Latest news with #dictatorship
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
California gov describes Trump's deployment of National Guard as 'the acts of a dictator'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused President Donald Trump of 'the acts of a dictator' for deploying National Guard troops to quell violent protests in Los Angeles. Newsom posted to socia media a video of Trump saying he would charge state and local officials federally if they interfere with the immigration enforcement that sparked the protests June 6, 7 and 8. Gavin accused Trump of 'inciting and provoking violence,' 'creating mass chaos' and 'militarizing cities.' 'These are the acts of a dictator, not a President,' Newsom said. The two men have long been at odds. Trump said on social media June 7 that federal authorities needed to step in because of the inaction of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom, who Trump has nicknamed. "If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!" Trump said in the post. The two have repeatedly clashed, most recently in late May, when Trump threatened to cut California's federal funding after a transgender high school athlete qualified for the state championship. "Large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently," Trump said at the time, if California fails to follow an executive order he signed Feb. 5 seeking to bar transgender student athletes from playing women's sports. Newsom, a Democrat with presidential aspirations, has also sparred with Trump over tariffs, fighting fires and the management of water and environmental resources, though he has also criticized his own party. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California governor accuses Trump of 'acts of a dictator'
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Phone smuggled out of North Korea reveals shocking details of Kim Jong-un's regime including 'scary' screenshot feature
A phone secretly smuggled out of North Korea has revealed the shocking details of Kim Jong-Un 's oppressive regime. Although it appears like a standard phone from the outside, the North Korean handset is part of the dictatorship's efforts to keep its citizens in the dark. The device includes a 'scary' screenshot feature which monitors users' every move, a BBC investigation revealed. Software automatically takes a screenshot every five minutes and locks the snips in a folder that users themselves can't access and can only be seen by the authorities. This allows North Korea's 'youth crackdown squads' to ensure citizens haven't been searching for illegal information or sharing anything critical of the government. In another Orwellian feature, the phone even prevents the user from typing certain popular South Korean terms. For example, the South Korean word 'oppa', which literally means 'big brother' but is used as a slang term for 'boyfriend', is automatically replaced by the word for 'comrade'. After replacing the word, the phone issues a chilling warning to the user saying: 'This word can only be used to describe your siblings'. Similarly, the BBC found that even the word for South Korea, 'Nampan', was automatically edited to say 'puppet state' - the government's term for South Korea. The phone, which was smuggled out of the country in 2024 by the news organisation Daily NK, shows just how much control Kim Jong Un has over his citizens' access to information. North Korea has extremely limited access to the global internet and all media including newspapers, radio, and television stations are owned and controlled by the state. However, some South Korean organisations are currently locked in a secretive information war with the oppressive regime. Each night, small broadcasters and non-profits transmit information over the border on short and medium-wave radio frequencies. Additionally, thousands of USB sticks and micro-SD cards are smuggled into North Korea each month. These contain South Korean music, television shows and movies alongside more dangerous information such as educational materials about democracy. The goal is to undermine the government's narrative about the outside world by showing how wealthy, happy, and free people are in South Korea. Things banned in North Korea Owning or distributing South Korean films and television shows. Using South Korean words or speaking with a South Korean accent. Wearing a white wedding dress. Having a South Korean haircut. Wearing 'un-revolutionary' clothing such as sunglasses or jeans. Making international calls. Accessing foreign media and news. Possessing a shortwave radio. Criticising the government or making jokes about Kim Jong Un. Those risking their lives to get this information into the country say that it has a real impact on the North Koreans who get a glimpse of the outside world. Sokeel Park, whose organisation Liberty in North Korea works to distribute this content, told the BBC: 'Most recent North Korean defectors and refugees say it was foreign content that motivated them to risk their lives to escape.' In response, Kim Jong Un has stepped up his crackdown on culture with a particular focus on South Korean influences. Starting in the pandemic he ordered the installation of electric fences on the border with China, which makes it harder to smuggle goods into the country. In 2020, the punishments for those caught consuming or distributing foreign information were increased. One law stated that anyone found distributing foreign media could be imprisoned or even executed. Then, in 2023, Kim Jong Un made it a crime for people to use South Korean phrases or speak in a South Korean accent. These restrictions were swiftly implemented into the software of devices produced in the country, such as the smuggled smartphone, to prevent anyone from using popular South Korean terms. Martyn Williams, a senior fellow at the Washington, DC-based Stimson Center and an expert in North Korean technology and information, says: 'Smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people.' Following these recent crackdowns, Mr Williams warns that North Korea is 'starting to gain the upper hand' in the information war. Kang Gyuri, 24, who escaped from North Korea in late 2023 told the BBC that so-called 'youth crackdown squads' patrol the streets to monitor young people's behaviour. These squads would confiscate her phone and check her messages to see if she had been using any South Korean terms. Ms Kang also says she was aware of young people who had been executed for being found with South Korean content on their devices. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA In June 1950 fighting broke out between the communist North and capitalist South, sparking a brutal war that killed between two and four million people. Beijing backed Pyongyang in the three-year conflict, while Washington threw its support behind the South -- alliances that have largely endured. The Koreas have been locked in a dangerous dance ever since that conflict ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty, leaving them technically at war. Pyongyang has tested the fragile ceasefire with numerous attacks. The secretive nation sent a team of 31 commandos to Seoul in a botched attempt to assassinate then-President Park Chung-Hee in 1968. All but two were killed. In the 'axe murder incident' of 1976, North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone, leaving two US army officers dead. Pyongyang launched perhaps its most audacious assassination attempt in Myanmar in 1983, when a bomb exploded in a Yangon mausoleum during a visit by South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He survived but 21 people, including some government ministers, were killed. In 1987 a bomb on a Korean Air flight exploded over the Andaman Sea, killing all 115 people on board. Seoul accused Pyongyang, which denied involvement. The North's founding leader Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, but under his son Kim Jong-Il it continued to prod its southern neighbor. In 1996 a North Korean submarine on a spying mission ran aground off the eastern South Korean port of Gangneung, sparking 45-day manhunt that ended with 24 crew members and infiltrators killed. A clash between South Korean and North Korean naval ships in 1999 left some 50 of the North's soldiers dead. In March 2010 Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its corvette warships, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denied the charge. November that year saw North Korea launch its first attack on a civilian-populated area since the war, firing 170 artillery shells at Yeonpyeong. Four people were killed, including two civilians. North Korea has steadfastly pursued its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs since its first successful test of an atomic bomb in 2006, as it looks to build a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the US mainland. Its progress has accelerated under leader Kim Jong-Un, culminating in its sixth and biggest nuclear test in September 2017. Kim has since declared the country a nuclear power. Despite the caustic effect of clashes and the battery of conventional weapons that the North has amassed at the border to threaten Seoul, the two nations have held talks in the past. Then North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il held two historic summits with counterparts from the South in 2000 and 2007, which eased tensions between the neighbors. Lower-level talks since then have been much hyped but failed to produce significant results.
News24
03-06-2025
- General
- News24
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele defies critics: ‘I don't care if they call me a dictator'
Nayib Bukele celebrated his re-elected as president of El Salvador. Human rights defenders criticised his rule. But he rejected criticism, arguing he is achieving results. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said he would rather be branded a 'dictator' than allow criminals to run loose, defying critics in a barnstorming speech marking one year since his re-election. His hardline approach to El Salvador's powerful gangs has made him one of the world's most domestically popular leaders, even as human rights defenders raise alarm over arbitrary arrests and eroding civil liberties. 'I don't care if they call me a dictator. I'd rather be called a dictator than see Salvadorans killed in the streets,' he said during his speech at the National Theatre. First elected in 2019, Bukele was returned to office in a landslide vote last year after the Constitutional Court knocked down a prohibition on consecutive terms. His second stint in office has been characterised by an alliance with US President Donald Trump on deportations as well as what critics describe as a widening offensive against human rights defenders. But Bukele accused NGOs of defending criminals and suggested the press was joining an 'organised attack' spearheaded by international groups. Let them discuss semantics while we remain focused on achieving results. Nayib Bukele 'Contrary to the lies they spread day and night, we have more results than any other government in all our history.' Bukele's war on gangs is widely credited with slashing homicides to the lowest rate in three decades. But rights groups say he has increasingly abused the state of emergency and crackdown on crime as a pretext to silence dissidents. In May, a coalition of rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemned rising repression under Bukele after the arrest of prominent lawyer Ruth Eleonora Lopez. Lopez was arrested on 18 May and accused of embezzling state funds when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago. Marvin Recinos/AFP A vocal critic of Bukele's anti-crime policy, she worked for a rights group that was investigating alleged state corruption and assisting Venezuelans deported by the US and imprisoned in El Salvador. Washington is paying Bukele's government to imprison 288 migrants accused by the Trump administration of belonging to gangs. Two activists were also arrested in May, while in February, the leader of the Human and Community Rights Defence Unit Fidel Zavala was detained and accused of links with gangs. Last month, Bukele's allies in the Legislative Assembly imposed a Foreign Agents Law levying a 30% tax on organisations receiving overseas funding and requiring them to join a special registry. Bukele's human rights commissioner Andres Guzman, who has defended the leader against allegations of abuses, told AFP at the end of May that he has resigned. 'In this first year of the second unconstitutional term, there is an authoritarian escalation. It is the consolidation of dictatorship,' Ingrid Escobar, director of the NGO Humanitarian Legal Aid, told AFP.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘We are under a dictatorship.' Six years into his rule, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele tightens his grip
