Tag: North

Russian veto halts UN monitoring of North Korea nuclear sanctions


Russia this week vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts tasked with monitoring the enforcement of U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Thirteen U.N. Security Council members voted in favor of extending the panel’s mandate for an additional year, while China abstained.

North Korea has been under sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear programs since 2006 and the vote does not affect the sanctions themselves.

The panel, made up of independent experts, has been conducting oversight for 15 years, reporting twice a year to the Security Council. Experts also provide recommendations on how to better implement measures.

Russia’s veto came amid allegations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine. Both Russia and North Korea have denied the claims.

South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang slammed the outcome of the vote.

“This is outrageous and makes no sense at all, given the continued and accelerated advancement of the North Korean nuclear and missile programs,” he said. “Pyongyang has been openly denouncing the authority of the Security Council and pursuing an increasingly dangerous and aggressive nuclear policy, in particular targeting the Republic of Korea.”

The panel’s current mandate expires on April 30. Their recent report, released this March, looked at alleged cyberattacks by North Korea to further bolster its nuclear weapons program.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia was not sold on the panel’s independence.

“Its work is increasingly being reduced to playing into the hands of Western approaches, reprinting biased information and analyzing newspaper headlines and poor quality photos,” Nebenzia said to the Security Council before the vote on Thursday, according to Reuters.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.



Source link

Russian veto brings an end to the U.N. panel that monitors North Korea nuclear sanctions



UNITED NATIONS — A veto Thursday by Russia ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine.

Russia’s turnaround on the U.N. monitoring reflects how Moscow’s growing animosity with the United States and its Western allies since the start of the Ukraine war has made it difficult to reach consensus on even issues where there has been longstanding agreement.

The veto came during a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea for a year, but which will now halt its operation when its current mandate expires at the end of April.

The vote in the 15-member council, with 13 in favor, Russia against, and China abstaining, has no impact on the actual sanctions against North Korea, which remain in force.

Russia had never before tried to block the work of the panel of experts, which had been renewed annually by the U.N. Security Council for 14 years and reflected global opposition to North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons program.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council before the vote that Western nations are trying to “strangle” North Korea and that sanctions are losing their “relevance” and are “detached from reality” in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the country.

He accused the panel of experts of “increasingly being reduced to playing into the hands of Western approaches, reprinting biased information and analyzing newspaper headlines and poor quality photos.” Therefore, he said, it is “essentially conceding its inability to come up with sober assessments of the status of the sanctions regime.”

But U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood called the panel’s work essential and accused Russia of attempting to silence its “independent objective investigations” because it “began reporting in the last year on Russia’s blatant violations of the U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

He warned that Russia’s veto will embolden North Korea to continue jeopardizing global security through development “of long-range ballistic missiles and sanctions evasion efforts.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby condemned Russia’s veto as a “reckless action” that undermines sanctions imposed on North Korea, while warning against the deepening cooperation between North Korea and Russia, particularly as North Korea continues to supply Russia with weapons as it wages its war in Ukraine.

“The international community should resolutely uphold the global nonproliferation regime and support the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russia’s brutal aggression,” Kirby told reporters.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said Russia’s veto follows arms deals between Russia and North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, including “the transfer of ballistic missiles, which Russia has then used in its illegal invasion of Ukraine since the early part of this year.”

“This veto does not demonstrate concern for the North Korean people or the efficacy of sanctions,” she said. “It is about Russia gaining the freedom to evade and breach sanctions in pursuit of weapons to be used against Ukraine.”

“This panel, through its work to expose sanctions non-compliance, was an inconvenience for Russia,” Woodward said.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere added that “North Korea has been providing Russia with military material in support of its aggression against Ukraine, in violation of many resolutions which Russia voted in favor of.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky responded, calling these “unfounded insinuations” that “only strengthened our conviction that we took the right decision to not support the extension of the panel of experts.”

The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

The Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until Thursday.



Source link

Russia shuts down UN watchdog tracking North Korea sanctions


Russia has shut down a panel of UN experts that have for years monitored sanctions against North Korea.

