MILWAUKEE: Donald Trump’s narrow brush with a would-be assassin’s bullet has further convinced his evangelical supporters he is blessed by God, reinforcing the messianic undertones of his populist presidential campaign.
Trump and his campaign have infused his candidacy with Christian imagery, prompting critics to accuse them of fostering a cult of personality with him as its leader, solely capable of saving an America he falsely portrays as crime-ridden and on the verge of collapse.
In interviews with 18 delegates on Monday at the Republican Party’s national convention in Milwaukee, all but two believed God had a hand in Trump’s escape from assassination.
Many said that divine intervention was God’s way of showing American voters that Trump, and not President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is the right man to occupy the White House after the election.
“To me, it was God-given protection,” said Sharon D. Regan, a Trump delegate from Florida. “It was miraculous. It was sent by heaven and I pray that protection continues.”
Trump himself cast his narrow escape as the work of God. On Sunday, the eve of his formal nomination as the Republican candidate, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
In both the 2016 and 2020 elections, evangelical voters staunchly supported Trump despite claims of adultery and sexual misconduct, which he denied. Critics in both political parties denounce him as immoral and set on dismantling democracy.
With Trump convicted in May for a hush money payment to a porn star and facing dozens of other criminal charges as he pursues a second term, some Christian media are portraying him as an instrument of God’s will being persecuted by internal foes.
Ray Myers, a Texas delegate, said: “There’s some kind of mystical thing going on. After everything he’s been through, everything that’s been thrown at him, and now he’s even shed his own blood. And he’s still here. I don’t know how else you can explain it, but God is involved.”
For voters who believe that Trump is anointed by God, Saturday’s attempted assassination is “another piece of the puzzle that fell into place,” said Paul Djupe, a political scientist at Denison University who specializes in religion and politics.
Djupe said the shooting helped affirm for those voters that “Trump is battling forces of evil on the other side, and it affirmed his special role as the protector of Christians against the vast forces of evil including Democrats.”
Trump and his followers frequently post images of Trump as a Christ-like figure on social media. T-shirts at his rallies also promote this idea, including one of Jesus laying his hands on Trump’s shoulders.
Melanie Collette, a New Jersey delegate, said there was a strong belief at the convention that “God interceded” to save Trump. But she cautioned: “We certainly don’t want to deify Donald Trump. That’s a cautionary tale for Christians.”
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who is an outspoken critic of Trump, said he does not believe the deification of Trump among his supporters helps Trump in a general election.
“I think it frightens a lot of voters, that a lot of his supporters think he’s the messiah,” Madrid said.
Trump supporters see his narrow escape from death as God’s work
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Trump supporters see his narrow escape from death as God’s work
UN team in Bangladesh to discuss modalities of human rights probe
- About 300 people, many of them university and college students, were killed during protests that began in July
- The student demonstrations led to the ousting of long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
About 300 people, many of them university and college students, were killed during protests that began in July with students agitating against quotas in government jobs before the events spiraled into demonstrations to oust long-serving former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
An interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, was sworn in after Hasina fled the country and flew to New Delhi following the students-led uprising.
The UN office in Bangladesh said in a media advisory that the team from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will be visiting Dhaka from Sept. 22-29.
“The purpose of this visit is to understand their priorities for assistance in promoting human rights,” said the media advisory, adding that Bangladesh’s interim government had requested the UN to probe the killings during the protests.
“It is important to note that this visit is not an investigation, but rather it will focus on discussing the process for investigating human rights violations in light of the recent violence and unrest.”
Rory Mungoven, chief of the Asia Pacific region at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was leading the UN team, which met Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Thursday, according to two Bangladesh foreign ministry officials.
UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, made a phone call to Yunus last week and said a UN-led investigation will be launched “very soon” to probe the killing of the protesters, Yunus’ office said.
A separate fact-finding team will be dispatched to Dhaka in coming weeks to conduct the investigation once details are finalized, the UN added.
