1. Home
  2. Donald Trump mocks PM Modi for funding library in Afghanistan

Donald Trump mocks PM Modi for funding library in Afghanistan

Agencies
January 3, 2019

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday mocked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for funding a library in Afghanistan, suggesting it was of no use.

Trump brought up India's aid during a rambling press appearance at a cabinet meeting as he defended his push for the United States to invest less overseas.

While stating that he got along with Modi, Trump said the Indian leader was "constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan."

"You know what that is? That's like five hours of what we spend," Trump said.

"And we're supposed to say, 'Oh, thank you for the library.' I don't know who's using it in Afghanistan," Trump said.

It was unclear to which project Trump was referring, but India has committed $3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the Taleban regime after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Projects have included the reconstruction of an elite high school in Kabul and scholarships to India for 1,000 Afghan students each year.

Inaugurating the Afghan parliament building in 2015 after reconstruction financed by India, Modi promised to promote programs "empowering Afghan youth with modern education and professional skills."

India has been one of the most enthusiastic countries over the US mission in Afghanistan.

Trump last month moved to pull all 2,000 US troops out of Syria and cut by half the 14,000-strong force in Afghanistan, calling for less spending overseas.

Alluding in Wednesday's remarks to the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Trump said: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan."

Comments

SD
 - 
Thursday, 3 Jan 2019

Modi giving only for publicity. Modi spending taxpayers money in other countries, while people throught India are starving to death.

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 27,2020

Chengdu, China, Jul 27: The American flag was lowered at the United States consulate in Chengdu on Monday, days after Beijing ordered it to close in retaliation for the shuttering of the Chinese consulate in Houston.

Footage on state broadcaster CCTV from outside the consulate showed the flag being slowly lowered early Monday morning, after diplomatic tensions soared between the two powers with both alleging the other had endangered national security.

Relations deteriorated in recent weeks in a Cold War-style standoff, with the Chengdu mission Friday ordered to shut in retaliation for the forced closure of Beijing's consulate in Houston, Texas.

The deadline for the Americans to exit Chengdu has been unclear, but the Chinese consulate in Houston was given 72 hours to close after the original order was made.

On Saturday news agency reporters saw workers removing the US insignia from the front of the consulate.

Over the weekend, removals trucks entered the US consulate and cleaners were seen carting large black rubbish bags from the building.

Beijing says closing the Chengdu consulate was a "legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by the United States", and has alleged that staff at the diplomatic mission endangered China's security and interests.

Washington officials, meanwhile, said there had been unacceptable efforts by the Chinese consulate in Houston to steal US corporate secrets.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 17,2020

Washington, Jul 17: US President Donald Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said that TikTok may cut off ties to its Chinese parent and become a 100 per cent American company to circumvent demands to ban it as India has done.

"I think TikTok is going to pull out of the holding company which is China-run and operate as an independent American company," he told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

The US has not made a final decision on whether to ban it - which has been suggested by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he said.

TikTok being divested by ByteDance Technology Company "is a much better solution than banning or pushing away", said Kudlow, who is the Director of the National Economic Council.

He said that its services will be located in the US and "it will become an hundred per cent American company".

If it becomes a US company without Chinese links, India may have to reconsider the ban on the short video app wildly popular in the country.

India banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps on June 29 citing threats to its defence and national security.

The ban came after a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.

Under Beijing's National Security Law, all Chinese companies have to provide intelligence requested by the government, creating risks for users and their countries.

India was TikTok's biggest market outside of China, where it operates as Douyin.

There were about 200 million users in India and over 300 million downloads.

The US comes next with over 30 million users for the app.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
coastaldigest.com web desk
August 1,2020

New Delhi, July 1: In a terrific incident with chilling echoes of the 2015 Dadri mob lynching, a Muslim man, who was carrying meat, was savagely attacked by a mob belonging to a saffron outfit in the presence of in BJP ruled Haryana on the eve of Eid al-Adha. 

The incident occurred at around 9 a.m. on Friday, July 31 at Badshahpur village in Haryana’s Gurgaon, when Lukman was transporting meat in a pic-kup truck. 

The attack was captured on mobile phones by onlookers and the video clips of the incident are now spreading on social media. 

A group of saffronite cow vigilantes chased the truck for about 8 km managed waylay it. Lukman, who was driving the truck was pulled out and brutally assaulted on the suspicion that he was transporting cow meat.

Just like Dadri, the police were faster at sending the meat to a lab for testing than catching any one of the suspects. One of the assailants - Pradeep Yadav- has been arrested. 

After being beating to an inch of his life, Lukman was bundled into the pick-up truck and taken back to Gurgaon's Badshahpur village where the goons started thrashing him again.

This is when the police stepped in and stopped them - only to find the assailants fearless enough to even take on them.

Lukman was taken to a hospital and the police filed a case against "unidentified individuals" even though the video of the incident recorded by witnesses shows the faces of the assailants.

The owner of the vehicles said that the meat was buffalo and he has been in the business for 50 years.

The police have so far refused to give a statement on record on the incident and explain their inaction as seen on video.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.