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
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- 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
Britain’s crime minister has bag stolen at police conference
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- In her speech, Diana Johnson said Britain had been ‘gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavior, theft and shoplifting’
- Warwickshire Police said a 56-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and released on bail in connection to the incident
The incident occurred when Diana Johnson attended the Police Superintendents’ Association conference in central England on Tuesday where one senior officer told her in a speech that the criminal justice system was broken.
The official said Johnson had her bag stolen at the conference, but no security risk had been identified. In her speech, Johnson said Britain had been “gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavior, theft and shoplifting.”
The Home Office, or interior ministry, declined to comment.
Warwickshire Police said a 56-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and released on bail in connection to the incident.
Britain has been hit by an increase in thefts and shoplifting in recent years. While overall crime has generally been decreasing, the number of thefts from individuals of items like bags and mobile phones rose by 40 percent in the year ending March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This has contributed to public support for the police falling to record lows. A poll by YouGov earlier this year found more than half of the public do not trust the police to solve crimes, and over a third said they have no faith in the police to maintain law and order.
In her speech, Johnson announced plans to give more police officers training to tackle anti-social behavior after a “decade of decline.”
“Too many town centers and high streets across the country have been gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavior, theft and shoplifting which is corroding our communities and cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.
Russian missile hit an Egypt-bound wheat cargo ship in Black Sea: Zelensky
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- “Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said
- There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike
KYIV: A Russian missile on Thursday morning hit an Egypt-bound cargo ship in the Black Sea carrying wheat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Black Sea is a crucial trading route for Ukraine, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and exporters, but was turned into a naval battleground when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Russian missile against a wheat cargo bound for Egypt ... Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike.
“Domestic stability and normal life in dozens of countries around the world are dependent on the normal and unhindered operation of our food expert corridor,” he said.
Moscow last year pulled out of a UN-brokered deal guaranteeing safe passage for Ukraine’s agricultural exports on the Black Sea, but Kyiv has carved out a maritime corridor allowing trade to continue.
Over 5,000 ships have sailed through the grain corridor since it was created, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Wednesday.
Global food prices shot up when Russia invaded Ukraine amid fears conflict in the Black Sea would hobble global food supplies.
Sweden wants to pay immigrants up to $34,000 to return: govt
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- As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to $34,000
STOCKHOLM: Sweden's government said Thursday it would drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to leave the country, in order to encourage more migrants to make the choice.
As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor ($34,000), up from the current 10,000 kronor, the right-wing government, which is propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, said in a statement.
Polish FM sees limit on influencing Iran after Russia missiles transfer
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- “The trouble for Poland is that Iran is already under such severe sanctions that there is not that much more that we can do,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said
- “I’m disappointed, because we have a new president of Iran“
WARSAW: Poland’s foreign minister conceded Thursday that there were limits on how to influence Iran, already under heavy sanctions, after Tehran allegedly shipped short-range missiles to Russia to attack Ukraine.
Western powers this week imposed new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, including state carrier Iran Air, and Ukraine warned it may cut off relations with Tehran.
“The trouble for Poland is that Iran is already under such severe sanctions that there is not that much more that we can do,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said when asked if Poland, a staunch backer of Ukraine, would also sever ties.
He was speaking at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Tuesday said that Russia could start firing the Iranian missiles into Ukraine within weeks.
Western powers had warned Iran against the move, and Sikorski noted that it came shortly after Iranians elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, seen as a reformist within the cleric-run state.
“I’m disappointed, because we have a new president of Iran. He’s supposedly not as aggressive as the previous butcher of Tehran,” Sikorski said.
“But the policy of sending missiles and drones to use against Ukraine and also using similar equipment against Israel seems to be continuing.”
Poland enjoys a long history with Iran, which took in thousands of Polish civilians during World War II.
But as a close US ally, it has joined pressure campaigns against Iran, including agreeing to host a 2019 conference encouraged by then president Donald Trump that pressured Tehran.
Russia hit Red Cross vehicles in east Ukraine, killed 3: Zelensky
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- “Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said
- The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian attack on vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Thursday in his country’s east had killed three people.
“Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said.
Artillery shelling killed three Ukrainian citizens working for the ICRC and wounded another two, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets said.
The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka, a dozen of kilometers away from the front line in Donetsk.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which routinely says it only hits military targets.
The UN Humanitarian mission to Ukraine said 50 workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, including 11 killed in the line of duty.
“Since the beginning of the year, this repeated pattern of attacks appears to have intensified,” the UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement in February.