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Trump and Republicans closer than Democrats to Muslims, head of pro-Trump Arab group claims

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Updated 22 August 2024
RAY HANANIA
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Trump and Republicans closer than Democrats to Muslims, head of pro-Trump Arab group claims

Trump and Republicans closer than Democrats to Muslims, head of pro-Trump Arab group claims
  • Chair of Arab Americans for Trump argues Biden-Harris administration helped fund and fuel Israeli military campaign in Gaza but Trump would bring conflict to an end
  • Arabs and Muslims need to look past the political rhetoric and previous differences and engage with Trump, rather than boycott him, to achieve their goals, he says
Updated 22 August 2024
RAY HANANIA
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CHICAGO: Despite some “differences” and “misunderstandings” in the past, Donald Trump and the Republican Party are much more closely aligned than the Democrats with the Arab and Muslim community in the US, in terms of understanding its values and needs, a leading pro-Trump Arab American advocate claimed.

During a recording of “The Ray Hanania Radio Show,” Bishara Bahbah, chairperson of Arab Americans for Trump, said the community must overcome its anger and emotion about Trump’s previous rhetoric to “take their place at the table” and recognize that the Biden-Harris administration, and Democrats in general, have “funded and fueled” the killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Bahbah said his organization — leading members of which include Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump’s youngest daughter, Tiffany; Richard Grenell, a former acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration; and Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney — believes Arabs and Muslims should not only support the Republican Party but “engage” with Trump to help bring an end the carnage in Gaza and achieve peace in the Middle East that includes a two-state solution.

“They (the Democrats) have been the ones who have incessantly provided arms to Israel,” he said during the taping of the show, which will broadcast on Thursday, Aug. 22, and Monday, Aug. 26, in Michigan on radio station WNZK 690 AM. “Those arms, whether they are a bullet or a 2,000-pound bomb have killed Palestinians in Gaza, over 40,000.

 

 

“That is a crime against humanity and the United States, and primarily the Biden-Harris administration, have been complicit in that. Without those arms being provided to Israel, the war would have ended a long time ago.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have “broken their promises” to the Arab and Muslim community but, despite “misunderstandings,” Trump has always been “upfront and honest,” Bahbah argued. The former president “supports an end to the conflict in Gaza, an end to all violence and the achieving of a two-state solution through peaceful means,” he added.

Trump, Bahbah claimed, was moved by a letter he received from Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on July 14, the day after an attempt by a gunman to kill Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, in which the Palestinian leader expressed outrage at the attempted assassination, writing: “Acts of violence must not have a place in a world of law and order.”

Bahbah said that the fact the Palestinian president sent Trump a letter wishing him well was important because it showed that the Palestinian leadership would be willing to reengage with a Trump administration.

 

 

“It shows that going forward they will not leave a void,” he said. “They will not allow a clown like (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to be toying around with what he thought was his playing field in the Trump administration.

“I think that is a very important point, not just for the Palestinian government but also for Arab Americans. We cannot pout at what politicians say. We have to accept the realities on the ground.

“The message has been all along, be engaged. If you are engaged and your voices are heard and your support is shown, then you will get a seat at the table and your voice will be heard. That is the message we have been conveying to the Arab and Muslim American community.”

Bahbah acknowledged that Trump’s approach to some issues had proved to be controversial but said they had been “misunderstood outside of the context of the political circumstances in which they have been made.”

He argued that criticism of Trump’s rhetoric is different from that of the genocide that has taken place in Gaza under the Biden-Harris administration’s watch.

 

 

“On one hand you’ve got Arab and Muslim Americans enraged at the Biden-Harris administration over the complicity and killing of 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and the injuring of over 105,000 thus far. On one hand, they are enraged,” he said.

“On the other hand, we are trying to tell them President Trump wants to see an end to the hostilities. President Trump wants to see an end to the killing of civilians. And he wants to see a peace process that leads to a two-state solution.”

You can hear the full interview with Bishara Bahbah on Thursday, Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on WNZK AM 690 radio in Michigan, or online at ArabNews.com/RayRadioShow.

Topics: Ray Radio Show US Election 2024

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At least 1000 people evacuated as flooding hits northern Italy
Updated 4 sec ago
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At least 1000 people evacuated as flooding hits northern Italy

At least 1000 people evacuated as flooding hits northern Italy
  • Rivers flooded in three of the region’s provinces — Ravenna, Bologna and Faenza — as local mayors asked people to stay on upper floors
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ROME: About a thousand residents were evacuated in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna after it was hit by torrential rains and severe flooding overnight, local media reported Thursday.
Rivers flooded in three of the region’s provinces — Ravenna, Bologna and Faenza — as local mayors asked people to stay on upper floors or leave their houses.
At least 800 residents in the Ravenna area and almost 200 in Bologna province spent the night in shelters, schools and sports centers as local rivers overflowed.
Trains were suspended and schools closed across the affected areas, and residents have been advised to avoid travel and work from home where possible.
The Faenza area was just recovering from the devastating floods that hit Emilia-Romagna in May 2023, claiming 17 lives and causing billions of euros in damages.
“The night was dramatic, we waited for the river flood to cross the city,” Faenza mayor Massimo Isola told state TV Rainews. “It rose really close to the limit, but thanks to the works done over the past year we managed to avoid an overflow in the center of the city.”
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A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads

A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads
Updated 19 September 2024
AP
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A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads

A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads
  • Mpox causes mostly mild symptoms like fever and body aches, but can trigger serious cases
  • Lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread
Updated 19 September 2024
AP

KAMITUGA: Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21, was too traumatized to attend the funeral.
In her first visit to the cemetery, she wept into her shirt for the child she lost and worried about the rest of her family. “When she was born, it was as if God had answered our prayers — we wanted a girl,” Wisoba said of little Maombi Katengey. “But our biggest joy was transformed into devastation.”
Her daughter is one of more than 6,000 people officials suspect have contracted the disease in South Kivu province, the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has labeled a global health emergency. A new strain of the virus is spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, including but not limited to sex. A lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread, according to alarmed disease experts.
Mpox — which causes mostly mild symptoms like fever and body aches, but can trigger serious cases with prominent blisters on the face, hands, chest and genitals — had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa, until a 2022 outbreak reached more than 70 countries. Globally, gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases in that outbreak. But officials note mpox has long disproportionately affected children in Africa, and they say cases are now rising sharply among kids, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, with many types of close contact responsible for the spread.
Health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town of some 300,000 people that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Cases from other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here, officials say, with the first originating in the nightclub scene.
Since this outbreak began, one year ago, nearly 1,000 people in Kamituga have been infected. Eight have died, half of them children.
Challenges on the ground
Last month, the World Health Organization said mpox outbreaks might be stopped in the next six months, with governments’ leadership and cooperation.
But in Kamituga, people say they face a starkly different reality.
There’s a daily average of five new cases at the general hospital, which is regularly near capacity. Overall in South Kivu, weekly new suspected cases have skyrocketed from about 12 in January to 600 in August, according to province health officials.
Even that’s likely an underestimate, they say, because of a lack of access to rural areas, the inability of many residents to seek care, and Kamituga’s transient nature.
Locals say they simply don’t have enough information about mpox.
Before her daughter got sick, Wisoba said, she was infected herself but didn’t know it.
Painful lesions emerged around her genitals, making walking difficult. She thought she had a common sexually transmitted infection and sought medicine at a pharmacy. Days later, she went to the hospital with her newborn and was diagnosed with mpox. She recovered, but her daughter developed lesions on her foot.
Nearly a week later, Maombi died at the same hospital that treated her mother.
Wisoba said she didn’t know about mpox until she got it. She wants the government to invest more in teaching people protective measures.
Local officials can’t reach areas more than a few miles outside Kamituga to track suspected cases or inform residents. They broadcast radio messages but say that doesn’t reach far enough.
Kasindi Mwenyelwata goes door to door describing how to detect mpox — looking for fevers, aches or lesions. But the 42-year-old community leader said a lack of money means he doesn’t have the right materials, such as posters showing images of patients, which he finds more powerful than words.
ALIMA, one of the few aid groups working on mpox in Kamituga, lacks funds to set up programs or clinics that would reach some 150,000 people, with its budget set to run out at year’s end, according to program coordinator Dr. Dally Muamba.
If support keeps waning and mpox spreads, he said, “there will be an impact on the economy, people will stop coming to the area as the epidemic takes its toll. ... And as the disease grows, will resources follow?”
The vaccine vacuum
Health experts agree: What’s needed most are vaccines — even if they go only to adults, under emergency approval in Congo.
None has arrived in Kamituga, though it’s a priority city in South Kivu, officials said. It’s unclear when or how they will. The main road into town is unpaved — barely passable by car during the ongoing rainy season.
Once they make it here, it’s unclear whether supply will meet demand for those who are at greatest risk and first in line: health staff, sex workers, miners and motorcycle taxi drivers.
Congo’s government has budgeted more than $190 million for its initial mpox response, which includes the purchase of 3 million vaccine doses, according to a draft national mpox plan, widely circulating among health experts and aid groups this month and seen by The Associated Press. But so far, just 250,000 doses have arrived in Congo and the government’s given only $10 million, according to the finance ministry.
Most people with mild cases recover in less than two weeks. But lesions can get infected, and children or immunocompromised people are more prone to severe cases.
Doctors can ensure lesions are clean and give pain medication or antibiotics for secondary infections such as sepsis.
But those who recover can get the virus again.
A new variant, a lack of understanding
Experts say a lack of resources and knowledge about the new strain makes it difficult to advise people on protecting themselves. An internal report circulated among aid groups and agencies and seen by AP labeled confidence in the available information about mpox in eastern Congo and neighboring countries low.
While the variant is known to be more easily transmissible through sex, it’s unclear how long the virus remains in the system. Doctors tell recovered patients to abstain from sex for three months, but acknowledge the number’s largely arbitrary.
“Studies haven’t clarified if you’re still contagious or not ... if you can or can’t have sex with your wife,” said Dr. Steven Bilembo, of Kamituga’s general hospital.
Doctors say they’re seeing cases they simply don’t understand, such as pregnant women losing babies. Of 32 pregnant women infected since January, nearly half lost the baby through miscarriage or stillbirth, hospital statistics show.
Alice Neema was among them. From the hospital’s isolation ward, she told AP she’d noticed lesions around her genitals and a fever — but didn’t have enough money to travel the 30 miles (50 kilometers) on motorbike for help in time. She miscarried after her diagnosis.
As information trickles in, locals say fear spreads alongside the new strain.
Diego Nyago said he’d brought his 2-year-old son, Emile, to the hospital for circumcision when he developed a fever and lepasions.
It was mpox — and today, Nyago is grateful he was already at the hospital.
“I didn’t believe that children could catch this disease,” he said as doctors gently poured water over the boy to bring his temperature down. “Some children die quickly, because their families aren’t informed.
“Those who die are the ones who stay at home.”

Topics: mpox outbreak Mpox vaccine

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Blinken subpoenaed to appear next week before House committee over Afghanistan

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Updated 19 September 2024
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Blinken subpoenaed to appear next week before House committee over Afghanistan

Blinken subpoenaed to appear next week before House committee over Afghanistan
  • The committee had previously wanted Blinken to appear today but was told he was not available on September 19
  • If Secretary Blinken fails to appear now, he can be held in contempt of Congress for violating a duly issued subpoena
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WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday to appear before it on Sept. 24 over the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“If Secretary Blinken fails to appear, the chairman will proceed instead with a full committee markup of a report recommending the US House of Representatives find Secretary Blinken in contempt of Congress for violating a duly issued subpoena,” according to a statement from the committee.
The committee had previously wanted Blinken to appear on Sept. 19. The State Department said earlier this month that Blinken was not available to testify on the dates proposed by the committee, but has proposed “reasonable alternatives.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Wednesday.
The Republican-led committee has been investigating the deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan for years and an appearance next week before lawmakers by Blinken over a heavily politicized issue would come just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
Blinken has testified before Congress on Afghanistan more than 14 times, including four times before the committee, and the State Department has provided the committee with nearly 20,000 pages of records, multiple high-level briefings and transcribed interviews, a department spokesperson said earlier in September.

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UN advisory body makes seven recommendations for governing AI

UN advisory body makes seven recommendations for governing AI
Updated 19 September 2024
Reuters
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UN advisory body makes seven recommendations for governing AI

UN advisory body makes seven recommendations for governing AI
  • Only a handful of countries have created laws to govern the spread of AI tools
  • The UN last year created a 39-member advisory body to address issues in the international governance of AI
Updated 19 September 2024
Reuters

STOCKHOLM: An artificial-intelligence advisory body at the United Nations on Thursday released its final report proposing seven recommendations to address AI-related risks and gaps in governance.
The UN last year created a 39-member advisory body to address issues in the international governance of AI. The recommendations will be discussed during a UN summit held in September.
The advisory body called for the establishment of a panel to provide impartial and reliable scientific knowledge about AI and address information asymmetries between AI labs and the rest of the world.
Since the release of Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, the use of AI has spread rapidly, raising concerns about fueling misinformation, fake news and infringement of copyrighted material.
Only a handful of countries have created laws to govern the spread of AI tools. The European Union has been ahead of the rest by passing a comprehensive AI Act compared with the United States’ approach of voluntary compliance while China has aimed to maintain social stability and state control.
The United States was among about 60 countries that endorsed a “blueprint for action” to govern responsible use of AI in the military on Sept. 10, while China did not support the legally non-binding document.
With the development of AI in the hands of a few multinational companies, there is a danger that the technology could be imposed on people without them having a say in how it is used, the UN said in a statement.
It also recommended a new policy dialogue on AI governance, creating an AI standards exchange and a global AI capacity development network to boost governance capacities.
Among other proposals, the UN wants a global AI fund to be established, which would address gaps in capacity and collaboration. It also advocates the formation of a global AI data framework to ensure transparency and accountability.
Finally, the UN report proposed setting up a small AI office to support and coordinate the implementation of these proposals.

