#worldpost global order

[matterconcern-blog]

New Post has been published on Matter Concern

New Post has been published on https://matterconcern.com/archives/40015

We Are Thinking About Populism Wrong

And it’s costing us.

[anchorarcade]

China’s party congress is a wake-up call for the West

http://ryanguillory.com/chinas-party-congress-is-a-wake-up-call-for-the-west/

China’s party congress is a wake-up call for the West

Illustration of Chinese President Xi Jinping. (WorldPost)

This is the weekly roundup of The WorldPost, of which Nathan Gardels is the editor in chief.

China’s tenacious rise over recent decades holds up a harsh mirror to an increasingly dysfunctional West. This week, as the American president was battling his way through yet another 24-hour news cycle by firing off barbed tweets at various foes, China’s leader was laying out a roadmap for the next 30 years at a key Communist Party congress.

If the price of political freedom is division and polarization, it comes at a steep opportunity cost. While the West — including a Europe riven by populist and separatist movements — stalls in internal acrimony, China is boldly striding ahead. It has proactively set its sights on conquering the latest artificial intelligence technology, reviving the ancient Silk Road as “the next phase of globalization,” taking the lead on climate change and shaping the next world order in its image. If the West does not hear this wake-up call loud and clear, it is destined to somnambulate into second-class status on the world stage. Waiting for China to stumble is a foolish fallback.

That is not to suggest, of course, that open societies ought to turn toward authoritarianism to unify the body politic. But it is to say that unless democracies look beyond the short-term horizon of the next election cycle and find a way to reach a governing consensus, they will be left in the dust by the oncoming future. If democracy has come to mean sanctifying the splintering of society into a plethora of special interests, partisan tribes and endless acronymic identities instead of seeking common ground, there is little hope of successfully competing with a unified juggernaut like China.

The WorldPost this week plumbs the meaning — for China and the world — of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that met in Beijing to affirm the consolidation of power by President Xi Jinping and chart the path ahead for the Middle Kingdom. In conversations I’ve had over the years with the late sage of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, he always returned to a theme dissonant to the tin ear of Westerners. China will never become a democracy or an honorary member of the West, he lectured, but will move forward and succeed on its own terms. And so it has.

Writing from Shanghai, Eric Li follows up this theme. Despite nearly unanimous predictions in the Western media and political class during the last three decades that China was on the wrong side of history, he chides, it has not failed but has grown stronger and more powerful. Standing “tall and firm in the East” is how Xi put it at the party congress.

“The prevailing theories that have guided the world’s thinking about the rise and fall of nations no longer make sense,” Li argues. “If elections and privatization are the prerequisites to development, why has China succeeded without them, while so many others have failed after taking these prescriptions? In the past 30 years, China has effectively combined socialism and the market economy.”

Despite critiques in the West that the idea of a socialist market economy is an “oxymoron,” Li sees Xi’s project of “sinicizing” Marxism as akin to China’s ancient capacity to absorb the foreign ideas of Buddhism into Confucian civilization. This ideological innovation, writes Li, “may be China’s most significant contribution to the 21st century. Not since the European Enlightenment has the world been so hungry for new approaches.” As one of China’s more prominent venture capitalists, Li has no doubt where to place his confidence. “My bet is that Xi will indeed ‘change China, and the world, for the better,’” he concludes.

Veteran China watcher Steve Tsang also sees this week’s party congress as marking a departure from the Deng Xiaoping era of “reform and opening” to a new era in which “the Chinese Communist Party is confident of its own socialist developmental model. It no longer looks outside its borders for inspiration, and it emphatically rejects any democratic or Western model.”

But, most worrying to Tsang is that Xi has signaled that “he will not relinquish power at the next congress in 2022. He has left open the possibility for him to stay in charge, altering the party’s practice since the Deng era of institutionalizing leadership succession ahead of time.” With that kind of unrivaled authority that can’t be contested even by his colleagues, Tsang fears what others have called the “bad emperor problem.”

“If Xi’s advisers do not dare to contradict him, the risk that Chinese policies will be grounded in inappropriate assumptions or calculations will increase, carrying a danger that misguided policies will be introduced and forcefully backed by the full might of the party and military,” he concludes.