The panel last week said it was probing reports that Russia violated rules by buying North Korean weapons like ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.

The UN’s Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions on Pyongyang since 2006 for its nuclear weapons programme.

Those restrictions are still in force – but the experts group set up to monitor violations will now be disbanded.

In a Security Council vote on Thursday, Russia used its veto power as a permanent member to block the renewal, while 13 of the other 14 member states present voted for it. China, Pyongyang’s closest ally, abstained.

Russia’s block triggered a wave of condemnation from the US, UK, South Korea and other Western allies and comes after a year of high-profile public meetings between Moscow and Pyongyang leaders.

This is the first time Russia has blocked the panel – which has been renewed annually by the UN Security Council for 14 years.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media Russia’s veto was tantamount to “a guilty plea” that it was using North Korean weapons in the war.

The US, UK and France all told the Council that Russia was silencing the watchdog because it had begun to report on Moscow’s own violations of the rules- specifically purchasing weapons from North Korea for the battlegrounds in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s representative at the UN criticised Russia’s “blind self-centeredness” and said it had no justification “for disbanding the guardians” of the sanctions regime.

“This is almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed,” Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said.

Russia has consistently denied using North Korean weapons and its representative at the UN again dismissed the accusations on Thursday.

Vasily Nebenzia also argued that the panel of experts had no added value.

“The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula,” said Mr Nebenzia, who also added that sanctions had imposed a “heavy burden” on the North Korean people.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit an exhibition of armed equipment on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un showed off his country’s missiles to Russia’s Defence Minister on a visit last year [Reuters]

Since 2019, Russia and China have sought to persuade the Security Council to ease sanctions.

The Security Council first imposed sanctions in 2006 in response to a North Korean nuclear test, and has since passed 10 more resolutions strengthening them as Pyongyang’s nuclear activity has continued.

However Kim Jong Un’s regime has largely ignored the sanctions- despite their impact on the economy. The North Korean leader has rapidly continued nuclear weapons development and has pursued a more aggressive and dangerous military strategy in recent years.

The UN experts say North Korea continues to flout sanctions through increased missile test launches and developing nuclear weapons. The regime launched a spy satellite this year – with technology believed to have been provided by Russia.

In breach of the sanctions, it also continues to import refined petroleum products and send workers overseas, and the UN panel’s most recent report detailed a campaign of cyber attacks.



Source link

North Carolina moves to revoke license of wilderness camp where boy died



North Carolina officials say they plan to revoke the license of Trails Carolina, a wilderness camp for troubled youths where a 12-year-old boy recently died after having spent less than 24 hours at the program.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services sent letters Thursday notifying Trails Carolina’s executive director that the camp in Lake Toxaway had violated several state regulations, including one requiring mental health facilities to protect clients from abuse. The department did not provide additional details about the violations, which were documented during an investigation that was completed this month.

The department said that it determined the violations “endanger the health, safety, and welfare of clients in your facility” and that it intends to revoke Trails Carolina’s license. The camp was given 10 days to provide a written statement saying why it believes it is in compliance with the rules, along with supporting documents or a plan of correction. The department also fined Trails Carolina $18,000 for the violations and extended its suspension of admissions indefinitely.

A spokesperson for Trails Carolina did not immediately provide a comment.

Trails Carolina is a private, for-profit wilderness program for children who struggle with behavioral problems or depression and are typically sent to the camp by their parents. The children at Trails Carolina have diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders.

A boy identified by the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office only by his initials, CJH, was found dead at Trails Carolina on Feb. 3 with his pants and underwear removed, prompting an ongoing criminal investigation. The cause of death has not yet been determined, but the sheriff’s office said in a statement shortly after the death that, according to a forensic pathologist, it “appeared to not be natural.” Trails Carolina has said that preliminary information indicates the boy’s death was accidental. 

The state Department of Health and Human Services declined to say whether the violations prompting the license revocation are connected to the boy’s death. The license inspection reports detailing the actions resulting in the violations were not immediately released.

The 18 children who had been at the camp when the 12-year-old died were removed later in February. 

