India’s Tata and Europe’s Airbus sign deal to manufacture helicopters
The agreement was signed during French President Macron’s state visit to the South Asian country. India’s Tata Group and Europe’s Airbus have signed an agreement to manufacture civilian helicopters together. The deal was signed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to India, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Friday. Tata and Airbus are already cooperating on making the C-295 transport aircraft in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. “Industrial partnership [signed] between Tata and [France-based] Airbus Helicopters for production of H125 helicopters with a significant indigenous and localisation component,” Kwatra said at a media briefing. Airbus, in a statement announcing the final assembly line (FAL) for helicopters on Friday, said the machines produced would also be exported to some of India’s neighbouring countries. “The FAL will take 24 months to set up, and deliveries … are expected to commence in 2026,” Airbus said, adding that the location of the facility will be jointly decided by the companies. Further cooperation in the defence sector was also discussed during Macron’s visit, officials quoted by the Reuters news agency said, including the possibility of French engine maker Safran assisting in the manufacture of fighter jet engines in India. France is already India’s second largest arms supplier, and the South Asian nation has relied on its fighter jets for four decades. “Safran is fully willing to do it with a 100 percent transfer of technology in design, development, certification, production and so on,” India Ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf said, adding that discussions will continue. Guest of honour Macron was the guest of honour at India’s annual Republic Day parade in the heart of the capital, New Delhi – a highly choreographed event featuring tank columns, fighter jet fly-pasts, acrobatic motorbike stunts and mounted camel units. This year, it coincided with a two-day diplomatic tour that reflects a growing partnership between India and France after Macron hosted Modi at last year’s Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Macron has pushed for greater French involvement in the Asia-Pacific at a time when the United States and its Western allies are courting India as a military and economic counterweight to China. Before his arrival in India, Macron’s office said India was “a key partner in contributing to international peace and security”. France hopes to build on its military contracts with India, which is already a buyer of French-made Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene-class submarines in multibillion-dollar deals. Adblock test (Why?)
Uganda’s first Oscar-nominated film tells story of Bobi Wine persecution
Kampala, Uganda – This January, when Bobi Wine learned that the film documenting his 2021 Ugandan presidential bid had been nominated for an Academy Award, he was hiding from the police. The swaggering popstar-turned-opposition leader had been on the run for five days, not sleeping or showering. This was after security forces cordoned off his home in response to his calls for protests over the poor road conditions in Uganda as the Non-Aligned Movement’s summit held in the capital Kampala. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was shocked by the nomination. “I screamed,” he said. “If there was any police officer nearby, I would have been arrested immediately.” The nomination of Bobi Wine: The People’s President for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars marks the first time a Ugandan film has earned recognition from the Academy Awards. But while it has led to celebration within Wine’s camp, the film is also a surreal reminder of the many challenges the 41-year-old politician has had to confront in his relatively short political career. Filmed over five years, it begins with singer Wine’s election to the Ugandan parliament in 2017 and shows his meteoric rise through politics, becoming the face of a vibrant youth movement. In impassioned speeches, the newly minted politician decries a constitutional amendment abolishing presidential age limits. But despite his opposition, the bill passed and allowed incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who seized power in 1986, to run for another term. Another scene follows Wine through the Kamwookya slum where he grew up, as he sings of freedom and calls on people to rise. A year later, the documentarians are with as Wine as he recovers from torture and a failed assassination attempt, briefly travelling to the United States for treatment. “Museveni used to be my favourite revolutionary,” he tells filmmakers in a car rolling through downtown Washington, DC. “I would really love to have a frank and honest conversation with him.” A disputed election A desire for change propelled Wine to challenge Museveni for the presidency in what he hoped would be Uganda’s first democratic election, excitedly announcing his candidacy shortly after returning home in July 2019. But the result was a bloody and contested vote as the ruling party clamped down on the opposition. Even before the election, at least 54 people were shot after riots broke out following Wine’s temporary detention in the city of Jinja in November 2020. Other supporters were jailed or attacked on the campaign trail. In the film, the camera zooms in as Wine dodges bullets and teargas, wavering only when the documentarians have to duck for cover themselves. “I was arrested a few times. I was interrogated,” said Moses Bwayo, a Ugandan journalist and one of the film’s directors. In the final days of the