Top Stories Today – May 20, 2019
Top Stories Today – May 20, 2019
US billionaire clears 400 student loans
Robert F Smith, a technology investor and one of America’s most prominent black philanthropists makes a surprise announcement: his family would wipe out the student debt of the entire class of 2019 at Morehouse, Martin Luther King’s alma mater. Smith’s words to nearly 400 graduating seniors were greeted with a moment of stunned silence, then, unsurprisingly, the biggest cheers of the morning.
“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” Smith said. “This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.” According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he added: “I know my class will pay this forward.” Smith, who received an honorary doctorate in the ceremony, had already announced a $1.5m gift to the college. The Journal-Constitution reported that the pledge to eliminate student debt for the 2019 class was estimated at $40m. The Guardian
Huawei’s use of Android restricted by Google
Google has barred the world’s second biggest smartphone maker, Huawei, from some updates to the Android operating system, dealing a blow to the Chinese company. New designs of Huawei smartphones are set to lose access to some Google apps.
The move comes after the Trump administration added Huawei to a list of companies that American firms cannot trade with unless they have a license. Google said it was “complying with the order and reviewing the implications”. Huawei said it would continue to provide security updates and after sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products covering those have been sold or still in stock globally. BBC
Trump says war would be end of Iran
US President Donald Trump has issued a stern warning to Iran, suggesting it will be destroyed if a conflict breaks out between the two countries. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” he said in a tweet on Sunday. “Never threaten the United States again!” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted in response that such “genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran'”.
The US has deployed additional warships and planes to the Gulf in recent days. But Trump’s tweet marks a shift in tone after recent attempts to downplay the possibility of military conflict. In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, the president vowed that he would not let Iran develop nuclear weapons but said he did not want a conflict. “I’m not somebody that wants to go into war, because war hurts economies, war kills people most importantly – by far most importantly,” he said. BBC
Deutsche Bank ignored suspicious Trump transactions
In 2016 and 2017, anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank flagged several transactions involving accounts controlled by President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as suspicious, but executives chose to ignore their reports, current and former bank employees told The New York Times. Multiple transactions, some involving Trump’s now-shuttered foundation, set off alerts in a computer system that detects potentially illegal activity, the employees said.
Employees who looked over some of these transactions said they thought them suspicious enough to forward to the Treasury Department unit covering financial crimes. They were reportedly overruled by executives at the private banking division. House Democrats have subpoenaed Trump’s records from Deutsche Bank, and Trump has sued to stop them. The New York Times via The Week
Ukraine’s new leader gets sworn in
Ukrainian TV star Volodymyr Zelenskiy was sworn in as the country’s new president on Monday, promised to stop the war in the country’s east against Russian-backed separatists and immediately disbanded parliament, which he has branded as a group only interested in self-enrichment. Even before he disbanded the Supreme Rada, which had been one of his campaign promises, the 41-year-old Zelenskiy had upended the traditions of Ukrainian politics.
He ditched the idea of a traditional motorcade to his inauguration, walking to the parliament through a park packed with people. Flanked by four bodyguards, he was giving high-fives to some spectators and even stopped to take a selfie with one of them. In a feisty speech after his inauguration, Zelenskiy told the Rada that his main goal for the presidency is to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, where government troops have been fighting Russia-backed separatists for five years. The Voice of America
US ambassador to China to Tibet
US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad was scheduled to visit Tibet this week, a US embassy spokesperson said, the first visit to the region by a US ambassador since 2015, amid escalating trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. The visit follows passage of a law in December that requires the United States to deny visas to Chinese officials in charge of implementing policies that restrict access to Tibet for foreigners, legislation that was denounced by China.
Branstad was traveling to Qinghai and neighboring Tibet from May 19 to May 25 on a trip that will include official meetings as well as visits to religious and cultural heritage sites, the spokesperson said.
In December, China criticized the United States for passing the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, saying it was “resolutely opposed” to the US legislation on what China considers an internal affair, and it risked causing “serious harm” to their relations. The US government is required to begin denying visas by the end of this year. The Voice of America
US warship sails in disputed South China Sea
The United States military said one of its warships in the South China Sea sailed Monday near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China and the Philippines. “USS Preble sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Reef in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law,” a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, Commander Clay Doss said.
It was the second US military freedom of navigation exercise in the region in the last month. Speaking at an international security conference in Singapore Wednesday, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said “routine” freedom of navigation operations will proceed with transparency, consistency and predictability. The Voice of America