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Arab Americans evenly split over whether Trump or Harris better for the Mideast: Poll

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump are seen in a combination of file photographs. (Reuters)
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump are seen in a combination of file photographs. (Reuters)
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Updated 22 October 2024
Arab News
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Arab Americans evenly split over whether Trump or Harris better for the Mideast: Poll

Arab Americans evenly split over whether Trump or Harris better for the Mideast: Poll
  • Trump appears to have benefited from disappointment with the Biden administration’s support for Israel
  • Result is surprising given acknowledgement Trump is likely to be a better friend to Netanyahu than Harris
Updated 22 October 2024
Arab News
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LONDON: Arab Americans are evenly divided over which of the two main candidates would be better for the Middle East if elected president, according to a poll conducted for Arab News by YouGov.

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are each chosen by 38 percent of those polled, while only 9 percent back Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has consistently been the most vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza and Lebanon.

Trump appears to have benefited from the disappointment among Arab Americans with the Biden administration’s support for, and only muted criticism of, Israel’s increasingly deadly and indiscriminate response to the Hamas attack last October.

Asked which of the candidates would be most likely to successfully resolve the conflict, 39 percent back Trump and 33 percent Harris.

Even allowing for the widespread disenchantment with the performance of the Biden administration with regard to Israel, confidence in Trump on this issue is somewhat puzzling.

Read our full coverage here: US Elections 2024: What Arab Americans want

During his presidency, Arab-American support for Trump had drained away as his administration formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv, and presided over the Abraham Accords, which were widely seen as favoring Israel and marginalizing the Palestinians.  

But in the YouGov poll results, confidence in Trump is even more surprising given the acknowledgement that of the two main candidates, he is likely to be the better friend to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The survey asked respondents to classify the candidates in terms of their support for Israel’s government. Harris is deemed to be “somewhat” or “very supportive” by 59 percent, while 69 percent think the same about Trump.

Stein’s frequent criticism of Israel over the past year appears not to have registered with a significant proportion of Arab-American voters. 

Not only do 24 percent think she has been supportive of the Israeli government, but 44 percent do not know what her stance is.

Topics: Trump Returns US Election 2024 Spotlight US Election 2024 YouGov

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Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor

Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor
Updated 21 December 2024
AFP
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Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor

Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor
  • The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger
  • The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus
Updated 21 December 2024
AFP

KOLKATA: An Indian man on trial for raping and murdering a 31-year-old doctor has pleaded not guilty, his lawyer said Saturday, a crime that appalled the nation and triggered wide-scale protests.
The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
Sanjoy Roy, 33, the lone accused in the case, pleaded not guilty before the judge in a closed court on Friday in Kolkata, his lawyer Sourav Bandyopadhyay told AFP.
“I am not guilty, your honor, I have been framed,” Roy told the court, Bandyopadhyay said, repeating his client’s words.
Roy, a civic volunteer in the hospital, was arrested the day after the murder and has been held in custody since.
He would potentially face the death penalty if convicted.
The court began hearings on November 11, listening to evidence from some 50 witnesses, but it was on Friday that Roy took the stand.
“Judge Anirban Das questioned him with more than 100 questions during the six-hour-long in camera deposition, that continued until late in the evening,” Bandyopadhyay said.
Roy had earlier proclaimed his innocence to the public while screaming from a prison van outside the court before a hearing in November.
Doctors in Kolkata went on strike for weeks in response to the brutal attack.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Indians joined in the protests, which focused anger on the lack of measures for female doctors to work without fear.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for health care workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
The trial continues. The next hearing is set for January 2, 2025.

Topics: Kolkata rape kolkata rape case

Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’

Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’
Updated 21 December 2024
Reuters
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Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’

Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’
  • Britain said in October it would lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central bank assets
Updated 21 December 2024
Reuters

LONDON: The Russian embassy in London on Saturday described Britain’s planned transfer to Ukraine of more than 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) backed by frozen Russian assets as a “fraudulent scheme.”
Britain said in October it would lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central bank assets to help buy weapons and rebuild damaged infrastructure.
The loans were agreed in July by leaders of the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — along with top officials from the European Union, where most of the Russian assets frozen as a result of the war are held.
“We are closely following UK authorities’ efforts aimed at implementing a fraudulent scheme of expropriating incomes from Russian state assets ‘frozen’ in the EU,” the Russian embassy in London said on social media.
British Defense Minister John Healey said the money would be solely for Ukraine’s military and could be used to help develop drones capable of traveling further than some long-range missiles.
The embassy added: “The elaborate legislative choreography fails to conceal the illegitimate nature of this arrangement.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry last week described the US transfer to Ukraine of its share of the G7’s $50 billion in loans as “simply robbery.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict UK G7 countries

Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured

Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured
Updated 21 December 2024
Reuters
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Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured

Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured
  • Source: Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker
  • Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation
Updated 21 December 2024
Reuters

MAGDEBURG, Germany: At least five people were killed in a car-ramming attack at a German Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg that also left more than 200 injured, officials said, and a Saudi man was arrested on suspicion of driving a car into the crowd.

The Friday evening attack on market visitors gathered to celebrate the pre-Christmas season comes amid a fierce debate over security and migration during an election campaign in Germany, where the far right is polling strongly.

