North Korea’s threats to US will be met with ‘fire and fury’, says Trump

Agencies
August 9, 2017

Washington, Aug 09: President Donald Trump has vowed to answer any more threats by North Korea with “fire and fury”, remarks that followed Pyongyang saying that it is considering strikes near U.S. strategic military installations in Guam island with its intermediate range ballistic missiles.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He (Kim Jong-Un) has been very threatening, beyond a normal statement,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his vacation home in New Jersey yesterday.

He was responding to questions on the North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

“As said, they will be met with fire, fury, and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before,” he said.

The remarks came amidst reports that the nuclear-armed country is coming close to obtaining an atomic weapon that can strike the US.

Media reports said North Korea has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday said Pyongyang is “now carefully examining the operational plan for making an enveloping fire at the areas around Guam with medium-to-long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-1.

However, US Democratic lawmakers criticised Trump for making such a statement.

“This is not the time to push North Korea to make more threats and continue to test its long—range missiles. Instead the US must listen to senior statesman such as Bill Perry, Sam Nunn, and George Schultz to engage in bilateral diplomacy,” Ro Khanna, the Indian-American Congressman representing Silicon Valley, said.

“The strict economic sanctions imposed by the UN should be used as a tool to start direct negotiations. Such tactics worked 20 years ago and the framework should be revisited given the disastrous consequences of any military conflict,” he said.

Senator Dianne Feinstein said isolating the North Koreans has not halted their pursuit of nuclear weapons and Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments.

“There is no question that North Korea is seeking to add a nuclear warhead to an ICBM capable of reaching the United States,” she said.

“What this tells me is that our policy of isolating North Korea has not worked. The United States must quickly engage North Korea in a high-level dialogue without any preconditions. Hopefully, secretary Tillerson is already discussing the possibility of reopening talks with our Asian partners during his current trip. In my view, diplomacy is the only sound path forward,” she added.

According to the Arms Control Association, a peaceful resolution to the escalating crisis is more difficult than ever to achieve.

“Trump’s attempt to play the role of nuclear madman is as dangerous, foolish, and counterproductive as North Korea’s frequent hyperbolic threats against the United States,” it said in a statement.

“Trump’s latest statement is a blatant threat of nuclear force that will not compel Kim to shift course. In fact, repeated threats of US military force only give credibility to the North Korean propaganda line that nuclear weapons are necessary to deter US aggression, and it may lead Kim to try to accelerate his nuclear program,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the US State Department said that they are willing to talk with the North Koreans.

“I know he (secretary of state) was quoted most recently about willing to talk with the North Koreans and we assure them that their peace and prosperity is best served by engaging with us and having a denuclearised North Korean peninsula, it’s on the assumption that they stop their missile tests and stop their nuke tests and stop the development of a nuclear weapon,” Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told a news conference.

Congressman Mike Turner, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Force, said that China has to step up to the plate and take a firm stance that North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs are unacceptable.

“The threat North Korea poses to global stability grows daily under its erratic regime. China must be responsible for bringing North Korea to the table with the international community to discuss a de—escalation and surrender of its advanced weapons capabilities,” he said.

Senator Joe Donnelly, ranking member of the strategic forces subcommittee, said the Asian nation is pressing forward on the development of a nuclear missile that threatens the US.

“It is long past time for the United States to have a clear, comprehensive strategy to address this rapidly growing threat,” he said.

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Agencies
February 4,2020

The Seattle City Council, one of the most powerful city councils in the U.S., on Monday unanimously passed a resolution condemning India’s recently-enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Reaffirming Seattle as a welcoming city and expressing solidarity with the city’s South Asian community regardless of religion and caste, the resolution “resolves that the Seattle City Council opposes the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India, and finds these policies to be discriminatory to Muslims, oppressed castes, women, indigenous, and LGBT people“.

