supporters

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s anti-Trump, anti-Texas congressional redistricting gamble seems about to pay off.

Newsom’s bet on Proposition 50 is looking like a winner, although we won’t really know until the vote count is released starting election night Nov. 4.

Insiders closely watching the high-stakes campaign would be shocked if Republicans pulled an upset and defeated the Democrats’ retaliatory response to red state gerrymandering.

They talk mostly about the expected size of victory, not whether it will win. The hedged consensus is that it’ll be by a modest margin, not a blowout.

Any size victory would help Newsom promote himself nationally as the Democrat whom party activists anxiously seek to aggressively fight Trumpism. It could energize grassroots progressives to back the Californian in early 2028 presidential primaries.

Propositions 50’s defeat, however, could be a devastating blow to Newsom’s presidential aspirations. If Californians wouldn’t follow him, why should other people?

Private and independent polls have shown Proposition 50 being supported by a small majority of registered voters. Not enough for an early victory dance. But the opposition is nowhere close to a majority. A lot of people have been undecided. They may not even bother to vote in a special election with only one state measure on the ballot.

As of last week, the return of mail-in ballots was running about the same as in last year’s presidential election at the same point — very unusual.

A slightly higher percentage of Democrats were casting ballots than GOP registrants. This is particularly significant in a state where 45% of voters are Democrats and only 25% are Republicans. The GOP needs a humungous turnout to beat Democrats on almost anything.

You can credit President Trump’s antics for riling up Democrats to vote early.

One practical importance of early Democratic voting is that the “yes” side doesn’t need to spend more money appealing to people who have already mailed in their ballots.

“It’s a bird in the hand kind of thing,” says Paul Mitchell, the Democrats’ chief data processor and principal drawer of the gerrymandered congressional maps up for approval in Proposition 50.

Mitchell believes the large recent weekend turnouts in California of “No Kings” protesters are indicative of the anti-Trump outrage that is generating Democratic enthusiasm for Proposition 50.

Republican consultant Rob Stutzman thinks that Proposition 50 could have been beaten with enough money. But not nearly enough showed up. Potential donors probably concluded it was a lost cause, he says. Don’t waste the cash.

It takes ridiculous amounts of money to win a competitive statewide race in California, with 23 million diverse voters scattered over hundreds of miles and several costly media markets.

Democrats, with their unmatched California power, have raised well over $100 million from unions, billionaire Democratic donors and other political investors.

Billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer put up $12 million. There are rumors he’s tempted to run for governor.

Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso is thinking very seriously about entering the 2026 gubernatorial race. He just paid for 100,000 pro-50 mail pieces in L.A. County, aimed at those least likely to vote.

One problem for the opposition is that it never unified behind a main anti-50 message. It ranged from “reject Newsom’s power grab” to “win one for Trump” and a purist lecture about retaining California’s current congressional districts drawn by a voter-created good government citizens’ commission.

The basic pro-50 message is simply, as Steyer says in his TV ad: “Stick it to Trump.”

This contest at its core is about which party controls Congress after next year’s midterm elections — or whether Republicans and Democrats at least share power. It’s about whether there’ll be a Congress with some gumption to confront a power-mad, egotistical president.

The fight started when Trump banged on Texas to redraw — gerrymander — its congressional districts to potentially gain five more Republican seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats need only a slight pickup to capture House control — and in an off-year election, the non-presidential party tends to acquire many.

Texas obediently obliged the nervous Trump, and other red states also have.

Newsom responded by urging the California Legislature to redraw this state’s maps to potentially gain five Democratic seats, neutralizing Texas’ underhanded move. The lawmakers quickly did. But in California, voter approval is needed to temporarily shelve the independent commission’s work. That’s what Proposition 50 does.

It also would boost Newsom’s standing among party activists across America.

“He’s been trying to claim the national leadership on anti-Trump. This is a chance for him to show he can deliver,” says UC Berkeley political scientist Eric Schickler. “There’s a sense the party doesn’t know how to fight back.

“On the flip side, if he were unable to persuade California voters to go along with him, it would be a hard sell to show Democrats nationally he’s the best person to take on Republicans.”

“It’s a gamble,” says UC San Diego political science professor Thad Kousser. “If 50 wins, he’s a person who can effectively fight back against Donald Trump. If it loses, he has no hope of winning on the national level.”

But veteran political consultant Mike Murphy — a former Republican who switched to independent — thinks Newsom could survive voters’ rejection of Proposition 50.

“It would take some of the shine off him. But he’d still be a contender. It wouldn’t knock him out. The worst you could say was that he lost 50 but was fighting the good fight.

“If 50 wins, Gavin might have a good future as a riverboat gambler if he puts all the chips in.”

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Pelosi faces challenges as age becomes unavoidable tension point for Democrats
The TK: Justice Department says it will monitor California poll sites amid Prop. 50 voting
The L.A. Times Special: She was highly qualified to be California governor. Why did her campaign fizzle?

Until next week,
George Skelton

—
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IT will come as no surprise to their stylish famous fans, but Chelsea supporters are the best dressed in the Premier League.

The club’s followers are most likely to wear a smart suit for a night out, a survey has revealed.

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Celebrity fans including Gordon Ramsay, Jeremy Clarkson, David Baddiel, Madness singer Suggs and actor Phil Daniels are always well turned out for a trip to the club’s Stamford Bridge home — and regular fans have followed suit.

But it’s not really a surprise, as back in the Seventies Chelsea’s players, including Alan Hudson and Peter Osgood, were known as the kings of the King’s Road for their fashionable sense of style.

And the club’s 21st-century fans have maintained the tradition, according to research by betting site freebet.com, with 16 per cent getting suited and booted for a big night.

While fans of Newcastle, Burnley and Wolves were in the relegation zone with just one per cent being bothered to look smart.

The table shows there’s a clear North/South divide when it comes to off-the-pitch style.

The top seven spots are filled by teams from London and the south, with Man City and Leeds sharing eighth place with Brentford and West Ham with five per cent.

Spokesman Tim Agnew said: “Our research shows Chelsea fans are the best dressed fans in the Premier League.

“They already had a reputation for wearing Gucci and Prada and our research confirms Chelsea fans like to look sharp.”

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Supporters of the November ballot measure to reconfigure California’s congressional districts — an effort led by Gov. Gavin Newsom to help Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year — have far out-raised the opposition campaigns, according to fundraising disclosures filed with the state.

The primary group backing Proposition 50 raked in $77.5 million and spent $28.1 million through Sept. 20, according to a campaign finance report that was filed with the secretary of state’s office on Thursday.

