Carl Weathers, star of Predator and Rocky films, dies at 76 | Entertainment News

Co-stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone pay tribute to NFL linebacker-turned-actor.

Carl Weathers, who starred as nemesis-turned-friend Apollo Creed in the Rocky film franchise, has died. He was 76.

“Carl was an exceptional human being who lived an extraordinary life,” Weathers’s family said in a statement on Friday.

“Through his contributions to film, television, the arts and sports, he has left an indelible mark and is recognised worldwide and across generations.”

Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action star, was perhaps best known for playing Rocky Balboa’s rival-turned-ally in the film Rocky and its three sequels opposite Sylvester Stallone.

Rocky, released in 1976 and starring the largely unknown Stallone, became an unexpected commercial and critical hit, nabbing the Oscar for best picture and catapulting both actors to prominence.

Weathers also had memorable roles as the brash Colonel Al Dillon in the 1987 film Predator, starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, and as one-handed golf coach Chubbs Peterson in the Adam Sandler-led comedy, Happy Gilmore.

Most recently, Weathers starred in the Star Wars spin-off series, The Mandalorian, a role for which he received an Emmy nomination.

Stallone on Friday paid tribute to Weathers, saying the Rocky films’ success would not have been possible without his co-star.

“When he walked into that room, and I saw him for the first time, I saw greatness,” Stallone said in a video posted on Instagram.

“I never could have accomplished what we did with Rocky without him. He was absolutely brilliant. His voice, his size, his power, his athletic ability, but more importantly, his heart, his soul.”

Schwarzenegger described his co-start as a “legend”.

“An extraordinary athlete, a fantastic actor and a great person … We couldn’t have made Predator without him,” Schwarzenegger said in a message on Instagram. “And we certainly wouldn’t have had such a wonderful time making it. Every minute with him – on set and off – was pure joy.”

Born in New Orleans, Weathers played American football at San Diego State University and with the Oakland Raiders before retiring from the game in 1974 to pursue a career in acting.

He appeared in more than 75 films and TV shows during a career in Hollywood spanning more than 50 years, according to Deadline.

Weathers, who was married and divorced three times, is survived by two sons.

“He was a beloved brother, father, grandfather, partner and friend,” his family said in their statement.

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On Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring in the US | Weather News

More than 40,000 people gathered to see the Pennsylvania prognosticator as part of a tradition dating back to 1887.

Pennsylvania’s primo prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow during annual Groundhog Day celebrations on Friday, meaning that, according to legend, there will be an early spring.

The US state’s tradition of using a large rodent to predict the seasons dates back to the Pennsylvania Dutch belief that if a groundhog left its burrow and saw its shadow, it would scurry back inside and winter would go on for six more weeks.

Groundhog Day is now a major yearly event in Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, complete with top-hatted comperes, cheering crowds and a full-court press.

Phil and his predecessors, also called Phil, have been forecasting since 1887, and this year more than 40,000 people camped out in a festival atmosphere to wait for sunrise and the groundhog’s emergence.

“Another winter slumber paused so I could meet the crowd, it’s hard to sleep anyway when the party is this loud,” said Dan McGinley, vice president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, reading from a scroll “selected” by the groundhog.

A crowd watches the festivities while waiting for Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, to come out and make his prediction [Barry Reeger/AP Photo]

McGinley even raised the prospect of voters writing in Punxsutawney Phil’s name on ballots as the US enters a presidential election year.

In the past 10 years, Phil has been accurate only 30 percent of the time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In 2023, Phil saw his shadow but temperatures that February were above average and in March only slightly below, leading the NOAA to declare that the furry forecaster had got it wrong.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro took the stage before Phil to urge people around the world watching the festivities to come to Punxsutawney next year. Shapiro also announced the famed groundhog is the new official meteorologist for Pennsylvania.

“Punxsutawney is the centre of the universe right now and I love that you’re all here,” Shapiro said.

