Author

admin

Browsing

Kamala Harris entered the final full month of the presidential election with an enormous financial advantage over Donald Trump, according to new federal campaign finance filings released Sunday.

The Harris campaign and its allied committees raised more than $1 billion in the third quarter, allowing her to significantly outspend the former president’s campaign on television and digital ads, voter contact efforts and staff in the final sprint to Election Day.

The Harris campaign reported raising $221.8 million in September. A pair of celebrity-studded fundraisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco that she attended on the last weekend of the month brought in about $55 million of that total, according to a campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal figures.

Trump’s campaign, by contrast, raised $62.7 million during September, less than a third of the Harris campaign’s total, according to Federal Election Commission filings Sunday. His effort ended the month with $119.7 million in cash on hand to Harris’s $187.5 million.

Harris began building a cash advantage over Trump as soon as she began seeking the nomination in late July, benefiting from a flood of small-dollar donations from Democrats who were excited that she had replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. She raised $126 million from 1.4 million donors in less than three days after Biden withdrew from the race. And a recent Post analysis of campaign spending showed that Harris is running a campaign that is about three times the size of Trump’s operation.

The vice president’s coordinated campaign raised $1 billion in less than 80 days after she entered the race, according to multiple people familiar with the sum. New reports filed on Tuesday showed that Harris’s primary fundraising vehicle for big-dollar donations, the Harris Victory Fund, brought in a staggering $633 million during the third quarter. That was more than four times as much as the $145 million that the victory fund’s GOP counterpart, the Trump 47 committee, brought in, according to reports filed last week.

Despite that huge spending edge and Harris’s sprawling ground game, her campaign has still struggled to significantly outpace Trump in key swing state polls. The vice president’s campaign has a much larger footprint than Trump’s, which relies on outside groups to help it turn out voters, and her advisers are worried about whether they will have enough money to secure victory. Harris’s advisers believe that the race remains close in all of the key swing states, and point to the high cost of targeting hard-to-reach and infrequent voters in seven very different states.

The Washington Post’s latest polling average shows Harris leading in four of the seven battleground states that are most likely to determine the election — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada — but only by narrow margins. Trump is leading in Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia, where Harris campaigned on Sunday as part of the Democrats’ “Souls to the Polls” push to get Black voters to cast their ballots early.

Here are some takeaways from Sunday night’s filings with the FEC.

PAC paying Trump’s legal expenses owes more than it has on hand

Save America, the leadership PAC that Trump has used to pay his legal bills and those of some of his associates, raised $1.4 million in September and spent $4 million, most of it on lawyers, demonstrating how the former president’s legal problems have continued to strain campaign resources.

The group had less than $2 million left in cash and owes nearly $5 million in legal debt.

Super PACs take in millions in the final sprint

The Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC — which has spent more than $314 million on ads on Trump’s behalf this cycle, according to the data firm Ad Impact — raised $40.7 million in September and spent almost that much over the period.

MAGA Inc. had $61 million on hand. It has primarily been funded by Timothy Mellon, the reclusive Wyoming-based businessman who is the scion of former treasury secretary and banking tycoon Andrew Mellon. Mellon has given $150 million to the group this cycle, including $25 million last month. Linda McMahon, the co-chair of Trump’s transition team and the chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute, gave another $5 million to MAGA Inc., bringing the total that she has given to the group this cycle to more than $20 million.

Mellon and several other megadonors have dominated the spending landscape for Republicans this cycle. Preserve America, another super PAC running ads on behalf of Trump and against Harris, has been almost single-handedly funded by billionaire philanthropist Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Miriam Adelson has given at least $100 million to the group. (Preserve America has aired or reserved about $113 million in ads through Election Day, according to Ad Impact).

Future Forward, the Democratic PAC that has dominated the outside spending on ads to boost Harris’s campaign this cycle, took in $104 million in September and had $70.2 million available to spend. FF PAC has outspent the MAGA Inc. super PAC on ads with more than $397 million either spent or reserved through November, according to Ad Impact. FF PAC’s September fundraising included $10 million from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, $9.9 million from angel investor Chris Larsen, who co-founded cryptocurrency firm Ripple Labs, and $5 million from billionaire Illinois governor JB Pritzker. The Harris-aligned PAC also received more than $40 million from its affiliated nonprofit, which is not required to disclose its donors.

Reports filed last week showed that billionaire Elon Musk, one of the world’s wealthiest people, gave nearly $75 million to a political action committee he helped create. That group, called America PAC, is focused on get-out-the-vote operations in swing states including Pennsylvania, where Musk has been campaigning for the former president. In its most recent filings, America PAC reported that it has spent more than $100 million to boost Trump, with a major focus on canvassing and direct mail.