Introduced by Indian American City Council member Kshama Sawant, the resolution urges the Parliament of India to uphold the Indian Constitution by repealing the CAA, and to stop the National Register of Citizens, and take steps towards helping refugees by ratifying various UN treaties on refugees.

“Seattle City’s decision to condemn CAA should be a message to all who wish to undermine pluralism and religious freedom. They cannot peddle in hate and bigotry, and expect to have international acceptability at the same time,” said Ahsan Khan, president of Indian American Muslim Council.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs, which organised the community in support of the resolution, welcomed its passage. “We are proud of the Seattle City Council for standing on the right side of history today. Seattle is leading the moral consensus in the global outcry against the CAA, she said.

Soundararajan said that thousands of organizers across the country have called, e-mailed, and visited Seattle City Council members to amplify this resolution, and it sets an example to cities across the United States.

“At a time when members of the Indian ruling party sided Trump, the Muslim ban, and his war on immigrants as justification for targeting hundreds of millions of Indian minorities, Americans have a unique responsibility to stand up and speak about this human rights crisis. We are glad that Seattle is leading the way on this,” she said.

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News Network
June 26,2020

Washington, Jun 26: The United States reported more than 39,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, its highest-ever single-day count as the government relaxed restrictions and is downplaying the threat of the deadly virus.

According to the Washington Post, experts believe there is a troubling lack of consistent, unified messaging from President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. They have downplayed the danger and denigrated effective disease defences such as mask-wearing, testing, and social distancing.

Churches, beaches, and bars are filling up with people and so are hospital beds, the report said.

The counties home to Dallas, Phoenix, and Tampa all reported record-high averages on at least 15 straight days in June.

The hardest-hit states are California, Texas, Florida and those that thought they had the virus under control, like Utah and Oregon.

"I think the politicians are in denial," said Kami Kim, director of the Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine at the University of South Florida.

The chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah Health, Andrew T. Pavia, is of the view that the push to reopen quickly even as cases climb sends a dangerous and inaccurate message.

"On the one hand, you get messages from politicians and the business community that we have to go, go, go and open up," he said. "On the other hand, you're seeing epidemiological indicators that we still have to be very careful."

"It's cognitive dissonance," he added.

The Trump administration has tried to downplay the rising number. Pence called concerns about another surge of infections "overblown," the product of media "fearmongering."

Some governors have followed the administration's lead, blaming rising caseloads on more testing.

Testifying before a congressional committee this week, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-diseases expert, said the new cases were "a disturbing surge" spurred by community transmission rather than testing.

"That's something I'm really quite concerned about," Fauci said. "A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections. That's very disturbing to me."

Several states like Arizona, Arkansas, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and Utah have recently reported new highs in the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized.

"We're seeing a 40 per cent increase in the last two weeks in hospitalizations," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins (D), the jurisdiction's top elected official. "We're by far at our record numbers, and we're at record numbers in north Texas. Houston is at a record, the state is at a record." The Texas Medical Center in Houston, a massive medical complex, reported Thursday that 100 per cent of the beds in its intensive care unit are occupied.

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News Network
May 19,2020

May 18: Risk managers expect a prolonged global recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a report by the World Economic Forum showed on Tuesday.

Two-thirds of the 347 respondents to the survey - carried out in response to the outbreak - put a lengthy contraction in the global economy top of their list of concerns for the next 18 months.

Half of risk managers expected bankruptcies and industry consolidation, the failure of industries to recover and high levels of unemployment, particularly among the young.

“The crisis has devastated lives and livelihoods. It has triggered an economic crisis with far-reaching implications and revealed the inadequacies of the past," said Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum.

Environmental goals risk being discarded as a result of the pandemic, the report said, but governments should try to carve out a "green recovery".

"We now have a unique opportunity to use this crisis to do things differently and build back better economies that are more sustainable, resilient and inclusive," Zahidi said.

The report was compiled by the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Advisory Board together with Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc and Zurich Insurance Group.

Risk managers were surveyed between April 1 and 13.

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