MILWAUKEE: Jubilant GOP delegates cheered as they formally nominated Donald Trump during Monday’s Republican National Convention kickoff, less than two days after an assassination attempt on the former president and shortly after he announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate.
Their vote makes it official that Trump, who has long been the presumptive nominee, will lead the GOP in a third consecutive election. The winner in 2016, he lost to current President Joe Biden in 2020. In November, he will again face Biden, who dismissed Vance as “a clone” of Trump on important issues.
Trump’s son Eric announced Florida’s votes, which put the former president over the top for the nomination. Video screens in the arena read “OVER THE TOP” while the song “Celebration” played and delegates danced and waved Trump signs. Thoughout the voting, delegates flanked by “Make America Great Again” signs applauded as state after state voted their support for Trump’s second term.
Saturday’s shooting at a Pennsylvania rally, where Trump was injured and one man died, was not far from delegates’ minds as they celebrated — a stark contrast to the anger and anxiety that had marked the previous few days. Some delegates chanted “fight, fight, fight” — the same words that Trump was seen shouting to the crowd as the Secret Service ushered him off the stage, his fist raised and face bloodied.
“We should all be thankful right now that we are able to cast our votes for President Donald J. Trump after what took place on Saturday,” said New Jersey state Sen. Michael Testa as he announced all of his state’s 12 delegates for Trump.
Wyoming delegate Sheryl Foland was among those who adopted the “fight” chant after seeing Trump survive Saturday in what she called “monumental photos and video.”
“We knew then we were going to adopt that as our chant,” added Foland, a child trauma mental health counselor. “Not just because we wanted him to fight, and that God was fighting for him. We thought, isn’t it our job to accept that challenge and fight for our country?”
“It’s bigger than Trump,” Foland said. “It’s a mantra for our country.”
Trump’s campaign chiefs had designed the convention to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.
With the shooting, however, the Democrats’ turmoil after the debate, the GOP’s potential governing agenda and even Trump’s criminal convictions became secondary to concerns about political violence and the country’s stability. Trump and his allies will make their case during their four-day convention in Milwaukee unquestionably united and motivated in the wake of the attack.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran in the GOP presidential primary, has distinguished himself as one of the more aggressive voices on the right, saying often that the country is already at war with itself. So it was notable that in remarks at an event run by the conservative Heritage Institute at the RNC on Monday he was toning down his rhetoric and urging the country to come together.
“The enemy is not the Democrats, it is an ideology,” Ramaswamy told the crowd at Heritage’s “Policy Fest” event.
Some well-timed good news was also affecting the mood on the convention floor Monday: The federal judge presiding over Trump’s classified documents case dismissed the prosecution because of concerns over the appointment of the prosecutor who brought the case, handing the former president a major court victory.
Excitement from Trump allies as they react to his running mate pick
Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate Monday afternoon, just before he clinched the Republican nomination. The former president’s family and biggest allies quickly lauded the decision as a good one for the direction of the Republican Party.
Moments after the decision was public, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. told CNN in an interview that Vance was an “incredible guy with an amazing story” who will help “unify this country.”
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who had been considered as a potential vice presidential pick, said in a post on X that Vance’s “small town roots and service to country make him a powerful voice for the America First Agenda.”
Attempted assassination has not changed the convention program
In an interview Sunday, Republican Party chairman Michael Whatley said the convention’s programming wouldn’t be changed after the shooting. The agenda, he said, will feature more than 100 speakers focused on kitchen table issues and Trump’s plans to lift everyday working Americans.
“We have to be able to lay out a vision for where we want to take this country,” he said.
Whatley said the central message would have little to do with Biden’s political struggles, Trump’s grievances about the 2020 election or the ex-president’s promises to exact retribution against political enemies.
“We are going to have the convention that we have been planning for the last 18 months,” he said. “We are a combination of relieved and grateful that the president is going to be here and is going to accept the nomination.”
In addition to formally naming Trump the nominee, delegates from across the nation will turn to updating the GOP’s policy platform for the first time since 2016. The scaled-down platform proposal — just 16 pages with limited specifics on key issues, including abortion — reflects a desire by the Trump campaign to avoid giving Democrats more material on campaign issues.
The platform approved by a committee last week doesn’t include an explicit call for a national abortion ban, two years after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a federally guaranteed right to abortion.
“More divisiveness would not be healthy,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
People connected to Jan. 6 are involved
There will be reminders of Trump’s record in a speaking program that includes a handful of Republicans charged with crimes related to other political violence — the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who’s in jail on contempt of Congress charges, is expected to speak at the convention just hours after his release. He was found guilty in September after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Capitol attack.
Trump has repeatedly cast the people involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his many supporters who stormed the Capitol, as political prisoners.
For now, Democrats have scaled back their plans to offer a competing message during the Republican convention, and has pulled down campaign ads in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump.
Protesters march
Hundreds of demonstrators converged on downtown Milwaukee to protest around the RNC, saying the assassination attempt won’t affect their long-standing plans to demonstrate outside the site.
