Harris goes to church, highlighting the absence of religion in the 2024 campaign

Alex Seitz-Wald and Katherine Koretski and Nnamdi Egwuonwu
Sun, October 20, 2024

Religion is making a rare appearance on the campaign trail this week in a presidential election that has dwelled less on candidates’ personal faith than any in recent memory.

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to attend services and speak at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside Atlanta on Sunday, while her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will visit Victorious Believers Ministries in Saginaw, Michigan.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized Harris for skipping the Al Smith dinner in New York City, a high-profile fundraiser for Catholic charities, saying her absence was “very disrespectful to our great Catholic community.” Harris instead sent a video.

While candidates in both parties have traditionally sought to play up their piety to appeal to religious voters and signal their personal integrity, Harris, Trump and their running mates have not centered their faith this year.

That’s a marked contrast from President Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic who regularly attends services, quotes hymns and figures like St. Augustine, and can be seen on Ash Wednesday with ash on his forehead.

Barack Obama’s religion was a major factor in his 2008 campaign, both for its influence on his oratory and the criticism of his relationship with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, a controversial figure whom Obama ended up rebuking.

Obama cut his teeth in Chicago as a community organizer working for a coalition of Catholic churches. And his comfort in religious settings was apparent throughout his presidency, from the five times he invoked God in his first inaugural address to his impromptu singing of “Amazing Grace” at Mother Emanuel AME Church after a white supremacist killed nine at the historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

But the United States has grown even more secular in the eight years since Obama left office, with a record 28% of U.S. adults now identifying as religiously unaffiliated, according to Pew, surpassing evangelical Protestants and Catholics to now be the largest religious group in the country.

As recently as 2007, when Obama was preparing his first presidential run, the religiously unaffiliated — who include people who identify as atheists, agnostics and “nothing in particular” — made up just 16% of the country in Pew’s data.

And presidential historian Michael Beschloss said Americans have grown more cynical about their politicians and what their religious affiliation might say about their character.

“We’ve learned a lot about a lot of politicians who seemed to be very religious but did not necessarily follow the tenets of their faith in one way or another,” said Beschloss, noting religion has become as much about policy as personality. “So for many people, religion may no longer say much about someone’s personal character.”

There’s now less incentive for candidates to play up their religiosity — and even potential peril with irreligious voters, especially on the left — said Massimo Faggioli, a Villanova University theology professor who wrote a spiritual biography of Biden.

And Harris and Trump, along with their running mates, have complicated religious backgrounds that are harder to “sell” politically than Biden’s familiar Catholicism, he said.

“There’s secularism on one side and a more complicated religious mix on the other side,” said Faggioli. “And for Harris, there’s a risk where religion is associated in the eyes of some voters as a form of oppression.”

Trump’s coalition is powered in large part by evangelical Christians, but their support for him is based more on a shared political agenda than a spiritual connection. Just 8% of people who had a positive view of Trump earlier this year thought he was “very” religious, according to Pew.

Trump was raised Presbyterian but in 2020 said he considers himself a nondenominational Christian, though he is not known to attend services regularly.

“There’s no pretense anymore that this is a true love story. It’s a marriage of convenience,” said Faggioli. “The relationship has become much more transactional.”

Indeed, at the Al Smith dinner, Trump made that plain: “Catholics, you’ve got to vote for me. You better remember: I’m here and she’s not.”

Harris, on the other hand, is a rare political figure who may have downplayed her spiritual life in public, given anti-religious sentiments in her native California Bay Area and a complicated personal religious journey.

Harris is a Baptist who was raised by a Black Anglican father and an Indian Hindu mother and is now married to a Reform Jewish husband.

She’s a longtime member of San Francisco’s historic Third Baptist Church and has a deep relationship with its pastor, the Rev. Amos Brown. As vice president, she has attended services at Baptist churches in the Washington, D.C., area and in 2022 spoke at the National Baptist Convention.

Brown was one of the first people Harris called after Biden decided not to run for re-election, and she managed his campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1999.

“She’s a strong, spiritual person who comes from a strong, spiritual family that we’ve known for a very long time now,” Brown said in an interview with a newspaper in his native Mississippi earlier this year.

Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, said in his Democratic National Convention speech that “Kamala has connected me more deeply to my faith” and that they attend both synagogue and church on holy days.

In her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote about her mother making sure she was exposed to both Hindu and African American Christian religious traditions, adding that she and her sister, Maya, sang in the choir at the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland.

“I believe we must live our faith and show faith in action,” she wrote.

But aside from asking Brown to give the closing prayer at the convention this summer and some occasional references to her church, especially when speaking with Black audiences, Harris rarely speaks of God, and her oratorical style is more prosecutor than preacher.

“I grew up in the Black church,” Harris told radio host Charlamagne tha God last week when a pastor asked about partnering with faith communities. “Our God is a loving God. Our faith propels us to act in a way that is about kindness and justice, mercy.”

She contrasted that with what she said was Trump’s belief that strength is “who you beat down,” which she called “absolutely contrary to the church I know.”

Walz, meanwhile, was raised Catholic but became Lutheran after marrying his wife, Gwen. Lutheranism is a major Protestant denomination, but in the U.S. it is almost entirely concentrated in the Upper Midwest, with little salience in the rest of the country, where it comprises just a small percentage of the population.

Walz rarely speaks about his religion, joking at times that his Midwestern sensibilities make it difficult to open up.

“Because we’re good Minnesota Lutherans, we have a rule: If you do something good and talk about it, it no longer counts,” Walz joked at a speech to trade unions this year.

Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has written about his own personal journey. Raised evangelical but rarely attending services, he became an atheist as a young adult before converting to conservative Catholicism as an adult.

Vance’s wife, Usha, grew up Hindu in a “religious household,” and she and Vance were married in an interfaith ceremony that included both Bible readings and a Hindu pandit.

Those stories of conversion, intermarriage and back-seat religiosity reflect the spiritual life of Americans today, but may not make for tidy stories on the stump.

“If you are not comfortable talking about religion, it really shows, so it makes sense not to,” said Faggioli.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com


VP Harris hosts campaign event at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb County

WSBTV.com News Staff
Sun, October 20, 2024 


On Saturday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris held a campaign rally in Atlanta to encourage voters and drum up support in the final weeks of the 2024 election season.

Harris continued her campaign stop in the metro Atlanta area with a planned visit to the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest.

The event is part of what the campaign has called their Souls to the Polls event. After the church service at New Birth, Harris is expected to attend a second Souls to the Polls event at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, where she will give brief remarks after the service.

While former President Donald Trump held his own events in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with a rally in Latrobe, Penn. that evening.

As far as events for the Trump-Vance campaign on Sunday, the former president remains in Pennsylvania, where he’ll be speaking at a 5 p.m. town hall in Lancaster.

In Georgia, Stevie Wonder is also expected to be in attendance at Divine Faith Ministries and will give a performance before the Vice President’s arrival, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.

Also on Sunday night, supporters of former president Trump’s reelection bid will host a “Women for Trump” town hall in Kennesaw with Congresswomen Ashley Hinson and Erin Houchin, as well as former Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

The Kennesaw event covers topics similar to Harris’ own, with a focus on issues impacting women and mothers in Georgia.

