Turkiye works to bring together rivals Somalia, Ethiopia
Turkiye works to bring together rivals Somalia, Ethiopia/node/2567309/world
Turkiye works to bring together rivals Somalia, Ethiopia
Mogadishu residents protest at a rally an agreement signed between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to give landlocked Ethiopia access to its shoreline, in this Jan. 3 file photo. (AP)
Turkiye works to bring together rivals Somalia, Ethiopia
Updated 13 August 2024
AFP
ISTANBUL: Turkiye is seeking to bring together Horn of Africa rivals Somalia and Ethiopia for the second round of talks in Ankara aiming to ease tensions between them, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan separately met with his counterparts from Somalia and Ethiopia on Monday.
“The parties are not meeting with one another,” the Turkish diplomatic source said.
“The Turkish delegation is conducting shuttle diplomacy under the coordination of our minister,” the same source added.
The two neighbors have a history of stormy relations and territorial feuds. They fought two wars in the late 20th century.
These tensions were exacerbated earlier this year when Addis Ababa signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland that gives Ethiopia — one of the largest landlocked countries in the world — long-sought-after sea access.
In return, Somaliland — which unilaterally declared independence from Somalia in 1991, a move not recognized by Mogadishu — has said Ethiopia would give it formal recognition, although these assertions have not been confirmed by Addis Ababa.
Under the January 1 pact, Somaliland agreed to lease 20 kilometers (12 miles) of its coast for 50 years to Ethiopia, which wants to set up a naval base and a commercial port.
Fidan announced “good progress” during July talks and said he remained hopeful for the future, during press conference alongside the two neighbors’ foreign ministers.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also involved in the diplomatic efforts for reconciliation between the two sides as he held separate phone calls with Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the weekend.
Turkiye is pushing for diplomatic and economic influence in Africa, at a time when many countries in the continent are turning away from their former colonial rulers.
Over Erdogan’s two decades in power, Ankara has consolidated its foothold on the continent, quadrupling its number of embassies there.
Turkiye has already announced plans to launch an oil and gas exploration mission off the coast of Somalia, similar to the one it is carrying out in Libyan waters.
Ankara has signed defense agreements with a number of states spanning the breadth of the continent, including Somalia, Libya, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana.
While Trump touts his debate performance, allies, donors and advisers lament it
“I think it was one of my better debates, maybe my best debate,” Trump told the “Fox & Friends” program
“My honest opinion is that Trump underperformed and she overperformed,” said donor Bill Bean, a commercial real estate investor in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, says the former president had failed to stay focused and lost chances to tout his record
Updated 5 sec ago
Reuters
Some Republican officials, donors and advisers said Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, had botched his debate with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, although Trump himself praised his performance.
“I think it was one of my better debates, maybe my best debate,” Trump told the “Fox & Friends” program on Wednesday, adding that he was not sure whether to do another one. “I’d be less inclined ... because we had a great night.”
Harris, 59, put Trump, 78, president from 2017-2021, on the defensive in a combative presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes. The election takes place on Nov. 5.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, was one of the few party leaders to publicly say Trump’s performance was poor.
“A missed opportunity,” Graham told reporters of Trump’s debate performance, adding that the former president had failed to stay focused and lost chances to tout his record.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, center, and other Trump allies line up to speak to FOX News host Sean Hannity in the spin room after Tuesday's presidential debate in Philadelphia. (AP)
Chris Christie, a former Trump ally-turned-critic who ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Harris was “exquisitely” prepared whereas Trump was not.
“Whoever did debate prep for Donald Trump should be fired. He was not good tonight at all,” Christie, who helped Trump with debate preparation in the 2016 election cycle, said on ABC News.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether there would be a shake-up of Trump’s debate team.
With eight weeks to go before the election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate offered a rare head-to-head opportunity to face tens of millions of TV viewers.
Their ABC News debate attracted 67.1 million television viewers, according to Nielsen data, topping the roughly 51 million people who watched Trump debate then-candidate President Joe Biden in June.
The number does not capture the full extent of online viewing, which has grown in popularity as traditional TV audiences decline.
Six Republican donors and three Trump advisers, all but one asking to remain anonymous to speak freely, also told Reuters they thought Harris had won the debate largely because Trump was unable to stay on message.
Several brought up, with dismay, Trump’s amplification of a false online claim that numerous Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets.
Two of Trump’s advisers said they doubted the debate would move the needle in opinion polling.
In Reuters interviews with 10 undecided voters, six said after the debate they would now either vote for Trump or were leaning toward backing him. Three said they would now back Harris and one was still unsure how he would vote.
Still, in a sign of confidence in the debate’s outcome, Harris’ campaign challenged Trump to a second round in October.
Two of the six donors said they were not sure whether Trump should debate her again, with one saying it would hinge on whether his handlers were confident he could be more focused in a second round. Two other donors, however, said they thought Trump needed a second debate in order to regain momentum.
“My honest opinion is that Trump underperformed and she overperformed,” said donor Bill Bean, a commercial real estate investor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On the prospect of a second debate, Bean said: “I’d like to see one.”
An Ohio city reshaped by Haitian immigrants lands in an unwelcome spotlight
Its story of economic renewal and related growing pains has been maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets
The falsehoods were spread online by Republican VP candidate JD Vance, and Donald Trump amplified those lies during Tuesday’s nationally televised debate
It’s part of a timeworn American political tradition of casting immigrants as outsiders
Updated 26 min 26 sec ago
AP
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio: Many cities have been reshaped by immigrants in the last few years without attracting much notice. Not Springfield, Ohio.
Its story of economic renewal and related growing pains has been thrust into the national conversation in a presidential election year — and maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. Donald Trump amplified those lies during Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, exacerbating some residents’ fears about growing divisiveness in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000.
At the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center on Wednesday, Rose-Thamar Joseph said many of the roughly 15,000 immigrants that arrived in the past few years were drawn by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability. But a rising sense of unease has crept in as longtime residents increasingly bristle at newcomers taking jobs at factories, driving up housing costs, worsening traffic and straining city services.
In this image taken from video, Rose-Thamar Joseph, from the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, speaks to The AP, on Sept. 11, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP)
“Some of them are talking about living in fear. Some of them are scared for their life. It’s tough for us,” Joseph said.
A “Welcome To Our City” sign hangs from a parking garage downtown, where a coffee shop, bakery and boutique line the main drag, North Fountain Street. A flag advertising “CultureFest,” which the city describes as an annual celebration of unity through diversity, waves from a pole nearby.
Melanie Flax Wilt, a Republican commissioner in the county that holds Springfield, said she has been pushing for community and political leaders to “stop feeding the fear.”
“After the election and everybody’s done using Springfield, Ohio, as a talking point for immigration reform, we are going to be the ones here still living through the challenges and coming up with the solutions,” she said.
Ariel Dominique, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy, said she laughed at times in recent days at the absurdity of the false claims. But seeing the comments repeated on national television by the former president was painful.
“It is so unfair and unjust and completely contrary to what we have contributed to the world, what we have contributed to this nation for so long,” Dominique said.
The falsehoods about Springfield’s Haitian immigrants were spread online by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, on the eve of Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s part of a timeworn American political tradition of casting immigrants as outsiders.
“This is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said at the debate after repeating the falsehoods. When challenged by ABC News moderator David Muir over the false claims, Trump held firm, saying “people on television” said their dogs were eaten, but he offered no evidence.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, left, and his running mate J.D. Vance have recently placed Springfield, Ohio, in the national spotlight by spreading false rumors that Haitian immigrants in the city are eating their neighbors’ pets. (Getty Images photo/AFP)
Officials in Springfield have tried to tamp down the misinformation by saying there have been no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. State leaders are trying to help address some of the real challenges the city faces.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday he would add more law enforcement and health care resources to an aid package the state has already provided to Springfield.
Many Haitians have come to the US to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the latest data available.
The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the US could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.
Springfield, about 45 miles from the state capital of Columbus, suffered a steep decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century, and its population shrank as a result. But its downtown has been revitalized in recent years as more Haitians arrived and helped meet the rising demand for labor as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Officials say Haitians now account for about 15 percent of the population.
- Mike DeWine speaks, Jan. 14, 2019, in Cedarville, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, Pool, File)
The city was shaken last year when a minivan slammed into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid license. During a city commission meeting on Wednesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stoke hatred.
On Sept. 6, a post surfaced on the social media platform X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The post talked about the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house. It was accompanied by a photo of a Black man carrying what appeared to be a goose by its feet.
