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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 722

Here is the situation on Wednesday, February 14, 2024.

At least 10 people were killed in Russian drone and shelling attacks across eastern, central and northern parts of Ukraine, including three who were at a market in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

A missile and drone attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro damaged a power plant, forcing authorities to close schools and evacuate a hospital. Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 16 of 23 drones.

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The UN’s educational, scientific and cultural organisation UNESCO said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused damage estimated at about $3.5bn to the country’s heritage and cultural sites, with some 5,000 destroyed.

At least 10 people were killed in Russian drone and shelling attacks across eastern, central and northern parts of Ukraine, including three who were at a market in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, blocked war aid for Ukraine, ignoring President Joe Biden’s plea that passing the bill was vital to stand up to “Russian dictator” Vladimir Putin. Johnson, who is close to presidential candidate Donald Trump, told reporters he had no intention even of allowing a vote on the bill, which had been passed in the Senate.

Russia added Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and two of the country’s top officials to its wanted list over the “destruction” of Soviet-era war memorials and alleged hostility towards Russia, hours after intelligence services in the Baltic state warned that Russia was gearing up for a war against NATO in the coming decade. Kallas is one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken this week of Paul Whelan, a former Marine jailed in Russia on espionage charges, as he promised sustained efforts to free Whelan as well as journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been detained pending trial on spying charges. The men and the US government have rejected the spying claims. The US classified Whelan and Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained”.

A Russian military appeal court overturned a fine to jail left-wing academic Boris Kagarlitsky for five years after he criticised Moscow’s war in Ukraine, his lawyer said.

Global defence spending jumped by 9 percent to a record $2.2 trillion last year, the London-based think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said in its annual report The Military Balance, and was likely to rise further in 2024.

The report said Russia had lost some 3,000 main battle tanks during the fighting in Ukraine, or roughly as many as it had in its active inventory before it began its full-scale invasion two years ago. It is now refitting older tanks for use, it added.

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Families of detained Palestinian Americans decry US government’s silence

Washington, DC – “Confirmed receipt.” That is the only message Yasmeen Elagha received from the United States government after two of her cousins — both Palestinian Americans — were detained by Israeli forces as they sheltered near Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Now, she is calling on the administration of US President Joe Biden to do more to assure their safety and secure their release. Elagha said her two cousins, 18-year-old Borak Alagha and 20-year-old Hashem Alagha, are being held without charge.

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“We’ve pleaded with the US government,” Elagha, a law student at Northwestern University in Chicago, explained. “The administration is fully failing in its duty.”

Hers is one of several families pushing for the protection of Palestinian Americans taken into Israeli custody, as the war on Gaza stretches on. They gathered in Washington, DC, for a news conference on Monday to press for action.

From the podium, Elagha explained that she learned of her cousins’ abduction in a February 7 phone call with her aunt in Gaza. Through tears, her aunt recounted how Israeli soldiers broke into their shelter in al-Mowasi, near Khan Younis, and tied up the women and children.

The men met a different fate. Elagha’s aunt described how the two cousins, along with their father, their uncle and two other male relatives were all taken away. The soldiers left the shelter trashed and the family’s car tyres slashed, according to Elagha’s aunt. None of the men have been heard from since.

In the days since, Elagha has sent a flurry of emails, to US embassies in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Cairo, as well as a US task force on Gaza. She has received only the one reply confirming her appeal had been received.

The wait for information has been excruciating, she said. “The minutes feel like hours, so it feels like it’s been already a month since they’ve been gone.”

Suliman Hamed, a Louisiana resident, shared a similar experience at the event, hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

He said his Palestinian American mother, 46-year-old Samaher Esmail, was taken into Israeli custody in the occupied West Bank last Monday, and he has not been able to speak with her since.

He explained he has only received one call from an embassy official in the aftermath of her detention. Days have passed, but still, consular staff have not visited her where she is being held at the Damon prison in Haifa, Hamed explained.

“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and now Monday again. Nobody from the US embassy has visited or spoken with my mother, a US citizen,” he said.

While she waits in prison, Hamed worries about his mother’s health. Her lawyer told him that she has not received her medication since she was arrested.

“It’s been seven days and she still has not received a single medication. This has resulted in her condition worsening greatly,” Hamad said. “We have repeatedly asked the US embassy to send a consular officer to my mom, so we can get an update on her condition.”

His mother was arrested on allegations of “incitement on social media”, he explained. Hamed and his brother Ibrahim fear she was targeted in retaliation for a lawsuit she filed against the Israeli military, after allegedly being beaten during a traffic stop in 2022.

Rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of using trumped-up charges of “incitement” to crack down on Palestinians and suppress free speech.

But arrests overall in the occupied West Bank have surged since the start of the war on October 7. The Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy organisation, has documented 6,870 detentions as of last week.

“Israel is trying to use my mother as an example,” said Hamed. “They’re trying to scare Palestinians and Palestinian Americans. If this can happen to a Palestinian American woman, this could happen to you.”

Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, allegations of enforced disappearances, abuses and torture at the hands of Israeli forces have also been rampant.

In January, Ajith Sunghay, the head of the United Nations Human Rights office for the occupied Palestinian territories, published a report where he collected accounts of detainees being “beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment and to what may amount to torture”.

Many were held between 35 and 55 days, Sunghay wrote. His report, and others, have sparked fears among the families of those in custody.

“With everything we’ve learned happens to Palestinian men when they’re detained by Israel, especially since October 7, we’re just imagining the torture that they are facing,” Elagha said of her cousins.

Hamed, meanwhile, recalled how his mother’s lawyer described bruises on her arms and back. He and his brother believe she was beaten by Israeli forces. The lawyer told them that Esmail even lost consciousness twice during a prison interview.

When asked about the US citizens detained overseas, the State Department said it is working to ensure their fair and humane treatment.

“As you know, we have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens overseas,” spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on February 8.

But Maria Kari, an immigration lawyer, told Al Jazeera the State Department’s stance does not go far enough. She is working with the family of Borak and Hashem Alagha to file a lawsuit against the government.

She told Al Jazeera the Biden administration appears to have not followed the proper protocol for situations where a US citizen is taken hostage or forcibly disappeared, either by a non-state or state actor.

“Here, we have Israeli soldiers having wrongly detained [the Alagha siblings] in an enforced disappearance, all very illegal and in direct contravention of both domestic US laws and international laws,” she said.

That situation should “require consular access right away”, she explained. “The president’s supposed to be engaged. The State Department’s supposed to be coordinating all of these teams.”

“And none of that has happened here,” she added, “which is appalling.”

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from Al Jazeera about the cases.

Suliman and Ibrahim Hamed said the lack of response they received left them feeling “brushed over”. At Monday’s news conference, they called on the US to reconsider its unwavering support for Israel, as allegations of human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank continue to mount.

The brothers are from Gretna, Louisiana — a city already scarred by the violence. Theirs is the same hometown as Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old Palestinian American who was killed in a January shooting involving an Israeli settler and an off-duty police officer in the occupied West Bank.

The Hamed siblings questioned whether the US’s backing of Israel is denying their community justice.

“We, as taxpaying Americans, are funding this imprisonment of not just my mother but of innocent people, especially the Palestinians,” said Ibrahim.