While Harris’ event focused on threats to reproductive rights and freedoms, and the associated health concerns in the state and across the U.S., the Women for Trump event is expected to focus on the prosperity and economic opportunity that the former president’s supporters say happened while he was in office.

Harris visits Black church in Georgia in ‘souls to the polls’ early voting push

Eric Bradner and Ebony Davis, CNN
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a church service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on October 20, 2024.


Vice President Kamala Harris visited a church in the Atlanta suburbs on Sunday, urging congregants to cast early ballots as part of her campaign’s “souls to the polls” push to turn out Black voters.

The early voting push comes as Harris attempts to motivate Black voters, who are a critical part of the Democratic base. Her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, has targeted those voters — hoping to chip into Harris’ margins, especially with Black men.

“Our country is at a crossroads, and where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith,” Harris said at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia.

“We face this question: What kind of country do we want to live in?” she said. “A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?”

Black churches have played a critical role in mobilizing Black voters since the Civil Rights Movement — and Democratic campaigns have long sought to reach those voters, particularly in early voting states like Georgia, where polls were open Sunday afternoon.

Despite holding an advantage over Trump among Black voters, Harris has fallen short in most polling of President Joe Biden’s numbers with the demographic when he won in 2020. In recent weeks, her campaign has made targeted media appearances and unveiled proposals aimed at Black men in a bid to strengthen her coalition. The vice president’s campaign’s “souls to the polls” effort, launched earlier this month with a board consisting of Black faith leaders from around the United States, also saw Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attend service at Victorious Believers Ministries in Saginaw, Michigan.

On Sunday, the congregation in Georgia sang “Happy Birthday” to Harris, who turned 60 that day. The service was also attended by Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” for the 98-year-old’s decades-long campaign to make the day commemorating the ending of slavery a federal holiday.

The vice president wore a black suit with a pink blouse in honor of the church’s “pink day,” aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer, and she highlighted her mother’s work as a breast cancer researcher.

Harris said that growing up, she often attended Sunday school and sang in the choir. She learned of a “loving God who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to defend the rights of the poor and the needy,” she said.

“For me, like for so many of us, church is then a place of growth and belonging and community; a place where we are reminded of the incredible power of faith and fellowship. And in moments of difficulty and uncertainty when the way is not clear, it is our faith that then guides us forward,” Harris said.

Trump on Sunday morning appeared on Fox News, where he said his closing message in the final stretch to Election Day on November 5 is focused on border security, inflation and transgender athletes.

“We’re a failing nation right now,” Trump said. “We’re failing at the borders. We’re failing with inflation and the economy. We’re failing with all of this woke stuff, like men playing in women’s sports and transgender operations and all of these things that are just terrible for our country and we just can’t let it happen.”

At a rally the night before, however, his closing pitch devolved into profane attacks and a lewd story about the late golfer Arnold Palmer.

His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, visited Kroll’s West sports bar in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday ahead of a Packers game.

“Go Pack, go Trump,” Vance said after taking a swig of beer.

CNN’s Aaron Pellish, Veronica Stracqualursi and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

Democrats Embrace Nuclear Power In Heated Senate Races

Alexander C. Kaufman
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Democratic candidates in several key Senate races are breaking with a long-standing taboo among liberal voters: They’re increasingly embracing nuclear power as tech companies, banks and governments pour money into building new reactors to shore up a U.S. electrical grid that’s heaving under pressure from data centers, air conditioning and extreme weather.

Asked during last week’s televised debate against Republican Kari Lake what he would do to deal with Arizona’s rising temperatures, Ruben Gallego, the Democratic nominee for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, pitched just one big solution: more nuclear power.

In Michigan’s final U.S. Senate debate this week, Democrat Elissa Slotkin listed nuclear reactors among the energy sources into which she said she wants to increase U.S. government investment.

In an interview with HuffPost on Wednesday, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Miami-area Democrat challenging Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), called atomic power “a good first step in transitioning to greener energy and to lower the cost for Floridians in the state.”

“I would support nuclear,” she said.

Colin Allred, the Texas Democrat making a spirited challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), confirmed his support on Friday for building more reactors.

“Texas is a proud energy state, and in the Senate, I will always work to keep it that way,” he said in a statement to HuffPost. “That includes responsible oil and gas production, renewable energy like wind and solar, as well as nuclear power.”

In virtually every democracy among the 32 countries with nuclear power plants — including Canada, the Netherlands, and South Korea — left-of-center parties traditionally oppose atomic energy, while those on the political right generally support it.

U.S. Senate candidates Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Republican challenger Kari Lake debate on Oct. 9, 2024, in Phoenix. via Associated Press

For decades, the American partisan gap tracked this axiom. Democrats’ coalition historically included environmentalists eager to clamp down on uranium mining and radioactive waste, as well as anti-war activists who saw opposing nuclear power plants as a way to take a stand against atomic weapons. Republicans, on the other hand, generally championed a major U.S. industry seen as a key to the country’s economic development and technological competition with the Soviet Union.

When former President Barack Obama took office in 2009, 54% of Democratic voters favored the use of nuclear power, the highest level of support Gallup has recorded since the pollster’s biannual surveys started in 2001.

Despite that, the newly inaugurated Democrat elevated Gregory Jaczko to the top job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, putting the agency — which is in charge of overseeing the world’s largest fleet of atomic power stations — in the hands of a skeptic who went on to call for a global reactor ban and refashion himself as a leading anti-nuclear activist.

Soon after Obama took office, his administration canceled the permanent nuclear waste repository long under construction at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, an apparent concession to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that the federal government’s independent watchdog found was driven by political, not technical, issues.

Since federal law requires the U.S. to complete Yucca Mountain before considering alternative sites, blocking the project without advocating for legal reforms effectively froze the American debate over radioactive spent fuel. It also likely contributed to the industry malaise that saw more than a dozen reactors shut down and dozens more planned units abandoned over the next decade.

While the nuclear waste issue remained unresolved, the Obama administration soon started work on federal programs that laid the groundwork for the new reactor technologies now coming to market.

In 2010, Obama’s climate czar, Carol Browner, announced her support for nuclear power for the first time at an event organized by the center-left think tank Third Way. The administration then established the Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear, a landmark program that helped give startups designing novel types of reactors access to national laboratories and other federal resources.

In this aerial view, the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant stands in the middle of the Susquehanna River on Oct. 10, 2024, near Middletown, Pennsylvania. The plant’s owner, Constellation Energy, plans to spend $1.6 billion to refurbish the reactor that it closed five years ago and restart it by 2028 after Microsoft recently agreed to buy as much electricity as the plant can produce for the next 20 years to power its growing fleet of data centers. Chip Somodevilla via Getty ImagesMore

“It was the first time in a long time that a Democratic administration started to press the case that nuclear should be considered,” said Josh Freed, the senior vice president of energy and climate at Third Way.

