Donald Trump wins South Carolina primary as Nikki Haley insists she is ‘not giving up fight’
Donald Trump has defeated Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Republican primary.
The result will further cement his grip on the race to be his party’s nominee for president.
Mr Trump claimed his fourth straight primary win on Saturday, handing an embarrassing loss to his last remaining major rival in her home state.
He went into the primary with a huge polling lead and the backing of the state’s top Republicans, including Senator Tim Scott.
In a speech following his victory, Mr Trump called the win “even bigger than we anticipated”.
“I’ve never seen the Republican Party as unified as it is right now,” Trump said, promising that if elected, “our country is going to be respected again, respected like never before”.
“So this is a fantastic evening. It’s an early evening, but a fantastic one,” he said.
Margin of Trump’s victory shows his grip on the party is tightening
His victory builds on the momentum he has picked up after victories in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.
Pic: Reuters
Ms Haley, who served as UN ambassador, had spent weeks crisscrossing the state that twice elected her governor warning that Mr Trump, who is 77 and faces four indictments, is too old and distracted to be president again.
She has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race even if she were to lose her home state, and reiterated that promise in a speech this evening.
The former governor also congratulated Mr Trump on his victory, but went on to criticise him and his approach to politics in her address.
“I’m a woman of my word,” Ms Haley said. “I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”
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She said that the roughly 40% of the vote she received in the New Hampshire primary and so far in South Carolina “is not some tiny group”, adding that voters on states yet to hold primaries have the right to a choice.
But she faces a tough road now as in all but one primary since 1980, the Republican winner in South Carolina has gone on to be the party’s nominee.
Ms Haley become noticeably more aggressive in her attacks on her rival in recent days, questioning Mr Trump’s mental ability and warning voters that he would lose November’s general election.
However her jibes have apparently made little impact on the Republican base, which is largely swinging behind the former president.
Whoever ultimately prevails between Mr Trump and Ms Haley is set for a battle with President Joe Biden in November.
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
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Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
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‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
Read more:
Israeli soldier dies by suicide
The danger of aid airdrops revealed
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Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
World
Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
Read more:
Israeli soldier dies by suicide
The danger of aid airdrops revealed
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
World
Journalist killed in Israeli strike feared his own assassination – as IDF claims he was a ‘terrorist’
Five Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza – including a reporter who feared he was going to be assassinated.
Anas al Sharif died alongside four of his colleagues from the network: Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had recently expressed “grave” concerns about al Sharif’s safety, and claimed he was “being targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign”.
Gazan journalist Anas al Sharif with his two children
Israel Defence Forces confirmed the strike – and alleged al Sharif was a “terrorist” who “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
It claimed he was “responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops”.
Last month, the reporter had said he lived with “the feeling that I could be bombed and martyred at any moment” because his coverage of Israel’s operations “harms them and damages their image in the world”.
As of 5 August, at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza – but foreign reporters have been barred from covering the war independently since the latest conflict began in 2023.
Gazan journalists Anas al Sharif and Mohammad Qreiqe
The Hamas-run government has described Israel’s killing of these five Al Jazeera journalists as “brutal and heinous”.
A statement added: “The assassination was premeditated and deliberate, following a deliberate, direct targeting of the journalists’ tent near al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“The targeting of journalists and media institutions by Israeli aircraft is a full-fledged war crime aimed at silencing the truth and obliterating the traces of genocidal crimes.”
Read more:
Netanyahu vows to defeat Hamas
UK joins four countries in condemning Israel’s plan for new Gaza operation
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Inside the room with Netanyahu
Following Anas al Sharif’s death, a post described as his “last will and testament” was posted on X.
It read: “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”
The 28-year-old added that he laments being able to fulfil his dream of seeing his son and daughter grow up – and alleged he had witnessed children “crushed by thousands of tonnes of Israeli bombs and missiles”.
“Do not forget Gaza … and do not forget me in your prayers for forgiveness and acceptance,” he wrote.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The CPJ reported that his father was killed by an Israeli airstrike on their family home in December 2023 after the journalist received telephone threats from Israeli army officers instructing him to cease coverage.
Israel shut down the Al Jazeera television network in the country in May last year.
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