Arab American community, key unions encouraged by Harris’ choice of Walz as runningmate

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US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on August 7, 2024. (REUTERS)
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US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on August 7, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 08 August 2024
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Arab American community, key unions encouraged by Harris’ choice of Walz as runningmate

  • Democratic enthusiasm has surged since VP Harris announced her candidacy and picked Walz as her running mate
  • “Picking Walz is another sign of good faith,” says Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan

EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin: Leaders of the Arab American community and key unions in America’s Midwest on Wednesday said Vice President Kamala Harris made the right choice in picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as his running mate in the November elections.

Some Democratic Party leaders in Michigan had grown concerned that choosing the wrong running mate could slow the momentum and fracture a coalition that has only recently started to unify following President Joe Biden’s momentous decision to drop out of the race and give way to Harris.

Walz’s addition to the ticket has soothed some tensions, signaling to some leaders that Harris had heard concerns about another leading contender for the vice presidential slot, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who they felt had gone too far in his support for Israel.

“The party is recognizing that there’s a coalition they have to rebuild,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. “Picking Walz is another sign of good faith.”

Harris and Walz on Wednesday spent their first full day campaigning together across the Midwest, where they got an unusual glimpse of how hotly contested the region will be when they overlapped on a Wisconsin tarmac with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.

The Democrats visited Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to shore up support among the younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who were instrumental in helping President Joe Biden win the 2020 election.

Harris told the day’s first rally in Eau Claire, “As Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors.” Contributing to that feeling, the Harris campaign said it had raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after she announced Walz as her running mate.

The vice president said the pair look on the future with optimism, unlike former President Donald Trump whom she accused of being stuck in the past and preferring a confrontational style of politics — even as she criticized her opponent herself.

“Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again have the chance to sit behind the seal of the United States,” Harris said, her voice rising amid applause from a crowd her campaign said numbered more than 12,000.

 

 

Wednesday’s campaign swing was especially important for her and Walz since Biden’s winning coalition from four years ago has showed signs of fraying over the summer — particularly in Michigan, which has emerged as a focal point of Democratic divisions over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Addressing the Democrats’ Wisconsin rally ahead of Harris, Walz had some critical words for Vance but trained most of his sharpest words on Trump, saying the former president “mocks our laws, he sows chaos and division among the people and that’s to say nothing of the job he did as president.”

Republicans are trying to portray Harris and Walz as too liberal for the Midwest, with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, saying on a conference call that Walz is “part of the radical, crazy left as is Vice President Harris.”

Surging enthusiasm

But Democratic enthusiasm has surged since Harris announced her candidacy and picked Walz as her running mate.

“We love Joe. Joe has been an incredible president, but he just isn’t the same messenger. And sometimes you need a better messenger,” said Dan Miller, from Pelican Lake, Wisconsin, who attended the Walz-Harris rally. “And that’s Kamala.”

The momentum could be pivotal in Detroit, which is nearly 80 percent Black, where leaders for months had warned administration officials that voter apathy could cost them in a city that’s typically a stronghold for their party.

Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit branch, said the excitement in the city now is “mind-blowing.” He likened it to Barack Obama’s first run for president in 2008, when voters waited in long lines to help elect the nation’s first Black president.

Some Democratic leaders in Michigan had grown concerned that choosing the wrong running mate could slow that momentum, however, and fracture a coalition that has only recently started to unify.

Arab American leaders, who hold significant influence in Michigan due to a large presence in metro Detroit, had been vocal in their opposition to Shapiro due to his past comments regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Those leaders specifically pointed to a comment he made earlier this year regarding protests on university campuses, which they felt unfairly compared the actions of student protesters to those of white supremacists. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining a staunch supporter of Israel.

Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News and a prominent leader in Michigan’s large Muslim community, was among those who met with White House adviser Tom Perez in Michigan last week.

Although Perez was in the state on official business, he has maintained contact with some Dearborn leaders since he and other top officials traveled there with Biden in an effort to mend ties with the community.

Siblani said he met with Perez for over an hour on July 29 and told him that if Harris chose Shapiro, it would “shut down” future conversations.

