CHARLESTON, United States: Donald Trump and Nikki Haley go head-to-head Saturday in South Carolina’s Republican primary, with the ex-president expected to trounce his former charge in her home state as he closes in on the nomination.
Haley was a popular governor of the Palmetto State for six years before becoming Trump’s UN ambassador in 2017, but her old boss is backed by the party establishment and nearly two-thirds of voters in opinion polling.
The candidates largely swapped only glancing blows in the early nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire in January, but the rhetorical artillery fire has intensified since the primary narrowed into a two-horse race.
“Tomorrow you will cast one of the most important votes of your entire life and — honestly — we’re not very worried about tomorrow,” a nonchalant Trump told an election-eve rally in the city of Rock Hill.
Seeking to demonstrate that he was already looking beyond Haley, he vowed to show President Joe Biden and the Democrats “that we are coming like a freight train in November,” when the general election will be held.
South Carolinians do not have to indicate party allegiance when they register to vote, and are allowed to have their say in either the Democratic or the Republican primary.
Haley — a more traditional conservative who espouses limited government and a muscular foreign policy — will rely on votes from moderates, although the tactic did little for her as she lost to Trump in each of the first four nominating contests.
Voters interviewed by AFP in South Carolina capital Columbia on Thursday were complimentary about both candidates, although one voter felt Haley wasn’t ready for the highest office and another criticized Trump for being “divisive.”
“He’ll go after people that don’t agree with him. Being a Christian, I don’t feel good about that,” said financial adviser and Haley voter David Gilliam, 55.
The primary comes amid signs that the frontrunner — who faces four criminal indictments — is tightening his hold over the party as he pushes for a reshuffle to install family members and allies at the top of the Republican National Committee .
His daughter-in-law Lara Trump has promised to spend “every single penny” of party funds on his presidential campaign should she become an RNC cochair, and has argued that paying his legal bills is of “big interest” to Republican voters.
Haley has sought to focus on the “chaos” that she says follows Trump, pointing to $8 million in campaign donations he spent on legal fees in January and predicting that his total outlay on court cases this year could top $100 million.
“He has turned his presidential campaign into a legal defense slush fund and will not have the resources or focus to go up against Joe Biden and the Democrats,” said Haley national spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas.
In common with Democrats, Haley has also been hitting Trump over his outlook on the international stage and oft-voiced admiration for the leaders of the world’s most authoritarian regimes.
She has blasted Trump’s reaction to the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny — in which he avoided criticism of President Vladimir Putin — and his threat to encourage Moscow to attack NATO nations that had not met their financial obligations.
But Haley’s central argument for months has been that polling shows her performing better than Trump in hypothetical matchups with Biden.
She has vowed to compete in the Republican primary through “Super Tuesday” — when multiple states vote on March 5 — regardless of what happens in South Carolina on Saturday.
Reproductive rights are likely to figure prominently in the election, with Trump avoiding taking a clear position on proposals for a nationwide abortion ban after appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped gut federal protections.
A wrinkle was added when Alabama’s supreme court ruled last week that frozen embryos can be considered children, signaling a new front in the debate and posing questions for in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics.
Trump — keenly aware the Alabama decision risks alienating moderate and women voters — voiced support Friday for preserving access to IVF programs, calling on the state’s legislature to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to ensure it remained available.
Donald Trump vows to crush Nikki Haley as Republican race heads south
https://arab.news/mp857
Donald Trump vows to crush Nikki Haley as Republican race heads south
- The candidates largely swapped only glancing blows in the early nominating contests
- Primary comes amid signs that the former US president is tightening his hold over the party
Russian tycoon Deripaska calls latest US sanctions ‘balderdash’
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Deripaska has been sanctioned by Britain for his alleged ties to Putin
FRANKFURT: Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska dismissed the latest US sanctions on a series of companies that the US Treasury said were connected to a scheme to evade sanctions and unlock frozen shares as nonsense.
“This balderdash isn’t worth the time,” Deripaska said by message via a spokesperson in response a Reuters request for comment about the latest US sanctions.
“While the horrific war in Europe claims hundreds of thousands of lives every year, politicians continue to engage in their dirty games. I strongly believe that we need to do everything we can to establish peace, not serve the interests of warmongers,” he said.
