Tag: Washington

Desecration of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue appalling: White House Press Secy

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has described as ”appalling” the desecration of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue outside the Indian embassy here and said his reputation should be respected, especially in the US capital. A violent group of Khalistani separatists on Saturday desecrated Mahatma Gandhi’s statue outside the Indian embassy in Washington during a demonstration by Sikh-American youths in support of farmers protesting against the recently enacted agriculture laws in India.

Responding to a question about the incident during a press conference, McEnany said, ”It’s terrible. No statue or memorial should be desecrated and certainly not one like that of Gandhi who really fought for the values that America represents of peace, justice, and freedom.” ”It is appalling that it has happened more than once and we believe the reputation of Mahatma Gandhi should be respected, especially here in America’s capital,” she said. A State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday that they were aware of recent protests in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington DC.

”We take our responsibility to provide for the safety and security of foreign missions in the US very seriously and are discussing the recent incident with the Indian Embassy,” the spokesperson said. Hundreds of Sikhs from in and around Greater Washington DC area, Maryland and Virginia, along with many from other states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina, on Saturday undertook a car rally to the Indian embassy in downtown Washington DC, where they gathered to express solidarity with the protesting Indian farmers.

However, the peaceful protest was soon hijacked by the separatist Sikhs who were carrying Khalistani flags with anti-India posters and banners. During the protest, many of the pro-Khalistan Sikh youths flashing kirpans jumped on the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and pasted a poster over it. The group raised anti-India and pro-Khalistan slogans. The Indian embassy condemned the ”mischievous act” by hooligans masquerading as protesters.

”The statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Plaza in front of the embassy was defaced by Khalistani elements on 12 December 2020. The Embassy strongly condemns this mischievous act by hooligans masquerading as protesters against the universally respected icon of peace and justice,” it said in a statement. The embassy said it has lodged a strong protest with the US law enforcement agencies and also taken up the matter with the Department of State for an early investigation and action against the culprits under the applicable law. The statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the presence of then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000, after the US Congress passed a law in 1998.

Also Read: Farmers protests highlights: Rahul Gandhi says, for Modi govt ‘protesting farmers are Khalistani’

This is for the second time that Gandhi’s statue has been desecrated by miscreants this year. The first such incident was reported on the intervening night of June 2 and 3 when unknown miscreants vandalised his statue outside the Indian embassy in the US with graffiti and spray painting, prompting the mission to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies.

Vandalism of the statue of the apostle of peace happened during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Gandhi’s statue vandalised in US, Indian embassy registers complaint

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Unknown miscreants have vandalised a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Indian embassy in the US with graffiti and spray painting, prompting the mission officials to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies.

The incident is reported to have taken place on the intervening night of June 2 and 3 in Washington DC.

The Indian embassy has informed the State Department and registered a complaint with local law enforcement agencies, which are now conducting an investigation into the incident.

On Wednesday, a team of officials from Metropolitan Police in consultation with the Diplomatic Security Service and National Park Police visited the site and are conducting inquiries.

Efforts are on to clean up the site at the earliest.

Vandalism of the statue of the apostle of peace comes during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

Several of these protests have turned violent which many times has resulted in damage of some of the most prestigious and sacred American monuments.
In Washington DC, protestors this week burnt a historic church and damaged some of the prime properties and historic places like the national monument and Lincoln Memorial.

One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000 during his state visit to the US.

In October 1998, the US Congress had authorised the government of India to establish and maintain a memorial ?to honour Mahatma Gandhi on Federal land in the District of Columbia.”

According to the Indian Embassy website, the sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi is cast in bronze as a statue to a height of 8 feet 8 inches. It shows Gandhi in stride, as a leader and man of action evoking memories of his 1930 protest march against salt-tax, and the many padyatras (long marches) he undertook throughout the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent.

The statue, the design of which was created by Gautam Pal, is a gift from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The pedestal for the statue of Mahatma Gandhi is a block of new Imperial Red also known as Ruby Red a block originally weighing 25 tonnes reduced to a size of 9’x7’x3’4″. It now weighs 16 tonnes.

