WASHINGTON: Donald Trump told a group of evangelicals they “cannot afford to sit on the sidelines” of the 2024 election, imploring them at one point to “go and vote, Christians, please!“
Trump also endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in schools and elsewhere while speaking to a group of politically influential evangelical Christians in Washington on Saturday. He drew cheers as he invoked a new law signed in Louisiana this week requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.
“Has anyone read the ‘Thou shalt not steal’? I mean, has anybody read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible,” Trump said at the gathering of the Faith & Freedom Coalition. “They don’t want it to go up. It’s a crazy world.’’
Trump a day earlier posted an endorsement of the new law on his social media network, saying: “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???”
The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee backed the move as he seeks to galvanize his supporters on the religious right, which has fiercely backed him after initially being suspicious of the twice-divorced New York City tabloid celebrity when he first ran for president in 2016.
That support has continued despite his conviction in the first of four criminal cases he faces, in which a jury last month found him guilty of falsifying business records for what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies.
Trump’s stated opposition to signing a nationwide ban on abortion and his reluctance to detail some of his views on the issue are at odds with many members of the evangelical movement, a key part of Trump’s base that’s expected to help him turn out voters in his November rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
But while many members of the movement would like to see him do more to restrict abortion, they cheer him as the greatest champion for the cause because of his role in appointing US Supreme Court justices who overturned national abortion rights in 2022.
Trump highlighted that Saturday, saying, “We did something that was amazing,” but the issue would be left to people to decide in the states.
“Every voter has to go with your heart and do what’s right, but we also have to get elected,” he said.
While he still takes credit for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Trump has also warned abortion can be tricky politically for Republicans. For months, he deferred questions about his position on a national ban.
Last year, when Trump addressed the Faith & Freedom Coalition, he said there was “a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life” but didn’t offer any details beyond that.
In April of this year, Trump said he believed the issue should now be left to the states. He later stated in an interview that he would not sign a nationwide ban on abortion if it was passed by Congress. He has still declined to detail his position on women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
About two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal, according to polling last year by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Attendees at the evangelical gathering on Saturday said that while they’d like to see a national abortion ban, Trump isn’t losing any of their deep support.
“I would prefer if he would sign a national ban,” said Jerri Dickinson, a 78-year-old retired social worker and Faith & Freedom member from New Jersey. “I understand though, that as in accordance with the Constitution, that decision should be left up to the states.”
Dickinson said she can’t stand the abortion law in her state, which does not set limits on the procedure based on gestational age. But she said outside of preferring a national ban, leaving the issue to the state “is the best alternative.”
According to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters supported Trump in 2020, and nearly 4 in 10 Trump voters identified as white evangelical Christians. White evangelical Christians made up about 20 percent of the overall electorate that year.
Beyond just offering their own support in the general election, the Faith & Freedom Coalition plans to help get out the vote for Trump and other Republicans, aiming to use volunteers and paid workers to knock on millions of doors in battleground states.
Trump also rallied voters in Philadelphia on Saturday with a speech heavily focused on violent crime, telling supporters at an arena that he would grant police officers immunity from prosecution.
“Under Crooked Joe, the City of Brotherly Love is being ravaged by bloodshed and crime,” he said. “We will surge federal law enforcement resources to the places that need them most.”
Statistics from the Philadelphia city controller say there were 410 homicides in 2023, a 20 percent drop compared to 2022.
Tyler Cecconi, 25, of Richmond, Virginia, said he was glad that Trump is stepping out of his comfort zone and going to places that may not be red. At the venue, a digital banner read “Philadelphia is Trump Country.”
“He’s showing the people that regardless if you vote for him or not, or if it’s a blue county or a red county, it doesn’t matter to him,” Cecconi said. “A president is for everybody in this country.”
The GOP Senate candidate of Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, attended the rally and appeared on stage to talk to voters about the economy and immigration.
“This economy is not working for most Pennsylvanians, and it’s not working for most Americans,” McCormick said.
At both events, Trump returned several times to the subject of the US-Mexico border and when describing migrants crossing it as “tough,” he said that he told his friend Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to enlist them in a new version of the sport.
“’Why don’t you set up a migrant league and have your regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league, these are the greatest fighters in the world, fighting the champion of the migrants,’” Trump described saying to White. “I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are. He didn’t like that idea too much.”
