by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Representational Image (file photo)
By Arul Louis,
New York : The US has accused Indian authorities of not prosecuting cow protection vigilantes attacking Muslims suspected of slaughtering the animals or consuming beef amid “reports of hundreds of religiously motivated killings.”
The State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report released on Tuesday said: “Authorities often did not prosecute violence by vigilantes against persons, mostly Muslims, suspected of slaughtering or illegally transporting cows or trading in or consuming beef.”
It added, “There were reports of hundreds of religiously motivated killings, assaults, riots, restrictions on the right to practice religion and proselytise, discrimination, and attacks on property. Groups most frequently targeted were Muslims and Christians.
“Cow protection groups, many of whose members believed cow slaughter and eating beef were an attack on the Hindu deities representing motherhood, carried out several violent attacks, including killings, beatings, harassment, and intimidation against consumers of beef or those involved in the beef industry,” according to the report.
“Members of civil society and religious minorities said, under the current government, religious minority communities felt more vulnerable to Hindu nationalist groups engaging in violence against non-Hindu individuals and places of worship,” the reported said.
The report, however, also noted that the Supreme Court directed state governments to appoint a senior police officer in each district to prevent and respond effectively to incidents of “cow vigilantism” and chief secretaries to report on actions taken to prevent them.
The annual report was a long compilation of mainly news reports about legislative measures considered against minority interests or incidents of violence against or harassment of minorities.
At a news conference on the report for foreign journalists, the State Department official in charge of the report, Samuel Brownback, denounced India, alleging that “there have been unfortunately a lot of religious violence that has taken place in various communities.”
“We have asked the Indian government to pursue more safety to see justice taking place in these cases where these arise and we will continue to pursue that with the Indian government as with all government all around the world,” he said.
“I get reports directly from individuals that are coming from India (about) violence they have experience because of who they are in their faith, and that is wrong,” said Brownback, who is a convert to Catholicism from a fundamentalist Christian sect.
He holds the title of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and previously as governor of Kansas he took controversial positions reflective of his faith by legislating measures restricting abortions and opposing gay rights.
He said that within 90 days after the publication of the report a list for “countries of particular concern” would be issued for possible sanctions or other action.
“Religious minority communities stated, while the national government sometimes spoke out against incidents of violence, local political leaders often did not, and at times made public remarks that individuals could interpret as condoning violence,” the report said.
The report brought up the Supreme Court ruling the “triple talaq” divorce illegal, including it in a list of matters of concern.
“On August 22, the Supreme Court ruled the practice through which a Muslim man could divorce his wife instantly by saying the word “talaq” (Arabic for divorce) three times was unconstitutional,” the report said.
The report noted that in Andhra and Telengana, “authorities may prohibit proselytising near another religion’s place of worship”.
It raked up the case of a Christian organisation, Compassion International, which shut down its multi-million-dollar operation in India after the Indian government revoked its permission for distributing funds in India because of violations of law.
The report said, “Compassion International maintained that the government used the law to restrict the work of Christian charitable organisations”.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump marked Memorial Day by touting his administration’s achievements and remembered fallen service members, calling their love of country “more deep and more pure than most will ever know”, the media reported.
Trump commemorated the day which is held annually to honour service members who died for the US, with a tweet saying: “Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics ever (and women in 18 years), rebuilding our military and so much more. Nice!”
He had also tweeted a video in honour of the holiday.
Later he visited the Arlington National Cemetery where he placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and stood in silence as a bugle played “Taps”.
“They marched into hell so that America could know the blessings of peace. They died so that freedom could live,” he said.
“To every parent who weeps for a child, to every child who mourns for a parent and to every husband or wife whose heart has been torn in two today we ask God to comfort your pain, to ease your sorrow and to wipe away your tears.
“This is a very special day and today our whole country thanks you, embraces you and pledges to you we will never forget our heroes,” Trump added.
Trump honoured several living veterans in attendance, including former Republican Sen. Bob Dole and Ray Chavez, both World War II veterans. Chavez, at 106, is the oldest-living survivor of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, reports CNN.
However, Trump’s earlier tweet was ridiculed on social media,.
According to statistics from the Department of Labour, the black and Hispanic unemployment rates both reached record lows last month.
The initial quarterly growth figure for 2018 was far from Trump’s promise to hike annual economic growth to 3 per cent, a level he says will be attained as a result of his enormous tax reduction plan including significant tax cuts for companies and, to a lesser degree, for workers, reports Efe news.
