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Washington — Following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, leaders in the Uyghur American community are advocating for renewed U.S. attention on human rights abuses in Xinjiang in northwest China, where Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have reportedly faced severe repression.

Advocates urge Trump to continue his administration’s previous measures against China, citing the impact of his first-term policies on Uyghur rights.

During Trump’s first term, his administration formally labeled China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide, leading to sanctions on Chinese officials and entities connected with alleged abuses, including mass detentions, forced labor and sterilizations. China has consistently denied accusations of abuses against ethnic minorities, asserting its policies aim to combat extremism and terrorism.

Nury Turkel, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, pointed to the bipartisan support for Uyghur rights, underscoring that these concerns resonate across both U.S. legislative and executive branches.

“[Uyghur rights] concerns extend beyond typical human rights issues. They have profound national security implications tied to America’s long-term economic and strategic security,” Turkel told VOA.

Turkel expressed cautious optimism that Trump’s new administration will build on its previous actions, referencing the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and the genocide designation.

“I am optimistic that the incoming administration will take concrete steps to address these urgent concerns affecting Uyghurs, as it had previously,” he said.

VOA contacted the Trump campaign for a comment regarding the new administration’s plans for Uyghur rights in China but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Renewed calls for action

Uyghur American leaders plan to press Trump’s administration to bolster sanctions on Chinese officials and entities involved in abuses against Uyghurs, with the hope of strengthening the U.S. response.

“I anticipate that the Trump administration will impose additional sanctions on Chinese officials and entities responsible for atrocity crimes against the Uyghurs, potentially strengthening U.S. efforts to confront these abuses,” Turkel added.

Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs, emphasized the need for strict enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021.

“Uyghurs are enduring a genocide, and Americans should know that addressing the genocide of Uyghurs is not just a foreign policy matter; it’s about preventing the U.S. from becoming complicit through the consumption of Chinese products tainted by forced labor,” Abbas told VOA. “[I]t’s about stopping China from using Americans’ hard-earned money to fuel their imperial ambitions and undermine the United States, and rejecting foreign intimidation on U.S. soil.”

Salih Hudayar, prime minister of the Washington-based East Turkistan Government in Exile, echoed these sentiments, urging the Trump administration to formally recognize the region — referred to as Xinjiang by China but called East Turkistan by many Uyghurs —as an occupied nation.

“An independent East Turkistan would directly challenge China’s ambitions for dominance across Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific, safeguarding American and broader global interests,” Hudayar told VOA. He suggested appointing a special coordinator for Uyghur issues to demonstrate U.S. support for Uyghur rights and those of other minorities in the region.

Current policy challenges

Despite calls for stronger actions, Uyghur American advocates remain concerned that economic and strategic interests with China may take precedence. Turkel highlighted that various advocacy groups have influenced the U.S. response to Uyghur issues in recent years.

“Climate activists have lobbied for closer cooperation with China on environmental initiatives; pro-engagement China watchers have advocated a softer, more conciliatory approach to ‘lower the temperature’ in U.S.-China relations; and business interests have warned of the economic risks of escalating tensions, pushing for policies that protect U.S.-China trade relations,” he said. “These pressures have contributed to a more nuanced stance and a quieter approach to human rights and Uyghur-related policies.”

Turkel added, “While steps like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act were commendable [during the Biden administration], the focus on Uyghur rights has often been eclipsed by broader geopolitical priorities,” pointing to how shifting U.S. economic priorities have impacted the response.

Addressing transnational repression

In addition to actions on Uyghur rights, Uyghur American leaders are urging the Trump administration to address transnational repression by China, specifically targeting covert operations that intimidate Uyghur Americans on U.S. soil.

“The administration should take immediate steps to multiply the efforts to counter transnational repression by Chinese authorities, particularly targeting the presence of covert Chinese police stations and agents who monitor and intimidate Uyghur Americans and China dissidents in the U.S.,” Abbas said.

Abbas noted Trump’s efforts in securing hostage releases in his first term, urging him to prioritize Uyghur detainees held in China.

“China continues to detain Uyghur [American] family members and community leaders as a tactic to silence Uyghurs abroad … with many forced to self-censor to protect their families,” she said, advocating for strong U.S. efforts to secure their release and end repression tactics targeting Uyghurs in the diaspora.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is moving quickly to fill his nascent administration with Republican officials who have been the most politically loyal to him in the four years he was out of office.

Trump, according to various U.S. news accounts, has decided to name Florida Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state, the country’s top diplomat, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the Homeland Security chief.

Both Rubio and Noem were on Trump’s short list of possible vice-presidential running mates several months ago. While Trump later picked first-term Ohio Senator JD Vance, now the vice president-elect, to join him on the Republican national ticket, both Rubio and Noem remained Trump stalwarts as he easily won the election last week over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Other news accounts say that Trump has settled on Michael Waltz, a Florida congressman, as his national security adviser. Waltz earlier this year supported a long-shot Republican legislative effort to rename Washington’s international airport for Trump.

Trump on Monday also named Thomas Homan, his former acting immigration chief, to be his “border czar” to head efforts to deport undocumented migrants living in the U.S., possibly millions, back to their home countries. News accounts reported that Stephen Miller, another vocal anti-migrant adviser who served in Trump’s first term, would be named as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy.

The president-elect also named another ardent supporter, Elise Stefanik, a New York congresswoman, as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Just ahead of the election, Trump, who only rarely publicly admits making any mistakes, told podcaster Joe Rogan that his biggest error during his term from 2017 to 2021 was hiring “bad people, or disloyal people.”

“I picked some people that I shouldn’t have picked,” he said.

Some of the top officials Trump chose then, including former chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton, became sharp public Trump critics after he ousted them. Kelly said during this year’s campaign that Trump met the definition of a fascist ruler. Trump attacked both former officials, calling Kelly “a bully but a weak person” and disparaging Bolton as “an idiot.”

Ahead of the election, Bolton said, “What Trump will look for in senior nominees in a second term is fealty. He wants ‘yes men’ and ‘yes women.'”

Rubio sparred sharply with Trump during their 2016 run for the Republican presidential nomination, which Trump captured enroute to his first term as president. Rubio mocked Trump as having small hands and sporting an orange spray tan, while Trump derided Rubio as “little Marco.”

But Rubio, like numerous other one-time Trump critics, was a staunch Trump supporter in this year’s campaign. In recent years, Rubio has proved to be an outspoken foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on U.S. relations with China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

He has at times been at odds with Republicans who were skeptical about U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts, such as helping to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s 2022 invasion. But more recently, he voted against sending more U.S. military aid to Ukraine, while Trump has also voiced skepticism about the extent of U.S. assistance to Kyiv.

Rubio told NBC News in September, “I think the Ukrainians have been, such incredibly brave and strong in standing up to Russia. But at the end of the day, what we are funding here is a stalemate war, and it needs to be brought to a conclusion, or that country is going to be set back 100 years.”

“I’m not on Russia’s side — but unfortunately, the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement,” Rubio said.

Noem rose to national prominence and won conservative plaudits after refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

Trump was reportedly considering her as his vice-presidential running mate. But she faced widespread criticism and fell in the stakes to be Trump’s No. 2 in April when she wrote in a memoir that she shot to death an “untrainable” dog that she “hated” on her family farm.

Waltz is a former Army Green Beret who shares Trump’s views on illegal immigration and skepticism of America’s continued support for Ukraine.

Waltz, who also has served in the National Guard as a colonel, has criticized Chinese activity in the Asia-Pacific and said the United States needs to be ready for a potential conflict in the region.

Just as notable as Trump’s initial selections are two former officials he has rejected for top jobs in his new administration: Nikki Haley, his former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Haley ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and Pompeo considered opposing Trump before backing off.

Trump is heading to Washington on Wednesday to meet with President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, about the transfer of power when Trump is inaugurated on January 20. Trump is also planning to meet with Republicans in the House of Representatives.
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BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — A new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 has been temporarily blocked after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday. 

