conflicts and war – Page 15

Biden hopes to ease major dispute in Friday meeting with EU chief | CNN Politics

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President Joe Biden hopes to ease a serious source of tension with Europe when he meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the White House on Friday, according to officials.

The dispute is technical but highly contentious. It comes at a moment – a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – when unity between the US and its European allies is already being tested.

The quarrel centers on a provision of Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act that offered tax credits for electric vehicles. The law specifies in order to qualify for the credit, the vehicles must source a percentage of the material for their batteries from North America or countries with a free trade agreement with the US – which the EU does not.

The law has infuriated some of the United States’ top allies, like the EU, who say their countries are being penalized. The timing is inopportune, as Biden works to maintain transatlantic unity as the war in Ukraine enters a second year.

In their talks in the Oval Office on Friday, Biden and von der Leyen plan to discuss the matter and announce a new set of negotiations that, if successful, would allow European companies to benefit from the Biden law and reduce both US and EU dependence on China.

They will also discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, including plans to deeper cooperation on enforcing sanctions against Russia and third-party countries who are supporting Moscow’s invasion. That could soon include China, which US officials have warned is considering providing lethal aid to Russia.

Yet it is the transatlantic economic issues that will form the center of the talks, particularly the disagreement over Biden’s climate law, which European officials have slammed as protectionist.

The potential agreement the two leaders will announce would center on the critical minerals that are necessary for electric vehicle batteries, perhaps unlocking for Europe some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s benefits.

If not resolved, the issue could potentially spiral into competing subsidies that neither side wants, and add to strains caused by the war in Ukraine.

“What we want to do is maximize the amount of deployment, maximize the speed of that deployment, and do so in a way that builds each of our respective industrial bases. That isn’t going to happen if our incentives and their incentives are misaligned, and compete with one another in a zero sum way,” a senior US administration official said ahead of the meeting.

After Biden signed the law last year, European allies reacted harshly, setting off a scramble within the administration to resolve the issues while not angering members of Congress who supported the Made-in-America aspects of the law.

Among the top proponents of the measure: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat whose support is critical for the White House on a number of issues.

Biden’s meeting Friday won’t completely resolve the matter, according to officials, but instead launch a process of arriving at a type of trade agreement that would meet the law’s requirements and allow European companies to help supply battery materials – like lithium and nickel – for electric vehicles.

US officials have been in similar discussions with counterparts from the United Kingdom and Japan to assuage those nations’ similar concerns about the Inflation Reduction Act.

It’s unclear how long the process might take.

“The goal here is to ensure that as we make our investments, as Europe make its investments, that our approaches are communicated, that we’re communicating with one another on our approaches so that we maximize the deployment of clean energy technology over time, and not that those incentives compete with one another,” the official said.

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March 10, 2023

Supreme Court asks Congress for more security money due to threats | CNN Politics

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With a new annual budget request posted Thursday, the Supreme Court told Congress that it needs nearly $6 million in new security funding to expand the protection justices receive following threats to the court last summer.

“Ongoing threat assessments show evolving risks that require continuous protection,” the court said in its budget request. “Additional funding would provide for contract positions, eventually transitioning to full-time employees, that will augment capabilities of the Supreme Court police force and allow it to accomplish its protective mission.”

Thursday’s submission to Congress is the first annual budget request the Supreme Court is making to Congress since Justice Brett Kavanaugh was targeted with an alleged assassination attempt last summer.

That attempt, along with how lower court judges and their families have been the target of violence, has raised the issue of judicial security – which tends to have broad, bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. Also raising questions about the justices’ safety were the protestors that demonstrated outside the justices’ homes in the wake of a leaked draft opinion last spring that would go on to overturn national abortion rights protections.

After the Kavanaugh incident, Congress passed supplemental funding last year to boost the justices’ security.

The new budget documents referenced that additional funding and said with the next round of annual spending, $4 million of what it requested would go to the “annualization of police pay adjustments and protective activities that were funded” with the supplemental security bill.

Overall, the Supreme Court is asking for $150,824,000 in the coming appropriations process for 2024.

The court is also asking for a little more than $3 million to pay for restoration work of the building’s courtyard and a number of fountains on its grounds. The fountain work will include upgrades to the fountains’ mechanical equipment and the installation of pH monitoring controls equipment.

And the court is asking for $6.5 million for “for physical security upgrades” to “reinforce” the iconic building, which they said will include meeting recommendations made following a “comprehensive review” by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Overall, the judicial branch is requesting $9.1 billion in the spending legislation Congress passes for 2024, which is an 8% percent increase over the $8.5 billion the judiciary received in the funding legislation for 2023.

Of the 2024 request, $783.5 million would be used for the judiciary’s court security fund – a $33.3 million increase from 2023 levels. Some of that funding would go to additional positions in the US Marshals Service, which is tasked with protecting the courts and executing other court functions.

As part of the court security fund request, the judiciary is also asking for an increase of $1.5 million for the Judiciary Vulnerability Management Program, which “will fund additional software licenses, automated tools, and support for identifying, redacting, and reducing personally identifiable information from the internet for judges and eligible family members.”

Some of that money will help fund programs set up by a judicial privacy law enacted last year that allows federal judges – who have increasingly become targets of threats, violence and even assassination plots – to shield certain personal information about them from public view.

The budget request specifically references legislation which, among other things, requires that judges be offered training on how to make removal requests, as well as training on home security and on using social media.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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March 9, 2023

Marine injured in Kabul airport bombing recounts ‘catastrophic’ US withdrawal from Afghanistan at House hearing | CNN Politics

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US Marine Corps Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews can remember in specific detail the moment that a suicide bomber attacked Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate in August 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“A flash and a massive wave of pressure. I’m thrown 4 feet onto the ground but instantly knew what had happened. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious lying around me. A crowd of hundreds immediately vanished in front of me. And my body was catastrophically wounded with 100 to 150 ball bearings now in it,” he recalled.

Vargas-Andrews, 25, offered emotional and detailed testimony of the days leading up to the bombing, which took the lives of 13 US service members and more than 100 Afghans, as part of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the evacuation from Afghanistan.

The Biden administration’s frenzied withdrawal after two decades of US involvement in the war has come under immense scrutiny by Republican lawmakers, including the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, who has vowed to investigate the matter.

However, those accusations in Congress about who is responsible for the chaotic final weeks of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan have fallen largely along party lines, with Republican lawmakers pointing fingers at the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers casting blame on the Trump administration for the deal that set the US withdrawal into motion.

In a statement to CNN Wednesday, White House spokesperson for oversight Ian Sams also pointed to the deal President Joe Biden “inherited” from Trump and said the last administration “failed to establish an evacuation plan and slowed down processing of special visas for our Afghan allies.”

“Instead of returning the U.S. to active combat with the Taliban and putting even more of our troops’ lives at risk, President Biden made the tough decision to finally end the 20-year war in Afghanistan, bring our troops home, and safely evacuate tens upon tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies,” Sams said. He added that the withdrawal put “the U.S. in a stronger position to lead the world and address the challenges of the future, while continuing to welcome our Afghan allies and maintaining our ability to deal with terrorist threats in the region.”

Wednesday’s hearing featured the testimonies of two service members who were on the ground in Afghanistan during those final weeks: Vargas-Andrews and US Army Specialist Aidan Gunderson. In addition, three people involved with groups who worked to evacuate Afghans – Francis Hoang from Allied Airlift 21, retired Lt. Col. David Scott Mann from Task Force Pineapple and Peter Lucier from Team America Relief – and immigration lawyer Camille Mackler, who worked to try to get the administration to begin relocating vulnerable Afghans well before the fall of Kabul, all served as witnesses.

Vargas-Andrews described the withdrawal as a “catastrophe,” telling lawmakers that “there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.” He painted a picture of days of chaos and violence toward Afghans who were trying to flee the Taliban, described the US State Department as “not prepared to be at” the Kabul airport, claimed that threat warnings were disregarded by higher command on the day of the attack.

Vargas-Andrews described the horrific scenes he witnessed from his post at Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), telling lawmakers that “Afghans were brutalized and tortured by the Taliban.”

“Some Afghans turned away from HKIA tried to kill themselves on the razor wire in front of us that we used as a deterrent,” he said. “Countless Afghans were murdered by the Taliban 155 yards in front of our position day and night.”

“We communicated the atrocities to our chain of command and intel assets but nothing came of it,” he said.

Vargas-Andrews said on the day of the August 26 suicide attack, he spotted a man in the crowd who fit the description of “a suicide bomber in the vicinity of and nearing Abbey Gate.”

