'Presidential debate showes two visions of US'

October 11, 2016

Jeddah, Oct 11: The second US presidential debate on Sunday between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton left Arab analysts astonished “as it displayed two different Americas.”

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Jordan's former Information Minister Saleh Al-Qallab said Clinton performed well.

“She made some very good points against Trump, and if she wins — and I hope she does — it will be good for Syria and the entire Middle East,” he told Arab News from Amman on Tuesday.
Al-Qallab felt Trump seems to incline toward Russian President Vladimir Putin when it comes to Syria.

“To me, there were clear signs during the course of the debate that Trump wants to hedge his bets on Russia ... He is going over to Russia,” he said. “No worry, he is not going to win.”

Al-Qallab said the world is once again divided between the East and the West, just like it was during the Cold War.

Clinton was “very clear” in her opposition to Russia. “She is not going to be like US President Barack Obama who turned out to be very, very weak,” he said. “Clinton is not going to treat Russia like Obama did. She is going to be tough.”

Al-Qallab's verdict: “Clinton won. Trump fought hard, but in the end, he was defeated.”

Joyce Karam, Al-Hayat's Washington bureau chief, told Arab News that there were two visions of America on display on Sunday night, “one of Trump and the other of Clinton.”

She felt Trump “did better stylistically” when compared to the first debate. “However, that was not enough for him to deliver the knockout blow to Clinton,” she said. “He needed a knockout to rebalance his position in the race.”

She said there were stark differences between the two nominees on the many issues that endanger the US and the rest of the world. “Take the Middle East, for example, and look how they are viewing what is happening in Syria,” she said. “It was astonishing to see Trump actually describing the bombardment and the razing of Aleppo as fighting ISIS.”

She was equally shocked by Trump's defending Russia in the hacking controversy.

“This comes two days after the US intelligence had officially confirmed that Russia is involved in the hacking,” she said.

“When they asked him about Syria, and the need to meet Russian provocations with US strength and military force, as advocated by his running mate (Mike Pence), Trump said, ‘I haven't spoken to him recently. Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS.'”

For Karam, that was a revealing moment of the debate. “This shows how stubborn Trump is and how detached he is from the foreign policy reality and national security interests of the United States.”

According to her, people are surprised that a US presidential nominee should be in the same camp as Assad and Russia “at a time when the US has just launched an investigation into Russian war crimes in Aleppo.”

She said if Trump actually wins, that could lead to the US going into the Russian-Iranian camp over Syria. “That would be unprecedented in US foreign policy.”

She admitted that Trump did criticize the Iran nuclear deal. “But then there is no consistency in his foreign policy outlook. He says a lot of things that could ring well with his voters, but there is no real strategy, no clear outlook on how he defines US national security in the Middle East.”

Karam's verdict: “It was actually a draw. I don't think anybody emerged as a winner on Sunday night.”

Maha Akeel, a Jeddah-based Saudi journalist, said she did not like either candidate.

“But, if I have to choose, it would be Clinton because she is tough, experienced, smart and knows the issues, and you can tell that from her answers,” she said.

If she makes history as the first female US president “this will be good for women and girls around the world, especially since she is an advocate of women's rights and empowerment,” said Akeel.

Akeel's verdict: “I am not sure, but Trump did better this time.”

Alaa Abdel Ghani, former deputy editor-in-chief of Ahram Weekly, described the debate as “dirty.”

“We watched the debate with amusement and also disbelief as one candidate tells the other that if he becomes the president, he would put the other in jail. We have not seen anything like this before,” he told Arab News from Cairo. “I don't think it ever happened in US election history.

He rued the fact that nobody talked about the real issues that concern ordinary Americans, such as economy and health care.

“This was supposed to be a debate in which the people of the United States were supposed to participate; they were supposed to ask questions and seek answers. But since the focus was too much on the past history of Bill Clinton and his liaison with other women, and the infamous Trump tape, there was very little time for people to ask questions about their future and the future of America,” he said.

Ghani's verdict: “No clear winner.”

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March 5,2020

Washington, Feb 5: Experts warned a US government panel last night that India's Muslims face risks of expulsion and persecution under the country’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which has triggered major protests.

The hearing held inside Congress was called by the US Commission on International Freedom, which has been denounced by the Indian government as biased.

Ashutosh Varshney, a prominent scholar of sectarian violence in India, told the panel that the law championed by prime minister Narendra Modi's government amounted to a move to narrow the democracy's historically inclusive and secular definition of citizenship.

"The threat is serious, and the implications quite horrendous," said Varshney, a professor at Brown University.

"Something deeply injurious to the Muslim minority can happen once their citizenship rights are taken away," he said.

Varshney warned that the law could ultimately lead to expulsion or detention -- but, even if not, contributes to marginalization.

"It creates an enabling atmosphere for violence once you say that a particular community is not fully Indian or its Indianness in grave doubt," he said.

India's parliament in December passed a law that fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities from neighboring countries.

