight. There are relatively small-scale violent crackdowns almost every day, but so far, the tide of protest didn’t go down.” The protests have been mostly peaceful, though some protesters have tried to enter parliament where legislators have been debating inside. Defiant men and women wave EU and Georgian flags in front of units of black body-armoured riot police dubbed “Robocops” who are armed with truncheons, mace and shields. Other masked police officers without identification badges have been filmed punching, kicking and dragging protesters by the hair into custody. Hardware stores have been emptied of face masks. Pepper spray and tear gas quickly incapacitate those without protection, their eyes and noses streaming from the chemicals, many of them retching or struggling to breathe. The country is heavily polarised. Mikheil Saakashvili, whose reforms did much to modernise Georgia after 2003’s “Rose Revolution’” is serving a six-year prison sentence. He was found guilty of “abuse of power” and organising an assault on an opposition lawmaker. His party, the United National Movement (UNM), is the most powerful party in opposition, but it is deeply unpopular because of its own track record from its time in office from 2004- 2012. Protests have rocked Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city, for the past two weeks [Stephan Goss/Al Jazeera] ‘Backsliding on democracy’? Many of today’s protesters do not identify with either the UNM or any other political party in opposition. MEPs have repeatedly voted on resolutions in Strasbourg and Brussels condemning GD’s “backsliding” on democracy in recent years and its treatment of the former president. But one group of protesters told Al Jazeera that the European Parliament was wrong to call for sanctions against Ivanishvili while simultaneously demanding Saakashvili’s release. In power, GD has taken
Spain and Argentina trade jibes in row before visit by President Milei
The spat began when Spain’s transport minister said Argentina’s Javier Milei took drugs during last year’s election. Spain and Argentina have their diplomatic daggers drawn and have traded jibes over drug use and economic decline. The spat began on Friday when Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente, during a panel discussion in Salamanca, suggested that Argentina’s President Javier Milei had ingested “substances” during last year’s election campaign. “I saw Milei on television” during the campaign, Puente told a Socialist Party conference. “I don’t know if it was before or after the consumption … of substances.” He also listed Milei among some “very bad people” who have reached high office. Milei’s office responded on Saturday in a statement condemning the remarks and also attacking Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The statement accused Sanchez of “endangering Spanish women by allowing illegal immigration” and undermining Spain’s integrity by making deals with separatists, while his left-wing policies brought “death and poverty”. pic.twitter.com/eg2lXgc0cL — Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) May 3, 2024 Spain reacted with fury. “The Spanish government categorically rejects the unfounded words … which do not reflect the relations between the two countries and their fraternal people,” the Spanish foreign ministry said. “The government and the Spanish people will continue to maintain and strengthen their fraternal links and their relations of friendship and collaboration with the Argentine people, a desire shared by all of Spanish society,” the statement added. The spat comes two weeks before a visit to Spain by Argentina’s “anarcho-capitalist” president. Milei will attend an event of the far-right Vox party and will be avoiding meeting Spain’s socialist head of government, Sanchez. The two have never had good relations. Sanchez supported Milei’s rival Sergio Massa in the election that brought Milei to power in December and has also not contacted Milei since the victory. Milei has meanwhile publicly supported Spain’s far-right anti-immigration Vox party. Vox leader Santiago Abascal also went to Buenos Aires for Milei’s investiture. Adblock test (Why?)
How effective is Turkey’s ban on trade with Israel?
Turkey says the ban will stay in place until Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. For years, Israel and Turkey have been crucial trade partners. It was a commercial relationship worth nearly seven billion dollar a year. But Israel’s war on Gaza changed all that. The Turkish government has been demanding a halt to the violence that’s killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in seven months And the Turkish president condemned Israel’s decision to block its aid meant for Gaza last month. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has now announced a total trade ban until Israel agrees to a ceasefire. But has he acted under domestic pressure, after a setback in local elections was blamed partly on the country continuing to do business with Israel? And how will this affect the economies of both sides? Presenter: Neave Barker Guests: Vehbi Baysan – Political analyst and assistant professor at İbn Haldun University Gideon Levy – Author and columnist at Haaretz Vladimir Vano – Chief economist at international think tank, GLOBSEC Adblock test (Why?)
