Trump insults Detroit while campaigning in the city

Democrats in the state were quick to criticize Trump for his comments. (AFP)
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Updated 11 October 2024
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Trump insults Detroit while campaigning in the city

DETROIT: Former President Donald Trump criticized Detroit while delivering remarks to an economic group there on Thursday, saying the whole country would end up like the city if his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is elected.
“The whole country will be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit,” the Republican presidential nominee said. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”
Trump’s remarks came as he addressed the Detroit Economic Club in a speech appealing to the auto industry, a key segment of the population in battleground Michigan’s largest city. But he made conflicting remarks about Detroit throughout the speech, saying it was a “developing” city in an apparent compliment.
Democrats in the state were quick to criticize Trump for his comments. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan lauded the city’s recent drop in crime and growing population.
“Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” he said on social media.
US Rep. Shri Thanedar, who represents Detroit, said on social media that Trump should “keep Detroit and our people out of your mouth.” Referring to Trump’s efforts to win Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel said on X, “This guy is calling us ugly and then asking us out on a date.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has been a major surrogate for the Democratic presidential ticket, shot back at Trump, saying on X, “And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this in November.”
Wayne County, which is home to Detroit, hasn’t been kind to Trump in previous elections. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump got about 30 percent of the vote in Wayne, losing the county by huge margins.

Trump’s campaign said in a statement after his appearance that Detroit has “suffered from globalist policies championed by Kamala Harris” that have led to manufacturing moving overseas.
“As President Trump emphasized in his speech, his policies will usher in a new era of economic success and stability for Detroit, helping the city reach its fullest potential,” said Victoria LaCivita, Trump’s Michigan communications director.
Trump’s comments come as many in the city feel that Detroit has turned the corner from national joke to national attraction. Nearly a decade from exiting its embarrassing bankruptcy, the Motor City has stabilized its finances, improved city services, stanched the population losses that saw more than a million people leave since the 1950s and made inroads in cleaning up blight across its 139 square miles.
Detroit is now a destination for conventions and meetings. In April, Detroit set an attendance record for the NFL draft when more than 775,000 fans poured into the city’s downtown for the three-day event. And just a few hours after Trump’s remarks, thousands of people were expected to pour into the same area as the city’s baseball team, the Tigers, aimed to win their AL Division Series.
Some event attendees understood Trump’s Detroit comment to be in reference to the city’s previous financial woes.
“I don’t think it was intentional on his part,” said Judy Moenck, 68. “There was blight. Now tremendous work has been done, and Detroiters will feel probably a little bit hurt by that.”
Her husband, Dean Moenck, 74, who said he no longer considers himself a Republican in Trump’s GOP, said the comment fits into his campaign rhetoric style, “bringing out the negative things of Detroit.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has insulted the city he’s campaigning in.
While in New York for his civil fraud and criminal trials, he routinely bashed the city, calling it dirty and crime-ridden and arguing that its overwhelmingly Democratic residents might be swayed to vote for him over concerns about migrants and safety.


Japan PM Ishiba set to form minority government

Updated 9 sec ago
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Japan PM Ishiba set to form minority government

