Gregg Jarrett: The Trump whistleblower may not be a whistleblower at all – Fox News
Gregg Jarrett: The Trump whistleblower may not be a whistleblower at all – Fox News
Video

Trump slams ‘partisan’ whistleblower complaint, says ‘somebody’ should investigate Biden

The president defends his conversations with world leaders and blasts Joe Biden’s ‘disgraceful’ statement on Ukraine during an Oval Office meeting with Australian PM Scott Morrison.

The latest media mass hysteria over a whistleblower’s complaint that, according to FoxNews.com “reportedly involved allegations President Trump made a troubling and unspecified ‘promise’ to a foreign leader,” is based on precious little information.  That has not stopped journalists from convicting Trump in the court of public opinion and predicting his imminent demise.

Who exactly is this unidentified “whistleblower”? What is the specific nature of his or her “urgent concern” complaint against the president?  Does this complaint really qualify under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA)?  These are just a few of the most fundamental questions that remain largely unknown.

WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT, REPORTEDLY ON TRUMP ‘PROMISE’ TO FOREIGN LEADER, TOUCHES OFF DC FIRESTORM

Despite the paucity of facts, some reasonable observations and conclusions can be drawn.

  1. It appears that an American spy in one of our intelligence agencies may have been spying on our own president.  The complaint suggests that this intel agent was listening in on Trump’s conversation with a foreign leader.  Was this person officially asked to listen to the conversation or was he or she secretly listening in? We don’t know.
  2. This agent, who is an unelected and inferior federal employee in the government hierarchy, apparently believes that it is his/her job to second-guess the motivation behind the words of the elected president, who is the most superior officer in the U.S. government. 
  3. Article II of the Constitution gives the president sweeping power to conduct foreign affairs, negotiate with leaders of other nations, make demands or offer promises.  The Constitution does not grant the power of review, approval or disapproval to spies or other unelected officials in the executive branch. 
  4. The ICWPA law defines the parameters of an “urgent concern” complaint as an abuse or violation of law “relating to the funding, administration, or operations of an intelligence activity involving classified information, but does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters.”  The president’s conversation with a foreign leader does not seem to fall under this whistleblower definition. 
  5. It appears the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) agrees with this assessment. His agency’s general counsel wrote a letter stating the complaint did not meet the ICWPA definition because it involved conduct “from someone outside the intel community and did not relate to intelligence activity,” according to a report by Fox News. This is why the DNI refused to forward the complaint to congress. 

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To put this in plain language, a spy who allegedly spied on the president does not have a legitimate whistleblower complaint against that president under the law.  The ICWPA is a mechanism to report alleged misconduct by members within the intelligence community, of which the president is not.  Yes, the alphabet soup of intel agencies ultimately report to the president, but that does not make Trump a member of that community and subject to its rules of conduct.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER 

So, it turns out that the “whistleblower” may not be a whistleblower at all. But you will not hear that from the mainstream media. They are too busy lighting their own hair on fire. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM GREGG JARRETT   

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gregg-jarrett-trump-whistleblower

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Trump Sends Troops To Middle East After Attack On Saudi Oil Facilities – NPR
Trump Sends Troops To Middle East After Attack On Saudi Oil Facilities – NPR

Workers fix the damage in the Aramco’s Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia, Sept. 20, 2019, after it was hit during Sept. 14 attack the U.S. alleges Iran carried out.

Amr Nabil/AP


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Amr Nabil/AP

Workers fix the damage in the Aramco’s Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia, Sept. 20, 2019, after it was hit during Sept. 14 attack the U.S. alleges Iran carried out.

Amr Nabil/AP

President Trump has authorized the deployment of additional U.S. forces to the Middle East to strengthen air and missile defenses around Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon announced late Friday.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper called the move a first step and said that the deployment would be defensive in nature. He said the deployment comes in response to requests for help from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the deployment moderate, but offered no specifics on the number of troops involved. He said the Pentagon would have more to say about the deployment next week.

The announcement appears to signal that President Trump has not yet decided whether to order to a military strike against Iran, which the administration has said was behind the attack on Saudi oil facilities.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/09/20/762935873/trump-sends-troops-to-middle-east-after-attack-on-saudi-oil-facilities

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Three Patients Transported to Hospital, Not Directly Hit by Vehicle that Crashed Inside Woodfield Mall – arlingtoncardinal.com
Three Patients Transported to Hospital, Not Directly Hit by Vehicle that Crashed Inside Woodfield Mall – arlingtoncardinal.com

Schaumburg police and firefighter/paramedics were dispatched to Woodfield Mall today at 2:21 p.m., in response to multiple 911 calls reporting a vehicle driving into the mall. The suspect’s car, a black, SUV-type vehicle, drove through the mall entrance near a north entrance near Sears. The vehicle travelled through the mall common area, coming to a final stop in the mall center court.

The sole occupant of the vehicle has been identified as a 22-year-old male who was detained by mall patrons pending arrival of police. The subject was taken into custody by police without further incident. He was treated on scene and refused medical transport.

There is no evidence of any gunshots or active shooter situation at Woodfield Mall. Police and Fire remain on the scene and the investigation is ongoing. At this time, this appears to be an isolated incident.

A total of three patients were transported to the hospital by firefighter/paramedics for non-life-threatening medical issues. The injuries were not a result of the vehicle hitting anyone. Schaumburg firefight/paramedics and firefighter/paramedics from assisting agencies treated on scene an additional four patients o — all of whom refused transport to the hospital.

No Police, Fire or Woodfield Security Officers were injured during this incident.

Woodfield Mall is closed at this time as police continue to investigate and ensure the mall is safe to re-open. The public is advised to avoid the area if possible. Notification will be provided when Woodfield Mall re-opens.
Anyone who is unable to reach a Woodfield Mall employee or family member may call the Village of Schaumburg Customer Service Center by dialing (311) if you are within the village limits or 847-895-4500 if you are outside the village.

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Source Article from https://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2019/09/three-patients-transported-to-hospital-not-directly-hit-by-vehicle-that-crashed-inside-woodfield-mall/

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Four dead, others critically injured in tour bus crash near Bryce Canyon – KJZZ
Four dead, others critically injured in tour bus crash near Bryce Canyon – KJZZ
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The US just signed an agreement that could send asylum seekers back to El Salvador – Vox.com
The US just signed an agreement that could send asylum seekers back to El Salvador – Vox.com

The Trump administration signed an agreement Friday allowing it to require migrants who pass through El Salvador to seek asylum there rather than in the US, another potential hurdle for Central Americans arriving at the US southern border.

