WASHINGTON: In a stunning rebuke, a dozen defecting Republicans joined Senate Democrats to block the national emergency that President Donald Trump declared so he could build his border wall with Mexico. The rejection capped a week of confrontation with the White House as both parties in Congress strained to exert their power in new ways.
The 59-41 tally Thursday, following the Senate’s vote a day earlier to end US involvement in the war in Yemen, promised to force Trump into the first vetoes of his presidency. Trump had warned against both actions. Moments after Thursday’s vote, the president tweeted a single word of warning: “VETO!“
Two years into the Trump era, a defecting dozen Republicans, pushed along by Democrats, showed a willingness to take that political risk. Twelve GOP senators, including the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney of Utah, joined the dissent over the emergency declaration order that would enable the president to seize for the wall billions of dollars Congress intended elsewhere.
“The Senate’s waking up a little bit to our responsibilities,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, who said the chamber had become “a little lazy” as an equal branch of government. “I think the value of these last few weeks is to remind the Senate of our constitutional place.”
Many senators said the vote was not necessarily a rejection of the president or the wall, but protections against future presidents — namely a Democrat who might want to declare an emergency on climate change, gun control or any number of other issues.
“This is constitutional question, it’s a question about the balance of power that is core to our constitution,” Romney said. “This is not about the president,” he added. “The president can certainly express his views as he has and individual senators can express theirs.”
Thursday’s vote was the first direct challenge to the 1976 National Emergencies Act, just as Wednesday’s on Yemen was the first time Congress invoked the decades-old War Powers Act to try to rein in a president.
“Today’s votes cap a week of something the American people haven’t seen enough of in the last two years,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, “both parties in the United States Congress standing up to Donald Trump.”
The result is a role-reversal for Republicans who have been reluctant to take on Trump, bracing against his high-profile tweets and public attacks of reprimand. But now they are facing challenges from voters — in some states where senators face stiff elections — who are expecting more from Congress.
Centrist Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who’s among those most vulnerable in 2020, said she’s sure the president “will not be happy with my vote. But I’m a United States senator and I feel my job is to stand up for the Constitution, so let the chips fall where they may.”
Trump’s grip on the party, though, remains strong and the White House made it clear that Republicans resisting Trump could face political consequences. Ahead of the voting, Trump framed the issue as with-him-or-against-him on border security, a powerful argument with many.
“A vote for today’s resolution by Republican Senators is a vote for Nancy Pelosi, Crime, and the Open Border Democrats!” Trump tweeted. “Don’t vote with Pelosi!” he said in another, referring to the speaker of the House.
A White House official said Trump won’t forget when senators who oppose him want him to attend fundraisers or provide other help. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on internal deliberations.
“I don’t think anybody’s sending the president a message,” said Jim Risch of Idaho, the GOP chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He blamed the media for “reaching” to view every action “through the prism of the presidency, and that isn’t necessarily the way it works here.”
Trump brought on the challenge months ago when he all but dared Congress not to give him the $5.7 billion he was demanding to build the US-Mexico wall or risk a federal government shutdown.
Congress declined and the result was the longest shutdown in US history. Against the advice of GOP leaders, Trump invoked the national emergency declaration last month, allowing him to try to tap some $3.6 billion for the wall by shuffling money from military projects, and that drew outrage from many lawmakers. Trump had campaigned for president promising Mexico would pay for the wall.
The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, and lawmakers seethed as they worried about losing money for military projects that had already been approved for bases at home and abroad. The Democratic-led House swiftly voted to terminate Trump’s order.
Senate Republicans spent weeks trying to avoid this outcome, up until the night before the vote, in a script that was familiar — up until the gavel.
The most promising was an effort from Sen. Mike Lee of Utah for legislation that would impose limits on future presidential actions. That would give senators some solace as they allowed Trump’s order to stand. GOP senators huddled with Vice President Mike Pence and seemed optimistic the White House might support their plan. Then Trump called Lee in the middle of a private Republican lunch meeting and, in the time it took the senator to step out of the room to take the call, it was over. Trump was opposed.
Lee and other senators were peeling off against the president. In a last-ditch effort the night before the vote, Lindsey Graham and other senators dashed to the White House to try once again for Trump’s support to broker an alternative plan. Trump was frustrated by their arrival. They mostly failed.
Trump did tweet ahead of the vote that he would be willing to consider legislation to adjust the 1976 law at some later time.