On Saturday, Musk announced that he will use a lottery to hand out $1 million each day to registered swing-state voters who sign a petition tied to his super PAC’s voter recruitment drive. Legal experts have questioned the legality of the offer, because it ties a monetary reward to voter registration status, which is prohibited under federal law.

Democrats maintain edge in congressional fundraising

The Democratic National Committee raised $98.6 million in September, once again topping the Republican National Committee, which reported taking in $37.8 million last month. The RNC said it had $69.7 million on hand at the end of September compared to the DNC’s $46.5 million.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Campaign Committee, which work to aid candidates for the House of Representatives, were more evenly matched. The DCCC reported $49.9 million in cash left at the end of September and the NRCC reported $48.9 million. However, the DCCC outraised the NRCC by over $11 million for the month, taking in $30.3 million to the Republicans’ $18.8 million.

Democrats have held fundraising leads in the race for the House and the Senate for much of this election cycle. Reports filed with the FEC last week showed that in 25 of the 26 most competitive races, the Democratic candidate raised more than their GOP opponent. Democratic House candidates in those 26 battlegrounds spent almost $92 million from July through September — more than twice what their GOP counterparts spent. Republican Senate candidates also trailed their Democratic opponents in fundraising in all 11 of the most competitive races.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee reported raising $30.7 million last month and had $21 million in cash left over at the end of September. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised slightly less, bringing in $28 million, but finished the month with $37.4 million cash on hand.

The major super PACs involved in Senate races were fairly evenly matched. The Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC raised $119.1 million in the third quarter, with $108.9 million on hand. The Republicans’ Senate Leadership Fund raised $115.7 million — including $20 million from Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and $10 million from hedge fund manager Paul Singer — with $112.3 million on hand at the end of September, according to last week’s filings.

This post appeared first on washingtonpost.com

A new report projects that the Social Security Trust Fund might run out of money within six years under a Donald Trump presidency, while Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposed policies would not meaningfully change the current trajectory.

Social Security faces a looming funding crisis in an aging country, with trustees most recently predicting that the retirement and disability program’s trust fund will become insolvent in 2035. Many of Trump’s campaign proposals would accelerate that timeline, potentially by years, said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that opposes large federal deficits.

In a report released Monday, the organization concluded that many of Trump’s proposed second-term agenda items all work in the same direction when it comes to the Social Security Trust Fund. The budget group did not produce a similar report on Harris’s policies because they would have a negligible effect measured only in weeks or months rather than years, said Marc Goldwein, CRFB’s senior policy director.

Compared to prior presidential campaigns, Goldwein said, “I can’t think of anything that would be this order of magnitude” in its detrimental effect on Social Security’s bottom line compared to the policies Trump has proposed.

Most directly, Trump has promised that no Social Security recipients should have to pay federal income taxes on their benefits. Under current law, 40 percent of beneficiaries pay taxes on some portion of their Social Security. The tax they pay on their benefits goes directly back to the trust fund, and getting rid of it could cost the program almost $1 trillion over 10 years, the report forecast.

Other Trump policies might have indirect effects. Trump’s pledge to deport millions of undocumented workers could cost the trust fund hundreds of millions of dollars, the CRFB said. Many undocumented immigrants have payroll taxes taken out of their paychecks for the Social Security Trust Fund, but never become eligible to claim benefits, so they are a net positive for the program.

Trump’s proposed high tariffs on all imports could affect the economy in several ways detrimental to Social Security’s financial health, CRFB said. If the tariffs drive high inflation as projected by Wall Street experts, Social Security will have to pay out more in benefits because of automatic cost-of-living adjustments based on inflation.

The report also pointed to Trump’s promises not to tax tip income or income earned during overtime hours. Trump has not clarified whether he means to exempt them from federal income taxes only or also from taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. If he means the latter, that could cost Social Security $150 million to more than $1 trillion over a decade, with the likely outcome on the very high end of that range, CRFB said.

All added up, the report forecasts that Social Security under Trump would hit the point where by law it must cut benefits in 2031 or 2032. And unless Congress changes the law that triggers the automatic cuts, the size of the cut to benefits would rise, from a current projection of a 23 percent reduction for all Social Security checks to a predicted cut of about 33 percent.

Both Trump and Harris have said they aim to protect Social Security to prevent cuts if elected, but neither candidate has offered a comprehensive plan to plug the current projected gap. Stabilizing the trust fund will require either raising more money or spending less money in some way, or a combination of the two.

Trump has talked of raising more money by drilling for oil on federal lands and has claimed that undocumented immigrants receiving benefits has led to Social Security’s problems, a view rejected by experts who point out that immigrants pay more into the program than they receive.

Harris supports a plan to raise some of the money by imposing payroll taxes on income above $400,000; currently, workers stop paying Social Security taxes after their first $168,000 in annual income.

