Hollywood star Chris Evans, better known as Captain America, has finally broken his silence on the controversy surrounding an old picture of him signing what initially appeared to be an Israeli bomb. 

The picture in question features the actor and a US Air Force officer. Mr Evans is seen signing an object. Now, the actor has called it “misinformation”. 

In a now-disappeared Instagram Stories, Mr Evans revealed that the photo was clicked eight years ago during a USO tour.

Chris Evans wrote, “There’s a lot of misinformation surrounding this picture. Some clarification: This image was taken during a USO tour in 2016. I went with a group of actors, athletes and musicians to show our appreciation for our service members. The object I was asked to sign was not a bomb, or a missile, or a weapon of any kind. It’s an inert object used for training or display purposes only. You can read the quote from the Air Force in the next story.”

In the next slide, the actor added a screenshot of a report by the news agency AFP. Mr Evan has highlighted the quote by an Air Force spokesperson. It read, “The object Chris Evans is signing in the USO tour photo from 2016 is an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) inert training aid. The object is meant to model an artillery shell and is for display and training purposes only.”

Mr Evan’s Instagram Stories were later shared by a user on Reddit. 

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This comes days after a picture of former US presidential hopeful Nikki Haley writing “Finish Them” on an Israeli shell surfaced online.

The pic was shared by former UN Ambassador Danny Danon, who was accompanying Ms Haley on her visit, on X (formerly Twitter) on May 28.

In his post, Mr Danny said, “‘Finish Them’. This is what my friend the former ambassador Nikki Haley wrote.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Nikki Haley said on May 22 that she would vote for Donald Trump in the general election, encouraging the presumptive GOP nominee to work hard to win support from those who backed her in the primary.

“I will be voting for Trump,” Ms. Haley, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, said during an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

But she also made it clear that she feels Mr. Trump has to work to win over voters who supported her during her primary campaign and continue to cast votes for her in ongoing primary contests.

“Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,” Ms. Haley added. “Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that.”

Haley shuttered her bid for the GOP nomination two months ago but did not immediately endorse Mr. Trump. Both candidates were sharply critical of each other during the primary.

Washington:

Former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said Wednesday she will vote for Donald Trump in November’s US election, ending months of silence after quitting the contest to choose a Republican to face Joe Biden.

The former South Carolina governor, 52, abandoned her White House ambitions in March but had not previously indicated whether she would support the man who referred to her repeatedly as “birdbrain.”

Yet she continued to scoop a significant chunk of votes in presidential primary contests — underlining a persistent refusal among a sizable bloc of Republicans to get behind Trump.

“I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border — no more excuses — a president who would support capitalism and freedom, a president who understands we need less debt not more debt,” she said.

“Trump hasn’t been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear, many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.”

– ‘Zombie campaign’ –

The tenacity of the Haley vote had prompted US media to refer to her ongoing presence on the primary stage, long after the curtain came down, as a “zombie campaign.”

Trump, 77, has failed to make inroads with Haley’s moderate support, and will see her public show of support as a huge boon ahead of the Republican nominating convention in July.

The primaries laid bare Trump’s key shortcoming — his lack of appeal among the moderates, independents and voters with college degrees he will need to prevail against Biden.

Haley said, speaking Wednesday at an event for the Washington-based Hudson Institute conservative think tank, added that she was standing by her remarks urging Trump to make nice with her support base.

“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that,” she said.

The Biden campaign had been reaching across the aisle, hoping to attract Haley voters.

It released a TV spot in April targeting the suburban battlegrounds with the message: “If you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote.”

Trump — who is considering several Republicans to be his running mate in November — indicated earlier in May that he is not considering Haley for vice president.

The 77-year-old real estate tycoon has everyone guessing about whom he will pick as his running mate in the November vote.

“Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Nikki Haley was South Carolina’s governor from 2011 to 2017 and served under the Trump administration as the country’s ambassador. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is under active consideration by Donald Trump’s campaign to be his running mate, news site Axios reported on May 11, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Trump could pick Ms. Haley if he were convinced she could help him win the presidency, avoid a potential prison sentence and cover tens of millions in legal bills if he loses, the report said.

Ms. Haley ended her log-shot challenge to Republican presidential frontrunner Mr. Trump in March. She said it was likely Mr. Trump — who repeatedly belittled her candidacy — would be the Republican nominee but did not endorse him.

Ms. Haley was South Carolina’s governor from 2011 to 2017 and served under the Trump administration as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations from January 2017 to December 2018.

