Category: Voices

Trump administration officials at the State Department are considering selling off a painting by the artist who also painted a portrait of former President Barack Obama, claiming his work contains “violent” and “racist” depictions.
The painting, “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” was painted by renowned artist Kehinde Wiley and features four Dominican art students in poses inspired by famous works by other Dominican artists. It has been hanging in the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo since 2015.
Wiley is known for his portrait of Obama, which now hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
But earlier this month, Leah Campos, the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, posted a video on Instagram showing the painting being removed. Campos insinuated the artwork was tied to “globalist and woke ideology.”
Last week, Erin Scavino, the director of Art in Embassies, the visual arts office of the U.S. State Department, called the painting “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifyi..

Canada is rolling out a slate of retaliatory trade moves against the U.S. in response to Donald Trump’s latest tariffs after negotiations between the neighboring nations broke down in an escalating trade war.
“Canada must respond,” Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Tuesday.
Canada, which imports roughly $272 billion in U.S. goods every year, will double its existing counter-tariffs on American steel and aluminum products to 50 percent, while new tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 percent will be applied to more than $20 billion worth of about 700 U.S. goods, including clothing, furniture, video game consoles and other electronics, among other goods.
The measures are “proportionate, targeted and strategic,” designed to “match dollar for dollar, rate for rate” against Trump’s tariff agenda, Champagne said. The new levies are effective September 8.
Canada’s new levies are “designed primarily to provide protection for Canadian industry impacted by American tariffs” and to “l..

It is impossible to read the chilling reporting of the killing of Mariam Abu Dagga in a double-tap Israeli attack on the Nasser hospital in Gaza without giving in to righteous, visceral rage.
But the systematic mass killings in Gaza, the systematic targeting of medical personnel and journalists and the gigantic civilian death toll require a cold intellectual response.
And that is a demand for sanctions against Israel.
Imposing real and immediate economic costs on Israel for its appalling campaigns in Gaza and the West Bank – where armed ethnic gangs of land thieves are stealing farms and killing Palestinians with impunity under the protection of Israel’s armed forces – is both the right and sensible thing to do.
The regime of Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi was attacked by European Nato forces, including the UK, in 2011 because he and his son Saif had threatened the city of Benghazi with bloody retribution verging on genocide.
Syria’s dictator Bashar al Assad was subjected to intern..

Two United Nations peacekeepers have been killed following an ambush by unidentified gunmen in a remote region of South Sudan, the UN mission in the country has confirmed.
Seven other individuals sustained injuries during Monday's attack, including three peacekeepers, two members of the South Sudanese police, and two civilian staff attached to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
The patrol was travelling towards Pajut, located in Jonglei state, when it was fired upon. UNMISS stated that a “Quick Reaction Force” was subsequently dispatched to secure the surrounding area and assist with emergency measures.
Anita Kiki Gbeho, the head of UNMISS, condemned the assault in a statement, saying: “Such deadly violence targeting UNMISS personnel who are serving to support peace in South Sudan is unacceptable,”
Official details regarding the names and nationalities of the two killed peacekeepers have not yet been made public.
open image in galleryThere are concerns over a retu..