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Top GOP strategist quits DeSantis PAC just weeks before Iowa caucus

Top GOP strategist quits DeSantis PAC just weeks before Iowa caucus

A top Republican strategist for a PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announced he is resigning from the organization just weeks before the Iowa caucus. “I am resigning my position effective immediately,” veteran GOP strategist Jeff Roe said in a statement posted to X late Saturday. “Governor DeSantis has been an exceptional governor and I hope he will be the 47th President of the United States. I wish the Governor, First Lady, and their entire team the best through the rest of the campaign.” Roe’s departure comes amid a string of exits from Never Back Down, the main PAC supporting the Florida governor’s White House bid, coming just two weeks after the organization fired three top officials, including its chief executive officer. According to reporting from Politico, the PAC’s board chairman and also its president left the organization around the same time. DESANTIS ARGUES TRUMP ‘WILL SAY IT’S STOLEN, NO MATTER WHAT’ IF FORMER PRESIDENT LOSES IN IOWA OR NH The turmoil at the PAC was the subject of a Washington Post report Saturday, which detailed the sudden rash of departures and infighting that has plagued the organization as the Iowa caucus quickly approaches. Included in the report was a statement from Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner, who blamed the recent firings on “mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information.” “Senior officials were terminated,” Wagner told the Washington Post. “We don’t have time to indulge false narratives from those with ulterior motives.” But a lawyer for the fired employees accused Wagner of making a “categorically false” statement, leading to a revised statement with a different tone. DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL 99 OF IOWA’S COUNTIES — BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP? “Following some opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues, including some who believed there appeared to be numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, NBD and some senior officials parted ways,” Wagner told the Washington Post. “I cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements in the Washington Post today,” Roe said in his statement. “They are not true and an unwanted distraction at a critical time for Governor DeSantis.” DeSantis entered the race with a $269 million war chest, according to the report, with $82.5 million coming through Never Back Down in an unprecedented new campaign strategy. The PAC has largely been responsible for funding most of the Florida governer’s advertising and field operations, while also paying for much of the candidate’s campaign travel. According to the Washington Post report, Roe’s departure will not leave the PAC without experienced campaign veterans, with longtime DeSantis ally Phil Cox stepping into a senior adviser role while others are elevated to heightened roles. Meanwhile, Roe expressed that he is “proud of the team” that was built at Never Back Down and the “incredible work and integrity of every devoted professional within the organization.” “This is a team of political warriors and their grind and dedication over the last nine months has helped put Governor Ron DeSantis in a strong position,” Roe said. The DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

‘Nonsense’: Putin rejects Biden claim that Russia plans to attack NATO

‘Nonsense’: Putin rejects Biden claim that Russia plans to attack NATO

The Russian president says Moscow has ‘no interest … to fight with NATO countries’. The Russian president has dismissed the United States’s claims that Moscow could attack a NATO country in the future as “complete nonsense”, saying such a conflict would run counter to his country’s interests. Vladimir Putin made the statement in an interview with Russian state TV on Sunday, weeks after US President Joe Biden warned that if Putin achieved victory in Ukraine, he might be emboldened to attack a NATO ally, sparking a third world war. “It is complete nonsense – and I think President Biden understands that,” Putin told state television channel Rossiya. “Russia has no reason, no interest – no geopolitical interest, neither economic, political nor military – to fight with NATO countries.” Putin added that Biden may be trying to stoke such fears to justify his “erroneous policy” in the region. US-Russia relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades since Moscow invaded neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. Throughout the 22-month war, the US has provided Ukraine with $111bn in weapons, equipment, and other aid, helping the Ukrainians fend off Russia’s advance and regain some territory. Biden favours sending even more support to war-torn Ukraine, which is running short on supplies as it grinds to a bloody winter stalemate. He has asked US Congress to approve $61.4bn in support for Ukraine as part of a larger $110bn package that includes more funds for Israel and other issues. However, there is waning appetite in the Congress for the lingering war. Some Republican lawmakers have blocked the aid package, demanding the White House first take action on border security. Biden on December 12 said right-wing lawmakers’ refusal to approve the package also risked handing President Putin a “Christmas gift” of victory. “Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,” Biden said during a news conference with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We must … prove him wrong.” Presidents Zelenskyy, left, and Biden shake hands in the White House, Washington, DC, December 12 [Mandel Ngan/AFP] Tensions with Finland While Putin dismissed the prospect of a direct NATO feud, he did address tensions with neighbouring Finland since it joined the alliance. Finland, which became a NATO member in April, on Friday shut down its entire eastern border with Russia, which it accuses of orchestrating a migrant crisis on its border. Putin said he would respond to the deteriorating ties by opening up a military zone in its northwest. “They [the West] dragged Finland into NATO. Did we have any disputes with them? All disputes, including territorial ones in the mid-20th century, have long been solved,” Putin said. “There were no problems there. Now there will be [problems] because we will create the Leningrad military district and concentrate a certain amount of military units there.” Adblock test (Why?)

