Latest news with #Militia
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Sudan paramilitaries shell el-Obeid, hospitals hit: Witnesses
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shelled El-Obeid on Friday, hitting two hospitals and residential neighborhoods of the key southern city, witnesses and an army source said. 'The militia attacked residential areas of the city with heavy artillery,' an army source told AFP, adding that they had hit the Social Insurance Hospital and the city's army hospital. Witnesses close to the Social Insurance Hospital confirmed it had come under bombardment.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stephen Miller Unveils Totally Made Up Definition of 'Due Process'
The Trump administration continues to subvert the constitutional right to due process to justify its illegal, extrajudicial deportations. 'The right of 'due process' is to protect citizens from their government, not to protect foreign trespassers from removal,' wrote Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Monday morning. 'Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.' This is not how the law works. The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment states that: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger (emphasis added). The clause has no specification for citizenship. Miller's claim has been widely rebuked. 'Stephen Miller is lying to you. The Supreme Court has emphasized for generations that EVERY person gets due process,' wrote American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. 'Here's none other than Antonin Scalia in 1993: 'It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.'' 'What is it about the phrase 'no person'—as in 'no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law'—that you seem to be unable to get into your thick, sociopathic skull?' asked George Conway. 'Shaughnessy v. U.S. (1953): 'It is true that aliens who have once passed through our gates, even illegally, may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law,'' wrote The Washington Post's Aaron Blake. As Miller continues to contort the law to keep up his cruelty, Trump reaffirmed the administration's commitment to authoritarianism when he responded to a simple question about being required to uphold the Constitution with an 'I don't know.'
Buzz Feed
15-04-2025
- Business
- Buzz Feed
These 27 Extremely Common Purchases Are Actually Complete Wastes Of Money, According To People On The Internet Who Learned The Hard Way
Um, hi, so is it just me, or are we all kinda struggling at the moment? Maybe it's my unnecessary spending or perhaps I can blame it on the American tariffs — but the point is, I think many of us are looking for some ways to save money right now. Here are some of the top responses: 1. "Giving money to Televangelists." 2. "Movies in theaters." Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images "That shit is released on streaming platforms in a month nowadays, and I don't have to be price gouged for popcorn in my own home. Nor do I have to ask an annoying stranger to stop a solar flare in my face by taking out his phone on full brightness every few minutes." — pineapplesuit7 3. "Over-blown weddings..." — a_08- "I had a coworker that spent over $100K on their wedding and was divorced with 16 months. Put it towards a house. Hell, put it towards an amazing year-long vacation." — howard2112 4. "...and funerals." — Pinorckle "My father-in-law passed away last year. We had him cremated. Instead of having a funeral, we had friends and family over at our house. We talked about how wonderful and helpful he was. It cost us nothing. I don't plan on ever having a regular funeral again." — hated_n8 5. "Brand-name ibuprofen or paracetamol vs. generic stuff. It's exactly the same stuff." 6. "Subscriptions, and forgetting to cancel before the free trial ends." 7. "Grilled cheese at a restaurant." — Prestigious_Ant_4366 "If you're going to a restaurant, you might as well buy something that you can't make at home or yourself." — Putrid-Cockroach1497 8. "Antivirus software." Courtneyk / Getty Images — aphadon7 "Windows Defender has been good enough for the average Joe for years, and if it is configured correctly, it is just fine for businesses, too." — LightCharacter8382 9. "AOL." — Reverse-Recruiterman "Remember there is a baby boomer crowd out there above the age of 75 that was in the prime of their career when AOL came out. About a year ago, now 77, she told me she still pays for it. You would be shocked how hard it was to convince her that she didn't have to do that anymore." — Reverse-Recruiterman 10. "ATM fees." Oscar Wong / Getty Images — Militia_Kitty13 "For whatever reason I got an ATM card before I had a debit card. Long story short, I wish I had never bothered getting an ATM card. Almost every ATM I used charged a fee, and I don't even want to know how much money I wasted on ATM fees." — idratherchangemyold1 11. "Bottle service." — w0ke_brrr_4444 "$500 for a bottle of Grey Goose because someone saw a rapper do it at an Atlanta strip club. Give me Belvedere at $25 a bottle instead." — malarkeyBS 12. "Pyramid schemes." Maskot / Getty Images — a_08- "So easy to spot. It's funny because they get so butthurt when I tell people they don't actually sell anything." — dadabkilla 13. "Blue checkmarks." AlexSecret / Getty Images 14. "Tanning." 