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What is fuelling protests and a violent crackdown in Nigeria?
Demonstrators killed by police and millions put under curfew.
In Nigeria, people have been shot dead by police and hundreds arrested for protesting against the government’s economic policies.
President Bola Tinubu says the reforms are vital. Critics say they are too extreme.
So why are people so angry?
And could the unrest spread?
Presenter:
Mohammed Jamjoom
Guests:
Isa Sanusi – Director of Amnesty International Nigeria
Ayisha Osori – Director of Open Society Foundations Ideas and Fellowship Collaborative
Kabir Adamu – Managing director of Beacon Security and Intelligence, a consultancy in Abuja
Mohammed Idris – Minister of information and national orientation in Nigeria
US candidate Jill Stein considering vocal Palestine advocates for VP spot
United States Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is considering three Palestinian rights advocates, including two Arab Americans, to be her running mate in the elections, her campaign has confirmed.
The vice president announcement will be made during a livestream rally on Thursday, the Stein campaign told Al Jazeera.
The candidates are Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American activist; and Jacqueline Luqman, a journalist and activist.
All three have been vocal critics of Israel and the US’s unflinching support for the war on Gaza. Stein, a physician and activist, herself is a longtime supporter of Palestinian rights.
Having one of the three on the ballot could boost Stein’s chances of tapping into the mass of disaffected voters who have grown angry with the mainstream Democratic Party’s stance on Israel.
While Stein’s campaign is a long-shot bid, with US politics dominated by the Republican and Democrat parties, if she wins a significant share of the votes, her campaign may affect the result of the election.
Moreover, Stein’s supporters say they hope that her candidacy could broaden the conversation around Gaza and amplify voters’ concerns with US policy.
With a Palestine advocate on the ticket, Stein’s candidacy could also force Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, to further contend with the growing frustration with President Joe Biden’s unconditional backing of Israel.
Even with a small percentage of the votes, Stein’s campaign could make a major impression on the election in places like the swing state of Michigan – home to large Arab- and Muslim-American communities.
Both Ayoub and Zahr are from Michigan.
‘Honoured’
Luqman, Zahr and Ayoub all confirmed to Al Jazeera that they were approached by the campaign and said they were “honoured” to be considered for the position.
Ayoub said it is “important” that Stein is considering Palestinian rights advocates to be her running mate.
“This is a critical time. This is a time where the genocide is in front of everybody’s eyes. There’s no hiding from it. And it’s a time where most of the world and many Americans see how complicit and active both parties are in the genocide.”
Zahr also said selecting a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights as Stein’s running mate was a “smart choice” by the campaign.
“It’s clear that the genocide in Gaza has dominated the entire presidential campaign,” Zahr told Al Jazeera.
While Biden dropped out after growing concerns over his age following a disastrous debate performance in May, Zahr said the Democratic president’s coalition “was falling apart” because of the war on Gaza.
Luqman said opposing the war on Gaza should not be a campaign issue, but a human issue. “There’s no such thing as lesser evil. Evil is evil, and genocide is evil,” she told Al Jazeera.
The US-backed Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,550 people, levelled large parts of the territory and brought its more than two million inhabitants to the verge of starvation.
Gaza and the elections
While foreign policy is not usually a major factor in US elections, the war on Gaza has increasingly become a decisive issue in the presidential race.
Arabs, Muslims, young people and progressives have expressed anger at Biden’s support for the war. And while it remains unclear how the issue will play out following the US president’s withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Harris, some communities have shown willingness to break with Democrats over Gaza.
Predominantly Arab neighbourhoods in places like the Detroit suburb of Dearborn voted overwhelmingly for Biden against former President Donald Trump in 2020, helping him win Michigan.
But with the war in Gaza, support for Biden dropped sharply in Arab-American communities, according to public opinion polls.
The US administration has signed off on at least $14bn in additional military aid to Israel and vetoed three United Nations Security Council proposals that would have called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The White House has said that Harris has been a “full partner” in shaping Gaza policy. Still, the vice president has expressed greater empathy for Palestinian suffering while still pledging “unwavering commitment” to Israel.
Harris, who is set to become the Democratic candidate to take on Trump in November after securing enough delegates to win the nomination, has not selected a running mate.