“Over the communication network we passed that there was a potential threat and an IED attack imminent. This was as serious as it could get,” he said, noting that he asked for permission to shoot, but “our battalion commander said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know,’ end quote.”

“Myself and my team leader asked very harshly, ‘Well, who does? Because this is your responsibility, sir.’ He again replied he did not know but would find out. We received no update and never got our answer. Eventually the individual disappeared. To this day, we believe he was a suicide bomber,” he said.

“Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety,” he said.

Beyond the suicide attack, witnesses spoke about the mental health toll that the botched evacuation has had on US veterans of the war in Afghanistan.

Mann, the retired lieutenant colonel, said he had a friend who took his own life, whose wife said “that the Afghan abandonment reactivated all the demons that he had managed to put behind him from hard time and Afghanistan together.”

“And he just couldn’t find his way out of the darkness of that moral injury,” he said.

They also spoke broadly about their work to try to aid the Afghans who worked alongside US troops during the war, the “majority” of whom were left behind in the evacuation, and the need to continue to work to help them.

“I and thousands of others received frantic pleas for help from our Afghan allies whose lives were in peril,” said Hoang from Allied Airlift 21. “Thousands of us guided tired and scared Afghan families through crowds and Taliban checkpoints. The weight of this work was crushing. We left jobs, drained savings, reopened old wounds.”

“We looked in horror as our screens filled with images of violence and desperation outside the gates of Kabul airport. We wept as we listened to messages left by children pleading for our help. Nine times out of 10 our efforts failed. But every success was a family saved, a promise kept,” he said.

“It is our turn to summon the courage to fill our commitment to the Afghan allies still left behind,” Hoang said.

Mackler, the immigration lawyer, told lawmakers that “what happened in August of 2021 was the product of decades long of inaction and systemic failures that we can no longer ignore.”

“To ensure that the actions we heard today were not in vain, we must use this moment to create and implement better solutions,” she said, and called on Congress to take steps like passing the Afghan Adjustment Act.

“After all, as we’ve been told, those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. We saw that in Afghanistan. We tried to learn the lessons from Vietnam and we were ignored, and we cannot allow a future generation to go through this as well,” Mackler said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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March 8, 2023

DeSantis points to looming culture wars with Florida ‘on the front lines in the battle for freedom’ | CNN Politics

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Laying out his top priorities for a second term and a potential platform for a presidential run, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered a State of the State speech Tuesday that conspicuously avoided much of the divisive rhetoric that has fueled his political ascent but nevertheless signaled another round of cultural wars is coming in the weeks ahead.

DeSantis asserted that his landslide November victory was a “vindication” of his contentious agenda during his first term and a mandate to “shoot for the stars” and “swing for the fences” in the coming year. He encouraged lawmakers to “ignore all the background noise” as they tackle a lengthy list of priorities that are sure to enrage Democrats but animate future Republican primary voters.

“We find ourselves in Florida on the front lines in the battle for freedom,” he said. “Together, we have made Florida the nation’s most desired destination and we have produced historic results. But now’s not the time to rest on our laurels.”

The remarks laid the groundwork for what is expected to be a breathless sprint by the GOP-controlled legislature to rack up policy wins that could form a platform to launch DeSantis’ highly anticipated bid for the White House.

DeSantis notably refrained from using the word “woke” in his remarks – a staple of the political speeches he has delivered in recent months – and wasn’t nearly as combative toward President Joe Biden. He largely focused on more agreeable topics like improving education, alleviating traffic congestion and championing truck drivers, police officers and nurses.

But he also chastised the “biomedical security state” that required Covid-19 vaccines and vowed to permanently ban mandates related to coronavirus mitigation, an outlier position that helped DeSantis emerge as a conservative star during the pandemic.

“We defied the experts, we bucked the elites, we ignored the chatter,” DeSantis said. “We did it our way, the Florida way.”

DeSantis has urged or endorsed proposals touching every facet of the culture wars: restricting abortion, allowing concealed firearms in public without training and universal school choice. There are bills targeting drag shows, liberal protections and so-called “woke”-banking.

Moments before DeSantis’ remarks began, legislation was filed that would ban abortion after six weeks except in cases of rape and incest and make it illegal to send abortion medications through the mail. DeSantis in his speech nodded to supporting efforts to “protect life” but avoided specifics. He also signaled support for legislative efforts to follow steps taken by his administration to ban treatments for transgender children.

“Our schools must deliver a good education, not a political indoctrination,” DeSantis said. “It’s sad that we have to say this, but our children are not guinea pigs for science experimentation, and we cannot allow people to make money off mutilating them.”

Many of the proposals are aimed at classrooms. In a bill addressing K-12 schools, teachers cannot be told they must use a student’s preferred name and pronouns and discussing gender identity and sexual orientation and gender identity would be prohibited topics until high school. On college campuses, gender studies would be banned, as would diversity and equity programs, and hiring decisions will fall into the hands of board members largely appointed by DeSantis.

DeSantis has said he will formally decide on whether to jump into the 2024 race after the legislature completes its work, a timeline that would mean an announcement in May or June. But DeSantis is already taking steps to build out a political team for a potential run and recently huddled with donors, elected Republicans and conservative influencers in Palm Beach, where they plotted strategy and policy in former President Donald Trump neighborhood.

His out-of-state travel has also picked up. While lawmakers meet over the next 60 days, DeSantis is expected to spend the next couple months on the road promoting his new book, “The Courage to Be Free.” DeSantis is scheduled to travel to Alabama on Thursday before heading to the early nominating states of Iowa and Nevada this weekend.

DeSantis’ agenda is expected to face little resistance in the Republican-led legislature, where lawmakers have repeatedly succumbed to political pressure from the popular governor in the past and appear closely aligned heading into the upcoming session.

Indeed, in the hour before DeSantis’ remarks, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo told her members she considered DeSantis “truly America’s governor.”

“The eyes of the nation are on Florida this year,” she said. “Let’s show America how it’s done.”

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March 7, 2023

What to know about the Tucker Carlson January 6 footage | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired newly released footage on his show Monday from the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, that included images of the rioter known as the “QAnon Shaman,” as well as of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died following the attack.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of the Capitol security footage from January 6. CNN and other news organizations have also requested access to the security footage. McCarthy’s office said it is still working out the process to make the footage “more widely available” but did not comment further.

Capitol Police have continuously warned that release of all security footage from the Capitol could pose a potential security risk for the building. CNN has reached out to Capitol Police for comment.

Carlson, who used the footage in an attempt to downplay the violence and defend the pro-Trump mob, claimed he had Capitol Police review the footage before airing it.

“We do take security seriously, so before airing any of this video we checked first with the Capitol Police,” Carlson said. “We’re happy to say their reservations were minor and for the most part they were reasonable. In the end, the only change that we made was in blurring the details of a single interior door in the Capitol building.”

Multiple sources on Capitol Hill, however, told CNN that Carlson’s show provided only one clip to review and not the others.

Here’s what was in the footage that aired Monday:

Carlson claimed that new Capitol security footage taken on January 6 shows Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” walking through the Capitol without pushback from police.

In one clip, Chansley is shown with two officers who attempt to open a door near the Senate chamber. In a second clip, Chansley, still flanked by the two original officers, walks between a group of about half a dozen officers and none appear to try to step in.

There is no audio in the videos, and it is not clear whether the officers and Chansley are talking to each other.

In court documents, however, prosecutors say that Capitol Police officers repeatedly tried to engage with Chansley and others in the crowd, asking them to leave.

Prosecutors say that Chansley disobeyed that request and walked to the Senate floor. Video from that day shows officers following Chansley around the building, and an officer walks into the chamber with Chansley and continues to ask rioters to leave.

Additionally, Capitol Police officers have testified at several January 6 trials that after the initial wave of rioters entered the building, they felt outnumbered and were afraid of escalating violence by engaging with the mob. Members of the crowd were therefore able to walk into the building without much, or any, physical resistance, according to the officers.

Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing the Electoral College proceedings on January 6 and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Judge sentences ‘QAnon Shaman’ Jacob Chansley for role in Capitol riot

Carlson aired never-before-seen surveillance footage that he said showed Sicknick, who died one day after the January 6 insurrection. Carlson said he focused on this because Democrats have turned Sicknick into a “prop” and a “martyr” by overstating the links between his death and the insurrection.

Carlson used the new video to try to undermine the known facts surrounding Sicknick’s death, and to argue that January 6 was less violent and “deadly” than it has been portrayed.

The video shows Sicknick in the crypt of the Capitol, appearing to give instructions to some of the nearby rioters who are milling around the area, repeatedly waving his arms. Carlson argued that Sicknick looks “healthy and vigorous” in the video, and therefore “it’s hard to imagine” that he was severely injured by the rioters or that he died because of the insurrection.

