Category World News

The election for Iraq’s next president has been postponed in order for more consultation between the two Kurdish parties to come to a decision.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) requested a delay in the parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

According to a sectarian quota system, the prime minister’s position is held by a Shia, the parliament’s speaker is a Sunni, and the presidency is largely ceremonial for Kurds.

A PUK member typically assumes the presidency in accordance with a deal reached between the two main Kurdish parties. The KDP selects the region’s president and regional leader, in contrast, from the region’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

However, the KDP chose Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as the primary candidate in this instance.

Whoever is nominated by the two Kurdish parties still needs the support of the Shia and Sunni blocs in the parliament, according to Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, who is based in Baghdad.

The new president will have 15 days to choose a prime minister, presumably Nouri al-Maliki’s former leader, after the election.

Al-Maliki, 75, has previously served as Iraq’s prime minister for two terms, including two terms in 2006 and 2014. He abruptly resigned under American pressure. He is perceived as having ties to Iran.

Maliki was approved by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shia parties with a majority in parliament on Saturday. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned against an Iraqi pro-Iranian government the following day.

Washington “has conveyed to it a negative view of previous governments led by former prime minister Maliki,” according to an Iraqi source close to the coordination framework.

The United States will make its own sovereign decisions regarding the next government, according to US representatives in a letter.

Another Iraqi source confirmed the letter, noting that Maliki was confident that Washington’s concerns would be addressed by the Shia alliance, which had continued to advance with its decision.

In order to stop another World War II crime against humanity and genocide, the United States was instrumental in founding the UN in 1945. The US has always had a love-hate relationship with the UN, always being wary of perceived threats to its autonomy. However, the Trump administration has criticized what it perceives as “anti-American” and “hostile agendas,” insisting on the hate and displacing the love.

Numerous vital UN programs have been ignored and underfunded by the administration. Additionally, a significant portion of the assessed contributions, which member states are required to pay, has been withheld. The administration has discontinued funding the UN population fund, which supports and defends women and girls in armed conflicts and crisis zones, and has withdrawn from the UN World Health Organization, UN climate bodies, and international climate agreements.

In UN negotiations, US negotiators have pushed Trump’s ideological agenda and demanded that some of the language used in statements and resolutions be removed. Because the Trump administration views them as “woke” or politically correct, the UN diplomats claim that targeted language includes words like “gender,” “diversity,” and “climate.” The administration has had a few successes with its ideological campaign in the UN Security Council, but it has had a difficult time in the General Assembly, where the US is one of 193 members without a veto and has had some success.

The administration appears to be determined to reincarnate the Security Council in a Trumpian manner, though. According to the proposed charter of the Board of Peace, it is “an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and ensure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

The Russian and Chinese governments, which have worked tirelessly for years to de-emphasize human rights at the UN, are undoubtedly hearing something about human rights because the charter doesn’t mention them.

According to the $1 billion fee for permanent membership, Trump’s board appears to be a sort of pay-to-play, global club. It’s difficult to imagine this body prioritize ending suffering, hatred, and bloodshed, as Trump remarked at the World Economic Forum’s launch event on the sidelines of the forum. There are several well-known human rights abusers and leaders who have been linked to war crimes. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, are two of the people Trump has invited to join. Both of them are facing international criminal court (ICC) arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Trump has invited leaders from China, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to his board, each with their own appalling human rights records.

According to the charter, Trump would have the power to “adopt resolutions or other directives” as chairman of the board.

Hungary and Bulgaria are the only European Union members who have so far ratified joining. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right populist prime minister, has long supported Trump. Trump threatened to significantly raise French wine and champagne tariffs in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to accept a position.

Trump also gave Canada a seat on the board that was a permanent one. However, he withdrew the offer following Davos speech by Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney sharply criticised the use of economic coercion by great powers against smaller nations while not mentioning Trump or the US. Carney urged middle-class nations to unite and combat bullying from great powers.

Following an additional two years of Israeli forces’ atrocities that left at least 70, 000 Palestinians dead, with whom the US was associated, the Board of Peace was originally intended to be in charge of Gaza’s administration. Gaza is not mentioned in the board’s charter. However, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, led a side event at Davos that focused on Gaza. The “Gaza Executive Board,” a subsidiary of the Board of Peace, will consist of Kissner.

Kushner gave the impression of a “New Gaza,” complete with glittering office buildings and pristine beaches crowded with people. Tony Blair, the Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff, and senior Türkish and Qatari officials make up the Gaza Executive Board, which is unoccupied.

Governments should collaborate to uphold international human rights, humanitarian law, the rule of law, and accountability rather than handing out $1 billion checks to Trump. They should use all available resources to combat unfair US actions, including Trump’s sanctions against prominent Palestinian human rights organizations, ICC judges, and UN special rapporteurs. They should demand answers from all warring parties, whether in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, or anywhere else.

Anything less would put Trump in danger of winning and would make it easier for him and his board to support the UN and other important international organizations. The UN has its issues, including those relating to the protection of human rights. However, it is still worthwhile to strengthen rather than to replace it with an allies of war criminals and rights violators.

The jury selection process is anticipated to last at least a few days as the case moves forward on Tuesday in Los Angeles County’s California Superior Court, where 75 potential jurors are questioned daily through at least Thursday.

For thousands of other lawsuits seeking damages for social media harms, the trial is regarded as a test case. Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc., the lawsuit’s fourth party, settled the matter last week for an undisclosed sum.

The trial, which will last six to eight weeks, is expected to feature executives including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

A Californian woman, identified as KGM, 19, claimed she became dependent on the company’s platforms when she was just a teenager. She asserts that this was accomplished by deliberate design choices made by businesses that wanted to increase revenue by making their platforms more enticing for children.

She claims that the apps caused her to have suicidal thoughts and feel depressed, and she is suing the companies for damages. This case, which the plaintiffs refer to as “social media addiction,” is the first to be tried in court this year.

According to the lawsuit, “Defendants deliberately integrated a range of design features into their products to maximize youth engagement to drive advertising revenue,” “using heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry.”

According to experts, the Big Tobacco trials, which led to a 1998 settlement that forbids cigarette manufacturers from paying billions of dollars for medical expenses and restricts marketing to minors, are similar.

If successful, this argument could obstruct Section 230, which exempts tech companies from liability for content posted on their platforms, and the companies’ First Amendment shield.

The tech companies have employed attorneys who have represented businesses in well-known addiction cases.

They contest the claims that their products intentionally harm children, citing a number of safeguards they have added over the years, and contend that they are not responsible for third-party content posted on their websites.

At dozens of high schools across the US, Meta has sponsored parent workshops on teen online safety for at least the past two years. Additionally, TikTok sponsored other gatherings and provided tutorials on features, including the option to set a nighttime screen limit.

Mothers Against Media Addiction, the founder of the organization that supports smartphone bans in schools, reported to Reuters as saying tech companies were “using every lever of influence that you can imagine.”

Parents who are unsure of their faith can be very perplexed, she continued.

On Monday, the lower house in France approved a ban on using social media for children under the age of 15. Before a final vote in the lower house, the legislation will now pass to the Senate.