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Former diplomat Hsiao Bi-khim formalises her run for vice president as the November 24 deadline for candidates looms.

Taiwan’s outspoken former envoy to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, has formally registered her candidacy for vice president and the running mate of William Lai in the island’s upcoming 2024 election.

Hsiao, 52, a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, served as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US from 2020 until her resignation this week.

Her tenure in Washington, DC coincided with renewed US interest in Taiwan thanks to its early battle with COVID-19 and an ongoing standoff with Beijing at a time when US-China relations were souring.

Hsiao, a self-described “cat warrior” who often poses with her felines, is also well-known for her active presence on social media platforms like X, where she has amassed 133,000 followers promoting the DPP’s pro-Taiwan stance.

“Back in Taiwan! Honored to join @ChingteLai on the ticket as VP for 2024. Tough road ahead expected as I shoulder a heavier burden. Taiwan’s democracy deserves our best efforts,” she posted on Tuesday.

Like Lai, the current vice president, Hsiao is despised by Beijing for her political stance on Taiwan and its relationship with China. In April, she was formally banned by Beijing from visiting China, Hong Kong and Macau after she accompanied President Tsai Ing-wen on her unofficial trip to the US.

Beijing claims Taipei as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its goal. The DPP says only the people of Taiwan can decide their island’s future.

Despite earning the ire of Beijing, Hsiao is popular with younger voters and seen as a breath of fresh air compared with some of her counterparts. Reflecting the surge in Taiwanese identity across the island and diaspora, Hsiao uses the Taiwanese pronunciation of her name instead of Mandarin, the dominant language in China.

The media boost to Lai’s presidential campaign comes with the opposition in apparent disarray just days away from the November 24 deadline for registration.

Last week, Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Hou You-ih and independent Taiwan People’s Party candidate Ko Wen-je appeared ready to upset the election by working together and posing the most formidable challenge yet to Lai, who has been polling ahead of both candidates.

Hsiao as Lai’s VP is a natural choice for the DPP:

1. After Tsai, she’s done more internationall for Taiwan’s hard and soft power than any other politician (arguably more than Lai)

2. She’s trusted in DC (arguably more than Lai)

3. Pan-green voters largely support her https://t.co/3bgsgUMJ7t

— Lev Nachman (@lnachman32) November 20, 2023

Within days, the plan was abandoned after the two parties could not agree on who would run for president following a disastrous attempt at internal polling. Both parties were forced to walk back on a deal that had been brokered by former President Ma Ying-jeou.

Ko, the former mayor of Taipei, is popular with Taiwanese voters who are tired of the island’s two-party dominated political system or want something new after eight years of the DPP.

Hou, a former policeman and mayor, offers the stability of the KMT, a party known for its better working relationship with Beijing, and remains popular with businesspeople and Taiwanese families who fled China in the 1940s.

Neither have indicated their choice of running mate yet.

Running in distant fourth place is independent Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of iPhone maker Foxconn, whose support has remained in the single digits.

The election is scheduled for January.

In a letter, some of OpenAI’s most senior staff members threatened to leave the company if the board was not replaced.

Hundreds of staff at leading artificial intelligence company OpenAI have threatened to quit and join Microsoft after the sudden firing of the company’s co-founder Sam Altman.

The OpenAI staff said they would follow Altman, who said he would be starting an artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary at Microsoft after his surprise removal from the company that created the ChatGPT chatbot, which led to the rapid rise in AI tech.

In a letter, some of OpenAI’s most senior staff members threatened to leave the company if the board was not replaced.

“The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed [co-founder and former president] Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company,” the letter, first released to the technology news outlet Wired, reads.

“Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI”.

“Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join.”

According to reports, as many as 500 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed the letter.

The company’s board sacked Altman on Friday after concerns that he was underestimating the dangers of its tech and leading the company away from its stated mission.

OpenAI appointed Emmett Shear, a former chief executive of Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch, as its new CEO, the third in as many days.

In a post on X announcing his appointment as interim CEO, Shear denied reports that Atlman’s sacking was due to safety concerns.

