by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Michael Hernandez,
Washington: President Donald Trump falsely claimed Monday that crime in Germany is on the rise in an attempt to defend his own controversial immigration policies.
“The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition,” Trump said on Twitter, referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition.
“Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!” Trump added.
Germany this year recorded its lowest crime rate since 1992.
Trump’s pronouncement comes as he faces widespread criticism at home for his hardline immigration policies, particularly his decision to require undocumented parents to be separated from their children if they are apprehended by immigration enforcement agents.
The result of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy has been met with universal opposition from Democrats, and over the weekend, several prominent Republicans decried the policy.
“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” former first lady Laura Bush wrote in a scathing Washington Post op-ed, further likening the detention centers to internment camps the U.S. sent Japanese citizens to in a “shameful” period during World War II.
The Department of Homeland Security separated roughly 2,000 children from undocumented adults between April 19 and May 31, sending apprehended children to detention centers or foster care, according to the department.
Footage and photographs released by the department depict people, including children, housed in large metal chain-link cages within one of the administration’s makeshift shelters.
The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy refers all undocumented adults for criminal prosecution, a break with past administrations who limited criminal referral for most adults who illegally cross into the U.S. with their juvenile family members. The children, who are not charged with a crime, are separated as a result of their parents’ criminal case. As a matter of regulation, they are not allowed to be detained with their parents during legal proceedings.
First lady Melania Trump, whose immigration history remains murky, appeared to break with her husband in a statement issued to CNN by her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, in which she said Melania Trump “hates to see” families broken apart.
“She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart,” Grisham said.
Republican Senator Susan Collins further said the policy is “traumatizing” children, denying the administration’s rationale for the policy as a deterrent for future undocumented migration.
Collins said the Trump administration is trying to “send a message” with its policy but warned “using children is not the answer”.
Trump and his top officials have variously argued they are simply following federal law, which is not the case, while seeking to blame Democrats for their policy.
Trump did so again on Monday, asking rhetorically on Twitter: “Why don’t the Democrats give us the votes to fix the world’s worst immigration laws? Where is the outcry for the killings and crime being caused by gangs and thugs, including MS-13, coming into our country illegally?”
The “spectacularly cruel policy,” Amnesty International said, “will leave an indelible stain on the reputation of the USA”.
“This is nothing short of torture,” said Amnesty International’s Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas. “The severe mental suffering that officials have intentionally inflicted on these families for coercive purposes means that these acts meet the definitions of torture under both U.S. and international law.”
Earlier in the day, the UN strongly rapped the policy, urging the U.S. to carry out a full halt to a practice that punishes “children for their parents’ actions.
“I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children, and I encourage the government to at last ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in order to ensure that the fundamental rights of all children, whatever their administrative status, will be at the center of all domestic laws and policies,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
Undeterred, the American president was unwavering in his commitment to his administration’s immigration crackdown.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said at the White House.
In her own stern defense, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a gathering of sheriffs that the U.S. “will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does”.
She later told reporters at the White House that the separation policy is not child abuse while urging Congress to act on the matter.
“Congress could fix this tomorrow,” she said, repeatedly denying that the separation of families is administration policy after Trump’s senior policy advisor, Stephen Miller, told the New York Times “it was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry, period”.
It is unclear if Trump will support legislation that closes what the administration is calling “a loophole” if the bill does not also include funding to build his oft-promised border wall, which he initially said Mexico would pay for.
Nielsen further scoffed at the suggestion that the administration is trying to send a message with its implementation, saying: “I find that offensive. No, because why would I ever create a policy that purposely does that?”
In May, Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, explicitly said the policy would serve as a deterrent.
“It could be a tough deterrent — would be a tough deterrent. A much faster turnaround on asylum seekers,” Kelly told National Public Radio during a controversial interview in which he argued that undocumented migrants would not be able to easily assimilate into American society because “they don’t have skills”.
In an apparent nod to Trump’s immigration policy, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said the UN chief “believes that refugees and migrants should always be treated with respect and dignity, and in accordance with existing international law”.
“Children must not be traumatized by being separated from their parents. Family unity must be preserved,” said Stephane Dujarric.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, World
San Francisco : The US senate has voted to reinstate a ban on Chinese telecom company ZTE which prevents it from buying US components and using US software despite President Donald Trump’s attempts to lift sanctions on the firm, the media reported.
The Senate has passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act which included an amendment to stop Trump’s deal allowing US companies to trade with ZTE.
Several Republican and Democratic Senators said their vote related to national security issues after numerous intelligence warnings about ZTE this year.
“The legislation which is considered crucial for continuing defense funding, was passed with 85-10 votes, one of a handful of times the Republican-controlled Senate has deviated from a Trump policy,” Business Insider reported on Tuesday.
Mark Warner, Vice-Chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee had tweeted that the Senate had “blocked” the Trump administration from making a “bad deal with ZTE”.
“The amendment is not guaranteed to become law. The bill will now need to be reconciled with a House version — where the amendment could be stripped out — voted through both the House and the Senate and signed into law by Trump,” the report added.
The Shenzhen-headquartered telecommunications firm was hit with a trade ban by the US Commerce Department for seven years after failing to follow through with a punishment for violating sanctions on Iran and North Korea.
That ban essentially shut down ZTE, which relies on US parts like Qualcomm processors.
However, on Trump’s orders, the administration made a deal earlier this month to end ZTE’s sanctions in exchange for a $1 billion fine.
ZTE, which employs 70,000 people in China, described the move by the US regulators to cut it off from its US parts suppliers as a “death sentence”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump said that he was considering posthumously pardoning the late boxer Muhammad Ali, who was convicted in 1967 after refusing military service in Vietnam.
“I’m thinking about Muhammad Ali. I’m thinking about that very seriously and some others,” Trump said on Friday while speaking to reporters at the White House before departing for the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada.
Trump said that the legendary boxer is just one of 3,000 names he’s considering pardoning, because “many of those names really have been treated unfairly”.
Ali’s attorney, Ron Tweel, told CNN later on Friday that there was no contact whatsoever between anyone in the Trump administration and members of the Ali family about the issue.
“So, it’s not like for weeks or days the administration has reached out to the Ali family. None of that,” he told CNN.
“This was all spontaneous and I think, as a lot of people like to say, impulsive.”
In an earlier statement, Tweel said that although he appreciated Trump’s sentiment, a “pardon is unnecessary”.
“The US Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Muhammad Ali in a unanimous decision in 1971. There is no conviction from which a pardon is needed,” he said.
In June 1967, Ali was convicted in federal court for violating selective service laws refusing the Vietnam War draft.
He was stripped of his World Boxing Association heavyweight title, his passport and all his boxing licenses. He was fined $10,000 and faced a five-year sentence in prison.
The Supreme Court unanimously overturned his violation conviction in a unanimous ruling on June 28, 1971, and after anti-war sentiment grew, a judge ruled in 1970 that Ali could box professionally again.
Ali died in 2016 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Since being in office, Trump has granted five pardons and commuted one sentence.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Santa Rita (Guam) : Naval ships, aircraft and personnel from India, Japan and the US have begun exercise Malabar 2018 during which they will practice surface and anti-submarine warfare operations and combined carrier strike group operations off the coast of Guam island in the western Pacific.
The June 7-16 wargame — first after the US renamed its Hawaii-based Pacific command as the Indo-Pacific Command — is being held amid incrased Chinese activities of building artificial islands in the South China Sea and sending submarines into the Indian Ocean.
“The Malabar 2018 exercise represents the US commitment to working with regional powers in the Indian and Pacific Oceans,” US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said when he announced the new name and welcomed Admiral Phil Davidson in his new role taking the charge of the combat command.
Malabar will be done in two phases: ashore and at-sea training. The harbour phrase will occur at Naval Base Guam from June 7 to 10 and the sea phase from June 11 to 16 in the Philippine Sea.
Guam island was a theatre of an intense World War II when US forces stormed in to take it from the Japanese.
While ashore in Guam, training will include subject matter expert and professional exchanges on carrier strike group operations, maritime patrol and reconnaissance operations, surface and anti-submarine warfare, medical operations, damage control, helicopter operations and visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) operations, according to a US Navy statement.
The at-sea part will see military-to-military coordination and capacity to plan and execute tactical operations in a multinational environment.
The statement said events planned during the at-sea portions include gunnery exercises, anti-submarine warfare, air defense exercises, surface warfare exercises, helicopter cross-deck evolutions and underway replenishments.
The Malabar exercise began in 1992 as a joint Indo-US naval drill. But it was suspended from 1998 to 2002 after India conducted nuclear weapons tests in 1998. This year marks the 22nd edition of the exercise which has now become an annual feature in the deep military ties between the US and India.
Japan became a permanent participant in 2015. Australia, in the last two years, had repeatedly requested to be part of the annual drill but India again refused after China raised is concerns.
The US Navy has fielded aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), the guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam (CG 54) and USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) and a P-8A Poseidon aircraft.
The Indian Navy has sent the INS Kamorta, the first of four anti-submarine Kamorta-class stealth corvettes; the INS Sahyadri, a Shivalik-class stealth multi-role frigate; and the Deepak-class fleet tanker INS Shakti. There is also a P-8I Neptune advanced maritime patrol/anti-submarine warfare aircraft.
Three ships from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force are: the 19,000-tonne JS Hyuga – the lead ship of the Hyuga-class of helicopter carriers; the Takanami-class guided-missile/ASW destroyer JS Suzunami; the Akizuki-class guided-missile destroyer JS Fuyuzuki; and a diesel-electric attack submarine, as well as one Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft..
“Indian, Japanese and US maritime forces have a common understanding and knowledge of a shared working environment at sea. Each iteration of this exercise helps to advance the level of understanding between the nations’ sailors as members of Indo-Pacific nations, and the hope is to be able to continue this process over time to strengthen bonds and personal relationships,” the US Navy statement said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump on Wednesday reproached Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, claiming that Canada burned the White House in the War of 1812, although that was actually done by British troops, media reports said.
According to a CNN reported, citing unnamed sources, during a May 25 telephone call to discuss US tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, Trudeau asked Trump how he could use national security to justify imposing the tariffs.
“Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” Trump reportedly responded in what was an overall “testy” conversation.
Since Trump announced that he was weighing the possibility of imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — although he temporarily agreed to exclude the European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, South Korea and Mexico — the White House has taken the stance that it was being done on the basis of national security.
The justification for that argument, however, has been called into question both by experts and other leaders, Efe reported.
In fact, during an interview last weekend – and with the tariffs already in place – Trudeau said it was “inconceivable” that the Trump administration could suspect Canada, one of Washington’s closest allies over many decades, of posing a national security threat to the US, adding at a press conference that suggesting such a thing was an “affront” to Canada.
When asked whether he simply took Trump’s comment as some sort of “joke,” the Canadian leader said “To the degree one can ever take what is said as a joke. The impact on Canada and ultimately on workers in the US won’t be a laughing matter.”
Regarding the burning of the White House on Aug. 24, 1814, in fact it was British troops who – after invading Washington in the War of 1812 – burned several federal buildings including the White House and the US Capitol.
Canada was still a British colony – and thus did not exist as an independent country – at the time and the British occupation of Washington came in response to an American attack on the city of York, Ontario.
This is not the first time that Trump has made a comment that riled the Canadians. In March, he boasted before television cameras that he had lied to Trudeau by claiming that Washington has a trade deficit with its northern neighbor.
—IANS
