Clashes as Senegal parliament debates presidential poll delay

Clashes as Senegal parliament debates presidential poll delay
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Protesters gesture after police fired teargas at them outside the General Assembly in Plateau, Dakar on February 5, 2024. (AFP)
Clashes as Senegal parliament debates presidential poll delay
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Protesters gesture after police fired teargas at them outside the General Assembly in Plateau, Dakar on February 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 06 February 2024
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Clashes as Senegal parliament debates presidential poll delay

Clashes as Senegal parliament debates presidential poll delay

DAKAR: Senegalese lawmakers on Monday got physical as they debated an unprecedented move to delay this month’s presidential election, which also sparked clashes outside parliament and prompted international concern.

The mood in the parliament chamber was close to boiling point by early afternoon, with some deputies shoving and pushing one another, leading to a temporary recess.

Outside, security forces earlier used tear gas to disperse small groups of opposition protesters, with demonstrators chanting “Macky Sall dictator,” referring to the country’s president.

The atmosphere in Senegal — often viewed as a bastion of stability in coup-hit West Africa — has been tense since Saturday when Sall announced a delay to the February 25 vote, just hours before campaigning was officially set to begin.

“Let’s not be an assembly of shame. Let’s make sure that when we leave here we can look at our children with pride and say that we were the last wall, the last bulwark,” said opposition MP Abass Fall during the debate.

Lawmakers are debating a proposal for a delay of six months or up to a year, until February 2025, according to the text distributed at the meeting.

Adopted a day earlier by a preparatory committee, the text is supported by MPs from Sall’s party. But it needs the support of three-fifths of the 165 deputies to pass.

“President Macky Sall said he would serve two terms. He has kept his word,” said another MP Moussa Diakhate, chairman of the pro-government law committee.

Violence has previously broken out in Senegal over fears Sall would try to extend his tenure beyond the end of his second term, and he has previously insisted he would not.

The vote was expected later in the day on Monday.

The sporadic clashes outside parliament were a rare sight in the normally calm area of downtown Dakar, where police and security forces backed up by heavy vehicles were mobilized to protect parliament.

Demonstrator Malick Diouf, 37, said he had no preferred candidate and did not even have a voting card, but felt it crucial to come and protest.

“The main thing for me is to say ‘no’ to this political agenda, this coup de force to try to stay in power,” he told AFP.

Opposition leaders have denounced the proposed delay as a “constitutional coup” and an assault on democracy.

Violent street protests rocked the capital Dakar on Sunday, during which two opposition candidates, including former prime minister Aminata Toure, were arrested and later released.

The government early on Monday suspended mobile Internet access, citing the dissemination of “hateful and subversive messages” on social media.

It was a repeat of a move last June, which saw mobile data restricted amid high tensions in the country.

The measure has become a common response to curb mobilization and communication via social networks.

Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the situation is unprecedented in Senegal.

The country has never experienced a coup since gaining independence from France in 1960, making it a rare outlier in a volatile region.

The proposed delay has sparked growing international concern, with the United States, European Union and France all appealing for the election to be rescheduled as soon as possible.

The chairman of the African Union commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat also urged Senegal to resolve its “political dispute through consultation, understanding and dialogue.”

Human Rights Watch warned that Senegal risked losing its democratic credentials.

“Senegal has long been considered a beacon of democracy in the region. This is now at risk,” it said in a statement.

“Authorities need to act to prevent violence, rein in abusive security forces, and end their assault on opposition and media. They should respect freedom of speech, expression, and assembly, and restore Internet, putting Senegal back on its democratic course.”

The crisis has led to fears of the kind of violent unrest that broke out in March 2021 and June 2023, which resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests.

Tensions soared over speculation that Sall was considering running for a third term, until he eventually confirmed last July that he would not stand again.

Despite outrage on social media at the weekend, anger over the delay of the presidential vote did not spill into the streets in large numbers.

The opposition suspects the postponement is part of a plan by the presidential camp to avoid defeat, or even to extend Sall’s term in office, despite him saying on Saturday he would not stand for re-election.

Sall has designated Prime Minister Amadou Ba from his party as his would-be successor.

However, with the party split over his candidacy, he faced possible defeat at the ballot box.

Sall on Saturday said that he delayed the vote because of a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Council over the rejection of candidates.


