WASHINGTON: When Vice President Kamala Harris flies to Chicago next week to accept her party’s nomination for the presidency, she will be met head-on with voters protesting one of her thorniest electoral issues: the Biden administration’s aid to Israel.
A coalition of some 200 social justice organizations is going forward with their plan to march at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, despite a late decision by Joe Biden — the main focus of their ire — to step down from the top of the ticket.
Pro-Palestinian activists resent Biden’s administration for funding Israel during its war against Hamas, which has killed around 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. Israel launched an offensive after it was attacked on Oct. 7 by Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages, according to Israel tallies.
Harris has surged in opinion polls since Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the race, closing the gap with Republican nominee Donald Trump. But some activists say they hold her responsible, to varying extents, for the administration’s Israel policy, and the protests next week will add pressure on her to unite a discontented voter base before Election Day.
Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the March on the DNC coalition, said dozens of coalition group leaders met after Biden ended his campaign and discussed if they should change tack if Harris became the nominee.
“There was absolute consensus,” he recalled. “She represents the policies of the administration and it’s full steam ahead.”
The march will represent a contingent of historically Democratic voters who have said they will refuse to vote for the party nominee this time unless the White House puts conditions on its support for Israel.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in May, some 44 percent of Democratic registered voters disapproved of Biden’s handling of the war.
Some pro-Palestinian leaders expressed hope that Harris might diverge from Biden on Israel, noting she was the first within the administration to call for a ceasefire.
Abandon Biden, a pro-Palestinian campaign founded to mobilize voters against Biden, believes Harris bears responsibility for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis but is not yet launching an “Abandon Harris” campaign, spokesperson Hudhayfah Ahmad said. The group will be in Chicago and watching for changes to the Democratic party’s position.
“We’re going to give (Harris) a lot more grace than we gave Joe Biden,” Ahmad said. “However, I will emphasize, the clock is ticking and our patience is running out.”
Protestors flocking
Organizers have said the DNC march will be family-friendly. Still, some onlookers worry that the combination of a heavy police presence, throngs of protesters and potential ill-intentioned agitators could combust, as it did on college campuses in the spring.
“It’s going to be a mess in Chicago starting Sunday,” said Emad Salem, a Harris delegate from Texas and part of a group called “Delegates Against Genocide” that is urging the DNC to call for a ceasefire and an arms embargo against Israel.
“This is not just Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims. We’re talking about tens of thousands of Gen Zers participating, African Americans, Latinos, anti-war protesters from all over the place.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said his pro-Israel organization was “deeply concerned” about the increased intensity of recent US protests and called on Chicago police to hold bad actors accountable.
Abudayyeh said the crowds are expected to peak in the tens of thousands on Monday and Thursday, coinciding respectively with the days Biden and Harris will speak, and most people would be coming from Palestinian and Arab communities in Illinois and neighboring states. The coalition includes groups advocating for a range of causes, including reproductive rights and racial justice.
Organizers have fought with city officials for months to get a permit for the rally and their desired route. After winning access to a rally site close to the United Center, where the DNC will be hosted, the coalition lost a bid this week for a longer march route, and the city barred them from using stages, portable toilets, tents or sound equipment.
Chicago police superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters that he did not want to “tie up additional resources” by lengthening the protest route, but police would ensure demonstrators could exercise their free speech rights and that they and the surrounding community would be safe.
A spokesperson for the nonprofit Israeli-American Council said it had struggled to get a permit from the city of Chicago to demonstrate outside the DNC, and was instead installing an art exhibit nearby to honor the hostages held by Hamas and support Israel.
Pro-Palestinian activists plan to march on the DNC, hoping Harris will hear them
https://arab.news/r7qbr
Pro-Palestinian activists plan to march on the DNC, hoping Harris will hear them
- Some 200 social justice organizations is going forward with their plan to march at the Democratic National Convention
- Pro-Palestinian activists resent Biden’s administration for funding Israel during its war against Hamas
Trial opens into UK stabbing spree that sparked riots over misinformation attacker was Muslim
- Authorities blame far-right agitators for violence, including by sharing misinformation alleged attacker was Muslim asylum seeker
- Unrest, which lasted several days, saw far-right rioters attack police, shops, hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques
LONDON: The trial of a teenager accused of killing three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK’s most violent riots in a decade is set to begin Monday.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, is due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court, accused of murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year in Southport, northwest England.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the attack in the seaside resort near Liverpool on July 29, 2024.
Ten others were injured, including eight children, in one of the country’s worst mass stabbings in years.
Rudakubana faces a total of 16 charges, including three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a blade days after the attack.
The trial is expected to last four weeks after pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf.
The stabbings sent shock waves across the UK, triggering unrest and riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities, including in Southport and Liverpool.
Authorities blamed far-right agitators for fueling violence, including by sharing misinformation claiming the alleged attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The unrest, which lasted several days, saw far-right rioters attack police, shops, hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques, with hundreds of participants subsequently arrested and charged.