On Monday, Vance posted on X “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” The next day, he posted again on X about Springfield, saying his office had received inquiries from residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
With its rising population of immigrants, Springfield is hardly an outlier. So far this decade, immigration has accounted for almost three-quarters of US population growth, with 2.5 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 2020 and 2023, according to the US Census Bureau. Population growth is an important driver of economic growth.
“The Haitian immigrants who started moving to Springfield the last few years are the reason why the economy and the labor force has been revitalized there,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which provides legal and social services to immigrants across the US.
She said Haitian clients in Springfield have told her that, out of fear, they are now considering leaving the city.
France’s new PM says to form government ‘next week’
Updated 12 September 2024
AFP
REIMS: France will have a new government next week, recently installed conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier said on Wednesday, as he sounded out candidates to run ministries faced with an unpredictable hung parliament.
“We’re going to do things methodically and seriously,” Barnier told reporters in the eastern city of Reims.
He was “listening to everybody” in a political scene split into three broad camps since July’s inconclusive snap parliamentary elections.
“We’re going to name a government next week,” he said.
Later on Wednesday, his own right-wing Republicans (LR) party announced that they were ready to join his government. The party was reduced to just 47 deputies in the 577-seat National Assembly in July’s elections.
Barnier, who has previously served as the environment, foreign and agriculture ministers and was the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, was named last week by President Emmanuel Macron as his compromise pick for head of government.
With no longer even a working majority in parliament following his decision to dissolve the National Assembly, Macron delayed picking a PM for weeks over the summer as he tried to find someone who would not suffer an immediate no-confidence vote.
The chamber is fairly equally divided between Macron’s centrist supporters — now loosely allied with Barnier’s rump conservative party — the left-wing NFP alliance and the far-right National Rally (RN).
NFP leaders have vowed to vote no confidence in any government not headed by them after they secured the most seats in the July vote, but fell well short of a majority.
Macron appears to have taken care to find a candidate in Barnier who does not immediately raise the hackles of the RN.
Rumours are swirling in Paris about who might claim key ministries after Barnier said he was open to working with people on the left or right.
“For now, the names in circulation seem to be just wish lists of people wanting to receive a ministerial portfolio,” Politico’s French edition wrote on Wednesday.
One prominent Socialist, Karim Bouamrane, mayor of the Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen, said he had turned down an invitation to serve.
“We have a right-wing prime minister approved of by the RN, a prime minister under supervision,” Bouamrane told Franceinfo radio.
An October 1 deadline to file a draft government budget for 2025 puts Barnier under pressure to get moving and sets him and his new team up for a fierce battle over taxes and spending.
In particular, both the NFP and RN promised ahead of the July elections to overturn last year’s unpopular pension reform that increased the official retirement age to 64 from 62.
Trump and Harris attend 9/11 memorial after brutal debate
Updated 12 September 2024
AFP
NEW YORK: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shook hands Wednesday at New York’s 9/11 memorial to mark the anniversary of the attacks, briefly putting politics aside hours after they clashed in a fiery presidential debate.
The solemn display of unity was a stark contrast to the evening before, when the Democratic vice president forced the rattled Republican former president onto the defensive in a bruising televised encounter.
Any sense of harmony from the commemoration of the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks is likely to be short-lived, with the US election still on a knife-edge with less than eight weeks to go, despite polls showing a crushing debate win for Harris.
The 78-year-old Trump came out swinging even before the ceremony, claiming — without evidence — in an interview with Fox News that the ABC News debate in Philadelphia was “rigged” against him.
“It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her,” he complained — referring to pushback from the moderators to some of his brazenly false statements.
The debate was watched by 57.5 million Americans, according to preliminary figures from ratings agency Nielsen — more than the 51.3 million who watched the catastrophic performance in June that forced President Joe Biden out of the race.
Trump appeared to be in two minds about the Harris campaign’s call for a second debate. He initially said on social media “why would I do a rematch?” but later said he’d be ready for two more.
The rivals kept their animosity hidden at the Ground Zero memorial, however, in an extraordinary encounter that also included the outgoing president.
Biden, 81, looked on as Harris and Trump shared their second handshake in the space of a few hours — having had their first ever such greeting at the start of the debate, in an unexpected move initiated by Harris.
Wearing commemorative blue ribbons, they all then watched as the names of the almost 3,000 victims of the attacks on the Twin Towers were read out.
