California spearheads new ‘resistance’ to Trump’s plans of mass deportation, environmental protection rollback

In this file photo, migrants wait to be processed after crossing into the United States near the end of a border wall near Yuma, Arizona. US president-elect Donald Trump has promised mass deportations of illegal immigrants once he sets foot at the White House. (AP)
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Updated 09 November 2024
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California spearheads new ‘resistance’ to Trump’s plans of mass deportation, environmental protection rollback

  • Trump’s sweeping election victory this week came off the back of promises to swiftly expel millions of illegal immigrants and roll back nationwide environmental protections
  • But under the US constitution, states wield significant power and any such moves will certainly be met with lawsuits

LOS ANGELES: California is spearheading a new resistance to the incoming Donald Trump administration that will test the power of Democratic states to battle mass deportation, defend reproductive rights and combat climate change.
Trump’s sweeping election victory this week came off the back of promises to swiftly expel millions of illegal immigrants and roll back nationwide environmental protections. Critics fear his allies could move to restrict access to abortion medication.
But under the US constitution, states wield significant power and any such moves will certainly be met with lawsuits.
California’s top prosecutor stood in front of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge this week and vowed to “take on the challenges of a second Trump Administration — together.”
“We lived through Trump 1.0. We know what he’s capable of,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“We’ll continue to be a check on overreach and push back on abuse of power,” he promised.
Governors and attorneys general of other liberal states including New York, Illinois, Oregon and Washington have made similar proclamations.
“If you try to harm New Yorkers or roll back their rights, I will fight you every step of the way,” Governor Kathy Hochul vowed.
“You come for my people, you come through me,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said, as Democratic prosecutors across the nation coordinate their strategies.
The pre-emptive maneuvers have swiftly drawn the ire of Trump, who singled out California Governor Gavin Newsom in an angry social media riposte Friday.
“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” complained Trump.

Hindrance by litigation
State plans to disrupt his agenda will bring an unwelcome sense of deja vu for Trump, whose efforts to rescind Barack Obama’s immigration and health care policies during his first term were repeatedly stymied in court.
During the last Trump administration, California alone sued over 100 times in a variety of areas, slowing down or restricting its policies. Republican states echoed that strategy under Joe Biden’s administration.
“It was as successful as you can get,” said Julian Zelezer, professor of political history at Princeton University.
“States, especially a state as large as California, do have the power to resist some of the changes that will come from the administration, to uphold emissions regulations and other laws, including on reproductive rights.”
A benefit of litigation is that “cases move about as fast as snails,” said Kevin Johnson, a law professor at University of California, Davis.
“Some cases go around the lower courts, and by the time they hit the Supreme Court, there’s a new president,” he told AFP.

“Sanctuary states”
Immigration is expected to be a flashpoint in the looming battle.
Republican states may cooperate with the Trump administration in identifying and detaining undocumented people. But Democratic states are likely to refuse.
During Trump’s previous term California was the first to declare itself a “sanctuary state,” prohibiting local law enforcement from working with federal agents to arrest illegal immigrants.
Trump could withhold federal funding to certain states as a means of exerting pressure.
He has also floated more radical measures, including massively expanding a process called “expedited removal” to evict undocumented people without court hearings, or even using the military to arrest suspected illegal immigrants.
But “there would almost immediately be a request for a preliminary injunction,” predicted Johnson.
“If you send the military on the border” to detain or deport immigrants, “it is unprecedented in all kinds of ways, and it raises all kinds of issues.”

“As California goes, so goes the nation”
One downside for states is the enormous financial cost of countless legal battles.
“State budgets are tight, and so that money has to come from somewhere else,” said Zelezer.
With Trump having won the popular vote and increased his vote share even in most liberal states, “politically, it might be a little harder as they try to move forward with doing this again,” he said.
Still, California’s leaders’ zeal in opposing Trump appeared undaunted.
“As is so often said, as California goes, so goes the nation,” said Bonta.
“In the days and months and years to come, all eyes will look west.”


Fifteen inmates killed in new Ecuador jail massacre

Updated 12 November 2024
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Fifteen inmates killed in new Ecuador jail massacre

  • “Serious incidents were reported between inmates, resulting in a preliminary toll of 15 dead and 14 wounded,” the prison service said
  • The prison service said that a “significant contingent” of troops and police had been deployed to restore order at the prison, which was now under the “full control” of the authorities

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador: At least 15 inmates were killed and 14 injured in clashes Tuesday at a prison in the Ecuadoran port of Guayaquil, the latest in a series of massacres blamed on a war between drug cartels.
Once seen as a beacon of stability in South America, Ecuador has become one of the world’s most violent nations and a major drug trafficking hub in recent years.
Much of the violence has taken place in prisons where more than 460 inmates have been killed since February 2021, often in gruesome fashion, with their bodies dismembered and burnt.
The latest bloodshed took place in Litoral penitentiary, the country’s biggest, where 119 inmates were killed in September 2021 in Ecuador’s worst prison massacre.
“This morning, in a pavilion of the Litoral penitentiary, serious incidents were reported between inmates, resulting in a preliminary toll of 15 dead and 14 wounded,” the prison service said.
AFP drone images of the prison yard showed inmates in orange prison garb placing a body on the ground next to a dozen corpses wrapped in blankets.
In another part of the prison, dozens of prisoners could be seen sitting in rows, guarded by security force members.
The prison service said that a “significant contingent” of troops and police had been deployed to restore order at the prison, which was now under the “full control” of the authorities.
The violence in Ecuador’s prisons has spilled over onto the streets.
The Andean country registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a rate of six per 100,000 in 2018.
In January, the violence reached a new peak following the jailbreak of a powerful narco boss, Jose Adolfo Macias.
In the most dramatic incident, gunmen stormed the studios of a television station in Guayaquil and held a presenter at gunpoint live on air.
Gang members also took scores of prison guards hostage and set off explosions prompting President Daniel Noboa to declare war on organized crime and deploy the army to combat the gangs.
Tuesday’s massacre is the first at a prison since then.
But tit-for-tat gang attacks left at least 17 dead near Guayaquil last month and prison officials continue to be targeted.
Five penitentiary staff were shot dead in the space of a month between late August and late September.
The victims included the director of Litoral, who was shot dead after her car was ambushed while traveling near Guayaquil and the head of another prison in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, who too was shot dead while traveling by car.
Noboa claims his offensive against organized crime is nonetheless yielding results.
Between January and September, 4,236 murders were reported, down from 5,112 for the same period in 2023.


Spanish flood-hit towns brace for another storm

Updated 12 November 2024
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Spanish flood-hit towns brace for another storm

  • AEMET forecasts as much as 120 mm of rain in 12 hours
  • While the storm is not expected to be as powerful, it could be devastating for the towns that are still recovering

MADRID: Flood-hit towns near the eastern city of Valencia were rushing on Tuesday to clear the sewage system of mud and debris, pile sandbags and cancel school classes as they prepared for another approaching storm.
Two weeks after the worst floods in Spain’s modern history killed more than 200 people, national weather service AEMET issued an orange alert, the second-highest, for strong or torrential rains expected on Wednesday in the same area.
AEMET forecasts as much as 120 mm (4.7 inches) of rain in 12 hours. While the storm is not expected to be as powerful, it could be devastating for the towns that are still recovering.
The impact of the rain could be severe because of the quantities of mud already on the ground and because of the condition of the sewage system, Rosa Tauris, a spokesperson for Valencia’s emergency committee, told reporters.
Thousands of workers are cleaning buildings while removing the mud that accumulated on roads and sidewalks and clogged the sewage pipes and drains in towns and suburbs around Valencia.
The emergency committee issued a special warning requesting that municipalities and organizations take preventive measures, including closing schools.
Tauris recommended citizens work remotely when possible, avoid non-essential travel and follow emergency services’ updates.
The town council of Chiva, one of the worst-hit sites, canceled classes and sports activities, while in nearby Aldaia, workers piled up sandbags to protect the town.
“We are placing sandbags to replace the floodgates that the previous floods tore down,” municipal worker Antonio Ojeda said, hoping this would prevent the Saleta ravine from overflowing again.
They are also cleaning the ditches and drains that are obstructed with trees, tires and car parts.
On Monday, 10,000 tons of furniture, appliances and clothing were removed, almost as much waste as Valencia disposes of in a year.
Valencian authorities suspended classes and activities at recreational centers in the flood-hit suburbs, advising volunteers who flocked to the area to help clean up to avoid travel.
The AEMET’s weather alerts cover much of the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia and the Balearic Islands.


Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

Updated 12 November 2024
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Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

  • Ahead of election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have case thrown out
  • Trump’s legal team almost certain to seek to oppose or delay any sentencing

NEW YORK: The judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal case has delayed to November 19 a decision on potentially throwing out the US president-elect’s conviction, the court said Tuesday.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
The president-elect is due to be sentenced on November 26, may receive a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
That landmark ruling saw the court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, decide that presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Ahead of the election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move that prosecutors have firmly rejected.
If the judge throws out the case on that basis, there will be no sentencing of Trump, 78.
If he does not, Trump’s legal team would almost certainly seek to oppose or delay any sentencing, insisting it would interfere with Trump’s role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on January 20.
“The joint application for a stay of the current deadlines... until November 19, is granted,” the court wrote in an email to parties in the case, seen by AFP.
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has reportedly begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
“Trump’s victory means he is unlikely to be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal misconduct,” said former prosecutor Randall Eliason in an article on Substack.
“That’s a severe blow to the ideal of the rule of law.”
The New York conviction, coming just months before an election that Trump won convincingly, was one of several dramatic developments in the race for the White House.
In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.
Later that month, President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic Party’s candidate following a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.
That paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of color from a major US party to stand for president.


Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35, as police say he was upset about his divorce

Updated 12 November 2024
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Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35, as police say he was upset about his divorce

  • Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack
  • He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said

ZHUHAI, China: A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday.
Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack Monday night in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. The city is hosting the People’s Liberation Army’s annual aviation exhibition, which opened Tuesday, and searches for what happened were heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall.
Outside of the controls, however, videos circulated on the social media platform X. In several, dozens of people could be seen lying on the track at the sports complex, which is regularly used by hundreds of residents to run, play soccer or dance.
In one, shared by news blogger and dissident Li Ying, a woman says “my foot is broken.” That same video showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person, as others were told to leave. Li, who is known on X as Teacher Li, posts daily news based on user submissions
In addition to the 35 people killed, police said 43 were injured.
China has seen a number of attacks in which suspects appear to target members of the public at random.
In October, a man was detained after he allegedly attacked children with a knife at a school in Beijing. Five people were wounded. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, and another 15 were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”
In May, two people were killed and 21 injured in a knife attack in a hospital in Yunnan province.
Police identified the man detained in Monday’s attack only by his family name of Fan, as is typical, and said he was unconscious and receiving medical care after being found in his car with a knife and wounded.
He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said.
Chinese authorities appeared to be tightly controlling information about the incident. Internet censors tend to take extra care to scrub social media ahead of and during major events, such as the aviation exhibition or the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.
For almost 24 hours after the attack, it was unclear what the death or injury toll was. On Tuesday morning, a search on the Chinese social media platform Weibo for the sports center turned up just a few posts, with only a couple referring to the fact something had happened, without pictures or details. Articles by Chinese media from Monday night about the incident were taken down.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “strict” punishment of the perpetrator according to law in a statement Tuesday evening.
He also called on all local governments “to strengthen prevention and control of risks at the source, strictly prevent extreme cases from occurring, and to resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.


Indian travel agents record surge in outbound tourism to Middle East

Updated 12 November 2024
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Indian travel agents record surge in outbound tourism to Middle East

  • There has been an increase of at least 30% in trips to Middle East from Indian city of Ahmedabad alone, agent says
  • Indian travelers are drawn to ‘less explored’ Middle East region, which is increasingly becoming top choice

NEW DELHI: An increasing number of Indian travelers are visiting the Middle East this year, tour operators said on Tuesday after recording a significant surge to the region during the Diwali holiday season.

The Middle East has become an increasingly popular foreign destination for many Indian travelers, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE often cited as the top two countries in demand.

As the festive Diwali season and the long holidays that came with it concluded earlier this month, tourism players in India say there was a notable increase in trips to Arab countries.

“In this festival season, there was a huge demand,” Jyoti Mayal, president of the Travel Agents Association of India, told Arab News on travel from India to the UAE, citing Saudi Arabia and Qatar as particularly popular destinations.

“These countries in the Middle East are less explored and that’s why more and more people are traveling (to them).”

Travelers from the western Indian state of Gujarat were drawn to new and affordable packages offered to Gulf destinations like Dubai, said tour agent Manish Sharma.

“From Ahmedabad, I can say that compared to the past, there has been an increase of 30 to 35 percent in the outbound travels to the Middle East this time,” Sharma, who runs his business in the Gujarati capital, told Arab News.

Their top choices were UAE cities such as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai, he added.

“The reasons for the growth are manifold — it’s cheap, easy connectivity, it’s near, you get good food,” he added.

Members of the Gujarati middle class “take at least one or two vacations every year,” he said. “During Diwali and summer vacation, they prefer to go to Dubai.”

Many Indians appear to be taking advantage of the increasing number of direct flights to the UAE. There are at least 14 daily flights to Dubai from Ahmedabad alone.

“There has been an increase in Dubai travel in the last 10 years, (and) in the last three years tourism has grown greatly. But this year, tourism to UAE has gone phenomenally and the reason is the increase in the number of flights,” Sharma said.