US lawmakers impeach Biden’s immigration chief

Lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives have impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a second attempt.

Mayorkas was removed in a tight vote of 214-213 on Tuesday, as the Republican-led House blamed President Joe Biden’s immigration chief for a surge in illegal entries from Mexico. The impeachment helps to set the stage for November’s presidential elections, which Republicans hope to centre on the border issue.

Lawmakers passed two articles that accused Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal” to enforce immigration law and “breach of public trust”. The Democrat is the first cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.

The move by Republican leaders followed closely on the heels of a failed attempt last week to remove Mayorkas. Having wrongly anticipated how many lawmakers would be present on each side, they had lost by one vote.

US President Joe Biden called the move, the latest in a series of Republican attacks on his administration, a “political stunt”.

“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honourable public servant,” he said.

Biden highlighted Mayorkas’s backstory. A Cuban immigrant who came to the US with his family as a political refugee, he spent more than two decades “serving America with integrity in a decorated career” that saw him work as a US attorney in the Justice Department before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, the president said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson doubled down on Republican criticism of the impeached official: “Since this secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act,” he said.

Bad faith

The vote came amid a showdown between the House and Democrat-controlled Senate over a surge in illegal immigration from Mexico. Apprehensions on the border hit a record 10,000 per day in December.

House Republicans have been accused of acting in bad faith in the impeachment, especially after coming out against a bipartisan deal hammered out in the upper chamber that would have imposed the toughest asylum and border policies in decades.

“Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security,” said Biden, criticising their rejection of the bipartisan plans.

Trial

Impeachment is meant to be a sanction for treason, bribery and other “high crimes and misdemeanours,” according to the constitution.

Seen as the political equivalent of an indictment, the rebuke is largely symbolic, however, as Mayorkas is certain to be acquitted at his trial in the Senate.

The upper house is compelled to open a trial, although it could vote to dismiss the articles, dissolve the trial, or refer the articles to a committee.

Why has China recognised Taliban’s envoy to Beijing?

At an official ceremony held by the Chinese government in Beijing on January 30, a queue of foreign diplomats lined up to present their credentials to President Xi Jinping. Among the 309 diplomats was an unlikely participant.

After over two years of negotiations, China recognised Bilal Karimi, a former Taliban spokesman, as an official envoy to Beijing, making Xi’s government the first in the world to do so since the group seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

China has been making inroads into Afghanistan through investments and projects since the United States withdrew forces from the country in 2021, triggering a collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and paving the way for the Taliban to return to power.

But as the news of Beijing’s formal acceptance of the Taliban on January 30 spread, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quick to issue a statement, clarifying that the acceptance of diplomatic credentials did not signal Beijing’s official recognition of Afghanistan’s current rulers.

It was too late.

By then, Beijing’s move had already secured a major diplomatic win for the Taliban which has been struggling for global recognition for its government, say analysts. Since taking power, the group has remained isolated on the international front, mainly owing to allegations of supporting armed groups and for its strict interpretation of Islamic laws to impose restrictions on the rights and freedoms of women. Sanctions by the West on the Taliban have in turn had a crippling impact on the Afghan economy.

But why did China recognise Karimi as the Taliban envoy to Beijing — and what does it mean for the group?

China’s deep interests in Afghanistan

At a time when Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are treated as outcasts by much of the world, China has stepped up engagement with the group.

In 2023, several Chinese companies signed multiple business deals with the Taliban government. The most prominent among them was a 25-year-long, multimillion-dollar oil extraction contract with an estimated investment value of $150m in the first year, and up to $540m over the next three years.

There’s a history to that relationship, said Jiayi Zhou, researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

“The Taliban are not an unknown entity to the Chinese government, which reached out to them when they were a pariah government in the late 1990s and continued to maintain a working relationship with the Taliban as an insurgency group,” she told Al Jazeera.

Beijing’s decades-long pragmatic relationship with the Taliban, Zhou said, is a “natural consequence” of a number of factors, most prominently security.

“As a direct neighbour of Afghanistan, China’s own security depends on the Taliban. It can ill-afford to alienate or antagonise them, and certainly has no interest in doing so over values,” she said,

And Beijing isn’t alone in seeking such a pragmatic relationship with the group.

“Most of Afghanistan’s neighbours hold the same position as China: that the Taliban need to be engaged with, rather than isolated,” she said. “China’s [acceptance of the Taliban ambassador] is very much indicative of a China that has become comfortable being a first mover in the foreign policy domain.”

