by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Furloughed federal workers protest the partial government shutdown in the Hart Senate Office Building January 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee / Getty Images / AFP)
By Arul Louis,
New York : After Republican and Democratic measures to end the partial government shutdown failed in the Senate, a sobered President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party leadership appeared to soften their positions and edge towards a reluctant compromise.
The voting in the two failed resolutions on Thursday were telling for Trump because six of his own party’s Senators crossed over to support the Democratic proposal while two Republicans voted against their party’s counter proposal.
As the shutdown enters its 35th day on Friday, 800,000 federal employees, both those working and those on temporary layoff, missed their second fortnightly pay and the essential government services were beginning to show signs of fraying.
The failed Democratic measure proposed by the party leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, would have approved funds to keep the government running till March 8 while negotiations continued on a compromise for financing the wall on the Mexican border that Trump demands.
The defeated Republican proposal included the $5.7 billion that Trump demanded for the border wall as well as his proposal to give a three-year reprieve for deportation for about 700,000 people who had come illegally to this country as children and about 300,000 who had received temporary asylum as their countries suffered natural calamities like the Nepal earthquake or violent unrest.
Two Republican Senators opposed it because it gave concessions to illegal immigrants, illustrating the difficulty for the two party’s leadership to reach a compromise because of the pull of the hardliners on both sides.
The failures were a setback for Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has been involved along with Vice President Mike Pence in behind the scenes talks with legislators to find a compromise.
Trump suffered a loss of face on Wednesday when he unexpectedly agreed to postpone his State of the Union address after repeatedly demanding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi allow him to speak from the House chamber.
Trump has been sticking firmly to his demand for the $5.7 billion to be included in the budget to build the border wall to deter smugglers and illegal immigrants, while the Democrats have opposed it with equal vehemence.
As a result, the country has not had a budget since December 22 resulting in a shutdown of all but the essential government services.
A high-tech border barrier, rather than a wall or steel fence, may hold the key to a settlement.
Some Democrats were reported circulating proposals for providing for border security as much as the $5.7 billion that Trump wants as long as the money is spent on high-tech defences and personnel and not for a physical barrier.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told the Senate that Trump would go in for a temporary measure to reopen the government for three weeks and negotiate a deal if it included some of his demand for the wall.
But Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly shot it down as not a reasonable offer.
Trump still has an extreme option: declaring a state of emergency and having the Army Corps of Engineers build the barrier with diverted military funds.
He has spoken about it citing the crisis along the border where over 7,000 Central Americans who came in a caravan hoping to force their way into the US are camped out on the Mexican side, with another caravan of 8,000 on the way.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Ramallah : The Palestinian Authority (PA) told the United States that if the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act 2018 comes into force, it might as well stop sending the security aid money.
US President Donald Trump signed the act into law in October which is expected to go into effect at the start of next month. Under this act, recipients of US security aid could be sued in US courts for acts committed in their countries that caused death or injury to American citizens and therefore will be compelled to pay millions of dollars in compensation for their families if the courts rule so.
Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Dr. Saeb Erekat told Palestine TV that Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, has delivered a letter to the US administration a few days ago informing it to stop the security aid, the only remaining US aid to the Palestinians after cutting all other aid, if the anti-terrorism act goes into force.
Erekat said the US has cut $844 million in aid to the Palestinians last year, including $359 million that were allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), $231 million for infrastructure projects carried out by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), $90 million that were allocated to hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem, and $175 million to Palestinian civil society organizations and projects.
He said USAID is expected to shut down its operations in the Palestinian territories, dismiss hundreds of Palestinian employees and stop all work by the end of this month when the act goes into effect. This means that many infrastructure projects such as roads, sewage networks and schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip worth millions of dollars will be abandoned and left uncompleted.
“This administration believes that pressuring and blackmailing the Palestinian leadership and using tools for pressure, such as aid, are going to get the Palestinians to accept what the US administration and the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are trying to impose on the Palestinian people,” the PLO chief said, stressing that this will not happen.
The Palestinians have cut all contacts with the Trump administration after the latter recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. The US has also ordered shutting the PLO delegation office in Washington late last year.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : Two years after taking the oath of office, US President Donald Trump has made 8,158 false or misleading claims, according to The Washington Post’s database.
The daily’s Fact Checker’s database analyses, categorises and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the President, it said in the report on Monday.
In 2018, he made an “astonishing” 6,000-plus such claims.
The President averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office, but he hit nearly 16.5 a day in his second year, almost triple the pace.
The Washington Post started the Fact Checker online project as part of its coverage of the President’s first 100 days, “largely because we could not possibly keep up with the pace and volume of the President’s misstatements”.
The project’s interactive graphic displays a running list of every false or misleading statement made by Trump. A reader can also search for specific claims or obtain monthly or daily totals.
According to Fact Checker, the President in his first 100 days made 492 unsupported claims.
He managed to top that number just in the first three weeks of 2019.
Before the midterm elections in October, he made more than 1,200 false or misleading claims.
The biggest source of misleading claims is immigration, with a tally that has grown with the addition of 300 immigration claims in the past three weeks, for a total of 1,433, the Fact Checker said.
In the President’s immigration address on January 19, the last day of his second year in office, there were 12 false or misleading claims.
According to Fact Checker, there were only 82 days or about 11 per cent of the time that there were recorded no claims.
“These were often days when the President golfed,” it added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Ottawa : The US will soon make a formal request for the extradition of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who has been accused of helping the firm dodge US sanctions on Iran, according to the Canadian government.
“I have been told they (the US Justice Department) will proceed,” David MacNaughton, Canada’s Ambassador to Washingtom, told CNN on Monday.
“We have had no indication that they will not.”
Meng Wanzhou’s arrest has strained relations between Canada, the US and China.
A spokesperson from Canada’s Justice Ministry said on Monday that it hasn’t yet received the full extradition request from the US. The deadline for filing the formal request is January 30.
The US Justice Department is yet to officially comment on the development.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver on December 13 by Canadian authorities acting on behalf of the US.
Meng and Huawei have denied any wrongdoing.
Canada maintains that Meng’s detention is a legal matter, and that the country is following national laws and international obligations.
That position was undermined by US President Donald Trump, who last month suggested he may intervene in the legal saga if it would help his pursuit of a trade deal with China.
MacNaughton told CNN on Monday that he has “sought clarification that this is a legal matter and not a chip in a trade dispute.”
“There are Canadians being detained and one sentenced to death,” he added. “This is serious stuff.”
Since Meng’s arrest, China has detained two Canadians on suspicion of “activities that endangered China’s national security”.
Last week, another Canadian was sentenced to death after a court convicted him of drug smuggling.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Washington : US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed “ongoing cooperation in Syria as American forces begin to withdraw” during a phone call, just a day after Trump threatened to “devastate Turkey economically” if the NATO-allied country attacks Kurdish militia in the region.
“The President expressed the desire to work together to address Turkey’s security concerns in northeast Syria while stressing the importance to the US that Turkey does not mistreat the Kurds and other Syrian Democratic Forces with whom we have fought to defeat the IS (Islamic State),” CNN quoted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders as saying on Monday night about the call that took place earlier in the day.
Sanders said that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford will meet his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday “to continue consultations” on Syria.
“Gen. Dunford is scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart this week on the sidelines of the NATO Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session, which will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium,” Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesperson for Dunford told CNN.
On Monday night, Trump confirmed the phone call in a tweet.
“Spoke with President Erdogan of Turkey to advise where we stand on all matters including our last two weeks of success in fighting the remnants of IS, and 20 mile safe zone. Also spoke about economic development between the US and Turkey – great potential to substantially expand,” he wrote.
During the call, Erdogan told Trump that Turkey backs the President’s withdrawal decision and extends all kinds of support to the US, according to Turkish news agency Anadolu.
Anadolu said Erdogan emphatically told Trump that Turkey does not have any problems with the Kurds and that “Turkey aims to fight all terror organisations including IS, PKK (The Kurdistan Workers Party) and its cross-border extensions that are threat to its national security”.
The two leaders agreed on developing bilateral economic relations to a higher level, according to the report, CNN reported.
Monday’s call between Trump and Erdogan comes a day after the US President issued a stark threat toward Turkey, saying that Washington “will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds”.
Turkey views some Kurdish groups in the region as terrorist groups and Kurds make up the majority of US-allied fighters operating in Syria in the civil war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded directly to Trump’s comments on Monday prior to the phone call.
“As for Donald Trump’s threat language, we have repeatedly said that we will not be afraid of any threat… You cannot have any result from threatening Turkey economically. We need to see how we can solve this problem together.”
—IANS