Yu Jie acknowledges China’s accomplishments but also sees big hurdles in the times ahead. “Unlike the Soviets,” she writes, “Chinese leaders have repeatedly demonstrated an impressive capability to surmount existential challenges. But rarely have those challenges looked greater than they do for the coming decade.” On the domestic front, says Yu, “continuous economic growth has produced vested interest groups that refuse to give up their power and authority which — together with extreme wealth inequality and severe environmental damage — could challenge the very survival of the party leadership. If the party defends a status quo that is manifestly unfair in its distribution of wealth and opportunity, trust from ordinary people will collapse.”

Yu, who heads the China Foresight project at the London School of Economics, also worries about the nationalist tone the country has taken under Xi’s leadership. “A dangerous mixture of China’s historical humiliation and its staggering economic success,” she warns, “has unfortunately bred a strong sense of complacency on one level and an equally powerful current of hubris on another. This could turn out to be lethal inside China as well as detrimental to its neighbors and distant great powers.”

Spanish-Catalan crisis comes to a head

This week, the confrontation between Spanish authorities and the Catalan independence movement met its denouement as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, backed by the opposition Socialist party, imposed Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which annuls Catalonia’s elected government and turns over power to Madrid. He did so just after Catalonia’s parliament declared the region’s independence Friday.

One of Catalonia’s most well-known intellectuals, the sociologist Manuel Castells, passionately writes that “the intervention in Catalan institutions by the Spanish government is an assault on democracy without precedent in the European Union.” For Castells, the issue is not independence but the right of Catalan citizens to express their will through a referendum not unlike those we’ve seen in Scotland and Quebec in recent years. “The key issue at stake is whether constitutional legality has to follow the evolution of people’s minds. The law must adapt to reality through political mediation,” says Castells. “Ultimately, only a political dialogue can solve the current crisis. In the meantime, one of the most democratic and tolerant areas of Europe is being deprived of its basic civil rights.”

This was produced by The WorldPost, a partnership of the Berggruen Institute and The Washington Post.

ABOUT US: The WorldPost is an award-winning global media platform that aims to be a place where the world meets. We seek to make sense of an interdependent yet fragmenting world by commissioning voices that cross cultural and political boundaries. Publishing op-eds and features from around the globe, we work from a worldwide perspective looking around rather than a national perspective looking out.

STAFF: Nathan Gardels, Editor in Chief; Kathleen Miles, Executive Editor; Dawn Nakagawa, Vice President of Operations; Farah Mohamed, Managing Editor; Peter Mellgard, Features Editor; Alex Gardels, Video Editor; Clarissa Pharr, Associate Editor; Rosa O’Hara, Social Editor; Suzanne Gaber, Editorial Assistant

EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Eric Schmidt, Pierre Omidyar, Arianna Huffington, Juan Luis Cebrian, Walter Isaacson, John Elkann, Wadah Khanfar, Yoichi Funabashi

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim, Nayan Chanda, Katherine Keating, Sergio Munoz Bata, Parag Khanna, Seung-yoon Lee, Jared Cohen, Bruce Mau, Patrick Soon-Shiong

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Zheng Bijian, Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland, Guy Verhofstadt

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[awesomefelicitylewis-blog]

China’s party congress is a wake-up call for the West

http://ryanguillory.com/chinas-party-congress-is-a-wake-up-call-for-the-west/

China’s party congress is a wake-up call for the West

Illustration of Chinese President Xi Jinping. (WorldPost)

This is the weekly roundup of The WorldPost, of which Nathan Gardels is the editor in chief.

China’s tenacious rise over recent decades holds up a harsh mirror to an increasingly dysfunctional West. This week, as the American president was battling his way through yet another 24-hour news cycle by firing off barbed tweets at various foes, China’s leader was laying out a roadmap for the next 30 years at a key Communist Party congress.

If the price of political freedom is division and polarization, it comes at a steep opportunity cost. While the West — including a Europe riven by populist and separatist movements — stalls in internal acrimony, China is boldly striding ahead. It has proactively set its sights on conquering the latest artificial intelligence technology, reviving the ancient Silk Road as “the next phase of globalization,” taking the lead on climate change and shaping the next world order in its image. If the West does not hear this wake-up call loud and clear, it is destined to somnambulate into second-class status on the world stage. Waiting for China to stumble is a foolish fallback.