This post appeared first on washingtonpost.com

The markets closed on a negative note for the third week in a row; over the past five sessions, the Nifty remained largely on a declining trajectory except for the last trading day where it saw some relief rally from the lower levels. Following a strong weekly decline of 1167 points two weeks ago, the Nifty has thereafter traded relatively in a lesser range but has by and large exhibited a weak bias. The trading range this time remained similar to that of the previous week; the Nifty oscillated in 644 points over the past five days. The volatility remained stagnant; the India Vix came off by 1.38% to 13.04 on a weekly basis. While continuing to find short-term pattern support, the headline index closed with a net weekly loss of 110.20 points (-0.44%).

Many important levels have been tested over the past week; a few important levels need to be watched as well. The Nifty tested the 20-week MA which currently stands at 24657. The 100-Day MA is currently at 24507. This makes the 24500-24650 a very important support zone for the index. On the other hand, the derivatives data show a maximum accumulation of Call OI in the 25000-25100 range making these levels an immediate resistance area for the markets. This is likely to keep the markets in a capped range; if the technical rebound extends itself, it is likely to find resistance in the 25000-25100 zone. In the same breadth, markets would get weaker if the 24650-24500 zone is violated on the downside. So long as either of these ranges are not violated, expect the Nifty to oscillate back and forth in a defined range.

A quiet start is expected to the coming week; the levels of 25000 and 25130 are likely to act as resistance points for the markets. The supports come in at 24650 and 24450 levels.

The weekly RSI is 57.70; it stays neutral and does not show any divergence against the price. The weekly MACD is bearish and trades below the signal line.

A pattern analysis of the weekly chart shows that the Nifty is finding support at an extended trend line. This trendline starts from 22124 and subsequently joins higher tops while it extends itself. Besides this, this pattern support on the weekly chart also coincides with the 20-week MA and the 100-day MA making the zone of 24500-24650 an important short-term support zone for the Nifty. If this zone is violated, we might see some incremental weakness creeping into the markets.

The coming week is likely to stay ranged; no trend would emerge so long as the Nifty is between 24500—25000 levels. Only if the higher level is taken out or the lower one gets violated, we will see the trend emerging in the markets again. Until that happens, expect the markets to remain in a range. However, we should also note that as long as the zone of 25000-25100 is not removed, we will remain vulnerable to profit-taking bouts from higher levels. A major sectoral shift is seen in the markets that may cause leadership to change. Banks and financial services along with Energy, Consumption, etc., are likely to show improvement in their relative strength. It is recommended that one must continue to adopt a highly selective approach while keeping overall leveraged exposures at modest levels.


Sector Analysis for the coming week

In our look at Relative Rotation Graphs®, we compared various sectors against CNX500 (NIFTY 500 Index), which represents over 95% of the free float market cap of all the stocks listed.

Relative Rotation Graphs (RRG) show Nifty IT, Pharma, Consumption, FMCG, and Services Sector indices are inside the leading quadrant. Barring the Services Sector Index, the rest are showing a slowdown in their relative momentum against the broader markets. However, they may continue to show resilient performance in the coming week.

The MidCap 100 and Nifty Auto Index stay inside the weakening quadrant; they may continue giving up on their relative performance.

The Energy, Commodities, PSE, Realty, Nifty Bank, Infrastructure, Metal, and PSU Bank indices are inside the lagging quadrant. However, except for the Infrastructure and PSE index, all others are showing strong improvement in their relative momentum against the broader market.

The Nifty Financial Services Index has rolled inside the improving quadrant. This may lead to its phase of relative outperformance. The Media Index is also inside the leading quadrant; however, it is seen sharply giving up its relative momentum against the broader Nifty 500 index.


Important Note: RRG charts show the relative strength and momentum of a group of stocks. In the above Chart, they show relative performance against NIFTY500 Index (Broader Markets) and should not be used directly as buy or sell signals.  


Milan Vaishnav, CMT, MSTA

Consulting Technical Analyst

www.EquityResearch.asia | www.ChartWizard.ae

Cuba suffered a second nationwide blackout Saturday morning, hours after officials said power was being slowly restored.

“At 6:15 am a new total outage occurred of the national electroenergetic system,” a post on the Cuba Electrical Union’s official Telegram channel said. “The Electric Union is working to reestablish it.”

Previously Cuban officials said small pockets of power had been restored across the island although there were no immediate numbers provided of how many people had their service reconnected.

Some Cubans complained on social media that their power briefly returned before flickering out.

The blackouts threatened to plunge the communist-run nation into a deeper crisis, as without power people would also not have running water and refrigerated food would quickly begin to spoil.

Millions of people have been left without power over the last several days as the aging Cuban electrical grid repeatedly collapsed.

Saturday’s blackout follows an island-wide shutdown of Cuba’s electrical grid on Friday after one of the island’s major power plants failed, according to its energy ministry.

