Trump wins New Hampshire primary: Five key takeaways and what’s next
United States Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has solidified his hold on his party’s electorate after his New Hampshire primary win against Nikki Haley, his only other major Republican rival left in the race. Here are the key takeaways from the contest: Trump’s way forward Trump won 54.6 percent of Tuesday’s vote in New Hampshire while Haley won 43.2 percent By late Tuesday in the northeastern US state, 20 of its 22 delegates to the Republican National Convention had been allotted based on the voting: 11 going to Trump and eight to Haley. While opinion polls had tipped Trump as the winner, many analysts had suggested that Haley stood a chance against him in New Hampshire, a state with a high number of unaffiliated and independent voters and a conservative base that is more moderate than in many other states. Haley was even backed by the state’s popular governor, Chris Sununu. However, the indicted former president won fairly easily, putting himself on a glide path to a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination. The biggest threat to his nomination, according to some analysts, comes from the possibility of a conviction and jail time as an outcome of one of the several trials Trump faces. (Al Jazeera) Warning signs for Trump Trump’s victory wasn’t nearly as sweeping as his Iowa win last week, but it was never expected to be in a state with an electorate packed with moderate Republicans and independents. Trump did not carry key groups of swing voters. Haley beat Trump among primary voters who identify as moderates as well as independents, 60 percent of whom voted for Haley, according to exit polls by Edison Research. She also beat Trump among those with college degrees 56 percent to 41 percent. A town-by-town map shows Trump fell to Haley in New Hampshire in many of the same areas where he lost to Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Perhaps the biggest warning sign of all was on abortion. The issue did not hurt Trump in the primary but could be central in a matchup against Biden. Among voters who considered the issue their top priority, Haley won 64 percent to 30 percent even though she is arguably as conservative — if not more — on the issue than Trump. The former US president has bragged about his role in getting the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade, a 1973 high court ruling that had said the US Constitution protected a right to abortion, yet he has in recent weeks also spoken of the need to find a middle ground on abortion restrictions. Haley too has backed the right of states to enforce abortion restrictions but has cautioned that it might be difficult, even for a Republican administration, to push through a nationwide ban. Haley still in the race Despite Haley’s defeat, she has strongly suggested she would stay in the race until at least the primary in her home state of South Carolina on February 24. “New Hampshire is first in the nation. It’s not last in the nation. This race is far from over,” Haley told cheering supporters in Concord, the capital of New Hampshire. Haley’s team pointed out that roughly five in 10 primary voters do not support Trump. Her advisers insist she will stay in the race to serve as a vehicle for those anti-Trump forces who are still hoping that the former president might be forced out of the race by his legal problems. Joe Biden’s win Despite not being on the Democratic primary ballot, President Joe Biden won among the Democrats, beating Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips. More than 30,000 Democrats braved the cold to write in Biden’s name even though it meant nothing in the grand electoral scheme. No delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August will be selected from the primary vote. This is due to a dispute between the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the New Hampshire governor after the DNC announced that New Hampshire would no longer be the first Democratic primary in the nation, leading Biden not to register for the ballot even though the state went ahead with the primary. Reminiscent of the 2020 presidential race, Trump and Biden will likely face off again in 2024 for a rematch that many voters say they do not want. Trump’s speech After Haley announced she will remain in the race, Trump attacked her in his victory speech. He said that when the primary contest reaches her home state of South Carolina, “we’re going to win easily.” Trump’s address was loaded with his trademark warnings about immigration as he continued to lie about winning the 2020 election. At one point swearing on primetime TV, Trump said the US was a “failing country” and claimed that undocumented migrants were coming from psychiatric hospitals and prisons and “killing our country”. “We are going to win this. We have no choice. If we don’t win, I think our country is finished.” What’s next Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, noted that multiple states on the primary calendar will have setups similar to New Hampshire, where independents could influence the vote. South Carolina is holding its Democratic and Republican primaries on different dates. It allows any voter who doesn’t first cast a ballot in the Democratic primary on February 3 to vote in the Republican contest on the 24th. Michigan, which follows, has an open primary, which means voters don’t have to vote in their own party’s primary but may “cross-over” and vote in the other party’s. Then comes Super Tuesday on March 5 when 874 delegates are up for grabs a 15 states and one US territory. Ankney said roughly two-thirds of those are in states with open or semi-open primaries. She named Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas and North Carolina among states where Haley could perform well with independent or moderate voters whom the campaign views as persuadable. If Trump blows Haley out in her home state of South Carolina, where she served two terms