The committee has $54.4 million in the bank for the final weeks of the campaign, so Californian should expect a blizzard of television ads, mailers, phone calls and other efforts to sway voters before the Nov. 4 special election.

The two main groups opposing the ballot measure have raised $35.3 million, spent $27.4 million and have roughly $8.8 million in the bank combined, campaign finance reports show.

Despite having an overwhelming financial advantage, the campaign supporting Proposition 50 has tried to portray itself as the underdog in a fight to raise money against opposition campaigns with ties to President Trump and his supporters.

“MAGA donors keep pouring millions into the campaign to stop Prop. 50 in the hopes of pleasing their ‘Dear Leader,’” said Hannah Milgrom, a spokesperson for the Yes on 50, the Election Rigging Response Act campaign. “We will not take our foot off the gas — Prop. 50 is America’s best chance to stop this reckless and dangerous president, and we will keep doing everything we can to ensure every Californian knows the stakes and is ready to vote yes on 50 this Nov. 4th.”

A spokesperson for one of the anti-Proposition 50 campaigns, which was sending mailers to voters even before the Democratic-led California Legislature placed Proposition 50 on the November ballot, said their priority was to help Californians understand the inappropriateness of redrawing congressional boundaries that had been created by a voter-approved, state independent commission.

“We started communicating with voters early about the consequences of having politicians draw their own lines,” said Amy Thoma, a spokesperson for a coalition that opposes the ballot measure. “We are confident we’ll have the resources necessary to continue through election day.”

A spokesperson for the other main anti-Proposition 50 group agreed.

“When you’re selling a lemon, no amount of cash can change the taste. We’re confident in raising more than sufficient resources to expose Prop. 50 for the blatant political power grab that it is,” said Ellie Hockenbury, an advisor to the No on 50 – Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab campaign. Newsom “can’t change the fact that Prop. 50 is nothing more than a ploy for politicians to take the power of redistricting away from the voters and charge them for the privilege at a massive cost to taxpayers.”

The special election is expected to cost the state and the counties $282 million, according to the secretary of state’s office and the state department of finance.

If approved, Proposition 50 would have a major impact on California’s 2026 congressional elections, which will play a major role in determining whether Trump is able to continue enacting his agenda in the final two years of his tenure. The party that wins the White House frequently loses congressional seats two years later, and Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House.

After Trump urged GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress in next year’s midterm election, Newsom and other California Democrats responded by proposing a counter-effort to boost the ranks of their party in the legislative body.

California’s congressional districts are drawn once every decade after the U.S. Census by a voter-approved independent redistricting commission. So Democrats’ proposal to replace the districts with new boundaries proposed by state lawmakers must be approved by voters. The state Legislature voted in August to put the measure before voters in a special election on Nov. 4.

Polling about the proposition is not definitive. It’s an off-year election, which means turnout is likely to be low and the electorate is unpredictable. And relatively few Californians pay attention to redistricting, the esoteric process of redrawing congressional districts.

There are more than 30 campaign committees associated with Proposition 50 registered with the secretary of state’s office, but only three have raised large amounts of money.

Newsom’s pro-Proposition 50 effort has received several large donations since its launch, including $10 million from billionaire financier George Soros, $7.6 million from House Majority PAC (the Democrats’ congressional political arm) and $4.5 million from various Service Employees International Union groups. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife have contributed $1 million to a separate committee supporting the proposition.

The opposition groups had few small-dollar donors and were largely funded by two sources — $30 million in loans from Charles Munger Jr., who for years has been a major Republican donor in California, and a $5-million donation from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the GOP political arm of House Republicans.

As thousands gather for Charlie Kirk’s memorial, debate rages over a clampdown on free speech in the US. Late-night TV hosts have spoken out in support of Jimmy Kimmel following his cancellation, while President Donald Trump reiterated his view that critical coverage of him is illegal.

CHELSEA fans want Uefa action over the ‘appalling’ treatment from Polish police ahead of May’s Conference League final.

Just hours before kickoff on May 28, ugly scenes unfolded mainly near the fan zone in Wroclaw – where the final was held – with riot police forced to defuse the violence.

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The fighting spilt over when fans started kicking and throwing flares into each other’s camps, chairs were flying through the air, and fans squared up to each other before police, some armed with guns, came to split them up.

​However, AWAY from that drama, according to the Football Supporters Association, ten Chelsea fans were wrongfully arrested and detained without any access to legal representation or allowed contact with relatives for 24 hours.

It’s claimed that these fans were not at all involved with the disorder elsewhere in Wrocław’s historic square.

Those involved allegedly had their hands cable-tied by police wearing masks, and held in vans with no ventilation, food or water for hours, before being taken to a police station.

There, they claim to have been mocked, strip-searched, and coerced into signing documents without the benefit of any translation or legal explanation.

One of the detainees said, “One individual suffered a panic attack and was nearly unconscious before officers permitted minimal bathroom access.

“When we arrived at the station, detainees were mocked by officers, denied phone calls, and strip-searched in front of mixed-gender officers.”

Another fan said: “We were presented with documents written entirely in Polish and were coerced into signing them without the benefit of any translation or legal explanation whatsoever.

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“Although I was presented with my rights in English, I was barely given any time to read them before being taken to my cell. When I asked if I could take the document with me to read it properly, my request was denied, and this form remained unsigned.”

The fans involved were then supposedly released over 24 HOURS after the initial upset, missing the entirety of their team’s European final in which Chelsea beat Real Betis 4-1, while Polish police claim the fans were ‘misidentified’ and released as ‘witnesses’ without apology.

While the group are pursuing legal advice and hoping to receive compensation for how they were treated, they have been backed by the Chelsea Supporters Trust and called on Chelsea and UEFA to look into the incident further.

The fans involved said: “We ask that Chelsea treat these matters with the seriousness they deserve and stand firmly against the injustice committed against innocent supporters.

“We hope Chelsea FC will support its fans and take appropriate steps to defend those who did nothing wrong.

“The treatment that some Chelsea supporters received from the Polish authorities in Wroclaw before the Conference League Final in May was utterly appalling.

“The treatment of these supporters was unacceptable, and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust will continue to assist and support those supporters in their ongoing dispute with all authorities involved.”

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An estimated 70,000 fans arrived in the city earlier in the week with many drinking and eating in close proximity to rival supporters.

A statement from Lower Silesian Police in Wrocław said 28 people had been arrested on Wednesday over the violent scenes.

They said at the time: “After 5pm on the Wrocław Market Square, in connection with the previous negative behaviour of fans and the clash of several hundred people from both teams, arrests of fans involved in this incident are ongoing.

