US to deploy missile defense system and about 100 troops to Israel

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Written by Super User

Category: Americas

Published: 14 October 2024

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WASHINGTON - The Pentagon announced Sunday it would send the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and its crew as Israel considered retaliatory attacks against Iran.

Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin authorised the deployment of the THAAD battery at the direction of President Joe Biden.

He said the system will help bolster Israel's air defences following Iran's ballistic missile attacks on Israel in April and October.

The delivery of the sophisticated missile defence system risks further inflaming the conflict in the Middle East despite widespread diplomatic efforts to avoid an all-out war.

The Iranian warning came in a post on social platform X long associated with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who noted the earlier reports that the US was considering the deployment.

Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon have been clashing since October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets over the border in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza. Late last month, Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon.

Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response to Iran's October 1 attack when it fired roughly 180 missiles into Israel.

In a brief exchange with reporters before leaving Florida on Sunday, Mr Biden said he agreed to deploy the THAAD battery "to defend Israel."

He spoke at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa after making a quick visit to see the damage caused by Hurricane Milton and meet with first responders, residents and local leaders.

Mr Ryder said in his statement the deployment "underscores the United States' ironclad commitment to the defence of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran."

It was not immediately clear where the THAAD battery was coming from or when it would arrive.

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli army spokesman, declined to provide any timeline for its arrival but thanked the US for its support.

The US deployed one of the batteries to the Middle East along with additional Patriot battalions to bolster protections for US forces in the region late last year after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

Mr Ryder also said that the US sent a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 for training.

It is not unusual for the US to have a limited number of troops in Israel, which the US considers a key regional ally.

There generally has been a small number of forces there consistently as well as routine rotational deployments for training and exercises.

According to an April report by the Congressional Research Service, the Army has seven THAAD batteries.

Generally, each consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment and requires 95 soldiers to operate.

The THAAD is considered a complementary system to the Patriot, but it can defend a wider area. It can hit targets at ranges of 150 to 200 kilometres.

US on track to set new record for homeless people with over 650K living on streets

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Written by Super User

Category: Americas

Published: 22 September 2024

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WASHINGTON - The US is set to break a new record number of homeless people with more than half a million people living on the street this year.

Data collected and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal from more than 250 homeless organizations have counted at least 550,000 homeless people so far, a 10 percent rise from last year’s reports. The numbers gathered from cities and rural areas show homelessness as it was on a single night earlier this year.

The upward trend means that the US will probably reach and pass the 2023 estimate of 653,000 homeless people. It’s the highest number since the government began sharing such data in 2007.

The final estimate of the number of unhoused people will depend on data not yet reported from areas such as New York City, which had the highest population of any city in 2023.

Contributing to the most recent rise are migrants bused by Texas to cities such as Chicago and Denver. Large numbers of migrants have also arrived in New York, increasing the numbers last year.

The most recent counts of homelessness in the United States were mostly conducted in January, shortly after there was a record number of unlawful border crossings. In the months that followed, there was a large decrease in crossings at the southern border and no migrants have been sent to Chicago or Denver since June.

However, the counts were typically done before that time.

It’s not just migrants adding to the expected record, since the end of aid during the pandemic, rising house prices and rents have forced people out of homes, homeless advocates say, The Journal noted.

Other issues spurring the numbers include crises of mental health and fentanyl – last year, the US set a new record for chronic homelessness, which includes disabled people who consistently are unhoused.

Almost 400 groups conduct the counts and some have declined to share their figures before the 2024 report by the Department of House and Urban Development is released in December. The figures are still preliminary and are a view of a single moment when the counts were conducted.

The counts are seen as being undercounts that can be severely affected by how many volunteers agree to take part or harsh weather conditions.

HUD has said that some cities are making progress, citing this year’s decreases in unhoused individuals in Pheonix and Los Angeles. The agency pointed to government efforts, including helping veterans, $175 million for housing, and $40 million for legal aid for residents facing eviction.

The department noted that it’s still reviewing the numbers for this year and that the counts from January might not be the same as today.

Boston said its number of unhoused people rose by 11 percent, partly due to rising numbers of migrants. Some cities and areas report their figures separately, but the numbers reported show that the figures went from 4,430 in 2023 to just over 12,000 this year.

