Who is Julia Sebutinde? The judge against all ICJ rulings in Israel’s case
The United Nations’ top court ordered Israel on Friday to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in its military offensive in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. South Africa alleged that Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounted to genocide in the case and had asked the court to order Israel to halt the operation. In the anticipated decision, made by a panel of 17 judges, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered six so-called provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza. Those measures were approved by an overwhelming majority of the judges. An Israeli judge voted in favour of two of the six. But Uganda’s Judge, Julia Sebuntinde, was the only judge who voted against all of them. Here is what we know about her, and why she voted the way she did: First African woman to sit on the ICJ Born in February 1956, Sebutinde is a Ugandan judge serving her second term at the ICJ. She has been a judge at the court since March 2021. She is the first African woman to sit on the international court. According to the Institute for African Women in Law, Sebutinde comes from a modest family and she was born during a period when Uganda was actively fighting for independence from the British Colonial office. Sebutinde attended Lake Victoria Primary School in Entebbe, Uganda. After finishing primary school, she went to Gayaza High School. She later pursued her degree at Makerere University and received a bachelor of laws degree in 1977, at the age of 21. Later, as part of her education in 1990, at the age of 34, she went to Scotland where she earned a master of laws degree with distinction from the University of Edinburgh. In 2009, the same university honoured her with a doctorate of laws, recognising her contributions to legal and judicial service. Before being elected to the ICJ, Sebutinde was a judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She was appointed to that position in 2007. Sierra Leone’s case: Charles Taylor over war crimes Throughout her professional career, Sebutinde has been no stranger to controversies. In February 2011, Sebutinde was one of three presiding judges in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. During that time, the Special Court found Taylor guilty on 11 accounts, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorism, murder, rape and the use of child soldiers, resulting in a 50-year prison sentence. On February 8, London barrister Courtenay Griffiths, who represented Taylor, walked out of proceedings after judges refused to accept a written summary of the ex-Liberian president’s defence at the end of his trial. On February 28, a disciplinary hearing to censure Griffiths was indefinitely adjourned because Sebutinde declined to be present, withdrawing “on principle”. This decision came after her earlier dissent from the order requiring Griffiths to apologise or face disciplinary action. ICJ case in Palestine Fast forward to 2024, Sebutinde once again captured headlines, this time for being the only judge who voted against all measures sought by South Africa in its genocide case against Israel. In a dissenting opinion, Sebutinde stated the following: “In my respectful dissenting opinion the dispute between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine is essentially and historically a political one.” “It is not a legal dispute susceptible to judicial settlement by the Court,” she added. She also said that South Africa didn’t demonstrate that the acts allegedly committed by Israel were “committed with the necessary genocidal intent, and that as a result, they are capable of falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention”. Experts argued that Sebutinde failed to conduct a thorough assessment of the situation. “I think what the dissenting opinion gets wrong is that genocide is not a political dispute, it’s a legal matter. Both South Africa and Israel signed the Genocide Convention in 1948 and accept the jurisdiction over breaches of the Genocide Convention and failure to prevent genocide,” Mark Kersten, assistant professor at the University of the Fraser Valley focusing on human rights law, told Al Jazeera. “You cannot simply say this is something for history, this is something for politics. Of course, history and politics play a role,” he added. The ambassador of Uganda to the United Nations also expressed a different opinion. “Justice Sebutinde ruling at the International Court of Justice does not represent the Government of Uganda’s position on the situation in Palestine,” he said in a statement on Twitter. Justice Sebutinde ruling at the International Court of Justice does not represent the Government of Uganda’s position on the situation in Palestine. She has previously voted against Uganda’s case on DRC. Uganda’s support for the plight of the Palestinian people has been expressed… — Adonia Ayebare (@adoniaayebare) January 26, 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Russia’s Putin says ‘obvious’ Ukraine shot down plane over Belgorod
