NAKBA II

Israel 'seems to be settling in for more West Bank raids'


Issued on: 29/08/2024 - 

Video by: Kethevane GORJESTANI

The Israeli military said on Thursday its troops killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in one of the largest assaults on the occupied territory for months. France 24's international affairs editor Kethevane Gorjestani says it appears from reporting on the ground that the Israeli military is preparing for further operations in the West Bank.

On the ground in the Middle East: 'An amazing level of violence'


Issued on: 29/08/2024

Video by: Cyril PAYEN

Senior reporter Cyril Payen, who spent three years in Jerusalem as France 24's Middle East correspondent, recently revisited the region for a two-week reporting trip. He reveals what it is like reporting on the ground in the region at a time when Israel's war with Hamas is threatening to spill over into a wider conflict and violence is increasing in the occupied West Bank.

 

Israel launches deadly West Bank operation as Gaza war drags on

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Israeli soldiers operate during a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the city of Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Israel launched a large-scale military operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the army said it killed nine Palestinian fighters, while the nearly 11-month Gaza war showed no signs of abating.

Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza war sparked by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

The war has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. It has also caused widespread destruction, displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

In the West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids across four cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem.

Columns of Israeli armoured vehicles entered two refugee camps, in Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as Jenin.

By midday, they were blocking entrances to the towns and camps, AFP photographers said, with soldiers firing at the camps from which gunfire and explosions were heard.

Israeli bulldozers dug up the asphalt from the streets, with the army saying it was looking for roadside bombs.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces killed at least 10 people — two in Jenin, four in a nearby village and another four in the refugee camp near Tubas. Fifteen others were wounded.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to “follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on the northern West Bank,” Palestinian official media said.

The Israeli army said it had killed nine Palestinian “terrorists” and that so far there were no casualties on its side.

Soldiers encountered explosives and were exchanging fire with militants, said army spokesman, Nadav Shoshani. He declined to say how many were involved or how long the operation would last.

The operation, he added, was not “extremely different (from usual army activity in the area) or special”.

– ‘This is war’ –

Foreign Minster Israel Katz had a different take, however, saying the military was “operating in full force since last night” in a bid to “dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructure”.

In a post on X, he accused Iran, Israel’s main foe in the region, of seeking to “establish an eastern front against Israel” based on the “model” for Gaza and Lebanon, where it backs Hamas and Hezbollah, respectively.

“We must address this threat with the same determination used against terror infrastructures in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of residents and any necessary measures,” he said.

“This is a war, and we must win it.”

Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 650 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.

During the same period, at least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli officials.

But while Israeli military operations have become a daily occurrence in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, it is rare for them to be carried out in multiple cities simultaneously.

In recent weeks, Israeli operations in the West Bank have focused on the north of the territory, where armed groups fighting against Israel are particularly active.

– Patients flee hospital –

Last week, the army announced it had killed a senior Palestinian militant in Lebanon, accusing him of “directing attacks and smuggling weapons” to the West Bank and collaborating with Iranian forces.

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian Islamist movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the north of the West Bank, issued a statement early Wednesday denouncing an “open war” by Israel.

“With this aggression, which aims to transfer the weight of the conflict to the occupied West Bank, the occupier wants to impose a new state of affairs on the ground to annex the West Bank,” the statement said.

Hamas, whose popularity has soared in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, late Tuesday reiterated its call for Palestinians in the territory to “rise up”.

Its statement came in response to comments by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said this week he would build a synagogue at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound if he could.

Ben Gvir, a settler himself, has openly called for the annexation of the West Bank.

In Gaza, families in distress continued to move according to the Israeli army’s evacuation orders.

One of the latest targeted the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, from which “nearly 650 patients have fled”, Doctors Without Borders said.

