Orban to EU leaders: Trump ready to act ‘immediately’ as Russia-Ukraine peace broker
Orban to EU leaders: Trump ready to act ‘immediately’ as Russia-Ukraine peace broker/node/2550606/world
Orban to EU leaders: Trump ready to act ‘immediately’ as Russia-Ukraine peace broker
US former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (C) shouts next to US Senator from Ohio and 2024 Republican vice-president candidate J. D. Vance (R). (AFP)
Orban to EU leaders: Trump ready to act ‘immediately’ as Russia-Ukraine peace broker
Updated 16 July 2024
AFP
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is ready to act “immediately” as a peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war if he is elected in November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said in a letter to EU leaders.
The letter, addressed to European Council President Charles Michel and shared with all EU leaders, was drafted after Orban held talks with Trump as well as with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and China.
“I can (...) surely state that shortly after his election victory, he will not wait until his inauguration, (Trump) will be ready to act as a peace broker immediately. He has detailed and well-founded plans for this,” Orban wrote.
‘Things will get worse’ — PM Starmer says fixing UK problems will take time
Blames the Conservative government for breakdown
Says he won’t shy away from taking unpopular decisions
Updated 18 sec ago
Reuters
LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer will warn Britons next week that the changes needed to fix Britain’s many problems will take time, saying “things will get worse before we get better” in a speech he describes as a chance to level with the public.
After being elected as prime minister at a July landslide election, Starmer has repeatedly blamed the former Conservative government for leaving Britain in a parlous state, something he said allowed “thugs” to spark this month’s anti-migrant riots.
In a speech due on Tuesday, a week before Britain’s parliament returns to work after a summer break, Starmer will say that “change won’t happen overnight” but that his government is determined to tackle a multitude of problems ranging from overflowing prisons to long waiting lists for health services.
“I said change would not happen overnight. When there is rot deep in the heart of a structure, you can’t just cover it up. You can’t tinker with it or rely on quick fixes. You have to overhaul the entire thing,” Starmer will say, according to excerpts of his speech provided by his office.
“We have inherited not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole and that is why we have to take action and do things differently. Part of that is being honest with people about the choices we face and how tough this will be. Frankly, things will get worse before we get better.”
Starmer, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, was forced to cancel his summer holiday this month to tackle riots that targeted Muslims and migrants. The riots began after the killings of three young girls in northern England was wrongly blamed on an Islamist migrant based on online misinformation.
Starmer said the Conservative government’s failure to tackle problems had widened cracks in society making it harder to deal with rioters than when he was Britain’s top prosecutor from 2008 to 2013.
“And those people throwing rocks, torching cars, making threats, they didn’t just know the system was broken. They were betting on it, they were gaming it, they saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of populism and failure and they exploited them. That’s what we have inherited,” he will say.
Appealing to what he calls Britain’s working people such as teachers, nurses, small business owners and firefighters, Starmer will say his government has taken the “first steps toward the change people voted for” on July 4. But he will say the poor state of Britain’s public finances — which his finance minister says are on course to show a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) overspend this year — mean his government will have to make tough decisions.
“If we don’t take tough action across the board, we won’t be able to fix the foundations of the country like we need,” he will say. “I won’t shy away from making unpopular decisions now if it’s the right thing for the country in the long term. That’s what a government of service means.”
German police arrest 2 suspects in Solingen knife attack claimed by Daesh terror network
One of the suspects was apparently an asylum seeker and the other was a 15-year-old who failed to report a criminal act
Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was in “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”
Updated 16 min 50 sec ago
AFP
SOLINGEN, Germany: German police on Saturday arrested two persons over a knife rampage that killed three people at a street festival, an attack claimed by the Daesh group as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
A police spokesman told AFP officers made the latest arrest at a hostel for asylum seekers not far from the scene of Friday’s attack in the western city of Solingen. He did not identify the person arrested nor indicate his link to the attack.
Earlier on Saturday, a prosecutor said a first person was arrested: a 15-year-old suspected of failing to report a criminal act.