“We stand in solidarity with their families and loved ones. We also honor the extraordinary heroism on display that fateful day by ordinary Americans helping their fellow Americans,” Harris said in a statement.
She and Biden headed later to the site in Pennsylvania where a hijacked plane crashed on 9/11, with Trump following later.
During his visit, Biden briefly donned a red “Trump 2024” cap given to him by a Trump-supporting firefighter. The image went viral but the White House said it was a gesture of “unity.”
Biden and Harris later visited the site where another jet was flown into the Pentagon outside Washington in 2001.
The solemn atmosphere could not have been more different to Wednesday night’s debate.
Both candidates declared victory but it was former prosecutor Harris who landed blows on issues including abortion, and repeatedly managed to bait convicted felon Trump into angry remarks on past grievances.
Trump also boosted a debunked claim about migrants eating pet cats and dogs in Ohio, earning a correction from the ABC moderator.
A CNN snap poll said Harris performed better than Trump by 63 percent to 37, while a YouGov poll said Harris laid out a clearer plan by 43 to 32 percent.
US media and commentators broadly agreed Harris had come out on top — but that it may not move the dial much in a deeply polarized and entrenched electorate.
“I thought Kamala did a good job... and kind of gave us hope,” Tanya James, a retired teacher from Texas, said Wednesday outside the White House.
Ikaika Juliano, a musician from Florida, thought however that the Democratic contender “is fake.”
Harris meanwhile got a boost with pop megastar Taylor Swift offering her backing minutes after the debate. Trump said Swift would “probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”
But the race remains neck and neck going into the final stretch.
Harris heads Thursday to North Carolina and Trump is due onstage in Arizona, two of the half-dozen swing states expected to decide the election.
Why the Trump-Harris debate is unlikely to sway undecided Arab American voters
Experts say neither candidate succeeded in convincing the non-monolithic community to lend them their support in November
Commentators feel both the Republican and Democrat relied on fear-mongering rather than in-depth policy discussions
Updated 12 September 2024
RAY HANANIA
CHICAGO: While the US presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday night demonstrated sharp contrasts on major issues, experts suggest it may have done little to sway undecided voters, including those in the Arab American community.
“I don’t think this debate is going to tell us a lot about the results of the election,” Amal Mudallali, the former Lebanese ambassador to the UN, told “The Ray Hanania Show” on Wednesday.
“Neither side succeeded in bringing Arab Americans in or convincing them that he’s the one or she’s the one that will be better for them as president and will take their interests into account.”
Also speaking on Wednesday’s show, Joseph Haboush, Washington correspondent at Al Arabiya English, even called the debate “a bit bland overall.”
He said: “I’m not sure that there are any undecided voters that would change their minds based on last night’s performance.”
The debate, which was held less than two months before election day on Nov. 5, marked the first direct confrontation between the Democratic vice president and the former Republican president.
For Harris, the debate represented an opportunity to solidify her leadership after replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket after his poor debate performance in June forced him to step aside.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) shakes hands with her Republican rival Donald Trump during the presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 10, 2024. (AFP)
Trump, on the other hand, saw the debate as an opportunity to link Harris to the perceived failures of the Biden administration, particularly around democracy, immigration, and the economy.
“I was a bit surprised that they didn’t delve into more policy-related issues in more detail, on what either side would want to do,” said Haboush.
“It was more, I would say, fear-mongering; both sides accusing the other of trying to portray the other as a threat to any future of the US, be it democracy or on other issues that they were both accusing one another of.
“There wasn’t much more that was said or given to the audience that they didn’t already know.”
However, foreign policy issues, such as Ukraine, Gaza, China, and Afghanistan, were mentioned in the debate.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block roads as they rally in front of Philadelphia City Hall in Pennsylvania on Sept. 10, 2024, ahead of the Harris-Trump debate. (AFP)
On Ukraine, Trump criticized Biden’s handling of the war and promised to end the conflict, claiming that it would not have occurred had he been president.
Pledging to “settle” the conflict even before taking office, Trump said: “What I’ll do is I’ll speak to one and I’ll speak to the other. I’ll get them together.”
He added: “I know (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky very well, and I know (Russian President Vladimir) Putin very well. They respect me. They don’t respect Biden.”