“What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the central city, part of the former East Germany, where he laid a white rose at a church in honor of the victims.

“We have now learnt that over 200 people have been injured,” he added. “Almost 40 are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

German authorities are investigating a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for almost two decades in connection with the car-ramming. Police searched his home overnight.

The motive remained unclear and police have not yet named the suspect. He has been named in German media as Taleb A.

A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extremist views on his personal X account that threatened peace and security.

Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had sympathized with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The magazine did not say where it got the information.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

Germany’s FAZ newspaper said it interviewed the suspect in 2019, describing him as an anti-Islam activist.

“People like me, who have an Islamic background but are no longer believers, are met with neither understanding nor tolerance by Muslims here,” he was quoted as saying. “I am history’s most aggressive critic of Islam. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs.”

Andrea Reis, who had been at the market on Friday, returned on Saturday with her daughter Julia to lay a candle by the church overlooking the site. She said that had it not been for a matter of moments, they may have been in the car’s path.

“I said, ‘let’s go and get a sausage’, but my daughter said ‘no let’s keep walking around’. If we’d stayed where we were we’d have been in the car’s path,” she said.

Tears ran down her face as she described the scene. “Children screaming, crying for mama. You can’t forget that,” she said.

Scholz’s Social Democrats are trailing both the far-right AfD and the frontrunner conservative opposition in opinion polls ahead of snap elections set for Feb. 23.

The AfD, which enjoys particularly strong support in the former East, has led calls for a crackdown on migration to the country.

Its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel and co-leader Tino Chrupalla issued a statement on Saturday condemning the attack.

“The terrible attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg in the middle of the peaceful pre-Christmas period has shaken us,” they said.

A leading Social Democrat lawmaker in the Bundestag parliament warned against jumping to conclusions and said it appeared the attacker did not have an Islamist motive.

“Now we have to wait for the investigations. It seems that things are different here than was initially assumed,” Dirk Wiese told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Topics: Germany attack

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Eight convicted in France over murder of teacher who showed Prophet caricature

Eight convicted in France over murder of teacher who showed Prophet caricature
Updated 21 December 2024
Reuters
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Eight convicted in France over murder of teacher who showed Prophet caricature

Eight convicted in France over murder of teacher who showed Prophet caricature
  • Eight sentenced for roles in hate campaign against teacher
  • Two associates of killer sentenced to 16 years for complicity, the father of pupil sentenced to 13 years for inciting hatred
Updated 21 December 2024
Reuters

PARIS: A French court sentenced eight people to prison terms ranging from one to 16 years for their roles in a hate campaign that culminated in the murder of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class, local media reported.
Days after Samuel Paty, 47, showed his pupils the caricatures in October 2020, an 18-year-old Chechen assailant stabbed and beheaded him outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris. The assailant was shot dead by police moments after.
Among those convicted on Friday was the father of a student whose false account of Paty’s use of the caricatures triggered a wave of social media posts targeting the middle-school teacher.
The court sentenced Brahim Chnina to 13 years in prison for criminal terrorist association, according to broadcaster Franceinfo. Chnina had published videos falsely accusing the teacher of disciplining his daughter for complaining about the class, naming Paty and identifying his school.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, the founder of a hard-line Islamist organization, received a 15-year sentence. Both Sefrioui and Chnina were found guilty of inciting hatred against Paty.
Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous. Sefrioui’s lawyer said his client would appeal the decision, according to French media.
Two associates of Paty’s killer, Abdullakh Anzorov, were also convicted. Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov were sentenced to 16 years in prison for complicity in a terrorist killing. Both had denied wrongdoing, according to Franceinfo.
Last year, a court found Chnina’s daughter and five other adolescents guilty of participating in a premeditated conspiracy and helping prepare an ambush.
Chnina’s daughter, who was not in Paty’s class when the caricatures were shown, was convicted of making false accusations and slanderous comments.
French media reported that the 13-year-old made the allegations after her parents questioned why she had been suspended from school for two days.

Topics: France

Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children
Updated 21 December 2024
AFP
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Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children
  • ‘Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war. I want to say it because it touches my heart’
  • The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations
Updated 21 December 2024
AFP

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty,” a day after the territory’s rescue agency said an Israeli air strike killed seven children from one family.

Gaza’s civil defense rescue agency reported that an Israeli air strike killed 10 members of a family on Friday in the northern part of the territory, including seven children.

“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he told members of the government of the Holy See.

“I want to say it because it touches my heart.”

Violence in the Gaza Strip continues to rock the coastal territory more than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, even as international mediators work to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military said it had struck “several terrorists who were operating in a military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”

“According to an initial examination, the reported number of casualties resulting from the strike does not align with the information held by the IDF,” it added.

Francis, 88, has called for peace since Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza.

In recent weeks he has hardened his remarks against the Israeli offensive.

At the end of November, he said that “the invader’s arrogance... prevails over dialogue” in “Palestine,” a rare position that contrasts with the tradition of neutrality of the Holy See.

In extracts from a forthcoming book published in November, he called for a “careful” study as to whether the situation in Gaza “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide, an accusation firmly rejected by Israel.

The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations, and it supports the two-state solution.

Topics: War on Gaza Pope Francis Gaza Israel

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