Taiwan spots Chinese warships, aircraft near island ahead of elections
Increased activity along Taiwan Strait comes ahead of January 13 polls. Taiwan has reported spotting Chinese warships around the island and aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait’s sensitive median line weeks before elections in the democratically governed nation. On Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said in a post on X that since 1:30pm (05:30 GMT) it had detected J-10, J-11 and J-16 fighters as well as early warning Chinese aircraft operating in the airspace to the north, middle and southwest of Taiwan. Ten aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait, or areas close by, working with Chinese warships to carry out “joint combat readiness patrols”, the ministry said, adding that its armed forces have taken steps to respond. From 1330(UTC+8) today, we have detected PLA aircraft (including J-10, J-11, J-16, Y-8, KJ-500, etc.), 10 of which crossed the median line and entered our North, Central, SW ADIZ. In addition, the aircraft also conducted joint combat patrol with PLAN vessels. — 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) December 23, 2023 The uptick in Chinese military activity in the Taiwan Strait comes just weeks before Taipei heads to the polls. Earlier this month, the defence ministry also spotted warships and a balloon near the island at night. While Beijing has been sending warplanes and vessels around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, nighttime activity by Chinese aircraft and the appearance of a balloon are rare. Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for years of regular Chinese military patrols and drills near the island. Beijing has not yet commented on the recent military activities near Taiwan. But it has previously described them as aimed at preventing “collusion” between Taiwan separatists and the United States, and protecting China’s territorial integrity. Tensions before elections Ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls on January 13, analysts say China is running a multi-pronged campaign to try to keep the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from re-election. Beijing wants the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party to win as it seeks friendlier relations with China. Polls, however, show Vice President Lai Ching-te and running mate Hsiao Bi-khim from the DPP in the lead. China has refused to engage in dialogue with the DPP, which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims is “separatist”. The DPP rejects such accusations and says it is up to the people of Taiwan to choose their leaders and their future. Beijing has also targeted individuals and public figures in Taiwan through online campaigns and tax probes, seeking to influence how they vote. Ai-Men Lau, a research analyst at the Taiwan-based organisation, Doublethink Lab, which tracks malign Chinese influence operations and disinformation campaigns as well as their impact, told Al Jazeera that while it can be difficult to trace much of the content directly to China, there are often signs pointing in that direction. “We are seeing the PRC increasingly using Taiwanese voices such as journalists, local proxies and social media influencers to get their message across,” she added, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. Meanwhile, government authorities in Taiwan have put the region on high alert for Chinese activities, military and political, ahead of the elections. While campaigning has kicked into high gear, how the next government handles relations with China remains a major point of contention. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Our lives are still fractured’: Northern Ireland’s ‘peace babies’
Belfast, Northern Ireland — The political leaders caught up in the 30-year Troubles of Northern Ireland were so consumed with fighting over “land, soil, territory”, that they completely neglected the environmental welfare of that very same land, soil and territory, say young people born since the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) 25 years ago. This is just one of the dismal legacies of the Troubles that young people born at about the time of the 1998 GFA – also known as “peace babies” – say they have been left to clean up. At the One Young World 2023 Summit for young people held in October, marine life researcher Heidi McIlvenny said much of Northern Ireland’s most precious natural resources – including its marine and freshwater ecosystems that sustain life itself – have been badly neglected and mismanaged. “Twelve percent of all species on this island are threatened with extinction,” she said. The Good Friday Agreement, which brought more than three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland to an end, marked its 25th anniversary in April this year. But the occasion was overshadowed by a sixth shutdown of the region’s devolved government which was created by the GFA, but which has been lying dormant for more than 40 percent of the time since 1998 