At least 12 killed in bomb attacks on eastern DR Congo displacement camps
At least 12 people, including children, have been killed in twin bomb blasts that hit two camps for displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to government officials, the United Nations and an aid group. Friday’s explosions targeted the camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the UN said in a statement. The attacks, in which at least 20 people were injured, were a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime”, it said. A resident of one of the camps told Al Jazeera that many of the victims were sleeping in their tents when the area was attacked. “We started running as the bombs were fired at the camp,” the resident said. The Congolese military and the United States accused the military in neighbouring Rwanda and the M23 rebel group of being behind the attacks. On Saturday, Rwanda denied the US accusations as “ridiculous”. Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is a “professional army” that would never attack displaced people. In a post on X, Makolo instead blamed the assault on militias supported by the Congolese military. Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Njike Kaiko, a spokesperson for the DRC’s army in the region, said the attacks were retaliation for earlier DRC strikes on Rwandan army positions in which arms and ammunition were destroyed. In a social media post, government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya also blamed the M23, which has taken over swaths of North Kivu in the last two years. The DRC, the UN and Western countries have said Rwanda is supporting the group in a bid to control mines and mineral resources. Rwanda has denied the allegations. Al Jazeera’s Fintan Monaghan reported that the shells were fired from an area controlled by M23. The group denied any role in the attacks and instead blamed DRC forces, in a statement posted on X. The intensifying fighting in eastern DRC has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee neighbouring towns towards Goma, which is located between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border and is largely cut off from the country’s interior. International charity Save The Children said it was present at one of the camps when shells struck close to a busy marketplace. It said dozens were injured, mostly women and children, and the final death toll remained unclear. “A tent does not offer much protection from shelling,” said Greg Ramm, the aid group’s country director in the DRC. “Protection of civilians, especially children and families living in displacement camps, must be prioritised,” he said, and called for “all parties to the conflict to end the use of explosive weapons in the proximity of populated areas”. President Felix Tshisekedi, who was travelling in Europe, decided to return home on Friday following the bombings, a statement from his office said. Tshisekedi has long alleged that Rwanda is destabilising DRC by backing the M23 rebels. The bombings follow the group’s capture of the strategic mining town of Rubaya this week. The town holds deposits of tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, a key component in the production of smartphones. Condemning the attack, US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was “essential that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. The U.S. strongly condemns the attack today from Rwanda Defense Forces and M23 positions on the Mugunga camp for Internally Displaced Persons in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is essential that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. — Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) May 3, 2024 The DRC branch of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said its teams had to stop distributing essential items and halt medical consultations on Friday because of the rising insecurity. Earlier today in Goma, DR Congo: As our teams were conducting medical activities & distributing shelter kits, intense fighting erupted in the immediate vicinity of IDP camps. We heard heavy artillery which landed in densely populated areas. Several people were reportedly… pic.twitter.com/zaEWn3prvX — Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) May 3, 2024 In a post on X, the group condemned the “increasingly regular use of heavy artillery” close to sites for internally displaced people around Goma. French President Emmanuel Macron said Rwanda must halt its support for M23, during a joint news conference with Tshisekedi in Paris this week. About six million people have been killed since violence erupted in 1996. It has also displaced about seven million people, many beyond the reach of aid. Adblock test (Why?)
