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Category: FOREIGN

  • Elections in Indonesia: Ex-general likely to win

    Elections in Indonesia: Ex-general likely to win

    Indonesians began voting for a new president Wednesday with Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto the frontrunner to lead Southeast Asia’s biggest economy despite concerns over his human rights record.

    Polls project Subianto, a military chief during the Suharto dictatorship a generation ago, to secure a majority and replace popular outgoing president Joko Widodo, who observers claim indirectly supported his campaign.

    The 72-year-old is the clear favourite after a campaign mixing populist rhetoric with pledges to continue the policies of Widodo, who has presided over steady economic growth but reached the constitutional two-term limit.

    “The hope is to win,” Subianto told reporters before voting in Bogor on Wednesday.

    “Come to the voting station… cast your votes according to your conscience.”

    Nearly 205 million people are eligible to vote for Subianto or his rivals, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo, in just the fifth presidential election since the end of Suharto’s dictatorship in 1998.

    Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (2200 GMT) in the easternmost region of Papua and were due to close at 01:00 pm (0600 GMT) at the other end of the country in jungle-clad Sumatra.

    A logistical feat involving more than 800,000 polling stations and 20,000 seats up for grabs saw planes, helicopters, speedboats and even cows used to cart ballots around the sprawling archipelago of nearly 280 million people.

    In Papua’s Timika city, officials inspected makeshift polling stations built from logs, metal sheets and palm leaves as voters arrived to eye candidate lists.

    In the capital Jakarta, a thunderstorm deluged 34 polling stations, according to the city’s disaster mitigation agency.

    Workers wearing shirts that read “not voting is not an option” relocated some stations where ballot boxes had been wrapped in plastic, while others used pumps to drain floodwater.

    Official results are not expected until March, but so-called quick counts from government-approved pollsters — shown to be reliable in the past — are expected to indicate the winner later Wednesday.

    ‘Decisive leader’

    Consultant Debbie Sianturi was one of those determined to vote.

    “I want to have a leader that will continue the democracy,” the 57-year-old said.

    Another said Subianto’s experience made him a popular candidate.

    “He has a military background, so I think he will be a decisive leader,” said Afhary Firnanda, a 28-year-old office worker in Jakarta.

    Election commissioner Idham Kholik told AFP all voters should be allowed to cast their ballots if large queues remained when polls closed.

    Subianto needs to claim more than 50 percent of the overall vote and at least a fifth of ballots cast in over half the country’s 38 provinces to secure the presidency.

    If he falls short, a second-round vote will be held in June.

    Baswedan, seen as the favourite to challenge Subianto in that event, told supporters to help ensure a fair vote in the graft-riddled country where voters dip their fingers in halal ink to prevent double voting.

    “Come back to the voting station, monitor the vote count,” he told reporters.

    Pranowo, who entered election day last in polls after once being the front-runner, said he hoped for a clean election.

    “Today is the best time for all to return to the good path of democracy,” he told reporters.

    Commitment to democracy

    Another key factor in Subianto’s popularity is having Widodo’s eldest son, 36-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his vice presidential running mate, a move that has raised eyebrows.

    In October, Indonesia’s then-chief justice, who is Widodo’s brother-in-law, changed the rules that had barred candidates below the age of 40 from running for high office.

    Widodo enjoys near-record approval ratings after two terms of solid economic growth and relatively stable politics in the nation’s young democracy.

    However, some legal experts and rights groups have accused Widodo of improperly using government funds to support Subianto.

    Subianto and his aides have rejected accusations of impropriety.

    Subianto was dismissed from the military in 1998 over accusations he ordered the abduction of democracy activists at the end of Suharto’s rule, but he denied the accusations and was never charged.

    He has since rehabilitated his image, thanks in part to a savvy social media campaign targeting Indonesia’s youth that portrayed him as a “cuddly grandpa”.

    But rights groups have expressed alarm that he could roll back hard-won democratic freedoms, pointing to the alleged disappearances.

    “We’ve been always worried about his commitment towards democracy,” said Yoes Kenawas, a researcher at Jakarta-based Atma Jaya Catholic University.

    “If he wins, those questions will always linger.”