Biden’s campaign responded to Trump’s remarks by saying it was “fitting” that Trump, convicted of a felony, spent time at a religious conference making threats about immigration and “bragging about ripping away Americans’ freedoms.”
“Trump’s incoherent, unhinged tirade showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let anywhere near the White House again,” campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
Trump endorses Ten Commandments in schools, implores evangelical Christians to vote in November
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Trump endorses Ten Commandments in schools, implores evangelical Christians to vote in November
- “Has anyone read the ‘Thou shalt not steal’? ... It’s just incredible,” said Trump, who was convicted of a felony last month
- According to AP VoteCast, about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters supported Trump in 2020
Russia says it destroys five Ukraine’s SU-27 jet fighters at Myrhorod airfield
- Russia is targeting Ukrainian airfields just as Kyiv prepares to receive the first US-designed F-16s which Moscow has vowed to destroy
MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that it had destroyed five Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jets and damaged two more at the Myrhorod airfield in Ukraine’s Poltava region with Iskander-M missiles.
The ministry published footage of the attack which showed smoke and flames rising from an airfield.
“As a result of the Russian strike, five active SU-27 multi-purpose fighters were destroyed and two were damaged,” the ministry said.
Russia is targeting Ukrainian airfields just as Kyiv prepares to receive the first US-designed F-16s which Moscow has vowed to destroy.
China coast guard says Philippine ships’ presence at Sabina Shoal violated China’s sovereignty
- China Coast Guard says it followed and monitored the Philippine supply mission to Sabina Shoal
BEIJING: The China Coast Guard said the Philippines on Monday dispatched three vessels to resupply a Philippine coast guard vessel (9701) “illegally” stranded on a reef in the South China Sea that Beijing claimed as part of its territory.
In a statement on Tuesday, the China Coast Guard said it had followed and monitored the supply mission to Sabina Shoal, and that the vessels’ presence at the reef had “violated” China’s territory sovereignty and “undermined” peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Ukraine’s defense minister to hold talks with Austin, Pentagon says
- The US is the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine in war against Russia
- President Joe Biden’s administration has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion in military aid since 2022
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will hold talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Washington on Tuesday on firming up military cooperation between the two countries, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“Secretary Austin and Minister Umerov will discuss bilateral defense cooperation, regional security issues and ways to strengthen the defense partnership between the United States and Ukraine,” Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said at a press briefing, according to a transcript on the US Department of Defense website.
The talks come after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea to Kyiv’s allies over the weekend for more weapons after a Russian air strike in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region killed seven people.
The US is the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine in the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbor with a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
President Joe Biden’s administration has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion in military aid since 2022.
Last week, the administration said it would provide Ukraine with $150 million worth of weapons and ammunition, including HAWK air defense interceptors and 155 mm artillery munitions
“The sooner the world helps us deal with the Russian combat aircraft launching these bombs, the sooner we can strike – justifiably strike – at Russian military infrastructure, military airfields, the closer we will be to peace,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address over the weekend.
But after two years of Kyiv’s asking allies for F-16 fighter jets to help it fight Russian forces, the planes are yet to arrive.
Singh declined to answer at the briefing when Ukraine would start receiving the jets, but said that the training of Ukrainian pilots on how to operate the planes is “ongoing.”
North Korea brags of new missile with ‘super-large warhead’
- Pyongyang’s claim quickly disputed by South Korean officials and experts
- Monday’s test involved the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 missile, which can carry a 4.5 tonne-class warhead
SEOUL: North Korea said Tuesday it had test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying “a super-large warhead,” a claim quickly disputed by South Korean officials and experts who speculate the North likely fabricated a successful test to conceal a botched launch.
It’s the second time that South Korea has questioned North Korea’s claim on the development of new weapons in recent days, as the rivals are locked in heightened animosities over the North’s testing activities.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Monday’s test involved the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 missile, which can carry a 4.5 tonne-class warhead. It said the test was meant to verify the weapon’s flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 kilometers and the minimum range of 90 kilometers.
The test apparently refers to the two ballistic missile launches that South Korea said North Korea performed Monday.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said at a briefing later Tuesday that the second North Korean missile was found to have fallen on an uninhabited area near Pyongyang, the North’s capital. He said he could find few previous test-launches by North Korea that have aimed at ground target sites.
“Regarding the North Korean assessment, we’re weighing a possibility of deception,” Lee said.
The South Korean military has said the second North Korean missile possibly traveled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight. It said if the missile exploded, its debris would likely have scattered on the ground.
The KCNA dispatch didn’t say from where it launched the new missile and where it landed. Unlike previous weapons tests, North Korea also didn’t publicize any photos of Monday’s test. The fact that it tested both the missile’s maximum and minimum ranges suggested North Korea performed two launches.
KCNA, citing North Korea’s Missile Administration, reported that North Korea will test-fire the missile again later in July to verify the performances of its simulated warhead at the medium range of 250 kilometers.
Some experts say test-firing missiles at ground targets could be related to efforts to test how powerful warheads are to destroy underground bunkers and structures.
But Shin Jongwoo, a Seoul-based military expert, said the fact that North Korea hasn’t disclosed any photos on the launches means that it’s highly likely the North is trying to deceive the outsiders to cover up Monday’s failed launches. He said North Korea likely launched an existing missile on Monday, not the new missile at it claimed.
Yang Uk, an analyst at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that Monday’s tests reflected North Korea’s push to acquire a variety of conventional weapons. But he also said if North Korea truly succeeded in hitting a ground target, it probably would have already published related images to brag about its achievements as it’s done in the past.
Since 2022, North Korea has sharply accelerated weapons testing activities to enlarge its arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons designed to strike key sites in the mainland United States, South Korea and Japan. The North Korea-claimed ranges of the newly tested missile imply it targets South Korea. Experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use an expanded nuclear arsenal to increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the US.
Monday’s missiles test came a day after North Korea vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new US military drill with South Korea and Japan. Five days before that test, on June 26, North Korea launched what it called a new multiwarhead missile in the first known test of a developmental weapon aimed at penetrating its rivals’ missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.
Firefighters battle wildfires on 2 Greek islands as premier warns of a dangerous summer
- Greece saw 52 wildfires breaking out in the previous 24-hour period, 44 of which were tackled in the early stages
ATHENS: Firefighters battled wildfires that broke out on the eastern Aegean islands of Chios and Kos Monday and injured five people, as Greece’s prime minister warned of a dangerous summer ahead and said the public’s help was essential in limiting the impact of wildfires.
Emergency services issued evacuation orders for those in the Metohi area of western Chios on Monday morning, urging them to head to a nearby beach. By the evening, more than 140 firefighters, along with eight teams of firefighters specializing in wildfires, seven water-dropping planes and three helicopters were fighting the blaze.
Fire department spokesman Vasilis Vathrakoyiannis said two firefighters had been lightly injured, while dozens more firefighters were heading to the island by boat from the nearby island of Lesbos and from Athens. State-run ERT television later reported that another two firefighters and a volunteer had suffered non life-threatening burns.
“The situation remains difficult in Chios, and all Civil Protection forces will make great efforts to limit it,” Vathrakoyiannis said during an evening briefing.
Another fire broke out further to the south in the Aegean, on the resort island of Kos, and by late Monday had forced the evacuation of several people, including tourists from hotels, as a precaution. That blaze was being tackled by more than 100 firefighters, including reinforcements sent from Athens, as well as six water-dropping planes and two helicopters, Vathrakoyiannis added.
In total, Greece saw 52 wildfires breaking out in the previous 24-hour period, 44 of which were tackled in the early stages, Vathrakoyiannis said. Authorities were still battling a total of eight fires by Monday evening.
The blazes come a day after the fire department managed to tame two large forest fires near Athens that had been fanned by strong winds.
“We have had an exceptionally difficult June regarding weather conditions, with high levels of drought and unusually strong winds for this season,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday during a Cabinet meeting. This year’s summer, he said, “is predicted to be particularly dangerous” for wildfires.
Mitsotakis said the use of drones as part of an early warning system for wildfires had been particularly useful this year and credited better coordination between authorities and volunteer firefighters for limiting the extent of fire damage so far.
“We are entering the tough core of the anti-fire period, and this will certainly not be won without the help of the public as well, particularly in the field of prevention,” Mitsotakis said.
Hot, dry weather combined with strong winds helped fan fires in both Greece and Turkiye last month. This year’s summer is expected to be particularly prone to blazes following a particularly mild, dry winter. Last year, extensive wildfires in Greece killed more than 20 people.