But Altman’s exit triggered the departures of other high-profile members of the company, as well as resulting in pushback from investors who asked that he be brought back.

However, OpenAI stood by its decision.

In a memo sent to employees on Sunday night, the company said, “Sam’s behavior and lack of transparency … undermined the board’s ability to effectively supervise the company,” the New York Times reported.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on X that Altman “will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team”, along with Open AI co-founder Brockman, who announced he would be leaving the company following Altman’s departure.

Nadella added that Microsoft was looking forward to working with OpenAI’s new team under Shear and that they remain “committed to our partnership with OpenAI”.

Later on Monday, Altman said on X that his and Nadella’s “top priority remains to ensure OpenAI continues to thrive”.

The tech giant Microsoft has invested more than $10bn in OpenAI and has rolled out the AI pioneer’s tech in its products.

Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, two local Calabrian mafia leaders, are both given 30-year sentences.

A court in Italy has convicted more than 230 defendants at the end of one of the country’s largest-ever mafia trials, which targeted the ‘Ndrangheta crime group in its heartland in the southern region of Calabria.

More than 330 suspected mobsters and their alleged associates, including white-collar professionals, had been facing an array of charges, such as extortion, drug trafficking and theft, in a trial that lasted almost three years.

It took judges just one hour and 40 minutes to read their verdict on Monday, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported. The heaviest penalties were handed to Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, two local Calabrian mafia leaders, both given 30-year sentences.

“Today’s ruling means a whole province of Calabria has been liberated from the top brass of the criminal group,” Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy’s best-known magistrates and a former lead prosecutor in the case, told Reuters.

Among those convicted was Giancarlo Pittelli, a lawyer and former politician with the Forza Italia party – a member of the national ruling coalition – who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for mafia collusion and passing on information.

Gratteri, who changed jobs two months ago to become chief prosecutor in Naples, said that confirming the connection between the ‘Ndrangheta and a network of professionals was a pivotal aspect of the verdict.

Giorgio Naselli, a former local police chief, was sentenced to two years and six months.

However, the prosecution did not secure as heavy sentences as it was seeking in a number of cases, and around 100 of those on trial were cleared.

Monday’s first-instance ruling can be appealed by both the defence and the prosecution.

The ‘Ndrangheta is considered by prosecutors to be Italy’s most powerful mafia group, easily eclipsing the more famous Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily, with its influence extending across Europe and beyond.

The trial was held in a converted call centre in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme, with metal cages installed for the defendants.

The last time Italy tried hundreds of alleged mafiosi simultaneously was in 1986 in Palermo in a case that represented a turning point in the fight against Cosa Nostra, marking the beginning of the group’s sharp decline.

That Sicilian trial had a huge impact because it targeted numerous mob families.

The Calabrian trial focused primarily on just one group – the Mancuso clan from the province of Vibo Valentia – leaving much of the ‘Ndrangheta’s top brass untouched.

Anna Sergi, a professor of criminology at the University of Essex, said the verdict confirmed the prosecutors’ reading of the ‘Ndrangheta structure in Vibo Valentia.

“Now it has its own specificity,” she said, underlining that under Italian law such first-instance rulings can be appealed twice before becoming final.

A further 70 defendants from the original trial had been found guilty in November 2021 after opting for a fast-track procedure in return for reductions in their sentences.

A group of 28 premature babies from Gaza have been evacuated from a hospital inside the besieged Palestinian enclave to Egypt to receive treatment, according to Egyptian television footage and a Palestinian hospital doctor.

“The babies arrived to me from al-Shifa Hospital. They were in a catastrophic condition when they got here,” said Dr Mohammad Salama, head of the neonatal unit at Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Medical staff on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing were seen on Monday carefully picking up babies from inside ambulances and placing them in mobile incubators, which were then wheeled across a car park towards other ambulances.

The babies, from a total of 31 who were moved on Sunday from the besieged al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to the maternity hospital in Rafah as a first step towards evacuation, wore only nappies and tiny green hats.

“The 28 babies have now safely arrived in Egypt. Three babies still remain at the Emirati Hospital and continue to receive treatment,” a World Health Organization spokesperson said in an emailed response to the Reuters news agency.

Asked about the babies’ conditions, he said: “All babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing healthcare.”

Singapore – Since the war erupted in Gaza, the tiny Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore has taken a stance of non-interference, reflecting a long-held foreign policy focused on being a “friend to all and enemy to none”.

At a special parliamentary session earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong explained that Singapore’s “longstanding support for a two-state solution remains unchanged”, in that Palestinian people have the right to a homeland and that Israel has the right to live within secure borders, he added.

Singapore “consistently takes a principled position” in line with international law and support of global peace and security, Wong stressed.

The country has come out strongly to condemn Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and some 200 taken captive, as “acts of terrorism”.

But it has also condemned the rising death toll in Gaza, with the foreign ministry saying on Friday that it was “deeply concerned” about the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave where more than 13,000 people have been killed since Israel’s bombardment began.

In late October, Singapore was among the 120 countries voting in favour of a resolution to protect civilians and uphold legal and humanitarian obligations during an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Singapore’s approach is “premised on the faithful observance of international law, especially the independence and sovereignty of nation-states,” said political analyst and Singapore Management University (SMU) associate law professor Eugene Tan.

Tan told Al Jazeera there was “no contradiction” in Singaporeans empathising with the plight of the Palestinians and taking the stance that the attacks on Israel cannot be justified.

At the same time, it is “also possible to support Israel’s right to defend itself and for Israel to avail itself of the use of force to protect its legitimate interests but also demand that Israel’s response must be consistent with the rules and requirements of public international law so that the safety, security and wellbeing of civilians are safeguarded,” he said.

“What the debate in parliament demonstrated is that Singaporeans can hold very strong views on the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East region and yet come to a consensus on how Singapore and Singaporeans should respond… In short, Singapore firmly believes that Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in peace, security and dignity.”

‘Generally risk averse’

Still, unlike many countries around the world, there have been no public protests in favour of either the Palestinians or Israel in Singapore.

Singapore – with a mostly ethnic Chinese population but also with a sizeable ethnic Malay-Muslim minority as well as ethnic Indians – has long prioritised preserving social cohesion and religious harmony.

The city-state came into being on August 9, 1965, after it separated from Malaysia, forming “the backdrop to Singapore’s commitment on the right to self-determination in accordance with international law”, said Tan.

Given “heightened sensitivities” surrounding the latest conflict, the Singapore government, which allows protests only by citizens and only in the  so-called “Speakers’ Corner” in the city centre, has argued that strong preemptive measures are necessary to manage the situation, citing the risk to public safety as well as security concerns.

Authorities rejected five applications to use the Speakers’ Corner for events related to the Israel-Hamas war in October, despite having allowed rallies during a previous war in 2014. It has also warned against the public display of foreign national emblems relating to the conflict and told people to be careful about supporting fundraising activities.

“My hunch is that the current situation is a lot more sensitive and emotive than in 2014, and it involves terrorist acts by Hamas,” Tan said. “I would say it is more a case of not importing foreign issues that will only create social divisions.”

Singaporean community organiser Zaris Azira was feeling helpless watching the news about Gaza on her phone, when she came across a video of thousands of Malaysians chanting for Palestine in their football stadium.

The 30-year-old felt motivated to do something more.

Azira applied for a permit to organise a rally at the Speakers’ Corner and found that “interest exploded”, with 740 people registering their interest to attend in less than a day. She also released a petition for Singaporeans to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, drafted in consultation with local political observer Walid J Abdullah. As of November 20, it had 26,280 signatures.

Expressing disappointment at the rejection of her application, Azira said she was not surprised, given Singapore is “generally quite risk-averse as a nation, and I understand the desire to avoid any situation that could potentially spiral out of hand”.

Singaporean activism has tended to the more subtle.

On social media, people have joined campaigns such as the #freewatermelontoday campaign or the #weargreenforpalestine movement.

An underground movement also emerged for people to show up at the Raffles Place MRT train station in green and say a prayer for Palestine, while others have taken pictures with a watermelon slice, which has become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.

