Guam survivors excluded from nuclear compensation act
Among its transformations will be to remove incentives for undocumented migrants and walk back climate change measures by making it easier to lease public land for drilling and mining projects.
Some people on Guam meanwhile have been left heartbroken that the bill excludes them from the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors Robert Celestial said Guamanians exposed to radiation caused from US nuclear testing in the Pacific, won't be eligible for financial benefits from the government.
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ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Why is the Trump administration threatening to deport this Iranian man to Australia?
The US government is threatening to deport an Iranian man to Australia — even though he has no connection to Australia and has lived in the US since 1985. Reza Zavvar, a 52-year-old recruiter from Maryland, has been targeted for deportation because of a marijuana possession conviction from the 1990s, his lawyer says. A court order means he cannot be returned to Iran because of the risk of persecution there. So immigration authorities say they are sending him to either Australia or Romania after arresting him in the street near his home in late June. "They got him while he was walking his dog in his quiet suburban neighbourhood," his lawyer, Ava Benach, told the ABC. "And they detained him and sent him to Texas to hold him, and they said: 'We're gonna deport you to Australia or Romania.' His family, friends and locals are fundraising for a legal fight. They say Mr Zavvar had been quietly contributing to his community for years, helping out his elderly neighbours and making sandwiches each week for those in need of food. He had adopted his dog from a local shelter and recently moved in with his mother to help care for his grandmother. "After 40 years of living in the US, Reza knows no other home," his sister, Maryam, wrote as part of an online petition. "He waits in a privately run detention centre, thousands of miles from anything familiar, while bureaucrats decide his future." Mr Zavvar's case has highlighted a controversial strategy increasingly used by the Trump administration as part of its mass deportation regime — sending migrants to countries they have no connection to, sometimes using historical low-level misdemeanours as justification. But immigration lawyers said they had not seen Australia listed as a destination before. "Most of us in the immigration bar have been hearing about cases being sent to Central and South America," said Mahsa Khanbabai, an elected director on the American Immigration Lawyers Association board. "Normally, what we've been seeing is that the Trump administration is targeting countries where they feel they have some leverage, that they feel they can push around and bully. "Australia is not a country that we would normally consider to be in such a position." The Australian government said it had not been contacted by US authorities about the case. "There have been no new agreements made with the Trump administration on immigration," a government spokesperson said. Despite repeated requests for clarification, neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained why Australia had been selected. But in a statement, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: "ICE continues to try and find a country willing to accept this criminal illegal alien." Mr Zavvar's sister said her brother had "built his life in Maryland, surrounded by his loving family, including his parents, sister, and cousins". "He was a natural athlete, excelling in football during high school, where he was affectionately known as a 'gentle giant' — competitive on the field but kind and warm-hearted off." He had a green card, allowing him permanent residence in the US — but his lawyer says his past marijuana-related conviction was later used to jeopardise that status. In 2004, an airport agent noticed his conviction and started a process that could have led to deportation. But three years later, a judge issued a "withholding of removal" order, preventing his return to Iran. DHS says his previous conviction — for attempted possession of a controlled substance — remains a reason to deport him. "Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US," the department's Ms McLaughlin said. "Zavvar had almost 20 years to self-deport and leave the United States." The Trump administration has been pushing other countries to accept deportees who cannot return to their countries of origin: either because those countries will not take them back, or because of protection orders like Mr Zavvar's. The "withholding of removal" orders theoretically allow the US to deport the migrant to a different country, but that is historically rare. "We've never really seen people being sent to third countries in my 25 years of practice," Ms Khanbabai said. "When the UK started doing that a few years ago, I remember thinking, what a horrendous situation, thank God the United States doesn't do that. And now here we are seeing the US carry out these very same inhumane, what I would consider illegal, practices." The US government recently struck deals with several African countries, which have opened the door to more of these deportations. Small numbers of migrants — from countries including Vietnam, Cuba and Jamaica — have been sent to South Sudan and Eswatini. And on Wednesday, local time, Reuters reported that Rwanda had said it would accept up to 250 deportees, "in part because nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement, and our societal values are founded on reintegration and rehabilitation". The Trump administration says it is delivering on an election promise to crack down on the millions of people in the US who don't have legal rights to live there, and especially those with criminal convictions. "Under President Trump … if you break the law, you will face the consequences," Ms McLaughlin said. "Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US." But immigration lawyers and advocates say Mr Zavvar is among what appears to be a growing number of Iranians detained since the US air strikes on Iran in June. Green card and student visa holders, many of whom have clean records, are among them, Ms Khanbabai said. The lawyer, who is Iranian American and has many Iranian clients, said the community felt it was being targeted. "The Trump administration claimed that they were going to be going after criminals, yet the vast majority of people, including the Iranians, don't have any serious criminal offences or any at all," she said. "And so we're trying to figure out, is there an uptick of this focus on Iranians … or is this just part of the massive targeting of and scapegoating of immigrants?" Mr Zavvar's lawyer hopes her client's arrest will prove to be a publicity stunt that doesn't lead to his deportation. "I honestly think that they wanted to make a show of arresting Iranians in the wake of our bombing of the Iranian nuclear facility," Ms Benach said. "What people are going to remember is that the administration was arresting Iranians when they were certain that the Iranians were going to retaliate … and then six months from now, they might have to release them under the law, but we'll have moved on to something else."