That was enough of a signal for GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, who faces a potentially tough re-election in North Carolina, to flip his vote, according to a person unauthorized to discuss the private thinking and granted anonymity.
Tillis had been one of the first senators to say he would oppose the declaration, writing in a Washington Post opinion column last month that there’d be “no intellectual honesty” in backing Trump after his repeated objections about executive overreach by President Barack Obama. But on Thursday, he did.
Trump’s public support in that tweet also helped bring on board several other Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Ben Sasse, who had been part of the private huddles, the person said.
For some, said Sen. John Thune, the GOP whip, “the emergency declaration was just a bridge too far.”
Senate votes against Trump border emergency
Senate votes against Trump border emergency
- The rejection capped a week of confrontation with the White House as both parties in Congress strained to exert their power in new ways
- The 59-41 tally Thursday promised to force Trump into the first vetoes of his presidency
Bangladeshis pray for rain as heatstroke deaths rise
- Country is reaching limit of adaptability to extreme weather, report warns
- Heatwave has shut schools for 33m Bangladeshi children
DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis have gathered in Dhaka to pray for rain in the middle of an extreme hot spell that has put health authorities on heatstroke alert.
The weather across the region is usually hot across the region in April before the summer monsoon season, but this year temperatures have been unusually high, reaching 42 degrees Celsius in parts of Bangladesh.
The country has been on alert since last week, as the punishing heatwave has disrupted agriculture, raised the risk of health complications and forced schools to close for 33 million children.
As the Bangladesh Meteorological Department renewed its warning that the heatwave is likely to persist during the weekend — or until a new notice is issued — thousands of people in Dhaka prayed on Wednesday and Thursday for relief.
They gathered in city mosques and rural fields to pray for rain.
“Special prayers for rain have been organized in many parts of Dhaka on Thursday. Thousands of people joined these prayers ... in addition to that, a special prayer for rain, which Muslims around the world have practiced since the days of the Prophet Muhammad, has taken place in many parts across the country,” Motiur Rahman Akand, spokesperson of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest religious political party, which organized the prayers, told Arab News.
“When there is a natural crisis, especially drought, which causes severe suffering for human beings and all other living creatures, people should seek help from the Almighty to get relief from this situation.”
Hospitals were on high alert as at least 20 people died from heatstroke in the past five days alone.
“We have been preparing quite ahead for managing heatwave-related patients ... all the government health facilities are guided not to admit any other patients unless it’s an emergency,” Dr. Moinul Ahsan, director of the hospital wing of the Directorate General of Health Services, told Arab News.
“We are on alert and monitoring the situation closely. Working-class people are suffering most amid this heatwave ... children, pregnant women and the elderly are also most vulnerable in this situation.”
Bangladesh’s geography and low-lying delta topography make it particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, and for the past two decades, the country has launched various environmental schemes to mitigate the worsening situation.
Ranking among the 10 countries most prone to climate devastation, Bangladesh has been recognized as a global leader in adaptation and resilience, and in 2005 was one of the first least-developed countries to launch a national adaptation program of action.
A report released in February by the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, a leading research institute in Dhaka, warned that Bangladesh is reaching the limit of its ability to adapt to extreme weather.
Turkiye offers Iraq technical help to bolster border security
- A delegation from Iraq earlier visited Turkiye to examine the border security systems that Turkiye offered to provide
- Discussions for security cooperation still under way
ANKARA: Turkiye is in discussions with Iraq to provide technical assistance to Baghdad for securing its borders to prevent movements of outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants around the region, a Turkish defense ministry official said on Thursday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited Baghdad and Irbil this week as Ankara ramped up cross-border operations against PKK militants based in mountainous, mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
The two countries agreed to a strategic framework agreement overseeing security, trade and energy as well as a defense cooperation deal during the visit.
“We told our counterparts that Turkiye is ready to provide assistance to Iraq on border security systems,” the Turkish official told reporters.
A delegation from Iraq earlier visited Turkiye to examine the border security systems that Turkiye offered to provide, the official also said, adding that the discussions for security cooperation were still under way.
During a joint press conference with Erdogan on Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said the two countries would cooperate to bolster border security, without mentioning the PKK specifically.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. Turkiye has conducted a series of cross-border operations against the group in northern Iraq since 2019.
Blinken calls for US, China to manage differences
- China has not announced plans for US Secretary of State to meet Xi Jinping
- Antony Blinken is the first US secretary of state in 14 years to visit Shanghai
SHANGHAI: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Thursday on the United States and China to manage their differences “responsibly” as he went on a charm offensive ahead of expected tough talks.
A day before meeting Beijing’s top brass to tackle thorny issues including Russia, Taiwan and trade, Blinken’s visit to Shanghai has seen him sample local food, watch a basketball game and stroll along the city’s famous Bund promenade.
Visiting the local Communist Party leader in a room with sweeping views of the Shanghai skyline, Blinken said US President Joe Biden was committed to “direct and sustained” dialogue between the world’s two largest economies after years of mounting tension.
“I think it’s important to underscore the value — in fact, the necessity — of direct engagement, of speaking to each other, laying out our differences, which are real, seeking to work through them,” Blinken said.
“We have an obligation for our people — indeed an obligation to the world — to manage the relationship between our two countries responsibly.”
The Chinese Communist Party secretary for Shanghai, Chen Jining, welcomed Blinken partly in English and spoke of the importance of US businesses to the city.
“Whether we choose cooperation or confrontation affects the well-being of both peoples, both countries and the future of humanity,” Chen told him.
The country’s financial capital, Shanghai is often a stepping stone to power in China, with President Xi Jinping previously serving briefly in the city.
China has not announced plans for Blinken to meet Xi, although on Blinken’s last visit in June, they saw each other in a meeting announced at the last minute.
On Thursday, Blinken also met students at the Shanghai campus of New York University, where he voiced hope for more Americans to study in China.
He insisted the United States was committed to welcoming Chinese students.
Beijing has repeatedly alleged that Chinese nationals with valid travel documents, including students, have been subject to aggressive interrogations and deportations at US airports.
“President Biden and President Xi are determined to strengthen our people-to-people ties,” Blinken said.
Blinken, the first US secretary of state in 14 years to visit Shanghai, opened his visit Wednesday evening at a restaurant serving steamed buns.
Sporting a suit without a tie, he ate with his senior staff in a shopping arcade as curious onlookers snapped pictures.
Blinken then went to watch a basketball game between the Shanghai Sharks and Zhejiang Golden Bulls, staying until the end of the nail-biting play-off.
Such softer diplomacy, once a staple of US-China relations, would have been unimaginable until recently, with hawks in both countries speaking of an emerging new Cold War.
Blinken’s aides hope his smiling persona at public events draws an implicit contrast to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and his gruffer approach when he visited China earlier this month.
Blinken is expected to raise concerns about China’s relationship with Russia when he meets the leadership in Beijing.
Although US officials were initially pleased that Beijing has not shipped weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, they now say that China’s alarm at Moscow’s setbacks on the battlefield has prompted it to export vast quantities of industrial supplies to Russia.
US officials believe China is more receptive to Western concerns as it seeks to focus on managing economic headwinds at home and wants to avoid friction with the West.
But China is also furious about a series of moves by Biden — who is facing a tough re-election fight in November against Donald Trump — they say serve to constrain the Chinese economy.
Most recently, the US Congress approved legislation that would force the divestment of blockbuster social media app TikTok from its Chinese owners or face a ban in the world’s largest economy.
Biden supports the legislation, arguing that TikTok, popular among young people, poses security and privacy concerns. China has accused the United States of unfair economic coercion.
Unusually, Trump has distanced himself from a TikTok ban. He has otherwise championed a tough line on China, with vows to raise tariffs drastically if he returns to office.
US officials also say that Blinken will encourage China to act with restraint as Taiwan inaugurates a new president next month.
China claims the self-governing democracy as its own and has not ruled out using force to seize it.
Privately, US officials were relieved by China’s approach during Taiwan’s election, believing that easing US-China tensions helped.
They assessed that Beijing’s assertive military moves did not go beyond past precedent.
Rwanda’s Hope Hostel once housed young genocide survivors. Now it’s ready for migrants from Britain
KIGALI, Rwanda: Rwanda says it’s ready to receive migrants from the United Kingdom after British Parliament this week approved a long-stalled and controversial bill seeking to stem the tide of people crossing the English Channel in small boats by deporting some of them to the East African country.
There is even a place ready and waiting for the migrants — a refurbished Hope Hostel in the vibrant upscale neighborhood of Kagugu, an area of the Rwandan capital of Kigali that is home to many expats and several international schools.
The hostel once housed college students whose parents died in the 1994 genocide, this African nation’s most horrific period in history when an estimated 800,000 Tutsi were killed by extremist Hutu in massacres that lasted over 100 days.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged the deportation flights would begin in July but has refused to provide details or say about how many people would be deported.
Rwanda government’s deputy spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda told The Associated Press on Tuesday that authorities here have been planning for the migrants’ arrival for two years.
“Even if they arrive now or tomorrow, all arrangements are in place,” he said.
The plan was long held up in British courts and by opposition from human rights activists who say it is illegal and inhumane. It envisages deporting to Rwanda some of those who enter the UK illegally and migrant advocates have vowed to continue to fight against the plan.
The measure is also meant to be a deterrent to migrants who risk their lives in leaky, inflatable boats in hopes that they will be able to claim asylum once they reach Britain. The UK also signed a new treaty with Rwanda to beef up protections for migrants, and adopted new legislation declaring Rwanda to be a safe country.
“The Rwanda critics and the UK judges who earlier said Rwanda is not a safe country have been proven wrong,” Mukuralinda said. “Rwanda is safe.”
The management at the four-story Hope Hostel says the facility is ready and can accommodate 100 people at full capacity. The government says it will serve as a transit center and that more accommodations would be made available as needed.
Thousands of migrants arrive in Britain every year.
After they arrive from Britain, the migrants will be shown to their rooms to rest, after which they will be offered food and given some orientation points about Kigali and Rwanda, said hostel manager Ismael Bakina.
Tents will be set up within the hostel’s compound for processing their documentation and for various briefings. The site is equipped with security cameras, visible across the compound.
Within the compound are also entertainment places, a mini-soccer field, a basketball and a volleyball court as well as a red-carpeted prayer room. For those who want to light up, “there is even a smoking room,” Bakina explained.
Meals will be prepared in the hostel’s main kitchen but provisions are also being made for those who want to prepare their own meals, he said. The migrants will be free to walk outside the hostel and even visit the nearby Kigali city center.
“We will have different translators, according to (their) languages,” Bakina added, saying they include English and Arabic.
The government has said the migrants will have their papers processed within the first three months. Those who want to remain in Rwanda will be allowed to do so while authorities will also assist those who wish to return to their home countries.
While in Rwanda, migrants who obtain legal status — presumably for Britain — will also be processed, authorities have said, though it’s unclear what that means exactly.
For those who choose to stay, Mukurilinda said Rwanda’s government will bear full financial and other responsibilities for five years, after which they will be considered integrated into the society.
At that point, they can start managing on their own.
Russia vetoes a UN resolution calling for the prevention of a dangerous nuclear arms race in space
- The vetoed resolution sought to call on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space
- Russia dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicized” and didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space
UNITED NATIONS: Russia on Wednesday vetoed a UN resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, calling it “a dirty spectacle” that cherry picks weapons of mass destruction from all other weapons that should also be banned.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining.
The resolution would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the US and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.
“Today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding,” she asked. “It’s baffling. And it’s a shame.”
Putin was responding to White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Wednesday echoed Thomas-Greenfield, reiterating that “the United States assesses that Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device.” If Putin has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, Sullivan said, “Russia would not have vetoed this resolution.”
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicized,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.
Russia and China proposed an amendment to the US-Japan draft that would call on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”
The vote was 7 countries in favor, 7 against, and one abstention and the amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum 9 “yes” votes required for adoption.
The US opposed the amendment, and after the vote Nebenzia addressed the US ambassador saying: “We want a ban on the placement of weapons of any kind in outer space, not just WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). But you don’t want that. And let me ask you that very same question. Why?”
He said much of the US and Japan’s actions become clear “if we recall that the US and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons … in outer space.”
Nebenzia accused the US of blocking a Russian-Chinese proposal since 2008 for a treaty against putting weapons in outer space.
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” walking away from several of its arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”
She called Wednesday’s vote “a real missed opportunity to rebuild much-needed trust in existing arms control obligations.”
Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement of the resolution on March 18 followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.
Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the US.
Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that the world is just beginning to understand “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”
It could destroy “thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world — and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend on,” she said.
The defeated draft resolution said “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.” It would have urged all countries carrying out activities in exploring and using outer space to comply with international law and the UN Charter.
The draft would have affirmed that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations not to put in orbit around the Earth “any objects” with weapons of mass destruction, or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space.”
The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries, including the US and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”
The draft resolution emphasized “the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”
It reiterated that the UN Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, has the primary responsibility to negotiate agreements on preventing an arms race in outer space.
The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely devolved into a venue for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution would have urged the conference “to adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”
At the March council meeting where the US-Japan initiative was launched, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”
He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the US project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”
“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the UN chief said.