On January 6, Sicknick was attacked with pepper spray and physically fought with members of the mob. An officer testified that she saw Sicknick in significant distress after he was sprayed. He died one day later after suffering a series of strokes. The DC medical examiner ruled that he died of natural causes but said, “all that transpired (on January 6) played a role in his condition.”

Mother of fallen Capitol Police officer shares why she snubbed GOP leaders

According to Carlson, the new tape of Sicknick was recorded after he was attacked on the frontlines of the Capitol steps, earlier in the day. CNN does not have access to the footage and cannot verify Carlson’s claims, and it’s unclear how Fox News determined that it’s Sicknick in the video.

The new Sicknick footage does not disprove the medical examiner’s conclusion that January 6 influenced Sicknick’s death, and it doesn’t erase the fact that Trump supporters assaulted Sicknick that day.

Two rioters pleaded guilty to crimes related to the pepper spray attack against Sicknick, though neither were accused of killing him. Julian Khater, who deployed the spray, is currently serving a six-year prison term. His friend George Tanios spent five months in jail and has been released.

Sicknick’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, previously blamed Trump supporters for his death. In a statement Monday, after Carlson’s show, the Sicknick family blasted Fox News and argued that the footage shows how he was able to valiantly “resume his duties” after being attacked by the mob.

“Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again, and we are frankly sick of it,” the Sicknick family said in the statement.

According to statistics released by the Justice Department earlier Monday, more than 999 people are facing federal or local charges related to the January 6 attack, 326 of whom have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.

According to the department, 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 Capitol police officers.

And 518 of those charged have pleaded guilty to various charges related to that day, including 60 defendants who have pleaded guilty to federal charges of assaulting officers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday strongly criticized Carlson for diving “deep into the waters of conspiracy” to tell “the bold faced lie” that the Capitol attack was not violent.

He also strongly condemned McCarthy for sharing the footage with Fox, arguing McCarthy is “every bit as culpable” as Carlson.

“To say January 6 was not violent is a lie – a lie pure and simple,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prime time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain and he’s going to come back tonight with another segment.”

The pushback didn’t just fall along party lines. Several GOP senators rejected the notion that January 6 was “mostly peaceful chaos” as Carlson had contended.

“I think it’s bullsh*t,” GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told CNN Tuesday of Carlson’s portrayal of the attack, adding, “I just don’t think it’s helpful, but I do think it’s important to point out that that’s happened on both ends of the political spectrum and they’re both wrong.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, similarly told CNN, “I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol against the orders of police is a crime.

“I think, particularly when you come into the chambers, when you start opening the members’ desks, when you stand up in their balcony, to somehow put that in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie,” Cramer said.

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March 7, 2023

Mike Pence asks judge to block subpoena for Jan. 6 testimony | CNN Politics

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Former Vice President Mike Pence has filed a motion asking a judge to block a federal grand jury subpoena for his testimony related to January 6 on the grounds that he is protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, according to a source familiar with the filing.

Pence had publicly signaled that he planned to resist the subpoena, arguing it was “unconstitutional and unprecedented.” His legal team filed the motion Friday night, the same day former President Donald Trump’s attorneys asked a judge to block Pence from speaking to a grand jury about certain matters covered by executive privilege.

The Pence motion – filed as part of sealed proceedings – seeks to stop testimony pertaining to his legislative functions around January 6, which could potentially include a broad swath of testimony. It is separate from Trump’s motion, which argues that the former president can shield former aides from sharing internal communications.

Special counsel Jack Smith is seeking documents and testimony related to January 6, 2021, and wants Pence to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and the day of the attack on the US Capitol.

But the former vice president asserts that because he was also acting as president of the Senate that day, he is shielded by the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects lawmakers from certain law enforcement actions targeted at their legislative duties.

Pence has written a memoir detailing his interactions with Trump leading up to January 6, which could complicate efforts to resist the subpoena.

His team previously indicated to the Justice Department that he’d be open to answering questions if they were limited to the matters he had previously discussed publicly, including in his book, a source told CNN.

Pence’s legal team did not comment. The Justice Department also did not comment.

Since taking over the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Smith, who has a reputation for moving quickly, has accelerated the probe’s pace and began imposing tight deadlines on subpoenas. Smith also is simultaneously investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office.

Trump huddled with several members of his legal team at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach last week to discuss Smith’s investigations, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Smith recently subpoenaed Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien in both of the Trump-related probes, and investigators have sat down with his former acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf as part of the probe into 2020 election interference.

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March 6, 2023

US imposes visa sanction on Syrian military official over massacre that killed at least 41 unarmed civilians | CNN Politics

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The US State Department on Monday imposed a visa sanction on a Syrian military official whom it says killed at least 41 unarmed civilians in a neighborhood of Damascus in April 2013.

Amjad Yousef, a military intelligence officer for the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and his immediate family will be blocked from entering the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Video evidence of the massacre in Tadamon, which Blinken described as being “carried out coldly and methodically,” publicly emerged in 2022 “after a long and comprehensive investigation by independent researchers.”

“Today, we are taking action to promote accountability for this atrocity,” the top US diplomat said.

The announcement of the visa restriction comes as a growing number of countries have renewed at least some level of contact directly with the Assad regime, particularly in the wake of last month’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

“The footage of this massacre, coupled with the ongoing killing and abuse of countless Syrians, serves as a sobering reminder for why countries should not normalize relations with the Assad regime absent enduring progress towards a political resolution,” Blinken said.

“The United States calls on the Assad regime to cease all violations and abuses of human rights, including but not limited to extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture,” he said.

Blinken noted that March “marks the twelfth year of conflict in Syria during which the Assad regime has committed innumerable atrocities, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

In an April 2022 article published in “New Lines Magazine,” the two researchers who helped expose the massacre said that the videos, which were “already shocking for their atrociousness, stand out in their brevity and callousness among the thousands of hours of footage that we have examined throughout our respective careers as researchers of mass violence and genocide in Syria and elsewhere.”

“Particularly shocking about the Tadamon videos is the fact that the intelligence officers who committed the massacre were on duty and in uniform; they report to President Bashar al-Assad himself, and yet they chose to show their faces in the incriminating footage. At several points during the video, they looked straight into the camera seemingly relaxed and smiling. In documenting their own actions, they used HD video quality,” Annsar Shahhoud and Uğur Ümit Üngör wrote.

Yousef, the official who was sanctioned by the State Department Tuesday, “is focused, stoic and precise, and he works efficiently toward completing the task within a matter of 25 minutes,” the researchers wrote.

“After a few months, we confronted him with the massacre and let him know that we had seen the footage,” the researchers described.

“First, he denied it was him in the video. Then, he said he was just arresting someone,” they wrote. “Finally, he settled on the justification that it was his job and expressed his content: ‘I am proud of my deeds.’”

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March 6, 2023

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says Ukraine invasion is a top economic concern | CNN Business

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CNN
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The war in Ukraine and US-China relations are two of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s largest economic concerns, he said Monday.

“The thing I worry the most about is Ukraine,” he told Bloomberg Television in an interview Monday morning. “It’s oil, gas, the leadership of the world, and our relationship with China — that is much more serious than the economic vibrations that we all have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began more than a year ago and has roiled the global economy, leading to energy and food price shocks, along with global supply chain disruptions that fueled surging inflation across the world and led to painful interest rate hikes from the world’s central banks.

“This is the most serious geopolitical thing we’ve had to deal with since World War II,” Dimon said Monday, also highlighting the war’s impact on relations with China.

Beijing enjoys a close relationship with Moscow, and the Chinese government has been purchasing Russian energy and supplying machinery, electronics, base metals, vehicles, ships and aircraft, throwing the Kremlin an economic lifeline.

In recent months, tensions between the United States and China have increased as the countries compete for dominance of the microchip industry and argue over tariffs, US support for Taiwan and potential spy balloons.

Dimon said JPMorgan Chase is taking an active role in improving the relationship between the United States and China by advising and engaging with both governments on keeping cordial relations. He’s hoping that “cooler heads prevail” but he doesn’t believe a business solution exists to ease growing disputes. While JPMorgan Chase does a fair share of business with Beijing, it’s the government, not private enterprise, that has to smooth tensions, he said.

“We probably should have started resetting this 10 years ago,” he said. The US government has to sit down and have a “very serious conversation with the Chinese government,” he said.

Dimon added that he believes the war in Ukraine could continue for years to come.

On the home front, Dimon is still holding out hope for the possibility that the Federal Reserve can execute a soft landing — lowering interest rates while avoiding recession. But overall, his outlook remains cloudy.