“If we were white Christian or Israeli Americans, would the embassy have responded sooner?” Suliman added. “This is the question I have asked myself on a daily basis.”

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Israel strikes Rafah, says two captives freed

Israel has carried out air strikes in southern Gaza’s Rafah, killing dozens, according to health officials, as Palestinians brace for a major offensive on the densely-crowded city.

There were conflicting reports of the death toll following the pre-dawn strikes on Monday.

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The AFP news agency reported that the strikes killed 52 people, while Reuters reported that 37 had been killed. Both outlets cited health officials in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes hit 14 houses and three mosques in Rafah, according to Palestinian officials.

Israel’s military said it had struck a number of “terror targets” in the Shaboura district of Rafah and the strikes had concluded.

Israel’s military also said it had rescued two captives taken by Hamas in an overnight operation in Rafah.

Military officials said the captives, named as Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har, were in good condition.

Hamas has warned that an Israeli ground assault in Rafah would “blow up” negotiations to release the group’s remaining captives in Gaza.

The strikes on Rafah come as Israel is preparing to launch a major offensive that aid agencies fear will result in massive civilian casualties in the last relatively safe area of Gaza.

About 1.4 million Palestinians, or more than half the population of Gaza, have crowded into Rafah to escape Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of the rest of the enclave to ruins.

United States President Joe Biden on Sunday warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch an offensive on Rafah without a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of people sheltering in the city.

Netanyahu has promised “safe passage” for Palestinians in Rafah, but the lack of clarity about evacuation plans has prompted fears that they may be pushed into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, stoking tensions with Cairo.

Netanyahu on Sunday told Fox News that “there’s plenty of room” north of Rafah and that is “where we’re going to direct them”, without specifying which part of Gaza would be safe to evacuate to.

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Q&A: Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto ‘confident’ of election victory

Jakarta, Indonesia – On February 14, more than 204 million Indonesians will have the chance to vote for their new president.

Incumbent Joko Widodo is in his second and final term, and is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

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Voters have a choice between three presidential candidates – Anies Baswedan, the former Governor of Jakarta, Ganjar Pranowo, the former Governor of Central Java, and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto.

Multiple polls indicate Prabowo has a comfortable lead over his competitors.

Prabowo has tried twice to become Indonesia’s president – and lost both times to Widodo.

Since 2019, he has served as defence minister in Widodo’s cabinet.

His running mate is 36-year-old Gibran Raka Bumingraka, the president’s eldest son.

But victory is still not a certainty. If no candidate can secure at least 50 percent of the vote, a second round of voting will be held in June.

While Prabowo is the most popular candidate, he is also polarising. Decades-old allegations of human rights abuses during his time in the military have been raised by rivals and rights organisations.

On the final day of campaigning on Saturday, Prabowo held a rally in the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, where he addressed thousands of supporters.

Backstage, the 72-year-old met with Al Jazeera Asia Correspondent Jessica Washington for an exclusive interview, sharing his thoughts on why young voters have been drawn to his campaign and how he plans to win over critics.

Al Jazeera: It’s the last day of campaigning. Are you feeling confident that you can win this election in one round?

Prabowo Subianto: All the figures show that way…the grassroots enthusiasm. All the figures show that we will go in one round.

Al Jazeera: The enthusiasm of young people has been a key part of the campaign. What is your message to your young supporters?

Prabowo Subianto: The young today, they are more rational, they are more critical, they are smarter, they sense what is genuine and what is not genuine.

I think they are very concerned about their future, so those that have a good program and good strategy, those that have good commitments, they are the ones that the young can identify with they can support.

Al Jazeera: Is there something specific about your campaign that appeals to young people? Because your opponents might say it’s because of the Tiktok dances, the cartoon posters. Is there a specific policy that appeals to young people?

Prabowo Subianto: My policies are very rational, logical, with a common-sense approach that is actually building on all the work of our predecessors.

Nation-building is not a two year thing, a five-year thing. It’s a period of one generation or two generations.

We have to make use and build on everything that has been built by our predecessors. That’s why people of all strata the majority of them get my message and support us. They realise to build something, you must do it based on strong foundation and then build upon success. Brick by brick, stone by stone.

Al Jazeera: You obviously have very many supporters but there are also some strong critics. If you win this election, you will be their president too. How will you navigate this?

Prabowo Subianto: I will work for the good of Indonesia. Not for a certain segment.

I proved this, when the last election, I lost badly in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province. But when I became Minister of Defence, I built one of the biggest and best polytechnics there. In the province where I lost.

Do you understand? I don’t believe in thinking short-term, thinking small. I like to think big and long-term.

Al Jazeera: Thinking big picture, how do you perceive Indonesia’s role on the global stage, if you do become president?

Prabowo Subianto: The good luck we inherited from our founding fathers is the philosophy of non-alignment.

Indonesia respects all countries, respects all great powers.

We want to have great relationships with everybody. We don’t want to be joining one bloc against another bloc. Our position is quite unique. We are friends with everybody. In any conflict or competition, we are the ones who can be accepted by all sides.

Al Jazeera: What does Gibran bring to this partnership, in terms of skills and experience?

Prabowo Subianto: More than 50 percent of our voters are below the age of 50. The young, are dynamic, savvy, and they are critical.

If you notice, the fact there is a vice-president under the age of 40, that’s is normal in many countries in the west. In Indonesia it has become some sort of issue, not because he is under 40 but because he is the son of President Joko Widodo, that makes some circles feel bad. But that’s politics. You cannot please everyone all the time.

Al Jazeera: What will Indonesia look like under your presidency?

Prabowo Subianto: I hope Indonesia will be dynamic, economically better-off. But most importantly, I want to alleviate poverty. I want to get rid of hunger. I want to get rid of stunting for Indonesian children. The figures are not so good, at least 25 percent of children are stunted, in the outlying areas. But even in West Java, there are children who do not eat well.

Al Jazeera: It’s one thing to say they will support you in polls, and to show up at campaign events. It’s a different matter when it comes to actually showing up on February 14 and voting. Do you have any concern about the reliability of your supporters?

Prabowo Subianto: From the fervour of my supporters, I think they feel that our team the real hope for them. I am confident they will turn up, they feel they need leaders who can understand their needs, who want to fight for them.

I would tell them, use your power, once every five years you have the power in your hands to choose leaders who will fight for you. If you vote for me, I will defend you and fight for you.

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‘He needs our votes’: In Karachi, Pakistan election tests old loyalties

Karachi, Pakistan – These are the fourth general elections I’m covering in Pakistan over the past 16 years. In a city where colours, music and ethnicities change from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, every one of those previous elections has been confusing.

This one has been the same: chaotic and confusing. I started the day by voting at my neighbourhood polling station. It’s something I’ve always struggled with: Should journalists vote?

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Then, as I reported from Pakistan’s largest city – home to 22 seats, more than the entire province of Balochistan – on Thursday, I realised that not only was Pakistan’s democracy on trial but so too were the city’s loyalties.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had won 14 National Assembly seats in the 2018 election from Karachi, breaking voters away from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which has traditionally dominated the city’s political landscape. With the MQM split into multiple factions since 2016, its disenchanted voters found solace in Khan’s party, from the affluent southern areas of Karachi all the way to the city’s north.

