China may soon give death penalty for fentanyl traffickers, says Trump
He also said he believed this kind of agreement should have been made years ago. "I believe that we would have had that deal a long time ago. I shook hands with them, and then we had a rigged election, and we had somebody else come in, and they didn't know anything about a deal for the death penalty," Trump said.Today, President Trump signed legislation to amend the Controlled Substances Act regarding the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances.This legislation cannot bring back our loved ones lost to fentanyl, but it will prevent countless deaths. pic.twitter.com/D3RIuVGKzO— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 16, 2025He added, "The death penalty is going to be imposed on people from China who make fentanyl and send it into our country. I believe that's going to happen soon. But as of today, all fentanyl related substances will be banned forever, and those who traffic in these deadly poisons will be put behind bars for a very long period of time."TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN FOR 'WORST DRUG CRISIS IN HISTORY'Trump lashed out at former President Joe Biden and blamed him for the current fentanyl crisis in the US. According to Trump, Biden's open-border policy made the problem worse."Today, we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers, and criminal cartels... and we take a historic step toward justice for every family touched by the fentanyl scourge," Trump said.He added, "So, six months ago, we came into office and inherited the worst drug crisis in American history by far. They did nothing. For four long years, Joe Biden surrendered our borders to the most evil and vicious traffickers, networks, and everything else on the planet Earth, allowing foreign drug cartels to carve out a massive footprint."Trump said that the flow of illegal drugs and criminals through open borders has caused huge problems for law enforcement. "This open borders nightmare flooded our country with fentanyl and with people that shouldn't be here, some of the worst people on Earth," he said.He added, "Illicit drugs decimated American communities and left us with the largest law enforcement challenge in our country's history, and hopefully will always be the largest. I can't imagine anything being worse."- EndsWith inputs from Agencies Tune InMust Watch
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Mint
29 minutes ago
- Mint
Stephen Colberts Late Show cancelled by CBS, ends May 2026
New York, Jul 18 (AP) CBS is cancelling 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' next May, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape and removing from air one of President Donald Trump's most prominent and persistent late-night critics. Thursday's announcement followed Colbert's criticism on Monday of a settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a '60 Minutes' story. Colbert told his audience at New York's Ed Sullivan Theatre that he had learned Wednesday night that after a decade on air, 'next year will be our last season. ... It's the end of 'The Late Show' on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.' The audience responded with boos and groans. 'Yeah, I share your feelings," the 61-year-old comic said. Three top Paramount and CBS executives praised Colbert's show as 'a staple of the nation's zeitgeist' in a statement that said the cancellation 'is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.' In his Monday monologue, Colbert said he was "offended" by the USD 16 million settlement reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media needs the Trump administration's approval. He said the technical name in legal circles for the deal was 'big fat bribe'. 'I don't know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company," Colbert said. "But, just taking a stab at it, I'd say USD 16 million would help.' Trump had sued Paramount Global over how '60 Minutes' edited its interview last fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Critics say the company settled primarily to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale. Colbert took over 'The Late Show' in 2015 after becoming a big name in comedy and news satire working with Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show" and hosting 'The Colbert Report", which riffed on right-wing talk shows. The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert gaining viewers so far this year and winning his timeslot among broadcasters, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert's 'Late Show' landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show. It won a Peabody Award in 2021. David Letterman began hosting 'The Late Show" in 1993. When Colbert took over, he deepened its engagement with politics. Alongside musicians and movie stars, Colbert often welcomes politicians to his couch. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California was a guest on Thursday night. Schiff said on X that 'if Paramount and CBS ended the 'Late Show' for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.' Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a similar statement. Colbert's counterpart on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel, posted on Instagram 'Love you Stephen" and directed an expletive at CBS. Actor and producer Jamie Lee Curtis noted in an interview in Los Angeles that the cancellation came as the House passed a bill approving Trump's request to cut funding to public broadcasters NPR and PBS. 'They're trying to silence people, but that won't work. Won't work. We will just get louder," said Curtis, who has previously criticised Trump and is set to visit Colbert's show in coming days. Colbert has long targeted Trump. The guests on his very first show in September 2015 were actor George Clooney and Jeb Bush, who was then struggling in his Republican presidential primary campaign against Trump. 