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Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris on handling Israel, Ukraine wars, WSJ poll shows

Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris on handling Israel, Ukraine wars, WSJ poll shows
Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at the Rawhide Event Center on October 10, 2024 in Chandler, Arizona. (AFP)
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Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters
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Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris on handling Israel, Ukraine wars, WSJ poll shows

Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris on handling Israel, Ukraine wars, WSJ poll shows
  • The poll published on Friday showed Harris and Trump tied across the seven states that could decide the November presidential election
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters
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Former Republican President Donald Trump has an edge over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on who would better navigate the country through the Ukraine and Middle East wars, a Wall Street Journal opinion poll of seven battleground states showed.
In overall support, the poll published on Friday showed Harris and Trump tied across the seven states that could decide the November presidential election.
The poll showed Harris with marginal 2 percentage point leads in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, Trump up 6 points in Nevada and 1 in Pennsylvania, and the two tied in North Carolina and Wisconsin. The poll of 600 registered voters in each state conducted on Sept. 28-Oct. 8 had a margin of error of 4 percentage points in each state.
The neck-and-neck results echo other polls reflecting a tight race before the Nov. 5 election as Americans grapple with concerns about the economy, immigration, women’s rights and the nation’s democratic values in picking between the two candidates.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week also found Trump and Harris locked in a close race nationally, with Harris marginally ahead 46 percent to 43 percent.
Surveys of swing state voters can be an important indicator given that state-by-state results of the Electoral College will determine the winner, with the seven battleground states likely being decisive.
Harris would win a narrow majority in the Electoral College if she captures the states where she holds an edge in the WSJ’s poll.
According to the WSJ poll, Trump leads Harris in the seven swing states 50 percent to 39 percent on who is best able to handle Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump also has a 48 percent to 33 percent lead over Harris on who is better suited to handle the Israel-Hamas war.
More voters said they backed Trump on the economy and immigration while more said Harris would do a better job when it comes to housing, health care and caring about people like them, the WSJ poll found.

Topics: USElection2024 Kamala Harris Donald Trump Israel

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Nuclear deterrence still at heart of great power strategy — experts

Nuclear deterrence still at heart of great power strategy — experts
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP
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Nuclear deterrence still at heart of great power strategy — experts

Nuclear deterrence still at heart of great power strategy — experts
  • While none of the countries possessing nuclear weapons have used them in war since 1945, the implicit or even explicit threat to do so is part of their arsenal
  • Moscow has repeatedly brandished the nuclear threat in a bid to dissuade the West from supporting Ukraine, which has been fending off Russia’s invasion since 2022
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP

PARIS: Nuclear-armed powers have no intention of giving up the atom bomb as part of their military strategy, experts said after the Nobel Peace Prize committee urged against any weakening of the nuclear “taboo.”
Awarding this year’s peace prize to Japan’s Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors pushing for a nuclear weapons ban, the committee said on Friday the atom bomb attacks on both Japanese cities in 1945 had led to a “nuclear taboo” which had, however, come under “pressure” since.
While none of the countries possessing nuclear weapons have used them in war since 1945, the implicit or even explicit threat to do so is part of their arsenal.
Moscow has repeatedly brandished the nuclear threat in a bid to dissuade the West from supporting Ukraine, which has been fending off Russia’s invasion since February 2022.
According to Alexander Gabuev, Director at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, it was “no coincidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a nuclear threat on the eve of a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky about Kyiv’s possible use of missiles capable of striking Russian territory.
The Nobel committee wanted to send “a strong signal” to Russia, said Bruno Tertrais, political scientist at France’s Strategic Research Foundation.
Russia, he said, had “normalized,” even “trivialized,” talk of a nuclear weapons use since its invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin is not alone.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week his country would use nuclear weapons “without hesitation” if attacked by South Korea and it ally, the United States.
And in the Middle East, Israel, the region’s only nuclear-armed state, has vowed a “deadly, precise and surprising” response to Iran’s direct strike on Israeli territory on October 1.
Tehran, meanwhile, has significantly ramped up its nuclear program and now has enough material to build more than three atomic bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Tehran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and designed to produce energy.
“The logic of deterrence is firmly entrenched in countries that have nuclear weapons,” said Tertrais, adding however that the risk of atomic bomb use “is no greater now than five years ago.”
Standard nuclear doctrine — developed during the Cold War between super powers the United States and the Soviet Union — is based on the assumption that such weapons will never have to be used because their impact is so devastating, and because nuclear retaliation would probably bring similar destruction on the original attacker.
This is why China has never given up its “no first strike” doctrine, said Lukasz Kulesa, Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Other countries have also signalled that nuclear arms use would be a last resort while not ruling it out completely to maintain credibility in the eyes of opponents, said Kulesa.
But keeping a safe balance between threat and restraint can never be risk-free, he warned.
“There is always a possibility of failure. There is also a possibility of inadvertent escalation that can go all the way to the nuclear level,” Kulesa said.
Countries possessing nuclear weapons today are the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Israel is also widely assumed to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons, although it has never officially acknowledged this.