Indian state plans law for Muslim marriages and divorces
- The bill is seen as a state-level step toward the government’s proposed common civil code of law
Guwahati: Indian authorities in Assam state have introduced a bill that would require Muslims to register their marriages and divorces, with the chief minister claiming the measure will help stop child marriage.
The bill is seen as a state-level step toward the government’s proposed common civil code of law, which is bitterly opposed by Muslim activists as an attack on their faith.
India’s 1.4 billion people are subject to a common criminal law, but personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance are governed by varying rules based on the traditions of different communities and faiths.
In Assam, it is already mandatory for other religions to register marriages with civil authorities.
Assam’s state government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the bill would be tabled during the next state assembly.
“Our basic intention is to stop child marriages,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of the northeastern state, told reporters Wednesday.
Sarma said the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill would not restrict religious rituals, but only ensure marriages and divorces were registered.
The bill will “provide safeguards and benefits... especially to women and prevent the menace of child marriages,” he said.
Modi said this month he wanted to press ahead with a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to standardise laws for personal matters across faiths and religious communities.
Many communities, particularly Muslims, fear a UCC would encroach on their religious laws.
Modi maintains it would serve as an equalizer.
“Those laws that divide the country on the basis of religion, that become reason for inequality, should have no place in a modern society,” Modi said during an Independence Day address on August 15.
“That is why I say: the times demand that there is a secular civil code in the country.”
Modi won a third successive term in office in June but was forced into a coalition government for the first time in a decade.
The BJP’s Hindu nationalist rhetoric has left India’s Muslim population of more than 220 million increasingly anxious about their future.
India’s Modi urges peace ahead of Ukraine visit
- Narendra Modi will be the first Indian premier to make a Ukraine trip
- The Indian government has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine
WARSAW: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said no conflict could be resolved on a battlefield as he spoke in Poland on the eve of his historic visit to war-torn Ukraine.
Modi will be the first Indian premier to make a Ukraine trip and is the first in 45 years to visit Poland, Kyiv’s loyal ally that is a key transit for foreign leaders heading to its war-torn neighbor.
The Indian government has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, instead urging both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.
“It is India’s strong belief that no problem can be resolved on a battlefield,” Modi said in Warsaw, adding his country supports “dialogue and diplomacy for restoration of peace and stability as soon as possible.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed Modi and his delegation at the seat of government, with flags of both countries hoisted outside the building and their anthems played by the military band.
“History has taught our nations the importance of respecting the rules, respecting borders, territorial integrity,” Tusk said as he spoke to reporters alongside the Indian leader.
Tusk also added that Modi “reaffirmed his willingness to commit himself personally to a peaceful, just, quick end to the war.”
After the talks, Modi will lay a wreath at a war memorial in central Warsaw before heading for talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Later on Thursday the Indian leader is expected to leave the Polish capital to travel to neighboring Ukraine for his first visit to the country fighting to stave off the Russian invasion.
Modi has trodden a delicate balance between maintaining India’s historically warm ties with Russia while courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against regional rival China.
“As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region,” Modi said in a statement published Wednesday before his departure for Poland.
In Kyiv, Modi will hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and “share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict,” the statement added.
On Wednesday, Modi commemorated an Indian maharaja who sheltered Polish children during World War II, laying flowers at the marble lotus-crowned monument erected in Warsaw in honor of the maharaja.
In a little-known story linking the two nations, the maharaja hosted Polish children in what is now Gujarat — Modi’s home state where he was chief minister before launching national political career.
The Indian leader announced a youth exchange program named after the maharaja, under which 20 Polish young people would be invited to India each year.
“We are finally starting to have the right level of political and diplomatic relations,” Polish deputy foreign minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski said about the visit.
He said Warsaw was counting on cooperation with India in “in the agricultural sector, in the IT sector, in the security sector, in the new technology sector, especially green technology.”
Modi on Wednesday delivered a speech in Hindi to the Indian community in Warsaw, promising “a drastic expansion of Indian economy in coming years.”
