CHICAGO: The daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, both immigrants, Kamala Harris reflects the United States’ changing demographics.
When she steps onto the stage Thursday evening in Chicago to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination as their presidential candidate, she will represent the country’s fastest growing racial category.
Some 42 million Americans now identify as multiracial, or 13 percent of the country, according to the US Census Bureau. That is up from 2 percent in 2000 when the census first allowed people to select multiple races.
America has long been a self-styled “melting pot” of people who trace their origins around the world, but in practice some states legally segregated citizens by race until the civil rights laws of the 1960s and laws prohibiting interracial marriage were not overturned until 1967.
Social change since, though, has been rapid. Barack Obama was elected as the country’s first Black president in 2008, and Harris would be the first Black woman and South Asian if elected in November.
“We’re living in a situation 50 years later where we could be looking at our second mixed-race president, and it’s beautiful,” said Svante Myrick, president of People for the American Way, an advocacy group, whose father was Black and his mother white.
America’s future will look even more diverse. The vast majority of multiracial people are younger than 44 and a third are still children. The trend has been met by confusion, upset and worse from some of the US’s shrinking white majority. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drew groans at a gathering of Black journalists last month when he falsely portrayed Harris as pivoting from Indian to Black.
“I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black,” Trump said. “But you know what, I respect either one.”
Harris has long identified with both her parents’ ancestry. In Trump’s remarks, some multiracial people saw echoes of their own experience of being asked to choose one or the other.
Harris’ upbringing makes her a better leader for America, Democrats in Chicago said.
“When you have individuals who carry multiple experiences in the same person, that’s an asset,” said Representative Maxwell Frost, who is Lebanese, Puerto Rican and Haitian, speaking at a Politico event on the sidelines of the convention. “That enhances her ability to legislate and advocate” on behalf of a broad range of Americans. The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did spokespeople for Trump. As the US becomes more diverse and multicultural, white nationalist groups continue to thrive online, pushing conspiracy theories such as the “The Great Replacement,” while some Republican lawmakers have focused on banning books and canceling classes focused on racial history.
Thousands of racial hate crimes are reported yearly, with 232 aimed at people of multiple races in 2022, the most recent year for which FBI data is available.
“Unfortunately, we’re really into a period of backlash,” said Matthew Belmont, a Dartmouth College history professor who has studied the demographic trend, despite the 2020 election of Harris as vice president and her administration’s elevation of racial justice priorities.
“So much of that was push back that really emerged in response to the Obama presidency and it was really stoked among people who are scared by the demographic trends in the United States.”
Tara Betrayer, an Afro-Latina and white conservative co-founder of political action committee the Seneca Project, said she was once attracted to the Republican Party in part because of its emphasis on color-blind policies.
“Do Democrats take it too far at times with the racial identity politics? Well, yeah,” she said. Now an independent, Betrayer said some of the Republican Party’s recent rhetoric on issues including illegal migration carried undercurrents of racism. Republicans reject those criticisms, saying their focus on border controls are aimed at securing the country for all Americans.
“This is really their last gasp at trying to stop the country from evolving, and I think they’re missing out on something that’s beautiful,” Betrayer said.
Kamala Harris’ multiracial roots reflect changing US demographics
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Kamala Harris’ multiracial roots reflect changing US demographics
- 42 million Americans identify as multiracial, or 13 percent, up from 2 percent in 2000
- Harris would be the first Black woman and South Asian if elected in November
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.
