Headline

Trump Calls Bishop ‘Nasty’ Over Mercy For Migrants, LGBTQ Comment

Published

5 months ago

January 22, 2025

US President Donald Trump ordered federal employees of diversity offices to be put on paid leave by Wednesday night, and called a Washington bishop “nasty” after she asked him to “have mercy” for migrants and LGBTQ children.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that US government workers in diversity offices must be put on paid leave by 5:00 pm Wednesday as the new administration moved from day one to shutter programs intended to bolster minority groups.

While campaigning, Trump had vilified diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government and corporate world, saying they discriminated against white people — men in particular.

He also has demonized any recognition of gender diversity, attacking transgender people — notably transgender women in sports — and gender-affirming care for children.

“President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin,” Leavitt said in a statement published by NBC News.

“This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept.”

Republican Trump — at 78 the oldest person ever to be sworn in as president — has vowed a “new golden age” for America, signing a slew of executive orders in his first 24 hours on immigration, gender and climate that overturn many of Democrat Joe Biden’s policies.

He also pardoned more than a thousand supporters, including US Capitol rioters, and targeted opponents in a shock-and-awe start to his second presidency.

– ‘Have mercy’ –

The new president has also faced defiance, including a rare public dressing-down Tuesday from a bishop during the customary inaugural service.

The Washington National Cathedral’s Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde told Trump from the pulpit that he was sowing fear among America’s immigrants and LGBTQ people.

“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away,” Budde told Trump, who was seated in the church’s front pew.

“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

Early Wednesday, Trump blasted the Episcopal bishop on his Truth Social platform, calling her “nasty” and demanding an apology.

“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” Trump wrote, without naming Budde. “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

Railing against “illegal migrants,” the president also slammed Budde’s “very boring and uninspiring” service.

“She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!”

Trump issued measures on Monday to suspend the arrival of asylum seekers and expel migrants in the country illegally.

He also decreed that only two sexes — male and female, but not transgender — will be recognized.

And he ordered the closure of government diversity programs, with federal DEI office employees set to be put on paid leave by close of business Wednesday.

– ‘Shameful discrimination’ –

A US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memo posted on social media platform X by a CBS correspondent said: “Send a notification to all employees of DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility) offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and program.”

The memo from acting OPM director Charles Ezell directed all department and agency heads to send workers notice by 5:00 pm Wednesday, and submit a written plan for a “reduction-in-force action” regarding employees by 5:00 pm Friday.

“To every reporter asking about this: I can gladly confirm!” wrote White House spokeswoman Leavitt on X, resharing the CBS journalist’s post.

Dated Tuesday, the memo said DEI programs “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”

It ordered all agency heads to cancel DEI trainings, terminate related contractors, and take down websites and social media accounts promoting it by Wednesday evening.

Trump is pushing a turbocharged agenda after his inauguration Monday, in which he gave a speech that mixed dark imagery about a failing America with promises of renewal.

He is also sowing fresh disruption on the international stage.

Trump threatened tariffs against the European Union on Tuesday, and also warned he could impose a 10 percent tariff on China, saying it was “based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.”

When asked how soon China’s tariffs could be put in place, he said: “Probably February 1st is the date we’re looking at.”

Beijing on Wednesday vowed to defend its “national interests”, and said “there are no winners in a trade war”.

Headline

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

1 hour ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

Headline

Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

2 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.

Headline

We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel

Published

5 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.

“Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.

He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because “there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire”.

Katz had said during the war that Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.

“He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker”, he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.

The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.

Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.

“We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles”, he said.

In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment capabilities.

“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised,” he said of the enriched uranium.

The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.

A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The war erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.