Moscow and Kyiv trade blame after Ilyushin Il-76 plane crashed, reportedly killing 65 Ukrainian POWs said to be on board. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukrainian air defences shot down the Russian military plane that crashed near its border with Ukraine this week. In his first comments about Wednesday’s crash, Putin said that the results of Moscow’s investigation would be published in two to three days, but preliminary results suggested that the missiles that hit the plane were either American or French. Putin also accused Ukraine of knowing that the Ilyushin Il-76 plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. “I don’t know if they did it on purpose or by mistake, but it is obvious that they did it,” Putin said in televised comments on Friday. “In any case, what happened is a crime. Either through negligence or on purpose, but in any case, it is a crime.” The Russian defence ministry said six Russian crew members and three Russian soldiers were also on board the flight to undertake the latest prisoner swap with Ukraine. Ukraine has not confirmed nor denied whether it shot down the plane and has challenged Moscow’s account of who was on board and what occurred. Kyiv has refuted Moscow’s claim that it was warned that a plane carrying Ukrainian POWs would be flying over Russia’s Belgorod region at that time. It also said there were discrepancies in a list of names published by Russian media of the 65 Ukrainians who were reportedly on board. However, Putin said the plane could not have been brought down by Russian “friendly fire” since its air defence systems have safeguards in place to prevent them from attacking their aircraft. “There are ‘friend or foe’ systems there, and no matter how much the operator presses the button, our air defence systems would not work,” he said. Trading blame On Thursday, Ukraine called for an international investigation into the blast. “Regarding an international investigation, I believe that we will do our part to make it happen. But I am convinced that … the Russians will make loud statements but will not allow anyone in,” Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, told national television, adding he would send letters to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. “They will not hand over any materials for analysis and will simply blame Ukraine,” he added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the downed plane on Thursday. At the session, Moscow and Kyiv both sought to pin the blame on the other. “All of the information that we have today shows that we are dealing with a premeditated, thought-through crime,” said Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, adding that Ukraine’s leaders “knew the route very well, knew about the way the soldiers were going to be transported to the place of exchange”. He accused Kyiv of sacrificing its own troops “to Western geopolitical interests”. Ukraine’s Deputy Ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn in turn rejected the accusation, saying that “Ukraine was not informed about the number of vehicles, roads and means of transportation of the captives”. “This alone may constitute intentional actions by Russia to endanger the lives and safety of the prisoners,” she said. Adblock test (Why?)
Displaced people in Khan Younis told to move further south
NewsFeed “You must immediately move“ Israel tells hundreds of people in Khan Younis, including those already displaced, to move further south as the military continues to expand its offensive in the area. Published On 26 Jan 202426 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Filipinos in Hong Kong were promised a new life in Poland. It never came
This is the second article in a two-part series about the alleged exploitation of Filipino migrant workers. You can read part one here. Hong Kong, China – It only took a few minutes of searching online for Divina*, a domestic worker in Hong Kong, to find a recruiter offering the tempting opportunity to work in Poland. Before long, Divina found herself attending a two-hour orientation session on the 17th floor of a building in the city’s bustling Mong Kok district. There, she listened as agents listed opportunities in workplaces ranging from hotels to a chicken processing plant and a car parts factory. “So you would really be convinced that [they] had many contacts in Poland,” she told Al Jazeera. Divina paid the recruiters 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,279) to initiate her application to work in Europe. But more than 14 months later, Divina is still waiting for her application to be finalised and has all but given up hope of ever reaching Poland. Divina is one of at least dozens of domestic workers in Hong Kong who feel cheated after paying thousands of dollars in fees for jobs in Poland that haven’t materialised. Labour advocates in the financial hub say that the victims of an international network of recruiters and agencies have lost at least 600,000 Hong Kong dollars ($76,785) – but that is likely to only be the tip of the iceberg. Al Jazeera spoke with five Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong and read written statements from 20 others who claim to have been deceived by online recruiters and at least two agencies in Hong Kong that worked with a Poland-based agency. Many said they were unable to support their families for months after taking out loans to cover the recruitment fees. Labour advocates in Hong Kong say domestic workers have been targeted by an international network of recruiters and agencies that has cost them at least 600,000 Hong Kong