Taylor Swift says she will vote for Kamala Harris

Taylor Swift says she will vote for Kamala Harris
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris listens as former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 12 September 2024
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Taylor Swift says she will vote for Kamala Harris

Taylor Swift says she will vote for Kamala Harris
  • In a post on Instagram, Swift told her over 280 million followers that she will vote for the US vice president in the Nov. 5 election
  • “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in her post

WASHINGTON: Pop megastar Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on Tuesday after her debate against Republican rival Donald Trump, calling the Democratic presidential nominee a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who could lead the country with calm rather than chaos.
In a post on Instagram, Swift told her over 280 million followers that she will vote for the US vice president in the Nov. 5 election, in the biggest celebrity endorsement yet for Harris. Polls show the race essentially tied between the two candidates.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in her post.
Swift was pictured with her cat in the post, which she signed as “childless cat lady,” in a dig at Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who in a 2021 interview called some Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies.” He has since said it was merely a “sarcastic remark.”

 


Swift also said she was impressed by Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, who the singer described as someone “who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Walz, who was on air on MSNBC when the endorsement was announced, said he was “incredibly grateful” and urged the singer’s large fan base of “Swifties” to “Get things going.”
Trump on Wednesday dismissed her endorsement, saying he “was not a Taylor fan.”
“It was just a question of time,” Trump told Fox News in an interview. “She’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat. And she’ll probably pay a price for it ... in the marketplace.”
Reproductive rights have become a key issue for voters since the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion two years ago. IVF fertility treatments have also been pushed into the spotlight since an Alabama court ruled earlier this year that frozen embryos were people.
Harris, who supports abortion rights, has cast Trump as a threat to reproductive rights in the country after he appointed Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the Roe v Wade ruling in 2022. Trump has defended the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling but has said a federal abortion ban is unnecessary and that the issue should be resolved at the state level.

In August, Trump posted a fake social media image of Swift asking people to vote for him in the November election.
Swift made a reference to that in her post late on Tuesday, saying Trump’s move “really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.”
She added: “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.”
Swift has supported Democrats in the past and backed President Joe Biden in 2020. Her endorsement is the latest for Harris from the entertainment industry. Many Hollywood actors, producers and filmmakers have said they viewed Harris, a native Californian, as their hometown candidate.
Harris shares a home with her husband, Doug Emhoff, a former entertainment lawyer, in the celebrity enclave of Brentwood on the west side of Los Angeles.
Shortly after Swift’s endorsement, the Harris-Walz campaign announced pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan inspired friendship bracelets.

 


Over 1,000 evacuated from Crimea oil terminal fire: mayor

Over 1,000 evacuated from Crimea oil terminal fire: mayor
Updated 3 sec ago
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Over 1,000 evacuated from Crimea oil terminal fire: mayor

Over 1,000 evacuated from Crimea oil terminal fire: mayor
MOSCOW: Over 1,000 residents have been evacuated due to a fire at a large oil terminal in Russian-annexed Crimea, a local official said Tuesday, after Ukraine claimed it had struck the depot.
Kyiv has ramped up strikes targeting Russia’s energy sector in recent months, aiming to dent revenues used by Moscow to fund its invasion, now grinding through its third year.
Ukraine said Monday its forces had carried out a “successful strike” on an offshore oil terminal overnight in Feodosia.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea then said a fire had broken out at the depot in the Black Sea port town of some 70,000 people and that there were no casualties.
Russia has not said there was a Ukrainian strike on the terminal.
“To ensure the safety of people living near the scene of the emergency situation, 1,047 people have been temporarily evacuated to shelters,” the Russian-appointed mayor of the town of Feodosia, Igor Tkachenko, wrote on Telegram.
On Monday, the fire caused road and train closures, but the Russian consumer safety watchdog said Monday initial checks did not find excess levels of air pollution.
The watchdog said the fire was raging at the Sea Oil Terminal, whose website says it “stores fuel in case of emergency situations and ensures Crimea’s energy security.”
The fire has spread to “up to 2,500 square meters, a source in the emergency services told RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday.
“The Feodosia terminal is the largest in Crimea in terms of transshipment of oil products, which were used, among other things, to meet the needs of the Russian occupation army,” the Ukrainian military said, vowing to continue such attacks.
Ukraine insists such strikes are fair retaliation for Russian attacks on its own energy infrastructure that have plunged millions into darkness.

