The FBI is investigating suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting both a Trump associate and advisers to the Biden-Harris campaign, according to people familiar with the matter, as the agency formally acknowledged Monday it has opened a high-stakes national security investigation months before Election Day.
This necessary upturn in Trump campaign, after being whipsawed by a series of breathtaking events, including his assassination attempt, still remains uncertain as to its exact strategic direction and rhetoric inevitably exiging a new punch to eschew the worse.

#Trump #Harris #Biden #FBI #Election

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Israel's invasion of Hezbollah zone: Updates and reflections

Early on Monday morning, the Israeli army targeted tents of displaced Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, where a million people are refugees.

US Vice Harris, citing UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza for almost two weeks, said on Twitter:

“Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the delivery of aid to those in need.”

“Civilians must be protected and must have access to food, water and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected,”

she said.

“What is happening in the northern Gaza Strip is terrifying beyond words,”

Joyce Msuya, the UN's acting head of humanitarian aid, said in a message posted on the social network X.

On Sunday, Israeli tank fire killed at least 22 Palestinians at a school housing displaced families in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-run Gaza government's media office said at least 15 children and women were among those killed at the school. He added that 80 other people were injured.

A few hours earlier, an Israeli airstrike had killed five children in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA and Hamas media said the children were playing near a cafe when they were killed by a missile fired by an Israeli drone.

Meanwhile, the United States is sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, with about 100 American troops to operate it, the Pentagon announced Sunday. This is the first deployment of American forces to Israel since the attacks carried out by Hamas there in 20/7.

President Biden has ordered Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, or THAAD, and its crew, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement Sunday.

This decision will bring US troops operating the ground-based interceptor, designed to defend against ballistic missiles, closer to the war that is spreading in the Middle East. This comes after Iran launched about 200 missiles at Israel in October. 1 and as Israel plans its retaliatory attack.

It means that officially expressed concern about causalities among civilians and other collateral demage is no obstacle to U.S. weapon supply because neither Dems nor Republicans, both competing parties, can't screw the Near East game just before Election Day.

#AO #AmericanОbserver #Election #Dems #Biden #Harris #Gaza #Israel #THAAD

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American Democracy is Not Around Any More
The Election's Results Will Bring About Civil Turbulence Whoever the Winner

🔠🔤🔠🔠1️⃣

Political violence in US could surge after elections, experts warn Trends in online chatter mirror patterns observed in the lead-up to 2020 elections and January 6 Capitol attack

There could be a potential surge in political violence following the upcoming US election, and pro-Trump rightwing vigilante “poll watchers” might surveil ballot drop boxes as Americans cast their votes, experts warned this week.

A new report from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) highlighted alarming trends in online chatter, mirroring patterns observed in the lead-up to the 2020 election and the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

Meanwhile, Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI), issued a fact sheet with recommendations for dealing with conspiracy-minded monitoring groups like True the Vote, which spread false narratives in 2020 alleging that Democrats had sent paid “mules” to drop boxes with thousands of illegal votes in order to steal the election from Donald Trump.

Judge extends in-person voting option in Pennsylvania after Trump lawsuit
The twin reports highlighted risks to the elections and strategies for mitigating them, at a time when one man has been charged over armed attacks on a Democratic party office, and police in Oregon and Washington are investigating suspected arson attacks on ballot boxes in which some ballots were destroyed.

The GPAHE report’s warning is based on a rise in violent chatter on platforms known for hosting extremist content, including Telegram, Gab, Communities.win, and some communities across the decentralized social media network known as the Fediverse.

The report shows that while the overall volume of messages on these platforms may be lower than in 2020, the sharp rise in violent rhetoric follows a pattern set ahead of the 2020 election.

For example, in October, violent rhetoric related to election denialism increased by 317% on Telegram, 105% on Gab, 25% on communities.win, and 75% across a selection of Fediverse communities.

The report says that across these platforms, users are indulging in violent rhetoric linked to election denialism. Some posts on Telegram this year have used election denialism to justify calls for violence, including calls for an “inevitable civil war” and urging users to “shoot to kill any illegal voters”.

