Victims of sexual abuse in the US state of New York can now sue over allegations dating back decades.
The Adult Survivors Act, which went into effect on Thursday, gives victims a one-year window to file lawsuits that would have otherwise expired under the statute of limitations.
E Jean Carroll, a writer, was among the first to sue under the act, accusing Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s.
Mr. Trump has denied her claims.
Ms Carroll, a writer, claims the attack occurred in a luxury department store dressing room in New York 27 years ago.
New York’s Adult Survivors Act allows victims to come forward if the sexual assault occurred when they were over the age of 18 and took place on a date that exceeds time limit that exists on most felonies.
The Child Abuse Act, which came into effect in 2019, allowed a two-year period for victims to come forward. Around 11,000 lawsuits were filed in New York against churches, hospitals, schools, camps and other institutions under that act.
Ms Carroll has also sued former president Trump for defamation after he accused her of lying when she first made her allegations public in 2019. Mr Trump has called Ms Carroll’s claims “fiction”. A civil trial for that case is scheduled for 6 February.
In a statement to media, Ms Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said the new lawsuit filed on Thursday is intended to hold Mr Trump accountable for the alleged assault.
Others are also planning to file lawsuits under the new Adult Survivors Act.
This includes a planned class action lawsuit against Robert Hadden, a former gynaecologist at hospitals tied to New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University, who has been accused by dozens of patients of sexual abuse.
Mr Hadden was convicted in 2016 on sex-related charges in state court but has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of abusing female patients over two decades.
Advocates for survivors of sex abuse believe the legislation provides an opportunity for people to come forward who may not have done so previously due to trauma or fear of retaliation.
Several other states have also extended or temporarily eliminated their statues of limitation on sex crimes in the wake of the #MeToo in 2018, including New Jersey, California, Arizona and Montana.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenhas spoken to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about the implementation of the ceasefire deal between government troops and Tigray forces in the north.
“[The] Ethiopian Prime Minister and I discussed the urgent need to implement the cessation of hostilities agreement and to secure lasting peace in northern Ethiopia,” Mr Blinken said in a tweet.
In a readout of his phone call to the Ethiopian leader, Mr Blinken stressed the need to immediately implement the deal “including withdrawal of all foreign forces and concurrent disarmament of the Tigrayan forces”.
Mr Abiy has already reiterated his government’s commitment to the peace deal.
The secretary of state said the US was committed to support the African Union-led process including its monitoring and verification mechanism of the peace agreement
Mr Blinken recognised ongoing efforts by the Ethiopian government “to work towards unhindered humanitarian assistance and restoration of basic services” in Tigray and neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.
Amhara and Afar regional forces, as well as Eritrean troops, have been fighting alongside the federal forces war against the Tigrayan fighters.
On 2 November the Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan fighters agreed, in a surprise move, to halt their two-year conflict.
Raphinha hopes Brazil will have reason to dance in celebration at the World Cup as he joked Tite’s side have 10 routines rehearsed for goals.
Brazil are among the tournament favourites in Qatar ahead of their Group G opener on Thursday against Serbia as the Selecao aim for a first World Cup triumph since 2002.
Barcelonawinger Raphinha was one of many to celebrate in support of Vinicius Junior, who was told in September by a Spanish journalist to stop dancing “to respect your mates and stop playing the monkey”.
Gabriel Jesus, Neymar and Richarlison – all members of Tite’s 26-man squad in the Middle East – were other notable supporters of Brazil team-mate Vinicius.
Raphinha appears a likely contender to start for the five-time world champions and he intends to give Brazil further reason to celebrate in style at the World Cup.
“To tell you the truth, we already have dances prepared for up to the 10th goal,” an upbeat Raphinha said on Monday.
“We have some 10 dances prepared for each match, one for the first, one for the second, one for the third … If we score more than 10, then we’ll have to start innovating.”
Pedro, Antony and Gabriel Martinelli are the other attacking options at Tite’s disposal and Raphinha has no doubts Brazil will go out to play free-flowing football.
“With Vinicius we gain more speed on the attack, while with [Lucas] Paqueta we have more control near the midfield,” former Leeds United forward Raphinha added.
“But Brazil has a characteristic of always being offensive-minded, no matter who gets to play.”
Richarlison, like Raphinha, will be a World Cup debutant for Brazil after scoring 17 goals in his 38 appearances for the Selecao since his debut in 2018.
The Tottenham striker wants to produce performances befitting of the number-nine shirt handed to him as he aims to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Ronaldo Nazario.
“When you wear the number nine jersey with the Brazilian national team, all you want to do is score goals,” Richarlison said. “With these team-mates, I’m sure the goals will come.”
Neymar came into criticism for posting a photo with six stars on his shorts, referencing a hopeful Brazil triumph at the World Cup, but Richarlison has no problem admitting the Selecao’s hopes.
“We are dreamers, we are going after this sixth star no matter what people are going to say,” he added.
Gareth Bale hailed Wales fighting spirit as they fought back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with the USA in their World Cup opener.
After Timothy Weah’s goal put the USA in front before the break, Robert Page’s side looked a different team in the second half.
And talisman Bale, 33, ensured Wales’ first World Cup game since 1958 ended on a positive note as his penalty in the 82nd minute meant the shares were spoiled.
Bale said:“It was not a good first half, to be honest. They played really well and we played poorly.
“[It was a] great talk by the gaffer at half-time, we changed a few things around and the boys came out fighting, battling like we always do, and we looked like we were going to win the game from the start of the second half.
“It’s a great point from where we were, [we] showed character like we did in 2021 at the Euros [against Switzerland] and we go again.”
Wales’ record goalscorer was not keen to share what boss Page said at the break but knows his team-mates will take a lot of confidence into their next clash with Iran on Friday.
He added: “Just a few tweaks. Nothing I want to share, but we just had to regroup and do what good teams do, come back stronger.
“We showed our character like we always do. From the second half our performance was fantastic so a lot of confidence and things to work on also. Now it’s about recovering and going again.”
And the Los Angeles FC star admitted it was “incredible” to score his first goal in the World Cup.
Bale said: “Incredible — but I would rather the three points, to be honest.
“I feel like I have to step up and always happy to do so.”
Kieffer Moore made a huge difference for Wales when he came on at half-time
Boss Page took Daniel James off for Kieffer Moore at half-time in a move that transformed Wales’ fortunes.
And the 48-year-old praised Bournemouth striker Moore for the difference he made in Qatar.
He said: “That was nothing against Daniel James at all, it just suited a Kieffer [Moore] to get us up the pitch.
“We couldn’t play over their press, we couldn’t get through. For us to make that little tweak and to get it over to Kieffer to get us up the pitch made a big difference. It was tactical.”
In less than four days’ time Wales face Iran in their second Group B clash and Page knows his side have plenty of recovering to do.
Page added: “The medical team have got quite a bit of work to do. We’ve got players that are not playing week-in, week-out at a competitive level, so they’re cramping up in the last five minutes.
“The medical team have got a big job to get us ready for Friday.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has reiterated the United States’ “unwavering” commitment to the Philippines during a visit aimed at rebuilding ties tested during the Duterte years, and countering China’s growing influence in the region.
Harris is the highest-ranking US official to visit Manila since President Ferdinand Marcos took power in June. She arrived in Manila as the Philippine military revealed a Chinese coastguard ship had on Sunday “forcefully retrieved” a floating object that was being towed by a Philippine vessel in the South China Sea, by cutting a line attaching it to the boat.
“We stand with you in defence of international rules and norms as it relates to the South China Sea,” Harris told Marcos at the start of talks in the presidential palace in Manila.
“An attack on the Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke the US mutual defence commitment … that is our unwavering commitment to the Philippines.”
The Philippines is one of a number of Southeast Asian nations with a claim to the South China Sea.
Beijing claims the waterway almost in its entirety and has become increasingly assertive in recent years, creating artificial islands and developing military bases.
Harris is due to visit Palawan, an island on the edge of the South China Sea,during her three-day visit to the Philippines and will also reaffirm Washington’s support for a 2016 international tribunal ruling that rejected China’s expansive claim to the waters, a senior US official said. Beijing has refused to accept the ruling.
The US has had a long and complex relationship with the Philippines and the Marcos family. Marcos’s dictator father ruled the former US colony for 20 years with the support of Washington, which saw him as a Cold War ally.
Relations between the two countries soured when Duterte became president, however. In 2016, Duterte called Barack Obama a “son of a whore” over warnings he would be questioned by the then US president over his controversial drug war in which thousands have been killed.
China has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its claims to the South China Sea had no legal basis [File: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters]
Washington is now seeking to bolster its security alliance with Manila under his successor.
Marcos said he did not “see a future for the Philippines that does not include the United States”.
That includes a mutual defence treaty and a 2014 agreement, known by the acronym EDCA, which allows for the US military to store defence equipment and supplies on five Philippine military bases, and allows US troops to rotate through those bases.
The US and the Philippines have expressed support for accelerating EDCA’s implementation as China becomes increasingly assertive.
On Sunday, Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, commander of the Western Command (WESCOM), said Philippine authorities had sent a vessel to examine an object seen floating in the South China Sea early on Sunday about 730 metres (800 yards) west of Thitu Island.
The team tied the object to their boat and started towing it before a Chinese coastguard vessel approached and blocked their course twice before deploying an inflatable boat that cut the tow line, then took the object back to the coastguard ship, the statement said without elaborating on the object or why China might have taken it.
China’s embassy in the Philippines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thitu, known to Filipinos as Pagasa, is close to Subi Reef, one of the seven artificial islands in the Spratlys on which China has installed surface-to-air missiles and other weapons.
Thitu is one of nine features that the Philippines occupies in the Spratly archipelago and is the Southeast Asian country’s strategically most important outpost in the South China Sea.
The Philippine foreign ministry said in a statement it would conduct a thorough review of the incident and was awaiting detailed reports from maritime law enforcement agencies.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosisays she will not run for a leadership post, a move that marks the end of an era and sets up a major shakeup for House Democrats.
In a speech on the House floor Thursday, Pelosi touted the party’s legislative achievements under her leadership before saying: “Now we must move boldly into the future.”
“The hour’s come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus,” the speaker said.
Pelosi said she will continue “speaking for the people of San Francisco” as their congresswoman, but not seek re-election to a leadership post.
Her announcement comes after Democrats lost a majority in the lower chamber but maintained control of the Senate in the 2022 midterms, holding off a potentially larger “red wave.”
Pelosi said that when she first visited the capital as a child, she never imagined she would go “from a homemaker to House speaker.”
President Joe Biden phoned the United States team in Qatar to urge Gregg Berhalter’s players to “shock ’em all” at the World Cup.
Ahead of their opening game against Wales on Monday, the team gathered to listen to Biden offer words of encouragement to a group he acknowledged were outsiders.
The United States men’s team took third place at the inaugural 1930 World Cup but have never gone further than the quarter-finals since, only reaching that stage once, in 2002.
By comparison, the US women’s national team are four-time World Cup winners, and will be chasing a hat-trick of consecutive titles at next year’s finals in Australia and New Zealand.
Biden, who turned 80 on Sunday, told Berhalter: “Coach, put me in, I’m ready to play.”
He added: “You guys, I know you’re the underdog, but I’ll tell you what, man, you got some of the best players in the world on your team, and you’re representing this country, and I know you’re gonna play your hearts out, so let’s go shock ’em all.
“Keep trusting in one another, play as hard as you can, for you and your families, your team-mates, and the whole country is rooting for you.”
Berhalter replied: “That’s a very nice message, Mr President, the whole team is here right now and we really appreciate your support and we’re ready to go.”
The United States also face England and Iran in Group B, returning to the World Cup stage after missing out on the Russia 2018 finals.
Biden added: “I wish I were there to see you, I really do, go get ’em guys, just play your hearts out. I know you will, I know you will.”
Current data from the United Nations COMTRADE database have indicated that Ghana imported US$151million worth of raw sugar in 2020 alone – with the country being ranked 45th largest importer of the commodity globally.
The commodity is also ranked among the first ten most-imported products into the country, as Ghana’s essential food imports bill continuously rise year by year – currently valued at US$2billion according to the finance ministry.
The data also added that the imports of sugar and sugar confectionery was US$158.3million in 2019, with Mexico, Brazil, USA, Guatemala, France and India being the lead importers.
Data from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) show that the country consumes about 370,000 tonnes of sugar annually, with domestic production currently at an all-time low.
Industrial and domestic supply prospects
Huge supply opportunities exist for large industrial sugar importers, such as FNJ Investments, Fan Milk, Multi-Pac, Kasapreko, Stallion Industries, Nutrifoods and Blow Chem, among others
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has further projected that domestic consumption of sugar in Ghana could rise to 872,000 metric tonnes in 2030.