Six killed in Mongolia explosion after gas truck-car collision
More than 600 firefighters were deployed in Ulaanbaatar to extinguish the massive fireball. At least six people, including three firefighters, were killed in an explosion after a truck carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) crashed into a car in Mongolia. The massive ensuing blaze on Wednesday in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, injured 11 people at an intersection near Dunjingarav market, Mongolia’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said. The truck was carrying 60 tonnes of LNG. The fireball engulfed several nearby buildings, including a residential one, while many cars were charred. Pictures shared by emergency services also showed windows blown out at a nearby school after the accident outside a shopping centre. Residents of a nearby apartment block were temporarily relocated, NEMA said, adding that roads around the area were closed as the authorities worked to clean up the site. More than 600 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire in an operation that involved 100 vehicles. Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia [B Altjin/AFP] “Unfortunately, as a result of the accident, three officers of the 63rd Fire Fighting and Rescue Unit of the National Fire Service were killed while performing their duty,” NEMA said in a post on Facebook. Ten of the injured people were taken to a hospital with burns and a child was being treated for poisoning. Richard Buangan, the United States ambassador to Mongolia, said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the tragic accident” and extended his condolences to NEMA staff in a post on X. The European Union’s ambassador to Mongolia, Axelle Nicaise, said she was “shocked and devastated” by the accident. Adblock test (Why?)
Nauru seals diplomatic ties with China after dumping Taiwan
The tiny Pacific island broke ties with Taipei following elections that angered China. China and Nauru have formally agreed to resume diplomatic relations after the tiny Pacific island severed ties with Taiwan last week. A signing ceremony to seal the renewal of relations took place in Beijing on Wednesday. Nauru deepened Taipei’s diplomatic isolation by breaking ties on January 14 following Taiwanese elections that angered China. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Nauru counterpart Lionel Aingimea raised glasses after signing a document formalising the rapprochement. “Although China and Nauru are geographically far apart and separated by vast oceans, the friendship between the two peoples has a long history,” said Wang. Aingimea said Nauru was looking forward to a “new chapter of the relationship of Nauru and China”, which would be built on “strength, built on development strategy”. Poaching allies Nauru broke ties with Taipei earlier this month after independence-leaning candidate William Lai Ching-te, reviled by Beijing, won the Taiwanese presidential election. The tiny island nation swiftly announced that it will no longer recognise Taiwan as a separate country. Beijing insists that the island is part of China’s territory. Located in the South Pacific, Nauru has switched loyalties in the past. In 2002, it recognised China after 22 years of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. In 2005, it switched back to Taipei. The latest switch came as a blow to Taipei. It left Taiwan with just 12 allies that officially recognise the island as a sovereign state, although it enjoys strong unofficial relations with the United States, Japan and other nations. China has been gradually poaching Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, partly to punish the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that advocates maintaining the status quo under which Taiwan has its own government, military and de facto independent status. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never governed the island. Ten countries have switched ties from Taipei to Beijing since the initial election of DPP President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. China says that Taiwan must come under its control at some point and has staged military drills around the island to demonstrate its determination. After Nauru announced it was breaking ties, Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang said China’s one-party Communist government’s intention was to “attack the democracy and freedom that the Taiwanese people are proud of”. William Lai Ching-te (L) and vice presidential candidate Hsiao Bi-khim (R) celebrate amid a shower of confetti during a rally after winning the presidential elections in Taipei, Taiwan, January 13, 2024 [EPA] Diplomatic controversies Beijing last week hit out at the United States after it decried Nauru’s switch. “Taiwan is a reliable, likeminded, and democratic partner,” the US Department of State said in a statement. “The PRC often makes promises in exchange for diplomatic relations that ultimately remain unfulfilled.” China accused the US of “blatantly making irresponsible remarks about a decision made independently by a sovereign state”. “This seriously violates the one China principle … seriously interferes in China’s internal affairs, and seriously violates basic norms of international relations,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning. China also summoned the Philippine ambassador after Manila congratulated the winner of Taiwan’s presidential election. Beijing had warned Manila “not to play with fire”. Adblock test (Why?)
