Promising to introduce a reciprocal tax if elected to power, former US president and Republican Candidate Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that India, among several major countries, imposes highest tariffs on imported products, PTI reported. "Perhaps the most important element of my plan to make America extraordinarily wealthy again is reciprocity. It's a word that's very important in my plan because we generally don't charge tariffs. I started that process, it was so great, with the vans and the small trucks, etc. We really don't charge. China will charge us a 200 per cent tariff. Brazil is a big charger. The biggest charger of all is India," Trump said in a major economic policy speech in Detroit. "India is a very big charger. We have a great relationship with India. I did. And especially the leader, Modi. He's a great leader. Great man. Really is a great man. He's brought it together. He's done a great job. But they probably charge as much," he said, cited by PTI. "I mean, I think they probably charge more than, in many ways, China. But they do it with a smile. They do it... Sort of a nicer charge. They said, thank you so much for purchasing from India. Harley Davidson came to the White House a long time ago during my third year or second year. I met with them. They were based in Wisconsin. I said, how's business? Good, good. What are the bad countries? Well, India is very tough. And they gave me some others. Why? Tariffs. I said, what are they? And they said like 150 per cent, some massive amount," Trump told the members of the Detroit Economic Club. "I said so do you sell many motorcycles because you think people want to buy a Harley. No, we sell very few in India, but they want us to go there. They said, if you go there and build your plant there, we're not going to charge you anything. I mean, you can do whatever you want. I said I don't like that. And I see they went, they built the plant, and now they do their business with India. They probably do it outside of India too. They built a very big plant in many countries, they do that. Then all of a sudden, you hear that they're leaving Milwaukee or they're leaving wherever they may be located," he said. Trump's remarks on Thursday came following his praise for PM Modi earlier this week, PTI reported. Trump termed Modi as "the nicest human being", saying the the Indian Prime Minister is "a friend of mine". "Modi, India. He's a friend of mine. He's great. Before him, they were replacing them every year. It's very unstable. He came over. He's a friend of mine. But on the outside, he looks like he's your father. He's the nicest, but he's a total killer," he said. Recalling Modi's trip to Houston in 2019 for the 'Howdy Modi' event, Trump remarked, "It was beautiful. It's like 80,000 people going crazy. We were walking around." The former US President said that he shared a "very good relationship" with PM Modi. Remembering that there were a few instances where someone threatened India, Trump said: "I told Modi, let me help as I am very good with those people. To which he aggressively responded, 'I will do it. I will do it. And I would do anything necessary. We have defeated them for hundreds of years.' I said 'Whoa, what just happened there'," he added, PTI reported.
11 October,2024 10:56 AM IST | Washington | mid-day online correspondentAt least 11 people were killed and 48 wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut on Thursday evening, Lebanon's health ministry said. An Associated Press photographer who went to the scene of the strikes said the first one, in the area of Ras al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an eight-storey apartment building, and that explosions were ongoing inside the building. A large number of ambulances arrived at the scene. The second strike, in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, collapsed an entire building, which was engulfed in flames. There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military. In recent weeks Israel has launched frequent strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, but strikes in central Beirut are rare. The reports came as the Israeli military continued to pound Hezbollah targets across Lebanon. Earlier in the day, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted militants, but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week. In a separate development, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers. The attack drew widespread condemnation and prompted the Italian Defence Ministry to summon Israel's ambassador in protest. The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a UN base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to 'remain in protected spaces." Before the Beirut strikes, Lebanon's crisis response unit said Israeli shellfire and airstrikes had killed 28 people and wounded 113, bringing the total to 2,169 killed and 10,212 people wounded in Lebanon since the war erupted last October. At least four people were killed Thursday in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanese health authorities said. Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians in northern Israel since the war began, as well as 39 Israeli soldiers, including both in northern Israel since last October and in southern Lebanon since Israel's invasion. Aid group says staff killed in strike on school The Israeli strike in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces. The Israeli military said it targeted a militant command and control centre inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of taking cover in them. Witnesses said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time. The Palestinian branch of Terre des Hommes, a Swiss aid group, said in a statement that members of one of its children's health teams were killed in the strike, without specifying how many. 'There were no militants. There was no Hamas,' said Iftikhar Hamouda, who had fled from northern Gaza earlier in the war. 'We headed to tents. They bombed the tents ... In the streets, they bombed us. In the markets, they bombed us. In the schools, they bombed us,' she said. 'Where should we go?' The Hamas-run government operated a civilian police force numbering in the tens of thousands. They largely vanished from the streets after the start of the war as Israel targeted them with airstrikes, but plainclothes Hamas security personnel still exert control over most areas. Hamas has continued to launch attacks on Israeli forces more than a year after the Palestinian militants' October 7 attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. The militants stormed into Israel in that attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
11 October,2024 10:44 AM IST | Beirut | APFormer President Barack Obama held a get-out-the-vote rally for Kamala Harris on Thursday night as the Democratic Party tried to harness the enthusiasm for one of its biggest stars in the closing weeks of the campaign against Republican Donald Trump. Obama, speaking as voting was underway in the critical battleground state Pennsylvania, even refashioned his old campaign rallying cry, 'Yes, We Can', to 'Yes, She Can', which beamed on a screen over the crowd. Obama said that the last few years, starting with the pandemic, have been hard for Americans, with high prices and other impacts putting a squeeze on working families. 'I get why people are looking to shake things up. I mean, I am the hopey-changey guy. So I understand people feeling frustrated and we can do better," Obama said. But he painted Trump as out-of-touch and not the choice to lead the country to change, calling him a 'bumbling' billionaire 'who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down the golden escalator' in 2015 to launch his first campaign. The former president's appearance at the University of Pittsburgh was his first appearance at a campaign rally for Harris as he sets off on a swing-state tour on her behalf. Obama last month appeared at a Harris fundraiser in California and in August spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August. Obama, eight years out of power, has been one of the Democratic Party's most reliable surrogates to galvanise voters. Until he was elected president in 2020, Joe Biden had also taken on that role for Democrats, but this year, since ending his reelection campaign and letting Harris ascend to the ticket, he's yet to hit the trail. As the nation's first Black president, Biden's appearance for Harris underscores the history-making nature of her own political career. Harris, the first woman, Black person or person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president, would be the first woman to serve as president if elected next month. Glenda Ellison, a 71-year-old retired schoolteacher and Democrat from Pittsburgh, said she is feeling 'a little nervous' about the election but 'prayerful that it's going to turn out in our favour'. Ellison said she sees Obama as a party spokesperson with a large following who can hopefully sway voters that might be on the fence about voting for Harris. 'As a former president, and also as a Black president, I think that is something that might connect with the African American community, the fact that we do have our Black president supporting another Black candidate,' said Ellison, who is Black. Obama was among the key Democrats who were part of a behind-the-scenes effort to encourage Biden, his former vice president, to drop out of the 2024 race. Obama and Harris have been friends for two decades since he ran for Senate in Illinois. She campaigned for him when he sought the presidency in 2008. Pennsylvania is a state Obama won in his 2008 and 2012 presidential races, but Trump won in 2016. Biden narrowly carried it in 2020 and the state is shaping up to be one of the most closely contested in this year's race. Trump was in the eastern part of the state on Wednesday for back-to-back rallies in Scranton and Reading. He also campaigned in eastern Pennsylvania over the weekend when he returned to Butler, where he was shot in July as he survived an assassination attempt. Obama's appearance was also aimed to bolster the reelection campaign of Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who is being challenged by Trump-endorsed Republican David McCormick. Earlier in the day, Obama visited a campaign office in Pittsburgh, where he brought pastries for volunteers and thanked them for their work, according to his office. 'I'm excited because that's what Allegheny County needs, is him to promote Harris and Walz, just really to get the momentum going and to get those blue votes out,' Sherry Werner, a 60-year-old who works at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre. Werner, who was wearing a Harris button pinned to her sweater, said she is volunteering to help the campaign and feels more momentum already than in past years, and noted the long line of people waiting to get into the event hours before Obama was set to take the stage. 'Who doesn't love Obama?' she said. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
11 October,2024 10:26 AM IST | Pittsburgh | APGunmen shot 20 miners and wounded seven others in southwest Pakistan, a police official said on Friday, AP reported. According to AP, the recent attack in tense Balochistan province, comes days ahead of the major security summit being hosted in the nation's capital. Police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said to AP that the gunmen charged the accommodations at the coal mine in Duki district late night on Thursday, rounded up the workers and opened fire Most of the men were residents of the Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Afghans made up four injured and three deceased. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, AP reported. Late last month, Around 59 people were killed in the Mastung suicide bombing in the remote district of Balochistan's Mastung close to a 12 Rabiul Awwal procession, ANI reported. City Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammad Javed Lehri said a police official was among the ones killed in the attack, according to a report by the Pakistan-based daily. According to Mastung Assistant Commissioner (AC) Atta-ul-Munim, the explosion took place when people were gathering for an Eid-i-Miladun Nabi procession near Madina Masjid at Alfalah Road. The Mastung AC had identified the DSP who had been killed as Nawaz Gishkori. SHO Lehri said that the explosion was a “suicide blast.” According to the news agency report, the double-cabin vehicle, registered under the name of Shah Fahad, a Karachi resident, was deliberately driven into a car carrying foreign nationals, resulting in significant destruction and damaging nearby vehicles. Eight people were detained on suspicion of planning or their involvement in a suicide blast which occurred in the Balochistan district of Mastung. According to ANI sources, more operations are being carried out when arrested suspects show signs of cooperating with law enforcement. No information has been received regarding the identity of the suicide attacker, according to a Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official. "Other sources are also being used to establish the identity of the bomber," the spokesman said, ANI reported. According to ANI, days have passed but no militant group has claim responsibility for the suicide bombing. The banned outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) stayed away from the massacre in a statement.
