Members of the Mozambique military patrol the streets of the capital a day after a “national shutdown” against the election outcome, in Maputo, Mozambique, November 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday (November 8, 2024) that at least 30 people have been killed in Mozambique in almost three weeks of crackdowns on protests over a disputed Presidential election.

“At least 30 people were killed between October 19 and November 6 inclusive across the country,” HRW told AFP.

The toll did not include violence recorded on November 7 when police and soldiers dispersed thousands of demonstrators in the capital Maputo.

The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since the Frelimo party, which has been in power for almost 50 years, won an October 9 election with more than 70% of votes.

President Filipe Nyusi is expected to step down early next year at the end of his two-term limit, handing over to Daniel Chapo.

Leading Opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane, backed by the Podemos party, came second in the presidential race, with 20% of the vote but said the results were “false”.

Using social media, Mr. Mondlane has rallied his supporters out onto the streets to demonstrate against the results, leading to clashes with police and soldiers.

On Thursday, in the biggest demonstration yet, several thousand people marched in Maputo, some throwing rocks and setting up barricades before being dispersed by security officers.

The city’s largest hospital, Maputo Central Hospital, said Friday it had registered three deaths due to that protest alone.

“It also treated 66 people for injuries, four of whom were in a serious condition,” spokesperson Dino Lopes told reporters.

A local NGO, the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD), said it had recorded 34 people killed as of November 7.

“What began as a call for electoral justice has transformed into a brutal display of state repression,” CDD said.

The security forces did not immediately confirm a death toll but were due to address reporters later Friday.

Elon Musk took part in a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President-elect Donald Trump. File photo
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Elon Musk took part in a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after his election victory, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday (November 8, 2024).

“I confirm it,” the presidency official who asked to remain anonymous told AFP, saying that the claim in a report by U.S. news site Axios about the call on Wednesday was accurate.

Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, played a major role in the Republican’s campaign, spending over $110 million of his personal fortune to help get him elected. Mr. Trump has said he aims to include Mr. Musk in some form of advisory role in his upcoming government.

His presence during an official call underlines his close ties to the next U.S. president.

Another high-ranking Ukrainian source told AFP that Mr. Musk was physically present with Mr. Trump during the call.

Mr. Musk “wasn’t on the line, Mr. Trump gave him the phone. They were there together somewhere,” the source said.

Mr. Zelensky “thanked him (Mr. Musk) for the Starlinks, they talked briefly,” the source said, referring to the satellite internet devices used by Ukrainian troops as they fight of a Russian invasion.

“But the main conversation was of course with Mr. Trump,” the source added, while saying he and Mr. Zelensky “didn’t really discuss anything substantial, it was just a greeting conversation”.

Zelensky congratulates Trump

Mr. Zelensky earlier said that he and Mr. Trump shared an “excellent” call, where he congratulated the Republican on his “tremendous victory” and they agreed to “maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation”.

He did not mention speaking to Mr. Musk.

When contacted by AFP, Mr. Trump’s team declined to confirm the Tesla boss’s participation in the call, saying they would not discuss private conversations.

Axios reported, citing two sources, that the call lasted some 25 minutes and left Mr. Zelensky somewhat reassured by what he heard from Mr. Trump, without giving specifics.

Mr. Zelensky said after the call that “strong and unwavering U.S. leadership” under Mr. Trump was “vital” for a “just peace”.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly boasted that he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and criticised American aid to Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

Washington has been a key military backer of Ukraine and many in Ukraine are worried that Mr. Trump will not give the same level of support, or that he could back a peace settlement to Russia’s advantage.

On Thursday Mr. Zelensky said it would be “unacceptable” for Europe to offer the Kremlin concessions to halt its invasion of Ukraine, after Moscow demanded the West enter direct talks on ending the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed Mr. Trump as “courageous” for the way he handled himself following an assassination attempt at a rally in July, and said he was “ready” to hold discussions with him.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case canceled any remaining court deadlines while prosecutors assess the “the appropriate course going forward” in light of the Republican’s presidential victory. FIle photo
| Photo Credit: KEVIN WURM

WASHINGTON

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case canceled any remaining court deadlines Friday while prosecutors assess the “the appropriate course going forward” in light of the Republican’s presidential victory.

Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Smith’s team has been evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases before the president-elect takes office because of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris means that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with department legal opinions meant to shield presidents from criminal charges while in office.

Trump has criticized both cases as politically motivated, and has said he would fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office.

In a court filing Friday in the 2020 election case, Smith’s team asked to cancel any upcoming court deadlines, saying it needs “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan quickly granted the request, and ordered prosecutors to file court papers with their “proposed course for this case” by Dec. 2.

