‘Troublemaker’ William Lai Ching-te to take oath as Taiwan’s new president | Politics News

Taipei, Taiwan – William Lai Ching-te will be sworn in on Monday as Taiwan’s sixth democratically-elected president, a role where he is expected to continue steering Taiwan in the same direction as set by his predecessor Tsai Ing-Wen.

Lai’s victory at the polls in January marked a narrow but unprecedented win for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Since Taiwan transitioned to democracy in 1996, the DPP and its more Beijing-friendly rival the Kuomintang (KMT) have switched power every eight years, but Lai’s victory broke with that tradition as the DPP won a third term in office.

Tsai’s vice president, Lai will have big shoes to fill.

During her eight years in office, Tsai dramatically raised Taiwan’s profile abroad while treading a fine line around its disputed political status, lest it upset China or the United States.

Tsai’s tenure coincided with a new wave of Taiwanese nationalism, as well as a vision of Taiwan as distinct from China despite its deep historical and cultural ties. She also oversaw major changes for the island, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2019 and the introduction of same-sex adoption in 2022.

About 50 foreign delegations, including leaders from allied nations and a contingent of former US officials, will attend Monday’s inauguration [Ritchie B Tongo/EPA]

Lai is expected to continue steering the East Asian democracy largely in the same direction, a point he hammered home during the campaign.

“William Lai has spent the past two and half years trying to convince the world he is going to be a Tsai Ing-Wen 2.0 figure,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.

“There’s reason to believe him, even though there is a lot of scepticism about what he in his heart of hearts truly feels, there’s enough structural constraints that are going to stop him from being able to do anything drastic,” he said

Lai’s cabinet, named in April, includes several former members of the Tsai administration while his charismatic vice president, Hsiao Bi-khim, 52, was once Taiwan’s top official in the US and is also aligned with the former president.

At home, Lai is likely to be constrained by a hung parliament after the DPP lost its small parliamentary majority to the KMT. Abroad, he faces a challenge from the US presidential election in November, whose outcome will dictate regional stability more than anything Lai can do as president, according to Nachman.

The US is Taiwan’s chief security guarantor, but it does not want to see a proxy war break out in the Taiwan Strait between itself, Taiwan and China. Neither does Taiwan, where most people support maintaining the island’s ongoing “status quo.”

The term is deliberately vague, but it encompasses the viewpoint that Taiwan is already de facto independent despite its lack of formal diplomatic recognition. The island, officially known as the Republic of China, is only recognised by a handful of countries, primarily in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Taiwan is claimed by China’s Communist Party (CCP), which has long threatened to bring it into the fold by force if necessary. Everyday Taiwanese reject that goal, but most do not wish to make a formal declaration of independence because they fear it would lead to a certain war with Beijing.

‘Worker for independence’ or ‘troublemaker’

As innocuous as the term may sound, supporting the “status quo” marks a major ideological shift for Lai, who once upon a time described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence.”

Originally trained as a doctor, Lai was compelled to enter politics in 1996 in the wake of the Third Strait Crisis, according to his official biography. The incident saw China conduct missile tests in the Taiwan Strait for several months between 1995 and 1996 as Taiwan geared up for its first direct presidential elections.

Lai walking on a red carpet as he arrives in Paraguay. An honour guard is standing to attention on one side.
Lai has come in for sharp criticism from China which claims he is a ‘separatist’ [File: Daniel Piris/EPA]

He later served as a legislator, mayor and premier of Taiwan, before he made an unsuccessful bid to challenge Tsai as the DPP presidential candidate ahead of her 2020 re-election. Instead, he became vice president after Tsai won a second term in the presidential office in a landslide.

“If you think about Lai now in comparison to the past, you just couldn’t imagine that he is the same person,” said Sanho Chung, a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Arizona whose work includes Taiwan. “If you look at Lai as a mayor back in the day or as a lawmaker, he was kind of radical.”

Both Chung and Nachman said they expected a relatively muted response from Beijing ahead of inauguration day, despite a flare-up earlier this month around Taiwan’s outlying island of Kinmen when more than a dozen Chinese vessels entered the island’s restricted waters to carry out “maritime exercises” on May 9.

Beijing has continued to send military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, an area of land and sea monitored by the military, but the numbers are consistent with past activity, according to defence analyst Ben Lewis, who tracks Beijing’s activity.

Their predictions contrast with Beijing’s belligerent response to a visit by then-US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August 2022, when it staged several days of military exercises in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing repeated the move a year later when Tsai met Kevin McCarthy, another former House speaker, during an unofficial stopover in California on her way home from meeting allies in Central America.

NCCU’s Nachman said China may keep a lower profile as it appears to be attempting to semi-normalise relations with the KMT.

Beijing does not recognise Taiwan’s government and has cut off official communication since the DPP’s victory in 2016, but it has kept up unofficial contact touch with the KMT over the past eight years.

Tsai Ing-wen raised Taiwan’s international profile and held several high-profile meetings with senior US officials, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April 2023 [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

The KMT and the CCP have a relationship dating back to the 1920s and fought against each other during different stages of the Chinese Civil War, culminating in the KMT’s retreat to Taiwan in the late 1940s.

Since the 1990s, however, the relationship between the two parties has warmed.

Former KMT President Ma Ying-jeou has made two trips to mainland China over the past two years, becoming the first Taiwanese leader to visit since the end of the Chinese Civil War.

KMT members have also made private visits to China in recent years, including this year and last.

In contrast, Beijing still considers members of the DPP as dangerous “separatists”.

Not least the man set to lead the island for the next four years. For China, Lai is not only a “separatist” but a “troublemaker”.

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India Lok Sabha election 2024 Phase 5: Who votes and what’s at stake? | India Election 2024 News

Indians will cast their ballots on May 20 for the fifth phase of the world’s largest electoral exercise as the country’s national election enters its final stages after weeks of heated campaign barbs and seemingly lower-than-expected voter enthusiasm.

Forty-nine constituencies will be up for grabs across six states and two federally administered territories (union territories). The main opposition Congress party’s leader Rahul Gandhi is on the ballot in the family bastion of Rae Bareli in the northern Uttar Pradesh (UP) state while Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh will be seeking a third term in Lucknow, the capital of UP.

Voting in the seven-phase elections kicked off on April 19 and the last phase will be held on June 1, concluding a mammoth exercise in which at least 969 million people are registered to vote. People from across 36 states and union territories are expected to elect 543 representatives to the Lok Sabha – the parliament’s lower house. Votes will be counted on June 4.

The first four phases – April 19April 26, May 7 and May 13 – saw a voter turnout of 66.1, 66.7, and 61 percent and 67.3 percent respectively.

Most political parties are aligned with two major coalitions: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a coalition of 26 parties led by the main opposition party, the Congress.

Who is voting in the fifth phase?

Registered voters in the following states and union territories will cast their ballots on May 20:

  • Jharkhand: Three of the eastern state’s 14 constituencies
  • Odisha: Five of the eastern state’s 21 constituencies
  • Uttar Pradesh: 14 of the northern state’s 80 constituencies
  • Bihar: Five of the eastern state’s 40 constituencies
  • Maharashtra: 13 of the western state’s 48 constituencies
  • West Bengal: Seven of the eastern state’s 42 constituencies
  • Ladakh: The union territory’s sole constituency
  • Jammu and Kashmir: One of the union territory’s five constituencies

What are some of the key constituencies?

Amethi, Rae Bareli, Kaiserganj, Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh): All eyes would be on Amethi and Rae Bareli – the Nehru-Gandhi family fiefdoms. Rahul Gandhi is contesting Rae Bareli in place of his mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who represented the seat four times. The Gandhi scion is also seeking re-election to southern Kerala state’s Wayanad for which polling has already taken place.

