White House bars CNN, NYT, LA Times, BuzzFeed from press briefing

February 25, 2017

Washington, Feb 25: The White House excluded several major US news organisations, including some it has criticised, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary on Friday.

press

Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer.

Spicer's off-camera briefing, or “gaggle,” replaced the usual televised daily news briefing in the White House briefing room. He did not say why those particular news organisations were excluded, a decision which drew strong protests.

Reuters was included in the session, along with about 10 other news organisations, including Bloomberg and CBS.

President Donald Trump has regularly attacked the media and at a gathering of conservative activists on Friday he criticized news organisations that he said provide “fake news”, calling them the “enemy” of the American people.

Spicer said his team decided to have a gaggle in his office on Friday instead of a full briefing in the larger White House briefing room and argued that “we don't need to do everything on camera every day.”

Reporters at the Associated Press and Time magazine walked out of the briefing when hearing that others had been barred from the session.

Off-camera gaggles are not unusual. The White House often invites handpicked outlets in for briefings, typically for specific topics. But briefings and gaggles in the White House are usually open to all outlets and they are free to ask anything.

A pool reporter from Hearst Newspapers was included in the gaggle on Friday and gave full details to the entire press corps. Media outlets allowed into the gaggle also shared their audio with others.

Protests

Journalists leave after several major news organizations including CNN, The New York Times and Politico were excluded from an off camera "gaggle" meeting with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in his office that was held in place of the regular daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 24, 2017. (Reuters)
Spicer's decision drew a sharp response from some of the media outlets that were excluded.

“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, said in a statement.

“We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”

The White House Correspondents Association, or WHCA, also protested.

“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House,” said Jeff Mason, president of the association and a Reuters reporter.

During the election campaign last year, Trump's team banned a few news organisations, including The Washington Post and BuzzFeed, from covering his campaign rallies for a period of time to protest their coverage.

CNN posted a Twitter message on Friday afternoon saying: “This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like. We'll keep reporting regardless.”

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, said in a statement: “While we strongly object to the White House's apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won't let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively.”

On Friday, Spicer said the White House plans to fight against what it says is unfair coverage.

“I think we're going to aggressively push back,” he said. “We're just not going to sit back and let false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.”

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China Says Doesn't Wish To See More Clashes on Border with India

News Network

June 17,2020

Beijing, Jun 17: China said Wednesday it wanted to avoid further clashes with India along their border after the first deadly confrontation between the two nuclear powers in decades.

The two countries have traded blame for Monday's high-altitude brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead, with China refusing to confirm so far whether there were any casualties on its side.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian insisted again Wednesday that it was Indian troops who illegally crossed the border and attacked the Chinese side.

This led to "a serious physical confrontation between both sides that caused deaths and injuries", Zhao said at a regular briefing, without providing more details about the casualties.

He said China urges India to "strictly restrain frontline troops, do not illegally cross the border, do not make provocative gestures, do not take any unilateral actions that will complicate the border situation".

But he added that the two sides "will continue to resolve this issue through dialogue and negotiations".

"We of course don't wish to see more clashes," Zhao said.

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we have 56 inch chest man as our leader...he alone will fight the war and give victory to india..jai bakth

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Iran reports 22 deaths from coronavirus, 141 infected

News Network

February 27,2020

Dubai, Feb 27: Twenty two people have died so far from the new coronavirus in Iran, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported in a chart it published on Thursday.

The number of people diagnosed with the disease is 141, the chart showed. It did not specify whether those who have died were included in the tally of those infected.

Iranian officials on Wednesday reported a total of 139 cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths.

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Bomb explosion hits Kabul mosque during Juma prayers

Agencies

June 12,2020

Kabul, Jun 12: A blast in a mosque during Friday prayers in the western part of capital Kabul has killed at least four people and wounded many more, Afghanistan's interior ministry said.

"Explosives placed inside the Sher Shah Suri Mosque exploded during Friday prayers," said a statement issued by the ministry, which added that the mosque's prayer leader Mofleh Frotan was among those killed.

Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said police have cordoned off the area and helped move the wounded to ambulances and nearby hospitals.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but a mosque attack earlier this month was claimed by an ISIL (or ISIS) group affiliate, headquartered in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

"Interestingly, every time you have the peace process gaining some momentum and pace, you have these kinds of attacks in the country," Habib Wardak, a national security analyst based in Kabul, told Al Jazeera.

"The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack that happened last week on a mosque in Kabul, so despite the fact that you have these news and press conference from the government that they have eliminated ISIL, how can they conduct such sophisticated operations?"

Friday's blast had parallels to one earlier this month, when an explosion tore apart a famous Kabul mosque and led to the death of renowned Afghan cleric Maulvi Ayaz Niazi.

"In this attack, the imam seems to be the target, not the rest of the crowd. These are the imams who have supported the peace process with the Taliban movement," Wardak said.

"The other political aspect for these kinds of attacks is that there are peace spoilers trying to convey a message that peace with the Taliban will not eradicate violence in the country because you have ISIL."

Violence has spiked in recent weeks in Afghanistan with most of the attacks claimed by the ISIL affiliate.

The United States blamed the armed group for a horrific attack last month on a maternity hospital in the capital that killed 24 people, including two infants and several new mothers.

The ISIL affiliate also took responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying journalists in Kabul on May 30, killing two.

It also claimed credit for an attack on the funeral of a strongman loyal to the government last month that killed 35 people.

Meanwhile, the US is attempting to broker peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to end 18 years of war.

Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in the region earlier this week trying to resuscitate a US peace deal with the Taliban.

The peace deal signed in February calls for the withdrawal of the US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in return for a commitment by the Taliban to not launch attacks on the US or its allies.

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