That is not to suggest, of course, that open societies ought to turn toward authoritarianism to unify the body politic. But it is to say that unless democracies look beyond the short-term horizon of the next election cycle and find a way to reach a governing consensus, they will be left in the dust by the oncoming future. If democracy has come to mean sanctifying the splintering of society into a plethora of special interests, partisan tribes and endless acronymic identities instead of seeking common ground, there is little hope of successfully competing with a unified juggernaut like China.

The WorldPost this week plumbs the meaning — for China and the world — of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that met in Beijing to affirm the consolidation of power by President Xi Jinping and chart the path ahead for the Middle Kingdom. In conversations I’ve had over the years with the late sage of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, he always returned to a theme dissonant to the tin ear of Westerners. China will never become a democracy or an honorary member of the West, he lectured, but will move forward and succeed on its own terms. And so it has.

Writing from Shanghai, Eric Li follows up this theme. Despite nearly unanimous predictions in the Western media and political class during the last three decades that China was on the wrong side of history, he chides, it has not failed but has grown stronger and more powerful. Standing “tall and firm in the East” is how Xi put it at the party congress.

“The prevailing theories that have guided the world’s thinking about the rise and fall of nations no longer make sense,” Li argues. “If elections and privatization are the prerequisites to development, why has China succeeded without them, while so many others have failed after taking these prescriptions? In the past 30 years, China has effectively combined socialism and the market economy.”

Despite critiques in the West that the idea of a socialist market economy is an “oxymoron,” Li sees Xi’s project of “sinicizing” Marxism as akin to China’s ancient capacity to absorb the foreign ideas of Buddhism into Confucian civilization. This ideological innovation, writes Li, “may be China’s most significant contribution to the 21st century. Not since the European Enlightenment has the world been so hungry for new approaches.” As one of China’s more prominent venture capitalists, Li has no doubt where to place his confidence. “My bet is that Xi will indeed ‘change China, and the world, for the better,’” he concludes.

Veteran China watcher Steve Tsang also sees this week’s party congress as marking a departure from the Deng Xiaoping era of “reform and opening” to a new era in which “the Chinese Communist Party is confident of its own socialist developmental model. It no longer looks outside its borders for inspiration, and it emphatically rejects any democratic or Western model.”

But, most worrying to Tsang is that Xi has signaled that “he will not relinquish power at the next congress in 2022. He has left open the possibility for him to stay in charge, altering the party’s practice since the Deng era of institutionalizing leadership succession ahead of time.” With that kind of unrivaled authority that can’t be contested even by his colleagues, Tsang fears what others have called the “bad emperor problem.”

“If Xi’s advisers do not dare to contradict him, the risk that Chinese policies will be grounded in inappropriate assumptions or calculations will increase, carrying a danger that misguided policies will be introduced and forcefully backed by the full might of the party and military,” he concludes.

Yu Jie acknowledges China’s accomplishments but also sees big hurdles in the times ahead. “Unlike the Soviets,” she writes, “Chinese leaders have repeatedly demonstrated an impressive capability to surmount existential challenges. But rarely have those challenges looked greater than they do for the coming decade.” On the domestic front, says Yu, “continuous economic growth has produced vested interest groups that refuse to give up their power and authority which — together with extreme wealth inequality and severe environmental damage — could challenge the very survival of the party leadership. If the party defends a status quo that is manifestly unfair in its distribution of wealth and opportunity, trust from ordinary people will collapse.”

Yu, who heads the China Foresight project at the London School of Economics, also worries about the nationalist tone the country has taken under Xi’s leadership. “A dangerous mixture of China’s historical humiliation and its staggering economic success,” she warns, “has unfortunately bred a strong sense of complacency on one level and an equally powerful current of hubris on another. This could turn out to be lethal inside China as well as detrimental to its neighbors and distant great powers.”

Spanish-Catalan crisis comes to a head

This week, the confrontation between Spanish authorities and the Catalan independence movement met its denouement as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, backed by the opposition Socialist party, imposed Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which annuls Catalonia’s elected government and turns over power to Madrid. He did so just after Catalonia’s parliament declared the region’s independence Friday.

