Racism in US American Immigration – DW – 07/24/2025
The 1790 Naturalization Act stipulated that only 'free white people' could attain US citizenship. Since then, a thread of discrimination, especially against people from Asia, Africa and Latin America, has been threaded through US immigration policy.
A goal of keeping the country's ethnic makeup as it was in 1900 dictates who fits in and who does not: Although even non-whites are welcome when needed as workers, legal residency and American citizenship are often unattainable for them.
Arts Unveiled traces the history of US immigration in conversation with policy analyst Michele Wucker and legal scholar Hiroshi Motomura, among others, and shows how discrimination continues to have an impact on who gets to stay in the country.
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Int'l Business Times
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Trump Punishes Brazil With Tariffs, Sanctions Over Trial Of Ally Bolsonaro
President Donald Trump ordered massive tariffs on Brazil Wednesday and sanctions against the judge overseeing a trial of his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of attempting a coup in Latin America's biggest economy. The announcement saw Trump make good on a threat to wield American economic might to punish Brazil -- and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in particular -- for what he has termed a "witch hunt" against former president Bolsonaro. Unlike the tariffs Trump is slapping on economies around the world, the measures against Brazil have been framed in openly political terms, sweeping aside centuries-old trade ties and a surplus that Brasilia put at $284 million last year. The moves dramatically increased the pressure on Moraes, who has emerged as one of the most powerful and polarizing people in Brazil -- and a consistent thorn in the far-right's side, after clashing repeatedly with Bolsonaro and others over disinformation. The Brazilian government's "politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of (Bolsonaro) and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil," the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the tariffs. It also cited Brazil's "unusual and extraordinary policies and actions harming U.S. companies, the free speech rights of U.S. persons, U.S. foreign policy, and the U.S. economy," and singled out Moraes by name. It did not state what date the tariffs would come into effect, but Trump had previously cited August 1. The new duties were announced shortly after the US Treasury slapped sanctions on Moraes, which followed a similar move by the State Department earlier this month. The sanctions provoked a swift and furious response from Brasilia, where Attorney General Jorge Messias slammed them as "arbitrary," "unjustifiable" and "a serious attack on the sovereignty of our country." There was no immediate reaction from Brasilia to the tariffs announcement, but President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had earlier denounced Trump's threats as "unacceptable blackmail." Bolsonaro is on trial for allegedly plotting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist Lula. He risks up to 40 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say the plot included a plan to arrest and even assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Moraes. Brazil has insisted it will proceed in its prosecution of Bolsonaro, and Trump's intervention in the case has so far improved Lula's popularity, as the Brazilian leader appeals for national unity in the face of US "interference." Both Marco Rubio, America's top diplomat, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued statements Wednesday announcing the new sanctions against Moraes. "Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies," Bessent said. Rubio, the secretary of state, accused Moraes of "serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention involving flagrant denials of fair trial guarantees and infringing on the freedom of expression." Moraes, 56, has played a controversial role in fighting disinformation. He was an omnipresent figure during the polarizing 2022 election campaign, aggressively using his rulings to fight election disinformation on social media. That included blocking the accounts of some prominent conservative figures. Last year, he ordered the shutdown of tech titan Elon Musk's X network in Brazil for 40 days for failing to tackle the spread of disinformation shared mainly by Bolsonaro backers. Bolsonaro has called Moraes a dictator, while his son Eduardo, an MP, had lobbied for US sanctions against the "totalitarian" judge. On Wednesday Eduardo Bolsonaro said the US action was "not about revenge, it's about justice." "Abuses of authority now have global consequences," he wrote on X. Trump's private media company has also sued Moraes over his social media-related orders. The US Treasury cited the Magnitsky Act for the sanctions. It freezes US-based assets and bars travel to the country for foreign officials accused of human rights abuses or corruption.
