Author: Worldcrew

President Nicolas Maduro’s government ordered the suspension of CNN’s Spanish-language service from Venezuela’s airwaves Wednesday, accusing it of distorting the truth in coverage.

U.S.-based CNN en Espanol became unavailable on Venezuela’s major cable providers minutes after a statement by telecommunications regulator Conatel announcing the suspension. The network had irked the socialist government with various reports, including one alleging passports and visas were being sold illegally at Venezuela’s embassy in Iraq.

Maduro at the weekend told CNN to “get out” of Venezuela after accusing it of manipulating comments by a girl who told him on live TV some school students were fainting from hunger.

“They defame and distort the truth … inciting aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and its institutions,” regulator Conatel said in its statement.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez also lambasted CNN, saying the whistle-blower in the passports’ story was an opposition-linked Venezuelan working for “imperialist” agencies.

CNN said the Maduro government was unfairly denying Venezuelans a 20-year news service they had enjoyed, but added that its signal would be available for free on YouTube.

“At CNN en Espanol we believe in the vital role that freedom of press plays in a healthy democracy,” it added.

Flare-up with U.S.

The spat with the network has come at a delicate time in U.S.-Venezuelan ties after Washington this week blacklisted Maduro’s Vice President Tareck El Aissami on drug charges in the first bilateral flare-up under new U.S. President Donald Trump.

Venezuelan officials have reacted furiously to that, though they appear to be trying to avoid provoking Trump.

“I don’t want problems with Trump,” Maduro said on TV on Wednesday, adding that CNN had become “an instrument of war.” About an hour later, Trump called for the release of prominent jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez in a tweet, posing in a photo with Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori.

In various calls with Latin American leaders, Trump has expressed concern about the Maduro government, yet it remains to be seen whether Trump will prioritize Venezuela.

OPEC member Venezuela is immersed in a deep economic crisis, with inflation in triple digits, shortages of basic goods and many people going hungry.

Maduro, whose popularity has plunged during the crisis, blames the problems on an “economic war” waged by the United States and local opponents with the complicity of foreign media.

Opponents say he has become a dictator, jailing opponents, sidelining the opposition-led congress and delaying local elections. Officials say opponents are seeking a coup.

Foreign journalists are finding it increasingly hard to obtain visas to operate in Venezuela, and two Brazilian reporters said they were expelled at the weekend while trying to investigate unfinished works by construction giant Odebrecht. 

VOA Editor’s Note:  CNN statement on the suspension

At CNN en Español we believe in the vital role that freedom of press plays in a healthy democracy. Today the government of Venezuela pulled our television signal, denying Venezuelans news and information from our television network, which they have relied upon for 20 years.  CNN en Español will continue to fulfill its responsibility to the Venezuelan public by offering our live signal on YouTube free of charge and news links on CNNEspanol.com, so they may have access to information not available to them in any other way.  This happens days after we aired our investigation “Passports in the Shadows” which revealed that Venezuelan authorities may have issued passports and visas to people with ties to terrorism. CNN stands by our network’s reporting and our commitment to truth and transparency.
…

Organizers in cities across the U.S. are telling immigrants to miss class, miss work and not shop Thursday as a way to show the country how important they are to America’s economy and way of life.

“A Day Without Immigrants” actions are planned in cities including Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and Austin, Texas.

The protest comes in response to President Donald Trump and his 1-month-old administration. The Republican president has pledged to increase deportation of immigrants living in the country illegally, build a wall along the Mexican border, and ban people from certain majority-Muslim countries from coming into the U.S. He also has blamed high unemployment on immigration.

Employers in solidarity

Employers and institutions in some cities were expressing solidarity Wednesday with immigrant workers. Washington restaurateur John Andrade said he would close his businesses Thursday, and David Suro, owner of Tequilas Restaurant in Philadelphia and himself a Mexican immigrant, said he also planned to participate.

The Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts said it would remove or shroud all artwork created or given by immigrants to the museum through February 21.

In New Mexico, the state with the largest percentage of Hispanic residents in the nation, school officials worried that hundreds of students may stay home Thursday.

“We respectfully ask all parents to acknowledge that students need to be in class every day to benefit from the education they are guaranteed and to avoid falling behind in school and life,” principals with the Albuquerque Public Schools wrote in a letter to parents.

Students who take part in the protest will receive an unexcused absence, Albuquerque school officials said.

Organizers in Philadelphia said they expect hundreds of workers and families to participate.

What would US look like?

“Our goal is to highlight the need for Philadelphia to expand policies that stop criminalizing communities of color,’’ said Erika Almiron, executive director of Juntos, a nonprofit group that works with the Latino immigrant community. “What would happen if massive raids did happen? What would the city look like?”