France condemns killing of its worker in Israeli strike in Gaza’s Rafah

France condemns killing of its worker in Israeli strike in Gaza’s Rafah

The killing comes as French top diplomat Catherine Colonna in Israel to appeal for truce and lasting peace. The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has condemned the Israeli bombing of a residential building in Rafah that killed one of its staff in a region previously declared a safe zone. “France condemns this bombing of a residential building which caused the death of many other civilians. We demand that all light be shed by the Israeli authorities on the circumstances of this bombing, as quickly as possible,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The house was hit on Wednesday evening, killing the employee and 10 others who had been sheltering with colleagues and their family members in the residential location. The employee had been working with the French government in Gaza since 2002, and some of his family members had already been evacuated from Gaza, the ministry said, offering condolences. The ministry statement is released at a time when external pressure on Israel is increasing due to its “indiscriminate” bombing raids in Gaza. More than 80 percent of the nearly 19,000 Palestinians killed are said to be civilians. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Sunday pressed for an “immediate and durable” truce in the Gaza war, adding Paris is “deeply concerned” over the situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. “Too many civilians are being killed,” Colonna said during remarks in Tel Aviv with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, as Israel presses on with its offensive after the October 7 attacks that has sent tensions spiralling across the region. The foreign minister also condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas and plans to meet with the families of the Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip. At least 1,140 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack and 240 were taken captive. Dozens of them were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners as part of a truce deal late last month. Colonna also plans to pursue an agreement with her Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki in the occupied West Bank during her trip. Shortly before her arrival in Israel, Colonna condemned increasing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. “Since October 7, unfortunately, some settlers, driven by their ideological blindness… have committed crimes” against Palestinians, she said, adding that “these settlers must be punished”. More than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health. Adblock test (Why?)

