Category Archives: Government Oppression

Submit a Rant or Rave

Its good to see that the investigation on the Russian interference is moving forward. We need the truth to finally be out about Trump supporters who want back doors and other hidden communications with Russians to avoid legal penalties.

It is clear that the president is attempting to erase all of President Obamas achievements. What he cant erase is what we are all seeing about him. When this investigation is over, he will be remembered, but not with reverence. He and Richard Nixon will stand alone all by themselves. What a sad, vindictive, vicious man.

Why on Earth would someone ex-pect that American military should go after terrorists worldwide? The cowboying into other territories without proper body armor and tank protection and other expensive military equipment needed against IEDs is what cost the lives and limbs and other harms to our military less than two decades ago.

Candidate Trump stated he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Did he give people the incentive to follow suit?

Regarding John Coles cartoon, June 15 enough with the beheading. Cartoons are OK, but we need civility in them also.

Lets see an accounting of all those millions spent so far by the Trump family alone in their various travels, especially during the weekends. They bellyached so much about what was spent by other presidents on so-called vacation times, but Im sure the Trumps have outspent them in these past few months.

I see Ivanka Trump got permission to sell even more things in China. Are they made by Chinese or American companies?

I think comedian Adam Conover summed up our current political situation perfectly last year: There is a huge difference between me and those people. They are wrong, whereas I am right.

Its about our government making a better deal with Cuba: Make a better deal with Cuba so that money does not go to their government, where they control everything including oppression of the Cuban people.

Follow this link:

Rants and raves - The Augusta Chronicle

A few minutes into our interview at one of Kampalas hotels, Stella Nyanzis lawyer tells us the place is no longer safe for her and she needs to leave. She is constantly monitored by security agents these days, she says, which is perhaps not surprising as the academic and activist is one of the fiercest critics of the Ugandan government. But she is not about to back down.

Not even the 33 days she spent in the countrys maximum security Luzira womens prison for describing the president, Yoweri Museveni, as a pair of buttocks could change her stance.

My language will grow sharper if the government continues to oppress us, says Nyanzi, who was suspended from her job at Makerere University for abusing the first lady and education minister, Janet Museveni. Nyanzi called her a big-thighed cow with an empty brain.

On top of that, she has accused the Musevenis of raping the country and leaving millions of Ugandans in poverty during their three-decade rule.

I am a critic of government and I choose the words to use [carefully], she told the Guardian while out on bail.

If you are going to stand with the powerless against the oppression [by] the powerful, someone will not like it. That person is usually the powerful.

Nyanzi, who usually turns to Facebook to vent her wrath, was arrested in April and charged with cyber harassment for her criticism of the president. Her arrest followed an event for her campaign Pads4girlsUG, which is raising money to buy sanitary towels for girls who cant afford them. She started it after the first lady told parliament earlier this year that the government did not have money to fulfil her husbands election campaign pledge to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.

At least 30% of teenage girls in Uganda miss school when they start having their periods.

The campaign has proved a success, with donations pouring in. Nyanzi wrote on Facebook that Pads4girls was her most powerful achievement of the past year.

Her arrest elicited widespread condemnation, with Human Rights Watch describing it as the most flagrant attack on free expression in many years and a vengeful use of Ugandas justice system to silence a government critic. She is currently barred from travelling out of the country.

A trained journalist turned researcher, Nyanzi describes herself as a lyricist, poetess, creative writer and analyst on a quest for good governance. Shes unflinching in her criticism of government and is unafraid to tackle taboos around sex and gender and stand up for LGBT rights.

Language is a tool and I refuse to be shut by anybody; we can listen to the rhetoric but also question, says Nyanzi, whose PhD research at the University of London focused on youth sexualities and sexual and reproductive health in the Gambia, a culturally conservative country like many other African states.

Her candid use of sexual innuendos and talk of sex has angered moralists but earned her the support of young people who view old beliefs as having no place in todays world.

Openly using words like penis or vagina is seen as immoral. Nyanzi is breaking those cultural beliefs, in a country where women are expected to be humble.

