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Trump Tells Americans: This Moment Will ‘Help this Country Heal’
International Desk
06 Nov 2024, 13:50
Photo: CNN
Former President Donald Trump told his supporters early Wednesday that this moment will “help this country heal.”
According to CNN projections, Trump only needs four more electoral votes to win the presidency. CNN has not yet called the race for the former president and votes are still being counted in several states.
At a convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump promised Americans that “every single day I will be fighting for you” and said he would usher in the “golden age of America.”
Trump was joined on stage by members of his family and his wife, Melania Trump, as well as his running mate, JD Vance, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
(Source: CNN)
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Trump Asks Supreme Court to Delay Law that could Ban TikTok
President-elect Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to delay a law that would ban TikTok or force its sale by its Chinese owner ByteDance.
The law, set to take effect on January 19 — one day before Trump's inauguration — requires ByteDance to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban.
Trump's legal team asked the court to allow the incoming administration the time "to pursue a political resolution."
President Joe Biden signed the law in April in a bid to address TikTok's potential national security risks, including its ties to China.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on January 10.
Trump finds 'a warm spot' for TikTok
Trump's latest stance marks a reversal from his first term when he sought to ban the app over national security concerns.
US officials then had voiced concern over the popularity of the video-sharing app with young people.
Last week, Trump said TikTok has a "a warm spot" in his heart for helping him connect with young voters, just ahead of his meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Concerns over China's access to US data
TikTok, which has over 170 million US users, and its parent company have sought to have the law struck down arguing that the legislation violates US First Amendment rights.
If the court does not rule in their favor, the app could be effectively banned in the US on January 19, one day before Trump takes office.
Officials claim Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to share data on US users or manipulate the spread of information.
However, the platform has denied sharing data with Chinese officials. TikTok's legal filing points out that the US government "concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so," adding that the concerns are based solely on probable future risks.
Meanwhile, free-speech advocates told the Supreme Court on Friday that the law banning TikTok evokes the censorship regimes put in place by the United States' authoritarian enemies.
Former US President Jimmy Carter Dies at 100
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, died on Sunday. He was 100. Carter died "peacefully" at his home in Plains, "surrounded by his family," The Carter Center said in a statement.
The former US president died Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, spent most of their lives. He had been in hospice care for almost two years.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” his son, Chip Carter said.
“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
First US president to live to be a 100 years old
Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other US president. His term is mostly remembered for historic moments in the Middle East.
Those include brokering the 1978 Camp David Peace accords between Egypt and Israel which led to the historic peace treaty between the two countries in 1979.
He was also president when the US negotiated the release of 52 staff members held at the US embassy in Tehran, who were held hostage after the 1979 Islamic Revolution for 444 days.
As he was campaigning for the 1980 US presidential election, a US rescue mission for the hostages failed in April, with eight Americans dying. This proved to be a turning point and is often seen as a critical reason for his landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan.
The hostages were released minutes after Reagan's inauguration in 1981.
After failing to win a second term in office, Carter set up in 1982 The Carter Center, which he aimed to focus on international peacemaking, championing democracy, public health and human rights.
Peanut farmer-turned-president
Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital, on October 1, 1924, to a nurse and an owner of a general store. After a childhood marked by the Great Depression, he attended the Naval Academy and fell in love with his sister's friend Rosalynn Smith.
The Carters married in 1946 and were together for 77 years, until Rosalynn died in November 2023 at the age of 96.
Carter was relatively unknown outside of Georgia when he secured the Democratic nomination, and later the presidency, in 1976. He promoted moderately progressive policies during his single term, which was also marred by economic malaise and the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, the year he lost his second presidential run to Ronald Reagan.
Carter became best known for defining the concept of the "post-presidency." Alongside his wife, he worked to promote humanitarian causes around the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Legacy beyond presidency
Carter's continuous diplomacy efforts long outlived his stint at the White House. He once said, no longer encumbered by the Washington order, that he went "where others are not treading."
"I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don't," Carter said.
He was openly critical of former President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized the US approach to Israel and in 2006 released the book: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
Carter also repeatedly argued that North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position which long went against the official US line.
His 2002 Nobel Peace Prize crowned what the committee called his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."
The chairman even argued it was a couple of decades too late, adding he should have won it alongside former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who both won the prize in 1978 over the Carter-mediated Camp David Accords.
Chinese Hackers Infiltrate US Treasury Systems
The US Treasury Department said Monday Chinese state-sponsored hackers broke into its systems earlier this month.
In a letter informing lawmakers of the breach, the department said Chinese hackers remotely accessed Treasury workstations and stole unclassified documents.
The hack is being treated as a "major cybersecurity incident."
What do we know about the breach?
The department did not say how many workstations were accessed or what documents the hackers might have taken.
However, it informed lawmakers that a Chinese state-sponsored group compromised BeyondTrust, a third-party software provider, and accessed the Treasury workstations.
"There is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information," the department's spokesperson said.
The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to assess the exact scope of the hack.
Chinese cyberattacks against governments
Several countries, notably the US, have expressed concern over alleged hacking activities linked to the Chinese government in recent years.
Beijing has denied these accusations, saying it opposes and actively combats all forms of cyberattacks.
At Least 10 Dead After Vehicle Plows into Crowd in New Orleans
New Orleans authorities on Wednesday announced 10 deaths and 30 injuries after "a mass casualty incident involving a vehicle that drove into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street."
"There are 30 injured patients that have been transported by [New Orleans Emergency Medical Services] and 10 fatalities," the city's public alert system announced.
National broadcaster ABC also reported, citing a police spokesperson, that the strike had appeared to be intentional.
