Dozens feared dead after dam bursts in eastern Sudan

Surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least five villages and left an unknown number of people dead in eastern Sudan, officials said yesterday, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.Torrential rains caused floods that overwhelmed the Arbaat Dam on Sunday just 40km north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.“The area is unrecognisable. The electricity and water pipes are destroyed,” Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff. He said he had seen the bodies of gold miners and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge, and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.On the road to Arbaat yesterday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with driftwood to try to prevent it from being washed away in mudslides.The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, which is home to the country’s main Red Sea port and working airport, and receives most of the country’s much-needed aid deliveries. “The city is threatened with thirst in the coming days,” the Sudanese Environmentalists Association said in a statement.Officials said the dam had started crumbling and silt had been building during days of heavy rain that had come much earlier than usual.Sudan’s dams, roads and bridges were already in disrepair before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Forces began in April 2023.Both sides have since funnelled the bulk of their resources into the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected. Some people had fled their flooded homes in five devastated villages and headed to the mountains where they were now stranded, the health ministry said.Yesterday, the government’s rainy season taskforce said 132 people had been killed in floods across the country, up from 68 two weeks ago. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by the rains this year, according to United Nations agencies.The conflict in Sudan began when competition between the army and the RSF, who had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.The two sides had been seeking to protect their power and extensive economic interests as the international community promoted a plan for a transition towards civilian rule.Overlapping efforts in pursuit of a ceasefire, including Saudi- and US-led talks in Jeddah, have not eased the fighting and half of the 50mn population lack sufficient food.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689394/international/dozens-feared-dead-after-dam-bursts-in-eastern-sudan

China says took ‘control measures’ against Philippine ships near disputed reef

China said it took “control measures” yesterday against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that had entered waters near the disputed Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard accused Manila of sending two ships to “illegally barge into waters near Xianbin Jiao”, using the Chinese name for the Sabina Shoal.The ships “continued to dangerously approach normally sailing Chinese coast guard ships, inciting hype”, it said in a statement. “The Chinese coast guard took control measures against the Philippine ships in accordance with the law,” it added. The Philippine Coast Guard said it sent two vessels to deliver provisions to one of its ships at Sabina Shoal.As the vessels neared the shoal, they were forced to abandon the resupply mission due to China’s “excessive” deployment of ships and rough sea conditions, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for Manila’s coast guard, told AFP. Spotted in the area were six ships from the China Coast Guard, three from the Chinese navy as well as 31 other vessels, Tarriela said. “We were boxed, we were surrounded and it was difficult for us to move forward,” he said.AFP correspondents were among several media outlets on board the Philippine Coast Guard vessels for the mission. Beijing claims most of the strategic South China Sea and has been involved in maritime confrontations with Manila in recent months, sparking fears of armed conflict that could draw in the United States, a Filipino military ally.Multiple confrontations have taken place in recent days around Sabina Shoal, located 140km west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200km from Hainan island, China’s nearest major landmass. “The Philippine Government deplores the repeated aggressive, unprofessional and illegal actions displayed by Chinese maritime forces against Philippine vessels and aircraft over the past week,” Manila’s National Maritime Council said in a statement on Monday.Both sides have in recent months stationed coast guard vessels near Sabina, where the Philippines fears China is about to build an artificial island. On Sunday, Beijing said a Philippine vessel had collided with one of its ships near the disputed shoal. The Philippines slammed China’s claims as “completely unfounded”.In response to the clash, Beijing on Monday said fault “lies entirely with the Philippine side”.“The Philippine side has frequently dispatched coast guard, government, and other vessels to forcibly enter the waters near Xianbin Reef,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.He added that Manila has been “attempting to resupply the Philippine vessel that has been illegally stationed at the lagoon in the reef for an extended period, aiming to establish a long-term presence”.China deploys boats to patrol the busy South China Sea and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims. On Saturday, Manila accused China of recently firing flares at one of its aircraft as it patrolled over the South China Sea. And in June, the Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in the confrontation in which Beijing’s coast guard also confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment including guns.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689387/international/china-says-took-control-measures-against-philippine-ships-near-disputed-reef