Washington:

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday slammed Islamic countries for not opening up their gates for civilians from Gaza who are seeking to flee their homes in the face of an imminent ground invasion by Israel. She also hit out at former US president Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the incumbent, over the Iranian nuclear deal and accused Tehran of strengthening Hamas and Hezbollah.

“We should care about the Palestinian citizens, especially the innocent ones because they didn’t ask for this. But where are the Arab countries? Where are they? Where is Qatar? Where is Lebanon? Where is Jordan? Where is Egypt? Do you know we give Egypt over a billion dollars a year? Why aren’t they opening the gates? Why aren’t they taking the Palestinians?” Haley told CNN in an interview.

“You know why? Because they know they can’t vet them, and they don’t want Hamas in their neighbourhood. So why would Israel want them in their neighbourhood? So let’s be honest with what’s going on. The Arab countries aren’t doing anything to help the Palestinians because they don’t trust who is right, who is good, who is evil, and they don’t want it in their country,” she said.

Haley anticipated that these Islamic countries would blame America.

“They’re going to come and blame America. They’re going to come and blame Israel. And don’t fall for it, because they have the ability to fix all of this if they wanted to. They have the ability to go in and tell Hamas right now to stop what they’re doing. They have the ability to tell Hamas to let those people out,” Haley said.

“But you know what? Qatar is going to continue to work with Hamas and their leadership. Iran is going to continue to fund all of this and not say anything. And who’s silent? Every one of those Arab countries are going to be silent. But expect for the finger to point to Israel, and the finger is going to point to America,” she said.

Haley said Hamas is going to do everything they can to not have them leave, because “they want them all to die”. “One, they want to use them as human shields, but, two, they want to blame Israel and show images of dead children and say, look at what Israel did,” she alleged.

“But don’t ever forget what Hamas did. Don’t ever forget those girls running for their life. Don’t ever forget those babies that were killed in cribs. Don’t ever forget the people that they were dragging through the streets. And what were they saying, Jake? They were saying, “Death to Israel, death to America,” she said.

“That’s who we’re dealing with. But I dealt with this at the United Nations. You’re going to hear all of those Arab countries vilify Israel for what’s about to happen. You’re going to hear all of them say, how dare you not do more for the Palestinian people?” said Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN.

She said right now, they cannot take their eyes off of the terrorists. “I mean, what Hamas did was beyond thuggish, brutal, and sick. What the Iranian regime is doing to help them is terrible. But let’s look back at, what did Biden do? Biden turned around and fell all over himself to get into the Iran deal. Obama did it before that,” she said.

“You gave all of this money. And what did you do? You empowered Iran to go and strengthen Hamas, strengthen Hezbollah, strengthen the Houthis to spread their terrorist activity. We went and strengthened those sanctions and decimated Iran’s economy. And what happened? Biden has loosened the sanctions,” she said.

Palestinian group Hamas carried out a barrage of air strikes in Southern Israel last week. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in response launched multiple attacks targeting Hamas’ key infrastructure. So far, thousands of people have been killed in Israel and the Gaza Strip in the biggest escalation in decades between the two sides.

“Now we have got the fact that he gave USD6 billion in hostage money. OK, now you have frozen it, but we have all these American hostages. Guess what they’re going to want? If you gave them USD 6 billion for five people and released hostages, guess what they’re going to be asking for all these others that we have?” Halley said.

“We have created this scenario where you have given Iran — the Iranian regime too much power and too much pull and to be able to do this. We have got to be strong. We have got to have Israel’s back. And, remember, as awful as these images are, and we have the back of Israel because they have been hit terribly, we have to have the back of them when they hit back as well,” Haley said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Describing China as an “existential threat” to the US and the world, Indian-American Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley has claimed Beijing is “preparing for war”.

China has spent half a century plotting to defeat America and in some respects, the Chinese military is already at par with the US armed forces, Ms Haley said in a major policy speech on the economy in the key early primary State of New Hampshire on Friday.

Her speech comes two days after her India-American Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy delivered a foreign policy speech on China in Ohio. Both Ms Haley and Mr Ramaswamy have emerged as popular GOP candidates after former US president Donald Trump.

“Strength and pride are essential to our national survival, especially in the face of Communist China. China is an existential threat. It has spent half a century plotting to defeat us,” Haley said.

She alleged that China has taken America’s manufacturing jobs.

“It’s taken our trade secrets. Now it’s taking control of critical industries, from medicines to advanced technology. In record time, China has gone from an economically backward country to the second biggest economy on earth,” she said.

