Trump Escalates Harsh Rhetoric against Immigrants, Harris

Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, watches the Alabama Crimson Tide versus Georgia Bulldogs college football game with musician Kid Rock and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Getty Images via AFP)
Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, watches the Alabama Crimson Tide versus Georgia Bulldogs college football game with musician Kid Rock and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Getty Images via AFP)
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Trump Escalates Harsh Rhetoric against Immigrants, Harris

Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, watches the Alabama Crimson Tide versus Georgia Bulldogs college football game with musician Kid Rock and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Getty Images via AFP)
Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, watches the Alabama Crimson Tide versus Georgia Bulldogs college football game with musician Kid Rock and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Getty Images via AFP)

Donald Trump on Saturday deployed some of his harshest rhetoric against immigrants who have crossed the border illegally and committed crimes, especially against young women, while he also escalated his personal insults against Kamala Harris.

In the battleground state of Wisconsin, Trump called Democratic Vice President Harris, who on Friday visited the US-Mexico border for the first time in her 2024 presidential campaign, "mentally impaired" and "mentally disabled".

The Republican presidential candidate was flanked by posters of immigrants in the US illegally who have been arrested for murder and other violent crimes, and banners saying "End Migrant Crime" and "Deport Illegals Now."

His speech was unusually devoted almost entirely to undocumented immigrants. He called those who had committed violent crime "monsters,stone-cold killers" and "vile animals".

Trump is locked in a close race with Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Immigration and the southern border are one of the top issues for voters, according to opinion polls.

Sarafina Chitika, a Harris spokesperson, said after Trump's speech: "He's got nothing 'inspiring' to offer the American people, just darkness."

The former president blamed Harris and Democratic President Joe Biden for allowing undocumented immigrants into the US, accusing some migrants of wanting to "rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill the people of the United States of America."

At one point Trump admitted: "This is a dark speech".

Trump's speech was in the small Wisconsin city of Prairie du Chien, where a Venezuelan in the US illegally was detained in September for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman and attacking her daughter.

Some 7 million migrants have been arrested crossing the US-Mexico border illegally during Biden's administration, according to government data, a record high number that has fueled criticism of Harris and Biden from Trump and fellow Republicans.

In her visit to the border on Friday, Harris outlined her plans to fix "our broken immigration system" while accusing Trump of "fanning the flames of fear and division" over the impact of immigrants on American life.

Harris also called for tighter asylum restrictions and vowed to make a "top priority" of stopping fentanyl from entering the US.

Trump also repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat to Biden was fraudulent. If reelected, and "if allowed", Trump said he would prosecute people he blames for his loss then.

Studies generally find there is no evidence immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans and critics say Trump's rhetoric reinforces racist tropes.

Trump typically focuses on young women allegedly killed by Hispanic assailants to drive home that message, eschewing cases that involve male victims.

Trump's opponents accuse him of cynically exploiting grieving families to fuel his narrative that foreign-born, often Hispanic, arrivals are part of an invading army.

But some of the families of the victims have welcomed Trump's focus on the issue of violent crime and the death toll of teenagers caused by the opioid drug fentanyl, much of which crosses into the US over the southern border.

Several parents who had lost children to attacks by immigrants in the US illegally, or to fentanyl, spoke in support of him before Trump's remarks on Saturday.



IAEA Chief Says Time Running Out to Reach Iran Nuclear Deal

 Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), attends a joint media briefing with Director General of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom following their talks in Moscow on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), attends a joint media briefing with Director General of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom following their talks in Moscow on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
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IAEA Chief Says Time Running Out to Reach Iran Nuclear Deal

 Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), attends a joint media briefing with Director General of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom following their talks in Moscow on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), attends a joint media briefing with Director General of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom following their talks in Moscow on February 7, 2025. (AFP)

Time is running out to secure an accord to rein in Iran's nuclear program as Tehran continues to accelerate its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Friday.

Iran has stepped up nuclear work since 2019, after US President Donald Trump in his first term abandoned a 2015 agreement reached under predecessor Barack Obama.

With nuclear diplomacy stalled, the spotlight has turned on Trump and how he intends to handle the dossier.

So far there has been little clear policy on the issue, and Iran has continued to advance its nuclear program, accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

"I think we are running out of time, but it doesn't mean that we can't do it fast," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Grossi said in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

"The IAEA is there and has all the information and elements, but when it comes to the policy it's up to the countries."

Grossi said Iran was in the process of increasing around sevenfold its monthly production of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

He said Iran would likely have about 250 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% by the time of the agency's next report in the coming weeks.

That is enough in principle, if enriched further, for six nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick

"It's clearly a sign that should be taken very seriously. So this is why I believe that we shouldn't be wasting more time. I hope that we can refocus on Iran," he said.

IAEA 'EAGERLY' AWAITS ENVOY'S APPOINTMENT

Highlighting the challenges, Trump has yet to appoint a dedicated team or envoy to handle the Iran dossier, leaving allies, including Britain, France and Germany, who are part of the 2015 deal, unclear on how to proceed.

The European powers had hoped to convince Iran to begin negotiating new restrictions on its nuclear activities with a view to having a deal by the summer.

That would give enough time to implement new limits on Iran's program and lift sanctions before the 2015 accord expires in October 2025.

"We are eagerly waiting for a US envoy on Iran to be appointed so we can start exchanging views and seeing what the next steps will be," Grossi said. "We are in contact, but we haven't been able to have a political conversation with someone who is implementing the policies of the president."

At the request of the Europeans, the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution in November ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a "comprehensive" report by spring aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.

Asked whether the report could be ready by the next board meeting in March, Grossi said there would be "very little added value" to what the agency had already reported and that it would be better once there had been some progress with Iran.

"It will come. It could be by March, but most likely a bit later," Grossi said.