US President Trump pats himself on the back on Thanksgiving Day

File photo of Donald Trump | Gage Skidmore via Flickr

After Germany, Denmark & Finland also halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia, and China has prosecuted 3,500 pollution offenders this year.

I made a tremendous difference’ — Trump heaps praise on himself 

US President Donald Trump used Thanksgiving Day to heap praise on himself and air a range of his favourite grievances, reports The Guardian.

“I made a tremendous difference in this country,” Trump said.
While congratulating the military, the President also patted himself on the back by saying that the country was doing exceptionally well under him.

He told the reporters that nobody’s done more for the military than him.

“I hope that you’ll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well,” he said.

“The nation’s doing well economically, better than anybody in the world,” Trump added.

Drawing a parallel between the migrant caravan in Mexico and the fight against terrorism in

Afghanistan, Trump said, “If we find that it gets to a level where we lose control or people are going to start getting hurt, we’re going to close entry into the country for a period of time until we get it under control.”

Now, Denmark and Finland halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia

After Germany, Denmark and Finland have also announced that they will stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia, reports The Columbian.

The announcement came the same week US President Donald Trump backed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder case.

Denmark’s ban includes goods that can be used both for military and civilian purposes.

Not just the killing of Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia has also been accused of numerous human rights violations in Yemen since 2015.

Denmark’s foreign minister Anders Samuelsen, speaking on a television, said that “continued worsening of the already terrible situation in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi” had led to the exports ban. He also urged other European Union members to also re-evaluate their stances.

China prosecutes 3,500 pollution offenders

China has prosecuted more than 3,500 people for pollution-related crimes in 2018 and the numbers are up by nearly 40 per cent compared to last year, Reuters reports.

According to Chinese law enforcement authorities, the country has struggled to enforce its environmental laws as growth-obsessed local governments turn a blind eye to polluting local enterprises, and it has been trying to ensure violations are properly punished.

China’s procuratorate Thursday said that it will show “zero tolerance” to environmental crimes, adding that it also prosecuted nearly 8,500 people for offence of “damaging resources” in the first 10 months.

According to the data provided by the environment minister, the number of criminal prosecutions is still small compared to the nearly 130,000 environmental violations reported in the first nine months of the year.

Financial regulators and other government departments in the country are under pressure to play a bigger role in punishing polluters.

Beijing’s population falls for first time in 20 years 

Beijing’s population fell for the first time in two decades in 2017, Xinhua news agency reported.

Population in  six urban districts fell 3 per cent from 2016 to 2017.

Authorities are trying to curb population growth as part of their efforts to ease traffic, resource shortages and house price inflation.

With population rising by two thirds since 1998, Beijing’s  energy consumption doubled and the number of vehicles has tripled.

China as a whole is trying to boost its birth rate, which fell in 2017 and is expected to decline further this year.