Similarly, the West Africa sub-region – which is also forecast to experience rapid growth in sugar consumption – also presents a potential sugar export market for Ghana. Amid these market potentials and existing congenial climatic and lithospheric conditions, production of sugar remains at zero.
The Sugar Industry in Ghana
Ghana’s sugar industry is virtually fully dependent on imports. Local production remains negligible at a mere 150 tonnes in 2013 according to the UN data, and there’s a mere 6,000 hectares of sugar plantation in existence.
With two sugar mills in Asutsuare and Komenda, these facilities have been lying idle since 1983 largely due to inefficient management. However, the Komenda Sugar Factory was revived in 2015 and 2016 – but was shut down shortly after due to lack of raw materials.
Attempts to revive Komenda sugar factory
In 2016, government secured a US$35million loan from the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India and invested it in the factory. An additional US$24million was set aside to support out-grower farmers.
The factory, which was inaugurated on May 31, 2016 to produce sugar, became stillborn due to a multiplicity of factors that were touted as technical and operational challenges.
On June 3, 2020, however, Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen announced in parliament that Cabinet had officially approved Park Agrotech Limited as a new strategic investor to operate the factory.
That notwithstanding, the current status of the investment by Park Agrotech is unknown.
Nevertheless, a number of plans, according to the trade ministry, are also underway to develop sugar-cane plantations for a second revival of the Komenda sugar factory.
Also, plans by multinational trading house Cargill to build a sugar refinery in Tema are a possibility.
GEPA’s NEDS projections
Meanwhile, GEPA through the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) has designed a blueprint for harnessing the full potential of sugar production to curb the rising imports.
In the NEDS, the Authority has projected revenues from the export of sugar by 2029 to be US$1.2billion.
Police accuse 51-year-oldof planning ‘armed revolution’ to seize power from ex-President Jovenel Moise.
Canadian federal police have charged a man in the province of Quebec with “terrorism” over an alleged plot to overthrow slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s government.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Thursday that Gerald Nicolas, 51, from the town of Levis near Quebec City “planned to stage an armed revolution in Haiti and ultimately seize power”.
“It is alleged that he took concrete actions, including travelling to Haiti to coordinate a group of individuals whose intention was to take part in a coup against the established authority,” a police statement said.
The police force did not say exactly when the suspect travelled to Haiti or when the alleged plot took place, but it did say its investigation, which began in July 2021, was unrelated to Moise’s assassination that same month.
The Haitian leader was killed on July 7, 2021, by a gang of mercenaries who stormed his home in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The killing sent shockwaves around the world and thrust the Caribbean nation, which was already facing political turmoil, into deeper instability.
More than a year later, Haiti is reeling from surging violence as armed gangs have battled for control of key areas in the political vacuum created by Moise’s assassination.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s investigation into the killing appears to have stalled.
Dozens of people have been arrested in the ongoing inquiry, including several Colombian nationals, but the process has been slow-moving and many questions – and theories – remain as to why Moise was killed.
The United States Department of Justice alleges that a group of about 20 Colombians and a group of Haitian Americans participated in a plot that, while initially focused on kidnapping Moise in a purported arrest operation, “ultimately resulted in a plot to kill the president”.
The US has charged three men in relation to the assassination, accusing them of being members of the plot.
Former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph was extradited to the US from Jamaica and charged in May. The other men charged are Mario Antonio Palacios, a former member of the Colombian military, and Rodolphe Jaar, a dual Haitian-Chilean citizen.
In a report (PDF) ordered by the US Congress on Moise’s assassination, theDepartment of State said it “continues to assist Haitian authorities as they proceed with their investigation” into the president’s killing.
“Embassy Port-au-Prince estimates Haitian authorities have detained around 74 suspects during the investigation; approximately 42 remain in pre-trial detention,” said the report, which was released this month.
The State Department said a fifth judge was appointed to head the Haitian investigation in May but “investigative judges assigned to the case and related figures have reported threats to their safety for working on the case”.
‘The hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus,’ says the 82-year-old former US House Speaker.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will not run for reelection to the Democratic Party’s congressional leadership after Republicans regained control of the chamber by a slim margin.
Pelosi, 82, became the first female speaker of the House in 2007, and has been the top Democratic lawmaker for nearly 20 years. She stated on Thursday that she will continue to serve in Congress to represent her California constituents, but that she is ready to pass the leadership torch to the next generation.
“With great confidence in our caucus, I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect, and I’m grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility.”
Democrats will elect their leaders for the new Congress, which convenes early next year, at the end of the month. House Democratic Conference Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, a 52-year-old New York representative, is widely considered a frontrunner to replace Pelosi.
The top three Democrats in the House – Pelosi, House majority leader Steny Hoyer and majority whip Jim Clyburn – are in their 80s.
Hoyer also announced in a letter to Democratic lawmakers on Thursday that he will not seek a leadership position in thenext Congress, saying that it was time for a “new generation of leaders”. Clyburn, too, suggested that he will leave his position as whip.
“Speaker Pelosi has left an indelible mark on Congress and the country, and I look forward to her continued service and doing whatever I can to assist our new generation of Democratic Leaders which I hope to be Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, and Pete Aguilar,” Clyburn wrote in a tweet.
In her speech on Tuesday, Pelosi warned about the fate of US democracy, citing the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump who sought to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“American democracy is majestic, but it is fragile,” Pelosi said. “Many of us here have witnessed this fragility firsthand – tragically in this chamber. And so, democracy must be forever defended from forces that wish it harm.”
Biden called Pelosi the “most consequential” House speaker in US history.
“Because of Nancy Pelosi, the lives of millions and millions of Americans are better, even in districts represented by Republicans who voted against her bills and too often vilify her. That’s Nancy – always working for the dignity of all of the people,” the US president said in a statement on Thursday.
The daughter of a former US congressman and Baltimore mayor, Pelosi has been serving in the House since 1987 – before some current members of her caucus were born.
The outgoing House speaker is often praised as an effective lawmaker who managed to keep unity in a Democratic caucus that is far from ideologically homogeneous.
During her two stints as speaker – from 2007 to 2011 and 2019 until the end of the year – she passed historic legislation, including former President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
US lawmakers were quick to pay tribute to Pelosi on Thursday, praising her leadership and years of service.
“Nancy Pelosi is a trailblazer. A fierce advocate for California and our entire country, she was fearless in the face of impeachments and insurrection. Her legacy will live on with our next generation of leaders,” House Democrat Katie Porter wrote on Twitter.
Senator Chris Van Hollen said Pelosi made history as the first female speaker of the House but also offered the most effective leadership.
“She has been the fearless force behind much of the progress we have made in the 21st Century. Her legacy is forever etched in American history,” Van Hollen said in a social media post.
Over her career, Pelosi has been criticised from the left for not pushing more progressive legislation and failing to back impeaching former President George W Bush over the Iraq invasion and torture of prisoners after the 9/11 attacks.
And Republicans have vilified Pelosi as a symbol of everything they dislike about Democrats: a member of the so-called “coastal elite” who supports higher taxation and government spending.
Ahead of the midterm vote, “firing Nancy Pelosi” became a rallying cry for Republicans. Despite an underwhelming election performance where they failed to capture the Senate, Republicans were able to narrowly take back the House, ensuring that Pelosi would not serve for another term as speaker.
Although the president is largely responsible for US foreign policy, in her decades-long career, Pelosi has stepped into the international limelight.
Earlier this year, she angered China by visiting Taiwan. She also oversaw the allocation of continuing US aid to Ukraine after the Russian invasion and travelled to Kyiv where she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May.
The outgoing speaker is a staunch supporter of Israel. “If this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain would be our commitment to our aid – I don’t even call it our aid – our cooperation with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are,” she said in 2018.
The United States has strongly condemned Russia’s latest missile attacks against Ukraine, which are reported to have struck residential buildings in Kyiv and additional sites across the country.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said the strikes will serve to only deepen the concerns among the G20 about the “destabilising impact of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war”.
“It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Sullivan said.
“Our thoughts are with the brave Ukrainian people, who continue to demonstrate resilience and courage in their defence of their sovereignty and democracy.”
He said the US, its allies and its partners would continue to provide Ukraine with what it needed to defend itself, including air defence systems, adding the US would stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.
Russiamay have delayed announcing its withdrawal from Kherson in order to sway the outcome of the midterm elections in favour of Republicans, according to sources familiar with US intelligence.
Republicans failed to achieve the hoped-for “red wave,” and Democrats retained control ofthe US Senate after holding seats in key swing states Arizona and Nevada.
According to the most recent NBC News projection, Republicans will win 220 House seats to the Democrats’ 215.
That means the Republicans would still take control but with much less authority than the 40+ gains anticipated by some pollsters.
Now, sources have suggested that Russia delayed its Kherson withdrawal announcement in part to stop the Democrats from a political lead.
One source said the US elections were a “pre-planned condition” when it came to Russia’s acknowledgement that it was not succeeding in the Kherson region.
Meanwhile another source told CNN: “Even though there is still robust bipartisan agreement on Ukraine, the party that has been much more vocally supportive is the Democratic Party, and particularly the Biden administration.”
In Washington last week, President Joe Biden also appeared to notice the timing of Russia’s announcement as he described how Russia’s decision to leave Kherson was “evidence” they had “some real problems”.
He said: “I find it interesting that they waited until after the [US midterm] election to make that judgement.”
The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that talks between US and Russian officials took place in Ankara.
“Such negotiations really took place. It was the American side’s initiative,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.
According to reports, US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns travelled to Turkey to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.
Burns reportedly warned Naryshkin of the consequences Russia would face in the event it used nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Police identified a student, Christopher Darnell Jones, as the suspect, and warned people to remain sheltered in place.
A shooting on the campus of the University of Virginiahas killed three people and wounded two others, police said in a tweet.
The university police identified a student, Christopher Darnell Jones, as the suspect, and said multiple agencies were engaged in an active search.
Police also warned everyone to remain sheltered in place.
PD AGENCIES ARE CONDUCTING A COMPLETE SEARCH ON AND AROUND UVA GROUNDS AT THIS TIME. EXPECT INCREASED LAW ENFORCEMENT PRESENCE. REMAIN SHELTERED IN PLACE.
“As of this writing, I am heartbroken to report that the shooting has resulted in three fatalities; two additional victims were injured and are receiving medical care,” university president James E Ryan wrote in a message to the community early on Monday morning.
“We are working closely with the families of the victims, and we will share additional detail as soon as we are able.
“Our University Police Department has joined forces with other law enforcement agencies to apprehend the suspect, and we will keep our community apprised of developments as the situation evolves.
“The second we all got that message that there was an active shooter, my phone flooded with messages,” she said. “You just don’t really think something could happen like this to your community until it does.”
This is not the first time that a university campus in Virginia has witnessed a shooting incident.
In February this year, two campus police officers were shot dead at Bridgewater College after reports of a suspicious man near a school building.
In 2007, Virginia Tech experienced one of the worst mass shootings in US history when an undergraduate student killed 32 people before shooting himself on April 16 of that year.
Sunday’s shooting is the latest in a wave of gun violence on US college and high school campuses in recent years. The bloodshed has fuelled a debate over tighter restrictions on access to guns in the country.
As the sun sets in Bali, Xi and Biden remain ensconced in the Mulia hotel, their meeting approaching the two-hour mark.
Officials in the United States do not believe it will last much longer. However, with Biden’s press conference scheduled for 21:30 local time (13:30 GMT), it is clear that they are also prepared for talks to last longer if necessary.
The two are believed to be discussing Taiwan, global economic security, North Korea, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US also hopes that the meeting will ease tensions that have risen since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August.
He says it was this method that “played an important role in diplomatic ice-breaking during the Cold War years” – a reference to tension between the US and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies during the mid-20th Century.
As the sun sets in Bali, Xi and Biden remain ensconced in the Mulia hotel, their meeting approaching the two-hour mark.
Officials in the United States do not believe it will last much longer. However, with Biden’s press conference scheduled for 21:30 local time (13:30 GMT), it is clear that they are also prepared for talks to last longer if necessary.
The two are believed to be discussing Taiwan, global economic security, North Korea, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US also hopes that the meeting will ease tensions that have risen since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August.
Biden and US officials have gone to great pains to clearly signal this aim of conciliation in recent days. Biden has stressed repeatedly that the US does not want conflict with Xi, and he told Xi earlier that the US and China must show they “can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together”.
Biden also said he was “committed to keeping the lines of communication open between you and me personally” as well as their governments across the board, and that the world expected their two countries to play a role in addressing climate challenges and food shortages.
Xi appears to be on the same page. He acknowledged the China-US relationship was in “such a situation” that it has caused concern, “and it is not what the international community expects of us”.
“We need to chart the right course for the China-US relationship,”he told Biden, given that “the world has come to a crossroads”.
Both leaders have basically acknowledged they know what’s fully at stake here, and signalled to the global community that they will act responsibly. We will soon find out what they’ve agreed on – and the path they have set for the rest of us.
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is projected to defeat Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, who was backed by former President Donald Trump.
The results amount to the best midterm performance for a sitting party in 20 years.
US President Joe Biden said he was incredibly pleased, and it was time for Republicans to decide “who they are”.
Democratic Senate Majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the results showed the American people had rejected what he called the “violent rhetoric” of the Republican Party.
The Democrats will now have 50 Senate seats, with Republicans currently on 49.
The remaining seat, Georgia, is going to a run-off in December. In the event of the Senate being divided equally between the two parties, Vice-President Kamala Harris has the casting vote.
Republicans could still take control of the US House of Representatives as votes continue to be tallied from a handful of districts after Tuesday’s elections.
If the Republicans win the House they could still thwart much of Mr Biden’s agenda.
“I’m not surprised by the turnout. I’m incredibly pleased. And I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates,” Mr Biden said in Cambodia, where he is attending a summit.
Mr Schumer said the country “showed that we believed in our democracy and that the roots are strong and it will prevail as long as we fight for it”.
Ms Cortez Masto was neck-and-neck with her challenger Adam Laxalt throughout the midterm elections.
The Republican gained notoriety two years ago for championing defeated former President Trump’s false claims of election fraud. One recent poll had Mr Laxalt making inroads with Latino voters, who make up one in five eligible voters in Nevada.
But Ms Cortez Masto managed to secure victory, and with it her party’s control of the Senate.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Catherine Cortez Masto received a congratulatory call from President Biden after the result
The result is a big blow to the Republicans, who were hoping for a “red wave” – an electoral rout which would deliver a harsh rebuke of President Biden and his Democrats.
While the Republicans have made modest gains and remain favoured to win the House of Representatives, the Democrats have performed much better than expected.
Mr Trump – who continues to insist, falsely, that he won the 2020 presidential election – has been making unsubstantiated claims about the midterms.
“The Democrats are finding all sorts of votes in Nevada and Arizona. What a disgrace that this can be allowed to happen!” he posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
Mr Trump is expected to announce that he will run for president again in 2024, but candidates he backed received mixed results in the midterms.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley – who represents Missouri – said after the Senate result that the old party was “dead” and it was time for something new.
Result will bolster Biden’s standing in party
The Republican midterm flameout is now official. Democrats have retained control of the US Senate, which will pave the way for Joe Biden to spend two more years filling the federal courts with his nominees and staffing his administration largely the way he sees fit.
The Georgia Senate run-off is no longer a pivotal contest to determine control of the chamber, although a victory for Democrats there would make holding the majority in two years easier, when the party will have more at-risk seats to defend.
There is still a likelihood, although not certainty, that the Republicans will control a slim majority in the House of Representatives, bringing a variety of headaches for the president.
His legislative agenda is dead, and more aggressive Republican oversight is in store, but even that has a silver lining – if his political opponents are unable to effectively govern due to internal discord.
The consequences of this history-defying midterm election result are still being revealed.
Donald Trump’s political future has been damaged, although how enduringly remains to be seen. Joe Biden’s standing within his party has been bolstered. The political world in the US looks considerably different than it did just a week ago.
The midterm elections are for Congress, which is made up of two parts – the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Congress makes nationwide laws. The House decides which laws are voted on while the Senate can block or approve them, confirm appointments made by the president and, more rarely, conduct any investigations against him.
These votes are held every two years and when they fall in the middle of the president’s four-year term of office, they are called the midterm elections.
Each state has two senators who sit for six-year terms. Representatives serve for two years, and represent smaller districts.
All the seats in the House of Representatives were up for election in the midterms, alongside one-third of the Senate.
Several major states also have elections for their governor and local officials.
US government has announced thatthe remains of a US soldier who was slain and declared missing during the Korean War have been identified 72 years later.
Army Cpl Tommie T Hanks, then 27, was killed in 1950 while attempting to escape from a site near Anju, North Korea.
Six years later, his body was ruled “unrecoverable.”
Nearly 7,600 of those killed in the war are still unaccounted for, according to the US defence department.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said Cpl Hanks was reported missing in action on 26 November while his unit was attempting to withdraw from east of the Ch’ongch’on River near Anju.
“His remains could not be recovered, and there is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war,” said the DPAA in a statement.
Hanks’s identification became possible after North Korea turned over 55 boxes containing the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War.
It came after a summit between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018.
To identify Hanks’s remains, scientists used anthropological and isotope analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.
He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on a date yet to be determined.
Since 1982, the remains of over 450 Americans killed in the Korean War have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honours.
This number is in addition to the roughly 2,000 Americans whose remains were identified in the years following the end of hostilities when the North Korean government returned over 3,000 sets of remains to the US.
The DPAA says the remains of hundreds of service members still unaccounted for are classified as “non-recoverable”.
The Korean War is considered the deadliest conflict of the Cold War era, according to the DPAA, with the US suffering approximately 36,500 casualties.
He had spent the past year insisting that he was Arthur Knight, an orphan from Ireland who had never been to the US.
He claimed that he had been given distinctive tattoos matching those on the arms of Rossi while he was lying unconscious in a Glasgow hospital in an attempt to frame him.
But after a three-day hearing, Sheriff Norman McFadyen said: “I am ultimately satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Mr Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person sought for extradition by the United States.”
Sheriff McFadyen rejected Rossi’s claims to have been the victim of mistaken identity as “implausible” and “fanciful” and said his repeated name changes were “highly suspicious” and “consistent with someone who was hiding from someone or something”.
He will now face an extradition hearing in March, when the Scottish courts will decide whether to send him back to the US to stand trial on the allegations against him.
Rossi was arrested by Police Scotland last year after staff at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital recognised his tattoos – images of which had been circulated by Interpol – while he was being treated for Covid.
Fingerprint expert Lisa Davidson told the court that prints taken from the man claiming to be Arthur Knight after his arrest were identical to those of Rossi, which were included on a US extradition request and the Interpol red notice.
IMAGE SOURCE,PAWTUCKET POLICE DEPT Image caption, Medical staff at a Glasgow hospital recognised Rossi by the distinctive tattoos on his arms
But Rossi claimed the fingerprints had been meddled with and taken from him by an NHS worker called “Patrick” on behalf of David Leavitt, a Utah county lawyer.
Advocate depute Paul Harvey dismissed his claims as “entirely outlandish” and “bizarre”.
Rossi’s accent also changed several times while he was giving evidence.
A series of earlier hearings in the case had seen Rossi sack at least six lawyers and claim to have been tortured in prison.
His wife, Miranda Knight, 41, gave evidence to the court during the hearing and said her husband had given no indication that he was really Nicholas Rossi.
Rossi’s marriage certificate was shown to the court,which had been signed under the name Nicholas Brown.
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA Image caption, Miranda Knight told the court she did not believe her husband was really Nicholas Rossi
The court was told on Wednesday that US prosecutors submitted additional extradition requests over an allegation of rape in Salt Lake City and another over an allegation of sexual assault against Rossi.
Rossi, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, was already fighting an extradition request by authorities in Utah who allege he raped a 21-year-old woman in the state in 2008.
He had previously been convicted of sexually assaulting another woman, known as Mary, after meeting her online in 2008.
She told BBC Scotland that Rossi pinned her against a wall, forcefully kissed and groped her and masturbated in front of her at a college in Ohio.
Mary said she hoped Rossi would now face justice on the other allegations against him, adding: “He is trying to fool everybody and I’m glad so many people see through it”.
Who is Nicholas Rossi?
Image caption, Nicholas Rossi is wanted by authorities in Utah
Authorities in the US have said that Rossi was also known as Nicholas Alahverdian in the state of Rhode Island, where he was involved in local politics and was a critic of the state’s child welfare system.
Rossi told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.
Court records showed that Utah officials were looking for him at the time in connection with an alleged rape.
He used several other aliases, including Nicholas Edward Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown and Arthur Knight.
The FBI also had a warrant for his arrest on charges of defrauding his foster father by taking out credit cards in his name and running up debts of more than $200,000.
Aid to Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region has yet to resume, despite a recent truce, according to international humanitarian agencies, despite the US urging Addis Abeba to honour the agreement and allow assistance.
The federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls Tigray, signed a ceasefire agreement on November 2 and pledged to work with humanitarian organisations to expedite the provision of aid.
But it did not commit to a specific timeline and it has denied blocking aid.
On Friday, Ethiopia’s chief negotiator said essential services were being restored and humanitarian aid was flowing into the region of some 5.5 million people, half of them in severe need of food after the two-year conflict.
The two sides are currently negotiating the implementation of that agreement, including the resumption of aid deliveries.
International aid agencies say they have been blocked from sending assistance into Tigray for much of the conflict.
Three officials at international humanitarian organisations said despite the truce, their convoys were still waiting for permission from authorities to cross into the area.
The US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs urged a swift resolution.
“Vulnerable Ethiopians in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara need aid now,” it said on Twitter, referring to the neighbouring regions affected by the war. “Waiting urgently for actions to respect and implement the agreement.”
It also quoted the Ethiopian government’s lead negotiator, Redwan Hussein, as saying during continuing talks in Nairobi that aid would flow unhindered “by week’s end”.
“Aid is flowing like no other times,” he said on Twitter, adding that 35 trucks with food and three trucks with medicine had arrived in the northern city of Shire and services were being reconnected.
Another official familiar with the humanitarian situation said, however, Redwan may have been talking about Ethiopian trucks, while international agencies could not move freely.
Redwan did not respond to a request for comment.
Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission, which coordinates Ethiopian aid, said it would provide an update later on Friday.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia did not respond to a request for comment.
Against this backdrop, the African Union-mediated talks between Ethiopia’s government and representatives from Tigray continued in Nairobi on Friday, with military commanders trying to work out details of the disarmament of Tigray forces. The resumption of aid deliveries was also on the agenda.
Observers have expressed concerns about when Eritrean and other forces that were not party to the ceasefire will withdraw. Eritrea’s government has said nothing about whether it would withdraw its troops and abide by the ceasefire agreement.
The ultimate outcome of the US midterms remainsunclear nearly two days after polls closed, with control of Congress still hanging in the balance.
Control of the Senate now hinges on the outcome of three states: Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, where a run-off election will be held on 6 December.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are inching closer to a 218-seat majority in the House of Representatives.
President Joe Biden has hailed the results as a “good day for America”.
Electoral officials have repeatedly described the delays announcing the final results as a normal, expected part of US elections due to thin margins between candidates, possible recounts and potentially contested elections. Additionally, rules differ by state for how mail-in ballots are counted, and when.
As of Thursday morning:
The House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is leaning towards the Republicans, according to projections from CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US.
The Republicans have so far secured 211 seats, compared to 193 for the Democrats. A total of 218 seats are needed to gain a majority in the legislative body, which has 435 members.
The Senate
Control of the Senate remains a toss-up, with the Democrats having secured 48 seats to the Republicans’ 49. Three races – Arizona, Nevada and Georgia – have yet to be called.
CBS has projected that Arizona is leaning Democrat, while Nevada could go to either party.
Alaska- where three candidates were on the ballot in a ranked-choice voting system – has not been called, although CBS has projected it will remain Republican, with two Republicans – incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski and challenger Kelly Tshibaka – in the lead.
In Georgia, the closely-watched Senate race between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will head to a run-off in December.
With a third-party candidate on the ballot in this week‘s election, neither candidate secured the 50% of the votes needed for a winner to be declared.
In Arizona, hundreds of thousands of ballots remained uncounted as of Wednesday night, including an estimated 400,000 in Maricopa County and approximately 159,000 in Pima County, where officials have said that a final count is unlikely until early next week.
In addition to a hotly contested Senate race between Democrat Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters, the state is host to a high-profile match-up for governor between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Donald Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake.
Votes are still also being tabulated inNevada,where thousands of ballots – nearly 60,000 – still needed to be processed.
Even with results still being calculated on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said the election was a “good day” for US democracy. An expected ‘red wave’ of resounding Republican victories failed to materialise despite high inflation and relatively low approval ratings for the Biden administration.
Share prices have risen as investors greet official data showing that the cost of living in the United States increased at a slower-than-expected rate last month.
Shares soared in the United States and Asia as traders reacted to the data, and stock markets in the United Kingdom and Europe rose on Friday morning.
According to the Labor Department, the US consumer price index increased 7.7% year on year in October.
Since the beginning of the year, this is the smallest annual increase.
The figure, which is down from 8.2% the previous month, means the US central bank may ease its aggressive approach to raising interest rates to tackle inflation.
On Friday Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped by 7.7%, while the Nikkei in Japan ended the day 3% higher and South Korea’s Kospi gained 3.4%.
The Hang Seng was also boosted after Chinese state media reported that Covid-19 travel measures will be eased.
That came after the benchmark S&P 500 index in New York rose by more than 5.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3.7%. At the same time the technology-heavy Nasdaq soared by 7.35%.
Shares in US technology companies saw some of the strongest gains with Amazon up by over 12%, while Apple and Microsoft rose more than 8%.
European share prices edged higher on Friday too, although they didn’t match the large gains seen in the US and Asia.
In London, the FTSE 100 index was up by 0.4% in early trading after official figures showed the UK appears to be heading into recession.
The economy contracted by 0.2% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Meanwhile the US dollar, which has jumped in value this year, weakened against major currencies including the pound and the yen.
Earlier this month the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate to a fresh 14-year high.
The move took the central bank’s benchmark lending rate to 3.75%-4%, the highest since January 2008.
Also this month, the Bank of England lifted interest rates to 3% from 2.25%, the biggest jump since 1989, and warned that the UK is facing its longest recession since records began.
A recession is defined as when a country’s economy shrinks for two three-month periods – or quarters – in a row.
Higher interest rates make it less likely that people will spend on big ticket items, such as homes, cars or expanding their businesses. That fall in demand is, in turn, expected to curb price increases.
Food and energy prices have jumped, in part because of the Ukraine war, which has left many households around the world facing hardship and started to drag on the global economy.
Price increases in the United States moderated last month, the latest sign that the nation’s inflationary pressures may be easing as the economy slows and consumers become more cautious.
According to the government, consumer inflation was 7.7 percent year on year in October and 0.4 percent month on month in September. The year-over-year increase was the smallest since January, slowing from 8.2 percent in September. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 6.3 percent over the past year and 0.3 percent from September.
The numbers were all lower than economists had expected.
Helping drive the inflation slowdown from September to October was used car prices, which dropped for a fourth straight month. Also down were the prices of clothing and medical care. Food price increases slowed. By contrast, energy prices rebounded in October after having declined in August and September.
Even with last month’s tentative easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep raising interest rates to try to stem persistently high price increases. But Thursday’s better-than-expected data raised the possibility that the Fed could decide to slow its rate hikes, a prospect that sent stock prices jumping immediately after the government issued the figures.
“We expect this to mark the start of a much longer disinflationary trend that we think will convince the Fed to halt its [hikes] early next year,” said Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist at Capital Economics, a consulting firm. “With supply shortages normalising, deflationary pressure is now finally showing up.”
Recession fears
Many economists have warned that in continuing to tighten credit, the central bank is likely to cause a recession by next year. So far this year, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate six times in sizeable increments, heightening the risk that prohibitively high borrowing rates – for mortgages, auto purchases and other high-cost expenses – will tip the world’s largest economy into recession.
Some economists suggested that the latest inflation data shows that the hikes are beginning to achieve their goal, though the Fed needs to see further evidence.
“The data will be welcome news for the [Fed] finally showing some response in prices” to the rate increases, said Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics.
In the midterm elections that ended Tuesday, roughly half of voters cited inflation as the top factor in their decisions, according to VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide conducted for The Associated Press by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.
Supply chain disruptions have largely eased up, and port backlogs have cleared [File: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg]
About 8 in 10 said the economy was in bad shape, and a slim majority blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for worsening inflation. Just less than half said factors beyond Biden’s control, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, were to blame.
Those economic anxieties contributed to the loss of Democratic seats in the House of Representatives, though Republicans failed to score the huge political gains that many had expected.
Supply chains improve
Even before the release of Thursday’s figures, inflation by some measures had begun to ease and could continue to do so in coming months. Most gauges of workers’ wages, for example, show that the robust pay increases of the past 18 months have levelled off and have begun to fall. Though worker pay is not a primary driver of higher prices, it can compound inflationary pressures if companies offset their higher labour costs by charging their customers more.
Except for automakers, which are still struggling to acquire the computer chips they need, supply chain disruptions have largely unsnarled. Shipping costs have dropped back to pre-pandemic levels. The backup of cargo ships off the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been cleared.
And as declines in new rents that have emerged in real-time measures from such sources as ApartmentList and Zillow begin to be captured in the government’s forthcoming measures, that factor should also reduce inflation.
Even as many fear that the economy will fall into recession next year, the nation’s job market has remained resilient. Employers have added a healthy average of 407,000 jobs a month, and the unemployment rate is just 3.7 percent, close to a half-century low. Job openings are still at historically high levels.
But the Fed’s rate hikes have inflicted severe damage on the American housing market. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has more than doubled over the past year and topped 7 percent this week. As a result, investment in housing collapsed in the July-September quarter, falling at a 26 percent annual rate.
Higher mortgage rates have depressed sales. Home prices are slowing sharply compared with a year ago and have begun to fall on a monthly basis. The cost of a new apartment lease is also declining.
Manchester City goalkeeper Zack Steffen was one of the notable omissions from the United States’ 26-man World Cup squad confirmed by head coach Gregg Berhalter on Wednesday.
Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic, Juventus’ Weston McKennie, Milan’s Sergino Dest and Leeds United pair Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams were all included in the squad which is in Group B alongside Wales, England and Iran.
Steffen, who is on loan at Championship club Middlesbrough from City, missed out with Matt Turner, Sean Johnson and Ethan Horvath preferred as the three goalkeepers.
Fulham defender Tim Ream along with Turkey-based forward Haji Wright have also been included, while exciting 19-year-old striker Ricardo Pepi has missed out, along with Paul Arriola and Jordan Pefok.
“Final roster decisions are always difficult, and we appreciate everyone’s contributions who helped us get to this point,” Berhalter said. “We believe we have a talented group, a strong team spirit, and one that is ready to compete.”
This year’s event marks USA’s return to the World Cup having failed to qualify for Russia 2018. Deandre Yedlin is the only member of their last World Cup squad from 2014 to be carried over in this group.
The United States face Wales in their opening Group B match on November 21, before taking on England and Iran.
USA squad: Ethan Horvath (Luton Town), Sean Johnson (New York City), Matt Turner (Arsenal); Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic), Sergino Dest (AC Milan), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Shaq Moore (Nashville), Tim Ream (Fulham), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville); Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Kellyn Acosta (LAFC), Tyler Adams (Leeds United), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (Valencia), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders); Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Tim Weah (Lille), Haji Wright (Antalyaspor)
It’s a first symbolic stepin a homecoming that will long outlast the 10-year Odyssey of ancient myth.
For decades, an important part of Greece’s cultural heritage sparkled only for the very few in a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, until a groundbreaking deal for its gradual return to Athens. Now 15 of the prehistoric masterpieces have gone on public view for the first time in a temporary display in Athens, ahead of their final return, together with the remaining 146 works, by the year 2048.
But Greek opposition politicians, and some archaeologists, say that’s too long. They say the government should have fought in court to recoup the entire collection quicker, arguing it was looted from ancient sites on Greek islands and smuggled away.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the August deal — which also involved New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — was the best possible one it could get.
“A court process is a very arduous affair that requires very strong documentation which, in most cases, we lack,” she said Tuesday at a presentation of the exhibition, which opened last week and will run for a year at the Athens Museum of Cycladic Art — itself based on a private Greek collection.
“It is an unfortunate fact that finds from illegal excavations exist all over the world,” she added. “So, whichever of these belong to Greece, our policy is to bring them back.”
Dating from 5300-2200 B.C., the artifacts were acquired by Leonard N. Stern, an 84-year-old pet supplies and real estate businessman. Most belong to the Cycladic civilization that flourished in the Cyclades islands between 3,200-2000 B.C., whose elegantly abstract but enigmatic white marble figurines inspired leading 20th century artists.
The 15 works on display in Athens are striking. One 86-centimeter (34-inch) female figurine retains eyes and eyebrows in low relief. A diminutive female figure standing on the head of a larger one is one of only three known in existence. A marble head bears traces of painted red dots on its cheeks and neck as — like later ancient Greek sculpture — many of the Cycladic figurines were initially colored.
Little is known of their original function, largely because so many of the survivingCycladic artifacts were hastily unearthed by looters. This cheats archaeologists of the clues that a proper excavation could provide.
“When an artifact, from a broken piece of pottery to a statue, is removed from its context, the environment in which it is found, it ceases to be a piece of historic evidence and simply becomes an artwork,” Mendoni said. “The loss is immense.”
“If we accept that our past is part of our identity, objects that come from illegal excavations deprive us of a smaller or larger part of that identity,” she added.
Mendoni said Greece has increased efforts — working with other countries — to discourage the trade in looted antiquities and has observed a decline in antiquities collecting.
The 15 works will be sent to the Met, to be displayed with the rest from 2023 to 2048. The returns to Greece will start in 2033 and continue through 2048.
Samantha Power, USAID Administrator, made the announcement during a visit to Lebanon ahead of a trip to Egypt for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27).
During his visit, Power plans to meet with Lebanese political leaders to press for a resolution to the country’s political vacuum and for leaders to implement a series of political and economic reforms mandated by the International Monetary Fund in order to secure a $3 billion aid package.
The visit comes at a time when Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic and financial crisis in modern history.
Power declined to say, however, whether any U.S. assistance would be contingent on Lebanon taking these measures.
“We are not focused on what happens if those reforms don’t happen. The reforms have to happen,” she told The Associated Press.
The prospect of an IMF deal “should be enough to end the infighting and bickering and do what is needed for the sake of the country,” Power said.
USAID has provided about $260 million to Lebanon in 2022 to date. On Wednesday, Power announced an additional $72 million for food assistance to some 650,000 people over five months as part of a $2 billion global food security initiative.
Lebanon, which relies heavily on imported food and has historically imported the majority of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia, has faced increased food security anxieties in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine.
Power also announced $8.5 million to fund 22 new solar-powered pumping stations. Lebanon has been dealing with a crippling electricity crisis that has also led to water shortages due to lack of power at pumping stations.
The shortages in public water supply are fueling a cholera outbreak, the first Lebanon has seen in three decades. Most Lebanese now rely on water trucked in by private suppliers, which is often not tested for safety.
Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North and South Dakota voters will decide whether to approve recreational marijuana measures.
On election day, voters in five US states will decide whether to legalize recreational cannabis, a move that could signal a significant shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country.
The initiatives are on the ballot in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and they follow President Joe Biden’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana.
Last month, Biden announced that he would pardon thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of cannabis under federal law.
Recreational marijuana is legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalisation softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The five states also currently have legal medical cannabis programmes.
That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical cannabis. The state’s dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.
Criticism from opponents
The legalisation campaigns have raised about $23m in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85 percent of contributions in those two states have come from donors associated with companies holding medical cannabis licences, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.
In Arkansas, supporters have been running upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they say will be created by the measure. Opponents have run more ominous spots, warning voters to “protect Arkansas from big marijuana”.
The initiative has drawn the criticism of traditional legalisation opponents as well as some medical cannabis advocates, who said the Arkansas proposal places too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries.
Missouri’s proposal would legalise recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offences, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence.
Maryland’s proposal would also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.
North Dakota’s measure would allow people 21 and older to legally use cannabis at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would establish policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators, and other types of marijuana businesses.
South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalise marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp.
This year, recreational cannabis is standing by itself as it goes before voters.
In Colorado, where recreational cannabis has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday are taking up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step.
Millions of Americans are voting in the midterm elections today, Tuesday, with the balance of power in Congress at stake.
The entire US House of Representatives, about a third of the Senate and key state governorships are up for grabs.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and ex-President Donald Trump, a Republican, made their closing arguments in competing rallies.
Mr Biden’s ability to pass laws will be stymied if Republicans take the House, as most projections expect.
Democrats currently control the White House and – by razor-thin margins – both chambers of Congress.
The party in power typically sheds an average of two dozen or so seats in the midterms, which fall midway through a president’s four years in office.
A political thumping for Democrats on Tuesday could embolden murmurs within the party about whether Mr Biden, who turns 80 this month, should run for re-election in 2024.
He went to Maryland on Monday night to campaign for Wes Moore, who is expected to make history as the third black governor ever elected in the US.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, Wes Moore (centre) looks set to become the third black governor ever elected in the US
“Today we face an inflection point,” Mr Biden told a cheering crowd at a historically black university outside Washington.
“We know in our bones that our democracy’s at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it.”
According to a tally by the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, more than half of Republican midterms candidates have raised doubts about the integrity of the 2020 White House election, echoing Mr Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud.
While Mr Biden himself is not up for re-election on Tuesday, midterms are often seen as a referendum on a president’s leadership.
Despite delivering on promises to lower prescription drug prices, expand clean energy and revamp US infrastructure, Mr Biden has seen his popularity suffer following the worst inflation in four decades, record illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border, and voter concerns about crime.
Mr Trump spent the eve of election day holding a final rally in Ohio alongside Republican Senate candidate JD Vance.
The former president, who has been teasing a 2024 White House comeback bid, said he would make a “very big announcement” at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago on 15 November.
He told the crowd: “If you support the decline and fall of America, then you must, you absolutely must vote for the radical left, crazy people.
“If you want to stop the destruction of our country, then tomorrow you must vote Republican in a giant red wave.”
Mr Trump’s party needs to net only five seats to flip the House and a single seat to take over the evenly divided Senate.
Non-partisan election observers project the Republicans will pick up roughly 15-25 seats in the 435-seat House.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, Supporters of Donald Trump await his arrival for Monday’s rally in Vandalia, Ohio
But the battle for the upper chamber of Congress could go either way, according to most political forecasts, and is expected to come down to hotly fought races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
Should Republicans win the House, they have vowed to shut down the Democratic-led inquiry into last year’s Capitol riot and launch investigations into the Biden administration.
Kevin McCarthy, who would probably become Republican speaker of the House – placing him second in line to the presidency – has refused to rule out impeachment proceedings.
Mr Biden’s power to appoint judges or administrative posts for the next two years would be severely curtailed if Republicans win the Senate.
More than 43.5m early votes have already been cast, according to the US Elections Project.
But it might be days or weeks before the outcome of the midterms is clear if races are close, as some states allow ballots to be posted on election day, and there could be recounts.
On the final day of campaigning, President Joe Bidenwill hold a rally in Maryland, while his predecessor, Donald Trump, will be in Ohio.
An election year that has unfolded against the backdrop of economic turmoil, the elimination of federal abortion rights, and widespread concerns about the future of democracy is coming to a close with a final full day of campaigning in which leaders from both parties will make urgent appeals to their supporters.
President Joe Biden is holding a Monday evening rally in Maryland, where Democrats have one of their best opportunities to reclaim a Republican-held governor’s seat. The appearance is in line with Biden’s late-campaign strategy of sticking largely to Democratic strongholds rather than stumping in more competitive territory, where control of Congress may ultimately be decided.
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump will hold his final rally of the campaign in Ohio. As he readies another run for the White House, Ohio holds special meaning for the former president because it was one of the first places where he was able to prove his enduring power among Republican voters.
His backing of JD Vance was crucial in helping the author and venture capitalist – and one-time Trump critic – secure the GOP’s nomination for a Senate seat.
With more than 41 million ballots already cast, Monday’s focus will be ensuring that supporters either meet early voting deadlines or make plans to show up in person on Tuesday. The results will have a powerful effect on the final two years of Biden’s presidency, shaping policy on everything from government spending to military support for Ukraine.
In the first national election since the violent January 6 insurrection, the final days of the campaign focused on fundamental questions about the nation’s political values.
Campaigning in New York for Governor Kathy Hochul on Sunday, Biden said Republicans were willing to condone last year’s mob attack at the US Capitol and that, after the recent assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, some in that party made “light of it” or were “making excuses”.
“There’s never been a time in my career where we’ve glorified violence based on a political preference,” the president said.
Meanwhile, during a Sunday evening Trump rally in Miami, a reference to Nancy Pelosi prompted chants of “Lock her up!” – a stark reminder of the nation’s deep political divide.
Trump speaks at a rally in support of the campaign for Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Sunday in Miami [Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo]
Trump was campaigning for Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s re-election, but also focused on his own political future. After telling a crowd in Iowa last week that he is “very, very, very probably” going to run for president again, he again teased the possibility on Sunday and encouraged supporters to watch his Ohio rally.
“I will probably have to do it again, but stay tuned,” Trump said, teasing the Monday event. “We have a big, big rally. Stay tuned for tomorrow night.”
Not attending the Miami event was Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for re-election against Democrat Charlie Crist and is widely considered Trump’s most formidable challenger if he also were to get into the White House race.
DeSantis held his own, separate events on Sunday in other parts of the state where he stuck to the centrepieces of his re-election campaign, including railing against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The governor’s counter-political programming avoided antagonising Trump – meaning it did not deliver the duelling 2024 events that could be in his and Trump’s near future.
Trump said on Sunday that Florida would “re-elect Ron DeSantis as your governor”. But he was more confrontational during a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, referring to Florida’s governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious”.
It is a rivalry that has been simmering for more than a year as DeSantis has taken increasingly bold steps to boost his national profile and build a deep fundraising network – even as Trump remains unquestionably the party’s most popular leader.
For national Democrats, meanwhile, the focus is on their narrow control of the House and the Senate, which could evaporate after Tuesday.
Voters may rebuke the party controlling the White House and Congress amid surging inflation, concerns about crime and pessimism about the direction of the country. History suggests the party in power will suffer significant losses in the midterms.
Biden has made the case that the nation’s very democracy is on the ballot and the first lady went to Texas on Sunday to sound a similar alarm. “So much is at stake in this election,” Jill Biden said in Houston. “We must speak up on justice and democracy.”
Travelling in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “These attacks on our democracy will not only directly impact the people around our country, but arguably around the world.”
Trump has long falsely claimed he lost the 2020 election only because Democrats cheated and has even begun raising the possibility of election fraud this year. Federal intelligence agencies are warning of the possibility of political violence from far-right extremists.
Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, said Democrats were “inflation deniers”, trying to deflect the other side’s branding of her party as anti-democratic for rejecting the results of 2020’s free and fair presidential election simply because Trump lost it.
“If we win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, we want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle to solve the problems that we are dealing with,” McDaniel told CNN.
The Kremlin has refused to comment on media reports that high-level US-Russia talks have occurred.
The Kremlin has refused to comment on a Wall Street Journal report that the US held secret talks with top Russian officials about avoiding further escalation in the Ukraine war.
According to the report, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with President Vladimir Putin’saides in an attempt to reduce the risk of a larger war or nuclear conflict.
“We have nothing to say about this publication,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
The newspaper reported that US officials said Sullivan has been in contact with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Putin, and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
Peskov also declined to comment on a Washington Post report over the weekend that said the US had privately encouraged Ukraine to negotiate with Russia.
“We have nothing to say about this publication,” Peskov said.
“Once again, I repeat that there are some truthful reports, but for the most part, there are reports that are pure speculation,” he said, directing journalists to contact the White House or the newspaper itself.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he sees no room for negotiations with Russia, an option he officially ruled out after Russia held illegal referendums that resulted in the “annexation” of four Ukrainian regions in September.
Zelenskyy has said he may negotiate with a new Russian president, whenever one emerges.
The Ukrainian public, having suffered enormously over the past eight months of war, are often outraged whenever foreign figures suggest they accept the conflict’s current state and give in to Russia’s demands.
Recently, tech billionaire Elon Musk tweeted a plan to end the war that would give Crimea to Russia and hold United Nations-organised referendums in the four regions Moscow has annexed about whether Russia stays or goes.
Musk was blasted for it, but a lack of negotiations is causing concern among international powers.
“Ukraine fatigue is a real thing for some of our partners,” an anonymous US official reportedly told the Washington Post.
According to a Wall Street Journal poll, 48 percent of Republicans said the US was doing “too much” to support Ukraine.
With global inflation rates rising, new questions have been raised about the future of the US assistance, which has already reached $18.2bn.
Other nations that were already reluctant to outwardly support Ukraine could also push for more peace talks if the war continues.
Zelenskyy has refused to speak to Russia unless Ukraine regains all its captured territory, but according to the Washington Post, US officials believe the Ukrainian leader will probably be open to negotiations in the winter.
Former President of the United States, Donald Trumphas hinted that he may contest for the office of the president in 2024 and stage a comeback to the White House.
Trump disclosed this where a crowd gathered in Iowa on Thursday while speaking at the first of four rallies in five days in his campaigns for Republican candidates in next week’s midterm elections.
The former Republican President has been subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee for not calling to order his alleged mob of supporters over the invasion of the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, when he lost to President Joe Biden in the 2020 elections.
He reiterated his baseless claim that he lost in 2020 because of widespread election fraud, as per Reuters.
“I ran twice,” he said. “I won twice and did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016.
“And likewise, getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far.
“And now in order to make our country successful, and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again. Very soon. Get ready,” Trump said to the cheering crowd.
Reports revealed that Trump won the most votes ever – 72 million – for a sitting president in 2020, but still lost to his challenger then and now president, Biden, a Democrat, who polled 81 million.
The UN General Assemblyvotes 185-2 to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, marking the 30th time the UN has condemned the decades-old US policy.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has strongly condemned the United States embargo on Cuba, which Havana has demanded be lifted amid the Caribbean island’s economic crisis.
On Thursday, 185 countries overwhelmingly supported a non-binding resolution condemning the embargo, with the United States and Israel voting against and Brazil and Ukraine abstaining.
It was the UN’s 30th vote condemning the US policy, which has been in place for decades.
“The United States opposes this resolution, but we stand with the Cuban people and will continue to seek ways to provide meaningful support to them,” US Political Coordinator, John Kelley, told the UNGA on Thursday.
“If the United States government was really interested in the welfare, human rights and self-determination of Cubans, it could lift the blockade,” countered Yuri Gala, Cuba’s deputy representative at the UN.
The US imposed the embargo in 1960, following the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalisation of properties belonging to US citizens and corporations.
Two years later the measure – which prohibits trade between the two countries, among other restrictions – was strengthened.
US President Barack Obama took considerable steps to ease tensions with Cuba during his time in office, including formally restoring US-Cuba relations and making a “historic” visit to Havana in 2016.
That year, the US also abstained for the first time during a UN vote condemning the embargo.
Former US President Donald Trump, however, scrapped such efforts and took a more hardline approach, stepping up sanctions and rolling back steps towards normalisation.
Current President Joe Biden’s administration has not deviated substantially from Trump’s policies but has taken a handful of steps to relax restrictions on remittances and flights to Cuba.
Tensions between Havana and Washington also have escalated over issues such as migration, security, and regional relations in recent months.
Ahead of Thursday’s UN vote, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the Biden administration of continuing down a path of “maximum pressure”. Rodriguez said that during Biden’s 14 months in office, the embargo had cost the Cuban economy about $6.35bn.
US representatives countered that economic penalties were a response to human rights abuses by the Cuban government, which cracked down on protests in July 2021 demanding political freedom and better economic conditions.
Cuba has sanctioned nearly 400 people for participation in the protests, giving many lengthy prison sentences.
Havana has pushed back against criticism of its human rights record. “Cuba does not need lessons on democracy and human rights, much less from the United States,” Gala said on Thursday.
Donald Trump has dropped one of his most powerful hints yet that he may run for President again.
Former US President George H.W. Bush told a crowd in Iowa that he will “very, very, very likely do it again” in 2024.
Mr Trump was speaking at the first of four rallies he will hold in the next five days to campaign for Republican candidates in next week’s midterm elections.
US Vice President Joe Biden is also touring the country to encourage people to vote.
On Thursday night, Mr Trump, a Republican, repeated his unfounded claim that he lost in 2020 because of widespread election fraud.
“I ran twice,” he said. “I won twice, and did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016.
“And now in order to make our country successful, and safe and glorious. I will very, very, very probably do it again.”
“Very soon,” he told the cheering crowd. “Get ready.”
Mr Trump did win the most votes ever – 72 million – for a sitting president in 2020, but still lost to the challenger, Mr Biden, a Democrat, who pulled in 81 million.
Mr Biden – who campaigned on Thursday in New Mexico and California – has reportedly been meeting senior advisers to plan his potential 2024 re-election campaign, setting up a possible rematch with Mr Trump.
For his part, Mr Trump has teased for months about a potential third campaign for the White House.
In October, he told a rally in Texas: “I will probably have to do it again.” In Pennsylvania in September, he said: “I may just have to do it again.”
Mr Trump’s former senior counsellor, Kellyanne Conway, said earlier on Thursday at an event in Washington DC that her former boss would “announce soon” about his possible presidential plans.
She said she gave Mr Trump credit for resisting the temptation to declare a White House run already this year, as it would have distracted from Republican candidates in the midterms.
If he does run in 2024, he may not go unchallenged within his party.
Potential Republican rivals include Mr Trump‘s former Vice-President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among others.
Washington and Seoul will extend the Vigilant Storm air drills that prompted North Korea to issue a warning.
