US House passes bill targeting China that would limit EV tax credits
A group of automakers says the bill makes fewer vehicles eligible for the tax credits. The United States House of Representatives has narrowly voted to approve legislation to tighten rules limiting Chinese content in vehicles qualifying for US electric vehicle (EV) tax credits. The House voted on Thursday 217 to 192 to approve the bill, which has not been taken up by the US Senate, to tighten the definition of Chinese components that make vehicles ineligible for US EV tax credits. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), which represents General Motors, Toyota Motor Corporation, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other car companies, said the bill would result in fewer vehicles qualifying and would mean aggressive rules on vehicle emissions and EV targets would need to be rolled back. AAI’s CEO John Bozzella said that those standards were based in part on the availability of EV tax credits and that if the incentives are eliminated “the automotive industrial base faces a serious economic and national security risk from China, the US becomes less competitive, and the rug is pulled out from consumers”. The bill, sponsored by Representative Carol Miller, a Republican from West Virginia, would tighten the definition of a so-called “Foreign Entity of Concern” that applies to China and other countries. She said it would “ensure that Chinese companies can no longer benefit from electric vehicles tax credits meant for US manufacturers”. The rules required under an August 2022 law are designed to wean the US electric vehicle battery supply chain away from China. The US Treasury and Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. Currently, 22 of the 113 EV or plug-in hybrid models for sale in the US are eligible for the EV tax credit – and just 13 get the full $7,500 credit, Bozzella said. In May, the US Treasury gave automakers additional flexibility on battery mineral requirements for electric vehicle tax credits on some crucial trace minerals from China, such as graphite. The department said it would give automakers until 2027 to remove some hard-to-trace minerals like graphite contained in anode materials and critical minerals contained in electrolyte salts, binders, and additives. Adblock test (Why?)
Ronaldo urges Manchester United to ‘rebuild everything from the bottom’
Cristiano Ronaldo says his former club Manchester United must rebuild everything from the bottom up if they are to compete for the top football titles again. The 39-year-old Portugal forward won three Premier League titles, the Champions League and a Club World Cup crown during his first stint at United from 2003-2009 and said he still loves the club, which finished eighth in the league last season. Ronaldo says manager Erik ten Hag’s attitude is too negative, urging him to target the Premier League title. The Portugal star, who now plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, fell out with ten Hag before his second spell at Old Trafford ended late in 2022. Speaking on the “Rio Ferdinand Presents” podcast set to air on Thursday, Ronaldo said he was happy with the way the club’s administrators, led by INEOS boss Jim Ratcliffe, were investing in infrastructure. “They need to rebuild everything, in my opinion … the club needs time to rebuild because it’s still one of the best clubs in the world, but they need to change. They understand that this is the only way. “I believe that the future will be bright. I believe, but they don’t depend only on the talents. They have to rebuild from the bottom. If not, they cannot compete. It will be impossible.” Cristiano Ronaldo is still revered by fans at Manchester United, where he spent six seasons [File: Phil Noble/Reuters] Ronaldo dismisses ten Hag’s approach towards titles Ten Hag has said he is “quite confident” of claiming more silverware this campaign after lifting the League Cup and FA Cup over the past two seasons. But he said in July his team are a “long way away” from being ready to win the Premier League, which they have not won since Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge in 2013. Ronaldo dismissed ten Hag’s attitude. “The coach, they say they cannot compete to win the league and Champions League. Manchester United coach, you cannot say that you’re not going to fight to win the league or Champions League. “You have to be, to mentally say, listen, maybe we don’t have that potential, but I cannot say that. We’re going to try. You have to try.” United upset Manchester City in the FA Cup final in May but they endured their worst Premier League campaign last term, finishing eighth, and the 20-time English champions have lost two of their opening three matches this season. Ten Hag has come under pressure already after two defeats in their opening three games and Ronaldo said he should lean on his former United teammate Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was hired as an assistant coach. “You cannot rebuild a club without knowledge,” he said. “I believe that Ruud is going to help because he was inside the club. He knows the club, he knows the fans. If the coach listens to him, I think they can improve a little bit the club.” Cristiano Ronaldo left the club in December 2022, following a fractured relationship with manager Erik ten Hag [Carl Recine/Reuters] ‘I love that club’ Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo, who spent six seasons with United earlier in his career, scored 27 goals in 54 appearances during his second spell at Old Trafford after signing from Juventus in 2021. Following his exit just over a year later, he claimed he felt “betrayed”, while saying of ten Hag: “I don’t have respect for him because he doesn’t show respect for me.” However, the 39-year-old said he still loves the club. “I’m not happy the way it all happened but, in the same way, we cannot control some points of our life sometimes, but it’s done, already done,” he said. “To prove that I’m right or wrong, this is not my issue any more. I say what I have to say and for me it’s done.” He added: “I love that club. I’m not that kind of guy that forgot the past.” United are currently 14th in the league and visit Southampton on Saturday. Adblock test (Why?)