Cuban officials have blamed a confluence of events from increased US economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the impoverished state of the island’s infrastructure.

In a televised address on Thursday that was delayed by technical difficulties, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production was stopped to avoid leaving people completely without power.

“We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population,” he said.

The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said on X that the country’s health facilities were running on generators and that health workers continued to provide vital services.

In Havana, motorists on Friday tried to navigate a city where no street lights appeared to be working and only a handful of police were directing traffic. Generators are a luxury for most Cubans and only a few could be heard running in the city.

Classes at schools were canceled from Friday through the weekend, nightclubs and recreation centers were ordered closed, and only “indispensable workers” should show up at their jobs, according to a list of energy-saving measures published by the state-run website Cubadebate earlier on Friday.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

North Korean soldiers have been filmed receiving uniforms and equipment at a training ground in Russia’s far east, appearing to confirm reports from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) that 1,500 soldiers have been shipped over for military training to be deployed in Ukraine.

The North Korean troops are thought to be receiving training before being sent to the frontline in Ukraine, in what is thought to be a clear sign of the ever warming relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.

This evidence appears to confirm Kyiv’s long-held concern that North Korea has been readying itself for a more direct role in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding Russia and North Korea’s deepening alliance, telling a NATO summit this week that “thousands” of North Korean troops were on their way to Russia.

“From intelligence that I have … they are preparing 10,000 soldiers, different soldiers, land forces, technical personnel,” Zelensky told reporters, describing it as an “urgent” development he had raised with the United States.

South Korean media previously reported that the North will send a total of 12,000 troops, although this figure was not included in the statement from the national intelligence service.

This could mark the first time North Korea makes a significant intervention in an international conflict. Despite having one of the world’s largest militaries with 1.2 million soldiers, many of its troops lack combat experience.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Friday appointed to his Cabinet a close ally who was pardoned by US President Joe Biden last year as part of a prisoner swap and following assurances that Venezuela would hold a fair presidential election in 2024.

Maduro named Alex Saab minister of industry and national production and tasked him with promoting “the development of the entire industrial system of Venezuela within the framework” of what he called a “new economic model.”

Maduro made the announcement on the messaging app Telegram.

Saab returned to Venezuela a free man in December after being in custody since 2020, when authorities in Cape Verde arrested him on a US warrant for money laundering charges. US prosecutors long regarded him as a bagman for Maduro.

The president secured his release and clemency in a deal conducted with the Biden administration. In exchange for Saab, Maduro released 10 Americans and a fugitive defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” who was wanted for his alleged role at the center of a massive Pentagon bribery scandal.

The largest release of American prisoners in Venezuela’s history took place weeks after the White House granted the South American country a broad reprieve from economic sanctions, following a commitment by Maduro to work with the political opposition toward free and fair conditions for the 2024 presidential election.

The US ended the sanctions relief earlier this year after hopes for a democratic opening faded.

Last month, it responded to Venezuela’s highly disputed July presidential election by sanctioning 16 of Maduro’s allies, accusing them of obstructing the vote and carrying out human rights abuses.

Saab was arrested in 2020 during a fuel stop en route to Iran to negotiate oil deals on behalf of Maduro’s government.

The US charges were conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to a bribery scheme that allegedly siphoned off $350 million through state contracts to build affordable housing.

Saab was also sanctioned for allegedly running a scheme that stole hundreds of millions in dollars from food-import contracts at a time of widespread hunger mainly due to shortages in the South American country.

After his arrest, Maduro’s government said Saab was a special envoy on a humanitarian mission and was entitled to diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution under international law.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison.

“It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine.

In recent years, dozens of US states and countries ranging from Canada to Portugal have decriminalized marijuana.

But Singapore imposes a mandatory death penalty for people convicted of supplying certain amounts of illicit drugs – 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, 250 grams of methamphetamine and 500 grams of cannabis.

A 64-year-old man was hanged for drug offenses this week – the fourth person to be hanged so far this year.

The harsh sentencing puts the wealthy city-state in a small club of countries that includes Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, which execute criminals convicted of drug offenses.

K Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs and Law, characterizes the country’s war on drugs as an “existential battle,” and claims any easing of the government’s hardline stance could lead to chaos.

“Look around the world,” Shanmugam says. “Any time there has been a certain laxity in the approach to drugs, homicides go up. Killings, torture, kidnappings … that goes up.”

A lucrative drugs market

Visitors to Singapore get a stark warning about the island’s zero tolerance for drugs as international flights descend for landing.

“Drug trafficking may be punishable by death,” a woman’s voice announces over the loudspeaker, amid instructions to passengers to buckle seat belts and stow away tray tables.

Many citizens of this Southeast Asian city-state are also aware that it is illegal for them to consume drugs overseas.

Returning Singaporeans and permanent residents run the risk of facing drug tests upon arrival.