Harris attacked Trump’s perceived coziness with Putin, stating that the Russian leader would “eat you for lunch,” and accused him of undermining American support for Ukraine — a key concern given Trump’s ambiguous stance on the conflict.
Kamala Harris slams Donald Trump for being in league with the world's dictators. (AFP)
She defended the Biden administration’s support for Kyiv, highlighting US military aid as essential to Ukraine’s continued independence.
“Because of our support, because of the air defense, the ammunition, the artillery, the Javelins, the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country,” she said.
However, Harris did not propose new strategies for future US involvement.
Trump shot back, accusing Harris of being weak on foreign policy and of hating Israel and Arabs. He offered no specific solutions for the Israel-Hamas conflict, however, instead claiming the war in Gaza would not have happened under his leadership.
Donald Trump said the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza would not have happened if he were the president. (AFP)
He said: “She hates Israel. She wouldn’t even meet with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech.” While Harris did skip the speech, she did meet Netanyahu the following day.
“If she’s president, I believe that Israel would not exist within two years from now,” Trump added, going on to say Harris also hates Arabs, claiming that “the whole place (the Middle East) is going to get blown up.”
He added: “Look at what’s happening with the Houthis and Yemen. Look at what’s happening in the Middle East. This would have never happened. I will get that settled, and fast, and I will get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended.
“If I’m president-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president.”
People gather outside of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, to watch the Harris-Trump debate. (San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Harris, meanwhile, affirmed her support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and its proxies, while acknowledging the heavy civilian toll on Palestinians in Gaza, where 11 months of fighting have left some 42,000 people dead, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she said.
She reiterated her support for the two-state solution and emphasized the importance of both Israeli security and Palestinian self-determination. Gaza, however, may not be a deciding issue in the election, even among Arab Americans.
Hours after the Harris-Trump debate in which the Gaza war was discussed, an Israeli air strike hit a school in Nuseirat, Central Gaza, ckilling at least 34 people. (AFP)
“I don’t think Arab American voters are a monolith. It’s not all of them voting on one single issue,” Joyce Karam, a senior news editor at Al-Monitor, told Wednesday’s program.
“I have Arab American friends who have prioritized the war in Gaza and some of them are going for a third party candidate.”
She added: “I think it would not be fair to the community to just say this is a ‘one vote’ or ‘one priority’ kind of drive.”
In relation to China, the candidates sparred over tariffs and trade. Trump promised sweeping tariff increases on Chinese goods, while Harris criticized these measures, citing concerns over inflation and economic instability.
Afghanistan also featured briefly in the debate, with Harris standing by Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops in August 2021, while Trump criticized the manner in which the withdrawal was executed.
Both candidates blamed each other for the chaotic aftermath and the Taliban’s return to power.
Kamala Harris’ calm demeanor was in stark contrast to Trump’s frequent interruptions and emotional outbursts. (AP)
One of the standout features of the debate was the contrast in the candidates’ delivery. Harris’ calm demeanor was in stark contrast to Trump’s frequent interruptions and emotional outbursts, which included raising his voice and launching personal attacks.
Harris’ ability to maintain her composure in the face of Trump’s barrage of insults seemed to play well with viewers. A CNN snap poll conducted after the debate found that 63 percent of respondents believed Harris had won, compared to 37 percent who favored Trump.
Online prediction market PredictIt’s 2024 presidential general election market showed Trump’s likelihood of victory declining during the debate, while Harris’ odds rose to 55 percent from 53 percent.
The debate may prove to be a pivotal moment for both campaigns. In the immediate aftermath, Harris’ campaign capitalized on her performance by calling for a second debate, challenging Trump to meet her again in October.
Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the spin room after the debate. (AP)
Trump, however, appeared reluctant to commit, claiming he had already won the debate and dismissing the idea of a rematch. But his appearance in the debate “spin room” afterwards suggested that even he recognized it had not gone as planned.
Perhaps the most poignant takeaway from the debate was the reminder that, as important as US foreign policy decisions are for the rest of the world, it is domestic issues that swing elections.
“We really don’t know what could happen. There could be many surprises to come,” said Karam. “It’s also very important to remind our audience in the Middle East that while the Gaza war is important, it’s not going to be the deciding factor for many voters.”
Left to right, Arab media practitioners Amal Mudallali, Joseph Haboush and Joyce Karam.