One of Catalonia’s most well-known intellectuals, the sociologist Manuel Castells, passionately writes that “the intervention in Catalan institutions by the Spanish government is an assault on democracy without precedent in the European Union.” For Castells, the issue is not independence but the right of Catalan citizens to express their will through a referendum not unlike those we’ve seen in Scotland and Quebec in recent years. “The key issue at stake is whether constitutional legality has to follow the evolution of people’s minds. The law must adapt to reality through political mediation,” says Castells. “Ultimately, only a political dialogue can solve the current crisis. In the meantime, one of the most democratic and tolerant areas of Europe is being deprived of its basic civil rights.”

This was produced by The WorldPost, a partnership of the Berggruen Institute and The Washington Post.

ABOUT US: The WorldPost is an award-winning global media platform that aims to be a place where the world meets. We seek to make sense of an interdependent yet fragmenting world by commissioning voices that cross cultural and political boundaries. Publishing op-eds and features from around the globe, we work from a worldwide perspective looking around rather than a national perspective looking out.

STAFF: Nathan Gardels, Editor in Chief; Kathleen Miles, Executive Editor; Dawn Nakagawa, Vice President of Operations; Farah Mohamed, Managing Editor; Peter Mellgard, Features Editor; Alex Gardels, Video Editor; Clarissa Pharr, Associate Editor; Rosa O’Hara, Social Editor; Suzanne Gaber, Editorial Assistant

EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Eric Schmidt, Pierre Omidyar, Arianna Huffington, Juan Luis Cebrian, Walter Isaacson, John Elkann, Wadah Khanfar, Yoichi Funabashi

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim, Nayan Chanda, Katherine Keating, Sergio Munoz Bata, Parag Khanna, Seung-yoon Lee, Jared Cohen, Bruce Mau, Patrick Soon-Shiong

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Zheng Bijian, Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland, Guy Verhofstadt

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[newscoflash-blog]

newsCO.com.au | Francis Fukuyama: Democracy Needs Elites | Flash News

newsCO.com.au | Francis Fukuyama: Democracy Needs Elites | Flash News

@newsCOflash 2017-03-02 17:08:41

Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist most known for his book The End of History and the Last Man. His most recent book is Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. He spoke with Alexander Görlach for The WorldPost last week in Palo Alto, Calif. about U.S. President Donald Trump, the…

[billgsoto]

Neonicotinoid insecticides negatively affect ovary development in bumblebees

Photo credit: Randu Privantu

The majority of research on the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bees is conducted almost exclusively on one species—the European honeybee. To understand if these effects hold constant across other bee species, researchers conducted laboratory tests on four different bumblebees species to understand the effects of exposure to neonicotinoids at doses that bees would be exposed to in a field. The study, published in The Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology, exposed queen bumblebees to high or low doses of thiamethoxam for two weeks. As a control, those in another group were not fed insecticides. Overall, 506 queens were collected for study and after excluding individuals infected with parasites, 230 individuals were included in the analysis. Two of the four species consumed less food after exposure, and ovary development in the bees fed the high but still field relevant dose of the pesticide was impaired for all four species. “Bumblebee queens are not currently considered in pesticide risk assessments for pollinators, and yet these results indicate that queens are sensitive to neonicotinoids in realistic exposure scenarios,” the authors wrote, adding, “More information is urgently needed on residues and persistence of pesticides in crops, wild plants and in wild bee nests in order to accurately assess the exposure risks for the full range of species and castes of bees likely to encounter them. This is essential for understanding and managing the threat to wild bees from agrochemicals, and preventing further declines as a result of exposure to these pest control products.”

from Blog – The Organic Center http://ift.tt/2w6JVho

from Grow your own http://ift.tt/2u4spNi

[pat78701]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[porchenclose10019]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[exfrenchdorsl4p0a1]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[repwincostl4m0a2]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[rtawngs20815]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[matterconcern-blog]

New Post has been published on Matter Concern

New Post has been published on https://matterconcern.com/archives/36055

President Trump, There Is A Deal To Be Made With North Korea

North Korea might agree to a nuclear deal in return for economic concessions from South Korea and security assurances from the U.S.