Votes are being counted in the election for a truncated government in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Votes are being counted in the election for a truncated government in Indian-controlled Kashmir
Updated 28 min 41 sec ago
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Votes are being counted in the election for a truncated government in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Votes are being counted in the election for a truncated government in Indian-controlled Kashmir
  • A final result is expected to be declared later Tuesday by the region’s electoral office
  • Nearly 8.9 million people were eligible to vote in the election that began on Sept. 18 and concluded on Oct. 1

SRINAGAR, India: Votes were being counted Tuesday in the recent election for a largely powerless local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the first since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.
Thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled roads and guarded 28 counting centers as officials tallied votes. A final result was expected to be declared later Tuesday by the region’s electoral office.
Nearly 8.9 million people were eligible to vote in the election that began on Sept. 18 and concluded on Oct. 1. The overall turnout was 64 percent across the three phases, according to official data.
It was first such vote in a decade and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019.
The unprecedented move downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi through its appointed administrators along with unelected bureaucrats and security setup. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave way for demographic changes in the region.
The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media gagged.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Early results may give an indication of the vote’s direction. However, exit polls by major television channels in last two days projected the regional National Conference emerging as a single largest party followed by the Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Such mandate is likely to be seen as a referendum against Modi’s 2019 move.
The National Conference fought the election in alliance with India’s main opposition Congress party.
Their coalition may still need support of some seats to form the government, that is likely to come from Peoples Democratic Party, another Kashmiri group. Five seats are appointed and 90 elected, so a party or coalition would need at least 48 of the 95 total seats to form a government.
The vote will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a regional legislature, called an assembly, rather than being directly under New Delhi’s rule.
However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the assembly as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.
The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which the BJP for the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. But the government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition.
Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.


Son of Osama bin Laden deported from France, barred from returning

Son of Osama bin Laden deported from France, barred from returning
Updated 40 min 18 sec ago
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Son of Osama bin Laden deported from France, barred from returning

Son of Osama bin Laden deported from France, barred from returning
  • Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had signed an order banning Omar Binladin from France

PARIS: A son of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has been deported from France, where he lived for years painting landscapes in a Normandy village, and barred from returning after posting comments on social media deemed to have glorified terrorism.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had signed an order banning Omar Binladin from France, and that Binladin had previously been deported. He gave no details about the timing of the deportation or where Binladin had been sent.
“Mr Binladin, who has lived in the Orne region for several years as the spouse of a British national, posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that glorified terrorism,” Retailleau said on X.
“The administrative ban ensures that Mr.Binladin cannot return to France for any reason whatsoever.”
Binladin could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to local weekly newspaper Le Publicateur Libre, Binladin caught the attention of French authorities over a social media post on the birthday of his father, who was killed by US forces in 2011. Reuters was not immediately able to locate the social media post.
The paper reported in July 2023 that police had searched for Binladen in the village of Domfort, Normandy.


One mpox case found in Uganda prison, official says

One mpox case found in Uganda prison, official says
Updated 45 min 13 sec ago
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One mpox case found in Uganda prison, official says

One mpox case found in Uganda prison, official says
  • The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in August
  • The latest figures released last week showed Uganda’s mpox caseload had risen to 41

KAMPALA: A case of mpox has been found in Nakasongola jail in central Uganda, a prison spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding that the patient had been isolated and was receiving treatment.
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak, which was first detected in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo at the start of the year, a public health emergency of international concern in August after a new variant was identified.
“Unfortunately the prisoner couldn’t be given bail since he’s being held for murder,” said Frank Baine, a spokesperson for the Uganda Prison Service. “We suspect he came in with it but that’s being investigated.”
The latest figures released last week showed Uganda’s mpox caseload had risen to 41, according to a health official quoted by the Daily Monitor, Uganda’s biggest independent newspaper.
Health Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona said he would give an update on the outbreak later on Tuesday.


Indonesia to run thousands of kitchens as free meals initiative starts in January

Indonesia to run thousands of kitchens as free meals initiative starts in January
Updated 59 min 35 sec ago
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Indonesia to run thousands of kitchens as free meals initiative starts in January

Indonesia to run thousands of kitchens as free meals initiative starts in January
  • President-elect Prabowo Subianto kicks off his multi-billion dollar free meals program
  • When running at full scale, the free meals program will reach 83 million recipients

JAKARTA: Indonesia will open thousands of kitchens across the country next year as the incoming government led by president-elect Prabowo Subianto kicks off his multi-billion dollar free meals program, the head of the agency running the initiative said on Tuesday.
Prabowo will be sworn in as Indonesia’s next president on Oct. 20. In the first stage of his plan, meals will be given to around 20 million students from January at a cost of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.54 billion).
When running at full scale, the free meals program, which aims to end malnutrition in the country, will reach 83 million recipients, including pregnant mothers, and cost around $28 billion annually.
Dadan Hindayana, the head of the national nutrition agency, told an investment forum that at least 5,000 kitchens, called ‘service units’, will be set up next year, before ramping up to 30,000 units in 2027.
“The unit will not only operate as a kitchen but also have a role as a buyer for local agriculture products,” Dadan said, adding the units will create over one million new jobs.
The estimated demand for food under this program next year is at 312,000 metric tons of rice, 546,000 metric tons of chicken meat or 4.68 billion eggs, 936 million liters of milk and 546,000 metric tons of vegetables, according to Reuters calculation based on the agency’s data and accounting for six days a week.
Dadan said one kitchen, which would serve 3,000 children, would have a daily consumption of 200 kg of rice, 350 kg of chicken meat or 3,000 eggs, 600 liters of milk and 350 kg vegetables.
The nutrition agency will prioritize sourcing the food from local farmers and also will adjust the menus based on availability, Dadan said.