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WASHINGTON: Democratic Senator Peter Welch said President Joe Biden should end his bid for re-election.
“For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race,” Welch said in an op-ed column published on Wednesday in the Washington Post.
PARIS: France suspects members of far-left groups were behind the sabotage of the country’s high-speed rail network last week just as the Olympic Games were about to begin, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.
Saboteurs struck the network on Friday with pre-dawn attacks on signal substations and cables at critical points, causing travel chaos hours before the opening ceremony in Paris.
“We have identified the profiles of several people,” Darmanin told France 2 TV, adding that the sabotage bore the hallmarks of far-left groups.
In recent years, France has been targeted in attacks by Islamist militants, but security services have been increasingly concerned about far-left or anarchist militants, who typically oppose the state and capitalism.
The then-head of France’s domestic intelligence agency, Nicolas Lerner, told Le Monde newspaper last year French President Emmanuel Macron’s divisive 2023 pension shake-up had helped lure recruits to far-left groups, which have increasingly incorporated ecological issues into their ideologies.
“In recent years, the far-left movements have been known for particularly violent clandestine actions, including arson campaigns ... ransacking and destruction of property,” Lerner, who now leads the foreign spy agency DGSE, said in the interview.
In a 2023 report on terrorism trends, the European police agency Europol said left-wing and anarchist groups typically attacked “critical infrastructure, such as repeaters and antennas, government institutions and private companies” with their “most common modus operandi” being arson and improvised explosive devices.
Train services in France were back up and running by early Monday after teams worked around the clock over the weekend to fix the damage, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete told RTL radio.
Vergriete said 800,000 people had faced travel disruptions and said the cost to the state-owned rail operator SNCF would be considerable.
An Indian soldier died fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine, one of his relatives said Monday, the fifth confirmed death so far of an Indian citizen in the conflict.
Hundreds of Indians are among the thousands of foreign soldiers Moscow is believed to have hired to bolster its forces, and New Delhi has urged their repatriation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this month and was “given assurance” to that effect, India’s foreign ministry said.
Ravi Moun, 22, went to Russia in January after he was promised a job in transport by a private recruitment agent, his brother Ajay told AFP by phone.
But he was later given weapons training and forced to join fighting on the frontier with Ukraine in March.
“After losing contact with him, I approached the Indian embassy in Moscow and they informed us that my brother has died,” Ajay said, adding the family was asked by the embassy to send DNA samples to identify Moun’s body.
Ajay said his brother had returned from the frontier once, but was later taken to fight again.
It was unclear when he had died.
“We lost contact with him after that,” Ajay said, adding that his family had appealed for help from Modi to bring Moun’s body back.
More than two years since Russia’s invasion began, tens of thousands of its soldiers have been killed in Ukraine, and Moscow has been on a global quest for more troops.
India’s foreign ministry said last week that the government was still working with Russian authorities to bring back around 50 Indians fighting alongside the Russian army.
Four other Indian soldiers have died so far this year, according to local media reports.
Indian authorities have arrested several people accused of trafficking citizens of the country to fight for the Russian army after promising them non-combatant roles.
Unemployment remains high in India despite rapid economic growth and huge numbers seek work abroad each year.
That includes thousands who had sought employment in Israel after labor shortages sparked by the war against Palestinian militants in Gaza.
India is a longstanding ally of Russia and has shied away from explicit condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.
Modi said he had discussed the conflict “openly and in detail” during his meeting with Putin this month, calling for peaceful dialogue and adding that “war cannot solve problems.”
pzb/gle/fox
DEARBORN, Michigan: Osama Siblani’s phone won’t stop ringing.
Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew his bid for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, top officials from both major political parties have been asking the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News if Harris can regain the support of the nation’s largest Muslim population located in metro Detroit.
His response: “We are in listening mode.”
Harris, who is moving to seize the Democratic nomination after Biden stepped down, appears to be pivoting quickly to the task of convincing Arab American voters in Michigan, a state Democrats believe she can’t afford to lose in November, that she is a leader they can unite behind.
