Category: World

Has Israel complied with ICJ order in Gaza genocide case? | Israel War on Gaza News

Israel is expected to submit a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday on the measures it has taken to prevent possible genocide in Gaza. This is to assess whether Israel complied with the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ on January 26.

South Africa, which brought the case, says Israel has failed to comply with the measures. “I believe the rulings of the court have been ignored,” said Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.

Here are the measures the ICJ ordered, as we look at whether Israel followed through in the past month since the ruling.

What provisional measures did the ICJ rule?

The six provisional directions the ICJ gave on January 26 are:

  • Israel must take all possible measures to prevent genocidal acts as outlined in Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
  • Israel must ensure its military does not carry out the aforementioned actions.
  • Israel must prevent the destruction of evidence of war crimes in Gaza and allow fact-finding missions to access it.
  • Israel must submit a report to the ICJ on how it intends to deliver the above measures within a month of the ruling.
  • Israel must prevent and punish incitement of genocidal acts.
  • Israel must ensure the delivery of basic services and essential humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.

Did Israel follow the ICJ ruling?

Article 2 of the Genocide Convention entails not killing members of a particular group and not causing physical or psychological harm to members of that group, not inflicting living conditions which are calculated to bring about the end of the existence of a people, and not carrying out actions designed to prevent births within that group of people.

The ruling also added that Israel is supposed to ensure its military does not take such action and that Israel should punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to the Palestinians in Gaza.

Between the January 26 ruling and February 24, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,523 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. An average of 120 Palestinians were killed every day. At least 5,250 Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks.

Many of these attacks were air raids on central and southern Gaza throughout the month, targeting residential areas, schools, hospitals and even refugee camps. Palestinians left in the northern region, now totally devastated, have been starving as Israel has placed heavy restrictions on aid delivery.

Israel laid siege on al-Amal Hospital and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis – a tactic repeated from the earlier phase of the war when Gaza’s largest medical facility, al-Shifa Hospital, was crippled by siege and shelling. Israel has said hospitals were being used as command centres by Hamas but it has yet to provide concrete proof for its claims.

Israel has since partially withdrawn from the Nasser Hospital but it deployed snipers, who fired on people approaching the largest hospital in the south.

Numerous cases of torture, killings and torching of civilian homes have been reported in clear disregard to the ICJ order last month.

Israeli far-right politicians and ministers have continued to use anti-Palestine rhetoric that campaigners say is genocidal, particularly open calls for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

Israel also targeted Rafah, the southernmost part of Gaza which now shelters about 1.5  million Palestinians most of whom fled earlier phase of the war. Escalating air raids and shelling have increased the death toll as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his intentions clear to invade the southern region bordering Egypt.

Interactive-Humanitarian graphics-all_Feb25_2024-1708848988

Has Israel allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza?

Human Rights Watch on Monday said Israel had failed to comply with at least one measure in ICJ’s order by obstructing basic aid to Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war.

“The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking lifesaving aid.”

The flow of humanitarian aid has been badly affected after several Western donors led by the United States suspended funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the wake of Israeli accusation that UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the latest conflict. According to the UNRWA chief, Israel has yet to provide evidence in support of its allegations.

UNRWA warned that this could lead to the agency being unable to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, which would plunge the enclave into starvation. On Sunday, a two-month baby died due to starvation in Gaza City, as famine grips the besieged enclave.

On Monday, UNRWA said an average of less than 100 aid trucks have reached Gaza per day in February, far below its target of 500. These deliveries brought in just 50 percent of the amount of aid that was delivered in January, UNRWA said in its latest situation update.

On some days in February, less than 10 trucks entered Gaza. Only seven trucks entered on February 9, nine entered on February 12, four on February 17, and nine again on February 19.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, said on February 13 that he had blocked a US-funded flour shipment to Gaza because it was going to UNRWA.

Footage from February 19, verified by Al Jazeera, showed Palestinians in northern Gaza scattering after hearing gunshots while they were lining up for food aid. Israeli forces shot at least one Palestinian man dead and injured several others when they opened fire on a crowd awaiting food.

UNRWA made an announcement on February 7 saying some of its aid trucks carrying food into Gaza were bombed, purportedly by Israeli forces on February 5.

What happens if Israel fails to follow ICJ’s ruling?