campaign, he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet. Still, Bwayo kept recording. “All these threats and everything that was happening really emboldened me to tell this story, and carry the task forward,” he said. As election day approached, he moved into Wine’s home. Afterwards, Bwayo filmed Wine and his wife Barbie Kyagulanyi listening to a radio broadcast announcing Museveni as victor. Their faces are numb with shock and disbelief. Wine called for more protests over the election results, but large-scale demonstrations never materialised following a brutal campaign and disappointing result. Deciding he was no longer safe in Uganda, Bwayo captured a final scene of Bobi Wine once again singing songs of freedom in Kamwookya. Then, Bwayo escaped Uganda with his wife. “We fled like we were going on a small trip,” he said. “We landed in the United States, and we applied for political asylum.” They are still awaiting a decision. Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine stands near a mural of an associate killed during police raids in December 2020, in Kampala, Uganda [Sophie Neiman/Al Jazeera] Documenting repression This week, Wine told Al Jazeera that the film is a documentation of all he suffered and the challenges still facing his homeland. “We’ve been able to present the reality in Uganda, uncensored and unedited, to the international community,” the opposition leader said. “It showcases the brutality of the Museveni regime, but also the resilience of the Ugandan people in pushing back against impunity, against injustice,” added David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of Wine’s National Unity Platform political party. The threat of harsh repression still hangs over the Ugandan population, analysts assert. But Museveni, who has now been in power for some 38 years, is becoming increasingly paranoid as another election looms on the horizon. “[Violence] may have succeeded in the short run, in terms of preventing … a wide protest movement from emerging after the polls,” Michael Mutyaba, a Ugandan academic at SOAS University of London, said of the 2021 vote. “But if you look at it in the long term, I don’t think it succeeded.” “What it did was expose the regime more to international criticism and reveal things that it had maybe successfully concealed for a long time,” Mutyaba told Al Jazeera. [embedded content] ‘Our story’ Meanwhile, Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, the film’s other director, trimmed 4,000 hours of footage to just a few hours of runtime The documentary debuted at the 79th Venice Film Festival in 2022. It was then acquired by National Geographic, which supported a theatrical release last year. The Oscar nomination followed this year. The filmmakers hope their work will bring renewed attention to Uganda and its citizens. “We’re fooling ourselves in the West, and we’re being very disrespectful to the people of Uganda, to pretend that they’re living in a democracy, that those elections are anything other than a sham,” said Sharp, who is also one of the documentary’s producers. For Wine, the film is a lifeline. “The more our story is out there, the more we are able to live and see the sun the following day,” he told Al Jazeera. On Friday, which also marks the anniversary of Museveni taking power, Wine and his followers attempted to mount
‘Illegal and invalid’: Kenya court halts deployment of police to Haiti
The court ruling comes despite the UN Security Council giving the go-ahead for the Kenya-led mission in Haiti. A Kenyan court on Friday ruled against the government’s plan to deploy police to Haiti to lead a UN-backed multinational mission aimed at restoring peace and security in the Caribbean nation struggling with gang violence. On Friday, judge Enock Chacha Mwita ruled that “any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police officers to Haiti… contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid”. “An order is hereby issued prohibiting deployment of police forces to Haiti or any other country,” he said. The ruling comes as the Haitian government calls for the urgent deployment of a multinational force to help its overwhelmed police battle rampant violence. Haiti, the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years, with armed gangs taking over parts of the country and unleashing brutal violence, with the economy and public health system in tatters. Gang-related violence has spiked since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise almost three years ago. Between January and September 2023 alone, Haiti recorded 3,000 homicides and more than 1,500 kidnappings for ransom according to the UN. That has led to protests as citizens call for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry over failure to tackle the insecurity. In October, the United Nations Security Council gave the go-ahead for the Kenya-led mission. President William Ruto had described the Kenyan undertaking as a “mission for humanity” in a nation ravaged by colonialism. But the planned deployment of 1,000 officers has faced criticism at home, with opposition politician Ekuru Aukot filing the petition at the Nairobi High Court last year. On Thursday, Haiti’s foreign minister pleaded for the deployment to be speeded up, telling the UN Security Council that gang violence in the country was as barbaric as the horrors experienced in war zones. “The Haitian people cannot take any more. I hope this time is the last time I will speak before the deployment of a multinational force to support our security forces,” Jean Victor Geneus told the council. The Haitian and Kenyan governments are yet to react to the ruling, as of time of publication. Adblock test (Why?)
