DEARBORN, Michigan: Osama Siblani’s phone won’t stop ringing.
Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew his bid for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, top officials from both major political parties have been asking the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News if Harris can regain the support of the nation’s largest Muslim population located in metro Detroit.
His response: “We are in listening mode.”
Harris, who is moving to seize the Democratic nomination after Biden stepped down, appears to be pivoting quickly to the task of convincing Arab American voters in Michigan, a state Democrats believe she can’t afford to lose in November, that she is a leader they can unite behind.
Community leaders have expressed a willingness to listen, and some have had initial conversations with Harris’ team. Many had grown exacerbated with Biden after they felt months of outreach had not yielded many results.
“The door is cracked open since Biden has stepped down,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. “There’s an opportunity for the Democratic nominee to coalesce the coalition that ushered in Biden’s presidency four years ago. But that responsibility will now fall on the vice president.”
Arab American leaders such as Hammoud and Siblani are watching closely for signals that Harris will be more vocal in pressing for a ceasefire. They’re excited by her candidacy but want to be sure she will be an advocate for peace and not an unequivocal supporter of Israel.
But Harris will need to walk a fine line not to publicly break with Biden’s position on the war in Gaza, where officials in his administration have been working diligently toward a ceasefire, mostly behind the scenes.
The divide within Harris’ own party was evident in Washington last week during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to address Congress. Some Democrats supported the visit, while others protested and refused to attend. Outside the Capitol, pro-Palestinian protesters were met with pepper spray and arrests.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held up a sign that read “war criminal” during Netanyahu’s remarks.
Harris did not attend.
Some Arab American leaders interpret her absence — she instead attended a campaign event in Indianapolis — as a sign of good faith with them, though they recognize her ongoing responsibilities as vice president, including a meeting Thursday with Netanyahu.
Her first test within the community will come when Harris chooses a running mate. One of the names on her short list, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, has been public in his criticism of pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab American leaders in Michigan say putting him on the ticket would ramp up their unease about the level of support they could expect from a Harris administration.
“Josh Shapiro was one of the first ones to criticize the students on campus. So it doesn’t differentiate Harris very much if she picks him. That just says I’m going to continue the same policies as Biden,” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities.
Arab Americans are betting that their vote holds enough electoral significance in pivotal swing states like Michigan to ensure that officials will listen to them. Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation, and the state’s majority-Muslim cities overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. He won Dearborn, for example, by a roughly 3-to-1 margin over former President Donald Trump.
In February, over 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters chose “uncommitted,” securing two delegates to protest the Biden administration’s unequivocal support for Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Nationally, “uncommitted” garnered a total of 36 delegates in the primaries earlier this year.
The groups leading this effort have called for — at a minimum — an embargo on all weapons shipments to Israel and a permanent ceasefire.
“If Harris called for an arms embargo, I would work around the clock every day until the election to get her elected,” said Abbas Alawieh, an “uncommitted” Michigan delegate and national leader of the movement. “There’s a real opportunity right now to unite the coalition. It’s on her to deliver, but we are cautiously optimistic.”
Those divisions were on full display Wednesday night when the Michigan Democratic Party brought together over 100 delegates to pitch them on uniting behind Harris. During the meeting, Alawieh, one of three state delegates who did not commit to Harris, was speaking when another delegate interrupted him by unmuting and telling him to “shut up,” using an expletive, according to Alawieh.
The call could be a preview of tensions expected to surface again in August, when Democratic leaders, lawmakers, and delegates convene in Chicago for the party’s national convention. Mass protests are planned, and the “uncommitted” movement intends to ensure their voices are heard within the United Center, where the convention will be held.
Trump and his campaign, meanwhile, are keenly aware of the turmoil within the Democratic base and are actively seeking the support of Arab American voters. That effort has been complicated by Trump’s history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy during his one term as president.