If it is found not to have complied with the ICJ’s legally binding orders, any UN Security Council member state may refer the matter to the UNSC, which would then vote on whether to require Israel to abide by the provisional measures.

If it still refuses to do so, Israel could face UN sanctions, which could include economic or trade sanctions, arms embargoes and travel bans. The UN Charter also allows the UNSC to go a step further and intervene with force.

An adverse verdict from the court might prevent Israel’s allies from sending weapons as happened in the Netherlands, where a court blocked the supply of equipment for the F35 fighter jets used to bomb Gaza. The Dutch government has challenged the order.

However, any sanctions may be vetoed by the US, Israel’s closest ally. It has vetoed three ceasefire resolutions on Israel since October 7.

In the statement, HRW said other countries should press Israel’s government to comply with the orders through sanctions and embargoes.

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Ukraine demands Poland punish protesting farmers for dumping grain | Protests News

Ukraine has called on Poland to punish those responsible for destroying 160 tonnes of Ukrainian grain in an attack at a Polish railway station.

Kyiv sent a note to Warsaw demanding that the Polish authorities find and punish the guilty, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on X on Monday.

The official said the destruction of the grain at the railway station amid protests was an act of “impunity and irresponsibility”.

“Those who have damaged Ukrainian grain must be found, neutralized, and punished. Two friendly civilized European states are interested in this,” Kubrakov wrote.

Earlier, the official had reported that 160 tonnes of grain, en route to other countries via the port of Gdansk, had been dumped at the railway station near Bydgoszcz, in eastern Poland. It was reportedly the fourth instance of Ukrainian grain being spilled by protesting Polish farmers in recent weeks.

Polish farmers have been at the forefront of the widespread protests by European farmers over recent weeks. However, they have been protesting against “unfair competition” from Ukraine for over a year.

The European Union suspended import duties, quotas and trade defence measures for imports from Ukraine in June 2022, after Russia’s war closed down many of the country’s usual grain export routes. However, the flow of cheap grain from the east quickly sparked protests by farmers and truckers in neighbouring countries.

Encouraged by the former nationalist government, which ruled until last year, Poland’s farmers and truckers have blocked border crossings and motorways.

Like peers across Europe, the new government in Warsaw has been wary of confronting farmers, apparently eyeing significant public support and the risk that a strong response to the protests could prove a boon for the far right at European Parliament elections in June.

On Friday, a Ukrainian government delegation visited the border with Poland to discuss the protests.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv had developed a five-step plan “of mutual understanding” to find a compromise for both countries.

“The blockade hits the entire Polish-Ukrainian trade and the economy of our countries. Not only Ukraine is losing from it, but Polish entrepreneurs who export goods worth $12bn annually to our market are losing from it.”

The plan outlines Ukraine’s agreement with a European Commission proposal to restrict poultry, eggs and sugar exports, including an appeal to the EU to ban Russian agrarian exports.

He added that Kyiv is also ready to apply a verification mechanism to grain, corn, sunflower and rapeseed exports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that it was important for Kyiv to maintain close relations with Poland. Still, he added that his country is ready to defend businesses that had been hurt by the border blockades.

Ukrainian border service spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said on television, “Unfortunately, the blockage continues.”

“In total, 2,200 lorries are queueing on Polish territory and [Polish] farmers are letting several vehicles through per hour in both directions. More blocked are those lorries coming from Ukraine,” he said.

Burning tyres

Beyond Poland, farmers from across Europe, including France, Germany and Belgium, have been blocking roads and protesting against foreign competition, as well as environmental regulations, raised costs, and low prices for produce.

Ukraine has said blockades on its grain exports have caused severe economic losses and affected its war effort.

On Monday, tractors surrounded the EU’s headquarters in Brussels as ministers met to seek ways to streamline farming rules and red tape fuelling the protests around the bloc.

Farmers burned tyres and set off fireworks in the street. Police used water cannon to douse the flames as the ministers discussed concessions.



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Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 143 | Israel War on Gaza News

As it continues with its offensive, Israel is expected to submit a report to the ICJ regarding its actions in Gaza.