Eager to cash in on the craze of animal forecasters, other states have adopted their own meteorological soothsayers, including Wisconsin’s Sun Prairie Jimmy, Woody the Woodchuck in Michigan, and Scramble the Duck in Connecticut.

Businesses did not miss a trick, with potato chip maker Frito Lay preparing to air advertisements showing actor Stephen Tobolowsky enduring a scenario similar to the plot of the popular movie, Groundhog Day.

The cult 1993 film, in which Tobolowsky played a relentlessly upbeat salesman, saw leading man Bill Murray stuck in a never-ending 24-hour loop after Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter.

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‘It’s immoral’: UN special rapporteur on UNRWA funding cuts | Israel War on Gaza

What impact will UNRWA funding cuts have on Gaza? Marc Lamont Hill speaks to UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is worsening with more than 26,000 Gaza Palestinians killed and another 1.7 million displaced since October 7th.

At least a dozen countries have announced they will be suspending funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s employees of participating in the October 7th attacks.

UNRWA has been a crucial provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, so why, during a time of crisis and based only on allegations, have countries pulled their funding? What will happen to civilians who depend on the agency for survival?

On UpFront this week, Marc Lamont Hill talks to the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, on the impending consequences of UNWRA’s funding cuts.

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Can South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ stop Israel? | Israel War on Gaza

South Africa’s ambassador to the US talks to Marc Lamont Hill about the implications of the case and the court’s ruling.

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. The ruling states that Israel must prevent and punish incitement of genocidal acts and allow civilians access to humanitarian aid.

The decision comes after nearly four months of war in Gaza, which has killed more than 26,000 people and caused a major humanitarian crisis.

While the interim ruling on South Africa’s case has been hailed as a legal win for Palestinians and their supporters, many are questioning what practical implications this will have on the war and for the people of Gaza. Will South Africa’s case help change the course of the conflict?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill talks to South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Ndumiso Ntshinga.

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Joe Biden’s Michigan visit highlights rift with Arab American community | Israel War on Gaza News

US president seeking re-election likely to have a hard time winning key state because of his support for Israel.]

A visit by United States President Joe Biden to Michigan has exposed a growing divide with the considerable Arab-American community in the key swing state ahead of November’s general election.

Biden sat down with members of the United Auto Workers union on Thursday after they endorsed his re-election bid, but the president’s motorcade had to take side streets in Warren to avoid some two hundred protesters before arriving at its destination.

Crowds of Arab Americans had gathered to display their anger at Biden’s unwavering support for Israel even as its war on Gaza has killed more than 27,000 people, mostly women and children, amid international calls for a ceasefire.

The protesters in the election battleground state chanted “Genocide Joe has got to go” and waved Palestinian flags, a week after the World Court ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

“Michigan has a large Arab American and Muslim population who voted overwhelmingly for Biden in the last election,” Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Warren, said. “If he loses even half of their vote, it’s unlikely he can win Michigan – and without Michigan, he has a very narrow path to winning a second term,” she added.

At the protest, anger and disappointment were palpable with several demonstrators saying the US president was “lost to us forever”.

“There is nothing that will ever make me vote for a genocidal president, ever,” a protester who identified as Hawraa told Al Jazeera. “Not only me, but everybody else. My whole Arab community will never vote for this man.”

Salma Hamamy, an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine, said Biden had “entirely abandoned” the Palestinian and Arab communities, as well as “the concept of humanity”.

“Just as he abandoned us, we will be abandoning him on election day,” the protester said, citing Biden’s continued support for Israel.

Arab Americans will no longer choose between the “lesser of two evils”, between the Democrat and Republican candidates, in the next election, she continued. “We will be voting for people who are deserving of our vote”.

‘No looking back’

Along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Michigan was among the so-called blue wall of states that Biden managed to return to the Democrats when he was elected in 2020.

Michigan has turned increasingly Democratic in recent years, with the party now controlling all levels of state government for the first time in four decades. Biden is looking to secure the critical 15 electoral votes that the battleground state can bring.

But Israel’s war on Gaza has impacted his chances.

