Trump’s State of the Union address

U.S. President Donald J. Trump (center) gestures at the podium in front of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (left) and Speaker of the House U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (right) during his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress inside the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA.

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Palestinian president to shun Pence over Jerusalem move

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will refuse to meet US Vice President Mike Pence later this month following Washington's controversial policy shift on Jerusalem, an Abbas aide said on Saturday, as protests gripped the Palestinian territories for a third straight day.

   
Retaliatory Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed two Hamas militants before dawn, as unrest simmered over President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Wednesday.

Four people have been killed and dozens wounded since Trump announced the move, which drew criticism from every other member of the UN Security Council at an emergency meeting on Friday.

"There will be no meeting with the vice president of America in Palestine," Abbas's diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khaldi told AFP.

"The United States has crossed all the red lines with the Jerusalem decision," he added.

Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II also cancelled a meeting with Pence, with the church saying it "declines to receive" him in protest at Trump's announcement which failed to take into account the "feelings of millions" of Arabs.

That decision came a day after Ahmed al-Tayeb who heads Al-Azhar, Egypt's top Sunni Muslim institution, also scrapped plans to meet the US vice president over the "unjust and unfair American decision on Jerusalem".

There were fresh clashes on Saturday as Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank hurled stones at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds.

In the Gaza Strip, mourners vented their anger at the funerals of two people killed by Israeli troops during clashes at the border fence on Friday and the two Hamas militants killed early on Saturday.

'VIOLENT RIOTS'

An Israeli army statement said "violent riots have erupted at approximately 20 locations" in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip" with protesters throwing rocks, petrol bombs and rolling burning tyres at troops.

It said soldiers responded with unspecified "riot dispersal means", lightly wounding three Palestinians.

In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, police fired stun grenades to disperse Palestinian demonstrators on the main Salahedin street, an AFP cameraman said.

A police statement said two policemen were slightly injured and six protesters arrested.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 12 Palestinians were injured by shrapnel from grenades or by blows from police.

INTIFADA CALLS

There have been fears of a much larger escalation of violence after Hamas leader Ismail Haniya called for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group both renewed that call on Saturday.

Dozens of protesters were wounded by rubber bullets or live fire in clashes in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem that followed the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday.

Tens of thousands also protested in Muslim and Arab countries, including Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Saturday's pre-dawn air strike on a base of Hamas's military wing in Nusseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, was one of several, the Israeli military said.

A statement said the air force "targeted four facilities belonging to the Hamas terror organisation" in Gaza a day after three rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave into southern Israel.

One rocket hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot although Israeli public radio said it did not explode and did not cause any casualties.

Israel had already responded on Friday night to the first two rockets with air strikes in which the Gaza health ministry said 14 people were wounded, among them women and children.

In an Arabic-language Facebook post on Saturday, a senior Israeli military officer delivered a stern warning to the people of Gaza.

"Continued fire will result in a harsh and painful response from the Israel Defence Forces, so do not test our strength," wrote Major General Yoav Mordechai, head of the defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.

The Hamas health ministry in Gaza said the two men killed in Saturday's strikes were members of the movement's armed wing, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008.

US ISOLATED

Trump's decision drew lavish praise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but has sparked a worldwide diplomatic backlash. 

Five European countries on the Security Council insisted the new US policy was inconsistent with past resolutions, including one that declares east Jerusalem to be Israeli-occupied.

The meeting was requested by eight of the council's 15 members but was largely symbolic as no vote on a resolution was planned because the US wields veto power.

Trump said his defiant move -- making good on a 2016 presidential campaign pledge -- marked the start of a "new approach" to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The decision is likely to impact domestic Palestinian politics, particularly between Abbas's Fatah and the Islamist Hamas, after a decade of bitter enmity now at a key stage in a fragile reconciliation process.

Abbas "will soon take a harder line toward the peace process and a softer line toward Hamas than he otherwise would have," wrote Ghaith al-Omari of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy.

Hamas, which violently seized Gaza from Fatah in 2017, is due to formally hand back power on Sunday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement on Saturday that the group "reiterated its commitment to all that has been signed and agreed upon and the completion of the handover".

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source: news.abs-cbn.com

Snap of Clinton reading Pence email headline goes viral

A photo of former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton glancing at a newspaper headline about U.S. Vice President Mike Pence using private email has gone viral on social media, with thousands of people commenting on it.

Pence and others involved in the Republican presidential campaign last year criticized Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as US Secretary of State.

Clinton was on an airplane traveling from Boston to New York on Friday when a fellow passenger snapped a photo of her glancing down at Friday's USA Today newspaper front page headline "Pence used personal email in office".

Pence's use of an AOL email account was first reported by the Indianapolis Star on Thursday. It said Pence used the account, which was hacked last summer, at times to discuss sensitive matters and homeland security issues while he was governor of Indiana.

Pence said on Friday he had complied with Indiana laws in his use of the email account, and he had an outside attorney review his private email records and archive those related to state business.

During the campaign, US President Donald Trump and Pence said Clinton's use of a private server broke the law and endangered national security - complaints that led their supporters to chant "Lock her up!" at rallies.

The State Department's internal watchdog said Clinton's use of a private server broke department rules. The FBI reviewed her emails for classified material, but it found that no criminal charges were warranted.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Alexander Smith)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

James Mattis sworn in as Trump's defense secretary

WASHINGTON, United States – Retired Marine general James Mattis was sworn in Friday as US defense secretary, praising intelligence agencies and calling for stronger ties with allies in a break from positions taken by President Donald Trump.

