Top News Stories For Today – Jan 18, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Jan 18, 2019
US took thousands more migrant children from parents
A government report released Thursday said the Trump administration probably separated thousands more migrant children from their parents at the US border than has previously been made public, but federal efforts to track those children have been so poor that the precise number is unknown.
The report issued by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services says no one systematically kept count of separated children until a lawsuit last spring triggered by the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, under which the government tried to criminally prosecute all parents who crossed the border illegally, taking their children from them in the process. As a result of the lawsuit, the government identified about 2,700 separated children in federal custody as of June, some of them infants and toddlers. The Washington Post
Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress
President Trump directed Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer and fixer, to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project, two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the matter told BuzzFeed News. Cohen was in charge of the project, and falsely said that negotiations ended in January 2016, when they really continued for several more months.
While campaigning, Trump said he had no business dealing with Russia, but in reality, he had at least 10 in-person meetings with Cohen about the deal, BuzzFeed News reports, and Cohen also regularly updated Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump about the development. In November, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying about the deal in testimony to the Senate and House intelligence committees. BuzzFeed News via The Week
Trump cancels Pelosi’s foreign trip
President Trump told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a letter Thursday afternoon that her planned trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan had been canceled. “In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” Trump wrote.
This came one day after Pelosi sent a letter to Trump requesting they delay the State of the Union until after the government re-opens, citing security concerns. While Trump denied Pelosi the use of military aircraft for her trip, which had not previously been disclosed publicly, he wrote, “Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders via The Week
N Korea envoy arrives US for talks
A North Korean envoy arrived in Washington on Thursday for expected talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a possible encounter with President Donald Trump aimed a laying the groundwork for a second US-North Korea summit.
The envoy arrived on the same day Trump unveiled a revamped US missile defense strategy that singled out North Korea as an ongoing and “extraordinary threat,” seven months after he declared after his first summit with leader Kim Jong Un that the North Korean threat had been eliminated. VOA
Migrants enter Mexico in new caravans
Almost 1,000 Central American migrants entered southern Mexico Thursday in a test of the new government’s pledge to manage an ongoing exodus fueled by violence and poverty that has strained relations with the Trump administration.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute said 969 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua crossed into Ciudad Hidalgo just days after new US-bound caravans of people set off from Central America. VOA
Indigenous peoples to march in Washington
“US political leaders and the media have ignored us long enough.” That’s the message thousands of international indigenous activists will be bringing to Washington Friday for the first ever Indigenous Peoples March. They are seeking to bring national attention to injustices endured by Indigenous people across the globe. The event is organized by the Indigenous Peoples Movement (IPM), an international grassroots collective seeking to unify tribes and indigenous peoples from North, South and Central America, the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
“Our main goal is to send a message that we are still here, we are organized, and we are growing,” said IPM media coordinator Darren Thompson, an Ojibwe and member of the Lac du Flambeau tribe in Wisconsin. “We are looking not only to empower each other but share important information with the American public about the legacy of colonization.” VOA