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Samoa threatens to boycott Pacific Islands Forum if Taiwan is prevented from attending
On the program today An arm wrestle is underway over whether Taiwan will be able to participate at PIF, with Samoa's caretaker PM saying they could boycott the meeting if Solomon Islands stops Taiwan from attending. Fears the discovery of a so-called narco sub in Solomon Islands may be beyond capabilities of regional law enforcement agencies to deal with. Bougainville's upcoming election sees a decline in female contestants. The Cook Islands is celebrates 60 years of self governance in free association with New Zealand. The US embassy in Honiara will host an 83rd commemoration of the battle of Guadalcanal. New research explores the impacts climate change has had on cultural heritage in the South Pacific. And Fiji Rugby Union signs a second a memorandum of understanding, this time with Qatar.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Steal trophies': Trump's LA Olympics sex test threat after Imane Khelif saga
US President Donald Trump has threatened that all female Olympians at the Los Angeles 2028 Games may undergo a one-time sex test before they can compete. The last Olympic Games in Paris were overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Algerian welterweight boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese featherweight fighter Lin Yu-ting, The Sun reports. The duo both won gold medals in their respective weight classes amid a flurry of knockdowns. But during the Games it emerged that they had been disqualified from the 2023 Women's World Championships in New Delhi by the former world governing body, the International Boxing Association (IBA), for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests. In a statement, the IBA claimed the boxers 'did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognised test, whereby the specifics remain confidential'. They added: 'This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.' The pair were cleared to box in the French capital by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stripped the IBA of its powers and status in June 2023 following concerns over its governance. The IOC defended their position by declaring that 'as with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport'. Late on Tuesday, US time, at an event to mark the LA Games, Mr Trump was asked a loaded question about trans people competing. 'Will the Department of Justice consider pressing charges against any man that tries to masquerade as a woman coming into this country to beat up American athletes? 'And secondly, would your administration consider genetic testing so that these people can actually prove that they are actually women competing?' He replied: 'Well, I think there is going to be a very strong form of testing. 'As far as charges, I'd have to ask the Attorney-General about that. I don't know. 'But there will be a very, very strong form of testing. And if the test doesn't come out appropriately, they won't be in the Olympics. Mr Trump added: 'United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics.' Very few trans women have competed in the Olympics. But a threat to 'test' all women could lead to females who have never lived as a man being denied the ability to compete. One of the biggest controversies of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was the gold winning medal success of Algerian welterweight boxer Khelif. The International Boxing Association (IBA) had disqualified Khelif from a non-Olympic event because she had failed a 'confidential' gender test. But the Russian-led IBA was stripped of its powers – for unrelated reasons – with the Olympics allowing Khelif to compete. Khelif is not transgender and has never lived as a man. There is some suggestion – which is unconfirmed – she could have chromosomes that most men have. But it is also not unheard of for some women to have those chromosomes. An estimated 1.7 per cent of people are intersex. It is completely out of their control and means they may have some characteristics of the other gender despite never having lived as that gender. Last week World Athletics approved new regulations requiring athletes who wish to compete in the female category at next month's world championships to undergo genetic testing to confirm their biological sex Trump's second term will coincide with the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics — two major global sporting events taking place in the United States. Trump, 79, will undoubtedly aim to take a starring role during the event – just like he did during the FIFA Club World Cup.
