British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has often said the UK supports Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international law and to fight against Hamas after the terror group launched an attack on Tel Aviv on October 7…reports Asian Lite News
The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris met with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday and discussed the support for Israel’s right to defend itself as well as the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The two leaders also discussed “working together” on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and continued support for Ukraine.
“Today, I met with Prime Minister @RishiSunak and discussed our support for Israel’s right to defend itself and the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Together we are committed to helping civilians in need,” Harris posted on X.
“PM Sunak and I reaffirmed the importance of our strong and enduring partnership. We also discussed our continued support to the people of Ukraine and our work together on AI — including how our new AI Safety Institutes will collaborate with each other,” she added.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has often said the UK supports Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international law and to fight against Hamas after the terror group launched an attack on Tel Aviv on October 7.
“I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international law, to go after Hamas…We also recognise that the Palestinian people are victims of Hamas too,” the British PM said while delivering a joint statement alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu post their private meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem last week.
Protesters in London gathered outside Number 10 Downing Street as US Vice President Kamala Harris met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Sunak said he was “sorry” to visit Israel in “such terrible circumstances”. He said: “In the last two weeks, this country has gone through something that no country, no people should have to endure, least of all Israel…” He further said he welcomes Israel’s decision to ensure that routes into Gaza will be opened for humanitarian aid to enter.
Harris hopes to build on themes of African innovation and technology, regional security, food security, women empowerment, climate and democracy, officials said, adding that she will bring with her continent-wide public and private sector investments…reports Asian Lite News
Amid strained US, China ties, Kamala Harris is set to embark on a historic Africa trip, becoming the first woman US Vice President to visit the continent.
Harris’ historic trip will come nearly eight years after former President Barack Obama made his last trip to the region while in office. Obama’s first trip to the region was met with great fanfare, in large part due to his father’s Kenyan roots. “I’m going to Africa mainly to talk with African leaders about what we as the United States are prepared to do to have our role in investing in the future of that continent,” Harris said in a radio interview.
Administration officials previewing the vice president’s trip said it’s a “future-oriented” expedition to deepen relationships, crafted to recognize that the median age of citizens of the continent is 19 years old and its population is rapidly expanding.
Harris hopes to build on themes of African innovation and technology, regional security, food security, women empowerment, climate and democracy, officials said, adding that she will bring with her continent-wide public and private sector investments.
“The Vice President is visiting the three countries where the government (is) investing in democracies, specifically at a time where we know there is a global democratic recession,” a senior administration official said on the call with reporters.
After departing Washington on Saturday, Harris will land in Accra on Sunday afternoon. From there begins a six-day march through three countries’ capital cities, where Harris will hold bilateral meetings with all three top leaders including Tanzania’s first female President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
In Ghana, Harris will deliver a high-profile speech to young people before visiting the famous Cape Coast Castle, a relic of the slave trade system in West Africa and beyond. And in Zambia, Harris will convene US and local business leaders to discuss digital and financial leadership, reported CNN.
“The United States believes Africa is critical to addressing global challenges. And we view her visit as another opportunity to consult and engage with partners on our shared objectives,” a senior administration official said.
Notably, the Biden administration is accelerating its efforts to secure sustainable African partnerships to counter the weight of China and Russia’s rising influence and Harris will be the highest-ranking Biden official to visit Africa to confront that challenge.
The issue of China and its influence will hang in the backdrop of nearly all of Harris’ closely watched engagements as officials seek to reassert US leadership in African nations to counter rival investments that have put the US on the back foot.
In the wake of the US absence from the region, amplified by former President Donald Trump largely ignoring Africa and never visiting the continent, other nations made inroads. China has worked to grow trade relations with African nations and has developed major infrastructure projects there, some with high-interest loans.
Harris will see one of the clearest examples of China’s influence when she flies into Zambia. Air Force Two will land at the newly renovated Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka, financed and designed with Chinese money.
The VP’s motorcade will likely drive down roads also financed by Chinese loans and pass buildings with Chinese advertisements.
When Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited the rapidly expanding country in January, she called on China to restructure Zambia’s billions of dollars of debt. Yellen warned that the scale of debt threatens progress as China holds about $6 billion out of $17 billion of the country’s external debt.
A senior administration official said that Harris will have direct discussions about debt with officials during a slate of meetings in Zambia and other nations like Ghana.
Meanwhile, experts say Harris will have to convey the US’ sincerity of its long-term commitment to the region and that her previous promises that the US would be a “better partner” for economic stability still ring true.
In addition to her meeting in Zambia with US and local business leaders, Harris will meet with tech entrepreneurs in Tanzania and women entrepreneurs in Ghana.