“A mild recession is possible, a harder recession is possible,” he said Monday. “I think there’s a good chance that inflation will come down, but not enough by the fourth quarter — the Fed may actually have to do more,” he said.

Dimon did note that the US consumer is still very healthy: Home prices and wages are high, households still have more money in their bank accounts than they did before the pandemic and they’re still spending it.

Consumers are in great shape, he said. “But that’s going to end at some point.”

Still, even if America does enter a recession, he said, consumers are much stronger and will be able to better withstand a downturn than they were in 2008.

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March 6, 2023

Top US general visits Syria for first time as chairman of the joint chiefs, meets US forces | CNN Politics

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US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley visited Syria on Saturday, according to a statement from his office, marking his first visit to the country as the top US general.

Milley met with US troops in northeast Syria, who are there as part of the campaign to defeat ISIS, and inspected force protection measures, his spokesman Col. Dave Butler said.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned what it called Miley’s “illegal” visit to the US military base, saying it was a “flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to state news agency SANA.

Two weeks before Milley’s visit, US and coalition forces at Green Village in Syria came under rocket attack, according to US Central Command. Two rockets landed near the base, CENTCOM said. No US or coalition troops were injured, and there was no damage to the base.

Just two days earlier, four US troops and one working dog were injured in a helicopter raid against a senior ISIS leader in northeast Syria. The raid killed Hamza al-Homsi, CENTCOM said. The troops were injured in an “explosion on target,” the command said, though it was unclear if it was a suicide vest, grenade or other explosive that injured the troops.

The US maintains approximately 900 troops in Syria. While in the country, Milley also reviewed the ongoing repatriation efforts from the al-Hol refugee camp, which houses more than 60,000 displaced persons, including 25,000 children.

The repatriation efforts have been a particular focus of Gen. Erik Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, who has visited the camp three times since taking over on April 1, 2022. Kurilla’s most recent visit was in mid-November, when he warned that the children in the camp are “prime targets for ISIS radicalization.”

In February, US forces conducted 15 partnered operations with local forces, including the Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces, as well as two US-only operations, according to CENTCOM. The operations led to the deaths of five ISIS operatives and the detention of 11 others, the command said.

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

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March 5, 2023

Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
—

As president, Donald Trump made some of his most thoroughly dishonest speeches at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

As he embarks on another campaign for the presidency, Trump delivered another CPAC doozy Saturday night.

Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.

Here is a fact check of 23 of the false claims Trump made. (And that’s far from the total.)

Crime in Manhattan

While Trump criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been investigating Trump’s company, he claimed that “killings are taking place at a number like nobody’s ever seen, right in Manhattan.”

Facts First: It isn’t even close to true that Manhattan is experiencing a number of killings that nobody has ever seen. The region classified by the New York Police Department as Manhattan North had 43 reported murders in 2022; that region had 379 reported murders in 1990 and 306 murders in 1993. The Manhattan South region had 35 reported murders in 2022 versus 124 reported murders in 1990 and 86 murders in 1993. New York City as a whole is also nowhere near record homicide levels; the city had 438 reported murders in 2022 versus 2,262 in 1990 and 1,927 in 1993.

Manhattan North had just eight reported murders this year through February 19, while Manhattan South had one. The city as a whole had 49 reported murders.

The National Guard and Minnesota

Talking about rioting amid racial justice protests after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, Trump claimed he had been ready to send in the National Guard in Seattle, then added, “We saved Minneapolis. The thing is, we’re not supposed to do that. Because it’s up to the governor, the Democrat governor. They never want any help. They don’t mind – it’s almost like they don’t mind to have their cities and states destroyed. There’s something wrong with these people.”

Facts First: This is a reversal of reality. Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, not Trump, was the one who deployed the Minnesota National Guard during the 2020 unrest; Walz first activated the Guard more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to deploy the Guard himself. Walz’s office told CNN in 2020 that the governor activated the Guard in response to requests from officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul – cities also run by Democrats.

Trump has repeatedly made the false claim that he was the one who sent the Guard to Minneapolis. You can read a longer fact check, from 2020, here.

Trump’s executive order on monuments

Trump boasted that he had taken effective action as president to stop the destruction of statues and memorials. He claimed: “I passed and signed an executive order. Anybody that does that gets 10 years in jail, with no negotiation – it’s not ’10’ but it turns into three months.” He added: “But we passed it. It was a very old law, and we found it – one of my very good legal people along with [adviser] Stephen Miller, they found it. They said, ‘Sir, I don’t know if you want to try and bring this back.’ I said. ‘I do.’”

Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. He did not create a mandatory 10-year sentence for people who damage monuments. In fact, his 2020 executive order did not mandate any increase in sentences.

Rather, the executive order simply directed the attorney general to “prioritize” investigations and prosecutions of monument-destruction cases and declared that it is federal policy to prosecute such cases to the fullest extent permitted under existing law, including an existing law that allowed a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for willfully damaging federal property. The executive order did nothing to force judges to impose a 10-year sentence.

Vandalism in Portland

Trump claimed, “How’s Portland doing? They don’t even have storefronts anymore. Everything’s two-by-four’s because they get burned down every week.”

Facts First: This is a major exaggeration. Portland obviously still has hundreds of active storefronts, though it has struggled with downtown commercial vacancies for various reasons, and some businesses are sometimes vandalized by protesters. Trump has for years exaggerated the extent of property damage from protest vandalism in Portland.

Russian expansionism

Boasting of his foreign policy record, Trump claimed, “I was also the only president where Russia didn’t take over a country during my term.”

Facts First: While it’s true that Russia didn’t take over a country during Trump’s term, it’s not true that he was the only US president under whom Russia didn’t take over a country. “Totally false,” Michael Khodarkovsky, a Loyola University Chicago history professor who is an expert on Russian imperialism, said in an email. “If by Russia he means the current Russian Federation that existed since 1991, then the best example is Clinton, 1992-98. During this time Russia fought a war in Chechnya, but Chechnya was not a country but one of Russia’s regions.”

Khodarkovsky added, “If by Russia he means the USSR, as people often do, then from 1945, when the USSR occupied much of Eastern Europe until 1979, when USSR invaded Afghanistan, Moscow did not take over any new country. It only sent forces into countries it had taken over in 1945 (Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968).”

NATO funding

Trump said while talking about NATO funding: “And I told delinquent foreign nations – they were delinquent, they weren’t paying their bills – that if they wanted our protection, they had to pay up, and they had to pay up now.”

Facts First: It’s not true that NATO countries weren’t paying “bills” until Trump came along or that they were “delinquent” in the sense of failing to pay bills – as numerous fact-checkers pointed out when Trump repeatedly used such language during his presidency. NATO members haven’t been failing to pay their share of the organization’s common budget to run the organization. And while it’s true that most NATO countries were not (and still are not) meeting NATO’s target of each country spending a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense, that 2% figure is what NATO calls a “guideline”; it is not some sort of binding contract, and it does not create liabilities. An official NATO recommitment to the 2% guideline in 2014 merely said that members not currently at that level would “aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg did credit Trump for securing increases in European NATO members’ defense spending, but it’s worth noting that those countries’ spending had also increased in the last two years of the Obama administration following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and the recommitment that year to the 2% guideline. NATO notes on its website that 2022 was “the eighth consecutive year of rising defence spending across European Allies and Canada.”

NATO’s existence

Boasting of how he had secured additional funding for NATO from countries, Trump claimed, “Actually, NATO wouldn’t even exist if I didn’t get them to pay up.”

Facts First: This is nonsense.

There was never any indication that NATO, created in 1949, would have ceased to exist in the early 2020s without additional funding from some members. The alliance was stable even with many members not meeting the alliance’s guideline of having members spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.

We don’t often fact-check claims about what might have happened in an alternative scenario, but this Trump claim has no basis in reality. “The quote doesn’t make sense, obviously,” said Erwan Lagadec, research professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and an expert on NATO.

Lagadec noted that NATO has had no trouble getting allies to cover the roughly $3 billion in annual “direct” funding for the organization, which is “peanuts” to this group of countries. And he said that the only NATO member that had given “any sign” in recent years that it was thinking about leaving the alliance “was … the US, under Trump.” Lagadec added that the US leaving the alliance is one scenario that could realistically kill it, but that clearly wasn’t what Trump was talking about in his remarks on spending levels.

James Goldgeier, an American University professor of international relations and Brookings Institution visiting fellow, said in an email: “NATO was founded in 1949, so it seems very clear that Donald Trump had nothing to do with its existence. In fact, the worry was that he would pull the US out of NATO, as his national security adviser warned he would do if he had been reelected.”

The cost of NATO’s headquarters

Trump mocked NATO’s headquarters, saying, “They spent – an office building that cost $3 billion. It’s like a skyscraper in Manhattan laid on its side. It’s one of the longest buildings I’ve ever seen. And I said, ‘You should have – instead of spending $3 billion, you should have spent $500 million building the greatest bunker you’ve ever seen. Because Russia didn’t – wouldn’t even need an airplane attack. One tank one shot through that beautiful glass building and it’s gone.’”

Facts First: NATO did spend a lot of money on its headquarters in Belgium, but Trump’s “$3 billion” figure is a major exaggeration. When Trump used the same inaccurate figure in early 2020, NATO told CNN that the headquarters was actually constructed for a sum under the approved budget of about $1.18 billion euro, which is about $1.3 billion at exchange rates as of Sunday morning.

The Pulitzer Prize

Trump made his usual argument that The Washington Post and The New York Times should not have won a prestigious journalism award, a 2018 Pulitzer Prize, for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election and its connections to Trump’s team. He then said, “And they were exactly wrong. And now they’ve even admitted that it was a hoax. It was a total hoax, and they got the prize.”

Facts First: The Times and Post have not made any sort of “hoax” admission. “The claim is completely false,” Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in an email on Sunday.

Stadtlander continued: “When our Pulitzer Prize shared with The Washington Post was challenged by the former President, the award was upheld by the Pulitzer Prize Board after an independent review. The board stated that ‘no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.’ The Times’s reporting was also substantiated by the Mueller investigation and Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the matter.”

The Post referred CNN to that same July statement from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Awareness of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline

Trump claimed of his opposition to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany: “Nord Stream 2 – Nobody ever heard of it … right? Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 until I came along. I started talking about Nord Stream 2. I had to go call it ‘the pipeline’ because nobody knew what I was talking about.”

Facts First: This is standard Trump hyperbole; it’s just not true that “nobody” had heard of Nord Stream 2 before he began discussing it. Nord Stream 2 was a regular subject of media, government and diplomatic discussion before Trump took office. In fact, Biden publicly criticized it as vice president in 2016. Trump may well have generated increased US awareness to the controversial project, but “nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 until I came along” isn’t true.

Trump and Nord Stream 2

Trump claimed, “I got along very well with Putin even though I’m the one that ended his pipeline. Remember they said, ‘Trump is giving a lot to Russia.’ Really? Putin actually said to me, ‘If you’re my friend, I’d hate like hell to see you as my enemy.’ Because I ended the pipeline, right? Do you remember? Nord Stream 2.” He continued, “I ended it. It was dead.”

Facts First: Trump did not kill Nord Stream 2. While he did approve sanctions on companies working on the project, that move came nearly three years into his presidency, when the pipeline was already around an estimated 90% complete – and the state-owned Russian gas company behind the project said shortly after the sanctions that it would complete the pipeline itself. The company announced in December 2020 that construction was resuming. And with days left in Trump’s term in January 2021, Germany announced that it had renewed permission for construction in its waters.

The pipeline never began operations; Germany ended up halting the project as Russia was about to invade Ukraine early last year. The pipeline was damaged later in the year in what has been described as an act of sabotage.

The Obama administration and Ukraine

Trump claimed that while he provided lethal assistance to Ukraine, the Obama administration “didn’t want to get involved” and merely “supplied the bedsheets.” He said, “Do you remember? They supplied the bedsheets. And maybe even some pillows from [pillow businessman] Mike [Lindell], who’s sitting right over here. … But they supplied the bedsheets.”

Facts First: This is inaccurate. While it’s true that the Obama administration declined to provide weapons to Ukraine, it provided more than $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine between 2014 and 2016 that involved far more than bedsheets. The aid included counter-artillery and counter-mortar radars, armored Humvees, tactical drones, night vision devices and medical supplies.

Biden and a Ukrainian prosecutor

Trump claimed that Biden, as vice president, held back a billion dollars from Ukraine until the country fired a prosecutor who was “after Hunter” and a company that was paying him. Trump was referring to Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, who sat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

Facts First: This is baseless. There has never been any evidence that Hunter Biden was under investigation by the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who had been widely faulted by Ukrainian anti-corruption activists and European countries for failing to investigate corruption. A former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor and a top anti-corruption activist have both said the Burisma-related investigation was dormant at the time Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin.

Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, told The Washington Post in 2019: “Shokin was not investigating. He didn’t want to investigate Burisma. And Shokin was fired not because he wanted to do that investigation, but quite to the contrary, because he failed that investigation.” In addition, Shokin’s successor as prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, told Bloomberg in 2019: “Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws – at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing.”

Biden, as vice president, was carrying out the policy of the US and its allies, not pursuing his own agenda, in threatening to withhold a billion-dollar US loan guarantee if the Ukrainian government did not sack Shokin. CNN fact-checked Trump’s claims on this subject at length in 2019.

Trump and job creation

Promising to save Americans’ jobs if he is elected again, Trump claimed, “We had the greatest job history of any president ever.”

Facts First: This is false. The US lost about 2.7 million jobs during Trump’s presidency, the worst overall jobs record for any president. The net loss was largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but even Trump’s pre-pandemic jobs record – about 6.7 million jobs added – was far from the greatest of any president ever. The economy added more than 11.5 million jobs in the first term of Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Tariffs on China

Trump repeated a trade claim he made frequently during his presidency. Speaking of China, he said he “charged them” with tariffs that had the effect of “bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our Treasury from China. Thank you very much, China.” He claimed that he did this even though “no other president had gotten even 10 cents – not one president got anything from them.”

Facts First: As we have written repeatedly, it’s not true that no president before Trump had generated any revenue through tariffs on goods from China. In reality, the US has had tariffs on China for more than two centuries, and FactCheck.org reported in 2019 that the US generated an “average of $12.3 billion in custom duties a year from 2007 to 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission DataWeb.” Also, American importers, not Chinese exporters, make the actual tariff payments – and study after study during Trump’s presidency found that Americans were bearing most of the cost of the tariffs.

The trade deficit with China

Trump went on to repeat a false claim he made more than 100 times as president – that the US used to have a trade deficit with China of more than $500 billion. He claimed it was “five-, six-, seven-hundred billion dollars a year.”

Facts First: The US has never had a $500 billion, $600 billion or $700 billion trade deficit with China even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade in which the US runs a surplus with China. The pre-Trump record for a goods deficit with China was about $367 billion in 2015. The goods deficit hit a new record of about $418 billion under Trump in 2018 before falling back under $400 billion in subsequent years.

Trump and the 2020 election

Trump said people claim they want to run against him even though, he claimed, he won the 2020 election. He said, “I won the second election, OK, won it by a lot. You know, when they say, when they say Biden won, the smart people know that didn’t [happen].”

Facts First: This is Trump’s regular lie. He lost the 2020 election to Biden fair and square, 306 to 232 in the Electoral College. Biden earned more than 7 million more votes than Trump did.

Democrats and elections

Trump said Democrats are only good at “disinformation” and “cheating on elections.”

Facts First: This is nonsense. There is just no basis for a broad claim that Democrats are election cheaters. Election fraud and voter fraud are exceedingly rare in US elections, though such crimes are occasionally committed by officials and supporters of both parties. (We’ll ignore Trump’s subjective claim about “disinformation.”)

The liberation of the ISIS caliphate

Trump repeated his familiar story about how he had supposedly liberated the “caliphate” of terror group ISIS in “three weeks.” This time, he said, “In fact, with the ISIS caliphate, a certain general said it could only be done in three years, ‘and probably it can’t be done at all, sir.’ And I did it in three weeks. I went over to Iraq, met a great general. ‘Sir, I can do it in three weeks.’ You’ve heard that story. ‘I can do it in three weeks, sir.’ ‘How are you going to do that?’ They explained it. I did it in three weeks. I was told it couldn’t be done at all, that it would take at least three years. Did it in three weeks. Knocked out 100% of the ISIS caliphate.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim of eliminating the ISIS caliphate in “three weeks” isn’t true; the ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into Trump’s presidency, in 2019. Even if Trump was starting the clock at the time of his visit to Iraq, in late December 2018, the liberation was proclaimed more than two and a half months later. In addition, Trump gave himself far too much credit for the defeat of the caliphate, as he has in the past, when he said “I did it”: Kurdish forces did much of the ground fighting, and there was major progress against the caliphate under President Barack Obama in 2015 and 2016.

IHS Markit, an information company that studied the changing size of the caliphate, reported two days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration that the caliphate shrunk by 23% in 2016 after shrinking by 14% in 2015. “The Islamic State suffered unprecedented territorial losses in 2016, including key areas vital for the group’s governance project,” an analyst there said in a statement at the time.

Military equipment left in Afghanistan

Trump claimed, as he has before, that the US left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment when it withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. He said of the leader of the Taliban: “Now he’s got $85 billion worth of our equipment that I bought – $85 billion.” He added later: “The thing that nobody ever talks about, we lost 13 [soldiers], we lost $85 billion worth of the greatest military equipment in the world.”

Facts First: Trump’s $85 billion figure is false. While a significant quantity of military equipment that had been provided by the US to Afghan government forces was indeed abandoned to the Taliban upon the US withdrawal, the Defense Department has estimated that this equipment had been worth about $7.1 billion – a chunk of about $18.6 billion worth of equipment provided to Afghan forces between 2005 and 2021. And some of the equipment left behind was rendered inoperable before US forces withdrew.

As other fact-checkers have previously explained, the “$85 billion” is a rounded-up figure (it’s closer to $83 billion) for the total amount of money Congress has appropriated during the war to a fund supporting the Afghan security forces. A minority of this funding was for equipment.

The Afghanistan withdrawal and the F-16

Trump claimed that the Taliban acquired F-16 fighter planes because of the US withdrawal, saying: “They feared the F-16s. And now they own them. Think of it.”

Facts First: This is false. F-16s were not among the equipment abandoned upon the US withdrawal and the collapse of the Afghan armed forces, since the Afghan armed forces did not fly F-16s.

The border wall

Trump claimed that he had kept his promise to complete a wall on the border with Mexico: “As you know, I built hundreds of miles of wall and completed that task as promised. And then I began to add even more in areas that seemed to be allowing a lot of people to come in.”

Facts First: It’s not true that Trump “completed” the border wall. According to an official “Border Wall Status” report written by US Customs and Border Protection two days after Trump left office, about 458 miles of wall had been completed under Trump – but about 280 more miles that had been identified for wall construction had not been completed.

The report, provided to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, said that, of those 280 miles left to go, about 74 miles were “in the pre-construction phase and have not yet been awarded, in locations where no barriers currently exist,” and that 206 miles were “currently under contract, in place of dilapidated and outdated designs and in locations where no barriers previously existed.”

Latin America and deportations

Trump told his familiar story about how, until he was president, the US was unable to deport MS-13 gang members to other countries, “especially” Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras because those countries “didn’t want them.”

Facts First: It’s not true that, as a rule, Guatemala and Honduras wouldn’t take back migrants being deported from the US during Obama’s administration, though there were some individual exceptions.

In 2016, just prior to Trump’s presidency, neither Guatemala nor Honduras was on the list of countries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) considered “recalcitrant,” or uncooperative, in accepting the return of their nationals.

For the 2016 fiscal year, Obama’s last full fiscal year in office, ICE reported that Guatemala and Honduras ranked second and third, behind only Mexico, in terms of the country of citizenship of people being removed from the US. You can read a longer fact check, from 2019, here.

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March 5, 2023

Trump featured in song by January 6 prisoners choir | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

A new single released by a choir of men who are in prison for their participation in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, features a recording by former President Donald Trump as the backtrack.

The song, “Justice for All,” features the incarcerated men, referred to as the “J6 Prison Choir,” singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” from a jail in Washington, DC, mixed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Trump recorded his part recently at his Mar-a-Lago home at the request of a group that supports the families of those incarcerated for their actions on January 6, according to two sources familiar with the song’s production.

Forbes was first to report some of the details about the song, which was released on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube on Friday – one day before Trump is slated to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in the DC area.

A Trump campaign adviser told CNN that the former president’s involvement in the song’s production wasn’t spearheaded by his presidential campaign.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with the campaign,” the adviser said.

Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for those incarcerated for their actions on January 6. Before announcing his third presidential campaign in November, Trump said that if he ran for reelection and won, he would “very, very seriously” consider full pardons for rioters who breached the US Capitol during the insurrection.

As of February 6, the Justice Department said that more than 985 people had been arrested for their alleged participation in the January 6 riot, with approximately 500 defendants pleading guilty.

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March 5, 2023

Why the American far right adopted Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro | CNN

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Sao Paulo
CNN
—

This Saturday, as American conservatives flock to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, they’ll get a taste of just how far and wide their own ideas have spread. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will speak on the same stage where a few hours later former US leader Donald Trump will deliver the event’s closing remarks — a man the Brazilian leader has intentionally mirrored from the beginning of his presidency.

Far from his home country, Bolsonaro has found a warm reception in America: on social media, mostly Brazilian fans post videos of meeting Bolsonaro outside his south Florida rental and running into him in parking lots, food courts, and grocery stores, where the former president appears in shorts and sandals, grinning and posing for photos with children.

Bolsonaro has made a number of appearances in US hotel conference rooms and evangelical churches targeting Brazilian expats, giving speeches that come across as both timid and awkward, as he pauses to wait for interpreters to catch up to him, not always seeming certain of what is being said.

In early February, he spoke in the auditorium of a Trump hotel just outside Miami, hosted by none other than conservative activist and far-right organizer Charlie Kirk. Kirk, who admitted to not knowing much about Brazil, was nonetheless flanked by the flags of both nations: a gold-fringed, star-spangled banner and Brazil’s unmistakeable bright green flag with a yellow diamond and blue circle in the center. “The fight against socialism and Marxism knows no borders,” Kirk said by way of introduction to an audience of mostly Brazilians who were there to see Bolsonaro – “the myth,” or legend, as they call him.

In a separate podcast interview, Kirk and Bolsonaro enthusiastically described common ground between the Brazilian and American right. Describing his decision to snub Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s swearing in, Bolsonaro said: “I didn’t want to be accused of collaborating with the clumsy way they began their mandate, because we have completely opposing political views: conservative, on the right, and theirs, closer to socialism on the left.”

“Sounds very similar to what we’re dealing with in the United States,” Kirk responded.

The commonalities go on. From expanding gun rights and downplaying COVID-19 to opposing abortion and advocating for tougher immigration policies, Bolsonaro and Trump had plenty in common while in office. The two have continued to mirror each other since then; both shunned their successors’ inauguration ceremonies and fled to the embrace of conservative society circles in Florida, where Trump moved his residence and where Bolsonaro has been living for more than two months.

But there’s another reason for Bolsonaro’s tour of the United States: his continued appearances on US stages serve strategic purposes for far-right movements in both countries.

For Bolsonaro, participating in US political events shores up his claims that he has not exited politics and will eventually assume again leadership of Brazil’s rightwing opposition, despite his current sojourn abroad.

For the American right, publicly allying with a foreign figure helps expand their reach and creates the appearance of confirming conspiracy theories that originate in the US. In 2022, it was Hungarian hardline leader Viktor Orban who made headlines at CPAC. This year, it’s Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro poses for a selfie during an event at a restaurant at Dezerland amusement park in Orlando, Florida, U.S. January 31, 2023.

Deputy Director of Rapid Response at Media Matters Madeline Peltz, who researches right wing media and has been tracking the way extreme rightwing figures like Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones talk about Brazil, says American and Brazilian activists can see each others’ countries as laboratories in which to test and observe tactics.

After a bruising midterm election, Peltz adds, Republicans are now wondering whether to continue down the path of being pushed farther to the right or to take a more measured approach, distancing themselves from election denialism and the violent acts of January 6, 2021, conveniently chalking that kind of behavior to the radicals of their party.

“The Republican Party was sort of testing this thesis about, do we continue down this path of Trumpism, of extreme election denial, and that was being reflected in the right wing media’s commentary on Brazil as well — they were testing that thesis both in the American elections and in the Brazilian elections,” Peltz said.

The blueprint hasn’t shown the expected results, she said. “Republicans underperformed, to be charitable, and Bolsonaro lost.”

In this balancing act, Bolsonaro is trying to figure out where he fits in. Though he denounced the invasion of Brasilia on January 8 by his supporters, in the days following the election he welcomed peaceful demonstrations while his party filed petitions for an audit of voting machines, alleging fraud. He fed his followers crumbs of misinformation about election fraud and made vague comments hinting at a potential coup.

Isa Soares speaks with an arrested Bolsonaro supporter

When asked if Bolsonaro was not too problematic and messy to be brought into American politics — as a one-term president who infamously defended rape, torture, and a military dictatorship and is currently facing multiple criminal investigations at home — Peltz quipped, “They get their power from problematic and messy.” Shock value and controversy can actually confer clout in the American political universe, she said.