Battle lines are sharply drawn in the neighbouring Amethi constituency, which the Congress party wants to wrest from federal Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani. The party has dominated the two constituencies for decades, which have the distinction of sending two prime ministers – Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul’s grandmother and father respectively — to parliament. Rahul Gandhi won Amethi in 2004, 2009 and 2014, before Irani defeated him in 2019. Congress loyalist KL Sharma is challenging Irani this time.

Also in Uttar Pradesh is Kaiserganj, where BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been denied a ticket over charges of sexual harassment. The former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president denies the charges. But his son Karan Bhushan is the party candidate.

Some 100km (60 miles) away, is Faizabad, which is home to the controversial Ayodhya Ram temple. Lallu Singh is seeking re-election on a BJP ticket against his main rival Awadhesh Prasad of the Samajwadi Party, which is part of the INDIA alliance. The BJP, which won 62 of the state’s 80 seats in 2019, hopes to repeat its performance here – or even improve its numbers.

Saran, Hajipur (Bihar): Former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Rohini Acharya is challenging the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Ruddy in Saran. Her father also represented this seat in the past. Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal party is a part of the INDIA alliance.

Meanwhile, Yadav’s trusted aide Shiv Chandra Ram is looking for an upset in Hajipur, a constituency that was thrust into the media limelight in 1977, when Ram Vilas Paswan won with a record mandate. Paswan went on to represent the constituency eight times. His son Chirag is contesting in his late father’s bastion. Paswan belongs to the BJP-led NDA.

Ladakh (Ladakh): This lone constituency in the union territory of Ladakh, which was carved out of Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019, has witnessed protests against the BJP, which has denied a ticket to its sitting MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal. The Congress party hopes to capitalise on the local grievances, the main being the demand to bring the region under the Sixth Schedule to India’s Constitution. Congress has promised to include Ladakh in the schedule, which will mean protection for the tribal status of the region. Many locals fear that without that provision, their land, jobs and education benefits could be overrun by people from other parts of the country.

The region is ecologically sensitive and protesters have warned about the risks of over-tourism. Ladakh is also on the front lines of a tense India-China border standoff, since a deadly clash in May 2020 in which at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed.

Many analysts say evidence suggests that China has since nibbled away at previously Indian-held territory in Ladakh, a claim New Delhi denies.

When does the voting start and end?

Voting will begin at 7am local time (01:30 GMT) and end at 6pm (12:30 GMT). Voters already in the queue by the time polls close will get to vote even if that means keeping polling stations open longer.

Complete election results for all phases are to be released on June 4.

Which parties rule the states being polled in the fifth phase?

  • The BJP governs Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh outright.
  • Maharashtra and Bihar are governed by the BJP and its coalition partners.
  • Odisha is governed by the NDA-aligned Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
  • Jharkhand is governed by the INDIA alliance led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
  • The All India Trinamool Congress party, a member of the INDIA alliance, has been governing West Bengal since 2011.
  • Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, are governed directly from New Delhi.

Who won these Lok Sabha seats in 2019?

In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress, along with parties now affiliated with the INDIA alliance and those affiliated then with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, won eight of the 49 seats to be decided on May 20.

The BJP and parties affiliated with the NDA won 39 of the seats in 2019.

How much of India has voted so far?

The first four phases of the Lok Sabha elections have already decided the fate of 380 MPs.

So far, voting has concluded for all seats in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Karnataka, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura; the Andaman and Nicobar islands; and the Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry union territories.

The sixth phase will kick off on May 25, and the seventh and final phase will begin on June 1.

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Key takeaways from day 18 of Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial | Donald Trump News

In New York, the fifth week of Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial has drawn to a close, as disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen testified for a third day about his interactions with the former United States president.

But Trump’s defence team again took the opportunity to try to poke holes in Cohen’s testimony on Thursday, blasting his credibility, his motivations and even his recollection of key events in the criminal case.

Cohen, formerly a member of Trump’s inner circle, is the prosecution’s star witness — and likely the last it will call before resting its case.

The former lawyer has alleged that Trump, a former Republican president and current presidential candidate, orchestrated a scheme to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 race.

Daniels maintained she had an affair with Trump, and prosecutors say she was poised to sell her story to the press when Trump, through Cohen, bought her silence for $130,000.

The payment, they allege, was aimed at suppressing negative coverage during the 2016 presidential election, which Trump eventually won. The Republican politician was already facing scrutiny at the time for an audio recording in which he described grabbing women by their genitals.

Cohen himself previously pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations related to the hush-money payment.

But Trump has denied the charges against him as well as the affair itself. He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the case, one of four ongoing criminal indictments against him.

He is the first US president, past or present, to face criminal charges. Here are the highlights from day 18 of the trial:

Michael Cohen departs his apartment building on his way to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on May 16 [Andres Kudacki/AP Photo]

Defence questions Cohen’s motives

Straight away on Thursday, the defence resumed its attacks on Cohen, probing the disbarred lawyer for evidence that he was motivated by personal animus against Trump.

Early in the day’s proceedings, they confronted Cohen with recordings of his own voice, clipped from a 2020 podcast, showing the former lawyer relishing the prospect of a Trump conviction.

The recording captured Cohen saying he hoped “this man ends up in prison” and will “rot inside for what he did to me and my family”.

“It won’t bring back the year that I lost or the damage done to my family. But revenge is a dish best served cold,” Cohen said in one clip.

In another moment, he said, “You better believe that I want this man to go down.”

The audio clips painted a stark contrast with Cohen’s relatively demure behaviour on the witness stand: In the podcasts, he was animated, speaking at a furious pace that was punctuated by expletives.

The defence also sought to underscore why Cohen felt such hatred for his former boss. Lawyer Todd Blanche implied Cohen was angling for a White House position as chief of staff — and was ultimately disappointed.

“The truth is, Mr Cohen, you really wanted to work in the White House, correct?” Blanche asked Cohen.

“No, sir,” Cohen replied, later saying Blanche was not “characterising” his motivations correctly.

US Representative Lauren Boebert attends a news conference outside the courtroom with other Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump [David ‘Dee’ Delgado/Reuters]

Cohen testifies to lying under oath

Cohen remains a key pillar of the prosecution’s case, as the only witness who can testify to certain private discussions about the hush-money payment at the centre of the trial.

So the defence on Thursday continued to batter his credibility, asking him to revisit moments when he lied under oath, in order to cast doubt on his current testimony.

Blanche, for example, raised the fact that Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying before Congress about a failed attempt to build a version of Trump Tower in Moscow.

“You lied under oath, correct?” Blanche asked Cohen, who responded: “Yes, sir.”

Cohen has long maintained he lied at the time out of loyalty to Trump.

Blanche also pressed Cohen on statements he made indicating he felt pressure to plead guilty when faced with the 2018 charges, which included tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

When defendants plead guilty in court, they must affirm they made the plea of their own volition. Blanche used that point to ask Cohen: Did he lie under oath when he said he pleaded guilty of his own free will?

“That was not true,” Cohen said.

In addition, the defence highlighted instances where Cohen used artificial intelligence to generate fake legal citations in a court application, again calling into question the former lawyer’s reliability.

Former US President Donald Trump exits the courtroom during a break at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on May 16 [Jeenah Moon/Pool via Reuters]

Defence challenges Cohen’s testimony

Having raised questions about Cohen’s trustworthiness, the defence zeroed in on key moments from his testimony for the prosecution.