“When you come back, and if there is a reason to believe you have taken drugs, you could be tested,” Shanmugam says.

Per capita, Singapore is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. With a population of nearly 6 million people, it has an annual GDP per capita of nearly $134,000.

This regional transport and financial hub has a reputation for safety, efficiency and strictness under de facto single-party rule.

The People’s Action Party, of which Shanmugam is a member, has governed Singapore since its independence nearly six decades ago.

Speaking from a balcony in the Home Affairs Ministry overlooking tidy neighborhoods of parks and villas, Shanmugam argues his country is a potentially lucrative market in a part of Asia he says is awash with drugs.

“If you are able to traffic into Singapore, the street price here compared to the street price in some other parts [of the world], it’s a magnet.”

Singapore stands in relatively close proximity to the notorious Golden Triangle, the mountainous intersection of Thailand, Laos and civil war-torn Myanmar. Last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) labeled the region the world’s largest source of opium. Production of methamphetamine in the region has also surged in recent years, outpacing heroin and opium.

Singapore’s anti-drug czar claims strict punishment serves as a deterrent to drug traffickers.

“Our philosophy on prisons is not the same as, say, the Scandinavian philosophy,” Shanmugam says. “We choose to make it harsh,” he adds. “It is not a holiday home.

“It is intended to be tough.”

Single cells in stifling heat

Singapore’s Changi Prison Complex is a walled compound of guard towers and imposing gates built in the shadow of the country’s main airport.

More than 10,000 prisoners are held here, and according to the prison’s latest annual report, most are serving time for drug offenses.

A network of security cameras mounted inside and outside individual cells and even over toilets allow just five guards to monitor the entire floor.

At mealtimes, the metallic clang of shutting gates echoes through the cell block, as a prisoner distributes meal trays through a ground-level hatch at the bottom of each cell door.

His single-occupancy cell is austere, measuring just 7 square meters (75 square feet), with a squat toilet beneath a shower. Inmates are not allowed to have furniture, so there’s no bed or anything to sit on.

It is also steam-bath hot year-round in Singapore’s tropical climate, where maximum daily temperatures regularly rise above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).

The effect of extreme heat on prisoners has become more of a concern around the world as temperatures rise due to climate change.

“You will notice that there aren’t any fans or aircon,” Matthew explains. “There are some periods of time where it’s unbearable.”

Asked whether the threat of the death penalty had any deterrent effect on his drug dealing, Matthew says, “I would like to say yes.”

“But the truth is at that point in time I wasn’t thinking about it. In fact, I was actively avoiding the whole issue of consequences.”

‘Captains of life’

The prison’s deliberately harsh conditions contrast sharply with abundant emotional wellness messaging in the facility’s common areas.

The workshop, where prisoners pack anti-dandruff shampoo and instant coffee for a small salary, is plastered with motivational quotes from luminaries such as Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela.

Cartoon characters and photos of waterfalls decorate classrooms where prisoners get lessons in anger management and job training.

Officials from the Singapore Prison Service say they encourage guards to think of themselves as “Captains of Life,” helping rehabilitate the prison population.

From an air-conditioned room known as “the fish tank,” they monitor inmates on live feeds from dozens of security cameras positioned around the prison.

Reuben Leong, the officer in charge of the correctional unit, says the job is not without risk. Violent incidents – usually fights between inmates – take place every few weeks, he says.

“There will be periods of time where they can be demanding, they can be rude, they can be hostile to you,” he adds.

The Yellow Ribbon Project is a government program aimed at rehabilitating former convicts, with job placement and community engagement.

Despite these efforts, Singaporean officials say roughly one in five former prisoners will likely end up back behind bars within two years. By comparison, one in three return to prison within two years in the United States, which has some of the highest recidivism rates in the world.

Meanwhile, there is no rehabilitation for death row inmates.

Singapore executed 11 prisoners by hanging in 2022, and five last year, according to the latest figures. All were convicted of drug charges.

‘Give my son a second chance’

Outside the prison walls, relatives of death row inmates hold an agonizing vigil awaiting the fate of their loved ones.

Halinda binte Ismail has a shock of bleach blond hair and sports a small stud in her left nostril.

By her count, the 61-year-old has been in prison at least seven times, always for drugs. Halinda says she was just 12 when she first smoked heroin.

Her last arrest was in 2017, when police raided the building where she lived with her eldest son, Muhammed Izwan bin Borhan.

Both mother and son were convicted for narcotics. But while Halinda ended up serving five years, her son was sentenced to death after police caught him with six packets of meth and heroin, according to court documents.  He is still in prison, awaiting execution.

“I’m very angry with why the government doesn’t give [my son] a chance to change his life,” Halinda says.

“I always pray to the government ‘give my son a second chance.’”

Halinda is now part of a small movement of activists seeking to ban Singapore’s death penalty.

