Trump Takes Election Pitch to Storied New York Arena

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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Trump Takes Election Pitch to Storied New York Arena

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)

Donald Trump rallies supporters Sunday at an iconic New York arena while Kamala Harris goes neighborhood to neighborhood in Philadelphia just over a week before America votes in an extraordinarily close White House race.

Trump's gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden is expected to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican's home metropolis, which is still very much a Democratic stronghold.

Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America's most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat ahead of the November 5 vote.

Harris, 60, has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.

A senior Harris campaign official said Sunday's visit will be the vice president's 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden's shock withdrawal in July.

Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her "closing argument" on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied supporters before the January 6 riot.

Trump's rally Sunday at a venue dubbed "The World's Most Famous Arena" is set to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.

It is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2 plus several Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the decades.

However, the venue's association with the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group that hosted a rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes, will generate darker headlines.

Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist -- something Harris later said she agreed with.

- 'Genuine fear' of Trump win -

The latest high wattage surrogate for Harris, former first lady Michelle Obama, aired her "genuine fear" on Saturday that Trump could retake the White House.

She said Harris would be an "extraordinary president," but Obama also spoke of a sense of frustration and anxiety that few on the vice president's team dare express after she lost some momentum in recent weeks.

"My hope about Kamala is also accompanied by some genuine fear," Obama said, ripping into Trump's record and asking, "Why is this race even close?"

With more than 40 million people already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding between electing the country's first-ever woman president or the oldest major candidate ever.

Trump, 78, still refuses to accept his defeat in the vote four years ago and is expected to reject the result if he loses again -- potentially pitching the United States into chaos.

Trump swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- three usually Democratic states -- in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Biden reclaim them four years later.

He hopes to claw back one or more of the trio, and win the so-called Sun Belt swing states in the country's south to propel him back into power.



Iranian Dual Nationals Alarmed after Tehran Executes German-Iranian

Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was executed on Monday - AFP
Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was executed on Monday - AFP
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Iranian Dual Nationals Alarmed after Tehran Executes German-Iranian

Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was executed on Monday - AFP
Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was executed on Monday - AFP

Iran's execution of a German-Iranian dissident this week is a clear message that a Western passport cannot shield critics of the Tehran government, Iranians with dual nationality say.

Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was executed on Monday after several years behind bars, sparking condemnation from Germany and the European Union.

"It's terrifying to wake up to this kind of news. It's proof that this regime is staying in power through violence, cruelty and executions," said Sahar Aghakhani, a 30-year-old Franco-Iranian working in the health sector.

"But it's also a message: dual nationality does not protect you against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, had written for an Iranian opposition group's website based abroad that strongly criticized the Islamic republic's leadership.

Iranian authorities seized Sharmahd in 2020 while he was in the United Arab Emirates, according to his family, AFP reported.

Iran accused him of involvement in a deadly 2008 mosque bombing, and sentenced him to death in 2023 after what rights group Amnesty International called "forced confessions" and a "sham trial".

Now the the families of other detainees are worried, including the wife of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali.

The resident of Sweden was arrested in Iran in 2016 and sentenced to death in 2017 on charges of spying for Israel's Mossad. He has since been granted Swedish nationality.

"I'm really afraid," Vida Mehrannia told AFP.

"We cannot prevent the same scenario from happening to Ahmadreza."

- 'Very chilling effect' -

Several other dual nationals have been put to death since 2023.

Iran hanged Habib Chaab, an Iranian-Swedish national, on a "terrorism" conviction last year, drawing strong condemnation from Sweden.

It also executed Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian deputy defense minister who was granted British citizenship after leaving his post, last year after he was convicted of spying for Britain.

Like Sharmahd, two other critics of the Iranian leadership based abroad were "abducted", Amnesty says.

Chaab disappeared in Türkiye in 2020, it said.

The previous year, dissident journalist Rouhollah Zam, who lived in France, was "abducted" during a visit to Iraq, according to Amnesty. He was executed in Iran in 2020.

US-Iranian human rights lawyer Gissou Nia, of the Atlantic Council, said the latest execution had "a very chilling effect".

"There are Iranian dissidents all over the world... This essentially puts a target on all their backs," she told the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

Aghakhani said she had not been to Iran since 2022.

That year the death in custody of young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women, sparked mass protests. But they were violently crushed by Iran's leadership.

"Among close acquaintances we now think twice before travelling abroad, including to countries in Iran's neighbourhood," she said.

Ayda Hazijadeh, another Franco-Iranian who is a Socialist member of France's parliament, said she had not returned to her home country for a decade.

"I take zero risks. I wouldn't tempt fate," she said.

- 'Hostages' -

Iran, which does not recognize dual citizenship, holds several Europeans in detention, most of them also Iranian.

Rights groups describe them as "hostages" used as leverage in negotiations.

Several Westerners have been released in informal prisoner swaps, but families often feel in the dark about progress in behind-the-scenes talks. Some have accused Western governments of being ineffective.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the German embassy in Tehran had worked "tirelessly" on Sharmahd's behalf.

But Mariam Claren -- the daughter of German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi who has been held in Iran since 2020 -- charged on X that his "state murder could have been prevented if the German government had really wanted to".

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, called on the international community to condemn the "extrajudicial killing".

According to IHR, at least 627 people have been executed this year by Iran.

NGOs outside Iran accuse Tehran of using capital punishment as a tool to instil fear.

The execution came days after Israel carried out air strikes on military sites in Iran as Middle East tensions soar.

Hazijadeh, the lawmaker, said the reason for the timing of the execution was unclear. "There are so many regional, international issues at stake," she said.

"I don't think the hostages have been abandoned. States are doing their best, but it's extremely difficult to negotiate with the Iranian regime."