Gulfnews

A block on Elon Musk’s X social network in Brazil started to take effect early yesterday after a Supreme Court judge ordered its suspension, according to AFP.Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the platform following a months-long standoff with the tech billionaire over disinformation in South America’s largest nation.Moraes handed down the ruling after Musk failed to comply with an order to name a new legal representative for the company.Early yesterday access to X was no longer possible for some users in the South American country, who were presented with a message asking them to reload the browser without being able to log in successfully.Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, reacted with fury to the judge’s order, branding Moraes an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge” and accusing him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for pol...

Garment factories in Bangladesh, one of the world’s biggest clothing production hubs, are struggling to complete orders on time as flooding disrupts their cotton supplies -- exacerbating a backlog caused by recent political turmoil.Bangladesh is a leading global cotton importer due to the size of its textile and garment industry, but the devastating floods mean few trucks and trains have been able to bring supplies to factories from Chittagong port over the last week, industry officials and analysts said. The disruption, on top of the unrest and protests that led to factory closures earlier this month, have caused garment production to fall by 50%, said Mohammad Hatem, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.“The industry is now under immense pressure to meet deadlines, and without a swift resolution, the supply chain could deteriorate even further,” Hatem said. Bangladesh was ranked as the third-largest exporter of clothing in the world last year, ...

Typhoon Shanshan dumped record rains yesterday as it slowly churned up through Japan, triggering transport havoc and widespread warnings of landslides with up to six people killed. The typhoon, one of the fiercest to hit Japan in decades, has weakened and was forecast to ease to tropical cyclone strength by Monday, though gusts were still reaching 126km per hour early Friday.Even before making landfall on the island of Kyushu, a landslide caused by the heavy rains preceding it killed three members of the same family late Tuesday in Aichi prefecture, around 1,000km away. Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed four deaths but said that in one case, “the relation to the typhoon was being studied”.Two more were feared dead and two others were missing, Hayashi said.Eight people were seriously hurt and 70 others had light injuries, he said, with many hurt by broken glass after the typhoon smashed windows and ripped tiles off roofs when it slammed into Kyushu on Thursday with gusts ...

France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrived yesterday in Serbia where the two countries hope to sign a deal worth billions of euros for Paris to supply fighter jets to the Balkan nation.The Rafale fighter jet deal is looming large over the French leader’s two-day visit, after Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic told AFP that he hoped to seal the agreement this week.The deal to purchase the French Rafale jets would be one of several agreements inked during the visit, according to Vucic.“There are thousands of things that we’ll have to discuss tomorrow. There are many memorandums of understanding and many contracts that we’re going to sign tomorrow,” Vucic said in an interview Wednesday.“I believe that we’ll finish everything successfully regarding our military-technical co-operation, which means that Serbia might become a member of (the) Rafale Club, which is a huge, huge contract.”A source with the French presidency said “intense discussions” were ongoing and hoped a deal could be reach...

Angelina Jolie confessed she was afraid about being able to “live up” to Maria Callas in her new biopic about the great diva’s extraordinary yet tragic life that premieres yesterday at the Venice Film Festival.In Maria, the American movie star tackles the tormented final years of the 20th century’s most celebrated opera singer who mesmerised audiences around the world.“The bar in this... are the Maria Callas fans and those who love opera,” Jolie told a press conference ahead of the premiere of the movie by Chilean director Pablo Larrain.“And my fear would be to disappoint them.”“I really came to care for her so I felt I didn’t want to do a disservice to this woman,” she added.Jolie said she hoped to honour the “legacy” of the diva, who died nearly alone in 1977 aged 53, after a whirlwind life and career that was nevertheless marked by great sadness.The film’s premiere last night on the festival’s second day is the last in Larrain’s trilogy of movies about iconic women — after 2021’s Sp...

