VW CEO: Chinese automakers should be allowed to avert tariffs by investing in EU

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume in Beijing · Reuters

Reuters
Sat, October 5, 2024 

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The CEO of German carmaker Volkswagen said the European Union should consider adjusting planned tariffs against China-made electric vehicles to make allowances for investments made in Europe.

"Instead of punitive tariffs this should be about mutually giving credit for investments. Those who invest, create jobs and work with local companies should benefit when it comes to tariffs," VW CEO Oliver Blume told Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag an interview.

The European Union will press ahead with tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, the EU executive said on Friday, even after the bloc's largest economy Germany and German carmakers rejected them, exposing a rift over its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.

The proposed duties on EVs built in China of up to 45% would cost carmakers billions of extra dollars to bring cars into the bloc and are set to be imposed from next month for five years.

The Commission, which oversees the bloc's trade policy, has said they would counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies after a year-long anti-subsidy investigation, but it also said on Friday it would continue talks with Beijing.

VW's Blume told Bild am Sonntag that there was a risk that retaliatory tariffs by China would hurt European carmakers.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Franklin Paul)

Romania's top court removes far-right candidate from presidential race

Reuters
Sun, October 6, 2024 

Von der Leyen seeks approval from EU lawmakers for another term as European Commission President


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's top court has removed a pro-Russian far-right politician from the list of presidential candidates in upcoming elections, prompting concerns about democratic values from candidates across the political spectrum.

European Union and NATO member Romania is due to hold a two-round presidential election on Nov. 24 and Dec. 8, with parliamentary polls in between.

Nearly 20 politicians have officially entered the running, with opinion polls showing voter preferences highly fragmented.


Among them is Diana Sosoaca, leader of SOS Romania, a small ultra-nationalist eurosceptic opposition party which surprisingly won two seats in the European Parliament in June.

Romania's Constitutional Court met on Saturday to discuss legal challenges brought against six candidacies.

It rejected five but accepted challenges against Sosoaca without explaining its decision.

Sosoaca, who was live on Facebook at the time of the ruling, told her followers: "This proves the Americans, Jews and the European Union have plotted to rig the Romanian election before it has begun."

"From this moment, we have clear proof that in Romania dictatorship and utter lack of democracy are being discussed."

The court typically releases detailed explanations of its rulings at a later date. Politicians across the political spectrum said the ruling was an unprecedented threat to democratic values.

Because the nine-member court is politically appointed, many politicians also accused it of interference.

Opinion surveys show leftist Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is likely to go through to the second round of the presidential election, but it is unclear who he will run against.

Although the role is largely ceremonial, the president's powers include nominating the prime minister after elections and appointing judges and prosecutors. They also include oversight of foreign policy, meaning the new president will play a critical role in Romania's commitment to supporting Ukraine.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by Giles Elgood)

Elon Musk’s America PAC offers bounty for contact info of millions of registered voters in battleground states

Fortune · (Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Christiaan Hetzner
 Mon, October 7, 2024



Tesla CEO Elon Musk is paying a bounty for voter registration data with the help of a petition as he seeks to return Donald Trump to the White House this November.

The world’s wealthiest entrepreneur confirmed his political action committee, America PAC, will offer a $47 reward for the name, address, and phone number of each registered voter in battleground states who signs an online statement in favor of rights already protected by the Constitution.


The amount, symbolic for the 47th presidency to which Trump aspires, will go to the person who refers the swing state voter.

“Goal is to get 1 [million] voters in swing states to show support for free speech & right to bear arms,” Musk posted on Sunday. “Easy money.”

Under the offer, which expires on Oct. 21, only individuals in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina stand to receive a reward.

Voters in Musk’s adopted state of Texas, for example, are not eligible for the reward even if they are registered to cast a ballot in the 47th presidential election—regardless of their support for the Constitution.

Since the petition is not affiliated with Trump's Republican Party, signatories are not directed to the RNC website. Instead they must enter their personal data—including name, postal address, email address, and cell phone number—directly into the America PAC database.

Eligible voters may only list one person as their referrer, and the PAC intends to make sure the info it bought is worth the money. "Before payment is made America PAC will verify the accuracy of all information of the referrer and referree," it stipulates.


Once that is done, Musk's political vehicle has all the relevant data it needs to deploy canvassers to their neighborhood to ensure voters do show up on polling day.

Neither Musk nor America PAC responded to a request for comment from Fortune.

The 1-million-voter target may not seem like much, but campaign experts often note that Biden won the electoral college and, with it, the presidency by a margin of just 44,000 votes in a handful of states that flipped from red to blue.

Set against that number, 1 million potential new Trump voters could easily affect the election outcome.
It could cost Musk millions

On Sunday, the Tesla CEO made his first campaign appearance alongside Trump in Butler, Pa., where a would-be assassin made an attempt on the life of the former president this summer.

That day in July also marked the start of Musk’s public endorsement of the former president.

“President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America,” he told the crowd.


Left in power, the Democrats would find a way to do away with Americans’ inalienable rights protected under law, he claimed.


Should Harris be declared the victor next month, Musk added, “this will be the last election—that’s my prediction.”

With his 200 million followers on X, Musk has become Trump’s most vocal and valuable champion. Yet his wholesale partisanship has driven a split within the Tesla community that broadly skews progressive.

“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m Dark MAGA,” Musk said at the rally, sporting a Make America Great Again baseball cap colored black instead of red.

In theory, America PAC’s move to buy voter data could get expensive for Musk.

Pennsylvania—the biggest battleground state prize on the electoral map with 19 electoral votes up for grabs—has nearly 8.7 million registered voters as of the start of this year, according to the latest official data.

Of that total, 40% are Republicans with another 15% unaffiliated with either of the two main parties. Musk could even end up paying for the contact info of registered Democrats.

If he only got 1% of the state’s total, it would cost him $4 million.

Should his PAC achieve the full 1 million to sign the petition in support of rights already guaranteed by the Constitution, that would be $47 million right there, assuming each signatory was claimed as a referral.
Musk stands to wield heavy influence in Trump White House

For Musk, it would nonetheless be a shrewd investment.

Biden’s administration has taken a robust approach to regulation in a number of areas, enraging Silicon Valley billionaires like Musk and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

By comparison, Trump has a record of weakening federal regulators, like the EPA, that bind businesses in red tape.

Not only has he praised Musk’s culling of the workforce at Twitter, he’s also considering granting Musk’s wish for widespread authority to cut the federal workforce as part of a potential new “Department of Government Efficiency.”

