Biden fundraiser in NYC with Obama, Clinton nets $25M
Lanka court sentences monk over Islamophobic comment
A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said.
The eye-popping amount was a major show of Democratic support for Biden at a time of persistently low poll numbers. The president will test the power of the campaign cash as he faces off with presumptive
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has already proved with his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton that he didn’t need to raise the most money to seize the presidency.
The Radio City Music Hall event will be a gilded exclamation mark on a recent burst of presidential campaign travel. Biden has visited several political battlegrounds in the three weeks since his State of the Union address served as a rallying cry for his reelection bid. The event also brings together more than three decades of Democratic leadership.
The hourslong event has different tiers of access depending on donors’ generosity. The centerpiece is an onstage conversation with the three presidents, moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert. There’s also a lineup of musical performers – Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele – that will be hosted by actress Mindy Kaling. Thousands are expected, and tickets are as low as $225.
A firebrand Sri Lankan Buddhist majority hardliner monk was on Thursday sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment for his Islamophobic comments made in 2016.
Galagodatte Gnanasara, 49, was additionally fined Rupees 1,00,000 by the HC here.
The monk, who was running an anti-Muslim minority campaign since 2012, was charged for comments made at a press conference held in March 2016.
During the last court hearing, held mid-February, the monk had tendered an apology to the Muslim community for the distress caused by his public comments.
The High Court ruled that Gnanasara, who led the Bodu Bala Sena or the forces of Buddhist Power, had caused religious and communal disunity through his comments.
In 2018, Gnanasara was arrested for contempt of court but later won a presidential pardon.
He later explained that he was not against the Muslim minority but was unhappy about the conduct of the Sinhala majority politicians for not addressing the community’s concerns. He was trying to address them through the BBS movement.