<![CDATA[India Journal - Politics

<![CDATA[India Journal - Politics_1]]>Sun, 16 Apr 2023 22:34:22 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[US to raise bar for 'Made in America' products]]>Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:23:55 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/us-to-raise-bar-for-made-in-america-productsWASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump has ordered that only products with more than 55 per cent made in the country might be considered "Made in America", eyeing to raise the bar to 75 per cent in the future. Speaking at the 'Made in America' product showcase at the White House on Monday, Trump told a group of US manufacturers that in the future...

"domestic goods will have to have 75 per cent of American, and 95 per cent for things such as iron and steel", in order to be considered "Made in America", reports Xinhua news agency.
"If we can build it, grow it or make it in the US, we will," Trump said, adding that American steel and aluminium factories and mines "are not closed anymore or they won't be closed very long".
Currently, the threshold for being considered "Made in America" is at 50 per cent.
The standard for "Made in America" carries legal consequences as the Buy American Act of 1933 dictates that the government prefer US-made products in its acquisitions.
At the showcase were large hardware products such as motorcycles, bicycles, yachts, a motor home, and the THAAD missile system.
There were also smaller gadgets such as lighters, pens and bottle openers. One company was chosen from every state as a representative.
This year marks the third time the White House has hosted the product showcase.

]]><![CDATA[Obamas team up with Spotify to lend voices for podcasts]]>Fri, 07 Jun 2019 19:46:50 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/obamas-team-up-with-spotify-to-lend-voices-for-podcastsSAN FRANCISCO - Former US President and First Lady Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have teamed their production company Higher Ground with music streaming giant Spotify to produce and distribute exclusive podcasts in their own voices for Spotify users across the globe. The multi-year agreement would be with Higher Ground Audio, an expansion of the Higher Ground production company,

that would oversee the move into podcasts, Spotify wrote in a post on Thursday. Under the Higher Ground partnership, the Obamas would develop, produce and lend their voices to select podcasts, connecting them to listeners around the world on wide-ranging topics.
"We are thrilled that not only will the Obamas be producing content, but that they will be lending their voices to this effort," said Dawn Ostroff, Chief Content Officer, Spotify.
Launched in 2018, Obamas' Higher Ground began with an initial partnership with Netflix, aiming to create compelling content to entertain and inspire the viewers.
"Podcasts offer an extraordinary opportunity to foster productive dialogue, make people smile and make people think, and, hopefully, bring us all a little closer together," Barack Obama said in a statement.
The announcement comes just months after the music streaming giant acquired podcast producer Gimlet and podcast tool-maker Anchor to keep generating original content.
Earlier in June, Spotify started testing the creation of curated playlists of podcast episodes revolving around specific genres in order to help creators find a bigger audience. As part of the test, five playlists under comedy, true crime, geek culture, walking (motivational) and relaxing (mindfulness) would start showing up to around five per cent of the Spotify users in the UK, US, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.
Spotify has more than 217 million monthly active users and it recently surpassed the 100 million mark in terms of Premium subscribers. The music streaming giant offers its services in several countries across Asia, Europe, US, Africa and Middle Eastern regions.

]]><![CDATA[White House is 'crying out for impeachment': Pelosi]]>Fri, 24 May 2019 23:03:29 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/white-house-is-crying-out-for-impeachment-pelosiWASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has argued that the "White House is just crying out for impeachment" but that Democrats will continue to hold back on opening an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump until it's "unavoidable". "How we deal with it is a decision that our caucus makes, and our caucus is very much saying 'whatever we do, we need to be ready when we do it'," Pelosi said at her weekly news...

briefing on Thursday. Pelosi has previously argued that President Donald Trump is provoking Democrats into impeaching him because he thinks it will fire up his base ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Despite a more fervent push from members in her caucus this week to open an impeachment inquiry, Pelosi continues to argue to Democrats that impeachment is "divisive" and the House is already on a steady course with their investigations.
"It may take us to a place that is unavoidable in terms of impeachment or not," she said in her Thursday briefing. "But we're not at that place."
Her comments come a day after Trump on Wednesday abruptly left a White House meeting with Pelosi and other Democratic leaders over infrastructure, blasting her for using the word "cover-up" to describe the White House's lack of cooperation with House investigations.
Pelosi on Thursday described the encounter as a "temper tantrum" from Trump.
"I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country."

]]><![CDATA[Kamala Harris requests investigation against AG Barr]]>Sat, 04 May 2019 22:35:51 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/kamala-harris-requests-investigation-against-ag-barrWASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris has sent a letter to the Justice Department's inspector general, requesting a probe into whether Attorney General William Barr has acted upon requests or suggestions from President Donald Trump to investigate his "perceived enemies". In a letter addressed to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, Harris, who is of Indian and...