I was standing outside my polling station in Clifton, barely 1km (0.6 miles) away from Bilawal House, which is the Karachi home of the Bhutto-Zardari family, which leads the Pakistan People’s Party. The PPP has historically been the most dominant political force in the province of Sindh, whose capital is Karachi.

Yet, on Thursday, most people streaming out to vote in this upscale part of Karachi were PTI supporters, many of them women who had stepped out at 8am to be among the first to cast their ballot.

N Tariq, a 50-year-old who did not want to share her full name, said she came first in the morning to ensure she caught the polling staff in a good mood and in the hope the voting process would be smooth and without long queues.

“I’m voting for the person who is in trouble right now. He needs our votes”, said Tariq. She laughed as she said this, referring to Khan, who received multiple sentences in a range of cases last week.

My next stop was one of the largest polling stations in Defence Phase 4, a cantonment housing area, run by Pakistan’s powerful military, which Khan’s supporters blame for derailing the party – its leaders are in jail, and candidates can’t even use the party symbol.

An upscale neighbourhood, the polling station was already getting busy – but it was missing the celebratory atmosphere of the 2018 election, when I had spent a few hours outside this venue.

By this time, my cellular and data connection had been cut and I could no longer contact anyone. As a native Karachite, losing cellular connectivity isn’t new to me but this was a day when law and order could be compromised and it was very unnerving.

I headed towards Lyari, a PPP stronghold. As I drove through Lyari’s Cheel Chowk – the usually very noisy and congested area, home to decades-long gang wars, was eerily calm. It was so quiet that it made me uncomfortable.

The flags and banners were up but there was no music, no dancing, no blaring of Dilan Teer Bija – the PPP’s viral anthem.

As I began going through different polling stations, I came across many elderly women voters.

Rehmat, 75, and Kulsom, 60, came together to the polling station – where I wasn’t allowed in despite having accreditation. Kulsom said she was only voting for the PPP because it was the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.

“Bilawal is her son and they have given us everything. Water, gas, and brought peace to this area, PPP has given us everything. What else do we need? I will always stand by PPP till my last breath,” said Kulsom. She was referring to Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the 36-year-old leader of the PPP.

Rehmat said her children don’t have jobs but the PPP is her choice too.

She voted for Bilawal’s grandfather – former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – in 1970, and then for Benazir, and now she is determined to vote for Bilawal.

“They work for us and they take care of us – how can we not love the Bhuttos?”, she said.

This wasn’t the sentiment shared by everyone in Lyari. A first-time voter, 18-year-old Mohammed Yazdan said promises are made before elections but never fulfilled.

“I’m voting for Imran Khan, PTI, because those who do work are always pulled down by them. Look at what they’ve done to him. I will continue supporting him.”

I went into the heart of the city, in the old Golimar area, a working-class neighbourhood. There were small pockets of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, MQM and Jamaat-e-Islami supporters in the streets helping voters.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik, a far-right party formed in 2017, rallies support by focusing its politics around religion. Jamaat-e-Islami, also a religious right-wing party, is among Pakistan’s most organised political forces, with a charity wing, the Al Khidmat Foundation.

I found that voters were hesitant to admit they were going to be voting for PTI-affiliated candidates who have had to contest as independents.

One female voter who wished to remain anonymous said: “I’m sitting in the MQM tent to get my polling numbers sorted but my vote is always for the leader of the nation I can’t name. I wanted to come today to be a polling agent but we were told there would be security issues for those affiliated with PTI candidates.”

In the Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society, an old neighbourhood known locally by its acronym PECHS, one of the larger polling stations is a college campus that has an unpaved dirt entrance and steps that go down into the main courtyard. After crossing it, voters had to climb up to the first and second floors to access polling booths, making the venue hard to reach for the elderly and people with limited ability to walk and climb stairs.

Dr Raza, 60 who lives in this constituency and only shared his last name, said that this college is always allotted as a polling station. He said he had written to the Election Commission of Pakistan many times asking them to reconsider the location due to its inaccessibility for those with physical limitations.

“Whether these are fair or not, it’s my duty to show up. But not everyone can. This polling station isn’t accessible for everyone,” he said.

In Gulshan-e-Iqbal, near the city’s biggest cricket venue, the National Stadium, voters at polling booths in a school campus complained that they had been there since 8am but election commission staff had arrived only at 11am and that, too, without ballot papers.

The long queue snaked around the building and was barely moving. As I shuffled through the crowd, at least eight men and women leapt out of their places in line to ask me to report what was happening there and how voters were effectively being dissuaded from casting their ballots.

It was hard to push through the crowd and the presiding officer who sat in an empty room on the same floor told me there was nothing he could do and that yes, staff had arrived late.

I headed to an area packed with apartment complexes next to Gulistan-e-Johar. Though it was a public holiday, most people were getting on with daily work. Shops were open, there were daily wage workers and painters waiting to be contracted and shops were busy selling flowers and street food.

At a polling station within an apartment complex, the queue for women moved rapidly and Rehana Razi, 81, was one of those lined up to cast her vote.

“I’m older than Pakistan,” Razi said with a twinkle in her eye. “I’m here to vote and everything has been very systematic. It’s a secret who I’m here to vote for.”

Zohaib Khan, 36, was waiting outside the polling station with his toddler daughter, while his wife had lined up to vote. He had voted in Malir, more than 14.5km (9 miles) away but his wife was allotted the polling station in Gulistan-e-Johar.

“So we’ve come all the way here, because we have to vote for our PTI candidates. We want PTI to get more time to prove they can do real work for Karachi,” he said.

Karachi’s voters clearly have changed. Yet, the poorer neighbourhoods of the city remain as they were decades ago. Water, cooking gas, a cleaner city, proper sewage – these remain central concerns for the city of 17 million people.

Will those ever be addressed? And in a city as complex as this, can any one party really claim Karachi as its own?

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Malaysia’s top court rules some Islamic laws in Kelantan unconstitutional

Malaysia’s top court has ruled that 16 Islamic laws in the northeastern state of Kelantan are unconstitutional in a landmark decision that could have major implications for the country’s legal system.

By an 8-1 majority, the Federal Court ruled on Friday that the Kelantan state government did not have the power to enact the laws, on offences from sodomy to sexual harassment, possession of false information, intoxication and scale measurements, because they were already covered by federal law and were the responsibility of the federal parliament.

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Malaysia is a federal country where states have jurisdiction over laws related to Islam, the official religion. It also operates a dual legal system where Islamic law applies to Muslims, who make up just over 60 percent of the population, in personal and family matters, as well as the practice of their religion. All other offences are handled by the civil courts.

Kelantan, seen as the heartland of ethnic Malay Muslim culture, has been ruled by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) since 1990.

“The power of parliament and state legislatures are limited by the Federal Constitution and they cannot make any laws they like,” Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mai was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s BFM radio as she delivered the findings of the nine-judge panel.

The case was brought in 2022 by Kelantan lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter after the state government passed a new set of laws on Islamic offences.

The two challenged the constitutionality of 18 of the laws arguing that they were beyond the jurisdiction of the state assembly and already covered by parliament.

The Federal Court did not strike down the two other laws and stressed that the two women had not brought the case to challenge the position of Islam or the Islamic legal system.

