Five Things You May Have Missed In the US and Americas This Week
President Donald Trump’s explosive announcement on Tuesday that the US will re-impose sanctions on Iran and withdraw from the nuclear deal may have dominated the headlines, but here are five other stories in the United States and the Americas that you may have missed this week.
(1) The upcoming Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un summit will take place in Singapore on 12 June.
CNN reported on Wednesday that the upcoming summit between the US president and the leader of North Korea will take place in Singapore on 12 June. Trump had already ruled out the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, where the historic meeting between Kim Jong-un and the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, took place last month.
Singapore has always been the preferred choice of administration officials as, while it may lack the symbolism and photogenic opportunities of the DMZ that would likely appeal to the image-conscious president, it is a relatively neutral site far from the Korean peninsula. The report of the location of the meeting, which will be the first ever between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, comes after North Korea released three Americans who had been held hostage.
(2) Firm associated with Russian oligarch made payments to Trump’s personal lawyer.
A shell company owned by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and long-time fixer, Michael Cohen, was paid $500,000 by the investment firm Columbus Nova, whose biggest client is the Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg, who attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017, is one of the richest men in Russia and has close ties to Vladimir Putin, who awarded him a state honour last year. He was also questioned by investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is scrutinizing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. CNN reported that Vekselberg was indeed asked about the payment to Cohen’s company. Cohen was also paid by various multinational corporations, including $200,000 from AT&T during the period the Trump administration was considering approval of AT&T’s attempted acquisition of Time Warner, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) decided to block in November.
Trump has previously faced accusations that Russians have attempted to use leverage to influence his policymaking — a charge the president has pushed back strongly against. The controversy surrounding the payments from Vekselberg’s firm to Cohen, which comes a month after the FBI seized documents from his office, has again raised questions about the manner in which Trump’s allies have sought to profit from access to the presidency.
(3) Trump’s nominee for CIA director appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Gina Haspel, appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. Haspel, who would be the first woman to lead the CIA if confirmed, has worked in various capacities for the agency since 1985, ultimately ending up as deputy director under now-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. As a career CIA official, Haspel is an unusual choice for a position often held by political appointees. However, her selection has been controversial due to accusations that she oversaw the torture of detainees at a CIA black site in Thailand in 2002, along with her role in the destruction of interrogation records afterwards.
The theme of torture dominated the hearing, during which Democrats repeatedly asked Haspel for her views. Haspel responded that, under her leadership, the CIA ‘would never, ever’ resume the brutal tactics it used in the wake of 9/11. But she notably sidestepped questions of whether she believed torture to be ‘immoral’. Haspel looks likely to receive a favourable recommendation from the committee, due to the crucial support of Democrat Joe Manchin. But her final confirmation in the Senate later this month is likely to be extremely close. John McCain, who urged his colleagues to vote against Haspel’s nomination, is absent for medical treatment, while his fellow Republican Rand Paul has announced his opposition as well.
(4) House Intelligence Committee chairman threatens attorney general with contempt after refusing access to classified documents.
During a Sunday interview, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes publicly announced plans to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt due to the Department of Justice’s unwillingness to comply with his committee’s request for access to classified documents. Nunes is seeking access to classified documents for his investigation into what he alleges is FBI mishandling of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) ‘and other matters’. FISA allows the government to conduct surveillance on foreigners for intelligence and established a non-public court to issue warrants. The Washington Post reported that the White House backed the DOJ’s decision to withhold documents in order to protect a key intelligence source that they believe would be endangered by the document’s release.
While Trump and the DOJ have often been at odds, the administration exhibited an unusual show of solidarity with them in their support to withhold classified documents from the House. Nunes has been supportive of Trump throughout his presidency, and his latest request comes less than two months after his committee ended an investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election which found ‘no evidence’ of collusion with the Trump campaign. The documents Nunes is now requesting have allegedly come from a source who has also given information to the special counsel investigating Russia’s role in the election.
(5) Award-winning Mexican journalist calls for assassination of leading presidential candidate.
Distinguished Mexican journalist Ricardo Alemán was fired this week by two Mexican media outlets, Televisa network and Canal Once, after he insinuated in a tweet that supporters of Mexican presidential nominee, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, should assassinate their own candidate. Mexican citizens took to Twitter to air their misgivings with Alemán’s comment using the hashtag #NoAlPeriodismoSicario, which translates to ‘no to hitman journalism’.
Aleman has been an avid defender of current Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, who is constitutionally prohibited from seeking a second term, and his comment comes amid a contentious Mexican presidential election that will take place in July. Over the past year, more than 88 politicians have been murdered throughout Mexico. Left-wing candidate López Obrador is running for president for a third time and is currently seen as the frontrunner. 2018 is viewed as ‘the biggest election year in Mexico’s history’ as a result of the unprecedented number of open positions that are being voted on in July, in addition to the presidency, and the new national directions being proposed by political parties on both the left and right.