Senior Russian naval officer killed in car bombing claimed by Kyiv

Updated 22 sec ago
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Senior Russian naval officer killed in car bombing claimed by Kyiv

Senior Russian naval officer killed in car bombing claimed by Kyiv
Russia’s state Investigative Committee said an improvised explosive device had detonated in an act of terrorism, killing a serviceman whom it did not identify
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told Reuters that the explosion had killed Valery Trankovsky, a Russian naval captain

KYIV: A bomb planted under a car blew up and killed a senior Russian naval officer in occupied Crimea’s city of Sevastopol on Wednesday, in what a Kyiv security source said was a Ukrainian hit on one of its highest-ranking targets to date.
Russia’s state Investigative Committee, which handles probes into serious crimes, said in a statement that an improvised explosive device had detonated in an act of terrorism, killing a serviceman whom it did not identify.
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told Reuters that the explosion had killed Valery Trankovsky, a Russian naval captain and the chief of staff of the 41st brigade of Russia’s missile ships in the Black Sea.
The operation was carried out by the SBU, which saw him as a “legitimate” target in line with the laws of war because of “war crimes” he committed, the source said. The source said he had ordered missile attacks that hit civilian targets in Ukraine, including a deadly strike on the city of Vinnytsia in July 2022.
Reuters could not independently verify Trankovsky’s precise role or his involvement in alleged war crimes.
Russia has used warships from its Black Sea Fleet, as well as strategic bombers, to conduct missile strikes on targets across Ukraine. The attacks have led to hundreds of civilian deaths and extensive damage. Moscow says it does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper cited two law enforcement sources who also identified the victim as Trankovsky, a first rank captain. It said he was chief of staff and deputy commander of the 41st brigade of Russia’s missile ships in the Black Sea.
Mash, a Telegram channel close to Russia’s security services, said he had been under surveillance for seven days before the attack.
Both the Kyiv source and Mash said the bomb had detonated on Taras Shevchenko street, which is named after Ukraine’s most famous poet.
The Investigative Committee published images of the wreckage of a car.

’LIQUIDATED’
Several pro-war Russian figures have been assassinated since the start of the war in operations blamed by Moscow on Ukraine, including journalist Darya Dugina, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.
All of those people, as well as Trankovsky, were listed in Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), a huge unofficial Ukrainian database of people considered to be enemies of the country.
On Wednesday Trankovsky’s photo on the site was overwritten with the word “Liquidated” in red letters.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said last December it had cracked a network of Ukrainian agents in Crimea who were involved in attempts to assassinate pro-Russian figures.
It said the targets included the Moscow-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, and a former pro-Russian member of the Ukrainian parliament, Oleg Tsaryov.
Tsaryov survived despite being shot twice in an attack in October in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. A source in Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency told Reuters at the time that the shooting was an SBU operation.
The city of Sevastopol is the traditional headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and it has been heavily targeted by Ukrainian strikes during the war.

US and Polish officials open missile defense site that Russia has long protested

US and Polish officials open missile defense site that Russia has long protested
Updated 29 min ago
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US and Polish officials open missile defense site that Russia has long protested

US and Polish officials open missile defense site that Russia has long protested
  • The US missile defense base was originally planned under President George W. Bush as a way to protect Europe from ballistic threats from Iran
  • Russia aggression, fears that have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

WARSAW: US and Polish officials inaugurated a NATO missile defense base in northern Poland on Wednesday, with Polish officials welcoming it as a significant boost to the security of the country as well as of the NATO alliance at a time of war in neighboring Ukraine.
The US missile defense base, which is being integrated into NATO’s defenses, was originally planned under President George W. Bush as a way to protect Europe from ballistic threats from Iran. Poland, however, has always seen it as a form of US protection in case of Russia aggression, fears that have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin has long protested the plans, and on Tuesday it denounced the base as a challenge to its own military potential that would require measures “to ensure parity.”
Polish officials, who gathered with the US ambassador and other officials, welcomed it as historic step that increases the US commitment to the security of Europe at a time of uncertainty due to the grinding war nearby. There are also concerns about whether Donald Trump will remain committed to Europe’s security when he returns to the White House in January.
“The whole world will see clearly that this is not Russia’s sphere of interest anymore,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the ceremony in Redzikowo. “From the Polish point of view, this is strategically the most important thing.”
Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called the opening of the base with its hundreds of US Navy personnel “an extraordinary event in the history of the security of Poland, the US and NATO.” He said the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are showing the importance of air defenses.
“The base in Redzikowo means the eternal presence of American and allied troops on the territory of the Republic of Poland and, strategically for Poland, it is one of the most important events in history after 1989,” he said.
The facility is equipped with the US Navy’s modern Aegis Ashore system, which can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles in the initial phase of their flight. It is the second land element of Aegis Ashore in Europe after the first such installation went into operation in Romania in 2016.
Asked about the base during a news briefing Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed his concerns to the US plans even during the Bush administration.
“We then insisted that the Americans saying all these plans are aimed against the ephemeral Iranian threat are in fact a lie, that all these plans were drawn up from the very beginning as an attempt to militarily contain our potential,” he said.
“This is the advancement of American military infrastructure on European territory toward our borders. This is nothing other than an attempt to contain our potential. And, of course, this leads to the adoption of appropriate measures to ensure parity,” Peskov added.