Pakistani singles defy tradition, search for spouses in person

Dozens of young singles gathered this week to meet potential marriage partners in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, the first attempt by a UK-based matrimonial app to help people find spouses in person in the country.Typically, marriages in Pakistan are arranged by parents who look for suitable matches for their children from within their communities or the extended family. Dating apps are generally stigmatised and gender segregation socially and at work remains common in the country of 240mn people.The Lahore event was organised by Muzz, formerly Muzzmatch, which says its app is based on Islamic etiquette. The app is restricted to Muslim users, and, in a nod to traditional values, gives the option of blurring pictures except for specific matches and allows for chaperones to oversee meetings.Other smaller events are also emerging in the country to challenge traditional matchmaking norms.Despite criticism online in the past for the app, the Muzz event was attended by about 100 people.Aimen, a 31-year-old woman who did not want to be further identified, said she used the app on the recommendation of her US-based brother.“I used the app for two weeks, but then I saw an ad for this event and thought, why not meet people in person?” she told Reuters. She said that her mother would have accompanied her as a chaperone but couldn’t attend because of ill-health. Muzz, launched in 2015 in the Britain, which also has a sizeable Muslim population, has over 1.5mn users in Pakistan, its second-largest market after Morocco.Moaz, a 27-year-old man, said he has been using Muzz for a year and that he was hopeful of finding a wife through the app.“I do get matches, but they have different priorities,” he said adding that girls on the app expect him to involve his parents from the beginning.“That is not (immediately) possible,” he said, stressing the need of getting to know someone before taking the next big step.Annie’s Matchmaking Party, another Lahore event last week, used an algorithm to match 20 young professionals after a selection process and invited them to the meet.Noor ul Ain Choudhary, the 30-year-old organiser, faced criticism online that her event promoted a “hookup culture”. She countered that it aimed to provide a safe space for singles to meet and connect.“In Pakistan, we’ve had two options: biased arranged marriages or time-consuming dating apps with no guarantees. Safety during meetings is also a concern,” she said.Abdullah Ahmed, 22, was bullish about in person events and said he was convinced he may have found his perfect match at the Muzz gathering.“The highlight was meeting an amazing girl,” he said, beaming with excitement, adding that they instantly clicked and swapped social media handles.“We’re both Marvel fans! We’re already planning to catch the new Deadpool & Wolverine together,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689309/international/pakistani-singles-defy-tradition-search-for-spouses-in-person

German police: Syrian suspect has confessed to festival knife attack

A Syrian man suspected of belonging to a “terrorist group” has given himself up and confessed to killing three people and wounding eight others in a knife rampage at a German street festival, officials said yesterday.The random attack as thousands of people gathered on Friday night in the western city of Solingen has stunned Germany.Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed, officials said.Four of the wounded remained in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, according to police.Police said in a statement that the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who had “given himself up to authorities... and declared himself responsible for the attack”.German prosecutors said they had launched a “terrorist” investigation and ordered yesterday the pre-trial detention of the man, who is suspected of belonging to a “terrorist group”.The suspect identified as “Syrian national Issa Al H” will be detained over “strong suspicions of belonging to a terrorist group abroad” as well as of murder and attempted murder, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.The jihadist Islamic State group’s Amaq propaganda arm has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians” in Solingen “was a soldier of the Islamic State”.IS said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”, in an apparent reference to the Gaza conflict.The claim could not be immediately verified.According to the Bild and Spiegel newspapers, the suspect arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing war-torn Syria.German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said the suspect was not known to the security services as an extremist considered dangerous. Habeck — who called for tougher knife laws yesterday — said “Islamic terrorism” was one of “the biggest security dangers” Germany faces.Flowers, candles and messages lined the streets near the festival in Solingen, where the rampage took place as thousands of people gathered on Friday for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity”, part of a series of events to mark the city’s 650th anniversary.The whole festival has now been cancelled.The youth wing of Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant AfD party, Junge Alternative, said it planned to hold a demonstration near the scene later yesterday, with a counter-protest also planned.Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to visit the scene of the tragedy today.German officers indicated yesterday that a suspect arrested a day before at a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers, not far from the scene of the attack, was being considered a “witness”.A 15-year-old boy was also arrested, suspected of failing to report a criminal act.National and local leaders, including Scholz, said the country had been “deeply shocked” by the deaths in Solingen, a city of 160,000 people.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689310/international/german-police-syrian-suspect-has-confessed-to-festival-knife-attack

France hunts suspect after synagogue attack

Police were on Saturday hunting for a man who, draped in a Palestinian flag, was suspected of setting fires at a synagogue in southern France and triggering an explosion that injured a police officer.Authorities said the incident was being treated as a potential terror attack and “all means” were being deployed to find the perpetrator.France’s interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the site along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and said: “We narrowly avoided an absolute tragedy.”Attal said that “if the synagogue had been filled with worshippers...there probably would have been human victims.”Security around Jewish sites was tightened following the attack early on Saturday at Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte, near the city of Montpellier.Two cars outside the synagogue were set alight, with a gas canister then likely exploding inside one of the vehicles, police said.Two fires were also started at the entrance of the synagogue, but were quickly put out, with two doors damaged, investigators said.The wounded police officer was injured by the blast after rushing to the scene after the fires were started, police said.President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “an act of terror”, adding on X: “The fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight.”He said “all means are being deployed” to apprehend the suspect.La Grande Motte’s mayor, Stephan Rossignol, said that CCTV had picked up images of an individual setting fire to the cars.On part of the footage, watched and authenticated by AFP, a man is seen with a Palestinian flag draped around his waist, his head covered by a red Palestinian keffiyeh.The man carried two bottles filled with a yellowish liquid. The footage also seems to show the contours of a handgun.Sources close to the investigation said the suspect left the scene hurriedly on foot.The fires and explosion came amid a heightened state of alert in France and other European countries because of the war in Gaza.Attal said France’s national anti-terror prosecutors had been tasked with probing the incident.“La Grande Motte’s synagogue was the target of an attack this morning,” Attal said in a post on X.Darmanin called the incident “an obviously criminal act”.He said “all means are being deployed to find the perpetrator”.The police presence outside Jewish sites in France would be increased following the explosion, the minister added.The blast occurred during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest that runs from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, with many attending synagogue services.There was, however, no religious service ongoing at the time of the incident, a police source said. A rabbi and four other people were inside the synagogue at the time but all were unharmed, investigators said.The town of La Grande Motte has about 8,500 permanent residents but the population swells during the summer tourism season.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689230/international/france-hunts-suspect-after-synagogue-attack

Film legend Delon buried near his dogs as fans mourn

Film legend Alain Delon was buried on Saturday in a private funeral attended by his children, relatives and close friends as fans mourned outside the gates of his country estate where he was laid to rest near his beloved dogs.

The 88-year-old star of such classics as Le Samourai and Purple Noon, who was once described as “Europe’s James Dean”, died last Sunday.

French police had set up roadblocks near the manor in the village of Douchy, with the airspace overhead also closed for the entire weekend.

The 50 or so mourners allowed into the estate’s private chapel had to leave their mobile phones at the door to ensure strict privacy.

Veteran Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, 86, who starred opposite Delon in The Leopard, was “too sad” to come, her agent told AFP.

“They ask me to put into words (the grief),” she said after his death, “but the sadness is too intense”.

But Rosalie van Breemen, Delon’s ex-wife and mother of his children Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, was present, sources close to proceedings told AFP.

Fans had left countless floral tributes and cards at the manor gates all week, with around a hundred people gathered there on Saturday to say goodbye.

“I wanted to pay him homage, even from behind the gates, on the day of the funeral, as a symbolic gesture,” Marie-Christine Guibert, a neighbour, told AFP.

“I really had to be here,” said Maxime Ducharme, 28. “I inherited a passion for Delon from my parents.”

Delon’s three children — who were with him when he died — told AFP that they were “extremely touched by the fervour and affection shown by his fans in France and across the world.”

Since his death, France has been paying homage to Delon, one of the country’s biggest but most divisive stars.

He was one of the last living legends of a golden era of French cinema in the 1960s.

While he had legions of fans around the world, Delon’s relations with women caused controversy. His sons accused him of domestic violence, which Delon denied while admitting to slapping women.

The actor also drew criticism for supporting Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the far-right National Front.

Feminists were appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes Film Festival gave him in 2019.

Delon lived his later years largely as a recluse, though his personal life kept him in the headlines.

In 2023, his three children filed a complaint against his live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behaviour.

The siblings went on to wage a public battle in the media and the courts, arguing over his health, which worsened after a stroke in 2019.

Even in death, he was still making headlines after it emerged that he asked for his favourite dog to be put down and buried with him.

But his long-time friend and fellow 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot said the Belgian malinois called Loubo would be spared.

“The family of Alain Delon have confirmed to us that they will take care of him. Loubo will of course not be euthanised,” her foundation said on the X social media platform.

French TV presenter Stephane Bern said Delon’s wish to be buried with his dogs was very him, comparing him to Frederick the Great of Prussia who did the same.

It was a gesture “of majesty and panache”, he said, “very Delon, worthy of a Leopard who had become a misanthrope.”

“I have absolutely no fear of death,” the actor insisted in 2011, posing for photographs outside the tomb where he intended to be buried.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689229/international/film-legend-delon-buried-near-his-dogs-as-fans-mourn

Zelensky calls Putin ‘sick’, touts new drone missile

President Volodymyr Zelensky touted a newly developed Ukrainian “drone missile” on Saturday that he said would take the war back to Russia and scornfully derided Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “sick old man from Red Square”.

As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelensky said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically made drones that Kyiv has so far used to fight back against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields.

“Our enemy will...know what the Ukrainian way for retaliation is. Worthy, symmetrical, long-ranged,” he said.

Zelensky said the new class of Ukrainian weapon had been used for a successful strike on a target in Russia, but did not say where.

He used derisive language to describe Russia’s 71-year-old president and the nuclear rhetoric coming out of Moscow.

“A sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button will not dictate any of his red lines to us,” he said in a video on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which has attacked Ukraine with many thousands of missiles and drones since it invaded in February 2022, has decried Ukraine’s drone attacks as terrorism. Moscow’s troops are advancing in Ukraine’s east and occupy 18% of the country.

Zelensky has been pressing Kyiv’s allies to allow him to use Western weapons deeper in Russian territory such as to strike airbases used by Russian warplanes that pound Ukraine with missiles and glide bombs.

“I want to stress once more that our new weapon decisions, including Palianytsia, is our realistic way to act while some of our partners are unfortunately delaying decisions,” Zelensky told a news conference.

Ukrainians say the word “Palianytsia”, a type of Ukrainian bread, is too difficult to pronounce for Russians and it has been used — sometimes humorously — during the war as a way to tell Ukrainians and Russians apart.

“It will be very difficult for Russia, difficult to even pronounce what exactly has hit it,” Zelensky said of the drone missile.

In a decree, Zelensky promoted his top commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, to the rank of general, a tacit gesture of praise after Ukraine’s lightning cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region launched on August 6.

Slammed by Russia as an escalation and major provocation, Ukraine’s incursion has captured more than 90 settlements in the Kursk region according to Kyiv, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Poland’s and Lithuania’s leaders, Zelensky told reporters the operation had in part been a preventive move to stop Russian plans to capture the northern city of Sumy.

Apart from capturing prisoners of war and creating a “buffer zone”, Zelensky said the operation had other objectives that he could not disclose publicly.

Polish president Andrzej Duda confirmed that Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks given to Kyiv by Warsaw were taking part in the fighting in Kursk region.

“We are touched to see how the PT-91 Twardy tanks, given by Poland (to Ukraine) more than one year ago, are defending today Ukraine on the battlefields, fighting in the Kursk region,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689228/international/zelensky-calls-putin-sick-touts-new-drone-missile

Teenager arrested after 3 killed in Germany rampage

Police have detained a teenager who may be connected with a knife attack in which a man killed three people and wounded eight others in the western German city of Solingen, but the perpetrator was still at large on Saturday.

Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, described Friday evening’s attack during a festival in the city as an act of terror.

Police were conducting a manhunt for the assailant. They said they had detained a 15-year-old and were investigating whether this person was linked to the attacker.

“This attack has struck at the heart of our country,” Wuest told reporters.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser said authorities were doing all they could to catch the assailant.

The attack took place in the Fronhof, a market square in Solingen where live bands were playing as part of a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary.

Markus Caspers, an official with the public prosecutor’s office in Duesseldorf, said authorities were treating the attack as a possible terrorist incident because there was no other known motive and the victims seemed unrelated.

Officials have declined to speculate on what type of motive might be behind the attack.

It was claimed on Saturday by the Islamic State group as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”. In a statement on Telegram, IS’s Amaq news agency said that “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany on Saturday was a soldier of the Islamic State” group.

A police official, Thorsten Fleiss, said the assailant appeared to aim for his victims’ throats.

“The perpetrator must be quickly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on X.

Police cordoned off the square on Saturday and passers-by placed candles and flowers outside the barriers.

“We are full of shock and grief,” Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach told journalists.

A German musician who goes by the name Topic said he was playing on a nearby stage when the incident occurred. He was told about what had happened but was asked to keep playing “to avoid causing a mass panic attack”, he posted on Instagram.

He was eventually told to stop, and “since the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above us,” Topic wrote.

Authorities cancelled the remainder of the weekend festival.

Fatal stabbings and shootings are relatively rare in Germany. The government said earlier this month it wanted to toughen rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the maximum length allowed.

In June, a 29-year-old policeman was fatally stabbed in Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration. A stabbing attack on a train in 2021 injured several people.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, visited the scene in Solingen early on Saturday. He told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life.

Solingen, well known for its knife manufacturing industry, is a city of some 165,000 people.

The episode comes ahead of three state elections next month in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, in which the anti-immigrant far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has a chance of winning.

Though the motive and identity of the assailant were not known, a top AfD candidate for one of the state elections, Bjoern Hoecke, seized on Friday’s attack, posting on X: “Do you really want to get used to this? Free yourselves and end this insanity of forced multiculturalism”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689227/international/teenager-arrested-after-3-killed-in-germany-rampage

At least 5 Secret Service agents put on leave after Trump assassination bid

Multiple US Secret Service agents have been placed on leave following the assassination attempt against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, US media reported yesterday.The agents put on leave include members of the Pittsburgh field office, which co-ordinated security for Trump’s July 13 campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, RealClearPolitics and several US TV networks said.Fox and CBS reported that at least five Secret Service members involved in the incident, including the head of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh office, had been put on leave.The Secret Service declined to comment on what it described as a “personnel matter” but said it is “committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler”.“The US Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.“The US Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action,” he said.Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last month after acknowledging that the agency had failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt by a 20-year-old gunman.Trump was wounded in the ear, two rally attendees were seriously injured and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was killed before a Secret Service sniper shot the gunman dead.Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials have yet to identify a motive for the suspected shooter, Thomas Crooks.Acting Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe pledged during an appearance before a joint Senate committee last month that the agency will discipline any agents found to have committed policy violations.Following the attack in Butler, the Secret Service recommended that Trump avoid large outdoor events.Trump subsequently said he would continue outdoor rallies and that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation” to protect him.Trump, 78, held his first outdoor rally since the shooting on Wednesday, addressing a campaign event in Asheboro, North Carolina, from behind a pane of bulletproof glass (pictured). – AFP/Reuters

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689165/international/at-least-5-secret-service-agents-put-on-leave-after-trump-assassination-bid

Harris vows ‘new way forward’ for America

Vice-President Kamala Harris sealed the Democratic presidential nomination with a muscular speech, laying down broad foreign policy principles and sharp contrasts with Republican rival Donald Trump with 11 weeks left in the race for the White House.A sea of waving Stars and Stripes flags and chants of “USA” filled the arena as jubilant Democrats anointed Harris.She was later joined on stage by her running mate Tim Walz and their families, as they held their arms aloft while 100,000 red, white and blue balloons tumbled from the ceiling.Country act The Chicks sang a version of The Star-Spangled Banner while pop star Pink also performed as the Democrats rolled out a list of celebrity backers.On the final night of the four-day Democratic National Convention, Harris, 59, promised to be a “realistic”, “practical” president for all Americans, as she battles Trump in a razor-close campaign.“In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs,” she said on Thursday, accusing Trump of bowing down to dictators.She promised to back the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), Ukraine and “stand up to Putin’s aggression”, a reference to Russia’s president.Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate a month ago when allies of President Joe Biden forced him to quit the race.“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” she vowed.Harris then launched a broadside at 78-year-old Trump, whose campaign has been upended by having to face a woman two decades younger, rather than the increasingly frail Biden, 81.“We know what a second Trump term would look like,” she said, saying he wanted to “pull our country back to the past”.It was a forceful speech for a candidate who, during her brief campaign, had yet to articulate much of her vision for the country.Harris has faced a stream of personal attacks from Trump, who called her weak on the foreign stage.After days of protests from Palestinian supporters who were disappointed at not getting a speaking spot at the convention, Harris delivered a pledge to secure Israel, bring the hostages home from Gaza and end the war in the Palestinian enclave.“Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done,” she said to cheers. “And let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”She said that she wanted to end the war in a way that provides for Israel security and allows the Palestinian people to realise their right to self-determination.Harris said she would take whatever action was necessary to defend US interests against Iran and said tyrants and dictators including North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, “are rooting for Trump”.If successful, Harris stands to make history as the first woman elected US president on November 5.Harris drew a series of contrasts with Trump, accusing him of not fighting for the middle class, planning to enact a tax hike through his tariff proposals, and having set in motion the end of a constitutional right to abortion with his picks for the US Supreme Court.She noted the Supreme Court’s recent ruling about presidential immunity and the risks that would pose if Trump gained power again.“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails,” the vice-president said.Trump, who had promised to respond to Harris’s speech in real time, posted a series of messages on Truth Social as she spoke about him, including: “She stands for Incompetence and Weakness – Our Country is being laughed at all over the World!” and “She will never be respected by the Tyrants of the World!”Harris also said she will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100mn Americans, contrasting that with Trump’s vow to cut the corporate tax rate.She discussed her plans to fight for abortion rights, voting rights legislation, boost the housing supply and ban what she has called “price gouging” by grocers.Her campaign has also proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.Chicago’s United Centre brimmed with energy – and people.The arena’s 23,500 seats were filled and arena staff briefly blocked more people from entering the facility, saying that the city’s fire marshal declared the building at capacity.“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new way forward,” Harris said to huge cheers. “And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.”“We did it,” she told supporters at a post-convention reception. “Forward, forward, forward.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689166/international/harris-vows-new-way-forward-for-america

Baby paralysed in Gaza’s first case of type 2 polio in 25 years

A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby.The type 2 virus (cVDPV2), while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.UN agencies have called for Israel and Gaza’s Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month-old war to allow vaccination campaigns to proceed in the territory.“Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children,” the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said yesterday in a post on X.“Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” Philippe Lazzarini added.The baby, who has lost movement in his lower left leg, is currently in stable condition, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.The WHO has announced that two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are set to begin in late August and September 2024 across the densely populated Gaza Strip.With its health services widely damaged or destroyed by fighting, and raw sewage spreading amid a breakdown in sanitation infrastructure, Gaza’s population is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.Gaza’s health ministry first reported the polio case in the unvaccinated 10-month-old baby a week ago in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, an often embattled area in the war.On August 16 Hamas supported a UN request for a seven-day pause in the fighting to vaccinate Gaza children against polio, Hamas political bureau official Izzat al-Rishq said yesterday.Israel, which has laid siege to Gaza since last October and whose ground offensive and bombardments have levelled much of the territory, said days later that it would facilitate the transfer of polio vaccines into Gaza for around 1mn children.The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) said it was co-ordinating with Palestinians to procure 43,000 vials of vaccine – each with multiple doses – for delivery in Israel in the coming weeks for transfer to Gaza.The vaccines should be sufficient for two rounds of doses for more than 1mn children, COGAT added.As well as allowing the entry of polo specialists into Gaza, the UN has said a successful campaign would require transport for vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step as well as conditions that would allow the campaign to reach children in every area of the rubble-clogged territory.Poliomyelitis, a virus primarily spread through the faecal-oral route, can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.Traces of polio virus were detected last month in sewage in Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis, two areas in southern and central Gaza that have seen hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting seek shelter.Children under five are particularly at risk.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689163/international/baby-paralysed-in-gazas-first-case-of-type-2-polio-in-25-years