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Hours after another defeat at the hands of the Republican-held Senate, President Trump launched into a speech about immigrant gang violence on Friday and wound up delivering a de facto campaign rally with a spray of Long Island police officers applauding behind him. In his second brief appearance in his home state since taking office — this time in a small auditorium at the Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood — Mr. Trump described cities as “bloodstained killing fields” that were overrun with undocumented immigrants before his inauguration in January. He described the perpetrators of violent crimes as “animals” and said his administration seeks to “dismantle, decimate and eradicate” gangs. He also used his roughly 30-minute speech to bolster the police, urging them to be less “nice” in arresting immigrant criminal suspects or gang members whom he described as enraptured by slow torture of their victims. The gang...

It wasn’t long ago that Brazil planned to retrofit its vintage aircraft carrier  Sao Paulo  to last until 2039. No longer. Instead, Brazil will  retire the 32,800-ton flattop  during the next three years, according to a report in IHS Jane’s. With Argentina having given up on carriers, Brazil’s decision will leave the United States with the only operational carriers in the Western Hemisphere. Sao Paulo  was originally the  Foch , a  Clemenceau -class carrier which first launched in 1960. During her 40 years in service with the French navy,  Foch ’s air wings dodged Yemeni MiGs, intervened in the Lebanese civil war and bombed Serbia during the Kosovo conflict. France sold  Foch  to Brazil in 2000, and the renamed  Sao Paulo  carried out exercises and launched Brazil’s AF-1 Skyhawk attack planes from her flat, catapult-launch deck — similar to U.S. carriers and the  Charles de Gaulle , France’s sole remaining fleet carrier...

China first, Russia second by Michael Klare If there’s a single consistent aspect to Pres. Donald Trump’s strategic vision, it’s that the simple principle of “America First” should always govern U.S. foreign policy, with this country’s vital interests placed above those of all others. “We will always put America’s interests first,” he  declared  in his victory speech in the early hours of Nov. 9, 2016. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” he  insisted in his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017. Since then, however, everything he’s done in the international arena has, intentionally or not, placed America’s interests behind those of its arch-rivals, China and Russia. So to be accurate, his guiding policy formula should really be relabeled America Third. Given 19 months of bravado public rhetoric, there was no way to imagine a Trumpian presidency that would favor America’s leading competitors. Throughout the campaign, he...

Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami (Photo by AP) The US has imposed sanctions against Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami over his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, in yet another hostile measure that could spark fresh tensions between the two countries. Late on Monday, the US Treasury Department blacklisted El Assiami and his associate, Venezuelan businessman Samark Lopez, over allegations of having a role in global drug trafficking. As part of the sanctions effort, 13 companies owned or controlled by Lopez -- including five based in the US state of Florida -- will be blocked and both men will be banned from entering the United States. Lopez stands accused of serving as El Aissami’s “key front-man” to launder drug proceeds and purchase assets. El Aissami, who has long denied any criminal ties, did not immediately react to Washington’s move. Since his days as interior minister, El Aissami has been the target of US law enforcement investigation over al...

Chicago police search for evidence at the scene of a shooting in Chicago, Illinois, on February 11, 2017. (Photo via the Chicago Tribune) Two teenage girls have been shot in the head in separate incidents less than 30 minutes apart in Chicago, Illinois. A police bulletin released on Sunday said that one of the girls, aged 11, was in the back seat of a parked car at around 7:40 pm, when someone fired shots, "striking her in the head." The girl, identified by her grandmother as Takiya Holmes, was said to be in critical condition at Comer Children's Hospital. "They are treating her as best as they can with all kind of aggressive measures that the hospital can do for her, but it's grim and we want prayers to go up for her. We want whoever saw what happened to tell the police," Patsy Holmes told local media. According to police, she was hit in the back of the head during the incident on the city’s South Side, which saw another head shooting less than half a...