Nayib Bukele, the self-declared 'world's coolest dictator,' will mark six years as El Salvador's president on Sunday, a period defined by contentious reforms, which critics say have brought peace to the streets at an incredibly high price. His iron-fisted crackdown on crime in the country, that was once the most violent nation in the western hemisphere, led to the arrest and detention of around 87,000 people, often with little due process. The government has defended the move, pointing to significant reductions in gang violence nationwide, but opponents say it has come at the cost of mass incarceration and the erosion of civil liberties. The dragnet expanded as time wore on to include civil society groups and journalists investigating official collusion with the country's gangs, critics say. On May 19, Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer for the human rights group Cristosal, who is also a prominent critic of Bukele, was detained by Salvadoran authorities for allegedly stealing 'funds from state coffers.' However, López still has not been charged with a crime despite remaining in detention. Soon after Lopez was arrested, Bukele's government passed a law taxing foreign donations to NGOs like Cristosal at 30%, which rights groups have described as an existential threat. 'What we have seen is a massive concentration of power in (Bukele's) hands,' Juan Pappier, deputy director for Latin America at Human Rights Watch, said of Bukele's six years in power. Bukele's rule has been 'based on demolition of the checks and balances of democracy and increasing efforts to silence and intimidate critics.' The reduction of gang-related crime in El Salvador has made Bukele popular in the Central American nation, so much so that he was reelected in a landslide victory last year, even though the country's constitution had barred anyone standing for a second term. (Bukele's allies in Congress eventually replaced the Supreme Court's top justices with judges willing to interpret the constitution in his favor.) Since March 2022, the country has been under a 'state of exception,' allowing the suspension of numerous constitutional rights. In the capital San Salvador, many people say they now feel safe walking through neighborhoods once considered dangerous. Though they acknowledge the country has seen a massive increase in incarcerations and a suspension of rights, Bukele's supporters believe the resulting peace and security has been worth the tradeoff. Not everyone agrees. Samuel Ramírez, founder of the Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR), a human rights group that works with families of people believed to have been detained without due process, says thousands have been arrested over unfounded suspicions of being linked to gangs. Bukele has previously admitted that some innocent people have been detained by mistake but said that several thousand have already been released. Ramírez and other activists believe that many are too afraid to speak publicly. 'Here we see soldiers armed to the teeth in the streets, the police, even armored trucks in the streets — tanks. That's synonymous with a country at war,' he said. 'The gangs, for me, have already been neutralized. And now the war is against the people, so they don't demonstrate, don't speak out.' Though he presents himself as a law-and-order leader, Bukele has long faced allegations that he negotiated the peaceful security situation in El Salvador through back-door dealings with the gangs. In 2021, the Biden administration accused Bukele's regime of bribing MS-13 and Barrio 18, two of the most notorious gangs in El Salvador, to 'ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low.' Alleged payoffs included cash, cell phones and prostitutes for imprisoned capos. Bukele promptly denied the allegations, calling them an 'obvious lie.' But four years later, independent newsroom El Faro published an explosive interview with two self-styled gang leaders from Barrio 18 who claimed that, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, they had intimidated voters into casting their ballots for Bukele during his 2015 bid for mayor of San Salvador. The two men gang leaders also claimed that when he became president in 2019, Bukele had arranged that the most powerful gangs in El Salvador refrain from wanton murder and extortion, lest they make him look bad, El Faro reported. Bukele has not yet responded publicly to their allegations, but obliquely referenced the reporting from El Faro in a post on May 10, sarcastically implying the only 'pact' he made with the gang leaders involved putting them in prison. The journalists from El Faro who broke the story fled the country before it was published, anticipating arrest. 'I think Bukele will try to put us in jail. I have no doubt about that. I have no doubt, after what he did to Ruth López, that Bukele has decided to raise the bar and persecute those he considers the most visible critics in El Salvador,' El Faro Editor-in-Chief Óscar Martínez told CNN. He said seven of the publication's journalists are facing arrest warrants for reporting on the alleged deals. Even so, he said the newspaper would continue its journalistic work. For the past two years, the publication has been running most of its operations in exile from Costa Rica. 'If there was any semblance of democracy left in El Salvador, it was in independent journalism,' said Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal. CNN has reached out to the presidency for comments. 'We are under a dictatorship' Last week, Bukele's government passed a law taxing foreign donations to NGOs at 30%. He had proposed a similar law in 2021, but it didn't pass. In any case, Bullock says that it's irrelevant whether any law is proposed, passed or tabled in El Salvador: after six years of virtually unfettered power, Bukele is a law in and of himself. Gracia Grande, the program officer at the Salvadoran branch of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, told CNN that the law is an existential threat to her NGO's work. She said the law will make it impossible for them to continue working. It gives them three months to renew their registration as an NGO, but they don't know how the process will work. Grande's assessment of the situation is unambiguous: 'Right now, we can say very openly that we are under a dictatorship.' Despite the growing outrage from rights groups, Bukele's punishing penal system has won him fans. US President Donald Trump has praised the crackdown and cut a deal with Bukele, who agreed to hold hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in El Salvador's Center for Terrorism Confinement, alongside thousands of detained Salvadorans. Known as Cecot, the mega-prison is considered the largest penitentiary in the Americas and is notorious for the spartan conditions, which rights organizations have denounced as inhumane. 'I think what is happening here is a kind of laboratory for what could happen in other countries,' NGO worker Grande warned. 'Even the United States.' During Trump's April meeting with Bukele at the White House, Bukele suggested the US president follow his lead when it comes to mass detentions. 'Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate, you know,' Bukele said of the US population. 'But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. You know, that's the way it works, right?'