The White House has also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to secure a similar agreement with Honduras by October 1, Hamed Aleaziz of Buzzfeed News reported.

The agreement with El Salvador is one of many measures that the Trump administration has taken in recent months to make seeking asylum in the US more difficult, and in many cases almost impossible, for Central Americans. Most of the migrants arriving at the US southern border are coming from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, where rampant crime, violence, and corruption is driving tens of thousands to flee.

The agreement means the US can return migrants seeking asylum because they fear persecution to El Salvador, which has the highest intentional homicide rate worldwide, in large part due to its 60,000 criminal gang members. A United Nations report also found that Salvadoran police have shown a pattern of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Persecution by these gangs and has led many of its citizens to flee to the US: About 98,000 Salvadorans have been arrested at the southern border this fiscal year so far, more than half of whom are families, according US Customs and Border Protection.

Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan told reporters Friday that the agreement is primarily focused on helping El Salvador develop its asylum system, with the intention that migrants should first seek protection there. But he remained vague on the agreement’s exact provisions.

“The core of this agreement is … recognizing El Salvador’s development of its own asylum system and a commitment to help them build that capacity,” he said. “As we work together to target irregular migration flows through the region, that is one potential use of the agreement — that individuals crossing through El Salvador should be able to seek protections there.”

Under the agreement, the US will also invest in El Salvador and work on a way for about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the US for about two decades with temporary legal immigration status to remain the country permanently, McAleenan and Chancellor of the El Salvador Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alexandra Hill told reporters.

The agreement is one of several measures the Trump administration has recently taken to discourage migration from Central America.

A rule recently reinstated by the Supreme Court prevents migrants from obtaining asylum if they passed through another country other than their own before arriving in the US. That means that asylum seekers from any country but Mexico are ineligible for asylum if they show up at the southern border.

The Trump administration is also sending migrants who line up at a port of entry or who are arrested when trying to cross the southern border back to Mexico to await decisions on their asylum claims. Under the policy, which is known as “Remain in Mexico,” the US has returned more than 42,000 migrants to Mexico as of September 1, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

And the administration in July vastly expanded its power to quickly deport migrants who have recently arrived, without offering them the opportunity to pursue their asylum claims before an immigration judge.

The agreement with El Salvador is “another layer of deflection of asylum seekers,” says Randy Capps, director of research for US programs at the Migration Policy Institute.

But in practice, it might prove difficult to prove that migrants passed through El Salvador, meaning that it would likely only be used on a small scale to remove migrants, Capps said. It is not clear whether Salvadoran citizens would be allowed to seek asylum in the US under the agreement.

A Trump administration rule already prevents migrants from obtaining asylum if they passed through another country other than their own before arriving in the US, a rule which has a much broader effect than the US’s agreement with El Salvador. That means that asylum seekers from any country but Mexico are ineligible for asylum if they show up at the southern border.

There are limited exceptions to the administration’s rule: those who apply for asylum in another country but are rejected may bring their claims in the US. Victims of human trafficking and migrants who traveled through countries that are not parties to certain international human rights agreements are also exempt. But for the most part, it effectively closes the door on seeking asylum at the southern border (though they are still eligible for other forms of protection).

The Supreme Court has allowed that rule to go into effect for now. But if the rule were to be struck down in an ongoing court case, the administration could use its new agreement with El Salvador as a means of continuing to turn away asylum seekers.

Capps said that the agreement may allow the US to target Cubans and Nicaraguans in particular, who usually pass through El Salvador on their way to the US southern border. The US must be able to cooperate with immigrants’ home countries in order to deport them, but Cuba and Nicaragua have not been willing to do so recently. Friday’s agreement would allow the administration to send them to El Salvador instead.

McAleenan did not specify when the agreement will go into effect.

Trump also claimed to have reached a similar agreement with Guatemala in July, but the text is not yet publicly available and it has yet to be ratified by its government. As part of the agreement, the US offered to expand and streamline the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program for Guatemalan citizens, promising to spur what Trump has described as a “new era of investment and growth.”

But the Guatemalan Constitutional Court has stopped the agreement in its tracks for now.

If the objective of the Salvadoran agreement is indeed to build up the country’s asylum system, it could be a long time before the agreement sees any results.

“It’s hard to build an asylum system,” Capps said. “We can fund it. But El Salvador is starting almost from scratch.”

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/20/20875899/us-agreement-el-salvador-asylum

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Morehouse announces plans for how student loan debts will be paid off – Atlanta Journal Constitution
Morehouse announces plans for how student loan debts will be paid off – Atlanta Journal Constitution

Billionaire investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith stunned Morehouse College, students and the higher education world during his commencement speech in May when he announced plans to pay the student loan debt for the entire graduating class.

On Friday, the students learned how the debts will be paid.

The all male, liberal arts college of about 2,200 students near downtown Atlanta, will directly pay federal and private debt to loan providers that has been tracked by the U.S. Department of Education, Morehouse College President David A. Thomas said. Students must sign documents agreeing to the payment plan, he said.

Morehouse will also pay federal Parent PLUS loans taken out by parents for their children to attend the school. Those loans often exceed loans students must pay, Morehouse officals said. Two-thirds of the debt balances are held by parents, the college said.

Smith agreed to alleviate both, Thomas told reporters.

In all, more than 400 students and families will be eligible for the debt payments. Students and their families will not have to pay taxes on the loan payments, Thomas said.

> RELATED: Morehouse grads plan for their future and paying it forward

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“As of today, we think we have secured this in a way that prevents tax liability from falling on our students or their families,” Thomas said in a separate interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Smith’s gift totals $34 million, the college said. While many donors have made larger contributions to other colleges, Smith’s commitment to paying student loan debt was unprecedented, many higher education experts said. Student loan debt has tripled since 2007 to current estimates of $1.5 trillion. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has called the debt, which is greater than the nation’s auto loan debt, a “crisis.”

Student loan debt is a greater challenge at Morehouse and other historically black colleges and universities since many students come from less affluent families and borrow more money to attend. Morehouse is the nation’s sole HBCU with the goal of educating African American men. The average student loan debt for Morehouse graduates is between $35,000 to $40,000, which is more than the national average of about $29,000. Some Morehouse graduates have said their loan debt exceeded $100,000.

Qualon Bobbitt, 23, who graduated in May with $17,000 in debt, said the college sent him information last week about his loans and asked if any changes were necessary. The information was correct and he agreed to the payment plan, Bobbitt said.

Some classmates did not see the emails from the college explaining the debt repayment process. The college sent messages to the Morehouse email accounts of some students, Bobbitt said he heard from classmates. College officials said they’ve tried to contact students through email and telephone.

Bobbitt, who is preparing to go to law school in 2020, said Smith’s gift has given him time to pursue his plan to create a nonprofit to stop sexual violence. Bobbitt’s only concern is “it doesn’t hit the underlying issue of how much it costs to attend college.”

Thomas said the college spent months working out the details with tax advisors and others. The college is encouraging the graduates to seek guidance from their own tax consultants.

Kemberley Washington, a former IRS agent who owns a CPA firm in New Orleans, also said the former students should seek advice.

>WATCH: Here’s the moment Robert Smith told Morehouse grads he would pay their student loans

“Generally, when student loan debt is canceled or forgiven, it results in taxable income for the recipient. However, if a recipient can prove to be insolvent, which means their personal liabilities are more than assets, the IRS would not require the recipient to include the amount in income,” she said. “There are other exceptions to the rule, therefore it would be advisable for students and parents to speak to a tax professional.”

Morehouse created a Student Success Program to track how Smith’s gift has helped students and to explore the issue of student loan debt.

“This is a liberation gift,” said Thomas, who dreamed of attending Morehouse but couldn’t afford it. “This allows students to pursue their dreams as soon as they would like to and in whatever fields they would like to.”

Since Smith announced his gift, others have contacted Morehouse looking for ways to donate, officials said. Morehouse is accepting donations to the Student Success Program that would be customized to the donor’s wishes to pay loans for current students. Morehouse is working on details about how it would work, but Thomas said the plan would likely entail helping students pursuing careers in fields that typically have lower starting salaries, such as teaching or working at a nonprofit.


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Source Article from https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/morehouse-announces-plans-for-how-student-loan-debts-will-paid-off/yHeA2a2M9tyG1Yls13QyRJ/

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What the ‘Storm Area 51’ and ‘Climate Strike’ movements tell us – Washington Examiner
What the ‘Storm Area 51’ and ‘Climate Strike’ movements tell us – Washington Examiner

Americans face an important question: to walk out of your office to protest climate change or join the movement to storm Area 51?

The “Youth Climate Strike” in D.C.

On Friday, activists have an unprecedented opportunity to rally behind either 21-year-old vape salesman Matty Roberts, who launched the Storm Area 51 movement out of “boredom at 2AM,” or 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate change activist who has earned international attention.

Choose your fighter! There is something to be said for the importance of both movements, one steeped in ironic humor and the other in virtuous panic. Both #Area51Storm and #ClimateStrike offer two competing versions of reality in American life, but they also have something in common.

Roberts and his band of alien truthers are living it up at “Alienstock,” a related music festival happening both in and around Las Vegas. There were raves all Thursday night with dancing stuffed aliens, and this morning the tin-foiled crowd is surrounding access points to the Area 51 site for congregation, Naruto runs, “protest,” and most importantly, selfies.

Sheriffs, police, and helicopters are present, holding the line on access to the restricted site and finding themselves used as props in photos for social media. It’s the act of living out the Storm Area 51 meme.

There’s a pleasant dopiness to the gathering, a sort of acceptance that it’s all a joke. The world has to be at least a pretty decent place for these adventurers in search of “alien booty” to have time to kill dancing in the desert. This is in stark contrast to climate activism, which is apocalyptic in its rhetoric.

They’d say you can’t just take time away from life to party with strangers from Reddit in an America where the air is toxic. The cult of Greta Thunberg would think you should be ashamed for such nihilism in the face of scientific consensus on our coming extinction.

The much larger climate strike, culminating today in walkouts from schools and offices worldwide, is something of an opposite to the smaller movement in favor of storming Area 51. The climate movement is a movement of frustration, anger, and, in some cases, grieving. People, trees, plants, and animals are dying, so they say. The general position of the climate activists are that our days are numbered — and we may only have 10 years to save ourselves.

So is life boring and the stakes incredibly low? Or are we in a fight for our lives?

The “Youth Climate Strike” in Washington D.C.

These competing attitudes define much of our political discourse. There’s an enduring disagreement in this country about whether things are actually pretty good or totally awful. Then-candidate Donald Trump played the dystopian card in 2016, when his competitor Hillary Clinton made the timid status quo case for continuing onward.

Now, presidential aspirants Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and even sometimes Joe Biden now make the case that we live in a hellscape. And guess who now says things are pretty great? Incumbent President Trump, touting his jobs numbers, of course.

What these two movements share, however, is more important than the mentalities that divide them. It’s the selfie.

The act of taking the selfie, getting the right angle, smiling and showing off your sign, it’s all part of the package when it comes to modern activism. The selfie is a statement that you are part of something and implies a question for your social media audience: Why aren’t you here?

Looking at the #ClimateStrike, it’s hard to not ignore the jovial spirit of a movement with dystopian overtones.

The world is on fire, we are all going to die because of Trump’s environmental policies, but be sure to pose with your girlfriends and go full duck-lips for Instagram. Greta Thunberg is serious as a heart attack about the longstanding story of our climate’s demise, but the bulk of her followers may not be.

Everyone wants to be part of something. Just ask Matty Roberts and his glow-in-the-dark, floss-dancing army of meme lords. This is the best, safest, and most prosperous time in human history to be alive. The dirty truth might be that everyone knows it, and they just don’t want to accept a world where there’s little left to fight for.

Stephen Kent (@Stephen_Kent89) is the spokesperson for Young Voices, host of Beltway Banthas Podcast, and an entertainment contributor for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/what-the-storm-area-51-and-climate-strike-movements-tell-us

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Trump-Ukraine suspicions raise specters of collusion and impeachment – Washington Examiner
Trump-Ukraine suspicions raise specters of collusion and impeachment – Washington Examiner

Presidential impeachment looms, and perhaps even removal, because Donald Trump may have colluded after all.

Or, to use the correct legal terminology, maybe the president tried to engage in a “conspiracy” with a foreign government, to wit, an effort to use American assets in a quid pro quo arrangement to directly affect a national election and both nations’ systems of criminal justice.

This is what House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California and other Democrats suspect with regard to a whistleblower’s complaint that reportedly was “prompted by President Trump’s interactions with a foreign leader.”

The evidence already indicates a significant likelihood that the suspicions are correct. If — repeat, only if — the reports do prove true, then Trump is in massive trouble.

Granted, Schiff himself is hardly a reliable interpreter of events. He’s a far-left ideological enemy of Trump’s, a publicity hound prone to grandstanding, gullibility, and prevarication. Still, even political hacks sometimes stumble upon important information.

