Former longtime US House lawmaker dies
Former US Representative Charles Rangel, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and chair of the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, died on Monday, New York lawmakers said. Rangel, 94, an African American who had been the face of Harlem politics for decades and an influential lawmaker, stepped down from Congress in 2016 after more than 45 years in office. The Democratic lawmaker was a key player in efforts to help President Barack Obama pass legislation in 2010 to revamp US healthcare and make other major tax changes. Congress in 1987 approved the "Rangel Amendment" that he championed to revise the US tax code to bar foreign tax credits for US companies that invested in apartheid-era South Africa. Rangel was one of the key lawmakers who wrote legislation in 2000 to normalise trade relations with China and pushed for years to lift the US trade ban on Cuba. - Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
2 days ago
- Observer
Trump administration deploys Marines to Los Angeles, vows to intensify migrant raids
The Trump administration on Monday ordered U.S. Marines into Los Angeles and intensified raids on suspected undocumented immigrants, fueling more outrage from street protesters and Democratic leaders who raised concerns over a national crisis. Some 700 Marines based in Southern California were expected to reach Los Angeles Monday night or Tuesday morning, officials said, as part of a federal strategy to quell street demonstrations opposing the immigration raids, which are a part of a signature effort of President Donald Trump's second term. Although their mission to protect federal personnel and property is temporary - filling the gaps until a full contingent of 4,000 National Guard troops can reach Los Angeles - the deployment is an extraordinary use of military force in support of a police operation, and it comes over the objection of state and local leaders who did not request help. Meanwhile, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to carry out even more operations to round up suspected immigration violators, extending a crackdown that provoked the protests. Trump officials have branded the protests as lawless and blamed state and local Democrats for permitting upheaval and protecting undocumented immigrants with sanctuary cities. The military and federal enforcement operations have further polarized America's two major political parties as Trump, a Republican, threatened to arrest California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, for resisting the federal crackdown. California sued the Trump administration to block deployment of the National Guard and the Marines on Monday, arguing that it violates federal law and state sovereignty. The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was "gravely troubled" by Trump's deployment of active-duty Marines. "The president is forcibly overriding the authority of the governor and mayor and using the military as a political weapon. This unprecedented move threatens to turn a tense situation into a national crisis," Reed said. "Since our nation's founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil," he said. The announcement that Marines would be deployed was made on the fourth straight day of protests. Late on Monday police began to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held. Police said arrests were being made. National Guard forces had formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building. Then a phalanx of police moved up the street, pushing people from the scene and firing "less lethal" munitions such as gas canisters. Police had used similar tactics since Friday. RARE USE OF MILITARY U.S. Marines are known as the first American forces to establish a beachhead in U.S. military interventions, and as the last forces to leave any occupation. Though military forces have been deployed domestically for major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is extremely rare for troops to be used domestically during civil disturbances. Even without invoking the Insurrection Act, Trump can deploy Marines under certain conditions of law or under his authority as commander in chief. The last time the military was used for direct police action under the Insurrection Act was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked President George H.W. Bush to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King. Newsom contends it is his charge as governor to call in the National Guard, labeling Trump's" action as "an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism." Trump in turn said he supported a suggestion by his border czar Tom Homan that Newsom should be arrested over possible obstruction of his administration's immigration enforcement measures. "I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great," Trump told reporters.
Observer
3 days ago
- Observer
Trump travel ban in effect, citizens from 12 nations barred from US
Washington: President Donald Trump's sweeping new travel ban came into effect early Monday immediately after midnight, barring citizens from a dozen nations from entering the United States and reviving a divisive measure from his first term. The move is expected to disrupt refugee pathways and further restrict immigration as the Trump administration expands its crackdown on illegal entries. Many of the nations covered by the restrictions have adversarial relations with the United States, such as Iran and Afghanistan, while others face severe crises, like Haiti and Libya. In announcing his restrictions last week, Trump said the new measure was spurred by a recent "terrorist attack" on Jews in Colorado. The group had been protesting in solidarity with hostages held in Gaza when they were assaulted by a man the White House said had overstayed his visa. That attack, Trump said, "underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted" or who overstay their visas. The move bans all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, according to the White House. Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some temporary work visas from those countries will be allowed. New countries could be added, Trump warned, "as threats emerge around the world." Mehria, a 23-year-old woman from Afghanistan who applied for refugee status, said the new rules have trapped her and many other Afghans in uncertainty. "We gave up thousands of hopes and our entire lives... on a promise from America, but today we are suffering one hell after another," she told AFP. - World Cup, Olympics, diplomats excluded - The ban will not apply to athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, or in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Trump's order said. Nor will it apply to diplomats from the targeted countries. United Nations rights chief Volker Turk warned that "the broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law." US Democratic lawmakers and elected officials blasted the ban as draconian and unconstitutional. "I know the pain that Trump's cruel and xenophobic travel bans inflict because my family has felt it firsthand," congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, who is Iranian-American, posted Sunday on X. "We will fight this ban with everything we have." Rumors of a new travel ban had circulated following the Colorado attack, with Trump's administration vowing to pursue "terrorists" living in the United States on visas. US officials said suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national according to court documents, was in the country illegally having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022. Trump's new travel ban notably does not include Egypt. His proclamation said Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen lacked "competent" central authorities for processing passports and vetting. Iran was included because it is a "state sponsor of terrorism," the order said. For the other countries, Trump's order cited an above-average likelihood that people would overstay their visas.
Observer
4 days ago
- Observer
Trump sends military force to LA over immigration protests
LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump ordered National Guard troops to Los Angeles, a rare deployment expected on Sunday against the state governor's wishes after sometimes-violent protests against immigration enforcement raids. Trump took federal control of California's state military to push soldiers into the country's second-biggest city, a decision deemed "purposefully inflammatory" by California Governor Gavin Newsom and of a kind not seen for decades according to US media. The development came after two days of confrontations during which federal agents fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population. "It's up to us to stand up for our people," said a Los Angeles resident whose parents are immigrants, declining to give her name. "Whether we get hurt, whether they gas us, whatever they're throwing at us. They're never going to stop us. All we have left is our voice," she said as emergency services lights flashed in the distance. A photographer saw fires and fireworks light up the streets during clashes, while a protester holding a Mexican flag stood in front of a burnt-out car that had been sprayed with a slogan against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. "President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, blaming what she called California's "feckless" Democratic leaders. "The Trump Administration has a zero-tolerance policy for criminal behaviour and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs." Trump congratulated the National Guard for "a job well done" shortly before midnight on Saturday in a post on Truth Social. However, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said on social media platform X the troops had not yet been deployed, while journalists have so far not seen them on the ground. Trump took a swipe at Bass and Newsom, saying in his post they were "unable to handle the task," drawing a comparison with deadly fires that hit the city in January. The National Guard — a reserve military — is frequently used in natural disasters, such as in the aftermath of the LA fires, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local politicians. California's governor objected to the president's decision, saying it was "purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions." Federal authorities "want a spectacle. Don't give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully," Newsom said on X. Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to involve nearby regular military forces. "If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilised — they are on high alert," he wrote on social media. Law professor Jessica Levinson said Hegseth's intervention appeared symbolic because of the general legal restriction on the use of the US military as a domestic policing force in the absence of an insurrection. "The National Guard will be able to do (no) more than provide logistical (and) personnel support," she said. Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants — who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals" -- since taking office in January. The Department for Homeland Security said ICE operations in Los Angeles this week had resulted in the arrest of "118 aliens, including five gang members." Saturday's standoff took place in the suburb of Paramount, where demonstrators converged on a reported federal facility that the local mayor said was being used as a staging post by agents. Masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids in separate parts of Los Angeles on Friday, attracting angry crowds and setting off hours-long standoffs. — AFP