dollars [Dan Archer/Al Jazeera] Such cases are far from unique in Hong Kong, which has become a “hotbed for illegal recruitment schemes” due to its 340,000-strong population of foreign domestic workers and the growing demand for migrant workers from Asia to Eastern Europe, according to David Bishop, a university professor and co-founder of the migration-focused social enterprise Migrasia. Bishop said his team has identified a large number of agencies that engage in third-country recruitment strategies prohibited by Philippine labour authorities. “These agencies target Filipino workers in Asia with the alleged intention of placing them in jobs in Europe,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that recruiters play on the despair of people hoping to find work opportunities. A few weeks after her application, Divina was informed that a Warsaw-based agency would be solely responsible for handling her application. The partner agency in Hong Kong that she dealt with directly told her it was no longer involved. Ultimately, the Polish agency claimed it had not received her payment. Divina, who is legally required to live with her employer in Hong Kong and often works 16-hour shifts without overtime, was at a loss for what to do next. “I keep praying, I keep begging [to get back] all our hard-earned money,” she said, adding that while she hopes to get a refund, she still dreams of going to Poland. Recruitment agents have sold Poland to domestic workers as a country that offers higher salaries – sometimes more than double – better working conditions, and the opportunity to live together with their families in Europe. After the Philippines, Hong Kong was the top source of visa applications by Filipinos hoping to work in Poland from 2021 to November 2023. Polish authorities in Hong Kong processed 2,980 visas for Filipino workers over the period, according to a spokesman for Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Searching for answers Maria*, another Filipina migrant worker who applied for a job in Poland with the Mong Kok-based agency, has also been left searching for answers. “I don’t know where my 10,000 Hong Kong dollars went,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to the first cash instalment she made in May 2022. Maria said she was told her full application would cost 30,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$3,839) – more than six times the monthly minimum wage of a domestic worker in Hong Kong. “I thought that because we were using an actual agency in Hong Kong, we would be more protected,” she said. Maria cannot understand why she remains in the city, while another worker she knows who applied with the same agency at the same time was offered a job and successfully reached the Eastern European country. In WhatsApp messages seen by Al Jazeera, Maria asked the Hong Kong agency for proof that her money had indeed been sent to Poland, but was told that was “confidential [information] between companies”. In November 2022, the agency – which currently holds a licence to operate in the city – sent a letter to applicants, claiming that “all the problems” were “from the Poland side”. When Al Jazeera accompanied Maria on two visits to her agency in Mong Kok last month, the office was closed each time. A person who answered a number posted on the door questioned why Maria had decided to go there in person, insisting queries be sent over WhatsApp. Despite repeated efforts, Maria has been unable to meet with anyone from the agency in person. Philippine authorities have received dozens of complaints against the Poland-based agency CIS Group Manpower [Dan Archer/Al Jazeera] The Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong had recorded 24 formal complaints against a Poland-based agency, CIS Group Manpower, as of the end of November – 18 of which named Son Employment as its Hong Kong partner. “Almost all stated they have paid significant amounts [ranging from] 10,000 to 30,000 Hong Kong dollars to the recruiter, only ending up not being able to leave for Poland,” Raly Tejada, who served as Consul General until last month, told Al Jazeera. The owner of the CIS Group Manpower, Imran
Stories of ‘beating the odds’ in China draw dark responses from wary public
A honeymoon in Western Tibet came to a tragic end in October when the newlyweds crashed their car on a mountain road after suffering altitude sickness. Sitting in the passenger seat, 27-year-old Yu Yanyan from Shanghai was badly injured. Despite being transferred to a local hospital, rapid haemorrhaging and a lack of adequate blood stocks meant that she was unlikely to make it. But drawing on the couple’s network and connections, Yu’s husband was able to secure blood donations from local civil servants and members of the public in that area of Tibet that helped to stabilise his bride. Yu’s father then arranged a chartered plane to fly her to a larger hospital for more advanced surgery. The operation to save Yu’s life was a remarkable effort in China – where many lack access to quality healthcare – especially in remote regions, such as Tibet. Some also said it was unbelievable. Success stories meet a sceptical Chinese public Bai Xinhui, who is also from Shanghai like Yu, began to follow the story after a now-recovering Yu posted a video about her near-death experience. “It was really beautiful to hear how