France’s Macron condemns Burkina Faso coup, says calm prevails for now

Macron also told reporters during a trip in central France that he had been informed Burkina Faso's ousted President Roch Kabore was "in good health" and not being threatened. (File/AFP)
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Updated 25 January 2022
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France’s Macron condemns Burkina Faso coup, says calm prevails for now

  • Macron said his government was following the situation “minute by minute”

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron condemned on Tuesday a military coup in Burkina Faso, adding that the situation in the West African country had appeared calm in the last few hours.
Macron also told reporters during a trip in central France that he had been informed Burkina Faso’s ousted President Roch Kabore was “in good health” and not being threatened.
Burkina Faso’s army said on Monday that it had ousted President Roch Kabore, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly, and closed the country’s borders.
Macron said his government was following the situation “minute by minute.”


China urges EU to stop ‘provoking trouble’ in South China Sea dispute

Updated 8 sec ago
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China urges EU to stop ‘provoking trouble’ in South China Sea dispute

  • Beijing advises Manila not to ‘fantasize’ about relying on outside forces to resolve the South China Sea dispute
  • ’The EU is not a party to the South China Sea disputes and has no right to interfere in the South China Sea differences’
BEIJING: The Chinese embassy in the Philippines advised Manila on Thursday not to “fantasize” about relying on outside forces to resolve the South China Sea dispute, and urged the European Union to stop “provoking trouble.”
An embassy spokesperson made the comments after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas visited the Philippine capital and voiced concern over China’s activities in the busy waterway, where its claims overlap those of some Southeast Asian nations.
“The EU is not a party to the South China Sea disputes and has no right to interfere in the South China Sea differences between China and the Philippines,” the spokesperson said in a statement on the embassy website.
The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Trump orders inquiry into ‘conspiracy’ to hide Biden’s health decline

Updated 05 June 2025
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Trump orders inquiry into ‘conspiracy’ to hide Biden’s health decline

  • The Democratic Party is increasingly riven by squabbles about whether Biden could have been forced to step down earlier to give the party chance to find a more popular presidential candidate

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an investigation into what Republicans claim was a “conspiracy” to cover up Joe Biden’s declining cognitive health during his time in the White House.
The move is the latest in a long-running campaign by Trump to discredit his predecessor, which has been joined by Republican Party politicians and their cheerleaders in the conservative media.
But it also comes as a growing chorus of Democrats begin to acknowledge the former president appeared to have been slipping in recent years.
Those concerns were thrown into stark relief by a disastrous debate performance against Trump during last year’s presidential campaign, in which the then-81-year-old stumbled over his words and repeatedly lost his train of thought.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline,” a presidential memorandum issued Wednesday reads.
“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.
“The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Republicans have long claimed that Biden was suffering from intellectual decline even as the White House pressed ahead with major legislation and presidential decrees during his term.
They cite his infrequent public appearances, as well as his apparent unwillingness to sit for interviews as evidence of what they say was a man incapable of doing the demanding job of Commander-in-Chief of the United States.
They insist that those around him covered up his physical and cognitive decline, taking decisions on his behalf and using a device that could reproduce his signature to allow them to continue to run the country in his name.
“The Counsel to the President, in consultation with the Attorney General and the head of any other relevant executive department or agency... shall investigate... whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President,” the document says.
The probe will also look at “the circumstances surrounding Biden’s supposed execution of numerous executive actions during his final years in office (including) the policy documents for which the autopen was used (and) who directed that the President’s signature be affixed.”
Biden’s calamitous debate performance ultimately sank his bid for reelection, with key Democratic Party figures soon calling for him to drop out of the race.
But it was only several weeks later, after unsuccessful attempts to quieten his critics, that he withdrew, anointing his vice president Kamala Harris, who eventually lost to Trump.
The Democratic Party is increasingly riven by squabbles about whether Biden could have been forced to step down earlier to give the party chance to find a more popular presidential candidate.
The fight has been given oxygen with the publication of a book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that claims the former president’s inner circle connived to keep him from public view because of his decline, which included forgetting familiar faces like Hollywood star and party stalwart George Clooney.
Trump’s claims of a cover-up were also boosted by news that Biden is suffering from an “aggressive” prostate cancer, with some voices on the right insisting — without evidence — the diagnosis must have been known some time ago to those close to the former president.


Trump slaps new travel ban on 12 countries

Updated 05 June 2025
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Trump slaps new travel ban on 12 countries

