Ahead of J-K election results, L-G’s power to nominate 5 MLAs sparks massive row: Here’s all you need to know
NC-Congress leaders have criticised the move, calling it an attempt to undermine democracy
‘They tried to murder everyone’: Haiti reels after deadly gang attack
More than 6,200 people are staying with relatives or in makeshift shelters after massacre in central Haiti town. Survivors of a deadly gang attack in central Haiti last week have described waking up to gunfire and walking for hours in search of safety, as the country continues to grapple in the aftermath of the assault that killed at least 70 people. Dozens of Gran Grif gang members armed with knives and assault rifles killed infants, women, the elderly and entire families in their attack last Thursday on Pont-Sonde, about 100km (62 miles) northwest of Port-au-Prince in the Artibonite region. “They tried to murder everyone,” Jina Joseph, a survivor, told The Associated Press news agency. Jameson Fermilus, who had crouched in a corridor next to his house as smoke and gunfire filled the air, was among thousands of survivors who walked for hours, looking for safety. “We don’t know what we are going to do,” said another resident who joined them, 60-year-old Sonise Morino. “We have nowhere to go.” The massacre has underscored the deadly violence and instability gripping Haiti, where powerful armed groups have carried out attacks and kidnappings across the capital of Port-au-Prince and in other parts of the country. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 6,270 people were displaced in the attack on Pont-Sonde. The vast majority have sought refuge with relatives and friends in nearby communities. Others with nowhere to go have crowded into a church, a school and a public plaza shaded by trees in the coastal city of Saint-Marc. “These deaths are unimaginable,” Mayor Myriam Fievre said as she met with survivors. The attack – retribution for self-defence groups trying to stop the gang from erecting a toll on a nearby road – was the largest massacre in central Haiti in recent years. It came just days after the United Nations reported that at least 3,661 people had been killed in Haiti in the first half of 2024 amid the “senseless” gang violence that has engulfed the country. “To those who sow terror, I say this: You will not break our will,” Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement following the Pont-Sonde attack. “You will not subjugate this people who have always fought for their dignity and freedom. We will never abandon our right to live in peace, security and justice.” More than 6,000 people have been displaced following armed attacks in Pont-Sondé, a locality in Haiti situated in the commune of Saint-Marc, in the Artibonite department. The majority have taken shelter with relatives in nearby localities. 👉 https://t.co/oBLDDVMoWI pic.twitter.com/AhA3d8iW0H — IOM Haiti (@IOMHaiti) October 5, 2024 Yet, despite the defiant rhetoric, Conille late last month acknowledged that Haiti was “nowhere near winning” the battle against the gangs. The UN Security Council recently extended the mandate of a Kenya-led policing mission meant to help restore security in the Caribbean nation, but the force has struggled to wrest control from the gangs. Funding for the deployment – formally known as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) – has lagged, and a UN expert said last month that the force remains under-resourced. Conille has travelled to Kenya and the United Arab Emirates this week to push for additional help. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 956
As the war enters its 956th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. Fighting At least one person was killed and six injured in Russian shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Vadym Filashkin, the governor of the Donetsk region, said six multistorey apartment blocks were among the buildings damaged and that two children were among the injured. One Ukrainian port worker was killed and five other people injured, including foreign nationals, after a Russian missile struck a Palau-flagged ship in Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa, in the second such attack in as many days. Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha condemned the attacks on the two ships. Ukraine’s Ministry for Restoration said the ship attacked on Sunday was the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged Paresa, which had a cargo of 6,000 tonnes of corn. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed its forces captured the village of Hrodivka, close to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine said its forces struck an oil terminal on the Crimean Peninsula, which was seized and illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said there had been a fire at an oil depot in the Black Sea port town of Feodosia and there were no casualties. The GRU, Ukraine’s military spy agency, said it “seriously damaged” the Alexander Obukhov, an Alexandrit-class Russian minesweeping vessel, in Russia’s Kaliningrad region in a sabotage operation. There was no immediate comment from Russia. Ukraine said a Russian hypersonic missile struck the “area” of Ukraine’s major Starokostiantyniv airbase on Monday morning. The air force did not say whether the attack caused any damage. Local governor, Serhii Tyurin, said there were no civilian casualties or damage to critical infrastructure. Two Russian Kinzhal missiles were also shot down in the Kyiv region, the Ukrainian air force said. Debris came down in three districts of the capital, but no major damage or casualties were reported. Ukrainian air defences shot down 32 Russian drones and a further 37 were lost on military radars, suggesting they had been disabled by electronic warfare systems, the air force said. Politics and diplomacy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the war had entered “a very important phase” and that Ukraine needed to “put pressure on Russia in the way that’s necessary for Russia to realise that the war will gain them nothing”. Speaking in a video statement, Zelenskyy added: “Only through strength can we bring peace closer”. The United States criticised Russia for withholding consular access for detained US citizen Stephen Hubbard after a court jailed the 72-year-old for six years and 10 months. Russia detained Hubbard in April 2022 and accused of being a “mercenary” for Ukraine. A court in Russia’s Kursk region ordered the arrest in absentia of two Italian journalists for reporting from the Ukrainian-occupied part of Kursk. The court demanded Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini, journalists from Italy’s RAI public broadcaster, be extradited for “illegally crossing” the border from Ukraine. A Ukrainian government source told the Reuters news agency that Ukrainian hackers were behind a large-scale cyberattack on Russian state media company VGTRK on Monday. Adblock test (Why?)
Russian court jails US citizen for nearly seven years on ‘mercenary’ charge
Stephen Hubbard, 72, was detained in eastern Ukraine in April 2022 and accused of fighting for Ukraine. A Russian court has jailed a United States citizen for six years and 10 months after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting for Ukraine as a mercenary. Investigators said Stephen Hubbard, who is originally from the US state of Michigan, was paid $1,000 a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. They alleged the 72-year-old signed up in February 2022, just before Russia launched its full-scale invasion, and was provided with training, weapons and ammunition. Hubbard was detained by Russian soldiers two months later. Hubbard’s case first became public late last month when his trial began and he entered a guilty plea. At a hearing last week, the court granted the prosecutors’ request for the proceedings to be held in secret without the media. Hubbard, who was handcuffed, shuffled slowly into the Moscow City Court and stood with difficulty as Judge Alexandra Kovalevskaya read out the sentence, according to journalists from the Reuters and AFP news agencies who were in the court. Russia’s state news agency RIA reported that Hubbard’s lawyer planned to lodge an appeal. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Washington had limited information about the case because Russia had refused to grant consular access to Hubbard. He confirmed that Hubbard had been arrested two years ago in Ukraine. “We’re disappointed, as we often are, when they refuse to grant consular access,” Miller told reporters in Washington. “They have an obligation to provide it and we’re going to continue to press for it. We’re looking at the case very closely and considering our next steps.” Hubbard’s sister Patricia Hubbard Fox and another relative have cast doubt on his reported confession, telling Reuters he held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to have taken up arms given his age. In interviews, Fox and the other relative portrayed Hubbard as an isolated figure who had grown estranged from some family members during decades abroad teaching English, including in Japan and Cyprus. Fox said Hubbard moved to Ukraine in 2014 and lived there for a time with a Ukrainian woman, surviving off a small pension of about $300 a month. He never learned Russian or Ukrainian, she said. Hubbard is one of at least 10 Americans behind bars in Russia, nearly two months after a prisoner swap between Moscow and the West freed three Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and dozens of others. Adblock test (Why?)