“It has every intention of being the first. And the Communist Party’s motives are clear. They’re building a massive, cutting-edge military, capable of threatening America and dominating Asia and beyond,” the former two-term South Carolina governor said.

“In some respects, China’s military is already equal to the US armed forces. In other areas, they’re beating us. China’s leaders are so confident, they’re sending spy balloons into our skies and building a spy base just off our shores in Cuba.

“Make no mistake: The Communist Party is preparing for war. And China’s leaders intend to win,” she claimed.

Sharing her economic plan, Haley said it includes giving real relief and financial freedom to middle-class Americans. Every middle-class family will get thousands of dollars in tax relief, she said.

“No one knows how to use your money better than you, no one. When you make your own choices, you make our economy even stronger,” she said.

“For starters, we’ll completely eliminate the federal gas and diesel tax. That is 18 cents per gallon in savings on gas and 24 cents on diesel. That will help families struggling with record-high gas prices.

“And we don’t need a federal gas tax to fund our roads. We’ll keep building our roads with the trillions Washington still has and we’ll stop diverting money to green giveaways. Road money should build roads, not bike paths and hiking trails,” she added.

If elected president of the country, Ms Haley said, she would also cut income taxes for working families.

She said her administration would also eliminate President Joe Biden’s USD 500 billion in green energy subsidies. “No more cash windfalls for China,” she said.

The former US ambassador to the UN said she would veto any spending bill that doesn’t take the US back to pre-Covid spending levels.

“We’re not talking about 1950s spending levels, we’re talking about just four years ago. We had a massive – and in many ways a foolish – explosion in spending during the pandemic. But the pandemic is over. It’s absurd to keep spending at those same crazy levels,” she said.

“Under my plan, we won’t just have term limits for politicians, we will limit bureaucrats too. No bureaucrat should hold the same position for more than five years.

“This will make them better public servants and avoid the politics and power fiefdoms that corrupt our government. And we should be able to fire those who are not performing. Public service is a privilege, not a right. And no one has a right to roll back your freedom,” Ms Haley said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once considered a chief rival of former president Donald Trump, has fallen behind two Indian-American presidential candidates in the latest GOP polls in the crucial early primary state of New Hampshire, a CNN survey showed.

According to the CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, Trump continues to be the first choice of 39 per cent of likely GOP primary voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

“That lags a bit behind his performance nationally, where Republican primary polling routinely finds Trump with majority support,” the news channel reported.

Surprising is the continued sliding down of DeSantis. He has fallen behind two Indian-American candidates — entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. While Ramaswamy’s popularity continues to rise, Haley is fast catching up.

Ramaswamy now is next to Trump with 13 per cent support, closely followed by Haley at 12 per cent and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at 11 per cent, CNN reported.

“DeSantis’ decline stems from a sharp drop-off among moderates, from 26 per cent backing him in July to 6 per cent now. He fell a smaller 8 points among conservatives,” the opinion poll said.

According to the CNN poll, Ramaswamy’s increase is concentrated more among those who are not registered Republicans (up 16 points since July with that group while holding relatively steady among registered Republicans) and among younger likely voters (he’s up 28 points among those younger than 35 and 11 points among those in the 35-49 age group while holding about even among those aged 50 or above).

Haley’s increase is a bit larger among those with more formal education (up 11 points among those who have completed some postgraduate work and 15 points among other college graduates) and among moderates (she gained 18 points with the group) while her support among conservatives is roughly even with July, the poll showed.

The Trump campaign cheered the poll results saying that “Ron DeSantis has plummeted to the fifth place in the Granite State”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has called for stronger relationships with India, South Korea and Japan to reduce U.S.’ economic dependence on China and Taiwan.

Mr. Ramaswamy, 38, whose poll numbers have surged following the maiden Republican presidential primary debate last week, spelt out his plans and foreign policy views on August 29.

He attacked another Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who had slammed him for his inexperience on foreign policy issues.

“We will enter a stronger partnership with India that involves an Indian commitment to close the Malacca Strait in the event of a near-term conflict with Taiwan, and enter stronger partnerships with other allies including South Korea and Japan to reduce our economic dependence on China and Taiwan,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.

The entrepreneur-turned-politician said he favours strategic clarity and advocated that the U.S. must defend Taiwan vigorously until America achieves semiconductor independence, then resume the posture of strategic ambiguity when the stakes are lower for the U.S..

“The American way of life depends on leading-edge semiconductors manufactured in Taiwan, and we can’t risk China gaining near-total leverage over the entire U.S. economy,” he said.

“By saying that we will defend Taiwan, the U.S. can strongly deter China from blockading or invading the island in the near term. Meantime, Taiwan should more than double its own military expenditures to a more rational level of 4% to 5% of its gross domestic product,” he said.

He said the U.S. should rapidly arm and train Taiwan with Anti-Access/Area Denial weapons while running at least one Destroyer warship through the Taiwan Strait each week.

The U.S. should also fortify its own homeland defence, which is at present dangerously vulnerable to major conflicts with China, he said, adding this includes improving nuclear, super electromagnetic pulse, cyber and space defence capabilities.

His campaign said that Mr. Ramaswamy is the only U.S. Presidential candidate to date who has clearly stated that the U.S. will defend Taiwan.

“I am the only Presidential candidate willing to state what is necessary: we will defend Taiwan. The U.S. currently doesn’t even recognise Taiwan as a nation. Democrats and Republicans both unquestioningly endorse the ‘one China’ policy and embrace “strategic ambiguity” toward the island,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.

Hitting out at Ms. Haley, Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign in a statement said that in a desperate attempt to raise funds for her languishing establishment campaign, the former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. was intentionally lying about Mr. Ramaswamy.

Ms. Haley has blasted Mr. Ramaswamy for not backing U.S. allies.

According to his campaign, Ms. Haley flatly lied on Fox News that “Mr. Ramaswamy said he would abandon Israel, those were his words” and that “he wants to go and stop funding Israel”. “This is false,” his campaign asserted in a late-night statement.

“We challenge the failing Ms. Haley campaign and any media outlet to find a single instance where Ramaswamy utters that he would not support Israel. They will not – because Ramaswamy never said it. Instead, they continue to recycle blatantly false headlines that they manufactured,” the statement said.

Mr. Ramaswamy said that if Israel ever gets to the point that it no longer needs U.S. financial support, that would be a mark of achievement – but that the U.S. will never cut off aid to Israel until Israel says they are ready for it, his campaign said.

It all started about a week ago when Ms. Haley at the debate stage accused Mr. Ramaswamy of not having any foreign policy experience.

Since then the Ohio-based Indian-American has been attacked both by the media and his political opponents for his inexperience on foreign policy.

On Tuesday, Mr. Ramaswamy used the ‘Namrata Randhawa’ name of Nikki Ms. Haley on his website.

“I’m not going to get involved in these childish name games. It’s pretty pathetic. First of all, I was born with Nikki on my birth certificate. I was raised as Nikki. I married a Ms. Haley. And so that is what my name is.

“So he can say or misspell or do whatever he wants, but he can’t step away from the fact that, he’s the one that said he was going to abandon Israel,” Ms. Haley told Fox News in response.

“Those were his words. Now he’s wanting to walk it back. And the reality is, you have to understand the importance of our allies and those relationships. We can never be so narcissistic to think that we don’t need friends,” she said.

It is not that Israel needs America. America needs Israel too, Ms. Haley said.

“Israel faces genocidal threats from Hamas, from Hezbollah, from Iran, from Syria. You need a president that understands that that understands that Israel is the front line of defence when it comes to us dealing with Islamic terrorism in Iran,” she claimed.

“And he just doesn’t get it. So, look, I mean, I think you can tell a lot about the kind of leader someone will be based on how they run their campaign. And he’s doing that all on his own,” Ms. Haley said.

Later in the night, Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign issued a statement against Ms. Haley.

“We wish Ambassador Haley and her family well in their future careers in the private sector, noting that they rapidly generated an impressive fortune as military contractors following her short-lived stint as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” the campaign said.

Mr. Ramaswamy said the U.S. relationship with Israel is a model example of how international relationships should work.

Israel spends a greater percentage of its own GDP on defence than any major nation. 70% of the aid the U.S. provides to Israel must be spent in the U.S., and by 2028 the mandate is 100%. This is consistent with ‘America-First’ foreign policy objectives, he said.

“By the end of my first term, our relationship with Israel will be stronger than it has ever been. I will consummate Abraham Accords 2.0 by the end of 2025, adding Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Indonesia to the pact. We will work with Israel to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon that advances U.S. interests,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.

“I won’t end our aid to Israel until the day when Israel tells the U.S. they are ready for it. That’s what true friends do: they speak honestly and openly to one another. I will speak to Bibi and invite him to the White House, something that President Biden is shamefully frightened to do,” he said.