Families want justice, ‘blood money’ for AU peacekeeper killings in Somalia
Omar Hassan Warsame was a larger-than-life figure in the Somali town of Golweyn, where his sizeable farm provided maize, bananas and jobs that helped sustain the community. The 65-year-old and a contingent of up to a dozen of his employees would tend to crops on the plot in the Lower Shebelle region, some 110km (68 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu – which helped spare locals from the effects of the region’s recurring droughts. On August 10, 2021, African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Uganda converged on the farm. Renowned as a community representative, it was not uncommon for businessmen or officials to approach Omar. But, for reasons that remain unclear, the soldiers opened fire on him and four of his employees. “They killed them in cold blood,” Mohamed Abdi, a nephew of Omar’s, told Al Jazeera. “He was a community leader. A kind, charitable man who provided for the poor and cared for all his neighbours. The whole city mourned with us.” Seven civilians were killed in the Golweyn massacre, which prompted outrage across Somalia. Demonstrators took to the streets in Mogadishu and towns in Lower Shebelle demanding the withdrawal of foreign peacekeepers from the country. Eventually, a Ugandan court martial sentenced two soldiers to death and three others to lengthy prison terms, before a Ugandan court threw out the death sentences. The peacekeepers belonged to the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM. They were first deployed in 2007 to prevent a takeover of the country by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab, which seeks to overthrow Somalia’s government. While al-Shabab frequently engages in battles with peacekeepers and government forces, civilians have borne the brunt of its attacks. The armed group is estimated to have killed around 4,000 civilians in shootings, suicide bombings and other forms of violence between 2008 and 2020. AMISOM peacekeepers – composed of troops from countries in the region – were primarily tasked with countering al-Shabab’s influence, providing security in government-held areas and coordinating with fledgling Somali security forces. Backed by the United Nations, United States and other donor states, the AU peacekeepers have played a critical role in countering threats posed by the armed group. Ugandan peacekeepers with the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in Mogadishu, in May 2022 [File: Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP] But reports about their involvement in abuses against civilians can be traced back to their initial years in the country. Rebranded as ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) in 2022, and now planning an end-of-the-year withdrawal from the country, families of victims say the AU owes them justice and “blood money” – financial compensation for their suffering. “They’re supposed to be peacekeepers, but they murder civilians,” Omar’s nephew Mohamed told Al Jazeera. “What makes them different from al-Shabab then?” Compensation for victims Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has been plagued by internal fighting between rival strongmen, with a weak central government. Following the rise of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a political and military entity established by local Islamic law courts to govern the country, troops from neighbouring Ethiopia entered Somalia and drove the ICU from power in late 2006. The splintering of the ICU and the presence of Ethiopian troops, widely unpopular among Somalis for war crimes committed during fighting, fomented resistance. Eventually, hardliner elements of the former ICU went on to establish al-Shabab. International efforts to stabilise the country led to the establishment of the AU’s peacekeeping mandate in 2007. Ethiopian troops withdrew the bulk of their forces by early 2009 but always maintained a troop presence in Somalia, before merging them with the AMISOM force by 2014. Somalia’s international partners have invested billions into upgrading the country’s security apparatus. The national army’s ability to independently take on al-Shabab has increased over time, and the once-looming threat of an al-Shabab takeover of the capital Mogadishu has diminished considerably. But despite the nearly two-decade-long presence of African peacekeepers whose numbers have previously reached 20,000, swaths of the country remain under al-Shabab control, and government security forces struggle to expand their reach. The group’s capacity to carry out deadly attacks on civilian and military targets has hardly waned. In August, a suicide bombing and gun attack targeted beachgoers at the popular Lido Beach in Mogadishu, killing at least 32 people. With little in terms of concrete results on the ground, donor fatigue has led to cutbacks, including a reduction of $60m last year by the European Union. Funding shortages are reportedly among the reasons ATMIS plans to depart Somalia by the end of this year. Despite the financial woes, the EU successfully delivered $200m in funds meant to compensate the families of the estimated 3,500 AU peacekeepers who have died in Somalia since 2007. Mohamed El-Amine Souef, the current head