“More and more, people want to show their solidarity with the people of Palestine, who are going through such unspeakable horrors on a daily basis. Singaporeans need an outlet to demonstrate safely, legally and powerfully,” Azira said.

Local journalist and activist Kirsten Han expressed similar views in her newsletter We The Citizens, arguing that clamping down on freedom of expression and assembly would affect Singaporeans’ ability to participate in nuanced and important conversations.

Calling the warnings and restrictions “infantilising”, she said: “We need civil society involvement, well-facilitated discussions, opportunities to educate ourselves and organise in non-violent ways for justice and human rights.”

Han added that the ability to be together in a physical space can “also be incredibly powerful in helping people process the devastation we’re seeing in the news every single day.”

In contrast, SMU’s Tan argues that the authorities’ move was prudent because of the potential for such actions to “detrimentally affect our hard-earned social cohesion and harmony”.

“Protests make for good social media posts and rabble-rousing but will not move the needle on the conflict,” he said.

Humanitarian assistance

In the absence of public protests, Singaporean civil society and faith communities have instead devoted their efforts to organising humanitarian aid for Gaza.

As of November 14, about 6 million Singapore dollars ($4.5m) have been donated by the public through the non-profit Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF). Elsewhere, disaster relief organisation Relief Singapore has put out an urgent call for blankets, receiving about 2,500 to date. The blankets will be sent to the Gaza Strip, where winter temperatures can drop as low as 13C (55.4F).

“While we are aware of the politics involved in the conflict, our focus is on the most pressing humanitarian needs,” said Relief Singapore director Jonathan How. “We know the vulnerable may die of cold as winter approaches in a city that looks more like an earthquake zone. We hope that more people will step up to lend their support in this crisis.”

Ultimately, in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Singapore has key national security priorities linked directly to stable relations with its closest neighbours, according to Arvind Rajanthran, an associate research fellow with the National Security Studies Programme at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.

Its next-door neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia have “Malay-Muslim majorities that frequently experience more politically charged atmospherics from the antagonism between the Israelis and Palestinians”, said Rajanthran. Both countries have seen large demonstrations in support of Gaza.

So, it was significant that at the 10th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat held on  October 30, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim agreed that their different diplomatic positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should not affect the bilateral relationship, Rajanthran pointed out.

Singapore’s “friend to all” approach to foreign policy appears to have allowed it to establish longstanding good relations with both Palestine and Israel.

The government has committed substantial technical assistance and support to the Palestinian Authority, which controls the occupied West Bank, over the years, and will continue to do so, Deputy Prime Minister Wong said in parliament.

Meanwhile, Israel helped build up the Singapore Armed Forces during Singapore’s early years and Singapore continues to cooperate closely with the country in many areas, including in science and technology, he said.

In his speech to parliament, Wong said regional internet traffic on hardline sites had increased threefold since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

“We have also observed an uptick in anti-Singapore rhetoric, including violent threats against Singapore by regional extremist elements online,” he said.

Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have also increased.

In October, police received eight reports of offensive remarks or actions targeted at Jewish or Muslim people in Singapore, Wong noted. This was equal to the total number of reports on anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim conduct that police received from January to September.

Being a small state, Singapore has “little choice” but to continue its policy of non-state interference, said political scientist Antonio Rappa, an associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).

To take the side of Israel would risk antagonising Singapore’s local Muslim community unnecessarily, while supporting Palestine would betray Israel – an “unwritten ally” of Singapore since the days of its founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, said Rappa, who is head of the security studies programme at SUSS’s business school.

Singapore has had close diplomatic ties with Israel since its independence in 1965, while Muslim-majority Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei have no formal diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.

On the strict controls taken by the government to clamp down on public rallies, Rappa explained that Singapore has been operating within a climate of fear for decades.

Pointing to the idea of a garrison state, Singapore still has a “fortress-like” mentality that persists today, especially as a Chinese-majority nation surrounded by larger mostly-Muslim countries, which might “create a certain degree of tension”.

“Still, it is not wise for us to bring in other people’s problems and import it into our country and create tensions within the population. We don’t want animosity and chaos created for Singapore,” he said.