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Harris raises rival’s age after report of exhaustion. ‘I’m not even tired,’ Trump reacts

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigns in Waterford Township, Michigan while her Republican rival Donald Trump holds a rally at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan, on October 18, 2024. (AFP/REUTERS)
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Updated 19 October 2024
Reuters
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Harris raises rival’s age after report of exhaustion. ‘I’m not even tired,’ Trump reacts

  • Trump, now 78 years old, has skipped some appearances, but his campaign has not provided reasons
  • Trump says Harris is making an issue of his age because, ‘We’re killing her in the polls, because the American people don’t want her’
Updated 19 October 2024
Reuters

DETROIT/WATERFORD, Michigan: Democrat Kamala Harris raised questions about Republican Donald Trump’s physical stamina to serve effectively as president as the two rivals tore through the deadlocked battleground state of Michigan on Friday, with Trump lashing back about the energy he’s shown on the campaign trail.
Harris, who turns 60 on Sunday, pressed the case to raise doubts about the 78-year-old Trump. Age had been an issue when President Joe Biden, 81, was still in the race, but had faded after he dropped his election bid.
Harris said on Friday news reports that former President Trump was skipping interviews because he was tired and had passed on the chance of a second debate with her raised questions about his fitness for office.
“It should be a concern. If he can’t handle the rigors of the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?” she told reporters before a rally in Grand Rapids. “That’s a legitimate question.”
Trump, now 78 years old, has skipped some appearances, but his campaign has not provided reasons.

‘American people don’t want her’
Trump, talking to reporters as he arrived in Detroit, rejected such talk. “I’ve gone 48 days now without a rest,” he said.
“I’m not even tired. I’m really exhilarated. You know why? We’re killing her in the polls, because the American people don’t want her.”
Polls in the election’s most competitive states are effectively tied with just 18 days remaining until the election .
In a Fox & Friends interview, Trump also griped about negative television ads on Fox about him and said he would ask Rupert Murdoch, the founder of News Corp. NWSA.O and who also launched Fox News, to ensure such ads are not broadcast until Election Day on Nov. 5.
“I’m going to say, ‘Rupert, please do it this way and then we’re going to have a victory, cause everyone wants that,’” Trump said.
Trump visited a campaign office in Hamtramck, where he heard praise from the Detroit suburb’s first Muslim mayor, Amer Ghalib. Trump was seeking support from Arab Americans in Michigan disenchanted with Democrats, Harris and Biden over US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
“We all ultimately want one thing. We want peace in the Middle East. We’re going to get peace in the Middle East. It’s going to happen very fast. It can happen with the right leadership in Washington,” Trump said, without elaborating.
In Oakland County, Harris welcomed members of the Arab American community to her rally and touted prospects for peace in the aftermath of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar .

Mic issues
In the evening, Trump returned to Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, for a rally after saying on Oct. 10 that the rest of the US would turn into Detroit if Harris won.
There, Trump’s microphone stopped working and the former president roamed around the stage for some 20 minutes.
“I won’t pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this crap,” Trump said after the audio started working again. “This is the worst mic I’ve ever had in my life.”
The dead-mic incident took place days after Trump stopped talking and swayed and bopped to his musical playlist at a Pennsylvania town hall event after two people in the audience fell ill.
Harris, after speaking in Grand Rapids, the heart of more conservative western Michigan, headed east to Lansing and then Oakland County, encompassing suburbs northwest of Detroit, on Friday night.
The Midwestern state has about 8.4 million voters and would bring the winner 15 Electoral College votes out of the 270 needed to win, which could be a decisive number. Harris and Trump are battling fiercely for the state’s Arab American, senior, union and working-class voters.
Public and internal campaign polls show razor-thin margins for either Harris or Trump in Michigan and other battleground states. That is worrying Democrats.
Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes in 2016. In 2020, Biden beat Trump in the state by 155,000 votes.
Harris is shifting the strategy of her whirlwind campaign to win over more Republicans and men of all races. She’s also enlisting popular former first lady Michelle Obama, who will campaign for Harris in Michigan on Oct. 26.
“I understand why people are looking to shake things up,” former President Barack Obama said at an Arizona campaign event in support of Harris on Friday. “What I cannot understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you.”
Nationally, Harris’ edge has narrowed from a late September lead of 7 percentage points over Trump to just 3 points, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with high food and rent prices still worrying Americans and Trump amplifying fears related to migrants crossing the US-Mexico border with increasingly extreme rhetoric.