so many people worked together and contributed to saving her life,” Bai, a 26-year-old UX designer, told Al Jazeera. At the same time though, Bai was left wondering whether ”a regular person could get so much help”. “Maybe her husband and her have very good connections or come from very rich families,” Bai said. “Maybe it’s all true, maybe it’s only half true,” she said, suspicious that some of the details of the rescue might have been altered to make public officials appear in a more positive light. “It is sometimes difficult to know what to believe and who to believe in China these days,” she added. Bai is not the only one who has pondered the circumstances and details of Yu’s ordeal. When the story gained national media attention and went viral on Chinese social media in November and December, people started to ask questions. “How were they able to involve so many people to help her and how were they able to do it so fast?” asked Li Xueqing, a 31-year-old marketing specialist from Suzhou. “Chinese healthcare is very bad in many places, so I don’t think Yu’s story shows how patients in her situation are normally treated,” Li said to Al Jazeera. Yu’s survival has shifted from the story of a dramatic rescue to symbolising entitlement and privilege in contemporary China, with some referring to her as the “Shanghai princess” in Tibet. Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, in 2020 [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters] The story became so prominent that it resulted in Chinese authorities and media looking into signs of wrongdoing regarding the resources mobilised to save Yu. So far, there is little evidence suggesting that any abuse of positions or power played a role. Around the same time that Yu’s rescue was being dissected by a sceptical online community in China, another story about overcoming incredible odds began trending on Chinese social media. It too was met by equally cheerless responses. A lottery player in the central Chinese city of Nanchang won the equivalent of almost $31m from the state-run Welfare Lottery in early December. The winner had reportedly spent a sum of $14,000 on nearly 50,000 sets of identical lottery numbers that each won him approximately $625. Additionally, his total winnings were tax-free due to the relatively small prize money on each individual bet. The circumstances instantly raised suspicions. “He probably had help from someone on the inside,” one user on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, speculated. Both China’s healthcare sector and the state lottery have previously been plagued by stories of embezzlement and corruption. “There is a lot of money taken and bribes given in many sectors in China, so of course we are suspicious,” Li from Suzhou said about the incredulous effort to rescue Yu in Tibet and the unprecedented lottery win in Nanchang. The outpouring of public scepticism also suggests a lack of alignment between successes in life and the experiences of everyday Chinese people, said Jodie Peng, a high school teacher from Shenzhen. “Most people haven’t won big in the lottery or experienced a whole community helping them during a medical emergency,” she told Al Jazeera. People buy scratch cards at an outlet of the China Welfare Lottery in Beijing, China [File Adrian Bradshaw/EPA] Peng also had her own faith in China’s healthcare system tested in recent years. Her grandfather died last year from COVID-19 in a crowded public hospital before overworked medical staff had a chance to properly tend to him. Peng also fell victim to medical fraud in connection with post-surgery treatment she received a few years back. “So, of course, it was nice to hear about the lottery winner in Nanchang and the successful rescue of the Shanghai woman in Tibet. But those things don’t happen in the Chinese world that I live in,” she said. China’s party-approved ‘positive energy’ stories According to associate professor Yao-Yuan Yeh, who teaches Chinese studies at the University of St Thomas in the United States, stories that circulate in China’s media and online often reflect the desired narratives of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) more so than the lived experiences of the public. “The Chinese internet is filled with stories backed by the Chinese state,” Yeh told Al Jazeera. China’s leaders have repeatedly called for the media to disseminate stories with “positive energy” to lift up and inspire people. With the internet heavily surveilled and regulated in China, stories and commentary that do not support the mandates of the government can be quickly removed by censors without warning or explanation. So, when public data showed that Chinese youth unemployment was hitting a record 21.3 percent in June, China’s censors shut down critical discussions about the figures online and removed negative comments about the state of the Chinese economy. The following month, the publication of China’s youth jobless data was suspended. Combatting ”negativity” has also resulted
Boeing woes spark painful memories for families of Indonesian crash victims