“It’s not solving anything, and it’s just disproportionately used against some of the most marginalized and weakest people in society,” says Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist with the Transformative Justice Collective, who lobbies on behalf of death row inmates.

“I just feel like it’s very morally wrong.”

Han’s outspoken criticism of Singapore’s system of executions has won her the personal enmity of Shanmugam, the Home Affairs minister.

However, Shanmugam confirms one of Han’s observations.

Among more than 40 inmates he says are currently on death row, most are in the “lower social-economic category.”

One of the 11 prisoners executed in 2022 for drug offenses was Nazeri bin Lajim.

“I was hoping that they [would] give him the life sentence, but they literally hanged my brother,” says his surviving sister Nazira.

Nazira says her brother was a life-long drug addict, but not a violent man.

She shows a series of portraits in her phone of Nazeri, dressed in a brightly printed T-shirt, smiling and holding up a victory sign for the camera.

Before each execution, authorities organize a professional photo shoot in which inmates trade their prison uniforms for civilian clothes.

Nazira doesn’t appreciate the gesture.

“It’s fake happiness,” she says.

She says she is encouraging her adult children to leave Singapore permanently to emigrate to Australia.

War on drugs

Singaporean officials point to surveys that show overwhelming public support for the government’s war on drugs.

In public appearances, Shanmugam often highlights public drug use on the streets of European and American cities to justify Singapore’s approach to the problem.

But it may be more fitting to compare Singapore’s record with Hong Kong, another former British colony that has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs.

Hong Kong’s population is around 25% larger than Singapore’s, and it does not impose the death penalty for drug offenses.

Yet despite its considerably larger population, Hong Kong made 3,406 drug arrests in 2023 – just a few hundred more than the 3,101 drug arrests in Singapore.

And according to Shanmugam, drug arrests in Singapore surged 10% in 2023 – suggesting that perhaps the threat of death is failing to act as a deterrent to crime.

“It’s a fight that you never say you’ve won,” Shanmugam says.

“It’s a continuous work in progress.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

With the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, many Israelis are sensing a window of opportunity to bring back the hostages still held in Gaza – and they are making their voices heard.

Huge crowds of protesters gathered across several cities in Israel on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government make the return of the hostages their top priority — something they believe has not been the case so far.

Sinwar was a hardliner with little interest in negotiating with Israel. The US, which mediated the talks in Cairo, has repeatedly accused him of being one of the main blockers of a ceasefire deal.

His demise could pave the way to a ceasefire agreement. But getting there will depend on Netanyahu.

The prime minister has long been trying to balance the demands of his far-right coalition partners, who seem dead-set on refusing any kind of deal with Hamas, with the increasingly loud calls from Israel’s Western allies, including the US, who are pressuring him to strike an agreement and bring the war in Gaza to an end.

Now he is once again facing large-scale protests calling for him to act.

“There’s a solid majority and a consensus in the Israeli society on this, 105 hostages have (already) been brought back in a deal,” he said, in a reference to the week-long ceasefire and hostage exchange that took place in November.

There are 101 hostages still held in Gaza, Israeli authorities say. As many as one-third of them are thought to be dead.

But Nissan said he believed Netanyahu’s government had a reason for prolonging the war.

“(A ceasefire) is not in their interest because they know that once the war is over, they will have to answer questions about how they were complicit in (the security failures that led to the) October 7 (attacks), and that there is going to be a national inquiry, and that there is going to be a demand for elections, and in any poll that you see right now, they’re going to be hit hard,” he said.

Netanyahu has not outlined any strategy on how to capitalize on Sinwar’s death, saying only that Israel will continue to fight “until the victory.”

“This is the beginning of the day after Hamas. Evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not yet complete,” he said.

For Yoni Levy, the only victory would be the return of his daughter Naama from Gaza. She had been serving as a lookout, observing the Gaza Strip from the Nahal Oz military base, when Hamas stormed the area and kidnapped her.

Images of her being loaded onto a truck, barefoot and badly beaten, her gray sweatpants soaked in blood, became symbols of the brutality of the October 7 attack.

Yoni Levy said the death of Sinwar had given the government an opportunity to act.

“This is the time for the prime minister to take the deal, even if we need to stop the war for some time, even if we have to release some of the murderous people from their side, now is the time to take the extra steps which we did not agree to take before,” he said.

For Levy, this particular protest was special. Dozens of women, who had either known Naama or served in a similar military role as her, gathered at the square to call for her release. They wore the same clothes as Naama had on October 7 and used red paint on their bodies to symbolize the injuries she sustained in the attack.

The woman who came up with the idea, Amit Frid, said Naama should already “be home.”

When Hamas confirmed Sinwar’s death on Friday, the group said it would not free its remaining hostages until Israel ended the war, fully withdrew from Gaza, and released Palestinian prisoners. Similarly, Netanyahu too vowed to keep fighting.

