Trump refuses Harris call for October debate

World

September 22, 2024

Republican presidential candidate former US president Donald Trump walks offstage after speaking at a campaign rally. PHOTO: AFP

WILMINGTON (AFP) – Donald Trump on Saturday rejected a second debate against Kamala Harris before the November 5 election, saying it was “too late” with early voting already underway in some states.

Earlier in the day, Harris’s campaign said she had accepted an invitation from broadcaster CNN to participate in a debate on October 23. It would have been the candidates’ second debate, after a September 10 encounter that most pundits said she had won.

“The American people deserve another opportunity to see Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate before they cast their ballots,” her campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

“I hope (Trump) will join me,” Harris posted on X.

Trump claimed during a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina that he would like to debate – calling it “good entertainment value” – but the start of early voting in some states had taken the air out of the idea.

“It’s just too late, voting has already started,” he said. He added, to a large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters, that while CNN had been “very fair” when he debated President Joe Biden in June, “they won’t be fair again.”

Vice President Harris replaced her boss at the top of the Democratic ticket after the 81-year-old Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump.

His exit from the race left Trump, 78, now the oldest ever presidential nominee, against a much younger Harris, 59.

Voting underway
Saturday’s announcement came as some states have already begun early voting in what is an agonisingly close race. The result is expected to hinge on seven battleground states, including North Carolina.

Trump addressed the crowd in the port city of Wilmington from behind bulletproof glass, following an apparent second assassination attempt against him. A gunman was discovered on his golf course in Florida last Sunday, with security agents foiling any plan to harm the former president.

In July, Trump was struck on the ear by a bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. The US Secret Service – tasked with protecting the candidate – on Friday admitted to “deficiencies” and “complacency” in the shocking security breach.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric
Trump won North Carolina in the 2020 election against Biden.

But Harris is aiming to flip the southeastern state for Democrats, on the strength of her support from African Americans and young voters.

Trump’s speech on Saturday reinforced the hardline anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become a centerpiece of his campaign, falsely claiming migrants were “attacking villages and cities all throughout the Midwest.”

He also promised the crowd that the United States would “reach Mars before the end of my term.”

The presidential race remains neck-and-neck and every vote will count in the election, whose result Trump has once again refused to say he will accept if he loses.

Trump faces criminal charges for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 result, after which his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure

World

September 22, 2024

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-MEDIA — The Al Jazeera television network offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. PHOTOS: AFP

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera said that Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order.

“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation which was broadcast live.

“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said.

Footage showed heavily armed and masked troops entering the office.

The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.

The move was the latest Israeli action against Al Jazeera.

Last week Israel’s government announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.

The shutdown had not affected broadcasts from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, from which Al Jazeera still covers Israel’s war with Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist agents” in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or its ally, Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera denies the Israeli government’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.

The Al Jazeera television network offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. PHOTO: AFP

France’s Macron appoints new government in shift to right

World

September 22, 2024

PARIS (AFP) – France finally got a new government Saturday in a shift to the right, as left-wing protesters took to the streets to denounce what they say is a denial of July’s election results.

The cabinet announced by French President Emmanuel Macron and led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier comes 11 weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election.

Barnier’s first major task will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France’s financial situation, which the prime minister this week called “very serious”. Conservative Barnier is best known internationally for leading the European Union’s Brexit negotiations with the UK.

More recently, he has had the difficult job of submitting a Cabinet for Macron’s approval that has the best chance of surviving a no-confidence motion in Parliament. Talks on the distribution of the 39 Cabinet posts continued right up to Saturday’s official announcement, insiders said, with moments of high tension between the president and his prime minister.

Opposition politicians from the left have already announced they will challenge his government with a confidence motion.

In the July election, a left-wing bloc called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough for an overall majority.

Macron argued that the left would be unable to muster enough support to form a government that would not immediately be brought down in Parliament.

He turned instead to Barnier to lead a government drawing mostly on parliamentary support from Macron’s allies, as well as from the conservative Republicans (LR) and the centrists groups.

Newly-appointed members of the Cabinet of French Prime Minister Michel Barnier following its announcement. PHOTO: AFP

No future
Macron was counting too, on a neutral stance from the far right – but the leader of the National Rally (RN) Jordan Bardella was quick to condemn the composition of the new government.

It marked “a return to Macronism” and so had “no future whatsoever”, he said Saturday.

At the other end of the political spectrum, far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon called the new lineup “a government of the general election losers”.

France, he said, should “get rid” of the government “as soon as possible”. His party threatened to “increase popular pressure” on the government.

Socialist party chairman Oliver Faure dismissed Barnier’s Cabinet as “a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger”.

“An unnatural government against nature,” was the verdict of Marine Tondelier, leader of The Ecologists party.

Among the new faces in key Cabinet posts are Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Conservative Bruno Retailleau takes over at the interior ministry. His portfolio covers immigration and his right-wing credentials have created unease even in Macron’s own camp.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a close Macron ally, has kept his job.

The difficult job of submitting a budget plan to Parliament next month falls to 33-year-old Antoine Armand, the new finance minister. He has previously served as head of parliament’s economic affairs commission.

But Greenpeace condemned the appointments of Republican Annie Genevard and Macronist Agnes Pannier-Runacher to the agriculture and climate briefs respectively.

“We need radical and ambitious action to tackle the climate and social crises, but this government already seems stuck in the outdated logic of the old world,” said its executive director for France Jean-Francois Julliard.

The only left-of-centre politician is little-known former Socialist Didier Migaud, named justice minister.

Street protests
Even before the announcement, thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and other French cities Saturday to protest.

They were objecting to a Cabinet they say does not reflect the outcome of the parliamentary election. The new government has nobody from inside the NFP bloc.

“I am here because this outcome does not correspond to how people voted,” said Violette Bourguignon, 21, demonstrating in Paris.

“I am worried and I’m angry. What is the point of having an election at all?” she said.

Barnier is to address parliament with a key policy speech on October 1.

He then has the urgent task of submitting a budget plan to the National Assembly aimed at controlling France’s rising budget deficit and debt mountain — the first major test of his administration.

France was placed on a formal procedure for violating European Union budgetary rules before Barnier was picked as head of government.

France’s public-sector deficit is projected to reach around 5.6 percent of GDP this year and go over six percent in 2025. EU rules set a three-percent ceiling on deficits.

“I am discovering that the country’s budgetary situation is very serious,” Barnier said in a statement to AFP on Wednesday, adding that the situation required “more than just pretty statements”.

The new Cabinet’s first meeting is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Guardiola says critics want Man City wiped ‘from face of the Earth’

Sports

September 22, 2024

Sevilla FC Arrives in Budapest - UEFA Europa League Final 2022/23 — Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola. PHOTO: AP

LONDON (AFP) – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he feels critics of the Premier League champions want the club wiped “from the face of the Earth” over their alleged breaches of financial rules.

City, who have dominated English football since Guardiola’s arrival in 2016, face a hefty points deduction or even expulsion from the league if found guilty on some or all of the 115 charges relating to financial regulations.

A long-awaited hearing into charges brought by the Premier League in February 2023 finally began at the start of the week.

Guardiola has claimed previously that some of the club’s rivals hope to see them found guilty and he appears in no doubt they would expect punishment to be severe.

He brought up the matter unprompted ahead of Sunday’s clash with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium while talking about the tendency of people to overly criticise isolated bad performances.

“During a season, you can say, ‘Oh, it was a bad season’,” said Guardiola.

“But for performances some people say, ‘Oh, it’s a disgrace, it is a disaster, it’s unacceptable’. No, during 90 minutes it’s one bad afternoon when they were better.

“But I would say – I’m sorry, I want to defend my club, especially in these modern days when everyone is expecting us not to be relegated, to be disappeared off the face of the Earth, the world – that we have better afternoons than the opponents. That’s why we win a lot.”

City face 80 breaches of financial rules between 2009 and 2018, plus a further 35 of failing to cooperate with a Premier League investigation.

The club stand accused of failing to provide accurate financial information, including revenue from sponsors and salary details of managers and players.

However, City have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

Huge Australian penguin chick Pesto grows into social media star

World

September 22, 2024

ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show Pesto mingling in his enclosure at Australia's Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium. PHOTO: AP

MELBOURNE (AP) – A huge king penguin chick named Pesto, who weighs as much as both his parents combined, has become a social media celebrity and a star attraction at an Australian aquarium.

Weighing 22 kilogrammes (kg) at nine months old, Pesto is the heaviest penguin chick the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has ever had, its education supervisor Jacinta Early said on Friday.

By contrast, his doting parents, Hudson and Tango weigh 11kg each.

Pesto’s global fame has grown with his size. More than 1.9 billion people around the world had viewed him through social media, an aquarium statement said. He ate more than his own substantial body weight in fish in the past week: 24kg, Early said. The veterinary advice is that that quantity of food is healthy for a chick approaching adulthood.

His growth will plateau as he enters his fledging period. He has started to lose his brown feathers and will replace them with the black and white plumage of a young adult.

His keepers expect him to trim down to around 15kg in the process.

“He’s going to start losing that really adorable baby fluff. It might take him one to two months to really get rid of it. Then he’ll be nice and sleek and streamlined,” Early said.

But she expects Pesto will remain recognisable as the sought-after TikTok celebrity he has become for another two weeks.

For now, he’s a star attraction.

“Such a small head for such a big body,” one admirer remarked on Friday as a crowd gathered against the glass of the penguin enclosure at feeding time.

Hatching on January 31, Pesto was the only king penguin chick to hatch at the aquarium this year and the first since 2022, a year when there were six. The reason why there was none last year isn’t clear.

Adult king penguins weigh between 9.5kg and 18kg, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a global environmental group.

They are the world’s second largest penguin species, after the emperor penguin.

Seal marks 50th birthday, may be the oldest in captivity

World

September 22, 2024

Sheba the seal at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, south west England. PHOTO: AP

LONDON (AP) – As gray seals go, Sheba is grayer than most.

The grand dame of the Cornish Seal Sanctuary was celebrated yesterday for her 50th birthday, far surpassing the lifespan of a seal in the wild and possibly being the oldest in captivity.

“Reaching 50 is a huge milestone, not just for Sheba but for everyone here who has been part of her journey,” said curator Tamara Cooper at the facility in southwest England.

Things weren’t looking bright for the young pup when she was rescued from a Cornwall beach in September 1974.

Ken Jones found Sheba with a head injury and nasty eye infection and took her home where he and his wife, Mary, rehabilitated seals in a pool.

As Sheba grew up, so did the rescue operation, moving from Jones’ backyard to the Helford River in the village of Gweek and expanding to rehabilitate over 70 seal pups a year.

Sheba’s condition, including loss of vision, prevented her return to the sea and she’s now outlasted all of the other creatures who have come and gone, making her a favourite fixture at the facility.

Sheba’s longevity is attributed to the care she’s received and advances in veterinary medicine.

Seals typically survive 25 to 30 years in the wild, Cooper said. Females in captivity can live to 40 while males live to about 30.

While Sheba’s well-known and well-liked by the public and her handlers, she’s not the most cooperative creature.

When she was raised by Jones, his focus was on rescue, rehabilitation and release, said Heather Green, an animal care specialist. There was no training for the animals that stayed behind until more recent years.

She has been reluctant to learn new tricks, such as being rolled over for inspections of her belly, flippers, tails and teeth. When it comes to receiving drops for her milky eyes, she does well some days while on others she waddles her mottled-fur frame away and splashes back into the pool.

“She’s a bit stubborn,” Green said. “She’d been so used to just being fed and not having to work for her fish that even now she still protests slightly. If we ask her to do any behaviour or something, it’s all on her own sweet time and she’ll definitely let you know if she’s up for training or not.”

The public was invited to her so-called seal-abration, where she was presented with a specially made ice caked topped with the number 50 and mackerel and herring.

Sydney’s northern beaches under bushfire emergency

World

September 22, 2024

XINHUA – An emergency warning was issued for an out-of-control bushfire on Sydney’s northern beaches yesterday as firefighters and water bombing aircraft were working in the area to slow the spread of the fire.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) of the Australian state of New South Wales issued the warning for the Cromer Heights area, north of Sydney, due to a large bushfire.

Residents of Cromer Heights were warned to seek whatever protection they can find after the bushfire near Oxford Falls swept east, fanned by high winds.

The RFS upgraded the warning to emergency level, the highest.It advised residents in the area to seek shelter as the fire approaches in a solid structure such as a house, saying “It is too late to leave.”

Footage and photographs of the blaze showed an enormous cloud of smoke over the area and an orange glow in the sky from a local retirement community.

Voting ends in Sri Lanka to choose a president

World

September 22, 2024

People wait in a queue to cast their votes at a polling centre during the presidential election on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka. PHOTO: AP

COLOMBO (AP) – Voting ended yesterday in Sri Lanka’s presidential election as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval.

The election, contested by 38 candidates, is largely a three-way race among incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

There are 17 million eligible voters, and final results are expected today.

The results will show whether Sri Lankans approve of Wickremesinghe’s leadership over the country’s fragile recovery, including restructuring its debt under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme after it defaulted in 2022.

The government announced on Thursday that it passed the final hurdle in debt restructuring by reaching an agreement in principle with private bond holders.

Sri Lanka’s local and foreign debt totalled USD83 billion at the time it defaulted, and the government says it has now restructured more than USD17 billion. Despite a significant improvement in key economic figures, Sri Lankans are struggling under high taxes and living costs.

Both Premadasa and Dissanayake said they will renegotiate the IMF deal to make austerity measures more bearable. Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly USD3 billion in assistance pledged by the IMF that’s crucial to maintaining stability.

Most Sri Lankans are voting with the economy in mind, hoping a new government takes the country completely out of the crisis and ends the long-entrenched corruption in the system.

South Korea arrests trainee doctor over ‘blacklist’

World

September 22, 2024

File photo of senior doctors on strike in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: AP

SEOUL (AFP) – A South Korean doctor has been arrested for allegedly creating and distributing a “blacklist of colleagues who are not participating in an ongoing walkout over medical training reforms, media reports and a doctors’ organisation said yesterday.

The case marks the first arrest of a trainee doctor in more than six months of conflict between the government and junior medical practitioners over the prolonged work stoppage, which has resulted in the deaths of some emergency patients.

The medic was arrested on Friday for allegedly creating a list with the names and personal information of colleagues who had either returned to work or otherwise abandoned the walkout, then repeatedly distributing it with malicious intent through applications like Telegram, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The head of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), South Korea’s leading doctors’ body, met with the detained trainee at a police station in Seoul yesterday, saying afterwards that the government was to blame for the situation.

“I believe that everyone on the blacklist, as well as the arrested trainee doctor, is a victim,” KMA chief Lim Hyun-taek told reporters.

The trainee was being detained on stalking charges, as authorities determined he had harassed the victims by sharing their information – such as phone numbers and their alma maters – without their consent, according to Yonhap and other local reports.

US soldier who entered North Korea pleads guilty to desertion

World

September 22, 2024

A man walks past a television showing a news broadcast featuring a photo of United States soldier Travis King. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A United States (US) soldier who crossed into North Korea last year pleaded guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement on Friday and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said.

Because of good behaviour and time served, the soldier was released, according to the lawyer.

Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North in July 2023 while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, and prior incidents.

But he pleaded guilty to just five – desertion, assault on a non-commissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying an officer – as part of a deal that was accepted on Friday by a military judge.

“The judge, under the terms of the plea deal, sentenced Travis to one year of confinement, reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonourable discharge,” a statement from King’s attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said.

“With time already served and credit for good behaviour, Travis is now free and will return home,” the statement said.

“Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments, and struggles with mental health,” Rosenblatt said.

“All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military.”

In a statement, the US Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel confirmed King’s guilty plea as part of a deal and said that “pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed”.

“The outcome of today’s court martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Private King,” prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement.

At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea, and after a fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings.

Instead of doing so, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ sightseeing trip and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North’s authorities.

Borneo Bulletin OnlineThe Independent Newspaper in Brunei Darussalam, Sabah and Sarawak

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