due to disagreements between leading political parties. Political leaders were so consumed with fighting over ‘land, soil, territory’, they neglected the welfare of that land, said Heidi McIlvenny at the One Young World 2023 summit, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement which brought the Troubles to an end [Courtesy of One Young World 2023 Belfast Summit] ‘Holding us to ransom’ Jacinta Hamley, 27, a climate campaigner who ran as a candidate for the Green Party in this year’s local elections, told Al Jazeera that much of Northern Ireland’s political “stagnation” derives from power-sharing arrangements that allow the biggest Nationalist and Unionist parties to hold devolved government to “ransom”. “Whenever I look at the last 25 years in politics here, what I think we’ve seen is a failing system,” she said. The power-sharing institutions created under the 1998 peace accord require governing agreements between the biggest parties of Nationalists (those who want a united Ireland) and Unionists (those who want to remain part of the UK). However, the region’s devolved Assembly and decision-making Executive at the Stormont Estate collapsed under the largest Unionist formation, the Democratic Unionist Party, last year due to a prolonged row over post-Brexit customs arrangements in the Irish Sea. While these institutions are not functioning, governance is passed to civil servants. This severely limits the actions of the government and often raises questions about overreach by unelected officials. Talks to restore devolved government stalled once again this week, with an Executive now unlikely to be formed until 2024 at the earliest. A religious mural is pictured among houses in the Nationalist Ardoyne area of north Belfast, one of Northern Ireland’s communities rocked during the Troubles and which remains poor [Paul Faith/AFP] Falling between the cracks In the meantime, vulnerable groups are slipping between the cracks of this political dysfunction, youth leaders say. Those who live in areas which bore the brunt of the Troubles – often those which were divided by huge concrete barriers – report seeing higher levels of deprivation than they did during the bitter 30-year conflict that killed more than 3,500 people. Members of communities like the Nationalist Ardoyne enclave and the Unionist Woodvale area, both in north Belfast, say deprivation levels are worse now than they were 25 years ago. At the time of the agreement, such areas were promised a “peace dividend” in the form of economic prosperity which many feel has failed to materialise. “The fact remains that the effects of the Troubles continue to fracture lives,” University of Ulster student Caitlin Ball told delegates on the final day of the summit. “Communities across the North continue to operate under the grip of paramilitary control. And trauma – whether it be from our own lived experience or intergenerational trauma that has filtered down from the conflict – remains rife and unresolved.” Loyalist supporters attempt to march past Nationalist Ardoyne shops in north Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 13, 2015, but are prevented by police [Paul Faith/AFP] Ball also called for Northern Ireland to face down growing xenophobic sentiment in an era of diversifying social shifts. Around 4 percent of people in Northern Ireland are now from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background, according to the 2021 census, while it is thought to be home to about 150,000 migrants. This is double the 2011 figure of 1.8 percent (32,400 people) and more than four times the 2001 figure of 0.8 percent (14,300). Ball highlighted “a rise in racially motivated attacks and intimidation”, with race hate crimes in some parts of Belfast having doubled in the past five years. She argued that anger towards these groups was “misdirected” and that it should instead be aimed at political leaders and institutions that she said had failed many within Northern Ireland. There has been a tendency to overlook the experiences of those left behind during 25 years of relative peace, she said. Ball added it was essential to address the needs of “those who are homeless, who suffer from substance abuse, those who can’t hold down a job because of poor mental health issues, the Irish Traveller community, asylum seekers. “We can’t stand here and talk about peace and reconciliation if that same peace can’t now be extended to the growing communities of people that now call Ireland home.” A mental health epidemic A number of young people, including some who gave speeches at the summit’s “What Next for Northern Ireland?” panel event, highlighted the region’s growing mental health epidemic. In the 20 years immediately following the Good Friday Agreement, suicides in the region outstripped the number of lives lost during the 30 years of the Troubles by nearly 1,000, according to figures presented by a coalition of healthcare professionals
Israel says Gaza war is like WWII. Experts say it’s ‘justifying brutality’
Israel’s campaign of relentless bombardment against the Gaza Strip had been raging for three weeks when the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked to address the heavy civilian death toll in the Palestinian enclave. Netanyahu, who had earlier evoked the 9/11 attacks on New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon in 2001 to describe the deadly Hamas assault on southern Israel on October 7, looked to the second world war for validation, on this occasion. The hawkish Israeli premier referred to the time in 1945 – he mistakenly mentioned 1944 – when a British air raid, which had been targeting a Gestapo site, erroneously hit a school in Copenhagen killing 86 children. “That is not a war crime,” he told reporters. “That is not something you blame Britain for doing. That was a legitimate act of war with tragic consequences that accompany such legitimate actions.” Since then, the Allied campaign against Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II has become something of an historical precedent for an Israeli state seeking to justify the large-scale killings of the people of Gaza as it ostensibly pursues Hamas fighters. Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Tzipi Hotovely, has compared Israel’s campaign with the devastating Allied bombing of Dresden, which, conducted over three nights in 1945, was intended to force the Nazis into surrender, and led to the deaths of some 25,000-35,000 Germans. Non-state affiliated advocates of Israel have also drawn similar comparisons. Yet, these attempts erase the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948, the destruction of 500 towns and villages at the time, and the subsequent illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. They also ignore how World War II led to a new international law regime, and serve to dehumanise Palestinians while justifying Israel’s decades-long violence and discrimination — described by many international rights groups as akin to apartheid — against Palestinians, say historians and analysts. Israeli historian and socialist activist Ilan Pappé told Al Jazeera that these efforts by Israel are aimed “as a justification for its brutal policies towards” Palestinians and that they represent an old playbook used by the country. He cited the instance when former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin compared the then-leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, to Hitler, and war-torn Beirut to Berlin, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. “I feel as a prime minister empowered to instruct a valiant army facing ‘Berlin’ where, amongst innocent civilians, Hitler and his henchmen hide in a bunker deep beneath the surface,” Begin said in a telegram to then-United States President Ronald Reagan in early August 1982. But Begin’s words prompted criticism from many in his own country, with Israeli novelist Amos Oz writing that “the urge to revive Hitler, only to kill him again and again, is the result of pain that poets can permit themselves to use, but not statesmen”. Reaching into the past to legitimise modern-day conflicts can also be ahistorical. Scott Lucas, a specialist in US and British foreign policy at the University of Birmingham, said the relentless use of World War II by Israel and its supporters to mitigate criticism of its bloody war on Gaza suggests that Israel wants to “wish away the post-1945 pledge – by lawyers, NGOs, activists and politicians – to say we need a better system so civilians do not suffer needlessly in war zones”. He added that Israel’s decision to opt out of membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its attempts to “actively … undermine [the authority] of the United Nations”, founded after the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, make its claims to be part of an Allied-like struggle disingenuous. Israel has repeatedly accused the UN’s agencies and its officials, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, of bias because they have called for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israeli bombs have killed more UN staff members in Gaza since October 7 than in any conflict in the history of the organisation. “Civilians will be killed in wartime,” Lucas acknowledged, but added that Israel appeared to be breaching the international law requirement of proportionality. In essence, a military whose war leads to civilian deaths, including through attacks on hospitals, schools and shelters – targets Israel has repeatedly struck during this war – must be able to show proportionate military gains through those strikes. That’s a bar Israel hasn’t met, according to many experts. “You are currently having an excessive number of civilians who are being killed because there are not adequate protections that are being applied by the power that is carrying out the attack,” Lucas said. “And that’s what the Israelis should be judged by. Bringing in World War II and other narratives is [just] peripheral.” Israel’s supporters continue to argue that the parallel with World War II holds. Jake Wallis Simons, editor of the London-based Jewish Chronicle, said that there were “two points of similarity” between the conflicts. “The first is a sense of existential threat both during World War II and in the attacks by Hamas upon Israel,” claimed Wallis Simons. “The other is the nature of the aggressor.” He described Hamas’s actions as “barbarism”. But UN experts, international human rights groups and many nations around the world have warned that it is Israel’s actions since October 7 – more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and almost the entire population of 2.3 million people has been displaced – that could constitute modern-day genocide. Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using food as a weapon of war. Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since 2007, and since the start of the current war, has made it even more difficult for aid to enter the Strip. Right at the start of the current war, Israel also imposed a strict block on the entry of fuel and water – a restriction it has largely kept in place. Against that backdrop, it’s
Israel orders ‘death corridor’ evacuation for Palestinians in central Gaza
Central Gaza Strip — Israel has ordered Palestinians to evacuate from parts of central Gaza, its latest such directive as it pushes more of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million-strong population into a smaller area while widening its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military on Friday ordered families to flee for their “safety” to shelters in southern Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, from Bureij and areas of Nuseirat in central Gaza. The announcement has incensed the region’s weary and exhausted residents, many of whom have already been internally displaced several times since October 7. Scenes of mass displacement once again filled Salah al-Din Street that is linked to the entrance of the Bureij refugee camp. Salah al-Din, a road stretching across the length of Gaza, has been dubbed the “death corridor” by many in the Strip. In previous evacuations, Palestinians fleeing parts of northern Gaza have been arrested, shot at and even killed – despite it being declared as a safe route by the Israeli army. Scenes of mass displacement once again filled Salah al-Din Street [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] On Friday, hundreds of people carrying what is left of their personal belongings poured onto the street on foot. Others loaded pick-up trucks and donkey carts with mattresses, blankets, plastic chairs and whatever else they could grab. Some could barely move after sustaining injuries from previous attacks, yet found themselves with no choice but to escape once again. This was the case for Walaa al-Nuzeini, who was fleeing Bureij in a wheelchair and for the third time since the beginning of the assault. Al-Nuzeini lived in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City when an Israeli air strike targeted her home on November 7. “I lost my daughter, she died in my arms,” al-Nuzeini told Al Jazeera. “We stayed under the rubble for three hours before they got us out,” she said, adding that the entire area is now “destroyed”. Al-Nuzeini was badly hurt. She suffers from wounds in her leg, and said the nerve is affected which has been causing her “extreme pain”. She was taken to al-Shifa Hospital for treatment, but three days later Israeli soldiers raided the facility, Gaza’s largest hospital that is now no longer operating. Walaa al-Nuzeini lost her daughter in an Israeli attack on their home in Gaza City’s Shujayea [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] “We left running out of fear and had to walk all the way to Nuseirat,” she recalled. At the time, Israeli soldiers ordered doctors, patients and displaced people at the hospital to evacuate the medical compound, forcing some to leave at gunpoint, according to testimonies by doctors and Palestinian officials. More than 7,000 people, including patients in a critical condition and newborn babies, were sheltering inside al-Shifa Hospital. Humanitarian circumstances have become “very difficult”, al-Nuzeini said. She is now heading to Khan Younis, where her other children have set up a tent. “This is not a life. We have no water, no food, no freedom of movement.” ‘We’re exhausted’ Two months ago, the Israeli military called on Palestinians in northern Gaza to flee to the south, but has continued to target and bomb civilians even there. Khan Younis is now a focus of Israeli attacks. “There is no place that’s safe,” Salem al-Sheikh told Al Jazeera. The elderly man said he was forcibly displaced from his home in Nassr neighbourhood in the west of Gaza City. “They [the Israeli army] told us to leave, so I fled to al-Shifa Hospital, where I stayed for a month and a half. I then left to Nuseirat,” al-Sheikh said. He was among the thousands who sought refuge in al-Shifa Hospital before it was attacked by Israeli forces. Salem al-Sheikh has been forcibly displaced three times since October 7 