Democrats grapple with how to take on Nikki Haley

Published

2 years ago

February 20, 2023

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Democrats have groaned over the campaign return of Donald Trump and have braced for the unknown in an untested Ron DeSantis.

But now, in the earliest days of the 2024 presidential cycle, the party in power is facing a new challenge: how to handle Nikki Haley.

The former South Carolina governor’s entrance into a wide-open field draws an obvious contrast with Trump, who Republicans have hesitated to take on too soon. For Democrats, it puts them in an unfamiliar spot: defending 80-year-old Biden against a 51-year-old rival hoping to be the first female president.

“If you haven’t figured out how to get this octogenarian off the stage, you really don’t know what you’re doing,” said Rina Shah, a Republican strategist and campaign veteran. “You don’t know how to move forward.”

Biden has, of course, faced female White House opponents before — the most famous being his own vice president, Kamala Harris, with whom he managed to turn an occasionally bitter rivalry into a partnership in his administration. He also competed against nearly half a dozen other female candidates.

When Biden prevailed, for many Democrats it was bittersweet. They saw him beating Trump, but scores still wanted a woman to lead the country. They are now assessing the optics of Haley running against an older white man, and Republicans are also contemplating what it could mean for their own bench.

“Gender and race are part of the calculation now because there are only two formally announced people,” Shah said.

As Haley tells it, her campaign is not going to emphasize “identity politics,” a term both sides of the aisle use in different ways to highlight personal identifiers. But she’s already made gender and age a part of the early contours of her campaign.

In her announcement speech on Wednesday, Haley said tackling global problems “will require doing some things we’ve never done — like sending a tough-as-nails woman to the White House.” At another point, she said, “may the best woman win” the election.

Republicans have in the past struggled at appealing to female voters and recruiting more diverse candidates, and Democrats have often jumped at the chance to send more women to higher office. Haley’s bid, just days after newly elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union, is a clear indication of the GOP’s focus on broadening their candidate pool for higher office.

“We’re talking about the presidential primary process. Republicans are actually going to come out looking really diverse at this,” Shah said.

For Democrats, it presents a complicated situation. It’s no secret that many in the party want someone other than Biden to be the nominee. Some recent polling indicates that even a majority of Democrats would like an alternative.

But many in the party and some close to the administration were quick to defend the president, noting that his agenda and track record supporting people from different backgrounds is what makes him a more compelling choice.

Charlotte Clymer, a writer and Democratic political strategist, argued that Haley’s presence as a female contender in the race is not sufficient enough without inclusive policies.

“Representation means nothing without advocacy,” Clymer said.

“I would rather vote for a man who I know is going to fight for my rights over a woman who makes a mockery of my humanity with her empty pandering,” she added.

Other Democrats note that Biden has filled top positions in government with a wide range of talent, showing a commitment to many different voices and ideas.

“President Biden has one of the most diverse, multi racial coalitions we have seen in recent political history,” said one Democratic strategist who formerly worked for Hillary Clinton.

“He has prioritized elevating women, people of color, young people and other minority constituencies throughout his presidency. That approach to governing, and that enduring coalition will help him ward off any critiques that would be expected of an 80-year-old, white man running for reelection,” the campaign strategist said.

When Biden chose Harris — the first Black, Indian American and female vice president — to be his running mate, some had hoped she would be the heir-apparent for 2024. But that hasn’t happened as questions about Harris’s direction and role in the White House have piled up throughout the first term.

On Friday, Harris said “I intend to run” for vice president again alongside Biden, a phrase the president himself often uses to describe his reelection thought process.

But the idea that she may be eyeing the presidency is on the minds of Republicans and Democrats alike, especially as Haley entered the race.

“A hypothetical matchup between Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley, I think Nikki actually could pull that off,” Shah said.

Still, with every indication that Biden intends to launch another campaign, Democrats are currently navigating a GOP field that includes just Haley and Trump.

The current scarcity of Republican candidates so far allows Haley, still relatively new to the national stage, to set up an inherent identity contrast with Biden. She’s already addressed what she sees as his inadequacies directly, at times skirting questions that she’ll have to face off against what’s expected to be a crowded field of GOP aspirants first.

While some Democrats have made Biden’s age a topic of debate, Haley wasted no time in crafting a message around what she describes as being in need of “a new generation to lead us into the future.”

“We’re ready. Ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past,” she said, kicking off her bid.

Haley got an unexpected bump of momentum the day after her campaign launch when CNN anchor Don Lemon made a remark about her being past her “prime” in a segment about her candidacy, going on to say that women who are not in their 20s, 30s or 40s are not considered “prime” ages.

Republican women seized on Lemon’s remarks.

