10:45 Trump calls for merit-based immigration system: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pushed for a merit-based immigration system that could benefit high-tech professionals from countries like India.
Trump, during his first address to Congress, noted that “nations around the world, like Canada, Australia and many others have a merit-based immigration system”.
He said that such a system will save countless dollars and raise workers’ wages.
Trump introduced the idea of a merit-based immigration system after invoking the memory and words of late president Abraham Lincoln, saying, “Lincoln was right — and it is time we heeded his words.”
Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, will have many benefits: it will save countless dollars, raise workers’ wages, and help struggling families — including immigrant families — ‘enter the middle class,’ Trump said. Trump said he is going to bring back millions of jobs.
“Protecting our workers also means reforming our system of legal immigration. The current, outdated system depresses wages for our poorest workers, and puts great pressure on taxpayers,” he said.
Trump said he believes that real and positive immigration reform is possible as long as it focuses on the goals to improve jobs and wages for Americans to strengthen the country’s security and to restore respect for laws.
“If we are guided by the well-being of American citizens then I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that has eluded our country for decades,” he said.
Indian IT professionals account for the largest number of foreign nationals coming to the US on H-1B visas.Indians also account for a significantly large number of foreign workers coming to the US as scientists, doctors, engineers and other highly-skilled professionals.
During his presidential campaign, Trump had promised to increase oversight of our H-1B and L-1 visa programmes that are used widely by Indian tech companies.
The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American firms to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.
10:17 Kuchibhotla killing: FBI investigating shootings as hate crime: The deadly shooting of an Indian engineer and wounding of his co-worker last Wednesday at a bar in Kansas is being investigated as a hate crime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was killed, and Alok Madasani, both 32, worked as engineers at U.S. company Garmin, which makes navigational devices. They were at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, a Kansas City suburb, when the shootings occurred.
Another man, Ian Grillot, was wounded when he chased after the accused gunman, US Navy veteran Adam Purinton, 51, who has been charged in the shootings.
“Based upon the initial investigative activity, the FBI, in conjunction with the US Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, is investigating this incident as a hate crime,” the FBI said in a statement.
The agency said it would work with the Olathe Police Department and state and local partners regarding the investigation.
The Kansas City Star newspaper reported that at least one bystander said Purinton shouted “Get out of my country” before opening fire.
The shooting received international attention and in India some suggested on social media that a climate of intolerance in the United States had been fuelled by President Donald Trump’s statements on immigration.White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Friday that it was absurd to link the killing to Trump’s “America First” stance.
On Tuesday, the White House said it was looking more like the shooting was based on race.”As more facts come to light and it begins to look like this was an act of racially motivated hatred, we want to reiterate that the president condemns these or any other racially or religiously motivated attacks in the strongest terms,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.
— Reuters.
10:12 Why Gurmehar Kaur is wrong and why it’s dangerous to tag everyone who disagrees with her a ‘troll’: The debate over Gurmehar Kaur has become so confusing and vitiated that at this point, taking a position is akin to putting the head under a virtual guillotine. Black and white boxes have emerged and in the kangaroo courts of media, you are either a ‘troll who bullies a martyr’s daughter and justifies rape and death threats’ or a ‘liberal’. There is little room for measured arguments, littler still for nuance and absolutely none for contrarian views. Do read
10:06 Sasikala’s nephew gets another promotion!: TTV Dinakaran, AIADMK deputy general secretary is being designated as Special Representative of the Tamil Nadu Government in New Delhi with a status of senior Minister.
VK Sasikala’s nephew, Dinakaran’s appointment in the party’s senior position has caused a furore in the state.
Dinakaran was evicted from the party and Poes Garden in 2011 by former CM Jayalalithaa. However, Sasikala accepted Dinakaran’s apology and reinstated him back into the party on the day she was convicted in disproportionate asset case
With this elevation, Dinakaran can now sit in the Tamil Nadu Secretariat and also hold office in Delhi’s Tamil Nadu house, thereby
getting closer to state governance
Dinakaran will soon be the go to person for senior officials as he will liaise between the state and the central government on pending projects.
It may be recalled that there were reports that Governor Vidyasagar Rao rejected the induction of Dinakaran as he is facing court cases and also an Enforcement Directorate inquiry. And he is also not an MLA.