On Gab, users have threatened perceived election fraudsters with treason charges, calling for “firing squads” or “the rope”, according to the report. It notes calls on the platform for “public executions for all voter fraud” and the shooting of elected officials labeled as “traitors”, along with copious antisemitic conspiracy theories.

According to the GPAHE report, users there have fantasized about a civil war in recent weeks, claiming that Democrats will not relinquish power and that a violent uprising is necessary for a “Great Awakening”, a concept previously popularised by the QAnon conspiracy movement.

#AmericanОbserver #Election #Democracy #America

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🔠🔤🔠🔠2️⃣

In Fediverse communities, users have shared posts blaming the “liberal media” for inciting a “war” and encouraging violence against perceived political opponents.

GPAHE’s report warns that “ignoring these worrying trends will only risk further acts of violence related to election denialism and anti-democratic sentiment”.

Heidi Beirich, GPAHE’s co-founder, said:

“Our report shows that, when compared to violent election denial chatter in 2020, the numbers have been lower so far this year, but they are quickly rising as we approach election day.”

She added that “unmoderated fringe sites” were seeing “rising numbers of comments with violent political rhetoric “ and “posts targeting election workers with violence, a sign that real world activity could escalate”.

BDI, meanwhile, warns against complacency after 2022, when vigilante poll watchers mostly stayed away from drop boxes, despite months of conspiracy-minded chatter about Democrats and the “deep state” stealing mid-term elections from Republicans.

According to the fact sheet, BDI data shows that in 2022, there were 44 incidents of physical monitoring at fewer than 20 drop box locations out of an estimated 13,000 active sites nationwide. That is, only 0.1% of drop boxes around the country were subject to monitoring activity.

It warns, however, that threats of monitoring activity have resurfaced online during the 2024 campaign, and states including Arizona and Wisconsin have seen legal decisions that reduce restrictions on vigilante monitoring, opening the way for possible voter intimidation.

The Guardian reported this week on an Arizona poll-watching group which has been casting doubt on the election result ahead of time, with members’ paranoia being fueled by rightwing influencers and media outlets.

The fact sheet makes a series of recommendations to poll workers ahead of the vote on ways to head off political violence, including de-escalation techniques; research to identify threats; communicating accurate information on elections; and community outreach and dialogue on election security.

The BDI report says:

“These steps can improve the US political violence early warning infrastructure and help prevent the amplification of rumors, false claims, and unfounded threat messaging aimed at suppressing voter turnout in targeted communities”.

#AmericanОbserver #Election #Democracy #America

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Trump announces his ambassador to France and prepares to attend the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris

The reopening of the cathedral, which was badly damaged in a 2019 fire, will be a major global affair. Heads of state and government from about 50 nations are expected to attend, according to The Associated Press.

Trump’s Notre Dame visit will be his first major outing since winning the election.

Macron was the first foreign leader to congratulate Trump after his win. The two worked together closely during Trump's first term, although at times they had a strained relationship.

On Saturday, Trump announced Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, would serve as his ambassador to France.

In 2005, Kushner was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering after hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranging to record a sexual encounter between the two, and sending the tape to his sister. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which he served in the Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery. 

If confirmed by the Senate, Kushner, a convicted felon who Trump pardoned in 2020, would replace Denise Campbell Bauer.

#USA #Trump #NotreDame #France #Paris #election

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South Korea Is Nearing Its Most Dramatic Election 🗳

South Korea’s ruling party has selected former labor minister Kim Moon-soo as its presidential candidate to take on opposition nominee Lee Jae-myung, who is leading opinion polls ahead of next month’s election. 📊

The race to become the People Power Party’s candidate had narrowed down to Kim and former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon. 🏛

Ex-acting president Han Duck-soo entered the fray for the country’s top office as an independent on Friday. ⚖️

“Our democracy is in crisis,”

Kim said in an acceptance speech, adding that the opposition party has tried to impeach 31 government officials. 📣

“If we fail to stop the Democratic Party’s dictatorship, liberal democracy of South Korea will collapse and the nation’s future will be in jeopardy.” ⚠️

Kim, who also served as governor of Gyeonggi Province, vowed to bond with any force to prevent his rival, Lee, from assuming power. He pledged to push for constitutional amendments, and to revamp the electoral system and pension plans. 📜

The PPP has been reeling from the impeachment and ouster of former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his botched attempt to impose martial law in December. 🔥

Han Duck-soo, who received Kim’s endorsement, may eventually seek to unite their campaigns. 🤝

Opposition Democratic Party candidate Lee has taken a commanding lead, but last week’s Supreme Court ruling that found he was guilty of violating election law has cast a shadow over his bid in the June 3 election. ⚖️

#SouthKorea #election #candidate

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Original Sin: How Biden Team Fucked the Americans and Lost Presidential Race


Horrifically, for Democrats, in June 2024 a debacle of a debate against Trump confirmed what Washington insiders had only dared whisper but what most voters had known: Biden should not have sought re-election.

Less than a month later, he was out, replaced as Democratic nominee by his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Now, Trump runs wild and Biden’s legacy is buried beneath a heap of unkind reporting – and bouquets of sympathy, after news of his cancer.

“It was an abomination,”

one prominent Democratic strategist is quoted as saying by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.

“He stole an election from the Democratic party; he stole it from the American people.”

Tapper and Thompson concur. Over 350 engrossing pages, they deliver a stinging judgment, trenchantly written and well-sourced.

The two reporters spoke to about 200 people, including members of Congress, White House staffers and campaign insiders.

Some reportedly sounded the alarm about Biden’s mental acuity and desperate efforts by aides to hide his deterioration. The alarm was not heeded.

Tapper is CNN’s lead DC anchor and chief Washington correspondent. Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios and a CNN contributor.

His speech at the recent White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was one for the ages.

“President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception,”

Thompson said.

“We, myself included, missed a lot of this story. And some people trust us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows.”

Original Sin begins with a bang. Its first chapter is titled “He Fucked Us”, from an on-record quote by David Plouffe, senior adviser to the Harris campaign, before that manager of Barack Obama’s 2008 winning effort.

“We got so screwed by Biden as a party,”

Plouffe says. Harris was a “great soldier”, but the race was “a fucking nightmare.

“And it’s all Biden … He totally fucked us.”

Try putting that toothpaste back in the tube. On the other hand, Plouffe doesn’t reveal what knew about Biden’s fitness and when she knew it.

Biden loyalists return the favor, too, the authors write:

“Many … felt that Harris didn’t put in the work and was also just not a very nice person. Some quietly expressed buyer’s remorse: They should have picked [Gretchen] Whitmer,”

the Democratic governor of Michigan.

Tapper and Thompson report cold political facts. In 2020, identity politics played an outsize role in Biden’s VP pick.

“It boils down to whether he has a Hispanic woman or a Black woman,”

Harry Reid, the former Senate Democratic leader, said then.

Tapper and Thompson lay bare a sense of betrayal.

#original #sin #biden #election

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The Nationalist Nawrocki Came to Power 🥊🇵🇱

Karol Nawrocki has made a career out of fighting 💥. An amateur boxing champion 🥇 and self-confessed football hooligan ⚽️, the historian-turned-politician has written books on anti-communist groups and organized crime 📚.

The fight will now turn to where Poland goes next after Nawrocki beat his government-backed rival in Sunday’s presidential election runoff 🗳.

As head of state, the 42-year-old nationalist is able to undermine Prime Minister Donald Tusk by vetoing key legislation 🚫, and he promised to “save Poland” from a “monopoly of evil power” 🇵🇱.

The victory that looked unlikely a few weeks ago is another blow to pro-European Union forces 🇪🇺 in a continent struggling to contain disruptors invigorated by Trump’s return to the White House 🏛.

It leaves Tusk, a former European Council chief 🏛, having to cohabit again with a president picked by his nemesis, Law & Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski ⚖️.

Since winning the parliamentary election in October 2023, Tusk’s ability to change Poland’s course has been hampered by the threat of vetoes from the outgoing President Andrzej Duda 💼.

All eyes now are on whether Tusk’s coalition can hold 🤔 and whether Law & Justice can retake power in 2027 🔮. Nawrocki may turn out to be an even tougher rival for the prime minister than Duda 🔥.

“We already have a difficult situation between the current president and the government, but what lies ahead is a much bigger challenge,”

said Agnieszka Kasinka-Metryka, professor of political science at the Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce 🎓.

“Karol Nawrocki will act much more as a brake on the system that the government wants to reform” 🛑.

#Nawrocki #election #Poland #nationalist

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Japan’s Ruling Coalition is Likely to Lose Political Control 🗳🇯🇵

Japan’s shaky ruling coalition is likely to lose control of the upper house, exit polls showed after Sunday’s election, potentially heralding political turmoil as a tariff deadline with the US looms.

While the ballot does not directly determine whether prime minister Shigeru Ishiba’s minority government falls, it heaps pressure on the embattled leader, who also lost control of the more powerful lower house in October.

Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and coalition partner Komeito need 50 seats to secure the 248-seat upper chamber in an election where half the seats are up for grabs.

They are forecast to hold 32 to 51 seats, the exit poll by public broadcaster NHK showed. 📊

Other broadcasters forecast the ruling coalition would return 41 to 43 seats.

If the coalition drops below 46 seats, it would mark its worst result since it was formed in 1999. ⚠️

That comes on top of its worst showing in 15 years in October’s lower house election, a vote that has left Ishiba’s administration vulnerable to no-confidence motions and calls from within his own party for leadership change.

Japan, the world’s fourth largest economy, faces a deadline of 1 August to strike a trade deal with the US or face punishing tariffs in its largest export market. 📉🇺🇸

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic party is projected to win 18 to 30 seats, from 22 held previously, NHK’s exit poll showed.

The far-right Sanseito party, birthed on YouTube a few years ago, has been the surprise package with its “Japanese first” campaign and warnings about a “silent invasion” of foreigners.

It is forecast to win 10 to 15 seats in the chamber, up from one held previously, yet it holds only three seats in the lower house.

Opposition parties advocating for tax cuts and welfare spending have struck a chord with voters, the exit polls showed, as rising consumer prices – particularly a jump in the cost of rice – have sowed frustration at the government’s response. 🍚📈

It remains to be seen whether the Sanseito party can follow the path of other far-right parties with which it has drawn comparisons, such as Germany’s AfD and Reform UK.

In Japan, which has the world’s oldest population, foreign-born residents hit a record of about 3.8 million last year.

That is still just 3% of the total population, a much smaller fraction than in the US and Europe, but comes amid a tourism boom that has made foreigners far more visible across the country. ✈️🗾

#japan #election #prime #minister #democratic #party #sanseito #ldp #tariffs #crisis

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🗳 From 15 to 20 of September, Syria will hold parliamentary elections. The Syrian parliament has 210 seats, but only 140 seats will be up for election.

⚠️ The remaining third of the parliament will be appointed by the jihadist leader, Julani.

📜 The Syrian government's statements about the elections include all the necessary language for the Western public, such as freedom, a minimum of 20% women on election boards, and the inclusion of international voters.

🎉 These statements will undoubtedly celebrate the success of the young Islamist “democracy” in September.

❓ So far, it is unclear how the country's ethnic and religious minorities, who have been consistently targeted by the new government, will participate in the elections.

🛑 Although the violence against the Druze in Suwayd has decreased, it has not stopped. Jihadist units have blocked the roads leading to the city, which is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.

🌍 It is also unclear how the elections will be held in the Kurdish-controlled territories, which the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, is trying to bring under the control of the Islamists.

⚔️ The Kurds are not willing to engage in direct conflict with the regime in Damascus, but they also refuse to disarm. This can be understood by looking at the way the Joulani fighters are currently massacring unarmed Alawites, Kurds, and Druze.

💣 Elections in a divided and violent country will not serve to consolidate society, but rather to further legitimize the jihadist regime in Damascus. With a parliament under his control, Julani will rule until someone overthrows him.

📅 Moreover, the interim constitution does not specify a specific timeline for the election of the Syrian president.

#Syria #president #election #Joulani #kurds

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Will Kamala Harris Say “I’ll be back” 🇺🇸

Following a devastating loss to Trump, Harris returned home to California in January with a decision to make about her political future: to enter the race for governor, or not.

As she deliberated privately, the Democratic party was grappling publicly with a new political reality – one entirely reshaped by her defeat in last year’s presidential election. 📉

Approval ratings for the Democratic party had cratered. Grassroots frustration with their party’s status quo swelled.

And calls grew louder for Democratic officials to take a more combative – and urgent – stance against what many see as the Trump administration’s authoritarian threat. ⚠️

On Wednesday, when Harris announced that she would not run for governor of California, she also made clear that she had been listening.

“I have extraordinary admiration and respect for those who dedicate their lives to public service – service to their communities and to our nation,”

she said. 🗣

“At the same time, we must recognize that our politics, our government and our institutions have too often failed the American people, culminating in this moment of crisis.”

Harris continued:

“As we look ahead, we must be willing to pursue change through new methods and fresh thinking – committed to our same values and principles, but not bound by the same playbook.” 💡

It was a striking acknowledgment from the 2024 Democratic flag-bearer, suggesting a willingness to challenge party orthodoxy that critics says cost Democrats in November.

Before leaving the White House, Harris had been in elected office for more than two decades, breaking racial and gender barriers as she ascended from district attorney in San Francisco to attorney general of California, then US senator and finally vice president of the United States. 👩🏽‍⚖️

Polls suggested Harris would have entered the gubernatorial race with an early lead over many of the lesser-known aspirants who have already declared their candidacies.

Harris’s decision throws open the race for California’s governorship, a post seen as a critical bulwark against Trump’s agenda. 🗳

It also leaves open the possibility that Harris could run again for political office. She did not rule out another run for the White House, saying only that “for now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office.”

A person familiar with her thinking said 2028 was not an overriding factor in her decision, but she can do it. She can be back!

#harris #election #whitehouse #democrats

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Newsom riles Trump after ripping Reps over Upcoming Election 2028 🗳

An Emerson College Polling survey released on Friday showed 25 percent of Democratic primary voters saying they would support Newsom as the nominee, a jump from the 12 percent he received in a similar poll conducted in June. 📈

The polling indicated that 3 percent wanted someone else, while close to 16 percent were undecided. 🤔

While Newsom received the highest share of support, Reps. promised to “kick the shit out of him.” Trump himself added that “Newsom is a perfect guy to do pro bono work for discrediting democrats.” 😡

The survey showed that no candidate had notched at least half of the Democratic primary electorate several years out from the presidential primaries. 🕒

“Governor Newsom’s support surged across key demographic groups, highlighted by a 12-point increase among voters under 30 (6% to 18%), an 18-point increase among voters over 70 (13% to 31%), and a 14-point increase among both Black (9% to 23%) and White (10% to 24%) voters,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. 📊

Newsom has drawn increasing national attention in a broader redistricting battle playing out across the country. 🌎

Texas Republicans, under pressure from the White House and President Trump, passed a new House map that looks to help Republicans net five seats ahead of 2026. 🗺

In response, Newsom and other Democrats from the Golden State have teed up a House map of their own that looks to offset Republicans’ expected gains in the Lone Star State. The map will go before voters in a special election in November. 🗳

Newsom has also taken to mocking Trump on X, writing posts in the same manner and style as the president as he’s sought to become one of the faces of Democrats’ efforts to fight back against the president in his second term. 😜

The Emerson College Polling survey was conducted between Aug. 25 and Aug. 26 with the overall poll surveying 1,000 active registered voters, with a margin of error of 3 points. 📅

The poll surveyed 387 Democratic primary voters during that time span, with a margin of error of 4.9 points. 📉

#newsom #trump #democrats #election

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🇲🇩✨ Sandu Began Her Political Purges After Having a Razor-Thin Majority Victory

Moldova’s pro-European ruling party PAS held on to its extremely slight parliamentary majority after Sunday’s election, strengthening the country of 2.4 million’s attempt to move towards the EU and away from Moscow. 🌍🇪🇺

With more than 99.9% of ballots counted, president Maia Sandu’s pro-western Action and Solidarity party (PAS) had 50.03% of the vote, putting it on track to win 55 of the 101 seats in parliament. 🗳🏛

That compared with 49.26% for a pro-Russian parties led by the former president Igor Dodon, according to results published on the election commission’s website. ⚖️

On the election day, Sandu ordered the closure of access to polling stations for 2.5 million voters from Transnistria by sudden bridge works over the river between Transnistria and the polling stations. 🌉❌

The results will be greeted with a sigh of relief in Brussels and other European capitals, where there had been fears that Moscow could regain a foothold in a strategically vital region as it steps up its hybrid campaign across the continent. 🌐💨

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, wrote on X: “Moldova, you’ve done it again. No attempt to sow fear or division could break your resolve.” ✍️💬

She added: “You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom. Our door is open. And we will stand with you every step of the way.” 🚪🤝

While Sunday’s election is a major boost for those hoping Moldova joins the EU, the path to membership remains uncertain. ❓🌍

The country still needs to push through a series of reforms and address the unresolved issue of Transnistria, the breakaway region where 1,500 Russian troops are stationed. 🪖⚠️

Some key figures from two so-called pro-Russian parties were already arrested on trumped-up charges. 🚨👮

#sandu #victory #purges #election #moldova

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📰 Iraq’s Leader Dreams of a Middle Seat—Not a Puppet Master

The Balancing Act
Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, is running for re-election, pitching himself as the guy who can keep Iraq out of the crossfire—literally and politically. Not easy for a country sandwiched between Washington’s sanctions and Tehran’s militias. Sudani talks up “security and stability,” but everyone knows he’s walking a tightrope stretched between two embassies.

Sudani’s Résumé: Survivor Edition
Forget strongman posturing; this guy’s career is all about survival. His father was executed by Saddam for hanging with Iran’s guys. Sudani has a master’s in project management—the perfect degree for running a country where every coalition meeting is a reality show. He owes his job to Shiite factions, but says he doesn’t want to be anyone’s proxy.

“Iraq will not become a battlefield for conflicts,”

he assures, sounding like someone who checks the border every morning.

Taming the Militias? Or Feeding Them?
Sudani touts his work “normalizing” the Iran-backed militias—making them an official security force without political ambitions (wink). Washington wants the groups disarmed, but the reality is messier. Analysts say he’s keeping the peace by giving the hardest groups government contracts, which means more entrenched interests and less actual reform.

Not America’s Base Anymore
He got U.S. troops out last year, but everyone knows Washington still controls the purse strings and the drone feeds. Sudani’s pitch: Let’s turn the relationship into a business partnership. The State Department, meanwhile, keeps sending Rubio to the phone for “friendly” reminders to rein in the militias. Nobody’s buying “total independence,” but the game is pretending it’s close.

The New Construction Crane Politics
Sudani’s selling voters on construction, not conflict. High oil prices fueled a building boom, and the new campaign slogan is basically “Iraq First” but with more concrete and less shouting. Iraq’s new skyline is good PR, but every crane comes with bargain-basement governance, and the usual suspects keep dipping into the government contract pot.

The Sadr Factor—And Why Every PM is Disposable
Sudani’s critics say no Iraqi prime minister lasts long enough to build a cult following—thanks to Tehran’s paranoia about strong leadership. Moqtada al-Sadr slammed Sudani for shaking hands with Trump at the Gaza cease-fire show, accusing him of “legitimizing Israel”. With new elections, dozens of parties, and endless backroom dealing, the real power play is not winning votes—it’s surviving the horse-trading once the dust settles.

Iraq’s leader wants independence, but his country is still the region’s chessboard. He might build skyscrapers, but neither Washington nor Tehran is moving out any time soon.