Witnesses had allegedly seen the teen discussing the attack just before it happened with a man who could be the knifeman, said Markus Caspers, prosecutor of Duesseldorf, just west of Solingen.
Police carry evidence out of a refugee accommodation in Solingen, Germany, on August 24, 2024 during an operation linked to a knife attack on a city festival the night before. (AFP)
The unidentified knifeman fled after striking in the western town of Solingen late on Friday, sparking a manhunt.
In a statement on Telegram, Daesh’s Amaq propaganda arm said that “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State.”
Daesh — also known as Islamic State — said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere,” in an apparent reference to Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The claim has yet to be verified. German officials had earlier said that “a terrorist motive cannot be excluded” for the act.
The people killed were men of 56 and 67 years of age and a 56-year-old woman, officials said.
“The victims were completely unknown with no known ties between them,” Caspers told a press conference.
Candles and flowers are pictured on August 24, 2024 near the area where three people were killed and several injured during a knife attack during a city festival in Solingen. (AFP)
Four of the wounded were in a “serious” condition, officials said, revising down an earlier estimate of five.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the perpetrator “must be caught quickly and punished.”
The attacker struck as thousands of people gathered for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity,” part of a series of events to mark Solingen’s 650th anniversary.
On high alert
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks after a series of atrocities.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7, the risk of Islamist plots has “worsened considerably,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, warning that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high.”
Jihadists have carried out several attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12.
A police officer was killed and five people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in the city of Mannheim in May, with an Islamist motive suspected.
Friday’s killing started as thousands of people had gathered in front of a stage for the festival’s first night.
Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt newspaper he was a few meters away from the attack, not far from the stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong.”
“And then, a meter away from me, a person fell,” said Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who had had too much to drink.
When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.
‘Shock and horror’
Solingen mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said the whole city was in “shock, horror and great grief.”
Faeser called for the country to “remain united” as she denounced “those who want to stir up hatred” during a visit to the site of the tragedy. “Let us not be divided,” she said.
Solingen is a city of some 150,000 people located between Duesseldorf and Cologne.
People had gathered in the town on Friday evening for the first day of the three-day “Festival of Diversity” with music and shows scheduled.
Up to 75,000 visitors had been expected to attend.
After the attack, “people left the scene in shock, but calmly,” Philipp Mueller, one of the organizers, told the newspaper, adding that the rest of the festival was canceled.
Scholz’s center-left coalition faces regional elections next week in the east of the country, where the far-right AfD is leading strongly in the polls.
Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-2016 at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis.
The influx was deeply divisive in Germany and fueled the popularity of the AfD.
NASA decision against using a Boeing capsule to bring astronauts back adds to company’s problems
The space capsule program represents a tiny fraction of Boeing’s revenue, but carrying astronauts is a high-profile job — like Boeing’s work building Air Force One presidential jets
Updated 25 August 2024
AP
NASA’s announcement Saturday that it won’t use a troubled Boeing capsule to return two stranded astronauts to Earth is a yet another setback for the struggling company, although the financial damage is likely to be less than the reputational harm.
Once a symbol of American engineering and technological prowess, Boeing has seen its reputation battered since two 737 Max airliners crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The safety of its products came under renewed scrutiny after a panel blew out of a Max during a flight this January.
And now NASA has decided that it is safer to keep the astronauts in space until February rather than risk using the Boeing Starliner capsule that delivered them to the international space station. The capsule has been plagued by problems with its propulsion system.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said the decision to send the Boeing capsule back to Earth empty “is a result of a commitment to safety.” Boeing had insisted Starliner was safe based on recent tests of thrusters both in space and on the ground.
The space capsule program represents a tiny fraction of Boeing’s revenue, but carrying astronauts is a high-profile job — like Boeing’s work building Air Force One presidential jets.
“The whole thing is another black eye” for Boeing, aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia said. “It’s going to sting a little longer, but nothing they haven’t dealt with before.”
Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since 2018 as its aircraft-manufacturing business cratered after those crashes. For a time, the defense and space side of the company provided a partial cushion, posting strong profits and steady revenue through 2021.
