Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris

Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney says she is not voting for Donald Trump, because he is a danger to the US constitution. (AP/File)
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Updated 05 September 2024
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Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris

Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris
  • Cheney joins other Republicans like former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman as backers of Harris
  • The son of the late Republican stalwart John McCain is supporting Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in Arizona

WASHINGTON: Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and a son of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Wednesday threw their support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in the latest case of Republicans turning against party candidate Donald Trump.

Cheney's announcement ended weeks of speculation about how fully the member of a GOP dynasty-turned-Trump critic would embrace the Democratic ticket.

Cheney, who co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, became a fierce Trump critic and was ousted in her 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming as a result, made her announcement at an event at Duke University. In a video posted on the social media network X, she finished by talking about the “danger” she believed Trump still poses to the country.
“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement Wednesday night: “The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first.”
The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney has been perhaps Trump’s highest-profile Republican critic. She joins other Republicans like her former Jan. 6 committee member, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman, as backers of Harris. More than 200 alumni of the Bush administration and former Republican presidential campaigns of the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney also announced their endorsement of Harris last week.
Cheney was in House Republican leadership at the time of the Jan. 6 attack but broke with most of her caucus over Trump’s responsibility. She lost her leadership post and was one of the few Republicans willing to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, which was appointed by Democrats who controlled the House at the time.

McCain's son now a Democrat
Jimmy McCain, a son of former Arizona senator John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in a battleground state.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, appeared outside Phoenix Wednesday for an event with the conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA, which has been instrumental in remaking the Arizona GOP as a faithful organ of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.
Jimmy McCain’s endorsement and Vance’s Turning Point USA appearance reflect the disparate segments of the GOP that Harris and Trump are trying to reach. Democrats are appealing to traditional conservatives disillusioned by Trump’s takeover of the GOP, while Republicans are looking to shore up their base and ensure that their young supporters turn out.




Jimmy McCain, son of Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain, pauses at his father's casket during ceremonies honoring Vietnam War veteran at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Aug. 31, 2018. (Pool Photo via AP)

