UN Experts: Trump Violated International Law in Pardoning Blackwater Mercenaries

The choice to pardon the military contractors convicted of murder and manslaughter may violate the Geneva Conventions.  JARED RODRIGUEZ / TRUTHOUT

BY Chris Walker, Truthout PUBLISHEDDecember 30, 2020

The youngest victim in that shooting, Ali Kinani, was just 9 years old when he was killed by the four Blackwater contractors. His father, Mohammed Kinani, recounted the scene he witnessed when the massacre happened.

“When one man tried to run, they shot him,” Kinani said in a Democracy Now! interview from 2010. “He dropped dead on the spot. He was on the ground bleeding, and they were shooting nonstop. They shot like they were trying to kill everyone they could see.”

Due to how vicious and criminal these men’s actions were, members of the UN condemned Trump’s decision to pardon them, describing his actions as criminal while doing so.

“Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families,” Jelena Aparac, chair of a UN working group on the use of mercenaries, said on Wednesday of Trump’s pardoning of the four Blackwater contractors.

The president of the United States has tremendous leeway when it comes to whom they may pardon. However, many scholars believe there are still limits to the pardon power, particularly when it comes to consideration for other laws — including international agreements and treaties, which are treated as “the supreme law of the land” according to the U.S. Constitution.

In that respect, it’s possible that Trump violated the Geneva Conventions when he pardoned these four individuals, as member states to that agreement are responsible for holding war criminals in their own country accountable for their actions.

Private contractors or mercenaries are included in those Geneva Conventions agreements.

There are grave consequences, according to those agreements, for not adhering to this rule — ignoring or curtailing punishments for war criminals will likely encourage other nations, for instance, to hire private contractors in order to break the spirit of the international agreement.

With that in mind, the pardons are in violation of “U.S. obligations under international law,” and will “undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level,” Aparac said.

“Ensuring accountability for such crimes is fundamental to humanity and to the community of nations,” Aparac elaborated, adding that “pardons, amnesties, or any other forms of exculpation for war crimes open doors to future abuses when States contract private military and security companies for inherent state functions.”

Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, expressed similar sentiments. Cohn, speaking directly to Truthout about the matter, also said that Trump should have pardoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for his role in revealing other atrocious actions of the U.S. military in years’ past.

“The Geneva Conventions require that States hold war criminals accountable,” Cohn said. “Yet Trump pardoned four war criminals but indicted Julian Assange for revealing evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq.”

Cohn continued:

Assange published the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, which depicts U.S. soldiers killing 18 civilians, in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Trump should dismiss the indictment against Assange and grant him a full pardon.


Chris Walker is Truthout’s News Writer, and is based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on the American people.

2020 Was a Record Year for Far Right Violence in the US

Members of the Proud Boys yell in front of a hotel during 

a protest on December 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C.

STEPHANIE KEITH / GETTY IMAGES

This year was quite active for the far right in the United States, especially after its relative downturn in 2019 as a violent street movement compared to the recent past. Although the far right may not have committed as many high-profile massacres as previous years, 2020 saw more murders and car attacks at demonstrations than any year in recent memory.

While the openly fascist wing of the “alt-right” continued to implode over the past year, some on the far right picked up steam: the Boogaloo movement — a new grouping of younger activists with militia-style politics, but the look and feel of the alt-right; Gropyers — white nationalists and their allies who are trying to influence the Trumpist movement from inside; and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, who believe Trump is always about to arrest a cabal of liberal, deep state, satanic pedophiles. Moreover, aggressive street demonstrations led by the Proud Boys reached a fever pitch, inspired by comments from Donald Trump, and renewed opposition to the revived Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to new ground for the far right. Cities started implementing shutdowns in March, but even beforehand, conspiracy theories circulated that the virus was a hoax, a Chinese bioweapon or a plot to enslave Americans. By April, the “reopen” demonstrations were in full swing. These protests were driven by “alt-lite” members (the more moderate wing of the alt-right, which allows people of color, Jews and gay men to join), militias and Trumpists, but white nationalists also participated. One of the most aggressive actions was on April 30, when armed protesters pushed their way into the Michigan legislature.

