Category Archives: Trump administration

The USA is imprisoning people it finds undesirable. Australia has already lived this nightmare | Jason Wilson

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To disestablish these camps anywhere, we need to oppose them everywhere

Australia’s economy is increasingly in the doldrums, but our leaders can point to a successful export of their own devising. In the US, the Trump administration is bedding down and expanding its network of punitive refugee camps. Like Australia’s, they have a dual function: as a deterrent to pursuing the right of political asylum, and as a political weapon.

Australia’s nightmare, like the USA’s, has been long in the making. It is a bipartisan creation. Labor, under Paul Keating, instituted the policy of mandatory detention. John Howard did much of the work of shaping it into permanent nightmare, and of turning the issue of refugees into a cudgel with which to smite political opponents.

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Kushner plan leaves Middle East deal seeming further away than ever

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Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground

In the long, lamented history of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, rarely have expectations been so low. As Jared Kushner took to the stage in Bahrain to effectively lay waste to decades of doctrine on how to solve the conflict, a solution seemed more out of reach than ever.

Kushner’s proposal has been put together by hardliners who have tossed out the rulebook and written a formula of their own serving the interests of the Israeli rightwing.

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Phase one of US Middle East peace plan greeted with scepticism

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No Israelis or Palestinians present for launch of plan that shreds decades of diplomacy

The first phase of the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan for Israel and Palestine has been rolled out to scepticism, anger and outright derision.

A conference hall of regional officials – with no Israelis or Palestinians present – was the first to hear details of the US-brokered deal, an economic blueprint that shreds decades of diplomacy and which even its mooted financial backers seemed reluctant to embrace.

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Trump’s toadyism to Saudi Arabia: a new moral low | Richard Wolffe

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The Saudis are good customers, Trump says – which evidently outweighs the fact they murdered and carved up a Washington Post journalist

It’s that time of a presidency when every incumbent pretends to be what he isn’t, or to do what he hasn’t. With a re-election year kicking off, everyone wants to know if the candidate can fill in the gaping holes in his record, to give voters some reason to hope or believe.

Related: Mike Pompeo didn't raise Jamal Khashoggi murder in meeting with Saudi king

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US government lawyer: detained children do not need soap and blankets – video

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Soap, toothbrushes and blankets are some of the items migrant children detained in the US do not need, a Trump administration official has claimed. Sarah Fabian, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, argued at the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit that such children do not always require certain sanitary products

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Promises, promises: has Donald Trump kept his word in office?

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In 2016, the insurgent Republican hammered home his message on jobs, judges, immigration and more. Has he delivered?

Verdict: Failure. As of last month, no new wall had been erected in places where there was not already a barrier at the border. Trump has awarded contracts for 247 miles of wall construction but this has been challenged in court. Even if he prevails, all but 17 miles would merely be replacement for existing barriers, not new construction. Expect to hear a lot more about the wall in 2020.

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US launched cyber attack on Iranian rockets and missiles – reports

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Targeted strike on computer-controlled weapons of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard had been planned over weeks

The US military launched a cyber-attack on Iranian weapons systems on Thursday, according to sources, as President Donald Trump backed away from plans for a more conventional strike in response to Iran’s downing of a US surveillance drone.

The hack disabled Iranian computer systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers, two officials told the Associated Press, and were conducted with approval from Trump. A third official confirmed the broad outlines of the strike. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the operation.

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Trump: I’ll be Iran’s ‘best friend’ if it acquires no nuclear weapons

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Donald Trump has said that if Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, it will be prosperous and have the US president as “a best friend” – but also warned that the Islamic Republic would be “obliterated” in any war between the two countries.

Related: Will he? Won't he? How Trump's impulses are driving his Iran policy

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‘We’re watching’: Trump stokes UFO rumors during ABC News interview

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Three senators had recently been briefed by the Pentagon on navy encounters with unidentified aircraft, a report said

UFOs are usually the preserve of science fiction, but lately they have been enjoying a newfound status across the US, infiltrating conversation from Washington to Kansas City.

Donald Trump kicked the latest round off last week when, responding to a question about the rise in reports of unidentified aircraft by US navy pilots, he revealed that he had been briefed on UFO sightings.

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Trump says he stopped airstrike on Iran because 150 would have died

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US president tweets that he intervened 10 minutes before planned retaliatory attack

Donald Trump has said the US air force was “cocked and loaded” to attack three Iranian targets, but he withdrew the order with 10 minutes to spare after being told the airstrike might kill as many as 150 people.

Trump said in a series of revelatory 9am tweets that he decided late on Thursday that the death toll was not a proportionate response to the Iranian shooting down of a US spy drone off the Iranian coast 24 hours earlier.

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Hope Hicks: Trump adviser’s testimony offers seven-hour exercise in prevarication

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Former White House communications director was steered away from answering questions 155 times

The Democrat-controlled house judiciary committee has released a 273-page transcript of frustrated efforts to interrogate Hope Hicks, a former top White House adviser, during a closed-door hearing on Wednesday.

The session transcript reveals a seven-hour exercise in prevarication as White House lawyers steered Hicks away from answering questions 155 times.

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Trump on whether US will strike Iran: ‘You will soon find out’ – live

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President says ‘stay tuned for next week’ when asked if he will authorize strike against Tehran in retaliation for attack on US drone

Alabama Republican Roy Moore, whose unsuccessful 2017 campaign for US Senate was marred by allegations he sexually assaulted or pursued teenage girls while in his 30s, is going to try again.

The Democratic candidate, Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor, defeated Moore by a narrow margin in a special election in December 2017 to fill the seat vacated by Republican Jeff Sessions when he became US attorney general. Jones was the first Democrat in a quarter-century to be elected to the US Senate in Alabama.

AP is reporting that Roy Moore will jump into the Alabama Senate race https://t.co/gsALWyjY5v

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders hold narrow leads in a theoretical showdown with President Trump in North Carolina ahead of the 2020 presidential race, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey released Thursday.

From The Hill:

Forty-nine percent of registered voters surveyed said they would back Biden in a match-up against Trump, while 46 percent said they would support the president. Five percent, meanwhile, said they are unsure who they’d back.

In a match-up against Sanders, 48 percent of North Carolina voters said they’d back the Vermont senator, compared with 47 percent who said they would vote for Trump; 5 percent said they were unsure of their pick.

No other candidate leads Trump in the poll.

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Trump’s dangerous brinkmanship on Iran | Letters

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The British government should call for restraint and de-escalation, says a group of campaigners, politicians and leading cultural figures

The threat of war with Iran is terrifying and the behaviour of the US government risks making the danger real. Its categoric claim that Iran was responsible for last week’s attacks on the two tankers in the Straits of Hormuz has been challenged by the Japanese and the German governments. It has served only to make a dangerous situation more serious.

The context to this is Donald Trump’s scrapping of the nuclear deal with Iran last year, which blocked the way to normalising relations and immediately escalated tension. The accompanying sanctions have caused real economic damage and human suffering. In May the Trump administration turned the screw tighter by dropping exemptions for oil exports. These measures are part of the policy of regime change advocated by John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, Trump’s two senior foreign policy officials, both of whom have called for military attacks on Iran.

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Cory Booker attacks Biden for ‘civil’ relationship with segregationist lawmakers – as it happened

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After the Senate majority leader dismissed the idea of reparations, Coates testified before Congress about ‘campaign of terror’ against black Americans

Closing out live coverage this evening, with an updated summary of today’s news from Amanda Holpuch and me:

Watch some of the key moments from today’s Congressional debate over reparations:

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US joins four rogue countries seen as likely forces for bad, poll finds

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Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran and the US are also seen as less likely to use their influence for good than they were 10 years ago

The United States has joined Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran in a rogue’s gallery of countries perceived as likely to use their influence for bad. All five countries are also seen as less likely to use their influence for good than they were 10 years ago.

Related: ‘Credible evidence’ Saudi crown prince liable for Khashoggi killing – UN report

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US to send more troops to Middle East in response to Iran concerns – live

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The secretary of defense has authorized the order to send soldiers to Iran, who has been blamed for attacks on oil tankers last week

The New York Times is reporting that the Justice Department has intervened to keep former Trump adviser Paul Manafort out of the notorious Rikers Island jail complex.

JUST IN: Manafort is not going to Rikers after unusual Justice Dept intervention. https://t.co/zZzlSmvLJ7 https://t.co/zZzlSmvLJ7

Manafort was set to be transferred to Rikers this month to await trial on a separate state case, according to the New York Times. But then Manhattan prosecutors received a letter from Jeffrey Rosen, the top deputy for attorney general William Barr, that indicated that “he was monitoring where Mr. Manafort would be held in New York”.

And then, on Monday, federal prison officials weighed in, telling the Manhattan district attorney’s office that Mr. Manafort, 70, would not be going to Rikers.

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US to send 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East, citing ‘hostile behavior’

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Concerns of a confrontation between the two countries have mounted since two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman

Acting US defense secretary Patrick Shanahan announced on Monday the deployment of about 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East for what he said were “defensive purposes”, citing concerns about a threat from Iran.

“The recent Iranian attacks validate the reliable, credible intelligence we have received on hostile behavior by Iranian forces and their proxy groups that threaten United States personnel and interests across the region,” Shanahan said in a statement.

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Libya’s UN-recognised government launches peace initiative

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Plan comes after efforts to persuade US that White House had wrong message on Libya

Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli has sought to break the deadlock in the country’s civil war by launching a peace initiative which will include a national peace forum followed by simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections to be held by the end of the year.

The plan comes after sustained diplomatic efforts by the Tripoli-based government to persuade the US that the White House had got the wrong message on Libya and was in danger of backing anti-democratic forces of Gen Khalifa Haftar, on the false premise that he was leading a fight against terrorists.

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Tehran has held firm in its tussles with Trump

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Iran’s leaders have shown their intent to defend their interests by damaging those of their foes

For much of this year, two beliefs have held firm in the halls of power in Iran: US attempts to strangle its economy cannot be tolerated and Donald Trump has no intention of going to war.

Far from wilting under the barrel of a global superpower’s guns, Iran’s leaders have signalled an intent to defend their interests, by damaging those of their foes. Iran’s anger at the US, and its alleged role in the attacks on six tankers in Gulf waters over the past five weeks did not emerge from a vacuum. US-imposed sanctions have taken a huge toll on its economy, and diminished its ability to service long-lasting commitments across the region – in Syria and Lebanon, in particular.

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