Cohen, for instance, testified earlier this week that he called Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller in October 2016 as a means of reaching Trump himself.

The call, Cohen explained, was about the “Stormy Daniels situation” and the hush-money payment they planned to transfer to her lawyer.

But on Thursday, Trump’s defence questioned if that was the real reason Cohen was in touch with Schiller at the time. Blanche, the defence lawyer, suggested that Cohen was instead seeking Schiller’s help to deal with a 14-year-old who had been making harassing calls to his phone.

Blanche showed the jury text messages Cohen wrote to Schiller on the same night as the 2016 conversation, saying, “Who can I speak to about harassing calls to my cell and office?”

He proceeded to ask Cohen if his description of the 2016 phone conversation “was a lie” and whether the focus was on the harassing calls, not on hush money.

“Part of it was about the phone calls, but I knew that Keith was with Mr Trump at the time, and it was more than potentially just this,” Cohen responded.

After a break, Blanche questioned Cohen about how he could recollect specific details from so long ago.

“These phone calls are things I’ve been talking about for the last six years,” Cohen said in reply. “They were and are extremely important, and they were all-consuming.”

Lawyers meet with Judge Juan Merchan during one of many sidebars held during day 18 of Donald Trump’s trial [Jane Rosenberg/Reuters]

The prosecution struck back multiple times at the defence’s assertions, punctuating the cross-examination with objections and requests for “sidebar” conversations with the judge.

But the defence proceeded to try to undermine the prosecution’s central narrative, that Trump tried to conceal the hush-money payment to Daniels as part of a broader effort to influence the 2016 election.

Rather, Blanche tried to frame the actions as ordinary legal maneouvres.

He presented Cohen with a copy of the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed and noted Trump’s signature was nowhere to be found on it. Then he asked Cohen, “In your mind, then and now, this is a perfectly legal contract, correct?”

Cohen agreed. “Yes, sir.”

He also had Cohen confirm that nondisclosure agreements were a regular practice in business law.

Blanche further questioned whether the hush-money payments had anything to do with the 2016 election at all.

He pointed to past statements Cohen made about a separate hush-money payment made to a doorman, saying that Trump was “concerned” about the doorman’s story because “it involved people that still worked with him and worked for him”.

The defence also raised comments where Cohen echoed Trump’s allegation that Daniels was extorting him for money to keep quiet.

“In your mind, there were two choices: pay or don’t pay and the story comes out,” Blanche asked Cohen, who replied with his usual, “Yes, sir.”

The cross-examination of Cohen is set to resume on Monday. Trump had requested the trial take a recess on Friday to allow him to attend the graduation of his youngest son, Barron.

Representative Matt Gaetz, centre, leads a news conference on May 16 in support of Donald Trump, while a protester holds up a sign that calls him and the other Republicans present ‘bootlickers’ [Andrew Kelly/Reuters]

Trump surrogates crowd the court

As much as Cohen was in the spotlight during the day’s proceedings, so too were the gaggle of Republican lawmakers who accompanied Trump to court.

Trump is famous for demanding loyalty from his fellow Republicans — and so, as the trial stretches on, several prominent politicians have made the pilgrimage to the Manhattan Criminal Court to show their support.

On Thursday, that entourage included no fewer than nine members of the US House of Representatives, including Florida firebrand Matt Gaetz, Colorado’s Lauren Boebert and Arizona’s Andy Biggs.

In fact, so many members of the House Oversight Committee were in attendance that a vote was delayed to allow them to fly back from New York to Washington, DC.

That vote concerns a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for failing to turn over audio recordings related to another Trump case, this time pertaining to his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

While in New York, though, several of the representatives took the opportunity to denounce the myriad legal troubles facing Trump.

Gaetz, for instance, described Trump as the “Mr Potato Head of crimes”, a reference to a children’s toy with interchangeable parts.

He explained that prosecutors “had to stick together a bunch of things that did not belong together” to cobble together a case against the ex-president.

Gaetz also sparked criticism for a social media post he made on Thursday morning, showing him watching Trump enter the courtroom.

“Standing back and standing by, Mr President,” Gaetz wrote.

Critics pointed out that his words echoed a statement Trump made in 2020 when asked in a televised debate about white supremacist groups and far-right militias like the Proud Boys.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said at the time. He later denied knowing who the Proud Boys were. Senior members of the group have since been found guilty and sentenced to prison for their participation in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

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South Africa’s Ramaphosa signs health bill weeks before election | Elections News

The National Health Insurance Act takes aim at South Africa’s two-tier health system.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill that aims to provide universal health coverage.

The president on Wednesday hailed the law as a major step towards a more just society two weeks before an election that is expected to be fiercely competitive.

“The provision of healthcare in this country is fragmented, unsustainable and unacceptable,” he said at the signing ceremony at the Union Buildings, the seat of government in Pretoria.

“For those who would like to see (their) privileges continuing, sorry, you are on the wrong boat. The boat we are on is about equality,” he said.

The National Health Insurance (NHI) Act takes aim at a two-tier health system, in which a publicly funded sector that serves 84 percent of the population is overburdened and run-down while some people have access to better treatment through private insurance.

The legislation will gradually limit the role of private insurance, create a new public fund to provide free access for South African citizens, and set the fees and prices that private doctors and healthcare suppliers may charge for NHI-funded benefits.

Critics said the plan will drain already stretched public finances, limit patient choice, undermine the quality of care and drive talented doctors out of the country.

Opponents have promised to challenge it in court and described it as a ploy for votes – which the presidency denied – before the election.

The May 29 elections are expected to be one of the country’s most highly contested. Ramaphosa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) faces the possibility of receiving less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time since it came into power in 1994.

Concerns have also been raised about the affordability of the law and possible tax increases to fund it.

The official opposition Democratic Alliance said Wednesday that it would legally challenge the new law.

The civil society group AfriForum has also announced plans to challenge the constitutionality of the law while some business forums have described it as unworkable and unaffordable.

The Health Funders Association (HFA), an organisation representing stakeholders involved in funding private healthcare, said it would take significant time before the plan comes into effect.

“There will be no immediate impact on medical scheme benefits and contributions nor any tax changes. The HFA is well prepared to defend the rights of medical scheme members and all South Africans to choose privately funded healthcare where necessary,” spokesman Craig Comrie said.

Others welcomed the law.

The NEHAWU labour union, part of the country’s COSATU federation, which is in an alliance with the ANC, urged Ramaphosa and the Treasury to put their full political weight behind the NHI to ensure it is properly resourced.

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Anxious Zimbabwean migrants, smugglers watch South Africa’s election | Elections News

Gwanda, Zimbabwe – A Toyota Hilux with South African plates parks on the roadside in Nkwana village in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland South province and honks its horn. An elderly woman makes her way to the car where the driver hands her parcels containing groceries, a blanket and a small envelope with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The driver, Thulani Ncube, 42, whose real name we are not using to protect his identity, is “oMalaicha”, an Ndebele word for the cross-border drivers who ferry goods between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Fortnightly, he makes deliveries to villagers in the border region – most of it smuggled.

“There are goods we declare, but some we smuggle them in and out,” Ncube told Al Jazeera. “With most of our clients in low-paying jobs in South Africa and in the villages in Zimbabwe, we don’t want to add extra charges included in declaration of goods, so bribes come into play at border controls.”

Zimbabweans have been fleeing across the border into South Africa for decades – most as a result of political crisis, harsh economic conditions and chronic underdevelopment at home.

There are more than a million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, according to the country’s census data and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which also notes that many have entered the country without proper documentation.

