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Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge Orders Release Of Georgetown Scholar Detained By Trump Administration
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Georgetown University scholar Dr. Badar Khan Suri must be released from Texas immigration detention, saying he poses no threat to the community and that the Trump administration likely violated his First Amendment rights when masked ICEagents snatched him outside his Virginia home in March. A lawyer for the Indian-born Suri, who was teaching at Georgetown on an academic visa, announced the ruling outside the Virginia courtroom to massive cheers from the crowd. The Trump administration accused Suri of 'actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media' when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him and revoked his visa nearly two months ago. U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ruled that Suri may be released so long as he maintains his residency in Virginia and attends other hearings in his case, which he may do virtually. Suri's wife, Mapheze Saleh, a U.S. citizen who is Palestinian-American, released a statement after the ruling expressing deep gratitude to Giles for her ruling. 'Hearing the judge's words brought tears to my eyes,' Saleh said. 'I truly wish I could give her a heartfelt hug from me and from my three children, who long every day to see their father again. Speaking out about what's happening in Palestine is not a crime.' A day before his release, Suri published an account of what happened to him on Truthout, reaffirming that he 'unapologetically support[s] Palestinians, and their inalienable rights guaranteed by international law.' Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who attended at least one of Suri's hearings earlier this month, said the judge's ruling was a 'taste of justice' for his constituent. 'Dr. Khan Suri was targeted because the Trump Administration wanted to instill fear on American campuses by responding with unnecessarily and illegally draconian force to students and scholars who expressed views they dislike,' Beyer said in a statement. 'The administration's treatment of Dr. Badar Khan Suri and the growing list of others like him has been authoritarian and is a gross betrayal of American values. This persecution of dissent must end.' According to court filings, Suri was teaching a course on minority rights in South Asia before his arrest. Despite his detention, he has not been charged with any crimes. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Suri in court, said he was moved among five different ICE facilities across three states in just four days before landing at a facility in Texas, 'where he spent nearly two weeks in a room without a bed and with a television blaring twenty-one hours a day,' the organization said in a statement upon his release. He was also issued used underwear and dressed in a 'bright red high-risk uniform reserved for people alleged to pose the greatest security threats,' the ACLU said. Suri's arrest hinged on Trump administration claims that Suri had 'close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,' Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement following his arrest. Suri's father-in-law, Ahmed Yousef, did serveas an adviser to late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, but told The New York Times that he'd left the role over a decade ago and holds no senior position in the organization. He has publicly criticized the militant group's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, calling it a 'terrible error.' This is the third time in days that a federal judge has ruled that a Trump-targeted academic must be released from immigration detention. Last week, a judge ordered the release of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish visa holder at Tufts University, who was detained for for co-authoring an op-ed in her school newspaper. The week before, a judge ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student visa holder at Columbia University whom Trump officials branded a 'terrorist sympathizer.' The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Suri's release. Historians Are 'Shocked' By What They've Seen Trump Do In Just 100 Days Rümeysa Öztürk, Student Visa Holder Detained For Writing An Op-Ed, Released On Bail Palestinian Activist Slams Trump After Release From Detention: 'You Will Not Silence Me' Mahmoud Khalil Shares Letter From ICE Detention: 'I Am A Political Prisoner'
Time of India
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Donald Trump's first 100 days in office: Polls show voters dissatisfied, labelling him as chaotic and scary