The medical charity has, instead, “anticipated the opening of a field hospital now that the Al-Aqsa hospital was “almost totally empty”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 12 dead, including at least one child and a woman, in new Israeli strikes.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

burs-dv/kir

Israel says it ‘eliminated’ local Palestinian commander in West Bank military operation

The Israeli military on Thursday said it had killed Mohammed Jaber and four more Palestinian militants in a major military operation in the occupied West Bank. Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was a leader of the Tulkarem Battalion, a local militant group allied to the Islamic Jihad. There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of his death.

Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An Israeli soldier aims his rifle while positioned at a gateway during a military operation in Tulkarm in the West Bank on August 29, 2024. 

© Jaafar Ashtiyeh, AFP

The Israeli military said it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank early Thursday, including a well-known local commander.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.

He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier this year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.

The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.

Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th casualty, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

Nur Shams is among several built-up refugee camps across the Middle East that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, in which around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. Many of the camps are militant strongholds.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have Israeli citizenship, live in well over 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.

(AP)

Israel army says killed 5 Palestinian militants on day two of West Bank raids

Tulkarem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Israeli military said its forces killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Thursday in a second day of "counter-terrorism" operations that have killed 14 in total.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid on the West Bank city of Tulkarem on the second day of a major military operation in the north of the occupied territory 

© Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

"Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque" in Tulkarem on Thursday morning, the military said.

On Wednesday, the military said it killed nine militants in simultaneous raids in several West Bank cities and refugee camps.

The Palestinian health ministry reported 12 deaths since the start of the operation.

Witnesses told AFP that Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday.

An AFP photographer reported that clashes were still taking place in Jenin as he saw a drone flying overhead.

An Israeli army bulldozer strips the asphalt from a road in Tulkarem as a precaution against concealed explosives

 © Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

Israeli soldiers were also continuing to operate in Tulkarem, another AFP journalist reported.

Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

Since the start of Gaza war, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to UN figures.

At least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations in the West Bank, according to Israeli official figures.

© 2024 AFP

US slaps new sanctions on Israeli settlers over West Bank violence

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Activists try to reach a land confiscated by Israeli settlers in the al-Makhrur area, near Beit Jala in the Israeli occupied West Bank, on August 15, 2024 - Copyright AFP/File HAZEM BADER
Shaun TANDON

The United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions on West Bank settlers over violence against Palestinians, urging greater accountability efforts by its ally Israel, which responded with anger to the move.

The sanctions were announced on the same day that Israel launched a wide-scale attack on the West Bank that it said killed nine Palestinian fighters, despite warnings by President Joe Biden’s administration against expanding the war in Gaza.

“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank,” he said.

The latest sanction targets included Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli group that has supported the unauthorized settler outpost of Meitarim Farm in the south Hebron Hills.

Volunteers from the group earlier this year fenced off a village whose 250 Palestinian residents had all been forced to leave, the State Department said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on support from far-right politicians who advocate for the establishment of new settlements on Palestinian land, denounced the move.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the US,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Hashomer Yosh’s website, using the biblical name for the West Bank, says the group helps “various farmers throughout Judea and Samaria, who bravely protect our lands and stand strong in the face of economic difficulties and frequent agricultural crime.”

The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The State Department also imposed sanctions against Yitzhak Levi Filant, who was accused of leading armed settlers in setting up roadblocks and patrols with a goal of attacking Palestinians.

Since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, Israeli forces have also stepped up operations in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

At least 640 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.

The Biden administration has repeatedly voiced concern to Netanyahu about settler violence and about the expansion of settlements, but has made little impact on the Israeli government’s decision-making.

Last month, the United States imposed sanctions on Lehava, a group of more than 10,000 members, which the State Department described as the “largest violent extremist organization in Israel.”

US sanctions generally bar targets from the US financial system, leading Israeli banks to restrict dealings with sanctioned individuals for fear of repercussions.

The Biden administration, which has been pushing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, has held off on imposing sanctions on government ministers leading the settlement policy.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defense ministry, earlier this month approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem, saying he wanted to “fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground.”