This movement was soon overtaken by another starting on May 25, when a Minneapolis cop murdered George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, launching a new wave of the BLM movement. It took on an almost revolutionary furor; a police precinct was burned and militant demonstrations broke out across the country. Eventually, they spread even to small towns, and by July, up to 26 million had joined protests in support of this multiracial movement for Black liberation. The far right responded with increasingly aggressive counter-protests, especially as BLM rallies lost their initial intensity.

These counter-protests were driven in part by Trump’s accusation that anti-fascists (also known as antifa) and anarchists were responsible for the protests’ militancy, a rehash of 1950s accusations that Communists controlled the civil rights movement. These conspiracies reached their height on May 31 when Trump tweeted: “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” (Antifa is neither a single organization, nor does such a designation exist domestically.) When wildfires swept Western states in September, a bizarre rumor, sometimes spread by law enforcement, claimed that members of antifa were intentionally setting them. Armed vigilantes set up roadblocks intended to function as “checkpoints” to identify “antifa arsonists.”

Things turned deadly in the spring. There were a large number of murders and car attacks at BLM demonstrations. The most infamous of these was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where, during an August 26 demonstration, 17-year-old militia member Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people.

Days later, far right activist Aaron Danielson was killed after he allegedly attacked random people in the aftermath of a violent far right protest in Portland, Oregon. He was shot by self-identified anti-fascist Michael Forest Reinoehl, who in turn was killed by law enforcement on September 3 — without any warning, witnesses said. Trump even gloated that law enforcement gunned him down because “they didn’t want to arrest him.” In October, far right activist Lee Keltner was killed by a security guard as he threatened a TV crew in Denver.

The killings of Danielson, Reinoehl and Keltner were all connected to very aggressive demonstrations, mostly led by the Proud Boys. These had morphed into joint anti-antifa/anti-BLM- themed events, the two movements now joined in the far right’s feverish imagination. Although found in various cities, until the election they continued to be largely centered in Portland.

The Proud Boys became the undisputed far right street force of the year, and were even mentioned in the presidential debate, with Trump telling them to “stand back and stand by.” In Portland — where BLM demonstrations have gone on for over 200 days — the Proud Boys held a series of violent demonstrations. On August 22, Proud Boy Alan Swinney pointed a handgun in the middle of a melee while police stood by. The next week, a vehicle caravan attacked bystanders with paintballs and mace, and the day ended with Danielson’s death. On September 26, the Proud Boys held an aggressive, drunken demonstration at a North Portland park while the counter-demonstration was held elsewhere. Post-election rallies included the November 14 “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C., where — for the first time since Charlottesville — well-known white nationalists openly mixed with other Trumpists. A follow-up December 12 rally was marked by more clashes with anti-fascists and vandalism at two Black churches, plus four stabbings and a shooting. The Proud Boys’ leader called for his members to violently disrupt Joe Biden’s inauguration. And on December 21, members of a protest, which included armed members of groups like the Proud Boys, attempted to break into the statehouse in Salem, Oregon.

However, the decline of U.S. fascists, which began in 2018, continued in 2020. The largest “alt-right” fascist group, Patriot Front, held three pop-up marches, each of which showed a decline in attendance from previous years. The American Identity Movement (formerly Identity Evropa) disbanded, as did the Atomwaffen Division, although some observers say it just rebranded as the National Socialist Order. The fascist National Justice Party also formed this year, and Kyle Chapman (aka “Based Stickman”) left the Proud Boys to form the openly white nationalist and anti-Semitic Proud Goys. But the most important movement that fascists took part in was the Groypers, whose goal is to turn Trump’s base further right by working inside that movement. This strategy is opposed to those explicit white nationalist groups who either work separately from the larger Trumpist movement or, in the case of Patriot Front, reject Trump altogether.

Numerous members of Atomwaffen Division, including former leader John Denton, were arrested on weapons charges, threatening journalists, or “swatting” (attempting to get SWAT teams to raid a residence under false pretenses). Seven members of The Base, a similar fascist group that also promotes terrorism, were arrested for crimes including planning to murder anti-fascists and attack a gun rights rally. The group’s leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, was revealed to be living in Moscow; his past as a Pentagon contractor led New York Magazine to muse that he could be either an FBI agent creating a neo-Nazi honeypot, or a Russian asset.

