Monthly Archives: June 2018

On 19 June, the US announced it was pulling out of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) – just as President Donald Trump was facing significant criticism for his government’s treatment of immigrant children. The decision, and its timing, sparked a big reaction on Twitter.

Political scientist and New York University (NYU) professor Ian Bremmer, for example, made a pertinent point. He highlighted that the US now joins just three other countries that, accordingto the New York Times, “refuse to participate in the council’s meetings and deliberations”:

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The attorney general of New York State, Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit on Thursday 14 June against US president Donald Trump and three of his children (all now adults). The suit alleges that Trump’s personal charity, the Donald J Trump Charitable Foundation, has been in violation of state laws governing non-profit organizations.

Details

The accusations include the charge that the foundation was involved in his 2016 presidential campaign, in violation of campaign finance laws, and that it made transactions that benefited Trump’s business interests. For instance, the suit alleges that foundation assets were used for an out-of-court settlement regarding one of Trump’s golf clubs.

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As the G7 summit in Canada drew to a close on 9 June, US president Donald Trump seemed to make a complete about-face. Though a long-time critic of free trade, which he says has caused great harm to the United States, he demanded that other G7 members drop all trade barriers to US goods. Otherwise, he would unilaterally end all trade with them. Trump described tariffs on US goods as “ridiculous and unfair,” and said that “it’s going to stop — or we’ll stop trading with them.”

Trump’s G7 allies respond

Responses from other G7 nations were mixed. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau calledTrump’s reasons for imposing tariffs on Canada “insulting”.

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Luis Posada Carriles, who for decades orchestrated US-backed acts of terrorism against Cuba, died at his home in South Florida on 23 May. He had never faced justice for his acts of terrorism, which according to declassified CIA documents included the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger aircraft that killed 73 people.

Who was Posada?

Born in 1928, Posada was a contemporary of Fidel Castro at the University of Havana and an early critic of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. He fled the country in 1961 and was one of the architects of the US-orchestrated Bay of Pigs invasion that attempted (and failed) to overthrow the Castro-led government that followed the revolution.

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As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections draws closer to a conclusion, Donald Trump made the extraordinary claim on 4 June that he could pardon himself should the probe conclude that Russian collusion did, in fact, take place.

Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani added to this, meanwhile, by suggesting to HuffPost that Trump could even have shot former FBI director James Comey and escaped a subpoena or indictment.

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