INTERNACIONAL
As REAL ID rollout approaches, congressional privacy hawks largely silent on concerns
With President Donald Trump back in the White House and the final rollout of federal REAL ID requirements set to take effect in May, many of the loudest privacy advocates in Washington have been largely silent.
While privacy-minded lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have spent years blasting the Patriot Act, among other measures, few are raising alarms over the Trump administration’s looming implementation of the REAL ID Act — a law passed in 2005 that critics describe as a national identification system.
Some of the privacy-hawk lawmakers remaining silent on REAL ID were very vocal when another expansion of the national security surveillance apparatus came about – the Patriot Act of 2001 – but not so when the U.S. is only days away from REAL ID implementation.
Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., were all in Congress when the Patriot Act faced ultimately-successful renewal in 2010s and when the 2020 bill amending and reauthorizing the related Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court came up for a vote.
‘MASS SURVEILLANCE’: CONSERVATIVES SOUND ALARM OVER TRUMP ADMIN’S REAL ID ROLLOUT
REAL ID is going into effect soon. (Getty)
«Congress has a duty to safeguard Americans’ privacy, but the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act fails to adequately limit the types of information that the government can collect about Americans, and it fails to adequately limit how long the government can keep the information it collects about us,» Markey said in a 2020 statement objecting to the FISA renewal.
«I am unwilling to grant any president surveillance tools that pose such a high risk to Americans’ civil liberties,» he said.
In 2011, Merkley was one of eight senators who voted to prevent the Patriot Act renewal from even coming to the floor for debate, according to Oregon Live.
His Beaver State colleague, Wyden, ultimately voted to allow debate, but said on the Senate floor during such discourse that it needs to be potentially reconsidered.
WHAT IS REAL ID? DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR NEW IDENTIFICATION CARDS REQUIRED TO FLY DOMESTICALLY
«The Patriot Act was passed a decade ago during a period of understandable fear,» Wyden said at the time.
«Now is the time to revisit this… and ensure that a better job is done of striking that balance between fighting terror and protecting individual liberty.»
Merkley expressed concern at the time about the Patriot Act’s ability to let law enforcement collect many types of personal data like emails and phone records.
In order to get a REAL ID, licensees must provide their Social Security number and other documentation.
While the REAL ID implementation was delayed 20 years by several factors including COVID-19, Merkley cast a «protest vote» at the time of the Patriot Act renewal that a four-year extension of the post-9/11 act was being put forth without sufficient time for debate.
In 2005, Wyden also gave a Senate floor speech opposing the first reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
Markey did not respond to multiple requests for comment, left at his Washington and Boston offices. Merkley also did not respond to a request for comment.
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A representative for Wyden acknowledged Fox News Digital’s comment request, but said the Oregonian was traveling and holding town halls with constituents back home and could not be immediately reached.
On his senatorial webpage, Wyden offered a rundown of all his comprehensive actions in favor of privacy, as well as «le[ading] the fight to address the Intelligence Community’s reliance on secret interpretations of surveillance law.»
«When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry,» he said in 2011.
Wyden was also outraged in 2013 when the NSA was found to be secretly interpreting the act to collect personal data of millions of Americans without a warrant.
In a statement to Fox News Digital on privacy concerns with REAL ID, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said REAL IDs rightly «make identification harder to forge, thwarting criminals and terrorists.»
«Eighty-one percent of air travelers [already] hold REAL ID-compliant or acceptable IDs,» McLaughlin said.
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«DHS will continue to collaborate with state, local, and airport authorities to inform the public, facilitate compliance, curb wait times and prevent fraud.»
Fox News also reached out for comment to a bipartisan series of lawmakers who have been party to pro-privacy bills or taken pro-privacy stances in the past, including Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Politics,Airlines,Homeland Security,Republicans,Senate Democrats
INTERNACIONAL
China suspendió las importaciones de productos avícolas de Brasil por un brote de gripe aviar
Las autoridades chinas han anunciado la suspensión de las importaciones de todos los productos avícolas de Brasil a causa de un brote de gripe aviar que ha suspendido un comercio estimado en más de 1.000 millones de euros.
Las importaciones directas e indirectas de todas las aves de corral y productos relacionados desde Brasil están prohibidas para evitar la importación de gripe aviar, según ha hecho saber la agencia de aduanas de China en un comunicado publicado el viernes por la noche.
“Queda prohibida la importación de aves de corral y productos afines (productos avícolas sin procesar o procesados que aún puedan propagar enfermedades) directa o indirectamente desde Brasil”, señala la agencia oficial en su página web. Además, todos los desechos animales y vegetales, desperdicios, etc. descargados de barcos, aeronaves y otros medios de transporte que llegan desde Brasil “deben ser tratados contra plagas bajo la supervisión de la aduana y no deben descartarse sin autorización”.
La prohibición generalizada de China, el mayor comprador de carne de pollo brasileña, ensombrece las perspectivas de las exportaciones del país sudamericano, mientras ambas naciones trabajan para fortalecer sus relaciones en medio de la guerra comercial global iniciada por el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump.
A principios de este mes, Brasil suspendió los envíos de pollo a China y la Unión Europea durante 60 días tras reportarse el primer caso de gripe aviar altamente patógena en una granja comercial del país sudamericano.
Brasil, responsable de aproximadamente un tercio de las exportaciones mundiales de carne de pollo, envió más del 10 por ciento de sus productos a China en 2024, según datos del Departamento de Agricultura. El comercio bilateral alcanzó un valor aproximado de 1.500 millones de dólares en 2024, según datos de las aduanas chinas.
Por otra parte, fiscales brasileños dijeron el martes que demandarán al gigante chino de vehículos eléctricos BYD y a dos de sus contratistas por acusaciones de emplear a trabajadores en condiciones laborales similares a la esclavitud y de participar en el tráfico internacional de personas.
La fiscalía laboral del estado de Bahía señaló en un comunicado que pedirán 257 millones de reales brasileños (50 millones de dólares) como indemnización de BYD, China JinJiang Construction Brazil y Tecmonta Equipamentos Inteligentes.
La demanda se origina de una investigación que llevó al rescate el año pasado de 220 trabajadores chinos del sitio de construcción de la nueva fábrica de BYD en la ciudad de Camaçari. Los fiscales dijeron que los trabajadores fueron llevados a Brasil con engaños y con visas que no correspondían a sus trabajos.
“Las condiciones de trabajo eran extremadamente degradantes. BYD, JinJiang y Tecmonta mantenían cinco asentamientos. Algunos trabajadores dormían en camas sin colchones y tenían sus pertenencias personales junto con su comida”, señaló la fiscalía. “Había pocos baños, que no estaban asignados por género. En uno de los asentamientos había un baño para 31 personas, lo que obligaba a los trabajadores a levantarse a las 4 de la mañana para su higiene personal antes de trabajar”.
BYD afirmó en un comunicado que está colaborando con las investigaciones desde el principio y que hablará sobre el caso durante el transcurso de la investigación. También aseveró que respeta las leyes de Brasil y las regulaciones laborales internacionales.
Por su parte, el régimen chino evitó este jueves pronunciarse sobre la denuncia presentada en Brasil contra la automotriz china BYD por presunto uso de trabajo esclavo, pero subrayó que las empresas del país deben “operar de acuerdo con las leyes y regulaciones”.
“La parte china ha reiterado en múltiples ocasiones que el Gobierno concede gran importancia a la protección de los derechos e intereses legítimos de los trabajadores, y exige a las empresas chinas que respeten las leyes allá donde operen”, declaró la portavoz de Exteriores Mao Ning al ser consultada sobre el caso.
(Con información de Europa Press, AP y EFE)
INTERNACIONAL
Rusia avanza en la región ucraniana de Sumi y Kiev ordena más evacuaciones ante el temor a una gran una ofensiva
El avance de Rusia
Un edificio destruido por un ataque áereo ruso, en la región ucraniana de Donetsk. Foto: REUTERSMiedo y huida
Esfuerzos diplomáticos
Guerra Rusia-Ucrania,Ucrania,Volodímir Zelenski,Rusia
JOHANNESBURG – Julius Malema, the South African politician who President Donald Trump wants arrested for repeatedly chanting «kill the farmer,» is reportedly a Rolex watch-wearing Gucci revolutionary, often seen in snazzy, expensive clothes, who champions the poor from a luxury mansion in what is said to be South Africa’s richest street.
He has also called for the further arming of the terror group Hamas and has been accused of stealing millions of dollars from the very pensioners he is trying to get to vote for him.
Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a video of Malema shouting «Shoot to kill, Kill the Boer (the Afrikaner), kill the farmer,» when the South African president, a neighbor of Malema’s in Johannesburg, visited the Oval Office earlier this month.
SOUTH AFRICA’S PRESIDENT PUSHES BACK ON TRUMP’S DEMAND TO ARREST POLITICIAN WHO CHANTED ‘KILL THE FARMER’
File: Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump has offered Afrikaner farmers, descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, refuge in the U.S., citing controversial and disputed claims that they are facing White genocide and forced land seizures.
The self-styled commander in chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Party, Malema, a Marxist-Leninist, was the head of the Youth League of South Africa’s biggest party, the African National Congress (ANC), but he was kicked out for bad-mouthing its leadership.
In last year’s election, votes for the EFF slumped to under 10%, and both of Malema’s sidekicks, party co-founders and men he described as «brothers,» left him and joined a competing party.
So it did not come as a surprise to many that, allegedly to spite President Trump, Malema just days later jumped up, literally, onto the stage at the very next rally he was due to appear at to yell «Kill the farmer, I repeat kill the farmer.»
In 2022, South Africa’s Constitutional Court, the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled the chant is not hate speech, declaring it is only the words of a song. Malema sits on the Judicial Services Commission, a body which appoints the Court’s judges.
To Malema, critics say, the chant may be more than just song lyrics. At least twice he told reporters here, «We have not called for the killing of White people – at least for now.» On another occasion, he demanded, «We will cut the throat of Whiteness.»
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South Africans protest in favor of President Donald Trump and against their government. (Getty Images)
Some say Malema is running two strategies – one which follows the mantra «There’s no such thing as bad publicity,» and the other to act like a small child that makes a lot of noise, hoping to be noticed, but with little real effect.
Analyst J. Brooks Spector told Fox News Digital that Malema «has crafted a political reputation as the ‘bad boy’ of South African politics.»
Spector, a former U.S. diplomat who lives in Johannesburg and is associate editor of the Daily Maverick, continued. «In a country with a third of its workforce unemployed, and higher among young people, and poverty still a fact of life for many more, his (Malema’s) populism initially drew significant support and enthusiasm among voters. However, his popularity as a political leader has faded somewhat.»
Malema openly supports the terror group Hamas, telling a rally in 2023, shortly after the October 7 attack on Israel, «when you are oppressed, you only have one option, shoot to kill. There is nothing wrong with what Hamas is doing. The EFF is going to arm Hamas.» He also shouted he intended to shut down the Israeli Embassy in South Africa. «We are going to remove this embassy,» he yelled to loud cheers.
A man brandishes a replica toy gun during a pro Palestinian demonstration organised by the South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in front of the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria, on October 23, 2023. (Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)
Allegations also suggest that Malema and his then right-hand man, Floyd Shivambu, benefitted from «dodgy» deals with the South African VBS bank, which subsequently collapsed, leading to people losing their pension savings.
«In 2018, the VBS scandal exposed widespread looting by bank officials and politicians, including senior leaders of the EFF, Floyd Shivambu and Julius Malema,» the Opposition Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Baxolile Nodada stated last August.
On Friday, the DA’s federal executive member and national spokesperson, Willie Aucamp, told Fox News Digital the DA «isn’t letting the VBS scandal fade into the background. Not when over R2 billion ($111 million) was looted from pensioners, struggling municipalities, and poor communities. The DA has been leading the charge to expose those behind this daylight robbery, including Julius Malema, leader of the EFF.»
He continued, «The DA laid criminal charges back in 2018, but six years later, not a single charge has been prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Justice for the victims of VBS is long overdue. The DA will continue pushing for the arrest and prosecution of every single person involved – Malema included.»
Speaking in Cape Town in July last year, Malema said «I will never be intimidated by VBS. No leader of the EFF received VBS money.»
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But now that Malema is on Donald Trump’s radar, the president might push back powerfully on Malema’s links to Hamas and the VBS saga, Max Meizlish, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
«Like the ANC that courts Iran and supports Hamas, Julius Malema would be wise to not provoke Donald Trump. After all, Malema was clearly implicated in the VBS scandal and has openly called to «arm Hamas.» Malema could very well find himself the target of Global Magnitsky Act sanctions — a tool which President Trump can wield unilaterally and at a moment’s notice,» Meizlish said.
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