[repwincoml4a0a5]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[chpatdoorsl3z0a1]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[stormdoors78476]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[repwinpril9y0a1]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e

[rtscrndr53704]

100 Ways In 100 Days: Here's How Trump Has Threatened Human Rights Around The World

Activists at Amnesty International have catalogued 100 ways Donald Trump’s administration has threatened human rights at home and abroad during the first 100 days of his presidency. Assembling the list, according to the group’s U.S. head, “didn’t take long.”

Amnesty USA executive director Margaret Huang said the new list of Trump threats highlights a “level of abuse and fear” that’s unprecedented in the grassroots organization’s 55-year history. I stands in stark contrast to a White House tally of claimed accomplishments since Trump’s inauguration in January.

“Unlike his predecessors, who have at least rhetorically talked about the importance of human rights as a U.S. national interest, this president has been dismissive of human rights, dismissive of communities who’ve been subjected to some of the worst violations, and has rejected efforts to hold other governments or his own appointments accountable for protecting human rights,” Huang told HuffPost on Thursday.

It took Amnesty staffers just “a few days” in “a really easy effort” to assemble 100 Trump administration human rights threats, Huang said. In fact, “we had to pare it down,” she added. 

Trump has armed, emboldened and repeatedly failed to condemn human rights abusers. He has downplayed hate crimes and proposes potentially devastating funding cuts to foreign aid. He also has issued direct threats to some demographics, including those within the U.S.

Here are some of the groups whose human rights have been threatened under Trump, according to Amnesty: 

Black Americans

Trump picked Jeff Sessions as attorney general, despite damning allegations against the former Alabama senator of racism toward black people. A Senate committee had previously denied Sessions a federal judgeship after multiple reports of racist remarks, including using a racial slur and joking about the Ku Klux Klan. Sessions has dismissed the accusations as false.

Since taking office, Sessions has moved to roll back Justice Department oversight of local police forces that was meant to curb such abuses as racial profiling and brutality.  

Follow HuffPost’s Black Voices coverage for more.

Immigrants And Refugees

Little more than a week after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning residents of seven Arab nations from entering the U.S.

International panic ensued as family members were separated, and foreign governments scrambled to respond. The ban was delayed by a federal court amid concerns that it was unconstitutional. The Trump administration modified and reissued the ban, but that version, too, was blocked by courts.

Under the latest Trump policy, refugees are temporarily blocked from resettling in the U.S. The number of annual refugee admissions has been slashed from 110,000 to 50,000.

Trump during his campaign regularly demonized Syrian refugees, and vowed to deport Syrians who had already resettled in the U.S.: “I’m putting people on notice,” he threatened. “If I win, they’re going back!”

Follow WorldPost’s coverage for more.

"@DiCristo13: @realDonaldTrump let's have the policy speeches on immigration, economy, foreign policy, and NATO! http://pic.twitter.com/Uuit2hWmhW"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2016

Trump also has taken aim at Mexican immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. Despite international condemnation, Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to construct a multi-billion-dollar wall along the southern border.

Trump infamously said during the campaign that when Mexico “sends its people ... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has given broader powers to deport people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without adequate oversight, Amnesty notes. The rights group asserts that increased patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border have done little to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing into the country illegally.

“Cartels and gangs prey upon immigrants waiting to enter the U.S., leaving them vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual assault,” Amnesty’s report says. “Instead of deterring people from making a dangerous journey, the administration is placing them in greater jeopardy.”

Follow HuffPost’s Latino Voices coverage for more.

Indigenous Peoples

Trump’s proposed border wall threatens to separate indigenous communities along the U.S.-Mexico border from their religious and cultural sites.

Moreover, his administration granted permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River north of Standing Rock to complete the petroleum pipeline. Opponents say the project poses a risk to the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and other downriver tribes.

According to Amnesty, this could “destroy Native America cultural sites,” and it “totally [ignores] the rights of Indigenous Peoples to consent to such projects.”

See HuffPost’s Standing Rock coverage for more. 

Jewish People

The Trump administration was slow to condemn a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes against Jewish Community Centers throughout America, inaction that was “contributing to a climate of impunity for hate-based violence,” according to Amnesty.

