Trump says he’s ‘entitled to personal attacks’ on VP Harris as his Democratic rival’s poll numbers surge

With groceries as props, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attacks the economic record of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, during a news conference at Trump National Bedminster Clubhouse on August 15, 2024 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Updated 16 August 2024
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Trump says he’s ‘entitled to personal attacks’ on VP Harris as his Democratic rival’s poll numbers surge

  • "I’m very angry at her that she would weaponize the justice system against me and other people,“ he said
  • He labelled Harris as a “radical“ who ”broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world”

BEDMINSTER, New Jersey: Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he thinks he’s “entitled to personal attacks” on his Democratic rival, adding he’s “very angry” at Vice President Kamala Harris and questioning her intelligence.

Trump was asked during a news conference whether his campaign needs more discipline as he faces a Democratic ticket newly energized since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate.

“As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she would weaponize the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” Trump said at his New Jersey golf club, where he invited reporters in his quest to saddle Harris with Biden’s unpopular economic record.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she’ll be a terrible president,” he added.

There is no evidence that Biden or Harris weaponized the criminal justice system to target Trump, who has pledged to retaliate with criminal investigations of Biden and his relatives if he wins.

Trump also took issue with Democrats branding him and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as “weird.” Harris is “weird in her policy,” he said.

Trump stuck close to his scripted economic message for more than half an hour, reading from a binder in front of him in a news conference at his New Jersey golf club.

Later, he veered into familiar stories he enjoys telling at his rallies.

A day earlier, he had struggled to make a sustained case for his economic policies during a meandering speech that his campaign had billed as a major policy address.

“Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly,” Trump told reporters.

Trump was flanked by popular grocery store items, including instant coffee, sugary breakfast cereals and pastries, laid out on tables as he highlighted the cost of everything from food to car insurance to housing. Posters showed the increase of prices for grocery staples.

At one point, as Trump talked about the 2020 election he lost, he noticed a box of cereal. “I haven’t seen Cheerios in a long time,” Trump said. “I’m going to take them back to my cottage.”

As he turned to walk back inside, Trump did not respond to shouted questions about when he last went grocery shopping. The event came one day after the Labor Department announced year-over-year inflation had reached its lowest level in more than three years in July — the latest sign that the worst price spike in four decades is fading.

But consumers are still feeling the impact of higher prices — something Trump’s campaign is banking on to motivate voters this fall. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that Americans are more likely to trust Trump over Harris when it comes to handling the economy and immigration, issues he has put at the center of his case for returning to the White House.

Harris is planning her own economic policy speech Friday in North Carolina, promising to push for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries.

Trump predicted he would beat Harris by more that he would have beaten Biden by “once she’s exposed.” “People don’t know who she is,” Trump said.

A small crowd of Trump supporters watched his news conference from the periphery, occasionally cheering him on. But without a crowd of thousands to please with red meat attacks on his enemies, Trump stuck closer to his prepared remarks.

Trump continued lobbing insults at Harris and Biden at an evening event dedicated to Jewish voters, where he was introduced by GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson to an audience that included a Holocaust survivor.

Hours before the news conference, Trump’s campaign leaders announced they were expanding his staff, bringing a number of former aides and outside advisers formally into the fold.

Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz and Tim Murtaugh will advise the campaign’s senior leadership.

Lewandowski was Trump’s first campaign manager during his 2016 campaign. Budowich and Pfeiffer are moving over from MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC. Bruesewitz produces pro-Trump content for a large social media following. And Murtaugh was the communications director for Trump’s 2020 campaign.

Summer has been the time for shakeups in Trump’s two prior campaigns. This year’s change comes weeks after the campaign itself was transformed by Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign and endorse Harris.

Trump gave his top advisers a vote of confidence Thursday, writing on his social media platform that his management team headed by Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles is “THE BEST.”

Trump spoke to the press as he has stepped up his criticism of Harris for not holding a news conference or sitting down for interviews since Biden made way for her.

“I think I’m doing a very calm campaign,” Trump said after being asked about criticism from Republicans who want him to focus less on personal attacks.

“Some of you will say, ‘He ranted and raved,’” Trump said to journalists. “I’m a very calm person, believe it or not.”