Firefighters among victims of Mongolia fuel tanker explosion
NewsFeed Three firefighters were among several people killed in when a fuel tanker exploded in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, causing a huge fireball and setting nearby buildings alight. Published On 24 Jan 202424 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
UNHCR: 569 Rohingya died at sea in 2023, highest in nine years
People from the mostly Muslim Myanmar minority continue to make perilous journeys across the sea in search of safety. Some 569 Rohingya people died or went missing at sea last year – the most since 2014 – as they embarked on dangerous boat journeys to Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations refugee agency. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said nearly 4,500 Rohingya people took boats across the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2023, fleeing crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh or persecution in their native Myanmar. “Estimates show one Rohingya was reported to have died or gone missing for every eight people attempting the journey in 2023,” UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said in a statement. “This makes the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world.” Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya live in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh after a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military in 2017 that is the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Those who remain in Myanmar, where the military seized power in a coup nearly three years ago, are mainly confined to camps in their native Rakhine State with strict curbs on their movement and daily lives. More than 1,500 Rohingya landed on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on barely seaworthy wooden boats in November and December last year, a period when waters are generally calmer. But while people there have previously welcomed the refugees, this time villagers and the military pushed boats back out to sea and told their passengers they could not come ashore despite the dreadful conditions on board. In one incident, some 200 people were feared to have drowned after their boat sank in the Andaman Sea. Others remained at sea for days longer as they sought a place to land. In December, a mob of students stormed a community hall in Banda Aceh where dozens of Rohingya had been given shelter, demanding that the group be deported. The UNHCR urged governments to take steps to avoid a repeat of such tragedies. “Saving lives and rescuing those in distress at sea is a humanitarian imperative and a longstanding duty under international maritime law,” the statement said, adding that the UNHCR was working to develop a “comprehensive regional response” to the boat journeys. Many of the Rohingya who flee Bangladesh and Myanmar hope to make it to Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country that is currently home to nearly 108,000 Rohingya refugees. Like Indonesia, Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, and those who live in the country are considered undocumented migrants at risk of harassment, detention or deportation. Adblock test (Why?)
Is North Korea’s Kim planning war? Experts have conflicting theories
For North Korea, threats and aggressive rhetoric are nothing new. Even so, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s bellicose statements and policy moves in recent weeks have prompted a flurry of commentary about his intentions – including warnings that he could be preparing for war. While divining Kim’s next steps is impossible, longtime observers of North Korea have been closely watching his behaviour for clues as to what he might have planned. The result has been conflicting – and ultimately speculative – theories about the machinations of power inside one of the world’s most secretive states. Why are people worried about what Kim might do next? Kim has taken a number of provocative steps recently that have attracted attention. Most notably, he announced that peaceful reunification with South Korea was no longer possible – a move some observers see as an unprecedented break with decades of policy advocating the reunion of North and South. In a speech to North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim said the constitution should be amended to define South Korea as the “primary foe and invariable principal enemy” and that three agencies tasked with promoting inter-Korean reconciliation would be closed. At a meeting of the Korean Workers’ Party several weeks earlier, Kim said peaceful reunification was impossible as the neighbours had become “two hostile countries” and war could “break out at any time”. Ruediger Frank, a professor of East Asian economy and society at the University of Vienna, said designating South Korea as a foreign country was “significant” as it theoretically opened the way to either conflict or the normalisation of relations. “An all-out war against a population that was regarded as ‘family’ was harder to defend ideologically, especially if we consider that North Korean nationalism was ethnic, with heavy racial subtones,” Frank told Al Jazeera. “Furthermore, the destruction and, in the worst case, nuclear contamination of land that was to be integrated into a unified Korea made little sense. By defining South Korea as just another country, these two barriers are now gone, at least on paper.” [embedded content] Meanwhile, Pyongyang has carried out numerous weapons tests, including the launches this month of what it described as a solid-fuel missile fitted with a hypersonic warhead and a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone. Some observers have suggested that Kim’s recent moves differ from the usual bluster emanating from Pyongyang. In a commentary published by the United States-based 38 North website before Kim’s speech on reunification, two prominent North Korea analysts warned that the situation on the Korean Peninsula was more dangerous than at any point since the lead-up to the 1950-53 Korean War and that Kim had made a “strategic decision to go to war.” “We do not know when or how Kim plans to pull the trigger, but the danger is already far beyond the routine warnings in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo about Pyongyang’s ‘provocations’,” Robert L Carlin and Siegfried S Hecker wrote in the analysis published on January 11. Carlin and Hecker said Kim may have decided on a “military solution” after concluding that decades of efforts to normalise relations with the US had been in vain. Gabriela Bernal, a PhD candidate at the University of North Korean Studies, argued in a South China Morning Post op-ed last week that the chances of conflict were “suddenly much higher” as Kim no longer viewed South Koreans as compatriots. Others have warned that even if Kim is not preparing for outright war, he could resort to lower-level provocations, such as weapons tests or a limited strike similar to Pyongyang’s shelling of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in 2010, which killed four South Koreans. Victor Cha, George W Bush’s top adviser on Korean affairs, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that North Korea was likely to become more belligerent in the year ahead and could do “many things short of war to rattle the cages”. “If anything, the remarks reinforce the notion that Kim will continue to seek nuclear weapons development and testing as a source of security, survival, and intimidation tool against the region, most proximately South Korea,” Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst of North Korea, told Al Jazeera. “What’s concerning is the current geopolitical climate, which Kim is fully aware of and likely took into consideration when making this recent policy decision. Perhaps, in assessing his decision, he judged that he had less to lose than gain by abandoning unification and going full-speed towards his goals.” Haven’t we been here before? There is considerable disagreement about how much the calculus in Pyongyang has changed – if at all. Brian R Myers, a professor at South Korea’s Dongseo University and author of The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters, has argued that there is little reason to believe that a state with a “multi-generational view” of policy has abandoned reunification. Kim’s apparent dismissal of reunification should instead be seen as an effort to deter the US from considering military action and push South Koreans to support politicians who are more sympathetic to North Korea in upcoming parliamentary elections, Myers wrote on his blog earlier this month. “North Korea’s safety still derives in large part from the Americans’ belief that an attack on its territory would result in the immediate devastation of Seoul. This belief is naturally undermined by the suspicion that North Korea is too nationalist, too intent on unification, to be serious about wiping out millions of fellow Koreans,” Myers wrote in a blog post published on January 3. “It’s therefore common for the regime in times of tension to make stern statements – in word or deed – of its readiness to stop at nothing.” Indeed, Pyongyang has threatened the US, South Korea and Japan on countless occasions over the years, from threatening to carry out “indiscriminate” nuclear strikes to announcing the nullification of the truce that halted fighting in the Korean War. [embedded content] Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s
Undeterred by Gaza war, thousands of Indians turn up for jobs in Israel
Rohtak, India – It’s a frigid January morning and the sun has not risen yet. A shivering Pramod Sharma queues up outside the main entrance of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) campus in Rohtak, a small town in the northern Indian state of Haryana, about 84km (52 miles) from New Delhi. Sharma, 43, is joined by hundreds of other men appearing for a skill test for the role of a shuttering carpenter in Israel – the first time the Israeli construction sector has opened up to Indians, who had previously found work there primarily as caregivers. Workers queue for construction jobs in Israel at a university in Rohtak [Md Meharban/Al Jazeera] After more than 100 days of Israel’s war on Gaza, a labour crisis has emerged in the country, rooted in its decision to block tens of thousands of Palestinians from working in Israel. In October, Israeli construction companies reportedly requested their government in Tel Aviv to allow them to hire up to 100,000 Indian workers to replace Palestinians whose work