4, February 2017
Leading German News Magazine portrays Donald Trump as a terrorist 0
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.
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5, February 2017
Romania: Government retracts controversial decree after days of protests 0
The Romanian government has announced the withdrawal of a controversial decree which decriminalized minor corruption offenses following five days of mass nation-wide protests.
“We’ll hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday to repeal the decree, withdraw, cancel it … you understand, and find a legal way to make sure it does not take effect,” said Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu during a televised speech on Saturday.
The announcement came after five consecutive days of protests since Tuesday after the cabinet approved the decree that decriminalizes a range of graft and other offenses in which the amounts involved are lower than $48,000.
“I do not want to divide Romania,” said Grindeanu. “Romania in this moment seems broken in two,” he added.
Earlier on Saturday, the Romanian government hinted that legislation will be removed. “We can possibly talk about repealing the decree, if the prime minister agrees,” said the head of the ruling Social Democratic party, Liviu Dragnea.
“This [happens] because we have nothing to hide,” said the head of the country’s ALDE political party, Călin Tăriceanu.
The decree would have benefited dozens of political figures from all parties, and has been described as the biggest rollback on reforms since Romania became part of the EU in 2007.
On Thursday, a Romanian cabinet minister resigned amid mounting protests against a decision by the government to decriminalize certain graft offences.
The European Union on Wednesday also warned Romania over backtracking on reforms with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker issuing a an official statement.
Presstv