Kamala Harris emerges as frontrunner to oust Trump

Agencies
January 29, 2019

Washington, Jan 29: Early 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduced herself to American voters Monday by drawing a sharp contrast with Donald Trump, offering a robust defense of her progressive positions a day after formally declaring her White House bid.

By launching her campaign a year before any primary votes are cast, the Democratic senator from California leapfrogs several party luminaries waiting in the wings, and a few already in the race, to become the de facto frontrunner.

It is a burgeoning field that may ultimately feature dozens of candidates seeking to oust President Donald Trump.

Harris immediately took her campaign to Iowa, the state that votes first in the nominating process, holding a televised town hall from Des Moines where she eviscerated the Trump administration for "lighting that fire" of racial division and seeking to "vilify" young immigrants.

"There is a lot of work to do," she told a crowd at Drake University, deftly handling questions from health care to criminal justice reform to gun safety to the war in Afghanistan.

A crowd of more than 20,000 watched her kick off her campaign Sunday in Oakland, California. But her prime-time town hall brought her into the living rooms of many more Americans.

Complicating the launch, billionaire former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz said hours after her announcement that he is seriously considering entering the race -- as an independent.

The self-described "lifelong Democrat" told CBS news show "60 Minutes" that he will run as a "centrist independent outside of the two-party system."

Not only is Trump unqualified to be president, Schultz said, but Republicans and Democrats are failing the American people by engaging daily in "revenge politics."

Schultz's announcement drew sharp rebukes from Democrats, who warned he would siphon off Democratic votes and clear Trump's path to re-election.

"I urge him, for the good of the country, to reconsider this bad idea," tweeted House Democrat Brendan Boyle.

Trump, clearly aware that a Schultz run could help the sitting president, appear to seek to goad him into the race, declaring the coffee king "doesn't have the 'guts' to run for President!"

But another billionaire businessman, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, strongly urged Schultz to halt his independent antics.

"In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the president," said Bloomberg, who himself considered an independent run three years ago but ultimately backed off.

Schultz, at a book signing in New York, stressed he was not aiming to split the Democratic vote.

"I am not running against the Democrats," although the party has shifted "far, far left," Schultz said, insisting "nobody" wants to see Trump out of office more than he does.

Harris, 54, and Schultz, 65, join several candidate already in the race, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, New York's Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Obama-era housing secretary Julian Castro of Texas.

The compelling Oakland speech and follow-up town hall was a double-barrelled show of strength by Harris and most likely a calculated shot across the bow to those still on the 2020 sidelines, notably the four Bs mulling a run: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Beto O'Rourke.

Harris, a former state attorney general, said her platform will include several progressive policies like debt-free college, a "green new deal" addressing climate change and "Medicare for all," which would allow Americans to opt into government-run health coverage.

Harris rarely mentioned Trump by name, but he was clearly a target.

She said projecting presidential authority "means speaking with integrity (and) speaking truth, and speaking in a way that expresses and indicates some level of interest and concern in people other than oneself."

On immigration, she blasted Trump's "inhumane" policy that has led to child separations at the border, and said he has failed young immigrants who were brought to the country as children.

"They're serving in our military, they are living productive lives, and this administration has decided to vilify them and to trade on them for the sake of this president's medieval vanity project called a wall," she said.

Harris's father is from Jamaica and her mother is Indian. If elected, she would become the first African American woman president in US history.

One distinct advantage for Harris is the shift that her home state has made in the primary calendar.

For years, California -- the nation's most populous state -- voted near the end of the process, meaning nominees were often decided before a single Californian cast a vote.

But the state has moved its primary forward to March 3, 2020, which would give the Golden State a dramatically more powerful say in determining the nominee.

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News Network
November 24,2025

lebanon.jpg

Israel has launched a new act of aggression on a residential neighborhood in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, killing and injuring about two dozen civilians.

The Israeli regime's military said in a statement that its forces carried out a so-called precise strike in a residential apartment in Dahiyeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday.

The aggression targeted residential areas, killing at least five people and injuring more than 28 people, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. 

Hezbollah announced the martyrdom of senior Hezbollah commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai and four resistance fighters.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun condemned the airstrike, calling it a clear demonstration of Tel Aviv’s disregard for repeated international calls to halt violations on Lebanese soil.

“Israel refuses to implement international resolutions and all efforts aimed at ending the escalation and restoring stability,” Aoun said, urging the international community to take action to prevent further aggression.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement also condemned the attack, holding the international community accountable. 

“The international community bears responsibility and continues to provide cover for these attacks as long as it does not restrain the occupiers,” said Ali Abu Shahin, a member of the group’s political bureau.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the Israeli army carried out a strike “in the heart of Beirut."

Netanyahu reportedly approved the operation following recommendations from top Israeli security officials.

Two senior US officials commented on the Israeli strike.

The first official said that Israel did not notify Americans in advance about the attack. "We were informed immediately after the strike was carried out."

The second senior official said that the "US knew for several days that Israel was planning to escalate its strikes in Lebanon, but did not know in advance the timing, location, or target of the strike."

Speaking from the site of the Israeli strike, Lebanese MP Ali Ammar condemned the attack as part of a broader campaign of aggression that has targeted "all of Lebanon since the Washington-sponsored ceasefire."

He stated that "any attack on Lebanon is a violation of red lines; this aggression is part and parcel of the entity that targets Lebanon's dignity, sovereignty, and security of citizens."

Ammar went on to say the resistance is responding with "utmost wisdom, patience, and will confront the enemy at the appropriate time."

"Unfortunately, the enemy is emboldened to commit its aggression by voices within Lebanon that have turned themselves into tools that support its aggression," he added.

The Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital is the latest blatant violation of the ceasefire Israel signed with Hezbollah in November 2024, which was intended to end hostilities that had escalated into full-scale war.

An Israeli strike on the Ain al-Hilweh camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon late Tuesday killed at least 14 people. It wounded several others, including young students, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The military claimed the attack targeted “a Hamas training compound” used to plan and carry out attacks against the regime -- a claim that has frequently been made without evidence.

Hamas rejected the allegations as “a blatant lie aimed at justifying the massacre,” stating it had “no military installations in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon” and that the targeted site was merely “an open sports field.”

According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 4,000 people and displaced more than 1.2 million residents across the country since October 2023.

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News Network
November 26,2025

students.jpg

Bengaluru, Nov 26: Karnataka is taking its first concrete steps towards lifting a three-decade-old ban on student elections in colleges and universities. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar announced Wednesday that the state government will form a small committee to study the reintroduction of campus polls, a practice halted in 1989 following incidents of violence.

Speaking at a 'Constitution Day' event organised by the Karnataka Congress, Mr. Shivakumar underscored the move's aim: nurturing new political leadership from the grassroots.

"Recently, (Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to me and Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) asking us to think about restarting student elections," Shivakumar stated. "I'm announcing today that we'll form a small committee and seek a report on this."

Student elections were banned in Karnataka in 1989, largely due to concerns over violence and the infiltration of political party affiliates into campus life. The ban effectively extinguished vibrant student bodies and the pipeline of young leaders they often produced.

Mr. Shivakumar, who also serves as the Karnataka Congress president, said that former student leaders will be consulted to "study the pros and cons" of the re-introduction.

Acknowledging the history of the ban, he added, "There were many criminal activities taking place back then. We’ll see how we can conduct (student) elections by regulating such criminal activities."

The Deputy CM reminisced about his own journey, which began on campus. He recalled his political activism at Sri Jagadguru Renukacharya College leading to his first Assembly ticket in 1985 at the age of 23. "That's how student leadership was at the time. Such leadership has gone today. College elections have stopped," he lamented, adding that for many, college elections were "like a big movement" where leaders were forged.

The move, driven by the Congress high command's push to cultivate young talent, will face scrutiny from academics and university authorities who have, in the past, expressed concern that the return of polls could disrupt the peaceful academic environment and turn campuses into political battlegrounds.

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