  • Biden calls Netanyahu as*hole but does not change stance on Gaza: US media

    Biden calls Netanyahu as*hole but does not change stance on Gaza: US media

    According to a NBC News report, US President Joe Biden has been expressing his frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in private conversations. Citing five sources familiar with the matter, NBC News revealed that Biden is seeking to persuade Israel to change its military tactics in Gaza, but Netanyahu is perceived as “an obstacle” in this process.

    The sources stated that Biden has used strong language to convey his frustration, reportedly describing Netanyahu actions as “giving him hell” and expressing a sentiment that “this has to stop.”

    There have been instances where Biden has reportedly referred to Netanyahu with derogatory terms, including “bad fking guy” and “ahole,” according to sources cited by POLITICO and NBC News.

    When questioned about Biden’s remarks, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said, “The president has been clear where he disagrees with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but this is a decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private.”

    Despite the outward display of mutual respect, Biden’s private frustrations highlight a stark contrast to the public perception of the relationship between the two leaders.

    Behind closed doors, Biden’s comments suggest a growing impatience with Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s assault on Gaza, with the president reportedly viewing him as a significant obstacle to achieving desired outcomes.

    A source told NBC about Biden’s view on the Gaza campaign: “He just feels like this is enough. It has to stop.”

    More than 28,000 people are reported to have died since the war broke out on October 7. Israel is planning a ground assault on Rafah city in the south of Gaza – where more than one million displaced Palestinians are. Despite the US’s public opposition to the operation, Netanyahu is said to be pressing ahead with it.

    The reported tensions come amidst ongoing efforts to address the situation in Gaza and calls for a ceasefire. Biden’s private sentiments underscore the complexities and challenges faced in navigating the relationship between the United States and Israel, particularly concerning matters of regional security and diplomacy.

  • Azerbaijan’s president contesting for fifth term in re-election

    Azerbaijan’s president contesting for fifth term in re-election

    Azerbaijanis were voting in snap presidential elections on Wednesday, with a fifth term for Ilham Aliyev seen as a foregone conclusion after Baku’s historic victory over Armenian separatists.

    A crackdown on independent media and the absence of any real opposition have boosted the certainty of an easy win for Aliyev, whose troops recaptured the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in September.

    The oil-rich nation’s main opposition parties are boycotting the vote, which one opposition leader, Ali Kerimli of the National Front party, called an “imitation of democracy.”

    “There are no conditions in the country for the conduct of free and fair elections,” he said.

    The six other candidates who are running are little-known and have been busy praising Aliyev as a great statesman and a victorious commander-in-chief since he announced the elections in December, a year ahead of schedule.

    The country’s Central Election Commission said turnout stood at 38.6 percent by noon, four hours after polls opened.

    In a symbolic gesture, the president and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva went to Karabakh to cast their ballots in the region’s main city of Khankendi.

    For the first time in Azerbaijan’s post-Soviet history, 26 polling stations opened in Karabakh, which has been largely deserted after its entire ethnic-Armenian population — more than 100,000 people — fled to Armenia after Baku’s takeover.

    At a polling station in central Baku, pensioner Shalalya Abbasova, 68, said she cast her ballot for Aliyev because he “did what seemed impossible — accomplished our dream, liberated the occupied territories.”

    ‘Escalating crackdown’

    But another Baku resident, 32-year-old IT specialist Ismet Bagirov, said he decided not to vote as “there is nobody to vote for, there are no alternative candidates”.

    “I know many will vote for Aliyev today because he liberated Karabakh. I thank him for this, but there are fundamental issues in the country that remain unresolved.”

    Last month, Aliyev called the Karabakh victory “an epochal event unparallelled in Azerbaijan’s history”.

    “The elections will mark the beginning of a new era” for the country, he said, adding that the country would hold presidential elections on all its territory for the first time.

    “The outcome of Wednesday’s elections in Azerbaijan is known beforehand, Aliyev is set to win,” said independent analyst Ghia Nodia of the Caucasus Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    “There is no suspense whatsoever in these elections without a slightest sign of competitiveness.”

    Supporters have praised Aliyev for turning a country once thought of as a Soviet backwater into a flourishing energy supplier to Europe.

    But critics say he has crushed opposition groups and suffocated independent media.