15. "Video games early access content." Westend61 / Getty Images 16. "'Alkaline' water." Chris Rogers / Getty Images 17. "I smoke cigarettes. So, cigarettes. Paying to die faster." "Because I'm a dumbass." — nauticalcummins 18. "The latest cell phone, when the current one works perfectly." D3sign / Getty Images — a_08- "I bought my phone in 2019, and I get a weird amount of comments from people asking me when I'm going to upgrade. When I say I'm going to upgrade when my phone breaks, it's like they weren't expecting it. It's not even an old phone — it's an iPhone 11. There's literally nothing wrong with it." — eugeneugene 19. "Giving money to politicians." Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images 20. "Uber Eats. Especially for fast food." "Crazy to me." — degoba 21. "Daily expensive coffee drinks. You know, you can make it yourself for 10% of the price." 22. "Lottery tickets." Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images / Bacardi Rum — Majestic_Bet6187 "Should never be viewed as an investment; should be viewed as gambling." — sunnbeta 23. "Fake nails." Christopher Polk / Variety / Getty Images — Longjumping-Mouse-61 "I would like to add false eyelashes." — jeanvelde 24. "A life coach." Luca Sage / Getty Images 25. "For sure Tinder!" Willie B. Thomas / Getty Images — FatihDurukan187 "Some dudes need to pay for a month so they can stop blaming algorithms on their lack of matches." — Everythangs4sale 26. "I can't believe I haven't seen vitamins on this list yet. You're literally pissing away your money." Prostock-Studio / Getty Images — mr_poopie_butt-hole "Of all the great medical scams in the modern world, vitamins have to be the biggest overlooked obsession that doesn't do much good at all for most people." — dumpitdog 27. "I think designer baby clothes are a total waste since kids grow out of them so fast." Flavia Morlachetti / Getty Images
Yemen Online
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yemen Online
Yemen : "Houthis won't 'dial down' under US pressure or Iranian appeals" , Houthis FM Says
Yemen's Houthis will not "dial down" their action against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea in response to U.S. military pressure or appeals from the Militia's allies such as Iran, the Yemeni militant foreign minister said. Jamal Amer spoke to Reuters late on Monday after the U.S. launched a wave of strikes in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who said last week they were resuming attacks on Red Sea shipping to support Palestinians in Gaza. Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran had delivered a verbal message to the Houthi envoy in Tehran on Friday to cool tensions and that Iran's foreign minister asked Oman, which has mediated with the Houthis, to convey a similar message to the group when he visited Muscat on Sunday. Both officials asked not to be named. Iran has not made any public comment about recent outreach to the Houthis over their renewed action. Tehran says the group takes decisions independently. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis. "There will be no talk of any dialling down of operations before ending the aid blockade in Gaza. Iran is not interfering in our decision but what is happening is that it mediates sometimes but it cannot dictate things," Amer said, in his first comments on the issue to a foreign news agency. Speaking from Yemen's capital Sanaa, which has been hit by U.S. strikes, he said he had not been informed of any message Iran delivered to the Houthi envoy in Tehran. There were messages from other powers to dial down, he said, but added: "Now we see that Yemen is at war with the U.S. and that means that we have a right to defend ourselves with all possible means, so escalation is likely." IRANIAN CONCERNS Iran, whose network of proxies and allies across the Middle East has taken a hammering since the war in Gaza erupted in 2023, has shown increasing concern it could be drawn deeper into conflict with the United States. Iran and Israel exchanged direct strikes for the first time last year as the Gaza war escalated. U.S. President Donald Trump, who withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and six major powers that curbed its sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief, has stepped up a "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions on Iran since returning to office for a second term in January. "(The U.S.) is threatening Iran and hitting Yemen. Now all scenarios are possible. We will do what they will do to us. If they are hitting us from (U.S. aircraft carrier USS