Descending into chaos; Syrian militias massacre, execute hundreds in recent days
Joshua Landis, head of the Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oklahoma, talks about the violence and civil unrest in Syria that killed over 1,000 people. #Syria #Violence #Unrest
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New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Biden admin evacuated 55 Afghans on terror watchlist to US during botched withdrawal: DOJ watchdog
US officials encountered 55 Afghan evacuees on the terrorist watchlist after the Biden administration's chaotic 2021 withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country, according to a Justice Department inspector general report. The report, released Tuesday, confirmed longstanding suspicions from Republican lawmakers that the Biden administration failed to properly vet US-bound refugees as the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan. 'I've sounded the alarm about the need to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuee applicants since August 2021,' Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement, reacting to the DOJ IG report. 'The Biden-Harris administration, my Democrat colleagues in Congress and many in the media were quick to dismiss glaring red flags that a nonpartisan national security analysis now confirms.' 3 Grassley charged that the Biden administration endangered the lives of Americans by allowing improperly vetted Afghan refugees into the US. AP The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) identified 55 Afghans that were either already on the terrorist watchlist and made it to a US port of entry or were added to the database during the evacuation and resettlement process, the report found. Of those, at least 21 were added to the terror list after they had already entered the US. After investigations, the FBI eventually removed 46 evacuees from the watchlist, determining that they posed no threat to the homeland. However, nine remained in the terror database as of July 2024 and eight were in the US. 'As if it wasn't already obvious, the Biden-Harris administration endangered American lives by allowing suspected terrorists to enter the United States and roam free for years,' Grassley argued, noting that his 'oversight of this matter will continue.' Roughly 90,000 Afghans were allowed entry into the US and became eligible for Special immigrant Visas under the Biden administration's Operation Allies Refuge (OAR) and Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) programs, which provided the foreign nationals immigration processing and resettlement support. 'According to the FBI, the need to immediately evacuate Afghans overtook the normal processes required to determine whether individuals attempting to enter the United States pose a threat to national security, which increased the risk that bad actors could try to exploit the expedited evacuation,' the DOJ IG report stated. Despite the 55 individuals flagged, the DOJ inspector general determined that overall 'each of the responsible elements of the FBI effectively communicated and addressed any potential national security risks identified.' 3 The Biden administration hastily evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans as the country fell to the Taliban in 2021. AFP via Getty Images 3 As of July 2024, eight Afghans on the FBI's terror watchlist were still in the United States. AP Last October, the DOJ charged an Afghan national brought into the US during the chaotic withdrawal with plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was living in Oklahoma City on a Special Immigrant Visa as he took steps to stockpile AK-47 rifles and ammunition to carry out an attack on US soil 'in the name of ISIS,' according to the Justice Department. Tawhedi entered the US on Sept. 9, 2021, just weeks after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and the last US troops departed from the war-torn nation. Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and is currently awaiting trial.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
China's Petrochemical Reliance on U.S. Outweighs Rare Earth Trade
US petrochemical producers may have found themselves on the front line of global trade wars, BNEF reports, with China's dependence on the US for feedstocks (see "Chinese Plastics Factories Face Mass Closure As US Ethane Supply Evaporates") blunting the impact of its dominations of exports of rare earth metals. China imported more than 565,000 barrels per day of petrochemical feedstocks from the US in 2024 according to the Energy Information Administration, with a value of over $4.7 billion. That dwarfed the $170 million of rare earths the US imported last year, about 70% of which came from China, according to the US Geological Survey. The figures show the dependence the US and China have developed on each other by ever tightening trade links over the past few decades. While China has a tight grip on refining many metals crucial for industry, it also takes in niche chemicals from the US that are difficult to buy elsewhere. China leans on naphtha to produce most base chemicals, which are processed further to end up in everyday items like electronics and clothing. However, some plants can switch to cheaper propane when the economics make sense, which they do regularly. Propane dehydrogenation plants however can't process alternatives like naphtha. The US accounted for over half of all China's propane imports in 2024. US