The incident took place on Bourbon Street at around 3:15 a.m. local time, various outlets reported. This is a popular tourist and social hotspot in the French Quarter of the city of roughly 360,000 people in the southern state of Louisiana.
Shortly before Christmas, an attack using a car at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killed five people and injured more than 200, drawing international attention.
ISIS Flag Found with New Orleans Attacker; Identity Revealed
The FBI has disclosed the identity of the driver responsible for the New Orleans attack during New Year's celebrations, which resulted in 15 deaths. According to CNN, citing relevant sources, the suspect was found in possession of an ISIS flag.
The incident occurred early Wednesday morning (January 1), local time, in Louisiana, where a truck was driven into a crowd, casting a shadow of grief over New Orleans on the first day of the year.
CNN reported that the driver sped into tourists and locals in New Orleans' popular French Quarter. After exiting the vehicle, the suspect indiscriminately fired at pedestrians. Security forces responded with counter-fire.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene, and several critically injured individuals were admitted to at least five hospitals in the city. Authorities fear the death toll may rise.
The suspect has been identified as Shamsuddin Jabbar, 42, a resident of Texas. According to two U.S. officials, Jabbar once served in the U.S. military. The FBI believes he may not have acted alone.
Louisiana’s governor described the incident as "horrific violence." Police have advised avoiding the area around Bourbon Street temporarily. The identities of the victims have not yet been released, as local authorities have begun their investigation.
President Joe Biden has pledged full cooperation in the investigation, while newly elected President Donald Trump condemned the attack on social media in strong terms.
Blinken Heads to South Korea, Japan, France One Last Time
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to South Korea, Japan and France between January 4-9, the State Department said Friday, in what is expected to be his last overseas trip in office.
The US top diplomat will visit South Korea at a time of political turmoil in the country. In the latest development there, a standoff between investigators and suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's team prevented investigators from arresting Yoon.
Blinken to meet with his South Korean counterpart
Blinken will meet with his counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Monday, Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement, to discuss the "South Korea-US alliance, South Korea-US-Japan cooperation, North Korea issues, and regional and global challenges."
The State Department statement also makes no direct mention of the current political turmoil in Seoul, saying Blinken will speak about "ways our two nations can build on our critical cooperation on challenges around the world based on our shared values."
South Korea has been mired in a political crisis ever since Yoon briefly declared martial law on December 3 and sent soldiers to parliament. He has been under investigation on allegations of abuse of power and inciting an insurrection.
Investigators probing Yoon's declaration of martial law attempted to enforce a warrant for his arrest on Friday but were thwarted by presidential security guards.
That warrant expires on January 6, the same day Blinken plans to meet Cho.
Blinken in Japan, France
In Japan, Blinken will meet senior Japanese government officials to review the "tremendous progress" between the two nations.
The US and Japan have forged closer defense ties over the years, as both countries share similar concerns including what they describe as countering Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.
Blinken will wrap up his trip in Paris in meetings with French officials to discuss developments in the Middle East and European security, particularly in Ukraine.
Massive Storm to Slam Half of US with Snow, Ice, Bitter Cold
A powerful winter storm began hammering the central United States on Saturday, with meteorologists warning that millions in the east of the country would face blizzard conditions, treacherous ice, frigid temperatures and severe travel disruptions.
More than 60 million people are in the path of the dangerous storm, which is set to plunge the eastern half of the United States into a deep freeze of Arctic air through Monday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has warned of ferocious weather, including gale-force winds in states from the central plains to the Mid-Atlantic.
Winter storm warnings have been issued from western Kansas clear across to the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, an unusually broad 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) swath under immediate threat.
"Disruptive winter storm to impact the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic through Monday with widespread heavy snow and damaging ice accumulations," the NWS said in its latest report.
The first major storm of 2025 was already wreaking havoc on travel, with Kansas City International Airport announcing closure of its flight operations Saturday "due to rapid ice accumulation."
Parts of the eastern states of New York and Pennsylvania are facing "heavy lake-effect snow" coming off the Great Lakes that could dump as much as two feet (61 centimeters) there, according to the NWS.
Forecast company AccuWeather said Saturday that the lake-effect snow total in the region, already blanketed in snow this week, could top four feet.
A blizzard will rage across the Central Plains by early Sunday, and "whiteout conditions will make travel extremely hazardous, with impassable roads and a high risk of motorists becoming stranded," the NWS said.
"A swath of heavy snow exceeding 15 inches (38 cm) from northeastern Kansas into north-central Missouri would be the heaviest snowfall in a decade" there, it added.
The US capital Washington could be blanketed in five inches or more of snow, with up to 10 inches possible in nearby areas.
With the jet stream diving southward, temperatures are expected to plunge, in some places to below zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius), while strong wind gusts will compound the dangers.
The mercury could sink tens of degrees below seasonal norms down to the US Gulf Coast. Before then, severe thunderstorms are expected across the lower Mississippi Valley, the NWS forecast.
Another major concern is freezing rain and sleet expected from Kansas eastward to Kentucky and Virginia, setting the stage for thick ice to coat roads, making travel hazardous, bringing down trees and electricity lines, and potentially leaving millions of customers without power during a cold snap.
The governors of Missouri and Virginia have declared a state of emergency in their states, and they took to social media to warn residents to expect hazardous weather this weekend.
Conditions could prove especially perilous in the Appalachian Mountains, where a deadly hurricane in late September devastated communities and ravaged multiple southeastern states including Kentucky.
The storm "will likely cause significant disruption and dangerous conditions on our roads and could cause significant power outages just 24 hours or so before it's going to get really cold in Kentucky," Governor Andy Beshear told an emergency meeting.
(Source: BSS)