“Not picking Shapiro is a very good step. It cracks the door open a little more for us,” said Siblani, who along with Hammoud emphasized that any meaningful conversations must include policy discussions.

Dueling schedules

Trump, too, has put emphasis on appealing to voters in Midwestern states with his choice of Vance an Ohio Republican senator, as his running mate. Vance was even bracketing the Harris-Walz ticket with Michigan and Wisconsin appearances of his own on Wednesday.

The dueling schedules overlapped enough that while Harris was still greeting a group of Girl Scouts who came to see her arrive at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Wisconsin, Vance’s campaign plane landed nearby and was taxiing in the distance.

Harris posed for a group picture with the girls around the same time Vance was deplaning, and he began walking over to Air Force Two, trailed by his security detail.

The vice president eventually climbed into her motorcade, and it pulled away before they could interact. Still, that the pair came so close to doing so on a tarmac was unusual given the carefully scripted nature of campaign schedules.

“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” Vance later told reporters, meaning that he’d travel on Air Force Two should he and Trump be elected in November. He also criticized Harris for not taking questions from reporters, though she sometimes answers shouted questions while boarding or leaving her plane for campaign stops.

Vance later told the crowd at his Eau Claire event, “We actually just saw the vice president’s plane” and then joked of reporters traveling with him, “I figured they must be lonely because Kamala Harris doesn’t take any questions.”

“If those people want to call me weird I call it a badge of honor,” Vance said, responding to a moniker Walz used to describe him that made the Minnesota governor notable online in the days before Harris tapped him as her running mate.

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Italy backs EU’s Chinese tariffs, foreign minister says

Updated 4 sec ago
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Italy backs EU’s Chinese tariffs, foreign minister says

  • Minister Wang Wentao is visiting Europe for discussions on the European Union’s anti-subsidy case against China-made EVs as the vote on more tariffs looms
MILAN: Italy backs tariffs proposed by the European Commission on Chinese exports of electric vehicles (EVs), Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday before a meeting in Rome with China’s commerce minister.
“We support the duties that the EU Commission proposes, to protect the competitiveness of our companies,” Tajani told daily Corriere della Sera in an interview.
Minister Wang Wentao is visiting Europe for discussions on the European Union’s anti-subsidy case against China-made EVs as the vote on more tariffs looms.
He was meeting Tajani on Monday morning and will hold talks with the European Commission’s Executive Vice President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Sept. 19.
“We want to work on a trade plan based on equality, we demand equal access for our products in their markets. Our companies must compete on equal terms,” Tajani added.
Italy is aiming for a “climate of positive cooperation, and real reciprocity to avoid dumping and obstacles from Beijing, that at times are incomprehensible,” he said.
Italy initially supported tariffs in a non-binding vote of EU members in July but Industry Minister Adolfo Urso told Reuters last week that he expected a negotiated solution.
Italy remains a major carmaker, home to brands including Fiat, part of the Stellantis group. It has also been seeking to woo Chinese carmakers including Dongfeng and Chery Auto to open factories in order to raise vehicle output.
Tajani added that his position did not compromise Italy’s “good relations” with China.
At the end of July Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited China, to boost co-operation with the world’s second-largest economy and reset trade ties after leaving the Belt and Road infrastructure investment scheme.
President Sergio Mattarella is scheduled to visit China later this year, with Tajani part of the delegation, the minister said.
The European Commission is on the brink of proposing final tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on EVs built in China, on top of the EU’s standard 10 percent car import duty.
The proposed duties will be subject to a vote by the EU’s 27 members. They will be implemented by the end of October unless a qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65 percent of the EU population vote against them.

