Trump wins White House in historic victory

Trump wins White House in historic victory
The victory marks an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago. (AFP)
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Updated 06 November 2024
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Trump wins White House in historic victory

Trump wins White House in historic victory
  • The victory marks an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago
  • He is the first person convicted of a felony to win the White House and the first former president to regain power since 1892

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.
With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
The victory validates his bare-knuckle approach to politics. He attacked his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in deeply personal – often misogynistic and racist – terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants. The coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hypermasculinity, resonated with angry voters – particularly men – in a deeply polarized nation.
As president, he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and pursuing retribution against his perceived enemies. Speaking to his supporters Wednesday morning, Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s convention. Trump will inherit a range of challenges when he assumes office on Jan. 20, including heightened political polarization and global crises that are testing America’s influence abroad.
His win against Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket, marks the second time he has defeated a female rival in a general election. Harris, the current vice president, rose to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden exited the race amid alarm about his advanced age. Despite an initial surge of energy around her campaign, she struggled during a compressed timeline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.
Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. He is the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, is the oldest person elected to the office. His vice president, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the US government.
There will be far fewer checks on Trump when he returns to the White House. He has plans to swiftly enact a sweeping agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government. His GOP critics in Congress have largely been defeated or retired. Federal courts are now filled with judges he appointed. The US Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices, issued a ruling earlier this year affording presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
Trump’s language and behavior during the campaign sparked growing warnings from Democrats and some Republicans about shocks to democracy that his return to power would bring. He repeatedly praised strongman leaders, warned that he would deploy the military to target political opponents he labeled the “enemy from within,” threatened to take action against news organizations for unfavorable coverage and suggested suspending the Constitution.
Some who served in his first White House, including Vice President Mike Pence and John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, either declined to endorse him or issued dire public warnings about his return to the presidency.
While Harris focused much of her initial message around themes of joy, Trump channeled a powerful sense of anger and resentment among voters.
He seized on frustrations over high prices and fears about crime and migrants who illegally entered the country on Biden’s watch. He also highlighted wars in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to cast Democrats as presiding over – and encouraging – a world in chaos.
It was a formula Trump perfected in 2016, when he cast himself as the only person who could fix the country’s problems, often borrowing language from dictators.
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he said in March 2023.
This campaign often veered into the absurd, with Trump amplifying bizarre and disproven rumors that migrants were stealing and eating pet cats and dogs in an Ohio town. At one point, he kicked off a rally with a detailed story about the legendary golfer Arnold Palmer in which he praised his genitalia.
But perhaps the defining moment came in July when a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear and killed one of his supporters. His face streaked with blood, Trump stood and raised his fist in the air, shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Weeks later, a second assassination attempt was thwarted after a Secret Service agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through the greenery while Trump was playing golf.
Trump’s return to the White House seemed unlikely when he left Washington in early 2021 as a diminished figure whose lies about his defeat sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol. He was so isolated at the time that few outside of his family bothered to attend the send-off he organized for himself at Andrews Air Force Base, complete with a 21-gun salute.
Democrats who controlled the US House quickly impeached him for his role in the insurrection, making him the only president to be impeached twice. He was acquitted by the US Senate, where many Republicans argued that he no longer posed a threat because he had left office.
But from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump – aided by some elected Republicans – worked to maintain his political relevance. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who at the time led his party in the US House, visited Trump soon after he left office, essentially validating his continued role in the party.
As the 2022 midterm election approached, Trump used the power of his endorsement to assert himself as the unquestioned leader of the party. His preferred candidates almost always won their primaries, but some went on to defeat in elections that Republicans viewed as within their grasp. Those disappointing results were driven in part by a backlash to the US Supreme Court ruling that revoked a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, a decision that was aided by Trump-appointed justices. The midterm election prompted questions within the GOP about whether Trump should remain the party’s leader.
But if Trump’s future was in doubt, that changed in 2023 when he faced a wave of state and federal indictments for his role in the insurrection, his handling of classified information and election interference. He used the charges to portray himself as the victim of an overreaching government, an argument that resonated with a GOP base that was increasingly skeptical – if not outright hostile – to institutions and established power structures.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who challenged Trump for the Republican nomination, lamented that the indictments “sucked out all the oxygen” from this year’s GOP primary. Trump easily captured his party’s nomination without ever participating in a debate against DeSantis or other GOP candidates.
With Trump dominating the Republican contest, a New York jury found him guilty in May of 34 felony charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. He faces sentencing later this month, though his victory poses serious questions about whether he will ever face punishment.
He has also been found liable in two other New York civil cases: one for inflating his assets and another for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996.
Trump is subject to additional criminal charges in an election-interference case in Georgia that has become bogged down. On the federal level, he’s been indicted for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and improperly handling classified material. When he becomes president on Jan. 20, Trump could appoint an attorney general who would erase the federal charges.
As he prepares to return to the White House, Trump has vowed to swiftly enact a radical agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government. That includes plans to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history, to use the Justice Department to punish his enemies, to dramatically expand the use of tariffs and to again pursue a zero-sum approach to foreign policy that threatens to upend longstanding foreign alliances, including the NATO pact.
When he arrived in Washington 2017, Trump knew little about the levers of federal power. His agenda was stymied by Congress and the courts, as well as senior staff members who took it upon themselves to serve as guardrails.
This time, Trump has said he would surround himself with loyalists who will enact his agenda, no questions asked, and who will arrive with hundreds of draft executive orders, legislative proposals and in-depth policy papers in hand.


North Korean troops engaged in combat in Kursk for first time, US officials say

North Korean troops engaged in combat in Kursk for first time, US officials say
Updated 57 min 56 sec ago
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North Korean troops engaged in combat in Kursk for first time, US officials say

North Korean troops engaged in combat in Kursk for first time, US officials say
  • One of the officials said they took part in combat on November 4
  • Earlier this week the Pentagon said that there were at least 10,000 North Korean troops in Kursk

WASHINGTON: North Korean troops were engaged in combat in Russia’s Kursk in recent days for the first time, two US officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they took part in combat on November 4. The officials did not say whether there were any North Korean casualties and did not provide further details on the engagement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that the first battles between the Ukrainian military and North Korean troops “open a new page in instability in the world” after his defense minister said a “small engagement” had taken place.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed, in an interview with South Korean television, that the first engagement had occurred with North Korean troops, an apparent escalation in a conflict that began when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this week the Pentagon said that there were at least 10,000 North Korean troops in Kursk, adding that between 11,000 and 12,000 troops were in Russia all together.


On Ukraine’s front and in Kyiv, hope and pragmatism compete when it comes to Trump’s election

On Ukraine’s front and in Kyiv, hope and pragmatism compete when it comes to Trump’s election
Updated 06 November 2024
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On Ukraine’s front and in Kyiv, hope and pragmatism compete when it comes to Trump’s election

On Ukraine’s front and in Kyiv, hope and pragmatism compete when it comes to Trump’s election
  • It was under Trump that the United States first sent weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, in 2017
  • Zelensky was among the first world leaders to publicly congratulate Trump

KYIV: Soldiers in a Ukrainian artillery battery on the front lines of the country’s east were only vaguely aware of American election results pointing to Donald Trump’s victory Wednesday — but firm in their hopes for the next president of the United States.
Their entrenched artillery battery fires on Russian forces daily — and takes fire nearly as often. Just the other day, one of their overhead nets snared a Russian drone.
“I hope that the quantity of weapons, the quantity of guns for our victory will increase,” the unit’s 39-year-old commander, who goes by the name Mozart, said in the hours before Trump’s win was confirmed. “We don’t care who is the president, as long as they don’t cut us off from help, because we need it.”
Though Trump’s election throws into doubt American support for Ukraine — and ultimately whether Kyiv can beat back Russia’s invasion — the soldiers who use their Starlink connection to the Internet sparingly learned of the results from Associated Press journalists.
Mozart — who other soldiers Wednesday did not give his name in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol and has given musical monikers to the battlefield positions — is among many Ukrainians who hope that Trump will hold the line on American support for their country. Russian forces have recently made gains in the east, although the commander described the front-line situation as “static.”
It was under Trump that the United States first sent weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, in 2017. Those Javelin anti-tank missiles were crucial to Ukraine’s ability to fend off the full-scale invasion in 2022. But Trump overall is wary of US involvement in foreign conflicts.
Trump, who has touted his good relationship with President Vladimir Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine, has repeatedly criticized American backing of Ukraine. He characterized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “the greatest salesman on Earth” for winning US aid.
Zelensky was among the first world leaders to publicly congratulate Trump and said the two discussed how to end “Russian aggression against Ukraine” when they met in September.
“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together,” he wrote on in a message on the social platform X.
Trump has said repeatedly he would have a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia within a day if elected, although he has not said how. During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win — raising concerns that Kyiv would be forced to accept unfavorable terms in any negotiations he oversaw.
In Kyiv, which comes under attack from Russian drones near daily, 18-year-old Viktoriia Zubrytska was pragmatic about her expectations for the next American president. She thinks Ukraine will be forced to give up territory in exchange for peace under a Trump presidency. But she said she preferred that to what she called the false hope that the Biden administration offered.
“We will live in a world of facts where we will be certain on what awaits us,” said the law student. “Certainty and objective truth is much better than lies and life in illusions.”
According to VoteCast, 74 percent of voters who supported Harris favored continuing aid to Ukraine, while only 36 percent of Trump’s voters did. AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
On the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, Andriy, who goes by “Rodych” or “Relative,” was resigned to the fact that he has no power to influence the American vote.
“We will come up with something” whatever happens, he said.
“We are a shield between Europe and Russia,” he added. “Other countries do not understand what is happening here, they see it on TV and for them it is far away.”
America’s NATO allies were also closely watching the election. France and Germany arranged a last-minute, top-level defense meeting Wednesday in Paris to discuss the results, and Ukraine is likely to be central to the meeting. The two leading powers in the European Union provide significant support to Ukraine to defend it against Russia’s war.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, citing a “more aggressive Russia,” also invoked Trump’s motto of “peace through strength.”
Rutte praised Trump for his work during his first term to persuade countries in the alliance to ramp up defense spending.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on whether Putin plans to congratulate Trump but emphasized that Moscow views the US as an “unfriendly” country.
Peskov reaffirmed the Kremlin’s claim that the US support for Ukraine amounted to its involvement in the conflict, telling reporters: “Let’s not forget that we are talking about, the unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”
Still, he noted Trump’s promise to end the war swiftly once elected.
“The US can help end the conflict,” Peskov said, adding that “it certainly can’t be done overnight.”


Italian ship heads back to Albania with eight migrants

Italian ship heads back to Albania with eight migrants
Updated 06 November 2024
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Italian ship heads back to Albania with eight migrants

Italian ship heads back to Albania with eight migrants
  • Italy sent an initial group of 16 migrants to Albania last month, but they were all brought back within days
  • Only eight migrants were dispatched toward Albania on Wednesday from where they had been rescued near the island of Lampedusa

ROME: An Italian navy ship set sail for Albania on Wednesday carrying a second small group of migrants, with Rome looking to salvage a controversial plan to process asylum seekers abroad after a first attempt hit legal hurdles.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government hopes that taking boat migrants to guarded camps in Albania rather than letting them enter Italy will act as a deterrence to others considering making the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.
Italy sent an initial group of 16 migrants to Albania last month, but they were all brought back within days, the majority of them after a Rome court ruled they could not be held in the Balkan country due to concerns over their legal status.
Only eight migrants were dispatched toward Albania on Wednesday from where they had been rescued near the island of Lampedusa, suggesting the government was treading softly, testing to see if it could overcome the October impasse.
The first group of migrants came from Egypt and Bangladesh, two of 22 countries that Italy had classified as safe, meaning the government believed they could be rapidly repatriated.
However, the Rome judges questioned this, pointing to a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which said a country outside the EU cannot be declared safe unless its entire territory is deemed free of danger.
As a result, all those in Albania were brought to Italy, where they were put in unguarded reception centers.
Infuriated by the decision, Meloni’s cabinet upgraded the legal status of its list of safe countries, making it an act of law rather than a lesser ministerial decree, believing this means it will be harder for courts to challenge its validity.
The military did not say where the new group of asylum-seekers came from. Italian newspapers had speculated at the weekend that the government might focus on Tunisians, because their country was deemed more stable than many others.
Italy has built two reception centers in Albania, in the first scheme by a European Union nation to divert migrants to a non-EU country. The facilities in Shengjin and Gjader are staffed by Italian personnel.
Under the deal with Tirana, the total number of migrants present at one time in Albania cannot be more than 3,000.
Italy has said only “non-vulnerable” men from safe countries would be sent to there, imposing a limit of 36,000 a year.


Bangladesh records rise in skilled migration with Saudi Arabia as top destination

Bangladesh records rise in skilled migration with Saudi Arabia as top destination
Updated 06 November 2024
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Bangladesh records rise in skilled migration with Saudi Arabia as top destination

Bangladesh records rise in skilled migration with Saudi Arabia as top destination
  • Out of 700,000 Bangladeshis going abroad for work this year, 374,000 chose the Kingdom
  • KSA launched a new employment scheme in Bangladesh last year to upgrade workers’ skills

DHAKA: The migration of skilled Bangladeshi workers abroad has been on the rise since the beginning of the year, with most seeking employment in Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects.

Out of almost 700,000 who sought employment abroad this year, more than 374,000 went to Saudi Arabia, which since 2017 has been the preferred destination among Bangladeshi expats.

The Kingdom was followed by Malaysia and Qatar, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.

“Due to several ongoing giga-projects, Saudi Arabia is in high demand for migrant workers,” BMET additional secretary Shah Abdul Tarique told Arab News.

“Recently, we noticed an increase in the export of skilled migrants. Many of our construction workers go to Saudi Arabia under skilled categories. There are many drivers and electricians also employed as skilled workers.”

Saudi Arabia has launched a number of giga-projects under its Vision 2030 transformation plan, including the multibillion-dollar NEOM smart city that is overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi officials launched the Workers’ Recruitment and Skill Verification Program in Bangladesh last February, aimed at advancing the professional competence of employees in the Saudi labor market.

It focuses on several professions, including plumbers, electricians and construction workers.

BMET had set up at least 150 technical centers upon the program’s launch, offering free training to support prospective Bangladeshi migrant workers seeking employment in the Kingdom.

“We are also focusing on preparing the training centers more with market-driven equipment and logistics,” Tarique said.

“Our private sector recruiting agents are working sincerely to be attached more with the Saudi giga-projects. If this trend continues, I think our skilled manpower exports to the Kingdom will increase in the coming period.”

Friendly ties between the two countries have also driven Bangladeshi migrant workers to choose Saudi Arabia, said Shariful Hasan, head of the migration program at the country’s largest development organization, BRAC.

“They feel much more comfortable while working in the Kingdom. It’s a diversified market for us as both skilled and unskilled migrants are being employed together,” Hasan told Arab News.

“Starting from construction to many other job fields, Saudi Arabia is now looking for skilled workers from Bangladesh. That’s why our number of skilled workers increased in the Kingdom.”

Hasan said that skilled Bangladeshi migrants are also being employed in the IT and financial sectors, as the Kingdom seeks to establish itself as a global investment powerhouse with sophisticated digital infrastructure.

“It will be an excellent approach if we can prepare our technical training centers in line with the demands of the Saudi giga-projects,” he said. “These migrants will be able to earn better in the kingdom and eventually send better remittances to Bangladesh.”


Russia’s grain policies help Ukraine secure sales

Russia’s grain policies help Ukraine secure sales
Updated 06 November 2024
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Russia’s grain policies help Ukraine secure sales

Russia’s grain policies help Ukraine secure sales
  • Egypt’s state grains buyer GASC bought 290,000 metric tons of wheat
  • Russia was kept out of the sale due to unofficial policies to prevent a price spike at home as the country seeks to combat inflation partly fueled by military spending

HAMBURG/CAIRO: Russia’s curbs on wheat exports have inadvertently helped Ukraine secure lucrative sales to Egypt this week while also inflating prices for the world’s top importer, traders said.
Egypt’s state grains buyer GASC bought 290,000 metric tons of wheat in an international tender on Monday. The purchase included 120,000 tons from Ukraine as well as 120,000 tons from Romania and 50,000 tons from Bulgaria.
Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter and Egypt’s most important supplier, was kept out of the sale due to unofficial policies to prevent a price spike at home as the country seeks to combat inflation partly fueled by military spending.
The restrictions, mostly not officially announced, include a minimum export price, export taxes and limiting sales of Russian grain by foreign trading houses.
“Had Russian exporters been allowed to offer realistic market prices, which would be much lower, I think they would have pretty much wiped up the Egyptian sale,” one trader said.
“The Russian moves are making Ukrainian supplies look more attractive, especially to importers in a difficult financial state like Egypt,” the trader added.
Russia’s agriculture ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether government grain export policies had led to the loss of business to Ukraine at this week’s Egyptian tender.
A trader in Ukraine said the Russian restrictions had provided more opportunites although the country had already realized about 60 percent of its potential sales this year.
“The cheapest supplier is leaving, so it’s probably not who wins but who loses,” the trader said, referring to how Russian policies could raise the cost of wheat for importers.
Hesham Soliman, a trader in Egypt, said Russia was holding off waiting for prices to rise and profitability to increase.
“This isn’t just about Russian export restrictions. Russia knows it controls the market and is acting accordingly,” he said, adding Egypt’s state buyer had pushed back by purchasing Black Sea wheat from other sources.
Noamany Nasr, a former adviser to Egypt’s supply ministry, said Russia frequently introduced subtle barriers to curb its own exports, whether to raise prices or for internal reasons.
“Ironically, this benefits Russia’s competitors.”
Egypt’s supply ministry said on Tuesday that after the purchase it now has strategic reserves for five months of consumption although traders expect it will need to secure additional supplies in coming months.
“There’s still supply in Romania where farmers have been holding onto a lot of their crop,” another European trader said.
“In Bulgaria, supply is gradually getting tighter. In Ukraine, there’s not a huge amount left, though they haven’t been shipping as vigorously as the Russians.”