    “All fundamental rights are being violated in the country, opposition parties can’t function normally, freedom of assembly is restricted, media are under government pressure, and political dissent is being suppressed,” said Kerimli of the National Front.

    In recent months, Azerbaijani authorities have intensified pressure on independent media outlets, arresting several critical journalists who have exposed graft at high levels.

    “The escalating crackdown by Azerbaijani authorities ahead of the elections is not just an attack on individual rights, it’s a widespread, coordinated assault on civil society and the rule of law,” Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

    Dynastic rule

    Aliyev, 62, was first elected president in 2003 after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer who had ruled Azerbaijan since 1993.

    He was re-elected in 2008, 2013 and in 2018, with 86 percent of the votes.

    All the elections were denounced by opposition parties as rigged.

    In 2009, Aliyev amended the country’s constitution so he could run for an unlimited number of presidential terms, a move criticised by rights advocates who say he could become president for life.

    In 2016, Azerbaijan adopted controversial constitutional amendments that extended the president’s term in office to seven years from five.

    Cementing the decades-long dynastic grip on power, the president has appointed his wife Mehriban Aliyeva as first vice president.

    Around six million voters are registered for the election monitored by observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

  • McDonald’s sales drop significantly amid boycott campaign

    McDonald’s sales drop significantly amid boycott campaign

    Global food chain McDonald’s came under fire when the Israel chapter announced last year it had donated thousands of free meals to Israel Defence Forces troops committing war crimes in Gaza. Consumers across the globe boycotted the fast food giant. Coffee chain Starbucks has also been hit by similar boycotts.


    Now the numbers are finally out, and it seems that the McDonald’s boycott has been quite successful. The company registered its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years on Monday, squeezed by weak sales growth in its business division that includes the Middle East, China, and India, reports The Guardian.


    Comparable sales in McDonald’s International Developmental Licensed Markets segment rose 0.7 per cent in the quarter, widely missing estimates of a 5.5 per cent growth, according to London Stock Exchange Group data. The business accounted for 10 per cent of McDonald’s total revenue in 2023.


    The CEO, Chris Kempczinski, last month showed concern about a “meaningful business impact“ in McDonald’s Middle East market and some areas outside the region due to the war as well as “associated misinformation” about the brand.


    “The effects [of the war] on earnings durability would be our biggest concern … it looks like this is going to be an issue that persists past the next quarter or maybe even two,” said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which holds McDonald’s shares.


    Similar boycotts have hit other brands including Zara and Starbucks, which missed market expectations and cut its yearly sales forecasts last week. It told investors that there was “significant impact on traffic and sales” in the Middle East due to the war on Gaza.


    Starbucks previously said a sales recovery in China was slower than its expectations.


    Meanwhile, consumer spending in China, McDonald’s second-largest market, has also remained weak despite government support measures.

  • King Charles Diagnosed With Cancer

    King Charles Diagnosed With Cancer

    Buckingham Palace said Britain’s monarch King Charles will suspend his public duties to undergo treatment for cancer. The palace has not disclosed what form of cancer the King has.

    Charles, 75, who became king in September 2022 following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, is feeling ‘positive’ and looking ‘forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible’, the palace said.
    Charles spent three nights in hospital last month where he had a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate.

    No further details were given about the type of cancer the King has.

  • Fake news, online hate swell anti-Rohingya sentiment in Indonesia

    Fake news, online hate swell anti-Rohingya sentiment in Indonesia

    Arriving on a rickety boat in western Indonesia from squalid Bangladesh camps after weeks at sea late last year, hundreds of Rohingya refugees came to shore only to be turned around and pushed back.


    The persecuted Myanmar minority were previously welcomed in the ultra-conservative Aceh province, with many locals sympathetic because of their own long history of war. But a wave of more than 1,500 refugees in recent months has been treated differently.


    A spate of online misinformation in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has stoked what experts say is rising anti-Rohingya sentiment culminating in pushback, hate speech and attacks.


    In December, hundreds of university students entered a government function hall in Banda Aceh city hosting 137 Rohingya, chanting, kicking refugees’ belongings and demanding they be deported. The refugees were relocated.


    “The attack is not an isolated act but the result of a coordinated online campaign of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech,” the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.


