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President and Obama News
President Obama Cancels Meeting With Philippines President Due To Slur
Rodrigo Duterte was re- sponding to the President's promise to raise the issue of drug-related extra-judicial killings in the Philippines at their meeting.
The Philippine leader, known for his bad language, has insulted prominent fig- ures before, but this time it has had diplomatic conse- quences.
He has now said he regrets the remark.
"While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret that it came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president," a state- ment by his office said.
In the past, President Duterte has called Pope Francis the "son of a whore", Secretary of State John Kerry "crazy" and recently referred to the U.S. ambassa- dor to the Philippines a "gay son of a whore".
Both he and President Obama are in Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) sum- mit.
Duterte has been forced to apologize for offensive com-
President Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with contro- versial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who had earlier called him a "son of a whore".
ments before, but this is the first time he has had to con- front the reality of his out- landish behavior on the international stage.
It is Duterte’s first over- seas trip - an opportunity that many leaders would have used to cement ties with neighbor- ing countries and superpow- ers like China and the U. S.
Instead, Duterte has spent most of his time tampening down the controversy he cre- ated.
At the heart of this is the fact that Duterte isn't used to being told what to do; and that he likes to display machismo and bravado, which plays well to his domestic audience.
But when he sits down for serious discussions with his
ASEAN counterparts over the next couple of days, they'll be looking for Asian discretion and subtlety, not diplomacy Duterte-style.
How the row escalated President Obama, who flew to Laos after attending the G20 meeting in Hangzhou, China, had been set to raise concerns about human rights abuses in the
Philippines.
But speaking in Manila on
Monday before he left for Laos, Duterte bristled at the suggestion, saying the Philip- pines "has long ceased to be a colony".
"Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum," he then said, using a Tagalog phrase for "son of a whore" or "son of a bitch".
First Lady Obama Surprises Freshman Class At Howard University
Nick Cannon, a freshman at Howard, FLOTUS Michelle Obama and Seth Meyers.
Freshmen students at Howard University received front row seats to a taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers along with special guest, Nick Cannon.
But, that was just half of what was in store for the audience.
Seth Meyers soon took the stage, bringing out Nick Can- non shortly after. What the crowd did not know was a third mystery guest would soon take the stage. First Lady Michelle Obama walked into the room.
The students erupted in cheers.
From there the First Lady took questions from the crowd and went into detail about the impact of being away from home during her undergraduate years and how it shaped her fu- ture success.
“It taught me how to open up, how to try new things that are scary, how to buck expectations and beat the odds, and all that good stuff. So, I mean, this is one of the reasons why we pro- mote Reach Higher and getting kids to own their future and go to college, if possible, because it changes your life,” Mrs. Obama said referencing the
initiative encouraging students to attain higher education.
Her appearance also came in conjunction with the “Better Make Room” campaign, an in- teractive movement pushing young people to achieve endless goals.
“I knew my father had taken out a loan, and he was a blue- collar worker, so I knew I had to get it together and make sure I was doing my best,” the First Lady said describing her stud- ies as a sociology major before heading to law school. “So I tried to be a serious student and not procrastinate, but I was still somebody that would be de- scribed as somebody who liked to have fun, too, and go to the occasional party, or two or three. A little turn-up.”
Cannon, who recently en- rolled at Howard, began his first semester just last month.
“I’m here because I have a real thirst for knowledge. I feel like that’s why we’re all here in this room,” Cannon said.
But TV host of America’s Got Talent is not in it alone.
“I got my brother here, he’s a junior,” Cannon joked. “But he doesn’t wanna hang out with me because I’m a freshman!”
President’s Final Asian Trip Filled With Controversy
In the end, the president got his staircase.
Departing Hangzhou, China,
President Barack Obama
boarded Air Force One on what a pool report described as a “full-sized staircase, embla- zoned with the name Hangzhou International Airport and snappy blue lighting under the railing.”
National security adviser Susan Rice was seen “walking unimpeded in the foreground,” according to the pool, and a number of dignitaries were on hand to see off the president, in- cluding the Chinese ambassa- dor to Washington.
President Obama’s drama- free departure comes after a tense arrival days ago in Hangzhou, which hosted a con- ference of G-20 leaders focused on trade with a rising Asia.
After landing in Hangzhou on Saturday, the President was forced to walk down a no-frills ramp at the back of his plane, rather than the usual red-car- peted staircase near the front entrance.
Rice then got into an angry confrontation with an unnamed Chinese official, prompting the Secret Service to intervene.
Another White House staffer
President Obama boards Air Force One to leave China using a staircase that was centered with controversy.
then engaged in a heated argu- ment with the same Chinese of- ficial over where reporters would be allowed to stand as they covered President Obama’s exit from the plane.
"This is our country. This is our airport," the official said in an exchange that was captured on video.
Some longtime China hands saw a deliberate snub by the Chinese, but the President downplayed the incident in comments Sunday, advising the press not to “overcrank the sig- nificance” of it and explaining that tensions over press access “happens in other countries where we travel.”
On Monday, a Chinese For- eign Ministry spokesperson blamed the United States for the tarmac altercation.
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