Just as the coronavirus situation was escalating in March, NSM (National Socialist Movement) member Timothy Wilson was killed by police as he was heading to bomb a hospital. Jeremy Christian, who murdered two people in Portland in 2017 for intervening against his Islamophobic harassment of two women, was sentenced to life in prison. An army private in the pro-Nazi Satanist group, the Order of Nine Angles, was arrested for plotting to ambush his own unit. And Christopher Cantwell, who in 2017 was slated to speak at the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, was convicted in late September of extortion for making a rape threat.

There were high-profile arrests of other far right militants as well. In October, 13 militia members were busted, including six who were plotting to kidnap the Michigan governor. Numerous Boogaloo movement members were also arrested after they sought to inflame the early George Floyd protests for their own ends: Steven Carrillo was arrested for murdering both a federal security guard during the Oakland protests in May, and in June when he ambushed a police officer outside his home in Ben Lomond, California. An associate was arrested for firing a weapon during the initial Minneapolis protests, while three others received terrorism charges for plotting attacks in Las Vegas.

Social media platforms also cracked down on the far right, although belatedly. Twitter started labeling many of Trump’s posts as “disputed.” Numerous far right accounts were removed from different platforms, though sometimes for coronavirus denial — not fascism or violence. Twitter suspended both former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon (who had been arrested earlier in 2020) and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, who had spent over a decade on the platform. Different platforms suspended conspiracy theorist David Icke, Ammon Bundy and the Oath Keepers, as well as the Proud Boys plus their allies, American Guard. In August, a large Facebook purge was focused on QAnon and militias, but also included some anti-fascists and anarchists. This deplatforming spurred a far right migration to the politically sympathetic platform Parler.

The election brought on more far right action. The right-wing conspiracy theory surrounding QAnon became very influential in the fall, and the president embraced it. Trump also declared that antifa was “virtually part of” Biden’s campaign, who he called a “Servant of the Globalists.” (Accusations of “globalism” are a long-time anti-Semitic dog whistle.) After losing the election, Trump has continuously claimed it was rigged and that he won, fueling aggressive protests by his followers. He even turned on his beloved Fox News, instead promoting the more extreme OANN (One American News Network) and disposing of his sycophant Attorney General William Barr.

Trump brought the far right to a new level of popularity, and it remains to be seen what will happen after his departure. Undoubtedly, some groups will immediately shift to opposing incoming president Joe Biden, and others will continue to maintain that the election was stolen. It’s uncertain if Trump will continue to be involved in stoking this movement, however, or if he’ll retire from politics. It’s possible that after a year or so, without a president to inspire them, the far right will fade to pre-Trump levels (although even those levels were more substantial than many people realize). Some watchers, however, think such a cooling off might take years.

TRUTH OUT 

U.K. abolishes tax on menstrual products

Jacob Knutson



Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty Images


The United Kingdom's abolishment of a tax on menstrual products goes in effect today, according to a release from the government.

Why it matters: The repeal is among the first acts the U.K. is taking as part of its formal separation from the European Union because EU law prevents member nations from reducing the value-added tax on menstrual products below 5% because they are considered "luxury items."

What they're saying: “Sanitary products are essential, so it’s right that we do not charge VAT,” Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak said.
“We have already rolled out free sanitary products in schools, colleges and hospitals and this commitment takes us another step closer to making them available and affordable for all women.”

The big picture: Other countries, including Australia, Canada and India, have also repealed their taxes on such products.

Scotland became the first country to make menstrual products completely free in November.

In the United States, ten states have succeeded in passing legislation that exempts tampons, pads, and in some states, menstrual cups in recent years, Axios' Ursula Perano reports.

Of note: Ireland is the only EU nation that does not tax menstrual products because it. did not have a tax in place when the EU set its tax rate floor, according to AP

Andre Hill's loved ones mourn loss of

 'a chess-playing mind'

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, 

Associated Press Jan. 1, 2021 

Andre Hill, fatally shot by Columbus police on Dec. 22, is memorialized on a shirt worn by his daughter, Karissa Hill, on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio. Karissa Hill said she considered her father an “everything man” because he did so many things.

