WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks out from Election Day, the crisis in the Middle East is looming over the race for the White House, with one candidate struggling to find just the right words to navigate its difficult cross-currents and the other making bold pronouncements that the age-old conflict can quickly be set right.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been painstakingly — and not always successfully — trying to balance talk of strong support for Israel with harsh condemnations of civilian casualties among Palestinians and others caught up in Israel’s wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Former President Donald Trump, for his part, insists that none of this would have happened on his watch and that he can make it all go away if elected.

Both of them are bidding for the votes of Arab and Muslim American voters and Jewish voters, particularly in extremely tight races in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Harris over the weekend alternately drew praise and criticism over her comments about a pro-Palestinian protester that were captured on a widely shared video. Some took Harris’ remark that the protester’s concerns were “real” to be an expression of agreement with his description of Israel’s conduct as “genocide.” That drew sharp condemnation from Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren.

But Harris’ campaign said that while the vice president was agreeing more generally about the plight of civilians in Gaza, she was not and would not accuse Israel of genocide.

A day earlier, the dynamics were reversed when Harris told reporters that the “first and most tragic story” of the conflict was the Oct. 7 Hamas attack last year that killed about 1,200 Israelis. That was triggering to those who feel she is not giving proper weight to the deaths of the more than 41,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza.

Trump, meanwhile, in recent days has participated in interviews with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya and Lebanese outlet MTV, where he promised to bring about peace and said “things will turn out very well” in Lebanon.

In a post on his social media platform Monday, he predicted a Harris presidency would only make matters in the Mideast worse.

“If Kamala gets four more years, the Middle East will spend the next four decades going up in flames, and your kids will be going off to War, maybe even a Third World War, something that will never happen with President Donald J. Trump in charge,” Trump posted. “For our Country’s sake, and for your kids, Vote Trump for PEACE!”

Harris’ position is particularly awkward because as vice president she is tethered to President Joe Biden’s foreign policy decisions even as she’s tried to strike a more empathetic tone to all parties. But Harris aides and allies also are frustrated with what they see as Trump largely getting a pass on some of his unpredictable foreign policy statements.

“It’s the very thoughtful, very careful school versus the showboat,” said James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, who has endorsed Harris. “That does become a handicap in these late stages when he’s making all these overtures. When the bill comes due they’re going to walk away empty-handed, but by then it’ll be too late.”

The political divisions on the campaign trail augur potentially significant implications after Election Day as powers in the region, particularly Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, closely eye the outcome and the potential for any shifts to U.S. foreign policy.

A new AP-NORC poll finds that neither Trump nor Harris has a clear political advantage on the situation in the Middle East. About 4 in 10 registered voters say Trump would do a better job, and a similar share say that about Harris. Roughly 2 in 10 say neither candidate would do a better job.

There are some signs of weakness on the issue for Harris within her own party, however. Only about two-thirds of Democratic voters say Harris would be the better candidate to handle the situation in the Middle East. Among Republicans, about 8 in 10 say Trump would be better.

In Michigan, which has the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, the Israel-Hamas war has profound and personal impacts on the community. In addition to many community members having family in both Lebanon and Gaza, Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a metro Detroit resident, was killed while trying to deliver aid to his hometown in southern Lebanon.

The war’s direct impact on the community has fueled outrage and calls for the U.S. to demand an unconditional cease-fire and impose a weapons embargo on Israel.

Although both parties have largely supported Israel, much of the outrage and blame has been directed at Biden. When Harris entered the race, many Arab American leaders initially felt a renewed sense of optimism, citing her past comments and the early outreach efforts of her campaign.

However, that optimism quickly faded as the community perceived that she had not sufficiently distanced her policies from those of Biden.

“To say to Arab Americans, ‘Trump is going to be worse’ — what is worse than having members of your family killed?” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities. “That’s what people are saying when they’re asked the question, ‘Isn’t Trump going to be worse?’ It can’t be worse than what’s happening to us right now.”

Future Coalition PAC, a super PAC backed by billionaire Elon Musk, is running ads in Arab American communities in Michigan focused on Harris’ support for Israel, complete with a photo of her and her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish. The same group is sending the opposite message to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, attacking her support for the withholding of some weapons from Israel — a Biden administration move to pressure the longtime U.S. ally to limit civilian casualties.