11 October,2024 10:25 AM IST | Quetta | mid-day online correspondentIndian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami led a minute’s silence in the memory of Ratan Tata as news of the passing away of the legendary businessman, aged 86, came in from Mumbai. During a pre-scheduled Diwali reception co-hosted by the High Commission of India in London with the India All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) near the Houses of Parliament in London on Wednesday, Doraiswami paid tribute to the Tata Group chair as a great champion of the India-UK partnership. “On a sombre note, I share the news with great sorrow of the passing of one of India’s most celebrated businessmen Ratan Tata,” said Doraiswami, addressing a cross-party gathering of parliamentarians, entrepreneurs and community leaders. UK minister pays homage UK Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds paid homage to Ratan Tata as a “titan” of the business world who played a huge role in shaping British industry. “Sad to hear about the passing of Ratan Tata. He was truly a titan of the business world and someone who played a huge role in shaping British industry,” said Reynolds. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
11 October,2024 08:06 AM IST | London | AgenciesAn Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip killed at least 21 people on Thursday, with the toll likely to rise, Palestinian medical officials said. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The funeral procession of Issam Sallaj, leader of the Balata Brigade militant group, killed by Israel The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought, confirmed the toll from the strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah. It said several other people were wounded. Meanwhile, at least 16 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were killed and dozens injured today in an Israeli airstrike targeting a hospital sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, northern Gaza. The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia received the casualties following the strike, which hit the Yemen Al-Saeed hospital’s courtyard where civilians had taken refuge. Separately, four Palestinian youths were reported killed in Nablus, West Bank, when Israeli special forces fired on their vehicle late Wednesday. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
11 October,2024 07:53 AM IST | Deir Al-Balah | AgenciesUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at 10 Downing St. in London on Thursday for talks with the leaders of Britain and NATO on his “victory plan” for the war against Russia. Zelensky met Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, before traveling to Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron. Starmer said the Downing Street meetings, also attended by UK Defense Secretary John Healey and armed forces chief Adm. Tony Radakin, were a chance to “go through the plan in detail.” Zelensky is to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday and will also travel to Italy to discuss the plan. Russia recruiting Africans to make drones for war use About 200 women aged 18-22 from across Africa have been working in a factory along with Russian vocational students assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine. Some of the women claim they were misled that it would be a work-study program, describing long hours under constant surveillance, broken promises about wages and areas of study, and working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching. Facing a wartime labor shortage, Russia has been recruiting from African countries. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
11 October,2024 07:39 AM IST | London | AgenciesTaiwan celebrated its National Day holiday on Thursday against the background of threats from China, which claims the self-governing island republic as its own territory. The celebration marks the establishment of the Republic of China, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and fled to Taiwan as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland during a civil war in 1949. Taiwan was run under martial law until transitioning to full democracy in the 1980s and 1990s but maintains the original constitution brought from China and the ROC flag. The commemorations included military displays, but no heavy military equipment as seen in the past. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
11 October,2024 07:25 AM IST | Taipei | AgenciesThe Nobel Prize in literature was awarded Thursday to South Korean author Han Kang for what the Nobel committee called "her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life". Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee, announced the prize in Stockholm, news agency AP reported. Han, 53, won the International Booker Prize in 2016 for 'The Vegetarian', an unsettling novel in which a woman's decision to stop eating meat has devastating consequences. Her novel 'Human Acts' was an International Booker Prize finalist in 2018, AP further stated. The literature prize has long faced criticism that it is too focused on European and North American writers of style-heavy, story-light prose. According to AP, it has also been male-dominated, with just 17 women among its 119 laureates so far. The last woman to win was Annie Ernaux of France, in 2022. Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize. Two founding fathers of machine learning, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, won the physics prize on Tuesday. On Wednesday, three scientists who discovered powerful techniques to decode and even design novel proteins were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on October 14. The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (USD 1 million) from a bequest left by the award's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.
10 October,2024 06:05 PM IST | Stockholm | APHurricane Milton churned Wednesday toward a potentially catastrophic collision along the west coast of Florida, where some residents insisted they would stay after millions were ordered to evacuate and officials warned that stragglers would face grim odds of surviving. The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, faced the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century. The National Hurricane Center predicted Milton, a monstrous Category 5 hurricane during much of its approach, would likely weaken but remain a major hurricane when it makes landfall late Wednesday. Milton was centered early Wednesday about 580 km southwest of Tampa with maximum sustained winds of 260 kmph, the National Hurricane Center reported. Thousands of fleeing cars clogged Florida’s highways, but time for evacuations was running out on Wednesday. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor noted that up to 15 feet of storm surge forecast for her city would be deep enough to swallow an entire house. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
10 October,2024 10:06 AM IST | Tampa | AgenciesThe Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to scientists David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for their work with proteins. Baker works at the University of Washington in Seattle, while Hassabis and Jumper both work at Google Deepmind in London. Baker designed a new protein in 2003 and his research group has since produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors, the Nobel committee said. Hassabis and Jumper created an artificial intelligence model that has been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified, the committee added. The Nobel announcements began Monday. The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by Swedish inventor and award creator Alfred Nobel. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
10 October,2024 10:00 AM IST | Stockholm | AgenciesADVERTISEMENT
