Nothing More Important Than Preserving the Coalition: John Howard
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has emphasised the importance of preserving the centre-right Liberal-National Coalition, drawing on historical lessons to support his position.
On May 20, Nationals leader David Littleproud made a
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5 hours ago
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America the Fortress
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Past leaders have imagined the United States as a 'shining city upon a hill,' a melting pot, a 'beacon to the world.' Donald Trump is working toward a different vision: the United States as a fortress. Late Wednesday, the White House announced a new version of the travel bans that it had imposed during Trump's first term, barring people from 12 countries—Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen—from coming to the U.S., and restricting entry from seven others: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. (The ban has some exceptions.) Shortly after, he issued a proclamation that bars foreign nationals from entering the country to attend Harvard University—though not other universities, for reasons that are not satisfactorily explained but seem to boil down to Trump's animus toward the school. A judge promptly issued a temporary block on the new rule. (Trump had made the move after she temporarily blocked his previous attempt to prohibit Harvard from enrolling foreign students.) The new travel ban is, if you're keeping score, Trump's fifth, and the widest ranging. The first came on January 27, 2017. In line with his campaign promise to prevent Muslims from entering the United States, it barred entry to people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days; suspended refugee admission for 120 days; indefinitely blocked refugees from Syria; and lowered the overall annual cap on refugees. When a federal judge temporarily blocked the order, Trump replaced it with a somewhat narrower one, again running for 90 days, which covered the same countries minus Iraq. Federal courts initially blocked the core parts of that order too, though the Supreme Court allowed it to mostly go forward. Trump issued additional bans in fall 2017 and January 2020, with various changes to the countries covered. Joe Biden rescinded the bans on January 20, 2021. In a video about the new ban, Trump cited 'the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas,' and said: 'We don't want them.' That message is loud and clear—even to those who aren't formally banned. Horror stories about foreign nationals visiting the U.S. have begun to circulate: Two German teens claimed that they were detained, strip-searched, and deported from Hawaii (U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied their account and alleged that they had entered the country under false pretenses); an Australian ex–police officer said she was locked up while trying to visit her American husband; New Zealand's biggest newspaper ran an article in which an anonymous 'travel industry staffer' encouraged Kiwis not to visit the United States. These anecdotes could exact a cost. The World Travel & Tourism Council, an industry trade group, released a report last month forecasting a $12.5 billion decline in tourist spending in the United States this year. That is not the product of global factors: Out of 184 countries the group studied, the U.S. is the only one expected to see a drop. Other forecasts see a smaller but still huge decline, though so far the data show a major decline only in travel to the U.S. from Canada. The Trump administration's reputation as a host has taken a hit in other ways too. A visit to the White House was once a desirable prize for any foreign leader; now even allies are approaching them with trepidation. After the president ambushed Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa in Oval Office meetings—showing a racist and misleading clip, in the latter case—German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly prepared for yesterday's meeting by seeking tips from other world leaders on how to handle Trump. (The encounter was still bumpy at times.) This hostility to foreigners of all sorts is neither an accident nor collateral damage. It's the policy. Trump's xenophobia is long-standing and well documented, but some of his aides have developed this into more than just a reflex of disgust. Vice President J. D. Vance has championed ideas aligned with the 'Great Replacement' theory that Democrats are trying to dilute the existing demographic and cultural mix of the United States with immigrants. 'America is not just an idea,' he said last July. 'It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future.' Stephen Miller and the Project 2025 crew, each of whom exerts a great deal of influence over Trump's policies, have pushed not just for stopping illegal immigration and deporting migrants but also for limiting legal immigration. The rare exception that Trump and his aides allow helps make the implied racism in these ideas explicit. The administration has moved to dramatically reduce refugee admissions, but last month, it welcomed a few dozen white Afrikaners from South Africa, whom the White House claims were victims of racial discrimination at home. The administration even seems eager to discourage people from leaving the country. Green-card holders are being arrested and detained while reentering the U.S.; immigration lawyers say the safest course for legal permanent residents is to stay in the country. Trump has also repeatedly expressed a desire to weaken the dollar, which would make it more expensive for Americans to vacation overseas. North Korea is frequently described as a hermit kingdom for its willingness to wall itself off from the rest of the world. Trump has expressed his admiration for and personal bond with Kim Jong Un before, but now he seems eager to emulate Kim's seclusion too. Related: Trump's campaign to scare off foreign students How the Trump administration learned to obscure the truth in court Here are four new stories from The Atlantic. What happens when people don't understand how AI works Trump is wearing America