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Fact check: Tsunami unleashes fake films and misinformation – DW – 07/30/2025
An earthquake in the Pacific triggered tsunami waves across the US, Japan, and Russia — and a flood of misinformation online. DW separates fact from fiction. A powerful earthquake off Russia's east coast has prompted evacuations across the Pacific, from Japan to Peru, and caused tsunami waves in Russia, Japan, and Hawaii. Among the footage circulating online, misinformation is also spreading fast. DW Fact check has seen false information ranging from shared out of context to AI-generated fakes and entirely fabricated claims about the situation on the ground. The American talk show host and actress Oprah Winfrey, who lives part time in Maui, Hawaii, has been the target of harsh criticism. She owns a property there and the private road running up to it has sparked debate: Claim: "In Maui, Hawaii people are moving to higher ground. Oprah Winfrey has refused to let people use her private road," a user claims on X. DW Fact check: Misleading At the time the post was published on X, the road in question was already open to traffic, as the Maui Police Department clarified in a statement: "Oprah's road is open to get Upcountry." A spokesperson for Oprah Winfrey reacted to the claims in a statement shared with Newsweek: "As soon as we heard the tsunami warnings, we contacted local law enforcement and FEMA to ensure the road was opened. Any reports otherwise are false." Nevertheless, the claim that Oprah Winfrey would block her street to public traffic even in the face of the approaching tsunami persisted. On X in particular, posts to this effect reached millions of people, and the narrative also spread on Threads and TikTok. People reacted with anger to these posts. Some users posted videos showing that the road is open to traffic. This, as well as confirmation by the Maui police, undermine claims that Oprah Winfrey is blocking public use of her road to higher areas of the island of Maui, showing such posts to be misleading. As with previous breaking news events, much of the content being shared is older footage which is falsely labeled to suggest it shows the aftermath of the recent magnitude-8.8 quake. One of the most viral videos shows a couple in a rooftop swimming pool fleeing as heavy tremors begin. Claim: "What it's like at the rooftop swimming pool of a high-rise building during an M7.7 earthquake," says the post on X, which has 2.6 million views at the time of writing. DW Fact check: False While the footage is real and does show an earthquake's impact, it is not from the recent quake in eastern Russia. The video was filmed at a hotel in Bangkok on March 28, 2025, during a magnitude-7.7 earthquake centered in central Myanmar. Tremors were felt in Thailand and southwestern China. The clip can be verified via reverse image search and appears in media reportsfrom that time. Back then, a lot of fake content was shared, allegedly showing the aftermath and impact of the earthquake. DW Fact check found at the time that some of this information was false. Another post on Xclaims to show the "insane tsunami footage out of Russia." However, a reverse image search traces it back to a four-year-old video showing the impact of tsunami waves in Greenland. The original clip can be found in media reportsof the time. Back then, a massive landslide triggered a tsunami wave that caught local fishermen by surprise. A third video, also circulating on X, allegedly shows tsunami waves hitting land. But this clip was first posted in 2017and shows waves striking Durban North Beach in South Africa. It has been mislabeled in the past, including in 2023when it was posted along with the false claim it showed a tsunami following the Turkey-Syria earthquake. A viral postwith 6.4 million views on X shows screenshots from a TBS News DIG report about stranded whales on a Japanese beach. The post speculates that they may have been stranded by the tsunami. Claim: "In Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture, a whale is flipping over for unknown reasons, possibly due to the impact of a tsunami," says the post. DW Fact check: UnknownA reverse image search confirms the footage is from a TBS News report. Agency photos from The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP, via picture alliance verify that whales were indeed stranded. However, according to Chiba prefectural police, the whales had been beached the day before the tsunami and the events are believed to be unrelated. A report by The Asahi Shimbunquotes expert Tajima Yuko from the National Museum of Nature and Science, who notes that if unusual underground sounds occurred before the quake, their effects on whales remain unknown. The article also quotes Mika Kuroda from the NPO Stranding Network Hokkaido who says there is no factual basis for suggestions that stranded whales are precursors for earthquakes, not least because dolphins or whales are stranded every day in Japan. Artificial intelligence also contribute to the wave of disinformation. Several viral posts about a tsunami alert in California following an earthquake in Russia circulate misleading visuals. One of such viral images can be seen in a post on X stating: "Balboa is gone." It refers to Balboa Island, a waterfront neighborhood in Newport Beach, California, connected to the mainland by a bridge, ferry, and multiple public docks. The image shows rows of submerged buildings that are almost entirely underwater, with only their roofs and top floors visible. In the background, a bridge can be seen above the waterline. DW Fact check: Fake This is an AI-generated image. While a tsunami watch was issued for parts of California, the projected impact was expected several hours after this image was posted. At the time of posting, there were no official evacuation orders in San Francisco. Moreover, the image contains visual inconsistencies. Despite the water appearing to engulf buildings, the foot of the bridge in the background is entirely visible, suggesting water levels are not consistent across the image. The original post garnered over 95.2K views. DW Fact check also tested this image on AI-detecting tools like AIorNot and Hive Moderation, both of which identified it as 99% AI-generated. Another misleading videocirculating online claims to show real-time impact of the tsunami: "BREAKING — Tsunami footage from the Russian Earthquake is starting to roll in," says a post on X. One of the videos shows people lying on a beach as a large wave approaches and crashes over the sand. In the subsequent clip, a similar wave is shown engulfing the shore. DW Fact check: Fake This video is also AI-generated. None of the people in the footage visibly react to the incoming wave, even as it approaches and washes over them. The wave formation itself is also inconsistent with natural behavior, emerging out of nowhere without any visible buildup.
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NATO ex-employees accuse the alliance of going DOGE – DW – 07/30/2025
In unusually direct criticism, former NATO insiders say the alliance is being shaped to reflect Donald Trump's priorities. Officials, however, insist the restructuring is independent and overdue. Since NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte forged a consensus on massive spending hikes and flattered the United States president, Donald Trump has developed a newfound appreciation of the alliance. And, as a result, many people at NATO breathed a sigh of relief. But not everyone gave Rutte a hero's welcome. The secretary-general is facing a barrage of criticism, some of it public, over what his team calls an "optimization" of NATO resources. What might in normal times be described as a bureaucratic reshuffle, has created a different impression in the current trans-Atlantic climate. Some observers say Rutte is reconfiguring NATO to please the White House — and are doing so in ways that don't serve the alliance's broader or longer-term interests. Dr. Gerlinde Niehus, who held many positions at NATO over 26 years, has taken the lead in lambasting the changes. She went so far as to say that Rutte is following the controversial Elon Musk-driven downsizing under the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE). "Taking inspiration from the ill-conceived US 'DOGE' exercise, [the reorganization] is largely a sleek ingratiation aligned to US MAGA politics," Niehus wrote in a LinkedIn post, opinions which she later confirmed to DW directly. "Under the disguise of 'efficiency,' NATO HQ functions which could become the target of Donald Trump's ire for their presumed 'wokeness' or 'irrelevance' are either downgraded, tucked away or dissolved." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Niehus refers to two changes she finds particularly disturbing: The transfer of the office of NATO's Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) out of the secretary-general's office and the merger of the Climate and Energy Security Section with Defence Policy and Planning. She says these actions have been taken to "ensure lower visibility" of these issues. In Washington, DC, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has all but eliminated WPS programs at the Pentagon, and Trump is famously dismissive of efforts to combat climate change. Is it a coincidence that some of NATO's changes seem to mirror White House priorities? A senior NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity insists the more dangerous security environment, not any single ally, has compelled the reorganization of staff structures. "The secretary-general, like his predecessors, wants to ensure that the NATO Headquarters is organized so that it can function efficiently and effectively," the official told DW, "That is the impetus behind this structural reform, which is not aimed at cutting costs or numbers of staff but at better aligning areas of work." Perhaps the most visible difference will be the shuttering of NATO's Public Diplomacy Division (PDD). This has traditionally housed NATO's press operations; co-sponsorship of projects on issues such as societal resilience, interaction with students and other visiting groups; and general outreach to citizens. Many people in PDD will need to find other positions, while some will see their functions move to other units. The press office will be put directly under the secretary-general and the spokesperson's office. The other division being cut is Executive Management, which covers a range of tasks from recruitment to the internship program to archives. NATO sources say the number of posts being cut is not huge, perhaps 40 overall, because others are being created at the same time. Meanwhile, they say, there are some 300 vacancies. But Niehus, who spent many years in NATO public diplomacy and engagement efforts, still finds the elimination of PDD and reassignment of remaining communications staff hard to fathom at a time when she believes the alliance should be working overtime to "foster informed discussions on NATO and wider defense matters in our societies." She also fears the co-sponsorship grants program, which works with think tanks, universities and other civil society initiatives, "will come to a grinding halt." This takes on added significance with the U.S. government having disbanded its USAID global humanitarian assistance agency, which also helped fund some of these activities and services. But the senior NATO official told DW that the alliance's outreach efforts will not diminish; rather, PDD is "being reshaped into a more focused office of strategic communications." Other changes likewise "all drive toward the same principle — better alignment so that we can deliver on the crucial work of the alliance." NATO sources say the grants program will not be ended, although there may be a temporary pause to allow the bureaucratic changes to take effect. One former US State Department diplomat, given anonymity to discuss their views, agrees with the critics that there are risks to this shake-up if funding or staffing for public outreach is downgraded. Having served in both NATO and European Union public diplomacy posts in Brussels and around the world, this retired official fears the changes seen at both NATO and in the US could further fuel alienation and apathy among the public, both in alliance territory and other parts of the world. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The former official sees that happening in practice, for example, through long-distance conversations held at 5:30 a.m. once a week, as they continue mentoring a colleague posted in Asia. "My mentee told me that in her last conversation with her ambassador, she was considered 'failing' because the newspapers carried more about Australian assistance and Chinese assistance than American assistance," the retired official recounted, referring to the elimination of the USAID presence in this country. "She was 100% blamed for that. How are you supposed to win against the Chinese when we have nothing?" Back at NATO headquarters, regardless of whether it was an official order or not, some employees working in areas such as Women, Peace and Security and Climate have been encouraged not to make these parts of their job particularly visible. Several people have shared their experiences first-hand with this reporter. One prominent advocate on these issues, Hannah Neumann, a German Green member of the European Parliament, said she has similar stories from her NATO contacts. Neumann says she considers this "super frustrating because it doesn't make any sense from a purely scientific, security, political perspective.' However, she also emphasizes that it's essential to ensure that work on these topics keeps going. At present, she said she's been assured that this is happening — even if people have to change offices and keep their heads down to do it.
