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US Will Not Widen Ban on Laptops in Cabin Luggage

According to a Homeland Security official, an American ban on taking laptops in cabin baggage on flights from several countries in the Middle East and North Africa will not be expanded, for now.

Reports had initially indicated that the ban on laptops and tablets in cabins of transatlantic flights to the US was “likely” to take place as an American delegation meet with European government officials earlier this month.  The move however has since been declined.  According to Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan, such a move could affect routes carrying as many as 65 million people a year on more than 400 daily flights.

Currently, US-bound passengers travelling from ten airports in eight countries are not able to carry large electronic devices on board and have to instead place these items in checked-in luggage in the hold. Since March of this year, this ban has affected flights originating in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo, Egypt; Istanbul Turkey; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The nine airlines affected by this ban are Royal Jordanian, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Saudia, Kuwait Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways. Overall, these airlines operate about fifty direct flights to the US every day. Separately, there is also a British ban in place, which targets flights out of Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Tunisia.

The bans were introduced this year amidst growing fears that terrorists are perfecting explosive devices small enough to fit inside consumer electronics in an attempt to bring down commercial airlines. The move was reportedly linked to a threat from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and was prompted by intelligence. The group boasts one of the world’s most feared bomb makers – Ibrahim Hassan al Asiri. Authorities are concerned about plots similar to an incident that occurred in Somalia in February 2016 when a bomb hidden in a laptop blew open the side of a plane, failing however to bring it down. Only the bomber was killed in that incident.

Venezuela and Brazil: From Slow Cooking to Boiling Over

This month saw the culmination of several processes in Latin America that have been slow cooking for some time now. Venezuela is on the brink of civil war as its economy is collapsing, food is scarce and violent protests rage in the streets. The country with more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia is going through the world’s deepest recession. Supermarkets are empty and the little food available is unaffordable for most Venezuelans due to skyrocketing inflation. The supermarket queues alone are extremely dangerous as people have been robbed and killed while standing in line. However, there is no alternative. Almost three quarters of the population lost on average almost twenty pounds due to the ‘Maduro Diet’. People are combing thrash for food while child mortality levels increased by thirty percent. Hospital conditions are extremely harsh with a chronic shortage in medicine and basic healthcare. A Malaria outbreak compounds this problem. Daily protests in response to these conditions have up to date killed at least 46 people. In order to curb the rioting Maduro has jailed its opponents, shut down independent media outlets and unleashed his security forces on the populace. 2600 soldiers were sent to the Andean area near Colombia in order to regain control as the country marked its 50^th day of violent clashes. Still, Maduro vowed to push ahead in July with the formation of a ‘constituent assembly’ in order to rewrite the constitution thereby increasing the fear that opposition parties will be excluded from future elections. Meanwhile, to the south, in Brazil, months of simmering anti-corruption probes reached a climax when the current sitting President Michel Temer himself was implicated in a corruption scandal. An audio recording emerged in which Temer and the President of meat-packing firm JBS, discuss bribing a jailed politician in exchange for his silence in his role as witness in Operation Car Wash. The tape’s fallout and the resulting news that the President himself was involved in a cover-up connected to the continent-wide anti-corruption probe shook the nation. Brazilian assets were dumped on foreign financial markets and protests ensued in the country’s major cities. Running battles between police and tens of thousands anti-Temer protesters led to the deployment of the army on the streets. While the financial markets have recovered, Temer’s position likely has not. Even though Temer, in a defiant public speech, has explicitly announced not to stand down, the possibility that the country will see a second President fall in less than a year has become more likely. If that happens the country’s long overdue, but unpopular, economic reforms will be further away than ever, thereby decreasing the prospects of ending the deep recession that has been going on. The spillover effect of both country’s crises are likely to keep on influencing the entire continent’s economic and political state of affairs for the time being.

US Arrests of Suspected Illegal Immigrants on the Rise

According to data released by the United States government this month, US arrests of suspected illegal immigrants rose by 38% during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Detentions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency increased to 41,318 between 22 January 2017 and the end of April. This was up from 30,028 arrests that occurred in the about the same period in 2016. According ot the ICE, almost two-thirds of those arrested this year had criminal convictions, noting that more than half the increase in arrests was of immigrants who were simply in the US without permission. President Trump has stepped up immigration enforcement to target such undocumented immigrants.

The dragnet follows presidential orders, which have widened the scope of who can be targeted for immigration violations. Acting director of ICA Thomas Homan told reporters on Wednesday 17 May that immigrants who posed a threat to national security or had criminal records were still a priority for this agency, noting however that “there is no category of aliens off the table.” He went on to say that the ICE would continue to target people who had been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge, even if they had not committed another crime. He stated that “those that enter the country illegally, they do violate the law, that is a criminal act,” adding “when a federal judge makes a decision and issues an order that order needs to mean something.”

While former President Barack Obama was also criticized for deporting a large number of immigrants, most of them were recent illegal border crossers. While President Trump’s signature campaign pledge to build an expanded wall on the US-Mexico border is currently in limbo, after Congress denied funding for it in a recent budget agreement, his tough rhetoric on border security appears to be having an impact on immigration enforcement. US Customs and Border Protection data indicated this month that the number of people caught crossing the border with Mexico is down significantly since the beginning of the year.

French Parliamentary Election: Latest Poll Indicates Macron to Win Absolute Majority

According to a poll released on Thursday 25 May, French President Emmanuel Macron’s party is set to win an absolute majority in parliament in legislative elections next month, indicating that the new leader may have enough support to carry out an ambitious reform agenda.

In an OpinionWay poll for financial daily Les Echos, President Macron was seen getting 310 to 330 of the 535 mainland seats in the lower house of parliament – effectively more than the required 289 seats necessary for a majority. The latest poll results are similar to a raft of other recent polls which have suggested that President Macron’s start-up Republic On the Move (LREM) party would displace the Socialists as the largest party in the house and outrank the conservatives. The latest poll indicates that the Socialists are seen getting only 25 to 30 seats in Parliament, with the Republicans winning between 140 to 160 seats.

President Macron is planning to pass a reform of labour regulations by the end of September before kicking off overhauls of the unemployment insurance system and professional training later in the year and tackling pension schemes in 2018.

French President Seeks Extension of Emergency Powers in Wake of Manchester Attack

French President Emmanuel Macron disclosed Wednesday shortly after holding talks with security chiefs that the French parliament will be asked to extend by several months emergency powers, which were first introduced in 2015, in order to counter the threat of terrorist attacks. The move comes just days after a terrorist attack in Manchester, United Kingdom, killed 22 people.

President Macron, who reviewed national security with defense chiefs following Monday night’s suicide bomb attack on a concert venue in northern England, disclosed on Wednesday that he would ask lawmakers to extend the special powers, which are due to expire in mid-July, until 1 November 2017. A statement released by the Elysee palace disclosed that President Macron told his government to devise additional measures for countering the security threats beyond the emergency powers and produce a draft bill to put to parliament in the coming weeks. He also gave instructions for a task force comprised of all the French security services to be swiftly established to coordinate actions against attacks. Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb disclosed that French authorities had learned from British investigators that the suspect in the Manchester bombing, who has been identified as British-born Salman Abedi, had travelled to Libya and probably Syria.   Speaking to BFMTV, Collomb disclosed “today we only know what British investigators have told us – that someone of British nationality, of Libyan origin, suddenly, after a trip to Libya and then probably to Syria, becomes radicalised and decides to carry out this attack.” Asked if he believed Abedi was supported by a network, Collomb stated: “this is not known yet – but maybe. In any case, (he had) links with Daesh (IS) that are proven.” In the wake of the attacks that have occurred in France, the performance of France’s intelligence services have come under close scrutiny, with Collomb stating that Britain could just as easily have been the target then as well.

Three weeks into his presidency, and facing parliamentary elections next month, President macron will want to be seen as being decisive in dealing with the threat of attacks after his presidential rivals portrayed him as being weak on security matters. The attack in Manchester, which has been claimed by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, killed 22 people and wounded dozens more, striking a chord in France where more than 230 people have died in the past two years in attacks carried out by Islamist militants. The Manchester attack had parallels with the November 2015 Islamist attack on the Bataclan concern hall in Paris – one of several bombings and shooting on the same night in the French capital. IS also claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

The emergency rules, which give French police wider search and arrest powers, were first introduced after Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in and around Paris in November 2015.