In Michigan, Kamala Harris meets Arab American leaders angry over Israel

During the half-hour meeting, Harris expressed her concern on the scale of suffering in Gaza, and discussed efforts to end the war.
PHOTO: Reuters

October 04, 2024 


MICHIGAN — US Vice-President Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, on Oct 4, as her presidential campaign seeks to win back voters angry at US support for Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The meeting is one of several attempts in recent days to mend fences with Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but could withhold their votes from Harris in numbers that would cost her the key state of Michigan.

During the half-hour meeting, Harris expressed her concern on the scale of suffering in Gaza, civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon and discussed efforts to end the war, according to a campaign official.


She also discussed efforts to prevent a regional war, the official added.

Wa'el Alzayat, chief executive of Emgage Action which recently endorsed her, said participants shared their deep disappointment with the US handling of the crisis and called on her to do everything in her power to end the war and reset US policy in the region.

"Emgage Action asked Vice-President Harris to impress upon President Biden the urgency of bringing an immediate end to the violence" in Gaza and Lebanon, Alzayat said.


"She agrees that this war needs to end."

Ed Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said the meeting included a good "give and take" on the issues, including "the need for a ceasefire, and the support needed from the US and its allies to address the humanitarian crisis, the presidential leadership void in Lebanon, and the important role of the Lebanese Armed Forces".

"We heard a lot of compassion on her side. We'll see what happens," he said.

"This was a valuable two-sided exchange, and we made important progress in our relationship. We're going to continue to meet."

Other participants included Assad Turfe, deputy county executive of Wayne County, Michigan's most populous county.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, said he declined the invitation.

Leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement protest campaign said they were not invited to the meeting.

Hala Hijazi, a longtime friend of Harris who has lost dozens of members of her family in Gaza, was unable to attend.

Harris, a Democrat, faces Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov 5 in what opinion polls show to be a tight presidential race.

Both candidates have roughly even levels of support among Arab Americans, according to a poll published this week by the Arab American Institute.

Harris' meeting on Oct 4 comes on the heels of other efforts by her team this week.

On Oct 3, her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, promised on a Zoom call with Muslim voters that Muslims would have an equal role in a Harris administration.

Harris' national security adviser, Phil Gordon, virtually met with leaders from the Arab and Muslim community on Oct 2 and said the administration supports a ceasefire in Gaza, diplomacy in Lebanon and stability in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Critics say Biden and Harris have done too little to stop Israel's military campaign in Gaza, while continuing to supply Israel with weapons to carry it out.

Some Arab Americans believe Harris' refusal to distance herself from President Biden's policies in the Middle East, as Israel escalates its attacks, will cost her in November.

"Harris is going to lose Michigan," said Ali Dagher, a Lebanese American attorney and community leader.

"I will not be voting for Kamala Harris. No one I know will vote for her. I cannot find a single person in the community who supports her."

Earlier in the day, in Redford Township, Michigan, outside of Detroit, Harris celebrated the union deal that ended a major port strike.

She spoke at a fire station whose workers are represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters, which on Oct 3 declined to make a presidential endorsement.

The event was designed to show Harris has support among the union's rank-and-file members, an aide said.

After the meeting with Arab American leaders, Harris appeared with United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain in Flint and vowed support for Michigan's auto industry.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign said Harris is "putting a minimum of 37,000 auto jobs at risk by refusing to tell Michiganders if she still supports her proposed plan to ban all internal combustion engine cars by 2035".

In Michigan, Harris meets Arab American leaders angry over Gaza, Lebanon conflicts

Some warn mounting anger of Harris continued support for Israel could cost the Democrat the state with its large Arab American community

By Reuters and ToI Staff

Today, 10:56 a

Democratic presidential nominee US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a rally at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Mich., Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)


FLINT, Michigan — US Vice President Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, as her presidential campaign seeks to win back voters angry at US support for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The meeting is one of several attempts in recent days to mend fences with Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but could withhold their votes from Harris in numbers that would cost her the key state of Michigan.

During the half-hour meeting, Harris expressed her concern on the scale of suffering in Gaza, civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon and discussed efforts to end the war, according to a campaign official. She also discussed efforts to prevent a regional war, the official added.

Israel launched the war against Hamas in Gaza after the October 7 massacre which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Harris has repeatedly said she supports a ceasefire in Gaza that will see the hostages released and ensure Israel’s security.

Israel stepped up its strikes on Hezbollah leaders in recent weeks and launched a limited ground operation in a bid to end the rocket fire on northern Israel that started on October 8th and allow tens of thousands of evacuated citizens to return to their homes in northern Israel.
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Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action which recently endorsed her, said participants shared their deep disappointment with the US handling of the crisis and called on her to do everything in her power to end the war and reset US policy in the region.

“Emgage Action asked Vice President Harris to impress upon President Biden the urgency of bringing an immediate end to the violence” in Gaza and Lebanon, Alzayat said. “She agrees that this war needs to end.”

Abbas Alwieh, a Michigan uncommitted delegate, participates in a press conference outside the United Center before the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Ed Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said the meeting included a good “give and take” on the issues, including “the need for a ceasefire, and the support needed from the United States and its allies to address the humanitarian crisis, the presidential leadership void in Lebanon, and the important role of the Lebanese Armed Forces.”

“We heard a lot of compassion on her side. We’ll see what happens,” he said. “This was a valuable two-sided exchange, and we made important progress in our relationship. We’re going to continue to meet.”

Other participants included Assad Turfe, deputy county executive of Wayne County, Michigan’s most populous county.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, said he declined the invitation. Leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement protest campaign said they were not invited to the meeting. Hala Hijazi, a longtime friend of Harris who has lost dozens of members of her family in Gaza, was unable to attend.

Harris, a Democrat, faces Republican former US president Donald Trump on November 5 in what opinion polls show to be a tight presidential race. Both candidates have roughly even levels of support among Arab Americans, according to a poll published this week by the Arab American Institute.

Harris’ meeting on Friday comes on the heels of other efforts by her team this week. On Thursday, her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, promised on a Zoom call with Muslim voters that Muslims would have an equal role in a Harris administration.

Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, virtually met with leaders from the Arab and Muslim community on Wednesday and said the administration supports a ceasefire in Gaza, diplomacy in Lebanon and stability in the West Bank.
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Critics say Biden and Harris have done too little to stop Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, while continuing to supply Israel with weapons to carry it out.

Some Arab Americans believe Harris’ refusal to distance herself from President Biden’s policies in the Middle East, as Israel escalates its attacks, will cost her in November

Eric Suter-Bull holds a Vote Uncommitted sign outside a voting location at Saline Intermediate School for the Michigan primary election in Dearborn, Michigan, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

“Harris is going to lose Michigan,” said Ali Dagher, a Lebanese American attorney and community leader. “I will not be voting for Kamala Harris. No one I know will vote for her. I cannot find a single person in the community who supports her.”