The situation has created business opportunities for Malaicha, who not only smuggle goods but also people wanting to enter South Africa illegally.

An oMalaicha, or cross-border driver, gets ready to take goods from Zimbabwe to South Africa [Courtesy of GroundUp]

Ncube, who has been oMalaicha for 11 years, said he charges “one beast” – one cattle, or the equivalent cost of $300-$400 – per person he takes across.

But now, with South Africa’s upcoming general election on May 29, a vote expected to be the most competitive one since the end of apartheid 30 years ago, Ncube is worried about what the outcome may mean for business.

What he is sure about, he said, is that even if the next government tightens South Africa’s immigration policy, he will not stop his work but move it further underground.

Connected across borders

In Gohole village, 161km (100 miles) from the Beitbridge border with South Africa, village head Courage Moyo, 64, stays glued to his television these days, closely watching election debates and developments in the neighbouring country.

Despite xenophobia and flare-ups of violent attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa, Zimbabweans still flock there to give themselves and their families back home a better life.

“I have lost seven cattle paying oMalaicha to transport my children to South Africa,” Moyo told Al Jazeera. “They had no documents, I could not afford the passports for them, so they had to cross illegally.

Courage Moyo, the headman of Gohole village [Calvin Manika/Al Jazeera]

“Every month I receive groceries and money from South Africa to sustain ourselves. I pray for them every day,” he said.

Now he is worried that any unfavourable outcome in South Africa’s immigration policy will affect Zimbabweans living there as well as the millions back home who depend on them for remittances and support.

Moyo is in a local WhatsApp group chat with other parents and neighbours who have children in South Africa. The 310 members, including relatives across the border, use the platform to analyse the elections.

Some of the members in South Africa are considering rethinking their immigration plans if a new party takes power, with some contemplating moving to Botswana.

But for many in Matabeleland South, the links to South Africa are the strongest. The border province even favours using the South African rand, which people prefer to the local currency or the US dollar, which is popular elsewhere in Zimbabwe.

“Our families are part of that country,” Moyo said about how interconnected people are. “Nowadays elections in SA are the topical issue.”

The immigration issue

In April, representatives from five of South Africa’s leading political parties took part in a televised town hall panel discussion on immigration that Moyo watched snippets of on the show Elections 360. Among the millions of immigrants in South Africa, Zimbabweans took centre stage as a case study.

Speaking on the panel, South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said the governing African National Congress (ANC) would “overhaul the whole immigration system” to deal with the issue of irregular and illegal migration.

The ANC has proposed repealing existing legislation to introduce a unified citizen, refugee and migration law.

Last month, the government also gazetted a Final White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. Among other things, it proposes a review and possible withdrawal from some international treaties, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol, which compelled South Africa to accommodate migrants and refugees without much restriction.

Motsoaledi said at the time that when the treaties were acceded to in the 1990s, it was done “without the government having developed a clear policy on migration, including refugee protection”.

Now South Africa “does not have the resources” to meet all of the requirements of the 1951 Convention, the minister added.

Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s home affairs minister [File: EPA]

On the Elections 360 panel, Motsoaledi said overhauling the immigration system would resolve job issues among locals, which Zimbabweans and other nationals have been accused of taking over, and help bring skilled labour into the country.

However, Adrian Roos, a member of the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), said the problem was not the laws but that they were not being implemented effectively.

Gayton Mackenzie from the right-wing Patriotic Alliance (PA) blamed Zimbabweans for taking jobs while 60 percent of young South Africans were unemployed.

“It’s very hard to go to any restaurant and find a South African working there. It’s very hard to go into the security industry and find a South African … Every house has got illegal foreigners working there,” he said, urging “mass deportation” of people.

Funzi Ngobeni, from the right-leaning political party ActionSA, pointed to the root of the issue, saying the ANC government was “propping up” the ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe, which was the cause of people fleeing over the border, to begin with.

Mzwanele Manyi of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), meanwhile, took a more positive stance on migration, saying a government under their rule would look at Africa as a whole, beyond “the Berlin Conference borders of the imperialists” — with one passport for Africa and all Africans welcome.

“I am happy that there are diverse voices on this issue, which makes us a bit hopeful and hope for the parties with friendly immigration policies to win,” Moyo told Al Jazeera about what he had heard.

ZEP permits

Not all Zimbabweans in South Africa are undocumented.

In 2009, South Africa provided special dispensation for Zimbabweans affected by the crisis next door. Over the years, that evolved into what is now called the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP).

In 2021, the Department of Home Affairs decided to end the special dispensation, but Minister Motsoaledi has since faced a litany of litigation from civil society organisations challenging the decision to terminate it by 2023. After court orders and mounting pressure, the ministry extended the permits to November 2025.

ZEP holders are allowed to work, seek employment and conduct business. But they cannot apply for permanent residence and the new permits will not be renewable. A permit holder can also not change their status in the country and must register all their children born and staying in South Africa.

Outside of the courts, the hope for the approximately 178,000 ZEP holders is in the outcome of this election.

Delight Mpala has a Zimbabwe Exemption Permit [Calvin Manika/Al Jazeera]

Delight Mpala, 36, who initially crossed the border to South Africa without documents in 2012, was deported a year later. After three years at home, she obtained a passport and managed to go back. While in South Africa, she successfully got a ZEP. However, her fears remain high.

“Under the ANC government, we have managed to stay in the country. But it’s a fight, not the gesture of the governing party. We believe that they are parties which if South Africans vote for, it will be better for us. But if [it] goes the other way, then we are doomed and our families back home,” Mpala told Al Jazeera.

In a recent GroundUp survey on immigration – that members of Moyo’s community WhatsApp group in Gohole village also discussed – different political parties shared their views on the ZEP.

While the ANC did not answer the survey’s questions, the opposition DA said it would allow current ZEP holders to apply for alternative visas they qualified for, including permanent residency for some, but the provisions would not immediately include the right to work.

The right-leaning Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said it supported Motsoaledi’s decision to bring the ZEP to a close. On the future of Zimbabweans in South Africa, it said: “They should ideally return to their homeland, unless they successfully apply for and obtain alternative visa categories that allow them to stay.”

ActionSA expressed concern about the extension of the ZEP, saying it was essentially opposed to the permit and its extension was “a mockery of our constitutional democracy”.

‘Border jumpers’

While South African politicians debate immigration, Zimbabwe’s government has tried to discourage emigration, by, for instance, placing prohibitive prices for the issuance of passports.

The cost of getting a passport in Zimbabwe is about $200 – with fees paid only in USD and no provision for local currency. Meanwhile the average Zimbabwean earns between $200–$250 per month, making the travel documents largely unaffordable.

Against this backdrop, irregular migration to South Africa continues.

Zimbabweans wait to cross into South Africa on the dry bed of the Limpopo River along the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa [File: Jerome Delay/AP]

Although Beitbridge is the only formal land border between the two countries, the border region is more than 200km (124 miles) long.

When crossing illegally, some Zimbabweans pass through the official border with the help of smugglers and bribes, while others choose the more precarious route by “border jumping” via the Limpopo River; many migrants have lost their lives this way.

In Nkwana village where Ncube works, there are five Malaicha serving the route, with more servicing other routes across the Matabeleland region.

Ncube said on average each smuggles one to two people across per month, while other migrants find their way themselves.

If, after the election, South Africa’s immigration policy gets more restrictive, he will smuggle people only via the Limpopo River, he said, despite it being unsustainable and more dangerous than his current business.

“Despite xenophobic attacks and the risks of deportation, young people are eager to relocate to South Africa,” he told Al Jazeera. “These are uneducated people in informal spaces who are not eligible for the ZEP and permanent residence permits.