“There is real anger in the [Arab American] community,” James Zogby, president of the Washington, DC-based Arab American Institute, told Al Jazeera.

“Imagine a situation where a sitting president comes to town and people are trying to set up a meeting with him before he comes, and the community says, ‘We don’t want to meet with him,’ and they reject it, and finally the White House has to abandon plans to do it,” Zogby said, predicting that a loss in Michigan would mean a Biden defeat in November.

Democratic strategists are hoping the potential of another Donald Trump presidency will be enough to change the community’s minds – but Khalid Turaani, who helped launch the Abandon Biden movement, said that would not work.

“Because Joe Biden is president, we don’t believe that the Israelis are bombing a little bit less. So when we have Trump, I don’t believe they’re just going to bomb a little bit more just because Trump is president,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We need a ceasefire.”

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Meta, Amazon smash earnings expectations, as stock markets surge | Economy

Asian markets rally after US tech giants post stronger-than-expected financial results.

Asian markets have rallied after the release of stronger-than-expected earnings results by Meta and Amazon sent the tech giants’ share prices surging in after-hours trading.

In Hong Kong, where stocks have slumped on weak economic indicators in mainland China, the Hang Seng Index on Friday rose around 2 percent in morning trading before paring their gains, while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei Index climbed 1 percent.

India’s NSE NIFTY 50 Index rose more than 1.5 percent.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, on Thursday reported revenue of $40.1bn and a profit of $14bn for the fourth quarter of last year – far surpassing analysts’ forecasts.

Meta’s stock price surged more than 14 percent to surpass $445 in after-hours trading.

Meta reached a major milestone on Thursday as it became the first in its generation of tech unicorns – a company whose valuation reaches $1bn prior to listing on the stock market – to announce it would pay shareholders a dividend, set at 50 cents per share.

“We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

Amazon’s fourth-quarter results also came in ahead of expectations with sales of $170bn, sending shares up as much as 9 percent.

Amazon’s AWS cloud business also posted strong results for the last quarter, with revenue reaching $24.2bn.

“This Q4 was a record-breaking holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.

Meta and Amazon have both been engaged in aggressive cost-cutting, with the tech giants laying off about 48,000 employees between them since 2022.

The tech titans’ strong performance added $280bn to US markets on Thursday, with the S&P500, NASDAQ Composite Index, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all closing on a high note.

Meta and Amazon’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter showing is a bright spot in a bumpy start to 2024 amid growing scrutiny from US regulators over online safety concerns and alleged antitrust breaches.

Fellow tech giant Apple also beat expectations with its fourth-quarter results on Thursday, but its stock dipped 3.3 percent on the back of a 13 percent decline in iPhone sales in China, where local brands have toppled its once dominant market position.

Google’s parent company Alphabet on Tuesday announced fourth-quarter financial results that missed analysts’ forecasts, sending shares more than 6 percent lower.

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Progressive US lawmaker Omar faces censure over mistranslated speech | Government News

Washington, DC – A new Republican firestorm has ignited around United States Congress member Ilhan Omar — this time over alleged statements she made during a speech to Somali Americans.

The only problem, according to two independent analyses of the speech, is that the words that fuelled the uproar appear to be mistranslated.

Omar is accused of saying in Somali that she would put foreign interests before those of the US — but multiple news outlets have since debunked the accusations, pointing to major flaws in a viral translation of her speech.

That, however, did not stop firebrand Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from seizing on the speech. On Thursday, she introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to censure Omar, who is the first Somali American and first former African refugee to serve in the US Congress.

Greene accused Omar of “serving as a foreign agent for a foreign country”. In an apparently intentional gaffe, she referred to Omar as the representative from “Somali — I mean, Minnesota”.

Her resolution comes one day after House Majority Whip Tom Emmer demanded an ethics investigation into Omar. Florida governor and former Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis also called for Omar to be “deported”.

For her part, Omar quickly rejected the attacks, saying they were only the latest attempt by Republicans to weaponise her ethnicity and religion.