Earlier in the day, in Redford Township, Michigan, outside of Detroit, Harris celebrated the union deal that ended a major port strike.

She spoke at a fire station whose workers are represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters, which on Thursday declined to make a presidential endorsement. The event was designed to show Harris has support among the union’s rank-and-file members, an aide said.

After the meeting with Arab American leaders, Harris appeared with United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain in Flint and vowed support for Michigan’s auto industry.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign said Harris is “putting a minimum of 37,000 auto jobs at risk by refusing to tell Michiganders if she still supports her proposed plan to ban all internal combustion engine cars by 2035.”

Arab American leaders urge Harris to ‘show distance’ from Biden’s Israel policy during private Michigan meeting

Gregory Krieg, Priscilla Alvarez, Khalil Abdallah, Donald Judd and Kylie Atwood,

 CNN
Sat, October 5, 2024 



In a side room backstage at a Friday campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, Arab American advocates asked Vice President Kamala Harris to break from President Joe Biden’s Israel policy and push harder for an end to the war in Gaza.

The conversation, scheduled to last 10 minutes, ended up going 20, according to Wa’el Alzayat, the CEO of Emgage Action, a group aimed at boosting the Muslim American vote. Harris did not make any promises, he said, but told them “that she also wants the war to end and that she will do all she can to work in this regard.”

“She pledged to work with our community, include our community, and (said) that she completely understands what we’re saying. She is hopeful that if she wins, she’ll be able to deliver on all of this once she’s president,” Alzayat told CNN.


Alzayat said he and other Arab American leaders in the room had been contacted and invited within the previous 48 hours. Their message to Harris was simple, he said. She needed “to show distance between how she would govern on this matter with the current administration policies, which we don’t agree with.”

The meeting came amid increasing frustration over Harris’ response to Israel’s recent escalations in Lebanon and concerns that her campaign was not willing to hear from critical voices. Harris is hamstrung, in part, because of her position: Vice presidents do not set US foreign policy. But as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war has expanded to a multifront conflict involving Iran, which launched missiles at Israel this week, and Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon and Yemen, prominent Arab American groups have been pushing for more.

Leaders at the meeting told Harris there is a critical need for both expanded evacuation efforts from Lebanon and immediate humanitarian aid for US citizens and the displaced families, one of the attendees told CNN.

Assad Turfe, a Lebanese American and the deputy executive of Wayne County, said the recently announced $157 million in US humanitarian aid relief for Lebanon is not enough — but that it is better than nothing.

“While this is still a drop in the bucket compared to what is truly needed, it’s a start, and this $157 million can make a difference if directed properly,” Turfe told CNN in a statement.

Turfe also shared his deeply personal connection to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

“In 2006, I lost both of my grandmothers to Israeli bombs during the conflict in Lebanon. Today, as the violence rages on in Lebanon and Gaza, my family is once again facing the horrors of war, with my uncle, his wife, and their children fleeing for their lives,” Turfe said.

Michigan, which Biden narrowly won in 2020, will be a crucial battleground again this November and is home to a large Arab American population. Emgage Action endorsed Harris last month while acknowledging “strong disappointment” with the Biden administration’s stance on Gaza.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez were among the prominent Democrats in the room for Friday’s meeting, according to Alzayat, along with local elected officials and Edward Gabriel, the former US ambassador to Morocco who now runs the nonprofit American Task Force on Lebanon.

“We want her to push the president to end the war. We want her to commit to ending the war if she becomes president. We want her to speak directly to our communities about the pain and suffering,” Alzayat said he and other outside advocates told the vice president. “We want her and we want the administration to do a better job in providing assistance to American citizens who are trapped in Lebanon.”

The Harris campaign has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

According to pool reports of the Friday gathering, a campaign official said that Harris “discussed her efforts to end the war in Gaza, such that: Israel is secure, hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, self-determination.”

“On Lebanon, the vice president expressed concern about civilian casualties and displacement, and reiterated the administration’s position that, ultimately, a diplomatic solution is the best path to achieve stability and protect civilians. The vice president also discussed efforts to prevent regional war,” the official said.

Absent from Friday’s guest list were leaders of the “Uncommitted” movement, which sprung up during the Democratic primaries this year in opposition to the Biden administration’s policy on the war in Gaza. Harris interacted with leaders of the group in early August during a photo line at the Detroit airport.

The group has called on the vice president to hold meetings with families affected by the war after her campaign and national Democrats denied the group’s previous request for a Palestinian American to speak during the Democratic convention in Chicago this summer.

Uncommitted leaders have since announced that their group will not endorse Harris, though they also warned against a vote for Donald Trump or, in states where they might appear on the ballot, third-party candidates.

Uncommitted movement co-founder Abbas Alawieh, a former Capitol Hill staffer, confirmed Friday that his group was not invited to the meeting with Harris.

In a social media post, Alawieh said he was “glad our pressure is helping yield more engagement. What we need right now is for the @VP to specifically say that as president she will respect international humanitarian and U.S. law and stop sending the Israeli military weapons for war crimes.”

James Zogby, a co-founder of the Arab American Institute and a Democratic National Committee member for more than 30 years who addressed the Uncommitted movement during the Chicago convention, told CNN he turned down an invitation to Friday’s meeting with Harris. He cited growing frustration with what he described as a campaign more concerned with optics than addressing the anger and anxiety among Arab American voters.

Zogby was part of a Wednesday call with Harris national security adviser Phil Gordon that the White House described as a virtual gathering with “Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian American community leaders” to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East.

“There was no ground broken. I wasn’t quite sure what the intent was other than to just say … that they met with leaders. There were no leaders,” Zogby said of the Wednesday conversation.

That call and other communications with the Harris campaign, and Biden’s before that, have irked the longtime Democratic pollster. And Israel’s escalation in Lebanon has also turned up the heat in states like Michigan, where Lebanese Americans have made up a major part of the Democratic coalition.

“With Lebanon in flames, they’ve got a bigger job. And I don’t think they’re ready to handle it,” Zogby said of the Harris campaign. “It’s sort of like trying to sell a car to somebody with terminal cancer. ‘What’re you talking for? I have bigger things on my mind right now.’”

Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said there have been “many meetings with both the campaign and administration. They know our concerns and demands.”

“Our position and work is focused on bringing an immediate ceasefire, and an end to the genocide in Palestine and the war on Lebanon,” said Ayoub, who noted that his group has nearly 130,000 active voters as members, including 7,500 in Michigan.

This week, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, took the campaign’s pitch to Emgage Action’s “Million Muslim Votes: A Way Forward” summit.

“I know the pain of this community is deep. Our hearts are broken. The concern of the vice president and Harris and I - it’s on our minds every day. The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is staggering and devastating. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed, families fleeing for safety, over and over again,” Walz said at the virtual event.

