US Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Tim Walz to replace her in her current title as she campaigns for the presidency, creating a more progressive ticket for the Democratic Party as it heads into the pivotal November elections.
Ms Harris said that Mr Walz has “delivered for working families like his”, indicating that his track record of accomplishing more progressive agenda items at the state level played a significant role in her decision.
Mr Walz, 60, was born in the Midwestern state of Nebraska. He worked as a teacher, coached American football and served in the Army National Guard – including teaching stints in China and military deployments to Europe – before entering politics.
He has overseen significant Democratic policy victories in Minnesota since becoming governor in 2019, after about a decade of serving at the national level in the House of Representatives.
That has included expanding reproductive healthcare protections in the state in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's overturning of the federal right to an abortion – a crucial campaign issue for Democrats as they battle anti-abortion Republicans.
As state-level restrictions on reproductive health care ramped up across the US, last year, Minnesota enacted a state constitutional statute recognising the right to an abortion.
Mr Walz recently oversaw the approval of universal free school meals for students, a policy that Ms Harris and US President Joe Biden have worked to expand at the national level.
He has also touted his record of “laying the groundwork to get Minnesota to 100 per cent clean electricity by 2040”, in line with the Biden administration's landmark work to move the US to clean energy and promote electric vehicles under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Progressive climate action groups like Sunrise Movement praised the decision, adding that the “decision shows that Kamala Harris is taking seriously what is needed to rebuild the 2020 Biden-Harris coalition and energise young people, people of colour and union voters ahead of November,” communications director Stevie O'Hanlon said.
But even moderate voices, like former Democrat and now Independent senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, appeared pleased with the choice.
“All of the candidates were strong and any one of them would have been a great pick, but I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together and bring balance back to the Democratic Party,” Mr Manchin said on Tuesday.
Views on the Middle East
As a member of Congress, the vice presidential candidate had a track record of mainstream Democratic positions on the Middle East, including voting in support of military financing for Israel and in favour of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, spearheaded by former president Barack Obama.
He served on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and was a strong advocate for executive restraint on US military action, including eventual criticism of the war in Iraq and calls for restraint from the Obama administration during the civil war in Syria.
Before the outbreak of war in Syria, he went on a diplomatic trip to the Middle East in 2009 and met both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
He would later describe his meeting with Mr Al Assad as “very candid” and “strange”, adding in 2013 that the trip made it “obvious to me he was just trying to hold power for power's sake, and now we're seeing the ramifications of that”.
As the Assad regime's crackdown on opposition escalated and as Mr Obama spoke of “red lines” over chemical weapons, Mr Walz joined more than 100 House members in signing a letter to the president emphasising the constitutional requirement for congressional approval before taking military action against Syria.
'Weird' Republicans
Mr Walz's rise to the vice presidential nomination this year seemed to materialise after he coined “weird” as a now-viral critique of the opposing Republican ticket of former president Donald Trump and his alt-right running mate JD Vance.
That criticism specifically zeroes in on the far-right-supported restrictions on access to reproductive health care, reversing strides made on LGBTQ issues, and Mr Vance's recent comments about how the country is run by Democratic “childless cat ladies” and “corporate oligarchs”.
It marks a shift in Democrats' rhetoric since President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign, which was characterised by more serious and existential warnings about the threat to democracy posed by a second Trump term.
Democrats, including Ms Harris, have since run with “weird” at several campaign rallies and in some comedic-leaning super Pac advertisements.
Republicans have meanwhile ramped up their criticism of Mr Walz.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said without evidence that a Harris-Walz White House would consider progressive Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a fellow Minnesotan and Muslim American, for secretary of state or defence. Ms Omar, a progressive, is a frequent target for Republicans.
And far-right Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who has spread Islamophobic rhetoric against Ms Omar, said on X that “Kamala Harris put an avowed socialist on her ticket”.
“It’s now truly Maga [Make American Great Again] vs Marxism,” she said.
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Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Bio
Born in Dibba, Sharjah in 1972.
He is the eldest among 11 brothers and sisters.
He was educated in Sharjah schools and is a graduate of UAE University in Al Ain.
He has written poetry for 30 years and has had work published in local newspapers.
He likes all kinds of adventure movies that relate to his work.
His dream is a safe and preserved environment for all humankind.
His favourite book is The Quran, and 'Maze of Innovation and Creativity', written by his brother.
UAE - India ties
The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China
Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion
The UAE is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil for India
Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017
Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
Results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1hr 32mins 03.897sec
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda) at 0.745s
3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 37.383s
4. Lando Norris (McLaren) 46.466s
5.Sergio Perez (Red Bull-Honda) 52.047s
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 59.090s
7. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) 1:06.004
8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) 1:07.100
9. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri-Honda) 1:25.692
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1:26.713,
Black Panther
Dir: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o
Five stars
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