Mark Abadi President Donald Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty Images A federal appeals court unanimously ruled against President Donald Trump on Thursday, refusing to reinstate his travel ban affecting people from seven Muslim-majority countries. The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel on the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, means that refugees and citizens of the countries in question can continue entering the US - striking a blow to Trump's ability to deliver on one of his key campaign promises. "We hold that the Government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay,"  the panel said  in its ruling. Shortly after the ruling was announced, Trump posted a defiant message to Twitter: "SEE YOU IN COURT," Trump tweeted, foreshadowing a legal challenge that could play out in the Supreme Court. Th...

Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate Isabella Lovin delivers remarks at the ''Our Ocean'' conference at Georgetown University in Washington, U.S., September 16, 2016. REUTERS/GARY CAMERON FILE PHOTO: Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin speaks to the media during a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden July 2, 2016. TT News Agency/Johan Jeppsson/via REUTERS/FILE PHOTO (Reuters) - Eight countries have joined an initiative to raise millions of dollars to replace shortfalls caused by President Donald Trump's ban on U.S.-funded groups around the world providing information on abortion, Sweden's deputy prime minister said. Isabella Lovin told Reuters a conference would be held on March 2 in Brussels to kick-start the funding initiative to help non-governmental organizations whose family planning projects could be affected. The Netherlands announce...

Video President Trump stepped up his criticism of the United States judicial system a day after his travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries faced close scrutiny from an appeals court. WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the judicial branch for considering challenges to his executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, asserting that politically motivated judges had held a “disgraceful” federal appeals court hearing Tuesday on the matter. “I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased,” Mr. Trump told a gathering of sheriffs and police chiefs in Washington. “But courts seem to be so political, and it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read a statement and do what’s right.” Mr. Trump, who opened his remarks reciting the passage of the United States code that gives the president the power to restrict immi...

An American activist has slammed the US government for supplying militant groups in Syria with weapons, describing the United States as the source of violence around the globe. “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is the United States government,” said Dakotah Lilly, from the Organization of Students and Youth for a New America (SYNA). “The United States has absolutely no problem with arming Wahhabi terrorists in Syria” and it has good relations with extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa, Lilly told Press TV’s Top 5 on Wednesday. He also rejected US President Donald Trump's claims that the controversial travel ban on 7 Muslim majority countries was aimed at securing America. Back in January, the new US president signed an executive order to impose a 90-day entry ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. The US administration is using hate crimes as a pretext to blame Muslims for the domestic viol...

Bill McKibben The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization  ‘Bannon and Trump hate reason precisely because it places limits on their actions.’ Photograph: REX/Shutterstock We’re not in a normal historical moment. Congress is acting as expected under a Republican government. The assault on the environment and working people is wrong, but predictable. What’s coming from the Oval Office, though, is unprecedented. It’s less the White House than the Black Tower, sending out its Breitbartian orcs and alt-right winged harpies to poison the politics of a nation. Two types of assaults are underway. One, instigated mostly by Congress, is painful. Last week, for instance, they managed in one morning to both end rules which sought to  prevent  coal companies from polluting streams and regulations which made it  harder  for oil companies to bribe foreign governments. There are ...

Coca-Cola/YouTube Coca-Cola has shelled out for two ads during the Super Bowl this year, but the spot it aired in the pre-game commercial break is likely to be the one that will get most people talking. The soda company aired a re-run of the spot it ran during the 2014 Super Bowl. "It's Beautiful" sees a cast of diverse people singing "America The Beautiful," first in English, but also languages like Hindi, Arabic, and Tagalog. The ad is designed to portray the multi-cultural make-up of the US population. The ad, created by Wieden + Kennedy, took on a certain poignance this year, given the current political climate. Last time the spot aired, a bunch of people hated it , taking to social media to air their grievances against the brand — with some threatening to boycott the brand. "One simply does NOT sing America the Beautiful in ANY language but English! Get on board or OUT!" one Facebook user posted to Coca-Cola's page at the time, which had...