Great power rivalry

Gaza: Satellite images this week indicated Israel was preparing to evacuate residents from Rafah ahead of a ground assault in the densely packed city, as United States and United Nations officials issued warnings over Gaza’s growing risk of famine.

Imagery analysed by Associated Press showed a new tent city being built near Khan Younis, north of Rafah. Some reports said the camp was being constructed by Egypt, possibly because it was concerned about an influx of refugees. Israeli officials told Reuters it had procured tens of thousands of tents ahead of an assault on Rafah, which is the last refuge for Gazan residents and is believed to be the last bastion of Hamas.

Strikes on Rafah by Israel over the past week have reportedly killed more than 20 Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signalled he plans to send troops into Rafah, saying it is being used by Hamas’s remaining four intact battalions and is believed to be housing Israeli hostages.

The US has repeatedly urged Israel to avoid an all-out assault.

A US humanitarian envoy, David Satterfield, said on Tuesday Israel had taken significant steps to boost aid flows to Gaza but the risk of famine was “very high”, especially in the north. The UN World Food Programme said the lack of food and the malnutrition in Gaza were set to reach famine levels within six weeks. Israel says it is not hindering supplies and has blamed aid groups for being too slow to deliver aid.

On Monday, an independent review by the UN of its Relief and Works Agency, the main organisation for Palestinian refugees, found Israel had not provided evidence for its allegation that large numbers of agency staff belong to Hamas and other militant groups. The review said the agency was “indispensable” but made some recommendations to improve its neutrality. An Israeli government spokesperson dismissed the findings, saying more than 2000 UNRWA workers belong to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

A separate UN review is investigating Israel’s allegations that 12 UNRWA staff participated in the initial Hamas attacks.

Israel vowed to topple Hamas after militants from the group entered southern Israel on October 7, killing 1100 people and taking about 240 hostages. As of Thursday, Israel’s military campaign had killed more than 34,262 people in Gaza, including more than 14,500 children, according to local officials. A Hamas spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, said this week Israel’s military campaign had led to “humiliation and defeat” and called for an escalation of activities in the West Bank and Jordan.

The US Senate voted this week to approve a long-delayed aid package to provide about US$61 billion to Ukraine, US$26 billion to Israel and US$8 billion to support Taiwan.

“America will always defend democracy in its hour of need,” US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer told the chamber.

The neighbourhood

Papua New Guinea: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hiked 15 kilometres of the Kokoda Track this week as part of a two-night Anzac Day trek to honour war veterans and boost ties with Papua New Guinea, which recently hosted China’s foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi.

Albanese, the first sitting Australian leader to walk the track, was joined by his PNG counterpart, James Marape, who said his country was “blessed” to be hosting back-to-back visits by Wang and Albanese.

Marking the beginning of their joint trek, Albanese told reporters: “My dear friend James Marape and I will walk side by side, step by step, together. This symbolises the fact that Australia and Papua New Guinea’s future is together.”

Australia is the largest aid donor and trade partner to PNG and the two countries have a growing range of defence, police and cybersecurity ties, including a security agreement signed in December.

But Canberra has become increasingly concerned about Beijing’s efforts to expand its reach in the Pacific, including in PNG.

During his visit last weekend, Wang, in an indirect criticism of Australia, told reporters Pacific nations “are not the backyard of any major country”.

Wang also condemned the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United States and Britain, saying: “Instigating division is not in line with the urgent needs of Pacific Island countries.”

In response, Albanese this week paid tribute to those from PNG and Australia who fought together in World War II to defend democracy, saying Pacific nations must be “free to pursue their own destiny and secure their own future”.

Democracy in retreat

India: Narendra Modi, who is competing for a third term as India’s prime minister, has faced criticism after describing the country’s 200 million Muslims as “infiltrators” and suggesting they have large families to displace Hindus.

During a campaign rally in Rajasthan, Modi, who leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, attacked the opposition Congress party, saying it would unfairly redistribute wealth in favour of Muslims.

“They [Congress] will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” Modi said. “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?”

The comments were widely condemned and were labelled “disgraceful” hate speech by Congress, which referred Modi to the electoral commission.

“In the history of India, no prime minister has lowered the dignity of his post as much as Modi has,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, a Congress MP and party president.

Modi has been accused of stoking religious intolerance during his decade in power, particularly over a law that grants citizenship to asylum seekers – except Muslims – from several neighbouring countries and over a controversial move to open a Hindu temple built on the ruins of an ancient mosque.

Adding to concerns about Modi’s approach to democratic rights, it emerged this week that the Indian government denied a visa extension to Avani Dias, an ABC reporter, due to her coverage of the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada last year. Canada accused India of involvement in the murder. Dias’s report, for ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program, was blocked on YouTube in India.

According to ABC News, lobbying by Canberra eventually prompted India to renew the visa for two months. Dias was informed hours before she was due to leave India and decided not to stay.

“The Narendra Modi government has made me feel so uncomfortable that we decided to leave,” she said on an ABC podcast.

India’s six-week election began on April 19. The results are due on June 4. Polls indicate Modi’s BJP will easily win.

Spotlight: Trump on trial

United States: In 2015, Donald Trump, his lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, and David Pecker, then publisher of the National Enquirer and various other supermarket checkout staples, met at Trump Tower in Manhattan to discuss – as Pecker put it – what his publications could do “to help the campaign”.

The meeting – described by prosecutors this week as the “Trump Tower conspiracy” – led to a plan in which the Enquirer would buy rights to stories that threatened to derail Trump’s presidential campaign and then not publish them – a practice known as “catch and kill”. Two such stories, which were apparently true, involved Trump’s affairs; another, apparently false, involved a claim he had a child outside his marriage.

On Tuesday, Pecker, the first witness in the former president’s first criminal trial, said he offered to Trump to be his “eyes and ears”.

“If I hear anything negative about yourself, or if I hear anything about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen as I did over the last several years,” he told the court, noting the plan was “highly, highly confidential”.

This arrangement, according to prosecutors, led to a US$130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to prevent her selling her story of an affair with Trump, who then falsified his business records to conceal the payment. Trump is charged with falsifying records to promote his election. His lawyers claim he did not break the law and acted only to improve his electoral prospects.

Trump sat in court, mostly calm, occasionally shaking his head at testimony or comments from the judge.

In March 2016, Trump received one of his only newspaper endorsements in the contest against Hillary Clinton – from the Enquirer, which gave its first endorsement in its 90-year-history. “Trump must be Prez!” the newspaper said on its front page, alongside a splash declaring Dr Phil to be a “vicious bully” and “raging monster!”.