Amnesty International has censured US President Donald Trump for adopting a “poisonous” rhetoric that “dehumanizes” entire communities and sets the stage for “angrier and more divisive politics” in the world.

In a statement upon the release of its annual human rights assessment, Amnesty said Wednesday that the divisive rhetoric used by people like the new American president led to an unprecedented spike in hate crimes last year.

“2016 was the year when the cynical use of ‘us vs. them’ narratives of blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s. Too many politicians are answering legitimate economic and security fears with a poisonous and divisive manipulation of identity politics in an attempt to win votes,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Specifically naming Trump and a number of other world leaders, Shetty charged that self-proclaimed “anti-establishment” politicians are “wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people.”

Since taking office on January 20, Trump has signed a number of executive orders aimed at curbing immigration into the US, openly blaming Muslims and Latin Americans for the lack of security in the country.

On January 27, the former reality TV star authorized an entry ban against people from seven Muslim countries and halted refugee admissions for three months. Syrian refugee admissions were indefinitely suspended under the ban, which has been halted upon a federal judge’s order.

Trump has also signed a directive to begin the construction of a controversial wall on the border with Mexico, while hiring thousands of new enforcement agents to carry out more deportation raids.

During his campaign run, Trump promised to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants that are currently residing in the country. He also threatened to withdraw funding from states that harbor illegal immigrants.

Presstv

US President Donald Trump says he is considering signing a “brand new order” on immigration, following a court ruling that blocked his executive order banning citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States. Trump made the remarks on Friday aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida, after his administration suggested it would not ask the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision that keeps the travel ban frozen.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, California, ruled on Thursday that a nationwide restraining order against the president’s travel ban may continue while a federal judge considers a lawsuit over the immigration policy. The Trump administration can appeal to the Supreme Court to immediately intervene, or wait until a ruling on the preliminary injunction order. But Trump told reporters on Friday, “We also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order.”

Asked if he is planning to issue a new executive order, Trump said, “It very well could be. We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be.”  He said that he might take action on Monday or Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Trump said that he will introduce new measures as early as next week to keep the country safe against threats, indicating a new executive order is coming.

Presstv

A leading German weekly magazine has published a striking cartoon of US President Donald Trump on its cover, portraying him as a terrorist, who beheaded the Statue of Liberty while shouting “America First.”

On the cover of its Friday edition, Der Spiegel depicted the cartoon figure of Trump with a bloodied knife in one hand and the bleeding head of Lady Liberty in the other.

Edel Rodriguez, who designed the cover, told The Washington Post  that the Statue of Liberty represents the United States’ history of welcoming refugees.

Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee, who went to America as a political refugee in 1980, condemned Trump’s order to ban entry of refugees to the US, seeing it as “a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol.”

He argued that beheading is associated with the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group and “there’s a comparison” between ISIL and Trump. “Both sides are extremists, so I’m just making a comparison between them.”

“I was 9 years old when I came here, so I remember it well, and I remember the feelings and how little kids feel when they are leaving their country,” Rodriguez told the Post. “I remember all that, and so it bothers me a lot that little children are being kept from coming to this country.”

When asked why he pictured Trump with missing facial features, Rodriguez said, “That’s the way I see him. I see him as someone that’s very angry, and it’s pretty much his mouth that’s moving all the time, so that’s how I tend to show him in some of my work.”

Trump signed an executive order last week—after only a week in office— to bar all persons from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days and suspends the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days until the president determines they have been sufficiently changed.

This is not the first time that the president was pictured beheading the statue. Back in December 2015, after Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” The New York Daily News pictured him beheading the Statue.

The New Yorker magazine also revealed on Friday a new cover illustration—called “Liberty’s Flameout”— showing the Statue’s flame has been extinguished.

“It used to be that the Statue of Liberty, and her shining torch, was the vision that welcomed new immigrants. And, at the same time, it was the symbol of American values,” said John Tomac, who designed the cover.

“Now it seems that we are turning off the light,” he told the magazine, which announced on Friday that it was canceling its annual party for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.

Presstv

A US federal judge in Seattle, Washington, has ordered a temporary, nationwide halt to President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban that blocks the entry of citizens from seven predominately Muslim countries. The ruling on Friday by US District Judge James Robart was broader than similar ones before it, and represents the most severe legal blow to Trump’s action, although his administration could still have the policy put back into effect with an appeal.

The ruling prompted government authorities to immediately communicate with airlines and begin taking steps that would allow those previously affected to travel. Trump signed an executive order on January 27 that imposed a temporary travel ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and placed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. The move also suspended admission of all refugees for 120 days.

Robart’s decision came after Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit to invalidate key provisions of Trump’s executive order.

The judge questioned the Trump administration’s use of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US as a justification for the travel ban. He said no attacks had been carried out on American soil by individuals from the seven countries affected by the ban.

For Trump’s order to be constitutional, Robart said, it had to be “based in fact, as opposed to fiction.” The judge’s ruling was welcomed by groups protesting the immigration order.

Presstv

The Arab League has expressed “deep concern” over an “unjustified” decision by US President Donald Trump to restrict entry into the United States from several Muslim-majority countries. In a statement released on Sunday, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said new regulations “are unjustified restrictions on the entry of citizens of several Arab nations to the US, in addition to the consequences of suspending the acceptance of Syrian refugees.”

Aboul Gheit, who heads the 22-member regional organization of Arab countries, hoped that the Trump administration would “review its position because of the negative consequences this could lead to in terms of preserving family unity and the continuation of dialogue between Arab societies and American society.” Such dialogue includes “the fields of education and scientific research,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Aboul Gheit’s spokesman Mahmoud Afifi has also voiced concern about “indications of a direction towards using an official religious standard to identify whether or not to accept refugees.” In a move that sparked widespread censure, the new US president signed a sweeping executive order on Friday to suspend refugee arrivals and impose tough controls on travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Sources within the Trump administration say it is unclear how many more countries will be added to the list as it looks to expand the ban beyond the initial seven countries.  Washington will be “very aggressive” as it weighs how many more countries to add to the list, the sources said.

Presstv

US President Donald Trump has signed a directive to begin the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico, taking the first step to deliver on one of his most divisive campaign pledges. “We’ve been talking about this right from the beginning,” the Republican president said as he signed the order during a ceremony for homeland security secretary on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The wall will be stretched across the roughly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border. Earlier, Trump said during an interview with ABC News that the construction was slated to begin within months, while planning would start immediately.

Trump also asserted that Mexico would reimburse “100 percent” of the wall’s costs. The American president took another step aimed at curbing immigration by signing a separate executive action on public safety for the interior of the US, authorizing a crackdown on US cities that shield illegal immigrants. The directive aims to strip federal funding from “sanctuary” states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said earlier in the day that the orders were the new administration’s “first step to really securing our porous border.” “This will stem the flow of drugs, crime, illegal immigration into the United States,” he added.

During his campaign run, Trump repeatedly pledged to build a wall along the southern border to prevent more immigrants from entering the US illegally. The Manhattan billionaire even estimated that erecting the wall would cost $8 billion, pledging to force Mexico to cover it. Earlier this month, however, Trump joined other Republicans, saying US taxpayers may foot the initial bill for the proposed wall, insisting that Mexico would repay the US the money in the end. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto made it clear during a meeting with Trump in September last year that his country would not pay for the project. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray repeated Nieto’s remarks on January 11, saying there was “no way” that his country would fund the wall.

Presstv