India celebrates Republic Day showcasing military might, cultural heritage
Thousands of people lined a ceremonial boulevard in the heart of India’s capital to watch a colourful parade showcasing the country’s military power and cultural heritage to mark its 75th Republic Day. French President Emmanuel Macron attended the parade on Friday as the chief guest at the celebration of the adoption of the country’s Constitution on January 26, 1950, following India’s independence from British colonial rule. Indian President Draupadi Murmu escorted Macron in a ceremonial British-era horse-drawn carriage from the nearby president’s palace to the viewing stand. It was the first time the carriage has been used at the parade since it was abandoned by the government 40 years ago in favour of a car. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wearing a saffron-and-yellow turban, greeted Macron at the viewing stand. India traditionally invites foreign leaders to witness the spectacle. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the guest of honour last year, former French President Francois Hollande in 2016 and former US President Barack Obama in 2015. Ten Southeast Asian leaders watched the parade in 2018. Tanks, missile systems, infantry combat vehicles and medium-range surface-to-air missile systems were displayed, with hundreds of police and military personnel marching with them. Stunt performers on motorbikes, including more than 250 women, also participated. Macron accepted India’s invitation at short notice after US President Joe Biden couldn’t make it, reportedly because of his State of the Union address and re-election bid. “A great honour for France. Thank you, India,” Macron said on X. Adblock test (Why?)
In Hong Kong, decades of wealth gains evaporate on China’s watch
Taipei, Taiwan – Like many Hong Kongers, accountant Edelweiss Lam spent the last week watching the city’s stock market wipe out 14 months of gains as the Hang Seng Index fell below the psychological threshold of 15,000 points. It was not the first time Lam, who has been investing on and off in Hong Kong stocks since the late 1990s, had seen it happen. The index dropped below 15,000 points during SARS in 2003, the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, and zero-COVID lockdowns in 2022. But while ebbs and flows are part of the investment game, Lam said watching the key measure of Hong Kong’s stock market tumble “back to square one” felt different this time. “It seems I cannot see the future,” Lam told Al Jazeera by phone from Hong Kong. The reason, Lam said, is China. As Beijing increases its control over all aspects of life in Hong Kong, including the economy, and gloom persists about the state of China’s post-pandemic recovery, investors have been voting with their money and looking to other markets. More than a quarter-century after Hong Kong’s return to China, the Hang Seng is more or less back to where it was during its final days as a British colony. On Friday, the index hovered below 16,100 points – lower than it was on July 1, 1997, the day of the handover. Over the same period, stocks in the United States, Japan and other popular markets have flourished. Investors in the SP500, the most popular measure of the performance of the US market, have seen their money grow nearly 10-fold since 1997. Hong Kong’s stock market has seen big losses over the last year [Al Jazeera] “If there’s any new announcement from the Chinese government about regulations or the control of some industry, then the market can fluctuate very seriously,” said Lam, whose investment portfolio includes blue chip stocks, fixed-term deposits and property. “The relationship between Hong Kong and China is closer and closer, the control is tighter, so we cannot ignore what they are doing in China.” Hong Kong has had a front-row seat to China’s crackdowns in recent years, from the imposition of a draconian national security law on the city to tightening regulation of corporate giants such as Alibaba and Tencent and raids on foreign companies on the Chinese mainland. Many of China’s biggest companies are dual-listed in Hong Kong and China and make up a large portion of the Hang Seng Index along with Chinese banks and other tech companies. At the same time, China’s economy has struggled to recover from the impact of COVID-19 and Beijing’s harsh pandemic restrictions, amid nagging structural issues including a shrinking population, high local government debt, and a slow-moving real estate crisis. Gross domestic product officially grew 5.2 percent in 2023 – the weakest performance in decades, excluding the pandemic. Despite Beijing’s insistence that China is open for business, foreign investors’ confidence is waning. Last year, China recorded the first drop in foreign direct investment in 12 years, with inflows declining 8 percent to $157.1bn. “When we look at broader business