The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Pope Francis to welcome Russia’s Putin to Vatican for 3rd time

    Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Pope Francis for the third time in the first week of July, the Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed on Thursday.

    NAN reports that the two leaders first met on Nov. 25, 2013, and again on June 10, 2015.

    The last meeting in 2015 proved particularly challenging as it came at the height of a conflict with Ukraine.

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    It was a subject that Pope Francis raised repeatedly with Putin as the pontiff called for peace in the region, though Russian media still portrayed the visit as a diplomatic success at a time of confrontation with the West.

    Other topics discussed by the two leaders in the past include the war in Syria, the persecution of Christians in the country as well as relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Church.

  • Protests greet Trump’s UK state visit

    Thousands of protesters greeted President Donald Trump’s U.K. visit with anger and British irony Tuesday, crowding London’s government district while the U.S. leader met Prime Minister Theresa May nearby.

    Feminists, environmentalists, peace activists, trade unionists and others demonstrated against the lavish royal welcome being given to a president they see as a danger to the world, chanting “Say it loud, say it clear, Donald Trump’s not welcome here.”

    “I’m very cross he’s here,” said guitar teacher Sarah Greene, carrying a home-made sign reading “keep your grabby hands off our national treasures” under a picture of one of Queen Elizabeth II’s corgis.

    “I find him scary. My sign is flippant and doesn’t say the things I’d really like to say.”

    A day of protests began with the flying of a giant blimp depicting the president as an angry orange baby, which rose from the grass of central London’s Parliament Square.

    One group came dressed in the red cloaks and bonnets of characters from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which is set in a dystopian, misogynist future America.

    Read Also: Trump forgets own gift to Queen

    Demonstrators filled Trafalgar Square and spilled down Whitehall, a street lined with imposing government offices.

    Many paused to photograph a robotic likeness of Trump sitting on a golden toilet, cell phone in hand. The robot caught the attention of passers-by with its recitation of catchphrases including “No collusion” and “You are fake news.”

    “It’s 16 feet high, so it’s as large as his ego,” said Don Lessem from Philadelphia, who built the statue from foam over an iron frame and had it shipped by boat across the Atlantic.

    Lessem, a dinosaur expert who makes models of prehistoric creatures, said “I’m interested in things that are big, not very intelligent and have lost their place in history.”

    “I wanted people here to know that people in America do not support Trump in the majority . and humor is my weapon,” he said.

  • Trump forgets own gift to Queen

    The US President’s memory lapse regarding a gift he’d presented wasn’t the first, as in December his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. confessed that his father was known to be something of a “regifter”.

    In a saving face moment, first lady Melania Trump appeared to come to her husband President Donald Trump’s rescue during their UK state visit on Monday when he seemingly failed to recognise a pewter horse statue he had previously given as a gift to Queen Elizabeth II, writes the Guardian.

    As the Trumps were being given a tour of Royal Collection artefacts at Buckingham Palace’s picture gallery, the president was shown a pewter horse he had given the Queen during his previous visit.

    Read Also: UK state visit: Trump wears new look

    When asked if he recognised the statue, the president responded:

    “No,” according to the Guardian.

    “Yes, this is one of ours,” Melania Trump was reported to have pitched in, rescuing her husband from further embarrassment.

    The Trumps had given the pewter horse to Queen Elizabeth II last July at Windsor Castle.

    Petal horse

     

    NAN

  • London, New York mayors reject Trump’s ‘childish insults’

    The mayors of London and New York on Monday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump, joining a Twitter spat after he opened a visit to Britain by calling them “dumb and incompetent.”

    London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office rejected Trump’s “childish insults,” after the U.S. leader called him a “loser” and told U.S. media that Khan was “the twin of [New York City mayor Bill] de Blasio except shorter.”

    De Blasio, who reportedly stands 1.96 metres tall, tweeted that “Trump is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s twin, only his presidency will be shorter.’’

    He is campaigning for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, potentially pitting him against Trump.

    Tweeting around the time of touchdown at London’s Stansted Airport, Trump, who has had previous Twitter feuds with Khan, called him “a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me.’’

    “Khan reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent mayor of NYC de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job, only half his height,’’ he said.