“So Don Lemon says Nikki Haley is past her prime as a woman. Didn’t take long for the first sexist attack on a female Republican candidate for president,” tweeted Karin Lips, a lawyer and conservative activist, garnering a retweet from Haley.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) added: “Nothing terrifies liberals more than successful conservative women. When liberals feel threatened, they resort to sexist nonsense like this.”

Democrats have often contended that the media’s coverage of female candidates is sexist. When Clinton ran in 2016, she built a messaging and fundraising apparatus around what would be a historic moment towards more gender equality. Four years later, and after four years of Trump, several prominent female candidates launched bids of their own. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made persistence a key part of her slogan, reminding voters of when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to quiet her on the Senate floor. North Korea fires two more missiles into Pacific ‘firing range’ Zelensky on Biden visit to Ukraine: ‘Historic. Timely. Brave.’

With Biden likely to be at the top of the ticket again, Democrats are dancing carefully around his age, as well as less-than-ideal options of again putting forward a white man at the top of the ticket when both parties are looking for more diversity.

While he may be the face of the Democratic Party for now, some say his policy priorities, Cabinet and top aides speak for themselves and are hoping they will shield him from too much criticism.

“Joe Biden fights for all people. Nikki Haley fights for Nikki Haley,” Clymer said. “Marginalized communities will easily rally around Biden versus Haley.”

Business

Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use – with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

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29 mins ago

November 14, 2024

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Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use - with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

Consumer rights group Which? is suing Apple for £3bn over the way it deploys the iCloud.

If the lawsuit succeeds, around 40 million Apple customers in the UK could be entitled to a payout.

The lawsuit claims Apple, which controls iOS operating systems, has breached UK competition law by giving its iCloud storage preferential treatment, effectively “trapping” customers with Apple devices into using it.

It also claims the company overcharged those customers by stifling competition.

The rights group alleges Apple encouraged users to sign up to iCloud for storage of photos, videos and other data while simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative providers.

Which? says Apple doesn’t allow customers to store or back-up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider, arguing this violates competition law.

The consumer rights group says once iOS users have signed up to iCloud, they then have to pay for the service once their photos, notes, messages and other data go over the free 5GB limit.

“By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off UK consumers without facing repercussions,” said Which?’s chief executive Anabel Hoult.

“Taking this legal action means we can help consumers to get the redress that they are owed, deter similar behaviour in the future and create a better, more competitive market.”

Apple ‘rejects’ claims and will defend itself

Apple “rejects” the idea its customers are tied to using iCloud and told Sky News it would “vigorously” defend itself.

“Apple believes in providing our customers with choices,” a spokesperson said.

“Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage. In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible – whether it’s to iCloud or another service.

“We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”

It also said nearly half of its customers don’t use iCloud and its pricing is inline with other cloud storage providers.

How much could UK Apple customers receive if lawsuit succeeds?

The lawsuit will represent all UK Apple customers that have used iCloud services since 1 October 2015 – any that don’t want to be included will need to opt out.

However, if consumers live abroad but are otherwise eligible – for example because they lived in UK and used the iCloud but then moved away – they can also opt in.

The consumer rights group estimates that individual consumers could be owed an average of £70, depending on how long they have been paying for the services during that period.

Apple is facing a similar lawsuit in the US, where the US Department of Justice is accusing the company of locking down its iPhone ecosystem to build a monopoly.

Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and that it will vigorously defend against it.

Big tech’s battles

This is the latest in a line of challenges big tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have faced around anti-competitive practices.

Most notably, a landmark case in the US earlier this year saw a judge rule that Google holds an illegal monopoly over the internet search market.

The company is now facing a second antitrust lawsuit, and may be forced to break up parts of its business.

And in December last year, a judge declared Google’s Android app store a monopoly in a case brought by a private gaming company.

“Now that five companies control the whole of the internet economy, there’s a real need for people to fight back and to really put pressure on the government,” William Fitzgerald, from tech campaigning organisation The Worker Agency, told Sky News.

“That’s why we have governments; to hold corporations accountable, to actually enforce laws.”

World

‘He was the light of my life and I lost him’: How a famous surgeon died in an Israeli prison after being taken from Gaza hospital

Published

29 mins ago

November 14, 2024

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'He was the light of my life and I lost him': How a famous surgeon died in an Israeli prison after being taken from Gaza hospital

As a famous orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh spent much of his career fixing broken limbs and broken bodies at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital.

One of the best-trained doctors in the enclave, a photo showing him covered in blood in Al-Shifa’s operating theatre went viral in 2018.

When war broke out last October, he worked around the clock. Pictures stored on his mobile phone show him standing in a hole, swinging a blunt-edged shovel as the hospital descended into crisis.

It had run out of fuel, food and basic pain relief and there was no more space to store dead bodies. Dressed in hospital scrubs, Dr Al-Bursh and his colleagues dug mass graves as the sound of explosions rang out behind the hospital’s walls.

Soon after the outbreak of the conflict, the surgeon, along with his wife Yasmin, realised that their world had changed forever.

“Adnan was needed every time there was a war,” she recalled. “So, I told him, ‘get ready, there will be lots of operations, they will need your help’. He went to hospital to receive the injured and stayed for 24 hours. He did not stop.”

Dr Al-Bursh spent his days in the operating room and slept in the staff room at night.

He also kept a diary of sorts with his mobile phone, documenting the increasingly desperate scenes unfolding around him.

“Despite the pain, we are steadfast,” he said as he filmed the scene in a crowded operating theatre.

Israel said the foundations of Al-Shifa were laced with tunnels where Hamas operated a ‘command-and-control centre’, something Hamas denies.

As Israeli troops advanced towards the facility, Dr Al-Bursh captured the mood inside. Another video found on his mobile phone shows a colleague in the staffroom recalling a painful conversation with his wife.

“I remember that she only asked one thing of me, what do you think it was? That request was ‘just let me see you smile’.

“Smile. It’s the first thing I want to do after this war, if God saves us.”

By mid-November, Al-Shifa was under siege by Israeli troops.

A week later, patients, staff and some 50,000 displaced residents sheltering in the compound were ordered to evacuate.

Dr Al-Bursh captured the scene of long columns of people walking towards southern Gaza.

But the surgeon did not follow them. Instead, he went northeast to another facility – the Indonesian Hospital – still operating in northern Gaza. What he found on his arrival horrified him.

“I was shocked by the size of the catastrophe here,” he said in a video. “There are injured people who have been waiting for their operations for more than ten days. [Their] wounds were severely infected.”

On 20 November 2023, the Indonesian Hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks and later that evening, projectiles were fired into the second floor. At least 12 people were killed.

Dr Al-Bursh survived with minor scrapes but the front entrance of the facility was torn apart. “The destruction is everywhere,” he said in another video.

A spokesman for the IDF denied that Israeli forces were responsible.

By early December 2023, Dr Al-Bursh had moved to a small hospital, also in the north, called Al-Awda.

A series of pictures, posted on the hospital’s social media page, show him examining patients with fatigue etched on his face.

These are the last known images taken of the surgeon.

The Israeli military surrounded the hospital on 5 December, and the staff were worried about what the soldiers would do.

Dr Al-Bursh worked at Al-Awda alongside a friend and colleague, Dr Mohammad Obeid.

Eventually, the hospital’s director told them that they would have to leave the building.

“[The director] told us that the [Israeli army] have full data of all males aged between 14 and 65 at Awda hospital,” Dr Obeid said, tearfully. “They told him that if all men do not come down… they will destroy the Awda Hospital with all the women and children in it.”

We put this allegation to the IDF but they did not respond.

The men filed out of the hospital and five, including Dr Al-Bursh, were taken away.

“A soldier came up to us and called out Dr Adnan’s name, who was sitting next to me… I felt he was in a very difficult situation. The occupation soldier took him and the treatment was very rough.”

In a brief statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed to Sky News that Dr Al-Bursh was detained by its personnel. On 19 December 2023, it says the surgeon was taken to an Israeli military base called Sde Teiman, which has been used for processing detainees since the early part of the war.

Allegations of physical, mental and sexual abuse are rife. A former camp inmate, Dr Khalid Hamouda, believes many of the prisoners at Sde Teiman were medical professionals.

“In the camp where I was, there were about 100 prisoners. I think at least a quarter of them were involved in healthcare. Some of them were doctors, nurses and technicians.”

Dr Hamouda was put to work by the guards at the base as their helper or ‘shawish’, and remembers being told to fetch Dr Al-Bursh at the gate. When he collected him, his fellow doctor said he had been badly beaten and felt pain all over his body.

“He thought he may have broken ribs,” Dr Hamouda said. “He was unable to even go to the toilet alone.”

The IDF told Sky News that after Dr Al-Bursh was processed, he left Sde Teiman on 20 December and became the “responsibility” of the Israeli Prison Service.

In April, the surgeon was taken to an incarceration facility near Jerusalem called Ofer Prison.

He died shortly after his arrival. News of the surgeon’s death was announced in a statement from two Palestinian prisoner support associations at the beginning of May. The Israelis offered no explanation or cause of death.

Sky News has spoken to people who claim to have witnessed the moments before Dr Al-Bursh’s death.

A prisoner, who says he previously knew Dr Al-Bursh in Gaza, provided details in a deposition to lawyers from the Israeli human rights organisation HaMoked.

“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body.

“The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead).”

While some people might suggest that Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was a terrorist, Daqqa said: “If you want to formally answer this question, he was not charged until now. And many of these detainees are not charged from Gaza.”

In a statement to Sky News, a spokesman for the Israel Prison Service said: “IPS is a law enforcement organisation that operates according to the provisions of the law and under the supervision of the state comptroller and many other official critiques.

“All prisoners are detained according to the law. All basic rights required are fully applied by professionally trained prison guards.

“We are not aware of the claims you described and as far as we know, no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility. Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”

Sky News was told by colleagues and Dr Al-Bursh’s wife Yasmin that he was in good physical condition before his arrest.

“He was the light of my life and I lost him,” Yasmin said.

Dr Al-Bursh was prepared to risk his life to save others. This story is one of a countless number, now buried under the immovable weight of Gaza’s recent past.

But Dr Al-Bursh lived and lost his life in a manner that demands acknowledgement, his friends and family members say.

World

Ukrainian frontline commander warns: ‘The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem’

Published

29 mins ago

November 14, 2024

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Ukrainian frontline commander warns: 'The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem'

In the courtyard of a farmhouse now home to soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 47th mechanised brigade, I’m introduced to a weary-looking unit by their commander Captain Oleksandr “Sasha” Shyrshyn.

We are about 10km from the border with Russia, and beyond it lies the Kursk region Ukraine invaded in the summer – and where this battalion is now fighting.

The 47th is a crack fighting assault unit.

They’ve been brought to this area from the fierce battles in the country’s eastern Donbas region to bolster Ukrainian forces already here.

War latest: Russia ready to carry out ‘massive attack’

Captain Shyrshyn explains that among the many shortages the military has to deal with, the lack of infantry is becoming a critical problem.

Sasha is just 30 years old, but he is worldly-wise. He used to run an organisation helping children in the country’s east before donning his uniform and going to war.

He is famous in Ukraine and is regarded as one of the country’s top field commanders, who isn’t afraid to express his views on the war and how it’s being waged.

His nom de guerre is ‘Genius’, a nickname given to him by his men.

‘Don’t worry, it’s not a minefield’

Sasha invited me to see one of the American Bradley fighting vehicles his unit uses.

We walk down a muddy lane before he says it’s best to go cross-country.

“We can go that way, don’t worry it’s not a minefield,” he jokes.

He leads us across a muddy field and into a forest where the vehicle is hidden from Russian surveillance drones that try to hunt both American vehicles and commanders.

Sasha shows me a picture of the house they had been staying in only days before – it was now completely destroyed after a missile strike.

Fortunately, neither he, nor any of his men, were there at the time.

“They target commanders,” he says with a smirk.

‘The world is scared of Russia’

It takes me a moment or two to realise we are only a few steps away from the Bradley, dug in and well hidden beneath the trees.

Sasha tells me the Bradley is the finest vehicle he has ever used.

A vehicle so good, he says, it’s keeping the Ukrainian army going in the face of Russia’s overwhelming numbers of soldiers.

He explains: “Almost all our work on the battlefield is cooperation infantry with the Bradley. So we use it for evacuations, for moving people from one place to another, as well as for fire-covering.

“This vehicle is very safe and has very good characteristics.”

Billions of dollars in military aid has been given to Ukraine by the United States, and this vehicle is one of the most valuable assets the US has provided.

Ukraine is running low on men to fight, and the weaponry it has is not enough, especially if it can’t fire long-range missiles into Russia itself – which it is currently not allowed to do.

If President-elect Donald Trump cuts the supply of military aid, the Ukrainians will lose – it’s that simple.

Sasha says: “We have a lack of weapons, we have a lack of artillery, we have a lack of infantry, and as the world doesn’t care about justice, and they don’t want to finish the war by our win, they are afraid of Russia.

“I’m sorry but they’re scared, they’re scared, and it’s not the right way.”

Like pretty much everyone in Ukraine, Sasha is waiting to see what the US election result will mean for his country.

He is sceptical about a deal with Russia.

“Our enemy only understands the language of power. And you cannot finish the war in 24 hours, or during the year without hard decisions, without a fight, so it’s impossible. It’s just talking without results,” he tells me.

‘Losing will be not only our problem’

These men expect the fierce battles inside Kursk to intensify in the coming days.

Indeed, alongside the main supply route into Kursk, workers are already building new defensive positions – unfurling miles of razor wire and digging bunkers for the Ukrainian army if it finds itself in retreat.

Sasha and his men are realistic about support fatigue from the outside world but will keep fighting to the last if they have to.

“I understand this is only our problem, it’s only our issue, and we have to fight this battle, like we have to defend ourselves, it’s our responsibility,” Sasha said.

But he points out everyone should realise just how critical this moment in time is.

“If we look at it widely, we have to understand that us losing will be not only our problem, but it will be for all the world.”

Stuart Ramsay reports from northeastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Azad Safarov, and Nick Davenport.