Shekhar Kapur, Vivek Agnihotri slam Trump's 100% film tariff as ‘disastrous'
US President Donald Trump announced a 100 per cent tariff on foreign-produced films to revive the US film industry. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Vivek Agnihotri have reacted to Trump's decision. While, Kapur said that this will 'encourage Hollywood to move outside the US', Agnihotri called it a disastrous move.Shekhar Kapur, known for films like Mr India and Bandit Queen, wrote on X, "'Over 75% of box office of Hollywood films come from outside the US. And a significant part of the budget of those films are spent outside the US. President Trump's imposition of 100% tariff on all films imported into the US may encourage Hollywood to move outside the US! Quite the opposite of what he intended."
advertisementSharing Trump's tweet, Vivek Agnihotri wrote, "ALERT: Trump's 100% Movie Tariff Threatens Indian Cinema: Trump's 100% tariff on movies is a disastrous move. If this absurdity prevails, India's struggling film industry will collapse entirely, with no one to save it. Indian film leaders must wake up, unite, and fight this threat instead of chasing paparazzi and self-glorification."
Posting on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump criticised other nations for offering lucrative incentives to lure American studios and filmmakers abroad and described the situation as both an economic and national security threat. Trump stressed the need to return to domestic film production and added that the new tariffs are intended to level the playing field and encourage studios to keep their operations on US soil.Must Watch
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Hindustan Times
28 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the US, charged with transporting people in the country illegally
WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement, was returned to the United States on Friday to face criminal charges related to what the Trump administration said was a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally. His abrupt release from El Salvador closes one chapter and opens another in a saga that yielded a remarkable, months-long standoff between Trump officials and the courts over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was done in error but then continued to stand behind in apparent defiance of orders by judges to facilitate his return to the U.S. The development occurred after U.S. officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant for federal charges in Tennessee accusing Abrego Garcia of playing a key role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said Friday. 'This is what American justice looks like,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. A court appearance in Nashville was set for Friday. Democrats and immigrant rights group had pressed for Abrego Garcia's release, with several lawmakers — including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years — even traveling to El Salvador to visit him. A federal judge had ordered him to be returned in April and the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by directing the government to work to bring him back. But the news that Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs, was being brought back for the purpose of prosecution was greeted with dismay by his lawyers. 'The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they're bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along,' said one of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. The indictment, filed last month and unsealed Friday, lays out a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now, nearly three months after Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported and following the Trump administration's repeated claims that he is a criminal. It accuses him of smuggling throughout the U.S. thousands of people living in the country illegally, including members of the violent MS-13 gang, from Central America and abusing women he was transporting. A co-conspirator also alleged that he participated in the killing of a gang member's mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation. 'Later, as part of his immigration proceedings in the United States, the defendant claimed he could not return to El Salvador because he was in fear of retribution from the 18th Street gang,' the detention memo states. 'While partially true — the defendant, according to the information received by the Government, was in fear of retaliation by the 18th Street gang — the underlying reason for the retaliation was the defendant's own actions in participating in the murder of a rival 18th Street gang member's mother," prosecutors wrote. The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime, while the officers allowed him to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver's license, according to the DHS report. The report said he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work. In response to the report's release in April, Abrego Garcia's wife said in a statement that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, 'so it's entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle. He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.' Abrego Garcia's background and personal life have been a source of dispute and contested facts. Immigrant rights advocates have cast his arrest as emblematic of an administration whose deportation policy is haphazard and error-prone, while Trump officials have pointed to prior interactions with police and described him as a gang member who fits the mold they are determined to expel from the country. Abrego Garcia lived in the U.S. for roughly 14 years, during which he worked construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities, according to court records. Trump administration officials said he was deported based on a 2019 accusation from Maryland police that he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, his attorneys said. A U.S. immigration judge subsequently shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs. The Trump administration deported him there in March, later describing the mistake as 'an administrative error' but insisting he was in MS-13. Abrego Garcia's return comes days after the Trump administration complied with a court order to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico despite his fears of being harmed there. The man, identified in court papers as O.C.G, was the first person known to have been returned to U.S. custody after deportation since the start of President Donald Trump's second term.
Hindustan Times
35 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
US Supreme Court allows DOGE access to Social Security data
The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire Elon Musk's former department, broad access to the Social Security Administration's data systems. This will allow the DOGE to access personal information of millions of Americans logged under the SSA, news agency Reuters reported. Justices put on hold the order of Maryland-based US District Judge Ellen Hollander, who had largely blocked DOGE's access to "personally identifiable information" in data such as medical and financial records while litigation proceeded in a lower court. This move came at the Justice Department's request. The court, which had a 6-3 conservative majority, did not provide a rationale for siding with the DOGE. Two labor unions and an advocacy group sued to stop DOGE from accessing sensitive data at the SSA. The plaintiffs of the lawsuit argued that SSA had been "ransacked" and that DOGE members had been installed at the agency without proper vetting or training and demanded access to some of its sensitive data systems. Earlier in February, DOGE's move to seek access to SSA data prompted the acting commissioner, Michelle King, to step down against the backdrop of the Musk-security system issues. King chose to resign after over 30 years of service as she refused to provide the requested information to the DOGE staffers at the SSA. A day later, the White House had said that the Trump administration put an "anti-fraud expert" temporarily in charge at the SSA. At the time, Trump also directed Musk and DOGE to identify fraud at the agency, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that several dead people have been receiving fraudulent Social Security payments. "They haven't dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments and so their goal in going into the Social Security Administration is to identify three things: Number one, to identify duplicate payments and to end them, Number two, to identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living and should no longer be receiving that money and number three, to protect the integrity of the system for hardworking Americans who have been paying into it their entire lives,' Leavitt had told Fox News. Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, said that there is no way to overstate "how serious a breach this (DOGE seeks SSA data) is". "And my understanding is that it has already occurred. The information collected and held securely by the Social Security Administration is highly sensitive," she had added. SSA has the data of everyone with a Social Security number, Medicare, and every low-income American who has applied for Social Security's means-tested companion program, Supplemental Security Income. In addition, Social Security payments account for around $1.5 trillion, or a fifth, of the annual federal spending in the US. An audit from last year, a NYT report cited. The agency is a major provider of government benefits, sending checks each month to more than 70 million recipients including retirees and disabled Americans.
NDTV
40 minutes ago
- NDTV
10 BRICS Nations Condemn Pahalgam Attack, Back 'Zero Tolerance' On Terror
Brasilia: Representatives of the Parliaments of 10 member countries, including India, participated in the annual meeting of the 11th BRICS Parliamentary Forum held in Brasilia on June 4-5, 2025. India was led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla along with a high-level Parliamentary Delegation, the official statement observed. The statement noted that the Parliaments of 10 BRICS countries strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attacks and agreed to cooperate on a 'zero tolerance' policy against terrorism. Notably, the next conference will take place in India and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has been appointed as the Chairperson. According to the official statement, this year, the 10 member countries participating in the BRICS Parliamentary Forum were India, Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. Representatives of these countries' Parliaments actively participated in the Conference and played a significant role in drafting the joint declaration. Notably, after several rounds of intense discussions and deliberations during the conference, broad consensus was reached on key topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), global trade and economy, inter-parliamentary cooperation, global peace, and security. As per the statement, the perspectives presented by India on various issues were appreciated by all countries and were unanimously included in the final joint declaration. In particular, India's decisive stance on terrorism was taken seriously. India strongly condemned terrorist attacks and emphatically called for adopting a "zero tolerance" policy against terrorism. Significantly, the joint declaration strongly condemned the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India, and it was agreed that the Parliaments of all BRICS countries would work together united against terrorism. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla emphasised joint efforts on cutting off financial assistance to terrorist organisations, sharing intelligence, preventing misuse of modern technologies, and cooperating in investigation and judicial processes. India's policy and leadership were specially commended, and the BRICS Parliaments recognised that the active participation of all nations is essential to maintain global peace and security. At the conference, Om Birla effectively presented India's clear and strong role on various topics -- especially global cooperation against terrorism, a just and balanced global order, participation in technological innovations, and democratic exchanges. As per the statement, at the conclusion of the Conference, the hosting of the next 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum was entrusted to India, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla was appointed as its Chairperson. India will now play an active role in further strengthening the growing cooperation among BRICS parliaments and advancing a shared vision for addressing global challenges. The statement noted that the Indian parliamentary delegation was led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The delegation included Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Harivansh, Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Singh Nagar, Lok Sabha MPs Vijay Baghel, Vivek Thakur, Shabari Bareddy, Lok Sabha Secretary General Uttpal Kumar Singh, Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Modi, and senior officials of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