‘No turning back’: Carnation Revolution divides Portugal again, 50 years on
Lisbon, Portugal – The olive-green military vehicles are the same, as are the uniforms of the personnel riding them. It’s even the same day of the week on this April 25 – a Thursday. This is when it all started, on the shore of the Tagus River where the sun hangs like a bulb over the Portuguese capital and Europe’s westernmost edge. But the cheering crowds beside the road today, waving red carnations bought from flower ladies on Rossio Square weren’t there 50 years ago. Nobody clapped their hands or posted photos on social media along with catchy hashtags. On that brisk dawn, the streets were deserted while Lisbon still slumbered, while a revolt was taking birth. That morning, Portugal was still a fascist dictatorship that had fought three brutal wars in Portuguese Guinea, Angola, and Mozambique in its desperate bid to keep control over its African colonies. By the end of the day, Portugal’s 42-year-old dictatorship, Estado Novo (“New State”), had been felled by a swift military takeover. “We were professional soldiers, we’d been in wars and were trained to deal with stressful situations, but this was something completely different,” says former navy captain Carlos Almada Contreiras. Contreiras was among the 163 military captains who in September 1973 had come together in secret at a “special farmhouse barbeque” to form the clandestine “Movement of Armed Forces” (Movimento das Forcas Armadas, MFA). These were men who had fought the Portuguese dictatorship’s colonial wars and knew very well that no military victory was close at hand; on the contrary, morale was in decline and an estimated 9,000 Portuguese soldiers had died since 1961. Veterans parade on the streets of Lisbon alongside crowds celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, during which military leaders deposed the former authoritarian dictatorship, Estado Novo [Fredrik Lerneryd/Al Jazeera] On April 25, 1974, they turned their gaze towards Lisbon’s political heart, intending to seize control of key military installations, political chambers and broadcasting facilities, as well as the airport. At the time, 50 years ago, nobody could predict the outcome of the day. However, the rebels knew that “there was no turning back,” says Contreiras. It was now life or death – if the military action failed, the MFA conspirators would in all probability have been charged with high treason and quite possibly sentenced to death. But a victorious outcome might just bring a new dawn for a dying empire in its last throes. Was he afraid? Contreiras takes a deep breath and recalls that morning when his life – and the lives of numerous others – changed forever. “I haven’t thought of that,” he says. “We had to act, otherwise we would continue to live in this dead political system, keep fighting these meaningless colonial wars.” In the end, and in less than a day, MFA gained full control over Portugal’s military facilities and brought an end to the far-right dictatorship. Prime Minister Marcello Caetano bowed to the conspirators and Portugal’s notorious secret police – PIDE – was dismantled. The following year, 1975, a US-backed counter-coup in November would supplant the new government and the Carnation Revolution would come to an end. But the change it had brought about was permanent. “The people of Portugal and millions of people in our African colonies were given their lives back,” says Contreiras. As Portugal celebrates 50 years of pluralistic democracy today, however, the long shadows of the country’s authoritarian past are creeping back in the wake of the March 2024 elections, in which far-right political party Chega (“Enough”) gained 18 percent of the vote and drove a wedge through the heart of the Portuguese two-party system, which had dominated the chambers of power since the 1970s. ‘We had to act,’ former navy captain Carlos Almada Contreiras recalls the events of April 25, 1974 when he and other senior military figures finally stood up to the dictatorship Lisbon [Fredrik Lerneryd/Al Jazeera] A revolution is born On April 25, 1974, Portugal became world news. Newspapers around the world were drenched in bright images of celebrating Portuguese masses who took to the streets and placed red carnations in soldier’s rifle barrels and uniforms. Portugal’s “Carnation Revolution” is often described as a near-bloodless military takeover. But much blood had been spilled in the years leading up to that moment. In the early 1960s, as most African nations fought for and won independence from their European colonisers, Portugal stood firm in its claim to the country’s African “possessions”. These were now dubbed “Overseas Territory” instead of “colonies” as a result of a 1951 rewrite of the constitution and the country had responded to self-determination claims with brutality and repression. Dictator and Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar had established the “Estado Novo” in 1932 – a corporatist state rooted in anti-liberalism and fascism formed in the wake of the demise of Portugal’s monarchy – and kept Portugal out of the second world war. Despite being a brutal dictatorship, Salazar managed to lead Portugal into NATO’s anti-communist club in 1949 thanks to