Nine candidates named in Japan’s leadership race
A surfer and a nationalist are among the record number of contenders to replace Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has named the nine candidates who will run in a leadership race scheduled for September 27 to replace Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose three-year term was tarnished by scandals. The record number of contenders named on Thursday include former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, the surfer son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, a nationalist vying to be the first female prime minister. The LDP holds a majority in parliament, which means the winner is guaranteed to become Japan’s next premier. Koizumi has promised to change an “old-fashioned LDP” and accelerate reforms to revitalise Japan, including by making the job market more flexible. He said he would hold a snap election soon after taking office to seek the public’s mandate. Koizumi supports a revision to a 19th-century civil code requiring married couples to choose one of their surnames, which has caused most women to adopt their husbands’ surnames. He wants to allow an option of keeping separate surnames which is supported by the country’s powerful business lobby. Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is the youngest candidate [File: Eugene Hoshiko/AP] He has said he will strengthen Japan’s alliance with the United States and expand a cooperation network with other like-minded nations to deter China’s growing influence. He wants to meet his Chinese and South Korean counterparts soon after taking office and hold talks with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. Leading the opinion polls are Koizumi and former Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 67. Ishiba is running in the leadership race for a fifth time. Despite his popularity among general voters, he has struggled to win enough support from fellow party lawmakers. He has said this will be his “final battle”. A security and defence expert, Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance. He is a supporter of democracy in Taiwan, which China views as its own territory. Ishiba promises to push for gender equality and measures to address low births and Japan’s declining population. Shigeru Ishiba, member of the House of Representatives for the LDP and one of the candidates in the leadership election [File: Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo] The other candidates are Yoko Kamikawa, 71, top diplomat for Kishida; Taro Kono, 61, outspoken reformist and digital affairs minister; Toshimitsu Motegi, 67, the LDP’s secretary-general; Takayuki Kobayashi, 49, former economic security minister; Katsunobu Kato, 68, chief cabinet secretary; and Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, former defence minister and foreign minister. How the race works The nine candidates and other LDP lawmakers will meet at the party headquarters in Tokyo for the vote on September 27 to decide on its next president and, since it holds a parliamentary majority, the next prime minister. Each of the LDP’s 369 lawmakers will cast a vote in the first round, while an equal number of votes will be distributed among rank-and-file members polled earlier. In the 2021 leadership election, the party had 1.13 million registered members, its website showed. A candidate securing a simple majority in that poll becomes the party leader. If nobody secures a majority, a run-off follows between the two candidates with the most votes. In the second round, each lawmaker again gets one vote, but the share of the rank and file drops to 47 votes, one for each of Japan’s prefectures. Once a new LDP leader is elected, Japan’s parliament will gather, probably in early October, to pick a new prime minister, who is then expected to announce a new cabinet and appoint key LDP officials. The new prime minister may call a snap general election to seek a national mandate. Adblock test (Why?)
Floods in northeastern Nigeria affect one million people
Severe flooding in northeastern Nigeria has killed at least 30 people and affected more than one million others, the authorities have said. The collapse of the Alau dam on the Ngadda river in Borno State on Tuesday caused some of the state’s worst flooding since the same dam collapsed 30 years ago, and prompted residents to flee their homes. The state government said on Wednesday that the dam was at capacity due to unusually high rains. Officials expected the death toll to rise. The current flooding comes nearly two years after Nigeria’s worst flooding in a decade killed more than 600 people across the country. Ezekiel Manzo, spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency, on Wednesday put the death toll at 30. “One million people have been affected so far,” said an aide for Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, adding that as efforts to document displaced people begin, that number could rise to nearly two million. Residents of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, said food has become expensive since the central market was destroyed in the floods. The swirling waters partially destroyed a local zoo and several animals escaped. Mary Mamza, a Maiduguri resident, said people were afraid to leave their homes after an escaped crocodile was killed near her home. West Africa has experienced some of its worst flooding in decades. More than 2.3 million people have been affected so far this year, which is a threefold increase from last year, according to the United Nations. African nations are losing up to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) every year as they bear a heavier burden than the rest of the world from climate change, a new report said on Monday after one of the continent’s hottest years on record. The World Meteorological Organization said many African nations are spending up to 9 percent of their budgets for climate adaptation policies. Adblock test (Why?)
