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New Straits Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Tight security as Trump golfs at Turnberry amid protests across Scotland
TURNBERRY: US President Donald Trump played golf under tight security on the first full day of a visit to Scotland Saturday, as hundreds of protesters took to the streets in major cities. Trump played at his Turnberry resort on the southwest coast of Scotland with son Eric and the US ambassador to the UK, Warren Stephens, waving to photographers. He arrived in his mother's birth country on Friday evening. His presence has turned the picturesque and normally quiet area into a virtual fortress, with roads closed and police checkpoints in place. Police officers – some on quad bikes and others on foot with sniffer dogs – patrolled the famous course and the sandy beaches and grass dunes that flank it. Secret Service snipers were positioned at vantage points while some other golfers on the course were patted down by security personnel. The 79-year-old Trump touched down Friday at nearby Prestwick Airport as hundreds of onlookers came out to see Air Force One and catch a glimpse of its famous passenger. The president has professed a love of Scotland, but his controversial politics and business investments in the country have made for an uneasy relationship. Speaking to reporters on the tarmac, Trump immediately waded into the debate surrounding high levels of irregular migration, and lashed out at renewable energy efforts. "You better get your act together or you're not going to have Europe anymore," he said, adding that migration was "killing" the continent. "Stop the windmills. You're ruining your countries," he added. Trump's five-day visit, which is set to mix leisure with business and diplomacy, has divided the local community. Over on the east coast, several hundred protesters demonstrated outside the US consulate in the capital Edinburgh and further north in the city of Aberdeen, near where Trump owns another golf resort. The protests were organised by the Stop Trump Coalition, which has called on Scotland's First Minister not to attend a scheduled meeting with Trump. Participants held placards with slogans like "Scotland hates Trump" and waved Palestinian flags. "I am here because of fascism in America under Trump's rule. I am here because of genocide in Gaza that is being funded and enabled by British and American governments," said 44-year-old Amy Hanlon in Aberdeen. No demonstrations could be seen near Turnberry. Not everyone was against his visit. At Prestwick Airport on Friday evening a boy held a sign that read "Welcome Trump" while a man waved a flag emblazoned with Trump's most famous slogan – "Make America Great Again." "I think the best thing about Trump is he's not actually a politician yet he's the most powerful man in the world and I think he's looking at the best interests of his own country," said 46-year-old Lee McLean, who had travelled from nearby Kilmarnock. "Most politicians should really be looking at the best interests of their own country first before looking overseas," he told AFP. Trump had no public events scheduled for Saturday, but he posted on his Truth Social network to say he was talking with the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand in a bid to end their border conflict that has left at least 33 people dead. Trump is due to discuss trade with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry on Sunday. He is also due to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, before heading to Balmedie in Aberdeenshire where he is expected to open a new golf course at his resort there.