Germany expands border controls to curb migrant arrivals

Updated 33 min 28 sec ago
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Germany expands border controls to curb migrant arrivals

  • The border controls will be in place for an initial six months and are expected to include temporary structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police

FRANKFURT: Germany will from Monday expand border controls to the frontiers with all nine of its neighbors to stop irregular migrants in a move that has sparked protests from other EU members.
Berlin announced the sweeping measure following a string of deadly extremist attacks that have stoked public fears and boosted support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Sunday said that the step aimed to limit irregular migration and “put a stop to criminals and identify and stop Islamists at an early stage.”
The border controls will be in place for an initial six months and are expected to include temporary structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police.
Poland and Austria have voiced concern and the European Commission has warned that members of the 27-nation bloc must only impose such steps in exceptional circumstances.
Germany lies at the heart of Europe and borders nine countries that are part of the visa-free Schengen zone, designed to allow the free movement of people and goods.
Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the crackdown was announced.
These will now be expanded to Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
Faeser said the government hoped to minimize the impact on people living and working in border regions, promising “coordination with our neighboring countries.”
The interior ministry however noted that travelers should carry identification when crossing the border.


In recent weeks, a string of extremist attacks have shocked Germany, fueling rising public anger.
Last month, a man on a knife rampage killed three people and wounded eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen.
The Syrian suspect, who has alleged links to the Daesh group, had been intended for deportation but managed to evade authorities.
The enforcement failure set off a bitter debate which marked the run-up to two regional polls in the formerly communist east, where the anti-immigration AfD scored unprecedented results.
With national elections looming next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been under intense political pressure to toughen its stance on migrants and asylum seekers.
Scholz was in Uzbekistan on Sunday to sign a migration deal for workers to come to Germany, while simplifying deportation procedures in the opposite direction so that “those that must go back do go back,” the chancellor said.
Closer to home, the German government has presented plans to speed up deportations to European partners.
Under EU rules, asylum requests are meant to be handled by the country of arrival. The system has placed a huge strain on countries on the European periphery, where leaders have demanded more burden-sharing.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Germany tightening its borders means that it would “essentially pass the buck to countries located on the outer borders of Europe.”
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said his country “will not accept people who are rejected from Germany,” while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned Germany’s move as “unacceptable.”


Warsaw has also struggled with migration and accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by sending them through Belarus to the Polish border.
Berlin on Friday said that Tusk and Scholz had discussed the issue and agreed to strengthen EU external borders, “especially in view of the cynical instrumentalization of migrants by Belarus.”
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, mocked the German chancellor on social media site X, writing: “Bundeskanzler Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.”
Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16, many of them Syrians, and has hosted over a million Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
The extra burden on municipal authorities and integration services in Germany needed to be “taken into account” when talking about new border controls, Berlin’s interior ministry said.
In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday unveiled the country’s strictest migration policy yet, saying it will request an opt-out from EU common policy on asylum next week.
A four-party coalition dominated by far-right firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party wants to declare an “asylum crisis” to curb the influx of migrants through a tough set of rules including border controls.


Pakistan court grants bail to 10 MPs linked to jailed ex-PM Imran Khan

Updated 16 September 2024
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Pakistan court grants bail to 10 MPs linked to jailed ex-PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan granted bail Monday to 10 lawmakers from jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party, an AFP journalist witnessed.
At least 30 people from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party — including the 10 MPs — were remanded in custody last Tuesday, two days after they led a major rally in the capital, Islamabad.
The anti-terrorism court granted them bail of 30,000 rupees ($100).
PTI has faced a sweeping crackdown since Khan was jailed in August last year on a series of charges he says are politically motivated and designed to keep him from power.
The 10 MPs, some detained at their offices in the National Assembly, were charged under a new protest law and the anti-terrorism act.
They were accused of violating the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, passed just days before the rally was held, in a move rights groups say was an attempt to curb freedom of expression and peaceful protest.
PTI has sparred with the military since Khan was deposed two years ago.
The confrontation came to a head after the former cricket star’s first arrest on corruption charges in May 2023.
His supporters waged days of sometimes violent protests and attacked military installations, sparking a sweeping crackdown on PTI led by the army — Pakistan’s most powerful institution.
But the clampdown failed to diminish Khan’s popularity and candidates backed by the former premier won the most seats in 2024 polls — marred by allegations of widespread rigging.
Khan rose to power in 2018 with the help of the military, analysts say, but was ousted in 2022 after reportedly falling out with the generals.
A United Nations panel of experts found this month that his detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office.”
A number of convictions against him have been overturned by the courts.
Several members of the PTI’s social media and press team were rounded up last month and accused of “anti-state propaganda.”