She stripped down to her underwear in protest when her boss at Makerere tried to evict her from the building. She told journalists then that stripping was the only remaining option for her grievances to be heard.

She likes to be called nalongo (a mother of twins which she is, along with an older daughter), which locally symbolises strength.

She said people pretend that sex is a taboo, but what do men discuss all the time? It is sex. So do the women when they are together, she says.

I stand with queer people and I may not necessarily be a lesbian but I know what it means to be marginalised because of my sexuality. It could be because I dont have sex, or it could be because I am a single mum, or because I just sleep around with so many men, she adds.

Yet such bold statements have led to accusations that she has mental health problems. The state tried to force her to be tested while in prison but she resisted. The state has also asked the court to compel her to be tested under the 1938 Mental Treatment Act. She filed a case against the government, opposing the testing.

They wanted to subject me to involuntary [mental] testing; I told them I have to volunteer myself. They cant just pick me and test, she says. What happens after testing you is that they detain you on the pretext that you are mentally ill. That means they want to kill whatever questioning power I have.

Although her arrest and detention appear designed to break her, she says the things they do to women in prison would not stop her.

Like telling us to undress before other [prisoners]; I laughed about it, she says.

Telling me to undress I undressed with pride and then turned the torture scheme into one of pleasure for other women.

She wrote last month that her prison experience strengthened my resolve to resist the Musevenis 31-year dictatorship.

Oh yes, [prison] purified my passionate disgust for the failed corrupt regime of [Museveni] when I was a prisoner, my brain was sharpened for the long struggle ahead. In prison, I lost all fear of the systems and organs that uphold the gun-based system of patronage that entrench this reign of terror and family rule, she said.

But when she was released on bail she looked frail and there were concerns about her health. I had malaria. Mosquito nets are not allowed into the prison rooms because of fear that women can strangle themselves.

I got a urinary tract infection because the toilets are bad. But also our pit latrine was full the first two weeks I was there. It took a rebellion for it to be emptied, she says.

Nyanzi is due back in court on Tuesday. There have been calls for the charges to be dropped. But whether they are or not, or whether shes returned to jail, it is unlikely the academic will ever willingly give up the fight.

As she wrote on Facebook to mark her 43rd birthday last week: As I start another year of my life, I am looking forward to the prospects there are for me. I am grabbing this apple of my life, taking huge tasty bites out of it.

Read this article:

Jailed for calling Ugandan president a 'pair of buttocks', activist vows ... - The Guardian

One resident of the war-torn Iraqi city tells i24NEWS that he longs for the return of dictator Saddam Hussein

Eastern Mosul has come back to life, despite the ongoing battle in the west of the city between so-called Islamic State fighters and Iraqi government forces.

It is a welcome beginning of normality for residents, but it is still far from what was once Iraq's second largest city.

Less than six months after Iraqi forces pushed IS militants out of this part of the city, huge efforts are going into rebuilding it. Municipal workers and builders are laboring day and night, trying to restore electricity and pave the streets.

In the shadow of destruction - buildings riddled with bullets, others flattened to the ground - construction workers are twisting steel and mixing concrete in an attempt to help the city rise again.

The old market is bustling with people, the shops full of goods and the sidewalks are bustling with street vendors and shoppers looking for a bargain.

One Mosul shopkeeper, Haj Ahmad Abu Hakam, told i24NEWS that he reopened his shop soon after the Islamic State left.

It is much better, under the Islamic State the situation was bad but now thank God it's better, there are more work opportunities available, and many people who left are coming back, Abu Hakam said.

But few people in the city are actually carrying bags full of goods. Abu Omar, a displaced person from west Mosul, said that the citizens are living off of handouts and that life is a struggle.

Since we fled, we only received sugar and cooking oil once and we paid for it. We are living on handouts, what people give us," Abu Omar said. "We dont pay rent, the owner lets me and my family live there for free. There is security but life is hard and is expensive.

Despite promises by officials, living conditions are only slowly improving.

