NATO chief urges China to stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine

NATO chief urges China to stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Beijing’s continuous fueling of the war in Ukraine could adversely impact its interests and reputation. (NTB via Reuters)
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Updated 06 September 2024
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NATO chief urges China to stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine

NATO chief urges China to stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine
  • Jens Stoltenberg: ‘China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine’
  • China has previously described similar statements made by NATO as ‘malicious’ and biased

OSLO: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday called on China to stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and said Beijing’s assistance has been a significant factor in the continuation of the war.
“China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo. “China is the one that enables production of many of the weapons that Russia uses.”
Stoltenberg warned that Beijing’s continuous fueling of the war in Ukraine could adversely impact its interests and reputation.
“I call on China to stop supporting Russia’s illegal war,” he said.
China has previously described similar statements made by NATO as ‘malicious’ and biased.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in July he does not want China, which has a “no limits” partnership with Russia, to act as a mediator but hoped Beijing would apply greater pressure on Moscow to end the war.


Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time

A Toronto police vehicle is deployed at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2018. (REUTERS)
A Toronto police vehicle is deployed at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2018. (REUTERS)
Updated 15 sec ago
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Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time

A Toronto police vehicle is deployed at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2018. (REUTERS)
  • The school in the North York area of Toronto was targeted in a similar incident in May, and police believe the two shootings are connected

MONTREAL: A Jewish school in Toronto was hit by gunfire Saturday for the second time this year, police said, as Canada sees a rise in anti-Semitic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza.
No one was injured after shots were fired from a vehicle at around 4 am (0800 GMT) at the Bais Chaya Mushka girls school, with the only damage being a broken window, according to authorities.
The school in the North York area of Toronto was targeted in a similar incident in May, and police believe the two shootings are connected.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “very disturbed” by the incident, which came as Jewish people celebrated Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
“As we wait for more details, my heart goes out to the students, staff and parents who must be terrified and hurting today,” Trudeau said in a post on X.
“Anti-Semitism is a disgusting and dangerous form of hate — and we won’t let it stand,” he added.
According to a report published in May by Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada, anti-Semitic acts more than doubled in the country between 2022 and 2023.
In November 2023, a Jewish school in Montreal was shot at twice in a single week, with no one injured.
 

 


Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?

Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?
Updated 11 min 15 sec ago
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Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?

Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?
  • America’s first Black president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming the second