  • Shigeru Ishiba is expected to keep his job, but with a fragile grip on power
  • His ruling coalition lost its majority in a snap election last month
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was on Monday pitted against the main opposition chief as parliament votes to appoint the nation’s leader.
Ishiba, 67, is expected to keep his job, but with a fragile grip on power after his ruling coalition lost its majority in a snap election last month.
The former defense minister, who took office six weeks ago, had hoped to shore up his mandate as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the October 27 polls.
Instead, voters unhappy with inflation and a slush fund scandal that helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida delivered the party its worst result since 2009, which could cause political gridlock in a hung parliament.
Ishiba is reportedly trying to arrange a meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump later this month, around the time he travels to Peru for an economic summit.
Lawmakers in the powerful lower house convened on Monday afternoon for a special four-day session to nominate the prime minister, a necessary step after a general election.
The conservative LDP and its junior coalition party remain the largest bloc in the 465-seat lower house, where the opposition parties are deeply divided on key issues.
So, Ishiba is expected to lead a minority government after a run-off — the first since 1994 — with Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP).
“In order to stay in power, Ishiba needs to pass the government budget this winter. It will mean the LDP will have to concede some of its policies to seek cooperation from others,” Tomoaki Iwai, professor emeritus at Nihon University, said.
To have enough sway to pass legislation going forward, the ruling bloc has asked for help from the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), a small centrist group.
The DPP has agreed to cooperate on a vote-by-vote basis while staying out of the coalition. In talks with the LDP, it has demanded tax cuts and energy subsidies that economists say would slash the government’s revenues.
In a twist, DPP head Yuichiro Tamaki on Monday admitted to an extra-marital affair reported by a tabloid.
“I apologize for causing such a disturbance,” he said. His party later reportedly decided to keep him on as leader.
Along with these negotiations, Ishiba must also contend with discontent within his party, which lost dozens of seats — including ministers — in the election.
“Unless he improves his public support, those inside the LDP may start saying they cannot fight the upper house election under Ishiba” and look for another leader, Iwai added.
The public votes in the upper house election in July, and Noda vowed last week that the CDP would “work hard so we will make significant gains in the upper house election.”
Approval ratings for Ishiba’s government are just above 30 percent, but polls show a majority of the public say he should remain prime minister.
Ishiba faces a tough road ahead with Washington and domestic lawmakers likely to press him for higher public spending and tax cuts at the same time, analysts said.
Experts have voiced worries that Trump, without consulting Asian allies, may make deals with China.
Possible fresh US tariffs on Chinese and Japanese goods may fuel inflation, while the Trump administration may demand Japan to hike its defense spending or push Japanese firms to expand their factories in the United States.
“It must be Mr. Ishiba who is feeling the toughest headache of Mr. Trump’s victory,” Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, wrote in a note.
If Ishiba is nominated prime minister, he will announce a new cabinet on Monday afternoon, who will be officially appointed by the emperor the same day.

Trump to appoint former ICE director Tom Homan as US ‘border czar’

Updated 11 November 2024
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Trump to appoint former ICE director Tom Homan as US ‘border czar’

  • Tom Homan is also a contender for secretary of homeland security
  • Former ICE chief will be in charge of the deportation of illegal immigrants

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will be in charge of the country’s borders in his new administration.
Homan will be “in charge of our nation’s borders (“The Border Czar”), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Homan, who served in Trump administration for a year and a half during his first term, is also a contender for secretary of homeland security.
Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration the central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations. He frequently praised Homan during the campaign, and Homan often hit the trail to rally supporters.
Trump added in his Truth Social post that Homan will be in charge of the deportation of illegal immigrants.
The president-elect is meeting with potential candidates to serve in his administration before his Jan. 20 inauguration as president.
CNN reported on Sunday that Trump had offered Republican Representative Elize Stefanik the job as US ambassador to the United Nations.


Rivals of ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina foil her party’s attempt to hold a rally

Updated 11 November 2024
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Rivals of ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina foil her party’s attempt to hold a rally

  • The rally in Dhaka by Hasina’s party was to commemorate the death of a party activist on Nov. 10, 1987
  • On Sunday, rival party activists filled up much of the area where the rally was scheduled to take place

