by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Adem Salvarcioglu,
Ankara: China on Saturday warned state-owned media against highlighting the ongoing “trade war” with the U.S.
According to a story in Hong Kong-based newspaper South Morning Post, the Chinese government asked its media not to relate decline in the stock market and the depreciation of the Chinese Yuan to the trade war.
The government even advised against using the term “trade war” in stories, according to the story which quoted four employees.
The decision reportedly was taken to avoid panic in the public.
*Dilan Pamuk contributed to this story in Ankara
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, World
Washington : US President Donald Trump suggested the NATO countries to increase their defence spending to 4 per cent — doubling the 2 per cent target that many members of the bloc were yet to meet.
“During the President’s remarks today (Wednesday) at the NATO summit, he suggested that countries not only meet their commitment of 2 per cent of their GDP on defence spending, but that they increase it to 4 per cent,” CNN quoted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders as saying in a statement.
She said Trump “raised this same issue” at NATO last year.
“President Trump wants to see our allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations,” Sanders added.
But according to NATO data, the US doesn’t even spend as much as Trump is calling on other countries to.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said the US “in actual numbers”, is spending 4.2 per cent of its GDP on defence.
However, according to numbers released by NATO on Tuesday, the US is expected to spend an estimated 3.5 per cent of the GDP on defence in 2018 which is lower than last year’s number, at 3.57 per cent.
Trump has long complained that NATO members were not meeting their fiscal obligations to the alliance, reports CNN.
“Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2 per cent (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they reimburse the US?” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Trump singled out Germany for particular criticism as he continued to assail NATO allies for failing to spend 2 per cent of their GDP on defence spending, a target NATO allies agreed to meet by 2024.
“Germany is just paying a little bit over 1 per cent… So I think that’s inappropriate also. You know, we’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France. We’re protecting everybody. And yet we’re paying a lot of money to protect” Trump said during a breakfast with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Addressing the media following Trump’s comments, German Chancellor Angela Merkel touted the country’s contributions to NATO and in defence of US interests.
“Germany also does a lot for NATO. We are the second largest donor of troops, we put most of our military abilities into the service of NATO and we are strongly committed in Afghanistan, where we also defend the interests of the US,” Merkel said upon arriving at NATO headquarters Wednesday.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, SMEs, World
Washington : President Donald Trump has ordered the start of imposing additional 10 per cent taxes on Chinese imports worth $200 billion, according to a statement by the US Trade Representative (USTR).
The new tariffs were adopted on Tuesday by the Trump administration in retaliation for Beijing’s response to the first set of taxes imposed by Washington, Efe news reported.
On July 6, the US levied 25-per cent tariffs worth $34 billion as part of a first tax package worth $50 billion, to which China responded with similar measures.
“As a result of China’s retaliation and failure to change its practices, the President has ordered USTR to begin the process of imposing tariffs of 10 per cent on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports,” the agency said in a statement.
Along with the statement, the USTR published a 200-page list of products affected by the measure such as fruits and vegetables, cereals, products of animal origin, wood, boats and construction materials.
The list also includes chemical products, fuels, tobacco and alcohol, textiles, answering machines and photographic and video material, among others.
“For more than a year, the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition,” the USTR said in its statement.
“We have been very clear and detailed regarding the specific changes China should undertake. Unfortunately, China has not changed its behaviour that puts the future of the US economy at risk,” the text added.
The agency also announced that it will proceed with a public notice and comment process before the new tariffs officially take effect.
Trump had previously warned China of the imposition of the latest tariffs and of a possible third tax package worth $300 billion if the Asian giant decides to respond.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, Commodities News, Muslim World
Tehran : Iranian Petroleum Ministry has said that there has been no major change in Iran’s production and export of crude oil despite US sanction threats.
Iran has plans to counter US President Donald Trump’s threats to stop Iran’s oil sales, and “the plans are working successfully”, Press TV quoted Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh as saying on Sunday.
The Iranian minister also criticized Trump’s pressure on Saudi Arabia to increase its supplies and said such efforts would destabilize oil market, Xinhua news agency reported.
The governing principles in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would never allow such political pressures to change the directions of the market, he said.
Besides, the anti-Iran efforts by the US President are largely to blame for the high oil prices in international markets, he added.
On Saturday, Zanganeh accused Trump of “interfering” in OPEC affairs, saying that Trump’s order to oil producing countries to raise output “is very insulting to the people of these countries and would undermine their national sovereignty and destabilize the oil market.”
Iran’s petroleum minister said that “political issues should not interfere in the crude market, and supply and demand should determine the final oil price.”
“But some political measures and instabilities spark concerns in the oil market and increase its price, including Trump’s insulting order to some OPEC members,” Zanganeh said.
On June 30, Trump said Saudi Arabia had pledged to increase its oil output by 2 million barrels per day “to compensate for falling output in Venezuela and Iran.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, World
By Ashok Easwaran,
Chicago : Few changes in the US Supreme Court have provoked the widespread consternation of the American public, specially women, as the recent exit of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
After his retirement, announced in a brief and ‘gracious’ letter to President Donald Trump was made public, it came to be known that the White House had ever so gently nudged Kennedy to retire, giving Trump the opportunity to choose the second Supreme Court judge since taking office.
There is trepidation that President Donald Trump has a free hand to fulfill his campaign promise of filling the Supreme Court with ‘conservative judges’.
With the appointment of another conservative judge, the 1973 verdict in Roe vs Wade, which legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, could well be overturned. Also on the judicial chopping block could be restrictions on the rights of minorities, gays and labour unions.
With Trump’s appointment last year of Neil Gorsuch, Supreme Court conservatives on the bench outflank the liberals 5-4. Another right leaning judge could change the character of the US Supreme Court for decades to come. It is a legacy which Trump, and the Republicans, have salivated over since the 2016 election campaign.
The appointment of Gorsuch, and the coming one to replace Kennedy, are projected by the administration as necessary to preserve the legacy of the icon of judicial conservatism – the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
But Scalia’s pronouncements have frequently betrayed a jurist who was not the rabid conservative Republicans would have us believe. Indeed, many of his public pronouncements show him guilty of letting reason and rationale trump conservatism, a cardinal sin in the Trumpian lexicon.
Scalia was a ‘textualist’ – who called those who interpreted the US Constitution a ‘living’ or ‘evolving’ document ‘idiotic’.
Nevertheless, on abortion he had this to say: “My view is regardless of whether you think prohibiting abortion is good or whether you think prohibiting abortion is bad,” he said. “Regardless of how you come out on that, my only point is the Constitution does not say anything about it. It leaves it up to democratic choice.”
To die hard evangelicals whose boundless faith in Trump obscures most issues, Scalia’s advice to high school students in 2010 may be prescient.
“Movement is not necessarily progress,” Scalia said, “More important than your obligation to follow your conscience, or at least prior to it, is your obligation to form your conscience correctly. It is your responsibility not just to be zealous in the pursuit of your ideals, but to be sure that your ideals are the right ones. That is perhaps the hardest part of being a good human being: Good intentions are not enough. Being a good person begins with being a wise person.”
In a Trumpian era with an increasingly dysfunctional Congress, the judiciary would seem to be the last bastion of the three branches of government. But to the increasing consternation of the Left, and the stridency of the Right, this citadel seems to be crumbling.
The US Supreme Court has played an increasing role in determining – or in recent weeks, undermining – the protection for immigrants (travel ban), women (abortion rights) and the working class (labour unions).
A veteran lawmaker, California Senator Dianne Feinstein has warned that President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, “could eviscerate women’s freedoms for generations”.
“The American people must know what’s at stake in this nomination … because overturning Roe vs Wade would take us back to the days of women being seriously injured and dying because they can’t get basic medical care,” said Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
One of the great mysteries of the 2016 election was the unqualified support for Trump by a significant number of white evangelical women. Even in the face of the ‘#Metoo’ movement and Trump’s consistent profane and public insult of women, they – along with white evangelical men – form his most cohesive block of support.
Trump has revealed in his obvious disdain for women. In an interview on Fox News, he made a veiled reference to the interviewer’s menstrual cycles. He has consistently had problems with a woman’s biological processes. In a presidential debate, he called then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s need for a toilet break ‘disgusting’. Earlier, he had used the same epithet for an opposing female attorney who sought a break to breast feed her three month old daughter.
Eighteen months into Trump’s presidency, there are signs of revolt among women and minorities, the two groups most affected by his actions in office.
Four hundred and seventy-two women have entered the race for the US House of Representatives this year, a record of sorts. Fifty-seven women have filed their candidacies for the US Senate. Political analysts have said that since a majority of female candidates are Democrats, it is safe to presume that many of them are fuelled by frustration, if not fury, against the current occupant of the White House.
Another remarkable feature of the contestants is the diversity – it includes more women of colour than in previous electoral years, as well as a number of immigrants.
The elections in November are likely to be the first indicator of the degree of vigour behind the revolt against Trump. Or more precisely if the anger and anguish can be converted into political capital. As in any election with high stakes, there are variables, of course, but perhaps the core risk factor is the probability of the human species to act against its own best interests.
In The Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato describes a conversation between Socrates and Adeimantus in which Socrates compares a democratic society to a ship. If Adeimantus was heading out to sea, Socrates queries Adeimantus, who would he have as the skipper of the ship. Any passenger at all or someone skilled in seafaring ? Adeimantus does not hesitate. “Why, the latter of course,” he says. “So why then,” responds Socrates, “do we think that any old person should be fit to judge who should be a ruler of a country?”
Voting in an election is a skill, asserts Socrates, not a random intuition. And like any skill, it needs to be taught systematically to people.
The citizens of ancient Athens had a bitter experience of the decline of democracy. It came in the form of Alcibiades, a rich, charismatic, smooth talking man who eroded basic freedoms and helped to push Athens to its disastrous military adventures in Sicily.
Socrates knew how easily people seeking election could exploit our desire for easy answers. “It takes very little”, Socrates warns, “for a democracy to descend to demagoguery”.
Only the boundlessly faithful can miss the parallel between Alcibiades’s Athens and Trump’s America.
(Ashok Easwaran is an American journalist of Indian origin. He has reported from North America for over two decades. He can be contacted at ashok3185@yahoo.com. The views expressed are his own.)
—IANS