Responding to criticism at the time from the US commission, which advises but does not set policy, India's External Affairs Ministry said the law does not strip anyone's citizenship and "should be welcomed, not criticized, by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom."

Fears are particularly acute in Assam, where a citizens' register finalized last year left 1.9 million people, many of them Muslims, facing possible statelessness.

Aman Wadud, a human rights lawyer from Assam who traveled to Washington for the hearing, said that many Indians lacked birth certificates or other documentation to prove citizenship and were only seeking "a dignified life."

The hearing did not exclusively focus on India, with commissioners and witnesses voicing grave concern over Myanmar's refusal to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, the mostly Muslim minority that has faced widespread violence.

Gayle Manchin, the vice chair of the commission, also voiced concern over Bahrain's stripping of citizenship from activists of the Shiite majority as well as a new digital ID system in Kenya that she said risks excluding minorities.

More than 40 people were killed last week in New Delhi in sectarian violence sparked by the citizenship law.

India on Tuesday lodged another protest after the UN human rights chief, Michele Bachelet, sought to join a lawsuit in India that challenges the citizenship law's constitutionality.

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News Network
April 12,2020

Washington, Apr 12: The US has overtaken Italy as the country with the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 pandemic with the fatalities crossing 20,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data, as the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the globe.

The deadly coronavirus, that originated in China in December last year, has so far killed more than one lakh people across the globe. The United States on Saturday became the country with the highest number of deaths at 20,597, surpassing Italy's 19,468 fatalities.

More than 5.3 lakh Americans have tested positive for coronavirus, which is about the same for the next four countries put together: Spain (163,027), Italy (152,271), Germany (125,452) and France (93,790). In terms of fatalities, the US and Italy are followed by Spain (16,606), France (13832) and United Kingdom (9,875), the varsity data showed.

New York City, the financial capital of the world, has emerged as the epicenter of coronavirus in the world. A city of 8.3 million, which is one of the most densely populated cities in the US, by Saturday night had as many as 8,627 deaths and more than 180,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19.

President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency and all the 50 States have been notified with major disaster declaration. More than 95 per cent of the country's 330 million population are under stay-at-home order. Trump has deployed more than 50,000 personnel from the armed forces in fight against COVID-19.

After an initial two-week social mitigation measures, that includes social distancing, the measures have been extended till April 30. Initially, members of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus had projected between one and two lakhs deaths. Now, they have dropped the projection to 60,000 deaths, mainly due to the successful implementation of these measures.

"The people of our country have gone through a lot. But we did it the right way. And we look like we'll be coming in on the very, very low side, really below the lowest, the lowest side of the curve of death," Trump told Fox News on Saturday night.

Trump asserted that situation was improving in places like New York, where there is a drop in new patients. Responding to a question, he said he wanted the country to open up as soon as possible.

However, he has not taken a decision so far, even as some media reports said that he the President was looking for early May.

"I think it's going to be the toughest decision that I've ever made. I really, hopefully that I ever will have to make. But it's certainly the toughest decision that I've ever made. I hope that I'm going to make the right decision," Trump said, adding that he will be making a decision reasonably soon.

"We're setting up a council now of some of the most distinguished leaders in virtually every field including politics and business and medical. We'll be making that decision fairly soon," Trump said.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that its investigations have revealed that the president was warned about a potential pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response.

According to The Washington Post, coronavirus is killing about one in 10 hospitalised middle-aged patients and four in 10 older than 85 in the United States. It is particularly lethal to men even when taking into account common chronic diseases that exacerbate risk.

Globally, the novel coronavirus has killed 108,862 people and infected over 1.7 million people globally. The US has the highest number of infections at 529,887, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

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April 5,2020

Washington, Apr 5: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply Hydroxychloroquine tablets that can be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

"After call today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is giving serious consideration to releasing the hold it put on a US order for hydroxychloroquine," Trump announced at the White House Coronavirus task force briefing that he requested PM Narendra Modi for more Hydroxychloroquine tablets.

President Trump did not shy away from saying he too will take a tablet of hydroxychloroquine after announcing that he has requested Prime Minister during his telephonic conversation earlier today to lift a hold on the US order of the medicine.

"I may take it too, will have to talk to my doctors," he added.

"India makes a lot of it. They need a lot too for their billion-plus people. 

The hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug will be released through the Strategic National Stockpile for treatment," he said.

"I said I would appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered" of hydroxychloroquine, he said.

The Indian government has put on hold the export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and its formulations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter, "Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realDonaldTrump. 

We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19."

Prime Minister conveyed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the United States and his prayers for the early recovery of those still suffering from the disease.

As on Sunday, the United States has at least 301,902 cases of coronavirus according to Johns Hopkins University's tally. 

At least 8,175 people have died in the US from coronavirus.

There was a steep rise in the number of cases in the last 24 hours. At least 23,949 new cases were reported, and at least 1,023 new deaths in the US have been reported in the last 24 hours.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo had discussions with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar about the importance of continued close cooperation between the United States and India to combat coronavirus by strengthening global pharmaceutical supply chains.

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