    On social media, anti-Rohingya videos have been spreading since late last year, racking up more than 90 million views on TikTok alone in November, according to Hokky Situngkir, TikTok analyst at Bandung Fe Institute.


    It began after some local media outlets reported the Rohingya’s arrival with sensational headlines, said Situngkir.


    The reports have framed the mostly Muslim Rohingya as criminals with bad attitudes and Indonesian community leaders have reinforced this narrative.


    Some TikTok users have reshared the sensational articles and videos, which would help generate more views and money.


    “Sometimes when the sensation is too big, it turns out to be misinformation,” Situngkir told AFP.

    Victims of human traffickers

    President Joko Widodo has called for action against human traffickers responsible for smuggling Rohingya and said “temporary humanitarian assistance will be provided” to refugees while prioritizing local communities.


    But a few days after the attack on a refugee shelter, the Indonesian navy pushed away a Rohingya boat approaching the Aceh coast.


    Jakarta — not a signatory of the UN refugee convention — has appealed to neighboring countries to do more to take in the Rohingya.


    On TikTok, dozens of fake UNHCR accounts have flooded Rohingya videos with comments.


    “If you don’t want to help, just give them one empty island so they can live there,” one read, presented as if it was written by a real UNHCR account.


    A post sharing a report that Indonesia’s Vice President Ma’ruf Amin was considering moving the refugees to an island was viewed three million times.


    A verified account wrote underneath: “Big no! It is better to expel them, no use in sheltering them.”


    Ismail Fahmi, analyst for social media monitor Drone Emprit, told AFP the narrative “seems coordinated” but presented as if “it was organic.”


    The campaign started with posts from anonymous confession accounts, and then several users with large followings replied with anti-Rohingya messages, making the narrative appear to be trending, he said.


    Locals say social media is making such anti-Rohingya sentiment appear widespread, but that was not reflected across Aceh day-to-day.


    “It seems massive when we observe it on social media,” said Aceh fishermen community secretary-general Azwir Nazar, acknowledging that Rohingya defenders online were treated as a “common enemy.”


    But, he said, “In reality, in our daily lives, things seem normal.”

    Stoking anti-Rohingya feelings
    Some of the most viewed videos peddling misinformation showed overcrowded vessels claiming to be ships carrying Rohingya to Indonesia.


    The footage, viewed millions of times on TikTok, actually showed ferry passengers on domestic Bangladesh routes, according to an AFP Fact Check investigation.


    Another video claimed Rohingya damaged an East Java refugee center — more than 2,300 kilometers (1,429 miles) from Aceh.

    Rohingya in Aceh


    An AFP Fact Check investigation debunked the claim through interviews with authorities who said the perpetrators were not Rohingya.


    The videos were uploaded on TikTok and video platform Snack, then reposted on other social media sites like Facebook and by local media outlets with millions of followers, boosting the misinformation’s reach, AFP’s Fact Check team found.


    AFP, along with more than 100 fact-checking organizations, is paid by TikTok and Facebook parent Meta to verify videos that potentially contain false information.


    Both organizations declined AFP requests for comment.


    Some videos and comments were also related to this month’s presidential election.


    Some mocked candidate Anies Baswedan, saying he supports the Rohingya because he recommended they be housed “in a separate place” to avoid conflict.
    Others praised front-runner and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto who has said Indonesia should “prioritize our people.”


    But in several presidential debates so far, the candidates have not mentioned Rohingya migration.


    For some in Aceh, anti-Rohingya feelings have stemmed from frustration at a lack of a government solution.


    But the inflated anti-refugee posts have left them wondering if that feeling is genuine.


    “Only Allah knows whether (the posts are) all humans,” said Nazar.


    “Or perhaps, with the technology now, there might be AI or robots involved.”

  • ‘If you harm an American, we will respond,’ says Biden after launching airstrikes in Syria and Iraq

    ‘If you harm an American, we will respond,’ says Biden after launching airstrikes in Syria and Iraq


    The President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, has cautioned, “If you harm an American, we will respond,” as US forces attacked more than 80 targets in Iraq and Syria in a wide-ranging air assault on sites belonging to Iran-linked fighter groups and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard.


    The US president said the strikes had been launched in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan earlier in the week, adding: “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” reports The Guardian.


