A Little Shot of Democracy
NEED TO KNOW
A Little Shot of Democracy
KASHMIR/ INDIA
The Indian government recently announced that local elections in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir will be held from Sept. 18 to Oct. 1. This is a major shift in policy since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, ended the Muslim-majority region’s autonomy and put it under federal control by unelected officials.
As the BBC explained, the region in the Himalayas was divided between India and Pakistan after both countries won independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Since then, the two countries have fought two wars and had numerous border conflicts over Kashmir.
Modi seized control of Kashmir in part because he claimed that Pakistan was supporting Islamist militants there. In the process, he turned off communication systems, sent tens of thousands of troops into the region to maintain peace, and jailed thousands of people, including separatists, human rights activists and journalists, according to the New York Times.
Today, the Indian military still conducts counter-insurgency campaigns to root out militants, the Associated Press reported. Pakistan denies claims that it is supporting rebels. Many Kashmiris, meanwhile, say they have a legitimate claim for independence.
Domestic politics also played a role in the region’s destiny, too, of course.
In 2014, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joined a Muslim-run party to run Kashmir. When that coalition broke apart in 2018, Modi took control, suspended democracy, and split the formerly united region into two entities – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Now, perhaps unsurprisingly, the BJP is running only a handful of candidates in the elections, the Indian Express wrote, because Modi and party leaders know they won’t win. Instead, they hope pro-Indian candidates and independents will do well. At least one commentator at India Today believed the BJP was still trying to angle to play an important role in forming a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir’s local legislature.
India’s main opposition, the Congress party, has joined forces with the largest Kashmiri party, the National Conference. BJP leaders have criticized Congress party bosses for meeting with Kashmiris who allegedly promote Pakistan’s claim to the territory, Devdiscourse noted. Congress party leaders are promising to make the region a state again, too, in a bid to win favor with voters and distance themselves from Modi’s policies, the Hindu added.
The politicking might be irrelevant. The legislatures in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will have little power, noted the Diplomat. They will exercise only “nominal” control over education and culture. All other business will be decided in the Indian capital of New Delhi.
It’s a step forward for democracy, says the magazine, but only a small single one.
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Bringing the Fight Home
MALI
Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked group attacked a military police training school and an airbase in Bamako city early Tuesday, an assault that observers said marks the first time in nine years that jihadist insurgents have brought Mali’s 12-year conflict to the capital, the New York Times reported.
Witnesses and military junta officials reported gunfire and explosions in parts of the city in the early morning, with black smoke rising from Bamako’s airport. One official confirmed the temporary closure of the airport, not specifying when it would reopen.
Junta authorities confirmed that security forces were killed or injured during the raid, but did not elaborate. They added that gunmen targeted the military police school in Faladié toward an airbase camp south of Bamako’s airport.
Authorities said the situation was under control by 9 a.m. local time and blamed the attack on a “group of terrorists.”
Meanwhile, the al Qaeda-affiliated group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to France 24.
In a statement, the JNIM said they were conducting a “special operation” targeting the military airport and the Malian gendarmerie training center. The jihadist group added that it caused “huge human and material losses and the destruction of several military aircraft.”
The Bamako assault highlights a major escalation in Mali’s conflict against jihadist and separatist groups that began in 2012. The fighting, until now, has been mainly concentrated in the country’s north and central regions.
The last significant jihadist attack in Bamako took place in 2015, when militants stormed the Radisson Blu Hotel and killed 20 people.
Mali has been ruled by a military junta since two coups in 2020 and 2021. Junta leader Col. Assimi Goïta has vowed to regain control of the entire country – militants control large swathes of the countryside – and has shifted Mali’s long-standing alliance with European powers and former colonial ruler France in favor of Russia.
Tuesday’s attack occurred a day after the foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger met in Bamako to celebrate the first anniversary of their alliance.
All three nations are ruled by military juntas and have distanced themselves from the regional bloc, ECOWAS, that they had been part of until recently.
Getting Wobbly
CANADA
Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) withdrew from the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party, with commentators speculating that the weakened Canadian leader may be forced to resign and hold early elections, the BBC reported.
In a video posted online, NDP party leader Jagmeet Singh said he was “tearing up” the coalition agreement that had been set to run until October 2025 and which had kept the Liberal party in power.
Without the NDP’s support, Trudeau and his party now lack the votes needed to pass legislation in the House of Commons and will be vulnerable to confidence votes. Analysts say that as a result, Canada could see early elections. Before the NDP withdrew its support, elections were to be held before October 2025.
The party withdrew after a dispute over the government’s move to impose binding arbitration to end the major strikes affecting Canada’s two largest railways.
