Togo's president faces calls to resign after protests over new role allowing indefinite rule
LOME, Togo — Togo's President Faure Gnassingbé is facing growing pressure following a government clampdown on protests calling for his resignation over recent changes in the constitution that could effectively keep him in power indefinitely.
Activists on Tuesday condemned the arrest and alleged maltreatment of dozens of people following staged protests late last week in Togo's capital, Lomé, and on social media.
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CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse leads effort to end corruption in the federal government
Americans' trust in the federal government has been eroding for years. According to Pew Research, 77% of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing "all or most of the time" in 1964. Today, only 22% do. Rep. Joe Neguse, the U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader and a Democrat who represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, is now leading a bipartisan effort aimed at restoring that trust. "End Corruption Now" is a sweeping package of bills that targets corruption and cronyism at the highest levels of government. While scandals involving bribery, extortion, kickbacks, and conspiracies have permeated American politics throughout history, Neguse says the graft today is next level. "The difference in my view is the normalization that I think citizens have become almost desensitized to the everyday corruption that is now so rampant in our nation's capital," he said. Rep. Joe Neguse, the U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader and a Democrat who represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, during the House Democrats 2025 Issues Conference at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia, on March 12, 2025. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images From insider trading by members of Congress, to self-dealing by the president, Neguse says corruption is endemic in D.C. Many politicians have lost their moral compass, he says, and the public has lost faith. "I think the president and frankly I think members of Congress are constantly testing to see how much they can get away with. And the more that voters become and citizens become apathetic and desensitized to this type of corruption, the more corruption will occur," Neguse said. Which is why he is leading an effort to change the status quo with bills that among other things ban members of Congress from ever serving as lobbyists, prohibit them from serving on corporate boards, and bar them, their spouses, and children from trading stocks. "We ought to be willing to condemn that and to stand up and say that that's wrong irrespective of one's political affiliation," he said. The bills also take aim at the executive branch by prohibiting CEOs convicted of financial crimes from serving in the White House. They also install new oversight measures for the president after Neguse says Trump dismantled many of them. He fired about 18 inspector generals -- government's independent watchdogs -- and suspended enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act even as he accepts a luxury jetliner from Qatar and other foreign governments spend billions of dollars on his family's real estate ventures and his crypto meme coin. Neguse says Trump's pay-to play schemes are brazen and dangerous. "It gives him an immense amount of power that no chief executive has had or has attempted to acquire in our country's 250-year history. The silver lining here is we have the agency to be able to stop it, right? We can ameliorate all this corruption. We can prevent it, we can end it and we can end it now with these common sense measures if we have the political will to do it." The package of bills also includes legislation to clearly define an "official act" by a public official after the Supreme Court redefined the definition of bribery and a bill called the "Musk Act," which requires government employees to recuse themselves from any matters that affect their financial interests or that of previous employers. Neguse says when he first introduced the bill placing a lifetime ban on members of Congress serving as lobbyists seven years ago, he had two co-sponsors. He now has 85. But while leadership in both parties and President Trump support reforms like banning members of Congress from trading stocks, Neguse says the bills will only pass if the public demands it.
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
Vance Blames L.A. Violence on California Democrats and Disparages Padilla
Eight days ago, Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a news conference and handcuffed by federal agents after he interrupted Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles. At the same building on Friday, Vice President JD Vance disparaged Mr. Padilla for engaging in 'political theater' and called him by the wrong name. 'Well, I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't the theater,' Mr. Vance said during a news conference in response to a reporter. 'I think everybody realizes that's what this is. It's pure political theater.' Mr. Vance's spokeswoman later said that he misspoke when he said the senator's name. The vice president spent much of his news conference blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles for the violence caused by some protesters in the city and the obstruction of immigration enforcement. Mr. Vance, who shook the hands of about 20 Marines who were at the federal building, alternated between attacks on California Democrats and praise for law enforcement. 'Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, they decided to go to war against the people trying to keep our community safe,' Mr. Vance said. 'That's a disgrace. That's a terrible commentary on their qualities as leaders.' Mr. Newsom fired back on X soon after. 'Since you're so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face,' he said. 'Let's debate. Time and place?' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests and calls Sen. Alex Padilla 'Jose'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as 'Jose Padilla,' a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids. 'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,' Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. 'I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is.' 'They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 'Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,'' Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. 'He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots,' Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the U.S.'s future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. 'Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement,' Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. 'What happened here was a tragedy,' Vance added. 'You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully.' Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, 'The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear.' Speaking at City Hall, Bass said Vance was 'spewing lies and utter nonsense.' She said hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted by the federal government on a 'stunt.' 'How dare you say that city officials encourage violence? We kept the peace,' Bass said. In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to 'Jose Padilla,' saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted al-Qaida terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the 'dirty bomb' mission. It later emerged through U.S. interrogation of other al-Qaida suspects that the 'mission' was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case. Responding to the outrage, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said of the vice president: 'He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.' Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. The friction in Los Angeles began June 6, when federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps in the region that have continued since. Amid the protests and over the objections of state and local officials, Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the second-largest U.S. city, home to 3.8 million people. Trump has said that without the military's involvement, Los Angeles 'would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years.' Newsom has depicted the military intervention as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation's democracy. Earlier Friday, Newsom urged Vance to visit victims of the deadly January wildfires while in Southern California and talk with Trump, who earlier this week suggested his feud with the governor might influence his consideration of $40 billion in federal wildfire aid for California. 'I hope we get that back on track,' Newsom wrote on X. 'We are counting on you, Mr. Vice President.' Vance did not mention either request during his appearance on Friday. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento contributed to this report.
