World
Lee Jae-myung is a technocrat with hardscrabble origins.
South Korea’s main liberal candidate, Lee Jae-myung, began his presidential bid with a speech that spoke squarely to the nation’s simmering angst and its struggling center class.
“We’ve bought to usher in a world the place all can reside nicely collectively, maintain the weak, and curb the vainness of the sturdy, who typically resort to privilege and foul play,” Mr. Lee mentioned in a video deal with final summer time.
However the best problem for the labor-lawyer-turned-politician on this race, specialists say, is his have to signify the ruling Democratic Occasion whereas additionally distinguishing himself from President Moon Jae-in.
Although Mr. Moon has loved excessive approval scores in comparison with most South Korean presidents, the nation has continued to undergo from runaway housing costs and a youth unemployment disaster below his watch.
Born in 1964 within the small jap city of Andong, in North Gyeongsang Province, Mr. Lee turned often called the previous “manufacturing unit boy” and the son of a home cleaner who rose out of poverty to grow to be a profitable mayor and governor.
Certainly one of seven youngsters, he skipped center faculty to work at numerous factories within the northwestern metropolis of Seongnam, roughly 12.5 miles from Seoul. In accordance with Mr. Lee, a number of office accidents — together with one the place his arm was caught in a press machine — left him legally disabled by his late teenagers, when South Korea exempted him from its necessary army service.
Mr. Lee then earned a highschool equivalency diploma and received a scholarship to Seoul’s Chung-Ang College. After graduating, he returned to the city he labored in as a toddler to open his personal workplace as a labor lawyer.
On the stump, he has lengthy credited these experiences as his inspiration for coming into politics. He was elected Seongnam’s mayor in 2010, a publish he held for about eight years. Throughout that point, he created a citywide social welfare program, launched a modest common primary revenue program for younger adults, and supplied free entry to highschool uniforms and postnatal care.
Because the governor of Gyeonggi, South Korea’s most populous province, from 2018 to 2021, Mr. Lee impressed voters by swiftly addressing a sequence of points that turned sizzling political matters. Amongst them: He pushed for increasing using surveillance cameras in hospital working rooms after the invention that some docs had been assigning unlicensed employees to carry out surgical procedure. He additionally led profitable efforts to offer residents with stimulus cash throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
In contrast to his major rival, the firebrand former chief prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol, Mr. Lee has spoken in favor of financial cooperation with North Korea. He’s the one candidate to have promised a common primary revenue plan that may finally distribute no less than 1 million received (about $814) to all residents per yr.
His plan would additionally scale as much as provide the next sum of two million received — no less than $1,629 per yr — to 19- to 29-year-olds yearly, a demographic that each candidates are vigorously competing for.
This year is likely to be one of the most pivotal in Myanmar’s modern history.
The country is embroiled in a civil war, ignited by the military’s 2021 coup against an elected government.
Fighting has escalated and the military regime, which calls itself the State Administration Council (SAC), has suffered mounting defeats. It has responded to the loss of control over border regions and swaths of territory to opposition forces with indiscriminate air attacks and atrocities against civilians.
The military’s most formidable opposition – a coalition of ethnic armed groups – now controls most of Rakhine state in the country’s east and from the border with China to the city of Mandalay in the north.
Another major opposition force is the National Unity Government (NUG) – described as Myanmar’s shadow government – in exile, which oversees a loose collection of anti-regime groups known as the People’s Defence Force (PDF).
The NUG faces challenges in gaining diplomatic recognition on the international front and its fighters are struggling to capture urban areas on the home front.
Al Jazeera spoke with NUG Acting President Duwa Lashi La about the movement’s military and political strategy in 2025 and the war’s likely end game.
Al Jazeera: Please describe the NUG’s strategy for 2025.
Duwa Lashi La: In 2025, we would like to accelerate the wave of our revolution. Although it began with very little resources, the revolution has become stronger. In 2022, we formed armed forces. In 2023, we could launch military operations. In 2025, we are seeking the end game. The people of Myanmar have suffered too much for all these years. We have to bear all these atrocities, while the world just watches on.