Pope says repelling, abandoning migrants is ‘grave sin’


By AFP

August 28, 2024


The 87-year-old regularly calls for more empathy for people fleeing conflict, poverty, disasters or persecution - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Pope Francis condemned Wednesday efforts to repel migrants and block their routes as a “grave sin”, as he recalled those who lost their lives, including those “abandoned” in the desert.

The 87-year-old regularly calls for more empathy for people fleeing conflict, poverty, disasters or persecution, particularly those seeking to reach Europe from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea.

He dedicated his address at his weekly audience Wednesday to the subject, warning against “restrictive laws” and the “militarisation of borders” and calling for safe migration routes.

“It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin,” he said.

He repeated that the Mediterranean — where more than 3,000 migrants went missing last year, according to UN figures — has become a “cemetery”.

“Some deserts too, unfortunately, are becoming cemeteries of migrants. And even here it is not always a question of ‘natural’ deaths. No,” he said.

“At times, they have been taken to the desert and abandoned.

“In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women and children that no-one must see. Only God sees them and hears their cry.”

He did not specify any particular country but said that his description of seas and deserts also includes oceans, lakes and rivers, as well as forests, jungles and steppes “where migrants walk alone”.

“Brothers and sisters, we can all agree on one thing: migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said.

“But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarisation of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result,” he said.

He called for “safe and legal” routes for migrants and asylum seekers, and greater international efforts to combat human trafficking.

The European Union admitted in May to a “difficult situation” after a journalism consortium said Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania were dumping migrants in the desert, using the bloc’s funds.

The 27-nation EU has struck deals with the three countries with explicit financing to boost stopping irregular migration to Europe.

Switzerland reopens door for new nuclear power plants

By AFP
August 28, 2024

The four nuclear power plants currently in service provide around a third of Switzerland's total electricity production - Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI

Switzerland said Wednesday it was open to building new nuclear power stations in the long term, given new geopolitical uncertainties, climate targets and population growth boosting the demand for electricity.

The Swiss approved the gradual phase-out of nuclear power in a referendum in 2017, by banning the construction of new power plants.

That law was the result of a long process initiated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, triggered by a tsunami.

However, “since 2017, the situation on the electricity market has changed radically”, Energy Minister Albert Rosti told a press conference, following a government meeting.

Furthermore, last year voters backed a new climate bill aimed at steering the country towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

Rosti said new nuclear power was “not an option” in the short or even medium term.

“But to be ready, if it is necessary in the long term, in the next 15 years I would say, we must start now,” he stressed.

His ministry will submit an amendment to the nuclear energy law by the end of the year.

Parliament would then have to debate it and the public would have to vote in a referendum.

“We are not saying that in 10 years there will be a new power plant… but we are responsible for leaving the door open to all possible technologies,” said Rosti, stressing that if the process was not initiated now, it will “perhaps be too late in 20 years”.

As the wealthy Alpine nation hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the government said it needed to be open to different technologies — and the ban on new nuclear plants was “not compatible” with that objective.

The four nuclear power plants currently in service provide around a third of Switzerland’s total electricity production. They can continue running as long as they remain safe.

When they eventually have to close, the government fears renewable energy might not be able to plug the gap.

“At the time, we had imagined producing the missing electricity using gas-fired power plants,” but “this option has become almost unthinkable” to achieve carbon neutrality, Rosti explained.

He said the lifting of the ban on new nuclear power plants was a “fallback option, just in case”.

The announcement was immediately criticised by Greenpeace Switzerland as well as centrist, socialist and environmentalist parties.

“The construction of a new nuclear reactor will come too late to effectively reduce our carbon emissions and will not free us from our dependence on third countries for our energy supply,” said Greenpeace Switzerland.

Pro-Trump X accounts use stolen photos of European influencers: study


By AFP
August 28, 2024


Fake accounts on X use stolen images of influencers to appear authentic - Copyright AFP/File Jim WATSON, Odd ANDERSEN
Anuj CHOPRA

Meet “Eva,” “Sophia,” and “Samantha” — fake accounts which pose as chic American women who support Donald Trump on the platform X, disguising themselves by using stolen photographs of European fashion and beauty influencers, according to a study published Wednesday.

The report by the nonprofit Center for Information Resilience (CIR) comes as researchers express alarm ahead of the US election in November that the site owned by Elon Musk –- who has endorsed Trump –- is plagued with fake accounts and political disinformation.

CIR said it uncovered 16 accounts that used images of European influencers –- without their permission –- to pose as young women promoting Trump and encouraging thousands of followers to vote for the Republican nominee.

These accounts, which use stolen images of real people to appear authentic, were among 56 profiles that appear to be part of a coordinated campaign to push pro-Trump content, it added.

“By using images of the influencers, the accounts recognize the value of creating a believable human persona, steering clear of the generic photos and bot-like usernames usually associated with fake accounts,” CIR’s report said.

It was unclear who was behind the digital deception or whether the accounts were pushing pro-Trump content for ideological or monetary gain.

The fake profiles use everyday images from the influencers’ Instagram accounts — including pictures of them at the beach or walking their dog — which are captioned with MAGA-related hashtags or pledges to vote for Trump, CIR said.

MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is a political slogan associated with Trump and his campaign.

Many of the accounts have attempted to spread misinformation about hot-button political subjects such as a recent assassination attempt against Trump, his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s ethnicity and US military aid to Ukraine, the report said.

Some accounts also promote anti-vaccine and Covid-19 conspiracies, with some posts viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

“They post about divisive issues in US politics in a bid to exploit pre-existing tensions,” the report said.

One of the impersonators is “Luna,” a self-described 32-year-old “MAGA Trump supporter,” who used images of a German fashion influencer named Debbie Nederlof, according to CNN, which jointly conducted the investigation with CIR.

Nederlof, a single mother, voiced anger and frustration over the misuse of her images, saying she had “nothing to do with the United States, with Trump, the political things over there.”

“What the hell do I -– from a small place in Germany –- care about US politics?” she said.

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Impersonation is a violation of the platform’s rules, and accounts posing as another person, group or organization may be “permanently suspended,” according to X’s website.

Musk appears to exert an outsized influence on US voters through the platform and his own personal account, which is regularly flagged by fact-checkers for spreading political falsehoods to his nearly 196 million followers.

Since Musk’s 2022 acquisition of X, the platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.

California lawmakers pass AI safety bill


By AFP
August 28, 2024


A California bill seeks to regulate the development of AI models, though critics say the measure can threaten innovation in the nascent field -

Copyright AFP/File Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

A bill aimed at regulating powerful artificial intelligence models passed California’s legislature on Wednesday, despite outcry that it could kill the technology it seeks to control.

“SB 1047 — our AI safety bill — just passed off the Assembly floor. I’m proud of the diverse coalition behind this bill — a coalition that deeply believes in both innovation and safety,” said Democratic state senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, who sponsored the bill.

The bill had faced a barrage of critics, including Democratic members of US Congress, who argued that threats of punitive measures against developers in a nascent field would throttle innovation.

It did, however, win the reluctant support of Elon Musk, who argued that AI’s risk to the public justifies regulation.

“This is a tough call and will make some people upset,” he said on Monday as he stated his support on X.

The bill, called the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, now goes to the desk of California Gavin Newsom for signature, though his position on the proposal is not known.

Newsom has until September 30 to sign the bill or put his veto.

Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety, said the bill provides “a workable path forward” in enforcing “safeguards to mitigate against critical AI risk.”

The bill requires developers of large “frontier” AI models to take precautions such as pre-deployment testing, simulating hacker attacks, installing cyber security safeguards, and providing protection for whistleblowers.