But the Sasikala faction was keen to accommodate him at some level, especially where Dinakaran can have access to the files of the Government of Tamil Nadu. Now, this position as Special Representative will give him the entry into the system.
09:47 WB child-trafficking racket could leave BJP red-faced:
The Hindu reports: In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the names of its central and West Bengal leaders — national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and women’s wing president Roopa Ganguly — has been mentioned by a key accused in a recent child trafficking case in North Bengal.
The accused, Chandana Chakraborty, who ran a child care home in north Bengal, alleged on Tuesday that Juhi Chowdhury, a general secretary of State BJP’s women’s wing, perhaps spoke to Vijayvargiya and Ganguly to “resolve some issues” about the child care home.
The BJP leadership, however, denied the allegation.
“I have not spoken to anyone (Central BJP leaders). Juhi spoke to them and perhaps to Roopa Ganguly and Kailash Vijayvargiya. I was sitting in another room when she spoke to them,” Chakraborty told media persons in Siliguri before being produced at a local court. She also said that she approached Chowdhury for “some help” and she assured her of “resolving all the problems” about running the child care home.
09:42 Just In: US officials tell the Associated Press that the new Trump immigration order will remove Iraq from list of countries affected by travel ban
09:41 Three major hearings in Supreme Court today:
The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hold hearing on three major cases.
One of the cases pertains to a triple talaq case filed by Shayara Banu. The 38-year-old had stirred a hornet’s nest after she challenged the triple talaq under Muslim personal law, under which a man simply has to utter ‘talaq’ thrice to divorce his wife. The consent of the woman is never taken into consideration, and as opposed to what is mandated under the Quran, the woman is never given the stipulated three months’ time. Shayara has also challenged in the apex court the concept of ‘nikah-halal’, under which a woman must consummate another marriage in order to go back to her first husband if she wants to. She also wants to outlaw polygamy within a Muslim marriage.
The Supreme Court will also be hearing a bunch of pleas filed by animal rights activists as well as a group of people seeking to stop killing of stray dogs. The activists have challenged the order passed by various civic bodies for culling of stray dogs in Kerala and Mumbai. The apex court earlier on January 17 held that stray dogs too have a right to live and said these could be eliminated only if they became a menace to the society. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi dismissed a plea that all stray dogs should be killed in view rising cases of dog bites over the years, even causing death of people. The bench called for a balanced approach on the issue. It said compassion should be shown towards stray dogs but at the same time, these animals could not be allowed to become a menace to the society.
Another hearing pertains to a plea filed by Uber challenging an appellate tribunal’s order directing the Competition Commission of India’s director general to probe allegations of predatory pricing alleged by the cabs. On January 27, the apex court had ordered status quo on the probe by the CCI against Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd over predatory pricing allegations by Meru Cabs and had sought response from CCI in the matter. The Competition Appellate Tribunal had on December 7 last year ordered fair trade watchdog CCI to probe afresh the alleged abuse of dominance by the popular taxi-hailing app operator. The direction had came after Meru Travels Solutions had approached the tribunal against CCI’s earlier decision against ordering an investigation into the allegations against Uber of unfair practices including predatory pricing. The tribunal had directed CCI’s probe unit Director General to conduct a fresh probe into the allegations of abuse of dominance and anti-competitive practices by Uber.
Muhammad Ishaq, caretaker of a shrine in eastern province of Punjab, was arrested and sentenced to death in 2013 after a complainant accused that he claimed himself to be a God.
A court in Rawalpindi last week absolved him of charges and ordered he be set free, Ishaq’s lawyer Mehmood Akhtar said.
“It was proved in the court that the charges were false. We are completing paperwork to get him out of jail,” Akhtar said.
The draconian blasphemy laws were introduced in Pakistan by former military ruler Ziaul Haq in the ’80s and anyone charged under the laws become an easy target for extremists.
The laws have been misused by miscreants and efforts to reform them have failed due to opposition by religious groups.
Former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was killed by a police guard in 2011 when he termed the legislation as “black laws” and demanded reforms.
With Chowdhury’s arrest, a total of four persons have so far been arrested in connection with the case for their alleged involvement in selling of babies and children across India and also to foreign couples in the last few months from an NGO, Bimala Sishu Griho.
Sonali Mondal, chief adoption officer the NGO, Chandana Chakraborty, chairperson of Bimala Sishu Griho, and Manas Bhowmik, Chandana’s brother, had earlier been arrested by a seven-member CID team.
The three were charged with selling at least 17 children, aged between 1 and 14 years, to foreign buyers at high price while falsely claiming that the children were handed over for legal adoption to needy couples after due screening and official procedures.
CID sources said Juhi Chowdhury was being brought to Jalpaiguri for further interrogation and would be produced before the district court today.
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has already said the party was looking into the allegations against Chowdhury and would take action if she was found guilty.
The CID blew the lid off a child trafficking racket after conducting raids in homes and nursing homes in Baduria of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal since November last year.
* PM Narendra Modi to address election rallies in Deoria and Maharajganj districts
* ABVP will protest against Delhi Police today demanding action in the February 9, 2016 alleged anti-India sloganeering case; Protest at 2 PM
* Barring some snow-bound areas, the schools in Kashmir division and other areas falling under winter zone in Jammu region reopen today after 74 days of winter vacation.
* Regulator Sebi will see a change of guard today with senior IAS officer Ajay Tyagi taking over the chairmanship from U K Sinha, who is leaving with “good memories” after a six-year tenure marked with ‘harsh’ actions against defaulters and several reforms in capital markets.
* Officials from the pollution control boards and agencies of the Centre and Uttar Pradesh will be present in the National Green Tribunal court today to respond to its queries on sewage discharged from Kanpur drains into the Ganges.
* The UN Security Council will vote today on a draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria for the use of chemical weapons.
More highlights from Trump’s joint address:
* We must provide the men and women of the U.S. Military with the tools they need to prevent war and if they must TO FIGHT AND TO WIN.
* Education is the civil rights issue of our time. I am calling for an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth.
* Our citizens deserve this, and so much more – so why not join forces to finally get it done?
* REPEAL and REPLACE Obamacare. Obamacare is collapsing and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. Action is not a choice, it is a necessity
* We must ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage
* Our foreign policy calls for a direct, robust and meaningful engagement with the world.
* To those allies who wonder what kind of friend America will be, look no further than the heroes who wear our uniform.
* I am sending the Congress a budget that rebuilds the military…
08:14 Buy American, and hire American: Trump at Joint Address:
US President Donald Trump delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress tonight, and he addressed the central planks of his campaign the military, the border, jobs and health care. He said he will not allow the mistakes of decades past to define the course for America’s future.
Here are highlights of his speech:
* We must ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage
* Obamacare is collapsing and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. Action is not a choice, it is a necessity
* Buy American, and hire American!
* For too long, we’ve watched our middle class shrink, as we’ve exported our jobs and wealth to foreign countries.
* America must put its own citizens first, because only then can we truly make America great again.
* I am not going to let America be taken advantage of anymore
* We must restart the engine of the American economy, making it easier for companies to do business in the US & much harder for them to leave!
* My Administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security
* I have issued a new directive that American pipelines must be made with American steel
* A surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp. What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit
* We are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.
At least two people have been injured after a gun was accidentally fired during a speech by President Franois Hollande, French media have reported.
Hollande was speaking in the town of Villognon in central France to mark the opening of a high-speed railway line between Paris and Bordeaux when a police marksman accidentally opened fire, the Sud-Ouest newspaper reported.
The paper quoted local officials as saying the member of the elite gendarmerie protection squad charged with protecting the president was positioned on a rooftop about 100 metres from the marquee where the ceremony was taking place.
The safety catch on the officers rifle was reportedly off and the shot was fired when he tripped while adjusting his position. The bullet pierced the marquee roof, hitting a waiter in the leg and a railway employee in the foot.
00:04 Trump gives himself an ‘A’ in terms of achievement:
US President Donald Trump acknowledged his immigration goals may not have been communicated effectively, saying “maybe it’s my fault,” and may use his speech to Congress to address the poor messaging in his month-old administration.
The Republican Trump, a blustery newcomer to politics before winning the 2016 presidential election, gave himself a “C or a C+” on communication in an interview with “Fox & Friends” television program.
“In terms of achievement, I think I’d give myself an A. Because I think I’ve done great things. But I don’t think I have – I and my people – I don’t think we’ve explained it well enough to the American public,” he said in the interview.
“I think I get an A in terms of what I’ve actually done, but in terms of messaging, I’d give myself a C or a C+.”
Source: Rediff