Police operation under way after explosion in Cologne, Bild reports

Updated 16 September 2024
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Police operation under way after explosion in Cologne, Bild reports

BERLIN: A police operation is under way after an explosion in central Cologne, the Bild newspaper reported on Monday.
Local police posted on the social media platform X that a police operation was under way on the Hohenzollernring ring road and that residents should avoid the area.


Starmer and Meloni holding talks on curbing migrant boats reaching UK and Italy

Updated 16 September 2024
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Starmer and Meloni holding talks on curbing migrant boats reaching UK and Italy

  • The center-left Labour Party prime minister is not a natural ally of Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party

ROME: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday, as the two very different politicians, from left and right, seek common cause to curb migrants reaching their shores by boat. The visit comes after at least eight seaborne migrants died off the French coast on the weekend.
Support for Ukraine is also on the agenda for the trip, part of Starmer’s effort to reset relations with European neighbors after Britain’s acrimonious 2020 departure from the European Union.
The center-left Labour Party prime minister isn’t a natural ally of Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party. But migration has climbed the UK political agenda, and Starmer hopes Italy’s tough approach can help him stop people fleeing war and poverty trying to cross the English Channel in flimsy, overcrowded boats.
More than 22,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing from France so far this year, a slight increase compared to the same period in 2023. Several dozen people have perished in attempt, including the eight killed when a boat carrying some 60 people ran aground on rocks late Saturday.
Starmer promised “a new era of international enforcement to dismantle these networks, protect our shores and bring order to the asylum system.”
“No more gimmicks,” he said before his trip to Rome — a reference to the previous Conservative government’s scuttled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
Meloni pledged a crackdown on migration after taking office in 2022, aiming to deter would-be refugees from paying smugglers to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Italy. Her nationalist conservative government has signed deals with individual African countries to block departures, imposed limits on the work of humanitarian rescue ships, cracked down on traffickers and taken measures to deter people from setting off.
Italy also has signed a deal with Albania under which some adult male migrants rescued at sea while trying to reach Italy would be taken instead to Albania while their asylum claims are processed.
The number of migrants arriving in Italy by boat in the first half of this year was down 60 percent from 2023, according to the country’s Interior Ministry.
Starmer wants to learn from Italy’s mix of tough enforcement and international cooperation, though Italy’s approach has been criticized by refugee groups and others alarmed by Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants.
The leader of Italy’s right-wing League, Matteo Salvin i, who is deputy prime minister in Meloni’s government, has been accused by prosecutors of alleged kidnapping for for his decision to prevent a rescue ship carrying more than 100 migrants from landing in Italy when he was interior minister in 2019.
Starmer will tour Italy’s national immigration crime coordination center with newly appointed UK Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt. The government says Hewitt, a former head of Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, will work with law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the UK and across Europe to tackle-people smuggling networks.
Soon after being elected in July, Starmer scrapped the Conservatives’ contentious plan to send asylum-seekers who cross the Channel to Rwanda, about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away, with no chance of returning to the UK even if their refugee claims were successful.
The Conservatives said the deportation plan would act as a deterrent, but refugee and human rights groups called it unethical, judges ruled it illegal and Starmer dismissed it as an expensive gimmick. He has, though, expressed an interest in striking agreements like the one Italy has with Albania that would see asylum-seekers sent temporarily to another country.
The Rome trip follows visits to Paris, Berlin and Dublin during Starmer’s first weeks in office — all part of efforts to restore ties with EU neighbors that have been frayed by Brexit. Starmer has ruled out rejoining the now 27-nation bloc, but is keen for a closer relationship on security and other issues.
Ukraine will also feature in his talks with the Italian government, which holds the presidency of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations this year.
Unlike some politicians on the European right, Meloni is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. Starmer meets her after returning from Washington, where he and US President Joe Biden discussed Ukraine’s plea to use Western-supplied missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pressing allies to allow his forces to use Western weapons to target air bases and launch sites inside Russia as Moscow steps up assaults on Ukraine’s electricity grid and utilities before winter. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that would mean NATO countries “are at war with Russia.”
So far, the US hasn’t announced a change to its policy of allowing Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine.