Thomas Mooney, a lawyer who is representing Mr. Henry on state burglary and malicious destruction of property charges related to the National Harbor episode, said he would plead not guilty. A public defender representing Mr. Henry on the federal charge did not immediately return a call for comment on Monday afternoon.Mr. Henry was reported missing after he left work around noon on March 26, and his family was concerned about his “physical and emotional welfare,” according to a public notice issued by the Montgomery County Police Department.A spokeswoman for Hughes Network Systems, a broadband satellite company in Germantown, said Mr. Henry had previously been employed there as an independent contractor. The company declined to provide details about his position.Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of George Washington University’s program on Extremism, said there is a long history of using vehicles as weapons of terror. In 2010, Al Qaeda promoted the use of cars to run over people in its online magazine, in an article titled “The Ultimate Mowing Machine.”It was not until the rise of the Islamic State in 2014, however, that vehicular attacks became a common occurrence in Western countries. The most devastating was the 2016 attack on Bastille Day. It was followed by an attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 as well as numerous smaller ISIS-inspired attacks in Europe and in North America.An ISIS motto has become, “It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do something,” Mr. Hughes said. And vehicles, of course, are easier to obtain than other weapons.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon faced off with a heckler at the Citadel Republican Society in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday evening. Bannon was discussing Hillary Clinton's approach to a rape case when she was a lawyer when a woman stood up and shouted something. As the woman was dragged out by security guards, Bannon joked that it was as if 'one of my ex-wives' had showed up, before saying: 'You're a good girl, you got the right for free speech – outside.'

Joining a long tradition of companies and campaigns that drop bad news on holidays, Facebook on Thanksgiving eve took responsibility for hiring a Washington-based lobbying company, Definers Public Affairs, that pushed negative stories about Facebook’s critics, including the philanthropist George Soros.Facebook’s communications and policy chief, Elliot Schrage, said in a memo posted Wednesday that he was responsible for hiring the group, and had done so to help protect the company’s image and conduct research about high-profile individuals who spoke critically about the social media platform. Mr. Schrage will be leaving the company, a move planned before the memo was released.Facebook fired Definers last week, after a New York Times investigation published on Nov. 14.“Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?” Mr. Schrage wrote in the memo, a draft of which had circulated online earlier in the week. “Yes.”He added: “I’m sorry I let you all down. I regret my own failure here.”[Sheryl Sandberg is said to have asked Facebook employees to examine George Soros’s finances after he criticized the social media giant.]This is a change from just a few days ago, when Facebook wrote on Nov. 15 that the Times report was full of “inaccuracies.” The same day, Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, posted on her Facebook page that she had no idea the company had hired Definers.“I did not know we hired them or about the work they were doing,” Ms. Sandberg said, adding, “I have great respect for George Soros.” But in the Thanksgiving eve memo, Ms. Sandberg issued an about-face, acknowledging that the Republican-oriented company’s work had crossed her desk.“Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me,” Ms. Sandberg wrote, ”and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.”Mr. Soros, a Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist with a focus on progressive causes, is a frequent target of anti-Semitism and has become an obsession within conspiracy-minded online pockets. Over the last year, the conspiracy theories about him have moved to the mainstream right wing. On Twitter, President Donald Trump has accused Mr. Soros of paying protesters.Mr. Soros upset Facebook after calling it a “menace to society” at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2018. The company subsequently asked Definers to focus on Mr. Soros.Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society Foundation, Mr. Soros’ philanthropic group, criticized the company for the timing of its statement and on Wednesday called for independent, congressional oversight.Mr. Schrage’s memo was sent to Facebook employees on Tuesday. But he waited until Wednesday night to post it to the public.

Who gets to govern India’s thriving payments ecosystem? The matter has become the latest bone of contention between the country’s central bank and prime minister Narendra Modi’s government.In September, an inter-ministerial committee appointed by the government recommended that payments, or transactions done through e-wallets and cards, should be governed by an independent regulator—payments regulatory board (PRB)—and not the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The committee was headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, the economic affairs secretary.This, the panel said, will foster competition and ensure consumer protection, systemic stability, and resilience.The central bank vehemently opposed this move and has submitted a strong dissent note to the government, a copy of which was uploaded on its website on Oct. 19. “There is no case of having a regulator for payment systems outside the RBI,” said the apex bank. “…changes should not result in existing foundations being shaken and the potential creation of disturbances in an otherwise well-functioning and internationally-acclaimed structure as far as India is concerned.”The debate comes amidst the sprouting of payment companies in the country, especially in the digital space. The sector is now a battleground of sorts with foreign players like Google (which operates the Google Pay e-wallet) and WhatsApp competing with Alibaba-backed Paytm and the government’s own Unified Payments Interface (UPI).The ecosystem is estimated to grow over five times to $1 trillion by 2023, according to Credit Suisse.However, payments in India are still dominated by banks, which have launched their own e-wallets besides enabling payments through the more traditional plastic money, or cards. As the banking regulator, the RBI believes payments are inseparable from other banking operations.The RBI has stressed that the PRB can only be headed by the central bank governor. Since banks are the major providers of payments services, having a common regulator ensures synergy and inspires public confidence in the payment instruments, it says.“There has been no evidence of any inefficiency in payments systems of India…India is gaining international recognition as a leader in payments systems. Given this, there need not be any change in a well-functioning system,” the RBI argued in its note to the government.So why fix something that isn’t broken, the apex bank seems to ask.This isn’t the first time that the RBI and the government have had divergent views on an issue. The two have often openly squabbled over monetary policy rates. On multiple occasions, the government has reportedly tried to arm-twist the central bank to cut interest rates to bolster economic growth. This was resisted by the RBI, citing inflation concerns.On certain occasions, disputes have taken such a serious turn that previous RBI governors have even expressed concerns over the banking regulator’s autonomy. “RBI is independent within the limits set by the government,” former central bank governor YV Reddy had famously said several years ago.Want to read more from Nupur Anand? Subscribe to Quartz Private Key—Quartz’s premium crypto newsletter, delivered twice weekly.