It wasn’t long before another energy technology the Obama administration supported jeopardized the future of nuclear power. Hydraulic fracturing — the drilling technique known as “fracking” that uses pressurized water and chemicals to access previously unreachable deposits of hydrocarbons — took off, driving down the cost of natural gas and remaking the U.S. into one of the world’s top producers.

Since gas power plants were relatively inexpensive and quick to build, and the fuel to power them grew ever cheaper, nuclear projects could not compete. When it came time to renew power purchase agreements, buyers kept opting for deals with gas plants instead of renewing contracts with existing nuclear plants. That made maintaining nuclear plants too costly for utilities, prompting a cascade of shutdowns.

The 2011 Fukushima accident only soured investors on nuclear power even more. All but two planned reactors, a pair of units under construction at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle, were canceled.

While the Japanese government paid out compensation for just one death, an emergency worker who developed lung cancer years after the accident, scientists debate whether radiation exposure actually caused the illness. The forced evacuation of mostly elderly residents in the area, however, caused hundreds of deaths due to stress. In the years following the meltdown in Japan, the share of U.S. Democratic voters favoring nuclear power plunged as low as 34%.

Under former President Donald Trump, Congress passed bipartisan legislation to expand the Obama administration’s efforts to support next-generation reactor developers trying to commercialize technologies that, for example, use molten salt or high-temperature gas as a coolant instead of water.

By the time Gallup took its 2019 poll, support for nuclear energy began climbing again, reaching 46% in last year’s survey.

A Pew Research Center survey released in August found that nearly half of Democrats — 49% — backed an expansion of the existing nuclear fleet. By contrast, two-thirds of Republican-leaning and independent voters favored new reactors. But the 18-point partisan gap was the smallest in a list of energy sources that included solar panels, wind turbines, offshore oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” and coal mining.

Perhaps more notably, nuclear power represented the only source of energy with growing support among voters in both parties.

After President Joe Biden took office in 2021 with slim Democratic majorities in Congress, his party enacted two major infrastructure spending laws that directed billions of dollars toward researching and deploying new nuclear reactors and keeping existing plants open.

Just months after the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan became the latest such facility to shut down over financial concerns, the Biden administration awarded the owners of California’s last atomic power station in Diablo Canyon $1.1 billion to keep the reactors running. Earlier this year, the Energy Department gave the owners of the Michigan plant $1.5 billion to reopen the facility, the first time in U.S. history a permanent closure is set to be reversed.

At the last United Nations climate summit, the White House led a pledge of more than a dozen countries vowing to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050. In September during the U.N. General Assembly, the world’s biggest banks announced their own pledge to begin financing nuclear projects again.

Aerial view of the core module of China's Linglong One, the world's first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), installed on Aug. 10, 2023, in China's Hainan province. China News Service via Getty Images

Big tech companies, meanwhile, are throwing deep-pocketed support behind reopening other nuclear plants and building new ones. Last month, Microsoft unveiled a $16 billion deal to reopen the defunct reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to help power its data centers as artificial intelligence ramps up the server farm’s appetite for electricity.

This week, Google and Amazon announced their own deals with reactor startups that came through the federal programs established over the past decade. The Jeff Bezos-founded retailer even made a direct investment into X-energy, the Maryland-based company building small reactors cooled with high-temperature gas.

“If they do get built, this week will actually be a week that is taught in history books,” Freed said. “It is when the era of nuclear energy changed from being speculative and focused primarily on innovation and getting liftoff to having momentum and being focused truly on scale and accelerated deployment.”

To help make those investments real, Biden signed legislation aimed at easing the permitting process for advanced reactors like those Google and Amazon want. The bill passed in the Senate 88–2. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were the lone nay votes.

“It’s counterintuitive to what the casual observer’s perspective is, but the most transformative president for nuclear in the last 50 years is a Democrat who got the largest part of the nuclear agenda enacted with a full Democratic majority in Congress,” Freed said. “The reality of energy security, energy demand and climate change have dramatically changed people’s perspectives, including a lot of policymakers.”

A Telegram group posted what it calls 'highly classified' US documents about Israel's attack plans against Iran

Katie Balevic,Lloyd Lee
Updated Sat, October 19, 2024 

A Telegram group posted what it says is leaked US intel on Israel's attack plans against Iran.


Middle East Spectator shared the documents but couldn't verify their authenticity.


US officials have not yet commented publicly on the possible leak.

A Telegram channel posted what it says are "highly classified" US intelligence documents analyzing Israel's plans to attack Iran.

The channel for the "Middle East Spectator," which describes itself as an "open-source news aggregator" independent of any government, said in a statement that it had "received, through an anonymous source on Telegram who refused to identify himself, two highly classified U.S. intelligence documents, regarding preparations by the Zionist regime for an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The Middle East Spectator said in its posted statement that it could not verify the authenticity of the documents.

No US or Israeli officials have publicly commented on the possible leak. Axios reported that intelligence officials declined to comment but did not dispute the veracity of the documents.

When reached for comment from Business Insider, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said, "We are looking into these reports."

The region is bracing for an expected Israeli attack on Iran. Israeli officials have said it plans to retaliate for Iran's October 1 missile attack. The US announced this month it would send troops along with "a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery" to Israel in response to Iran's attack.

Iran's missile attack on Israel came in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September. Hezbollah is Iran's primary proxy in the region.

Sean McFate, a national security and foreign policy expert at Syracuse University, told Business Insider in a text that Israel's plan to attack Iran is "no surprise," and he senses a debate is going on within Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's government as to which targets to choose.

He said the document leak is notable given that there are "not a whole lot of Iran sympathizers within the US government."

"It's also a tense time between Biden and Bibi right now," McFate said, "and all under the shadow of the election."

 Business Insider




Details of how Israel's purported preparations for Iran attack leaked, explained

Adam Schrader

upi
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Leaked U.S. documents purportedly indicate that Israel is preparing to attack Iran with ROCKS missiles, pictured in a promotional photo by developer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. File Photo by Rafael Advance Defense Systems


Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A team of independent bloggers in the Middle East who purportedly spread classified documents detailing Israel's plans for a strike against rival Iran have explained how the information leaked.

On Friday, the self-described "news aggregator" Middle East Spectator shared documents appearing to have originated from the U.S. intelligence community on Telegram. UPI has reviewed the documents but has not been able to verify their authenticity.

The documents were marked as "top secret" and appear to have come from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which generates intelligence from satellite and aerial imagery.

Markings on the documents indicate that they required special handling to protect data provided by a contributing foreign government, Israel, and could only be shared with America's "Five Eyes" allies - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Specifically, the documents detail recent military activities by the Israeli Air Force including the purported launches of air-launched ballistic missiles, drones and air-to-surface missiles in preparation for an attack on Iran.

The documents specifically note the possible existence of previously unknown to the public weapons including "Golden Horizon" ABLMs. Another weapon mentioned, ROCKS, is developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the creator of the Iron Dome.

"We are independent journalists and are not tied to any government entity or organization," Middle East Spectator said in a post, hitting back at claims in American media that the collective has ties to Iran.

Middle East Spectator shared that one of its acquaintances had received the documents from an anonymous source on Telegram who refused to identify themselves after they first appeared in a private Telegram group with just 7,000 members.