It’s possible that the entrepreneur would first target agencies that have vexed him and his business interests.

For example, Musk threatened last month to sue the Federal Aviation Administration over what he called “regulatory overreach,” and he’s already sued the National Labor Relations Board.

But with a relatively paltry amount of cash, Musk’s various companies stand to gain significantly from a second Trump administration.

Regulations mean little if they are not actively enforced—and Musk could wield considerable influence over agency resources like personnel.

Trump, who got elected in part thanks to a claim that he was rich enough not to be bought, is facing high legal costs and is now heavily dependent on Musk’s backing to mobilize voters.

Earlier this year, Trump installed his daughter-in-law as chair of the Republican Party, and ever since, he has pioneered the use of outsourcing—a common business practice—in political campaigning.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Israel's strikes are shifting the power balance in the Middle East, with US support

Ellen Knickmeyer

AP
Mon, October 7, 2024 



The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli military strikes are targeting Iran's armed allies across a nearly 2,000-mile stretch of the Middle East and threatening Iran itself. The efforts raise the possibility of an end to two decades of Iranian ascendancy in the region, to which the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq inadvertently gave rise.

In Washington, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Arab capitals, opponents and supporters of Israel's offensive are offering clashing ideas about what the U.S. should do next, as its ally racks up tactical successes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen and presses its yearlong campaign to crush Hamas in Gaza.

Israel should get all the support it needs from the United States until Iran's government “follows other dictatorships of the past into the dustbin of history,” said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at Washington's conservative-leaning Foundation for the Defense of Democracies — calls echoed by some Israeli political figures.


Going further, Yoel Guzansky, a former senior staffer at Israel’s National Security Council, called for the Biden administration to join Israel in direct attacks in Iran. That would send "the right message to the Iranians — ‘Don’t mess with us,’'' Guzansky said.

Critics, however, highlight lessons from the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein, when President George W. Bush ignored Arab warnings that the Iraqi dictator was the region's indispensable counterbalance to Iranian influence. They caution against racking up military victories without adequately considering the risks, end goals or plans for what comes next, and warn of unintended consequences.

Ultimately, Israel “will be in a situation where it can only protect itself by perpetual war,” said Vali Nasr, who was an adviser to the Obama administration. Now a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, or SAIS, he has been one of the leading documenters of the rise of Iranian regional influence since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu giving limited weight to Biden administration calls for restraint, the United States and its partners in the Middle East are “at the mercy of how far Bibi Netanyahu will push it,” Nasr said, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname.

“It's as if we hadn't learned the lessons, or the folly, of that experiment ... in Iraq in 2003 about reshaping the Middle East order,” said Randa Slim, a fellow at SAIS and researcher at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

Advocates of Israel’s campaign hope for the weakening of Iran and its armed proxies that attack the U.S., Israel and their partners, oppress civil society and increasingly are teaming up with Russia and other Western adversaries.

Opponents warn that military action without resolving the grievances of Palestinians and others risks endless and destabilizing cycles of war, insurgency and extremist violence, and Middle East governments growing more repressive to try to control the situation.

And there’s the threat that Iran develops nuclear weapons to try to ensure its survival. Before the Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, Iranian leaders concerned about Israel’s offensives had made clear that they were interested in returning to negotiations with the U.S. on their nuclear program and claimed interest in improved relations overall.

In just weeks, Israeli airstrikes and intelligence operations have devastated the leadership, ranks and arsenals of Lebanon-based Hezbollah — which had been one of the Middle East’s most powerful fighting forces and Iran's overseas bulwark against attacks on Iranian territory — and hit oil infrastructure of Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis.

A year of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza appears to have reduced the leadership of Iranian-allied Hamas to a few survivors hiding in underground tunnels. However, Israeli forces again engaged in heavy fighting there this week, and Hamas was able to fire rockets at Tel Aviv in a surprising show of enduring strength on the Oct. 7 anniversary of the militant group's attack on Israel, which started the war.

Anticipated Israeli counterstrikes on Iran could accelerate regional shifts in power. The response would follow Iran launching ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for killings of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.

It also could escalate the risk of all-out regional war that U.S. President Joe Biden — and decades of previous administrations — worked to avert.

The expansion of Israeli attacks since late last month has sidelined mediation by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza. U.S. leaders say Israel did not warn them before striking Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon but have defended the surge in attacks, while still pressing for peace.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said in an interview with CBS' “60 Minutes” aired Monday that the U.S. was dedicated to supplying Israel with the military aid needed to protect itself but would keep pushing to end the conflict.

“We’re not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders,” she said.

Israel’s expanded strikes raise for many what is the tempting prospect of weakening Iran’s anti-Western, anti-Israel alliance with like-minded armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen to governments in Russia and North Korea.

Called the “Axis of Resistance," Iran's military alliances grew — regionally, then globally — after the U.S. invasion of Iraq removed Saddam, who had fought an eight-year war against Iran's ambitious clerical regime.

Advocates of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and overthrow of Saddam, said correctly that an Iraqi democracy would take hold.

But the unintended effects of the U.S. intervention were even bigger, including the rise of Iran's Axis of Resistance and new extremist groups, including the Islamic State.

“An emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor” of the 2003 Iraq war, notes a U.S. Army review of lessons learned.

“Two decades ago, who could have seen a day when Iran was supporting Russia with arms? The reason is because of its increased influence” after the U.S. overthrow of Saddam, said Ihsan Alshimary, professor of political science at Baghdad University.

Even more than in 2003, global leaders are offering little clear idea on how the shifts in power that Israel’s military is putting in motion will end — for Iran, Israel, the Middle East at large, and the United States.

Iran and its allies are being weakened, said Goldberg, at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. So is U.S. influence as it appears to be dragged along by Israel, Nasr said.

The conflict could end up hurting Israel if it bogs down in a ground war in Lebanon, for example, said Mehran Kamrava, a professor and Middle East expert at Georgetown University in Qatar.

After four decades of deep animosity between Israeli and Iranian leaders, “the cold war between them has turned into a hot war. And this is significantly changing — is bound to change — the strategic landscape in the Middle East,” he said.

“We are certainly at the precipice of change," Kamrava said. But “the direction and nature of that change is very hard to predict at this stage."

___

AP reporters Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed.

Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press

Opinion: Michigan and Wisconsin are key for Harris. GOP groups want to help her win them.