What’s known is this: First, former Vice President Joe Biden is suspected by many in Trumpworld of having used undue influence to kill a Ukrainian investigation into potential illegalities by his son, Hunter. If Biden did so, that would almost surely be illegal and would by all reasonable standards make him unfit for the presidency.

It is not, however, obvious that Biden did what is suspected. Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani, though, obviously want Ukraine to r-open the investigation into Biden. It long has been evident that Trumpworld believes that among the current Democratic presidential candidates, Biden would be his most serious challenger. If Ukraine finds Biden actually did something wrong, or even if they publicly are investigating him, Trump’s reelection prospects surely would improve.

Hence, Giuliani’s now-admitted efforts to ask Ukraine’s current regime to ensnare Biden in a major investigation. If Giuliani did so at Trump’s request, which is certainly not far-fetched, that alone would be dicey behavior. As the United States is a key ally for Ukraine’s very survival, any implied pressure on it from someone acting for the president, on behalf of the president’s political interests, would be ethically questionable.

Yet Trump is now suspected of doing even worse, than that. A whistleblower filed a report to the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community — a complaint the White House is withholding from Congress, but whose existence if not exact details are known — alleging an “urgent” matter arose from a “promise” Trump made in a phone call with a foreign leader. Available evidence makes it almost certain that the complaint involved July 25 call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at a time when Trump was delaying a $250 million military assistance package for Ukraine already approved by U.S. law.

Trump subsequently allowed the aid to go forward.

In sum, Democrats suspect Trump conditioned the aid delivery on Ukraine’s willingness to investigate Biden.

Every bit of circumstantial evidence so far, including Giuliani’s similar mission and including a Ukrainian official summary of that July 25 phone call, makes that suspicion entirely plausible. If so, it would be a serious conspiracy indeed.

Substitute “Ukraine” for “Russia,” in this sentence from special counsel Robert Mueller’s explanation (p. 66) as to what potential crime he was investigating: “coordination or conspiracy … with respect to Russia providing assistance to the campaign in exchange for any sort of favorable treatment in the future.” In the new Ukraine case, the suspected quid pro quo is obvious and far worse than what Mueller investigated. If the president uses U.S. taxpayer-financed military supplies as, in effect, a bribe to induce a foreign government to harass the president’s domestic opponent, it’s a horrible crime.

If it is true, this is a scandal much worse than Watergate. If it’s true, Trump must be removed from office.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-ukraine-suspicions-raise-specters-of-collusion-and-impeachment

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Yemen’s Houthis say will stop all attacks on Saudi Arabia – Aljazeera.com
Yemen’s Houthis say will stop all attacks on Saudi Arabia – Aljazeera.com

An official with the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen has said it will stop aiming missile and drone attacks at Saudi Arabia, warning that a continuation of the war could lead to “dangerous developments”.

The announcement was made on Friday night by Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi’s supreme political council, which controls the rebel-held areas in Yemen.

“We declare ceasing to target the Saudi Arabian territory with military drones, ballistic missiles and all other forms of weapons, and we wait for a reciprocal move from them,” Mashat said on the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV.


“We reserve the right to respond if they fail to reciprocate positively to this initiative,” he said, adding that the continuation of the Yemen war “will not benefit any side”.

The announcement by the Houthis came nearly a week after they claimed a major attack on Saudi oil facilities.

Despite the Houthis insisting they are responsible for the September 14 assault on Aramco sites that initially halved the kingdom’s production, the United States and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran.

Iran denies being involved, warning that any retaliatory strike on it by the US or Saudi Arabia will result in “an all-out war“.

‘Preserve blood of Yemenis’

“I call on all parties from different sides of the war to engage seriously in genuine negotiations that can lead to a comprehensive national reconciliation that does not exclude anyone,” said Mashat.

He added a major goal of the ceasefire was to “preserve the blood of Yemenis and achieve a general amnesty”.

The Saudi-led military coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthi announcement.

Mashat also called for the reopening of Sanaa’s international airport and open access to Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah, a crucial entry point for imports and humanitarian aid that has been at the centre of United Nations-brokered talks.


The Western-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis removed the internationally recognised government in Sanaa in late 2014.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people so far and left millions on the brink of famine, sparking what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Houthi rebels have repeatedly targeted key Saudi infrastructure in recent months in cross-border attacks. Earlier this week, they said they had picked out dozens of sites in the UAE as possible targets for future attacks.

Earlier on Friday, Saudi officials brought journalists to the site of the Abqaiq oil processing facility, one of the two locations hit in drone and missile attacks on September 14.

The Yemen conflict is largely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/houthis-stop-attacks-saudi-arabia-190920183802126.html

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The Best Signs From the Global Climate Strike – Slate
The Best Signs From the Global Climate Strike – Slate

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Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/global-climate-strike-best-signs.html

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Bus with Chinese-speaking tourists crashes in Utah; 4 dead – KTVB.com
Bus with Chinese-speaking tourists crashes in Utah; 4 dead – KTVB.com

SALT LAKE CITY — A bus carrying Chinese-speaking tourists crashed as it headed to a national park in southern Utah, killing four people and critically injuring up to 15 others, authorities said Friday.

The morning wreck near Bryce Canyon National Park, known for its distinctive landscape of narrow red rock spires, left 12 to 15 people with critical injuries and 10 more with minor to serious injuries, the Utah Highway Patrol tweeted.




The tour bus with 30 people aboard crashed near a highway rest stop about 7 miles from the park entrance. It’s not yet clear what caused the wreck.

Photos show the top of a white bus smashed in and one side peeling away as the vehicle rests mostly off the side of a road near a sign for restrooms. Authorities were tending to people on the road, and others stood around covered in shiny blankets, the photos show.

Highway Patrol Cpl. Chris Bishop said injured victims were sent to three hospitals. One of them, Intermountain Garfield Memorial Hospital, said it received 17 patients.

































A spokesman for the small hospital in the tiny town of Panguitch tweeted that three people were in critical condition, 11 in serious condition and three in fair condition. Lance Madigan says Intermountain has sent two helicopters and two planes to help transport victims.

Patients also were being taken to Cedar City and St. George, Bishop said.

Bryce Canyon has the world’s largest concentration of irregular columns of rock, called hoodoos, according to the National Park Service website. The park, about 300 miles south of Salt Lake City, draws more than 2 million visitors a year.