Sabah Abu Faisal, who was displaced from the West side of Mosul due to the fighting, stated that he believes he was deceived by the new Iraqi authority.

Im sorry but they are all liars, they have no credibility, they act just in front of the camera, no food supplies, Ive been here for three months and I did not receive anything from them," Abu Faisal said.

Under a huge billboard of Kathem Asaher, the Arab world's most famous singer with the words love has arrived, residents of east Mosul are complaining about their representatives and there is no love for the government. Many have called for the old government to return like Mosul resident Abu Ali, who longs for the days of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Saddam was a dictator and they brought us democracy. We dont want democracy. Take us back to dictatorship. Take us back to the oppression of Saddam - we dont want democracy.

Abu Ali is uncertain about the future as many around him are unhappy with the lack of electricity, the shortage of water and the scarcity of jobs.

Another sensitive issue in the city is the presence of "collaborators" who reportedly helped IS militants as well as ex- IS fighters but Mosul resident Rafee Khoder Elias insisted that that situation is improving

Its good, its getting better ... 100 percent, with cooperation with the citizens its continuing to get better, God willing.

While on the other side of the Tigris River, in west Mosul, the fighting is fierce.

Iraqi government forces backed by a US-led coalition said they will soon be victorious there as well but, for the Iraqi government, the real battle is just beginning, and it's all about winning the hearts and minds of its own people.

Excerpt from:

As IS withdraws, Mosul residents face harsh conditions and seek government aid - i24NEWS (press release) (registration)

By Can Dundar By Can Dundar June 21 at 12:01 AM

Can Dundar is the former editor in chief of the leading Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. He is now living in exile.

When Kemal Kilicdaroglu was elected as head of Turkeys leading opposition party in 2010, he quickly earned the nickname of Gandhi. The moniker had more to do with his faint physical resemblance to the Indian independence leader than with any similarities in revolutionary credentials or background.

Kilicdaroglu, who long headed Turkeys Social Security Agency, is a career civil servant who only entered politics after retirement. As leader of the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), he has proved to be more of a bureaucrat than a rabble-rouser. Critics assail him for his passivity and his failure to capitalize on the mood of the streets. With Kilicdaroglu as party chief, the social-democratic CHP has not managed to rise above 25 percent of the vote. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan always seems to succeed in keeping the opposition on its back foot.

But now the CHP leaders patience appears to have run out. On June 14, his deputy, Enis Berberoglu, was sentenced to 25 years in jail on espionage charges. Kilicdaroglu responded rather unexpectedly. He announced that he and his supporters were embarking on a protest march from Ankara to Istanbul, a distance of 280 miles. The whole trip will take just under a month.

Berberoglu, a journalist by profession, has long been a target of Erdogans ire. A few years ago, the authorities went after Berberoglu for allegedly providing me and my newspaper with footage documenting the covert shipment of weapons to radical Islamist rebels in Syria by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency. I was sentenced to five years and 10 months for publishing this footage in Cumhuriyet, where I was editor in chief. (I was released based on a ruling of the Constitutional Court and later left the country.)

It is the Turkish equivalent of Americas Iran-Contra Affair. And just like Ronald Reagan back in the 1980s, Erdogan initially denied having anything to do with illegal arms sales, though he soon had little choice but to tacitly acknowledge the veracity of the report. But the resemblance ends there. In the United States, the main perpetrators ultimately faced criminal responsibility. In Turkey, it was the people who exposed the scandal who ended up going to jail.

For Kilicdaroglu, Berberoglus arrest was a turning point. He could either stay silent and wait for his turn to be arrested or he could take to the streets and join the active opposition. He chose the latter. Democracy is slipping away, he declared. This is the last straw! Accompanied by a large crowd, he set off on the long walk to Istanbul on June 15.

Building on the Gandhi analogy, some are already comparing Kilicdaroglus protest with the Indian leaders famous Salt March of 1930, when he and his followers walked 240 miles to the sea coast to protest the British colonial monopoly on the production and sale of salt. Kilicdaroglu and the crowd with him are expected to walk five to six hours a day for the next 28 days, ending their march at the prison where Berberoglu is being held.