Chicago mayor compares viewpoint of those who disagree with him about school spending to slavery
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, on Monday, compared the viewpoint of his critics who oppose school spending to that of the confederacy when it came to freeing slaves. “When our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in this country, the argument was, ‘you can’t free Black people because it would be too expensive,’” Johnson said. “They said it would be fiscally irresponsible for this country to liberate Black people.” During a press conference at a South Side church on Monday, Johnson touted that when he ran for mayor, he promised to transform the city’s public education system. ENTIRE CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD TO RESIGN OVER TEACHERS UNION DISPUTE WITH DEM MAYOR: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’ “I’m a man of my word, and that means bold leadership in a moment that doesn’t nibble around the edges and look for incremental gain,” he said. “Our people in this city are tired of political leaders that want the status quo to nibble around the edges, and then when children don’t get what they deserve, they blame the very communities that they’ve divested in. Not on my watch.” Johnson said the status quo and mistakes of the past that left students behind are not going to continue. “And then the so-called experts, the so-called fiscally responsible stewards are making the same argument. When our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in this country, the argument was, ‘you can’t free Black people because it would be too expensive,’” Johnson said. “They said it would be fiscally irresponsible for this country to liberate Black people. “And now you have detractors making the same argument of the confederacy when it comes to public education in this system,” he added. “These are the people who package these gimmicks, lied to our people, stole money from our people, refuse to pay into the pension system, left the taxpayers with the bill, and for me to fix it.” CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES MEASURE TO DO AWAY WITH ‘RANKING’ SCHOOLS AFTER ‘LONGSTANDING STRUCTURAL RACISM’ Johnson vowed to build a world-class school district rather than leave students behind and fire teachers and staff. “The city leaders have long resisted investing in our children. I am no longer going to accept the status quo,” he said. “We have schools right now who do not have dollars for buses to take their kids to sporting events. We have a system right now that can’t adequately bus children to the very spaces that they say they believe in, and so that is why I was elected to fight and fight.” During the press conference, Johnson introduced six new nominees for the school board, noting he would name a seventh at a later date. STUDENTS LEFT BEHIND AS CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL SUFFERS FROM STAFFING ISSUES, TEACHER ABSENCES: REPORT The mayor referred to his six new school board nominees as members, though he said they are still being vetted as a formality. Once the vetting is complete, Johnson’s nominees could remain on the board when it triples in size in January and changes to more of a hybrid model that includes 11 mayoral appointees and 10 elected members. “I’m confident that these new candidates will work to lead CPS into the world-class school system that our children deserve,” Johnson said, referring to Chicago Public Schools. “I will continue to nominate Chicagoans who are dedicated to meeting the needs of our students.” Johnson has tried to oust the district’s CEO, Pedro Martinez, who was named to his position in 2021 by Johnson’s predecessor, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot. As a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, Johnson has clashed with Martinez over the best way to close gaps in the district’s nearly $10 billion budget. Martinez has refused to resign from his post, saying the district needs stability. On Friday, all seven board members announced they would resign from their posts by the end of the month. Johnson handpicked all the outgoing members in 2023, just months after he took office. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Harris said candidates must ‘earn’ voter support — despite skipping primaries before becoming Dem nominee
Vice President Kamala Harris said political candidates should have to “earn” support from voters, despite previous criticism for becoming the Democratic presidential nominee without having to run in any primary election in 2024. Harris was asked about why voters still have reservations about her during a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Monday night. “A quarter of registered voters still say they don’t know you, they don’t know what makes you tick,” “60 Minutes,” journalist Bill Whitaker asked during a sitdown interview. “Why do you think that is? What’s the disconnect?” BILL MAHER TRASHES KAMALA HARRIS FOR BEING ‘FULL OF S—‘ ON ISRAEL, MIDDLE EAST: ‘JUST SHUT UP’ “It’s an election Bill, and I take it seriously that I have to earn everyone’s vote,” Harris replied. “This is an election for President of the United States. No one should be able to take for granted that they can just declare themselves a candidate and automatically receive support.” “You have to earn it and that’s what I intend to do,” she added. The Democratic Party has been accused by critics of anointing Harris as the party’s nominee after Biden abruptly ended his re-election bid following his first debate against former President Trump. Many Republicans and groups like Black Lives Matter accused the Democratic Party of installing Harris as its nominee and sidestepping the voting process. The Democratic Party coalesced around her, winning enough delegate support to secure the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August. In response to the criticism, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the party’s presidential nominating process was “open,” and Harris “won it,” despite the absence of any such contest.