In 2025, we are aiming for the complete elimination of evil [regime leader] Min Aung Hlaing from our soil.
Armed revolution is a vital focus, but it’s not the only one. It’s politically important to have inclusive participation of all the armed forces. It’s also very important to have strong diplomatic cooperation with the international community and to gain more support from them.
Another important factor is good communication with the public, and good governing in our controlled areas. We’re aiming to improve in all these areas in the new year. To achieve that, we have a strategic plan.
Al Jazeera: What do you think will happen in 2025?
Duwa Lashi La: We aim to reach a tipping point in 2025, a similar situation to Syria when al-Assad fled the country.
We have to strike a final blow against the SAC.
Parts of the international community, such as the ICC [International Criminal Court], are also attempting to prosecute Min Aung Hlaing. We completely support this. It would be great if the international community could arrest him. We’ll also continue our effort to prosecute him within our country from every way possible.
However, international intervention is essential in this transitional period.
With simultaneous and collaborative attempts between the international community and resistance forces against the SAC, we believe the SAC would be destroyed at once.
It’s very important to cut off the financial flow to the SAC to achieve this goal. The military is backed by strong resources that they have acquired from decades of controlling the country. We need to stop this.
The international community should also stop purchasing from Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, a huge financial source for the military. Additionally, the international community should stop providing jet fuel and selling weapons to the military.
I strongly urge the international community to stop communicating with the SAC, associating with them and recognizing them.
Al Jazeera: Does the NUG consider itself a leader of the nationwide revolution?
Duwa Lashi La: The NUG is at the frontline of the revolution, as the people of Myanmar elected us to lead it.
The international community needs to recognize this mandate.
Although certain ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) don’t exactly recognize the NUG as a central government, we are performing as one. We are also in consultation with various ethnic armed groups. Some EROs see the NUG as a common, central body that they support. So, our duty is to fulfil this role. That is why we cannot lose this revolution.
Al Jazeera: Recently you called for the return of NUG ministers to Myanmar – the public welcomed this call. Have any returned yet?
Duwa Lashi La: Our policy is that the revolution should not become stuck. There must be progressive changes within our movement. This is the time for NUG ministers to live with the people on the ground, share the struggle together, and feel the good and the bad of what people experience.
That is why I have urged ministers to return to the country. As this is an important issue, we have been discussing it within the ministerial committee, exclusively comprising all ministers, for about two months now. Certain plans have been laid down by the committee regarding this issue. Some ministers in the committee pledged to come to the frontline.
Al Jazeera: When will the NUG reshuffle its ministers? And who do you have in mind to take over what roles?
Duwa Lashi La: This is classified information. However, we have been as transparent as possible about this. The NUCC [a policy advisory body, the National Unity Consultative Council] has also already announced the NUG’s reformation.
We completely agree with the reforms. We don’t intend to occupy these roles permanently. It is also important for strengthening the NUG. We are always ready to welcome more skilful and capable individuals who would like to contribute to the revolution.
We have plans to reshuffle ministers to strengthen and speed up the revolution. But, as to when and what reshuffling, I won’t disclose at present. We have agreed on doing that in early 2025. There will be some changes in early 2025.
Al Jazeera: What are the NUG’s conditions for peace talks with the military?
Duwa Lashi La: The NUG is always open for dialogue. We never close the door on peace talks. The problem is that the SAC never wants to engage in political dialogue with us.
But we have one condition, as is outlined in our joint statement with the K3C [an ethnic armed group coalition]. If the SAC agrees to at least three of our six requirements, such as accepting civilian rule, and declaring to the world they will never interfere in the country’s politics, then we can move forward with the peace talks.
It’s important that the world’s superpowers, neighbouring countries and ASEAN countries [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] must be included in witnessing and ensuring the military’s departure from politics. If they cannot agree on these grounds, it will be difficult for us to have peace talks with the SAC.
Al Jazeera: How are you trying to convince ethnic resistance organisations to back you, and why are some EROs reluctant?
Duwa Lashi La: We need to look back to history to understand that. Myanmar has often had situations where many ethnicities participated together in revolution. For example, when we rebelled against Japanese rule, it was the Kachin who started the revolution, and then the Chin also participated.
The Burmese and Buddhist groups sided with the Japanese, as they were also Buddhists. I don’t mean to discriminate against any communities here; I am just explaining the situation based on the facts.
We are seen as a Western-influenced group. But this revolution is completely different because everyone is involved in this struggle, as they should be. There are some levels of mistrust among the ethnic armed groups. For example, the KNU [Karen National Union] was alone in rebelling against military dictatorship.
Similarly, the Shan also started to rebel against the central government in 1959 and established an independent chain of command – the Kachin in 1961 and, later, the Chin. Everyone has been independently fighting against military dictatorship.
To systemize everyone under one chain of command, each having their own central body, has been the biggest challenge for the NUG. We need to work as a joint chain of command, where all chiefs of staff will have a joint commanding system.
As for now, we are working under a coordination system for joint military cooperation, and, as we have seen, it’s going successfully. But in the future federal military, we will have to establish one chain of command with the help of experts and concerned parties.
Al Jazeera: In June 2023, the NUG approved the replacement of the 1982 Citizenship Law that denies equal access to full citizenship rights for Rohingya and others in the country. Has the NUG officially repealed this law?
Duwa Lashi La: This has been under our consideration since 2021, just after the coup. We released a statement on the amendment of the unjust 1982 law. But when and how to do it depends on the legal requirements and the country’s situation.
When the situation improves, as we often say during the transitional period, when we are able to include the opinion of the grassroots level, when we get the people’s mandate, the concerned government will definitely amend that law.
It is not something we can rush. If we amend a law without deliberate consultation, it would be a weak law that would need to be amended again and again. We would not have the public’s trust in such weak laws. We must take time to create a law that the people have full faith and strong belief in.
Al Jazeera: How will you address increased Chinese backing for the military regime?
Duwa Lashi La: We are always attempting to make China understand the realities in Myanmar. Not only China – we would like our neighbouring countries, such as India and Bangladesh, to realize the real situation.
I cannot understand why they would support this brutal, heartless military that destroys its own country. China is our neighbouring country. We cannot choose our neighbour. We can’t say that we don’t like to be their neighbour and move Myanmar to an island. That’s impossible. Whether we like it or not, we always need communication with China.
But it’s important for our neighbours to know what the people of Myanmar want. One thing is clear: Myanmar must be in accordance with the will of the Myanmar people, as noted in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2669. The people of Myanmar do not want a military dictatorship. Period.
To persuade them, we are communicating with China in every diplomatic way possible, through any channel possible. As we are neighbours, we ensure security and better collaboration in economics and their investments, as it’s a very economic-orientated country. We have informed them that any bilateral agreement between a democratic government of Myanmar and China would be ensured.
Al Jazeera: The military has been committing atrocities with its indiscriminate air strikes. What is the NUG’s counter to these air strikes?
Duwa Lashi La: We have always expressed our desperate need for antiaircraft weapons to counter military air strikes through various media channels. Ordinary weapons have been unable to take down the regime’s highly modernized Russian-made jet fighters.
We really need effective weapons, like antiaircraft missiles. But there are many limitations to obtaining such military weapons.
It’s possible if there’s a will – take Ukraine, for example. We are confident to take the whole military down within six months if we are provided with such weapons.
If we could ever get support like Ukraine, this struggle would end immediately.
At least 6,000 innocent people have lost their lives so far. Hundreds of thousands of civilian homes, religious buildings and schools have been destroyed, and these atrocities are mainly because of the air strikes.
Once again, I seriously urge the international community to consider the Myanmar situation and support the people’s revolution.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Syria’s new leaders met the French and German foreign ministers in the capital, Damascus, on Friday in one of the highest-level Western diplomatic visits since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last month.
Annalena Baerbock of Germany and her French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, arrived in Damascus for the first such trip in years on behalf on the European Union, as world powers have begun building ties with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that leads the new Syrian government.
Ms. Baerbock and Mr. Barrot met with Ahmad al-Shara, the group’s leader, after visiting the notorious Sednaya prison, where Mr. al-Assad’s regime had tortured and killed thousands of detainees.
“We are traveling to Damascus today to offer our support, but also with clear expectations of the new rulers,” Ms. Baerbock said in a statement before the meeting. “A new beginning can only happen if all Syrians, no matter their ethnicity and religion, are given a place in the political process.”
The visits are among a flurry of contacts between rebel leaders and Western officials looking to gradually open channels to the new Syrian authorities. Mr. al-Shara has worked to project a moderate image since taking power.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is still blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States and the United Nations because of its past ties to Al Qaeda. Mr. al-Shara has called on the international community to remove that designation and sought to reassure minority groups, saying he wants to focus on rebuilding Syria after years of civil war.
“The current events demand the lifting of all sanctions on Syria,” he said in a televised interview last month.
Mr. Barrot said that France was urging the new rulers in Damascus to pursue a political transition that would allow “all the communities in Syria, in all their diversity, to be represented.” Part of that included reaching a “political solution” with the Kurdish minority, he said, which has carved out an autonomous region in northeastern Syria.
The diplomacy comes during a realignment across the Middle East, where Mr. al-Assad’s regime was a core part of Iran’s regional coalition. His family’s decades of iron-fisted rule were opposed by many Syrians, spurring the 2011 uprising and civil war. At least six foreign militaries were involved in the fighting, including those from Iran, Russia and Turkey.
Many countries — including the United States — have begun forging ties with the new government. In late December, Barbara Leaf, the senior State Department official for the Middle East, met with Mr. al-Shara in Damascus and told him that Washington would no longer pursue an outstanding bounty for his arrest.
Some Syrians — particularly Christians and other minority groups — are uncertain about Mr. al-Shara, pointing to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s conservative Islamist roots. In Idlib, a province controlled by the group since 2017, its leaders banned buying and selling alcohol and opened a chain of free religious schools. But Mr. al-Shara’s faction has eschewed the draconian decrees and brutal punishments of extremists like the Taliban and the Islamic State.
In a sign of the jitters among some Syrians, a posting on a Facebook page run by the Education Ministry this week described a new curriculum that was interpreted by some as taking a more Islamist slant.
It was not clear whether any of the changes had been implemented, but the minister of education, Nadhir Al-Qadri, said in a statement that the curriculum was unchanged except for the removal of “content glorifying the Assad regime” and the addition of images of the Syrian revolutionary flag.
Officials in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have laid out an ambitious plan for establishing a new government, and rebel leaders have assumed key positions to oversee a transition. They say they are establishing a caretaker government in consultation with Syrians of all backgrounds, as well as a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution.
Many in the region are also wary of the new Syrian government, including Gulf States like the United Arab Emirates, which has long tried to prevent the rise of groups that embrace political Islam, as well as Israel.
Overnight on Friday, Israeli warplanes bombed Syrian defense research sites near Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Israel declined to comment on the report.
Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syrian military sites since the fall of Mr. al-Assad in an effort to eliminate sophisticated arms like chemical weapons and long-range missiles. Mr. al-Shara has said he will uphold a longstanding cease-fire agreement with Israel, saying that Syria poses no threat to its neighbors.
Here are other developments in the region:
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Houthi missile attacks: The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen launched a ballistic missile at Israel before dawn on Friday, setting off air-raid sirens across central Israel, including in Jerusalem. The Israeli military said it had intercepted the missile and there were no reports of serious casualties. Israeli fighter jets have flown over 1,000 miles to strike Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen but Israel has struggled to stop the attacks, which have escalated over the past month.
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Northern Gaza hospital: The Israeli military is operating near the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, from which many doctors and patients have already fled, health officials there said, noting that the sound of gunfire could be heard outside. The Israeli military said it did not intend to evacuate the hospital. The Israeli military raided Kamal Adwan, another northern Gaza hospital, last week, charging that Hamas was operating in the compound. Israeli troops apprehended at least 240 people they said were militants, including Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital director; Amnesty International has called for his release.
