Presumptive US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his call for the US to consider racial profiling as a preventive tactic against terrorism in the aftermath of last week’s mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
“I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense,” Trump said in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Trump issued a similar call in December last year after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead and more than 20 injured.
On Sunday, he also sought to downplay any differences between his positions on gun control and those of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Last week, Trump said on Twitter that people on the government’s terrorist watch list should be barred from buying firearms, a stance that contradicts that of the NRA.
However, Trump now seems to be backtracking, saying on ABC’s This Week that he “understands exactly” the NRA’s objections to restricting access to people on the watch list.
“A lot of people are on the list that really maybe shouldn’t be on the list and their rights are being taken away,” he said.
The NRA used the Sunday morning political shows to criticize, and even mock, Democratic efforts to pass new gun control laws in the wake of Orlando.
NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said on Face the Nation that legislation was effectively useless at preventing terrorist attacks.
“These bad guys we’re facing, they don’t say: ‘Oh gosh, they passed a law. Oh gosh, I don’t think I could do it,’” LaPierre said.
Democrats made their own push for expanded gun controls, which the US Senate was scheduled to take up yesterday — and more broadly, for a grassroots effort to take on opponents of stricter gun control in the wake of Orlando.
Senator Chris Murphy, who led a 15-hour Democratic speechifying marathon on the Senate floor that ended early on Thursday, said on ABC that “the only way that you win this issue is by building a political infrastructure around the country that rivals that of the gun lobby.”
Democratic US presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed her support for the effort, writing “Stand strong @ChrisMurphyCT” on Twitter.
Racial profiling has been an occasional theme of Trump’s campaign. In addition to his most recent comments, he has discussed increased surveillance of Muslims and mosques, and has said that he would consider registering Muslims in a special database or requiring that they carry cards that identify them as Muslim.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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