In a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Omar called the attacks “not only completely false, they are rooted in xenophobia and Islamophobia”.

“This is a manufactured controversy based on an inaccurate translation taken entirely out of context,” she said.

Critics also see the controversy as the Republican Party’s latest attempt to attack a group of progressive Democrats known as the “Squad”.

In February 2023, Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a vote divided along party lines, amid accusations that she had voiced “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Israel” rhetoric. At the time, Omar said she was being targeted because of her identity as an African Muslim woman.

In November, the House also voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib for comments critical of Israel. Tlaib has stood by her remarks, rejecting claims they were anti-Semitic.

Mistranslated speech

The Star Tribune — a newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota — and another publication, the Minnesota Reformer, have both independently translated Omar’s speech, which was delivered to Somali Americans in the state on January 27.

Both found the words that stoked the Republican ire were not actually what Omar said.

The flawed translation, which spread widely on social media, read: “The US government will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders, and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia … Together we will protect the interests of Somalia.”

According to the more accurate translation, verified by the Star Tribune, Omar expressed a different message, one that encouraged civic engagement among Somali Americans.

“My answer was the US government will do what we tell the US government to do. We as Somalis should have that confidence in ourselves. We live in this country. We pay taxes in this country. It’s a country where one of your own sits in Congress … The woman you sent to Congress is aware of you and has the same interest as you,” she said.

According to the Star Tribune, Omar used the speech to recount how she had responded to constituents’ concerns over a new agreement between Ethiopia and the self-governing region of Somaliland, which Somalia claims as its own. The agreement would see Ethiopia lease a portion of Somaliland’s coastline, a move vehemently opposed by Somalia.

Observers have noted the Congress member was also speaking in support of longstanding US policy. The US maintains some ties with Somaliland — but does not recognise its independence or its authority to unilaterally strike a deal with landlocked Ethiopia.

While that position has stoked condemnation from Somaliland officials, Democrats have roundly rejected the notion that it indicates Omar is working on behalf of Somalia or that she puts her Somali roots before her congressional duties.

On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned Greene’s move to censure Omar as “frivolous”. He called it “designed to inflame and castigate and further divide us”.



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US judge urges Biden to examine support for ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News

A United States federal court has dismissed a case accusing President Joe Biden and other senior US officials of being complicit in Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza.

Still, the court’s decision (PDF) urged Biden and his colleagues to examine “the results of their unflagging support” for Israel, including its human rights implications.

US District Court Judge Jeffrey White dismissed the case on procedural grounds late on Wednesday, citing the division of powers under the US Constitution. He said in his decision that “disputes over foreign policy are considered nonjusticiable political questions” and fall outside his jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the Court. This is one of those cases. The Court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter,” he wrote.

But White added that, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in a provisional ruling last month, “it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide.”

“This Court implores Defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

The lawsuit came as the Biden administration has faced mounting pressure to end the US’s unwavering support for Israel amid its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians since early October.

Filed late last year by human rights groups and individual Palestinians affected by the war, the complaint accused Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin of failing to fulfil their responsibilities under international and domestic law to prevent genocide.

The US, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually, was obligated to “exercise its clear and considerable influence on Israel”, the lawsuit argued.

It also pointed to “dehumanising” remarks by senior Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, to illustrate an intent to pursue the “erasure and destruction of Palestinians”.

While Israel has rejected the charge, international law experts have said the bombardment of Gaza and restrictions on the entry of water, food and other humanitarian supplies could amount to genocide.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, which the US ratified, states that “genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which [state parties] undertake to prevent and to punish”. It also outlines that “complicity in genocide” is a punishable act.

‘End deadly course of action’

Katherine Gallagher, senior staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a nonprofit involved in the case, said the judge’s ruling “affirmed that what the Palestinian population in Gaza is enduring is a campaign to eradicate a whole people — genocide”.

The decision, Gallagher said in a statement, also affirmed “that the United States’ unflagging support for Israel is enabling the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the famine facing millions”.