Medan, Indonesia – For Neuis Marfuah, the recent near-catastrophe involving a 737 Max plane flown by Alaska Airlines brought back painful memories and anger. Her daughter, 23-year-old Vivian Hasna Afifa, was killed when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia on October 29, 2018, killing all 189 people on board. “How could this have happened? I can’t stop thinking about it,” Marfuah told Al Jazeera. On Thursday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that it had approved the Boeing 737 Max 9 to return to service after more than 170 of the aircraft were grounded on January 6, the day after a panel on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 blew out at 14,000 feet with 177 people on board. The FAA’s “exhaustive” review gave the watchdog the confidence to “proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase”, FAA administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement that outlined “unacceptable” quality assurance issues. No one was killed or injured in the incident, but for Marfuah, the news of the near-disaster was hard to bear. “It should have been enough after the events in Indonesia and Ethiopia to decide to stop operating the Max 737 aircraft once and for all,” Marfuah said. Less than five months after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa Airport en route to Kenya, killing all 157 people on board. Following the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, a US congressional report found that Boeing operated a “culture of concealment” and that the 737 Max planes were “marred by technical design failures”, including issues with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). MCAS is a flight-stabilisation programme on newer 737 Max models that is designed to automatically stop a plane from going into a stall, although this was not clearly communicated to pilots flying the planes. On Lion Air Flight 610, a sensor on the outside of the plane malfunctioned and indicated that the nose of the plane was too high and that the aircraft was at risk of stalling, causing the MCAS to automatically force the plane down to avoid a potential stall and crash into the sea. MCAS also malfunctioned on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, prompting Boeing to make changes so that it now “operates in unusual flight conditions only and now relies on two sensors, activates only once and never overrides pilots’ ability to control the airplane”. 189 people died on Lion Air Flight 610 [File: Willy Kurniawan?Reuters] After an investigation into the near-miss involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the airline found that the panel that blew off had been removed, repaired and reattached by Boeing mechanics. Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in an interview aired by NBC News on Wednesday that an in-house inspection found that “many” of the 737 Max 9 aircraft had loose bolts. “Really, an airplane exploded in mid-air in one section,” Dennis Tajer, spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association union and a 737 Max 8 pilot with more than three decades of experience, told Al Jazeera. “It was an explosive depressurisation of the plane, which is all-encompassing and terrifying. This has taken trust in Boeing and absolutely crushed it again.” In the three weeks since the Alaska Airlines incident, Boeing has lost nearly one-fifth of its market capitalisation. After a meeting with US senators on Wednesday, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told reporters that the company does not “put airplanes in the air that we don’t have 100 percent confidence in”. Anton Sahadi, whose wife lost her two 24-year-old cousins, Riyan Aryandi and Ravi Andrian, on Lion Air Flight 610, described the latest incident involving the Boeing 737 Max incident as “saddening”. “As a family member of and spokesperson for the victims of the Lion Air plane crash, I was very concerned to hear the Alaska Airlines news, remembering that 189 people were victims of the Lion Air crash in Indonesia,” Sahadi told Al Jazeera. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was involved in fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 [File: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters] Like Tajer, Sahadi said the latest incident had shaken his trust in Boeing’s planes. “I am increasingly doubtful about the 737 Max planes and I think there must be serious action taken by the aircraft certifier before they are ready to be sold and used commercially,” he said. “It is playing with people’s lives and safety. It should be a serious concern for operators and Boeing passengers.” In a statement provided to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: “We have let down our airline customers and are deeply sorry for the significant disruption to them, their employees and their passengers.” On Wednesday, Boeing released another statement in which it said it would “continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and follow their direction as we take action to strengthen safety and quality at Boeing”. But Tajer, the Allied Pilots Association spokesperson, said that “trust in Boeing continues to erode” despite the planes being cleared to fly. “This is not just a case of everyone waking up, people have been watching Boeing closely for some time and they built an airplane based on executive excuses and exemptions,” he said. It is not just the 737 Max that has been in the spotlight following the Alaska Airlines incident. On January 18, a Boeing cargo plane made an emergency landing in Florida after the engine caught fire and, on January 20, a nose wheel fell off a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 flight that was about to take off from Atlanta’s international airport. “If I had made as many mistakes as Boeing, I would not have a pilot’s licence,” Tajer said. “We are watching closely and we are not happy. We are going to get through this and we will keep people safe, but we are being asked to cover for Boeing’s failures. Enough is enough. Engineer your planes like lives depend on it, because they do.” Adblock