In order to secure the legislation’s passage in the home state of Silicon Valley, lawmakers made several changes to the bill, including replacing criminal penalties for violations with civil penalties such as fines.

But opposition to the bill remained, including from some powerful national figures.

“The view of many of us in Congress is that SB 1047 is well-intentioned but ill-informed,” influential Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California said last week, noting that top party members have shared their concerns with Wiener.

But Wiener argues that AI safety and innovation are not mutually exclusive, and that tweaks to the bill have addressed some concerns of critics.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, also opposed the bill, saying it would prefer national rules instead of a chaotic patchwork of AI regulations across the 50 US states.

At least 40 states have introduced bills this year to regulate AI, and a half dozen have adopted resolutions or enacted legislation aimed at the technology, according to The National Conference of State Legislatures.

Greek port grapples with flood of dead fish


By AFP
August 28, 2024

Dead fish floating in the port of Volos, central Greece, on Wednesday - Copyright AFP Angelos TZORTZINIS

Authorities in central Greece are racing to deal with an inundation of tons of dead fish at a popular port that locals say could threaten their livelihoods.

It is the second environmental catastrophe to hit the port of Volos, a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Athens, after catastrophic floods hit the Thessaly region last year.

Those floods refilled a nearby lake that had been drained in 1962 in a bid to fight malaria, swelling it to three times its normal size.

“After the storms Daniel and Elias last autumn, around 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of plains in Thessaly were flooded, and various freshwater fish were carried by rivers” to the sea, Dimitris Klaudatos, a professor of agriculture and environment at the University of Thessaly.

Since then the lake waters have receded drastically, forcing the freshwater fish toward the Volos port that empties into the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea, where they cannot survive.

On Tuesday alone, authorities removed 57 tons of the dead fish washed up on beaches near Volos, with cleanup efforts continuing on Wednesday.

Tourist traffic to the area has already plunged by nearly 80 percent since last year’s flooding, according to the local association of restaurants and bars.

“The situation with this dead fish will be the death of us,” said Stefanos Stefanou, the president of the association. “What visitor will come to our city after this?”

Local authorities have opened an inquiry to study water qualities and microbial levels in the estuary of Lake Karla, as well as potential pollution in the gulf.

VP contender Walz fends off US misinformation over pro-LGBTQ stance

By AFP
August 28, 2024


Tim Walz faces a flood of misinformation ahead of the November election. - Copyright AFP KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI

Daniel Patrick Galgano and Anuj Chopra

A barrage of attacks on Tim Walz fueled by misinformation over his support for LGBTQ communities has failed to dent the US vice presidential candidate’s surging poll ratings, suggesting that voters are wearying of some “culture war” issues in a tight White House race.

The push, which includes false assertions that Walz signed a law protecting pedophiles, has been amplified by Donald Trump and top Republicans as political campaigning kicks into high gear ahead of the November 5 election.

Walz — the popular two-term governor of Minnesota — has also faced a torrent of misinformation about his legislative record on transgender rights and gender-affirming care.

Trump recently heaped scorn on Walz, saying he was “heavy into the transgender world.”

Trump’s supporters have mocked him as “Tampon Tim,” falsely asserting that he forced schools to make tampons and pads available in boys’ toilets, after he signed a law that requires schools to make the products available for free for menstruating students.

But — unlike an issue such as abortion, which has driven voters to polls at local, state and national levels since the Supreme Court overturned the right to the procedure in 2022 — the attacks appear to have failed to move the needle on Walz.

“People are getting ‘issue fatigue’ with regards to the culture wars,” Todd Belt, director of the political management program at George Washington University, told AFP.

“As the election gets closer, people want to hear out kitchen-table issues that have a material effect on their well-being.”

– ‘Real issues’ –

“Inflation is Americans’ most important issue,” said an Economist-YouGov poll in mid-August, with 26 percent expressing concern about prices.

