A Boeing 737 commercial charter jet with 136 people on board slid into the St Johns River near Jacksonville in Florida after landing on Friday, the Naval Air Station Jacksonville says.
There were no reports of fatalities but local television station WOKV-TV said that at least two people suffered minor injuries and that the plane was attempting to land during a heavy thunderstorm.
The office of the sheriff said 21 adults were transported to local hospitals and all were listed in good condition, no critical injuries. Over 80 Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department officers attended.
The flight arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba went into the river at the end of the runway at about 9.40 pm local time (11.40am AEST), the air station said.
Captain Michael Connor, the commanding officer of NAS Jacksonville, said during a news conference that passengers were a mix of civilian and military personnel. Some were staying in the area, while others were set to fly on to other parts of the country.
While the crash certainly wasn't ideal, Connor acknowledged that it could have been much worse.
I think it is a miracle, Connor said. We could be talking about a different story this evening.
Officials did not immediately say what caused the plane to leave the runway. Boeing said in a tweet Friday night that it was investigating: "We are aware of an incident in Jacksonville, Fla., and are gathering information."
It wasn't known how long it would take to remove the plane from the river, but Connor said the landing gear appeared to be resting on the river bed, making it unlikely for the aircraft to float away.
He said crews began working to contain any jet fuel leaks almost immediately after securing the passengers' safety.
Liz Torres told the Florida Times-Union that she heard what sounded like a gunshot Friday night from her home in Orange Park, about 8 kilometres south of NAS Jacksonville.
She then drove down to a Target parking lot where police and firefighters were staging to find out more.
I've never seen anything like this, she said.
The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, said on Twitter that everyone on board the flight was alive and accounted for.
Curry said in a separate tweet that US President Donald Trump had called him to offer help.
The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on Twitter.
The sheriff's tweet was accompanied by two photographs showing the plane bearing the logo of Miami Air International resting in shallow water and fully intact with minimal damage.
The plane appeared to be missing its nose.
Navy security and emergency response personnel were on the scene and monitoring the situation, the Navy said. Family members who were expecting the arrival of passengers were instructed to stand by.
Miami Air International is a charter airline operating a fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration was referring media inquiries to NAS Jacksonville.
Connor said National Transportation Safety Board investigators were already on their way.
Tourism Observer
Tourism, Travel, Hospitality, Conservation: News,Stories And Experiences From Allover The World
Showing posts with label donald trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donald trump. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 May 2019
Monday, 30 July 2018
USA: 13 Killed After Tourist Boat Sinks In Table Rock Lake In Branson State Of Missouri
A tourist boat carrying 31 people sank in a lake in the U.S. state of Missouri Thursday night, killing at least 13 people, with four others missing, officials said.
A total of 14 people survived, including seven who were injured when the Ride the Ducks tourist boat sank in Table Rock Lake in Branson Thursday evening, local media quote Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jason Pace as saying.
Among the seven injured, four are adults and three are children.
Two adults were in critical condition and others were being treated for minor injuries, officials said.
Officials also confirmed children are among the dead, but they have not said how many victims were children.
Four others remain missing after the duck boat was buffeted by powerful winds, the Stone County Sheriff's Office said.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences early Friday, extending his deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved.
Several dive teams from different law enforcement agencies joined the rescue Thursday night and recovery efforts were paused late in the evening. On Friday morning the search diving operations resumed.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigators are expected to arrive on the scene.
Tourism Observer
A total of 14 people survived, including seven who were injured when the Ride the Ducks tourist boat sank in Table Rock Lake in Branson Thursday evening, local media quote Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jason Pace as saying.
Among the seven injured, four are adults and three are children.
Two adults were in critical condition and others were being treated for minor injuries, officials said.
Officials also confirmed children are among the dead, but they have not said how many victims were children.
Four others remain missing after the duck boat was buffeted by powerful winds, the Stone County Sheriff's Office said.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences early Friday, extending his deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved.
Several dive teams from different law enforcement agencies joined the rescue Thursday night and recovery efforts were paused late in the evening. On Friday morning the search diving operations resumed.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigators are expected to arrive on the scene.
Tourism Observer
Monday, 3 July 2017
USA: US Administration Has Reversed Policy On Travel And Ban Takes Effect
US President Donald Trump's administration reversed a decision late on Thursday and said fiancés would be considered close family members and therefore allowed to travel to the United States as its revised travel ban took effect.
The US State Department concluded "upon further review, fiancés would now be included as close family members," said a State Department official who requested anonymity.
The Trump administration had previously decided, on the basis of its interpretation of a US Supreme Court ruling, that grandparents, grandchildren and fiancés travelling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be barred from obtaining visas while the ban was in place.
The 90-day ban took effect at 8 pm EDT (0000 GMT Friday), along with a 120-day ban on all refugees.
On Monday, the Supreme Court revived parts of Trump's travel ban on people from the six Muslim-majority countries, narrowing the scope of lower court rulings that had blocked parts of a March 6 executive order and allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties to the United States.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, who also requested anonymity, said it would be updating its guidance to state that fiancés would not be barred from obtaining visas while the ban was in place.
The Supreme Court exempted from the ban travellers and refugees with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States. As an example, the court said those with a "close familial relationship" with someone in the United States would be covered.
The state of Hawaii asked a federal judge in Honolulu on Thursday evening to determine whether the Trump administration had interpreted the court's decision too narrowly.
Hawaii said in a court filing that the US government intended to violate the Supreme Court's instructions by improperly excluding from the United States people who actually have a close family relationship to US persons, echoing criticism from immigrant and refugee groups.
Hawaii called the refusal to recognise grandparents and other relatives as an acceptable family relationship "a plain violation of the Supreme Court's command."
Hawaii's Attorney General Doug Chin asked US District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu, who blocked Trump's travel ban in March, to issue an order "as soon as possible" clarifying how the Supreme Court's ruling should be interpreted.
Watson ordered the Justice Department to respond to Hawaii's request by Monday, and said he would allow Hawaii to reply by July 6.
A senior US official did not answer directly when asked how barring grandparents or grandchildren would make the United States safer, but instead pointed to Trump's guidance to pause certain travel while we review our security posture.
The US government expected things to run smoothly and business as usual at US ports of entry, another senior US official told reporters.
A handful of immigration lawyers gathered at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Thursday in case of any problems.
We're going to keep fighting this ban, even if it applies very narrowly, said Sirine Shebaya, a senior staff attorney at Muslim Advocates. It's still a Muslim ban, and its still trying to send a message to a whole community that they're not welcome here.
The administration said refugees who have agreements with resettlement agencies but not close family in the United States would not be exempted from the ban, likely sharply limiting the number of refugees allowed entry in coming months.
Hawaii said in its court filing it was preposterous not to consider a formal link with a resettlement agency a qualifying relationship. Refugee resettlement agencies had expected that their formal links with would-be refugees would qualify as bona fide.
The administration's decision likely means that few refugees beyond a 50,000-cap set by Trump would be allowed into the country this year. A US official said that, as of Wednesday evening, 49,009 refugees had been allowed into the country this fiscal year.
The State Department said refugees scheduled to arrive through July 6 could still enter.
Trump first announced a temporary travel ban on January 27, calling it a counterterrorism measure to allow time to develop better security vetting.
The order caused chaos at airports, as officials scrambled to enforce it before it was blocked by courts.
Opponents argued that the measure discriminated against Muslims and that there was no security rationale for it.
A revised version of the ban was also halted by courts.
The State Department guidance, distributed to all US diplomatic posts on Wednesday evening and seen by Reuters, fleshed out the Supreme Court's ruling about people who have a bona fide relationship with an individual or entity in the United States.
It defined a close familial relationship as being a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, including step-siblings and other step-family relations.
A department cable said grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancés, "and any other 'extended' family members" were not considered close family.
The guidelines also said workers with offers of employment from a company in the United States or a lecturer addressing US audiences would be exempt from the ban, but that arrangements such as a hotel reservation would not be considered bona fide relationships.
Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com
The US State Department concluded "upon further review, fiancés would now be included as close family members," said a State Department official who requested anonymity.
The Trump administration had previously decided, on the basis of its interpretation of a US Supreme Court ruling, that grandparents, grandchildren and fiancés travelling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be barred from obtaining visas while the ban was in place.
The 90-day ban took effect at 8 pm EDT (0000 GMT Friday), along with a 120-day ban on all refugees.
On Monday, the Supreme Court revived parts of Trump's travel ban on people from the six Muslim-majority countries, narrowing the scope of lower court rulings that had blocked parts of a March 6 executive order and allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties to the United States.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, who also requested anonymity, said it would be updating its guidance to state that fiancés would not be barred from obtaining visas while the ban was in place.
The Supreme Court exempted from the ban travellers and refugees with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States. As an example, the court said those with a "close familial relationship" with someone in the United States would be covered.
The state of Hawaii asked a federal judge in Honolulu on Thursday evening to determine whether the Trump administration had interpreted the court's decision too narrowly.
Hawaii said in a court filing that the US government intended to violate the Supreme Court's instructions by improperly excluding from the United States people who actually have a close family relationship to US persons, echoing criticism from immigrant and refugee groups.
Hawaii called the refusal to recognise grandparents and other relatives as an acceptable family relationship "a plain violation of the Supreme Court's command."
Hawaii's Attorney General Doug Chin asked US District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu, who blocked Trump's travel ban in March, to issue an order "as soon as possible" clarifying how the Supreme Court's ruling should be interpreted.
Watson ordered the Justice Department to respond to Hawaii's request by Monday, and said he would allow Hawaii to reply by July 6.
A senior US official did not answer directly when asked how barring grandparents or grandchildren would make the United States safer, but instead pointed to Trump's guidance to pause certain travel while we review our security posture.
The US government expected things to run smoothly and business as usual at US ports of entry, another senior US official told reporters.
A handful of immigration lawyers gathered at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Thursday in case of any problems.
We're going to keep fighting this ban, even if it applies very narrowly, said Sirine Shebaya, a senior staff attorney at Muslim Advocates. It's still a Muslim ban, and its still trying to send a message to a whole community that they're not welcome here.
The administration said refugees who have agreements with resettlement agencies but not close family in the United States would not be exempted from the ban, likely sharply limiting the number of refugees allowed entry in coming months.
Hawaii said in its court filing it was preposterous not to consider a formal link with a resettlement agency a qualifying relationship. Refugee resettlement agencies had expected that their formal links with would-be refugees would qualify as bona fide.
The administration's decision likely means that few refugees beyond a 50,000-cap set by Trump would be allowed into the country this year. A US official said that, as of Wednesday evening, 49,009 refugees had been allowed into the country this fiscal year.
The State Department said refugees scheduled to arrive through July 6 could still enter.
Trump first announced a temporary travel ban on January 27, calling it a counterterrorism measure to allow time to develop better security vetting.
The order caused chaos at airports, as officials scrambled to enforce it before it was blocked by courts.
Opponents argued that the measure discriminated against Muslims and that there was no security rationale for it.
A revised version of the ban was also halted by courts.
The State Department guidance, distributed to all US diplomatic posts on Wednesday evening and seen by Reuters, fleshed out the Supreme Court's ruling about people who have a bona fide relationship with an individual or entity in the United States.
It defined a close familial relationship as being a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, including step-siblings and other step-family relations.
A department cable said grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancés, "and any other 'extended' family members" were not considered close family.
The guidelines also said workers with offers of employment from a company in the United States or a lecturer addressing US audiences would be exempt from the ban, but that arrangements such as a hotel reservation would not be considered bona fide relationships.
Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com
Tuesday, 13 June 2017
USA: Trump Travel Ban US Appeals Court Rules
A US appeals court on Monday upheld a decision to block President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban targeting citizens from six Muslim majority nations the latest in a string of stinging judicial blows for the Republican billionaire.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit kept in place a lower court injunction on the ban, arguing the president had overstepped his authority and his executive order discriminated against travelers based on their nationality.
The matter was already headed for the Supreme Court, as another federal appeals court had already ruled against the Republican president, and the Justice Department had asked the high court to hear the case.
But the Ninth Circuit ruling certainly was another setback for Trump in his quest to see the measure put into effect.
Immigration, even for the president, is not a one-person show, the three justices all appointed by former president Bill Clinton said in their unanimous ruling.
The president, in issuing the executive order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress.
The judges said the government had failed to prove any link between an individual’s nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism, and cited a June 5 tweet by Trump to back their argument.
Indeed, the president recently confirmed his assessment that it is the ‘countries’ that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the president’s ‘travel ban,' the judges wrote.
National security is not a talismanic incantation that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power, they added.
The judges ruled against Trump on both the effort to bar from US entry travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and on the clause suspending the refugee program for 120 days.
That went one step farther than the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which only upheld the part of the measure naming the specific countries.
The judges did appear to back the administration in saying that the government was within its rights to review existing vetting procedures for travelers from the six countries concerned.
Douglas Chin, the attorney general for Hawaii, one of the states challenging the executive order, said the ruling was a clear message to the administration that it was not above the law.