Community leaders have expressed a willingness to listen, and some have had initial conversations with Harris’ team. Many had grown exacerbated with Biden after they felt months of outreach had not yielded many results.
“The door is cracked open since Biden has stepped down,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. “There’s an opportunity for the Democratic nominee to coalesce the coalition that ushered in Biden’s presidency four years ago. But that responsibility will now fall on the vice president.”
Arab American leaders such as Hammoud and Siblani are watching closely for signals that Harris will be more vocal in pressing for a ceasefire. They’re excited by her candidacy but want to be sure she will be an advocate for peace and not an unequivocal supporter of Israel.
But Harris will need to walk a fine line not to publicly break with Biden’s position on the war in Gaza, where officials in his administration have been working diligently toward a ceasefire, mostly behind the scenes.
The divide within Harris’ own party was evident in Washington last week during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to address Congress. Some Democrats supported the visit, while others protested and refused to attend. Outside the Capitol, pro-Palestinian protesters were met with pepper spray and arrests.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held up a sign that read “war criminal” during Netanyahu’s remarks.
Harris did not attend.
Some Arab American leaders interpret her absence — she instead attended a campaign event in Indianapolis — as a sign of good faith with them, though they recognize her ongoing responsibilities as vice president, including a meeting Thursday with Netanyahu.
Her first test within the community will come when Harris chooses a running mate. One of the names on her short list, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, has been public in his criticism of pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab American leaders in Michigan say putting him on the ticket would ramp up their unease about the level of support they could expect from a Harris administration.
“Josh Shapiro was one of the first ones to criticize the students on campus. So it doesn’t differentiate Harris very much if she picks him. That just says I’m going to continue the same policies as Biden,” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities.
Arab Americans are betting that their vote holds enough electoral significance in pivotal swing states like Michigan to ensure that officials will listen to them. Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation, and the state’s majority-Muslim cities overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. He won Dearborn, for example, by a roughly 3-to-1 margin over former President Donald Trump.
In February, over 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters chose “uncommitted,” securing two delegates to protest the Biden administration’s unequivocal support for Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Nationally, “uncommitted” garnered a total of 36 delegates in the primaries earlier this year.
The groups leading this effort have called for — at a minimum — an embargo on all weapons shipments to Israel and a permanent ceasefire.
“If Harris called for an arms embargo, I would work around the clock every day until the election to get her elected,” said Abbas Alawieh, an “uncommitted” Michigan delegate and national leader of the movement. “There’s a real opportunity right now to unite the coalition. It’s on her to deliver, but we are cautiously optimistic.”
Those divisions were on full display Wednesday night when the Michigan Democratic Party brought together over 100 delegates to pitch them on uniting behind Harris. During the meeting, Alawieh, one of three state delegates who did not commit to Harris, was speaking when another delegate interrupted him by unmuting and telling him to “shut up,” using an expletive, according to Alawieh.
The call could be a preview of tensions expected to surface again in August, when Democratic leaders, lawmakers, and delegates convene in Chicago for the party’s national convention. Mass protests are planned, and the “uncommitted” movement intends to ensure their voices are heard within the United Center, where the convention will be held.
Trump and his campaign, meanwhile, are keenly aware of the turmoil within the Democratic base and are actively seeking the support of Arab American voters. That effort has been complicated by Trump’s history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy during his one term as president.
A meeting between over a dozen Arab American leaders from across the country and several of Trump’s surrogates was convened in Dearborn last week. Among the surrogates was Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-born businessman whose son married Tiffany Trump, the former president’s younger daughter, two years ago. Boulos is leveraging his connections to rally support for Trump.
Part of the pitch that Boulos and Bishara Bahbah, chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, made in Dearborn was that Trump has shown an openness to a two-state solution. He posted a letter on social media from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and pledged to work for peace in the Middle East.
“The three main points that were noted in the meeting were that Trump needs to state more clearly that he wants an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and that he supports the two-state solution, and that there is no such thing as a Muslim ban,” said Bahbah. “This is what the community wants to hear in a clear manner.”