    The US military’s Central Command said it had struck with more than 125 bombs in an attack that took place around midnight local time in what was described as the first of multiple attacks against the groups.


    “US military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from the United States,” Centcom said in a statement. The raids were aimed at facilities believed to be controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups.


    John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said the strikes lasted about 30 minutes. “These responses began tonight. They’re not going to end tonight. So there will be additional responses. There will be additional action that we will take, all designed to put an end to these attacks and to take away capability by the IRGC.”


    The 85 targets were grouped in seven different locations: four in Syria and three in Iraq, according to US officials. Lt Gen Douglas Sims, director for operations on the joint staff, said the timing of the strikes was determined by the weather.


    “The initial indications are that we hit exactly what we meant to hit with a number of secondary explosions associated with the ammunition and logistics locations,” Sims said, although this could not be verified.


    On Thursday, the US said it blamed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iran-linked militias, for the deadly drone attack last weekend on the remote Tower 22 logistics base in Jordan, near the border with Syria and Iraq. Three US army reservists were killed after living quarters were struck at night and more than 80 wounded.

  • Viva Espana; Spain refuses to cut aid for Gaza

    Viva Espana; Spain refuses to cut aid for Gaza

    The Spanish foreign minister has announced that Spain will maintain its support for The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza despite USA, Canada and Australia withdrawing its support and funding, reports Alyssa Mcmurty News Agency.


    During a parliamentary commission meeting, Jose Manuel Albares called the UN agency “‘indispensable,” and said the funding helps “alleviate the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza.”


    His announcement comes after a growing number of Western nations are freezing funding for the agency amid an internal investigation about some employees’ roles in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel after allegations were made by Israel.


    Around a dozen nations, including the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Japan Australia, and Austria, have suspended funding. Meanwhile, a minority of Western nations like Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Belgium, Kuwait, and Qatar have spoken out against the funding cuts.


    On Monday, Spain’s foreign minister said Spain will be following the agency’s internal investigation closely, but highlighted the inquiry is looking at the acts of “around a dozen people out of UNRWA’s 30,000 workers.”


    On Sunday, the UN agency released a statement saying its “life-saving aid may end” due to the funding freezes, adding that as the primary aid agency in Gaza, it runs shelters for over 1 million people and provides food and healthcare.


    UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has said that governments suspending funds to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) represents “double standards” when they continue to support Israel, whose actions “plausibly constitute” genocide.

    We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the 21 NGOs said in a statement.


    Spain’s junior coalition party Sumar posted on X that the decision to cut aid is “an attack against humanity” and “collective punishment.” It added that it will pressure the Spanish government to boost funding for the organization.


    Meanwhile, Albares added that Spain has tripled its funding to Palestine in recent months to around €50 million ($54 million), which includes funding for UNWRA.


    The Spanish foreign minister also told politicians that Spain supports Friday’s ruling of the top UN court which calls on Israel to prevent genocide. “We urge the integral compliance with this sentence by all parties. We request an urgent cease-fire and the entrance of humanitarian aid,” he added.


    Albares warned that the violence in Israel and Palestine could spill over to neighboring nations, which could have “devastating effects for those countries, and the entire Mediterranean region, which, of course, includes Spain.”


    The Spanish government continues pushing for an international peace conference, which would, in effect, see the entire international community recognizing a “viable” Palestinian state. Albares said that 88 nations now back the idea.


    “We will not resign ourselves to watching more innocent women, men, and children killed in Gaza and more suffering of Palestinian families,” he said. “We will not resign ourselves to keep watching the suffering of the families of hostages. The violence must stop.”

  • Israeli forces disguised as doctors kill three in West Bank hospital

    Israeli forces disguised as doctors kill three in West Bank hospital

    Israeli forces disguised as doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff burst into a hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and shot three Palestinians dead, one of whom was lying paralysed in bed.


    A border police counter-terrorism unit and a unit from the internal security forces, known as the Shin Bet, entered Ibn Sina hospital on the outskirts of the city’s refugee camp early Tuesday, CCTV footage of the aftermath of the operation showed.


    The shooting was carried by undercover operatives while the men were sleeping at the hospital, according to the statements issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Israeli army.