Mattis was confirmed by a 98-1 vote earlier Friday in the first action taken by US senators after Trump took the oath of office, and was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence.

"Together with the intelligence community we are the sentinels and guardians of our nation," Mattis said in a statement to the Department of Defense -- tipping his cap to the agencies that Trump has sharply criticized as they investigate claims of Russian interference in the US election.

"Every action we take will be designed to ensure our military is ready to fight today and in the future."

"Recognizing that no nation is secure without friends, we will work with the State Department to strengthen our alliances," he said, a contrast to Trump's recent branding of the NATO military alliance as "obsolete."

Lawmakers passed a special waiver allowing Mattis, who retired in 2013, to serve before a customary seven-year limit on former military personnel assuming the Pentagon's top post.

John Kelly, another retired Marine general, was also confirmed and sworn in to head the Department of Homeland Security.

"These uniquely qualified leaders will immediately begin the important work of rebuilding our military, defending our nation and securing our borders," Trump said in a statement.

"I am proud to have these two American heroes join my administration."

Mattis has won accolades from both parties and many in the armed forces, and his path to Trump's cabinet was relatively uncontroversial compared to that of other nominees.

A cornerstone of US democracy is that civilians, not people in uniform, control the military, and the commander-in-chief is the president.

Some in Congress initially raised eyebrows because Mattis, a 66-year-old Washington state native, had only retired from active duty in 2013.

The waiver allowing him to take the top Pentagon post was only granted once before, for the famous World War II general George Marshall who served under President Harry Truman from 1950-1951.

Mattis is known as a colorful commander and famed for his pugnacious aphorisms. The media dubbed him "Mad Dog" for his battle-hardened swagger and the sort of blunt language Marines are famous for.

He has been quoted as saying, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

But Mattis also has a well-known cerebral side: he issued reading lists to Marines under his command, and instructed them that the most important territory on a battlefield is the space "between your ears."

While Mattis sailed through his confirmation, Democratic lawmakers are putting up stiff resistance to other Trump cabinet picks, including nominees to head the departments of education and health and human services.

Mattis replaces Ashton Carter, a longtime Pentagon bureaucratic warrior who served as former president Barack Obama's fourth defense secretary.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US vice presidential contenders Kaine, Pence blast Trump, Clinton at debate

FARMVILLE, Virginia - Democrat Tim Kaine accused Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of breaking a promise to release his tax records in a debate on Tuesday where the vice presidential contenders bickered and interrupted each other.

Trump's vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence, defended Trump days after a New York Times report gave ammunition to the Democratic case against Trump by reporting he may not have paid federal taxes for 18 years.

The debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, was lively from the start as Kaine, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, honed in on Trump's refusal thus far to reveal his tax records, saying he had broken a promise to do so.

Trump has said they are under federal audit.

"Governor Pence had to give Donald Trump his tax returns to show he is qualified to be vice president. Donald Trump has to give his tax returns to show he is qualified to be president," Kaine said.

Pence, who has a low-key style compared to Trump's signature bombast, said Trump as a New York real estate developer had created thousands of jobs and had used US tax laws as they were designed to be used.

"Why won't he release his taxes?" Kaine shot back.

The two candidates talked over each other so much in a bid to score points that the debate moderator, CBS News' Elaine Quijano, intervened.

"The people at home can't understand either one of you when you speak over each other," she said.

The debate came at a crucial time for both campaigns. Clinton is seeking to take advantage of Trump's tax report last week to build on her lead in national opinion polls. Trump needs to rebound from a rocky performance in his first debate with Clinton last week with their second encounter coming up on Sunday in St. Louis.

The two vice presidential candidates wasted no time in launching broadsides against Trump and Clinton in the opening minutes of their debate.

"Donald Trump always puts himself first," Kaine, a US senator from Virginia, said, pointing out that when Trump began his presidential campaign last year he called "Mexicans rapists and criminals" and had also voiced the "outrageous lie" that Democratic President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Pence, the governor of Indiana, shot back at Kaine that he and Clinton "would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign" and then accused Clinton, the former US secretary of state, of bungling foreign policy with large sections of the Middle East "literally spinning out of control."

- with additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Colorado and Chris Kahn in New York

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Mike Pence accepts Republican VP nomination

Indiana Governor Mike Pence accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination at a tumultuous party convention in Cleveland Wednesday, describing his running mate Donald Trump as a "good man."

"I am deeply humbled by your confidence," Pence told delegates, still reeling from a night of high drama and political infighting over Trump's anointment as the party's White House candidate.

Pence, 57, said he "joined this campaign in a heartbeat" because Republicans chose Trump, a man "who never quits, who never backs down."

The conservative evangelical Christian and former congressman could serve to steady Trump's heaving and swaying campaign ship and reassure voters alarmed by Trump's rhetoric.

He was joined on stage by the New York billionaire after his speech, when the two men hugged awkwardly as Trump leaned in to plant a kiss on his running mate but appeared to miss.

"I feel much better now," said Matt Owen, 25, a delegate and firefighter from Pence's home state of Indiana.

"Putting the two of them together is going to be a great thing for the ticket," he said. "It changes the game, I think for Donald Trump."

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