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Israeli strikes in Lebanon: The Israeli military said on Thursday night that it had bombed Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, while a 60-day truce largely continues to hold. Since the agreement went into effect in late November, Israel has repeatedly bombarded what it says are Hezbollah fighters violating the agreement. Hezbollah has generally refrained from responding militarily. The current cease-fire is set to expire in late January, although the United States and its allies hope it becomes permanent.
Abu Bakr Bashir and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.
World
Elon Musk demands UK act on grooming gang scandal amid growing calls for probe: 'National inquiry now!'
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind growing calls for a new investigation into the scandal of child abuse by grooming gangs, going so far as to back calls for King Charles III to intervene.
“National inquiry now!” Musk stated on X on Friday, declaring the scandal “the worst mass crime against the people of Britain ever.”
The U.K. has for years been dealing with the revelation that a number of grooming gangs, often consisting of men of South Asian or British Pakistani heritage, exploited children for decades across the north of England in cities and towns including Rochdale, Telford, Manchester and Rotherham.
BRITAIN HIT BY ANOTHER ASIAN GROOMING GANG SCANDAL AS REPORT EXPOSES CHILD SEX ABUSE IN MANCHESTER
Elon Musk listens as President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
A 2014 independent review of grooming in Rotherham found that the majority of perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage and said that it was “hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered.”
“They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated. There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone,” the report said. “Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators.”
That report found that around 1,400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013. It also stressed that abuse “is not confined to the past but continues to this day.”
The report found that police gave no priority to the abuse cases and failed to act. It also found that at least one report “was effectively suppressed” and others were ignored by local authorities. It found that while some did not believe the information, others were spooked by political correctness.
“Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so,” it said.
1,510 CHILDREN ABUSED IN ROTHERHAM SEX SCANDAL, NEW REPORT SAYS
A review in Telford found that a high proportion of the cases involved men described as “Asian” or “Pakistani” and that authorities in Telford were concerned that allegations “had the potential to start a ‘race riot.’” A broader Home Office report in 2020 said that while high-profile cases have “mainly involved men of Pakistani ethnicity,” it also cited research showing that group-based child sex exploitation offenders are most commonly White.
The scandal was seen by many as a prioritizing of multiculturalism and political correctness over the welfare of British children and the prosecution of criminals.
Britains Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses members at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, on Tuesday. (AP)
The issue recently reignited when local politicians in the town of Oldham asked the Home Office in July for a government inquiry into child abuse. A 2022 report into Oldham’s actions between 2011 and 2014 found that children were failed by local agencies, but it also found that there was no cover-up despite “legitimate concerns” that the far-right would capitalize on “the high-profile convictions of predominantly Pakistani offenders across the country.”
The Manchester Evening News reported Home Office Minister Jess Phillips responded to the request in October, saying that any such inquiry should be organized locally.
“Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation. Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge,’ a Home Office spokesperson told the outlet.
20 MEN FOUND GUILTY OF RAPING MORE THAN A DOZEN TEENAGE GIRLS IN NORTHERN ENGLAND
“We all recognize that terrible mistakes were made in the past, with children ignored or dismissed,” they said.
That response was slammed by Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch, who called for a full national inquiry into what she called the “rape gangs scandal.”
“The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal,” she said on X. “Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots.”
“2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice,” she said.
King Charles III departs after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate at The London Clinic on Jan. 29, 2024 in London. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
Musk, who has been tapped by President-elect Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, also backed calls for King Charles III to intervene-noting that current Prime Minister Keir Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service at the time of the scandals, although the scandals generally involved local authorities.
“Yes,” Musk said in response to a post saying the King “must step in.”
He continued, “They oppose an inquiry, because it will show that those in power were complicit in the cover-up,” he said of the government.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting responded to Musk’s comments, telling ITV News that the government takes child abuse “incredibly seriously” and repeating that an inquiry in Oldham should be led locally.
“Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue,” he said. “So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the British government’s Home Office for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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