Harris’ trip is the latest of several US officials, who plan on visiting or have visited, Africa. First Lady Jill Biden returned from her trip to Africa last month. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also visited the continent earlier this year. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Ethiopia and Niger last week, and President Joe Biden is expected to visit the continent later this year. (ANI
5th T20I: Harris, Gardner, Graham power Australia to 4-1 series win over India. (Credit : Australia Women/twitter)
The 26-year-old Graham, who was playing just her third T20I, became the second Australian woman to take a T20I hat-trick. The first, Megan Schutt, achieved the feat at the same venue in 2018…reports Asian Lite News
Australia Women finished their tour of India in style as an extraordinary partnership between Ashleigh Gardner and Grace Harris followed by a Heather Graham hat-trick powered them to an emphatic 54-run win in the fifth and final T20I and 4-1 series win over the hosts at Brabourne Stadium, here on Tuesday.
Gardner (66 not out off 32) and Harris (64 not out off 35) put on a staggering display of timing and power to stitch an unbeaten 129-run partnership for the fifth wicket and guide Australia to 196-4, their highest total of the series.
The 26-year-old Graham then picked up 4-8, including a hat-trick spread across two overs, as India were bowled out for 142 on the final ball of the innings, sealing a 4-1 result in Australia’s favour. She removed Devika Vaidya (11) and Radha Yadav (0) in the 13th over, then returned to bowl Renuka Thakur with the first ball of the final over.
The 26-year-old Graham, who was playing just her third T20I, became the second Australian woman to take a T20I hat-trick. The first, Megan Schutt, achieved the feat at the same venue in 2018.
Put into bat by India for a fourth consecutive match, Australian opener Beth Mooney was joined by fellow left-hander Phoebe Litchfield at the top of the order in place of the injured Alyssa Healy. But the new-look opening partnership was broken in just seven balls into the match when Mooney was dismissed by Anjali Sarvani.
Litchfield’s first boundary in international cricket came via a picture-perfect straight drive but she couldn’t carry on for long and was stumped for 11 in Deepti Sharma’s over.
The No.3 Tahlia McGrath got going with two maximums but her first innings as Australia skipper ended when she was stumped on 26 off 26. Ellyse Perry (18) cut to the boundary the first ball but she was denied a third consecutive half-century when she holed out to long-on in the 10th over.
Australia were 72/4 when Harris and Gardner came together in the 10th over of the innings and what followed was carnage as they smashed 129 runs off the final 10.2 overs at a rate of 12.64.
Harris’s first international fifty came off 28 balls while Gardner raced to her half-century in just 26 deliveries. Gardner cleared the rope just once but was punishing along the ground hitting 11 fours while Harris smacked four sixes and six fours.
After putting a massive total on the board, Darcie Brown got the wicket of Smriti Mandhana (4) in the first over and Shafali Verma (13) holed out in the deep to Gardner in the 5th over.
Meanwhile, Harleen Doel made a positive start after being promoted to No.3 but a mix-up saw her run out for a 16-ball 24. And, when Harmanpreet Kaur (12) was trapped lbw and Richa Ghosh (10) was superbly caught on the rope by Graham, India were in all sorts of trouble at 70-5 in 9.2 overs.
Deepti Sharma gave the strong crowd something to cheer about late with an unbeaten 34-ball 53, but India finished well adrift of their target of 198. Apart from Graham, Gardner was once again brilliant for Australia, taking 2-20 off her four overs.
With this, Australia closed their book in 2022 which saw them win both the one-day World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold, alongside bilateral series against England and India, and a tri-series against Ireland and Pakistan.
Brief scores: Australia Women 196/4 in 20 overs (Gardner 66 not out, Harris 64 not out) beat India Women 142 all out in 20 overs (Deepti 53; Gardner 2-20) by 54 runs.
During her 29-year Navy career, she had commanded the USS Decatur, a missile destroyer ship with a crew of 281, including 33 commissioned officers…reports Asian Lite News
Shanti Sethi, a trail-blazing woman Navy veteran has been appointed defence advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Politico.
Politico said on Monday that Harris’s Senior Advisor Herbie Ziskend confirmed the appointment of Sethi, who will also have the title of executive secretary.
Sethi, who retired with the rank of captain, was the senior military advisor to Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.
During her 29-year Navy career, she had commanded the USS Decatur, a missile destroyer ship with a crew of 281, including 33 commissioned officers.
While heading the ship, she had taken it on a visit to Chennai in 2011.
She has also been the Commanding Officer of the Sixth Fleet’s Task Force 64 and the action officer coordinating joint and international policy for integrated air and missile defence across all military services, according to her LinkedIn profile which has been updated to confirm her new position with Harris.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
President blames Trump for dysfunction at the border, denies perception of him as welcoming was driving the surge of migrants, reports Asian Lite News.
US President Joe Biden is planning to run for re-election with Kamala Harris as his running mate.
“I would fully expect that to be the case. She’s doing a great job. She’s a great partner, she’s a great partner,” he said when asked about his vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 election at his news conference on Thursday.
A reporter pointed out that former President Donald Trump had set up his re-election campaign soon after taking office but Biden hasn’t yet.
“My predecessor need do to,” he said and joked, “My predecessor, oh God, I miss him.”
He said, “My plan is to run for reelection. That’s my expectation. I don’t even think about (it),” he said about the prospects of facing his nemesis Trump again. “I have no idea if there will be a Republican Party. Do you?”
Turning philosophical, he said: “The way I view things, I’ve become a great respecter of fate in my life.”
He said that his goal is to “change the paradigm. We start to reward work, not just wealth.”
He will be 81 years old in 2024.
Having already exceeded the goal of giving out 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine before the target day of 100 days in office, he raised the target to 200 million shots.
This was Biden’s first news conference and the 64-day lag since taking office was longest of recent presidents.
The hour-long formal encounter with reporters was a marked contrast to the confrontational style of Trump and the reporters. When he entered the East Room of the White House, the reporters respectfully stood up to greet him.
Since he is gaffe-prone when he speaks spontaneously, the encounter was carefully orchestrated with Biden calling up reporters from an apparently screened list on the podium of only reporters from media considered sympathetic to him.
Unlike Trump, who spontaneously called on reporters hostile to him and had it out, Biden did not take questions from anyone from media like Fox News that White House considers unfriendly.
Biden often looked at notes when answering questions.
(Xinhua/IANS)
The few times he raised his voice were when he condemned the Republicans for their opposition to voting rights legislation proposed by his party to expand access to polling.
He said that it is “sick”, “despicable” and “un-American”.
The selected reporters mostly obliged him with softball the questions.
The only forceful questions that put him on the defensive were about the migration crisis at the Mexico border, where thousands of people are trying to enter the country and children are being held under appalling conditions.
He blamed Trump for the dysfunction at the border and denied that the perception of him as welcoming was driving the surge of migrants.
He quipped, “I guess I should be flattered if people are coming because I’m the nice guy.”
But he distanced himself from the assertion that his attitude towards immigrants was bringing in more of them and said the surge “happens every single, solitary year… in winter when it’s cooler.
Biden said that Trump “dismantled all the elements that exist to deal with what had been a problem and — and has been — continued to be a problem for a long time”.
Biden said that most of those coming in were being sent back to Mexico but he was welcoming of children coming by themselves.
“The only people we’re not going to let sitting there on the other side of the Rio Grande (border) by themselves with no help are children,” he said.
He has been crticised for keeping children in the border patrol custody for longer than the 72 hours mandated by courts.
He acknowledged that some are held in “circumstances that are not acceptable” and said it could be resolved by sending the children to their relatives sooner and by creating more facilities to hold them.
Biden described Harris as someone compared to whom nobody “is better qualified to do this…reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden announced that he picked Vice President Kamala Harris as the point person in the country’s diplomatic efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries in Central America to stem migration at the southern border.
Biden made the announcement at the White House on Wednesday, describing Harris as someone compared to whom nobody “is better qualified to do this,” citing the vice president’s experience as California’s former attorney general.
Faced with bipartisan pressure to tackle the surge of immigrants, especially unaccompanied children seeking reunion with their parents in the United States, at the US-Mexico border, Biden acknowledged there was a “serious spike” in people heading to the southern border even during the previous administration.
US President Joe Biden
“This new surge we are dealing with now started in the past administration but it is our responsibility” to resolve the problem, he said.
Senior administration officials briefing reporters on the decision said Wednesday that Harris will work along two tracks: in the near term, “stemming the flow of irregular migrants” to the United States; and in the longer term, establishing a “strategic partnership” with Mexico and countries in the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — that is “based on respect and shared values, to enhance prosperity, combat current corruption, and strengthen the rule of law.”
The new role of Harris resembles that of Biden when he was vice president and asked by then President Barack Obama in 2014 and 2015 to lead diplomatic efforts in the Northern Triangle after a surge of unaccompanied minors from those countries began arriving in the United States.
Harris said Wednesday that there is “no question this is a challenging situation,” stressing the need to enforce laws and address the root causes in the meantime. She said she looked forward to engaging in diplomacy with the relevant countries, as well as reaching out to the private sector.
Administration officials including Roberta Jacobson, special assistant to the president and coordinator for the southwest border, and Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, travelled to Mexico and Guatemala this week to discuss with officials there plans to stop migrants from fleeing the countries.
