SAVANNAH, Georgia: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will sit on Thursday for their first joint television interview since they accepted their nominations as the Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Harris has taken questions from journalists on the campaign trail and been interviewed on TikTok in recent days.
But she has yet to do a one-on-one interview with a major network or print journalist or hold a formal press conference since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, after President Joe Biden was forced to end his re-election campaign on July 21.
CNN’s Dana Bash, who co-anchored Biden’s June 27 debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump, will conduct the interview in Savannah, Georgia, as Harris continues her bus tour of the battleground state. The interview will air at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT Friday), with CNN set to release short excerpts before it airs. Before Harris picked him as her running mate for the Nov. 5 election, Walz did a string of interviews with major television networks. Harris and Walz on Tuesday kicked off a bus tour of Georgia, piling into a big blue bus emblazoned with the words “A New Way Forward” as they worked to woo voters in a state Biden narrowly won in 2020, and which could play a decisive role in this year’s election.
Harris, joined by representative Nikema Williams, will make two stops at small businesses and thank volunteers in Chatham County, Georgia, where Democrats have chalked up steady gains in recent years.
At around 5:15 p.m. EDT, she is due to speak at a campaign rally in Savannah’s Enmarket Arena, making her the first presidential candidate to campaign in Savannah since the 1990s.
She will be introduced by Katelyn Green, president of student government at Savannah State University, the oldest historically Black college and university in the state.
The campaign is reaching out to students across battleground states which could be decisive in November to help boost turnout, but it also faces possible protests by pro-Palestinian voices angered by US arms sales to Israel. One protest by the group Savannah for Palestine is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., organizers said.
OFF-SCRIPT MOMENTS
Harris’ lack of interviews has sparked criticism from opponents, and some concern among supporters, that she is less sharp at off-script moments than she is at rallies or speeches where a prepared speech and a TelePrompter are at her disposal.
Trump frequently holds press conferences and offers interviews to conservative news outlets. Often he uses them to criticize Harris and Biden rather than discuss his own policy aims in detail.
The CNN interview will be watched both for how Harris handles a less scripted environment and for any new details about her policies and goals for a presidency, should she win.
Early in her vice presidential tenure, Harris was criticized for her response in an interview with NBC anchor Lester Holt, who asked why she had not yet visited the US border with Mexico. She said she had not yet been to Europe, either. The Harris-Walz campaign held traditional journalists at arms length during the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago while granting hundreds of social media influencers more access to officials.
Last week, Harris was interviewed by Track Star Show, a TikTok account with over 380,000 followers, about her love of musicians Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis.
A video on the campaign’s YouTube channel of Harris and Walz discussing his taco preferences, division in America, social programs they both support and their mutual appreciation for musician Prince — a Minnesota native — has been watched more than 1.8 million times.
Harris, Walz to hold first joint network TV interview on CNN
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Harris, Walz to hold first joint network TV interview on CNN
- Kamala Harris has taken questions from journalists on the campaign trail and been interviewed on TikTok in recent days
- But she has yet to do a one-on-one interview with a major network or print journalist or hold a formal press conference
US State Dept denies deleting data on halted program tracking abducted Ukrainian children
- Department denies deleting data, says it wasn’t holding it
- Yale research report links Putin to adoption program for deported Ukrainian children
WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Wednesday denied that data collected in a government-funded program that helps track thousands of abducted Ukrainian children had been deleted, but acknowledged that the effort had been terminated as part of Washington’s sweeping freeze on almost all foreign aid.
In a letter addressed to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democratic lawmakers sounded alarm that the data from the repository might have been permanently deleted.
Speaking at a daily press briefing, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said suggestions that data was deleted were false.
“The data exists,” Bruce said. “It was not in the State Department’s control. It was the people running that framework, but we know who is running the data and the website, and we know fully that the data exists and it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing.”
Bruce also suggested that President Donald Trump by bringing up the issue in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Wednesday may mean cooperation between the two countries on the topic could continue.
“The president of the most powerful country in the world, saying, I’m going to do something here... I think that’s a pretty good, clear indication that we can still work on issues that matter and make them happen without it being in a certain structure that has existed,” she said.
The research program conducted by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab was part of an effort that began under President Joe Biden to document potential violations of international law and crimes against humanity by Russia and Russia-aligned forces in its invasion of Ukraine.
The Trump administration paused the program on January 25, the unnamed State Department spokesperson said in an email, as the Republican president ordered a broad review to prevent what he says is wasteful spending of US taxpayer dollars with causes that do not align with US interests.
“Following a review, the US Department of State decided to terminate the foreign assistance award supporting the Ukraine Conflict Observatory,” a different spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the data resides on a platform owned by MITRE, a non-governmental organization that operates research and development centers, according to its website.
“To the best of MITRE’s knowledge and belief, the research data that was compiled has not been deleted and is currently maintained by a former partner on this contract,” it said in a statement.
Researches lose access
In his call with Zelensky, Trump inquired about the children who had gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted, the White House said in a statement.
“President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home,” the White House said.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily and to protect vulnerable children from the war zone.
The decision to stop the program means researchers will lose access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and other data, about some 30,000 children taken from Ukraine, the lawmakers said in their letter.
Last December, a report produced as a result of the research said Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of Ukrainian identity and placed them with Russian families.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
Malaysia agrees on terms for restarting MH370 wreckage search
- The decision will enable commencement of seabed search operations in a new location estimated to cover 15,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed to terms and conditions of an agreement with exploration firm Ocean Infinity to resume the search for the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, its transport minister said on Wednesday. Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014 in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
The decision will enable commencement of seabed search operations in a new location estimated to cover 15,000 sq km (5,790 sq miles) in the southern Indian Ocean, based on a “no find, no fee” principle, Minister Loke Siew Fook said.
Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million if the wreckage is successfully located, he said.
“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers,” Loke said in a statement. The government in December said it had agreed in principle with Ocean Infinity’s proposal to resume the hunt for MH370. The firm had conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018 but failed on two attempts.
Those followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China in a 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane. A ship that will look for the missing plane was deployed to its Indian Ocean search zone late last month, ship tracking data showed, even though a deal had yet to be signed with the government.
It was not immediately clear how long the search contract with Ocean Infinity would be. Loke had previously said it would cover an 18-month period.
Pope Francis no longer using ventilation, confirmed as improving, Vatican says
- “The clinical conditions of the Holy Father are confirmed to be improving,” said the latest detailed medical update
- The pope’s doctors believe his infection is under control, the Vatican press office said
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis is no longer using mechanical ventilation for help breathing at night and his doctors believe he will continue to improve, the Vatican said on Wednesday, in the latest positive update as the 88-year-old pontiff battles pneumonia.
Francis has been in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for nearly five weeks for a severe respiratory infection that has required evolving treatment.
“The clinical conditions of the Holy Father are confirmed to be improving,” said the latest detailed medical update on his condition.
The pope had been using non-invasive mechanical ventilation overnight during his hospital stay, which involves placing a mask over the face to help push air into the lungs.
Such ventilation had been “suspended,” the statement said. But it said the pope is still receiving oxygen via a small hose under his nose.
The pope’s doctors believe his infection is under control, the Vatican press office said shortly after the release of the latest statement. The pope does not have a fever and his blood tests are normal, it said.
The pope has been described as being in a stable or improving condition for two weeks, but the Vatican has not yet given a timeframe for his discharge, saying his recovery is going slowly.
Francis is prone to lung infections because he had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
He has been receiving both respiratory physiotherapy to help with his breathing and physical therapy to help with his mobility. He has used a wheelchair in recent years due to knee and back pain.
Doctors not involved in Francis’ care said the pope is likely to face a long, fraught road to recovery, given his age and other medical conditions.
US envoy predicts Ukraine ceasefire in ‘couple of weeks’
- Discussions on a possible deal to end Russia-Ukraine war will begin Monday in Saudi Arabia, Witkoff said
- “Ukrainian and American teams are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue coordinating steps toward peace,” Zelensky wrote
WASHINGTON: US envoy Steve Witkoff said technical discussions on a possible deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war will begin Monday in Saudi Arabia, predicting a ceasefire agreement could come as soon as “a couple of weeks.”
“I believe on Monday we actually have the technical teams going” to the Kingdom, Witkoff told Bloomberg Television early Wednesday as he expressed confidence in ongoing negotiations following a telephone call the previous day between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“They agreed on a pathway to some ceasefire conditions... and to a full-on ceasefire that will be negotiated over the coming days. I actually think in a couple of weeks we’re going to get to it,” he said.
Witkoff, who is also Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, did not provide details on the upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia. But he said it was time “for the technical teams to dot the I’s and cross the T’s, and everybody is committed to that process.”
Asked by Bloomberg about the prospect of a possible meeting in the Kingdom between Trump and Putin, Witkoff said “my best bet would be it’s likely to happen.” He offered no timeline.
Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday also expressed confidence about enacting steps to bring the fighting to an end.
“I spoke today with my Russian counterpart Yuri Ushakov about President Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine,” Waltz posted on X.
“We agreed our technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after his call with Trump on Wednesday, said that officials from Ukraine and the US could meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for a second round of peace talks.
“Ukrainian and American teams are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue coordinating steps toward peace,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Russia toughens sentence against French banker who left country
- Delpal was sentenced alongside his business partner, US investor Michael Calvey, both of whom vehemently denied the charges
- The case shocked Russia’s business community and triggered an outflow of foreign capital from Russia
MOSCOW: A Moscow court has toughened an embezzlement conviction against a French banker who left the country years earlier, converting his initial suspended sentence to jail time, Russian state media reported Wednesday.
Philippe Delpal, a former senior executive at the Baring Vostok investment group, received a four-and-a-half year suspended sentence in 2021 for allegedly swindling funds from Vostochny Bank — partly owned at the time by a businessman linked to Vladimir Putin.
Delpal was sentenced alongside his business partner, US investor Michael Calvey, both of whom vehemently denied the charges.
The case shocked Russia’s business community and triggered an outflow of foreign capital from Russia.
The latest move, while likely to have little impact, comes as relations between Moscow and Paris plummet to new lows as the Kremlin shifts blame for the three-year Ukraine conflict from the United States to Europe.
Both Calvey and Delpal left Russia once the travel restrictions in their suspended sentences were lifted.
Moscow’s Tverskoy Court on Wednesday replaced Delpal’s initial suspended sentence “with a real one” following a petition from Russia’s federal prison service, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported.
Delpal, who spent six months in jail before he was put under house arrest, received the suspended sentence in 2021.
Five Russian associates who said they were innocent also received suspended sentences of between three-and-a-half years to five years.
A Moscow court later reduced Delpal’s sentence from four-and-a-half years to three-and-a-half-years.