of ATMIS [File: Fethi Belaid/Pool/AFP] But there is nothing earmarked for victims of peacekeeper violence, something ATMIS officials have tried to explain to the families. “Out of courtesy, I met with [family members] and explained that the consensus is that ATMIS is struggling financially to the point where we had to consider terminating the mission,” Comorian diplomat and current ATMIS political head Mohamed El-Amine Souef explained in a voice message sent to Al Jazeera. “As such, the matter of compensation is being jointly dealt with by Addis Ababa and Mogadishu and a technical team that deals with judicial and compensation-related matters.” Souef did not respond to follow-up questions on how a joint initiative between two governments whose bilateral ties are currently at their lowest in decades – over Ethiopia’s controversial plans to recognise the breakaway republic of Somaliland – was made possible. Last year, Souef told Voice of America that ATMIS needed at least $2m from donors to cover compensation requests in almost 80 cases of peacekeeper violence against civilians. These cases include killings, as well as critical and minor injuries, but the AU has not specified how many of each. Who can be held accountable? On August 12, 2017, following a battle with al-Shabab in the
To boost Ukraine’s army, feared patrols hunt for potential conscripts
A stone’s throw from advancing Russian troops, Volodymyr refuses to leave his eastern Ukrainian town. The daily Russian pummelling has killed some of his neighbours and destroyed buildings around his house, but the 34-year-old does not want to move to a safer area because he would be forcibly conscripted. “I’ll be herded back home but with a gun in my hands,” he told Al Jazeera as fighting raged just 10km (6 miles) away. He has no qualms about what Ukrainian generals might call unpatriotic behaviour. “Way too many guys” he knows have been killed, wounded and incapacitated since 2014 when Russia-backed separatists sparked a conflict in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 13,000 people, about a quarter of them civilians, and displaced millions. A local resident rides a bike near a recruitment advert for the Ukrainian army, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Hrushivka, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region [File: Alina Smutko/Reuters] Casualties soared after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. Russian army chiefs have no misgivings about the loss of tens of thousands of their servicemen for each Ukrainian town they take, mostly in the Donetsk region, where Volodymyr lives. But he accused Ukraine’s top brass and front-line officers of adopting a somewhat similar approach. “The commanders care about their bosses’ opinion, not about the men serving under them,” he said, citing conversations with his enlisted friends. He and other men interviewed for this story asked for their last names and personal details to be withheld because they fear reprisals. Feared patrols search for conscripts About 1.3 million Ukrainians serve in the military. At least 80,000 soldiers of eligible age, 25 to 60, have died since 2022, according to Western estimates. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government does not divulge the official death toll. He has said the army needs to enlist 500,000 out of about 3.7 million men of fighting age who are eligible for service. These days, many potential recruits all over Ukraine think twice before leaving their homes. If they do, they look over their shoulder for “man-hunting” patrols. Each patrol consists of police and conscription officers, groups of four to six officials that comb public areas such as subway stations, bus stops, shopping malls, city and town centres. They have also operated at rock concerts, nightclubs and pricey restaurants. Al Jazeera has witnessed the work of several such patrols. Each time, the officers refused to comment and be photographed. They approach any man in sight to check his ID and conscription document, a printout or a scan in a mobile phone that has a QR code. The code gives access to the man’s “conscription status” in a central database. That status had to be updated by mid-July when a conscription law took effect after months of deliberations and thousands of amendments. Every potential conscript had to provide details on his address, contacts, health, prior military service, and ability to handle weaponry, military equipment and vehicles. At the time, hours-long lines formed in front of conscription offices where staff were often interrupted by air raid sirens and blackouts caused by Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. In May, the government launched Reserv+, an app allowing Ukrainians to update their conscription status from their mobile phones. Those who did not now face punishment – their driving licences could be revoked or bank accounts frozen. If potential conscripts live abroad, consular services could be denied. ‘They round people up randomly’ Vitaly, a 23-year-old Kyiv native who studies engineering at a German university, was denied services at a Ukrainian consulate, his mother told Al Jazeera. He was told to ignore the app and return to Kyiv to “personally” update his status, she said. “Of course, he