Trump picks conservative judge Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court

February 1, 2017

Washington, Feb 1: US President Donald Trump has nominated young federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch for the high-profile job on the Supreme Court, elevating a jurist who could cement the court's conservative bent and help shape the American legal establishment for decades, including on divisive issues such as gun control and religious rights.

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Gorsuch, 49, is the youngest Supreme Court nominee in a quarter century and is Trump's pick to fill a vacancy caused by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago.

Gorsuch's nomination underscores the fast-rising conservative's potential to shape major decisions for decades to come on major divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, the death penalty and religious rights.

"I am proud to announce the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for Justice of the Supreme Court," Trump said in a televised prime-time event from the East Room of the White House.

"Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support," Trump said adding, "It is an extraordinary resume — as good as it gets."

Born and raised in Colorado, Gorsuch attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School and after graduating with honours, he received his doctorate from the Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.

Gorsuch is seen as an "originalist" who believes in the American Constitution's original intent and meaning.

"Judge Gorsuch has a superb intellect, an unparallelled legal education, and a commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to its text. He will make an incredible Justice as soon as the Senate confirms him," Trump said.

Making his first nomination to the Supreme Court, Trump also said that he was fulfilling his promise to select someone who loves the Constitution and respects laws and will interpret them as written.

In 2006, then President George W Bush nominated Gorsuch for the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and he was confirmed by voice vote without objection.

"I am honoured and humbled to receive this nomination. I look forward to meeting with Senators over the coming weeks as we begin this process," Gorsuch said.

Outlining his legal ideas, Gorsuch said: "It is the rule of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people's representatives. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge."

He also praised Justice Scalia as "a lion of the law."

Trump said he hoped both Democrats and Republicans can come together for once for the good of the country. But some Democrats have vowed to mount a vigorous challenge to nearly any nominee to what they view as the court's "stolen seat."

"This may be the most transparent judicial selection process in history," Trump said, adding "the qualifications of Judge Gorsuch are beyond dispute."

As a young man, Gorsuch delivered papers and worked as a front desk clerk at a Howard Johnson to make extra money. Now, he enjoys fishing, hiking and skiing. He and his wife care for animals, including a horse, in the small barn at their home.

The silver-haired jurist is known for writing incisive rulings, advocacy for court review of government regulations and defence of religious freedom.

If confirmed, Gorsuch's appointment could have a major impact on abortion, gender rights and gun control issues. Although Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate, they need 60 to confirm a nominee.

"I pledge that if I am confirmed I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great country," Gorsuch said.

He said the Supreme Court's work is vital to protect the people's liberties under law and to the "continuity of our Constitution, the greatest charter of human liberty the world has ever known."

House Speaker Paul Ryan said in Gorsuch, Trump fulfilled his pledge to nominate a judge who has demonstrated loyalty to the Constitution. "He is a phenomenal nominee for the Supreme Court."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Congress and the American people don't want a liberal Supreme Court justice or a conservative Supreme Court justice. "We want a justice who will decide cases based on the law and the Constitution as they are written. Neil Gorsuch appears to fit that mold."

The Democrats, however, voiced their opposition.

"Given his record, I have very serious doubts about Judge Gorsuch's ability to meet this standard. Judge Gorsuch has repeatedly sided with corporations over working people, demonstrated a hostility toward women's rights, and most troubling, hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that makes me sceptical that he can be a strong, independent Justice on the Court," said Senate minority leader Charles Schumer.

"Make no mistake, Senate Democrats will not simply allow but require an exhaustive, robust, and comprehensive debate on Judge Gorsuch's fitness to be a Supreme Court Justice," he said, adding that the Senate must insist upon 60-votes for any Supreme Court nominee, a bar that was met by each of President Barack Obama's nominees.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said he had hoped that Trump would work in a bipartisan way to pick a mainstream nominee like Merrick Garland and bring the country together.

"Instead, he outsourced this process to far-right interest groups. This is no way to treat a co-equal branch of government, or to protect the independence of our federal judiciary," he said.

National Abortion Federation in a statement expressed its disappointment. "We need a Supreme Court justice who will honour established precedent, including the constitutional right to privacy and Roe v Wade. That Justice is not Neil Gorsuch," said its president and CEO Vicki Saporta.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

Sheikhupura, May 26: Younus, the brother-in-law of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court, was killed in Sheikhupura city of Punjab province in Pakistan on Monday.