Almiron said that while community groups have not seen an uptick in immigration raids in the city, residents are concerned about the possibility.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is among leaders in several cities nationwide who have vowed to maintain their “sanctuary city’’ status and decline to help federal law enforcement with deportation efforts.

Many people who make the choice to skip work Thursday will not be paid in their absence, but social media posts encouraging participation stressed that the cause is worth the sacrifice.
…

A full-length animated film depicting an armed confrontation between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the U.S. Navy is soon to open in Iranian cinemas, amid rising tensions over President Donald Trump’s hardening rhetoric against Tehran.

The director of the Battle of Persian Gulf II, Farhad Azima, said that it was a remarkable coincidence that the release of the film — four years in the making — coincided with a “warmongering” president sitting in the White House.

“I hope that the film shows Trump how American soldiers will face a humiliating defeat if they attack Iran,” Azima told Reuters in a telephone interview from the city of Mashhad in eastern Iran.

The 88-minute animation opens with the U.S. Army attacking an Iranian nuclear reactor, and the U.S. Navy in the Gulf hitting strategic locations across the country.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful branch of the Iranian military, retaliates with full force, raining ballistic missiles on the U.S. warships.

“They all sink and the film ends as the American ships have turned into an aquarium for fishes at the bottom of the sea,” Azima said.

Trump has said he will not be as “kind” as his predecessor Barack Obama was to Iran, warning that military options are not off the table in response to Tehran.

He has called into doubt Western powers’ nuclear deal with Iran and, responding to an IRGC missile test last month, imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities, some of them linked to the Guards.

Commander Qassem

The main Iranian commander in the film has been intentionally depicted as Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC commander who is overseeing Iran’s military operations in Syria and Iraq against Islamist militants.

Azima said he sought to contact Soleimani to ensure he was not against his appearance in the film, but did not receive a reply. However, senior figures close to Soleimani asked the director to keep the character but drop the name Qassem in the final edit.

“Hollywood has created many films against Iran; there are many computer games in which U.S. soldiers conquer our country. We made this film as an answer to that propaganda,” the 35-year old director said.

But unlike the massive resources available in Hollywood, he said, Fatima Zahra Animation Studios has a small team and a limited budget. He said they have received no funds from the government and are not linked to the IRGC.

“Our animators are not working for money, but for their beliefs and their love of the country. Thank God, everyone is surprised that we’ve managed to create such high-quality production under this poor condition,” he said.

He said screenings will begin as soon as the film gets the necessary permissions from the cultural authorities.

The film trailer has already created a buzz on social media, shared by thousands of people. The director believes young Iranians have shown interest to the film as “they want someone to show them power of their country.”
…

Michelle Obama’s garden stays.

First lady Melania Trump says through a spokeswoman that she is committed to preserving gardens at the White House, including the bountiful one planted by her immediate predecessor.

“As a mother and as the first lady of this country, Mrs. Trump is committed to the preservation and continuation of the White House gardens, specifically First Lady’s Kitchen Garden and the Rose Garden,” Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a senior adviser to the current first lady, said in a statement. The first lady and President Donald Trump have a 10-year-old son, Barron.

Obama planted the garden on the South Lawn in 2009 as one of her first big projects and as the foundation for her signature initiative, “Let’s Move.” She sought through the program to reduce childhood obesity by emphasizing good eating habits and exercise. Several times a year during her tenure as first lady, Obama ventured down to the garden to help with plantings and harvests.

Garden’s produce was shared

The garden produced hundreds of pounds of fruit and vegetables yearly. Some of it was used to feed the Obama family, as well as guests attending White House events, such as state dinners. Some of the sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, herbs and other crops were given to neighborhood food kitchens.

Obama said at the eighth and final planting last spring that the garden had exceeded expectations by sparking a national conversation about people’s eating habits and stoking renewed interest in community gardening. She referred to the 2,800-square-foot plot as “my baby” and expressed hope for its continued presence at the White House.

“Hopefully, there will be other administrations who come in and they take up this project and continue to make this a part of the White House tradition,” she said last April.

Garden expanded

A month before Donald Trump won the November 8 election, Michelle Obama dedicated an expanded and improved garden with hopes of cementing it as her legacy.

The additions include a wooden arbor for an entrance, wider bluestone walkways, wooden tables and benches. An inscribed stone at the entrance says: “White House Kitchen Garden, established in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama with the hope of growing a healthier nation for our children.”

She also announced $2.5 million in private donations to maintain and preserve the garden.
…

The dramatic departure of President Donald Trump’s hard-hitting national security adviser creates a vacuum of power and raises a key question about U.S. foreign policy: Will the pragmatists in the administration now gain clout?