Over a dozen people who were placed at Trails Carolina between 2013 and 2022 told NBC News that the camp’s rules and protocols had caused them serious concern and, in some cases, ongoing trauma. The camp defended its approach but declined to comment on specific children’s experiences.



Source link

Two people die after falling into the Atlantic along Spain’s north coast during high wind warnings


MADRID (AP) — Two people have died after falling into the Atlantic Ocean on Spain’s northern coast, emergency services for the northern region of Asturias said Thursday.

The deaths came amid warnings of strong winds and widespread rain across many parts of the European country.

Emergency services said that rescuers had recovered the bodies of a man and a woman in two separate incidents that occurred around 10 kilometers (six miles) apart along a stretch of coast west of the city of Gijon.

The man’s body was pulled from the sea without life after emergency services said they were informed that a person had fallen into the sea. The woman’s body was recovered after she had fallen into the sea and been thrown against the rocks by the waves, authorities said.

Spain’s national weather service issued warnings Thursday for heavy winds in several areas of the peninsula. Those included the Asturias’ coast, where waves reaching seven meters (23 feet) in height were forecast.

Spain’s Atlantic coastal area hasn’t been hit by the drought affecting its northeast and southern regions.

The rain caused some cities to cancel Easter Week processions scheduled on Thursday.



Source link

Hispanic or Latino and Middle Eastern or North African are added to census race categories



For the first time, Hispanic or Latino is listed as one race/ethnicity category and people of Middle Eastern or North African descent will have their own checkbox under new race and ethnicity standards adopted by the Biden administration.

Up to now, Hispanics had a two-part question for their identity: They were asked whether they were Hispanic or Latino and then asked to pick a race of white, Black, American Indian or some other race.

The change now uses one question for race and ethnicity and allows people to check as many as apply to their identity. Each category has subcategories with examples that may apply and room for those that may not be listed.

The addition of a Middle Eastern or North African, or MENA, identifier would allow some 7 million to 8 million people to no longer have to identify as “white” or “other” on the census and other forms in which such data is collected.

The changes are only the second update by the federal government to categories for data on the American population. The update — the last was in 1997 — of standards used by the federal government for the census and other agencies is meant to better capture the expanding multicultural identity of the country.

“These updated standards are going to help us create more useful, accurate and up-to-date federal data on race and ethnicity,” said an official with the Office of Management and Budget, who spoke to reporters Tuesday on the condition that the person not be identified.

“And these revisions will enhance our ability to compare information and data across federal agencies and also understand again how our federal programs are serving a diverse America,” the official said.

The changes were effective Thursday and agencies have 18 months to devise plans for complying and then up to five years to put those plans in place, though some are likely to do so sooner, the OMB said.

The newest standards reflect results from the 2020 census that showed that most Hispanics did not identify their race as white, Black or Asian, and instead were more likely to choose “some other race” on the decennial survey or to check “two or more races.”

Research showed the two-part question is confusing and since 1980, nonresponse to the race question has increased, the OMB stated in an explanation of its recommendations. On the 2020 census, 4 in 10 Hispanics, or 42%, marked “some other race. A third selected two or more racial groups and 20% chose white as their race, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.

The two new categories will have subcategories; the ones listed for Hispanic or Latino are “Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Guatemalan etc.”

For the Middle Eastern or North African category, the subcategories listed as “Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Israeli etc.”

Some in the Afro Latino or Black Latino population had raised concerns that the combined question may dilute their visibility. But the OMB said its research showed Afro Latino populations estimates were slightly higher with a combined question that also provides detailed checkboxes and write-in fields.

However, the working group recommended more research on the issue because about half of Afro Latinos interviewed while researching the issue for the update chose only Hispanic or Latino on a combined question, even though they selected Hispanic or Latino and Black or African American categories when they were recruited for the interviews.

Although the standards are intended for federal agencies, the effect goes beyond that realm. Many researchers, local and state governments and nonprofit groups follow the standards that also shape policy, effect representation in government through redistricting and, in some ways, societal perspectives.