The US Treasury on Tuesday announced it had sanctioned a web of Russian companies it said were being used to disguise ownership of a $1.6 billion industrial stake controlled by Deripaska.
Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International was planning to buy the stake and dropped the transaction following mounting US pressure to abort the bid.
In its sanctions announcement, the US Treasury alleged it was an “attempted sanctions evasion scheme” to unfreeze a stake using “an opaque and complex supposed divestment.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Deripaska has been sanctioned by Britain for his alleged ties to Putin. He has mounted a legal challenge against the sanctions which he says are based on false information and ride roughshod over the basic principles of law and justice.
Deripaska, who made his fortune by buying up stakes in aluminum factories has also been subjected to sanctions by the United States, which in 2018 took measures against him and other influential Russians.
Those sanctions were “groundless, ridiculous and absurd,” Deripaska has previously said.
Outrage grows in India after Israel kills Indian army veteran
- Col. Waibhav Anil Kale was working for the UN Department of Safety and Security
- More than 190 UN staff killed since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza
NEW DELHI: The killing of an Indian army veteran serving as a UN staffer in Gaza has stirred outrage in India and prompted calls for the government to hold Israel accountable.
Col. Waibhav Anil Kale was on duty with the UN Department of Safety and Security when his UN-marked vehicle was targeted in southern Gaza on Monday.
A former peacekeeper, he was hit on the way to the European Hospital in Rafah by what the UN said it had no doubt was Israeli tank fire.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on Wednesday in response, saying it was “deeply saddened by the death” and that it was “in touch with relevant authorities” regarding an investigation into the incident.
The statement did not contain condemnation, unlike in July 2022, when two Indian peacekeepers were killed in an attack on a UN Organization Stabilization Mission base in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
At that time, India’s foreign minister said the perpetrators “must be held accountable and brought to justice” and convened a special meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the attack.
Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told Arab News on Thursday that the government’s response was “grossly inadequate” given it was a “calculated killing” of an Indian army officer and UN staffer.
“The Indian government can hold Israel accountable. India is a sponsor of a resolution related to the protection of the UN personnel,” he said.
“This particular killing of a UN officer is a targeted killing because it was very obvious to Israelis that this was a UN vehicle, and it was on an official UN mission. A tank deliberately targeted this vehicle.”
New Delhi has always been sensitive to assaults on UN personnel given that it is one of the largest contributors of the organization’s peacekeepers.
The reaction to Kale’s killing was insufficient, according to Kavita Krishnan, a women’s rights activist.
“If a person is a UN employee, he is entitled to protection,” she said.
“The Indian government should specifically hold Israel accountable for this killing. They cannot treat it just as a casualty of war or collateral damage.”
Israel’s deadly siege and bombardment of Gaza has since October killed over 35,000 people, wounded 70,000, and left most of the enclave’s population starving and with no access to medical, food and water supplies.
The UN estimates that more than 190 of its staff members have also been killed in the ongoing onslaught. Kale was the first international UN employee to be killed.
“It’s condemnable that India does not name the fact of assassination. It’s not death. He did not die of illness. He was killed by Israel,” said Apoorvanand Jha, a public intellectual and professor at the University of Delhi.
“Israel kills people who are involved in the health services … kills journalists, aid workers and kills workers involved in the peacekeeping forces. So, it does it knowingly. It is not a collateral damage. Israel does it knowingly — this is what has been recorded many times. Israel needs to be held accountable for all the individual crimes of assassinations and the collective crimes, mass deaths.”
The killing of UN personnel goes against international humanitarian law.
“New Delhi should tell Tel Aviv that it should respect international law,” said Anwar Sadat, senior assistant professor at the Indian Society of International Law.
“The Indian government should issue a diplomatic demarche to the Israeli government.”
The government’s reaction was also seen as not boding well for the safety of Indian workers whom New Delhi has agreed to send to Israel.
Since the beginning of its invasion of Gaza, Israel has revoked work permits for tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers and sought to facilitate their replacement with manpower from South Asia.
In November, the Indian government signed a three-year agreement with Tel Aviv on the “temporary employment” of workers in the construction and caregiving sector.