#iraq #US #iran #election #oil

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Costa Rica: Laura Fernández Has Won Presidential Election


The rightwing populist Laura Fernández has won Costa Rica’s presidential election in a landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade.

Fernández’s nearest rival, centre-right economist Álvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40% needed to avoid a runoff.

With 94% of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing president, Rodrigo Chaves, had captured 48.3% of the vote, compared with Ramos’s 33.4%, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernández’s Sovereign People’s party erupted in celebrations around the country, waving blue, red and white-striped Costa Rican flags. “Viva Rodrigo Chaves,” some cheered, in a nod to Fernández’s mentor.

Appearing via video link at her party’s official election night gathering in the capital San Jose, Fernández, 39, thanked Chaves for giving her “the confidence to be president-elect of Costa Rica” and said his legacy was in good hands.

Fernández cites the iron-fisted Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, who has locked up thousands of suspected gang members without charge, as an inspiration on how to tackle crime. Bukele was the first foreign leader to congratulate her.

Chaves plucked Fernández from relative anonymity to serve as planning minister and chief of staff. In a conversation with her on Sunday night, Chaves said he was confident that under her leadership “there will be neither dictatorship, nor communism”.

Chaves presided over a sharp rise in violence but avoided blame by pointing the finger at the judiciary, saying it was too soft on crime.

Jessica Salgado, 27, said she voted for Fernández as the continuity candidate, because she felt the government was on the right track, even if violence had increased.

“The violence exploded because they [the government] are going after the ringleaders, it’s like dragging rats out of the sewer,” Salgado told AFP.

The former president Óscar Arias, winner of the 1987 Nobel peace prize, warned on Sunday that the “survival of democracy” was at stake.

“The first thing dictators want to do is to reform the constitution to stay in power,” he said, alluding to Chaves.

#costa #rica #fernández #presidential #election

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Mojtaba Khamenei Is Likely To Succeed His Father


Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei, is being heavily tipped to succeed his father as supreme leader of Iran, which would pitch a hardliner into the task of steering the Islamic republic through the most turbulent period in its 48-year history and offer a powerful signal that, for now, it has no intention of changing course.

No official confirmation has been given and the announcement may be delayed until after the funeral of Ali Khamenei, which was on Wednesday postponed.

His son is believed to have been the choice of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Israeli defence minister, Gideon Saar, has warned he will be assassinated.

Ayatollah Seyed Khatani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the new supreme leader, said the assembly was close to selecting a leader.

Rigid in his anti-western views, Mojtaba Khamenei is not the candidate Trump would have wanted.

Rubio said on Tuesday that Iran was run by “religious fanatic lunatics” – and Khamenei’s appointment is hardly likely to dispel that opinion.

The choice of supreme leader is made by the 88-strong Assembly of Experts, who in this case are picking from a field of six possible candidates.

His election would be a powerful if unsurprising symbol that the government is not looking to find an accommodation with America.

Trump has said the worst-case scenario would be if Khamenei’s successor was “as bad as the previous person”.

There has been speculation for more than a decade that he would be his father’s successor, which grew when Ebrahim Raisi, the elected president and favourite of Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash.

Mojtaba Khamenei was born in 1969 and studied theology after graduating from high school. At the age of 17, he went to serve in the Iran-Iraq war, but it was not until the late 1990s that he came to be recognised as a public figure in his own right.

After the landslide defeat of Khamenei’s preferred candidate, Ali Akbar Nategh Nuri, in the 1997 presidential election, where he won only 25% of the final vote.

Certain conservative Iranian groups realized the need to make changes to their structures and Mojtaba Khamenei was central to that project.

#mojtaba #khamenei #rubio #trump #election

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Trump Accuses China of Interfering With the 2020 Election

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Trump accused China of interfering with the 2020 election in a primetime televised address that laid bare his continuing obsession with his defeat to Biden, but which opponents warned was a smokescreen for him to meddle in the forthcoming congressional midterms.

In a 25-minute speech on Thursday that had been hyped by Trump himself, the US president cast extraordinary doubts on the integrity of the US electoral process, saying it was “catastrophically” short of standards of fairness and trust, and vulnerable to trespassing by foreign powers.