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‘Once Upon a Virus’: China mocks US coronavirus response in Lego-like animation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China has published a short animation titled “Once Upon a Virus” mocking the US response to the new coronavirus using Lego-like figures to represent the two countries.

Washington and Beijing are locked in a war of words over the origins of the disease, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has grown into a global pandemic.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence.

In the animation posted online by China’s official Xinhua news agency, red curtains open to reveal a stage featuring Lego-like figures in the form of a terracotta warrior wearing a face mask and the Statue of Liberty.

“We discovered a new virus,” says the warrior.

“So what?” replies the Statue of Liberty. “It’s only a flu.”

As the warrior issues warnings about the virus and counts off the grim milestones in China’s outbreak, the Statue of Liberty replies dismissively with echoes of Trump’s press conferences in which he played down the severity of the illness.

“Are you listening to yourselves?” asks the warrior as the statue begins to turn red with fever and gets hooked up to an intravenous drip.

“We are always correct, even though we contradict ourselves,” the statue replies.

“That’s what I love about you Americans, your consistency,” says the warrior.

The United States and other countries have accused China of misleading the world about the severity of the outbreak, and there are growing calls for an international inquiry into the origins of the virus.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump said he believes China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid in November.

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China, US sign initial trade pact but doubts and tariffs linger

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China will boost purchases of  US goods and services by $200 billion over two years in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs under an initial trade deal signed by the world’s two largest economies, defusing an 18-month row that has hit global growth.

Key world stock market indexes climbed to record highs after the deal was signed on Wednesday in Washington, but later stalled on concerns it may not ease trade tensions for long, with numerous thorny issues still unresolved.

While acknowledging the need for further negotiations with China to solve a host of other problems, President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a win for the  US economy and his administration’s trade policies.

“Together, we are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for American workers, farmers and families,” Trump said in rambling remarks at the White House alongside  US and Chinese officials on Wednesday.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He read a letter from President Xi Jinping in which the Chinese leader praised the deal as a sign the two countries could resolve their differences with dialogue.

“While markets seemed to take this deal as a risk-on signal, we should all be aware that headlines about trade, particularly  US China trade, are going to be a constant feature of 2020,” said Hannah Anderson, Global Markets Strategist, J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Hong Kong.

The centerpiece of the deal is a pledge by China to purchase at least an additional $200 billion worth of  US farm products and other goods and services over two years, above a baseline of $186 billion in purchases in 2017, the White House said.

Commitments include $54 billion in additional energy purchases, $78 billion in additional manufacturing purchases, $32 billion more in farm products, and $38 billion in services, according to deal documents released by the White House and China’s Finance Ministry.

Liu said Chinese companies would buy $40 billion in  US agricultural products annually over the next two years “based on market conditions” which may dictate timing of purchases in any given year.

Beijing had balked at committing to buy set amounts of  US farm goods earlier, and has inked new soybean contracts

with Brazil since the trade war started.

Liu later said the deal would not affect “third parties’ interests”, apparently in reference to deals made with other suppliers of farm goods.

Chinese companies will import  US agricultural goods according to consumers’ need, and demand and supply in the market, Liu told reporters, according to CCTV.

Although the deal could be a boost to  US farmers, automakers and heavy equipment manufacturers, some analysts question China’s ability to replace imports from other trading partners with more shipments from the United States.

The deal does not end retaliatory tariffs on American farm exports, makes farmers “increasingly reliant” on Chinese state-controlled purchases, and does not address “big structural changes,” Michelle Erickson-Jones, a wheat farmer and spokeswoman for Farmers for Free Trade, said in a statement.

Oil prices rose, helped by expectations of more Chinese purchases of  US oil and gas.

Trump, who has embraced an “America First” policy aimed at rebalancing global trade in favour of  US companies and workers, said China had pledged action to confront the problem of pirated or counterfeited goods and said the deal included strong protection of intellectual property rights.

Washington’s insistence on enforcement mechanisms “with real teeth” could tear the deal apart if any tariffs are re-imposed for non-compliance.

US Speaker of the House of Representative Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s China strategy had “inflicted deep, long-term damage to American agriculture and rattled our economy in exchange for more of the promises that Beijing has been breaking for years,” in a statement.