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, both known as levelheaded technocrats, stand to fill some of the void. It would be a shift that would mollify anxious U.S. allies and even Republicans who worry Trump is veering too far from traditional U.S. positions. But the duo will be contending with Steve Bannon, Trump’s influential senior adviser, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Trump hasn’t named a replacement for Michael Flynn. Trump asked the former Army lieutenant general to resign Monday night amid revelations he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia while President Barack Obama was still in office. Trump has tasked retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg with filling the role temporarily, but is also considering two other retired military leaders to permanently replace Flynn.

“It’s dysfunctional as far as national security is concerned,” Republican Sen. John McCain said. “Who is in charge? I don’t know of anyone outside of the White House who knows.”

U.S.-Russia relations

Critics of Trump’s foreign policy plans are hoping the shakeup leads to a rethink of his desire to seek closer U.S.-Russian relations and a less hostile administration stance on Islam — a tone Flynn helped to set through often inflammatory statements about the religion.

Many lawmakers from both parties were appalled to learn that Flynn, in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, discussed with Russia’s ambassador sanctions that the Obama administration was enacting as punishment for Russia’s alleged interference in the presidential election.

Flynn, who in 2015 was paid to appear at a gala for Russian state-controlled television network RT, was the face of Trump’s potential Russia reboot, designed around working with Russia to fight the Islamic State group. In Moscow, Russian lawmakers bitterly mused that American paranoia had forced Flynn out, while analysts there surmised that the Kremlin’s honeymoon with Trump was ending.

With Flynn out, it could fall to Tillerson to step into the role of chief envoy to Russia. Tillerson, who heads to Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday on his first official trip, is widely expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the trip. He has long experience with Russian leaders and was awarded a friendship honor by President Vladimir Putin when he was ExxonMobil CEO.

Much depends on who replaces Flynn. It’s unclear if Trump will go with someone having a similar world view and willingness to upset the status quo.

In his brief three-week tenure, Flynn stepped up U.S. rhetoric toward Iran and helped spearhead Trump’s controversial immigration order that sparked consternation and threats of retaliation in the Muslim world.

“I don’t think it will slow the White House down too much,” said Jim Carafano, a Heritage Foundation scholar who advised Trump’s transition team on foreign policy. Carafano said Flynn’s departure “takes away a trusted voice of the president,” but that Trump would turn to other valued national security hands.

Filling the gap

That could also mean an expanded role for Bannon, the conservative media executive with outspoken views about Islam who has consolidated immense influence over Trump’s foreign policy. Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter, also could broaden his portfolio, which already has him as a prime Trump emissary to key regions like the Middle East and Latin America despite his dearth of diplomatic or government experience.

Tillerson, too, has elicited concerns about his ties to Putin. But he portrayed himself in a Senate confirmation hearing as well within mainstream U.S. thinking on Russia. And that view is prevailing on policy, at least for now, as the White House said Tuesday it is upholding the sanctions Obama imposed on Russia over Ukraine and the election meddling.

Tillerson, who has kept a low public profile since being sworn in, hasn’t commented on Flynn’s departure or on Trump’s early handling of foreign policy.

But Mattis, speaking to reporters while traveling to a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels, said Flynn’s departure “has no effect at all” on him.

“It doesn’t change my message,” he said.

Like Tillerson, Mattis has emerged as part of the global reassurance team — Cabinet members familiar to foreign leaders who are easing concerns that Trump will follow through on combative rhetoric about upending U.S. foreign policy. On his first official trip abroad, to South Korea and Japan, Mattis insisted the U.S. wouldn’t abandon its treaty allies despite Trump’s suggestions that Washington would no longer bear the burden of other nations’ defenses.

“The key question is what is the connective tissue between the president and the actual policy,” said Derek Chollett, who held various national security posts under Obama. “Every president reaches a point where they stop getting listened to. With Trump, it may happen sooner if there’s a sense what he says isn’t actually translated into policy.”
…

Cindy and her three children live in a tiny bedroom in an apartment shared with two other unrelated adults outside a major U.S. city.

Born in Guatemala, Cindy — who does not want her last name used — was brought to the U.S. when she was 5 years old. Yet she still has no legal status.

“Even though I don’t have papers, I feel that I’m from here,” Cindy says. She has been working at various jobs since she was 17.

Now 29, she has a baby on the way and wants to stay in the only country she knows, so she can make a better life for herself and her American-born children.

“Of course I’m proud of having been born in Guatemala, but I wasn’t raised there. I don’t know the culture, and I don’t know what it’s like to live there,” she says. Her biggest dream, she adds, is to get residency status in the U.S.

But now, more than ever, she is scared of being caught and deported.

Collateral arrests

Cindy is among an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., more than half from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Some of them were targeted last week by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which launched enforcement actions that rounded up 680 undocumented immigrants in cities around the country.