Trump’s top team: who’s who?

Trump’s top team: who’s who?
Updated 13 min 58 sec ago
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Trump’s top team: who’s who?

Trump’s top team: who’s who?
  • Donald Trump is building his administration team, handing top roles to his closest allies

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump is building his administration team ahead of retaking the White House in January, handing top roles to his closest allies.
While many of his cabinet nominations require approval by the Senate, Trump is trying to bypass that oversight by forcing through so-called recess appointments.
Here are the key people nominated by Trump for positions in his incoming administration:


Billionaire Elon Musk has been named to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” targeting $2 trillion in cuts from the federal government’s $7 trillion budget, according to the businessman — although no one has explained how such drastic cuts would be made.
The world’s richest man has pledged to bring his “hardcore” management style to Washington while promising “fair and humane” transitions for sacked federal workers.
Trump said that another wealthy ally, Vivek Ramaswamy, would co-lead the new department.



Fox News host and US Army veteran Pete Hegseth was nominated to be the next defense secretary, tasked with leading the world’s most powerful military.
Hegseth joined Fox News in 2014 and is a host on Fox and Friends Weekend and Fox Nation. He has also authored several books.
Trump has said that “with Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice.”



Longtime Trump loyalist and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was selected to head the Department of Homeland Security, a key role in any Trump plan to restrict immigration or deport undocumented migrants en masse as he has promised.
In her memoir, Noem recounted having shot dead an “untrainable” pet dog after a hunting excursion gone awry. The 52-year-old has said her action showed she was able to make tough choices.


New York congresswoman Elize Stefanik, a fierce Trump ally and pro-Israel stalwart, was Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations.
Stefanik will represent the administration at the UN as the world body grapples with the war in Ukraine as well as Israel’s bombardments of Gaza and Lebanon.


Congressman and former special forces officer Mike Waltz has been named by Trump to be his national security adviser, tasked with handling foreign policy challenges including the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.
Waltz is critical of both China, which he has said is an “existential” threat to the United States, and of Russia — while arguing that Washington should cease supporting Ukraine’s war effort in favor of Trump’s so-far vague promise of a negotiated settlement.



Trump has called on former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be US ambassador to Israel, where he has traveled several times over the years.
Trump has said the Christian pastor-turned-politician “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him.”
In 2017, Huckabee was present in Maale Adumim for the expansion of one of Israel’s largest settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“There’s no such thing as a settlement; they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation,” he told CNN at the time.


Lee Zeldin has been selected to head the Environmental Protection Agency, with a mandate to slash climate and pollution regulations.
Veteran immigration official Tom Homan will be the country’s “border czar,” with Trump saying Homan would be in charge of “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”


Susie Wiles, Trump’s election campaign chief, has been named as his chief of staff.


Trump also announced he was choosing his former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
 


Multiple US media have said Trump is expected to tap Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, setting the stage for an existential battle against China.
Rubio has said China “doesn’t just seek to be the most powerful nation in the world, they seek to reorient the world.”
He is also a fervent supporter of Israel and a longtime critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, a key donor and adviser, is viewed as the top candidate for treasury secretary, in charge of pushing through Trump’s agenda of low taxes, less regulation and high tariffs.


Heated debate on Amsterdam violence in Dutch parliament

Heated debate on Amsterdam violence in Dutch parliament
Updated 13 November 2024
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Heated debate on Amsterdam violence in Dutch parliament

Heated debate on Amsterdam violence in Dutch parliament
  • The Netherlands is still dealing with the political fallout from last week’s violence in Amsterdam
  • Far-right MP Geert Wilders said the perpetrators of the violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans“