Harris spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein cast Trump’s approach toward the Middle East as part of a broader sign that “an unchecked, unhinged Trump is simply too dangerous — he would bring us right back to the chaotic, go-it-alone approach that made the world less safe and he would weaken America.”

An unprecedented summer has turned the presidential race on its head with two months to go until Election Day, showing a dead heat in key states between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump as both candidates gear up for a final blitz after the Labor Day holiday weekend.

A race that was slipping away from President Joe Biden is competitive again after he withdrew July 21 and passed the baton to his vice president, who has captured support from key groups that had soured on him, most notably young and Black voters.

Harris, 59, has turned the issue of age from a potentially fatal liability to an asset for Democrats against the 78-year-old Trump. The former president, who was running with confidence against Biden, has appeared rattled at times by Harris, launching personal and racial attacks against a rival who would be the first woman and the first Indian American to be president. She has brushed them off.

“It’s a toss-up race,” Republican strategist Brad Todd said, cautioning that the GOP’s fortunes are not as bright as they were when the Democratic nominee was the 81-year-old Biden.

Todd urged Trump to stay focused on defining Harris as a “far-left candidate” by highlighting the smorgasbord of positions she took during her 2020 campaign — on health care, energy, immigration and more. Harris has since sought to pivot to the center, while saying that her “values haven’t changed” in the last five years.

“To win, Donald Trump has to hold her accountable for the things she said she believes,” he said. “But thus far, he’s not shown a lot of interest in that.”

The summer of 2024 has delivered a sequence of events unseen in modern times, including an unusually early debate that proved fatal for Biden’s already fading re-election hopes, an assassination attempt on Trump and a GOP convention that came across as a Trump victory party. Biden turned the race on its head by dropping out, passing the buck to Harris who quickly locked up the nomination — and rapidly surged in the polls to a dead heat. The late-August Democratic convention revealed a jubilant and rejuvenated party, just before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his independent bid and endorsed Trump. Harris and Trump are scheduled for their first one-on-one debate next week on Sept. 10.

‘Fundamentally a dogfight’

Despite their momentum, Democrats say the race is far from over.

“I still think it’s fundamentally a dogfight,” said Bill Burton, a political consultant who worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, praising Harris for running a “perfect” campaign so far.

Burton said it’s difficult to imagine this level of Democratic excitement if Biden were still the candidate. “She has peaked at the exact right moment,” he said. “As long as she keeps her rudder steady, I think that she’s going to do well.”

Harris leads Trump by 4 points in a USA Today/Suffolk poll and by 2 points in a Wall Street Journal survey. Recent polls of key states that Biden narrowly won in 2020 — including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — show a close race with a narrow Harris edge. In addition to being competitive in those “blue wall” states, Harris has put the Sun Belt states of Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, which were falling away from Biden, back in play.

In a memo Sunday, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote: “[M]ake no mistake: we head into the final stretch of this race as the clear underdogs. Donald Trump has a motivated base of support, with more support and higher favorability than he has had at any point since 2020.”

Burton said Harris still has work to do in bringing home key constituencies, most notably Black voters, as Trump seeks to peel off a slice of younger Black men.

“I think some of the support with white voters” that’s showing up in the polls today “is going to be a little superficial, and she’ll have to make up for it,” Burton said.

“Watch Black voters,” he said. “That is the place where I think there’s the most opportunity and most concern.”

Both candidates are seeking to reduce their vulnerabilities by reversing their unpopular positions from the past. Harris has disavowed left-wing ideas she backed in 2019, such as Medicare for All and decriminalizing migration. Trump, while bragging about his anti-abortion record, is backtracking on his support for federal abortion restrictions and suggesting he won’t try to repeal “Obamacare” after fighting to do so as president.

Unique dynamics in the fight for Congress

The tightening presidential race has narrowed the battle for Congress, which comes with unique dynamics: The Senate majority runs through red states such as Ohio and Montana, while the race for the House goes through blue states such as California and New York.

In the closely divided House, a few-dozen battleground districts are poised to decide which party is in control. The playing field has narrowed dramatically in recent cycles because of partisan gerrymandering and regional polarization, where urban areas vote Democrat and rural areas vote Republican.

The “generic ballot” — voter preferences on which party they want to see in control of Congress — has improved slightly for Democrats since Biden dropped out, but it’s still tight. Democrats led by 1 point in a Wall Street Journal poll, by 1 point in a Reuters poll and by 2 points in an Economist poll — all within the margin of error.

The Senate map has gifted Republicans a golden opportunity to capture control, even if Democrats have a strong year. Democrats currently hold 51 seats and have conceded that they’ll lose West Virginia with the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin. That means Republicans can clinch the majority by defeating Democrats in one of two red states where Trump is coasting to victory: Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Most public polls show Tester trailing — unlike 2018, when he led his GOP opponent and won — while Brown is narrowly ahead.

Todd, the GOP strategist, said 51 seats was “a certainty” and argued the party should aim for a bigger majority like 53 or 54 seats.

“Jon Tester is literally as dead as the Thanksgiving turkey,” he said.

A national Democrat working on Senate races disputed that view, saying: “This is a tight race that’s within the margin of error — that’s the kind of race Tester always faces and knows how to win.”

Unlike in 2022, when Republicans were talking up a red wave and a large majority that famously failed to materialize, some insiders say they’ll be content even with a narrow majority this year.

“The goal is to flip the Senate,” a GOP strategist working on Senate races said. “To that end, Tim Sheehy [in Montana] is the most important man in the country, with Bernie Moreno [in Ohio] also being in contention.”

There are five ultracompetitive states where Democrats are also defending seats: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. Polls show Democratic candidates have the advantage in all five, and Republicans admit they’re underdogs in each of them.

“The growing view among Republican strategists is that Michigan is the best pickup opportunity in the country, of the purple states,” the GOP strategist said, referring to an open seat vacated by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Democrats see glimmers of hope in Florida and Texas, two red-leaning states where GOP Sens. Rick Scott and Ted Cruz are favorites to hold on, although some surveys show their leads are narrow.

“If I were a Republican I would be very nervous about what we’re starting to see in some of the polling out of Texas and Florida,” Burton said. Colin Allred in Texas and Debbie Mucarsel Powell in Florida “are running great campaigns … They very well could be on defense [and that] could get in the way of them getting a majority,” he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

A distressed Father has begged a UK Transgender Surgeon not to remove his daughter’s breast.

JomogNews Nigeria reports that a distressed father has pleaded with top UK plastic surgeon, Mohsen El Gammal, to refrain from performing a transgender surgery on his 20-year-old daughter, fearing the procedure would ruin her life.

In a scathing letter, the father cautioned the surgeon that his daughter had a history of depression, self-harm and starving herself before becoming involved with the “trans cult.”

The father, who requested anonymity to safeguard his daughter’s privacy, shared the letter with The Mail on Sunday.

The letter read, “Ultimately, my daughter is a depressive. She sought the highs that came from cutting herself; from starving herself; from being taken for a boy; from taking testosterone; and now from having her breasts removed.

“She needs to learn that life is not one long adrenaline buzz – that happiness is a more moderate feeling, comes from within and derives from finding place and purpose in life.

“You are fuelling her problem. Not helping to resolve it.

“Please do not remove my daughter’s breasts. You will, in one day – a day you will quickly forget – ruin her life forever.”

The father stated that the doctor would rob his daughter of the opportunity to breastfeed her future children and limit her potential partners in life.

He emphasised that the surgery would cause her irreversible harm.

He added, “She is 20 years old. Which of us knew at 20 what we would know or think at 30? Which of us understood ourselves in the way we do at 60?

“Which of us did not do things we almost immediately regretted? If you do choose to operate, perhaps you will take the time while she is anaesthetised to look at the extensive scarring on her arms and legs.

“These are the scars of the self-harming craze she participated in during her mid-teens. This was before she got into starving herself. All this before she started participating in the trans cult.”

He told The Mail that he has never received an acknowledgment for the letter, which he sent in May to the private Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea, west London.

Despite her father’s emotional plea, The Mail reports that his 20-year-old daughter is understood to have undergone a double mastectomy surgery last month, a procedure that involved the removal of both breasts.

When contacted, the clinic informed The Mail that it could not comment on family disagreements.

The release of this letter follows a report by JomogNews, which highlighted that the current world’s richest man, Elon Musk, shared that his son Xavier, now known as Vivian, underwent a gender transition during the pandemic after receiving prescribed medication.

According to El Gammal’s website, he is a Consultant Breast and Oncoplastic Surgeon specialising in both breast cancer treatment and cosmetic breast procedures.

The Mail reports that he boasts of carrying out 1,000 of such operations.