Before a July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump also met with Bahbah, who pressed him about a two-state solution. According to Bahbah, Trump responded affirmatively, saying, “100 percent.”
But any apparent political opportunity for Trump may be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans about the former president’s ban on immigration from several majority Muslim countries and remarks they felt were insulting.
“I have not heard any individuals saying I’m now rushing to Donald Trump,” said Hammoud, Dearborn’s Democratic mayor. “I have yet to hear that in any of the conversations I’ve had. They all know what Donald Trump represents.”
Siblani, who organized Wednesday’s meeting with Trump surrogates, has spent months serving as an intermediary between his community and officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. Privately, he says, almost all express the need for a permanent ceasefire.
“Everybody wants our votes, but nobody wants to be seen as aligning with us publicly,” Siblani said.
SEOUL, South Korea: More than 5,000 people isolated by flooding in northwest North Korea were rescued in airlifts and other evacuation work supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported Monday.
Heavy rainfall on Saturday had caused a river on the North Korean-Chinese border to exceed a dangerous level and created “a grave crisis,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
About 10 military helicopters and navy and government boats were mobilized for the evacuation efforts in Sinuiju city and Uiju town where flooding had isolated residents.
KCNA did not mention any deaths or how much damage the flooding caused. It said each of the about 10 helicopters made several fights to move the residents despite bad weather, ultimately rescuing 4,200 of the affected people by airlift.
It said Kim guided the evacuation works Sunday, ordered food and other necessities to be provided to affected people, and set tasks for recovery and relief works.
KCNA cited Kim as calling the rescue works “miraculous” as more than 5,000 people were saved through the efforts.
Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to farmlands due to poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure. Typhoons and torrential rains in 2020 were among the difficulties Kim previously said had created “multiple crises” at home, along with draconian pandemic-related restrictions and UN sanctions over his nuclear weapons program.
During his weekend visit to the flooded region, Kim also scolded officials for lowering their guard though he had ordered efforts to prevent flood damage more than once, KCNA said.
“They, seized with defeatism at combat with nature, do not confidently turn out in the disaster prevention work, only expecting chance from the sky,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Kim stressed that the irresponsible attitude of those tasked with ensuring people’s safety should not be overlooked. He said the North’s emergency response agency and the Ministry of Public Security didn’t even know the exact populations of the flood-hit areas so the number of people rescued was larger than expected.
Kim’s criticism could be seen as an effort to shift blame while establishing his own image as a leader caring about his people while North Korea struggles with economic difficulties and international isolation, observers say.
CARACASE: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term with 51 percent of the vote, the country’s electoral authority said just after midnight on Monday, despite multiple exit polls which pointed to an opposition win.
The authority said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won 44 percent of the vote, though the opposition had earlier said it had “reasons to celebrate” and asked supporters to continue monitoring vote counts.
Maduro, appearing at the presidential palace before cheering supporters, said his reelection is a triumph of peace and stability and reiterated his campaign trail assertion that Venezuela’s electoral system is transparent.
A poll from Edison Research, known for its polling of US elections, had predicted in an exit poll that Gonzalez would win 65 percent of the vote, while Maduro would win 31 percent.
Local firm Meganalisis predicted a 65 percent vote for Gonzalez and just under 14 percent for Maduro.
About 80 percent of ballot boxes have been counted, said national electoral council (CNE) president Elvis Amoroso in a televised statement, adding results had been delayed because of an “aggression” against the electoral data transmission system.
The CNE has asked the attorney general to investigate the “terrorist actions” Amoroso said, adding participation was 59 percent.
The opposition had earlier said voters had chosen a change after 25 years of socialist party rule.
“The results cannot be hidden. The country has peacefully chosen a change,” Gonzalez said in a post on X at around 11 p.m. local time, before the results were announced.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado reiterated a call for the country’s military to uphold the results of the vote.
“A message for the military. The people of Venezuela have spoken: they don’t want Maduro,” she said earlier on X. “It is time to put yourselves on the right side of history. You have a chance and it’s now.”
Venezuela’s military has always supported Maduro, a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, and there have been no public signs that leaders of the armed forces are breaking from the government.