licenses were suspended after the Gaza offensive began. Over in India, Israel’s desperate search for labour has in turn exposed a gulf between claims of economic success by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which insists that a rising GDP is turning the nation into a global powerhouse, and the lived reality of millions of people. As India heads for national elections, the unemployment rate hovers around a high 8 percent. The Haryana government in December advertised 10,000 positions for construction workers in Israel, including 3,000 posts for carpenters and ironworkers, 2,000 for floor tile fitters, and 2,000 for plasterers. Its advertisement said the salary for the jobs would be around 6,100 shekels, or approximately $1,625, a month – in a state where the per capita income is around $300 a month. The same month, Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, also released a similar advertisement for another 10,000 workers. Reports said the recruitment drive began in state capital, Lucknow, on Tuesday, drawing hundreds of applicants. This is the queue for recruitment drive to send labourers to work in Israel. The registration cum screening began at ITI Lucknow on January 23 is witnessing huge influx of job seekers from UP, Bihar and West Bengal. pic.twitter.com/jLsVogk7QC — Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) January 24, 2024 Earlier this month, recruiters from Israel arrived in India to interview the workers. An official from Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited, one of the state government agencies overseeing the recruitment drive, told Al Jazeera an average of 500-600 applicants were interviewed every day during the weeklong recruitment drive in Rohtak that ended on Sunday. ‘Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ Sharma came to Rohtak with a group of about 40 other workers from Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, more than 1,000km (620 miles) east of Rohtak. He told Al Jazeera he initially took a verbal test by a recruitment agency in Bihar, which interviewed him about construction-related topics. “They told me I had cleared the first round, that an Israeli client will now come to Rohtak for a second round of interviews, and that I should come here,” he said. “We have been sleeping inside the bus in this cold for the last three days and using the washroom at a roadside eatery, waiting for our interview.” Workers from Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, wait to be interviewed [Md Meharban/Al Jazeera] Sharma, who lost his construction job in New Delhi during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, said working in Israel appears to be “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to climb out of poverty. Since then, he has been working under a government employment scheme that pays him less than $3 a day for working for five hours in a field. But he still struggled to provide three square meals to his wife, two children and a dependent sister. “If I am able to get this job in Israel, I will be able to provide for my children and save up enough to get my sister married,” he said. Shiv Prakash, another construction worker from Bihar who returned from Saudi Arabia last year, said the salary offered by Israeli companies is three times what he previously made. “Who would want to miss such an opportunity?” asked the 39-year-old. A worker extends his hand with an orange band displaying his interview number [Md Meharban/Al Jazeera] Vikas Kumar, 32, from Haryana’s Panipat district also appeared for the skill test. He said Israeli officials set up multiple construction-related simulations, with applicants performing a live demo in the final round. Kumar works 12 hours a day as a plasterer and earns $120 (10,000 rupees) a month. He hopes to secure a job in Israel to support his family of six. Israeli citizens, foreign workers flee war Israel’s economy took a major hit on October 7 when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack inside its territory, killing nearly 1,200 people. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 24,620 Palestinians, including 16,000 women and children, in Gaza. The war also forced nearly 500,000 Israelis and more than 17,000 foreign workers to leave the country, according to data from the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority. Furthermore, around 764,000 Israelis, or nearly one-fifth of Israel’s workforce, are currently unemployed due to evacuations, school closures, or army reserve duty call-ups for the war. The Israeli construction sector mainly relies on foreign labour, a majority of whom are Palestinian. However, after the Gaza assault began, work licenses of more than 100,000 Palestinian workers were suspended by the Israeli government. While the ongoing war is being cited as the reason for Israel seeking workers from India, the Israeli government had been working on the plan for well over eight months. In May 2023, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen signed an agreement with his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, allowing 42,000 Indian construction workers to migrate for work. A job advertisement calling ‘only Hindu’ workers to apply for jobs in Israel [Md Meharban/Al Jazeera] But it is not just the labour class that desires to travel