The judge said the law is “unconstitutional on its face” and plaintiffs are likely to win their case with claims that the law violates the First Amendment. 

The ruling marks a win for opponents of the law, who argue that it is a violation of the separation of church and state and that the poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments would isolate students, especially those who are not Christian. Proponents say that the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance to the foundation of U.S. law. 

U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge issued the order in an ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of parents of Louisiana public school children. They say that the legislation violates First Amendment language forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty. 

The new law in Louisiana, a reliably Republican state that is ensconced in the Bible Belt, was passed by the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature earlier this year. 

The legislation, which has been touted by Republicans including President-elect Donald Trump, is one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms — from Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students to Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons. 

In recent years, similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, none have gone into effect. 

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose. 

Louisiana’s legislation, which applies to all public K-12 school and state-funded university classrooms, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed on a poster or framed document at least 28 by 36 centimeters where the text is the central focus and “printed in a large, easily readable font.” 

Each poster must be paired with the four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” 

Tens of thousands of posters would likely be needed to satisfy the new law. Proponents say that schools are not required to spend public money on the posters, and instead that they can be bought using donations or that groups and organizations will donate the actual posters. 
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«Я пішов, бо програємо. Кожен солдат потрібен, кожна людина потрібна», розповів один із добровольців
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Міністерство оборони України має проконтролювати дієвість затвердженого механізму, технічна готовність старту – 15 листопадa
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State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday as Washington looks for ways to “surge” military aid to Ukraine in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term.  

After Brussels, Blinken will proceed to Lima, Peru, for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, followed by stops in Manaus and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a summit of the 20 largest economies, the G20. He will join Biden in Peru and Brazil.

President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold face-to-face talks on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit, a meeting anticipated to last about one-and-a-half hours, according to sources familiar with the plans who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Blinken will engage in discussions with his NATO and European Union counterparts to coordinate continued support for Ukraine, while President Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House. Officials said Biden will ask Trump not to “walk away” from Ukraine.  

North Korea’s direct support for Russia’s war in Ukraine is expected to be a focal point during Blinken’s discussions with European counterparts and will likely feature on the agenda in talks between U.S. officials and their counterparts at APEC.

Ukraine has reported that North Korean troops are actively engaged in combat operations in Russia’s Kursk region, prompting condemnation from several European nations over the increasing military collaboration between Russia and North Korea.

Meanwhile, Ukraine remained on high alert for air attacks on Monday, with the country’s top military commander reporting that tens of thousands of Russian troops were prepared to advance on Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine seized territory in August this year.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA that Trump might attempt to “broker a cease-fire in Ukraine,” a prominent foreign policy pledge he made during his campaign.

Kupchan, however, noted, “It will not be as easy as he promised…  It will take a long time to bring [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to common ground,” as the conflict has stretched on for more than two-and-a-half years.

Trump’s political allies have indicated that the incoming administration will prioritize achieving peace in Ukraine over enabling the country to reclaim Crimea and other territories occupied by Russia.

After the U.S. presidential election, the State Department said that Blinken spoke with his European counterparts. They included the French minister for Europe and foreign affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, among others. Officials say talks covered the situation in Ukraine and the implications and threats posed by Russia’s decision to introduce North Korean troops into the war on Ukraine.

Blinken’s coming meetings in Brussels also follow a gathering of European leaders Thursday in Budapest, where they addressed transatlantic relations, support for Ukraine, and other pressing issues in light of Trump’s victory in last week’s U.S. presidential election. 
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Beyond promising a return to the America First doctrine, President-elect Donald Trump has not provided details on what U.S. foreign policy will look like under his incoming administration. But his early conversations with leaders following his election victory indicate he aims to fulfill his promises to quickly end the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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Сили ППО збили 46 дронів, ще два російських вийшли з повітряного простору України у напрямку Білорусі
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«Важливо забезпечити, щоб культурні платформи не ставали інструментами для фільмів, які розмивають кордони розуміння реальності українців»
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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking to move up the start of his trial on corruption and bribery charges so he can focus on his campaign for reelection this spring.