didn’t because they wouldn’t let him go back” to Germany, she said. “That’s how Ukraine lost one more national” because her son now plans to apply for German citizenship after graduation, she said. Back in Ukraine, the patrols are feared by some. “They round people up randomly, pack them into minibuses,” Boris, a 31-year-old man from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, told Al Jazeera. He said the patrols are able to detain men without checking their papers. “Five or six [officers] twist one’s arms and, oops, tomorrow you’re at the Desna boot [camp]” in the northern region of Chernihiv, he said. Boris could be immune to conscription if he becomes a legal carer for his disabled father, who had a heart attack this year. But he is afraid to even set foot in a conscription office with the paperwork. “People walk in there and end up in Desna a day later,” he said, referring to the camp Russian forces struck in May 2022 with two missiles, killing at least 87 conscripts. In late August, an official on patrol detained Andriy, a 27-year-old resident of Kyiv, as he was entering a subway station. A doctoral student who cannot be drafted, Andriy showed his QR-coded card. But he was forcibly taken to the nearest conscription office, where officers told him he would be on his way to a boot camp “within an hour”, he told Al Jazeera. “They pressured me skillfully,” he said. “It’s an assembly line of coercion.” But then a medical doctor refused to sign Andriy off because of myopia and astigmatism, and he was let go to get “additional paperwork”, he said. “It was a miracle,” he said. Violence and corruption There have also been multiple reports of violence towards potential conscripts. In late May, Serhiy Kovalchuk, a 32-year-old man, was beaten in a conscription office in the central city of Zhitomir and died in hospital six days later, his family told the Suspilne television network. Officials said Kovalchuk suffered a head trauma during an epileptic fit after several days of heavy drinking. Frequent violent detentions and the denial of access to the lawyers of potential conscripts constitute human rights abuses, according to Roman Likhachyov, a lawyer and member of the Center for Support for Veterans and Their Families, a group in
India signs Rs 32,000 crore mega deal for 31 Predator drones from US
The deal, signed in the presence of top defence and strategic brass of India in the national capital, marks a significant upswing in military ties between the two countries, officials told PTI.
Early voting begins in Georgia, Utah
Georgia and Utah began early voting on Tuesday, joining the vast majority of states that have already kicked off the 2024 election. With the two new entries, 46 states and Washington, D.C., have begun some form of early voting. Here’s how to send your ballot. MICHAEL MOORE WARNS KAMALA HARRIS TO NOT GO ‘CENTRIST’ Georgia has voted Republican in all but two elections in the last four decades. The first was former President Clinton’s landslide win in 1992, and the second was 2020, when President Biden brought the state back to the Democrats by 11,779 votes. A win for either candidate here would make their path to victory easier. The Peach State has 16 electoral votes on offer, and with recent polls showing a tight race, it’s ranked “Toss Up” on the Fox News Power Rankings. Democrats do well in metro Atlanta, home to more than half the state’s population, and particularly its densest counties, Fulton and DeKalb. There is a higher concentration of Black and college voters there. The surrounding suburban areas also help Democrats run up the vote, but the further out you go, the more competitive the counties become. Cobb County (Biden +14) and Fayette County (Trump +7) are great examples, just north and south of Atlanta. Republicans win big with rural voters, who can be found just about everywhere else. The GOP won all but 30 counties in the last election, with many of the largest victories in the sparse northwest and southeast regions. This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Georgia. Georgia began absentee voting Tuesday. Residents do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. State officials must receive a ballot request by Oct. 25, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5. BLUE PHILLY WORKING-CLASS VOTERS START LEANING TOWARD TRUMP AHEAD OF ELECTION: ‘PEOPLE ACTUALLY LOVE HIM’ Georgia offers early voting beginning Oct. 15 and running through Nov. 1. The deadline for registering to vote in Georgia was Oct. 7. This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Utah. Residents do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot in Utah. State officials will proactively send ballots to eligible voters beginning Oct. 15 through Oct. 29, and those ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 4 if sent by mail or delivered in person to state officials by Nov. 5. TRUMP CAMPAIGN TOUTS ‘TRUMP FORCE 47’ GRASSROOTS RECRUITMENT EFFORT 100 DAYS OUT FROM ELECTION DAY Utah offers early in-person voting, but the start dates vary by location. Check the state’s website for more information. Utah residents can register to vote online or by mail through Oct. 25. They can also register in person during early voting, Oct. 22 through Nov. 1, and on Election Day.