Democrats have made big inroads over the last six years in Arizona, once a Republican stronghold that routinely backed McCain and other Republicans for president, with an anti-Trump coalition that includes Republicans and conservative independents.
That reality is clear in each campaign’s approach to winning the state. Harris has staked out moderate positions in contrast to the progressive stances she outlined in her 2020 Democratic primary campaign, including on the border, an important issue in this border state, while elevating Republican backers.
Trump, meanwhile, is counting on support from young voters turned off by politics and distrustful of institutions. He chose Phoenix for a rally joining forces with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abandoned his own independent campaign to back Trump.
The Turning Point event where Vance spoke was aimed at promoting the group’s “chase the vote” initiative to identify supporters who might need an extra nudge and ensure they participate. The event, at a mega church on the outskirts of metro Phoenix, began with a concert by a Christian rock band with a heavy, seat-shaking base and a colorful light show.
Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk spoke to Vance onstage for nearly an hour, focusing the conversation on social issues that have animated Trump’s base, including immigration and transgender rights.
“We just want Americans to be able to live a decent life in the country their parents and grandparents built,” Vance said.
Jimmy McCain said he had been an independent since leaving the Republican Party after Trump became its standard bearer in 2016. He decided during a nine-month overseas deployment that just ended to switch his registration to Democratic and announce it publicly. His decision was first reported by CNN.
He said he was further “fired up” by the decision after seeing Trump’s campaign visit to Arlington National Cemetery, a visit that Harris called a “political stunt” that “disrespected sacred ground.”
Trump has had a fraught relationship with the McCain family since he denigrated the senator’s status as a war hero during his 2016 campaign.
Jimmy McCain said it was personally difficult for him to hear his father disrespected, but he said his father chose a public life and Americans are allowed to criticize their leaders.
“With Arlington, the people who are buried there gave their lives and the ultimate sacrifice,” McCain said. “They don’t get a political opinion. ... We don’t know what those people felt, thought, what they believed. We know they believed in their country and that’s about it.”
Trump said he was invited to Arlington by the families of Marines killed in a suicide bombing during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. His campaign released statements from the relatives accusing Harris of playing politics with the issue.
“There has been no greater advocate for our brave military men and women than President Trump,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary. He secured new military investments and pay raises for troops while he was in the White House, and no new wars broke out, she said.
Jimmy McCain, 36, enlisted in the US Marines as a teenager and served four years. He reenlisted in the Army National Guard and was later commissioned as an officer, currently holding the rank of 1st Lieutenant.
Ideologically, McCain said he’s a moderate and hearkened back to his father’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Country first.”
“I’m a center man who cares about his country more than anything,” McCain said.
Cindy McCain, the late senator’s widow, endorsed President Joe Biden shortly before the 2020 election, a vote of confidence that helped the Democrat eke out a narrow win in Arizona with support from Republicans disaffected with Trump. Biden appointed McCain to be the US ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in Rome, where she is now executive director of the UN World Food Programme.
A Navy pilot, John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten and held prisoner for more than five years, refusing to be released ahead of other American servicemembers.
Trump said of McCain, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain later angered Trump with his dramatic thumbs-down vote against repealing Obama’s health care law.
McCain represented Arizona in Congress for 31 years until his death in 2018 from an aggressive brain tumor and built a national reputation as a “maverick” willing to buck his party. While he sometimes took flack from the GOP base and faced fierce primary challengers, he was overwhelmingly reelected and remains a beloved figure in the state.
Still, the endorsement won’t sway the Republicans who still dislike McCain.
“I didn’t respect John McCain,” said Jerry Lyn of suburban Phoenix, who went to the Turning Point rally because he’s been so impressed by Vance he wanted to see him in person. “I really didn’t. He did a lot of bad things and people don’t realize it.
“I think it’s disgusting.”


Mount Fuji is still without its iconic snowcap for the first time in 130 years

Mount Fuji is still without its iconic snowcap for the first time in 130 years
Updated 19 sec ago
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Mount Fuji is still without its iconic snowcap for the first time in 130 years

Mount Fuji is still without its iconic snowcap for the first time in 130 years
The lack of snow on Mt. Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as of Tuesday breaks the previous record set on Oct. 26, 2016, meteorological officials said
Usually, the 3,776-meter- (nearly 12,300-foot-) high mountain has sprinkles of snow falling on its summit starting Oct. 2

TOKYO: Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, known for its snowcap forming around this time of the year, is still snowless in November for the first time in 130 years, presumably because of the unusually warm temperatures in the past few weeks.
The lack of snow on Mt. Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as of Tuesday breaks the previous record set on Oct. 26, 2016, meteorological officials said.
Usually, the 3,776-meter- (nearly 12,300-foot-) high mountain has sprinkles of snow falling on its summit starting Oct. 2, about a month after the summertime hiking season there ends. Last year, snow fell on the mountain on Oct. 5, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, or JMA.
The snowless Mt. Fuji has captured attention on social media. People posted photos showing the bare mountain, some expressing surprise and others concerned over climate change.
The JMA’s Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which keeps weather data in central Japan and was the agency that announced the first snowfall on Mt. Fuji in 1894, has cited October’s surprisingly summery weather as the reason.
The average October temperature is minus 2 Celsius (28.4 Fahrenheit) at the summit, but this year, it was 1.6 Celsius, (34.9 F), a record high since 1932.
Japan this year also had an unusually hot summer and warm autumn.
A symbol of Japan, the mountain called “Fujisan” used to be a place of pilgrimage. The mountain with its snowy top and near symmetrical slopes have been the subject of numerous forms of art, including Japanese ukiyoe artist Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
Today, it attracts hikers who climb to the summit to see the sunrise. But tons of trash left behind and overcrowding have triggered concern and calls for environmental protection and measures to control overtourism.

Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state

Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state
Updated 7 min 8 sec ago
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Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state

Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state
  • There are 2.6 million students and about 25,000 Muslim religious schools in Uttar Pradesh
  • Article 30 of India’s Constitution guarantees the right of minorities to run educational institutions

NEW DELHI: India’s top court overturned on Tuesday an order that banned Islamic schools in Uttar Pradesh, effectively permitting over 2 million students in the country’s most populous state to return to their studies in madrasas.

Islam is the second-largest religion in Uttar Pradesh, accounting for some 20 percent of its 230 million population.

In March, Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad High Court scraped a 2004 law governing madrasas in the state, saying it violated India’s constitutional secularism and ordering that students be moved to conventional schools. The Supreme Court put it on hold in April after receiving petitions challenging the order.

Tuesday’s ruling by the top court will allow about 2.6 million students and 10,000 teachers to return to the 25,000 Muslim religious schools operating in the northern Indian state.

“The Allahabad High Court erred in holding that the madrasa law had to be struck down for violating basic structure, which is the principle of secularism,” Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said in court. “The constitutional validity of a statute cannot be challenged for violation of the basic structure of the Constitution.”

Article 30 of India’s Constitution guarantees the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.

“The Madrasa Act is consistent with the positive obligation of the state to ensure that students studying in recognized madrasas attain a level of competency which will allow them to effectively participate in society and earn a living.”

Madrasas provide a system of education in which students are taught the Qur’an, Islamic history and general subjects like math and science.

In states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, such as Uttar Pradesh and Assam, authorities have been converting hundreds of madrasas into regular schools.

“This is a landmark judgment and puts a brake to all the negative campaigns that have been going on against madrasas across the country,” Wahidullah Khan, secretary-general of the All-India Teachers Association Madaris Arabia, told Arab News.

“For us, it’s a big relief. It provides a new lease of life to thousands of madrasas across the country. The Islamic schools have been taking care of the basic education of millions of Muslims across the country and we were under lots of pressure because of the communal campaign against Muslims and their educational institutions.”

With over 200 million Indians professing Islam, Hindu-majority India has the world’s largest Muslim-minority population.

Indian Muslims have faced increasing discrimination and challenges in the past decade, accompanied by tensions and riots ignited by majoritarian policies of the Hindu right-wing BJP since it rose to power in 2014.

“We were waiting for this kind of verdict. It’s quite welcoming and relieving for the Muslim community,” Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, BJP member and former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education, told Arab News.

“The judgment brings relief to all,” he said. “There has been a systematic attempt to stigmatize the Islamic schools over the years and brand them as vicious, but the ruling of the Supreme Court should now stop this negative campaign.”


Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state

Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state
Updated 34 min 43 sec ago
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Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state

Supreme Court overturns Islamic schools ban in India’s most populous state
  • There are 2.6 million students and about 25,000 Muslim religious schools in Uttar Pradesh
  • Article 30 of India’s Constitution guarantees the right of minorities to run educational institutions

NEW DELHI: India’s top court overturned on Tuesday an order that banned Islamic schools in Uttar Pradesh, effectively permitting over two million students in the country’s most populous state to return to their studies in madrasas. 

Islam is the second-largest religion in Uttar Pradesh, accounting for some 20 percent of its 230 million population. 

In March, Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad High Court scraped a 2004 law governing madrasas in the state, saying it violated India’s constitutional secularism and ordering that students be moved to conventional schools. The Supreme Court put it on hold in April after receiving petitions challenging the order. 

Tuesday’s ruling by the top court will allow about 2.6 million students and 10,000 teachers to return to the 25,000 Muslims religious schools operating in the northern Indian state.

“The Allahabad High Court erred in holding that the madrasa law had to be struck down for violating basic structure, which is the principle of secularism,” Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said in court. “The constitutional validity of a statute cannot be challenged for violation of the basic structure of the Constitution.” 

