 Sixty years after Martin Luther King's famous March to Washington, the scourge of racism continues to haunt the United States. Three people were recently killed in another racially motivated mass shooting in the country. What led to this disaster? Chip billionaire Terry Gaw says he'll contest Taiwan's upcoming presidential election. How do we understand this coming poll? And Haitians have explicitly rejected attempts by Kenya and other countries to send an armed force supposedly to bring about stability. Why are they opposing this strategy? This is the Daily Debrief. These are our stories for the day. And before we go any further, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. He unfolded in the United States on Saturday, August 26 as another mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida killed three people. The killer, a 21-year-old white man, went on a rampage at a retail chain store. He's reported to have acted on racially motivated hatred. The shooting coincides with nationwide commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. It brings back attention to widespread hate crimes and anti-black violence in the US. We'll talk to Anish about what happened and the implications. Anish, thanks for joining us. Now, Anish, the Jacksonville killings, another racially motivated crime. It's very obvious from the news reports and even some people in government in the United States have referred to the racial motivation behind the crime. Can you walk us through exactly what we know so far about this crime? Well, what we know right now is about the fact that there is no doubt about the fact that this was a racially motivated crime, not just because of the fact that the three victims that were killed were African Americans or black, but also the prior history of this young man who actually did oppose a lot of anti-black hate, hateful comments and opposed in social media accounts in the past. And there's also now some reports talking about how he was also previously institutionalized for being mentally unstable. But that aside, the fact that there is very clear motivation, because if you look at some of the gruesome details of the incident itself, the fact that he let non-black sleep, the knowledge that he attacked in Jacksonville and that he attacked in a dominantly African American neighborhood and very close to a historically black university clearly shows that the motivation was, and he also even said, like there are accounts saying that he actually said that he wanted to kill black people. So these are like as triggering the details are, it's very clear. And that is the reason why at this point you do not have anybody disputing no matter who they are across the political lines. You actually have people having to admit the fact that this was a racially motivated crime, unlike in previous incidents where you have had mass killings, mass shootings happening against certain minority and very often the police keeping details vague, because they do not have a very clear cut reason being given by the perpetrator himself. So that is not being seen right now. But nevertheless, as much as debates will continue on creating restrictions on gun ownership, because the fact that he actually bought the weapon legally is something that has been highlighted as well. There will be a national debate about the state of how race relations are functioning in the United States right now on screen at a time when you are going to face a very polarized election season in the next few months. So this is definitely going to concern everybody and also like we also need to remember this is a time of like great importance for black history. We're talking about the 60th anniversary of the march on Washington, a major milestone in civil rights movement. And he, him actually taking that day on Saturday, which when the commemoration began for the 60th anniversary clearly shows there is a very pointed intent from this young man. And that is just a symptomatic of a larger racism problem and institutional violence that we're seeing in the US that does not get as often reported as it should be at the moment. Yes, Anishin. And obviously there's not going to be a trial in this case because the shooter has shot himself after he killed those three people in Jacksonville, right? Yes, there would be a trial at the moment obviously, but there will be a proper investigation on that. And that's interesting because there are sort of conflicting reports coming out about his priors. There's no criminal record, but there's some sort of a detention he underwent, perhaps to check for his state of his mental health, etc. Now, isn't this actually what happens whenever there is a racially oriented crime or whenever there's a mass shooting, you know, there are attempts to sort of show that this is an isolated incident, one person did it, maybe a troubled individual. You know, does this say something about the pattern we've seen of racial crimes in the United States? Like one of the things that we need to point out, like obvious patterns are being sidelined even right now when the sheriff gave a detailed account of the incident of sheriff in Jacksonville. He actually tried to say that it was an abnormal activity, it was not something normal and that it was not something common. It shouldn't be, it was a senseless act of violence, but it was not really senseless in that sense. It was something of very targeted violence of this kind is not really senseless. It's a very clear, it came with a very clear intent and that cannot be just brushed aside with prior history of mental health. And that is something that should be taken into consideration. But on top of that, we also need to talk about the larger pattern of racial violence in the United States because mass shootings are one of the things and not just racial violence, we're talking about hate crimes in general, and mass shootings are just one of them. It is, we also need to look at attacks on individuals, physical violence, many of which do not actually lead to death, but obviously leads to, you know, injury. Many of the times properties are attacked, churches are attacked, burnt down. And we're talking about Florida, which is, and Jacksonville especially, which has recently seemed very heated debate on the Confederate legacy of the state, the Confederates being, you know, the pro-slavery, you know, partisans during the US Civil War. And so a lot of the monuments, statues, memorials named after Confederate generals and leaders are being questioned by, you know, anti-racist movements, and also the Black residents of the region who want that history to be taken down and to be put into, you know, the response of history where it actually belongs. And this has also led to, you know, a