its control of the Azores Islands, a vital strategic outpost. When the first colonial war had erupted in Angola in March 1961, soon followed by wars in Portuguese Guinea and Mozambique, Portugal was able to source weaponry – helicopters, fighter aircraft and petrochemical weapons like napalm – from allied nations, primarily the United States, West Germany and France. Furthermore, during the Cold War, the Azorean military base became a vital strategic and geopolitical outpost in the mid-Atlantic, particularly for the United States, whose continued access to the military facilities depended on political and economic support to Salazar’s authoritarian rule. The Azorean military facilities became crucial for the United States during its military operations to aid the Israel forces during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. A veteran joins the crowds on a march down Av da Liberdade on the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon on April 25, 2024 [Fredrik Lerneryd/Al Jazeera] Finally, in the mid-1960s, the Portuguese dictatorship started
Landslides, floods sweep Indonesia’s South Sulawesi, killing 15 people
Disaster management agency says 115 people evacuated, more than 100 houses damaged amid prolonged torrential rain. Landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rains in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province have killed at least 15 people after dozens of homes were swept away and roads damaged, the country’s disaster management agency said. Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, which began in January, with the problem aggravated in some areas by deforestation, and prolonged downpours caused floods in parts of the country that comprises 17,000 islands. The landslides struck Luwu regency in South Sulawesi on Friday, said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), in a statement on Saturday. “A total of 14 residents died due to floods and landslides in Luwu regency,” he said. In another area of South Sulawesi, at least one person died and two others were injured, Abdul said. According to BNPB, more than 100 houses were seriously damaged and 42 were swept away, while four roads and one bridge were damaged. Some 115 people were evacuated to mosques or relatives’ homes and more than 1,300 families were affected with authorities trying to evacuate them. Indonesia has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events during its rainy season, which experts say are made more likely by climate change. In March, flash floods and landslides on Sumatra island killed at least 30 people. In recent days, several Indonesian cities also reported extreme heat, but the country’s weather bureau, BMKG, said the rising temperatures were not part of a heatwave currently sweeping much of the Southeast Asian region. Adblock test (Why?)
Measles outbreak kills at least 42 people in northeast Nigeria
The deaths were recorded out of nearly 200 suspected measles cases in the state of Adamawa, official says. At least 42 people have died from a measles outbreak in a little more than a week in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Adamawa, the state’s health commissioner says. Felix Tangwami said on Friday that the measles outbreak had mostly affected two local government areas where nearly 200 suspected cases were identified. “Measles vaccines have been released to those areas and our field teams are containing the situation,” he said at a media briefing. Measles is a highly contagious, airborne virus that mostly affects children under the age of five. It can be prevented by two doses of vaccine. Its early symptoms include high fever, cough and runny nose. It also often causes rashes and bumps all over the body of the patient. More than 50 million measles deaths have been averted through vaccinations since 2000, according to the World Health Organization. Widespread insecurity in many northern Nigerian states is often blamed for disruptions in vaccination campaigns, leaving children particularly vulnerable. Since the armed group Boko Haram started launching attacks in Nigeria in 2009, more than two million people have been displaced from their homes, spawning one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crises. Criminal gangs have further deepened security woes in northwestern Nigeria. The COVID-19 pandemic has also disrupted the health system and vaccination programmes in parts of the country, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. MSF said earlier this year that the inability of public health actors in Nigeria “to achieve the 95 percent vaccination rate required to suppress measles” led to an alarming rise in the number of people affected by the virus last year. MSF said it treated 3,965 patients between October and December. “This is notably due to the difficulties for health workers in accessing rural communities surrounding Maiduguri,” Jombo Tochukwu-Okoli, MSF medical activity manager at the Gwange Pediatric Hospital in the capital of the northeastern state of Borno, said in a statement in February. The virus can spread quickly among unvaccinated children. “One infected child can spread the virus to between nine and 12 other unvaccinated children,” Tochukwu-Okoli said. Adblock test (Why?)