When asked about other issues “important” to Americans, jobs and economy, immigration, healthcare and climate change were listed as the top answers.

Abortion, which many Americans regard as a hot-button culture war issue, appeared on the list, at sixth place.

“Voters are insisting that politicians focus instead on the real issues facing our nation, including inflation, abortion rights, and climate change,” said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis.

Her statement followed a survey in March which concluded that campaigning on anti-transgender issues was a “losing strategy,” with candidates who frequently discuss them creating more opposition than support for their campaigns.

That has not stopped both Republicans and Democrats from putting the culture wars at the center of their campaigns, and in a volatile election cycle issues other than abortion could yet break through.

But for now, despite the hammering of his pro-LGBTQ record, Walz has stayed easily ahead of Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance in national polling.

– ‘People are tired’ –

Much of the rhetoric against Walz involves children, including a viral claim across social media that he signed a bill last year protecting pedophiles in Minnesota, AFP fact-checkers reported.

The false claim, which garnered tens of thousands of views on sites such as Instagram, deploy a long-standing disinformation trope tying the LGBTQ community to pedophilia.

While lawmakers did remove a reference to pedophilia in the state’s human rights law, experts including Naomi Cahn, a University of Virginia professor, said the move does not affect the “criminal laws concerning sexual contact with a child.”

Other posts falsely accuse Walz of allowing the state to terminate parental custody if trans children are stopped by their parents from receiving gender-affirming care.

“Tim Walz signed a bill that lets the state take away (your) kids… in the name of ‘gender affirming care,'” conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly wrote on the platform X, a falsehood that garnered over 2.5 million views and was widely shared by Trump supporters.

Walz battled such misinformation after he signed the Trans Refuge Bill last year, granting legal protection to transgender people who come to Minnesota to seek medical care, even if the treatment is illegal in their home state.

Top Republicans such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin did see electoral success in past voting cycles by stoking anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

But polls showed that — unlike Democrats with abortion rights — Republicans had little success mobilizing voters around anti-trans issues in the 2022 midterm elections.

“It’s not working right now” before the November election, Belt said, adding that “people are tired” of the messaging.

“You can’t win an election just by being against something.”

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

Haiti gangs ‘aren’t even worried’ by Kenyan police


By AFP
August 28, 2024

People walk past burning tires, during a demonstration against insecurity in Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright AFP Clarens SIFFROY
Jean Daniel SENAT with Gerard MARTINEZ in Miami

Two months after the first Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti, little progress has been made against the country’s rapacious gangs — and the buildup of an international policing mission appears stalled.

With UN backing and funding from the United States, the mission was supposed to bring order to a nation where armed groups control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Yet the Kenyan police — now numbering 400 — and their Haitian counterparts have not recaptured any gang strongholds, with frustration palpable among city residents.

“The abuse from the gangs continues, and the bandits aren’t even worried,” motorcycle taxi driver Watson Laurent, 39, told AFP, adding he had been in favor of the international intervention.

“I thought they would restore peace and support our police who were overwhelmed,” he said. “I am very concerned. I can’t sleep at night because of the explosions.”

Violence-plagued Haiti was plunged into further turmoil after a coordinated gang uprising in February saw attacks on the international airport and police stations, and led to the resignation of prime minister Ariel Henry.

The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), which Kenya had stepped up to lead, was already in planning and was finally deployed to help Haiti tackle the soaring insecurity.

The first 200 Kenyans arrived in late June, with another 200 in July.

But the force has “neither the sufficient personnel nor the equipment to launch real offensive operations against the gangs,” Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst at the NGO International Crisis Group, told AFP.

– ‘Get to work’ –

The Kenyans and the Haitian National Police have protected key buildings and facilities in Port-au-Prince, while gangs — accused of rape, murder and kidnapping — have largely held on to their territory.

The only major operation that the Kenyan police were involved in was at the end of July, when the 400 Mawozo gang took the town of Ganthier, 28 kilometers (18 miles) east of Port-au-Prince.

But ahead of the security forces’ arrival, gang members skipped town — only to retake Ganthier once the Kenyan and Haitian police left.

Kenyan police have said they have made “significant progress,” including helping take back “critical infrastructure, including the airport, from gang control” and opening “roads that have enabled the return of thousands of Haitians earlier displaced.”

Most of that progress took place before their arrival, said Da Rin.

Many ordinary Haitians are angry.

“The MSS needs to get to work,” said Yverose Amazan, a shopkeeper. “This situation has gone on too long.”


– Where are the others? –


With a price tag of $600 million, the MSS is supposed to total 2,500 officers from Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica — yet only the Kenyans have arrived, and with just 400 of their planned 1,000 officers.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for more funding, with the latest figures showing only $21.6 million out of the $85 million pledged has been received.

Meanwhile the United States has contributed more than $300 million in funds and equipment, including armored vehicles.

The gang uprising was just the latest shock to hit a country grappling with the compounding effects of political crises, natural disasters and poverty.

Nearly 600,000 people have been displaced in Haiti, according to the United Nations, while some 4.5 million do not have enough to eat.

The prospects may look grim, but Amazan hopes the police mission “does something” by the time school starts in mid-September.

“I would like to be able to move around my country, as was the case before the proliferation of the gangs,” she said.

One quarter of China’s energy now comes from clean sources: white paper


By AFP
August 28, 2024

China said its wind and solar capacity overshot a target set by President Xi Jinping nearly six years ahead of schedule 

- Copyright AFP/File GREG BAKER

A quarter of all the energy China consumes now comes from clean sources, according to research published Thursday, as Beijing rapidly pivots its huge economy to a greener footing.

The country is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, though has in recent years emerged as a global leader in renewable energy.

It has pledged to bring its emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.

A white paper published Thursday said the proportion of “clean energy” in total national consumption rose from 15.5 percent to 26.4 percent over the past decade, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Wind and solar capacity increased by ten times over the same period, Xinhua quoted the document as saying.

It said China was responsible for over 40 percent of annual additions to global renewable energy capacity since 2013.

“China has… achieved historic breakthroughs in green and low-carbon energy development,” the white paper said.

Under the Paris climate accord, countries have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions with a view to keeping global temperature rises below 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

China has won plaudits for its efforts to rapidly ditch polluting energy sources such as coal, but has also resisted calls to act even more ambitiously.

Last week, its wind and solar capacity overshot a target set by President Xi Jinping nearly six years ahead of schedule.

Mismatched development in the country’s renewables sector also means a significant amount of energy gets wasted, while turbulence in the domestic solar industry has pushed some firms into dire financial straits.

China’s solar sector blazes trail in commitment to renewables


By AFP
August 28, 2024

China is building almost twice as much wind and solar capacity as every other country combined - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Rebecca Bailey with Matthew Walsh in Beijing

Hundreds of rows of gleaming panels blanket swathes of scrubby sand at sunset in a remote northern Chinese desert — once the biggest solar farm in the world.

On the edge of the forbidding Tengger desert, the solar park produces 1.5 gigawatts of power — but it has since been eclipsed and the largest is now further west with more than double the capacity.

China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is building almost twice as much wind and solar capacity as every other country combined.

Last week, its wind and solar capacity overshot a target set by President Xi Jinping nearly six years ahead of schedule.

The vast solar arrays in the Ningxia region are a testament to a state-led industrial policy that has driven that breakneck growth.

South of the regional capital Yinchuan, huge lorries roar down a highway flanked by photovoltaic panels and wind turbines stretching to the horizon.

Ningxia, like much of China’s northwest, is sparsely populated and sun-soaked, pockmarked with small farms, vineyards and hulking power stations.

This geography makes it a prime location for generating solar power, which is then sent to China’s eastern and southern provinces where electricity demand is highest.

“China’s solar energy is developing at an unprecedented pace and scale,” said analyst Wu Di from Peking University’s Institute of Energy.

The country increased its installed solar capacity by more than 55 percent last year, according to the National Energy Administration.

China now accounts for over 40 percent of the total installed capacity worldwide, said Wu.

– ‘Need for coal waning’ –

Beijing aims to bring emissions of planet-heating carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060, part of its commitments under the Paris climate accord that seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“Carbon can’t peak unless incremental consumption demand is covered entirely by incremental growth in clean energy,” said David Fishman, a senior manager at the Lantau Group specialising in China’s power sector.

“Incremental solar capacity growth is an important part of making sure all power demand growth is met by clean sources.”

The government only permitted around nine gigawatts of new coal power in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year reduction of 83 percent, according to a report published this month by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

“With new renewable energy installations now capable of meeting all incremental power demand in China, the need for new coal is waning,” the Finland-based independent research group said.

But it also warned that construction continued on existing coal projects, potentially slowing Beijing’s energy transition.

– Industry shake-out –

The blistering pace at which extra solar capacity has been added has not quite been matched by developments in the power grid, causing some energy to be lost — a phenomenon known as curtailment.

In May, Fitch Ratings said this could continue to rise in the near term, with the solar curtailment rate for the first quarter of 2024 increasing to four percent.

“In the future, in order to control the solar curtailment ratio within a reasonable range, China still has lots of work to do,” said Wu.

Transferring power from west to east is also “not the most cost-effective approach”, said Gao Yuhe from environmental group Greenpeace East Asia.

Besides the behemothic parks in the north, China’s solar revolution has also relied on distributed solar energy — smaller panels set onto rooftops in residential and commercial areas, which reduce transmission losses.

But even this smaller-scale infrastructure needs upgrading to cope with recent increased capacity, said Wu.

Long backed by generous government subsidies, China’s domestic solar-panel industry is struggling with a global oversupply crisis that has driven down prices and pushed some firms into bankruptcy.

Fishman, of the Lantau Group, said the intense competition “is good news for builders, who continue to benefit from the cheapest panels the world has ever seen”.

“Once a few of them go toes-up because they can’t endure the competition, the market should stabilise,” he added.

Chinese subsidies have also created friction with global trading partners, with the EU launching an investigation to discern whether the subsidies have helped homegrown firms undercut European rivals.

Beijing denies that its industrial policies are unfair and has initiated a series of probes into European imports in apparent retaliation.

Brazil judge threatens to suspend X within 24 hours

By AFP
August 28, 2024


Elon Musk's X. — © AFP

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge threatened Wednesday to suspend X, formerly Twitter, if CEO Elon Musk doesn’t name a new legal representative for the social media site’s operations in the country.

Earlier this month Musk shut down X’s business operations in Brazil while preserving access to the social media site for users after accusing the judge of threatening the company’s previous legal representative.

In an order made public Wednesday, judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered Musk “to appoint the company’s new legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours.”

“In the event of non-compliance with the order, the decision provides for the suspension of the social network’s activities in Brazil.”

Moraes has spearheaded the battle against disinformation in South America’s largest nation, clashing with Musk along the way.

Musk and other critics have said Moraes is part of a sweeping crackdown on free speech.

Justifying the shutdown of the offices, Musk said that had X complied with de Moraes’s orders, “there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”


Brazil Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered Elon Musk to name a new legal representative in the country or face X being shut down there – Copyright AFP/File EVARISTO SA

Moraes previously had ordered the suspension of several Twitter accounts suspected of spreading disinformation, including those of supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to discredit the voting system in the 2022 presidential election, which he lost.

In April, X admitted that several users of blocked accounts had managed to circumvent the restrictions.

Musk is also the subject of a judicial investigation into an alleged scheme where public money was used to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favor of Bolsonaro and those close to him