"Middle East Spectator is not aware of any additional leaked classified U.S. documents. We also reiterate that we have no connection to the original source, which we assume to be a whistleblower within the U.S. Department of Defense," the collective said.

"As far as we are aware, the documents first appeared in a private Telegram group with just over 7,000 members, where the leaker was likely present. Somehow, the documents found their way out of the group."

The collective clarified that it does not know the identity of the original leaker, and also cannot verify the authenticity of the documents.

But American officials have confirmed the authenticity of the documents to news outlets including CNN, calling the leak "deeply concerning."


US investigates leak on intelligence about Israel's Iran attack plans: Updates

John Bacon, USA TODAY
Updated Sun, October 20, 2024 


An investigation is underway into the "very concerning" leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents detailing Israel’s plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday.

Johnson told CNN's State of the Union he would receive a briefing on the probe later Sunday. "There’s some serious allegations being made there," Johnson said. "We’re following it closely."

The documents, revealed on the Telegram messaging app last week, appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. They describe U.S. interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning using satellite imagery from Oct. 15-16. The Pentagon said it is looking into the leak.

Israel has pledged a firm response to Iran's ballistic-missile barrage on Israel Oct. 1, the second direct attack on Israel in six months. President Joe Biden, responding to questions from reporters, said last week he had a good understanding of when and how Israel would attack Iran.

But he also said he sees an opportunity to end the two enemies' back-and-forth strikes.

Developments:

∎ Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Sunday he had ordered his ministry to start legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show.

∎ The Israeli military said it was conducting "targeted activity" against Hezbollah infrastructures in southern Lebanon as both sides continued aerial attacks. Air Force fighter jets attacked dozens of militant targets and the launcher from which dozens of missiles were fired towards Western Galilee earlier Sunday.

Trump leak suggests Iran is hacking former president's campaign
Israel warns Lebanese civilians to evacuate ahead of attacks

Israel said Sunday it was preparing attacks on sites in Lebanon linked to the financial operations of Iran-backed Hezbollah and published maps with the likely targets warning civilians to evacuate the areas.

The warning came hours after Israel said it hit Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut. The Hezbollah-linked financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 across central Beirut and its suburbs.

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli spokesperson for the Arab media, posted the maps on social media with a warning to those living near the targets.

"You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, which the (Israeli military) will work against in the near future," Adraee warned. "For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 500 meters."
UN blasts Israel for latest attack; Israel says report 'exaggerated'

The U.N. peace envoy for the Middle East on Sunday condemned continued attacks on civilians after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza's Beit Lahiya late on Saturday. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 87 people were killed and at least 40 wounded.

"The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying" said Tor Wennesland, the U.N. Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. "Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis."

The Israeli military dismissed the Hamas-run ministry's numbers as "exaggerated," saying they “do not line up with the information available to the IDF, the precision munitions used, and the precise damage done."
Israel commander denies Sinwar killing was 'stroke of luck'

The attack that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, widely reported as a chance encounter, was the result of professional soldiering and "not a stroke of luck,” Israeli Col. Sivan Bloch stressed on Sunday.

Bloch's Defense Force’s 828th Brigade was tasked with continuing mop-up operations in Rafah, including locating and demolishing leftover Hamas infrastructure, eliminating militants, and searching for signs of hostages.

Block told the Times of Israel that a vigilant soldier spotted suspicious movement several hundred meters away. The incident was almost given an all-clear after nothing was initially found, but trackers with the brigade searched the area and found fresh footprints on the ground, Bloch said.

Soldiers followed the footprints to a house where they found Sinwar and his guards. A gunfight ensued and the militants were killed and a soldier went into the building.

“Half jesting, we said, ‘Walla, it looks like Yahya Sinwar.’ We went up to him physically, and there was no doubt. His face is easy to recognize," Bloch said. "I can tell you that we didn’t even believe it at first."

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel war updates: US investigates leak on Israel's Iran attack plans



Purported leaked US intelligence docs appear to show Israel's plans for attack on Iran

MATT SEYLER, LUIS MARTINEZ and CINDY SMITH
Sat, October 19, 2024 

Documents purported to show classified U.S. intelligence gathering on Israel's preparations for a potential retaliatory strike on Iran appeared on social media platforms this week. It is unclear what impact the potential leak may have on any Israeli military planning for a possible strike on Iran, or Israeli-American relations.

U.S. officials declined to provide comment when contacted by ABC News about the possible leak of highly-sensitive material.

ABC News could not independently verify the authenticity of the documents, which appear to show specific details about the types and number of munitions that Israel may be readying for a potentially large-scale strike on Iran in retaliation for the regime's late September barrage of almost 200 ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.

The documents posted on social media have markings that would indicate that they originated from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the U.S. agency that collects, analyzes and distributes intelligence gleaned from satellite and aerial imagery. ABC News is not quoting directly from or showing the documents.

PHOTO: In this Nov. 11, 2023, file photo, a cellphone is shown with seal of US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in front of the agency's webpage. (imageBROKER/Timon Schneider/Newscom, FILE)

Analysis of overhead satellite imagery is just one of multiple intelligence collection tools that the U.S. intelligence community uses to make strategic assessments or risk evaluations.

"We are looking into these reports," a senior U.S. defense official told ABC News when asked about the purported intelligence documents.

The Department of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation and a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all declined to provide any comment when contacted by ABC News.

MORE: What comes next after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death?

If the posts prove authentic, it would signify a major intelligence breach, one reminiscent of the massive leak discovered last year after hundreds of classified documents were shared on the Discord social media platform.

PHOTO: IDF soldiers are continuing limited, localized, targeted raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon, on Oct. 15, 2024. (IDF/GPO via SIPA via Shutterstock)

Earlier this year U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information relating to the Discord leaks.

Axios first reported on the leaked documents.

"If it is true that Israel tactical plans to respond to Iran's attack on October 1st have been leaked, it is a serious breach," said Mick Mulroy, an ABC News national security and defense contributor, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.

"Everyone that has access to this information has an obligation to keep it secure," said Mulroy. "The men and women of the IDF that would carry out this mission could be compromised because of this, the future coordination between the U.S. and Israel could be challenged as well."

"Trust is a key component in the relationship and depending on how this was leaked that trust could be eroded," he added.

Purported leaked US intelligence docs appear to show Israel's plans for attack on Iran originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

US investigates leak on intelligence about Israel's Iran attack plans

Reuters
Sun, October 20, 2024 at 7:48 AM MDT·2 min read
6


Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, visits the New York Stock Exchange to deliver an economic address in New York


(Reuters) -The United States is investigating the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel's preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday.

The documents appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, describing U.S. interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from Oct. 15-16.

They began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, its second direct attack on Israel in six months. Israel has intensified its offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Asked about the leak of the documents during an interview with CNN, Johnson, the U.S. House of Representatives' top lawmaker, said an "investigation (is) underway and I'll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours."

"...We are following it closely," Johnson added.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon said it was looking into the leak reports.

The New York Times reported that officials acknowledged privately that the documents were authentic, but that they likely only represent a portion of information the U.S. has on its close ally's planning.