ICE said the recent operation was no different than ones it conducted during the administration of former President Barack Obama. Those also targeted individuals with criminal records, the agency said.

“President [Donald] Trump has been clear in affirming the critical mission of DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] in protecting the nation, and directed our department to focus on removing illegal aliens who have violated our immigration laws,” Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a news release Monday.

Kelly’s statement also said the specific focus is on those posing a “threat to public safety and those charged with criminal offenses.”

One of Trump’s signature campaign promises was to crack down on illegal immigration, promising to deport up to 3 million people involved in criminal activity.

On January 25, he signed an executive order to protect public safety that expanded the government’s reach in rounding up those involved in criminal activity or with criminal records.

On Sunday, Trump, in a tweet contradicting ICE’s assertion that is operation was routine, tweeted: “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!”

Those were not the only people netted in last week’s operation, however.

Homeland Security said that 25 percent of the undocumented people rounded up last week were not criminals, and they will be “evaluated on a case-by-case basis and, when appropriate, arrested by ICE.”

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), told reporters Friday that she has had 30 years’ experience working with ICE and that last week’s operations were “not normal.”

Salas said her organization received an unusual number of calls while the operation was ongoing in Los Angeles, including reports of people being seized in their homes and on their way to work.

Near panic

The immigrant community is full of fear. Rumors of ICE checkpoints and sudden detentions are rife.

At a Catholic Charities center in Washington’s Columbia Heights neighborhood, long a Latin American immigrant community, people standing in line waiting for food assistance spoke openly of their fears of being deported.

Catholic Charities staffer Rodrigo Aguirre says he has noticed a difference from a year ago.

“We’re seeing people more afraid of asking for help because they are fearful of the consequences,” Aguirre said. “Fear that their name might be given to immigration and that they will eventually be deported.”

Such is the case of a Salvadoran woman waiting for food assistance who gave her name only as Hemelina.

She said she came across the border illegally last year, fleeing a husband who beat her, as well as gang violence.

Catholic Charities immigration lawyer Smita Dazzo said Hemelina could qualify for asylum, if she provides credible proof before an immigration judge.

Dazzo said that in her experience, most of the undocumented immigrants she sees have a well-founded fear of persecution.

“The majority of people who are coming here are really fleeing for their lives,” she said. “And I don’t think it gets the amount of coverage it merits. It’s really, really scary for these people and some of them really, honestly feel like they have no choice” but to flee.

Dazzo added she is now consulting with undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years and only now, after Trump’s inauguration, are trying to fix their status.

​

But with so many seeking to stay, supporters of Trump’s immigration policy say the U.S. must impose limits.

Dan Stein, who heads the Federation for American Immigration Reform, notes that in the past 40 years, the United States has had its highest sustained level of immigration in its history, a level he considers unsustainable.

“There are simply far more people who would like to move to a country like the United States than we can possibly handle and still provide a good quality of life and a shot at the American dream for people who are here today,” Stein says.

Yet the question remains over what happens to the millions of law-abiding undocumented immigrants in the U.S., with families and jobs.

Immigration activists say an immigration reform law that allows them to stay and obtain some kind of legal status is the answer.

As Dazzo, the Catholic Charities lawyer, put it: “There are a lot of people who come here as children that are really upstanding citizens. They work hard, they’re family oriented — they’re exactly what you hope that Americans are.” 
…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says immigration officers have arrested more than 680 people in recent raids targeting illegal migrants, most of them criminals.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said 75 percent of those rounded up for deportation have criminal records, and he described the operations as routine.

The raids took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio and New York.

Kelly said the crimes committed by the undocumented migrants included homicide and aggravated sexual assault. He said the focus of the recent raids was on dangerous criminals, but said it also included anyone who had broken immigration laws.

‘We’re getting the criminals’

President Donald Trump said Monday that he was honoring his campaign pledge to deport criminal illegal migrants. “We’re getting them out. I’m just doing what I said I would.”

Speaking at a news conference at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump said “We’re getting the criminals, the drug lords…. We’re getting the bad ones … People are going to be very, very happy.”

Trump described the government’s raids against the illegal migrants as “a stance of common sense.”

The number of arrests during the recent raids is similar to those carried out during operations by the previous administration of Barack Obama.

Immigrants concerned

While the raids were not out of the ordinary, news of the arrests and rumors about other raids sparked fear and confusion among immigrants.

Immigration rights activists say the government is deporting migrants indiscriminately, and not taking into account their ties to the community.

During the campaign for president, Trump promised to deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented migrants with criminal records once he took office.
…

It was Miaofan Chen’s first trip away from her native China. At lunch with us in Denver, she looked so bemused that I had to ask: “Is this the first time you’ve had a hamburger?”

“No,” said the 15-year-old. “It’s the first time I’ve had such a BIG hamburger.”

