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Trump targets ‘woke’ policy in military

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US President Donald Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders targeting the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policy in the military. This includes reinstating thousands of soldiers expelled for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

Earlier Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly won enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals once used for two key bases in remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day in office.

Trump signed the decrees on his way back to Washington, D.C., from Miami.

One of the decrees Trump signed said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards.

While the order banned the use of “invented” pronouns in the military, it did not address basic questions such as whether transgender soldiers currently serving in the military would be allowed to remain and, if not, how they would be removed.

During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender soldiers from serving in the military. He has not fully implemented this ban—his administration has frozen their hiring while allowing serving personnel to remain.

Biden overturned the decision when he took office in 2021.

According to Department of Defense data, there are about 1.3 million active-duty personnel in the military. Transgender rights advocates say there are about 15,000 transgender service members, while officials say the number is in the thousands.

When Trump announced his first ban in 2017, he said the military should focus on “decisive and overwhelming victory” without being burdened with the “enormous medical costs and disruptions” of having transgender personnel.

Changes are coming

Hegseth promised to bring major changes to the Pentagon and made the elimination of DEI from the military a top priority.

Trump’s decree on ending DEI in the military emphasized that service academies must teach that “America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.”

The Air Force announced on Sunday that it would continue to train trainees using a video about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, which was vetted for compliance with Trump’s ban on DEI initiatives.

Hegseth was warmly greeted on the steps of the Pentagon by Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the top US military official he criticized in his recent book. Asked if he would fire Brown, Hegseth joked that he was standing right next to him.

“I’m standing right next to him right now. I look forward to working with him,” he said, patting Brown on the back.

Reuters had previously reported on the possibility of mass layoffs of senior ranks, which Hegseth had repeatedly rejected during the approval process.

While speaking to reporters, Hegseth referred to Fort Moore and Fort Liberty by their previous names, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg.

These names, which honor Confederate officers, were changed under former President Joe Biden as part of an effort to revisit US history and Confederate heritage.

“I think of the soldiers in Guam, Germany, Fort Benning, and Fort Bragg,” Hegseth said.

Much of Hegseth’s focus at the Pentagon could be within the military, including fulfilling Trump’s decree to bring back soldiers demobilized for refusing COVID vaccinations.

Thousands of service members were suspended from the army after the Pentagon made vaccination mandatory in 2021.

American Iron Dome

Trump also signed an executive order “mandating the development of an ‘American Iron Dome.’”

The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with US support and is designed to intercept rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza into Israel.

Each unit, towed by trucks, fires radar-guided missiles to destroy short-range threats such as rockets, mortars, and drones from the air.

The system determines whether a rocket will hit a populated area. If not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.

Such an endeavor is said to take years to implement in the US.

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Real story of TikTok ban: US senator reveals Israel connection

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At the Munich Security Conference this week, Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee of the US Congress, hinted at the “real story” behind the bill that led to the TikTok ban.

“I want to see if you will tell the real story,” Warner said, addressing former Congressman Mike Gallagher, with whom he was on the same panel.

Gallagher, along with Warner, was the first to introduce a bill claiming TikTok is a national security threat and is now the head of the Silicon Valley giant Palantir.

Gallagher explained that the national security bill was “dead” until the 7 October Aqsa Flood operation launched by Hamas against Israel, but after 7 October the bill came back to life.

Gallagher said, “So we had a bipartisan consensus. We had the executive branch, but the bill was still dead until 7 October. People started to see a lot of antisemitic content on the platform and our bill came back to life,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher also said in Munich that TikTok had made a “huge miscalculation” in its attempt to circumvent the ban. When TikTok sent a notification to its millions of users urging them to call their members of Congress to oppose the bill, Gallagher said it “proved” that the social media company had “brainwashed” American youth.

Israeli officials and lobbyists have long been telling US officials in Washington that TikTok’s algorithm is fueling American youth opposition to the Israel-Hamas war.

Last year, for example, journalist Ken Klippenstein quoted a State Department source as saying that a senior Israeli diplomat had ranted about the “malign role” of a Chinese algorithm. Israelis believed that TikTok and similar social media platforms were fueling anti-Israel protests, especially on university campuses.

Around the same time, NPR reported on a memo written by Emmanuel Nahshon, Deputy Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who accused TikTok’s algorithm of “inciting young people against Israel.”

Senator Mitt Romney, one of the supporters of the TikTok ban, linked his support for the closure of the most popular social media platform among young Americans to the Palestinian issue. Romney said that the frequency of pro-Palestinian posts on TikTok was “overwhelming” compared to other platforms.

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No more talk shows

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The Taliban has ordered domestic media outlets across Afghanistan to stop airing roundtable discussions. The announcement came this week when the Taliban ministry of information and culture instructed TV stations in Kabul to stop producing and airing political and economic discussions. This is also ordered that media outlets can only interview Taliban officials and spokespersons.

Under the new law, no exports can longer appear in the media to discuss or analyze the current political and economic situation of the country. Moreover, the order also warned tv stations managers against broadcasting content that could challenge Taliban policies.

The Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC) has condemned Taliban’s new order on barring media outlets from airing political and economic decisions, adding that the order was also communicated verbally to several tv networks in Kabul, the capital city.

AFJC in a statement had voiced profound concern following an order prohibiting television stations in Kabul from airing any political or economic discussions, and the AFJC deems it a blatant attempt to enforce a “one-voice policy” and suppress the few remaining critical voices in Afghanistan.

“Subsequent reports from television journalists confirm that this order extends to economic discussions challenging the Taliban government, effectively coercing private and independent stations into compliance. The television stations in Kabul were informed that, if necessary, they could only consult with Taliban spokespeople,” it added.

According to the AFJC sources, the Ministry of Information and Culture has indicated that the specifics regarding the implementation of this directive will be determined by Monday, February 17.

As of now, there has been no official comment from the Taliban regarding the nature of this order, including whether it is intended to be temporary or permanent.

Taliban issued at least 23 media directives in the past three years.

Since the Taliban assumed power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban authorities have issued at least 23 media directives that have significantly curtailed press freedom in Afghanistan.

The most recent set of directives, issued on September 21, 2024, included an eight-point order  restricting live programs and mandating that media must only feature experts approved by the Ministry.

AFJC said that the Taliban authorities have expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of previous orders, leading to the issuance of this new directive as an appendix.

Other experts believe that the ban on roundtable discussions is a new strategy to further stifle free media and dimmish the representation of critical perspectives.

A political expert from Kabul said that such a ban indicates the Taliban’s hardstand against the free media. “To be honest, experts on TV are talking about important issues and the government should be happy to watch them and pay attention to their analyses. We are like a free teacher providing information for the government and they should use it to improve the government’s daily activities. But now we are banned from appearing in the media,” he told Harici on condition of anonymity as he lives in Kabul. He said that the Taliban should uphold the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which is not only a legal obligation but also a principle respected within the context of the Islamic teachings.

Taliban also banned the operation of Begum, a well-known women’s radio station

He furthered that the Taliban should revoke the “unlawful directives” and allow the Afghan media to operate under the country’s existing media laws.  ince October 13, 2024, the Taliban also banned television operations and the filming and photographing of people in public spaces in Takhar province. 

In another move, the Taliban raided a well-known women’s radio station (Begum) at the beginning of this month, and arrested two employees.

Begum in a statement said that officers from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) with the help of representatives from the Ministry of Information and Culture raided the radio compound in Kabul.   

The officers also searched all rooms across the office and seized computers, hard drivers and phones, and detained two male employees, according to the statement.

The radio manager says that radio Begum had not been involved in any political activity and was committed to serve the people in the most proper way, especially providing contents for the Afghan women.

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Judge blocks Trump’s USAID funding freeze

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A federal judge in the US on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore funding to hundreds of foreign aid contractors who reported devastating impacts from President Donald Trump’s 90-day blanket freeze.

Washington, D.C.-based US District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, stated that the Trump administration failed to consider the extraordinary harm caused by the sweeping freeze on foreign aid.

“At least to date, Defendants have not offered any explanation as to why the sweeping suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which sent a shockwave and upended the trust interests for thousands of deals with businesses, non-profits and organizations across the country, was a rational precursor to a review of programs,” Ali wrote.

The judge suggested that, without a temporary injunction, the scale of the “enormous harm” already occurring would “almost certainly” increase.

Ali prohibited senior State Department and budget aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, from enforcing any contract cancellation or stop-work orders issued after Trump’s inauguration, at least while the litigation is pending.

The ruling effectively suspends a key element of one of Trump’s first-day executive orders, which mandated a 90-day freeze on foreign aid.

The judge concluded that the Trump administration acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner by abruptly cutting off all foreign aid without considering the consequences for businesses that had been granted this assistance before Trump’s inauguration.

Lawyers for contractors described the extensive damage and disruption caused by Trump’s proposal to freeze and cancel thousands of ongoing contracts with entities funded with USAID foreign assistance funds. Their claims were supported by a list of over 200 foreign aid contracts canceled this week alone, submitted by the administration at the judge’s order.

“Businesses are closing, employees are being laid off… food is rotting, medicines are expiring,” lawyer Stephen Wirth said during Ali’s 90-minute hearing on Wednesday, conducted by conference call due to courthouse closure from snow.

Lawyers for contract and grant recipients emphasized that not only foreign entities are suffering, but also businesses and organizations working with overseas partners across the US have laid off or furloughed almost all their staff. Many of them will not survive the 90-day freeze, the lawyers stated.

“Stopping billions of dollars in government spending, condemning numerous foreign aid partners, large and small, to oblivion, shutting them down so that they go out of business, is of sufficient political, social and economic significance to require explicit authorization by Congress,” another lawyer for the groups said.

Ali acknowledged that the harm caused by the freeze, combined with persuasive arguments that the freeze could violate laws against government officials making “arbitrary and capricious” decisions, justified the order to lift the freeze while the case was pending.

In arguments on Wednesday, the Justice Department presented an unusually broad view of executive authority. Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton argued that because the actions were taken at presidential direction, the groups lacked authority to challenge the actions of USAID and the State Department under the Administrative Procedure Act, which allows courts to block “arbitrary and capricious” actions by federal agencies.

“We have no agency action because the agency is implementing an executive order. This is an extremely destructive proposal… Interfering with USAID in this way would place USAID in receivership before a federal court… This policy is taking place against the backdrop of the President’s exercise of his Article II authority to set US foreign policy,” Hamilton argued.

Last week, Trump-appointed US District Judge Carl Nichols blocked the administration from suddenly placing thousands of employees on administrative leave and cutting off their access to government systems. On Thursday, Nichols extended this block for another week.

Ali also became the third judge to immediately block Trump’s efforts to unilaterally freeze a wide swath of government spending.

US District Judge John McConnell, appointed by President Barack Obama and sitting in Rhode Island, compelled the administration to lift a general freeze on domestic federal programs.

Another Washington D.C. judge appointed by Biden, Loren AliKhan, also blocked Trump’s decision to freeze local spending.

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