A meeting between over a dozen Arab American leaders from across the country and several of Trump’s surrogates was convened in Dearborn last week. Among the surrogates was Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-born businessman whose son married Tiffany Trump, the former president’s younger daughter, two years ago. Boulos is leveraging his connections to rally support for Trump.
Part of the pitch that Boulos and Bishara Bahbah, chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, made in Dearborn was that Trump has shown an openness to a two-state solution. He posted a letter on social media from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and pledged to work for peace in the Middle East.
“The three main points that were noted in the meeting were that Trump needs to state more clearly that he wants an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and that he supports the two-state solution, and that there is no such thing as a Muslim ban,” said Bahbah. “This is what the community wants to hear in a clear manner.”
Before a July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump also met with Bahbah, who pressed him about a two-state solution. According to Bahbah, Trump responded affirmatively, saying, “100 percent.”
But any apparent political opportunity for Trump may be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans about the former president’s ban on immigration from several majority Muslim countries and remarks they felt were insulting.
“I have not heard any individuals saying I’m now rushing to Donald Trump,” said Hammoud, Dearborn’s Democratic mayor. “I have yet to hear that in any of the conversations I’ve had. They all know what Donald Trump represents.”
Siblani, who organized Wednesday’s meeting with Trump surrogates, has spent months serving as an intermediary between his community and officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. Privately, he says, almost all express the need for a permanent ceasefire.
“Everybody wants our votes, but nobody wants to be seen as aligning with us publicly,” Siblani said.
Arab American leaders are listening as Kamala Harris moves to shore up key swing-state support
https://arab.news/jhkza
Arab American leaders are listening as Kamala Harris moves to shore up key swing-state support
- Top officials from both major political parties have been asking Arab American leaders if Harris can regain the support of the nation’s largest Muslim population located in metro Detroit
- Kamala Harris appears to be pivoting quickly to the task of convincing Arab American voters in Michigan
Russia seizes $50 billion in assets as economy shifts during war in Ukraine, research shows *
- ‘Fortress Russia’ uses host of mechanisms to take major assets
- Some domestic businesses also face nationalization, report says
MOSCOW: Russian authorities have confiscated assets worth some $50 billion over the past three years, underscoring the scale of the transformation into a “fortress Russia” economic model during the war in Ukraine, research showed on Wednesday.
The conflict has been accompanied by a significant transfer of assets as many Western companies fled the Russian market, others’ assets were expropriated and the assets of some major Russian businesses were seized by the state.
In response to what Russia called illegal actions by the West, President Vladimir Putin signed decrees over the past three years allowing the seizure of Western assets, entangling firms ranging from Germany’s Uniper to Danish brewer Carlsberg.
Besides the Western assets, major domestic companies have changed hands on the basis of different legal mechanisms including the need for strategic resources, corruption claims, alleged privatization violations, or poor management.
Moscow law firm NSP (Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners) said that the scale of what it called the “nationalization” amounted to 3.9 trillion roubles over three years, and it listed the companies involved.
The research was first reported by Kommersant, one of Russia’s leading newspapers, which said it illustrated a “fortress Russia” economic model.
The 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union ushered in hopes that Russia could transform into a free-market economy integrated into the global economy, but vast corruption, economic turmoil and organized crime undermined confidence in democratic capitalism through the 1990s.
Putin, in his first eight years in power, supported economic freedoms, targeted some so-called oligarchs and presided over a significant growth of the economy to $1.8 trillion in 2008 from $200 billion in 1999.
In the 2008-2022 period, the economy grew to $2.3 trillion, though Western sanctions hit it hard after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund.
Though the Russian economy has performed better than expected during the war in Ukraine, its nominal dollar size in 2024 was just $2.2 trillion, according to IMF figures, much smaller than China, the European Union or United States.
‘Fortress Russia’
Russian officials say that the Ukraine war — the biggest confrontation with the West since the depths of the Cold War — has demanded extraordinary measures to prevent what they say was a clear Western attempt to sink the Russian economy.