    “Your values and what you stand for are the complete opposite of London’s values and the values in this country,” Khan, a member of Britain’s main opposition Labour party, said in a later video message to Trump posted on the website of the Elle UK magazine.

    “We think diversity’s not a weakness; diversity is a strength,” said Khan, who held a placard with the slogan “Only weak men fear strong women.’’

    “We respect women and we think they are equal to men,” he said.

    Responding to Trump’s tweets, Labour lawmaker David Lammy, one of Britain’s most prominent black politicians, wrote: “Wonder why you have a problem with London’s first ever Muslim mayor?

    “This is a president who insulted London’s mayor after a terror attack,’’ Lammy tweeted.

    Prime Minister Theresa May defended Khan after Trump accused him of a “pathetic” response to the London Bridge terrorist attack in June 2017, which left 11 dead and dozens injured.

    Khan gave several interviews to British media ahead of Trump’s arrival, writing in Sunday’s Observer newspaper that it was “un-British to roll out the red carpet” for him.

    READ ALSO: Donald Trump tells Britain to embrace no deal Brexit

    He urged May, who is scheduled to hold talks with Trump on Tuesday, to “issue a powerful rejection, not of the U.S. as a country or the office of the presidency, but of Trump and the far-right agenda he embodies.’’

    Labour’s left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would not attend a state banquet for Trump.

    “The government should not be rolling out the red carpet for a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric.’

    “Tomorrow’s protest against Donald Trump’s state visit is an opportunity to stand in solidarity with those he’s attacked in America, around the world and in our own country, including, just this morning, @SadiqKhan,’’ Corbyn tweeted.

    Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to join a “Together against Trump’’ march through central London on Tuesday.

  • UK state visit: Trump calls London mayor a ‘loser’

    US President Donald Trump kicked off a state visit to Britain Monday by branding London’s mayor a “loser” before heading for lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, following delicate comments about Brexit.

    Trump’s plane had not even touched down when he tweeted that Sadiq Khan, who has been highly critical of the red-carpet welcome laid on for Trump, had done a “terrible job” running London.

    The president called the mayor a “stone cold loser”, adding: “Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, (Bill) de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height.

    “In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom,” he added.

    Queen Elizabeth II was scheduled to welcome Trump and his wife Melania to Buckingham Palace later Monday, where they will be treated to a guard of honour, a private lunch and a glittering banquet.

    But beneath the pomp and ceremony, Britain is in turmoil with Prime Minister Theresa May due to step down within weeks over her handling of her country’s exit from the European Union.

    Read Also; UK state visit: Trump wears new look

    Trump weighed in on the divisive issue of Brexit, declaring before he arrived that Britain’s former foreign minister Boris Johnson would make an “excellent” choice to succeed May.

    In a round of British newspaper interviews, he also recommended her successor walk away from talks with Brussels, refuse to pay Britain’s agreed divorce bill and leave the EU with no deal.

    The UK-US “special relationship” was already under strain over different approaches to Iran, the use of Chinese technology in 5G networks, climate change, and Trump’s personal politics.

    Labour’s Khan has led opposition to the three-day visit, writing a newspaper article on Sunday in which he compared the US leader to European dictators from the 1930s and 1940s.

    “Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat,” Khan wrote.

    His spokesman called Trump’s tweets “childish” and “beneath the president of the United States”.

    NAN

  • UK state visit: Trump wears new look

    US President Donald Trump has shown off a new hairdo ahead of his visit to the United Kingdom.

    Attending a service at a Virginia church on Sunday ahead of a golf outing, Trump appeared to have traded his distinctive swirled blonde mop for a slicked-back hairstyle.

    He did not make any remarks during the worship service, which took place in the wake of a fatal shooting, but mouthed “thank you” as he walked back off stage.

    Read Also: Donald Trump tells Britain to embrace no deal Brexit

    Twitter, however, has been abuzz with talk about his new look, with commenters poking fun at the US leader.

    One user described Trump as a “greasy version of Steve Bannon”, while another compared him to Steve Carell’s fictional character from The Office.

  • North Korea executes officials for failed Trump Summit

    North Korea has executed five officials for their part in the failed second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korean newspaper.

    Citing the newspaper, Bloomberg News reported that Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s special envoy to the U.S., was executed by firing squad in March for being “won over by the American imperialists to betray the supreme leader.”

    The paper also claimed that four other North Korean Foreign Ministry officials were executed that same month because of the breakdown of the February summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, but did not provide details.

    Read Also: Trump threatens Mexico with 25% tariff over migrant surge

    Trump’s much-anticipated summit with Kim ended abruptly and without the two leaders signing any agreements over nuclear disarmament.

    Top Kim aide Kim Yong Chol is reportedly undergoing hard labor for his role in the breakdown.

    He had been Kim’s most trusted policy adviser and was removed from one of his posts.

  • Man kills HIV-positive wife for allegedly cheating on him

    Police in southern Pakistan have arrested a man for killing his HIV-positive wife in an epidemic-hit region, officials said on Thursday.

    The man in the town of Ratto Dhero strangled his wife on the suspicion of cheating on him and hanged her body on a tree to make the death look like a suicide, police official Waheed Mangi said.

    Situated in the province of Sindh, Ratto Dhero is a small town where around 800 people, mostly children, have tested positive for HIV in past two months.

    The man killed his 32-year-old wife because he believed that the HIV infection meant she must have had other sexual partners, said another police official, Irfan Baloch.

    Health authorities have screened around 25,000 people in the town this month, said doctor Sikandar Memon, head of AIDS control programme in Sindh.

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    A team led by doctors from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is visiting the region on Thursday to determine the exact cause of the epidemic and suggest preventive measures, Memon said.

    The Pakistan government earlier this week declared a health emergency in the region and sought assistance from global bodies like the WHO and the U.S. Centre for Disease Control.

    Health experts have suggested that the virus may have spread through the re-use of infected syringes by poorly trained medics in rural Pakistan.

    There are around 170,000 registered HIV infected people in Pakistan, according to the National AIDS programme in the capital Islamabad.

  • Brexit not an option says UK PM candidate Hancock

    Matt Hancock, one of the Conservative candidates vying for Prime Minister Theresa May’s job, said a no-deal Brexit was not an option for Britain’s next leader as the speaker of parliament would thwart it, the Financial Times reported.

    “The brutal reality is, no deal is not a policy choice available to the next prime minister,” Hancock, Britain’s 40-year-old health minister, said. “There’s evidence that there is a majority for delivering Brexit in the House of Commons.”

    Hancock said Commons Speaker John Bercow would thwart any attempt by a no-deal prime minister to overrule lawmakers.

    “I think the Speaker would facilitate a majority in the House of Commons who are opposed to no deal in exactly the same way as he did in the run-up to the 29 March,” Hancock said.

    Read Also: British PM May resigns, pave way for Brexit confrontation with EU

    Hancock ruled out holding a second referendum and in a pitch to be a future finance minister, he said the party should make arguments for “free enterprise and a free society.”

  • I’ll send 1,500 troops to Middle East, says Trump

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he will send about 1,500 American troops to the Middle East, mostly as a protective measure, amid heightened tensions with Iran.

    However, the Republican leader played down the potential for military conflict in the region, saying he believed Iran did not want a confrontation with the U.S.

    “We want to have protection in the Middle East. We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective,” Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to Japan.

    The Pentagon said only about 900 of the 1,500 troops will be newly deploying and that 600 are already in the region and will be extended.

    It said they include Patriot missile battery personnel, manning for surveillance aircraft and engineers.

     “Right now, I don’t think Iran wants to fight. And I certainly don’t think they want to fight with us,” Trump said.

    “But they cannot have nuclear weapons,” he continued. “They can’t have nuclear weapons. And they understand that.”

    The U.S. military deployed a carrier strike group, bombers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East earlier this month in response to what Washington said were troubling indications of possible preparations for an attack by Iran.

    Rhetoric between Tehran and Washington has escalated in recent weeks as the U.S. tightened sanctions with what it said was the goal of pushing Iran to make concessions beyond the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal.

    Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers a year ago and now is seeking to block all Iranian oil exports.

    Washington believes a series of recent attacks in the region may have been inspired by Iran, including a rocket attack in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

    Others are what Saudi Arabia described as armed drone attacks on two oil pumping stations and the sabotage of four vessels including two Saudi oil tankers.

    Trump warned on Monday that Iran would be met with “great force” if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle East.

    (Reuters/NAN)