range of very problematic rhetoric from the mainstream media, obviously, but also from the political leaders in the region and complete silence from some of the, you know, non-republican, but non-right wing leaders and politicians, especially from the Democratic Party, who have not made much of it. And there is obviously, we need to talk about the fact that, you know, like this is something that should be added, that hate crimes, we do not have a comprehensive report, a current comprehensive report of hate crimes in the US, because the US government is kind of slow. The latest that we have is of 2021, where already the US State Department actually talked about, sorry, the US Justice Department talked about how there was a massive increase of about 11% in the number of hate crimes, most of the hate crimes being, nearly 2-thirds of them being racially motivated, a large number of them targeted at black people. And so this is a general tendency and all of these people, the perpetrators are not really mentally unstable, they are not lone wolves, they are not, you know, these are not isolated incidents, they are thousands of cases in a year, which are not taken into account. And this is on top of institutional violence, police violence, police killings that run up to, like, nearly a thousand every year, thousands of, more than a thousand people are killed every year by police violence, and that is also some, much of that is obviously also racially motivated in some way or the other. So these are factors that are not really taken into account, and this actually fits the pattern and create and gives you a proper picture of what the situation is right now. And this violence obviously also extends to what we have seen recently on queer people, especially trans people and the anti-trans hate very recently. And obviously, legislation, set of legislations have come where voting rights are restricted for black people under various pretenses and also for sort of queer people. And this creates a situation where such hate will create such symptoms of, you know, in terms of like a certain lone wolf creating. So this is, you know, part of the problem that needs to be seen as a part of the problem. Overlooking that is obviously going to just create new circumstances in the next several years. Right, Anish. Thanks a lot for joining us with that. And I think we'll be back with you in just a short while. In Taiwan, Foxconn founder and billionaire Terry Gao has declared his intent to stand for the upcoming presidential election with general elections less than six months away. Gao's candidacy could complicate the race to the presidency on the disputed island territory. Relations between China and the self-governing island have been tense over the openly anti-China policies and encouraged strong military ties with the United States under the current administration. Let's return to Anish about the domestic and geopolitical implications of Gao's candidacy. Anish, welcome back now. Anish, the Taiwanese candidate for president, a billionaire, a chip maker. Can you walk us through what else we can expect during this election when it comes up in a few months? Well, the election season has pretty much started. Like this is pretty much starting this situation. We already have nominations from the three major parties and right now Terry Gao putting himself in the race actually just complicates the matter a lot. Some of the key issues like if you're looking at, and if you look at Terry Gao's campaign platform, it also highlights some of the key issues that other candidates are also highlighting at the moment. One, obviously being the ongoing chip war, the tech war between the US and China, and obviously Taiwan being a casualty at this point. Because if you look at the fact that there is a kind of virtual hegemony, a global dominance that Taiwan holds when it comes to chip production, more than half of chips are produced in Taiwan alone. And that definitely is going to change in the ongoing chip war because the US wants to quote unquote diversify the production and supply chains. And that includes taking away a lot of chip making capabilities and production out of Taiwan to places that are also close to the United States. And that includes, say, South Korea, Japan, India, perhaps, or Indonesia and Thailand. And so a whole lot of other places. So these are some of the this is like one of the major because it's a major part of the economy sector that cannot be overlooked. And obviously, it is also one of the biggest employers. If you look at different sectors and compare them, chip making is one of the biggest employers in the country. So taking that away, undermining that has always been a contentious issue among the Taiwanese bourgeois, if you're looking at that. And then there is obviously the question of the cross-strait relations, the relations with people's republics of China, which has been a well, calling it dense is kind of a mild thing because we are already looking at, you know, military drills, war drills being done across the states by both sides, Taiwan actually involving a whole multitude of other countries, especially the US, but also countries like Japan into the mix and making it far more complicated. Tense relations have already seen, you know, a lot of confrontations in the region that could have been avoided, that was not necessary, but it creates provocations. And that has also been very widely criticized by a large section of Taiwanese people. And, you know, this is something that has always been at the forefront of the current campaign. Like the campaign season hasn't technically begun, but it is there. It's already there. We are already seeing sort of campaign debates, you know, discourses happening all over the place. So this is something that is going to happen for the next six months, and the tempo will only keep rising. So Anish, also is China going to be sort of a factor in this election in Taiwan? Is that what this is all about? I mean, definitely, because even in the last general election, China was at the center of tension, and we can expect no less in the current election as well. We have, obviously, the DPP, the Democratic People's Party of the current administration that leads the so-called Pan-Green Alliance has been encouraging processioners. Like they want a separate Taiwanese identity. People often forget that Taiwan, as it runs right now, pretty much runs under the name of Republic of China, a run state from the Civil War era. And it also claims the entirety of China as itself. So it's already dispute both ways. But this is something like actually looking for an independent identity as Taiwan is going to mean that it wants to succeed from the entire Chinese mainland and also Chinese identity itself. And that is something that is going to be, you know, a problem in the future, especially with China. In the other hand, that is something that is clearly opposed by the rest of the three candidates, not just the Kuomintang candidate, but also the People's Party and, obviously, Derigo, because they feel that this will actually be means war. And that can be a bigger problem for Taiwanese people than, you know, any call for purification or reunification of the two countries. So this is something that they want status quo to be maintained. They do not want more provocations. They want peace because it has affected business. It has affected livelihoods. And it has obviously affected stability in the region. And that is pretty much that is the reason why China becomes the center of attention here, rather than just what whether or not a deal with China. Right, Anish. Thanks a lot for joining us with that. Recently, a Kenyan mission visited Haiti to examine the possibility of a multinational police force in the country. The mission was condemned by Haitians, but Kenya's announcement that it is ready to actually send 1,000 police officers to, as it says, train and assist Haiti police has drawn anger from people's movements and locals alike. Why do Haitians not want any such force in their country where criminal gangs have wreaked havoc in many parts? Prashant joins us with the all important context. Prashant, thanks for joining us. Now, Prashant, can you begin by telling us why is it that Kenya's insisting on sending its police force to Haiti? What is the reason? Right. So, Pragya, I think we need to understand this in the context of what has been a months-long process involving many countries led by the United States, led by some of its allies, including Canada, to somehow pose a military or armed solution to the crisis in Haiti. Now, we know that Haiti has been undergoing a particular crisis. There's been a massive spike in gang violence over the past many months. A gang is, in fact, taking over many parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as other parts of the territory, number of deaths taking place, all kinds of violence rampant in security across the island. And in the face of these issues, what the international community, what is called the core group, the international community has suggested, is that there should be some kind of a military, a global military intervention to bring about security to the country. Now, the people of Haiti are quite unhappy with this. We'll come to that why. But this solution basically involves somebody taking a lead sending soldiers. And now for the longest time, there was no country which was actually willing to take this lead. And finally, Kenya has now volunteered to kind of lead this force. It has said that it will be a thousand-strong police force. Now, Kenya says that this is not meant to just provide security. We are not here to replace anybody, etc., etc. But there's a lot of skepticism about the effectiveness of this Kenyan police strategy. So it was this mission that came to visit Haiti in the, I believe, about last week, they were here for, they were in Haiti for about three days or so. And there was, you know, there was a lot of discussion with diplomats, with the government, the de facto government of Ariyal Henry, police force of Haiti, etc. So that's really what's basically being discussed right now. But like I said, a very extremely unpopular move among the people in Haiti. Right, Prashanta. Ariyal Henry seems okay with the plan, it seems. But people are not happy. Can you explain what's happening here? Right. I think, see, we need to also have an analysis of what the reason for the problem in Haiti is. And Haitian people's movements have been pointing out that it is the de facto government of Ariyal Henry itself, which is at the root of a lot of the problems that are taking place. It is the decades of foreign intervention, including the UN-led intervention, which is there for over a decade in the early 2000s, which is responsible for a lot of the issues faced by the people of Haiti today. It is decades of imperialist intervention where people's governments were overthrown continuously and dictatorial regimes or client regimes imposed, which is the reason for the crisis Haiti faces today. And which is why the people of Haiti are saying that asking the international community, you have explicitly caused this crisis for decades and now you are suggesting exactly the same solutions as a response to this crisis, which is why the people are so furious. So the people's movements approach to this issue is that offer a solidarity in a particular kind of way. People's movements across Latin America, for instance, have offered solidarity to Haiti in various ways in terms of capacity building, for instance. But let us solve the problems that we face on our own. We do not need outside external armed help or external military help. We do not need that kind of help. Let us face the problems. Let us solve the problems we face on our own. And we are already doing that right now. They're talking about various movements that are kind of emerging as well. So that is the solution that the people of Haiti are offering to this crisis, but clearly that is not the solution that the international community wants to listen to or the international community is interested in dealing with because they have a very narrow approach where they think that they will send in their soldiers again in a repeat of what was done before and try to secure it. And I think one of the Haitian people's movements leaders in an interview pointed out very well. He said that basically the aim of this entire exercise is to create a false sense of security and conduct a so-called election so that the de facto government, which is of Oriol Henry or associates or whoever the West or the Northern and the richer countries choose is basically granted legitimacy to control ruling Haiti. That really is the strategy is what other people's movements are saying that the point of this entire exercise is just to create another client government which will continue exactly these same problems. So that is why the people of Haiti are very strongly opposing this move. Very important to note Haiti's history of course of both fighting back against colonialism of suffering for fighting back against colonialism both very important. So I think very important continue to watch out for. All right Prashant, thanks very much for joining us. And that's all on Daily DB. Today we'll see you again tomorrow. We have more detailed stories and updates on people's dispatcher to RG. Remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Don't forget to subscribe before you leave. And thanks again for watching.