CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: Democrat Kamala Harris was greeted by an unusual sight as she arrived in North Carolina on Saturday: the red-white-and-blue airplane of Donald Trump, her Republican rival for the presidency.
As Harris descended from the vice presidential airplane Air Force Two at the Charlotte airport, Trump’s private Boeing 757 was parked on the tarmac nearby.
The close encounter was a dramatic illustration how the two candidates are focusing on a handful of states where Tuesday’s US presidential election will be won or lost.
It was the fourth day in a row that the candidates were campaigning in the same state. Only seven states, North Carolina among them, are seen as truly competitive.
Harris was arriving for a rally in Charlotte, the state’s biggest city, while Trump had campaigned in suburban Gastonia a few hours earlier.
It was not clear whether Trump was on board his plane when Harris arrived.
With the election just three days away, Trump and Harris stuck to familiar themes at their appearances.
Trump said he would deport millions of immigrants if elected and warned that if Harris were to win, “every town in America would be turned into a squalid, dangerous refugee camp.”
Campaigning in Atlanta, Harris said Trump would abuse his power if he returns to the White House.
“This is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and the man is out for unchecked power,” she said.
More than 72 million Americans have already cast ballots, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida, short of 2020’s record early-voting pace during COVID-19, but still indicating a high level of voter enthusiasm.
Some 4 million votes have already been cast in North Carolina, and the western counties that have been devastated by Hurricane Helene appeared to be voting at roughly the same rate as the rest of the state, according to Catawba College political science professor Michael Bitzer.
Trump criticized the federal government’s response to the disaster and repeated his false claim that aid had been diverted from the state to help immigrants entering the country.
He also said that residents of US suburbs, traditionally seen as a refuge from crime and other dangers, are under threat.
“The suburbs are under attack right now. When you’re home in your house alone, and you’ve got this monster that got out of prison, you know, six charges of murdering six different people,” he said. Violent crimes dropped in the US last year. However, Trump and his allies have emphasized crime on the campaign trail and falsely suggested immigrants are responsible.
North Carolina backed Trump in 2020 by a narrow margin of less than 1.5 percentage points and elected a Democratic governor on the same day, giving hope to both parties.
Trump was due to rally in Salem, Virginia, though the state is not likely to back him for president, before returning to North Carolina for an evening rally in Greensboro.
POLICY DIFFERENCES
Harris and Trump have very different policies on major issues including support for Ukraine and NATO, abortion rights, immigration, taxes, democratic principles and tariffs, which reflect that schisms between the Democratic and Republican parties. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that if Trump wins and Republicans control Congress, his party would “probably” repeal the CHIPS Act, passed under Joe Biden’s administration, which gave over $50 billion in subsidies to companies for semiconductor chip manufacturing and research in the United States. Democrats have seized on the remarks. “It is further evidence of everything I’ve actually been talking about for months now, about Trump’s intention to implement Project 2025,” Harris said Saturday, referring to a conservative blueprint to remake US government and policies that was written with the help of many of Trump’s closest advisers.
Johnson revised his remarks later on Friday, saying the act would be streamlined to eliminate regulations.
Harris, Trump nearly cross paths in North Carolina in final days of US election campaign
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Harris, Trump nearly cross paths in North Carolina in final days of US election campaign
- The close encounter was a dramatic illustration how the two candidates are focusing on a handful of states where Tuesday’s US presidential election will be won or lost
Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student
WARSAW: Police said on Wednesday they had detained a 22-year-old Polish man after he killed one person with an axe at Warsaw University, in an attack the institution described as a "huge tragedy".
"Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus. One person died, another was taken to hospital with injuries," Warsaw Police said in a statement on X.
They said the incident occurred at around 6:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), when the man attacked people on the campus with an axe, adding that the detainee was a 22-year-old Polish citizen.
Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student.
Private broadcaster Polsat News reported that a woman's severed head and an axe had been found at the university.
A spokesperson for the district prosecutor's office declined to comment on whether a severed head had been found.
The spokesperson said that a female administrative employee of the university had been killed at the scene and a security guard was injured and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
He said that the attacker had entered an auditorium at the university.
Reuters reporters at the scene saw police vans and a cordon around the auditorium where the attack took place.
The Rector of the University of Warsaw said in a statement that May 8 would be a day of mourning at the institution, calling the attack a "huge tragedy".
"We express our great sorrow and sympathy to the family and loved ones," the statement read.
Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
- Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species
NAIROBI: Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison — the maximum penalty for the offense — for violating wildlife conservation laws.
Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15.
Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.
The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.
“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” Thuku said in her ruling.
The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.
Duh Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, told the court that he was sent to pick up the ants and arrived at Kenya’s main airport where he met his contact person, Dennis Ng’ang’a, and together they traveled to meet the locals who sell the ants.
Ng’ang’a, who is from Kenya, had said he didn’t know it was illegal because ants are sold and eaten locally.
Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives
- Gates’ foundation is developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia
JAKARTA: Bill Gates was in Indonesia on Wednesday to discuss health and sustainable development initiatives with the leader of the world’s fourth most populous country.
Gates met President Prabowo Subianto at the colonial-style Merdeka palace in Jakarta to discuss global health, nutrition, financial inclusion and public digital infrastructure, Indonesia’s presidential office said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
The co-founder of Microsoft and Gates Foundation praised Indonesia’s adoption of vaccines against Rotavirus for diarrhea and Pneumococcus for pneumonia and the country’s efforts in reducing child mortality.
He said 10 million children under the age of five worldwide died when his foundation launched in 2000, with 90 percent of the deaths due to diarrhea, pneumonia or malaria. That number has now been cut in half to below 5 million, Gates said.
“It’s been an amazing time period. And there’s many new tools coming,” he told the meeting, which was also attended by prominent Indonesian businesspeople and philanthropists.
Gates’ foundation is currently developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia, Subianto said.
“This is crucial because TB is still a deadly disease in the country,” he said.
Gates said that because rich countries don’t have tuberculosis, “it just doesn’t get hardly any money for diagnostics or drugs or vaccines.”
Gates has granted more than $159 million to Indonesia since 2009.
Much of it was allocated to the health sector, especially for vaccine procurement, Subianto said.
Thanks to the funds, Subianto said Biofarma, a state-run pharmaceutical company, now can produce 2 billion doses of its polio vaccine every year, benefiting more than 900 million people in 42 countries.
France says Algeria has issued arrest warrants for writer Daoud
PARIS: Algeria has issued two arrest warrants for acclaimed French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, as tensions surge between the two countries.
The Algerian judiciary informed France of the move, the Foreign Ministry said.
“We are monitoring and will continue to monitor developments in this situation closely,” he said, stressing that Daoud was “a renowned and respected author” and that France was committed to freedom of expression.
In 2024, Daoud won France’s top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel “Houris,” centered on Algeria’s civil war between the government and radicals in the 1990s.
The novel, banned in Algeria, tells the story of a young woman who loses her voice when a hard-liner cuts her throat as she witnesses her family being massacred during the war.
In November, the woman, Saada Arbane, told Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the main character in the book is based on her experiences. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane’s life.
Arbane says she told her story during a course of treatment with a psychotherapist who became Daoud’s wife in 2016.
She has accused Daoud of using the details narrated during their therapy sessions in his book.
UN appoints special envoy to combat Islamophobia
- Former Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will serve in new role
- UN observes International Day to Combat Islamophobia on March 15
NEW YORK CITY: The UN has appointed a special envoy to combat Islamophobia in a bid to fight anti-Muslim hatred around the world.
The new position will be filled by Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, who also serves as high representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative to combat extremism.
Moratinos previously served in the Spanish government and worked closely with the UN during his time as foreign minister from 2004 to 2010.
He also served as EU special representative for the Middle East peace process from 1996 to 2003.
In that role, he promoted peace agreements and attempted to foster dialogue between Israel and the Arab world.
He also served as Spanish ambassador to Israel in 1996.
The UN marks International Day to Combat Islamophobia each year on March 15. The day was first observed following a resolution put forward by Pakistan that was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2022.
The document was sponsored by the 60 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
This year on March 15, Moratinos spoke out against the “bigotry and dehumanizing rhetoric” that Muslims “have to quite often face in many parts of the world.”
“Hate speech drives wedge between communities, sparks fear and anger and may often lead to violence which threatens peace and stability in societies,” he said.
“All forms of hate should be rooted out wherever and whenever it occurs. This means pushing for policies that fully respect human rights and protect religious and cultural identities, particularly of minorities.
“This means investing in social cohesion by encouraging initiatives that promote dialogue, mutual respect and protects human rights and the dignity of all.”