According to official figures, the government has investigated 150,000 people since last July, when an attempted coup touched off an extraordinary wave of repression. By now, 50,000 Turks have been arrested, and 70,000 civil servants have been sacked. Almost all have been accused of terrorism or complicity with the coup plotters, but its clear that their real crime has simply been opposition to the government. Erdogan has even referred to the coup as a blessing from God that gave him the chance to punish all his opponents.

Fully half of Turks belong to this opposition, as shown by the constitutional referendum earlier this year. Erdogan staged the vote in order to obtain approval for a raft of changes that would vastly expand his powers as president. Yet 50 percent of those who went to the polls ultimately said no.

Nonetheless, that has merely led Erdogan to intensify the crackdown. He has accelerated the wave of arrests, announced the extension of emergency measures and moved to silence the last voices of opposition in the media.

Now everyone is waiting to see how Erdogan will react. So far hes restricted himself to vague threats of a crackdown on the march. Youth groups that sometimes act as unofficial paramilitaries have vowed to block the marchers when they enter Istanbul.

Gandhis Salt March led in the short term to the arrest of 60,000 participants, though the British were later forced to release them all. In Turkey, the number of prisoners has doubled in the past five years. Now there are 200,000 of them, and all 372 prisons in the country are filled to capacity. Rather than slowing down, the government is busily building new jails.

Well soon see whether Kilicdaroglus march, which is supported by the other leftist parties, will trigger a new wave of arrests or succeed in imposing limits on the governments campaign of oppression.

As such, this new protest will not only test Erdogans power, but it will also define the political future of his main rival.

Go here to read the rest:

The Turkish Gandhi's long march - Washington Post

By Sorwar Alam

ANKARA

Nearly a half-million Rohingya from Myanmar have been displaced due to decades of oppression in southwestern Myanmar, according to a new UN report.

The report, published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) to mark June 20 World Refugee Day, says by the end of 2016 the number of Rohingya refugees rose to 490,300, up from 451,800 the previous year.

The report shows that Bangladesh hosts the largest number of Rohingya, 276,200, with 243,000 of them living in a refugee-like situation.

However, the government of Bangladesh estimates the population to be between 300,000 and 500,000, the UNHRC says.

The Rohingya minority is one of the most oppressed communities in the world, as they have been suffering from a state-run slow-motion cleansing operation in the southwestern Myanmars state of Rakhine, according to Human Rights Watch.

The southeastern city of Coxs Bazar in Bangladesh hosts Rohingya refugees in two registered and three unregistered camps.

International community must take action

Mirza Taslima Sultana, a researcher at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), told Anadolu Agency in Bangladeshs capital Dhaka that the international community should take action to stop the oppression of the Rohingya.

Bangladeshs government will have to contact international organizations to stop the Rohingya torture, she added.

Sultana said that current situation in Myanmars Rakhine state makes sending the Rohingya back impossible.

In the current situation, we cannot send them back to Myanmar. The world as well as Bangladesh needs to come forward to solve the Rohingya problem.

She said Coxs Bazar authorities have faced difficulty ensuring public order due to thousands of unregistered refugees.

But we have to remember 1971 [Bangladeshs War of Independence], when people from Bangladesh took refuge in neighboring India. As India helped us at that time, we should also help the Rohingya, said Sultana.

Mohammad Rayhan, a Rohingya community leader in Coxs Bazar, told Anadolu Agency that Rohingya have been living in Bangladesh for decades without the benefit of education and other basic rights.

Our children dont have any future. They cant get any education, Rayhan said, adding that they want to return to their homeland but the international community should ensure our life and basic rights.

Monjur Mia, a Rohingya living in the Kutupalong unregistered camp near Coxs Bazar, said he would return to his country after his rights are ensured.

We want a normal life

Dudu Mia, a Rohingya in the Leda unregistered refugee camp in Teknaf, eastern Coxs Bazar, said Refugee Day means nothing for their lives.