‘Realism and opportunity’

Many regional countries had taken a critical stance against the Taliban when it was in power in Afghanistan during the 1900s. However, “realism and opportunity” have overtaken as prime motivators in geopolitics since its 2021 takeover, Gautam Mukhopadhaya, senior visiting fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research and former Indian ambassador to Kabul, told Al Jazeera.

“Realism in the sense that for the moment, it looks like the Taliban in the only game in town,” he said. “Despite the unpopularity of the Taliban and its repressive measures, resistance [against them], civic as well as military, is almost crushed… Today, the US has made it clear it has no compelling geopolitical interests, stomach or desire to commit resources to Afghanistan.”

While China is the first country to recognise a Taliban ambassador, several other countries including Russia, Iran, Turkey and India have made efforts to engage with the Taliban, not only on humanitarian projects but also by reopening their diplomatic missions in Kabul.

An International Crisis Group (ICG) report released last month, examining the Taliban’s relationship with its neighbours, observed similar patterns of engagement. “They are convinced that the best way to secure their countries’ interests and moderate the Taliban’s behaviour in the long term is patient deliberation with Kabul, rather than ostracism,” said the report.

“The world will not stop and wait for Western sentiment to shift in favour of the Taliban. We are here on the frontlines,” a regional diplomat is quoted as saying in the ICG report.

What does the Taliban gain?

The West’s antagonism, especially in the form of sanctions, has had severe effects on aid-dependent Afghanistan. There is widespread unemployment and starvation, with an estimated 23.7 million people requiring humanitarian assistance in 2024.

According to data gathered by multiple international agencies, more than 13 million people – nearly 30 percent of the country’s population – are facing extreme food insecurity. That figure is projected to rise to 15.8 million by March.

Similarly, an estimate by the International Labour Organization in 2022 observed a 35 percent drop in Afghanistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) since the Taliban takeover, resulting in more than 900,00 job losses since 2021 and causing widespread unemployment.

Faced with these crises, the Taliban needed partners. It now has one, said Mukhopadhyaya. “It can now count on a major power more or less on its side,” the former Indian diplomat said.

“Ideally, the Taliban would’ve wanted strong relations with major global powers such as the US and China, and regional powerhouses like Russia and India for various reasons,” Ibraheem Bahiss, analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG), told Al Jazeera.

With the US unwilling to play ball, China becomes even more important for the Taliban, he said.

A cautious Taliban

Deeper ties with China could “come with a cost” for the Taliban, warned Bahissin the form of “falling into the Chinese grip that other countries have discovered to their chagrin.

“But for now, both sides seem willing to play that game.”

The ICG analyst, however, said the Taliban, despite being starved for recognition, may still be cautious about how much to engage with Beijing.

“The Taliban are still trying to keep their relationship with China somewhat in check because they seem to be aware that the more they gravitate towards Beijing, the more regional powers like Russia and India will hesitate to expand relations with Kabul, thereby prompting the very dilemma of singularity of foreign patrons that the Taliban are so desperate to avoid,” he said.

“China, for obvious reasons, has emerged as a key driver of the region’s outreach and engagement with the Taliban,” Bahiss added.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 722

Here is the situation on Wednesday, February 14, 2024.

Fighting

  • At least 10 people were killed in Russian drone and shelling attacks across eastern, central and northern parts of Ukraine, including three who were at a market in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
  • The UN’s educational, scientific and cultural organisation UNESCO said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused damage estimated at about $3.5bn to the country’s heritage and cultural sites, with some 5,000 destroyed.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, blocked war aid for Ukraine, ignoring President Joe Biden’s plea that passing the bill was vital to stand up to “Russian dictator” Vladimir Putin. Johnson, who is close to presidential candidate Donald Trump, told reporters he had no intention even of allowing a vote on the bill, which had been passed in the Senate.
  • Russia added Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and two of the country’s top officials to its wanted list over the “destruction” of Soviet-era war memorials and alleged hostility towards Russia, hours after intelligence services in the Baltic state warned that Russia was gearing up for a war against NATO in the coming decade. Kallas is one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters.
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken this week of Paul Whelan, a former Marine jailed in Russia on espionage charges, as he promised sustained efforts to free Whelan as well as journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been detained pending trial on spying charges. The men and the US government have rejected the spying claims. The US classified Whelan and Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained”.
  • A Russian military appeal court overturned a fine to jail left-wing academic Boris Kagarlitsky for five years after he criticised Moscow’s war in Ukraine, his lawyer said.

Weapons

  • Global defence spending jumped by 9 percent to a record $2.2 trillion last year, the London-based think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said in its annual report The Military Balance, and was likely to rise further in 2024.
  • The report said Russia had lost some 3,000 main battle tanks during the fighting in Ukraine, or roughly as many as it had in its active inventory before it began its full-scale invasion two years ago. It is now refitting older tanks for use, it added.

No breakthrough in Gaza war truce talks as Rafah braces for Israeli assault

Talks between the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar on a possible Gaza truce have ended without a breakthrough as calls grow for Israel to hold back its planned assault on the southern end of the enclave, where more than a million Palestinians are now displaced.

In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held talks with CIA Director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani aimed at agreeing a truce, protecting civilians and delivering more aid into the enclave, Egypt’s state information service said on Tuesday.

In a statement on its website, it cited a “keenness to continue consultation and coordination” on the key issues, indicating that no breakthrough was made. Israeli representatives were also present at the talks.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli forces are planning a ground assault on the 64sq km (25sq miles) southernmost city of Rafah.

Rafah, whose pre-war population was about 300,000, now teems with about 1.4 million people, many living in tent camps and makeshift shelters after Israel declared the city a “safe zone” while it bombarded areas in north and central Gaza for four months.

No plan to evacuate civilians safely has been forthcoming and aid agencies say the displaced have nowhere else to go in the shattered besieged territory.

“Where are you going to evacuate people to, as no place is safe across the Gaza Strip, the north is shattered, riddled with unexploded weapons, it’s pretty much unlivable,” Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said.

Rafah under threat

Israeli tanks shelled parts of Rafah for the second night in a row, causing waves of panic, residents said.

Dozens were killed in overnight attacks on Monday. On Tuesday, two journalists, including an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, were targeted. A photojournalist working with him was also wounded in an Israeli air raid in northern Rafah.

Amid threats of an Israeli ground assault, hundreds of displaced families have started to leave Rafah.

“I fled al-Maghazi, came to Rafah, and here I am, returning to al-Maghazi,” said Nahla Jarwan, referring to the coastal refugee camp from which she fled earlier in the conflict.

Rafah neighbours Egypt, but Cairo has made clear it will not allow a refugee exodus over the border.

Gaza health officials announced 133 new Palestinian deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 28,473 killed and 68,146 wounded since October 7, when about 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas attack across the border into Israel, triggering the offensive.

Inconclusive talks

While the truce talks took place in Egypt on Tuesday, a Hamas official told Al Jazeera that no delegation from the group was present. “We are still awaiting the results of the ongoing meetings in Cairo, and communications are continuing with the mediators,” Hamas said.

A Palestinian official told the Reuters news agency the sides are looking for “a formula that will be acceptable to Hamas, who says it is only possible to sign a deal once it is based on an Israeli commitment to ending its war and pulling out its forces from the Gaza Strip”.

The official said Hamas had told the participants it does not trust Israel not to renew the war after the Israeli captives in Gaza are released.

The captives were seized in Hamas’s raid into southern Israel on October 7. Securing their return is a priority, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, as well as wiping out Hamas, which governs the enclave that has been under a crippling blockade for 17 years.

“It’s still a little too early to tell exactly how close we are to a deal, but we do know that the Israeli delegation does include the head of Israel’s Mossad, the external security agency, and the Shin Bet, the internal security and intelligence agency,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut reported from occupied East Jerusalem.

Also on Tuesday, South Africa said it had asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider whether Israel’s plan to extend its offensive into Rafah required additional emergency measures to safeguard the rights of Palestinians.

In a case brought by South Africa, the ICJ last month ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Pretoria’s government voiced concern that an offensive in Rafah would result in further large-scale killing, harm and destruction.

Is Israel in breach of the ICJ’s order?

The UN’s top court ordered Israel to prevent destruction in Gaza.

Israel’s war has laid waste to the Gaza Strip. Eighty-five percent of the population has been displaced.

Much of the vital infrastructure is so badly damaged that experts say it will take decades to rebuild.

An order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) states Israel must take action to prevent acts of genocide and must ensure the delivery of aid to civilians in Gaza.

But the military has largely ignored the ruling and, if anything, has intensified its bombing campaign.

What can be done to force Israel to comply?

Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra

Guests:

Ahmed Abofoul – legal researcher and advocacy officer at Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian rights organisation based in Ramallah

Kate Mackintosh – executive director of the University of California, Los Angeles Law Promise Institute Europe