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The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted' due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests
An Australian man who was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport and deported back to Melbourne says United States border officials told him it was due to his writing on pro-Palestine protests by university students. Alistair Kitchen said he left Melbourne on Thursday bound for New York and was detained for 12 hours and interrogated by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials during the stopover in Los Angeles. The 33-year-old said he was 'clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons' and said officials spent more than 30 minutes questioning him about his views on Israel and Palestine including his 'thoughts on Hamas'. Kitchen said officials asked him for his 'thoughts about the conflict in a very broad sense', including about student protesters, what Israel 'should have done differently' and 'how I would resolve the conflict'. 'It was quite an in-depth probing of my views on the war,' he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Kitchen said he was deported and landed back in Melbourne on Saturday morning. 'The CBP explicitly said to me, the reason you have been detained is because of your writing on the Columbia student protests,' he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The US Department of Homeland Security has been contacted for comment. Kitchen said he lived in New York for six years and wrote about the protests staged in support of Gaza at Columbia University while he was a master's student at the college, before he moved back to Australia in 2024. 'Because I was a creative writing student, I took the opportunity to witness the protests and wrote about them in depth on my personal blog,' he said. This year, Kitchen published a piece on his blog, Kitchen Counter, on the Department of Homeland Security's detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator of the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment. In the article, Kitchen said Khalil had been arrested 'on utterly specious grounds by a neo-fascist state' with the goal of 'the deportation of dissent'. He referred to the Trump administration's executive order of 30 January in which the government promised to go on the 'offense to enforce law and order' and 'cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses'. Kitchen, who was planning to return to New York for two weeks to visit friends, said he deleted 'sensitive political posts' from his blog as well as 'some social media' because he was aware of the increased risk of crossing the US border. However, he believed US border officials had used technology to link his posts to his application for a Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta), which allows eligible visitors to make a short trip to the US without a visa. He said he was called for over the intercom shortly after exiting the plane at Los Angeles international airpot and 'taken into a back room' for secondary processing 'Clearly, they had technology in their system which linked those posts to my Esta … a long time before I took them down,' he said. 'Because they knew all about the posts, and then interrogated me about the posts once I was there.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Kitchen said he wanted other Australians to be aware that 'cleaning' their phones wouldn't necessarily mean they would be able to get their Esta approved upon arrival in the US. 'They had already prepared a file on me and already knew everything about me,' he said. Kitchen said he agreed to give officials the passcode for his phone, which he now regretted. 'I had at that time, the wrong and false hope that once they realised I was, you know, just a Australian writer and not a threat to the US that they would let me in,' he said. 'But then they took my phone away and began downloading it and searching it.' Kitchen said he was 'terrified of retribution and reprisal from the US government' for speaking out about his experience but he wanted people to know what had happened. He urged other Australians who were detained upon arrival into the US to accept 'immediate deportation' instead of handing their phones over the border officials. He said he had put the 'offending posts' back online on his blog. Kitchen said his phone and passport were handed to a Qantas flight attendant at the start of his deportation flight and he was unable to get them back until they landed in Melbourne. Qantas confirmed that its staff received a sealed envelope from US customs officials containing the passenger's personal items which was returned upon arrival in Australia. The airline declined to comment further.
Metro
28 minutes ago
- Metro
'I'm a conservative dad who voted for Trump - I'd do anything for my trans child
Rick Colby, 64, does everything with his son. Hockey games, Ohio State football matches, mountain hikes. All 'typical American guy' stuff. The Republican also stood by his son's side when he was bed-bound after undergoing a mastectomy, or top surgery, to have his breasts removed when he was 19. 'Ashton is 32, so he's transitioned successfully,' Rick told Metro of his son, who is trans. 'Was it a challenge being his dad as he transitioned at age 19? Yes, but only because I didn't know what I was doing.' Ashton, however, did. Rick helped his son get whatever healthcare he needed to transition, seeing Ashton as his 'guide'. 'My son was meant to be a man,' Rick added. 'He has a masculine soul, I really believe that.' But a growing number of politicians and pundits say otherwise. With thousands of members from all over the world, our vibrant LGBTQ+ WhatsApp channel is a hub for all the latest news and important issues that face the LGBTQ+ community. Simply click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! Don't forget to turn on notifications! Over the past five years, Republican state lawmakers have pushed a barrage of bills to restrict the lives of trans people, including prohibiting their choice of public toilets and withdrawing the medical care they receive. Since Donald Trump came to power, the White House has joined them by limiting the sports teams they can play for and pledging to remove them from serving in the army. 'The current political environment is awful right now,' Rick said. 'Transgender people are being villainised, mocked, insulted and blocked from receiving healthcare. 'One trans woman Ashton and I know left the country to start over somewhere else.' Outlining his reasons for voting for Trump, he said: 'I believed the United States was staring into the abyss – and if Kamala Harris got elected, the nation would be destroyed. She would continue the failed and destructive policies of Biden, who I believe was the worst president in American history. 'That was the choice I had to make. Destroy the country or support transgender people. And the battle at the state level would continue, no matter how I voted.' He added he was surprised by his party's actions following Trump's second election to office, stating that he wasn't expecting the party to be as rigid as they have been over trans rights. 'Republicans are terrible on transgender issues, yes, but I didn't think they would go as extreme as they have,' he said. 'Many of the policies enacted by President Trump and at the state level by Republicans are malevolent and outright harassment, serving no public policy benefit. 'Does that distress me? Of course it does. But we still have free speech in America and Ashton and I will continue to advocate and do all we can. 'Do I believe we will eventually win? Yes. When my son Ashton's generation takes the reins of leadership in our society, being transgender won't be a big deal at all. But it's going to be rough going until that time.' Many are leaving Tennessee, too, after a law was passed in 2023 prohibiting medical providers from prescribing puberty-delaying medication, providing hormone therapy or performing surgery to treat what the law calls 'purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity'. Colby, who voted for Trump last year, is one of countless families closely watching a lawsuit that hopes to overturn the Tennessee ban. LW v Skrmetti, referring to Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti, was filed in 2023 and has made its way to the Supreme Court. A ruling is expected this month. The plaintiffs, three families and a doctor, say the law violates the Constitution by denying equal protection to trans people. J Matthew Rice, Tennessee's solicitor general, has argued the law was passed for medical reasons and is not sex discrimination. A verdict in favour of the ban could further jeopardise trans children, Rick said, leaving them two options: pull their kids out of school and move out of state, or stay and cut back expenses to afford out-of-state healthcare. 'I have no idea how the court will rule,' Rick said. 'It would be a great thing if they ruled on behalf of the family with a transgender child.' Sean Madden, the 59-year-old independent-conservative father of a trans daughter in North Carolina, said he hopes the same. Born and raised in New York City, his daughter, Allie, came out as trans when she was 16. 'My wife and I had a very superficial understanding of what it meant to be trans, so we did what almost all parents would do under the circumstances – try and understand,' he told Metro. 'It was clear she had been suffering and alone with this secret for some time.' Together with his wife, Anne Madden, 60, the couple researched healthcare options for Allie, including a therapist. 'The number one objective for your child is to keep them happy and healthy,' he said. Allie, now 25, recently graduated from New York University and is an aspiring electronic dance music producer. Sean knew he had to do something when he first heard of the Tennessee trans youth healthcare ban, thinking of what would have happened to Allie if she didn't have access to the healthcare she needed. So he spoke with 28 families of trans young people for an amicus, a brief offering expertise, in the Skrmetti case. 'My view is that it's a gross abuse of power to take away the decision away from parents and impose a one-size-fits-all remedy when there are no medically-approved alternatives,' Sean said. The Tennessee law bans medical providers from giving puberty blockers, which act like a pause button for puberty, to trans youth. But doctors can write up prescriptions to cisgender youngsters with precocious puberty, which can spur puberty as early as infancy. 'I spoke to a family who had twins, one twin is trans and the other is cisgender with precocious puberty,' said Sean. 'The cisgender twin can be prescribed Lupron… the trans twin in Tennessee and other states like it can't get the same safe and effective drug.' Sean, who works with the Gender Research Advisory Council & Education, pointed to how 40% of trans teens (about 118,300 people) live in a state that restricts their healthcare. More could follow. According to the monitoring service TransLash, of the 701 proposed anti-trans bills sitting in state Houses and Senates today, 189 aim to restrict trans healthcare. How many trans people live in Tennessee is unclear, but a 2022 survey found it is one of the top 10 states people are leaving because of its anti-trans laws, which include bans on updating gender markers on birth certificates and driving licences. One of the families Sean spoke to, a single mum in Utah, drove over state lines to get puberty blockers for her child, only to be unable to afford them. 'So she procured them in Mexico instead,' Sean said. 'These families rise above incredible obstacles and do what they can to get care. It shouldn't be that hard. 'It is not an overstatement to say that if this medically necessary care is taken away or unavailable, kids will die,' Sean added. 'It will fall on the most vulnerable families who can't travel out of state. You're going to have a two-tier health system.' Sean said that one way legislators try to justify their bans is 'dehumanising' trans people by coughing up so much disinformation that the community no longer seems like 'actual humans'. More Trending He worries the Supreme Court may do the same, with the conservative majority justices appearing poised to uphold the ban. To them, Sean has a simple question. 'Ask yourself, if you were in this position, you have an adolescent child with gender dysphoria, what do you do?' he said. 'I think most parents, regardless of their feelings, understand they have to care for their child. That's the job as a parent.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Putin calls Trump to say 'happy birthday' but there was 'no time to talk about Ukraine' MORE: Iran issues stark threat to UK and US if they help Israel deflect revenge strikes MORE: Florida sheriff warns rioters 'we will kill you' as protests spread across US
The Herald Scotland
39 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel reach merger agreement with US government
"This partnership will bring a massive investment that will support our communities and families for generations to come," the companies announced in a joint statement. "We look forward to putting our commitments into action to make American steelmaking and manufacturing great again." The agreement brings the companies one step closer to completing the $14.3 billion sale of U.S. Steel that the companies agreed to in December 2023. The companies also said the partnership will bring investments in steelmaking and protect and create more than 100,000 jobs. In January, former President Joe Biden issued an executive order to halt Nippon's acquisition of U.S. Steel, saying it would place America's largest steel producers under foreign control and create a "national security" risk. "Steel powers our country: our infrastructure, our auto industry, and our defense industrial base," said Biden in January. . "Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure." In February, Trump said that Nippon Steel would look to invest in U.S. Steel, rather than own the iconic American company. Trump doubled U.S. tariffs on steel imports to 50% on June 4. The takeover will set up the ailing American steel icon to receive the critical investment, and allow Nippon Steel to capitalize on a host of American infrastructure projects. It also absolves the Japanese firm of paying $565 million in breakup fees if the companies failed to secure approvals.