Prominent American conservatives have long lent support to Bolsonaro. “(Steve) Bannon has long considered himself to sort of be the international boogeyman of the left,” and his “next act” after leaving the White House was to form a sort of global coalition of far right movements, Peltz said. Brazil was one winning example of his political penetration.

Bolsonaro brought in Bannon to advise his first presidential campaign back in 2018 – and Bannon in turn began mentioning the South American leader more and more to his American audience, posing for photos with Bolsonaro’s children on US visits, and voicing his support for the president on his social media whenever he was under fire.

He is not the only one. In the days that followed the Brazilian presidential elections in November, as Bolsonaro and his party filed petitions for tens of thousands of votes to be thrown out, another prominent conservative voice joined in. Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson raised questions about whether the vote was legitimate – despite Brazilian courts rejecting fraud claims and a military investigation finding no evidence of rigged voting machines.

Rodrigo Nunes, a philosophy professor at University of Essex and author of “From Trance to Vertigo,” a book of essays about Bolsonarismo, said that Bolsonaro’s value to US conservatives comes from two factors.

First, “he’s a former president of a fairly important country. Geopolitically, he was a fairly important ally to Trump, because he was 100% aligned with Trump.” As a former leader in the global far-right and part of the “ecology,” Bolsonaro’s voice can be amplified in the US whenever his ideas are relevant, Nunes said.

Second, Bolsonaro frequently mimics and echoes the discourse of the far right in the US, which can be fed back into the US as offering further confirmation of what the far right are saying there, Nunes explained.

“That’s a lot of how this ecological approach to political organization works. When you’re using the internet, how do you make something real? You spread sufficient sources of it so that it looks like it’s coming from several different places at the same time, and suddenly, this produces an effect of reality, it looks like it’s real, because there’s a lot of people saying it and where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

In a way, the cycle is exemplified in the copycat insurrection that took place in Brasilia on January 8. It’s impossible not to see the influence of January 6 in the actions of the rioters there, and yet “the Brazilian Jan 6” was defended by Carlson and Bannon even as the reaction from Bolsonaro and many in his camp was mixed.

In pictures: Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian Congress

The day after the Brasilia riots, Bolsonaro condemned the acts in a tweet. “Peaceful demonstrations that follow the law are part of democracy. However, depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, escape the rule,” he said.

But in American politics, what Bolsonaro thinks or says matters less than what the invasion of public buildings thousands of miles away means for American voters who believe that their own election was stolen.

“The way his narrative is built, to a large extent, as a copy or a mirror image of the narrative that they have in the US is very useful in the sense of showing people this is happening in other places, too. This proves the whole idea that there is a global conspiracy, a global left wing conspiracy to keep us, the people who represent the real people, out of power,” Nunes said.

In another recent speaking event, Bolsonaro took the pulpit of an evangelical church in Boca Raton, Florida, and told a crowd of Brazilians, “My mission is not over yet.”

In the same breath as he exalted the wonders of Brazil, (“There is nothing like our own land”), he urged his supporters to not be discouraged, and said he was planning to return to Brazil in the coming weeks to lead the opposition against Lula. If that is true, CPAC could be his last appearance in American politics before going home to an uncertain political future.

To Peltz, it would be the natural conclusion of what she described as Bolsonaro’s “strange, directionless detour to America,” given CPAC’s waning influence in the American political landscape. “CPAC no longer launches the careers of hopefuls looking to make an impact, rather, it’s now simply a box to check off. And without much otherwise on his to-do list, Bolsonaro might as well check it off.”

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March 3, 2023

‘We will not stop fighting’: Daughter of imprisoned Putin critic Alexey Navalny speaks out | CNN

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Editor’s Note: The CNN film “Navalny” premiered in April 2022 and won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary Feature. It is streaming on HBO Max, which is owned by CNN’s parent company.

CNN
—

Dasha Navalnaya, the daughter of jailed Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine and to release her father and political prisoners in the country, in an extensive interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday.

“We will not stop fighting” until both of those goals are achieved, Navalnaya said.

Her father Navalny – an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and its war in Ukraine – is currently serving a nine-year jail term at a maximum-security prison east of Moscow after being convicted of large-scale fraud by a Russian court last year.

He was poisoned with nerve agent Novichok in 2020, an attack several Western officials and Navalny himself openly blamed on the Kremlin. Russia has denied any involvement.

After several months in Germany recovering from the poisoning, Navalny returned to Moscow, where he was immediately arrested for violating probation terms imposed from a 2014 embezzlement case that he said was politically motivated.

He was initially sentenced to two-and-a-half years, and then later given nine years over separate allegations that he stole from his anti-corruption foundation.

Navalny, who previously ran for political office in Russia, has long been a thorn in the side of the Kremlin.

Dasha said the “main goal” of her father’s work and anti-corruption foundation “is for Russia to become a free state, to have open elections, to have freedom of press, freedom of speech, and just you know, to have the opportunity to become a part of the normal Western democratized community.”

She described the experience of growing up in a family watched closely by the government, telling Burnett that she and her brother made a game out of trying to evade spies on public transport in Russia.

“We would look around the train and then start chatting with the guy who had the worst camouflage outfit and the black cap and the weird strappy bag on the side, and we would jump out – not out of the train but out of the the subway car,” she said.

But Navalnaya also voiced escalating concern about her father’s prison conditions now, saying that her family has had limited access to Navalny and that his attorneys are able to see him only “through a guarded veil.”

“So we can’t really know for sure his health circumstance and he hasn’t seen his family in over half a year,” she said. “I haven’t seen him in person in over a year and it’s quite concerning considering his health is getting worse and worse.”

Concerns about Navalny’s health have persisted for months. Footage during his sentencing last year showed Navalny as a gaunt figure standing beside his lawyers in a room filled with security officials.

Navalny himself has tweeted about difficult conditions in confinement, saying in November that he had been isolated from other prisoners in what he described as a move designed to “shut me up.” Inmates in Russian penal colonies are typically housed in barracks rather than cells, according to a report by Poland-based think tank the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW).

The “real indescribable bestiality” of his incarceration, however, was limitations on visits with family, he said at the time.

Navalny’s poisoning and subsequent legal problems drew intense interest from the Russian public and abroad. Russia witnessed large-scale anti-government protests in towns and cities across the country after his arrest, with authorities detaining around 11,000 demonstrators within a few weeks.

In June last year, Navalny was transferred from a penal colony in Pokrov to a maximum-security prison in Melekhovo in Russia’s Vladimir region.

Throughout his incarceration, Navalny has nevertheless vociferously denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine via social media, advocating anti-war protests across the country as “the backbone of the movement against war and death.”

In a tweet thread about his prison conditions last year, he vowed to continue speaking out.

“So what’s my first duty? That’s right, to not be afraid and not shut up,” he wrote, urging others to do the same. “At every opportunity, campaign against the war, Putin and United Russia. Hugs to you all.”

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March 3, 2023

US introduces new rules to protect water systems from hackers | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
—

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced new requirements for public water facilities to boost their cybersecurity while expressing concern that many facilities have failed to take basic steps to protect themselves from hackers.

The new EPA memo requires state governments to audit the cybersecurity practices of public water systems — and then use state regulatory authorities to force water systems to add security measures if existing ones are deemed insufficient.

“Cyberattacks that are targeting water systems pose a real and significant threat to our security,” EPA Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox told reporters Thursday.

It’s the latest move in a full-court press by the Biden administration to use its regulatory and policy powers to try to raise the cyber defenses of US critical infrastructure that is frequently targeted by cybercriminals and foreign government-backed hackers.

The EPA memo comes a day after the White House released a national cybersecurity strategy that calls for software makers to be held liable when their products leave gaping holes for hackers to exploit.

A wakeup call for cybersecurity in the water sector came mere weeks into the Biden administration, in February 2021, when a hacker infiltrated a Florida water treatment facility and tried to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide to a potentially dangerous level, according to local authorities.

The facility stopped the attack before harm could be done, but the episode alarmed officials in Washington and led to greater federal scrutiny of the water sector’s security practices.

The FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have warned about multiple ransomware attacks on the computer networks of water and wastewater facilities from California to Maine.

That greater public attention on the issue has brought improvements; the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC), an industry hub for cyber threat data and best practices, says its membership now includes facilities that provide water to most of the US.

“Multiple water sector associations embrace the need to help water systems bolster cyber resilience,” Jennifer Lyn Walker, the WaterISAC’s director of infrastructure cyber defense, told CNN. “The larger systems have been leading the charge for years, so I think we can adapt that effort toward the medium and smaller systems for the greater good of the sector.”

But the sprawling US water sector, which includes more than 148,000 public water systems, has sometimes struggled with funding and personnel to protect systems.