The revisions were developed by a working group made up of career staff from 35 agencies that received more than 20,000 comments after first recommending the changes in January 2023, according to the OMB. The working group held 94 “listening sessions,” three virtual town halls and a tribal consultation on its proposed revisions, the agency said.

In addition, the OMB said it is creating the Interagency Committee on Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards to continue research, because the process of updating the standards “showed that racial and ethnic identities, concepts and data needs continue to evolve.”

Along with researching and capturing accurate data on Afro Latinos, it will also consider collecting data on descendants of people enslaved in the U.S., among other topics. The OMB said groups consulted on identification of descendants of slaves did not agree on whether or how to collect the information.

The others race and ethnicity categories are American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White.

For more from NBC Latino, sign up for our weekly newsletter.



Source link

Moonshine cave long rumored to be under historic NASCAR speedway possibly found in North Carolina



A possible moonshine cave has been discovered under the grandstands of a legendary NASCAR track in North Carolina.

The discovery was made during a routine cleaning and inspection at North Wilkesboro Speedway last week, track officials shared Tuesday. Operations staff noticed cracks in the original concrete in Section N, revealing an approximately 700-square-feet open area underneath.

“We’d often hear stories of how an old moonshine still was operated here on the property under the grandstands,” said Steve Swift, senior vice president of operations and development at Speedway Motorsports.

“We haven’t found a still (yet), but we’ve found a small cave and an interior wall that would have been the perfect location to not only make illegal liquor, but to hide from the law as well,” Swift added.

With around 600 seats removed from the grandstands, the next step for the Speedway Motorsports staff is foundation repair and concreate replacement ahead of NASCAR All-Star Race Week in May.

North Wilkesboro Speedway became one of the original NASCAR race tracks after hosting the inaugural Strictly Stock Series. The speedway closed in 1996 but returned to host NASCAR in 2023 following an extensive restoration.

Moonshine is no stranger to NASCAR and North Carolina. Many early stars got their start carrying illegal moonshine on the rough mountain roads of Appalachia. Racing legend Junior Johnson was the best-known bootlegger in Wilkes County.



Source link

North Korean TV censors British gardening show host’s jeans


North Korea’s state broadcaster, KCTV, has blurred out a pair of jeans worn by veteran British TV host Alan Titchmarsh as part of the country’s censorship of foreign fashion and culture.

KCTV carried an episode of Titchmarsh’s show “Garden Secrets,” originally aired on the BBC in 2010, on Monday.

At one point he can be seen kneeling in a flowerbed, and keen-eyed viewers will notice that the lower half of his body has been blurred to obscure the jeans he is wearing.

Titchmarsh told the BBC that the censorship had given him some “street cred.”

Titchmarsh, pictured during the KCTV broadcast - BBC/KCTV

Titchmarsh, pictured during the KCTV broadcast – BBC/KCTV

“I’ve never seen myself as a dangerous subversive imperialist – I’m generally regarded as rather cosy and pretty harmless, so actually it’s given me a bit of street cred really hasn’t it?” he said.

Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University in Seoul, told CNN that the censorship shows North Korea is strictly implementing the newly adopted Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act.

“The act aims to prohibit North Korean residents from imitating foreign countries in various aspects, including how they’re dressed and speak,” he said.

He added that jeans have been banned for residents as a symbol of American imperialism, but some flexibility has been applied to foreign visitors because they can’t prevent them from wearing jeans.

Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, said the censorship is part of a fight against “anti-socialist culture and ideology.”

“Blue jeans are associated with ‘decadent’ Western culture, as they were in the Soviet Union, and Kim Jong Il ordered officials to rid the country of them back in the 1990s,” he said.

“They have had campaigns against anti-socialist culture since at least the early 1990s,” said Ward. “The intensity of these campaigns has increased, especially since 2020.”

The Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act was introduced that year, banning the population from distributing, watching or listening to any cultural content deemed to be anti-socialist.

Violations are punishable by years of hard labor for small quantities of banned material and even death for larger amounts.

At that time, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the law prevents “the introduction and dissemination of anti-socialist ideology and culture….so that North Koreans can protect their own ideology, spirit, and culture.”

For decades, North Korea has been comparatively closed off from the rest of the world, with tight restrictions on free expression, free movement and access to information.

Its dismal human rights record has been criticized by the United Nations. Internet use is heavily restricted; even the privileged few who are allowed smartphones can only access a government-run, heavily censored intranet.

Foreign materials like books and movies are banned, often with severe punishments for those caught with black market contraband.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com



Source link

Biden aims to make North Carolina a top battleground — but Trump isn’t worried yet



FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Everywhere he turns, President Joe Biden and his campaign are playing defense across the 2024 electoral map.

That is except for one state: North Carolina.

In the Tar Heel State, where Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to visit Tuesday, favorable demographics, a string of major Republican nominees painted as extreme and a rapidly changing electorate that only narrowly backed former President Donald Trump in 2020 has Democrats feeling optimistic about their chances to flip the crucial battleground.

But with Biden’s popularity lower since his last run, Republicans here aren’t fretting yet. Polling shows Trump with an edge ranging from a few points to almost double digits, with even bigger leads on major issues.

“North Carolina is going to be this election’s Arizona, or past elections’ Florida,” former GOP Gov. Pat McCrory said of his state’s role in 2024 as the potential tipping point.

Republicans have a long history of success at the presidential level in North Carolina over the past 40 years, losing only once when Barack Obama carried the state in 2008. But Biden’s loss there in 2020 was the closest a Democrat has come since then, with Trump winning by just slightly more than 1 percentage point. Meanwhile, the state’s rapid growth has seen its largest Democratic-leaning counties become bigger and more blue.

That’s encouraged Democrats to be much more proactive in North Carolina this time around, particularly as it’s the only front-line swing state Biden did not carry in 2020. Already, his campaign has staffed up top positions and included the state in its $25 million battleground state ad buy. Biden’s visit Tuesday will mark his second visit to the state this year; in the 2020 general election cycle, he didn’t visit North Carolina until September.

“Anyone that you talk to from 2020 would tell you that the Biden campaign was just not here early,” said Anderson Clayton, chair of the state Democratic Party. “What we’ve really tried to do is go ahead and put boots on the ground and have an energy build up here.”

Winning North Carolina and its 16 electoral votes could be essential for Biden given his vulnerability in other states he carried four years ago. Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., who won one of the most hotly contested House races last cycle but is not seeking re-election this fall after redistricting, made the case for a North Carolina focus to Biden aboard Air Force One last year.

“The nationwide math just isn’t there without North Carolina,” he said. “You had John McCain’s ghost and John Lewis’ ghost propelling Biden to win in Georgia and Arizona, and you don’t have as much going on in those states this time, so you’ve got to look to one more and without one more state it gets really difficult … North Carolina by every account is the best opportunity there.”

Biden and Harris have billed their visit — which is technically a White House and not a campaign event — as a chance to tout in-state job growth, investments in local infrastructure and a law signed last year by Gov. Roy Cooper that expanded Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act. But leaders in the state see it as an opening salvo of what is sure to be a brutal and expensive campaign season.

“In 2020, we probably weren’t that high on the target list,” said Cooper, who is appearing alongside Biden and Harris on Tuesday, adding that unlike the 2020 campaign, which fell in the middle of the Covid pandemic, Biden and Democrats will get to engage in much more substantive door-to-door and in-person voter engagement. “You’re going to see organization that we haven’t seen before.”

Surveys so far show Trump ahead. A Marist College poll taken after this month’s Super Tuesday primaries, which had a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, found Biden trailing the former president by 3 points — with the same survey showing Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein leading Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson by 2 points in the battle for governor.

The same poll showed Trump with 12- and 9-point edges on immigration and the economy, including a 22- and 17-point edge respectively with independents. Biden held a 5-point advantage with voters on abortion and a 1-point edge on preserving democracy, which was a top concern for North Carolina voters.

Other preprimary surveys, including from Fox News and Bloomberg/Morning Consult, showed Trump leading by 5 to 9 points.

Couple those results with Trump having already pulled off back-to-back victories here, and his team is feeling good about their chance to make it three in a row. Trump has also elevated several veterans of North Carolina races: Senior adviser Chris LaCivita previously worked on McCrory’s campaign, and new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley formerly led the North Carolina state party. New RNC co-chair Lara Trump also hails from the state.

“In 2016 and 2020, Democrats lit money on fire in North Carolina only to lose to President Trump,” Anna Kelly, an RNC spokesperson, said in a statement. “With President Trump’s record of success in the state and two North Carolinians at the helm of the RNC, 2024 will be no different — Tar Heel State families have felt the strain of Biden’s failures and are ready to deliver for President Trump yet again.”

‘The greatest liability’

Both Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina acknowledge that there are some true wild cards this time around. While Democrats lost a Senate race here after the Supreme Court rescinded Roe v. Wade, this year will mark the first elections for president and governor since the state’s GOP supermajority in the state Legislature overturned Cooper’s veto and enacted a 12-week abortion ban last year.

What’s more, Robinson, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, has said that he wants to further restrict abortion to six weeks. (His campaign says he supports exceptions that include rape, incest and the life of the mother.)

Robinson himself will be a focal point of the campaign. Formerly a prolific poster to his personal Facebook page, Robinson has been in the spotlight for years over comments that include linking homosexuality to pedophilia, calling homosexuality and transgenderism “filth,” and saying that the Black Panther franchise was “created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by [a] satanic marxist” before using a Yiddish slur for Black people. That is in addition to other comments and posts critics have condemned as sexist, Islamophobic and antisemitic.

Robinson in October insisted he is not antisemitic and distanced himself from his old social media posts, describing them as “poorly worded” in remarks for the state Legislature, adding: “There is no antisemitism standing here in front of you.” Facing a backlash over his anti-LGBTQ remarks in 2021, Robinson said he would “fight for” the rights of LGBTQ community.

Democrats are hopeful that they can take Trump down in the state by closely tying him together with Robinson, whom the former president called “Martin Luther King on steroids,” in endorsing him at a North Carolina rally this month.

One Trump ally predicted Robinson’s history of remarks could turn off some evangelicals who are staunch supporters of Israel, and that he will face far more in negative spending than McCrory did as an incumbent in 2016.

“The open question is how Trump deals with statements that Robinson makes and whether [Democrats] can tie the two together,” this person said. “So if I’m Biden, I’m going to try to do that.”

“I do think it’s an uphill climb for Biden on Trump right now. I’d bet on Trump,” this person added. “But it’s entirely in Trump’s hands about how he deals with Robinson.”

L.T. McCrimmon, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign, said in a statement that North Carolina Republicans “continue to alienate the voters who will decide this election with their extreme rhetoric and backwards policies,” targeting Trump for “doubling down on his toxic agenda by hand-picking a slate of extreme candidates” and calling the state “ground zero for the extreme and losing MAGA agenda.”

Democrats have also taken aim at other down-ballot, statewide candidates, including Dan Bishop, the GOP nominee for attorney general and current member of the House Freedom Caucus, and Michele Morrow, a conservative activist and GOP nominee for state superintendent of public instruction who previously expressed support for violence against Democratic leaders. 

But none have garnered the attention Robinson has.

“The greatest liability for Donald Trump, on his whole national race for president that is greater than any legal liability he’s currently facing, is Mark Robinson on the gubernatorial ticket,” Paul Shumaker, a longtime Republican operative in the state, said. “And the reason being is the Democrats will move to link Trump and Robinson together and put them in lockstep.”

Mike Lonergan, communications director for Robinson’s campaign, said in a statement that Robinson “is very bold and outspoken about his Christian faith” and is “not a career politician that’s been groomed for higher office for decades — he’s a former factory worker.”

“As Lt. Governor Robinson has often said, we don’t live in a theocracy, we live in a constitutional republic,” he said. “If and when he should become governor, he will take the oath and duties of his office with the utmost respect, working to make North Carolina better for people of all backgrounds and walks of life; by growing our economy, reforming our schools and creating a culture of life that does more to support mothers and families.”

