Trump ally Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy following defamation case
Giuliani was ordered to pay a $148m penalty for falsely accusing two 2020 election workers of facilitating fraud. Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy, just days after he was ordered to pay $148m to two former Georgia election workers he falsely accused of fraud as he worked to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss. The former mayor of New York, in a bankruptcy petition seeking protection from his creditors on Thursday, listed assets of between $1m and $10m and liabilities of up to $500m. The largest of his debts is the $148 million a federal jury in Washington, DC ordered him to pay on December 15 to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for repeatedly making false claims that they engaged in 2020 election fraud. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition filed with a New York bankruptcy court also listed debts ranging from the hundreds of thousands to the millions of dollars to the Internal Revenue Service, New York tax authorities and his former lawyers and accountants. “Unknown” amounts were also recorded as being owed to Hunter Biden, former president Joe Biden’s son, and the voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic. Hunter Biden, Dominion and Smartmatic have all filed lawsuits against Giuliani. They are ongoing. A spokesperson for Giuliani said the bankruptcy filing will give him time to appeal the $148m penalty and ensure that other creditors are treated fairly. “No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount,” spokesperson Ted Goodman said. The 79-year-old Giuliani was found liable in August by US District Judge Beryl Howell of defaming Freeman and Moss, both Fulton County poll workers, with his 2020 election lies on behalf of Trump. An eight-person federal jury awarded Freeman and Moss more than $16m each for defamation, $20m each for emotional distress and $75m in punitive damages. Giuliani, who led Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the results of the election, posted a video of the pair that falsely accused them of engaging in fraud during ballot counting and made numerous other baseless claims about them. Freeman and Moss, who are Black, told the jury during the four-day trial that Giuliani’s false accusations upended their lives and made them the target of racist threats. “The flame that Giuliani lit with those lies and passed to so many others to keep that flame blazing changed every aspect of our lives, our homes, our family, our work, our sense of safety, our mental health,” Moss said. The defamation case is just one of a number of legal challenges facing Giuliani, who has been indicted on racketeering charges in Georgia along with Trump and others for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state. Giuliani was New York mayor from 1994 to 2001, guiding the city through the shock of the September 11, 2001 attacks and becoming known as “America’s Mayor” – before signing up as Trump’s personal lawyer while he was in the White House. Adblock test (Why?)
DR Congo votes on second day of chaotic general elections
The vote across Africa’s second-largest country was derailed on Wednesday over logistical issues. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has concluded a second day of voting in chaotic elections after logistical problems forced officials to extend the balloting. Voting in the impoverished but mineral-rich Central African nation extended into Thursday after some polling stations did not open at all on the first day of the general elections. Some opposition candidates and observers said the unscheduled extension of the vote could open the results up to legal challenges. The DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast reserves of copper, cobalt and gold, has a history of disputed elections that can turn violent. Africa’s second largest country held four concurrent elections on Wednesday – to pick a president, national and regional lawmakers, and local councillors. President Felix Tshisekedi, 60, is running for a second term against a backdrop of years of economic growth but little job creation and soaring inflation. Tshisekedi, who took office in 2019 and faced 18 challengers, says he wants a second term to “consolidate his gains”. ‘Genuine shipwreck’ Wednesday’s voting was marked by massive delays nationwide as the Independent National Electoral Commission struggled to deliver materials to voting stations long after polls were meant to have opened. Denis Kadima, the head of the commission, declared on Wednesday night that people in places where casting ballots had proved impossible would vote on Thursday. It was not clear how many polling stations that involved, but voting took place in cities in the eastern DRC, in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi and in the capital, Kinshasa, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. The vote was mostly peaceful, but in the east, a polling booth was ransacked by displaced people who could not cast ballots. In Kinshasa, journalist Pascal Mulegwa was allegedly assaulted by pro-government activists, according to Reporters Without Borders. Opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi, whose team has been compiling its own vote count, said results so far showed him in the lead. He made the claim in a joint statement with opposition backers that also alleged widespread irregularities in the conduct of the vote. The former ruling coalition, the Common Front for Congo of ex-President Joseph Kabila, called the elections a parody that had brought shame on the country. “What we witnessed today was a genuine shipwreck of the electoral process,” the coalition said in a statement on Wednesday, as it asked its members to stand by for further instructions on actions to be taken. Adblock test (Why?)