That encounter with supersized American portions was one of many observations that students from abroad have shared with us. Miaofan, from Hefei in eastern China, was the latest of a half-dozen young people from around the world who’ve called our guest room home. Needless to say, we learn as much from them as they do from us.

Our interest in hosting international visitors comes from our own experiences abroad. My husband, daughter and I returned to the U.S. in 2012 following my two decades as an Associated Press correspondent on three continents. People welcomed us in their hometowns around the world. Even now when we vacation, we meet strangers who offer menu recommendations in Brazil or Slovenia, or who help us navigate subways in Moscow or Tokyo. Hosting foreign students lets us pay those debts forward.

Seeing U.S. through their eyes

It’s also a way to connect with the world from our front door and see our country through another’s eyes.

An Iraqi student who stayed with us for two weeks was surprised to see people in wheelchairs going to work or school in Denver. Not that her own country, wracked by decades of war, doesn’t have people disabled by injury or disease. But in Baghdad, she said, they’re hidden away. She helped me see that I’d taken for granted the progress here for Americans with disabilities.  

The State Department-backed Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program and local partner WorldDenver kept this Iraqi teen busy meeting with local development groups. Other organizations have taken our visitors to basketball games, to mountain retreats and downtown for scavenger hunts. Often our visitors go to school with our daughter.

But I sometimes think our main contribution as hosts is giving them time to rest and reflect. We share meals and show off Denver, including my favorite view of the Rockies, which happens to be from soccer fields near my house.

Guests help make pancakes on Sunday mornings. We’ve sent a French student to work out with our daughter’s swim team and a Brazilian to her piano practice. Miaofan went ice skating with us, and handled her first time on the ice with as much aplomb as she’d shown eating a hamburger the size of her face.

English, food and logistics

All our guests knew English well enough for daily interactions. Any young person willing to embark on these trips has the pluck and flexibility to meet us more than halfway when it comes to navigating cultural differences.

But these are teenagers. The one place where courage has failed a guest or two has been at the table. I once Googled “hunger strike” to reassure myself that a particularly picky eater could survive the week on only blueberries and coconut water. And pancakes.

Hosting opportunities have been easy for us to arrange through our daughter’s public magnet school, the Denver Center for International Studies. Students there can study Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese (my daughter’s choice), Lakota or Spanish and have rich opportunities to experience the world through classes, clubs, travel and hosting.

A school staff member helps connect organizations with host families. We just check her calendar to see whether we can fit in a visitor. Organizers have accommodated our preferences for girls around our daughter’s age and for one guest at a time.

So far, we’ve opted to host stays of just a few weeks to fit our busy schedules. Also, if my pancakes fail, at least the guest won’t be hungry for long.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remained sharply at odds Monday on immigration policies, with Trump applauding his crackdown to deport undocumented migrants and Trudeau acclaiming the success of Syrian refugees in his country.

Trudeau welcomed 40,000 Syrians into Canada even as Trump has sought to indefinitely suspend entry of any Syrian refugees into the U.S., part of his court-blocked plan to halt travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries with histories of terrorist attacks.

Asked whether he is confident the northern U.S. border is secure with the Syrians in Canada, Trump told a White House news conference, “You can never be totally confident.”

WATCH: Trump on biggest security threat for U.S.

But in the wake of U.S. immigration raids in recent days aimed at deporting migrants with criminal records, the new American leader declared, “We’re getting them out. I’m just doing what I said I would” during his run for the presidency.

“We’re getting the criminals, the drug lords…. We’re getting the bad ones …,” Trump said. “People are going to be very, very happy.”

WATCH: Trudeau discusses refugees, security

Syrians ‘very successful’ in Canada

Trump described the government’s raids against the illegal migrants as “a stance of common sense.” The U.S. says that 75 percent of the 680 undocumented immigrants arrested in recent days had criminal records.

Trudeau said the Syrians who have settled in Canada are “very successful” and that “our allies understand” Canada’s welcome to refugees from war-torn countries.

But the Canadian leader declined to criticize Trump’s immigration policies, saying, “The last thing Canadians want” is for him “to come down to another country and lecture them.”

The two leaders, meeting for the first time, reached more agreement on boosting the already high level of trade between between the countries, which Trudeau said amounted to $2 billion a day in cross-border transactions. Trump, during his lengthy presidential campaign, had vowed to renegotiate the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement that includes the U.S., Canada and Mexico to shape it in more favorable terms for U.S. workers.

WATCH: U.S.-Canada will remain partners

Trade relations will be tweaked

But after meeting with Trudeau in the Oval Office and over lunch, Trump said U.S. trade problems with Canada were “much less severe than has taken place with Mexico,” which he called “very unfair.”

Trump said the U.S. and Canada would be “tweaking” their trade relations. “We’re going to make it even better,” Trump said.