But in a hint that he is willing to talk, shortly after Sinwar’s death was announced, Netanyahu made a direct offer to anyone holding hostages in Gaza, saying that whoever lay down their arms and returned hostages to Israel would be let go alive.

Shira Efron, a security expert from the Israel Policy Forum, said the window of opportunity to act could be small, given that Hamas would get a new formal leader soon.

“Terrorists tend to be pretty fungible. You always find new ones,” she said, adding that Sinwar’s younger brother Mohammed, a hardliner who is believed to be just as ruthless as Yahya, was among the top contenders.

She said that Israel needed to figure out quickly who to talk to – and provide avenues for those who wanted to reach out.

“Let’s just say that someone is convinced that this is the time to lay down their arms and give in, or provide information about a hostage in return for amnesty or a cash award, who do they even call now?,” she asked.

Some of the hostages may not even be held by Hamas, having been taken by other groups and individuals and it is these people that Israel is trying to appeal to now.

Over the weekend, the Israeli military began dropping leaflets featuring a photo of Sinwar’s lifeless body in Gaza promising free passage to anyone who helped to return the hostages.

Next to it, a call out: “Sinwar destroyed your lives … Hamas will not govern Gaza anymore. Finally, the opportunity has come for you to be liberated from its tyranny. Whoever lays down their weapon and returns the abductees to us, we will allow them to leave and live in peace.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla met large, cheering crowds in Sydney after attending a church service on Sunday, the first event of their Australia tour.

The royal couple were greeted at St Thomas’ Anglican Church by the archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, and children from the church’s Sunday school who waved Australian flags.

Camilla, wearing a pale green Anna Valentine dress and straw hat, was given a flower bouquet by the minister’s wife, Ellie Mantle, who asked if they had recovered from jet lag after the long flight to Australia on Friday. “Sort of,” Camilla replied.

Inside the church, Charles and Camilla signed two bibles, including one that belonged to Australia’s first minister and chaplain of the First Fleet of ships that took convicts from Britain to the penal colony of Australia in 1788.

Outside, the royal couple shook hands and chatted with families and cheering fans, some singing “God Save the King,” who lined the streets around the church, the public’s first opportunity to meet Charles and Camilla since they arrived in Australia’s biggest city on Friday night.

Traveling across Sydney Harbour, Charles visited the New South Wales parliament, marking the 200th anniversary of Australia’s oldest legislature.

The king presented the lawmakers with an hour glass to time their speeches, and highlighted the fundamental role of strong parliaments to democracy.

“What a great joy it is to come to Australia for the first time as sovereign and to renew a love of this country and its people which I have cherished for so long,” he said.

Charles is making his inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign and his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer.

He will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa after the six-day Australia tour.

Charles had made a significant personal donation to create a skills program to tackle climate change and boost higher education in small island states, including the Pacific Islands, the Association of Commonwealth Universities said on Sunday.

“Throughout my life I have believed in the power of education to improve lives and unite communities across the Commonwealth and beyond,” he said in a statement.

Mid-career professionals and civil servants will benefit from the fellowships, in a program that aims to retain talent in small island states and bolster resilience to the impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

One year after his election victory sparked a rare round of relief and optimism among Europe’s establishment, Poland’s leader made a startling announcement.

Donald Tusk, a former European Union Council president whose longstanding ties to Brussels have cast him as both a savior and a scapegoat in Poland’s toxic political landscape, said on Saturday he planned to temporarily halt the right to claim asylum in Poland – adding he’d fight the EU on the matter if he needed to.

“It is our right and our duty to protect the Polish and European border. Its security will not be negotiated. With anyone,” Tusk wrote on social media, in language more typically associated with the authoritarian populist bloc he defeated one year ago this week.

The move, unleashed for maximum impact on that anniversary, came in response to an intractable crisis at the Polish border with Belarus, which Europe says is fueled by Russia. At the same time, it seemed to fly in the face of one of the EU’s founding principles – and Tusk’s uncompromising tone took Europe by surprise.

But perhaps it shouldn’t have. Increasingly, Europe’s centrist figureheads are dropping their once-high-minded rhetoric on irregular migration, reaching instead for positions that were previously the preserve of the continent’s populist rabble-rousers.

Border checks at all of Germany’s frontiers were introduced last month. France’s new interior minister has hinted that immigration curbs are imminent. Both countries have been unsettled in recent months by high-profile murders in which migrants were identified as suspects, and by a surge in support for far-right parties.

Across the continent, countries are looking with serious interest at Italy’s controversial new agreement to ship migrants to Albania, which began this week.

And while European leaders expressed a catalog of competing concerns about a tenuous EU migration pact during a summit in Brussels on Thursday, those advocating for a more welcoming approach – like Spain’s Pedro Sanchez – were conspicuously outnumbered.