The first document is titled: "Israel: Air Force Continues Preparations for Strike on Iran and Conducts a Second Large-Force Employment Exercise". It describes activities including ballistic and air-to-surface missile handling.

The second is titled: "Israel: Defense Forces Continue Key Munitions Preparations and Covert UAV Activity Almost Certainly for a Strike on Iran". UAVs are also known as drones.

U.S. President Joe Biden, responding to questions from reporters, said last week he had a good understanding of when and how Israel would attack Iran. But he also said he sees an opportunity to end the two enemies' back-and-forth strikes.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Sarah N. Lynch and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Exclusive: Inside the prison that executes people for supplying cannabis

Ivan Watson, Heather Chen, Rebecca Wright and Tom Booth, CNN
Sat, October 19, 2024 

Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison.

“It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine.

CNN met Matthew, who spoke on condition that his last name be withheld, during an exclusive tour of Changi Prison provided by Singapore authorities as they defended the city-state’s uncompromising position on drugs.


In recent years, dozens of US states and countries ranging from Canada to Portugal have decriminalized marijuana.

But Singapore imposes a mandatory death penalty for people convicted of supplying certain amounts of illicit drugs – 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, 250 grams of methamphetamine and 500 grams of cannabis.

A 64-year-old man was hanged for drug offenses this week – the fourth person to be hanged so far this year.

The harsh sentencing puts the wealthy city-state in a small club of countries that includes Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, which execute criminals convicted of drug offenses.

K Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs and Law, characterizes the country’s war on drugs as an “existential battle,” and claims any easing of the government’s hardline stance could lead to chaos.

“Look around the world,” Shanmugam says. “Any time there has been a certain laxity in the approach to drugs, homicides go up. Killings, torture, kidnappings … that goes up.”
A lucrative drugs market

Visitors to Singapore get a stark warning about the island’s zero tolerance for drugs as international flights descend for landing.

“Drug trafficking may be punishable by death,” a woman’s voice announces over the loudspeaker, amid instructions to passengers to buckle seat belts and stow away tray tables.

Many citizens of this Southeast Asian city-state are also aware that it is illegal for them to consume drugs overseas.

Returning Singaporeans and permanent residents run the risk of facing drug tests upon arrival.

“When you come back, and if there is a reason to believe you have taken drugs, you could be tested,” Shanmugam says.

Per capita, Singapore is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. With a population of nearly 6 million people, it has an annual GDP per capita of nearly $134,000.

This regional transport and financial hub has a reputation for safety, efficiency and strictness under de facto single-party rule.

The People’s Action Party, of which Shanmugam is a member, has governed Singapore since its independence nearly six decades ago.

Speaking from a balcony in the Home Affairs Ministry overlooking tidy neighborhoods of parks and villas, Shanmugam argues his country is a potentially lucrative market in a part of Asia he says is awash with drugs.

“If you are able to traffic into Singapore, the street price here compared to the street price in some other parts [of the world], it’s a magnet.”

K Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs, claims the death penalty acts as a deterrent to drugs offenses. - Rebecca Wright/CNN

Singapore stands in relatively close proximity to the notorious Golden Triangle, the mountainous intersection of Thailand, Laos and civil war-torn Myanmar. Last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) labeled the region the world’s largest source of opium. Production of methamphetamine in the region has also surged in recent years, outpacing heroin and opium.

Singapore’s anti-drug czar claims strict punishment serves as a deterrent to drug traffickers.

“Our philosophy on prisons is not the same as, say, the Scandinavian philosophy,” Shanmugam says. “We choose to make it harsh,” he adds. “It is not a holiday home.

“It is intended to be tough.”
Single cells in stifling heat

Singapore’s Changi Prison Complex is a walled compound of guard towers and imposing gates built in the shadow of the country’s main airport.

More than 10,000 prisoners are held here, and according to the prison’s latest annual report, most are serving time for drug offenses.

CNN was given access to one floor of a maximum-security wing that holds around 160 prisoners jailed for felonies ranging from drug dealing to violent crimes including manslaughter.

A network of security cameras mounted inside and outside individual cells and even over toilets allow just five guards to monitor the entire floor.

At mealtimes, the metallic clang of shutting gates echoes through the cell block, as a prisoner distributes meal trays through a ground-level hatch at the bottom of each cell door.

Food is delivered to prisoners in their cells through a small hatch. - Rebecca Wright/CNN

Authorities allowed CNN to interview only one prisoner, Matthew, the former schoolteacher, who said he was addicted to the same drug he was selling.

His single-occupancy cell is austere, measuring just 7 square meters (75 square feet), with a squat toilet beneath a shower. Inmates are not allowed to have furniture, so there’s no bed or anything to sit on.

It is also steam-bath hot year-round in Singapore’s tropical climate, where maximum daily temperatures regularly rise above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).

The effect of extreme heat on prisoners has become more of a concern around the world as temperatures rise due to climate change.

“You will notice that there aren’t any fans or aircon,” Matthew explains. “There are some periods of time where it’s unbearable.”

Asked whether the threat of the death penalty had any deterrent effect on his drug dealing, Matthew says, “I would like to say yes.”

“But the truth is at that point in time I wasn’t thinking about it. In fact, I was actively avoiding the whole issue of consequences.”
‘Captains of lives’

The prison’s deliberately harsh conditions contrast sharply with abundant emotional wellness messaging in the facility’s common areas.

The workshop, where prisoners pack anti-dandruff shampoo and instant coffee for a small salary, is plastered with motivational quotes from luminaries such as Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela.

Cartoon characters and photos of waterfalls decorate classrooms where prisoners get lessons in anger management and job training.

Officials from the Singapore Prison Service say they encourage guards to think of themselves as “Captains of Lives,” helping rehabilitate the prison population.

From an air-conditioned room known as “the fish tank,” they monitor inmates on live feeds from dozens of security cameras positioned around the prison.

Reuben Leong is in charge of the maximum-security correctional unit at Changi Prison. - Rebecca Wright/CNN

Reuben Leong, the officer in charge of the correctional unit, says the job is not without risk. Violent incidents – usually fights between inmates – take place every few weeks, he says.

“There will be periods of time where they can be demanding, they can be rude, they can be hostile to you,” he adds.

The Yellow Ribbon Project is a government program aimed at rehabilitating former convicts, with job placement and community engagement.

Despite these efforts, Singaporean officials say roughly one in five former prisoners will likely end up back behind bars within two years. By comparison, one in three return to prison within two years in the United States, which has some of the highest recidivism rates in the world.

Meanwhile, there is no rehabilitation for death row inmates.

Singapore executed 11 prisoners by hanging in 2022, and five last year, according to the latest figures. All were convicted of drug charges.

Officials did not allow CNN to visit Institution A1, where more than 40 death row inmates await the same fate.
‘Give my son a second chance’

Outside the prison walls, relatives of death row inmates hold an agonizing vigil awaiting the fate of their loved ones.

Halinda binte Ismail has a shock of bleach blond hair and sports a small stud in her left nostril.

By her count, the 61-year-old has been in prison at least seven times, always for drugs. Halinda says she was just 12 when she first smoked heroin.

Her last arrest was in 2017, when police raided the building where she lived with her eldest son, Muhammed Izwan bin Borhan.

Both mother and son were convicted for narcotics. But while Halinda ended up serving five years, her son was sentenced to death after police caught him with six packets of meth and heroin, according to court documents. He is still in prison, awaiting execution.

“I’m very angry with why the government doesn’t give [my son] a chance to change his life,” Halinda says.

“I always pray to the government ‘give my son a second chance.’”

Halinda is now part of a small movement of activists seeking to ban Singapore’s death penalty.

“It’s not solving anything, and it’s just disproportionately used against some of the most marginalized and weakest people in society,” says Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist with the Transformative Justice Collective, who lobbies on behalf of death row inmates.

“I just feel like it’s very morally wrong.”

Han’s outspoken criticism of Singapore’s system of executions has won her the personal enmity of Shanmugam, the Home Affairs minister.

“She is one of those who romanticizes the people on death row,” Shanmugam tells CNN.

However, Shanmugam confirms one of Han’s observations.

Around 40 prisoners are held in Institution A1, where they’re waiting execution by hanging. - Rebecca Wright/CNN

Among more than 40 inmates he says are currently on death row, most are in the “lower social-economic category.”

One of the 11 prisoners executed in 2022 for drug offenses was Nazeri bin Lajim.

“I was hoping that they [would] give him the life sentence, but they literally hanged my brother,” says his surviving sister Nazira.

Nazira says her brother was a life-long drug addict, but not a violent man.

She shows a series of portraits in her phone of Nazeri, dressed in a brightly printed T-shirt, smiling and holding up a victory sign for the camera.

Before each execution, authorities organize a professional photo shoot in which inmates trade their prison uniforms for civilian clothes.

Nazira doesn’t appreciate the gesture.

“It’s fake happiness,” she says.

She says she is encouraging her adult children to leave Singapore permanently to emigrate to Australia.
War on drugs

Singaporean officials point to surveys that show overwhelming public support for the government’s war on drugs.

In public appearances, Shanmugam often highlights public drug use on the streets of European and American cities to justify Singapore’s approach to the problem.

But it may be more fitting to compare Singapore’s record with Hong Kong, another former British colony that has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs.

Hong Kong’s population is around 25% larger than Singapore’s, and it does not impose the death penalty for drug offenses.

Yet despite its considerably larger population, Hong Kong made 3,406 drug arrests in 2023 – just a few hundred more than the 3,101 drug arrests in Singapore.

And according to Shanmugam, drug arrests in Singapore surged 10% in 2023 – suggesting that perhaps the threat of death is failing to act as a deterrent to crime.

“It’s a fight that you never say you’ve won,” Shanmugam says.

“It’s a continuous work in progress.”

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

WAIT, WHAT?!

US writer Anne Applebaum appeals for arms for Ukraine as she accepts German peace prize

VANESSA GERA
Sun, October 20, 2024 
 

   

 Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The prominent American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum urged continued support for Ukraine as she accepted a prestigious German prize on Sunday, arguing that pacifism in the face of aggression is often nothing more than appeasement.

Applebaum made her appeal to an audience in Frankfurt, where she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She was joined by her husband, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who like his wife is a strong voice on the international stage for supporting Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia's brutal invasion.

“If there is even a small chance that military defeat could help end this horrific cult of violence in Russia, just as military defeat once brought an end to the cult of violence in Germany, we should take it,” Applebaum said.


Many Germans have embraced an ethos of pacifism as a result of their nation's aggression under Adolf Hitler during World War II. And many have misgivings now about supplying weapons to Kyiv, fearing Russia and worried that it could cause the war to spread beyond Ukraine's borders to the rest of Europe.

“Some even call for peace by referring solemnly to the ‘lessons of German history,” Applebaum noted, according to a transcript of her speech published by the prize organization.

“As I am here today accepting a peace prize, this seems the right moment to point out that ‘I want peace’ is not always a moral argument," Applebaum said. “This is also the right moment to say that the lesson of German history is not that Germans should be pacifists."

"On the contrary, we have known for nearly a century that a demand for pacifism in the face of an aggressive, advancing dictatorship can simply represent the appeasement and acceptance of that dictatorship.”

She argued that the “real lesson” from German history should be that Germans "have a special responsibility to stand up for freedom and to take risks in doing so.”

The prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($27,185), was awarded in St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt — which is considered the birthplace of German parliamentary democracy — at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The prize has been awarded since 1950. It honours individuals who have contributed to turning the idea of peace into reality through literature, science or art. Last year’s prize was awarded to British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie for his perseverance despite enduring decades of threats and violence.

The German news agency dpa reported that Applebaum's strong support for continuing to arm Ukraine triggered some criticism, citing Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, the head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, which awards the prize.

Nonetheless she received strong applause for her speech, dpa reported from Frankfurt.

Following pacifism to its logical conclusion, Applebaum argued, would "mean that we should acquiesce to the military conquest of Ukraine, to the cultural destruction of Ukraine, to the construction of concentration camps in Ukraine, to the kidnapping of children in Ukraine.”

Applebaum writes for The Atlantic magazine. She has written books that focus on totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, including “The Gulag," and “The Iron Curtain” and “Red Famine,” about dictator Joseph Stalin's war on Ukraine. She recently published “Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.” In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

The prize jury said Applebaum’s analyses of communist and post-communist systems in the Soviet Union and Russia reveal “the mechanisms by which authoritarians grab hold of power and maintain their control.”

The laudation for Applebaum was delivered by the Russian historian Irina Scherbakova, a founding member of the human rights organization Memorial, which is now banned in Russia and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine


US historian Anne Applebaum receives German literary Peace Prize

DPA
Sun, October 20, 2024 

US author and journalist Anne Applebaum, reacts at a press conference. US historian Anne Applebaum is due to be honoured with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair on Sunday. Boris Roessler/dpa

US historian Anne Applebaum is due to be honoured with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair on Sunday.

The laudation was to be delivered in Frankfurt's Church of St Paul by Irina Scherbakowa, a Moscow-born Germanist, historian and one of Russia's best-known human rights activists.

"At a time when democratic values and achievements are increasingly being caricatured and attacked, her work embodies an eminent and indispensable contribution to the preservation of democracy and peace," the prize's selection jury said in a statement.

Appelbaum's work has revealed the mechanisms of authoritarian seizure and protection of power and shown how fragile democratic societies are, it added.

Endowed with €25,000 ($27,170), the Peace Prize has been awarded by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association since 1950.

It honours personalities who have contributed to the realization of the idea of peace in literature, science or art.

Applebaum was honoured with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2004.

Applebaum, 60, was born in the United States to Jewish parents. In addition to her US citizenship, she also holds Polish citizenship.

Married to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, she has authored such works as "Gulag: A History" (2003), "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56" (2012), "Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends" (2021) and "Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World" (2024).

