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.
Pro-Palestine DNC delegates welcome Biden’s exit but side-eye Harris
https://arab.news/8ys59
Pro-Palestine DNC delegates welcome Biden’s exit but side-eye Harris
Last US soldier who went missing in Lithuania found dead
The army did not specify where exactly the soldier was found
VILNIUS: The last of the four American soldiers who went missing in Lithuania last week was on Tuesday also found dead, the US Army said, without providing additional details.
The three other soldiers were found dead on Monday after rescuers recovered their M88 Hercules armored vehicle from a swamp. Hundreds of local and foreign troops and others including engineers and divers had been involved in the operation.
Lithuanian authorities received a report last Tuesday that the soldiers went missing during a military drill at a training ground in the eastern city of Pabrade, near the border with Belarus.
“The fourth US Army Soldier... was found deceased near Pabrade, Lithuania the afternoon of April 1,” US Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement.
“The Soldier’s identity is being withheld pending confirmation of notification of next of kin,” it added.
The army did not specify where exactly the soldier was found.
Hundreds of people gathered at the US embassy in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Tuesday evening to pay their respects to the four soldiers, who had been in Lithuania for two months.
Carrying US flags, people laid flowers, lit candles and held a minute of silence for the soldiers.
Lithuania’s defense ministry expressed “deep sorrow” over the death.
“We extend our condolences to the families of all four soldiers lost in this tragic accident and thank all those involved in the search efforts,” it added on social network X.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth thanked the “brave servicemembers who enabled this difficult recovery and to our Lithuanian hosts.”
“The recovery was conducted with urgency, resolve and deep respect for the fallen,” he said on X.
“We will never forget these soldiers — and our prayers are with their families.”
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, hosts more than 1,000 American troops stationed on a rotational basis.
Mali, Burkina, Niger foreign ministers due in Moscow for talks
- Sahelian countries are led by juntas who seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia
- Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and its successor Africa Corps are helping the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) battle extremists
ABIDJAN: The foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are due in Moscow this week for the first talks between their countries’ newly created confederation and Russia, they said in a statement.
The three Sahelian countries are led by juntas who seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have since turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.
They quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the beginning of the year, accusing the regional bloc of being subservient to France, and have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), originally set up as a defense pact in 2023 but which now seeks closer integration.
The three foreign ministers will be in the Russian capital on Thursday and Friday at the invitation of their counterpart Sergei Lavrov to “take part in the first session of AES-Russia consultations,” the ministers said in a statement posted on Facebook by the Malian foreign ministry, which holds the presidency of the confederation.
“This meeting is part of the shared desire of the heads of state of the AES confederation and the Russian Federation to extend their partnership and their political dialogue at the confederal level and to place them at the heart of their diplomatic, development and defense agenda,” they said.
Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and its successor Africa Corps are helping the AES countries battle extremists, whose attacks have killed tens of thousands of people in the three countries.
Moscow has also concluded defense agreements with Mali, Burkina and Niger and has supplied military equipment.
It also cooperates with the AES on energy and mining.
King Charles back to work after ‘minor bump’ in cancer treatment
- Officials regarded the short hospital stay of a few hours as a “minor bump” in his medical journey
- Other engagements later in the week will include the king’s weekly meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer
LONDON: King Charles III on Tuesday carried out his first public engagement since a short spell in hospital last week for side effects from his cancer treatment.
Charles, 76, on Thursday postponed all his appointments for the rest of the day and for Friday on doctors’ advice after suffering some temporary symptoms, Buckingham Palace said.
Officials regarded the short hospital stay of a few hours as a “minor bump” in his medical journey.
In the first of his engagements for this week, Charles was all smiles as he handed out honors at Windsor Castle west of London to leading figures including reigning world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson who was recognized with an Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to athletics.
Johnson-Thompson said afterwards the monarch “seemed in good spirits. You know it’s long, all day, because so many people are getting honored today.
“So he seems in really good spirits and I’m happy to see that he’s fit and well.”
Gardner and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh, who received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), also praised Charles’s “boundless energy.”
Other engagements later in the week will include the king’s weekly meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
A small number of appointments, however, had been rescheduled ahead of a state visit that Charles and his wife Queen Camilla will make to Italy next week.
Charles announced he had been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in February last year.
He returned to work within two-and-a-half months and gradually ramped up his duties during the rest of 2024, including making several foreign trips which took him as far as Australia and Samoa.
Just six weeks after Charles’s cancer announcement came the news that his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, had also been diagnosed with cancer and had begun chemotherapy.
Catherine, who is married to heir to Charles’s eldest son Prince William, said in January that she was now in remission
Britain says anyone carrying out activity with Russian authorities now needs to register
- Russian political parties that are controlled by the Russian government will also need to declare what they are doing
- The program is a key tool for the “detection and disruption of harmful activity against our country”
LONDON: Britain’s government is placing Russia on the top tier of a government security program aimed at protecting the UK from malign foreign influence, the security minister said Tuesday.
Home Office minister Dan Jarvis told lawmakers that anyone or any company “carrying out activity as part of any arrangement” with Russian authorities — including government agencies, armed forces, intelligence services and the parliament — will need to register with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme from July 1 or face five years in prison.
Russian political parties that are controlled by the Russian government will also need to declare what they are doing before they can carry out activity in the UK directly.
Britain’s government said the program is a key tool for the “detection and disruption of harmful activity against our country.”
Jarvis cited hostile Russian acts in recent years including the use of the deadly nerve agent Novichok to poison a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in 2018, the targeting of British members of Parliament through cyberattacks and other espionage tactics.
“And clearly Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has highlighted its intent to undermine European and global security,” he added.
Iran was the first country to be listed under the program earlier this month. Lawmakers have questioned for months why China isn’t included.
“There is no question, in my mind, China should be in that enhanced tier,” said Chris Philp of the opposition Labour Party. “We know China engages in industrial-scale espionage, seeking to steal technology from government, universities and from industries. They repress Chinese citizens here and have sought to infiltrate our political system.”
Jarvis did not directly respond, only saying that his government is taking a “long-term and strategic approach” to managing its relationship with China.
Russia says told US about Ukrainian strikes on energy sites
- Ukraine reported a Russian attack had left tens of thousands without power on Tuesday
- Each side has accused the other of breaking a supposed deal to stop firing on energy sites
KYIV: Russia said Tuesday that it had complained to the United States about Ukrainian strikes on its energy sites, hours after Kyiv reported a Russian attack had left tens of thousands without power.
Each side has accused the other of breaking a supposed deal to stop firing on energy sites, though a formal agreement has not been put in place and what commitments each side has undertaken remain unclear.
Following separate meetings with US officials, the White House said both Ukraine and Russia had “agreed to develop measures for implementing” an “agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities of Russia and Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed allegations of Ukrainian “violations” in a private meeting of top security officials on Tuesday.
“We passed a list of violations... to the US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the meeting.
“I have passed this list to the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” he added.
Russia’s defense ministry earlier accused Kyiv of striking Russian energy sites in the Russian region of Belgorod and the partially Moscow-controlled Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia.
The allegations come hours after Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said tens of thousands were left without power in the southern Kherson region by a Russian strike.
Local authorities later said power supplies had been restored.
Russia has launched systematic aerial attacks on Ukrainian power plants and grid since invading in February 2022.
Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire.
Sybiga also said Kyiv and Washington were holding fresh talks on a minerals agreement that would give the United States access to Ukrainian natural resources in return for more support.
The two countries had planned to sign a deal in February on extracting Ukraine’s strategically important minerals, until a spectacular televised White House clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky derailed the agreement.
Trump on Sunday warned Zelensky he would have “big problems” if Kyiv rejected the latest US proposal, details of which have not been published by either side.