I stated from the beginning that the president must act in a way that follows the laws and constitution of the United States,Chin said in a statement.
Our system of checks and balances, enshrined in the Constitution for more than 225 years, remains in place.
The ruling came just ahead of a deadline for states challenging the travel ban to submit briefs to the Supreme Court in response to the Trump administration’s request that the nine justices hear the case.
The Trump administration argues the measures are needed to ward off terror attacks in the country, but critics say the ban is discriminatory and violates the US constitution by specifically targeting Muslim-majority countries.
The US Justice Department filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court on June 1, urging it to undo the Fourth Circuit’s ruling.
Trump issued an initial travel ban by executive order in January, but that measure which banned entry to nationals from seven countries for 90 days and suspended the nation’s refugee program for 120 days was quickly halted by the courts.
A revised executive order announced in March meant to address the issues raised by the federal judges deleted Iraq from the list and removed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. This is the measure affected by the Ninth Circuit ruling.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the latest ruling.
In refusing to reinstate the travel ban, the Ninth judges said there was no evidence presented by the Trump administration to back the measure and pointed to a government report to support their decision.
The Department of Homeland Security report issued just after Trump’s first executive order concluded that citizenship of any given country is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity and that citizens from the countries targeted by Trump’s ban are rarely implicated in US-based terrorism.
Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said Monday’s ruling was yet another signal that Trump’s executive order was on weak legal footing.
At this point, it’s surprising if a court rules in favor of the travel ban.
She said she did not expect the Supreme Court to consider the case before the fall, making it difficult for the administration to defend its argument that the travel ban was urgently needed.
The longer it goes on, in a way the worse it is for the Trump administration because they claimed they needed this right away for national security, she said.
It’s harder to argue that time is of the essence when so much time goes by.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit kept in place a lower court injunction on the ban, arguing the president had overstepped his authority and his executive order discriminated against travelers based on their nationality.
The matter was already headed for the Supreme Court, as another federal appeals court had already ruled against the Republican president, and the Justice Department had asked the high court to hear the case.
But the Ninth Circuit ruling certainly was another setback for Trump in his quest to see the measure put into effect.
Immigration, even for the president, is not a one-person show, the three justices all appointed by former president Bill Clinton said in their unanimous ruling.
The president, in issuing the executive order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress.
The judges said the government had failed to prove any link between an individual’s nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism, and cited a June 5 tweet by Trump to back their argument.
Indeed, the president recently confirmed his assessment that it is the ‘countries’ that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the president’s ‘travel ban,' the judges wrote.
National security is not a talismanic incantation that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power, they added.
The judges ruled against Trump on both the effort to bar from US entry travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and on the clause suspending the refugee program for 120 days.
That went one step farther than the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which only upheld the part of the measure naming the specific countries.
The judges did appear to back the administration in saying that the government was within its rights to review existing vetting procedures for travelers from the six countries concerned.
Douglas Chin, the attorney general for Hawaii, one of the states challenging the executive order, said the ruling was a clear message to the administration that it was not above the law.
I stated from the beginning that the president must act in a way that follows the laws and constitution of the United States,Chin said in a statement.
Our system of checks and balances, enshrined in the Constitution for more than 225 years, remains in place.
The ruling came just ahead of a deadline for states challenging the travel ban to submit briefs to the Supreme Court in response to the Trump administration’s request that the nine justices hear the case.
The Trump administration argues the measures are needed to ward off terror attacks in the country, but critics say the ban is discriminatory and violates the US constitution by specifically targeting Muslim-majority countries.
The US Justice Department filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court on June 1, urging it to undo the Fourth Circuit’s ruling.
Trump issued an initial travel ban by executive order in January, but that measure which banned entry to nationals from seven countries for 90 days and suspended the nation’s refugee program for 120 days was quickly halted by the courts.
A revised executive order announced in March meant to address the issues raised by the federal judges deleted Iraq from the list and removed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. This is the measure affected by the Ninth Circuit ruling.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the latest ruling.
In refusing to reinstate the travel ban, the Ninth judges said there was no evidence presented by the Trump administration to back the measure and pointed to a government report to support their decision.
The Department of Homeland Security report issued just after Trump’s first executive order concluded that citizenship of any given country is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity and that citizens from the countries targeted by Trump’s ban are rarely implicated in US-based terrorism.
Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said Monday’s ruling was yet another signal that Trump’s executive order was on weak legal footing.
At this point, it’s surprising if a court rules in favor of the travel ban.
She said she did not expect the Supreme Court to consider the case before the fall, making it difficult for the administration to defend its argument that the travel ban was urgently needed.
The longer it goes on, in a way the worse it is for the Trump administration because they claimed they needed this right away for national security, she said.
It’s harder to argue that time is of the essence when so much time goes by.
Monday, 12 June 2017
USA: Delta Air Lines Stops Sponsorship For Julius Caesar Play
Delta Air Lines on Sunday said it is pulling its sponsorship from a Manhattan-based theater company for portraying Julius Caesar as a Donald Trump look-alike in a business suit who gets knifed to death on stage.
The Atlanta-based airline released a statement saying it notified The Public Theater of its decision "effective immediately".
No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of Julius Caesar at this summer's Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines' values, the statement said. Their artistic and creative direction crossed the line on the standards of good taste.
Performances at Central Park's Delacorte Theater began in late May, just days before comedian Kathy Griffin was widely condemned for posing for a photograph in which she gripped a bloodied rendering of Trump's head.
Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater's artistic director who also directed the play, said earlier in a statement that anyone seeing our production of 'Julius Caesar' will realize it in no way advocates violence towards anyone.
Messages seeking comment from The Public Theater regarding Delta's decision weren't immediately returned.
'Julius Caesar' tells a fictionalised story of a powerful, popular Roman leader who is assassinated by senators who fear he is becoming a tyrant. It is set in ancient Rome, but many productions have costumed the characters in modern dress to give it a present-day connection.
The production runs through June 18.
The Atlanta-based airline released a statement saying it notified The Public Theater of its decision "effective immediately".
No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of Julius Caesar at this summer's Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines' values, the statement said. Their artistic and creative direction crossed the line on the standards of good taste.
Performances at Central Park's Delacorte Theater began in late May, just days before comedian Kathy Griffin was widely condemned for posing for a photograph in which she gripped a bloodied rendering of Trump's head.
Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater's artistic director who also directed the play, said earlier in a statement that anyone seeing our production of 'Julius Caesar' will realize it in no way advocates violence towards anyone.
Messages seeking comment from The Public Theater regarding Delta's decision weren't immediately returned.
'Julius Caesar' tells a fictionalised story of a powerful, popular Roman leader who is assassinated by senators who fear he is becoming a tyrant. It is set in ancient Rome, but many productions have costumed the characters in modern dress to give it a present-day connection.
The production runs through June 18.
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
UNITED KINGDOM: 22 Killed In Manchester Arena Suicide Bomb Attack
At least 19 people were killed and about 59 others were injured in what British Prime Minister Theresa May called "an appalling terrorist attack" after an Ariana Grande concert Monday night at Manchester Arena in England, authorities said.
Multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials briefed by British authorities said that forensic evidence at the scene including a body found at the blast site indicated a suicide attack.
British and U.S. law enforcement officials said they believed they had tentatively identified the bomber.
Greater Manchester Police said the incident was being treated as terrorism.
A senior White House official said that President Donald Trump, who is on a visit to Jerusalem, had been briefed.
At least 19 people have died and 59 more have been injured in an explosion at Manchester Arena.
A device believed to be filled with shrapnel and nails was detonated in the foyer outside the building immediately following an Ariana Grande concert.
Greater Manchester Police revealed they were treating the incident as a terror attack.
Moments after the explosion, sick jihadis celebrated the incident causing maximum casualties, and shared footage of an unknown man claiming to be an ISIS member.
The masked scumbag claims to be behind the devastation at Manchester, and issues a chilling warning.
He says: “In the name of Allah, the merciful and the grateful, this is only the beginning."
He adds that ISIS jihadis are beginning to attack the “crusaders”.
Terrorist monitoring group SITE reported that several pro ISIS accounts had shared the footage.
They also report that the man in the video is responsible for the attack on Manchester.
They wrote: "Pro-Islamic State social media accounts circulated a suspicious video of the alleged perpetrator of the May 22 suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena."
But no terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
An emergency COBRA meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday morning.
Multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials briefed by British authorities said that forensic evidence at the scene including a body found at the blast site indicated a suicide attack.
British and U.S. law enforcement officials said they believed they had tentatively identified the bomber.
Greater Manchester Police said the incident was being treated as terrorism.
A senior White House official said that President Donald Trump, who is on a visit to Jerusalem, had been briefed.
At least 19 people have died and 59 more have been injured in an explosion at Manchester Arena.
A device believed to be filled with shrapnel and nails was detonated in the foyer outside the building immediately following an Ariana Grande concert.
Greater Manchester Police revealed they were treating the incident as a terror attack.
Moments after the explosion, sick jihadis celebrated the incident causing maximum casualties, and shared footage of an unknown man claiming to be an ISIS member.
The masked scumbag claims to be behind the devastation at Manchester, and issues a chilling warning.
He says: “In the name of Allah, the merciful and the grateful, this is only the beginning."
He adds that ISIS jihadis are beginning to attack the “crusaders”.
Terrorist monitoring group SITE reported that several pro ISIS accounts had shared the footage.
They also report that the man in the video is responsible for the attack on Manchester.
They wrote: "Pro-Islamic State social media accounts circulated a suspicious video of the alleged perpetrator of the May 22 suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena."
But no terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
An emergency COBRA meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday morning.
Monday, 22 May 2017
ISRAEL: Donald Trump Jets To Israel
US President Donald Trump arrived in Israel shortly after noon on Monday for a historic visit in the second leg of his whirlwind maiden foreign tour as president. Israel rolled out the red carpet for Trump at Ben-Gurion Airport, where the president is due to touch down on Air Force One after two days in Saudi Arabia.
After meeting in private for nearly an hour, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been joined in the room by their senior advisers, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
IDF spokesperson's office confirms that an Israeli drone has fallen in Lebanese territory, but says it was not shot down.
Arab media is reporting that an Israeli drone has fallen over Lebanese territory and that its debris was collected by the Lebanese military for inspection. According to the report, the drone was an Israeli skylark.
Whats on the menu for the Trumps and Netanyahus tonight?
Segev Moshe says there will be lots of "gold" touches at dinner tonight, but not a drop of alcohol.
Referencing the alleged intelligence leak, in which the US president is accused of revealing classified intelligence from an Israeli source to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week, Trump assures reporters that he "never mentioned the word Israel."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Donald Trump in Jerusalem.
The two exchange pleasantries in front of the cameras, ahead of dinner and discussed Trump's progress on countering Iran during his visit over the weekend in Saudi Arabia.
"Iran will never have nuclear weapons, that I can tell you," Trump said in the meeting.
Trump on Iran deal: "We gave them wealth and prosperity and we also gave them an ability to continue with terror."
First ladies tour Jerusalem Medical facility.
US First Lady Melania Trump and Sara Netanyahu toured Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon.
The wives of the US president and the Israeli prime minister were received by Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America national president Ellen Hershkin and Hadassah Medical Organization director-general Prof. Zeev Rotstein.
Palestinians are not impressed with Israel's good will gestures timed for Trump's visit.
President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their wives immediately bonded on Monday over their disdain of the media.
Standing on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport shortly after the Trumps' arrival in Israel from Saudi Arabia, the foursome were making small talk as a microphone picked up their banter.
The majority of people in Israel love us, unlike the media, Sara Netanyahu told the visiting couple. "So we tell them how you are great, and they love you," she said.
The president responded: "We have something very much in common."
Netanyahu added that it sounded familiar, before his wife said: "Very much in common, we will talk about it at dinner… the same media."
While The president and his entourage are resting at the King David Hotel. Now's the time to discuss Ivanka's fashion choices.
On this day of firsts, it wasn't the statements or the speeches that made top headlines; it was the antics of a single Likud MK who stole the show with a display of chutzpah on the red carpet.
US President Donald Trump and his entourage have departed from the Western Wall and are on their way to the King David Hotel, Jerusalem.
The President of the US, Donald Trump prays at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. This is the first time a sitting American President has done so.
US President Donald Trump is walking into the Western Wall Prayer Plaza in Jerusalem's Old City.
While at a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, US president Donald Trump retweeted a post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
An attempted stabbing attack took place in Abu Dis in east Jerusalem Monday afternoon, according to Channel 2. The attempted stabbing was thwarted after the attacker was "neutralized" by authorities.
According to former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden the classified intelligence information which US President Donald Trump recently leaked to Russia may have come from two countries the countries are Israel and Jordan.
US President Trump arrives at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he is holding a private prayer before heading to the Western Wall. The president's tour to the holy sites created controversy in the lead up to the visit. You can read all about it in this story by Seth Frantzman
President Trump departs from the President's Residence en route to Jerusalem's Old City, first to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then to the Western Wall.
US President Donald Trump puts Iran in the spotlight in Jerusalem address.