At public water systems, “top-down authorization for major cybersecurity projects, unfortunately, usually only happen after an incident,” Chris Grove, director of cybersecurity strategy at industrial security firm Nozomi Networks, told CNN.

“Within the municipalities that manage the public water systems, they are choosing between a library expansion, cameras for the police, or cybersecurity for water and wastewater treatment systems,” Grove said.

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March 3, 2023

Two men sentenced to probation after bringing guns to 2020 vote count site in Philadelphia | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

Two men were sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation after being convicted of bringing guns to a Philadelphia vote counting center while 2020 presidential votes were being tallied.

Antonio LaMotta, 63, and Joshua Macias, 44, both of Virginia, were found guilty in October of two counts each of Violations of the Uniform Firearms Act. The two approached the Pennsylvania Convention Center on November 5, 2020, with firearms while election workers inside were counting votes for the 2020 presidential election, according to evidence at trial. LaMotta and Macias were also sentenced to prison time that had been served prior to sentencing.

Court of Common Pleas Judge Lucretia Clemons emphasized to LaMotta and Macias during the sentencing that while on their probation they are not allowed to possess any guns – even though they live in a different state.

“That means I do not want to see you on social media with a gun. I don’t want to see you in a car with a gun. There are no guns while you are on my supervision. I do that with every single gun case that comes before me,” Clemons said.

Macias apologized to the judge, saying, “I will make sure this type of situation will never happen again.”

LaMotta did not address the court, but his lawyer Lauren Wimmer suggested to the judge that her client was being targeted for his political views – an allegation prosecutors vehemently denied.

Following their conviction in October 2022, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement that LaMotta and Macias’ actions would serve as a lesson.

“Let this be a lesson not to illegally bring firearms to Philly’s elections. If you commit a crime while seeking to undermine people’s right to vote, and to have their votes appropriately counted, you will be held accountable,” Krasner said.

LaMotta has also been charged with four misdemeanor counts for his alleged participation in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He has pleaded not guilty.

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March 2, 2023

Grand test for Indian diplomacy as American, Chinese and Russian ministers meet in Delhi | CNN

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New Delhi
CNN
—

Foreign ministers from the world’s biggest economies convened in New Delhi Thursday in what was seen as a grand test for Indian diplomacy, which ultimately didn’t succeed in reaching a consensus because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

In the second high-level ministerial meeting under India’s Group of 20 (G20) presidency this year, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, met his American, Chinese and Russian counterparts, hoping to find enough common ground to deliver a joint statement at the end of the summit.

But amid festering divisions over Moscow’s war, New Delhi was unable to convince the leaders to put their differences aside, with Jaishankar admitting the conflict had struggled to unite the group.

India, the world’s largest democracy with a population of more than 1.3 billion, has been keen to position itself as a leader of emerging and developing nations – often referred to as the Global South – at a time when soaring food and energy prices as a result of the war are hammering consumers already grappling with rising costs and inflation.

Those sentiments were front and center during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opening remarks earlier Thursday, when he spoke of multiples crises the world faces, with less wealthy nations hit especially hard.

“The experience of the last few years, the financial crisis, climate change, the pandemic, terrorism and wars clearly shows that global governance has failed,” Modi said.

“We must also admit that the tragic consequences of this failure are being faced most over by the developing countries,” who he says are most affected by global warming “caused by richer countries”.

Eluding to the war in Ukraine, Modi acknowledged the conflict was causing “deep global divisions.” But he encouraged the foreign ministers to put differences aside during their meeting Thursday.

“We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can,” he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the summit, according to a State Department official traveling with Blinken.

Blinken and Lavrov spoke for roughly 10 minutes, the same official said.

Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed to CNN that the meeting took place but played down its significance.

“Blinken asked for contact with Lavrov. On the go, as part of the second session of the twenty, Sergey Viktorovich (Lavrov) talked. There were no negotiations, meetings, etc,” she said.

Deep disagreements over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine played out in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru last month as well, when G20 finance chiefs failed to agree on a statement after their meeting.

Both Russia and China declined to sign the joint statement, which criticized Moscow’s invasion. That left India to issue a “chair’s summary and outcome document” in which it summed up the two days of talks and acknowledged disagreements.

Analysts say that throughout the war New Delhi has deftly balanced its ties to Russia and the West, with Modi emerging as a leader who has been courted by all sides.

But as the war enters its second year, and tensions continue to rise, pressure could mount on countries, including India, to take a firmer stand against Russia – putting Modi’s statecraft to the test.

Arguably India’s most celebrated event of the year, the G20 summit has been heavily promoted domestically, with sprawling billboards featuring Modi’s face plastered across the country. Roads have been cleaned and buildings freshly painted ahead of the dignitaries’ visit.

Taking place in the “mother of democracies” under Modi’s leadership, his political allies have been keen to push his international credentials, portraying him as a key player in the global order.

Last year’s G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia, issued a joint declaration that echoed what Modi had told Russian President Vladimir Putin weeks earlier on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan.

“Today’s era must not be of war,” it said, prompting media and officials in India to claim India had played a vital role in bridging differences between an isolated Russia and the United States and its allies.

A board decorated with flowers welcomes foreign ministers to New Delhi, India, on February 28, 2023.

India, analysts say, prides itself on its ability to balance relations. The country, like China, has refused to condemn Moscow’s brutal assault on Ukraine in various United Nations resolutions. Rather than cutting economic ties with the Kremlin, India has undermined Western sanctions by increasing its purchases of Russian oil, coal and fertilizer.

But unlike China, India has grown closer to the West – particularly the US – despite ties with Russia.

New Delhi’s ties with Moscow date back to the Cold War, and the country remains heavily reliant on the Kremlin for military equipment – a vital link given India’s ongoing tensions with China at its shared Himalayan border.

The US and India have taken steps in recent months to strengthen their defense partnership, as the two sides attempt to counter the rise of an increasingly assertive China.

Daniel Markey, senior adviser, South Asia, for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), said while India’s leaders “would like to facilitate an end to this conflict that preserves New Delhi’s relations with both Washington and Moscow and ends the disruption of the global economy,” India did not have “any particular leverage” with Russia or Ukraine that would make a settlement likely.

“I believe that other world leaders are equally interested in playing a peace-making diplomatic role. So when and if Putin wishes to come to the table to negotiate, he will have no shortage of diplomats hoping to help,” he said.

Still, as Putin’s aggression continues to throw the global economy into chaos, India has signaled an intention to raise the many concerns faced by the global South, including climate challenges and food and energy security, according to Modi’s opening speech earlier Thursday.

“The world looks upon the G20 to ease the challenges of growth, development, economic resilience, disaster resilience, financial stability, transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, and food and energy security,” Modi said.

While Modi’s government appears keen to prioritize domestic challenges, experts say these issues could be sidelined by the tensions between the US, Russia and China, which have increased recently over concerns from Washington that Beijing is considering sending lethal aid to the Kremlin’s struggling war effort.

Speaking to reporters last week, Ramin Toloui, the US assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, said while Secretary of State Antony Blinken would highlight its efforts to address food and energy security issues, he would also “underscore the damage that Russia’s war of aggression has caused.”

Blinken will “encourage all G20 partners to redouble their calls for a just, peaceful, and lasting end to the Kremlin’s war consistent with UN Charter principles,” Toloui said.

At the same time, Russia in a statement Wednesday accused the US and the European Union of “terrorism,” stating it was “set to clearly state Russia’s assessments” of the current food and energy crisis.

“We will draw attention to the destructive barriers that the West is multiplying exponentially to block the export of goods that are of critical importance to the global economy, including energy sources and agricultural products,” Russia said, hinting at the difficulties New Delhi might face during the meeting.

India has “worked very hard not to be boxed into one side or the other,” Markey said. The country could not “afford to alienate Russia or the US and Modi doesn’t want discussion of the war to force any difficult decisions or to distract from other issues, like green, sustainable economic development,” he added.

But with plummeting ties between Washington and Beijing after the US military shot down what it says was a Chinese spy balloon that flew over American territory, New Delhi will have to carefully drive difficult negotiations between conflicting viewpoints.

China maintains the balloon, which US forces downed in February, was a civilian research aircraft accidentally blown off course, and the fallout led Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing.

As differences played out during the ministerial meeting Thursday, analysts say while India will be disappointed at the outcome, they were in a very difficult position to begin with.

“It will be a disappointment for Modi, but not one that cannot be managed,” Markey said. “Nor would it be India’s fault, as it would primarily be a reflection of the underlying differences over which Modi has very little control.”

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March 2, 2023

Tag: conflicts and war

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