Kamala Harris decries ‘tragic’ killing of US citizen by Israeli forces
The US vice president and Democratic nominee has failed to back Aysenur Eygi’s family’s call for an independent investigation. Washington, DC – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has decried the killing of American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces, but the United States vice president stopped short of endorsing requests for an independent investigation into the incident. In a statement on Wednesday, Harris called the fatal shooting of Eygi in the occupied West Bank last week “tragic” and “unacceptable”. She also urged “full accountability” for the killing. “Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” Harris said. “Israel’s preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the [Israeli military] is responsible. We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results.” Israeli forces shot Eygi in the head on September 6 while she was protesting against an illegal Israeli outpost in the Palestinian territory. On Tuesday, the Israeli military acknowledged that it “probably” killed Eygi, but said she was shot “indirectly and unintentionally”. Eygi, 26, lived in Washington State and has been described by friends as a joyous person who was passionate about social justice. Rights advocates have long argued that Israel should not be allowed to investigate its own abuses, noting that the country’s authorities rarely prosecute its own soldiers for rampant rights violations against Palestinians. That is why Eygi’s family had called on the US to conduct its own probe into the killing. But Washington has all but ruled out the request, saying that it is awaiting the results of the Israeli investigation. On Tuesday, both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin described the killing of Eygi as “unprovoked and unjustified”. But their boss, President Joe Biden, was quick to suggest that he accepts the Israeli explanation for the shooting. “Apparently, it was an accident. It ricocheted off the ground and it — [she] got hit by accident,” he told reporters outside the White House. He later issued a statement on Wednesday saying the US expects to have “full access” to Israel’s preliminary investigation. “There must be full accountability. And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” Biden wrote in the statement. None of the US officials — including Harris — has backed an independent probe or committed to seeking consequences for Eygi’s killing. Eygi is one of several Americans killed by Israel in recent years. Victims include 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq, who was shot in January, and veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin in 2022. The US has verbally demanded accountability in these cases but has not applied any penalties to Israel for refusing to open criminal investigations into the incidents. Israel receives billions of dollars in US military aid annually, as well as diplomatic support from Washington at international forums. Biden and Harris have faced criticism this week for failing to call Eygi’s family to express condolences or condemn Israel for killing her. Critics have also drawn a contrast between the administration’s response to Eygi’s death and the killing of US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken captive during the October 7 attack by Hamas and found dead in a tunnel in Gaza late in August. After Goldberg-Polin’s death, top Biden administration officials unequivocally condemned his killing, and the US Department of Justice announced new “terrorism” charges against Hamas leaders. Advocates say this strong reaction only highlights the tepid nature of the US response to Eygi’s killing. “Aysenur and her family deserve justice. As her family continues to mourn, President Biden and Vice President Harris have chosen to defend the foreign military that killed her instead of calling the family to express their condolences,” Juliette Majid, a friend of Eygi, told Al Jazeera in a statement. “How long must the family wait before the US conducts an independent investigation into the deliberate killing of an American citizen?” Adblock test (Why?)
Video shows destruction from Israeli strike on UNRWA school-turned-shelter
NewsFeed An Israeli strike on an UNRWA school-turned-shelter has killed at least 18 people and injured over a dozen others in Nuseirat, Gaza. Video from the scene shows bags of food with the UNRWA logo amid the rubble from which rescuers were removing bodies. Published On 11 Sep 202411 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
At least 14 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school
A separate Israeli strike in Khan Younis killed 11 as the United Nations polio vaccination drive continues in the north. At least 14 people, including two children and a woman, have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence agency and hospital officials. Witnesses told Al Jazeera that people were waiting for food when Israeli jets struck jets struck the United Nations-run al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Wednesday. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who visited the site, said he saw a “tremendous amount of destruction” with “piles of rubble scattered around the area” and a missile stuck in the ground. He said emergency workers had “been digging the rubble with their bare hands due to the lack of basic equipment”. Fourteen people killed in the attack were brought to al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospitals nearby, officials from the facilities said. At least 18 people were wounded in the strike, they said. The Israeli army said in a statement that the air force targeted a Hamas command and control centre. Without providing evidence, it said the compound was used to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli forces in Gaza and against Israel. The school is at least the sixth to be targeted by Israeli shelling or air raids since August 1. Tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders are sheltering in Gaza’s schools. Khan Younis attack Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli attack hit a home near the southern city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters from the same family who ranged in age from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European Hospital, which received the casualties. Israeli jets also struck a group of people waiting to buy bread outside a bakery west of Gaza City, according to the Civil Defence. A spokesperson for the agency said at least three people were killed and seven wounded in the Israeli air raid on the Nassr neighbourhood. An Israeli strike late Tuesday on a home in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Civil Defence. The Civil Defence said the home belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived the strike. Israel’s 11-month-old assault on Gaza has killed at least 41,084 people and wounded another 95,029, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. People use a blanket to transport a victim after an Israeli air strike hit a school in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on September 11, 2024 [Eyad Baba/AFP] Polio vaccinations continue A campaign to vaccinate Gaza’s children against the polio virus continues in the north “against all odds”, including Israeli attacks on UN health workers and their vehicles, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). It said that nearly 530,000 children have received the vaccine across the Gaza Strip. UNRWA also said its staff are working “around the clock to reach all children under 10”. A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza, the part of the enclave hardest hit by Israel’s 11-month war, began on Tuesday. It follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month. (Al Jazeera) Adblock test (Why?)
Israel carries out wave of air attacks on south Lebanon
NewsFeed Video shows powerful explosions in southern Lebanon where the Israeli army says it carried out more than 15 air attacks against the armed group Hezbollah. Israel’s defence minister has said its military is moving its focus away from Gaza to Lebanon. Published On 11 Sep 202411 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Fact check: Trump-Harris presidential debate — truths and falsehoods
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump met face to face for the first time in Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. During the debate, they exchanged various accusations; here, we fact-check the candidates’ claims. Harris ‘wouldn’t even meet’ Netanyahu Trump: Harris “wouldn’t even meet with” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers.” Half true. This needs context. Harris did skip Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of the US Congress on July 24. She was busy making a previously scheduled keynote speech to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority. However, Harris met Netanyahu face-to-face the following day. After that meeting, she doubled down on support for Israel, committing to its defence, but also referred to the growing death toll of the war in Gaza, in which more than 41,000 people have been killed, and said she would not stay silent. Harris, right, and Netanyahu arrive for a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building [File: Julia Nikhinson/AP] Trump misleads about military equipment in Afghanistan Trump: The US “left $85bn worth of brand new, beautiful military equipment behind” in Afghanistan. False. The figure is far lower than Trump stated. When the Taliban toppled Afghanistan’s civilian government in 2021, it inherited military hardware the US gave to the government. However, an independent inspector general report told Congress that only about $7bn of US-funded equipment remained in the Taliban’s hands. According to the report, “The US military removed or destroyed nearly all major equipment used by US troops in Afghanistan throughout the drawdown period in 2021.” Families board a US Air Force plane during an evacuation at Kabul airport [File: Sgt Samuel Ruiz/US Marine Corps via AP] Haitian immigrants ‘are eating the cats’ Trump: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” False. A city spokesperson told PolitiFact that claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing neighbours’ pets to eat are unfounded. A Springfield spokesperson said the city had no such reports, and police told a local news outlet the department had received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten. As many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants have come to Springfield. Since 2023, some Haitians have come to the US through the Department of Homeland Security’s humanitarian parole programme that lets people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and their immediate family members request to come to the US legally. They can be paroled into the US for up to two years. Additional ‘Trump sales tax’ of $4,000 Harris: “Economists have said that the Trump sales tax would actually result for middle-class families in about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be the backs of middle-class people paying for tax cuts for billionaires.” Half true. Trump has repeatedly proposed wide-ranging tariffs on foreign goods, including an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent to 20 percent and a 60 percent levy on goods from China. Although tariffs are imposed separately from the tax system, consumers would feel their effect much the same way as taxes. However, the specific dollar impact on consumers varies. Two estimates we found generally support Harris’s $4,000 figure; two show a smaller, though still significant, impact. Trump, on the screen at left, and Harris, right [Matt Rourke/AP] ‘Worst unemployment since the Great Depression’ Harris: “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.” False. The unemployment rate spiked to a post-Great Depression record of 14.8 percent in April 2020 as the COVID pandemic escalated. Trump was in office then. But he didn’t “leave” Biden or Harris with a post-Great Depression record unemployment rate. By December 2020, the unemployment rate had fallen back to 6.4 percent, which was high for recent history but well below numerous spikes during recessions. Job creation ‘fraud’ Trump: “It was a fraud, just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.” False. The federal agency that calculates how many people are working handed Democrats an unwelcome present during their August national convention in Chicago: a downward adjustment of the past year’s employment gains by 818,000 jobs. But Trump claimed the Biden-Harris administration was cooking the books, calling it “fraud” during the debate. However, economists across the ideological spectrum reject Trump’s claim. The process is an annual effort to fine-tune initial data that the agency acknowledges is imperfect. Abortion: Democrats support ‘execution after birth’ Trump: “They even have … he said, ‘The baby we will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby.’” False. Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a physician, never said he would sanction the “execution” of newborns. What he said during a radio interview is that in rare, late-pregnancy cases when fetuses are nonviable, doctors deliver the baby, keep it comfortable, resuscitate it if the mother wishes, and then have a “discussion” with the mother. The issue is that Northam declines to say what that discussion would entail. Trump puts words in the governor’s mouth, saying doctors would urge mothers to let them forcibly kill the newborn, which is a felony in Virginia punishable by a long prison sentence or death. Harris reacts during the debate with Trump [Brian Snyder/Reuters] ‘Climate change is a hoax’ Harris: “Well, the former president had said that climate change is a hoax. And what we know is that it is very real.” True. Trump has, on multiple occasions, called climate change and global warming a hoax in speeches, social media posts and interviews. The source of Harris’s claim that he called climate change “a hoax” was a tweet Trump posted on November 6, 2012. It said, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” More than 97 percent of the world’s climate scientists and a majority of domestic and international scientific organisations agree
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 929
As the war enters its 929th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. Fighting The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 20 of 25 Russia-launched drones overnight into Wednesday. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops have pushed forward 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles) into eastern Ukraine since early August, despite Ukraine’s offensive into western Russia. A Russian freight train derailed in the region of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border after “the intervention of non-authorised people”, Russia’s national rail operator said. No casualties were reported. Since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, its rail network – key to moving weapons and soldiers to the front lines – has suffered numerous sabotage attempts. Politics and diplomacy: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy are travelling to Kyiv in a rare joint trip to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has pressed for the West to send more weapons and lift restrictions on their use deeper into Russia. Blinken said the US is committed to providing Ukraine “what they need when they need it to be most effective in dealing with the Russian aggression”. Zelenskyy promised to forge a strong global response to any power supporting Russia’s war effort, saying, “We will do everything not just to defend our state and people, but to truly consolidate the world.” Former US President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris clashed over US policy on the war in Ukraine during their first presidential debate. Trump said he would press to “just get this war finished and get it done” if elected. Harris accused Trump of being willing to “give up” to pressure from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who she said would “eat you for lunch”. Weapons The US formally accused Iran of supplying ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine and piled more sanctions on the country, targeting ships and companies it claimed are linked to its weapons shipments. Britain, France and Germany announced they would sever aviation agreements with Iran and sanction its national air carrier over Tehran’s alleged supply of missiles to Russia. Iran denied it was sending missiles to Russia and promised to respond to the new sanctions. “This action of the three European countries is the continuation of the hostile policy of the West and economic terrorism against the people of Iran, which will face the appropriate and proportionate action of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Nasser Kanaani, spokesman of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. US President Joe Biden, asked whether he would remove restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons deep inside Russia, said his administration is “working that out”. Ukraine blamed Russian air force commander Sergei Kobylash for ordering a July 8 strike against a children’s hospital in Kyiv that killed two people and destroyed much of the facility. Adblock test (Why?)