A newly discovered bandy bandy snake species, jumping sweetfish and baby tarantulas in Derbyshire are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Compiled by Eric Hilaire
22 Jul
News and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective
News and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective
English Online International Newspapers
Nearly all of these are English-edition daily newspapers. These sites have interesting editorials and essays, and many have links to other good news sources. We try to limit this list to those sites which are regularly updated, reliable, with a high percentage of “up” time.
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Protesters say they have been subject to intimidation by American Action Force 3%, an anti-immigration group
Protesters against Trump’s child separation policy. Some camp occupants have told the Guardian that an organized counter-protest movement is growing. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
As Occupy Ice camps continue to spread across the US, some activists have warned that they have been subjected to intimidation by armed, Trump-supporting counter-protesters.
Occupy Ice Louisville, in Kentucky, has been the subject of protests by a group called American Action Force 3% over the weekends of 7-8 July and 14-15 July, demonstrators said.
American Action Force 3%, an anti-immigration group, told the Guardian it planned to subject Occupy Ice protests to the same treatment this coming weekend.
At least 11 Occupy Ice encampments have sprung up around the country over the past month, in response to the Trump administration’s policy of separating families seeking to enter the US. Most of the camps are outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings.
But some camp occupants have told the Guardian that an organized counter-protest movement is growing.
American Action Force 3% members arrived at the Occupy Ice Louisville camp, outside the city’s Ice building, early on 14 July. Many in the group were carrying guns.
“Just seeing those weapons that they have, it was intimidating,” said Jesus Ibanez, one of the activists who has been stationed at the camp for over two weeks. More than a hundred people turned out in support of Occupy Ice Louisville on the first day the pro-Trump group launched its counter-protest.
The 3% in American Action Force’s title is a reference to the “three percenters” movement, whose adherents aim to provide resistance against what they see as interference in constitutional rights. About 50 people were part of the counter-protest against Occupy Ice on 14 July. The Courier Journal reported that some were armed “with firearms and Trump paraphernalia”.
Bryan Svoboda, who is part of the group and was at the counter-protests against Occupy Ice, said the group was planning to be at the camp every weekend.
“We believe in the constitution and Bill of Rights and stand behind it. We believe in equal rights for all legal Americans,” Svoboda told the Guardian.
American Action Force’s efforts come as different camps have begun to plan coordinated events across the country designed to draw national attention to their effort to abolish Ice. On 13 July the camps took part in a “national vigil”, and more coordinated efforts are planned.
“There’s definitely more communication amongst the camps across the country,” said Whitney Handrich, from the Portland camp – which was the first Occupy Ice camp to set up, on 17 June.
“It helps especially for smaller camps for them to know we’ve got their back.”
The Occupy Ice camp in Portland succeeded in shutting down the Ice building for more than a week in June. Since the building re-opened, Handrich said people inside had taken to playing loud music in the direction of the camp – specifically the song Easy Street from the musical Annie – in what she believes is an effort to prevent campers from sleeping.
On Thursday morning, police cleared out tents from the Occupy Ice Louisville camp, setting up barriers which make it impossible for Ibanez and others to repitch their tents.
The activists are planning their next move, but in the time being Ibanez said they will be holding a rally at the Ice building on Saturday, irrespective of the armed counter-protesters.
“We’re not feeling down or out or anything like that,” Ibanez said. “We’re going to keep going forward.”
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World Politics
Europe
Steve Bannon Former White House chief adviser plans foundation to fuel far right in Europe>>
Former White House chief adviser says he wants to rival to George Soros’s influence
Steve Bannon has announced plans to establish a foundation in Europe that he hopes will fuel the spread of rightwing populism across the continent.
Donald Trump’s former chief advisor in the White House told the Daily Beast that he wanted to offer a rightwing alternative to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which has given away $32bn to largely liberal causes since it was established in 1984.
United States
The president kowtowed to Putin, Democrats and the media cried treason … and the Republican base stayed solid
David Smith in Washington
All of Trump’s backflips on Russian interference – video
The idea of Donald Trump hosting a campaign rally, keeping thousands of supporters in suspense and then pulling back the curtain to reveal that his special guest speaker is Vladimir Putin sounds like a wild hallucination. But not quite as wild as it was a week ago.
The US president capped a mind-boggling week by asking his staff to invite the Russian leader to the White House in the autumn, just before the midterm elections.
“It’s remarkably bad timing,” said Rick Tyler, a political analyst. “Putin might as well come and campaign in the midterms.”
Trump’s first summit with Putin in Helsinki last Monday is assured a place in the history books. It culminated in a joint press conference that left the political, media and national security establishments picking their jaws from the floor, Democrats demanding answers about Trump’s cryptic relationship with Russia and everyone asking anew how long this most singular presidency can survive.
Yet for all the intrigue and slapdash diplomacy, the episode seemingly did little harm to Trump among his loyal ranks of supporters, merely reinforcing suspicion of his critics and suggesting that, from his point of view, the summit might not have been such a mistake after all.
First, Trump and Putin spent more than two hours in conversation with only interpreters for company. Trump’s national security officials admit they still have no idea what was said or promised. Then came the press conference beneath crystal chandeliers, against a backdrop of American and Russian flags, the scene framed in gold leaf. Trump stood taller and broader than Putin but the judo black belt would soon turn the weight of his opponent against him.
Attempting to blow his own trumpet, Trump declared: “Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that.” Putin’s face was inscrutable. There were involuntary giggles among the White House press corps.
But it was towards the end of the event that true disaster struck. Putin, who had scored a propaganda coup by successfully hosting the World Cup, handed Trump a football. “That will go to my son, Barron,” the businessman and reality TV star said. “We have no question. In fact, Melania, here you go.” He bounced the ball towards his wife; the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, shot out an arm and caught it.
The laughter in the room had barely faded when Jonathan Lemire, a journalist from the Associated Press, asked: “Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did … Who do you believe?”
He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he has made Putin much more than he is
Rick Tyler, former Ted Cruz strategist
It was a question that cut to the chase and it floored the president. First, bizarrely, he flailed for fringe conspiracy theories about the Democratic National Committee’s computer server. Then he said: “My people came to me – Dan Coats [director of national intelligence] came to me and some others – they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
He added: “So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
This time there was a stunned silence, save for the intense hammering of keyboards. Had an American president really sided with the authoritarian leader of a hostile country over his own intelligence and law enforcement agencies? He had. It was, said Ash Carter, former defense secretary, “like watching the destruction of a cathedral”.
It also evoked the sharpest bipartisan rebuke since Trump drew moral equivalence between white supremacists and anti-Nazi activists in Charlottesville, Virginia, almost a year ago. Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans weighed in as expected with talk of disgrace, humiliation and treason, but there was also criticism from allies such as the former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, and elements of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. Many baffled observers wondered if Putin did indeed have something on Trump and whether the president of the United States had gone rogue.
Tyler, a former spokesman for the 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, said: “He somehow concluded that standing on stage with a despot from Russia was going to make him look strong but in the end it made him look weak. He diminished himself significantly. He’s not a negotiator, he’s not a deal-maker and all those things he promised in the campaign, it was just salesman’s shtick. He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he has made Putin much more than he is.”
And yet, what happened next served only to demonstrate Trump’s vice-like grip on his party, and the White House, and the challenge that remains for Democrats to hold him to account.
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Bill Shine has failed to discipline Trump and faces scrutiny of his own following sexual harassment allegations against former colleagues