Harris has occasionally been disrupted at campaign rallies by pro-Palestinian protesters. In those moments, the vice president, who has spoken about the devastation in Gaza, has stressed that the administration is working toward a ceasefire deal.

Zogby said Friday he “desperately” wants Harris to win but is concerned about the campaign’s efforts to stage-manage the issue.

“They have to say something about the issue that’s on people’s minds,” Zogby said, “and they just don’t seem able to bring themselves to talk about it.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Brian Rokus contributed to this report.


In Michigan, Harris meets Arab American leaders angry over Israel

In Michigan, Harris meets Arab American leaders angry over Israel
Democratic presidential nominee VP Kamala Harris travels to Michigan

Updated Fri, October 4, 2024
By Nandita Bose, Andrea Shalal and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON/FLINT, Michigan (Reuters) -Vice President Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, as her presidential campaign seeks to win back voters angry at U.S. support for Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The meeting is one of several attempts in recent days to mend fences with Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but could withhold their votes from Harris in numbers that would cost her the key state of Michigan.

During the half-hour meeting, Harris expressed her concern on the scale of suffering in Gaza, civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon and discussed efforts to end the war, according to a campaign official. She also discussed efforts to prevent a regional war, the official added.

Wa'el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action which recently endorsed her, said participants shared their deep disappointment with the U.S. handling of the crisis and called on her to do everything in her power to end the war and reset U.S. policy in the region.

"Emgage Action asked Vice President Harris to impress upon President Biden the urgency of bringing an immediate end to the violence" in Gaza and Lebanon, Alzayat said. "She agrees that this war needs to end."

Ed Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said the meeting included a good "give and take" on the issues, including "the need for a ceasefire, and the support needed from the United States and its allies to address the humanitarian crisis, the presidential leadership void in Lebanon, and the important role of the Lebanese Armed Forces."

"We heard a lot of compassion on her side. We'll see what happens," he said. "This was a valuable two-sided exchange, and we made important progress in our relationship. We're going to continue to meet."

Other participants included Assad Turfe, deputy county executive of Wayne County, Michigan's most populous county.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, said he declined the invitation. Leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement protest campaign said they were not invited to the meeting. Hala Hijazi, a longtime friend of Harris who has lost dozens of members of her family in Gaza, was unable to attend.

Harris, a Democrat, faces Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5 in what opinion polls show to be a tight presidential race. Both candidates have roughly even levels of support among Arab Americans, according to a poll published this week by the Arab American Institute.

Harris' meeting on Friday comes on the heels of other efforts by her team this week. On Thursday, her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, promised on a Zoom call with Muslim voters that Muslims would have an equal role in a Harris administration.

Harris' national security adviser, Phil Gordon, virtually met with leaders from the Arab and Muslim community on Wednesday and said the administration supports a ceasefire in Gaza, diplomacy in Lebanon and stability in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Critics say Biden and Harris have done too little to stop Israel's military campaign in Gaza, while continuing to supply Israel with weapons to carry it out.

Some Arab Americans believe Harris' refusal to distance herself from President Biden's policies in the Middle East, as Israel escalates its attacks, will cost her in November.

"Harris is going to lose Michigan," said Ali Dagher, a Lebanese American attorney and community leader. "I will not be voting for Kamala Harris. No one I know will vote for her. I cannot find a single person in the community who supports her."

Earlier in the day, in Redford Township, Michigan, outside of Detroit, Harris celebrated the union deal that ended a major port strike.

She spoke at a fire station whose workers are represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters, which on Thursday declined to make a presidential endorsement. The event was designed to show Harris has support among the union's rank-and-file members, an aide said.

After the meeting with Arab American leaders, Harris appeared with United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain in Flint and vowed support for Michigan's auto industry.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign said Harris is "putting a minimum of 37,000 auto jobs at risk by refusing to tell Michiganders if she still supports her proposed plan to ban all internal combustion engine cars by 2035."

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington, Andrea Shalal in Flint, Michigan and Jeff Mason in Redford Township, Michigan; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Deepa Babington and Edwina Gibbs)


Harris meets with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan

Alex Gangitano

THE HILL
Fri, October 4, 2024



Vice President Harris met with leaders from the Muslim and Arab American community while in Flint, Mich., on Friday amid the ongoing war in the Middle East and shrinking support for Democrats from the community.

Harris traveled to Michigan this week for campaign events and ahead of her Flint rally, she “met briefly” with the leaders and “heard directly their perspectives on the election and the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon,” according to a Harris campaign official.

The official added that Harris “discussed her efforts to end the war in Gaza, such that: Israel is secure, hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, self-determination.”

She also, the official noted, expressed concern about civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon and reiterated the Biden administration’s stance that a diplomatic solution is the best path to achieve stability, protect civilians, and prevent regional war.

The vice president’s meeting comes after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) participated in a virtual event with Emgage Action on Thursday to talk about concerns from the community. Phil Gordon, national security adviser to Harris, met virtually on Wednesday with Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans.

The group Emgage Action met with Harris and underscored the “deep pain our communities feel over the intensifying crisis in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, in a statement.

“Emgage Action also reiterated the organization and the Muslim community’s disappointment in the handling of the crisis that has endangered the wellbeing of our communities at home and is now widening to a broader regional war,” he said.

Alzayat added that the meeting with Harris is the “latest step in assuring the Muslim community that the organization is committed to leveraging its endorsement of Vice President Harris to advocate on behalf of our community.”

In an effort to gain back support, a new coalition called Arab Americans for Harris-Walz launched this week. The group said it represents a “broad” group of Arab American voters, including some voters who were formerly in the uncommitted movement that opposed Biden during the Democratic primary over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Biden, who has received criticism for not engaging enough with pro-Palestinian Americans, felt the anger about his handling of the war in the primary, when tens of thousands of voters in Michigan voted uncommitted.

The war in the Middle East has since escalated, and Iran launched a missile attack on Israel this week. Harris has voiced her support for ensuring Israel has the ability to defend itself.

Yash Roy contributed.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Harris meets with leaders from Muslim and Arab American communities
Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Megan Lebowitz and Alex Seitz-Wald
Fri, October 4, 2024 at 7:51 PM MDT·3 min read
6


Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during a campaign rally at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Mich., on Friday.

FLINT, Mich. — Vice President Kamala Harris met with leaders from the Muslim and Arab American community ahead of her campaign rally here on Friday, a campaign official said.

During the meeting, Harris heard leaders' perspectives on the election, as well as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the official said.

The vice president "expressed her concern over the scale of suffering in Gaza" and "expressed concern about civilian casualties and displacement" in Lebanon, the official said.

"The vice president discussed her efforts to end the war in Gaza, such that: Israel is secure, hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, self-determination," the official said, echoing a sentiment that Harris has previously expressed when discussing the war.

The Israel-Hamas war is threatening to spill into a larger regional conflict as Israel launched strikes in Lebanon that killed the leader of Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., and Iran fired missiles at Israel. The war has ignited criticism from some progressives in the U.S. over the Biden administration’s relationship with Israel.

Harris has emphasized that she stands by Israel’s right to defend itself after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7. At the same time, she has said that Gaza’s “scale of suffering is heartbreaking.”

Harris' meeting comes a day after her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, met virtually with Emgage Action, a Muslim political organizing group.

The CEO of Emgage Action, Wa'el Alzayat, who also attended Friday's meeting with Harris, released a statement saying that the group "called on Vice President Harris to do everything in her power, should she win, to end the war and reset US policy in the region."

"Emgage Action also reiterated the organization and the Muslim community's disappointment in the handling of the crisis that has endangered the wellbeing of our communities at home and is now widening to a broader regional war," Alzayat's statement continued.

He added that his group asked Harris "to impress upon President Biden the urgency of bringing an immediate end to the violence."

Emgage endorsed Harris in September, despite saying that "the vice president still has a ways to go" on certain issues.

On Wednesday, Phil Gordon, a national security adviser for the vice president, met virtually with Muslim, Arab and Palestinian leaders from across the country, according to a source familiar with the planning.

Gordon underscored Biden administration’s efforts to bring the war in Gaza to an end through a cease-fire and hostage release deal, which he said would relieve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the source said. He also expressed concern for civilians in Lebanon.

Also, on Tuesday the campaign launched its “Arab Americans for Harris-Walz” coalition group.

The Biden administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war led some Muslim voters and groups to declare that they would "abandon Biden" ahead of his decision to drop out of the race, and the pro-Palestinian Uncommitted Movement has refused to endorse Harris.


Letters: I'm the mayor of Flint. I believe Kamala Harris will help our city.

Detroit Free Press
Fri, October 4, 2024



As Flint’s mayor, I have always put our community first, working to secure a brighter future for all our residents. Today, Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Flint, and I am asking you to join me in supporting her for candidacy president of the United States. Harris has a vision for America that aligns with the values and needs of our nation. She is committed to policies that will foster growth, uplift working families and ensure justice for all. Her leadership represents a future where we not only recovers from the hardships of the past but thrives in the years to come.

As the father of two daughters, I know how critical it is to protect women’s rights. Health care, bodily autonomy and the freedom to make personal choices are cornerstones of our democracy. Harris has consistently shown that she will stand firm in defending these rights. She will be a champion for women, ensuring their freedoms are respected and protected under the law.

As the co-chair of the Michigan Black Mayors Association, I also believe that Kamala Harris’ platform for rebuilding the middle class will have a transformative impact on Flint.

Opinion: Donald Trump was better for the economy, Kamala Harris better for America
Kamala Harris will work to lift Flint families out of poverty

One policy I applaud is her proposal for a $6,000 tax credit for families with infants. This initiative is modeled after Flint's own Rx Kids program, which we proudly supported through federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. This program is a critical step toward closing health disparity gaps and lifting our families out of poverty. Harris has the foresight to scale this nationally, creating opportunities for all working-class families.

As a former union president, I know how vital good-paying jobs and economic security are to our community. Flint holds a special place in the history of the American labor movement — our city was the birthplace of the middle class, forged in the struggle of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the rise of the United Auto Workers.

While deindustrialization dealt our community a heavy blow, we now have an opportunity to reclaim our role in America’s economic future. Kamala Harris has shown strong leadership on this front, helping to create policies that will bring jobs back to urban areas by reactivating brownfields, restoring our environment and fostering new economic opportunities.
Kamala Harris is committed to fighting injustice

As a Black man, husband, father and leader in this community, I’ve witnessed social injustice firsthand. For too long, bad actors have sought to divide our country, pitting neighbor against neighbor. Kamala Harris is committed to uniting us, fighting for equality and making the smart, compassionate choices needed to bring justice to every corner of America.

Opinion: Trump ranted. Harris looked presidential. Freep readers respond to 2024 election debate.

Her work as a former prosecutor and her role as vice president demonstrate her dedication to lifting up marginalized communities and ensuring that all Americans, regardless of race or background, are treated fairly and justly. The challenges we face in Flint and across this country are immense, but with the right leadership, we can overcome them.

That’s why I’m standing with Kamala Harris, and I urge all of you to listen to her message, hear her vision and consider what she can do for you and for America. Together, we can build better, stronger cities, and a more united nation.

Sheldon A. Neeley

The writer is the mayor of Flint

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Letters: Harris is committed to helping Flint's working clas

No, Donald Trump Isn’t Wading Through Hurricane Floodwaters, You Absolute Morons

Maggie Harrison Dupré

FUTURISM
Fri, October 4, 2024


Get Your Waders

An image depicting former president Donald Trump wading through floodwaters alongside a fellow disaster responder went viral on social media this week.

But there's one tiny problem: the image is an AI-generated fake, as multiple publications have confirmed.

The image, which shows Trump wearing a lifejacket and blue jeans as he marches through thigh-high waters, first picked up steam on Facebook last weekend.


And it doesn't hold up to virtually any degree of scrutiny. Trump's right hand is distorted, and the lettering pictured on either man's clothing is completely illegible.

The former president has visited some areas impacted by the storm, but there are no credible reports of the candidate physically going into floodwaters in blue jeans, making it only the latest instance of highly politicized AI slop ahead of the presidential elections next month.

Slop Flood

As of publishing this article, the image has garnered over ten thousand likes on Facebook.

"I don't think FB wants this picture on FB," the poster wrote in a caption, implying the social media giant may have been removing the post for political reasons. "They have been deleting it."

Despite alleged censorship, the image was shared roughly 160,000 times in just two days, according to a fact check from USA Today. (The photo is still live on Facebook, though has been flagged with an "altered photo" warning and a link to an independent, third-party fact check.)

The image quickly spread to other corners of social media, where users captioned the synthetic image with notes about how "they don't want you to see this side of Trump" and messages to leaders to "not tell me how much you care about Americans... show me though [sic] your actions."

The fake image of Trump is one of many AI-generated fake photos to circulate in the wake of the deadly storm, which wrought extensive damage throughout parts of Appalachia.
Further and Further Apart

Other AI-generated images of alleged hurricane devastation have depicted scenes like flooded homes, abandoned, sad-looking dogs on roofs, and men in knee-high water barbequing.

Most notably, a widely-shared AI image showing a crying young girl clutching a puppy while evacuating in a canoe has made its rounds on X-formerly-Twitter, where it's been repeatedly shared by right-wing influencers and close Trump allies.