Harry S.) Truman, we will retaliate by hitting Truman," the Houthi foreign minister said. While Iran champions the Houthis, the Yemeni group says it is aligned with Tehran and its 'Axis of Resistance' network without being puppets. Experts on Yemen, where the Houthis expanded control during years of civil war, say the group seems mainly motivated by domestic concerns and support base. The Houthis said on March 12 they had resumed attacks on Israeli ships using routes that pass through the Red Sea after the group said Israel had not met a Houthi deadline for ending an aid blockade on Gaza. Israel's blockade, which includes food and medical supplies, began on March 2 as a standoff over a ceasefire deal in Gaza escalated. Israel launched heavy strikes on Gaza overnight into Tuesday. WAVES OF STRIKES The Houthis had launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war with Hamas, another of Iran's regional allies, in Gaza. It suspended operations when the Gaza ceasefire came into effect in January. The Houthi foreign minister said the group had aimed only to target Israeli ships, but the U.S. had escalated and the Houthis had a right to defend themselves. The U.S. began a wave of strikes on Saturday that have hit the capital and expanded across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, killing dozens of people. Amer said some European Union countries had advised the Houthis not to escalate, and said the group had sought to reassure them that the target was Israeli shipping. He also said Saudi Arabia, which backed Yemen's internationally recognised government against the Houthis in the civil war, had not intervened militarily so far, and nor had other Gulf states. That was something that Houthis valued, he added, while warning that Gulf states risked being caught in the crossfire if they intervened militarily. "If any aircraft or base is used against us then we will escalate and we will defend ourselves, but if they (Gulf states) continue to be neutral we will stay away," he said.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump is the kinglike president many feared when arguing over the US Constitution in 1789 – and his address to Congress showed it
If there are any limits to a president's power, it wasn't evident from Donald Trump's speech before a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. In that speech, the first before lawmakers of Trump's second term, the president declared vast accomplishments during the brief six weeks of his presidency. He claimed to have 'brought back free speech' to the country. He declared that there were only two sexes, 'male and female.' He reminded the audience that he had unilaterally renamed an international body of water as well as the country's tallest mountain. 'Our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again,' Trump asserted. The extravagant claims appear to match Trump's view of the presidency – one virtually kinglike in its unilateral power. It's true that the U.S. Constitution's crucial section about the executive branch, Article 2, does not grant the president unlimited power. But it does make this figure the sole 'Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.' This monopoly on the use of force is one way Trump could support his 2019 claim that he can do 'whatever I want as President.' Before Trump's speech, protesters outside had taken issue with Trump's wielding of such unchecked power. One protester's sign said, 'We the People don't want false kings in our house.' With those words, she echoed a concern about presidential power that originated more than 200 years ago. When the Constitution was written, many people – from those who drafted the document to those who read it – believed that endowing the president with such powers was dangerous. Ratified after a lot of huffing and puffing, on May 29, 1790, by rather nervous citizens, the text of the Constitution had stirred many controversies. It wasn't just the oftentimes vague language, which includes head-scratchers such as the very preamble, 'We the People of the United States.' Nor was the discomfort due solely to the document's jarring brevity – at 4,543 words, the U.S. Constitution is the shortest written Constitution of any major nation in the world. No, what made that document especially problematic, to borrow from John Adams, was that it provided for 'a monarchical Republick, or if you will a limited Monarchy.' Adams would eventually become the nation's second president in 1797. Even though he was a staunch supporter of the Constitution, he was honest enough to take a hard look over the political layout of the new nation. And what he found were remnants of the British monarchy and traces of a king whose unchecked abuses had led the Colonists to demand their independence in the first place. 