Int'l Business Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Trump Plays Golf In Scotland As Protesters Rally
US President Donald Trump played golf under tight security on the first full day of a visit to Scotland Saturday, as hundreds of protesters took to the streets in major cities. Trump played at his Turnberry resort with son Eric and US ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens, waving to photographers following his arrival in his mother's birth country on Friday evening. His presence has turned the picturesque and normally quiet area of southwest Scotland into a virtual fortress, with roads closed and police checkpoints in place. Police officers -- some on quad bikes and others on foot with sniffer dogs -- patrolled the famous course and the sandy beaches and grass dunes that flank it. Secret Service snipers were positioned at vantage points while some other golfers on the course were patted down by security personnel. The 79-year-old Trump touched down Friday at nearby Prestwick Airport as hundreds of onlookers came out to see Air Force One and catch a glimpse of its famous passenger. The president has professed a love of Scotland, but his controversial politics and business investments in the country have made for an uneasy relationship. Speaking to reporters on the tarmac, Trump immediately waded into the debate surrounding high levels of irregular migration, and lashed out at renewable energy efforts. "You better get your act together or you're not going to have Europe anymore," he said, adding that migration was "killing" the continent. "Stop the windmills. You're ruining your countries," he added. Trump's five-day visit, which is set to mix leisure with business and diplomacy, has divided the local community. Several hundred protesters demonstrated outside the US consulate in the capital Edinburgh and in the city of Aberdeen, near where Trump owns another golf resort. The protests were organised by the Stop Trump Coalition. Participants held placards with slogans like "Scotland hates Trump" and waved Palestinian flags. "A lot of people don't trust Trump and I'm one of them. I think the man is a megalomaniac," retiree Graham Hodgson told AFP near Turnberry. "He's so full of himself. I think he's doing a lot of damage worldwide with his tariffs. And I think it's all for the sake of America, but at the moment I think America is paying the price as well for his policies." But at Prestwick Airport a boy held a sign that read "Welcome Trump" while a man waved a flag emblazoned with Trump's most famous slogan -- "Make America Great Again". "I think the best thing about Trump is he's not actually a politician yet he's the most powerful man in the world and I think he's looking at the best interests of his own country," said 46-year-old Lee McLean, who had travelled from nearby Kilmarnock. "Most politicians should really be looking at the best interests of their own country first before looking overseas," he told AFP. Trump is due to discuss trade with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday and meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, before heading to Balmedie in Aberdeenshire where he is expected to formally open a new golf course at his resort there. He is due to return the US on Tuesday. Security is tight for Trump's visit AFP US President Donald Trump has no public meetings in the diary for Saturday so hit the golf course AFP Protesters gathered outside the US consulate in Edinburgh AFP
Japan Today
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
MAGA-style 'anti-globalist' politics arrives in Japan
The "Japanese first" Sanseito party increased its seats from just two to 15 in Sunday's upper house elections. By Kyoko HASEGAWA Populist ideals are gaining traction in Japan, spurred by right-wing politicians running rampant elsewhere railing against "elitism", "globalism" and immigration. While Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's coalition lost its upper house majority in an election on Sunday, the "Japanese first" Sanseito party, created only five years ago, increased its seats from two to 15. Sanseito's agenda comes straight from the copybook of right-wing movements such as U.S. President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again", the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Nigel Farage's Reform party in Britain. This includes "stricter rules and limits" on immigration and foreign capital, opposition to "globalism" and "radical" gender policies, and a rethink on decarbonization and vaccines, and pesticide-free agriculture. Founded on YouTube, Sanseito will "bring power back to the people", party leader Sohei Kamiya, a 47-year-old former teacher and supermarket manager, wrote in the Japan Times. Cheap labor Surveys have put immigration far down the list of voters' concerns, who are much more worried about inflation and the economy. But for Sanseito, the influx of newcomers into Japan -- where the immigration its economy badly needs is far lower than in other developed countries -- is to blame for a host of ills from crime to rising property prices to dangerous driving. "It's fine if they visit as tourists, but if you take in more and more foreigners, saying they're cheap labour, then Japanese people's wages won't rise," Kamiya said at a campaign. But he added: "We are not exclusionary. We have never called to drive out foreigners." Meanwhile online platforms have been flooded with disinformation, some of which Japanese fact-checking groups and the government have debunked. Some posts falsely claimed that foreigners leave almost $3 billion of medical bills unpaid a year, or that Chinese residents on welfare doubled in five years. At a Sanseito election rally in front of Tokyo's Shinagawa station, where