We have been living in this camp for many years. But the conditions have not improved. We want to live a normal life like other people. We ask the international community to solve the issue so that we can go back to our homes, he said.

Besides Bangladesh, the countries of Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia also host Rohingya refugees.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes in Rakhine since last October, when Myanmar's military launched a crackdown whose brutality has drawn international criticism.

Rohingya have fled Rakhine -- one of the poorest states in Myanmar -- in droves for decades, with a new wave of migrations occurring since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out between ethnic Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Security forces have been accused of gang-rape, killings, beatings, disappearances and burning villages in the Maungdaw area of northern Rakhine since October.

The Rohingya in impoverished Rakhine have been effectively denied citizenship by a 1982 nationality law enacted by Ne Win, a military strongman who staged a coup and whose 1962-1988 leadership saw the adoption of xenophobic policies.

The official term for the unrecognized Rohingya had previously been Bengali, which suggests they are not from Myanmar but interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Read more here:

Nearly a half-million Rohingya refugees: UN report - Anadolu Agency

Its 2017 in America. Instead of peaceful protests when there is disagreement, we riot. When we dislike a person, a party or a president, violent demonstrations ensue. We reject our laws. Police officers are murdered in cold blood. And now, there are near assassinations of our government representatives.

Have we forgotten what the idea of America is all about?!

Four-hundred years ago, people came to this continent fleeing monarchies, persecution and oppressive governments. Untold misery and loss, with small gains, are the backbone of the founding of this great country.

The very uniqueness of the American way of life lies in the toil, sweat and tears it took to establish a fellowship of citizens who could live together in harmony, respecting the rights of the individual and the value of the group, and give birth to a freedom that would eventually surpass anything the world has ever seen.

Our Founding Fathers understood the weaknesses inherent in the nature of man. They knew the history of the rise and fall of former great nations. They were willing to pay the price to safeguard all that had been accomplished, by all who had gone before, by fighting for a system of governance that would be founded upon key concepts: 1) a self-governed citizenry; 2) limited government; 3) sovereignty of the people; 4) adherence to agreed-upon law; 5) a national commitment to the basic principles required to live in a free society (too numerous to list here) and all of this was to be respected and defended in the foundational documents of this radical new society.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, established the Constitution and amended it with the Bill of Rights, all to ensure that this society of sovereign individuals, designed by God to be free and self-directed, would never again live under the heel of master or tyrant. They clearly understood that our rights do not come from a constitution or a government.

Rights come expressly from the Creator of the universe only. We then become the stewards of these rights.

While we have broken free from dictatorships and oppression, we have drifted away from an understanding of the origin, and foundation, of our very freedoms and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness we claim.

As I was watching the news coverage recently of a series of demonstrations by college students (one primarily by blacks), another by a homosexual group and still another by a mixed group of political agitators, I was troubled to see how tragically unaware we have become of the reason for the lawlessness in our nation. We are willfully abandoning all of the aforementioned principles and concepts that once made America a light unto the world.

We cannot survive if: 1) we are not self-governed; 2) our government becomes bloated and oppressive; 3) we do not understand, and cherish, the awesome privilege and responsibility that comes with being a sovereign citizen; 4) any of us starts defying the rule of law and living as a law unto ourselves, casting off the contract weve made with our fellow citizens; and 5) willingly abandon belief in God and His best for us as sovereign beings made in His image.

This is not a game. This is our survival our nations survival. We have come so far and have been so blessed by our Creator with abundance and approbation. We must once again commit to those founding principles that made America the great nation it has become.

We must turn back. We must turn back to God. We must turn back to each other. We must turn back to our country. Otherwise, we will, indeed, live under the heel of a master and tyrant of our own making.

Have you ever wondered what African-Americans want, and why they vote Democratic?Do you know how slavery actually began in America?Ben Kinchlows best-selling book Black Yellowdogs breaks race and politics down in black and white. Get your copy today!

Media wishing to interview Ben Kinchlow, please contact media@wnd.com.