At least 18 killed in wave of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine
At least 18 people have been killed and more than 130 injured after Russia hit Ukraine’s biggest cities with waves of missiles. Speaking in a sombre evening address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched some 40 missiles of varying types. More than 200 sites were hit, including 139 homes, with many deaths in “an ordinary high-rise apartment building”, Zelenskyy said. “Ordinary people lived there.” He promised a strong response. “The Russian war will inevitably be brought back home, back to where this evil came from, where it must be quelled,” he said. The northeastern city of Kharkiv suffered three waves of attacks. There were also attacks on the capital Kyiv and in central Ukraine while the southern region of Kherson was subject to constant shelling. Oleksandra Terekhovich ran into the corridor of her home in Kharkiv when she heard the first explosion. The second blast hit the building next door, shattering her windows and door, she said. “There are no more tears. Our country has been going through what has been happening for two years now. We live with horror inside of us,” she told the AFP news agency. Sappers load an unexploded missile warhead onto a truck after the Russian aerial attack on Kyiv [Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo] The relentless Russian bombardment has kept Ukrainians on edge while the 1,500km (930 mile) front line, where soldiers are engaged in trench and artillery warfare, has barely moved. Analysts say Russia stockpiled missiles at the end of last year in preparation for the latest campaign that a US official said was an attempt to probe the weaknesses in Ukraine’s air defences. Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said more than 100 high-rise apartment blocks had been damaged in the first two attacks on the city, with Russia using S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles. An attack later on Tuesday evening also hit a residential building and other infrastructure, causing more injuries. The city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said people were trapped in the rubble with temperatures at -7C (19.4F). ‘All these buildings were on fire’ In Kyiv, emergency services said the destruction spread across four districts. At one site, rescuers tended to dazed and groaning residents as workers swept away debris and broken glass. “There was a very loud bang, and my mother was already running outside, shouting that we need to leave. We all went to the corridor,” 21-year-old Daniel Boliukh told the Reuters news agency. “Then, we went on the balcony to have a look and saw all these buildings were on fire.” Emergency services said apartment buildings as well as medical and educational institutions were damaged in the capital. Some of the damage occurred next to the United Nations office, resident coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement. Pavlohrad, an industrial city in the eastern Dnipro region, also came under attack. One person was killed and two schools and eight high-rise buildings were damaged, according to the presidential office. Ukrainian officials said the country was targeted with a variety of Russian missiles including S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles [Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters] Ukraine’s General Staff said the country’s armed forces had destroyed 22 of the missiles with nearly 20 shot down over Kyiv, the city’s military administration said. The recent Russian attacks represent “an alarming reversal” of a trend last year, which saw a drop in civilian casualties from Kremlin attacks, according to the UN. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the UN said. The Kremlin denied it targeted civilians in Wednesday’s bombardment. The Russian defence ministry said the raids had struck companies producing missiles, explosives and ammunition. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump boosts hold on GOP nomination with decisive New Hampshire primary win
Former United States President Donald Trump is one step closer to an election rematch against Democrat Joe Biden, as he secured a decisive victory in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Within minutes of the state’s polling stations closing, US media announced Trump would beat his Republican rival Nikki Haley by a substantial margin, dealing a powerful blow to her campaign. The final results have not yet been announced, but projections showed Trump with a double-digit lead with about half of the votes counted. The ex-president’s resounding victory follows a similarly strong showing in the Iowa caucuses last week, cementing his lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of November’s general election. No presidential candidate has ever won the first two contests on the presidential race calendar — as Trump has now done — and not emerged as their party’s nominee. New Hampshire had been framed as Haley’s last best chance to make a dent in Trump’s runaway lead. But despite her loss, the former United Nations envoy said in a speech on Tuesday night that she plans to continue her campaign. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go,” she told a crowd of supporters after the New Hampshire race was called for Trump. “Today we got close to half of the vote. We still have a ways to go, but we keep moving up.” Though she readily acknowledged her defeat in the New Hampshire primary, she also took aim at Trump’s fitness for office and his chances against Biden. “With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election,” she said. “The worst-kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump.” Trump responded with a fiery speech of his own later in the evening, at his campaign headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire. The former president accused Haley of claiming victory even in defeat. “Who the hell was the impostor who went up on the stage before and claimed a victory?” Trump asked. While most of the attention was focused on Tuesday’s Republican primary results, President Biden also secured a resounding victory in his party’s primary race despite not appearing on the ballot. Biden did not participate in the New Hampshire contest due to a scheduling spat between state Democrats and the Democratic National Committee, but his supporters launched a successful campaign to urge voters to write the president’s name on the ballot anyway. He easily bested two distant Democratic challengers, Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, who were on the ballot along with a host of little-known candidates. “Despite President Biden’s absence from the ballot, Granite Staters still turned out in robust numbers to show their support for the great work that the Biden-Harris Administration has done to grow the economy, protect reproductive freedoms, and defend our democracy,” the state’s Democratic Party chair, Raymond Buckley, said in a statement. Biden’s victory also came despite reports of a “deepfake” robocall targeted at New Hampshire’s Democratic residents: Using an imitation of Biden’s voice, the call discouraged voters from participating in Tuesday’s primary. Trump supporters cheer at a rally in Nashua, New Hampshire, on January 23 [David Goldman/AP] In a statement after the results were announced, Biden’s re-election campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez indicated her attention was now focused on Trump, dismissing Haley’s prospects as a Republican contender in the general election. “Tonight’s results confirm Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination, and the election denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” Chavez Rodriguez said. “Donald Trump is headed straight into a general election matchup where he’ll face the only person to have ever beaten him at the ballot box: Joe Biden,” she added. Andrew Smith, a political science professor and president of the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center, said the margin of victory in both the Republican and Democratic primaries was more or less what was expected heading into Tuesday. “Haley will likely have to drop out after this. She may stick around until South Carolina, but she is just playing out the string,” Smith told Al Jazeera in an email. Haley walks past members of the media on January 23, 2024, near a polling place at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire [Steven Senne/AP] New Hampshire has held the first primary in the US since 1920. Experts predicted the state would be markedly more receptive to Haley than other states she will later face. Her next must-win stop will be her home state of South Carolina. Christopher Galdieri, a professor at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College, said Haley made a “smart move” by using her speech “not so much as a concession but as an opportunity to introduce herself to voters across the country”. But Galdieri said it was unclear if that would be enough to keep her campaign going amid Trump’s iron-clad grip on the Republican Party. “Republicans are so wedded to Donald Trump — they have so wrapped up being a good Republican with being a good Trump supporter — that it’s just really hard for them to shake out of that,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
How an algorithm denied food to thousands of poor in India’s Telangana
This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. Hyderabad and New Delhi, India – Bismillah Bee can’t conceive of owning a car. The 67-year-old widow and 12 members of her family live in a cramped three-room house in an urban slum in Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. Since her rickshaw puller husband’s death two years ago of mouth cancer, Bee makes a living by peeling garlic for a local business. But an algorithmic system, which the Telangana government deploys to digitally profile its more than 30 million residents, tagged Bee’s husband as a car owner in 2021, when he was still alive. This deprived her of the subsidised food that the government must provide to the poor under the Indian food security law. Thus, when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging in India and her husband’s cancer had peaked, Bee was running between government authorities to convince them that she did not own a car and that she indeed was poor. The authorities did not trust her – they believed their algorithm. Her fight to get her rightful subsidised food supply reached the Supreme Court of India. Bee’s family is listed as being “below-poverty-line” in India’s census records. The classification allowed her and her husband access to the state’s welfare benefits, including up to 12 kilogrammes of rice at one rupee ($0.012) per kg as against the market price of about 40 rupees ($0.48). India runs one of the world’s largest food security programmes, which promises subsidised grains to about two-thirds of its 1.4 billion population. Historically, government officials verified and approved welfare applicants’ eligibility through field visits and physical verifications of documents. But in 2016, Telangana’s previous government, under the Bharat Rashtra Samithi party, started arming the officials with Samagra Vedika, an algorithmic system that consolidates citizens’ data from several government databases to create comprehensive digital profiles or “360-degree views”. Physical verification was still required, but under the new system, the officials were mandated to check whether the algorithmic system approved the eligibility of the applicant before making their own decision. They could either go with the algorithm’s prediction or provide their reasons and evidence to go against it. Officials were asked to ensure the eligibility of food security card applicants based on algorithmic decisions [Courtesy of The Reporters’ Collective] Initially deployed by the state police to identify criminals, the system is now widely used by the state government to ascertain the eligibility of welfare claimants and to catch welfare fraud. In Bee’s case, however, Samagra Vedika mistook her late husband Syed Ali, the rickshaw puller, for Syed Hyder Ali, a car owner – and the authorities accepted the algorithm’s word. Bee is not the only victim of such digital snafus. From 2014 to 2019, Telangana cancelled more than 1.86 million existing food security cards and rejected 142,086 fresh applications without any notice. The government initially claimed that these were all fraudulent claimants of subsidy and that being able to “weed out” the ineligible beneficiaries had saved it large sums of money. But our investigation reveals that several thousands of these exclusions were done wrongfully, owing to faulty data and bad algorithmic decisions by Samagra Vedika. Once excluded, the onus is on the removed beneficiaries to prove to government agencies that they were entitled to the subsidised food. Even when they did so, officials often favoured the decision of the algorithm. Rise of welfare algorithms Bismillah Bee with the old ‘Below Poverty Line’ card of the family issued in 2006 [Courtesy of The Reporters’ Collective] India spends roughly 13 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) or close to $256bn on providing welfare benefits including subsidised food, fertilisers, cooking gas, crop insurance, housing, and pensions among others. But the welfare schemes have historically been plagued with complaints of “leakages”. In several instances, the government found, either corrupt officials diverted subsidies to non-eligible claimants, or fraudulent claimants misrepresented their identity or eligibility to claim benefits. In the past decade, the federal and several state governments have increasingly relied on technology to plug these leaks. First, to prevent identity fraud, they linked the schemes with Aadhaar, the controversial biometric-based unique identification number provided to every Indian. But Aadhaar doesn’t verify the eligibility of the claimants. And so, over the past few years, several states have adopted new technologies that use algorithms – opaque to the public – to verify this eligibility. Over the past year, Al Jazeera investigated the use and impact of such welfare algorithms in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Accountability Network. The first part of our series reveals how the unfettered use of the opaque and unaccountable Samagra Vedika in Telangana has deprived thousands of poor people of their rightful subsidised food for years, further exacerbated by unhelpful government officials. Samagra Vedika has been criticised in the past for its potential misuse in mass surveillance and risk to citizens’ privacy as it tracks the lives of the state’s 30 million residents. But its efficacy in catching welfare frauds has not been investigated till now. In response to detailed questions sent by Al Jazeera, Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary at the Department of Information Technology in Telangana, said that the earlier system of in-person verification was “based on the discretion of officials, opaque and misused and led to corruption. Samagra Vedika has brought in a transparent and accountable method of identifying beneficiaries which is appreciated by the Citizens.” Opaque and unaccountable Maher Bee, pictured, was also denied access to subsidised food grains because an algorithm tagged her family as owning a car even though they didn’t have one [Courtesy of The Reporters’ Collective] Telangana projects Samagra Vedika as the pioneering technology in automating welfare decisions. Posidex Technologies Private Limited, the company that developed Samagra Vedika, says on its website that “it can save a few hundred crores every year for the state government[s] by identifying the leakages”. Other states have hired it to develop similar platforms. But neither