Ecuador spat: Trotsky to the shah, Mexico’s long history as home to exiles
With rifles, riot shields and helmets, the Ecuadorian police scaled the white concrete gate, burst through the embassy doors and arrested Jorge Glas, a former vice president accused of corruption. The April 5 raid on Mexico’s embassy in Quito sparked a diplomatic firestorm. Experts warned the police raid was a clear violation of international laws protecting embassies. But in the lead-up to the raid, Mexico tried to invoke another safeguard enshrined in international law: the right to asylum. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known by the initials AMLO, had announced on the same day that Glas would be granted political asylum in his country after more than three months of sheltering in its embassy. But Glas was hardly the first politician Lopez Obrador had offered asylum to. In fact, experts say Mexico has a long and cherished history of granting asylum to figures fleeing persecution – from communist leaders to embattled presidents. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has offered asylum to several embattled leftist leaders [Marco Ugarte/AP Photo] Why did Lopez Obrador offer Glas asylum? Throughout his tenure as Mexico’s president, Lopez Obrador has championed that tradition, offering asylum to fellow left-leaning politicians who face prosecution or turmoil at home. In most cases, he portrays them as victims of political persecution and Mexico as a safe haven. Experts and historians say Lopez Obrador uses asylum as a tool to express affinity for politicians who share a similar worldview – and to bolster his credentials as a standard-bearer for Latin America’s political left. “Lopez Obrador has a very simple framework for understanding the political divide in Latin America with conservatives on one side and then those who are closer to what he sees as the historical mission of his government on the other,” Pablo Piccato, a professor of Mexican history at Columbia University in New York, tells Al Jazeera. “He sees things in this way with the conservative forces of reaction against the progressive forces of the people.” What is political asylum anyway? Political asylum, however, is a very specific legal category. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, lays out a right “to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”. Political views are one of only a handful of protected categories under international asylum law alongside race, religion, nationality and membership in a specific social group. Applicants for asylum must make the case that their involvement in one of those categories has put them at risk of persecution or some other human rights violation – and that there is no protection to be had in their home country. Former Vice President Jorge Glas of Ecuador sought refuge in Mexico’s embassy in Quito [File: Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo] Who else has Lopez Obrador offered asylum to? Glas is only the latest high-profile asylum case that Lopez Obrador has waded into. For instance, in 2019, Lopez Obrador extended asylum to former Bolivian President Evo Morales after he was removed from office by right-wing forces. Many characterised Morales’s exit from office as a coup, and Morales himself said his life was at risk. The Mexican leader also rallied behind former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo after he was impeached and arrested in December 2022. In the face of a third impeachment attempt against his presidency, Castillo appeared on TV and announced he would dissolve Congress. The move was widely denounced as illegal, and as Castillo tried to flee, he was detained on charges of rebellion. Lopez Obrador, however, repeatedly tried to offer the jailed Castillo and his family political asylum, spurring tensions with Peru’s current government. How have other leaders reacted? The Mexican president’s use of asylum as a political tool has irked conservative leaders across Latin America, including his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa. In Glas’s case, tensions between Ecuador and Mexico had been simmering for months. Glas had been holed up in the Mexican embassy since December after receiving two lengthy prison sentences for his participation in a bribery scandal. Noboa, a right-leaning politician, had embraced a law and order image amid an increase in violent crime at home. He insisted that he would not permit “any criminal to stay free” – not even Glas. As Mexico announced political asylum for Glas, police started to surround the embassy. Noboa has since insisted that his government did nothing wrong and he was simply exercising Ecuador’s sovereignty. He has also disputed whether Glas was eligible for political asylum under international law. Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, centre, has denied wrongdoing in the embassy raid [Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo] What is Mexico’s history with asylum? Mexico’s reputation as a place of refuge for those fleeing political persecution stretches back decades, well beyond the current spat with Ecuador. It has even become a point of pride in the history of the country’s foreign policy: Those seeking shelter in Mexico have often come out of the Western Hemisphere’s revolutionary or leftist traditions. Jose Marti, the foremost figure in Cuba’s struggle for independence, spent several years in Mexico in the 1870s after being expelled from Cuba, then under Spanish rule. The exiled Indian revolutionary Manabendra Nath Roy fled to Mexico to evade authorities in the United States after being arrested for his anti-colonial activities in India, where he helped found the Communist Party. He would go on to play a role in the founding of Mexico’s own Communist Party in 1917. During the 1930s, leftist President Lazaro Cardenas offered asylum to Leon Trotsky, a central figure in the Russian Revolution who later fled threats under the government of Joseph Stalin. He was eventually assassinated in Mexico City in 1940. Cardenas also opened Mexico’s doors to people fleeing the Spanish Civil War. Mexico was one of the only countries at the time to send assistance to Spain’s democratically elected and left-leaning Republican government, which was locked in battle against the forces of the far-right General Francisco Franco. That put Mexico at odds with fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany,