“If this is the statement that the Indian government can bring for an official who works with the UN, imagine what if it happens with any of the workers. No one is going to speak,” said N. Sai Balaji, assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“This seriously compromises India’s super-power ambitions; it seriously compromises India’s own foreign policy.”
Mosque attack in Nigeria leaves 8 people dead, as police say the motive was a family dispute
- Four children were among the injured worshippers
- The incident caused panic in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest state, where periodic religion-related unrest has occurred over the years
ABUJA: At least eight worshippers were killed and 16 others injured early Wednesday morning after a man attacked a mosque with a locally made explosive in northern Nigeria’s Kano state, resulting in a fire outbreak, the police said.
The suspect, a 38-year-old local resident, confessed that he attacked the mosque in Kano’s remote Gadan village “purely in hostility following (a) prolonged family disagreement,” police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said in a statement on Wednesday.
Eight of those injured died later in a hospital, Haruna later told local Channels Television on Thursday. Four children were among the injured worshippers, although it was not clear if any of the children died.
The incident caused panic in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest state, where periodic religion-related unrest has occurred over the years, sometimes resulting in violence.
The suspect invaded the mosque with “a locally prepared bomb and exploded it,” local police chief Umar Sanda told reporters. “It has nothing to do with terrorism.”
Footage broadcast by the local TVC station showed charred walls and burned furniture in the mosque, the main place of worship for Gadan village in Muslim-dominated Kano state.
Local media also reported the worshippers were locked inside the mosque, making it difficult for them to escape.
“Some children ran for their lives with fire all over them. We had to put water to quench it,” Hussaini Adamu, a resident, told TVC.
The police cordoned off the scene while the injured were rushed to a hospital in the state capital.
“The disagreement (was) over sharing of inheritance of which those that (the attacker) alleged to have cheated on him were in the mosque at that moment and he did that for his voice to be heard,” the police statement said.
What to expect as new, guitar-playing PM takes helm in Singapore
- Lawrence Wong went viral for his guitar cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ in March
- Best chapters of our Singapore story lie ahead, new PM said in inaugural speech
SINGAPORE: As Singapore gets a new prime minister for the first time in 20 years, experts have told Arab News what to expect from the city-state’s fourth leader, Lawrence Wong, who came to the fore with his handling of the successful COVID-19 response.
Wong was inaugurated on Wednesday evening, taking over the reins from Lee Hsien Loong, son of the founding father of modern Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.
The 51-year-old began his career as an economist at the trade ministry with a US educational background, before moving up to occupy some of the biggest jobs in Singapore’s bureaucracy, including the Energy Market Authority and Lee’s principal private secretary.
The civil servant-turned-politician was catapulted into the spotlight in 2020, when he coordinated Singapore’s successful fight against COVID-19. He has also garnered public support by showcasing his guitar skills online, including a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” that went viral in March.
“Lawrence Wong has been in charge with the COVID-19 pandemic, and he did very well. Singapore did very well by and large; that was something that the international community noticed,” said James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the Nanyang Technological University.
Compared with Lee, Wong will still have to work on his global exposure, but should be able to capitalize on the enduring image of Singapore’s “serious stability,” Dorsey added.
“As we watch the process of build-up toward the transition, we will have greater confidence in Lawrence Wong. And simply the confidence in the way Singapore does things, working in Wong’s favor.”
Southeast Asia analyst Adib Zalkapli is expecting Wong to continue the policies of his predecessor, who oversaw the country’s economic growth into an international financial hub and top tourist destination, more than doubling the island’s gross domestic product per capita.
“It’s a well-planned change of leadership that will ensure continuity. We are unlikely to see major policy changes in the short to medium term,” he told Arab News, adding that the same approach will likely apply on matters related to foreign policy.
Bridget Welsh, an honorary research associate at the Asia Research Institute in the University of Nottingham Malaysia, is also expecting continuity.
“Essentially status quo. Arguably, there will be more engagement, as issues remain complex in the region, and the new leadership will want to establish or deepen his own personal ties in the region,” Welsh said.
But so far, little is known about the policies Wong is likely to adopt, said Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.
“Lawrence Wong has said that he will bring continuity, make tough decisions, and is pro-Singapore. What these mean in practice is not yet known. Wong has not so far stated what his policy direction and vision is, why it is important, and why Singaporeans need to support it,” he said.