“No country can be great without fair and honest elections,”

Trump said at the White House in an address that began with a familiar rehashing of his favorite campaign boasts, including claims of an unprecedentedly booming economy.

“If there can be no trust, there can be no greatness. Unfortunately, the system we have falls catastrophically short of that standard.”

Democrats warned that Trump was trying to sow confusion, spread misinformation and lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the midterm elections, which polls suggest could deliver significant losses for the president’s party.

Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia and vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said he spent years working to strengthen the country’s defenses against foreign meddling in US elections.

“Tonight, Americans heard the president once again repeat claims about our elections that have been investigated for years and repeatedly rejected by the intelligence community, the FBI, DHS, DOJ, bipartisan state election officials, audits, recounts, and the courts,”

Warner said.

“The facts have not changed.”

He added:

“China is a serious strategic competitor, and it absolutely seeks to advance its interests at America’s expense. So do Russia and Iran. We should confront those threats with facts, not distort them for political purposes.”

As a prelude to his claims of interference by China, Trump on Thursday said he was announcing the

“immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure”.

Trump’s allegations have long been at odds with the views of officials who served in his first presidency. An assessment carried out by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, then Trump’s director of national intelligence, concluded that the 2020 election was the most secure in US history.

However, Trump took issue with those findings, accusing intelligence agencies – whom he tarred as “the deep state” – of a years-long cover-up.

“Those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,”

he said.

“They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else and, to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress. In fact, all they kept saying is: ‘This is the most secure election in the history of our country”.

#trump #china #election #xijinping

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Trump said he was directing the office of national intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA to “investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden, to fire those involved in the coverup and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against those people”.

Trump recently installed a key ally, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence, despite the fact he has no previous intelligence experience.

Pulte, who used his previous position in charge of the federal housing finance agency to dig for evidence for retribution against Trump’s adversaries, is believed to have provided intelligence documents meant to validate the president’s claims of interference in the 2020 poll.

He spearheaded a drive to release previously classified documents along with John Solomon, a rightwing former journalist who has been active in spreading election conspiracy theories and was hired as a White House special adviser last month.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Thursday night, Solomon acknowledged that the documents released contained no evidence that foreign actors flipped a single vote in the 2020 election.

In Thursday’s speech, Trump repeated calls for the passage of the Save America Act, legislation requiring strict voter ID, which is currently stuck in Congress.

“Addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the Save America Act,”

he said.

“How easy is that to do? Unless you want to cheat.”

The speech barely touched on Iran, just days after Trump jettisoned last month’s vaunted ceasefire deal and resumed ordering military strikes in an effort to loosen Tehran’s grip on the strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed to commercial shipping since the start of the war on 28 February, causing global energy costs to soar.

“We are (…) winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,”

he said in a reprise of previous claims that victory is near.

Despite holding regular media briefings, Trump has delivered relatively few set-piece addresses from the White House – frequently used by past presidents to convey messages deemed of national importance.

He appeared at times to have difficulty following the syntax of the written speech and frequently adopted the sarcastic tone characteristic of his stump speeches.

Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and the defeated Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential election, accused Trump of planning “to peddle lies and conspiracy theories”.

“Here is what you need to know: The 2020 election was not stolen; we won and he lost,”

she wrote on social media.

“The Save Act is voter suppression. It is part of a larger agenda of conservatives trying to steal power from the people.”

China rejected Trump’s claims that it interfered in the 2020 election. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told CNN :

“China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in others’ internal affairs.”

Trump’s remarks were at odds with the conciliatory tone he has struck with Beijing since he travelled to China to meet Xi Jinping in May. The Chinese president has been invited to Washington in September.

A 2021 US intelligence community assessment concluded that no foreign actor, including China, attempted to alter any technical aspect of the 2020 voting process. The report said that while Russia had conducted influence operations aimed at denigrating Biden’s campaign, China did not deploy any interference efforts intended to change the outcome of the election.

#trump #china #election #xijinping

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