According to the FIR, Younus had gone to his farms on May 24 and did not return home at night. His body with throat slit was traced in the farm the following morning.

It is believed that, hailing from minority Christian community, Younus was killed in a rivalry.

This is not the first time that somebody associated with Asia Bibi has been murdered in cold blood.

In 2011, Salman Taseer, the influential governor of Punjab was assassinated after he made headlines by appealing for the pardon of Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad.

A month after Taseer was killed, Religious Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who spoke out against the laws, was shot dead in Islamabad, underlining the threat faced by critics of the law.

Asia Bibi is now living in exile after the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted her based on insufficient evidence in October 2018.

Recounting the hellish conditions of eight years spent on death row on blasphemy charges but also the pain of exile, Asia Bibi recently broke her silence to give her first personal insight into an ordeal that caused international outrage.

French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who has co-written a book about her, was once based in the country where she led a support campaign for her."You already know my story through the media," she said in the book.

"But you are far from understanding my daily life in prison or my new life," she said. "I became a prisoner of fanaticism," she said. In prison, "tears were the only companions in the cell".

She described the horrendous conditions in squalid jails in Pakistan where she was kept chained and jeered at by other detainees.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws carry a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Critics say they have been used to persecute minority faiths and unfairly target minorities.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan defended the country's strict blasphemy laws during his election campaigns. The status quo is still in place.

No government in Pakistan was ready to make changed to the blasphemy law due to fears of a backlash.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Washington, May 1:The novel coronavirus, that has killed over 230,000 people globally so far and has shattered economies, emerged from a virology lab in the Wuhan city of China, US President Donald Trump claimed Thursday with a high degree of confidence.

"Yes, I have. Yes, I have," Trump told reporters at the East Room of the White House when asked if he has seen anything at this point that gives him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is where the virus originated.

The president, however, refuse to provide any details, except for saying that investigations are on and it would be out soon.

Asked what gave him a high degree of confidence that the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he said, "I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that."

The president, however, did not hold his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping responsible for this. "I don't want to say that, I don't want to say that, but certainly it could have been stopped. It came out of China and it could have been stopped and I wish they had stopped it and so does the whole world wish they had stopped it."

Reiterating that this is something that could have been contained at Wuhan ground zero, he said that China could have contained it. "They were either unable to, or they chose not to. And the world has suffered greatly."

One of two things happened, he reasoned. "They either didn't do it and you know they couldn't do it from a competent standpoint or they let it spread and I would say probably it got out of control."

"But there's another case that how come they stopped all of the planes and all of the traffic from going into China, but they didn't stop the planes and the traffic from coming into the United States and from coming into all over Europe," he said, citing the example of Italy, the hardest-hit European country.

"This country (the US) is very lucky and I'm very lucky that I put the ban on China, as you know, very early on. In January, we put the ban on China and that was a very early day. That wasn't a late day, that was an early day. Then, we later put the ban on in Europe," he said.

Before holding them accountable, Trump said he wants to find out what happened. "I think we'll be able to get a very good -- a very powerful definition of exactly what happened. We're working on it strongly now and I think it's going to be very powerful," he said.

"But they could have stopped it. They are a very brilliant nation, scientifically and otherwise. It got loose, let's say, and they could have capped it. They could have stopped it, but they didn't. And they stopped the planes from going to China, but they didn't stop them from going to the rest of the world. What was that all about?” he asked.

"We should have the answer to that in the not-too-distant future and that will determine a lot how I feel about China," Trump said.

When asked if President Xi misled him, Trump said, "Something happened. I don't say misleading or not. I'll let you know that. I mean, I'll be able to give you that answer at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future."

The entire world has suffered as a result of this, he said.

"We have had tremendous death and tremendous sorrow, sadness, and nobody's ever seen anything like it. So, have most of the countries of the world. They've suffered tremendously. It's something that is going to have to be dealt with. We'll have to see," said the president.

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News Network
July 1,2020

Washington, Jul 1: The United States has approved four coronavirus vaccine candidates for clinical trials, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) head Stephen Hahn told reporters.

"Four vaccines have been approved for moving into clinical trials... and another six are in the pipeline for us to review," Hahn said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

The US Administration launched in May Operation Warp Speed, a joint project of Health and Defense Departments, which aims to deliver 300 million doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.

The country's top pandemics expert Anthony Fauci warned on Tuesday, however, that there is no certainty the United States will be able to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 that works and will be safe.

Data on vaccine effectiveness, he added, may be available in the winter or early next year.

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