US lawmakers meet Dalai Lama, pressure China on talks

A group of US lawmakers who met the Dalai Lama in India yesterday said they would not allow China to influence the choice of his successor, comments expected to anger Beijing, which calls the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader a separatist.The remarks come as Washington and Beijing seek to steady rocky ties while India pushes China to secure lasting peace on their disputed Himalayan frontier, four years after a military clash strained ties.The lawmakers also signalled that Washington would pressure Beijing to hold talks with Tibetan leaders, stalled since 2010, to resolve the Tibet issue, with a bill they said President Joe Biden would sign soon.Although Washington recognises Tibet as a part of China, the bill appears to question that position and any change would be a major shock to Beijing, analysts said. The bipartisan group of seven, led by Michael McCaul, a Republican representative from Texas, who also chairs the House foreign affairs committee, met the Nobel peace laureate at his monastery in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala.“It is still my hope that one day the Dalai Lama and his people will return to Tibet in peace,” McCaul told a public reception after the meeting.Beijing has even attempted to insert itself into choosing the successor of the Dalai Lama, he said, but added, “We will not let that happen.”The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. The 88-year-old, who has battled health problems for years, is set to fly to the US this week for medical treatment.The question of the Dalai Lama’s successor has been a thorny issue, which analysts say highlights the power and influence of the role, fuelling Beijing’s tussle to control it.The US group, which includes Democratic former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, arrived on Tuesday for a two-day visit.Pelosi said Congress approval of the legislation, titled the ‘Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act’, or the Resolve Tibet Act, sent a message to China that Washington was clear in its thinking on the issue of Tibet.“This bill says to the Chinese government: things have changed now, get ready for that,” she said to cheers from hundreds of Tibetans at yesterday’s event.Photographs on the Dalai Lama’s website showed him holding a framed copy of the bill as the lawmakers stood alongside.Beijing, which calls the Dalai Lama a dangerous “splittist” or separatist, has said it was seriously concerned about the bill and the lawmakers’ visit, urging them not to contact what it calls the “Dalai clique” and Biden not to sign the bill.The Indian foreign ministry offered no immediate comment on the lawmakers’ visit.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/685126/international/us-lawmakers-meet-dalai-lama-pressure-china-on-talks

Russia and North Korea sign mutual defence pact

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a deal with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un that included a mutual defence pledge, one of Russia’s most significant moves in Asia for years that Kim said amounted to an “alliance”.Putin’s pledge overhauls Russia’s entire post-Soviet policy on North Korea just as the US and its Asian allies try to gauge how far Russia could deepen support for the only country to have tested a nuclear weapon this century.On his first visit to Pyongyang since July 2000, Putin explicitly linked Russia’s deepening of ties with North Korea to the West’s growing support for Ukraine and said Moscow could develop military and technical co-operation with Pyongyang.After talks, they signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” pact, which Putin said included a mutual defence clause in the case of aggression against either country.“The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” Putin said.He said Western deliveries of advanced, long-range weaponry including F-16 fighters to Ukraine for strikes against Russia breached major agreements.“In connection with this, Russia does not exclude for itself the development of military-technical co-operation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Putin said.Kim praised Russia for making what he cast as an enormously significant strategic move to support North Korea, which was founded in 1948 with the Soviet Union’s backing.Depending on the exact wording of the pact, which was not released, it could be a dramatic shift in the strategic balance in northeast Asia by placing Russia’s heft behind North Korea – which faces South Korea, backed by the US, across the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ).While North Korea has a defence treaty with China, it does not have active military collaboration with Beijing like it has developed with Russia over the past year. North Korea also signed a 1961 treaty with the Soviet Union that included promises of mutual support in the event of an attack.China, the North’s main political and economic benefactor, had no immediate response.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/685125/international/russia-and-north-korea-sign-mutual-defence-pact

Families of Boeing 737 Max crash victims ask US to seek $24bn fine

Relatives of the victims of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes asked the Justice Department yesterday to seek a fine against the planemaker of up to $24.78bn and move forward with a criminal prosecution.“Because Boeing’s crime is the deadliest corporate crime in US history, a maximum fine of more than $24bn is legally justified and clearly appropriate,” Paul Cassel, a lawyer representing 15 families, wrote in a letter to the Justice Department released yesterday.The families said the Justice Department could potentially suspend $14bn to $22bn of the fine “on the condition that Boeing devote those suspended funds to an independent corporate monitor and related improvements in compliance and safety.” The Justice Department said in May it determined Boeing violated a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that shielded the company from a criminal charge of conspiracy to commit fraud arising from fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.Boeing last week told the government it did not violate the agreement. Federal prosecutors have until July 7 to inform a federal judge in Texas of their plans, which could be proceeding with a criminal case or negotiating a plea deal with Boeing. The Justice Department could also extend the deferred prosecution agreement for a year.Justice Department officials found that Boeing violated the deferred prosecution agreement after a panel blew off a new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet on Jan. 5, just two days before the 2021 agreement expired. The incident exposed continued safety and quality issues at Boeing.In the letter, the families also said Boeing’s board of directors should be ordered to meet with them and the department should “launch criminal prosecutions of the responsible corporate officials at Boeing at the time of the two crashes.” Boeing and the Justice Department did not immediately comment.The letter noted that Senator Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and held a hearing with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on Tuesday, said, “There is near overwhelming evidence in my view as a former prosecutor that prosecution should be pursued.” The two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes occurred in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia and led to the best-selling plane’s worldwide grounding for 20 months. A safety system called MCAS was linked to both fatal crashes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/685122/international/families-of-boeing-737-max-crash-victims-ask-us-to-seek-24bn-fine

Cuban immigrant finds ‘dream’ of work, community in US

Israel Gomez Estrada, like thousands of other Cubans and millions more immigrants from around the world, left his home and family in search of a better life in the US.Now he is legally settled in Grand Island, Nebraska — a small city with a population of 50,000, and one Cuban restaurant. Tornadoes are frequent and winters can be harsh.“Some of my friends have suggested that I move to another state, but I’m not leaving,” Gomez Estrada, 46, told AFP recently.In March, he received a coveted green card, entitling him to work. Cubans can apply for one just a year after setting foot on American soil, while other immigrants must typically wait years before they can do so.Despite difficulty with English, he quickly found a job in a food processing plant. He hopes to soon be joined by his wife and children.Immigrants come to America, “with the aim of succeeding, and with a dream,” he said. “For us, it’s not difficult, because we know how to work hard.” Nebraska is short of labour, so immigration is a solution for employers.Before taking the plunge, Gomez Estrada said he had consulted online job offers from Cuba and spotted “lots of opportunities.” “I decided to leave my country, my family, a very difficult situation, because my father has a prostate condition and the medicine doesn’t exist in my country,” he said.Gomez Estrada flicked through pictures on his phone to show his parents, his wife, his teenage children, and the parties he has missed since he left home.Because of his green card, he is now allowed to visit them in Cuba, but the plane ticket is expensive.On the coffee table in front of him sits a cup painted with the colours of his island, filled with thick, sweet Cuban coffee.He now lives in a small one-bedroom apartment at the end of a long white wooden house which has been divided into several flats, where other Cubans live.The apartment holds the promise of a new life for Gomez Estrada after a “very difficult” journey: To get to the US, he said he spent 13 days crossing the hellish jungles and rivers of Central America.He moved to Nebraska on the advice of a Cuban friend who lived in the city.But his friend had to move soon after his arrival, leaving him “in the snow, without knowing anyone.” Gomez Estrada had always dreamed of seeing snowflakes, and the first time he did so, “it was wonderful,” he said. “I never thought it would be so beautiful.” — ‘So kind’ — He found support from the congregation of the local Destiny Church, a building made from corrugated iron painted grey and orange, perched on the side of a road. He was offered accommodation for several months and even a car, saving him the seven-kilometre walk to the grocery store.Tim Rust, the church’s pastor, remembers meeting Gomez Estrada for the first time.“He was here in the country, wanted to work legally, could not,” he told AFP.Because the two men couldn’t speak the same language, they initially communicated by translating phrases on a cell phone.“I didn’t notice a lot of racism when he came into the church,” Rust said. “He was well accepted, and people loved him.” “Grand Island is open to the immigrants,” he said.“We have some people maybe don’t like it, and they don’t understand a lot of things,” he added. “But as a general rule, I think that the employers here and the people have a good attitude towards immigrants.” Gomez Estrada says he has not experienced any racism since his arrival.The subject of immigration is a sensitive one, especially in the middle of an election campaign.Two-thirds of the residents of Grand Island County voted for then-president Donald Trump in 2020.He lost to Democrat Joe Biden, but is seeking a rematch in November’s election.Biden’s policy “favours us, the immigrants,” Gomez Estrada said, adding it was “positive” that Trump wants “people who come to this country to come with the intention of working and contributing.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/685120/international/cuban-immigrant-finds-dream-of-work-community-in-us

Kenya scraps most new tax hikes as hundreds protest

Kenya’s government on Tuesday walked back plans to impose multiple tax hikes, the presidency said, amending a controversial bill that sparked protests where more than a dozen demonstrators were arrested. The East African economic powerhouse has struggled with a cost-of-living crisis, which critics warned would only worsen under the levies laid out in a bill due to be debated this week and passed before June 30.Hundreds of mostly young protesters assembled near parliament on Tuesday, with police firing tear gas and making arrests, according to AFP journalists. Hours later, the presidency announced that it would scrap many of the bill’s most contentious provisions, including taxes on bread purchases and car ownership. “The Finance Bill has been amended to remove the proposed 16% VAT on bread, transportation of sugar, financial services, foreign exchange transactions as well as the 2.5% Motor Vehicle Tax,” the presidency said in a statement.“Additionally, there will be no increase in mobile money transfer fees, and Excise Duty on vegetable oil has also been removed,” it added. The cash-strapped government had earlier defended the hikes - which were projected to raise some 346.7bn shillings ($2.7bn), equivalent to 1.9% of GDP - as a necessary measure to cut reliance on external borrowing. Lawmakers were due to debate the bill on Tuesday afternoon, but postponed the discussion to Wednesday, just before the presidency announced the changes following recommendations made by a parliamentary committee.“Because the people’s representatives have listened to the people...they have adjusted the proposals,” President William Ruto told lawmakers.The bill sparked fury among many Kenyans, who staged protests on Tuesday dubbed “Occupy Parliament”. Black-clad protesters were forced into a cat-and-mouse situation with police, with officers lobbing tear gas and - in one instance - chasing people into a church before making arrests. “I am fighting for my future,” one protester, 23-year-old Wangari, told AFP. “With such taxes, with such exploitation, I don’t see how we can build a life,” she said.“This is making it very hard for us, especially us, that are not a part of the one percent.”Her thoughts were echoed by others like 29-year-old Rara Eisa who was protesting for the first time. “I am tired. The prices of everything have gone up, life is no longer affordable,” she said, adding that the taxes “are not lenient in any way”.Many demonstrators waved signs emblazoned “do not force the taxes on us”, referring to Ruto as Zakayo, the Swahili name for the biblical tax collector Zacchaeus. Ruto came to power in 2022 on a promise to revive the economy and put money in the pockets of the downtrodden, but his policies have sparked widespread discontent.He has raised income tax and health insurance contributions, and doubled VAT on petroleum products to 16%. Last year’s tax hikes led to opposition protests, sometimes degenerating into deadly street clashes between police and demonstrators.While Kenya is among the most dynamic economies in East Africa, roughly a third of the 51.5mn population lives in poverty. Overall inflation has remained stubbornly high at an annual rate of 5.1% in May, while food and fuel inflation stood at 6.2% and 7.8% respectively, according to central bank data. The World Bank said this month that while Kenya’s real GDP growth had accelerated last year to 5.6% from 4.9% in 2022, it was expected to slow to five percent this year.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/685045/international/kenya-scraps-most-new-tax-hikes-as-hundreds-protest

Dutch PM Rutte to be next Nato chief

Stoltenberg: Rutte is a very strong candidateNext Nato chief to find balance between support for Kyiv and keeping alliance out of warNetherlands under Rutte has been driving force behind military help for UkraineAfter ten years in office, Stoltenberg's term ends October 1

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a staunch ally of Kyiv and a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, will succeed Jens Stoltenberg as Nato chief, Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported on Tuesday, after Hungary and Slovakia backed him.

Speaking at a news conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, Stoltenberg neither confirmed nor denied the media report.

'With the announcement of (Hungarian) Prime Minister (Viktor) Orban, I think it's obvious that we are very close to a conclusion... to select the next secretary-general, and I think that's good news,' he told reporters, while praising Rutte.

'I think Mark is a very strong candidate. He has a lot of experience as prime minister. He's a close friend and colleague, and I therefore strongly believe that very soon, the alliance will have decided on my successor,' he said. 'And that will be good for all of us, for Nato and also for me.'

Nato's next secretary-general will face the challenge of sustaining allies' support for Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion, while guarding against any escalation that could draw the military alliance directly into a war with Moscow.

In the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Rutte has been one of the driving forces behind Europe's military support to Ukraine, stressing time and again what he said was the absolute need for a Russian battlefield defeat to secure peace in Europe.

Under his recent leadership, the Netherlands has ramped up defence spending above the 2% threshold of GDP required of Nato members, providing F-16 fighter jets, artillery, drones and ammunition to Kyiv as well as investing heavily in its own military.

Rutte's support for Ukraine is underscored by his criticism of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, as the Netherlands holds Russia accountable for the downing of passenger flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 - which killed all 298 passengers and crew, 196 of them from the Netherlands.

Hours before the NOS report, Hungary and Slovakia had given their support to the candidacy of Rutte, clearing a crucial hurdle on his way to Nato's top job.

Nato takes decisions by consensus, so any candidate needs the support of all 32 allies. Only Romania, whose President Klaus Iohannis is also vying for the job, is still officially opposed to Rutte's candidacy.

Hungary's backing followed a meeting Orban had with Stoltenberg last week, where the two sides agreed that Hungary would not block Nato decisions on providing support for Ukraine but has agreed that it would not be involved.

'PM Mark Rutte confirmed that he fully supports this deal and will continue to do so, should he become the next Secretary General of Nato,' Orban wrote on the X social media platform.

'In light of his pledge, Hungary is ready to support PM Rutte's bid for Nato Secretary-General.'

Orban had earlier opposed Rutte's candidacy because he had expressed 'problematic' opinions that included the idea that Hungary should leave the European Union.

Hungary has been at odds with other Nato countries over Orban's continued cultivation of close ties with Russia and refusal to send arms to Ukraine, with Budapest's foreign minister last month labelling plans to help the war-torn nation a 'crazy mission.'

Turkey and Slovakia have also changed course on Rutte's bid, with Turkey saying it would support him in late April and Slovakia announcing its support earlier on Tuesday.

Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, had stressed the need for the next Nato chief to help deal with the protection of Slovak airspace, its President Peter Pellegrini said, after the previous Slovak government donated an S-300 system to Ukraine, and allies pulled out Patriot batteries that had been temporarily placed there.

Stoltenberg's term will end on October 1, 10 years after taking office in 2014, just a few months after Russia annexed Crimea.

During his tenure, Stoltenberg oversaw Nato's shift from an alliance mainly engaged in crisis management missions in far-off places such as Afghanistan back to its roots of defence against Russia.

Four countries have joined Nato since Stoltenberg took office - Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland and Sweden.

By giving the top job to Rutte, the alliance will pass the opportunity to see a woman, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, take the helm of Nato for the first time - something several members had lobbied for.

Kallas, a candidate mainly touted by eastern European countries, was seen as too hawkish towards Russia by some western member states.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/685044/international/ukeurope/dutch-pm-rutte-to-be-next-nato-chief

Farage vows tighter borders and tax cuts in poll ‘contract’

Nigel Farage, whose entry into the election has damaged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s faint hopes of victory, set out his policy plans yesterday, describing them as the first step to becoming the dominant party on the right of British politics.Farage yesterday said the earlier-than-expected election had come too soon for his Reform UK party but called on supporters of Sunak’s Conservatives to “join the revolt” and pitched Reform as the only ones who could hold to account Labour, whose leader Keir Starmer is forecast to become the next prime minister.Farage is one of Britain’s most recognisable and divisive politicians and has pressured successive governments into more aggressive stances on cutting immigration. He played a pivotal role in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union.But his career has been spent campaigning from the sidelines of British politics, having stood unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament seven times and led parties which, despite attracting millions of votes, have failed to weaken the grip of Britain’s two main parties - the Conservatives and Labour. This time Farage is standing in Clacton-on-Sea, southeast England, where polling shows he could win a place in parliament, but under Britain’s electoral system Reform is only expected to win, at most, a handful of seats across the country. “We are not pretending that we are going to win this general election,” Farage said at the launch of a 24-page policy document, which he described as a “contract” with voters for the next five years. But he added: “Our aim and our ambition is to establish a bridgehead in parliament and to become a real opposition to a Labour government.”Reform chose Merthyr Tydfil for its launch to highlight what it says is Labour misrule in Wales.Farage’s unexpected entry into the election race - having initially said he would not run and wanted to concentrate on campaigning for Donald Trump in the US - has split support among Britain’s right-of-centre voters.The Labour Party is around 20 percentage points ahead in opinion polls and forecast to win a large majority. Reform overtook the Conservatives in one poll last week, and Farage has set a target of winning 6mn votes at the July 4 election.Other polls put them far behind the governing party. The Reform campaign has so far focused on Farage and his populist appeal. The 60-year-old received an expensive private education and worked as a commodities trader but has successfully styled himself as a man of the people taking on an out-of-touch political establishment.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684993/international/farage-vows-tighter-borders-and-tax-cuts-in-poll-contract

Israel official says PM dissolves war cabinet

A senior Israeli official told AFP on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dissolved the war cabinet following the resignation earlier this month of centrist leader Benny Gantz.The official said on condition of anonymity that the wider 'security cabinet will continue to decide on matters regarding the war' between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Israeli media said the move, which was not expected to trigger any major policy shift, was meant to counter pressure from far-right politicians seeking a greater say in decision-making.The war cabinet was formed after Gantz had left the opposition to join Netanyahu's government following Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack.Gantz and another member of his party, Gadi Eisenkot, both former military chiefs, had agreed to join the government on condition that a war cabinet be formed, said another Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the issue with the media.With Gantz and Eisenkot out of the government, 'there is no longer a need for' the war cabinet, said the official.'It means that the security cabinet will meet more often. The security cabinet is the body responsible for making decisions (related to the war) anyway.'Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who were all part of the war cabinet, also sit on the security cabinet -- the key forum ratifying decisions regarding the war including truce and hostage release negotiations.Gantz announced his resignation on June 9 after failing to get Netanyahu to approve a post-war plan for Gaza.Israeli media reported that Netanyahu dissolved the war cabinet to avoid including far-right coalition members in the sensitive forum, fearing harm to relations with key Western allies such as the United States.National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are both security cabinet members and opposed to a truce before Hamas is 'eliminated', have put pressure on Netanyahu to add them to the war cabinet.The Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 37,347 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684978/international/israel-official-says-pm-dissolves-war-cabinet

Train collision in Northern India leaves five dead, 25 injured

Five people were killed and about 25 others were injured in a train collision in the city of Siliguri in the state of Bengal, northern India.The accident involved a freight train colliding with the Kanchenjunga Express, which was en route to Sealdah station in Kolkata.Local authorities reported that the collision occurred shortly after the Kanchenjunga Express departed from New Jalpaiguri station and collided with the freight train from behind.India's railway network, one of the largest in the world, is known for frequent accidents, largely due to outdated equipment. The deadliest accident occurred in 1981 when a train fell into a river, resulting in 800 fatalities.In 2015, the Indian government announced an investment of $137 billion over five years to modernize and expand the railway network.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684974/international/india/train-collision-in-northern-india-leaves-five-dead-25-injured

Biden raps apex court at fundraiser in LA while Trump woos Michigan

President Joe Biden slammed the US Supreme Court as “out of kilter” at a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday with former president Barack Obama and top Hollywood celebrities that has raised over $30mn.Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel began by showing a video montage contrasting Biden’s record with that of his predecessor and current Republican challenger Donald Trump.He drew cheers from the audience at a packed Peacock Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, where Hollywood celebrities George Clooney, Julia Roberts and singing icon Barbra Streisand were among the guests.Despite the Hollywood heavyweights, Biden turned serious when he spoke of his rival Trump, and how whoever wins the election will likely have at least two new Supreme Court nominations to make.“The idea that if he’s re-elected he’s going to appoint two more flying flags upside down,” Biden said, referring to recent tumult over conservative sitting Justice Samuel Alito who was recently confirmed to have had the inverted American flag – a symbol of Trump’s false election fraud claims – raised outside his homes in Virginia and New Jersey.Biden, a Democrat who has frequently denounced specific decisions but resisted a full attack on the court itself, said: “The fact of the matter is that there has never been a court that is this far out of step.”He noted that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas had said that the court, which overturned the half-century-old federal right to abortion, should reconsider such things as in vitro fertilisation and contraception.Trump nominated three of the six conservatives who control the nine-member court. He and Biden are in a tight rematch race for the November 5 election.If Trump is elected again, Biden said, he “is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees”.Democratic lawmakers, citing the flag displays, have said Alito should recuse himself from a case involving Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution on federal criminal charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 results.Since Biden took office, the court’s conservative majority has also restricted affirmative action, gender minority rights, gun control and environmental regulation.It has blocked the president’s agenda on immigration, student loans, vaccine mandates and climate change.Obama said that “the power of the Supreme Court is determined by elections. What we’re seeing now is a byproduct of 2016” when Trump was elected. “Hopefully we have learned our lesson. Because these elections matter.”Obama also invoked Trump’s felony convictions to applause from the crowd.Trump was convicted by a New York jury on May 30 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.The Biden campaign hoped the star-studded event would display strength and momentum despite Biden’s low approval ratings and concerns about the age of the president, who is 81.“This will be one of the biggest fundraisers we’ve had,” said Ajay Jain Bhutoria, deputy finance chair at the Democratic National Committee.A Biden campaign spokeswoman said that “$28mn heading into President Biden’s LA fundraiser – and counting. This is the largest Democratic fundraiser in history”.Biden campaign’s fundraising in April lagged Trump’s for the first time, after the former president ramped up his joint operation with the Republican National Committee and headlined high-dollar fundraisers.Democrats still maintained an overall cash advantage over Trump and the Biden campaign continues to have a considerably larger war chest.Trump was also on the campaign trail, boasting in Detroit, Michigan that his own fundraising is “the highest in the history of politics”.Michigan is a must-win state for Biden in November’s electoral mathematics.Aiming to eat into Biden’s key electoral support from African Americans there, Trump visited a black church in Detroit and told hundreds of voters that “crooked Joe Biden has done nothing for you except talk”.Trump then headed to a starkly different venue: a convention of high-profile hard-right Republicans and supporters of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.At the Turning Point USA convention, Trump railed against Biden’s climate protection package, mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “salesman”, and renewed his incendiary rhetoric about what he branded the “Biden migrant invasion”, saying he will stop it with the biggest deportation operation in American history.In a characteristically rambling 80-minute speech – frequently interrupted by loud cheering – Trump claimed that help for migrants leaves US war veterans “lying in the streets” and veered into everything from extended complaints about modern showers to repeating his lie that his 2020 election loss was “rigged and stolen”.“We have a rigged country. We have rigged elections, we have open borders,” he said.Biden and Trump are tied in national polls with less than five months to go before the election, while Trump has the edge in the battleground states that will decide the election, recent polls show.On economic issues like inflation, Trump scores higher with voters overall than Biden.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684954/international/biden-raps-apex-court-at-fundraiser-in-la-while-trump-woos-michigan

Australian PM, China premier to discuss trade, jailed writer on Monday

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will meet on Monday in the first such visit by a Chinese premier in seven years, with trade ties, regional security and a jailed Australian writer on the host’s agenda.The visit by Li, China’s top-ranked official after President Xi Jinping, marks a stabilisation in relations between the US security ally and the world’s second-biggest economy, after a frosty period of Beijing blocking $20bn in Australian exports and friction over defence encounters.Li is on a four-day visit that Australia’s foreign minister called “really important” and which the Chinese leader said showed bilateral relations were “back on track”.Without China - which receives one-third of Australia’s exports and supplies one-fourth of Australia’s imports - Australians would pay 4.2% more for consumer items, an Australian business group said.Trade with China increased Australia’s average household disposable income by A$2,600 ($1,700) last year, contributing 595,600 jobs or 4.2% of total employment, said the study by Curtin University and the Australia China Business Council.“Managing geopolitical risks and concerns around defence and security will remain at the forefront of Indo-Pacific discussions,” the report said. “Trade is not disconnected from these discussions.”Australia is the biggest supplier of iron ore to China and China has been an investor in Australian mining projects.Li’s visit will likely raise the issue of whether Australia will continue to accept high levels of Chinese investment in its critical minerals sector, as Western security allies push to reduce reliance on Beijing for the rare earths vital to electric vehicles. Human rights is an area of less harmony for Beijing and Canberra.The suspended death sentence for China-born Australian writer Yang Hengjun was upheld by a Beijing court ahead of Li’s visit, his supporters said on Sunday.They urged Albanese to ask Li to allow Yang’s transfer to Australia on medical grounds, saying in a statement it was “not possible to achieve a stable, respectful bilateral relationship with China while their officials are threatening to execute an Australian political prisoner”.Yang, a pro-democracy blogger and spy novelist, was working in New York before his arrest at Guangzhou airport in 2019.Australia has described his February sentence as “harrowing”, casting a shadow over the recent rebound in bilateral ties.Australia has also chastised China’s military in recent months for its “unacceptable” and “unsafe” behaviour in international skies and waters, and has urged restraint in the South China Sea.Meanwhile, Australian police have beefed up security measures fearing the potential for ugly clashes between pro-China groups and human rights protesters.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684953/international/australian-pm-china-premier-to-discuss-trade-jailed-writer-on-monday