Donald Trump boasts and gets laughed at by the world at UNGA

Agencies
September 26, 2018

United States, Sep 26: President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged heavy pressure both on Iran and Washington's trading partners as he offered a robust defense of the US right to go it alone.

With midterm elections in the United States little more than a month away, Trump's address at times took on the feel of a campaign address as he heralded low unemployment.

Boasting that his team "has achieved more than any administration in the history of our country," Trump was met with laughter, highly unusual in the solemn General Assembly.

"I didn't expect that reaction, but that's okay," Trump responded.

Addressing world leaders at the start of the annual United Nations General Assembly, Trump lashed out at the OPEC oil cartel, China's trade policies and the International Criminal Court which he vowed the United States would never accept.

Hours before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes the same rostrum, Trump denounced the clerical regime as sowing "chaos, death and destruction" and doubled down on the US withdrawal of an international agreement on curbing Tehran's nuclear program.

But the real estate mogul turned populist leader was comparatively subdued a year after he stunned the global body with his bellicose language on North Korea, including a threat to "totally destroy" Kim Jong Un's state.

This time around, Trump heralded his own diplomacy on North Korea including a historic summit in June with Kim, saying he has worked to "replace the specter of conflict with a bold and new push for peace."

Iran is a major focus of the annual week of UN diplomacy, months after Trump irritated US allies in Europe by withdrawing from a 2015 agreement under which Tehran has sharply curtailed its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

A day after the European Union announced a new legal framework in hopes that companies can keep doing business with Iran and evade incoming US sanctions, Trump demanded that all countries take aim at Tehran -- and noted that his decision has been popular among the Shiite-majority nation's Sunni Arab rivals.

"We cannot allow the world's leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet's most dangerous weapons," Trump said, in an allusion to Tehran's support for Islamic militant movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

"We cannot allow a regime that chants 'Death to America' and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth," he said.

"We ask all nations to isolate Iran's regime as long as its aggression continues.
 
Trump robustly attacked the "globalist" view of the world -- shared by many at the United Nations and on the political left in the United States -- and vowed: "America will never apologize for protecting its citizens."

He said that the UN-backed International Criminal Court has "no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority."

His national security adviser John Bolton earlier went so far as to threaten to prosecute judges from the court in The Hague if they take up accusations against US forces in Afghanistan.

"We will never surrender America's sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy. America is governed by Americans," Trump said.

Amid a growing trade war with China, Trump said that the commercial imbalance with the Asian power "cannot be tolerated" and reserved harsh words for OPEC, the global oil cartel that includes both US allies and foes.

"OPEC and OPEC nations are, as usual, ripping off the rest of the world, and I don't like it. Nobody should like it."

 

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News Network
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday, staking claim to form the government in the national capital, sources said, while hinting that the AAP might not invite senior leaders and chief ministers of other parties for the oath-taking ceremony.

The sources said it was the formal process by the AAP chief, who was elected as the legislature party leader earlier in the day, to stake claim for forming the new government.

Kejriwal, who returned to power in Delhi with a stunning poll victory on Tuesday, will take oath as chief minister for the third consecutive time on February 16.

While the oath-taking ceremony will be open to the public, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was considering not inviting leaders and chief ministers of other parties as it did not wish to be seen as a "confrontationist" against the BJP-led Centre, the sources said.

They, however, added that the party was yet to take a decision on it.

The AAP has planned mobilisation of people for the mega event and all the newly-elected MLAs of the party have been asked to ensure huge participation from their constituencies.

"I request the people of Delhi to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the chief minister at the Ramlila Maidan in large numbers," senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia told reporters, adding that the ceremony will start at 10 am.

The AAP won 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged the remaining eight seats. The Congress drew a blank for the second consecutive time in the Delhi polls.

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News Network
May 29,2020

Karachi, May 29: Investigators and rescue officials have found around Rs 3 crore in cash in the wreckage of the Pakistan International Airlines' aircraft that crashed wth 99 people on board, killing 97 people, including nine children.

Flight PK-8303 from Lahore to Karachi crashed in a residential area near Karachi International Airport on Friday, with only two passengers miraculously surviving the crash.

Investigators and rescue officials have found currencies of different countries and denominations worth around Rs 30 million from the aircraft's wreckage, an official said on Thursday.

"An investigation has been ordered into how such a huge amount of cash got through airport security and baggage scanners and found its way into the ill-fated flight," the official said.

He said that the amount was recovered from two bags in the wreckage.

"The process of identifying the bodies and their luggage which will be handed over to their families and relatives is going on," he said.

A total of 97 people including the aircraft crew died in the crash, one of the most catastrophic aviation disasters in Pakistan's history.

A government official said on Thursday that the identification of 47 bodies had been completed, while 43 bodies were handed over for burial.

Friday's accident was the first major aircraft crash in Pakistan after December 7, 2016 when a PIA ATR-42 aircraft from Chitral to Islamabad crashed midway. The crash claimed the lives of all 48 passengers and crew, including singer-cum-evangelist Junaid Jamshed.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Washington, Apr 11: China is considered a developing country, make the United States too a developing one, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, alleging that Beijing has taken advantage of his country.

"China has been unbelievably taken advantage of us and other countries. You know, for instance, they are considered a developing nation. I said well then make us a developing nation too,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

The president was responding to a question on China.

“They get big advantages because they are a developing nation. India, a developing nation. The United States is a big developed nation. Well, we have plenty of development to do,” he said.

Reiterating that United States was taken advantage of by the World Trade Organization, Trump said the Chinese economy started booming after it joined WTO with the help of the US.

“If you look at the history of China, it was only since they went into the WTO that they became a rocket ship with their economy. They were flatlined for years and years,” he said.

“Frankly, for many, many decades. And it was only when they came into the WTO that they became a rocket ship because they took advantage of all -- I'm not even blaming them. I'm saying how stupid were the people that stood here and allowed it to happen,” he said.

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The Trump Administration will now allow that to happen, he said.

“If they don't treat us fairly, will leave. But now we're starting to win cases,” he said.

Alleging that China has taken advantage of the United States for 30 years, he said, China has taken advantage of the US through WTO and using rules that are unfair to the United States.

"They should have never been allowed it, this should have never been allowed to happen", he added.

“When China joined and was allowed to join under those circumstances the WTO, that was a very bad day for the United States because they have rules and regulations that were far different and far easier than our rules and regulations,” he said.

“Plus. They took advantage of them down to the last. China took advantage of them like few people would even think to take advantage of them and again they are considered right a developing nation,” he added.

The United States, he rued, is not considered a developing nation.

“The were given advantages (for being a developing nation). For many years China has ripped off the United States. Then I came along and right now, as you know, China is paying 25 percent," said Trump, adding that the US is now gaining "billions and billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China”.

The US is not paying, he asserted.

“Not every country is China but China would devalue their currency and they would also pour out money and they essentially were paying most of those tariffs not us,” he said.

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