Source Article from https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/regional/bryce-canyon-tour-bus-crash-chinese-tourists-four-dead/277-6afbc8ee-fc87-440b-8899-2e1aa33992e0

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi On Indicting A Sitting President – NPR
Speaker Nancy Pelosi On Indicting A Sitting President – NPR

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested a new law is needed to be able to indict a sitting president for potential lawbreaking while in office.

Claire Harbage/NPR


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Claire Harbage/NPR

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested a new law is needed to be able to indict a sitting president for potential lawbreaking while in office.

Claire Harbage/NPR

In an exclusive interview with NPR, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has not changed her mind on pursuing impeachment but is ready to change the law to restrain presidential power and make it clear that a sitting president can, in fact, be indicted.

“I do think that we will have to pass some laws that will have clarity for future presidents. [A] president should be indicted, if he’s committed a wrongdoing — any president. There is nothing anyplace that says the president should not be indicted,” Pelosi told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro and NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis on Friday. “That’s something cooked up by the president’s lawyers. That’s what that is. But so that people will feel ‘OK, well, if he — if he does something wrong, [he] should be able to be indicted.’ ”

The California Democrat said that while it is Justice Department protocol not to pursue any charges against an incumbent — the reason former special counsel Robert Mueller said he couldn’t charge President Trump with a crime no matter the outcome of his report — that should be changed.

“The Founders could never suspect that a president would be so abusive of the Constitution of the United States, that the separation of powers would be irrelevant to him and that he would continue, any president would continue, to withhold facts from the Congress, which are part of the constitutional right of inquiry,” Pelosi said.

The constitutional recourse for a lawbreaking president per the Constitution is impeachment. Article II, Section 4 instructs that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

But despite the growing chants among Democrats for an impeachment inquiry in the House, Pelosi has remained reluctant about recourse. She fears it could alienate swing voters ahead of next year’s elections and imperil moderate Democrats who were critical to her party’s taking back the House last November.

Pelosi did not shift her position on impeachment and said Congress would continue to follow “the facts and the law.”

The speaker also said Congress should also clarify the limits of when a president can invoke a national emergency.

“The president should not be able to interpret the National Security Act as something that gives him free rein to do anything he wants by his personal declaration that something is an emergency,” she said.

Pressure could be ramped up on Pelosi and Democrats to act further amid reports that Trump had an improper conversation with a foreign leader, which a whistleblower within the intelligence community then reported. The conversation is reported to have been urging Ukraine to look into former Vice President Joe Biden — the current Democratic presidential front-runner who could be Trump’s 2020 foe — and his son Hunter Biden. Trump has said the conversation was “totally appropriate.”

Pelosi called the whistleblower’s complaint “very alarming” and said “this is in a different class in terms of [Trump’s] behavior.”

“This case has a national security piece to it that is very alarming. It is very alarming because the inspector general is appointed by President Trump.” She said the law is clear that the information must be submitted to the intelligence committees in Congress. “Right now they are breaking the law” by not providing that information, she said.

In a statement released after the NPR interview, Pelosi went even further, saying the reports raise “grave, urgent concerns for our national security” and that the president and his administration must conduct “our national security and foreign policy in the best interest of the American people, not the President’s personal interest.”

“If the President has done what has been alleged,” she said, “then he is stepping into a dangerous minefield with serious repercussions for his Administration and our democracy.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/09/20/762594886/pelosi-says-congress-should-pass-new-laws-so-sitting-presidents-can-be-indicted

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Australia deserves Trump’s state dinner – Washington Examiner
Australia deserves Trump’s state dinner – Washington Examiner

Australia has the courage to support the U.S.-led democratic international order against Chinese imperialism. President Trump is thus right to invite Prime Minister Scott Morrison to the second state dinner of his presidency.

While the pomp and pageantry of the event will be significant, the real importance of this dinner is in showing Australians that America values them as allies. This is especially crucial in that President Trump’s commitment to longstanding alliances has not just occasionally seemed flexible. The reassurance matters particularly to Australia. After all, if the Australians are to continue their support for the United States, they want to know that America will have their back.

That’s no insignificant concern in light of the Chinese government’s harassment of Australia.

In February, Chinese intelligence officers launched a serious cyberattack on the Australian Parliament. They deny it, of course, but they are lying. And this is only the start. China is waging an increasingly aggressive economic pressure campaign against Canberra. Beijing is furious about Australia’s blocking of China’s spy firm Huawei and Australia’s increasingly overt alignment with U.S. military operations in the Indo-Pacific. And just as China is putting the pressure on Australia today, it is offering generous economic investments if Australia chooses to turn its back on America tomorrow.

Morrison deserves special credit for rejecting that devilish bargain. Again, however, the U.S. cannot take Australia’s support for granted. A pro-China candidate was the favorite to unseat Morrison’s government in May elections.

Yes, state dinners must seem rather silly and all pompous. But here, at least, the people to be honored are worthy of the pageantry.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/australia-deserves-trumps-state-dinner

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First responders on scene for incident at Woodfield Mall – WREX-TV
First responders on scene for incident at Woodfield Mall – WREX-TV

WREX
10322 Auburn Road, Rockford, IL 61103
Switchboard:
815-335-2213
or news@wrex.com>

Source Article from https://wrex.com/category/2019/09/20/first-responders-on-scene-for-incident-at-woodfield-mall/

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Ukraine Pressured on U.S. Political Investigations – The New York Times
Ukraine Pressured on U.S. Political Investigations – The New York Times

“So somebody ought to look into that and you wouldn’t because he’s a Democrat,” Mr. Trump said.

He also defended his conduct in the conversation with Mr. Zelensky, saying it was “totally appropriate.”

“For me, it’s crystal clear” that the Trump administration was seeking to trade military aid for Ukraine’s war against Russian-backed separatists for political favors, Daria M. Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Kiev, said in an interview.

The hold on the aid was lifted on Sept. 12, after three congressional committees opened investigations into whether the Trump administration had misappropriated foreign policy tools to try to help the president politically. Those investigations were started in response to reporting on Mr. Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine.

Much was at stake in the delayed military assistance. More than 13,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Ukraine’s five-year war with Russian-backed separatists, Europe’s only active military conflict.

Mr. Trump has suggested he would like Attorney General William P. Barr to look into material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors. But under a bilateral legal assistance agreement, American law enforcement can only ask for evidence if a criminal investigation is underway in the United States, which is not the case.

“It is a very unfortunate situation for Zelensky,” Svitlana Zalishchuk, a former member of the foreign affairs committee in Ukraine’s Parliament, said in a telephone interview. “Obviously, he wants to build good relations with the American administration. At the same time, he doesn’t want to play American politics.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/world/europe/ukraine-trump-zelensky.html

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Judge sides with Trump against California law requiring candidates to release tax returns – NBCNews.com
Judge sides with Trump against California law requiring candidates to release tax returns – NBCNews.com

A federal judge has sided with the Trump campaign’s request to halt a California law that’s aimed at forcing the president to release his tax returns.

U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. said Thursday that he’ll issue a formal ruling by Oct. 1.

The ruling marks a major victory for President Donald Trump, who is fighting multiple Democratic-led efforts to force him to reveal the returns. California is expected to appeal.

The Trump campaign and Republican parties have sued over the law requiring candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the March 2020 primary ballot.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law in July.

Lawyers for Trump and Republicans argue that it violates the U.S. Constitution by adding an additional requirement to run for president. They also said a federal law requiring presidents to disclose financial information supersedes state law.

“We are encouraged that the federal court tentatively concluded that a preliminary injunction should be granted,” Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement. “We look forward to the court’s written order. It remains our position that the law is unconstitutional because states are not permitted to add additional requirements for candidates for president, and that the law violates the Constitution.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/judge-sides-trump-against-california-law-requiring-candidates-release-tax-n1056666

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Imelda fallout: Barges strike a bridge near Houston after 400 water rescues and 300 drivers stranded – msnNOW
Imelda fallout: Barges strike a bridge near Houston after 400 water rescues and 300 drivers stranded – msnNOW


The weakening remnants of Imelda will make their way Friday into northern Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana as misery lingers in Houston, even as floodwaters start to recede.

Flooding on Thursday left some Houston neighborhoods swimming in several feet of water, forcing authorities to perform more than 400 high-water rescues, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said. There were 323 stranded vehicles and 22 major accidents, the office added.

The chaos continued early Friday, when officials got a report that nine barges had broken away from their moorings on the San Jacinto River, the US Coast Guard said.

At least one barge struck the westbound bridge along Interstate 10, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Danny Perez said.

Officials are assessing the eastbound bridge for damage, with a full assessment planned when water level recede, Perez said.

Both bridges were closed to traffic Friday morning, and vessel movement beneath them remained suspended following strong currents Thursday evening, Perez said.

At least one loose barge is carrying an unknown hazardous substance, Perez said.

© KPRC

There have been at least two storm-related deaths, officials said. A man in his 40s of 50s was pulled Thursday evening from a van submerged in floodwater, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. The man died after being taken to a hospital. 

And in Jefferson County, 19-year-old Hunter Morrison died when he was electrocuted, then drowned, while trying to move his horse, according to a statement from his family posted at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page.

Imelda — the seventh wettest tropical cyclone in US history, per the National Weather Service — dumped more than 15 inches of rain across Harris County. Some areas in neighboring Jefferson County saw a whopping 43 inches of rain.

Parts of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana remain under flash flood watches, the National Weather Service said Friday morning. 

Parts of Arkansas will also see periods of heavy rain throughout Friday, with rainfall totals reaching up to 4 inches in some areas, CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.

Neighbors rescue neighbors

More than 200 vehicles had been towed in Houston by Thursday night, as floodwaters began to recede, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Residents began ditching their cars after heavy flooding made the roadways impassable.

In Beaumont, a city in Jefferson County, neighborhoods turned into lakes and roads looked more like streams. Two overnight shelters were opened, CNN affiliate KPRC reported. 

Some neighbors helped each other, with one resident telling the station, “We’re just trying to take care of our people.”

Floodwater poured Thursday morning into Beaumont TV station KBMT, forcing the news staff to move to Houston sister station KHOU to broadcast.

Officials urged residents to get to safety. 

“If you are still in an area with standing water, seek higher ground and shelter in place,” Beaumont police said. “Be patients and only call 911 for emergencies.”

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott declared a state of disaster Thursday for 13 counties.

Comparing Imelda to Harvey

Many southeast Texas residents say the storm was similar — and some said worse — than Hurricane Harvey. The Category 4 monster made landfall two years ago in Texas and Louisiana. 

That storm broke the US record for rainfall from a single storm, dumping more than 60 inches about 90 miles east of Houston. Harvey left the state in devastation with up to $75 billion in damages.

“I’m tired of it,” Kingwood-area resident Sharai Poteet told CNN affiliate KTRK.

Poteet spent more than $50,000 repairing her home after Harvey, she said, after that storm dropped 27 trillion gallons of water on Texas and Louisiana.

“I don’t understand why we don’t have any drainage out here anymore,” she said this week.

Misty Walton’s apartment in Vidor, Texas, was inundated with water as remnants from Imelda moved through state. 

“Harvey was bad, and this is bad, too,” Walton said. “People are not even done rebuilding here, and it’s happening again.”

Her apartment and two cars in the driveway were flooded, she said.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Walton said. “But like always, we pull together, and we find a way.”

Source Article from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/imelda-fallout-barges-strike-a-bridge-near-houston-after-400-water-rescues-and-300-drivers-stranded/ar-AAHzZBR

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Michelle Carter, Who Encouraged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself, Was Denied Parole – BuzzFeed News
Michelle Carter, Who Encouraged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself, Was Denied Parole – BuzzFeed News

Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman who was convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend via text messages and phone calls to kill himself, will remain in prison after her parole was denied Friday.

Carter, 22, who began serving a 15-month jail sentence this February, appeared at a parole hearing Thursday to seek early release from prison. However, the parole board said it was “troubled” that Carter had not only encouraged her 18-year-old boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to kill himself but also “actively prevented others in intervening in his suicide.”

After Carter was found guilty two years ago, the trial judge, Lawrence Moniz, allowed her to remain free until her state appeals were exhausted.

Carter began her sentence in the Bristol County House of Corrections, but in July she was moved out of the facility. The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office refused to provide details on where or why she was transferred. However, she was sent back to the facility after her parole was denied. Her release date is March 13, 2020.

The parole board said that Carter’s “self-serving statements and behavior” before and after Roy’s suicide in 2014 “appear to be irrational and lacked sincerity.”

The board added that Carter’s appeal for early release did not provide enough insight into the reasons for her “lack of empathy” at the time of Roy’s death and after his suicide.

Her lawyer, Daniel Marx, declined to comment Friday.

“She has been a model inmate,” Jonathan Darling, a spokesperson for the Bristol County Sheriff, told BuzzFeed News on Friday.

He said that Carter attended programs at the jail, had no discipline issues, and was polite to staff, volunteers, and other inmates.