Photo: Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP

Attorney Benjamin Crump, left, discusses the police shooting of Andre Hill at a news conference attended by Hill's daughter, Karissa, center, and sister Shawna Barnett, on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio. Karissa Hill said she considered her father an "everything man" because he did so many things.

Photo: Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — In late May, Andre Hill and his roommate Donyell Bryant watched in shock, along with the nation, the video of a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck for minutes, even as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

Nearly six months later, Bryant, 42, sat alone on the same couch in his home in Dublin in suburban Columbus watching body camera footage of police shooting and killing his friend of 22 years.

And the Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver his friend's eulogy at a public memorial service Tuesday, Hill's family said Friday.

“I mean, it just still doesn’t even feel real,” Bryant said. “It just seems kind of crazy.”

Columbus Officer Adam Coy, who is white, fatally shot Hill, who was Black, early Dec. 22 as Hill emerged from a garage holding a cellphone in his left hand and his right hand obscured. He was visiting a family friend at the time.

Police had responded to a neighbor's nonemergency complaint about someone stopping and starting a car outside.

“He was bringing me Christmas money. He didn’t do anything,” a woman inside the house shouted at police afterward.

Coy, who had a long history of complaints from citizens, was fired Dec. 28 for failing to activate his body camera before the confrontation and for not providing medical aid to Hill.

Beyond an internal police investigation, the Ohio attorney general, the U.S. attorney for central Ohio and the FBI have begun their own probes into the shooting.

At the memorial service Tuesday morning at the First Church of God in Columbus, civil rights attorney Ben Crump is expected to issue a “call to action," according to the Hill family's news release.

Family and friends are remembering Hill — a father and grandfather — as a man devoted to his family, an always-smiling optimist and a skilled tradesman who dreamed after years of work as a chef and restaurant manager of one day owning his own restaurant.

“I consider him an everything man,” his 27-year-old daughter, Karissa Hill, said Thursday. She added: “It’s hard to say what he did, because he did everything.”

Hill, 47, grew up in the Eastmoor neighborhood of Columbus, a racially mixed area on the city's east side. He graduated in the early 1990s and earned certification in business management and culinary arts at Hocking College in southeastern Ohio.

Hill — "Dre" to friends and “Big Daddy” to his three grandchildren — worked at many restaurants around Columbus over the years either as a chef or manager, including Buffalo Wild Wings and Popeyes, and franchises of two smaller chains, Cooker Restaurant and the Old Bag of Nails.

He was a skilled soul food chef but enjoyed trying all styles of cooking.

“You name it, he makes it,” said Michael Henry, 49, who attended high school with Hill and later shared an apartment. He added: “That was his passion right there, cooking.”

Later, Hill joined Henry at Airnet Systems in Columbus, a transportation company that shipped packages and mail, including overnighting checks to banks. There, he met Bryant, bonding over a game of chess. The two hit it off, eventually moving in together and becoming more like brothers than roommates, said Bryant, who met his girlfriend of four years through Hill.

Victor Carmichael met Hill and Bryant when he also started work at Airnet Systems in the late 1990s. Carmichael, 44, was new to Columbus at the time and didn’t know anyone. Hill helped him find a community in Ohio, he said, typical of the kind of friend he was.

Hill's fondness for chess epitomized the way he conducted himself, said his younger brother, Alvon Williams, calling him an overachiever.

“He had a chess-playing mind with life," Williams said. “Chess is a move before your initial move, even two moves ahead. And that’s what he did every day with anything that he tried to achieve.”

Hill was insistent that his family — including his daughter and grandchildren and his two sisters and brother — stay in touch, especially after any prolonged separation.

“He's the one to make that call — 'You get over here right now. I'm cooking dinner. Let's go,'" said sister Michelle Hairston, 45.

In the last year, the coronavirus pandemic forced Hill to press pause on his dream of owning a restaurant, and he took on work in construction and house remodeling to help provide for his family instead. He worked across Ohio as a subcontractor, said sister Shawna Barnett.

The day he died, Hill had put together his own crew to do independent contracting, a goal he had working toward since March, Bryant said.