DHAKA: Rivals of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday thwarted a plan by her Awami League party to hold a rally in Bangladesh’s capital, seen as a potential first effort to make a comeback on the streets since she fled the country in August amid a mass uprising.
The rally in Dhaka by Hasina’s party was to commemorate the death of a party activist on Nov. 10, 1987, which had sparked a mass protest against former military dictator H.M. Ershad. He was eventually ousted from office, ending his nine-year rule in 1990.
The day is commemorated as “democracy day.” In 1991, Bangladesh switched to a parliamentary democracy from a presidential form of government, and since then Hasina and her rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, became the most powerful political figures in the country.
On Sunday, activists of the party headed by Zia, Hasina’s main rival, and also members of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party took to the streets of Dhaka, filling up much of the area where the rally was scheduled to take place.
Others, including hundreds of student protesters, also announced that they wouldn’t allow Hasina’s supporters to stand on the streets and hold the rally. The protesters said that they think Hasina’s party was trying to make a comeback by holding a rally on the streets on Sunday. The protesters from the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, a group that led the mass uprising in July-August, aggressively hunted for supporters of Hasina.
Groups of people surrounded the Awami League party’s headquarters near the Noor Hossain Square in Dhaka where Hasina’s supporters were supposed to gather to hold the rally.
Security was tight in the area, but witnesses and local media said that the protesters attacked several supporters of Hasina when they attempted to reach there and chanted slogans in favor of the fallen leader.
The Awami League party said that many of their activists were detained by police as they came under attacks.
Tensions ran high throughout Sunday with the anti-Hasina protesters saying that they wouldn’t allow the party to hold any public rally under any circumstances. The Awami League party questioned the notion, saying it is against the spirit of democracy and the constitutional right to assembly.
The Awami League party posted a number of videos on Facebook on Sunday showing its supporters being manhandled. Its party headquarters had earlier been vandalized following Hasina’s fall on Aug. 5, and on Sunday it was empty and there were signs of destruction. Outside, control was in the hands of Hasina’s opponents.
The political chaos in the South Asian nation went on as Zia’s party was seeking quick reforms and a new election from an interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus. The party believes it will be able to form the new government in the absence of Hasina’s party, while its other allies are also struggling.
As the interim government ends its three months in office, people remain concerned over high commodity prices, law and order, mob justice and the rise of Islamist forces once suppressed by Hasina’s regime. The international community also remains wary about alleged attacks on minority groups, especially Hindus that make up about 8 percent of the country’s 170 million people.
The Yunus-led government said it would seek extradition of Hasina and her close associates as they face charges of crimes against humanity involving deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising.
On Sunday, Bangladesh’s Law Adviser Asif Nazrul said the interim government would ask Interpol to issue red notices seeking the arrest and repatriation of fugitives allegedly responsible for the deaths of people during the mass uprising.
“We will … prioritize bringing them back from wherever they are hiding,” he told reporters in Dhaka.


Mauritius awaits results of close-fought vote

Updated 11 November 2024
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Mauritius awaits results of close-fought vote

PORT LUIS, Mauritius: Mauritians are set to find out Monday who will govern their Indian Ocean island nation for the next five years after a hotly disputed election race.
Both the incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and his main rival Navin Ramgoolam claimed their political blocs had triumphed in Sunday’s legislative poll.
Voters had voiced concern about the continued political and economic durability of one of the richest and most stable democracies in Africa, with the election overshadowed by an explosive phone-tapping scandal.
The poll came on the heels of a historic agreement last month that saw Britain cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following a long-running dispute.
But Jugnauth’s hopes he would handily win a new term on the back of the deal were dented when secretly recorded phone calls of politicians, diplomats and journalists began to be leaked online last month.
Seeking to keep a lid on the scandal, the authorities announced a social media ban until after the election, before making an embarrassing climbdown in the face of opposition and media outrage.
The move added to concerns that Mauritius’s much-vaunted democracy and civil liberties were being gradually eroded.
Jugnauth’s Militant Socialist Movement and its allies are seeking to hold on to their 42-seat majority in the 70-member National Assembly but face a stiff challenge from former prime minister Ramgoolam’s Alliance of Change.
During a lively and sometimes heated campaign, both camps promised voters they would take measures to improve the lot of ordinary Mauritians who face cost of living difficulties despite strong economic growth.
“We are confident of winning because the people appreciate our record,” 62-year-old Jugnauth said after polls closed, accusing the opposition of trying to hinder the smooth running of the vote.
Ramgoolam, 77, issued a similar declaration.
“We are heading toward a big victory tomorrow. The people are waiting for this liberation,” he told reporters.
Both men are members of the dynasties that have dominated politics in Mauritius since it became independent from Britain in 1968.
A new bloc, the Linion Reform alliance, campaigned against the establishment politicians with the slogan “Neither Navin, Nor Pravind,” and criticized corruption and nepotism.
Police had been stationed in polling stations across the country to ensure the security of the vote, while a number of international observers monitored the process.
Ramgoolam had warned early on polling day about the risk of fraud, while later saying that voting went off largely without incident.
Ballot counting begins on Monday morning with results expected later in the day.
Turnout among the one million registered voters was expected to be around 80 percent, media commentators said, based on figures from a number of polling stations.
Sixty-two seats were up for grabs under a first-past-the-post system, with the remaining eight allocated under what is dubbed the “best loser” system.
The majority-Hindu nation has seen remarkable stability and growth since independence, building an economy based on tourism as well as financial services and textile manufacturing.
GDP growth was seven percent in 2023, but analysts say Mauritius needs to diversify its economy, and concerns about governance and corruption are growing.
The island is renowned for its spectacular palm-fringed white beaches and turquoise waters, attracting 1.3 million visitors last year.
The Chagos deal was a major success for the government, though Britain will retain a lease for a joint US military base on the island of Diego Garcia for an “initial” 99 years.
Jugnauth hailed it as the completion of the nation’s “decolonization.”
But some have voiced concerns that president-elect Donald Trump’s approach to the US military presence in the Indian Ocean might have repercussions for the agreement.