Chris Brennan, USA TODAY
Sun, October 6, 2024 

The presidential election is 30 days away, and voters are starting to hear plenty of forceful sentiments from Republicans about Donald Trump.

It's not the kind of talk the former one-term Republican president wants out there about himself.

With the presidential race a dead heat and less than a month to go, every vote along the margins matters. Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump know that, and they are running very different campaigns. She's working feverishly to expand her reach while he stokes his base and hopes to energize low-propensity voters.

A key advantage for Harris: She has Republican allies doing some heavy lifting for her.
Republicans are lining up to help Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters at the Redford Fire Department on Oct. 4, 2024 in Redford, Mich.

Consider Republican Voters Against Trump, which last week launched a series of ads and billboards, spending $15 million to feature former Trump voters explaining how his behavior has persuaded them to cast a ballot this year for Harris.

Then there is Haley Voters for Harris, courting center-right voters who previously backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in this year's Republican primaries for president. That group last week started a seven-figure digital ad buy that presents Harris as a better option than Trump for voters concerned about the economy.

Opinion: Trump and Vance seem very upset with being fact-checked. Maybe lie less?

Harris is embracing the GOP support, appearing Thursday in Ripon, Wisconsin – the birthplace of the Republican Party, now in a critical swing state – with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who lost her Wyoming seat in 2022 due to her sustained criticism of Trump during and after his presidency.

Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, is also backing Harris over Trump.

Trump, on the other hand, has been on a binge of ego-boosting rallies, where he rambles on for more than an hour at a time about a litany of grievances in front of supporters who are already planning to vote for him.

Harris is aiming for something new in crossover support. Trump is offering the same-old same old.

A look at the voting math in swing states

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley

The math tells a tantalizing tale in the "blue wall" swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Haley won more than 297,000 votes in Michigan's Feb. 27 Republican primary, eight days before she dropped out of the race. In the last presidential election, Joe Biden defeated Trump in that state by 154,188 votes.

Haley took nearly 77,000 votes in Wisconsin's Republican primary in April, a month after she had dropped out of the race. Biden beat Trump there by 20,682 votes four years ago.

And Haley received nearly 159,000 votes in Pennsylvania's April 23 Republican primary, seven weeks after she left the race. Biden defeated Trump in that state in 2020 by 80,555 votes.

Republicans were backing Haley before and especially after her bid was over. Does it really matter now that Haley endorsed Trump in July, after questioning in January whether he is "mentally fit" to be president again?

In an incredibly tight race, Haley's supporters in those three states could swing this for Harris.

The Republican must know this, because her former presidential campaign had a law firm send Haley Voters for Harris a "cease and desist" letter on July 23 – a week after she endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention – demanding that the group not use her name.

Haley Voters for Harris responded by saying its rights to engage with her supporters "will not be suppressed."
What's the goal of these groups? Keep Trump away.

Craig Snyder, national director for Haley Voters for Harris, told me the group's ad is aimed at center-right voters "pretty much anywhere they go on the internet" – including YouTube, Facebook, streaming apps like HBO Max and gaming platforms.

It's geographically targeting 1.5 million voters in Pennsylvania, 600,000 in Michigan and 400,000 in Wisconsin.

Opinion: New Jan. 6 court filing shouldn't scare voters. Trump would never do that again!

Snyder, a longtime Republican, said his group is making the "affirmative case for Harris, in terms of her record and her policy proposals, and why we think that those should not be scary to center-right voters."

Part of the pitch is that Republicans stand a good chance of winning back control of the U.S. Senate in November, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has a six-to-three conservative majority.

"Neither party is going to end up with complete control of our government," Snyder said. "There's too many firewalls. There's too many checks and balances."

Republican Voters Against Trump, Snyder said, is working toward the same goal but focused more on defining the former president "as a threat to democracy," in part due to his behavior before, during and after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

Campaign finance reports filed by both groups – Haley Voters for Harris raises money as PivotPAC while Republican Voters Against Trump goes by Republican Accountability PAC – show significant support from establishment Democrats and political action committees and nonprofits that lean that way, even if the potential audiences for the ads don't.

Snyder didn't dispute that but said his group's small-dollar donations come from people identifying as Republican from more than 40 states.

"So it's very much a bipartisan coalition of people who are working together." he said
Meanwhile, Trump is still very much Trump

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. September 13, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka Van de Wouw

Here's another thing both groups have working for them – Trump just keeps acting like Trump. If his behavior drives center-right voters to Harris, all the better for the never-Trumpers.

Trump on Friday posted a long screed on his social media site Truth Social excoriating Cheney and her father for backing Harris, mocking her as "a low IQ War Hawk" and claiming that both are "suffering gravely from Trump Derangement Syndrome."

He also threw a social media tantrum Wednesday after a prosecutor's brief was unsealed in his federal criminal case tied to the Jan. 6 insurrection that shed new and shocking light on his behavior. His freak-out was the standard stuff – calling the filing an "ILLEGAL ACTION" in a "Witch Hunt" to harm him and his reelection campaign.

Trump's fixation on grievance isn't doing much to expand his base. But building on a base requires discipline and focus, not exactly attributes that come to mind when thinking about Trump these days.

It looks like the best thing that could happen for Republican Voters Against Trump and Haley Voters for Harris – and for Harris herself – is for Trump to just keep on being Trump for the next 30 days.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Harris' new ally? Former Trump voters in key swing states

'God save the Tsar!': Putin hailed in Russia on 72nd birthday

Updated Mon, October 7, 2024 

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin was hailed a 'tsar' on his 72nd birthday on Monday by some supporters who said the former KGB spy had raised Russia up from its knees and would deliver victory against the West in the Ukraine war.

Putin, who took the Kremlin's top job just eight years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, is the longest serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin who died at his dacha outside Moscow in 1953 aged 74.

Cast by Western leaders as an autocrat, killer and war criminal, Putin has seen his popularity rise inside Russia since he ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, according to Russian opinion polls.

"God save the Tsar!," wrote ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, who has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories in a vast new Russian empire which he says must include Ukraine.

"Putin rules the country confidently and unhurriedly. And it shall always be so - well, almost," Dugin added in his birthday greeting, posted on his Telegram messaging channel minutes after midnight.

Unlike most of Russia's historical leaders, Putin has no visible successor. He also has no serious rivals, according to multiple Russian sources.

He is now locked into what Russian officials say is the gravest confrontation with the West - whose combined economies are at least 20 times bigger than Russia's - since the depths of the Cold War.

