Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris

Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney says she is not voting for Donald Trump, because he is a danger to the US constitution. (AP/File)
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Updated 05 September 2024
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Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris

Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris
  • Cheney joins other Republicans like former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman as backers of Harris
  • The son of the late Republican stalwart John McCain is supporting Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in Arizona

WASHINGTON: Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and a son of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Wednesday threw their support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in the latest case of Republicans turning against party candidate Donald Trump.

Cheney's announcement ended weeks of speculation about how fully the member of a GOP dynasty-turned-Trump critic would embrace the Democratic ticket.

Cheney, who co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, became a fierce Trump critic and was ousted in her 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming as a result, made her announcement at an event at Duke University. In a video posted on the social media network X, she finished by talking about the “danger” she believed Trump still poses to the country.
“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement Wednesday night: “The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first.”
The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney has been perhaps Trump’s highest-profile Republican critic. She joins other Republicans like her former Jan. 6 committee member, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman, as backers of Harris. More than 200 alumni of the Bush administration and former Republican presidential campaigns of the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney also announced their endorsement of Harris last week.
Cheney was in House Republican leadership at the time of the Jan. 6 attack but broke with most of her caucus over Trump’s responsibility. She lost her leadership post and was one of the few Republicans willing to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, which was appointed by Democrats who controlled the House at the time.

McCain's son now a Democrat
Jimmy McCain, a son of former Arizona senator John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in a battleground state.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, appeared outside Phoenix Wednesday for an event with the conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA, which has been instrumental in remaking the Arizona GOP as a faithful organ of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.
Jimmy McCain’s endorsement and Vance’s Turning Point USA appearance reflect the disparate segments of the GOP that Harris and Trump are trying to reach. Democrats are appealing to traditional conservatives disillusioned by Trump’s takeover of the GOP, while Republicans are looking to shore up their base and ensure that their young supporters turn out.




Jimmy McCain, son of Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain, pauses at his father's casket during ceremonies honoring Vietnam War veteran at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Aug. 31, 2018. (Pool Photo via AP)

Democrats have made big inroads over the last six years in Arizona, once a Republican stronghold that routinely backed McCain and other Republicans for president, with an anti-Trump coalition that includes Republicans and conservative independents.
That reality is clear in each campaign’s approach to winning the state. Harris has staked out moderate positions in contrast to the progressive stances she outlined in her 2020 Democratic primary campaign, including on the border, an important issue in this border state, while elevating Republican backers.
Trump, meanwhile, is counting on support from young voters turned off by politics and distrustful of institutions. He chose Phoenix for a rally joining forces with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abandoned his own independent campaign to back Trump.
The Turning Point event where Vance spoke was aimed at promoting the group’s “chase the vote” initiative to identify supporters who might need an extra nudge and ensure they participate. The event, at a mega church on the outskirts of metro Phoenix, began with a concert by a Christian rock band with a heavy, seat-shaking base and a colorful light show.
Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk spoke to Vance onstage for nearly an hour, focusing the conversation on social issues that have animated Trump’s base, including immigration and transgender rights.
“We just want Americans to be able to live a decent life in the country their parents and grandparents built,” Vance said.
Jimmy McCain said he had been an independent since leaving the Republican Party after Trump became its standard bearer in 2016. He decided during a nine-month overseas deployment that just ended to switch his registration to Democratic and announce it publicly. His decision was first reported by CNN.
He said he was further “fired up” by the decision after seeing Trump’s campaign visit to Arlington National Cemetery, a visit that Harris called a “political stunt” that “disrespected sacred ground.”
Trump has had a fraught relationship with the McCain family since he denigrated the senator’s status as a war hero during his 2016 campaign.
Jimmy McCain said it was personally difficult for him to hear his father disrespected, but he said his father chose a public life and Americans are allowed to criticize their leaders.
“With Arlington, the people who are buried there gave their lives and the ultimate sacrifice,” McCain said. “They don’t get a political opinion. ... We don’t know what those people felt, thought, what they believed. We know they believed in their country and that’s about it.”
Trump said he was invited to Arlington by the families of Marines killed in a suicide bombing during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. His campaign released statements from the relatives accusing Harris of playing politics with the issue.
“There has been no greater advocate for our brave military men and women than President Trump,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary. He secured new military investments and pay raises for troops while he was in the White House, and no new wars broke out, she said.
Jimmy McCain, 36, enlisted in the US Marines as a teenager and served four years. He reenlisted in the Army National Guard and was later commissioned as an officer, currently holding the rank of 1st Lieutenant.
Ideologically, McCain said he’s a moderate and hearkened back to his father’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Country first.”
“I’m a center man who cares about his country more than anything,” McCain said.
Cindy McCain, the late senator’s widow, endorsed President Joe Biden shortly before the 2020 election, a vote of confidence that helped the Democrat eke out a narrow win in Arizona with support from Republicans disaffected with Trump. Biden appointed McCain to be the US ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in Rome, where she is now executive director of the UN World Food Programme.
A Navy pilot, John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten and held prisoner for more than five years, refusing to be released ahead of other American servicemembers.
Trump said of McCain, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain later angered Trump with his dramatic thumbs-down vote against repealing Obama’s health care law.
McCain represented Arizona in Congress for 31 years until his death in 2018 from an aggressive brain tumor and built a national reputation as a “maverick” willing to buck his party. While he sometimes took flack from the GOP base and faced fierce primary challengers, he was overwhelmingly reelected and remains a beloved figure in the state.
Still, the endorsement won’t sway the Republicans who still dislike McCain.
“I didn’t respect John McCain,” said Jerry Lyn of suburban Phoenix, who went to the Turning Point rally because he’s been so impressed by Vance he wanted to see him in person. “I really didn’t. He did a lot of bad things and people don’t realize it.
“I think it’s disgusting.”


UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina

UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina
Updated 13 February 2025
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UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina

UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina
  • Actual number of casualties is at least double what UN investigators initially assessed
  • Special tribunal in Dhaka to rely on findings in proceedings against former government

DHAKA: At least 1,400 people were killed in Bangladesh during student-led protests last year, with the majority shot dead from military rifles, the UN’s human rights office said in its latest report investigating the events that led to the ouster of the country’s longtime prime minister.

Initially peaceful demonstrations began in early July, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for the allocation of civil service positions. Two weeks later, they were met with a violent crackdown by security forces and a communications blackout.

In early August, as protesters defied nationwide curfew orders and stormed government buildings, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government.

The new interim administration, led by Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, has pledged to cooperate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure justice and accountability for all the violence committed during the month-long uprising.

UN investigators arrived in Bangladesh in late August and on Wednesday released their first fact-finding report.

“OHCHR assesses that as many as 1,400 people could have been killed during the protests, the vast majority of whom were killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets commonly used by Bangladesh’s security forces,” they said in the document.

“Thousands more suffered severe, often life-altering injuries. More than 11,700 people were arrested and detained, according to information from the Police and RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) provided to OHCHR.”

More than three-quarters of all deaths were caused by firearms “typically wielded by state security forces and not readily available to civilians in Bangladesh.”

The number of casualties is at least double what was initially assessed by the investigators, who also indicated that around 3 percent of those killed were children subjected to “targeted killings, deliberate maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention in inhumane conditions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”

The UN’s human rights office has concluded that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024, the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”

A special tribunal in Dhaka, which in October issued arrest warrants for Hasina and her Cabinet members and began trial procedures in cases related to the killings, said it will rely on the OHCHR’s findings and recommendations in its proceedings.

“It will facilitate the ongoing trial in the International Crimes Tribunal. The information we have received through the investigation aligns with the UN report, which will also validate our findings. This will add credibility to the results of our investigation,” the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Tajul Islam, told Arab News on Thursday.

Established in 2010 during Hasina’s rule, the International Crimes Tribunal is a domestic court tasked with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The most important takeaway of the report was that it had identified the ousted prime minister and her government as the “responsible authority” behind the rights abuses, Islam said.

“The report clearly identified the attacks as widespread and systematic, targeting students and civilians. Sheikh Hasina and her administration were the primary orchestrators of these attacks, utilizing all of the state’s security and law enforcement ... Since it (the probe) was conducted by the UN, it has a neutral character.”


Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit

Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit
Updated 13 February 2025
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Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit

Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit
  • Sri Lanka president was in Dubai to address the World Governments Summit
  • UAE was Sri Lanka’s 8th largest source of foreign direct investment in 2019

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka and the UAE have signed an agreement to strengthen economic ties during President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s first visit to the Middle East, his office said on Thursday as the island nation seeks to attract more foreign investment.

Dissanayake, who secured the country’s top job in September, returned to Colombo on Thursday after addressing the main session of the 2025 World Government Summit in Dubai and meeting with other world leaders, including UAE Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

The UAE visit was his third international presidential trip, after India and China.

In Dubai, Sri Lanka and the UAE reached an agreement on reciprocal promotion and protection of investments, the president’s media division said in a statement.

“The purpose of this agreement is to facilitate and strengthen foreign investments between the two nations by ensuring investor rights protection, promoting economic cooperation, and establishing comprehensive investment protection mechanisms, dispute resolution frameworks, and policy structures,” it said.

The deal was signed by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and the UAE’s Minister of State for Financial Affairs Mohamed Bin Hadi Al-Hussaini.

It is expected to “contribute to strengthening global economic partnerships and creating opportunities for exploring new investment prospects in Sri Lanka.”

The island nation of 22 million people is still struggling to emerge from the 2022 economic crisis — the worst since its independence in 1948 — and the austerity measures imposed under a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Under Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s new left-leaning government is working to fulfill his campaign promises of sweeping reforms, including to revive the economy.

Its latest deal with the UAE is part of the country’s “commitment to enhancing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and fostering a more attractive investment landscape,” the president’s media division said.

In 2019, the UAE was the 8th largest source of FDI in Sri Lanka.

M. Shiham Marikar, secretary-general of the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka, said the agreement offers “substantial benefits” for Sri Lankan businesses.

“This partnership is a vital step toward fostering economic growth, securing foreign investments, and strengthening trade relations between Sri Lanka and the UAE,” Marikar told Arab News.

“One of the most significant advantages is enhanced market access to the UAE and the broader Middle Eastern region … The agreement also paves the way for new partnerships and joint ventures, particularly in high-potential sectors like tourism and real estate. Moreover, Sri Lankan businesses, especially SMEs, will benefit from greater access to foreign capital, funding opportunities, and new markets.”


UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina

UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina
Updated 13 February 2025
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UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina

UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina
  • Actual number of casualties at least double initial assessment by UN investigators
  • Special tribunal in Dhaka to rely on findings in proceedings against former government

DHAKA: At least 1,400 people were killed in Bangladesh during student-led protests last year with the majority shot dead by military rifles, the UN’s human rights office has said in its latest report investigating the events leading up to the ousting of the country’s long-serving prime minister.

The initially peaceful demonstrations, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for the allocation of civil service positions, began in early July. Two weeks later they were met with a violent crackdown by security forces and a communications blackout.

In early August, as protesters defied nationwide curfew orders and stormed government buildings, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power for her Awami League party-led government.

The new interim administration, led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, has pledged to cooperate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure justice and accountability for all violence committed during the month-long uprising.

UN investigators arrived in Bangladesh in late August and, on Wednesday, released their first fact-finding report.

“OHCHR assesses that as many as 1,400 people could have been killed during the protests, the vast majority of whom were killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets commonly used by Bangladesh’s security forces,” read the document.

“Thousands more suffered severe, often life-altering, injuries. More than 11,700 people were arrested and detained, according to information from the police and RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) provided to OHCHR.”

More than three-quarters of all deaths were caused by firearms “typically wielded by state security forces and not readily available to civilians in Bangladesh.”

The number of casualties is at least double the initial assessment by investigators, who also indicated that around 3 percent of those killed were children subjected to “targeted killings, deliberate maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention in inhumane conditions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”

The UN’s human rights office has concluded that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024, the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”

A special tribunal in Dhaka, which in October issued arrest warrants for Hasina and her cabinet and began trial procedures in cases related to the killings, said it would rely on the OHCHR’s findings and recommendations in its proceedings.

“It will facilitate the ongoing trial in the International Crimes Tribunal. The information we have received through the investigation aligns with the UN report, which will also validate our findings. This will add credibility to the results of our investigation,” the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Tajul Islam, told Arab News on Thursday.

Established in 2010 during Hasina’s rule, the International Crimes Tribunal is a domestic court tasked with dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The most important takeaway of the report is that identifies the ousted prime minister and her government as the “responsible authority” behind the rights abuses, Islam said.

“The report clearly identified the attacks as widespread and systematic, targeting students and civilians. Sheikh Hasina and her administration were the primary orchestrators of these attacks, utilizing all of the state’s security and law enforcement ... Since it (the probe) was conducted by the UN, it has a neutral character.”


Afghan held after suspected ramming attack injures 28 in Germany

Members of the emergency services work at the scene where a car drove into a crowd in the southern German city of Munich.
Members of the emergency services work at the scene where a car drove into a crowd in the southern German city of Munich.
Updated 23 min 25 sec ago
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Afghan held after suspected ramming attack injures 28 in Germany

Members of the emergency services work at the scene where a car drove into a crowd in the southern German city of Munich.
  • A passenger car drove into a street demonstration of striking workers from the Verdi trade union near the city center and was then shot at by officers, police said
  • The driver, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, was arrested at the scene

MUNICH: An Afghan asylum seeker was arrested after a suspected car ramming attack injured at least 28 people in the southern German city of Munich on Thursday, police said.
The incident comes on the eve of a high-profile international conference in Munich and amid an election campaign in which immigration and security have been key issues after a spate of similar attacks.
A passenger car drove into a street demonstration of striking workers from the Verdi trade union near the city center and was then shot at by officers, said the deputy head of Munich police Christian Huber.
The driver, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, was arrested at the scene, Huber said.
Earlier a fire service spokesman told AFP that several of those hurt were “seriously injured, some of them in a life-threatening condition.”
The state premier of Bavaria Markus Soeder told a press conference that the incident was “just terrible” and that “it looks like this was an attack.”
Soeder’s Bavarian CSU party and its national sister party the CDU have demanded tougher curbs on migration after a series of similar attacks which have shocked the country.
“This is not the first incident... we must show determination that something will change in Germany,” Soeder said. “This is further proof that we can’t keep going from attack to attack.”
The ground at the scene of the incident was littered with items including glasses, shoes, thermal blankets and a pushchair.
Eyewitness Alexa Graef said she was “shocked” after seeing the car drive into the crowd “which looked deliberate.”
“I hope it’s the last time I see anything like that,” she said.
An eyewitness who was among the striking workers told the local BR42 website that he “saw a person lying under the car” after it drove into the crowd.
The president of the Verdi union Frank Werneke said in a statement: “We are deeply upset and shocked at the awful incident during a peaceful demonstration by our Verdi colleagues.”
The incident comes a day before the city is due to host the high-profile Munich Security Conference.
US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are among those arriving on Thursday to attend the two-day security meet.
The latest suspected attack comes amid an already inflamed debate on immigration after several similar incidents, most recently in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last month.
Two people were killed in a knife attack including a two-year-old child.
After that attack a 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested whom authorities say has a history of mental illness.


Western tour operators enter North Korea for first time since pandemic

Western tour operators enter North Korea for first time since pandemic
Updated 13 February 2025
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Western tour operators enter North Korea for first time since pandemic

Western tour operators enter North Korea for first time since pandemic
  • Beijing-based Koryo Tours wrote on its website on Thursday that ‘staff crossed the border in the early hours of this morning’
  • Another travel agency, Young Pioneer Tours, also uploaded a picture of a passport with a North Korean border stamp

SEOUL: Western tour agencies entered North Korea for the first time on Thursday since the end of the pandemic, the companies said, voicing hopes the isolated country may soon reopen a border city to foreign visitors.
In January, travel agencies said the North would reopen the border city of Rason to foreign tourists, five years after Pyongyang sealed its frontiers in response to COVID-19.
Neither North Korea nor China have commented on the plans.
The Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which offers mainly Western tourists a glimpse into the secretive nation, wrote on its website on Thursday that “staff crossed the border in the early hours of this morning.”
“We’re happy to finally enter North Korea,” the travel agency wrote in a blog.
“The country is not yet fully open to tourism and this is a special trip for staff only.”
But they hope to confirm the opening of Rason to tourism in “the coming days.”
Another travel agency, Young Pioneer Tours, also uploaded a picture of a passport with a North Korean border stamp, declaring they were “first to be back in five years.”
Koryo Tours last week said that they had opened bookings for “the first trip back to North Korea since the borders closed in January 2020.”
The company said then that it hoped the tour would take place in February.
Itineraries included visiting “must-see” sites in Rason and a chance to “travel to North Korea to celebrate one of the biggest holidays, Kim Jong Il’s Birthday,” the agency wrote on its website.
The birthday of former ruler Kim Jong Il — father of current leader Kim Jong Un — is marked as Day of the Shining Star on February 16, and typically features large-scale public celebrations, including military parades.
The tours were slated to start in China, with guests to be driven to the border with the nuclear-armed North.
Young Pioneer Tours also began taking advanced bookings for Rason tour packages in January.
Rason became North Korea’s first special economic zone in 1991 and has been a testing ground for new economic policies.
It is home to North Korea’s first legal marketplace and has a separate visa regime from the rest of the country.
Tourism to the North was limited before the pandemic, with tour companies saying around 5,000 Western tourists visited each year.
Americans were banned from traveling to the North after the imprisonment and subsequent death of student Otto Warmbier in 2017.