In a letter sent to the federal judge on Monday, an attorney for Adams, Alex Spiro, requested the trial begin on April 1 rather than the current planned date of April 23.

“An earlier trial date will ensure that Mayor Adams’s speedy trial rights are upheld, that the Mayor will be able to fully participate in his reelection campaign and that this City’s voters can be rid of the distraction of this misguided indictment as they hear from and evaluate the Democratic candidates for Mayor on their merits,” Spiro wrote.

Adams, a Democrat, was indicted in September on charges that he accepted luxury travel perks and illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official seeking political favors. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and insisted he will remain in office as he fights the case.

He is expected to face a contested Democratic primary in June, with several opponents already announcing their interest in challenging him.

Inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan were not returned.

At a hearing earlier this month, prosecutors said they would be ready for a trial whenever it is scheduled, but noted they were still making their way through reams of seized records and had not yet accessed Adams’ personal cellphone. According to his indictment. Adams changed his password just before giving the phone to authorities, then claimed he forgot it.

In his letter on Monday, Spiro said he would waive access to certain discovery materials if it meant speeding up the date of the trial. Under the current schedule, he predicted a verdict would come in late May, giving the mayor only a short window of time to clear his name among voters.

“Given the realities of the news and election cycle, this earlier trial date is not only feasible, but essential here,” Spiro wrote.
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MOSCOW — The key task for Russia and China is to counter any attempt by the United States to contain their countries, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin told China’s foreign minister on Tuesday.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on China and other countries, raising fears of a trade war and the United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat.

China’s Xi Jinping and Putin in May pledged a “new era” of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing that the strong relations between Moscow and Beijing were a stabilizing influence on the world.

“I see the most important task as countering the policy of ‘dual containment’ of Russia and China pursued by the United States and its satellites,” Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian state news agencies.

Xi and Putin believe the post-Cold War era of extraordinary U.S. dominance is crumbling after the perceived humiliations of the 1991 Soviet collapse and centuries of European colonial dominance of China.
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«Можливо, російські війська вдарили по дамбі, щоб спричинити значні довготривалі повені на захід від Курахівського водосховища»
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OAKLAND, Calif. — Voters in Oakland, California, have ousted Mayor Sheng Thao just two years after she narrowly won office to lead the liberal San Francisco Bay Area city.

The Associated Press called the race Monday.

“Thank you for choosing me to serve as your Mayor. As the first Hmong American woman to become the mayor of a major American City, it has been the honor of my lifetime,” she said in a statement last week.

She committed to ensuring a smooth transition.

Thao must vacate the office as soon as election results are certified Dec. 5 and the Oakland City Council declares a vacancy at its next meeting, which would be Dec. 17, Nikki Fortunato Bas, City Council president, said in a statement.

A special election for a new mayor will be held within 120 days, or roughly four months.

Until then, Bas — as president of the City Council — would serve as interim mayor unless she wins a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. As of Monday, Bas was trailing in that race.

Thao was elected mayor in November 2022 and became the first Hmong American to lead a major city. She faced criticism almost immediately after taking office for firing popular Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. Frustrated voters, including the local NAACP, blamed Thao for a long list of city woes related to public safety, homelessness and the city’s budget.

In her statement, Thao said she was proud of her administration’s accomplishments.

Thao was not the only official booted from office in Tuesday’s election. Pamela Price, district attorney for Alameda County, which includes Oakland, also was ousted by voters in a recall election. Critics of both Thao and Price disagreed with the officials’ progressive politics.

Thao went into Tuesday’s election weakened by an FBI raid in June of her home — along with properties owned by a politically influential family that controls the city’s recycling contract. Thao has maintained her innocence and authorities have not said what they are investigating.

Oakland uses a ranked choice voting system that allows voters to list multiple choices in order of preference. Thao narrowly beat Loren Taylor in 2022 despite getting fewer first-place votes than Taylor.

