WASHINGTON: The Republican-led House voted after raucous debate Thursday to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her anti-Israel comments.
This comes in a dramatic response after Democrats last session booted far-right GOP lawmakers over incendiary remarks.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to solidify Republican support against the Somali-born Muslim woman in the new Congress although some GOP lawmakers had expressed reservations. Removal of lawmakers from House committees was essentially unprecedented until the Democratic ousters two years ago of hard-right Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
The 218-211 vote, along party lines, came after a heated, voices-raised debate in which Democrats accused the GOP of targeting Omar based on her race. Omar defended herself on the House floor, asking if anyone was surprised she was being targeted, “because when you push power, power pushes back.” Democratic colleagues hugged and embraced her during the vote.
“My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world,” Omar said in a closing speech.
Republicans focused on six statements Omar has made that “under the totality of the circumstances, disqualify her from serving on the Committee of Foreign Affairs,” said Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, the incoming chairman of the House Ethics Committee.
“All members, both Republicans and Democrats alike who seek to serve on Foreign Affairs, should be held to the highest standard of conduct due to the international sensitivity and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee,” Guest said.
The resolution proposed by Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a former official in the Trump administration, declared, “Omar’s comments have brought dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Omar has at times “made mistakes” and used antisemitic tropes that were condemned by House Democrats four years ago. But that’s not what Thursday’s vote was about, he said.
“It’s not about accountability, it’s about political revenge,” Jeffries said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, went one step further, saying that the GOP’s action was one of the “disgusting legacies after 9/11,” a reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack — “the targeting and racism against Muslim-Americans throughout the United States of America. And this is an extension of that legacy.”
She added, “This is about targeting women of color.”
McCarthy denied the Republican move to oust Omar was a tit-for-tat after the Greene and Gosar removals under Democrats, though he had warned in late 2021 that such a response might be expected if Republicans won back the House majority.
“This is nothing like the last Congress,” he said Thursday. He noted that Omar can remain on other panels, just not Foreign Affairs after her anti-Israel comments.
Omar is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. She is also the first to wear a hijab in the House chamber after floor rules were changed to allow members to wear head coverings for religious reasons.
She quickly generated controversy after entering Congress in 2019 with a pair of tweets that suggested lawmakers who supported Israel were motivated by money.
In the first, she criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she wrote, invoking slang about $100 bills.
Asked on Twitter who she thought was paying members of Congress to support Israel, Omar responded, “AIPAC!”
The comments sparked a public rebuke from then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who made clear that Omar had overstepped.
She soon apologized.
“We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me about my identity,” Omar tweeted. “This is why I unequivocally apologize.”
Democrats rallied in a fiery defense of Omar and the experiences she brings to the Congress.
Black, Latino and progressive lawmakers in particular spoke of her unique voice in the House and criticized Republicans for what they called a racist attack.
“Racist gaslighting,” said Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri A “revenge resolution,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chair of the progressive caucus.
“It’s so painful to watch,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, who joined Congress with Omar in 2019 the first two female Muslims elected to the House.
“To Congresswoman Omar, I am so sorry that our country is failing you today through this chamber,” Tlaib said through tears. “You belong on that committee.”
Omar’s previous comments were among several remarks highlighted in the resolutions seeking her removal from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, argued for excluding Omar from the panel during a recent closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans.
“It’s just that her worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee’s,” McCaul told reporters in describing his stance. “I don’t mind having differences of opinion, but this goes beyond that.”
McCarthy has already blocked Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both California Democrats, from rejoining the House Intelligence Committee once the GOP took control of the chamber in January. While appointments to the intelligence panel are the prerogative of the speaker, the action on Omar requires a House vote.
Several Republicans skeptical of removing Omar wanted “due process” for lawmakers who face removal. McCarthy said he told them he would work with Democrats on creating a due process system, but acknowledged it’s still a work in progress.
House GOP votes to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from major committee
https://arab.news/m987t
House GOP votes to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from major committee
- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to solidify Republican support against the Somali-born Muslim woman in the new Congress
- “My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world,” Omar said in a closing speech
Spain probes deaths of thousands of Spaniards in Nazi camps
- Thousands of Spaniards fled to France after Franco’s Fascist-backed nationalists overthrew a republic in the 1936-1939 civil war
- They found themselves under Nazi occupation in France from 1940
MADRID: Spanish prosecutors on Monday said they were investigating whether General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II to send thousands of exiled Spaniards in France to death camps.