Jamaican descent, cites the findings in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report and Barr's Wednesday congressional testimony as the reasons, reports CNN.
"Such inappropriate requests by the President have been well documented," Harris wrote. "Special Counsel Mueller documented a disturbing pattern of behaviour on the part of the President -- repeated attempts to target his perceived opponents. "There must be no doubt that the Department of Justice and its leadership stand apart from partisan politics, and resist improper attempts to use the power of federal law enforcement to settle personal scores," the letter said. Harris' letter comes days after a heated exchange between the California Democrat and the attorney general, in which Barr parsed words to answer Harris' question about whether the White House has "asked or suggested" that he open an investigation into anyone.
In her letter, Harris also points to details in Mueller's report where he notes three occasions on which the President called for an investigation into former presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

]]><![CDATA[Trump gets called out for GoT-inspired tweet]]>Fri, 19 Apr 2019 19:26:03 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/trump-gets-called-out-for-got-inspired-tweetLOS ANGELES - While the "Game of Thrones" frenzy continues to be a message-driving vehicle in the ongoing election season in India, television network HBO urged US President Donald Trump to stay away from using memes inspired by the hit fantasy series for political purposes. Trump on Thursday celebrated the release of Robert Mueller's Russia report with a GoT themed tweet. It came after Attorney General William Barr...

discussed the report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, stating that the special counsel found "no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government's hacking".
In a mocked-up image with the title font of "Game of Thrones", Trump is seen with his back to the camera with mist and fog flowing in front of him. He is seen wearing a black overcoat, his wardrobe staple.
The words on it read: "No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left democrats -- Game Over."
HBO fired back, reported variety.com.
"Though we can understand the enthusiasm for 'Game of Thrones' now that the final season has arrived, we still prefer our intellectual property not be used for political purposes," a HBO spokesman said in a statement. The channel had earlier warned Trump against using the show's imagery last year after he used it to threaten sanctions. "We were not aware of this messaging and would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes," a spokesman had said.
In a tweet at the time, on the show's official account, writers added: "How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?" While Trump went on to use the "Game of Thrones" reference with his message, the same was done in India amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha election season. The Election Commission, Press Information Bureau and Congress picked popular references from the fantasy series to connect with the people and express their views.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the publicity arm of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, picked three major elements of the show -- Tyrion Lannister, Hodor and Dragon -- to create a montage and urged people to vote. It features an image of Tyrion with the message "A very small man can cast a very large one", Kristian Nairn as gentle giant Hodor with "Not all heroes hold weapons... Some just vote" and the dragon soaring high with a message calling the Lok Sabha elections the 'Festival of Democracy'.
The caption read: "No matter how big or small one is, every vote has equal power. This Lok Sabha Elections, become a true hero. Go OuT and vote... It matters."
The show, which also stands for complicated political gambits, scheming and the backstabbing nature of people and finding love in troubled times, is also being used to take political jibes in India.
Congress took a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party through a GoT reference.
Taking to Twitter, the party posted a photoshopped GoT poster, showing Modi as the Night King, the commander of White Walkers and the villain of the series. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP President Amit Shah are also seen as villainous characters from the HBO show in the poster. The caption read: "Spoiler Alert: When you play the Game of Thieves, you either lose or you bribe! #BJPGameOfThieves" -- with this they twisted the original line: 'when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die for their political motive."The Election Commission of India (EC) also posted a poster "Got inked" -- showing a dragon in the background.

]]><![CDATA[US could take 2 years to identify separated immigrant families]]>Sun, 07 Apr 2019 17:19:12 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/us-could-take-2-years-to-identify-separated-immigrant-familiesWASHINGTON - The US government has said that it may take federal officials two years to identify what could be thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their families at the country's border with Mexico. According to court documents filed on Friday, a federal judge had asked for a plan to identify these children and their families after a report from government inspectors in January revealed that...

President Donald Trump's administration most likely separated thousands more children from their parents than was previously believed, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
These families were separated before the administration unveiled its "zero-tolerance" immigration policy in the spring of 2018, when nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care.
To identify these families, the government said it would apply a statistical analysis to about 47,000 children who were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and subsequently discharged, according to the court filing. From there, the government said it would manually review the case records of the children who appeared to have the highest probability of being part of the separated families.
In explaining the reason for such an arduous process, the government said the US Customs and Border Protection did not collect specific data on migrant family separations before April 2018.
Lawyers representing the Office of Refugee Resettlement has not commented on the development.
The government's proposed plan arose from a class-action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. Last June, Judge Dana M. Sabraw ordered the reunification of children and parents who had been separated under the Trump administration policy. President Trump rescinded the policy that same month.

]]><![CDATA[US Senate votes to overturn Trump's emergency declaration]]>Thu, 14 Mar 2019 22:20:51 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/us-senate-votes-to-overturn-trumps-emergency-declarationWASHINGTON - The US Senate has voted 59-41 in favour of blocking President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. The move, coupled with a vote by the House of Representatives, dealt a blow to Trump's bid to build a border wall and is expected to force Trump to exercise veto powers for the first time since becoming US President, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

This is also the first time US Congress acted against a national emergency declaration since the National Emergencies Act was enacted in 1976.
"VETO!" Trump tweeted shortly after the vote on Thursday. He told a press event earlier Thursday that he did not expect his veto to be overturned. In Thursday's vote, 12 Republican Senators broke rank and voted alongside Democrats to show defiance to Trump's emergency declaration, revealing a deep divide among GOP lawmakers on the issue. To override Trump's veto, both chambers of the Congress need two thirds of the votes. It is unclear if Trump's opponents will garner enough votes. The US House of Representatives voted 245-182 in late February to block the national emergency declared by Trump on February 15.

]]><![CDATA[Trump-Kim summit 2.0 on Feb 27-28]]>Wed, 06 Feb 2019 21:57:40 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/trump-kim-summit-20-on-feb-27-28WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump announced the time and date for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam. Addressing the Congress and the nation in his much awaited State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump said: "Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped, and there has not been a missile launch in 15 months. If I had not been elected...

President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea. Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one."
However, a US official said the Trump administration still have to finalise last points with the North Koreans.
Stephen Biegun, the American envoy for North Korea talks, was in Pyongyang on Wednesday to hold talks ahead of the Vietnam summit. Biegun aimed to establish a roadmap for denuclearization with North Korea. His visit comes as a UN report warned that North Korea was committing "massive" breaches of sanctions and continuing its weapons programme, the BBC said. Trump and Kim had met in Singapore in June generating significant coverage and optimism, but concrete developments were still awaited. Plans for the second summit have been in the works since the two leaders' historic talks last year. The June 2018 summit was the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.

]]><![CDATA[US to deploy more forces at Mexico border]]>Mon, 04 Feb 2019 23:04:29 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/us-to-deploy-more-forces-at-mexico-borderWASHINGTON - The Pentagon has announced that it will deploy 3,750 additional US forces at the country's border with Mexico for 90 days to provide support to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. The Department of Defence said in a statement on Sunday that the additional forces will raise the total number of active duty troops supporting the CBP at the border to about 4,350, reports NBC News.

The support they will provide includes "mobile surveillance capability" and the placement of "approximately 150 miles of concertina wire between ports of entry", the statement said.
The additional forces were approved by Acting Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan on January 11.
On January 29, Shanahan said the US would be sending "several thousand" more troops to the Mexico border.
The move comes as another caravan of asylum seekers and migrants from Central America has been making its way to the US border. President Donald Trump tweeted about the caravan on Sunday, saying "if there is no Wall, there is no security", NBC News reported.
Last week, the Trump administration also began its new policy of sending some migrants seeking asylum back to Mexico while they await court hearings that are set to take place in San Diego.
The Pentagon had announced last October that it would deploy an additional 5,600 troops to the border in the wake of a caravan making its way to the US that month from Central America.
Thousands of migrants have since been waiting weeks or months to seek asylum in the US, often waiting in shelters and in poor conditions.
Any additional forces deployed by the US are not allowed to apprehend migrants the way border agents do.
Sunday's announcement is separate from the potential White House-led effort to use existing Pentagon funds or personnel to help build new sections of a border wall with Mexico.

]]><![CDATA[Undocumented worker fired from Trump resort to attend State of the Union]]>Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:49:57 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/politics_1/undocumented-worker-fired-from-trump-resort-to-attend-state-of-the-unionNEW YORK - An undocumented worker fired from US President Donald Trump's New Jersey golf resort will attend the State of the Union address on February 5 after being invited by a Democratic Congresswoman. Victorina Morales, a Guatemalan native, worked for years at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, before describing herself as an undocumented worker in a New York Times article in December, CNN reported.

As a result, she was terminated from her job and currently faces deportation. Morales was invited by New Jersey Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, the Congresswoman's office and Morales' attorney confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.
"I hope that in his State of the Union address, Donald Trump will finally acknowledge the real face of immigrants in this country - women and children fleeing violence, law-abiding, tax-paying people who would do almost anything to be Americans," Watson Coleman said in a statement on Wednesday.
"And if he can't, I've invited Victorina so that he may look her in her eyes to tell his lies to a familiar face." Along with other former club workers, Morales was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday meeting lawmakers to push for an investigation into the Trump Organization's hiring practices and for protection from deportation. Morales, who came to the US illegally in 1999, told CNN that she had no problem getting hired by the club in 2013 and claimed that managers helped her obtain fake documents for employment.
After experiencing what she described as abuse by her supervisor and an increasingly hostile environment since Trump's election, Morales said she decided to speak publicly even though that risked deportation.
Guests are traditionally invited to the State of the Union address by the President and members of Congress, often to highlight a political message.

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