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US keeps missile system in Philippines as China tensions rise, tests wartime deployment

US keeps missile system in Philippines as China tensions rise, tests wartime deployment
Updated 19 September 2024
Reuters
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US keeps missile system in Philippines as China tensions rise, tests wartime deployment

US keeps missile system in Philippines as China tensions rise, tests wartime deployment
  • Typhon can fire missiles capable of striking China
  • China, Russia accuse Washington of fueling arms race
Updated 19 September 2024
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MANILA: The United States has no immediate plans to withdraw a mid-range missile system deployed in the Philippines, despite Chinese demands, and is testing the feasibility of its use in a regional conflict, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The Typhon system, which can be equipped with cruise missiles capable of striking Chinese targets, was brought in for joint exercises earlier this year, both countries said at the time, but has remained there.
The Southeast Asian archipelago, Taiwan’s neighbor to the South, is an important part of US strategy in Asia and would be an indispensable staging point for the military to aid Taipei in the event of a Chinese attack.
China and Russia condemned the move – the first deployment of the system to the Indo-Pacific – and accused Washington of fueling an arms race.

Breakdown of a Typhon MRC battery's structure and components. (US Army illustration via Wikimedia Commons)

The deployment, some details of which have not been previously reported, comes as China and US defense treaty ally the Philippines clash over parts of the hotly contested South China Sea. Recent months have brought a series of sea and air confrontations in the strategic waterway.
Philippine officials said Filipino and US forces continued to train with the missile system, which is in northern Luzon, which faces the South China Sea and is close to the Taiwan Strait, and they were not aware of immediate plans to return it, even though the joint exercises end this month.
A Philippine army spokesman, Col. Louie Dema-ala, told Reuters on Wednesday that training was ongoing and it was up to the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) to decide how long the missile system would stay.
A public affairs officer for USARPAC said that the Philippine army had said the Typhon could stay beyond September and soldiers trained with it as recently as last week, engaging “in discussions over employing the system, with a focus on integrating host nation support.”
A senior Philippine government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and another person familiar with the matter said the USand the Philippines were testing the feasibility of using the system there in the event of a conflict, trialing how well it worked in that environment.
The government official said the Typhon — a modular system, which is intended to be mobile and moved as needed — was in the Philippines for a “test on the feasibility of deploying it in country, so that when the need arises, it could easily be deployed here.”
The office of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Sleepless nights’
The US army flew the Typhon, which can launch missiles including SM-6 missiles and Tomahawks with a range exceeding 1,600 km (994 miles), to the Philippines in April in what it called a “historic first” and a “significant step in our partnership with the Philippines.”
A note by the US Congressional Research Service, a policy institute of the USCongress, published at the time said it was “not known if this temporary deployment could eventually become permanent.”
In July, army spokesman Dema-ala confirmed the Typhon missile launcher remained in the Philippines’ northern islands and said there was no specific date as to when it would be “shipped out,” correcting an earlier statement that it was due to leave in September.
A satellite image taken on Wednesday by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, and reviewed by Reuters showed the Typhon at the Laoag International Airport, in Ilocos Norte province.

A satellite image of the Typhon missile system at Laoag International Airport in the northern Philippine city of Laoag, released on September 18, 2024, by Planet Labs Inc. (REUTERS)

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, who analyzed the images, said the system remained.
The senior government official who spoke to Reuters said there were no immediate plans to withdraw it.
“If ever it will be pulled out, it is because the objective has been achieved and it may be brought (back) in after all the repairs or the construction would have been done,” the official said, adding that there was strategic value for the Philippines in keeping the system to deter China.
“We want to give them sleepless nights.”

Anti-ship weapons
The US has been amassing a variety of anti-ship weapons in Asia, as Washington attempts to catch up quickly in an Indo-Pacific missile race in which China has a big lead, Reuters has reported.
Although the US military has declined to say how many will be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, more than 800 SM-6 missiles are due to be bought in the next five years, according to government documents outlining military purchases. Several thousand Tomahawks are already in US inventories, the documents showed.
China has denounced the deployment of the Typhon several times, including in May when Wu Qian, spokesperson for China’s defense ministry, said Manila and Washington had brought “huge risks of war into the region”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in June cited the deployment when announcing his country would resume production of intermediate- and shorter-range nuclear-capable missiles.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo in July assured his Chinese counterpart the presence of the missile system in his country
posed no threat to China and would not destabilize the region.
China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the South China Sea, which it mostly claims in full despite a 2016 arbitral ruling that backed the Philippines, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, the UShas said.
China says its military facilities in the Spratly islands are purely defensive, and that it can do what it likes on its own territory.

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