Go here to see the original:

5 requirements for America's survival - WND.com

Commentary: Critics claim that creating the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument amounted to a massive overreach of federal power. When signing the executive order to re-evaluate the Monument, President Trump said that it would end another egregious abuse of federal power and give back that power to the states and to the people, where it belongs.

Sounds catchy, but the suggestion that the feds imposed the OMDP Monument on Dona Ana County in an act of oppression turns history on its head. In fact, the feds created the monument at the communitys request. When Congress failed to heed popular proposals to protect Dona Ana Countys most notable natural and cultural assets, our community organized to ask the President to do it instead. This was not an abuse of authority. It was government at its best - effectively responding to the peoples wishes.

Local advocates, sportsmens groups, businesses, environmental groups and individual citizens all pitched in to help design a monument that would best preserve our unique treasures. Both the city of Las Cruces and the Dona Ana Board of County Commissioners endorsed the proposal.

New Mexicos US Senate offices, the Department of the Interior, and the State Land Office worked closely with stakeholders to ensure that ranching, border patrol and national security activities could continue unimpeded by the new designation.

By the time the Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel visited to inspect the proposed monument, the proposal enjoyed overwhelming support in polling, from stakeholder groups throughout Dona Ana County, and at a massive event held for the community at large.

It is an outrage for the Trump administration to second guess such a fully articulated expression the will of Dona Ana Countys citizens.

Meanwhile, our local Congressman Steve Pearce derides the monument by inventing a new elite and falsely claiming the monument tramples them. In the West, Pearce says the custom and culture is ranching. Its something that the law was not supposed to change, our custom and culture, and it is.

The assertion that the custom and culture of the twenty some odd Dona Ana County ranchers is more important than the desires of two hundred thousand other residents is downright insulting. And there is not one shred of evidence that the monument has created new burdens on ranchers, or changed their culture, or that it ever will. There is only an abiding ranchers paranoia that anything federal must be bad except for their subsidized grazing rights of course.

So lets set the record straight. The federal government acted according to the will of our community by creating the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument. The only federal officials disregarding the publics wishes are office holders bent on lopping off 90% of the lands Dona Ana County residents successfully fought to include.

Those egregious abusers of power would be Donald Trump and Steve Pearce.

Steve Fischmann is a former state senator and one of the many Dona Ana County residents who helped shape and support the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument.

Read the rest here:

Monumental Oppression - KRWG

President Donald Trump has announced that his administration will be tightening regulations on Cuba in order to help the Cuban people, calling former President Barack Obama's deal to thaw relations with the country's government "terrible".

"We will not be silenced in the face of communist oppression any longer", Mr Trump said in front of an excited crowd in the Little Havana neighbourhood of Miami, Florida.

The President pledged to help the people of Cuba, and to ensure that American money spent in Cuba will go to the Cuban people instead of the Cuban government. He characterised the administration of Raul Castro as a "brutal, brutal regime", and spoke with a flourish describing the brutal crackdown and imprisonment of religious worshippers in the island country.

"Effective immediately, I am cancelling the last Administration's completely one sided deal with Cuba", Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump also described Cuba as a major security threat to the United States, saying that the country had shipped weapons to North Korea while allowing "cop killers" to seek refuge within its borders.

The cop killer Mr Trump was referring to is Joanne Chesimard, a former Black Panther who fled to Cuba in 1984 after escaping from a New Jersey prison, where she was serving a life sentence for murdering a state trooper.

Before signing the Cuba policy rollback, Mr Trump brought several Cuban dissidents onto the stage and allowed some of them to speak. One played the Star Spangled Banner on a violin as the president and crowd saluted or placed their hands over their hearts.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a one-time political foe who engaged in a heated primary run against the President last year for the Republican nomination, praised the Presidents efforts to reform policy toward Cuba before he took the stage. Mr Rubio flew down to Miami with the President on Air Force One, and is said to have played a leading role in advising the White House on the new policies. Mr Rubio, a Cuban American, riled up the crowd with anti-communist rhetoric in both English and Spanish.

But, in a sense Mr Trump's policy changes are more rhetoric than action few immediate changes, and they are not intended to completely end the diplomatic relationship that former President Barack Obama established. That thaw was aimed at bringing to a close five decades of hostility.