Gaza baby girl saved from dead mother’s womb dies in incubator
Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda dies just days after her mother, father and sister were killed in Israel attack on Rafah. A premature Palestinian baby, who was saved from her mother’s womb after she was killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, has died after days in an incubator. Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda. Dr Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neonatal unit at Emirati Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, who was caring for the baby girl, also confirmed her death on Friday. “I and other doctors tried to save her, but she died. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,” Salama told the Reuters news agency. The girl’s mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was rushed to hospital after an Israeli air strike hit the family’s home in Rafah on Saturday. The girl, who was named Sabreen after her mother, was rescued through a Caesarean section after her mother succumbed to her injuries. Al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant, was killed along with her husband and a young daughter. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure in the attack, which predominantly killed women and children. Weighing just 1.4kg (3.1 pounds), the baby was in severe respiratory distress because she was born prematurely. She was being cared for in an incubator in a neonatal intensive care unit. “She was born while her respiratory system wasn’t mature, and her immune system was very weak and that is what led to her death. She joined her family as a martyr,” said Salama, the doctor. The baby girl’s uncle told The Associated Press that she was buried next to her father on Thursday. “We were attached to this baby in a crazy way,” he said, speaking near her grave in a cemetery in Rafah. “God had taken something from us but given us something in return”, said the uncle, with the baby surviving after her family died. “But [now] he has taken them all. My brother’s family is completely wiped out. It’s been deleted from the civil registry. There is no trace of him left behind.” The baby girl’s uncle crouches next to her grave in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, April 26 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters] The baby is among more than 14,000 children who have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the war began on October 7. More than 34,300 Palestinians across the besieged Palestinian enclave have been killed. Despite international calls to end the conflict, Israeli leaders have said they plan to move ahead with a ground assault on Rafah. About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in the southern city, which was previously designated as a “safe zone”. Adblock test (Why?)
Are US campus protests against Israel’s war on Gaza going global?
EXPLAINER From France to Australia, university students are part of pro-Palestine protests as Columbia students continue encampments. Clashes between students and police officers have been reported all over the United States during intensifying university protests. What started as the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, where students are camping inside campus to push their institute to divest from companies linked to Israel, has since spread to campuses in California, Texas and other states. Now, more than 20 universities in the US are protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza, where Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 34,000 people and its blockade has caused starvation. But the protests are not limited to the US, students worldwide have been demonstrating in support of Gaza since the outbreak of the war on October 7. Following the Columbia encampments, the protests have further spread to universities from France to Australia. Here is all you need to know about student protests for Gaza outside of the US: Which global universities are holding pro-Palestine protests? In Paris, France, Sorbonne University students have taken to the streets. Additionally, the Palestine Committee from Sciences Po, is organising a protest where students set up about 10 tents on Wednesday. Despite a police crackdown, the protesters regathered on Thursday. In Australia, students from the University of Sydney set up pro-Palestine encampments on Tuesday, and they were continuing to protest on Friday. Also, University of Melbourne students pitched tents on the south lawn of their main campus on Thursday. In Italy, Rome, students from Sapienza University organised demonstrations, sit-ins and hunger strikes on April 17 and April 18. Since April 19 night, students from the University of Warwick’s group Warwick Stands With Palestine have occupied the campus piazza located in England, United Kingdom. In Leicester, England, a protest broke out on Monday in which students from the University of Leicester Palestine Society also participated. Last month, students from the University of Leeds occupied a campus building in protest against the university’s involvement with Israel. What are the demands of student protesters outside the US? Hicham, a student protesting at Sciences Po, which is also called the Paris Institute of Political Studies, told Al Jazeera, “We have a few demands but one of them is to start investigating all of the ties they [Sciences Po] have with the state of Israel, which [are] academic and financial”. He added that it has become “extremely hard” to talk about Palestine in France due to the way police respond. The organisers additionally want Sciences Po to condemn Israel’s actions. Sorbonne students are calling on the French government to help Palestinians. The University of Sydney students are demanding that their institute cut ties with Israeli universities and arms manufacturers, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Warwick students have demanded that the university divest from companies that they have identified are funding “genocide” perpetrated by Israel, Warwick’s student-run