CLARKSTON, Georgia: Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama lent their star power to Kamala Harris’ quest for the presidency on Thursday as the vice president enlists some of her most high-profile surrogates in the closing days of the campaign.
The use of Springsteen, an iconic performer whose career spans five decades, and Obama, still one of the biggest names in Democratic politics, highlights how Harris’ campaign is in an all-out sprint ahead of Election Day, leaning on some of the most noteworthy names in the party to both help her deliver her closing message and lambast her opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up, but what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump would shake things up in ways that are good for you,” Obama told the audience outside Atlanta.
Obama wasted no time attacking Trump, knocking him for “trying to sell you stuff,” as someone who only cares about “his ego, his money, his status,” and gives lengthy speeches that are “just word salad.”
“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator,” Obama said before touting Harris as someone “ready for the job.”
After arguing Trump is focused on himself, Obama said, “If you elect Kamala Harris ... she will be focused on you.”
Springsteen, too, focused on Trump.
After a performance of “The Promised Land,” a ballad off his 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Springsteen told the Georgia audience he was backing Harris because he wants “a president who reveres the constitution.”
“There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear, Kamala Harris. She’s running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant,” Springsteen added before playing “Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Dancing in the Dark.”
Harris’ rally in Clarkston — an eastern Atlanta suburb — was at a high school football stadium where the audience reflected the suburb’s reputation as the “most diverse square mile in America.” The community has taken in waves of immigrants and refugees, and 40 percent of its population was foreign-born in 2020.
The DJ working the crowd before the event started called out not only to graduates of historically Black colleges and universities, but to West Indians. Among those in the snaking line to enter were people of Asian descent and women in hijabs.
Many attendees said they were trying to push their relatives and neighbors to the polls to vote for Harris, either through formal volunteer efforts or on their own. “I decided to go volunteer because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” said Beverly Payne, who lives in Cumming, a Republican suburban stronghold north of Atlanta.
Payne said she is still working on persuading her mother but has already swung one Georgia vote to Harris. “My 85-year-old father has gone Democratic for the first time in his life,” she said.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Spike Lee and actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry also spoke at the start of the event.
“No matter what kind of shenanigans, skullduggery and subterfuge, the okie-doke, we’re not going back,” Lee proclaimed.
Harris’ run of events with celebrities will continue Friday when she travels to Texas for a Houston rally with Beyoncé, according to three people familiar with the matter. The singer is a Houston native, and her 2016 song “Freedom” has become Harris’ campaign anthem.
While the Friday rally is in a red state that even the most optimistic Democrat knows the vice president is unlikely to turn blue in November, the event Thursday in Georgia highlights that state’s prominent place in her possible path to defeating former President Donald Trump.
Democrats, led by then-former Vice President Joe Biden and Harris, won Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential campaign to win the Southern state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Harris’ campaign is hopeful she can keep the state blue in 2024.
Polls of likely voters in Georgia from NYT/Siena to Fox News to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution show a tight race between Trump and Harris.
Thursday’s event is the first in the campaign’s “When We Vote We Win” concert series that aims to encourage Harris supporters to vote before Election Day.
Harris is not the only member of the Democratic campaign to lean on star power in the final days. Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, has events in North Carolina on Thursday alongside singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Democrats are known for leaning on high-profile surrogates in the final days of presidential races.
Springsteen has long been a supporter of Democratic presidential campaigns. The artist backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, even endorsing the would-be president in the contentious 2008 Democratic primary. He backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, performing at a Philadelphia rally on the eve of Election Day, and endorsed Biden in 2020. The New Jersey artist endorsed Harris earlier this month, calling Trump the “most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”
Beyoncé, too, backed Clinton in 2016, performing at an event in Cleveland alongside husband and rapper Jay Z just days before Election Day that year. And Taylor has become a staple at Democratic events and fundraisers.
But Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, despite the considerable star power behind her, serves as a warning for Democrats that energy provided by big-name artists like Springsteen and Beyoncé is often not enough to win an election.
Harris campaign advisers, though, see events like those in Georgia and Texas as major moments to mobilize voter enthusiasm and get out the vote before Election Day.
According to the Associated Press count, 2,025,645 people in Georgia have already voted early in-person, while an additional 134,336 mail-in ballots have been submitted in the 2024 general election.
Harris is leaning on big names like Obama, Beyoncé and Springsteen to close out her campaign
Harris is leaning on big names like Obama, Beyoncé and Springsteen to close out her campaign
Xi pledges to boost Iran ties in talks with Pezeshkian
- Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran,” according to Xinhua news agency
- China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
KAZAN, Russia: Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday.