The state said almost half of the 7,250 families in shelters in Massachusetts were migrants and the state is set to spend over $1 billion on shelters and other measures this fiscal year.

Other cities that reported increases in homelessness include Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Miami. Milwaukee saw a 16 percent decrease, according to The Journal.

The number of unhoused people in Chicago increased by almost triple, reaching almost 19,000. Over 70 percent of the homeless people in the city were migrants in shelters. However, the number of migrants in shelters had been lowered by September.

In January, the number of homeless people in Denver rose by 42 percent to around 14,300, a rise contributed to by migrants arriving by bus. The count took place when the number of migrants in shelters in the city was close to its highest point. In December last year, Texas sent 144 buses to the city.

Harris widens lead over Trump, Reuters/Ipsos poll

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Written by Super User

Category: Americas

Published: 29 August 2024

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By Jason Lange and Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON - Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 45% to 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday that showed the vice president sparking new enthusiasm among voters and shaking up the race ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

The 4 percentage point advantage among registered voters was wider than a 1 point lead Harris held over the former president in a late July Reuters/Ipsos poll. The new poll, which was conducted in the eight days ended Wednesday and had a 2 percentage point margin of error, showed Harris picking up support among women and Hispanics.

Harris led Trump by 49% to 36% - or 13 percentage points - among both women voters and Hispanic voters. Across four Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted in July, Harris had a 9 point lead among women and a 6 point lead among Hispanics.

Trump led among white voters and men, both by similar margins as in July, though his lead among voters without a college degree narrowed to 7 points in the latest survey, down from 14 points in July.

The findings illustrate how the U.S. presidential race has been shaken up over the summer. President Joe Biden, 81, folded his flailing campaign on July 21 after a disastrous debate performance against Trump sparked widespread calls from his fellow Democrats to abandon his re-election bid.

Since then, Harris has gained ground against Trump in national polls and those in critical swing states. While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos' give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with a handful of battleground states likely to be decisive.

In the seven states where the 2020 election was closest - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada - Trump had a 45% to 43% lead over Harris among registered voters in the poll.

"It's obvious that running against Harris is more challenging for Trump given the shift in these numbers, but it's certainly not insurmountable," said Matt Wolking, a Republican campaign strategist who worked on Trump's 2020 campaign. He said Trump needs to stay as focused as possible in his campaign "so he's not scaring" away voters who were leaning his way because they didn't like Biden.

Since formally accepting the Democratic nomination last week, Harris has embarked on a tour of battleground states including Georgia, where Biden had been hemorrhaging support before he ended his campaign.

RISING ENTHUSIASM

Some 73% of Democratic registered voters in the poll said they were more excited about voting in November after Harris entered the race. And while a March Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 61% respondents who intended to vote for Biden were doing so mainly to stop Trump, 52% of Harris voters in the August poll were voting to support her as a candidate rather than primarily to oppose Trump.

"We see it in this poll that people are more motivated about the future than the past," said Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, a liberal group that aims to grow the numbers of women of color in elected office. "They see Kamala Harris as the future, and Republicans see this election as just about Trump. Voters are more likely to be engaged when given the option of 'more than' beating Trump."

But Trump voters also voiced enthusiasm about their candidate, with 64% saying their choice was more motivated by backing Trump than opposing Harris.

Voters picked Trump as having a better approach to managing the U.S. economy, 45% to 36%, a wider margin than Trump had in another Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.

Harris, by contrast, had a 47% to 31% advantage on abortion policy. The issue is salient for Democrats after the conservative U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 struck down women's national right to abortion. Trump nominated three conservative justices to the court during his 2017-2021 presidency. Some 41% of voters in the poll - and 70% of Democrats - said they were worried the next president might sign a national ban on abortions.

The latest poll's survey period partially overlapped with the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where Harris formally accepted her party's nomination, and it remains to be seen whether the same level of enthusiasm for Harris will continue.

The poll was conducted nationally and gathered responses from 4,253 U.S. adults, including 3,562 registered voters.

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign on Aug. 23 while the poll was still being conducted, had the support of 6% of voters in the survey.