A majority of American voters believe Donald Trump is not “fit to serve as president” of the United States, a new poll shows.

Fifty-one percent of American nationals contacted said they are embarrassed to have Trump serve as president, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said Trump is not an honest man, 60 percent said he does not have good leadership skills and 61 percent said he does not share their values.

A majority of voters also advised Trump to stop tweeting about every issue.

The poll also showed that Americans are split along racial lines on Trump. Ninety-four percent of black voters said the Republican president is not fit to serve, 60 percent Hispanic voters said the same, while 50 percent white voters said he is fit for the role.

Sixty-two percent of voters disapproved of the way Trump has dealt with race relations, and 60 percent said the controversial president is doing more to divide the country than unite it.

The poll also revealed divisions among men and women. Men are divided 49 percent to 49 percent, while 63 percent of women say Trump is not fit.

The poll was conducted from September 21 to 26 by phone in which 1,412 voters nationwide participated.

Another recent poll found most Americans disapprove of Trump’s leadership and see him as a divisive figure who has not fulfilled his campaign promise to positively change the US government.

More than twice as many Americans – 66 percent vs. 28 percent – said Trump is doing more to divide the country than to unify it, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll published on Sunday.

Trump has been widely criticized for his response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, after he said “both sides” were to blame for the violence.

Critics say that Trump’s divisive rhetoric and policies against immigrants and minorities before and after his election have emboldened far-right groups and promoted hate crimes across the country.

Culled from Presstv

Spain’s chief public prosecutor has refused to rule out the arrest of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for pushing ahead with an independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid.

“Legally the conditions may be met” for Puigdemont’s arrest, Jose Manuel Maza said during an interview with radio Onda Cero. “It’s a decision that is possible but we have not considered that we should take it,” he added.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly said that the referendum slated for October 1 — which his conservative party insists is illegal and unconstitutional — will not take place, and the legislation underpinning the vote has already been suspended by Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Spanish prosecutors have warned that officials engaged in any preparations for the plebiscite could be charged with civil disobedience, abuse of office and misuse of public funds.

Maza said Puigdemont could be arrested for misuse of public funds, as this crime carries a jail sentence.

Prosecutors have also told police to investigate any efforts to promote the referendum and ordered a criminal investigation of over 700 Catalan mayors who have pledged to cooperate with the vote.

Police on Monday summoned 17 people for allegedly developing web platforms dedicated to the banned referendum.

Puigdemont, a former journalist and provincial mayor, regularly tweets links to the websites, which tell Catalans where they can vote in the referendum. He has said he is ready to go to prison rather than give up his push for independence.

Key members of the team organizing the vote have been put under official investigation for disobedience, malfeasance and embezzlement of public funds. Organizers of protests last week have been threatened with charges of sedition.

And police have seized close to ten million ballot papers, as well as other items destined for the vote. But Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has vowed to go ahead with the referendum.

If the “yes” side wins it has said it would declare independence within days for the wealthy northeastern region of Spain, home to about 7.5 million people.

Polls show Catalans are split on the issue of independence, but a large majority want to vote in a legitimate referendum to settle the matter.

(Source: AFP)

The long-simmering crisis in Southern Cameroons has taken a dangerous turn with small explosions targeting local security officials, even as ongoing protests become increasingly vociferous.

Renewed mass protests broke out early morning on Sept. 22, (Friday), in major towns and villages across the north west and south west. The aggrieved population took to the streets with placards, whistles and flags of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia; a country they clamor to create when they secede from the present day Republic of Cameroon.

Security forces responded with bullets and teargas, injuring some protesters in Santa and Ekona in the North West and South West Regions. However, by press time, the reprisals had not deterred protesters as they moved to public places, hoisting blue-white flags and seeking to meet with administrative and traditional authorities.

 The protesters poured out on the streets hours to the time president Paul Biya was scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly. Other Anglophone protesters put up similar shows at the UN headquarters in New York. The civil disobedience call was made by the Ambazonia Governing Council and amplified by Anglophone activists in the diaspora, as a build up to Oct. 1, the day the pro-secessionist groups intend to restore their independence.

The crisis is escalating after president Biya granted amnesty to some Anglophones who were arrested and detained for months in connection to violence in the country’s English speaking regions. But many, including Mancho Bibixy still remain incarcerated. This provoked calls for the unconditional release of all detainees and further radicalsed agitators.

But, as predicted by the International Crisis Group in August, the crisis took a different twist in early September as arms became involved.

The latest of the bombings was on Wednesday morning Sept. 21, when an IED controlled from a mobile phone was activated at Hospital Roundabout in Bamenda. Three police officers were seriously injured. Another failed explosion was recorded at a petroleum depot in the major city of Douala. On Sept. 11, improvised explosive device targeting security agents on patrol was activated at Mobil Nkwen in the city of Bamenda. Five days later, another IED damaged a dormitory at Sacred Heart College Mankon, still in Bamenda, but no human loss was recorded.

Though it is yet to be established whether it is connected to the Anglophone crisis. The Ambazonia Defense Forces, the armed faction of a group of secessionist movements, has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.

The latest incident has been described as “an act of terrorism” by a government spokesperson. Cameroon’s current difficulties stem back to its pre-independence history when it was formed by combining a region that was colonized by the British with the larger region run by the French. The country’s government, education, and legal systems are dominated by the larger French-speaking region. But in recent years tensions have mounted as people from the Anglophone regions have complained about being marginalized by the Francophone-led establishment. The Anglophone regions account for just under 20% of the Cameroon’s 23 million population.

Culled from Quartz Media

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says US President Donald Trump’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea is wrong, citing economic pressure and diplomacy as the only “appropriate” ways to resolve the conflict.

“I am against such threats,” Merkel told the Deutsche Welle channel. “We consider any form of military solution as totally inappropriate and we insist on a diplomatic solution.”

“From my point of view sanctions and their implementation are the right answer. But I consider everything else concerning North Korea as wrong,” she added. “And that is why we clearly disagree with the US president.”

The German chancellor made the remarks in reaction to Trump’s debut speech at the United Nations General Assembly, where he said Tuesday that the US was ready to destroy the North to resolve the ongoing standoff over the country’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program.

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” he said.

“It is time for North Korea to realize that its denuclearization is its only responsible future,” he added.

The Trump administration has been pushing for greater international pressure on North Korea through the UN and by pressuring China, Pyongyang’s main trade ally.

The pressure peaked in early September, when the North announced that it had successfully exploded a hydrogen bomb, its sixth overall thermonuclear test.

The UN Security Council adopted new sanctions against the North as a result, a move that Pyongyang warned would not go unanswered.

Germany’s role

Merkel said in her interview that Germany’s strong ties China, Japan, South Korea and the United States puts it among the few countries that could actually help resolve the North Korea crisis.

“Even if this conflict is far away from Germany, it is one that also affects us,” Merkel said. “That is why I am prepared, as is the foreign minister, [Sigmar Gabriel], to assume responsibility here.”

Gabriel told Monday’s edition of the Bild daily that the world had to wait for the sanctions against North Korea to work.

He also noted that military action was not going to succeed and “a security guarantee other than the nuclear bomb” was needed.

Source: Presstv