Oakland has about 400,000 residents and is, at times, more politically liberal than San Francisco. It is Vice President Kamala Harris’ hometown.

In recent years, Oakland has lost three professional sports franchises, including Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent state highway patrol officers, state prosecutors, and surveillance cameras to help Oakland battle crime.
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WASHINGTON — The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts. 

When they list measures that are making the most difference, it lines up with policies Trump has said he’ll target.

These rollbacks will come as more lives are being lost in heat waves, record amounts of climate pollution are accumulating in the atmosphere, the United States has been hit with what may be two of its most expensive hurricanes, and nations, which will meet in Baku, Azerbaijan for climate negotiations, have failed to take strong action to change these realities.

Here are some of the measures

The Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s landmark climate law

This law is significant because it is expected to reduce U.S. emissions by about 40% by 2030, if it unfolds as planned in the coming years.

It funnels money to measures that substitute clean energy for dirty. One major way it does so is by giving credits to businesses people who build new solar and wind farms.

But it’s not limited to that. It encourages developers of geothermal energy and businesses that separate the carbon dioxide from their smokestacks and bury it underground. It incentivizes the next generation of nuclear power. It gives a $7,500 tax credit to people who buy electric cars. People who buy their cars used can get a credit too, as long as they don’t earn too much to qualify.

Trump, by contrast, has summed up his energy policy as “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to dismantle what he calls Democrats’ “green new scam” in favor of boosting production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, the main causes of climate change.

He vows to end subsidies for wind power that were included in the landmark 2022 climate law.

If Trump does target the climate law, there are provisions that are likely safe. One is a credit for companies in advanced manufacturing, because it is perceived as “America first and pro-U.S. business,” said David Shepheard, partner and energy expert at the global consultant Baringa. Incentives for electric vehicles are likely most at risk, he added.

Pollution from electric power plants

The main U.S. rule aimed at reducing climate change that comes from making electricity at power plants that burn coal is also considered vulnerable. This rule from the Environmental Protection Agency, announced in April, would force many coal-fired plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years, Shepheard said.

It was projected to reduce roughly 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2047, along with tens of thousands of tons of other harmful air pollutants.

The United States has been reducing carbon dioxide emissions primarily by replacing coal-fired power plants with clean, renewable power, said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions.

“I hope that we don’t lose sight of the benefits of clean energy,” he said. “It’s not just about the climate. It’s about our lives and our health.”

Limiting leaks from damaging methane, or natural gas

The Biden administration was under pressure to reduce one of the main pollutants contributing to drought, heat waves, flooding and stronger hurricanes — methane or natural gas. It leaks out of oil and gas equipment, sometimes deliberately when companies consider it too expensive to transport.

The Biden administration issued the first national rules on this.

Industry groups and Republican-leaning states challenged the rule in court. They say the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority and set unattainable standards.

The EPA said the rules are within its legal responsibilities and would protect the public.

Fuel-efficient vehicles

The EPA issued its strongest rules on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks under the Biden administration.

Under Trump, the EPA is considered likely to begin a lengthy process to repeal and replace a host of standards including the one on tailpipe emissions, which Trump falsely calls an electric vehicle “mandate.”

Trump has said EV manufacturing will destroy jobs in the auto industry and has falsely claimed that battery-powered cars don’t work in cold weather and aren’t able to travel long distances. Trump softened his rhetoric in recent months after Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed him and campaigned heavily for his election.

Even so, industry officials expect Trump to try to slow a shift to electric cars.

Drilling in Alaska refuge

Trump is almost certain to reinstate oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, continuing a partisan battle that has persisted for decades. Biden and other Democratic presidents have blocked drilling in the sprawling refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife. Trump opened the area to drilling in a 2017 tax cut law enacted by congressional Republicans. No drilling has occurred in the refuge, although the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday proposed a lease sale by the end of December that could lead to oil drilling. The sale is required under the 2017 law.

Transition to cleaner energy, transport will continue

Trump, who has cast climate change as a “hoax,” has said he will also eliminate regulations by the Biden administration to increase the energy efficiency of lightbulbs, stoves, dishwashers and shower heads.

Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown said climate action will continue to move forward at the state and local level.

Zara Ahmed, who leads policy analysis and science strategy at Carbon Direct, agreed. While there may be an abdication of leadership at the federal level on climate, she’s optimistic that states including California will continue to lead.

Clean Air Task Force Executive Director Armond Cohen said Wednesday that states, cities, utilities and businesses that have committed to net zero emissions will keep working toward those goals, driving record installations of wind and solar energy.

Governors of both parties are also interested in ramping up nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of electricity, Cohen said.

Trump has said he, too, is interested in developing the next generation of nuclear reactors that are smaller than traditional reactors.

Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who was Biden’s first national climate adviser, said Trump will be unable to stop clean energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power.

“No matter what Trump may say, the shift to clean energy is unstoppable and our country is not turning back,” McCarthy said. 
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DEARBORN, Michigan — Faced with two choices she didn’t like, Suehaila Amen chose neither. 

Instead, the longtime Democrat from the Arab American stronghold of Dearborn, Michigan, backed a third-party candidate for president, adding her voice to a remarkable turnaround that helped Donald Trump reclaim Michigan and the presidency. 

In Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent, Vice President Kamala Harris received over 2,500 fewer votes than Trump, who became the first Republican presidential candidate since former President George W. Bush in 2000 to win the city. Harris also lost neighboring Dearborn Heights to Trump, who in his previous term as president banned travel from several mostly-Muslim countries. 

Harris lost the presidential vote in two Detroit-area cities with large Arab American populations after months of warnings from local Democrats about the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel in the war in Gaza. Some said they backed Trump after he visited a few days before the election, mingling with customers and staff at a Lebanese-owned restaurant and reassuring people that he would find a way to end the violence in the Middle East. 

Others, including Amen, were unable to persuade themselves to back the former president. She said many Arab Americans felt Harris got what she deserved but aren’t “jubilant about Trump.” 

“Whether it’s Trump himself or the people who are around him, it does pose a great deal of concern for me,” Amen said. “But at the end of the day when you have two evils running, what are you left with?” 

As it became clear late Tuesday into early Wednesday that Trump would not only win the presidency but likely prevail in Dearborn, the mood in metro Detroit’s Arab American communities was described by Dearborn City Council member Mustapha Hammoud as “somber.” And yet, he said, the result was “not surprising at all.” 

The shift in Dearborn — where Trump received nearly 18,000 votes compared with Harris’ 15,000 — marks a startling change from just four years ago when Joe Biden won in the city by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. 

No one should be surprised 

The results didn’t come out of nowhere. For months, in phone calls and meetings with top Democratic officials, local leaders warned, in blunt terms, that Arab American voters would turn against them if the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war didn’t change. 

The Biden-Harris administration has remained a staunch ally of Israel since the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took over 200 hostages. The war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

While Harris softened her rhetoric on the war, she didn’t propose concrete policies toward Israel or the war in Gaza that varied from the administration’s position. And even if she had, that might not have made much of a difference in places like Dearborn. 

“All she had to do was stop the war in Lebanon and Gaza and she would receive everyone’s votes here,” said Hammoud. 

More voters thought Trump would be better able to handle the situation in the Middle East than Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. About half of voters named Trump as better suited, compared with about a third who said Harris. 

Among those who opposed more aid for Israel, 58% backed Harris in the presidential election; 39% supported Trump. 

Even some Harris voters had their doubts. About three-quarters of Harris voters in Michigan said she was the better candidate to handle the situation. Few preferred Trump, but about 2 in 10 Harris voters said they were equivalent or neither would be better. 

In the absence of support for Harris in the Arab American community, Trump and his allies stepped in. 

A key part of Michigan’s electorate — a state Trump won by nearly 11,000 votes in 2016 before he lost it by nearly 154,000 to Biden in 2020 — Arab Americans spent months meeting with Trump allies, who encouraged community leaders to endorse him. 

Things began to move in September, when Amer Ghalib, the Democratic Muslim mayor of the city of Hamtramck, endorsed Trump. Shortly afterwards, Trump visited a campaign office there. 

That was a turning point, said Massad Boulos, who led Trump’s outreach with Arab Americans. Boulos’ son Michael is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany. 

“They very, very much appreciated the president’s visit and the respect that they felt,” said Massad Boulos. “That was the first big achievement, so to speak. After that, I started getting endorsements from imams and Muslim leaders.” 

An apparent shift toward Trump in final week 

While support for Harris had been declining for months — especially after her campaign did not allow a pro-Palestinian speaker to take the stage at August’s Democratic National Convention — some voters say the last week of the campaign was pivotal. 

At an October 30 rally in Michigan, former President Bill Clinton said Hamas uses civilians as shields and will “force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself.” 

“Hamas did not care about a homeland for the Palestinians, they wanted to kill Israelis and make Israel uninhabitable,” he said. “Well, I got news for them, they were there first, before their faith existed, they were there.” 

The Harris campaign wanted Clinton to visit Dearborn to speak in the days following the rally, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about them. The potential visit never materialized after backlash over Clinton’s comments. 

“That comment was the talk of the town. It hurt many like me, who loved him,” said Amin Hashmi, who was born in Pakistan and lives in suburban Detroit. A self-proclaimed “die-hard Dem,” Hashmi said casting a ballot for Trump “was a seismic move” that came after he stood in the voting booth for 25 minutes. 

On the Friday before the election, Trump visited The Great Commoner in Dearborn, a Lebanese-owned restaurant. That stood in sharp contrast with Harris, who met with Dearborn’s Democratic mayor, Abdullah Hammoud — who didn’t endorse in the race — but never came to Dearborn herself. 

“He came up to Dearborn. He spoke with residents. Whether some people say it wasn’t genuine, he still made the effort. He did reach out and try to work with them, at least listen to them,” said Samia Hamid, a Dearborn resident. 
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has picked Thomas Homan, his one-time acting immigration chief, to serve as “border czar” and fulfill his campaign vow to deport large numbers of undocumented migrants, potentially millions, back to their home countries.

Trump said on his Truth Social media platform late Sunday that the 62-year-old Homan would be “in charge of our Nation’s Borders,” south to Mexico and north to Canada. He added that he has “no doubt” that Homan “will do a fantastic, and long-awaited for, job.”

“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Trump wrote.

Trump is also set to appoint another immigration hard-liner, Stephen Miller, as deputy chief of staff for policy, U.S. news media reported.

“This is another fantastic pick by the president,” Vice President-elect JD Vance said of the prospect of Miller joining Trump’s nascent administration. 

In another appointment, Trump named one of his staunchest Republican advocates in Congress, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, to serve as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, calling her “an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.”

Stefanik, 40, arrived in the House of Representatives in 2015 as a political moderate but over time has emerged as a vocal Trump defender. 

She drew national attention last year for her sharp questioning of Ivy League university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses in the wake of student protests against Israel’s conduct of its war on Hamas militants. Two of the academics, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, stepped down in the fallout from the hearing.

Homan’s appointment as “border czar” does not require Senate confirmation. He served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, from January 2017 to June 2018 during Trump’s first presidential term but left in frustration when the White House failed to push his nomination toward the required confirmation in the Senate.

Homan, a former police officer and Border Patrol agent, subsequently became a Fox News analyst on immigration and border issues.

Hours after his appointment, Homan on Monday told the “Fox & Friends” show: “I’ve been on this network for years complaining about what [President Joe Biden’s] administration did to this border. I’ve been yelling and screaming about it and what they need to do to fix it.”

“So, when [Trump] asked me, ‘Would you come back and fix it?’ Of course. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t,” he said. “I’m honored the president asked me to come back and help solve this national security crisis, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Trump recaptured the White House in last week’s election after repeatedly telling thousands of his supporters at campaign rallies that he would round up undocumented migrants in the U.S. – perhaps 11 million or more – and send them back to their home countries.