sentiment both for the financial sector and for the general economy – first and foremost, economic fundamentals both in Hong Kong and in China are not doing very well at the moment,” Chim Lee, a China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera. Lee said China hitting its economic growth target last year was “not particularly impressive” as Beijing set a relatively weak target. Analysts estimate that some $6 trillion – the equivalent of over one-quarter of the output of the US economy – has been wiped off stock markets in China and Hong Kong since early 2021. China’s CSI 300 Index, which measures the top 300 companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, has fallen more than 40 percent over the past three years, while the Hang Seng has fallen 50 percent over the same period, according to Bloomberg data. Investors are instead flocking to other markets like Japan and the US where analysts predict a bullish 2024. The Nikkei 255 Index, an index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s top companies, posted highs not seen in over 30 years last week, while the S&P 500 in New York closed at an all-time high for the sixth day in a row on Thursday. Investor confidence in Hong Kong has taken a hit amid China’s crackdowns [File: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images] “[Hong Kong’s] economy may now be no more than a large rounding error on China’s GDP but it still plays an important role in finance and capital market transactions for and with the Mainland. So it’s self-evident that bearish sentiment and beaten up stock price valuations in China proper wash over into [Hong Kong] too,” George Magnus, an associate at Oxford University’s China Centre and Research Associate at SOAS, London, told Al Jazeera. Hong Kong’s declining rights and freedoms – which are supposed to be guaranteed until 2047 under an agreement known as “one country, two systems” – have added fuel to the crisis of confidence. Since the passage of the national security law in 2020, the city’s political opposition and independent media have been all but wiped out and hundreds of people have been arrested for non-violent offences related to activism and speech. Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers have left the city amid Beijing’s tightening control along with their money. Lam said she decided last year to move her pension fund overseas and she plans to sell her remaining stock investments in Hong Kong at a loss. “They say they want to do something, but we don’t see real action,” Lam said of the government’s policy on the economy. In October, Hong Kong slashed stamp duty on property sales and stock transfers, but consumption and tourism have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. The US stock market has seen big gains as Hong Kong’s bourse has stagnated [Al Jazeera] Analysts say that reviving both Hong Kong and China’s
Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 112
EXPLAINER An Israeli attack killed 20 waiting on aid in Gaza, heavy fighting is under way at the enclave’s hospitals. Here’s how things stand on Friday, January 26, 2024: Latest updates The International Court of Justice will deliver its response to South Africa’s request for emergency measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza from “irreparable harm” today at 1pm local time in The Hague (12:00 GMT) An Israeli overnight air attack on a house in the al-Hassayna neighbourhood of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has killed at least 11 people, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. The United Nations trade body sounded an alarm on Thursday that global trade is being disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea, the war in Ukraine and low water levels in the Panama Canal. Lawmakers in Georgia, United States, passed a bill on Thursday that would define anti-Semitism in state law, The Associated Press news agency reported. The proposal seeks to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that would help prosecutors identify hate crimes and illegal discrimination targeting Jewish people. Human impact and fighting Heavy fighting is under way in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa, Nasser, al-Amal and al-Khair hospitals in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday. On Thursday, a large group of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian assistance at a roundabout in Gaza City were fired on by Israeli forces. At least 20 were killed and 150 injured, many seriously, OCHA reported. At least 200 people were killed and 370 injured in Gaza in a 24-hour period between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health. A least 13 people were killed and 56 injured after Israel struck a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) training centre on Wednesday, the agency confirmed on Thursday. Israel said it was conducting an investigation into the incident, but has “currently ruled out” that Israeli aircraft or artillery were responsible. Diplomacy The heads of the intelligence services of Israel, Egypt and the US, along with Qatar’s prime minister, are negotiating a deal between Israel and Hamas for a pause in fighting and the release of captives, Al Jazeera correspondents in Jerusalem reported early on Thursday. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, via phone call on Thursday. Austin reiterated US support for Israel’s “right to defend itself” and the US’s endeavours to ensure aid is made accessible to Gaza, along with resolving tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, according to a US Department of Defense statement. On Thursday, The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on US President Joe Biden to denounce the Israeli attack on people lining up to receive aid in Gaza City, which killed at least 20. Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Lebanon on Thursday that Israel’s efforts to create a buffer zone along its border with Gaza constitute a “crime” and act of “blatant aggression” against the Palestinian people. Adblock test (Why?)
Has Israel realised that it can’t ‘eradicate’ Hamas?
In early January, Israel announced that it was withdrawing some of its forces from northern Gaza after “dismantling” Hamas’s military activities in the region. Three months had passed since the start of its war on Gaza, more than 20,000 Palestinians had been killed and Israel had increasingly turned its attention to central and southern Gaza, here it has surrounded and targeted the city of Khan Younis in particular. But on January 16, Hamas launched 25 rockets from the northern Gaza strip at the southern Israeli city of Netivot. While no civilians were killed, the attack punched holes in the Israeli claim that it was on its way to destroying Hamas, even after more than 100 days of war. Since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that it wants to “eradicate” the Palestinian armed group. At the time, many analysts warned that destroying the group was an unrealistic aim that would only compound the costs imposed on Gaza’s civilian population. Now, the fresh signs of Hamas regaining the ability to target Israel from northern Gaza further bolster those predictions. “I think [the rocket attacks] sends a message to Israelis at large that their goal at eradicating Hamas is failing,” said Omar H Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council on Global Affairs think tank. “If you can still fire rockets and if you can still attack troops – in the north of all places where Israel has laid siege for 112 days – then [the war aim of destroying Hamas] is failing,” he told Al Jazeera. Eliminating the tunnels? Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas’s vast tunnel network under Gaza. But so far, Israel has failed to substantially impede the movement of Hamas fighters underground, according to Oren Ziv, an Israeli commentator and a journalist with +972 magazine, a publication based in Tel Aviv. “I would estimate that Israel doesn’t have the full picture of where the tunnels connect from and how. And the fact we still see attacks from northern Gaza means that the tunnel system is still operating,” Ziv told Al Jazeera. According to Israeli military officials, as well as previous statements by Palestinians in Gaza and official statements by Hamas, the tunnels in the Gaza Strip are hundreds of kilometres long. For decades, they have been used to smuggle all sorts of civilian supplies, as well as weapons from Egypt. Hiding the captives Hamas has used the tunnels for other means, including to ambush Israeli troops in Gaza and hide many of the 240 captives its fighters captured on October 7. Many of the captives were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a short pause in fighting brokered in November. Israel believes that about 100 captives remain inside the tunnels and estimates that 25 have been killed in captivity – possibly as a result of its own heavy and indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Despite the danger that Israel’s war tactics pose to the captives, the Israeli military has tried to blow up a number of tunnels in Gaza and flood some with water from the Mediterranean. But released captives fear that this strategy could drown the Israelis still down there, according to conversations between them and Netanyahu, which were leaked to the press. “The Israeli government continues to oversell what it can accomplish through military means. It said that it can release Israeli hostages through military means, but with the exception of one hostage that has not proven to be the case,” said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on Israel-Palestine relations with the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Military action