Thousands march for climate action outside COP30 summit in Brazil
Indigenous and other climate activists say they need to ‘make their voices heard’ as UN conference hits halfway mark. Published On 15 Nov 202515 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Thousands of people have marched through the streets of the Brazilian city of Belem, calling for the voices of Indigenous peoples and environmental defenders to be heard at the United Nations COP30 climate summit. Indigenous community members mixed with activists at Saturday’s march, which unfolded in a festive atmosphere as participants carried a giant beach ball representing the Earth and a Brazilian flag emblazoned with the words “Protected Amazon”. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list It was the first major protest outside the conference, which began earlier this week in Belem, bringing together world leaders, activists and experts in a push to tackle the worsening climate crisis. Indigenous activists previously stormed the summit, disrupting the proceedings as they demanded that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva take concrete action to ensure their territories are protected from growing threats. Amnesty International warned in a recent report that billions of people around the world are threatened by the expansion of fossil fuel projects, such as oil-and-gas pipelines and coal mines. Indigenous communities, in particular, sit on the front lines of much of this development, the rights group said. Thousands of people took part in the climate march in Belem, Brazil, on Saturday [AFP] Branded the “Great People’s March” by organisers, Saturday’s rally in Belem came at the halfway point of contentious COP30 negotiations. “Today we are witnessing a massacre as our forest is being destroyed,” Benedito Huni Kuin, a 50-year-old member of the Huni Kuin Indigenous group from western Brazil, told the AFP news agency. Advertisement “We want to make our voices heard from the Amazon and demand results,” he said. “We need more Indigenous representatives at COP to defend our rights.” Youth leader Ana Heloisa Alves, 27, said it was the biggest climate march she has participated in. “This is incredible,” she told The Associated Press. “You can’t ignore all these people.” The COP30 talks come as the UN warned earlier this month that the world was on track to exceed the 1.5C (2.7F) mark of global warming – an internationally agreed-upon target set under the Paris Agreement – “very likely” within the next decade. If countries do as they have promised in their climate action plans, the planet will warm 2.3 to 2.5C (4.1 to 4.5F) by 2100, a report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) found. “While national climate plans have delivered some progress, it is nowhere near fast enough, which is why we still need unprecedented emissions cuts in an increasingly tight window, with an increasingly challenging geopolitical backdrop,” said UNEP chief Inger Andersen. Despite that urgency, analysts and some COP30 participants have said they don’t expect any major new agreements to emerge from the talks, which conclude on November 21. Still, some are hoping for progress on some past promises, including funding to help poorer countries adapt to climate change. People hold a giant Brazilian flag reading ‘Protected Amazon’ during the march [AFP] Adblock test (Why?)
Sudan’s army captures two areas in North Kordofan as RSF burns more bodies
RSF is burning and burying bodies near a university, mosque, camp for the displaced people, and hospital in el-Fasher, Yale University researchers say. The government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have recaptured two territories in the North Kordofan state from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the paramilitary group continues burning and burying bodies in Darfur’s el-Fasher to hide evidence of mass killings. Footage circulating online this week showed army soldiers holding assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades celebrating their takeovers of Kazqil and Um Dam Haj Ahmed in North Kordofan, the state where intense fighting is expected to rage over the coming weeks. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Kazqil, which had fallen to the RSF in late October, is located south of el-Obeid, the strategic capital city of the state in central Sudan, which the paramilitary group is trying to capture from the army. أبطال القوات المسلحة من داخل ” كازقيل” بولاية شمال كردفان#السودان #السودان_ينتصر pic.twitter.com/wVflEodHK5 — Sudan News 🇸🇩 (@Sudan_tweet) November 15, 2025 The fighting between the two rival generals leading the army and the paramilitary group, which started in April 2023, has increasingly turned east over the past weeks as the RSF solidifies control over the western parts of the war-torn country, now in its third year of a brutal civil war. The fighting, fuelled by arms supplies from the region, has created what the United Nations has called the largest displacement crisis in the world. More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, and tens of thousands have been killed and injured. The UN has also confirmed starvation in parts of the country. Advertisement The RSF said last week it accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States and other mediators, with the announcement coming after an international outcry over atrocities committed by the paramilitary group in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan. But the army has refused to agree to a ceasefire under the current battle lines, and both sides have continued to amass troops and equipment in the central parts of the country to engage in more battles. The RSF launched an offensive against the Kordofan region at the same time as it took el-Fasher late last month, seizing the town of Bara in North Kordofan state as a crucial link between Darfur and central Sudan. The army had recaptured the town just two months earlier. Satellite images reveal mass graves More than two and a half weeks after fully capturing el-Fasher from the army, the RSF has continued to dispose of bodies in large numbers. An analysis of satellite imagery released by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) on Friday exposed four new locations where paramilitary fighters are disposing of bodies in and around el-Fasher. Activities consistent with body disposal are visible at the University of Alfashir, a structure on the edge of Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people, a neighbourhood near al-Hikma Mosque, and at Saudi Hospital, where RSF forces massacred hundreds. The HRL could not conclude how many people the RSF had killed or how quickly, but it said the observations are alarming, given the fact that the whereabouts of many civilian residents remain unknown. 🚨ATROCITY ALERT🚨@HRL_YaleSPH has identified four new locations where the RSF is disposing of bodies in and around El Fasher. #KeepEyesonSudan 🛰️@Vantortechhttps://t.co/y5gaMRlBm2 pic.twitter.com/OsCVb1ihTf — Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at YSPH (@HRL_YaleSPH) November 14, 2025 Nathaniel Raymond, the lead researcher of that report, said an estimated 150,000 civilians are unaccounted for, and daily monitoring of city streets shows no activity in markets or water points, but only RSF patrols and many bodies. “We can see them charred. So the question is, where are the people and where are the bodies coming from?” he told Al Jazeera. Raymond said the evidence also includes numerous videos released by the RSF fighters themselves, who are “the most prodigious producers of evidence about their own crimes”. Adblock test (Why?)
Who is Jeannette Jara, the communist leading Chile’s presidential election?
Fears of crime Yet not all Chileans are convinced. Virginia Peredo, a domestic worker, told Al Jazeera she “would never” vote for the left-wing candidate, offering a blunt explanation: “She is a communist.” Peredo was one of the nearly 200 supporters at a rally for Jara’s right-wing rival Kast in Copiapo, a mining town some 750km (466 miles) north of Villa Alemana. Many of Kast’s supporters believe that Jara stands for the status quo. Under President Boric, Jara’s former boss, Chile saw a period of slow economic growth. Boric has also struggled to quell concerns about an increase in organised crime and undocumented immigration. Peredo, for instance, said she is afraid to leave the house at night. Although she moved to Chile from Bolivia 10 years ago, she supports Kast’s hardline stance, which includes militarising the country’s borders and deporting all irregular immigrants. “The good ones can stay, but the bad ones have to go,” Peredo said of immigrants to Chile. “They make us all look bad.” Candidate Jose Antonio Kast speaks to voters in Copiapo, Chile [Sophia Boddenberg/Al Jazeera] Kast, a 59-year-old Catholic and founder of the far-right Republican Party, has leaned into those fears of immigration and violence to build his base of support. A report released in April from the University of San Sebastian found that activity linked to organised crime increased by 8.4 percent between 2022 and 2023. “This is not a crisis. It’s an emergency,” Kast told his supporters in Copiapo. Christopher Sabatini, senior research fellow for Latin America at the think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera that Kast’s “iron-fisted approach to crime” has struck a chord among voters. “If you look at number-one demands, security, crime and immigration are all up there. Those are not what Jara is running on,” he said. Sabatini sees parallels between Kast and the rise of other right-wing leaders, like Donald Trump in the United States and Javier Milei in Argentina. In Milei’s case, his victory in the 2023 presidential race was seen as a sign of discontent with the left-wing Peronist government that was in power at the time. “[Kast is] exploiting people’s fears very effectively, in the same way Milei was able to exploit people’s hate with 16 years of Peronism, and Trump was able to with immigration,” Sabatini explained. Adblock test (Why?)
Normalising hate: Israel leans in to anti-Palestinian violence, rhetoric
The US-imposed ceasefire of October 10 has not stopped Israel’s regular attacks on the Gaza Strip. Nor has it threatened to hold a parliament and society that largely cheered on the war, which has been deemed genocidal by multiple international bodies, accountable for their actions. Instead, fuelled by what analysts from within Israel have described as an absolute sense of impunity, anti-Palestinian violence has intensified across the country and the occupied West Bank while much of the world continues to look away, convinced that the work of the ceasefire is done. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list In the parliament, or Knesset, a senior lawmaker and member of the governing party openly defended convicted ultranationalist Meir Kahane, long considered beyond the pale even by members of Israel’s right wing and whose Kach movement has been banned as a “terrorist organisation”. At the same time, the parliament is debating reintroducing the death penalty, as well as expanding the terms of the offences for which it might apply – both unambiguously targeting Palestinians. Under the legislation, proposed by ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who himself has past “terrorism”-related convictions for his outspoken support of Kahane – anyone found guilty of killing Israelis because of “racist” motives and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land” would face execution. That bill passed its first reading this week. “The absence of any attempt to assert accountability from the outside, from Israel’s allies, echoes into Israel’s own Knesset,” analyst and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy said. “There’s no sense that Israel has done anything wrong or that anyone should be held to account.” Even Israel’s media, traditionally cheerleaders of the country’s war on Gaza, has not proven exempt from the hardening of attitudes. Legislation is already under way to close Army Radio because it had been broadcasting what Defence Minister Israel Katz described as political content that could undermine the army, as well as extend what lawmakers have referred to as the so-called “Al Jazeera law”, allowing them to shutter any foreign media perceived as a threat to Israel’s national security. Advertisement “Israel has built up this energy through two years of genocide,” Orly Noy, editor of the Hebrew-language Local Call, told Al Jazeera. “That hasn’t gone anywhere. “Just because there’s a ceasefire and the hostages are back, the racism, the supremacy and the unmasked violence didn’t just disappear. We’re seeing daily pogroms by soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. There are daily attacks on Palestinian bus drivers. It’s become dangerous to speak Arabic, not just within the ‘48, but anywhere,” she said, referring to Israel’s initial borders of 1948. ‘May your village burn’ In the West Bank, Israeli violence against Palestinians has reached unprecedented proportions. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 264 attacks against Palestinians in the month the ceasefire was announced: the equivalent of eight attacks per day, the highest number since the agency first started tracking attacks in 2006. An Israeli settler gestures as he argues with a Palestinian farmer (not pictured), during olive harvesting in Silwad, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 29, 2025 [Mohammed Torokman/Reuters] Israel’s interior appears no less secure from the mob. On Tuesday, a meeting at a private house in Pardes Hanna near Haifa, hosted by Ayman Odeh, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, was surrounded and attacked by a mob of right-wing protesters. As police reportedly stood nearby, Israeli protesters surrounded the house, chanting “Terrorist! Terrorist!” and singing “May your village burn” in an attempt to interrupt the meeting, which was billed as a chance to build “partnership and peace” after “two years characterised mainly by pain and hostility”. And in the Israeli Supreme Court on Monday, two of the soldiers accused of the brutal gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison last year were met, not by condemnation, but applause and chants of “We are all Unit 100”, referring to the military unit accused of raping the Palestinian man. “They’re not cheering rapists, they’re cheering this idea that nothing matters any more,” Ori Goldberg, a political scientist based near Tel Aviv, said. “Genocide devalues everything. Once you’ve carried out a genocide, nothing matters any more. Not the lives of those you’ve killed and, by extension, not your own. Nothing carries any consequence. Not your actions, nothing. We’ve become hollow.” Seeming to prove Goldberg’s point in the Knesset on Wednesday was Nissim Vaturi, the body’s deputy speaker and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing Likud party. Vaturi crossed one of Israel’s few political rubicons and directly referenced Kahane, whose name has become a rallying cry for settlers and ultranationalist groups across Israel. Meir Kahane’s violent anti-Arab ideology was considered so repugnant that Israel banned him from parliament and the US listed his party, Kach, as a ‘terrorist group’, October 27, 1988 [Susan Ragan/AP] Asked if he was in favour of “Jewish terror”, Vaturi replied “I support it. Believe me, Kahane was right in many ways where we were wrong, where the people of Israel were wrong,” he said, referencing the former lawmakers convicted of “terrorism” offences in both Israel and the US and whose party, Kach, remains a proscribed “terrorist group” across much of the world. Advertisement “Once you’ve manufactured consent for genocide, you need to be proactive in dialling the cruelty levels down, which is something we’re not seeing,” analyst and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy said. “If anything, we’re just seeing it continue. They have dialled the cruelty levels up to 11 … and they’re leaving them there.” Adblock test (Why?)
Tanzania’s president announces probe into post-election protest deaths
Samia Suluhu Hassan, whose re-election prompted protests and a deadly police crackdown, faces international calls for accountability. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan says her government will launch an inquiry into the deadly unrest that erupted following her controversial re-election last month, as claims of an undemocratic vote process prompted mass protests. Speaking during the opening session of Tanzania’s new parliament on Friday, Hassan said she was “deeply saddened by the incident” and offered condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the crackdown. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “The government has taken the step of forming an inquiry commission to investigate what happened,” she added. Her comments mark the first conciliatory message since Tanzanian authorities violently cracked down on widespread demonstrations following the country’s October 29 presidential election. Hassan was declared the winner of the vote with nearly 98 percent support, after her leading rivals were barred from participating, fuelling anger and frustration among many Tanzanians who said the contest was unfair. While the exact death toll is unclear, Tanzania’s main opposition party has said hundreds of people were killed as the government sent troops into the streets to disperse the protests. Authorities also imposed an internet blackout on the East African nation. ‘Grave human rights violations’ Rights groups have called for an independent and thorough investigation into what happened, with Amnesty International saying the authorities committed “grave human rights violations that include unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, unlawful detentions”. Advertisement “Authorities should promptly, thoroughly, independently, impartially, transparently and effectively investigate all killings by security agents and bring to justice in fair trials those suspected of being responsible,” the organisation said in a statement in early November. The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, also urged the Tanzanian government earlier this week to investigate the killings and other rights violations. He called on the authorities to provide information about the whereabouts of people who have gone missing and to hand over the bodies of those killed. Reports of families desperately searching everywhere for their loved ones, visiting one police station after another and one hospital after another are harrowing,” Turk said, adding that his office has been unable to verify casualty figures due to the security situation and internet shutdown. Probe into youth ‘offences’ Meanwhile, dozens of people have been charged with treason and other offences in relation to the protests. On Friday, President Hassan, who first took power in 2021 after the sudden death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, appeared to indicate there would be leniency. “I realise that many youths who were arrested and charged with treason did not know what they were doing,” she said during her address in parliament. “As the mother of this nation, I direct the law enforcement agencies and especially the office of the director of police to look at the level of offences committed by our youths. “For those who seem to have followed the crowd and did not intend to commit a crime, let them erase their mistakes,” she added. Hassan also acknowledged the demands of the opposition Chadema party, which has said, for any meaningful reconciliation to happen, constitutional reforms are needed. She said her administration would embark on a constitutional reform process within its first 100 days. Adblock test (Why?)
Gaza girl shares story of being found alive in morgue after Israeli attack
Raghad al-Assar, 12, continues to suffer trauma after her home in central Gaza was bombed, killing two of her sisters. Twelve-year-old Raghad al-Assar lay unconscious in a Gaza mortuary for eight hours after she was declared dead following an Israeli attack on her home in central Gaza last year. “We were sitting in our home like everyone else when suddenly bullets, planes and drones came down on us,” she told Al Jazeera. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Al-Assar was saved by chance when a Palestinian man searching for his son’s body in the morgue saw the young girl’s fingers moving as she lay on a cold slab. “I was in a coma for two weeks, and when I woke up, my family told me that I had been placed in the morgue refrigerator,” she recounted. Two of al-Assar’s sisters were killed in the attack on June 8, 2024, and other members of her family were hurt as well. “All my family was injured, and two of my sisters were martyred. My eldest sister’s condition is worse than mine. She can’t see in one eye, has burns, deep wounds and stomach problems,” al-Assar revealed. Her story is one of the many to emerge from Israel’s war on Gaza, which United Nations experts have described as a genocide. According to the UN Children’s Fund, some 64,000 children have “reportedly been killed or maimed” in Israeli attacks on coastal Palestinian territory. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 69,187 Palestinians and wounded 170,703 since its start in October 2023. ‘Changed her into another person’ Al-Assar’s father, Mohammed, was working when his house was attacked. A relative had called to tell him what happened. “News came to me that my house was targeted. I was at work, not at home. I rushed from work to the hospital to check what happened,” he said. Advertisement “We went to the house to look for Raghad under the rubble. We did not find any sign of her.” After he reunited with his daughter, Mohammed noticed the attack had completely changed her. “The incident that occurred to her changed her mental health and personality into another person,” he explained. “There would be incidents where we walk on the street, where she faints while we’re walking on the street.” Al-Assar told Al Jazeera she suffers from nightmares and anxiety whenever she recalls the day of the attack. “I don’t like to remember, don’t want to hear war sounds, and avoid things that bring back memories. If I hear bombing or planes, I get frightened,” she said. Her family is hoping to get al-Assar and her sister medical treatment abroad. “I want to go abroad for treatment. That is my dream,” al-Assar said. “It is a child’s right to live just like other people abroad — for them to have play and have wellbeing.” Two years of Israeli bombardment across Gaza have destroyed many health facilities and killed hundreds of medics, resulting in the collapse of the territory’s medical infrastructure. While Hamas and Israel agreed last month to a ceasefire, Israel continues to conduct attacks on the enclave, and at least 260 people have been killed since the truce began on October 10. Adblock test (Why?)
Italy’s PM Meloni determined to continue sending migrants to Albania
Giorgia Meloni’s plan to use detention centres in Albania has faced numerous legal challenges and human rights criticism. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has doubled down on her government’s plans to send migrants and asylum seekers to detention centres in Albania, despite opposition from Italian judges and the European Union’s top court. Speaking at a summit in Rome alongside Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Meloni said her right-wing government was “determined” to forge ahead with its scheme of sending migrants and asylum seekers outside the EU while their claims are processed. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “Certainly, the protocol will work when the new [EU] migration and asylum pact comes into effect,” Meloni said on Thursday, citing a legal framework slated for 2026. “When the migration and asylum pact comes into effect, the centres will operate exactly as they should have from the beginning.” In a separate deal approved by the Albanian Parliament in February 2024, Albania agreed to hold up to 3,000 migrants and asylum seekers at any one time in two Italian-run processing centres located near the port of Shengjin. Under the plan at the time, the migrants and asylum seekers would be held for periods of about a month. It was expected that up to 36,000 people a year could be sent from Italian custody to Albania over an initial period of five years. According to the deal, people would be screened initially on board the ships that rescue them before being sent to Albania for further screening. The centres were meant to be operated under Italian law with Italian security and staff. Italian judges would hear the immigration cases via video from Rome. Advertisement The agreement was denounced by rights groups, with the International Rescue Committee describing it as “dehumanising“. Amnesty International condemned it as “illegal and unworkable”. As of August 1, Italy saw 36,557 migrant arrivals in 2025. That number is slightly up from the same period of 2024, but far below the 89,165 recorded over the same time span in 2023. Following parliamentary approval, Italy sent its first ship carrying asylum seekers and migrants — 10 men from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — to Albania’s Shengjin port in October 2024. But very quickly, four of the men were identified as “vulnerable” and sent back to Italy. Within two days, the remaining 12 men were sent back too, after an Italian court ruled against their detention. Italy then sent ships of asylum seekers to Albania in January and April 2025, despite court challenges. Meloni’s plan has been mired in legal challenges from the start. Italian judges have repeatedly rejected deportations from the centres, ruling that the asylum seekers’ countries of origin were not safe enough for them to be sent back. The cases were referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which had earlier established that asylum applicants could not undergo a fast-track procedure for repatriation if their home countries were not deemed safe. The ECJ ultimately backed Italian judges in a ruling in August, questioning Meloni’s list of “safe countries”. Meloni’s government had issued a decree establishing a list of 19 supposedly safe countries of origin, which includes Egypt and Bangladesh. However, the EU has not classified either as a safe country of origin. The ECJ said Italy is free to decide which countries are “safe” but warned that such a designation should meet strict legal standards and allow applicants and courts to access and challenge the supporting evidence. The ECJ also said a country might not be classified “safe” if it does not offer adequate protection to its entire population, agreeing with Italian judges who had raised the same issue last year. The detention facilities in Albania have been empty for months due to the judicial obstacles. Earlier this year, a report found that their construction cost was seven times more than that of an equivalent centre in Italy. Adblock test (Why?)
Journalist Sami Hamdi arrives in London after 2 weeks in ICE detention
NewsFeed British Muslim journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi has arrived in London after being held in a US immigration detention centre for more than two weeks. He had been on a speaking tour in the US when his visa was revoked. Supporters say the Trump administration targeted him for his pro-Palestinian advocacy. Published On 13 Nov 202513 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Iraqi PM al-Sudani’s coalition comes first in parliamentary election
With no clear majority, formation of next government will require intensive deal-making among strongest blocs. A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has emerged as winner in Iraq’s parliamentary election, according to electoral authorities. The Independent High Electoral Commission said on Wednesday that al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Change coalition received 1.3 million votes in Tuesday’s election, about 370,000 more than the next closest competitor. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Speaking after the initial results were announced, al-Sudani hailed the voter turnout of 56 percent, saying it was “clear evidence of another success” that reflected the “restoration of confidence in the political system”. However, while al-Sudani, who first came to power in 2022, had cast himself as a leader who could turn around Iraq’s fortunes after decades of instability, the poll was marked by disillusionment among weary voters who saw it as a vehicle for established parties to divide Iraq’s oil wealth. Turnout was lower in areas like Baghdad and Najaf after populist Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrist Movement, called on his vast numbers of supporters to boycott the “flawed election”. As expected, Shia candidates won seats in Shia-majority provinces, while Sunni candidates secured victories in Sunni-majority provinces and Kurdish candidates prevailed in Kurdish-majority provinces. But there were some surprises, notably in Nineveh, a predominantly Sunni Arab province, where the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) secured the highest number of seats. Meanwhile, in Diyala province, which has a significant Kurdish minority, no Kurdish candidates won seats for the first time since 2005. Advertisement No party can form a government on its own in Iraq’s 329-member legislature, so parties build alliances with other groups to become an administration, a fraught process that often takes many months. Back in 2021, al-Sadr secured the largest bloc before withdrawing from parliament following a dispute with Shia parties that refused to support his bid to form a government. “None of the political factions or movements over the past 20 years have been able to gain a total majority … that allows one bloc to choose a prime minister, so at the end, this is going to lead to rounds of negotiations and bargaining among political factions,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Baghdad. The poll marked the sixth election held in Iraq since a United States-led invasion in 2003 toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein and unleashed a sectarian civil war, the emergence of the ISIL (ISIS) group and the general collapse of infrastructure in the country. The next premier must answer to Iraqis seeking jobs and improved education and health systems in a country plagued by corruption and mismanagement. He will also have to maintain the delicate balance between Iraq’s allies, Iran and the US, a task made all the more delicate by recent seismic changes in the Middle East. Adblock test (Why?)
White House explores $2,000 tariff dividend; budget experts are sceptical
United States President Donald Trump is committed to providing Americans with $2,000 cheques using money that has come into government coffers from Trump’s tariffs. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump’s staff is exploring how to go about making the plan a reality. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The president proposed the idea on his Truth Social media platform on Sunday, five days after his Republican Party lost elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere largely because of voter discontent with his economic stewardship — specifically, the high cost of living. A new AP-NORC poll finds that 67 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 33 percent approve. The tariffs are bringing in so much money, the president posted, that “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.’’ “Trump has taken to his favorite policymaking forum, Truth Social, to make yet another guarantee that Americans are going to receive dividend [cheques] from the revenues collected by tariffs,” Alex Jacquez, who served on the National Economic Council under former US President Joe Biden, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. “It’s interesting that Trump’s arguments—which he has been pushing forward for several months now on Truth Social—do not match the arguments that his lawyers are making in court. It seems he is trying to pressure the Justices by implying that this will be some massive economic disaster if they rule against the tariffs.” Advertisement Budget experts have scoffed at Trump’s tariff dividend plan, which conjured memories of the Trump administration’s short-lived plan for Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dividend cheques financed by billionaire Elon Musk’s federal budget cuts. “The numbers just don’t check out,″ Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, told the Associated Press. Details are scarce, including what the income limits would be and whether payments would go to children. Even Trump’s US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, sounded a bit blindsided by the audacious dividend plan. Appearing on Sunday on the ABC News programme This Week, Bessent said he hadn’t discussed the dividend with the president and suggested that it might not mean that Americans would get a cheque from the government. Instead, Bessent said, the rebate might take the form of tax cuts. The tariffs are certainly raising money — $195bn in the budget year that ended September 30, up 153 percent from $77bn in fiscal 2024. But they still account for less than four percent of federal revenue, and have done little to dent the federal budget deficit, a staggering $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2025. Budget wonks say Trump’s dividend math doesn’t work. John Ricco, an analyst with the Budget Lab at Yale University, reckons that Trump’s tariffs will bring in $200bn to $300bn a year in revenue. But a $2,000 dividend — if it went to all Americans, including children — would cost $600bn. “It’s clear that the revenue coming in would not be adequate,” Ricco said. The analyst also noted that Trump couldn’t just pay the dividends on his own. That would require legislation from Congress. Legal challenges Moreover, the centrepiece of Trump’s protectionist trade policies — double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country in the world — may not survive a legal challenge that has reached the US Supreme Court. In a hearing last week, the court’s justices sounded sceptical about the Trump administration’s assertion of sweeping power to declare national emergencies to justify the tariffs. Trump has bypassed Congress, which has authority under the US Constitution to levy taxes, including tariffs. If the court strikes down the tariffs, the Trump administration may be refunding money to the importers who paid them, not sending dividend cheques to American families. Trump could find other ways to impose tariffs, even if he loses at the Supreme Court, but it could be cumbersome and time-consuming. Mainstream economists and budget analysts note that tariffs are paid by US importers who then generally try to pass along the cost to their customers through higher prices. Advertisement The dividend plan “misses the mark,” the Tax Foundation’s York said. “If the goal is relief for Americans, just get rid of the tariffs.” Adblock test (Why?)