Nobel Peace Prize winners warn of rising risk of nuclear war

Nobel Peace Prize winners warn of rising risk of nuclear war
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters
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Nobel Peace Prize winners warn of rising risk of nuclear war

Nobel Peace Prize winners warn of rising risk of nuclear war
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters

TOKYO: Leaders of the group of atomic bomb survivors awarded the Nobel Peace Prize warned on Saturday that the risk of nuclear war was rising, renewing their call to abolish nuclear weapons.
“The international situation is getting progressively worse, and now wars are being waged as countries threaten the use of nuclear weapons,” said Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the 1945 US bombing of Nagasaki and co-head of the Nihon Hidankyo group.
“I fear that we as humankind are on the path to self-destruction. The only way to stop that is to abolish nuclear,” he said.
In awarding the survivors, the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted the devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese group’s decades-long work to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The group’s endeavours have critical importance in the world today, the committee said. It did not specify any countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled last month that Moscow would consider responding with nuclear weapons if the US and its allies allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles.

Topics: Nuclear war Noble prize

Ukraine, Russia say foiled dozens of drone attacks

Ukraine, Russia say foiled dozens of drone attacks
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP
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Ukraine, Russia say foiled dozens of drone attacks

Ukraine, Russia say foiled dozens of drone attacks
  • The Krasnodar governor said on Telegram that Ukrainian drone attacks had damaged three homes and set a vehicle on fire
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP

Kyiv,: Russia said on Saturday it had downed 47 Ukrainian drones while Kyiv reported neutralized 24 drones fired by Moscow.
The Ukrainian air force said many missiles were fired from the Russian border region of Belgorod, without specifying the number or the type.
It said Russia had fired 28 drones at Ukraine, of which 24 were destroyed in the Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Mikolayev and Kherson regions.
The Ukrainian chief of staff also said Kyiv’s forces had struck a fuel depot overnight in the eastern Russian-occupied Lugansk region, setting it on fire. It did not give any details.
Moscow did not confirm the attack. But the Russian defense ministry said its forces had downed 47 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 17 in the southeastern Krasnodar region, 16 over the Azov Sea and 12 over the border region of Lursk.
The Krasnodar governor said on Telegram that Ukrainian drone attacks had damaged three homes and set a vehicle on fire.
Russian forces have made advances across the eastern front line and targeted Ukraine’s power grid as the country faces its toughest winter since the full-scale Russian invasion started in February 2022.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

China threatens Taiwan with more trade measures after denouncing president’s speech

China threatens Taiwan with more trade measures after denouncing president’s speech
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters
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China threatens Taiwan with more trade measures after denouncing president’s speech

China threatens Taiwan with more trade measures after denouncing president’s speech
  • President Lai Ching-Te said China had no right to represent Taiwan, but that the island was willing to work with Beijing to combat challenges like climate change
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters

BEIJING: China is studying further trade measures against Taiwan, the Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday, two days after Beijing slammed a speech by Taiwan President Lai Ching-Te.
The Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan’s ruling party, has not taken any practical measures to lift “trade restrictions” on mainland China, the commerce ministry said in a statement on its official website.
“At present, relevant departments are studying further measures based on the conclusions of the investigation into trade barriers from Taiwan (against mainland China),” it added.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, detests Lai as a “separatist.” Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
On Thursday at his keynote national day speech, Lai said the People’s Republic of China had no right to represent Taiwan, but that the island was willing to work with Beijing to combat challenges like climate change, striking both a firm and conciliatory tone, drawing anger from China.
The Saturday announcement from China’s commerce ministry could portend tariffs or other forms of economic pressure against the island in the near future.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which on Thursday said that Lai’s speech promoted “separatist ideas” and incited confrontation, responded to the announcement by saying the fundamental reason behind the trade dispute was the “DPP authorities’ stubborn adherence to the stance of ‘Taiwan independence’.”
“The political basis makes it difficult for cross-Strait trade disputes to be resolved through negotiation,” it added.
In May, China reinstated tariffs on 134 items it imports from Taiwan, after Beijing’s finance ministry said it would suspend concessions on the items under a trade deal because Taiwan had not reciprocated.
The Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between China and Taiwan was initially signed in 2010 and Taiwanese officials had previously said that China was likely to pressure Lai by ending some of the preferential trading terms within it.

Topics: China Taiwan

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Fire on board an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast extinguished

Fire on board an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast extinguished
Updated 12 October 2024
AP
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Fire on board an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast extinguished

Fire on board an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast extinguished
  • The fire appears to have broken out in the engine room or in a storage room for paint and spread across the stern of the ship
Updated 12 October 2024
AP

BERLIN: A fire that broke out on board an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast has been extinguished, authorities said Saturday. The blaze didn’t spread to the ship’s load.
The maritime rescue service was alerted to the fire on board the German-flagged Annika on Friday morning, and shortly afterward took all seven crew members off the vessel. Black smoke from the tanker, which was carrying about 640 metric tonnes of oil, could be seen from the coast.
The fire appears to have broken out in the engine room or in a storage room for paint and spread across the stern of the ship. On Friday afternoon, experts determined that the ship’s condition was stable and authorities decided to have it towed to the port city of Rostock to continue fighting the blaze.
Firefighters inspected the 73-meter long ship after it arrived in the harbor around 1 a.m. and found that the fire was out, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said.

Topics: shipping Germany

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