“While we strongly disagree with the court’s ultimate jurisdictional ruling, we urge the Biden administration to heed the judge’s call to examine and end its deadly course of action. Together with our plaintiffs, we will pursue all legal avenues to stop the genocide and save Palestinian lives.”

The Biden administration, which is under widespread pressure over its staunch support for Israel, called for the lawsuit to be thrown out.

In December, government lawyers argued that the court was being asked to “intrude into areas committed to the political branches of the government and violate constitutional separation of powers”.

Despite Wednesday’s decision, the plaintiffs and their supporters said the court’s decision to hear their arguments marked an important step. A hearing was held last Friday in California, and Palestinians testified about the dire situation in Gaza.

“It is important that the court recognized the United States is providing unconditional support to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and that a federal court heard Palestinian voices for the first time,” Mohammed Monadel Herzallah, a Palestinian American with family in Gaza, said in the CCR statement. He was one of the plaintiffs in the case.

“But we are still devastated that the court would not take the important step to stop the Biden administration from continuing to support the slaughter of the Palestinian people,” Herzallah continued.

“Currently, my family lacks food, medicine and the most basic necessities for survival. As Palestinians, we know this is a hard struggle, and as plaintiffs, we will continue to do everything in our power to save our people’s lives.”



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US imposes sanctions on four Israeli settlers over West Bank violence | Israel War on Gaza News

Washington, DC – The United States has imposed sanctions on several Israeli settlers for attacking Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, accusing them of undermining stability and security in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The announcement on Thursday comes amid increasing pressure on President Joe Biden over his unwavering support for Israel’s war on Gaza as he campaigns for re-election in November.

The sanctions target David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil and Yinon Levi, who are accused of assaulting and intimidating Palestinians. They also target Shalom Zickerman, who is accused of assaulting Israeli activists.

The sanctions will freeze the individuals’ assets in the US and restrict financial dealings with them.

Earlier, Axios reported that the Biden administration had considered sanctioning ultranationalist government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but decided against the move.

“There are no plans to target with sanctions Israeli government officials at this time,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday, adding that the US informed the Israeli government before announcing the sanctions.

The White House also announced a new decree to penalise perpetrators of “extremist settler violence” in the West Bank.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement that settler violence “poses a grave threat to peace, security, and stability in the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East region, and threatens the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States”.

The executive order coincides with Biden’s visit on Thursday to Michigan, a Midwestern swing state that is home to a large Arab American community.

Netanyahu responds

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to reject the US move, saying that the overwhelming majority of West Bank settlers are “law-abiding citizens”.

“Israel acts against all Israelis who break the law, everywhere; therefore, exceptional measures are unnecessary,” his office said in a statement.

Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford cited Palestinians as saying that Israeli authorities do not hold settlers accountable for attacks.

“In many, many incidents, we see settlers acting with either the tacit support or the actual physical support of the Israeli military in these attacks,” Stratford said.

The announcement comes as the Biden administration continues to work to secure $14bn in additional aid to the Israeli government, whose forces often accompany and protect settlers during their attacks on Palestinians.

Israeli authorities rarely prosecute suspects in violence against Palestinians. Last month, Israeli settlers and an off-duty police officer fatally shot 17-year-old Palestinian American Tawfiq Ajaq in the West Bank, according to his family.

The Biden administration has called for an investigation into the case, but Israeli authorities have not made any arrests in the killing of the US teenager.

Raids by Israeli settlers and soldiers against West Bank towns and villages have increased since the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

“This [executive order] will allow the United States to issue financial sanctions against those directing or participating in certain actions, including acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidating civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destroying or seizing property, or engaging in terrorist activity in the West Bank,” Sullivan said.

In the same statement, the US national security adviser emphasised Washington’s support for what he called “Israel’s right to defend itself”.

Despite growing calls for a ceasefire globally, and mounting evidence of Israeli abuses, the Biden administration has pushed on with its support for the war on Gaza, arguing that Hamas must be eliminated.

Washington says it has been in discussions with Israel to minimise civilian casualties and allow more aid into Gaza. But Biden has so far resisted calls to use his administration’s assistance to Israel as leverage to pressure the US ally to end rights violations against Palestinians.

Israeli leaders – including Netanyahu – have been openly defying the Biden administration in their vocal rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“Good that Biden will impose targeted sanctions on Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians,” human rights advocate Kenneth Roth wrote in a social media post.

“Now how about conditioning [or stopping] military aid and arms sales to Israel until it stops bombing and besieging Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

CAIR urges targeting Israeli officials

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, also played down the significance of the sanctions, saying that Biden should penalise Israeli officials responsible for settler violence and end US support for the war on Gaza.

“It makes no sense for the Biden administration to oppose killing Palestinian civilians in the West Bank while enabling the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” CAIR said in a statement.

For his part, Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), called the sanctions “empty”, saying that they are far from groundbreaking.

Ayoub said the White House sees the sanctions as a “safe way” to appeal to some voters who are angry over Biden’s backing for the war on Gaza.

“That’s the intent of all of this. That’s why it was released today during Biden’s trip to Michigan,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera.

He added that targeting a few individual settlers risks normalising the broader settlement movement and called for stricter measures to ensure accountability.

“We know that many of these settlers are American. Open those settlers up the civil and criminal liability in the US,” he said.

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South Carolina primary set to test Biden’s support among Black voters | US Election 2024 News

United States President Joe Biden has been campaigning in South Carolina like his political life depends on it. Longtime analysts say it might.

Despite being all but assured of winning the state’s Democratic primary on February 3, Biden has made South Carolina a focal point of his early reelection efforts, in an attempt to recapture the momentum he enjoyed in the last presidential race.

But to do that, experts say he has to show that he has delivered for the state’s Black residents, who comprise an estimated 26 percent of the population. South Carolina’s Black voters lean overwhelmingly Democratic: The Pew Research Center found that 78 percent identify with the party.

Biden, however, has seen his support slump across the board, including among Black voters nationwide. Experts warn those drooping poll numbers could spell trouble in November’s general election, where Biden is expected to face former President Donald Trump once again in a tight race.

Lawrence Moore, the chair of Carolina for All, a social justice organisation in South Carolina, said Biden needs to find a way to excite Black voters about the policy gains made during his tenure.

“We don’t have a person like [Barack] Obama” on the ballot, Moore explained, referencing the US’s first Black president, a charismatic figure who inspired historic voter turnout among minorities in 2008 and 2012.

“Nobody’s tripping over themselves to vote for Biden”, he said, “so it will have to be about the issues”.

US President Joe Biden greets a patron during an unannounced visit to the Regal Lounge barber shop in Columbia, South Carolina [Tom Brenner/Reuters]

South Carolina ‘the reason’ for Biden’s presidency

South Carolina first emerged as a pivotal battleground for Biden in the 2020 primary season, when he was one candidate in a packed field of Democratic hopefuls.

At the time, Biden’s campaign appeared to be sputtering to an ignominious conclusion. He placed a dismal fourth in the Iowa caucuses, then slipped to fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Media outlets had already begun to write him off as a “distant also-ran”.

But that year’s fourth primary contest — South Carolina — would turn Biden’s hopes around. He rocketed to first place, scoring 48 percent of the vote, far out of reach of his next closest rival, Bernie Sanders, at 19 percent.

Biden’s resounding victory in the state sent his idling campaign into overdrive and solidified his standing as the party’s nominee-apparent. Biden acknowledged as much at a January event hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party.

“You’re the reason I am president,” Biden said bluntly. “You’re the reason Kamala Harris is a historic vice president. And you’re the reason Donald Trump is a defeated former president.”

Much of the credit for Biden’s dramatic turnaround fell to South Carolina’s Black community. A Washington Post exit poll found Black primary voters favoured Biden over Sanders by about four to one — a significantly wider margin than he had among white voters.