In response to North Korea‘s latest missile launch, including a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korea and the United States have agreed to extend their largest-ever military air drills (ICBM).
Hundreds of South Korean and US warplanes, including F-35 stealth fighters, have been staging round-the-clock simulated missions as part of one of the largest air exercises in history.
In a statement on Thursday, the South Korean military said the US had agreed to extend the Vigilant Storm air exercises – which were due to end on Friday – owing to North Korea’s “recent provocations”.
Chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Seung-kyum and the head of US Forces Korea Paul LaCamera held a virtual meeting and reaffirmed their commitment to “a stronger combined defence posture”, according to the statement.
The Vigilant Storm drills – which began on Monday – involved some 240 fighter jets and other aircraft conducting about 1,600 joint missions. The air drills followed just days after the South Korean military wrapped up their 12-day Hoguk 22 field exercises, and in which an undisclosed number of US troops had participated.
North Korean has condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea as a rehearsal for invasion and had warned of “powerful follow-up measures” should air warfare exercises go ahead.
On Thursday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles, including a suspected ICBM. The launch followed after Wednesday’s firing of 20 missiles, the most in a single day by North Korea, including one that landed off South Korea’s coast for the first time.
Seoul responded by sending fighter jets to fire air-to-ground missiles into water north of its border.
Alongside its missile launches, Pyongyang has adopted an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorises preemptive nuclear attacks over a variety of loosely defined crisis situations.
South Korea and the US condemned Thursday’s launches, with Washington urging all nations to enforce sanctions on North Korea for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions that bar missiles and nuclear tests.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, said North Korea had demonstrated that it was a threat to “its neighbours, the region, international peace and security, and the global non-proliferation regime”.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman strongly condemned North Korea’s series of missile launches as “deplorable, immoral” during a phone call on Thursday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
US President Joe Biden and his national security team was “assessing the situation,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement, which added that the United States would take “all necessary measures” to ensure security.
In brief comments to reporters a few minutes later, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “North Korea’s repeated missile launches are an outrage and absolutely cannot be forgiven”.
Kishida called for greater trilateral security cooperation between the US, Japan and South Korea.
Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea broke down in early 2019 over disagreements over denuclearisation steps and have remained stalled since.
North Korea has so far ignored Biden’s calls for open-ended discussions, insisting that Washington should first discard its “hostile” policy, a term it mainly uses to describe sanctions and the joint US-South Korea military exercises.
White House spokesman, the US does not perceive any indications that Russia is getting ready to use nuclear weapons.
Spokesman John Kirby declared: “We have been clear from the beginning that Russia’s comments about the potential use of nuclear weapons are deeply concerning, and we take them seriously.”
“We continue to monitor this as best we can, and we see no indications that Russia is making preparations for such use.”
Kirby’s remarks came after the New York Times newspaper reported earlier on Wednesday that senior Russian military leaders had recently held discussions about when and how Moscow might deploy a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, citing multiple unnamed US officials.
The United States says threats are concerning, and that it will defend Saudi Arabia and other Middle East allies.
The United States has responded to reports of threats from Iran against Saudi Arabia by saying it is concerned and will not hesitate to respond if necessary.
“We are concerned about the threat picture, and we remain in constant contact through military and intelligence channels with the Saudis,” the National Security Council said in a statement on Tuesday. “We will not hesitate to act in the defence of our interests and partners in the region.”
The Wall Street Journal newspaper first reported on Saudi Arabia sharing the intelligence with the US earlier on Tuesday.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor Iran has commented on the matter publicly.
Iran has alleged, without providing evidence, that Saudi Arabia and other rivals have been behind anti-government protests that have been ongoing in the country since mid-September.
In October, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Saudi Arabia to tone down coverage of the protests in Iran by Farsi-language satellite news channels, including Iran International, a Saudi-backed satellite television channel based in London.
“This is our last warning because you are interfering in our internal affairs through these media,” Major-General Hossein Salami said. “You are involved in this matter and know that you are vulnerable.”
The heightened concerns about a potential attack on Riyadh come as the Biden administration criticises Tehran for its crackdown on the protests and condemned it for sending hundreds of drones – as well as technical support – to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.
One of the officials who confirmed the intelligence sharing to the Wall Street Journaldescribed it as a credible threat of an attack “soon or within 48 hours”. No US embassy or consulate in the region has issued alerts or guidance to Americans in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Middle East based on the intelligence. The officials were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Asked about reports of the intelligence shared by the Saudis, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said US military officials “are concerned about the threat situation in the region”.
“We’re in regular contact with our Saudi partners, in terms of what information they may have to provide on that front,” Ryder said. “But what we’ve said before, and I’ll repeat it, is that we will reserve the right to protect and defend ourselves no matter where our forces are serving, whether in Iraq or elsewhere.”
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said America was “concerned about the threat picture,” without elaborating.
Strained relations
The latest concerns come at a time of strained relations between Riyadh and Washington after the Saudi-led OPEC+ alliance last month decided to cut oil output targets, which raised fears of a gasoline price spike in the US.
The US and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran in 2019 for being behind a big attack in eastern Saudi Arabia, which halved the oil-rich kingdom’s production and caused energy prices to spike. The Iranians denied they were behind the attack.
The Saudis have also been hit repeatedly in recent years by drones, missiles, and mortars launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saudi Arabia formed a coalition to battle the Houthis in 2015 and has been internationally criticised for its air attacks in the war, which have killed thousands of civilians.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials for the brutal crackdown on demonstrators after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September after her arrest by Iran’s morality police. The administration has also hit Iran with sanctions for supplying drones to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.
At least 288 people have been killed and 14,160 arrested during the protests, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Demonstrations have continued, even as the feared paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has warned Iranians to stop.
While Biden was in Florida, former Vice President Mike Pence travelled to Georgia, another crucial battleground state, to campaign for the Republican candidate for governor there.
Pence told supporters at a rally in the Atlanta suburbs last night that Georgia must “lead the way to a great American comeback” by re-electing Governor Brian Kemp.
Kemp is ahead of his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams in most polls, but that did not stop him or Pence from emphasising the need to get people out in support – whatever the data suggests.
Pence, who was elected alongside Donald Trump in 2016, emphasized what he called Kemp’s credentials as a “champion for the Conservative Agenda”.
After the rally, Pence said: “No one has done more to create jobs, cut taxes, restore sanity to our schools, put criminals behind bars, protect the unborn, secure our elections, and defend our God-given rights enshrined in the United States Constitution.”
Stephen Richer is a one-man embodiment of the anguish and despair that lies at the heart of traditional Republicanism.
Long a GOP supporter and elected official in charge of running the voting process in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county, he now finds himself very much out of step with the direction his party has taken.
The Republican slate here is dominated by election deniers in a state where the conspiracy has really taken root.
“One of the most preposterous allegations that still has people believe in it is that we took ballots from the 2020 election, we fed them to chickens, and then we incinerated the chickens,” Richer tells me.
With key positions – including the job of administering Arizona’s vote in the 2024 presidential election – being contested by candidates who claim Donald Trump won in 2020, Richer says he’s deeply worried about the future health of US democracy.
While he believes many of the candidates don’t actually believe the last election was stolen and are instead supporting the theory purely for “pecuniary of political gain” he sees little comfort in that.
Court documents indicate that a man accused of hammering the husband of senior US politician Nancy Pelositold police he was on a “suicide mission.”
David DePape, 42, pleaded not guilty in a San Francisco court on Tuesday to attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon against Paul Pelosi, 82.
He allegedly broke into the couple’s house early Friday morning.
Court documents say he had planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and break “her kneecaps” if she “lied” to him.
Mrs Pelosi, who is second in line for the presidency, was on the other side of the country at the time.
According to court papers cited by US media, Mr DePape told police at the scene that he was sick of the “lies coming out of Washington DC”.
“I didn’t really want to hurt him, but you know this was a suicide mission,” he allegedly said. “I’m not going to stand here and do nothing, even if it cost me my life.”
Mr DePape also told police he planned to target several state and federal politicians and members of their families, as well as a local professor, according to the filing.
No potential targets were named in the court papers.
Judge Diane Northway of the Superior Court in San Francisco denied Mr DePape bail at Tuesday’s hearing.
The defendant’s lawyer, Adam Lipson, said his client – who appeared in court with his right arm in a sling – had his shoulder dislocated during his arrest. He has since been moved from the hospital to county jail.
The charges filed against Mr DePape are being brought by the state of California, but he also faces federal counts of assault and attempting to kidnap Mrs Pelosi. No court date has yet been set for that case.
The suspect’s lawyer also pleaded not guilty on Tuesday on his client’s behalf to the other charges he faces:
Elder abuse
Burglary
False imprisonment
Threatening a public official
The accused would face 13 years to life in prison if convicted on the state charges and a maximum of 50 years on the federal charges.
The justice department said the suspect had a roll of tape, white rope, a second hammer, and zip ties in his possession when he was arrested.
He had been searching for the top Democrat and reportedly shouted “Where is Nancy?” while inside the property.
According to the authorities, he also told police that if Mrs Pelosi was injured, she would have had to use a wheelchair to enter Congress, which would send a message to other politicians.
Mrs Pelosi, 82, was in Washington DC but flew back to see her husband in the hospital, where he underwent successful surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his hands and right arm. The venture capitalist has been married to Mrs Pelosi since 1963.
Hours after the attack, the US government distributed a bulletin to law enforcement across the nation warning of a “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism against candidates and election workers driven by individuals with “ideological grievances”.
A blog, website and social media accounts under the name of the suspect seen by the BBC contained anti-Semitic memes, Holocaust denial, references to far-right websites, and conspiracy theories such as QAnon.
If elected president, Lula would likely be unable to lead a transformational, leftist agenda.
The theme of “return” has dominated the presidential election campaign in Brazil. Many think the country is either going to see the comeback of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, marking a second pink tide of progressive South American governments, or the return of the Workers’ Party (PT), removed from power after President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment in 2016.
Or it is going to face a government takeover by forces associated with the military dictatorship (1964-1985) – right-wing defenders of family, tradition, and property and apologists for political violence and torture of political opponents.
There may be an element of truth to this interpretation, but sometimes turning to the past to make sense of the present can make it more difficult to discern the major differences between them. Indeed, if Lula were to win the presidential race, Brazil would not go back to the 2000s; nor is a military takeover led by his opponent, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, that likely.
The vote: The poor vs the poorer
While many saw the results of the October 2 elections as a clear victory for Lula and the Brazilian left, a closer look reveals a different reality. Lula obtained 57 million or 48 percent of the valid votes – less than what many polls predicted – which sent him to a run-off with Bolsonaro.
The incumbent president obtained 51 million votes, two million more than in the first round of the 2018 presidential election. This is despite the fact that his government failed in its economic policies, the management of the pandemic, the fight against corruption, and the climate change agenda, especially with regard to curbing Amazon deforestation.
In the parliamentary and governor elections, which also took place on October 2, the right-wing parties and, in particular, the far right, performed much better than forecasts showed. They won more representatives in the two houses of parliament than PT and its allies.
Among those elected to parliament were former Judge Sergio Moro, who led the anti-corruption probe that saw Lula jailed; Damares Alves, the loudest proponent of the “gender ideology” conspiracy theory, which claims family values are under threat; and former health minister Eduardo Pazuello, who mismanaged the pandemic response. They were all ministers in Bolsonaro’s government.
The elections did not see a massive migration of the votes from the poor to Lula and his party, as was expected in light of the pro-poor policies in his first two terms (2003-2010). In that period, the country experienced extraordinary economic growth combined with successful income distribution measures, which generated massive support among impoverished Brazilians for Lula in his bid for re-election in 2006. He ended his second term with an 80 percent popularity rating and a GDP growth of 7.5 percent.
Part of the reason why Lula was unable to rally all of his former electorates may be that financial aid programmes for disadvantaged families introduced by Bolsonaro to address the economic downturn during the pandemic were extended.
According to Giuseppe Cocco, a political science professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, another reason may be that the effect of anti-Bolsonarism was to some extent mitigated by anti-Lulism – the negative sentiment triggered by corruption cases against Lula and the PT that contributed to bringing Bolsonaro to power in the first place.
Furthermore, Cocco’s research shows that the incumbent attracted more votes than Lula from the “precariat” – Brazilians who are above the poverty line but, nevertheless, face constant economic insecurity. These are people who are microentrepreneurs, who have gig jobs, small businesses or who are self-employed. They struggle economically and seek the stability that the far-right promises.
The right-wing tendencies of this layer of Brazilian societybecame apparent ahead of the 2018 election when a truck drivers’ strike took place. The protest started over rising fuel prices but ended with calls by some participants for the army to intervene and “solve the problems” of the state. Bolsonaro backed the strike, which boosted his popularity ahead of the vote.