India prepared to lead world in 6G technology: Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia
“It is our belief and commitment that India, which followed the world in 4G and marched with it in 5G, will lead the world in 6G,” Scindia stated.
BATTLEGROUND SERIES: Arizona’s 11 electoral votes hinge on key swing county Biden won by a hair in 2020
MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ – Arizona is expected to be one of the most closely watched and highly competitive swing states in the upcoming presidential election and the state’s largest county will play a critical role in deciding who wins that state and ultimately the White House. Maricopa County, which surrounds Phoenix in south central Arizona and is home to over 4.5 million people, is widely considered one of the key battleground counties in the United States due to its diverse political breakdown and will deliver 11 crucial electoral votes to either former President Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. “Maricopa County is our largest and most populous county in Arizona,” Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda told Fox News Digital. “It contains over 60% of our voters statewide. It’s about a third Democrat, a third Republican, and a third Independent. That fluctuates a bit. But essentially, we’re a third, a third, a third.” “We have what I would call a dense urban core in Phoenix. And then we have suburbs and it’s growing. It’s consistently one of the highest growing counties in the United States. It’s a diverse county just because of the makeup, we’ve got urban and then we’ve got the suburbs and then we have what were kind of little, little towns becoming cities very rapidly. So when you have that kind of growth, that puts a lot of pressure on a community and because it’s 60% of the vote of the state, it gets a lot of attention.” IN ARIZONA SPEECH, VANCE SAYS NEXT PRESIDENT MUST PUT AMERICANS FIRST, SLAMS FEMA MONEY FOR MIGRANTS Swoboda told Fox News Digital that if you’re looking to run for office in Maricopa County you’ve got a “broad swath of the electorate” and you “have to speak to their issues.” Those key issues during this election cycle, according to Swoboda, are the economy and immigration. “Inflation is number one and when we say inflation in Arizona, we’re one of the hardest hit states in the country for our prices going up,” Swoboda said. “But part of that is affordable housing. And that’s a huge issue in the state of Arizona, particularly in rapidly growing Maricopa.” President Joe Biden won the state of Arizona by less than 1 half of 1 percent in the 2020 election and the results in Maricopa County were also slim with Biden beating former President Trump by 2 %. The Harris-Walz campaign has been active in the county over the last few months and the Arizona campaign team told Fox News Digital that they have knocked on 90,000 doors, made over 1.7 million phone calls, and have 15,000 volunteers that have completed a shift in the county. ENIGMATIC VOTER GROUP COULD SPLIT TICKET FOR TRUMP, DEM SENATE CANDIDATE IN ARIZONA “Vice President Harris, Governor Walz, Second Gentleman Emhoff, and Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz all visited Arizona in September,” the campaign said. “Recently, Vice President Harris visited Douglas, Arizona to tout her policies to keep Arizona’s border secure, marking her eighth visit to Arizona this year.” Polling has increasingly shown that Trump leads Harris with low propensity voters which has become an increased focus in the Trump ground game. The same is true in Arizona, specifically Maricopa County, where Turning Point Action, which has taken the lead in organizing Trump’s GOTV efforts, has launched programs like “Commit 100” and “Chase the Vote” to mobilize those voters. A spokesperson for Turning Point Action told Fox News Digital that it is actively targeting 400,000 low propensity voters in Arizona and that Republican voter registration efforts in Arizona over the last two years has “put the state in a very difficult mathematical spot for Democrats.” A spokesperson for the RNC told Fox News Digital that Republicans have “doubled” the GOP voter registration advantage in Arizona since 2020 and that the RNC has almost a dozen offices across the state as part of its Trump Force 47 initiative to “meet voters where they