orange T-shirted party workers handed out "Stop destroying Japan!" flyers, one voter told AFP she was finally being heard. "They put into words what I had been thinking about but couldn't put into words for many years," said the 44-year-old IT worker on a precarious short-term contract. "When foreigners go to university, the Japanese government provides subsidies to them, but when we were going to university, everyone had huge debts." Moscow meddling? Russian bot accounts have been responsible for "large-scale information manipulation", according to a much-read blog post by Ichiro Yamamoto from the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems think-tank. This has been helped by artificial intelligence enabling better translation of material into Japanese. More understanding towards Russia -- something which was long anathema for Japanese right-wingers -- is also a theme for Kamiya. "Russia's military invasion (of Ukraine) was of course bad, but there are forces in the United States that drove Russia into doing that," Kamiya told AFP, denying he is "pro-Russia". He was forced during his campaign to deny receiving support from Moscow -- which has been accused of backing similar parties in other countries -- after a Sanseito candidate was interviewed by Russian state media. 'Zero illegals' As in other countries, the rise of Sanseito and its success has prompted the government to announce new immigration policies, and other parties to make promises during the election campaign. Ishiba's LDP proclaimed the goal of achieving "zero illegal foreign nationals" and said the government will strengthen the management system for immigration and residency status. Eight NGOs issued a joint statement last week, since backed by over 1,000 groups, raising the alarm on "rapidly spreading xenophobia". "The argument that 'foreigners are prioritised' is totally unfounded demagoguery," the statement said. Hidehiro Yamamoto, politics and sociology professor at the University of Tsukuba, said that populism has not caught hold before because the LDP, unlike established parties elsewhere, has remained a "catch-all party". "The LDP has taken care of lower middle-class residents in cities, farmers in the countryside, and small- and mid-sized companies," Yamamoto said. And pointing to the rise and decline of other new parties in Japan in the past, he isn't sure Sanseito will last. "You can't continue gaining support only with a temporary mood among the public," Yamamoto said. © 2025 AFP
Int'l Business Times
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
MAGA-style 'Anti-globalist' Politics Arrives In Japan
Populist ideals are gaining traction in Japan, spurred by right-wing politicians running rampant elsewhere railing against "elitism", "globalism" and immigration. While Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's coalition lost its upper house majority in an election on Sunday, the "Japanese first" Sanseito party, created only five years ago, increased its seats from two to 15. Sanseito's agenda comes straight from the copybook of right-wing movements such as US President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again", the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Nigel Farage's Reform party in Britain. This includes "stricter rules and limits" on immigration and foreign capital, opposition to "globalism" and "radical" gender policies, and a rethink on decarbonisation, vaccines and pesticide-free agriculture. Founded on YouTube, Sanseito will "bring power back to the people", party leader Sohei Kamiya, a 47-year-old former teacher and supermarket manager, wrote in the Japan Times. Surveys have put immigration far down the list of voters' concerns, who are much more worried about inflation and the economy. But for Sanseito, the influx of newcomers into Japan -- where the immigration its economy badly needs is far lower than in other developed countries -- is to blame for a host of ills from crime to rising property prices to dangerous driving. "It's fine if they visit as tourists, but if you take in more and more foreigners, saying they're cheap labour, then Japanese people's wages won't rise," Kamiya said at a campaign. But he added: "We are not exclusionary. We have never called to drive out foreigners." Meanwhile online platforms have been flooded with disinformation, some of which Japanese fact-checking groups and the government have debunked. Some posts falsely claimed that foreigners leave almost $3 billion of medical bills unpaid a year, or that Chinese residents on welfare doubled in five years. At a Sanseito election rally in front of Tokyo's Shinagawa station, where orange T-shirted party workers handed out "Stop destroying Japan!" flyers, one voter told AFP she was finally being heard. "They put into words what I had been thinking about but couldn't put into words for many years," said the 44-year-old IT worker on a precarious short-term contract. "When foreigners go to university, the Japanese government provides subsidies to them, but when we were going to university, everyone had huge debts." Russian bot accounts have been responsible for "large-scale information manipulation", according to a much-read blog post by Ichiro Yamamoto from the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems think-tank. This has been helped by artificial intelligence enabling better translation of material into Japanese. More understanding towards Russia -- something which was long anathema for Japanese right-wingers -- is also a theme for Kamiya. "Russia's military invasion (of Ukraine) was of course bad, but there are forces in the United States that drove Russia into doing that," Kamiya told AFP, denying he is "pro-Russia". He was forced during his campaign to deny receiving support