Monday 23, Sep 2024 {HMC}  Former President Donald Trump has said he does not expect to run for election again in 2028 if he is defeated in this November’s US presidential poll.

Trump, 78, has been the Republican candidate for three national elections in a row and has reshaped the party greatly over the last eight years.

In an interview with Sinclair Media Group, he was asked if he could foresee another run in the event that he loses to Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris. “No, I don’t. I think… that will be it,” Trump said. “I don’t see that at all.”

But he added that “hopefully, we’re going to be very successful”.

US law bars presidents from serving more than two terms, and so Trump is not expected to run in 2028 if he wins, either.

In the past, the real estate mogul has rarely acknowledged the possibility of losing the election, more often firing up supporters with speeches and social media posts pledging victory at the polls.

But this is the second time in four days he has mentioned a chance of defeat.

During an event held by the Israeli-American Council on Thursday, he brought up losing, and suggested that any such loss would partly be the fault of Jewish voters.

“Do they know what the hell is happening if I don’t win this election?” he said, according to various media reports. “And the Jewish people would have to do a lot with that if that happens because at 40% [support] that means 60% of the people are voting for the enemy.”

The comments were condemned by the Harris campaign and by the nonpartisan American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League.

Trump’s acknowledgments of a possible loss may reflect how the Democratic Party’s prospects have changed since Harris became its nominee following President Joe Biden’s decision to quit the race.

Her campaign raised more than $190m (£142m) in August, compared to $130m brought in by the Trump campaign and affiliated organisations.

In national polling averages tracked by the BBC she is ahead of Trump, and a poll released on Sunday by CBS indicated she leads Trump 52% to 48% nationally.

In key US battleground states which look set to prove decisive to the overall result, Harris has a narrower lead of 51% to 49%, which is a slight improvement from the even 50% in a similar poll conducted last month by CBS, the BBC’s news partner.

Another poll released on Sunday by NBC indicated Harris had a five percentage point lead over Trump across the US.

It also found that 48% of registered voters see her positively compared to 32% in July – the largest jump since then-President George W Bush’s favourability surged after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

But like other surveys, the NBC poll suggested Trump held a clear advantage with voters on some of the election’s biggest issues, including the economy, the cost of living and immigration.

The BBC has contacted the Trump campaign for comment on the polling data.

SOURCE BBC

Monday 23, Sep 2024 {HMC} Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), has won its first big electoral test since Bola Tinubu became president last year, despite the dire state of the country’s economy.

Monday 23, Sep 2024 {HMC} An Egyptian warship has delivered a second major cache of weaponry to Somalia including anti-aircraft guns and artillery, port and military officials said on Monday, in a move likely to stoke further friction between the two countries and Ethiopia.

Ties between Egypt and Somalia have grown this year over their shared mistrust of Ethiopia, prompting Cairo to send several planeloads of arms to Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, after the countries signed a joint security pact in August.

Ethiopia angered Mogadishu by agreeing a preliminary deal in January with the breakaway region of Somaliland to lease land for a port in exchange for possible recognition of its independence from Somalia.
Egypt, at odds with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the headwaters of the Nile River, has condemned the Somaliland deal.

The Egyptian warship began unloading the weapons on Sunday, one diplomat said. Security forces blocked off the quayside and surrounding roads on Sunday and Monday as convoys carried the weapons to a defence ministry building and nearby military bases, two port workers and two military officials told Reuters.

Nasra Bashir Ali, an official at Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre’s office, posted a photo on her X account of Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur watching as the ship was being unloaded.
Egyptian authorities either declined to comment, or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ethiopia has at least 3,000 soldiers stationed in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission (ATMIS) fighting Islamist insurgents, while an estimated 5,000-7,000 troops are deployed in other regions under a bilateral agreement.

Somalia has called the Somaliland deal an assault on its sovereignty and says it wants all Ethiopia’s troops to leave at the end of the year unless Addis Ababa scraps the agreement.

Egypt has, meanwhile, offered to contribute troops to a new peacekeeping mission in Somalia, the African Union said in July, though Cairo has not commented on the matter publicly.

Ethiopia’s government did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, but has in the past said it cannot stand idle while “other actors” are taking measures to destabilise the region.

Reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly and Ed Osmond.

SOURCE 

By Abdi Sheikh

Monday 23, Sep 2024 {HMC}  Lebanon said Israeli airstrikes Monday killed at least 100 people and injured 400 others, as cross-border fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group raised fears of an all-out war.

Israel’s military said it attacked more than 300 targets, while Lebanon’s state news agency reported heavy strikes across multiple regions in the southern part of the country.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a video message that Israeli forces acted in response to indications that Hezbollah was preparing to fire toward Israeli territory.

Hagari said Hezbollah is storing missiles, drones and other weapons in civilian areas, and he said Israel is advising Lebanese citizens to evacuate areas in which Hezbollah is present.

“We are operating to achieve all of our goals of the war,” Hagari said. “In Gaza, to dismantle Hamas and bring back home all the hostages. And in the north, to repeal the threat posed by Hezbollah and enable the residents from the north of Israel safely to return to their homes.

Hezbollah said it responded with dozens of rockets Monday fired at Israeli military targets in northern Israel.

Israeli air defenses also intercepted a drone early Monday launched by a pro-Iranian militant group in Iraq.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it was targeting an Israeli base.

The surge in fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border during the past week prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a new travel warning urging U.S. citizens to leave Lebanon on commercial flights while they still have the option.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces traded hundreds of missile strikes Sunday, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to do “whatever it takes” to restore safety in northern Israel.

Netanyahu said Israel in recent days had “dealt Hezbollah a series of blows they never imagined,” calling it a “message.”

The back-and-forth attacks included Hezbollah retaliating to an Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah military leaders in Beirut on Friday, while the militants blamed Israel for remotely detonating explosives in pagers and walkie-talkies inside Lebanon, killing at least 32 and injuring thousands.

Hezbollah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem said Hezbollah had started a new phase of its fight against Israel, which he described as an “open-ended battle of reckoning.”

U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week” show that Israel and Hezbollah must restrain themselves to keep the conflict from escalating into an all-out war.

“We believe there are better ways … than opening a second front” along the Israeli-Lebanon border beyond Israel’s nearly year-long fight with Hamas militants in Gaza.

“Nobody is pollyannish about how difficult this will be,” Kirby said, but the warring parties should pull back from continued fighting so this doesn’t become an all-out war.

As the Israeli-Hezbollah warfare mounts, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees pointed to ongoing conflicts in Syria and Yemen, noting that the region is already very fragile.

“An expansion of the conflict may have incalculable consequences,” Filippo Grandi told VOA of the escalation in Lebanon this week.

He said the U.N., particularly its humanitarian agencies, has been making contingency plans for some time should the war spread, but that no one should expect humanitarians “to address all the countless problems, countless challenges, that will emerge from an even greater regional war.”

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the outbreak of the war in Gaza last Oct. 7, when the militant group began firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. The fighting has killed dozens of people in Israel, hundreds in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the frontier.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead. More than 41,400 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, with the Israeli military saying the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.

Hamas has been designated a terror group by the U.S., U.K., EU, and others.

SOURCE VOA

Monday 23, Sep 2024 {HMC} September sees multiple anniversaries of unsolved journalist killings

The IPI global network reiterates its past calls on Somali authorities to end impunity in the country.

The press freedom situation in Somalia remains deeply concerning, as journalists continue to face harassment and threats from both the Somali government and the militant group Al-Shabaab. In addition to verbal and physical threats, journalists in Somalia also face persecution, unlawful arrests, and censorship.

Impunity for attacks on the press remains alarmingly high. In particular, most killings of journalists in Somalia remain unsolved. Even in the few cases where investigations have taken place, accountability is rare, and perpetrators are seldom brought to justice.

According to UNESCO’s Observatory of Killed Journalists 79 journalists have been killed in Somalia since 1993 and out of those 54 remain unsolved.

As we mark the anniversaries of several journalist killings this month, IPI renews our previous call on the authorities to thoroughly and transparently investigate all killings of journalists and hold the perpetrators to account.

Anniversaries of multiple journalist killings in September

Nearly a year ago, in collaboration with the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), IPI raised concerns over the lack of progress in 11 unresolved cases and urged authorities to take stronger measures to protect journalists.

The oldest of these cases dates back to 2016, yet there has been little to no progress. This inquiry to the authorities went unanswered. As yet another year has passed without justice, IPI demands that authorities end impunity in Somalia.

This September sees the anniversaries of several unsolved journalist killings in Somalia, including:

On September 19, 2018, journalist Abdirisak Said Osman of Radio Codka Nabadda was attacked on his way home from work by a group of unidentified assailants. He was stabbed and beaten with sticks, ultimately dying from internal bleeding.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, but Abdirisak had reported a series of stories about insecurity in Galkayo, central Somalia. In these reports, he interviewed locals who expressed concerns about criminal gangs and terrorists, with some identifying the militant group Al-Shabaab as a key source of insecurity in the area.

On September 27, 2016, Abdiasis Mohamed Ali, who hosted the morning news program for Radio Shabelle, was shot dead by two gunmen on motorbikes while traveling in northern Mogadishu. The motive behind his killing remains unknown.

On September 30, 2022, Ahmed Mohamed Shukur, a journalist and camera operator for Somali National Television (SNTV), was killed in an improvised explosive attack while covering a military operation against Al-Shabaab in Basra town, near Mogadishu.

He was on assignment, reporting on a counter-terrorism operation when the incident occurred.

Lack of progress

According to IPI research, there has been no movement in these cases and no one has been held accountable for these crimes. As we underscored in our letter last year, Somalia’s Federal Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. Somalia is also a signatory to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Article 9 of the Charter explicitly protects media freedom.

These commitments obligate the Somali government to ensure press freedom and the safety of journalists, including the investigation of crimes against them and the prosecution of those responsible.

SOURCE

Monday 23, Sep 2024 {HMC} Ethiopia has escalated tensions with Somalia by sending a “shipment of ammunition” to the Puntland region in northern Somalia. Mogadishu condemned the move, calling it a “serious violation” of its sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Egypt has emphasized the need for stability in Somalia and respect for its territorial integrity.

Experts warn that Ethiopia’s actions threaten regional security. Relations between the two countries worsened earlier this year when Addis Ababa signed a deal with the breakaway Somaliland region, allowing it access to the Red Sea for trade and military purposes.
The agreement faced opposition from Egypt and other Arab nations.

Somalia’s foreign ministry condemned the shipment of weapons to Puntland, describing it as an “illegal act” and a “grave violation of sovereignty.”

It urged Ethiopia to respect international law and called on regional and international partners to condemn Ethiopia’s actions and support peace efforts in the region.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty reiterated Cairo’s commitment to Somalia’s stability and sovereignty during talks with US officials in Washington.

He emphasized that Egypt supports Somalia’s central institutions to secure the Bab al-Mandab Strait, combat terrorism, and curb illegal migration.

Abdelatty said Egypt’s backing for Somalia aligns with its role in promoting regional peace and security under UN principles, the African Union’s founding charter, and the Arab League’s charter.

He added that Egypt is helping Somalia build its security and military capabilities.

Egypt and Somalia have recently strengthened their ties. In August, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed a military cooperation agreement in Cairo.
Sisi also announced that Egypt would join the African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia from January.

In late August, Somalia announced the arrival of Egyptian military equipment and personnel in Mogadishu as part of Egypt’s peacekeeping efforts. Ethiopia opposed this, claiming it poses risks to the region and warning it “will not stand idly by.”

SOURCE