are.” Nationwide, immigration is one of the most important issues to voters according to the polls and that’s no different in Arizona where voters who spoke to Fox News Digital said immigration is a top concern despite differing opinions on which candidate would best handle the unfolding crisis. “We have to have swifter incarceration at the border,” Mary from Phoenix told Fox News Digital. “And if there’s a suspicion that they’re going to commit a crime, lock them up.” Mary said that it was “infuriating” that the recent bipartisan border deal died in Congress and said that if Harris is elected, “She will get it signed.” Nick from Sun City West told Fox News Digital that Harris’ immigration policy has been “dismal at best.” “Control the border,” he said. “At least keep the border safe. Keep people from being able to get in that aren’t supposed to be able to come in unless they come in through the regular normal channels.” Trump holds a razor-thin two-point edge over Harris in battleground Arizona, according to a recent public opinion poll. Fueling the former president’s margin appears to be support from voters age 50 and over. Trump stands at 49% among likely voters in Arizona, with Harris at 47%, according to an AARP poll conducted Sept. 24-Oct. 1 and released on Tuesday. According to the survey, Green Party candidate Jill Stein grabs 1% support, with 3% undecided. “In some ways, it’s like a state of its own because 65, 68% of our entire state population in Arizona resides in Maricopa County,” Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake told Fox News Digital. “It’s one of those mega counties. I frankly also think it’s a mega county, but it’s a mega county. And so it’s a really important county. What happens in Maricopa County can affect the entire country and really the entire world, because we know whatever way Maricopa County can take the whole country that way, because it’s so massive, it can take the whole state that way. And so it’s an
Fireworks expected in final Pennsylvania Senate debate in race that may decide chamber’s majority
Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Republican challenger Dave McCormick face off Tuesday in their second and final debate. The showdown in the key battleground state comes with three weeks to go until Election Day in a crucial, combustible and expensive Senate showdown that may decide whether the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority. And if the face-off is anything like their first debate, which quickly became personal as both candidates accused their opponent of lying, expect more verbal fireworks. Casey, during the first debate, argued that McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration, is a wealthy carpetbagger. CASEY, MCCORMICK TRADE SHOTS IN FIERY FIRST DEBATE IN CRUCIAL SENATE SHOWDOWN McCormick, who grew up in northeast Pennsylvania and who is the son of the Keystone State’s first state university system chancellor, has come under attack in both his 2022 and 2024 Senate runs for owning a house in an affluent part of Connecticut during his tenure as CEO of Bridgewater Associates. The narrator in a Casey digital ad that launched on the eve of the final debate charges that McCormick “told voters he lived in Pennsylvania when he was really living in Connecticut. Hope he can find his way back.” And on the campaign trail this past weekend, referring to McCormick, Casey argued that “you shouldn’t lie to the people you seek to represent, especially about something as simple as where you live.” HARRIS-TRUMP POLL POSITION WITH 3 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY McCormick, in a Fox News Digital interview last week in Pittsburgh, said he’s “a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian.” During their first debate, McCormick targeted Casey as a do-nothing career politician. Casey, the son of a popular former governor, is running for a fourth six-year term in the Senate. He served a decade as Pennsylvania’s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006. “With Bob Casey, you have a guy who’s a career politician, 30 years in elected office, who has shown he won’t lead and who has voted 99% of the time with Biden-Harris and will vote 99% of the time with Harris-Walz,” McCormick said in his interview. McCormick said he’s “a business guy, someone who went to West Point, somebody who’s a combat vet. That kind of independence and leadership is what’s seriously lacking in Pennsylvania.” Pointing to polls that indicate Casey’s lead shrinking, McCormick said that “what you have here is a career politician, 30 years in elective office, who’s fighting for his life. He, all of a sudden, is waking up and the possibility of losing is really dawning on him.” CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION McCormick was part of a crowded and combustible battle for the 2022 GOP nomination. He ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from former President Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election to then-Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. This time around, McCormick faced no major opposition in the GOP primary. He was backed last year by longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell as well as the Pennsylvania GOP, and he was encouraged to run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the party’s Senate campaign arm. And Trump endorsed McCormick in March. Since then, the Senate GOP nominee has rarely missed an opportunity to appear with Trump during the former president’s numerous rallies in Pennsylvania, which is the largest of the seven key presidential battleground states. “For me to win in Pennsylvania, I need to run my own campaign, which I’m doing. But I also need to do two things. I need to be able to turn out the voters across our Republican Party in these red counties … and President Trump’s unbelievably helpful in that. He’s been very supportive of me, and I’ve been supportive of him,” McCormick said. But he added that “I also need to be able to appeal to independents. I need to be able to appeal to people who are on the fence, places like Alleghany County where we live and places like southeast Pennsylvania, the collar counties around Philadelphia. And I’m able to do that because of the life I’ve led, because the fact that I’ve shown my independence. Sometimes I’ve disagreed with President Trump.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Supreme court races in key states could tip scales on policy questions
Little noticed but high-stakes elections on the November ballot will be for seats on state supreme courts, where legal precedents will be set on matters such as abortion, election integrity, gun rights, redistricting and other issues. In 2024, 82 state supreme court seats are to be decided by voters in 33 states and Guam, according to Ballotpedia. Of those, 18 races are partisan, 34 are nonpartisan and 30 are retention elections, meaning that rather than deciding between two candidates, voters will determine whether a justice typically appointed by a governor will remain on the state’s high court. However, some of the races have already been decided, while other candidates are running unopposed on the November ballot. Some of these judicial contests are happening in key battleground states, such as Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina, where turnout will almost certainly be high for the presidential contest. “Across the nation, as the federal Supreme Court is tearing back the role of the federal court, you’ve seen an increased role for state courts,” said David Porter, a former Michigan assistant attorney general. In Michigan, where Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the state’s high court, two Supreme Court seats are being contested. Although races are nonpartisan, state parties endorse a candidate. Andrew Fink, a Republican state representative, is running against Kimberly Thomas, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, for an open seat. Incumbent Supreme Court Judge Kyra Harris Bolden was appointed by Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November 2022. This year she is running to retain her seat against Patrick O’Grady, a state circuit court judge. Whitmer appointed Bolden to fill a vacancy left by the departure of Judge Bridget Mary McCormack. “In the last two decades, the state Supreme Court was led by a conservative majority,” Porter said. “We are now seeing a big shift. Liberal justices have taken control and are more interested in revisiting decisions of the past 20 years.” Porter described Justice Elizabeth Clement as a swing vote; so, if Democrats expand their majority to 5-2, it could sometimes be 6-1 decisions. MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATES CLASH ON NATIONAL SECURITY, IMMIGRATION AND ABORTION In Arizona, voters will determine if two Republican-appointed justices, Clint Bolick and Katheryn Hackett King, will remain on that state’s high court. It’s not clear if voters are noticing state Supreme Court cases more, but political donors seem to, said former Arizona Solicitor General Dominic Draye. “I don’t know if voters are paying more attention to these races, but there is more out-of-state money being spent than in the past retention races,” Draye told Fox News Digital. “I don’t remember before seeing yard signs. Now I see yard signs everywhere, and I’m getting mailers to retain or don’t retain.” ARIZONA SUPREME COURT RULES 98,000 PEOPLE WHOSE CITIZENSHIP IS UNCONFIRMED CAN VOTE IN PIVOTAL ELECTION All seven justices are Republican appointees, and two are up for retention in November. If the seats open up, Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs would pick their replacements. “It has devolved into a policy debate instead of a debate about whether a judge can be fair and impartial,” Draye said. “There are people who want to obtain certain outcomes in the judicial process and change the composition of the court.” In North Carolina, Republicans have a 5-2 state Supreme Court majority and aim to make it 6-1. Incumbent Judge Allison Riggs, a Democrat, is running against Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge. Although Nevada is a fiercely contested battleground state between presidential candidates, three incumbent state Supreme Court judges, Elissa Caddish, Patricia Lee and Lidia Stiglich, are running unopposed and have nothing to worry about from the likely high voter turnout. PA GOV TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER SUPREME COURT REJECTS GOP BID TO OVERTURN ELECTION LAW ‘USURPATIONS’ Meanwhile, another high-profile state on the national stage, Georgia, already had state Supreme Court elections in May. Though not a battleground in the presidential race, other states will likely have high voter turnout for competitive Senate races that will trickle down to the supreme court races. Montana has two nonpartisan high court races. One is between Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson and former federal magistrate Jerry Lynch. Another is between two district judges, Katherine Bidegaray and Dan Wilson. Ohio also has a highly competitive Senate race, another incentive for voters to turn out. The state has a 4-3 Republican majority. One Ohio race has two incumbent justices. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Justice Joseph Deters in 2023 to fill the remaining term of Justice Sharon Kennedy after Kennedy won the chief justice seat. But Deters opted to remain on the court and is challenging another incumbent, Democrat Justice Melody Stewart. Also in Ohio, Democrat Justice Michael Donnelly is facing Republican challenger Megan Shanahan, a Hamilton County judge. Democrat Lisa Forbes, a state appeals court judge, is facing Republican Dan Hawkins, a Franklin County judge, for an open seat. In Kentucky, conservative-leaning Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter is retiring at the end of his term. That leaves a nonpartisan race for a vacant seat between Lexington attorney Erin Izzo and Pamela R. Goodwine, an appeals court judge who has the backing of Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear. Though the winner of the race will fill a vacant seat, the next chief justice will be chosen by colleagues on the court. Two of the nation’s largest states also have supreme court races in November. In Texas, three Republican justices are facing Democrat challengers, who are all district judges. GOP incumbent Jimmy Blacklock is facing Democrat DaSean Jones; GOP Justice John Devine faces Democrat Christine Weems; and Justice Jane Bland is fending off Democrat Bonnie Lee Goldstein. In Florida, two justices, Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso, have retention elections. Both are appointees of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Bank Holidays 2024: Will banks remain closed on 16-17 October? Here’s all you need to know
According to the holiday list of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banks will remain closed on October on 16-17.
As a cautious Kamala loses momentum, Democrats are panicking over a Trump win
The Kamala Harris campaign rocket, which soared to dazzling heights when she got into the race, is losing altitude. Despite raising a billion dollars, despite overwhelmingly positive coverage by the mainstream media, she has failed to deliver a compelling message and is especially struggling to win over Black and Latino voters. There’s no question that many Democrats, who grew accustomed to reading stories about who’ll be in the Harris Cabinet, are panicking. Now you could look at the glass as half-full and say it’s remarkable that a relatively unpopular vice president, in a short period of time, is running neck and neck with Donald Trump. She is tied nationally in a new NBC College poll. But that’s a drop of five points for Harris since the last survey in September. Trump is the ultimate Teflon candidate. The press may jump on him for refusing to release his medical records (as Harris just did) but demanding she take a cognitive test; for using incendiary language against illegal immigrants, or for vowing to protect women when it’s his Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe. NOW THAT KAMALA HARRIS IS DOING INTERVIEWS, PEOPLE ARE REMINDED THEY ‘DON’T LIKE HER’: LISA BOOTHE It doesn’t matter. MAGA loyalists can’t stand the media, and they’re not going to change their minds at this late date. He has the advantage of having held the job. They remember Trump’s presidency with growing fondness, particularly for a strong economy and greater limits at the border, and brush aside any negative developments, especially Jan. 6. Harris has certainly made policy proposals and done a bunch of softball interviews. But she made a big mistake on “The View,” saying she couldn’t think of a single thing where she’d differ from Joe Biden. It was not intended as a gotcha question. How can she grab the mantle of the change candidate and, with that sentence, cast herself as Biden 2.0? KAMALA 2.0’S CHALLENGE? MAKING MORE NEWS, AND NOT JUST WITH ULTRA-FRIENDLY HOSTS If she feels loyalty to Joe, it’s misguided. As a veteran pol, he would understand if she said he did a good job but here’s several areas where I disagree with him and would do things differently–no word salad allowed. Axios and others are reporting tension between the Harris and Biden camps – she’s replaced the president’s top strategists and spokesmen – precisely the kind of leaks that mark a sputtering campaign. When people complain that they don’t really know Kamala, they’re really saying they’re not yet prepared to trust her with the nuclear codes. She still has to pass the commander-in-chief test. But she also has to seem warm and approachable. That’s a daunting challenge in a country that, unlike much of the world, has never elected a female president. Here’s some British invective from Andrew Sullivan on his Substack: “The more I listened to her in these interviews, the more worried I became that she doesn’t actually believe in anything… “Her team either fears or knows she may not be up to it. And this is bleeding obvious. A presidential campaign where you rarely face the press, never deal with a hostile interview, and never hold a presser is a campaign defined by fear. You can smell it from miles away.” Andrew, by the way, is voting for Harris, mainly because he’ll do anything to keep Trump out of the White House. Kamala keeps talking about being the underdog, but she’s run a very cautious campaign. The anxiety about making a mistake should be outweighed by the need to make news, at a time when Trump is back to dominating the news. Many days go by in which she’s a minor TV presence compared to the ratings-boosting Trump. It’s smart that she’s now agreed to several network town halls, but she should have been doing these from the start, rather than reciting the same stump speech at rallies. Drinking beer with Stephen Colbert doesn’t quite cut it. WHY VANCE EASILY BEAT WALZ IN DEBATE, SOFTENING HIS IMAGE IN THE PROCESS And who would have thought that the woman of color would be lagging behind the usual Democratic margins among Blacks – particularly Black men – and Latinos? Things reached the point where Barack Obama had to scold Black men for sexism, accusing them of not being comfortable with voting for a woman. The battleground polls are tight, so obviously Harris can still win. But she basically needs to camp out in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin rather than trying to pick off these Sunbelt states. In fact, if she had put aside any personal friction and picked Josh Shapiro, she’d probably have more of an edge in his state. Instead, she went with Tim Walz, who’s not helping the ticket much no matter how many pheasants he hunts. He has, however, done well in two straight interviews with “Fox News Sunday.” A major step forward: Harris agreeing yesterday to an interview with Fox anchor Bret Baier, on Wednesday in Pennsylvania. Some headlines are calling this a risky move, but Bret has vast experience with such interviews and will absolutely be fair. The upside for her: reaching the largest audience by far in cable news. Bret said on the air that he believes there’s “a sense that they have inside the campaign, their strategy has to change, they’ve got to change. They’re losing Black males… I think that the campaign realizes they have to do more outreach.” SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES Maybe this is all too much to lay on Kamala’s shoulders. Maybe she’s doing the best she can against a former president whose message is clear and simple: Stop illegal immigration, mass deportations, combat inflation, end wars in the Middle East. And an incumbent is always subject to the counter-charge: Well, why haven’t you done it already? The vice president simply hasn’t been able to generate the excitement that surrounded her initial campaign launch. Three weeks is a