 


12-year-old boy youngest to be sentenced over UK riots

Updated 5 sec ago
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12-year-old boy youngest to be sentenced over UK riots

The boy had earlier admitted to a charge of violent disorder in the town of Southport on July 31
District Judge Wendy Lloyd sentenced the boy Tuesday to a three-month curfew order and a 12-month referral order, which requires him to commit to a rehabilitative program

LONDON: A 12-year-old boy who threw stones at police during rioting outside a mosque has become the youngest person to be sentenced so far over far-right riots that erupted in England this summer.
The boy, who can’t be identified because of his age, had earlier admitted to a charge of violent disorder in the town of Southport on July 31.
District Judge Wendy Lloyd sentenced the boy Tuesday to a three-month curfew order and a 12-month referral order, which requires him to commit to a rehabilitative program.
She told the boy the riots had “shaken society to the core.” “It was an angry mob and you chose to be part of it,” she said.
Rioting in Southport kicked off soon after a stabbing attack at a dance class in the town that left three young girls dead. False rumors spread online that the suspect in the attack was an asylum-seeker.
The boy was part of a crowd of hundreds of rioters who set a police van on fire and tried to storm the Southport Islamic Society Mosque.
The violence quickly spread around towns and cities around the country, but the unrest fizzled out after the swift charging and sentencing of those found to be involved.
Police have made more than 1,000 arrests and brought more than 800 charges.

Budapest and Poland’s Wroclaw reinforce river banks ahead of more flooding in Central Europe

Updated 52 min 8 sec ago
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Budapest and Poland’s Wroclaw reinforce river banks ahead of more flooding in Central Europe

  • Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria
  • Around 20 deaths were reported in the flooding, which followed heavy rainfall but the full human cost was still not clear

WARSAW: Soldiers and firefighters used sandbags to reinforce river embankments and delivered food and drinking water to cut-off communities as the worst flooding in years moved Tuesday across a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes.
Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. Around 20 deaths were reported in the flooding, which followed heavy rainfall but the full human cost was still not clear. Casualties have been reported in Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
In some areas, the waters were receding, leaving behind mounds of debris. As reports of looting came in, government and military authorities vowed to crack down on perpetrators. Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, said the military was deploying soldiers equipped with night vision and thermal imaging devices to support the police in areas where people had to leave for higher ground.
“Looters, night and lack of electricity will no longer be your ally,” he tweeted late Monday.
Other places braced for the worst yet to come, including two Central European gems: Budapest, the Hungarian capital on the Danube River, and Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland on the Oder River which boasts a Gothic cathedral and other historic landmarks.
Hungary deployed soldiers to reinforce barriers along the Danube as thousands of volunteers filled sandbags in dozens of riverside settlements.
In Budapest, authorities closed the lower quays, which were expected to be breached by rising waters. The lower half of the city’s iconic Margaret Island was also closed.
In Wroclaw, firefighters and soldiers worked through the night to reinforce river embankments with sandbags. The city zoo, located on the Oder, appealed for volunteers to fill sandbags on Tuesday morning.
“We and our animals will be extremely grateful for your help,” the zoo said.
The city said it expected the flood wave to peak there around Friday, though some had predicted that would happen sooner. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with a crisis team early Tuesday and said there are contradictory forecasts from meteorologists.
Tusk’s government has declared a state of natural disaster across southern Poland.
To the south of Wroclaw, residents spent the night fighting to save Nysa, a town of 44,000 people, after the Nysa Klodzka River broke its banks the day before. Mayor Kordian Kolbiarz said 2,000 “women, men, children, the elderly” came out to try to save their town from the rising waters, forming a human chain that passed sandbags to the river bank.
“We simply … did everything we could,” Kolbiarz wrote on Facebook. “This chain of people fighting for our Nysa was incredible. Thank you. We fought for Nysa. Our home. Our families. Our future.”
Later on Tuesday, authorities in Nysa said the city center had been saved from the flooding.
In Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, the deputy mayor for the environment, Jakub Mrva, said the level of the Danube had peaked and would slowly decrease. He said that mobile barriers had saved the historic center, but that there was still damage, including to tram lines.
“We also observed major damage at the zoo, which is flooded, and there is relatively high damage in the city forests of Bratislava, where many trees have perished,” Mrva told The Associated Press in an interview, speaking next to the flooded banks of the Danube.
In the Czech Republic, waters have been receding in the two hardest-hit northeast regions. The government approved the deployment of 2,000 troops to help with clean-up efforts. The damage is expected to reach billions of euros.
The Czech government also scrambled to help local authorities organize regional elections on Friday and Saturday as several schools and other buildings serving as polling stations were badly damaged. However, a planned evacuation of some 1,000 in the town of Veseli nad Luznici could be postponed as the waters had not reached critical levels so far.