Lula, on the other hand, draws support from the poorest strata, those who are on the threshold of subsistence. They have been the beneficiaries of his signature social programme, the Bolsa Familia, which distributed conditional cash transfers.
The line between the two groups is blurred, but the tension between them over income and economic opportunity seems to provide a better explanation of the electoral results than a more simplistic analysis that paints Lula as the candidate of the poor and Bolsonaro – as the choice of the elites and the well-off.
A Brazilian Biden
The campaign rhetoric Lula adopted was also quite different from previous elections. Unlike in the past, when he openly clashed with the elites, this time around, the PT candidate presented himself as the candidate of the system, as a “Brazilian Biden”, so to speak, putting an end to a Trumpist interlude.
He gathered an extraordinarily broad front, which included almost the entire left opposition, but also the main representatives of economic power from various sectors, social democrats, conservative liberals, the leftist environmentalist Marina Silva, former officials, such as the social-democratic liberal Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and others.
His campaign was also not dominated by street mobilisation or sharp factionalism. On the contrary, there were explicit guidelines to supporters not to confront the voters of the other candidate, and even to deemphasise the PT’s traditional colour red at campaign events.
Although his coalition had prepared a leftist political programme, Lula ignored it in the debates, sidestepped it in speeches to voters and the media, and stressed on several occasions that he would not take divisive positions, especially when it comes to his plans for the economy. Throughout the campaign, he built an image as the promoter of peace, indicating the need to resolve the conflicts that are multiplying in and between different social segments.
Bolsonaro and the Bolsonarist forces, on the other hand, fully occupied the anti-systemic political space. The incumbent spent the election campaign making verbal attacks against the corporate media – especially against the biggest TV network, Globo – the Brazilian Supreme Court and universities.
In a country that has traditionally seen intimidation, blackmail, and the murder of electoral opponents in urban peripheries and in the hinterland, Bolsonaro’s rhetoric put Brazil at risk of widespread politically motivated violence. A number of murders were attributed to feuds between sympathisers of the two candidates, while a video of a Bolsonaro supporter licking the barrel of a shotgun went viral.
Diminished appetite for a coup
Despite Bolsonaro’s incitement and heightened fears of violence, it is unlikely that a victory for Lula in the run-off would be challenged by the military. Even the prospect of an invasion of the Congress building in Brasilia – like the one that happened in January 2021 in the US – seems less likely.
The army’s top generals have given clear signals that whoever wins at the polls will assume the presidency. Furthermore, foreign powers, such as the Biden administration, have indicated that they would not support anti-democratic ventures.
Bolsonaro has been ambiguous about accepting the results. However, the fact that right-wing parties and far-right politicians won the majority of seats in parliament has diminished the appetite for coup talk.
Whatever the outcome of the election, the struggle for safeguarding minority rights, improving public services, expanding social programmes, protecting the environment, and embracing a security paradigm that is not guided by state violence against underserved populations will remain difficult. A victory for Bolsonaro, which is quite unlikely, would consolidate the far-right takeover of the state, leading to more policies aimed at dismantling public services, destroying the environment, and systematically sabotaging minority protections and academic institutions.
A win for Lula, which seems more likely, would also pose great challenges. Given the dominance of the right in parliament, it would be difficult to push through progressive policies. Social movements, collectives, and activists would have to focus on the defence of the government, which would take away energy and resources from ongoing struggles, as happened during the 2016 impeachment process against Dilma. The PT and its supporters would face a radicalised and armed opposition on the ground committed to defending “true Christianity”, “family values” and traditional gender roles. In this context, a Lula victory would not mean a return to the “happy Brazil” of the 2000s, as his campaign suggested.
The way out of the deep crisis that Brazil has plunged into in the last decade could be a Brazilian New Deal that pushes through much-needed structural changes in labour law and market, supports the creative role of minorities, and embraces the centrality of the global environmental agenda, something that Lula seems far from being able to lead, as corruption scandals and worn-off populist rhetoric have broken his spell.
But his election could at least provide an opportunity to seek reconciliation and rebuild bridgesbetween polarised segments of society. His return could set the ground for the construction of much-needed political alternatives.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
A rare Iranian joint intelligence report reveals that the arrested journalists who reported on Mahsa Amini’s death were trained abroad by the US.
Tehran and Washington are clashing again over weeks-long protests in Iran, as the US prepares to convene the United Nations Security Council to discuss the unrest sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police last month.
According to Reuters and Iranian state media, the US and Albania, another major critic of the Iranian government, will hold an informal UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and Iranian-born actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi – whom the Iranian state considers to be anti-establishment – will speak at the meeting, along with UN investigator on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, according to Reuters. Other UN member states and rights groups can reportedly attend the meeting as well.
But while the outlet cited a note outlining the event as saying the meeting will “highlight the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic groups in Iran”, Tehran has offered a different account.
The Iranian government’s website, IRNA, on Saturday, cited unnamed “diplomatic sources” as saying Washington is organising the meeting in response to a rare joint report by the Iranian intelligence ministry and the intelligence division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) late on Friday that blamed the US as the main culprit behind the protests.
“Instead of responding to the points raised in the Iranian intelligence community, the US is fleeing forward and exhibiting selective support for human rights with specific political goals,” the source was quoted as saying.
Iran’s mission to the UN made the same point in a statement referring to the US as the “prime suspect of the riots” in Iran.
“The US and its allies have consistently taken advantage of such a platform (the UN) to advance their political agendas, even at the expense of violating international rules and the UN Charter,” it said, accusing Washington of double standards in supporting Iranians.
Women and ethnic Kurd and Baluch populations have featured prominently in the protests.
The commander of the elite IRGC warned protesters on Saturday against taking to the streets. “Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots,” Hossein Salami said, according to Reuters.
Iran’s top authorities, including Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, have publicly blamed the US, Israel and others as being the orchestrators of unrest across the country, during which many dozens are thought to have been killed, with more injured or arrested.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Friday voiced concern and urged the Iranian authorities to address the “legitimate grievances of the population” while condemning “all incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to protesters”.
What’s in the Iranian intelligence report?
The lengthy joint intelligence report that Tehran claims has motivated the upcoming UNSC meeting paints a picture of accounts that inform Iranian authorities’ stance on the protests.
According to the report, the US and some of its allies had planned – and delayed – unrest similar to what is happening across Iran right now for a long time, and had designs for different stages prior to, during, and following such unrest.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been at the forefront of the US efforts and has been aided by the intelligence services of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and other countries, it asserted, citing “completely credible” information.
The Iranian intelligence community claimed the US has spent billions of dollars over the years to create a network of sympathetic organisations and individuals, holding many gatherings and courses to teach “hybrid wars and soft overthrow” of the Iranian establishment.
These all-paid courses, it said, have been held in Italy, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates among others, with or without the knowledgeof those countries’ governments.
The report uses the initials of two female Iranian journalists, whom it says were “trained by the courses of the US mafia regime in foreign countries” and “played the role of being the first sources to manufacture news for foreign media” on developments concerning Amini that led to the protests.
The reporters accused by Iranian intelligence are Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were arrested shortly after protests broke out last month and remain imprisoned in Evin prison in Tehran. Hamedi was among the first to report on Amini’s death at the hospital, while Mohammadi travelled to Amini’s hometown of Saqqez to report on her funeral.
The intelligence report also alleges that CIA officials met with Kurdish separatist groups in neighbouring Iraq’s northern Erbil region in late September to ask them to amplify their role in Iran’s unrest. The IRGC in late September and early October repeatedly pounded positions in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region to punish the “terrorist groups” it said were based there.
Foreign-based Persian-language television channels, which Tehran blacklisted this week, and social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, which have been banned, were also featured in the intelligence report as being influenced and manipulated by Washington in its efforts to counter the Iranian state.
Russia has slammed the United States for making false claims about Moscow’s decision to withdraw from a grain export deal mediated by the United Nations.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine used 16 drones to attack its Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula early Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” assisted in coordinating the “terrorist” attack.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, said on Telegram: “Washington’s reaction to the terrorist attack on the port of Sevastopol is truly outrageous.
“We have not seen any signs of condemnation of the reckless actions by the Kyiv regime.”
Mr Antonov added: “All the indications that the British military specialists were involved in organising the massive strike with the use of drones, are disregarded.”
The UK has dismissed Russia’s claims as false, while US President Joe Biden denounced Russia’s decision on the grain deal as “purely outrageous” and said it would increase starvation.
Nancy Pelosi has statedthat the violent attack on her husband has left her “heartbroken and traumatised.”
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives said her family was “grateful for the quick response of law enforcement” and for his medical care.
A male assailant struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer at the couple’s San Francisco home on Friday.
The 82-year-old’s condition “continues to improve” after the attack, Mrs Pelosi said.
He suffered a fractured skull and injuries to his right arm and hands, and remains in hospital receiving “life-saving” care, she said.
The suspect, David Depape, 42, is said to have demanded to see Mrs Pelosi – stoking fears about political violence in the run-up to the 8 November midterm elections.
The speaker – who was on the other side of the country in Washington DC at the time of the assault – flew back to see her husband in hospital.
In her statement, she said prayers and warm-wishers were comfort and were helping Mr Pelosi’s recovery.
Police officers responded to a call at around 02:27 local time (09:27 GMT) on Friday.
They found Mr Pelosi and the suspect struggling over a hammer,but it was wrested from Mr Pelosi by the intruder, who violently assaulted him with it.
The suspect was tackled and disarmed by officers. He had attempted to tie up Mr Pelosi “until Nancy got home”, law enforcement sources told CBS News. He reportedly shouted “where’s Nancy?” during the incident.
He is also facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, and several other felonies.
Mrs Pelosi, also 82, is one of the most powerful politicians in the country. She was re-elected to a fourth term as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2021, making her second in line to the presidency, after Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The Baltimore native has represented the San Francisco area in Congress since 1987 and typically splits her time between California and Washington DC.
She is currently fundraising and campaigning with Democrats around the country ahead of the midterm elections.
Paul Pelosi is the multimillionaire founder of a venture capital firm and lives primarily in San Francisco, where he was born and raised.
The couple has been married since 1963 and have five children.
Members of Congress have been on high alert over security threats since the riot at the US Capitol in January 2021.
Mrs Pelosi’s office in the building was ransacked by supporters of then-President Donald Trump during the riot.
US President Joe Biden has condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi and said “enough is enough” when it comes to violence in politics.
After nearlytwo decades in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Pakistan’s oldest prisoner has been released.
Saifullah Paracha, 75, was arrested two years after the 9/11 attacks on the United States and charged with being an al-Qaeda sympathiser.
Mr. Paracha was suspected of financing a jihadist organisation, but he maintained his innocence and was never charged.
The US military prison in Cuba once housed hundreds of suspected militants captured following the attacks.
“Mr Saif Ullah Paracha, a Pakistani national, who was detained in Guantanamo Bay, has been released and reached Pakistan on Saturday, 29 October 2022,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
Clive Stafford-Smith, Mr Paracha’s lawyer, questioned why it had taken so long for his client to be released.
“He’s been cleared for release [for] well over a year… he used to hum to me The Eagles song Hotel California, where you can [according to the lyrics] check out ‘but you can never leave’,” Mr Stafford-Smith told the BBC’s Newshour programme.
Mr Paracha, who studied in the US, was accused by US authorities of having contact with some of the group’s most senior figures, including its leader Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
After 14 months at a US military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, he was transferred to Guantanamo.
The secretive US military prison has been used to hold what America describes as captured unlawful combatants during its “war on terror”.
US President Joe Biden is under pressure to clear out uncharged prisoners and move ahead with the trials of those accused of having direct ties to al-Qaeda.
His administration approved Mr Paracha’s release last year, along with that of another Pakistani national, 55-year-old Abdul Rabbani, and Yemen native Uthman Abdul al-Rahim Uthman, 41.
The statement from the Pakistani foreign ministry did not mention Rabbani.
There are still 35 people being held at Guantanamo – including Khalid Mohammed, named as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” in the 9/11 Commission Report.
The lawyer of Mr Paracha said he expected more detainees to be freed over the coming months.
“I’ve still got four clients there [at Guantanamo], all of whom are cleared for release,” he told the BBC, adding it was an “embarrassment to the US”.
The violent attack on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband comes with just over a week to go before the US midterm elections – a moment when political tensions are coming to a boil.
As if to emphasise this point, just a few hours after news of the assault on Paul Pelosi on Friday, the US government distributed a bulletin to law enforcement across the nation. It warned of a “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism against candidates and election workers driven by individuals with “ideological grievances”.
Also on Friday, the US Department of Justice announced that a man from Pennsylvania had pleaded guilty to making multiple phoned death threats against an unnamed congressman – reported to be Democrat Eric Swalwell of California. The threats included telling a staff member in the congressman’s Washington office that he was going to come to the US Capitol with a firearm.
These wailing klaxons of a political system in peril come as Republicans and Democrats frame the upcoming midterm voting, which will determine which party controls Congress next year, as a pivotal moment in American history.
Republicans warn this is the last chance to put a check on Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency. Democrats say American democracy itself is at stake because of the numerous Republican candidates who have refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election.
And the rhetoric comes at the culmination of what has been a steady drumbeat of violence – and violent threats – that has been building all year.
Death threats
In Arizona, there have been multiple reports of masked individuals with firearms staking out ballot drop boxes, ostensibly to monitor the sites for election fraud. They’ve posted photographs of individuals casting their ballots on right-wing social media sites and encouraged others to join their efforts.
In June, a man was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He had travelled to the Washington suburb from California and called police after he arrived to tell them he had a firearm and intended to kill the conservative justice.
The following month, the Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, was attacked while on stage during a campaign rally. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a liberal leader in the Democratic Party, was threatened by a man with a handgun outside her Seattle home. He was subsequently charged with felony stalking.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Marjorie Taylor Greene waves to supporters at a Donald Trump rally.
Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has had police respond to her home six times based on anonymous hoax calls. The practice, called “swatting”, is used to try to provoke a confrontation between the target and law enforcement. She has also been the target of numerous death threats.
Partisan violence – and the threat of it – is nothing new in American politics, of course. The bloodiest recent attack occurred five years ago, when a man with multiple weapons opened fire on Republican politicians playing baseball at a city park. Five were injured, including one critically – second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise of Louisiana. That, however, was an isolated incident.
Keeping politicians safe
Data provided by the US Capitol Police suggests a violent wave is building. The number of cases involving threats against members of Congress has increased every year since 2017. In the first three months of 2022, the department has documented more than 1,800 incidents.
In response, Capitol Police announced in July that it would cover up to $10,000 for security upgrades in the homes of congressional legislators.
There are 435 members of Congress, however. They regularly travel to and from their homes around Washington and from the nation’s capital to their homes across the nation. A motivated individual fixated on violence will be able to find a way to strike against a targeted politician – or their family.
With Mrs Pelosi thousands of miles away in Washington, there was no police security provided for Mr Pelosi at their San Francisco home. He was not the intended target, but he became the victim.
Before the attack, the suspect is said to have asked, “Where is Nancy?” – the phrase harkening back to the 6 January assault on the US Capitol, when a man roamed the halls of the Capitol, calling out: “Where are you, Nancy? We’re looking for you.”
Politicians on both sides of the nation’s partisan divide have expressed their sympathy for Mr Pelosi and called for a cooling of the rhetoric. It is a task that is easier said than done, however.
With a population encased in political bubbles of social media and news outlets that reinforce their existing political beliefs and fears, individuals will continue to be tempted by extremism and violence. And when they go looking for the politicians they read about and see on television – ones they are told are enemies of the nation and threats to democracy – they will be able to find them.
The State Department has ordered that non-emergency US embassy employees and their families leave Abuja, Nigeria, “due to the heightened risk of terrorist attacks there.”
In addition, the department issued a “Level 3” travel advisory for the entire country, urging people to “reconsider travel to Nigeria due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, and maritime crime.”
The State Department authorised the departure of non-emergency US government employees and family members earlier this week, after previously warning of planned terror attacks in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
“Targets may include, but are not limited to, government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings, transport terminals, law enforcement facilities, and international organizations,” its October 23 advisory said of the alleged plots.
In an updated travel advisory issued Thursday, the State Department flagged 15 other Nigerian states in its “Do Not Travel” list due to risks ranging from terrorism to kidnapping and criminal activities perpetrated at sea.
In a similar advisory to British nationals, the UK government advised against nonessential travel to the Nigerian capital, while warning against all travel to 12 Nigerian states.
A popular Abuja mall closed its doors Thursday for the protection of staff and customers, its management said, adding that it was reviewing the security situation in consultation with authorities.
Nigeria’s police chief, Usman Alkali Baba, said there were “no imminent threats” in the country’s Federal Capital Territory.
“The Inspector General of Police, therefore, allays the fear of residents in the FCT and admonishes them to go about their lawful businesses and normal social lives/engagements as all hands are on deck to nip any security threat in the bud and respond to distress calls promptly,” a statement by his office said Thursday.
“The IGP similarly reiterates the commitment of the Nigeria Police to eliminating all threats, as well as protection of lives and property of all residents of the country,” the statement added.
Insurgency has remained rife in northeastern Nigeria, even as the country also struggles to contain motorbike riding gangs known locally as ‘bandits’ who carry out deadly attacks on communities in the northwestern region.
Nigeria also grapples with widespread kidnappings for ransom and maritime crimes in its southern region.
Hundreds of prisoners were broken free in a prison raid in the country’s capital in July. According to authorities, all inmates linked to Boko Haram escaped during the attack.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the raid.
In recent days, war analysts have painted a picture of Russian forces struggling to make significant gains across Ukraine.
According to the Institute for the Study of War in the United States, they are “not making significant progress around Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, or anywhere else along the front lines in Ukraine.”
However, it said Russia is still trying to push a narrative that it is making major progress in Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Analysts said the information operation is likely an attempt to “improve morale” and “possibly the personal standing” of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is behind the Wagner mercenary group.
The notorious Wagner group is “largely responsible” for the minimal gains around Bakhmut, but the ISW said the advances have been “at a languid speed and a significant cost”.
Mr Prigozhin, who reportedly confronted Vladimir Putin over Russia’s stalling war effort, acknowledged the slow pace of the ground operations near Bakhmut last week.
He said his Wagner forces were advancing just 100 to 200m per day, which he absurdly claimed was a normal rate for modern advances.
Mothers from the US, Canada, the UK, and other western countries, are fighting to get their children out of Saudi Arabia after marriage breakdowns to Saudi nationals. A campaigner says many don’t get the help they need from their own governments.
At first, all seemed fine when American mum, Carly Morris, arrived in Saudi Arabia with her five-year-old daughter, Tala. The child’s Saudi father, whom she had married and later divorced during his seven-year scholarship in the USA, had persuaded her to come for a short visit. He had arranged a thirty-day visa for them both so that his parents could meet their granddaughter for the first time.
Carly’s holiday mood first took a knock on checking into the hotel her ex-husband had booked for her and Tala. Their room had no windows or internet access and her mobile phone would not work there. Though Carly says she soon had much more to worry about.
“The week after we arrived he asked for my passport and my birth certificate so that he could start processing her [Tala] exit permit. Though what he really did, I later found out, was he transferred her to Saudi citizenship.”
Dual citizenship is not recognised in Saudi Arabia so from this point on Tala, who had been born and raised in America, was considered a Saudi citizen only. This meant that under the country’s male guardianship system she could not leave the country unless her Saudi father agreed. It was soon clear that this was the last thing he would do.
Carly says her Saudi ex-husband began collecting Tala each morning and not bringing her back until late in the evening. Left alone all day in her basic hotel room with little money she relied on boxes of food he would leave for her. Finally, after nearly two years of appealing to him to take their daughter home, Carly began writing to members of the US congress and others who she hoped might help her.
This, she says, angered her former husband.
“When he found that I was reaching out to people outside of the kingdom asking for help, he abducted my daughter for a period of two months. He and his family fled their home even. During that time he filed for custody of her.”
In the papers filed as part of the custody proceedings, the father denied having abducted Tala.
After failing to get any constructive replies from American politicians, Carly wrote to the White House for help. She never heard back but her hopes nonetheless soared when the US President, Joe Biden, visited Riyadh in July. That effort too came to nothing, along she insists with appeals to US Embassy staff in Riyadh.
Back in America, Carly’s increasingly worried mother, Denise White, has come to believe that Saudi economic and political importance means US diplomats are reluctant to act. The Gulf kingdom is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, which gives it powerful political leverage, especially during the current energy crisis.
Speaking from her home in California, Mrs White says she is deeply concerned about her granddaughter’s lack of education, after being told that Tala has not been to school once in the past three years.
Carly has also voiced fears about the psychological impact on Tala of being caught in the middle of a custody battle in a country far from her home.
“I can’t get her to speak to anyone when social affairs people come here. She will not speak to any strangers. If I try to do video for my family she hides from the camera. I’m really worried about her socially at this point.”
IMAGE SOURCE, BETHANY ALHAIDARI Image caption, Bethany Alhaidari, from the Human Rights Foundation, says dozens of women are in the same situation as Carly
Statistics compiled by the US-based Human Rights Foundation show that Carly is one of nearly 50 American mothers fighting to get their children out of Saudi Arabia after marrying Saudi nationals. That is in addition to many from Canada, the UK, and other Western countries.
The foundation’s Bethany Alhaidari, who herself spent two years trying to get a Saudi exit visa for her daughter, says none have been successful over the past year. Many, she insists, simply don’t get the help they need from their own governments.
“There tends to be a sentiment, even in the US government, of ‘You did this to yourself, you should have known better. So I feel like we face a wall a lot of times with that attitude.”
The US embassy in Riyadh told the BBC that the welfare of US citizens was the “highest priority” of the state department and that the embassy was in regular contact with Carly and in touch with the Saudi government.
After a long court battle Carly was finally given custody of Tala, but told not to leave the Saudi city she is staying in, never mind the country itself. With no funds of her own, she says she had become a kind of prisoner within her own four walls.
“At that point, I had gone two years not even stepping outside. I sat inside this hotel every single day. Not one person has seen my face… not one person has knocked on my door”.
IMAGE SOURCE, BETHANY ALHAIDARI Image caption, Bethany Alhaidari says it took her two years to get her daughter back
Since speaking out on this issue Carly has been accused by Saudi authorities of “disrupting public order”, with the prosecution seeking a jail term as punishment.
She is also facing another even bigger new worry. Well before meeting her husband, Carly had converted to Islam and she insists her beliefs have never wavered since. But just days after she won back custody of her daughter, her ex-husband’s father officially accused her of denouncing her faith and insulting Saudi Arabia and all Muslims. Still unable to bring her daughter back home she also now faces a potential death sentence but pins much of the blame on herself.
“I was warned. Many people told me like, do not to enter that country. If you enter you will never get your daughter back. And I didn’t listen to the warnings… and I’m here in this situation three years later”.
The Saudi authorities and Carly’s ex-husband have been approached for comment but have not yet responded.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
The husband of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been “violently assaulted” after a break-in at their California home.
Paul Pelosi, 82, was taken to hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, a spokesperson said.
The suspect, who has not been named, is in custody but the motive for the attack is unclear.
Mrs Pelosi was not at the San Francisco residence when the incident took place on Friday morning.
“The Speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time,” a spokesman for the senior Democrat said.
Two people who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the attacker had specifically targeted the residence.
The assailant used a hammer to gain entry, two sources told CBS News, but it is unclear if it was used to attack Mr Pelosi.
Mrs Pelosi is one of the most powerful politicians in the country. She was re-elected to a fourth term as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2021, making her second in line to the presidency after Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The Baltimore native has represented the San Francisco area in Congress since 1987, and typically splits her time between California and Washington.
She is currently fundraising and campaigning with Democrats around the country ahead of the midterm elections on 8 November, and was in Washington with her security detail at the time of the attack.
Her husband, the multimillionaire founder of a venture capital firm, resides primarily in San Francisco where he was born and raised.
The couple have been married since 1963 and have five children. Their combined net worth, primarily from Mr Pelosi’s investments, has made the speaker one of the richest members of Congress.
The FBI and the US Capitol Police, which has a field office in California, are assisting San Francisco police with the investigation.
Members of Congress have been on high-alert over security threats since the riot at the US Capitol in January 2021. Mrs Pelosi’s office in the building was ransacked by supporters of then-President Donald Trump during the attack.
And last year, her San Francisco home was reportedly vandalised with graffiti saying “cancel rent”.
Senior Republicans, such as Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, have also been targeted by vandalism in recent times and politicians have raised concerns about an increase in threats.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, FBI agents work outside the couple’s San Francisco home – the agency and US Capitol Police are assisting the investigation
In a statement, the White House said President Joe Bidenwas “praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family”.
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said: “What happened to Paul Pelosi was a dastardly act. I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Both added that they had spoken to Mrs Pelosi since the incident.
Earlier this year, Mr Pelosi was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and causing injury after he crashed his car. The financier pleaded guilty in August and was sentenced to five days in jail.
&w=707&quality=100)