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
DR Congo ex-leader Joseph Kabila lashes out after immunity lifted for treason charges
Joseph Kabila, the ex-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has lashed out at the government of his successor - calling it a "dictatorship".The 53-year-old made a 45-minute speech live on YouTube on Friday evening from an unspecified location a day after the Senate lifted his immunity from Congo's authorities intend to charge the former president with treason and war crimes, linking him to the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, who have taken control of several towns in the in power between 2001 and 2019, said he had broken his silence because he felt the unity of the country was at risk. Analysts say any trial of Kabila could further destabilise the country, which has been battling the M23 rebellion since government of President Félix Tshisekedi has not responded to the speech in which Kabila also set out a 12-point plan that he said could help end decades of insecurity in the mineral-rich east of DR Why are people talking about Kabila's return?What's the fighting in DR Congo all about?Dressed in a navy suit with a Congolese flag badge pinned to his lapel, Kabila stood before a lectern in what was termed an "address to the nation" - a broadcast topped and tailed by the national anthem. The YouTube link shared by his spokesperson has subsequently been deleted, but the recording has been shared by numerous other an ally of Tshisekedi, Kabila fell out with his successor and their parties' coalition formally ended in former president has been living outside the country for two years - he initially left to pursue a doctorate in South his speech, he hit out at "arbitrary decisions" taken by the government last month after "rumours" that he had travelled to the eastern city of prompted the authorities to ban his People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) and order the seizure of his all "testifies to the spectacular decline of democracy in our country", Kabila his speech, he did mention that he intended to go to Goma "in the coming days", where he is not in danger of arrest as the city has been under control of the M23 rebels since also hit out at the president for trying to undermine the constitution, at parliament for failing to hold the president to account and at the justice system for allowing itself to be "openly exploited for political end".He was critical of government's handling of the economy, corruption and public debt, which he said had "skyrocketed" to more than $10bn (£7.3bn).Kabila, a former general, was also disparaging about the government's handling of the security situation countrywide, especially the use of pro-government militias as "auxiliaries" of the armed forces."The national army… has been replaced by mercenary bands, armed groups, tribal militias, and foreign armed forces that have not only demonstrated their limitations but also plunged the country into indescribable chaos."He mentioned that one of these armed groups was the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu militia involved in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and still active in eastern DR sees the presence of the FDLR rebels as an existential threat. Rwandan troops are currently in DR Congo in support of the M23, which is led by ethnic Tutsis who say they took arms to protect the rights of the minority urged the withdrawal of "all foreign troops" from DR Congo and welcomed a recent decision by Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to pull out troop that had been deployed to help the army fight the M23. After 18 years in power, Kabila maintained that the achievements he had made had been squandered."In record time - six years - we are back at square one: that of a failed, divided, disintegrated state, on the verge of implosion, and ranked high on the list of the most corrupt and heavily indebted poor countries," he to his address has been mixed, with some pointing out the irony that many of his criticisms of Tshisekedi's administration reflected those levelled at his own government."The dictatorship must end, and democracy, as well as good economic and social governance, must be restored," he said towards the end of the noted that the government had "finally resolved to sit around the same table" with M23 but felt other countrywide peace initiatives backed by the Catholic church should be Congo and Rwanda, which denies accusations it backs the M23, may be edging towards a peace deal to end the fighting, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians forced from their homes in recent two countries signed a preliminary agreement in Washington last month and said they had agreed on a pathway to peace. More from the BBC about the conflict in DR Congo: The evidence that shows Rwanda is backing rebels in DR Congo'I risked drowning to flee conscription by Congolese rebels'Your phone, a rare metal and the war in DR CongoIs Trump mulling a minerals deal with conflict-hit DR Congo? Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