But Palestinian rights advocates are pushing against a rumoured frontrunner for the position – Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who earlier this year compared Gaza solidarity protesters on college campuses to the Ku Klux Klan.
In 2021, Shapiro – as Pennsylvania’s attorney general – also backed sanctions against Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream company decided to stop doing business in the Israeli-occupied West Bank over ethical concerns.
Opposition to Shapiro grew this week after The Philadelphia Inquirer unearthed a 1993 college newspaper op-ed, in which Shapiro played down the prospect of solving the conflict after White House talks between then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro wrote in the article. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.”
Why run?
As Democrats rally around Harris, they have portrayed Trump as an existential threat to US democracy.
Democratic officials have also accused Stein of helping the former president by taking progressive votes despite not having a realistic chance of winning.
Stein ran for president in 2012, 2016 and 2020 but never mounted a competitive campaign.
Luqman, Ayoub and Zahr all said Stein’s bid was about giving the voters a choice and challenging the monopoly of the two major parties on US politics.
“We don’t engage in the franchise of voting … only to vote for candidates who are guaranteed to win,” Luqman told Al Jazeera.
“We are supposed to exercise that right however we choose. And if the two major parties offered nothing for the people, then the people should have a right to cast their vote for candidates who they believe reflect their values.”
Ayoub echoed that comment.
“We can’t go forward with politics as usual in this country. We can’t allow the Democrats and Republicans to continue to play our communities, give false promises, allow for genocide and keep things as [they are],” Ayoub told Al Jazeera.
For his part, Zahr said Stein’s campaign can build awareness and help increase support for third-party candidates in the future.
“As long as we say, ‘Hey, third parties are a wasted vote’, we perpetuate this system,” Zahr told Al Jazeera. “By the way, this system with a liberal democratic president got us a US-funded genocide – not even with a right-wing president.”
Ledecky seals GOAT status, USA break world record in Olympic swimming pool
Already rated one of swimming’s all-time greats coming into the Paris Olympics, Katie Ledecky made it official by storming to victory in her signature event, the 800-metre freestyle, to end her work in the French capital in great style.
French torpedo Leon Marchand may be the prince of Paris, electrifying the home nation with four spectacular gold medals, but it is Ledecky writing her name in the record books after she claimed her ninth gold, equalling Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most by any woman in any Olympic sport.
In sharp contrast to Ledecky’s runaway win in the 1,500-metre, the 800-metre freestyle on Saturday was a thriller from start to finish, with Ariarne Titmus matching her stroke-for-stroke for almost the entire distance.
But with the American setting a relentless, grinding pace, her great Australian rival would never get her nose in front, settling for silver as Ledecky got to the wall first in a time of 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds.
Paige Madden took bronze for the United States.
It is the fourth time Ledecky has won the 800-metre freestyle and she joins compatriot Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win gold in four different Olympics.
The 800-metre was the final event on Ledecky’s Paris card and she returns home having added two golds, a silver and a bronze, bringing her Olympic stockpile to 14 medals in all – with more possible. The 27-year-old has hinted that a home Olympics in Los Angeles in four years is on her mind.
And in a passing of the baton moment, Canada’s Summer McIntosh enhanced her status as the rising star of women’s swimming by winning her third gold medal of the games in the 200-metre individual medley.
The 17-year-old produced a brilliant late surge to win in a time of 2min 06.56sec, the third-fastest time in history.
Kate Douglass of the USA finished second to take silver while Australian Kaylee McKeown took the bronze after American Alex Walsh, who had finished third, was disqualified.
McIntosh had already claimed gold in the 400-metre individual medley and the 200-metre butterfly, as well as a silver in the 400-metre freestyle.
“It’s pretty surreal. I’m just so proud of myself, how I’ve been able to recover and manage the events because it is a lot,” said the teenager, who also won silver in the 400-metre freestyle during what has been an intense games for her.
“The reason I’m able to do this just because of all the hard work and dedication I’ve given to this moment along with all my family and my teammates and my coaches, and I’ve also worked so hard for me to be here today,” she said.
The Canadian said she knew that she had to pull out all the stops to secure her latest win.
Earlier, Hungarian powerhouse Kristof Milak stormed to a second Olympic gold with victory in a thrilling men’s 100-metre butterfly final, while adding to the silver medal he won in the 200-metre event at the Paris Games.