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Now, for a third time, he is being displaced from Nuseirat. The latest call for evacuation comes as Israeli ground troops continue to battle Palestinian fighters in southern and central Gaza. In the last 48 hours alone, at least 390 people have been killed as the enclave plunged into digital darkness for the sixth time amid a communications blackout, Gaza’s health ministry said. The United Nations says nearly 1.9 million people have now been displaced – more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip’s pre-war population. Many are crammed inside the Rafah governorate in southern Gaza, where al-Sheikh is heading. The health ministry has warned that disease there is flourishing amid a lack of supplies, medicine, clean water and much-needed fuel. Meanwhile, UN-run schools have largely become overcrowded shelters for thousands of displaced Palestinians. “It’s been extremely difficult,” al-Sheikh said. “We walked from al-Shifa on foot … we passed Israeli army tanks until we made it to a school,” he said, referring to the second time he was displaced. The schools, however, “are full,” he said. “There is no space.” The United Nations says nearly 1.9 million Palestinians have been internally displaced in Gaza [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Many believe that the UN designation of these buildings will keep them safe from the constant Israeli bombardment. However, several of the schools have been targeted or sustained damage from Israeli air raids in their vicinities. According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), some 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped in overcrowded and unprotected shelters run by the body that are now uninhabitable. The poor conditions in the makeshift accommodations have already led to an outbreak of scabies and smallpox, among other infections. Al-Sheikh said he just wants to return home. “We’re exhausted, moving from one place to the next. They need to let us get back to our homes.” Some 60 percent of all residential units in the Strip have been damaged, or 254,000 homes. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the latest offensive, including at least 8,000 children. Rights groups have warned of the consequences of mass displacement, with organisations including Human Rights Watch labelling it a “war crime”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to
How to pay for genocide: Namibian victims of German colonialism want a say
Berlin, Germany – South of Berlin, the expansive Treptower Park stretches out alongside the Spree river – an oasis of tranquillity in an otherwise restless city. On a recent Saturday, small groups of people strolled along the paths, and on the river, a boat fitted with a jacuzzi floated lazily by. Towering trees, a combination of rust browns, greens and yellows against a grey sky, shook off tired leaves that carpeted the ground. The park, idyllic now, belies a dark past. Some 127 years ago, dozens of people pried away from their homes, were displayed in ethnological expositions or “human zoos” here and in other parts of the city to signal Germany’s entry into the colonial venture. Some of those exhibited were from colonies in South, East, and West Africa where violence was crucial to keeping the occupation in place. In southwest Africa, German settlers were pushing Indigenous people off their lands. When two ethnic groups rebelled and fought back, the Schutztruppe – or colonial guards – responded with such brute force that they almost wiped them out entirely. The massacre of the Nama and Herero peoples between 1904-1908, now in present-day Namibia, is widely recognised as an intentional extermination attempt. In May 2021, three years after the German government formally apologised for the massacres, the country announced a framework to address the tragedy. The scheme would see Namibia get 1.1 billion euros ($1.2bn) in “development aid”, with 50 million euros ($54m) set aside for research, remembrance and reconciliation projects, with the rest marked for the development of affected descendants’ communities. “Germany asks for forgiveness for the sins of their forefathers,” the Joint Declaration issued by the German and Namibian authorities read, and “the Namibian Government and people accept Germany’s apology.” The agreement was supposed to be a win-win. Germany would atone for its bloody crimes and Namibia would get needed funding. But for the surviving communities, it was a betrayal. Protests broke out in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, as people vehemently opposed the agreement, saying it was dictated by Germany. “I think the first response of the community was just total shock – so violent, so cruel, that what it (the declaration) did was re-traumatise us again,” says Sima Luipert, an adviser to the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA). Luipert, like many in the affected communities, says recognised members of the Nama and Herero were not present at the table and that the two governments were forcing the