“The police quickly took action and restored the violated legal order, and now they continue to act so that others can safely participate in this great celebration of sports.

“At this moment, we can confirm the arrest of 28 participants in the incident.

“No one will escape legal responsibility and the police will react decisively and appropriately to the situation.”

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Another fan also claimed he missed the game entirely, and left with no money after his encounter with Polish police and left figuring out a way to return home, having been jailed for FIVE days.

He said: “I have just been released from Polish jail. Just found out that Chelsea won the Conference League.

“Polish police have sucked me for all my money. I’ve been in there for four days, five days, over a petty little fight with these Betis fans.

“I’m in Wroclaw, no money, just my backpack and the stuff that I bought with me apart from the money that I had.

“I don’t really know how I’m getting home to be honest. At least Chelsea won the f*****g Conference League, as I’ve just found out.”

SunSport has contacted the Polish Police for comment…

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LAFC’s signing of South Korean star Son Heung-min earlier this month is a major coup not just for the team. It’s also the latest in a spate of acquisitions that has brought an unprecedented level of talent and attention to MLS as the league nears the end of its 30th anniversary season.

Since Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami shortly after winning the 2022 World Cup, MLS has welcomed more than two dozen global standouts, from World Cup champions Hugo Lloris, Olivier Giroud, Rodrigo De Paul and Thomas Mueller to Germany’s Marco Reus and Uruguay’s Luis Suárez.

Some were a bit past their prime but others, including Messi, have proven to be dominant MLS players. The addition of Son, arguably the best Asian player of all time, opens a new chapter for the league and U.S. soccer as the country prepares to welcome the World Cup back next summer.

With that as a backdrop, here’s one man’s list of the 10 most important signings in MLS history:

At least 200 arrested from Lahore, says party spokesperson, as thousands march across the country on second anniversary of ex-PM’s imprisonment.

Thousands of supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan are rallying across the country to demand his release on the second anniversary of his imprisonment.

Security officials on Tuesday said dozens of activists belonging to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have been arrested, with most detentions made on Monday night and early on Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore, where the PTI has called a huge demonstration later in the day.

At least 200 activists had been arrested from Lahore, said PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari, adding that the protests would still take place. Lahore is the capital of Punjab, the country’s most politically important region and home to half of its population.

Khan, a popular cricket star, was elected prime minister in 2018. But once in office, he fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military and was toppled in 2022 through a vote in parliament. His arrest in May 2023 on several charges spurred widespread protests against the military, leading to a crackdown on the party.

In a message attributed to Khan on his party’s X account on Monday, he urged supporters to “come out and hold peaceful protests until a true democracy is restored in the country”.

Khan’s party posted a video on its X account on Tuesday, showing a former PTI candidate, Rehana Dar, being carried into a police van by personnel with riot gear.

“An elder like Rehana Dar is being dragged by the shameless Punjab Police, a disgraceful sight,” the PTI said.

An elder like Rehana Dar is being dragged by the shameless Punjab Police, a disgraceful sight. Maryam Nawaz and IG Punjab have sunk to a new low with this act. Under this martial law of Asim Munir, they have abandoned all sense of shame and decency! pic.twitter.com/gK0HsJoDOE

— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 5, 2025

Social media videos also showed at least two other people being detained in Lahore.

The PTI’s Multan chapter alleged that its Lahore rally was “attacked by police”, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on Tuesday.

“Rallies are being held today on the orders of the PTI founder,” PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said in a statement, adding they would continue until Khan’s release.

The rallies were held despite the government’s order barring “illegal” gatherings and large assemblies, Pakistan’s Geo TV reported.

پشاور سے سیکڑوں گاڑیوں پر مشتمل قافلہ صوابی کی جانب روانہ ہو گیا ہے pic.twitter.com/3Yr5LiHHWB

— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 5, 2025

Translation: A convoy of hundreds of vehicles from Peshawar has set off towards Swabi.

In a statement on Monday, police said security was beefed up in major cities nationwide.

At a news conference on Monday, Khan’s party was accused of always creating “chaos” by Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson of the provincial government.

“No political party can be barred from politics in Pakistan, but a terrorist organisation disguised as a political party is not allowed to disrupt Pakistan’s peace,” Bukhari said.

PTI leader and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser said the party has pledged to demonstrate peacefully and was not seeking confrontation, Geo TV reported.

Khan says the charges against him – ranging from terrorism to disclosure of official secrets – are politically motivated. He was convicted in January in a corruption case, while being acquitted of other charges or receiving suspended sentences.

Before the protest call, hundreds of Khan’s party members, including several parliamentarians, were convicted late last month on charges related to the 2023 protests against his arrest.

Khan’s party emerged as the single biggest in the 2024 election, and it says rigging robbed it of more seats. Other parties merged to form a government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has denied coming to power through electoral fraud.

Hezbollah has called for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory before any discussion on disarmament.

Hezbollah supporters have gathered in the Lebanese capital to protest against the group’s disarmament ahead of a government cabinet meeting on the issue.

The demonstrations occurred in Beirut on Monday night amid pressure by the United States on Lebanon to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms.

Hezbollah emerged weakened from a war with Israel last year that eliminated most of the group’s leadership, killed thousands of its fighters, and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.

In recent months, the US and Lebanon have been holding talks on a roadmap for disarmament. Lebanon’s new leadership has pledged to extend its authority across all its territory, but has so far avoided acting against Hezbollah.

Hezbollah supporters protested because they believe disarmament will have implications for their political standing and security, said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr.

“Hezbollah has made its position clear: it will not disarm because to do so would serve Israel’s interests, not Lebanon’s sovereignty,” said Khodr, reporting from Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has told the country’s leadership that the group feels blackmailed – that if they don’t disarm, they will not be given funds for reconstruction, she reported.

Ahead of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Hezbollah, through Lebanese MP Ali Fayyad, reiterated its demand that the issues of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory, the release of Lebanese prisoners, and the cessation of hostilities take place before any discussion on disarmament, Lebanon’s National News (NNA) agency reported.

By force?

Lebanon’s political leadership, however, is pushing for the move – even if it may come by force.

“If there is a cost to be able to centralise the weapons with the … Lebanese armed forces, [it may be] better like that,” Elias Hankash, another member of the Lebanese parliament, told Al Jazeera.

“But everything has been done so far … to avoid any clash with Hezbollah.”

The Lebanese army will take on Hezbollah if and when there’s a political decision to disarm the group by force, Khodr said.

“I call on all political parties to approach the issue of arms control with full responsibility,” Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said on Friday, also stating that the issue of disarmament is sensitive due to sectarian divisions, with consequences for national peace.