Germany Book Fair Peace Prize
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, left, is awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt,

Boeing exploring asset sales to boost finances, WSJ reports

Reuters
Updated Sun, October 20, 2024 at 5:42 AM MDT 1 min read

(Reuters) -Boeing is exploring asset sales in a bid to boost its fragile finances by shedding its non-core or underperforming units, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The planemaker last week reached an agreement to offload a small defense unit that makes surveillance equipment for the U.S. military, the paper reported, citing people familiar with the deal.


Boeing has lurched from crisis to crisis this year, ever since Jan. 5 when a door panel blew off a 737 MAX jet in mid-air. Since then, its CEO has departed, its production has been slowed as regulators investigate its safety culture, and in September, 33,000 union workers went on strike.

The Journal reported that in recent financial-performance meetings, new CEO Kelly Ortberg asked the heads of the company's units to lay out the value of those units to the company.

NYSE - Nasdaq Real Time Price•USD

The Boeing Company (BA)

Follow
View Quote Details
155.00-0.31(-0.20%)
At close: October 18 at 4:00 PM EDT
155.000.00(0.00%)
After hours: October 18 at 7:59 PM EDT

Boeing's board recently met to discuss the next steps for the company, where directors questioned division heads and combed through reports to examine the state of each unit, the report said.

Boeing declined to comment on the report.

Striking machinists at the planemaker are set to vote Wednesday on a new contract proposal that includes a 35% pay hike over four years.

The work stoppage has halted production of the planemaker's best-selling 737 MAX and its 767 and 777 widebodies, putting added pressure on its already weak finances.

Earlier this month, Boeing announced it would cut 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global staff, and take $5 billion in charges.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, scion of Republican family, backs Democrat Sherrod Brown for Senate

JULIE CARR SMYTH
Sun, October 20, 2024 



COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, scion of one of the state's best-known Republican families, threw his support Sunday behind Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in his hotly contested reelection race against GOP nominee Bernie Moreno.

Taft, 82, made known his intention to vote for Brown over Moreno, a Donald Trump-backed Cleveland businessman, in a letter to the editor of the Dayton Daily News.

The grandson of “Mr. Republican” Robert A. Taft Sr. and great-grandson of William Howard Taft, the only person in American history to have been president and chief justice of the United States, praised Brown in the letter without mentioning Moreno.


Taft cited, among the reasons for his decision, Brown’s collaboration with U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, on behalf of the Dayton area, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Brown's 25 years of experience in public office; and Brown's committee assignments as a result of his senior status in the Senate.

“Although not in agreement with Senator Brown on every policy issue, I believe Ohioans very much need a highly effective, experienced advocate in the U.S. Senate — someone who is squarely focused on both Ohio's and America's needs,” Taft wrote.

It remained unclear how Taft’s backing might play at the ballot box given Ohio’s hard shift to the right in recent elections. The endorsement comes as Brown works to attract independent and Republican crossover voters in the record-setting $400 million-plus contest.

Moreno’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Trump supporters now hold sway within the state GOP and the former president's endorsements have eclipsed those of mainstream Ohio Republicans in recent elections.

Trump's backing elevated Moreno to victory in a crowded primary field this spring, despite both GOP Gov. Mike DeWine and recently retired Republican Sen. Rob Portman endorsing a rival candidate, for example, and boosted first-time politician JD Vance to a Senate victory over the objections of a cadre of state Republican leaders.

The endorsement is particularly noteworthy, though, given that Bob Taft is the only politician in Brown's long political career to ever defeat him in an election. Taft beat Brown in his 1990 bid for reelection as secretary of state.

Brown slams Moreno for abortion comments during Powell campaign stop

Natalie Fahmy
Fri, October 18, 2024


POWELL, Ohio (WCMH) — Candidates in Ohio’s race for U.S. Senate are full speed ahead on the campaign trail as Election Day draws closer.

The race is between incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is hoping to clinch his fourth term, against Republican businessman Bernie Moreno, who is looking to hold elected office for the first time.

Whitehall police body camera footage shows fatal arrest of man with disabilities

On Friday, Brown was in Powell to tell voters why he deserves their vote. His event centered around women’s reproductive rights.

“These decisions should not be made by politicians,” Brown said. “These decisions, intensely, intensely personal decisions, should be they made by women and their doctors, period. It’s not a partisan issue. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen Republicans and Democrats speaking out for women.”

During the event, Brown slammed Moreno for comments he made last month about women being single-issue voters on abortion.

“Bernie Moreno has made it clear he thinks he knows better than Ohioans,” Brown said.

Brown said women “understand the stakes of this election,” and that Moreno is pro-life with no exceptions.

In a statement, spokesperson for Moreno’s campaign Reagan McCarthy said, “Bernie has made clear that he believes abortion policy should primarily be decided by the states and that exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother must always be included. Sherrod Brown is misrepresenting Bernie’s view on exceptions to scare voters because he cannot defend his own record.”

Back in July — this is what Moreno said about his stance on abortion.

“I think we can get to a place where after 15 weeks, there’s just some commonsense restrictions, which is the opposite of a ban, by the way, a ban is when you don’t allow something,” Moreno said.

Moreno’s campaign has focused on topics like crime, the economy and the southern border. Immigration is something Brown also said is important.

“To Ohioans, it’s securing the border and to Ohioans, especially, its keeping fentanyl out of the country,” Brown said.

Why attorneys want cellphone tower records in trial over Ohio Uber driver’s death

Brown said anyone who has committed a crime should be deported. He did not provide a definitive plan for other illegal immigrants, but did take a stance.

“I don’t agree that we should do mass deportation of 10 million people. That will never work,” Brown said.

Brown also pointed to his work to provide healthcare to veterans who were exposed to burn puts in Iraq and ensuing workers receive their full pensions.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Ohio senator opposes Cleveland Browns’ plan to move stadium outside city

Jon Rudder
Fri, October 18, 2024



CLEVELAND, Ohio (WKBN) – Another day, another twist in the Cleveland Browns stadium saga.

On Friday, Senator Sherrod Brown weighed in on the team’s plans to leave downtown Cleveland for nearby Brook Park.

On Thursday, both the Browns and Cleveland city leaders confirmed that the team had pulled out of a $1.2 billion plan to renovate the current stadium in favor of moving the team’s home.

Brown opposes the Browns’ move and is asking for all parties to reconsider.

“I think anything is a realistic possibility. It’s not a done deal. They’ve not gotten subsidies from the state that they think they’re going to get yet. They can make this decision like that, they can change their mind. I know that, overwhelmingly, people want them to stay in Cleveland but greedy billionaire sports owners think they can do whatever they want, and put their hand out and get more help from the public,” he said.

The team purchased a parcel of land in Brook Park, and released renderings of a domed stadium and a mixed-use residential area.

“I call on the family, the Haslam family, to keep the Browns in Cleveland. I encourage my opponent to put politics aside and join me in encouraging the Haslams to stay there in Cleveland. My opponent has gotten a lot of money from them. He’s very close to the family. He’s got connections to the family with these billionaires. They should listen to him and keep the team in Cleveland, period,” Brown said.

The Browns’ current lease with the city expires in 2028.

No public funding has been pledged to the project just yet.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Freedom of expression threatened more seriously in Gaza than in any recent conflict, UN expert says

EDITH M. LEDERER

AP
Fri, October 18, 2024 

FILE - United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Irene Khan gestures during a press conference in Mandaluyong, Philippines, on Feb. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Freedom of expression has been threatened more seriously in Gaza than in any recent conflict, with journalists targeted in the war-torn territory and Palestinian supporters targeted in many countries, a United Nations expert said Friday.

Irene Khan, the U.N. independent investigator on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, pointed to attacks on the media and the targeted killings and arbitrary detention of dozens of journalists in Gaza.

“The banning of Al Jazeera, the tightening of censorship within Israel and in the occupied territories, seem to indicate a strategy of the Israeli authorities to silence critical journalism and obstruct the documentation of possible international crimes,” she said.


Khan also sharply criticized the “discrimination and double standards” that have seen restrictions and suppression of pro-Palestinian protests and speech. She cited bans in Germany and other European countries, protests that were “crushed harshly” on U.S. college campuses, and Palestinian national symbols and slogans prohibited and even criminalized in some countries.

The U.N. special rapporteur also pointed to “the silencing and sidelining of dissenting voices in academia and the arts,” with some of the best academic institutions in the world failing to protect all members of their community, “whether Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, Muslim, or otherwise.”

While social media platforms have been a lifeline for communications to and from Gaza, Khan said, they have seen an upsurge in disinformation, misinformation and hate speech — with Arabs, Jews, Israelis and Palestinians all targeted online.

She stressed that Israel’s military actions in Gaza and its decades of occupation of Palestinian territories are matters of public interest, scrutiny and criticism.

Khan earlier presented her report on “the global crisis of freedom of expression arising from the conflict in Gaza” to the General Assembly’s human rights committee.

She said Israel responded to it, explained the country’s laws, and “took the position that the conflict in Gaza was not really of global significance, and my mandate should not engage with it.” Israel’s U.N. mission declined to comment on her press briefing.

The surprise attacks in southern Israel led by Hamas militants who controlled Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and led to the abduction of about 250 others, around 100 of whom are still hostages. Israel’s military offensive in retaliation has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority were women and children.

Khan, a former secretary-general of Amnesty International, stressed that “no conflict in recent times has threatened freedom of expression so seriously or so far beyond its borders than Gaza.”

She said attacks on the media “are an attack on the right to information of people around the world who want to know what is happening there.”

Khan said she has called on the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council to take measures to strengthen the protection of journalists “as essential civilian workers.”

“ Journalism should be seen as essential as humanitarian work,” she said.

The information industry has changed, Khan said, and the issue of access to conflict situations by international media representatives — who have been banned from Gaza by Israel — must also be affirmed. “It has to be clarified that it is not okay to just deny access to international media,” she said.

Without naming any countries, Khan asked why nations that pride themselves as champions of the media have been silent in the face of unprecedented attacks on journalists in Gaza and the West Bank.

“My main message is that what is happening in Gaza is sending signals around the world that it is okay to do these things because it’s happening in Gaza and Israel is enjoying absolute impunity — and others around the world will believe that there will be absolute impunity, too,” Khan said.

Justin Trudeau Testifies That Russia Funded Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson in Support of Their Anti-Vax Covid Claims | Video

Stephanie Kaloi
Sat, October 19, 2024 


Conservative political analyst Tucker Carlson and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson were among those who were funded by the Russian state-owned news outlet RT to boost anti-vax claims in 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed while under oath during testimony delivered Wednesday at the Foreign Interference Commission.

The claims were made during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests staged by truck drivers in Canada that year. The country began requiring all cross-border truck drivers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in January 2022. In response some truck drivers as well as citizens in their private vehicles held protests outside Parliament.

Though Freedom Convoy is finished, Trudeau said, “these messages are still being sent to nowadays.”

He continued, “Answer, yes, we have seen that anti-vax messages during the convoy and during the pandemic were amplified by Russian propaganda, especially in the media of the right, and it was continued by message from the people who were sharing anti-vax messages.”

“It doesn’t mean that there weren’t people who were legitimately anti Vax, but that was hugely amplified by Russian propaganda,” Trudeau added. “And once Russia, Ukraine was invaded, we saw a lot of those channels become a pro-Putin propaganda channels. And as I said, we’ve recently seen that RT is currently funding bloggers and other tube personalities at the right, such as Jordan Peterson, other names that are well known. Tucker, Carson, as well, to, in order to amplify messages that are destabilizing democracies.”

Trudeau, who did not offer evidence to back up his claims, was testifying as part of an independent commission’s look into foreign interference in Canada’s elections. In April, the commission heard evidence from the country’s domestic spy agency that China had interfered with the last two elections held in Canada.

Tucker Carlson has not directly addressed the claims by Trudeau. Peterson took to X, where he wrote, “Hey Russians! Where the hell is my money?! @justintrudeau strikes again Whiffing at a foul ball.”

The post Justin Trudeau Testifies That Russia Funded Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson in Support of Their Anti-Vax Covid Claims | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

India ex-official charged in US murder plot had been arrested in Delhi attempted murder case

Shivam Patel
Sat, October 19, 2024





FBI poster for wanted former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav


By Shivam Patel

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A former Indian government official charged in the United States this week for allegedly directing a foiled murder plot had been arrested in New Delhi in December in an attempted murder case, according to court records and a police officer.

The U.S. Justice Department unsealed the indictment of Vikash Yadav, 39, on Thursday, alleging he led a plot to murder a Sikh separatist in New York.


From May 2023, the U.S. indictment alleges, Yadav, described as an Indian government employee at the time, worked with others in India and abroad to direct a plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen.

Delhi Police had arrested Yadav on Dec. 18 in the Indian capital, the police officer told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Yadav and an associate were charged with attempted murder and other crimes, according to a filing in a Delhi district court.

Yadav's lawyer, R.K. Handoo, called the Indian charges "fallacious", adding there was "an international plot to bring shame on the government of India and my client".

Handoo declined to comment further.

He and the police did not respond to questions on Yadav's whereabouts. The Washington Post, citing American officials, reported on Thursday that Yadav was still in India and that the U.S. was expected to seek his extradition.

Yadav's arrest was based on a complaint by an Indian businessman, who alleged Yadav and an associate kidnapped him in December, assaulted and robbed him, according to details in a Delhi district court order dated Feb. 23.

"The accused persons tortured and manhandled the complainant and demanded money in the name of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi," said the Feb. 23 court order, summarising the complaint.

Bishnoi, in jail in India's Gujarat state, is an organised crime gang leader, according to India's National Investigation Agency. Bishnoi's lawyer says he is contesting more than 40 cases on charges including murder and extortion, with many trials yet to begin.

Indian government agents were separately accused by Canada this week of having links to Bishnoi's gang and running a campaign to target Indian dissidents in Canada. India's government denies the allegations.

In Yadav's Delhi case, the court order citing the complaint said: "The accused persons also brought bank cheque book from the cafe of the complainant and got his signature on blank cheques and later on dropped him near his car, threatening to remain silent."

(Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi)