Month: April 2019

Former US presidents from across the political divide led tributes to Senator John McCain after his death on Saturday at the age of 81.

The Republican Senator passed away with wife Cindy and family by his side at his home in Hidden Valley, Arizona on Saturday afternoon, a day after it was announced he would not seek further treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Hours after the death of her husband, Mrs McCain wrote: "My heart is broken. I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years. He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the the place he loved best."

Although a lifelong Republican, Mr McCain was held in high esteem by political rivals from both sides of the aisle, a rare feat in the increasingly bipartisan world of Washington.

Yet the former naval aviator will also be remembered for being a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, who horrified many when he stated Mr McCain was not a war hero, despite being captured, tortured and held for five years in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp.

McCain was one of Mr Trump’s most vociferous critics throughout his campaign and presidency. 

Barack Obama and George W Bush are expected to give eulogies at a full dress funeral at Washington National Cathedral, but his family have said they do not want Mr Trump to attend. Vice president Mike Pence is expected to be present.  

All five living former presidents — Mr Obama, Mr Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter — paid tribute to McCain’s courage and character.

"John McCain and I were members of different generations," Mr Obama said. "But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher – the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched and sacrificed. We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege.

"Few of us have been tested the way John once was or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own."

Mr Bush wrote: "Some lives are so vivid, it is difficult to imagine them ended. Some voices are so vibrant, it is hard to think of them stilled. John McCain was a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order."

Tributes also came from political leaders around the world, including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: "John McCain was a great statesman, who embodied the idea of service over self. It was an honour to call him a friend of the UK. My deepest sympathies go to his family, and the American people."

The six-term senator will become one of only a handful of people to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda, a gesture reserved for the country’s most eminent citizens.

After the funeral his body will be buried at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland from where he graduated in 1958.

The White House lowered the American flag to half mast on Saturday and Mr Trump was one of the first to send his sympathies to his family.

"My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!" he tweeted.

Mr McCain made two failed runs at the presidency during his political career, most recently in 2008 when he won the Republican nomination teaming up with Sarah Palin but eventually losing out to Mr Obama.

During a town hall meeting, he memorably challenged an audience member who referred to his opponent as an ‘Arab’, implying he was untrustworthy and not an American. 

“No ma’am,” the father of seven told her. “He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

The governor of Arizona said he does not plan to announce whom he will appoint to replace McCain in the US Senate until after his burial.

State law requires the governor to name an appointee of the same political party who will serve until the next general election in 2020.

McCain’s wife, Cindy, has been touted as a possible replacement. McCain’s death brings to 50 the number of Republican-held seats in the 100-member US Senate, with Democrats controlling 49.

A school in the US state of Georgia has introduced a new method of instilling discipline in its pupils: Up to three clouts with a wooden paddle.

The Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics, which takes children from the age of five to 15, asked parents before the start of term this week for consent to paddle their children if they were caught breaching rules for the third time.

Jody Boulineau, the school’s superintendent, told local reporters: "In this school we take discipline very seriously.”

Georgia is one of 19 states that allows corporal punishment.

"There was a time where corporal punishment was kind of the norm in school and you didn’t have the problems that you have,” added Mr Boulineau.

He said the proposal had received a mixed response with some parents enthusiastic, although many people also took to social media to denounce the new policy.

So far about a third of respondents have given their permission.

The new policy, spelled out in a letter to parents in Hephzibah, just outside Augusta, says children will be suspended for up to five days if the school does not have permission to administer the paddle.

“It’s just one more tool that we have in our disciplinary toolbox," said Mr Boulineau. “There’s no obligation. It’s not required, so a parent can either give consent for us to use that as a disciplinary measure, or they can deny consent."

He added that he expected the punishment to serve as a deterrent.

The policy specifies that the paddle will be no more than 24 inches in length, six inches in width and three-quarters of an inch in thickness.

A maximum of three licks will be applied.

"The student will be taken to an office behind closed doors,” it continues. “The student will place their hands on their knees or piece of furniture and will be struck on the buttocks with a paddle."

The legality of corporal punishment was tested at the Supreme Court which ruled in 1977 that the practice was constitutional.

That left states to choose their own policy. New Mexico was the most recent state to ban the beating of children in schools, enacting legislation in 2011.

A federal study in 2014 found that one child is hit in public school an average of every 30 seconds somewhere in the United States.

Some school districts set strict standards, banning bodily injury, for example, while others do not.

Donald Trump has lashed out at an opinion piece written by an anonymous senior official within his administration, who claimed to be part of a "resistance" seeking to curtail the president’s "worst inclinations".  

The explosive column in the New York Times rocked the White House on Wednesday, reportedly triggering a frantic hunt for its author.  

According to the “senior administration official”, whose opinion piece was called "gutless" by Mr Trump, members of the president’s cabinet were so worried by his erratic, impulsive behaviour they discussed using extreme constitutional measures to remove him from power.

The 25th amendment is designed to be used in the case of an incapacitated commander-in-chief. However, the article claims that senior figures considered deploying it to oust the president.

“Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president,” writes the anonymous author. “But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis.”

Instead a cabal of senior figures is now working to thwart the president’s more “misguided impulses” or “worst inclinations”, claims the writer, whose article is headlined “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”.

Mr Trump dismissed the article as the product of someone who was probably failing in their job.

“He’s part of the resistance. This is what we have to deal with,” he told reporters at the White House.

Mr Trump added: "Anonymous. Can you believe it? Anonymous. Meaning gutless. A gutless editorial."

The President later issued a one-word tweet reading: "TREASON?", before demanding the New York Times turn over the author "for national security purposes".

Sarah Sanders, White House spokeswoman, branded the piece "pathetic, reckless, and selfish" and condemned the Times for publishing it.

"Nearly 62 million people voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2016," said Sanders. "None of them voted for a gutless, anonymous source to the failing New York Times."

The White House is now reportedly trying to hunt down the author of the article. 

The phrase, “The sleeper cells have awoken,” circulated on text messages among aides and outside allies, according to the Washington Post.

“It’s like the horror movies when everyone realises the call is coming from inside the house,” one former White House official in close contact with former co-workers told the newspaper.

One current official told the Post: “The problem for the president is it could be so many people. You can’t rule it down to one person. Everyone is trying, but it’s impossible.”

The claims follow revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, that officials have snatched papers from the president’s desk to prevent him signing off on what they believe to be dangerous proposals.

It also corroborates earlier accounts of a chaotic White House, where decision-making follows erratic impulses.

It claims John Kelly, White House chief of staff, disparaged Mr Trump as an “idiot” and suggested the presidency was in “crazytown”.

Jim Mattis, the defence secretary, reportedly told associates that the president had the understanding of a “fifth or sixth-grader”.

Both men denied having said any such thing and a string of other figures lined up to offer their own denials.

But the broader account of a White House careening towards what Mr Woodward described as a “nervous breakdown” chimes with previous accounts of an administration in crisis.

And the New York Times opinion piece will add to a sense of unprecedented turmoil at the heart of American democracy, where officials fear anything could happen next.

The writer says the trouble stems from the president’s “amorality” and a leadership style that is “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective”.

“Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back,” he or she writes.

They go on to describe a two-track system of government, in which Mr Trump shows preference for autocrats and dictators – such as Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un – while other departments follow more conventional policy.

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the piece continues. “We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

Although many White House players have been cast as villains, privately they are working for the good of the country, it continues. Not because they are part of a liberal “deep state” but because they are part of the “steady state”.

The account chimes with anecdotes in Mr Woodward’s book. He describes how Gary Cohn, the former White House chief economics adviser, reportedly boasted to colleagues of removing worrying documents – withdrawing the US from an important trade deal with South Korea, for example – from Mr Trump’s desk before he could sign them.

The latest leaked account will heap further pressure on Mr Trump. Insiders say he is furious at Mr Woodward’s book and the barbs directed his way by senior aides.

The White House was forced once again into a defensive crouch amid reports officials had struggled to get hold of a copy hours after news broke of its contents.

“Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost,” wrote Mr Trump on Twitter. “Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?”

The arrival of Mr Woodward’s book, due for publication next Tuesday, had been anticipated for weeks and he followed his own, familiar timetable in releasing its contents to The Washington Post in advance.

Still, the administration appeared caught off guard.

Philip Rucker, Washington Post’s White House bureau chief, said the denials so far focused on only a tiny number of specific incidents.

“They are not litigating very many details of the reporting and there’s a feeling inside that the president is really upset about this – verging on paranoia – that he’s very bothered about what’s been said about him to Woodward,” he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Rich Galen, a veteran Republican strategist, said the contents may not have that sort of impact but could profoundly affect November’s midterm elections.

“It’s not so much an issue of impeachment but, if the book has legs this close to the midterms, what it may do is suppress the vote of people who might otherwise shrug and say they’ll vote for the Republican because that’s what they always do,” he said.

“They might just stay home and that’s exceedingly dangerous for Republicans.”

There was no mistaking him, the man standing just a few feet away. Ashwaq Ta’lo could never forget the smell of his breath, his wiry beard, that distinctive gait. She had spent three months as his slave after all.

The man was one of the Islamic State commanders who kidnapped Ashwaq, her four sisters and five brothers back in the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar in northern Iraq that sweltering summer of 2014.

But there he was in front of her in 2018 on a street in rainy Stuttgart, Germany – the country which had offered her refuge. A country where she had come to feel safe.

Ashwaq was just 15 when Isil militants laid siege to the ancient region of Sinjar, displacing hundreds of thousands and committing…

North Korea has warned the United States in a letter that denuclearisation talks are "again at stake and may fall apart, leading to the resumption of "nuclear and missile activities."

The details of the letter, revealed by CNN on Tuesday, follow more public accusations at the weekend that the US is “hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war” while “having a dialogue with a smile on its face” as relations between the countries continue to deteriorate. 

The unsettling charge, made by the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, marks a return to the hostile rhetoric of the fiery exchanges between both countries at the height of an escalating crisis last year over Pyongyang’s rapidly progressing nuclear…

Dutch investigators say they finally tracked down a man suspected of killing an 11-year-old boy in the Netherlands twenty years ago. 

Jos Brech, 55, who was publicly named as the suspected killer last week, was apprehended by Spanish police about 50 km (30 miles) north of Barcelona on Sunday.

Dutch detectives said the outdoor survival expert’s DNA matched traces on the body and clothing of Nicky Verstappen, who was found dead on Aug. 10, 1998 near a summer camp in the Dutch countryside from which he had gone missing the previous night.

The match was established in June this year, police said, using DNA provided by relatives of the suspect, who had reported him missing in April. Police went public with their information last week, publishing the man’s picture and full name.

"Spanish police were able to arrest him after someone recognised the man from the picture," prosecutor Jan Eland said on Monday. Brech will be extradited to the Netherlands, he said, but it is unclear how long that will take. 

Over the years, police have made several wrongful arrests in the case, and even opened up the grave of one of the supervisors of the summer camp.

A Spanish court on Monday said the Dutchman had accepted extradition. He would be kept in detention "to ensure that the extradition is effective".

Earlier this year, over 15,000 men who lived near the place where the boy was found responded to a request for samples of their DNA, but also without success.

Brech was an instructor at the summer camp in The Netherlands where Verstappen went missing in 1998. 

He was stopped and questioned by police the day after the killing but was not considered a suspect. 

The president of Poland’s ruling party has said the country will push ahead with plans to cut a canal through a split of land near the Russian border saying "it is time show the Russians the days they dictated to us are over".

Poland wants to dig the canal through a narrow strip of land that blocks the Vistula Lagoon on the north-east coast from the Baltic Sea. At present Polish ships leaving the lagoon from the port of Elblag have to pass through Russian waters to get to the open sea.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Law and Justice, the governing party, and a man regarded as the most powerful figure in Polish politics, said the necessity to sever the last vestiges of Russian influence over Poland means the canal has to be built.  

“It is important for Poland’s status,” he said in a radio interview. “In the end Poland needs to shed the last traces of being a dependent state. We need to show that that times Russia dictated what we could or not do on our territory are over.”

Earlier this month Russia complained to the European Commission about the canal. In a letter to the Commission’s environment and maritime affairs commissionaire, Moscow complained that it had not been consulted over the canal and that the construction of the waterway threatened the ecology of the lagoon.

When questioned about Russia’s letter, Mr Kaczynski said that “they have always been opposed to it”. The Polish government has also dismissed Moscow complaints as an “attempt to block this strategic investment for Poland”.

Construction on the canal, which will be 1,100 yards long and 16 feet deep, is due to start later this year and should be completed by 2022.