down. Inside the Trump-Musk breakup The Super Bowl of internet beefs Today's News The Supreme Court ruled that DOGE members can have access to the Social Security Administration's sensitive records. The Labor Department released numbers showing that job growth was strong but did slow last month amid uncertainty about Donald Trump's tariff policies. The unemployment rate held steady. Five leaders of the Proud Boys, four of whom had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy due to their actions on January 6, 2021, sued the government for $100 million, claiming that their constitutional rights had been violated. More From The Atlantic Juliette Kayyem: The new Gaza relief effort was bound to fail. Every election is now existential. As America steps back, others step in. Evening Read Fast Times and Mean Girls By Hillary Kelly In the early spring, I caught a preview at my local Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for its forthcoming stoner-classics retrospective: snippets of Monty Python's Life of Brian; Tommy Boy; a few Dada-esque cartoons perfect for zonking out on, post-edible. The audience watched quietly until Matthew McConaughey, sporting a parted blond bowl cut and ferrying students to some end-of-year fun, delivered a signature bit of dialogue. 'Say, man, you got a joint?' he asked the kid in the back seat. 'Uhhh, no, not on me, man.' 'It'd be a lot cooler if you did,' he drawled. The crowd, including me, went wild. Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, in which a fresh-faced McConaughey appears as Wooderson, the guy who graduated years back but still hangs with the high-school kids, is that kind of teen movie: eternally jubilance-inspiring. Set in 1976 and released in 1993, it's a paean to the let-loose ethos of a certain decade of American high school. And boy do these kids let loose. Read the full article. Culture Break Watch. The Phoenician Scheme, in theaters, is the latest Wes Anderson film to let modern life seep into a high-concept world. Read. Check out our summer reading guide to find a book for every mood. Play our daily crossword. P.S. In other immigration news, ABC News broke the story this afternoon that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident and Salvadoran citizen whom the Trump administration deported to a Salvadoran Gulag, has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges. The Justice Department acknowledged in court that Abrego Garcia's removal was an 'administrative error,' as my colleague Nick Miroff reported, before resorting to ever more absurd claims that he was a member of the gang MS-13. Now Abrego Garcia has been indicted for alleged involvement in a scheme to traffic migrants within the United States. I have no idea if these charges are true; the indictment is relatively brief, and the administration's earlier desperation to pin charges on him is worrying. (The investigation that led to the criminal charges reportedly began only after his removal.) Nevertheless, if the government believes that he committed these crimes, he should be tried in court with due process. As I wrote in April, 'If the people who are getting arrested are really the cold-blooded criminals the executive branch insists they are, saying so in a court of law should be relatively easy.' Now the administration will have a chance to do that, and Abrego Garcia will have a chance to defend himself. — David Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Carney defends inviting Modi to G7 after RCMP linked India to murders and extortion
Prime Minister Mark Carney defended his decision to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta just months after the RCMP accused his government of acts of murder, extortion and coercion. As this year's chair of the G7, Carney said it's important to have India at the table in Kananaskis while world leaders discuss issues including energy security and critical minerals, given the country's size and key role in the global supply chain. He said he consulted with the other G7 leaders on the decision. Carney also suggested India is now more willing to co-operate with ongoing Canadian investigations. "We have now agreed importantly to continued law enforcement dialogue. So there's been some progress on that," Carney said during a Friday news conference. "I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi in that context and he has accepted." The invitation, announced earlier Friday morning, garnered swift condemnation given Canada's public accusation that members of the Indian government are involved in plots to stoke fear and cause harm on Canadian soil. Last fall, the RCMP laid out allegations accusing agents of the Indian government of playing a role in "widespread violence" in Canada, including homicides, and warned that it poses "a serious threat to our public safety." That came after Canada accused Indian government agents of being involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian activist for Sikh separatism. WATCH | Carney defends decision: The World Sikh Organization of Canada said the decision caused "outrage and pain" within the Sikh community across Canada. "For Sikhs in Canada, this is a betrayal, not just of our community, but of core Canadian values," said president Danish Singh in a statement. Liberal MP criticizes PM's move The Sikh Federation of Canada called the trip "a grave insult." The group said Nijjar's 2023 shooting death outside a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., was "part of a co-ordinated effort to silence dissent and terrorize our community." A member of Carney's own caucus also voiced criticism. Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who represents the Surrey riding where Nijjar was shot, said neither he nor many of his constituents support Modi. "They are concerned about justice," he told CBC's Power & Politics. "We cannot tolerate any interference from any foreign agents irrespective whether they're from India, China, Russia, Iran or any other country." RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme has said the Mounties have strong evidence showing the "highest levels" of the Indian government were involved in orchestrating a campaign of violence on Canadian soil, including homicides, coercion and extortion. Duheme said police evidence shows Indian diplomats and consular staff collected information and brought that information to the Indian government, at which point instructions would be fed to criminal organizations to carry out acts of violence. There's been no suggestion from officials that the alleged campaign of violence has ended. The RCMP's comments came nearly a year after then prime minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada had evidence linking Indian agents to the killing Nijjar. Rising in the House of Commons in September 2023, Trudeau said Canadian security agencies were pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and Nijjar's death A Canadian citizen, Nijjar was a prominent local leader in the Khalistan movement pushing for the creation of an independent Sikh state in India. Four Indian nationals are accused in the alleged assassination plot and their cases are before a B.C. court. New Delhi has denied the allegations and has accused Canada of supporting "Khalistani terrorists." Leaders from the G7 countries — Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — along with the president of the European Commission are heading to Alberta for high-level meetings June 16 and 17. Conservatives say invitation is necessary Modi has been invited to every G7 leaders' summit since 2019, but Carney had been under pressure from Sikh organizations to break with that tradition. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called the invitation "necessary," saying Canada needs to work with India on trade and security files. "India has been at the last six G7 conferences. It's one of the biggest and fastest-growing economies in the world. We need to sell our natural gas, our civilian nuclear power technology and other resource projects to India," he said Friday. "We want to see the government work on addressing security issues at the same time when the prime minister has those conversations."The NDP called on Carney to rescind the invitation. "It is unconscionable that the government would roll out the red carpet" for Modi, said the party's critic for public safety and national security Jenny Kwan "This move undermines efforts to hold foreign powers accountable for interference and violence in our country." Trudeau met with Modi on the sidelines of the Italy G7 last June, but relations between the two countries remained terse. When the RCMP went public with its investigation, Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats and consular officials "in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the government of India." Global Affairs Canada said that it had asked India to waive diplomatic and consular immunities "and to co-operate in the investigation," but India declined. India responded by expelling six diplomats, including Canada's high Liberal government under Carney has shown a willingness to thaw relations with India. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she had a "productive discussion" with her Indian counterpart last month on "deepening our economic co-operation and advancing shared priorities." During the recent federal election campaign, Carney called the Canadian-Indian relationship "incredibly important." "There are strains on that relationship that we didn't cause, to be clear," he said. "But there is a path forward to address those with mutual respect." In a social media post Friday, Modi wrote that he looks forward to meeting at the summit. "As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests," he wrote.
Atlantic
7 hours ago
- Atlantic
America the Fortress
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Past leaders have imagined the United States as a 'shining city upon a hill,' a melting pot, a ' beacon to the world.' Donald Trump is working toward a different vision: the United States as a fortress. Late Wednesday, the White House announced a new version of the travel bans that it had imposed during Trump's first term, barring people from 12 countries—Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen—from coming to the U.S., and restricting entry from seven others: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. (The ban has some exceptions.) Shortly after, he issued a proclamation that bars foreign nationals from entering the country to attend Harvard University—though not other universities, for reasons that are not satisfactorily explained but seem to boil down to Trump's animus toward the school. A judge promptly issued a temporary block on the new rule. (Trump had made the move after she temporarily blocked his previous attempt to prohibit Harvard from enrolling foreign students.) The new travel ban is, if you're keeping score, Trump's fifth, and the widest ranging. The first came on January 27, 2017. In line with his campaign promise to prevent Muslims from entering the United States, it barred entry to people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days; suspended refugee admission for 120 days; indefinitely blocked refugees from Syria; and lowered the overall annual cap on refugees. When a federal judge temporarily blocked the order, Trump replaced it with a somewhat narrower one, again running for 90 days, which covered the same countries minus Iraq. Federal courts initially blocked the core parts of that order too, though the Supreme Court allowed it to mostly go forward. Trump issued additional bans in fall 2017 and January 2020, with various changes to the countries covered. Joe Biden rescinded the bans on January 20, 2021. In a video about the new ban, Trump cited 'the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas,' and said: 'We don't want them.' That message is loud and clear—even to those who aren't formally banned. Horror stories about foreign nationals visiting the U.S. have begun to circulate: Two German teens claimed that they were detained, strip-searched, and deported from Hawaii (U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied their account and alleged that they had entered the country under false pretenses); an Australian ex–police officer said she was locked up while trying to visit her American husband; New Zealand's biggest newspaper ran an article in which an anonymous 'travel industry staffer' encouraged Kiwis not to visit the United States. These anecdotes could exact a cost. The World Travel & Tourism Council, an industry trade group, released a report last month forecasting a $12.5 billion decline in tourist spending in the United States this year. That is not the product of global factors: Out of 184 countries the group studied, the U.S. is the only one expected to see a drop. Other forecasts see a smaller but still huge decline, though so far the data show a major decline only in travel to the U.S. from Canada. The Trump administration's reputation as a host has taken a hit in other ways too. A visit to the White House was once a desirable prize for any foreign leader; now even allies are approaching them with trepidation. After the president ambushed Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa in Oval Office meetings—showing a racist and misleading clip, in the latter case—German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly prepared for yesterday's meeting by seeking tips from other world leaders on how to handle Trump. (The encounter was still bumpy at times.) This hostility to foreigners of all sorts is neither an accident nor collateral damage. It's the policy. Trump's xenophobia is long-standing and well documented, but some of his aides have developed this into more than just a reflex of disgust. Vice President J. D. Vance has championed ideas aligned with the 'Great Replacement' theory that Democrats are trying to dilute the existing demographic and cultural mix of the United States with immigrants. 'America is not just an idea,' he said last July. 'It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future.' Stephen Miller and the Project 2025 crew, each of whom exerts a great deal of influence over Trump's policies, have pushed not just for stopping illegal immigration and deporting migrants but also for limiting legal immigration. The rare exception that Trump and his aides allow helps make the implied racism in these ideas explicit. The administration has moved to dramatically reduce refugee admissions, but last month, it welcomed a few dozen white Afrikaners from South Africa, whom the White House claims were victims of racial discrimination at home. The administration even seems eager to discourage people from leaving the country. Green-card holders are being arrested and detained while reentering the U.S.; immigration lawyers say the safest course for legal permanent residents is to stay in the country. Trump has also repeatedly expressed a desire to weaken the dollar, which would make it more expensive for Americans to vacation overseas. North Korea is frequently described as a hermit kingdom for its willingness to wall itself off from the rest of the world. Trump has expressed his admiration for and personal bond with Kim Jong Un before, but now he seems eager to emulate Kim's seclusion too. Here are four new stories from The Atlantic. What happens when people don't understand how AI works Trump is wearing America down. Inside the Trump-Musk breakup The Super Bowl of internet beefs Today's News The Supreme Court ruled that DOGE members can have access to the Social Security Administration's sensitive records. The Labor Department released numbers showing that job growth was strong but did slow last month amid uncertainty about Donald Trump's tariff policies. The unemployment rate held steady. Five leaders of the Proud Boys, four of whom had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy due to their actions on January 6, 2021, sued the government for $100 million, claiming that their constitutional rights had been violated. More From The Atlantic Evening Read Fast Times and Mean Girls By Hillary Kelly In the early spring, I caught a preview at my local Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for its forthcoming stoner-classics retrospective: snippets of Monty Python's Life of Brian; Tommy Boy; a few Dada-esque cartoons perfect for zonking out on, post-edible. The audience watched quietly until Matthew McConaughey, sporting a parted blond bowl cut and ferrying students to some end-of-year fun, delivered a signature bit of dialogue. 'Say, man, you got a joint?' he asked the kid in the back seat. 'Uhhh, no, not on me, man.' 'It'd be a lot cooler if you did,' he drawled. The crowd, including me, went wild. Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, in which a fresh-faced McConaughey appears as Wooderson, the guy who graduated years back but still hangs with the high-school kids, is that kind of teen movie: eternally jubilance-inspiring. Set in 1976 and released in 1993, it's a paean to the let-loose ethos of a certain decade of American high school. And boy do these kids let loose. Culture Break Watch. The Phoenician Scheme, in theaters, is the latest Wes Anderson film to let modern life seep into a high-concept world. Play our daily crossword. P.S. In other immigration news, ABC News broke the story this afternoon that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident and Salvadoran citizen whom the Trump administration deported to a Salvadoran Gulag, has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges. The Justice Department acknowledged in court that Abrego Garcia's removal was an 'administrative error,' as my colleague Nick Miroff reported, before resorting to ever more absurd claims that he was a member of the gang MS-13. Now Abrego Garcia has been indicted for alleged involvement in a scheme to traffic migrants within the United States. I have no idea if these charges are true; the indictment is relatively brief, and the administration's earlier desperation to pin charges on him is worrying. (The investigation that led to the criminal charges reportedly began only after his removal.) Nevertheless, if the government believes that he committed these crimes, he should be tried in court with due process. As I wrote in April, 'If the people who are getting arrested are really the cold-blooded criminals the executive branch insists they are, saying so in a court of law should be relatively easy.' Now the administration will have a chance to do that, and Abrego Garcia will have a chance to defend himself. — David