Singh had said that the Liberal party had “let people down” and didn’t “deserve another chance from Canadians.”
Many Canadians are fed up with the Liberal Party, saying it has done little to alleviate the housing crisis and rising inflation. National opinion surveys have shown the Liberals lagging in recent polls. If elections were to be held today, the Liberal party would lose by about 18 points to Pierre Poilievre and his opposition Conservative Party.
The Liberals continue to lose elections and seats all over the country. For example, the party lost a long-held “safe seat” in Montreal to a candidate from Bloc Québécois in a special election Monday, Politico reported.
Nevertheless, Trudeau, who first took office in 2015, said he has no plan to resign.
Guilty as Charged
FRANCE
A French man, accused of drugging his wife so he and other men could rape her, confessed to the charges in court Tuesday, in a case that has sparked outrage and protests across France, CBS News reported.
On Tuesday, defendant Dominique Pelicot, 71, appeared before a court in the southern city of Avignon on charges of drugging his wife, Gisele, with anti-anxiety drugs between 2011 and 2020.
While she was unconscious, Pelicot would rape her and recruited dozens of men online to do the same.
“I am a rapist, like the others in this room,” said Pelicot, referring to the 50 other defendants – aged 24 to 74 – in the mass trial. The defendant claimed that “they all knew” he was inviting them to sexually assault his wife, adding that Gisele “did not deserve this.”
His wife Gisele previously told the court that she never realized her husband was drugging her, and credited the police for saving her life. She has come forward publicly and allowed her name to be published, saying she wants to serve as an example to other women to come forward about their assaults.
Police discovered evidence of Gisele’s assault when they seized Pelicot’s digital devices after catching him capturing images of women’s clothing at a store. Authorities came across hundreds of photos of the abuse.
Pelicot previously admitted to the crime, but this was the first time he had spoken in detail since the trial began earlier this month.
Some of the accused men said they knew that the husband was drugging his wife, while others countered that they believed this was part of a swinger couple’s fantasy.
The husband’s testimony could impact the case of the 50 other men, observers noted.
The case shocked the nation and prompted a series of demonstrations over the weekend against sexual violence, Voice of America wrote.
Protests took place in Paris, Marseilles and Nantes, with participants holding signs saying “No, to the culture of rape,” and “Gisele, we believe you.”
The Avignon trial is the latest in a series of cases related to sexual violence that have rocked France.
Recently, allegations surfaced that Abbe Pierre, a beloved crusader for the homeless who died in 2007, sexually assaulted women over several decades. Efforts are now underway to remove his name from the charities, parks and streets named after him.
Meanwhile, next month, iconic actor Gerard Depardieu will go on trial over the alleged sexual assaults of two women in 2021, according to the Guardian.
DISCOVERIES
Impactful Events
The asteroid that struck Earth about 66 million years ago caused a cataclysmic event that wiped out the dinosaurs.
But that was probably just a drop in the ocean compared with what happened to one of Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede.
A new study recently found that the asteroid strike on Ganymede – also the largest moon in the Solar System – was so massive it caused the moon’s axis to shift.
Ganymede is known for its icy surface and hidden oceans. However, its surface also bears visible scars from the ancient impact: Researchers have long puzzled over the furrows – concentric grooves that stretch across large parts of the moon’s surface – suspecting they were the result of a massive asteroid collision, reported Science Alert.
Study author and planetary scientist Naoyuki Hirata from Japan’s Kobe University concluded that the asteroid responsible for Ganymede’s furrows was about 185 miles wide – about 20 times larger than the one that hit Earth.
“We know that this feature was created by an asteroid impact about 4 billion years ago, but we were unsure how big this impact was and what effect it had on the moon,” Hirata explained in a statement.
Hirata’s computer simulations showed that the asteroid created an 870- to 1,000-mile wide transient crater, an enormous scar that likely wiped away Ganymede’s original surface. The simulations also confirmed that the impact would have drastically affected the moon’s internal structure and potentially altered its subsurface oceans.
The study also suggests that the asteroid strike was powerful enough to shift Ganymede’s rotational axis. This is evidenced by the furrows now lying almost exactly opposite Jupiter – a change in orientation caused by the redistribution of mass after the impact.
Ganymede’s impact remains an important collision event in the Solar System’s history because it offers researchers insights into how such asteroid strikes shape the surfaces, interiors, and rotational dynamics of celestial bodies.
The European Space Agency’s JUICE probe, set to arrive at Ganymede in 2034, will provide further insights into this ancient event, according to the Guardian.
“I believe that further research applying the internal evolution of ice moons could be carried out next,” Hirata said, noting that the probe’s data will help answer lingering questions about Ganymede’s evolution.