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama had frank words for Black men who may be considering sitting out the election.
“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said Thursday to Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials at a field office in Pittsburgh.
America’s first Black president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming the second.
Harris is counting on Black turnout in battleground states such as Pennsylvania in her tight race with Republican Donald Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.
Obama’s comments belie that Black men still overwhelmingly back Harris. But her campaign and allies have worked hard trying to shore up support with this critical group of voters — and addressing questions about potential misogyny.
Black Americans are the most Democratic-leaning racial demographic in the country, with Black men being outpaced only by Black women in their support for Democrats.
A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on several major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas.
There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women.
But Khalil Thompson, co-founder and executive director of Win With Black Men, said he agreed with what he saw as Obama’s larger point.
“I believe President Obama is speaking to a tangible, visceral understanding of what it means for all men to relate to women in America. Calling out misogyny is not wrong,” said Thompson, whose group raised more than $1.3 million for Harris from 20,000 Black men in the 24 hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race in July and made way for Harris.
Win With Black Men has organized weekly calls and events meant to bolster Harris’ standing with Black men. The flurry of activism has focused on combating misinformation in Black communities about Harris, as well as an emphasis on the policy priorities of Black men, which the group found are often centered on greater economic opportunities, safe communities, social justice policies and health care, particularly for the partners and children of Black men.
“We’re not a monolith,” Thompson said. “However, we are just like every other American in this country who wants a good paying job, that we can provide for our children and participate in their lives and the lives of our partner, that we can get them home safely, afford to go to the grocery store, save a little for retirement and have a vacation.”
Harris said she believes the votes of Black men must be earned, like with any group of voters.
Black men “are not in our back pocket,” she told a panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September.
Harris recently sat down with the “All The Smoke” podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to discuss her racial identity and policy issues of interest to Black men. On Tuesday, Harris will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.
The Harris campaign is conducting a number of outreach efforts to Black voters, including an tour of homecomings at historically Black colleges and universities, a number of radio and TV ads targeting Black voters in key states, and a get-out-the-vote operation engaging Black communities that complements the work of allied groups such as Win With Black Men.
It has also tapped high-profile surrogates, including politicians, business leaders, professional athletes and musical artists, to court Black men.
“Our Black men, we’ve got to get them out to vote,” said former NBA star Magic Johnson during a recent Harris rally in Flint, Michigan. “Kamala’s opponent promised a lot of things to the Black community that he did not deliver on. And we’ve got to make sure we help Black men understand that.”
The Trump campaign and its allies have held roundtables for Black men and conducted a bus tour through swing states that featured cookouts in cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. The campaign believes the former president’s appeals on issues such as the economy, immigration and traditional gender roles resonate with some Black men.
Trump earlier this year mused that the criminal charges against him in four separate indictments, one of which led to a conviction with another dismissed, made him more relatable to Black people.
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he told a Black conservative audience in South Carolina.
Trump’s support among Black, white, and Hispanic male voters worries senior Harris campaign officials as the election increasingly shapes up as divided along gender lines, with Harris stronger with women and Trump stronger with men.
But the debate over to what degree misogyny plays a role in some Black men not supporting Harris sidesteps a broader conversation on how Black men are engaged as full citizens in politics, argues Philip Agnew, founder of the grassroots political organization Black Men Build.
“To be a Black man in the United States is to be invisible and hypervisible at the same time, and neither one of those is a humanizing viewpoint,” Agnew said.
Agnew’s group traveled to 10 cities across the summer, hosting roundtables with Black men and making the case for civic engagement and a progressive politics. Agnew said many Black men throughout those conversations expressed exasperation toward politics, a sentiment shared by many Americans, in addition to a feeling that their political perspectives were often misunderstood or unappreciated.
“The Black men I know are incredibly concerned with the lives of our families and our communities,” Agnew said. “It’s because of an abundance of love for our sisters that we ask questions, not a lack of love.”


Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities

Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities
Updated 12 October 2024
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Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities

Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities
  • The ruling Frelimo party “disproportionately benefited from the use of state resources, including vehicles and public servants, during the campaign,” said an IRI statement

MAPUTO: Election observers in Mozambique have warned against irregularities after a vote expected to renew the ruling party’s grip on power, with some in the opposition already claiming fraud.
After a largely peaceful election on Wednesday, tensions were simmering in the southern African nation, though official results are not expected for another two weeks.
“Observers reported stacks of folded ballot papers in 10 counting processes followed, indicating possible ballot stuffing,” the EU’s election observation mission to Mozambique said.
Along with the US-funded International Republican Institute, also deployed in Mozambique, observers were critical of the context in which the vote took place.
The ruling Frelimo party “disproportionately benefited from the use of state resources, including vehicles and public servants, during the campaign,” said an IRI statement.
The party has been in power since independence 49 years ago.
Both the EU and IRI raised legitimacy issues with the voter roll.
“Overall, the registration rate in-country was 104 percent,” the EU said, while IRI said, “inflated voter rolls exceeded population estimates, particularly in Frelimo strongholds.”
The IRI went further, saying “the electoral process itself has, so far, fallen short of international standards for democratic elections.”
Observers from the Commonwealth, in their statement, called on “appropriate institutions provided by law to look into these matters.”
They urged “political party leaders and their supporters to continue to show restraint.”
Although outgoing President Filipe Nyusi, 65, is stepping down after the two terms allowed by the constitution, his party’s candidate, Daniel Chapo, 47, is widely expected to win.
One of the main opposition candidates, Venancio Mondlane, 50, warned that the “regime will do everything to ensure it does not lose the elections.”

 


Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk

Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk
Updated 12 October 2024
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Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk

Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk
  • Ukraine has held on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region since early August
  • “Regarding the Kursk operation, there were attempts by Russia to push back our positions, but we are holding the lines,” Zelensky said

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Moscow had attempted to push back Ukrainian positions in the Russian Kursk region but that Kyiv was “holding the line.”
Ukraine has held on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region since early August.
“Regarding the Kursk operation, there were attempts by Russia to push back our positions, but we are holding the lines,” Zelensky said.
Russia earlier this week said it had recaptured two villages in the Kursk region, and vowed to continue to push Ukrainian forces out of its territory.
Ukraine has said its offensive is intended to create a buffer zone in the region to stop shelling of its border areas.
Zelensky also acknowledged that the situation for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region and southern Zaporizhzhia region was “very difficult.”
Kyiv said earlier that Russian attacks Saturday had killed two people in the eastern Donetsk region: a 19-year-old traveling in a civilian car and an 84-year-old pensioner.


Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69
Updated 12 October 2024
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Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69
  • Died in North Macedonia lake-resort town of Ohrid where he was delivering speech at conference, local media reported

LONDON: Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the UK, has died. He was 69.
Salmond, who was a divisive figure in British politics and who as the then leader of the Scottish National Party took Scotland to the brink of independence in a 2014 referendum, died in the North Macedonia lake-resort town of Ohrid, local media reported.
“Unfortunately, Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who was one of the panellists at yesterday’s cultural diplomacy forum that was held in Ohrid, died suddenly today,” according to a statement from the office of former North Macedonia President Gjorgje Ivanov.
Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party calling him a “monumental figure” of both Scottish and British politics.
“He leaves behind a lasting legacy,” Starmer said. “As first minister of Scotland, he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history and culture, as well as the communities he represented.”
Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, and was leader of the Scottish National Party on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2014. Salmond, as then leader of the Scottish National Party, led the independence campaign in the referendum in 2014, but lost, gaining 45 percent of the vote. Salmond resigned from the SNP in 2018 in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.
He subsequently formed a new party called Alba — the Scottish Gaelic word for Scotland — and was acquitted of the charges.
The current SNP first minister, John Swinney, said that he was “deeply shocked and saddened at the untimely death” of Salmond.
“Over many years, Alex made an enormous contribution to political life, not just within Scotland, but across the UK and beyond,” he said. “He took the Scottish National Party from the fringes of Scottish politics into government and led Scotland so close to becoming an independent country.”
Former UK Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Salmond was a “huge figure in our politics.”
Salmond said that he learned to dream of a better Scotland at his grandfather’s knee, and chose to join the SNP at university in 1973 when his English girlfriend poked too much fun at his separatist sentiments.
Salmond’s academic and professional background prepared him to become Scotland’s most economically optimistic and visionary politician. At St. Andrew’s University. he double-majored in medieval history, reflecting his love of a Caledonia lost, and economics. In his 20s, he worked as an economist first for Britain’s regional government in Scotland and then at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he analyzed the country’s most dynamic industry, North Sea oil.
He won a seat in the UK Parliament in 1987, and within three years was party leader. He supported Tony Blair’s Labour government in the late 1990s to create a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, a reform that stopped short of independence, but gave his homeland a taste of self-government for the first time since its 1707 union with England.
Salmond then had a very public forum to push his dream of full independence forward — his government had an array of powers especially on social issues — and managed to convince the government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to call a referendum. Up until the results were known, it had been considered a close call.
Though the independence campaign lost, Salmond’s SNP managed to capitalize its support and has dominated Scottish politics since. The SNP has been the Edinburgh-based government since, though it suffered a huge setback in this year’s UK-wide general election, when it lost a vast majority of the seats it held in the House of Commons to Labour. The next Scottish election is due to take place in 2026.