UN Human Rights Office calls for investigation into unlawful Gaza killings
NewsFeed “They were executed.” The UN Human Rights Office is calling for an immediate investigation into a ‘possible war crime’ after receiving information about Israeli forces allegedly killing Palestinian men in front of family members in northern Gaza. Al Jazeera spoke to several witnesses; these are their accounts. Published On 21 Dec 202321 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
India’s Sakshi Malik quits over election of new wrestling federation chief
Top wrestler quits the sport after Indian wrestling body replaces the powerful president accused of sexual abuse with his close ally. A top Indian wrestler has announced she will quit the sport in protest after the country’s wrestling federation replaced a president accused of sexually abusing female athletes with his close ally. Sakshi Malik, an acclaimed wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and led protests against Brij Bhushan Singh, the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), announced her retirement on Thursday. “We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us,” Malik, 31, told a news conference in New Delhi, referring to the protests earlier this year. “If Brij Bhushan Singh’s business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling”, she said before leaving the conference with tears in her eyes. VIDEO | “We gathered a lot of courage for this fight against the WFI President (Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh). But today, his right hand (referring to Sanjay Singh) has been elected as the new WFI President. We had demanded a woman be made the president, but that has not been… pic.twitter.com/UMwOMRnnNI — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 21, 2023 Malik became an outspoken voice over harassment and discrimination faced by female athletes in India, a plight underscored by charges filed against Singh in June accusing him of sexually harassing six female wrestlers, including a minor, during his time leading the WFI. Singh, who is also a six-time parliamentarian and member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), denied any wrongdoing, dramatically stating then that he will hang himself if the accusations are proven to be true. Asked about Malik’s decision to quit, 66-year-old Singh on Thursday said, “I have nothing to do with it.” Singh was stripped of his administrative duties in January, and the government promised to investigate the accusations. But Malik and other athletes renewed their protests in April after the government refused to disclose the findings of a panel looking into the incidents. In recent months, Singh actively campaigned for Sanjay Singh to replace him and predicted his victory to the local press. On Thursday, the WFI voted to replace Brij Bhushan Singh with Sanjay Singh, who defeated Anita Sheoran, another contender for the presidency who had won a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and had supported the campaign by the athletes to bring attention to the allegations of abuse. “It’s a very big victory of truth over lies,” Sanjay Singh told members of the media after securing 40 out of the 47 votes by the federation’s member institutions. He told reporters that he was committed to supporting wrestlers, but did not comment on Malik’s announcement. The United World Wrestling (UWW), the global wrestling body which suspended the Indian federation in August over the wrestlers’ protest, is yet to comment on the election. Adblock test (Why?)
Could Israel’s war on Gaza cause a wider conflict?
Regional tensions are rising over the US-backed war. More than 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israel, armed and backed by the United States and European allies. More fighting nearby too: Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen among the groups involved. Could Israel’s war trigger a wider conflict? Presenter: Dareen Abughaida Guests: Omar Rahman – fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. He focuses on Palestine, Middle East geopolitics and American foreign policy in the region. Miko Peled – human rights activist and author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, which is based on his experiences as the son of a former military governor of the Gaza Strip Elijah Magnier – military and political analyst who, as a former war correspondent, has covered more than 35 years of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa Adblock test (Why?)
Angola to leave OPEC over disagreement on oil production quotas
Oil minister says the country ‘gains nothing’ from remaining in the group after disagreements emerge over production cuts. Angola says it will leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over a disagreement regarding production quotas, a move that will bring the group down to 12 members. Speaking on public television on Thursday, Diamantino Azevedo, minister for mineral resources, petroleum and gas, said Angola, which produces about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day, is leaving OPEC because it was not serving the country’s interests. “We feel that … Angola currently gains nothing by remaining in the organisation and, in defence of its interests, decided to leave,” Azevedo was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the president’s office. Angola, which first joined OPEC in 2007, has struggled to meet production quotas over the past several years. The country is joining others, such as Qatar and Ecuador, that have left OPEC in the past decade. Questions about potential production cuts sought by leading oil producers such as Saudi Arabia have been a source of recent debate within the group. Without Angola, OPEC countries will produce about 27 million barrels of oil per day, about 27 percent of the global supply. But while Angola was a relatively small player in OPEC, the country’s departure has raised larger questions about the future of the organisation. Crude prices dropped by more than 1.5 percent after the announcement. “From an oil market supply perspective, the impact is minimal as oil production in Angola was on a downward trend and higher production would first require higher investments,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst with UBS. “However, prices still fell on concern of the unity of OPEC+ as a group, but there is no indication that more heavyweights within the alliance intend to follow the path of Angola.” Oil and gas make up about 90 percent of Angola’s exports and are a crucial economic lifeline for the country. Last month, Azevedo’s office protested against an OPEC decision to reduce its production quota for 2024, concerned that it would damage Angola’s ability to increase its output capacity. OPEC and its allies in OPEC+ have agreed to cut production to prop up oil prices. Angola’s production capacity peaked in 2008 at 2 million barrels per day but has dropped since due to ageing infrastructure. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel’s war on Gaza deadliest in modern history for journalists, CPJ says
The Committee to Protect Journalists says concentration of reporters killed in Gaza ‘unparalleled’ in the group’s history. As Israeli forces pound the Gaza Strip, journalists are being killed at a rate with no parallel in modern history, a press freedom watchdog says. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday that 68 media workers have been killed in the 10 weeks of fighting – 61 of them Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese. Among them is Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa, who was killed in an Israeli drone strike last week while reporting from a school in Khan Younis. “More journalists have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year,” the CPJ said in a statement. “More than half the deaths – 37 – occurred during the first month of the war, making it the deadliest single month ever documented by CPJ since it began recording journalist fatalities in 1992,” it added. The statement came as Palestinian reporters in Gaza continue to work under brutal conditions, facing constant bombardment, displacement and possible targeting by Israeli forces. The report drew attention to what CPJ called “an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military”, noting that it had recorded at least one instance in which a journalist was killed while wearing clearly marked press insignia with no fighting in the surrounding area. “The concentration of journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war is unparalleled in CPJ’s history and underscores how grave the situation is for press on the ground,” CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg said. “Local Palestinian journalists continue to report from Gaza while living in fear for their lives.” The concentration of journalists killed in Gaza outpaces that of other conflict zones, such as Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, it said. The CPJ said Iraq was the only country to approach the current death toll in Gaza when in 2006, 56 journalists were killed in the wake of the United States invasion of the Gulf country three years earlier. Another Al Jazeera journalist, Wael Dahdouh, lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in an Israeli bombing last month and was wounded in the attack that killed Abudaqa. Al Jazeera has said it will refer Abudaqa’s killing to the International Criminal Court (ICC), stating that the strike took place within a context of “recurrent attacks on the Network’s crews working and operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and instances of incitement against them”. Adblock test (Why?)
EU top court rules FIFA, UEFA unlawfully blocked Super League plans
The two football governing bodies contravened law by stopping the formation of league, the European Court of Justice says. The European Union’s top court has ruled that UEFA and FIFA broke EU law in blocking the formation of a rival Super League competition. Thursday’s ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) marks a serious legal setback for UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and for football’s world governing body, FIFA. The court found that the two sporting bodies threatening to ban future Super League clubs and players from taking part in their competitions was illegal. “FIFA and UEFA rules making any new interclub football project subject to their prior approval, such as the Super League, and prohibiting clubs and players from playing in those competitions, are unlawful,” it said. In early 2021, 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs announced they had signed up to the planned Super League, triggering a furious backlash from fans and a stark warning from UEFA that clubs and players who took part would be barred from competitions like the World Cup. Chelsea fans protest in London against the club’s then decision to be included in a new European Super League [File: Matt Dunham/AP] Within 48 hours, nine of the 12 rebel clubs – including six from the English Premier League – backed down and the project collapsed, leaving promoters A22 Sports Management to launch a legal challenge through the Spanish courts, which referred the question to the ECJ. In response to the Super League threat, UEFA launched a major reform of the Champions League starting in 2024, with 36 teams involved instead of 32. The clubs will play in a single league competition, which will replace the current group stage, guaranteeing at least eight matches for each team. European clubs, leagues reject Super League Though the Super League organisers welcomed the ECJ’s ruling, major leagues and clubs moved quickly to support the status quo. Manchester United were one of the first to say they remained committed to playing in competitions run by UEFA, as did German champions Bayern Munich. “Our position has not changed. We remain fully committed to participation in UEFA competitions, and to positive cooperation with UEFA, the Premier League, and fellow clubs through the ECA on the continued development of the European game,” United said. Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur were the other five Premier League clubs involved before pulling out. Bayern Munich said they were committed to UEFA competitions, saying the door for the Super League “remains closed” for the German champions. “The Bundesliga is the foundation of FC Bayern, just as all national leagues are the foundation of other European football clubs,” Bayern CEO Jan Christian Dreesen said. “It is therefore our duty and our deep conviction to strengthen them, not to weaken them. We are also committed to the European club competitions under the umbrella of UEFA.” The European Club Association (ECA), which represents nearly 500 clubs across the continent, said the football world had “moved on from the Super League years ago”. “Through ECA, clubs today are already at the heart of decision-making in relation to the competitions they participate in,” it said. “Most importantly, football is a social contract, not a legal contract.” France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) said it “unequivocally supports” competitions organised by UEFA. The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) reiterated its intention to protect the national championships, “for the defence of the broader and more general principle of sporting merit and the respect of international calendars”. “The FIGC believes that the Super League is not a project compatible with these conditions and will always act in pursuing the general interests of Italian football,” it added. Adblock test (Why?)
What explains the dramatic rise in armed attacks in Pakistan?
Islamabad, Pakistan – A recent deadly suicide attack on a military post in northwest Pakistan has raised fears of the return of armed rebellion in the country’s tribal regions that have seen a dramatic rise in armed attacks this year. A little-known group, Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), claimed the December 12 bombing in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. At least 23 soldiers were killed and another 34 injured in the car bomb attack. The attacks by the TJP have brought back memories of the series of deadly attacks carried out by armed groups led by the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, in late 2000. But why have attacks on security forces increased and how are the Pakistani government and the military planning to handle it? What explains the surge in the attacks? The first 11 months of the year witnessed 664 attacks of varying nature and size across the country, an increase of 67 percent from the corresponding duration in 2022, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based research organisation. But the bulk of the attacks have targeted two provinces – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest and Balochistan in the southwest. Almost 93 percent of the total attacks took place in these two provinces, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the worst affected province, witnessing 416 attacks since November 2022 when the TTP walked out of the ceasefire with the government. Pakistan Taliban’s ideology is aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which currently rules the war-torn country. However, the groups have different goals and they operate independently. Family members of the victims of a suicide bombing in Peshawar weep as they take part in a march on February 1 denouncing armed attacks. [Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo] In January, at least 100 people, mostly policemen, were killed in the worst attack of the year, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The attack was claimed by a TTP splinter group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. The genesis for the spike in the violence, analysts say, could be traced back to the unilateral decision by the Pakistan Taliban to end the ceasefire last year. The armed group has asserted that its attacks were in response to the renewed military operations in the region. Among their main demands include the release of its members and the reversal of the merger of the tribal region with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A stricter imposition of their interpretation of Islamic laws is also one of the demands. The Pakistani army has conducted multiple operations to eliminate the group since 2002 but struggled to achieve its goal as fighters have used the porous border to find safe haven in Afghanistan. Since its founding in 2007, the TTP has targeted both civilians as well as law enforcement personnel, resulting in thousands of deaths. Their deadliest attack came in December 2014, when they targeted the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar, killing more than 130 students. The TTP also claimed responsibility for shooting Malala Yousafzai in 2012. Yousafzai went on to win the Noble Prize for Peace in 2015 and is currently a globally renowned girls’ education activist. The most disconcerting aspect of TJP lies in its implementation of suicide attacks. by Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based researcher The group remains banned in Pakistan and has been designated a “terrorist” group by the United States. Formed to unify like-minded groups in the region, the TTP stepped up attacks in response to Pakistani military operations launched to flush out foreign fighters fleeing the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. In response to the APS attack, the Pakistani military launched a large-scale military operation, titled Zarb-e-Azb, against the armed groups. While the Pakistani army claimed it was able to achieve its objective, the military operation was harshly criticised by the local population as well as human rights organisations. The military was accused of adopting scorched earth tactics and carrying out enforced disappearances of individuals accused of having links with the TTP. Many of those arrested were tried in a military court, which is considered contrary to international law. Which groups have sought to claim responsibility for the recent attacks? With the return of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in August 2021, which has had historical links with the Pakistani security establishment, it was believed that managing the TTP would become easier. A month after the Taliban took over Kabul, it helped facilitate the meeting between the Pakistani military with the TTP for both sides to engage in a ceasefire talk, a decision endorsed and pushed by Imran Khan, Pakistan’s then-prime minister. Subsequently, over the next few months, a tentative ceasefire led to the release of senior TTP leaders imprisoned by Pakistan. It also facilitated the resettlement of hundreds of TTP fighters and their families back to Pakistan. Some of their leaders had been released as part of peace deals with previous Pakistani governments. However, low-scale skirmishes between the two sides continued well into 2022, with both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement. The January 31 suicide blast targeting a mosque inside a police facility was one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani security forces in recent years. [Muhammad Zubair/AP Photo] Despite repeated meetings, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the growing distrust between the two sides increased. The removal of Khan as prime minister in April 2022, followed by the retirement of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in November 2022, did not help the cause. The TTP announced a unilateral end to the ceasefire days after Bajwa retired. The emergence of an obscure TJP, believed to be affiliated with the TTP, has further raised concerns among policymakers. TJP has been behind at least seven major attacks this year, including the latest one in Dera Ismail Khan. The group targeted a Pakistani Air Force airbase in Mianwali city in November and in another attack this year in Zhob city of Balochistan it killed at least 14 army personnel. According
UN calls for probe as Israeli army accused of killing unarmed Palestinians
UN rights office calls for investigation into ‘possible war crime’ amid reports Israeli forces allegedly ‘executed’ 11 Palestinian men in Gaza. The United Nations human rights office has called for an independent inquiry into allegations that Israeli forces “summarily executed” at least 11 Palestinian men in Gaza in what it called “a possible war crime”. “The Israeli authorities must immediately institute an independent, thorough and effective investigation into these allegations, and if found to be substantiated, those responsible must be brought to justice and measures implemented to prevent any such serious violations from recurring,” said the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a statement on Wednesday. Disturbing information on summary killings of at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members in Al Remal neighbourhood.#Gaza #opt #IHL #humanrightshttps://t.co/Gf0GdyDPAZ — UN Human Rights OPT (@OHCHR_Palestine) December 20, 2023 Al Jazeera spoke to several witnesses to Tuesday’s raid during which Israeli troops allegedly surrounded and stormed a residential building, going floor to floor to separate the men from the women and children, and then shooting dead 11 of the men in front of their family members. The men were in their 20s and 30s, survivors said. “They saw us, men and their wives and children. My brother-in-law tried to speak and explain all in the house are civilians, but they shot him dead,” one survivor told Al Jazeera of the attack on families who were sheltering in al-Adwa building in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood. The soldiers “forced their way into every home, killed the men and detained the women and children. We do not know their whereabouts. They did the same on every floor. All women were rounded up in one room. By the time they reached us on the sixth floor, they started shooting all men,” a woman said, adding that her father-in-law and son were shot and killed instantly. Survivors also said that the Israeli soldiers also attacked the women and children after ordering them into a room in the residential block also known as Annan building. “The Israeli soldiers rounded up all the women in one room, then fired three mortar shells on us, then kept shooting their machine guns at us,” a wounded woman said. “I was hit with a bullet in my hand, my daughter in her head, my younger daughter was killed and my son is blind. My husband was executed in cold blood. All my other daughters suffered severe injuries, broken bones and flesh torn open. We were all hit by bullets or shrapnel,” she added. Analyst Tamer Qarmout, an assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, welcomed the UN call for an investigation into the “unlawful killings”, telling Al Jazeera that the key issue is how such probes are going to be conducted. None of the entities that could investigate alleged Israeli crimes against Palestinians is currently allowed into the Gaza Strip, Qarmout noted. Other witnesses recalled that the men were forced to strip before being shot, and one man said that “even young boys were not spared. They were all battered and bludgeoned. They suffered broken bones and are in hospital.” There has been no comment from the Israeli military on the attack. Adblock test (Why?)