Mese: Ottobre 2023

© Reuters. A supporter cheers as U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition 2019 Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

By Alexandra Ulmer

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -U.S. Republican presidential candidates including frontrunner Donald Trump touted their unwavering support for Israel wiping out Palestinian Hamas militants, as they campaigned with addresses to major Jewish donors in Las Vegas on Saturday.

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s (RJC) weekend donor gathering has taken on heightened importance as Israel prepares a ground invasion of Gaza following a surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that Israeli authorities say killed more than 1,400 people. Gaza’s health authorities say more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory Israeli air strikes.

Support for Israel is a hallmark of American Republican politics. Still, around 1,500 donors gathered in Las Vegas were seeking firmer expressions of commitment as Israel faces growing criticism from human rights groups for its air strikes in Gaza, a densely populated area.

“The United States will stand with Israel 100% – without hesitation, without qualification and without any apology. We’re not going to be apologizing,” Trump said to massive cheers, later adding he would sanction Iran and crack down on pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses.

“If you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours,” Trump said.

Candidate Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who has campaigned as a foreign policy hawk, criticized an isolationist trend in the Republican Party. She cited lackluster support for Ukraine from some during its war with Russia.

“Mark my words: Those who would abandon Ukraine today are at risk of abandoning Israel tomorrow,” said Haley, who is jostling with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to be the leading Trump alternative.

Haley also notably ratcheted up her criticism of Trump, under whom she served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“We all know what Trump did in the past. The question is: What will he do in the future?” said Haley. “We cannot have four years of chaos, vendettas and drama.”

DeSantis did not go after Trump directly as he also vowed to support Israel. “Israel values life, and Hamas worships death,” said DeSantis.

The event was overshadowed by former Vice-President Mike Pence announcing he was ending his cash-strapped presidential campaign. Pence did not endorse anyone.

DONOR RETICENCE

While many establishment Republican donors are opposed to Trump and are seeking an alternative, DeSantis and Haley may struggle to get them to open their wallets. Trump, fueled by small-dollar donors, is the runaway favorite to win the Republican nomination process that kicks off in Iowa on Jan. 15.

Trump was rebuked by Israel and the White House earlier this month after calling the Lebanese Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, “very smart” and accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being “not prepared” for the Hamas attack.

Trump later said there had been “no better friend or ally of Israel” than when he was U.S. president.

The RJC itself does not endorse in the Republican primary, but it does spend on the general election, when the Republican nominee will likely face off against Democratic President Joe Biden.

“In 2020, we raised and spent in excess of $10 million to help Trump get the largest share of the Jewish vote in history,” Washington-based RJC’s chief executive officer, Matt Brooks, told Reuters in an interview. “And we plan to do the same, if not more, with our nominee going forward.”

Brooks said RJC donors separately spent between $50 million and $60 million on the 2020 election cycle.

By Gabriella Borter

LEWISTON, Maine (Reuters) -The U.S. Army reservist who sprayed a bowling alley and bar with gunfire this week in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people, took his own life inside a cargo trailer parked on the lot of a recycling plant where he once worked, police said on Saturday.

Robert R. Card, 40, was found dead on Friday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said late Friday night. The announcement, after a 48-hour search for the suspect in the most lethal act of firearms violence in the state’s history, brought a sense of relief to Lewiston and other southern Maine communities plunged into a virtual lockdown during the manhunt.

At a news briefing on Saturday, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck revealed that a state police tactical team had found Card’s corpse in an unlocked shipping container parked on one of dozens of tractor-trailer rigs occupying an overflow lot of the recycling plant.

Police had combed the plant twice before, as Card was believed to have worked there in the past, Sauschuck said. But searchers had initially overlooked the extra parking lot, occupied by 60 cargo trailers full of crushed plastic and metal, the commissioner said.

FROM CARNAGE TO NORMALCY

Card’s body was dressed in what appeared to be the same brown sweatshirt a surveillance camera caught him wearing the night of the attack. Investigators would not say how long they believed Card had been dead.

The recycling facility is in the nearby town of Lisbon Falls, less than a mile from the spot where police found Card’s abandoned getaway vehicle shortly after the shooting spree.

A total of 18 people were killed and 13 others wounded in Wednesday night’s carnage, which began when the gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. He launched another attack minutes later at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant a few miles away.

Thirteen others were wounded, three of them still in critical condition, Sauschuck said on Saturday.

The shootings and prolonged manhunt convulsed the normally bustling but serene community of Lewiston. A former textile hub and the second-most populous city in Maine, it is situated on the banks of the Androscoggin River about 35 miles (56 km) north of the state’s largest city, Portland.

The murder investigation continued, and vigils were planned to honor the shooting victims on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Still, by Saturday afternoon, a measure of normalcy was restored to the postcard-like New England city. Residents were out shopping, children played on quiet, leafy streets, and Bates College students were jogging around campus after two days of shelter-in-place orders rendered the community a ghost town.

NOTE TO LOVED ONE

Officials said they recovered a rifle in Card’s abandoned white Subaru (OTC:FUJHY) and two guns on his body. All the weapons were apparently purchased by Card legally, a representative for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.

Officials have yet to offer a possible motive for the violence, though Sauschuck elaborated on a note that police previously said they found at Card’s house. They said it was addressed by the suspect to a loved one and listed the passcode to Card’s phone and bank account information.

“I wouldn’t describe it as an explicit suicide note, but the tone and tenor was that the individual was not going to be around,” he said.

Sauschuck said investigators had determined the tragedy had “a mental health component”. He cited evidence Card suffered from paranoia and “felt like people were talking about him,” factors that might have led him to target the venues he attacked.

A Maine law enforcement bulletin circulated this week identified Card as a trained firearms instructor at the U.S. Army Reserve base in Saco, Maine. It said he had reported hearing voices and had other mental health issues.

He also had threatened to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco and was “reported to have been committed to (a) mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released,” according to the bulletin from the Maine Information & Analysis Center, a unit of Maine State Police.

Sauschuck said on Saturday that officials had no evidence that Card was ever “forcibly committed” for mental illness treatment, and were still looking into any voluntary treatment he may have received.

Navy veteran Phil Bickett, 82, out buying groceries in Lewiston on Saturday, said he was grateful that the manhunt was over but frustrated the suspect would never face justice.

“I hate to see him taking himself out because there’s no real justice in shooting yourself,” Bickett said. “Anyway, it’s over. That’s a good thing.”

© Reuters. Republican U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. October 28, 2023. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

By Alexandra Ulmer

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Longshot U.S. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy confirmed to Reuters on Saturday that Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk attended a fundraiser for him in Northern California.

“He showed up late at night and we had a conversation,” Ramaswamy said in an interview at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s (RJC) weekend donor gathering in Las Vegas.

Puck, a digital media group, reported this month that Musk had recently attended a fundraiser in Silicon Valley hosted by prolific SPAC investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

Asked about whether Musk could donate to him, Ramaswamy said “my only discussions with Elon have been about… cultural direction for the country.”

“He and I are increasingly alone in this world as being free speech absolutists and that I think is different from a lot of people in both parties. I think that’s something he and I see eye to eye on,” Ramaswamy said.

Reuters was not immediately able to request a comment from Musk. An email to an address linked to Palihapitiya was not immediately answered.

Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has also been seen to be courting Musk, whom Forbes says is the world’s richest man with an estimated $222 billion in wealth.

Musk said in June 2022 that he may support DeSantis for president in 2024, and DeSantis went on to hold a glitchy launch to his presidential bid on Musk’s social media site X, previously known as Twitter.

Since, Ramaswamy has held his own X Spaces talking events with Musk. “Hopefully we will do some more of those X Spaces,” he said on Saturday.

© Reuters. File photo: U.S. dollar banknote in front of stock graph is seen in this illustration taken, June 12, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File photo

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Investors are watching for signs that the conflict in the Middle East may be escalate over the weekend, potentially ratcheting up volatility as investors await a Federal Reserve meeting and key U.S. data in the week ahead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israeli forces had unleashed the second phase of the Gaza war as they pressed ground operations against Hamas militants.

Investors have grown more worried about a widening conflict in recent days after the U.S. dispatched more military assets to the Middle East while Israel attacked targets in Gaza and Hamas supporters in Lebanon and Syria.

“The situation in Israel is … causing a lot of anxiety,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW).

On Friday, Brent futures settled up 2.9% at $90.48 a barrel on concerns the conflict could disrupt crude supplies. Spot gold, a popular safe haven for nervous investors, vaulted over $2,000 for the first time since mid-May.

In a note on Friday, analysts at Capital Economics said the oil market’s response to the conflict was “muted” so far.

“That said, any sign that the other countries in the region are becoming more involved in the conflict would cause oil prices to rise sharply,” they wrote.

If an escalation of the conflict causes the U.S. to increase war-related spending that raises the deficit, Treasury yields could rise beyond the 16-year highs they already have hit, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.

Some investors also expect a widening conflict could prompt safe-haven buying of Treasuries. This could moderate the surge in yields, which move inversely to prices, and this in turn could ease pressure on stocks and other assets.

The S&P 500 has fallen more than 10% since late July, when it reached its high for 2023, though the index is up over 7% year-to-date.

“So far, U.S. government bonds have not been performing their usual safe-haven function,” UBS Global Wealth Management said in a note on Friday. “However, an escalation of the conflict would likely shift attention away from monetary policy concerns and boost safe-haven demand for Treasuries.”

Both gold and oil can also provide hedges against near-term volatility, they said.

The Cboe Volatility index has climbed in the wake of the conflict and rose on Friday, approaching seven-month highs.

The Federal Reserve is set to give its latest monetary policy statement on Wednesday, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s quarterly results highlights another busy week of corporate reports.