agreement upon them. “This was not a trilateral process. It was a bilateral process, so the document defeats its purpose and it lacks legitimacy because the legitimate people are not at the table,” Luipert says. The case underscores the challenges of righting historical injustices in ways that are acceptable to, and inclusive of the very people who were wronged. In January, lawyers representing the survivor communities sued Namibian authorities at the high court in Windhoek, urging the court to declare the agreement unlawful and thus, invalid. The suit is one of the rare cases globally – perhaps the only one – in which a court in a former colony passes judgement on the colonial power that ruled it. Although directly binding only on Namibia, the top court’s judgement could derail Germany’s attempts to rid itself of decades of colonial guilt by forbidding Windhoek from receiving those funds. Almost a year after it was filed though, the suit is frozen in “Status Hearing” – legal speak for a case suspended so the prosecuting party can gather more documents and draw a road map for its arguments. There have been no trials or seatings and Germany has so far disregarded the suit, promising instead to press on with its plans. Patrick Kauta, the lawyer who filed the suit, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment. People hold banners as they stage a protest in Windhoek, Namibia, over colonial-era reparations on Friday, May 28, 2021 [File: Sonja Smith/AP Photo]. Carrying a painful history The arid southwest African region was home first to the San, then later, to the cattle-farming Herero and Nama people as far back as the 16th century. This was some 400 years before German missionaries came and before German settlers started acquiring land from Indigenous chiefs there. Following the partition of Africa by European powers in the 1885 Berlin Conference, Germany officially laid claim to the area. As settlers and colonists continued to descend on the region, enthralled by the prospects of diamonds they would later discover, they restricted the Indigenous nations to “reserves”, confiscating their land and cattle despite their resistance. In January 1904, the Herero staged a stunning revolt and invaded Okahandja – one of the biggest German settlements and the heart of Hereroland. Mounted on horses, they killed dozens of settlers and torched their homes, according to one account. The war raged for months, spreading to other cities. The Nama also joined the battle alongside the Herero, despite previous rivalry. Although the war favoured them at first, the revolters ultimately faced defeat. People died in their thousands, some driven into British territory in present-day Botswana and South Africa. Yet, when they signalled peace by heeding calls to assemble in certain locations from the well-trusted German missionaries who arrived way ahead of the colonialists, the German soldiers would not let up. On October 2, 1904, German military commander General Lothar von Trotha issued a chilling call to his troops: “…every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I will no longer accept women and children, I will drive them back to their people or I will let them be shot at.” German troops – numbering about 1,500 under the command of von Trotha – encircled the weakened fighters and forced them into the desert, the waterless Omaheke region, trapping them, Herero descendant Laidlaw Peringanda, who heads the Namibian Genocide Association (NGA), says. When those fleeing dug wells, the Germans snuck up and poisoned the water. Survivors of the thirst and slaughter –
Gaza’s journalists: ‘Targets’ or ‘casualties’ of Israel’s war?
Gaza’s journalists are being killed at an unprecedented rate. Plus, Israel’s most powerful allies in the US – Christian Zionist broadcasters. According to Gaza’s government media office, Israel’s military has now killed 97 journalists in the Strip. Israel has barred international media from entering Gaza, firsthand reporting on the onslaught there has been left to Palestinians already locked into the occupied territory – documenting their own genocide. Contributors:Amahl Bishara – Professor of anthropology, Tufts UniversityArwa Damon – Former senior international correspondent, CNNSari Bashi – Program director, Human Rights WatchWael Dahdouh – Gaza bureau chief, Al Jazeera Arabic On our radar: The settler movement – which has placed 700,000 Israelis on the West Bank in complete contravention of international law – now has its eyes on Gaza. Producer Flo Phillips on Israeli developers’ plans in post-war Gaza. The war in Gaza & the end times – the Christian Zionist view Evangelicals in the United States – many of whom call themselves Christian Zionists – are some of the biggest supporters of Israel in the US, and they broadcast their support on TV and radio networks that have huge audiences. Contributors:Chrissy Stroop – Senior correspondent, Religion DispatchesMelani McAlister – Author of The Kingdom of God Has No BordersSarah Posner – Journalist, author of Unholy Adblock test (Why?)
Indonesian leader’s son brushes off ‘nepo baby’ tag in feted debate showing
Medan, Indonesia – As the vice presidential candidates took to the stage for Indonesia’s second televised presidential debate on Friday, all eyes were on Gibran Rakabuming Raka – perhaps the most controversial vice presidential candidate in Indonesia’s history. Batting away charges of inexperience and nepotism, Gibran, the 36-year-old son of current Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi’ Widodo, dominated the stage despite being up against more experienced candidates. The verdict among observers generally was that Gibran’s performance far exceeded expectations. “My overall impression was that any doubters who thought Gibran was a clueless lightweight have been proven completely wrong,” Alexander Arifianto, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore (RSIS), told Al Jazeera. “He was well-prepped for the debate and showed he has an excellent grasp on economic issues. Much better than his two opponents.” Since he announced his candidacy in October, Gibran has faced a storm of controversy, including accusations of being a “nepo baby” and a continuation of the dynastic politics that have long plagued Indonesia’s politics. With no political experience apart from a two-year stint as the mayor of the city of Surakarta in Central Java, Gibran has been accused of riding on his father’s coattails – Widodo also served as mayor of Surakarta – and lacking the bona fides of rival candidates Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar, the deputy speaker of parliament, and Mahfud MD, a minister responsible for coordinating political, legal and security affairs. Gibran’s candidacy was facilitated by a controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court of Indonesia in October that loosened the minimum age requirement for presidential and vice presidential candidates. While the court upheld the minimum age threshold of 40 in principle, the judges carved out an exception allowing officials who are at least 35 to run if they have been previously elected to office – allowing Gibran to become Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto’s running mate ahead of the February 14 election. The ruling was particularly contentious as the then-head of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman, was Widodo’s brother-in-law. Usman was removed from his position after the Constitutional Court ethics committee found him at fault for not recusing himself from the decision, although the ruling on the age requirement was allowed to stand. A ruling by the Constitutional Court of Indonesia in October changed the minimum age requirements to run for president or vice president [File: Beawiharta/Reuters] With questions swirling about the legitimacy of Gibran’s candidacy and his suitability for office, his debut on the debate stage on Friday evening had been hotly anticipated. “Straight away: This debate was won by Gibran. So far, expectations for Gibran have been very low. Basically, Gibran has never been tested. In the first presidential debate, he looked like an oddity: a high school student surrounded by seasoned politicians and governors,” Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer at Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani in West Java, told Al Jazeera. “In this debate, his performance was much better than the two people I had expected to eat him for lunch, namely Mahfud MD and Muhaimin. It was clear that he was prepared, confident, and had mastered the material, perhaps having been thoroughly trained by his debate preparation team.” The second of five televised debates, and the first to feature the vice presidential candidates, was focused on the economy, including issues such as taxes, trade, management of the state budget, infrastructure and urban planning. Dandy Rafitrandi, an economist with the think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the questions set by a panel of experts were quite specific and required each candidate to understand economic topics. The candidates’ weak grasp of economics was noticeable at times, Rafitrandi said, including when the questions turned to funding government projects and programmes. “Gibran explained several programmes, for example, a free lunch programme [for civil servants] worth 400 trillion Indonesian Rupiah [$25.8bn], but did not explain the source of the funding,” Rafitrandi told Al Jazeera. At another point during the debate, Muhaimin said that he and presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, the former governor of Jakarta, wanted to build 40 new cities across Indonesia to rival Jakarta – without explaining how these would be paid for. The main flashpoint of the evening came when the candidates sparred over Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital city, which is currently being built in the jungles of Kalimantan. The plan, which was spearheaded by Widodo, involves moving Jakarta, which is crowded, choked with smog and sinking due to illegal groundwater extraction, at a projected cost of $1.3bn. The project has struggled to secure foreign investment, which was envisaged to cover the majority of its hefty price tag, and has only attracted local investors, something which Mahfud questioned Gibran about given his support for the plan. Gibran replied that Mahfud could “Google” who was investing in the project and attacked Muhaimin for being “inconsistent” after previously backing the scheme. Groundbreaking for Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara took place last year [File: Bagus Saragih/AFP] Mahfud also previously supported Nusantara, and only Anies and Muhaimin have said that they would cancel the project if elected, arguing the money could be better spent elsewhere in Kalimantan and other parts of the country. Nusantara is not expected to be a deciding factor in the election, with some recent polls showing that Prabowo and Gibran have a 20-point lead over Ganjar Pranowo, the former governor of Central Java, and Mahfud MD. “Gibran was the clear winner of tonight’s debate. It has set the bar high and it will be tougher for both Anies’s and Ganjar’s teams to catch up with them, especially when it comes to economy and investment issues,” RSIS’s Arifianto said. “Sadly, both Mahfud and Muhaimin are single-issue candidates who are good only for their issues [law and religious issues respectively] but not so good in others.” However, not everyone was impressed with Gibran’s dynamic performance, saying that it placed style above substance. “He was better rehearsed compared to the other two candidates, which will likely impress some voters. However, his responses
