NORTH BETHESDA, Md.: Chelsea Manning intends to run for the US Senate in Maryland, returning the transgender former soldier to the spotlight after her conviction for leaking classified documents and her early release from military prison.
Manning, 30, filed her statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, listing an apartment in North Bethesda as her address.
She is running as a Democrat and will likely challenge two-term Sen. Ben Cardin in the primary. The state’s senior senator is an overwhelming favorite to win.
Known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest, the former Army intelligence analyst was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 military and State Department documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. She’s been hailed as a traitor as well as a courageous hero.
Manning came out as transgender after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency before leaving office last year.
The conservative media organization Red Maryland first reported Manning’s intention to run. The Associated Press was unsuccessful in reaching Manning for comment.
A spokeswoman for Cardin, Sue Walitsky, did not immediately return a phone call. Nor did Fabion Seaton, a spokesman for the Maryland Democratic Party.
Manning would not be the first transgender candidate to challenge a sitting member of Congress.
Kristin Beck, a retired Navy SEAL who is transgender, failed to unseat US Rep. Steny Hoyer in Maryland’s Democratic Primary in 2016. Beck got 12 percent of the vote.
“It was too much for me to run for Congress,” Beck said in a phone interview Saturday. “I should have run for something lower. She might as well be running for president.”
Beck said Manning is pulling a “publicity stunt.”
“I totally, 100 percent disagree with everything she did,” Beck said. “She’s just grabbing headlines. I know what that feels like. I’ve been in the headlines. You get a sense that you’re worthy and doing something that counts. And when you lose that, you try to do something to grab a headline.”
Manning was held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she attempted suicide twice, according to her lawyers.
Obama’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence to about seven years drew strong criticism from members of Congress and others, with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan calling the move “just outrageous.”
When Manning was released in May, she told The AP in an email that she was eager to define her future — but made no mention of politics.
“I’m figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me,” Manning wrote.
She added: “I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past.”
The Oklahoma native had planned to move to Maryland, where she has an aunt. She has been registered to vote at the apartment in North Bethesda since mid-August, according to the Maryland Board of Elections.
In September, Manning spoke at the annual conference for The Nantucket Project in Massachusetts, a venture founded to bring together creative thinkers to uncover ideas.
Her appearance came just after Harvard University reversed its decision to name Manning a visiting fellow. CIA Director Mike Pompeo had scrapped a planned appearance over the title for Manning, calling her an “American traitor.”
Manning told the audience in Massachusetts that Harvard’s decision signaled to her that it’s a “police state” and it’s not possible to engage in actual political discourse in academic institutions.
“I’m not ashamed of being disinvited,” she said. “I view that just as much of an honored distinction as the fellowship itself.”
Chelsea Manning files for US Senate bid in Maryland
Chelsea Manning files for US Senate bid in Maryland
Philippines’ financial center taps tourism department to become halal hub
- New agreement to help implement standards across city’s hotels, restaurants
- Makati City, perceived as trendsetter, aims to influence other regions
MANILA: Philippine business leaders in Makati City are collaborating with the Department of Tourism to make the country’s financial center an all-encompassing halal hub for both trade and tourism, the head of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Makati chapter said on Saturday.
Makati City in Metro Manila is popularly known as the Philippines’ central business district, hosting the highest concentration of banks and corporations in the country, as well as foreign embassies.
For the last few years, the predominantly Catholic Philippines — where Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the nearly 120 million population — has been working to raise 230 billion pesos ($4 billion) in investments and generate around 120,000 jobs by expanding its domestic halal industry by 2028.
The DoT signed on Friday a memorandum of agreement with PCCI Makati to pool efforts and encourage the implementation of halal standards across hotels and restaurants in the city, as part of an effort to attract Muslim tourists.
“The memorandum signed yesterday with DoT is really to encourage the local establishments in Makati City to participate or embrace the halal standards,” PCCI Makati President Nunnatus Cortez told Arab News.
“These are the initial steps to turn the city into a halal hub; that’s the main objective.”
PCCI Makati has been a leading figure in efforts to make the city a halal hub.
Friday’s agreement follows a memorandum of understanding the chamber signed last year with the Department of Trade and Industry, which sought to position the city as a central point for innovation and business in the halal sector.
“Halal, after all, is now a way of life. From the DoT’s point of view, this is how we complete the loop — the entire ecosystem required to support both halal trade and tourism,” Cortez said.
Earlier this month the Philippines was recognized as a rising Muslim-friendly destination at the Halal in Travel Global Summit, after having achieved a similar feat in previous years. The country’s halal drive has included efforts to cater to Muslim tourists, by ensuring they have access to halal products and services.
Cortez believes Makati City is at an advantage to boost halal travel as it is the location of many foreign missions, including that of Muslim nations.
“Almost all Muslim embassies are in Makati. We know that foreign delegates, embassy staff, and even their citizens often visit here — and Makati is usually their starting point,” he said.
“What we’re doing now is trying to capture the attention of all Muslim embassies. If their VIPs or citizens come to Makati and make it their base for activities, then everything else will follow.”
He believes that efforts to turn Makati into a halal hub will have a ripple effect across the archipelago nation, as the city is widely perceived as a trendsetter for other regions in the Philippines.
He added: “If we can begin by making places like malls and hotels halal-compliant, that would already be a meaningful first step. We believe that whatever Makati does, other cities will follow its lead. That’s our mindset.”
Irish rap group Kneecap set to play at Glastonbury despite criticism from politicians
- Mo Chara has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London
- Members of the group say they don’t support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence
PILTON, England: Irish-language rap group Kneecap is set to perform Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio.
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November. He is on unconditional bail ahead of a further court hearing in August.
The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, but also criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references and for political statements.
The band draws, often satirically, on the language and imagery of the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland’s decades of violence. Videos have emerged allegedly showing the band shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” and calling on people to kill lawmakers.
Members of the group say they don’t support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence. They have accused critics of trying to silence the band because of their support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza.
Several Kneecap gigs have been canceled as a result of the controversy. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, when asked by a journalist, that it would not be “appropriate” for the festival to give Kneecap a platform.
Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the publicly funded BBC should not broadcast “Kneecap propaganda.”
The BBC, which airs many hours of Glastonbury performances, has not said whether it will show Kneecap’s set.
Some 200,000 ticket holders have gathered at Worthy Farm in southwest England for Britain’s most prestigious summer music festival, which features almost 4,000 performers on 120 stages. Headline acts performing over three days ending Sunday include Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii.
Glastonbury highlights on Friday included a performance from UK rockers The 1975, an unannounced set by New Zealand singer Lorde, a raucous reception for Gen X icon Alanis Morissette and an emotional return for Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, two years after he took a break from touring to adjust to the impact of the neurological condition Tourette syndrome.
Uganda’s president seeks a seventh term that would bring him closer to 5 decades in power
- Museveni first took power as head of a rebel force in 1986, he has been elected six times, though recent elections have been marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging
KAMPALA: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday sought nomination for a seventh term, a move that would bring him closer to five decades in power.
Museveni, 80, has defied calls for his retirement, as critics warn that he as veered into authoritarianism with virtually no opposition even within his ruling National Resistance Movement party.
He was welcomed by a large crowd of supporters as he went to collect nomination papers from the offices of the ruling party in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
Museveni first took power as head of a rebel force in 1986. He has since been elected six times, though recent elections have been marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging. His main opponent in the last election was the popular entertainer known as Bobi Wine, who has also declared his candidacy in the polls set for January 2026.
Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has seen many associates jailed or go into hiding as security forces cracked down on opposition supporters.
Museveni has dismissed Wine as “an agent of foreign interests” who cannot be trusted with power. Wine has been arrested many times on various charges but has never been convicted. He insists he is running a nonviolent campaign.
Decades ago, Museveni himself had criticized African leaders who overstayed their welcome in office. In Uganda, lawmakers did the same thing for him when they jettisoned the last constitutional obstacle — age limits — for a possible life presidency. His son, army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has asserted his wish to succeed his father, raising fears of hereditary rule.
A long-time opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, has been jailed since November over alleged treason charges his lawyers say are politically motivated. Besigye, a physician who retired from Uganda’s military at the rank of colonel, is a former president of the Forum for Democratic Change party, for many years Uganda’s most prominent opposition group.
The East African country has never seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.
Belgrade braces for another anti-government protest, calling for an early parliamentary election
- Tensions have soared ahead of the protest organized by Serbia’s university students, a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed
BELGRADE: Belgrade is bracing for yet another student-led protest on Saturday to pressure Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic to call for a snap parliamentary election after nearly eight months of rallies that have rattled his firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
Tensions have soared ahead of the protest organized by Serbia’s university students, a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1.
Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence at orders from abroad, which they didn’t specify.
In a show of business as usual, the Serbian president handed out presidential awards in the capital to people, including artists and journalists, he deemed worthy, as his loyalists, camping in a park in central Belgrade, announced they would hold a “literary evening.”
“People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,” Vucic told reporters on Saturday.
Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027.
Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance.
Police earlier this week arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro without explanation. Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally.
Authorities made similar moves back in March, ahead of what was the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Vucic’s loyalists then set up a camp in a park outside his office, which still stands. The otherwise peaceful gathering on March 15 came to an abrupt end when part of the crowd suddenly scattered in panic, triggering allegations that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters, which they have denied.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power over a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China.
What’s next for birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court’s ruling
- US President Trump’s executive order, signed in January, seeks to deny citizenship to children who are born to people who are living in the US illegally or temporarily
WASHINGTON: The legal battle over President Donald Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship is far from over despite the Republican administration’s major victory Friday limiting nationwide injunctions.
Immigrant advocates are vowing to fight to ensure birthright citizenship remains the law as the Republican president tries to do away with more than a century of precedent.
The high court’s ruling sends cases challenging the president’s birthright citizenship executive order back to the lower courts. But the ultimate fate of the president’s policy remains uncertain.
Here’s what to know about birthright citizenship, the Supreme Court’s ruling and what happens next.
What does birthright citizenship mean?
Birthright citizenship makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers in the country illegally.
The practice goes back to soon after the Civil War, when Congress ratified the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, in part to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship.
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States,” the amendment states.
Thirty years later, Wong Kim Ark, a man born in the US to Chinese parents, was refused re-entry into the US after traveling overseas. His suit led to the Supreme Court explicitly ruling that the amendment gives citizenship to anyone born in the US, no matter their parents’ legal status.
It has been seen since then as an intrinsic part of US law, with only a handful of exceptions, such as for children born in the US to foreign diplomats.
Trump has long said he wants to do away with birthright citizenship
Trump’s executive order, signed in January, seeks to deny citizenship to children who are born to people who are living in the US illegally or temporarily. It’s part of the hard-line immigration agenda of the president, who has called birthright citizenship a “magnet for illegal immigration.”
Trump and his supporters focus on one phrase in the amendment — “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” – saying it means the US can deny citizenship to babies born to women in the country illegally.
A series of federal judges have said that’s not true, and issued nationwide injunctions stopping his order from taking effect.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” US District Judge John Coughenour said at a hearing earlier this year in his Seattle courtroom.
In Greenbelt, Maryland, a Washington suburb, US District Judge Deborah Boardman wrote that “the Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected and no court in the country has ever endorsed” Trump’s interpretation of birthright citizenship.
Is Trump’s order constitutional? The justices didn’t say
The high court’s ruling was a major victory for the Trump administration in that it limited an individual judge’s authority in granting nationwide injunctions. The administration hailed the ruling as a monumental check on the powers of individual district court judges, whom Trump supporters have argued want to usurp the president’s authority with rulings blocking his priorities around immigration and other matters.
But the Supreme Court did not address the merits of Trump’s bid to enforce his birthright citizenship executive order.
“The Trump administration made a strategic decision, which I think quite clearly paid off, that they were going to challenge not the judges’ decisions on the merits, but on the scope of relief,” said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters at the White House that the administration is “very confident” that the high court will ultimately side with the administration on the merits of the case.
Questions and uncertainty swirl around next steps
The justices kicked the cases challenging the birthright citizenship policy back down to the lower courts, where judges will have to decide how to tailor their orders to comply with the new ruling. The executive order remains blocked for at least 30 days, giving lower courts and the parties time to sort out the next steps.
The Supreme Court’s ruling leaves open the possibility that groups challenging the policy could still get nationwide relief through class-action lawsuits and seek certification as a nationwide class. Within hours after the ruling, two class-action suits had been filed in Maryland and New Hampshire seeking to block Trump’s order.
But obtaining nationwide relief through a class action is difficult as courts have put up hurdles to doing so over the years, said Suzette Malveaux, a Washington and Lee University law school professor.
“It’s not the case that a class action is a sort of easy, breezy way of getting around this problem of not having nationwide relief,” said Malveaux, who had urged the high court not to eliminate the nationwide injunctions.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who penned the court’s dissenting opinion, urged the lower courts to “act swiftly on such requests for relief and to adjudicate the cases as quickly as they can so as to enable this Court’s prompt review” in cases “challenging policies as blatantly unlawful and harmful as the Citizenship Order.”
Opponents of Trump’s order warned there would be a patchwork of polices across the states, leading to chaos and confusion without nationwide relief.
“Birthright citizenship has been settled constitutional law for more than a century,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, a nonprofit that supports refugees and migrants. “By denying lower courts the ability to enforce that right uniformly, the Court has invited chaos, inequality, and fear.”