The new prime minister arrives at a particularly challenging time in geopolitics, a departure from a period of “stable external environment” that worked in Singapore’s favor.
“Intensifying US-PRC (People’s Republic of China) competition, internal circulation, on-shoring, friend-shoring, trade barriers, as well as data and technology in all the developed economies challenge Singapore’s business model,” Chong said.
“Wong has yet to articulate a plan on how he intends to deal with these challenges, even though he concedes their seriousness.”
In his first speech as prime minister, Wong paid tribute to his predecessors, but said that the country’s new leadership would adopt a style that “differs” from that of previous generations.
“We will lead in our own way. We will continue to think boldly and to think far. We know that there is still much more to do,” he said. “The best chapters of our Singapore story lie ahead.”
Outrage grows in India over UN staffer killed by Israeli forces in Gaza
- Army veteran Waibhav Anil Kale was working for UN Department of Safety and Security
- More than 190 UN staff killed since beginning of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza last year
NEW DELHI: The killing of an Indian army veteran serving as a UN staffer in Gaza has stirred outrage in India and calls for the government to hold Israel accountable, with activists calling New Delhi’s reaction ‘inadequate.’
Col. Waibhav Anil Kale, a former peacekeeper, was on duty with the UN Department of Safety and Security when his UN-marked vehicle was hit on Monday en route to the European Hospital in Rafah by what the international organization said was Israeli tank fire.
The Indian government’s response was a condolence statement issued on Wednesday by the Ministry of External Affairs, saying it was “deeply saddened by the death” and “in touch with relevant authorities” regarding an investigation.
The statement did not issue a condemnation, unlike in July 2022, when two Indian peacekeepers were killed in an attack on a UN Organization Stabilization Mission base in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At that time, India’s foreign minister said the perpetrators “must be held accountable and brought to justice” and convened a special meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the attack.
Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the government’s response was “grossly inadequate” given what he called the “calculated killing” of an Indian army officer and UN staffer.
“The Indian government can hold Israel accountable. India is a sponsor of a resolution related to the protection of the UN personnel,” he told Arab News.
“This particular killing of a UN officer is a targeted killing because it was very obvious to Israelis that this was a UN vehicle, and it was on an official UN mission. A tank deliberately targeted this vehicle.”
New Delhi had always been sensitive to assaults on UN personnel given that it is one of the largest contributors to the organization’s peacekeepers.
The reaction to Kale’s killing was insufficient, according to Kavita Krishnan, a women’s rights activist.
“If a person is a UN employee, he is entitled to protection,” she said. “The Indian government should specifically hold Israel accountable for this killing. They cannot treat it just as a casualty of war or a collateral damage.”
“IT’S NOT A DEATH”
Since October last year, Israel’s deadly siege and bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, wounded 70,000, and left most of the enclave’s population starving and with no access to medical, food and water supplies.
The UN estimates that more than 190 of its staff members have also been killed in the ongoing onslaught. Kale was the first international UN employee to be killed.
“It’s condemnable that India does not name the fact of assassination. It’s not death. He did not die of illness. He was killed by Israel,” said Apoorvanand Jha, a public intellectual and professor at the University of Delhi.
“Israel kills people who are involved in the health services ... kills journalists, aid workers and kills workers involved in the peacekeeping forces. So, it does it knowingly. It is not a collateral damage. Israel does it knowingly — this is what has been recorded many times. Israel needs to be held accountable for all the individual crimes of assassinations and the collective crimes, mass deaths.”
From a legal point of view, the killing of UN personnel is against norms and customs of international law and international humanitarian law.
“New Delhi should tell Tel Aviv that it should respect international law,” said Anwar Sadat, a senior assistant professor at the Indian Society of International Law.
“The Indian government should issue a diplomatic demarche to the Israeli government.”
Since the beginning of its invasion of Gaza, Israel has revoked work permits for tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers and sought to facilitate their replacement with manpower from South Asia.
In November, the Indian government signed a three-year agreement with Tel Aviv on the “temporary employment” of workers in the construction and caregiving sector.
“If this is the statement that the Indian government can bring for an official who works with the UN, imagine what if it happens with any of the workers. No one is going to speak,” said N. Sai Balaji, assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“This seriously compromises India’s super-power ambitions, it seriously compromises India’s own foreign policy.”
