A Walz with Kamala Harris

Picking a running mate is a delicate dance, and this week Kamala Harris decided on a Walz.

Ms Harris's selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate sends a signal that her campaign is taking cues from the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Mr Walz has a record of accomplishing key progressive agenda items, including expanding reproductive health care, guaranteeing free meals for schoolchildren and pushing Minnesota forward on the path to a clean energy transition.

But his coining of a now viral critique of Republicans has helped to propel him to national prominence.

Instead of President Joe Biden's strategy of painting Donald Trump and Republicans as a threat to democracy, Mr Walz's message is that they are just plain “weird”.

The Biden administration is meanwhile celebrating a historic victory: the massive East-West prisoner swap in which several Americans were freed from Russian detention, including The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva.

There were scenes of emotional family reunions on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews, where Mr Biden gave a US flag pin to Mr Whelan, who had been sentenced to 16 years in a Russian jail after being convicted on espionage charges Washington has described as baseless.

Mr Biden praised the “feat of diplomacy” and credited allies “who stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome”.

Ellie Sennett

US Correspondent

EYE ON 2024

Walz's moderate Middle East views could be olive branch to voters concerned about Gaza

Ms Harris's decision to run with Mr Walz could be a positive signal to voters who are eager to see a change in US foreign policy, particularly Arab and Muslim Americans frustrated over Washington's continued support for Israel amid the Gaza war.

Democrats hope the decision could bring onside hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters who cast “uncommitted” ballots in the primaries, in a show of outrage over the Biden administration's refusal to back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza or place conditions on military aid to Israel.

In Minnesota, Mr Walz's home state which has a significant Muslim-American population, about 46,000 people voted uncommitted.

Instead of criticising them, he described them as “civically engaged”.

The vice president holds a largely ceremonial role in the US, and if elected, Mr Walz's views are unlikely to affect White House policy on the Middle East.

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What's Washington talking about?

Gershkovich embargo Bloomberg dismissed one of its senior reporters this week after the agency broke a media embargo on the historic prisoner swap – a move that could have threatened the successful return home of the American detainees. The premature publication of the story early on Thursday morning is reported to have caused outrage at the White House and at other outlets that followed the embargo protocols, in addition to falsely reporting that the prisoners had been freed when they had not at the time of publication.

Middle East tension US defence officials are blaming Tehran-linked militias for an attack on Ain Al Asad airbase in Iraq, which injured five service members. Iraq said it rejects all “reckless” actions that target bases, diplomatic missions and US-led coalition outposts in the country. Meanwhile, a poll found that most Americans do not support sending US troops to defend Israel if the country were to be attacked again by Iran or any of its neighbours.

9/11 defendants US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday rejected a plea deal with the alleged mastermind behind the attacks on September 11, 2001, and two other defendants. The plea deal would have allowed the defendants to avoid the death penalty.

QUOTED

“I was sure I'm going to die in prison. I still think I'm sleeping in my prison cell in Omsk.”

– Freed Russian dissident Vladimir Kara Murza, aboard a plane home, speaks by phone to his family awaiting his return at the White House Oval Office

Opinion: In picking Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris is signalling confidence

“In selecting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, US Vice President Kamala Harris is strongly signalling confidence and a broad, rather than region-specific, campaign strategy aimed at the whole country,” writes Hussein Ibish in his weekly column for The National.

“It reportedly came down to Mr Walz or Pennsylvania Governor Joshua Shapiro. Apparently she went with personal chemistry and Midwestern homespun rhetorical power over the mathematics of a potentially narrow victory.

"If Ms Harris were primarily focused on clawing her way to a winning 270 votes in the electoral college, she surely would have selected Mr Shapiro.

"He's the extremely popular governor of Pennsylvania, a state she cannot afford to lose. Polls show Pennsylvania currently running as a dead heat between Ms Harris and Donald Trump.

"Picking Mr Shapiro would have been a sounder choice if Ms Harris were nervous about the outcome.

"Her decision suggests she's not.”

Read Hussein Ibish's full column

Only in America

US stocks slump as recession fears re-emerge

US stocks tumbled last Friday after a jobs report stoked new fears that the economy could be headed for a recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 900 points in morning trade. The S&P 500 fell 2.37 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite fell by 3.14 per cent, putting it in correction territory as it has lost 10 per cent from its recent record high.

The price of gold, generally considered a safe haven asset, rose 1.30 per cent to $2,513.00 an ounce.

The sell-off came as the US Labour Department reported a softening employment market.

And the latest unemployment rate triggered the so-called Sahm Rule indicator, which says that a recession is nearly under way if the three-month average unemployment rate increases by half a percentage point from its low point in the past 12 months.

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