In 2008, a government decision to dismantle the group’s telecommunication network led to street violence.

Lebanon’s Agriculture Minister Nizar Hani told NNA that the president has set a clear timetable for the disarmament process. He added that the Lebanese army has already taken over hundreds of Hezbollah sites and weapons depots.

Hani stressed that the group is a part of the “Lebanese fabric” and has played a major role in “liberating the land,” but “the next phase requires that the state alone be the decision maker of war and peace”.

Hezbollah was the most powerful military and political actor in Lebanon for years, and while it lost some military capabilities in its conflict last year with Israel, it has not been defeated entirely, Khodr said.

“Hezbollah is still strong in the state because of the monopoly [it has] over Shia representation as well as the appointment of key figures in all of the states,” Mark Daou, another MP, told Al Jazeera.

Lebanon’s political landscape and society have long been divided with differing views on Hezbollah’s role and the need for disarmament.

The issue has dominated Lebanese politics for decades, but there is now a sense of urgency with increasing international pressure – as well as increasing military pressure from Israel, which regularly targets Hezbollah despite the ceasefire between the two since November 2024.

“The government is now expected to formally commit to disarming Hezbollah, a decision that could at the least ignite a political crisis,” said Khodr.

NEW YORK — President Trump is lashing out at his own supporters as he tries to clamp down on criticism over his administration’s handling of much-hyped records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, which Trump now calls a “Hoax.”

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this “bull——,” hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote Wednesday on his Truth Social site, using an expletive in his post. “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he went on.

The rhetoric marks a dramatic escalation for the Republican president, who has broken with some of his most loyal backers in the past, but never with such fervor.

The schism centers on his administration’s handling of the Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI acknowledged that Epstein did not maintain a “client list” to whom underage girls were trafficked, and they said no more files related to the investigation would be made public, despite past promises from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists.

Bondi had suggested in February such a document was sitting on her desk waiting for review. Last week, however, she said she had been referring generally to the Epstein case file, not a client list.

“It’s a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public,” she had said at one point.

Trump has since defended Bondi and chided a reporter for asking about the documents.

“I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is,” he said Tuesday.

The blowup comes after Trump and many figures in his administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, have spent years stoking dark and disproved conspiracy theories, including embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts Trump as a savior sent to demolish the “deep state.”

Trump’s comments so far have not been enough to quell those who are still demanding answers.

“For this to go away, you’re going to lose 10%” of the “Make America Great Again” movement, former adviser and Steve Bannon said during a gathering of young conservatives recently.

Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec has said he will not rest “until we go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also appeared to break with Trump, calling for the Justice Department to “put everything out there and let the people decide.”

“The White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don’t know. This isn’t my lane. I haven’t been involved in that, but I agree with the sentiment to put it out there,” Johnson told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.

Colvin writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — In 2016, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center surveyed the American electorate and discovered levels of partisan mistrust and animosity worse than any in a generation. The findings helped explain how tribal American politics have become and the rise of a political figure, President Trump, who has made exploiting those divisions his main stock in trade.

Three years later, Pew is out with a new report, based on a survey of 9,895 American adults. Its conclusion? Partisan divisions have gotten worse.

Just over half of people who identify themselves as Republicans say that Democrats are “more immoral” than other Americans, for example. Just under half of people who identify themselves as Democrats say the same about Republicans. In both cases, the share holding that view of the other side has increased since 2016.

And this latest survey was conducted in early September — before the impeachment debate took hold.

IT’S NOT JUST TRUMP

Democratic figures, most notably former Vice President Joe Biden, often blame Trump for the divisions in American society. But while the president has definitely stoked the fires of grievance, the earlier Pew study serves as a reminder that the blaze existed before him — he probably wouldn’t have captured the Republican nomination without it.

Partisanship has raged out of control because the two party labels have become proxies for so many preexisting divides. Democrats have become a party of a racially diverse, urban, coastal population, much of which is unmoored from traditional religious practices and accepting of immigration and dramatic changes in gender roles and sexual mores. Republicans are increasingly the party of older, white, rural conservatives, suspicious of urban elites and feeling threatened by immigrants and what they see as a decline of traditional morality and social order.

The breadth and bitterness of the partisan division explains why Trump is so unlikely to lose the support of his core voters in the current impeachment debate — it’s not some special magic of his own so much as the dislike, often revulsion, they feel toward the other side.

Indeed, the fact that, despite partisanship, a significant minority of Republicans currently say they find Trump’s conduct in the Ukraine scandal “troubling” — about one in five in the latest Fox News poll, for example — is a strong indicator of just how serious his problems are.

Not all partisan division is a bad thing. Just a couple of decades ago, a lot of Americans thought the two parties didn’t differ much. Only about a third of Americans saw real differences between Democrats and Republicans through much of the 1980s and ’90s and on into the early years of the current decade.

Voters need “a choice, not an echo,” the conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly famously declared half a century ago in an assault on liberal Republicans. Well, we got that. Today, “liberal Republican” is an oxymoron and fewer than one in 10 Americans think the two parties have “hardly any” difference.

Now, a large majority of Americans feel the difference has gone too far.

On both sides of the aisle, a large majority of Americans see partisan division as a problem: More than 70% say voters in both parties “not only disagree over plans and policies, but also cannot agree on the basic facts.” More than 80% see partisan division as a cause of concern.

But that concern doesn’t mean either side is suddenly about to lower tensions.

The two parties are not strictly mirror images of each other. By most measures, Republicans are somewhat more negative about Democrats than the other way around — 63% of Republicans see Democrats as “more unpatriotic” than the rest of the country, for example, and almost half of them see Democrats as lazier.

Democrats, in turn, see Republicans as “more closed-minded” than other Americans, with three-quarters of Democrats holding that view.

And Democrats are somewhat more open to compromise — at least in the abstract. Almost six in 10 say it’s important for their presidential candidates, if elected, to find common ground with Republicans on policies even if that means giving up some things Democrats really want; about four in 10 say they should push hard for things the party wants, even if that means less gets done.

Among Republicans, the split is more even, with slightly more saying Trump should push hard for things the GOP wants, even if that means less gets done.

But on both sides, the level of animosity — already high in 2016 — has grown during the Trump years. Americans who pay the most attention to politics have led the way. They are the most partisan. They’re also the most likely to express negative views about the other side.

And while the ranks of self-described independents have grown markedly in the last decade, that doesn’t represent a way out of the partisan divide. The vast majority of independents lean toward one party or the other, and those leaners are about as likely as partisans to express negative views of the other side. What makes them distinctive is that leaners are more likely to also express negative views about their own side, as well.