Three years after claiming the 200-metre gold at Tokyo, the 24-year-old secured the shorter of the two Olympic butterfly titles by touching the wall in 49.90, 0.09 seconds ahead of Canadian runner-up Josh Liendo.
Ilya Kharun grabbed a second bronze for Canada, having also taken one in the 200-metre butterfly in Paris.
Now boasting four Olympic medals, Milak gave Hungary a second gold in the Paris meet following Hubert Kos’s 200-metre backstroke title.
In the final race of the night in the pool, the United States broke the world record in winning the 4×100-metre mixed medley relay gold, outgunning China and Australia.
Their team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske touched in 3min 37.43sec to narrowly better the mark set by Britain at the Tokyo Games, when the event was first added to the Olympic programme.
China’s Zhang Yufei took silver in 3:37.55, with Australia filling the podium in 3:38.76.
It is only the second world record in the pool in Paris after China’s Pan Zhanle smashed the men’s 100-metre freestyle best.
Teams in the mixed medley comprise two women and two men, with each of the four swimmers allocated to one of the four traditional medley strokes – backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
The United States chose to lead off with Murphy up against China’s Xu Jiayu, while Australia opted for Kaylee McKeown.
Both Fink and Walsh then swam storming legs before Huske brought it home with China’s Yang Junxuan and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan in hot pursuit.
Donald Trump Congratulates Vladimir Putin for Prisoner Exchange Biden Arranged That Freed Evan Gershkovich | Video
At a Georgia rally on Saturday, Donald Trump congratulated Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for the historic prisoner exchange arranged by President Joe Biden that freed 16 people wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Trump also disparaged the deal as inferior to deals he made, exaggerating the number of prisoners freed while he was president, and lying both about about how they were freed and about the terms of Biden’s deal.
“By the way, I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” Trump said. “Did you see the deal we made? Now look, we want to get people in. We got 59 hostages — I never paid anything.”
“They released some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world,” Trump continued. “Some of the most evil killers they got. And we got our people back, but boy, we made some horrible, horrible deals. And it’s nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent?”
Trump’s claim about the number of prisoners he freed has fluctuated somewhat — he’s previous claimed to have freed 58 prisoners. While there were prisoners held in other countries that were freed during the Trump administration, the number isn’t known for certain but appears to be less than that number.
In addition, Trump’s claim that he “never paid anything” is apparently true in terms of money, but the implication Biden did pay money for his historic deal is a lie. No money was paid for the released prisoners according to all reporting on that deal. Meanwhile, in one 2020 deal Trump’s administration made with Iran to free two U.S. prisoners, more than 200 Houthi militants held in Oman were freed and permitted to return to Yemen.
As for Biden’s deal, Americans freed in the hostage exchange included both Gershkovich, who was arrested in March of last year on espionage charges, and Paul Whelan, a former Marine imprisoned since 2018 who was also accused and convicted of espionage.
U.S. officials have said the espionage claims against both men are false. They were each sentenced to 16 years in prison. Two other journalists were released in the prisoner swap: Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The release included 16 prisoners freed from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens being held as political prisoners. President Joe Biden thanked Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey for helping with the multi-country prisoner swap. He did not praise Putin in his remarks.
Trump pivoted from praising Putin and criticizing the hostage deal to attacking his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. “Harris has the most ultra-left-wing agenda of any presidential candidate ever in history,” Trump claimed. “She is considered more left-wing then Crazy Bernie Sanders. She is worse than Bernie.”
The Republican presidential nominee went on to attack Harris’ intelligence. She graduated from Howard University, earned a law degree and served as California’s attorney general and a senator before taking office as Biden’s vice president.
“She happens to be really a low IQ individual,” Trump said in his attack. “She has a very low IQ. We don’t need a low IQ.”
“President Xi of China said, ‘oh good, we have another one, a low-IQ individual,’” Trump said, taking a sideswipe at Biden. “They love dealing with low IQ people, and they got them here. I tell you, we got them all.”
“She is terrible. I think she is worse than him,” Trump added, continuing on with attacks on both Harris and Biden. “By the way, they really took it away from the guy, right? I don’t feel sorry for him, because he’s a bad guy.”
Making a half-joke about Biden’s perceived mental decline, Trump added, “They did a coup, he just doesn’t know it.”