  • The ban targets nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban Wednesday targeting 12 countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen, reviving one of the most controversial measures from his first term.
Trump said the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally.
The ban targets nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Both go into effect on Monday, the White House said.
“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message from the Oval Office posted on X.
“We don’t want them.”
Trump compared the new measures to the “powerful” ban he imposed on a number of mainly Muslim countries in his first term, which caused huge travel disruption across the world.
The US leader said that 2017 ban had stopped the United States suffering terror attacks that happened in Europe.
“We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America,” Trump said.
“We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen. That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others.”
“Being in the United States is a great risk for anyone, not just for Venezuelans,” Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said after the announcement, warning citizens against travel there.
Trump’s new travel ban could however face legal challenges, as have many of the drastic measures he has taken in his whirlwind return to office.
The White House unveiled the new ban with virtually no warning, minutes after Trump had addressed some 3,000 political appointees from his balcony at a celebratory “summer soiree.”
Trump also unusually made the announcement with no reporters present. He has unveiled many of his most headline-grabbing policy announcements at signing ceremonies in front of journalists in the Oval Office.
Rumors of a new Trump travel ban had circulated following the attack in Colorado, with his administration vowing to pursue “terrorists” living in the US on visas.
Suspect Mohammed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.
“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said on X.
“These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information.”
Trump’s proclamation gave specific reasons for each country in his proclamation, which says it is aimed at protecting the United States from “foreign terrorists and other national security” threats.
For Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, it said they lacked “competent” central authorities for processing passports and vetting.
Yemen, where American forces have struck Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, was also the “site of active US military operations,” it said.
Iran, with which the United States is in negotiations on a possible nuclear deal, was included as it is a “state sponsor of terrorism,” the order said.
For most of the other countries, Trump’s order cited an above average likelihood that people would overstay their visas.
Trump separately on Wednesday announced a ban on visas for foreign students who are set to begin attending Harvard University, ramping up his crackdown on what he regards as a bastion of liberalism.


US judge stops deportation of Boulder firebombing suspect’s Egyptian family

Updated 05 June 2025
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US judge stops deportation of Boulder firebombing suspect’s Egyptian family

  • Immigration officials seek to deport the wife and five children of suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman
  • Attorneys for the family argue: “It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives”

BOULDER, Colorado: A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family’s constitutional rights.
US District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. US immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday.
“The court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents,” Gallagher wrote.
Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in the attack in downtown Boulder on Sunday. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and he confessed to the attack in custody.

In this photo provided by Lisa Turnquist, attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman is seen as he launched a fiery attack on demonstrators at an outdoor mall on June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado. (Lisa Turnquist via AP)

His family members have not been charged.
Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the US illegally, and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It’s rare that a criminal suspect’s family members are detained and threatened with deportation.
“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,” attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit.
Eric Lee, one of the attorney’s representing the family, said efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy.
“The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” he said.
Emails, a text and a telephone call seeking comment from spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington and Colorado have not been returned.
Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. They were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, Lee said.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement.
Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, following the Boulder attack.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents. Soliman’s wife said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to the lawsuit.
Victims increase to 15 people and a dog
Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog.
Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. The Associated Press on Wednesday sent an email to prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims.
Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.
A vigil is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the local Jewish Community Center.
 

A protester holds signs in support of Palestinians during a community gathering at the site of an attack against a group people holding a vigil for kidnapped Israeli citizens in Gaza in Boulder, Colorado on June 4, 2025. (AFP)

The family’s immigration status
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
Soliman arrived in the US in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.
Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.
Soliman’s wife was born in Saudi Arabia and is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman’s asylum application.
A newspaper in Colorado Springs profiled one of Soliman’s children in April, noting the family’s journey from Egypt to Kuwait and then to the US It said after initially struggling in school, his daughter landed academic honors and volunteered at a local hospital.
The case against Soliman
Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting for his daughter to graduate before carrying it out, the affidavit said.
Soliman is being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday. His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders’ policy prohibits speaking to the media.
The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. It happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
 


Trump administration may rescind $4 billion for California High-Speed Rail project

Updated 05 June 2025
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Trump administration may rescind $4 billion for California High-Speed Rail project

  • One key issue cited is that California has not identified $7 billion in additional funding needed to build an initial 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield, California

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration said Wednesday there is no viable path forward for California’s High-Speed Rail project and warned it may rescind $4 billion in government funding in the coming weeks.
The US Transportation Department released a 315-page report from the Federal Railroad Administration that cited missed deadlines, budget shortfalls and questionable ridership projections. One key issue cited is that California has not identified $7 billion in additional funding needed to build an initial 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield, California.
USDOT gave California until mid-July to respond and then the administration could terminate the grants. Trump said last month the US government would not pay for the project.
The FRA report Wednesday said California had “conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time.”
The California High-Speed Rail System is a planned two-phase 800-mile system with speeds of up to 220 miles per hour that aims to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim and in the second phase extend north to Sacramento and south to San Diego.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority said it strongly disagrees with the administration’s conclusions “which are misguided and do not reflect the substantial progress made to deliver high-speed rail in California.”
It noted California, Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal before the legislature extends at least $1 billion per year in funding for the next 20 years “providing the necessary resources to complete the project’s initial operating segment.”
The authority noted in May there is active civil construction along 119 miles in the state’s Central Valley.
Voters approved $10 billion for the project in 2008 but the costs have risen sharply. The Transportation Department under former President Joe Biden awarded the project about $4 billion.
The entire San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project was initially supposed to be completed by 2020 for $33 billion but has now jumped from $89 billion to $128 billion.
In 2021, Biden restored a $929 million grant for California’s high-speed rail that Trump had revoked in 2019 after the Republican president called the project a “disaster.”