Trump's team in disarray, U.S. Senator McCain tells Europe
Republican Senator John McCain broke with the reassuring message that U.S. officials
visiting Germany have sought to convey on their debut trip to Europe, saying on Friday
that the administration of President Donald Trump was in "disarray".
McCain, a known Trump critic, told the Munich Security Conference that the resignation of
the new president's security adviser Michael Flynn over his contacts with Russia reflected
deep problems in Washington.
"I think that the Flynn issue obviously is something that shows that in many respects
this administration is in disarray and they've got a lot of work to do," said McCain, even
as he praised Trump's defense secretary.
"The president, I think, makes statements (and) on other occasions contradicts himself.
So we've learned to watch what the president does as opposed to what he says," he said.
European governments have been unsettled by the signals sent by Trump on a range of foreign
policy issues ranging from NATO and Russia to Iran, Israel and European integration.
The debut trip to Europe of Trump's Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson, to a meeting of G20 counterparts in Bonn, went some way to assuaging concerns
as they both took a more traditional U.S. position.
But Trump is wrestling with a growing controversy at home about potential ties between his aides
and Russia, which he dismissed on Thursday as a "ruse" and "scam" perpetrated by a hostile
news media.
Mattis made clear to allies, both at NATO in Brussels and in Munich, that the United
States would not retreat from leadership as the European continent grapples with an assertive
Russia, wars in eastern and southern Mediterranean countries and attacks by Islamist militants.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will address the Munich conference on Saturday with a similar
message of reassurance.
Pence will say that Europe is an "indispensable partner" for the United States, a senior White
House foreign policy adviser told reporters.
Mattis told a crowd that included heads of state and more than 70 defense ministers that
Trump backed NATO.
"President Trump came into office and has thrown now his full support to NATO.
He too espouses NATO's need to adapt to today's strategic situation for it to remain credible,
capable and relevant," Mattis said.
Mattis said the United States and its European allies had a shared understanding of the challenges
ahead.
Trump has alarmed allies by expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mattis, however, has spoken out strongly against Russia while in Europe.
After talks with NATO allies in Brussels on Thursday, he said that he did not believe
it would be possible to collaborate militarily with Moscow, at least for now.
The Europeans may need more convincing that Washington stands with it on a range of security
issues.
"There is still a lot of uncertainty," Sebastian Kurz, Austria's foreign minister, told reporters.
"The big topic in Munich is looking to the USA to see which developments to expect next."
"NO ILLUSIONS"
European intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is also seeking to destabilize
governments and influence elections across Europe with cyber attacks, fake news and propaganda
and by funding far-right political parties.
"We should be under no illusions about the step-change in Russian behavior over the last
couple of years, even after Crimea," British Defense Minister Michael Fallon said, referring
to Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula.
"We have seen a step-change in Russian military aggression, but also in propaganda, in misinformation
and a succession of persistent attacks on Western democracies, interference in a whole
series of elections including ... the United States."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov in Munich, seeing progress on encouraging Moscow to be more open about its military
exercises that the alliance says are unpredictable.
Russia says it is the Western alliance, not Moscow, that is destabilizing Europe by sending
troops to its western borders.
"We have different views," Stoltenberg said of the crisis in Ukraine, where the West accuses
the Kremlin of arming separatist rebels in a conflict that has killed 10,000 people since
April 2014.
Russia says the conflict is a civil war.
In the latest incident, Lithuanian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into
a false report of rape by German soldiers stationed there on a NATO mission to deter
Russia.
Mattis, without explicitly citing the case, rallied to the defense of German forces as
he spoke in the German city of Munich.
"I have great respect for Germany's leadership in Europe – and for the ethical performance
of your troops on the battlefield," he said.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic
emails during the election campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump's favor.
McCain acknowledged concern in Europe and beyond that America was "laying down the mantle
of global leadership" and cited global trends he found disturbing, including hardening resentment
toward immigrants and an unwillingness to separate truth from lies.
McCain urged the forum not to give up on the United States.
"Make no mistake, my friends: These are dangerous times, but you should not count America out,
and we should not count each other out," McCain said.
Nine people flee U.S. border patrol to seek asylum in Canada
Nine asylum-seekers, including four children, barely made it across the Canadian border
on Friday as a U.S. border patrol officer tried to stop them and a Reuters photographer
captured the scene.
As a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer seized their passports and questioned a man
in the front passenger seat of a taxi that had pulled up to the border in Champlain,
New York, four adults and four young children fled the cab and ran to Royal Canadian Mounted
Police on the other side.
One by one they scrambled across the snowy gully separating the two countries.
RCMP officers watching from the other side helped them up, lifting the younger children
and asking a woman, who leaned on her fellow passenger as she walked, if she needed medical
care.
The children looked back from where they had come as the U.S. officer held the first man,
saying his papers needed to be verified.
The man turned to a pile of belongings and heaved pieces of luggage two at a time into
the gully -- enormous wheeled suitcases, plastic shopping bags, a black backpack.
"Nobody cares about us," he told journalists.
He said they were all from Sudan and had been living and working in Delaware for two years.
The RCMP declined on Friday to confirm the nationalities of the people.
A Reuters photo showed that at least one of their passports was Sudanese.
The man then appeared to grab their passports from the U.S. officer before making a run
for the border.
The officer yelled and gave chase but stopped at the border marker.
Canadian police took hold of the man's arm as he crossed.
The border patrol officer told his counterpart that the man was in the United States illegally
and that he would have detained him.
Officers on both sides momentarily eyed the luggage strewn in the snow before the U.S.
officer took it, and a walker left on the road, to the border line.
The RCMP carried the articles to their vehicles, and the people piled in to be driven to a
nearby border office to be interviewed by police and to make a refugee claim.
People seeking refugee status have been pouring over the Canada-U.S. border as the United
States looks to tighten its policies on refugees and illegal immigrants.
Asylum-seekers sneak across because even if they are caught, they can make a claim in
Canada; if they make a claim at a border crossing, they are turned away.
Anti-Trump energy flags during a second day of protests
A second consecutive day of protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's month-old administration
appeared to lose momentum on Friday, with rallies in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York
attracting small yet enthusiastic crowds.
Activists had called for a "general strike" a day after thousands of immigrants across
the United States stayed home from work and school during "A Day Without Immigrants" to
highlight the contributions of foreign-born workers to the American economy.
Strike4Democracy, one of the groups organizing Friday's strike, said more than 100 public
protests were expected around the country.
In New York, more than 16,000 people responded to a Facebook page set up for a rally at Washington
Square Park in Manhattan, but fewer than 200 protesters were at the park an hour after
the posted start time.
Crystal Thornebrooke, one of the organizers, said the event was intended to spark discussions
about how activists can make progress in fighting Trump's agenda.
"Introducing ourselves to people, hearing people, hearing their concerns with our administration
and then build from there - this is the preliminary stages of organization," she said.
In downtown Los Angeles, a rally at the Regent Theater drew about 60 demonstrators, waving
signs and chanting, "Fight ignorance, not immigrants."
"I have friends and family members who are undocumented immigrants, and I'm scared for
them to be deported," said Priscilla Alburquenque, a 20-year-old college student.
Some protesters said Thursday's walkout may have sapped some of the energy for Friday's
action.
"The immigration event yesterday was a big event, but not everyone can be at them all,"
said Joe Balkis, a retired United Parcel Service worker who was one of approximately 75 protesters
at Daley Plaza in Chicago.
Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration and signed an executive order, which was put
on hold by federal courts, restricting entry from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Those policies, along with a series of federal raids last week, have alarmed immigrant rights'
groups.
Strike4Democracy urged Americans to stay away from work, donate their lunch money to a worthy
cause and contact congressional representatives about the strike.
Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has faced a steady stream of protests and marches,
highlighted by mass rallies focused on women's rights that drew millions
of people around the globe on the day after he was sworn in.
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