On that Tuesday, Hill was borrowing a co-worker’s truck he had plans to purchase and parked it outside his friend’s house.

Underneath the sweater he wore as he emerged from the garage and walked slowly toward police, he was wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt calling for justice for George Floyd.

___


Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

BioNTech founders warn of vaccine supply gaps -Spiegel





By Douglas Busvine

BERLIN (Reuters) – BioNTech is working flat out with partner Pfizer to boost production of their COVID-19 vaccine, its founders said, warning there would be gaps in supply until other vaccines were rolled out.

The German biotech startup has led the vaccine race but its shot has been slow to arrive in the European Union because of relatively late approval from the bloc’s health regulator and the small size of the order placed by Brussels.

The delays in rolling out the home-grown vaccine have caused consternation in Germany, where some regions had to halt vaccinations within days of starting an inoculation drive.

“At the moment it doesn’t look good – a hole is appearing because there’s a lack of other approved vaccines and we have to fill the gap with our own vaccine,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told news weekly Spiegel.

Sahin founded BioNTech with his wife, Oezlem Tuereci, who is the company’s chief medical officer. Both faulted the EU’s decision to spread orders in the expectation that more vaccines would be approved quickly.

The United States ordered 600 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer shot in July, while the EU waited until November to place an order half that size.

“At some point it became clear that it would not be possible to deliver so quickly,” Tuereci told Spiegel. “By then it was already too late to place follow-on orders.”

After publication of the interview, BioNTech said it was in talks with Brussels on boosting output

“We are in productive discussions with the European Commission on how to make more of our vaccine in Europe, for Europe,” a spokeswoman said.

NEW PRODUCTION

BioNTech hopes to launch a new production line in Marburg, Germany, ahead of schedule in February, with the potential to produce 250 million doses in the first half of 2021, said Sahin.

Talks are also under way with contract manufacturers and there should be greater clarity by the end of January, he added.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Twitter that German authorities would do everything possible to enable a swift start in Marburg.

The federal government, which has backed BioNTech with 375 million euros ($458 million) in funding, has resisted calls from opposition leaders to speed production of its vaccine by issuing compulsory licences to other drugmakers.

Another vaccine from Moderna is expected to be cleared by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Jan. 6.

Spahn has also urged the EMA to quickly approve the Oxford University-AstraZeneca shot cleared by Britain. The EU timeline for that treatment remains uncertain.

That vaccine was approved by India’s drug regulator on Friday for emergency use, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

VIRAL VARIANT

Sahin said the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which uses messenger RNA to instruct the human immune system to fight the coronavirus, should be able to cope with a new, more contagious variant first detected in Britain.

“We are testing whether our vaccine can also neutralise this variant and will soon know more,” he said.

Asked about coping with a strong mutation, he said it would be possible to tweak the vaccine as required within six weeks – though such new treatments might require additional regulatory approvals.

Sahin also said BioNTech would make its vaccine, which requires storage at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), easier to handle, adding that a next-generation vaccine could be ready by late summer.

Ford Scraps New Year's Day F-150 Ad To Promote Mask Wearing

Ford's January 1 college football bowl game media buys have changed.

BY IAN WRIGHT VIDEO / 30 COMMENTS


Ford has become a corporate leader in the fight against Covid-19. The brand was among the first automakers to respond to the outbreak by volunteering to build masks, respirators, and ventilators when it halted car production in April 2020. So far, Ford has made over 20 million face shields, 50,000 ventilators, and 32,000 powered air-purifying respirators. The automaker is also aware that people have, understandably, become "weary, beat down, and it would be easy to let our guard down now."

That has led Ford to sacrifice airtime during the high-profile televised college football games today - January 1, 2021 - to promote mask-wearing with a new advert called "Finish Strong."

The advert is narrated by famed actor and Ford spokesman Bryan Cranston and will air during the Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl on ESPN, and the Citrus Bowl on ABC. It will then be repeated during NFL games on January 3. The airtime was originally scheduled to promote Ford's vehicles, mainly the F-150 truck, which is a staple of American football advertising breaks. The new campaign promotes safety measures for the still ongoing pandemic but has an optimistic note as the distribution of the vaccine is ramping up.



"We're in this together and Ford's goal since the pandemic started has been to try to help save lives," Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president for the Americas says. "While many are weary from the challenges 2020 has thrown at us, now is the time for us to pull together, protect each other and finish strong until Covid-19 vaccines arrive more broadly. Lives are on the line."




Of course, Ford has a corporate responsibility, but there is also a strong long-term business case for this bout of advertising. Ford can't sell vehicles to dead customers, and the people suffering long term debilitating effects of the illness won't be needing a truck for work they can't do.

INDIAN FORDISM

Ford Motor pulls the plug on plans to cede India business to Mahindra

Ford took a $799 million impairment charge in 2019 in anticipation of the asset transfer to Mahindra to account for what it called fair value less cost to sell

Topics
Ford Motor | Mahindra & Mahindra | Automobile makers


Chester Dawson | Bloomberg Last Updated at January 1, 2021 


James Farley, CEO, Ford Motor


MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD

STOCK PRICE - CLICK HERE FOR MORE


BSE 732.9012.30 (1.71%)

NSE 732.4511.85 (1.64%)

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Ford Motor Co. is reversing plans to cede most of its Indian operations to Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., deciding to pull out of a proposed joint venture and continue its standalone business in the country.

The companies agreed to terminate the venture after reassessing in part due to the global coronavirus pandemic, they said Thursday. The decision ends a deal reached more than a year ago under which Ford was expected to fold its local operations, including two factories, into a JV that would be majority-controlled by Mahindra, a leading Indian manufacturer of sport utility vehicles.

The future of Ford’s business in India is unclear as it has struggled for more than two decades to grow in the world’s fourth-largest auto market. “The company is actively evaluating its businesses around the world, including in India,” Ford said a statement.

The U.S. carmaker took a $799 million impairment charge in 2019 in anticipation of the asset transfer to Mahindra to account for what it called “fair value less cost to sell.” A spokesman said Thursday the termination of the deal won’t affect that valuation.

“There will be no impact on the impairment that we recorded previously,” said T.R. Reid, the spokesman.

The automakers had said they would cooperate to develop an electric car for emerging markets and work together to introduce three new models to be sold under the Ford brand in India, starting with a midsize SUV.

Ford didn’t specify what would become of those projects. Mahindra said in its own statement the venture’s termination wouldn’t affect its product plans. “Mahindra is accelerating its efforts to establish leadership in electric SUVs,” it said.

The decision came as a Dec. 31 deadline loomed for formalizing the planned partnership. Jim Farley, who became the U.S. automaker’s chief executive officer in October, said in 2019 that the JV with Mahindra could allow Ford to double its revenue from India

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Indian IT firms to take a hit as Trump extend H-1B visa, green card freeze
The freeze on various categories of work visas was ordered by Trump through two proclamations on April 22 and June 22 last year.
Lalit K Jha | Washington Last Updated at January 1, 2021 


US President Donald Trump has extended the freeze on the most sought-after H-1B visas by Indian IT professionals, along with other types of foreign work visas and green cards through March 31 to protect American workers, saying that the reasons for which he had imposed such restrictions amidst the pandemic have not changed.

The freeze on various categories of work visas was ordered by Trump through two proclamations on April 22 and June 22 last year. Hours before the freeze was set to expire on December 31, Trump issued another proclamation on Thursday to extend it until March 31, ensuring that his sweeping limits on legal immigration will remain in place when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20.

He said that the reasons for which he had issued such a restriction have not changed. The continuation of the restrictions, which comes with just 20 days left in the Republican President’s term, is the latest effort to bar the entry of immigrants to the US.

Restricting immigration has been a focus of the Trump administration since its first days when it issued the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, and it has continued into Trump’s final year in office as the White House uses the coronavirus pandemic as cover.




Biden, a Democrat, has promised to lift the suspension on H-1B visas, saying Trump’s immigration policies are cruel.

US media commented that Trump’s decision was yet another example of how his administration is trying to box Biden in on challenging policy matters.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. They would now have to wait at least till the end of March before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping. It would also impact a large number of Indian IT professionals who are seeking renewal of their H-1B visas.

President Trump said the effects of Covid-19 on the US labour market and the health of American communities are a matter of ongoing national concern, and the considerations present in the two previous proclamations have not been eliminated.

