Category: usa

The United States will continue to stand with you as your friend and your partner. While our level of cooperation today is unprecedented, there is always more progress to be made”, said Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Ambassador Bruce Wharton speaking as the chief guest at the celebrations hosted by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington D.C. to mark the 69th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s independence.

Ambassador Wharton further observed, “ Today Sri Lanka has the potential to become the next Asian Tiger”, it boasts one of the most strategic maritime locations in the entire Indo-Pacific:  at the nautical crossroads of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia, with the Strait of Hormuz to its west and the Strait of Malacca to its east.  Forty percent of all seaborne oil passes through the former and half the world’s merchant fleet capacity sails through the latter, making the sea lanes off of Sri Lanka’s southern coast some of the world’s most important economic arteries. Pointing to U.S. economic cooperation with Sri Lanka, he noted, “All of this cooperation wouldn’t be possible without the democratic progress Sri Lanka has made and its renewed commitment to reconciliation, accountable government, and freedom of expression.”

In his remarks, Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam quoted excerpts from messages of the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, relating to governance, promoting reconciliation, and striving for equitable economic development.

Commenting on bilateral relations, Ambassador Kariyawasam referred in particular to the high level U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue and the selection of Sri Lanka for a compact programme of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in 2016, and remarked that the leaders of Sri Lanka look forward to working with the new US Administration to build on the exponential progress of the multi-faceted bilateral relationship, nurtured especially during the last two years. As an “island nation” considered a pre-eminent maritime hub of the Indo-Asia-Pacific, Sri Lanka values its ever-growing partnership with the U.S. The U.S. can be a natural partner to Sri Lanka as it progresses on the challenging transformative journey, to develop the nation as a modern democracy, rapidly integrating with the world of business and trade, in peace and friendship, for the mutual benefit of both countries.

The celebrations were attended by a large gathering of Sri Lankan Americans, the D.C. diplomatic community, senior U.S. government officials and several Representatives from the U.S. Congress, including Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Sri Lanka Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama, member of the Sri Lanka Caucus Rep. David Price of North Carolina, and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida.

In the morning of February 4, the Ambassador and the Embassy staff hosted a solemn independence commemoration event at the Embassy with multi-faith observances conducted by religious dignitaries representing the Buddhist, Hindu, Islam and Christian faiths and with the participation of Sri Lankan community representatives. Minister of Science, Technology and Research Susil Premajayantha, visiting DC, was a special guest on this occasion.

 

 

At least 100,000 visas have been revoked in a single week in response to President Trump’s executive immigration order, a lawyer for the Justice Department revealed in court Friday.

The number came to light in a Virginia courtroom as a federal judge granted the state’s motion to join a lawsuit challenging the immigration ban that caused chaos at airports over the weekend.

“The number 100,000 really sucked the air out of my lungs,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center, who represents two brothers from Yemen who were detained after arriving at Dulles Airport on Saturday and filed the original lawsuit that Virginia just joined.

Attorney Erez Reuveni, from the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, announced the staggering number after Judge Leonie Brinkema pressed for the number of people who were detained and sent back from airports.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state on Wednesday, filling a key spot on the Republican’s national security team despite concerns about the former Exxon Mobil Corp chief executive officer’s ties to Russia.

The vote, mostly along party lines, was by far the closest in at least half a century.

Fifty-six senators backed Tillerson, and 43 voted no. Every Republican favored Tillerson, along with four members of the Democratic caucus, Senators Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin and Mark Warner as well as Angus King, an independent.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons did not vote.

President Donald Trump was set to unveil his pick on Tuesday for a lifetime job on the U.S. Supreme Court, likely choosing a conservative judge to try to shape the court for years to come on issues like abortion and gun and religious rights.

Democrats, still fuming over the Republican-led Senate’s refusal to act on former President Barack Obama’s court nominee last year, girded for a fight.

Trump has announced he will reveal his choice to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last February, at the White House at 8 p.m.

President Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd.

In a visit to the Central Intelligence Agency designed to showcase his support for the intelligence community, Mr. Trump ignored his own repeated public statements criticizing the intelligence community, a group he compared to Nazis just over a week ago. He called journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth,” and he said that up to 1.5 million people had attended his inauguration, a claim that photographs disproved.

Later, at the White House, he dispatched Sean Spicer, the new press secretary, to the briefing room in the West Wing, where he delivered an irate scolding to reporters and made a series of false statements. Mr. Spicer said news organizations had deliberately misstated the size of the crowd at Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Friday in an attempt to sow divisions at a time when Mr. Trump was trying to unify the country, warning that the new administration would hold them to account.