The US unemployment rate also fell to 3.9 per cent in April, the first time it has been below 4 per cent since 2000.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
Washington : US President Donald Trump said on Friday that a nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could still take place as scheduled on June 12, just one day after he cancelled it blaming Pyongyang’s “open hostility”.
“We’ll see what happens. It could even be the 12th,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving for the US Naval Academy to deliver a commencement address.
“They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it. We’re going to see what happens,” he was quoted as saying by the US media.
Earlier, North Korea issued a conciliatory statement in response to Trump’s decision to scrap his meeting with Kim.
“We reiterate to the US that there is a willingness to sit down at any time, in any way, to solve the problem,” said a top official at the North Korean Foreign Ministry.
Trump, in a morning tweet, hailed Pyongyang’s statement, saying: “Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea.”
“We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!”
Asked earlier whether the North Koreans were playing games, the US President acknowledged they were — and suggested he was too, CNN reported.
“Everybody plays games. You know that,” he said when asked about the ongoing talks. “You know that better than anybody.”
Minutes before his Friday tweet, Trump claimed Democrats were “rooting” against his administration in its negotiations with North Korea.
“Democrats are so obviously rooting against us in our negotiations with North Korea… Dems have lost touch!”
He wrote a letter on Thursday to Kim informing him that their June 12 meeting in Singapore was off due to Pyongyang’s “open hostility” towards Washington.
After the news the summit was called off, Democrats criticized Trump for the decision. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters that the cancelled summit was “a good thing for Kim Jong-un”.
Republicans, however, hailed the President’s action as a tough negotiating move.
Trump’s comments fuelled the uncertainty and confusion surrounding his attempts to broker a nuclear agreement with North Korea.
A senior White House official said that it would be extremely difficult to hold the summit on the original date, especially because North Korea cut off contact with the US regarding planning and logistics.
“June 12 is in 10 minutes,” the official said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
San Francisco : US President Donald Trump has resisted installing security features on his phone designed to shield his communications because he thinks they are “too inconvenient” — making his cellphone potentially vulnerable to hacking.
According to two senior administration officials, the President, who relies on cellphones to reach his friends and millions of Twitter followers, has rebuffed staff efforts to strengthen security around his phone use, Politico reported.
“Trump uses at least two iPhones. The phones — one capable only of making calls, the other equipped only with the Twitter app and preloaded with a handful of news sites — are issued by White House Information Technology and the White House Communications Agency, an office staffed by military personnel that oversees White House telecommunications,” an official was quoted as saying.
The official added that Trump has resisted to his aides’ advice to swap out the Twitter phone on a monthly basis and he has gone as long as five months without having the phone checked by security experts.
His predecessor Barack Obama handed over his White House phones every 30 days to be examined for hacking and other suspicious activity.
A senior West Wing official said the Trump’s call-capable phones “are seamlessly swapped out on a regular basis through routine support operations. Because of the security controls of the Twitter phone and the Twitter account, it does not necessitate regular change-out”.
Trump’s call-capable cellphone has a camera and microphone that put the device at a risk of being hacked and cyber criminals could use them to access the phone and monitor the President’s movements.
The GPS location tracker, however, is disabled on Trump’s devices, the report said.
The West Wing official also said that “due to inherent capabilities and advancement in technologies, these devices are more secure than any Obama-era devices”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Steven Mnuchin
Washington : US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the US was temporarily suspending tariffs on Chinese goods after an agreement was reached to reduce the bilateral trade deficit.
“We are putting the trade war on hold,” Mnuchin said on Sunday in a “Fox News Sunday” television interview. “Right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework.”
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump had threatened to slap tariffs on as much as $150 billion worth of Chinese imports to force changes in China’s trade practices, to which Beijing responded by vowing to retaliate against US exports, Efe news reported.
After two days of negotiations in Washington, the US and China on Saturday announced a framework agreement whereby Beijing agreed to “significantly” increase its purchases of US goods and services in an attempt to mitigate the risks of a trade war.
However, China failed to commit to a specific dollar figure despite Washington’s initial demand for a $200 billion reduction by 2020 in the trade deficit – which hit a record $375 billion last year.
Mnuchin downplayed that failure, saying that the two delegations had agreed on “specific targets” for individual sectors but adding that they would not be publicly disclosed.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will soon visit Beijing to finalize the agreement whereby China will import more energy products and agricultural commodities from the US, the treasury secretary said.
—IANS