Since 2022, however, Boeing’s defense and space division has stumbled too, losing $6 billion — slightly more than the airplane side of the company in the same period.
The results have been dragged down by several fixed-price contracts for NASA and the Pentagon, including a deal to build new Air Force One presidential jets. Boeing has found itself on the hook as costs for those projects have risen far beyond the company’s estimates.
The company recorded a $1 billion loss from fixed-price government contracts in the second quarter alone, but the problem is not new.
“We have a couple of fixed-price development programs we have to just finish and never do them again,” then-CEO David Calhoun said last year. “Never do them again.”
In 2014, NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion fixed-price contract to build a vehicle to carry astronauts to the International Space Station after the retirement of space shuttles, along with a $2.6 billion contract to SpaceX.
Boeing, with more than a century of building airplane and decades as a NASA contractor, was seen as the favorite. But Starliner suffered technical setbacks that caused it to cancel some test launches, fall behind schedule and go over budget. SpaceX won the race to ferry astronauts to the ISS, which it accomplished in 2020.
Boeing was finally ready to carry astronauts this year, and Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Starliner in early June for what was intended to be an 8-day stay in space. But thruster failures and helium leaks led NASA to park the vehicle at the space station while engineers debated how to return them to Earth.
The company said in a regulatory filing that the latest hitch with Starliner caused a $125 million loss through June 30, which pushed cumulative cost overruns on the program to more than $1.5 billion. “Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods,” Boeing said.
Aboulafia said Starliner’s impact on Boeing business and finances will be modest — “not really a needle-mover.” Even the $4.2 billion, multi-year NASA contract is a relatively small chunk of revenue for Boeing, which reported sales of $78 billion last year.
And Aboulafia believes Boeing will enjoy a grace period with customers like the government now that it is under new leadership, reducing the risk it will lose big contracts. NASA administrator Nelson said Saturday he was “100 percent” confident that the Starliner will fly with a crew again.
Robert “Kelly” Ortberg replaced Calhoun as CEO this month. Unlike the company’s recent chief executives, Ortberg is an outsider who previously led aerospace manufacturer Rockwell Collins, where he developed a reputation for walking among workers on factory floors and building ties to airline and government customers.
“They are transitioning from perhaps the worst executive leadership to some of the best,” Aboulafia said. “Given the regime change underway, I think people are going to give them some slack.”
Boeing’s defense division has recently won some huge contracts. It is lined up to provide Apache helicopters to foreign governments, sell 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel as the bulk of a $20 billion deal, and build prototype surveillance planes for the Air Force under a $2.56 billion contract.
“Those are some strong tailwinds, but it’s going to take a while before they get (Boeing’s defense and space business) back to profitability,” Aboulafia said.
Since the refugee crisis of 2015, over a million people from Asia and Africa have passed through Serbia, according to the Serbian government
Updated 25 August 2024
AFP
SARAJEVO: The death toll from the sinking of a migrant boat on the Bosnia-Serbia border rose to 12 on Saturday after local residents found another body, the authorities said.
The vessel, which was carrying 28 to 30 migrants, capsized Thursday in the Drina river in a bid to cross from Serbia to Bosnia, leaving a nine-month-old baby girl and her mother among the dead.
The authorities called off the search Friday night saying that all bodies that were reported missing had been recovered.
“The body of the twelfth migrant, who died when the boat overturned on the Drina River, was found today in the town of Tegare near Bratunac,” the head of Bosnia’s civil protection service Boris Trninic confirmed to SRNA news agency.
“The body was found by local residents. And now we await a decision if it will be handed to the interior ministry of the Republic of Srpska or Serbia for further investigation,” he added, referring to one of the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A joint operation that started early Thursday and was led by rescuers from Serbia and Bosnia found 18 survivors, including three children, who had managed to reach the shore.
Since the refugee crisis of 2015, over a million people from Asia and Africa have passed through Serbia, according to the Serbian government.
Most of those trying to cross in recent months are from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkiye, Morocco, and Pakistan, based on government data.
