WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday redoubled his support for embattled Senate candidate Roy Moore, ignoring the sexual harassment allegations plaguing the ex-Alabama judge’s campaign, as Democrats moved to address harassment concerns afflicting their own party.
In an early-morning tweet, Trump said that Moore’s rival in the Alabama race for a Senate seat, Democrat Doug Jones, was weak on crime, the military and immigration. For Alabamians to support him in next month’s special election, the president said, “would be a disaster!“
Many members of Trump’s Republican Party have withdrawn support for Moore, who is now 70, following multiple allegations that while in his 30s he molested or harassed teenage girls as young as 14.
Allegations of sexual harassment have plagued both of America’s main political parties in recent weeks.
Democrat John Conyers, a celebrated civil rights leader who is the longest-serving member of Congress, announced he was stepping down from a leadership position as he battles similar claims.
Even while denying the allegations, the 88-year-old said he was leaving his post as ranking member of the powerful House Judiciary Committee — but remaining in Congress — while he seeks vindication before the House Ethics Committee.
Ethics Committee leaders said Tuesday they planned to investigate allegations that Conyers, a 27-term legislator who co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus, had sexually harassed staff members and used official resources “for impermissible personal purposes.”
Swirling allegations of sexual misconduct have derailed high-profile careers in the entertainment and media industries and are now jolting the political world after a deluge of claims against one-time Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
They have sparked angry demands from both political friend and foe that the alleged perpetrators step aside.
Some leading Republicans have suggested that Moore, if elected, should not be allowed to take his Senate seat.
Most prominently, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has called for Moore to drop out of the race altogether, saying: “I believe the women.”
McConnell reportedly has pleaded with Trump to stay out of the Alabama race, lest Moore’s election damage the party ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
One prominent Republican senator, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said that having Moore on the ballot was a losing proposition.
“If he wins... it becomes a story every day about whether or not you believe the women or Roy Moore. If you lose, you give the Senate seat” to a Democrat, he told CNN.
But Trump — himself the object of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct during his presidential campaign, all of which he denied — shrugged off such appeals.
He tweeted that “the last thing” Republicans need in the closely divided Senate is a Democrat like Jones “who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border. Bad for our Military” and who “WANTS TO RAISES (sic) TAXES TO THE SKY.”
“He says it didn’t happen,” the president told reporters Tuesday. “You have to listen to him, also.”
Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, said that Conyers deserved “due process” in the coming inquiry, calling him “an icon” who had done much to advance women’s causes.
But she later tweeted, in a statement about Conyers’s decision, that “no matter how great an individual’s legacy, it is not a license for harassment.”
Legislators have struggled with how to react to allegations against fellow party members.
Pelosi suggested that separate allegations against Democrat Al Franken — including that the Minnesota senator once kissed a woman against her will — were less serious than those against Moore.
Asked if she would be satisfied were Franken to apologize, Pelosi told “Meet the Press” on NBC: “Right. Also, his accusers have to accept an apology. The victims have some say.”
In his latest comments on the uproar, Franken called the photograph that appeared to show him groping a fellow comic’s breasts in 2006, before he was a politician, “inexcusable.”
“I am ashamed of that photo,” Franken told Minnesota Public Radio. “You know she didn’t have any ability to consent. She had every right to feel violated by that photo.”
“I’m going to take responsibility. I’m going to be held accountable and I’m going to try to be productive in the way I speak about this,” he added, vowing to return to work.
“This has been a shock to me.”
Trump again backs alleged harasser, Democrat gives up key post
Trump again backs alleged harasser, Democrat gives up key post
US ready to abandon efforts to broker Russia-Ukraine peace deal, Rubio says
- Trump was still interested in a deal but had many other priorities around the world
Rubio, speaking in Paris after meeting European and Ukranian leaders, said that President Donald Trump was still interested in a deal but had many other priorities around the world and was willing to move on unless there are signs of progress. (Reporting by Bart H. Meijer and Dominique Vidalon Writing by Gabriel Stargardter Editing by David Goodman )
Over 170 arrested for attacks on Pakistan KFC outlets in Gaza war protests
- Attacks sparked by anti-US, anti-Israel sentiment
- Several Western brands face boycotts in Pakistan over Israel-Palestine conflict
KARACHI: Police have arrested scores of people in Pakistan in recent weeks after more than 10 mob attacks on outlets of US fast-food chain KFC, sparked by anti-United States sentiment and opposition to its ally Israel’s war in Gaza, officials said.
Police in major cities in the Islamic nation, including the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and the capital Islamabad, confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC outlets were attacked by protesters armed with sticks and vandalized. At least 178 people were arrested, the officials said this week.
KFC and its parent Yum Brands, both US-based, did not respond to requests for comment.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one KFC employee was shot and killed this week in a store on the outskirts of Lahore by unknown gunmen. The official added there was no protest at the time and they were investigating whether the killing was motivated by political sentiment or some other reason.
In Lahore, police said they were ramping up security at 27 KFC outlets around the city after two attacks took place and five others were prevented.
“We are investigating the role of different individuals and groups in these attacks,” said Faisal Kamran, a senior Lahore police officer, adding that 11 people, including a member of the Islamist religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), were arrested in the city. He added the protests were not officially organized by TLP.
TLP spokesman Rehan Mohsin Khan said the group “has urged Muslims to boycott Israeli products, but it has not given any call for protest outside KFC.”
“If any other person claiming to be a TLP leader or activist has indulged in such activity, it should be taken as his personal act which has nothing to do with the party’s policy,” said Khan.
KFC has long been viewed as a symbol of the United States in Pakistan and borne the brunt of anti-American sentiment in recent decades with protests and attacks.
Western brands have been hit by boycotts and other forms of protests in Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries in recent months over Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.
Yum Brands has said one of its other brands, Pizza Hut, has faced a protracted impact from boycotts related to Israel’s war in Gaza.
In Pakistan, local brands have made inroads into its fast-growing cola market as some consumers avoid US brands. In 2023, Coca-Cola’s market share in the consumer sector in Pakistan fell to 5.7 percent from 6.3 percent in 2022, according to GlobalData, while PepsiCo’s fell to 10.4 percent from 10.8 percent.
Earlier this month, religious clerics in Pakistan called for a boycott of any products or brands that they say support Israel or the American economy, but asked people to stay peaceful and not destroy property.
Chinese foreign minister calls on Global South to safeguard multilateral trade
- Wang said the world is again at a critical crossroads
BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Global South countries to safeguard multilateral trading systems, warning that power politics and “unilateral bullying” are creating divisions, in a statement his ministry released on Friday.
In a written speech to a roundtable meeting in Beijing on Thursday and referred to in the statement, Wang said the world is again at a critical crossroads, urging countries to oppose “unilateral protectionism” and build an open world economy.
US YouTuber remains in custody in India after visiting restricted island with a Diet Coke can
- Polyakov is suspected of violating Indian laws that carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine
NEW DELHI: A 24-year-old American YouTuber who was arrested after visiting an off-limits island in the Indian Ocean with hopes of establishing contact with a reclusive tribe was further detained in custody on Thursday.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov will next appear before a local court in Port Blair — the capital of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands — on April 29, police said.
Polyakov, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested on March 31, two days after he set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island in a bid to meet people from the reclusive Sentinelese tribe.
He left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as offering for the tribe this time after he failed to contact the Sentinelese. He shot a video of the island on his camera and collected some sand samples before returning to his boat.
“It may be claimed to be an adventure trip, but the fact is that there has been a violation of Indian laws. Outsiders meeting Sentinelese could endanger the tribe’s survival,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity as he isn’t authorized to speak about the case under investigation.
Polyakov is suspected of violating Indian laws that carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine.
Visitors are banned from traveling within 3 miles of North Sentinel Island, whose population has been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The inhabitants use spears and bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, heavily forested island. Deeply suspicious of outsiders, they attack anyone who lands onto their beaches.
In 2018, an American missionary who landed illegally on the beach was killed by North Sentinelese Islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach. In 2006, the Sentinelese killed two fishermen who had accidentally landed on the shore.
An official from the US consulate visited Polyakov in jail earlier this week. “We take our commitment to assist US citizens abroad seriously and are monitoring the situation,” the US Embassy in New Delhi said in a statement, while declining to divulge further details due to privacy considerations.
Police said Polyakov had conducted detailed research on sea conditions, tides and accessibility to the island before starting his journey. He stayed on the beach for about an hour, blowing a whistle to attract attention but got no response from the islanders.
On his return he was spotted by local fishermen, who informed the authorities and Polyakov was arrested in Port Blair, an archipelago nearly 750 miles east of India’s mainland.
France hails ‘positive process’ as Europe, US discuss Ukraine ceasefire
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pressed a US peace plan during the discussions in Paris
- Russian strikes overnight Thursday killed two people and wounded dozens of others in the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy
Paris: France said talks Thursday between top US and European officials on the war in Ukraine had launched a “positive process,” as Europe seeks to be included in efforts to end the three-year-old conflict.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio again pressed a US peace plan during the discussions in Paris.
The meetings included French President Emmanuel Macron, Rubio, US envoy Steve Witkoff, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, German officials and Ukrainian ministers.
They took place as US President Donald Trump’s push to end the war stumbles, with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin rebuffing a complete truce.
“Today in Paris, we launched a positive process in which the Europeans are involved,” the French presidency said.
A new meeting of envoys from the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Ukraine will take place next week in London, it added.
Rubio later called Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Paris meeting.
“President Trump and the United States want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace,” Rubio told his Russian counterpart, according to the US State Department.
“The encouraging reception in Paris to the US framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement,” he added.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov “reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to continue collaborative efforts with American counterparts to comprehensively address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Lavrov and Rubio agreed on the need to maintain “prompt communication channels,” in light of the London meeting next week, the statement said.
’Europeans at the table’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has clashed with Trump, praised the talks, saying it was important to work toward “real security” in Europe.
Posting on Telegram, Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak on Friday thanked Macron “for your efforts in the process of achieving a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov however dismissed the Paris meeting, saying earlier that Europeans seemed to have “a focus on continuing the war.”
France and Britain have sought a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine, during the conflict and in any ceasefire, after Trump shocked them by opening talks with Russia.
Macron said the Paris talks were “a very important occasion for convergence,” as everybody wanted “a robust and sustainable peace.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters the talks had made a breakthrough because the United States, Ukraine, and European ministers had “gathered around the same table” when Europe had previously feared it would be excluded from decision-making.
The United States “has understood that a just and sustainable peace ... can only be achieved with the consent and contribution of Europeans,” he added later on LCI television.
Two dead in fresh strikes
Russia’s strikes, which have recently killed dozens of people including children in Ukrainian cities, have increased pressure for new diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
Russian strikes overnight Thursday killed two people and wounded dozens of others in the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy, local and regional authorities said Friday.
Zelensky earlier accused Witkoff of “spreading Russian narratives” after the US envoy suggested a peace deal with Russia hinged on the status of Ukraine’s occupied territories.
“I believe that Mr.Witkoff has taken on the strategy of the Russian side,” Zelensky told reporters.
“It is very dangerous, because he is consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, spreading Russian narratives.”
Witkoff said this week that Putin was open to “permanent peace” after talks with the Kremlin chief in Saint Petersburg, their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Putin last month rejected a US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire, after Kyiv gave its backing to the idea.
He also suggested Zelensky be removed from office, sparking an angry response from Trump who said he was “very angry” with the Russian leader.
France’s Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu held talks in Washington on Thursday with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who called on France to boost military spending, a Pentagon spokesman said.
“The secretary urged France to increase defense spending and, alongside other NATO allies, take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense,” the spokesman said.