Another day, another shocking headline about rape in India, from the 30 girls in a Bihar shelter who were allegedly sexually abused over many years to the 10-year-old child who escaped from another “shelter” in Uttar Pradesh and ran to a police station asking for help.Rapes have become the new normal in my country. So much so that India’s supreme court made headlines itself on Monday, asking: “What is to be done? Girls and women are getting raped left, right and centre.” This is unusual practice for a supreme court anywhere, and underlines the gravity of the situation. Justice Madan Lokur of the supreme court pointed out: “The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data observes that a woman is raped every six hours in India.”Even the highly regarded Tata Institute of Social Sciences, in Mumbai, has reported the abuse of minors and women. It uncovered evidence while conducting a social audit of government shelters earlier this year. A medical report confirmed 34 girls had been sexually abused.The 10-year-old in Uttar Pradesh begged the police to save her and her friends. Every evening, she said, red, black, grey cars came and took her friends away. They brought them back in the morning and the girls cried all day. Please help them, she pleaded. Predictably, she captured hearts and headlines. So it became national news.Likewise, the alleged gang rape of a 13-year-old tribal girl, by seven tribal men, five of whom were juveniles. This was in Jharkhand state, adjoining Bihar. The child was grazing cattle outside her village when seven men were said to have pounced on her. One veteran social activist explained to me some decades ago: “Sex before marriage was accepted by tribal communities, so where was the need for rape?”The same person sadly reported that rape is now rampant in tribal Jharkhand. Boys as young as 10 download pornography from mobile phone shops for as little as 10 rupees (12p). The combination of endless, violent porn videos and alcohol appears to be a lethal trigger for many rapes in India – a country where traditional Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh society strictly forbids not just sex outside marriage but any mixing of the sexes in towns and villages. Arranged marriages are still the norm across all religions. For repressed men to be fed a constant diet of porn on their phones is a recipe for disaster.The infamous gang rape of a 23-year-old student in Delhi in 2012 that led the city to be called the “rape capital of the world” was carried out by six men who had just been watching violent porn while drinking alcohol, another taboo in orthodox Indian families.Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, a child rights activist for nearly 30 years, told me: “Society is being sexualised, there is sexual content everywhere, in films and music. Rampant, vicious porn is easily available to children. Middle-class families may monitor what their kids watch, but uneducated and illiterate people haven’t a clue about what their kids see on their phones. The vegetable vendor near my house sits glued to his mobile all day. Two young boys with one wire plugged into an ear each, sharing a video. I can assure you they are not watching the news.” Thukral, like me, is depressed. “Why should the supreme court publicly lament the situation?” she said. “We look to the supreme court for solutions, not laments. It needs to see that implementation of laws regarding women’s safety is stringently carried out.”For decades, women’s groups have fought long and hard to put safety measures in place through special laws. But where is the proper governance and monitoring of juvenile homes and women’s shelters? We have special police now, to check on internet crime, harassment and abuse. How do we protect children and women from predators and harmful porn?My liberal friends have fought for civil liberties and freedom of expression over the years. As a journalist I support that. But grassroots activists like me are increasingly sick of liberals fighting for freedom to watch violent, sadistic porn. One tired human rights defender said: “It’s hard to stomach glib sermons on the right to freedom to use a potential ‘driver of rape’ [porn] when faced with a wounded, bleeding raped woman or child.”I have to say I agree with her. It’s time for the courts and the government to look seriously at how we can clamp down on porn in India. As we approach India’s 71st Independence Day anniversary, on 15 August, perhaps we can focus on freedom from fear for our women and children.• Mari Marcel Thekaekara is a human rights activist and writer based in Tamil Nadu Topics Rape and sexual assault Opinion India Pornography Child protection South and Central Asia comment

Colette Courtion was a few months along in her first pregnancy when her friends decided to impart some wisdom. She assumed it would be about weight gain or sleepless nights.Instead, the pals detailed the trauma their pelvic floors experienced as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. They offered little hope, conveying the troubles as inevitable inconveniences.Related: This Is What Happened When I Tried Gwyneth Paltrow’s Kegel Exerciser“They said, ‘Colette, every time you sneeze you’ll pee your pants. And that’s something you’ll have to learn to live with,'” she says.Courtion, the former CEO of cosmetic device company Jenu Biosciences, looked up the topic, which she discovered was vastly underrepresented in the field of medicine. According to Kaiser Permanente, one-third of women suffer from one or more pelvic floor disorders. Most women are prescribed Kegel exercises or invasive surgery, with not many treatment options in between.Courtion’s rude awakening inspired her to ultimately quit and sell Jenu Biosciences and use her expertise in technology and medical aesthetics to target women’s sexual wellness. She thought, “I’ve been working with these technologies that are about rebuilding collagen and elastin in the tissue. Could I do the same for the vaginal tissue and help eliminate these symptoms?”Bringing The Doctor’s Office HomeIn 2014, she launched Joylux, which brings together technologists and gynecologists to solve women’s anatomy issues. From the get-go, the majority of the staff was female, from the engineers to the designers that worked on the physical design of the product. “I wanted them to be women so that they could really understand from a firsthand experience what the issues were and what we’re solving for,” says Courtion. She now serves as Joylux’s CEO.In 2017, the startup released vSculpt, the first home-use vaginal rejuvenation device using light-energy (red and infrared LEDs), gentle heat, and sonic technology to treat the vaginal tissue and pelvic floor muscles in the U.K. and Canada. A year later, it launched the product in the U.S. under the name vFit, for $395.Related: Can Silicon Valley Get You Pregnant?This type of energy-based technology already exists in doctors’ offices. Medical experts use laser or radio frequencies to treat vaginal tissue and rebuild collagen and elastin, thereby improving blood flow and lubrication. In 2015, there was more than $500 million worth of procedures dedicated to this technique.Joylux’s product offers the privacy of home use, an alternative that might better appeal to women who feel either embarrassed discussing symptoms with a doctor–or unable to afford in-office procedures, which range between $3,000 to $5,000.vFit [Photo: courtesy of Joylux]Suffering In SilenceIn conjunction with a third-party research organization, the Benchmark Group, Joylux surveyed 2,300 women and found that 50% of respondents reported bladder leakage issues, and more than 65% experienced vaginal dryness or pain during intercourse. It wasn’t just older women reporting issues, but women in their 20s and 30s, many of whom reported that their birth control–which affects estrogen levels–lowered natural lubrication.As for whether these respondents were interested in a home solution, a whopping 95% answered yes. “That tells me that it’s an underserved market,” says Courtion. “They are looking for something to help them because they’ve been suffering for so long.”The trade-off is time. Medical procedures last five to 10 minutes, with one or two follow-ups, while an at-home device–at a fraction of the cost–requires 10 minutes of use every other day for six to eight weeks. Joylux conducted a study showing vFit is on par with office procedures, which was published in the peer-reviewed International Urogynecology Journal.A Whole New Intimate MarketJoylux is one of many startups targeting women’s sexual wellness. Unbound, which sells a quarterly box of sex toys and publishes sexual health content, recently raised $2.7 million. Lioness is a vibrator that collects data about users’ vaginal temperature and movements through an app. O.School, meanwhile, is a virtual classroom providing shame-free sexual education.In fact, the U.S. sexual wellness market is expected to reach $8.8 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.Related: The Medical Research Gap That’s Leaving Women’s Health Startups BehindMen have traditionally led health tech, and therefore couldn’t know–or properly empathize with–this discreet issue. In comparison, billions of dollars have benefitted men’s intimate issues like erectile dysfunction–which plagues one in four men, a smaller percentage than female intimate issues.Dr. Renee Horowitz, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Center for Sexual Wellness, says the medical community mostly ignored this prevalent issue. “Physicians don’t ask about sexual health for a lot of reasons,” she explains, noting lack of time, insufficient knowledge, or just sheer unease. And it’s no small matter: Sexual health impacts relationships, can lead to anxiety and depression, and affect confidence. “There are a lot of issues that become entangled in our sexual health.”Courtion predicts tremendous growth in women’s sexual health, pointing to medical conferences that increasingly offer vaginal rejuvenation as a track. She also sees what was once a very taboo issue being stripped of its silence. That’s partially due to celebrities like Kris Jenner or Kate Winslet openly discussing urinary incontinence, but also just a general psychological change in how women view their health.“Women are becoming far much more empowered to embrace their health in all parts of their life,” says Courtion.Joylux, which raised $10 million since its launch, plans to release an entire collection of new products targeting pelvic floor health in the next 12 months. Currently, the startup is emulating the Clarisonic model: partnering with doctors offices and physicians to get it into consumers’ hands. The hope is to build trust by way of medical experts. Courtion thinks the vaginal rejuvenation market can potentially swell to $2 billion, though she still faces skepticism every so often.Related: The Top 11 Innovations That Made Women’s Lives Better In 2017“The question I get a lot from investors and people that I brought onto the company after I founded it is: Why hasn’t this been done before?” says Courtion. Her response is that women shied away from freely discussing such an intimate issue, thereby enforcing its hidden status. That’s changing: “They’re being far more open in talking about the symptoms and the issues that they face.”Horowitz considers frank talk an important step in moving the platform forward, advising women to first and foremost share their experiences with one another. “We talk to our girlfriends about everything, but most of us don’t talk to our girlfriends about our sexual life,” she says. “Once women realize they’re not unique in the problems, then maybe they’d be more comfortable approaching their physician.”Courtion sees the tide shifting, as women’s empowerment changes the political and American landscape. Their voices are echoing across industries, including one they were once too embarrassed to even recognize with pals.“The timing for a product like ours and the time for the market to expand is absolutely now,” stresses Courtion. “There’s no reason why women should have painful sex. There’s no reason why women shouldn’t deal with these issues, because there’s now technologies and solutions like ours that can help.”

A 22-count indictment was returned on Tuesday against a New Jersey man in the killings of eight people during a truck attack on a bike path in New York City.Sayfullo Saipov, 29, of Paterson, was charged in Manhattan federal court with providing material support to the Islamic State group, along with eight counts of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering. Numerous counts carry a potential penalty of death.He was arrested after people were run over by a vehicle on 31 October in a midday attack that authorities immediately labeled terrorism.His lawyer did not return a message seeking comment.In a release, the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, called the attack a “calculated act of terrorism in the heart of one of our great cities”.Acting US attorney Joon H Kim said “scores of videos and images on his cellphone” would be part of the evidence in the case against Saipov.“Like many terrorists before him, Saipov will now face justice in an American court,” Kim said. “And like New York City’s response to his alleged attack, we expect that justice in this case will be swift, firm and resolute.”William F Sweeney Jr, head of New York’s FBI office, said the indictment should signal “that the rule of law will always prevail”.“When Sayfullo Saipov carried out his brutal attack last month, his intentions were to inflict significant damage, death and injury to innocent victims and terrorize this city,” Sweeney added. “We announce today’s indictment with the understanding that nothing can ever reverse the unfortunate events of that day, or alleviate the pain and sorrow of the victims’ families.”Saipov, held without bail, was charged with using a rental truck to mow down cyclists and pedestrians on a bike path.Authorities said he made statements after his arrest about his allegiance to the Islamic State group, which later took credit for the attack. He was shot by a police officer after crashing the truck into a school bus. His injury was minor enough that he was transferred to a prison facility in Manhattan two days later.Saipov came to the US legally in 2010 from Uzbekistan, where officials say he had no history of trouble with the law. He first lived in Ohio, where he was a commercial truck driver, then in Florida. He most recently lived in New Jersey with his wife and children, and worked as an Uber driver.Authorities said in court papers that Saipov told investigators he was inspired to carry out the attack after watching a video of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi questioning “what Muslims in the United States and elsewhere were doing to respond to the killing of Muslims in Iraq”.Evidence against him includes what was found on two of his cellphones, according to court documents. Investigators said one phone contained 90 videos and other Islamic State propaganda, including one of a beheading and another of a tank running over a prisoner. The other phone showed a search for truck rental outlets. Topics New York truck attack New York news