The number of migrants transiting through Serbia has significantly decreased over the years, with 10,389 illegal entries recorded in the first half of 2024, nearly 70 percent fewer than last year.
Serbian officials credit this decline to closer cooperation with Austrian police and the EU’s border management agency, Frontex.
Will Muslim American voters prove a critical constituency in the US election?
With Gaza and Middle East policy in focus, Muslim American voters could play a decisive role in key battleground states
Biden’s unwavering support for Israel cast a pall over the Democrats, forcing Harris strategists to consider a change of tack
Updated 30 min 22 sec ago
GABRIELE MALVISI
LONDON: With fewer than 80 days left until what could be one of the tightest US presidential elections of recent decades, the battle for votes is intensifying, with campaign strategies being deployed to appeal to every demographic.
Among the target groups are Muslim Americans, whose influence has grown considerably in recent years owing to events and foreign policy decisions in the Middle East and their potential impact on voter attitudes.
The conflict in Gaza, in particular, has sharpened the focus on Muslim Americans, as political strategists question how President Joe Biden’s unwavering support for Israel might affect the Democrats’ performance among this broadly pro-Palestinian demographic.
With little chance of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza before election day, the Democrats have been left wondering whether they can afford to alienate Muslim Americans, who were critical to Biden’s 2020 victory in key battleground states, such as Michigan.“
When it came to Israel and Gaza, then you saw the true colors of many of these politicians, and that they never really respected us to begin with,” Salam Al-Marayati, president and co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told Arab News.
“Now there’s that sense of betrayal, since there’s so much investment made into the Democratic Party, especially after the first Trump presidency.”
According to the nonpartisan advocacy group Emgage, about 65 percent of Muslim American voters across the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia supported Biden in the 2020 election, contributing to his narrow victory.
However, a similar survey taken in July, shortly before Biden exited the 2024 race, revealed that just 18 percent of Muslim Americans who had voted for him in 2020 planned to do so again.
Although attitudes may have changed since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, questions remain as to whether she can reestablish the support of Muslim American voters.
Questions remain as to whether Kamala Harris can reestablish the support of Muslim American voters that President Joe Biden has lost for his unwavering support for Israel in its war on Palestinians in Gaza. (AFP)
“There’s more sympathy coming from her than Biden,” said Al-Marayati. “The rhetoric is definitely different, but that doesn’t translate into a change of policy.”
Historically, minorities, including Muslim Americans, have played a relatively marginal role in US elections, often due to exclusion from voting or limited political representation. However, the past few decades have witnessed a significant shift.
Pioneers such as Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian American elected to Congress in 1957, and Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress, symbolize the increasing political representation of minorities.
This growing representation has translated into greater political engagement among minorities, including Muslim Americans.
US Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan state, is the first Palestinian American woman in Congress. (AFP/File)
According to Pew Research Center, the current Congress is the most ethnically diverse in US history, with 25 percent of voting members identifying as something other than non-Hispanic white.
As a result, Muslim Americans and other minorities have become increasingly influential in elections, earning them greater recognition from political parties.
“Our involvement started, in numbers and in significant ways, in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s,” Abed Hammoud, a lawyer of Lebanese origin and founder of the Arab American Political Action Committee, told Arab News.
“(But) naturally, that process takes time and you have to do it right, too, as a community.”
Abed Hammoud, founder of the Arab American Political Action Committee. (Supplied)
Hammoud says that internal conflicts, divisions over identity, disinformation, and the “natural fear people have when you’re not part of the mainstream” have historically undermined the unity of Muslim American voters and a political force.
Nevertheless, Muslim Americans have historically aligned with the Democratic Party, beginning with their involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, led by figures such as Malcolm X.
This alignment deepened in the 1970s with the relaxation of immigration laws, which saw Muslim communities in the US rapidly expand.
In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton solidified this relationship by appointing Muslims to key positions, including M. Osman Siddique as the first Muslim American chief of mission, and by hosting Eid celebrations at the White House.
However, the post-9/11 era, and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan launched by President George W. Bush led to disenchantment among some Muslim voters.