Trump had been scheduled to stand trial in March in Washington, where more than 1,000 of his supporters have been convicted of charges for their roles in the Capitol riot. But his case was halted as Trump pursued his sweeping claims of immunity from prosecution that ultimately landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in July ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, and sent the case back to Chutkan to determine which of the the allegations in the indictment can move forward.

The classified documents case has been stalled since July when a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, dismissed it on grounds that Smith was illegally appointed. Smith has appealed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the request to revive the case is pending. Even as Smith looks to withdraw the documents case against Trump, he would seem likely to continue to challenge Cannon’s ruling on the legality of his appointment given the precedent such a ruling would create.

The Justice Department disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump. File photo
| Photo Credit: BRIAN SNYDER

The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.

Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.

Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that “We have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.

Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured mulitple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.

“I’m very shocked,” said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. “This is the third attempt against me and that’s shocking.”

In a post on the social media platform X, she said: “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the U.S. government to protect the national security of America.”

Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Iran’s U.N. Mission declined to comment.

Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the U.S. as a child but was later deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.

The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the U.S.

According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran’s willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.

The plot, disclosed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran’s “continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens,” including Trump, “other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”

Iranian operatives also conducted a hack-and-leak operation of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”

____

Neumeister reported from New York.

File picture of Robert Lighthizer, AFPI Chair of the Center for American Trade
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Robert Lighthizer, a firm supporter of tariffs, has been asked to return as U.S. Trade Representative in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, the Financial Times reported on Friday (November 8, 2024), citing several people familiar with talks in the transition team.

Mr. Lighthizer was one of the leading figures in Trump’s trade war with China and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, with Mexico and Canada during his first term.

Mr. Trump is beginning to assemble his top team after winning Tuesday’s election. Mr. Lighthizer had lobbied for a different role such as commerce secretary, the FT said.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Mr. Trump announced he had picked Susie Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, to be White House chief of staff.

Mr. Trump aims to kick the aggressive trade agenda from his first term into higher gear with across-the-board 10% tariffs on imported goods and even higher levies on imports from China and elsewhere. If enacted, they would push up consumer prices.

China’s top envoy to the United States warned on Thursday that there are no winners in tariff or trade wars, nor in wars over science and technology or industry.

FBI seal seen on a wall. Image for representation
| Photo Credit: AP

Several federal and state agencies in the U.S. are investigating how racist mass texts were sent to Black people across the country in the wake of the presidential election this week.

The text messages invoking slavery were sent to Black men, women and children, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other law enforcement departments.

The anonymously sent messages were reported in several States, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee. The FBI said it has communicated with the Justice Department about the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it is investigating alongside federal and state law enforcement.

“These messages are unacceptable,” said a statement from FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. She said the agency takes “this type of targeting very seriously.”

While the texts varied somewhat, they all instructed recipients to “board a bus” that would transport them to a “plantation” to work as slaves, officials said. They said the messages were sent to school-aged children and college students, causing significant distress.

Whoever sent the messages used a VPN to obscure their origin, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Thursday (November 9, 2024) morning.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said his office is fielding multiple reports of racist text messages being sent to Black residents, including children. Officials said the messages appear to be part of a nationwide campaign targeting Black people in the wake of the election.

“These messages are horrific, unacceptable, and will not be tolerated,” Mr. Brown said in a statement.

Mr. Brown said in an interview that it’s disturbing that children were targeted, sometimes by name, in mass texts that typically rely on datasets collected on adults, such as campaign donors or magazine subscribers.

“This is an intimidating, threatening use of technology” that likely violated multiple laws, Brown said. He said investigators will use “all the tools and resources available to us to hold accountable whoever is behind these text messages.”

Phone service provider TextNow said that “one or more of our accounts” were used to send racist text messages and that it quickly disabled those accounts for violating its terms of service.

“As part of our investigation into these messages, we learned they have been sent through multiple carriers across the US and we are working with partners and law enforcement cooperatively to investigate this attack,” the Canada-based company said in a statement Friday.

Major providers in Verizon said it was an industry-wide problem and referred comment Friday to the CTIA, a wireless communications trade group.

The U.S. wireless industry has been working in recent days to block thousands of the texts and the numbers sending them, said CTIA spokesperson Nick Ludlum. An industry group initiative is working with law enforcement and has “identified platforms bad actors used to send these messages,” he said.

These racist text messages span the entire country, predominately targeting Black Americans, and more specifically Black children as young as middle schoolers.