Putin says the exit of Western firms has allowed domestic producers to take their place and that the Western sanctions have forced domestic business to develop. He has called for a “new development model” distinct from “outdated globalization.”
But the wartime economy, geared toward producing weapons and supporting a long conflict with Ukraine, has put the state — and those officials who operate it — in a much more powerful position than private Russian businesses.
Russian prosecutors are now seeking to seize billionaire Konstantin Strukov’s majority stake in major gold producer Uzhuralzoloto (UGC) for the state.
More than a thousand companies — from McDonald’s to Mercedes-Benz — have left Russia since the February 2022 start of Russia’s war in Ukraine by selling, handing the keys to existing managers or simply abandoning their assets.
Others had their assets seized and a sale forced through.
US senators pushing bipartisan bill on new Russia sanctions brief European allies and Ukraine
ROME: The co-sponsors of a new bipartisan US sanctions package targeting Russia briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation Thursday, in an effort to show continued resolve to help Kyiv and force Moscow to the negotiating table through what they describe as a “game-changer” bill.
The bill backed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations like China and India, which account for roughly 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press in Rome that they hope to bring the legislation to a vote in the Senate before the August recess. They said Thursday they are convinced that it would give President Donald Trump the tools and flexibility he needs to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.
“We’re not gonna play whack-a-mole anymore with Russia and sanctions,” Graham said. “We’re going after his customer base. And that’s what the Europeans, I think, are most pleased with.”
“This is not just kind of a continuation of our current strategy. This is a real turning point,” Blumenthal added. “It’s a real game-changer because it says to Putin, ‘We’re going to hit you right where it hurts.’”
A coalition of the willing
Graham and Blumenthal briefed a meeting in Rome of the coalition of the willing, the 30-plus countries that are prepared to send troops to keep the peace in Ukraine after hostilities cease. The meeting, which the United States attended for the first time, was held on the sidelines of a Ukraine recovery conference.
Joining them was retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. The senators stressed that no US troops would be in Ukraine, but that they participated in the gathering at the invitation of host Italy to bolster the US presence at the Rome meeting and show congressional commitment to Ukraine.
“I think we gave Ukraine, the Europeans encouragement that America, the Congress was involved in a bipartisan fashion,” Graham said. “We want to empower the president to get Putin to the table and with tools he doesn’t have today.”
“Hopefully we can get this legislation to the president by the end of the month, is the goal,” he said.
A deadline before summer break
Congress is prepared to act on the legislation, which has overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate, but has been waiting for Trump to give the green light before lawmakers recess for the summer break.
So far, the White House has expressed some reservations. Trump wants full authority over the waiver process to lift the sanctions, tariffs or other penalties, without having to cede control to Congress.
Under the initial bill, the president “may terminate” the penalties under certain circumstances, but immediately reimpose them if the violations resume. Graham said the president would be allowed to waive the sanctions, for 180 days, and could also renew a waiver.
But the president’s decision would eventually be subject to congressional review. To overturn the president’s waiver would require a vote in Congress. It would need to clear the Senate’s high-bar of a 60-vote threshold, Graham said. That is often difficult to reach in the narrowly divided chamber.
“That’s not going to happen, unless some crazy thing happens,” he said.
The senators explained that the waiver authority in their bill is standard, similar to what has been included in past legislation. But with the president’s insistence on fully waiver authority, and also Congress wanting its own backstop, the legislation continues to evolve.
A work in progress
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said this week he hopes to bring the measure forward before Congress goes on recess in August. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also signaled a readiness to act in his chamber.
While Thune said the sanctions bill has “tremendous” bipartisan support, the GOP leader acknowledged it’s still a work in progress as the White House engages with the process.
“We are working with the administration, with the House to try and get it in a form where it’s ready,” he said. Whether that happens in the next few weeks is still “a bit of an open question,” he said. “But I’m hopeful we can.”
Graham and Blumenthal said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions in Taiwan, with Graham saying the threat of such a massive economic hit for its support of Russia was a “trial run for Taiwan.”