“Many times, you see our young people roaming at no man’s land near the Beitbridge border post. They want to go,” said Ncube.

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In Mexico’s election, candidates grapple with the search for the missing | Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador News

Mexico City, Mexico – Mother’s Day on Friday was a sombre occasion for Joanna Alvear of Toluca, Mexico.

She began her day with hundreds of other women in the shadow of the towering Mother’s Monument, a stone obelisk in the centre of Mexico City.

Most of the women wore the same grim expression: furrowed brows, tightly clenched jaws and piercing eyes, some brimming with tears. Like many of them, Alvear clutched a homemade poster to her chest, its cheery yellow colour belying its heart-breaking plea: “I’m still searching for you. Lilith, I love you.”

She represents one of the estimated 111,000 missing persons in Mexico today.

Every year on Mother’s Day, the families of the “disappeared” join with activists and concerned citizens to march through the streets of the capital, demanding answers in the tens of thousands of unsolved cases.

This year’s protest, however, held special significance. It comes in lead-up to pivotal nationwide elections on June 2, when every seat in Mexico’s Congress will be up for grabs, as well as the presidency.

But as the tenure of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador draws to a close, some question whether his administration has done enough to address the widespread disappearances — and whether his successor can improve upon his track record.

Family members like Alvear said they have had to spearhead their own searches, relying on personal resources in the absence of government support.

In Alvear’s case, her daughter Lilith Saori Arreola Alvear, a 21-year-old transgender woman, went missing while on vacation with friends in Playa Zicatela, Oaxaca, on January 2, 2023.

Months passed, and in desperation, Alvear read Mexico’s Standardised Protocol for Searching for Missing Persons to better understand the investigation. That’s when she started to notice the shortfalls in how her daughter’s case was being handled.

“When I read the approved protocol for searching for missing persons, I realised that, in reality, the protocols that had to be done were not done,” Alvear said.

“So I am a mom who has searched for Lilith with her own resources.”

At the Mother’s Monument in Mexico City, Joanna Alvear holds up a poster of her missing daughter Lilith [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

A president’s promise

Lopez Obrador was voted into office six years ago, in July 2018, after campaigning on the promise of seeking justice for missing persons.

One of the most pressing issues of that election cycle was the case of the Ayotzinapa 43, the mass disappearance four years prior of 43 students from a rural teacher’s college.

The case had plunged the popularity of then-President Enrique Pena Nieto to new lows, as his government oversaw a flawed investigation riddled with alleged cover-ups, inconsistencies and accusations of torture and forced confessions.

But Lopez Obrador promised justice for the Ayotzinapa 43 and other victims — and transparency in any future investigations.

“We will find out where these young men are and punish those responsible,” he said in 2018, standing with the students’ families.

Lopez Obrador ultimately won in a historic landslide: His election marked a blistering defeat for the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), as he notched one of the largest margins of victory in decades.

Once in office, the left-wing leader sought to make good on his campaign promises. Just two days after being sworn in, Lopez Obrador announced the creation of a truth commission dedicated to investigating the Ayotzinapa 43.

A demonstrator at the annual Mother’s Day march wears a T-shirt raising awareness for the missing ‘Ayotzinapa 43’, a group of student-teachers who disappeared in 2014 [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

A legacy in question

But in the years since, sentiment has soured among the families of the missing. Justice remains elusive, and some have accused Lopez Obrador of focusing more on burnishing his own image than producing substantial results.

Under Lopez Obrador’s leadership, the number of disappearances has also continued to climb, surpassing 100,000 in 2022.

An estimated 111,540 people were registered as “disappeared” from January 1962 to September 2023, according to the United Nations, citing Mexico’s own statistics. The vast majority of cases, however, were recorded after 2006, a fact often credited to Mexico’s “war on drugs“.

But critics say Lopez Obrador has tried to cast doubt on those statistics, by conducting a new government census to suss out “false” disappearances.

By December, the new census could only confirm 12,377 cases — a number that families and advocates say fails to represent the true scale of the problem.

“The figures are less, because he [the president] says they are less. Where are our children?” asked Nora Torres, who participated in the Mother’s Day march as part of the group Buscando Nuestros Desaparecidos en Tamaulipas, which searches for the disappeared.

“Most of our relatives do not appear on the registry. Where are they? We want them to tell us where they are.”

The human rights group Amnesty International also pointed out that the new census categorised 80,000 people “ambiguously” to arrive at the new, lower total. It called on the Mexican government “to ensure transparency” and involve the relatives of the disappeared in any further census processes.

Later, in mid-March, Interior Minister Luisa Maria Alcalde said that there are officially 99,729 people missing.

But the government has framed the backlash as part of an opposition smear campaign, and tensions have been running high.

In February, a group protesting the lack of progress in the Ayotzinapa case used a pickup truck to smash a door to the presidential palace. Then, on Monday, protesters threw firecrackers at the palace after eight soldiers accused of involvement in the students’ disappearance were released from pre-trial detention. Twenty-six police officers were injured.

For his part, Lopez Obrador accused reporters and volunteer searchers last week of suffering from a “a delirium of necrophilia” in their search for the missing and presumed dead.

The families of the disappeared mark Mother’s Day with an annual march through Mexico City [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

New election, new promises

Many of the women at this year’s Mother’s Day march expressed scepticism that the situation will change under a new administration.

“We do not believe anything. They are pure promises — pure promises for us mothers,” said Torres, who travelled from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, in northern Mexico, to participate.

Presidents in Mexico are limited to a single six-year term at a time. That means Lopez Obrador cannot run for a second consecutive stint as president.

So his protegee, former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, has stepped forward to represent his party, Morena, instead.

Polls show her maintaining a healthy lead over Xochitl Galvez, a senator running on behalf of the conservative National Action Party.

Both candidates have attempted to address public concern about the disappearances — as well as systemic issues like the government corruption used to cover up crimes.

“We must address the causes. We must reduce the crime of disappearance, and we must attend to the victims,” Sheinbaum said on March 19, during a news conference in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

Both she and Galvez have campaigned on improving public security as part of the solution.

Sheinbaum has largely focused on tackling poverty as a means of lowering crime. But Galvez has taken a stiffer approach, promising to build a high-security prison and use “the necessary bullets” to subdue criminal networks.

On Mother’s Day, Galvez met with the mothers of the missing in the northeastern city of Ciudad Victoria to discuss their concerns.

“There are women who today have nothing to celebrate,” she said at the campaign stop. “There are women who suffer the absence of their children.”

But critics point out that Galvez’s political coalition, Strength and Heart, includes the PRI — the same party that faced criticism for mishandling the Ayotzinapa case before Lopez Obrador’s term.

Critics have accused the government of casting doubt on the number of missing people in Mexico [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

Families push for ‘empathy’

Many families have called for this year’s candidates to restore the government bodies once tasked with searching for their missing loved ones.

Within the last year, for instance, the National Search Commission saw its staff reduced by half. The National Centre for Human Identification (CNIH), meanwhile, was dismantled after less than two years in existence.

The centre had been charged with examining the estimated 52,000 unidentified bodies discovered in Mexico since 2006.

But many relatives of those who have disappeared told Al Jazeera they care little which candidate takes power — so long as action is taken to find their loved ones.

“We are neither with one party nor with another. The only thing we want is for whoever is going to be in the government to really do something for us,” said Lourdes Romero Diaz, whose brother-in-law went missing in Mexico City in 2019 along with two co-workers.

Romero explained that the process of filing police reports can be traumatising for the families involved — and the stalled, sputtering nature of the investigations can increase the stress they feel.

“It is quite exhausting,” said Romero. “The worst thing is that our president and our leaders turn a blind eye and say that nothing is happening here, both in Mexico City and in the country.”

But when politicians do pay attention to cases like hers, Romero added that she sometimes questions their motives. She expressed concern that politicians could use the disappearances — and the outrage they arouse — to curry public favour.

“We do not agree that our relatives are used as political loot. They are not an object that they can use to monetise or use in their policies,” she said.

Ana María Velázquez remembers her missing son, Carlos Eduardo Monroy Velázquez, with a message pinned to her T-shirt [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

Another mother in Friday’s march, Ana Maria Velazquez, told Al Jazeera her 20-year-old son Carlos Eduardo Monroy Velazquez disappeared two years ago while trying to cross the border into the United States.

She hopes this year’s candidates will deliver what she and other family members have been longing for: understanding — and answers.

“I would like them to have more empathy because the truth is, we haven’t had any support,” she said. “The state has not given us any response.”

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Lawrence Wong set to take centre stage as Singapore’s new prime minister | Politics News

Singapore – For the first time in 20 years, Singapore will inaugurate a new prime minister, Minister for Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who will take the reins of power in a ceremony on Wednesday, May 15.

The 51-year-old will replace Lee Hsien Loong – the eldest son of the country’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew – who has been in the job since August 2004.

Wong is only the fourth leader in Singapore’s 59-year history as an independent nation. Like his predecessors, he is a member of the People’s Action Party (PAP), co-founded by the elder Lee and the only ruling party Singaporeans have ever known.

The stage is now set for a general election in the city-state of 6 million people, which observers say could be held as early as this year, although the term of the current government does not expire until 2025.

At the last election in 2020, the PAP secured more than 61 percent of the vote, losing just 10 seats in the 98-member parliament to the opposition, but this was considered a sub-par performance given the opposition had won only six seats in the previous parliament.

Lawrence Wong (left) has had less time than his predecessors to prepare for the top job [How Hwee Young/Pool via EPA]

The stakes are higher now, and a new leader is traditionally expected to gain a strong mandate from voters. Wong will be tasked with maintaining the dominance of the PAP in the face of an increasingly demanding electorate who want a greater say in governance and eschew the knuckleduster tactics and paternalistic politics of previous governments.

They are also tiring of the rat race, which Wong himself has acknowledged.

Among the most pressing issues on his plate: tackling the rising cost of living, an ageing population, a slowing economy and immigration. The PAP has also been rocked by a rare corruption scandal.

In addition, Wong must navigate the ever-present China-United States rivalry as the tiny island is a key ally to both superpowers.

Who is Lawrence Wong?

The mild-mannered Wong was selected by his peers among the “4G”, or fourth generation of leaders in Singapore’s political jargon, to be a successor to 72-year-old Lee in April 2022.

Something of a compromise candidate, he was not their first choice.

That was former central bank chief and Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat, 63, who had been appointed to succeed Lee in 2018. In a country renowned for its political stability, Heng sparked a mini political crisis by stepping aside two and a half years later, citing his age and admitting that he had not felt up to the task from the start.

Unlike many of his PAP peers, Wong did not come from the island’s establishment or attend its top schools. Going to university in the US on a government scholarship, he started out as an economist in the trade and industry ministry before entering politics in 2011.

After stints as a minister in less glamorous portfolios such as national development, he was not considered a potential prime minister, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.

As co-leader of the country’s COVID-19 task force, Wong emerged as the public face of the government’s pandemic response, adroitly fielding questions from foreign media outlets in televised news conferences. Such events are a rarity in a country that performs dismally in the annual World Press Freedom rankings – Singapore was ranked 126th out of 180 countries and territories this year.

Heng Swee Keat, seen campaigning in the 2020 election, was the first choice of the ruling People’s Action Party but decided he no longer wanted the job and stepped aside [How Hwee Young/EPA]

“Mr Wong is seen as a technocrat, [who is] friendly and approachable. He delivered well for the COVID-19 crisis, so he can be viewed as competent,” said former PAP lawmaker Inderjit Singh, who served alongside Lee in his central Ang Mo Kio ward for two decades.

Noting that Wong was only chosen two years ago after a period of political uncertainty, he added: “Anyone in his position will have his work cut out to show that he is indeed the right leader. He has a big task to quickly show that he is indeed the right person who can deliver.”

Leadership succession

Historically, leadership succession in Singapore has been a well-oiled process, with the heir apparent announced well in advance and groomed for years. This has been facilitated by a sterling record of governance, the PAP’s longstanding parliamentary supermajority – at its peak, there were no opposition lawmakers – and its dominance of key institutions.

Heng’s sudden departure was therefore unprecedented. Wong will also have the shortest runway of all – he became Lee’s deputy just two months after being anointed his successor. By comparison, the younger Lee served as deputy prime minister for 14 years before taking over the top job.

This perhaps explains Minister of Law and Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam’s prickly response to what he termed a “sneering” commentary in The Economist last month, which labelled Wong a compromise candidate and the Singapore media “docile”. Weeks later, the United Kingdom weekly conducted a wide-ranging interview with Wong where he stressed that as prime minister, he would not shy away from making unpopular decisions.

“Wong comes across as being very personable. He doesn’t portray the image of a hardliner,” said former newspaper editor PN Balji, who interacted extensively with Wong’s predecessors. While he is optimistic that Wong will come to prove himself, he added: “If you look at the leadership from Lee Kuan Yew till now, the quality of leadership has declined somewhat.”

The social-media-friendly Wong is seen as approachable [File: Sport Singapore / Action Images via Reuters]

Perhaps this is why Lee Hsien Loong is not going away – he will remain in the cabinet with the title of senior minister, just as his predecessors did.

“Given the short runway, I think Wong will benefit from [Lee’s] presence, especially in helping keep [good] external relations,” said Singh.

What do Singaporeans think of him?

Despite his increased profile during the pandemic, the guitar-playing, dog-loving, social media-friendly Wong remains something of an unknown quantity to Singaporeans.

According to a recent YouGov poll, just more than half of respondents considered him competent, with less than a third agreeing that he was a strong leader. Some 40 percent said he seemed trustworthy, a number that was significantly higher among Gen Z respondents. A fifth felt hopeful about Wong’s appointment, while 36 percent stated indifference.

Many also indicated high expectations for the incoming prime minister, perhaps reflecting the fact that Singapore’s government leaders are the world’s highest-paid, with the prime minister taking home 2.2 million Singapore dollars ($1.6m) a year including bonuses.

“Wong’s biggest challenge in the short term will be to articulate an easy-to-understand, inclusive, and progressive political vision that will draw widespread support for his government in the upcoming elections,” Elvin Ong, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s political science department, told Al Jazeera.

Wong, who has stressed that he did not seek out the role or expect to become leader, is certainly working hard to win over the electorate. “Every ounce of my energy shall be devoted to the service of our country and our people,” he said in a post to his 200,000-odd Instagram followers after the handover date was announced. “Your dreams will inspire my actions.”

Calling Singapore the “improbable, unlikely nation”, he told The Economist: “My mission is to keep this miracle going for as long as I can.”

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Key takeaways as ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testifies in New York trial | Donald Trump News

Michael Cohen, the key prosecution witness in Donald Trump’s hush-money case, has testified against the former United States president in one of the most widely anticipated days in court since the trial began.

Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, told the court on Monday that he lied and bullied on behalf of his former boss.