Trump’s team also failed to mention Jews during a statement about this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. More astonishing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely said Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during WWII, suggesting Hitler wasn’t as cruel as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In fact, Hitler’s Nazis gassed millions of Jews.

Follow HuffPost’s continued JCC coverage for more.

Journalists And Activists

Trump’s persistent media bashing has already damaged press freedom in the U.S., according to Reporters Without Borders.

The president has unleashed a barrage of insults and threats against members of the press, even dismissing some major news outlets as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

He vowed to “open up” libel laws, warning those who offend him, “We’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled Trump a threat to press freedom before he was even elected.

His administration has revoked press credentials for certain news organizations that have produced unflattering coverage, and has threatened to punish others.

Trump’s actions have provoked protests across the nation, but he seems to believe his rights are more important than citizens’.

As Amnesty points out, Trump’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment rights were infringed by protestors who interrupted a campaign stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016.

This sets “an ominous precedent for how the president interprets free expression,” Amnesty warns.

Follow HuffPost Media’s coverage for more.

LGBTQ People

Trump reversed federal protection for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For transgender children, “this revocation puts them at increased risk for violence and harassment,” Amnesty said.

Trump also rescinded protections implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama, that helped ensure federal contractors could not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Roger Severino, Trump’s appointment to head the Office for Civil Rights, has been a vocal critic of policies protecting LGBTQ rights, as has Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence.

Follow HuffPost’s Queer Voices coverage for more.

Muslims

Trump’s travel ban was widely characterized as a Muslim ban, because it directly targeted residents of Muslim-majority countries. He also issued a laptop ban affecting passengers on flights between the U.S. and several North African and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes since Trump’s election has been “staggering,” according to ThinkProgress, which has been carefully monitoring such incidents.

Amnesty says this is largely because Trump’s ban and rhetoric “appear to have emboldened anti-Muslim behavior and attitudes.”

When asked about increased reports of Islamophobia and other hate crimes during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said simply: “Stop it.”

See HuffPost’s Islamophobia tracker for more.

Scientists And Environmentalists

Any threat to the environment is a threat to human rights.

Trump’s “America First” budget blueprint proposes massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, sparking intense backlash. The agency’s new head, Scott Pruitt, has already started to roll back environmental regulations.

To the alarm of scientists, Pruitt ― America’s top environmental official ― said human activity is not “a primary contributor” to global warming.

The Trump administration also has been accused of muzzling the government’s environmental scientists and attempting to limit their communication with the public. 

Follow HuffPost Green’s coverage for more.

Students, Youth And Children

Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has no personal experience with public education. The billionaire’s lack of experience and understanding of issues surrounding education in America were put on clear display during her confirmation hearing in January, when she struggled to answer question after question.

Devos has backed Trump’s proposed $9 billion budget cuts to the Department of Education, which would curb after-school programs for low-income children that provide additional instruction and food aid.

“Such cuts could have far-reaching impact on the human rights to education and freedom from hunger enshrined in international law,” notes Amnesty.

Follow HuffPost Education’s coverage for more.

Women And Girls

On his third day as president, Trump swiftly reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts U.S. foreign aid for groups that offer abortion services, including education on safe abortions. He also signed a bill enabling states to withhold government money from organizations that offer abortion services, like Planned Parenthood.

As a result, Amnesty says, “thousands of people — particularly low income women and girls — will not be able to access basic health care, including cancer screenings, pregnancy health, birth control, and safe abortion services.”

Trump also revoked the previous administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which had been implemented to eliminate wage disparity between men and women, and ensured protection for parental leave as well as fair processes surrounding workplace sexual harassment.

Follow HuffPost Women’s coverage for more.

Huang said the resistance to Trump’s anti-human rights words and actions has been “incredible.”

“From the Women’s March the day after his inauguration, to the spontaneous protests at airports after the refugee ban, to the ongoing protests that are happening across the country ― it’s a reflection of a recognition that the only way to stand up to this sort of rhetoric and bad policy is for people to take action,” she said.

Read Amnesty’s full list of 100 threats by Trump and ways to take action here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pIeI4e