As far as the health of our information world goes, the apparent believability of these images is troubling. The fact that so many netizens are taking clearly AI-generated images at face value is a damning indictment of the extent of media illiteracy plaguing the US today.

More on AI and misinformation: Facebook Is Being Flooded With Gross AI-Generated Images of Hurricane Helene Devastation

Right-Wingers Heartbroken by Picture of Little Girl Who Doesn’t Exist

Miles Klee

Fri, October 4, 2024 

A *real* Florida family walking through floodwaters as they return home after Hurricane Helene. - Credit: AP

There has been no shortage of gut-wrenching photographs from communities in the southeast devastated by Hurricane Helene, which caused extreme flooding and killed at least 215 people — pictures of houses destroyed, families trapped on rooftops, wreckage from mudslides and roads washed out by torrential rains. But rather than focus on the actual victims or damage, many right-wing influencers and politicians have extended their sympathies to a nonexistent girl and her puppy (who is also not real).

The AI-generated image they’re sharing depicts a crying girl in a boat, seemingly alone except for the little dog she’s clutching. She wears a lifejacket and appears to be adrift on floodwaters caused by a major storm. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah posted the picture on X on Thursday, writing “Caption this photo,” apparently inviting his followers to vent their outrage at the Biden-Harris administration for allowing American children to suffer such misery on their watch. After users pointed out that he’d fallen for AI slop, he deleted the picture. (The image originated on the Trump web forum Patriots.win, where several users immediately recognized it as the product of an AI model.)

Others, however, have left the misleading picture up on their social media accounts — and some are defending it as an accurate representation of Helene’s effects even though it’s fake. Far-right conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump associate Laura Loomer called the image “sad,” quote-tweeting a post from Buzz Patterson, columnist for the conservative blog RedState, who wrote of the picture: “Our government has failed us again.” Neither have taken their posts down as of press time. Amy Kremer, RNC National Committeewoman for the Georgia GOP and co-founder of Women for Trump, tweeted on Thursday that the image had been “seared into my mind.”

Informed that she was not looking at an authentic photo, Kremer doubled down. “Y’all, I don’t know where this photo came from and honestly, it doesn’t matter,” she replied. “There are people going through much worse than what is shown in this pic. So I’m leaving it because it is emblematic of the trauma and pain people are living through right now.” A large anonymous blue-check account on X that routinely attacks Democrats did remove the picture but similarly argued: “Even though that image was AI, it spoke a truth about the disregard Harris and Biden have for ordinary Americans, as evidenced by their criminal non-response to Helene.” Another X user posted a screenshot of a more succinct response from an apparent family member advised that the image was bogus. “Who cares,” they answered.

pic.twitter.com/mthLAw3A0Y

— Mr. Honeydew (@bestbuddy1998) October 3, 2024

The little girl and her puppy — there are AI-generated variants of the more viral image floating around as well — have been widely presented by MAGA world as evidence of a failed disaster response in the aftermath of Helene. Trump himself is pushing lies about the U.S. government not being able to fund relief efforts, adding an overtone of racism with the groundless claim that the White House “stole” money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and “spent it all on illegal migrants.” (The irony being that in 2019, the Trump administration itself redirected millions in disaster funds, during hurricane season, to pay for detention centers at the border.)

FEMA has said in a statement that it does have enough money for “immediate response and recovery needs.” Yet the supposed scandal has Republicans outraged at the idea that Americans impacted by the hurricane are being denied help because Democrats funneled resources to immigrants. “So Kamala doesn’t have enough money for this child?” fumed a MAGA-affiliated X user who shared the AI-generated girl. “For Americans that lost everything they have? I can’t hate this administration enough.”

The barrage of AI junk from Trump supporters follows a similar trend last month, when the former president, his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, and their various allies were smearing the Haitian immigrant community of Springfield, Ohio, by falsely accusing them of stealing and eating local house pets. During that news cycle, many used AI to generate cartoonish images of cats and dogs wearing MAGA hats, and Trump himself holding or protecting animals. Before that, Trump shared AI imagery that made it appear as if he had the backing of Taylor Swift and her fan army. (Swift endorsed Vice President Harris immediately after Harris’ September debate with Trump.) Along with the phony “victim” images to come out of the Helene disaster, there were also AI pictures of Trump braving floodwaters to assist residents and rescue babies.

What other uncanny-valley creations will online Trump boosters bring to the fore of the American imagination in the closing weeks of this chaotic campaign? Hard to say, but one thing is certain: the AI assault remains a core piece of their strategy.

Israel’s economy is paying a high price for its widening war

Analysis by Hanna Ziady, CNN
Fri, October 4, 2024 


In late September, as Israel’s nearly year-long war widened and its credit rating was downgraded yet again, the country’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said that, while Israel’s economy was under strain, it was resilient.

“Israel’s economy bears the burden of the longest and most expensive war in the country’s history,” Smotrich said on September 28, a day after Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, ratcheting fears that tensions with the militant group would turn into a full-blown conflict. “The Israeli economy is a strong economy that even today attracts investments.”


Almost a year after Hamas’ deadly attack on October 7, Israel is pushing forward on multiple fronts: launching a ground incursion against Hezbollah in Lebanon, carrying out airstrikes in Gaza and Beirut, and threatening retaliation for Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this week. As the conflict spills over into the wider region, the economic costs will spiral too, both for Israel and other countries in the Middle East.

“If recent escalations turn into a longer and more intense war, this will take a heavier toll on economic activity and growth (in Israel),” Karnit Flug, a former governor of Israel’s central bank, told CNN on October 1.

The war has significantly worsened the situation in Gaza, pushing it into an economic and humanitarian crisis long ago, and the West Bank is “undergoing a rapid and alarming economic decline,” the United Nations said in a report last month.

The Lebanese economy, meanwhile, could contract by up to 5% this year due to cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, according to BMI, a market research firm owned by Fitch Solutions.

Israel’s economy could shrink even more than that, based on a worst-case estimate by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.


Even in a more benign scenario, its researchers also see Israel’s gross domestic product per head — which in recent years overtook the United Kingdom’s — falling this year, as Israel’s population grows faster than the economy and living standards decline.

Before the October 7 attack and ensuing Israel-Hamas war, the International Monetary Fund forecast that Israel’s economy would grow by an enviable 3.4% this year. Now, economists’ projections range from 1% to 1.9%. Growth next year is also expected to be weaker than earlier forecasts.

Yet Israel’s central bank is not in a position to cut interest rates to breathe life into the economy because inflation is accelerating, propelled by rising wages and soaring government spending to fund the war.

‘Long-term’ economic damage

The Bank of Israel estimated in May that costs arising from the war would total 250 billion shekels ($66 billion) through the end of next year, including military outlays and civilian expenses, such as on housing for thousands of Israelis forced to flee their homes in the north and south. That is equivalent to roughly 12% of Israel’s GDP.

Those costs look set to rise further as fiercer fighting with Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, adds to the government’s defense bill and delays the return of Israelis to their homes in the country’s north. Israel launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah on September 30.

Smotrich, the finance minister, is confident that Israel’s economy will bounce back once the war ends, but economists are concerned the damage will far outlast the conflict.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, pictured in June 2024. - Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Flug, the former Bank of Israel governor and now vice-president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute, says there is a risk the Israeli government cuts investment to free up resources for defense. “That will reduce the potential growth (of the economy) going forward,” she said.

Researchers at the Institute for National Security Studies are similarly downbeat.

Even a withdrawal from Gaza and calm on the border with Lebanon would leave Israel’s economy in a weaker position than before the war, they said in a report in August. “Israel is expected to suffer long-term economic damage regardless of the outcome,” they wrote.

“The anticipated decline in growth rates in all scenarios compared to pre-war economic forecasts and the increase in defense expenditures could exacerbate the risk of a recession reminiscent of the lost decade following the Yom Kippur War.”

The 1973 war, also known as the Arab-Israeli war, launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel’s forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, ushered in a long period of economic stagnation in Israel, partly as the country massively ramped up defense spending.

Likewise, potential tax hikes and cuts to non-defense spending — some already mooted by Smotrich — to fund what many expect to become a permanently enlarged military, could hurt economic growth. Such measures, coupled with a weakened sense of security, could also spur an exodus of highly educated Israelis, notably tech entrepreneurs, Flug warned.

“It doesn’t have to be in very large numbers, because the tech sector is very dependent on a few thousand of the most innovative, creative and entrepreneurial individuals,” she said of a sector that accounts for a hefty 20% of Israel’s economic output.

A Jewish man walks past closed shops in Jerusalem's Old City on September 11, 2024. - Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

A large-scale departure of high-earning taxpayers would further dent Israel’s finances, which have taken a knock from the war. The government has delayed publishing a budget for next year as it grapples with competing demands that make it hard to balance its books.


The conflict has caused Israel’s budget deficit — the difference between government spending and revenue, mostly from taxes — to double to 8% of GDP, from 4% before the war.

Government borrowing has soared and become more expensive, as investors demand higher returns to buy Israeli bonds and other assets. Multiple downgrades to Israel’s credit ratings made by Fitch, Moody’s and S&P are likely to raise the country’s cost of borrowing even further.

In late August — a month before Israel carried out strikes on Lebanon’s capital and the ground incursion against Hezbollah in the country’s south — the Institute for National Security Studies estimated that just one month of “high-intensity warfare” in Lebanon against the militant group, with “intensive attacks” in the opposite direction that damage Israeli infrastructure, could cause Israel’s budget deficit to soar to 15% and its GDP to contract by up to 10% this year.
Uncertainty ‘the biggest factor’

To shrink the fiscal hole, the government can’t rely on a healthy flow of tax revenue from businesses, many of which are collapsing, while others are reluctant to invest while it’s unclear how long the war will last.

Coface BDi, a major business analytics company in Israel, estimates that 60,000 Israeli firms will shut this year, up from an annual average of around 40,000. Most of these are small, with up to five employees.

“Uncertainty is just bad for the economy, bad for investment,” said Avi Hasson, the CEO of Startup Nation Central, a non-profit that promotes Israel’s tech industry globally.

In a recent report, Hasson warned that the remarkable resilience of Israel’s tech sector so far “will not be sustainable” in the face of the uncertainty created by the prolonged conflict and the government’s “destructive” economic policy.

Even before the October 7 attack, government plans to weaken the judiciary were prompting some Israeli tech companies to incorporate in the United States. The insecurity created by the war has exacerbated that trend, with most new tech companies formally registered overseas, despite tax incentives to incorporate locally, and a large number considering moving some of their operations outside Israel, Hasson told CNN last month.

He remains bullish on Israeli tech, pointing to robust fundraising, but cautions that the industry’s future growth “depends on regional stability and responsible government policies.”

Apartment blocks and office buildings under construction in Tel Aviv in August 2024. - Florion Goga/Reuters

Other sectors of Israel’s economy, while less important than tech, have been hit much harder. The agriculture and construction sectors have struggled to fill gaps left by Palestinians whose work permits have been suspended since October last year, pushing up prices for fresh vegetables and leading to a steep decline in housebuilding.

Tourism has also taken a knock, with arrivals down sharply this year. Israel’s tourism ministry has estimated that the drop in foreign tourists has translated into 18.7 billion shekels ($4.9 billion) in lost revenue since the start of the war.

The Norman, a boutique hotel in Tel Aviv, has had to lay off some staff and cut its prices by up to 25%, partly because some of its facilities — including its Japanese rooftop restaurant — remain closed to save on costs.

Occupancy levels have fallen from above 80% before war to below 50% currently, according to the hotel’s general manager Yaron Liberman.

“We know the day when the war will finish it’s going to be crazy here as far as business coming back,” he told CNN in mid-September, citing correspondence from would-be guests keen to visit Israel but unable to book flights or secure travel insurance.

But for now, “the biggest factor is the uncertainty,” Liberman said. “When is the war going to end?”

First Plutonium Pit For Nuclear Warhead Produced In The U.S. In 35 Years Is Now “Weapon-Ready”

Howard Altman
Fri, October 4, 2024


Recreation of early nuclear age plutonium pit


The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced the completion of the first weapon-ready example of a vital component for the W87-1 warhead. The component, called a “plutonium pit,” is the radioactive component that acts as a first stage ‘trigger’ apparatus used to initiate the detonation of the thermonuclear device. Plans call for the W87-1s to be used in the future LGM-35A Sentinel nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), a program that is massively over budget and faces numerous issues.

The NNSA calls this “an important milestone for the United States’ nuclear weapon stockpile modernization” as it phases out the aging W78 warheads, one of two types that are placed atop LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBMs currently stationed in silos. The other is the W87-0.

A Minuteman III missile in its silo. USAF

“The W87-1 nuclear warhead will replace the W78 nuclear warhead, which was first introduced in 1979 and represents the oldest weapon in the U.S. nuclear stockpile that has not undergone a major life extension or replacement,” the Government Accountability Office noted. “The W87-1 will be carried on the Air Force’s Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile and is slated for deployment in the early 2030s.”


The W87-0s will initially be installed on Sentinels, but those will eventually be phased out as well.

To make any of this happen, however, NNSA needs new plutonium pits. A good description of how the pits play a critical role in a nuclear warhead can be found at the Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, stating:

“Pits are the hollow plutonium cores of the fission “primaries” (triggers) of two-stage modern warheads. A warhead explosion would begin with the implosion of the pit to supercriticality, which would enable an exponentially growing fission chain reaction in the plutonium. That fission explosion—“boosted” by neutrons from a fusion reaction in tritium-deuterium gas injected into the middle of the hollow pit just before implosion—would ignite a much more powerful “secondary” nuclear fission-fusion explosion.”

Inside this pit of plutonium-239 is a chamber of hydrogen gas. The high temperatures and pressures created by the plutonium-239 fission cause the hydrogen atoms to fuse. This fusion process releases neutrons, which feed back into the plutonium-239, splitting more atoms and boosting the fission chain reaction, making a more powerful bomb.

How a thermonuclear warhead works. (Union of Concerned Scientists)

The W78 warhead is said to have a yield of 335 kilotons. It is unclear what the W87-1’s exact will be, but the original W87 warhead has a reported baseline yield of 300 kilotons. The follow-on variant is understood to be modifiable to increase the weapon’s yield to 475 kilotons.

By way of comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was vastly less powerful, producing a yield of 16 kilotons.

At issue is that the U.S. hasn’t produced these pits in more than three decades.

During the Cold War, the U.S. could manufacture hundreds of these pits every year, but production ceased in 1989, NNSA explained.

The goal is to rebuild “the capability to manufacture plutonium pits, at the rate of no fewer than 80 pits per year…and recapitalize production capabilities that atrophied in the post-Cold War era across the Nuclear Security Enterprise,” NNSA states. Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility-4 produced the first weapon-ready W87-1 pit.

A prototype of the nose cone “shroud” that will go on top of each LGM-35A goes flying during a test. (Northrop Grumman)

However, the Sentinel missile program is troubled, faced with massive cost overruns and delays, including the development of sufficient plutonium pits.

As we noted previously, the U.S. Air Force is pushing ahead with Sentinel despite a new projected price tag of nearly $141 billion, close to twice the original estimate, and now years of expected delays. The main factor driving costs up is largely the result of required upgrades to existing missile silos and other launch and command and control infrastructure rather than the missile itself.

A rendering of a future Sentinel silo, which also highlights that much of the facility is expected to be entirely new. (Northrop Grumman)

The plan to develop new plutonium pits is also facing budget and scheduling headwinds as new production facilities are needed to meet the demands.

“One of the production lines is in an advanced state of installation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the home of US pit-production expertise,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) explained in a 2023 report. “The other is to be installed at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, where there is no pit-production expertise.”

NNSA’S plutonium pit announcement “is significant because Los Alamos has to demonstrate that the new W87-1 (which is already in development) can actually be supplied with the new pit in time for them to be able to deliver the warhead to the military on time (when the Sentinel ICBM is ready),” nuclear weapons expert Hans M. Kristensen told The War Zone.

The Los Alamos Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility-4 produced the first weapon-ready W87-1 plutonium pit. (Photo by Joe Raedle) Joe Raedle

However, “there is considerable doubt that the pit production program and therefore the W87-1 program will be able to deliver as planned,” added Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists and Associate Senior Fellow to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The planned factories “are delayed and a new lawsuit has just ruled that DOE/NNSA violated the law by shortcutting regulations,” he noted. “That will almost certainly cause further delays.”

“The timelines and cost projections are not realistic,” he posited.

After eight years of development, the first fully certified plutonium pit for the future W87-1 warhead has been produced. https://t.co/Dx12UoP7Yz

W87-1 will replace W78 and be one of two warheads (with W87-0; image), on the future Sentinel ICBM. https://t.co/zi3jcLyy9p pic.twitter.com/H8bhxWB3zM

— Hans Kristensen (@nukestrat) October 2, 2024

The production of the first weapon-ready plutonium pit is just a first step in a long journey, Dylan Spaulding, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The War Zone.

“It is important to note that this doesn’t mean production will take off exponentially. It’s likely that not every pit produced will meet standards and the congressionally mandated goal of 80 pits per year by 2030 is still very much out of reach,” he said. “We feel that that goal is both unnecessary and dangerous.”

We asked NNSA to respond to the comments, made Thursday afternoon, by Kristensen and Spaulding. We will update this story with any pertinent details it provides.

The challenges faced by the Sentinel come as China continues to dramatically expand its nuclear stockpile and ICBM arsenal, as well as Russia reemerging as a glaring strategic threat. Meanwhile, the U.S. hasn’t made a new nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War more than three decades ago. The Sentinel program, while controversial and massively expensive, aims to keep America’s ICBM edge for decades to come, but realizing that is proving much harder than originally envisioned. So any progress, including the production of plutonium pits, is likely welcome news for the program.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Archaeologists Uncovered a Community Lost to Time for 5,000 Years

Tim Newcomb
Fri, October 4, 2024

POP MECH

Ancient Farming Society Discovered in Morocco

Walter Bibikow - Getty Images

Archaeologists just uncovered the earliest and largest known agricultural complex in Africa beyond the Nile corridor.


With a large-scale farming community similar in size to Early Bronze Age Troy, the find rewrites the history of northwest Africa.


The Maghreb region may have played a pivotal role in Mediterranean development.

A large-scale, ancient Moroccan farming community may have played a pivotal role in the development of Mediterranean cultures. That community has gone overlooked for 5,000 years, but thanks to a a team of international researchers and their archaeological discovery in the Maghreb region (northwest Africa), the historical record will be corrected.

In a new study published in the journal Antiquity, the group chronicled the find in Oued Beht, Morocco, a previously unknown farming community that was active from 3400 to 2900 BC. “This is currently the earliest and largest agricultural complex in Africa beyond the Nile corridor,” the authors wrote. “Pottery and lithics, together with numerous pits, point to a community that brings the Maghreb into dialogue with contemporaneous wider western Mediterranean developments.”

Not much is known about the Maghreb region from between 4000 and 1000 BC, but the new discovery could show how it was potentially a hub for major cultural development and international connections. The area’s location bordering the Sahara Desert and a relatively narrow waterway separating it from Europe means Maghreb may have proven critical in the emergence of complex societies throughout the Mediterranean.

“For over 30 years I have been convinced that Mediterranean archaeology has been missing something fundamental in later prehistoric north Africa,” Cyprian Broodbank, Cambridge University professor, said in a statement. “Now, at last, we know that was right, and we can begin to think in new ways that acknowledge the dynamic contribution of Africans to the emergence and interactions of early Mediterranean societies.”

The team believes the large-scale farming settlement was similar in size to Early Bronze Age Troy and featured an unprecedented range of domesticated plants and animals. Crops likely included barley, wheat, peas, olives, and pistachios, while livestock ranged from sheep and goats to pigs and cattle. Add in a wealth of found pottery and stone tools, all dating to the Final Neolithic period, and the evidence points away from the previously believed theory of the site sparingly inhabited by nomadic herders and instead positions it as playing a key role in setting culture trends in an entire region.

“For more than a century,” the authors wrote in the study, “the last great unknown of later Mediterranean prehistory has been the role played by the societies of Mediterranean’s southern, Africa shores west of Egypt. Our discoveries prove that this gap has been due not to any lack of major prehistoric activity, but to the relative lack of investigation, and publishing. Oued Beht now affirms the central role of the Maghreb in the emergence of both Mediterranean and wider African societies.”

The find also included deep-storage pits, which showed the inhabitants’ know-how for long-term food storage, but also linking it to similar sites in Iberia across the Strait of Gibraltar where ivory and ostrich eggs have long hinted at connections to Africa.

“It is crucial to consider Oued Beht within a wider co-evolving and connective framework embracing peoples both sides of the Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway during the later fourth and third millennia BC,” the authors wrote, “and, for all the likelihood of movement in both directions, to recognize it as a distinctively African-based community that contributed substantially to the shaping of that social world.”

Russia has lost access to CERN in a sign that its war in Ukraine is causing a major scientific brain drain

Mia Jankowicz
Updated Fri, October 4, 2024 at 8:33 AM MDT·6 min read

CERN is revoking access for 500 Russian scientists over the Ukraine war, cutting them off from key facilities.

Russian media has tried to cast the move as an own goal by the West.

But experts say the move is a major setback for Russian science, and is fueling brain drain.

CERN is about to revoke access for about 500 scientists affiliated with Russian institutions, cutting Russia's researchers off from its state-of-the-art facilities.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN — home to the world's only Large Hadron Collider — announced the number of affected scientists on Monday, Reuters reported, finalizing a pledge first made after the outbreak of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The move is a major break for the institution in Geneva.

Russia isn't a CERN member state but has held observer status since the height of the Cold War — a partnership that reflected CERN's postwar founding mission of "science for peace."

But Russia's cooperation is set to expire — and not be renewed, as was customary — on November 30.

It also broke off from the Russian ally Belarus earlier this summer.

CERN, which celebrated its 70th anniversary on Tuesday, has emphasized that the move blocks cooperation with Russian institutions, and not individuals.

Not everyone agrees with the decision.

Ukrainian scientists have criticized CERN's decision not to fully cut ties with one institution, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Moscow, which is considered by CERN to be an international institution, Nature reported.

A group of particle physicists known as Science4Peace, which campaigns against restrictions on scientific collaboration, has also objected.

The Linac 4 linear accelerator at CERN.Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Saving face

Russia has accused CERN of playing politics in the realm of scientific cooperation.

Some of its state-controlled media has also cast the move as a net gain for Russian research and an own goal for the West, with the pro-Kremlin outlet Sputnik quoting a Russian nuclear-energy expert as saying Europe was relegating itself to a "scientific slum."

The state news agency TASS also cheerily reported that its scientific horizon "remains open" and that Russian scientists were already returning to work on "domestic mega science projects."

"This is quite obviously a positive development for us in some respects," Mikhail Kovalchuk, the head of the Kurchatov Institute research center, told the local outlet Izvestia, according to TASS.

But scientific experts Business Insider talked to had a different take.

"They are laughable comments," said Roman Sidortsov, a Russian-born researcher focusing on energy policy in the US and Russia at the UK's University of Sussex. "It's unsubstantiated bravado," he added.

Far from being a positive for President Vladimir Putin, CERN's move puts Russian theoretical physics research at a huge disadvantage — and, as Sidortsov said, exposes the country to brain drain.

A technician in the tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.Pierre Albouy/Reuters
Triggering a Russian brain drain

Scientific experts, including several with working ties to CERN, spoke about the consequences to Russia and the wider scientific community.

"If I or any of my colleagues had to lose access to it, it would be quite devastating," said Kate Shaw, an experimental particle physicist at the UK's University of Sussex.

Roger Cashmore, who served as CERN's director of research and deputy director general until 2004, said it would be a "blow" to Russia.

He said Russia was losing out on access to "the leading particle physics research center in the world today," continuing, "So that's quite a large loss."

A Russian physicist who spoke on condition of anonymity to the independent Russian outlet The Insider meanwhile said they'd "describe it as the destruction of the entire field" of Russian experimental high-energy physics.

Robin Grimes, a professor at London's Imperial College who was formerly the chief scientific advisor to the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was also scathing about the idea that the returning scientists would be a boon to the Kremlin.

"I don't believe for a second Putin cares an iota about 500 scientists coming back to Russia," he said, adding: "He might care about 500 more people that he can conscript into the army."

In addition, much of the expertise being brought back to Russia has nowhere to go.

Grimes said CERN's facilities were so "mind-bogglingly expensive" that almost no single country could make them itself.

A front-on view of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Lionel Flusin/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Not only that, but the research is highly dependent on pooled international expertise.

"If your institutions are isolated from the main body of people carrying out work in this area, you are not going to be able to progress your thinking and your understanding in the same way as you did," he said.

Sidortsov said that instead, Russia was more likely to experience a steady brain drain that had been going on since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Hard science was one of Russia's "remaining strengths" from the Soviet era, he said.

"But even that was eroding and eroding quickly. It's not a dream job for a future graduate to be a theoretical physicist in Russia," he added.

And with Russian scientists facing the possibility of losing access to state-of-the-art equipment and a community of excellence, Sidortsov said that many of them were likely to seek work outside their home country.

Indeed, Nature reported that about 90 Russian researchers who'd worked with CERN had found new jobs at international institutions since 2022.

And in January, Novaya Gazeta Europe estimated that Russia had lost about 2,500 scientists since 2022.
A net loss for CERN, too

It's not just Russia losing out, however.

"It's a lose-lose-lose situation," Sidortsov said.

A CERN spokesperson, Arnaud Marsollier, told BI that Russia's 4.5% budget contribution to CERN's experiments, about $2.7 million, was now covered by "other institutes."

Marsollier added that CERN had also taken on the cost of covering Russia's contribution to the site's next major upgrade, the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, which is set to come online in 2029.

That amounts to about $47 million, Nature reported.

CERN's Globe of Science visitor center.

 Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo

The scientists BI spoke with mourned losing colleagues, even as some said sanctioning Russia was unavoidable.

"The relationship with Russian scientists has always been very strong because they have a very long and very good reputation in particle physics," Grimes said.

The particle physicist Tara Shears, a professor at the UK's University of Liverpool, said scientists from Russian institutes were keeping many valuable experiments going. "These all need to be taken over by other members of the collaborations," she added.

Grimes said the scientific community had also lost the opportunity to expose a valuable group of people to Western freedoms, principles, and opposition to the Ukraine war.

Those values "seep down" in their communities, he said, and "now that won't happen."

Shaw said CERN is a special community where the joint search for knowledge normally overrides national politics.

"It's a huge success story of humanity being able to collaborate, and you really see that, because we all care about those quarks and photons, at the end of the day," she said.