Trudeau said his country’s economic fortunes are “very dependent on trade with the U.S.,” with 75 percent of its exports heading to America, even as U.S. corporations send 18 percent of their products to Canada. He said that Canada is the biggest trading partner for 35 of the 50 U.S. states.

The two leaders announced a new task force to promote female business leaders and entrepreneurs in the two countries.

Trudeau’s schedule for the one-day visit also included talks with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trudeau is the third foreign leader Trump has met with since taking office last month, following a visit last weekend with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and earlier with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

WATCH: Trump on commitment to protect mutual interests

Trudeau responds on Twitter

Trump’s move to block immigrants from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan from traveling to the U.S. for 90 days is on hold.

The U.S. leader signed an executive order suspending the country’s refugee program for 120 days and indefinitely suspended it for Syrian refugees. Trump says the moves were necessary to protect national security.

A federal court ordered that the ban not be enforced while it is being challenged by several states, and an appeals court upheld the freeze last week. The White House has been mulling whether to appeal the decision blocking Trump’s order or to rewrite it and issue a new ban. The issue could ultimately end up being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trudeau’s government responded to Trump’s order by offering those who would normally be allowed into the U.S. the opportunity to apply for temporary status in Canada.

A day after Trump signed the ban, Trudeau wrote on Twitter: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” 
…

 A top White House aide sidestepped repeated chances Sunday to publicly defend embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn following reports that he engaged in conversations with a Russian diplomat about U.S. sanctions before Trump’s inauguration.

The uncertainty comes as Trump is dealing with North Korea’s apparent first missile launch of the year and his presidency, along with visits this week from the leaders of Israel and Canada.

Trump has yet to comment on the allegations against Flynn, and a top aide dispatched to represent the administration on the Sunday news shows skirted questions on the topic, saying it was not his place to weigh in on the “sensitive matter.”

Pressed repeatedly, top policy adviser Stephen Miller said it wasn’t up to him to say whether the president retains confidence in Flynn.

“It’s not for me to tell you what’s in the president’s mind,” he said on NBC. “That’s a question for the president.”

The White House said in an anonymous statement Friday the president had full confidence in Flynn. But officials have been mum since then amid fallout from reports that Flynn addressed U.S. sanctions against Russia in a phone call late last year. The report, which first appeared in The Washington Post, contradicted both Flynn’s previous denials, as well as those made by Vice President Mike Pence in a televised interview.

Trump has been discussing the situation with associates, according to a person who spoke with him recently. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie, who led Trump’s transition planning before the election, said Flynn would have to explain his conflicting statements about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

“Gen. Flynn has said up to this point that he had not said anything like that to the Russian ambassador. I think now he’s saying that he doesn’t remember whether he did or not,” Christie said on CNN. “So, that’s a conversation he is going to need to have with the president and the vice president to clear that up, so that the White House can make sure that they are completely accurate about what went on.”

The comments came as the White House continues to weigh its options following a legal blow last week to Trump’s immigration order suspending the nation’s refugee program and barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.

Miller, who was one of the architects of the order, maintained in a round of Sunday show interviews that the president has sweeping executive authority when it comes to barring foreigners he deems pose a risk to the country. He said Trump will do “whatever we need to do, consistent with the law, to keep this country safe” and slammed judges who’ve stood in his way.

“This is a judicial usurpation of the power. It is a violation of judges’ proper roles in litigating disputes. We will fight it,” Miller said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

As for the administration’s next steps, Miller said that “all options” remain on the table,” including a Supreme Court appeal. Trump said on the plane ride to Florida on Friday that he was considering signing a “brand new order” as early as Monday to try to bypass the legal challenges.

“As you know, we have multiple options, and we are considering all of them,” Miller said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The comments come amid an outcry from immigration activists over an “enforcement surge” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that officials say is targeting immigrants who are in the country illegally and have criminal records.

Advocacy groups contend the government has rounded up large numbers of people as part of stepped-up enforcement. The agency calls the effort no different from enforcement actions carried out in the past.

But Trump and Miller appeared eager to take credit for the action.

“The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!” Trump tweeted.

Added Miller on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “We’re going to focus on public safety and saving American lives and we will not apologize.”.

Trump has spent the weekend in Florida at his sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate, holding meetings, making calls, golfing and hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

For most of Saturday, Trump and the Japanese prime minister played golf under the Florida sun to get to know one another and show the world the U.S.-Japan alliance remained strong. A surprise provocation by the North Koreans provided a more significant example of cooperation.

After North Korea reportedly launched a ballistic missile, the two leaders appeared for hastily prepared statements in a ballroom of Trump’s south Florida estate late Saturday. Abe spoke first and longest.