Donald Trump may be celebrating his first 100 days in office, but the majority of Americans do not. Poll after poll shows that voters disapprove of his leadership, describing his presidency as chaotic, frightening, and off course. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack The groundwork before India mounts a strike at Pakistan India considers closing airspace to Pakistani carriers amid rising tensions Cold Start: India's answer to Pakistan's nuclear threats Despite Donald Trump's self-praise, his approval rating has dropped dramatically, even among Republicans. Why are voters unhappy with Donald Trump's early performance? Voters are dissatisfied with issues such as immigration and trade, with many advocating for future limits on presidential power. 5 5 Next Stay Playback speed 1x Normal Back 0.25x 0.5x 1x Normal 1.5x 2x 5 5 / Skip Ads by by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo During his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump broke his own record of having the lowest presidential approval rating. He has self-acclaimed that the last three months have been among the "best" in the history of presidential administrations. On his first day in office, Donald Trump pledged to put an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but he claimed that these pledges were made "figuratively" and "obviously…in jest," he stated in a recent interview with Time magazine about his tenure in the White House. Live Events He also claimed that the majority of immigrants in the United States are "criminals," a falsehood that he and his supporters regularly promote to defend their harsh immigration laws. ALSO READ: President in the dock: House Democrat Shri Thanedar drops political bombshell by unveiling articles of impeachment against Donald Trump The president defended his recent economic policies, which the American public finds extremely unpopular. Donald Trump has been undermining civil rights, weakening American democratic norms, and enacting legally questionable policies that negatively impact the lives of Americans in the working class since January, as per a report by Truthout. President Trump has received low marks from political analysts who have evaluated his performance during the first 100 days in office. What do the polls say about public opinion? Numerous polls show that the American public does not share Donald Trump's optimistic view of his presidency thus far. An Economist/YouGov poll released last Wednesday reveals that most voters now have a negative opinion of Trump, whereas a majority had a favourable opinion of him at the beginning of his second term, as quoted in a report by Truthout. Donald Trump had a net approval rating of +6 after his first week in office earlier this year, with 49% of voters supporting him and 43% disapproving of his actions during his first 100 days in office. However, according to its most recent survey, only 41% of voters said they had a favourable opinion of him, while 54% gave him a negative rating, or a net rating of -13 points. Most people consider Donald Trump's performance to be far worse than that of other presidents YouGov has polled on during their first 100 days in office. For instance, former President Joe Biden had a net average of +11.2 points around the 100-day mark, while Obama had a +6.0 average during that same period. He had an average approval rating of -8.3 in the polls in 2017, which is also lower than his current 100-day rating. Similar, and occasionally worse, results have been obtained from other polls that ask voters about his performance this term. According to an Associated Press/NORC poll, only 39% of Americans are satisfied with Trump's job performance thus far, while 59% are not. According to that same survey, only 31% of voters thought Donald Trump was "great" or "good", while 52% thought he was a "poor" or "terrible" president. Donald Trump also received low marks from voters, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, which found that 39% of respondents approve of his performance in the first 100 days and 55% disapprove. This is the lowest net rating in polling on the issue for any president in the previous 80 years. The president's approval rating was a net -11 points, according to a Fox News poll conducted during his first 100 days back in the White House. Meanwhile, a recent poll conducted by Siena College and The New York Times asked participants to rate Trump's second term thus far. Just 42% of respondents described his presidency as "exciting," compared to 59% who described it as "scary" and 66% who described it as "chaotic." The same poll also shed light on the reasons behind Trump's low approval rating. Every significant issue it polled respondents on had negative net polling numbers; for instance, Trump received a net -4-point approval rating on immigration, a -12-point rating on the economy, and a -11-point rating on foreign trade, as per a report by Truthout. Voters also wanted more restrictions on presidents in general, according to the poll, which found that 61% of respondents wanted Congress to approve presidential tariffs before he imposed them, and 54% agreed that presidents shouldn't be able to unilaterally terminate well-liked federal programs that Congress has passed into law. FAQs How do voters see Donald Trump's first 100 days? Most describe it as "chaotic" and "scary," with low marks for major issues. Has Donald Trump's approval rating dropped, even among Republicans? Yes, according to polls, nearly one-third of GOP voters disapprove of his performance.