A tale of two Rumis – of the East and of the West

A tale of two Rumis – of the East and of the West

Jalaluddin Mohammad Rumi’s spiritual poems and perpetual wisdom have transcended time and cultures. Seven hundred and fifty years after his death, the celebrated Persian thinker remains a best-selling poet in the West, revered as an Islamic dervish in the East, while his sagacious thoughts rule the internet. When he died on December 17, 1273, aged 66, the streets of Konya, in present-day Turkey, were filled with mourners from multiple creeds and nations, reflective of the cosmopolitan society that lived in 13th century Anatolia – it was a time when the cross-cultural exchange of ideas and arts prospered. At his funeral, his followers, who also included Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, each recited from their own scriptures. This year too, on Sunday, the man posthumously known by his nisbah (a name indicating one’s origins) Rumi, will be honoured by his followers on Sheb-i Arus – meaning wedding night in both Persian and Turkish. And it would be in the spirit of the Persian poet’s call: “Our death is our wedding with eternity.” From the British capital, London, to California in the United States, to Konya, his murids or devotees, will gather in whirls of motion and emotion, remembering his own elegiac eulogy: “When you see my corpse is being carried,Don’t cry for my leaving,I’m not leaving,I’m arriving at eternal love.” – Rumi (translated by Muhammad Ali Mojaradi) Mevlana Rumi’s tomb in Konya is a point of pilgrimage for millions of devotees and tourists each year [Creative Commons] Who is Rumi in the east? Rumi is believed to have been born in the early thirteenth century in Balkh (now in Afghanistan), though some say his place of birth was in Central Asia. At the time of his birth (1207), the Persianate Empire spanned from India in the east and as far west as Greece, with many staking a claim to the man who would become more popularly known as Rumi, reflecting the region where he would settle – the Sultanate of Rum, also known as Anatolia. In the eastern world, Rumi’s name is often preceded by the honorific title Mevlana or Maulana (meaning our master), showing just how respected he is as an Islamic scholar and Sufi saint. To state his name without this title in some circles would receive tut-tutting and be considered disrespectful. “Like any historical figure who spans cultures, he has taken on a life of his own,” explained Muhammad Ali Mojaradi, a Persian scholar based in Kuwait. He said people tend to project their own understanding and bias when engaging with historical texts, including Rumi’s. “I have heard that Rumi is a staunchly orthodox Sunni Muslim, others say he is a closeted Zoroastrian, or a deviant Sufi, or someone who is too enlightened to subscribe to a religion. Some consider him a Tajik, a Khurasani, others a Persian, or Iranian, some are adamant that he is Turkish. These are more indicative of our biases than the real Rumi.” During his life, his identity was intrinsically linked to his faith. “I am the servant of the Quran, for as long as I have a soul.I am the dust on the road of Muhammad, the Chosen One.If someone interprets my words in any other way,That person I deplore, and I deplore his words.” – Rumi (translated by Muhammad Ali Mojaradi) Rumi was an Islamic scholar, following in a long line, and taught Sharia or Islamic law. He would also practise Tasawwuf, more popularly known as Sufism in the West. It is a way of understanding and drawing closer to God through the purification of the inner self, reflecting and remembering God through meditative chants, songs and sometimes even dance. Other thinkers and poets of his time included Ibn Arabi, the Andalusian philosopher and Fariddudin Attar, the Persian author of the Mantiq-ut-Tayr (Conference of the Birds). Islam’s openness to discussion and debate at this time would allow the poetry and arts to thrive, influencing the works of other Persian poets like Hafez and Omar Khayyam. Whirling dervishes perform outside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, this year to mark the 750th anniversary of the death of Mevlana Rumi [Khalil Hamra/AP Photo] What did Rumi become known for? After completing his theological education in Syria’s Aleppo, Rumi went to Konya where he met a wandering dervish, named Shams-i-Tabriz, who left a lasting impact on the Islamic scholar. Barka Blue, founder of a spiritual arts movement, the Rumi Centre, in California, said Tabriz would transform Rumi, and lead to his “spiritual awakening”. Rumi penned his magnum opus, the Masnavi, a 50,000-line poem, written in rhyming couplets and quatrains about a lifelong yearning in search of God. It would become the most famed of his works. Other notable works include Fihi Ma Fihi and Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi – a collection of poems written in honour of his spiritual mentor. “It [Masnavi] was actually called the ‘Quran in Persian’, indicating that it is the pinnacle of expression in that language but also that it is an exposition of the Quran in the Persian tongue,” Blue, the acclaimed rapper and poet, told Al Jazeera. As Rumi says in the introduction, “this is the root of the root of the root of the way [faith],” added Blue, author of The Art of Remembrance. To fully understand and appreciate the depths of Rumi’s words, “a firm grasp of the Islamic tradition in general and Sufism in particular” is needed, Blue said. “His words are undoubtedly a beautiful entry point to this tradition [of Islam].” Rumi himself would advise readers of the Masnavi to make ritual ablution and be in a state of cleanliness as one would upon reading the Quran or praying the five daily prayers. The intention when reading it was to connect with the Creator. Who is Rumi in the West? The first-known English translation of some of Rumi’s work was published in 1772 by a British judge and linguist William Jones in Calcutta — now Kolkata — then the base of the British