MADISON, Wisconsin: Kamala Harris said Friday it was “disqualifying” for Donald Trump to say former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the former president’s most prominent Republican critics, should have rifles “shooting at her” to see how she feels about sending troops to fight.
The Democratic vice president has campaigned extensively with Cheney, especially in the “blue wall” battleground states that make up her strongest path to victory on Tuesday, while Trump has been going after the former Wyoming congresswoman and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, over the Iraq war and US military interventions abroad.
Speaking to reporters after arriving in Madison, Wisconsin, Harris asked voters to consider who they’d prefer sitting in the Oval Office, driving the message she’s been emphasizing in the campaign’s closing week. Harris called Cheney “a true patriot” and said Trump “has increased his violent rhetoric.”
“His enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has grown more extreme,” Harris said. “And he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.”
Trump and his allies say his comments are being misconstrued. They say he was arguing that Cheney is a “war hawk” but would be less supportive of using the military if she had to fight in wars herself.
He doubled down Friday, repeating the same imagery that drove the backlash.
“If you gave Liz Cheney a gun and put her into battle, facing the other side with the guns pointing at her, she wouldn’t have the courage and the strength or the stamina to even look the enemy in the eye,” Trump said during a rally in Warren, Michigan.
The Republican presidential candidate has been using increasingly threatening rhetoric against his adversaries and talked of “enemies from within” undermining the country. Some of his former senior aides and Harris have labeled him a fascist in response.
Cheney, who broke with Trump after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, on Friday called the former president a “cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Trump has ramped up his critiques of the Cheneys in swing state Michigan, where he is competing with Harris for the votes of Arab Americans opposed to US backing of Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and its subsequent invasion of Lebanon.
At an event late Thursday in Arizona with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump was asked whether it was strange to see Cheney campaign against him. The former congresswoman has vocally opposed Trump since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and endorsed Harris, joining the vice president at recent stops as they try to win over Republicans disaffected with Trump.
Trump called Cheney “a deranged person” and added: “But the reason she couldn’t stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people. If it were up to her we’d be in 50 different countries.”
The former president continued: “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.
“You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,” Trump said.
Cheney responded Friday in a post on X: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
One prominent Trump critic, former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, argued the former president’s comment had been taken out of context and that Trump was “NOT calling for Liz Cheney to be executed in front of a firing line.”
“In Trump’s typically stupid, ugly fashion, he’s trying to make a point about Cheney’s stance on war,” Walsh said on X.
Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, suggested that Trump was “talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have Vice President Harris talking about sending one to her Cabinet. This is the difference in this race.”
Trump said he was making a point about Cheney’s foreign policy record.
“She wanted to ... go to war with everybody because she, like Kamala, is a stupid person,” Trump said of Cheney in Michigan. “It’s easy for her to say she wants to start wars from the comfort of her nice home.”
Earlier, during a stop at a restaurant in nearby Dearborn, he called Cheney a “coward” and said “she’d be the first one to chicken out” if put on a battlefield. Women were not allowed to serve in direct combat roles until 2013, when Cheney was 47.
His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said his comments were being taken out of context, calling the controversy “the latest fake media outrage.”
Throughout his campaign, Trump has been fixated on the Americans he believes have wronged or betrayed him. He has portrayed them as worse than the United States’ foreign adversaries, referring to them as “enemies from within.”
He’s threatened to use the federal government, including the military, to go after them. And he has repeatedly threatened “long term prison sentences” for those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, including political operatives, donors and elected officials.
He said people he labeled as “the enemy from within” should be “very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”
Some of Trump’s supporters have said his talk of vengeance is either justified or hyperbole.
Harris assails Trump for saying Liz Cheney should have rifles ‘shooting at her’
https://arab.news/mfuns
Harris assails Trump for saying Liz Cheney should have rifles ‘shooting at her’
- Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have thrown their support behind Democrat Harris
- Trump has been using increasingly threatening rhetoric against his adversaries and talked of “enemies from within” undermining the country
Kashmir’s ‘bee queen’ sets out to empower women, inspire youth
- Sania Zehra manages about 600 bee colonies, sells products across India
- She created an empowerment group to help aspiring women entrepreneurs
NEW DELHI: For the past four years, beekeeping has become central to Sania Zehra’s life. Every morning, she wakes at about 6 a.m. to tend to her colonies, before spending the rest of the day building the enterprise that turned her into the “bee queen” of Kashmir.
Her beekeeping journey began as a 16-year-old, watching her father hard at work at the family farm in Balhama in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
“I first saw my grandfather working with the bees, and then I saw my father doing the same business. When I saw my father working hard, I decided to also contribute and support him,” Zehra told Arab News.
She overcame her initial fear of bee stings and got to work immediately, applying for a government scheme that allowed her to expand the business.
It was not always smooth sailing — she struggled to make a profit in the first couple of years and had to juggle maintaining the hectic routine of beekeeping and selling her products.
But as her hard work of managing hundreds of colonies garnered her the “bee queen” title, today her products are being sold across the country.
“I am selling my product across India (and) I am getting orders from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Dubai, South Africa, Qatar and all,” Zehra said.
Beekeeping is a multi-pronged passion for the 20-year-old, who sees it as a way to protect the environment and preserve her family legacy.
She joins an increasing number of women in Kashmir who are running their own businesses, many of whom access government programs aimed at training and supporting women entrepreneurs.
Despite the social barriers that persist to this day, Zehra found support from her family, especially her mother.
“My mother supports me wholeheartedly. She says ‘I have sons but you have gone ahead of the boys and there is nothing that can stop a woman if she wants to,’” she said.
“For me, it’s a passion as well as a desire to carry the family legacy … I have been fascinated by bees’ social structure and the importance of bees in our ecosystem. I want to contribute to their conversation and produce natural honey and connect with nature. They are an inspiration for me.”
As time went by, she found that beekeeping was not only therapeutic for her mental health but also a way to support the entrepreneurial landscape in Kashmir.
To fuel that mission, Zehra created an empowerment group whose members comprise talented women who lack access to resources.
“My main focus is that I should act as a catalyst for many and help others to grow too,” she said.
With 40 members so far, Zehra is aiming to take it to 100 and help them gain access to the government initiatives that once helped her.
“I want to give employment to all,” Zehra said. “I have a future plan to address the unemployment issue in Kashmir and make Kashmir a wonderful place. I want to inspire young people.”
Pope calls for ‘arms to be silenced’ across world
VATICAN: Pope Francis called Wednesday for “arms to be silenced” around the world in his Christmas address, appealing for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan as he denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza.
He used his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (“to the city and the world“) message to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics to call for talks for a just peace in Ukraine as the country was pummelled by 170 Russian missiles and drones on Christmas morning.
“May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine,” the 88-year-old pontiff said, his voice strained and breathless. “May there be the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation and to gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace.”
In front of thousands of the faithful gathered in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, also appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the freeing of Israeli hostages held there by Hamas.
“I think of the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave. May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war,” he added.
Francis extended his call for a silencing of arms to the whole Middle East and to Sudan, which has been ravaged by a ravaged by 20 months of brutal civil war where millions are under the threat of famine.
“May the Son of the Most High sustain the efforts of the international community to facilitate access to humanitarian aid for the civilian population of Sudan and to initiate new negotiations for a ceasefire,” he said.
Passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashes in Kazakhstan with many feared dead
- The plane was carrying 67 passengers and five crew, Kazakh authorities say 12 people had survived
- Azerbaijan Airlines said aircraft forced to make emergency landing approximately 3 km from Aktau
ASTANA: An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 67 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying 12 people had survived.
Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising.
The Central Asian country’s emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that survivors were being treated at a nearby hospital.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
Pakistan air strikes kill 46 in Afghanistan: Taliban spokesman
- Border tensions between the two countries have escalated since the Taliban government seized power in 2021
KABUL: Pakistan air strikes in an eastern border province of Afghanistan killed 46 people, the Taliban government spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.
“Last night (Tuesday), Pakistan bombarded four points in the Barmal district of Paktika province. The total number of dead is 46, most of whom were children and women,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
He added that six more people were wounded, mostly children.
A defense ministry statement late Tuesday condemned the latest strikes by Pakistan on Afghan territory, calling them “barbaric” and a “clear aggression.”
“The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered, but rather considers the defense of its territory and sovereignty to be its inalienable right,” the statement said, using the Taliban authorities’ name for the government.
Border tensions between the two countries have escalated since the Taliban government seized power in 2021, with Islamabad claiming militant groups are carrying out regular attacks from Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s Taliban government of harboring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity.
Kabul has denied the allegations.
Passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashes in Kazakhstan with many feared dead
- An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet flying from the capital Baku to Grozny in Russia crashed on Wednesday
- 72 people were on board of the plane
ASTANA: An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying that 28 people had survived.
Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Kazakhstan’s emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that the survivors, including two children, were being treated at a nearby hospital. The bodies of the dead were being recovered.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 jet, with flight number J2-8243, was flying from Baku to Grozny, capital of Russia’s Chechnya region, but had been forced to make an emergency landing around 3 km (1.8 miles) from Aktau in Kazakhstan. The city is on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan and Russia.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened and its members ordered to fly to the site and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.
Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
Following the crash, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, was returning home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said some of those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.
