'You had the Nobel Prize?' Trump learns of Yazidi activist Murad
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared unfamiliar with the work and cause of Nobel laureate Nadia Murad as she pleaded with him to help the Yazidis of Iraq.
Murad, one of thousands of women and girls from the ancient faith abducted by the Islamic State group as they overran swathes of Iraq in 2014, joined a group of survivors of religious persecution who met Trump in the Oval Office on the sidelines of a major meeting at the State Department.
After Murad explained how her mother and six brothers were killed and that 3,000 Yazidis remained missing, Trump said, "And you had the Nobel Prize? That's incredible. They gave it to you for what reason?"
With little pause, Murad, who was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, repeated her story.
"After all this happened to me, I didn't give up. I make it clear to everyone that ISIS raped thousands of Yazidi women," she said, referring to the Islamic State group. "Please do something. It's not about one family," she said.
Trump, who has boasted of crushing the self-styled caliphate of the Islamic State group that once stretched across Iraq and Syria, also appeared at a loss when Murad asked him to press the Iraqi and Kurdish governments to create safe conditions for the Yazidis to return.
"But ISIS is gone and now it's Kurdish and who?" Trump asked, before later telling her, "I know the area very well."
Murad also explained how Yazidis took dangerous routes to find safety in Germany, whose welcome to refugees has been vocally criticized by Trump.
The US leader also appeared unfamiliar when he met a representative from the Rohingya, a Muslim minority targeted in a brutal campaign two years ago in Myanmar.
One day earlier, his administration banned travel to the United States by Myanmar's army chief and three other senior officers, calling the violence "ethnic cleansing."
The Trump administration frequently speaks of promoting religious freedom, a key issue for much of his evangelical Christian base.
Government ministers and representatives of persecuted groups are spending three days at the State Department for a meeting on religious freedom, which Vice President Mike Pence will address on Thursday.
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Congress will win up to 20 LS seats in Karnataka, says CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said the response from voters towards Congress is "very good" and the party would win up to 20 seats in the state in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The guarantee schemes launched by his government will not be stopped for any reason, Siddaramaiah asserted as he claimed that the Congress will return to power after completing the current term, and they would continue.
"The response is very good from the voters in Karnataka, but I do not know about the other parts of the country. As far as Karnataka is concerned, we will win up to 20 seats this time," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha constituencies.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the Congress and its then alliance partner JD(S), which were running a coalition government at the time, had won just one seat each, while the BJP secured 25, and had also ensured the victory of an independent supported by it.
This time, the JD(S) is in an alliance with the BJP, and is contesting in three seats, and the saffron party in the remaining. Congress is contesting in all 28 seats.
Responding to a question about BJP state president B Y Vijayendra's comments that the guarantee schemes are "temporary", the chief minister said, "Vijayendra doesn't know things, what does he mean by temporary? Is he a fortune teller? In Karnataka we will be (in power) this term and the next term too, and will not stop guarantee schemes for any reason."
"Guarantee schemes will be continued and for this we have set aside Rs 52,000 crore in the budget," he added.
Karnataka is going to the polls in two phases. While polling for 14 Lok Sabha segments in the southern part of the state will be held on April 26, the second phase of voting in northern districts will be held on May 7.