Two prominent House Republicans met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this week over the pace of DOJ document production to Congress, the latest example of friction between congressional Republicans and senior Justice Department officials. Reps. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, members of the House Freedom Caucus and the House Oversight Committee and allies of President Donald Trump, met with Rosenstein on Monday to express concern over the "slow pace" and "excessive redactions" of documents turned over to Congress, according to an aide. The meeting, first reported by the Washington Post, comes as the GOP chairmen of the House Oversight, Intelligence and Judiciary Committees have demanded DOJ turn over copies of James Comey's memos detailing his encounters with Trump to Congress. Republicans on all three committees are investigating the FBI's handling of the Clinton and Trump-Russia investigations, and have been sharply critical of the pace of DOJ's document production to Congress.Trump on possibility of firing Mueller and Rosenstein: 'They’re still here'James Comey says Robert Mueller is 'not on anybody's side'Trump would 'never' sign legislation to protect Mueller: Republican senator Rosenstein, in a letter to the chairmen earlier this week, asked for a few more days to comply with the request for both unredacted and declassified copies of Comey's memos, citing concerns about releasing any documents related to ongoing investigations or that may contain classified information. "None of us would want the FBI to release sensitive government records without careful and appropriate review," Rosenstein wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by ABC News. The meetings with Rosenstein and related DOJ document requests come as Trump has expressed frustration with the Russia investigation, the recent FBI raid on his personal lawyer Michael Cohen's home and office, and the ongoing legal proceedings in New York. On Wednesday, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, told him that he plans to issue a subpoena to force DOJ to turn over the memos. Citing DOJ regulations preventing the department from turning over materials related to an ongoing criminal investigation to Congress, Nadler accused Republicans of attempting to discredit Rosenstein, who supervises special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. "If House Republicans refuse any accommodation short of the Department of Justice handing over custody of these documents -— which it cannot do -- I fear the Majority will have manufactured an excuse to hold the Deputy Attorney General in contempt of Congress," he wrote. "If they succeed in tarnishing the Deputy Attorney General, perhaps they will have given President Trump the pretext he has sought to replace Mr. Rosenstein with someone willing to do his bidding and end the Special Counsel’s investigation." Asked about the possible firing of Rosenstein or Mueller on Wednesday, Trump dismissed the speculation. "They've been saying I'm going to get rid of them for the last four five months, but they're still here," Trump said. A spokesperson for Goodlatte did not return a request for comment.

Enlarge this image Deb Lee/NPR Deb Lee/NPR You're reading NPR's weekly roundup of education news.Schools and colleges are coping with extreme heat2018 was the fourth-hottest summer on record. One impact of climate change: Dozens of school districts, particularly in the Northeast, had to close early this week because of inadequate air conditioning. It happened in Maryland, Massachusetts , Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and also in New Jersey, where several students at one school collapsed in gym class.Some universities — such as the University of Pennsylvania, NYU and Yale — were also disrupted by the heat wave.Teacher testifies at Kavanaugh hearingOklahoma City high school social studies teacher Melissa Smith was called by Democrats as a witness against Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination. Smith was active in the teacher walkouts that swept Oklahoma earlier this year. Education Is This Supreme Court Decision The End Of Teachers Unions? In hearings on Friday, she spoke to Kavanaugh's past support of school vouchers programs, his likely rulings on future labor union cases and his records on gun safety and immigration.Who is a typical college student?As we reported this week, 3 out of 4 of today's college students are "nontraditional" in some way: financially independent, working adults, part-time students, enrolling some time after high school, and perhaps with children of their own. Changing Face Of College Today's College Students Aren't Who You Think They Are College marketing websites targeting would-be military recruits shuts downEver visit Army.com or Navyenlist.com? They're not official U.S. Armed Forces sites. They're actually copycats set up to get personal information from aspiring recruits. That info was then sold to companies operating college and career programs, for up to $40 per name. Recruiters for those companies left the false impression that the military endorsed their programs. That's all according to the Federal Trade Commission, which has demanded that the copycat domains be handed over in order to shut them down.New data: selective colleges and STEM majors improve earningsGoing to a highly ranked college will bump your earnings about 11 percent versus one that's nonselective. Meanwhile, a for-profit college means a 17 percent ding on future paychecks. That's according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education.They also looked at earnings by major. No surprises here. STEM degrees bring home the most loot, and arts the least.Thirsty for more info on earnings by major? The Census Bureau has a new tool that can link college transcripts to its own earnings information. The University of Texas was the first school to share data through this program. Longhorns with economics degrees, turns out, earn more than psychologists.New survey: teachers say schools not prepared for jobs of the futureTwo-thirds of about 2,000 K-12 teachers surveyed think schools should place more emphasis on teaching technology. Yet, just one in 10 feels themselves qualified to teach an up-to-date skill like data analytics or app design. Those numbers were low even for experienced teachers and those at affluent schools. All of this is according to global business services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.Congress should decide whether schools can use federal funds for guns, DeVos writesThe education secretary wrote to Democratic members of Congress that she has "no intention" of taking action on the question of whether to allow districts to use a federal grant program to purchase firearms. This comes after reports that the Education Department was mulling the controversial policy move in response to inquiries from a few states. Some security experts argue that more guns in schools is a recipe for more violence, and indeed federal law currently designates schools as "Gun-Free."

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked to the world of digital currency to circumvent U.S.-led financial sanctions, announcing on Sunday the launch of the “petro” backed by oil reserves to shore up a collapsed economy. The leftist leader offered few specifics about the currency launch or how the struggling OPEC member would pull off such a feat, but he declared to cheers that “the 21st century has arrived!” “Venezuela will create a cryptocurrency,” backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, Maduro said in his regular Sunday televised broadcast, a five-hour showcase of Christmas songs and dancing. The petro, he said, would help Venezuela “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade.” Opposition leaders derided the announcement, which they said needed congressional approval, and some cast doubt on whether the digital currency would ever see the light of day in the midst of turmoil. The real currency, the bolivar, is in freefall, and the country is sorely lacking in basic needs like food and medicine. Still, the announcement highlights how sanctions enacted this year by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are hurting Venezuela’s ability to move money through international banks. Washington has levied sanctions against Venezuelan officials, PDVSA executives and the country’s debt issuance. Sources say compliance departments are scrutinizing transactions linked to Venezuela, which has slowed some bond payments and complicated certain oil exports. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly radio and TV broadcast "Los Domingos con Maduro" (The Sundays with Maduro) in Caracas, Venezuela, December 3, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERSMaduro’s pivot away from the U.S. dollar comes after the recent spectacular rise of bitcoin, which has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world. The announcement bewildered some followers of cryptocurrencies, which typically are not backed by any government or central banks. Ironically, Venezuela’s currency controls in recent years have spurred a bitcoin fad among tech-savvy Venezuelans looking to bypass controls to obtain dollars or make internet purchases. Maduro’s government has a poor track record in monetary policy. Currency controls and excessive money printing have led to a 57 percent depreciation of the bolivar against the dollar in the last month alone on the widely used black market. That has dragged down the monthly minimum wage to a mere $4.30. For the millions of Venezuelans plunged into poverty and struggling to eat three meals a day, Maduro’s announcement is unlikely to bring any immediate relief. Economists and opposition leaders say Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, has recklessly refused to overhaul Venezuela’s controls and stem the economic meltdown. He could now be seeking to pay bondholders and foreign creditors in the currency amid a plan to restructure the country’s major debt burden, opposition leaders said, but the plan is likely to flop. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly radio and TV broadcast "Los Domingos con Maduro" (The Sundays with Maduro) in Caracas, Venezuela, December 3, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS“It’s Maduro being a clown. This has no credibility,” opposition lawmaker and economist Angel Alvarado told Reuters. “I see no future in this,” added fellow opposition legislator Jose Guerra. Maduro says he is trying to combat a Washington-backed conspiracy to sabotage his government and end socialism in Latin America. On Sunday he said Venezuela was facing a financial “world war.” Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Mary MillikenOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A peace settlement to end the six-year Syrian civil war will require compromise by all sides, including the Assad government, Vladimir Putin has said as the presidents of Iran and Turkey arrived in the Black Sea resort of Sochi amid some of the most audacious Russian diplomatic activity in decades.The summit between the three powers, all deeply involved in the conflict, is designed to pave the way for a settlement likely to leave Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-backed president, Bashar al-Assad, in power within a reformed Syrian constitution. It follows the near-collapse of the Syrian opposition since Moscow’s armed intervention in 2015 and the military defeat of Islamic State in all of the major towns and cities that were under its control. “The militants in Syria have sustained a decisive blow and now there is a realistic chance to end the multi-year civil war,” Putin declared as he hosted Iran’s Hassan Rouhani and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sochi.“The Syrian people will have to determine their own future and agree on the principles of their own statehood. It is obvious that the process of reform will not be easy and will require compromises and concessions from all participants, including of course the government of Syria.”Putin hosted Assad in Sochi on Monday and extracted a more emollient tone than normal. He insisted on Wednesday that Assad was committed to a peace process, constitutional reform and free elections.The Russian leader also held a frantic round of telephone diplomacy with other world leaders including Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. Putin urged Iran and Turkey to start a discussion with him on the reconstruction of Syria. “Given the colossal scale of the destruction it would be possible to think together about the development of a comprehensive program for Syria,” he said.He claimed military de-escalation zones had reduced the levels of violence and hundreds of thousands of refugees were returning home.The three-way summit endorsed his plan for a Syrian national dialogue congress to be held in Russia in December. The meeting is intended to help frame a constitution for an integrated Syria, including the terms of presidential elections in which Assad would be entitled to stand.But in a sign of the difficulties ahead, Erdoğan is insisting Syrian Kurds are excluded from the congress on the grounds that the Kurds are linked with Turkish Kurdish groups that Turkey says are terrorists. Syrian Kurds have been instrumental in the defeat of Isis as part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.Erdoğan was once one of the main backers of the splintered Syrian opposition but is now primarily focused on what Turkey sees as the Kurdish threat on its border.Rouhani said the grounds for a political settlement had been laid but he argued it was “unacceptable” for foreign troops not invited into Syria by the government to remain in the country – a reference to US troops in the north-east of the country.Separately, Israel is demanding that the Iranian military presence inside Syria is reined back, especially near the occupied Golan Heights.The UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura will be briefed on Putin’s plans in Moscow on Thursday.Simultaneously, Syrian opposition leaders are meeting in Saudi Arabia to choose a new negotiating team and platform for UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva that are due to restart on 28 November.The reconstitution and expansion of the negotiating team has already led to mass resignations by prominent Syrian opposition figures including the former chair of the High Negotiations Committee, Riyad Hijab.Those who have resigned complain that the international community, especially Russia, is trying to force them to accept that Assad can remain in office despite his brutal tactics in the civil war, including the UN-documented use of chemical weapons. They also claim Putin, despite his denials, is undermining the UN peace process in favour of a separate peace track with Russian-selected delegates to the national dialogue congress.De Mistura told the opposition delegates they could instil a new dynamic into the Geneva talks if they could agree “a cohesive, representative, strategically wise, effective team that reflects the diversity of the Syrian society and is ready to negotiate without preconditions, in the same way as the government will be expected to do.”The flurry of diplomatic activity underlines the degree to which the US and the EU have been sidelined from the process. Topics Syria Russia Iran Turkey Vladimir Putin Hassan Rouhani Recep Tayyip Erdoğan news

Brett Kavanaugh “strongly opposed” giving Bill Clinton “any ‘break’” on questions regarding his sexual relationship with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky, according to a memo written by the supreme court nominee in 1998 and released to the public on Monday.As Washington buzzed over Robert Mueller’s investigation of links between aides to Donald Trump and Russia and the chances of the special counsel being granted a presidential interview, the two-page document was released by the National Archives and Records Administration.Twenty years ago, Kavanaugh was an associate counsel for the independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who was investigating the president. Writing on 15 August 1998, two days before Clinton testified to a grand jury from the White House, he posed 10 suggested questions about the affair with Lewinsky, many of them sexually explicit.Kavanaugh also said Clinton had “lied to his aides”, “lied to the American people” and “disgraced … the office” with a “sustained propaganda campaign that would make Nixon blush”.He was “strongly opposed to giving the president any ‘break’ in the questioning regarding the details of the Lewinsky relationship”, he wrote, unless Clinton “resigns” or “confesses perjury”.He then suggested a list of questions. One was: “If Monica Lewinsky says that you inserted a cigar into her vagina while you were in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?”Another: “If Monica Lewinsky says that you ejaculated in her mouth on two occasions in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?”Kavanaugh also suggested asking Clinton “if Monica Lewinsky says that on several occasions in the Oval Office area, you used your fingers to stimulate her vagina and bring her to orgasm, would she be lying?” and “If Monica Lewinsky says that you masturbated into a trashcan in your secretary’s office, would she be lying?”Kavanaugh urged that it was the function of the independent counsel to “make [Clinton’s] pattern of revolting behavior clear”.“The idea of going easy on him at the questioning is thus abhorrent to me,” he wrote.If successful, Kavanaugh will become Trump’s second appointed justice, tilting the court firmly to the right. His confirmation hearing is set to begin on 4 September and the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants a floor vote before 1 October.Republicans and Democrats have clashed over access to documents related to Kavanaugh’s time as a staff member in the George W Bush White House, the release of which is part of the normal vetting process for supreme court nominees.Democrats have made clear that Kavanaugh’s views on criminal investigations and executive powers will be a key focus of his hearing.In a 2009 article for the Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh cited his experience as part of Starr’s team while arguing that presidents should not be “distracted” by potential criminal investigations while in office.In the two-page memo released on Monday, he said it was the role of an independent or special counsel to gather and expose the “full facts regarding the actions of this president” for Congress to consider.“The president has disgraced his office, the legal system, and the American people by having sex with a 22-year-old intern and turning her life into a shambles – callous and disgusting behavior that has somehow gotten lost in the shuffle,” Kavanaugh wrote.Some details of the memo were previously reported but the document was not published in its entirety until Monday, when it was made public as part of 12,349 pages of records released by the National Archives in response to freedom of information requests.In a statement, the Archives said the two-page memo was previously made public as part of papers at the Library of Congress belonging to Sam Dash, an ethics adviser to Starr who was also chief counsel to the Senate Watergate committee during the scandal that caused the resignation of Richard Nixon. He died in 2004. Topics US supreme court Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky Donald Trump Trump administration Law (US) US politics news

President Donald Trump took aim at former FBI Director James Comey Friday in a strongly worded tweet, calling him an "untruthful slime ball" and saying that he should be prosecuted for allegedly leaking "CLASSIFIED information." Interested in Donald Trump? Add Donald Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Donald Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Donald Trump Add Interest White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later backed up the president's rebuke – calling Comey "a disgraced partisan hack." "One of the president's greatest achievements will go down as firing Director Comey," Sanders said. The comments come after details from Comey's new book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership," were recently revealed in addition to comments Comey made to ABC News in an exclusive interview with ABC News' chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and.....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018 ....untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018 The White House Friday presented no evidence that any information leaked by Comey was classified. The interview between Comey and Stephanopoulos will air Sunday night on ABC at 10 p.m. ET. During Friday's press briefing Sanders calling Comey's book a "poorly executed PR stunt by Comey to desperately rehabilitate his tattered reputation and enrich his own bank account by peddling a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section." Sanders criticized the ongoing media coverage of Comey's book, as well as the upcoming ABC News interview. "Congress has asked Jim Comey to come and testify multiple times, of which he's denied being able to do," Sanders said. "Yet he found time to sit down with George Stephanopoulos for five hours."Comey says Trump asked if he could disprove salacious prostitute allegations in 'dossier'Comey book claims President Trump sought loyalty like mafia boss 'Sammy the Bull's' induction ceremonyExclusive: James Comey to give first interview to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos In the interview, Comey says the president asked him to investigate the unverified and salacious allegations in the infamous dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele in order to "prove that it didn't happen." Among the allegations, which Trump has vehemently denied, was an alleged sexual encounter with prostitutes in Russia in 2013. Comey said he recalled Trump discussing the dossier during a dinner with the president on Jan. 27, 2017. “He may want me to investigate it to prove that it didn't happen," Comey recalled in the interview. "And then he says something that distracted me because he said, you know, ‘If there's even a 1 percent chance my wife thinks that's true, that's terrible.’ “‘And I remember thinking, ‘How could your wife think there's a 1 percent chance you were with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow?’ I'm a flawed human being, but there is literally zero chance that my wife would think that was true," Comey recalled during the interview. "So, what kind of marriage to what kind of man does your wife think [that] there's only a 99 percent chance you didn't do that?” Comey also claimed that Trump then said, “I may order you to investigate that.” The dossier and its allegations have caused great consternation for the president since their existence was revealed last January and Trump has tweeted extensively about it. Trump has repeatedly attempted to brand Comey as a liar and suggested he leaked classified information to reporters.James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2017 Comey conceded he shared with a friend the contents of a memo he wrote about a key meeting with Trump. "So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter," Comey said during Congressional testimony last year. He said he constructed the memo specifically so that it did not contain classified information. The friend, identified as Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman, denied that the documents had classified markings.

In May 2018 Bunge was fined for activities related to illegal deforestation, and some deforestation-watchers have criticized its subsequent policy update as inadequate.BlackRock, for its part, has supported the Paris Climate Accord and its chief executive, Larry Fink, has been called the “conscience of Wall Street” for his exhortations to companies to “benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers and the communities in which they operate.” Yet Mr. Fink’s most recent letter to investors, published this month, makes no direct mention of climate change, and BlackRock’s statement after Brazil’s election in October appears to celebrate Mr. Bolsonaro’s win, lauding his commitment “to building on the reform agenda put in place over the past two years.”Though the role of asset managers might seem far removed from the felling of trees in the Amazon rain forest, the world’s largest asset managers could play a pivotal role in safeguarding the global climate by way of their investments in companies operating in biomes crucial to climate stability like the Amazon rain forest. The world could have less than 12 years to turn this sinking climate ship around, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report makes clear.Mr. Bolsonaro’s rise to power will test companies’ promises to be responsible. Will leading global agribusiness companies be complicit in Mr. Bolsonaro’s assault on the Amazon and its people, thus sacrificing their commitments, their reputation and our climate? And will financial institutions like BlackRock heed their own calls for companies to pursue purpose and not just profit? Or will they put short-term profits ahead of the planet’s future?If these influential companies don’t take a clear and principled stand against Mr. Bolsonaro’s promises to open the Amazon for business, they will also bear responsibility for abetting his plunder of the world’s largest tropical rain forest.Leila Salazar-López is the executive director of Amazon Watch.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

India has cancelled a meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart less than 24 hours after agreeing to what would have been the first high-level contact between the nuclear-armed neighbours in three years.Delhi’s foreign affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters the planned meeting between Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi had been called off due to events in the past day that had exposed the “evil agenda of Pakistan”.He cited the discovery on Friday morning of the bodies of three police officers in Kashmir, a restive Himalayan territory claimed by both countries, and the scene of an insurgency India says is funded and armed by Islamabad.Pakistan’s postal service had also released a series of 20 commemorative stamps showing scenes of what it calls India’s illegal occupation of Kashmir, some honouring slain militant leaders that Delhi regards as terrorists.The latest killings and the release of the stamps “confirm that Pakistan will not mend its ways”, Kumar said.“The true face of the new prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has been revealed to the world,” he added.Delhi had initially agreed to a request by Khan inviting the countries’ foreign ministers to meet at the sidelines of the UN general assembly next week.Senior officials from the two countries have had no public contact since early 2016, when nascent peace talks were suspended after militants attacked an Indian army air force base near the Pakistan border in Punjab state.India believes the attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad, a militant group alleged to have close ties to Pakistan’s military and intelligence apparatus.The Narendra Modi government had been receiving some criticism, especially among the more jingoistic elements of India’s media, for agreeing to meet with Pakistan days after an Indian border security officer was found with his throat slit along the ceasefire line between the two countries in Kashmir.Hardline anti-India elements within the Pakistan military have also been accused in the past of sabotaging efforts by the country’s civilian leaders to improve ties with India and turn the page on their 70-year antagonistic relationship.Khan, a former cricketer turned politician, peppered his campaign speeches with criticism of India but surprised some by reaching out to Delhi in the first days of his leadership.“Pakistan and India have an undeniably challenging relationship,” Khan had written in a letter to Modi requesting the meeting. “We, however, owe it to our peoples, especially the future generations, to peacefully resolve all outstanding issues.”Pakistan is yet to respond to the cancellation of the meeting. Topics India Pakistan South and Central Asia news

(Reuters) - Thousands more mountain residents were evacuated from the path of California’s biggest wildfire on Friday as fatigued firefighters battled gusting winds driving one of the state’s worst fire seasons in a decade. A DC-10 air tanker drops fire retardant along the crest of a hill to protect the two bulldozers below that were cutting fire lines at the River Fire (Mendocino Complex) near Lakeport, California, U.S. August 2, 2018. REUTERS/Fred Greaves The Mendocino Complex Fire grew to 157,450 acres (63,700 hectares) late Friday, about half the size of Los Angeles, forcing nearly 16,000 homeowners to flee a blaze that has destroyed 88 structures about 93 miles (150 km) north of San Francisco, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). Its size overtook the deadly Carr Fire, about 100 miles (160 km) to the northeast, which is among 17 major blazes burning in tinder-dry forests and woodland peppered with dead trees from the state’s 2011-2017 drought. The Carr Fire spawned a “fire whirl” of flames and winds in excess of 143 mph (230 kph) on July 26 that had the strength of a severe tornado and uprooted trees and toppled power lines, according to a tweet by the National Weather Service. Fueled by triple-digit temperatures, the blazes have put California on track for its most destructive fire year since 2008, in terms of area burned, said Cal Fire Deputy Chief Scott McLean. “These fires are just unpredictable and extremely dangerous. They’ve killed, they’re killers,” said McLean. “It’s going to go through you, around you, over you.” Four wildland firefighters have died in California this year, twice as many as in all of 2017. They included a bulldozer operator whose vehicle nearly slipped off a mountain trail three times before it rolled into a ravine and crushed him at the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park, a Cal Fire report said. The report called for better “risk assessment” among firefighters. Several days of light winds have helped teams control smaller blazes, but they faced a “red flag” warning for increasing winds and heightened fire danger going into the weekend. Firefighters from 16 states have rushed to California, and authorities were reinforcing 3,232 personnel on the Mendocino Complex Fire, which is made up of two blazes. The Carr Fire is 39-percent contained, but firefighters are widening fire breaks to prevent winds from causing it to flare up again. It has destroyed 1,567 homes and other structures and blackened 133,924 acres (54,197 hectares), making it the sixth most destructive California wildfire on record. Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, with additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra MalerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Capitol Hill is unusually lively today (Sept. 4) as Senate confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh begin. Attendees were met by protestors dressed as red-clad handmaidens, symbolizing their opposition to the conservative judge, while angry onlookers interrupted the hearings. “We oughtta have this loudmouth removed,” senator Orrin Hatch complained as a woman shouted while he spoke.In this heated atmosphere, it seems only Dianne Feinstein can get a word in edgewise. The California senator articulated her concerns about Kavanaugh on behalf of the opposition. Addressing her remarks to the nominee directly, she said, “The president who nominated you has said he will nominate someone who is anti-choice and pro-gun. We cannot find the documents that absolve that conclusion…This is why we feel so strongly.”Feinstein said that as student at Stanford University in the 1950s, she saw firsthand how lack of access to legal abortions changed the course of female students’ lives. In the 1960s, Feinstein was a member of the California Women’s Parole Board and saw women who performed illegal abortions sent to state prison. She has seen “both sides” of the choice issue, she says, and fears that Kavanaugh—despite reassurances that he sees Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion, as “settled law”—is a threat to the privacy rights not only of women, but of all Americans. ”The question is really, do you believe that it’s correct law?” Feinstein argued that Kavanaugh’s indifference to the law was evident in his 2017 dissent in Garza v. Hargan (pdf), a case about a Texas minor following state parental notification procedures. “You ignored and mischaracterized Supreme Court precedent,” Feinstein said. “Your argument rewrites Supreme Court precedent. This demonstrates you are willing to disregard precedent.” And if that’s the case, the senator says, there’s no reason to believe Kavanaugh won’t do just that on the high court.For Feinstein, Roe represents more than women’s rights. It’s about everyone’s right to privacy and to freedom. “The impact of overturning Roe is much broader than a woman’s right to choose, it’s about protecting from governmental intrusion, who to marry, where to send children to school, medical care at end of life and whether or when to have a family,” she argued.The senator also took issue with Kavanaugh’s position on gun control. “In reviewing opinions and documents, it’s’s pretty clear that your views go beyond pro gun rights,” she said. Kavanaugh has said that gun laws are unconstitutional unless they are “traditional and common in the US.” As such, Feinstein said, “banning automatic weapons is unconstitutional in your view.” She pointed out that even the late conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged that regulating guns created for the military, like automatic assault rifles, was constitutional. Feinstein called Kavanaugh “far outside the mainstream of legal thought” and noted that conservative judges have called his reasoning “absurd.”“The US makes up 4% of world population but we own 42% of world’s guns. Since 2012…there have been 273 school shootings.” The senator expressed concern that with Kavanaugh on the high court bench, children will be in danger. “You would likely be the deciding vote on fundamental issues,” she reminded him. Explaining the outrage expressed by protestors and Democratic senators opposing the hearings, Feinstein said, “behind the noise is a very sincere belief” that it’s important to keep the US a country that respects privacy rights and the safety of individuals. Her fear, she said, is that Kavanaugh will not help to ensure that the Supreme Court is “a court that really serves the people. That’s my worry.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the U.S. government’s authority to detain immigrants awaiting deportation anytime - potentially even years - after they have completed prison terms for criminal convictions, handing President Donald Trump a victory as he pursues hardline immigration policies. FILE PHOTO: The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsThe court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines, with its conservative justices in the majority and its liberal justices dissenting, that federal authorities could place such immigrants into indefinite detention anytime without the possibility of bail, not just immediately after they finish prison sentences. The ruling, authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, left open the possibility that some immigrants could challenge their detention. These immigrants potentially could argue that the use of the 1996 federal law involved in the case, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, against them long after finishing their sentences would violate their due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. Most of the plaintiffs in the case are legal immigrants. The law states the government can detain convicted immigrants “when the alien is released” from criminal detention. Civil rights lawyers in the case argued that the language of the law shows that it applies only immediately after immigrants are released. The Trump administration said the government should have the power to detain such immigrants anytime. In dissent, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer said the ruling raises serious due process questions. “It runs the gravest risk of depriving those whom the government has detained of one of the oldest and most important of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms,” Breyer wrote. But Alito wrote that it is not the court’s job to impose a time limit for when immigrants can be detained after serving a prison sentence. Alito noted that the court has previously said that “an official’s crucial duties are better carried out late than never.” Alito said the challengers’ assertion that immigrants had to be detained within 24 hours of ending a prison sentence is “especially hard to swallow.” It marked Trump’s latest immigration victory at the court. The conservative justices also were in the majority in June 2018 when the court upheld on a 5-4 vote Trump’s travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority countries. Tuesday’s decision follows a February 2018 ruling in a similar case in which the conservative majority, over liberal dissent, curbed the ability of immigrants held in long-term detention during deportation proceedings to argue for release. American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Cecilia Wang, who argued the newly decided case for the challengers, said that in both rulings “the Supreme Court has endorsed the most extreme interpretation of immigration detention statutes, allowing mass incarceration of people without any hearing, simply because they are defending themselves against a deportation charge.” Wang said the ACLU is “looking into follow-up litigation along various avenues.” Trump has backed limits on legal and illegal immigrants since taking office in January 2017. Kerri Kupec, a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman, said administration officials were pleased with the ruling. The case’s plaintiffs included two legal U.S. residents involved in separate lawsuits filed in 2013, a Cambodian immigrant named Mony Preap convicted of marijuana possession and a Palestinian immigrant named Bassam Yusuf Khoury convicted of attempting to manufacture a controlled substance. In the two detention case rulings, the Supreme Court reversed the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a liberal leaning court with jurisdiction over a large part of the western United States that Trump has frequently criticized. In both cases, litigation against the federal government started before Trump took office. In the latest case, the administration had appealed a 2016 9th Circuit ruling that favored immigrants, a decision it said would undermine the government’s ability to deport immigrants who have committed crimes. The 9th Circuit had ruled that convicted immigrants who are not immediately detained by immigration authorities after finishing their sentences but then later picked up by immigration authorities could seek bond hearings to argue for their release. Other regional federal appeals courts that have addressed the issue did not rule the same way as the 9th Circuit and were more in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling. That means immigrants in those regions who were subject to mandatory detention already were not entitled to bond hearings. Under federal immigration law, immigrants convicted of certain offenses are subject to mandatory detention during their deportation process. They can be held indefinitely without a bond hearing after completing their sentences. In April 2018, conservative Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch joined the court’s four liberals in a 5-4 ruling that could hinder the administration’s ability to step up the removal of immigrants with criminal records, invalidating a provision in another law, the Immigration and Nationality Act. Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Will DunhamOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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To enter, use this form at the Center for Global Development website. The center will help me winnow down the applicants to a much smaller pool of finalists, and then with the help of my assistant, Zoe Greenberg, I’ll choose the winner. My aim is to travel for a week or two, perhaps in the late spring or early summer. I’ll try to work around the winner’s schedule, but if you know for sure you won’t be able to take the time off, then please don’t apply. Your expenses will be covered, but there’s no cash award, and you may have to pay taxes on the value of the trip. I’m not sure just where we’ll travel, and I’m not even sure that it’ll be abroad. One possibility is India or Bangladesh, another is American Indian reservations in the United States, or perhaps somewhere else entirely like Haiti.If you want to get a sense of the issues I cover and care about, subscribe to my free email newsletter. But don’t feel you need to agree with me to apply or win! And I’d like to see a diverse pool of applicants, so if you don’t look like me, that’s welcome. Writers of color, women, LGBTQ+ students, conservatives, liberals, artists, athletes, veterans — send in your essays!One other suggestion. Only one person will win this trip, but you can always try to make your own trip. Africa can be relatively expensive, but traveling around Nicaragua, India/Bangladesh, or Vietnam/Cambodia may be more affordable. You may also be able to get a job teaching English to defray expenses. And for that matter, there are many opportunities to leave your comfort zone without leaving this country — tutor in a prison, or in an inner-city school. Over the years, I’ve heard from a number of win-a-trip applicants who, disgusted by my poor judgment in failing to pick them, went off on their own journeys and had life-shaping experiences. So if you don’t win my trip, win your own! You may also find ideas for places to volunteer abroad at omprakash.org or idealist.org.