DR Congo’s provisional election results show lead for President Tshisekedi
Electoral authorities announce results of voting by diaspora in the US, Canada, South Africa, Belgium and France. Democratic Republic of the Congo has begun to announce the results of general elections marred by chaotic organisation and credibility concerns. Electoral authorities on Friday announced the results of voting by diaspora Congolese in South Africa, the United States, Canada, Belgium and France ahead of the release of the full outcome on Saturday. The votes, which represent a small proportion of the electorate, showed President Felix Tshisekedi with a sizable lead over his opposition rivals. Voters also cast their ballots to choose the next crop of national and regional lawmakers, and local councillors. The provisional results come after voting in the mineral-rich Central African nation was extended into Thursday after some polling stations failed to open to the public and some voters could not find their names on registers. The unscheduled extension prompted fierce pushback from opposition candidates, some of whom labelled the move unconstitutional and called for a new election. Tshisekedi was considered the frontrunner going into the election, in which he faced a divided opposition that included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege and business magnate and former provincial governor Moise Katumbi. Despite the electoral commission announcing that polling stations were not authorised to open beyond Thursday, voting continued in some places, especially remote areas, into Friday. Independent observers have raised concerns about the vote, with the US-based Carter Center describing “serious irregularities” at 21 out of 109 polling stations it visited and noting “a lack of confidence in the process”. Denis Kadima, the head of the country’s electoral commission, on Friday rejected criticism that the extended vote lacked credibility. The DRC, which is one of the world’s poorest countries despite holding vast reserves of copper, cobalt and gold, has a history of disputed elections that can turn violent. Tshisekedi’s election as president in 2018 win was marred by accusations of vote-rigging and fraud. At least 34 people were killed and 59 others wounded in protests against the outcome, according to the United Nations. Adblock test (Why?)
US accuses Iran of being ‘deeply involved’ in Houthi attacks in Red Sea
White House says Tehran is providing Yemeni rebel group with weapons and tactical intelligence. The United States has accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea. Tehran’s support for the Yemeni rebel group includes both weapons and tactical intelligence, the White House said on Friday as it presented newly declassified intelligence purporting to show Iranian involvement in the attacks. “We know that Iran was deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea,” White House national security spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “This is consistent with Iran’s long-term material support and encouragement of the Houthis’ destabilising actions in the region.” “This is an international challenge that demands collective action,” Watson said. The White House said that visual analysis showed nearly identical features between Iran’s KAS-04 drones and the unmanned vehicles used by the Houthis, as well as consistent features between Iranian and Houthi missiles. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the White House’s claims. The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa, have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea in what the group has described as a show of support for Palestinians facing Israeli bombardment in Gaza. The attacks have effectively rerouted a large portion of global trade by forcing freight companies to sail around Africa, imposing higher costs and delays to deliveries of energy, food and consumer goods. More than a dozen shipping companies, including the Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, France’s CMA CGM and Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, have suspended transit through the Red Sea due to the attacks. Washington earlier this week announced the launch of a multinational force, involving more than 20 countries, to protect vessels transiting the Red Sea. Last week, a US guided-missile destroyer shot down 14 attack drones believed to have been fired from Houthi-controlled regions of Yemen. The Houthi leadership has warned that they will strike back at “American battleships” and “American interests” if they are attacked. Tehran has said it supports the Houthis politically but denies sending the group weapons. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month rejected Israeli accusations that the Houthis were acting with its guidance when they seized an Israeli-owned ship and denied responsibility for a drone shot down by a US guided-missile destroyer. The Houthis, which have effectively maintained a United Nations-brokered truce with the Saudi-backed government since last year, rose up against the Yemeni government in 2014, triggering a devastating civil war. Adblock test (Why?)
Who might be the next US president?
Biden and Trump are frontrunners in an uncertain contest. Next year’s US presidential election is predicted to be a contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But not even that is certain in the most uncertain of election campaigns. So who else might be in the mix? And what are the important issues? Presenter: Dareen Abughaida Guests: Tim Constantine – Senior vice president of diplomacy and external affairs at Washington Times and host of The Capitol Hill Show Thomas Gift – Director of the Centre on US Politics at University College London Arshad Hasan – Democratic political strategist Adblock test (Why?)