Source Article from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/michelle-carter-parole-denied-texting-suicide-case

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Trump announces ‘highest sanctions ever’ targeting Iran’s central bank – POLITICO
Trump announces ‘highest sanctions ever’ targeting Iran’s central bank – POLITICO

foreign policy

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09/20/2019 11:40 AM EDT

Updated 09/20/2019 01:28 PM EDT


President Donald Trump on Friday shared details of his administration’s newest sanctions on Iran, targeting the Islamic Republic’s national bank over Tehran’s alleged involvement in a series of drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities last weekend.

Trump claimed they would be the “highest sanctions ever imposed on a country,” telling reporters in the Oval Office that the penalties would go “right to the top” of the Iranian government.

Story Continued Below

“You will be seeing certain things happening but a very major factor is what we did,” Trump said during a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “The highest sanctions ever imposed on a country. We’ve never done it to this level.”

The latest sanctions layer on top of a slew of other penalties the Trump administration has imposed and reimposed as a result of Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and other world powers. The existing sanctions have already targeted Iran’s oil exports, its metal and mining industries and its ability to receive financing from international banks. Tehran has repeatedly likened the sanctions to “economic warfare.”

The new sanctions will affect “the last remaining source of funds for both the central bank of Iran, as well as the national development fund — which is their sovereign wealth fund,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Friday. “This is very big — we’ve now cut off all source of funds to Iran.”

The new sanctions indicate Trump is unlikely to back down from a maximum pressure campaign designed to force Tehran back to the negotiating table with the U.S., which has long accused Iran of bad behavior in the Middle East, including funding groups designated by Washington as terrorist organizations.

Trump sidestepped a question at a press conference later Friday when asked whether the sanctions on Iran’s national leave the U.S. without any breathing room to further escalate its pressure campaign without moving beyond economic penalties.

“These are the strongest sanctions ever put on the country. We are at a level of sanctions that is far greater than ever before, with respect to Iran,” he reiterated, arguing that Iran has “a lot of self-made problems.”

He added: “Iran could be a great country, a rich country. But they are choosing to go a different way.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said repeatedly that relief from U.S. sanctions would be a precondition for any meeting between himself and Trump.

The president first forecasted a new round of penalties in a tweet this week, though he did not provide any specifics at the time.

The drone strikes, which took place overnight last Saturday, disrupted half of Saudi Arabia’s oil supply and the daily equivalent of 5 percent of the world’s oil supply. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen have maintained that they are responsible for the strikes, though some U.S. officials, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have blamed Iran for the attacks from the outset.

Throughout the week, Trump has been more hesitant to directly blame Iran, though he’s alluded to it multiple times. Saudi Arabia also took longer to publicly blame Tehran, citing the need to finish investigating the strikes, but it too finally accused Iran of carrying out the attacks later in the week.

Iran has denied any culpability for the attack and warned the U.S. that a military response will spark an “all-out war” and immediate retaliation from Tehran.

Trump has increasingly leaned against responding militarily despite asserting over the weekend and throughout the week that the U.S. was “locked and loaded” and could attack at any time.

Under fire from Iran hawks in Congress over his manner of responding to the strikes, he defended his decision to go the sanctions route, contending that a retaliatory attack would, in fact, be “the easiest thing I could do.”

“It’s so easy. For all of those that say they should do it, it shows weakness, it shows — actually, in my opinion it shows strength because it’s the easiest thing I could do — OK, go ahead, knock out 15 different major things in Iran,” the president said with a shrug. “I could do that. All set to go. It’s all set to go. But I’m not looking to do that if I can.”

Trump maintained that his new sanctions did not preclude him from military action, nor did he say that such a move was off the table.

But “I think the strong person’s approach, and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint,” he argued. “Much easier to do it the other way. It’s much easier. And Iran knows if they misbehave they are on borrowed time.”

The Associated Press reported Friday that Pentagon officials are set to offer Trump an array of possible responses to the attack. At the White House hours later, the president punted when asked by a reporter whether he was weighing any other non-military options in the event that Iran continues to lash out and stir up conflict in the region, and would not elaborate on possible alternatives.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Trump said. “But I will say I think the sanctions work, and the military would work, but that is a very severe form of winning. But we win. Nobody can beat us militarily. No one can even come close.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/20/trump-sanctions-irans-central-bank-1506558

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After a rocky start with the Aussies, Donald Trump to host state dinner for PM Scott Morrison – USA TODAY
After a rocky start with the Aussies, Donald Trump to host state dinner for PM Scott Morrison – USA TODAY
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President Donald Trump says in a welcoming ceremony for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that “today we celebrate the long-cherished and unwavering friendship between the United States and Australia.” (Sept. 20)
AP, AP

WASHINGTON – What a difference a couple of years – and a couple of elections – can make.

President Donald Trump, who famously hung up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a protocol-shattering phone call just a week after taking office, is giving the red-carpet treatment to Turnbull’s successor, Scott Morrison, at the White House on Friday.

Morrison and his wife will be feted with a formal state dinner – only the second of Trump’s presidency.

Dinner will be served al fresco-style on the South Lawn and will include ravioli drizzled with a lemony Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese emulsion and topped by shavings of carrots, baby kale and sunchoke chips. The main course will be roasted Dover sole accented with fennel mousseline. Dessert will be a Lady Apple tart with ice cream.

Here are five things you should know about Morrison’s visit:

Who is Scott Morrison?

Morrison, 51, is Australia’s 30th prime minister. He took office in 2018, succeeding Turnbull, and held onto power after his center-right government scored an astounding win in an election that pundits and pollsters had predicted it was certain to lose.

Sound familiar? Morrison’s upset victory has drawn comparisons to Trump’s unexpected win against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Morrison and his wife, Jennifer, arrived on the White House South Lawn to a 19-gun salute and were greeted by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. After the traditional inspection of the troops, the two leaders spoke of what Trump called “the unbreakable bond” between the two countries.

“Australians and Americans understand each other like few other people,” Morrison said.

Before he became prime minister, Morrison served in the Australian parliament, where he once carried a chunk of coal onto the Parliament floor and proclaimed: “This is coal! Don’t be afraid!” Morrison was using the prop – against Parliament rules – to attack the Labor Party, which wanted to phase out coal power and press for more renewable energy.

He also previously served as Australia’s immigration minister, where he helped develop a hardline policy to keep asylum-seekers from entering the country through its seaports.

Is Morrison Australia’s Trump?

Hardly.

Though Morrison’s political views are in line with Trump’s on issues like immigration and energy, they are very different people, said Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute, an independent think tank based in Sydney.

Morrison is a lifelong politician, a devout Christian (he’s Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister) and an “everyman figure,” Fullilove said.

“Australian political values – including a belief in alliances and free trade – deviate from (President Trump’s) brand,” Fullilove said. “But they are both conservative figures. Prime Minister Morrison made his name as a tough immigration minister, which would appeal to the president.”

While they aren’t from the same mold, the American press tends to cast them that way, “which probably flattered and pleased the president,” Fullilove said.

“So President Trump was primed to like Prime Minister Morrison, and the (prime minister) has used that to his advantage,” he said.

More: Trump greets Australian prime minister in attempt to revive ‘mateship’ with U.S. ally

What brings Morrison to the U.S.?

Morrison said in a statement released by his office that he will be visiting the U.S. from Sept. 19-27. Besides Washington, he also will travel to Chicago, Ohio and New York.

“There is no deeper friendship than that which exists between Australia and the United States,” he said. “We see the world through the same eyes, with shared values and a deep commitment to promoting peace, liberty and prosperity.”

Morrison described his visit as “a valuable opportunity to further strengthen our security and economic partnership.”

At the White House, he will hold a bilateral meeting with Trump. The White House meeting will be followed by a news conference with the two leaders and, Friday night, the formal state dinner.

On Sunday, Trump and Morrison will tour a new Pratt Industries paper-recycling mill in Wapakoneta, Ohio. The plant is owned by Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, who has been a prominent Trump supporter.

More: Think America can ditch Trump in 2020? The world says otherwise

What will Morrison and Trump discuss?

No details have been released, but it’s a good bet they’ll talk about issues such as trade, China and ongoing tensions in the Middle East.

China is Australia’s leading trade partner and the U.S. is one of its closest allies, so the Aussies are uncomfortably caught in the middle of Trump’s trade war with Beijing.

The trade war “hasn’t had a big impact yet in Australia, except maybe to dampen some business confidence,” said Alan Tidwell, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies. “The Australian economy was beginning to show a little fatigue even before the trade war got under way.”

Australia has agreed to join U.S.-led operations patrolling the Strait of Hormuz following Iran’s seizure of tankers passing through the critical waterway earlier this summer, so that will likely come up, along with last weekend’s crippling drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, Tidwell said.

More: France’s Emmanuel Macron hopes to set up meeting between Donald Trump and Iran in ‘coming weeks’

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Who’s attending the state dinner?

The White House has not released the guest list for the state dinner, the first for an Australian prime minister since George W. Bush hosted one for then-Prime Minister John Howard in 2006.

Australian media reports say several prominent Aussies have received – and accepted – dinner invitations, including Pratt, golfer Greg Norman, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, who is the Fox Corp.’s executive chairman and chief executive officer.

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Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/20/state-dinner-trump-hosts-australian-prime-minister-scott-morrison/2344441001/

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Trump administration reaches deal to send asylum seekers to El Salvador in an effort to deter migrants from entering the United States – The Washington Post
Trump administration reaches deal to send asylum seekers to El Salvador in an effort to deter migrants from entering the United States – The Washington Post

San Salvador, El Salvador is seen from a hill in September 2018. The United States has reached a deal with El Salvador to send asylum seekers there. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

The Trump administration has reached an accord that could allow the United States to turn away asylum seekers at the U.S. border and send them to El Salvador to seek refuge, pushing migrants into one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The deal between the two governments is the latest in a series of policies aimed at creating new layers of deterrents to the influx of migrants applying for protection on U.S. soil.

Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is scheduled to announce the deal Friday afternoon, according to administration officials with knowledge of the agreement. McAleenan traveled to El Salvador to hash out the accord last month with president Nayib Bukele. News of the accord was first reported by the Associated Press.

U.S. officials describe the deal as an “asylum cooperation agreement,” insisting that such an accord does not amount to what is known as a “safe third country” deal. That term has been stigmatized in Central America, in large part because it would be difficult to consider the Northern Triangle region of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as a safe haven given that it has among the highest homicide rates in the world.

In practice, though, the asylum cooperation agreement with El Salvador could potentially achieve what McAleenan is seeking across the hemisphere: deals that aim to stem the surging numbers of migrants from around the world who have flooded U.S. immigration courts with humanitarian claims.

Asylum seekers from Nicaragua, Cuba and other nations who pass through El Salvador en route to the U.S. border would be eligible for return there under the terms of the deal, according to officials with knowledge of the accord. As part of the plan, the United States will help build an asylum system in El Salvador and in other nations in the region, seeking to fund the effort through United Nations refu­gee agencies.


Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, left, and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, pose for a photo during an official meeting in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Aug. 28. (Salvador Melendez/AP)

McAleenan reached a similar deal with Guatemala in August that has yet to be implemented. The Salvadoran accord is different in a key regard: unlike Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales, the Salvadoran leader is one of the most popular figures in Latin America, with an approval rating topping out at 90 percent in some polls.

Some nations where McAleenan has sought such accords, including Panama and Mexico, have balked, saying they won’t sign safe third agreements even as they demonstrate a willingness to reach deals that could function in a similar way.

Bukele, 38, a centrist businessman and former mayor of San Salvador, has sought to leverage his cooperation to obtain benefits from the Trump administration. They include additional U.S. investment as well as a potential fix for the roughly 200,000 Salvadorans who have been living in the United States for nearly 20 years with a form of provisional residency known as temporary protected status (TPS).

The Trump administration’s attempts to end TPS for El Salvador and other nations has been blocked in court, and the current extension is valid through January 2020.

“Developing a safe El Salvador is a first step toward ending the exodus of Salvadorans to the United States,” Bukele wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in July. “The main reason cited by our compatriots who flee our country is the lack of safety and security they face in their own neighborhoods.”

The asylum accord with El Salvador would not send its citizens back to their country if they reach the U.S. border seeking protection, but they could be routed to Guatemala if that deal takes effect.

McAleenan has said the United States will implement the asylum agreements carefully to avoid overwhelming receiver nations with a flood of people needing resettlement.

Gang violence has pushed El Salvador’s homicide rate to one of the world’s highest this decade, but in recent years the level of violence has dropped. According to the latest Salvadoran figures, the murder rate has dropped by half since last year, which the government attributes to its military crackdown on gangs.

Irregular migration from El Salvador also has declined significantly in recent years, and U.S. agents now arrest far more Hondurans and Guatemalans at the U.S. border, according to the latest data.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-reaches-deal-to-send-asylum-seekers-to-el-salvador-in-an-effort-to-deter-migrants-from-entering-the-united-states/2019/09/20/17350a16-dbbd-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html

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