Instead, Mr Trump has instructed his government to begin reviewing how they might change policy in order to meet the administrations goals. Those policy reviews will focus on how to best eliminate individual travel to Cuba that the White House says is being abused (technically tourism to Cuba is not currently legal for Americans), and on how to ensure that American money spent in Cuba or on Cuban goods gets into the hands of the Cuban people and not the government. American investment in Cuba is likely to see more restrictions than what is already in place.

The new policies wont change family travel allowances, and will leave other forms of travel to Cuba open, including trips for journalistic purposes. The new policies wont affect the current wet foot dry foot policy that seeks to shelter Cubans who land on American soil seeking refuge.

Commercial flights will not be stopped from servicing Havana, nor will cruise lines. The administration, according to one White House official, has no intention of "disrupting" existing business ventures such as one struck under Mr Obama by Starwood Hotels Inc, which is owned by Marriott International Inc, to manage a historic Havana hotel.

Nor does Trump plan to reinstate limits that Mr Obama lifted on the amount of the island's coveted rum and cigars that Americans can bring home for personal use.

But, Mr Trump has long promised to pull back on his predecessors landmark Cuba policy changes, and secured the first endorsement in decades from the Bay of Pigs Veteran Association in Miami thanks to that policy. Senior White House officials said during a conference call before the Presidents announcement that his promise to the group to hold the Cuban government accountable was a major factor in his decision in February to instruct his staff to begin reviewing the policy.

Critics of the President's decision, however, note that the US has a relatively friendly relationship with other countries with poor civil rights records, including Saudi Arabia, where Mr Trump travelled to during his first foreign trip in office in May.

Mr Obamas 2015 announcement that travel restrictions to Cuba would be loosened resulted in a flash of excitement from Americans who were eager to travel to Havana to get a glimpse of a country that sits just 100 miles off the coast of Florida, but has been behind a veil for American tourists. Since then, however, interest in travelling to the country has waned somewhat in the US, with roughly 76 per cent of Americans saying they arent planning on a trip there this year compared to 70 per cent last year.

Trump aides say Mr Obama's efforts amounted to appeasement and have done nothing to advance political freedoms in Cuba, while benefiting the Cuban government financially.

It's hard to think of a policy that makes less sense than the prior administration's terrible and misguided deal with the Castro regime, Mr Trump said in Miami, citing the lack of human rights concessions from Cuba in the detente negotiated by Mr Obama.

Critics say that Mr Trumps plans wont actually push the Cuban government to strive for better human rights record, and will likely hurt the Cuban people. Thats because many Cubans are self employed in retail and other services that serve tourists.

Sarah Stephens, an expert on US-Cuba policy who works to secure diplomatic changes like the ones made by the Obama administration, told The Independent that the lack of substance in Mr Trumps changes doesnt amount to substantial policy, and is instead a political ploy to secure conservative Cuban votes in Florida.

This is not a serious policy. This is a policy that has no achievable goal, it imagines no process, and it offers no end game, she said. By choosing to make the announcement before the diehards in Miami, the White House isnt even looking for window dressing, but admitting that this is simply about their game of politics.

Still, it will be the latest attempt by MrTrump to overturn parts of MrObama's presidential legacy. He has already pulled the United States out of a major international climate treaty and is trying to scrap his predecessor's landmark healthcare program.

International human rights groups say that renewed US efforts to isolate the island could worsen the situation by empowering Cuban hard-liners. The Cuban government has made clear it will not be pressured into reforms in exchange for engagement.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment, but ordinary Cubans said they were crestfallen to be returning to an era of frostier relations with the United States with potential economic fallout for them.

It's going to really hurt me because the majority of my clients are from the United States, Enrique Montoto, 61, who rents rooms on US online home-rental marketplace Airbnb, told Reuters. Airbnb expanded into Cuba in 2015.

"I have trust in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to Cuba, Jorge Saurez, 66, a retired physician, said in Little Havana. That's why I voted for him.