The Pew survey was conducted Sept. 3-15. It has a margin of error for its full sample of 1.5 percentage points in either direction.

ARRESTS BRING NEW TWIST TO IMPEACHMENT CASE

The Ukraine scandal — the focus of the impeachment case against Trump — continues to develop at startling speed. On Thursday, the case took what could prove to be a significant turn when two men who worked with Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, were arrested on campaign finance charges.

As Eli Stokols and Alexa Díaz wrote, the men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were accused of several illegal acts, but the one that most directly connects them to the current case is that they allegedly provided campaign contributions to Pete Sessions, who at the time was a powerful Republican member of the House, to get him to help in a campaign to oust the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

She was ultimately removed from her post this spring, and House investigators want to know if that happened because she was opposing Giuliani’s efforts to get Ukraine to help Trump by announcing an investigation of Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

In the meantime, a defiant White House says it won’t participate in what Trump’s White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, called an “unconstitutional” impeachment inquiry. In a lengthy letter, Cipollone said Trump should be allowed to cross-examine witnesses, receive transcripts of testimony, have access to evidence the House collects and have counsel present during questioning, Noah Bierman, Sarah Wire and Díaz reported.

Legal scholars say that strategy is on shaky constitutional grounds, David Savage reported, but as is usually the case with Trump, the legal arguments may be secondary to the political goal of rousing his base.

The moves took place just days after a second whistleblower emerged in the impeachment inquiry. As Laura King wrote, the lawyers who represent the initial whistleblower in the case said Sunday they now have “multiple” complainants.

Trump has tried to argue that during his fateful phone conversation with Ukraine’s president that sparked the impeachment inquiry, he was appropriately trying to battle corruption and that he has an “absolute right” to do so, Bierman reported. He also wrote about the millions of dollars that Trump’s children are taking in overseas even as he attacks Biden’s son.

What was Joe Biden’s actual connection with Ukraine? Tracy Wilkinson in Kyiv examined his actions as vice president.

One skirmish point in the House is over the refusal of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to hold a full vote on the House floor to open the impeachment inquiry. A vote of that sort took place in both the Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton impeachment cases, but Pelosi notes there’s no rule requiring such a vote. One reason Pelosi doesn’t want a floor vote: It could open the way for Republicans to demand independent subpoena power, which they don’t currently have, Wire reported.

Democrats want to stop Republicans from hijacking the impeachment investigation by launching their own probes into the investigators. That’s already happened at the Justice Department, Del Wilber wrote.

LONG HISTORY OF WHISTLEBLOWERS

Whistleblowers are as American as apple pie, Laura King writes. The first U.S. whistleblower case dates to 1777 — before there was a Constitution — when 10 U.S. Navy sailors reported their commandant for brutal treatment of captured British sailors and won protection from the Continental Congress.

BIDEN CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT

After considerable hesitation, Biden joined most of the rest of the Democratic presidential field and called for Trump’s impeachment. Of Trump’s actions, he said, “It’s wrong. It’s un-American.”

Trump escalated his rhetoric saying in tweets Sunday that Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) committed “treason” and should be “impeached.”

Most votes in the House are already nailed down. Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican and former CIA officer is an exception. That makes him one of the most keenly watched House members, Molly O’Toole wrote.

ECONOMIC TROUBLES

While impeachment gets all the headlines, a quieter development could endanger Trump’s reelection: U.S.
manufacturing is now officially in recession, Don Lee wrote. As measured by the Federal Reserve, manufacturing output shrank over two straight quarters this year. That’s the common definition of recession.

Because most of the U.S. economy involves services, not manufacturing, a recession in the factories may not have as much national impact as it might have a few decades ago. But it could still be critical in some important states.

Trump might get good news on a different economic front, however: Democrats are warming to Trump’s revised NAFTA trade deal after Mexico pledged labor reforms, Jennifer Haberkorn wrote.

THE DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN

Seven years ago, Biden’s decision to publicly back same-sex marriage made major news, putting him briefly ahead of President Obama, who had not yet taken that step. This week, Democratic candidates held a televised forum on LGBTQ issues and vied to announce the most sweeping plans to reverse Trump’s rollback of LGBTQ rights, Michael Finnegan wrote.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein officially backed Biden for president, snubbing her fellow California Democrat, Sen. Kamala Harris, Melanie Mason reported.

Sen. Bernie Sanders set off a scramble by saying he would scale back campaigning after his heart attack, Finnegan reported. Sanders’ campaign spent much of the week trying to fend off rumors that he might drop out of the race.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren needs to connect with Latino voters. She has a plan for that, Mason and Matt Pearce reported. Whether it works remains to be seen.

JANE FONDA BACK IN D.C.

She’s 81 and launching a new activist campaign — this one on climate change. Jane Fonda talked with Evan Halper and Anna Phillips about why she is moving to Washington (for now).

A TOXIC LEGACY

Firefighting foam used at military bases has contaminated Californians’ drinking water, Phillips, David Cloud and Tony Barboza reported. No one knows how many people may be affected because the military does only limited testing off-base.

A CRISIS OF TRUMP’S MAKING

Trump’s abrupt announcement that had ordered U.S. troops to pull back in Syria, moving away from the border with Turkey, threatened chaos in the region and sparked a GOP revolt. The move essentially abandoned Syrian Kurds who have been U.S. allies to face Turkish advances alone.

As Doyle McManus wrote, the Trump Doctrine is allies can’t trust him.

LOGISTICS

That wraps up this week. Until next time, keep track of all the developments in national politics and the Trump administration on our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics.

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More than 25 protesters have been detained by police a day after the activist group was banned in the UK.

Police have arrested protesters in London for supporting activist group Palestine Action, which was banned at midnight in the United Kingdom.

“Officers have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act 2000. They have been taken into custody. Palestine Action is a proscribed group and officers will act where criminal offences are committed,” the Metropolitan Police wrote on X on Saturday.

Campaign group Defend Our Juries said in a press release that 27 people, including a priest and a number of health professionals, had been arrested for offences under the Terrorism Act.

They were holding cardboard signs, saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

Passersby reacted to the arrests as the police intervened in the demonstration at noon.

“Met Police, you are puppets of the Zionist state” and “leave them alone”, they were quoted as shouting by the Press Association, the British news agency.

Other supporters, not directly involved in the Palestine Action protest, shouted: “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” and “British police off our streets.”

There were further chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during the incident.

The ban

Police warned on Friday that expressing support for Palestine Action would be a criminal offence after the ban kicked in at midnight.

“This includes chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos,” said the force.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We commend the Counter Terrorism police for their decisive action in protecting the people of London from some cardboard signs opposing the genocide in Gaza and expressing support for those taking action to prevent it.”

The proscription cleared parliament on Thursday, with a court challenge to try to stop it becoming law failing on Friday.

The government announced last week it would ban Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000, days after activists from the group broke into an air force base in southern England.

Two aircraft at the base were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.55m) in damage.

Four Palestine Action activists were remanded in custody on Thursday after appearing in court over the incident.

Palestine Action has condemned the proscription as an attack on free speech.

The ban will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

If he wins the general election in November, Zohran Mamdani could become New York City’s first South Asian mayor and the first of Indian origin.

But the same identity that makes him a trailblazer in United States politics has also exposed him to public outcry in India and within its diaspora.

Ever since Mamdani achieved a thumping win in the Democratic mayoral primary on June 24, his campaign has weathered a flood of vitriol – some of it coming from the Hindu right.

Experts say the attacks are a reflection of the tensions that have arisen between supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and critics of the human rights abuses under his leadership, particularly against religious minorities.

A number of those attacks have fixated on Mamdani’s religion: The 33-year-old is Muslim. Some commenters have accused the mayoral hopeful of being a “jihadi” and “Islamist”. Others have called him anti-Hindu and anti-India.

Kayla Bassett, the director of research at the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington-based think tank, believes the attacks against Mamdani are a vehicle to attack the Muslim community more broadly.

“This isn’t just about one individual,” she said. “It’s about promoting a narrative that casts Muslims as inherently suspect or un-American.”

Backlash from Modi’s party

That narrative could potentially have consequences for Mamdani’s campaign, as he works to increase his support among New York voters.

Mamdani will face competition in November from more established names in politics. He is expected to face incumbent mayor Eric Adams in the final vote. His rival in the Democratic primary, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, has also not yet ruled out an independent run.

The mayoral hopeful has vocally denounced human rights abuses, including in places like Gaza and India.

That unabashed stance has not only earned him criticism from his rival candidates but also from overseas.

Members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for example, have been among the voices slamming Mamdani’s remarks and questioning his fitness for the mayor’s seat.

BJP Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut posted on social media, for example, that Mamdani “sounds more Pakistani than Indian”.

“Whatever happened to his Hindu identity or bloodline,” she asked, pointing to the Hindu roots of his mother, director Mira Nair. “Now he is ready to wipe out Hinduism.”

Soon after Mamdani’s primary win, a prominent pro-BJP news channel in India, Aaj Tak, also aired a segment claiming that he had received funding from organisations that promote an “anti-India” agenda.

It also warned of a growing Muslim population in New York City, an assertion it coupled with footage of women wearing hijabs.

But some of the backlash has come from sources closer to home.

A New Jersey-based group named Indian Americans for Cuomo spent $3,570 for a plane to fly a banner over New York City with the message: “Save NYC from Global Intifada. Reject Mamdani.”

A critic of human rights abuses

Much of the pushback can be linked to Mamdani’s vocal criticism of Hindu nationalism and Modi in particular.

In 2020, Mamdani participated in a Times Square demonstration against a temple built on the site of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya that was destroyed by Hindu extremists in 1992. He called out the BJP’s participation in and normalisation of that violence.

“I am here today to protest against the BJP government in India and the demolition of the Babri masjid,” he said.

Then, in 2023, Mamdani read aloud notes from an imprisoned Indian activist ahead of Modi’s visit to New York City.

That activist, Umar Khalid, has been imprisoned since 2020 without trial on terrorism charges after making speeches criticising Modi’s government.

More recently, during a town hall for mayoral candidates in May, Mamdani was asked if he would meet with Modi if the prime minister were to visit the city again. Mamdani said he wouldn’t.

“This is a war criminal,” he replied.

Mamdani pointed to Modi’s leadership in the Indian state of Gujarat during a period of religious riots in 2002. Modi has been criticised for turning a blind eye to the violence, which killed more than a thousand people, many of them Muslim.

In the aftermath, Modi was denied a US visa for “severe violations of religious freedom”.

“Narendra Modi helped to orchestrate what was a mass slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat, to the extent that we don’t even believe that there are Gujarati Muslims any more,” Mamdani told the town hall. “When I tell someone that I am, it’s a shock to them that that’s even the case.”

Barriers of class and religion

It’s that “fearless” and consistent criticism of Modi that has made Mamdani the target of outrage from the Hindu right, according to Rohit Chopra, a communications professor at Santa Clara University.

“Among the Hindu right, there is a project of the political management of the memory of 2002. There’s this silence around Modi being denied a visa to enter the US,” said Chopra.

The professor also said class fragmentation among Hindu Americans may also fuel scepticism towards Mamdani.

Hindu Americans are a relatively privileged minority in terms of socioeconomic status: The Pew Research Center estimates that 44 percent Asian American Hindus enjoy a family income of more than $150,000, and six in 10 have obtained postgraduate degrees.

That relative prosperity, Chopra said, can translate into social barriers.

“They don’t necessarily even identify with other Hindu Americans who may come from very different kinds of class backgrounds – people who might be working as cab drivers, or dishwashers, or other blue-collar jobs,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Suchitra Vijayan, a New York City-based writer and the founder of the digital magazine Polis Project, has noticed that many lines of attack against Mamdani centre on his identity.

“Mamdani is an elected leader who is unabashedly Muslim,” she said.

She pointed out that other Muslim politicians, including US Congress members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, have sparked similar backlash for reproaching Modi over the Gujarat violence.

But Mamdani’s family ties to the region make the scrutiny all the more intense.

“In Mamdani’s case, he’s Muslim, he’s African, but also his father is of Gujarati descent and has openly spoken about the pogrom in Gujarat,” Vijayan said.

A ‘seismic’ victory

Despite the online backlash, experts and local organisers believe Mamdani’s campaign can mobilise Indian American voters and other members of the South Asian diaspora who traditionally lean Democratic.

The Pew Research Center estimates that there are 710,000 Indians and Indian Americans living in the New York City area, the most of any metropolitan centre in the US.

Preliminary results from June’s mayoral primary show that Mamdani scored big in neighbourhoods with strong Asian populations, like Little Bangladesh, Jackson Heights and Parkchester.

A final tally of the ranked-choice ballots was released earlier this week, on July 1, showing Mamdani trounced his closest rival, Cuomo, 56 percent to 44.

“I’ve heard his win described as ‘seismic’,” said Arvind Rajagopal, a professor of media studies at New York University. “He can speak not only Spanish but Hindi, Urdu, and passable Bangla. A candidate with this level of depth and breadth is rare in recent times.”

Rajagopal added that Mamdani’s decision to own his Muslim identity became an asset for him on the campaign trail, particularly in the current political climate.

With President Donald Trump in office for a second term, many voters are bracing for the anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that accompanied his first four years in the White House.

Back then, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”, saying they represented an “influx of hatred” and “danger”.

“The moment of Trump is something that Mamdani answers perfectly,” Rajagopal said. He called Mamdani’s success “a big reality check for the Hindu right”.

Whatever backlash Mamdani is facing from Hindu groups, Jagpreet Singh is sceptical about its influence over New York City.

“I can assure you – it’s not coming from within the city,” said Singh, the political director of DRUM Beats, a sister organisation to the social justice organisation Desis Rising Up and Moving.

That group was among the first in the city to endorse Mamdani’s candidacy for mayor.

Since early in his campaign, Singh pointed out that Mamdani has reached out to Hindu working-class communities “in an authentic way”.

This included visiting the Durga Temple and Nepalese Cultural Center in Ridgewood and speaking at events in the Guyanese and Trinidadian Hindu communities, Singh pointed out. During his time as a state assembly member, Mamdani also pushed for legislation that would recognise Diwali – the Hindu festival of lights – as a state holiday.

At a Diwali celebration last year, Singh said Mamdani “took part in lighting of the diyas, spoke on stage, and talked about his mother’s background as being somebody who is of Hindu faith”.

To Singh, the message was clear. South Asian groups in New York City, including Hindu Americans, “have adopted him as their own”.

Legal woes hang over the former president, who has called for several demonstrations in support of himself in recent months.

Facing serious legal jeopardy with potentially years of incarceration over an alleged coup plot being tried by the nation’s Supreme Court, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has attended a protest by his supporters.

Around 2,000 people attended the rally on Sunday in Sao Paolo.

On Saturday night, the far-right ex-leader told his followers on the AuriVerde Brasil YouTube channel that “Brazil needs all of us. It’s for freedom, for justice”. He urged supporters to march through Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue on Sunday.

“This is a call for us to show strength … this massive presence will give us courage,” he declared.

In February, Bolsonaro, 70, who led the country from 2019 to 2022, was charged with five counts of planning to remain in power and overturn the 2022 election result, which current president, the left-wing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won. Thirty-three of Bolsonaro’s closest allies were also charged.

Earlier this month, Bolsonaro testified for the first time before the nation’s Supreme Court, denying any involvement in the alleged coup plot.

The Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia was one of the targets of a rioting mob known as “Bolsonaristas” – who raided government buildings in January 2023 as they urged the military to oust President Lula, an insurrection attempt that evoked the supporters of Bolsonaro ally United States President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.

Police have referred to the demonstration as an uprising and an attempt to force military intervention and depose Lula.

Bolsonaro claims that the various cases against him are politically motivated, aimed at preventing him from making a comeback in the 2026 elections.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court ruled last year that due to an abuse of Bolsonaro’s political power and his baseless claims about the country’s electronic voting system, he would be banned from holding office until 2030.

‘An abominable thing’

Earlier this month, at Bolsonaro’s first testimony at the Supreme Court, the former president denied that there was a coup attempt.

“There was never any talk of a coup. A coup is an abominable thing,” Bolsonaro said.

“Brazil couldn’t go through an experience like that. And there was never even the possibility of a coup in my government.”

Bolsonaro was abroad in Florida in the US at the time of this last-gasp effort to keep him in power after the alleged coup planning fizzled. But his opponents have accused him of fomenting the rioting.

At the same time, Brazilian police have called for Bolsonaro to be separately charged with illegal espionage while president.

According to legal experts, the sentencing part of the coup plot case is expected in the second half of the year. If convicted, Bolsonaro could face up to 12 years in prison.

During his legal troubles, the former president has called for several protests, but his appearances at them have declined in recent months, as have the crowds.

According to estimates by the University of Sao Paulo, about 45,000 people took part in the most recent march on Paulista Avenue in April, almost four times fewer than in February.

Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, a former Bolsonaro minister, is a top candidate to represent the conservatives in the 2026 presidential election.

British government will use antiterrorism laws to ban campaign organisation in the wake of damage to planes by activists.

The British government has said it will deploy antiterrorism laws to ban Palestine Action, a prominent campaign organisation that has protested against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the United Kingdom’s role in supporting it, in the wake of its activists damaging two military planes.

Protesters clashed with police in London’s Trafalgar Square on Monday at a demonstration in solidarity with Palestine Action. The crowd moved towards police when officers tried to detain someone, while protesters chanted “let them go”.

The government’s move will make it a criminal offence to belong to the pro-Palestinian group and effectively place them in the same category as Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda or ISIL (ISIS) under British law.

It would be illegal for anyone to promote Palestine Action or be a member. Those who breach the ban could face up to 14 years in prison.

Activists from the group broke into a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in central England last week and claimed to have damaged two military aircraft to protest against the UK government’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Palestine Action said two of its members entered the RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire, spraying paint into the engines of the Voyager aircraft and attacking them with crowbars.

“Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel U.S./Israeli fighter jets,” the group said in a statement on Friday, posting a video of the incident on X.

The group said the red paint “symbolising Palestinian bloodshed was also sprayed across the runway and a Palestine flag was left on the scene”.

It said the activists were able to exit the military facility undetected and avoid arrest.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “vandalism” as “disgraceful”.

There has been condemnation of the government’s move on Monday. Labour Party MP Apsana Begum said: “Proscribing Palestine Action as ‘terrorists’ while continuing to send arms to a state that is committing the gravest of crimes against humanity in Gaza is not just unjustifiable, it is chilling. The ongoing crackdown on the right to protest is a threat to us all.”

Palestine Action called the police response to the solidarity protest “draconian”.

Draconian response by the police at the protest in solidarity with Palestine Action.

They want to ban us, they banned our protest at parliament and now they attack us.

The people will not be intimidated.

WE ARE ALL PALESTINE ACTION. pic.twitter.com/CsmebIriek

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 23, 2025

Weekly protests in the UK have drawn tens of thousands of people opposed to Israel’s war on Gaza and its besieged and bombarded population, as well as Britain’s supply of weapons to the Israeli military, which the government says it has suspended but still continues.

NGO Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) found the UK increased its licences to Israel for military equipment after the government announced a temporary arms suspension in September 2024.

The government also refused to suspend the shipment of components of F-35 fighters, arguing it would cause a “profound impact on international peace and security”.

Despite a heavy downpour and slippery roads, supporters of presidential candidate Tidjane Thiam poured into Abidjan’s streets in the thousands on Saturday to march on the offices of the Ivory Coast electoral commission.

Decked in the white and green colours of Thiam’s main opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), the demonstrators chanted his nickname – “Thithi president!” – in a show of support for a candidate now officially barred from the vote. Placards reading “There’s no Plan B!” flew high amid protest songs.

“We strongly denounce the arbitrary and unjustified removal of President Thiam, as well as other major opposition leaders,” PDCI’s executive secretary, Sylvestre Emmou, one of few people allowed through a large police barricade to submit a complaint to the commission, told his soaked compatriots. “This is unacceptable and dangerous for peace and democracy in our country,” he said.

The protests highlight rising tensions in West Africa’s second-biggest economy, ahead of the October general elections that many fear could lead to violence in a country with still-fresh memories of the 2011 election-related civil war.

At stake is Ivory Coast’s continued stability amid a regional security crisis, but a likely fourth-term bid by incumbent President Alassane Ouattara has concerned many voters and political rivals, alongside what critics say is the government’s targeted ban on opponents.

Ouattara’s strongest challenger, Thiam, was struck from a final list of candidates on June 4 after the electoral commission said he was ineligible to run because he’d automatically lost Ivorian citizenship when he took French citizenship in the 1980s.

Although Thiam gave up his French nationality to regain his Ivorian one in February, a court ruled in May that he was not technically Ivorian when he enrolled in the electoral register in 2022.

Thiam’s supporters accuse Ouattara, who has led since 2011, of clearing the way for a fourth term. The last elections in 2020 were boycotted by the opposition, which argued Ouattara had reached his term limits, handing him an easy victory. In the 2015 elections, Ouattara was a clear favourite.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo and his old right-hand man Charles Ble Goude have been struck off too for convictions related to the 2011 civil war. Ex-Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who was convicted of fraud, was also removed.

Ouattara will suffer illegitimacy if he runs without those four, Sylvain N’Guessan, a politics professor at the University of Bondoukou, told Al Jazeera.

“He will be seen as a candidate who had to exclude all other serious candidates to impose himself. What relationship will such a president have with the other parties, with the voters?” he said.

A ‘new face’ in turbulent politics

Many Ivorians, particularly young voters, view businessman Thiam as a breath of fresh air and a departure from the divisive establishment politics that have seen power concentrated in the hands of a few.

At 62, he is two decades younger than Ouattara and is related to Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the first Ivorian prime minister. Thiam was the first Ivorian student to land a place at Paris’s prestigious Ecole Polytechnique in 1982, from where he was launched to top-flight firms like consulting giant McKinsey. In 1994, he returned home to take up a ministerial position that saw him launch several infrastructure projects. A military coup in 1999, however, cut short that career.

In 2015, he became the first African head of Swiss bank Credit Suisse but stepped down in 2019 after an espionage scandal: a colleague accused Thiam of spying on him, although a court later cleared him of wrongdoing. In 2022, Thiam returned to the Ivory Coast and the once-ruling PDCI party.

Thiam’s party promises a return to the economic development that flourished under Houphouet-Boigny, who is credited with the “Ivorian Miracle” or the rapid development that came after colonial rule.

Thiam has also promised to include everyone, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

“He presents as a new leader, a new face who could lead Cote d’Ivoire differently,” N’Guessan said, adding that young Ivorians were tired of faces like Ouattara’s and Gbagbo’s, who are associated with turbulent politics.

Critics say his international career means he’s out of touch locally, but Thiam claims he is nonetheless well-loved. In an interview with the BBC in April, he accused the government of specifically targeting him with a colonial-era law he said was rarely used. Thiam pointed to Ivorian-French footballers who hold dual nationalities and play for French clubs and the Ivorian national team.

“I don’t think anyone in Cote d’Ivoire believes that this is not a case of the government exploiting the legal system,” he said, referring to his removal based on nationality. “This government has been in power for 15 years. Does it deserve five more? For me, that’s what should be at the centre of the presidential campaign, not my passport,” Thiam said at the time.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Ivorian government for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Away from identity politics

A day after Thiam’s supporters gathered in Abidjan, Ouattara’s ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) members also rallied in Yopougon, the most populous suburb of Abidjan.

Banners reading “In Yopougon, our champion is ADO”, a reference to the president’s nickname, were stretched across a stage where senior party members extolled Ouattara. The gathering set the stage for the party’s grand congress on June 21-22, where Ouattara is expected to officially announce his candidacy.

“There is only one road – the road of President Alassane Ouattara,” former prime minister Patrick Achi declared to the gathered crowd.

Ouattara, 83, is rumoured to be half-Burkinabe. He was the target of inflammatory identity politics for years, with his rivals questioning his “Ivoirite” and enforcing laws that disqualified him from running. When he finally won elections in 2011, Gbagbo refused to hand over power, resulting in a civil war that killed some 3,000 people.

Ouattara has since amended the Ivorian constitution to allow presidential candidates with at least one Ivorian parent in a 2016 referendum. He has nurtured the country back from the brink into a flourishing economy, evident in the 7 percent average yearly growth recorded in the past decade.

Then in 2020, Outtara ran in and won elections. Critics and boycotting opposition said his third-term bid was unconstitutional while Outtara argued his mandate was reset by the new constitution. Violence was reported in some areas.

N’Guessan said Ivorians don’t have the appetite for the immense suffering of 2011, and warned that reviving identity politics by preventing Thiam from running once again is “dangerous”.

“We should learn the lessons to address the issue of nationality with a little more perspective,” he said. “The same words produce the same effects, the same evils.”

ENGLAND fans held a minute’s applause following the tragic death of 26-year-old Harrison Turner.

Turner’s beloved Three Lions hosted Senegal at the City Ground, with his cousins in the crowd.

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Harrison was tragically killed after being struck while working on a motorway hard shoulder on May 30.

He suffered serious injuries and died at the scene of the crash close to the southbound slip road at junction 8 of the M1.

Harrison’s loving family organised for the minute’s applause to take place in the 26th minute in his honour.

Thomas Tuchel‘s side were leading 1-0 after Harry Kane slotted in his 73rd international goal in the seventh minute.

According to his family, the youngster was a huge England fan that went home and away.

He was also a big Chelsea supporter, regularly attending Stamford Bridge to cheer on the Blues.

A man, 58, from Luton, was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drink or drugs and failing to stop at the scene of a collision.

Det Sgt Ben Heath, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Our thoughts are with the man’s loved ones at this difficult time.

“Our inquiries are continuing, and I am appealing for anyone with information to please come forward.

“Did you see what happened, or witness anything before the collision?

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the public for their patience whilst we put road closures in place.”

Anyone who saw the crash, has information or dash cam footage has been urged to contact the police.