Earlier, top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News the agreement would add 0.5 percentage point to US gross domestic product growth in both 2020 and 2021.

Aviation industry sources said Boeing Co was expected to win a major order for wide-body jets from China, including its 787 or 777-9 models, or a mixture of both.

The deal touted new wins for US companies looking to access China’s $40 trillion financial sector, but many of the changes were already in the works with Beijing stepping up the pace of opening up in the past year.

China’s central bank said Chinese financial institutions are completely capable of coping with foreign competition and it will strengthen financial supervisions as the sector is freed up.

TARIFFS TO STAY

The Phase 1 deal cancelled planned US tariffs on Chinese-made cellphones, toys and laptop computers and halved the tariff rate to 7.5 percent on about $120 billion worth of other Chinese goods, including flat-panel televisions, Bluetooth headphones and footwear.

But it will leave in place 25 percent tariffs on a $250-billion array of Chinese industrial goods and components used by US manufacturers, and China’s retaliatory tariffs on over $100 billion in US goods.

Market turmoil and reduced investment tied to the trade war would likely cut global growth in 2019 to its lowest rate since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said in October.

Trump, who has been touting the Phase 1 deal as a pillar of his 2020 re-election campaign, said he would agree to remove the remaining tariffs once the two sides had negotiated a “Phase 2” agreement.

“We’ve already begun discussions on a Phase 2 deal,” Vice President Mike Pence said in a Fox Business Network interview.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kochi ranked seventh on the list of 10 must-visit destinations in 2020

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Kochi has been selected as one of the ten must-visit cities in 2020 by travel magazine Lonely Planet. As per the latest report, the city is ranked seventh on the ‘Best in Travel 2020’ list of the travel magazine.

The city, known as the Queen of the Arabian Sea, is the only Indian city and the highest-ranking city from Asia on the List. Historical Austrian city of Salzburg topped the ranking followed by Washington DC in the US and Egypt’s capital Cairo. Dubai, at ninth spot, is the only other Asian city to make it to the list.

Kochi, the financial hub of Kerala, is also popular among tourists who throng to the scenic state. While its location as a gateway to the state’s famed backwaters, hill stations and beaches has attracted a steady number of visitors, the city’s scope is not just limited as a transportation hub.

Rich with a legacy of its own the city has been a base for several foreign cultures who entered India starting with Romans and all the way to Portuguese, Dutch and British.

The city is home to several historical sites and hosts the famed Kochi-Muziris Biennale, an international exhibition of contemporary art.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Companies welcome US-China trade truce, warn disputes remain

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Companies have welcomed a US-Chinese trade truce as a possible step toward breaking a deadlock in a 15-month-old tariff war, while economists caution there was little progress toward settling core disputes including technology that threaten global growth.

President Donald Trump said Washington will suspend a tariff hike planned for Tuesday on $250 billion of Chinese goods. In exchange, Trump said China agreed to buy as much as $50 billion of American farm goods. Details of other possible agreements weren’t immediately released.

The bruising battle over China’s trade surplus and technology ambitions has disrupted global trade. Economists warn a final settlement might take years to negotiate. Despite that, financial markets rise ahead of each round of talks and fall back when no progress is reported.

Companies acknowledged the agreement was a modest step and appealed to both governments to step up efforts to end the fight that is battering manufacturers and farmers.

Washington still is planning a December 15 tariff hike on $160 billion of smartphones and other imports. Before then, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to attend an economic conference in Chile in mid-November. That is raising hopes a face-to-face meeting might produce progress.

“Taking tariffs out of the equation for at last the next two months will give space for substantive negotiations,” said Jake Parker, senior vice president of the US-China Business Council, an industry group.

Trump said Friday’s deal has yet to be put down on paper but said, “We should be able to get that done over the next four weeks.”

China’s government welcomed “substantial progress” but gave no details of possible agreements.

“I don’t think it’s a victory, but it eases the situation,” said economist Yu Chunhai at Renmin University in Beijing. He said both sides want to restore business and consumer confidence.

There was no word of agreements on the core issues that sparked the dispute. Those include US pressure on Beijing to roll back plans for government-led creation of global competitors in robotics, electric cars and other technologies.

“There remains significant work ahead to address many of the most important US trade and investment priorities,” Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. Still, he called Friday’s announcement a “ray of hope.”

Washington, Europe, Japan and other trading partners say China’s plans violate its market-opening obligations and are based on stealing or pressuring companies to hand over technology. Chinese leaders see those tactics as the surest path to prosperity and global influence.

“With the key structural issues no closer to being resolved, we suspect that a mini deal would, at best, simply delay a breakdown in the negotiations,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard and Martin Lynge Rasmussen of Capital Economics.

Friday’s announcement also made no mention of commitments by Beijing in sensitive areas including subsidies to industry and cybersecurity, or the status of telecom equipment giant Huawei, which faces damaging US sanctions.

Trump imposed curbs in May on sales of American components and technology to Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand. Trump has said he is willing to use Huawei, one of the biggest global makers of smartphones and network switching gear, as a bargaining chip in the trade talks.

“The two sides will now return to a ‘muddle through’ strategy that avoids further tariff escalation but may not substantially reduce tensions,” Michael Hirson and Kelsey Broderick of Eurasia Group wrote in a report. “Both the US and China are likely to continue targeting each other through non-tariff measures, such as investment restrictions and regulatory barriers, which will be highly disruptive.”

Tit-for-tat tariff hikes by both sides have raised costs for producers and consumers. Some companies are shifting production and supply lines out of China to avoid the US tariffs, suggesting they expect the sanctions to stay in place for an extended period.

China’s exports to the United States, its biggest foreign market, have plunged, adding to pressure on Xi’s government to shore up cooling economic growth and avoid politically dangerous job losses.

The looming Dec. 15 tariff hike leaves a “black cloud” over Apple Inc. and other tech companies with factories or customers in China, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities in a report. He said it would be a “gut punch” if it goes ahead.

US complaints about Chinese technology policies, cyber spying and protection of patents and other intellectual property “will be the focus of tech investors,” said Ives.

Another potential stumbling block is how to enforce any agreement.

Talks broke down in May over Beijing’s insistence that Trump’s punitive tariffs had to be lifted once a deal took effect. Washington says some must remain in place to ensure Chinese compliance. Trump and Xi agreed in June to resume negotiations but there have been no breakthroughs.

Despite that, Beijing has gone ahead with other industry-opening initiatives aimed at making China’s economy more competitive and productive. None, however, addresses Trump’s complaints and business groups say they have had little impact on foreign companies.

On Friday, regulators announced a timetable for an initiative announced in 2017 to abolish limits on foreign ownership of some financial businesses. That starts with futures traders Jan. 1 and extends to securities firms and mutual fund managers later in the year.

“Even if it is not a new liberalization or something that hasn’t been announced before, it is still positive to have a date on the horizon for when companies can apply,” said Parker of the USCBC.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, under fire, seeks to mend fences in Washington

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill for a second day on Thursday as part of an effort by the social media giant to mend its reputation as it faces a slew of government investigations.

Zuckerberg, who is also Facebook’s founder, is set to be in Washington Thursday for meetings, including with Utah Senator Mike Lee, a Republican. He has other meetings planned for Friday on Capitol Hill.

A person briefed on the matter said Zuckerberg was also expected to hold meetings with the Trump administration. Facebook and the White House both declined to say if Zuckerberg would meet with President Donald Trump.

Facebook has spent the last several years under fire for a string of lapses ranging from inappropriately sharing information belonging to 87 million users with the now-defunct British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which triggered a $5 billion fine, to being slow to block the livestream of a New Zealand mass murder.

The social media giant, which is an advertising powerhouse, faces antitrust investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and a number of state attorneys general, as well as numerous legislative proposals that seek to restrict how it operates.

It may also face an antitrust probe by the U.S. Justice Department, and Senator Lee was critical of what he saw as duplication in federal investigations in a hearing on Tuesday.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, helped organize a dinner for Zuckerberg with other senators at the company’s request, Warner spokeswoman Rachel Cohen said Wednesday evening.