newspaper, The Boar, reported. The Boar quoted an unnamed student protester saying that, while the US protests had invigorated them, they were planning to take action regardless. The protest in Leicester on Monday was outside the Elbit Systems UK drone factory, calling for the factory’s shutdown. The student protesters at Leeds last month demanded the suspension of Jewish chaplain Zecharia Deutsch who served in the Israeli army during the war on Gaza. Is there a police crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters outside the US? On Wednesday, police broke up the Sciences Po demonstration after the institute made “numerous attempts” to evacuate the students peacefully, AFP reported. The institute’s Palestine Committee released a statement on Thursday saying the protesters were “carried out of the school by more than 50 members of the security forces,” adding that “around 100” police officers were “also waiting for them outside”. Hicham said that he and his fellow students had been occupying their school for three days. “We went to one building, they [the university] called the cops on us, we had to get out, so we went to the main historical building,” he said. “But I think the more repression happens, the more people are mobilising,” he said. “We were maybe 300 people before, [but] now we’re 600.” The students at Sorbonne were also surrounded by riot police, as shown in an Al Jazeera video from Thursday. “This will continue as long as we don’t have an open and serious conversation about the issue,” a student from Sorbonne University told Al Jazeera. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 792
As the war enters its 792nd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Friday, April 26, 2024. Fighting Politics and diplomacy NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said China must stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine if it wants to enjoy better relations with the West. Beijing says it is neutral in the war. Stoltenberg, however, said it was helping prop up Moscow’s war, noting that Russia imported 90 percent of its microelectronics from China, which were then used in the production of missiles, tanks and aircraft. “China says it wants good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. They cannot have it both ways,” he said. Alexandra Bayeva, left, and Katerina Tertukhina, Oleg Orlov’s lawyers speak to the press after his hearing was postponed until late next month [Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP] Russian President Vladimir Putin said he planned to visit China in May. He did not give a date. Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Moscow a year ago to meet Putin, and the two men met again on the sidelines of a Beijing forum last October when Xi said the “political mutual trust” between their countries was “continuously deepening”. Mykola Solsky, Ukraine’s agriculture minister, resigned amid a corruption investigation into his alleged involvement in the illegal acquisition of state-owned land worth $7m. A court is set to decide on Friday whether Solsky should be taken into custody. Leading Russian human rights group Memorial warned that the health of Oleg Orlov, its jailed 71-year-old head, was deteriorating. Orlov was sentenced in February to two and a half years in prison for “discrediting the armed forces” after he took part in antiwar demonstrations and published an article in which he said Russia had descended into fascism. Orlov had been due in court on Thursday, but the hearing was cancelled. The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) said a husband and wife, who had been found guilty of treason for providing information to Russia that allowed its forces to launch a rocket strike on a hospital in the southern Kherson region, had been sentenced to 15 years. The SBU said it had also detained a former soldier whom it accused of helping Russia plot attacks in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The suspect, who faces up to eight years in prison, had tried to flee to Russian-held territory, it added. Russia jailed a 26-year-old Siberian man for 10 years on charges of state treason and “terrorism” over plans to join Russian units fighting for Ukraine. The man was detained as he was making his way to Ukraine, according to state news agency TASS. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a US proposal to use the interest derived from $300bn in frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine was building support among Group of Seven (G7) countries wary about an outright asset seizure. Moscow said it might downgrade diplomatic ties with the United States if its frozen assets were seized. Poland and Lithuania could help return Ukrainians of military age back to Ukraine, the countries’ defence ministers said. Russian celebrity blogger and TV presenter Anastasia Ivleeva, whose “almost naked” party in Moscow caused outrage, was fined 50,000 roubles ($540) for “discrediting” the country’s armed forces by calling for peace in a social media post. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that the risk of military incidents along his country’s border with Ukraine was quite high. Lukashenko also said that “several dozen” Russian tactical nuclear weapons had been deployed in Belarus. Weapons US media outlet Politico reported the US could announce as soon as Friday a new $6bn weapons package for Ukraine. Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the package was likely to include Patriot air defence systems, artillery ammunition, drones, counter-drone weapons and air-to-air missiles for fighter planes. Russia brushed off the potential impact of Ukraine’s new long-range weaponry on the battlefield. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted such weapons would “not change the outcome of the special military operation”, as Russia terms its invasion, and would “cause more problems for Ukraine itself”. Denmark’s government said it was adding 4.4 billion kroner ($630m) to its Ukraine military aid fund. The country is the fourth-largest donor of military aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s 2022 invasion, according to the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Adblock test (Why?)