The activists called attention to issues such as abortion rights, economic justice and the war in Gaza. As they marched, the atmosphere was festive, with music playing over loud speakers, a man strumming a guitar and vendors selling T-shirts and buttons supporting both Republicans and Democrats.
Activists carried signs that read, “Stand with Palestine,” “We Can No Longer Afford the Rich,” and “Defend and Expand Immigrant Rights.”
The protesters’ movements were restricted as part of enhanced security precautions established by the Secret Service.
Security officials previously announced that people just outside the Secret Service perimeter would be allowed to carry guns openly or concealed as permitted by state law. Wisconsin statutes outlaw only machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.
Trump announces Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as running mate
https://arab.news/z25ru
Trump announces Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as running mate
- J.D. Vance is a one-time harsh critic who became one of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress
- One of the least experienced VP picks in modern history, the one-term senator is further to the right than the ex-president on many issues
Hope fading as search for Sicily yacht missing enters third day
- The British-flagged ‘Bayesian’ was anchored with 10 crew and 12 passengers on board when it was struck by a waterspout before dawn on Monday
PORTICELLO, Italy: Searches resumed for a third day Wednesday on the wreck of a luxury yacht that sank off Sicily, with hope fading that the six missing passengers would be found alive.
The search operation, which involves specialist divers aided by an underwater drone, continued until late on Tuesday and resumed at first light on Wednesday morning, firefighters said.
The 56-meter (185 feet) British-flagged “Bayesian” was anchored with 10 crew and 12 passengers on board when it was struck by a waterspout — akin to a mini-tornado — before dawn on Monday.
One body was found in the hours after the sinking, believed to be the yacht’s chef, and 15 people were rescued.
But UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah, his lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda, and Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife Judy remain missing.
Firefighters said on Tuesday evening that divers had entered the inside of the wreck, but that it was a “long and complex” operation.
The yacht is largely intact, resting on the seabed some 50 meters down.
Despite eyewitness testimonies that the 75-meter mast had snapped, reports on Wednesday suggested that it too, survived the incident.
A coast guard official, Captain Vincenzo Zagarola, had told Italian radio on Tuesday morning that it was “difficult to imagine” that the search would end well.
But experts noted that superyachts such as “Bayesian” were designed with watertight subdivisions.
“There are records of survivors found in such air pockets,” noted Dr. Jean-Baptiste Souppez, a UK engineering expert and fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, in a commentary provided by the Science Media Center.
He noted the case of Nigerian sailor Harrison Okene, who was rescued in 2013 after spending nearly three days trapped in an air pocket after his ship capsized in rough seas off the Nigerian coast.
But he added: “Whether air pockets formed on the Bayesian is simply impossible to predict.”
The passengers were guests of Lynch — an entrepreneur sometimes referred to as Britain’s Bill Gates — to celebrate his acquittal in a massive US fraud case.
The 59-year-old was acquitted on all charges in a San Francisco court in June after he was accused of an $11 billion fraud linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
Taliban bars UN human rights special rapporteur from Afghanistan
- Report said the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls could amount to a crime against humanity
- Three years into their rule after foreign forces withdrew, the Taliban have not been formally recognized by any foreign government
KABUL: The Taliban have barred United Nations-appointed special rapporteur Richard Bennett from entering Afghanistan, the administration’s spokesperson told local broadcaster Tolo, accusing the human rights watchdog of “spreading propaganda.”
Bennett was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2022 to monitor Afghanistan’s human rights situation after the Taliban took over the previous year.
Bennett, who has previously said the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls could amount to a crime against humanity, is based outside Afghanistan but has visited several times to research the situation.
The UN Human Rights Council did not immediately respond to request for comment. Bennett could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Taliban administration’s foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi told Reuters Bennett “had been unable to acquire a travel visa to Afghanistan.”
“Even after repeatedly requesting Mr. Bennett to adhere to professionalism during work ... it was decided that ... his reports are based on prejudices and anecdotes detrimental to interests of Afghanistan and the Afghan people,” Balkhi said.
Taliban administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has previously said the Taliban respect women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law and local customs. He told Tolo that Bennett would not be allowed to come to Afghanistan, a rare public barring of an individual foreign official.
“Mr. Bennett’s travel to Afghanistan has been prohibited because he was assigned to spread propaganda in Afghanistan... He used to exaggerate minor issues and propagate them,” Mujahid said, according to Tolo.
Three years into their rule after foreign forces withdrew, the Taliban have not been formally recognized by any foreign government.
Foreign officials, including Washington, have said the path toward recognition is stuck until the Taliban changes course on women’s rights, having barred most girls over the age of 12 from schools and universities, banning women from parks, and stopping most long-distance travel by women without a male guardian.
Afghanistan’s central bank assets have been frozen and many senior Taliban officials are subject to UN travel restrictions that require them to seek exemptions to enter other countries.
The UN has been trying to find a unified international approach to dealing with the Taliban. In June, top UN officials and envoys from up to 25 countries met the Taliban in Qatar, receiving criticism from human rights groups for not including Afghan women and civil society representatives at the meeting.
The UN mission to Afghanistan also operates from Kabul and monitors and reports on human rights issues.
Thailand says mpox case recorded in traveler from Africa
- Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox
- Thailand has detected 800 cases of mpox Clade 2 since 2022, but so far not detected a case of the Clade 1 or Clade 1b variants
BANGKOK: Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday.
Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand had arrived on Aug. 14 from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said.
“After he arrives from the flight there is very little time frame where he come into contact with others,” Thongchai said. “He arrives around 6 p.m. and on the next day, Aug 15, he went to see the doctor at the hospital.”
Thongchai said the man has undergone a test to determine whether the case was a Clade 1 variant, with the result expected by Friday. Authorities are also monitoring 43 people in the country who may come into contact with the patient, he said.
The director-general did not name the African country the man had been in. He said the man had transited in a Middle Eastern country, which he also did not name, before flying on to Thailand.
Thailand has detected 800 cases of mpox Clade 2 since 2022, but so far not detected a case of the Clade 1 or Clade 1b variants.
Pro-Palestine DNC delegates welcome Biden’s exit but side-eye Harris
CHICAGO: Though there are only a handful of them among thousands of delegates, the “Uncommitted Movement” delegates at the Democratic National Convention are among the most vocal.
The delegates plan to voice their discontent with the war in Gaza at the party’s convention this week in Chicago, during which Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination in the close race for the White House.
The 30 “Uncommitted Movement” delegates hail from eight different US states and claim to represent some 700,000 voters.
Though they welcomed the news of President Joe Biden dropping out of the race on July 21, they have met Harris’s subsequent ascension with caution and skepticism.
“The party needed change,” Minnesota delegate Asma Mohammed told AFP. “I don’t feel sad about someone who has unapologetically supported a genocidal regime in Israel.”
Mohammed came to Chicago hoping to see a renewed perspective within her party, but she said she is disappointed that the convention has no pro-Palestinian voices on the speaker list.
“I know she’s (Harris) more empathetic than Joe Biden, I’ve seen that,” Mohammed said. “But those words are not enough. That needs to be followed by policy.”
The Uncommitted Movement advocated for adding Tanya Hajj-Hassan to the speaker list, wanting the thousands of attendees to hear from a doctor who has treated victims of the conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas in Gaza.
However, all that has been permitted at the event so far is a panel at the nearby McCormick Center, outside the main venue. During the panel, the pediatrician described the horrors of war, bringing the audience to tears.
Among the speakers slated for the DNC are some relatives of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 when it sparked the conflict by attacking Israel, which also left 1,199 dead, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
“Why does it have to be one or the other?” asked Mohammed, who emphasized that more than 40,000 people have died in Gaza from Israel’s retaliation, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
For her, there is room to listen to both sides.
Jacob Schonberger, a 17-year-old delegate representing the state of Connecticut, is not part of the “Uncommitted Movement” but shares the sentiment. He arrived at the convention wearing buttons with slogans in support of Israel.
“I think it should be leadership’s decision... I have my personal beliefs, but I think that it’s important to have both sides,” he said.
In addition to the “Uncommitted Movement,” protests fomented outside the United Center, the venue for the convention, where hundreds of people chanted “Free Palestine!“
Inside the arena, some delegates covered their mouths as Biden gave his speech Monday night, a gesture made in protest of his response to the war in Gaza.
“We wanted to send the message that we don’t agree with what Biden has been doing,” said Sabrene Odeh, a delegate from Washington state.
While the DNC is underway, Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is on a tour of the Middle East in a new attempt to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas.
Biden acknowledged the discontent with the death toll in Gaza during his speech Monday night.
That did not excite Yaz Kader, another Washington delegate.
“The fact is, he has been a president that has supported a genocide that Israel is committing,” he said.
Philippines says new mpox case ‘not’ deadly variant
- The highly transmissible Clade 1b strain of the virus has killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Nine mpox cases were reported by Philippine authorities in 2022 and 2023, with the previous most recent one last December
MANILA: The first mpox case reported by the Philippines this year is a mild variant and not the deadly strain sparking global alarm, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said Wednesday.
The highly transmissible Clade 1b strain of the virus has killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has also been detected Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden.
“It’s the old variant,” Herbosa said of the virus that struck a 33-year-old Filipino male, referring to the mild Clade 2 variant.
“It’s not as alarming as the Clade 1b,” Herbosa said.
He said the patient had not traveled outside the country and was “still confined” in the hospital.
“For us doctors, that means the virus is circulating in the community,” Herbosa said.
Nine mpox cases were reported by Philippine authorities in 2022 and 2023, with the previous most recent one last December.
President Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday ordered health officials to continuously monitor areas and people vulnerable to the virus.