The meeting between the two on the sidelines of a BRICS summit was their first since Pezeshkian was elected president following the death of his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash.
Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran,” Xinhua said.
The promise of continued support comes as Middle East tensions soar over Israel’s ongoing war with Iran-backed militants in Gaza and Lebanon, and as the world awaits an Israeli response to Tehran’s latest missile attack.
At a BRICS plenary session on Wednesday, Pezeshkian urged members of the grouping to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon.”
Xi meanwhile repeated his call for a ceasefire, saying: “We need to... stop the killing and work tirelessly for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
He told Pezeshkian in their meeting that an “early ceasefire and end of war in Gaza are the key to easing regional tensions,” Xinhua said.
China supports Iran “in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and national dignity, steadily advancing its own economic and social development,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.
The pledge echoed similar comments by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi after a meeting last month with Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
Both countries have faced Western pressure in the form of sanctions, most recently because of their stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Australia and UK make pact to partner on 2050 net-zero climate goal
APIA, Samoa: Australia and the United Kingdom have deepened ties by agreeing to collaborate on climate change and energy initiatives, aiming to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while also reaffirming their mutual commitment to develop nuclear submarines for both nations under the AUKUS treaty.
The Climate and Energy Partnership was announced after talks between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the Commonwealth leaders meeting in Samoa on Friday.
The partnership focuses on accelerating the development of renewable energy like green hydrogen and offshore wind by sharing technology and innovation.
“This partnership will ensure we maximize the economic potential of the net zero transition, and build on our long-standing cooperation on international climate action and shared commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050,” Albanese said in a statement on Friday.
However, the statement was short on specifics for implementing the agreement, and is likely to do little to assuage the fears of several Pacific Island leaders, whose low-lying island nations are at high risk of rising sea levels, and on Thursday called on both countries to do more to tackle climate change.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), hosted by Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, is expected to conclude with a strong statement on climate change, ahead of the UN climate summit in November.
Security was another theme of the first meeting between the left-leaning leaders since Starmer’s election victory in July, with defense, the war in Ukraine, the AUKUS security partnership, and issues in the Indo-Pacific discussed according to the joint statement released by the Prime Ministers.
“Together, we’re delivering better futures for our two countries, whether that’s through protecting our national security with projects like AUKUS or delivering on our net zero commitments,” said Starmer in a statement Friday.
King Charles III, attending his first CHOGM as sovereign, is expected to address the gathering.
Vote to continue strike exposes Boeing workers’ anger over lost pensions
- Boeing froze its traditional pension plan as part of concessions that union members narrowly voted to make a decade ago in exchange for keeping production of the company’s airline planes in the Seattle area
- The walkout has stopped production of the company’s 737, 767 and 777 jetliners, cutting off a key source of cash that Boeing receives when it delivers new planes
Since going on strike last month, Boeing factory workers have repeated one theme from their picket lines: They want their pensions back.
Boeing froze its traditional pension plan as part of concessions that union members narrowly voted to make a decade ago in exchange for keeping production of the company’s airline planes in the Seattle area.
Like other large employers, the aerospace giant argued back then that ballooning pension payments threatened Boeing’s long-term financial stability. But the decision nonetheless has come back to have fiscal repercussions for the company.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced Wednesday night that 64 percent of its Boeing members voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and remain on strike. The offer included a 35 percent increase in wage rates over four years for 33,000 striking machinists but no restoration of pension benefits.
The extension of the six-week-old strike plunges Boeing — which is already deeply in debt and lost another $6.2 billion in the third quarter — into more financial danger. The walkout has stopped production of the company’s 737, 767 and 777 jetliners, cutting off a key source of cash that Boeing receives when it delivers new planes.
The company indicated Thursday, however, that bringing pensions back remained a non-starter in future negotiations. Union members were just as adamant.
“I feel sorry for the young people,” Charles Fromong, a tool-repair technician who has spent 38 years at Boeing, said at a Seattle union hall after the vote. “I’ve spent my life here, and I’m getting ready to go, but they deserve a pension, and I deserve an increase.”
What are traditional pensions?
Pensions are plans in which retirees get a set amount of money each month for the rest of their lives. The payments are typically based on a worker’s years of service and former salary.
Over the past several decades, however, traditional pensions have been replaced in most workplaces by retirement-savings accounts such as 401(k) plans. Rather than a guaranteed monthly income stream in retirement, workers invest money that they and the company contribute.
In theory, investments such as stocks and bonds will grow in value over the workers’ careers and give them enough savings for retirement. However, the value of the accounts can vary based on the performance of financial markets and each employee’s investments.
Why did employers move away from pensions?
The shift began after 401(k) plans became available in the 1980s. With the stock market performing well over the next two decades, “people thought they were brilliant investors,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. After the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s took a toll on pension plan investments, employers “started freezing their plans and shutting them down,” she added.
In the 1980s, about 4 in 10 US workers in the private sector had pension plans, but today only 1 in 10 do, and they’re overwhelmingly concentrated in the financial sector, said Jake Rosenfeld, chairman of the sociology department at Washington University-St. Louis.
Companies realized that remaining on the hook to guarantee a certain percentage of workers’ salaries in retirement carried more risk and difficulty than defined contribution plans that “shift the risk of retirement onto the worker and the retiree,” Rosenfeld said.
“And so that became the major trend among firm after firm after firm,” he said.
Rosenfeld said he was surprised the pension plan “has remained a sticking point on the side of the rank and file” at Boeing. “These are the types of plans that have been in decline for decades now. And so you simply do not hear about a company reinstating or implementing from scratch a defined contribution plan.”
What happened to Boeing’s pension plan?
Boeing demanded in 2013 that machinists drop their pension plan as part of an agreement to build a new model of the 777 jetliner in Washington state. Union leaders were terrified by the prospect that Boeing would build the plane elsewhere, with nonunion workers.
After a bitter campaign, a bare 51 percent majority of machinists in January 2014 approved a contract extension that made union members hired after that ineligible for pensions and froze increases for existing employees starting in October 2016. In return, Boeing contributed a percentage of worker wages into retirement accounts and matched employee contributions to a certain point.
The company later froze pensions for 68,000 nonunion employees. Boeing’s top human-resources executive at the time said the move was about “assuring our competitiveness by curbing the unsustainable growth of our long-term pension liability.”
How realistic is the Boeing workers’ demand?
Boeing raised its wage offer twice after the strike started on Sept. 13 but has been steadfast in opposing the return of pensions.
“There is no scenario where the company reactivates a defined-benefit pension for this or any other population,” Boeing said in a statement Thursday. “They’re prohibitively expensive, and that’s why virtually all private employers have transitioned away from them to defined-contribution plans.”
Boeing says 42 percent of its machinists have been at the company long enough to be covered by the pension plan, although their benefits have been frozen for many years. In the contract that was rejected Wednesday, the company proposed to raise monthly payouts for those covered workers from $95 to $105 per year of service.
The company said in a securities filing that its accrued pension-plan liability was $6.1 billion on Sept. 30. Reinstating the pension could cost Boeing more than $1.6 billion per year, Bank of America analysts estimated.
Jon Holden, the president of IAM District 751, which represents the striking workers, said after the vote that if Boeing is unwilling to restore the pension plan, “we’ve got to get something that replaces it.”
Do companies ever restore pension plans?
It is unusual for a company to restore a pension plan once it was frozen, although a few have. IBM replaced its 401(k) match with a contribution to a defined-benefits plan earlier this year.
Pension plans have become a rarity in corporate America, so the move may help IBM attract talent, experts say. But IBM’s motivation may have been financial; the pension plan became significantly overfunded after the company froze it about two decades ago, according to actuarial firm Milliman.
“The IBM example is not really an indication that there was a movement toward defined benefit plans,” Boston College’s Munnell said.
Milliman analyzed 100 of the largest corporate defined benefits plans this year and found that 48 were fully funded or better, and 36 were frozen with surplus assets.
Can Boeing be pressured to change its mind?
Pressure to end the strike is growing on new CEO Kelly Ortberg. Since the walkout began, he announced about 17,000 layoffs and steps to raise more money from the sale of stock or debt.
Bank of America analysts estimate that Boeing is losing about $50 million a day during the strike. If it goes 58 days — the average of the last several strikes at Boeing — the cost could reach nearly $3 billion.
“We see more benefit to (Boeing) improving the deal further and reaching a faster resolution,” the analysts said. “In the long run, we see the benefits of making a generous offer and dealing with increased labor inputs outpacing the financial strain caused by prolonged disruptions.”
Climate change worsened deadly Africa floods, scientists say
- A new analysis by the World Weather Attribution network of scientists found warming driven by the use of fossil fuels had exacerbated the flooding in Sudan
- The researchers said there was a clear link between the extreme rainfall and a warming planet
ABUJA, Nigeria: Human-caused climate change worsened floods that have killed hundreds of people and displaced millions in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan this year, according to a study published on Wednesday.
The intense rainy season has unleashed a humanitarian crisis across large areas of the Sahel region bordering the Sahara desert.
A new analysis by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network of scientists found warming driven by the use of fossil fuels had exacerbated the flooding in Sudan.
The researchers also said climate change would have made this year’s torrential rains around five to 20 percent more intense across the Niger and Lake Chad basins, citing a previous WWA study of similar floods in 2022.
“This is only going to keep getting worse if we keep burning fossil fuels,” said Clair Barnes from the Center for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.
Speaking at a briefing ahead of the study’s publication, she said such downpours “could happen every year” if global temperatures increase to two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
“It’s pretty serious,” she said.
Global warming is not just about rising temperatures — the extra heat trapped in the atmosphere and seas has knock-on effects and can result in more intense downpours and storms.
The researchers said there was a clear link between the extreme rainfall and a warming planet.
In the study, they focused on war-torn Sudan, where millions of displaced people have been uprooted by conflict and driven into flood-prone areas.
The scientists used modelling to compare weather patterns in our world and one without human-induced warming, and found that month-long spells of intense rainfall in parts of Sudan had become heavier and more likely due to climate change.
At the current 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming, they said similar periods of rainfall are expected to occur on average about once every three years, and have become about 10 percent heavier due to climate change.
“These results are incredibly concerning,” said Izidine Pinto, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
He warned that “with every fraction of a degree of warming, the risk of extreme floods will keep increasing,” and called for the UN’s COP29 climate summit to “accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels” when it meets in Azerbaijan next month.
Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial’s Center for Environmental Policy, said the floods underscored the need for a loss and damage fund for nations devastated by climate change.
A key meeting ahead of COP29 earlier this month ended with countries making little progress over how to finance a deal for poorer nations.
“Africa has contributed a tiny amount of carbon emissions globally, but is being hit the hardest by extreme weather,” Kimutai said.
The role of climate change in the floods was compounded by other human-made problems, the researchers said, and they called for better maintenance of dams and investment in early warning systems.
Trump vows to fire special counsel Jack Smith ‘in two seconds’ when he wins presidential race
- Trump is accused by Smith of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden
- Harris campaign says Trump's comments are right in line with the warnings made by Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly)that "he wants to rule as a dictator with unchecked power
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday that he would immediately fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two federal cases against him, if he wins the November election.
Trump, who is awaiting sentencing on separate charges relating to hush money payments, is accused by Smith of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump’s remarks targeting the special counsel prompted the campaign of his White House rival Kamala Harris to accuse the former president of thinking he was “above the law.”
Trump’s lawyers filed a motion meanwhile which sought the dismissal of the election subversion case on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed — an argument that they successfully used in another case against the former president brought by the special counsel.
Trump was charged in Florida with mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, but the case was tossed out by District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee.
The legitimacy of special counsels has been validated in numerous other cases and Cannon’s extraordinary ruling has been appealed by Smith.
Trump praised Cannon as a “brave, brilliant judge” during an interview on Thursday with conservative podcast host Hugh Hewitt.
Trump, who has threatened to prosecute his perceived political enemies if reelected, was asked by Hewitt whether he would pardon himself or dismiss Smith on his first day back in the White House.
“It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump said.
Smith was appointed special counsel by Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland.
A US president does not have the authority to dismiss a special counsel, but if reelected Trump could appoint a new attorney general who could do so.
A Trump-appointed attorney general could also have any federal cases against him thrown out.
Ammar Moussa, a Harris campaign spokesman, said Trump’s comments “are right in line with the warnings made by Trump’s former Chief of Staff (John Kelly) that he wants to rule as a dictator with unchecked power.”
“A second Trump term, where a more unstable and unhinged Trump has essentially no guardrails and is surrounded by loyalists who will enable his worst instincts, is guaranteed to be more dangerous,” Moussa added.
Trump, 78, had been scheduled to go on trial for the election subversion charges in March, but the case was frozen while his lawyers argued that an ex-president should be immune from criminal prosecution.
The Supreme Court ruled in July that a former president has broad immunity from prosecution for official acts conducted while in office, but can be pursued for unofficial acts.
Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the session of Congress that was to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory — when it was violently attacked by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
The former president is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise US voters with his false claims that he won the 2020 election.
In May, Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He also faces racketeering charges in Georgia related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