Mexico has urged the governments of the United States and Cuba to find points of agreement and resolve their differences via dialogue.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, whose government is a close ally to Cuba, tweeted that his country has "undeniable solidarity with our sister republic Cuba against the aggressions of @realDonaldTrump".

At least one of Mr Trump's fellow Republicans has pushed back against isolating Cuba. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, one of the most vocal advocates for easing rules for American companies looking to make deals in Cuba, called for a vote on legislation to lift restrictions on American travel to the island nation. It is unlikely that other Republicans in the Senate will allow that vote to happen, and has repeatedly blocked that move.

The rest is here:

Donald Trump announces new Cuba restrictions: 'We will not be silenced in the face of communist oppression' - The Independent

The Star, Kenya

Tell the truth about failed leadership before August 8 The Star, Kenya I am just wondering if leaders cannot tell the truth, who will tell Kenyans the truth! Who will talk about the Jubilee government oppression! When you tell the truth, you mess with someone who committed injustices on Kenyans. When you tell the truth ... and more »

Go here to read the rest:

Tell the truth about failed leadership before August 8 - The Star, Kenya

ROGERS -- A team of three Rogers teens this week became the first from Northwest Arkansas to earn a first-place prize in the National History Day contest.

Venkata Panabakam, Denise Martinez and Sidra Nadeem arrived home Friday to a celebration in their honor outside New Technology High School, where all three will be juniors this fall.

Web Watch

To view Standing with the Voiceless: The Life and Legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ase_lgCS_6c?

Source: Staff Report

They took first place for their documentary, Standing with the Voiceless: The Life and Legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero, at the national contest at the University of Maryland. They will share a $1,000 prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

State Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, was at New Tech on Friday to present the students citations from the House of Representatives and letters of commendation from Gov. Asa Hutchinson and state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers.

History Day is a competition for students in middle school and high school. There are five categories: documentaries, exhibits, papers, performances and websites. All categories have a junior and senior division. Each category, aside from papers, also has a group and an individual category.

The girls said they started working on the documentary in November. They put hundreds of hours of work into it.

"We've been meeting up almost every single day working on it and getting lots of people's feedback and contacting so many people outside Rogers to fact-check us," said Venkata, 15.

Romero stood up against the Salvadoran government's oppression of its people and called for an end to the violence against civilians during that country's civil war, which lasted 1980 to 1992. He was assassinated in 1980 while offering Mass.

Romero's life is a topic not as well known as it should be, which is why the Rogers students chose it for their documentary, they said.

"And plus, there are a lot of people from our community who are from El Salvador and they always tell the story, but they never finish it because they always end up crying," said Nadeem, 16.

It's the first time in almost a decade a person or group from Arkansas has placed first at the national event, according to Jami Forrester, a Northwest Arkansas Community College professor who has coordinated the regional History Day contest for six years.

"It's the Super Bowl of history competitions, so they just won the Super Bowl," said Forrester, who wept while watching the Rogers girls accept their first-place award Thursday.

"I've been involved in History Day since I was a junior in high school. I've never known anyone personally that has won at the national level. It's been a long journey," Forrester said.

National History Day, founded in 1974, has grown from a contest of a few hundred students to an international educational organization promoting the appreciation of history education.

The Rogers students were helped along the way by New Tech teachers Danny Burdess, Casey Bazyk and Todd Sisson.

"They did a really good job of taking feedback and implementing it in a way that made sense," Burdess said.

To reach the national competition, the girls had to get through the district and state levels. They finished second in their category at both of those first two levels.

All three girls vowed to compete in History Day again next year.

Twenty-nine students from Northwest Arkansas representing six schools competed at National History Day this week, the most Northwest Arkansas has sent. There was a total of about 3,000 student participants, Forrester said.

While the New Tech group had the most success, others from Northwest Arkansas did well, too. A group from Bentonville's Fulbright Junior High School placed eighth in the junior group exhibit category.

NW News on 06/17/2017

Go here to read the rest:

Rogers teens earn first place at national history competition - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette