 At the time of recording, the Libyan Red Crescent confirmed the death toll in the country is having crossed the 11,000 mark which at least one report saying it has reached up to 20,000. How has the so-called international community contributed to the magnitude of the latest tragedy being faced by the Libyan people? Texas and eight other states in the United States are suing the federal government to repeal a program granting some relief from deportation to thousands of undocumented migrants who arrived in the country as minors. What is the impact of the latest ruling by a federal judge in Texas on the lives of these unprotected migrants? And in about a month from now, New Zealanders will head to the polls to elect a new government. Can we expect the trend of coalition governments to continue as it has for the past decade or so? Assalam o alaikum, you are watching Daily Debrief coming to you as it always does from the People's Dispatch studios here in New Delhi. Before we go any further, this is an invitation to like and subscribe to the show and the YouTube channel. First up, the Secretary General of the Libyan chapter of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has confirmed that the death toll resulting from the damburst after Storm Daniel hit the country has risen above the 11,000 mark. The mayor of the eastern city of Derna where the impact has been the most devastating said the number could cross 20,000 given the number of neighborhoods wiped out by the 30 million cubic meters of water that have flooded the town. Fingers are being pointed at the lack of governance in Libya and how the conflict has impacted the upkeep of critical infrastructure. But much of Western media is studiously avoiding the role of the international intervention in Libya and what has brought us up to this point. Abdul is on the show today to address that critical question. Abdul if I can ask you first about the absolutely horrifying obviously humanitarian situation over 11,000 people reported killed after these two dams have burst. What are the reports you're getting if any and what are the complications in humanitarian aid efforts in the country at the moment? Well, the actual figures may go even higher. You see some of the estimates say that the number of people who are killed is estimated to be around 20,000 and more because nobody knows for sure because the overall system of governance in Libya is not up to the mark where it is exactly recorded how many people are living in the area, how many people are missing. So the reports keep on coming. Initially in the first few days there were reports that even the government claimed that around 2,000 to 5,000 people are missing or are feared dead. But as the days progress what we see every day the numbers are increasing huge number, huge number. So that is one. The second thing is if you see the construction which Verna and other the eastern Libyan cities are most of these localities are where when you notice the structures were built with mud walls the structures were not strong enough to hold the kind of force the water released when the water level rose primarily because of the bursting of the two dams and that has led to the destruction in the city not only near the coastal region but also to other smaller cities. So Verna is not the only city which is affected. There are other smaller cities in the area which are also affected and thousands of these people have been basically swept by the water into the sea while they were sleeping. So that is one. The second thing is the number of displaced that is really high around 30,000 people and we are talking about these big numbers when you should consider Libya is not a very big country the overall population is not big. So these numbers in proportion to the population are quite high. So around 30,000 and more people are displaced, 20,000 are feared dead and nobody exactly knows how many of them more bodies will discover in the near future. So yeah that is the overall situation and as far as the aid is concerned as I said before the Libyan government, the governments are not in a position to do the amount of relief and rescue work required and therefore they are hugely dependent on the international aid and international support. So regional countries of course are pitching in, Turkey is there, Egypt is there, Algeria is there and some of the Arab countries are also participating in it from the restation but Libya needs more international efforts to help the humanitarian situation. In general, Abdul also if we look at there are conversations happening in sections of the press regarding the upkeep of this kind of critical infrastructure and in the issues in Libya with maintaining such mega projects. The intervention US led NATO intervention in Libya has also played an important part in bringing us to the situation today if you could give us a bit of context regarding that aspect because it's largely being ignored in the mainstream press as to what has brought us to this point. Exactly, see most of the international press is talking about the quote unquote corruption in the Libyan government their susceptibility to fight war and so on and so forth completely ignoring the fact that Libya what is today is primarily because of what happened in 2011. The NATO led invasion, the arrogant attempts by the US and its allies to basically remove Gaddafi from power led to a situation where the factions in the Libya started fighting among each other and that the war has not there is no attempt made serious attempt made to kind of resolve the conflict in Libya which was created by the international intervention. So if you see and in fact they were aided all these war infections have been provided aid and other kind of support to basically continue fighting. So that is one reason that Libya which was once a very in terms of maintaining infrastructure in terms of overall economic performance in terms of having a very responsive state system was functioning state and one of the best performing states in terms in Africa at least. So what happened that led to this state where the rich country by the way which has enough resources to maintain the small population it has in a very favorable population ratio it has despite that it is not able to do it primarily because there are two governments in Libya and Libya has been fighting the Libyans have been fighting against each other ever since the international players have started intervening into it. So the war in Libya which has created this pressure on the government and the world governance has failed because the focus is not on governance but on war and other aspects is primarily because the international intervention which was done by them and therefore this putting blame on the Libyans is basically it shows the hypocrisy with which the usually the international players try to wash away their hands whenever there is something at this level happens and blames the victims not trying to even trying to acknowledge their role in creating this particular mess. So if Libya had a functioning government the kind of destruction we are seeing there on the ground would not have been as at least at least it could have been avoidable to some to a large extent. Alright Abdullah we leave it there for today thanks very much for that update and of course we'll have you back on for more updates of course as news comes in and as this crisis unfolds. Next up federal judge Andrew Hannon a republican political appointee in Texas on Wednesday the 13th of September ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Programme a federal government policy that prevents the deportation of undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as minors is illegal. The group is popularly referred to as dreamers and supporters of the program argue that it protects the rights of those who had no say in the matter when they entered the United States. The order does not require the federal government to take action against those who are currently registered or receiving protection under the program but it does prevent the government from registering any new applications. Texas and eight other states are suing the government to repeal the program. Anish is with us for details. Anish, good to have you back on the show. The first of two stories we're talking about is I suppose a fresh attack on the rights or at least regulations around immigrants in the United States. Tell us what exactly the judge has ruled and how this impacts thousands of children who are seeking some kind of protection and relief from deportation and other such punitive sort of efforts by the American state. Yes, so the judge has ruled that basically the executive as the president does not have the powers to create what are effectively legislations by passing the Congress. So it basically ruled that the continued renewal of the DSEA goes against the sort of, you know, very, very nervous concept of the separation of powers of the state. As well as we talk about, you know, the separation of powers being in the United States, which would seem very clear cut in many cases, including in cases like this. It's not very clear how, you know, how the legal network, because we are talking about a 250 year old constitution that has barely been changed. That aside, this ruling itself comes from a very politically motivated judgment, because a obviously it hinges on this whole nebulous concept of separation of powers, because but the executive might as well argue the fact that they did not really legislate, they just continued an existing program. Which the judgment then goes around to say that it also goes against certain immigration laws in the country at the moment. So whether or not certain regulations or certain protections can be afforded by the executive is something that has been thrown out of the window. There is no question, like there is no question being asked on that front. So it's like on a judicial or legal perspective, it's not very, it's still a very contested, it's still based on very contested crops. On the other hand, you have, you know, issues going to come around for about 560, 570,000 or so enrollees, many of whom are going to be in limbo. Although most of them might be still considered for the program because the court allows for the program to continue to be rolled out for people who applied before July 21, which was when the court first ruled it as a legal. So it is something we need to see how many of them will be still affected. Many of them may not be children, but they did come to the United States as minors and they definitely requires. Because many of them are very young adults and many of them are, you know, maybe even unaccompanied minors. So they still require a certain level of persistence to continue in the United States or the same deportation. Anish, you alluded to the kind of political environment surrounding this judgment. Give us a bit more on that front. This is of course a judge that was appointed by the Republican administration under Donald Trump, if I'm not wrong. And we are sort of in very much in the middle of an election cycle in the United States. So leading up to 2024, can this be looked at as part of the Republican agenda, the Republican push to regain the presidency? I mean, very definitely so. Because at this current point, the Republicans, especially the Southern Republicans have definitely doubled down on their anti-immigration. And the foreigners kind of stand that they have pretty much settled during the Trump era and even before that actually. So this obviously the case was even initiated by Republicans, began with Republican state administrations. Many of them who claim to have been suffering quote, quote, from, you know, the sort of undocumented presence of undocumented immigrants. Even though there is, you know, many of their claims are not with any kind of substantial. Exactly. And it becomes a big problem because a large part of the problem is the fact that the Democrats have very often missed the window when it comes to actually, you know, institutionalizing several of these, you know, very vaguely created protections and this includes the DACA. And that is something that Democrats have to also answer for. The fact that it is not that they never had any kind of triple majority, including holding the presidency before, but it's just that they have always found excuses to actually do anything that will be substantial and would actually, you know, prevent them from appeasing some of the right-wing talking points at some level in time. And that is something that we see currently as well. We do not see that level of commitment from the Democrats. And so obviously Republicans are taking significant, you know, benefit from such uncertainty from the opposite. Alright Anish, thanks very much for that update and we'll be back with you in just a minute to talk about the upcoming elections in New Zealand. As I was just saying, in a month from now, New Zealand will elect a new government and give an opinion pose at this early stage as well as a strong anti-incumbency sentiment in the country. It's likely that neither of the two major political parties, that's of course Labour and the Conservatives, will gain a majority. Anish is still with us, so let's go over to him for a quick rundown on the political scenario in New Zealand. Anish, for those of us who are perhaps unfamiliar with the workings of New Zealand governance and electoral politics, if you can as broadly as possible give us an overview of the situation in the country and what do we expect from the upcoming elections? Yes, so it is going to be very interesting for New Zealand because they always have to essentially boil down to a coalition government for the past decade, more than a decade actually. Ever since they established the current proportional vote system which gives basically more or less equal, I do not want to get into the details of it, but it basically gives more or less equivalent seats that parties have gained from their votes and based on their vote share, and that is pretty much how things were in many ways. And this is going to be a very close election. We are already seeing the level of being quite behind the National Party, which is the Conservative and right wing group, which leaves the opposition right now, and have also founded, had governments before definitely, but pretty much have taken advantage of a lot of failings of the current Labour government, primarily on its inability to pretty much bring down or contain the cost of living crisis, and on top of that the success of Labour government's inability or failure actually to contain the rent crisis or the housing crisis in New Zealand, which has been going on for nearly a decade right now. And these factors are definitely going to make a big dent in how the Labour is going to perform, but nevertheless, opinion pollings as we are still a month away, opinion polls have been proven wrong and obviously the system as it was, the electoral system also gives up quite a bit of surprises. So we need to wait and see how that works out. We also need to be mindful of the current set of labour mobilisation that are happening in New Zealand, which is something that the Labour is not dealing very well right now with. We have recently reported on medical workers, we have reported on public service workers over the past several months, this year alone, and multiple strike actions, industrial actions happening, and that pretty much puts significant pressure on current Labour government to address a major part of their constituency to begin with, and also thousands and thousands of voters which make a big difference in the final election, electoral results. And we need to wait and see how Labour is going to make this happen in just one month in the current election cycle. Alright, thanks very much Anish. And we will of course be tracking that election in months time on Daily Debrief and of course elsewhere on People's Dispatch. We'll leave it there for today. Thanks for joining us. That's all we have on this episode of Daily Debrief. As always, we invite you to head to our website peoplesdispatch.org for details on these stories and all of the other work we do around the world. Also, don't forget to subscribe or like or follow us on the social media platforms of your choice, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Debrief. Same time, same place. Until then, thank you for watching. Stay safe. Goodbye.