    The Israeli military identified one of the men killed as Mohammad Jalamneh, aged 27, who it claimed was planning an imminent attack and had been transferring weapons and ammunition to other members, Al Jazeera reported.


    The two other men killed, brothers Basil Ayman Al-Ghazzawi and Mohammad Ghazzawi, were hiding inside the hospital and were involved in attacks, the military alleged. “A gun was found on a wanted person, which was confiscated by the forces.”


    CCTV footage from the hospital showed a group of about 10 people, dressed in civilian clothes, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles and moving into the hospital.


    The hospital’s director, Dr Naji Nazzal, said the Israeli team had entered the hospital at around 5:30 am and made its way stealthily to the third floor, ringing the bell to enter the ward where the men were sleeping.


    “They executed the three men as they slept in the room,” he told Reuters.


    Hours later, a bloodied blue hospital pillow pierced by a bullet remained on a bed, while a folding bed nearby was also stained with blood, apparently from a shot to the head.


    Targeted attacks


    Dr Nazzal said Mr Basil had been receiving treatment since October 25 for a spinal injury which had paralysed him.


    According to the medical staff, one of the three Palestinians killed in the hospital was being treated for an injury received during a previous army raid months ago, Al Jazeera reported.


    “The Israeli army often surrounds and in some instances has attacked the three Palestinian hospitals in Jenin during nightly raids on the city,” he said.
    “But this is the first time they have entered a civilian medical facility in what seems to have been a well-planned, targeted assassination operation that Palestinian authorities are calling another violation of international law,” he said, adding that there were no attempts to arrest these men.

  • Jury orders Trump to pay $83 million for sexual assault defamation

    Jury orders Trump to pay $83 million for sexual assault defamation

    A jury in New York ordered former US president and 2024 candidate Donald Trump on Friday to pay $83.3 million to compensate the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed.

    The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeds the more than $10 million in damages for defamation that Carroll had sought.

    Trump lashed out almost immediately, calling the verdict “ridiculous” in a statement and promising to appeal.

    The jury reached its decision after slightly less than three hours of deliberations.

    Trump had been in court earlier, storming out at one point but subsequently returning for closing arguments. He was not in court when the level of compensatory and punitive damages were read out by a court clerk.

    “This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down,” Carroll said in a statement.

    A juror exchanged a smile with Carroll as the nine men and women left the courtroom after the judge encouraged them to protect their privacy.

    “It’s clear to me… you paid attention,” Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jury following the verdict.

    The order was comprised of $65 million in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million for a reputational repair program.

    “I was not surprised (by the award) partly because his egregious misbehavior during the trial could actually have alienated the jury,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.

    “(Trump) is unlikely to prevail on appeal, because the (appeal) judges have great respect for Judge Kaplan, who is a very experienced federal jurist.”

    Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual.”

    “We were stripped of every defense — every single defense — before we walked in there,” said Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba outside the court. “I am proud to stand with president Trump… We will immediately appeal.”

    Trump, 77, briefly took the stand on Thursday to deny he instructed anyone to harm Carroll with his statements.

    – Claims of witch hunt –

    During Trump’s testimony, Kaplan limited him to three questions from his lawyers, to which he could only answer yes or no — a precaution taken to prevent the Republican leader from returning to his custom of disparaging the court or Carroll in public.

    “This is not America,” Trump said as he left the courtroom following his short appearance.

    He was not required to attend the trial or to testify. However, he has used the case, as well as others he faces, to generate heated media coverage and to fuel his claims of being victimized as he campaigns for a return to the White House in November’s election.

    Trump separately faces multiple criminal cases, including his alleged attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden, and a civil business fraud case.

    Habba sought to have the case thrown out Thursday on the grounds that threatening messages targeting Carroll, which have been aired in the case, began on social media before Trump’s 2019 comments. Her request was denied.

    Jurors were shown Trump’s October 2022 deposition during which he confused a picture of Carroll for his former wife Marla Maples, which threatened to cast doubt on his claim Carroll was not his “type.”

    Last year, another federal jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store dressing room in 1996 and subsequently defaming her in 2022, when he called her a “complete con job.”

    Trump had been in court while he campaigned ahead of the New Hampshire primary, which he won handily over his only remaining challenger Nikki Haley, as he closes in on becoming the Republican candidate in the November election against Biden.