"Iran must never be allowed to possess nuclear weapon, never ever"
Trump talks about prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
US President Donald Trump: There is a growing realization among Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you."
Trump Calls Israel an "amazing country" in address after meeting with President Rivlin.
Trump speaks out against terrorist groups and Iran; "Together we can work to end the scourge of violence that has taken so many lives here in Israel and around the world."
President Rivlin and Trump Deliver statements after one-on-one meeting.
Rivlin begins by thanking Trump for his visit "Mr. President, we are happy to see that America is back in the area. America is back again."
He goes on to speak about the hope for peace: "I welcome your willingness to help us move forward. We want to move forward, and we must do it, together."
Trump talks peace at the President's Residence.
"Enough of the bloodshed and killing," US President Donald Trump said during the event at President Reuven Rivlin's official residence in Jerusalem.
He suggested that reigniting the peace process would be at the top of the trip's agenda: "Being in Israel is very special. We expect to have some very interesting talks."
Trump meets with Rivlin at the President's Residence
Trump is holding a bilateral meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin after arriving in Jerusalem. Trump's schedule for the day includes a visit at the Western Wall and a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a festive dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence.
From plane to chopper to armed limo, President Trump goes to meet his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem.
Marine One lands at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
Another shot of the Trump helicopter.
In a move that is sure to go viral, Israeli MK Oren Hazan causes a national embarrassment at Trump's reception.
President Trump boards "Marine One" helicopter that will take him to Jerusalem.
Next Stop the President's Residence: The rest of Trump's delegation will drive in a convoy to the Israeli capital on the main highway that was shut down for the visit.
Trump and Netanyahu are now in chopper heading from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, where Trump will meet with Rivlin.
Bennett to Trump: We hope you'll be first president to recognize united Jerusalem
Education Minister Naftali Bennett greeted US President Donald Trump upon his arrival in Israel on Monday afternoon at an elaborate red carpet greeting ceremony at Ben-Gurion Airport. "Welcome to Israel Mr. President," he told the American leader.
"On the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, we hope that you will be the first president to recognize a united Jerusalem."
POTUS shakes hands with Israeli ministers "forced" to attend ceremony.
Tillerson in Israel: Trump is ready to engage personally in Mideast peace.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday President Donald Trump was prepared to invest his personal efforts into Middle East peace if Israeli and Palestinian leaders were ready to be serious about engaging in the process.
Tillerson, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, said a three-way meeting between US, Israeli and Palestinian leaders was for a "later date" rather than on this trip.
Trump at Ben-Gurion Airport: 'We love Israel, we respect Israel'
US President Donald Trump reaffirmed the "unbreakable bond between the US and the State of Israel" on Monday upon arriving in Israel during his first foreign trip in office. "We love Israel, we respect Israel, and we send your people the warmest greeting from your friend and ally - all of the people of the United States."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes Donald Trump to Israel
The world, the middle east, Israel need a strong US, the US needs a strong Israel.
President Trump reviews honor guard at Ben-Gurion Airport.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump exit Air Force One
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport for the welcome ceremony
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara ready to meet US President Donald Trump at the bottom of the Air Force One staircase.
Police wrap up security preparations
Israeli Police confirmed that they are now done with heightened security preparations for Trump's visit to the Western Wall this afternoon. All sites where Trump will be visiting have now been secured.
Air Force One lands in Ben-Gurion Airport, starting first official trip to Israel.
US President Donald Trump arrived in Israel on Monday shortly after noon as Air Force One touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport after departing earlier in the day from Saudi Arabia.
Members of the Harley Davidson club set out on a ride honoring US President Donald Trump as he arrives in Israel for the first time as sitting president.
They started the ride at 12:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv and finished it in front of the US Embassy, blocking traffic along HaYarkon Street in Tel Aviv as the ceremony welcoming Trump to Israel unfolded at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Police now saying suspected car ramming was a traffic accident, not terror related.
A car has rammed into pedestrians in central Tel Aviv. Injured people on location.
Trump's arrival in Israel delayed by half hour
US President Donald Trump is en route to Israel from Saudi Arabia, where he spent the first two days of his foreign trip. He is expected to arrive in the country at 12:45 p.m. and will be received in an official ceremony at the Ben-Gurion Airport. His landing has been postponed by thirty minutes, as he was initially expected to arrive at 12:15 p.m.
US President Donald Trump departed from Saudi Arabia directly en route to Israel on Monday morning as part of his first foreign tour in office.
On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet Abbas in Bethlehem, and immediately thereafter the US president is slated to return to Jerusalem for a very brief visit to Israel's Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem. From there Trump will head straight to the Israel Museum, where he is expected to make a speech with which his trip to the Middle East will conclude.
Trump arrives in the region amid repeated iterations of hope that he can help restart the frozen diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians. His arrival in the Holy Land also comes as all sides await to see if he will make any announcement on his campaign pledge to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump's nine-day trip through the Middle East and Europe ends on Saturday after visits to the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily.
After meeting in private for nearly an hour, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been joined in the room by their senior advisers, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
IDF spokesperson's office confirms that an Israeli drone has fallen in Lebanese territory, but says it was not shot down.
Arab media is reporting that an Israeli drone has fallen over Lebanese territory and that its debris was collected by the Lebanese military for inspection. According to the report, the drone was an Israeli skylark.
Whats on the menu for the Trumps and Netanyahus tonight?
Segev Moshe says there will be lots of "gold" touches at dinner tonight, but not a drop of alcohol.
Referencing the alleged intelligence leak, in which the US president is accused of revealing classified intelligence from an Israeli source to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week, Trump assures reporters that he "never mentioned the word Israel."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Donald Trump in Jerusalem.
The two exchange pleasantries in front of the cameras, ahead of dinner and discussed Trump's progress on countering Iran during his visit over the weekend in Saudi Arabia.
"Iran will never have nuclear weapons, that I can tell you," Trump said in the meeting.
Trump on Iran deal: "We gave them wealth and prosperity and we also gave them an ability to continue with terror."
First ladies tour Jerusalem Medical facility.
US First Lady Melania Trump and Sara Netanyahu toured Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon.
The wives of the US president and the Israeli prime minister were received by Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America national president Ellen Hershkin and Hadassah Medical Organization director-general Prof. Zeev Rotstein.
Palestinians are not impressed with Israel's good will gestures timed for Trump's visit.
President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their wives immediately bonded on Monday over their disdain of the media.
Standing on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport shortly after the Trumps' arrival in Israel from Saudi Arabia, the foursome were making small talk as a microphone picked up their banter.
The majority of people in Israel love us, unlike the media, Sara Netanyahu told the visiting couple. "So we tell them how you are great, and they love you," she said.
The president responded: "We have something very much in common."
Netanyahu added that it sounded familiar, before his wife said: "Very much in common, we will talk about it at dinner… the same media."
While The president and his entourage are resting at the King David Hotel. Now's the time to discuss Ivanka's fashion choices.
On this day of firsts, it wasn't the statements or the speeches that made top headlines; it was the antics of a single Likud MK who stole the show with a display of chutzpah on the red carpet.
US President Donald Trump and his entourage have departed from the Western Wall and are on their way to the King David Hotel, Jerusalem.
The President of the US, Donald Trump prays at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. This is the first time a sitting American President has done so.
US President Donald Trump is walking into the Western Wall Prayer Plaza in Jerusalem's Old City.
While at a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, US president Donald Trump retweeted a post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
An attempted stabbing attack took place in Abu Dis in east Jerusalem Monday afternoon, according to Channel 2. The attempted stabbing was thwarted after the attacker was "neutralized" by authorities.
According to former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden the classified intelligence information which US President Donald Trump recently leaked to Russia may have come from two countries the countries are Israel and Jordan.
US President Trump arrives at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he is holding a private prayer before heading to the Western Wall. The president's tour to the holy sites created controversy in the lead up to the visit. You can read all about it in this story by Seth Frantzman
President Trump departs from the President's Residence en route to Jerusalem's Old City, first to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then to the Western Wall.
US President Donald Trump puts Iran in the spotlight in Jerusalem address.
"Iran must never be allowed to possess nuclear weapon, never ever"
Trump talks about prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
US President Donald Trump: There is a growing realization among Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you."
Trump Calls Israel an "amazing country" in address after meeting with President Rivlin.
Trump speaks out against terrorist groups and Iran; "Together we can work to end the scourge of violence that has taken so many lives here in Israel and around the world."
President Rivlin and Trump Deliver statements after one-on-one meeting.
Rivlin begins by thanking Trump for his visit "Mr. President, we are happy to see that America is back in the area. America is back again."
He goes on to speak about the hope for peace: "I welcome your willingness to help us move forward. We want to move forward, and we must do it, together."
Trump talks peace at the President's Residence.
"Enough of the bloodshed and killing," US President Donald Trump said during the event at President Reuven Rivlin's official residence in Jerusalem.
He suggested that reigniting the peace process would be at the top of the trip's agenda: "Being in Israel is very special. We expect to have some very interesting talks."
Trump meets with Rivlin at the President's Residence
Trump is holding a bilateral meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin after arriving in Jerusalem. Trump's schedule for the day includes a visit at the Western Wall and a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a festive dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence.
From plane to chopper to armed limo, President Trump goes to meet his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem.
Marine One lands at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
Another shot of the Trump helicopter.
In a move that is sure to go viral, Israeli MK Oren Hazan causes a national embarrassment at Trump's reception.
President Trump boards "Marine One" helicopter that will take him to Jerusalem.
Next Stop the President's Residence: The rest of Trump's delegation will drive in a convoy to the Israeli capital on the main highway that was shut down for the visit.
Trump and Netanyahu are now in chopper heading from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, where Trump will meet with Rivlin.
Bennett to Trump: We hope you'll be first president to recognize united Jerusalem
Education Minister Naftali Bennett greeted US President Donald Trump upon his arrival in Israel on Monday afternoon at an elaborate red carpet greeting ceremony at Ben-Gurion Airport. "Welcome to Israel Mr. President," he told the American leader.
"On the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, we hope that you will be the first president to recognize a united Jerusalem."
POTUS shakes hands with Israeli ministers "forced" to attend ceremony.
Tillerson in Israel: Trump is ready to engage personally in Mideast peace.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday President Donald Trump was prepared to invest his personal efforts into Middle East peace if Israeli and Palestinian leaders were ready to be serious about engaging in the process.
Tillerson, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, said a three-way meeting between US, Israeli and Palestinian leaders was for a "later date" rather than on this trip.
Trump at Ben-Gurion Airport: 'We love Israel, we respect Israel'
US President Donald Trump reaffirmed the "unbreakable bond between the US and the State of Israel" on Monday upon arriving in Israel during his first foreign trip in office. "We love Israel, we respect Israel, and we send your people the warmest greeting from your friend and ally - all of the people of the United States."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes Donald Trump to Israel
The world, the middle east, Israel need a strong US, the US needs a strong Israel.
President Trump reviews honor guard at Ben-Gurion Airport.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump exit Air Force One
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport for the welcome ceremony
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara ready to meet US President Donald Trump at the bottom of the Air Force One staircase.
Police wrap up security preparations
Israeli Police confirmed that they are now done with heightened security preparations for Trump's visit to the Western Wall this afternoon. All sites where Trump will be visiting have now been secured.
Air Force One lands in Ben-Gurion Airport, starting first official trip to Israel.
US President Donald Trump arrived in Israel on Monday shortly after noon as Air Force One touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport after departing earlier in the day from Saudi Arabia.
Members of the Harley Davidson club set out on a ride honoring US President Donald Trump as he arrives in Israel for the first time as sitting president.
They started the ride at 12:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv and finished it in front of the US Embassy, blocking traffic along HaYarkon Street in Tel Aviv as the ceremony welcoming Trump to Israel unfolded at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Police now saying suspected car ramming was a traffic accident, not terror related.
A car has rammed into pedestrians in central Tel Aviv. Injured people on location.
Trump's arrival in Israel delayed by half hour
US President Donald Trump is en route to Israel from Saudi Arabia, where he spent the first two days of his foreign trip. He is expected to arrive in the country at 12:45 p.m. and will be received in an official ceremony at the Ben-Gurion Airport. His landing has been postponed by thirty minutes, as he was initially expected to arrive at 12:15 p.m.
US President Donald Trump departed from Saudi Arabia directly en route to Israel on Monday morning as part of his first foreign tour in office.
On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet Abbas in Bethlehem, and immediately thereafter the US president is slated to return to Jerusalem for a very brief visit to Israel's Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem. From there Trump will head straight to the Israel Museum, where he is expected to make a speech with which his trip to the Middle East will conclude.
Trump arrives in the region amid repeated iterations of hope that he can help restart the frozen diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians. His arrival in the Holy Land also comes as all sides await to see if he will make any announcement on his campaign pledge to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump's nine-day trip through the Middle East and Europe ends on Saturday after visits to the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily.
Saturday, 20 May 2017
USA: Trump Starts Saudi Tour As Problems Mount At Home
US President Donald Trump landed in Saudi Arabia Saturday for the start of an eight-day foreign tour, taking his first steps on the world stage as scandals mount at home.
Trump can expect a warm welcome in Saudi Arabia where he is to meet King Salman and other senior royals -- in sharp contrast to Washington where pressure is building over his team's alleged links to Moscow.
Air Force One had barely taken off when it was announced that James Comey, the former FBI chief fired by Trump, had agreed to testify publicly about Russian interference in the US elections.
Reports also emerged that Trump had called Comey "a nut job" and that the FBI had identified a senior White House official as a "significant person of interest" in its probe of Russian meddling.
A red carpet was rolled out and staircase rolled up to Air Force One after it landed at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh shortly before 9:50 am (0650 GMT).
Trump and his wife Melania, who dressed conservatively in black but did not cover her hair, walked side-by-side to the tarmac where they both shook hands with Saudi King Salman.
Trump is to hold talks with King Salman and the kingdom's two powerful crown princes later on Saturday, before giving a speech on Islam to leaders of Muslim countries on Sunday.
For Riyadh the visit is an opportunity to rebuild ties with a key ally, which were strained under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama who Sunni Arab Gulf states suspected of a tilt towards their Shiite regional rival Iran.
That, together with a more muted focus on human rights and the likely announcement of new arms deals, should please Washington's traditional Sunni Gulf allies.
He's going to be tougher on Iran, said Philip Gordon, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "He's not going to lecture them on democracy and human rights."
Sunday's speech to dozens of Muslim leaders has been touted as a major event -- along the lines of a landmark address to the Islamic world given by Obama in Cairo in 2009.
The speech will be especially sensitive given tensions sparked by the Trump administration's attempted travel ban targeting several Muslim majority nations and accusations of anti-Islamic rhetoric on the campaign trail.
I'll speak with Muslim leaders and challenge them to fight hatred and extremism, and embrace a peaceful future for their faith, Trump said ahead of his visit.
Trump wants Gulf states in particular to do more to tackle extremists such as the Islamic State jihadist group.
He will encourage our Arab and Muslim partners to take bold, new steps to promote peace and to confront those, from ISIS to Al-Qaeda... who perpetuate chaos and violence that has inflicted so much suffering throughout the Muslim world and beyond,said Trump's National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Before departing, the president tweeted he would be "strongly protecting American interests" on his marathon eight-day trip to the Middle East and Europe.
After Saudi Arabia, Trump will head to Israel and the Palestinian Territories where he hopes to revive the moribund peace process.
He then travels to Europe where he will hold face-to-face meetings including with Pope Francis and France's new leader, Emmanuel Macron.
It is a trip fraught with peril for the real estate magnate, who is known to dislike lengthy travel.
The avalanche of revelations in the run-up to his departure have eroded Trump's standing at home where the parallels with Richard Nixon's ill-fated presidency are now being openly drawn.
On Friday, the probe into his campaign's Russia ties had identified a "significant person of interest" in the White House undercut Trump's insistence his election bid had nothing to do with the Kremlin.
The White House was rocked by another bombshell when reports emerged that Trump said his firing of "nut job" Comey had relieved "great pressure" on him due to the investigation.
The scandals have revived questions about his ability to strike a presidential tone with his foreign counterparts, with Trump declaring himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history.
Arms contracts
His visit to the Gulf is expected to bring lucrative arms contracts for US firms.
"The big question mark that you should bear in mind is if Saudi Arabia signs up for a $100 billion arms deal with oil prices where they are today, how are they actually going to pay that in the future?" said Bruce Riedel, former CIA analyst and counterterrorism expert now with the Brookings Institution.
In Israel, Trump will meet his "friend" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Bethlehem.
The Israeli leg of his trip is already awash in controversy -- from a row over Trump's visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews, to his alleged disclosure of Israeli intelligence to Russian officials.
Trump's meeting with Pope Francis -- two men at odds on everything from climate change to refugee policy remains highly unpredictable, although the pontiff says he will give America's bullish leader an open-minded hearing.
The president will also meet members of NATO in Brussels and attend a G7 summit in the picturesque Sicilian town of Taormina overlooking the Mediterranean.
Trump can expect a warm welcome in Saudi Arabia where he is to meet King Salman and other senior royals -- in sharp contrast to Washington where pressure is building over his team's alleged links to Moscow.
Air Force One had barely taken off when it was announced that James Comey, the former FBI chief fired by Trump, had agreed to testify publicly about Russian interference in the US elections.
Reports also emerged that Trump had called Comey "a nut job" and that the FBI had identified a senior White House official as a "significant person of interest" in its probe of Russian meddling.
A red carpet was rolled out and staircase rolled up to Air Force One after it landed at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh shortly before 9:50 am (0650 GMT).
Trump and his wife Melania, who dressed conservatively in black but did not cover her hair, walked side-by-side to the tarmac where they both shook hands with Saudi King Salman.
Trump is to hold talks with King Salman and the kingdom's two powerful crown princes later on Saturday, before giving a speech on Islam to leaders of Muslim countries on Sunday.
For Riyadh the visit is an opportunity to rebuild ties with a key ally, which were strained under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama who Sunni Arab Gulf states suspected of a tilt towards their Shiite regional rival Iran.
That, together with a more muted focus on human rights and the likely announcement of new arms deals, should please Washington's traditional Sunni Gulf allies.
He's going to be tougher on Iran, said Philip Gordon, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "He's not going to lecture them on democracy and human rights."
Sunday's speech to dozens of Muslim leaders has been touted as a major event -- along the lines of a landmark address to the Islamic world given by Obama in Cairo in 2009.
The speech will be especially sensitive given tensions sparked by the Trump administration's attempted travel ban targeting several Muslim majority nations and accusations of anti-Islamic rhetoric on the campaign trail.
I'll speak with Muslim leaders and challenge them to fight hatred and extremism, and embrace a peaceful future for their faith, Trump said ahead of his visit.
Trump wants Gulf states in particular to do more to tackle extremists such as the Islamic State jihadist group.
He will encourage our Arab and Muslim partners to take bold, new steps to promote peace and to confront those, from ISIS to Al-Qaeda... who perpetuate chaos and violence that has inflicted so much suffering throughout the Muslim world and beyond,said Trump's National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Before departing, the president tweeted he would be "strongly protecting American interests" on his marathon eight-day trip to the Middle East and Europe.
After Saudi Arabia, Trump will head to Israel and the Palestinian Territories where he hopes to revive the moribund peace process.
He then travels to Europe where he will hold face-to-face meetings including with Pope Francis and France's new leader, Emmanuel Macron.
It is a trip fraught with peril for the real estate magnate, who is known to dislike lengthy travel.
The avalanche of revelations in the run-up to his departure have eroded Trump's standing at home where the parallels with Richard Nixon's ill-fated presidency are now being openly drawn.
On Friday, the probe into his campaign's Russia ties had identified a "significant person of interest" in the White House undercut Trump's insistence his election bid had nothing to do with the Kremlin.
The White House was rocked by another bombshell when reports emerged that Trump said his firing of "nut job" Comey had relieved "great pressure" on him due to the investigation.
The scandals have revived questions about his ability to strike a presidential tone with his foreign counterparts, with Trump declaring himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history.
Arms contracts
His visit to the Gulf is expected to bring lucrative arms contracts for US firms.
"The big question mark that you should bear in mind is if Saudi Arabia signs up for a $100 billion arms deal with oil prices where they are today, how are they actually going to pay that in the future?" said Bruce Riedel, former CIA analyst and counterterrorism expert now with the Brookings Institution.
In Israel, Trump will meet his "friend" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Bethlehem.
The Israeli leg of his trip is already awash in controversy -- from a row over Trump's visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews, to his alleged disclosure of Israeli intelligence to Russian officials.
Trump's meeting with Pope Francis -- two men at odds on everything from climate change to refugee policy remains highly unpredictable, although the pontiff says he will give America's bullish leader an open-minded hearing.
The president will also meet members of NATO in Brussels and attend a G7 summit in the picturesque Sicilian town of Taormina overlooking the Mediterranean.
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
USA: Trump Travel Ban Religiously Motivated
The Latest on the legal challenges to President Donald Trump's revised travel ban targeting six-Muslim majority countries:
4 p.m.
An attorney challenging President Donald Trump's revised travel ban says the Republican's anti-Muslim rhetoric is evidence that the policy was motivated by hostility to the religion.
Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union urged a 13-judge panel of the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday to uphold lower court ruling that blocks the president's revised travel ban.
Jadwat said Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric continued even after he was elected.
He noted that Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the country remained on his campaign website after he took office. The statement, was still online Monday morning, appeared to have been taken down before the hearing.
Judge Robert B. King said the case appears to hinge on whether the court considers Trump's statements or focuses solely on the text of the order, which is religiously neutral.
3:25 p.m.
An attorney for President Donald Trump is urging a federal appeals court to focus on the religiously neutral text of Trump's revised travel ban rather than the Republican's anti-Muslim campaign statements.
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall told the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday that the court should not second-guess the president's national security decisions because of comments made on the campaign trail.
A 13-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is examining a ruling that blocks the administration from temporarily barring new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
A handful of judges appeared skeptical of Wall's arguments that they shouldn't give weight to Trump's campaign statements.
The judge's aren't expected to issue a ruling Monday.
___
2:55 p.m.
Dozens of demonstrators are gathered in front of the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, as a hearing is underway on whether to allow an executive order targeting immigrants from six predominantly Muslim countries to go into effect.
Rabbi Michael Knopf of Bend the Arc Jewish Action said on Monday that people were there to assure the Muslim community that they oppose the ban imposed by President Donald Trump's administration and they want to invite all Americans of conscience to join them in saying they oppose any ban any time. He said the ban has caused Muslim men, women and children to live in fear.
Attorneys for the Justice Department are defending Trump's executive order before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It's the first time an appeals court has heard arguments on the revised travel ban, which was issued in March.
The court is examining a ruling that blocks the administration from suspending new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
___
8:10 a.m.
Three judges appointed by President Bill Clinton will hear the Trump administration's appeal of Hawaii's so-far successful challenge to the president's travel ban that targets six predominantly Muslim countries.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will listen to arguments on May 15 at its Seattle courthouse. The 9th Circuit hears appeals from federal courts in nine western states.
A federal judge in Hawaii blocked the travel ban in March, ruling that it unfairly targets Muslims. Hawaii's attorney general argued the ban would harm the state's universities and tourism industry.
The three 9th Circuit judges who will consider Trump's Hawaii appeal are Michael Daly Hawkins, Ronald Gould and Richard Paez. Hawkins was appointed in 1994. The other two were appointed in 1999.
___
10 a.m.
A panel of 13 appeals court judges in Virginia will hear a challenge to President Donald Trump's revised executive order targeting six predominantly Muslim countries.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Judge Allyson K. Duncan and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III will not hear arguments in the case Monday. Wilkinson's son-in-law is Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who's arguing the case on behalf of Trump.
It was not immediately clear why Duncan isn't on the panel. Both judges were appointed to the court by Republican presidents.
Of the 13 judges remaining, three are Republican appointees and nine are Democratic appointees. Chief Judge Roger Gregory was given a recess appointment to the court by President Bill Clinton and was reappointed by President George W. Bush.
___
3:20 a.m.
President Donald Trump is hoping that a federal appeals court will approve his revised travel ban that targets six Muslim-majority countries.
Attorneys for the Justice Department will defend Trump's immigration executive order before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. It's the first time an appeals court will hear arguments on the revised travel ban, which was issued in March.
The court in Richmond, Virginia, will examine a ruling that blocks the administration from suspending new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The revised travel ban has also been blocked by a judge in Hawaii. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in that case next week.
4 p.m.
An attorney challenging President Donald Trump's revised travel ban says the Republican's anti-Muslim rhetoric is evidence that the policy was motivated by hostility to the religion.
Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union urged a 13-judge panel of the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday to uphold lower court ruling that blocks the president's revised travel ban.
Jadwat said Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric continued even after he was elected.
He noted that Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the country remained on his campaign website after he took office. The statement, was still online Monday morning, appeared to have been taken down before the hearing.
Judge Robert B. King said the case appears to hinge on whether the court considers Trump's statements or focuses solely on the text of the order, which is religiously neutral.
3:25 p.m.
An attorney for President Donald Trump is urging a federal appeals court to focus on the religiously neutral text of Trump's revised travel ban rather than the Republican's anti-Muslim campaign statements.
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall told the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday that the court should not second-guess the president's national security decisions because of comments made on the campaign trail.
A 13-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is examining a ruling that blocks the administration from temporarily barring new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
A handful of judges appeared skeptical of Wall's arguments that they shouldn't give weight to Trump's campaign statements.
The judge's aren't expected to issue a ruling Monday.
___
2:55 p.m.
Dozens of demonstrators are gathered in front of the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, as a hearing is underway on whether to allow an executive order targeting immigrants from six predominantly Muslim countries to go into effect.
Rabbi Michael Knopf of Bend the Arc Jewish Action said on Monday that people were there to assure the Muslim community that they oppose the ban imposed by President Donald Trump's administration and they want to invite all Americans of conscience to join them in saying they oppose any ban any time. He said the ban has caused Muslim men, women and children to live in fear.
Attorneys for the Justice Department are defending Trump's executive order before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It's the first time an appeals court has heard arguments on the revised travel ban, which was issued in March.
The court is examining a ruling that blocks the administration from suspending new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
___
8:10 a.m.
Three judges appointed by President Bill Clinton will hear the Trump administration's appeal of Hawaii's so-far successful challenge to the president's travel ban that targets six predominantly Muslim countries.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will listen to arguments on May 15 at its Seattle courthouse. The 9th Circuit hears appeals from federal courts in nine western states.
A federal judge in Hawaii blocked the travel ban in March, ruling that it unfairly targets Muslims. Hawaii's attorney general argued the ban would harm the state's universities and tourism industry.
The three 9th Circuit judges who will consider Trump's Hawaii appeal are Michael Daly Hawkins, Ronald Gould and Richard Paez. Hawkins was appointed in 1994. The other two were appointed in 1999.
___
10 a.m.
A panel of 13 appeals court judges in Virginia will hear a challenge to President Donald Trump's revised executive order targeting six predominantly Muslim countries.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Judge Allyson K. Duncan and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III will not hear arguments in the case Monday. Wilkinson's son-in-law is Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who's arguing the case on behalf of Trump.
It was not immediately clear why Duncan isn't on the panel. Both judges were appointed to the court by Republican presidents.
Of the 13 judges remaining, three are Republican appointees and nine are Democratic appointees. Chief Judge Roger Gregory was given a recess appointment to the court by President Bill Clinton and was reappointed by President George W. Bush.
___
3:20 a.m.
President Donald Trump is hoping that a federal appeals court will approve his revised travel ban that targets six Muslim-majority countries.
Attorneys for the Justice Department will defend Trump's immigration executive order before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. It's the first time an appeals court will hear arguments on the revised travel ban, which was issued in March.
The court in Richmond, Virginia, will examine a ruling that blocks the administration from suspending new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The revised travel ban has also been blocked by a judge in Hawaii. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in that case next week.
Thursday, 27 April 2017
USA: Trump Versus German Tourists
Route 66, New York, San Francisco: for years, the US has been the most popular tourist destination among Germans. But has that popularity lessened since Donald Trump became president? We gauge the mood.
"What does the US have in its favor? "Nature, history, the sun, the friendly people," enthuse two women in their mid-forties. They have just arrived at Berlin's Tegel Airport in a plane from Miami, both wearing shorts, and sporting suntans. They were in the Everglades in Florida. Their only criticism: "Florida in particular is too expensive."
A family with a baggage trolley loaded with large suitcases pushes past them. Tired out after the ten-hour flight from Miami, they have just enough energy for the son to give us a casual thumbs-up. Then his father turns back and says, beaming, "We'll definitely go there again."
Is Trump scaring tourists off?
Ever since Donald Trump was elected US President, experts have feared that many potential visitors from abroad would stay away. In March, Fred Dixon, President of New York City’s official tourism organization, said that Trump's harsh rhetoric and planned travel bans, although thwarted by the US judicial system, had tarnished the image of the US as a hospitable country.
German vacationers, however, appear to be unfazed. Berlin teacher Christiane Schraback is one of them. For 14 years she has organized school exchanges with the state of Missouri during the Easter holidays.
She knows many people in the US and Germany who view Trump critically, but says resolutely, “I will continue the school exchanges anyway.”
What annoys the teacher most is ESTA, the automated procedure that determines whether foreign nationals can travel to the United States without a visa. The students are eligible, but she says the procedure "is constantly being tightened, and not just since Trump has been president.
There are more and more questions about parents, about employers, and now about profiles on social networks. If Europe did that with US citizens, the outcry would be enormous.”
This year, their arrival at the airport in Chicago went well. Caroline, a student, said, “All they asked me was why I wanted to enter the country.” Christiane Schraback confirms that "US immigration officers have become friendlier in the past two years."
More short-notice bookings
Among travel agents, too, the ESTA procedure is much-discussed topic. Nadia Hönow, who owns the Berlin travel agencyReisen à la carte GmbH, reports that many of her customers ask her to help them fill out the forms, a service she is glad to offer. "We've already sold a lot of trips to the US this year.
To date, I have heard no negative comments from my customers. Instead, they've been positive." But she adds that many customers are more hesitant at first and don't jump at the idea of a US vacation. She has also observed another tendency: "Our customers are booking at shorter notice."
Uncertainty and hard numbers
So far, there has been no sharp drop in German travel. Trump's planned ban for travelers from six mainly Muslim countries was blocked by the courts, and the laptop ban applies only to direct flights to the United States from eight airports in the Middle East. To all intents and purposes, these restrictions don't apply to Germans.
Nonetheless, since Trump took office, they have become sceptical of trips to the US, as the market research organization GfK discovered. In January 9% fewer Germans with a general interest in going to the US planned to holiday there.
The organization said it surveyed 19,000 selected households. GfK spokeswoman Dörte Nordbeck confirmed that the survey results for February and March showed no reversal of that trend.
Tilo Krause-Duenow, founder of Canusa, a long-established tour operator in Hamburg that specializes in North American travel destinations, cannot confirm that tendency when it comes to his company.
He says that, since Trump's election in November, there have been stronger and weaker weeks as far as bookings and inquiries are concerned, but that at the end of each month there has consistently been a single-figure rate of growth between 5 and 9% compared to the same period last year. Currently, he says, demand is even increasing.
Krause-Duenow is sure that "more than 50% of our customers are repeat travelers to the US. They don't get let politics bother them very much."
The strong dollar isn't the whole explanation
The experiences of German tour operators have differed in the first quarterly period. When DW asked five operators, the spectrum ranged from a good plus in bookings, to stable numbers, to a reluctance to buy.
Peter Dorner's office is in New York City and he keeps a sharp eye on developments on the ground. He conducts operations for the travel group DER Touristik in the US. "Demand from Europe, and in particular from Germany, has dropped slightly.
One reason for that is certainly the strong dollar. But the discussions surrounding the presidential election aren't exactly good prerequisites for additional US business."
Should the euro strengthen, planes flying to the US would be full again, says Dorner, because "for Europeans, there are no effects once they arrive. The USA is still a very safe travel destination."
Travel offers more diverse than ever before
US national parks are especially popular with Germans. "German tourists want getaways, secluded locations, and adventure holidays," according to a spokeswoman from the official tourist organization BrandUSA, which is creating more offers tailored to German tourists in its current campaign.
Leading German tourism groups such as TUI and Thomas Cook Germany have expanded their US portfolios for 2017. Every year, two million Germans holiday in the United States, the sixth-largest number of international visitors according to country. Shopping in New York, surfing in Florida, driving through California in a recreational vehicle.
New to the range are cruises from Florida to the Caribbean and from New York City to Canada. Despite the subdued beginning to the year, the signs are good that, in 2017, the US might remain Germans' favorite travel destination - despite Donald Trump.
"What does the US have in its favor? "Nature, history, the sun, the friendly people," enthuse two women in their mid-forties. They have just arrived at Berlin's Tegel Airport in a plane from Miami, both wearing shorts, and sporting suntans. They were in the Everglades in Florida. Their only criticism: "Florida in particular is too expensive."
A family with a baggage trolley loaded with large suitcases pushes past them. Tired out after the ten-hour flight from Miami, they have just enough energy for the son to give us a casual thumbs-up. Then his father turns back and says, beaming, "We'll definitely go there again."
Is Trump scaring tourists off?
Ever since Donald Trump was elected US President, experts have feared that many potential visitors from abroad would stay away. In March, Fred Dixon, President of New York City’s official tourism organization, said that Trump's harsh rhetoric and planned travel bans, although thwarted by the US judicial system, had tarnished the image of the US as a hospitable country.
German vacationers, however, appear to be unfazed. Berlin teacher Christiane Schraback is one of them. For 14 years she has organized school exchanges with the state of Missouri during the Easter holidays.
She knows many people in the US and Germany who view Trump critically, but says resolutely, “I will continue the school exchanges anyway.”
What annoys the teacher most is ESTA, the automated procedure that determines whether foreign nationals can travel to the United States without a visa. The students are eligible, but she says the procedure "is constantly being tightened, and not just since Trump has been president.
There are more and more questions about parents, about employers, and now about profiles on social networks. If Europe did that with US citizens, the outcry would be enormous.”
This year, their arrival at the airport in Chicago went well. Caroline, a student, said, “All they asked me was why I wanted to enter the country.” Christiane Schraback confirms that "US immigration officers have become friendlier in the past two years."
More short-notice bookings
Among travel agents, too, the ESTA procedure is much-discussed topic. Nadia Hönow, who owns the Berlin travel agencyReisen à la carte GmbH, reports that many of her customers ask her to help them fill out the forms, a service she is glad to offer. "We've already sold a lot of trips to the US this year.
To date, I have heard no negative comments from my customers. Instead, they've been positive." But she adds that many customers are more hesitant at first and don't jump at the idea of a US vacation. She has also observed another tendency: "Our customers are booking at shorter notice."
Uncertainty and hard numbers
So far, there has been no sharp drop in German travel. Trump's planned ban for travelers from six mainly Muslim countries was blocked by the courts, and the laptop ban applies only to direct flights to the United States from eight airports in the Middle East. To all intents and purposes, these restrictions don't apply to Germans.
Nonetheless, since Trump took office, they have become sceptical of trips to the US, as the market research organization GfK discovered. In January 9% fewer Germans with a general interest in going to the US planned to holiday there.
The organization said it surveyed 19,000 selected households. GfK spokeswoman Dörte Nordbeck confirmed that the survey results for February and March showed no reversal of that trend.
Tilo Krause-Duenow, founder of Canusa, a long-established tour operator in Hamburg that specializes in North American travel destinations, cannot confirm that tendency when it comes to his company.
He says that, since Trump's election in November, there have been stronger and weaker weeks as far as bookings and inquiries are concerned, but that at the end of each month there has consistently been a single-figure rate of growth between 5 and 9% compared to the same period last year. Currently, he says, demand is even increasing.
Krause-Duenow is sure that "more than 50% of our customers are repeat travelers to the US. They don't get let politics bother them very much."
The strong dollar isn't the whole explanation
The experiences of German tour operators have differed in the first quarterly period. When DW asked five operators, the spectrum ranged from a good plus in bookings, to stable numbers, to a reluctance to buy.
Peter Dorner's office is in New York City and he keeps a sharp eye on developments on the ground. He conducts operations for the travel group DER Touristik in the US. "Demand from Europe, and in particular from Germany, has dropped slightly.
One reason for that is certainly the strong dollar. But the discussions surrounding the presidential election aren't exactly good prerequisites for additional US business."
Should the euro strengthen, planes flying to the US would be full again, says Dorner, because "for Europeans, there are no effects once they arrive. The USA is still a very safe travel destination."
Travel offers more diverse than ever before
US national parks are especially popular with Germans. "German tourists want getaways, secluded locations, and adventure holidays," according to a spokeswoman from the official tourist organization BrandUSA, which is creating more offers tailored to German tourists in its current campaign.
Leading German tourism groups such as TUI and Thomas Cook Germany have expanded their US portfolios for 2017. Every year, two million Germans holiday in the United States, the sixth-largest number of international visitors according to country. Shopping in New York, surfing in Florida, driving through California in a recreational vehicle.
New to the range are cruises from Florida to the Caribbean and from New York City to Canada. Despite the subdued beginning to the year, the signs are good that, in 2017, the US might remain Germans' favorite travel destination - despite Donald Trump.
Monday, 13 March 2017
MEXICO: Trump Trademarks For His Hotels And Tourism Allowed By Mexico
Last year, at a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, then-candidate Donald Trump gave a stump speech in which he railed against American jobs moving to Mexico: “We lose our jobs, we close our factories, Mexico gets all of the work,” he said.
“We get nothing.” That same day a law firm in Mexico City quietly filed on behalf of his company for trademarks on his name that would authorise the Trump brand, should it choose, to set up shop in a country with which he has sparred over trade, migration and the planned border wall.
The Trump trademarks have now been granted by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, or IMPI for its initials in Spanish.
Records show the last three were approved February 21, just over a month after Trump took office, and a fourth was granted last October 6, about a month before the U.S. election.
Trump’s company has notched several trademark wins recently.
The Chinese government recently granted preliminary approval for 38 trademarks to Trump and a related company.
That sparked outrage from some Democratic senators and critics, who have been pushing Trump to sever financial ties with his global businesses to avoid potential violations of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars federal officials from accepting anything of value from foreign governments unless approved by Congress.
The Mexican trademarks cover a broad range of business operations that can roughly be broken down into construction; construction materials; hotels, hospitality and tourism; and real estate, financial services and insurance. They are all valid through 2026.
The same four trademarks were previously held in the name of Donald J. Trump and expired in 2015, a year before the new applications. The new approvals list the trademark owner as the company DTTM Operations LLC, with an address in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York.