“North Korea’s most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable,” Abe said through a translator. He added that the North must comply fully with relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, but also noted that Trump had assured him that the U.S. supported Japan.

“President Trump and I myself completely share the view that we are going to promote further cooperation between the two nations. And also we are going to further reinforce our alliance,” he said.

Trump followed Abe with even fewer words, saying in part: “I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.” With that, they left the room.

Miller said on ABC that the joint appearance marked “an important show of solidarity between the United States and Japan.”

 
…

About 20,000 people staged a march through Mexico’s capital Sunday demanding respect for their country and its migrants in the face of perceived hostility from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Many marchers carried Mexican flags and dressed in white as a sign of unity and to signal the non-political nature of the march. One of the banners read: “Gracias, Trump, for unifying Mexico!”

The marchers protested Trump’s plans for a border wall and increased deportations of migrants. Trump has also pressured U.S. corporations to provide jobs in the United States, not Mexico.

Paulina Arteaga carried a placard in English proclaiming: “We love Americans, we hate racism.”

“This is a march for dignity,” she said.

Irene Aguilar, a university professor, said the main message of the marchers was to show the unity of Mexicans in the face of adversity.

The march also featured many signs supporting Mexican migrants living in the United States.

“We want demonstrate to all of those who suffer discrimination in the United States that we are with them,” said Ana Fernanda Islas, a university student.

Mexicans have called for unity in facing the challenge posed by Trump’s policies, but the march featured almost as many banners criticizing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto as the new U.S. leader.

Smaller marches were held in other Mexican cities Sunday.

 
…

Hours before the Grammy Awards ceremony, the biggest night in the music industry in the United States, word came of the death of well-known jazz and rhythm and blues singer Al Jarreau.

Winner of seven Grammys himself, Jarreau died at age 76 Sunday in a hospital in Los Angeles, the city where the Grammys are held each year. No cause of death was given.

He was hospitalized for exhaustion last week, and while he had been “recovering slowly and steadily” according to a Friday post on his Facebook page, he had been forced to cancel his remaining tour dates for 2017.

The multi-talented Jarreau achieved a rarity, winning Grammys in three different categories:  jazz, pop and rhythm and blues. He released 16 studio albums, a host of live albums and several compilations. He was considered one of jazz’s greatest vocalists. Jarreau’s hits included “We’re in This Love Together,” “After All,” and “Moonlighting.”

“Moonlighting” was the theme he wrote for the late 1980s American television show with the same title, and it cemented his place in pop culture.

As for Sunday night’s 59th Grammys, the battle for the top awards was expected to be between two of the most successful women in pop — Beyoncé and Adele. They go head-to head in each of the top three categories — album, record and song of the year.

Challenging the two for album of the year are Justin Bieber, Drake and Sturgill Simpson.

Another category always closely followed is best new artist. A hit-making production duo, the Chainsmokers, is up against two young country singers, Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris, and two rappers, Anderson .Paak and Chance the Rapper.

Eighty-four Grammys will be handed out by the time the night is over, much of it televised live around the world.
…

North Korea launched a ballistic missile early Sunday over the Sea of Japan. South Korean military officials said the projectile fell into the sea.

The incident was the first military launch by North Korea since U.S. President Donald Trump took office 22 days ago. The initial reaction from Western analysts was that Pyongyang appeared to have staged the launch as a test of how Trump would react to the situation.

Initial reports indicated the missile was an intermediate-range rocket, capable of reaching targets several thousand kilometers from North Korea, but that it was not an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States. North Korea has boasted that it is developing such long-range weapons.

Missile falls into sea

At the time of the launch, Trump was in Florida, dining with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The two men had a golf outing earlier in the day.

The missile that the North launched early Sunday at 7:55 a.m. local time (2255 Sunday UTC) apparently was of a type capable of reaching Japan. However, the rocket was fired over the Korean Peninsula eastward, not toward Japanese territory.

South Korean military officials said the object fell into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, but no precise location was given.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year’s speech last month that his isolated country was close to testing a working intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Mattis had reassured allies 

During a visit to the region earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis strongly reassured Japan and South Korea of the United States’ commitment to the region and emphasized Washington’s continued support for its allies in Asia.

Mattis warned North Korea that any attack would be met with overwhelming force.

VOA’s Brian Padden in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. 
…

President Donald Trump has promised that the country’s immigration system will not be used as a tool to advance the cause of foreign terrorists.

In his weekly broadcast address to the American people, Trump said he met this week with sheriffs and police chiefs from around the country and pledged that he and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, would support them in the fight against criminal threats.

“We will continue to fight to take all necessary and legal action to keep terrorists, radicals and dangerous extremists from ever entering our country,” Trump said. “We will not allow our general system of immigration to be turned against us as a tool for terrorism and truly bad people.”