Here’s how things stand on Monday, February 26, 2024:

Fighting and humanitarian crisis

  • The Israeli military shelled and fired on crowds of Palestinians waiting for food aid trucks to arrive in Gaza City, killing 10 people, the Wafa news agency reported.
  • At least 15 people were injured in the attack, which occurred on the coastal road in northern Gaza City on Sunday evening. They have been transferred to the nearby al-Shifa Hospital.
  • “Reports that a two-month-old baby died of hunger in Gaza are horrific,” said UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in a post on social media.
  • Photos and testimonies have documented the Israeli army targeting two Palestinian sisters, killing one of them, as they searched for food on farmland in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
  • The Israeli war cabinet has approved a military plan for “providing humanitarian assistance” in the Gaza Strip.
  • Meanwhile, an Israeli military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah could be “delayed somewhat” if a deal is reached for a weeks-long truce between Israel and Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Regional tensions and diplomacy

  • On January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave Israel one month to “submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect” to its order in the genocide case brought by South Africa. Israel is expected to submit that report today, Monday, February 26.
  • Meanwhile, the final day of public hearings has begun in a separate ICJ case on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967.
  • In the United States, an active US military service member set himself on fire, in an apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza, outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, authorities said. US media reports said Aaron Bushnell, 25, livestreamed himself on Twitch, wearing fatigues and declaring he would “not be complicit in genocide” before dousing himself in liquid. He then lit himself on fire while yelling “Free Palestine!” until he fell to the ground.

Violence in the occupied West Bank

  • Israeli forces have erected a tower and placed surveillance cameras on it at the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reports.
  • The report comes as the Israeli government is expected to place restrictions on worshippers trying to pray at Islam’s third-holiest site during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which will likely start on March 10.
  • Israel plans to build more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack, a senior cabinet minister said. The decision drew an angry response from the US at a time of growing tensions over the course of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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Nigerians suffer along border with Niger as economic sanctions bite | In Pictures

Under the midday sun in northern Nigeria, three sisters trek across the border on their way to a wedding in Niger, carrying their babies on their backs.

The 1,600km (1,000-mile) frontier has officially been closed since August last year, when West African leaders imposed sanctions on Niger following a military coup that overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.

The closure has taken a heavy toll on both sides.

In Nigeria, it has sharpened the effects of an economic crisis and exposed already vulnerable communities to an increase in violent crime. The hardship has been immense, hitting traders especially hard – but for many, the border is still porous.

The three women, who have family on either side, passed by the post at Jibia town in Nigeria freely on their way from northwestern Katsina state to Dan Issa village in Niger.

Authorities tend to turn a blind eye to pedestrians, and motorists have also found other routes to skirt round checks.

The women said the 800 naira ($0.50) fee for a motorbike taxi to their destination was too expensive.

“We can’t afford it, which is why we decided to trek,” said 30-year-old Saadatu Sani.

Women walk by the closed Niger-Nigeria border in Jibia [Kola Sulaimon/AFP]

Hit twice

Nigeria used to be one of Niger’s main trading partners, exporting $193m worth of goods to Niger in 2022, according to the United Nations, including electricity, tobacco and cement.

Niger’s exports to its neighbour totalled $67.84m in the same year, including cattle, fruit and refined fuel.

It is tougher for traders to cross the border, and they say the closure has had a severe effect.

Truck driver Hamza Lawal said his business had ground to a halt.

He said food had become so expensive people could “hardly eat three meals in a day”.

Locals say they have been struck by a double catastrophe, with food prices soaring since the border closure as well as reforms brought in by Nigeria’s new president which have plunged the country into a wider economic crisis.

After coming to office last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended a fuel subsidy and currency controls, leading to a tripling of petrol prices and a spike in living costs as the naira has slid against the dollar.

The country’s inflation rate reached almost 30 percent in January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In Jibia, 100kg (220 pounds) of millet now costs about 60,000 naira ($40) – double the last year’s price.

Hassan Issa, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) coordinator in Katsina, fears malnutrition rates will reach new highs this year.

With Ramadan starting next month, he worries families in the predominantly Muslim state will “quickly exhaust their reserves during the festive period and find themselves with nothing very early in the year”.

Musa Abdullah, 67, the head of the herders in Jibia [Kola Sulaimon/AFP]

Bribes and banditry

The border closure has also worsened insecurity in the region.

Over the years, old tensions between herders and farmers have morphed into a deadly conflict involving criminal gangs. Armed “bandit” groups kill, loot and terrorise the population.

They have stepped up attacks despite Nigerian military operations in the vast Rugu forest, one of their hideouts.

The conflict has driven farmers from their land, and bandits also steal livestock.

“We and the people of Niger are brethren, we are kith and kin,” said 67-year-old herder Musa Abdullahu.

“They bring these livestock to us to buy. Since the border is closed they cannot bring the livestock to us … and the local livestock have all been rustled by these evil people [bandits],” he said.

The economic fallout from the border closure has also led some Nigerians to turn to banditry.

“Poverty can lead to theft and murder … anything for survival,” said Jibia’s traditional leader Sade Rabiu.

But it is not just bandits that locals have to contend with.

Philip Ikita, project director for the Mercy Corps NGO in Katsina, said insecurity has risen since the closure thanks to the actions of “government security agencies as well as the bandits”.

At checkpoints along the road from Katsina city to Jibia, police, soldiers, local security groups, and self-appointed inspectors take money from road users.

Ikita said officials were stopping traders “not really to enforce the law but … to negotiate heavy bribes”.

“The bandits are underground, they can’t come out in the open,” he said. “The people that are supposed to enforce the law and protect us from bandits are the biggest burden to our free trade.”

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Algeria inaugurates world’s third-largest mosque ahead of Ramadan | Religion News

It’s also Africa’s largest, but critics view the mosque as a vanity project for a former president who named it after himself.

Algeria has inaugurated the world’s third-largest and Africa’s largest mosque, which had been delayed for years amid political shifts, ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Monday officially inaugurated the Grand Mosque of Algiers on the North African nation’s Mediterranean coastline.

Known locally as the Djamaa El-Djazair, it features the world’s tallest minaret at 265 metres (869 feet), can accommodate 120,000 people, and is the world’s largest mosque only after Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca and Medina.

It was built over seven years in the form of a modernist structure extending across 27.75 hectares (almost 70 acres), decorated in wood and marble and containing Arab and North African flourishes. It reportedly has a helicopter landing pad and a library capable of housing up to one million books.

The mosque’s official opening allows it to host many public prayers and events during the month of Ramadan, which starts around March 10.

But its inauguration event was largely ceremonial, as it has been open to international tourists and state visitors to Algeria for about five years, and first opened for prayers in October 2020 but without Tebboune as he was suffering from COVID-19.

The vast mosque reportedly cost close to $900m to build and was constructed by a Chinese firm.

Construction began in 2012 and was faced with many delays and cost overruns [Anis Belghoul/AP Photo]

Algeria now boasts the largest mosque outside of the holiest sites in Islam, but the project has been marked by years of delays and cost overruns. It has also been criticised for allegedly being built in a seismically risky area, but the government has denied this.

Critics also claim that the mosque was essentially a vanity project for former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to resign in 2019 after 20 years in power.

Bouteflika, who had to step down after popular protests and eventual intervention by Algeria’s military, had named the mosque after himself and planned to inaugurate it in February 2019 but never managed to.

The mosque — along with a major national highway and a million new housing units — was marred by suspicions of corruption during the Bouteflika era, with suspected kickbacks to state officials paid by the contractors.

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Israel mulling ‘evacuation plan’ as Rafah offensive looms | Israel War on Gaza News

Rafah assault ‘inevitable’, says Israeli PM Netanyahu. Any deal with Hamas would only delay it.

Israel is mulling an “evacuation plan” for civilians from unspecified parts of the Gaza Strip.

A plan to evacuate people from “areas of fighting” was presented to the war cabinet by the military, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement issued on Monday. The proposal comes as the Israeli army prepares for a long-threatened offensive on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people are trapped.

The war cabinet discussed late on Sunday the “plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip” and “the upcoming operational plan”, the prime minister’s office said.

However, the details are unconfirmed. The brief statement did not specify that the plans are related to the intended ground invasion of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been forcibly displaced.

“This is a dual action plan. One, for Israel’s ground invasion into Rafah, and two, an evacuation plan for the nearly 1.5 million Palestinians who are seeking refuge in Gaza’s southernmost city,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.

Only route to ‘total victory’

The reports of the plans followed shortly after the chiefs of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad and internal security service Shin Bet returned from the latest truce talks in Paris. They reportedly had in hand the outline of a potential agreement with Hamas that envisages a pause in fighting for up to six weeks to facilitate an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives.

The framework has been presented to Hamas, but the group has yet to publicly comment. An Israeli delegation will be sent to Qatar in the coming days for further negotiations.

Al Jazeera’s Salhut pointed out that Netanyahu has said no deal is yet agreed and imminent.

“Additionally, when we talk about Rafah, the Israeli prime minister – while speaking to American media – has said that if there is a deal, the ground invasion will be delayed. If there is not a deal, the ground invasion would happen sooner,” she said.

“But no matter the outcome, Israel’s ground invasion into Rafah, despite all the international criticism and condemnation, is going to take place because he says that is the only way to achieve ‘total victory’ over Hamas.”

‘Same page’

Amid the plans and talks, Israel’s ground invasion of southern Gaza is ongoing in Khan Younis, and bombs have continued to fall on Rafah and other areas in the besieged enclave, where about 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7.

Netanyahu told US broadcaster CBS late on Sunday that once the Rafah invasion begins, the “intense phase” of the fighting will be weeks from completion. He said “we’re on the same page with the US” on the need to evacuate civilians.

“The reason you have that population in Rafah is because we actually cleared them away from other combat zones that we had, that’s why they’re there. So now there’s room for them to go north of Rafah, to the places that we’ve already finished fighting in.”

The Israeli leader also reiterated a claim that Tel Aviv has no plans to push Palestinians in Rafah into bordering Egypt.

Satellite images and reports have indicated Egypt has been building a fortified buffer zone that could potentially house tens of thousands of Palestinians who may be forced into its borders by an Israeli attack, but Cairo has denied this.

Egypt has also threatened that more than four decades of peace with Israel could be in jeopardy if the Rafah invasion takes place.

According to Netanyahu’s office, a separate plan for “providing humanitarian assistance” has also been presented to the cabinet, which is allegedly designed to “prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas”.

Aid convoys have struggled to move through Rafah to reach other areas after Israeli forces targeted and killed Palestinian police who were trying to help aid convoys navigate hungry and desperate crowds.

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Meta unveils team to combat disinformation and AI harms in EU elections | Elections

Tech giant’s head of EU affairs says team will bring together experts from across the company.

Facebook owner Meta has unveiled plans to launch a dedicated team to combat disinformation and harms generated by artificial intelligence (AI) ahead of the upcoming European Parliament elections.

Marco Pancini, Meta’s head of EU affairs, said the “EU-specific Elections Operations Center” would bring together experts from across the company to focus on tackling misinformation, influence operations and risks related to the abuse of AI.

“Ahead of the elections period, we will make it easier for all our fact-checking partners across the EU to find and rate content related to the elections because we recognize that speed is especially important during breaking news events,” Pancini said in a blog post on Sunday.

“We’ll use keyword detection to group related content in one place, making it easy for fact-checkers to find.”

Pancini said Meta’s efforts to address the risks posed by AI would include the addition of a feature for people to disclose when they share AI-generated video or audio and possible penalties for noncompliance.

“We already label photorealistic images created using Meta AI, and we are building tools to label AI generated images from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney, and Shutterstock that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads,” he said.

The launch of AI platforms such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini has raised concerns about the possibility of false information, images and videos influencing voters in elections.

The EU parliament elections, which take place between June 6 and 9, are among a raft of major polls taking place in 2024, which has been dubbed the biggest election year in history.

Voters in more than 80 countries, including the United States, India, Mexico and South Africa, are set to go to the polls in elections representing about half the world’s population.

Meta earlier this month joined 19 other tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, X, Amazon and TikTok, in signing a pledge to clamp down on AI content designed to mislead voters.

Under the “Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections”, the companies agreed to take eight steps to address election risks, including developing tools to identify AI-generated content and enhancing transparency about efforts to address potentially harmful material.

The influence of AI on voters has already come under scrutiny in a number of elections.

Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan used AI-generated speeches to rally supporters in the run-up to the country’s parliamentary elections earlier this month.

In January, a fake robocall claiming to be from United States President Joe Biden urged voters not to cast their ballots in the New Hampshire primary.

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Hamas to halal: How anti-Muslim hate speech is spreading in India | Islamophobia News

New Delhi, India – India averaged nearly two anti-Muslim hate speech events per day in 2023 and three in every four of those events – or 75 percent – took place in states ruled by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, revealed a report released Monday.

In 2023, the hate speech events peaked between August and November, the period of political campaigning and polling in four major states, according to a report released by India Hate Lab (IHL), a Washington, DC-based research group.

As India heads for a national vote in the upcoming months, a first-of-its-kind report by the IHL maps the spread of anti-Muslim hate speech across the country. The group documented a total of 668 hate speech events.

Last month, the website of India Hate Lab was rendered inaccessible in India after the government blocked it under the controversial Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The government also blocked the website of Hindutva Watch, an independent hate-crime tracker also run by the IHL’s founder.

The new report – the first time a research group has tracked hate speech events in India over a year – tracks how these events spread geographically across India, the triggers behind these events, and when they occur.

Which are India’s hate speech hotbeds?

The group documented a total of 668 hate speech events across 18 states and three federally governed territories. The top-ranking Indian states for these events were: Maharashtra in the west with 118 incidents, Uttar Pradesh in the north with 104 incidents, and Madhya Pradesh in central India with 65 incidents.

These three states are among the biggest voter bases, are currently ruled by the BJP, and collectively account for 43 percent of the total hate speech events recorded in 2023.

But relatively smaller states, like Haryana and Uttarakhand in northern India, weren’t immune either.

While Haryana witnessed 48 hate speech events, or about 7.2 percent, events in Uttarakhand made up 6 percent – both states are among the emerging hotbeds for anti-Muslim violence as well. Seven people died and over 70 were injured in violence in the Nuh region of Haryana in August 2023; earlier this month, five Muslims were killed in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, while protesting against the demolition of a mosque and a religious school in the town.

Prem Shukla, a national spokesperson of the BJP, told Al Jazeera that the party has been opposing the “Islamic fundamentalist forces” and alleged that the IHL data represented a “biased picture of the situation”.

“The other so-called secular states are targeting the Hindu majority community by hate speeches, but no one will talk about it,” Shukla said in a phone interview. He also dismissed the IHL report, alleging that those behind it “have sworn to destroy the BJP”.

Who rules states with the most hate speech?

As per the report, 498 hate speech events, which make up 75 percent, took place in the states ruled by the BJP or in territories that it effectively governs through the central government. Among the 10 states with the most hate speech events, six were ruled by the BJP throughout the year. The other three states, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Chhattisgarh had legislative elections in 2023, in which power changed hands: Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh moved from the opposition Congress party to the BJP, and Karnataka from the BJP to the Congress. Bihar, the last of the 10 states with the most hate-speech events, was ruled by an opposition coalition until last month, when its chief minister switched sides to join a BJP-led alliance.

More than 77 percent of speeches that included a direct call of violence against Muslims were also delivered in states and territories governed by the BJP.

A third of all hate speech events documented by the IHL were organised by two far-right organisations, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, which are associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP. In 2018, the United States Central Intelligence Agency tagged the VHP and Bajrang Dal as “religious militant organisations”.

“Our analysis shows that anti-Muslim hate speech has been normalised and become part of India’s socio-political sphere,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, founder of the IHL. “We foresee rampant use of anti-Muslim hate during the upcoming general elections to polarise voters.”

What are the provocations used for hate speech events?

The report documented that 63 percent of the total 668 hate speech events referenced Islamophobic conspiracy theories.

The theories included “love jihad”, an alleged phenomenon where Muslim men lure Hindu women into marrying them and converting to Islam; “land jihad”, which alleges Muslims are occupying public lands by building religious structures or holding prayers; “halal jihad”, which views Islamic practices as the economic exclusion of non-Muslim traders; and “population jihad”, which alleges that Muslims reproduce with the intention of eventually outnumbering and dominating other populations.

All of these conspiracy theories have been debunked: The government’s own data, for instance, shows that Muslim fertility rates are dropping faster than those of any other major community in India.

Over 48 percent of the events occurred between August and November, a period that saw state elections in four major states.

Reacting to the IHL report, Amnesty International called on Indian authorities to put an end to the rise in speeches calling for violence and hatred against religious minorities.

“[The authorities] must take concrete measures to counter stereotypes, eradicate discrimination, and foster greater equality,” Aakar Patel, chair of the board at Amnesty International India, told Al Jazeera.

Activists from various leftist organisations shout slogans during a protest against hate speech in New Delhi on December 27, 2021. [Manish Swarup/AP Photo]

What’s the latest hate weapon being used against Indian Muslims?

Since October 7, Indian far-right groups have been weaponising the Hamas attack on southern Israel, and Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza to stoke anti-Indian Muslim fears and hate.

From October 7 to December 31, 2023, one in every five hate-speech events invoked Israel’s war, a phenomenon that peaked in November, according to the IHL report.

Pravin Togadia, founder and current president of the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad, said in an event in Haryana on November 20: “Today it is Israel’s turn. That same Palestine is rising in our villages and our streets. Saving our prosperity, our women, from them is a big challenge for us.”

In the same month, Kapil Mishra, a BJP leader, said: “What Israel faced is what we have been facing for 1,400 years.”

Other analysts have found that India has also emerged as an epicentre of disinformation on Israel’s war on Gaza, spreading through the internet.

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Japan’s stock market hits new high after topping 1989 peak | Economy

Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 last week made history by hitting its highest level in nearly 35 years.

Japan’s stock market has hit a new high after bursting past its 1989 peak last week following decades of stagnation.

Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose nearly 0.7 percent in morning trading on Monday, extending a rally that has made Japanese stocks some of the hottest buys of the past year.

Major gainers included Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo.

On Thursday, the Nikkei passed its all-time high of 38,915.8, reached in 1989 as Japan’s economy was on the precipice of an asset crash that set in motion several “lost decades” of economic stagnation.

The Nikkei gained 28.2 percent throughout the whole of 2023, well ahead of the S&P500, which itself enjoyed a bumper year.

Foreign cash has poured into Japanese stocks as investors take advantage of the cheap yen and corporate governance reforms that have boosted shareholder returns.

Japan’s overall economy, however, has continued to struggle with anaemic growth amid structural challenges that include a shrinking population and rigid labour force.

The Japanese economy officially entered recession earlier this month, relinquishing its place as the world’s third-largest economy to Germany.

Elsewhere, other Asian markets on Monday fell.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite both dipped 0.7 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.8 percent.

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Tuvalu names Feleti Teo as new prime minister | Politics News

Former attorney general is named new prime minister after a general election that ousted the island’s pro-Taiwan leader.

Lawmakers in Tuvalu have named former Attorney General Feleti Teo as the Pacific Island nation’s new prime minister, weeks after a general election that put the country’s ties with Taiwan in the spotlight.

In a statement on Monday, Tuvalu’s government said Teo was the only candidate nominated by his 15 lawmaker colleagues and was declared elected without a vote.

The swearing-in ceremony for Teo and his cabinet will be held later this week.

Teo’s elevation to prime minister comes after his pro-Taiwan predecessor, Kausea Natano, lost his seat in the January 26 election.

Natano had wanted Tuvalu – which is home to a population of about 11,200 people – to remain one of only 12 countries that have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as its own territory.

Natano’s former finance minister, Seve Paeniu, who was considered a leadership contender, had said the issue of diplomatic recognition of Taiwan or China should be debated by the new government.

The comments prompted concern in Taiwan, especially as Tuvalu’s neighbour Nauru recently severed diplomatic ties with Taipei in favour of Beijing, which had promised more development help.

There had also been calls by some lawmakers in Tuvalu to review a wide-ranging defence and migration deal signed with Australia in November. The agreement allows Canberra to vet Tuvalu’s police, port and telecommunication cooperation with other countries, in return for a defence guarantee and allowing citizens threatened by rising seas to migrate to Australia.

The deal was seen as an effort to curb China’s rising influence as an infrastructure provider in the Pacific Islands.

Teo’s position on Taiwan ties, and the Australian security and migration pact, have not been made public.

Teo, who was educated in New Zealand and Australia, was Tuvalu’s first attorney general and has decades of experience as a senior official in the fisheries industry – the region’s biggest revenue earner.

Tuvalu lawmaker Simon Kofe congratulated Teo in a social media post.

“It is the first time in our history that a Prime Minister has been nominated unopposed,” he said.

The naming of the new prime minister had been delayed by persistent bad weather that left several lawmakers stranded on the nation’s outer islands and unable to reach the capital.

Jess Marinaccio, an assistant professor in Pacific Studies at California State University, told the AFP news agency it was too early to say whether Teo would maintain ties with Taiwan.

But international relations will be high on the list of issues for Teo’s new government, she said.

“It will definitely be something they talk about. They also have to choose high commissioners and ambassadors, so Taiwan will be in there,” she said.

“It will be a high priority, along with climate change and telecommunications, because the coverage in Tuvalu is not fantastic.”

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