At an unnamed restaurant, the senators and Zuckerberg discussed “the role and responsibility of social media platforms in protecting our democracy, and what steps Congress should take to defend our elections, protect consumer data, and encourage competition in the social media space,” she said.

Senator Richard Blumenthal was among those at the dinner, and called the discussions serious and substantive.

“It’s no secret that I’ve been a tough critic of Facebook, so I was glad for the opportunity to discuss my concerns directly with Mr. Zuckerberg,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “I focused on the challenges of privacy safeguards and I welcome the strong, constructive interest shown by Mr. Zuckerberg.”

Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican and former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said that Zuckerberg was meeting with Democrats on the panel but did not name them.

“I hope he raises the issue of privacy too,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get a privacy bill going and I think he can have some influence, especially with some Democratic members on that issue.”

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US, China trade meeting ends with sharp response to Trump

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Talks between US and Chinese trade officials seeking ways to end a year-long trade war lasted barely half a day before ending on Wednesday with a terse response from China’s Foreign Ministry to US President Donald Trump’s warning not to stall.

As the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin landed in Shanghai on Tuesday, Trump accused Beijing on Twitter of stalling and warned of a worse outcome for China if it continued to do so.

This week’s meetings, the first in-person trade talks since a G20 truce last month, amounted to a working dinner on Tuesday at Shanghai’s historic riverfront Fairmont Peace Hotel and a half-day of negotiations on Wednesday. Neither team made immediate public comments.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who leads the Chinese delegation, waved off Lighthizer, Mnuchin and other US officials as their motorcade pulled away from Shanghai’s Xijiao State Guest Hotel following a group photo session that concluded around 1:45 pm, about 30 minutes before it was originally scheduled to begin.

A US government official told Reuters that the US officials were headed to the airport.

The trade war between the world’s two largest economies has disrupted global supply chains and shaken financial markets as each side have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s goods.

An official Chinese government survey released on Wednesday showed China’s factory activity shrank for the third month in a row in July, underlining the growing strains the row has placed on the Number 2 economy.

The Shanghai talks were expected to centre on “goodwill” gestures, such as Chinese commitments to purchase US agricultural commodities and steps by the United States to ease some sanctions on Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a person familiar with the discussions told Reuters earlier.

Those issues are somewhat removed from the more core US complaints in the trade dispute, including Chinese state subsidies, forced technology transfers and intellectual property violations.

‘NO DEAL IS FINE’

As talks were just beginning on Tuesday, Trump said on Twitter that China appeared to be backing off on a pledge to buy US farm goods, and he warned that if China stalled negotiations in the hope that he wouldn’t win re-election in the November 2020 U.S. presidential contest, the outcome will be worse for China.

“The problem with them waiting … is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now … or no deal at all,” Trump said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, responding to a question about those tweets, said she was not aware of the latest developments during talks, but that it was clear it was the United States who continued to “flip flop”.

“I believe it doesn’t make any sense for the US to exercise its campaign of maximum pressure at this time. It’s pointless to tell others to take medication when you’re the one who is sick,” Hua told a news briefing.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in June at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, to restart trade talks that stalled in May, after Washington accused Beijing of reneging on major portions of a draft agreement — a collapse in the talks that prompted a steep US tariff hike on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

The US Commerce Department put Huawei on a national security blacklist in May, effectively banning US firms from selling to Huawei, a move that enraged Chinese officials.

Trump said after the Osaka meeting that he would not impose new tariffs on a final $300 billion of Chinese imports and would ease some US restrictions on Huawei if China agreed to make purchases of US agricultural products.

But so far, US semiconductor and software makers are still mostly in the dark about the administration’s plans.

In Sao Paulo on Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said decisions on license applications by US firms to resume some sales to Huawei could come as early as next week.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times tabloid, wrote on Twitter that the negotiators had “efficient and constructive” exchanges.

“The two sides discussed the increasing purchase of US farm products and the US side agreed to create favourable conditions for it. They will hold future talks,” Hu said, without elaborating.

Earlier, the Global Times said if Washington still holds the illusion that Beijing will somehow cave in and compromise on issues concerning sovereignty, “then no deal is fine”.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow