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India’s Modi creates conundrum for US political leaders

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FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden, left, and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks during the G20 leaders summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 15, 2022. Biden has made it a mission for the U.S. to build friendships overseas, and the next few weeks will offer a vivid demonstration of the importance he’s placing on a relationship with Modi. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, Pool, File)

Washington will welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with open arms Thursday, highlighting a bipartisan effort to move past the many differences in the U.S.-India relationship and focus on their shared problem: China.

The Indian premier’s trip comes amid a push for defense and tech deals between the two countries, and as some lawmakers and human rights groups voice criticism of the trip, viewing Modi and his political party as responsible for violence in India directed toward the country’s Muslim minority.

Modi’s invitation to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress — which will be his second such speech — has raised alarm for activists and groups critical of his administration’s push toward silencing dissenters in India.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) tweeted that she will boycott the speech, and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) announced she’ll hold a press conference with human rights groups directly after the prime minister’s address. The lawmakers are the only two Muslim women elected to Congress.

The Biden administration has signaled it views the visit as an important step in strengthening U.S.-India ties, fanning worries among critics that the White House is willing to soften criticisms in exchange for advancing a powerful economic and military relationship.

“My hope is that this visit basically consecrates the U.S. and India relationship as the most important bilateral relationship for the United States on the global stage,” Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific said during an event with the Hudson Institute earlier this month.

“I think the president is less about outward and ostentatious proselytizing about democracy and human rights and more about trying to let our model and our attempt to deal with our own challenges be a kind of model for how other countries might want to deal with their own challenges,” he added.

India, a democracy with a population of more than 1.4 billion and a reputation as a hub for innovation, is a priority business market that the Biden administration feels can serve as an alternative to China.

Though the U.S. and India have different priorities when it comes to China — New Delhi is more concerned about Beijing’s military buildup on its border than an invasion of Taiwan — U.S. lawmakers see a strong partner.

“One senior Indian official — I asked him what India’s greatest challenges were, he said, ‘No. 1 was China, No. 2 was China, No. 3 was China,’” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), co-chairman of the Senate India Caucus and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said on a panel discussion last week.

The scope and scale of economic and security deals that could come to fruition from Modi’s visit are being watched closely.

“I want deals to go through,” Atul Keshap, president of the United States-India Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview with The Hill.

“The defense deals, the energy deals, the digital economy deals, the e-commerce, supply chain, manufacturing deals, semiconductor deals — business-to-business is part of the glue of this relationship. … Deal flow is critical for me, and I’m looking to see what the tally sheet shows after the State visit.”

One such priority agreement is the Biden administration’s signoff for General Electric to partner with Indian defense manufacturing to produce next-generation fighter jet engines, a lucrative deal that also requires the U.S. to share sensitive military technology.

The agreement is part of a larger trend wherein the U.S. has engaged India in critical security partnerships in a counter to China, such as the “Quad” grouping of the U.S., India, Australia and Japan, and the I2U2 — a separate alliance including Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

But while Washington and Delhi have shored up military partnerships and set the stage for deepening economic ties, human rights groups and lawmakers are raising alarm that the president is abandoning his promise to put respect for human rights at the center of his foreign policy.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), along with more than 70 of their colleagues, sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday urging him to raise with Modi the need to protect human rights and democratic values in India.

Groups have criticized the White House for rolling out the red carpet for Modi over weakening press freedoms and silencing dissenters in India and stressed the Biden administration is “whitewashing” his record.

“America knows and the world knows what Modi is, who Modi is, in fact, he was not even allowed to come to the United States for nine years until he became prime minister,” said Rasheed Ahmed, executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council, referring to the U.S. in 2005 banning Modi’s entry due to anti-Muslim violence that took place in Gujarat state when he was a governor.

“So it’s not that the U.S. administration does not know what he has done or what he is responsible for. But in spite of that, the Biden administration providing him this kind of platform is a real problem here,” he said, adding that military and strategic economic ties should not be a free pass for the Indian prime minister “to do whatever he wants to do.”

“If the Biden administration is interested in India as a strategic partner, as a bulwark for China, they need to make sure that it is first of all, it is stable, and second, it is a democracy,” Ahmed said.

There’s also the issue of New Delhi’s close ties with Moscow — a relationship that stretches back to the Soviet Union and has left Russia as a key arms supplier to India.

India has fiercely guarded its position of nonalignment and neutrality since the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, despite pressure from the Biden administration to turn away from Moscow.

That tension could play out when India hosts the G20 summit in September, where Russian President Vladimir Putin faces few barriers in attendance. New Delhi is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and not obligated to act on an ICC arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) called it “a little bit disappointing, when Russia invaded Ukraine, India took a pass,” but pointed to the need to wean New Delhi off of dependency on weapons from the Kremlin.

“They’re coming our way … and it can’t happen fast enough.”

 

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Harris tells Black churchgoers that people must show compassion and respect in their lives

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STONECREST, Ga. (AP) — Kamala Harris told the congregation of a large Black church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday that people must show compassion and respect in their daily lives and do more than just “preach the values.”

The Democratic presidential nominee’s visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on her 60th birthday, marked by a song by the congregation, was part of a broad, nationwide campaign, known as “Souls to the Polls,” that encourages Black churchgoers to vote.

Pastor Jamal Bryant said the vice president was “an American hero, the voice of the future” and “our fearless leader.” He also used his sermon to welcome the idea of America electing a woman for the first time as president. “It takes a real man to support a real woman,” Bryant said.