Tusk has the political capital in Europe to push the issue, and is keenly aware that the question of illegal migration can sink a centrist government if ground is ceded to the far-right. French President Emmanuel Macron narrowly avoided that outcome this summer and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz is slipping behind the far-right AfD in opinion polls.

In Poland, like in much of Europe, “voters across the board expect that border security and migration controls are the priority,” Kucharczyk said. “There is very little room for maneuver for any politician.”

A Russia-fueled crisis

But later that day, leaders instead expressed “solidarity” with Poland, and paved a path towards tougher bloc-wide measures, writing: “Exceptional situations require appropriate measures.”

The Belarus situation is certainly exceptional. Belarus has long been accused of encouraging migrants to reach the Polish border, at the behest of its ally Russia, in the hopes of exposing cracks in the EU’s border-free principles and common asylum system.

But Thursday’s victory for Tusk in Brussels underscores a broader, rightward shift across Europe on the issue of irregular migration. The continent’s new vocabulary includes concepts like external “return hubs” to which asylum seekers are sent – a fringe idea just two years ago that now holds serious weight.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Scholz, as well as Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer – the continent’s centrist flagbearers, each at one time hailed as counterweights to anti-migrant populism – have scrambled over each other to emphasize the consideration and thought they are giving to Italy’s arrangement with Albania.

Its architect, Italy’s right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni, was expected to be something of an outcast on the European stage when she took office two years ago. Now, more and more leaders are sounding more and more like Meloni.

European arrivals are in fact coming down; there have been around 140,000 this year, compared to a seven-year high of around 275,000 last year.

But instability and displacement in the Middle East, the success of populist parties in virtually every part of the continent this year and a number of violent attacks allegedly committed by migrants – which have been quickly pounced upon by right-wing politicians, sometimes aided by a flow of misinformation – mean that the potency of the topic is only mounting.

Scholz looks on enviably as the far-right surges

Still, if Europe is heading in the same direction on illegal migration, it remains disunited.

A long-awaited new EU migration pact, aimed at sharing the burden of processing asylum claims more evenly across the bloc, has been picked apart from various angles by the 27 leaders. Some want it implemented sooner; others, including Tusk, have said they won’t accept relocated asylum seekers.

There is an evergreen issue at the heart of Europe’s latest divide; it is made up of 27 leaders who each have their own, domestic audiences at the front of their minds. But all of them have learned by now that public anger towards increasing legal and illegal migration is an indelible political force.

In Poland, Tusk is attempting to bend it towards his will. The veteran of centrist politics has banked some credit with voters one year after his election victory, but the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party he ousted last October remains a dangerous force, and its attacks on Tusk are primarily two-pronged: that he is a stooge of Brussels, and weak on the border.

There are caveats to Tusk’s plan. It is more targeted towards the Belarus border crisis than the initial language suggested; it is not immediate and its path to becoming law is tenuous. It is not entirely new – Finland has pursued a similar plan this year – and it is an escalation of, not a break with, Tusk’s stance on border security, which has always centered on efforts to repel the massing crowds in Belarus.

But tellingly, most of those details were missing from the prime minister’s initial announcement. “Tusk amplified the message (on asylum) on purpose to get attention,” Kucharczyk said. “The migration and security narrative was something that PiS has been using very successfully over the years; now Tusk has stolen it from them, and turned it against them.”

Tusk will hope this gambit sets the table for May’s election to succeed Poland’s PiS-aligned, veto-happy president – a contest that is absolutely pivotal to the government’s legislative hopes. “It’s an existential issue for this coalition, and they don’t want to take chances on issues like migration,” Kucharczyk said.

Scholz may be looking on enviably. Tusk has staked out a hardline position on the border before the issue tanks his popularity, but for the German leader, it may already be too late.

Scholz, whose SPD party is on course to lose power next year, has been slow to react to public anger, ignited most recently by a fatal stabbing in the western city of Solingen. The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS, who had been due for deportation.

Days later, the AfD scored the first far-right state election victory in the country since the Nazi era – a breakthrough that spooked Europe.

That context informed Scholz’s sudden move to introduce checks at Germany’s western borders, in addition to checks that had already existed on its eastern flank. Hungary and Slovakia have made similar moves.

The wider question is whether the longstanding principles of the border-free Schengen Area can survive an enduring era of rising migration and populist subversion.

Its answer may depend, in part, on how successfully Europe’s current crop of centrists can take the fight on migration to their populist rivals – and whether they can maintain a reputation for moderation while doing so.

On that, Tusk seems willing to chart the course. But from the left, there are risks. “Tusk’s voters may applaud the security dimension (of his asylum plan),” Kucharczyk said. “But they will also want to see how (he) is different from the hard right.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com