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Human Rights Advocates Slam Trump for 'Palestinian' Insult in Debate with Biden

Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, US, May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, US, May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Human Rights Advocates Slam Trump for 'Palestinian' Insult in Debate with Biden

Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, US, May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, US, May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Human rights advocates on Friday condemned former President Donald Trump's references to Palestinians, and immigrants allegedly taking Black American jobs, during Thursday's debate with President Joe Biden, calling the remarks racist or insulting.

Biden and Trump had a brief exchange on the war in Gaza but did not have a substantive discussion on how to end the conflict which has killed 38,000 in the enclave, according to the Gaza health ministry, and caused a massive humanitarian crisis with widespread hunger.

"The only one who wants the war to continue is Hamas," Biden said. Trump responded by saying Biden has "become like a Palestinian," which rights advocates said came across as a slur.

"Actually, Israel is the one (that wants to keep going), and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He (Biden) doesn’t want to do it. He's become like a Palestinian but they don't like him because he's a very bad Palestinian. He's a weak one," Trump said, Reuters reported.

On Friday, Trump again used the term 'Palestinian' in a similar way, this time saying in a rally that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, was Palestinian. "He's become a Palestinian because they have a couple more votes or something," he added.

The Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group said Biden was wrong to claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the war to end, while adding it viewed Trump's Palestinian comment in the debate as a racist insult.

"Former President Trump's use of 'Palestinian' as an insult was racist. President Biden's touting of his military support for the Israeli government's genocide in Gaza was callous," Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at CAIR, said in a statement. Israel denies allegations of genocide.

"To insinuate that being Palestinian is somehow a bad thing, as former President Trump did when he called President Biden Palestinian, reeks of racism and anti-Arab hatred," Paul O'Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, told Reuters.

Human rights advocates have reported a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism in the US since the latest eruption of conflict in the Middle East. The war in Gaza and Washington's support for Israel has also led to months of protests across the United States calling for an end to the conflict.

Trump also faced criticism for using the term "Black jobs" and "Hispanic jobs" while claiming immigrants who were coming into the United States from its border with Mexico were taking away those employment opportunities.

The Trump campaign did not have an immediate comment to the criticism.

Immigration is a key election issue and Trump has claimed Biden has failed to secure the southern US border, ushering in scores of criminals. Studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.

"The fact is that his (Biden's) big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he's allowed to come in through the border," Trump said during the debate. "They're taking Black jobs, and they're taking Hispanic jobs."

Civil rights organization NAACP wrote on X: "What exactly are Black and Hispanic Jobs!?!". It added: "There is no such thing as a Black Job."

Amnesty International's O'Brien told Reuters that Trump's comments on immigration were grounded in white supremacy.

"It is disheartening that false narratives grounded in white supremacy and racism about people seeking asylum at the border and immigrant communities in the United States continue to permeate our national discourse," he added.

Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, an organization that works to mobilize Black voters, said Trump's remarks were not true and that Biden should have pushed back harder on such false claims.

"That there are specific Black jobs for Black people that immigrants are coming to take. Utter nonsense," Shropshire said.

Trump's campaign has made an effort to court Black voters, with the former president visiting Detroit and Philadelphia in recent weeks. Some polls have shown a downtick in support for Biden among Black voters, who historically have been among the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting blocs.

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World

Burnham Reignites Britain’s Divisive Brexit Debate with His Push for Closer EU Ties

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham gestures as he speaks while hosting a "Rough Sleeping Summit" in Downing Street in central London on October 26, 2026, to push for further action to support people to get off the streets for good. (Reuters)
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham gestures as he speaks while hosting a "Rough Sleeping Summit" in Downing Street in central London on October 26, 2026, to push for further action to support people to get off the streets for good. (Reuters)
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Burnham Reignites Britain’s Divisive Brexit Debate with His Push for Closer EU Ties

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham gestures as he speaks while hosting a "Rough Sleeping Summit" in Downing Street in central London on October 26, 2026, to push for further action to support people to get off the streets for good. (Reuters)
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham gestures as he speaks while hosting a "Rough Sleeping Summit" in Downing Street in central London on October 26, 2026, to push for further action to support people to get off the streets for good. (Reuters)

For a decade, British governments have observed a cardinal rule: Don’t mention Brexit. In particular, don’t suggest that voters’ 2016 decision to leave the European Union should be reversed.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who marked his 100th day in office on Tuesday, has broken that code of silence and reignited a debate that bitterly divided the country. He says Brexit has been a failure and the UK should seek a much closer relationship with the EU, with options up to and including rejoining the 27-nation bloc.

“I am positive about closer ties with Europe and I’m not hiding that,” Burnham told the Sunday Times. “I think it will add to British GDP. I think it will give us stronger control of migration. I want to make those arguments.”

In recent interviews, Burnham has said the country should have an “evidence-based debate” about the consequences of Brexit. He gave the example of immigration. Supporters of Brexit argued that it would give the country control over its borders by ending the right of EU citizens to live and work in the UK, and of British nationals to settle across the bloc.

While Britain now sets its own immigration policy, Burnham said leaving the bloc had made it harder to control unauthorized migration because Britain has lost access to EU databases and agreements.

“The truth of the matter is we’ve lost immigration control in the way that we once had,” Burnham told broadcaster ITV on Monday.

Most economists agree that Brexit has hurt the British economy, but few politicians have wanted to reopen the painful debate.

The decision of British voters, by 52% to 48%, to leave the bloc after four decades of membership was followed by years of UK-EU wrangling over divorce terms. Britain finally left the EU in 2020 with a bare-bones trade deal that erected new barriers to doing business with the bloc of 450 million people on the UK’s doorstep.

In seeking closer ties, Burnham remains bound by the pledge of Keir Starmer, whom he replaced as Labour Party leader and prime minister, not to rejoin the bloc’s tariff-free customs union or frictionless single market for goods, services and workers.

Burnham says that could change after the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

He told the Labour Party’s annual conference last month that “Brexit has done more harm than good” and he will seek political consensus on a new relationship, with future options including rejoining the bloc.

A UK-EU summit in Brussels on Nov. 20 is set to discuss a more limited reset: a trade deal for food and drink, agreements on energy and emissions trading and a plan to let young people work for limited periods across Britain and the EU.

Around the same time as the summit, the British government says Burnham will set out options for the long-term relationship with Europe, and ask the public to weigh in.

Burnham’s office stressed that he wasn’t prejudging the outcome of that debate. But Downing Street acknowledged that UK and EU officials are already holding informal talks about the future relationship, with options including a return to the single market and freedom of movement.

The EU is welcoming but wary

The EU has welcomed Britain’s warmer tone, but its leaders are wary of UK attempts to secure some of the benefits reserved for members only.

In Britain, the return of the Brexit debate has stirred mixed feelings of hope, opposition and dread.

Anti-immigration Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who campaigned for years to take the country out of the EU, said Burnham “has no mandate” to renegotiate Brexit.

Even within the governing center-left Labour Party, views are mixed. Labour lawmaker Melanie Onn, who represents a district that voted heavily in favor of Brexit in 2016, warned against “reopening the divisions of the past.”

“Political trust is hard won and easily lost,” she wrote on the Politics.co.uk website.

David Henig, a trade expert at the European Centre for International Political Economy, said public support for Brexit has declined over the years. But he said politicians remain reluctant to revisit an issue that caused “a nervous breakdown for UK politics,” triggering a decade in which the UK has had seven prime ministers.

He said that for Burnham, “it’s the wider political support that is not there at the moment: within Labour, within his own Cabinet.

“The biggest challenge is actually not in Brussels,” Henig said. “I don’t think it’s with the public either. It’s whether he can make this work in terms of the politics.”

World

Iran Says Supreme Leader Met with Security Chief Over Hormuz

A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP)
A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP)
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Iran Says Supreme Leader Met with Security Chief Over Hormuz

A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP)
A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP)

Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since he took office in March, has met with security chief Mohsen Rezaei to discuss regional security and the Strait of Hormuz, his office said Tuesday.

Mojtaba was chosen in March to succeed his father and longtime ruler Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 in central Tehran alongside senior military commanders, and was said to have been injured in the same attack.

He has only communicated through written messages since his appointment, some of them published in handwriting attributed to him.

During the meeting, the first publicly announced encounter between Rezaei and the leader, they discussed "strengthening bilateral relations with neighboring countries" and "safeguarding national and regional security through the management of the Strait of Hormuz," Khamenei's office said in a statement.

Khamenei "emphasized the need to safeguard the rights and interests of the Iranian nation and the resistance front by adhering to the conditions set by the country's authorities, with the aim of ending the war and the state of neither war nor peace," it added.

Neither the date nor the location of the meeting was disclosed.

Iran claims control over the Hormuz strait and regularly targets vessels that attempt to cross without its authorization, while the United States has imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis remain stalled, especially since the collapse of a June deal which laid out a pathway to a permanent settlement.

Several Iranian officials, including Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have in recent days said they held rare meetings with the supreme leader.

World

In US Swing Districts, High Prices Dominate Minds but Not Always Ballots

A woman feeds her ballot into a scanning machine at an early voting site in Haverstraw, NY, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP)
A woman feeds her ballot into a scanning machine at an early voting site in Haverstraw, NY, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP)
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In US Swing Districts, High Prices Dominate Minds but Not Always Ballots

A woman feeds her ballot into a scanning machine at an early voting site in Haverstraw, NY, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP)
A woman feeds her ballot into a scanning machine at an early voting site in Haverstraw, NY, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP)

American consumers say the rising cost of living is a top concern — one that's changed how they shop. But that won't necessarily affect their votes in next week's congressional elections.

More than two dozen voters in three East Coast swing districts overwhelmingly reported that high gas and grocery bills were top of mind. Reuters interviewed the voters, who largely self-described as working- or middle-class, during routine shopping trips.

Their concerns mesh with Reuters/Ipsos polling finding living costs to be the most pressing issue for voters ahead of November 3 elections that will determine control of the US House of Representatives and Senate.

More than half of the people identified as Democratic-leaning, and said they planned to vote against Republican candidates, many with a renewed sense of urgency.

But of the ten who said they had previously voted for incumbent congressional Republicans, eight told Reuters they are sticking by them this year. That is despite inflation being driven up by, among other factors, tariffs introduced by Republican President Donald Trump, and a Iran war-related rise in energy costs.

"It hasn't changed my opinion on anything," Republican-leaning voter John Beers, of Peekskill, New York, told Reuters on October 16, as he ‌decried a "staggering" rise in grocery ‌prices and said he'd "be very disappointed" if prices don't ease soon.

Such responses underscore the challenges facing Democrats as they ‌seek to ⁠flip seats in ⁠a world where economic sentiment is an increasingly unreliable indicator of how people shop and vote, said Katie Thomas, who leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, part of global consulting firm Kearney.

Control of the House will hinge on just a few dozen of the 435 seats being contested — those that feature competitive races, like New York's 17th congressional district, where Beers lives. An Emerson College poll in late September showed incumbent lawmaker Mike Lawler, a Republican ally of Trump, trailing Democratic challenger Cait Conley in this district by 2 points.

The self-employed Beers, 74, lives in a less affluent pocket of Lawler's generally wealthy district north of New York City. Interviewed before a trip to Ahold's Stop & Shop grocery chain, Beers said he has traded down to cheaper coffee amid the pinch, and sacrificed items like avocado oil and sardines.

But he supports the Iran war and is sticking with ⁠Lawler.

Echoing Beers, Fred McDonald, a 71-year-old retired diesel mechanic from Easton, Pennsylvania, said he has backed Republicans for many years ‌and won't abandon them now, despite his economic worries.

Consumers have "decoupled" sentiment and behavior, said Kearney's Thomas — a result, ‌she believes, of anxiety about unknowns like the Middle East conflict and the ascendance of AI. "Without a reliable picture of the future, people fall back on routine, habit, and ‌loyalty," she said.

The effect has shown up in how Americans shop: even as consumer confidence has cratered to nearly a 12-1/2-year low, retail sales for the ‌first 9 months of this year are 4.7% higher than the same period last year, according to US Census data.

Consumers are widely trading down on essentials but Thomas' research has found that they are also still splurging on the luxuries they value.

PINCH FROM BEEF AND GAS PRICES

McDonald and his wife of five decades, Antoinette, are living with their daughter, struggling to find housing in an unaffordable market after a landlord took back their last apartment. They've cut beef from their diets and cringe every time they fill their gas tank.

In Pennsylvania's ‌7th congressional district incumbent Republican Ryan Mackenzie — who earned McDonald's vote in 2024 — is up against Democratic challenger Bob Brooks. Opinion polls indicate a narrow advantage to Brooks.

McDonald is supporting Mackenzie, though, whom he described as "honest." He blames inflation ⁠on generalized greed among political elites rather ⁠than Republicans.

As higher costs bite, 69-year-old Antoinette said she's considering taking a job.

"I can sew, I can clean," she said. Then, she gestured toward the cashier at the fast-food chain where the couple spoke to Reuters. "And there's always McDonald's," she added.

DEMOCRATS' INCREASED URGENCY

Still, national polling by Reuters/Ipsos this month showed Democrats leading Republicans on a generic ballot question without a named candidate, with a majority of voters faulting Trump's handling of the economy.

Several Democratic voters told Reuters they feel increased urgency in this election, which could spur a higher turnout.

In New Jersey's 7th congressional district, 67-year-old Carla Schiller, a retired nurse, is switching sides. She said she's voting for Democrat Rebecca Bennett. In the past, she supported incumbent Republican Tom Kean Jr., partly because she was a fan of his father, former governor Thomas Kean.

"I have to be able to know I can eat," said Schiller as she browsed the pantry aisle at Aldi, a lower-priced grocer she began visiting recently to cut costs.

Back in Pennsylvania, 76-year-old retiree Donna Sook, a self-described conservative Democrat who will vote for Democratic candidate Brooks, said she "just about fainted when I went by (gas station) Wawa and saw $4.65."

Nationwide, US gas prices average $4.29 a gallon, up 40% from a year ago, according to AAA.

After a wallet-punishing trip to BJ's Wholesale Club in New York's 17th, Joanice Patino, 49, fretted about how she would afford gas for the commute to her nursing job, on top of the hundreds of dollars in monthly medical costs for her nonverbal autistic daughter.

“I'm thinking more about prices," said Patino, who plans to vote for Democratic challenger Conley and hopes a change might ease the cost of living.

"Before, we could save something," she said. "Now we cannot save anything."