“The 2019 Novel Coronavirus continues to significantly disrupt Americans' livelihoods. While the November overall unemployment rate in the US of 6.7 per cent reflects a marked decline from its April high, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in November than in February of 2020,” Trump said in his proclamation.

The current number of new daily cases worldwide reported by the WHO, for example, is higher than the comparable number present during June, and while therapeutics and vaccines are recently available for an increasing number of Americans, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realised, he said. “Moreover, actions such as States’ continued imposition of restrictions on businesses still affect the number of workers that can be hired as compared with February of 2020,” Trump said, adding that his latest proclamation may be extended if needed.

Trump extends freeze on H-1B visas until Mar 31; 

IT professionals miffed

Donald Trump has extended the freeze on the most sought-after H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas by three months to protect American workers

Press Trust of India | Washington Last Updated at January 1, 2021 

US President Donald Trump has extended the freeze on the most sought-after H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas by three months to protect American workers, saying while therapeutics and COVID-19 vaccines are recently available, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realised.

The decision will impact a large number of Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies who were issued H-1B visas by the US government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1.

The freeze on various categories of work visas was ordered by Trump through two proclamations on April 22 and June 22 last year.

Hours before the freeze was set to expire on December 31, Trump issued another proclamation on Thursday to extend it until March 30.

He said that the reasons for which he had issued such a restriction has not changed.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

They would now have to wait at least till the end of March before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping. It would also impact a large number of Indian IT professionals who are seeking renewal of their H-1B visas.

President Trump said that the effects of COVID-19 on the US labour market and the health of American communities is a matter of ongoing national concern, and the considerations present in the two previous proclamations have not been eliminated.

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to significantly disrupt Americans' livelihoods. While the November overall unemployment rate in the United States of 6.7 per cent reflects a marked decline from its April high, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in November than in February of 2020, Trump said in his proclamation.

The current number of new daily cases worldwide reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, is higher than the comparable number present during June, and while therapeutics and vaccines are recently available for an increasing number of Americans, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realised, he said.

Moreover, actions such as States' continued imposition of restrictions on businesses still affect the number of workers that can be hired as compared with February of 2020, Trump said, adding that his latest proclamation may be extended if necessary.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Trump extends restrictions on immigrant and work visas till March

Around 25.7 million Americans are currently unemployed

Web Desk January 01, 2021

Hours before restrictions on immigrant and work visas were about to expire on December 31, US President Donald Trump extended the restrictions till March 31. The restrictions were issued in April and June 2020.

President-elect Joe Biden had criticised the restrictions, while several businesses opposed restrictions that would affect certain foreign workers. The extension, Trump was necessary to ease the slump the economy faced after the coronavirus pandemic hit. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 25.7 million workers in the US are officially unemployed, having lost their jobs due to the pandemic, faced a pay cut or experienced reduction in works hours.

"The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to significantly disrupt Americans'' livelihoods. While the November overall unemployment rate in the United States of 6.7 per cent reflects a marked decline from its April high, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted non-farm jobs in November than in February of 2020," Trump said in his proclamation.

The current number of new daily cases worldwide reported by the World Health Organisation, for example, is higher than the comparable number present during June, and while therapeutics and vaccines are recently available for an increasing number of Americans, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realised, he said. “Moreover, actions such as States'' continued imposition of restrictions on businesses still affect the number of workers that can be hired as compared with February of 2020,” Trump said, adding that his latest proclamation may be extended if necessary.

In October, a federal judge in California blocked Trump's ban on foreign guest workers as the judge found the ban would cause "irreparable harm" to the businesses by interfering with their operations and cause them to lay off employees and close open positions.

-with PTI inputs

Trump extends immigrant and work visa limits into Biden presidency
by Staff reporter
ZIMBABWE



President Trump on Thursday extended a pandemic-era suspension of certain immigrant and work visas, ensuring that his sweeping limits on legal immigration will remain in place when Joe Biden is sworn in.

Through a proclamation issued 20 days before Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump ordered a three-month extension of the visa restrictions, which were first enacted in April as a ban on some prospective immigrants and expanded in June to also halt several temporary work programs.

Mr. Trump has said the limits - which invoke a broad presidential power to bar the entry of foreigners deemed to be 'detrimental to the interests' of the U.S. - are necessary to prevent new immigrants and temporary workers from competing with Americans for jobs during the economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"The effects of COVID-19 on the United States labor market and on the health of American communities is a matter of ongoing national concern," Mr. Trump wrote in Thursday's proclamation, which cited the unemployment rate, pandemic-related restrictions on businesses issued by states and the rise in coronavirus infections since June.

While he has pledged to overturn some of the centerpieces of Mr. Trump's immigration agenda, Mr. Biden has yet to say whether he intends to rescind the visa restrictions. A representative for Mr. Biden's transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump's proclamation prohibits the issuance of certain immigrant visas to people abroad who seek to move to the U.S. permanently through green card petitions filed by their U.S. family members or prospective employers.

Spouses and underage children of U.S. citizens are not subject to the restrictions, which also exempt some healthcare workers who intend to combat the coronavirus and immigrant investors who agree to invest more than $1 million in the U.S.

Mr. Trump's order also continues the suspension of the diversity visa lottery, a program he has frequently criticized that allows people from underrepresented countries, most of them in Africa, to move to the U.S. In September, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ordered the government to issue visas to more than 9,000 would-be immigrants who won the lottery in 2020, but they remain barred from entering the U.S. under the proclamation.

The restrictions also halt several temporary visas used by people abroad to work in the U.S., including the H-1B program that is popular in the tech sector and H-2B visas for non-agricultural seasonal workers. Cultural exchange J-1 visas for au pairs and other short-term workers; visas for spouses of H-1B and H-2B holders; and L visas for companies to relocate employees to the U.S. will continue to be suspended as well.

In early October, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White barred the Trump administration from applying the temporary work visa restrictions to foreign workers hired by several major U.S. companies.

Source - CBS News

PRO TRUMP RUSSIAN STATE PROPAGANDA

'Stop The Steal': Trump Announces 'BIG' Protest Rally in Washington DC on 6 January

US

19:24 GMT 01.01.2021

(updated 19:31 GMT 01.01.2021)Get short URL

 

Sitting president Donald Trump has refused to concede to Joe Biden, who, according to the popular and Electoral College vote, has won the 2020 White House race. Trump continues to challenge the election outcome in courts and claims "massive election fraud".

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Friday to announce a big "Stop the Steal" protest rally in Washington, DC on 6 January - the day when the joint session in the US Congress will take place to certify the presidential election results.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

'StopTheSteal': Trump Announces 'BIG' Protest Rally in Washington DC on 6 January - Sputnik International (sputniknews.com)

COMMON CAUSE BETWEEN WHITE NATIONALIST CHRISTIANS 

Coronavirus pandemic could be twice as bad for global economy as WORLD WAR

Production disruptions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak could cost the global economy twice as much as a hypothetical global military conflict, according to figures cited in a recent research by the McKinsey Global Institute.

In a report headlined ‘Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains’, the analysts of US-based consulting firm McKinsey evaluated various risks of a manufacturing shutdown lasting 100 days. The economic shocks considered in the report stem from a wide range of possible events – from a cyberattack and trade rows to military conflicts and a pandemic – and vary in frequency, lead time, and nature of impact.

It turns out that damages from a hypothetical world war scenario could amount to around $15 trillion, while the coronavirus pandemic would cost as much as two such conflicts and leave a hole of around $30 trillion in the global economy. This is three times more than the cost of the Great Recession, which is estimated at $10 trillion, and 30 times as much as the fallout from a large-scale cyberattack.

© McKinsey Global Institute

According to the McKinsey analysis, based on a model informed by the financials of 325 companies across 13 industries, value chain disruptions can easily wipe out more than 40 percent of a year’s profits every decade on average. However, a single severe event that disrupts production for 100 days could erase almost a year’s earnings in some industries. 

Labor-intensive value chains are most exposed to pandemics, the report says. As for industries, the pandemic has the worst impact for apparel, which accounts for the largest share of employment, providing at least 25 million jobs globally, followed by aerospace, furniture and petroleum products, among others.