About 1,000 people including PAS supporters and conservative Muslims gathered outside the court in Putrajaya ahead of the ruling.

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Pakistan’s real test begins after election, say analysts

Lahore, Pakistan – Four months after Pakistan was originally scheduled to hold national elections, the country’s 128 million voters will on Thursday get the chance to pick their next federal government amid a pre-poll crackdown on former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party and a climate of political and economic instability.

More than 90,000 polling booths spread across the nation of 241 million people will open at 8am local time (03:00 GMT).

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In addition to the 266 seats in the country’s National Assembly, voters will also elect members to the legislatures of Pakistan’s four provinces. In the National Assembly, a party needs at least 134 seats to secure an outright majority. But parties can also form a coalition to reach the threshold.

Voting will continue until 5pm local time (12:00 GMT), and if the tabulation of results occurs smoothly, the winner could be clear within a few hours.

Yet, analysts are already cautioning that the true test of Pakistan’s tryst with democracy will begin after the elections, when a new government will be confronted by a host of challenges it will inherit, and questions over its very legitimacy.

“While the election results might bring a sense of temporary stability, it is increasingly clear to the public and party leaders alike that long-term sustainability can only be achieved when this cycle of political engineering is broken,” analyst and columnist Danyal Adam Khan said, referring to a widespread sentiment in Pakistan that the election process has been influenced by the country’s powerful military establishment to deny a fair chance to Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Just a day before the election, three bomb blasts, two in southwestern Balochistan and one in Karachi, Sindh, left more than 30 people dead. Over the past year, more than 1,000 people have been killed in violence across the country. Despite assurances from the interim government, fears of internet closure in some areas as well as some election-day violence persist.

And the economy is in the doldrums, with inflation hovering around 30 percent, 40 percent of the population below the poverty line, a fast-depreciating currency and nearly three-fourths of the population convinced, according to recent polling, that things could get even worse.

Turning tables

Many voters and experts have told Al Jazeera that those challenges have been compounded by attempts to subvert free and fair elections.

In Thursday’s elections, the top contender is three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, called the “Lion of Punjab” by his supporters. If his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) wins the most seats, he could potentially become prime minister for a record fourth time.

However, critics argue that his frontrunner status isn’t due to an inspirational campaign, but rather the machinations of Pakistan’s most powerful entity: the military establishment.

Six years ago, Sharif found himself in their crosshairs, first disqualified from the premiership in 2017 and then jailed on corruption charges for 10 years in 2018, just two weeks before elections.

His removal and the PMLN’s downfall were seemingly orchestrated to pave the way for former cricketer and philanthropist Imran Khan’s rise to power. While their initial honeymoon seemed promising, cracks emerged, and after nearly four years, Khan became the first Pakistani prime minister deposed through a no-confidence vote, continuing a telling trend in the country’s 77-year history: no PM has ever completed their five-year term

Khan’s relationship with the military hit its lowest point on May 9, 2023, when he was briefly arrested for corruption. His party workers and supporters rioted in response, targeting government and military installations.

For a country with more than three decades of direct military rule, where the army as an institution is deeply woven into the social fabric, the state’s response to Khan and the PTI was brutal. Thousands of party workers were arrested, and key leaders were forced to resign. Khan himself faced more than 150 cases, many apparently frivolous. He was eventually jailed last August in a corruption case, leading to his disqualification from the election. Last week, he received multiple convictions in different cases.

However, the biggest blow for the party before the February 8 election came in January, when their iconic “cricket bat” electoral symbol was revoked for violating internal party election rules.

The decision meant that Khan and his party, arguably the most popular in the country according to opinion polls, had no option but to field candidates as independents, each with their own symbol.

The PTI also alleges harassment and even abductions of their candidates, forcing them to cut short their campaigns. The party has complained of restrictions imposed on rallies and media coverage of their plight. These allegations have led experts to consider this one of the most tainted elections in the country’s history.

Sharif’s return in November last year coincided with his rival’s imprisonment, and all his convictions and charges were dropped within weeks. A Supreme Court ban on him from contesting elections was lifted, paving the way for him to lead his party.

With Khan behind bars, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, son of former President Asif Ali Zardari and two-time ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto, appears to be the second strongest contender.

As the scion of the Bhutto dynasty and leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bhutto-Zardari has campaigned across the country, though the PPP’s core support remains mainly in Sindh.

‘Mockery of democracy’

The crackdown on the PTI has raised questions about the legitimacy of the elections among many analysts.

Danyal Adam Khan, the columnist, said that while the political clampdown is not completely unprecedented, what has transpired before the polls is a “flagrant mockery” of the democratic process.

“Despite the PTI’s own role in promoting a culture of vilifying political opponents, their success at the polls is a matter for the public to decide,” he told Al Jazeera.

Political analyst Benazir Shah acknowledged the history of manipulation in Pakistan’s elections but said that young voters – the country’s largest demographic – had a chance to make their voices heard.

“Out of Pakistan’s 128 million voters, over 45 percent are between the ages of 18 and 35. Historically, they have not contributed a lot in elections, but it is their moment to shine and voice their opinion,” she said.

Pakistan has historically had a relatively low turnout in polls, with only the previous two elections (in 2013 and 2018) witnessing a turnout of more than 50 percent since 1985.

According to election statistics, from 1997 onwards, the voter turnout of those between the ages of 18 and 30 never crossed 40 percent, reaching a high of 37 percent in 2018.

“Despite all the allegations of pre-poll rigging, I am still hoping for a high voter turnout, where the young people come in and vote for the party of their choice,” the Lahore-based Shah said.

Beyond concerns over political persecution, the dire economic situation looms large. Inflation and currency devaluation paint a grim picture.

The country was on the brink of a default last year when in June, then-Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif managed to get a $3bn International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan package, which is set to expire by March.

Addressing the economy will be the next government’s paramount responsibility, said former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. And to do that, he said, the country’s incoming leaders will need credibility.

“Pakistan is still suffering from the political and economic fallout of the manipulated elections in 2018 [when Sharif was effectively forced out of contention]. However, any perception of manipulation in the 2024 elections will be greatly detrimental for the economy,” he told Al Jazeera.

With the latest opinion polls forecasting a win for the PMLN, questions have been raised about whether the results on February 9 can bring some sort of stability in the country’s volatile political landscape.

Danyal Adam Khan said he expects frustration and anger from those feeling disenfranchised but warns against perpetuating a cycle of vengeance.

Analyst Shah also expressed pessimism, fearing further societal polarisation if the PTI feels unfairly represented.

“I feel there will be further divisiveness in the society if one political party and its voters [PTI] will think they have been suppressed and they will feel they were not given fair representation in the polls. This will be quite damaging to the country in the long run,” she added.

Former PM Abbasi said he was sensing a lack of public interest in the elections, reflecting a lack of optimism.

It would be vital, he said, for Pakistan to develop clarity over the relationships between its political, judicial, and military institutions.

“The post-election scenario will be dependent on the ability of the country’s leadership to address all these issues,” the ex-premier said. “Hope for solutions is at a premium, so we can only hope for optimism to prevail.”

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New Zealand calls on Papua rebels to release pilot kidnapped a year ago

New Zealand has called for the immediate release of pilot Phillip Mehrtens who was taken captive by fighters in Indonesia’s troubled Papua province a year ago.