He is expected to meet with Leszek Balcerowicz, a former Polish finance minister and free market pioneer who steered Poland’s economic transition from communism to capitalism in early 1990s.
According to the Indian Embassy, Modi will also meet captains of kabaddi teams — a tag-meets-rugby contact team sport rooted in Indian mythology and said to date back 5,000 years.
Floods swamp Bangladesh as nation finds its feet after protests
- At least two people have died and hundreds of thousands are stranded in the floods in at least eight districts
- Around 2.9 million people have been affected and more than 70,000 people have been taken to shelters
DHAKA: Floods triggered by torrential rains have swamped a swath of low-lying Bangladesh, disaster officials said Thursday, adding to the new government’s challenges after weeks of political turmoil.
At least two people have died and hundreds of thousands are stranded in the floods in at least eight districts in southern and eastern areas.
“Around 2.9 million people have been affected and more than 70,000 people have been taken to shelters,” Mohammad Nazmul Abedin, senior official in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told AFP.
Long-time premier Sheikh Hasina quit as prime minister this month and fled to India after weeks of deadly student-led protests, ending her 15-year autocratic rule.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people, crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, has seen frequent floods in recent decades.
It is among the countries most vulnerable to disasters and climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.
The annual monsoon rains cause widespread destruction every year, but climate change is shifting weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events.
The army and the navy have been deployed, with speedboats and helicopters rescuing those stranded by the swollen rivers.
Much of the country is made up of deltas where the Himalayan rivers the Ganges and the Brahmaputra wind toward the sea after coursing through India.
Neighbouring India’s foreign ministry rejected accusations it was to blame for the floods, denying it had deliberately released water from an upstream dam.
It said the catchment area had experienced the “heaviest rains of this year over the last few days,” and that the flow of water downstream was due to “automatic releases.”
Asif Mahmud, a key leader of the student protests that ousted Hasina, and now the sports minister in the interim cabinet, had accused India of not only hosting Hasina, but of “creating a flood” by deliberately releasing water from dams.
India said that was “factually not correct.”
“Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation toward resolving them,” New Delhi’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Hasina’s rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government preferred Hasina over her rivals from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which it saw as closer to conservative Islamist groups.
Modi has offered his support to the new Bangladeshi leader Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the caretaker administration.
Thailand confirms Asia’s first known case of new mpox strain
- Clade 1b causes death in about 3.6 percent of cases, with children more at risk, according to the WHO
- Mpox much less likely to spread rapidly than COVID-19 because of the close contact needed to catch it
BANGKOK: Thailand on Thursday confirmed Asia’s first known case of a new, deadlier strain of mpox in a patient who had traveled to the kingdom from Africa.
The patient landed in Bangkok on August 14 and was sent to hospital with mpox symptoms.
The Department of Disease Control said laboratory tests on the 66-year-old European confirmed he was infected with mpox Clade 1b.
“Thailand’s Department of Disease Control wishes to confirm the lab test result which shows mpox Clade 1b in a European patient,” the department said in a statement, adding that the World Health Organization (WHO) would be informed of the development.
“We have monitored 43 people who have been in close contact with the patient and so far they have shown no symptoms, but we must continue monitoring for a total of 21 days.”
Anyone traveling to Thailand from 42 “risk countries” must register and undergo testing on arrival, the department said.
Mpox cases and deaths are surging in Africa, where outbreaks have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since July.
The World Health Organization has declared a global public health emergency over the new variant of mpox, urging manufacturers to ramp up production of vaccines.
The disease — caused by a virus transmitted by infected animals but passed from human to human through close physical contact — causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
While mpox has been known for decades, a new deadlier and more transmissible strain — known as Clade 1b — has driven the recent surge in cases.
Clade 1b causes death in about 3.6 percent of cases, with children more at risk, according to the WHO.
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, head of the Thai Department of Disease Control, said that mpox was much less likely to spread rapidly than COVID-19 because of the close contact needed to catch it.