“The other important lesson for China here is that a small country, out-manned and out-gunned, can win,” Blumenthal said.
Russia bombards Kyiv before ‘frank’ talks with US and aid pledges
- Rubio meets Lavrov in Malaysia, voices frustration
KYIV/ROME: Russia unleashed heavy airstrikes on Ukraine on Thursday before a conference in Rome at which Kyiv won billions of dollars in aid pledges, and US-Russian talks at which Washington voiced frustration with Moscow over the war.
Two people were killed, 26 were wounded, according to figures from the national emergency services, and there was damage in nearly every part of Kyiv from missile and drone attacks on the capital and other parts of Ukraine. Addressing the Rome conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction after more than three years of war, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged allies to “more actively” use Russian assets for rebuilding and called for weapons, joint defense production and investment.
Participants pledged over 10 billion euros to help rebuild Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, announced 2.3 billion euros in support.
US President Donald Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Vladimir Putin over the lack of progress toward ending the war raging since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and has accused the Russian president of throwing a lot of “bullshit” at US efforts to end the conflict.
At talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while in Malaysia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had reinforced the message that Moscow should show more flexibility.
“We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude,” Rubio said, adding that the Trump administration had been engaging with the US Senate on what new sanctions on Russia might look like.
“It was a frank conversation. It was an important one,” Rubio said after the 50-minute talks in Kuala Lumpur. Moscow’s foreign ministry said they had shared “a substantive and frank exchange of views.”
Zelensky said Thursday’s assault by Russia had involved around 400 drones and 18 missiles, primarily targeting the capital.
Explosions and anti-aircraft fire rattled the city. Windows were blown out, facades ravaged and cars burned to shells. In the city center, an apartment in an eight-story building was engulfed in flames.
“This is terror because it happens every night when people are asleep,” said Karyna Volf, a 25-year-old Kyiv resident who rushed out of her apartment moments before it was showered with shards of glass.
Air defenses stopped all but a few dozen of the drones, authorities said, a day after Russia launched a record 728 drones at Ukraine.
Escalating Russian strikes in recent weeks have strained Ukraine’s defenses at a time when its troops are facing renewed pressure on the front line, and forced residents in Kyiv and across the country into bomb shelters.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had hit “military-industrial” targets in Kyiv as well as military airfields. It denies targeting civilians although towns and cities have been hit regularly in the war and thousands have been killed.
Moscow’s mayor later said Russian air defenses had brought down four Ukrainian drones bound for the Russian capital.
In Kursk region in western Russia, the acting governor said a Ukrainian drone had killed a man in his own home, two days after four people died in a drone attack on the city’s beach.
In Rome, Zelensky urged European allies to make more use of Russian assets frozen during the war for reconstruction. He was also seeking critical weapons, joint defense production and investment.
After a pledge by Trump this week to send more defensive weaponry to Kyiv, Washington has resumed deliveries of shells and precision artillery missiles, two US officials said.
Trump has also signalled willingness to send more Patriot air-defense missiles, which have proven critical to defending against fast-moving Russian ballistic missiles.
Speaking in Rome, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Trump to “stay with us” in backing Ukraine and Europe. He said Germany was prepared to buy Patriot air defense systems from the US and provide them to Ukraine.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was relaxed about Trump’s criticism and would keep trying to fix “broken” relations with Washington.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov denied there was a slowdown in normalizing ties and said new consultations would be arranged “in the near future.”
Six Secret Service agents punished over Trump assassination attempt
WASHINGTON: Six Secret Service agents on duty during last year’s assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally received suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days, the agency said on Thursday.
The Secret Service did not identify the agents or disclose specific grounds for their suspensions.
A gunman opened fire at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, while the candidate was speaking on stage. The shooter accessed a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to the former president.
Trump and others were injured, and a bystander and the shooter were killed. Multiple investigations were launched into the Secret Service, and its director resigned.
Trump said in an interview that will air on Saturday that the Secret Service erred by not stationing an agent on the rooftop and not including local police in the communications system.