As president Trump has handed management of his business to his two adult sons and vowed to strike no new deals abroad while he is in office. However critics say questions remain about possible conflicts of interest, noting that foreigners could still seek to influence Trump by helping his existing foreign operations or by easing the way for future ones after he leaves the Oval Office.
Trump Organization General Counsel Alan Garten said the Mexican government’s decision was not a special favour to the president.
“We’re not being granted anything we didn’t have before,” he said. The original trademarks came “years before (Trump) even announced his candidacy.”
Garten said the Mexican trademarks originally had two purposes: laying the ground for possible new ventures and keeping other people from using Trump’s name for their own businesses.
He said the trademarks are wholly defensive now. “Circumstances have changed,” Garten said. “He’s been elected and we agreed not to do foreign deals.”
Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, said the Mexican grants are in an ethical “grey” area: defensive in nature now, perhaps, but setting the president up to profit when he leaves office.
“To what extent is this appropriate? I don’t know,” Painter said. “We never had Obama running around the world locking up his name, or Bush.”
Intellectual property lawyer Enrique Alberto Diaz Mucharraz is listed on the trademark filings. A junior partner at the Mexico City law firm Goodrich Riquelme y Asociados, he declined to comment citing client confidentiality rules.
Phones rang unanswered at the public relations office of IMPI, and there was no response to an emailed request for comment on a list of questions.
Trademarks can prove enormously valuable to companies, especially in countries with a growing number of middle class consumers who recognise the brand, said Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi of A.C. Sondhi & Associates, an investment consultancy in Safety Harbor, Florida.
Mexican political analyst Alejandro Hope said IMPI is generally considered to be apolitical and the trademark concession was most likely a technical decision. More remarkable, Hope said, was that the application was filed during a heated campaign when “he had already started using Mexico as a pinata” for political purposes.
“What I find striking is that these guys were thinking about doing business in Mexico while they were trashing Mexico on the campaign trail,” Hope added. Trump has a spotty business past in the country.
Last decade he and his children aggressively promoted a luxury hotel and condo development with the Trump name on it that was planned for the northern Baja California coast, near Tijuana. In December 2006, 188 units were sold for $122 million during an event at a hotel in San Diego.
But the Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico project collapsed, and dozens of buyers who had lost their 30 per cent deposits sued in March 2009.
Trump settled out of court in November 2013 for an undisclosed sum; in a separate settlement the previous year, developer Irongate, which had licensed the Trump name, agreed to pay the buyers $7.25 million.
On the Caribbean island of Cozumel, near Cancun, Trump tried in 2007 to purchase land for a luxury resort complete with an airstrip and golf course, according to Mexican media reports. It met with local and environmental opposition, and never went anywhere.
In all, Trump controls at least 20 trademarks in Mexico, including for Trump Ocean Resort and Trump Isla Cozumel. Others cover activities such as concierge and spa services, alcoholic beverages, golf club operations and home furnishings.
For clothing, there’s the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection. If there are plans to take the Trump brand to Mexico, it could be tough going due to widespread popular anger toward the president for his comments disparaging Mexican immigrants who come to the United States illegally, his threats to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and his vows to make Mexico pay for the border wall.
Hope said that if a Trump hotel were in the cards, its prospects could depend a lot on location.
“In Mexico City, I guess they would face a lot of political backlash at this point,” Hope said. Maybe it would fly in more politically insulated areas, like the beach resorts of Cancun or Los Cabos. “But even that would be a hard sell.”
“We get nothing.” That same day a law firm in Mexico City quietly filed on behalf of his company for trademarks on his name that would authorise the Trump brand, should it choose, to set up shop in a country with which he has sparred over trade, migration and the planned border wall.
The Trump trademarks have now been granted by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, or IMPI for its initials in Spanish.
Records show the last three were approved February 21, just over a month after Trump took office, and a fourth was granted last October 6, about a month before the U.S. election.
Trump’s company has notched several trademark wins recently.
The Chinese government recently granted preliminary approval for 38 trademarks to Trump and a related company.
That sparked outrage from some Democratic senators and critics, who have been pushing Trump to sever financial ties with his global businesses to avoid potential violations of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars federal officials from accepting anything of value from foreign governments unless approved by Congress.
The Mexican trademarks cover a broad range of business operations that can roughly be broken down into construction; construction materials; hotels, hospitality and tourism; and real estate, financial services and insurance. They are all valid through 2026.
The same four trademarks were previously held in the name of Donald J. Trump and expired in 2015, a year before the new applications. The new approvals list the trademark owner as the company DTTM Operations LLC, with an address in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York.
As president Trump has handed management of his business to his two adult sons and vowed to strike no new deals abroad while he is in office. However critics say questions remain about possible conflicts of interest, noting that foreigners could still seek to influence Trump by helping his existing foreign operations or by easing the way for future ones after he leaves the Oval Office.
Trump Organization General Counsel Alan Garten said the Mexican government’s decision was not a special favour to the president.
“We’re not being granted anything we didn’t have before,” he said. The original trademarks came “years before (Trump) even announced his candidacy.”
Garten said the Mexican trademarks originally had two purposes: laying the ground for possible new ventures and keeping other people from using Trump’s name for their own businesses.
He said the trademarks are wholly defensive now. “Circumstances have changed,” Garten said. “He’s been elected and we agreed not to do foreign deals.”
Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, said the Mexican grants are in an ethical “grey” area: defensive in nature now, perhaps, but setting the president up to profit when he leaves office.
“To what extent is this appropriate? I don’t know,” Painter said. “We never had Obama running around the world locking up his name, or Bush.”
Intellectual property lawyer Enrique Alberto Diaz Mucharraz is listed on the trademark filings. A junior partner at the Mexico City law firm Goodrich Riquelme y Asociados, he declined to comment citing client confidentiality rules.
Phones rang unanswered at the public relations office of IMPI, and there was no response to an emailed request for comment on a list of questions.
Trademarks can prove enormously valuable to companies, especially in countries with a growing number of middle class consumers who recognise the brand, said Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi of A.C. Sondhi & Associates, an investment consultancy in Safety Harbor, Florida.
Mexican political analyst Alejandro Hope said IMPI is generally considered to be apolitical and the trademark concession was most likely a technical decision. More remarkable, Hope said, was that the application was filed during a heated campaign when “he had already started using Mexico as a pinata” for political purposes.
“What I find striking is that these guys were thinking about doing business in Mexico while they were trashing Mexico on the campaign trail,” Hope added. Trump has a spotty business past in the country.
Last decade he and his children aggressively promoted a luxury hotel and condo development with the Trump name on it that was planned for the northern Baja California coast, near Tijuana. In December 2006, 188 units were sold for $122 million during an event at a hotel in San Diego.
But the Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico project collapsed, and dozens of buyers who had lost their 30 per cent deposits sued in March 2009.
Trump settled out of court in November 2013 for an undisclosed sum; in a separate settlement the previous year, developer Irongate, which had licensed the Trump name, agreed to pay the buyers $7.25 million.
On the Caribbean island of Cozumel, near Cancun, Trump tried in 2007 to purchase land for a luxury resort complete with an airstrip and golf course, according to Mexican media reports. It met with local and environmental opposition, and never went anywhere.
In all, Trump controls at least 20 trademarks in Mexico, including for Trump Ocean Resort and Trump Isla Cozumel. Others cover activities such as concierge and spa services, alcoholic beverages, golf club operations and home furnishings.
For clothing, there’s the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection. If there are plans to take the Trump brand to Mexico, it could be tough going due to widespread popular anger toward the president for his comments disparaging Mexican immigrants who come to the United States illegally, his threats to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and his vows to make Mexico pay for the border wall.
Hope said that if a Trump hotel were in the cards, its prospects could depend a lot on location.
“In Mexico City, I guess they would face a lot of political backlash at this point,” Hope said. Maybe it would fly in more politically insulated areas, like the beach resorts of Cancun or Los Cabos. “But even that would be a hard sell.”
Thursday, 9 March 2017
USA: Judge Allows Hawaii State To Challenge New Travel Ban
Hawaii requested emergency court intervention on Wednesday to halt a revised executive order from President Donald Trump placing U.S. entry restrictions on refugees and travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.
Arguing that the new travel ban violates the U.S. Constitution, the state asked a Hawaii federal court to grant a temporary restraining order that should apply nationally.
U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled earlier in the day that the state could sue over Trump's new order, which was signed by the president on Monday.
It is the first legal challenge to the revised order.
Watson said the state could revise its initial lawsuit, which had challenged Trump's original ban signed in January.
A hearing is set for March 15, a day before the new ban is to go into effect.
The government has said the president has wide authority to implement immigration policy and that the travel rules are necessary to protect against terrorist attacks.
Some legal experts have said court challenges will be more difficult now because changes to the order give exemptions to more people.
The revised travel order changed and replaced the original, more sweeping ban issued on Jan. 27 that caused chaos and protests at airports and was challenged in more than two dozen lawsuits around the country. A federal judge in Seattle put the first order on hold, in a decision upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco.
The new order is much more narrowly tailored. It keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, but excludes Iraq and applies the restriction only to new visa applicants. It also removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.
The order no longer covers legal residents or existing visa holders, and makes waivers possible for some business, diplomatic and other travellers.
Immigration advocates have said the new ban, like the original one, discriminates against Muslims.
But the first hurdle in a lawsuit is proving "standing" to sue, which means finding someone who has been harmed by the policy. With so many exemptions, legal experts have said it might be hard to find individuals that a court would rule have a right to sue.
Hawaii claims its state universities would be harmed by the order because they would have trouble recruiting students and faculty. It also says the island state's economy would be hit by a decline in tourism. The court papers cite reports that travel to the United States "took a nosedive" after Trump's actions.
The state was joined by a new plaintiff named Ismail Elshikh, an American citizen from Egypt who is an Imam at the Muslim Association of Hawaii whose mother-in-law lives in Syria, according to the lawsuit.
"This second Executive Order is infected with the same legal problems as the first Order," the state said in court papers filed on Tuesday. The President's order "is subjecting a portion of Hawaii's population, including Dr. Elshikh, his family, and members of his Mosque, to discrimination and second-class treatment," Hawaii said.
The lawsuit says that Elshikh fears his mother-in-law will not be able to enter the country under the new order. "The family is devastated," the filing said.
One of the groups eligible for waivers under the new ban are those seeking to visit or live with a close relative and who would face hardship if denied entry.
Adam Lauridsen, a San Francisco attorney representing students challenging Trump's first order, said the waiver provisions in the new ban are similar to case-by-case exemptions allowed in the first ban. Earlier legal challenges were allowed to move forward despite those waivers, he said.
In support of its actions, the Trump administration has cited a section of law that says the president can suspend entry to the United States by "any class" of foreigners if he finds it would be "detrimental to the interests" of the country.
Arguing that the new travel ban violates the U.S. Constitution, the state asked a Hawaii federal court to grant a temporary restraining order that should apply nationally.
U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled earlier in the day that the state could sue over Trump's new order, which was signed by the president on Monday.
It is the first legal challenge to the revised order.
Watson said the state could revise its initial lawsuit, which had challenged Trump's original ban signed in January.
A hearing is set for March 15, a day before the new ban is to go into effect.
The government has said the president has wide authority to implement immigration policy and that the travel rules are necessary to protect against terrorist attacks.
Some legal experts have said court challenges will be more difficult now because changes to the order give exemptions to more people.
The revised travel order changed and replaced the original, more sweeping ban issued on Jan. 27 that caused chaos and protests at airports and was challenged in more than two dozen lawsuits around the country. A federal judge in Seattle put the first order on hold, in a decision upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco.
The new order is much more narrowly tailored. It keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, but excludes Iraq and applies the restriction only to new visa applicants. It also removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.
The order no longer covers legal residents or existing visa holders, and makes waivers possible for some business, diplomatic and other travellers.
Immigration advocates have said the new ban, like the original one, discriminates against Muslims.
But the first hurdle in a lawsuit is proving "standing" to sue, which means finding someone who has been harmed by the policy. With so many exemptions, legal experts have said it might be hard to find individuals that a court would rule have a right to sue.
Hawaii claims its state universities would be harmed by the order because they would have trouble recruiting students and faculty. It also says the island state's economy would be hit by a decline in tourism. The court papers cite reports that travel to the United States "took a nosedive" after Trump's actions.
The state was joined by a new plaintiff named Ismail Elshikh, an American citizen from Egypt who is an Imam at the Muslim Association of Hawaii whose mother-in-law lives in Syria, according to the lawsuit.
"This second Executive Order is infected with the same legal problems as the first Order," the state said in court papers filed on Tuesday. The President's order "is subjecting a portion of Hawaii's population, including Dr. Elshikh, his family, and members of his Mosque, to discrimination and second-class treatment," Hawaii said.
The lawsuit says that Elshikh fears his mother-in-law will not be able to enter the country under the new order. "The family is devastated," the filing said.
One of the groups eligible for waivers under the new ban are those seeking to visit or live with a close relative and who would face hardship if denied entry.
Adam Lauridsen, a San Francisco attorney representing students challenging Trump's first order, said the waiver provisions in the new ban are similar to case-by-case exemptions allowed in the first ban. Earlier legal challenges were allowed to move forward despite those waivers, he said.
In support of its actions, the Trump administration has cited a section of law that says the president can suspend entry to the United States by "any class" of foreigners if he finds it would be "detrimental to the interests" of the country.
Sunday, 5 March 2017
Secret Uber Software Steers Drivers
Uber on Friday acknowledged the use of a secret software program to steer drivers away from trouble, including sting operations by local authorities to catch law-breakers.
In the latest in a streak of damaging news for the ride sharing giant, Uber came forward about its "Greyball" software after a New York Times report which said the program aimed to deceive authorities in markets around the world.
According to an Uber statement, the tool was used in cities where it was not banned from operating, and the main intent was to protect drivers from disruption by competitors using the smartphone application to interfere instead of summon legitimate rides.
"This program denies ride requests to fraudulent users who are violating our terms of service," an Uber spokesperson said.
"Whether that's people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret 'stings' meant to entrap drivers."
Uber said the program was used in locations where drivers feared for their safety, and "rarely" to avoid law enforcement.
Greyball was used in several countries, cited interviews with current and former employees whose names were cloaked.
The report said Greyball was part of a part of a broader program created to reveal people trying to use Uber in "violation of terms of service" and had the blessing of the company's legal team.
According to the report, the program raised ethical and potential concerns, and had been a closely guarded secret in Uber's toolbox as it expanded around the world, clashing with regulators and traditional taxi groups.
The "Greyball" disclosure comes as accusations of sexism, cut-throat management, and a toxic work environment have Uber trying to pull its image out of a skid as competition revs in the on-demand ride market.
Uber chief Travis Kalanick this week apologised, acknowledging that "I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up," after a video showed him verbally abusing a driver for the service.
The incident which circulated on social media was another hit for the image of the global ridesharing giant, which faces accusations of sexual harassment and a lawsuit contending it misappropriated Google's self-driving car technology.
In the message to employees later, Mr Kalanick wrote "To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement."
Uber is one of the largest investor-backed start-ups with a valuation estimated at US$68 billion, and has operations in dozens of countries and hundreds of cities, even as it battles regulators and an established taxi industry.
Mr Kalanick also faced criticism for agreeing to be part of a business advisory panel for President Donald Trump, but then quit the panel amid a campaign by Trump opponents to delete the application.
In the latest in a streak of damaging news for the ride sharing giant, Uber came forward about its "Greyball" software after a New York Times report which said the program aimed to deceive authorities in markets around the world.
According to an Uber statement, the tool was used in cities where it was not banned from operating, and the main intent was to protect drivers from disruption by competitors using the smartphone application to interfere instead of summon legitimate rides.
"This program denies ride requests to fraudulent users who are violating our terms of service," an Uber spokesperson said.
"Whether that's people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret 'stings' meant to entrap drivers."
Uber said the program was used in locations where drivers feared for their safety, and "rarely" to avoid law enforcement.
Greyball was used in several countries, cited interviews with current and former employees whose names were cloaked.
The report said Greyball was part of a part of a broader program created to reveal people trying to use Uber in "violation of terms of service" and had the blessing of the company's legal team.
According to the report, the program raised ethical and potential concerns, and had been a closely guarded secret in Uber's toolbox as it expanded around the world, clashing with regulators and traditional taxi groups.
The "Greyball" disclosure comes as accusations of sexism, cut-throat management, and a toxic work environment have Uber trying to pull its image out of a skid as competition revs in the on-demand ride market.
Uber chief Travis Kalanick this week apologised, acknowledging that "I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up," after a video showed him verbally abusing a driver for the service.
The incident which circulated on social media was another hit for the image of the global ridesharing giant, which faces accusations of sexual harassment and a lawsuit contending it misappropriated Google's self-driving car technology.
In the message to employees later, Mr Kalanick wrote "To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement."
Uber is one of the largest investor-backed start-ups with a valuation estimated at US$68 billion, and has operations in dozens of countries and hundreds of cities, even as it battles regulators and an established taxi industry.
Mr Kalanick also faced criticism for agreeing to be part of a business advisory panel for President Donald Trump, but then quit the panel amid a campaign by Trump opponents to delete the application.
USA: Only 46% Of Americans Have Valid Passports
Six weeks into his presidency, and Donald Trump has yet to leave the United States on a foreign trip. One might even be tempted to call it a self-imposed travel ban.
Trump’s two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, were far quicker to leave American soil after their inaugurations. Less than a month after being sworn in, Obama went to Ottawa in 2009, while Bush jetted off to Mexico in February 2001.
By now, though, we should know that it’s a mistake to measure this president against the leaders who came before him. Trump is more interested in being in sync with his voters than with institutional history — and on this business of getting out of the country, the new U.S. president and many of his voters are simpatico.
A couple of months ago, while travelling outside of Canada, as it happens, I ran into a young American couple and we got to talking politics (naturally.) They were from rural areas of the United States, but they had been working in big cities and getting ready to make their next career move to the Boston area.
When the subject turned to the November election results, these two young voters were quick to say they hadn’t voted for Trump; that he was kind of embarrassing to have as a president. But most of their family members, on both sides, had backed him. How did they explain the difference?
“Well, we’ve travelled,” they explained. “A lot of people in our families haven’t.”
So, looking back, would that have been a good predictor of who would be a Trump supporter in the 2015 election? If we had looked at foreign-travel data among Americans last year, would we have more likely to see the Trump victory coming?
As it happens, someone has already tackled that very question and the answer seems to be Yes. The Expeditioner website, in a December post, matched election results to passport data in the United States to see whether there was any connection between travelling and political leanings in the presidential contest.
First, less than half of the American population — 46 per cent — has valid passports. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but the final election results gave 46 per cent of the popular vote to Trump and 48 per cent to Hillary Clinton.
But it gets better, or, as The Expeditioner put it, “this is the fun part.” When Matt Stabile, the founder of the site, put the election results beside state-by-state passport data, here was the result:
“There is a striking correlation between the states that voted for Trump in 2016 and those states with the lowest number of passport holders,” he wrote. “Those states that voted for Clinton had the highest percentage of passport holders.” (The exception was Alaska, but that state is an outlier in a number of ways, owing to its physical distance from the rest of the U.S.)
The analysis shows that the 19 states with the highest percentage of passport holders — California, New York, New Jersey to name a few — were all Democrat territory. The 11 states with the lowest percentage of passport holders — Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky, for instance — all went for Trump.
By this measure, incidentally, this country is more outgoing than the United States. Canadians, compared to their American neighbours, are generally far more likely to hold passports. According to 2014-15 figures from Passport Canada, 67 per cent of Canadians have valid travel documents. That’s a good deal higher than the state with the highest percentage of passport holders — New Jersey, where 62 per cent of citizens have passports, according to figures cited by The Expeditioner.
So if there is a connection between fondness for travelling and likelihood of supporting the new president, you could probably put Canadians in the non-Trump-supporter category, along with California and New York.
The name Trump has already acquired some negative associations around the whole idea of travel. It’s not just travel out of the U.S. either — all of Trump’s talk of border walls and travel bans is threatening to seriously dampen tourism into the States as well.
The BBC called it the “Trump slump” in a story this week and cited cancelled Canadian school trips across the border as part of the wave of people around the globe scrapping plans to go to the United States this year.
But Trump didn’t singlehandedly create this climate of travel aversion. With the fondness he’s so far displaying for sticking close to home, staying within U.S. borders, Trump is representative of a huge slice of his own electorate — citizens who believe that “America First” is a good rule of thumb about travel, too.
Trump’s two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, were far quicker to leave American soil after their inaugurations. Less than a month after being sworn in, Obama went to Ottawa in 2009, while Bush jetted off to Mexico in February 2001.
By now, though, we should know that it’s a mistake to measure this president against the leaders who came before him. Trump is more interested in being in sync with his voters than with institutional history — and on this business of getting out of the country, the new U.S. president and many of his voters are simpatico.
A couple of months ago, while travelling outside of Canada, as it happens, I ran into a young American couple and we got to talking politics (naturally.) They were from rural areas of the United States, but they had been working in big cities and getting ready to make their next career move to the Boston area.
When the subject turned to the November election results, these two young voters were quick to say they hadn’t voted for Trump; that he was kind of embarrassing to have as a president. But most of their family members, on both sides, had backed him. How did they explain the difference?
“Well, we’ve travelled,” they explained. “A lot of people in our families haven’t.”
So, looking back, would that have been a good predictor of who would be a Trump supporter in the 2015 election? If we had looked at foreign-travel data among Americans last year, would we have more likely to see the Trump victory coming?
As it happens, someone has already tackled that very question and the answer seems to be Yes. The Expeditioner website, in a December post, matched election results to passport data in the United States to see whether there was any connection between travelling and political leanings in the presidential contest.
First, less than half of the American population — 46 per cent — has valid passports. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but the final election results gave 46 per cent of the popular vote to Trump and 48 per cent to Hillary Clinton.
But it gets better, or, as The Expeditioner put it, “this is the fun part.” When Matt Stabile, the founder of the site, put the election results beside state-by-state passport data, here was the result:
“There is a striking correlation between the states that voted for Trump in 2016 and those states with the lowest number of passport holders,” he wrote. “Those states that voted for Clinton had the highest percentage of passport holders.” (The exception was Alaska, but that state is an outlier in a number of ways, owing to its physical distance from the rest of the U.S.)
The analysis shows that the 19 states with the highest percentage of passport holders — California, New York, New Jersey to name a few — were all Democrat territory. The 11 states with the lowest percentage of passport holders — Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky, for instance — all went for Trump.
By this measure, incidentally, this country is more outgoing than the United States. Canadians, compared to their American neighbours, are generally far more likely to hold passports. According to 2014-15 figures from Passport Canada, 67 per cent of Canadians have valid travel documents. That’s a good deal higher than the state with the highest percentage of passport holders — New Jersey, where 62 per cent of citizens have passports, according to figures cited by The Expeditioner.
So if there is a connection between fondness for travelling and likelihood of supporting the new president, you could probably put Canadians in the non-Trump-supporter category, along with California and New York.
The name Trump has already acquired some negative associations around the whole idea of travel. It’s not just travel out of the U.S. either — all of Trump’s talk of border walls and travel bans is threatening to seriously dampen tourism into the States as well.
The BBC called it the “Trump slump” in a story this week and cited cancelled Canadian school trips across the border as part of the wave of people around the globe scrapping plans to go to the United States this year.
But Trump didn’t singlehandedly create this climate of travel aversion. With the fondness he’s so far displaying for sticking close to home, staying within U.S. borders, Trump is representative of a huge slice of his own electorate — citizens who believe that “America First” is a good rule of thumb about travel, too.
Friday, 2 December 2016
CUBA: Cuba Tourism In For Change
Canadians have increasingly been spending more to visit the island as resorts switched pricing to U.S. dollars in preparation for a flood of American tourists.
“The tour operators, hotels changed their pricing last year at the start of the winter season, just over a year ago,” said Allison Wallace, spokeswoman for Flight Centre Travel Group. “Prices have gone up by approximately 15 per cent to 20 per cent based on the currency difference,” she said.
Although President Barack Obama has taken steps to improve relations with the communist country – reopening the U.S. embassy in Cuba and easing some travel restrictions – it is unknown whether U.S. president-elect Donald Trump will overturn the Obama administration’s policies. So far, his rhetoric suggests a more hostile relationship.
“If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal,” Mr. Trump said in a tweet after the death of former Cuban president Fidel Castro.
Ms. Wallace said that if Mr. Trump reverses U.S. policy, “it will effectively be good news for Canadians as it will mean a lack of competition. Less demand equals better availability and pricing.”
Travel company Transat AT, which has been active in Cuba for about three decades, said it is too early to say how the direct flights between the United States and Cuba would affect costs. But the company did say it has also seen higher prices for some hotels because of the increased demand.
A good chunk of that demand came from Canadians. More than 1.3 million Canadians travelled to Cuba in 2015, a 10-per-cent jump over the previous year, according to the Cuban government.
Canadians now make up 40 per cent of Cuba’s visitors, dwarfing all other countries.
“If you combine all of Europe, it doesn’t equal Canada,” said Eloy Govea, director with the Cuba Tourist Board in Canada. “Every single year, we have seen an increase in the number of arrivals from Canada.”
Regardless of the top Canadian vacation spot, few Canadian businesses are involved in the country’s tourism infrastructure.
“Cubans would say ‘we are mystified’” about the lack of direct investment, said Mark Entwistle, a former ambassador to Cuba.
Mr. Entwistle, who now advises U.S. and Canadian firms hoping to do business in Cuba, recalls his conversations with Cuban tourism officials this way: “We love you, Canada. You have these assets. You can come through any door and Cuba will receive you. But where are your hotel companies, where are your hotel developers, where are your investors?”
Friday, 18 November 2016
ISRAEL: Christian Tourism To Israel, Will It Grow?
While the dust is still settling from Donald Trump’s surprising victory, many in Israel’s all-important tourism industry are wondering if there will be a positive impact on tourism to the Jewish State.