Assembly Election Results 2024: Counting in Haryana, J-K begins today, key candidates to watch out for
These are the first major elections in India following the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Haryana, J-K Elections Results 2024 today: When and where to watch?
The counting will begin with postal ballots, which are reserved for specific groups such as security personnel, people with disabilities, and essential service employees.
Political storm: Harris says DeSantis ‘selfish’ for reportedly not taking her hurricane-related calls
Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday for reportedly not taking her calls regarding federal storm relief efforts as a second powerful hurricane bears down on Florida. “People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations…is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris charged on Monday. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.” The vice president’s comments came a couple of hours after reports from NBC and later ABC News that the Florida governor was not taking calls from Harris regarding storm recovery efforts, citing unnamed aides to the governor who said the calls seemed political in nature. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS WEATHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON Asked about ther reports at a hurricane news conference, DeSantis said he wasn’t aware Harris was trying to reach him. “I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.” CLICK HERE FOR UP-TO-DATE FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE STORMS Asked again about the report, the governor reiterated “I didn’t know that she had called.” The dispute comes as Hurricane Milton, now an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm, is on course to slam into Florida Wednesday evening. Milton is bearing down on Florida as the death toll rises and roughly a quarter of a million people remain without power or running water a week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of Virginia. President Biden made stops last week in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida to survey storm damage from Hurricane Helene. While Biden was in Florida, DeSantis was holding a separate press event across the state in another area damaged from the storm. “We were in Florida, we invited the governor of Florida to come, it was his decision not to attend,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. “The president has reached out around Hurricane Helene. He reached out. It is up to the governor, it is really up to the governor.” The White House said hours later that the president held separate calls with DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor “to get a firsthand report on recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene, and to discuss preparations for Hurricane Milton.” According to the White House, Biden urged the governor and the mayor to “call him directly if there is anything that can be done to further support the response and recovery efforts.” Asked about the federal response, DeSantis said during his news conference that “we have gotten what we need from the feds….the president has approved what we asked for….I’m thankful for that.” “Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved,” DeSantis highlighted. With four weeks to go until Election Day in November and Harris and former President Trump locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election – the politics of federal disaster relief are once again front and center on the campaign trail. Trump, for a week and a half, has been repeatedly attacking Biden and Harris over the federal response to Hurricane Helene. Harris, on Monday, clapped back, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.” Fox News Nick Rojas contributed to this story. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Reporter’s Notebook: All about the politics of disaster relief
Welcome to the politics of disaster relief. Republicans are excoriating the Biden/Harris administration for how it responded to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, Tennessee and other parts of the South. This is now about to be a double whammy as Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida. It unfolds amid a tight presidential election. So the disaster response is now infused with politics in swing states like North Carolina and Georgia. There is also a competitive but not top-tier Senate race in Florida. Storms can disrupt the typical electorate. The usual people who vote might not make it to the polls. It’s hard to care about voting if you’re low on food, lack electricity and can’t even make it out of the holler in western North Carolina because Helene wrecked the road. ‘IMMEDIATELY RECONVENE’: SCOTT URGES SCHUMER TO RECALL SENATE AMID HELENE’S DEVASTATION Pray tell, where should you vote in Tampa or Sarasota if your basement is swamped by Milton – after getting drenched when Helene spun through a few weeks ago? You were going to vote at the school down the street. But now it lacks power. You’re now living at your sister’s house inland. But you’re