Trump walks out of court during closing arguments in defamation trial
The unexpected walkout occurred when lawyer for E Jean Carroll asked jurors to decide how much Trump owes the plaintiff. Former United States President Donald Trump stormed out of closing arguments at his defamation trial as a lawyer for E Jean Carroll urged a jury to award at least $24m in damages for the “storm of hate” caused by Trump. Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10m for Trump’s having defamed her in June 2019, when he was in the White House, by denying her claim that he had raped her in the mid-1990s. She said Trump’s comments caused her to be subjected to four and a half years of continuous attacks, including death threats. In her closing arguments at the Manhattan federal court on Friday, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan urged jurors to punish Trump for persistently lying about her client, and destroying her reputation as a truth-telling journalist. “We all have to follow the law,” Kaplan said. “Donald Trump, however, acts as if these rules and laws just do not apply to him. “This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all,” she added. “Now is the time to make him pay for it dearly.” Just minutes after Kaplan began her argument, Trump suddenly rose from his seat at the defence table and walked toward the exit, pausing to scan the packed courtroom as members of the Secret Service leaped up to follow him out. His unexpected departure prompted Judge Lewis A Kaplan, not related to Carroll’s lawyer, to speak up, briefly interrupting the closing argument to note: “The record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.” Later, Trump returned to the courtroom to hear his lawyer Alina Habba argue that Trump should not be made to pay Carroll for comments that set off hate messages from strangers. Habba showed the jury a video in which Trump said a jury’s verdict last year finding that he had sexually abused Carroll was “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time”. “You know why he has not wavered?” Habba asked the jury. “Because it’s the truth.” The jury will now consider what level, if any, to award compensatory damages and punitive damages, intended to deter repeat defamation. [embedded content] ‘Trump is not a victim’ Trump, a Republican, is seeking to retake the White House in the November election in a likely showdown against Democrat and current President Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020. The race is expected to be close even though Trump faces 91 felony counts in four criminal indictments, including two cases accusing him of trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss. He has tried to make his legal travails a campaign asset, calling himself a victim of biased prosecutors and an unfair judicial system. Carroll’s legal team urged jurors to ignore that. “This isn’t a campaign rally,” Shawn Crowley, another lawyer for Carroll, said after Habba spoke. “Donald Trump is not the victim. This is her [Carroll’s] life. Help her take it back.” Jurors in the current trial will decide only how much Trump owes Carroll for harming her reputation, and whether to impose punitive damages to stop him from defaming her again. A damages expert testified that the reputational harm alone was $7.3m to $12.1m. Lawyer Roberta Kaplan added that an “unusually high” punitive damages award might also be needed to deter Trump, a billionaire. “While Donald Trump may not care about the law, while he certainly does not care about truth, he does care about money,” she said. Adblock test (Why?)
What risk is there of India turning into a Hindu nation?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda is under scrutiny after consecration of highly controversial temple. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a controversial Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya. The shrine was built on grounds where a mosque from the Mughal-era stood for centuries, until it was destroyed by Hindu activists in 1992. In elections in 2014, Modi campaigned with a promise to build a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Ram, on the very site of the demolished mosque. With the temple’s consecration coming only months ahead of a national election, opposition leaders accuse him of exploiting religion to win political favour. And as Modi seeks a third consecutive term, concerns are growing that he is building a legacy as a leader able to transform India into a Hindu nationalist state. So, what does this mean for the future of secularism in the country? Presenter: Neave Barker Guests: Shazia Ilmi – National spokesperson for the governing BJP Party Sharat Pradhan – Political analyst and independent journalist Nilanjan Mookuhpadyey – Journalist and author of, The Demolition and The Verdict, a book on the Ram Temple controversy Adblock test (Why?)
US court hears civil case accusing Biden of ‘complicity’ in Gaza ‘genocide’
Plaintiffs want the federal court to urge the US to use its influence to get Israel to end its hostilities in Gaza. A civil case accusing United States President Joe Biden and other senior US officials of being complicit in Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza has begun at a federal court in California. Lawyers representing Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, attended Friday’s proceedings along with the plaintiffs who accuse them of “failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide”. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a US civil liberties group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the human rights organisation, Defence for Children – Palestine; Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group based in the occupied West Bank; and eight Palestinians and US citizens with relatives in Gaza. During Friday’s hearing, the court heard from lawyers, activists and organisers, including doctors in Gaza, about the situation that Palestinians have been facing for nearly four months. I’m inside the US federal court where Palestinian plaintiffs are suing Biden, Blinken & Austin for failure to prevent -& complicity in – Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza It’s unprecedented that the case made it this far. Palestinians w family in Gaza will testify soon @ajplus pic.twitter.com/F5CUNAKGUD — Dena Takruri (@Dena) January 26, 2024 Since the war began on October 7, more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following a Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,100 people there. The CCR complaint was first filed in November last year and said Biden, Blinken and Austin “have not only been failing to uphold the country’s obligation to prevent a genocide but have enabled the conditions for its development by providing unconditional military and diplomatic support [to Israel]”. The CCR is asking the court to “declare that defendants have violated their duty under customary international law, as part of federal common law, to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel from committing genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza”. The group is also calling for the US to use its influence over Israel to end the hostilities against Palestinians in Gaza. ‘Political doctrine’ Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from the court in Oakland on Friday, said the CCR is arguing that by providing weapons to Israel, the US’s support violates the 1948 Genocide Convention. In response, the lawyers for the Biden administration “are focusing on a very narrow legal argument”, he said. “They are saying the court does not have the authority to rule on this. They’re citing what is called the political doctrine, and it has to do with the separation of powers in the United States,” Reynolds said. He explained that lawyers are arguing that the conduct of foreign policy, diplomacy, military activities and the relations between allies are in the “political purview of the executive branch, in other words, the president and the cabinet” and, therefore, not amenable to judicial action by other branches of power that make up the US government. The judge appeared to also question his authority in the case, Reynolds said. “This is really the fundamental question, whether he’s got the authority to rule on this, but the judge did open the proceedings by a litany of just describing the plight of Palestinians in Gaza,” our correspondent said. Earlier on Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take all measures possible to prevent acts of genocide against Gaza and to do more to help civilians. Still, it failed to call for a ceasefire, which South Africa, who presented the case to the ICJ, had called for. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Propaganda, provocation’: Did Ukraine down a plane with its POWs aboard?
Kyiv, Ukraine – Two days after a Russian military cargo plane was shot down near the Ukrainian border, unanswered questions loom as Moscow and Kyiv offer starkly conflicting versions – and insufficient proof. Moscow claimed the Il-76, with 65 Ukrainian war prisoners on board, was about to land in the western city of Belgorod on Wednesday in advance of a swap later that day. It purported that Ukrainian air defence forces in the nearby Kharkiv region shot the plane down with two missiles. Russian lawmaker Andrey Kartapolov claimed three missiles were shot either from a US-made Patriot air defence complex or from a German-made Iris T system. “Ukrainian leaders knew very well about the swap, were informed how they prisoners would be delivered, but the Il-76 plane was shot down by three missiles,” he reportedly said. Moscow alleged that all the Ukrainian prisoners, three Russian guards that escorted them, and six crew members had been killed when the plane crashed near the village of Yablonova. The Ukrainska Pravda news website quoted an unnamed military official saying that the downed plane was “their job”, but the laconic report was soon removed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not say who or what could have downed the plane, but called for an internal investigation and accused Russia of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov retorted by saying that “if [Zelenksyy] means an international investigation into the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime – then one is indeed needed”. Margarita Simonyan, one of the main Kremlin backers who heads the media network Russia Today, posted the alleged list of 65 POWs on her Telegram channel. [Al Jazeera] Kyiv said that it had planned a prisoner exchange that day, It did not confirm the authenticity of the list shared by Simonyan, but said that one person on it had already been swapped earlier this month. Ukraine insisted Russia provided no information about the plane that in fact had been carrying missiles for S-300 air defence systems. Mobile phone videos presumably shot near the crash site showed the burning plane and traces of smoke allegedly left by a Ukrainian missile. Another video of the plane’s alleged debris showed no traces of bodies. Meanwhile, allegations abounded that Russia would kill captured Ukrainian servicemen kept in Russian prisons and place their remnants in the downed plane’s debris to “provide” proof of Kyiv’s war crime. “They have the prisoners on the ground and would have to kill them, mess up their bodies and mix the remnants with the plane’s debris,” a Ukrainian military official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity. A top Ukrainian military expert agreed. “To prove their point, Russians may go very far, including the liquidation of these war prisoners and the dismemberment of their bodies,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces, told Al Jazeera. He said that there is a “high probability” that Ukrainian air defence forces downed the plane, but there was too little evidence to prove it – and to say for sure who and what was on board the plane before it was shot down. But Romanenko, who spent decades in in air defence forces, said that he had personally seen how two missiles from an S-200 or S-300 complex can fit into an Il-76 cargo plane, a seasoned Soviet warhorse that can carry up to 40 tonnes. He said that Moscow staged a “provocation” with the plane and will hardly agree to conduct an independent investigation. The incident reminded him of the July 17, 2014, downing of the Malaysian MH-17 plane with 298 passengers and crew on board by pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas region. The separatists and pro-Russian residents in the area said days after the disaster that the CIA “loaded” hundreds of dead and “pre-frozen” bodies onto the plane to “frame” Moscow. An international investigation based on the analysis of wreckage and intercepted phone calls concluded that the plane was destroyed by the Russia-supplied BUK surface-to-air missile. Investigators said later that there were “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the delivery of the BUK complex to the separatists. ‘Russian propaganda statements’ Another Ukrainian analyst said that after losing the plane this week, Russia decided to start a propaganda “campaign” while hiding evidence of what really had happened. “What we see is Russian propaganda statements, an obvious information-psychological campaign against Ukraine and a lack of proof of the Russian version,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera. Russia did not present the bodies of the 65 POWs, and Ukrainian intelligence official Andiry Yusov said that only five bodies had been delivered to the Belgorod morgue. Moscow also said that only three guards escorted five dozen war prisoners, something that contradicts information about earlier prisoner swaps when each Russian guard escorted three or four Ukrainians. “There are way too many inconsistencies,” Fesenko said. To him and other observers, Russia’s claim were reminiscent of the July 2022 incident in the Olinivka camp for war prisoners near the Moscow-occupied city of Donetsk. Moscow claimed that Ukraine launched a US-made HIMARS missile that hit the camp killing 62 and wounding 130 Ukrainians. Pro-Kremlin media claimed that Kyiv deliberately killed the POWs who could have testified about the war crimes they had allegedly committed during the 2022 siege of Mariupol. But Moscow refused to allow finding missions sent by the United Nations and the International Red Cross to enter the facility. Meanwhile, media analyses based on satellite imagery and post-explosion photos and videos of the prison indicated that Russia’s claims were fabricated and the building was destroyed by a bomb blown up inside the building. However, an international observer offered a sobering explanation of how the latest disaster could have been caused by a dire lack of coordination between Ukrainian military agencies. “One military agency was preparing the usually-secret prisoner swap. Another military agency in a no-less-secret mode moved a Patriot or something