Article 30 of India’s Constitution guarantees the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. 

“The Madrasa Act is consistent with the positive obligation of the state to ensure that students studying in recognized madrasas attain a level of competency which will allow them to effectively participate in society and earn a living.” 

Madrasas provide a system of education in which students are taught Qur’an, Islamic history and general subjects like math and science. 

In states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, such as Uttar Pradesh and Assam, authorities have been converting hundreds of madrasas into regular schools. 

“This is a landmark judgment and puts a brake to all the negative campaigns that has been going on against madrasas across the country,” Wahidullah Khan, secretary-general of the All-India Teachers Association Madaris Arabia, told Arab News. 

“For us, it’s a big relief. It provides a new lease of life to thousands of madrasas across the country. The Islamic schools have been taking care of the basic education of millions of Muslims across the country and we were under lots of pressure because of the communal campaign against Muslims and their educational institutions.” 

With over 200 million Indians professing Islam, Hindu-majority India has the world’s largest Muslim-minority population. 

Indian Muslims have faced increasing discrimination and challenges in the past decade, accompanied by tensions and riots ignited by majoritarian policies of the Hindu right-wing BJP since it rose to power in 2014. 

“We were waiting for this kind of verdict. It’s quite welcoming and relieving for the Muslim community,” Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, BJP member and former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education, told Arab News. 

“The judgment brings relief to all,” he said. “There has been a systematic attempt to stigmatize the Islamic schools over the years and branding them as vicious but the ruling of the Supreme Court should now stop this negative campaign.” 
 


Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims

Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims
Updated 43 min 46 sec ago
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Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims

Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims
  • The Danish-Swedish 42-year-old man, who was not named but has been identified by Swedish media as Rasmus Paludan
  • In 2022, Paludan, founder and head of the Danish nationalist anti-immigration party Stram Kurs, made his offensive remarks directed at Muslims, Arabs and Africans during protests

MALMO: A Swedish court sentenced on Tuesday a far-right politician to four months in jail for two counts of “incitement against an ethnic group” after making hateful comments at political rallies two years ago.
The Danish-Swedish 42-year-old man, who was not named but has been identified by Swedish media as Rasmus Paludan, founder and head of the Danish nationalist anti-immigration party Stram Kurs, had been previously convicted and sentenced by a Danish court on a similar charge, the Malmo District Court said.
In 2022, Paludan, founder and head of the Danish nationalist anti-immigration party Stram Kurs, made his offensive remarks directed at Muslims, Arabs and Africans during protests that he led in the southern city of Malmo in 2022, the court said. He also burned a copy of the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, on at least one occasion. In response, a violent wave of riots swept the country.
Some observers also say Paludan’s actions may have momentarily risked Sweden’s chances of joining NATO after increasing political tensions with Turkiye. Sweden joined the alliance in March this year.
The court in a statement Tuesday said Paludan’s remarks against Muslims “cannot be excused as criticism of Islam or as political campaign work.”
Chief Councilor Nicklas Söderberg, the court’s chairman, said: “It is permitted to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion.”
He added that during the Malmo rallies in April and September 2022 “there was no question of any such discussion,” and that Paludan’s public statements “only amounted to insulting Muslims.”
The court took particular interest in whether the politician knew the protests were filmed and published on Facebook. Paludan had said that he wasn’t aware of it but the district court disagreed and said his “actions at the gatherings would be downright illogical if he didn’t know about the publication on Facebook.”
Paludan, a lawyer by profession, told Swedish media outlets that he wasn’t surprised by the verdict.
“It was expected. We will appeal,” the Swedish newspaper Expressen cited him as saying.


Philippine police to probe social media posts of Filipino-Israeli soldier in Gaza

Philippine police to probe social media posts of Filipino-Israeli soldier in Gaza
Updated 44 min 32 sec ago
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Philippine police to probe social media posts of Filipino-Israeli soldier in Gaza

Philippine police to probe social media posts of Filipino-Israeli soldier in Gaza
  • Department of Foreign Affairs confirms the Filipino soldier is an Israeli citizen
  • Photos shared by Israel Genocide Tracker which monitors soldiers’ social media

MANILA/DUBAI: Photos of a Filipino appearing to be a member of Israel’s troops in Gaza will be investigated by the Philippine National Police, its chief said, after the man’s social media posts went viral showing a rifle with the PNP’s logo.

Screenshots of the posts showing Justin Flores were shared last week by the X handle Israel Genocide Tracker, which scours the internet to find and publicize the actions of Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

The content shared by the X account comprises photos and videos that Israeli soldiers themselves have published online.

The posts range from selfies and pranks among the ruins of houses to blowing up buildings in Gaza, waving women’s underwear and rifling through the property of Palestinian civilians.

The photos and videos from the social media of Flores showed destroyed neighborhoods in Gaza and himself posing amid the rubble.

Another post with the line “Proud to be Israeli/Filipino” shows a rifle bearing the seal of the Philippine police on the ammunition magazine. It is attached to a belt with Hebrew writing.

“I’ll have it investigated,” PNP Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil told Arab News in a text message on Monday evening.

“He is using a TAVOR firearm here. Not the issued rifle for the PNP.”

The weapon is an assault rifle, designed and produced by Israel Weapon Industries. In 2018, the Philippine News Agency reported the acquisition of Tavor rifles for the nation’s police and coast guard.

A screenshot of an Oct. 29, 2024 post by the X account Israel Genocide Tracker shows photos from the social media of Justin Flores. (X/@trackingisrael)

While the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said it was waiting for a report from its embassy in Tel Aviv, it confirmed to Arab News that Flores was an Israeli, while his mother held dual Philippine-Israeli citizenship.

His alleged participation in Israel’s deadly war on Gaza has, however, already triggered outrage in his ancestral home and questions over how his Israeli citizenship was acquired, as according to Israel’s Nationality Law, military service streamlines the process.

“Did he acquire Israeli citizenship by serving in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces)? If so, it seems the IDF relies on fighters from overseas to do their dirty work,” said Renato Reyes, president of BAYAN, the Philippines’ largest alliance of grassroots groups.

“It is just shameful that a Filipino would be part of Israeli genocide against Palestinians. We were a colonized people, and we should have more in common with the Palestinians than the Israeli occupiers.”

Drieza A. Lininding, chairman of the civic organization Moro Consensus Group, said individuals joining fighting abroad should be tracked.

“Those joining the IDF and genocide against Palestinians should be treated as terrorists and must be arrested the moment they land here in the Philippines. This is in conformity with the Philippines’ vote in the UN condemning the genocide,” he told Arab News.

“The government must regard them as a threat to our national security.”

If such persons still hold Philippine citizenship, they may lose it under the Commonwealth Act 63, “by accepting commission in the military, naval or air service of a foreign country,” Attorney Farah Decano, dean of the College of Law at the Lyceum Northwestern University, told Arab News.

She said the unauthorized use of the PNP logo was also a violation. “The problem, however, is that the use is in Israel. Our criminal jurisdiction is only in the Philippines,” she said.

“It gives the impression that we are providing arms to the Israelis which the government must immediately deny. The Philippine government must request Israeli government for the confiscation of such arms.”

Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza have killed over 45,000 Palestinians and injured more than 101,000, according to Gaza Health Ministry data. But the real toll is feared to be much higher.

A study published by the medical journal The Lancet estimated in July that the true number of those killed could be more than 186,000.

The estimate took into consideration deaths as a result of starvation, injury and lack of access to medical aid as Israeli forces have destroyed most of Gaza’s infrastructure and blocked the entry of aid.