Afghanistan reopens its embassy in Oman, the Taliban say

Updated 17 September 2024
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Afghanistan reopens its embassy in Oman, the Taliban say

  • This is latest sign of growing inclusion of Taliban among Gulf countries
  • Last month the United Arab Emirates accepted a Taliban ambassador 

DUBAI: Afghanistan’s Embassy in Oman has reopened, an official in Kabul said Tuesday, the latest sign of the growing inclusion of the Taliban among Gulf Arab countries following the United Arab Emirates’ acceptance of a Taliban ambassador last month.
The development also comes after the Taliban said in July that they no longer recognize diplomatic missions set up by the former, Western-backed government. Most countries still have not accepted the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government.
According to Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman of the Foreign Ministry in Kabul, the embassy in Muscat, Oman’s capital, resumed operations on Sunday.
There was no immediate confirmation from Omani authorities and no reports from the sultanate’s state-run news agency about the embassy’s reopening.
“The work of the embassy is carried out regularly by diplomats of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” said Takal, using the Taliban name for their government.
“The resumption of embassy activities in cooperation with the host country will play a constructive role in strengthening the political, economic, social and religious relations between Kabul and Muscat,” Takal added.
The Foreign Ministry said that 39 diplomatic missions are now under Taliban control.
There is a deepening divide in the international community on how to deal with the Taliban, who have been in power for three years and face no internal or external opposition. And even though the Taliban and the West remain at loggerheads, Afghanistan’s rulers have pursued bilateral ties with major regional powers.
Last month, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov arrived in Afghanistan in the highest-level visit by a foreign official since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
As part of expanding their reach, the Taliban have moved to take control of the country’s embassies and consulates overseas.
The embassies in London and Oslo announced their closures this month, while others in Europe and beyond have continued to operate.


Indonesia launches national Islamic finance center to boost local halal industries

Updated 17 September 2024
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Indonesia launches national Islamic finance center to boost local halal industries

  • Center to serve as platform to develop local industries, from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food
  • Indonesia ranked 3rd in 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, behind Saudi Arabia and Malaysia

JAKARTA: President Joko Widodo opened on Tuesday the Indonesia Islamic Financial Center, a new special area in Jakarta dedicated to strengthening the country’s Shariah economy and helping local industries tap into the global halal market.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, with about 87 percent of its 270 million population professing Islam. Its government has lately been working to further develop the local halal industry to harness the potential of the domestic market.

“Indonesia has a huge chance, a potential to become a global halal hub, the center of the global halal ecosystem, as long as we strengthen our Shariah economy ecosystem,” Widodo said during the opening ceremony.

“Indonesia’s Shariah banks, an important part of the Shariah economy ecosystem, must continue to grow with modern management, must be competitive (and) professional to reach the potential markets we have — our 236 million Muslim population — while also growing to become the standard of Shariah banking in Indonesia, in the ASEAN region, and in the world.”

The IIFC comprises Indonesia’s biggest Islamic bank, Bank Syariah Indonesia, and Danareksa, a state-owned holding company.

The center will serve as a platform for the development of local industries — from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food.

“(The center) will support all aspects so we don’t lose our potential to other regions or countries,” Widodo said.

BSI’s tower at IIFC — the construction of which is to be completed next year — will be a “center for business and halal ecosystem literacy,” the bank’s director Hery Gunardi said.

“We are ready to develop and accelerate the nation’s goal of becoming a sustainable global hub and establishing an Islamic ecosystem.”

Indonesia was ranked third in the 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, which measures the strength of the Islamic economy in 73 countries. It was placed just behind Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

“This area will become a platform to strengthen the Shariah economy ecosystem that will also boost the growth of our national economy,” State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said.

Through the halal industry, among other avenues, “Indonesia has great potential to become the largest Islamic economy country in the world,” he added.


Nigeria bus crash kills at least 25 children on religious trip

Updated 17 September 2024
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Nigeria bus crash kills at least 25 children on religious trip

  • Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured
  • The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet

KANO, Nigeria: A bus carrying Muslim faithful celebrating the birth of Prophet Muhammad crashed in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, killing at least 25 children, an official told AFP Tuesday.
Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured.
The accident occurred on Sunday when the speeding bus overloaded with young adherents of the Tijjaniyya Sufi order lost control and crashed into a truck in Lere district, Kabiru Nadabo, head of the local office of Nigeria’s road safety agency, FRSC, said.
“The bus was overloaded with 63 children and the driver was speeding recklessly when he lost control and rammed into an articulated truck,” Nadabo said.
“Fifteen of them died on the spot while 48 injured were taken to various hospitals, among which 10 died the following day, raising the death toll to 25,” he said.
The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet, said Nadabo.
He said the death toll could have changed since the injured were taken to hospitals in various locations and he did not get further updates.
Dikko Dahiru, one of the organizers of the trip, said 40 children were killed in the accident, while 31 were injured.
“The bus was carrying 71 passengers and 36 died instantly while four more died in hospital the next day,” said Dahiru, whose nephew was among the dead.
“Thirty-one were taken to hospitals with severe injuries, 11 of them in critical condition,” he said.
Road accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly maintained roads due largely to speeding and disregard for traffic rules.