Children, infants missing after Tunis police clear makeshift refugee camps
Police cleared two of the Tunisian capital’s irregular Black migrant camps, busing residents to an unknown location. Tunis, Tunisia – Hundreds of refugees and migrants camped in the centre of Tunis have disappeared, with reports suggesting that the group, including several infants, had been abandoned in the desert near Algeria. According to local media reports, security forces swept into the encampments in the prosperous Berge de Lac business district early on Friday, rounding up men, women and children and destroying the shelters they had built. One encampment was in a walled-off public park and the other was in an alleyway outside the United Nations’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). A sit-in was being held by roughly 100 other refugees, principally from Sudan, outside the UNHCR’s offices, 6.6km (four miles) away. Several infants born in Tunisia to refugee or migrant mothers were present when Al Jazeera visited the IOM camp on Tuesday. The Refugees in Libya organisation retained some contact with the missing individuals who were able to communicate from the buses the police had forced them onto. 🚨Ongoing mass desert dumping by the Tunisian authorities. Yesterday at approximately 3 am, multiple police forces including special riot control and anti-terrorism units dismantled the protest camp outside the UNHCR office in the Lac zone of Tunis. Hundreds of refugees and… pic.twitter.com/5uaYxDmR75 — Refugees In Libya (@RefugeesinLibya) May 3, 2024 This was broken off at around 7pm (18:00 GMT) after phone batteries failed. According to the group’s spokesperson, David Yambio, the refugees and migrants had been let out of the buses about 5km (three miles) from the northwestern city of Jendouba, near the Algerian border. “Babies and infants are hungry and thirsty, they told me,” he wrote by email, “The police told them nothing except for beatings and insults.” Several nationalities were sheltering in central Tunis: Chadians, Sierra Leoneans and many Sudanese. A significant number held cards issued by the UNHCR and, though Tunisia has no asylum laws, were still able to access basic medical care and a small stipend. Video shared by Refugees in Libya showed police raiding the camp late at night, before showing refugees and migrants, including women and infants, being transported to the desert near Algeria. Crews came out to clear the debris on May 3, 2024 [Al Jazeera] Calls and emails to the IOM requesting details of the raid and what, if any, provision had been made for the people’s safety have so far gone unanswered. Past accounts from refugees and migrants who had been bussed to the Algerian border have frequently included robbery by Tunisian gangs, as the groups try to walk back to Tunis and what they hope might be security. Accusations by rights groups that refugees and migrants are being expelled by Tunisia to the Algerian and Libyan borders are longstanding, but Tunisian authorities have consistently denied the practice, which would breach international law, NGO Avocats Sans Frontieres (Lawyers without Borders) said. Criticism of Tunisia’s treatment of the irregular Black refugee and migrant population who enter the country en route to Europe is not new. Human Rights Watch, Avocats Sans Frontieres and Amnesty International have repeatedly condemned the Tunisian police and officials for their treatment of the vulnerable community. The migrant camp outside the IOM, Tunis before the police raid [Al Jazeera] Adblock test (Why?)
What’s behind the US generational divide on Israel’s war on Gaza?
Polls suggest an increasing number of young Americans are siding with Palestinians and growing critical of Israel. Successive US administrations across the political divide have backed Israel since it was created in 1948. But polls suggest that public support for Israel in the United States now appears to be waning, especially among young people. A Pew Research study two years ago indicated that only 41 percent in the age group of 18 to 29 had a favourable view of Israel. And many students from this generation are now protesting on university campuses against the war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians. So, is the anger among young Americans highlighting a generational divide in Washington’s policy towards Israel? And what are the reasons reshaping public opinion? Presenter: Nick Clark Guests: Clair Davenport – Student at Columbia Journalism School Julie Norman – Deputy director at UCL Centre on US Politics Keir Milburn – Author of Generation Left, a book examining generational differences Adblock test (Why?)