producers have looked to China to buy their ballooning volumes of feedstock, the market value of which has almost quadrupled since 2020. China accounts for almost half of all new mixed-feed ethylene and propylene production capacity set to come online globally over the next four years, based on data compiled by BloombergNEF. A forced divorce The honeymoon period may be about to end. Following the implementation of tariffs by President Donald Trump's administration in April, China retaliated with its own on US imports — including a 125% tariff on feedstocks like propane and ethane. The duty effectively killed the economics of importing US feedstocks. Alternative sources of propane may be hard or expensive to come by, with producers in the Middle East sending most of their supplies to India, South Korea and Japan. While some rerouting could take place, Middle Eastern players could use the lack of alternatives for China's propane dehydrogenation plants to charge a premium. China's propane dehydrogenation operators, like Hengli Petrochemical, have already suffered from weak margins over the past years. Many may opt to shut their operations temporarily. A messy settlement China moved quickly to remove tariffs on US ethane as trade talks commenced. However, while China seems willing to buy US ethane, the US administration may no longer allow it. Enterprise Products Partners — the largest US-based exporter of petrochemical feedstocks — received a notice on Wednesday from the Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce, denying licenses to export ethane to China on the basis that such flows 'pose an unacceptable risk of use in or diversion to a 'military end use' in China.' Energy Transfer received a similar communication. China's ethane cracking capacity is dwarfed by its capacity to process naphtha and propane, but almost all of its ethane imports come from the US. The restrictions will have a significant impact on the Lianyungang and Tianjin plants, owned by Satellite Chemical, Sinopec and INEOS. SP Chemicals, a Singapore-based producer, sources most of its feedstock from Enterprise Products Partners. As the trade war continues, it appears commodities may lead the confrontation, with players on both sides set to feel the pain. By More Top Reads From this article on
Politico
2 days ago
- Politico
A muted backlash to Trump's new travel ban
What up, Recast fam. On today's agenda: Donald Trump's newest travel ban is an indication he's become more sophisticated in deploying his immigration agenda during his second swing through the White House. In 2017, when a freshly inaugurated Trump — then a political novice — issued his haphazard and sweeping executive order banning people from Muslim-majority nations, it incited chaos at airports and drew widespread protests from critics who called it racist and an executive overreach. Legal challenges prevented the full scope of that initial ban from being implemented, but ultimately a watered down version was upheld by the Supreme Court the following year. The newest ban, which targets mainly African and Middle Eastern nations, went into effect on Monday and has a decent chance of making it through the courts. (More on that momentarily.) But the most notable shift from Trump's first term was the muted response from the public on the new ban, which fully restricts people visiting the United States from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, and imposes partial restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. One reason may be that the ban's implementation comes amid the escalating tensions in Los Angeles over Trump's unilateral deployment of National Guard troops and Marines into the city to restore order after protests against ICE raids. But it may also be that the president's opponents are overwhelmed by other episodes. 'There's just so many attacks coming from the Trump administration on all fronts,' said Kerri Talbot, co-executive director of the Immigration Hub. 'It is a little different since it's not the only thing they're doing when they're doing dozens of different actions,' she added, which includes mass deportations of migrants in the U.S. to El Salvador without first going through immigration courts. Was The Recast forwarded to you by a friend? Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter here. You'll get a weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy. Others argue Trump and his aides have simply gotten more savvy in implementing his travel ban. The president's first-term ban applied to citizens from eight nations traveling to the U.S. and went into effect immediately — meaning those en route to the country or who had not left domestic airports when the order was issued were detained there. The proclamation issued last week is far more methodical and does not apply to those with existing legal status in the U.S. Further, the newest order cited perceived risks to national security, high rates of visa overstays and lax vetting protocols of the foreign nations as justifications for the ban. Those policy tweaks may have contributed to why there's been a less spirited critique of these new travel restrictions and why the effort might hold up in court. 'It's not an emergency like what he created in 2017,' said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which sued the administration over its first-term ban. 'I think there will be some time for reactions to pile up. But again, because this ban doesn't have any instant impact — in particular, people already have legal status — I think that's why you're not going to see the same reaction you saw in 2017 with mass protests breaking out at airports.' Others criticize congressional Democrats for being flat-footed on the immigration messaging, saying their statements railing against the ban will not cut it. 'There's no strategy, no conversation, no decent talking point,' said Nana Gyamfi, executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration. 'I think this would be an issue that a congressperson would give a damn about.' Some immigration advocates also criticize Trump in particular for going after Haiti, the poor, majority-Black nation that is approximately 600 miles south of Florida's shores and is heavily reliant on U.S. aid. Guerline Jozef, the co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, recalled how Trump famously referred to Haiti as one of the 'shithole' nations during a 2018 White House meeting with a bipartisan group of senators where they were discussing details of an immigration lottery program. Trump at the time suggested the U.S. needed to admit more people from places like Norway instead. Jozef said Trump's recent refugee resettlement of white South Africans to the U.S. is evidence that he's not changed his attitude toward majority-Black nations. 'The [administration's] main goal is to create pain, trauma and terror, instead of welcoming people with dignity [from] the countries they have put in the list,' she said. 'They continue to intentionally create those policies … that are centered in the destruction and the unwelcoming of Black people.' We'll continue to monitor how this latest immigration ban and the ongoing clashes in Los Angeles continue to play out. All the best,The Recast Team NEW JERSEY GOV PRIMARY Nearly a dozen candidates are vying for the Democratic and Republican nominations to replace Phil Murphy, New Jersey's term-limited governor. As my colleagues Madison Fernandez and Danial Han point out, this primary contest is the most competitive in recent history, with the Democratic side appearing to be a bit more up in the air than the GOP contest. Rep. Mikie Sherrill is seen as the betting favorite to secure victory in today's Democratic primary, which is expected to draw a relatively low turnout. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, however, earned national attention last month when he was arrested during a demonstration with several lawmakers who were attempting to inspect Delaney Hall, a privately operated federal immigration detention center that Democrats and progressive activists accused of violating safety protocols. Other candidates in the crowded primary field include Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. Trump, of course, looms large in the GOP primary. He endorsed Jack Ciattarelli, a former state representative who narrowly lost to Murphy four years ago. His chief opponent is Bill Spadea, a former radio host who also is claiming the MAGA mantle. New Jersey is just one of two states holding statewide elections in the fall. The other is Virginia, and while the latter is considered the more swingy of the two, Trump made traditionally blue New Jersey's contest far closer than predicted in the 2024 presidential election, losing to Kamala Harris there by just 6 percentage points. Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern. WHAT WE'RE WATCHING THIS WEEK HOGG TIRED — There continues to be fallout from the extraordinary admission from Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin that 'I don't know if I wanna do this anymore.' POLITICO's Holly Otterbein obtained a Zoom recording from last month where Martin described his deep frustration over DNC Vice Chair David Hogg's vow to drop $20 million to oust Democratic lawmakers in safe seats that Hogg sees as ineffective. And more: FIRST IN THE RECAST – The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a leading coalition of Latino civil rights and advocacy organizations sent a memo to top Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune, expressing their 'grave concern' and demanding a course correction on the president's 'big beautiful bill' currently before Congress. 'Latino communities, who disproportionately work in lower-wage jobs that do not offer employer-sponsored health insurance, will be especially affected,' the coalition writes in their memo, arguing the hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid cuts will be detrimental to their communities. 'The narrative that these cuts are necessary to eliminate 'fraud and abuse' is both misleading and dangerous,' the letter continues, 'These families are not abusing the system—they are surviving because of it.' TODAY'S CULTURE RECS Sly Stone tributes — Considered one of the 1960s' most groundbreaking musicians, Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart and the leader of the band Sly and the Family Stone, which blended rock, R&B and soul music, died Monday. He was 82. Read about him here, and check out this listicle featuring the group's essential hits. Stephen A. Smith and Jon Stewart chop it up — Sports broadcaster Stephen A. Smith, who is said to be flirting with a presidential run, sat down for an extended segment Monday night on 'The Daily Show.' 'Hamilton' is celebrated at the Tony Awards — Check out the OG cast reuniting for a rocking performance. Misty Copeland retires — The barrier-breaking ballet dancer is ready for her next chapter. She reflects on her storied career with the AP.
