LONDON: The decision by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to leave D-Day commemorations in northern France early has caused a political storm that threatens to derail his Conservative Party’s general election campaign.
Though Sunak apologized for not attending Thursday’s final commemoration on Omaha Beach in Normandy, his critics said the decision showed disrespect to the veterans and diminished the UK’s international standing. Other world leaders including President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky were all present.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, remained to the end and said it was up to Sunak “to answer for his choice” to skip the D-Day event.
With opinion polls giving Labour a commanding lead ahead of the election on July 4, Sunak’s gaffe has raised concerns that the Conservatives’ support may come under further pressure over coming days.
Campaign gaffes are regular features of British elections. Some have more impact than others.
Here are a few that have lit up campaigns in recent decades:
1974
Following a difficult few years in government that saw oil prices quadruple following the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Arab nations and the miners’ strike causing widespread economic pain, then Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath called a general election a year earlier than necessary for February 1974.
On explaining his decision to hold the election in the midst of a winter when power was being rationed, Heath said that he sought a mandate from the British people to rein in the power of trade unions. His question to the public was “Who governs Britain?” Ultimately, the British people decided it wasn’t Heath, and Labour’s Harold Wilson returned as prime minister.
1983
Following the Falklands War in 1982 in which British forces sailed thousands of miles to the South Atlantic to expel invading Argentine troops, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was riding high and was widely expected to win the general election she called for June 1983.
Her victory in the election became more or less assured after Labour, which had been riven with divisions over the previous few years, published an election manifesto that one moderate member of the party described as “the longest suicide note in history.” The manifesto advocated an array of radical left-wing policies to be funded by higher taxes. It also called for unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from what was then the European Economic Community — a policy that the Conservatives decades later would embrace.
Thatcher won a landslide and remained in power until 1990 when she was ousted by lawmakers in her own party.
1992
After 1983’s big defeat, the Labour Party sought, under the leadership of Neil Kinnock, to move back to the center ground, where historically elections are won.
By the time the election was called for April 1992 by John Major, who replaced Thatcher, Labour was contending again. With a week or so to go before the elections, opinion polls were moving in favor of Labour, if not quite winning then becoming the biggest party.
A rally was held in Sheffield, a city in the north of England, and optimism was high. It was an event unlike anything seen before in the UK — more like an event seen in US presidential elections.
Kinnock was clearly caught up with the buoyant mood and started shouting a phrase that sounded like “We’re alright!” or “Well alright” several times.
Whatever he actually said, his perceived overconfidence was widely perceived to be one of the reasons why Labour fell way short and the Conservatives won a fourth straight election.
2001
With hindsight, this was one of the most boring postwar elections, with Tony Blair’s Labour Party widely expected to be re-elected by a big margin, akin to the one it achieved four years earlier.
The election took place a month later than Blair had planned in June 2001 as a result of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Nothing else surprising happened, until Blair’s deputy John Prescott punched a man with a mullet hairdo after he had thrown an egg at him on the campaign trail.
The incident threatened to derail Labour’s campaign, but Blair managed to defuse its impact at the following morning’s press conference. “John is John,” he said, to widespread laughter among the journalists present.
2010
Blair’s successor Gordon Brown didn’t have his predecessor’s natural communications skills and that was particularly evident in the election campaign of 2010. Brown’s ratings — and Labour’s — had collapsed in the wake of the global financial crisis and the party, in power since 1997, faced losing to the Conservatives.
With barely a week to go to the May election, 65-year-old Gillian Duffy quizzed Brown while he was canvassing over the state of the economy and the party’s immigration policies.
Following her interrogation and still wired up to Sky News when he got into his car, Brown told his advisers that the meeting was a “disaster” and that she was “just a bigoted woman.”
The gaffe dominated the rest of the campaign and there was no way back for Labour, though the Conservatives failed to win an outright majority and David Cameron had to enter into a coalition arrangement with the smaller Liberal Democrats.
2017
Theresa May, who succeeded Cameron after he resigned following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016, sought to capitalize on the Conservative Party’s big opinion poll lead and called an early general election for June 2017.
Her hope was that a big majority would help her face down critics — both within her ranks and the opposition — in the upcoming Brexit discussions with the EU.
However, her proposal to change the way retirees pay for long-term care was criticized across the political spectrum and was quickly dubbed the “dementia tax.” May was forced to make an embarrassing partial reversal.
Rather than increase the modest majority that Cameron had secured in the 2015 general election, she lost it. Her premiership never recovered and she was replaced by Boris Johnson two years later.
Rishi Sunak’s D-Day departure is just the latest in a long line of gaffes in UK election campaigns
https://arab.news/b6jtf
Rishi Sunak’s D-Day departure is just the latest in a long line of gaffes in UK election campaigns
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- Sunak apologized for not attending Thursday’s final commemoration on Omaha Beach in Normandy
- His critics said the decision showed disrespect to the veterans and diminished the UK’s international standing
Pope to bring in a ton of humanitarian aid to remote Papua New Guinea as he celebrates periphery
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- n estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass
- On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families
- He urged the church leaders to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition”
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea: Pope Francis honored the Catholic Church of the peripheries on Sunday as he celebrated Mass in Papua New Guinea before heading to a remote part of the South Pacific nation with a ton of humanitarian aid to deliver to the missionaries and faithful who live there.
An estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass. It began with dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performing to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar.
In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may well feel themselves distant from both their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them.
“You who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”
Francis was himself traveling to a distant land on Sunday, flying into remote Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s northwest coast, to meet with the small Catholic community there served by missionaries from his native Argentina.
Francis was being transported by an Australian military aircraft and was bringing with him one ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothes and toys for children, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Eight suitcases of medicine and other necessities had been prepared by one of the Argentine missionaries, the Rev. Alejandro Diaz, during a recent trip to Rome and left with the Vatican to bring in on the cargo plane, the ANSA news agency reported.
Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority.
Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, the coastal city is perhaps best known as a surfing destination.
Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan, but was prevented from going because of his poor health.
Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed to bring the faith to far-away places.
There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animizm and sorcery.
On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In remarks to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis urged the church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”
“I think too of the marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives,” Francis said. He urged the church to be particularly close to such people on the peripheries, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.
Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
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- The incident comes just days after a mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia high school that saw 4 killed and nine others wounded
LONDON, Kentucky: Multiple people were shot Saturday along Interstate 75 in a rural area south of Lexington, authorities said.
The incident began just before 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) about nine miles outside of London, when officers were called for reports of multiple vehicles being fired at on Interstate 75 in Laurel County, multiple media accounts said. The shots were reportedly coming from a wooded area or an overpass.
How many were shot and the nature of the injuries was not immediately clear. Police officials said the suspect had not been caught.
“Please avoid I-75 around Ext 49. Until further notice! Use alternative route do not be any where in that area,” London Mayor Randall Weddle said on Facebook.
Kentucky state Trooper Scottie Pennington wrote on Facebook, “The suspect has not been caught at this time and we are urging people to stay inside.”
The Laurel County Sheriff’s office said in a post on Facebook that it was an “active shooter situation” and “numerous persons” were shot near the highway. It added that the interstate was closed 9 miles north of London.
A “heavy presence of police and fire personnel” was on the scene and “working diligently to address the situation,” the Mount Vernon Fire Department said in a statement. It advised motorists to avoid I-75 and US 25.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear wrote on X: “Kentucky, we are aware of a shooting on I-75 in Laurel County. Please avoid the area. We will provide more details once they are available.”
He also asked that residents, “Please pray for everyone involved.”
Agents, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been called in to assist the Kentucky State Police and local law enforcement, the agency posted on X, calling it a “critical incident.”
London is a small city of about 8,000 residents near the Daniel Boone National Forest, about 90 miles south of Lexington.
This shooting comes just days after a mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia high school that saw two teachers and two students killed and nine others wounded.
Trump, talking tariffs, immigration, revs up small-town base in Wisconsin
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- He repeatedly presented migrants as a grave danger, warning without evidence that immigrants in the country illegally could evict local residents from their homes
- Trump also warned, as he has in previous rallies, that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last
MOSINEE, Wisconsin: Donald Trump pledged in Wisconsin on Saturday to throw up unprecedented tariffs and clamp down on immigrants he said are stealing jobs and killing Americans, as he sought to solidify support among working-class and rural whites, a key part of his base.
Speaking at a regional airport in Mosinee, a town of about 4,500 people, the Republican presidential candidate warned that even allies like the European Union would face new trade restrictions if he wins the Nov. 5 election against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
He repeatedly presented migrants as a grave danger to Wisconsin, warning without evidence that immigrants in the country illegally could evict local residents from their homes.
“Crime is through the roof, and you haven’t seen the migrant crime yet,” Trump said. “It started, and it’s vicious, but you haven’t seen the extent of it yet.”
Trump also warned, as he has in previous rallies, that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last.
Support for the former president has eroded among most demographic groups over the summer when his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, replaced President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
Nationally, Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters by 13 percentage points, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted in August; Biden led that demographic by just five points in May. Among Black Americans, she has been outperforming Biden by seven points.
But she has barely moved the needle among white voters, those same polls show. Whites without a college degree, long the linchpin of Trump’s coalition, still favor him by 25 points, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. They favored Trump by 29 points when he was running against Biden.
Several Trump advisers and allies have told Reuters in recent weeks that maintaining his margins and driving turnout among working-class whites will be crucial if he is to defeat Harris.
That is especially true in northern “Rust Belt” states including Wisconsin, which skew white and have large rural populations. Trump won the presidency in 2016 in part by winning these areas by promising to bring back industrial jobs to the region.
“We’re not going to watch our wealth and our jobs get ripped away from us and sent to foreign countries, and Wisconsin will be one of the biggest beneficiaries,” Trump said of his proposed trade policies.
Mosinee, where Trump spoke Saturday, is near Wausau, a small city of about 40,000, but hours from the state’s major population centers, Milwaukee and Madison.
Marathon County, where Mosinee is located, used to be politically competitive, having voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008. Since then, the county has veered right, favoring Trump in 2016 and 2020 by about 18 points both times.
While the Trump campaign has identified Hispanics and Black men as areas of growth for the Republican Party, much of Trump’s campaigning in recent weeks has been in small Rust Belt cities and towns that have few of either demographic.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio US Senator JD Vance, is expected to hit relatively rural areas of the Rust Belt hard in the final weeks before the election, two Trump advisers told Reuters.
Debate on the horizon
The Saturday rally was one of the last public appearances Trump will make before his debate with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Many of his allies are pushing him to concentrate his attacks on policy and steer clear of deeply personal broadsides.
Trump did not concentrate on Harris’ racial identity during his speech, which was laden with grievances, yet a recording the campaign played during the rally sounded like an imitation of Harris’ laugh, which Trump has frequently derided.
Trump told the crowd he would purge the federal government, including public health and intelligence agencies, of corrupt actors.
He repeatedly attacked Fani Willis, the district attorney in Georgia who is prosecuting Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 defeat in that state to Biden.
Trump also said he would support modifying the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to make a vice president covering up a president’s mental incapacity an impeachable offense. And he attacked the political leadership of Colorado and Maine.
Both states were the site of challenges to his ballot eligibility in the 2024 election. Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled last year that Trump should not be on the ballot because of his alleged role in fomenting insurrection by trying to overturn his 2020 defeat, a decision the US Supreme Court
overturned.
Trump told supporters without evidence that Colorado authorities had ceded control of parts of the state to Venezuelan gangs.
“In Colorado, they’re so crazy they’re taking over sections of the state,” Trump said. “And you know, getting them back will be a bloody story.”
Blinken to head to UK for talks on Ukraine, Mideast
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- Britain and the US have cooperated in lockstep on most global issues, but PM Starmer has taken a harder line on Israel since taking office
- Starmer has also dropped his predecessor’s plans to challenge the ICC's moves to seek the arrest of Israeli PM Netanyahu over war crimes raps
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to London next week to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine, the State Department announced Saturday, ahead of a US visit by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Blinken’s visit to London on Monday and Tuesday will be the senior-most by a US official since Starmer’s Labour Party won July elections, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.
Blinken will take part in a strategic dialogue “reaffirming our special relationship,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
He will discuss Asia as well as the Middle East and “our collective efforts to support Ukraine,” Miller said in a statement.
The White House earlier announced that Starmer will visit next Friday, his second trip to Washington since his election.
He met President Joe Biden at the White House on July 10, days after taking office, as Starmer attended a NATO summit in Washington.
Britain and the United States have cooperated in lockstep on most global issues, and Biden’s Democrats historically have been seen as closer to the Labour Party than the Conservatives.
Starmer, however, has taken a harder line on Israel since taking office, with his government announcing a suspension of some arms shipments, citing the risk that they could be used to violate humanitarian law.
The Labour government has also dropped its Conservative predecessor’s plans to challenge the right of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court and has opposed the bid to target Netanyahu, arguing that Israel has its own systems for accountability.
But the United States, Israel’s primary weapons supplier, did not criticize the arms decision, saying that Britain had its own process to make assessments.
Iran’s secret service accused of plots to kill Jews in Europe
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- The group intended to attack a Paris-based former employee at an Israeli security firm and three of his colleagues residing in the Paris suburbs
PARIS: A Paris court in May detained and charged a couple on accusations that they were involved in Iranian plots to kill Jews in Germany and France, police sources told AFP.
Authorities charged Abdelkrim S., 34, and his partner Sabrina B., 33, on May 4 with conspiring with a criminal terrorist organization and placed them in pre-trial detention.
The case, known as “Marco Polo” and revealed Thursday by French news website Mediapart, signals a revival in Iranian state-sponsored terrorism in Europe, according to a report by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) consulted by AFP.
“Since 2015, the Iranian (secret) services have resumed a targeted killing policy,” the French security agency wrote, adding that “the threat has worsened again in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.”
The alleged objective for Iranian intelligence was to target civilians and sow fear in Europe among the country’s political opposition as well as among Jews and Israelis.
Iran is accused of recruiting criminals, including drug lords, to conduct such operations.
Abdelkrim S. was previously sentenced to 10 years behind bars over a killing in Marseille and released on probation in July 2023.
He is accused of being the main France-based operative for an Iran-sponsored terrorist cell that planned acts of violence in France and Germany.
A former fellow inmate is believed to have connected the suspect with the cell’s coordinator, a major drug trafficker from the Lyon area who likely visited Iran in May, according to the DGSI.
The group intended to attack a Paris-based former employee at an Israeli security firm and three of his colleagues residing in the Paris suburbs.
Three Israeli-German citizens in Munich and Berlin were also among the targets.
Investigators believe that Abdelkrim S. despite his probation made multiple trips to Germany for scouting purposes, including travels to Berlin with his wife.
He denied the accusations and said he simply had purchases to make.
French authorities are also crediting the cell with plots to set fire to four Israeli-owned companies in the south of France between late December 2023 and early January 2024, said a police source.
Abdelkrim S. while in detention rejected the claims, the source added, saying he had acted as a go-between on Telegram for the mastermind and other individuals involved in a planned insurance scam.