Thousands of Spaniards fled to France after Franco’s Fascist-backed nationalists overthrew a republic in the 1936-1939 civil war, only to find themselves under Nazi occupation in France from 1940.
The investigation will “clarify the relevant responsibilities and the existence of a possible joint strategy” between Franco’s dictatorship and Nazi Germany “in the detention and subsequent transfer of thousands of Spaniards exiled in France to different extermination camps,” the public prosecutor’s office said.
The Mauthausen camp in Austria was among the sites where the republican exiles “were subjected to forced labor, torture, disappearance and murder,” the prosecutor’s office added.
The human rights and democratic memory section of the office will lead the inquiry into the 4,435 recorded dead.
The prosecutors’ office said the probe coincided with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen and was launched in accordance with a divisive 2022 democratic memory law.
The left-wing government passed the legislation in a bid to tackle the legacy of the civil war and honor victims of violence and persecution under Franco, who ruled with an iron fist until his death in 1975.
The right-wing opposition says the left is trying to reopen the wounds of the past with the law and has vowed to repeal it if they return to power.
Rwanda in ‘initial’ talks with US over migration deal
- Great Lakes nation — often viewed as an island of stability in a turbulent region — previously made a similar multi-million deal with Britain to receive deported illegal migrants
- FM Olivier Nduhungirehe: ‘Those reports are true, we are engaged in discussions with the Government of the United States of America’
KIGALI: Rwanda and Washington are in the early stages of talks to receive immigrants from the United States, the Rwandan foreign minister told state media.
Washington has been pushing a mass deportation drive, with President Donald Trump’s administration negotiating highly controversial arrangements to send migrants to third countries.
The Great Lakes nation — often viewed as an island of stability in a turbulent region — previously made a similar multi-million deal with Britain to receive deported illegal migrants. However, it was scrapped immediately after a new government was elected last year.
Foreign minister Olivier Nduhungirehe confirmed earlier reports that Rwanda was among countries talking to Washington over a migrant deal, following a question on state TV on Sunday.
“Those reports are true, we are engaged in discussions with the Government of the United States of America,” he said.
Noting the similar agreement with the British, Nduhungirehe said such a deal “is not something new to us.”
However, while he confirmed that the two nations were engaged in “ongoing” talks, he said “they are not yet conclusive to determine the direction this will take.”
“I would say the discussions are in their initial stages, but we continue to talk about this problem of migrants,” he said, without giving further details.
When contacted by AFP about the talks he said: “You will be informed when the discussions will be finalized.”
Washington’s deal with El Salvador has created a furor, notably after a US official acknowledged that authorities mistakenly expelled one Salvadoran man but that the United States could not bring him back.
The Kigali-London deal was also controversial, with the UK’s Supreme Court ruling that sending migrants to Rwanda through the agreement would be illegal because it “would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment.”
The tiny nation of roughly 13 million people has been criticized by rights groups over its human rights record and increasingly diminished freedom of speech.
Rwanda has also faced mounting pressure over its involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the east of which has been re-engulfed in conflict after a lightning strike by a Rwandan-backed military group.
Thousands of people gather near Buckingham Palace to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day
- Britain started its commemorations of V-E Day three days early, because Monday is a public holiday in the UK
LONDON: Thousands of people lined the roads around the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace on Monday as British and allied troops paraded past at the start of four days of pageantry to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
After Big Ben tolled at the stroke of noon, actor Timothy Spall recited the victory speech that Winston Churchill delivered to a roaring crowd in central London on May 8, 1945. Britain started its commemorations of V-E Day three days early, because Monday is a public holiday in the UK.
The Cenotaph, the nation’s war memorial, was covered with Union Jack flags. It was the first time that the memorial had been draped in the flags since it was unveiled by King George V in 1920, two years after the end of World War I.
About 1,300 members of the British armed forces are being joined by troops from the United Kingdom’s NATO allies and Ukraine — a nod to the present war in Europe. The procession started in Parliament Square and swept past Buckingham Palace, where King Charles III took the salute.
Maria Crook, 69, who wore a hat with red, white and blue ribbons, traveled from Devon to London to watch the procession.
“I think it’s extremely important to pay our respects and honor those who have died for us,” she said.
In Dhaka, Makkah Route facility eases Bangladeshi pilgrims’ Hajj journey
- Around 87,000 Bangladeshis will be going for Hajj in 2025
- Special pilgrimage flights from Dhaka began on April 29
Dhaka: Bangladeshi pilgrims have welcomed the Hajj immigration procedures under the Makkah Route initiative, which are easing the process for tens of thousands of pilgrims departing for Saudi Arabia from the nation’s main international airport.
Most of the pilgrims are departing from Dhaka under the flagship pre-travel program.
The Kingdom launched the initiative in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at the airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.
This year, Hajj is expected to start on June 4, and special pilgrimage flights from the Bangladeshi capital began on April 29.
“The Makkah Route initiative … It’s very pleasant for the pilgrims of Bangladesh. It is, of course, time-saving and being done comfortably,” Hajj director Mohammad Lokman Hossain told Arab News over the weekend.
“They didn’t have to wait in a long queue and it’s very beneficial to the pilgrims.”
Bangladesh is among seven Muslim-majority countries — including Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire — where Saudi Arabia is operating its Makkah Route initiative.
One of the most populous Muslim-majority countries, Bangladesh was granted a quota of 127,000 pilgrims in 2025. But only about 87,000 will be going this year due to high inflation and rising cost of airfares to the Middle East.
The pilgrims appreciated the way the Saudi facility was organized at the airport as they prepared to board their flights to the Kingdom.
“We have completed the immigration formalities very easily. There was no delay, no waiting. It’s like we came and everything was done,” Mohammad Ruhul Kuddus, a businessman from Dhaka, told Arab News.
For Oaliur Reza, the immigration process took only a minute.
“I had no idea about these services. I just found out about it for the first time and I had a very good experience,” Reza said.
“Just within a minute, I passed the immigration, and I liked this service the most.”
Abdul Awal, a businessman from the city of Feni, recalled how different it had been the first time he performed Hajj, when the Makkah Route initiative was not yet introduced.
“I like the current system a lot. It made things easier. The difficulties of the pilgrims have been reduced now significantly compared to the years before (the Makkah Route initiative),” Awal said.
“There were plenty of computerized service counters here for the pilgrims. Praise be to God, it’s very good.”
Europe launches a drive to attract scientists and researchers after Trump freezes US funding
- The European Union is launching a drive to attract scientists and researchers with offers of grants and new policy plans
- It comes after the Trump administration froze US government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
PARIS:The European Union launched a drive on Monday to attract scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans, after the Trump administration froze US government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“A few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the biggest democracies in the world would cancel research programs under the pretext that the word diversity was in this program,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the “Choose Europe for Science” event in Paris.
“No one would have thought that one of the biggest democracies in the world would delete with a stroke the ability of one researcher or another to obtain visas,” Macron said. “But here we are.”
Taking the same stage at the Sorbonne University, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU’s executive branch would set up a “super grant” program aimed at offering “a longer-term perspective to the very best” in the field.
She said that 500 million euros ($566 million) will be put forward in 2025-2027 “to make Europe a magnet for researchers.” It would be injected into the European Research Council, which already has a budget of more than 16 billion euros ($18 billion) for 2021-2027.
Von der Leyen said that the 27-nation EU intends “to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law” with a new legal act. As “the threats rise across the world, Europe will not compromise on its principles,” she said.
Macron said that the French government would also soon make new proposals to beef up investment in science and research.
Last month, hundreds of university researchers in the United States had National Science Foundation funding canceled to comply with US President Donald Trump’s order to end support to research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation.
More than 380 grant projects have been cut so far, including work to combat Internet censorship in China and Iran and a project consulting with Indigenous communities to understand environmental changes in Alaska’s Arctic region.
Some terminated grants that sought to broaden the diversity of people studying science, technology and engineering. Scientists, researchers and doctors have taken to the streets in protest.
While not mentioning the Trump administration by name, von der Leyen said that it was “a gigantic miscalculation” to undermine free and open research.
“We can all agree that science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity, no political party,” she said. “We believe that diversity is an asset of humanity and the lifeblood of science. It is one of the most valuable global assets and it must be protected.”
Von der Leyen’s drive to promote opportunities in Europe in the field of science and take advantage of US policy shifts dovetails with the way that she has played up the potential for trade deals with other countries since Trump took office in January and sparked a tariff war last month.
The former German defense minister, and trained doctor, vowed that the EU would also address some of the roadblocks that scientists and researchers face, notably excessive red tape and access to businesses.
Macron said that science and research must not “be based on the diktats of the few.”
Macron said that Europe “must become a refuge” for scientists and researchers, and he said to those who feel under threat elsewhere: “The message is simple. If you like freedom, come and help us to remain free, to do research here, to help us become better, to invest in our future.”