A firefighterhoses down hotspots at a home destroyed by the Mountain Fire in Camarillo, California
| Photo Credit: Noah Berger

Firefighters started gaining control on Friday (November 8, 2024) over a stubborn wildfire near Los Angeles in the U.S. State of California that destroyed at least 132 buildings and damaged 88 others, as many of the more than 10,000 people forced to evacuate were able to return home.

Some 2,400 firefighters were aided by more favorable winds coming from the Pacific Ocean after previously hot and dry winds coming from the desert fanned the so-called Mountain Fire, which broke out on Wednesday about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Los Angeles.

The fire had consumed 20,630 acres (8,350 hectares) by Friday, virtually unchanged from 24 hours earlier, and was 14% contained, up from 7%, Cal Fire officials told a press conference.

“We had no external or lateral movement today. That is fantastic,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner told a news briefing.

Residents of 3,500 homes were able to return home but another 2,000 homes remained under evacuation orders, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said.

Fueled by dry brush and steep, rugged terrain, the fire remained a threat to critical infrastructure and islands would continue to burn within its footprint.

Among those who lost a home was Dennis Gottlieb of Ventura County. He counted himself lucky to be alive as he waited early on Friday morning at a shelter at Padre Serra Parish Catholic Church in Camarillo, California. He said he lost all his possessions except his truck.

“It was windy, real windy, but that’s all, so I just started my regular day until I saw the smoke and then the fire,” he said. Gottlieb said he grabbed some garden hoses and thought he could keep the blaze away from the house.

“Suddenly the smoke got real heavy and embers were falling all around,” he said. “It was hot, real hot, like 150 degrees (65 C). So I grabbed the keys to my truck,” he said. He and his wife, Linda Fellerman, barely made it out. One road was blocked by a fallen tree until a neighbor with a chainsaw cut it away.

He went back on Thursday to see if he could salvage any keepsakes but said, “Everything is gone. All gone. Burned up.”

A red flag warning for the area was lifted as winds were expected to calm to less than 15 miles per hour (24 kph) and humidity was due to climb, the National Weather Service said.

The dry Santa Ana winds that fanned the flames at first with gusts of 80 mph to 100 mph earlier this week are expected to stay calm over the weekend, topping out at 20-to-25 mph, said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Oxnard, California.

“The rain chances are low to none,” he said. “But while the winds are calmer now, they’re going to pick up again by Tuesday.”

Officials braced people for a difficult recovery.

“The only thing left standing of our house is the two chimneys,” Darren Kettle told the Los Angeles Times. “My heart dropped to my stomach. It’s just shocking, traumatic.”

Climate scientists say warming temperatures have created wet winters that allowed California’s coastal chaparral – areas dominated by small trees, shrubs and bushes – to thrive. Record-high temperatures this summer dried out hillsides, priming them for wildfire.

The United States is experiencing a strong wildfire year with 8.1 million acres (3.3 million hectares) burned to date, compared with an annual, full-year average of around 7 million acres over the last decade, according to National Interagency Fire Center data.

So far this year, California wildfires have burned more than three times as much land as last year at this time, according to Cal Fire data. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, and Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Frank McGurty, Sandra Maler and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

A railway employee was killed after he was caught between the buffers of a train engine and a coach during a shunting operation at Barauni Junction station in Bihar’s Begusarai district on Saturday (November 9, 2024), officials said.

A buffer is a shock-absorbing device on both ends of a train’s engine and coach, designed to reduce the impact of collisions between coaches.

An official of the East Central Railway said the guidelines for such an operation must have been violated leading to this “unfortunate incident” and an inquiry had been ordered.

The deceased was identified as Amar Kumar (25), a resident of Samastipur district.

Kumar’s family alleged that he died because of the negligence of the railway staff.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident took place during the shunting of Lucknow Junction-Barauni Express at platform number 5.

Kumar was caught between the buffers of the engine and a coach and died.

A video clip of the man’s body stuck between the buffers went viral on social media.

Family protests

His family members reached the spot and said they would not allow the authorities to conduct a post-mortem examination till action was taken against erring railway staff.

The matter was resolved after Vivek Bhushan Sood, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Sonpur division, reached the spot and pacified the agitated family members.

Sharswati Chandra, Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of East Central Railway, told PTI that the incident took place at Barauni station in the morning.

“It is a very unfortunate incident and at the same time a matter of concern. The set guidelines for such an operation must have been violated,” the officer said.

“A high-level enquiry had been ordered to find out the reason behind the incident and strict action would be taken against erring railway employees after the completion of the probe,” the CPRO said.

Police officers stand near the scene as they gather security camera footage after multiple people were stabbed Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle.
| Photo Credit: AP

A man has been arrested in connection with a spate of random stabbings over two days in Seattle, in which nine people were injured – five of them on Friday (November 8, 2024) afternoon, police said.

“This incident was apparently one individual over 38 hours committing random assaults,” Deputy Chief Eric Barden said at the scene Friday (November 8, 2024).

The stabbings on Friday (November 8, 2024) afternoon took place in a roughly four-block area in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

“Witnesses reported a description of the suspect and officers found him nearby and took him into custody, police said. A weapon was found near the person who was arrested, and a knife was lodged in one of the victims,” police said.

Four of the victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and one victim was treated at the scene and released. A Harborview spokesperson confirmed four victims were at the hospital and said all were in critical condition.

Mr. Barden said police suspect that the person arrested in connection with Friday (November 8, 2024)‘s stabbings is the same person involved with at least four other stabbings that happened starting early Thursday (November 7, 2024). He cited similar suspect descriptions and the randomness of the attacks but added that the investigation is ongoing.

The Thursday (November 7, 2024) stabbings in Chinatown started when a 52-year-old woman was found with multiple stab wounds, police said. On Thursday (November 7, 2024) afternoon, a 32-year-old man was found after being stabbed multiple times and at about 8 p.m. a 37-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the back, police said.

Then early on Friday (November 8, 2024), police responding to an assault call found a 53-year-old man bleeding heavily from a neck injury. Police followed a blood trail to a nearby doorway and unsuccessfully used that as a starting point for police dogs to try and track a suspect.

“It is my understanding that everyone is alive,” Mr. Barden said of the victims on Friday (November 8, 2024) afternoon.

Police said a 10th stabbing on Thursday (November 7, 2024) night involved a cell phone robbery in which someone forcibly opened a vehicle door and tried to stab a 60-year-old man in the chest. The victim blocked the assault and was cut on his hand, police said. It was not clear that it was connected to the random attacks, police said.

Prime Minister Simon Harris arrives to make a statement at Government Buildings calling a General Election, in Dublin, Ireland, on November 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ireland’s President Michael Higgins dissolved Parliament Friday (November 8, 2024), clearing the way for a November 29 election that will determine who controls government.

Prime Minister Simon Harris, who had until March to call an election, had announced the date Wednesday (November 6, 2024).

A historic coalition government led by Harris’ centre-right Fine Gael party and its centre-left rival Fianna Fail has been in power since the 2020 race ended in a virtual dead heat.

“We did not agree on every issue, but we did always work hard and together for the good of the Irish people,” Mr. Harris said. “The time is now right to ask the Irish people to give a new mandate.”

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, which arose from opposing sides of Ireland’s 1920s civil war, shared a broadly centrist outlook and had alternated holding power to govern Ireland over the decades. The two set aside their differences in 2020 to work together, bringing the Green Party along as a junior partner.

Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin served as premier for the first half of the term and was replaced by Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar in December 2022.

Mr. Harris took over when Varadkar stepped down earlier this year.

The left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein party had won the largest share of votes in the election but was shut out of government because it couldn’t assemble enough support to govern. Sinn Fein has been shunned by centrist parties because of its historic links to the nationalist militants of the Irish Republican Army and decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein said it was fielding more candidates in its effort to lead the government.

“After a century of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, it is time to make that change, to give Sinn Fein the chance to lead and the chance to deliver,” said party President Mary-Lou McDonald. “In Sinn Fein you will get a government that will move heaven and earth to make housing affordable, to bring home ownership back into the reach of working people and to restore hope for a generation.”

Ireland, which has a population of 5.2 million, has faced many of the same challenges of other countries since its last election: the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruptions due to the war in Ukraine and a surge of migrants from overseas.

Mr. Martin said the next five years would be challenging for the Irish economy, noting the impact from global conflicts and a potential change in U.S. trade policy change.

“The greatest threat to the Irish economy is external, and we need experience and we need leadership that has already demonstrated its capacity to weather significant events and shocks to lead us through the next challenging five years,” Mr. Martin said.

Mr. Harris said the coalition had protected people during coronavirus, supported Ukraine in its war and weathered the cost-of-living crisis.

Housing, immigration and childcare are some of the main issues for voters, he said.

He said he was pleased the government had set aside money to weather any future trade shocks.

“We used to be ridiculed for this,” Mr. Harris said. “This is exactly why we have the buffer that is there, is a trans-Atlantic shock or indeed any other shock to our economy, my children will never have to experience the austerity that our generation did.”

Ireland in 2010 faced national bankruptcy over the cost of saving its failing banks. It adopted an austerity program as one of the conditions for an international bailout but rebounded strongly after exiting the bailout in 2013.