Topics: Trump Returns Kamala Harris Donald Trump

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Former Kosovo rebel commander ordered to pay victims

Updated 3 sec ago
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Former Kosovo rebel commander ordered to pay victims

Updated 3 sec ago
The judges “set the total reparation award for which Mr.Shala is liable at 208,000 euros” ($220,000),” Judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague
Although the “responsibility to pay the compensation lies exclusively with Mr.Shala“” the judge said, “he does not appear to have the means to comply with the order“

THE HAGUE: A special international court on Friday ordered a former Kosovo rebel commander to pay $220,000 in damages to victims of abuses suffered in 1999 during the Serbian province’s struggle for independence.
Pjeter Shala, 61, also known as “Commander Wolf,” was sentenced to 18 years behind bars in July for war crimes committed during the tiny country’s 1998-99 independence conflict, when separatist KLA rebels fought forces loyal to then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
The judges “set the total reparation award for which Mr.Shala is liable at 208,000 euros” ($220,000),” Judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
“Mr Shala is ordered to pay (damages) as compensation for the harm inflicted” on eight victims, she said.
The total amount comprised individual payments to the eight victims ranging from 8,000 to 100,000 euros, as well as a collective sum of 50,000 euros, the judge said.
Although the “responsibility to pay the compensation lies exclusively with Mr.Shala“” the judge said, “he does not appear to have the means to comply with the order.”
Kosovo’s current Crime Victim Compensation Program “could be one way to execute the Reparation Order,” Veldt-Foglia suggested.
However, the maximum sums per victim awarded by the program would be lower than those awarded by the court, she said.
Shala faced charges of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and cruel treatment of at least 18 civilian detainees accused of working as spies or collaborating with opposing Serb forces in mid-1999.
The judges acquitted him of cruel treatment and he was sentenced on the other three counts.
The judges said Shala was part of a group of KLA soldiers who severely mistreated detainees at a metal factory serving as a KLA headquarters in Kukes, northeastern Albania, at the time.
Shala was tried before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a court located in The Hague to prosecute mainly former KLA fighters for war crimes.
They included former KLA political commander Hashim Thaci, who dominated Kosovo’s politics after it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and rose to become president of the tiny country.
Thaci resigned in 2020 to face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges, and has pleaded not guilty.

Germany indicts Turkish national for spying on alleged Gulen activists

Updated 13 min 23 sec ago
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Germany indicts Turkish national for spying on alleged Gulen activists

  • Gulen built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkiye and beyond
Updated 13 min 23 sec ago
Reuters

BERLIN: German federal prosecutors on Friday said they had indicted a Turkish national for alleged spying on individuals that he associated with cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The suspect, who is not in jail and was only identified as Mehmet K., in line with German privacy laws, contacted Turkiye’s police and intelligence service via anonymous letters, prosecutors added.
Gulen built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkiye and beyond, but spent his later years in the US mired in accusations of orchestrating an attempted coup against Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan.
Gulen died last month.

Topics: France Germany Turkiye Fethullah Gulen spying

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At least 15 dead, 113 missing, in Uganda landslides

Updated 56 min 1 sec ago
AFP
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At least 15 dead, 113 missing, in Uganda landslides

  • Landslides late on Wednesday hit the village of Masugu in the eastern Bulambuli district, about five hours from the capital, Kampala
  • Images on local media showed huge swathes of fallen earth covering the land
Updated 56 min 1 sec ago
AFP