“When Black women roll up their sleeves, then society has got to change,” the pastor said.

Harris told the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke, about a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers. The traveler was beaten and left bloodied, but helped by a stranger.

All faiths promote the idea of loving thy neighbor, Harris said, but far harder to achieve is truly loving a stranger as if that person were a neighbor.

“In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told the congregation. “The true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”

She was more somber than during her political rallies, stressing that real faith means defending humanity. She said the Samaritan parable reminds people that “it is not enough to preach the values of compassion and respect. We must live them.”

Harris ended by saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” as attendees applauded her.

Many in attendance wore pink to promote breast cancer awareness. Also on hand was Opal Lee, an activist in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. Harris hugged her.

The vice president also has a midday stop at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro with singer Stevie Wonder, before taping an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton that will air later Sunday on MSNBC. The schedule reflects her campaign’s push to treat every voting group like a swing state voter, trying to appeal to them all in a tightly contested election with early voting in progress.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, headed to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife, Gwen, was going to a service in Las Vegas.

The “Souls to the Polls” effort launched last week and is led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states as early voting begins in the Nov. 5 election.

“My father used to say, a ‘voteless people is a powerless people’ and one of the most important steps we can take is that short step to the ballot box,” Martin Luther King III said Friday. “When Black voters are organized and engaged, we have the power to shift the trajectory of this nation.”

On Saturday, the vice president rallied supporters in Detroit with singer Lizzo before traveling to Atlanta to focus on abortion rights, highlighting the death of a Georgia mother amid the state’s restrictive abortion laws that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade.

And after her Sunday push, she will campaign with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.

Harris is a Baptist whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. She has said she’s inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s native India as well as the Black Church. Harris sang in the choir as a child at Twenty Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland.

“Souls to the Polls” as an idea traces back to the Civil Rights Movement. The Rev. George Lee, a Black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after he helped nearly 100 Black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried has served as a polling place.

Black church congregations across the country have undertaken get-out-the-vote campaigns for years. In part to counteract voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the Black community is stressed from pulpits nearly as much as it is by candidates.

In Georgia, early voting began on Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted on that day, more than doubling the first-day total in 2020. A record 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the mobilization effort launched last week, not Oct. 20.

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NDP and B.C. Conservatives locked in tight battle after rain-drenched election day

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VANCOUVER – Predictions of a close election were holding true in British Columbia on Saturday, with early returns showing the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives locked in a tight battle.

Both NDP Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad retained their seats, while Green Leader Sonia Furstenau lost to the NDP’s Grace Lore after switching ridings to Victoria-Beacon Hill.

However, the Greens retained their place in the legislature after Rob Botterell won in Saanich North and the Islands, previously occupied by party colleague Adam Olsen, who did not seek re-election.

It was a rain-drenched election day in much of the province.

Voters braved high winds and torrential downpours brought by an atmospheric river weather system that forced closures of several polling stations due to power outages.

Residents faced a choice for the next government that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago, between the incumbent New Democrats led by Eby and Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote last election

Among the winners were the NDP’s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon in Delta North and Attorney General Niki Sharma in Vancouver-Hastings, as well as the Conservatives Bruce Banman in Abbotsford South and Brent Chapman in Surrey South.

Chapman had been heavily criticized during the campaign for an old social media post that called Palestinian children “inbred” and “time bombs.”

Results came in quickly, as promised by Elections BC, with electronic vote tabulation being used provincewide for the first time.

The election authority expected the count would be “substantially complete” by 9 p.m., one hour after the close of polls.

Six new seats have been added since the last provincial election, and to win a majority, a party must secure 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature.

There had already been a big turnout before election day on Saturday, with more than a million advance votes cast, representing more than 28 per cent of valid voters and smashing the previous record for early polling.

The wild weather on election day was appropriate for such a tumultuous campaign.

Once considered a fringe player in provincial politics, the B.C. Conservatives stand on the brink of forming government or becoming the official Opposition.

Rustad’s unlikely rise came after he was thrown out of the Opposition, then known as the BC Liberals, joined the Conservatives as leader, and steered them to a level of popularity that led to the collapse of his old party, now called BC United — all in just two years.

Rustad shared a photo on social media Saturday showing himself smiling and walking with his wife at a voting station, with a message saying, “This is the first time Kim and I have voted for the Conservative Party of BC!”

Eby, who voted earlier in the week, posted a message on social media Saturday telling voters to “grab an umbrella and stay safe.”

Two voting sites in Cariboo-Chilcotin in the B.C. Interior and one in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland were closed due to power cuts, Elections BC said, while several sites in Kamloops, Langley and Port Moody, as well as on Hornby, Denman and Mayne islands, were temporarily shut but reopened by mid-afternoon.

Some former BC United MLAs running as Independents were defeated, with Karin Kirkpatrick, Dan Davies, Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka all losing to Conservatives.

Kirkpatrick had said in a statement before the results came in that her campaign had been in touch with Elections BC about the risk of weather-related disruptions, and was told that voting tabulation machines have battery power for four hours in the event of an outage.

— With files from Brenna Owen

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Breakingnews: B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad elected in his riding

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VANDERHOOF, B.C. – British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad has been re-elected in his riding of Nechako Lakes.

Rustad was kicked out of the Opposition BC United Party for his support on social media of an outspoken climate change critic in 2022, and last year was acclaimed as the B.C. Conservative leader.

Buoyed by the BC United party suspending its campaign, and the popularity of Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives, Rustad led his party into contention in the provincial election.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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