Opponents say early setbacks in the invasion illustrated Russia's weakness, though U.S. generals say Moscow quickly learned from its failures and has adapted to the demands of the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

Russia, like Ukraine, has suffered huge losses of men in the war, and in 2023, Putin faced a failed mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary Wagner group. Prigozhin's plane crashed two months to the day since the mutiny.

WAR LEADER

Putin, born in Leningrad just seven years after World War Two, has promised Russians victory in the Ukraine war, which he casts as a proxy conflict between holy Russia and an arrogant West which he says humiliated Russia as the Soviet Union crumbled.

As the West stepped up its support for Ukraine with hundreds of billions of dollars in pledged aid, Putin doubled down on his bet on war and used the West's reaction to depict the conflict as an existential battle for Russia's future.

According to a report published on Monday by Moscow-based Minchenko Consulting, Russians are increasingly seeing Putin as a figure who has managed to transform the global order, to their benefit.

"In domestic politics, Vladimir Putin every year acquires completely new features of the archetypal image of the Creator, who creates a new world order in which Russia will have a completely new role," Minchenko Consulting said.

Western leaders have repeatedly said that Putin cannot be allowed to win the war, and that if he does, the West's enemies will be emboldened and Putin might try attacking a NATO member, an assertion that Putin has repeatedly dismissed.

Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine and Putin has hiked defence spending to Cold War levels.

Currently, Russia controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine - including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, about 80% of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, about 71% of the Kherson region and 72% of Zaporizhzhia region.

Opponents have either left Russia, died or are silent. Russia's opposition, almost all abroad, are divided and have failed to find a new leader since the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February.

Navalny described Putin's Russia as a brittle criminal state run by thieves, sycophants and spies who care only about money. He had long forecast Russia could face seismic political turmoil, including revolution.

"With Putin, we shall be victorious," Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliament, said on Monday. "A strong president is a strong Russia."

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Andrew Heavens)

Japan prosecutors won't appeal Hakamada death row acquittal: media

Agence France-Presse
October 8, 2024


Iwao Hakamada (L) is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history (STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP)

Japanese prosecutors have decided not to appeal against last month's acquittal of the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, local media reported Tuesday.

After a long fight for justice led by his sister, a court declared on September 27 that Hakamada, 88, was innocent of the quadruple murder for which he spent 46 years waiting to be executed.

The regional tribunal ruled that investigators had tampered with evidence and said the ex-boxer had suffered "inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement".

He was first convicted in 1968 of robbing and killing his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

A retrial was granted in 2014 and Hakamada was released from prison, although legal wrangling meant the proceedings only began last year.

Japanese media, including broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, reported that prosecutors had decided not to appeal against the latest ruling, paving the way for it to be finalized.

The office of the public prosecutor declined to comment when contacted by AFP. A supporters group for Hakamada said they had no first-hand confirmation.

Japan and the United States are the only two major industrialized countries that still use capital punishment. It has strong public support in Japan, where scrapping it is rarely discussed.

Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

Japan's last execution took place in July 2022, of a man who killed seven in a truck-ramming and stabbing rampage in Tokyo's popular Akihabara electronics district in 2008.

© Agence France-Presse

Kenya's deputy president faces impeachment vote

Agence France-Presse
October 8, 2024

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagu (LUIS TATO/AFP)

Kenya's parliament was set to vote on Tuesday on impeaching Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in a political drama that has exposed a rift in the governing party.

Lawmakers have accused the 59-year-old deputy to President William Ruto of corruption, undermining the government and practising ethnically divisive politics, among a host of other charges.

At a press conference on Monday, Gachagua denied the accusations as "outrageous" and "sheer propaganda", saying it was a scheme to hound him out of office.

Gachagua is a businessman from Kenya's biggest tribe, the Kikuyu. He weathered previous corruption scandals to become deputy leader as Ruto's running mate in a closely fought election in August 2022.

But in recent weeks, he has complained of being sidelined by his boss and been accused of supporting youth-led anti-government protests that broke out in June.

Political tensions have been running high since the sometimes deadly demonstrations erupted over unpopular tax hikes, exposing divisions between Gachagua and Ruto.

Several MPs allied with Gachagua were summoned by police last month, accused of funding the protests.

No formal charges have been lodged by prosecutors and no judicial inquiry has been opened against Gachagua.

But lawmakers have listed 11 grounds for impeachment, including accusations that he amassed assets worth 5.2 billion shillings ($40 million) since the last election, despite an annual salary of just $93,000.

Among the listed assets was Kenya's renowned Treetops Hotel, where Britain's then-Princess Elizabeth was staying when she became queen.

Gachagua says his wealth has come entirely through legitimate business deals and an inheritance from his late brother.

He has warned his removal would stir discontent among his supporters.

Kenyan lawmakers initiated the impeachment process on October 1, with 291 members of parliament backing the motion, well beyond the 117 minimum required.

Two-thirds of the lower house, the National Assembly, must back the motion for it to pass on Tuesday. It would then move to the upper house, the Senate.

If impeached, Gachagua would become the first deputy president to be removed in this way since the possibility was introduced in Kenya's revised 2010 constitution.

From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace

Agence France-Presse
October 8, 2024 

Amazon rainforest being destroyed by illegal fires in Labrea, Brazil in August

 (EVARISTO SA/AFP)

Deforestation continued last year at a rate far beyond pledges to end the practice by 2030, according to a major study published Tuesday.

Forests nearly the size of Ireland were lost in 2023, according to two dozen research organizations, NGOs and advocacy groups, with 6.37 million hectares (15.7 million acres) of trees felled and burned.

This "significantly exceeded" levels that would have kept the world on track to eliminate deforestation by the end of the decade, a commitment made in 2021 by more than 140 leaders.

Forests are home to 80 percent of the world's terrestrial plant and animal species and crucial for regulating water cycles and sequestering CO2, the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.

"Globally, deforestation has gotten worse, not better, since the beginning of the decade," said Ivan Palmegiani, a biodiversity and land use consultant at Climate Focus and lead author of the "Forest Declaration Assessment" report.

"We're only six years away from a critical global deadline to end deforestation, and forests continue to be chopped down, degraded, and set ablaze at alarming rates."


In 2023, 3.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest -- particularly carbon rich and ecologically biodiverse environments -- disappeared, a figure that should have fallen significantly to meet the 2030 objective.

- Soya and nickel -

In high-risk regions, researchers pointed to backsliding in Bolivia and in Indonesia.


The report said there was an "alarming rise" in deforestation in Bolivia, which jumped 351 percent between 2015 and 2023.

The "trend shows no sign of abating", it added, with forests largely cleared for agriculture, notably for soya but also beef and sugar.

In Indonesia, deforestation slumped between 2020-2022 but started rising sharply last year.


Ironically, that is partly down to demand for materials often seen as eco-friendly, such as viscose for clothing, and a surge in nickel mining for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy technologies.

There was better news from Brazil.

While it remains the country with the highest deforestation rates in the world, it has made key progress.


The situation has significantly improved in the Amazon, which has benefited from protective measures put in place by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

However, in the Cerrado, a key tropical savannah below the Amazon, deforestation has increased.

- Degraded forests -


The report also highlights the role of logging, road building and fires in forest degradation, when land is damaged but not razed entirely.

In 2022, the last year data was available, a forest area twice the size of Germany was degraded.

Erin Matson, senior consultant at Climate Focus, and co-author of the report, said "strong policies and strong enforcement" were needed.

"To meet global forest protection targets, we must make forest protection immune to political and economic whims," she said.

The report comes in the wake of the European Commission's proposal last week to postpone by a year (to the end of 2025) the entry into force of its anti-deforestation law, despite protests from NGOs.

"We have to fundamentally rethink our relationship with consumption and our models of production to shift away from a reliance on over exploiting natural resources," said Matson.

As election looms, 3 of 4 voters fear political violence

Jessica Corbett,

 Common Dreams
October 8, 2024 

Man holds gun in front of US flag (Shutterstock.com)

Polling released Monday, less than a month away from the November 5 election, shows that nearly three-quarters of U.S. voters are worried about political violence and believe it is likely because some people will not accept the results.

The latest Civil Rights Monitor Poll, commissioned by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is based on responses from 1,000 likely voters across the country, who were surveyed September 3-8.

Pollsters found that "81% of voters believe that democracy is under threat, and 73% are worried about political violence after the elections in November," the conference said. "Liberals are much more worried (92%) about political violence than moderates and conservatives (68% and 63%, respectively)."

"We are... elevating Project 2025 as a blueprint to undermine the very values we see supported in three years of polling."

This year's presidential contest is between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump, who during the 2020 cycle repeatedly lied about his loss and even incited some supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol during the certification of the results on January 6, 2021.

Although Trump has tried to disavow the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, previous polling has shown a majority of Americans believe the ex-president is aligned with its policy blueprint, which was crafted by at least 140 people who worked in the first Trump administration, including six former Cabinet secretaries.

"Project 2025 has become widely known (70% can identify it), and voters are broadly cold towards it (54% rate it 0-49 on a thermometer scale of 0-100)," according to the new poll. "Cuts to overtime pay (91%), cuts to Social Security (86%), and government monitoring of pregnancies (85%) are the components of the Project 2025 agenda that voters oppose the most."

The conference said that "among the most important issues for voters in the elections this year are inflation and the economy (42%, which is up eight points from the previous year), immigration and border security (33%), and protecting our democracy and freedoms (22%)."

Similar to last year, large majorities of respondents agreed that Americans are sacrificing too much of their privacy for Big Tech (86%); diversity makes the country stronger (79%); marriage equality should be protected (77%); the government must do more to protect the civil and human rights of communities of color (69%); abortion access should be a legally protected right (64%); and sexism is a big problem in today's society (63%).

Smaller majorities said that the government should do more to lessen racial inequality in society (59%); artificial intelligence is a threat to jobs (57%); immigrants contribute more to America than they take (57%); America is on the path to another Civil War (55%); and the respondent's heritage, traditions, and cultural identity is under attack (52%).

Additionally, the conference said, "white supremacy is an issue that most voters are worried about, with more than half of respondents (52%) stating they are more worried, including 65% of Black and 64% of Hispanic voters."

The poll also shows that "an astounding 93% of voters are extremely motivated to vote this November, up seven points from last year (86%)."

Maya Wiley, the conference's president and CEO, said in a Monday statement that "voters know what's at stake in this election."

"It's clear that in this presidential year voters want to vote even while they worry about political violence and know democracy is on the ballot," she continued. "This most recent poll shows that voters want to vote more than ever despite, or perhaps because, our democracy is threatened with the dark cloud of election denial and violence. In 2024, voters must know that they will decide the outcome of the election—not a political party, extremist groups, or purveyors of disinformation."

"The civil rights community is organized and actively working on voter education, get-out–the-vote efforts, election protection, and combating disinformation, and we are also elevating Project 2025 as a blueprint to undermine the very values we see supported in three years of polling," she added. "We will continue to combat racism, xenophobia, and efforts to divide us along race and immigration lines. Democracy requires passionate persistence, and our Civil Rights Monitor Poll reassures us that the majority of Americans agree."

Pastor wanted by U.S. for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate

Agence France-Presse
October 8, 2024 

Apollo Quiboloy, a detained Philippine pastor also wanted in the United States for sex trafficking children, registered Tuesday to run in next year's senate elections (Jam Sta Rosa/AFP)

A detained Philippine pastor who is also wanted in the United States for sex trafficking children registered Tuesday to run in next year's senate elections.

Apollo Quiboloy, an ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, is a self-proclaimed "Appointed Son of God" whose sect claims millions of followers.

The 74-year-old was arrested last month and is currently detained in Manila and facing charges of child abuse, sexual abuse and human trafficking. One of his lawyers filed his candidacy paperwork.

"He wants to be a part of the solution to the problems of our country. He is running because of God and our beloved Philippines," lawyer Mark Christopher Tolentino said.

Quiboloy pledges to promote laws that are "God-centered, Philippine-centred and Filipino-centred", Tolentino told journalists after submitting the candidacy papers to election officials.

The circumstances are not without precedent.

In May 2022, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada won a senate seat while on trial for corruption. He took up the post and was acquitted in January.

Another was rights campaigner Leila de Lima, who spent the majority of her six-year senate term in prison after being detained in 2017 on drugs charges. She was cleared this year.

Candidates are only disqualified from standing in senate elections if they have exhausted all appeals after being convicted of offences involving "moral turpitude", according to the election code which does not list specific crimes.


Quiboloy was charged by the United States in 2021 with sex trafficking of girls and women to work as personal assistants, who were allegedly required to have sex with him during what they said was their "night duty".

He is also sought by U.S. authorities for bulk cash smuggling and a scheme that brought church members to the US through fraudulently obtained visas.

They were then forced to solicit donations for a bogus charity, raising funds that were instead used to finance church operations and the lavish lifestyles of its leaders, according to the FBI.


Twelve of the 24 senate seats are up for grabs in next year's midterm polls, along with more than 18,000 congressional and local government executive posts.

Former police chief who raided Kansas newspaper returns to face criminal charges

Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector

Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector
October 8, 2024 

Police raided the Marion County Record office on Aug 11, 2023, after Magistrate Judge Laura Viar authorized search warrants without regard for federal and state law that prohibit the search and seizure of journalists’ materials. The newspaper office is seen here on July 25, 2024. (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector)

MARION — Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody returned Monday to the town where he raided a newspaper to face a dozen journalists along with a felony charge for his actions after the raid.

Cody led police in the Aug. 11, 2023, raid on the Marion County Record, the editor’s home and a councilwoman’s home under the false pretense that a newspaper reporter had committed identity theft by looking up restaurateur Kari Newell’s driving record. Special prosecutors charged Cody with one count of interference with the judicial process, a low-level felony, for asking Newell after the raid to delete text messages between the two. Cody told her he was concerned their relationship would be misinterpreted, according to court documents.

One year later, Cody is party to five federal civil lawsuits in addition to the criminal case.


Monday’s hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes, was Cody’s first public appearance in the town since he resigned as police chief amid intense scrutiny in October 2023. In a courtroom with an audience mostly of reporters, Cody was straight-faced and silent.

District Judge Ryan Rosauer rejected Cody’s motion to dismiss the charge for lack of probable cause.

Rosauer, prosecutors and Cody’s defense agreed that Cody won’t be required to appear in court for minor hearings and case proceedings, including the case’s next scheduled hearing on Dec. 16. Court filings show Cody is believed to be living in Hawaii.

Cody and Sal Intagliata, a Wichita attorney who is defending Cody, declined to answer reporters’ questions as they left the courthouse. Intagliata said the “full story” would come out as the case is litigated in court. Cody didn’t speak.

Intagliata, as he ushered Cody into a car, told reporters: “If I have any comment at all on behalf of Mr. Cody, it would be this: that the people of Marion County, really the most important people involved in this situation, take a minute to reserve judgment, take a moment to, like, avoid jumping to conclusions, and allow the system to work.”

Cody won’t be required to pay a cash bond. Instead, Rosauer ordered a $5,000 personal recognizance bond, which Cody only will have to pay if he fails to show up to court when required.

If convicted, Cody would face presumed probation

Following the hearing, Marion County Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer answered questions from a dozen reporters who gathered outside the newspaper office across the street from the courthouse. They asked him to respond to Intagliata.

“We can take a delay of the justice system, as long as the delay actually results in proper assessment of things,” Meyer said. “We’re not in a hurry. He should have plenty of time to think about what he did.”

Meyer said Cody shouldn’t be the only one who is charged with a crime. Others, Meyer said, should have intervened — including other police officers, the sheriff, the county attorney, and the magistrate who signed the search warrants.

“Somewhere the system failed,” Meyer said. “These are the people who are supposed to protect our rights. They didn’t do it. That’s why I hate to see Gideon Cody be the fall guy for all this. Yes, he deserves a great deal of credit or blame for what went on in here, but there are others who were well aware of it.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.

KARMA IS A BITCH

'Tough spot': Investigation finds Trump's 'prized possession' sinking in massive debt

Kathleen Culliton

RAW STORY
October 7, 2024 

President Donald J. Trump speaking at his campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa at Drake University's Knapp Center. (Aspects and Angles / Shutterstock.com)

A beloved building belonging to former President Donald Trump appears to be drowning in debt as problematic financial deadlines loom, according to a new financial analysis.

Trump's 63-story high rise at 40 Wall St. in New York City is currently worth $2 million less than the $118 million Trump owes on his $160 million mortgage — and its income continues to plummet, according to a recent Forbes report.

"The building is simply not earning enough money to cover the loan," Forbes reported. "Adding to the headaches: Trump, who doesn’t own the land on which the building sits, has just nine years left until his ground rent escalates dramatically."

Trump, with $566 million of legal liabilities and just $413 million in cash, will reportedly have to pay his $118 million debt to Ladder Capital by July.

But the building's operating income has nearly halved from about $21 million in 2018 to $12.8 million in 2023, according to Forbes.

"That leaves the Republican presidential candidate in a tough spot as the November election approaches, short on funds to save one of his prized possessions," according to Forbes.

Should Trump clear this hurdle, he'll face another in 2033, Forbes reported.

That's when the German company that owns the land underneath 40 Wall St. is scheduled to implement a near sixfold increase to the cost of Trump's lease, according to the report.

"That shift would cause Trump’s ground rent to soar from $2.8 million in 2032 to $16.3 million the following year," Forbes reported.

"If the rest of 40 Wall Street’s financial picture remained the same as it is today, that would leave Trump with a negative $5 million in net operating income in 2033."

Trump's options in July 2025 will be to seek another loan, use his own money or declare bankruptcy on the property, according to Forbes.

The Forbes analysis argued option one would represent a struggle, option two would be fiscally uncomfortable and option three would make history.

"It would be his seventh bankruptcy," Forbes reported, "although it’d break new ground for him by being his first not involving a hotel."

'Darkest chapters of world history': DHS head slams Trump's 'bad genes' remark

Matthew Chapman

RAW STORY
October 7, 2024 

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Department of Homeland Security participates in chat with Reverend Al Sharpton at NAN 2023 Convention at Sheraton Times Square in New York on April 12, 2023 (Photo: Lev Radin/Shutterstock)

Former President Donald Trump's insinuation that migrants have "bad genes" during his interview with right-wing talk radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday contains echoes of murderous hatred from the past, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned MSNBC's Jen Psaki.

"You are a child of immigrants yourself, also as Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, you oversee, you watch this issue closely," said Psaki, who previously served as White House press secretary. "I want to play something he said this morning and get your thoughts on that."

She played the clip.

"She has no clue," said Trump, speaking about Vice President Kamala Harris. "How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered more than one person and happily living in the United States. You know, a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now."

"I mean, that's obviously disgusting, what he just said," said Psaki. "And I want to put politics aside here and ask you, kind of on a personal level, but also if I may, as the secretary of Homeland Security: how concerned are you with repetition of that rhetoric, and how migrant communities are being targeted by his supporters?"

Mayorkas made clear it hurt and scared him deeply.

"I think, Jen, you put it powerfully just a few minutes ago, and quite pointedly: We have parents who are scared to send their children to school because of this demonization, because of the false information to the targeting of migrants," said Mayorkas. "In our darkest chapters of world history, we have seen this demonization victimize millions of people. You reference my personal story. Six million Jews were killed in World War II. My mother lost a tremendous amount of family precisely because of this type of rhetoric, and the violence that it breeds."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

How 2020's trauma created Trump's death cult

Thom Hartmann

ALTERNET
October 8, 2024 

New York public workers opposed to the city's vaccine mandate protest on October 25, 2021(AFP)

Could the Covid disaster of 2020 — which Trump botched so badly that America has had more Covid deaths than any other nation in the world except Peru (whose president denied Covid was dangerous) — be what’s fueling the Trump MAGA cult? Are we, in other words, as a nation suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and that’s driving a national mental illness crisis that opened the door for Trump’s cult to grow?

— Colorado elections worker Tina Peters, for example, was just sent to prison for nine years for her role in trying to subvert the 2020 election; she’d completely bought into Trump’s lie that Democrats had stolen that election and is paying for it with the rest of her life.

— My barber was telling me this past weekend about how one of his regulars is stocking up on guns, ammunition, and dried food in anticipation of a second Civil War. This guy is now fully in the Trump cult and is thus perfectly willing to kill his neighbors for politics, once somebody declares the war is now underway (as many of these guys expect Trump to do in the next few weeks).


— All across America, families are being torn apart by the Trump cult, and sometimes the conflicts even lead to violence.


The rest of the world has figured this out. Over at the British newspaper The Independent, the headline says it all:

“She Escaped the Religious Sect She Grew Up In. Now She Says Trump’s MAGA Movement is Eerily Similar”

Although the economy right now is doing better than at any time since the 1960s, polls show a majority of Americans would rather believe Trump’s lies that inflation is still with us (it’s down to 1.7 percent now) and the historically low 4.1 percent unemployment rate is “fake news.” And tens of millions of Americans believe him.

So, what’s going on here in America? How did we get here and why?

Many otherwise normal and sane Americans seem to have gone nuts, leaping down the Qanon or Fox “News” rabbit holes in search of meaning, safety, and explanations for the feelings of doom that they just can’t shake. It’s as if some major event in their lives has created such a trauma that they’ve been knocked off balance, psychologically.


And that may be a big part of the answer, particularly given how neither our insurance industry nor our government-funded health insurance programs typically pay for mental health services that might otherwise help out people suffering from trauma-induced shock.

I still remember when I was on a flight out of New York in the late 1970s. Back then, planes took off in the middle of thunderstorms (and occasionally crashed as a result), and this 727 did exactly that. As we were climbing out through what was probably around 4,000 feet the plane was hit by a lightning strike, lighting up the cabin and killing at least one of the engines.

We started to fall out of the sky as the pilots struggled to stabilize the aircraft and restart the engine: the woman sitting next to me grabbed my arm and started sobbing; we all thought we were going to die. I was then (and still am) a licensed pilot and it scared me more than her, I’m guessing, because I knew full well everything that could go wrong to a plane in a thunderstorm, from the lightning strike taking out the jet’s electronics and engines to wind shear ripping us out of the sky. (It’s why they no longer fly through thunderstorms.)


It was at least a decade before I could get on a commercial plane without getting drunk first: That’s what untreated PTSD can do to you. (I finally did EMDR on it and am now fine on airplanes; this was a mild case, and didn’t lead me into a cult.)

Consider some of the cardinal symptoms of PTSD, something that’s often brought on by a near-death-experience, severe abuse, or surviving a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Each symptom would make a person more vulnerable to the siren song of Trump’s cult:


-— Hypervigilance and threat sensitivity, causing people to experience heightened alertness to potential and often imagined (like Trump’s lies about Haitian immigrants) threats.
— Difficulty with trust, which may lead to skepticism of official sources and greater reliance on alternative information channels; vulnerability, in other words, to Trump’s lies and his claims of “fake news” when he’s fact-checked.
— Emotional dysregulation, making individuals like Tina Peters, the hundreds of January 6th rioters now in jail, and other Trump followers more vulnerable to emotionally-charged misinformation and MAGA cult membership.
— Cognitive changes impacting critical thinking skills needed to evaluate information that might contradict the lies Trump and his co-conspirators promulgate.
— Social isolation which may limit exposure to different perspectives and fact-checking from others who try to tell MAGA members how deluded and exploited they really are.
— Seeking explanations causing people to have a heightened need to understand and make sense of their experiences, making them more open to MAGA’s anti-science and politically charged explanatory narratives, even when they’re lies.
— Avoidance behaviors leading people to avoid exposure to diverse information sources, keeping them trapped in Trump cult bubbles like rightwing hate radio and Fox “News.”

Multiple studies have been done on the psychological impact of the Covid pandemic, finding anywhere from 5 to 55 percent of Americans suffering in a way that could be diagnosed as PTSD. The average across the studies find 26 percent of Americans having diagnosable PTSD from Covid.

Prior to the pandemic, the national rate of diagnosable PTSD was generally considered to be around 3.5 percent: Clearly, the pandemic had an impact on our psyches that Trump has been exploiting every day since.


Remember, for almost an entire year, we were afraid that just going to the grocery store could kill us. Over a million of us — one out of every 272 Americans — died because of Trump’s incompetence and malice.

Most of us knew people who died; my best friend, Jerry Schneiderman, succumbed to the disease as did several other people close to our family. This is trauma writ large, setting millions up to believe any random BS a cult leader like Trump decides to dish out.

As the lead author of a new study on the impact of Covid, Dr. Jeff Ashby, noted:

“While many people are insulated from deaths and economic hardships related to the pandemic, there is a universal experience of fear, concern for others, and social isolation. Among our findings is that the experience of COVID-19 is a traumatic stress. It isn’t just triggering earlier trauma, it’s a traumatic experience in and of itself.”

Literally millions of people have joined Trump’s cult — it is a cult, as its members are so impervious to factual information and it’s based on the personality of a single man — and the evidence suggests that many of them may have been made vulnerable to joining MAGA because of the trauma they experienced during the worst of the pandemic.

As Dr. Stephen Schwartz wrote for the National Library of Medicine:
“[T]his [million-plus Covid] death rate is directly correlated to the politicization and weaponization of anti-science throughout the MAGA world created by Donald Trump and the Republican Party. … Anti-vaxxers, and anti-maskers, usually the same people, have made fidelity to a fact-free but emotionally satisfying reality more important than life itself, and created the first American death cult. …

“There was a deliberate plan from the very outbreak of the Covid pandemic to take what should have been a fringe movement — there were the equivalent of anti-vaxxers in the Middle Ages with the Plague; there were anti-vaxxers with the 1918 Spanish Flu — and transform it into a mainstream political movement. What had been fringe became a death culture involving millions. Believers willingly subject themselves to a vastly higher risk of contracting and dying of Covid. And they do this in the face of a million dead, and 2000 people, or more, dying each day.”

The good news is that the way most cult members leave their cult is not through deprogramming or a sudden awakening (although those do happen) but, rather, because the cult leader dies or is discredited.


Trump decisively losing the 2024 election may well be that discrediting and thus liberating event in the lives of many of his followers.

The challenge for the next year or so will be — for those of us who recognize the cult-like slavish devotion to Trump of his followers — to provide support to those followers we know to make the transition from the Trump cult back into the normal world. Therapy for the PTSD that made them vulnerable in the first place will also be helpful.

America can recover from this trauma, but it’ll take time and effort.


This all assumes, of course, that Trump loses this election. And making that happen is up to us: vote!

U$A

Protesters clash with police during demonstration on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Jon King, Michigan Advance
October 8, 2024 

Police van (Shutterstock)

Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with University of Michigan campus police Monday and at least one arrest was made during a demonstration march that marked the one year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“I don’t understand how there can be a celebration like this on the one year anniversary of [the attack],” Sean Peleg, a senior who is also Jewish told Michigan Advance. “Because one year ago today, Hamas invaded Israel. One year ago tomorrow, Israel responded. So for them to be saying this is a resistance celebration, no. This is a celebration of the terrorist attack that happened a year ago today, in my opinion.”

The protesters, members of the TAHRIR Coalition of student groups demanding the university divest itself from all financial and academic connections with Israel, began the protest in front of Rackham Auditorium before marching toward The Diag, where campus Jewish groups had set up a memorial to honor the more than 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis murdered by Hamas and those still being held hostage out of the approximately 250 taken captive that day.

The ensuing Israeli military response has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

As police kept the protesters at a distance from the memorial, a scuffle broke out and officers were seen escorting a handcuffed individual to a police vehicle while other protesters followed, and then surrounded the vehicle, while yelling, “Let him go! Let him go!” It is not clear what the protector was taken into custody for. A message was left with U of M officials for details.

As officers tried to escort the vehicle off the The Diag, they had to form a cordon to keep protesters at bay, while the vehicle inched along toward the street. At one point pepper spray was deployed, although it is not clear by who, with protesters seen coughing and using water to irrigate their eyes. They also crowded the driver side window, yelling obscenities at the officers inside.

“The struggle is connected everywhere we are,” said student protester Eaman Ali before the march began. “The fight for self-governance, for the people of this university to not just be listened to, but to have a say is not disconnected from the Palestinian fight for freedom, liberation, and self determination. When power is struggling to maintain its choke hold on our collective consciousness, on our ignorance, across the world, its tactics are the same. It turns to police and military violence, to the carceral state, to the weaponization of laws and regulations. We currently see this desperation from the Zionist entity itself as it is now bombing four countries all at once in a flailing attempt to save itself.”

The protests and police confrontation marked a day of discord, anger and recriminations across Michigan. Earlier in the day, vandals spray-painted graffiti at the Jewish Federation of Detroit building in Bloomfield Township, while the West Bloomfield home of University President Santa Ono and the home of Erik Lundberg, U of M’s chief investment officer, were also vandalized with spray paint.

“Antisemitic flyers in West Bloomfield on Saturday; antisemitic vandalism at the Jewish Federation on Monday. How many who have called for a ceasefire in Gaza have also called for a ceasefire against Jewish students on campus, our synagogues and institutions?,” asked state Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield), who is Jewish.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), who is also Jewish, expressed his exhaustion on the anniversary.

“Today does not feel like a solemn annual remembrance of the horrific events on October 7, 2023 — the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust — but rather the 366th day of fresh and ongoing pain,” said Moss.

Another Jewish lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), called it a bitter anniversary that highlights a cycle of violence.

“It is hard to overstate how this crisis has roiled the state of Michigan for 365 days. And one of the saddest things about what’s happened is that, in talking to both Jewish Americans and Arab and Muslim Americans nearly each day since, both communities experienced mirror-image pain this year,” she said. “Both are pained by the sharp rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia. Both sides fear for their kids, and their experience at college. And both sides are struggling to find a path forward to feel hopeful about.”

Also speaking out was U.S. Tim Walberg (R-Tipton).

“On the anniversary of the barbaric terror attack carried out by Hamas, our hearts go out to the victims and the 97 hostages still held, including American citizens. The United States continues to stand firmly with Israel as they defend themselves and deter future aggression,” he posted.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt also issued a statement via social media.

“Today, we remember the innocent men, women, and children who were victims of the barbaric attack launched by cowardly, terrorist thugs (Hamas) on the people of Israel. Let’s honor the victims by standing against terrorism and striving for justice. #BringThemHome,” he posted.

Prior to the confrontation with protesters, Jack Landstein, vice president of engagement at University of Michigan Hillel, told the Advance that the memorial, which included pictures of those killed in the Oct. 7 attack, milk carton silhouettes of those still missing, and small Israeli flags arranged in a Star of David pattern, was something they had been planning for months and while it was open to all, it had a specific purpose.

“The focus is on the Jewish community, and because the community is predominantly students, we want to make sure this event, while open to the entire community, resonates with Jewish students,” he said. “The Jewish community is about love, hope, peace, and our goal with this event, in addition to just commemorating everybody who was murdered, is also to highlight humanity and recognize everybody as a life, and there’s value in every person. And it is important as a Jewish community. We’re working to better everybody.”

But for Ali, the day marked a recognition that there was not just a single narrative. It also made plain that the divide was as deep as ever.

“We see the courage and bravery of the people of Gaza, of Lebanon, and of the people around the world as they resist the colonial violence that attempts to swallow them. So how can we be afraid? We are so many. We are the people. A global movement of masses moved and called upon by the spirit and steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance,” she said.


Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.