Twenty-five militants were killed and 11 others were injured in an attempt to infiltrate Pakistani territory across the Afghan border.Radio Pakistan quoted a statement by the Pakistani army on Thursday as saying that militants tried to infiltrate across the border last night, but Pakistani forces confronted them and managed to eliminate them during an exchange of fire.The land border between the two neighboring countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is witnessing the infiltration of armed elements in both directions, as authorities in Islamabad and Kabul are seeking to control the border through preemptive combing operations. source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689553/international/25-militants-killed-11-injured-in-infiltration-qttempt-on-pakistan-afghan-border

Venezuelan opposition supporters gathered in Caracas yesterday, chanting “Liberty!” as their leader came out of hiding to lead a protest against what they call President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election fraud.Maria Corina Machado, who has kept a low profile amid threats from Maduro after the July 28 presidential vote, vowed in front of followers to not stop fighting until the opposition’s claim to victory is recognised.“They say that the regime will not yield. You know what: we are going to make it yield and (that) means respecting the will expressed on July 28,” Machado told a rally that attracted hundreds of supporters in an atmosphere of fear.“This protest is unstoppable,” she added.Machado arrived at the demonstration hiding her face under a black hoodie, which she took off only when she clambered onto the truck that served as her stage.“Brave! Brave!” supporters chanted as the truck passed them.“I’m fighting for Venezuela, to recover our democracy. We don’t want to live in a dictators...

Japan braced yesterday for its strongest typhoon of the year, with authorities advising tens of thousands of people to evacuate and issuing the highest warning level for wind and storm surges on the main southern island of Kyushu.“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu with extremely strong force through Thursday and it may make landfall,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.“It is expected that violent winds, high waves, and storm surge at levels that many people have never experienced before may occur,” said Hayashi, the top government spokesman.The approach of the storm, packing gusts of up to 252km per hour and already bringing widespread heavy rain, prompted auto giant Toyota to suspend production at all 14 of its factories.Two people remained unaccounted for on Wednesday after a landslide buried a house with five family members inside in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi prefecture. Rescuers worked around the clock and on Wednesday afternoon...

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned yesterday that his new government’s first budget in just over two months will be “painful”, asking the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”. Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide parliamentary majority on July 4, used his first major speech since then to lay the ground for the much-anticipated fiscal event on October 30.He also used the address, from the Downing Street garden, to attack the ousted Conservatives, reiterating claims they had left a £22-bn ($29-bn) “black hole” in the public finances. “There is a budget coming in October, and it’s going to be painful,” Starmer said.“Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden,” he added, hinting at tax rises for some after October 30.Labour has pledged not to hike taxes on “working people”, which would appear to rule out raising income tax, other social security and VAT rates. But there is growing speculation that other taxes, like capital gains, could be t...

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the war with Russia would eventually end in dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a strong position and that he would present a plan to US President Joe Biden and his two potential successors.The Ukrainian leader, addressing a news conference, said Kyiv’s three-week-old incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was part of that plan, but that it also comprised other steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts.“The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And I want that very much — (that it would be) fair for Ukraine,” he told reporters in Kyiv of the war launched by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.He did not elaborate further on the next steps, but said he would also discuss the plan with Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and probably also with Republican Donald Trump, the two nominees for the US presidential election.Zelensky said he hoped to go to the United States in September to attend the UN General ...

The mangled track of a Pakistan railway line hung over a dry river bed yesterday, after it was targeted in a series of co-ordinated attacks that killed dozens of people.The colonial-era bridge — a key link between Balochistan province and the rest of the country — was blown apart on Monday, with a section of a fallen tack blocking a motorway below and another hanging from a damaged column.Separatist militants killed dozens on Monday in several early morning attacks in the province which included taking control of a highway and shooting dead 23 people, mostly from Punjab province.Six people travelling on the motorway near to the Kolpur bridge were also shot dead after militants checked their IDs, according to government officials.“Explosives were used to attack our main bridge routes yesterday, which has stopped trains from travelling to other parts of the country,” Mohamed Kashif, a senior railway official in Balochistan, told AFP.“We’re working to clear the road as quickly as possible...

Apple is set to unveil its latest iPhone and Apple Watch models early next month as it will host its fall event on September 9 in Cupertino, California.Apple will likely unveil a series of new iPhones and updates to other devices and apps. Analysts see a strong upgrade cycle for the new iPhone series with AI features expected to be the key selling point for the new devices.At its developers conference in June, Apple announced a slew of AI features under the umbrella 'Apple Intelligence,' including a revamped Siri and an integration with ChatGPT.The upcoming launches are crucial for Apple as it looks to reverse a global sales slowdown, particularly in China, and lay out its artificial intelligence roadmap. source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689409/international/apple-to-unveil-its-new-iphone-in-september

Surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least five villages and left an unknown number of people dead in eastern Sudan, officials said yesterday, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.Torrential rains caused floods that overwhelmed the Arbaat Dam on Sunday just 40km north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.“The area is unrecognisable. The electricity and water pipes are destroyed,” Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff. He said he had seen the bodies of gold miners and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge, and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.On the road to Arbaat yesterday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering hi...

China said it took “control measures” yesterday against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that had entered waters near the disputed Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard accused Manila of sending two ships to “illegally barge into waters near Xianbin Jiao”, using the Chinese name for the Sabina Shoal.The ships “continued to dangerously approach normally sailing Chinese coast guard ships, inciting hype”, it said in a statement. “The Chinese coast guard took control measures against the Philippine ships in accordance with the law,” it added. The Philippine Coast Guard said it sent two vessels to deliver provisions to one of its ships at Sabina Shoal.As the vessels neared the shoal, they were forced to abandon the resupply mission due to China’s “excessive” deployment of ships and rough sea conditions, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for Manila’s coast guard, told AFP. Spotted in the area were six ships from the China Coast Guard, three from the Chinese navy as wel...

Dozens of young singles gathered this week to meet potential marriage partners in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, the first attempt by a UK-based matrimonial app to help people find spouses in person in the country.Typically, marriages in Pakistan are arranged by parents who look for suitable matches for their children from within their communities or the extended family. Dating apps are generally stigmatised and gender segregation socially and at work remains common in the country of 240mn people.The Lahore event was organised by Muzz, formerly Muzzmatch, which says its app is based on Islamic etiquette. The app is restricted to Muslim users, and, in a nod to traditional values, gives the option of blurring pictures except for specific matches and allows for chaperones to oversee meetings.Other smaller events are also emerging in the country to challenge traditional matchmaking norms.Despite criticism online in the past for the app, the Muzz event was attended by about 100 people.A...

A Syrian man suspected of belonging to a “terrorist group” has given himself up and confessed to killing three people and wounding eight others in a knife rampage at a German street festival, officials said yesterday.The random attack as thousands of people gathered on Friday night in the western city of Solingen has stunned Germany.Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed, officials said.Four of the wounded remained in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, according to police.Police said in a statement that the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who had “given himself up to authorities... and declared himself responsible for the attack”.German prosecutors said they had launched a “terrorist” investigation and ordered yesterday the pre-trial detention of the man, who is suspected of belonging to a “terrorist group”.The suspect identified as “Syrian national Issa Al H” will be detained over “strong suspicions of belonging to a terrorist group ...

Police were on Saturday hunting for a man who, draped in a Palestinian flag, was suspected of setting fires at a synagogue in southern France and triggering an explosion that injured a police officer.Authorities said the incident was being treated as a potential terror attack and “all means” were being deployed to find the perpetrator.France’s interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the site along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and said: “We narrowly avoided an absolute tragedy.”Attal said that “if the synagogue had been filled with worshippers...there probably would have been human victims.”Security around Jewish sites was tightened following the attack early on Saturday at Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte, near the city of Montpellier.Two cars outside the synagogue were set alight, with a gas canister then likely exploding inside one of the vehicles, police said.Two fires were also started at the entrance of the synagogue, but were quickly p...

Film legend Alain Delon was buried on Saturday in a private funeral attended by his children, relatives and close friends as fans mourned outside the gates of his country estate where he was laid to rest near his beloved dogs. The 88-year-old star of such classics as Le Samourai and Purple Noon, who was once described as “Europe’s James Dean”, died last Sunday. French police had set up roadblocks near the manor in the village of Douchy, with the airspace overhead also closed for the entire weekend. The 50 or so mourners allowed into the estate’s private chapel had to leave their mobile phones at the door to ensure strict privacy. Veteran Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, 86, who starred opposite Delon in The Leopard, was “too sad” to come, her agent told AFP. “They ask me to put into words (the grief),” she said after his death, “but the sadness is too intense”. But Rosalie van Breemen, Delon’s ex-wife and mother of his children Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, was present, sources cl...

President Volodymyr Zelensky touted a newly developed Ukrainian “drone missile” on Saturday that he said would take the war back to Russia and scornfully derided Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “sick old man from Red Square”. As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelensky said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically made drones that Kyiv has so far used to fight back against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields. “Our enemy will...know what the Ukrainian way for retaliation is. Worthy, symmetrical, long-ranged,” he said. Zelensky said the new class of Ukrainian weapon had been used for a successful strike on a target in Russia, but did not say where. He used derisive language to describe Russia’s 71-year-old president and the nuclear rhetoric coming out of Moscow. “A sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button will not dictate any of his red lines to us,” he said in a...

Police have detained a teenager who may be connected with a knife attack in which a man killed three people and wounded eight others in the western German city of Solingen, but the perpetrator was still at large on Saturday. Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, described Friday evening’s attack during a festival in the city as an act of terror. Police were conducting a manhunt for the assailant. They said they had detained a 15-year-old and were investigating whether this person was linked to the attacker. “This attack has struck at the heart of our country,” Wuest told reporters. Interior minister Nancy Faeser said authorities were doing all they could to catch the assailant. The attack took place in the Fronhof, a market square in Solingen where live bands were playing as part of a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. Markus Caspers, an official with the public prosecutor’s office in Duesseldorf, said authorities were treating the attack as a...

Multiple US Secret Service agents have been placed on leave following the assassination attempt against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, US media reported yesterday.The agents put on leave include members of the Pittsburgh field office, which co-ordinated security for Trump’s July 13 campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, RealClearPolitics and several US TV networks said.Fox and CBS reported that at least five Secret Service members involved in the incident, including the head of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh office, had been put on leave.The Secret Service declined to comment on what it described as a “personnel matter” but said it is “committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler”.“The US Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.“The US Secret Service hold...

Vice-President Kamala Harris sealed the Democratic presidential nomination with a muscular speech, laying down broad foreign policy principles and sharp contrasts with Republican rival Donald Trump with 11 weeks left in the race for the White House.A sea of waving Stars and Stripes flags and chants of “USA” filled the arena as jubilant Democrats anointed Harris.She was later joined on stage by her running mate Tim Walz and their families, as they held their arms aloft while 100,000 red, white and blue balloons tumbled from the ceiling.Country act The Chicks sang a version of The Star-Spangled Banner while pop star Pink also performed as the Democrats rolled out a list of celebrity backers.On the final night of the four-day Democratic National Convention, Harris, 59, promised to be a “realistic”, “practical” president for all Americans, as she battles Trump in a razor-close campaign.“In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United...

A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby.The type 2 virus (cVDPV2), while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.UN agencies have called for Israel and Gaza’s Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month-old war to allow vaccination campaigns to proceed in the territory.“Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children,” the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said yesterday in a post on X.“Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” Philippe Lazzarini added.The baby, who has lost movement in his lower left leg, is currently in stable condition, WHO Director-General Tedr...

Blindfolded, handcuffed and bundled out of his secret prison for the first time in eight years, Bangladeshi barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem held his breath and listened for the sound of a cocked pistol.Instead, he was tossed from a car and into a muddy ditch on Dhaka’s outskirts — alive, at liberty, and with no knowledge of the national upheaval that had prompted his abrupt release.“That’s the first time I got fresh air in eight years,” Quasem, 40, told AFP. “I thought they were going to kill me.”Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister responsible for Quasem’s abduction and disappearance, had fled the country hours earlier.Her August 5 departure brought a sudden curtain down on 15 years of autocracy that included the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.But Quasem was in the dark.He had been confined in the “House of Mirrors” (Aynaghar), a facility run by army intelligence, given its name because its detainees were never supposed to see any other person besides them...

At just 18 years old, Nepali mountaineer Nima Rinji Sherpa is on the brink of a remarkable achievement. With 13 of the world’s highest peaks already behind him, he is now one summit away from becoming the youngest person to conquer all 14 mountains towering above 8,000m (26,247 feet).Sherpa, who already holds multiple records from his ascents of dozens of peaks, said he is on a mission to “inspire a new generation and redefine mountaineering”. His final challenge, Shishapangma in Tibet, awaits him next month - if China issues a permit.Summiting all 14 “eight-thousanders” is considered the epitome of mountaineering aspirations. Italian climber Reinhold Messner first completed the feat in 1986, and only around 40 climbers have successfully followed in his footsteps. Many other elite climbers have died in the pursuit. All of the mountains are in the Himalayas and neighbouring Karakoram range, which span Nepal, China, India and Pakistan.Reaching each summit requires entering the thin air o...

Twenty Pakistanis were killed and 22 others were injured in a bus accident in Yazd province in central Iran.According to initial reports, the accident occurred in the city of Taft in Yazd province, when a bus carrying 53 people overturned and caught fire due to brake failure, Iran News Agency (IRNA) reported.Rescue teams arrived at the accident site and recovered the bodies of the victims, while the injured people were transferred to the hospital for treatment. source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689021/international/20-pakistanis-killed-in-bus-accident-in-iran

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries could start vaccinating against mpox within days, Africa’s top public health agency said yesterday.The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has been working with countries experiencing mpox outbreaks on logistics and communication strategies to roll out vaccine doses that are due to arrive following pledges by the European Union, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, the United States and Japan.The World Health Organisation last week declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as a new variant of the disease spread rapidly in Africa.“We didn’t start vaccinations yet. We’ll start in a few days, if we are sure that everything is in place. End of next week vaccines will start to arrive in DRC and other countries,” Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya told a briefing.“We need to make sure that the supply chain management, the logistics are ready...to ensure that this...

The mpox outbreak is not another Covid-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, because much is already known about the virus and the means to control it.While more research is needed on the Clade 1b strain which triggered the UN agency into declaring an international health emergency, the spread of mpox can be reined in, the WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said.“Mpox is not the new Covid,” he said.“We know how to control mpox. And, in the European region, the steps needed to eliminate its transmission altogether,” he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link.In July 2022, the WHO declared an emergency over the international outbreak of the less severe Clade 2b strain of mpox, which mostly affected men who have sex with men. The alarm was lifted in May 2023.“We controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities,” said Kluge.Robust surveillance, investigating case contacts, behaviour changes in the affected communities an...

Former US Representative George Santos pleaded guilty to criminal corruption charges yesterday, cementing the downfall of a novice politician who was expelled from Congress last year after a brief, scandal-plagued tenure. Santos, a Republican, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a minimum two-year prison sentence. He entered his guilty plea at a hearing before US District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip, New York, on Long Island. After pleading guilty, Santos, 36, apologised to his constituents. “I deeply regret my conduct and the harm it has caused and accept full responsibility for my actions,” Santos said in court, his voice shaking as he read from a prepared statement. Santos was hit with federal charges in May 2023 for laundering campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses, charging donors’ credit cards without their consent, and receiving unemployment benefits while he was employed. Santos had initially...

Egyptian officials and the US ambassador inaugurated renovations of several monuments and buildings in Historic Cairo, including the Bimaristan Al-Muayyad Sheikh, a hospital complex built in 1420 CE.The building is notable for its giant crenulated facade and inlaid kufic Arabic inscriptions.“It is a new policy the government is following, which is to merge civil society to help preserve the antiquities,” Mohamed Ismael, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said.The building will be used for cultural functions with the involvement of the neighbourhood’s people, he added.Other monuments restored with US Agency for International Development (USAID) help and inaugurated on Sunday included the 18th century Sabil Kuttab of Ruqayya Dudu and the 14th century Gate of Manjak Al-Silahdar. source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/688942/international/egypt-us-inaugurate-renovations-of-buildings-in-historic-cairo

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku yesterday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported. Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president’s plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening. His visit to the Caucasus country, a close partner of both Moscow and Turkiye but also a major energy supplier to Western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and “international and regional problems”, the Kremlin said.The two leaders dined yesterday evening at the Azerbaijani president’s official residence, local official news agency Asertac said.Today, Aliyev and Putin will sign joint documents and make statements to the press, said Russian agency Ria Novosti.Putin will also lay a wreath on the tomb of Heydar Aliyev, father of the current leader, who was president from 1993-2003. s...

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris will hold duelling campaign events this weekend in Pennsylvania, the political battleground that could be the most critical state in the November 5 presidential election.Trump, the former president, held a rally yesterday in Wilkes-Barre in the northeastern part of the state. Vice-President Harris will conduct a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh today, ahead of the kick-off of the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago.Pennsylvania was one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that helped power Trump’s upset victory in the 2016 election. President Joe Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, flipped the trio back to the Democrats in 2020.The three states are true bellwethers — the only US states to have voted for the eventual winner of the presidential race in every cycle since 2008.With 19 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to secure the White House, compared with 15 i...