has actually killed hostages,” he told Al Jazeera. Human cost Despite the ordeal captives face, Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of Israel’s loosely defined and unrealistic war aims, said Lovatt. He said that Israel claims to have killed 9,000 Hamas fighters out of a total of more than 25,000 Palestinians killed in the enclave, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. However, 70 percent of the victims are believed to be women and children. “My feeling is that Israel is treating every dead male [in Gaza] as Hamas,” Lovatt told Al Jazeera. Lovatt said he doubted the Israeli figure of 9,000 Hamas fighters killed so far. But “even if we take that number as accurate”, he said, that still leaves the vast majority of the armed group’s personnel alive and ready to fight. According to the CIA, Hamas has about 35,000 fighters in Gaza alone, Lovatt pointed out. “That shows there are still a lot of fighters in Gaza that will outlast Israel’s military operations.” While analysts agreed that Hamas won’t be “eradicated”, they acknowledged that the group’s military capabilities have been downgraded and risk being further reduced. But they stressed that Israel’s war tactics will ultimately embolden – not destroy – Hamas. “Israel is capable of reducing Hamas’ military capacity, but its collective punishment on Gaza’s civilian population is feeding the generational drivers of resistance in every way possible,” Rahman, from the Middle East Council for Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera. “And when it comes to capacity, that is one thing that can always be rebuilt.” Adblock test (Why?)
Pacific island Tuvalu votes as ties with Taiwan in spotlight
Poll in nation threatened by climate change closely watched as China and the United State vie for influence in region. The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has voted in a national election that is being closely watched by China, Taiwan, the United States and its ally Australia, amid a tussle for influence in the region. There are only a little over 6,000 registered voters in the country of about 11,200 people. Polls have closed and the results from Friday’s election are expected later in the day. Tuvalu, where the population is spread across nine islands, has campaigned at international conferences for greater action to help low-lying nations address climate change as scientists have warned that its capital, Funafuti, risks being inundated by tides by 2050. Most of Tuvalu is forecast to be flooded by high tides by 2100, says the United Nations Development Programme, which is working with Tuvalu to bolster its coastline. A contest for influence in the Pacific between China and the US has seen Tuvalu courted, with Washington recently pledging to connect its remote population by undersea cable to global telecommunications for the first time. Tuvalu is one of three remaining Pacific allies of Taiwan after Nauru severed ties with Taipei this month and resumed diplomatic relations with China, which pledged more development support. Fight for influence Taiwan on Thursday said China was trying to influence the Tuvalu election and “seize our diplomatic allies”. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and not entitled to diplomatic ties. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claim. Contenders for Tuvalu’s leadership have all advocated for climate change action on the world stage, but differ in approaches to ties with Taiwan, a diplomatic ally since 1979. Tuvalu’s Finance Minister Seve Paeniu, who has secured a seat in the new parliament as one of only two candidates for the Nukulaelae island electorate, told the Reuters news agency that he expects Taiwan ties to be reviewed after the election. The new government should decide whether Taiwan or China can best respond to Tuvalu’s development needs, he said. Prime Minister Kausea Natano has told Taiwan he continues to support relations. Enele Sopoaga, overthrown as prime minister by Natano at the 2019 election, and former Foreign Minister Simon Kofe have previously pledged support for Taiwan. There are no political parties, and two lawmakers will be chosen by voters in each of eight island electorates. After the votes are counted, government boats collect the new lawmakers from the islands and bring them to Funafuti, a journey that can take up to 27 hours. The prime minister is chosen by the newly elected lawmakers. Natano and Kofe are running for the Funafuti seat. Kofe attracted global headlines in 2021 when he delivered a speech to the United Nations climate change summit standing knee-deep in water to highlight the plight of the low-lying nation. Tuvalu signed a security and migration agreement with Australia in November that allows Canberra to vet security ties. Sopoaga has rejected the Australia deal, while Kofe said some aspects should be revised. Adblock test (Why?)
