In today’s America, Bill Wiley is a rare find: a farmer who votes Democrat.
Mr Wiley lives in a rural county in western Ohio where more than 81 per cent of voters backed Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
But Mr Wiley says he has a good reason for voting Democrat: he relies on the help of guest workers – people who come on temporary visas for jobs in fields such as agriculture – to run his 147-hectare farm in Shelby County, where the back-breaking work includes harvesting 6ha of ornamental pumpkins and gourds.
“I would not be able to harvest some of my crops without physical, manual labour,” he says.
The number of visas granted to temporary agricultural workers grew during the administration of president Donald Trump, keeping pace with previous expansions, but some farmers are still concerned.
Mr Trump has frequently used anti-immigrant launguage and some believe that if he were to win the election in November, he would restrict immigration across the board.
That would affect not only thousands of farmers dependent on immigrant labour, but all Americans, as cutting down on this source of labour is likely to increase the cost of food.
“Our whole economy could not be as successful as it is without immigrant labour,” Mr Wiley says.
Rural America was once a happy hunting ground for Democrats. In the 1996 presidential election, Bill Clinton won about 1,100 rural counties.
But in recent decades, the Republican Party has taken firm control. On his way to winning the White House four years ago, Joe Biden won only 194 rural counties.
Although rural America is overwhelmingly populated by Trump supporters, change may be under way before the November election as Democrats chase voters in the countryside.
Dirt Road PAC, a new fundraising effort for Democratic Party candidates running in rural America, has pledged to spend millions of dollars reviving the party's profile, which for most of the past century relied heavily on blue-collar workers such as farmers and coal miners for votes.
Other Democratic-leaning groups such as Democrats 101 and Third Way are also putting huge efforts into reclaiming rural American voters .
“We have a 38 per cent win rate, which I think really shows there’s an appetite for change, that people want choices on their ballot,” says Daniel Jubelirer of Contest Every Race.
The initiative has helped more than 7,000 candidates run as Democrats in hyper-local races in about 350 counties.
Founded in 2018 after a gap was identified in the Democratic ecosystem where the party was not recruiting enough candidates to run for office, especially outside major urban areas, Contest Every Race claims its efforts have resulted in a 3 per cent increase in votes for Democrats in some parts of rural America.
Mr Jubelirer says that national Democrats in 2016 did not show up in rural America or speak about rural issues in a compelling way – but that’s changing.
“We have the second-highest rural population in North Carolina [a swing state],” he says.
“When you’re talking about millions of rural voters, a 1 per cent, 2 per cent increase in rural voters can be the margin in some of these really close states.”
This is happening at a time when support for Mr Trump in rural America appears not to be as stable as before: in the 2022 midterms, Democratic Party candidates won more rural votes than expected.
That was largely due to candidates aligning with more centrist views that include controlling immigration flows and government spending.
While Mr Biden remains deeply unpopular among rural voters, moderate Democrats running in local and state-level electoral races are faring better.
In Pennsylvania, a critical swing state, John Fetterman, the US senator, outpolled Mr Biden in all but five counties in the 2022 midterm elections.
In Michigan, where Mr Biden won the 2020 election by only 154,000 votes, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, also a Democrat, won her re-election in 2022 by almost half a million votes.
It is still unclear how his replacement on the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, will fare, although her pick of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as running mate indicates she will be trying to woo rural voters back to the party.
The challenges facing Democrats in rural America are significant. As Mr Jubelirer says, Republicans have built a formidable political machine, controlling all but three state legislatures in more than a dozen states across middle America.
But that does not mean Democrats are not trying.
On a cool Thursday evening in June, about 40 people gathered at the public library in Sidney, the county seat of Shelby County, to help turn give the Democratic Party a boost in this ruby-red corner of America.
Participants talk of how in the 1980s and 1990s, about half of local political representatives were members of the Democratic Party. Today they have been nearly wiped out.
Speakers talk about wanting to “get Democrats out from hiding".
Those attending say they cannot align with the Republican Party because it has become a cult of personality, focused on Mr Trump, and that it does not support children after they are born, including their education.
As to their reasons for being Democrats, they cite how the party supports health care and fosters an acceptance of all people. Others mention the importance of protecting women’s personal autonomy.
Among them is Mr Wiley, for whom meeting regulations and paying a litany of fees to secure immigrant labour for the harvesting season is front of mind.
Those requirements included getting his drinking water and housing conditions checked annually to meet programme standards.
Mr Wiley spends hundreds of dollars on visa processing, transfers, flights to and from his workers’ home countries and other requirements.
On top of that, he is required to pay the labourers $18.18 an hour – more than $10 an hour above the federal minimum wage.
All that is after he has made sure – through advertising and other methods – that no American has come forward for the job first.
For him, while current immigration policies do not work, they are likely to worsen under Mr Trump.
“Businesses are struggling to find workers or are having to get illegal [immigrants]," Mr Wiley says.
"We’re shooting ourselves in the foot if we stop [allowing immigrants to enter the country], let alone deport people.
"What we need to do is find out a way to streamline the process so that we can get the workers we need.
“The bottom line is that this country is built on immigrant labour.”
The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders
Stuart Kells, Counterpoint Press
The specs: Volvo XC40
Price: base / as tested: Dh185,000
Engine: 2.0-litre, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 250hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.4L / 100km
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
More coverage from the Future Forum
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.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
The five pillars of Islam
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
The view from The National
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The biog
Age: 30
Position: Senior lab superintendent at Emirates Global Aluminium
Education: Bachelor of science in chemical engineering, post graduate degree in light metal reduction technology
Favourite part of job: The challenge, because it is challenging
Favourite quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Gandi
The years Ramadan fell in May
The cost of Covid testing around the world
Egypt
Dh514 for citizens; Dh865 for tourists
Information can be found through VFS Global.
Jordan
Dh212
Centres include the Speciality Hospital, which now offers drive-through testing.
Cambodia
Dh478
Travel tests are managed by the Ministry of Health and National Institute of Public Health.
Zanzibar
AED 295
Zanzibar Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, located within the Lumumba Secondary School compound.
Abu Dhabi
Dh85
Abu Dhabi’s Seha has test centres throughout the UAE.
UK
From Dh400
Heathrow Airport now offers drive through and clinic-based testing, starting from Dh400 and up to Dh500 for the PCR test.
The years Ramadan fell in May
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:
Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Game is on BeIN Sports
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What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
More on animal trafficking
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
Fixtures
Tuesday - 5.15pm: Team Lebanon v Alger Corsaires; 8.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Pharaohs
Wednesday - 5.15pm: Pharaohs v Carthage Eagles; 8.30pm: Alger Corsaires v Abu Dhabi Storms
Thursday - 4.30pm: Team Lebanon v Pharaohs; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Carthage Eagles
Friday - 4.30pm: Pharaohs v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Team Lebanon
Saturday - 4.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Team Lebanon
RESULTS
5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Turf) 2,200m
Winner: M'A Yaromoon, Jesus Rosales (jockey), Khalifa Al Neydai (trainer)
5.30pm: Khor Al Baghal – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: No Riesgo Al Maury, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
6pm: Khor Faridah – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: JAP Almahfuz, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Mahmouda, Pat Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AS Jezan, George Buckell, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
7.30pm: Khor Laffam – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Dolman, Antonio Fresu, Bhupath Seemar
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Honeymoonish
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Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
RESULTS
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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