Despite this, President Barack Obama’s election in 2008 renewed hope within the community, heartened to see the first African American from a diverse background win the presidency.
But the situation has grown more complex in recent years.
In 2016, many experts predicted a record turnout of Muslim voters motivated by what American political scientist Youssef Chouhoud described as a “combination of fear and heightened civic duty” to avoid a Donald Trump presidency.
Despite the anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies during Donald Trump's administration, he still has supporters among Muslim Americans. (AFP)
Despite Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton receiving almost 76 percent of the Muslim American vote, a post-election survey by Emgage revealed a more nuanced picture.
Many Muslim voters felt disengaged, driven primarily by the need for better economic stability, improved national security, and more accessible healthcare and education rather than appeals to prevent a Trump victory.
In response, Emgage launched the “1 Million Muslim Votes” campaign in 2020, successfully mobilizing more than a million Muslim voters.
Of these, 86 percent supported Biden, who was viewed favorably for his stance on jobs, the economy, healthcare, and civil rights, particularly in light of the surge in hate crimes and Islamophobia during Trump’s presidency.
This goodwill, however, has since eroded.
“A lot of people are hurt because they felt that the Democratic Party was supposed to represent their values and their ways and their voice,” explained Al-Marayati.
Salam Al-Marayati, president and co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. (Supplied)
A 2021 post-election report by Emgage, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Change Research showed that many Muslim voters had high expectations for Biden to focus on Palestine.
These hopes were dashed as the US leader maintained a strongly pro-Israel stance against the backdrop of war in Gaza, leading many voters to mark themselves as “uncommitted” in this year Democratic primaries.
While support for the Democratic Party among Muslim Americans is more precarious than ever, the Republican Party has struggled to gain significant traction among the community.
Before 9/11, many Muslim Americans found common ground with the Republicans on issues such as family values, entrepreneurship, and social conservatism.
However, the Bush-era wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and domestic policies perceived as targeting Muslims led to a sharp decline in support. Trump’s presidency, marked by anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies, further alienated Muslim American voters.
In May, a group of prominent Arab Americans that included Bishara Bahbah, founder of Arab Americans for Trump, established a political action committee called Arab Americans for a Better America.
Bahbah has said that he and other members of the community have been offered assurances that a second Trump presidency would “put an immediate end to the war in Gaza,” though he offered no evidence.
Bishara Bahbah, founder of Arab Americans for Trump group. (AP/File)
He has also said that he is confident having Trump back in the White House would result in a quick end to the hostilities in Gaza.
“(Republicans) were making headway using the idea of: ‘Yeah, we are conservative like you,’” said Hammoud. “And they did make some headway this way in the community, but not significantly — nothing nearly as much as the situation in Gaza produced.”
As the Nov. 5 election looms, many Muslim Americans are looking to third-party candidates who might better represent their views, with Green Party hopeful Jill Stein seeking to capitalize on this sentiment.
However, the change in Democratic leadership, with Harris as the presidential candidate and Tim Walz as her running mate, could reshuffle the deck.
Indeed, Harris’ decision to enlist Afghan-American lawyer Nasrina Bargzie to help build support among Muslim voters, along with her willingness to meet with leaders of the “uncommitted” campaign to discuss the Gaza war, has been cautiously welcomed by the community.
US President Joe Biden's unwavering support for Israe in its genocidal war against Gazans has disillussioned many Muslim Americans. (AFP/File)
Hammoud expressed skepticism about Bargzie’s appointment, however, arguing that “it’s not enough to appoint someone just because they’re Muslim or Arab” to heal the divide.
“It’s an issue that has always been important — for us to have people, our own people, in positions. But we need to see action,” he said.
Some analysts suggest that Muslim Americans, who account for as little as 1 percent of the voting population, are unlikely to have significant sway over the outcome of November’s election.
“It’s all down to numbers. Numbers in the right states, too. And the Democrats may not need us to win,” said Hammoud.
However, as the fastest-growing religious group in the US, their influence on the nation’s policy direction cannot be taken for granted.