Mehrtens, who was flying a single-propeller plane for Indonesia’s Susi Air, was snatched from his aircraft on February 7 last year by a group of fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB) who said he would only be released if Papua was given its independence.

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The group, led by regional commander Elias Kogoya, later released images and videos showing Mehrtens surrounded by rebels – some armed with guns and others with bows and arrows – in remote forested areas.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the New Zealander had been providing “vital air links and supplies to remote communities” at the time he was kidnapped.

“We strongly urge those holding Phillip to release him immediately and without harm. His continued detention serves the interests of no one,” Peters said in a statement to mark a year since the pilot was taken.

The incident in the remote highlands region of Nduga, one of the most restive areas of the province, drew renewed attention to one of the world’s least-known and longest-running conflicts.

Papua, whose people are ethnically Melanesian, occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea – just 200km (124 miles) north of Australia – and shares a land border with Papua New Guinea (PNG).

A low-level battle for independence has been under way since Indonesia took control of the resource-rich former Dutch colony after a controversial referendum in 1969.

Peters said New Zealand had been working with Indonesian authorities and others towards securing Phillip’s release.

“Let me be absolutely clear,” he said. “There can never be any justification for hostage taking.”

Peters’s statement came after the TPN-PB, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), said they had asked Kogoya to release Mehrtens, although they gave no timeframe for when that might happen.

“We plan to proceed with the release based on humanity,” TPN-PB spokesperson Sebby Sambom was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

“We believed that most Australians and New Zealanders support Papua’s independence,” he added. “We don’t want to be blamed by international community if the pilot dies while he is being held hostage by our fighters.”

Peters said Mehrtens had been able to contact some friends and family before Christmas and had assured them that he was well.

New Zealand was “exploring all avenues” to bring the pilot home, he added.

Indonesia deployed police and soldiers into the highland district in an attempt to rescue Mehrtens shortly after he was taken captive and there have been a number of clashes since.

Outsiders, including foreign journalists, international organisations and diplomats require special permission from Jakarta to visit the region, which is the location of one of the world’s largest gold and copper deposits.

There has been a surge in violence in Papua since 2018 when rebels killed 24 Indonesian men who were building a major new road to connect the coast with the highlands.

United Nations human rights experts have expressed concern about the deteriorating situation.

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In legal no-man’s land, refugees in Malaysia struggle to eat, pay rent

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – It is late afternoon in Kuala Lumpur and in the harsh heat, Zabi* concludes his third visit to the doctor in a month, still unsure of what is causing his excruciating stomach aches despite all his reports being normal so far.

He worries about paying for the doctor as, being a refugee, he does not have much money or any medical benefits.

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When Zabi came from Afghanistan to Malaysia as a teenager five years ago, he had no choice but to fend for himself. His family had only enough money for one of them to flee.

“I know it’s illegal for a refugee to work in Malaysia. But I have no choice as an orphan, as I have no trace of my family at the moment. I work around 18 hours a day and I hardly get paid four ringgit ($0.88) an hour,” the 18-year-old told Al Jazeera.

Zabi is working as a housekeeper in a Malaysian-owned hotel in Kuala Lumpur but because he is a refugee and not officially allowed to work, he has no written contract.

He has had a series of other jobs – as a security guard, in restaurants and in customer service – and lives a precarious existence, struggling to make enough money to pay his 500 Malaysian ringgit ($106) monthly rent.

“After extremely exhausting long working days, Maggi instant noodles are something I eat most days,” he said.

Malaysia has no formal framework for refugees, which means they are left in a legal no-man’s land where they are vulnerable to exploitation by those who do employ them. Under Malaysian law, refugees are also no different to undocumented migrants who are often targeted in official crackdowns.

Asked about refugees at the United Nations last month, the Malaysian representative defended the government’s approach and indicated that there was no room for change.

“Who is the deserving refugee? Who is a deserving asylum seeker? Who is an economic migrant? Who is to determine them as such?” Foreign Affairs Ministry Deputy Secretary General (multilateral affairs) Bala Chandran Tharman told the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, according to the Malay Mail.

While Malaysia is a member of the UN, it has never signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and there are no laws (PDF) in place to recognise and provide for those fleeing persecution and conflict.

Refugees also have no right to work, attend school or access medical care.

Registration with the local office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides some measure of protection and support, including limited access to healthcare, education and other services provided by the UN and its partners.

“This is only an identity document and has no formal legal value in Malaysia,” the UNHCR website notes of the card given to all those registered with it.

In 2022, the Malaysian government said all asylum seekers and refugees would need to register under the government’s Tracking Refugees Information System (TRIS), which was launched in 2017.

The TRIS website talks about safety and the risk of social problems linked to the influx of refugees but suggests registration may allow cardholders to work in some, mostly unskilled, areas.

“The lack of legal protection forces refugees to work illegally, and most of the jobs that they find are 3D jobs, the ‘difficult, dangerous, and dirty’ kind of work that Malaysians try to avoid,” said Jana Stanfield, the co-founder of Together We Can Change the World and founder of the Refugee Film School in Kuala Lumpur.

Without legal protection and proper contracts, many do not receive Malaysia’s national minimum pay (introduced in May 2022) of 1,500 Malaysian ringgit ($329) per month or 7.21 Malaysian ringgit ($1.64) an hour.

Zabi, who spent five months learning English after arriving in Malaysia in 2018, says the boss at the security firm where he once worked had agreed to pay him about 1,000 Malaysian ringgit ($219) a month but never did.

Even now, he is forced to do overtime, which is unpaid, and work in other roles to meet his employer’s needs. He told Al Jazeera he has to agree to these conditions, having no alternative.

More than 70 percent of the 185,000 refugees in Malaysia registered with the refugee agency are of working age. According to information gathered from refugee communities, most make a living in restaurants, retail and other service jobs as well as agriculture and construction.

“It is a ‘win-win’ for Malaysia, as it would take into consideration both the humanitarian needs of refugees, whilst also benefiting the Malaysian economy as it recovers from the social and economic impact of the pandemic,” UNHCR spokeswoman Yante Ismail said in a statement to Al Jazeera about allowing the community to work legally.

Malaysia has allowed certain groups of refugees to join the workforce in the past.

In 2015, some Syrians were allowed to work and send their children to school under a scheme based on an initiative in the early 1990s for Bosnians fleeing the Balkan wars.

“Malaysia can allow refugees to exercise their right to work under an existing legal framework … and then this can be expanded to include education and healthcare,” said Mahi Ramakrishnan, an investigative filmmaker and activist based in Malaysia. “The question is whether the government has the political will to do so.”

In 2017, a pilot project allowed about 300 Rohingya refugees with UNHCR cards to work legally in the plantation and manufacturing sector, but was not adopted.

In October, the Human Resources Ministry said refugees might be allowed to work officially in the so-called “3D jobs” amid shortages of workers who are usually brought in through government-backed arrangements from countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia. Those schemes are currently under review as Malaysian seeks to regularise its policies on foreign workers.

Ultimately, refugee advocacy groups say the government needs to take the lead on any policy change.

“To grant refugees the right to work is to ensure that they are able to have access to livelihood that is safe, decent and dignified,” Hui Ying Tham, the executive director at Asylum Access, told Al Jazeera. He stressed that the implementation of this “requires a multifaceted approach with the government leading, in consultation with refugee communities, the changes in laws, policies and attitudes to create a framework that recognises and supports the rights and potential of refugees.”

Tham added that work should also recognise the skills and experience of the individual refugees as it does with any other member of the workforce.

Abolfazly*, an Afghan refugee school teacher whose village was burned down by the Taliban, agreed.

“We had a life before taking refuge in another land,” he said. “We’re educated, we’re resourceful. Host countries like Malaysia can use us – not only in agriculture but in their socioeconomic development,” said the 28-year-old, who is working on finishing his PhD in law.

The UNHCR remains hopeful that there will eventually be a resolution, although the latest comments at the UPR suggest that might not happen soon.

For refugees like Zabi, that means continued struggle.

“I want to go to university. I love learning new languages,” he told Al Jazeera. “Right now, my life is all about eating, sleeping and working. I have no plans for the future because I know none of the plans will work. But I’ll still keep trying – like I always do.”

*Pseudonyms have been used to protect the refugees’ identity

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 714

Here is the situation on Wednesday, February 7, 2024.

Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said Russia was firing between 1,500 and 2,500 shells and rockets at the area every day and targeting critical infrastructure. Filashkin told the Reuters news agency that Russia had dropped 200 guided aerial bombs on the front-line town of Avdiivka over the past month and was “totally destroying it”.

Separately, Vitalii Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration, said the situation there was “very difficult and in some places, critical”. About 32,000 people lived in the town, the site of Europe’s largest coking plant, before the war. Fewer than 1,000 remain, according to officials.

A two-month-old baby boy was killed and his mother injured after two Russian S-300 missiles hit Zolochiv in northeastern Ukraine, according to Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov. The village is 20km (12.4 miles) from Ukraine’s border with Russia. Two other people were injured in the attack, which also damaged dozens of buildings.

Ukraine said a special forces unit blew up a drilling platform in the Black Sea that Russia was using to enhance the range of its drones. Equipment on the platform was used for drones involved in attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and to control the northwestern part of the sea.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it thwarted an alleged attack by seven Ukrainian drones on the Belgorod region. There were no reports of casualties. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region’s governor, said four homes were damaged.

The United States and Russia traded accusations at a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Ukraine called by Moscow. The US accused Russia of firing at least nine North Korean-supplied missiles at Ukraine and urged UNSC members to hold the two countries accountable for breaching UN sanctions on Pyongyang. Moscow, meanwhile, accused Washington of being a “direct accomplice” in last month’s crash of a Russian military transport plane in the Belgorod region. Moscow has claimed Kyiv shot down the plane. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement and has called for an international investigation.

US President Joe Biden said Congress would play into the Kremlin’s hands if it failed to pass a $118bn bill tying Ukraine aid to immigration curbs demanded by right-wing Republicans. Biden said the “clock is ticking” for Ukraine and criticised former President and likely 2024 rival Donald Trump for discouraging lawmakers from passing the legislation.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visited Kyiv on a trip to underline the EU’s “unwavering support” for Ukraine.

Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and other officials in Kyiv ahead of his visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on Wednesday. Grossi noted that the number of staff at the plant had dropped from 12,000 to as few as 2,000.

A Moscow court ordered the arrest of bestselling Russian language writer Boris Akunin for allegedly spreading “disinformation” about the Russian army. The 67-year-old was charged in December last year after he expressed support for Kyiv in a phone call with Russian pranksters posing as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Akunin has lived overseas since 2014.

Ukraine said it had arrested five former and current intelligence officers it said were secretly working for Russia. The SBU said the suspects were caught passing information to Russia’s FSB security service about Ukrainian military sites, its defensive fortifications, personal data and strategic energy facilities.

Norway rejected an asylum application from Andrei Medvedev who claimed to have deserted the Russian mercenary group Wagner after fighting in Ukraine for four months. The 27-year-old sought asylum after fleeing to Norway in January 2023.

A senior official with Ukraine’s intelligence agency was fired after revelations that investigative journalists including at outlet Bihus.info, had been wiretapped, a source at the agency told the AFP news agency.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visited Kyiv on a trip to underline the EU’s “unwavering support” for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy ordered the creation of a separate branch of Ukraine’s Armed Forces devoted to drone warfare. In December, he said Ukraine would produce a million drones in 2024.

Turkish defence company Baykar has started building a factory near Kyiv to make either its TB2 or TB3 drone models, chief executive Haluk Bayraktar told the Reuters news agency.

Zelenskyy ordered the creation of a separate branch of Ukraine’s Armed Forces devoted to drone warfare. In December, he said Ukraine would produce a million drones in 2024.

Turkish defence company Baykar has started building a factory near Kyiv to make either its TB2 or TB3 drone models, chief executive Haluk Bayraktar told the Reuters news agency.

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Chile ex-president Sebastian Pinera dies in helicopter crash

Chile’s former President Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire tycoon who twice held the South American nation’s top job, has died in a helicopter crash, his office said in a statement.

“It is with deep regret that we announce the death of the former president of the Republic of Chile,” said the statement on Tuesday, adding that 74-year-old Pinera had died in the popular vacation spot Lago Ranco, some 920km (570 miles) south of Santiago.

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Chile Interior Minister Carolina Toha confirmed the death of the former president. No further details were immediately released about the cause of the accident.

Chile’s national disaster agency SENAPRAD confirmed that one person had been killed and three people injured. The government did not immediately name who was aboard.

Pinera, also a successful businessman, oversaw quick economic growth and a steep fall in unemployment during his first 2010 to 2014 presidency, at a time when many of Chile’s trade partners and neighbours were facing sharply slower growth.

His second presidency from 2018 to 2022 was marked by violent protests against inequality that led to accusations of human rights violations and ended with the government promising to draft a new constitution.

Pinera was the owner of the fifth largest fortune in Chile, estimated at some $3bn. He worked as an academic in several universities for almost 20 years and as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

As a businessman in the 1970s through the 1990s, he worked in a variety of industries, including real estate. He held shares in major airlines as well as telecommunication, real estate and electricity companies. He also created one of the largest credit card companies in the country. In 2009, he handed over the management of his businesses to others.

He entered politics representing the centre right, which was the civilian support of the military regime. At the same time, he distanced himself from the 1973-1990 rule of General Augusto Pinochet, when more than 3,000 suspected leftists were killed or “disappeared.”

Pinera ran three times for president of Chile. In 2006, he lost to socialist Michelle Bachelet; then in 2010, he defeated former President Eduardo Frei. Four years after his first term, in 2018, he won a second four-year term after defeating a leftist independent.

Twelve days before the beginning of his first term, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami claimed the lives of 525 people and devastated the infrastructure of central-southern Chile.

Pinera’s government agenda was postponed in order to take on emergency reconstruction. In 2010, he also led the unprecedented rescue of 33 miners trapped for 69 days at the bottom of a mine in the Atacama desert, which captured the world’s attention.

The event became a global media sensation and was the subject of a 2014 movie, The 33.

He closed his administration having created an estimated one million jobs.

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Michigan school shooter’s mother found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

A Michigan jury has convicted a school shooter’s mother of involuntary manslaughter in a first-of-its-kind trial to determine whether she had any responsibility in the killing of four students in 2021.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Jennifer Crumbley was negligent when she failed to tell Oxford High School that the family owned guns, including a 9mm handgun that her son, Ethan, used at the November 30 attack.

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Crumbley, 45, faced four counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each of the victims. Her husband, James, 47, is set to face his trial next month.

Oakland County prosecutors argued during the trial that the mother, despite not pulling the trigger herself, negligently stored the gun and ammunition and, therefore, should be held criminally responsible for the deaths.

They said that she and her husband knew Ethan was mentally in a “downward spiral” and posed a danger to others but allowed him access to the fateful pistol.

They added that Crumbley had a duty under Michigan law to prevent her son, who was 15 at the time, from harming others.

But Shannon Smith, the lawyer for Crumbley, argued that she was not responsible for buying or storing the gun used by her son and that there were no warning signs that he would harm his classmates or to foresee a crime taking place.

Crumbley testified in her defence during the trial and said her husband was responsible for securely storing firearms at home and that her son had been anxious about getting into college.

During Smith’s closing arguments, she asked the jury, comprising six men and six women, including some gun owners, to find her client not guilty since her son’s crimes were “unforeseeable”.

“Can every parent really be responsible for everything that their children do?” Smith asked.

On the morning of the school shooting, staff members who were concerned with Ethan’s drawing of a gun, bullet and wounded man next to the words “Blood everywhere,” “My life is useless,” and “The thoughts won’t stop – help me”, on his math assignment, met the Crumbleys.

According to prosecutors, Ethan’s parents were told that he needed counselling and they needed to take him home, but the couple resisted taking him and did not search his bag or ask about the gun.

However, Jennifer challenged that account, telling jurors they had mutually agreed that Ethan could remain in school that day and did not think he posed a danger to other students.

Hours later, Ethan walked out of a toilet, pulled a gun from his backpack and shot 10 students and a teacher, killing four students.

The gun used was a Sig Sauer 9mm that his father, James, had bought just four days earlier. Jennifer had also taken her son to a shooting range that weekend.

Ethan, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder and “terrorism” and is serving a life sentence.

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UN envoy in Iraq to step down at end of May, says country ‘on a knife edge’

The head of the United Nations political mission in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, has told the Security Council she expects to step down at the end of May, adding the country was “on a knife edge”.

The former Dutch defence minister was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in late 2018. The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq aims to advance inclusive political dialogue and helps coordinate humanitarian and development aid.

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“For Iraq to further continue on its path of stability and progress, an enabling environment will prove essential. And, such an environment requires restraint from all sides,” Hennis-Plasschaert told the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday.

Iran-aligned groups, known collectively as the “Axis of Resistance”, have been waging attacks against Israeli and US targets from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, since Israel began its war in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7.

Washington responded with attacks in a cycle of escalating violence that Iraqi officials said threatened to undo progress towards stabilising the country after decades of conflict.

“While we are, of course, aware that many authorities and actors seek to limit further escalation, it is clear that the situation remains volatile. Iraq – indeed, the wider region – remain on a knife-edge, with the tiniest miscalculation threatening a major conflagration,” Hennis-Plasschaert said.

There was an “urgent need to cease attacks, be they originating from within or outside” of Iraq, she said, adding, “And, as stated many times in past years, this must include reining in armed actors operating outside state control.”

Security Council permanent members Russia and China have criticsed the US for its recent air raids on targets in Iraq and Syria.

The two countries accused Washington of raising the risk of regional escalation at a meeting of the Security Council late on Monday. Moscow claimed that the US decision to launch the attacks was linked to the upcoming presidential election in November.

Russia had requested the council meeting after the US launched dozens of attacks against Iran-aligned targets in Iraq and Syria. The raids followed a drone attack on a US base in Jordan that killed three soldiers.

The US air raids, which killed more than a dozen people, including civilians, demonstrate Washington’s complete disregard for international law, Moscow’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. He accused the US of seeking to draw Middle Eastern powers, including Iran, into a regional conflict.

The United States invaded Iraq and toppled leader Saddam Hussein in 2003, precipitating years of rebellion and fighting among Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups.

It withdrew its troops in 2011, but sent thousands back after ISIL’s surge into the country three years later.

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Iran vs Qatar: AFC Asian Cup 2023 semifinal preview

Who: Iran vs Qatar What: AFC Asian Cup 2023 semifinal When: Wednesday, February 6, 2024, 6pm (15:00 GMT) Where: Al Thumama Stadium, Doha, Qatar

Qatar coach Tintin Marquez Lopez says his side will face their “toughest test” in the defence of their Asian Cup crown when they face Iran in the semifinals on Wednesday.

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The Spaniard has bemoaned the lack of time since their quarterfinal victory against Uzbekistan on Saturday, in which the Maroons survived a scare after extra time and penalties.

“If we speak about preparation for the game, it was a very short time,” he said. “We had only two days to prepare.

“The game will be the toughest match of the tournament for us.”

Qatar were unbeaten in the victorious 2019 campaign and are yet to taste defeat in this edition. Indeed, the draw after extra time with Uzbekistan was the first time they failed to win a match in the 2023 tournament.

Tarek Salman returned to the defence for Qatar in the quarterfinals, having been named among the substitutes in the 2-1 round of 16 victory against Palestine.

The defender echoed the thoughts of his manager that the recovery time is a concern and that those who played in the Uzbekistan win are feeling fatigued. But he hopes the occasion can carry the team.

“Everyone is excited; against Iran it will be physical,” Salman said.

“They have stars who play in big leagues in Europe so we’re motivated 200 percent.

“We hope to bring joy to our fans.”

• Passion , Love , Believe , Work The secret recipe of #AlAnnabi success 🇶🇦🤍#WinAsOne#AsianCup2023 pic.twitter.com/764OvGrpBR

— Qatar Football Association (@QFA_EN) February 3, 2024

Iran midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi, meanwhile, has raised doubts about the AFC appointing an Arab referee for their Asian Cup semifinal clash against the hosts and defending champions

Wednesday’s semifinal will be officiated by Kuwait’s Ahmad Al-Ali, who has taken charge of two group games and a last-16 tie at the tournament.

“What is a little bit surprising for us is that the referee for the match is from Kuwait, he’s an Arab,” Ezatolahi told reporters on Tuesday.

“We’re just wondering how it’s possible that they put an Arab as a referee for the match.

“But we are the Iran national team, we are a very big team. We have very good players, we are professional.”

Iran reached the semifinals after they beat Asia’s top-ranked side Japan 2-1 despite themselves having only two days to recover after their last-16 tie against Syria went to extra time and penalties.

Ezatolahi, like Lopez and Tarek, has criticised the lack of recovery time in the knockout stage.

“In this tournament, the players didn’t have enough time to recover, specifically in the knockout stage,” he said.

“Many of the players came straight from their clubs and are under a lot of pressure here.”

The #AsianCup2023 SEMI-FINALISTS!

🇯🇴🇰🇷🇮🇷🇶🇦#HayyaAsia pic.twitter.com/itn7JTTx9Q

— AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 (@Qatar2023en) February 3, 2024

Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei reiterated the rest period being “less than 72 hours” before they faced Japan while he also took a shot at the video assistant referee (VAR).