'The Name of President,' Adams couldn't help concluding in a letter to prominent Massachusetts lawyer William Tudor, 'does not alter the Nature of his office nor diminish the Regal Authorities and Powers which appear clearly in the Writing.' While Adams was only somewhat uncomfortable, as a historian of the early republic I can stress that other observers at the time were downright appalled. In a 1787 article published in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 'An Old Whig' – identity unknown – wrote, 'The office of President of the United States appears to me to be clothed with such powers as are dangerous.' As the commander in chief of the Army, the American president 'is in reality to be a king as much a King as the King of Great Britain, and a King too of the worst kind – an elective King.' Consequently, as the author of this article resolved, 'I shall despair of any happiness in the United States' until this office is 'reduced to a lower pitch of power.' Concern over a commander in chief declaring martial law, no matter the legality of the measure, was similarly on the minds of the Americans who had read the Constitution. In 1788, a patriot who went under the pseudonym of 'Philadelphiensis' – real name, Benjamin Workman – issued a sweeping warning. Should the president decide to impose martial law, 'your character of free citizens' would be 'changed to that of the subjects of a military king.' A president turned military king could 'wantonly inflict the most disgraceful punishment on a peaceable citizen,' the piece continued, 'under pretence of disobedience, or the smallest neglect of militia duty.' Another power given to the president was also universally considered extremely dangerous: that of granting pardons to individuals guilty of treason. Maryland Attorney General Luther Martin reasoned that the treason most likely to take place was 'that in which the president himself might be engaged.' What the president would do, Martin wrote, would be 'to secure from punishment the creatures of his ambition, the associates and abettors of his treasonable practices, by granting them pardons.' George Mason, who participated in the Constitutional Convention and also drafted Virginia's state Constitution, foresaw a gloomy scenario. He shivered at the idea of a president who would 'screen from punishment those whom he had secretly instigated to commit the crime, and thereby prevent a discovery of his own guilt.' The framers did limit executive power in one significant way: The president of the United States is subject to impeachment and, upon conviction of treason or other high crimes, removal from office. But in the meantime, the president may enact irreparable damage. The Constitution was finally ratified – but only begrudgingly by the American citizens, who feared a president's abuse of power. More persuasive than the legal restraints placed on the office, the belief that the people would choose their leader wisely tipped the scale toward approval. Delegate John Dickinson asked a rhetorical question: 'Will a virtuous and sensible people chuse villains or fools for their officers?' Also, 18th-century common sense deemed it improbable that a person without virtue and magnanimity would run for the nation's highest office. Americans' faith in their first president, the upstanding George Washington, helped convince them that all would end well and their Constitution would be sufficient to protect the republic. The Federalist Papers, the 85 essays written to persuade voters to support ratification, were suffused with this optimism. People 'of the character marked out for that of the President of the United States' were widely available, said the Federalist #67. 'It will not be too strong to say,' reads Federalist #68, 'that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.' Adams wasn't so optimistic. He wavered. And then he flipped the issue on its head. 'There must be a positive Passion for the public good … established in the Minds of the People,' he had written in a 1776 letter, 'or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real liberty.' After almost 250 years of uninterrupted republican life, Americans are used to thinking that their nation is secured by checks and balances. As Adams kept repeating, America aims at becoming 'a government of laws, and not of men.' Americans, in other words, have long believed it is their institutions that make the nation. But the opposite is true: The people are the soul and the conscience of the republic. Everything, in the end, boils down to the character of these people and the control they assert over who becomes their most important leader. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino Read more: Trump's claims of vast presidential powers run up against Article 2 of the Constitution and exceed previous presidents' power grabs 3 ways Trump is acting like a king and bypassing the Constitution's checks and balances on presidential authority What's a constitutional crisis? Here's how Trump's recent moves are challenging the Constitution's separation of powers Maurizio Valsania does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