KAMPALA: Landslides that hit several villages in eastern Uganda killed 15 people and left more than 100 unaccounted for, police said Thursday.
The East African country has been deluged by heavy rains in past days, with the government issuing a national disaster alert after reports of flooding and landslides.
Landslides late on Wednesday hit the village of Masugu in the eastern Bulambuli district, about five hours from the capital, Kampala.
Images on local media showed huge swathes of fallen earth covering the land.
“A total of 15 bodies have been retrieved,” the Ugandan police said in a statement posted on X, adding that another 15 people had been taken to hospital.
“Unfortunately, 113 people are still missing, but efforts are underway to locate them,” it said.
The statement said five villages — Masugu, Namachele, Natola, Namagugu, and Tagalu — had been impacted.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja told NBS television that they “believe” all the missing were presumed dead.
“We are trying to exhume the bodies of those missing people,” she said, adding that at least 19 people had been injured, two of them in critical condition.
District commissioner Faheera Mpalanyi said early Thursday that six bodies, including a baby, had been recovered so far from Masugu village.
“Given the devastation and the size of the area affected and from what the affected families are telling us, several people are missing and probably buried in the debris,” she said.
Ugandan Red Cross spokesperson Irene Nakasiita said on X that 15 bodies had been recovered, including seven children.
Some 45 homes had been “completely buried,” she added.
Police said rescue operations were being hindered by impassable roads, blocking ambulances and rescue vehicles from reaching the scene.
A Uganda Red Cross video showed a huddle of people desperately digging through earth as women wailed in the background.
Some 500 soldiers had been deployed to help with the rescue but only 120 had managed to reach the villages, Nabbanja said.
The scale of the multiple landslides was unclear.
Videos and photographs shared on social media purported to show people digging for survivors in Kimono village, also located in the Bulambuli district.
The Ugandan prime minister’s office issued an alert, writing on X: “Heavy rains on Wednesday in parts of Uganda have led to disaster situations in many areas.”
The rains caused flooding in the northwest after a tributary of the Nile River burst its banks.
Emergency teams were deployed to rescue stranded motorists.
A major road connecting the country with South Sudan was obstructed late on Wednesday, with emergency boat crews deployed near the town of Pakwach.
“Unfortunately, one of the boats capsized, resulting in the death of one engineer,” Uganda’s defense forces said on X.
The deadliest landslide in Africa ravaged Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown in August 2017, when 1,141 people perished.
Mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people in February 2010.
Earlier this year, more than 30 people died in Kampala after a massive rubbish landslide.

Topics: Uganda Landslides

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Dozens feared dead in Nigeria boat accident

Updated 29 November 2024
Reuters
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Dozens feared dead in Nigeria boat accident

  • Rescue operations were currently underway, but the exact number of fatalities was unknown
Updated 29 November 2024
Reuters

ABUJA: Dozens of people were feared dead after a boat capsized on the Niger River in central Nigeria, a waterways agency spokesperson said on Friday.
National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) spokesperson Makama Suleiman said the boat was carrying mostly traders from Missa community in the central Kogi state heading to a weekly market in the neighboring Niger state.
Suleiman said that rescue operations were currently underway, but the exact number of fatalities was unknown.
None of the passengers were wearing life jackets, which significantly increased the risk of fatalities, he said.

Topics: Nigeria Niger River Boat capsizing

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UK spy chief says Russia behind ‘staggeringly reckless’ sabotage in Europe

Updated 29 November 2024
Reuters
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UK spy chief says Russia behind ‘staggeringly reckless’ sabotage in Europe

  • Richard Moore, head of MI6, said: “We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe”
  • “If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous“
Updated 29 November 2024
Reuters

PARIS: Britain’s foreign spy chief accused Russia on Friday of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe while also stepping up its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine.
Richard Moore, head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said that any softening in support for Ukraine against Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies.
In what appeared a message to incoming US President Donald Trump’s administration and some European allies that have questioned continued support for Ukraine in the grinding war, Moore argued that Europe and its transatlantic partners must hold firm in the face of what he said was growing aggression.
“We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine,” he said in a speech in Paris.
“The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
In September, Moore said Russia’s intelligence services had gone “a bit feral” in the latest warning by NATO and other Western spy chiefs about what they call hostile Russian actions, ranging from repeated cyberattacks to Moscow-linked arson.
Moscow has denied responsibility for all such incidents. The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Moore’s remarks.
Last month the UK’s domestic spy chief said Russia’s GRU military intelligence service was seeking to cause “mayhem.” Sources familiar with US intelligence have told Reuters Moscow is likely to step up its campaign against European targets to increase pressure on the West over its support for Kyiv.

LOOKING FORWARD TO TRUMP
Much of Moore’s speech was focused on the importance of Western solidarity, saying the collective strength of Britain’s allies would outmatch Putin who, he said, was becoming increasingly in hock to China, North Korea and Iran.
Trump, who has vowed to quickly end the war in Ukraine, without saying how, and other Republicans in the US have expressed reservations about Washington’s strong strategic support and heavy weapons supplies for Kyiv.
“If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state he will not stop there. Our security — British, French, European and transatlantic — will be jeopardized,” Moore said.
In general terms, Moore said the world was in its most dangerous state in his 37 years working in the intelligence world, with Daesh on the rise again, Iran’s nuclear ambitions a continued threat, and the radicalising impact of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel not yet fully known.
Nicolas Lerner, head of France’s foreign spy agency DGSE, said French and UK intelligence were working closely together “to face what is undoubtedly one of the threats — if not the threat — in my opinion, the possible atomic proliferation in Iran.” Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear weapons.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Richard Moore Britain Secret Intelligence Service MI6 Europe sabotage

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