Recession fears grow after Trump proclaims “period of transition” – National & International News
Recession fears grow after Trump proclaims “period of transition”.
Judge blocks deportation of Columbia Palestinian activist.
Israel resumes ceasefire talks after Trump envoy breakthrough.
Syria: Over 1,000 civilians killed in sectarian fighting.
NATIONAL NEWS
Recession fears grow after Trump proclaims “period of transition”
Yesterday in an interview with Fox News, President Trump was asked how he saw the country’s economic outlook, and whether he would rule out a recession. He did not. He referred to a “period of transition” resulting from his aggressive tariff policy. Trump has previously predicted economic pain for Americans in the months ahead, which he refers to as “a little disturbance”. He maintains that while his tariff policy may create economic upheaval, it will ultimately help boost US manufacturing.
Trump’s practice of announcing steep tariffs and then abruptly reversing them has created uncertainty for employers, consumers, and the market. The volatility has caused employers to be cautious about hiring and driven some consumers to restrict their spending and other consumers to splurge on goods, anticipating a price increase.
Prices on consumer goods have remained high after years of inflation, and many are now fearing that decreasing consumer confidence and a projected retraction in the economy may be driving us towards recession.
Some analysts are more cautious, possibly because talk of recession often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. While there are troubling indicators, some analysts do not believe that a recession is imminent or unavoidable. However, the consensus appears to be that Trump’s tariffs, along with retaliatory tariffs from China and Canada, do nothing to boost the outlook.
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Judge blocks deportation of Columbia Palestinian activist
On Saturday night, Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and taken away from his apartment by ICE agents. Khalil, who is Palestinian, was active in last year’s Pro-Palestinian campus protest at the university. He also helped to negotiate the end of the encampment with university authorities. Unlike many involved in that demonstration, it appears that Khalil has never been charged with any crime. He is also a green card holder, married to an American citizen, who is 8 months pregnant.
The ICE agents arresting him claimed that his visa (referring to a temporary student visa) had been revoked. They were told that he was not here on a visa but with a green card, but detained him anyway.
As of now, it is not clear where Khalil is being detained. His wife was initially told he was in a facility in New Jersey, but when she went to visit him, she was told he was not there. It now appears he may be in Louisiana. Khalil’s lawyers have accused ICE of taking him far from New York to make it more difficult for him to obtain legal counsel.
The First Amendment right to freedom of speech applies to everyone on US soil. However, a person who is in the US on a temporary visa, such as a student visa, maybe deported for any or no reason, without due process. That is not the case for green card holders, who have a right to due process similar to native-born Americans. Accordingly, a federal judge has ordered a temporary block on Khalil’s deportation while his case is adjudicated.
“First of many”
In a Truth Social post, President Trump wrote that Khalil’s detention would be the “first arrest of many to come“. Trump declared that his administration would be targeting students who have “engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”.
The ICE agents arresting Khalil were apparently acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card. This action was taken “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” according to a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.
The DHS spokesperson accused Khalil of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a post on Twitter, said that the administration would be revoking visas and green cards of “Hamas supporters so they can be deported”.
So much for the First Amendment
The New York ACLU referred to Khalil’s arrest as an “extreme attack on his First Amendment rights”.
As far as the antisemitism charge, there is nothing antisemitic about protesting against Israel’s actions in Palestine, whatever Trump may have decreed. Many Jews criticize Israel, and some are even anti-Zionist. Even if Khalil were to have made a statement promoting actual Jew hatred, antisemitic speech, like all speech, is protected under the First Amendment, a right which applies to Khalil as much as it does to any American.
There is nothing to suggest that Khalil has made any statements specifically in support of Hamas. Even if he did, this would also be constitutionally-protected speech. Support for a terrorist organization generally becomes criminalized only when there is material support. There is no evidence that Khalil ever materially supported Hamas or any other terror organization.
Even if the Trump administration does not succeed in its aim of deporting Khalil, it is clear that this is secondary to the actual goal of this very controversial arrest, which is to intimidate and silence critics of Israel.
The Trump administration has previously vowed to target any pro-Palestine demonstrators for deportation. Last week, it was reported that the State Department is using AI to trawl the social media accounts of student Visa holders for “pro Hamas” statements, and flagging them for deportation accordingly.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Israel resumes ceasefire talks after Trump envoy breakthrough
It recently came to light that Adam Boehler, Trump’s special envoy for hostages, had been in direct talks with Hamas on at least two occasions in Qatar. This was significant in and of itself as it was the first time that the US had acknowledged any direct contact with Hamas since the group was designated a terrorist organization in 1997. On Sunday, Boehler spoke with several outlets, including CNN and channel 13 in Israel. He confirmed that his conversations with Hamas representatives went beyond the scope of the release of hostages, expanding into a potential resolution for the conflict and continuation of the ceasefire. When asked about Israel’s objections to the talks, Boehler answered that the “US is not an agent of Israel“.
Following these talks, Israel has dispatched a negotiating team to Qatar to engage in ceasefire talks, something that Israel had refuse to do for nearly a month. It is too early to say whether these talks will have any result.
For over a week, Israel has engaged in a complete blockade of Gaza, barring entry even for basic humanitarian aid, such as food and fresh water. This renewed blockade not only violates the terms of the ceasefire, it has also been characterized by amnesty International as a crime against humanity. Even many of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the international community, such as the UK and Germany, have condemned the strict blockade.
Israel has imposed the blockade in an attempt to force Hamas into accepting new terms for the ceasefire that are more favorable to Israel. The first phase of the ceasefire expired last Saturday, March 1, and Israel has so far refused to negotiate entry into the second phase, which requires a full withdrawal of Israeli military personnel from Gaza. Hamas has demanded that Israel honor the terms of the ceasefire and implement the second phase.
Meanwhile, Ansarallah in Yemen, commonly known as the Houthis, announced on Friday that they would resume their naval blockade of the Red Sea if Israel did not lift the blockade on Gaza. Their leader, Abdel Malik Al Houthi, set a 4-day deadline to give negotiators time to work. That deadline expires tomorrow.
Syria: Over 1,000 civilians killed in sectarian fighting
From the end of last week and over the weekend, sectarian violence in Syria has left at least 1,000 people dead, many of them on the country’s southwest coast. The dead are believed to be overwhelmingly civilians, many of them children.
The southwest coast is home to many of Syria’s Alawites, a Muslim minority group, of which deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad was a member. Most of the civilians killed this weekend were Alawites.
As has often been the case in Syria over the past 15 years, it is difficult to determine what exactly took place over the weekend and who is responsible. The immense civilian toll is not disputed however.
Whodunnit?
Since taking power in late November, Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly affiliated with both Al-Qaeda and ISIS) has promised there would be no reprisals against the Alawites, or any other Assad loyalists in the country. However, this has not proven to be the case.
There have been numerous reports of militias affiliated with al-Sharaa’s group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) violently repressing people in Assad strongholds as well as members of Syria’s Shiite community. Like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, HTS are Sunni Muslim.
The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has claimed that pro-Assad militias carried out an attack on affiliated security forces on Thursday. They claim that this sparked the violent reprisal of HTS aligned forces against Alawite militias and civilians.
Al-Sharaa has claimed not to know whether or not his own forces were involved in the massacre. Given the complex situation and a nascent government that has not fully asserted control across the territory, it is difficult to pin down which militias were involved and who controls them. However, al-Sharaa spoke of the unrest being “within the expected challenges” Syria will face as the new government forms. He has promised to bring those responsible for the massacre to justice, but whether he will make good on this promise remains to be seen.
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