'Gov. Bush was the governor of Florida for eight years,' Colbert told his audience. 'And you would think that that much exposure to oranges and crazy people would have prepared him for Donald Trump. Evidently not.' Late-night TV has been facing economic pressures for years; ratings and ad revenue are down and many young viewers prefer highlights online, which networks have trouble monetising. CBS also recently cancelled host Taylor Tomlinson's 'After Midnight', which aired after 'The Late Show'. Still, Colbert had led the network late-night competition for years. And while NBC has acknowledged economic pressures by eliminating the band on Seth Meyers' show and cutting one night of Jimmy Fallon's 'The Tonight Show", there had been no such visible efforts at 'The Late Show". Colbert's relentless criticism of Trump, his denunciation of the settlement, and the parent company's pending sale can't be ignored, said Bill Carter, author of 'The Late Shift." 'If CBS thinks people are just going to swallow this, they're really deluded,' Carter said. Andy Cohen, who began his career at CBS and now hosts 'Watch What Happens Live,' said in an interview: 'It is a very sad day for CBS that they are getting out of the late-night race. I mean, they are turning off the lights after the news.' (AP) RB RB
News18
37 minutes ago
- News18
Rise of masked officers controversial new ground in American life
Last Updated: New York, Jul 18 (AP) In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents' faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable. With the year only half over, the covered face — as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of immigration crackdowns directed by President Donald Trump's White House — has become one of the most potent and contentious visuals of 2025. The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Trump's administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the US history of policing. Trump administration officials have consistently defended the practice, saying that immigration agents have faced strident and increasing harassment in public and online as they have gone about their enforcement in service of Trump's drive toward mass deportation, and hiding their identities is for their and their families' safety to avoid things like death threats and doxing, where someone's personal information is released without their permission on the internet. 'I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is," Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons said last month. There's pushback, as expected Democrats and others, including the several state attorneys general, have pushed back, saying the use of face masks generates public fear and should be halted. In a letter to Lyons last week, a group of Democratic senators said the stepped-up immigration enforcement in workplaces, restaurants and other sites was already causing dismay and the increasingly common sight of masked agents 'represents a clear attempt to compound that fear and chaos – and to avoid accountability for agents' actions". In American culture, covering one's face has often gone hand in hand with assumptions of negative behaviour. Think bandits donning bandanas in cowboy movies, or robbers putting on ski masks before pulling a heist on a bank. Even comic-book superheroes who cover their faces have been swept up in storylines in recent years that derisively refer to them as 'masks" and say their decision to hide their identities while enforcing justice is transgressive. And the presence of masked police or paramilitary forces in other countries has been seen by Americans as antithetical to promised democracy and justice for all — and to the common-law principle of being able to face your accusers. Mask-wearing overall in American life took another hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Trump supporters scoffed at notions that protective masks would insulate people from the deadly virus and scorned people who wore them. More recently, Trump has come out against masks, at least when they're being worn by protestors. He posted on social media last month that demonstrators wearing masks should be arrested. Given all that cultural context, it's even more problematic that those enforcing laws be the ones with their faces covered, said Tobias Winright, professor of moral theology at St Patrick's Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland. He has worked in law enforcement in the US and writes frequently about policing ethics. If 'what you're doing is above board and right," he said, 'then why conceal your identity?" Power gives different symbols different meanings For those who question why it's different for law enforcement to wear masks if protestors and non-law enforcement personnel are doing it, it's because symbols have different meanings based on the power and position of the people using them, said Alison Kinney, author of 'Hood," a book about that clothing item and the various ways people have used it. 'ICE agents are agents of the state. and they're invested with not only power but also with protections in carrying out their job," she said. 'But that job is also supposed to be public service. It's also supposed to be accountable and responsible to the public." 'And so they have a greater responsibility for transparency and accountability and making themselves known so that we can hold them accountable for the justice or injustice of their actions," she said. Concerns over how law enforcement is held accountable to the public have come up before. Advocates pushed for officers to wear body cameras and demanded that police officers have visible names and badge numbers. But there hasn't previously been much discussion around police masking because there isn't a history of it being done in any kind of official widespread way in the United States, outside of SWAT- or undercover-type operations, Winright said. The most high-profile example of mask-wearing in American history for the purpose of hiding identity is also its most negative one — racist attacks carried out by the members of the Ku Klux Klan. The masks served a purpose, of course, of keeping the wearers' identities secret, said Elaine Frantz, a history professor at Kent State University and author of 'Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction." But they also made it easier for those wearing them to commit violent acts against others, she said. 'One thing about a mask is it kind of works like being behind a riot shield," Frantz said. 'When you have more of separation from the person you're attacking, it's easier to dehumanise that person." Winright said he hoped law enforcement mask-wearing wouldn't be normalized. There has been at least one expansion into local policing. In Nassau County, on Long Island just outside New York City, County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week signed an executive order allowing police officers to wear masks during certain types of work, including working with immigration agents. Winright is concerned, though, that the move could strain police-community relations even more, thus putting officers at even more risk. top videos View all 'Wearing a mask seems to increase fear and decrease trust, and policing from federal to local in America needs trust and transparency and community relations that are positive," he said. He added: 'The harms, the risks, are greater by wearing masks, not only to the individual officers, but to the profession itself, as well as to the United States society. It's just going to further exacerbate the us-versus-them polarisation, the lack of trust, and that's the probably the last thing we need right now." (AP) SCY SCY (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: July 18, 2025, 13:30 IST News agency-feeds Rise of masked officers controversial new ground in American life Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Trump greenlights using medicaid data to track and deport illegal migrants; why this legal ‘breach' should worry Americans
AP ICE to access the personal data of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide The Trump administration has authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to access the personal data of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide—including home addresses, Social Security numbers, ethnicities, and other sensitive information—as part of an intensified drive to locate and deport undocumented immigrants. The agreement, signed quietly on Monday between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), marks the largest-ever handover of Americans' health data for immigration enforcement purposes. 'ICE will utilize the CMS data to obtain identity and location details regarding aliens identified by ICE,' states the agreement obtained by the Associated Press. What's at stake: Privacy, health, and legal precedents This sweeping data-sharing deal goes far beyond prior cooperation between public health and law enforcement. Traditionally, Medicaid data—collected to provide public health services for low-income Americans—remained confidential, protected by federal health privacy laws and ethical norms. Even many career officials inside CMS voiced strong opposition, warning it could frighten vulnerable populations away from seeking critical medical care: 'They are trying to turn us into immigration agents,' an unnamed CMS official told the AP. Opponents point out that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) typically forbids such use of health information, sparking serious debate over the legality and ethics of the move. States including California, Illinois, Washington, Minnesota, New York, and Colorado—all led by Democratic governors—have programs covering non-citizens with state-funded Medicaid, further complicating the legal landscape. Governor Gavin Newsom of California issued a strongly worded statement raising 'significant legal and privacy concerns' and highlighting the risk of chilling effects on immigrant will the data be used?ICE will access a database containing the names, birth dates, addresses, racial and ethnic data, and Social Security numbers of all Medicaid enrollees. The official justification is to prevent undocumented immigrants from improperly receiving Medicaid benefits, as unauthorized immigrants are ineligible for federally funded Medicaid. Some states, however, use their own funds to provide care for certain non-citizens, a policy that has been controversial under both the Trump and Biden the agreement, ICE can only enter the database during business hours on weekdays until September 9, and they are prohibited from directly downloading the data. Why this breach should worry Americans This is the largest release of government health data ever for law enforcement. Former CMS officials and legal experts warn such sharing could be unlawful and set a dangerous precedent; one noted, 'DHS has no role in anything related to Medicaid'. Physicians and public health advocates argue the policy will discourage millions of families—including U.S. citizens in mixed-status households—from seeking life-saving care, harming public health and undermining trust in healthcare worry the federal government's actions may deter them from collaborating on Medicaid administration, fearing their local programs for children or lawfully present immigrants could be targeted challenges are already in the works, with at least 20 states filing lawsuits to block the transfer of health data to ICE, arguing it violates both confidentiality laws and basic civil liberties.