not registered to vote there … You see what we’re getting at. Republicans are hammering the Biden/Harris administration for its response to the storm. “It’s like the DMV at industrial scale,” said Republican vice presidential nominee and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Fox. “It is incompetence of the highest order.” “At the federal level, this has been a massive failure,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “When you talk to the people who are directly affected, they will tell you that this has been an abject failure. FEMA has lost sight of its core mission. The administration has not shown that they were prepared for this eventuality in this terrible disaster.” “Kamala Harris has left them stranded. This is the worst response to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we’ve ever seen. Probably worse than Katrina. And that’s hard to beat, right?” asked former President Trump. Storm responses are challenging. Hurricane Andrew was a powerful Category 5 storm that swept through Florida in August 1992. Former President George H.W. Bush’s tepid response to Andrew slashed his support in Florida. “Bush 41” wound up narrowly winning Florida, besting former President Clinton by less than 2%. Bush won Florida by 22 points four years earlier. Moreover, the response to Hurricane Andrew raised questions about the competence of the administration weeks before the election. It’s believed that cost Bush a few points nationwide. When Clinton took office, he immediately beefed up FEMA to prepare and respond to other natural disasters. BIDEN GETS DEFENSIVE WHEN PUSHED ON WHO’S COMMANDING’ HURRICANE HELENE RESPONSE So, part of this tactic is the natural extension of Republicans to undercut the Biden/Harris administration at nearly every turn. This is another component of the GOP narrative that the administration can’t handle the economy. Can’t handle foreign policy. Can’t handle the border. Did someone say the border? “We give $20 billion a year to FEMA. And unfortunately, they have drained everything dry,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., on Fox Business. “We spent $200 billion in Ukraine. We spent $220-$500 a month on our illegal aliens.” This is where things get tricky. FEMA is under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS runs a program that sends money to cities besieged by the illegal migrant crisis. Some of the money goes for food and shelter for those in the country illegally. But it also helps those towns cope by addressing strains on their medical systems and other services. Money for disaster recovery and migrant assistance constitute two separate line items in the DHS budget. Congress approved money for both these programs. In fact, some Republicans would prefer to spend more to help their communities grapple with an infusion of illegal immigration. SPEAKER JOHNSON ADDRESSES CLAIMS FEMA DIVERTED FUNDS TO IMMIGRATION EFFORTS: ‘AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED’ About $640 million currently goes to assist these towns beset by an influx of illegal migrants. But some lawmakers would like that to spike to as much as $3 billion next year. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced legislation to halt the migrant assistance program. And Johnson blurred the line between FEMA disaster aid and migrants and the border. “FEMA should be involved and the Federal Emergency Management Association. Their mission is to help people in times like this of natural disaster. Not to be engaged in using any pool of funding from any account for resettling illegal aliens who have come across the border,” said Johnson on Fox. Other Republicans believe this may be an opportunity to recalibrate spending overall. Keep in mind that many Republicans look askance at foreign aid to Ukraine. “As an elected official, it’s our responsibility to put Americans first. Whether you’re in Florida, in my district or you’re anywhere in the union, I think that it’s important for us to prioritize Americans and restore hope and let them know they’re not forgotten,” said Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., on Fox. But some Republicans compared issues with FEMA’s response to how the administration addresses other subjects. KJP SLAMMED AFTER HURRICANE HELENE OVER MIXED MESSAGES ON WHETHER FEMA RESOURCES USED FOR MIGRANTS “This administration seems to have no problem finding money when they want to spend it on their priorities. When they need hundreds of billions of dollars to pay off student loans for graduate students and gender studies programs, they somehow find it. When it’s trying to get helicopters to deliver food and water and cellular service and lifesaving medicine into these mountain valleys, they somehow can’t seem to find the money,” declared Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on NBC. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell castigated Republicans for suggesting FEMA was focused on other issues rather than the storms. “It’s frankly ridiculous and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Criswell on ABC. Before leaving Washington, Congress