“It was what was needed in order to accomplish the task,” said Cohen, periodically glancing over at Trump, who was slouched in his chair at the defendant’s table in the New York City courtroom.

Prosecutors have accused Trump of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made before the 2016 election, which he won.

The prosecution’s case hinges on a $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the vote, in an effort to keep her from speaking publicly about a 2006 sexual encounter she says she had with Trump.

The former president has denied that any such encounter took place. He also has rejected the charges against him as politically motivated. The trial has come as Trump campaigns for re-election in November.

Here are the key takeaways from Cohen’s testimony on day 16 of the trial.

Cohen says he did ‘whatever’ Trump wanted

Cohen, 57, testified on Monday that it was fair to describe his role as being a fixer for Trump, testifying that he took care of “whatever he wanted”.

Rather than work as a traditional corporate lawyer, Cohen reported directly to Trump and was never part of the general counsel’s office for the Trump Organization.

Among his duties were renegotiating bills from business partners, threatening to sue people and planting positive stories in the press, he said.

Trump, he added, communicated primarily by phone or in person and never set up an email address.

“He would comment that emails are like written papers, that he knows too many people who have gone down as a direct result of having emails that prosecutors can use in a case,” Cohen said.

A courtroom sketch shows Cohen being questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger as Trump sits with his eyes closed on May 13 [Jane Rosenberg/Reuters]

Cohen details effort to quash bad press

Cohen testified that — at a meeting in 2015 with Trump and David Pecker, then-publisher of the National Enquirer — the trio discussed using the supermarket tabloid to boost Trump’s candidacy while attacking his rivals.

According to the testimony, Trump told Pecker to let Cohen know if he became aware of negative press that might arise, and the three men agreed that Pecker would try to suppress any such stories.

As Trump prepared to announce his campaign for president, he allegedly told Cohen that there would be “a lot of women coming forward”.

Cohen further explained that, as Trump’s then-lawyer, he sought to harness the power of the National Enquirer for his boss’s benefit, given its high visibility next to the cash registers at tens of thousands of supermarkets across the US.

He testified that he went to Trump immediately after the National Enquirer alerted him to a story being peddled about an alleged affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Cohen recalled going to Trump’s office and asking him if he knew McDougal or anything about the story. Cohen said Trump then told him to make sure that the story doesn’t get released.

Cohen said he thought the story would have a “significant” impact on Trump’s presidential campaign if it were to be published.

The McDougal news came shortly after the National Enquirer paid $30,000 to squash a doorman’s false rumour that Trump had a child out of wedlock. “You handle it,” Cohen remembers Trump telling him after learning that the doorman had come forward.

Cohen’s testimony on Monday echoed similar claims from Pecker, the publisher, earlier in the trial. Pecker testified about the so-called “catch-and-kill” scheme to suppress stories that could negatively affect Trump before the 2016 vote.

Publisher pressed him for reimbursement, Cohen says

After the National Enquirer paid $150,000 to suppress McDougal’s story, Cohen testified that the tabloid’s publisher was hounding him to get Trump to reimburse him for the cost.

Cohen recounted meeting Pecker at his favourite Italian restaurant and the publisher being upset about not being repaid for burying the story about Trump’s alleged affair with the ex-Playboy model.

Pecker was concerned, Cohen said, that “it was too much money for him to hide from the CEO of the parent company” and he’d already laid out $30,000 to suppress the doorman’s story.

Cohen added that, at some point, Pecker had also expressed to him that his company, American Media Inc, had a “file drawer — or a locked drawer as he described it — where files related to Mr Trump were located”.

Cohen said he was concerned because the publisher’s relationship with Trump went back years and that Pecker was in the running to head another media company. Cohen feared what would happen to the files if Pecker left.

Trump attends the sixteenth day of his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 13 [Steven Hirsch/Pool via Reuters]

Trump furious at Daniels’ claims, Cohen says

Cohen also told jurors on Monday that Trump was furious that Daniels, the adult film star, was shopping a story about the sexual encounter she says she had with the ex-president.

“He said to me, ‘This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women are going to hate me,’” Cohen testified. “‘Guys, they think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.’”

Cohen explained he learned that Daniels was selling her story at a critical moment for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. An audio recording had just been leaked from the TV show Access Hollywood, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.

The tape left the Trump campaign scrambling to contain the damage only weeks before Election Day in November 2016.

The ex-president’s defence team has suggested the payment to Daniels could have been made to spare Trump and his family embarrassment, not to boost his campaign. But Cohen testified that Trump appeared solely concerned with the effect on his presidential bid.

“He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” said Cohen, referring to Trump’s wife. At the defence table, Trump shook his head.

Cohen added that he recalled Trump saying, “Just get past the election, because if I win, it will have no relevance because I’m the president, and if I lose, I won’t really care.”

‘Just do it,’ Cohen says Trump told him

Cohen also provided detailed testimony about the hush-money payment that he made to Daniels, which is at the heart of the prosecution’s case.

Cohen said Trump urged him to delay sending payment to Daniels’s lawyer until after the election, telling him that the story would no longer matter. In October 2016, with Daniels’s story about to come out, Cohen said Trump told him to finally pay up.

“He expressed to me: Just do it,” Cohen testified, saying Trump advised him to meet Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg and figure it out. Weisselberg baulked at paying, however, so Cohen said he decided to come up with the money himself.

“I ultimately said, ‘OK, I’ll pay it,’” Cohen testified, explaining that he resisted paying out of his own pocket, but eventually relented after Trump promised him, “You’ll get the money back.”

Trump’s lawyers have argued that Cohen acted on his own, a notion he rejected on the witness stand. “Everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off,” Cohen said on Monday.

Cohen also described during his testimony how he set up a shell company — falsely listed as a “real estate consulting company” — to facilitate the payment through a bank across the street from Trump Tower.

Prosecutors showed phone records to jurors indicating that Cohen called Trump’s line twice on the morning he visited the bank.

Trump’s defence team is expected to challenge Cohen’s credibility during cross-examination later this week and paint him as a liar who cannot be trusted.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the hush-money payments, as well as for lying to Congress. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

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Lithuania’s Nauseda wins first round of presidential election | Elections News

Incumbent president will now go into a run-off against rival Ingrida Simonyte on May 26, in repeat of 2019.

Incumbent Gitanas Nauseda has won the first round of voting in Lithuania’s presidential election, putting him on track for a second and final term in office.

With nearly all of the votes counted, former banker Nauseda was on 46 percent, just short of the overall majority needed for a first-round victory.

Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte was second with 16 percent and the two will now go head-to-head in a run-off on May 26 in a repeat of the last election in 2019.

Eight candidates were on the ballot this time around, with campaigns largely focused on security issues and the threat posed by neighbouring Russia following its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All the main candidates agreed the country, once part of the Soviet Union and now a member of NATO and the European Union, should boost defence spending to counter the perceived threat on its borders.

Nauseda, 59, said he was confident of victory in the second round and would require “no strategy” to campaign against Simonyte.

Both Nauseda and Simonyte support increasing defence spending to at least 3 percent of Lithuania’s gross domestic product (GDP), from the 2.75 percent planned for this year. The increase in spending would pay for the modernisation of Lithuania’s army and infrastructure ahead of the deployment of a brigade of German troops in Lithuania who are expected to be combat-ready from 2027.

Some eight candidates were vying for Lithuanians’ vote on Sunday [Petras Malukas/AFP]

General election looms

While agreeing on Russia policy, the two candidates differ on other issues such as same-sex civil partnerships, a contentious policy in the predominantly Catholic country with a population of 2.8 million people.

While Nauseda opposes such partnerships, Simonyte, a 49-year-old fiscal conservative, is supportive.

Lithuania’s president has a semi-executive role, which includes heading the armed forces and chairing the supreme defence and national security policy body. The president also represents the country at the EU and NATO summits.

In tandem with the government, the president sets foreign and security policy, can veto laws and has a say in the appointment of key officials such as judges, the chief prosecutor, the chief of defence and head of the central bank.

In 2019, Simonyte narrowly defeated Nauseda in the first round of the presidential election before Nauseda went on to win the run-off with 66 percent of the vote.

Simonyte is also facing a tough test in a general election this October, as her coalition of centre-right parties trails in the polls.

Nauseda posed for cameras on election night surrounded by the leadership of the Social Democrats, the likely main challengers for Simonyte at the general election.

“I think it will be easy for us to find common ground,” he said about the possibility of the Social Democrats winning.

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India Lok Sabha election 2024 Phase 4: Who votes and what’s at stake? | India Election 2024 News

India is bracing itself for the fourth phase of its weeks-long elections on May 13 to elect 96 members of parliament to the Lok Sabha, or the lower house of parliament, as the world’s largest electoral exercise moves into its final month.

The two main contenders for power are Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a coalition of 26 parties led by the main opposition party, Rahul Gandhi‘s Indian National Congress.

Last week, the third phase of the voting saw Modi cast his vote in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar constituency. It also saw the competition between the two main contenders heighten as the Congress Party’s former President Sonia Gandhi said Modi and the BJP were focusing “only on gaining power at any cost”.

The fourth phase also features a bit of glamour in the east of the country, where Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election in West Bengal’s Asansol, and to the south, where actress Maadhavi Latha from the BJP is standing for the Hyderabad seat in Telangana. Latha is pitted against Asaduddin Owaisi, a four-time MP from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party.

The first three phases of the election, which were held on April 19, April 26 and May 7, saw a voter turnout of 66.1, 66.7, and 61 percent, respectively. The voting so far has been lower than in the 2019 elections. In total, 969 million people are registered to vote in 543 parliamentary constituencies across 36 states and federally-governed union territories.

Who is voting in the fourth phase?

Registered voters across nine states and a union territory will cast their ballots for the following constituencies:

  • Andhra Pradesh: All 25 constituencies in the southern coastal state
  • Telangana: All 17 constituencies in the southern state
  • Jharkhand: Four of the eastern state’s 14 constituencies
  • Odisha: Four of the eastern state’s 21 constituencies
  • Uttar Pradesh: Thirteen of the northern state’s 80 constituencies
  • Madhya Pradesh: Eight of the central state’s 29 constituencies
  • Bihar: Five of the eastern state’s 40 constituencies
  • Maharashtra: Eleven of the western state’s 48 constituencies
  • West Bengal: Eight of the eastern state’s 42 constituencies
  • Jammu and Kashmir: One of the union territory’s five constituencies

Which are some of the key constituencies?

Hyderabad (Telangana): Asaduddin Owaisi is being challenged by the BJP’s Maadhavi Latha in his family bastion. Owaisi’s brother, Akbaruddin Owaisi is a member of the state legislative assembly while his father, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, represented the parliamentary constituency, with a substantial Muslim population, six times. Owaisi pitches himself as the voice of India’s Muslim minority whose issues he regularly raises in his parliamentary debates. Owaisi was given the “best parliamentarian” award in 2022.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): This constituency in Kashmir registered just 15 percent voting in the 2019 election, which was marred by a boycott. This is the first parliamentary election in Kashmir since the region’s special status was removed in August 2019. The two biggest mainstream pro-India parties in the region – the National Conference and People’s Democratic Party – have fielded Aga Syed and Waheed Parra, respectively, as their candidates.

Krishnanagar, Baharampur and Asansol (West Bengal): These three parliamentary contests in West Bengal state, bordering Bangladesh, offer a mix of star power and political significance. Bollywood actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election from Asansol, while ex-cricketer Yusuf Pathan is taking on senior Congress Party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has been representing Bahrampur since 1999. Chowdhury was also the leader of the opposition Congress Party in the outgoing Lok Sabha. Pathan is the candidate of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party that rules the state and is also aligned with the national opposition INDIA alliance – even though the coalition’s members are standing against each other in West Bengal.

Yet, the most high-profile electoral battle in the state on May 13, is in Krishnanagar, where the fiery TMC parliamentarian and fierce critic of Modi, Mahua Moitra, is seeking a second term. A former vice president of JPMorgan Chase based in London, Moitra entered politics in 2009. Her parliamentary speeches asking tough questions of the government often go viral. In December 2023, the firebrand MP was expelled from parliament after being accused of accepting cash to ask questions. She said her expulsion was a way to silence her. She has challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court. The BJP has fielded Amrita Roy, whose husband is a descendant of the erstwhile king of the region, against Moitra.

Kannauj and Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh): Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party – a regional powerhouse that has seen its influence shrink with the BJP’s rise – has decided to enter the electoral race in Kannauj in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which accounts for 80 seats in the parliament. The BJP currently governs the state. Kannauj, known for its perfume industry, has been a Yadav family bastion. Akhilesh, his father Mulayan Singh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav have represented the seat since 1999. But in 2019, Dimple lost to the BJP in a shock defeat. Akhilesh’s entry into the electoral fray is an attempt to wrest back the family pocket borough.

The other seat that has attracted a lot of attention is Lakhimpur Kheri, where controversial federal Minister of Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni is seeking re-election. Mishra has been caught in a storm since his son Ashish Mishra allegedly ran his car over farmers protesting against now-repealed farm laws. Ashish is out on bail and farmers’ groups as well as activists have been demanding that Mishra be denied a ticket by the BJP.

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): This constituency, a stronghold of the BJP, has been in the news for unlikely reasons. The Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew from the race at the last minute, after the last date for candidates to file nominations had passed. The Congress could not field a replacement and Bam later joined the BJP. Thirteen other candidates are in the fray, but the Congress Party has urged voters to opt for NOTA (none of the above) in protest.

When does the voting start and end?

Voting will begin at 7am local time (01:30 GMT) and end at 6pm (12:30 GMT). Voters already in the queue by the time polls close will get to vote, even if that means keeping polling stations open longer.

Complete election results for all phases are to be released on June 4.

Which parties rule the states being polled in the fourth phase?

  • The BJP governs Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh outright.
  • The BJP governs Maharashtra and Bihar in alliances.
  • Odisha is governed by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which leans towards the NDA but is not a part of the alliance.
  • Andhra Pradesh is governed by the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party.
  • Congress governs Telangana.
  • Jharkhand is governed by the INDIA alliance led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
  • West Bengal is governed by the All India Trinamool Congress Party, a member of the INDIA alliance.
  • Jammu and Kashmir is governed directly by New Delhi. Its state legislature remains suspended.

Who won these Lok Sabha seats in 2019?

  • In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress, along with parties now affiliated with the INDIA alliance and those affiliated then with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, won 13 of the 96 seats to be decided on May 13.
  • The BJP and parties affiliated with the NDA won 50 of the seats in 2019.
  • The YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh won 22 seats while the Telangana-based Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) won nine seats in 2019.
  • The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won two seats in 2019.

How much of India has voted so far?

The first three phases of the Lok Sabha elections have already decided the fate of 284 MPs.

So far, voting has concluded for all seats in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Karnataka, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura; the Andaman and Nicobar islands; and the Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry union territories.

The fifth phase will kick off on May 20 and the sixth on May 25, before the election heads towards the seventh and final phase on June 1.

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