He added, “We must take firm steps today to ensure that we are safe tomorrow.”

New order considered

On Friday, Trump said he was considering a “brand-new order” on immigration after an appellate court unanimously let stand a federal judge’s ruling that suspended the president’s effort to bar refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. The appellate ruling did not say whether Trump’s original order was constitutional; that underlying question has yet to be resolved.

Trump: Will Win Court Battle on Travel Ban, or Offer Other Options

As Trump headed to Florida for the weekend, he told reporters aboard Air Force One that a new executive order could be issued as soon as Monday or Tuesday, if the administration decided to pursue that course of action.

He said such a move might be faster than defending the current rule in court. “We need speed for reasons of security,” he said.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus sought to clarify to reporters, however, that “every single court option is on the table, including an appeal of the 9th Circuit decision on the TRO [temporary restraining order] to the Supreme Court, including fighting out this case on the merits.”

Meanwhile, an unidentified judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requested that the court’s 25 full-time judges vote on whether the temporary block of the president’s travel ban should be reheard before an 11-judge panel, known as an en banc review, according to a court order. Both sides in the lawsuit have been asked to file briefs by next week.

In the meantime, foreign travelers with valid visas can expect to enter the U.S. unhindered.

New security measures

Earlier Friday, speaking at a White House news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump said he would be announcing new measures to bolster U.S. security next week. He did not disclose any details about the new security measures but said he intended to bar from the United States people who were looking to do harm.

Critics have charged that Trump’s original order discriminated against members of the Muslim faith. Democratic leaders have urged Trump to abandon the policy.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted that Trump should abandon the proposal, “roll up his sleeves” and come up with a “real bipartisan plan to keep us safe.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would continue to push for the controversial ban to be withdrawn.

The Republicans’ leaders in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, declined to comment.

Supreme Court split

John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University in the nation’s capital, told VOA he thought any move by the Trump administration to immediately take its travel ban case to the Supreme Court was unlikely to succeed, because legal experts see the high court as ideologically divided, with four justices most likely favoring Trump’s view and the four others likely opposing it. A 4-4 vote would leave the stay of the order in place.

However, Banzhaf added, the administration’s chances of prevailing in court would rise if the case was delayed until Trump’s nominee to fill the vacant ninth seat on the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed and installed. Gorsuch was nominated January 31, and the confirmation process is expected to take months.

“If they wait until the lower courts decide the underlying, important issues — Does the president have this authority? Is it constitutional? — by the time that important issue gets up to the Supreme Court, there will almost certainly be nine justices,” Banzhaf said.

Trump took to Twitter following the appellate court’s ruling on Thursday: “See you in court, the security of our nation is at stake.” A short time later, he told reporters at the White house that the court made a “political decision,” and said his administration eventually would win the case “very easily.”

Appellate arguments

In arguments Tuesday before the 9th U.S. Circuit panel, government attorney August Flentje argued that Trump’s executive order was within the powers granted to him by Congress and the Constitution. In opposition, the solicitor general of Washington state, Noah Purcell, said reinstating the travel ban without a full judicial review would throw the country “back into chaos,” with families separated and travelers confused and wondering whether they would be able to enter the country.

A professor law at Florida’s University of Miami, David Abraham, said it would be easier for Trump to replace the executive orders rather than try to fix them. “These orders are tainted beyond recognition and the administration has already backed off substantial parts of them,” he said.

Trump’s original order was set to expire in 90 days, meaning it could expire before the issue could get to the Supreme Court. Before then, however, the administration could revise the scope of the order or its duration.
…

President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping back from a request made by the Obama administration in an ongoing lawsuit over bathroom rights for transgender students in public schools.

The Department of Justice on Friday withdrew a motion asking that a temporary injunction blocking Obama administration guidance on the issue only apply to the states suing the federal government.

Texas and 12 other states are challenging the guidance, which directs public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. A federal judge temporarily blocked the directive nationwide last year.

The Obama administration asked that the directive only be put on hold in the 13 states while it appealed. A hearing on that request was set for Tuesday, but Friday’s filing asked that the hearing be canceled, saying the parties are “currently considering how best to proceed in this appeal.”

Meanwhile, a massive crowd energized in opposition to Trump and to a state law limiting LGBT rights streamed into North Carolina’s capital in Raleigh for an annual civil rights march on Saturday.

The “Moral March on Raleigh” was led by the North Carolina NAACP for an 11th year. Participants carried signs promoting issues from gerrymandering and immigration to public education.

Raleigh police don’t provide crowd estimates. Event organizers predicted 20,000 people. The surface area that the crowd covered neared the march’s previous peak from 2014.

Saturday’s protesters also want to see a repeal of House Bill 2, which limits LGBT rights and which bathrooms transgender people can use.
…