Jonathan Felts, a longtime North Carolina operative who is leading a pro-Robinson super PAC, said Robinson’s opponents are greatly overestimating how unknown the candidate is, while greatly underestimating his appeal.

“They think this is a phenomenon unique just to blue collar, working-class grassroots,” Felts said of Robinson’s meteoric rise through North Carolina GOP circles. “And that’s not the case. It doesn’t matter if you’re a country club Republican, big commercial developer, one of the largest car dealers in the country … they’re all in on Mark Robinson.”

And with Robinson generating headlines throughout North Carolina for years, voters aren’t just being introduced to him.

“They’ve all heard about the controversies,” he said, “And they’re still sticking with him.”

No matter which way the gubernatorial race goes, it will be historic. Robinson, should he win, would be North Carolina’s first Black governor. Stein, his opponent, would be its first Jewish chief executive. Another interesting wrinkle to the race is North Carolina’s long history of ticket-splitting, specifically sending Republicans to the White House or Senate while voting for Democrats for governor. And initial polling suggests that could happen again this time, just as it did in 2016 and 2020 when Trump and Cooper won on the same ballot.

Winning those crossover voters could be critical for both Trump and Biden, while another group of voters — those who cast ballots for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in this month’s Republican presidential primary — could prove key to both coalitions as well.

So far, the candidates aren’t putting much distance between themselves and the top of the ticket. Robinson has already campaigned with Trump, while Stein is set to appear at Biden’s Tuesday event.

“I think he’s the one who can deliver a better future for the people of North Carolina in this country,” Stein said of Biden. “But the voters will choose us on our own merits.”



Source link

Kim Jong Un visits tank unit; North Korea says Japan wants summit



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a tank exercise and encouraged his armored forces to sharpen war preparations in the face of growing tensions with South Korea, the North’s state media said Monday.

Kim made those comments Sunday while visiting his top tank group, the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division. The unit’s name marks how it was the first North Korean military unit to reach the South Korean capital in 1950 when a North Korean surprise attack triggered a war that dragged on for almost four years.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have heightened after Kim in past months dialed up his military demonstrations, including tests of nuclear-capable missiles designed to target South Korea, the United States and Japan, while issuing threats of nuclear conflict against its rivals.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have responded by strengthening their combined military exercises and updating their deterrence plans built around strategic U.S. assets.

Also Monday, North Korea said that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered to meet with Kim “as soon as possible,” but stressed that prospects for their countries first summit in about 20 years would depend on Tokyo tolerating its weapons program and ignoring its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

In a parliamentary session, Kishida said that a meeting with Kim is “crucial” to resolve the abduction issue, a major sticking point in bilateral ties, and that his government has been using various channels to hold the summit.

Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement that Kishida recently used an unspecified channel to convey his position that he wants to meet Kim Jong Un in person “as soon as possible.”

She said there will be no breakthrough in North Korea-Japan relations as long as Kishida’s government is engrossed in the abduction issue and interferes in the North’s “exercise of our sovereign right,” apparently referring to the North’s weapons testing activities.

Some experts say North Korea is seeking to improve ties with Japan as a way to weaken the trilateral Tokyo-Seoul-Washington security partnership, while Kishida also wants to use possible progress in the abduction issue to increase his declining approval rating at home.

North Korea and Japan don’t have diplomatic ties, and their relations have been overshadowed by North Korea’s nuclear program, the abduction issue and Japan’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. Japan’s colonial wrongdoing is a source of on-again, off-again history wrangling between Tokyo and Seoul, as well.

There are concerns North Korea could further dial up pressure on its rivals and intensify its weapons testing activities in what is an election year in both the United States and South Korea. Kim Jong Un has supervised a series of missile tests and other military drills this year.

Photos published by North Korean state media on Monday showed Kim talking with military officers at an observation post and tanks with North Korean flags rolling through dirt, with at least one of the vehicles carrying a sign that read: “Annihilate U.S. invaders who are staunch enemies of the Korean people!”



Source link