Boston Globe
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Robert W. McChesney, who warned of corporate media control, dies at 72
His primary thesis, expressed in more than a dozen books and in scores of articles and interviews, was that corporate-owned news media was overly compliant with the political powers that be and that the owners restricted the views Americans were exposed to. He further argued that the promise of the internet -- of a Wild West market of opinions -- had been throttled by a few giant owners of online platforms. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up An early book, 'Rich Media, Poor Democracy' (1999), warned that consolidation in journalism would undermine democratic norms. In perhaps his best-known work, 'Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy' (2013), he rejected the utopian view that the digital revolution would usher in an open frontier of information sources and invigorate democracy. Advertisement Instead, he showed how the internet was devastating the business model for newspapers, while supplanting civically minded coverage of local government with lowest-common-denominator fluff: celebrity gossip, cat videos, and personal navel gazing. Dr. McChesney blamed capitalism. 'The profit motive, commercialism, public relations, marketing, and advertising -- all defining features of contemporary corporate capitalism -- are foundational to any assessment of how the Internet has developed and is likely to develop,' he wrote. Advertisement An unapologetic socialist, Dr. McChesney argued that the government should give all Americans $200 vouchers to donate to nonprofit news outlets of their choice. He campaigned for Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential races. Sanders returned the favor by writing a forward to Dr. McChesney's book 'Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America' (2013), written with John Nichols. In an interview with Truthout, a nonprofit news site focused on social justice, Dr. McChesney attacked the mainstream media's coverage of Sanders in the 2016 presidential primary that he lost to Hillary Clinton. CNN and MSNBC, he said, were deeply biased in favor of 'centrist' candidates representing the status quo. 'One can only imagine how Sanders would have done if he had coverage from MSNBC similar to what Obama received in 2007-08,' Dr. McChesney said. Conservative writer David Horowitz put Dr. McChesney on a list of the '101 Most Dangerous Academics in America' in 2006, including him among 'tenured radicals' who were indoctrinating students. On the other hand, in 2008 Utne Reader named Dr. McChesney as one of the '50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.' Dr. McChesney warned in 2016 that when corporate giants dominate online information -- at the time, those giants were Facebook and Google -- they hold too much power over what people know of the world. 'This is really antithetical to anything remotely close to a free press and a free society,' he said in an interview with the left-leaning news outlet 'Democracy Now!' Advertisement The way to deal with such monopolies was to nationalize them, he said. He suggested a government takeover that would make internet behemoths into a quasi-public service, like the Postal Service. Dr. McChesney was also one of the founders, in 2003, of a public interest group, Free Press, that opposed corporate consolidation in the news business and that led a national campaign for net neutrality, calling for equal access to the internet for all content producers, from giants like Netflix to individual bloggers. Robert Waterman McChesney was born Dec. 22, 1952, in Cleveland, one of two sons of Samuel P. McChesney Jr., an advertising executive, and Edna (McCorkle) McChesney. Robert grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights and attended Pomfret, a prep school in Connecticut. In 1977, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Evergreen State College, in Washington, where he studied politics and economics. In 1979, after working as a sports stringer for UPI and an editor at The Seattle Sun, an alternative weekly, he became the publisher of The Rocket, which charted the emergence of the Seattle grunge-rock scene in the 1980s and '90s. Intellectually restless, he then enrolled in graduate school at the University of Washington, earning a doctorate in communications in 1989. For a decade, he taught in the journalism and mass communication department at the University of Wisconsin Madison. He and his wife, Stole, who also had a doctorate in communications, then moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His books also include 'Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out the Lights?' (2011), with Victor Pickard, and 'Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy' (1997). In addition to his wife, he leaves two daughters, Amy and Lucy McChesney; and a brother, Samuel. Advertisement In a late book, 'People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy' (2016), written with Nichols, Dr. McChesney argued that artificial intelligence and the digital revolution would wipe out numerous categories of jobs. 'Capitalism as we know it is a very bad fit for the technological revolution we are beginning to experience,' he said in an interview about the book. 'Our argument is that we currently have a citizenless democracy. By that we mean a governing system where all the important decisions of government are made to suit the interests and values of the wealthiest and most powerful Americans, and the corporations they own.' This article originally appeared in
