When Paul Manafort was first charged by prosecutors last year, court documents read like the opening scene of lives of the rich and famous: From multiple properties complete with gardens manicured in the form of an "M" for the GOP operative’s name to high-priced shopping sprees to custom-made suits. Interested in Russia Investigation? Add Russia Investigation as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Russia Investigation news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Russia Investigation Add Interest The former Trump campaign chairman enjoyed what special counsel Robert Mueller's team called a "lavish lifestyle." But the veteran political strategist has been held in jail for the last several months after prosecutors accused of him witness tampering, and the government has tentatively seized his accounts at three different banks. And now, in his deal announced last Friday with Mueller, Manafort's high priced life just experienced a major rollback. Manafort will forfeit approximately $21.7 million in property and other assets as part of his plea deal with the government. To avoid a second trial in a Washington, D.C., court, he pleaded guilty to two federal counts as part of that deal, which also requires his cooperation with the special counsel. The deal comes after Manafort was found guilty last month in his first trial in Virginia of evading taxes on more than $60 million of income earned working for Ukrainian politicians. Manafort will give up three different bank accounts, a life insurance policy and five properties scattered about New York, including three condos in Manhattan. Market values of these properties in documents presented to the court were redacted, but estimates can be found on property listing website Zillow.com. Among the three condos to be forfeited is Manafort’s Trump Tower apartment on Fifth Avenue, which is estimated to be worth $3 million in market value, according to Zillow. The two other Manhattan condos in Soho and in Chinatown are valued at $3.2 million and $4.1 million, respectively. The most expensive of his properties: a 10-bedroom mansion south of Bridgehampton, in Long Island, New York, worth $7.3 million, according to Zillow. Manafort's seven-bedroom home in Brooklyn, also to be forfeited, is listed as $4.1 million on Zillow. Manafort’s Arlington home, valued at $1.7 million on Zillow, was also up for forfeiture on the fourth superseding indictment against him, but he kept it by giving up the Chinatown apartment instead.(MORE: Paul Manafort plea deal includes 'broad' cooperation with special counsel) But Zillow estimates don’t always accurately reflect the real, debt-free value of properties, especially for Manafort, whose case largely revolves around his complex finances and alleged bank fraud related to mortgages on some of the properties he offered as partial backing for his plea deal. The $4.1 million-Brooklyn house, for example, served as a collateral to obtain a $5 million loan for Manafort in 2016, and the $3.2 million-Soho condo was used to obtain a $3.4 million loan the same year. The ambiguity of the true value of Manafort’s properties had arisen as an issue earlier this year, during the 69-year-old’s months-long fight to meet his $10 million bail set by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who repeatedly rejected proposals brought by the defense team.(MORE: Inside Paul Manafort's 6-month fight to meet his $10 million bail) Manafort’s trial in Virginia last month gave some insight into the lifestyle he was maintaining at the properties he has forfeited. Though the judge in that case limited the amount of evidence related to Manafort’s lifestyle that prosecutors were permitted to display, witnesses testified to having outfitted Manafort’s homes with premiere landscaping and interactive technological systems. At Manafort’s Bridgehampton home, for example, one witness testified to working on a manicured lawn that included a flower bed of white flowers with red flowers shaped like an “M.” Another witness said Manafort had spent millions of dollars on Apple TVs and other tech systems. The judge in the case prohibited prosecutors from entering other exhibits, including photos of “pagodas” in Manafort’s yard and fancy suits. A jury in the Virginia case found Manafort guilty on 8 of the 18 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on the other 10. As part of Manafort’s plea agreement last week, he admitted guilt to the 10 other counts. Those counts included bank fraud, tax evasion and bank fraud conspiracy. In addition to the Arlington house, Manafort’s family will maintain his home in Palm Beach, Florida, Virginia, and an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia.(MORE: Manafort found guilty on 8 counts in tax fraud trial) Kevin Downing, Manafort’s lead attorney, said Friday that Manafort took the plea in part because he “wanted to make sure his family was able to remain safe and live a good life.” Legal experts told ABC News Manafort could face up to 10 years in prison for the D.C. case and about seven years for the Virginia case. The sentences may be assessed to run concurrently or consecutively. Manafort will be sentenced after he completes his cooperation with the special counsel, which may well affect the length of the sentence.

The sentencing of Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, has sparked an intense debate about the way white-collar crime is punished in America. The perceived leniency of the sentence handed down by US District Judge TS Ellis was met with disbelief and outrage by many legal experts. Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison as punishment for a string of fraud charges, estimated to have cost the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) millions of dollars. The reaction on social media was swift, with many condemning the sentence and suggesting it was indicative of a wider problem in how the US legal system unfairly treats different types of criminals. Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Senator for Minnesota and presidential candidate, tweeted: "Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner."Duncan Levin, an expert in financial crimes and former federal prosecutor, called 47 months a "shockingly low" sentence. "The sentence is very lenient, end of story," Mr Levin told the BBC. "It is significantly lenient for a crime of this magnitude."He said that he was left "puzzled by the sentence" and suggested that it "had left a lot of people scratching their heads". Mr Levin added that given the "very serious" nature of Manafort's crimes, he would have expected a harsher sentence. "I think perhaps the judge felt strongly personally about Manafort's situation, and maybe that came into play in his decision." Paul Leighton, a professor of criminology at Eastern Michigan University who has written extensively on white-collar crime, agrees that the sentence is surprisingly low. He points out that 47 months is "below even what [Manafort's] attorney argued he deserved". Mr Leighton told the BBC that comparing Manafort's sentence to other white-collar criminals can be "problematic" given the many variables involved in each case.However, the high-profile case of ex-political lobbyist Jack Abramoff shares some of the traits of Manafort's case, including its connection to a wider investigation and the defendant's proximity to the political elite. Abramoff was sentenced to five years in jail in 2006 for defrauding Native American tribes out of at least $45m (£26m) as well as tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiracy to bribe public officials.More on the Jack Abramoff scandalThroughout his trial Abramoff cooperated with investigators, which contributed to the conviction of 10 officials, including congressman Bob Ney. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she had recognised Mr Abramoff's cooperation by sharply reducing his sentence. Jerome Kerviel, the French ex-banker who was found guilty of one of the biggest banking frauds ever he lost €4.9bn (£3.82bn) through unauthorised transactions, served three years in prison in 2010.This sentence was seen as harsh by many outside of the US. Manafort's sentence is far shorter than the suggested range of 19.5 to 24 years put forward in sentencing guidelines cited by prosecutors.Sentencing guidelines are designed to help judges decide the severity of punishment, and take into account things like the number of victims and the defendant's past. For example, bank fraud is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1m (£768,500) in the US, but the guidelines enable a judge to work out where on the scale a case sits. Mr Levin acknowledges that "judges are entitled not to follow the guidance, that's part of the discretion they have in the US"."But the guidelines ensure that court to court and judge to judge, similar sentences are given to similar defendants," he explains. "It's about consistency, and this sentence is way outside the range expected." While many were shocked by the size of the disparity between the suggested and actual sentence, it fits a trend. A 2017 study, reported that the majority of federal judges in white-collar cases "frequently sentence well below the fraud guideline"."Federal trial judges now follow the advisory fraud guideline range in less than half of all cases." Mr Levin is keen to point out that he is not calling for harsher punishments to be introduced, and hopes that Manafort's case will start a general conversations about the extremes of sentencing. The US issues some of the harshest prison sentences in the world, and a recent study found the average time served is increasing. The short sentence was interpreted by many to be further evidence that white-collar crimes, committed by well-off white men, are not punished as harshly as others. Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that "justice isn't blind, it's bought" in reaction to the sentencing, while constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe tweeted that Judge Ellis showed "preferential treatment to a rich white guy". Neil Blackmon, a lawyer from Florida, tweeted that the sentence was a "scathing indictment of the justice system". Black men in America receive 19.1% longer sentences than white men for similar crimes, according a recent US Sentencing Commission report. The commission also found that judges are more likely to use their discretion to cut an offender's sentence if the offender is white.Scott Hechinger is a senior attorney at the Brooklyn Defender Service and advocates on behalf of people who often cannot afford legal representation. He says that race and class both inform how a defendant is treated. Mr Hechinger pointed to one of his clients who was offered a similar sentence to Manafort for "stealing $100 worth of quarters"."The majority of people in the system, disproportionately poor, black and Latino, are rarely if ever treated with same kind of mercy, sympathy and individualised justice [Mr Manafort received]," he told the BBC."While white-collar criminal laws are rarely enforced, people in the communities I serve are targeted, over-policed, and often arrested merely for living."Paul Leighton agrees: "Judges and many in the legal system tend to see white-collar criminals - especially Caucasian white-collar criminals - as being good people who made a mistake, while the poor and minorities are more likely to have their crime seen as a reflection of their bad character."In the wake of the Manafort's sentencing, many lawyers pointed out the "white privilege" he enjoyed, compared to the harsh treatment of black offenders. Paul Leighton told the BBC that white-collar criminals often "get a break under the sentencing guidelines for being first time offenders", despite often having "long patterns of criminal conduct". Mr Leighton explains that financial crimes are frequently "complicated and the result of planning or at least many decisions that set up the crime, allow it to continue and possibly cover it up, but [defendants] are considered first time offenders and get the benefit". Georgie Weatherby is a professor of sociology and criminology at Gonzaga University, and she believes the public has a misconception about the seriousness of white-collar crimes."The costs to society of white-collar crime are immense, but people don't feel them directly. How safe they feel in their homes, where they can walk at night, these are the issues people feel. They are tangible."However, the FBI estimates that white-collar crimes costs the US economy more than $300bn (£228bn) a year, and can have serious impacts of people's lives. When companies or individuals illegally avoid paying taxes, there is less money for public services such as schools and infrastructure.In the US, white-collar crime also increases the cost of healthcare. The FBI predicts that "losses due to fraudulent activity approached 10% of the amount of money that we expend in healthcare."While Ms Weatherby notes that some high-profile white-collar criminal cases have caught the attention of the American public, such as the Enron scandal, she suggests "people have short memories" and any outrage "quickly dies down". Ms Weatherby adds that society romanticises white-collar criminals, and the money and power they often accrue, which affects the treatment they receive. "Defendants, particularly in very high-level crimes, often project an image of success. They have wealth, and access and are glamorous," she says. "Judges can get caught up in that, they can be drawn to it." Ms Weatherby told the BBC that white-collar criminals are "conceptualised as the American Dream gone wrong", which "leads to different outcomes treatment". Paul Leighton goes even further, and suggests that some Americans are "so anti-government that tax fraud is not seen as a crime, and even many law and other conservatives see tax fraud as patriotic".

(Reuters) - Under an unusual arrangement, Paul Manafort’s attorney has kept Donald Trump informed about the former campaign chairman’s meetings with prosecutors investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and, according to Trump’s lawyer, Manafort has not said anything damaging about the president. President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani arrives with his guest Jennifer Leblanc at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsRudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the Russia probe, told Reuters that he had spoken with Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, as recently as last week. Manafort pleaded guilty on Sept. 14 to violating foreign lobbying laws and trying to obstruct justice. He was convicted at trial in another case in August. Giuliani said the conversations were occurring under a so-called joint defense agreement, which allows lawyers who represent different clients to exchange information without violating attorney-client privilege. Legal experts said it was unusual for such an agreement to remain in effect after a person pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with prosecutors as Manafort has done. Manafort is talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller “about a lot of things, none of which are incriminating with regard to the president,” Giuliani said in one of several conversations with Reuters this month. Giuliani said he was told by Downing that Manafort had met with Mueller’s team roughly a half dozen times. Downing did not respond to requests for comment. Giuliani’s account of his communications with Downing comes at what may be a critical point in Mueller’s investigation of election meddling and any possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, which the president denies. Mueller has started drafting a report outlining his findings that will be submitted to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller’s team, and could ultimately be made public, a person familiar with the matter said. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment. New York lawyer Harry Sandick, a former federal prosecutor, said that there are some cases in which a joint defense agreement can survive a cooperation agreement, such as if Manafort is providing information about people other than Trump. “In general, you can only have a joint defense agreement where there is a common interest between two people in defeating a prosecution,” Sandick said. He said lawyers can have unprivileged conversations with their clients’ approval. Giuliani said his conversations with Downing had been limited to areas that affect Trump. “If he wants to communicate information, Manafort, he’s allowed to do that. There’s nothing that stops him from doing that,” Giuliani said. “All I’m interested in is: Is there anything we need to know with regard to us?” Giuliani said Downing had not shared specific facts with him regarding Manafort’s discussions with prosecutors. “He’s just telling me the conclusion that he’s not in a conflicted position with us,” said Giuliani, who has been very public in his defense of Trump, appearing regularly on TV disputing aspects of the investigation and calling it a political witch hunt just as the president has. Moscow rejects the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that state-supported operatives interfered in the election. Legal experts said Manafort’s lawyer may be trying to remain on good terms with the Trump camp in the hopes that Manafort will ultimately receive a presidential pardon. “Maybe he is thinking he can sort of have it both ways -cooperate and draw less ire from Mueller and hopefully still get a pardon from Trump,” said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. Giuliani said he did not know why Manafort’s lawyer is sharing information with him. Manafort, who made tens of millions of dollars working for pro-Kremlin politicians in Ukraine, was among Trump campaign aides who attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a group of Russians offering damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Nathan Layne; Editing by Paritosh Bansal, Noeleen Walder and Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

French police have opened an investigation after the wife of the president of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, said she had not heard from her husband since he travelled home to his native China last week.French police sources and justice officials said Meng’s wife, who lives with him and their children in Lyon, south-east France, where the global organisation for police cooperation is based, reported him missing on Friday.Interpol said it was aware of the reports but it was “a matter for the relevant authorities in France and China”, adding that the day-to-day running of the organisation was the responsibility of its secretary general, Jürgen Stock, rather than the president, who chairs its executive committee.Meng was last seen leaving for China from Interpol’s headquarters on 29 September, a judicial source close to the investigation told Agence-France Presse. “He did not disappear in France,” the source added.China has not commented officially on Meng’s disappearance and there was no mention of him in official media on Saturday. Meng, 64, was formerly China’s deputy minister of public security, a position which critics say gave him control over the country’s secret police, and has also previously served as director of the coastguard and deputy head of the Chinese state oceanic administration.The first Chinese leader of Interpol, which connects the law enforcement agencies of its 192 member countries, Meng was elected the organisation’s head in November 2016, replacing French police officer Mireille Ballestrazzi, and was due to serve until 2020.The disappearance of high-level Chinese officials is typically seen as a worrying sign. Since taking power in 2012, China’s president, Xi Jinping, has launched a sweeping crackdown, punishing more than a million officials, many accused of corruption. But critics say the drive is merely a way for Xi to take down his political enemies.Communist party members, including Meng, are subject to a separate investigation system outside of China’s state legal system and those suspected of violated party rules can be held without many legal protections. News of Meng’s disappearance was absent from Chinese news outlets.But the appointment as the president of Interpol would normally mean Meng was seen as politically safe. The unusual disappearance highlighted the China’s murky legal system and lack of accountability, observers said.“It’s really terrifying, and underscores that no one – no one – is safe,” Sophie Richardson, the China director for Human Rights Watch, tweeted.Rights organisations such as Amnesty International expressed grave concerns about Meng’s appointment at the time, suggesting China might use it to pursue regime opponents beyond the country’s borders.Amnesty International’s director for east Asia tweeted that Meng’s appointment was “extraordinarily worrying, given China’s longstanding practice of trying to use Interpol to arrest dissidents and refugees abroad”, adding that the mandate of police in China included protecting the Communist party’s power.Western countries have also been reluctant to sign extradition treaties with China due to concerns from rights groups over the mistreatment of criminal suspects, and have said China can be reluctant to provide proof of suspects’ crimes.Beijing saw Meng’s election as a chance to enlist international help in tracking down alleged economic criminals – including corrupt officials living abroad – who were targeted as part of Xi’s much-publicised anti-graft drive.In 2014, China issued an Interpol “red notice” – the closest thing to an international arrest warrant – for the country’s 100 most-wanted corruption suspects who had fled the country, many of whom have since been returned.Some countries have alleged the campaign, known as Operation Fox Hunt, has led to Chinese law agents operating undercover on their territory without consent. Topics France China Asia Pacific Europe news

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is facing growing calls to explain his family’s alleged links to the heavily armed and notoriously violent paramilitary gangs that control large swaths of Rio de Janeiro.Questions over possible connections between the Bolsonaros and Rio’s so-called “militias” were swirling even before the former army captain took office in January – so much so that revellers at this year’s carnival penned a song satirising the president’s supposed criminal ties.But those concerns intensified this week when a photograph emerged in which a grinning Jair Bolsonaro appears with his arm around Élcio Queiroz, one of the two men arrested on Tuesday for the 2018 assassination of the Rio councillor Marielle Franco.Police also confirmed that one of Bolsonaro’s sons had dated the daughter of the other murder suspect, Ronnie Lessa, and that Lessa lived in the same beachside compound where Brazil’s president lived until moving to the capital following his election last year.“These relations between paramilitaries and the president of the republic must be explained,” demanded Humberto Costa, a Worker’s party senator from north-east Brazil.Bolsonaro has played down the image’s significance, claiming he has taken thousands of such photographs with police officials.“I don’t remember this bloke,” Bolsonaro said on Wednesday when questioned about the alleged hitman who lived across the street.Brazil’s president also tried to justify previous statements of support he has made for such vigilante groups which emerged in the early 2000s and were seen by some as a lesser evil to Rio’s drug gangs.“Back then people applauded [them],” Bolsonaro told Brazilian reporters.Brazilian press reports paint Lessa as a cold-blooded killer who lost his leg in a 2009 bomb attack and made a fortune as a member of a group of contract killers called the “Escritório do Crime” (The Crime Bureau).Bolsonaro’s former neighbour is also suspected of gunrunning. Police reportedly found 117 M-16 assault rifles at one Rio address linked to Lessa when they raided it this week.The president’s politician son, Eduardo Bolsonaro – recently appointed the South American representative of Steve Bannon’s far-right group The Movement – said efforts to associate his family with Franco’s murder and Rio’s mafia were absurd and revolting. “If I take a photograph with a cop, does it make me responsible for everything he does?” he asked.Brazilian prosecutors say they believe the photograph – reportedly taken in 2011, before Queiroz was expelled from the police force – was “a coincidence”.Fernanda Mena, a columnist for Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo who has covered the case, said it was indeed possible the photograph meant nothing: “Bolsonaro doesn’t know everybody who stands next to him to take a photo or a selfie.“But what isn’t random are the other questions that involve the Marielle case and, at the same time, involve the president’s family,” Mena added.She pointed to recent reports that the wife and mother of another former special forces police officer suspected of leading the Crime Bureau had worked for another of the president’s politician sons, Flávio Bolsonaro.“I think it’s possible that the photograph reveals something that perhaps it doesn’t directly show, but which lies behind it. And this demands a super rigorous and urgent investigation,” Mena said.Juliano Medeiros, the president of Brazil’s leftwing Socialism and Liberty party (PSOL) – to which Marielle Franco belonged – said Bolsonaro had failed to adequately explain any relationship with Rio’s paramilitary gangs.Medeiros admitted it was too soon to make any categorical link between the Bolsonaro family and Franco’s killers and said doing so would be “frivolous”.But there was “ample evidence” that left the family’s ties to paramilitaries “beyond doubt”, he claimed, pointing to the president’s well-documented public defence of death squads and militias.“It is disgusting … to even consider the hypothesis that Brazil is governed … by a family with ties to this kind of criminal organisation. Just the hypothesis is alarming and creates a situation of utter uncertainty with regards to Brazil’s future,” Medeiros added.“If there is the slightest hint of a link between the Bolsonaro family and Marielle’s murder we believe this could create an institutional crisis of cataclysmic proportions in Brazil.”Guilherme Boulos, who stood against Bolsonaro for the PSOL in last year’s presidential race, called the connection between the Bolsonaros and the militias “uncomfortable and scandalous”. “Something smells fishy,” he tweeted.Interrogation of Bolsonaro’s alleged paramilitary ties has also come from the Brazilian right.“The president of the republic might want to demonstrate a little more caution,” the conservative Estado de São Paulo said in an editorial, criticising Bolsonaro’s attack this week on a Brazilian journalist who specialised in covering Rio’s paramilitaries.“It must be explained, for example, how a retired policeman such as Ronnie Lessa … was able to own a comfy home in a middle-upper-class condo … the same condo where President Jair Bolsonaro also has a home – when he earned just 8,000 reais a month,” the newspaper added.Whatever the truth about the connection between Brazil’s president and Marielle Franco’s killers, Gilberto Dimenstein, a prominent Brazilian journalist, said major reputational damage had already been done.“This photo proves absolutely nothing. I repeat: nothing,” Dimenstein wrote. But “hundreds of millions of eyeballs will see this photo” and worry Brazil’s commander-in-chief might be in league with crime. “It is the worst photo in Jair Bolsonaro’s life.” Topics Jair Bolsonaro Brazil Americas news

Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Video Meng Hongwei: Former Interpol chief's wife 'not sure he's alive' The wife of Interpol’s former president, Meng Hongwei, has said "cruel" China is persecuting him, weeks after he was detained by Chinese authorities. In her first interview with British media, Grace Meng told the BBC that she had had no news of his welfare, and she had been told she is now a target. Meng Hongwei disappeared after he left his job in France on a visit home. The Chinese authorities have since confirmed he’s being held on suspicion of bribery. Read more: China disappearances show Beijing sets its own rules Detained Interpol chief 'took bribes'

Venezuelan dissident Roderick Navarro remembers shedding tears of joy when the far-right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro was confirmed as Brazil’s next president.“It was the first time in so long that I felt the real possibility of going back to my home,” says the rightwing activist exiled to Brazil since fleeing his country last year.Bolsonaro, who takes power on 1 January, is famed for his loathing for Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and the “despicable and murderous ideology” he believes Maduro represents. Last year Bolsonaro vowed to “do whatever is possible to see that government deposed” – a pledge that delighted anti-Maduro agitators such as Navarro.Members of Brazil’s incoming administration have softened that discourse since Bolsonaro’s stunning October triumph. “It’s the Venezuelans who must solve the Venezuelans’ problems,” his vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, told the magazine Piauí recently.Even so, there are those – including within Maduro’s own ranks - who believe Bolsonaro’s rise makes a US-led military intervention to dethrone Venezuela’s president more likely.In October, a leading Brazilian newspaper quoted a senior Colombian source as saying Bolsonaro would have its backing if he moved to “bring down” Maduro by force, although both governments quickly denied the report.This week, Maduro accused the White House of plotting his assassination and also claimed Bolsonaro’s inner circle was planning “a military adventure against the Venezuelan people”.“Every day the vice-president says he’s going to invade Venezuela,” Maduro said of Mourão, Brazil’s former military attaché in Caracas, claiming he had “the face of a madman” and was a “crazy coward”.Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based Crisis Group analyst, said that despite Bolsonaro’s hard-line rhetoric he was “obviously not going to invade unilaterally”.But it was possible the future leader of Latin America’s biggest democracy might provide diplomatic cover to some kind of US action.“He’s clearly very, very keen to bring Brazil absolutely into the sphere of influence of Trumpismo,” Gunson said. “So presumably if Trump said: ‘Look next week we are going to invade Venezuela – are you in?” Then Bolsonaro might well say: “Well, yeah, OK – let’s go for it.”Donald Trump has warned there are “many options”, including a military one, to deal with Venezuela’s collapse, responsible for the most severe migration crisis in modern Latin American history.Navarro – whose group, Rumbo Libertad, supports Maduro’s overthrow and says it is part of Venezuela’s anti-government ‘resistencia’ – denied he was banking on a Bolsonarian blitz. “Lots of media are saying this military intervention might be done by the US or even by Bolsonaro himself. But this isn’t how it will be. It won’t be like the 20th century,” said Navarro, 31, who fled Venezuela in August 2017 after supporting a failed military uprising.Since arriving in Brazil, Navarro has cultivated close ties with the Bolsonaro clan, meeting the future president for the first time in Brasília last year to discuss the Venezuelan crisis and rightwing politics. “It was like we were talking to ourselves,” the rightwing radical said of their political affinity.It is unclear how much support Rumbo Libertad enjoys in Venezuela. Henrique Capriles, one of the key leaders of its mainstream opposition, recently dismissed it as part of “a small extremist sect” that was intent on replacing Venezuela’s red dictatorship with one of another hue. Such groups were noisy on social media but did little to help feed starving Venezuelans, Capriles complained.But Navarro does appear to have the ear of Brazil’s next president and his influential son, Eduardo, a 34-year-old politician who is positioning himself as Brazil’s answer to Jared Kushner – and recently travelled to the US to meet with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Steve Bannon.Last spring Eduardo Bolsonaro donned a black T-shirt stamped with Rumbo Libertad’s logo when he and Navarro flew to Brazil’s northern border to meet Venezuelan refugees during one of his father’s campaign events.Navarro visited Bolsonaro at his Rio home the day after his election and says Brazil’s president-elect told him “he would definitely help to help secure our country’s freedom”. In a video celebrating Bolsonaro’s election, Navarro told Venezuelan viewers: “This is also a victory for Venezuelans, for the resistance, for those of us who are fighting for our freedom. This is the beginning of the end of our Venezuelan nightmare.”Harold Trinkunas, a Venezuela specialist at Stanford University, said that with a Bolsonaro presidency, dissidents such as Navarro “feel the regional politics are shifting in their direction”.But Trinkunas doubted there would be a major impact on Brazil’s Venezuela policy, beyond increased diplomatic pressure and harsher sanctions. “If they imagine that somehow the Brazilian armed forces under the direction of President Bolsonaro are going to change the government in Caracas, it reveals a complete lack of understanding of the military challenges that would present,” he said, pointing to the vast areas of jungle and savanna between Brazil’s northern border and Venezuela’s capital.Trinkunas also doubted Trump would decide to become entangled in “a new, complicated state-building operation” given existing headaches in North Korea, Syria and Iran.Navarro is a wanted man in Venezuela and was recently branded a traitor and terrorist by Diosdado Cabello, a top Socialist party figure widely touted as Maduro’s successor. He said he feared jail or torture if he tried to return now but believed Bolsonaro’s victory brought him one step closer to a safe homecoming.“People within the resistance have more hope because Bolsonaro legitimizes the resistance and our plans to put an end to the narco-dictatorship. Now more than ever people believe that we can succeed.”Eduardo Bolsonaro seems to agree. “The end is nearing,” he tweeted at Maduro this week. “And it is the Venezuelans who will bring it.” Topics Brazil Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Jair Bolsonaro Americas features

The Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is continuing with his attempt to oust Nicolás Maduro, after declaring himself interim president. As anti-government protests intensify, Guaidó’s claim has been recognised by the US, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and others, while the EU has said the voice of the people cannot be ignored. But for all the international criticism of the Maduro government, there are concerns too that Guaidó’s main regional backers are Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, who is known for his hostility to human rights and his fondness for dictatorship, and Donald Trump.Joining Anushka Asthana to discuss it all from Caracas is Virginia López, who has been covering the crisis for the Guardian. Also today: the Guardian’s political correspondent Jessica Elgot on another day of Brexit showdowns in the House of Commons. Has anything of significance changed?

WASHINGTON/ASUNCION (Reuters) - The United States on Friday ramped up its attempt to dislodge Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, imposing new sanctions and revoking visas, while opposition leader Juan Guaido said Maduro’s support among the military was cracking. Venezuelan military officials last weekend blocked an opposition-backed effort to bring food into the country via its borders with Colombia and Brazil, leaving two aid trucks in flames and five people dead. Guaido, who is recognized by most Western nations as Venezuela’s rightful leader, visited Paraguay and Argentina on Friday to shore up Latin American support for a transition government for the crisis-stricken nation. But Maduro retains control of state institutions and the apparent loyalty of senior figures in the armed forces. Following a meeting with Argentine President Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires, Guaido said, without providing evidence, that 80 percent of Venezuela’s military nonetheless supported a change in leadership and that he would continue to seek the support of officers. Earlier on Friday in Paraguay, he said 600 members of Venezuela’s armed forces had already abandoned Maduro’s government following the clashes over the aid. Foreign military intervention is seen as unlikely and Guaido’s international backers are instead using a mix of sanctions and diplomacy to try to put pressure to bear on Maduro. “We are sanctioning members of Maduro’s security forces in response to the reprehensible violence, tragic deaths, and unconscionable torching of food and medicine destined for sick and starving Venezuelans,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The United States “will continue to target Maduro loyalists prolonging the suffering of the victims of this man-made humanitarian crisis,” he said. U.S. sanctions block any assets the individuals control in the United States and bars U.S. entities from doing any business or financial transactions with them. The list includes National Guard Commander Richard Lopez and five other police and military officials based near the Colombian or Brazilian borders. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognized as the country's rightful interim ruler, talks to Argentina's President Mauricio Macri, during their meeting at the Olivos Presidential Residence, in Buenos Aires, Argentina March 1, 2019. Argentine Presidency/Handout via REUTERS The U.S. State Department later said it had revoked the travel visas of 49 people as it cracked down on “individuals responsible for undermining Venezuela’s democracy.” Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Guaido slipped out of Venezuela last week, in violation of a Supreme Court order not to leave the country, to join the aid convoys in Colombia. There, he met with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and other regional leaders and later traveled to Brazil. He has promised to return to Venezuela by Monday, seen as a form of direct defiance to Maduro, who has said Guaido will eventually “face justice.” The Argentine foreign ministry said in a statement that it expects the peaceful and safe return of the opposition leader to Venezuela, without risk to him, his family or his supporters. “Any act of intimidation or violence against the acting president, his family and his inner circle will be considered the responsibility of the Maduro regime,” the ministry’s statement said. On Thursday, Guaido told reporters in Brazil that he had received threats against himself and his family, including prison. Paraguayan President Mario Abdo tweeted on Friday evening that he authorized expired Venezuelan passports to be valid in Paraguay, a gesture of support for Venezuelans who have fled their home country. Governments around the region have called on Maduro to let aid in as inflation above 2 million percent per year and chronic shortages of food have left some eating from garbage bins in order to ward off malnutrition. Maduro has called the U.S.-backed humanitarian aid effort a veiled invasion meant to push him from power, and has insisted that there is no crisis in the country. Slideshow (7 Images)Russia has accused the United States of preparing to intervene militarily in Venezuela and, along with China, blocked a U.S. bid this week to get the United Nations Security Council to take action on Venezuela. Guaido is scheduled to travel to Ecuador on Saturday to meet with President Lenin Moreno. Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Daniela Desantis, additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Lisa Lambert in Washington, Mayela Armas in Caracas, Alexandria Valencia in Quito, and Eliana Raszewski and Cassandra Garrison in Buenos Aires; writing by Brian Ellsworth and Hugh Bronstein; editing by Rosalba O'BrienOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

White House officials called the nerve agent used against the Skripals “military grade,” but declined to elaborate on the substance used.American officials estimate there are currently more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in the United States.Mr. Trump has said that, despite its denials, Russia was likely behind it. “It looks like it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on March 15, adding that he had spoken with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain.“We are in deep discussions,” Mr. Trump continued. “A very sad situation. It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. Something that should never, ever happen. And we’re taking it very seriously, as I think are many others.”Mr. Trump has been slower to act than leaders in Britain, France and Germany over the attack, in which Sergei V. Skripal, 66, a former spy, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, 33, were attacked with a nerve agent.The senior administration officials who described the expulsion order said the three weeks that lapsed between the attack and White House action was due to close coordination among about a dozen American allies.Poland has positioned itself to take a lead role in coordinating a response from the Eastern European nations traditionally most wary of their giant neighbor to the east.

As the Islamic State has lost territory, many of its fighters have gone underground or returned to their former lives rather than being killed or captured. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 fighters remain at large in Iraq and Syria, raising concerns about a resurgence of the group.In announcing the planned American withdrawal from Syria, Mr. Trump declared, “We have won against ISIS.”He made the decision after speaking with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who assured Mr. Trump that his country could mop up what was left of the Islamic State. But many American officials warned against abandoning the United States’ Kurdish allies; Mr. Erdogan wants to defeat them, as well, seeing them as tied to a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.Mr. Trump and Mr. Erdogan spoke by phone on Sunday, and the Turkish leader said his forces were ready to take over security in Manbij without delay, Anadolu, the semiofficial Turkish news agency, reported.A White House statement and the Anadolu report stressed that the two presidents had agreed to work together against terrorism. Anadolu also said that Mr. Erdogan had told Mr. Trump that he would not allow Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria to be a destabilizing force.The White House put a more conciliatory gloss on that issue, saying, “the two leaders agreed to pursue a negotiated solution for northeast Syria that achieves our respective security concerns.”Mr. Erdogan also expressed condolences for the American deaths last week, Anadolu reported, calling the attack a provocation to influence the United States withdrawal.

“If a case came up where someone was trying to say this was a constitutional principle, I would have a completely open mind on that,” he said.Critics of Judge Kavanaugh have noted that he clerked for a former 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge, Alex Kozinski, who has been accused of sexually harassing more than a dozen women. They assert that Mr. Kavanaugh must have known about the allegations long before they were made public.Senator Hatch came to Judge Kavanaugh’s defense, calling such accusations against Mr. Kavanaugh “guilt by association,” but asked a series of gentle questions designed to give the judge an opportunity to deny them. He did just that, seeking to put distance between himself and any hint that he knew of or condoned the judge’s behavior.“Did you know anything about these allegations” against Judge Kozinski? Mr. Hatch asked.“Nothing,” Mr. Kavanaugh responded, adding a moment later: “When they became public, the first thought I had was no woman should be subjected to harassment in the workplace, including in the judiciary, especially in the judiciary.”He went on: “It was a gut punch for me. It was a gut punch for the judiciary. I was shocked, disappointed, angry — swirl of emotions.”Ove rall, Judge Kavanaugh has gone out of his way to extol his record on women. He said he has made an aggressive effort to hire female clerks. Twenty-five of the 48 clerks that Judge Kavanaugh has hired during his 12 years on the appeals court have been women, and 21 have gone on to clerk at the Supreme Court, he told the committee.He said he was spurred to do so by an article in The New York Times by Linda Greenhouse, the newspaper’s former Supreme Court correspondent, who wrote in 2006, the same year Judge Kavanaugh joined the court, about the paucity of female clerks on the Supreme Court. Judge Kavanaugh said that troubled him, calling it “unacceptable.” He hired three women (out of four clerks) for his first year on the bench, adding that the next generation of leaders and Supreme Court justices will be drawn from the ranks of that generation.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh was set to be confirmed as a US supreme court justice on Saturday, handing Donald Trump a major victory after weeks of shocking allegations, rage-fuelled hearings and rancorous protests that have further divided America.The final vote in the Republican-controlled Senate, which was poised to fall almost entirely along party lines in the afternoon, would confirm Kavanaugh to the lifelong position – and tilt America’s highest court in a conservative direction for decades.The almost-certain victory will cap a triumphant week for the president. He strong-armed a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, which the markets loved, marked the lowest unemployment rate in the US since 1969, at just 3.7%, and was on the brink of securing the second ultra-conservative supreme court nomination of his administration, after putting Neil Gorsuch on the bench last year.But to many Kavanaugh will be forever tainted by accusations from Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychologist, that he sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers at a high school party, and by doubts over his honesty during intensely emotional and partisan testimony at a Senate judiciary committee hearing, which brought his youthful drinking habits into question.Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the supreme court building in Washington on Saturday and many were arrested and led down the court steps with their hands in plastic cuffs behind their backs.The bitter political fight crystallised the polarisation of the Trump era. It also became a cultural litmus test of the year-old #MeToo movement, which inspired women to speak out about incidents of sexual harassment and abuse, as it collided with the patriarchy of a political establishment dominated by ageing white men.On Friday night all the way through to Saturday morning, Democrats staged a last stand on the Senate floor with a series of speeches opposing the nominee, though the chamber was mostly empty. “Today, in just a few hours, the United States Senate is going to turn its back on righteousness,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said. “It’s going to turn its back on fairness and reason. And make no mistake, it is going to turn its back on women.”But it was almost certainly in vain after Kavanaugh cleared a key procedural vote on Friday. In that 51-49 result, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the lone Republican to oppose his nomination, while Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat up for re-election in conservative West Virginia, was the only Democrat to break from his party and back the judge.Thousands of protesters, many of them victims of sexual assault, had flooded the US Capitol in the days leading up to the vote with impassioned pleas to reject Kavanaugh. In scenes of raw, visceral anger, senators were challenged in corridors and lifts and were booed and jeered as they went to vote. There were hundreds of arrests. But two closely watched Republican moderates, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Jeff Flake of Arizona, ultimately gave Kavanaugh their stamp of approval.In a 45-minute speech, Collins said she found Ford’s testimony last month describing Kavanaugh’s alleged 1982 drunken assault as “sincere, painful and compelling” but added: “The facts presented do not mean that Professor Ford was not sexually assaulted that night or at some other time, but they do lead me to conclude that the allegations failed to meet the more likely than not standard.”Collins faced a fierce backlash from activists. Linda Sarsour, co-chair of the Women’s March organisation, said: “Senator Susan Collins is the mother and grandmother of white women in America who gave us a Donald Trump presidency. She is a disgrace, and her legacy will be that she was a traitor to women and marginalised communities. History will not treat her kindly.”Protesters chanted “Shame in you! Shame on you!” at Manchin when he talked to reporters outside his office.The tensions over Kavanaugh’s nomination underscored the deep mistrust between the two major parties in Washington, underlining concerns over the nation’s broken politics. Senator John Kennedy described the confirmation process as “an intergalactic freak show”. Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the judiciary committee, said the Senate was approaching “rock bottom”.Republicans claimed that a reopened FBI investigation over the past week had found no evidence to corroborate the accounts of Ford and Deborah Ramirez, a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s who alleged he exposed himself to her while the two attended Yale University. Democrats said the investigation was incomplete and had been curtailed by the White House.Kavanaugh vehemently denied Ford’s allegations when he testified last month on Capitol Hill, furiously and tearfully claiming a coordinated smear campaign by Democrats. He sought to repair his reputation in an column published late Thursday in the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. “I might have been too emotional at times,” he wrote. “I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said.”The controversy became one of most explosive and polarising supreme court battles since 1991, when conservative justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed after being accused of sexual harassment by his former employee, Anita Hill. Though there were striking parallels, Ford’s allegation came in an era of increasing political tribalism and against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement.Trump, who has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment, at first showed signs of restraint in his response to the allegations against his nominee. After Ford testified, he called her a “very fine woman” who offered a “compelling” account. But at a rally in Mississippi days before the vote, he offered a mocking impression of Ford’s testimony before a cheering crowd.Trump and his allies have turned the saga into a narrative of male victimhood. The president described it as a “scary time for young men in America” who might be falsely accused. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told a hearing: “I’m a single white male from South Carolina, and I’m told I should just shut up, but I will not shut up.”Republicans claimed that polls show signs of a “Brett bounce” in next month’s elections for control of Congress, firing up party supporters who might otherwise have not bothered to vote. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, told Fox News: “Prior to the Kavanaugh hearing, the intensity level was really on the Democratic side. But in the last week there has been a fundamental shift.”Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said on Saturday: “It’s certainly not going to hurt Democratic enthusiasm – that’s a safe bet – but Kavanaugh did gin up Republican enthusiasm as well because a lot of Republicans felt a good man was being railroaded unfairly. You are going to have energised voters on both sides.”Republicans have appeared willing to take short term pain at the ballot box for the prize of shifting the supreme court for a generation. Trump vowed as a candidate to nominate “pro-life” judges in a commitment that helped earn him the support of religious conservatives. His selection of Kavanaugh to replace the retired Anthony Kennedy was hailed as the crowning achievement of a three-decade effort to install a conservative majority on the nation’s highest bench.A key focal point of the early opposition to his nomination focused on his views on Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 supreme court decision that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.Disputes involving abortion, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops all could be heading towards the court soon. Kavanaugh could be the decisive vote.Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told CNN: “Abortion, affirmative action, campaign finance, gay rights – all those are going to go in a very different direction because Anthony Kennedy is gone and Brett Kavanaugh will be there.”• This article was corrected on 8 October 2018. Dr Ford is a research psychologist, not a research psychiatrist. Topics Brett Kavanaugh US supreme court Law (US) US politics Democrats Republicans US Senate news

In a statement on Twitter Tuesday, Bali said the"decisive moment is closer than ever before."He claimed the ISIS fighters in the city were "surrendering en masse."Earlier in the day, the spokesman had claimed two weapons depots had been destroyed in the attacks, which killed 38 ISIS combatants.At its height, ISIS controlled huge swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. The US-led coalition has been working for years to oust the group from cities and towns.Before the recent attack began in February, SDF officials estimated that 1,500 civilians and 500 ISIS fighters remained but after the battle began it became clear that the actual number was much higher.

First “Lock her up!” and “Build that wall!”, now “Send her back!”. Donald Trump’s record of using such slogans to normalise misogyny and stoke prejudice has become exhaustive, and ever more overtly racist. His Twitter feeds have even recycled content from extreme-right groups that historians of fascism like me consider deeply worrying. Yet this all proves tremulously popular. Academics who study fascism are well placed to see that Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip public persona is a carefully constructed device, designed to consciously and deliberately break liberal taboos, setting an example to others that they can do likewise.The most recent ratcheting-up of his endorsement of racist language came this week, displaying once again the powerful relationship between the leader who seeks to embody prejudice in the pursuit of power and followers who convey this power on him in their millions. True to form, it started with a tweet. He told four congresswomen of colour to “go home”, fuelling outrage from many who were rightly incensed by this latest attack on decency in public discourse. Then, during a rally in North Carolina a few days later, he focused on one of these congresswomen, Somali-born US citizen Ilhan Omar.Trump’s speech claimed Omar had smeared American servicemen involved in the 1993 battle of Mogadishu, downplayed the 9/11 attacks, called for compassion for recruits to Islamic State, laughed about Americans who were fearful of al-Qaida, blamed the US for the crisis in Venezuela, and held hard-working Americans in contempt. His audience, enraged by a description that layered outrage upon outrage, then chanted back, spontaneously, “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!”Trump, meanwhile, nodded approvingly, serene and emboldened. It was a moment of true demagoguery, and far more likely to stick in the memory of his supporters than his later efforts to distance himself from the incident.His language, stoking anger before allowing his audience to discharge their emotions in a release of indignation, liberating them to break taboos for themselves, was potent. It reflected his now well-established affective bond over his supporters. For them, Trump is seen as no ordinary politician. Whereas others are corrupt or get bogged down in procedure and detail, he projects a bigger picture. While others prevaricate and make excuses, he battles established elites and, if you believe the hype, even gets things done.In other words Trump is a populist, as he claims to be the voice of the long-ignored people. He is also a nativist, as he speaks only for certain sections of American society while assuming others are, somehow, not American. This is a far cry from Republican presidents such as Ronald Reagan, whose final speech in office powerfully articulated the idea that anyone could become American. Trump is also a charismatic leader. His appeal comes from the vision. It is mythic, not rational. While this does not make him a fascist, it certainly makes him a far-right leader.This charismatic quality, which is central for enabling such taboo-breaking, is particularly interesting to consider. Charisma is a much misused and misunderstood concept. For one of the first to describe the phenomenon, Max Weber, it was an important new component to politics in the modern era. Weber proposed the idea that modern political legitimacy was a mixture of traditional, legal-bureaucratic and charismatic styles.Simply put, monarchies relied on tradition, democracies on legal-bureaucratic systems and modern dictators on charisma. In reality, Weber recognised all leadership was really a mix of these elements, and democracies could certainly develop their own charismatic politicians. Jean-Marie Le Pen, Viktor Orbán and Nigel Farage are some recent examples of far-right charismatic leaders who have connected emotively with their audience.Moreover, while Weber felt charismatic leaders had exceptional personalities, he also stressed they were not objectively charismatic. Not everyone will fall for their charm. Charisma emerges not just from personal character, but ultimately from a shared belief in a mission held between leader and followers. Without emotive mass support, leaders cannot be charismatic.This sense of mission has redemptive qualities. It also sees the world in a Manichean us-versus-them manner. Using these mythic tropes, mission allows charismatic leaders to project a greater sense of purpose. “Make America great again” evokes this sense of mission, and Trump supplements this with targeted attacks on those deemed enemies of the vision: the supposed corruption of liberal politicians is summarised as “Lock her up!” The pain and suffering of migrants are denied through “Build that wall!” And now attacks on American citizens who, for some reason, should not be in the country can be voiced through “Send her home!”Trump’s charisma is like a Rorschach inkblot test. People can project on to it what they want to see. Some will deny he is a racist and simply view him as fighting for their interests. Others are convinced racists and will feel his presence allows them to say things they believe deeply, but are told they cannot say. Moreover, given its emotional resonance, his appeal is not likely to be dented by rational arguments. Outraging people who decry his racism only adds to the attraction, as does condemnation from political elites.However, Weber argued that charisma was difficult to sustain. The appeal of Trump will ultimately be dimmed by his own failures to achieve his mission, which is ridiculous and unattainable. This will lead his supporters to lose interest, when he can no longer appear as the magician figure they thought he was. We are not at this point yet, though, and it is difficult to known how long his “magic” will last and what further damage will result.• Paul Jackson is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Northampton and author of Colin Jordan and Britain’s Neo-Nazi Movement: Hitler’s Echo Topics Donald Trump Opinion The far right US politics Race comment

Donald Trump arrived in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon to pay tribute to the victims of one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent US history.But the president was met with calls to stay away, as hundreds of residents gathered in the city’s Washington Park, mere streets from the US-Mexico border, to denounce him. With much of the president’s own rhetoric reflected in the El Paso shooter’s anti-immigrant and racist manifesto, many felt that the visit was throwing salt into the wound of a binational, largely Latinx community in mourning.“The first thing out of his mouth better be an apology,” said David Stout, the county commissioner of El Paso. “I doubt it will be.”Standing under the sweltering sun, protesters held signs reading “Trump is a racist” and “Protect our kids, not the NRA”. Volunteers passed out water and registered people to vote.“Today, we must come together and say, Donald Trump, your racism, your hatred, your bigotry are not welcome here,” Adri Perez of the El Paso ACLU said to the crowd. “We must turn our grief into anger and our anger into action.”The mood was somber yet resolute. Some got choked up when talking about the shooting, but joined in strong when the crowd broke out in chants of “Go away, Trump” and “send him back”.“We’re grieving,” said Barbara Canchola, 74. “We won’t want a photo-op with him. He doesn’t get how he contributed to all this.”She continued: “His motto is ‘make America great’. I think it’s ‘make America hate’ and we are just not a community of hate.”Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, arrived in El Paso from Dayton, Ohio, where they had visited some of the victims injured in Sunday’s attack in that city.The president was kept out of view of the reporters traveling with him, but Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said the couple met with hospital staff and first responders and spent time with wounded survivors and their families.Trump told them he was “with them”, she said. “Everybody received him very warmly. Everybody was very, very excited to see him.”But outside the Miami Valley hospital in Dayton, too, at least 200 protesters had gathered, blaming Trump’s incendiary rhetoric for inflaming political and racial tensions in the country and demanding action on gun control.Trump, however, largely celebrated the day of visits as a success. “Leaving El Paso for the White House,” he tweeted on Wednesday evening. “What GREAT people I met there and in Dayton, Ohio. The Fake News worked overtime trying to disparage me and the two trips, but it just didn’t work. The love, respect & enthusiasm were there for all to see. They have been through so much. Sad!”Trump’s visits to the two cities come in the wake of back-to-back massacres that have left at least 31 dead and 50 injured.Earlier on Wednesday, Trump brushed off claims that his words and actions were contributing to violence. “No, I don’t think my rhetoric has at all. I think my rhetoric brings people together,” Trump said, while dismissing the criticism as an attempt by his opponents to score “political points”.In El Paso, local politicians say much of the community is living in fear in the wake of the attack and the growing threat of white nationalism.“People are afraid to be Hispanic,” said Cassandra Hernandez, a city council representative, ahead of Trump’s arrival. She had spent the morning speaking to her constituents, the overwhelming majority of whom are “upset and angry” about the president’s visit.“He is not welcome,” she said. “It’s mixed feelings from everybody. Some are not happy with Trump, but want to show him their compassion and love, and show him that his words matter. Others are just outright outraged because he has not apologized to this city, to people of Mexican heritage.”The protest rally saw appearances by notable politicians including the current congresswoman representing the city, Veronica Escobar, and the former congressman Beto O’Rourke.O’Rourke, who roused the heat-weary into chants of “Beto! Beto!”, steered away from anti-Trump talk. He quoted a trauma surgeon who had described the situation as “one of those moments that either destroys your faith in humanity or restores your faith in humanity”.“El Paso chooses to restore our faith in humanity and in this country, and I could not be more proud,” he said to cheers.But O’Rourke leveled harsh criticism at the president in a later interview with MSNBC, calling Trump a white supremacist who had “sought to dehumanize those who do not look like or pray the like majority here in this country”.Community members at the rally also waved signs reading “$569,204” and chanted “Trump needs to pay”, making clear that they had not forgiven Trump for the public safety expenses he still owes the city of El Paso from his February campaign rally.“It’s unconscionable that he can’t be bothered to pay back a debt that he owes from months back and then expects us to open our arms to him and welcome him,” Stout said. “This is not a wealthy community. The people here are hardworking, working-class folks that pay their taxes. The money he owes the city is money he owes the people of this community.”El Paso is a Democratic stronghold in a Republican state, but Trump has some supporters in the city as well. Alexsandra Annello, a city representative, has received some messages from constituents “saying you should welcome the president, that this isn’t about politics”.“But this is about politics,” she said. “A week after this, he is going to turn around and start with the same racist rhetoric? He has put this community at risk since he’s been in office and he has never apologized for it and I don’t see it happening.”The attack – as well as a recent shooting in Gilroy, California – is being investigated as domestic terrorism. On Wednesday, it also emerged that the El Paso suspect’s mother had contacted police weeks before the rampage out of concern that her son had a rifle. Attorneys for the family told the Associated Press the mother was only seeking information and was not motivated by a concern that her son was a threat to anybody.Sabrina Siddiqui, Edward Helmore and agencies contributed reporting Topics Donald Trump El Paso shooting Texas El Paso US politics news

President Nicolás Maduro has threatened to disqualify major opposition parties from future elections in Venezuela after boycott-affected mayoral polls left him more dominant than at any time since he took power in 2013.The ruling socialists won 300 of the 335 mayoral offices on Sunday as three of the four main opposition groups refused to participate, claiming the voting was rigged by a “dictator”.Maduro, undaunted by widespread criticism that democracy is being eroded in the oil-rich country, said the opposition’s boycott would result in their electoral oblivion.“A party that has not participated today cannot participate any more,” the president said while casting his vote. “They will disappear from the political map.”This raises concerns that voters may have a restricted choice in next year’s presidential election, when Maduro is expected to run again despite a dire economy, triple-digit inflation, one of the world’s highest murder rates and shortages of food and medicine. The president’s ratings are low, but he has strengthened his position thanks to a mix of strong-arm government tactics – including arrests of political rivals – and a weak opposition that vacillates between engagement and disengagement with the electoral system.He has also been helped politically by Donald Trump’s escalation of sanctions on Venezuela and threat of military intervention, which have allowed Maduro to appeal to patriotic sentiment and blame the country’s economic woes on hostile foreign forces, even though the crises began several years ago.Since being routed by the opposition in legislative elections in 2015, the Venezuelan Socialist party (PSUV) government has sidelined Congress by creating the constituent national assembly. It has arrested opposition leaders and banned others from running. Street protests against these tactics have resulted in 46 deaths. With the opposition cowed and divided, the PSUV has this year won three elections – for the constituent assembly, governships and mayoralties – and now dominates the political landscape. “The imperialists have tried to set fire to Venezuela to take our riches,” Maduro told a chanting crowd after the latest victory on Sunday. “We’ve defeated the American imperialists with our votes, our ideas, truths, reason and popular will.”The official turnout was about 47% of eligible voters. Maduro’s opponents in the three boycotting groups – Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action – cast doubt on the figures and said they were right not to take part because it would have legitimised a rigged ballot.However, they have come under fire for backing away from the electoral process so close to a presidential race in which they are likely to struggle to unite behind a candidate.“These were absolutely predictable results,” the pollster Luis Vicente Leon said on Twitter. “It’s absurd to think that an abstaining political force can win the majority of mayorships.” With the price of oil – which accounts for 95% of Venezuela’s export earnings – up by a third over the past six months, Maduro is in a strong position to seek a second term, though the democratic options have rarely looked weaker. Topics Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Americas news

At least six people were killed and 28 injured in an attack on a children's organization in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, authorities said. Interested in Afghanistan? Add Afghanistan as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Afghanistan news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Afghanistan Add Interest A vehicle packed with explosives was detonated outside the office of Save the Children in Jalalabad. At least three men then stormed the office with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, officials told ABC News. The attack began around 9 a.m. local time, according to Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial government. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.— SavetheChildren News (@SaveUKNews) January 24, 2018 Four of the six killed worked for Save the Children. Of the 28 injured, 25 were civilians and three were members of the police special forces, authorities said. Four attackers were also killed. "This incident was a senseless and malicious act of violence which has devastated the families of those who lost loved ones in the attack as well as colleagues across our organization," Save our Children said in a statement. "Our humanitarian staff remains dedicated to resuming operations, and have already taken first steps to do so, carrying out critical safety and security assessments across the areas we work." London-based Save the Children has operated in Afghanistan since 1976, aiming to provide better access to education, health care and essential supplies.

BEIRUT — Iran fired six medium-range ballistic missiles across Iraq and into Syria early Monday at what it said was an Islamic State base, according to Iranian news agencies, its allies and spokesmen for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.The Revolutionary Guards described the strike as retaliation for an attack in Ahvaz, Iran, on Sept. 22 against a military parade by its soldiers in which at least 25 people were killed, including 12 members of the elite unit plus civilian spectators and at least one young child.Iran initially attributed the attack to an Arab separatist group backed by the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. But the missile strike was on what it said was the headquarters of the Islamic State group in the eastern Euphrates River valley, close to Syria’s border with Iraq. The area is one of the last strongholds of the Islamic State, also called ISIS and Daesh, after its Arabic acronym, and has also been the site of recent American military activity.It was not immediately clear whether Iran was now blaming the Islamic State exclusively for the attack, a combination of ISIS and the Arab separatist group or, implausibly, those groups and the foreign powers it named previously.A spokesman for the United States military in Syria and Iraq, Col. Sean Ryan, confirmed that a missile strike had taken place. “At this time, the coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred, and no coalition forces were in danger,” he said. “The Iranian forces did not do any prior notice last night, and we are still assessing if there is any damage.”The missile launch, at least the second time Iran has fired ballistic missiles into Syria, was bound to be seen by the United States as a provocative action, especially with the Trump administration’s pulling out of a nuclear deal with Iran, in part because it does not place severe enough limits on Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.European countries have refused to break off the deal, and Iran has said it will still abide by it. Part of the agreement, under which Iran disavows a nuclear weapons program, puts some limits on new ballistic missile technology.The Revolutionary Guards released video of a missile being launched and said in a statement that “many takfiris and Daesh leaders who were behind the Ahvaz attack were killed and wounded by the missiles,” according to a report by the Lebanese news agency Al Manar, which is run by Hezbollah, an Iranian ally. Takfiri is an epithet that refers to the extremist, anti-Shiite views of the Islamic State and other hard-line Sunni groups.While Iranian sources described multiple missiles being fired, they did not specify how many. Some news accounts said there were six. A report in the semiofficial Fars news agency in Iran said the missiles were of the Zulfikar and Qiam classes, which have ranges of 468 to 500 miles.Iranian news agencies said the missiles had been fired from Kermanshah Province, which at its nearest point to Syria is at least 280 miles. Neither missile has sufficient range if fired from Iran to reach Israel.Shortly after the missile strikes, the Republican Guards also launched seven drones that the semiofficial Fars news agency said targeted “the terrorists’ positions in the region.” Iran has boasted of having drones capable of carrying bombs, but it is not known whether it has deployed them in combat.Hashim Almosawa, the spokesman for the pro-Iranian Alnujaba Brigade in Iraq, praised the Iranian missile strike, which had to cross more than 200 miles of Iraqi territory.“Iran could have launched the rockets from Syria, but they have sent a strong and accurate message to the terrorists and those who support them that our rockets could hit any one of you,” he said, noting that the strike area was in the American zone of operations in Syria.“Iran has the right to retaliate and defend itself,” he added, “and I do not think that there is any international violation in this.”According to the Fars news agency, “At least one of the missiles bore the slogans ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel,’ ‘Death to Al Saud’ and a Koranic verse meaning ‘fight against the friends of Satan.’” Al Saud is how Iran refers to Saudi Arabia.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in London and has a network of activists in Syria, confirmed that some missiles struck in the eastern part of Deir al-Zour Province in Syria, near Bukamal. It said that loud explosions had been heard near Hajin, a town under Islamic State control, but there were no immediate reports on casualties.The Observatory noted that there had been recent fighting in that area between the Islamic State and the United States and its allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces.The Sept. 22 attack in Ahvraz, Iran, was carried out by four or five militants who ambushed a ceremonial parade by the Revolutionary Guards in the city, which is in an area of southwestern Iran with a large ethnic Arab minority.While the parading Guards were carrying weapons, they were apparently not loaded, a normal practice in military parades. Video emerged of Iranian soldiers running and hiding from the attackers but not fighting back, causing widespread anger in Iran and among its allies, who complained that the United States and its allies treated the attack as militarily justifiable.A field commander with a group backed by Iran in the area of Syria where the strikes occurred, reached over social media and speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with the group’s policy, said that Iranian drones had fired rockets at the Islamic State military headquarters, shortly after the missiles struck.The commander said his organization and the Iranians had coordinated the attack with the Syrian government and its Russian backers, but he made no mention of the American forces in the area.

By Updated Sept. 3, 2018 7:11 pm ET A massive fire engulfed Brazil’s largest history and science museum, home to a collection of 20 million items including the Americas’ oldest human fossil, Egyptian mummies, archaeological pottery, gigantic tropical beetles and much more. As firefighters in Rio de Janeiro were going through the burned remains of the Quinta da Boa Vista National Museum on Monday, it seemed unlikely that Luzia—a skeleton that is at least 10,000 years old and that was found in Brazil in 1975—survived the fire. Hundreds if not thousands of other... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In