THE HAGUE: Dutch parliamentarians clashed Wednesday in a heated debate to discuss the attacks on Israeli fans after a football match last week, with some lawmakers pointing fingers and others urging unity.
The Netherlands is still dealing with the political fallout from last week’s violence in Amsterdam, when fans of Tel Aviv Maccabi were assaulted by men on scooters in several parts of the capital.
Five Macabi fans were briefly hospitalized after being beaten up following a match with the local Ajax team last Thursday, in what Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof termed an incident of “unadulterated anti-Semitism.”
After the match, groups of men on scooters engaged in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi fans in areas of the city.
Police said the attackers were mobilized by calls on social media to target Jewish people.
Far-right MP Geert Wilders, leader of the biggest party in the coalition government, said the perpetrators of the violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans.”
The anti-Islam Wilders called for the attackers to be prosecuted “for terrorism.”
“For the first time since the Second World War there was a hunt on Jews,” Wilders said, adding “I am sick of being criticized when I tell the truth.”
But the firebrand MP drew the ire of opposition parties, who accused him of “adding fuel to fire.”
While unanimously condemning the violence, left-wing parties have called for dialogue with the Muslim community instead of “dividing the country.”
“I share the condemnation of the violence in Amsterdam and yes, there was indeed anti-Semitic violence,” left-wing opposition leader Frans Timmermans said.
“You are simply stoking the fires while this country has a need for politicians to unite people and find solutions,” Timmermans told Wilders.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema on Tuesday called the attacks a “poisonous cocktail” of anti-Semitism and hooliganism.
Events ahead of the match heightened tensions, including anti-Arab chants by Maccabi fans, who also set fire to a Palestinian flag on the city’s central square and vandalising a taxi.
After the match, which passed off peacefully, reports emerged of social media calls to attack Jews, Amsterdam police said.
The violence took place against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized Europe, with heightened tensions following a rise in antisemitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The Dutch PM indicated that the government would present concrete steps to tackle antisemitism on Friday.
Eight people remained in custody over the violence.


Italy’s president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings

Italy’s president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings
Updated 13 November 2024
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Italy’s president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings

Italy’s president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings
  • Musk wrote: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”
  • Italy’s head of state demanded respect for the country’s sovereignty, especially from other soon-to-be public officials

ROME: Italian President Sergio Mattarella sharply rebuked Elon Musk on Wednesday for weighing in on Italian court rulings that have stymied the government’s plans to process some asylum-seekers in Albania.
Musk, who is expected to have a top advisory role in Donald Trump’s new administration, wrote Tuesday on X that “these judges need to go.” He was referring to the latest Italian court ruling against right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni’s Albania immigration deal.
In a subsequent post on Wednesday, Musk wrote: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”
The posts concerned a Rome court’s refusal to rule on a formal request to detain seven migrants rescued at sea and transferred to Albania for processing.


Monday’s ruling, which resulted in the men being brought to Italy for processing, was the second judicial setback for Meloni’s much-touted plan to outsource to Albania the processing of some male asylum-seekers.
Mattarella didn’t cite Musk by name but — in an unusually piqued statement — made clear on Wednesday that he was referring to him. Italy’s head of state demanded respect for the country’s sovereignty, especially from other soon-to-be public officials.
“Italy is a great democratic country and … knows how to take care of itself while respecting its Constitution,” Mattarella said in a statement issued by his spokesman.
“Anyone, particularly if as announced is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot attribute to himself the task of imparting prescriptions,” the statement said.
Trump announced Tuesday that Musk, one of the most influential people around the US president-elect, would help lead a Department of Government Efficiency, essentially an independent advisory panel to eliminate waste and fraud.
Musk is a supporter of Meloni and has met with her in Rome on a few occasions, and in September joined her at an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Photos of them together made such news that Musk seemingly felt the need to tamp down speculation by posting “We are not dating.”
Musk has a history of making provocative statements and sparring with leaders on X. Earlier this year, he posted messages insulting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and saying the United Kingdom was headed for civil war. He has also clashed with a Brazilian supreme court justice over free speech, far-right accounts and purported misinformation on X, and also accused Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, of “major election fraud” after that country’s disputed election.
The courts’ rulings have raised the ire of Meloni’s far-right-led government, which has been seeking strategies to ease the strain on Italy of the arrival of migrants seeking a better life in Europe. The government had held up the opening of the Albanian centers as a centerpiece of its immigration crackdown, also as a means of deterrence, and said they could be a model for Europe.
In both cases, Italian courts referred the cases to the EU court of justice in Luxembourg to rule if the countries of origin for the migrants are considered safe for repatriation. There is no word on when the European court might rule.
But as a result of the Rome court decisions, no migrant has yet been processed in the Albanian centers, which are budgeted to cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years to build and operate.
Italy’s opposition says the money could be much better spent on reinforcing Italian-operated migrant processing centers, while human rights groups say the outsourcing of asylum processing contravenes international law.
The centers opened in October after a months-long delay, because crumbling soil at one of the facilities needed to be repaired. They are run by Italy and are under the country’s jurisdiction, while Albanian guards provide external security.