COP29 opens with Trump climate withdrawal looming

Updated 11 November 2024
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COP29 opens with Trump climate withdrawal looming

  • Just a handful of leaders from the Group of 20, whose countries account for nearly 80 percent of global emissions, are attending
Baku: The COP29 climate talks open Monday in Azerbaijan, under the long shadow cast by the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to row back on the United States’ carbon-cutting commitments.
Countries come to Baku for the main United Nations forum for climate diplomacy after new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records, adding urgency to a fractious debate over climate funding.
But Trump’s return will loom over the discussions, with fears that an imminent US departure from the landmark Paris agreement to limit global warming could mean less ambition around the negotiating table.
“We cannot afford to let the momentum for global action on climate change be derailed,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change and environment.
“This is a shared problem that will not solve itself without international cooperation, and we will continue to make that case to the incoming president of one of the world’s largest polluters.”
Outgoing President Joe Biden is staying away, as are many leaders who have traditionally appeared early in COP talks to lend weight to the proceedings.
Just a handful of leaders from the Group of 20, whose countries account for nearly 80 percent of global emissions, are attending.
Afghanistan will however be sending a delegation for the first time since the Taliban took power. They are expected to have observer status.
Diplomats have insisted that the absences, and Trump’s win, will not detract from the serious work at hand, particularly agreeing a new figure for climate funding to developing countries.
Negotiators must increase a $100 billion-a-year target to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.
How much will be on offer, who will pay, and who can access the funds are some of the major points of contention.
“It’s hard. It involves money. When it comes to money, everybody shows their true colors,” Adonia Ayebare, the Ugandan chair of a bloc that groups over 100 mostly developing countries and China, told AFP on Sunday.
Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” has vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement.
But Ayebare brushed aside the potential consequences of a US withdrawal, noting Trump already took Washington out of the Paris agreement during his first term.
“This has happened before, we will find a way of realigning.”
Developing countries are pushing for trillions of dollars, and insist money should be mostly grants rather than loans.
They warn that without the money they will struggle to offer ambitious updates to their climate goals, which countries are required to submit by early next year.
“Bring some money to the table so that you show your leadership,” said Evans Njewa, chair of the LDC Climate Group, whose members are home to 1.1 billion people.
But the small group of developed countries that currently contributes wants to see the donor pool expanded to include other rich nations and top emitters, including China and the Gulf states.
One Chinese official warned Sunday during a closed-door session that the talks should not aim to “renegotiate” existing agreements.
Liang Pei, an official at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, urged negotiators to instead address “the climate crisis collectively, constructively.”
The talks come with fresh warnings that the world is far off track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.
The climate deal commits to keep warming below 2C compared to pre-industrial levels, preferably below 1.5C.
But the world is on track to top that level in 2024, according to the European Union climate monitor.
That would not be an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests much greater climate action is needed.
Earlier this year, the UN warned the world is on track for a catastrophic 3.1C of warming this century based on current actions.
“Everyone knows that these negotiations will not be easy,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
“But they are worth it: each tenth of a degree of warming avoided means fewer crises, less suffering, less displacement.”
More than 51,000 people are expected at the talks, which run November 11-22.
For the second year running the talks will be hosted by a country heavily reliant on fossil fuels, after the United Arab Emirates last year.
Azerbaijan has also been accused of stifling dissent by persecuting political opponents, detaining activists and suffocating independent media.