Apple Inc. needs the new iPhone X to be a hit in China, where its sales have been slumping for years—which means it needs more Shirley Wangs.The 29-year-old hospital administrator says she won’t be dissuaded by the base price of 8,388 yuan, or nearly $1,300, about $300 more than the phone will cost in the U.S....

Good morning.(Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.)People told Isabel Sanchez that the housing lottery was a waste of time. The odds were too long. Her family would never win. Happy endings are rare in San Francisco’s housing market for anyone who can’t afford luxury rents.But she and her family were facing a no-fault eviction last fall; the house where they rented an in-law unit had been sold to new owners, who wanted their mother to move in. So Ms. Sanchez applied for the city-run lottery for Natalie Gubb Commons, a new 95-unit affordable housing development downtown open to households making up to 50 percent of the area median income.Ms. Sanchez and her family were among 6,580 households that applied for the property, whose lottery and aftermath The New York Times chronicled through this spring. Such lotteries are a regular feature of housing policy in high-cost cities. Far more people need — and qualify for — public housing, housing vouchers or below-market-rate apartments than the assistance available. And so cities, housing authorities and developers often dole out what they have by drawing numbers.Ms. Sanchez pulled No. 16. In April, her family moved into a new three-bedroom apartment renting for a fraction of market rate. That they won the first lottery they ever entered — while some people apply, and fail, for years — shows how utterly random the results are.Lotteries don’t reward the neediest families, or the most persistent applicants, or those closest to eviction. Although luck still lands on households that fit these descriptions.The larger problem, in California and elsewhere, is that scarce housing assistance makes these distinctions relevant. In a situation where everyone in need can’t have help, the fairest solution is arguably to set aside the impossible task of deciding who merits help the most, and simply draw winners at random.California OnlineImageOnly about 6 million votes are expected to be cast in the election on June 5.CreditLucy Nicholson/Reuters(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)• The primaries are in three weeks, but modern history suggests that as many as two-thirds of California’s 20 million registered voters won’t cast their ballots. [The Los Angeles Times]• As Representative Devin Nunes has escalated his confrontation with law enforcement with demands and threats, Justice Department officials have expressed concern that he is trying to undermine the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s election interference. [The New York Times]• The next governor will inherit plenty of health policy problems. Here’s where the top six candidates stand on the single-payer system. [San Francisco Chronicle]• The proposed California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 could be one of the biggest regulatory fights facing the technology industry. [The New York Times]• President Trump has directed his administration to negotiate with California on a proposed rollback of fuel economy and tailpipe emissions standards. [The New York Times]• The Times’s editorial board looked at how a new center-right party in California could create a potential blueprint for fixing America’s dysfunctional politics. [The New York Times | Op-Ed]• Some Californians, seeking a more conservative environment, are flocking to Boise. The newcomers could shape Idaho’s politics. [The New York Times]ImageEmma Esquivel, a volunteer at the Ceres Community Project in Sebastopol, making mushroom burgers for cancer patients.CreditRamin Rahimian for The New York Times• A state-funded clinical trial will test whether the “food as medicine” approach of providing nutritious daily meals for low-income, chronically ill people on Medi-Cal could improve their health or lower their medical care costs. [The New York Times]• A proposed homeless shelter in the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles has angered residents and business owners, who say they were blindsided by the city. [The Los Angeles Times]• California passed a historic measure requiring new homes to be equipped with solar power. How will this affect homeowners? [CNBC]• If you were born in California after 1983, your DNA is most likely being stored by the government. Here’s how that information is being used. [CBS San Francisco]• This powerful Silicon Valley charity collected billions in donations from figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Now it’s under scrutiny for the actions of its top executives and the toxic culture that festered there for years. [The New York Times]• The suspected Golden State Killer watched two men rape his sister when he was a child, which may have fueled his murderous rampage, family members said. [Buzzfeed]• A 14-year-old student was in custody after a shooting at a high school in Palmdale on Friday. Who was the suspected gunman? [The Los Angeles Times]• High winds carried a bounce house with a 9-year-old inside onto Highway 395 in San Bernardino County, striking a vehicle and leaving the child with minor injuries. [KTLA]ImageJesika Foxx, a cosmetic tattoo artist, and Russ Foxx, a professional body-modification artist, attended Grindfest in Tehachapi for the first time last month.CreditArden Wray for The New York Times• Magnet implants? At Grindfest, an annual meetup of biohackers in Tehachapi, it’s as if Burning Man devoured Silicon Valley. [The New York Times]• It’s a dark world after all: This is what it looks like when thousands of Goths gather at Disneyland. [The New York Times]Coming Up This WeekImageWith the return of Stephen Curry, right, the Golden State Warriors are a far more dangerous team offensively going into the Western Conference finals against the Houston Rockets on Monday.CreditMarcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press• The N.B.A.’s Western Conference finals begin Monday with the Golden State Warriors at the Houston Rockets. (Read our preview here.)• The Contra Costa County Fair begins Thursday and runs through Sunday in Antioch.• Maker Faire Bay Area will be held Friday through Sunday in San Mateo.And Finally ...ImageCameron Haberman, left, and his identical twin Tyler in People’s Park, near the U.C. Berkeley campus.CreditJim BlockBefore they came to U.C. Berkeley, Cameron and Tyler Haberman had never been on an airplane. In Visalia, the Central Valley city where the twins grew up, gang fights were the norm and good grades weren’t something to brag about.The brothers felt like outsiders when they first arrived. But then, slowly, they began to thrive: They joined a fraternity, applied to the university’s Haas School of Business, and learned more about their Cherokee and Muscogee heritage, helping to recruit other Native American students to the university.Now the Habermans are graduating with honors and heading to Apple, where both will work in finance.They credited their parents’ sacrifices for helping them to improve their lives and succeed.“To be the first people in the family to graduate — I don’t think my parents could be more proud,” Tyler Haberman told Berkeley News. “It’s cool to be able to give this to them.”The Haas School’s commencement ceremony is Monday at 9 a.m.California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected] Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

Enlarge this image In late January, Carlos Catarldo Gomez of Honduras was the first person returned to Mexico to wait for his asylum trial date. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that this program, dubbed 'Migrant Protection Protocols,' will expand from San Diego to Calexico, Calif. Gregory Bull/AP hide caption toggle caption Gregory Bull/AP In late January, Carlos Catarldo Gomez of Honduras was the first person returned to Mexico to wait for his asylum trial date. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that this program, dubbed 'Migrant Protection Protocols,' will expand from San Diego to Calexico, Calif. Gregory Bull/AP The Trump administration is expanding a hard-line immigration policy that forces asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their assigned court dates in the U.S. The program, which is officially known as the "Migrant Protection Protocols," began earlier this year at the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego. Homeland Security officials say the program expanded this week to include migrants crossing at the Port of Entry in Calexico, Calif., and those apprehended in areas between official ports of entry in the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the program, initially dubbed "Remain in Mexico," in December. Administration officials say it's intended to deter the growing number of migrants fleeing the Northern Triangle nations of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to seek asylum in U.S. immigration courts. National WATCH: Border Wall Prototypes Destroyed, Making Way For New Fencing The program was quickly challenged in federal court by immigrant rights advocates. They say it forces migrants to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexican border towns, and deprives them of access to lawyers to help prepare their asylum cases. For now, the vast majority of asylum-seekers are still allowed to remain in the U.S. pending their immigration court appearances. So far, only 240 migrants have been returned to Mexico under the program, according to immigration officials. That's a small fraction of the 76,000 migrants who crossed the southern border in February — one of the busiest months for the Border Patrol in a decade. "We are starting small to see how this process works," said a DHS official during a background briefing with reporters today. "Just to make sure that we have the coordination down with Mexico, and we have a process that works." National Journalists, Lawyers, Volunteers Face Increased Scrutiny By Border Agents There is no formal agreement with the Mexican government concerning the Migrant Protection Protocols, according to DHS. But U.S. officials insist there is coordination between authorities in the two countries. "We work very closely with the Mexican authorities," a DHS official said. "We're not going to open up a location that the Mexicans aren't ready and able to process, and provide the humanitarian protections that they agreed to do."A report earlier this month said the "Remain in Mexico" policy could soon expand to El Paso, Texas. DHS officials say they're working to further expand the program, but did not indicate when or where that would happen. Meanwhile, immigrant rights' advocates are going to court later this month in hopes of shutting the program down altogether. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco set a hearing for March 22 on their motion for a preliminary injunction. The case was brought on behalf of asylum-seekers and non-profit organizations that work with them by the American Civil Liberties Union, The Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies.

In another call, Michelle, a 53-year-old Republican from Florida, said she was molested as a teenager by a family friend and had been too scared to say anything. Jessica, a Democrat from Chicago, described being assaulted at age 19 in college.Not all C-Span callers were sympathetic to Dr. Blasey. “She talks like she was raped,” said Sherry, a Republican in California who said she was sexually attacked at 17. “I’m going, ‘Was she raped or not?’ I don’t understand why she’s crying now.”Steve Scully, the stoic C-Span host who gently fielded the calls, said in an interview: “We didn’t expect this outpouring of people speaking in very powerful terms of what they have gone through.”“It’s the emotion of the moment,” he added.On the networks, commentators spoke of the day in historic terms. “Fifty years from now, people are going to be playing that exchange,” the CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, singling out Dr. Blasey’s pained recollection of the boys who, she said, laughed as she was assaulted.On Fox News — the network that President Trump was most likely to be watching — the analysts were impressed by both of the day’s speakers.“This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, extremely credible,” Chris Wallace, the “Fox News Sunday” host, said of Dr. Blasey’s testimonial. Before lunchtime, he was calling the hearing “a disaster for the Republicans,” and Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News commentator who speaks occasionally with Mr. Trump, said, “The president cannot be happy with this.”By evening, though, after Judge Kavanaugh’s tear-choked appearance, Mr. Wallace said the judge had delivered “exactly what a lot of people were hoping for.”

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — The director of the public library in this Hudson Valley town calls his assistant and security guard “Starsky and Hutch.” They have been trained to spot signs of overdose in library patrons — paleness and shortness of breath when it is heroin; sudden collapse when it is fentanyl — and administer the drug naloxone. They patrol the bathrooms and stacks at the Middletown Thrall Library, checking on anyone who is dozing.“It’s easier to call the police, to wait for E.M.S.,” said the library director, Matt Pfisterer, who had to decide whether to use the overdose-reversing drug himself a few years ago, after he found a woman lying in the grass outside, unconscious and covered with ants.“You don’t know how they’re going to react,” he said. “But when it comes down to it, you ask, ‘Do I want to see this person dying in front of me?’ ‘No.’ So you take the leap.”The opioid epidemic is reshaping life in America, including at the local public library, where librarians are considering whether to carry naloxone to battle overdoses. At a time when the public is debating arming teachers, it is another example of an unlikely group being enlisted to fight a national crisis.Philadelphia became the poster child for naloxone-toting librarians last year after the Inquirer wrote about a library where one woman had revived several people. Cities including Denver and San Francisco have also started training library staff to use the drug, which comes in the form of a nasal spray and is commonly known by the brand name Narcan.ImageWill Hopper, a former police officer, is now one of the security guards at the Middletown Thrall Library in Middletown, N.Y.CreditRyan Christopher Jones for The New York TimesBut outside major cities, librarians are weighing whether to stock the drug, too. Across New York State, like in much of the country, they describe struggling with overdoses — one more sign of the severity of the opioid crisis, which killed roughly 64,000 people in the United States in 2016, and of the rise in heroin and fentanyl abuse.Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York’s Hudson Valley, introduced the Lifesaving Librarians Act in Washington last fall after reading about Philadelphia and consulting librarians in his own district, which includes Middletown and Newburgh, in Orange County, where there were 88 overdose deaths last year.The proposed legislation would offer libraries in high-intensity drug-trafficking areas access to naloxone kits and training, through a federal grant. Mr. Maloney said he expected the bill, which could be bundled with other anti-opioid legislation, to receive bipartisan support. “While it seems shocking to be finding heroin at the public library — that’s where we are,” Mr. Maloney said. “This is an all-hands-on-deck situation.”The bill reveals just how much libraries, which are open to the public and welcome homeless people, have had to cope with the crisis: Library workers in towns and cities across New York describe finding used syringes and glassine envelopes in doorways and patrons slumped over in bathrooms. In Albany, libraries have started to keep files on some patrons and temporarily ban those who overdose. In White Plains, a man was arrested last year for selling heroin out of a library bathroom.But the bill has also ignited debate about whether librarians, like police officers and emergency medical workers, should administer naloxone.“It’s a perfect example of how time and time again, the government turns to libraries to step up and fill in,” said Jeremy Johannesen, executive director of the New York Library Association, noting that libraries distribute tax forms, and had assisted with enrollment for the Affordable Care Act.ImageA sign on a bathroom door at the Middletown Thrall Library in Middletown, N.Y. The director says drug use at libraries is another sign of how widespread the problem has become.CreditRyan Christopher Jones for The New York Times“Librarians are routinely ready to step up and meet the needs of the community,” he added. “This definitely raises the bar.”Christian Zabriskie, a library administrator for the Yonkers Public Library System and the director of a nonprofit advocacy group called Urban Librarians Unite, said the group supported the move as a first step but understood the reservations expressed by some librarians: “It’s like, ‘Geez Louise, can I just give people a mystery? Can I just help kids read?’ If you wanted to be an E.M.T., you would have been an E.M.T.”A few weeks ago at the Newburgh Free Library, an airy building with tall windows that look out on the Hudson, parents played with babies and people studied amid Valentine’s Day displays. Then a loud noise broke the calm. A man had slammed open the bathroom door, and was dragging another man out, said the library director, Chuck Thomas.Newburgh, long plagued by poverty and crime, has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic. But it had been years since there was an overdose at the library, Mr. Thomas said.A guard rushed over and found one man unresponsive; the other was shouting. “You could tell he didn’t want to lose a friend,” said the guard, Ruth Ramirez.The guards cleared the area and called 911: the overdose drill. Police arrived in minutes and gave the man naloxone — once, twice. “It was amazing. I watched this man who I thought was dead open his eyes,” said Mr. Thomas. If his employees could administer the drug themselves — a decision that he said would be left up to his board — “We could be a minute quicker.”ImageYvonne Mojica, a security guard, with a patron at the Newburgh Free Library in Newburgh, N.Y., where a few weeks ago a man was revived by the police.CreditRyan Christopher Jones for The New York TimesNew York City’s three library systems have not said that they will follow other cities in carrying naloxone, but parts of New York appear to be inching in that direction.In Long Island’s Suffolk County, which has among the highest rates of overdose deaths in the state, some 200 library employees (out of thousands) have been trained to use naloxone, said the director of the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Kevin Verbesey. “I have a pack of it right here in my L.L. Bean briefcase. My little blue O.D. rescue kit.”Last year, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill into law that added libraries to a list of institutions such as schools that are authorized to possess and use naloxone. The proposed legislation in Congress would make it easier for libraries to stock the drug, especially as prices rise, said Mr. Verbesey.Still, at libraries big and small, directors are weighing the potential consequences.Bambi Pedu, the director of the library in Lake Placid, in the Adirondacks, worried that drug addicts would start to use in the small-town library if they knew it stocked naloxone. “You’re opening a can of worms,” she said.In Albany’s libraries, drug use is already happening, which comes with its own issues, said Scott Jarzombek, the executive director of the state capital’s seven-library system. “We see people come in, they go straight to the bathroom stalls.” The library system changed its bathroom policy to require people to show identification, after a patron died in one branch.But he had opposed asking staff to train to use naloxone, until he recently watched a woman revive a companion in a bathroom. “Seeing it happen in front of me made me think, maybe we should start training our staff and having the conversation about Narcan,” he said. “As great as our first responders are, they might not be able to get here in time.”ImageDavid Kirschner, a drummer in his early 60s, is a recovering heroin addict who has spent winter days in the Middletown library. “I think they go beyond their duties as a library to help people who are on drugs,” he said.CreditRyan Christopher Jones for The New York TimesMr. Pfisterer, in Middletown, keeps naloxone in his office, which is outfitted with monitors showing surveillance footage of the premises.If patrons know that librarians are on alert for overdoses, he said, “My biggest fear is that people will stop coming to the library.” And yet, he said, it is only another indication of how widespread the problem has become. “It’s everywhere.”David Kirschner, a drummer in his early 60s, has spent winter days in the library in Middletown and nights in a warming station across the street, while he weans himself off heroin with the drug Suboxone.“I think they go beyond their duties as a library to help people who are on drugs,” he said. “There’s always A.A. and N.A. and they can tell you where that’s at. The security periodically knocks on the door in the bathroom to make sure everyone is O.K.”In Newburgh, Mr. Thomas, the library director, said, “That’s what a library’s job is — to respond to the needs of the community.”“Those are their needs now,” he added. “Later, they may need Shakespeare. But those are their needs right now.”

RICHMOND, Ky. — President Trump on Saturday anointed Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, as “the greatest leader in history,” an exchange that underscored how an often contentious dynamic has been smoothed by Republicans’ success in seating Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and a host of other conservative judges on the nation’s courts.The praise, offered during a boisterous rally in the state Mr. McConnell represents, was delivered with Trumpian flair. The president lauded Mr. McConnell as a “rock-ribbed Kentucky leader” and “a tough cookie” before a self-indulgent addendum.“He’s better when I’m president than he ever was before,” he added, to raucous cheers.Mr. McConnell, who shared a handshake and a one-armed embrace with the president on stage, offered a succinct promise when offered the microphone.“Keep sending them our way, and we’ll keep changing the court system forever,” he said.It was an unusual show of camaraderie between the two men, whose relationship has had several low moments, including Mr. Trump’s withering criticism of Mr. McConnell after Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed last year.But Mr. McConnell’s unwavering determination to confirm Justice Kavanaugh in the face of heated Democratic opposition delivered victories to both men: a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court — part of Mr. McConnell’s quest to remake the court system — and the fulfillment of a cherished campaign promise for Mr. Trump.As Mr. Trump noted in his 65-minute speech here at Alumni Coliseum at Eastern Kentucky University, the two men will both be on the ballot in 2020, ensuring that cooperation is, for the foreseeable future, mutually beneficial.“One of the most powerful men in the world,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. McConnell. “He’s tough. Kentucky tough.”The president did turn his attention to other Republicans in attendance, summoning Senator Rand Paul and Representative Andy Barr, who is locked in a heated re-election contest, to the stage. They, in turn, lavished praise on Mr. Trump.The rally also served as an opportunity for Mr. Trump to wrap up a busy week’s worth of campaign messaging with a flourish. He warned, without specifics, that Democrats, “totally consumed by their chilling lust for power,” would end coal production, eliminate health care options and cripple law enforcement capabilities if given a majority in Congress.“You can either vote for Democrat mob rule,” he said, reprising a line he has used repeatedly since the contentious Kavanaugh confirmation process, “or you can vote for a Republican Party that stands proudly for law and order, fairness, freedom and justice.”He condemned Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who is running against Mr. Barr, as “an extreme liberal” chosen by some of his favorite punching bags like Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters of California. (Ms. McGrath, in fact, was not endorsed in her primary run by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House.)The president, hoping to propel Republicans to the polls on Nov. 6, also offered a reminder of what he called his successes, like newly renegotiated trade deals and a loosening of regulations on coal mines. The movement he is leading, he assured the crowd, is the greatest in history — one that could continue only with their votes.

Good morning.(If you don’t already get California Today by email, here’s the sign-up.)Pacific Gas & Electric has faced increased heat from regulators and outrage from consumers who have watched the state’s largest utility file for bankruptcy protection, then say that its equipment probably started the deadly Camp Fire. San Francisco is exploring a public takeover, and various financial stakeholders in the company have circled as complex bankruptcy negotiations start. But how did PG&E get here? This week, my colleagues published a piece detailing how the company has overlooked risks in favor of its bottom line over the years. And nothing explains it better than one very old tower in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I asked Ivan Penn, a business reporter based here in L.A., to explain how they got the story:After the latest wave of wildfires in which Pacific Gas & Electric has been implicated, Peter Eavis, James Glanz and I were assigned to take a deep look at a persistent question: What kind of safety culture has PG&E built?I am an energy reporter; Peter is a financial reporter in New York, and Jim is a veteran investigative reporter. Each of us brought pieces of the puzzle to the table, and one stood out: Tower 27/222, a 99-year-old transmission tower suspected of causing the 2018 Camp Fire, the worst wildfire in California history. A source pointed us to one document in particular, a form filed with federal regulators in which PG&E noted that the “useful life” of such towers expired at 75 years.The utility kept Tower 27/222 in operation despite warnings about aging equipment along the line where it stood, storms that knocked down five deteriorating PG&E structures in the area, and the threat posed by powerful winds akin to the Santa Anas of Southern California.We conducted dozens of interviews and pored over thousands of pages of documents and court depositions taken from PG&E employees who recounted how supervisors ignored concerns and warnings about vulnerabilities of the system and its equipment.It wasn’t a one-of-a-kind incident with PG&E. And it wasn’t just one side of the company.Explosions in PG&E’s gas pipeline system have also been deadly, and practices in that part of its business resulted in a felony conviction.But wildfires associated with the company have been especially devastating, including the Camp Fire, which killed 85 people. Among them was Andrew Downer, an amputee who died on his porch with his service dog when no one could reach him. “There are days it’s very hard to get up in the morning,” his partner, Iris Natividad, told us.Over and over, the reporting showed that practices at PG&E were driven by the company’s focus on its bottom line. The question now is how its safety culture can be remade.Here’s what else we’re following(We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times stories, but we’d also encourage you to support local news if you can.)Image“We have entire populations showing up with languages that we have not seen in the United States before,” said Odilia Romero, a Zapotec interpreter who has been an activist with the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations for the last 20 years.CreditKayla Reefer for The New York Times• Yet another reason immigration courts are bogged down? They can’t find interpreters for the many Central American migrants who speak indigenous languages. [The New York Times]• Seven states, including California, have agreed to a plan to manage the Colorado River, a vital water source, amid a 19-year drought. [The New York Times]• “The sooner we accept the economic impracticality of recycling, the sooner we can make progress on addressing the plastic pollution problem.” As waste companies raise prices on recycling, some cities are abandoning it. [The New York Times]• More than 30 newsrooms across the state have signed on to share public records requests and the results in an effort to shine a light on police discipline records, which have been at the center of fights related to the rollout of a new law aimed at making law enforcement agencies more transparent. [LAist/KPCC]• Facebook, under broad pressure and to settle a lawsuit, agreed to stop allowing anyone advertising jobs, housing or credit to show those ads to people only of a certain race, gender or age group. [The New York Times]• Universities like U.S.C. that have been implicated in the college admissions fraud scandal are faced with the question of how, or whether, to discipline students who may not have known what their parents were allegedly doing on their behalf. [The New York Times]• The admissions scandal is also forcing a re-examination of the practice of admitting athletic recruits. “Certain athletic directors were smart enough to call their presidents first to insist that they were going to start verifying the status of every admitted recruited athlete.” [The New York Times]• That might’ve prevented the case of Lauren Isackson, whose parents allegedly conspired to get her admitted to U.C.L.A. as a non-scholarship recruited player on an elite women’s soccer team that also had members of the U.S. and Canadian national teams on its roster. [The Los Angeles Times]More California storiesImageCreditMaría Hergueta• The film and T.V. editor for the site Remezcla writes that Netflix’s move to cancel the critically lauded “One Day at a Time” contributes to the erasure of the experiences of U.S.-born Latinos, especially women. [New York Times Opinion]• Enjoy the “super bloom” from a less damaging angle: space, via the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme. [Buzzfeed Storm]• You’ve seen the Shen Yun billboards and ads. Here’s what Shen Yun is and why it’s advertised relentlessly, cryptically, everywhere. [The New Yorker]And Finally …ImageYahya Abdul-Mateen II in New York last year. In addition to “Aquaman,” he is involved in Jordan Peele’s “Us” and a project with HBO.CreditDevin Yalkin for The New York TimesIt’s not exactly news that Oakland is fertile ground both as the subject of and inspiration for a new generation of filmmakers. Of course, Ryan Coogler, the director of “Black Panther,” and “Fruitvale Station,” jumps to mind.Still, it’s nice to get reminders that more projects are in the works. The Bold Italic caught up with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who was in “Aquaman” and has a role in “Us,” to talk about the Town, where he grew up (and as he told The Times last year, was friends with Marshawn Lynch).“Oakland is such an individual place where I don’t have any choice but to be myself,” he told the online magazine.Michael Orange, founder of MATATU, a local creative collective, also weighed in on why Oakland is becoming a center of the cinematic universe.“People have grown bored with the notion that cinema is a place to disconnect,” Mr. Orange said. “Cinemas are places for thinking, and Oakland has the entire world on edge.”California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected] Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

Mobile phones will soon be influencing automobile sales in India.By 2022, nearly four in five Indians looking to buy new cars are expected to be influenced by marketing via mobile phones, a report by KPMG and Facebook (pdf) has found. Such marketing will also influence 66% of the country’s two-wheeler buyers by then.“This growth is expected to be driven on the back of organic penetration of internet, social media, and digital technologies over the next five years,” the July 2018 report said. In the world’s second-largest smartphone market, internet penetration is set to climb up rapidly to 677 million users by 2022, up from 420 million in 2017, according to the report.Usually, a lack of knowledge, information overload, and scarcity of resources are among reasons that can cause “friction” while purchasing a vehicle, the report said. This leads to dropouts, as in the customer decides against a purchase, resulting in a potential loss of revenue for vehicle makers. Mobile marketing could reduce this friction by 1.2% for four-wheelers, letting brands tap into about a million-units sales opportunity, the KPMG-Facebook report predicts. For two-wheelers, the friction could go down by 1.6%, allowing firms to tap into 2.6 million-units sales opportunity.

Enlarge this image This summer's Carr Fire destroyed more than a thousand homes, largely on the western edge of Redding, Calif. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption toggle caption Kirk Siegler/NPR This summer's Carr Fire destroyed more than a thousand homes, largely on the western edge of Redding, Calif. Kirk Siegler/NPR In Redding, Calif., where the Carr Fire burned more than 200,000 acres and destroyed more than a thousand homes, there's a feeling of desperation. Something has to be done to clear the dense stands of trees and thick brush in the mountains around town, or the next fire will be even worse."It's not just global warming," said Ryan Adcock, who grew up here. She was forced to evacuate her home for five days due to the Carr Fire and was taking advantage of a rare smoke free morning walking with her kids along a river front bike path. "It's not just one thing, there's logging, there are several factors that play into why it's worse now than it's ever been," she says. There was a time when logging and timber companies ruled Redding. When Bill Oliver moved here in the 1960s to take a job with the U.S. Forest Service, he remembers the valley was lined with timber mill after timber mill."That was the major industry between Shasta Lake City, 8 miles north, all the way down to Anderson, 8 miles south of here," Oliver says. In response to California's deadly wildfires, the Trump administration is calling for more 'active' logging in western forests. They want to open up more public lands to the timber industry, to reduce the fire risk but also revive rural, natural-resource dependent economies. This is a decades-old debate in the West and by no means a new GOP talking point. But out on the ground, foresters and even some timber industry leaders say what's really needed to mitigate the wildfire threat is a lot more involved — and expensive."The picture has changed," says Rich Fairbanks. Fairbanks managed and fought fires for the U.S. Forest Service for 30 years, largely in southern Oregon and northern California, where many of the West's worst fires have burned so far this year. Fairbanks is now a fire and forest management consultant from his home near Ashland, Ore."A lot of senators and congressmen are still thinking we're back in the 1970s," he says.Indeed, much has changed since the 1970s and 1980s, which marked the height of the timber wars over clear cutting and the spotted owl. Since then, the amount of federal land open to logging has dropped precipitously and a lot of the logging moved to private land. Timber and logging companies themselves have consolidated and mechanized, leaving fewer people necessary to do the work. A 'sustainable' industry So, even if more public land was opened back up to logging, retired Forest Service officials like Bill Oliver wonder whether there is enough industry left in the West to process the timber. Oliver, a wildfire scientist, says the forests are dangerously overgrown today due to prior forest management decisions. "The forests are much too dense because we've tried to keep fire out for about a hundred years," Oliver says. Oliver says the actual stuff that needs to be cleared out of the woods are the brush and small diameter trees that provide kindling for today's mega fires. Those don't tend to be worth that much to the timber industry. It's the big trees that make the money. This has long been an impediment to joint public-private forest restoration and wildfire mitigation efforts. But there are signs this is changing.One of the few big players left in northern California's wood products industry is Sierra Pacific Industries. Each of their six mills in the region are being systematically upgraded to handle that smaller diameter wood so it can be turned into commercially viable products like particle board. Enlarge this image A lumber yard at one of Sierra Pacific's six California mills near Redding. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption toggle caption Kirk Siegler/NPR A lumber yard at one of Sierra Pacific's six California mills near Redding. Kirk Siegler/NPR The industry sees opportunity, says Dan Tomascheski, vice president of forest resources at the company. But they need reassurances that there will be a lumber supply on public lands for more than just one or two years. "This can't be a bubble," he says. "This has to be a ramp up and then a sustained program."The Forest Service says there is a sustainable market — and opportunity — when you consider that upwards of 80 million acres of forest lands nationwide are considered at risk of major fires and in need of treatment. So far only about two million acres of public land have been treated through logging and other thinning projects or prescribed burns, according to the agency."We're not talking about just cutting trees to cut trees," says Tomascheski. "We're talking about harvesting timber in a way that produces the fuel breaks and the thinning that we all need."Environmental appeals The Trump administration says the biggest thing standing in the way of the fuel load is environmental lawsuits. A bill introduced this month by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., aims to reduce legal appeals and fast track forest management projects on some national forests in the West. At a recent committee hearing, Daines said there were more than two dozen forest management projects under litigation in Montana alone. "I can't even see the mountains out of my backdoor in my home which are just a few miles away because of the smoke," Daines said.The administration's secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, has even referred to some of the groups opposing logging as environmental terrorist organizations, causing an outcry in many corners of the region. Still, in a lot of the West, tensions between environmentalists and logging companies have actually cooled over the past decade. There are now partnerships and compromises being made on forest health projects from Idaho to California that don't always make the headlines. Dan Tomascheski at Sierra Pacific says his company now regularly talks with some environmental groups that he couldn't imagined working with 20 years ago. "The level of hostility and the fiery dialogue has really diminished," Tomascheski says. He says this is largely due to an understanding among all sides that the status quo in forest management isn't working and the wildfires are only worsening in severity. People outside of Washington D.C. tend to point their finger at a much less high profile culprit they say is holding up fire mitigation projects: funding. "The biggest enemy of good forest management, especially fire management, is budget cuts," says forest management consultant Rich Armstrong. Armstrong says it takes money to plan and implement the kinds of landscape level forest restoration projects that are needed. But the government has cut the budget for wildfire mitigation and other forest programs, while diverting much of the remaining funding to pay to fight wildfires. At Sierra Pacific, Dan Tomascheski sees the effects of this on the ground."The Forest Service has lost quite a bit of expertise in all of the disciplines of hydrology, road engineering, wildlife biology etcetera," he says. "They've lost a lot of the funding for those positions and they need to regain some of that expertise." Congress recently passed a bi-partisan fix creating a separate fund to pay for wildfire suppression, though that won't take effect until next year at the earliest.

Let me just say it straight up: Standalone virtual reality is the bomb, and not just because quality VR is, at long last, available to iPhone users.At F8, its annual developer conference, Facebook today rolled out the first consumer-ready standalone VR headset, the Oculus Go, which does all its computing on board. That means that, unlike every other major-brand headset currently on the market, it’s the first that doesn’t need to be paired with either a mobile phone or tethered to a PC.The Oculus Go, available today with either 32 GB of storage for $199 or 64 GB for $249, is just the first of the new generation of standalone headsets coming down the pike. HTC’s high-end Vive Focus is likely to hit store shelves later this year, and developers are also expected to get their hands on Facebook-owned Oculus’s own high-end standalone, currently code-named Santa Cruz, by later this year. It’s likely that Facebook will share more details about Santa Cruz at F8.By being first to market, the Oculus Go earns the right to the first evaluation–and from this corner, it’s a big win. Although the device is essentially on par with Samsung’s Oculus-powered mobile VR headset, the $130 Gear VR, it rises above the various competitors in the mobile VR category because of ease-of-use, higher-quality visuals, and the ability, for the first time, to let both Android and iOS users run VR content.A New Dawn For Apple UsersUntil now, Apple users had been largely shut out of the consumer VR market, with the exception being Google’s low-end Cardboard, or Cardboard-compatible, headsets. High-end systems like the Oculus Rift or HTV Vive required a Windows computer, while mobile systems like the Gear VR or Google’s Daydream View worked only with Android phones.But Oculus Go gets its connectivity via Wi-Fi and does all its processing on-board. Users do need to download the Oculus app on either an iPhone or Android device, but once you finish the five-minutes-max setup process, the phone is no longer needed–and that is a major, very much-needed advance for the VR business as it strives to reach analysts’ expectations that it will be a $38 billion industry by 2026.Facebook believes the Oculus Go will attract an all-new audience to VR because it frees users from having to own a specific device–such as a high-end Samsung Galaxy for the Gear VR or a Google Pixel for the Daydream View, and because it offers improved visual clarity, comfort, and quality audio, all at a reasonable price.[Photo: courtesy of Oculus]Like Gear VR but betterBecause the Oculus Go is compatible with the entire Gear VR library, users of the new device have access to more than 1,000 titles on day one–everything from a vast collection of games to educational experiences to live sports and music, 360-degree YouTube videos, and more.But the Oculus Go trumps the Gear VR, as well as Google’s Daydream View, with a simple setup process that takes just minutes, as well as clearer visuals, nice-sounding audio, and a more streamlined physical design. It’s also quite comfortable.That, plus the fact that it doesn’t require a specific Android phone, makes the Oculus Go a winner for those looking for a decent, affordable starter VR headset. Make no mistake: It doesn’t have the six-degrees of freedom features, including hand gestures, of a Rift or Vive, but for the price, it’s hard to go wrong with the new device. It’s hard to think of any way in which it isn’t more compelling than the Gear VR–unless, that is, you already own a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S9, in which case Samsung’s own VR headset is a cheaper alternative than the Oculus Go. The same comparison applies to the Daydream View.Another advantage the Oculus Go has over its mobile-VR cousins is its wireless controller, which fits nicely in either hand, has three intuitive buttons and a trackpad, and which seems to do a terrific job of pointing at and selecting things in VR without directional drifting, something that’s sometimes a problem with both the Daydream View’s and the Gear VR’s controllers.Hulu app [Image: courtesy of Oculus]New appsTimed to the device’s launch, Oculus is also unveiling four new apps, all of which work with either the Oculus Go or the Gear VR.The first is Oculus TV, an app available later this month that will integrate video content from a variety of content sources, including Facebook Video, Red Bull TV, CNN, and others. Oculus says it’s not integrating video from sources like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Showtime, and the like directly in this app because all of those have existing apps optimized for Gear VR, and the company wants users to get the best-possible viewing experience.But for video content without a dedicated app, Oculus thinks its TV tool will make viewing a fun, engaging experience.Oculus TC [Image: courtesy of Oculus]Another great new app is Gallery, which lets you look at 2D and 360-degree photos and videos from numerous sources–including your phone–in your headset. This is the easiest way I’ve come across so far for viewing 360-degree imagery on a VR headset, and it’s definitely a potential rabbit hole to fall into if you’ve got a sizable repository of such imagery.Timed to the launch of the Oculus Go, Facebook has also updated Oculus Rooms, its social hangout spaces. You’ll be able to get together in a room with a few friends and watch movies, play social games like Boggle, Trivial Pursuit, and Monopoly, and look at photos or videos.The last new app is Oculus Venues, which lets you watch live sports, music, and other entertainment in an immersive space.Oculus Rooms [Image: courtesy of Oculus]All in all, it feels like the Oculus Go–and the new set of Oculus apps–are a step forward for VR. The headset is comfortable, super easy to set up, and, as noted above, it opens up quality VR–though not high-quality–to iPhone users for the first time. That’s a big moment for the medium.To be sure, all of this means nothing if there is not compelling content, and in that sense, the Oculus Go is entirely dependent on the existing Gear VR content library and pipeline.Either way, the fact that standalone is finally here is a watershed moment for the VR industry. On its own, it won’t be the thing that makes VR a truly mainstream consumer technology, but it’s a very big step forward. And we’re only at the beginning.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: This morning in Kabul, Afghanistan, more than 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest. He got inside a building that housed a cultural center and a news agency, both associated with Shiite Islam. ISIS has claimed responsibility for this attack.And for more on this and on the growing ISIS presence in Afghanistan, we're joined by Reuters bureau chief James Mackenzie from Kabul. Welcome to the program.JAMES MACKENZIE: Hello.SIEGEL: And first, tell us a bit about these targets, a cultural center and a news agency.MACKENZIE: Yes, it's a slightly unusual target. There have been a number of attacks on Shiite sites in Afghanistan recently. Most have been mosques or else demonstrations of people from the Hazara community, which is mainly Shiite. This one was on this sort of cultural center, this news agency, which were housed in a building in a kind of mainly Shiite area of the city. And, yeah, as you saying, it was claimed by Islamic State, which made the explicit link with the fact that it was a Shiite center and said it was receiving support from Iran, which is something they have done in past attacks as well.SIEGEL: What was going on inside this building at the time of the attack?MACKENZIE: There was a kind of panel discussion going on, you know, involving researchers. There were students in the audience. It was a sort of - a conference about the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And while this was going on, this explosion happened in the middle of the big room where it was all - where the event was taking place. And, you know, that's where a great, you know, bulk of the casualties were caused.SIEGEL: And you say that ISIS, Islamic State, which is drawn from Sunni Islam, from the majority Orthodox stream of Islam, specifically spoke of the Shiite or the pro-Iranian nature of these targets that it has selected. And that's typical of what ISIS has been doing?MACKENZIE: That is typical of what ISIS has been doing. It's been a very, you know, nasty and unwelcome development over the past two years roughly. Previously, attacks on Shiite targets specifically - you know, this sectarian thing that is so widely seen in places like Iraq was very rare in Afghanistan. But since the beginning of 2016, really, there have been, you know, many of them - you know, around about 12, I think - claimed by Islamic State with the apparent aim of sort of fomenting this kind of sectarian violence that's seen in other areas that was quite rare in Afghanistan before.SIEGEL: How active is ISIS in the country? And does the level of its activity there have to do with the defeats that it has experienced in Iraq and Syria recently?MACKENZIE: Well, that last question is really one that nobody knows the answer to. It's one of the great questions there is. Islamic State has been active in Afghanistan for the past three years or so. It first appeared in kind of the very beginning of 2015 in an area in eastern Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan, and has since sort of spread its activities in other areas of the country. But its exact nature is still really a bit of a question.SIEGEL: Kabul, being the capital of the country, is I believe the most heavily fortified place in Afghanistan. Was there security at all at this site? And what did people make of the ability of the attacker to get through whatever security there was?MACKENZIE: Well, certainly the center of Kabul, in the area where the foreign embassies and the many government buildings are, is very heavily fortified - concrete blast walls, police checkpoints, barbed wire everywhere. But, you know, it's a big city. There's, you know, 5 million inhabitants or so. And a city that size can't be locked down completely. So outside this sort of government center that level of security isn't seen. Questions will be asked about what security arrangements were taken. But, you know, once you get outside the kind of diplomatic area, you know, the security isn't quite - isn't nearly as tight. And, you know, there are opportunities for these attacks to take place.SIEGEL: Well, James Mackenzie, Kabul bureau chief for Reuters, thanks for talking with us.MACKENZIE: Thank you.Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. said on Thursday that it charged a California man who threatened to kill employees of The Boston Globe after calling them the “enemy of the people” in a series of menacing phone calls.Robert D. Chain, 68, was arrested on Thursday at his home in Encino, Calif. The F.B.I. said Mr. Chain owned several firearms and had recently purchased a small-caliber rifle.According to federal documents, Mr. Chain began calling The Boston Globe immediately after the newspaper announced on Aug. 10 that it would publish a coordinated editorial response to political attacks on the media. Prosecutors said the threats were in retaliation for The Globe’s leadership in the editorial campaign.In one call to the paper’s newsroom, Mr. Chain threatened to shoot the newspaper’s employees in the head, the F.B.I. said. Three days later, in another call, Mr. Chain said: “You’re the enemy of the people.” Using profane language, he threatened to kill “every” Globe employee.Mr. Trump has embraced the phrase “enemy of the people.” Media executives have decried the expression, believing it a dangerous assault on the First Amendment, warning that it could incite acts of violence among the president’s most ardent supporters in the United States and embolden authoritarian political movements overseas.On Thursday, the president once again used the phrase.The F.B.I. said there were about 12 threatening calls made to the paper.“Why don’t you call Mueller, maybe he can help you out, buddy,” Mr. Chain said, referring to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Again using profane language, he threatened to shoot Globe employees in the head.That threat prompted The Boston Globe to contract with a private security firm, and officers with the Boston Police Department were dispatched to the newspaper’s office.A statement released by Jane Bowman, a Boston Globe spokeswoman, said, “We are grateful to the F.B.I., the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Boston Police, and local authorities in California for the work they did in protecting the Globe while threats were coming in, for investigating the source, and for making this arrest. We couldn’t have asked for a stronger response.” She added that, “while it was unsettling for many of our staffers to be threatened in such a way, nobody — really, nobody — let it get in the way of the important work of this institution.”According to the F.B.I., Mr. Chain promised to keep harassing the paper as long as it kept “attacking the president, the duly elected president of the United States, in the continuation of your treasonous and seditious acts.”He incorrectly stated that The New York Times owned The Boston Globe. The Times sold the Boston newspaper in 2013.Authorities said that Mr. Chain faces one felony count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. He is slated to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday and then be transferred to Boston, where he was charged.

The first device went off inside the cathedral and the second targeted nearby soldiers who rushed to help the victims of the first explosion, a military spokesman said. Mindanao, a region in the far south of the Philippines at the borders of Malaysia and Indonesia, has long been plagued by terrorism and unrest.It is home to several Islamist insurgent groups, including Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for a number of attacks on civilians and Philippine government troops, as well as the kidnapping of several foreign nationals.Supporters of last week's referendum, which will see greater autonomy granted to Muslim-dominated parts of Mindanao, hope it can bring a peaceful resolution to the protracted conflict, which has claimed more than 120,000 lives since the 1970s.Soldiers and police cordon off the area after two bombs exploded outside the church.But while Islamist and criminal groups have been active in the lawless tri-border area between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia for years, the rise of ISIS-affiliated groups has led to a sharp escalation in violence. In 2017, ISIS-affiliated militants laid siege to the city of Marawi in Mindanao for five months. The ensuing violence forced more than 350,000 residents to flee the city and the surrounding areas, as their homes were reduced to rubble by government airstrikes.In the 150 days of the Philippine army operation to flush the militants out, more than 800 militants and 162 members of the government security forces were killed.Analysts say Sunday's cathedral bombing attack had all the hallmarks of ISIS, which has been all but displaced from its former strongholds in Iraq and Syria, and shows that the group is still influential in the Mindanao region. Speaking to CNN, Sidney Jones, director of Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said ISIS is "still active" in the region but has changed tactics since its 2017 occupation of Marawi.Policemen and soldiers are seen in front of the Catholic Church where the bombing took place."The concern from the Marawi siege onwards had been that once Marawi ended, ISIS components would use violence in other places," she said. "We've had incidents in Lanao del Sur, Basilan -- the Lamitan bombing -- Cotabato and others since then."Jones said the bombing shows the willingness of Islamist extremist elements in the region, many of which have pledged allegiance to ISIS, to mount attacks even though ISIS in the Middle East has suffered multiple defeats."I think it's a reminder that the establishment of the (autonomous region) does not eliminate extremism," Jones said."These guys march to a different drummer, they're not motivated by the establishment of the (autonomous region), they do not see an ethnic Maguindanaon-led political entity as the goal they have been striving for," she said, referring to the ethnic group which stands to gain autonomy under the proposed devolution of powers. Local, national and international figures have condemned the attack, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a key stakeholder in the peace process. Leaders of the MILF, a longtime separatist movement which has embraced dialogue with the government, condemned the bombing and said they would help bring the perpetrators to justice. Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the MILF peace panel, said his organization "is ready to support efforts in the apprehension of the perpetrators of the senseless violence that occurred in a place of worship while people were attending the morning mass," according to Philippine state media PNA. A policeman carries a ballot box at a voting precinct in Cotabato on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on January 21, 2019, during a vote on giving the nation's Muslim minority greater control over the region.Fears are now rising that the bombing may trigger deadly attacks in other cities across the region. On Monday, Philippine National Police were placed on "nationwide high alert" following the recent bout of violence. "It could show that other areas can also implement their own bombing attacks. Other groups could mount bombings in Cotabato, Davao, (and) other major cities in Mindanao," said Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research.The attack demonstrates that "terrorist threats in Mindanao continue to be real," he added.Almost two years after the Marawi siege brought the issue of Islamic extremism to the fore, parts of Mindanao remain under martial law, which is not due to expire until the end of this year.The fact that a major attack could be mounted during martial law was a "major blow" to the government's policy, Banlaoi said. "This mass casualty bombing occurred despite martial law and during a high security environment (in place for the plebiscite)," he said. "Let's see if it will mean an extension of martial law."

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s top newspaper, decrying Washington as a trouble-maker, said on Monday U.S. moves in the South China Sea like last week’s freedom of navigation operation will only cause China to strengthen its deployments in the disputed waterway. FILE PHOTO - Chinese official prepares the flags for the China-USA bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria China’s foreign ministry said the USS Hopper, a destroyer, came within 12 nautical miles of Huangyan island, which is better known as the Scarborough Shoal and is subject to a rival claim by the Philippines, a historic ally of the United States. It was the latest U.S. naval operation challenging extensive Chinese claims in the South China Sea and came even as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks Chinese cooperation in dealing with North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. The ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said in a commentary that, with the situation generally improving in the South China Sea, it was clear that the United States was the one militarizing the region. “Against this backdrop of peace and cooperation, a U.S. ship wantonly provoking trouble is singleminded to the point of recklessness,” the paper said. “If the relevant party once more makes trouble out of nothing and causes tensions, then it will only cause China to reach this conclusion: in order to earnestly protect peace in the South China Sea, China must strengthen and speed up the building of its abilities there,” it said. The commentary was published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, which is often used to give the paper’s view on foreign policy issues. The widely read Global Times tabloid, published by the People’s Daily, said in an editorial on Monday China’s control of the South China Sea is only growing and it is well placed to react to U.S. “provocations”. “As China’s military size and quality improve, so does its control of the South China Sea,” it said. “China is able to send more naval vessels as a response and can take steps like militarizing islands.” The Scarborough Shoal is located within the Philippines’ 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone but an international tribunal in 2016 ruled that it is a traditional fishing ground that no one country has sole rights to exploit. The U.S. military says it carries out “freedom of navigation” operations throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and that they are separate from political considerations. The Pentagon has not commented directly on the latest patrol but said such operations are routine. Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul TaitOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

CARACAS, Venezuela — After denying for years that Venezuelans were suffering a humanitarian crisis, the government allowed the Red Cross to send in 24 tons of medical equipment on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a large-scale relief campaign intended to ease malnutrition and the spread of disease in the crisis-stricken country.An airplane landed in Caracas’s international airport transporting the first in a series of planned shipments of medical supplies and power generators for hospitals that are intended to eventually help 650,000 Venezuelans, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The material is expected to be distributed in the coming days.Despite the enormity of the population’s need, the delivery of humanitarian aid has become a political battle between the president, Nicolás Maduro, and Venezuela’s opposition.On Tuesday, the president of the Red Cross in Venezuela said the aid should not become embroiled in a political dispute, and asked for the cooperation of politicians.“It will be distributed in conformance with the fundamental principles of our movement, especially neutrality, impartiality and independence,” Mario Villarroel, president of the Venezuelan Red Cross, said of the supplies. “Don’t allow the politicization of this great achievement.”ImageVenezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, center, had in the past turned away offers of basic medication and food, saying his was not a nation of “beggars.”CreditAriana Cubillos/Associated PressThe agency estimates its Venezuelan campaign could become its biggest relief effort since the beginning of civil war in Syria.[The United States’ efforts to tighten oil sanctions against Venezuela and Iran risks unsettling global oil markets.]A recent United Nations report found about a quarter of the country’s population is in dire need of food and basic supplies — and the need is expected to grow. The International Monetary Fund estimates the Venezuelan economy will shrink by 25 percent this year as infrastructure continues to crumble.Around 5,500 Venezuelans flee the country daily in what has become one of the world’s biggest refugee crises, according to the United Nations.The arrival of the aid shipment constitutes an about-face by Mr. Maduro’s government, which for years had denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis despite the nation having endured the deepest economic depression in modern history among countries not at war.As Venezuela’s revenues have plummeted, control over aid supplies became one of the main political disputes between Mr. Maduro and a parallel government set up by Juan Guaidó. Mr. Guaidó, a leader of the opposition and of congress, invoked an article of Venezuela’s Constitution in late January and claimed the country’s leadership after pointing out widespread irregularities in the elections that gave Mr. Maduro a second term.ImagePatients with chronic diseases, such as those who rely on dialysis in clinics like this one in San Cristóbal, Venezuela, have been particularly affected by the shortage of medical supplies.CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York TimesIn February, an ambitious plan by the opposition, led by Mr. Guaidó, to bring humanitarian aid into Venezuela from neighboring countries degenerated into bloody skirmishes as the trucks ran into blockades set up by security forces loyal to Mr. Maduro.Mr. Guaidó had hoped the plan would at once bring some relief to Venezuelans, strengthen his credibility as the country’s new leader, and convince troops to turn against Mr. Maduro rather than use force to keep food and medication beyond the reach of a needy population.Although some military officials did cross the lines to join Mr. Guaidó, it was a trickle, not the sea change the opposition had envisioned. The blockade largely succeeded, with little aid entering the country.[On April 30, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for a military uprising.]Since then, the crisis has been compounded by the impact of American sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry. The measures are aimed at weakening Mr. Maduro and forcing him to cede power to Mr. Guaidó, who has the support of the United States and about 50 other countries, but the pain they inflict is felt first by the population.Mr. Maduro’s decision to accept the Red Cross aid has hobbled this parallel effort to deliver supplies that was mounted by the opposition. Still, it was celebrated by Mr. Maduro’s opponents as a victory brought about by their persistence.“Today, the first shipment of humanitarian aid arrived for our people,” Henrique Capriles, a leading figure of the opposition, posted on Twitter. “It’s a reality thanks to the pressure of Venezuelans and the support of our interim president Juan Guaidó and the legitimate National Assembly.”

In recent campaign rallies, like one Tuesday night in which he alluded to Ms. Tibbetts, Mr. Trump has riled up crowds by disparaging immigrants and stoking fear about them, saying that he would send them “the hell back” to their countries of origin. And he has constantly reiterated his belief that a vote for a Democratic candidate in the midterms would be a vote for open borders. (Legislation shows that Democrats support border security measures, but not the wall that Mr. Trump has promised his supporters.)Mr. Rivera’s arrest also raised questions about the process companies use to check whether job applicants are allowed to work in the United States. Mr. Rivera’s employer, Yarrabee Farms, said initially that the federal government had cleared Mr. Rivera for work through its well-known E-Verify system. But on Wednesday evening, Yarrabee corrected itself and said he had been checked through a different Social Security Administration database.Both systems are vulnerable to fraud when applicants present valid documents that belong to someone else, experts said.“If I’m using your number and your name, that’s going to get through,” said Julie Myers Wood, who led Immigration and Customs Enforcement during George W. Bush’s presidency. She said unauthorized job seekers were using stolen documents to thwart E-Verify even during her tenure.But Ms. Myers Wood said the Social Security database was not intended to check employment eligibility, and that the farm was “not in as strong as a position” as it would have been had it used E-Verify.Federal officials appeared to have reviewed Mr. Rivera’s immigration status and said they had placed an immigration hold on him, requiring him to be turned over to immigration authorities should he clear state criminal proceedings. He is “an illegal alien from Mexico,” said Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE.A senior homeland security official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the case, said Mr. Rivera appears to have used stolen documentation in order to pass the federal government identity check at the farm where he had worked for the past several years.

Donald Trump is getting increasingly agitated about the growing number of asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. The latest sign: the resignation of Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirtsjen Nielsen over the weekend.In the past few days, the president and his border-security officials have been stepping up their cries of alarm over the state of affairs at the border, where US agents are struggling to process and detain thousands of immigrants.The situation is not unprecedented, nor was it hard to prepare for. For years, the profile of immigrants to the US has been changing, from mostly Mexican men looking for jobs to Central American families and children fleeing violence and poverty. Yet, in all that time, the US government has done little to reconfigure its border apparatus to handle these very different migrants, many of whom want asylum, not work.Its focus has remained on blocking the border, when what is needed is to quickly process the cases of asylum seekers the US is obligated by law to consider. The result: a massive border jam.The Trump administration has doubled down on the kind of policies that do little to ease the bottleneck. In fact, in some ways it’s made the situation worse. Here’s how:Trump’s actions and rhetoric are among the tangle of factors driving Central Americans to the US. The impetus to leave home is largely driven by gang violence, poverty, government repression, and even climate change. Those reasons likely carry more weight in most immigrants’ calculations than anything the president is saying or doing. In fact, the number of Central American immigrants entering the US illegally began swelling well before Trump took office.Still, the Trump effect is not negligible. Take immigrant caravans, which started out years ago as protests against the dangers migrants faced crossing through Mexico, not as a way to emigrate north. Some of them didn’t even make it to the US border (paywall).Trump’s Twitter rants put an international spotlight on the them—giving organizers considerably more attention than they’d ever received. Widespread coverage increased awareness among potential migrants, likely convincing some to join the caravans rather than go it alone.“It’s a phenomenon that’s been happening for more than two decades and in much bigger dimensions. The difference is that, by coming together and publicly demanding respect for human rights, they are more visible,” writes in Mexican magazine Letras Libres (link in Spanish) Jorge Schiavon, who runs the migratory studies program at Mexico’s CIDE, a prominent research institute.The Trumpian publicity also inspired humanitarian groups and individuals to help, whether by providing food, clothes, or legal help. While in 2017, the arrival of migrants to a shelter run by priest Alberto Ruiz in the Mexican state of Jalisco went “unnoticed”, in 2018 it received “overflowing solidarity” due to the attention generated by Trump’s tweets. Neighbors opened up their bathrooms and made food “multiply,” he told Iliana Martínez Hernández Mejía (Spanish,) a researcher at ITESO, a university in Guadalajara. The extra help they’re getting along the way is another incentive for migrants to travel as part of a caravan.For years, many migrants have relied on smugglers, known as coyotes, to make their way north. For a fee, they make travel arrangements through Mexico and into the US. Trump’s anti-immigration tirades had an impact on that market. His threats of sealing off the border and ramping up enforcement inflated smugglers’ fees, at least initially.The caravans essentially made those logistics services free. One of the caravans even created its own self-government from scratch, as Politico reported. It plotted the group’s route and even negotiated on the group’s behalf with Mexican authorities. And traveling in big numbers has made the notoriously dangerous trip much safer.The caravans have also made immigration accessible to a much broader group of people, who were priced out of the coyote market, says Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. “All of a sudden, they can go,” she says. The change has been dramatic at the border, where immigrants are arriving in much larger groups than in the past. “In a normal year, DHS would encounter one or two groups of over 100 migrants. Already in this fiscal year, we have encountered nearly 100 large groups comprised of 100+ migrants, nearly half of which have arrived in remote locations,” wrote a frustrated Nielsen in a letter to Congress late last month.The larger groups are considerably more taxing on the immigration system than a steady trickle of arrivals, because they overwhelm the Border Patrol’s resources and clog up the system.Of course, no amount of publicity would convince anyone to join caravans if they weren’t successful. Their members have been making it into the US. Under American and international laws, immigrants in the US have a right to request asylum, even if they came in illegally. While many of the asylum seekers entering the US have legitimate claims, others don’t—but they’re still allowed to stay because the system is too clogged to identify those who don’t have a case and send them back.The US’s immigration system is so backlogged that resolving an asylum case can take years. Since DHS doesn’t have the space or resources to detain asylum seekers during that process, it’s been releasing them. (The government is also barred from holding children for longer than a few weeks.)The more immigrants are released, the more the incentive to come to the US grows in their home countries. The northward trek of those who join them is closely followed via the news and social media. As one Honduran put it to Quartz: “I hear of nothing else other than the caravans. ‘Let’s go boy, you’re losing your youth,’ they say.”This is a problem that predates Trump, but he’s made little progress in fixing it. Like his predecessors, he’s spent most of his time and resources on border security, and significantly less on the asylum system. Here’s a comparison between the number of US Border Patrol positions vs. those at the department that deals with asylum, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Fiscal year US Border Patrol Asylum, Refugee and International Operations 2016 (enacted) 23,057 1,606 2017 (enacted) 22,618 1,668 2018 (enacted) 20,908 1,668 2019 (proposed) 24,299 1,917 2020 (proposed) 24,674 1,936 Trump has hired more immigration judges, who rule on asylum cases. Those increases have been far outpaced by the number of new cases. Here’s how immigration court staffing has evolved, based on data gathered by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank: Fiscal year Authorized immigration judge positions Active immigration judges 2013 254 262 2014 284 249 2015 319 254 2016 374 289 2017 384 338 2018 484 395 So far, the Trumpian strategy hasn’t worked, based on the growing number of families and children the US Border Patrol are encountering on the American side of the border.Trump’s various attempts to fortify the border have also altered immigration routes. As in the past, when a path is blocked, migrants find another one.For a long time, the preferred (and most direct) route for Central American migrants was the Rio Grande Valley, in southeast Texas. The number entering at that point is still growing, but nowhere near at the rates as in the El Paso area, hundreds of miles northwest. In a matter of months, the number of children traveling alone or with their families jumped by nearly 1,500%, from less than 800 in February, 2018 to more than 12,000 that month this year.The increase in traffic has overwhelmed the Border Patrol’s local installations, to the point that agents kept immigrants, including children, under an overpass for lack of room.Crossing through the El Paso area, instead of the more urban Rio Grande Valley, for example, also poses new dangers for immigrants—and the agents in charge of them. Last year, a 7-year-old immigrant girl died after being kept in a remote Border Patrol outpost for hours.In another attempt to stop people from entering the US, Trump has directed asylum seekers to legal ports of entry. But the administration is only letting in a few at a time to make their case, a practice known as “metering.” The slow-moving line means that thousands are having to wait months for their turn.Some are getting tired of waiting and are entering the US illegally, as Border Patrol officials admit. Once they do, US law allows them legally to apply for asylum. Last year, border officials told DHS’s Office of the Inspector General that they noticed an increase in illegal crossings near ports of entry using metering.Partly because of this, the share of immigrants border agents encounter after they’re already in the US is growing—exactly the opposite of what Trump intended.Trump’s brief record at trying to curb illegal immigration demonstrates what experts have known for a long time. As long as conditions in their countries of origin remain dire and businesses in the US are willing to hire undocumented workers, immigrants will find a way to get in.They—and the smuggling industry that serves them—have a long history of quickly reacting to changes at the border. The Trump administration should try to imitate their ability to adapt. Had the US rejiggered its immigration system when the profile of immigrants started to change years ago, it wouldn’t be so overstretched now.Even amid the crisis, there are steps that the Trump administration could take relatively quickly to stem the flow, for example, by deploying more asylum officers at the border who can settle claims shortly after immigrants make them.That’s not what the president has in mind though. He’s instead suggested completely doing away with the asylum system.

A US judge has blocked the Trump administration’s policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico as they wait for an immigration court to hear their cases, but the order will not immediately go into effect.On Monday, Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco granted a request on behalf of 11 asylum seekers from Central America and legal advocacy groups to halt the practice while their lawsuit moves forward, but he held off on enforcing his decision until Friday to give the government a chance to ask an appeals court for a review.The policy lacks sufficient protections to ensure migrants don’t face “undue risk to their lives or freedom” in Mexico, the judge said. Seeborg also said a law that Donald Trump’s administration cited as its authority to send back migrants does not apply to asylum seekers such as those in the lawsuit.It was not immediately clear whether the administration would ask an appeals court to put the ruling on hold. The US Department of Justice declined to comment.The ruling came a day after the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, resigned and as the administration faces repeated court setbacks on strict anti-immigration measures that were a signature campaign promise for Trump, including losses on such policies as separating families at the border and ending protections for young immigrants.Launched in January, the Trump administration’s policy to send asylum seekers back to Mexico while their cases were being processed marked an unprecedented change to the US asylum system, government officials and asylum experts said, since families seeking asylum typically had been released in the US with notices to appear in court.The Trump administration says the policy responds to a crisis at the southern border that has overwhelmed the ability of immigration officials to detain migrants. Growing numbers of families are fleeing poverty and gang violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.The lawsuit argues the Trump administration is violating US law by failing to adequately evaluate the dangers that migrants face in Mexico.Under the new policy, asylum seekers are not guaranteed interpreters or lawyers and don’t get to argue to a judge that they face the potential of persecution or torture if they are sent back to Mexico, Judy Rabinovitz, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said at a March court hearing.The justice department attorney Scott Stewart argued at the March hearing that there was a process to protect immigrants who could face harm in Mexico.Seeborg said in his ruling that “further procedural protections would be required to conform to the government’s acknowledged obligation to ensure aliens are not returned to unduly dangerous circumstances”.The ACLU and other groups also argue in the lawsuit that a law allowing the return of some immigrants to Mexico does not apply to asylum seekers who cross the border illegally or arrive at a border crossing without proper documents.Seeborg agreed, saying the “plain language” of the law supported that interpretation. “Try as it may, the Trump administration cannot simply ignore our laws in order to accomplish its goal of preventing people from seeking asylum in the United States,” Rabinovitz said in a statement after the ruling.Immigrant rights groups celebrated Monday’s decision.Archi Pyati, chief of policy for Tahirih Justice Center, a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, said the policy “leaves individuals and families fleeing persecution stranded on the other side of the border, when what they need and deserve under our laws is protection in America”.Pyati continued: “Tahirih represents asylum seekers who have experienced domestic and sexual violence, and we know that they need legal and social services to effectively make their claims before an immigration judge. This policy goes against basic tenets of fairness, and makes it all but impossible for us to do our jobs. We are glad to see justice served.”Charanya Krishnaswami, of Amnesty International USA, called the policy “cruel and irresponsible” in a statement.“Asylum seekers passing through Mexico have already endured dangerous journeys to flee desperate situations. Returning them to Mexico and forcing them to wait there would put them at real risk of serious human rights violations.”The administration hopes that making asylum seekers wait in Mexico will discourage weak claims and help reduce an immigration court backlog of more than 800,000 cases.Border patrol arrests, the most widely used gauge of illegal crossings, have risen sharply over the last year but are relatively low in historical terms after hitting a 46-year low in 2017.The launch of the policy followed months of delicate talks between the US and Mexico. Mexicans and children traveling alone are exempt from it. Topics US immigration US-Mexico border Trump administration San Francisco news

PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Tuesday that France would rebuild the fire-devastated Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, saying he hoped the work would be done in five years and the French people would pull together to repair their national symbol. Macron devoted a brief prime-time televised address to Monday’s catastrophic blaze in the heart of the capital, again postponing planned remarks on his response to months of anti-government protests. “We will rebuild Notre-Dame even more beautifully and I want it to be completed in five years, we can do it,” Macron said. “It is up to us to convert this disaster into an opportunity to come together, having deeply reflected on what we have been and what we have to be and become better than we are. It is up to us to find the thread of our national project.” “This is not a time for politics,” added Macron, who had cancelled a speech planned on Monday evening on the response to the “yellow vest” protests. He visited the site of the fire late on Monday and promised then to rebuild the cathedral, parts of which date to the 12th century. The cathedral spire was destroyed and its roof gutted but the bell towers were still standing and many valuable art works were saved after more than 400 firemen worked to contain the blaze, finally quelling it 14 hours after it began. As the city and the country grieved for a potent national symbol, billionaires, companies and local authorities were quick to offer donations. Some 24 hours after the fire started, more than 750 million euros ($845 million) had been pledged, including 500 million from the three billionaire families that own France’s giant luxury goods empires: Kering, LVMH and L’Oreal. Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said there was no obvious indication the fire was arson. Fifty people were working on what would be a long and complex investigation, officials said. Related CoverageParis firefighters got on Notre-Dame site in less than 10 minutesPained Pope pays tribute to Notre-Dame firefighters(Graphic of the Notre-Dame fire: tmsnrt.rs/2XgGCRi) (Graphic: Map and timeline - tmsnrt.rs/2DgHcXP) (Graphic: 3D diagram of Notre-Dame - tmsnrt.rs/2DgH76t) The fire swiftly ripped through the cathedral’s oak roof supports, where workmen had been carrying out extensive renovations to the spire’s timber-framed supports. Police began questioning the workers involved, the prosecutor’s office said. One firefighter was injured but no one else was hurt, with the fire starting at around 6:30 p.m. after the building was closed to the public for the evening. Firefighters examined the facade, with its spectacular 10-metre filigreed stained-glass rose window still intact. They could be seen walking atop the belfries as police kept the area in lockdown. Investigators will not be able to enter the cathedral’s blackened nave until experts are satisfied its walls withstood the heat and the building is structurally sound. “Yesterday we thought the whole cathedral would collapse. Yet this morning she is still standing, valiant, despite everything,” said Sister Marie Aimee, a nun who had hurried to a nearby church to pray as the flames spread. Messages of condolence flooded in from around the world. A view of the debris inside Notre-Dame de Paris in the aftermath of a fire that devastated the cathedral, during the visit of French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner (not pictured) in Paris, France, April 16, 2019. Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool via REUTERSPope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, was praying for those affected, the Vatican said, adding: “Notre-Dame will always remain - and we have seen this in these hours - a place where believers and non-believers can come together in the most dramatic moments of French history.” Britain’s Queen Elizabeth expressed deep sadness while her son and heir Prince Charles said he was “utterly heartbroken”. Chancellor Angela Merkel offered German help to rebuild a part of “our common European heritage”. Considered among the finest examples of European Gothic architecture, Notre-Dame is visited by more than 13 million people a year. It sits on an island in the Seine, overlooking the Left Bank hangouts of Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. “Notre-Dame de Paris is the cathedral of the people, of the people of Paris, of the French people, of the people of the world. It is part of those references of our history, of what we have in common, of what we share,” said Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. It was at Notre-Dame that Henry VI of England was crowned “King of France” in 1431, that Napoleon was made emperor in 1804, and Pope Pius X beatified Joan of Arc in 1909. Presidents Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand were mourned there. The cathedral is owned by the state and has been at the centre of a dispute between the nation and the Paris archdiocese over who should finance restoration work to collapsed balustrades, crumbling gargoyles and cracked facades. It was too early to estimate the cost of the damage, said the heritage charity Fondation du Patrimoine. Paolo Violini, a restoration specialist for Vatican museums, said the pace of the fire’s spread had been stunning. “We are used to thinking about them as eternal simply because they have been there for centuries, or a thousand years, but the reality is they are very fragile,” Violini said. The company carrying out the renovation works when the blaze broke out said it would cooperate fully with the investigation. Slideshow (23 Images)“All I can tell you is that at the moment the fire began none of my employees were on the site. We respected all procedures,” Julien Le Bras, a representative of family firm Le Bras Freres. Many relics and artworks were saved. At one point, firefighters, policemen and municipal workers formed a human chain to remove the treasures, including a centuries-old crown of thorns made from reeds and gold, and the tunic believed to have been worn by Saint Louis, a 13th century king of France. Gold, silver and gem-inlaid chalices, candelabras and many other artefacts survived the blaze. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Inti Landauro, Richard Lough, Sarah White, Emmanuel Jarry, Luke Baker and John Irish in Paris; Additional reporting by Philip Pullella in Rome and Michelle Martin in Berlin; Writing by Richard Lough and Frances Kerry; Editing by Leigh Thomas, Peter Graff and Alison WilliamsOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump attacked James Comey as a “weak and untruthful slime ball” on Friday after the fired former FBI director castigated him as an unethical liar and likened him to a mob moss in a searing new memoir. The president fired Comey last May while his agency was investigating potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 U.S. election in a move that led the Justice Department to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller to take over a probe that has hung over his presidency. “This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” Comey said in the book due out Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Trump has often publicly criticized Comey since firing him, but escalated his attacks in response to the book. “It was my great honor to fire James Comey!” Trump said in one of a series of scorching Twitter messages, adding that Comey - now one of the Republican president’s fiercest critics - had been a terrible FBI director. The tirade followed news accounts of Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” which paints a deeply unflattering picture of Trump, comparing him to a mob boss who stresses personal loyalty over the law and has little regard for morality or truth. Mueller is looking into whether Trump has sought to obstruct the Russia probe, and Comey could be a key witness on that front. Comey last year accused Trump of pressuring him to pledge loyalty and end a probe involving former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Moscow. “James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR,” Trump wrote. Trump accused Comey of lying to Congress, but did not specify was he was referring to, and said the former FBI chief should be prosecuted for leaking classified information. Related CoverageTrump's 'slime ball' tweet sparks rush to online dictionaryHighlights from former FBI Director James Comey's new bookTrump has denied any collusion and has called Mueller’s investigation a witch hunt. Comey is conducting a series of media interviews before the book’s official release. Copies of the book were obtained by news outlets on Thursday. The interviews are Comey’s first public comments since he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last June, when he accused Trump of firing him to undermine the FBI’s Russia investigation. Just days after Trump fired Comey, the president said he did it because of “this Russia thing.” Trump has launched a series of attacks since last year against U.S. law enforcement leaders and institutions as the Russia probe pressed forward, in addition to Comey and Mueller. “People will rot in hell for besmirching the reputation the integrity and the professional history of these two men,” Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Himes said on CNN, referring to Comey and Mueller, himself a former FBI director. In an offshoot of the Mueller probe, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer’s office and home were raided by the Federal Bureau on Investigation on Monday. In an interview broadcast on Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Comey discussed his initial encounters last year with Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, 2017. He described Trump as volatile, defensive and concerned more about his own image than about whether Russia meddled in the presidential election. A combination of file photos show U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. April 9, 2018 and former FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria, Jonathan Ernst/File Photos American intelligence agencies last year said Russia interfered in the election through a campaign of propaganda and hacking in a scheme to sow discord in the United States and help get Trump elected. Moscow has denied meddling. Comey said he cautioned Trump against ordering an investigation into a salacious intelligence dossier alleging an 2013 encounter involving prostitutes in Moscow. The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele about Trump’s ties to Russia and included an allegation that involved prostitutes urinating on one another in a hotel room while Trump watched. Trump denied the allegations and said he might want the FBI to investigate allegations in the dossier to prove they were untrue, Comey told ABC. “I said to him, ‘Sir that’s up to you but you want to be careful about that because it might create a narrative that we’re investigating you personally and, second, it’s very difficult to prove something didn’t happen,’” Comey said. Asked to describe that Jan. 6, 2017 meeting two weeks before Trump took office, Comey said: “Really weird. It was almost an out-of-body experience for me.” Comey was asked if he believed the dossier’s allegations. “I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013,” Comey told ABC. “It’s possible, but I don’t know.” Comey said the dossier’s allegations had not been verified by the time he left the FBI. Before Trump and Comey met alone, U.S. intelligence chiefs briefed Trump and his advisers about the Russian election meddling. What struck him most, Comey told ABC, was that the conversation moved straight into a public relations mode, what they could say and how they could position Trump. A copy of former FBI director James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty" is seen in New York City, New York, U.S. April 13, 2018. REUTERS/Soren Larson“No one, to my recollection, asked, ‘So what’s coming next from the Russians, how might we stop it, what’s the future look like?’” Comey said. (GRAPHIC: Major milestones in the Mueller probe - tmsnrt.rs/2GTgtnX) Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Angela Moore in New York; Additional reporting by Justin Mitchell in Washington; Editing by Frances Kerry and Will DunhamOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.