Harris overtakes Trump in new poll, set to name VP pick ahead of swing state tour

Harris overtakes Trump in new poll, set to name VP pick ahead of swing state tour
This combination of photos taken at campaign rallies in Atlanta shows Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, 2024, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on Aug. 3. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 05 August 2024
Follow

Harris overtakes Trump in new poll, set to name VP pick ahead of swing state tour

Harris overtakes Trump in new poll, set to name VP pick ahead of swing state tour
  • CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday showed Harris has a one percent advantage on Trump nationwide — compared to Trump’s previous five point edge on President Joe Biden
  • Poll shows Trump is still favored by voters on the economy issue, but when it comes to trust in temperament, voters prefer the former California prosecutor to Trump, a convicted felon

WASHINGTON: A new poll confirmed Sunday that Kamala Harris — set to name her vice presidential pick imminently — has drawn level with Donald Trump, transforming a White House race that the Republican had been increasingly confident he was going to win.
As the November 5 election rapidly approaches, Harris has erased the growing lead that Trump was building before President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.
According to the CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, Harris has a one percent advantage on Trump nationwide — compared to Trump’s previous five point edge on Biden.
In the swing states that decide the Electoral College contest in US elections, Harris and Trump — who shocked the world with his 2016 presidential victory but was beaten by Biden in 2020 — are equal.

These are considered good numbers for a Democratic candidate who parachuted into the race only last month, when Biden bowed to mounting concerns over his mental acuity and ability at 81 years old to serve a second term.
But Harris, who is Biden’s vice president and the first Black and South Asian woman ever in the role, is in a sprint to define herself to voters before Trump does.
A big moment in that process will be when Harris announces her choice for running mate in a historic bid to become America’s first female president.
“It’s her first major decision that she’s making as an executive, so it tells you about her thought process,” Amy Walter, a polling expert from Cook Political Report newsletter, told CBS News.



The CBS poll, which echoes numerous other surveys indicating rapid gains by Harris, shows that Trump is still favored by voters on the key issue of the economy.
Only 25 percent said they expected to be better off financially if Harris wins, compared to 45 percent who said so about Trump.
However, when it comes to trust in the candidates’ temperament, the poll shows voters prefer the former California prosecutor to Trump, a convicted felon who has made a career out of publicly insulting those who oppose him — including while president.
The issue of cognitive health, which used to bedevil Biden, is now a liability for 78-year-old Trump, the poll found. Only 51 percent of respondents thought Trump is mentally capable for the presidency, compared to 64 percent for Harris.
The Democrats believe that if you “make this referendum on Trump rather than a referendum on the current state of the economy, then we have a real opportunity to win,” Cook said.
Trump was riding high politically last month after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally, then using the Republican convention to highlight his image of vigor against the physically frail Biden.
But with Biden’s dramatic exit and Harris’s fast start, he’s scrambling to recalibrate.
At a rally on Saturday in the swing state of Georgia, Trump called Harris a “Marxist” and a “radical left freak,” claiming she would cause an “economic crash.” On Wednesday, he shocked many when he told an audience of Black journalists that Harris had “turned Black” out of political expediency.




Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on July 30, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (AP)

Where Biden often attacked Trump as a threat to democracy, given his unprecedented refusal to accept his loss in 2020, Harris’s team has honed a sharper — more meme-friendly — line built around branding Trump and his vice presidential pick J.D. Vance “weird.”
On Saturday, the Harris campaign said Trump was “scared” to debate her after he turned down a previously scheduled televised debate on ABC, while saying he’d be ready to debate her on Fox News — a network that has for years given him support.
Who will she choose as runningmate?

All paths to the White House run through a handful of swing states, and Harris will kick off her five-day run Tuesday in the largest — Pennsylvania — as she builds momentum for her showdown with Republican Donald Trump on November 5.
Expectations are that Harris will pick a white man to balance the ticket — and likely a moderate Democrat who would help counterweigh attacks on Harris from Republicans that she is too far to the left.

The three figures seen as heading the short list — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona — were all visiting Harris in Washington on Sunday, The Washington Post reported.

“At this moment, we face a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other on the past... This campaign is about people coming together, fueled by love of country, to fight for the best of who we are,” she posted on X.
Fresh from winning enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the country’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president heads into the national convention in Chicago in two weeks in total control of her party.
In a campaign that is barely two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has obliterated fundraising records, attracted huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to erasing the polling leads Trump had built before President Joe Biden quit the race.
Next on the agenda is a vice presidential pick, with an announcement expected any time before her rally Tuesday evening alongside the mystery nominee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city.
The Keystone State is the most prized real estate among the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.
It is part of the “blue wall” that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin — two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania is governed by 51-year-old Democrat Shapiro, a frontrunner in the so-called “veepstakes” shortlist.

Later in the week, Harris will tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, as she seeks to shore up the Black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.
Just a month ago, Trump was in cruise control, having opened a significant lead in swing state polling after a dismal debate performance by Biden, with the Republican tycoon keeping the country in suspense over his own vice presidential pick.
Trump’s White House bid was upended on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, exited the race and backed Harris.
Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice president has made a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign — more than double Trump’s haul.
While Biden made high-minded appeals for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris has focused on the future, making voters’ hard-fought “freedom” the touchstone of her campaign.
She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September 10 debate and characterizing the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird.”
While she has disavowed some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, Harris hasn’t given a wide-ranging interview since jumping into the race, and rally-goers will look for more detail on her plans for the country.
Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris — at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime, before suggesting she was lying about being Black.
 


German president: accept that US won’t heed international rules

German president: accept that US won’t heed international rules
Updated 3 sec ago
Follow

German president: accept that US won’t heed international rules

German president: accept that US won’t heed international rules
“We have to accept that and we can deal with it,” Steinmeier said at the Munich Security Conference

FRANKFURT: Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the international community will have to deal with a disregard by the new US administration for established diplomatic rules.
“The new American administration has a very different world view to ours, one that has no regard for established rules, partnership and grown trust,” said the German head of state, whose office is largely ceremonial.
“We have to accept that and we can deal with it. But I am convinced that it is not in the interests of the international community for this world view to become the dominant paradigm,” he added, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Afghan national confesses to Munich car ramming that injured 36, prosecutor says

Afghan national confesses to Munich car ramming that injured 36, prosecutor says
Updated 14 February 2025
Follow

Afghan national confesses to Munich car ramming that injured 36, prosecutor says

Afghan national confesses to Munich car ramming that injured 36, prosecutor says
  • At least 36 people including a child were hurt on Thursday

MUNICH: An Afghan national has admitted to purposefully driving into a crowd in the German city of Munich and authorities have determined an Islamist motive for the crime, a prosecutor said on Friday.
At least 36 people including a child were hurt on Thursday when the 24-year-old man plowed into demonstrators gathered in the city center, putting security back in focus before next week’s federal election.
“He has admitted that he deliberately drove into the participants of the demonstration,” prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told a press conference.
“I’m very cautious about making hasty judgments, but based on everything we know at the moment, I would venture to speak of an Islamist motivation for the crime,” she added.
The suspected attack came hours before international leaders including US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the southern German city for the Munich Security Conference.
Tilmann said there was no evidence to suggest the suspect, identified as Farhad Noori, was affiliated with any Islamist or terrorist organizations.
She added that there was no indication of any accomplices, but that investigators were evaluating his communications and items obtained during searches to ascertain whether anyone had prior knowledge of the crime or was involved.
German authorities say the Afghan national arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2016, and that he was in Germany legally with a work permit and was therefore not due to be deported. He does not have any prior convictions.
Immigration and security issues have dominated campaigning ahead of the February 23 election, especially after other violent incidents in recent weeks, with polls showing the center-right conservatives leading followed by the far right.


At India’s flagship industry event, entrepreneurs present solutions to fuel energy transition

At India’s flagship industry event, entrepreneurs present solutions to fuel energy transition
Updated 14 February 2025
Follow

At India’s flagship industry event, entrepreneurs present solutions to fuel energy transition

At India’s flagship industry event, entrepreneurs present solutions to fuel energy transition
  • Local and international exhibitors display their new technology at India Energy Week 2025 in New Delhi
  • Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister highlights adoption of biofuels, renewables and hydrogen

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Indian entrepreneurs and innovators have presented their inventions and new solutions at India Energy Week 2025 in New Delhi, displaying their efforts to contribute to the country’s energy transition programs.

Tens of thousands of visitors, officials and delegates took part in the Indian government’s flagship annual energy event, which ran at the Yashobhoomi convention from Tuesday through Friday, featuring exhibitions by 700 local and international industry players.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who opened India Energy Week, highlighted the country’s vision of transformation and decarbonization, as the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases seeks to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070

“What we are seeing today is a recalibration of strategy — prioritizing near-term profitability while keeping long-term transition efforts in play ... the primary focus remains on increasing the adoption of biofuels, renewables and hydrogen,” he told the event’s participants.

“The transition isn’t about eliminating hydrocarbons overnight but leveraging them strategically while scaling renewables to mitigate emissions ... Even when renewables become the dominant energy sources, oil and gas will continue to play a pivotal role — not just in power generation but in stabilizing grids, industrial hydrogen and energy storage innovations.”

India aims to generate 500 GW of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, under its nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement.

The solar power sector is the dominant contributor to the country’s renewable energy growth, accounting for 47 percent of the total installed renewable energy capacity. It has observed a 3,450 percent increase in capacity over the past decade, rising from 2.82 GW in 2014 to 100 GW in January 2025, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The country is also heavily investing in green hydrogen — and emerging future alternatives to fossil fuels. Developing technologies to produce it is part of India’s flagship initiatives.

Also known as renewable hydrogen, green hydrogen can be used as fuel and is produced from the electrolysis of water. The process does not generate polluting carbon emissions but is currently very expensive.

India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission launched in 2023 aims to reduce production costs and increase the scale of the industry by 2030, as it targets the production of 5 million tons of green hydrogen generating 125 GW of power a year.

Renewable energy growth is fueled by local production and inventions, with India’s private sector being a top contributor to the transition process.

“There is a green hydrogen mission from the government of India to produce 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen by 2030 ... there are incentive programs run by the government,” said Rohish Kalvit, vice president of Pune-based h2e Power Systems, one of India Energy Week’s exhibitors, told Arab News.

His company is manufacturing electrolyzer stacks and fuel cell stacks, which are critical components in the production and use of hydrogen energy,

“We are helping in the national green hydrogen mission in terms of manufacturing that particular molecule ... as well as doing a lot of R&D (research and development) activities on the material part and the technology part (to) produce cheap and affordable hydrogen in the near future,” Kalvit said.

“India Energy Week is a platform which is being set up by the government of India to bring all the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), vendors, suppliers as well as offtakers to come and understand at what level each company is working in the hydrogen sector ... people are coming with open minds in order to join hands together at multiple levels to grow in this particular business.”

Raj Process Equipments and Systems, one of the leading process equipment manufacturers in India, was presenting its biogas-based solutions.

“The future is completely about biogas, compressed natural gas. We will be replacing petrol and diesel with this CBG — compressed Biogas ... it is the same as CNG (compressed natural gas), but in case of compressed biogas we get the gas from waste. From municipal waste we make biogas, we upgrade it we make it equivalent to CNG and this we use for vehicles,” said Binu Panickar, the company’s vice president.

“Biogas will be the future. It will completely replace the oil, petrol, diesel. People will completely rely on this technology.”

For him, India Energy Week was like “Maha Kumbh Mela” of the country’s energy sector — a reference to the country’s biggest religious pilgrimage, which draws millions of worshippers.

“Various technology providers are taking participating in it and we have seen a good platform to show the people what we can provide. We can see good number of visitors coming. They are getting knowledge from this event.”


Pope Francis being hospitalized for medical tests and to treat bronchitis, Vatican says

Pope Francis being hospitalized for medical tests and to treat bronchitis, Vatican says
Updated 14 February 2025
Follow

Pope Francis being hospitalized for medical tests and to treat bronchitis, Vatican says

Pope Francis being hospitalized for medical tests and to treat bronchitis, Vatican says
  • Francis was diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday
  • Ever since his diagnosis, Francis has appeared bloated

ROME: Pope Francis is being hospitalized to treat his bronchitis and undergo some necessary diagnostic tests, the Vatican said Friday in confirming the latest threat to the 88-year-old’s pontiff’s health.
Francis was diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday, but he has continued to hold daily audiences in his Vatican hotel suite and preside over general audiences and even presided at an outdoor Mass last Sunday. He has however handed off his speeches for an aide to read aloud, saying he was having trouble breathing.
Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has long battled health problems, especially long bouts of acute bronchitis in winter. He uses a wheelchair, walker or cane when moving around his apartment and recently fell twice, hurting his arm and chin.
Ever since his diagnosis, Francis has appeared bloated, an indication the medication he was taking to treat the lung infection was making him retain water.
Francis was being hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he was last hospitalized in June 2023 to have surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in the abdominal wall. A few months before that, he spent three days in the hospital to receive intravenous antibiotics for a respiratory infection.
A Vatican statement said Francis would be admitted at the end of his Friday audiences. In addition to regular Vatican officials, the pope met Friday morning with the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico and the head of CNN, Mark Thompson.
“This morning, at the end of the audiences, Pope Francis will be admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue in a hospital setting treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing,” the statement said.


India, US agree to resolve trade and tariff rows after Trump-Modi talks

India, US agree to resolve trade and tariff rows after Trump-Modi talks
Updated 14 February 2025
Follow

India, US agree to resolve trade and tariff rows after Trump-Modi talks

India, US agree to resolve trade and tariff rows after Trump-Modi talks
  • Initial segments of trade deal to be negotiated by fall 2025
  • India to raise US energy purchases to $25 billion from $15 billion

WASHINGTON: India and the US agreed on Thursday to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more US oil, gas and military equipment and fight illegal immigration.
The series of agreements emerged after talks between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House, just hours after Trump railed against the climate for US businesses in India and unveiled a roadmap for reciprocal tariffs on countries that put duties on US imports.
“Prime Minister Modi recently announced the reductions to India’s unfair, very strong tariffs that limit us access to the Indian market, very strongly,” Trump said. “And really it’s a big problem I must say.”
The deal to resolve trade concerns could be done within the next seven months, said India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
A joint statement after the meeting said Washington welcomed New Delhi’s recent steps to lower tariffs on select US products and increase market access to US farm products, while seeking to negotiate the initial segments of a trade deal by the fall of 2025.
While both leaders “had their perspectives” on tariffs, “what is more remarkable...is the fact that we have a way forward on this issue,” Misri said.
Some of the leaders’ agreements are aspirational: India wants to increase by “billions of dollars” its purchases of US defense equipment and may make Washington the “number one supplier” of oil and gas, Trump said at a joint press conference with Modi.
And Delhi wants to double trade with Washington by 2030, Modi said. Long-planned cooperation on nuclear energy, also discussed by the leaders, faces ongoing legal challenges.
“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” said Trump.
Misri, the Indian official, later said the F-35 deal was a proposal at this point, with no formal process underway. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on any deal.

WHAT TRUMP WANTS

Although Trump had a warm relationship with Modi in his first term, he again said on Thursday that India’s tariffs were “very high” and promised to match them, even after his earlier levies on steel and aluminum hit metal-producing India particularly hard.
“We are being reciprocal with India,” Trump said during the press conference. “Whatever India charges, we charge them.”
Modi vowed to protect India’s interests.
“One thing that I deeply appreciate, and I learn from President Trump, is that he keeps the national interest supreme,” Modi said. “Like him, I also keep the national interest of India at the top of everything else.”
The two leaders praised each other and agreed to deepen security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a thinly veiled reference to competition with China, as well as to start joint production on technologies like artificial intelligence.
Asked before the meeting about the steps India was taking, one source described it as a “gift” for Trump designed to lower trade tensions. A Trump aide said that the president sees defense and energy sales to India lowering the US trade deficit.
India’s energy purchases from the US could go up to $25 billion in the near future from $15 billion last year, India’s Misri said, adding that this could contribute to reducing the trade deficit.
Tariffs will continue to dominate the two countries’ relationship, said Richard Rossow, head of the India program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.
“It’s going to be a boxing match,” he said. “India is willing to take a few hits, but there’s a limit.”
The US has a $45.6 billion trade deficit with India. Overall, the US trade-weighted average tariff rate has been about 2.2 percent, according to World Trade Organization data, compared with India’s 12 percent.

FIGHT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Trump wants more help from India on unauthorized immigration. India is a major source of immigrants to the United States, including a large number in the tech industry on work visas and others in the US illegally.
The joint statement said the two countries agreed to aggressively address illegal immigration and human trafficking by strengthening law enforcement cooperation.
India may prove critical to Trump’s strategy to thwart China, which many in his administration see as the top US rival. India is wary of neighboring China’s military buildup and competes for many of the same markets.
Modi also worries that Trump could cut a deal with China that excludes India, according to Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum lobbying group.
India has continued its ties with Russia as it carries out its war with Ukraine. India has remained a major consumer of Russian energy, for instance, while the West has worked to cut its own consumption since the war started.
“The world had this thinking that India somehow is a neutral country in this whole process,” said Modi. “But this is not true. India has a side, and that side is of peace.”