Headline

US Capital Scraps Black Lives Matter Mural After Trump Pressure

Published

3 months ago

March 11, 2025

Editor

Workers in Washington on Monday began removing a “Black Lives Matter” street mural installed during the height of 2020 racial justice protests, bowing to pressure from President Donald Trump.

Large, yellow lettering reading “Black Live Matter” has been painted on a roadway near the White House since June 2020, when protests broke out across the nation following the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.

City officials in the US capital have credited the art installation with calming tensions near the White House, where violent clashes between protesters and security personnel had occurred in the days prior.

Trump, who was president at the time of the unrest, returned to office in January seeking to overturn so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices which spread widely throughout the public and private sectors following the George Floyd protests.

Congressional Republicans and Trump aides had eyed the mural as part of their move to force changes in the administration of Washington, an overwhelmingly Democratic city.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has sought to establish a good working relationship with Trump, seeking to head off Republican calls for fully overturning the city’s right to govern itself.

She has also been worried that mass layoffs of federal workers by Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk could wreak havoc on the city’s finances.

“We have bigger fish to fry than fights over what has been very important to us and to the history, and especially in our ability to keep our city safe during that time — that mural played a very important part,” Bowser told reporters last week.

“But now our focus is on making sure our residents and our economy survives.”

When asked if it was in response to White House pressure, she said: “I’m not going to talk about specifics… but I think it’s safe to say that people don’t like it, didn’t like it.”

As jackhammers plowed away Monday at the pavement, numerous onlookers snapped photos of the work.

Iran president says Trump aiming to bring country ‘to its knees’
Two African American women told AFP they had come to get a final look at the mural, expressing dismay at the decision to remove it.

Both said they were lifelong Democrats.

“It’s history… and now they’re basically saying it didn’t happen,” said one of the two, a 54-year-old caregiver from nearby Virginia who requested anonymity because of her political work.

“The money you’re spending to remove it could’ve been spent on so many other things,” she said.

“What’s next?” asked her friend, 57-year-old Tajuana McCallister, a healthcare worker in Maryland.

“Black history clearly doesn’t matter to him,” she said, nodding toward the White House.

The site, erected during the protests, showed leaders “have compassion, (were saying) ‘we hear you,’” according to the caregiver.

Its removal, she said, shows “what you (leaders) said didn’t matter.”

Headline

Turkish President, Erdogan Calls Putin, Accused Israel Of Threatening Regional Security

Published

1 hour ago

June 16, 2025

Editor

…says “lawless attitude” of Netanyahu’s govt “poses threat to international system

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of threatening security in the Middle East during a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday, his office said.

“The spiral of violence that began with Israel’s attacks on Iran has put the security of the entire region at risk,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.

His office said he told Putin that the “lawless attitude” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “poses a clear threat to the international system”, adding that the Middle East “cannot tolerate a new war”.

The Kremlin said Putin and Erdogan used the conversation to call for an “immediate” end to fighting between Israel and Iran.

“The leaders called for an immediate end to hostilities and the settlement of contentious issues, including those related to Iran’s nuclear programme, exclusively through political and diplomatic means,” the Kremlin said in its readout of the call.

Turkey has stepped up its diplomacy since Israel launched aerial attacks on Iran last Friday and Tehran struck back on the weekend, in their most intense confrontation in history.

Headline

Iran, Israel Need ‘To Fight It Out’ To Reach Deal – Trump

Published

3 hours ago

June 16, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Iran and Israel — who are locked in an exchange of military strikes — to “make a deal,” but suggested they might need to “fight it out” first.

“I think it’s time for a deal,” Trump told reporters, as Israel and Iran exchanged a fresh barrage of missile strikes and threatened more devastation in a conflict that appeared to be intensifying.

“But sometimes they have to fight it out, but we’re going to see what happens,” Trump said, speaking at the White House before heading to Canada to take part in a G7 summit.

After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marks the first time arch-enemies Israel and Iran have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.

It began Friday, when Israel launched attacks that have killed top military commanders and nuclear scientists, and struck military bases, nuclear sites and residential areas across the country.

Trump refused to answer a question about whether he had asked Israel to pause airstrikes on Iran.

Earlier, a senior US official told AFP that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he believed the two sides “should make a deal, and will make a deal.”

There are “many calls and meetings now taking place” on the issue and peace could be achieved “soon” between the longtime adversaries, he said.

Headline

Trump Orders Deportation Drive Targeting Democratic Cities

Published

4 hours ago

June 16, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal authorities to ramp up deportation efforts in Democratic-led cities, doubling down on a politicized anti-immigration drive after major protests in Los Angeles.

“We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center,” he claimed, citing debunked right-wing conspiracy theories that undocumented immigrants are voting in US elections in significant numbers.

Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged “invasion” by criminals.

Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Los Angeles sparked unruly protests, prompting Trump last week to deploy 4,000 National Guards and 700 Marines, against the wishes of local and state authorities.

California has sued to regain control of the National Guardsmen from Trump, arguing he overstepped his authority. That suit is working its way through federal court.

In a long screed on Truth Social Sunday, the Republican president charged that “every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians.”

But, he insisted, “nothing will stop us from executing our mission… ICE Officers are herewith ordered … to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

Trump insisted that “Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it!”

“There is something wrong with them,” he said, listing a litany of grievances, including charges that Democrats “believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports.”

That, he said, was why he wanted ICE and other law enforcement agencies “to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities.”

Doubling down on his characteristic bluster, Trump seemed to compare migration to the United States with weapons of mass destruction.

He said he had directed his entire administration “to put every resource possible behind this effort, and reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.”

With his typical divisive rhetoric, Trump said he wanted “our Brave Officers to know that REAL Americans are cheering you on every day.”

“To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE!” he wrote.