“We’re going to have to seal up those borders,” Trump often said, claiming that other countries had emptied their prisons and mental health hospitals so migrants could flee to the U.S. He said the migrants in the U.S. are now causing a crime wave. Government statistics show that no such massive increase in crime has occurred.

In addition, immigration officials two months ago told Congress that more than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide — either in the United States or abroad — are living in the U.S. outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.

The immigrants are part of ICE’s “non-detained” list of migrants in the United States.  

Officials told Congress that means the migrants have pending immigration cases in the U.S., but they are not currently in detention either because they are not prioritized for detention, they are serving time in a jail or prison for their crimes, or because ICE cannot find them.

In another interview, Homan told Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” show that military troops would not be used to round up and arrest undocumented immigrants.

ICE, he said, would work to carry out Trump’s plans in a “humane manner” in what will be a “necessary” and “well-targeted, planned operation.” 

Another Trump advocate, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show on Sunday that deportation efforts would first focus on 1.3 million migrants who have already had court hearings and been rejected for asylum in the U.S., with Homeland Security agents and local police arresting them. 

Asked whether 3.6 million children who entered the U.S. with their undocumented parents and have been living for years in the U.S. should also be deported, Jordan said, “That question will be addressed later on.” 

Advocates for these migrants, now often young adults, call them “Dreamers,” and some U.S. lawmakers have, unsuccessfully so far, attempted to put them on a path to U.S. citizenship.

In his first term, Trump had pledged to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it. Some of the wall was built but Mexico paid for none of it.

In addition, he sought to deport millions of immigrants but fell far short for lack of government financing, legal challenges brought by advocates of migrants and a public outcry over deportation tactics, including the separation of migrant children from their parents, a policy that Homan advocated.

During his tenure as the acting ICE chief, Homan pushed back against allegations that enforcement agents acted too aggressively. In the past, Homan has praised Trump for “taking the shackles” off ICE agents by allowing them to make a broader range of immigration arrests in the U.S. interior.

Homan told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” last month that, as the government has for decades, any mass deportation would prioritize the arrest of criminals and national security threats.

But he also said that anyone in the United States illegally could be returned on flights back to their home countries. He said he would restart raids on workplaces to find people employed illegally in the United States and deport them.

The Biden administration had ended such raids, which Homan said made it easier for employers to hire unauthorized workers, including children.
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U.S. President Joe Biden laid a wreath Monday to honor the nation’s fallen soldiers on Veterans Day, an event marking his first appearance with Vice President Kamala Harris since her election defeat last week.

The ceremony, at historic Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, is also the first time Harris has been seen in public since her Nov. 6 speech in which she conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump.  

Democrats, facing a painful reckoning over their drubbing, have begun soul-searching internal discussions — and some not-so-private blaming — over what caused Harris’s loss, with some pointing to Biden’s initial insistence on running again at age 81, despite having promised to be a bridge president to the next generation.

Criticism of Harris herself has been more muted, and Biden heaped praise on Harris last Thursday in a televised White House address.  

Earlier Monday, Biden hosted veterans at the White House to mark the holiday before heading to Arlington, the final resting place of two presidents, generals from all major U.S. wars, and thousands of other military personnel.  

Biden and Harris, both dressed in dark suits, placed their hands on their hearts before participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  

The president was to deliver remarks at the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater.

The ceremony comes ahead of Biden hosting Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

The Republican has begun naming loyalists to his new administration. He announced he is bringing a hard-line immigration official, Tom Homan, back into the fold to serve as his so-called “border czar,” and congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump himself has long claimed he is a fierce supporter of America’s military, but he has made a series of controversial comments about veterans.  

His longest-serving White House chief of staff, retired general John Kelly, has said the Republican leader privately disparaged U.S. service members, including describing those who died or were imprisoned defending America as “suckers” and “losers.”  

Trump denies the accusation.  

But the soon-to-be 47th president has been on record expressing contempt for late American war hero and senator John McCain, who spent years in a Hanoi prison during the Vietnam war.
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