Despite a perception in the Evangelical community that the Trump administration will be extremely pro-Israel, it is “too early to tell if the change in the American administration will affect incoming Evangelical Christian tourism in any way,” Israel’s Ministry of Tourism said.
David Parsons of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, the organization that brings thousands of Christian tourists each year for the Jerusalem Parade, agreed.
“It is too early to tell how a Trump presidency will impact Evangelical tourism to Israel. Like other visitors to Israel, Christian tourists come here in larger numbers when there is calm in the land, while the numbers tend to go down when there are tensions and terror attacks. I expect stability for Israel as Trump takes office but no one can predict what is next in this region,” Parsons stated.
(1) Tourism is a very important industry to Israel’s economy…
(2) Christians make up over half of all tourists to Israel.
(3) Evangelical Christians are very pro-Trump…(according to a poll in the days before the election were overwhelmingly supportive of Trump over Hillary Clinton.
(4) Nevertheless, it is too early to determine whether having Trump in the White House will encourage his voters to visit Israel.
One of Israel’s largest tourism providers to Christians, Sar-El, has seen rises and falls in the number of Christian tourists over the years. According to Sar-El’s deputy general manager David Katz, “Evangelical support has continued throughout all periods and I don’t think tourism has much to do with a change in the US administration.”
If a more pro-Israel White House is not responsible for boosting tourism to Israel, what does help increase the numbers?
Travel consultant Elisa Moed of Travelujah explained that the factors driving Christian tourism are multifaceted. “Pro-Israel Evangelical Christians want to come to Israel, and the increase or decrease of this segment is primarily related to economic factors, marketing, and security,” but not Donald Trump.
Despite a perception in the Evangelical community that the Trump administration will be extremely pro-Israel, it is “too early to tell if the change in the American administration will affect incoming Evangelical Christian tourism in any way,” Israel’s Ministry of Tourism said.
David Parsons of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, the organization that brings thousands of Christian tourists each year for the Jerusalem Parade, agreed.
“It is too early to tell how a Trump presidency will impact Evangelical tourism to Israel. Like other visitors to Israel, Christian tourists come here in larger numbers when there is calm in the land, while the numbers tend to go down when there are tensions and terror attacks. I expect stability for Israel as Trump takes office but no one can predict what is next in this region,” Parsons stated.
(1) Tourism is a very important industry to Israel’s economy…
(2) Christians make up over half of all tourists to Israel.
(3) Evangelical Christians are very pro-Trump…(according to a poll in the days before the election were overwhelmingly supportive of Trump over Hillary Clinton.
(4) Nevertheless, it is too early to determine whether having Trump in the White House will encourage his voters to visit Israel.
One of Israel’s largest tourism providers to Christians, Sar-El, has seen rises and falls in the number of Christian tourists over the years. According to Sar-El’s deputy general manager David Katz, “Evangelical support has continued throughout all periods and I don’t think tourism has much to do with a change in the US administration.”
If a more pro-Israel White House is not responsible for boosting tourism to Israel, what does help increase the numbers?
Travel consultant Elisa Moed of Travelujah explained that the factors driving Christian tourism are multifaceted. “Pro-Israel Evangelical Christians want to come to Israel, and the increase or decrease of this segment is primarily related to economic factors, marketing, and security,” but not Donald Trump.
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
BELGIUM: Brussels Terrorist Attacks, Explosions Kill At Least 34
The third member of the squad, pictured below wearing white, was named as Najim Laachraoui by Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure. He is believed to be the bomb maker, and is also suspected of rigging up the suicide vests used in the Paris massacres.
Laachraoui is still on the run after leaving his suitcase which was packed with explosives but failed to detonate, and walking calmly out of the terminal shortly before the other explosions. His bomb was later neutralised by police.
According to Belgian newspaper HLN, a taxi driver told police he unknowingly drove the suspects to the airport, and when he tried to help the men with their luggage, he was abruptly instructed not to touch their belongings. Police investigated the Schaerbeek area of the city where the taxi driver picked them up shortly after the attacks. Law enforcement found a nail bomb, ISIS flag and chemicals at a nearby property.
The Belgian prosecutor's office told NBC News that multiple raids were conducted in Schaerbeek, where several possible links to the Brussels attacks on Tuesday, March 22, were found. Authorities found an ISIS flag and an "improvised explosive device containing nails," NBC reported.
Belgian police have released a photo of a possible suspect who was in the Brussels airport prior to the explosions across the city that claimed the lives of at least 34 people on Tuesday, March 22.
"He is suspected of having committed the attack at the Zaventem airport on Tuesday, March 22, 2016," police wrote on Facebook of the man, clad in a dark hat in sunglasses. The other two men in the photo were believed to have died when two of the bombs were detonated. The man in the cream jacket is being sought by authorities. Their names have not been released.
The Associated Press also reported Tuesday afternoon that another bomb had successfully been deactivated, following two deadly explosions at the city's Zaventem Airport. The other site of the deadly explosions was at the Metro stop of Maalbeek. The bombs contained nails, officials at the Hospital Gasthuisberg said.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Brussels that have claimed the lives of at least 34 people, ABC News reported on Tuesday, March 22. NBC News' counterterrorism consultancy deemed a post by ISIS affiliate Amaq Agency claiming responsibility for the terrorist explosions as legitimate.
The terror group claimed that it "carried out a series of bombings with explosive belts and devices" in "the Belgian capital Brussels, a country participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State ISIS."
A series of explosions took place across Brussels Tuesday morning. At least twenty of the victims were apparently at a metro station and the others were at the airport. Hundreds of people were injured by the attacks, including three Americans who were "seriously injured."
Up to two blasts occurred at the city's Brussels' Zaventem Airport. One was blamed on a suicide bomber.
The city's mayor, Yvan Majeur, the subway blast killed 20 people and injured more than 100. The country's ministry of health said there were at least 11 fatalities at the airport.
U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the attacks from his historic planned speech in Havana, Cuba. "The thoughts and the prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium," Obama said. "We stand in solidarity with them. This is another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism."
People react outside Brussels airport after explosions rocked the facility in Brussels, Belgium Tuesday March 22, 2016.
His Democratic counterpart had a very different response. "We've got to be absolutely smart and strong and steady in how we respond," Clinton said. "It's unrealistic to say we're going to completely shut down our borders to everyone."
Tributes were shared from all over the globe, including one standout cartoon by French artist Plantu. The cartoonist's work shows a figure in a French flag shedding a tear and wrapping an arm around its crying counterpart in the Belgian national flag.
The federal prosecutor in the case had confirmed that the airport explosion was a suicide attack. Shortly after the airport blasts, another explosion went off at a subway station in the suburb of Maalbeek, close to the European quarter where much of the European Union is based. All metro stations in the city have now been closed and police have advised all foreign nationals to stay at home or indoors.
Eyewitnesses said that "dozens" of people were taken out of the airport on stretchers. The airport tweeted that there had been two blasts and the building was being evacuated. All airport operations have been suspended.
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, has tweeted his reaction to the situation. "My thoughts with #Brussels and its citizens after these heinous attacks. Stay in a safe place, follow instructions of authorities."
The Belgian government has raised the terror alert level to 4 across the country, the highest level, amid fears that the attacks are retaliatory strikes after the Friday arrest of Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in last year’s Paris massacre.
Monday, 21 December 2015
Mistaken, Miss Universe Crown Given To Colombia After Wrong Announcement
The Miss Universe contestant from the Philippines is this year's winner, but for a few minutes, it appeared as if it might be a repeat win for Colombia.
Colombia contestant Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo was already wearing the crown as this year's winner in Las Vegas when host Steve Harvey returned to apologize.
Harvey says it was his mistake and that he would take responsibility for misreading the card that correctly named contestant Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach as this year's winner, and Colombia as first runner-up.
A mystified Wurtzbach appeared stunned as she walked to the front of the stage alongside the crown-wearing Arevalo before last year's Miss Universe from Colombia, Paulina Vega, removed the crown and placed it on Wurtzbach's head instead.
"I will take responsibility for this," Harvey said. "It was my mistake. It was on the card. Horrible mistake."
He also took to Twitter after the East Coast broadcast to apologize again.
I'd like to apologize wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines for my huge mistake. I feel terrible.
— @IAmSteveHarvey
The high-profile flub made Harvey the latest target of the internet, with the incident and the comedian-actor instantly mocked via social media.
Feel bad for Steve, but the internet is funny today. #MissUniverse2015 pic.twitter.com/zVtSXHSMyw
— @JohnPFelts
Man! If only @IAmSteveHarvey had been the announcer for #AmericanIdol back in 2003. I could have won! #missuniverse
— @clayaiken
lolz 😂😂👍🏻 #MissUniverse2015 pic.twitter.com/89Td28mJru
— @jackryan93Q
#GraphicDesign: It's a thing professionals do, and it's still critically important. #MissUniverse2015 pic.twitter.com/4Zl10zkwTb
— @AlxRodz
Some, however, have speculated that the entire mix-up was actually planned to fuel post-ceremony discussion about the pageant.
In defense of @IAmSteveHarvey, nobody has talked this much about #MissUniverse in decades.
— @morningmoneyben
Miss Universe needed viewers... What a better way than to have a stunt like this to circulate conversation
— @tydalbright
Contestants from Australia, France and the United States rounded out the final five. Canada's entrant was Paola Nunez of Toronto.
The competition started with women between the ages of 19 and 27 representing 80 countries. For the first time, viewers at home weighed in, with their votes being tallied in addition to four in-person celebrity judges.
The pageant was taking place without the participation of Donald Trump, who claimed early Monday that under his watch, an incident like this "would never have happened!"
Very sad what happened last night at the Miss Universe Pageant. I sold it 6 months ago for a record price. This would never have happened!
— @realDonaldTrump
NBCUniversal and Donald Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organization until earlier this year. The real-estate developer offended Hispanics in June when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his Republican presidential run.
That led Spanish-language network Univision to pull out of the broadcast for what would have been the first of five years airing the pageants and NBC to cut business ties with Trump.
The former star of the Celebrity Apprentice reality show sued both companies, settling with NBC in September, which included buying the network's stake in the pageants.
That same month, Trump sold the organization that includes the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants to entertainment company WME-IMG.
Friday, 18 December 2015
USA: Trump Was Voted Candidate Travelers Would Least Like To Sit Next To On A Plane
We’re not sure yet who the American public will vote in for President, but for now, many have voted that they don’t want to sit next to Donald Trump on a plane.
According to a survey that Yahoo Travel commissioned of 2,760 travelers, 43 percent responded that Trump would be the most disagreeable seatmate of the Presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton came in second, with 35 percent of Americans not wanting to sit next to her, particularly white people (43 percent) and those earning more than $80,000 (43 percent).
Trump’s naysayers were more diverse: 56 of black respondents said no to sitting next to him, 51 percent of Hispanics, 55 percent of lesbians, and 58 percent of gay men.
Is this the harbinger of things to come next November? Who can say — but we doubt it’s likely to be a hot-button campaign issue anyway.
Hillary and the Donald aren’t exactly ones to fly with the masses, are they? Lucky for them, too, as they won’t have to endure the indignities that can come with flying these days:
Bare feet on your armrest
Impatient fliers who open the emergency exit
A seatmate who attacks you with pepper spray
Getting kicked off a plane for being Arabic
Getting kicked off for having your texts misread
Being handcuffed for using the wrong bathroom
Getting the cops called on you if your child is crying
Having to crawl onto the plane because the flight crew won’t set up the wheelchair ramp
Having to crawl off the plane when your wheelchair doesn’t arrive
Thursday, 10 December 2015
UAE: Dubai Retail Giant Suspends Sales Of Trump Products
The Dubai-based firm signed a deal in February this year to sell items from the Trump Home collection to customers in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia through its Lifestyle outlets.
However, the group said on Tuesday it would now remove all products from its shelves.
“As one of the most popular home decor brands in the Middle East, Lifestyle values and respects the sentiments of all its customers,”
“In light of the recent statements made by the presidential candidate in the US media, we have suspended sale of all products from the Trump Home décor range.”
Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the US was the most dramatic response yet by a candidate to last week’s shooting spree by two Muslims who the FBI said had been radicalised. His comments were widely condemned by representatives from both sides of America’s political spectrum.
Trump also has a partnership with Dubai’s Al Tayer Group, which opened two Trump Home by Dorya galleries in the UAE in June. The firm called the billionaire real estate mogul’s recent comments “unfortunate” but did not indicate that it would be withdrawing from the partnership.
“The statement Mr Trump made on the campaign trail is unfortunate. Given his diverse business interests in the region, we hope that he will reconsider his stand,” the firm said, in a statement send to Arabian Business.
However, the firm which Trump has perhaps his most significant ties in the region – Damac Properties – refused to criticise the comments.
“We would like to stress that our agreement is with the Trump Organisation as one of the premium golf course operators in the world and as such we would not comment further on Mr. Trump’s personal or political agenda, nor comment on the internal American political debate scene," Damac senior vice president Niall McLoughlin said.
Damac is working with Trump to build two golf courses in Dubai.
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