White nationalist rally ‘nothing’ compared with Gaza protests, Trump claims
Former US president says Charlottesville rally was a ‘little peanut’ compared with pro-Palestinian student protests. Former United States President Donald Trump has claimed that pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses are more hateful than the infamous 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Speaking to reporters outside his hush-money trial in New York on Thursday, Trump said the Unite the Right rally was “nothing” compared with the hate being expressed at student demonstrations against the war in Gaza. “We’re having protests all over,” Trump said as he left the Manhattan courtroom where he is standing trial over alleged payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. “Charlottesville was a little peanut, and it was nothing compared – and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here, this is tremendous hate,” Trump said. Trump’s comments follow a Truth Social post on Wednesday in which the Republican presidential contender described the Charlottesville rally as a “‘peanut’ compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country.” The White House rebuked Trump over his comments. “Minimising the anti-Semitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. US President Joe Biden, who is expected to face off against Trump in November’s presidential election, has repeatedly invoked the Charlottesville rally as a decisive moment in his decision to run against Trump in 2020. During the event on August 11, 2017, white supremacists rallied against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee, chanting slogans including “You will not replace us!” and “Jews will not replace us!” A day later, James Alex Fields Jr, a self-identified white supremacist, deliberately drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters near the rally site, killing Heather Heyer. Trump’s response to the rally, including saying that “both sides” were to blame, marked one of the most controversial moments of his presidency. There have been no comparable incidents of violence at the pro-Palestinian protests roiling multiple US universities, including George Washington University, Yale, New York University (NYU), Columbia University and the University of Texas. But reports of harassment and threats against Jewish students have prompted condemnation from officials including Biden, House Speaker Mike Johnson, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Footage shared on social media last weekend appeared to show activists telling students to “go back to Poland” and that October 7 is “going to be every day for you” – referring to Hamas’s attacks on Israel in which 1,139 people were killed. Chabad at Columbia University, a chapter of an international Orthodox Jewish movement, also reported that protesters had told Jewish students, “You have no culture”, “All you do is colonise” and “Go back to Europe”. On Sunday, a group of student activists representing the protesters released a statement distancing themselves from “inflammatory individuals” and condemning “any form of hate or bigotry”. Adblock test (Why?)
Top New York court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction
Defence and prosecution prepare for retrial of the once-powerful movie producer in a case that was a landmark for the #MeToo movement. New York’s highest court has overturned disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault, highlighting the challenges of holding powerful men to account. The Court of Appeals found on Thursday that the landmark trial was unfair because the judge allowed women whose accusations were not part of the charges Weinstein faced to give evidence in court. Judge Jenny Rivera called for a new trial following the 4-3 decision. The ruling does not affect a separate 16-year rape sentence handed down in California, so the 72-year-old will remain behind bars. Bombshell allegations against the Oscar-winning producer broke into the open in 2017 and led to a flood of allegations against other powerful men as women fought back against sexual violence in what became known as the #MeToo movement. Three years later, a New York court found Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. He was jailed for 23 years in a case that was considered a landmark for the #MeToo movement. Following his conviction, a civil trial awarded $17m to dozens of other women who had accused Weinstein of abuse. Many of his accusers condemned Thursday’s decision, with actress Ashley Judd calling it “an act of institutional betrayal”. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg signalled it planned to put Weinstein back on trial. At a news conference, Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala called the ruling “a tremendous victory for every criminal defendant in the state of New York” and said Weinstein was ready to testify in his own defence at a retrial. “He’s been dying to tell his story from day one,” Aidala said. Weinstein has contended that any sexual activity was consensual. Any retrial would be overseen by a different judge. The term of the judge in the original trial, James Burke, expired at the end of 2022. In its ruling on Thursday, the state Court of Appeals said the trial court erred in allowing “testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts” and saying it would permit questions about Weinstein’s “bad behaviour” if he had testified. The producer did not take the stand in his own defence. In a stinging dissent, Judge Madeline Singas wrote that the court was continuing a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence”. She said the ruling came at “the expense and safety of women”. In another dissent, Judge Anthony Cannataro wrote that the decision was “endangering decades of progress in this incredibly complex and nuanced area of law” regarding sex crimes after centuries of “deeply patriarchal and misogynistic legal tradition”. The reversal of Weinstein’s conviction is the second major #MeToo setback in the last two years. The US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a Pennsylvania court decision to throw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump faces Supreme Court immunity test as ‘hush money’ trial continues
Former United States President Donald Trump faces legal tests in New York and Washington on Thursday in two separate cases that hang over his campaign to return to the Oval Office in the November election. In New York, the third day of witness testimony is to be held in a historic criminal trial, the first against a US president. Tabloid publisher David Pecker is again expected to take the stand as prosecutors seek to paint a picture of a coordinated effort to influence the 2016 presidential election through malfeasance. But Trump’s attention may be elsewhere with the US Supreme Court set to consider whether Trump can be prosecuted or claim immunity in a federal case related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump had requested permission to skip the New York trial for the day to sit in on the Supreme Court session, but the request was denied. “We have a big case today,” Trump told construction workers in Manhattan during a brief campaign stop before the day’s court proceedings. “The judge isn’t allowing me to go.” In New York, Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The falsification charges concern the alleged mislabelling of repayments that Trump made to his lawyer Michael Cohen, who had paid $130,000 to Daniels in return for her silence over an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. For the felony charges to stick, prosecutors must persuade the jury that the misrepresentations were done with the intent to commit or cover up another crime. In opening statements on Monday, prosecutors focused primarily on what they described as an illegal effort to “undermine the integrity” of the 2016 presidential election, in which Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo called the payments to Daniels “election fraud, pure and simple”. On Monday, prosecutors called their first witness, Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid and a longtime friend of Trump’s. They questioned Pecker on a “catch and kill” agreement reached between Trump and the publisher. Under the agreement, the tabloid would buy potentially politically damaging stories about Trump and prevent them from being published. Pecker recounted an August 2015 meeting with Cohen and Trump in which he was asked “to help the campaign”. He agreed to be the “eyes and ears” of the campaign, Pecker testified. Pecker said he agreed to help Trump’s political ambitions through both the catch and kill scheme as well as through publishing positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his competitors. He called the agreement “highly, highly confidential”. The defence has argued that Trump did nothing illegal to justify the felony charges. It has stressed that catch and kill practices and hush money payments are not in and of themselves illegal. His lawyers have so far portrayed Trump as a businessman and public figure seeking to protect himself and his family from public allegations. Legal observers say it will be up to prosecutors to fully articulate the exact laws Trump sought to violate with the payments and provide the evidence needed to support that claim. The stories purchased and stifled by American Media, the owner of the National Enquirer, included claims by model Karen McDougal that she had an affair with Trump. The company has acknowledged it paid McDougal $150,000 to acquire and kill the story. Trump has denied the affair. American Media also paid a Trump Tower doorman $30,000 for a story claiming Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. On Tuesday, prosecutors also called on Judge Juan Merchan to punish Trump for violating a gag order that bans him from talking publicly about potential witnesses in the case. Trump’s lawyers said Trump was only responding to claims about him in the social media posts in question. Trump himself took to Truth Social during a break in the trial to criticise the judge. “Everybody is allowed to talk and lie about me, but I am not allowed to defend myself?” Trump wrote. Merchan has yet to make a decision on whether Trump’s posts were indeed in violation of the gag order. Supreme Court arguments The New York case is one of four criminal cases filed against Trump, and it is the only one expected to finish before the presidential election, in which Trump is set to face President Joe Biden in a rematch of their 2020 race. In Washington, DC, Trump faces federal charges related to allegations he conspired to overturn the 2020 election results in his final days in office. The Supreme Court will decide whether and to what extent a former president enjoys presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. The determination will have a major impact on how the federal case will proceed, but it is unlikely to have any bearing on the New York case. In Georgia, Trump faces state charges related to an alleged campaign to pressure elections officials to change the state’s vote count in the 2020 presidential election. He faces a separate federal criminal case in Florida related to classified documents he allegedly removed from the White House. Adblock test (Why?)
‘The election is a vote not for democracy, but for autocracy’
NewsFeed If the rights of minorities are not being protected, then claims of democracy are fraudulent, journalist and professor Amitava Kumar said of India’s ongoing elections. Published On 25 Apr 202425 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
US TikTok’s future in jeopardy as Biden signs ban bill: What’s next?
The US Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divests from the video-sharing app in nine months amid concerns that the company poses a national security threat. TikTok has denied the Chinese government could access users’ data and has dubbed the bill, which was passed by a 79-18 vote, as unconstitutional. The bill was attached to a measure to provide a $95bn emergency aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. President Joe Biden has said he will sign it into law on Wednesday. What do we know about the TikTok ban, and what happens next? Why the ban on TikTok? How will it impact TikTok? ByteDance bought the popular karaoke app Musical.ly and relaunched it as TikTok in 2017. It is one of the fastest-growing apps in the US, and has 150 monthly subscribers, more than half of them ages 18-34. In 2023, the platform boasted more than one billion monthly active users globally and a revenue of $120bn, of which $16bn comes from the US. The app’s growing influence has drawn the attention of spy agencies and US lawmakers who have expressed fear that TikTok might share users’ data with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a claim the company has denied. The data, some say, could also be used by China to spread misinformation that could harm the democratic process. “For years, we’ve allowed the Chinese Communist Party to control one of the most popular apps in America. That was dangerously shortsighted,” said Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “A new law is going to require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good move for America.” In December 2022, the US Congress banned the use of the app on any federally issued device or network. Several other countries have followed suit, imposing curbs on the use of TikTok in government offices. India banned the app in 2020, when there were 200 million subscribers in the wake of border skirmishes. The widely popular app has also been accused of pushing pro-Palestine content – a claim the company has denied. TikTok’s young users (ages 16-24) in the US, who form 60 percent of its total users, sympathise with Palestine, the company said last November. TikTok’s executives have been grilled during multiple congressional hearings. In March of last year, the company’s Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew assured lawmakers that TikTok had taken steps to safeguard user data. The company has also invested $1.5bn to store TikTok in the US, and Oracle, a US-based multinational corporation, would provide the cloud and storage services for the project. It has also taken measures to separate its US operations from its Chinese parent company. China’s Foreign Ministry has said that the US allegations were not backed by evidence and the ban would undermine fair competition. Several Chinese tech firms have been blacklisted by the US amid a war over the internet and technology between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Apple said Beijing had ordered it to remove Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns. If ByteDance refuses to divest the company, the app would lose access to app stores, web hosting and network providers. Until the nine-month deadline, TikTok will remain active in the US. The US president can grant an extension of the deadline for 90 more days if the company is seen as progressing on the terms set in the law. What can TikTok do now? While TikTok is able to operate in the US, for now, the company executives and attorneys will have to fight on legal grounds. “This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep US data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation,” TikTok said in a statement on Wednesday. TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds and TikTok users are also expected to again take legal action. A US judge in Montana in November blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free speech grounds. The US Constitution guarantees the right to free speech under the First Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union said banning or requiring divestiture of TikTok would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms … If the United States now bans a foreign-owned platform, that will invite copycat measures by other countries.” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, said he was concerned the bill “provides broad authority that could be abused by a future administration to violate Americans’ First Amendment rights”. In 2020, former US President Donald Trump attempted to legislate his own TikTok ban, but he has somewhat done a reversal on banning the popular social media app while campaigning for another term in office. On Monday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok.” [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)
What happens when activists are branded ‘terrorists’ in the Philippines?
Baguio, Philippines – Inside an unlit bathroom, Windel Bolinget gently tips a pail of water over his head, careful to minimise the sound of splashing on the tiled floor. A well-known activist leader in the mountainous Cordillera region in the northern Philippines, the 49-year-old spends most of his days between several undisclosed refuges. Bolinget tries to stay invisible indoors, not leaving unless absolutely necessary and avoiding making any noise that might draw attention. “I have normal routines with some extraordinary effort,” he said. On the rare occasions that he spends with his family in their own home, he follows the same protocol. At night, whether Bolinget is there or not, his wife and four children wake up whenever any of their six dogs bark. They monitor security cameras and step into the street, worried that armed men might have come for him. Nearby households do the same, knowing that the man they’ve called a friend for decades has been branded a “terrorist” by the Philippine government, which wants him behind bars. “We need to be able to smell danger, have the emergency contacts at the ready, and be able to tell if we’re being tailed in a public place,” he said. Bolinget is chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), an activist coalition of Indigenous people’s groups. He and three other CPA leaders Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa, Steve Tauli, and Sarah Abellon-Alikes were designated “terrorists” by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) on July 10, 2023. Citing “probable cause” of engagement in “organised violence,” the ATC, led by executive officials, claims the CPA and the four individuals are part of the country’s long-running Communist armed rebellion. Indigenous activist Windel Bolinget lives his life in the shadows after being designated a ‘terrorist’ by the government [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera] Under the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) of 2020, the authorities can arrest people identified as “terrorists” without a warrant, restrict travel, freeze assets, conduct surveillance and issue new court decisions to restrict their movements without explaining why. Some individuals who have previously been labelled “terrorists”, communists or enemies of the state have later been found dead. Some 89 extrajudicial killings of activists have taken place since June 2022 when Ferdinand Marcos Jr became president. According to the human rights group Karapatan, 51 people are currently designated as “terrorists”. The designation marks a step up from the more common red-tagging, where activists are linked to the armed rebellion in a bid to justify a crackdown. In the past, all four CPA leaders have been slapped with cases relating to their alleged involvement with rebels. All of which, including a “shoot to kill” order on Bolinget, have been dismissed in court. Critics have described the ATL as the second coming of martial law in the Philippines. For the last nine months, the CPA leaders have lived in relative seclusion apart from court hearings to contest the ATC decision. “We want to prove the facts and question the basis of the designation,” said Baguio City Councilor Jose Molintas, lawyer to the four alleged “terrorists”. Karapatan’s Cristina Palabay said the law “institutionalises the ATC’s mandate to act as judge and jury in implementing its draconian crackdown. It not only threatens and harasses activists, but also puts their lives at risk.” Life in terror On social media, the Bolinget and Taggaoa families were branded terrorists as early as 2020. Pictures of their children, some of whom are under the age of 18, have been paraded as the offspring of “terrorists” by trolls and even law enforcement personnel. Taggaoa’s daughter Kara, a labour rights activist in Manila, was also arrested in 2022 over a robbery that allegedly took place during a demonstration. Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa spent four months moving between safe houses after she was designated a ‘terrorist’ [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera] Joel Egco, spokesperson for the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict, issued a warning to dissenters earlier this year: “Before we charge you (with terrorism), surrender now!” In such an atmosphere, the CPA leaders live in constant fear for their family’s safety. Bolinget says some friends and relatives have cut ties, fearful that associating with them could be considered criminal. “I’m an enemy of the state, an open target. The state wants to isolate me from the family, it’s easier for them that way,” he said. Bolinget led one of the 37 Supreme Court petitions against the ATL back in 2020, flagging potential human rights abuses. “All our fears came true and I have become a living testament that to be deemed a terrorist is to be treated worse than a criminal,” he said. The designation is also affecting their health. Bolinget and Taggaoa have been experiencing more frequent stomach trouble and must convince their doctors to see them at inconvenient times. Taggaoa feels “so sickly all the time. The doctors said it’s stress-induced.” Bolinget blames the lack of sleep for his poor health. “One-half of your brain is always awake and alert. I’m always on edge, like my temper is going to boil any minute,” he said. Constant alarm When Taggaoa was arrested in January 2023, she was not worried. She, Bolinget and five others had been charged with rebellion after allegedly joining an armed raid. “I knew right away it was fake and I could prove this in court,” she told Al Jazeera. The case was dropped that May. But a couple of months later, she discovered she had been designated by the ATC when the decision was published in a national newspaper. Taggaoa spent the next four months hopping between safehouses and reminding her family back home to lock all doors and stay vigilant. In January, Marcos Jr said he wanted the Philippines‘ swift exit from the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog for money laundering and terrorist financing. To do this, Marcos announced accelerated “action plans to combat money laundering and counterterrorist financing, and to file cases against violators”. Living without access to personal and business funds has been