by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency to fund his planned border wall with Mexico, the White House has said.
He will sign a border security bill to avert a government shutdown, but also act to bypass Congress and use military funds for the wall, a statement said.
Senior Democrats have responded by accusing him of committing a “gross abuse of power” and a “lawless act”, the BBC reported on Friday.
The Congress passed the bill on Thursday which does not meet Trump’s demands for wall funding. It now has to be signed by the President to become law.
The compromise legislation passed by Congress includes $1.3 billion in funding for border security, including physical barriers, but it does not allot money towards the border wall for which Trump had wanted $5.7 billion.
“The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Thursday.
She added he would “take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border”.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, however, Republican leader Mitch McConnell indicated his support for the move, saying the President was taking action with “whatever tools he can legally use to enhance his efforts to secure the border”.
In a 83-16 vote, the Senate on Thursday passed the border security bill. The House of Representatives later also backed the measure, by 300 to 128.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has already suggested a legal challenge from Democrats should the President make an emergency declaration.
She and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also issued a joint statement condemning the move.
“Declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump broke his core promise to have Mexico pay for his wall,” they said.
Republicans fear this will set a precedent for presidential power that Democrats can someday use to circumvent the will of Congress.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Reports, Markets, Social Media, World
Washington : Facebook is negotiating a multi-billion dollar fine with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the social media giant’s past privacy practices.
According to a report in The Washington Post on Thursday, the specific amount is yet to be determined but it would be the largest fine the FTC has ever levied on a tech company.
“If talks break down, the FTC could take the matter to court in what would likely be a bruising legal fight,” said the report.
Facebook confirmed it was in discussions with the FTC but declined to comment further.
The largest fine ever imposed by the FTC to safeguard consumers’ data was a $22.5 million penalty that Google paid in 2012.
The FTC opened its probe into Facebook in March 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that breached the privacy of 87 million users came into light.
“Facebook faces a moment of reckoning and the only way it will come is through an FTC order with severe penalties and other sanctions that stop this kind of privacy misconduct going forward,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) was quoted as saying.
Consumer advocates have urged the FTC to fine Facebook exceeding $2 billion.
Washington DC’s top prosecutor Karl Racine has also sued Facebook in the first significant US move to punish the firm for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook is currently being probed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FTC and the Department of Justice.
In the UK, the company was fined 500,000 pounds over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the maximum fine the British data regulator can impose.
Bigger trouble may arise from the Irish data protection regulator, which is investigating Facebook for multiple admissions of security flaws, in what is being seen as the first major test of Europe’s new privacy rules as dictated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, World
New York : The US dollar declined as the allure of the greenback diminished amid a slew of downbeat economic data.
In late New York trading on Thursday, the euro rose to $1.1299 from $1.1269 in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to $1.2801 from $1.2850 in the previous session, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Australian dollar rose to $0.7105 from $0.7094.
The US dollar bought 110.47 Japanese yen, lower than 110.99 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar was down to 1.0047 Swiss franc from 1.0088 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3281 Canadian dollars from 1.3250 Canadian dollars.
US retail sales in December fell 1.2 per cent from the prior month, the worst drop in nine years, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.
The unexpected decline, which came after a downwardly revised 0.1 per cent increase in November, signals a weaker economic momentum.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.15 per cent at 96.9817 in late trading.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, World
Beijing : The third round of negotiations between China and the US to end their trade war began on Thursday here as the parties planned to close their differences before March 1 deadline, media reports said.
Xinhua news agency confirmed the start of the high-level economic and trade consultations following a ceremony chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The talks will conclude on Friday.
Several preparation meetings were held from Monday to Wednesday between members of the delegations.
Analysts believe that the parties are not likely to reach a final agreement in this third round due to Washington’s demands.
The main problems posed by the US government are China’s protection of intellectual property, its forced technology transfer, subsidies from Beijing to local companies that generate inequality with foreign companies, cyber theft, exchange controls and market access of the Asian giant, Efe news reported.
Earlier negotiations held in Washington in January-end though were said to have produced “important progress”.
Although on Monday the US Treasury Department Undersecretary for International Affairs David Malpass answered “no” when asked by journalists whether the deadline to reach an agreement could be extended, the next day US President Donald Trump opened the door to the possibility.
“If we’re close to a deal where we think we can make a real deal and it’s going to get done, I could see myself letting that slide for a little while. But generally speaking I’m not inclined to do that,” Trump said.
The US imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, before Beijing retaliated with $110 billion of duties on US products.
Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed on a 90-day commercial truce on December 1, to allow for negotiations, suspending the increase in US tariff rates on $200 billion worth of Chinese products from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump has said that he is not happy with a bipartisan border security deal reached by lawmakers in a bid to avert a government shutdown as the February 15 deadline is approaching.
“I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled,” Xinhua quoted Trump as saying to reporters on Tuesday.
However, the US President did not say whether he would sign or veto the deal, noting that he would hold a meeting to discuss it later.
He also said he did not believe there would be another partial government shutdown.
“We certainly don’t want to see a shutdown”, he said, adding that “everything” is on the table and he needs to look further into the details of the bipartisan deal struck on Monday night on spending and border security.
The temporary funding bill runs out Friday. Both the House and Senate will have to approve the legislation and Trump must sign it so as to avoid another government shutdown.
—IANS