“In this tournament at least, I can say that VAR was not very kind to us. We had a situation in the match against Japan that could have been a penalty on Sardar Azmoun, but VAR did not check it for us,” he said.

“But we have to be stronger than everything that is happening at this tournament.”

Iran beat Qatar 4-0 in October, but Ghalenoei urged his team to forget about previous results as they seek a place in their first final since they won their third title in 1976.

“When Qatar reached the semifinals, they showed their quality, so we need to forget our result against Qatar and forget our performance against Japan. That belongs to history now,” he said.

“We need to show more quality and we have to cover more distance compared with the match against Japan. I hope we can reach the final after nearly 50 years. I have big belief in our players.”

Jordan have lost once at the tournament already when they went down to Bahrain in the group stage match. However, they do have three wins to South Korea’s two. The last two wins were inside 90 minutes, where the Koreans required extra time in their two knock-out games so far.

Qatar: W W W W W

Iran: W W W W W

Qatar have a fully fit squad to pick from, bar for a slight concern over backup keeper Salah Zakaria.

Predicted XI: Meshaal Barsham, Pedro Miguel, Mohammed Waad, Lucas Mendes, Almoez Ali, Tarek Salman, Jassem Gaber, Hassan Al-Haydos, Akram Afif, Ali Asad, Ahmed Fathi

Iran welcome back one of their star players after Mehdi Taremi missed their quarterfinal clash through suspension.

Sadegh Moharrami is set to miss out with a cruciate ligament injury, while Majid Hosseini is battling a sore ankle.

Predicted XI: Alireza Beiranvand, Ramin Rezaeian, Milad Mohammadi, Saeid Ezatolahi, Hossein Kanani, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Sardar Azmoun, Mehdi Taremi, Saman Ghoddos, Mohammad Mohebi

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US court rules Trump does not have immunity in election interference case

A United States appeals court has ruled that former President Donald Trump does not have immunity from federal charges that he plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden.

“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defences of any other criminal defendant,” a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said on Tuesday.

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“But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution,” its ruling read.

The decision marks the second time in as many months that judges have refused Trump’s arguments that he cannot be prosecuted for actions while he was in the White House.

A Trump campaign spokesperson said the ruling “threatens the bedrock of our Republic”.

“Without complete immunity, a President of the United States would not be able to properly function!” the spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. He said Trump would appeal but did not say whether he would first ask for a review from the full appeals court in Washington or go directly to the Supreme Court.

The case will remain paused until at least Monday to give Trump time to appeal.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said the rejection from the courts was a “fairly scathing decision” for Trump.

“While this is a very bad sign for the president’s claims of immunity, it is not the end of the road. It’s probably going to be decided by the Supreme Court, but again they can just say, ‘We’re not going to take this case’, in which case the trial could start in a matter of weeks,” Culhane explained.

The appeals court took centre stage in the immunity dispute after the Supreme Court said last month that it was temporarily staying out of it, rejecting a request from special counsel Jack Smith to issue a speedy ruling.

Trump’s lawyers have argued that former presidents may not be criminally prosecuted for official actions unless first impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from office by the Senate.

The former Republican president was impeached by the House twice. After trials in the Senate, a majority of senators found him guilty, but both times, they failed to achieve a two-thirds majority required to remove him from office and he was acquitted.

US District Judge Tanya Chutka, who is presiding over the case, rejected Trump’s arguments in December and said the office of the president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get out of jail free’ pass”.

While Trump’s lawyers took their arguments to the Washington appeals court after losing the initial decision, Smith asked the Supreme Court to weigh in first, hoping to secure a fast and definitive ruling and preserve a trial date of March 4 in the federal election interference case.

However, the high court declined the request, leaving the matter with the appeals court.

Even if the courts do not accept Trump’s argument, the appeals will likely achieve his aim of delaying the trial beyond March 4 and possibly until after November’s presidential election, which is projected to be a rematch between Trump and Biden.

If Trump wins in November, he could pardon himself or call on the Department of Justice to close the federal case.

However, he faces three other criminal cases, and they are all state cases, which presidents are unable to quash.

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Argentina president Javier Milei says plans to move embassy to Jerusalem

Argentina President Javier Milei has announced plans to shift his country’s embassy to Jerusalem as he embarked on a visit to Israel.

The 53-year-old economist, who upended traditional politics to win election last year, was greeted warmly by Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.

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Milei, on his first official visit since taking office barring a brief swing through the Davos economic forum in Switzerland, said, “My plan is to move the embassy to west Jerusalem.”

Confirmation of the widely expected announcement found favour with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said he “warmly welcomes” the move.

“The prime minister spoke about this with President Milei after his election, and welcomes the fact that the president has kept his promise,” a statement read.

Right-winger Netanyahu and the libertarian Milei, who has been compared with former US president Donald Trump – who moved the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, are set to meet for talks on Wednesday, with the aim of deepening ties between the two countries.

After his arrival, Milei headed to the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem’s historic Old City, the holiest place where Jews can pray.

His trip will also see him visit a kibbutz and meet families of hostages taken by the Palestinian armed group Hamas when it attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official Israeli figures. The group, which governs Gaza, seized about 240 other people as hostages.

After the Hamas attack, Israel launched a devastating bombardment and ground offensive on Gaza, while severely restricting supplies of water, food and aid to the territory. The campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and displaced more than 80 percent of Gaza’s residents.

More than 27,500 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, and more than 66,000 others have been wounded, according to Palestinian authorities.

Palestinian group Hamas said it “strongly condemns” Milei’s announcement. Hamas, the group that governs Gaza, said it viewed the move “an infringement of the rights of our Palestinian people to their land, and a violation of the rules of international law, considering Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian land”.

Milei, known for his fiery speeches and wild sideburns, describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”. He was raised in a Catholic family but has studied Jewish scripture.

After his election win in November, he visited the tomb of a revered rabbi in New York – a popular spiritual destination for some Jews.

Argentina’s Jewish community is 250,000 strong and one of the largest in Latin America.

From Israel, Milei heads to Rome on Friday for a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and a private audience with Pope Francis.

Milei has previously criticised his fellow Argentinian but toned down his rhetoric more recently.

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Kenya religious cult leader, 29 others charged with murder of 191 children

Kenyan cult leader Paul NthengeMackenzie and 29 associates were on Tuesday charged with the murder of 191 children whose bodies were found among hundreds of people buried in a forest.

The defendants all denied the charges brought before a court in the coastal town of Malindi near the Indian Ocean. One suspect was found mentally unfit to stand trial and has been ordered to return to the Malindi High Court in a month.

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Prosecutors said Mackenzie ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so that they could go to heaven before the world ended, in one of the world’s worst cult-related disasters in recent history.

The former taxi driver turned self-proclaimed pastor has already been charged with “terrorism”, manslaughter as well as child torture and cruelty. He was arrested in April last year after bodies were found in the Shakahola forest.

Autopsies revealed that the majority of the 429 victims had died of hunger. But others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten, or suffocated.

The case, dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”, led the government to flag the need for tighter control of fringe denominations.

A largely Christian nation, Kenya has struggled to regulate unscrupulous churches and cults that dabble in criminality.

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