from Moscow -- which has been accused of backing similar parties in other countries -- after a Sanseito candidate was interviewed by Russian state media. As in other countries, the rise of Sanseito and its success has prompted the government to announce new immigration policies, and other parties to make promises during the election campaign. Ishiba's LDP proclaimed the goal of achieving "zero illegal foreign nationals" and said the government will strengthen the management system for immigration and residency status. Eight NGOs issued a joint statement last week, since backed by over 1,000 groups, raising the alarm on "rapidly spreading xenophobia". "The argument that 'foreigners are prioritised' is totally unfounded demagoguery," the statement said. Hidehiro Yamamoto, politics and sociology professor at the University of Tsukuba, said that populism has not caught hold before because the LDP, unlike established parties elsewhere, has remained a "catch-all party". "The LDP has taken care of lower middle-class residents in cities, farmers in the countryside, and small- and mid-sized companies," Yamamoto said. And pointing to the rise and decline of other new parties in Japan in the past, he isn't sure Sanseito will last. "You can't continue gaining support only with a temporary mood among the public," Yamamoto said. Japan's opposition party Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya delivers a campaign speech AFP
Japan Today
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Epstein files explained: Why Trump is under pressure
By Ben Turner Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy American financier, died in 2019 before he faced trial for sex offenses A perceived lack of transparency over the U.S. investigations into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has carved a rare chasm between President Donald Trump and his typically loyal Republican base. As Trump struggles to quell his supporters' obsessions with the case -- one long surrounded by conspiracy theories -- AFP outlines its history and why it has caused so much outrage. Origins of the Epstein case Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy American financier, was first charged with sex offenses in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter at his Florida home. He avoided federal charges -- which could have seen him face life in prison -- due to a controversial plea deal with prosecutors that saw him jailed for just under 13 months. In July 2019, he was arrested again in New York and charged with trafficking dozens of teenage girls and engaging in sex acts with them in exchange for money. Prosecutors said he worked with employees and associates to ensure a "steady supply of minor victims to abuse." Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. On August 10, 2019, while in custody awaiting trial, authorities said he was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself. A separate case against Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for helping him abuse girls, detailed Epstein's connections with high-profile figures like Britain's Prince Andrew and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Both have denied any wrongdoing. Why are there conspiracy theories? Some people believe that authorities are concealing details about the Epstein case to protect rich and powerful elites who associated with him, including Trump. Those ideas have gripped Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement -- but demands for more transparency have crossed the political aisle. One key theory centers on a rumored client list of individuals who committed sex offenses alongside Epstein. The Trump administration has insisted that no such list exists. Skeptics also allege suspicious circumstances in Epstein's death such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, alongside other irregularities. Trump and the Epstein case Trump, who as a New York property magnate rubbed shoulders with Epstein, said when re-running for president that he would "probably" release files related to the case. But since taking office, many of Trump's supporters have been disappointed by what they see as a failure to deliver. The 79-year-old himself was dragged into the conspiracy theories after his former adviser Elon Musk claimed in June -- in a now-deleted X post -- that Trump was "in the Epstein files." The Trump administration's efforts to appease demands for a full disclosure of the so-called Epstein files have largely fallen short. A bundle released in February that promised to shed light on the Epstein case contained little new information. Meanwhile, an almost 11-hour video published this month to dispel theories Epstein was murdered fell flat. The camera angle showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died, but appeared to be missing a minute of footage, fueling more speculation online. And a memo from the Justice Department and FBI last week saying the Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation was met by calls for the heads of each agency to resign. What comes next? Trump has been towing a delicate line -- saying he supports the release of any "credible" files related to Epstein while dismissing the case as "pretty boring stuff." But even the normally authoritative president seems unable to arrest the disruption, as critics and even key allies call for more transparency. Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, has not followed Trump's line on the issue and has instead urged the Justice Department to make public any documents linked to Epstein. Meanwhile, Democrats have seized on the rift between Trump and his party by demanding his administration publish the full evidence held by prosecutors in their case against Epstein. © 2025 AFP