“So there were mistakes made. And that shouldn’t have happened,” he said during an interview with Fox News’ “My View with Lara Trump.”
Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who was the agent in charge of Trump’s security detail at the rally, said in a statement: “The agency has taken many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future.”
The Secret Service said it has implemented 21 of 46 recommendations made by congressional oversight bodies. Sixteen other recommendations were in progress and nine were not directed at the Secret Service, it said.
The Secret Service said it was implementing protective measures for golf courses. After the Butler assassination attempt, a man with a gun hid near a Trump-owned golf course in Florida with the intent to kill the then-Republican presidential candidate.
Mourning begins in Texas where more than 170 are still missing from flash floods
KERRVILLE, Texas: Shock has turned into grief across Texas where at least 120 people have died from flash floods and more were missing as the search for victims moved methodically along endless miles of rivers and rubble Thursday.
Photos of those who have died along with a colorful array of flowers and candles now decorate a fence in Hill Country — a growing tribute that reflects the enormity of the disaster in the region.
The victims include three friends who had gathered for the July Fourth weekend, 8-year-old sisters who were at summer camp and a 91-year-old grandmother known for her sharp wit.
More than 170 people have been reported missing, most in Kerr County, where nearly 100 victims have been recovered. The death toll remained at 120 Thursday, nearly a week since the floods first hit.
Authorities say they have carefully gone over the list of those unaccounted for but those numbers are often tough to pin down in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
The unrelenting power of the floods forced families to make unnerving escapes with little time to spare in the middle of the night. One woman recounted how she and others, including a toddler, first climbed into an attic and then onto a roof where they heard screams and watched vehicles float past. Photos and videos captured their ordeal.
More than 2,000 local, state and federal workers were involved in the search for victims. Stifling heat and mounds of trees, hunks of lumber and trash made the task more difficult.
At a small shopping center damaged in the floods, people piled debris gathered from the rivers. Officials hope to eventually set aside personal items so residents find their possessions.
On Wednesday, hundreds prayed, wept and held one another at a prayer service, among the first of many somber gatherings to come in the weeks ahead.
“Our communities were struck with tragedy literally in the darkness,” said Wyatt Wentrcek, a youth minister.
David Garza drove more than an hour to support his loved ones.
“I’m from here, and I was here in the ‘78 flood and the ‘87 flood,” Garza said. “I just wanted to be a part of this.”
Some at the service wore green ribbons for the girls from Camp Mystic, the century-old Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died.
Parents of children who were at the many summer camps in Hill Country have credited the teenage counselors with ushering campers to safety and helping keep them calm during the chaos.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called on state lawmakers to approve funding for new warning systems and emergency communications in flood prone areas when the Legislature meets later this month. Abbott also asked for financial relief for the response and recovery efforts.
“We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Public officials in the area have come under repeated criticism amid questions about the timeline of what happened and why widespread warnings were not sounded and more preparations were not made.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha has said those questions will be answered after the victims are recovered.
Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a flood warning system, but concerns about costs and noise led to missed opportunities to put up sirens.
President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover and is planning to visit the state Friday.
Polls taken before the floods show Americans largely believe the federal government should play a major role in preparing for and responding to natural disasters, which are becoming a growing worry. On Tuesday, a deluge in New Mexico triggered flash floods that killed three people.
The devastation in Texas stretched from Hill Country all the way to just outside the state’s capital. At least 15 people died in the Austin area and adjacent counties.
Just north of Austin, floodwaters from the San Gabriel River swamped two RV parks in Georgetown.
Teri Hoffman watched the water lift up her camper with her two dogs inside.
“The camper just kind of goes over on its side and starts floating. And then all the other campers just started crashing into it,” she said.
Rescuers were able to save the dogs and she managed to dig out the last picture she has of her late mother. Everything else from the RV where she lived with her husband and children is gone, she said.
“I couldn’t look at it,” Hoffman said. “I had to walk away.”
