US President Joe Biden on Tuesday scored an easy win in Michigan’s presidential primary, but was dealt a stinging rebuke over the war in Gaza in an Arab American-led protest that raised concerns over his bid to win the swing state in November’s election.
There was little suspense over the outcome for both parties, with the president almost unopposed in the Democratic nominating contest and his predecessor, former US president Donald Trump, being declared the victor of the Republican vote as polls were closing.
However, tens of thousands of Democrats in a swing state crucial to Biden’s re-election hopes ticked the “uncommitted” box as part of a push by the “Listen to Michigan” campaign to jolt the president into backing off from his support of Israel.
Photo: AFP
With almost two-thirds of polling stations still to report, the “uncommitted” share accounted for 50,000 votes, more than double the final totals in each of the past three election cycles.
Biden released a statement thanking voters, touting his record on working for Michigan’s middle class and acknowledging that there was “much left to do” — but made no mention of the Gaza conflict and ignored the protest vote.
“Listen to Michigan” had set a modest goal of rallying 10,000 uncommitted voters in its aim to censure the president over US military funding for Israel, and to pressure him to call for an immediate ceasefire.
“President Biden has funded the bombs falling on the family members of people who live right here in Michigan — people who voted for him, who now feel completely betrayed,” the campaign said in a statement claiming victory.
The Gaza war started when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 last year, resulting in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, but concern has mounted amid the high civilian death toll in Israel’s retaliatory campaign, now at almost 30,000, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The bloodshed has weakened Biden’s standing among Muslims and Arab Americans, a bloc crucial to his 2020 victory in Michigan over Trump.
The Midwestern state has the largest proportion of residents who identify as being of Middle Eastern or North African descent in the country, with most of the population concentrated around Detroit.
The protest never threatened Biden’s easy march to the nomination, but the significant number of “uncommitted” votes could set off alarm bells ahead of the general election, when Biden cannot afford to see his coalition eroded in the swing state.
The US Census Bureau estimates the statewide population claiming Middle Eastern or North African descent at 310,000, although the Arab American Institute says that figure is likely a significant undercount.
The organization estimates a nationwide Arab-American population of 3.7 million and says the vast majority — more than 80 percent — are US citizens with the right to vote.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday warned that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since Jan. 23.
With a dire humanitarian emergency unfolding in the Gaza Strip and the main UN aid agency there struggling to cope, other bodies have called for help in reaching the thousands of Palestinians in desperate need.
“If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” WFP deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council, while UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs coordinating director Ramesh Rajasingham warned of “almost inevitable” widespread starvation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home