Mali’s military rulers scrap peace deal with separatist rebels
Military leaders say Algiers Accord cancelled with ‘immediate effect’ due to signatories not upholding commitments. Mali’s military rulers have announced the cancellation of a 2015 peace deal with separatist rebels after months of fighting in the West African nation. Military authorities said late on Thursday that the so-called Algiers Accord had ended with “immediate effect” due to other signatories not keeping their commitments and hostility by chief mediator Algeria. In a speech broadcast on state television, the military government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said there had been an “increasing number of unfriendly acts, instances of hostility and interference in Mali’s internal affairs” by Algiers. Algeria had led efforts to restore peace to Mali after the signing of the so-called Algiers Accord between Bamako and armed groups predominantly made up of the semi-nomadic Tuareg ethnic group. Last month, Mali summoned the Algerian ambassador over “interference” and “unfriendly acts” related to claims the envoy held talks with Tuareg separatists without involving Bamako. The rebel alliance group CMA said it was not surprised by the decision. “We have been expecting it since they brought in Wagner, chased out MINUSMA [the UN peacekeeping group] and started hostilities by attacking our positions on the ground,” CMA spokesperson Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. “We knew that the aim was to terminate the agreement.” The Algiers Accord began to fray in August as fighting between separatists and government troops escalated amid the gradual winding down of a 10-year UN peace mission in the country. In June, Mali’s military government, which seized power in 2020, demanded the departure of the UN mission despite suffering frequent attacks by armed groups in the Sahel region. Since the coup, Mali’s military leaders have severed ties with former colonial power France, while seeking closer relations with Russia and the private army Wagner Group. Mali has been racked by violence since 2012 when Islamist armed groups seized on a Tuareg uprising driven by accusations of government neglect and demands for greater autonomy. Adblock test (Why?)
Families of Israeli captives deny leaking Netanyahu Qatar tape
In leaked audio, Israeli PM is heard criticising Doha in its role in negotiating the release of captives held by Hamas. Families of Israelis held captive in Gaza have said denied they were behind the leak of audio in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised Qatar’s role in talks with Hamas over the release of the captives. “All conversations that take place in meetings with the Prime Minister are recorded by his office and his associates present at the meeting,” Haim Rubinstein, a spokesperson for the families, said on Thursday in a statement cited on Israeli media. “The families participating in the meeting had their phones taken at the entrance,” he said, adding that the leak was a “grave issue that indicates a loss of control”. His comment came a day after the prime minister’s office blamed one of the family members for the leak. Israeli media outlet Walla on Thurdsay reported that the prime minister’s office doubled down on blaming the families, saying that it has evidence in the form of a text message from one of their members present at the meeting. “The girl next to me had a phone, it’s a shame I didn’t tip her off,” the message reads, according to Walla. In the audio that triggered the controversy, which was aired on Tuesday by Israeli Channel 12, Netanyahu is heard saying that Qatar’s involvement in the release of captives was “problematic”. He also blamed Qatar for financing Hamas and said he was upset at a decision by the United States to extend the presence of a military base in the Gulf state. Majed Al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, responded to the remarks saying he was “appalled”. About 240 people were taken captive by Hamas fighters as they launched an unprecedented attack into southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics. Israel responded with a devastating bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, which has displaced more than 80 percent of the population and reduced much of the territory to rubble. Palestinian officials say at least 25,700 people have been killed and more than 63,000 wounded in the Israeli assault. Following lengthy negotiations led by Qatar and the US, more than 100 of those captured were freed in late November in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as Israel and Hamas observed a weeklong truce. The Gulf state remains involved in talks aimed at securing a new deal for the release of roughly 130 captives still being held by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. Al-Ansari said Netanyahu’s leaked comments were detrimental to those efforts. “If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli prime minister would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritising saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)