Rudakubana was born in Wales to parents of Rwandan origin and lived in Banks, a village northeast of Southport.
Despite being 17 years old at the time, restrictions on reporting Rudakubana’s name were lifted in August due to concerns over the spread of misinformation.
“Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum,” judge Andrew Menary said as he lifted the restrictions.
Taylor Swift, then in the middle of her Eras tour, wrote on Instagram that she “was completely in shock” the day after the attack on the dance class at the start of the school holidays.
The pop star reportedly met two of the survivors of the attack during her August shows in London.
The UK’s head of state King Charles III also traveled to Southport in August to meet with survivors, inspecting a sea of floral tributes laid outside the city’s town hall.
And Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Prince William visited Southport in October “to show support to the local community,” Kensington Palace said. It was their first joint public engagement since Kate ended a course of chemotherapy for cancer.
In October, the suspect was charged with two additional offenses in relation to evidence obtained “during searches of Axel Rudakubana’s home address” following the attack, the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS), which brings public prosecutions, said.
The charges were for the “production of a biological toxin, namely ricin,” and “possessing information ... likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
The terrorism offense related to suspicion of possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual, although the attack was not treated as a terrorist incident.
Following speculation on social media related to policing decisions in the case, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said she realized the added charges could trigger fresh rumors.
“We would strongly advise caution against anyone speculating as to motivation in this case,” Kennedy was quoted as saying.
She urged people to be patient and “don’t believe everything you read on social media.”
Rudakubana has appeared in several hearings since the attack, often wearing a grey sweatshirt, and refusing to speak in all of them.
In the last hearing in December, he appeared via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court from high-security Belmarsh prison, in southeast London.
The Attorney General and Merseyside police have warned the press and public against publishing any material that risks prejudicing the trial.
Russia says captured two more villages in east Ukraine
MOSCOW: Russian forces have captured two more villages in east Ukraine, including one just a few kilometers from Pokrovsk, a key supply hub for Kyiv’s forces, the defense ministry said Monday.
Army units “liberated” Shevchenko and Novoyegorivka in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk respectively, it said. Shevchenko is around three kilometers (two miles) from Pokrovsk.
Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of Kolkata junior doctor
- Sanjay Roy was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against him
- The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday
KOLKATA: An Indian court awarded the life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata.
The woman’s body was found in a classroom at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug. 9. Other doctors stayed off work for weeks to demand justice for her and better security at public hospitals, as the crime sparked national outrage over a lack of safety for women.
Sanjay Roy, the police volunteer, was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against Roy.
Roy said he was innocent and that he had been framed, and sought clemency.
The federal police, who investigated the case, said the crime belonged to the “rarest-of-rare” category and Roy, therefore, deserved the death penalty.
Judge Das said it was not a “rarest-of-rare” crime, adding that Roy could go in appeal to a higher court.
The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday. The speedy trial in the court was not open to the public.
The parents of the junior doctor were among those in court on Monday. Security was stepped up with dozens of police personnel deployed at the court complex.
Myanmar military, minority armed group agree ceasefire, China says
- The two sides held talks in China’s southwestern city of Kunming
- Analysts say China is worried about the advance of anti-junta forces
BEIJING: The Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) signed a formal agreement for a ceasefire that began on Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said, halting fighting near the border of both countries.
The two sides held talks in China’s southwestern city of Kunming where they thanked Beijing for its efforts to promote peace, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular news briefing on Monday.
“Cooling down the situation in the north of Myanmar is in the common interest of all parties in Myanmar and all countries in the region, and contributes to the security, stability and development of the border areas between China and Myanmar,” she said.
China will continue to actively promote peace and dialogue and provide support and assistance to the peace process in northern Myanmar, Mao said.
The MNDAA is one of several ethnic minority armed groups fighting to repel the military from what they consider their territories.
It is part of the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance, with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, that launched an offensive against the military junta in late October 2023 seizing swathes of territory near the border with China.
The MNDAA, made up of ethnic Chinese, said last July it had taken control of a major military base near the Chinese border.
Analysts say China is worried about the advance of anti-junta forces which have pushed the military out of vital borderlands and started making inroads toward the central city of Mandalay.
The military seized power from Myanmar’s civilian government in February 2021, plunging the country into crisis.
China fears chaos along its more than 2,000 kilometer long border with Myanmar would jeopardize investment and trade.
Beijing previously brokered a ceasefire deal in the northern borderlands in January 2024, but the deal broke down a few months later.
France to keep fighting for release of French-Israeli hostages, says foreign minister
PARIS: France will keep fighting to obtain the release of the two French-Israeli nationals held by Hamas, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told BFM TV on Monday.
“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding France had “no news on their health status nor on the terms of their detention.”
Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, on the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
French-Israeli nationals Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the draft Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