Primary switch-up emphasises diversity

South Carolina has since taken a more prominent place in the Democratic primary calendar.

Last year, the Democratic National Committee approved a plan to make South Carolina its first contest of the primary season, citing the fact that the state is more representative of the country’s diversity than traditional early-voting states like Iowa or New Hampshire.

Biden himself pushed for the switch-up. “For decades, Black voters, in particular, have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” he wrote in support of the change.

LaTosha Brown, the co-founder of the nonprofit Black Voters Matter, said her group was likewise concentrating on South Carolina to kick off its nationwide voter mobilisation drive.

“By starting in South Carolina, we wanted to lift up the significance of Black voters not just in the state but in the nation,” she told Al Jazeera.

But Brown warned that voter turnout might be depressed by a sense of disenchantment with this year’s slate of candidates.

“Across the board, people are frustrated with traditional politics,” she said.

Already, poll numbers indicate less momentum for Biden than he had four years ago. A December poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs showed just 50 percent of Black adults said they approved of Biden, down from 86 percent in July 2021.

A recent NBC News poll echoed that finding. Biden’s net approval rating among Black voters tumbled nearly 20 points last year, down to 61 percent.

A ‘historic lag’ in outreach

Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the left-leaning Working Families Party, which endorsed Biden in 2020, credits the drop in support to a “historical lag” in the Democrats’ campaign machinery.

He explained that Black voters are often seen as a sure thing for Democrats and are therefore not courted in the same way as white or independent voters.

Democratic officials, he added, “have not appreciated the work that needs to be done if Black voters are to turn out at the scale that you want them to”.

Mitchell called on Democrats to make “a more intentional, explicit appeal to the broader range of issues that Black Americans are facing every single day”.

“It’s not relegated simply to, like, criminal justice and civil rights,” he said.

By way of example, Mitchell pointed to the growing outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 26,900 Palestinians so far.

Polls have shown widespread discontent over the war and Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel. A higher percentage of Black voters support a full ceasefire in Gaza compared with white Americans, Mitchell noted.

“The issue is a relatively new dimension in the race but one that’s pretty salient, especially with young voters of all races,” he said.

Protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza interrupt US President Joe Biden’s speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina [Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images]

Preaching politics at the pulpit

Biden attempted to appeal to Black voters earlier this month with a visit to the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Gothic-style church, with its white steeple and towering stained glass, is a site of great significance for the Black community: It was founded by Denmark Vesey, a celebrated Black leader who was killed in 1822 after allegations emerged that he was planning a rebellion against slavery.

One of the oldest Black churches in the US South, Mother Emanuel was also the site of a racist mass shooting in 2015 that killed nine worshippers.

Standing at the pulpit on January 8, Biden became the first sitting president to address the church as a candidate. He started his speech with a bowed head, acknowledging how the “poison” of “white supremacy” had touched the church.

But Biden proceeded to play up his platform, touting the country’s economic gains, lowered Black unemployment and his efforts to build clean energy, strengthen Medicare and protect voting access. He also reiterated his gratitude to the largely Black audience.

“It’s because of this congregation and the Black community of South Carolina — no exaggeration — and [Representative] Jim Clyburn that I stand here today as your president,” Biden said to a peal of applause. “That’s a fact. And I owe you.”

But Maurice Washington, who served as the first Black chair of the Charleston County Republican Party, questioned whether Biden’s messaging to Black voters has been too narrow and too focused on race.

“Things like white supremacy and voter suppression, those kinds of race-based narratives are no longer working,” Washington said.

He too credited Biden’s dipping poll numbers among Black voters to a lack of emphasis on the economic hurdles they face.

“That percentage drop is Black Americans who are truly taking a look at the bottom line where $100 is bringing home less groceries, $20 is putting less gas in the car, healthcare costs are up, interest rates are up,” he said.

President Joe Biden delivers a campaign speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 8 [Mic Smith/AP]

Biden camp: ‘No administration has done as much’

For its part, Biden’s team has made efforts to show his administration is addressing both civil rights issues and economic ones.

Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy campaign manager for the Biden campaign, told ABC’s This Week in January that he hopes to send two messages to the Black community.

“One, we don’t take them for granted,” he said. “Two, we recognise that we need to earn their support in this campaign.”

In October, the campaign launched a national television advertisement touting the Biden administration’s support for Black farmers, a historically overlooked group. Months earlier, the Biden administration had announced plans to provide $5.3bn to farmers who had faced past discrimination in federal lending programmes.

The Biden campaign has also highlighted “historic” multi-billion dollar investments in historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

And in a December speech, Biden said he oversaw the “fastest growth in Black business ownership in over 30 years” and a 60-percent jump in Black wealth since the days of the pandemic lockdown.

“No administration has done as much for the African American community as President Biden and Vice President Harris,” Fulks told ABC’s This Week.

Audience members take mobile phone images as US President Joe Biden speaks in West Columbia, South Carolina [Tom Brenner/Reuters]

South Carolina voters see ‘no real change’

But voters will turn out based on their “lived experience, not on the messaging”, according to Catherine Fleming Bruce, a South Carolina activist who ran for the Senate as a Democrat.

“You may have people knocking on your door and phone calls and text messages and all of these things,” she said. “But these are things voters have seen before, and many feel like there’s no real change.”

Bruce personally gave Biden mixed marks on his policies so far. She applauded his appointment of the first Black woman to the US Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson.

But she questioned his failure to engage meaningfully with issues like criminal justice reform, gun control and reparations for the descendants of enslaved Black people.

Meanwhile, Biden’s struggle to pass a new voting rights act — one that would safeguard against discriminatory practices — has hit close to home for South Carolina voters.

Black voters and the state conference of the NAACP, a civil rights organisation, are challenging Republican-drawn congressional districts, arguing the new map intentionally dilutes their voting power.

“There has been a lot of disappointment on voting rights,” Bruce said, referencing Biden’s failed efforts to limit gerrymandering and ease election access.

“Those kinds of protections — we really spent a lot of time fighting for and that did not come to fruition.”

Biden holds up a crocheted US flag at an event at the Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia, South Carolina, on January 28 [Jacquelyn Martin/AP]

South Carolina a bellwether for the US South

Experts say Biden’s true test may ultimately not come in party primaries like South Carolina’s, but rather in November’s general elections.

As a rematch with Trump looms, Mitchell from the Working Families Party warned that any dent in the “diverse coalition” of voters Biden relied on in 2020 could determine whether he wins or loses in 2024.

“When you think about each segment of the coalition — young people or Black voters or Muslim-American voters in Michigan — each one of those pieces of the coalition were essential to the victory,” he said. “Both their presence in the coalition and the rate at which they turned out to vote.”

If 2020 is a harbinger of this year’s presidential election, the race could come down to just a few key battleground states where Biden’s ability to turn out Black voters proved to be a key factor, Mitchell said.

Those states include Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and, perhaps most notably, South Carolina’s southern neighbour Georgia.

The US South has leaned to the right since the 1960s, in large part as a reaction to the country’s civil rights movement. But in 2020, Biden notched a razor-thin victory in Georgia, winning by just under 12,000 votes out of the nearly 5 million cast.

Black voters, who make up a third of the electorate in Georgia, were credited with tipping the scales. Biden’s win in the state was the first by a Democrat since 1992.

South Carolina has an even longer history of tilting rightward: The last time a majority of its voters backed a Democrat for president was in 1976, nearly 48 years ago. Experts acknowledge it is unlikely Biden will flip the state in 2024.

Still, the turnout at the state’s primary may serve as a bellwether for Black support in the US South overall. Biden faces two distant challengers — Congress member Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson — in Saturday’s party race.

Brown, the Black Voters Matter co-founder, described the early primary season as an opportunity for Biden to better attune to Black voters both in South Carolina and beyond.

“This is the time to learn and to listen to the voters and to really shape yourself as a North Star,” she said. “And it starts with South Carolina.”

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